The US has said countries like India and Brazil have the most to gain from 
G-20 and they should ensure that the grouping emerges as the premier platform for multilateral economic cooperation. “I think Brazil and India are among those countries that actually have the greatest to gain, and have been among the strongest supporters of the G-20 ,” a senior treasury department official told reporters on Thursday, ahead of this weekend’s G-20 meeting of finance ministers in Seoul , South Korea.
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and US treasury secretary Timothy Geithner , among others, are slated to attend the meeting.
The official said the G-20 needs to grapple with a set of economic challenges facing the global economy in a way that results in a stronger framework for cooperative action. He said the role of emerging markets in global economic affairs is being recognised by their inclusion in the G-20.
Hence, it is in their interest that the G-20 emerges as the “premier locus for multilateral cooperation on issues of financial and economic functioning” , he added.
The official said an agreement covering various global issues was “within sight” and it would lead to a very important shift towards dynamic emerging markets.
On the International Monetary Fund reforms, he said, “With regard to the composition of the (IMF) Board, we also believe that it’s extremely important to see the composition of the board evolve in line with the growing role and responsibilities of the dynamic emerging markets in the system.”
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com
The air marshals were arrested in Brazil after they arrested the wife of a Brazilian judge aboard a Continental flight.
Two U.S. air marshals who arrested the wife of a Brazilian judge on a flight to Rio de Janeiro — and were themselves arrested and had their passports confiscated by Brazilian authorities — fled the country using alternate travel documents rather than face what they believed to be trumped-up charges, sources said.
The incident has impacted air marshal operations on flights to Brazil, officials said, and air marshals contacted by CNN said the case raises questions about Brazil’s willingness to support future law enforcement actions by U.S. officials on international flights.
The incident occurred on October 1 on Continental Flight 128 from Houston, Texas, to Rio de Janeiro. During the flight, a female passenger who appeared to be intoxicated tried to serve herself drinks by going to the plane’s galley, one source said. The plane’s crew asked air marshals to intervene, and two marshals approached the woman, who began struggling with them.
Two sources said the woman bit one of the air marshals, and she was handcuffed and placed under arrest.
At the Rio airport, the air marshals went to turn over the woman to local authorities but were themselves brought before a federal judge and charged with misdemeanor counts of assault, sources said. Brazilian authorities took the air marshals’ passports, so they could not leave the country and set a court hearing for the following week, sources said.
“They (Brazilian officials) did not want them to leave. They were not free to go,” one U.S. law enforcement source said.
But the air marshals used alternate travel documents and quietly departed the country on a commercial flight that same day without the knowledge of the Brazilian court officials who had sought their detention.
One source said the air marshals believed the charges against them were retaliatory because the passenger they arrested is the wife of a prominent Brazilian judge. The air marshals believed it was to their benefit to leave the country and let the U.S. and Brazilian governments resolve the dispute, the source said.
The air marshals had not recovered their passports when they left, the sources said. (more…)
