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Demand for Latin American raw materials from China will help the region weather the effects of global crisis, which still carries great risks despite recent advances in Europe, authorities said Friday the International Monetary Fund.

China, with its voracious appetite for agricultural commodities and metals exported by the region, has contributed to Latin America resists better than at other times the current turmoil in the developed world.

“China will remain a fundamental element of demand for our products (…) The news is encouraging,” he told a press conference the director of the IMF’s Western Hemisphere Nicolas Eyzaguirre. However, the staff recommended that the region is not overlooked on the entry of foreign capital, since they are a potential threat at a time when the United States and Europe maintain low interest rates and a wave of capital comes to America in search of higher yields.(see more about the stock market today)

“The most likely scenario (is that) we will continue to have to our regions a huge flow of capital that can allow problems in the financial system (…). Can be very damaging to the economy,” Eyzaguirre said after a seminar macroprudential policies in Uruguay.

The region must not lower our guard against forecasts that anticipate a slowdown in China’s economy. In that vein, the IMF Deputy Managing Director, Min Zhu, warned at the opening of the seminar that if the situation worsens in Europe and Beijing fails to take the necessary fiscal measures, the growth of China’s economy could go back in up to four percentage points.

However, if applied in time steps, this slowdown is significantly shortened to one percentage point, he said. The seminar also laid bare that the European crisis also represents a threat for Latin America and the entire global economy.

In this regard, the director of the Department of Monetary and Capital Markets IMF, Jose Vinals, said recent measures taken by European countries to end the crisis, especially the agreement on the bailout for Greece, is good news but not sufficient. “The risks are now lower, but have not disappeared and continue in the path of danger,” he said.

“There are many steps, including Europe to have a growth strategy, (…) end to stabilize the situation and restore full confidence in all economic and financial,” he added. It also specified the need to prioritize economic growth, which has already shown some deceleration over austerity measures.

The Colombian Attorney General and the Attorney will review the project’s hydroelectric Quimbo in the south, which builds the Spanish group Endesa and has been the epicenter of controversy by farmers and environmentalists in the region and generated disturbances.

Colombian Attorney General Alejandro Ordonez said reporters today appointed a special committee of the agency reviewing the project in the department of Huila.

“We are acting within the scenario of our preventative role and according to the needs and emergencies involving the defense of the public and the environment,” the high office.

He added that sent the “stage for” several officials of the Public Ministry.

Moreover, the Attorney General’s Office announced the initiation of investigations to establish whether it committed irregularities in the recruitment of the work.

A specialized group of prosecutors from the National Anti-Corruption Unit and the new Unit for Crimes against the Environment will take the investigations, sources said Colombian prosecuting body.

The announcements of the two inspection bodies that occur after the police checked on Saturday hundreds of people who oppose the construction of hydroelectric and concentrated around the gigantic work and attacked police with stones to try to avoid, among others, the diversion of the river Magdalena.

In the region where the plant will rise at about 8,000 acres and plays jurisdiction of several municipalities in the department of Huila, were stationed several groups of riot police.

The protesters, farmers in the region, supported by students at the University Surcolombiana of Neiva, capital of Huila, and they reached the place known as the bridge passage College, faced with stones at police squad that resorted to tear gas.

The work, with investments of about $ 830 million, will reach the towns of Agrado, Giant, Garzon, Thessaly, Altamira and Paicol.

The central El Quimbo will feed the Magdalena River, the most important and widespread in Colombia, and will be the largest hydroelectric Endesa in Latin America, after Ralco, Chile.

On Saturday the protesters and the authorities reached an agreement early and left the area peacefully, after mediation by representatives of the Ombudsman and the Presidential Program for the Defense of Human Rights and IHL.

The builders, the group Endesa and its subsidiary in Colombia, Emgesa, and the Italian firm Enel, have planned the diversion of the Magdalena River in a stretch for these days and the effect they have built a tunnel that will carry the water to another channel.

Endesa Emgesa in Colombia is called, sees the center will begin operations in December 2014, have a capacity of 400 megawatts and will generate 2,216 gigawatt hours per year, enough to cover 4 percent of energy demand in Colombia.

The main German opposition groups, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Greens have put conditions on Chancellor Angela Merkel to secure ratification of the fiscal pact, for which the required two-thirds majority in parliament.

The Social Democratic parliamentary group chairman, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Merkel urged to open dialogue immediately and warned that ratification of the fiscal pact can not be taken for granted.

Steinmeier Merkel requires a precise timetable for the ratification process and to specify the amount of capital that will have the European Stabilisation Mechanism (MEDE). Read more about the stock market today.

The leader of the Greens in parliament, Jürgen Trittin, meanwhile, said that ratification should be accompanied by the introduction of a tax on financial transactions throughout the eurozone.

To achieve a two-thirds constitutional majority in both houses Merkel needs the support of the opposition.

In this case requires a two thirds majority because it is a law that gives sovereignty to the European Union

Vodafone and Visa announced a global alliance that will allow consumers to pay for goods and services using their mobile phone, rather than currency.

The companies will work together to develop a proposal under the Vodafone brand, which will offer consumers throughout the customer base of the company, amounting to 398 million customers in over 30 countries and five continents, and which will be enabled by the Visa payment network. The alliance, which is the largest of its kind between a global payments network and a mobile operator, combines global reach and expertise of both companies.

The new proposed payment using Visa mobile device Vodafone announced today will build on the Visa prepaid account and will be offered to consumers in partnership with Visa issuers. The service will launch initially in Germany, Holland, Spain, Turkey and the UK from next fiscal year. Followed by other countries that are part of Vodafone’s global portfolio.

In addition to the prepaid value account Vodafone brand within the mobile wallet, Vodafone and Visa will work together to enable the Issuers of Visa mobile payments worldwide. The platform is open to all members of relevant industries, including financial institutions, retailers, transportation companies and utilities, so they can host their services in an innovative new Vodafone mobile wallet.

Vittorio Colao, Chief Executive of Vodafone Group, said that “the Vodafone mobile wallet represents the next stage in the smartphone revolution. The wallet offers our customers the speed, simplicity and convenience of managing your daily transactions with a wave or tap of your smartphone.

In developed countries of Europe, North America and Australia, which has a mature infrastructure for electronic payments, users of prepaid value account may make purchases at point of sale using near field communication (NFC ) and smartphones equipped with Visa Pay Wave technology for mobile devices.

Peter Ayliffe, Chief Executive Officer of Visa Europe, said: “Our partnership with Vodafone represents a big step forward for mobile payments. Visa’s initiative for the future payments is more than a promise, these services are real and tangible, and will be entering the general market in the near future. “

The Socialist candidate for French president, François Hollande, reiterated his intention if elected to renegotiate the new European treaty, and in support cited the position of the Governments of Netherlands and particularly Spain, have said that without growth there meet the deficit targets.

“Discipline is needed. Each State must make an effort to tidy up their accounts, and sanctions must be established (…). But it is not possible to achieve these goals (deficit reduction) if there is growth,” Hollande said in an interview to television channel “France 3″.

Asked about the new European treaty adopted on Friday at the Brussels summit, the French socialist leader said that while the Germans say they do not touch anything, “the Spanish, with a conservative government (…) have already said that not meet the objectives if no growth. The Dutch have said the same. ”

An allusion to the announcement of the Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, who after signing the new European pact Friday at the European Council announced that Spain would reduce the budget deficit this year to 5.8% of gross domestic product (GDP), and not 4.4% as was committed to the European Union, due to the result of last year and the recession that is expected in 2012.

“If tomorrow I am president-Hollande argued today, is a part of the agreement with which we can be, the discipline, but will not accept sanctions against the country’s interests, and secondly, will growth, activity, large industrial projects, Eurobonds “. See more about the stock market.

Previously been shown against a referendum in France on European text, and had insisted that “must be renegotiated before being submitted to Parliament” for the integration of a leg of growth.

Asked about a supposed initiative of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who would have established a covenant with other European heads of government conservative, as Mariano Rajoy in Spain, Mario Monti in Italy or David Cameron in the UK, not to meet him during the campaign in rejection of their position on the European treaty, Hollande was cautious.

Few minutes before the German Foreign Ministry denied the information of that covenant which gave the German magazine “Der Spiegel”, the French Socialist candidate had indicated “do not know if the information is accurate (…) but does not impress me because there is an alliance of conservatives for a conservative candidate in France’s natural ”

“What I say to those leaders, he added, is that it is the French people who will decide his future, European leaders I respect.” See more stock market analysis.

And he added that “these leaders will be my partners if I’m the next president, and I have intention to convince them to add one foot to the European growth.”

Minutes later, with the denial which came from Berlin, Hollande said that it seems that Merkel’s announcement in February that will support the current French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in his re-election campaign to “create a debate even within their coalition “and some of its members disagree.

Some workers in Bangladesh who make sportswear for Puma , Nike and Adidas  were physically assaulted, says in its Sunday edition the British newspaper The Observer.

Bangladeshis employed in factories of the three brands that sponsor the London Olympics-2012, said they were beaten, insulted and sexually harassed, according to The Observer.

“In a Puma factory, two thirds of the workers interviewed were beaten, slapped, pushed or pulled their hair,” wrote the newspaper, which conducted the research with the charity War on Want.

Adidas In a factory, many workers said they had to remove the garment worn to cover the breasts, the Observer said.

Workers from the three companies also had times higher than paid below the legal minimum wage. See more about the stock market today.

A Nike spokesman said the company was investigating the allegations. “Nike is very serious about working conditions in our factories,” he said.

Adidas said that its factories in Bangladesh were subject to regular inspections and that last year, identified “hot spots” in relation to working hours and wages in the factories. Adidas said the Observer that the issue of wages was settled at the factory.

The company said it was “very concerned about reports of harassment or physical assault of employees” and promptly investigate to verify the allegations.

Puma said it found evidence that they were working more hours than the legal one of its factories and promised to solve the problem.