TOON

Unexploded Ordnance 'May Take Centuries to Clear' in Vietnam

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July 31, 2009 - Reuters

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HANOI - At the current pace, it will take 300 years and more than $10 billion to clear Vietnam of left-over bombs, shells and mines, a humanitarian and economic scourge in parts of the country, a senior military officer said on Friday.

With aid, the agency in charge of clearing unexploded ordnance estimated that only about half could be cleared by 2050, said Phan Duc Tuan, an army colonel and deputy head of the military's engineering command.

On Friday, the agency within the Vietnamese military that oversees clearance of unexploded ordnance and the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation released a report detailing the problem in six central provinces that saw some of the heaviest fighting during the decade-long war with the United States.

The report said that since the war ended in 1975, bombs and mines had killed 10,529 people and injured 12,231 in the six provinces, which are situated near the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) that divided Communist North Vietnam from the U.S.-backed south.

Most of the casualties were men collecting scrap metal, farming or herding, the report found, but many children were also killed or injured playing with unexploded ordnance.

Tuan, whose command oversees the centre charged with clearing unexploded ordnance, said aside from the humanitarian toll, there was also a significant economic impact.

In 2008 alone it cost the government about $69.5 million to clear land for construction projects, he told a news conference.

Unexploded ordnance also hindered infrastructure projects and blocked access to natural resources, said the report, which offered the most detailed data to date on the problem in Vietnam.

Bailed-Out US Banks Gave Employees Billions in Bonuses in 2008

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Citigroup, one of the biggest recipients of US government bailout money, gave employees $5.3bn in bonuses for 2008, New York's attorney general said today in a report detailing the payouts by nine big banks.

July 31, 2009 - Associated Press

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The report from attorney general Andrew Cuomo's office focused on 2008 bonuses paid to the initial nine banks that received loans under the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program (Tarp) last fall. Cuomo has joined other government officials in criticising the banks for paying out big bonuses while accepting US taxpayer money.

Citigroup, which gave 738 of its employees bonuses of at least $1m, is now one-third owned by the US government as a result of its bailout. It paid bonuses of at least $3m to 124 of those employees, even after it lost $18.7bn during the year, Cuomo's office said.

The New York-based bank received $45bn in government money and guarantees to protect it against hundreds of billions of dollars on potential losses from risky investments.

Bank of America, which also received $45bn in Tarp money, paid $3.3bn in bonuses, with 172 employees receiving at least $1m. Of those, 28 received bonuses of more than $3m. Merrill Lynch, which Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America acquired during the credit crisis, paid out $3.6bn.

Cuomo's office said Merrill Lynch doled out 696 bonuses of at least $1m for 2008, with 149 of those workers getting bonuses of at least $3 million.

Bank of America has been sharply criticised for its acquisition of Merrill Lynch because of mounting losses at the Wall Street bank and the size of bonuses Merrill paid its employees.

A spokesman for Citigroup was not immediately available to comment on the report. Bank of America did not immediately comment on the report.

July 31, 2009 by the Associated Press
Bailed-Out US Banks Gave Employees Billions in Bonuses in 2008, Report Says
Citigroup, one of the biggest recipients of US government bailout money, gave employees $5.3bn in bonuses for 2008, New York's attorney general said today in a report detailing the payouts by nine big banks.

But the banks have said they needed to pay their top performing employees to prevent them from defecting to competitors. Companies that accepted Tarp money have had to comply with government restrictions on employee compensation, including bonuses.

JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, which have already repaid Tarp funds they received, paid out the most bonuses of more than $1m, the report said. However, they were considered among the healthiest of the bailed-out companies.

JPMorgan, which gave 1,626 employees at least $1m, paid back the $25bn it received in Tarp money last month. Goldman, which repaid its $10bn in government money last month as well, gave 953 workers bonuses of at least $1m. The two banks each gave more than 200 employees bonuses of more than $3m.