World important news by Maira

The beloved moose had been spared a death sentence earlier this year when a special state wildlife law was passed with a clause allowing him to live on the Big Rack Ridge game preserve, in Irasburg.Vermont Fish & Wildlife commissioner Patrick Berry said he had asked after Pete when he spoke with the preserve’s owners on Friday and was surprised when they told him the antlered animal had died.The revelation caps a period of uncertainty about Pete’s welfare in which his friends and fans were saying for weeks that they hadn’t seen him and asked state officials, including Berry and Governor Peter Shumlin, to help find him.Pete had lived on the farm since he was found as a calf, mauled by dogs, two years ago.The law, signed in May by Shumlin, was, in part, an effort to save Pete. It moved authority over so-called captive hunting to the state Fish and Wildlife Department from private hands.Controversy had erupted in 2009 when Vermont wildlife officials planned to have Pete killed because the law at that time banned keeping wild animals in captivity. The elk on the preserve were imported and considered legal but Pete, being wild, was not.One concern about keeping wild animals on the preserve was the risk they could contract ailments such as chronic wasting disease from other animals or the feed, officials said.Many Vermont residents launched a campaign, setting up web pages and social media sites to help save Pete.”I join the friends and fans of Pete the Moose in expressing my sadness at his passing,” Shumlin said in a statement. “My thanks to those who voiced concern about the fate of the animal and who have — like me — believed in the pardon for Pete.”

The beloved moose had been spared a death sentence earlier this year when a special state wildlife law was passed with a clause allowing him to live on the Big Rack Ridge game preserve, in Irasburg.Vermont Fish & Wildlife commissioner Patrick Berry said he had asked after Pete when he spoke with the preserve’s owners on Friday and was surprised when they told him the antlered animal had died.The revelation caps a period of uncertainty about Pete’s welfare in which his friends and fans were saying for weeks that they hadn’t seen him and asked state officials, including Berry and Governor Peter Shumlin, to help find him.Pete had lived on the farm since he was found as a calf, mauled by dogs, two years ago.The law, signed in May by Shumlin, was, in part, an effort to save Pete. It moved authority over so-called captive hunting to the state Fish and Wildlife Department from private hands.Controversy had erupted in 2009 when Vermont wildlife officials planned to have Pete killed because the law at that time banned keeping wild animals in captivity. The elk on the preserve were imported and considered legal but Pete, being wild, was not.One concern about keeping wild animals on the preserve was the risk they could contract ailments such as chronic wasting disease from other animals or the feed, officials said.Many Vermont residents launched a campaign, setting up web pages and social media sites to help save Pete.”I join the friends and fans of Pete the Moose in expressing my sadness at his passing,” Shumlin said in a statement. “My thanks to those who voiced concern about the fate of the animal and who have — like me — believed in the pardon for Pete.”

The beloved moose had been spared a death sentence earlier this year when a special state wildlife law was passed with a clause allowing him to live on the Big Rack Ridge game preserve, in Irasburg.Vermont Fish & Wildlife commissioner Patrick Berry said he had asked after Pete when he spoke with the preserve’s owners on Friday and was surprised when they told him the antlered animal had died.The revelation caps a period of uncertainty about Pete’s welfare in which his friends and fans were saying for weeks that they hadn’t seen him and asked state officials, including Berry and Governor Peter Shumlin, to help find him.Pete had lived on the farm since he was found as a calf, mauled by dogs, two years ago.The law, signed in May by Shumlin, was, in part, an effort to save Pete. It moved authority over so-called captive hunting to the state Fish and Wildlife Department from private hands.Controversy had erupted in 2009 when Vermont wildlife officials planned to have Pete killed because the law at that time banned keeping wild animals in captivity. The elk on the preserve were imported and considered legal but Pete, being wild, was not.One concern about keeping wild animals on the preserve was the risk they could contract ailments such as chronic wasting disease from other animals or the feed, officials said.Many Vermont residents launched a campaign, setting up web pages and social media sites to help save Pete.”I join the friends and fans of Pete the Moose in expressing my sadness at his passing,” Shumlin said in a statement. “My thanks to those who voiced concern about the fate of the animal and who have — like me — believed in the pardon for Pete.”

“We have to see what levels of equity will be needed in future. The (capital) ratio we now think we will have this year is slightly better than last year so we see no immediate need to discuss this,” he said.He said sweeping writedowns announced on Thursday — including the entire book value of operations in Romania — meant its balance sheet was aligned to market conditions.”We really are preparing to survive in the future, so I don’t worry about this at the moment,” he said when asked whether Austria’s fourth-biggest bank could become a bottomless pit for taxpayer money.Austria is ready to help any struggling banks if needed, the finance ministry said late on Thursday after Volksbanken said it was set for a consolidated loss of 500-750 million euros according to IFRS accounting standards.Austria still has around 6 billion euros left from its financial market stability law that lets it recapitalise banks, for example by providing guarantees.Vienna-based Volksbanken aims to form a mutual liability association with its main regional bank shareholders to shore up its balance sheet.The plan — modeled on Dutch lending cooperative Rabobank — would let Volksbanken consolidate the regional banks’ capital while keeping them separate entities.Volksbanken has been trying to use asset sales to shore up its balance sheet and comply with Basel III capital rules.But it got less than it wanted for selling its VBI eastern European arm to Russia’s Sberbank and has been unable so far to sell its minority stake in peer Raiffeisen Zentralbank as planned.It will now not repay an initial 300 million euro tranche of state aid due this year.That gives Austria the right to convert its aid into equity and nationalise a third bank, a step Finance Minister Maria Fekter says she would prefer not to take.Volksbanken has said selling VBI would remove risk from its balance sheet and help its capital ratio rise to 10.4 percent of risk-weighted assets this year. The group does not report its Core Tier One capital ratio. ($1=0.730 euros)

Interest rates on a 30-year fixed mortgage dropped to 3.94 percent for the first time last week, according to Freddie Mac. There are nearly 19 million loans guaranteed by both mortgage-finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in which borrowers pay interest rates above 5.0 percent that could benefit from refinancing, the senators wrote.The bipartisan group, led by Senators Barbara Boxer and Johnny Isakson, sent the letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, Federal Housing Finance Agency Acting Director Edward DeMarco and National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling.The Obama administration is working with FHFA to ease rules to make refinancing more accessible under its two-year old initiative called the Home Affordable Refinance Program, or HARP. The program is open to borrowers whose loans are backed by Fannie and Freddie and are having trouble making loan payments since they owe a large portion of their home’s value.Specific changes to HARP are expected in a few weeks, Geithner told lawmakers on Capitol Hill.The group of lawmakers said they support improvements to HARP that address hurdles that have limited its success, “including representations and warranties, mortgage insurance, and high lender origination fees.”“All of these changes can be accomplished administratively and we urge that you take immediate steps to do so,” the letter stated.