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| Russian Region Begins Cleanup After Meteor Blast - Wall Street Journal Posted: 16 Feb 2013 08:52 AM PST Associated PressCHELYABINSK, Russia—A small army of workers set to work Saturday to replace the estimated 200,000 square meters (49 acres) of windows shattered by the shock wave from a meteor that exploded over Russia's Chelyabinsk region. The astonishing Friday morning event blew out windows in more than 4,000 buildings in the region, mostly in the capital city of the same name and injured some 1,200 people, largely with cuts from the flying glass. Forty of the injured remained hospitalized on Saturday, two of them in serious condition, state news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing the regional health ministry. Regional Governor Mikhail Yuyevich on Saturday said that damage from the high-altitude explosion—estimated to have been as powerful as 20 Hiroshima bombs—is estimated at 1 billion rubles ($33 million). He promised to have all the broken windows replaced within a week. But that is a long wait in a frigid region. The midday temperature in Chelyabinsk, which is located approximately 900 miles east of Moscow, was minus-12 degrees Celsius (10 degrees Fahrenheit), and for many the immediate task was to put up plastic sheeting and boards on shattered residential windows. More than 24,000 people, including volunteers, have mobilized in the region to cover windows, gather warm clothes and food and make other relief efforts, the regional governor's office said. Crews from glass companies in adjacent regions were being flown in. In the town of Chebarkul, 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Chelyabinsk city, divers explored the bottom of an ice-crusted lake looking for meteor fragments believed to have fallen there, leaving a 20-foot-wide (six-meter-wide) hole. Emergency Ministry spokeswoman Irina Rossius told Russian news agencies the search hadn't found anything. Police kept a small crowd of curious onlookers from venturing out onto the icy lake, where a tent was set up for the divers. Many of them were still trying to process the memories of the strange day they'd lived through. Valery Fomichov said he had been out for a run when the meteor streaked across the sky shortly after sunrise. "I glanced up and saw a glowing dot in the west. And it got bigger and bigger, like a soccer ball, until it became blindingly white and I turned away," he said. In a local church, clergyman Sexton Sergei sought to derive a larger lesson. "Perhaps God was giving a kind of sign, so that people don't simply think about their own trifles on earth, but rather look to the heavens once in a while." In Chelyabinsk, university student Ksenia Arslanova said she was pleased that people in the city of 1 million generally behaved well after the bewildering flash and explosions. "People were kind of ironic about it. And that's a good thing, that people didn't run to the grocery store. Everyone was calm," the 19-year-old architecture student said. "I'm proud that our city didn't fall into depression." —Copyright 2013 Associated Press |
| Highlights: Policymakers' quotes at G20 summit in Moscow - Reuters Posted: 16 Feb 2013 09:15 AM PST MOSCOW | (Reuters) - Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 nations are meeting in Moscow under Russia's presidency. Following are key quotes from the meeting on Saturday. QUOTES AT END OF SUMMIT CANADIAN FINANCE MINISTER JIM FLAHERTY "The mood quite clearly early on was that we needed desperately to avoid protectionist measures and that the G20 stands firmly against protectionism and against manipulation of exchange rates. So that mood permeated quite quickly." On how to tell whether a country's monetary policy is targeting exchange rates: "It's quite difficult to gauge that." JAPANESE FINANCE MINISTER TARO ASO "I have explained that (Prime Minister Shinzo) Abe's administration is doing its utmost to escape from deflation and we have gained a certain understanding (at G20). "We're confident that if Japan revives its own economy that would certainly affect world economy as well. We gained understanding on this point." FRENCH FINANCE MINISTER PIERRE MOSCOVICI "The economic slowdown in Europe as a whole means that we should avoid adding austerity to the recession. We Must keep a medium-term orientation ... commitment must be maintained and at the same time avoid a recession spiral of austerity that prevents us from keeping medium-term financial goals." "The message of G20 (on monetary policies and exchange rates) is fully coherent with that of G7, which corresponds to the government's point of view. "We were right to evoke (this point) and that after G7, G20 addressed this question in a perfectly clear way." IMF MANAGING DIRECTOR CHRISTINE LAGARDE "As emphasized by the G-20, global growth is still weak, with unemployment remaining unacceptably high in many countries. The weak global performance derives from policy uncertainty, private deleveraging, continued fiscal drag, as well as insufficient progress on rebalancing global demand. "Implementation of the financial reform agenda to build a more resilient financial system remains a priority. Credible medium-term fiscal plans also need to be in place to provide flexibility while growth is more fully restored. "I welcome G-20 resolve to achieve a lasting reduction in global imbalances through joint actions to avoid persistent exchange rate misalignments, and the group's commitment to refrain from competitive devaluation, to resist protectionism in all forms, and to keep markets open. It was heartening to see the G-20 reaffirmed its commitment to move more rapidly toward more market-determined exchange rate systems and exchange rate flexibility to reflect underlying fundamentals. "We think that talk of currency wars is overblown. People did talk about their currency worries. The good news is that the G-20 responded with cooperation rather than conflict today." BANK OF CANADA GOVERNOR MARK CARNEY Asked if inflation expectations risked becoming unmoored in Britain and elsewhere because of loose monetary policy: "The risks globally are deficient demand." Asked if he agreed with the IMF that the Canadian dollar is overvalued: "We don't comment on levels of exchange rates. We've noted for some time that the Canadian dollar is persistently strong. It's something we take into account in the setting of monetary policy in Canada. It's one of the reasons why policy is as accommodative as it is." GERMAN FINANCE MINISTER WOLFGANG SCHAEUBLE "We had a broad consensus in the G20 that we will stick to the commitment to fulfill the Toronto goals. "What was said before the G20, that we are isolated (on debt-issue) is totally wrong." "We do not have any interest in US-bashing ... In St. Petersburg (G20-summit) follow-up-goals will be decided." BANK OF JAPAN GOVERNOR MASAAKI SHIRAKAWA "BOJ's monetary policy has been and will be aimed at stabilizing the domestic economy through stable prices, just as was stated in the G7 joint statement ... Therefore it is in line with what we have been doing in guiding monetary policy." "At this meeting, IMF and many other participants said it is not appropriate to describe the current situation as currency war and that such an expression is overblown. G20 as well as G7 share the view that efforts by each country to stabilize their own economy will lead to stability in the global economy." RUSSIAN FINANCE MINISTER ANTON SILUANOV "We need to take measures to increase the effectiveness of our economies - increase industrial output, increase stimulus measures ... This is what governments should be doing and not manipulating exchange rates." "We have reached an agreement that there should be no competition between (exchange) rates. The issue is not in currencies, but in their regime ... If we get governments and central banks meddling, then, as a result, there will be imbalances." "Changes of forex policy in one country, will affect the situation in partner countries and then currency competition may begin." EARLIER COMMENTS CANADIAN FINANCE MINISTER JIM FLAHERTY "The language has been strengthened since our discussions last night ... "It's stronger than it was, but it was quite clear last night that everyone around the table wants to avoid any sort of currency disputes." On fiscal policy: "First of all you need a medium-term plan to get to balanced budgets, and then at the same time you need some growth initiatives as we have in Canada with respect to trade and regulatory reform. Some of these initiatives don't cost money and do create jobs and growth, so the question was how do we strike the right balance, which is what I was encouraging my colleagues to do. Some countries put more emphasis on the previous commitments at Toronto than others do. I think we have to avoid backtracking. That would be a terrible error for the G20. As an organization we need to maintain our movement forward, to keep our commitments, to show that we can collaborate and work together, as we did successfully in 2008." CHINESE VICE FINANCE MINISTER ZHU GUANGYAO (VIA XINHUA) "BRICS countries demanded that major developed nations pay attention to their monetary policy spillover and that major developed countries implementation of excessively relaxed currency policy has an influence on the world economy, particularly for developing countries. Developed countries promised to consider the foreign spillover of their macro-economic policy, especially currency policy." "Under the strong request at this G20 meeting, developed country economies considered the need for oversight of their own banks and the United States has already made promises to implement the agreement (Basel III) in the coming months. European parties also expressed that this agreement was in the final stages of legislative approval. Despite the United States and Europe's delay in implementing the agreement, they have recognized the importance of implementing it and have agreed to undertake that responsibility. China welcomed their declaration and expects that they will genuinely carry out their promises, strengthen the financial oversight aspects of the G20 agreement and increase confidence in the G20." FRENCH FINANCE MINISTER PIERRE MOSCOVICI "We all agreed on the fact that we refuse to enter any currency war." "But we also want to have on an international level a cooperative approach ... excluding aggressive strategies for devaluation." "This is why we all agreed that the levels of currencies have to be determined by the markets." RUSSIAN FINANCE MINISTER ANTON SILUANOV "We expect by April countries will have made progress on reaching a balanced approach to establishing new budget indicators on both, deficit and the level of government debt." "Structural reforms in all countries, either with a positive or negative balance of payments, should play a bigger role." RESERVE BANK OF INDIA GOVERNOR DUVVURI SUBBARAO "The main refrain of emerging economies has been that the spillover impacts of easy monetary policies, there are push factors and pull factors and capital flows are happening more because of push factors rather than pull factors ... and that the macroeconomic costs can be more than advanced economies believe." BRITISH FINANCE MINISTER GEORGE OSBORNE "The G7 made a very clear statement this week. I think you'll see the G20 echo what was said, and say that currencies should not be used as a tool of competitive devaluation." "Countries shouldn't make the mistake of the past of using currencies as a tool of economic warfare." |
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