The estimate for Russia’s GDP growth between January and March turned out to be much better than the Russian Economic Development Ministry’s preliminary forecast of 1.1% growth.A significant upward revision of wholesale trade figures for the first two months of the year bolstered the figure, according to Oleg Zasov, head of composite macroeconomic forecasting at the Economic Development Ministry.”Rosstat revised wholesale trade dynamics for the first two months considerably. There was [originally] a 3% year-on-year decrease, which turned into a 3% increase, and wholesale trade accounts for around 10% of GDP,” Zasov explained.Despite beating expectations, the announcement still didn’t give much cause for optimism, as “this performance would still qualify as the weakest quarter since 4Q09,” commented Ivan Tchakarov, Chief Economist for Russia & CIS at Renaissance Capital.“This was broadly expected as it is at least partly related to the very high base effect from 1Q12 when the economy grew by almost 5% YoY,” the expert wrote in an e-mail.The outlook for the Russian economy in 2013 has recently grown quite pessimistic, with warnings about a looming recession being voiced by both officials and analysts. Earlier in April Russia’s Minister for Economic Development Andrey Belousov said the country could slip into recession by autumn if stimulus measures were not urgently taken. One of the recent alarm bells came from the Higher School of Economics (HSE), with experts saying that a so-called technical recession has already hit the country.Technical recession is a term used to refer to an economic contraction seen for six consecutive months.This time around the Ministry for Economic Development sounded more optimistic, with Andrey Belousov promising a kind of an “economic miracle” for Russia. He said the economic growth slowdown trend could turn around as early as the third quarter 2013.”We anticipate that there will be a turning point in negative trends already in the second quarter and that economic growth will surpass 3% in the second half of the year,” Belousov specified.Rosstat will give more detailed Q1 GDP data in the middle of June. … Read More
3 US women missing for decade rescued after daring escape
Michele Knight went missing in 2002 at the age of around 19, Amanda Berry disappeared in 2003 at age 16, and Gina DeJesus went missing a year later at age 14. Three brothers are in police custody in connection to the incident. Police in Cleveland said the suspects are Hispanic brothers aged 50, 52 and 54, but only one of them lived in the house on Seymour Avenue where the women were found. One of the suspects was named as Ariel Castro, a school bus driver. Julio Castro, who owns a nearby shop, confirmed that his nephew had been arrested. Police said a 6-year old was also found at the home. No further details have been released by police, but a relative of Berry said that she told her she had a daughter. The women were discovered by a neighbor after a dramatic bid for freedom by Berry on Monday, who attempted to flee the house after her alleged captor went out, and was seen by a neighbor.“I see this girl going nuts trying to get outside,” Charles Ramsey, who lived in a neighboring property, told reporters. “She says: ‘Help me get out, I’ve been here a long time.” Ramsay thought at the time it was some kind of domestic violence dispute, and kicked in the house’s locked door to free her. “Lucky on that door it was aluminum. It was cheap. She climbed out with her daughter,” he said. Berry then asked Ramsay to call 911. The police operator initially did not believe that Ramsey had found Amanda Berry, until she spoke into the phone. In her frantic call, which has been released to the media, she told the operator, “I’m Amanda Berry, I’ve been kidnapped. I’ve been missing for 10 years. I’m here now.” Community rallied for Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus; Activist calls it ‘miracle’ bit.ly/11dSuFF — ILEANA RIVEROS (@lleanaNYC) May 7, 2013 Ramsey said that he had shared barbeques with Ariel Castro and has never suspected a thing. “There was nothing exciting about him…well, until today,” he said.Police picked up Castro at a nearby McDonalds after Ramsey gave them a description of his car. Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson told reporters he was thankful that the three girls have been found alive, adding that “We have many unanswered questions regarding this case and the investigation will be ongoing.” In this article from 2003 Amanda Berry’s mother said she thought her daughter might be held captive. web.archive.org/web/2004080316… — Andrew Kaczynski (@BuzzFeedAndrew) May 7, 2013 The girls’ families reacted with delight and shock at the news of their discovery.“In all this time, 10 years, nobody never figured nothing about where she was at and this has come to an end and its right here on Seymour,” Gina DeJesus’ uncle said.Berry’s mother, Louwana, died three years after her daughter’s disappearance, which had taken a terrible toll on her health.Doctors have said the girls are in a fair condition and are being kept in hospital for observation. “This isn’t the ending we usually hear to these stories. We’re very happy,” Dr. Gerald Maloney said at a news conference. NEW PIC: @actionnews19 pic of Amanda Berry, sister/child in hospital. Amanda Berry found alive, disappeared 10yrs ago twitter.com/NewsBreaker/st… — NewsBreaker(@NewsBreaker) May 7, 2013 Amanda Berry was last heard from on April 21, 2003, when she phoned her sister to say she would be getting a lift home from Burger King. Gina DeJesus was on her way home from school when she went missing in 2004, while Michele Knight – who was older than the two others at 19 when she disappeared – was thought to have run away. Tears run down face of Amanda Berry’s Burger King coworker hearing about rescue 5.wews.com/kM1QH — WEWS NewsChannel5 (@WEWS) May 7, 2013 Their cases were reopened last year after a prison inmate told authorities that he thought he knew where she was buried in Cleveland. He received a four-and-a-half year sentence for giving police false information. … Read More
Can interfaith dialogue cure religious violence?
In the wake of the Boston Bombings, Eboo Patel, public intellectual and director of the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), has proposed, in a recent article on HuffPo, that this explosive violence resulted partly from a failure of interfaith dialogue.With the caveat that “interfaith programs are not a miracle solution,” he offers three ways that this work can help:First, “interfaith helps harmonize people’s identities.” Patel goes on:“In America, just about everyone is some sort of hyphenated hybrid of race, religion and ethnicity/nationality… Religious extremists try to separate people’s various identities and pit them against each other.”Patel suggests that the Tsarnaev brothers might have been less vulnerable to extremism if they “had been involved in discussions with people from other backgrounds about how their faith identity was mutually enriching with their nationality and citizenship.”Continue Reading… … Read More
Immigrant dad meets daughter at ‘miracle’ border fence opening
A Mexican immigrant to the U.S. held his 5-year-old daughter for the first time during a ceremony along the U.S.-Mexico border on Sunday, adding extra poignance to a brief event celebrating the Latin American Day of the Child. “It’s a miracle,” Luis Angulo told KGTV-TV after his…
America The Fallen: 24 Signs That Our Once Proud Cities Are Turning Into Poverty-Stricken Hellholes
What is happening to you America? Once upon a time, the United States was a place where free enterprise thrived and the greatest cities that the world had ever seen sprouted up from coast to coast. Good jobs were plentiful and a manufacturing boom helped fuel the rise of the largest and most vibrant middle class in the history of the planet. … Read More
Florida man saves child by punching alligator into submission
A Florida man saved his six-year-old son on Friday by punching an alligator into submission after the beast clamped onto the child’s right arm. The boy’s father, still reeling from the harrowing ordeal, told reporters he thinks it’s a “miracle” that not only does…
Mobile banking sparks a ‘minor revolution’ in DR Congo workforce
AFP - For civil servants working in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the arrival of mobile banking has been just short of a miracle. Aside from getting paid on time, workers are now receiving what is actually owed to them, circumventing greedy superiors who used to dip into their pay envelopes to…
