Briefs

LOCAL & VCU

Virginia Mark(et)s 40 Years of Lovers

Virginia tourism officials are giving away 40 trips in 40 weeks to mark the 40th anniversary of the commonwealth’s Virginia is for Lovers marketing campaign. People can enter the 40 Years of Travel Passions Sweepstakes to win one of 40 trips to Virginia sites, which focus on interests such as history, wine and food, music and luxury.

The sweepstakes is the largest vacation giveaway in commonwealth history, according to the Virginia Tourism Corporation. The state tourism department will give away one trip a week, starting Feb. 20. The grand prize, a choice of one of four trips, will be awarded Nov. 23, 2009.

Brief by MSNBC.MSN.com

Virginia’s Genworth selling insurance unit to German company

Genworth Financial, headquartered in Richmond, has announced an agreement with a German firm to sell its Mexico-based insurance unit.

The company has signed an agreement with HDI-Gerling Intenational Holding AG to sell Genworth Seguros Mexico, and its automobile, property-casualty, life and personal accident insurance business lines the unit distributes through independent professional agents and brokers. Terms of the deal were not announced.

The announcement comes as Genworth recently cut 1,000 jobs – including nearly 400 employees in Richmond and 230 employees in Lynchburg – as it aims to reduce expenses by $100 million to $150 million by the end of 2009, according to company officials.

Brief by IFAwebnews.com

Court hears 9/11 conspirator’s appeal in Virginia

An attorney for Zacarias Moussaoui is urging a federal appeals court in Richmond, to throw out his clients guilty plea in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and order a new trial.

He says the plea was invalid because the government failed to turn over evidence that could have helped the defense.

A Justice Department attorney countered that Moussaoui knew the trial judge was considering ways to get the favorable evidence to him, but says he chose to pull the plug on the process and plead guilty.

Brief by Newswest9.com

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

World growth ‘worst for 60 years’

World economic growth is set to fall to just 0.5 percent this year, its lowest rate since World War II, warns the International Monetary Fund.

In October, the IMF predicted world output would increase by 2.2 percent in 2009. It now projects the United Kingdom, which recently entered recession, will see its economy shrink by 2.8 percent next year, the worst contraction among advanced nations.

The IMF says the financial markets remain under stress and the global economy has taken a “sharp turn for the worse.” In another gloomy view of the United Kingdom economy, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said Britain would be saddled with government debt for more than 20 years.

Brief by CNN.com

Annan: World faces crisis of governance

The worldwide economic recession has exposed a crisis of global governance that can only be addressed by the radical reform of the United Nations, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Wednesday as the World Economic Forum got under way in Switzerland.

“The current architecture of managing global affairs is broken and needs to be fixed,” Annan said on the opening morning of the five-day annual meeting of global political and business leaders. “We have major new players coming on the scene and they need to be integrated and given a voice.”

Brief by CNN.com

EU calls for global carbon market

The European Commissions has called for a global carbon trading market as part of a plan to tackle climate change. The European Union is already committed to expanding its Emissions Trading Scheme, but now it is urging other industrialized countries to join in. The commission says that by 2015, it wants to link the ETS to other carbon trading systems. The goal is to include emerging economies by 2020.

A U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen, Denmark in December is to strive for a deal.

Brief by BBCNews.com

Ahmadinejad welcomes Obama’s offer of change

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday that he welcomes the kind of change President Barack Obama offered in an interview with an Arab-language television network.

“If changes happen, we will welcome such an endeavor,” Ahmadinejad told a crowd of thousands in a speech broadcast on national television from the western region of Khermenshah. He also asked for Obama to apologize for past dealings of the U.S.

“We welcome change, but providing change is fundamental and is in the correct direction,” Ahmadinejad said.

In Tuesday’s interview with Al-Arabiya, Obama said his administration will offer a hand of friendship to the Muslim world.

Brief by CNN.com