A majority of investors and business owners have faith in Biden's economic boom, new UBS survey finds

© Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via Getty Jorge Sactic is the owner of Chapina Bakery in Langley Park, Maryland. Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via Getty

About 64% of investors and business owners see Biden's policies aiding the global recovery.

A majority also said Biden's measures will support global markets, according to a UBS survey.

The optimism comes as Biden preps another $4.1 trillion in spending to boost the economic recovery

The Biden boom is in full swing and people like what they see.

Investors and business owners around the world are largely optimistic that the Biden administration's economic policies will fuel a robust recovery and leave them on better footing, according to a recent UBS survey. Some 64% of respondents view the administration as having a positive impact on the global economy. Six in 10 believe the White House's policies will support global markets.

Roughly 57% of investors and business owners said the Biden administration has benefitted their personal finances, and 54% of business owners said the policies benefitted their companies.

In just the first 100 days of his time in office, President Joe Biden has embarked on one of the most ambitious policy strategies in modern history. The president passed a $1.9 trillion stimulus measure - the second-largest in history - on March 11 and has since unveiled follow-up packages that include roughly $4.1 trillion in additional spending. Economists have largely linked soaring retail sales and stronger economic growth to the stimulus measure.

To be sure, President Joe Biden's policies aren't the only cause for optimism. New COVID-19 cases in the US sit at their lowest seven-day average since October, and state and local governments have been slowly rolling back lockdown measures for weeks. And while the vaccination rate has slowed, it still sits at an average 2.5 million doses per day. At the current rate, the US will reach herd immunity over the next three months, according to Bloomberg data.

In the US specifically, seven in 10 investors expressed hope about the path of the economy. That compares to just 52% three months ago and makes US investors the most positive globally, UBS said.

The share of US investors growing positive toward stocks rose to 71% from 59%. The shift underscores a broader move toward riskier assets as investors ditch the safe havens they held at the start of the pandemic and position for a swift recovery.

The responses join other sentiment gauges that have turned stronger in recent months. The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index rose to a fresh pandemic-era high in April, according to a Friday release. That level is the highest since March 2020. Separately, the Conference Board's consumer confidence measure rose to its highest level since February 2020 as the healing labor market and latest round of stimulus checks boosted outlooks.

UBS interviewed 2,850 investors and 1,150 business owners around the world from March 30 to April 18. Responses were sourced from 14 markets including the US, the UK, Mexico, mainland China, Japan, Italy, Brazil, and Mexico.

Hong Kong plan to force Covid vaccines on foreign domestic workers sparks alarm

Hong Kong’s government has sparked discrimination concerns over plans to force hundreds of thousands of foreign domestic workers to be vaccinated against Covid-19 or face losing their job.

Authorities have embarked on mass mandatory testing of the city’s 370,000 domestic workers after a more infectious strain was detected in the community, and flagged plans for compulsory vaccinations.

Under the measures, workers would need to be vaccinated before their contracts could be renewed, and any incoming worker would be required to have the vaccination to enter Hong Kong.

Related: Hong Kong passes law that can stop people leaving

The vast majority of Hong Kong’s domestic workers are migrant workers, primarily from the Philippines and Thailand, and no other foreign workforce has been singled out for mandatory vaccines, drawing criticism from Philippines officials. The country’s foreign affairs secretary, Teddy Locsin Jr, praised Hong Kong’s provision of free vaccines to domestic workers, but said singling them out to make it mandatory “smacks of discrimination”

.

Photograph: Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images Migrant workers queue up for Covid-19 testing in the Central district of Hong Kong on Saturday.

“If it is a special favour, it is unfair to other nationalities. Hong Kong can do better than that,” he said.

Eman Villanueva, spokesperson for the Asian Migrants Coordinating Body, said the enforced testing and proposed vaccinations were “discrimination and social exclusion of domestic workers at its worst”, and accused the government of “blackmailing” workers by tying vaccines to contracts.

“They did not respond like this when there were outbreaks in several fitness gyms and dance studios, restaurants, banks, etc,” he said in an opinion piece for Stand News. “It’s because to them we are easy targets and scapegoats. It’s because they know we don’t have much choice but to follow their discriminatory, illogical, and unreasonable impositions or end up jobless.”

The comments by Locsin echoed those by the Philippines consul general, Raly Tejada, who said his office had been very supportive of Hong Kong’s free vaccine programme, but if it was to become mandatory for work contracts then it should be non-discriminatory and include “other non-resident workers who are similarly situated so that there is no feeling of being singled out”.

In explaining the new rules, Hong Kong’s minister for labour, Dr Law Chi-kwong, said the “high risk group” mainly spent their holidays with friends, which could lead to cross-family infections. The migrant workers, who usually travel alone to Hong Kong, have one day off a week and frequently gather in public places to socialise away from the home where they work.

“In the long run, we need to think about how to get more domestic workers vaccinated,” said Law.

On Sunday the Hong Kong government said the labour department was “working out the relevant details” on mandatory vaccines. It said its mandatory testing programme did not discriminate based on race or status, but did not address accusations that its plans for mandatory vaccines were.

It appealed to all workers to get their vaccines voluntarily “to protect their own health and that of their employers’ family and others, and to avoid being subject to any regular testing in the future”.

It also urged employers to encourage their workers and to give them sufficient rest after getting vaccinated. Those who could not be vaccinated for health reasons could get an exemption, it added.

On Sunday health authorities reported the second consecutive day of no community transmission cases detected. There had been about 20 in the past two weeks.

Diego Maradona was in agony for the 12 hours leading up to his death, his treatment was "reckless and indifferent," Argentine medical board says


By Iván Pérez Sarmenti and Jack Guy, CNN 

Marcos Brindicci/Getty Images Diego Armando Maradona, at the time head coach of Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata, greets fans prior to a match against Boca Juniors at the Alberto J. Armando Stadium on March 7, 2020 in Buenos Aires.

Diego Maradona was in agony for 12 hours and the medical team treating him was "deficient, reckless and indifferent" when faced with his possible death, according to a report from the medical board appointed to investigate his demise.

The Argentine football great "did not have full use of his mental faculties" and could have had "a better chance of survival" if he had been admitted to a healthcare facility, the medical board concluded in its report, which will become of the part of the judicial investigation into this death, the prosecutor handling the case confirmed to CNN.

© Jorge Duran/AFP/Getty Images Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona, wearing a diamond earring, balances a soccer ball on his head as he walks off the practice field following the national selection's May 22, 1986 practice session in Mexico City.

Investigators are looking into why the former footballer was treated at a house during his final days and whether his psychological state allowed him to make decisions of his own accord, as well as looking into a lack of treatment for his heart condition, among other things

© David Cannon/Allsport/Getty Images Diego Maradona in action during a 1986 World Cup qualifying match against Peru at the National Stadium on June 23, 1985 in Lima, Peru.

Each of these elements is mentioned in the medical board report, which CNN obtained from a source working on the case.


No one has been formally charged, but seven people have been told they are under investigation, although they deny any responsibility.

READ: Tormented genius who became one of football's greatest players


'He would have had a better chance of survival'

"Although it is counterfactual to assert that DAM (Diego Armando Maradona) wouldn't have died if he had been treated adequately, taking into account what was known about the days leading up to his death we agree that he would have had a better chance of survival if he had been treated in a healthcare facility according to medical best practice," reads the report.

The work of Maradona's medical team, led by neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque and psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, was heavily criticized by the investigators.

In addition to calling their actions "inadequate, deficient and reckless," the board said it is possible to infer "that the medical team viewed fully and completely the possible death of the patient, were completely indifferent to the possibility and didn't change their behavior or treatment plan, sustaining the damaging omissions laid out previously, leaving the health of the patient 'to chance.'"

In November, Luque told prosecutors about his professional relationship with Maradona. "There is nothing to suggest I was negligent," he said.

In December, Cosachov's lawyer told CNN that his client "had used her best judgment from a medical point of view."

READ: Diego Maradona did 'everything better and bigger, but fell more dangerously and darker'


'He started to die at least 12 hours prior'

The experts also confirmed the results of an autopsy which determined that the cause of death was "acute pulmonary edema secondary to the exacerbation of chronic cardiac insufficiency" and tests did not find drugs or alcohol in his system.

But they underlined that Maradona, who was aged 60 at the time of his death, suffered prolonged agony.

"DAM started to die at least 12 hours before 12.30 p.m. on 25/11/2020, which is to say there were unmistakable signs of a period of prolonged agony, and as a result we conclude that the patient was not adequately monitored from 00:30 a.m." that day.

"The warning signs that the patient exhibited were ignored," continue the experts, who also mention an audio message sent to Maradona's loved ones by physical therapist Nicolás Taffarel.

"Last week I told them we had to get him up because he could develop a pulmonary edema," he said.



READ: Naples mourns Diego Maradona as his former club bids to rename the stadium in his honor


'He did not have full use of his mental faculties'

The former footballer "did not have full use of his mental faculties, nor was he in a fit state to make decisions about his health, from at least the time he was admitted to (the medical clinic in the city of La Plata)," according to the report.

It goes on to discuss the supposed "home hospitalization" Maradona received at a house in Tigre, in the northern part of Buenos Aires, after he was checked out of the Olivos Clinic on November 11, and where he died two weeks later.

The board said the home hospitalization "was not so, as the basic conditions to hospitalize a patient with multiple complex pathologies like those DAM had did not exist."

The medical experts also asserted that the nursing team at the house was "plagued by irregularities and deficiencies," that the "correct checks and care" were not performed by "practicing physicians" and "therapeutic assistants."

Finally, the board discussed the psychiatric medication prescribed to Maradona.

Despite being "suitable in both dosage and posology for his nervous disorder," it can't be ruled out "that this medication didn't play a role in the fatal outcome" as "cardiological and laboratory tests were not carried out in the 14 days before death."

Although all of those being investigated say they committed no wrongdoing, they have not yet commented on the medical board report, which will be analyzed by prosecutors working on the case to decide how the judicial investigation will move forward.

Covid: political chaos and poverty leave South America at virus’s mercy

Tom Phillips in Rio 


South America produced some of the most horrific episodes of the pandemic last year, with mass graves dug in the Brazilian Amazon and bodies dumped on pavements in the Ecuadorian city of Guayaquil. But at the end of 2020 there was some hope that with the onset of vaccination the worst might have passed. Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, even claimed the crisis had reached its “tail-end” in December.

© Photograph: Amanda Perobelli/Reuters 

A protest in Sao Paulo against President Bolsonaro’s handling of the pandemic, 30 April 2021.

Such predictions have proved grotesquely misguided. Brazil’s death toll has since more than doubled to more than 400,000, after an explosion of infections caused a catastrophic healthcare collapse. At least 100,000 Brazilians have died in the last 36 days and 100,000 more are expected to lose their lives before July.

Many of Brazil’s neighbours are also in dire straits, including Uruguay, which was once heralded as a regional success story but in April suffered its deadliest month. On Thursday Argentina, Paraguay and Colombia all registered their highest daily death tolls with 561, 505 and 106 fatalities respectively. The mayor of Colombia’s capital, Bogotá, urged residents to stay at home, warning they faced “the most difficult two weeks – not of the pandemic, but of our lives”. The situation in authoritarian Venezuela is harder to gauge, but also appears to be deteriorating.

© Provided by The Guardian A man cycles past shuttered businesses during the strict lockdown in Bogotá, Colombia. Photograph: Fernando Vergara/AP

Last week South America, home to 5.5% of the world’s population, suffered nearly 32% of all reported Covid deaths. “What’s happening is a catastrophe,” Argentina’s health minister, Carla Vizzotti, admitted as her country’s Covid restrictions were extended until late May.

Public health experts say South America’s agony is partly the result of longstanding structural problems, including underfunded health systems and poverty. Effective quarantine policies have proved impossible to enforce in a region where between 30% and 60% of workers are employed in the informal sector.

“People need to eat,” said Michel Castro, a 31-year-old resident of Rio’s Chatuba favela, who nearly died from Covid but understood why neighbours were still going out to work. Castro scoffed at the emergency payments that hard-up families were being offered by the government. “It’s nothing. It’s like trying to quench somebody’s thirst with a pipette,” he said.

Political chaos has also been crucial to the virus’s spread. Bolsonaro’s sabotage of social distancing has earned him international notoriety and made him the focus of a domestic parliamentary inquiry that began last week. Upheaval in Peru – which has had three presidents since the pandemic started and is about to elect a fourth – has also hampered efforts to tame an outbreak which has killed at least 61,000 people.

But many specialists suspect South America’s current collapse is largely the work of the more contagious P1 variant that emerged late last year in the Brazilian city of Manaus and has spent 2021 rampaging across the continent, from Lima to Buenos Aires.

“Manaus should have been shut down: airports, ports, roads. This wasn’t done,” said Jesem Orrelana, a local epidemiologist who believes Brazil’s failure to contain the variant is to blame for South America’s current woes.

Orrelana said P1 was being aided and abetted by public exhaustion with South America’s seemingly endless epidemic, with many resuming their normal lives despite soaring infections and deaths.

The vaccination of older age groups offered some hope that future waves would be less deadly – but even that was not assured if new variants appeared. “You cannot underestimate coronavirus,” Orrelana warned. “If it was capable of doing this in 2021, it could easily do it again in 2022.”

Cuban government ends leading dissident's hunger strike
By Marc Frank

 1 day ago

© Reuters/ALEXANDRE MENEGHINI FILE PHOTO: 

Dissident artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara speaks during an interview in Havana, Cuba

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba's government put an end on Sunday to a week-long hunger strike staged by a leading dissident - the head of a group that has protested state censorship of artistic works - and was reported by authorities to be in stable condition.


A note published by the Havana Department of Public Health said Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara was "referred" to a local hospital early on Sunday for "self-imposed food deprivation" and arrived by ambulance "and walking without difficulty." He had spent seven days without food or fluids.

The San Isidro Movement led by Otero Alcantara, a performance artist, is a dissident group that includes a few dozen artists, writers and activists.

The health department said the hospital had found no sign of malnutrition or other chemical imbalances but said Otero Alcantara had been admitted, was in stable condition and was being attended to by physicians.

Members of the San Isidro movement said state security had forced Otero Alcantara from his home and that he was in custody, presumably at the hospital. They questioned the report and demanded more information.

"How is it possible he has no signs of malnutrition or dehydration after being on a hunger and thirst strike for more than 7 days?" the group asked in a Twitter post.

Otero Alcantara's home had been surrounded by police for days with no one allowed in or out during his hunger strike.

The U.S. State Department in a Twitter post on Saturday had expressed concern over Otero Alcantara's health and urged "the Cuban government to take immediate steps to protect his life and health."

People can survive more than a month without food, but rarely more than 10 days without food or fluids.

Members of the San Isidro Movement in November had staged a hunger strike against censorship and harassment of independent creators and activists by the Communist government. Police ended the hunger strike, prompting a rare protest by around 300 people in front of the Culture Ministry in Havana.

Authorities since then have vilified members of the group as outside agitators working with the United States. Its members repeatedly have been temporarily detained and often told they cannot leave their homes, with communications cut.

Otero Alcantara was arrested a few weeks ago as he protested a Communist Party congress by sitting in a garrote. Authorities seized or destroyed some of his art.

In his hunger strike, Otero Alcantara was demanding a return of his art, compensation, freedom of expression and an end to police harassment. The dissident group has been appealing for support since his hunger strike began, gaining little traction in Cuba but notice some abroad including from human rights organizations and the U.S. government.

(Reporting by Marc Frank; Editing by Will Dunham)

Italian rapper accuses state TV of attempted censorship

© Provided by The Canadian Press

MILAN — Italian rapper Fedez received a wave of public support Sunday after going public with attempts by RAI state television to censor his planned remarks on homophobia during an annual Worker's Day concert.

Fedez prevailed and made the statement as planned during the Saturday evening concert, saying it was the first time he had ever been asked to submit his remarks ahead of time.

He went on to read homophobic statements by members of Italy's right-wing League party. The rapper's remarks were made in support of legislation that seeks to punish discrimination and hate crimes against gays and transgender people, but which is stalled in parliament by right-wing opposition.

After RAI denied putting pressure on the rapper, Fedez released a recording of a phone call with a RAI executive and co-workers during which he was told that his remarks would be “inappropriate" and discouraging him from using the first and last names of the politicians he was citing.

The head of state-run RAI has promised to investigate.

Among those supporting Fedez were two former premiers, Enrico Letta, now head of the Democratic Party, and Giuseppe Conte, who has been tapped as head of the 5-Star Movement. Letta called on RAI to apologized to the rapper.

Gay rights groups mostly welcomed Fedez' words. The president of Arcigay, Gabriele Piazzoni, said he “gave voice to millions of us,” while the spokesman of Partito Gay (Gay Party), Fabrizio Marrazzo, said the phone call with the RAI management was “disconcerting” and called on RAI's oversight board to intervene.

The president of Equality Italia, Aurelio Mancuso, was more cautious, warning that polarization could further stall the proposed law, “which must be approved in the Senate, not on Fedez' Instagram page.”

League leader Matteo Salvini, meanwhile, went on an offensive, reiterating his reasons for opposing the legislation in television appearances and social media posts and offering to debate the issue on TV with Fedez.

Still, Salvini distanced himself from the remarks by the League members, calling them “disgusting.”

The so-called Zan Law, named for a Democratic Party lawmaker and gay rights activist Alessandro Zan, would add women along with people who are gay, transgender or have disabilities to the classes of those already protected under a law banning discrimination and punishing hate crimes.

Right-wing politicians object to language they claim would make it a crime to publicly oppose gay marriage or adoptions by gay people.

Colleen Barry, The Associated Press

Montreal 'ghost bike' honoring dead cyclist to be displayed in museum

MONTREAL — The dangerous stretch of Montreal underpass where Mathilde Blais died while cycling to work now has a bike path, with a concrete median to separate the riders from traffic passing by.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

And on Sunday, the white commemorative "ghost" bike installed to honour the 33-year-old woman's death was taken down to be sent to a museum, where it will highlight both the dangers of cycling and the progress made to make cities safer.


Groups in several Canadian cities have installed the white-painted bicycles at intersections where cyclists are killed, both as a memorial and a call to action for better infrastructure.

A ceremony was held to remove the bicycle honouring 33-year-old Blais, who died after being struck in the underpass seven years ago.

A coroner's report found her death was avoidable, and urged governments at all three levels to work to improve road safety for cyclists.

Blais' mother was on hand as the white bicycle, which was decorated with flowers, was taken down and handed to the president of Quebec City's Museum of Civilization.

Advocates said the ceremony was held to highlight the ongoing risk cyclists face, but also to recognize the progress that has been made.

They said Blais' death spurred efforts to build the protected bicycle path that now runs past the site of her death.

"Had this been in place seven years ago, Mathilde would not have died," said Séverine Le Page of Vélo Fantôme, the group that organizes the ghost bicycles in the city.

Le Page said the creation of the bicycle path, called the Réseau express vélo or REV, means the Blais' commemorative bicycle can finally be taken down and replaced with a plaque, with the permission of her family.

But she says other ghost bikes will remain in place throughout Montreal because the infrastructure is not yet in place to protect cyclists.

Quebec's automobile association says between 8 and 11 cyclists die on the province's roads each year.

Genevieve Laborde, Blais' mother, described her daughter as someone who always wanted to help others, whether it was through her work as a speech pathologist or by helping the homeless.

"I'm happy to know you can ride safely, because seven years ago it was a very dangerous place," she said of city cyclists.

Museum President Stéphan La Roche said the bicycle would be put on display as a "tangible witness to our social evolution."

He said it was a symbol of grief but also of increasing awareness of the need for safe urban infrastructure to protect cyclists and pedestrians from cars.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 2, 2021

Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

OSC alleges Toronto-based Bridging Finance 'mismanaged' funds, breached 'numerous' laws

Barbara Shecter 

POSTMEDIA

2/5/2021

A Toronto-based investment management firm with $2 billion in assets under management has been put into court-approved receivership while the Ontario Securities Commission conducts an investigation into questionable related-party transactions and movement of funds to personal bank accounts.

© Provided by Financial Post A Toronto Police Services officer at the Ontario Securities Commission.

In an unusual twist, David Sharpe, the chief executive and one of the main operators of Bridging Finance Inc., which raises capital from investors to make loans to corporate borrowers in exchange for limited partnership units, is himself a former mutual fund regulator.

According to documents filed in court, enforcement staff of the Ontario Securities Commission “has uncovered evidence that BFI and certain members of its senior management team … appropriated amounts from the BFI Funds for personal gain … mismanaged the BFI Funds, including by failing to disclose material conflicts of interest … (and) breached numerous securities laws and regulations, including by misleading Enforcement Staff.”

As a result, Canada’s largest capital markets regulator asked an Ontario court judge Friday to appoint receiver PriceWaterhouseCoopers Inc. “to safeguard the best interests of stakeholders, the reputation of Ontario’s capital markets, and the integrity of the ongoing investigation.”

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The OSC says husband and wife Natasha and David Sharpe, who was director of investigations at the Mutual Fund Dealers Association between 2005 and 2009, are “the two most senior officers and decision-makers at the firm.”

She founded Bridging Finance, serves as executive chairman and is a minority shareholder. She was previously CEO and chief investment officer, according to the OSC.

The regulator’s investigation has focused on a series of transactions between 2017 and 2020, and potential conflicts of interest arising from the relationship between the firm, certain directors, officers and shareholders and the principals of some of the loan counterparties.

Among other things, the OSC alleges that, under Sharpe’s direction, “BFI misappropriated approximately $35 million from the BFI Funds to complete an acquisition for its own benefit.”

In addition, the documents filed in court allege David Sharpe received approximately $19.5 million in undisclosed payments in his personal chequing account from a company that was controlled by a person whose other firms BFI had loaned more than $100 million.

The regulator termed the evidence uncovered so far as “significant and credible” in the document.

Daniel Tourangeau, lead investigator and a senior forensic accountant with the OSC, said in an affidavit filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice that the enforcement team found evidence that contradicted explanations given to them by Bridging Finance about the reasons for a buyout transaction, the source of various funds and use of funds to repay certain loans.

Tourangeau said he reviewed transactions involving David Sharpe’s chequing account and was “unable to ascertain a legitimate business purpose” for the undisclosed payments deposited there.

“Instead, it appears that D(avid) Sharpe used the undisclosed payments for his personal benefit or enjoyment” including transferring $11.7 million to investment accounts at BMO Nesbitt Burns and Richardson GMP, of which “at least $1.4 million appears to have been later transferred offshore,” Tourangeau said in the affidavit.

A further $228,000 went to vehicle expenses at Tesla Motors and Holand Leasing, “which I believe relates to the lease payments made in connection with the lease of a 2013 Bentley GTC Mulliner and a 2018 Bentley Bentayaga,” the forensic accountant said in the document.

Other funds were transferred to personal bank accounts and may have been used for construction or renovations and donations to educational institutions including Queen’s University, Tourangeau said in the affidavit.

On the business, side, Tourangeau said OSC investigators were told by Sharpe and others at Bridging Finance that a company called Ninepoint sought to be bought out of a fund co-management arrangement with Bridging because Ninepoint was under financial pressure.

However, in an interview with investigators, John Wilson, co-CEO and chief investment officer at Ninepoint, “instead explained that BFI and Ninepoint entered into discussions to sever the co-management arrangement after Ninepoint threatened BFI with litigation over concerns it had with transactions” in the fund accounts.

According to Wilson, Tourangeau said in his affidavit, an operational review revealed that Bridging Finance had transferred $20 million from the Income Fund to fund a loan and then reversed the transaction. However, the $20 million that came back into the Income Fund came from accounts related to other BFI Funds rather than the law firm trust account that initially received the money.

“This concerned Ninepoint” and Wilson and others at Ninepoint questioned Sharpe and others about it.

“After a back and forth, Ninepoint threatened BFI with litigation and BFI offered to purchase the Management Interest” from Ninepoint, Tourangeau said in the affidavit, adding that no one at Bridging Finance interviewed during the investigation mentioned the dispute with Ninepoint.

INDONESIA

Video: INTERNATIONAL WORKERS DAY/ MAYDAY

Labour Day rally to protest job creation law (Associated Press)

Colombia's president withdraws tax reform after protests

By Julia Symmes Cobb 

MAY 2,2021

© Reuters/LUISA GONZALEZ FILE PHOTO: Protest against the tax reform, in Bogota

BOGOTA (Reuters) -Colombian President Ivan Duque said on Sunday he would withdraw a proposed tax reform after sometimes violent protests and widespread lawmaker opposition, though he insisted a reform is still necessary to ensure fiscal stability.

© Reuters/LUISA GONZALEZ FILE PHOTO: Protest against the tax reform, in Bogota

Duque said on Friday the law would be revised to remove some of its most controversial points - including the leveling of sales tax on utilities and some food - but the government had previously insisted it could not be withdrawn.

© Reuters/LUISA GONZALEZ FILE PHOTO: Protest against the tax reform, in Bogota

Protests against the reform have led to multiple deaths around the country since they began on Wednesday.

"I am asking Congress to withdraw the law proposed by the finance ministry and urgently process a new law that is the fruit of consensus, in order to avoid financial uncertainty," Duque said in a video.

The reform, which the government has insisted is vital to stabilizing Colombia's finances, maintaining its credit rating and funding social programs, remains necessary, Duque said.

Political parties, local officials, business leaders and civil society have contributed valuable ideas over the last several days, he said.

There is consensus on the need for temporary taxes on businesses and dividends, an increase in income tax for the wealthiest and deepened state austerity measures, Duque said.

"It is a moment for all of us to work together without malice," he said.

The central bank warned on Friday failure to approve the reform could have a negative impact on the economy, while a loss of the country's investment-grade credit rating has already been priced in by many investors.

Lawmakers, unions and other groups hailed the announcement as a victory. Celebratory cacerolazos, a traditional protest where people beat pots and pans, could be heard in some neighborhoods.

"It is the youth, social organizations and mobilized citizens who have seen deaths and defeated the government," leftist Senator Ivan Cepeda said on Twitter. "May the government not present the same reform with make-up. The citizens won't accept tricks."

There is not yet a definite national count of deaths connected to protests, amid incidents of looting, destruction of public transport and road blockades in several cities.

Local officials in Cali, the country's third-largest city and where demonstrations have been the most violent, have confirmed three. Another death occurred in Neiva and a police officer was killed in Soacha.

Human rights groups have alleged police abuses - especially in Cali - and said deaths number more than 20.

Duque said late on Saturday cities at high risk for disturbances would get military assistance, an offer rejected by Bogota Mayor Claudia Lopez.

(Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)