Posted: 09 May 2014 02:33 PM PDT

Newly-released data show the industrial output in the UK and Italy, the second and the fourth largest European economies respectively, has fallen in March.
The UK’s Office for National Statistics said on Friday that Britain’s industrial output declined by 0.1 percent for the month.
The figure is considered a major drawback since the country saw a 0.8 percent growth in the previous month.
This is while data from Italy’s national statistics institute, Istat, showed the country’s industrial production fell by 0.5 percent in March.
In February, Italy’s industrial output was slightly better, as it declined 0.4 percent.
The March figure was weaker than expected as economists had forecast a 0.3 percent gain.
In the fourth quarter of 2013, Italy’s gross domestic product (GDP) edged up 0.1 percent, making it the first increase after two years of recession.
Italy’s industrial output has fallen by around 25 percent over the past five years, pushing up the unemployment rate to 12.7 percent.
Europe is struggling with an economic crisis that erupted in early 2008, leaving millions unemployed and in financial distress.
The worsening debt crisis has forced EU governments to adopt harsh austerity measures and tough economic reforms, which have triggered massive protests in many European countries.
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Posted: 09 May 2014 02:23 PM PDT

The Malaysian government finally released a recording today with their report of the conversation between Malaysian Flight 370 and Air Traffic Control.
I had the opportunity to listen to the recording and have several concerns from an audio forensic perspective:
First, the very beginning of the recording is of high quality and the background ambiance and noise floor are very low.
This is the quality we should expect with the technology that is available today. Then, at approximately 00:01:14 in the recording, the tone changes.
At first listen it sounds as if a digital recorder is being held up to a speaker to create this portion of the recording. An edit occurs at this time, transitioning the higher quality to the lower quality recording.
In addition, the background noise floor increases, while the tonality and quality of the voice communication decreases.
I believe that the portion of the recording from 00:02:06 to 00:02:15 was created with a digital hand held recorder because noise in the room where the recording takes place can be heard, such as a drawer closing and papers being shuffled.
There are also long gaps or silence in the communication where the room ambiance and background noise continue to be heard. Then at approximately 00:06:17 the conversation is clipped by an edit.
Shortly thereafter the quality of the recording goes back to the same high quality as in the very beginning.
As an audio forensic expert I feel that with the technology and tools available today; why wouldn’t the Malaysian government have released a high quality version of this entire recording?
Also, why would they only release parts of the recording and not the complete recording?
Surely the conversation must have been longer than seven minutes before Flight 370 went missing.

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Posted: 09 May 2014 02:03 PM PDT

Regional authorities in eastern Ukraine have admitted that they cannot stop pro-Russia activists from holding an independence referendum.
On Friday, the mayor’s office in Donetsk published a statement, saying the upcoming referendum, due to be held on Sunday, cannot be prevented.
The statement said there were not enough police forces against the voting polls that would be set up in public sites such as schools.
With a combined population of over six million, voters in Donetsk and Luhansk will take part in “People’s Republics.”
Pro-Moscow protesters continue to occupy a number of government, police and other administrative buildings in many cities and towns in the region, demanding integration into neighboring Russia.
On April 23, Ukraine’s acting government re-launched its military operation in the eastern and southern regions in a bid to root out the pro-Russia demonstrations.
The military operation came despite an April 17 Geneva agreement signed by Kiev’s interim government together with the United States, Russia and the European Union, calling for all sides to ease crisis in eastern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian crisis began last November when the country’s then president Viktor Yanukovych refrained from signing an Association Agreement with the EU in favor of closer ties with Russia.
The refusal triggered months of unrest and clashes with the police, which finally led to the ouster of Yanukovych on February 23. He then travelled to Russia, where he was given sanctuary.
Ukraine has experienced a fresh wave of unrest since Crimea declared independence from Kiev on March 17 and formally applied to become part of Russia following a referendum a day earlier, in which nearly 97 percent of the participants voted in favor of the move.
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Posted: 09 May 2014 01:45 PM PDT

With Switzerland and Singapore joining 47 countries that have agreed to share data and tax information, tax evaders are likely to move to what is currently considered emerging frontier markets, Mike Ingram, market strategist from BGC Partners, told RT.
On May 6, 34 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and 13 other countries signed a groundbreaking agreement on gathering tax-related information from financial institutions and automatically exchanging it every year. The signatories, including Switzerland and Singapore, are aiming at clamping down on banking secrecy and tax evasion.
RT: The era of bank secrecy is over. The 47 states signed an agreement on automatically sharing data, so it’s a big step towards cracking down on tax evasion. What does it mean for the whole world banking sector?
Mike Ingram: It means that the latch is closing in on those who are trying to evade tax. This is the key development that we are seeing today and the OECD head described it as a real danger. I think he might be right. You have Switzerland who signed up to this, this is the world’s largest offshore banking industry. Also Singapore, which was growing very rapidly as well. It not only puts the net on tax evaders but it is also tightens the net on people who tried to follow money illegally perhaps to terrorism as well.
RT: Won’t those who’ve been using bank secrecy for tax evasion or avoidance find a way to bypass this new openness? You know, one door closes, another door opens…
MI: They have signed up 47 countries today [on Thursday], there are more to come. There can be some other countries that are going to look at this opportunistically and say “Hey, we can develop a new financial offshore center overnight which bypasses all these laws.” So yes, it is going to be interesting to see how all of these non-signatories, and there will be some, position themselves in the years ahead.
RT: Which countries can become the new offshores?
MI: There are some countries certainly in Central Asia. It could be also possibly be some centers in Africa. I can’t imagine the more developed nations genuinely are going to do anything other than signing them on. And after all the whole OECD signed up today and that covers a lot of ground. But we are probably beginning to look at areas that are currently considered emerging frontier markets.
RT: How do you explain the timing of this move? Why is it happening now?
MI: It has been an ongoing process, it has been very difficult to get agreement from a number of key countries. And that’s why, for instance, Switzerland signing on to this today was so important because they have really been fighting tooth and nail for many years to let lift the veil off their much treasured banking secrecy. And also it comes on the back of the global financial crisis. It has left a number of economies in a very poor shape. A lot of these countries such as the UK are running sizeable budget deficits, they need all the tax revenue they can, they see that tax bases are being eroded. And of course they want to go after these people to get their tax back onshore to pay the bills.
RT: Why such a transparency is needed today?
MI: Ultimately the lack of transparency doesn’t help the economy, and it is also very socially divisive. You have been in the situation in the past where people who are massively wealthy pay no tax, where people who are working hard and just about scraping by are paying [taxes] at a full rate. And it is very dangerous to democracy, it is very dangerous politically and economically, so the politicians have finally to do something about it.
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