Ireland wins over farmers on Lisbon treaty

Ireland wins over farmers on Lisbon treaty

By John Murray Brown in Dublin

Published: June 3 2008 19:29 | Last updated: June 3 2008 19:29

The Irish government’s chances of winning next week’s referendum on the European Union’s Lisbon reform treaty were boosted on Tuesday when the influential Irish Farmers’ Association voted to recommend a Yes vote.

The 80,000-strong IFA backed the treaty after Brian Cowen, the prime minister, promised the farmers that he would use Ireland’s veto in the European Council to block agreement on liberalisation plans in the ­current round of World Trade Organisation talks in Geneva.

Padraig Walshe, the IFA president, said: “We will be communicating as much as possible with our members and we will encourage as many of them as possible to turn out on the day [of the referendum] and also people in agribusiness.”

Farmers fear widespread job losses if a trade liberalisation deal in the WTO talks opens Irish and European food markets to cheaper imports.

Mr Cowen’s promise to use the Irish veto represents a U-turn and was prompted by officials’ anxiety that a low turnout could see the No vote triumph next Thursday.

Mr Cowen said he had “assured the IFA that he was prepared to use the veto if a [WTO] deal unacceptable to Ireland is put to a vote”.

Micheál Martin, the foreign minister, said last week it would “marginalise us as credible negotiators” to “start waving veto options around the place”.

Ireland exports about 85 per cent of the agricultural goods that it produces. But while agriculture’s role in the increasingly modern service-oriented Irish economy is declining in importance, farmers still muster considerable political clout.

The IFA, which initially backed the EU reform treaty, changed its mind because of the direction Peter Mandelson, the EU trade commissioner, was taking at the Geneva talks. It claimed a WTO deal would open up Irish beef markets to imports from “south American ranchers”, threatening 50,000 farm jobs and a further 50,000 jobs in the rural ­economy.

Mr Mandelson hit back saying the IFA “are getting their facts wrong” about the EU negotiating position. He also reminded Irish farmers they were “probably one of the largest, if not the largest, per capita recipients of farm support in the EU”.

Mr Walshe dismissed this as the “conniving and double-speak” of Mr Mandelson, whom he called “this British politician in Europe”.

Ben Tonra, the Jean Monnet professor of European politics at University College Dublin, said the Irish government had been reluctant until now to spell out its position on the use of its veto, precisely in order not to cramp Mr Mandelson’s negotiating position with the EU’s trade partners. “But getting Lisbon through clearly now predominates,” he said.

Richard Sinnott, another UCD academic and expert on Irish elections, said farmers tended not to vote in referendums. But officials point out that the IFA stance could have a big influence on rural turnout where the mainstays of the economy are dependent on farming.

With the No camp assured of a hardcore 20 per cent of votes, whatever the weather on polling day, it is seen as critical for the government to maximise turnout. “If you have a turnout of less than 40 per cent, the Nos have it,” said Professor Tonra.

Ireland’s unique ballot

Ireland votes next Thursday, the only one of the European Union’s 27 member states to seek to ratify the Lisbon reform treaty by referendum rather than parliamentary process.

Defeat would be a big blow for Brian Cowen’s government and humiliating for the EU. It would torpedo a treaty designed to make the bloc institutionally fit for the future and raise questions about the EU’s status as a world power.

The treaty replaces the draft EU constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005. It is supported by all the main Irish political parties, and the majority of business and trade union organisations.

Polls suggest the result will be tight, with those undecided at the start of the campaign drifting to the No camp.

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Israeli shift to private security draws fire

By Tobias Buckin Jerusalem

Published: June 3 2008 19:02 | Last updated: June 3 2008 19:02

A scuffle has broken out among the Palestinian workers waiting to pass the sprawling Israeli checkpoint between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. The men, who have waited patiently outside the terminal for much of the night, are tired, and afraid of arriving late at work on nearby Israeli building sites. Now, one of them is trying to push ahead of the queue, sparking an angry response from the men behind.

Until recently, the armed guards sent in to restore order would have been members of the Israeli army or police forces. But the young man heading towards the tumult with his assault rifle is unmistakeably civilian: his hair is – even by the famously casual standards of the Israeli army – long and wild; under his bullet-proof vest, he wears no uniform but a simple green sweater.

His presence at this sensitive checkpoint – one of the biggest and most important in the occupied West Bank – is part of a trend that has caused fierce controversy in Iraq, and which has now reached Israel.

Here, too, jobs that were once the exclusive domain of the armed forces are increasingly farmed out to private security contractors. It is a shift that has attracted only little public scrutiny in a country that otherwise takes a close interest in military affairs – and remains deeply attached to its armed forces.

The Israeli government says the change benefits everyone. Palestinian civilians, it claims, receive better, more professional treatment from the more experienced private contractors than from jumpy 19-year-old conscripted soldiers. “The idea is to make the checkpoints civilian,” says Shlomo Dror, spokesman for the ministry of defence.

“The Palestinians will meet civilians not soldiers. Nobody likes security checks. But what we are trying to do is to make it easier on the one side and, on the other side, not to skip security needs.”

Israel’s ministry of defence started using private security companies at checkpoints more than two years ago but their presence has become visible only very recently. According to Mr Dror, all 30 crossings through which Palestinians can enter Israel now use private security contractors, and at least one has been handed over completely to private companies. For the time being, the role of private security contractors will be confined to what Israel identifies as border posts with the West Bank.

The government refuses to say how many private workers man the checkpoints, or how much it spends on their salaries. But Mr Dror says there are “several hundred” private guards employed – a number that is certain to rise sharply. “By the end of the year all the people will be civilians,” he says.

For private security companies such as Modiin Ezrahi, which claims to be Israel’s biggest, the policy means good business. Yehiel Levy, vice-president, says Israel’s “army and police are giving more and more jobs that soldiers and policemen used to do to civilians”.

Modiin Ezrahi started manning checkpoints only last year – today it has about 200 of its guards stationed at sites around Jerusalem.

But the trend towards privatising Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank (and on the border to Gaza) has drawn sharp criticism from Israeli human rights groups such as B’Tselem and Machsom Watch, as well as from some analysts. The United Nations, meanwhile, has reported a significant increase in “difficulties” at checkpoints since the changes were implemented.

Hanna Barag, an activist with Machsom Watch, an Israeli group that monitors checkpoints, describes the security guards as “Rambos” who behave no differently from the soldiers.

Standing outside the Bethlehem checkpoint, she scoffs at the idea the guards are more “civilian”. The guards, she says, carry guns and wear bullet-proof vests; ­Palestinians meet them at fortified checkpoints and in situations that have little to do with civilian life.

Daniel Levy, a Middle East expert at the New America Foundation in Washington and a former adviser to Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, raises another concern. He argues that the use of private guards further entrenches the Israeli occupation by making the strain of patrolling the movements of 2.5m Palestinians seem more manageable.

“It creates a sense that the occupation is not as much of a burden as it was. But all that is happening is that the burden is being shifted around,” Mr Levy says.

To Ms Barag the privatisation is part of a broader policy aimed at disconnecting the Israeli population from the reality of occupation. “It separates [the occupation] from Israeli society” Unlike the young and impressionable soldiers, she says, “these guys don’t go home and tell their mothers about what they are doing”.

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Oxford turns to US for vice-chancellor

By David Turner, Education Correspondent

Published: June 3 2008 15:31 | Last updated: June 3 2008 20:41

Oxford University has crossed the Atlantic to find its next vice-chancellor, choosing Yale number two Andrew Hamilton, in a move that illustrates the increasing globalisation of the market for academic leaders.

The heads of the nation’s top institutions are ever more likely to be plucked from universities outside the country or from international business.

Oxford’s selection of Prof Hamilton, Yale provost, confirms this trend. Mr Hamilton was born in England but is a long-term US resident, with dual British and US citizenship.

What are commonly thought of as Britain’s top four universities each has a head recruited either from overseas or from the commercial world – or both. Oxford’s current vice-chancellor is John Hood, the New Zealand ex-businessman; Cambridge has Alison Richard, a Briton who like Mr Hamilton is also a former Yale provost; the head of Imperial College London is Sir Richard Sykes, former chairman of international drugs company GlaxoSmithKline; and University College London has Malcolm Grant, who enjoys dual New Zealand and British nationality.

The growing trend for transatlantic poaching in British academia was underlined yesterday when, as news of Mr Hamilton’s appointment surfaced, St Andrews, Scotland’s oldest university, declared its own new principal would be the Irish-born Louise Richardson, executive dean of Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

Universities UK, the umbrella organisation, said higher education was “an incredibly internationalised world”. It added: “Universities need the best and brightest from across the globe, whether vice-chancellors, leading academics, or students.”

University heads’ salaries have risen rapidly to the levels of senior business people – reflecting British universities’ need to entice high-flyers from the commercial world along with well-rewarded US academics. UK university heads’ pay has leapt 8 per cent to an average of £177,844.

Mr Hamilton, scheduled to become vice-chancellor in October 2009, must heal deep divisions between Mr Hood’s supporters and opponents. Mr Hood’s fans praise his attempts to “modernise” Oxford by shifting power from the individual colleges to the universities. But opponents say he has run roughshod over college autonomy.

Mr Hood’s opponents would have preferred an Oxford insider, arguing that part of Mr Hood’s problem was his inability to understand how the colleges worked. They have a chance to oppose him at the next scheduled meeting of Congregation, the dons’ parliament, in three weeks’ time – if at least two objections are raised by June 16.

But his chances look good. An implacable opponent of Mr Hood who sits on the university’s governing council told the Financial Times he had approved Mr Hamilton’s nomination – contributing to the council’s unanimous Yes vote.

Explaining his decision, the don said: “It’s positive that we’ve got an academic.” He added: “There’s a certain way to argue points academically and there’s a different way of arguing in business.”

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China to host Japanese warship

By Mure Dickie in Beijing

Published: June 3 2008 17:41 | Last updated: June 3 2008 17:41

China has announced plans for the first port visit by a Japanese warship since the departure of Tokyo’s defeated imperial forces in 1945.

News of the historic visit of the 4,600-tonne destroyer Takanami comes just days after hopes for equally pioneering Japanese military aid flights to China were dashed in a diplomatic setback that highlighted the sensitivity of ties between Beijing and Tokyo.

The arrival of the Takanami will offer high-profile confirmation that Chinese and Japanese leaders remain determined to forge a closer and more stable relationship between east Asia’s two pre-eminent powers.

“This visit will promote exchanges and co-operation between the defence agencies of China and Japan and will promote understanding and friendship between the two sides,” Qin Gang, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, said on Tuesday.

The two sides were still negotiating the date and other details of the ship visit, he said.

The trip to the Chinese port will be the first to the country by any vessel of the Maritime Self-Defence Force, as constitutionally pacifist Japan’s postwar navy is known.

A warship of China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy visited Japan for the first time last November but the arrival of the Takanami is much more politically challenging.

Many Chinese nurse bitter memories of Tokyo’s 1931-45 invasion and occupation of much of their country and past plans for naval exchanges foundered in the face of disputes over historical issues.

The two countries in 2000 agreed to hold warship exchanges but China in 2002 scrapped a visit to Japan by one of its navy vessels after Junichiro Koizumi, then Japanese prime minister, visited a Tokyo war shrine.

The continuing sensitivity of military contacts was displayed last week when Tokyo announced and then abandoned plans to use Air Self-Defence Force aircraft to deliver aid to China’s earthquake-hit south-west. Japanese officials said Beijing had suggested the use of the ASDF but reconsidered in the face of angry online criticism of the plan by Chinese internet users.

However, China’s defence ministry denied suggesting Japanese military aircraft would be welcome, while its foreign ministry has complained about premature media coverage of bilateral discussions on the issue.

Meanwhile, some Japanese and Chinese media have portrayed the diplomatic debacle as the result of a misunderstanding by Tokyo officials. It now appears clear that the setback will not upset the rapprochement achieved by Tokyo and Beijing leaders since late 2006.

Commenting on the scrapped military flights, Mr Qin said China was grateful for earthquake aid from the Japanese people and government and that the efforts of both sides to promote warmer ties would be unaffected.

“There is no possibility of change in our policy and stance on this,” Mr Qin said.

Japan has been keen to boost military exchanges, hoping in part to encourage China to be more transparent about its increasingly potent armed forces and to reduce the chance of future unintentional military clashes.

The destroyer Takanami has already played a role in such efforts, last year playing host to Cao Gangchuan, Chinese defence minister, when he visited the MSDF’s Yokosuka base.

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US naval chief sees role for contacts with Iran

By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington

Published: June 3 2008 17:43 | Last updated: June 4 2008 02:08

The top US naval commander in the Middle East says contacts between the US and Iranian navies would be useful once Tehran stopped sponsoring violence inside Iraq.

Vice Admiral Kevin Cosgriff, commander of the US Fifth Fleet, made his comments as Barack Obama and John McCain, the presumptive Democratic and Republican candidates for president, spar aggressively over whether the US should engage with Tehran.

In an interview, Adm Cosgriff told the FT that the US and Soviet navies had benefited from contacts during the Cold War. Asked whether similar contacts between the US and Iran navies would be useful, he said: “I think they would”.

Robert Gates, defence secretary, recently adopted a less rigid tone on talks with Iran than either the White House or Mr McCain by advocated opening new channels between the countries, but added that the US should try to gain more leverage before holding talks with Tehran.

Sitting in a Pentagon office last week during a visit back to Washington from his Bahrain headquarters, Adm Cosgriff explained how the 1972 “Prevention of Incidents On and Over the High Seas” agreement between the US and USSR helped prevent incidents at sea from escalating into crises.

Adm Cosgriff, who has also served as director of the White House situation room, said the negotiations over the agreement created long-lasting “confidence-building measures”. To stress the point, he added that his last encounter with a Soviet ship off the coast of Oman about twenty years ago was “pretty routine”.

“The key takeaway is it created an opportunity for the two navies to talk,” said Adm Cosgriff. “And then that led to other things, visits and those sorts of things.”

Three former heads of Central Command, which oversees US military operations in the Middle East, have also expressed varied degrees of support for more interaction with Iran.

Retired general John Abizaid, who headed the command until March last year, told the FT that anything the US could do to “lessen the chances of unintended confrontation escalating out of control is good”.

“Keeping appropriate lines of communication open is part of sensible diplomacy,” said Gen Abizaid. “Nobody said we need to talk ‘nice’ but being able to talk with adversaries is useful even if the talk is tough.”

Anthony Zinni, the retired Marine general who led the command in the late 1990s, suggested that the US consider forming a ”Gulf Naval Co-ordination Center”, which would include Arab navies and allow bridge-to-bridge communications or communications through a monitoring centre. The US and Iranian navies could also co-ordinate search and rescue missions for missing sailors and fishermen.

“These could be a starting basis with more co-operation along the lines of Admiral Cosgriff’s caveat leading to greater connections,” Gen Zinni told the FT.

Retired admiral William Fallon, who succeeded Gen Abizaid at Centcom until his retirement earlier this year, on Tuesday told CNN that the US needed to remain firm with Iran while at the same time demonstrating a “willingness and openness to engage in dialogue”.

Another senior military official said that after 30 years of strategy questions over Iran, the importance of “having a two-way exchange…can’t be overstated”.

An aide to Senator John Warner, who signed the 1972 agreement with the Soviets when he was Navy secretary, said the Virginia Republican believed such efforts [US-Iranian naval contacts] would only be successful if they were top-down from the highest levels of government to the navies as they were with the US/USSR.

One reason the former military commanders argue for more interaction with Iran is to reduce the possibility of an accidental confrontation that spirals out of control.

Adm Cosgriff has witnessed several dangerous incidents involving US and Iranian ships in the Gulf. The most serious occurred in January when a US warship came within ten seconds of firing on Iranian Revolutionary Guard speedboats.

“It could have gone the other way,” says Adm Cosgriff. “The message I would want the Iranians to have taken away is that 20 US sailors have died at the hands of small boat attacks [including the 2000 USS Cole attack], and there is not a captain in the US navy … that does not know that.”

One problem, he says, is that while the Iranian navy responds to radio calls from US ships, the more aggressive Revolutionary Guard does not. He grapples with the question of whether the Revolutionary Guard navy is acting under orders, or just like “cowboys”.

“Which Iran is acting here? It is mostly opaque to me. My inkling is some of the things we see are local. [But] I am not absolving accountability for the centre because they have created the tone or the environment within which local commanders seem to think that they can operate this way.”

Adm Cosgriff laces his desire to have better naval relations with a dose of reality, saying the US cannot have a “normal relationship” with Iran while it ships lethal weapons to groups attacking US forces in Iraq.

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Nordic banks warn of credit crisis threat

By David Ibison in Stockholm

Published: June 4 2008 03:26 | Last updated: June 4 2008 03:26

The global credit crisis is threatening to undermine the stability of the banking systems of Sweden and Norway, bringing to an end a period in which they have managed to escape the effects of the downturn virtually unscathed.

Central banks of both countries on Tuesday released quarterly financial stability reports that eschewed their usual diplomatic language and voiced concern at the possible impact of global events on their banking systems. “The turmoil has ... spread to new assets, markets and participants. The uncertainty ... will probably persist for a long time to come. It cannot be ruled out that problems will get worse,” said Stefan Ingves, governor of the Riksbank, Sweden’s central bank.

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Energy shortages hit former Soviet states

By Stefan Wagstyl, Thomas Escritt, Kester Eddy, Theo Troev and Neil MacDonald

Published: June 4 2008 02:26 | Last updated: June 4 2008 02:26

In a remote corner of Hungary close to the Ukrainian border engineers are starting work on construction of the biggest power station in the former communist states of south-east Europe since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The first pair of 400MW units at the €1.5bn ($2.3bn, £1.2bn) plant at Nyírtass are due on stream in 2011, with another four due for completion in 2013.

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Maritime law in chaos, says sector

By Megan Murphy in London

Published: June 4 2008 04:19 | Last updated: June 4 2008 04:19

The global shipping industry on Tuesday accused Europe’s top court of plunging international maritime law into chaos after it refused to invalidate a European Union directive criminalising polluters at sea.

The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg side-stepped industry arguments that the directive contravenes international standards by introducing tougher sanctions for both reckless and accidental pollution.

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EU food team backs ban on US poultry

By Nikki Tait in Brussels

Published: June 4 2008 02:04 | Last updated: June 4 2008 02:04

US poultry producers on Tuesday accused Europe of protectionism after efforts by Brussels to resolve the long-standing ban on US imports were rejected by food safety experts.

An emphatic vote by veterinary experts in the standing committee on food chain and animal health – in which 26 member states supported a ban on the import of poultry rinsed with chemicals and Britain abstained – means that the issue could now be passed to European Union farm ministers.

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US gives more details on new visa proposals

By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington

Published: June 3 2008 18:43 | Last updated: June 3 2008 18:43

Passengers travelling to the United States from countries whose citizens do not need visas must register online with the US government at least 72 hours before departure, in the latest measure to strengthen American security.

Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security secretary, on Tuesday announced the new rule, which the Financial Times first reported on Monday.

“Rather than relying on paper-based procedures, this system will leverage 21st century electronic means to obtain basic information about who is travelling to the US without a visa,” said Mr Chertoff.

“Getting this information in advance enables our frontline personnel to determine whether a visa-free traveller presents a threat, before boarding an aircraft or arriving on our shores. It is a relatively simple and effective way to strengthen our security, and that of international travellers, while helping to preserve an important programme for key allies.”

European companies last year expressed concern after the Homeland Security department floated the idea of requiring passengers to register 48 hours in advance, believing it could complicate last-minute business travel. Although the new rule requires 72 hours advance registration, it will be valid for multiple entries over a two-year period.

The rule will only apply to citizens of the 27 visa-waiver programme countries, which includes most of western Europe, in addition to Australia, Brunei, Japan, New Zealand and Singapore. The US has signed agreements with eight other countries – including the Czech Republic, Hungary and South Korea – putting them on track to join the programme.

Under the system, passengers will submit the same information that is currently included in the I-94 immigration form that must be filled before entering the US. Passengers will be able to register from August, although the rule will become mandatory in January. Registration will be possible through travel agents, airline websites or through a special US government website.

A homeland security official said the system was created to make it more difficult for terrorists who are nationals of visa waiver countries to enter the US, mentioning Richard Reid, the UK “shoe bomber” convicted for trying to blow up an airliner. Zacarias Moussaoui, the French national who was convicted of involvement in the 9/11 attacks, entered the US without a visa.

“History has shown that it is naive to assume a traveller from a [visa waiver] country automatically constitutes a lesser threat than a visa applicant who has undergone greater scrutiny prior to travel,” said the official. “There is also a concern about radicalisation in Europe and that Europe could be a platform for striking at the US.”

Earlier this year, General Michael Hayden, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, warned that al-Qaeda was trying to recruit westerners as potential attackers because they would be able to blend into the US. Robert Mueller, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in April added that al-Qaeda realised that holders of European passports would have less difficulty entering the US.

Fred Jones, vice president at Levick Strategic Communications and former national security spokesman for Mr Bush, said the system could potentially damage complicate relations with Europe because of the suggestion that European countries were not dealing adequately with extremism. He added that it could have an adverse impact on corporate travel.

Susan Ginsburg, a senior staff member of the 9/11 Commission now at the Migration Policy Institute, welcomed the programme and also expressed concern that the Homeland Security department had not conducted a pilot programme.

“I am quite certain that having the information in advance will be important and helpful. But it is a question of whether it can be implemented smoothly and without the appearance of discrimination and without causing a choke point at the consular offices, and potentially at secondary [checks].”

The US official said the government decided that a pilot run was not necessary because the programme was not particularly complicated. He aded that the US originally intended to call the programme ETA [electronic travel authorisation] but chose ESTA after Spanish officials expressed reservations because of the Basque separatist group with the same name.

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Qatar fund in rift with adviser

By Anousha Sakoui and Martin Arnold in London

Published: June 3 2008 22:16 | Last updated: June 3 2008 22:16

The relationship between the Qatar Investment Authority and Three Delta, its UK investment adviser run by Paul Taylor, has broken down and the sovereign wealth fund is working on buying out his interest in Four Seasons, the nursing home operator.

The potential split between QIA and Mr Taylor, which made an abortive takeover bid for the J Sainsbury’s supermarket chain last year, could lead to the sovereign wealth fund’s buying out all four investments made since Three Delta’s creation two years ago.

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Lehman hedges lose $500m to $700m

By Ben White, Francesco Guerrera and Henny Sender in New York

Published: June 3 2008 23:37 | Last updated: June 4 2008 00:04

Lehman Brothers lost $500m-$700m on certain hedging positions in the second quarter, contributing to what is expected to be a larger-than-anticipated loss that may lead the bank to raise more capital by selling a stake to an outside investor.

People close to the matter said Lehman had opened talks with potential investors including asset managers and Asian banks.

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HK websites pose big virus threat

By Paul Taylor in New York

Published: June 4 2008 06:18 | Last updated: June 4 2008 06:18

Almost one in five Hong Kong-based websites pose a security threat to visitors making the “.hk” internet domain the most dangerous domain on the web, according to McAfee, the internet security company.

A new McAfee report, “Mapping the Mal Web Revisited” released on Wednesday, reveals that the Hong Kong domain has jumped 28 places to take the mantle as the most dangerous web domain from Tokelau, a tiny island of 1,500 inhabitants in the South Pacific.

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Making waves in the Mediterranean

By Robert Wright

Published: June 3 2008 19:12 | Last updated: June 3 2008 19:41

When Jacques Saadé moved his family to Marseilles in 1978, he told them they would stay a year while the civil war in Lebanon, their previous home, died down. Thirty years on, Mr Saadé, now 71, and his family remain based in the French port and growth at the shipping business he founded that first year is so rapid he has commissioned a new, 50-storey headquarters tower, now quickly rising skywards.

CMA CGM, Mr Saadé’s company, is one of two container lines to have risen rapidly from Mediterranean foundations, like the Marseilles tower, to dominate much around them.

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Gas blast threatens Australia mine operations
Reuters
Reuters - Wednesday, June 4 03:32 am

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australia's biggest mining state of Western Australia lost a third of its gas supplies on Wednesday, with the operator of a gas plant hit by an explosion declaring force majeure to its major customers.
(Advertisement)

About 30-40 percent of gas supplies, mostly to industrial users, were cut off after the explosion late on Tuesday at the Varanus Island gas processing plant operated by Apache Energy, a unit of U.S.-based oil and gas producer Apache .

Western Australia is the world's biggest producer of iron ore and one of the biggest producers of gold and nickel.

Apache said gas supply would be affected for a number of days and added a small fire was still burning at the Varanus Island gas plant.

The fire was caused by a series of ruptured pipelines, Apache Energy managing director Tim Wall said.

BHP Billiton , the world's top miner, and Alumina said their Western Australian mines and plants were operating normally despite the cut to gas supplies.

"At this stage we're operating as normal. However, we'll continue to assess the situation as we get more information," a BHP Billiton spokeswoman said in an e-mail.

Alumina , which has three joint venture plants in Western Australia with Alcoa , said the gas outage should not affect its output of 8 million tonnes a year.

"Production hasn't been cut back," spokesman Ken Dean said.

The Alcoa World Alumina joint venture gets about 25 percent of its gas supply from the Varanus plant but can replace that by switching to diesel.

"It will have a marginal cost impact, because the cost of diesel is higher than for the contracted gas," said Dean.

Newcrest Mining said it was trying to minimise the impact on the power station for its giant Telfer gold mine by drawing down diesel fuel stocks, but warned it only had limited diesel stocks on site.

Woodside Petroleum , Australia's second-largest oil and gas producer, said it would try to help cover some of the shortfall.

Customers along the Goldfields Gas Pipeline include BHP Billiton's nickel mines and its Mount Newman iron ore mine, and gold mines owned by Newmont Mining .

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Gasoline guzzlers near extinction in US?
AFP
By Mira Oberman AFP - Wednesday, June 4 03:18 am

CHICAGO (AFP) - America's decades-long love affair with monstrously large vehicles may finally be coming to an end, US automakers have predicted in the wake of a sharp drop off in sales amid high fuel costs.
(Advertisement)

Large and midsized sport utility vehicles were down 42 and 38 percent respectively in May while pickup sales dropped 30 percent, according to Autodata.

And perhaps more telling: the Ford F-series pickup truck - which has been the top selling vehicle in the United States since 1991 - was dethroned by not one but four Japanese-made sedans.

Ford, which recently announced cuts to truck and SUV production, responded by offering deep discounts to move the trucks off its lots.

General Motors went even further: it announced plans Tuesday to close four truck and SUV plants in North America by 2010, cutting light truck production capacity by 700,000 units to 3.7 million vehicles a year.

"These moves are all in response to the rapid rise in oil prices and the resulting changes in the US, changes that we believe are more structural than cyclical," said Rick Wagoner, GM chairman and chief executive.

"We at GM don't think this is a spike or temporary shift; we believe that it is, by and large, permanent," Wagoner said at a news conference at GM's annual shareholder meeting in Wilmington, Delaware.

Sales of traditional truck-based sport utility vehicles have been falling steadily in response to the introduction of smaller, car-based crossovers SUVs which offer better handling and fuel economy.

Then a slowdown in the housing market stemmed demand for pickups from construction workers and a broad economic slowdown took a bite out of overall sales.

But the real killer has been gasoline prices.

Average prices at US pumps stayed under 1.25 a gallon for all but a few weeks during the 1990s and regularly dipped to a dollar or less.

They shot up to two and then three dollars a gallon in 2005 and currently average 4.07 dollars after three years of intense price volatility.

"May was a watershed month," Jim Farley, Ford group vice president of marketing and communications, said in a conference call.

"We are as an industry catching up with the breathtaking choices customers are making."

In "the most dramatic shift" the industry had seen in two or three months, small and midsize cars represented 47 percent of the US retail market in May, up from just 34 percent in February, Farley said.

"That 13 percent shift three months later represents 1.5 million vehicles," he said. "That's probably six assembly plants for the industry."

Ford now plans to have cars and crossover suvs make up some 57 percent of its 2008 production, with truck and large SUV production down about 10 percent compared with last year.

But Toyota, which has recently introduced a full-sized pickup truck and expanded its offerings to include larger SUVs, said strong demand remains for larger vehicles.

"One month doesn't mean a fundamental change for the entire industry," Toyota Division general manager, Robert Carter, said in a conference call with analysts.

While Toyota has already announced plans to trim truck production, Carter said he is confident that sales will rebound because there is a core group of buyers - like construction workers - who will always need a truck.

"We probably will witness some segment shifts," he said, adding that he expects SUV sales to rebound although it may be at a "reduced level for some time."

Overall industry sales were down 10.7 percent in May, according to Autodata.

GM, Ford and Chrysler - which have been slow to match the more fuel-efficient car-based SUVs introduced by their Asian competitors - were again among the worst hit.

Honda managed to edge Chrysler out of the number four spot in the US market as its sales grew 15.6 percent to 167,997 vehicles in May with a market share of 12 percent.

Chrysler's sales fell 25 percent to 148,747 vehicles as its market share slipped to 10.6 percent.

GM reported a 28 percent drop in sales to and saw its top market share fall to 19.1 percent.

Toyota edged closer to the number one spot in the US with 18.4 percent of the market even as sales fell eight percent to 257,404 vehicles.

Ford's sales fell 16 percent to 217,998 vehicles and its market share slipped to 14.7 percent, according to Autodata.

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Dakota Oil Fields of Saudi-Sized Reserves Make Farmers Drillers

By Anthony Effinger
More Photos/Details

June 3 (Bloomberg) -- John Bartelson, who smokes Marlboro Lights through fingers blackened with tractor grease, may look like an average wheat farmer. He isn't. He's one of North Dakota's new oil barons.

Every month, he gets a check for tens of thousands of dollars from a company in Houston called EOG Resources Inc., which drilled two oil wells on his land last year. He says the day his first royalty check arrived was one to remember.

``I smiled to beat hell, and I went to town and had a beer,'' Bartelson, 65, says.

His new wealth springs from the Bakken formation, a sprawling deposit of high-quality crude beneath the durum wheat fields of North Dakota, Montana and southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The Bakken may give the U.S. -- the world's biggest importer of oil -- a new domestic energy source at a time when demand from China and India is ratcheting up the global competition for supplies and propelling average U.S. gasoline prices to almost $4 a gallon.

And unlike the tar from Canada's oil sands, Bakken crude needs little refining. Swirl some of it in a Mason jar and it leaves a thin, honey-colored film along the sides. It's light - -almost like gasoline -- and sweet, meaning it's low in sulfur.

Best of all, the Bakken could be huge. The U.S. Geological Survey's Leigh Price, a Denver geochemist who died of a heart attack in 2000, estimated that the Bakken might hold a whopping 413 billion barrels. If so, it would dwarf Saudi Arabia's Ghawar, the world's biggest field, which has produced about 55 billion barrels.

Thin Deposit

The challenge is getting the oil out. Bakken crude is locked 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) underground in a layer of dolomite, a dense mineral that doesn't surrender oil the way more-porous limestone does. The dolomite band is narrow, too, averaging just 22 feet (7 meters) in North Dakota.

The USGS said in April that the Bakken holds as much as 4.3 billion barrels that can be recovered using today's engineering techniques. That's a fraction of the oil that Price said should be there, but it's still the largest accumulation of crude in the 48 contiguous U.S. states. North Dakota, where Bakken exploration is most intense now, won't become Saudi Arabia unless technology improves.

``The Bakken is the biggest thing in oil in the lower 48 right now,'' says Jim Jarrell, president of Ross Smith Energy Group Ltd., a research firm in Calgary. ``And among the least understood.''

Delaying the Peak

Some oil, like the 10.4 billion barrels estimated to be recoverable in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, remains off limits -- as a nature conservation measure -- even as President George W. Bush renews his calls for drilling there. North Dakota, already crisscrossed by farm roads, is open for business.

As traditional oil fields become scarce, exploration companies must tackle trickier ones to stay in business. Their success will determine when the world reaches peak oil -- the high point in production after which new supply will no longer be there to slake new demand. It's a gloomy concept. Peak oil theorists predict the mother of all oil shocks, complete with famine and wars for energy.

These days, big new oil deposits often come with caveats. Brazil's Petroleo Brasileiro SA says its offshore Tupi field contains as much as 8 billion barrels of oil, which the company hopes to start pumping next year. But the field is under more than four miles of water and rock, where pressure can crush drilling equipment.

Hedge Bus

The Bakken dolomite is hardly an obstacle, by comparison. And even if Price was too optimistic, the Bakken is big enough to make investors rich. Some have made fortunes already.

In April, a busload of hedge fund managers drove by Bartelson's land, ogling the metronomic pump jacks and the devilish orange flares of excess natural gas that are making parts of North Dakota look more like west Texas.

``There's nothing that can stop this play,'' says Mike Reger, chief executive officer of Northern Oil & Gas Inc., a five-person company near Minneapolis that has leased the mineral rights under 32,000 acres (13,000 hectares) in the North Dakota Bakken.

Reger, 32, brought the hedge fund managers up to see the oil field. Some, like Ryan Zorn of Houston-based investment management firm Saracen Energy Advisors LP, are investors in Northern already. Northern shares have risen 61 percent since being listed on the American Stock Exchange on March 26.

Fool's Gold

For decades, the Bakken was the fool's gold of the oil industry. The name describes a geological formation that looks like an Oreo cookie: two layers of black shale that bleed oil into the middle layer of dolomite. It's named after Henry O. Bakken, the North Dakota farmer who owned the land where the first drilling rig revealed the shale layers in the 1950s.

All of the layers are thin -- about 150 feet altogether -- and none of them give up oil easily. In older, vertical wells, oil would often flow for a month and then fizzle.

Now, companies like Austin, Texas-based Brigham Exploration Co.; Denver-based Whiting Petroleum Corp.; and EOG are drilling horizontally. They go straight down 10,000 feet and then put a slight angle in the mud motor, a 30-foot piece of tubing that drives the bit, so they hit the Bakken sideways, making a horizontal tunnel 4,500 feet long through the dolomite.

That exposes more of the oil-bearing rock. Then they pump pressurized water and sand into the hole to fracture the dolomite, making cracks for oil to seep through.

It eventually winds up in a pipeline that runs east to Clearbrook, Minnesota, and then south to Chicago.

Where Billionaires Roam

Several billionaires are at work in the Bakken. Harold Hamm's Enid, Oklahoma-based Continental Resources Inc. has leases on 487,000 acres in Montana and North Dakota. Hamm, who started out driving a truck, owns 73 percent of Continental, worth $7.9 billion. Philip Anschutz, 68, founder of Qwest Communications International Inc. and Regal Entertainment Group, is there, too.

So are two sons of billionaire H.L. Hunt, the 1930s wildcatter. Petro-Hunt LLC is owned by the trust estate of William Herbert Hunt, who was convicted in a civil trial with his brothers Lamar and Nelson Bunker of trying to corner the silver market in 1979. Hunt Oil Co., another Bakken operator, is owned by their half brother, Ray L. Hunt.

The big winner so far has been EOG, formerly a subsidiary of bankrupt energy trader Enron Corp. It drilled a horizontal well in western North Dakota just north of Parshall -- population 1,028 -- in April 2006. The well came online a month later and kicked out 1,883 barrels in the first seven days. Unlike the older vertical wells, it's still going. In March, it produced 2,305 barrels, according to the North Dakota Industrial Commission.

No Slam Dunk

EOG has eight rigs running on 320,000 acres of mineral leases in the North Dakota Bakken. The company said in its 2007 annual report that the area has the highest return of all the places in which it operates -- including Texas's Barnett Shale, the Gulf of Mexico coast and the Permian Basin of New Mexico.

The Bakken isn't foolproof. Far from it. Drilling there is expensive -- about $5 million a well, according to EOG -- and takes experience. Dallas-based Petro-Hunt's first well in the North Dakota Bakken didn't make money, company geologist Steve Bressler says. Brigham's Bergstrom Family Trust well came online at 277 barrels a day -- viable at today's high oil prices but not a gusher.

``There will be variances,'' says John Gerdes, an oil and gas analyst at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey Inc. in Houston. ``The rock matters. The people matter.''

Oil Rush

The success of EOG's Parshall well set off a land grab in North Dakota's Mountrail County. Land men -- the experts who move from boom to boom leasing mineral rights -- swarmed, paying ever higher prices for ground that for decades grew crops and concealed Cold War missile silos.

On private acreage, land men negotiate with mineral owners like Bartelson. They offer a bonus upfront to hold the mineral rights for three to five years, and they agree to pay a fraction of the revenue from any oil produced each month -- often from 1/8 to 3/16. On land with a producing well, the mineral lease lasts as long as the well does. On government land, the bonus is set at auction.

Bartelson in 2004 granted a five-year lease on 1,400 acres, under which he owns half the mineral rights. He got a bonus of $25 per mineral acre, or $17,500, plus one-sixth of any oil revenue. Times have changed since then. In November, Sinclair Oil Corp. of Salt Lake City paid $16,500 an acre at auction for half the mineral rights on 320 acres of government- owned land in the Parshall Field, according to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

`No Acreage'

``That's a record for Montana and North Dakota,'' BLM spokesman Greg Albright says.

Among the biggest companies punching holes in the North Dakota Bakken are Houston-based Marathon Oil Corp., the fourth- largest U.S. oil company, and Hess Corp. of New York, which is No. 5. No. 1 Exxon Mobil Corp. isn't active in the Bakken. John Freeman, an analyst at investment bank Raymond James & Associates Inc. in Houston, says Exxon is looking for bigger deposits overseas.

``Now, there's no acreage left,'' he says.

The truest believer in the Bakken might be Reger, the CEO of Northern Oil. He's certainly the loudest promoter.

Reger is a fourth-generation oilman. His great-grandfather managed operations for Mobil Oil, now part of Exxon Mobil, in the Williston Basin, the 110,000-square-mile (285,000-square- kilometer) geological formation in the northern plains that holds the Bakken and other deposits. Reger's grandfather leased land atop all of them. His father, uncle and brother are in the business, too.

``It's our basin,'' Reger says.

Bakken Hunters

If it works out the way Reger says, he and his partner, a former derivatives trader named Ryan Gilbertson, will be the Sergey Brin and Larry Page of the Bakken. Like the Google Inc. founders, Reger and Gilbertson are young -- Gilbertson is also 32 -- and they aren't afraid to roll the dice.

The lanky, blue-eyed Reger wears cowboy boots and a saucer-sized belt buckle emblazoned with an ``R.'' He vacationed this year in the Maldives in the Indian Ocean and insisted on a stopover to see Dubai's building boom. Gilbertson, meantime, shot a 10-foot-tall brown bear at eight paces in Alaska in 2007. He has a picture of him and the dead bear on the wall in his office.

`Son o' Bitches'

The future partners met while boating on Lake Minnetonka, outside Minneapolis. Gilbertson is from the area and traded derivatives for Piper Jaffray Cos. and a hedge fund firm named Telluride Asset Management LLC in nearby Wayzata, where Northern is based. Reger moved from Montana to St. Paul to attend the University of St. Thomas.

``We're both cowboy-boot-wearing, country-music-listening, gun-toting sons o' bitches,'' Gilbertson says. These days, they both drive black Cadillac Escalade SUVs and wear designer jeans.

Gilbertson says he knows more about interest-only mortgage bonds than he does about oil. But he says Northern will succeed because he and Reger weren't in business during the busts of earlier decades, so they aren't gun-shy today.

When EOG hit oil, they leased as many mineral rights in Mountrail County as they could, even as prices rose.

``The fear of these busts has clouded the judgment of so many players,'' Gilbertson says. ``We just grabbed everything with both hands.''

Turning Over Leases

Northern makes money without actually drilling or operating wells. Its strategy is like the game of Monopoly: lease in promising areas and get paid when someone else uses the land to drill.

The strategy is possible because of the way land is assembled for drilling. Reger's grandfather, uncle and father had made their money as lease brokers: They'd lease the land themselves or buy leases already granted and then sell them at higher prices to exploration companies.

Reger and Gilbertson intend to keep their leases, pay a share of the drilling costs and keep a portion of the oil revenue. Gilbertson says it was his idea. ``I saw the family's model as flawed,'' he says.

Leasing mineral rights means finding mineral owners. That's not always easy, because the farmer who owns the surface may not own the ``minerals,'' as they're known. Farmers can sell land and retain the minerals. When a mineral owner dies, the rights are often passed in equal portions to his or her children, Reger says, making them hard to track down.

Hauling County Records

To find mineral owners in Mountrail County, land men spend months in the courthouse, poring over photo-album-sized books that show who owns mineral rights and whether they've been leased.

One day in April, there were 50 people lugging books around. They line up well before the courthouse opens to get a spot on the first floor so they don't have to haul volumes up the stairs to an old law library that's been filled with folding tables to accommodate the horde.

Reger started leasing land for oil and gas exploration in Montana at age 15. He carried a portable typewriter to bang out contracts on landowners' kitchen tables.

It takes more than mineral rights to drill. Most western states are divided into neat little squares called sections. Each is one square mile, or 640 acres. If you want to drill an oil well in a section, you lease the mineral rights inside it. You don't need all of them, but you have to find all of the rights owners in that section and offer to let them participate.

This is where Northern makes its money.

Watching Permits

Reger's favorite time of day is 4 p.m., when the North Dakota Industrial Commission posts the names of companies that have gotten permits to drill. Very often, a rig is heading to a section in which Northern has mineral rights. He knows then that it will be a matter of time before he gets a letter from the company asking if he wants to share the cost -- and the revenue -- based on the percentage of mineral rights Northern controls in that section. He almost always says yes.

Reger makes it look easy because the Bakken is hot, says Summerfield ``Sam'' Baldridge, a partner at Montana Oil & Gas Properties Inc., founded by Reger's uncle, Steve, in Billings, Montana. Bigger companies are eager to drill, their wells are producing and oil prices are high.

``If it goes bad, you can go broke really quick,'' Baldridge says. ``You have to have guts and capital.''

Booms and Busts

Baldridge, 51, knows from experience. He was leasing mineral rights for Mobil in Montana in February 1986 when he heard on the radio that oil prices had plunged. In two days, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude fell to $15 from $20.

``We knew it was history,'' Baldridge says. ``From Calgary to Houston, everything went south.''

North Dakota has seen booms and busts from an array of oil deposits. The Bakken began forming 360 million years ago from dead algae that sank to the bottom of an ancient sea, where they were buried by successive layers of rock. Heat and pressure turned the algae into oil-saturated shale. Now it lies like a buried blanket under much of the Williston Basin.

Amerada Petroleum Corp. roughnecks started drilling what would become the first well in North Dakota on Sept. 3, 1950. They went through the Bakken before producing oil from deeper Silurian dolomite on April 4, 1951. A year later, Amerada (now Hess) finished the Henry O. Bakken well. Cuttings from the hole showed the shale layers that are now known by the same name.

Finding Porosity

Exploration in the Williston Basin grew for a few decades after that, ebbing and flowing with the price of oil. Mostly, drillers pursued deposits deeper than the Bakken. Those who tried to exploit it usually failed. The oil wouldn't keep flowing. ``Bakken was a four-letter word,'' says Dick Findley, a geologist in Billings.

In 1996, Findley, now 56, had a revelation. The consultant-turned-oilman went out to his rig in eastern Montana one night to check on things. At 2 a.m., it hit the Bakken dolomite and produced an unexpected rush of oil. Oil expands as it forms, and the pressure drives it into rock fractures. In the past, the dolomite hadn't seemed porous enough or fractured enough to release it.

``We got porosity that I didn't know existed,'' Findley says.

Findley and his partner, a land man named Bob Robinson, thought they could re-enter old wells and blast the middle dolomite layer with pressurized water to make cracks for crude to flow. They produced oil but not enough. So they turned to horizontal drilling. The technique had been around for decades.

500 Wells

Some had tried horizontal drilling in the Bakken in the early 1990s. They had aimed for the upper shale layer, though. Findley thought they could produce more by staying in the middle dolomite, even though the best, most porous rock was just 10 feet thick.

They drilled their first horizontal well in May 2000, blasted it with water, and the oil flowed. The field is called Elm Coulee, and today there are more than 500 wells there. Findley sold much of his interest to investors who could afford the drilling, though he still has an override -- a small percentage of any production.

Findley's success got others thinking about the Bakken. One was Michael Johnson, an independent geologist in Denver. Montana and North Dakota require companies to make public the information they collect when drilling, including gamma ray logs, which register the location of oil-bearing shale. Johnson examined logs from hundreds of wells east of Elm Coulee. He zeroed in on a dry one in Mountrail County that had similarities.

Word of Mouth

Johnson and two partners, land man Henry Gordon and geologist Robert Berry, leased about 38,000 acres in the area and shopped the mineral rights around. EOG bought 75 percent across all of the acres. In April 2006, EOG started drilling near a stream called Shell Creek. Workers drilled down some 9,000 feet and then started angling into the Bakken. They hit natural gas and crude.

Oil companies try to keep discoveries quiet so they can snap up more leases around them. Information travels fast in the Williston, though, where all of the roughnecks and rig operators know one another. Reger and Gilbertson had just formed Northern Oil when they got word from a lawyer in Montana that EOG had hit a big one. Reger sent his brother J.R. to lease as much land as he could, as close as he could, to EOG.

Pathfinder

In April, Reger took his busload of hedge fund managers to a well called Pathfinder being drilled by Slawson Exploration Co. out of Wichita, Kansas. Northern owns only 3 percent of Pathfinder but has land all around it. Success here would almost certainly mean more drilling in adjacent sections.

``From this location, we are literally masters of all we survey,'' Reger says.

The drill had hit the Bakken layer two weeks earlier, on Easter Sunday, producing a burst of natural gas. Where there's gas, there's often oil. As the rig clanks and groans like a motorized Godzilla, the hedge fund managers gather inside the trailer and crowd around the desk of Jon Starkweather, a ``mud logger'' who analyzes the rock chips coming up the hole. His window is covered with long charts that look like electrocardiograms.

``We landed this one just right,'' the bearded Starkweather says. Recent gas ventings, called kicks, confirm it.

Even if Reger and Gilbertson stopped gathering more mineral leases, they would make a fortune on what they have already, Reger says.

``I could take a nap for two years under my desk and wake up a hero,'' he says.

Millionaires

Reger's 14 percent stake in Northern is worth about $49 million. Gilbertson has shares worth $24 million. Whiting Petroleum's shares have more than doubled in the past 12 months, triple the 34 percent gain for a group of 96 energy companies in the Russell 2000 Index.

The other people doing well in the Bakken are the mineral owners under the oil wells -- folks like John Bartelson. Whiting paid them $56 million in 2007. EOG declines to say what it paid, though it's certainly more because it operates more wells. Whiting gets much of its Bakken revenue from shares of EOG wells it owns. It acquired them by buying Robert Berry's remaining stake in the Parshall acreage after EOG struck oil.

Bartelson's checks are about to get bigger. One more EOG well just came online, he says, and another is about to be fractured with water. Still another has been permitted for drilling. For now, he's farming. The oil market is fickle, he says. Previous crashes drove the rigs out of North Dakota for years, leaving only the wheat.

``It'll crash again,'' Bartelson says, sipping on a late- afternoon cup of coffee beside his tractor.

Maybe so. But with crude trading above $125 a barrel, it'll be a long time before the rigs leave again, and John Bartelson is likely to be a wealthy man before they do.

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日本経団連、法人税の減税などを要望

　日本経団連は４日、民主党と意見交換会を開いた。張富士夫副会長は「国際競争は激しさを増しており、国の盛衰はその国の制度や政策に大きく左右されるようになってきた」と法人税の引き下げなどを求めた。民主党の藤井裕久税調会長は「法人税を国際水準に持って行くのは当然。だが個人負担が増えるなかでなぜ法人減税をするのか、きちんと説明する必要がある」と応じた。

　日本経団連と民主党との意見交換会は今回で４回目。経済界が求めるサマータイムの導入では「早急に成立に向け努力したい」（福山哲郎政調会長代理）と与野党で協力する考えを示した。

　民主党は消費税にも触れた。年金など社会保障制度を維持するには特別会計の無駄遣いなどをなくし国民の理解を得た上で、足りない分を消費税の税率引き上げでまかなう必要があるとした。

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株取引「取引所外」が急増　利便性が人気

　株式売買のうち証券取引所を経由しない「取引所外取引」が急拡大している。2007年度の売買代金は前年度比16％増の49兆6000億円となり、過去最高を更新した。株式取引全体に占める比率は6％に上る。証券会社が自社のシステムを駆使して低コストのサービスを提供する仕組みが投資家の人気を呼んでおり、東京証券取引所は売買処理速度の引き上げなど対応を迫られそうだ。

　取引所外取引は1998年12月に「取引所集中義務」が撤廃されて証券会社ができるようになった。年度ベースの統計が残る02年度の売買代金は約14兆円だったが、外資系証券を中心に海外投資家の注文を社内システムで付け合わせる「ダークプール」と呼ばれる取引が増加。07年度の取引所外取引のうち、社内システムを使った取引が47兆円強と大部分を占めている。

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社保庁の後継組織、100人超追加削減

　社会保険庁は3日、後継組織「日本年金機構」へ移行する人員を追加で100人超削減する方針を固めた。間接部門の必要人員を見直すほか、業務の外部委託で効率化する。年金相談窓口である社会保険事務所の所長への民間登用拡大も検討しており、移行できる職員は絞られそうだ。

　4日に開く年金業務・組織再生会議（座長・本田勝彦日本たばこ産業相談役）に、社保庁案として提出する。

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乳業４社、家庭用バターを増産

　日本乳業協会は４日、明治乳業、森永乳業、雪印乳業、よつ葉乳業の大手４社が、品不足が続く家庭用バターを6―8月の３カ月間に380トン増産すると発表した。バターは豪州の干ばつなどで国際価格が高騰、業務用の需要が国産の家庭向け商品に回ったため、店頭で品薄となっている。農林水産省は４月末、乳業大手に異例の増産要請をしていた。

　大手４社は農水省の要請で５月に230トン増産した。だが店頭の品薄感は解消せず、大手小売りでは１人１点の購入制限が続いている。このため６月以降も増産を継続することにした。6―8月は業務用も570トン増産し、４社合計で家庭用・業務用とも前年同期並みの販売量を確保するという。

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軽油が高値圏、陸運各社が運賃へ転嫁急ぐ

　陸運各社がトラックに使う軽油価格の高騰を受け、運賃への転嫁を急いでいる。国土交通省は軽油価格の上昇分を運賃に上乗せする燃料サーチャージ（燃油特別付加運賃）制に関するガイドラインを3月に定め、導入を後押しする。ただ、顧客の荷主が実際に受け入れるかは個別の交渉次第。零細事業者を中心に厳しい夏を迎えそうだ。

　国交省によると、燃料サーチャージの届け出は5月28日時点で126件。窓口になる各地の運輸局からは「付加運賃の決め方を調べるなど準備を進めている企業は多く、本格的に広がるのはこれからだ」（北陸信越運輸局）といった声が出ている。

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鉄鉱石運搬に超大型船、運賃高で輸送費削減　新日鉄やＪＦＥ

　新日本製鉄とＪＦＥスチールは輸送費の削減を狙い、積載量が約30万トンと世界最大級の鉄鉱石運搬船の活用を増やす。新日鉄は4隻、ＪＦＥは2隻を海運会社と長期契約する。原油高などにより、鉄鉱石の海上運賃は年初から約2倍に高騰した。大型船の導入で、両社は1隻当たり年100億円程度のコスト削減を見込む。鋼材価格の1割前後を占める鉄鉱石の輸送コストを減らし、製品の国際競争力を高める。

　新日鉄は商船三井と22年の長期契約を結び、昨年12月から30万トン級の三井造船製「ぶらじる丸」を導入。さらに今年から10年までに、川崎汽船や日本郵船などと合計三隻を長期契約する。航路はいずれもブラジル―日本。4隻すべてを運航させれば、新日鉄が輸入する鉄鉱石の1割前後を30万トン級の大型船で運べるようになる。

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ＥＵ化学物質規制対応、車部品データ共通化　日米欧韓メーカー

　6月1日に本格運用が始まった欧州連合（ＥＵ）の化学物質規制「ＲＥＡＣＨ（リーチ）」に対応するため、日米欧韓の自動車メーカーが連携する。車の部品に含まれる化学物質の共通データベースを2009年にも作成、使用物質をＥＵに効率的に登録できるようにする。自動車開発の期間短縮や費用削減を目指し、国境を越えて協力しあう。

　各地域の業界団体である日本自動車工業会、全米自動車産業協会、欧州自動車工業会、韓国自動車工業会などが新規制への対応で連携することで合意。自動車メーカーが部品に使われている材料を把握するため部品メーカーとの間で構築するデータベースを共通化する方向になった。

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農業ビジネスに新勢力

　農業分野で新興・中小企業が事業拡大に乗り出している。生産の担い手が不足するなかで、消費者の安全意識の高まりや国際的な穀物高を背景に国産農産物への需要が拡大。企業経営のノウハウやバイオなど新技術を生かした生産・流通改革のニーズが高まっているためだ。ＩＴ（情報技術）や金融業界で活躍したビジネスマンなどが成長分野ととらえ、ユニークな戦略で市場を開拓する例も目立つ。

　農畜産物の生産販売や経営支援を手掛けるナチュラルアート（東京・千代田）は、年内をメドに10億―20億円規模の農業ファンド（投資基金）を設立する。農畜産業者に投資して経営を支援し協力先を全国に広げる。

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トヨタ、コスト削減強化…原材料高で１５年ぶり緊急策

トヨタ・渡辺捷昭社長 　トヨタ自動車は、鋼材などの原材料価格の高騰を受け、コスト削減の強化に乗り出した。新モデル車種などで行ってきた原価低減に加え、既販の全車種を対象とした緊急のコスト総点検運動にも着手。緊急点検はバブル崩壊後の１９９３年以来、実に１５年ぶりで、自動車の値上げ圧力を少しでも和らげたい考えだ。

　原材料価格の上昇により、２００９年３月期には同社の躍進を支えてきた原価改善効果が相殺されてしまう非常事態が想定される。値上げについては「将来にわたってないとは言えない」（渡辺捷昭社長）＝写真＝と含みを持たせているものの、国内市場が低迷する中で単純な価格転嫁を行うことは難しく、コスト削減努力の上積みが急務だ。

　トヨタは、緊急点検で使用部品を設計段階から見直すなど「あらゆる角度から検討を進める」（幹部）方針。０５年には新車や全面改良車両を対象として、部品を機能ごとに集約する原価低減活動を開始しているほか、鋼板種類の絞り込みも進めており、全体では今年度に三千数百億円のコスト削減効果を見込む。

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Niger set to become oil producer
File photo of Niger

China will invest $5bn (£2.5bn) over the next three years to develop oil production in Niger.

State-owned China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) is expected to produce the country's first barrel of oil in 2009.

Under the agreement, CNPC will build a 2000-km pipeline and a refinery with a capacity of 20,000 barrels a day.

The investment in Niger's Agadem block near the border with Chad is China's latest move to secure energy resources in Africa.

'Win-win'

Niger's mines and energy minister Mohamed Abdoulahi said the deal was a "win-win" contract that benefitted the people of China and Niger.

He said that Niger is expected to produce its first crude in 2009.

Niger is one of the world's poorest countries and ranks in the bottom five on the United Nations human development index.

More than three million people were affected by a famine in the country in 2005.

Accusations

China has invested $30bn in Africa's oil and gas industries, primarily in Sudan, Nigeria, Angola, Equatorial Guinea and Chad.

But China's foray into Africa has prompted accusations of modern day colonialism.

Development organisations have attacked China for ignoring alleged human rights abuses - especially in Sudan - to tap resources.

Niger's eastern region, where the country's oil reserves are located, has been relatively unaffected by a revolt by Tuareg rebels.

But China's ambassador to the country, Chen Gonglai, appealed for peace in the country at the contract signing ceremony.

"To develop a nation, you have to have to security," he said.

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Bolivia grabs control of gas firm
Transredes-run gas pipeline, Bolivia

The Bolivian government has taken full control of a key gas pipeline company after talks with the foreign firm that held a controlling stake broke down.

President Evo Morales said Transredes had been seized after US company Ashmore Energy International failed to agree to a share buy-back.

Transredes transports Bolivia's natural gas to clients in Brazil and Argentina.

It is the latest move in the Bolivian president's recent effort to nationalise key industries.

Ashmore has yet to comment on the move.

President Morales said Ashmore had agreed to sell some of its 25% share in the firm but that these talks had not led to a deal.

"We waited patiently all month, but the actions they took were totally different," the president said.

"They wanted to be bosses, and have us be the employees. We're a small country - sometimes they call us underdeveloped - but we have lots of dignity. Partners are welcome, but we will not accept bosses."

Officials said Royal Dutch Shell, cited as another foreign in investor in the pipeline, had wanted to work with them.

Chavez ally

President Morales came to power two years ago promising his country's poor a greater share in revenues from the oil and gas industry.

The BBC's South America correspondent Daniel Schweimler says the president's radical plans have upset foreign companies and threaten to split the country.

Three regions in Bolivia's east, where most of the oil and gas is found, have recently voted for greater autonomy and oppose sending more revenues to the central government.

Parts of Bolivia's energy industry was privatised in the 1990s, with foreign companies taking 50% stakes.

Last month Bolivia's state energy company bought a majority stake in Spanish-owned Andina, one of the country's biggest energy companies which exploits oil and gas fields, and owns a 50% stake in two giant gas fields.

It has also taken over, by state decree, the control of Chaco from BP and Pan American Energy.

Mr Morales is an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has also taken back control of a number of industries from foreign control, including oil, electricity and cement.

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Russia, Saudi Arabia sign WTO talks completion protocol

03.06.2008, 16.16

MOSCOW, June 3 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia and Saudi Arabia have signed a protocol ending another round of bilateral negotiations on the terms of Russia’s admission to the World Trade Organization, Prime-Tass reports.

The protocol was signed within the framework of Deputy Prime Minster, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin’s visit to Saudi Arabia.

The just-ended round of talks was the seventh since May 2007, when Saudi Arabia said it was interested in bilateral consultations with Russia over the terms of its admission to the WTO. The talks encompass the markets of goods and services. Earlier the two countries agreed on some positions regarding agriculture, the protection of geographic and religious names and also manufactures. The themes of the services, financial and credit policies, and energy remain open.

Apart from Saudi Arabia Russia is conducting bilateral WTO talks with Georgia and Ukraine.

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Guatemala interested in Russia’s investments – deputy foreign minister

02.06.2008, 23.54

MOSCOW, June 2 (Itar-Tass) -- Guatemala is interested in the drawing of Russia’s investment into its economy, Guatemalan Deputy Foreign Minister Lars Ludvig Pira said in Moscow on Monday in the follow-up of the signing of an agreement between the chambers of commerce and industries of the two countries.

According to him, “Russian-Guatemalan trade turnover stood at 57 million U.S. dollars in 2007.”

“Russia and Guatemala have vast potential for the development of cooperation,” he said, adding, “We have a large number of goods which we are ready to propose to our Russian partners, first of all foodstuff.”

“We are also interested in Russia’s investments, specifically in the spheres of energy, transport infrastructure, and mining industry,” Pira said.

Deputy Chief of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Latin America Department Yan Burlyai said, in turn, that the Russian Foreign Ministry will do its best to intensify practical interaction between businessmen of the two countries.

“Russian-Guatemalan interaction will be discussed in details at a seminar on Russia’s cooperation with the Central American countries due in Honduras in the second half of the year,” the Russian diplomat said.

Vice President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Georgy Petrov said that Russia is optimistic regarding prospects of trade and economic cooperation with Guatemala, which was “an exotic country” for Russian businessmen.

However, in his words, Russia is interested in closer contacts with that country. “There’re good grounds for further interaction,” Petrov said.

“We believe that cooperation in the spheres of energy, transport infrastructure, and high technologies are the most promising,” he said.

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PeugeotCitroen, Mitsubishi Motors pool efforts to launch joint project in RF

02.06.2008, 21.04

MOSCOW, June 2 (Itar-Tass) --The French carmaker PeugeotCitroen will pool efforts with the Japanese car producer Mitsubishi Motors to create a joint venture in Russia.

A PeugeotCitroen official said the joint project would accelerate the production of cars.

The top executives of the two companies have signed a cooperation agreement on the creation of the joint venture in Russia. “The agreement signifies enhanced relations between the two corporations for which Russia becomes a priority market,” the official said.

PeugeotCitroen will have controlling interest in the joint venture. It will build a plant in Russia’s Kaluga region, 180 kilometres from Moscow, by 2010. The groundbreaking ceremony will take place on June 10, 2008.

The two companies will invest about 300 million euro in the project that will create 2,600 new jobs.

The joint venture will become operational in 2011 and will make 160,000 cars a year. The two companies plan to assemble middle-class Peugeot, Citroen, and Mitsubishi cars, as well as SUV off-roaders of all three brands.

The diversity of the brands reflects the growing demand for these cars in Russia, the official said.

Middle-class automobiles account for about 50 percent of sales on the Russian car market that also seems to be quite promising for SUV cross-country vehicles.

Earlier, Mitsubishi Motors President Osamu Masuko said his company was considering building a new plant in Russia and would make an official announcement regarding the plan implementation timeframe and details within several months.

He said, however, that the company planned to expand its operations in Europe in 2009 to make automobiles with clean diesel engines and start selling them in Japan.

The company is one of the leading world producers making over 1.6 million automobiles in 32 countries. In Russia it sells off-roaders and cars.

Other Japanese car makers also show big interest in the Russian market, including Toyota, Nissan, and Sudzuki.

Last year, Toyota sold 157,000 cars in Russia and hopes to sell 200,000 this year. As a result, Russia has become its main market, edging even Germany.

Toyota’s newly launched plant in Shushary, Leningrad region, assembles Camry sedans. The company is considering the possibility of launching a new assembly line to make another affordable car. If the decision is made, the plant in Shushary will start making 200,000-300,000 such cars annually in several years.

A Nissan plant will become operational in St. Petersburg in January 2009. It will make 50,000 cars a year, Nissan Manufacturing RUS Operations Director Dmitry Mikhailov said earlier.

The enterprise has been proclaimed to be a strategic investor of St. Petersburg. The plant located in the north of the city will make Teana-type sedans and X-Trail offroaders.

Mikhailov said, “The company is hiring and training personnel to form the first ship by the end of the year. All personnel are undergoing intensive training abroad and at the company’s own training centre in St. Petersburg.”

The future director general of the St. Petersburg-based plant Suzuki Auto MFG RUS, Nikolai Simutin, who also attended the conference, said surveying work at the site where the future plant will be built in the Shushary-2 area had been completed and construction would begin in the middle of this year.

In June 2007, Suzuki signed an agreement with the Economic Development and Trade Ministry on the construction of the plant in St. Petersburg and a memorandum of understanding with the city administration.

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NATO should collapse just like the USSR did, Putin believes
03.06.2008 Source: Pravda.Ru URL: http://english.pravda.ru/russia/politics/105422-putin_nato-0

Vladimir Putin’s recent visit to France, which ended May 30, left European mass media in mixed feelings. Respectable newspapers, like Britain’s The Times or Switzerland’s Neue Zurcher Zeitung, wrote in their articles that Putin had received an inappropriate welcome in Paris, which did not match his official position of the prime minister. European journalists were surprised to see that Putin’s meeting with his French counterpart Francois Fillon was held without reporters. To crown it all, President Sarkozy invited Putin for private dinner.

Western journalists believe that Putin arrived in Paris to discuss not only common issues of economic cooperation, but also issues of foreign politics, which are generally not included in the powers of a prime minister. However, Putin strictly adhered to the official protocol of foreign visits during his public appearances in Paris.

A recent issue of Le Monde newspaper, which published an exclusive interview with Vladimir Putin, dotted all the “i”s on the matter.

Who rules Russia, Medvedev or Putin? That was one of the first questions which French journalists asked Putin. The Russian prime minister replied that there was no ambiguity in the question at all. “Politicians execute certain functions and remain human beings at that. First and foremost, I deal with economic and social issues. However, as a member of Russia’s Security Council, I am pertinent to the questions that we discussed with the President of France,” Putin said.

Putin described his stance on virtually all major issues of Russia’s foreign politics answering other questions from French reporters.

“The expansion of NATO is the construction of new Berlin walls in Europe – invisible walls, which are equally dangerous,” Putin said answering a question about the threat of Ukraine’s and Georgia’s possible incorporation in NATO.

Putin reminded that NATO had been set up during the opposition with the USSR. The Soviet Union collapsed long ago, although the North Atlantic Alliance continues its existence. “Against whom does this friendship exist now? Which are the current global threats? The proliferation of nuclear weapons, terrorism, epidemic, international criminality, drugs. Can these be solved within the framework of a closed political bloc? No. NATO builds new borders in Europe with its expansion. This restricts opportunities of taking the mutual effort to struggle against today’s current threats, because it sows distrust to each other. It is an obstacle,” Putin said.

The Russian prime minister also criticized NATO’s aggressive methods of working. “We both know where the decisions are taken, as a rule: in one of the leading countries of the bloc. They are legitimatized afterwards and obtain an attractive and many-sided meaning,” Putin said.

The head of the Russian government exemplified his point of view with the deployment of the US missile system in Europe. “At first they made a decision and then they started to discuss it in Brussels. They started the discussion against the background of Russia’s pressure and criticism. We constantly talk about the arms control in Europe . We did everything necessary while Western countries were doing the talking. As a result we have two army bases near Russia’s borders and will soon have missile deployment areas in Poland and the Czech Republic,” Putin said.

“We fear that if Ukraine and Georgia become NATO members today, then missile systems might be deployed there tomorrow. Eighty percent of Ukrainians do not want their nation to join NATO. Have they solved everything for the Ukrainians? Is their opinion of interest to anyone? And you want to tell me that this is democracy?” Putin said.

The problem is the same as far as Georgia is concerned: the Georgian authorities and the people of Abkhazia cannot seem to come to mutual understanding. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili suggested a plan stipulated Abkhazia’s authority as a part of Georgia , although the unrecognized republic refuses to acknowledge it. “I just hope that Saakashvili’s plan will come true gradually, because it is a correct plan on the whole. However, the other side needs to agree with that. The plan must suit Abkhazia first and foremost,” Putin said.

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USA chooses politicians of ill reputation to manipulate former USSR
03.06.2008 Source: Pravda.Ru URL: http://english.pravda.ru/world/ussr/105427-former_ussr-0

A closer look into biographies of several European leaders makes one wonder how people with such ill reputations have made it to the top. Viktor Yushchenko, Mikhail Saakashvili, Nicolas Sarkozy, prime ministers of the Czech Republic and Kosovo Miroslav Topolanek and Hashim Thaci - they all have common personal qualities. More importantly, all of them are loyal allies of the USA. It seems that the USA is strongly attracted to such people. Deputy Director of the Institute of the USA and Canada, Viktor Kremenyuk, expressed his opinion on the issue in an interview with Pravda.ru.

When you read biographies of European or CIS leaders, you may recall the words which robbers usually say: “It’s not us, it’s life.” Taking into consideration the fact that those leaders receive support from the USA, a question arises about the criterion to support those who would never be allowed to stay in a decent society in the past.

Supposedly, such people are easy to control due to compromising materials. The greater the scandal, the shorter the leash that keeps this or that politician. Suspicious politicians can be used to implement someone else’s plans. Unfortunately, recruits of this “movement” are used against Russi.

For instance, Viktor Yushchenko became the President of Ukraine under questionable circumstances. It is not quite clear what happened to his first wife and whether his father was a Nazi policeman. But unpleasant incidents that happen to his son from the first marriage are well known. However, it is obscure how the young man got an expensive BMW vehicle with Czech numbers. It is not a secret that Yushchenko’s second wife is a former employee of the US Department of State.

As for politics, Yushchenko is ready to remove the Russian Fleet from Sevastopol and even destroy it in order to satisfy his masters. Or he can divide the country in three parts by his policy as president of Ukraine . Similar results were achieved by Iraqi leaders alone who cannot do it for five years under the guidance of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili is the niece of a former KGB officer, Timur Alasania, who lives in the West now. There are numerous legends about Saakashvili’s love life. His Dutch wife Sandra Roulovs reportedly wanted to break up with him because of his conjugal infidelity. But she changed her mind because the information about his infidelity was not formally confirmed. Anyway, Georgia saw several cases when party or government leaders used their position to satisfy “growing needs of Soviet people”.

The most important issue is politics where Washington cannot dispense with Saakashvili. He will do anything to keep his power and to spite his neighbours. Russia is the first on his list.

As soon as Czech Prime Minister Miroslav Topolanek took office, he filed for divorce and started an affair with his party co-worker. That would be a storm in a teacup, but the missile system issue put the Czech Republic out of political ‘non-existence’. ‘Hooliganism’ has its roots and aftermath. There is one step from common dissipation to the treachery of national interests. This step was made.

Due to Topolanek’s maniacal persistence to deploy elements of the US missile defense system, Russia will aim its ballistic missiles on the Czech Republic and the whole Europe . These are good prospects for Old Europe that kept the balance of forces for decades and managed to preserve itself even during the Cold War. He even refused to acknowledge Kosovo despite the attitude of President Vatslav Klaus and most deputies of the parliament, to say nothing about the people.

However, Old Europe has its own skeleton in the cupboard – French President Nicolas Sarkozy. His ostentatious personal life overshadowed France’s national problems. The French will remember Charles de Gaulle who did not venture a tenth part of Sarkozy’s escapades, including politics: in a year of his presidency ‘the man of the world’ deprived Paris of independence from the USA.

However, the above-mentioned personalities pale in comparison with Kosovo’s Prime Minister Hashim Thaci. The Hague Tribunal Prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, who takes no liking to Serbia , charged Thaci with trafficking human organs of the slaughtered Serbs, and the Western press directly reported on his contacts with drug mafia.

Moreover, the Kosovo case is a bomb that will explode the whole Europe and maybe some regions of the world and there will be a possibility to say that this phenomenon is run by a mob. But it is not funny any longer. This is an occasion to speak about the degradation of political systems that trigger the disintegration in the society. Restoration of moral standards in this society is still up in the air.

Each country has its various cultures, temperaments and traditions. But in politics they are united by one thing – decay. Peoples have nothing to do with it; they are just observers in this game. Leaders become petty under the influence of Washington . Petty politicians are capable of doing only one thing – to spite their neighbours.

Deputy Director of the Institute of the USA and Canada , Viktor Kremenyuk, told Pravda.ru which political personas can be considered US proteges.

“This attitude is not quite right; it is just an attempt to cast suspicion on the US-led foreign policy. I realize that the US foreign policy is neither a kindergarten nor an institute for noble maidens. Nonetheless, Americans respect their legislature and have strong public morals and religious principles.

“Most suspicious-looking personalities appeal to the USA for support and believe that they could serve the USA and the US administration will back them up in response. During the Cold War they followed a well-known principle. Formerly it was: “Somoza is a scoundrel, but he is our scoundrel.” Currently it is: “We know that Hashim Thaci is a scumbag, but he is our scumbag.”

“Now the USA tries to evade it, because there is no need to support anybody. First of all, it was caused by the apprehension that if we do not support a leader, he will appeal to our opponents. But such a situation does not exist at present - he will not go anywhere. Americans realize it and try to be realistic. There are no other leaders in the world and the USA has to cooperate with leaders of low repute. The USA deals with them out of necessity, but it never bows and scrapes before them.

Sarkozy was elected in accordance with the French Constitution and democracy. He represents his people. He may have some drawbacks, but nobody, including the USA , has a right to disregard the will of the French people. Whatever is written about Sarkozy, the USA realizes that he was elected in conformity with the Constitution and it has to deal with him.

“The things are much the same with Saakashvili. No matter what they say about him in Moscow or any other place, he was elected by the Georgian people and the USA has to treat him properly. However, with Thaci it is still vague.”

Vladimir Anokhin, Tatiana Barkhatova, Vadim Trukhachev
Pravda.ru

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Google launches new Site Search
03.06.2008 Source: URL: http://english.pravda.ru/business/companies/105424-google_site_search-0

The rebranding of Google Custom Search Business Edition now offers enhanced index coverage including documents on public sites that otherwise wouldn't be indexed.

Site Search, like its less elegantly named predecessor, gives businesses a way to offer Google search on their own Web sites.

"Search continues to be the way people find information," said Google enterprise product director Matt Glotzbach. "It has really taken over as the navigation paradigm for the Web. We're really set on addressing that and creating a hosted search offering that's accessible to everyone."

The new Site Search offers enhanced index coverage. It now indexes documents on public sites that otherwise wouldn't be indexed. Glotzbach described these files as "content that the crawler knows about but isn't in the main index due to space constraints." Public documents hidden behind submission forms represent the types of files that might not normally make it into Google's index, he explained.

Site Search now handles synonyms, so a search for "car" will now include "automobiles," for example. And Site Search administrators can add their own custom synonym dictionary to associate specific search terms with each other, informationweek.com reports.

"Google Site Search is targeted more for businesses and government sites that want search but don't want to display ads," Nitin Mangtani, a product manager in Google's Enterprise division, said in a phone interview.

Hundreds of thousands of website publishers rely on Google's AdSense program to offer classic Google Web search. They make money running advertisements from Google's network of online advertisers.

Site Search is an alternative to the Google Search Appliance, which Google offers to sites wishing to maintain their own search services inside their own data centers. Google counts more than 10,000 active Search Appliance customers.

Google is the only mainstream Web search provider to offer businesses a hosted service. By contrast, rivals like Autonomy Corp Plc and FAST, which was recently acquired by Microsoft Corp, require customers to install and manage their search software in-house, Mangtani said.

Other features allow site administrators to add their own customized synonym dictionary, allowing website visitors to use site-specific terminology geared to a particular industry or culture. Google Sites also offers users a spell checker.

Webmasters have the option of fully customizing Google Site Search to the look and feel of the website, or they can rely on Google's simplified Web page style and make clear the ties to Google's services, Reuters reports.

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Saudi Arabia puts a spoke in Russia’s wheel
02.06.2008 Source: Pravda.Ru URL: http://english.pravda.ru/russia/economics/105417-saudi_arabia-0

Consultations at the talks on Russia’s entry into the WTO finished so depressingly that Russian delegates have revealed the essence of the bilateral negotiations for the first time. It is not the attitude of Georgia, but that of Saudi Arabia that turned out to be the major impediment.

In order to put Russian petrochemical companies under equal conditions with foreign companies Russia has to push home prices on fuel towards the global level, Saudis demanded.

Since it is not for state-run companies to determine the formation of crude prices in Russia, the claim of Saudi Arabia refers to the pricing policy of Gazprom.

“Such claims seem to be groundless,” the head of the Russian delegation Maxim Medvedkov stated after the talks which ended May 29. The official still hopes that they will manage to solve the problem in early June of 2008 in Riyadh during the talks with Russia’s Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin.

The claim to raise the home gas prices appeared as soon as Saudi Arabia became a member of the working group, members of the talks said. However, the Russian delegation decided to publicize it despite the common practice.

In 2005 Saudi Arabia came under pressure from the USA that brought forward similar claims – to increase the internal prices of raw materials for export-oriented oil companies. The USA was blocking the negotiations until Saudi Arabia agreed. Now Saudi Arabia demands the same from Russia.

Apart from the problems with Saudi Arabia, a number of unsolved issues still remains: export duties on Russian timber, that Scandinavian countries protest, and the amount of direct state allocations to Russian agricultural makers. Russia insisted on nine billion a year, the EU demanded to lower it to 3.5 billion.

The talks with Georgia reached a complete deadlock – political demands of this country cannot be solved at the WTO negotiations, since the Russian delegation has no mandate for such negotiations.

Source: agencies

Translated by Julia Bulygina
Pravda.ru

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地方公務員、人件費カット　都道府県の８割弱

　地方公務員の給与の削減傾向が強まっている。日本経済新聞社が都道府県職員の2007年度の平均給与月額（一般行政職）を集計したところ、前年度を下回ったのが全体の８割弱、36都道府県に上ることが分かった。地方財政立て直しには歳出総額の３割を占める人件費にメスを入れるのが不可欠と判断。基本給カットや各種手当を見直す動きが広がっている。

　各都道府県の職員平均給与（07年４月分、時間外手当など諸手当を含む）を集計した。職員の平均年齢は前年同期より0.3歳高い43.6歳。給与が前年割れした都道府県は06年度の集計より11増えた。一方、従業員1000人以上の大企業の平均給与月額（男性、厚生労働省調べ）と単純比較すると北海道や東京、大阪など11都道府県が民間を下回った。大企業平均を下回る都道府県は05年度に8、06年度は10と増えている。

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花王とカネボウ化粧品、宮城県に共同物流拠点

　花王と子会社のカネボウ化粧品（東京・港）は４日、東北地区のドラッグストアなどに両社の化粧品を配送する拠点を宮城県に新設し、10月に稼働すると発表した。すでに関西や北海道では物流拠点を統合して共同配送を順次始めており、倉庫の賃料や輸送費の削減を進める。カネボウ化粧品が花王の完全子会社になった2006年２月から11年３月までの約５年間で、物流コストを約50億円減らす計画だ。

　カネボウ化粧品が所有し、現在は賃貸している宮城県村田町の倉庫を新たに「東北センター」とする。花王が千葉県、カネボウが茨城県から配送している東北向けの化粧品をここに集約し、共同配送を順次始める。

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群大など関東４国立大、２年後メド「共同大学院」

　宇都宮大学、茨城大学、群馬大学、埼玉大学の４国立大学法人は2010年4月をメドに、複数の大学が対等な関係で連携する「共同大学院」の設置を目指す。それぞれの得意分野を生かし、地域に欠かせない専門知識を持った人材を育てる狙い。今年度から単位を完全に互換する連携コースを開設。ＩＴ（情報技術）専門家の育成に取り組み、将来は経済や医学分野に広げる方針だ。

　3日にソフトウエアの開発設計を教える「人間創生情報学コース」を開講。４大学から計60人が受講した。来年度にはデータベースやＷＥＢサービスなどの技術を教える「社会創生情報学コース」を開く。各大学の3、4人程度の教授が講義を担当。講座は４大学をインターネットで結び、同時中継する形で進める。遠隔授業による大学院の演習は珍しいという。

　既存の連合大学院では年間で10単位しか互換できないが、今回は４大学院で同時に同じコースを用意して実況中継することで、どの大学の学生も自由に単位が認定される仕組みをつくった。システム構築などに文部科学省から合計で約3300万円の補助金を受けた。

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婚外子国籍確認訴訟、両親の婚姻要件の国籍法は違憲　最高裁

　婚姻関係のないフィリピン人の母と日本人の父の間に生まれ、生後に認知された10人の子が日本国籍の確認を求めた２件の訴訟の上告審判決で、最高裁大法廷（裁判長・島田仁郎長官）は４日、両親の婚姻を国籍取得の要件とする国籍法の規定を違憲と初判断し、10人全員の日本国籍を認めた。最高裁が法律の規定に違憲判決を出すのは戦後８件目。最高裁の違憲判断により、国会は国籍法の改正を迫られる。

　国籍法は、婚姻関係のない日本人の父と外国人の母の間に生まれた子について、父が生前認知した場合は出生と同時に日本国籍を取得できるが、生後認知の場合は両親の婚姻を国籍取得の要件としている。

　原告はフィリピン国籍の８―14歳の10人の子で、日本人の父の認知をきっかけに2003年に法務局に国籍取得届を出した。しかし、両親に婚姻関係がないことを理由に認められなかった。

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婚外子：婚姻要件の国籍法規定は違憲　最高裁大法廷判決

　結婚していない日本人父とフィリピン人母１０組の間に生まれた子ども１０人が、国に日本国籍の確認を求めた２件の訴訟の上告審判決で、最高裁大法廷＝裁判長・島田仁郎（にろう）長官＝は４日、出生後の国籍取得に両親の婚姻を必要とする国籍法の規定を違憲と初判断した。その上で１０人全員について日本国籍を持つことを確認した。

　最高裁が法律の規定を違憲としたのは、在外邦人の選挙権を制限した公職選挙法の規定を巡る訴訟の判決（０５年９月）以来で８件目。国会は早急な法改正を迫られる。非嫡出子（婚外子）の不利益な扱いに対する違憲判断は初めてで、相続で差を設ける民法の規定などを巡り議論を呼びそうだ。

　国籍法３条１項は、未婚の日本人父と外国人母の間に生まれた子について、父の生後認知と両親の結婚の両方を日本国籍取得の条件としている。嫡出子の立場を得ることを必要とする規定だ。

　原告は、関東地方などに住む８～１４歳の１０人。父の認知を得て０３～０５年に法務局に国籍取得を届け出たが、認められなかった。

　原告側は「両親の婚姻という子どもに左右できない事情で国籍について異なる扱いをするのは不合理な差別」として、憲法１４条の定める法の下の平等に違反すると主張。これに対し国側は「両親の結婚で子は日本との強い結びつきを持ち、法には合理的な根拠がある」と反論した。

　１審・東京地裁は２件の訴訟とも同項について違憲判断し１０人の日本国籍を認めたが、２審・東京高裁は「婚姻要件を無効として認知のみで国籍を取得できると解釈することは、新たな要件を創設するもので立法権の侵害」と憲法判断に踏み込まず、いずれも原告逆転敗訴とした。

　日本人父・外国人母の非嫡出子で原告と似た境遇の子どもたちは国内に数万人、海外にも相当数いるとの学者の試算がある。父の認知を得る困難さはあるが、判決は救済の道を開いた形だ。

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ガソリン全国平均価格、初の170円台に上昇

　石油情報センターが４日発表したレギュラーガソリンの給油所店頭価格（２日時点、全国平均）は１リットル171.9円と前週比11.6円上昇した。 170円台に乗せるのは1987年の調査開始以来初めて。石油元売り大手が６月出荷分の卸値を引き上げ、店頭価格にも波及した。

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最良の観光客は日本人、中国人は最下位　米社がランキング

　ネット旅行販売最大手の米エクスペディアは４日、ホテルマネジャーの各国の観光客に対する評価「ベストツーリスト2008」をまとめた。100点満点で各国の観光客を採点したところ、日本人が68点でトップになった。首位は２年連続で、現地のエチケットを守るといった行儀のよさや礼儀正しさ、部屋をきれいに使い、苦情が少ないことなどが評価された。

　２位以下はドイツ人とイギリス人（53点）、カナダ人（51点）、スイス人（49点）の順だった。一方、同社が順位を公表した31カ国の中での最下位は中国人で27点。30位がインド人（28点）だった。行儀が悪いことや部屋を汚すことなどが低い評価につながったという。

　調査は「騒がしい」「チップをくれる」など10項目の質問を設定し、３月下旬に欧州、南北アメリカ大陸などのホテル3万2000軒にメールで送信。4004人のマネジャーから得た回答を同社が100点満点の点数に換算した。

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立命館への補助金25%減　学部転籍募集で

　文部科学省は４日、立命館大を運営する学校法人立命館に対し、日本私立学校振興・共済事業団を通じて配分する2008年度の私立大経常費補助金を25％減らすと発表した。立命館大が新設した学部に学生が集まりすぎ、他学部への転籍を募集したことを「教育上合理的な理由がなく不適切」と判断した。

　今春開設した生命科学部には、280人の定員に対し415人が入学。定員超過率が1.48倍に達し、補助金が不交付となる基準の1.4倍を超えたため、入学生に他学部への転籍を打診した。転籍に応じたのは8人だけで、1.4倍超の状態は続いている。

　文科省は「転籍募集は補助金不交付を避けるのが狙い」（私学助成課）と判断。同日付で立命館に対し「運営が不適切」と伝えた。25％の補助金減で15億円前後の収入減になるとみられる。

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一般ごみ1.3％減、11年前の水準に　06年度、環境省調査

　環境省は3日、2006年度の家庭ごみなど一般廃棄物の総排出量が前年度比1.3％減の5202万トンだったとの調査結果を公表した。東京ドーム約140杯分に相当する。11年前の1995年度とほぼ同水準となった。

　総排出量のうち、資源として再利用した量は前年度比1.8％増の1021万トンで、リサイクル率は19.6％。量、率とも過去最高を更新した。

　総排出量は2000年の5483万トンをピークに03年度を除いて年々減少。環境省は12年度に5000万トンにする計画を掲げており、「この傾向が続けば達成できる」としている。

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タスポ：自販機につり下げ　福岡の業者「売上げ２割減り」

　福岡県広川町の自営業者が、未成年者の喫煙防止策で導入されたたばこ自動販売機用成人識別ＩＣカード「タスポ」を自販機に備え付け、自由にたばこが買えるようにしていることが分かった。カードを発行する「日本たばこ協会」（東京）は「成人識別制度や業界の信用を失墜させる行為」として、全国初となるカード無効化も視野に入れて是正を求める方針。財務省たばこ塩事業室も「事態が続けば行政処分もありうる」と困惑している。

　業者によると、福岡県で導入された今年５月以降、売り上げが約２割減少。売り上げを増やすために同月下旬、家人名義のカードを自販機に針金で設置した。自販機には、同時に「この自販機専用タスポです。未成年の方はご使用になれません」などと書いた張り紙を付けた。

　県警八女署は先月２７日、情報提供を受け「教育的観念から好ましくない」と、撤去を求めた。しかし、業者は「法律には触れてない」と拒否したという。

　日本たばこ協会によると、同様の例は先月、福島県で２件あったが、是正要請に即座に応じたという。

　この業者は、毎日新聞の取材に「たばこを買うかどうかは親の責任では。規制する法律ができない限り、カードを撤去するつもりはない」と話している。

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事業費減３２０億円　橋下知事、財政再建案の大枠固める

2008年06月04日11時43分

　大阪府の橋下徹知事は３日、１１００億円の財政再建案の大枠を固めた。今年度予算の歳出では一般施策経費で２４０億円超、建設事業費で約７０億円の計３２０億円程度の事業費を削減するとともに府職員の人件費を約３５０億円カット。歳入では府有財産売却などで１００億円超、市町村への貸付金の繰り上げ返済で約２００億円の歳入増を図る。財源不足分は退職手当債の発行などで補う方針。

　橋下知事は４日に歳入歳出額の最終調整をしたうえで、５日の記者会見で、重要政策とともに一連の行財政改革案を正式に発表する予定。

　府の財政再建に向け、橋下知事は就任後、減債基金からの繰り入れといった負担の先送りをやめ、今年度からの９年間で６５００億円の収支改善を図ることを打ち出した。

　これを受け、改革プロジェクトチーム（ＰＴ）が１１００億円の財政再建案を発表。今年度は事業費で４００億円削減し、人件費削減で３００億～４００億円、歳入で３００億～４００億円を確保するとした。

　橋下知事はＰＴ案をたたき台に市町村や関係団体などと協議を重ね、最終案を検討してきた。ただ、景気減速のあおりで、法人２税が当初見込みより少なくとも３００億円下回ることから、予算案を提出する７月議会に向け、さらに収支計画の見直しも進める方針だ。

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69％の世帯で保険料減、後期高齢者医療　厚労省調査

　厚生労働省は4日、75歳以上を対象に4月から始まった後期高齢者医療制度（長寿医療制度）について、国民健康保険（国保）から移った高齢者の世帯の 69％で保険料が下がったとの推計結果を正式発表した。ただ年金収入が年177万円未満の低所得の世帯の39％で保険料が上がることも判明。与党は3日まとめた保険料の軽減策で高齢者の不満を和らげる考えだ。

　厚労省は全国1830の市区町村を通じて1000万人強の高齢者の世帯を調査した。10月から新たに保険料の一部を負担する会社員の被扶養者約200万人は外した。

　モデル世帯となったのは(1)単身世帯(2)ともに75歳以上の夫婦世帯(3)夫のみが75歳以上の夫婦世帯(4)子ども夫婦との同居世帯――の4形態。それぞれ年金収入が年79万円の低所得者、201万円の平均的な厚生年金受給者、400万円の高所得者で比べた。

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後期高齢者医療制度、実は低所得者で負担増…厚労省想定ミス

　後期高齢者医療制度（長寿医療制度）は、現役世代の負担を緩和するため、高齢者にも応分の負担を求めるのが狙いだ。

　政府はこれまで、国民健康保険（国保）から移行する高齢者について、「一般的に低所得者で負担が減り、高所得者は負担が増える」と説明してきた。ところが、負担増となる世帯の割合は、低所得であるほど高いことがわかり、野党が攻勢を強める格好の材料となっている。

　厚生労働省の全国調査によると、負担増となる割合は、低所得世帯（年金収入１７７万円未満）で３９％で、高所得世帯（同２９２万円以上）の２２％を上回った。特に大都市部では、低所得世帯の７８％で負担が増えており、高所得世帯との逆転現象が激しかった。

　負担の増減は、市町村単位で決まる国保保険料額と、都道府県で一本化される新制度の保険料額で決まる。国保の保険料には三つの算定方式があるが、厚労省は、資産を考慮する「資産割」を採用する市町村が約１５００と最も多いことから、「新制度では資産割分がなく、低所得者ほど負担が減る」としてきた。だが、都市部の多くで、もともと資産割のない方式を採用しており、負担減どころか負担増となる低所得世帯の割合が増えた。

　さらに、東京都などは、７５歳以上分だけで約２８０億円の公費を投入し、低中所得者の保険料を抑えてきた。新制度では公費の投入が半分以下になり、その分、保険料が上がった。

　地域差も目立った。負担減となる世帯割合は、栃木県などが最も高く８７％。一方、３６％で最低の沖縄県は国保の県平均保険料が全国最低で、新制度の平均保険料より低いのが影響した。

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夜の観光地新たなステップ　仙台・国分町　札幌・ススキノ (1/4ページ)
2008.6.4 23:07

　東北最大の歓楽街「国分町」（仙台市青葉区）を「地域の観光資源」と位置付けて活性化を図る仙台商工会議所の「国分町活性化プロジェクト」が４月、経済産業省の「地域資源∞全国展開プロジェクト」に採択された。全国的に苦境が続く歓楽街。「昼も遊べる街」「家族で来られる街」「きれいな街」－。これまでさまざまな将来像が飛び交ったが、プロジェクトは国分町の本来の姿を見つめ直すことに焦点を絞った。（荒船清太）

　「歓楽街はバー・スナックなどの飲食の“飲”で差別化しないと存在意義がなくなる」と体験談をもとに語るのは、国分町親交会青年部会に所属し、飲食店のコンサルティングや不動産業を手がけるヨックシステム常務の松田美徳さん。

　松田さんは札幌市の歓楽街「薄野」を例にあげる。「バー・スナックが減ったことで薄野の特徴がなくなり、居酒屋が交通の便のいい駅前に移転。空いた部屋に性風俗店が入り、隣の居酒屋が営業しづらくなってまた移転した」－。松田さんはそんなシナリオを推測している。

　「実は、国分町では居酒屋などのフードビジネスは酒の販売量も出店も増えてバブル状態。それでも飲食の“飲”、つまり２次会、３次会の魅力がないと飲食の“食”が離れて薄野の二の舞になる危機感がある」と話す。

　そこでプロジェクトが目指すのは「夜の街」の復権だ。国分町地区の居酒屋やバー、ホテルなど、既存のサービスをパッケージ化することで、街に新たな観光価値を見いだしていく。

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British entrepreneurs focus on cash
By Elena Moya Reuters - Wednesday, June 4 12:13 pm

LONDON (Reuters) - British entrepreneurs are more willing to push unprofitable units of their portfolio into insolvency rather than holding on to an empire, a study said on Wednesday.

The insolvency ratio among subsidiary companies was 0.014 percent in 2007, whilst it stayed at 0.009 percent for non-subsidiary companies, according to a study by credit insurer Euler Hermes and the Institute of Credit Management.

Subsidiary and non-subsidiary firms had an equal failure ratio of 0.013 percent 11 years ago, the study shows.

"Subsidiaries used to be a useful vehicle -now they can be a burden," the report said. "Whereas the business leader of the 80s would want to build empires, and a portfolio of businesses, today it is all about making money. Leaders will ditch subsidiaries if they are not performing."

This trend may continue and possibly accelerate as the global credit squeeze increases the cost of debt and makes capital and debt more difficult to access, the report said.

"Whereas in the 'good times' investment from private equity, for example, was not in short supply, today there is no exit route for companies," the report said. "The banks won't help, and insolvency often is the only option left."

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Real Thought for Food for Long Workouts
By GINA KOLATA

DR. MARK TARNOPOLSKY, a muscle physiology researcher at McMaster University in Canada and a physician, knows all about the exhortations by supplement makers and many nutritionists on what to eat and when to eat it for optimal performance.

The idea is that you are supposed to consume carbohydrates and proteins in a magical four-to-one ratio during endurance events like a long run or bike ride, and right after. The belief is that such nutritional diligence will improve your performance and speed your recovery.

Dr. Tarnopolsky, a 45-year-old trail runner and adventure racer, might be expected to seize upon the nutritional advice. (He won the Ontario trail running series in 2004, 2005 and 2006.)

So might his colleague, Stuart Phillips, a 41-year-old associate professor of kinesiology at McMaster who played rugby for Canada’s national team and now plays it for fun. He also runs, lifts weights and studies nutrition and performance.

In fact, neither researcher regularly uses energy drinks or energy bars. They just drink water, and eat real food. Dr. Tarnopolsky drinks fruit juice; Dr. Phillips eats fruit. And neither one feels a need to ingest a special combination of protein and carbohydrates within a short window of time, a few hours after exercising.

There are grains of truth to the nutrition advice, they and other experts say. But, as so often happens in sports, those grains of truth have been expanded into dictums and have formed the basis for an entire industry in “recovery” products.

They line the shelves of specialty sports stores and supermarkets with names like Accelerade drink, Endurox R4 powder, PowerBar Recovery ar.

“It does seem to me that as a group, athletes are particularly gullible,” said Michael Rennie, a physiologist at the University of Nottingham in England who studies muscle metabolism.

The idea that what you eat and when you eat it will make a big difference in your performance and recovery “is wishful thinking,” said Dr. Rennie, a 61-year-old who was a competitive swimmer and also used to play water polo and rugby.

Here is what is known about proteins, carbohydrates and performance.

During exercise, muscles stop the biochemical reactions used to maintain themselves such as replacing and resynthesizing the proteins needed for day to day activities. It’s not that exercise is damaging your muscles; it’s that they halt the maintenance process until exercise is over.

To do this maintenance, muscles must make protein, and to do so they need to absorb amino acids, the constituent parts of proteins, from the blood. Just after exercise, perhaps for a period no longer than a couple of hours, the protein-building processes of muscle cells are especially receptive to amino acids. That means that if you consume protein, your muscles will use it to quickly replenish proteins that were not made during exercise.

But muscles don’t need much protein, researchers say. Twenty grams is as much as a 176-pound man’s muscles can take. Women, who are smaller and have smaller muscles even compared to their body sizes, need less.

Dr. Rennie said that 10 to 15 grams of protein is probably adequate for any adult. And you don’t need a special drink or energy bar to get it. One egg has 6 grams of protein. Two ounces of chicken has more than 12 grams.

Muscles also need to replenish glycogen, their fuel supply, after a long exercise session — two hours of running, for example. For that they need carbohydrates. Muscle cells are especially efficient in absorbing carbohydrates from the blood just after exercise.

Once again, muscles don’t need much; about one gram of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight is plenty, Dr. Tarnopolsky said. He weighs 70 kilograms, or 154 pounds, which means he would need 70 grams of carbohydrates, or say, 27 ounces of fruit juice, he said.

Asker Jeukendrup, a 38-year-old 14-time Ironman-distance finisher who is an exercise physiologist and nutritionist at the University of Birmingham in England said the fastest glycogen replacement takes place in the four hours after exercise. Even so, most athletes need not worry.

“Most athletes will have at least 24 hours to recover,” Dr. Jeukendrup said. “We really are talking about a group of extremely elite sports people who train twice a day.” For them, he said, it can be necessary to rapidly replenish muscle glycogen.

The American College of Sports Medicine, in a position paper written by leading experts, reported that athletes who take a day or two to rest or do less-intense workouts between vigorous sessions can pretty much ignore the carbohydrate-timing advice.

The group wrote that for these athletes, “when sufficient carbohydrate is provided over a 24-hour period, the timing of intake does not appear to affect the amount of glycogen stored.”

For protein, it is not clear what the window is. Some studies concluded it was less than two hours, others said three hours, and some failed to find a window at all.

Dr. Rennie and his colleagues, writing in Annual Reviews of Physiology, concluded that “a possible ‘golden period’ ” for getting amino acids into muscles “remains a speculative, no matter how attractive, the concept.”

Although studies by Dr. Jeukendrup and several others have shown that consuming protein after exercise speeds up muscle protein synthesis, no one has shown that that translates into improved performance. The reason, Dr. Jeukendrup said, is that effects on performance, if they occur, won’t happen immediately. They can take 6 to 10 weeks of training. That makes it very hard to design and carry out studies to see if athletes really do improve if they consume protein after they exercise.

“You’d have to control everything, what they do, how they train, and also their carbohydrate and protein intake,” Dr. Jeukendrup said. “Those studies become almost impossible to do.”

As for the special four-to-one ratio of carbohydrates to protein, that, too, is not well established, researchers said. The idea was that you need both carbohydrates and protein consumed together because carbohydrates not only help muscles restore their glycogen but they also elicit the release of insulin. Insulin, the theory goes, helps muscle, these researchers say. Serious triathletes and elite runners, who work out in the morning and at night, need to eat between training sessions. But people who are running a few miles a few days a week don’t need to worry about replenishing their muscles, Dr. Phillips said.

Dr. Rennie agreed. “If you are a superathlete, hundredths of a second matter,” he said. “But most Joes and Janes are just kidding themselves,” he said.

Some, like Dr. Jeukendrup, say they use a commercial protein-energy drink after training hard, for convenience.

Other researchers take their own nutritional advice. Dr. Tarnopolsky has a huge glass of juice, a bagel and a small piece of meat after a two- or three-hour run. Or he might have two large pieces of toast with butter and jam and a couple of scrambled eggs. But no energy bars, no energy drinks.

Dr. Phillips might have an energy bar during a long workout. But ordinarily he does not worry about getting a special carbohydrate-to-protein mix or timing his nutrition when he exercises. Instead, Dr. Phillips said, he simply eats real food at regular meals.

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Contaminated Tomatoes Suspected in Salmonella Outbreak
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ATLANTA (AP) -- An outbreak of salmonella food poisoning first linked to uncooked tomatoes has now been reported in nine states, U.S. health officials said Tuesday.

Lab tests have confirmed 40 illnesses in Texas and New Mexico as the same type of salmonella, right down to the genetic fingerprint. An investigation by Texas and New Mexico health authorities and the Indian Health Service tied those cases to uncooked, raw, large tomatoes.

At least 17 people in Texas and New Mexico have been hospitalized. None have died, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Another 30 people have become sick with the same Salmonella Saintpaul infection in Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Idaho, Illinois and Indiana. CDC investigators are looking into whether tomatoes were culprits there, too.

In Texas and New Mexico, raw large tomatoes -- including Roma and red round tomatoes -- were found to be a common factor in the 40 illnesses. But no farm, distributor or grocery chain has been identified as the main source, said Casey Barton Behravesh, a CDC epidemiologist working on the investigation.

''The specific type and source of tomatoes is under investigation,'' she said.

Salmonella is a bacterial infection that lives in the intestinal tracts of humans and other animals. The bacteria are usually transmitted to humans by eating foods contaminated with animal feces.

Most infected people suffer fever, diarrhea and abdominal cramps starting 12 to 72 hours after infection. The illness tends to last four to seven days.

Many people recover without treatment. However, severe infection and even death is possible. Infants, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems are at greatest risk for severe infections.

In Texas and New Mexico, the patients ranged in age from ages 3 to 82. Of the 40, 38 were interviewed. Most said they ate raw tomatoes from either stores or restaurants before becoming ill between April 23 and May 27.

Another 17 cases are under investigation in New Mexico, CDC officials said.

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橋下知事、市町村への貸付金３４億円カット方針

2008年06月05日08時38分

　大阪府の橋下徹知事は、今年度から市町村への施設整備資金貸付金を廃止する方針を決めた。今年度見込まれていた３４億円はカットされる。予算編成を終えている市町村の反発は必至だが、橋下知事は来年度以降、市町村の状況に合わせた新制度に改めることで理解を得る構えだ。

　改革プロジェクトチーム（ＰＴ）の財政再建案は、市町村への補助金など３０項目を見直し、今年度は７９億円を削減するとした。うち３４億円を占める施設整備資金貸付金は、消防署や上下水道施設などの建設事業費として、府が民間金融機関より低い固定金利で市町村に資金を貸す仕組み。ピーク時には１８０億円に達したが、ここ数年は３５億円前後で推移している。

　府幹部によると、橋下知事は府と市町村の役割を見直す中で、こうした貸付金の制度を改める方針。現在、財政難で地方債の自主調達が難しかったり、税収減で財政運営が困難になったりした市町村に対し、資金を貸し付ける仕組みを検討している。

　一方、ＰＴ案では半減とされた市町村への振興補助金（１２億１千万円）は維持することになった。振興補助金は建設事業だけでなく、仕事を効率化するコンピューター導入などソフト事業にも使えるため、市町村の需要も、より高いと判断したという。

　市町村への補助金削減を打ち出したＰＴ案には市町村が反発。橋下知事は４３市町村の首長との意見交換会で泣いて協力を求め、５月には４３市町村を回り、各首長に直接、協力を求めた経緯がある。

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漁業１２団体：一斉休漁を検討…今夏、燃料費高騰を理由に

　主要な漁業団体である大日本水産会、全国漁業協同組合連合会（全漁連）など１２団体が、漁船の燃料費高騰を理由に今夏、一斉に休漁することを検討していることが５日わかった。日本かつお・まぐろ漁業協同組合、全国大型いかつり漁業協会、全国さんま漁業協会などが含まれ、実施されれば広範な魚種で漁獲が減少することも予想される。

　水産庁によると、今月の漁船向けＡ重油価格（全漁連、東京京浜地区）は１キロリットルあたり１０万６８００円と、１年前より３万２０００円の高騰。赤字操業に悩む漁業者が増えていることから、休漁を求める声が強まった。

　休漁期間や規模は未定だが、１２団体は７月にも結論を出す方向。関係団体には、国に対して燃料高騰分の補てんや休業補償を求める意見もあるという。

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団体年金、３社が減配　日生・第一・明治安田、株安の影響

　生命保険会社が受託する団体年金保険の一般勘定で、2007年度分は日本生命、第一生命、明治安田生命が06年度より配当を減らす。減配幅は 0.02―0.85％。株価下落で株式含み益が減少したため。各社は個人保険では増配を維持したが、株式含み益と配当水準がほぼ連動する団体年金は減配になった。債券運用中心の住友生命は増配を維持した。

　団体年金は従業員の退職金支払いなどに備え、企業が年金資金の運用を生保に委託する商品。一般勘定はあらかじめ顧客に利回りを保証するが、運用が好調ならば配当を利回りに換算して上乗せ支給する。解約時のペナルティーの有無で2種類あり、これとは別に従業員個人が契約者となる拠出型もある。

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介護施設の利益率低下、人件費負担重く　07年厚労省調査

　厚生労働省は5日、2007年に実施した介護事業経営概況調査の結果を発表した。04年の前回調査時に10.2％だった特別養護老人ホームの利益率が 4.4％と半分以下に下がるなど、介護3施設の利益率が軒並み低下。人件費負担の増加で介護事業の経営環境が悪化していることを浮き彫りにした。

　調査は3年に一度で、今回は4800の施設・事業所について昨年9月の事業収支を調査した。特養ホームのほか介護老人保健施設の利益率は3年前の10.6％から4.3％に、グループホームは8.7％から7.7％にそれぞれ下がった。

　05年度から施設の食費や居住費が介護保険の給付対象から外れて利用者の自己負担となった。このため利用者1人あたりの収入は増えたが、それ以上に人件費が上昇して収益を圧迫した。

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公的年金、運用改革を先送り　厚労省の反発に配慮

　政府の経済財政諮問会議が10日にまとめる経済成長戦略で、公的年金の運用改革が先送りされる見通しとなった。約150兆円ある積立金の運用利回りを上げる改革を目指したが、厚生労働省などが今の運用体制を見直すことに反発。高い技能を持つ外国人受け入れの数値目標とともに「検討事項」にとどまる公算が大きくなっている。

　同戦略は政府が6月末にまとめる経済財政運営の基本方針（骨太の方針）の土台になる。

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三井物産、国内農業支援事業で新組織　ＩＴで履歴追跡など

　三井物産は国内農業支援の新事業に乗り出す。社内横断的な新組織を発足させ、ＩＴ（情報技術）を駆使した農作物の生産・流通履歴の追跡や農家経営の効率化などを後押しする。商社の食料事業はこれまで海外からの穀物輸入が中心だった。「食の安全」や食料自給率向上への関心が高まる中、関連サービスの需要を開拓する。

　物流本部内に「アグリフードビジネス戦略室」を新設した。食料リテールや情報産業、肥料を取り扱う化学品など営業各部門から計13人を配置した。

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フォークリフトを6％値上げ、原材料高で　三菱重工

　三菱重工業は5日、エンジン式フォークリフトの販売価格を7月から6％値上げすると発表した。鋼材など原材料価格が高騰しているためで、22機種が対象となる。

　代表的な機種である3.5トンのガソリンエンジン式フォークリフトは、25万5000円高い451万2000円になる。

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5月の輸入車販売、23.8％減

　日本自動車輸入組合（ＪＡＩＡ）がまとめた5月の輸入車販売台数（速報値）は前年同月比23.8％減の1万5811台となった。減少率が20％を超えたのは1998年12月以来。前の月である4月には道路特定財源の暫定税率が失効したことに伴い自動車取得税が一時的に引き下げられ駆け込み購入が相次いだうえ、5月には自動車取得税が元に戻ったこともあり大幅な反動減となった。

　輸入車のうち海外メーカー車の販売台数は20.3％減の1万3953台。日本メーカー車は42.8％減の1858台だった。

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三菱化学、植物工場に参入　太陽電池を活用

　三菱化学は2009年にも、野菜などを効率的に栽培・収穫できる植物工場事業に参入する。植物工場を運営する事業者向けに、発光ダイオード（ＬＥＤ）と太陽電池を組み合わせた照明システムを発売する。太陽光を有効活用することで照明に必要なコストを3割減らし、二酸化炭素（ＣＯ2）排出量をほぼゼロにできるという。植物工場の課題だった省エネを実現し、都市部などでの植物工場の普及に弾みをつける。

　三菱化学は野菜栽培ベンチャーのフェアリーエンジェル（京都市）に約16％を出資した。出資額は2億5000万円。フェアリーが福井県美浜町で建設中の新工場で今秋から共同実験を始める。延べ床面積2000平方メートルの新工場の一部に、毎時20キロワット分の発電能力を持つ太陽電池と 1000―2000個のＬＥＤ照明を導入。1、2年をかけて最適な育成条件を探る。

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キリン、豪乳業デアリーファーマーズ買収　現地企業と連合

　キリンホールディングスは4日、買収を検討している豪乳業2位デアリーファーマーズについて、豪乳製品メーカーのワーナンブール・チーズ・アンド・バターとの共同買収を目指すことを明らかにした。買収主体はキリンＨＤ傘下の豪乳業首位ナショナルフーズで、牛乳やヨーグルトに強いナショナルフーズとチーズに強いワーナンブールが組み、買収交渉を有利に進める考え。買収合戦が本格化してきた。

　キリンＨＤは昨年末に豪乳業最大手のナショナルフーズを買収し、完全子会社にした。さらに2位のデアリーファーマーズを傘下に収め、オーストラリア国内の営業基盤を固めたうえで乳製品の東南アジアへの輸出を強化する考え。4月にはナショナルフーズが、同国の独占禁止法担当当局に独禁法に抵触するかなどの審査を申請した。

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トヨタ、役員報酬総額39億円　前期17％増、業績最高を反映

　トヨタ自動車は2008年3月期の取締役と監査役の報酬総額を、前の期比17％増の39億2000万円とする。24日に開く株主総会の招集通知で明らかになった。07年3月期末時点と比べて支給対象者が4人増えていることに加え、過去最高となった前期業績を反映した。

　報酬総額には役員報酬のほか賞与金やストックオプション、監査役の退任慰労引当金繰入額が含まれる。

　内訳は取締役の報酬総額が35億3800万円（前の期比5億1600万円増）、監査役の報酬総額は3億8200万円（同5300万円増）。取締役1人あたりの報酬額を単純平均すると1億2200万円となる。

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大阪府知事が財政再建案、収支改善1100億円堅持

　大阪府の橋下徹知事は5日、2008年度に1100億円の収支改善を行う財政再建案を柱とした「大阪維新プログラム」を発表した。

　財政再建案では、職員の人件費削減額は計345億円。事業費は試案より80億円圧縮して320億円の削減とした。財源不足を補うために市町村貸付金の繰り上げ償還額を200億円に倍増し、退職手当債を85億円発行することで、試案で示していた1100億円の収支改善を行うとしている。

　同再建案では、10年度までを集中改革期間と位置づけ、3年間で約2400億円の支出を削減し、計約3000億円の収支改善を行う。

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ＴＢＳ離れで危機感？　亀田父“変身抵頭”のナゼ
関係者仰天！　帝拳ジムに差し入れも

亀田史郎 　東日本ボクシング協会への身分預かり要請を拒否されることが確実となった亀田興毅（２１）、大毅（１９）兄弟だが、業界が驚いているのは父、史郎氏（４２、写真）のみせた低姿勢ぶりだった。何があの父を豹変させたのか。

　３日、協会の非公式会合で「拒否」の意向を告げられた際の史郎氏の様子について、大橋秀行会長は「少し驚くくらい低姿勢でした」と話した。こわもてで鳴らし、先月にはテレビのインタビューで協会に対して恫喝めいた対決姿勢もみせていたが、協会理事ら十数人が集まった打ち合わせの席に呼び出された史郎氏は冒頭で「この度は、大変ご迷惑をおかけして申し訳ありませんでした」と頭を下げたのだという。出席した理事の１人は「怒鳴り合いにでもなるかと思っていたので、正直、驚いた」と話した。

　今後について出席者から「協会所属のジムはライバルではあっても、興行などでの協力も不可欠」と諭されると、史郎氏は素直に「良く分かりました」と受け入れた。「自分はとにかく親として子供たちをリングに戻してやりたいだけ」と訴えた史郎氏は約１時間で退席。最後は「理事１人１人の手を握って『よろしくお願いします』と頭を下げていた」（大橋会長）というから驚きだ。

　この急変ぶりは出席理事らにも「イメージは良かった」「親として子供を思う気持ちが良く伝わった」「ようやく自分たちの置かれた立場が分かってきたのだろう」と意外に好評だった。

　格闘技ジャーナリストの片岡亮氏は、豹変の理由に「ＴＢＳの亀田離れ」があると指摘する。ＴＢＳは７月３０日、内藤大助（宮田）と坂田健史（協栄）のダブル防衛戦を放映するが、片岡氏によると、メディアで報じられるまで亀田側はＴＢＳから何も聞かされていなかったのだという。ＴＢＳでは亀田兄弟を担当してきたプロデューサーが今春退職。現在は亀田家と縁の薄いプロデューサーがボクシング担当となっており、「興毅の国内復帰のメドさえ立たない状況が続けば、このまま蚊帳の外に置かれる危機感を持ってもおかしくない」（片岡氏）

　さらに関係者を驚かせたのは、業界最大手、帝拳ジムへのすり寄りだ。先週末、亀田プロモーションの名で突然、帝拳ジムにスポーツドリンクなどが差し入れられたのだという。ジムの関係者は「宅配便の送り主を自分がみたので間違いない」と証言する。

　片岡氏によると「メキシコで亀田の代理人を名乗る人物が帝拳が関係する興行の前座に亀田を売り込み、頭ごなしの交渉で帝拳関係者を怒らせた－と聞いている」。スポーツドリンクはどうやら、その「詫び」だったらしい。

　国内外で「業界の壁」に突き当たったことが史郎氏を豹変させたようだが、それが受け入れられるかどうかは、「すべては今後の対応次第」（協会理事）という。

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同胞狙い「みかじめ料」…中国系犯罪集団の組織化進む

　警視庁が先月末に摘発した二つの中国系犯罪グループが、それぞれ東京の繁華街で、中国人が経営する飲食店に「みかじめ料」（用心棒代）を要求していた疑いの強いことが分かった。

　日本の暴力団まがいの動きに、同庁では、強盗や窃盗を繰り返してきた中国系グループが安定した資金源を獲得しようとしている表れとみて警戒している。

　同庁は先月２１日、ＪＲ池袋駅西口前にあるカラオケ店の中国人店長（３７）をパイプいすで殴って重傷を負わせたとして、朴松鋒容疑者（２９）ら中国人４人を傷害容疑で逮捕した。

　同庁幹部によると、朴容疑者は約３０人の「金山グループ」のナンバー２。事件は、「保護費」と称する月５万円のみかじめ料の支払いを店側が拒んだことへの報復とみられている。

　同駅西口付近は、中国人向けの飲食店や雑貨店など２００店以上が並んでおり、同グループは昨年夏ごろから、この一帯を縄張りに、各店から月５～１０万円のみかじめ料を受け取っていたという。

　みかじめ料を巡る中国系犯罪グループの動きが東京で明らかになったのは初めて。

　また同庁は先月２８日、錦糸町や上野を拠点にしていた「大偉(ダーウェイ)」グループのナンバー２とされる姜海鋒容疑者（３６）ら中国人５人を覚せい剤取締法違反容疑で逮捕した。同庁が入手した情報では、約２００人いる大偉グループも、覚せい剤密売や盗みに加え、中国人が経営する飲食店などから３～５万円を徴収しているという。

　２グループのメンバーの大半は、中国東北地方から帰国した中国残留孤児の子供や孫。残留孤児の子供らは、言葉や生活習慣の違いから学校生活になじめないケースも多く、一部は１９８０年代後半、「ドラゴン」と名付けた暴走族を結成、ひったくりなどを繰り返した。

　その後、ドラゴンの元メンバーなどが犯罪グループを作り、今は都内に七つの集団があるという。

　以前は、福建省や上海出身の不法滞在者らによる強盗などが目立ったが、不法滞在の摘発が強化された約５年前から、正規の在留資格を持つ残留孤児２、３世のグループが勢力を強めているという。同庁幹部は「摘発される可能性の強い犯罪より、みかじめ料など安定した資金源を獲得しようという動きが進んでいる」と指摘。

　日本の暴力団とトラブルになる可能性もあるとみて、実態解明を急ぐ。

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西松建設が裏金１億円、海外で捻出し国内持ち込みか

　東証１部上場の中堅ゼネコン「西松建設」（東京都港区）が、海外で作った裏金約１億円を国内に無断で持ち込んだ疑いがあるとして、東京地検特捜部が、外国為替及び外国貿易法（外為法）違反容疑で、同社本社を４日に捜索していたことが分かった。

　関係者によると、西松建設では、海外で請け負った工事に絡んで約１億円、裏金を捻出(ねんしゅつ)した。この金を同社社員が税関に無断で国内に持ち込んだという。

　特捜部は、こうした裏金を国内に持ち込んだ目的や捻出方法について、同社社員らから事情を聞くなどして解明を進める方針。

　外為法では、国外から１００万円を超える現金を持ち込む際、税関に届け出るよう義務付けている。違反した場合は２０万円以下の罰金か６月以下の懲役が科せられる。同社は１９３７年設立。主に大型土木工事を手がける中堅ゼネコン。

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深夜タクシーから現金受け取った職員も　財務省３８３人

2008年06月05日18時49分

　財務省は５日、職員３８３人が深夜にタクシーで帰宅する際、運転手から「サービス」として現金や金券、ビールなどの提供を受けていた、と発表した。大半が税金から支出されるタクシー券を利用し、個人的なサービスを受けていた。なかには数千円の現金や金券を年１５０回程度も受け取っていた職員もいた。

　財務省によると、現金を受けていたのは予算編成を担当する主計局の３０代の係長で、約５年間にわたり、２千円～３千円程度の現金やクオカードを年１５０回程度受け取っていた。少なくとも１５０万円を受け取った計算だ。

　ほかに、現金以外の金券を受け取っていた職員が１８人いた。ビールやお茶などを提供されたのは３６４人。

　同省では勤務が午前０時半を過ぎた場合、職員の申請に従ってタクシー券を出している。なじみのタクシーを呼び出していた職員が多いとみられる。財務省は再発防止策として、公費で乗車する際は、特定のタクシー運転手を呼び出すことと、タクシー運転手から一切の金品の提供を受けることを禁じるという。

　民主党の長妻昭衆院議員の資料請求で問題が発覚、改めて財務省が調査した。同省は「中間報告であり、今後も調査を続ける。処分も今後検討する」としている。

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豪州の最大の貿易相手国、中国が日本抜く・07年

　【シドニー＝高佐知宏】中国が2007年に日本を抜いてオーストラリアの最大の貿易相手国となった。豪統計局のまとめによると、モノとサービスの輸出入を合わせた対中貿易額は前年比15.4％増の約580億豪ドル（約5兆7000億円）。４年ぶりの前年割れとなった対日貿易額（同0.7％減の約545億豪ドル）を初めて上回った。

　中国はすでに豪州にとって最大の輸入元だったが、07年には鉄鉱石など資源・エネルギー分野を中心に輸出額が同17.1％増と大幅に伸びた。資源価格の高騰を背景に今後も対中輸出額が伸び続けるのは確実とみられている。

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豪カンタス航空、日本路線を大幅縮小へ

　【シドニー＝高佐知宏】オーストラリアの航空最大手カンタス航空は5日、9月から日本路線を大幅に縮小すると発表した。日本からの観光客減に加え、原油高騰に伴う燃料高で路線収益が急速に悪化しているため。一部路線の移管に伴い、成田空港では初めて同社の格安子会社「ジェットスター」が乗り入れる。

　9月から東京―シドニー線を週7便に同2便減らし、メルボルン線は廃止する。週14便運航している東京―ケアンズ便はジェットスターに移管する一方、12月から新たに東京―ゴールド・コースト間で週5便の運航を始める。ディクソン最高経営責任者（ＣＥＯ）は同日、「現状では年間1億ドル（約100億円）を超える損失が発生しかねない」と述べた。

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「サマータイムは健康に悪影響」睡眠学会が導入反対声明

　超党派の議員連盟が２０１０年の導入を目指す、サマータイム制度について、日本睡眠学会は５日、「体のリズムを乱して睡眠に影響を与え、健康を損なう」として反対の声明を発表した。

　サマータイムは、夏季に時計を１時間進める制度。欧米各国で実施されている。同学会の特別委員会（委員長＝本間研一・北海道大教授）は、これら先行実施の国での調査や研究文献をもとに、夏時間への移行後、最長で２週間程度、睡眠時間が短くなり、眠りの質が下がると分析。さらに、体内時計を昼夜の変化に合わせる機能が低下しているため、不眠や朝に起きられないなど睡眠障害に悩む人たちの症状が悪化すると主張した。

　また、学会は、２００４年に初めて、北海道の企業が始業時間を１時間早めた実験の結果などをもとに、サマータイム制度導入を全国に広げた場合、医療費の増大や作業能率の低下で約１兆２０００億円の経済損失が生じると試算した。北海道の実験では、従業員の４割が体調不良を訴えていた。

　超党派の推進議員連盟は、サマータイム制度を導入する法案を来週にも参院に提出、秋の臨時国会での成立を目指している。

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The Short View: UK economy and pound

By John Authers, Investment Editor

Published: June 4 2008 18:48 | Last updated: June 4 2008 18:48

The pound is the whipping boy of international currency markets at present. Trading at $1.98 last week, it had hit $1.955 late on Wednesday. In taking an aggressively negative attitude towards sterling, traders are doing little more than mirroring attitudes within the UK, if recent confidence surveys are anything to go by.

Wednesday’s survey of purchasing managers in the services sector, following Tuesday’s Nationwide consumer confidence index, showed sharply increasing pessimism. The bond market, in which yields on 10-year gilts have risen sharply in the past few weeks but are still lower than yields on shorter-term gilts, is flashing the traditional indicators of a recession.

John Authers on the selling of the sterling

Sterling, after a trip as high as $2.10 last autumn, is back where it was a year ago against the dollar. Against the euro, it had at one point lost almost 20 per cent since its peak last year.

For the long-term, the markets reflect a belief that the UK’s decade-long boom cannot be sustained and that slower growth or a downturn is now due. It is hard to disagree.

In the shorter-term, the selling of sterling reflects a bet that the Bank of England will spring a surprise on Thursday and cut its base rate. This seems less likely.

The rival course of house prices and consumer price inflation expresses the Bank’s dilemma clearly. The Nationwide house price index is now down 7.4 per cent from its peak, having tripled over the preceding decade – signs of an asset bubble that has just burst.

That is not good, but the Bank must worry about inflation. Long-term inflation expectations, embodied by the market for index-linked gilts, are now at their highest since the Bank was given its independence in May 1997.

This is bad news for the UK and the Bank but at least suggests the latest sell-off in sterling is overdone.

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UK drivers reject gas-guzzlers

By John Reed

Published: June 5 2008 21:29 | Last updated: June 5 2008 21:29

UK registrations of 4x4s fell more than 18 per cent last month in a sign Europeans are joining the headlong scramble out of gas-guzzlers already seen in the US.

The data from Europe’s second largest car market mirror collapsing large-vehicle sales under way in some other European countries, and comes as petrol prices touch new highs and consumers postpone big purchases.

Tighter household budgets and smaller City bonuses are also hitting sales of specialist sports cars, which dropped by nearly 15 per cent in Britain last month compared with May 2007, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.

“Nobody is buying a £50,000 shiny car right now,” said Kevin Gaskell, president of automotive consultancy EurotaxGlass International. “When it costs you £90 to fill up your tank, it causes you to stop and think.”

Sales of sport utility vehicles and pick-up trucks in the US have tumbled by about 30 per cent this year, endangering fragile turnround plans at General Motors and Ford Motor, Detroit’s two biggest carmakers.

GM said this week it was closing four North American plants that make SUVs and other large vehicles, and “reviewing options” for Hummer, its brand of military-inspired vehicles.

Until recently, sales of offroaders and sports cars had been more resilient in Europe, where the economic downturn has been milder and higher petrol taxes have made for smaller relative price increases at the pump.

However, souring consumer confidence and strict carbon dioxide-based car taxes recently introduced in more than a dozen countries are accelerating Europeans’ shift into smaller vehicles.

SUV market share in France and Spain, western Europe’s third and fourth largest car markets, fell by more than 50 and 35 per cent respectively between January and April, according to EurotaxGlass. The market share of sports cars is also down sharply in both countries, which levy high carbon taxes on cars.

The trend could hurt earnings at European carmakers that make offroaders and sports cars, which are among the industry’s most profitable products. Land Rover’s UK registrations slid by 33 per cent last month, and Porsche’s were down by 38 per cent.

UK registrations of the smallest, “mini” segment cars were up 120 per cent year-on-year in May. Daimler’s small Smart cars were one of Britain’s fastest-growing brands last month, with sales up 147 per cent year-on-year.

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Brussels acts to enforce rules on dirty money

By Nikki Tait in Brussels and Michael Peel in London

Published: June 6 2008 03:32 | Last updated: June 6 2008 03:32

More than half the EU’s member states are being pursued by Brussels over their failure to implement new anti-money laundering rules, in the latest tightening of an international clampdown on dirty cash.

The European Commission said on Thursday it was stepping up infringement procedures against 15 countries because they were dragging their heels over applying new rules to combat flows of terrorist financing and other criminal money.

The initiative comes amid growing tensions over the worldwide crackdown on money laundering, with some leading tax havens claiming industrialised countries are failing to meet the standards they apply to others.

Brian Dilley, European head of anti-money-laundering services at KPMG, the professional services firm, said any failure by the EU to implement its own rules would undermine efforts to allow its banks and other companies to rely on the standards applied in other member states.

He said: “The level playing field appears to have a number of divots in it.”

The Commission is taking action over member states’ alleged failure to implement the third European anti-money-laundering directive, which was supposed to be applied to their national laws by December last year.

It said that it had issued formal notices of objections to Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Spain, Finland, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and Slovakia.

The countries have two months to respond, after which the Commission can refer the matter to the European Court of Justice in a long drawn-out process carrying the threat of possible fines.

The directive was designed to bolster controls against terrorist financing and other dirty money, by incorporating into EU law tougher recommendations made by the Financial Action Task Force on money laundering.

The directive covered a wide range of professionals – from estate agents and accountants to casino operators and lawyers – and required the reporting of suspicious transactions to the public authorities.

But it was also controversial, with some lawyers claiming that it posed problems for professional confidentiality, and others complaining about the administrative burden.

A committee of EU member states sparked a row last month after it emerged that it had drafted a “white list” of financial centres with top quality anti-money laundering controls. The list excluded key tax havens, while including Russia and other countries with contentious records.

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New fund sets eyes on sub-Saharan Africa

By Daniel Thomas, Property Correspondent

Published: June 5 2008 20:47 | Last updated: June 5 2008 20:47

The first property development fund focused on sub-Saharan Africa is being raised to target UK investors hoping to avoid the downturn in values in more mature property markets.

With developed markets such as the UK and France now suffering a cyclical property decline, Capitalworks Investment Partners, the South African fund manager, is aiming to raise a fund of $1bn (£512m) to tap into forecast growth in African real estate on the back of the commodities boom.

The fund, which is targeting a 25 per cent internal rate of return, is mainly aimed at UK and Middle Eastern investors but is open to all overseas investors. It will run alongside a South African partnership for South African investors. The first round of fundraising is expected to be closed by late summer Deloitte Real Estate Corporate Finance is providing fund advisory and placement services.

Robin Priest, real estate partner at Deloitte in London, admitted that there would inevitably be an element of political risk but that growing stability and the untapped middles classes in the area made an attractive prospect.

“There is a new middle class fuelled by the commodities boom with nowhere to spend their money,” said Mr Priest. “With mature markets now generally heading south, there is the chance to tap into this growth.”

The fund has an equity target of $500m – which will be matched by debt of $500m provided by two South African banks – and will focus on a number of Sub-Saharan countries, including Mozambique, Zambia, Mauritius, Nigeria and Ghana, although will avoid countries where there is the chance of higher political risk.

It will be seeded with a portfolio of eight retail and office properties in South Africa and Zambia. The fund will be partly used to fund the future development pipeline of South African developer HBW Group, which is a 50 per cent joint venture partner with Capitalworks Investment Partners.● The founders of PIK, the London-listed Russian residential developer, are to sell $500m of shares in the company to help it acquire two large developments in the region.

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China's Sinosteel increases stake in Australia's Midwest
AFP - 1 hour 9 minutes ago

SYDNEY (AFP) - China's Sinosteel said Friday it had lifted its stake in Australian iron ore miner Midwest to 40.09 percent as it bids to overcome a rival offer for its takeover target.

Sinosteel has doubled its holding in Midwest this week following its 6.38 dollars per share cash offer, which values Midwest at 1.36 billion dollars (1.31 billion US).

Murchison Metals has launched a rival all-share bid, which values Midwest at 1.5 billion dollars, but Sinosteel has previously said it believes investors will prefer the certainty of cash.

Midwest's board has unanimously recommended the Murchison bid, while maintaining a recommendation for the Sinosteel.

Both Midwest and Murchison own iron ore projects in Western Australia, which require rail and port infrastructure for their potential to be realised.

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Farm strike in Argentina threatens food supplies, again
AFP - Friday, June 6 04:11 am

BUENOS AIRES (AFP) - A three-month long farmer strike over high export tariffs threatens again to empty store shelves of food, as thousands of truckers have blocked Argentina's main highways to pressure farmers to resume grain and soybean exports.

Argentina's Roman Catholic Bishop's Conference on Thursday urged the government to convene an "urgent ... transparent and positive" dialogue, farmers to "review their demand strategy," and truckers to lift their blockade.

The strike has lasted, on and off, for nearly 90 days as President Cristina Kirchner refuses to roll back the 13 percent tariff hike on soybean exports she announced in March, and farmers reject her offers to cap the sliding tax scale on the product.

The strike took a turn for the worse earlier this week when the truckers' unions in four central provinces, including Buenos Aires, parked their rigs on some 60 roads to protest what they call the farmers' "lockout" impeding grain and soybean exports, which they claim is causing them heavy losses.

The road blocks are threatening another food shortage like the one three weeks into the strike, in late March, that emptied supermarket shelves in Buenos Aires and other main cities.

Food sectors including butchers and supermarket owners warned Thursday they will run out of stocks including meat, poultry and dairy products in three days if the road blocks are not lifted.

Heavy industry has also warned that a drop in raw material deliveries will force temporary plant closures and layoffs.

The confrontation has deepened divisions between Argentina's upper and middle classes -- including many well-off farmers -- and the poor, swollen by the country's 2001 financial collapse, who overwhelmingly support Kirchner.

The president on Thursday slammed farm owners for ignoring the plight of ordinary citizens.

"Show me the worker, store owner or businessman who can afford to stop working for 90 days," she said in a speech.

"Only those who have accumulated a great income and a great capital can do it," she added, referring to many large farm owners who have grown rich with the spiraling price of commodities.

Argentina is one of the biggest food producers in the world, leading with exports of soybean oil. It is also the second biggest corn exporter, after the United States, and the fifth biggest wheat exporter.

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UAE eyes France's Rafale fighter
AFP - Thursday, June 5 09:43 pm

ABU DHABI (AFP) - The United Arab Emirates said on Thursday it was mulling replacing its fleet of French Mirage 2000 combat planes with the multi-role Rafale, which has yet to find an export market.

"The UAE is seriously considering replacing its fleet of Mirage 2000 combat planes with the French new generation Rafale fighter starting in 2013," an official was quoted by the state WAM news agency as saying.

"Discussions on this issue are under way between the UAE government and France," he said.

The official did not give more details but the oil-rich Gulf country's purchase of the Rafale would be a major boost for Dassault Aviation's fourth-generation combat jet.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy immediately welcomed the announcement as "good news for France.

"The United Arab Emirates has been using French weaponry for a long time," he said in a statement. "They are looking at the Rafale to replace their fleet of 63 Mirage 2000 planes."

He said there was "no fixed dates, nor have commercial negotiations begun" but added that "discussions will be held in the coming weeks."

"In case a contract is signed, the first planes can be delivered from 2012 onwards."

Dassault are also makers of the Mirage 2000-9 combat planes, which the UAE bought in 1998.

Abu Dhabi purchased 30 Mirage 2000-9 in a 3.2-billion-dollar deal which included the modernisation of 33 other Mirages.

France is a leading military supplier to the UAE, which bought more than 400 Leclerc tanks from French firm GIAT in 1994.

During a visit by Sarkozy to Abu Dhabi in January, the two countries signed a deal under which Paris will set up its first permanent military base in the UAE.

The base will be set up in Abu Dhabi, the wealthiest and largest of the UAE's seven emirates.

It is due to become operational in 2009 and will eventually host 400-500 French army, navy and air force personnel, French officials have said.

"It will be the first such French base in the Gulf and it will face the Strait of Hormuz," the strategic waterway through which much of the world's oil supplies pass, a French presidential source said in January.

Abu Dhabi and Paris are linked by a 1995 defence pact under which their armed forces conduct regular joint manoeuvres in the UAE.

Dassault has yet to find a foreign buyer for the Rafale, which can carry out interception and reconnaissance missions as well as nuclear strikes. The French aerospace group is in talks with Libya over a possible sale.

Talks had taken place with Saudi Arabia on a possible deal, but the Gulf oil powerhouse eventually opted for Britain's Eurofighter jets.

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タクシー問題、金品受け取り502人　累計１万2400回

　町村信孝官房長官は6日午前の衆院決算行政監視委員会に出席し、財務省など中央官庁の公務員が深夜タクシーの運転手から金品を受け取っていた問題について、提供を受けた職員数が13の省庁や機関で計502人に達したことを明らかにした。これに関連し、福田康夫首相は「公務員は倫理を厳しく律せられている。国民から疑念を抱かれることをしてはいけないという当たり前のことがなぜ守られないのか」と語った。

　民主党の長妻昭氏への答弁。委員会に提出された資料によると、全部で21ある中央省庁や機関で聞き取り調査をした結果、現金を受け取っていたのは財務省の職員の1人のみで、あわせて187万5000円の提供を受けていた。商品券など金券は財務、環境、総務の3省の職員が計20万7500円受け取っていた。

　車内でビールやつまみなどの提供を受けていた事例は13省庁・機関で判明し、回数は累計で約1万2400回に上った。厚生労働省など調査中の省庁もあり、職員数や回数が今後増える可能性もある。

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公費タクシー：環境省、国交省…接待ゾロゾロ

　タクシー接待問題で環境省の職員１人が０６年度、運転手からビール券を計１万５０００円程度提供されていたことが分かった。タクシー関連の規制法令を所管する国土交通省の職員も０７年度だけで３６人が計２４９回ビールやつまみなどを提供されていた。他の省庁でも同様のケースが明るみに出ている。

　長妻昭衆院議員（民主）の照会に各省庁が回答した。

　環境省によると、ビール券の提供を受けていたのは会計課の職員。別の課にいた０６年度に８回程度に分け、ビール券を受け取ったという。この職員も含め、同省では計１１人が過去２０年間に３８回程度、ビールやつまみの提供を受けていた。

　一方、道路運送法は、タクシー運転手が客に運賃の割り戻しをすることを禁じている。所管する立場の国土交通省の職員が受けた接待について同省は「サービスの一環だと理解していた」（会計課）としている。総務省でも１人が５００円のクオカードの提供を受け、０３～０８年にかけて約２０回ビールやつまみを振る舞われた。

　このほか、５日までに接待を受けたことが判明した省庁の職員数と回数は次の通り。農林水産省１３人１３９回▽金融庁１６人計２６６回▽内閣府９人５３回程度▽内閣官房５人２３回▽防衛省１０人１５～１６回▽人事院２人２６回▽文部科学省１０人１３回程度▽経済産業省３人５回。

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証券主要３社、海外増員　アジア軸に、１年で５％増

　野村グループなど主要証券会社が海外の人員配置を増やしている。大和証券グループ本社、三菱ＵＦＪ証券を含む主要3社の海外従業員数は3月末、6475 人と1年間で5％増え、3社は今後も増やし続ける方針だ。アジアを中心に海外企業の資金調達やＭ＆Ａ（合併・買収）ニーズに対応するほか、国内よりも高い利回りが見込める投資機会の発掘などに力を入れる。

　海外の人員比率は3社合計で平均で約16％。最も高いのは野村の22.6％だった。

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製造業売上高、海外比率５割に迫る

　日本の製造業の海外売上高比率が5割に迫ってきた。連結売上高に占める海外の比率は最近4年間で1割弱高まり、2008年3月期は過去最高の45％に達した。食品や日用品など内需型企業の比率上昇が全体を押し上げている。新興国での販売が増え、地域的にすそ野が広がってきたのも特徴だ。米有力企業なども海外売上高比率を伸ばしており、成長力の高い新興国を舞台にした利益争奪戦が一段と激しくなりそうだ。

　3月期決算で海外売上高を開示した上場企業1696社を対象に集計した。このうち製造業994社の海外売上高比率は前の期に比べ3ポイント上昇。非製造業を含む全産業では、2ポイント上昇し29％と3割に迫った。

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海運大手３社の今期業績、運賃高騰で上振れの公算

　海運大手の2009年3月期業績が上振れする可能性が出てきた。中国など新興国の資源需要の拡大で鉄鉱石などを運ぶばら積み船の運賃市況が歴史的な高値圏に上昇しているためだ。期初段階では円高や燃料高の影響で、各社ともばら積み船を主力とする不定期船事業が減益になるとみていたが、増益に転じる公算が大きくなっている。

　ばら積み船運賃の国際指標であるバルチック海運指数は4日時点で1万1623。1月末から2倍近く上昇し、昨年の最高値（1万1039）を上回る過去最高値圏で推移している。新興国での資源需要の拡大に船舶の供給が追いつかないためだ。中国がブラジルや豪州からの鉄鉱石輸入を増やしているほか「電力向けの石炭需要も旺盛」（商船三井）という。各社とも運賃市況を慎重にみていたため、年平均では想定を上回る可能性が高い。

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「ガチャガチャ」３割撤去　ハピネット、少子化に勝てず

　カプセル玩具のシェア6割を握るハピネットは今年度、同玩具の自動販売機を約3割減らす。駄菓子屋や古いスーパーなど全国2500カ所で不採算機を一斉撤去する。1970年代から「ガチャガチャ」の愛称で親しまれてきたが、家庭用ゲーム機の普及もあり300億円程度の市場が減少に転じたため。少子化による玩具不振を象徴する動きとなる。

　ハピネットは8600カ所にガチャガチャを置いてあり、1カ所当たり複数台が多い。これを6100カ所まで減らす。撤去の対象は近くに同機種がある自販機や、一部はカードゲーム・クレーンゲーム機も含む。

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アイヌ民族地位向上決議、国会で採択

　国会は6日の衆参両院本会議でアイヌ民族を独自の宗教や文化を保持する日本の先住民族と位置づけ、地位の向上に総合的施策を講じるよう求めた決議を全会一致で採択した。アイヌ民族に関する国会決議は初めて。政府は近くアイヌ民族の地位向上策を検討する有識者懇談会を設置する方針だ。

　決議は「多数のアイヌの人々が差別され、貧窮を余儀なくされたという歴史的事実を受け止めなければいけない」とかつての同化政策などへの反省を明記した。昨年の国連総会で採択された「先住民族の権利に関する国連宣言」を踏まえ、超党派の北海道関係国会議員がまとめた。

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アイヌ民族：苦難の歴史かみしめ…民族衣装で国会傍聴

　アイヌ民族の歴史に新たな１ページが加わった。６日、先住民族認定を政府に求める国会決議が参院で採択された瞬間、色とりどりの民族衣装をまとって傍聴していたアイヌの人たちは笑顔に包まれ、苦難の歴史と未来への希望をかみしめるように目頭を押さえた。多くのアイヌが住む北海道内からも「大きな一歩」と評価する声が上がる一方、いまだに正式な認定に踏み切らない政府への不満や警戒感も広がった。【千々部一好、金子淳、高山純二】

　午前１０時に開会した参院本会議の傍聴席では、北海道ウタリ協会や首都圏在住の関東ウタリ会のメンバーら約２０人が民族衣装を着て審議を見守った。決議案が全会派一致で採択されると、道ウタリ協会の加藤忠理事長（６９）らは仲間と一緒に握手を交わし、喜びを分かち合った。加藤理事長は「本当に感動した。涙が出て止まらなかったが、この涙は苦しい歴史を強いられてきた先祖のもので、これからも頑張っていきたい」と興奮した様子で話した。

　ユーカラ（叙事詩）の研究・伝承に取り組む滝地良子さん（５６）は白糠町の勤務先で決議の朗報を聞き「祖父母の時代から求めていたことだから、すごくうれしい」。中村斎・アイヌ民族博物館館長も「これまでのアイヌの苦悩は計り知れない。望ましい決議になった」と評価した。

　アイヌ初の国会議員となった故・萱野（かやの）茂さんの次男志朗さん（５０）は「かつて父は『私は苗木を植える。育てるのは後進の人たちだ』と言っていた。少しだけど、苗木が育っている。父もいい方向に向かっていると思うんじゃないかな」と話した。

　評価と歓迎の声の一方で、今後の政府の取り組みには注文の声が相次いだ。先住民族としての認定や具体的な権利確立は、政府が設置する「アイヌ有識者会議」（仮称）で議論されることになる。

　平取町の元町議、貝沢薫さん（７１）は「国会決議が骨抜きにならないよう、政府の動きを注意深く見守りたい。今回のチャンスを逃したら、永久にアイヌの権利はなくなってしまう」と警戒する。萱野志朗さんも「このタイミングで決議されるのは北海道洞爺湖サミットがあるからだろう。『ジェスチャー』で終わったら困る」とクギを刺した。

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トルコ：スカーフご法度…憲法裁が判断、国会の容認覆す

　【エルサレム前田英司】女性イスラム教徒の大学構内でのスカーフ着用について、トルコの憲法裁判所は５日、２月に国会で承認された着用を認める憲法修正を無効と判断した。着用の容認は国家の「イスラム化」につながるとの世俗派の主張を認めたもので、憲法修正を主導したイスラム系の与党・公正発展党（ＡＫＰ）には大きな痛手となった。

　スカーフ着用問題とは別に、ＡＫＰを巡っては検察当局が「国是の政教分離を侵している」として憲法裁に解党などを求めて提訴している。今回の判断がその審理を左右する可能性もある。

　トルコからの報道によると、憲法裁は賛成９、反対２でスカーフ着用を認めた憲法修正を無効と判断した。トルコを世俗国家と定めた憲法２条などに照らし判断したという。

　トルコは国民の９９％がイスラム教徒だが、徹底した政教分離による世俗主義を国是としている。このため、スカーフを急進的なイスラムの象徴と位置づけ、大学など公的施設での着用を禁じてきた。

　ＡＫＰは昨年７月の総選挙での圧勝を受け、着用は「個人の自由」と主張。右派の野党・民族主義者行動党（ＭＨＰ）の支持を取り付け、国会での憲法修正を実現した。

　しかし、これに最大野党の世俗派・共和人民党（ＣＨＰ）などが反発し、修正無効を求め憲法裁に提訴。さらに、大学によっても着用を認めるかどうかの判断が分かれ、事態は混迷していた。

　ＡＫＰは修正無効の判断について「憲法裁の判断自体が憲法違反だ」と真っ向から反発しているが、世俗主義の「最後のとりで」を自任し、国民の信頼度が高い軍部は「憲法裁の判断は尊重しなければならない」と表明した。

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日本の歯科医が中国目指す　富裕層は医療でも「メード・イン・ジャパン」がお好き？ (1/2ページ)
2008.6.6 14:03

　中国の経済発展や、日本人駐在者の増加などに伴って、中国への進出を検討する日本の歯科医が増えている。駐在する日本人に比べ日本人歯科医が大幅に不足しているうえ、食品から家電まで良質な日本製品には金を惜しまない中国の富裕層が、歯科医療でも“メード・イン・ジャパン”を求めているためという。医療貢献と市場拡大の両方につながるとあって、リスクを冒しても進出を目指す歯科医グループもでてきた。

　グループは関西を拠点にする歯科医らで作る「ＷＡ－和・輪」。国境を越えて医療貢献を果たしたいという願いを込め、英語の「ワールドワイド・アソシエーション」（世界的組織）を略して名付けた。

　京都府亀岡市で開業する泉要佑会長（４８）が知人の歯科医や歯科技工士に呼びかけて結成し、昨年１月から海外視察や勉強会を定期的に開催。中国では日本の歯科医師免許があると、当局の許可を得るだけで滞在する外国人を診療できるとあって、メンバー３５人の中には、すでに現地で開業した歯科医もいる。

　上海市で開業した歯科医によると、ビジネスや留学などで同市に長期滞在する日本人約８万人。これに対し、日本人歯科医はわずか１０人ほど。矯正など長期の治療で帰国後もケアが必要になるケースがあるほか、痛みの微妙なニュアンスを日本語で伝えたいというニーズがある。

　一方、中国人富裕層も、手先が器用で高度な技術を持つ日本人歯科医への信頼が厚い。高額な医療費をいとわないため患者の単価が高く、「日本だと１日３０～４０人診て月収１００万円だが、中国だと数人で８０万円ほど」。中国人歯科医を技術指導しながら、富裕層を診療する地方もあるという。

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中国企業の「青森」商標登録はダメ　５年越し決着
2008.6.6 15:49
中国の業者が当局に出願した商標。「森」ではなく「水」が３つ中国の業者が当局に出願した商標。「森」ではなく「水」が３つ

　中国の企業が「青森（チンセン）」を商標申請した問題で、青森県は６日、県の異議申し立てを認めた中国商標局の裁定がすべて確定したと発表した。「青森」は中国で日本の地名として認められ、「青森」を商標登録することは不可能になった。

　中国企業の商標申請を知った青森県が平成１５年７月～１６年４月、県産品のブランドを守るため、肉や水産物、果実や野菜、茶や米など５件について、中国当局に異議を申し立てていた。

　中国当局は今年３月までに５件すべてで県の主張を認めた。その後、出願者は不服を申し立たてず、商標問題をめぐる青森県と中国側の戦いは約５年で終結した。

　一方、森の字の「木」を「水」に変え、「青森」と似せた「青●（＝森の木が全て水）（チンミャオ）」の商標申請問題は続いている。

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Research Finds Wide Disparities in Health Care by Race and Region
By KEVIN SACK

Race and place of residence can have a staggering impact on the course and quality of the medical treatment a patient receives, according to new research showing that blacks with diabetes or vascular disease are nearly five times more likely than whites to have a leg amputated and that women in Mississippi are far less likely to have mammograms than those in Maine.

The study, by researchers at Dartmouth, examined Medicare claims for evidence of racial and geographic disparities and found that on a variety of quality indices, blacks typically were less likely to receive recommended care than whites within a given region. But the most striking disparities were found from place to place.

For instance, the widest racial gaps in mammogram rates within a state were in California and Illinois, with a difference of 12 percentage points between the white rate and the black rate. But the country’s lowest rate for blacks — 48 percent in California — was 24 percentage points below the highest rate — 72 percent in Massachusetts. The statistics were for women ages 65 to 69 who received screening in 2004 or 2005.

In all but two states, black diabetics were less likely than whites to receive annual hemoglobin testing. But blacks in Colorado (66 percent) were far less likely to be screened than those in Massachusetts (88 percent).

The study was commissioned by the nation’s largest health-related philanthropy, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which on Thursday planned to announce a three-year, $300 million initiative intended to narrow health care disparities across lines of race and geography. Officials said it would be the largest effort to improve health care quality ever undertaken by a charity in the United States.

The foundation hopes to better understand and confront the causes of those regional variations by focusing its spending on 14 regions, like the city of Memphis and the state of Wisconsin.

Dr. Bruce Siegel, the George Washington University professor who will direct the program, said one community might use its grant money to study how long it takes hospitals to move heart attack patients from emergency room to catheterization laboratory. Others might work to coordinate electronic record-keeping or to provide patients with better information about taking medications after discharge.

“In my book,” Dr. Siegel said, “health care is local, just like politics, so you’re going to see a lot of differences in what communities do.”

That point is reinforced time and again in the new research conducted by the Dartmouth Atlas Project of the college’s Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, which has used Medicare data to document health care disparities over the last two decades. It found substantial variation in the proportion of Medicare beneficiaries who had been seen in a two-year period by a primary care physician, ranging from 86 percent in Nebraska and South Dakota to 65 percent in New Jersey. It found far higher rates of unnecessary hospitalizations in Hawaii, Utah and Washington than in Kentucky, Louisiana and West Virginia.

Disparities in the rate of leg amputations were particularly stark. The rate for blacks was about 6 per 1,000 in Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina, but less than 2 per 1,000 in Colorado and Nevada. The rates for whites in the three Southern states were much lower, about 1.3 per 1,000, but were still more than double the rates for whites in the two Western states.

Such variations may be partly explained by regional differences in education and poverty levels, but researchers increasingly believe that variations in medical practice and spending also are factors.

“In U.S. health care, it’s not only who you are that matters; it’s also where you live,” wrote the study’s authors, led by Dr. Elliott S. Fisher.

Dr. John R. Lumpkin, senior vice president of the foundation, said that more than a third of the $300 million would be spent to hire national experts to help regional coalitions tailor their quality improvement plans. The remainder of the money will be devoted to research, evaluation and the promotion of quality standards.

“We want to build a template in each of these communities that will teach America how to improve health care quality in a dramatic way,” Dr. Lumpkin said.

The areas selected for the grants are Cincinnati; Cleveland; Detroit; Humboldt County, Calif.; Kansas City, Mo.; Maine; Memphis; Minnesota; Seattle; south central Pennsylvania; western Michigan; western New York; Willamette Valley in Oregon; and Wisconsin.

The foundation’s endowment, now about $10 billion, was financed originally from the wealth of its namesake, who died in 1968 after building Johnson & Johnson into one of the world’s largest sellers of health and med
up has been a major force in curbing tobacco use, and has more recently turned its attention to obesity, announcing a five-year, $500 million effort on that front last year.

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Nepal's 'living goddess' in limbo
By Charles Haviland
BBC News, Kathmandu

The previous goddess, Sajani Shakya, retired in March. File photo

The appointment of a new "living goddess" in Nepal is being held up by the recent abolition of the monarchy, a Nepalese official says.

According to tradition, the king's priest appoints the girl, who is chosen in her infancy and is treated as a goddess, or Kumari, until puberty.

But the priest no longer has any say in the republic, the head of the trust overseeing the tradition says.

Hindus and Buddhists regard the Kumaris as incarnations of a deity.

'Unthinkable'

Shreeya Bajracharya, 6, has been selected by a religious panel as the "living goddess" in the town of Bhaktapur, near the capital Kathmandu.

In pictures: Child goddess
map

She was chosen to replace the previous goddess who retired early in March.

Under the ancient tradition, she has to have certain physical attributes and undergo special tests to be selected.

But the head of the trust overseeing the Kumari tradition told the BBC that because Nepal is now a republic that priest no longer has any role in the matter.

He said the chairman of the trust's board would have to decide soon who would approve the new living goddess.

This quandary is just one of many set to arise now that the politicians have abolished the monarchy without thinking though the religious or political implications.

It is unthinkable that this deeply religious country would scrap the rich series of traditions and festivals which pepper the people's lives and are also a magnet for tourists.

Yet many traditions are associated with the king and may face adjustments in future.

Nepal is now supposed to be a secular state but for the past two years the elderly Prime Minister, Girija Prasad Koirala, has been trying to take on the king's religious roles with a stream of temple visits.

A few months ago the prime minister was said to be angered when the royal priest refused to give a blessing.

The biggest elected party, the Maoists, are fiercely non-religious.

However, the party's deputy leader was blessed by a priest at the start of his election campaign.

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酪農８団体：生乳再値上げへ、乳業各社と交渉　飼料高騰、廃業続出で

　酪農生産者８団体が、牛乳などの原料となる生乳の再値上げに向け、乳業メーカーとの交渉を本格化させている。配合飼料の価格高騰で酪農家が経営難に陥り、廃業も相次いでいるためだ。生乳は年１回、年明けの交渉で翌年度の価格を決めるが、年度途中の交渉は異例だ。【望月麻紀】

　８団体は、生産者団体の全国組織「中央酪農会議」の会員９団体のうち、東北、関東、近畿、九州など。いずれも配合飼料の依存度が高く、牛乳向けの生産比率が高い。飼料に牧草なども使う北海道は交渉を見送る。

　従来は、９団体が年明けに、それぞれ乳業メーカーと交渉して新年度（４月～翌年３月）の価格を決めてきた。０８年度は飼料価格の高騰のため、３０年ぶりに大幅値上げされ、牛乳用生乳は３％増で妥結した。

　８団体は５月末から順次、メーカー側に要望書を渡すなどして値上げの意向を伝え、交渉を開始した。「現在の価格では不本意。このままでは廃業がさらに増える」（関係者）と秋までに５～１０％の値上げを目指す方針だ。これに対し、メーカー側は「牛乳の需要減が続く中、値上げに応じるのは難しい」（大手乳業）との構えだ。

　飼料代の値上がり分は、生産者や飼料メーカーなどで積み立てた基金からも補てんされるが、ここ３年間の値上がりで資金は減少。昨年末以後、国や市中金融機関からの借り入れで賄っている状態で、財政状況は厳しい。中央酪農会議の門谷広茂専務理事は「消費者には価格か、税金かいずれかで支えてもらわないと、乳製品の安定供給ができなくなる可能性がある」と話している。

＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝

　■ことば
　◇配合飼料

　与える動物に適した２種類以上の飼料を混合した餌。乳牛用はトウモロコシや大麦、大豆油かすなどを含んでおり、飼料穀物の国際相場や海上輸送費の変動により価格が上下する。農林水産省によると、０６年末まで１トン当たり４万５０００円前後だったが、バイオ燃料用の穀類需要増などで今年２月には同５万８０９１円に値上がりした。

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秋葉原通り魔：死亡７人、負傷１０人に…２５歳男を逮捕

　８日午後０時３５分ごろ、東京都千代田区外神田４の秋葉原電気街の交差点で、２トントラックが歩行者数人をはねた。運転していた男が車を降り、持っていたサバイバルナイフで歩行者らを次々に刺した。警視庁や東京消防庁によると、７人が死亡し、１０人がけがをした。男は駆け付けた警察官に現場近くで取り押さえられ、殺人未遂容疑で現行犯逮捕された。

　男は、静岡県裾野市に住む加藤智大（ともひろ）容疑者（２５）で、刺したことを認め、「人を殺すため今日、静岡から秋葉原に来た。（襲うのは）誰でもよかった」「世の中が嫌になった。生活に疲れた」などと供述しているという。警視庁は、通り魔事件として万世橋署に捜査本部を設置した。

　警視庁によると、けが人には、万世橋署交通課の男性警部補（５３）も含まれている。死亡したのは男性６人（１９、２０、２９、３３、４７、７４歳）と女性１人（２１歳）。けがをした１０人は男性８人、女性２人。

　調べでは、トラックはレンタカーで、静岡県沼津市内のレンタカー会社営業所で８日午前８時から午後８時までの契約で借り出されていた。現場付近は、歩行者天国で日曜日とあってかなり混雑していたという。

　複数の目撃者によると、トラックが通行人をはねたのは、歩行者天国となっている南北の通り（中央通り）と、車の通行が可能な東西の通り（神田明神通り）が交わる場所。トラックは、神田明神通りを西から東に向かって通過する際、横断歩道を渡っていた歩行者らをはねた。

　トラックは数十メートル先で止まり、ベージュ色のジャケットを着て眼鏡をかけた男がトラックを降り、手にナイフを持ちながら交差点方向に歩いて戻ると、駆け付けた警察官に切りつけた。前後して、歩行者らに馬乗りになるなどして刺したが、男はその際、「ワー」「キャー」などと叫んだり、笑いながら追い回していたという。

　拘束された様子を見ていた男性店員によると、男は中央通りを南に向かって逃げた。制服を着た警察官が追いかけ、通りから３０メートルほど入った狭い路地に追い詰められると、無言でナイフを振り回し、警察官が警棒で応戦。警察官が拳銃を取り出すと、男はナイフを路上に置いた。その瞬間に、警察官を含め周囲にいた数人が上に乗り、取り押さえたという。
　◇通り魔事件で亡くなった方々（敬称略）

　武藤舞（２１）＝東京都北区浮間３▽松井満（３３）＝神奈川県厚木市森の里１▽藤野和倫（１９）＝埼玉県熊谷市▽小岩和弘（４７）▽中村勝彦（７４）＝東京都▽川口隆裕（２０）＝千葉県流山市▽宮本直樹（２９）

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秋葉原通り魔：加藤容疑者、マンションで１人暮らし

　秋葉原通り魔事件の加藤智大（ともひろ）容疑者は、静岡県裾野市富沢の閑静な住宅街にある鉄筋４階建ての比較的新しいマンション３階で１人暮らしをしていた。マンション管理会社によると、部屋は東京都内の人材派遣会社が借り上げ契約しているという。

　３階の別の部屋に住む男性会社員（２６）は加藤容疑者について「休日に駐車場に車があるのを見たことはあるが、会ったことはない。同じマンションの住民が通り魔をするなんて、信じられない」と驚いた様子。また、近くに住む男性会社員（６０）は「マンション住民はほとんどが若い人で、名前も顔も知らない。事件を知って驚いた」と話した。

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秋葉原無差別殺人男のオタク執着…独特のこだわりも
「アニメ批判すると後ろから刺されるよ」

加藤容疑者が犯行の前に友人へ送った「萌え系」ＤＶＤやＣＤ（クリックで拡大）
加藤容疑者が犯行の前に友人へ送った「萌え系」ＤＶＤやＣＤ（クリックで拡大）
　東京・秋葉原で７人が殺害され、１０人が重軽傷を負った事件で、殺人未遂の現行犯で逮捕された加藤智大容疑者（２５）。家族や仕事への不満を抱き、感情は徐々に鬱屈（うっくつ）していった。その不満を晴らすかのようにアキバに通い、オタクに救いを求めていったようだ。

　「（秋葉原では）アニメやマンガを批判すると、危ないよ。後ろから刺されるよ。危ないから気をつけろ」

　感情を顔に出すこともなかった加藤容疑者だが、同僚（２１）をアキバのメードカフェなどに案内しながら、笑ってこう注意した。同僚はオタクへの執着を感じたという。

　犯行の約１カ月前のゴールデンウイーク。断絶状態の青森に加藤容疑者は同郷の同僚を連れ、自身の車で帰った。実家に立ち寄ることもなく、車だけを置いて東京に舞い戻った。

　同僚がある時、「あまり表情を見せないよね。過去になんかあったから言いにくいんだろうけれど」と質問すると、「ああ、そうかもしれないね。顔に出さないのは意識してるけど」と、表情も変えずに答えた。

　家族などのよりどころを失っていた加藤容疑者は、車やアキバなど趣味の世界に救いを求めた。

　集めていた同人誌について、「商業化したものはダメ。金儲け主義に走ってもダメ」と独自の価値観を持ち、ＰＣゲームは「萌え系アニメの少女が大量の弾丸を撃ち合う」という同人誌系２Ｄシューティングゲームにのめり込んだ。

　「制服のチェックスカートには、ハイソックスの紺色か白色じゃないとダメだよね」（同）と、特異な趣味を披露したこともあった。

　３月後半のある日曜日。加藤容疑者と同僚３人は、加藤容疑者の発案で、秋葉原に「体験ツアー」に出掛けた。加藤容疑者は早朝、自身の軽自動車でそれぞれの同僚の家までピックアップ。御殿場インターチェンジまで車を走らせた。

　だが、東名高速に入ることはなく、加藤容疑者は車を降りると真っすぐ高速バス乗り場へ。新宿行き小田急バスを認めると、満足そうにつぶやいた。

　「数あるバスの中でも、このバスが好きなんだよ」

　同僚は「わざわざバスに乗り換えるなんて、相当こだわりがある人だと思った」と話し、加藤容疑者の別の顔を垣間見た。

　だが、オタクで紛らわす日々も、すでに限界点に達していた。

　関係者によると加藤容疑者は５月２９日、派遣元の日研総業（東京）から解雇を言い渡されたという。その直後、勤務先の関東自動車工業（神奈川）の同僚（２８）に「次の仕事をどうしたらいいのか。住所不定なので、仕事もすぐ見つかるわけないし…」と悩みを吐露。６月３日に解雇は取り下げられたが、加藤容疑者は会社への不信感を募らせ、男性に「延長と言ってもいつまで残れるかわからない」などと不安感を漏らしていた。

　加藤容疑者には金銭トラブルもあった。

　別の同僚（２１）には「前に住んでいたアパートの家賃数カ月分と事故をした車のローンを踏み倒して（静岡県に）来た」と告白。このため、住民票が変更できず、しばらく携帯電話代金を携帯電話ショップの窓口に払っている状況だった。

　そして、追いつめられた加藤容疑者は、大好きだったアキバで暴発した。

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５月の企業倒産件数、負債総額は増加続く　民間調査会社

　民間調査会社の東京商工リサーチと帝国データバンクは９日、５月の企業倒産の調査結果を発表した。両調査とも５カ月ぶりに前年同月比で減少に転じたが、いずれも減少は小幅にとどまった。中堅企業以上の倒産が増えたことで、負債総額は増加が続いた。

　東京商工リサーチによると、負債総額1000万円以上の企業倒産（銀行取引停止など私的倒産を含む）の件数は前年同月比1.5％減の1290件。ただ、過去１年間（07年６月―08年５月）では２番目に多い件数で、「増加傾向に変わりはない」（東京商工リサーチ）という。業種別ではサービス業他など、６業種で減少した。一方、建設業の倒産は407件と４年７カ月ぶりに400件を上回った。公共工事削減に加え原材料価格の上昇、暫定税率失効に伴う工事の凍結や遅延も響いた。負債10億円以上の大型倒産が79件と、５月としては５年ぶりに70件を上回り、全体の負債総額は49.2％増の5497億円と２カ月連続で増えた。

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中堅冷食の買収、日清食品が発表

　日清食品は9日、関西の中堅冷凍食品会社、ニッキーフーズ（大阪市）を買収すると正式発表した。7月1日に創業家から発行済み株式のすべてを約18億円で買い取る。日清の冷食事業の売上高は約400億円となり、業界13位から7位に浮上する見込み。日清は買収を足がかりに冷食事業を強化し、2011年3 月期に売上高500億円を目指す。

　買収後は日清がニッキーに即席めんなどの具材の生産を委託するほか、両社の生産体制を見直して効率化する。ニッキーは中華系の総菜を中心に業務用の冷凍食品を製造・販売しており、07年9月期の売上高は約145億円。2月に中国子会社が製造・販売した冷食から殺虫剤成分が検出されて業績が低迷し、日清に支援を求めていた。

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日通、モスクワ郊外に大型倉庫　09年開設

　日本通運はロシアの現地法人を通じモスクワ郊外に大型倉庫を設置し、2009年1月から業務を開始する。同社はこれまで現地代理店に保管業務などを外注してきたが、需要拡大に伴い自社の倉庫を新規に確保することにした。

　倉庫は賃貸で平屋建て、床面積は2万4000平方メートル。日系メーカーの製品の保管・配送などを手掛ける。

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福田首相襲う沖縄ショック…県議選、過半数を割り込む
後期高齢者医療制度などへの批判が炸裂

　任期満了に伴う沖縄県議選は８日投票、即日開票され、仲井真弘多知事を支える自民、公明両党など与党側が過半数を割り込んだ。後期高齢者医療制度などへの批判が炸裂したとみられる。与党にとっては、４月の衆院山口２区補選に続く敗北だけに、福田康夫首相の政権運営にも大きな痛手となるのは必至。民主党は１１日にも予定している福田首相に対する問責決議案提出に弾みを付け、次期衆院選をにらみ終盤国会で攻勢を強める構えだ。

　選挙結果は、定数４８に対し、中立を含む野党側が２６議席、与党側は２２議席にとどまった。議席の内訳は民主党４、共産党５、社民党５、沖縄社会大衆党２、中立と野党系無所属などが１０。与党側は自民党１６、公明党３、与党系無所属３だった。

　これを受け民主党の鳩山由紀夫幹事長は８日深夜、「今回の審判を国民の声と受け止める。政府・与党に対し、後期高齢者医療制度廃止法案の今国会成立に全面的に協力するよう迫っていく」との談話を発表した。

　今回の選挙戦で野党陣営は国政選挙並みの態勢をとり、民主党の菅直人代表代行や共産党の志位和夫委員長ら党首クラスがそろって現地入りし、「平成の姥捨て山」と呼ばれる新医療制度への批判を展開した。

　沖縄県では１つ屋根の下で何世代も一緒に暮らす家庭が多く、新医療制度の評判は当初から悪かったが、「７割以上が保険料値上げになる」との試算も発表され不満が爆発した。

　在沖縄米軍の問題も影を落とした。米兵による相次ぐ不祥事を踏まえ、野党側は日米地位協定の抜本的見直しを強調、政府与党との違いをアピールしたのだ。

　一方、与党側も新医療制度への逆風に危機感を強め、自民党の古賀誠選対委員長や公明党の太田昭宏代表らが沖縄入り。「ハマコー」こと自民党ＯＢの浜田幸一元衆院議員（７９）を登場させた異例のテレビＣＭまで制作した。

　ところが、「浜田氏がＣＭで『自民党はおじいちゃん、おばあちゃんを大切にする政党なんだろ？』と訴えかけていたが、『老人いじめ』と呼ばれる新医療制度を前にしては冗談にもならず、有権者の怒りの火に油を注いだだけだった」（沖縄県政関係者）

　選挙戦終盤には官僚による「居酒屋タクシー」問題まで発覚、与党側は最後まで守勢の戦いを余儀なくされた。

　自公与党は表向き「あくまで地方の選挙」（自民党幹部）と政権への影響を否定しているが、福田政権のさらなる求心力低下は避けられず、「（新医療制度の）凍結も考える必要がある」（閣僚経験者）との声も出始めている。

　福田首相は参院で問責決議案が可決されても無視する意向だが、７月の北海道洞爺湖サミット後には自民党内から「福田降ろし」の動きが出かねない情勢となってきた。

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New Report on Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods & Crops

* New Report on the Health Risks of GM Foods
GM Free Cymru, June 4, 2008

EXTRACT: Referring to GM crops, US Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said: ".....what we see is: increased production, less use of fertilizer and water, products that are conditioned to soil and climate conditions that are directly, they are better-flavored, better looking. They work with the consumer better. But importantly, they increase the food supply." Every one of those statements is a lie.
--- ---
Campaigning groups who have been warning for years about the health risks associated with GM crops and foods have welcomed the publication of a new Report which draws together the findings from more than 100 research papers.

The Report, entitled "State-of-the-Science on the Health Risks of GM Foods" comes from the US-based Institute for Responsible Technology, and it available as a free download: http://www.seedsofdeception.com/DocumentFiles/145.pdf

The material in the 28-page study describes the conflict of interest among regulators that allowed GMO foods on the market; the wide range of adverse findings from animal feeding studies such as higher death rates, organ damage, reproductive failures, and infant mortality; reports by farmers of thousands of sick, sterile, and dead livestock; toxic and allergic properties of GM foods; numerous scientific assumptions used as the basis for safety claims that have since proven false; inadequate regulatory oversight; biased industry safety studies; manipulation of public opinion; and the mistreatment of scientists critical of the technology. Essentially the new study brings up-to-date in an easily accessible form some of the information contained in two books by Jeffrey Smith (1) and in peer- reviewed and other studies from across the world. The pamphlet's citation list is impressive, and shows that there is a very large community of research scientists who are horrified by the on -going deception that "GM foods have never been shown to be harmful."

Commenting for GM Free Cymru, Dr Brian John said: "This short pamphlet should be required reading for all politicians, farmers and GM proponents who repeat ad infinitum the mantra that "GM foods are safe." GM foods are NOT safe, and the evidence relating to unacceptable dangers is all carefully assembled in this pamphlet in a thoroughly responsible fashion. Indeed, much more evidence of harm has emerged in the interval between the writing and the publication of the pamphlet. We have known for years that the GM industry is one of the most corrupt, cynical and sinister industries in the world (2) and that it routinely publishes fraudulent research, shuts off public access to "inconvenient" research findings on health and safety, and blocks research by independent scientists. Most of its research is non-replicable, and on that basis alone it should be binned rather than believed and used as a basis for consents. The regulatory system which is supposed to protect consumers from harmful GM crops and foods is also shown to be subservient to the biotechnology multinationals and to be obsessed with the facilitation of GM approvals. In that respect it acts against the public interest, and on several occasions in the past, with respect to specific decisions, we have accused bodies like EFSA, ACRE, FSA and ACNFP of being unfit for purpose and of criminal negligence.

Every day we read statements to the effect that "people have been eating GM food for years with no harmful effects" or that "GM food is no different from other food, and may be safer and more nutritious." (3) Such statements are lies, and every time they are repeated in support of the pro-GM agenda the danger to consumers is enhanced. How much more evidence do politicians and regulators actually need before they accept what honest scientists are trying to tell them? Are they all corrupt, or just slow on the uptake?"

Contact: Dr Brian John
Tel + 44 (0)123 982 0470

Notes:

(1) Jeffrey M. Smith, Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods, Yes! Books, Fairfield, IA USA 2007 Jeffrey M. Smith, Seeds of Deception, Yes! Books, Fairfield, Iowa 2003

(2) http://www.gmfreecymru.org/news/Press_Notice9March2007.htm http://www.gmfreecymru.org/pivotal_papers/enforcers.htm

Monsanto's harvest of fear http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/05/monsanto200805?printable=true*tPage=all

VANITY FAIR ≠ MAY 2008 Investigation: Monsanto's Harvest of Fear http://www.gmfreecymru.org/pivotal_papers/exposed.htm

http://www.gmfreecymru.org/documents.htm

New movie damns Monsanto's deadly sins 07 March 2008 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1189345/

The World According to Monsanto - A documentary that Americans won't ever see

On March 11 2008 a new documentary was aired on French television (ARTE ≠ French-German cultural tv channel) by French journalist and film maker Marie-Monique Robin, entitled 'The World According to Monsanto' (Le Monde selon Monsanto). http://www.gmfreecymru.org/pivotal_papers/syngenta.htm

(3) http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB?contentidonly=true&contentid=2008/05/0140.xml
Referring to GM crops, US Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said: ".....what we see is: increased production, less use of fertilizer and water, products that are conditioned to soil and climate conditions that are directly, they are better-flavored, better looking. They work with the consumer better. But importantly, they increase the food supply." Every one of those statements is a lie.

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Crisis shifts to regional lenders

By Saskia Scholtes and Francesco Guerrera in New York

Published: June 8 2008 23:32 | Last updated: June 8 2008 23:32

Home equity loans are rapidly emerging as the next front of the credit crunch, as falling house prices and lax underwriting lead to growing losses for US regional banks that have huge portfolios of such loans on their balance sheets.

The rising defaults on home equity loans, used by people to raise funds by taking out a second mortgage on their houses, underscore how the financial crisis is shifting from big banks’ writedowns on complex derivatives to consumer-related problems for smaller banks.

Mounting losses on home equity loans are likely to deepen the financial woes of many US regional lenders, increasing the risk that one of them might fail and raising the possibility of a wave of emergency mergers in the sector.

“Home equity loans are a wound on many banks’ balance sheets: they are fast becoming a serious problem for small and large institutions,” said a Wall Street executive.

Losses on home equity loans have more than tripled in the last six months to 1.54 per cent of outstanding loan volumes.

Analysts expect defaults on home equity loans to rise further as house prices continue to fall in areas such as California and Florida, where some of the largest home equity loan portfolios are concentrated.

The banks with the top 10 highest concentrations of home equity loans as a proportion of their overall lending book, and as a proportion of assets, are almost all regional banks, such as Huntington Bancshares, National City and SunTrust Banks, according to data from Fitch Ratings.

Countrywide Financial, Washington Mutual and First Horizon Financial have the largest exposures as a proportion of total loans, with home equity loans representing more than 20 per cent of their total loan book.

Large banks, such as Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo also have large portfolios of home equity loans but their large balance sheets are likely to cushion the blow from any losses on those products.

For the 30 largest institutions, home equity loans account for an average 11-13 per cent of the loan portfolio, according to Fitch.

According to Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation data, on-balance sheet home equity and second-lien mortgage loans increased 43 per cent from year-end 2004 to year-end 2007, compared with 29 per cent growth of total loans. Total outstanding home equity loans now amount to $625bn, according to the FDIC.

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Oil surges to biggest single-day advance

By FT Reporters

Published: June 6 2008 18:58 | Last updated: June 7 2008 00:02

Oil prices recorded their biggest one-day advance to hit a record of more than $139 a barrel on Friday, as an unexpectedly bad US employment report upset the calculations of energy traders and triggered frenzied buying.

The US reported the biggest rise in unemployment in 22 years – to 5.5 per cent in May.

Traders thought that the increase in unemployment would make the US Federal Reserve less likely to raise interest rates this year and they sold dollars because of the prospect of lower returns.

With the dollar falling, the prices of oil, gold and other commodities denominated in the US currency rose. Threats by an Israeli minister of a strike on Iran added to the oil surge.

Traders who had bet on falling oil prices through short sales – in which they sell the commodity in the hope of buying it back later at a lower level – were forced to cover their positions, sending oil prices ­rocketing.

Wall Street banks contributed to the rally as they bought crude oil futures to cover their obligations under agreements that compensate investors and companies such as airlines if crude rises above $140 a barrel.

Crude oil futures rose as high as $139.12, before closing $10.75 ahead at $138.54. The jump forced the New York Mercantile Exchange briefly to shut down electronic trading. Oil had gained $5.49 a barrel on Thursday.

“It’s still a bull market in oil,” said Tom Bentz, senior energy analyst at BNP Paribas.

Stocks fell sharply as investors worried about the dollar weakness fuelling higher oil prices, and rising energy costs holding back growth.

The S&P 500 closed down 3.1 per cent at 1,360.68 points. The fall over the week was 2.8 per cent. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 fell 2 per cent. The dollar slumped 1.1 per cent against the euro to $1.5762.

In the US, unemployment hit 5.5 per cent in May, up from 5 per cent in April as the economy lost 49,000 jobs – the largest monthly change since February 1986.

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BP battle for Russia oil deal to escalate

By Catherine Belton and Neil Buckley in St Petersburg

Published: June 8 2008 20:36 | Last updated: June 8 2008 20:36

A battle between BP and its Russian partners for control of TNK-BP, the oil venture, overshadowed Russia’s efforts to court chief executives from some of the world’s biggest companies this weekend as a senior government official said the stand-off was set to escalate.

More than $14bn in deals were signed at the St Petersburg Economic Forum, where Russia rolled out the red carpet to woo about 90 chief executives from some of the world’s biggest companies, including Michael Klein, the chairman of Citi, and Rex Tillerson, chief executive of ExxonMobil.

But the official charm offensive was clouded by the bruising stand-off for control of TNK-BP which some investors say is damaging the investment climate in Russia.

The government official appeared to give his backing to TNK-BP’s Russian billionaire shareholders’ effort to put pressure on BP. He said the conflict would only be resolved when one of the sides in the venture sold their stake to the other. “They [the Russian shareholders] are only starting the offensive. In the near future, it will be worse,” he said speaking on condition of anonymity on the sidelines of the forum.

Tony Hayward, BP’s chief executive, left the forum and Russia on Saturday evening with little sign of a resolution to the conflict in sight. Mr Hayward is believed to have spoken briefly with Dmitry Medvedev following a closed meeting between the Russian president and visiting chief executives on Saturday.

The Russian billionaire shareholders, who hold their stake via the Alfa-Access-Renova consortium, showed little sign of easing the stand-off after they sent a letter to BP on Friday claiming that the venture’s BP-backed chief executive, Robert Dudley, had broken Russian law and the shareholder agreement between the two partners in holding a vote to approve candidates for the board of a key subsidiary, a person close to TNK-BP said on Sunday. The shareholders repeated calls that he should be dismissed.

The Russian shareholders accused Mr Dudley of convening an “illegal meeting” to vote on candidates for the board of TNK-BP Holding, which holds all of TNK-BP’s Russian production, refining and oilfield services assets, according to the person close to TNK-BP, in order to take “full control over the TBH subsidiary in the interests of BP”.

BP replied in a letter accusing AAR and certain senior management affiliated with AAR of trying to “upset the status quo and undermine the powers afforded to the group CEO” . These people “continue to act in breach of the shareholder agreement in an effort to gain control of TNK-BP”, the letter said. It said Mr Dudley’s actions did not constitute a breach of Russian law and he was trying to head off attempts by AAR to take control of TBH’s board.

The government official, however, said on Sunday that he did not think BP “understood with whom they were creating their partnership” when the venture began in 2003. “Alfa group... are very ambitious people in the good sense of the word. They will never allow any obstacles to get in the way of their ambitious path of development,” he said.

The official said BP appeared to be hoping that the Russian shareholders would sell their stake to Gazprom. “As far as I understand, and I had several conversations with these people, the Russian owners never wanted to sell their business. For BP it is the best scenario if Alfa sells out to Gazprom. For Russia it is the most harmful scenario.”

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Donors ask Kabul to trim building plan

By Jon Boone in Kabul

Published: June 8 2008 22:02 | Last updated: June 8 2008 22:02

Afghanistan is coming under pressure from western countries to slim down its $50bn national development plan in the run-up to a conference in Paris on Thursday, when international donors are expected to pledge support.

For weeks, the government of President Hamid Karzai has been warned that donors have grave doubts about the viability of the Afghanistan National Development Strategy to rebuild the war-shattered country over the next five years.

Although the $50bn (€32bn, £25bn) price tag represents a sharp increase on previous plans drawn up since the US-led invasion in 2001, critics have pointed out that the country is still struggling to spend the money it is given effectively.

Government departments often fail to exhaust their annual budgets – in part because they are still failing to attract sufficient skilled administrators happy to take government salaries, which are often derisory compared with potential earnings at Kabul’s many international organisations.

Last week, the World Bank said Afghanistan had made “little headway” against corruption. It gave warning that finding ways to improve the way aid was spent would be more important than the total amount of resources required by the plan.

Donors are also concerned that the plan does not “sequence” development projects – by focusing on areas such as rural development before moving on to others, such as urban renewal and higher education.

William Byrd, economic adviser at the bank, said there was an “urgent need for stronger prioritisation of programme in the strategy”.

“The number of policy measures and other actions is overwhelming and needs to be streamlined, for decision-making, implementation and monitoring purposes,” he said.

The scale of the plan dwarfs the amount of resources requested at previous international conferences.

“Why are we giving a lot more money without a thorough review of the last few years and some searching questions about what went wrong?” said one western official in Kabul.

The biggest items in the plan are for security, which will consume $14.2bn, and infrastructure projects estimated to cost $17.2bn.

Because the Afghan government says it will raise some of the $50bn in taxes, and already has commitments from the international community for $25bn, the country will need to extract $18.6bn in new money from donors in Paris.

But the country is unlikely to get anything like that much at the conference, partly because the US, the most important donor, is unable to make multi-year donations. Besides this, the European Commission has already made its funding commitments for the next few years and is unable to make more.

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UK companies pay more tax than Europeans

By John Willman in London

Published: June 8 2008 23:34 | Last updated: June 8 2008 23:34

Large British companies pay more in corporate taxes on the wealth they create than their competitors in Germany, France and Switzerland, a UK government study has found.

The annual value-added scoreboard, published Monday, shows the 185 top wealth-creating companies in the UK handed over 12 per cent of the added value they created in taxation last year.

The German companies among the 750 top European wealth-creators paid 6 per cent of their value-added in tax, while the French and Swiss companies in the league table paid 8 per cent.

The findings will fuel business complaints about corporate tax levels at the first meeting on Monday afternoon of the working group set up by Alistair Darling, the chancellor, to review the competitiveness of the corporation tax system.

Mr Darling set up the group, dominated by the executives of multinationals, following calls to cut the 28 per cent corporation tax rate, which had been blamed for a growing exodus of companies to lower tax countries.

Gordon Brown, prime minister, has promised to cut corporation tax when it can be afforded and Mr Darling has signalled he would at least postpone the proposed fuel duty rise.

The Treasury says the UK has the lowest headline rate of corporation tax in the G7, but other countries often offer more generous tax breaks that in practice mean companies pay lower rates.

The value-added scoreboard, produced by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, measures the wealth created by companies by calculating the cost of goods and services bought in from their sales revenues. The 800 largest UK companies added £646bn in value in 2007, up 9.6 per cent on 2006.

The amount of value-added rose faster in other large countries last year, but UK-based companies dominate the league table of the top 750 European wealth-creating businesses. UK groups generate almost a quarter of the region’s value-added.

British companies are also more efficient at creating wealth. Last year they converted £100 spent on labour and equipment into almost £194 of value-added, compared with £142 for German companies and £157 in France.

The government report also shows large companies pay out a higher proportion of their value-added in dividends and interest than their Continental counterparts. But the proportion of the wealth they create that is invested in sustaining and developing their businesses is lower than in Germany or France.

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Emerging-market cities climb world rankings

By Saskia Scholtes in New York

Published: June 8 2008 23:25 | Last updated: June 8 2008 23:25

Cities in emerging markets such as Asia and eastern Europe are rapidly building influence in global commerce, according to new research.

A report on the top 75 worldwide centres of commerce, commissioned by Mastercard, shows a stable legal framework, transparent business regulation and large financial flows contribute to top ranking for London, ahead of New York in second place, with Tokyo third and Singapore fourth.

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ビジネス都市ランキング、アジアが躍進　マスターカード調査

　米マスターカード・ワールドワイド（ニューヨーク州）は、世界の大都市のビジネスのしやすさなどを格付けした「2008年度世界ビジネス都市度ランキング」をまとめた。総合順位は、首位はロンドン、2位ニューヨーク、東京が3位で、07年度と同じ顔ぶれになった。新たに調査対象となった大阪は19位に入った。

　シンガポールが前回の6位から4位に、中国・上海は32位から24位に上がるなど、アジア勢の躍進が目立った。一方、米国はロサンゼルスやボストンなど順位を落とす都市が目立った。

　ランキングは、経済学や都市開発の専門家らが「経済安定性」「ビジネスのしやすさ」「住みやすさ」などの指標で都市を総合評価するもので、07年度に始めた。今回の調査対象は75都市で、前年より12増やした。

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London tops list of global financial centers

Mon Jun 9, 10:52 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - London is the most influential financial centre in the world for the second year running, according to MasterCard's second annual survey.

European and Asian cities dominated the list as U.S. cities hit by the weak dollar tumbled in the rankings released on Sunday.

Shanghai, the world's most populous and fastest-growing urban centre, shot up eight spots to No. 24, given its growing importance in China's booming economy, while Los Angeles fell out of the top 10, to 17, as financial-services companies left.

"With a strong and secure economy, vibrant financial markets and a legal and political framework that supports high levels of International trade, London again secures the top spot in the Centers of Commerce Index in 2008," the report says.

"London towers over other cities not only in narrow financial terms but in a broader sense as well," said Michael Goldberg, Program Director, MasterCard Worldwide Centers of Commerce Program.

The index covers 75 cities, ranking them according to their legal and political frameworks, economic stability, ease of doing business, volume of financial activities, presence of financial institutions, reputations as business Centers, contributions toward knowledge creation, and livability.

"The European and Asian cities came out very strong," Goldberg said. "They became strong against the weak dollar."

New York, No. 2, and Chicago, No. 5, were the only two North American cities to make the top 10 global commercial Centers.

Tokyo was third and Singapore fourth. Hong Kong was sixth followed by Paris, Frankfurt, Seoul and Amsterdam.

Moscow improved its financial clout the most, placing 51st due to its key role for commodities in Eastern Europe.

Regionally, Western Europe dominated with 10 of the top 25 cities, while Asia strengthened its reputation as an economic hub with seven of its cities in the top 25.

The highest-ranked Indian city was Mumbai at No. 48.

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Catholic puts faith in Chelsea

By Andrea Felsted, Insurance Correspondent

Published: June 9 2008 03:37 | Last updated: June 9 2008 03:37

Chelsea Building Society is to take over the Catholic Building Society, in a move that could trigger windfalls for Catholic Building Society members.

Chelsea and Catholic said their boards had agreed to merge. However, given the disparity in the size of Chelsea, the UK’s fifth-largest building society, and Catholic, one of the UK’s smallest, it is in effect a takeover. Catholic is understood to have talked to a number of larger societies before reaching a deal with Chelsea.

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Lehman to post $2.8 bln loss
AFP - 41 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Investment giant Lehman Brothers announced Monday it expects a second-quarter loss of some 2.8 billion dollars, citing "challenging market conditions," and said it would raise 6.0 billion dollars in stock offerings.

The historic loss for the company compares to net income of 489 million dollars for the first quarter of fiscal 2008 and 1.3 billion dollars for the second quarter of fiscal 2007, the company said.

"I am very disappointed in this quarter's results. Notwithstanding the solid underlying performance of our client franchise, we had our first-ever quarterly loss as a public company," said chairman and CEO Richard Fuld, Jr.

"However, with our strengthened balance sheet and the improvement in the financial markets since March, we are well-positioned to serve our clients and execute our strategy," he said.

The company said it aims to raise a further 6.0 billion dollars "through offerings of common stock and Non-Cumulative Mandatory Convertible Preferred Stock."

"The proceeds from the offerings will be added to the Firm's capital and used for general corporate purposes," the company added.

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Norway starts increasing StatoilHydro stake
By Wojciech Moskwa and Richard Solem Reuters - Monday, June 9 10:54 am

OSLO (Reuters) - Norway's government said it has started to increase its stake in oil and gas producer StatoilHydro to solidify control over its biggest revenue earner, boosting the company's shares on Monday.

The government aims to raise its stake to 67 percent from 62.5 percent -- an investment of nearly $6 billion at present valuations -- by buying shares "in the market, over time", according to its parliamentary mandate.

Norway's shareholder registry showed the government's stake in StatoilHydro increased by 285,000 shares last week, a fraction of the 143 million shares it needs to buy to raise its stake by 4.5 percentage points.

Some analysts said it was surprising that Norway appeared to have bought the shares during trading hours, not in a special tender after market close.

"Some were expecting they would buy shares in an auction after market close but this time they only bought a very limited number of shares," said Carnegie analyst John Olaisen.

Shares in StatoilHydro, already up on high oil prices, rose as much as 3.8 percent on Monday on the news. By 0943 GMT (10:43 a.m. BST) they were 198.40 crowns, up 2 percent, against a 1.2 percent rise on the DJ Stoxx oil and gas index.

"I can confirm that the state has bought shares," said Unni Claussen, a spokeswoman for the Petroleum and Energy Ministry.

She declined to comment further on the transaction or the timing of such purchases in the future.

Analysts have long said that the looming share purchases have kept a firm floor under StatoilHydro shares.

The company trades at 10 times forecast 2009 earnings, head of rivals such as Royal Dutch Shell at 9.65 times, Italy's ENI at 9.4 times and France's Total SA at 8.75 times, according to Thomson Reuters data.

The decision to raise Norway's stake stems from last year's merger between Statoil and Norsk Hydro's oil and gas division, which diluted the state's stake in its biggest oil and gas producer from more than 70 percent.

The Oslo bourse said on Monday that it did not deem the government to be a primary insider in StatoilHydro, meaning that the state did not have to disclose every transaction it makes. But, like all shareholders, it must announce when it tops key ownership thresholds, the next of which is 66.67 percent.

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Casinos look to technology to reduce Macau's baccarat addiction
By Polly Hui AFP - Monday, June 9 06:15 am

MACAU (AFP) - Gambling innovators are betting on creating culturally-specific slot machines and computerised games to lure Asian players away from well-worn seats at the baccarat tables to more profitable pursuits.

In the face of rocketing labour costs and a need to diversify gaming revenue away from the traditional table game, casinos in the gaming haven of Macau are hoping the new designs will recreate the success of slots in Las Vegas.

"There are plenty of games in the market with themes on Star Wars, Spiderman and the like," said Tony Tong, chief executive officer of PacificNet, a gaming technology company.

"Asian people know about these stories but they do not have an emotional or cultural attachment," he told AFP, on the sidelines of Global Gaming Expo Asia, at Macau's vast Venetian casino resort.

Tong said computerised games needed to use stars such as martial arts actor Jackie Chan, and singers from the hit television series "Super Voice Girls," the Chinese equivalent of "American Idol".

Tong, who is a major supplier to casinos owned by Macau's gaming tycoon Stanley Ho, said although some games were linked to late kung fu star Bruce Lee and ancient Chinese stories such as the Monkey King, they had become outdated for Asian gamblers.

Tong's company employs 500 game designers and engineers in Macau, Hong Kong and China aiming to outdo foreign rivals. If he succeeds he will meet a much-needed shift in the southern Chinese city's model, as the tripling of croupier salaries in recent years has pressured casinos' bottom line.

While gaming revenues in Macau last year overtook those of the Las Vegas Strip, government figures show up to 88 percent of it was spent on baccarat tables, where one dealer can only serve a maximum 12 players at any one time.

Chinese gamblers tend to congregate around tables they feel are on a lucky streak, with tables nearby standing empty, cutting into casino profits.

Government figures show that only 4.3 percent of the city's total revenues were from slot machines, compared to what Tong says is as much as 60 percent in Las Vegas.

Some industry observers doubt slot machines will ever take off in Asia, arguing that Asian players prefer communal games and try to predict the game results by looking at their dealers' facial expressions.

Mark Yoseloff, chairman and chief executive officer of Shuffle Master, a major international gaming products provider for Macau's casinos, said more research was needed on gamblers' patterns and motivations.

"It is very important we gain a better understanding of Asian gamblers, or more particularly Chinese gamblers," he said. Mainland Chinese make up the bulk of Macau's casino customers.

However, there are some signs of change.

There are currently around 15,000 slot machines in Macau's casinos, compared to just 2,000 eight years ago, said Tong. He estimated that number would rise to 30,000 to 40,000 in a few years.

Gabe Hunterton, vice president of casino operations at the MGM Grand Macau, said there was no resistance to new technology.

"Chinese customers are generally more technologically-advanced than US-based customers," he said. "But they tend to be less comfortable just with slot machines themselves because they don't have much experience with them."

Hunterton said his casino has tried to overcome that barrier by training staff to encourage Chinese customers to use the machines.

They also placed as many machines as possible in one geographical area, so that Chinese gamblers, who tend to move in groups of six to eight, could play together on the same type of machine.

Meanwhile, the race is on to provide electronic tables that retain the element of live dealers and real cards while the wagering is done electronically, without the hassle of making changes or payout.

Tong said his company's machines could deal with between 200 and 300 players at one time, cut the length of each deal from two minutes to 30 seconds and minimise dealer errors and fraud.

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Arctic region likely to become the center of World War III
09.06.2008 Source: Pravda.Ru URL: http://english.pravda.ru/world/europe/105459-arctic-0

Global warming may take the struggle for the division of the Arctic region to the boiling point. The resources of the region will soon become available for mining. About 20-25 percent of world’s crude and natural gas reserves are located on the Arctic shelf, experts say. In addition, Greenland gradually comes out of its ice anabiosis. It is not ruled out that this land will become independent on Denmark to turn into a large oil-mining country.

An international conference with the participation of ministers of five Arctic states – the USA, Russia, Norway, Denmark and Canada, took place last week in the town of Ilulissat, Greenland. The conference was held to discuss the rules of dividing the Arctic. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea defines the rights and responsibilities of nations in their use of world’s oceans. However, the Arctic region, which does not belong to any country, is obviously a tidbit for many. Some experts even say that the next world war will start in the Arctic.

The participants of the conference attempted to pretend that everything is quiet in the Arctic region. The joint declaration of the ministers, which was approved following the results of the meeting, said that the countries did not see a need in elaborating the new international regime to administer the Arctic Ocean. The officials only promised to accordingly observe the development of the situation in the Arctic Ocean.

Russia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov, was even more specific in his statements: “We do not share uneasy forecasts pertaining to the future clash of interests of Arctic and even non-Arctic states under global warming conditions, which lighten the access to natural resources and transport routes,” he said.

Many experts said that it was Russia that launched the Arctic race when it placed its flag on the ocean floor in the area of the North Pole in the summer of 2007. Sergei Lavrov said on the even of the conference that it was a symbolic action which did not imply Russia’s claims to the North Pole.

However, it is worthy of note that Russia submitted an application to the United Nations Organization in 2001 for the right to own the territory of 1.2 million square kilometers along the Lomonosov underwater mountain chain, which Russia views as the continuation of its continental shelf.

The expedition, which placed the Russian flag on the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, was collecting the geological data that could back up the nation’s territorial claims. Russia has a very strong opposition at this point. The USA believes that the proofs, which Russia provided, were not convincing. Furthermore, Denmark strives to prove that the underwater mountain ridge is the geological continuation of Greenland. Other Arctic states – Canada and Denmark, the USA and Canada – also have their own disputes regarding the Arctic region.

There are three countries laying their claims to the Lomonosov underwater ridge – Russia, Denmark and Iceland (partially). In addition, alternative research works conducted on the subject say that the ridge is a part of the North American continental plateau. Therefore, the USA and Canada may take part in the dispute too. To crown it all, Greenland may become a full-fledged member of the Arctic race.

Until recently, Greenland, the largest island in the world, has been covered with a kilometer-thick layer of snow and ice. Greenland regularly receives 400 million euros a year from Denmark, which is more than enough to provide the comfortable well-being to the 50,000-strong population of the island. Greenland set up its own government in 1979, whereas Denmark was left with only defense and foreign policy issues.

It turns out now that Greenland needs its own oil too. Moreover, Greenland is rich with gold, zinc and even diamonds. The diamond fever started on the island in 2007 when Canada’s Hudson Resources announced the finding of 236 diamonds there, the largest of which was a stone of 2.4 carats.

The US Geological Service (USGS) says that Greenland has the largest crude and natural gas reserves in the Arctic region. Experts of the Greenland oil company Nunaoil say that crude reserves in the north-eastern part of the island exceed 30 billion barrels. They believe that the commercial extraction of the hydrocarbon resources can begin in the nearest future. It is noteworthy that the government of Greenland has already issued licenses to oil companies of Denmark, Canada and Great Britain to conduct the geological survey on the shelf.

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Iran continues to bravely slam USA and its closest ally, Israel
04.06.2008 Source: AP © URL: http://english.pravda.ru/world/asia/105431-iran-0

Shimon Peres, the President of Israel, is not happy about UN’s decision to invite Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the food summit in Rome, Italy. Peres claimed that Ahmadinejad’s appearance on the summit would distract attention from problems of hunger in the world.

"Inviting Ahmadinejad to this event is a disservice to the purpose of the meeting. The world is short of food, not of bombs, the world is short of help, not of hatred,", Peres said in an interview with The Associated Press.

The Iranian president stole attention of the world media again when he stated at the Rome food conference that Israel was “doomed to go.”

Ahmadinejad does not conceal his hatred of the Jewish state and continues to predict its destruction. The Israeli administration believes that Iran is developing a nuclear program and thus identifies the nation as its biggest threat, taking into consideration the fact that Ahmadinejad already promised to wipe Israel off the map.

Another top official of Iran, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani stated recently that Iran and other Muslim nations must stop the USA from enslaving Iraqis. The official said that Washington and Baghdad try to enslave Iraq though a long-term security agreement.

Rafsanjani also said that the US-led occupation of Iraq represents a danger to all nations of the region. The above-mentioned security deal would create a permanent occupation of the region, the official said.

The comments were the strongest and most high-level public condemnations of the potential security deal by an Iranian official. Rafsanjani, a former president of Iran, heads two of the country's most powerful clerical governing bodies, the Expediency Council and the Assembly of Experts.

"The essence of this agreement is to turn the Iraqis into slaves before the Americans, if it is sealed. This will not happen. The Iraqi people, the Iraqi government and the Islamic nation will not allow it," Rafsanjani said.

Iran has been critical of the security agreement, largely in private talks with Iraqi officials. The deal, which the Iraqis and Americans hope to finish in mid-summer, would establish a long-term security relationship between Iraq and the United States, and a parallel agreement would provide a legal basis to keep U.S. troops in Iraq after the U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year.

Supporters believe the deal would help assure Iraq's Arab neighbors, notably Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, that Iraq's Shiite-led government would not become a satellite of Shiite-dominated Iran as American military role here fades.

But public critics in Iraq worry the deal will lock in American military, economic and political domination of the country. Some Iraqi politicians have attacked the deal, especially those loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr, the anti-American cleric whose militiamen fought U.S. and Iraqi troops in Baghdad until a May truce ended seven weeks of fighting.

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Gas leak in China threatens Russian Far East
15:41 | 07/ 06/ 2008

Print version

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti commentator Tatyana Sinitsyna) - The numerous deities of Chinese mythology must be angry about something, what with bird flu virus hitting the provinces of Henang and Hubei, a huge death toll in an earthquake in Sichuan, and a recent gas leak in the Heilongjiang province.

The Xinhua news agency reported the death of three people, and it later transpired that eight had been poisoned. This is all China's main news agency said. Not a word about the causes or scale of the incident or the environmental damage involved.

According to an unofficial report, the chemical leak occurred at a pulp-and-paper plant in the town of Qiqihar. It lies only 250 miles (400 kilometers) up the Nin River, a major tributary of the Songhua River, which flows into Russia.

A local administration source in China earlier said the leak was caused by the explosion of a WWII bomb found by peasants.

Russians living across the border are worried, because the Songhua River flows into the Amur. If the spillage reaches the confluence point, it will be the second environmental disaster of this scale in the past few years.

The Chinese authorities' silence about the incident in Qiqihar "is a violation of an agreement signed between the [Russian] Natural Resources Ministry and China's Environmental Committee," said Minister Yury Trutnev.

The ministry earlier sent a note to China requesting official information as to the location, the cause of the incident and the type of chemicals that could have leaked into the surrounding area.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has also expressed its concern.

China is a difficult neighbor when it comes to the environment. It is growing rapidly and building modern industries, but obsolete equipment cannot be replaced or environmental programs launched overnight.

In November 2005 an explosion at a plant owned by the Jilin Petroleum and Chemical Company caused 100 tons of potentially lethal benzene to spill into the Songhua River. The spillage caused substantial environmental damage in Russia's Far East, as a huge slick of chemicals was carried down the Amur.

Another similar incident occurred a year later, and experts say this is only the beginning.

Viktor Danilov-Danilyan, director of the Russian Institute of Water Problems, said China had neglected environmental problems for too long, and therefore would not be able to restore order soon.

After these two incidents, the Russian Natural Resources Ministry and China drafted and signed, at the end of January 2008, the first bilateral agreement on the rational use and protection of trans-border waters.

China has allocated 13.5 billion yuan, or about $1.6 billion, for cleaning up the Songhua River and its banks. It has also agreed to coordinate methods for assessing the negative impact of such accidents and now allows Russian specialists to inspect the plants responsible for polluting the environment.

One of the key clauses in the agreement provides for mutual information exchange about industrial accidents. However, China again resorted to its "keep-mum" tactic when the explosion shook Qiqihar, implying that the local authorities had not known about the agreement with Russia.

Russian experts have established that the gas leak contained phosgene, a colorless, volatile liquid that is highly poisonous. It gained notoriety as a chemical weapon during WWI. There is no known antidote.

Phosgene is also used in organic synthesis and in making dyes.

The Typhoon analytical center at the Russian weather service in Obninsk near Moscow has calculated the possible movement of a phosgene cloud with an explosion altitude of 500, 1,500 or 3,000 meters northward, eastward or southeastward.

They have concluded that the poisonous cloud could reach Russia two or three days after the explosion.

The Chinese inspectors working at the explosion site claim that the incident has not damaged the environment. The Russian ministries of foreign affairs and emergencies also say there is no danger to people or the environment in the Russian regions bordering on China.

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UK bankers look at extra Libor setting sessions

By Michael Mackenzie in New York

Published: June 9 2008 23:44 | Last updated: June 9 2008 23:44

The British Bankers’ Association is to consider two new daily fixings for dollar Libor in addition to the current London setting of its key floating rate benchmark for interbank lending.

The proposals would represent a radical change for Libor, which is used as the daily reference rate for billions of dollars worth of loans and derivatives but which has come under intense scrutiny during the credit crunch.

Libor is calculated for an array of currencies and its recent high levels above central bank overnight rates have led to calls that the BBA reforms its system of calculating the benchmark, particularly for the dollar.

The proposed reform would seek to restore confidence and liquidity by setting rates more in line with supply and demand for dollar market lending.

One criticism of the dollar Libor process has been that it is set in London before New York opens for business. Of the 16 banks that supply the BBA with dollar quotes, just three are US based.

The BBA plans to seek the views of market participants as to whether there should be a second US dollar fix when New York opens and an additional European dollar index that seeks to capture US dollar trading in Europe.

The BBA also said in a statement that it would “take soundings on whether the historically transparent rate-setting mechanism is stigmatising contributors”.

Dollar Libor has been well above central bank rates in recent months, but it has trailled other money market rates.

This has sparked concerns that contributing banks have been reluctant to post higher Libor quotes as it would raise concerns they have funding problems.

In recent months Libor has been a barometer of bank lending and balance sheet stress. The difference between overnight rates set by central banks and those quoted in the money markets have been persistently higher than normal.

Demand for dollar funding among European banks has driven the jump in Libor and this has flowed into the settings for euro and sterling denominated floating rates.

On Monday, three-month dollar Libor was set at 2.69 per cent, well above the current Federal funds rate of 2 per cent. A year ago, Libor was set about 12 basis points above the funds rate.

The BBA holds its annual conference onb Tuesday and plans to outline steps to strengthen how Libor is set.

These will include tighter scrutiny of the rates contributed by banks into the setting mechanism, so that any discrepancies in the rates must be justified by individual contributing banks.

The BBA will also seek wider membership of the Foreign Exchange and Money Markets Committee, the independent body which oversees the process.

Finally, the BBA plans increasing the numbers of contributors to some of the rate-setting panels.

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Food aid declines to near 50-year low

By Javier Blas in London

Published: June 9 2008 18:06 | Last updated: June 9 2008 18:06

Food aid volumes sank last year to their lowest level in almost 50 years as rising agricultural commodity prices – particularly for wheat, corn and rice – hit donors’ budgets, a United Nations report will say on Tuesday.

The Food Aid Flows report estimates global deliveries dropped last year to 5.9m tonnes – the lowest level since records began in 1961 and 15 per cent below the figure for 2006. The previous record low was set in 1973, also when the world was facing a food crisis.

The report, by the UN’s World Food Programme, warns that the resources available for food assistance need to increase in order to address negative effects of higher prices. “There is an urgent need to reverse this [downward] trend,” the report says.

“Prices are likely to remain high in the next few years. This could jeopardise the prospects for the Millennium Development Goals and [the] fight against hunger and malnutrition.”

The warning comes as corn prices hit a fresh high of $6.73 a bushel on Monday, up 48 per cent since January. Soyabean and wheat prices also moved higher, further threatening to increase the cost of food aid this year.

Traders said the increase in charges for foodstuff commodities was due to a surge in farming costs caused by record high oil and fertiliser prices, and bad weather in the US, Argentina and China.

Global food aid volumes have declined steadily since 1999, when they stood at 15m tonnes, but the drop accelerated last year as agricultural commodity prices surged.

Wheat prices rose by 122 per cent between 2000 and 2007, corn prices climbed 86 per cent and rice prices surged 62 per cent. The cost of shipping food also doubled last year, further eroding donors’ budgets.

Josette Sheeran, WFP executive director, said: “This is yet further evidence that the dramatic increase in the price of food commodities is having a direct impact on the lives of the hungry.”

Henk-Jan Brinkman, head of food security, policy and markets at the WFP and one of the report’s authors, said the quantities of agricultural commodities that could be bought declined as prices rose because most food aid organisations had fixed budgets and little availability to raise more funds.

The increase in costs hit non-governmental organisations’ food aid operations particularly hard, with a 19 per cent reduction in volumes last year. Multilateral organisations, such as the WFP, suffered a 14 per cent decline, while bilateral government-to-government aid schemes, with deeper pockets and often a strong political interest in maintaining volumes, fell 13 per cent.

The largest recipients of food aid were Ethiopia, Sudan, North Korea and Uganda.

The WFP issued earlier this year an emergency appeal to raise more than $755m (€480m, £380m) to cover a shortfall in funding. The Rome-based body raised enough to cover the shortfall thanks to a donation of $500m by Saudi Arabia.

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City fears soothed on executive pay

By George Parker, Political Editor

Published: June 9 2008 20:28 | Last updated: June 9 2008 20:28

Britain will lead the fight against growing European calls for a crackdown on executive pay and bonuses, Kitty Ussher, the Treasury minister, will tell a top City audience on Tuesday.

Ms Ussher will attempt to quash fears that the government could act to curb remuneration packages, as proposed by some trade union leaders and in sympathy with concern in other European Union capitals.

She will tell an international banking conference that pay and bonuses are not a matter for governments.

Her comments are intended to highlight Britain’s position as a free-market champion in Europe and to counter growing fears that Gordon Brown’s government is bowing to anti-business pressure from Labour’s trade union paymasters.

Ms Ussher will say: “We will resist the calls that have been made for direct regulation of executive pay.

“Of course remuneration packages should be strongly linked to effective performance and incentives should be aligned with the long-term interests of the business and shareholders; and we don’t support rewards for failure.”

But she adds: “I’m clear that executive pay is a matter for boards and shareholders, not for governments and regulators.”

Her comments contrast with those of figures such as Horst Köhler, Germany’s president, who recently described global financial markets as “a monster” where senior managers were paid “bizarrely high” sums.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the eurogroup and Luxembourg prime minister, has denounced excessive executive pay as “a scourge”, while President Nicolas Sarkozy of France has talked of the “remoralisation” of capitalism.

France’s finance minister, Christine Lagarde, has said that public pressure could demand “rules, laws and European directives” unless companies showed more restraint in how much they pay top managers.

Mr Brown’s government is also under pressure from unions to take action to curb executive pay at a time of growing financial hardship for ordinary families, possibly through closing tax loopholes and higher taxes on the very wealthy.

Business has grown more suspicious of the government’s motives in recent months, and has criticised moves such as the reform of capital gains tax and increased regulation in the labour market.

Meanwhile George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, will tell the same conference that Gordon Brown is partly responsible for the slump in sterling values, after the banking regulation system he designed failed to avert the Northern Rock crisis.

Mr Osborne, writing in today’s Financial Times, says: “It is surely no coincidence that the start of the sharp devaluation of sterling dates almost precisely from the moment when the world saw depositors queuing on British high streets.”

Mr Osborne also calls for a reform of the Basel II banking accord to make changes to the international capital adequacy rules to manage the credit cycle better, as well as reforming credit ratings agencies.

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Gazprom urged to rethink strategy

By Nikki Tait and Sarah Laitner in Brussels and Neil Buckley in Moscow

Published: May 18 2008 19:44 | Last updated: June 9 2008 14:19

Gazprom, the Russian state-controlled gas monopoly and the main supplier to the EU, should concentrate on supplying its domestic market to avoid shortages at home, one of the country's leading liberals has argued.

Anatoly Chubais, architect of Russia's 1990s privatisation programme and now the head of its former electricity monopoly, said: “I think that, in strategic terms, our priorities should not be Europe or China.

“We have this western stream, northern stream, south stream,” he added, referring to pipeline projects such as Nord Stream and South Stream to export Russian gas to western Europe. “What I believe we need is a Russian stream. The Russian domestic demand is growing a lot. I think that Russia needs to restructure its strategy in this sector.”

Gazprom supplies a quarter of the EU’s gas. But there are concerns in the EU over the company’s continued ability to meet foreign demand and the way that it uses bilateral deals to divide member states .

Yet while suggesting Gazprom should focus on ensuring supply in Russia, Mr Chubais said the EU should not seek to restrict access for Gazprom.

“For Europeans to limit participation on the European market is strategically unreasonable,” he said. “The only result is increase of gas prices in Europe. If I was the European Commission I would support as many suppliers as possible.”

Mr Chubais’ comments, in an interview with the Financial Times in Brussels, came as he nears the end of one of Russia’s biggest and most complicated post-Soviet restructurings. As chief executive of Unified Energy System, Mr Chubais has privatised most of the country’s generating capacity and created a free market in wholesale electricity.

He recently signed off on a €119.7bn ($187bn, £95bn) investment programme in the power industry.

But risks still loom – chiefly over whether there will be sufficient supply of natural gas, and whether Russia's restructured power sector can keep pace with mounting demand.

Mr Chubais said: “Still in Russia, to get connected to the grid is a real problem. To be able to satisfy all the demands for grid connection . . . will lead to a much higher level of growth.

“Having GDP growth [of] 8.1 per cent last year and electricity consumption growth of 2.4 per cent – it is [un]balanced.”

Even with the agreed 20-fold increase in annual investment, it would take at least four to five years before access to the grid would be available to all.

“There is a double effect on economic growth – and [a] contradictory effect. It definitely slows down economic growth by small businesses.

“But at the same time, the investment programme creates a huge demand – demand for energy machines . . . electrical equipment . . . construction materials."

Mr Chubais’ UES will cease to exist at the end of June. Though the liberalisation plans, first suggested in the 1990s, have been delayed and modified, he overcame political and commercial opposition to push through the transformation.

“I believe we will definitely have future mergers in the power sector in generation,” Mr Chubais added. “Now we have 20 generating companies and I believe that it will be less eventually."“

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Warning on US container scanning

By Andrew Bounds in Brussels

Published: June 9 2008 23:31 | Last updated: June 9 2008 23:31

World trade growth is set to slow further because of a US anti-terrorism law that requires all shipping containers to be scanned before embarkation, according to research commissioned by the World Customs Organisation.

The report by the University of Le Havre, to be published on Tuesday, finds that the implementation of the law in 2012 would “slow down international trade dynamics and consequently world growth”. The measure was passed by Congress last year.

Money earmarked to raise capacity at congestion-hit US terminals would go on security measures instead, the report says.

Trading partners, bridling at US insistence that containers be scanned in their port of origin, could also impose reciprocal measures, says the study, led by Frederic Carluer, professor of territorial management at Le Havre.

“It may be perceived as a disguised protectionist measure which would transfer the risk of ‘security’ to its partners,” it says.

However, the study says the move could also be seen as a genuine attempt to guarantee trade flows through security measures.

Containerisation has revolutionised trade, allowing smaller goods such as car parts and toys to be moved by sea, rail and road rapidly.

Yet since the September 11 attacks on the US, security experts have warned that the boxes could be used by terrorists to send bombs or suicide bombers overseas.

US containerised imports, measured in boxes 20ft long (TEUs), have almost tripled in a decade from 7m to 20m annually. Some 325m TEUs, a fifth of them empty, are moved every year annually among 600 ports. Only 0.5 per cent are scanned, although Canada checks around 3 per cent.

China’s rapid growth means Asia accounts for 75 per cent of US imports and would be hit hardest by US measures. Some of its ports are among 59 worldwide, accounting for 85 per cent of US trade, that participate in the container security initiative. That requires them to check consignments considered high-risk, for example from a little known company or originating in parts of the Middle East. US customs would have to increase the numbers of staff examining images from 50 to 1,875 by 2012, the report says.

The European Commission said on Monday that the 100 per cent scanning plan was “costly, inefficient towards improving security and may disrupt cargo traffic”. It said the results of a pilot project introducing 100 per cent scanning at Southampton in the UK had confirmed its view.

The WCO report says the most likely scenario in the US would be the creation of a few megaports with the scale to invest in the technology required and reduce costs below $10 (€6, £5) a box.

It “will resemble an archipelago economy in which a few certified islands, which are secure and at the leading edge of technology, will attract container flows from around the world as obligatory points of passage”, it says.

The law would also accelerate a trend to circumvent strict US rules by using ports just over the border in Mexico or Canada.

It would be good news for equipment makers, with the US scanning market estimated to rise in value from $380m to $1.2bn in 2013.

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Seoul, Tokyo in vanguard of cartel battle

By Nikki Tait in Brussels

Published: June 9 2008 18:45 | Last updated: June 9 2008 18:45

The crackdown on cartels and other anti-competitive business practices has reached an all-time high worldwide, with countries that do not have a long antitrust tradition – such as Korea and Japan – becoming some of the most vigilant enforcers, according to a report published on Tuesday.

The survey, by the specialist journal Global Competition Review, says Japan’s Fair Trade Commission received nearly 80 leniency applications from cartelists last year, far more than any other competition agency. All the applicants were prepared to admit anticompetitive behaviour in return for reduced penalties.

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Dubai targets healthcare for all

By Simeon Kerr in Dubai

Published: June 9 2008 18:22 | Last updated: June 9 2008 18:27

Dubai has announced a radical shake-up of its healthcare system, confirming that from 2009 it will implement an emirate-wide funding system that aims to provide comprehensive medical services for all residents.

The Dubai Health Authority, the government body overseeing the transition, says the new system will expand access to quality healthcare for all residents, ending years of a two-tiered system that in many cases has put the burden of health costs on individuals who could afford it.

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Wealth Evaporates as Gas Prices Clobber McMansions (Update1)

By Rich Miller and Matthew Benjamin
Enlarge Image/Details

June 9 (Bloomberg) -- Sky-high gasoline prices aren't just raising the cost of Eugene Marino's 120-mile (193-kilometer) round-trip to his job in the Washington area. They're reducing his wealth, too.

House prices in his rural subdivision beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains in Charles Town, West Virginia, have plunged as commuting expenses have soared. A four-bedroom home down the street from his is listed for $239,000, after selling new for $360,000 five years ago.

Homeowners in the exurbs aren't the only ones whose assets have taken a hit because of the surge in energy costs. Companies such as General Motors Corp. are writing off billions of dollars in plants and equipment that are no longer viable in an age of dearer oil. The destruction of wealth and capital will weigh on U.S. growth for years to come.

``Our whole economy reflects the relative costs of energy: the cars we drive, the houses we occupy, the kinds of factories we have and the equipment in them,'' says Dana Johnson, chief economist at Comerica Bank in Dallas. ``I'm expecting relatively large changes in all of these things.''

The loss of wealth could be a double whammy for the U.S. economy. In the short run, it depresses demand as homeowners save more and spend less, and companies fire workers. Longer run, it curbs productivity growth, as firms shift their focus from increasing worker efficiency to reducing energy costs.

$4 a Gallon

The national average price of regular gasoline topped $4 a gallon (3.79 liters) for the first time, AAA, the largest U.S. motoring club, reported yesterday.

``At $4 per gallon gas, $125 per barrel oil and $10 per million Btu natural gas, a lot of activity becomes uneconomical,'' says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

The lifestyle of the exurban commuter may be one casualty.

Emerging suburbs and exurbs -- commuter towns that lie beyond cities and their traditional suburbs -- grew about 15 percent from 2000 to 2006, nearly three times as fast as the U.S. population, as Americans moved further out in search of more affordable houses or the bigger ones that are sometimes derided as McMansions.

``It was drive until you qualify'' for a mortgage, says Robert Lang, director of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech in Alexandria, Virginia. ``You can't do that anymore. Your cost of transportation will spike too much.''

The 38-year-old Marino, an archeologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is among those feeling the pinch. ``Eating out and discretionary income are a thing of the past for us,'' he says.

Declining Value

He reckons he once could have sold his 2,700 square-foot (250 square-meter), four-bedroom house for around $450,000 based on the value of other homes in the neighborhood. Now he figures it's worth about $330,000. Gasoline prices have doubled his commuting costs since he bought his home in 2003, he says.

``Gas prices are really hurting demand here,'' says Celia Lainez, a broker at Keller Williams Rice Realty in Martinsburg, West Virginia. She says she has yet to receive a bid on the house down the street from Marino's, which has been on the market for five months.

Nationwide, home prices in neighborhoods with long commutes and no public transportation are falling faster than prices in communities closer to cities, according to a study by Joseph Cortright, an economist at Impresa Consulting. For example, his study found that prices in distant suburbs of Tampa fell 14 percent in the last 12 months, versus a 9 percent drop in areas nearer the city.

Suburbs, Exurbs

``The decline in almost every case is worse in the suburbs and exurbs than it is in close-in neighborhoods because transportation costs are so much more of a factor,'' says Cortright, whose Portland, Oregon, firm studies regional economies.

Americans are trying to cope by switching from gas-guzzling trucks and sport-utility vehicles to more energy-efficient cars. Asian automakers outsold Detroit's Big Three in the U.S. for the first time last month as buyers left GM and Ford Motor Co. trucks on dealer lots in favor of Honda Civics and Toyota Corollas.

``This is a fundamental change,'' Ford Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally told reporters last month. The Dearborn, Michigan-based company plans to temporarily idle its Wayne, Michigan, SUV plant and cut production at its Louisville, Kentucky, pickup-truck facility.

Drastic Steps

Detroit-based GM is taking more drastic steps. It plans to close four North American pickup and large-SUV factories, cutting capacity by 700,000 trucks a year, and may sell its Hummer SUV brand, which averages about 13 miles per gallon (5.5 kilometers per liter) in city driving and 18 on the highway, according to government data.

The largest U.S. automaker is responding to ``a structural change, not just a cyclical change,'' Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner said before the company's annual meeting June 3. Gasoline prices are up 31 percent this year and have doubled since March 2005.

Dennis Virag, president of the Automotive Consulting Group in Ann Arbor, Michigan, says vehicle manufacturers will find it cheaper to shut factories than retool them.

``Domestic automakers, in their infinite wisdom back in the 1980s and 1990s, built factories and tooled factories just to build trucks and SUVs'' like the Ford Explorer, the Chevrolet Suburban and the Ford F-150, Virag says. ``So it's very likely you're going to see more plant closings.''

Airlines Retrenching

Airlines are also retrenching. More than a dozen have failed in the last six months, including Columbus, Ohio-based Skybus Airlines Inc. and Frontier Airlines Holdings Inc. of Denver.

UAL Corp., operator of Chicago-based United Airlines, the world's second-largest carrier, will cut its fleet by 70 planes and shut its low-fare Ted unit to counter record fuel expenses. The airline will ground about 64 Boeing Co. 737s and six Boeing 747s by the end of 2009.

Delta Air Lines Inc. in Atlanta is grounding 90 planes, and Fort Worth, Texas-based AMR Corp.'s American Airlines, the world's largest carrier, plans to reduce capacity on domestic routes by 12 percent.

``Skyrocketing oil prices are changing everything,'' Giovanni Bisignani, chief executive officer of the International Air Transport Association, told the group's annual meeting June 2. ``The situation is desperate.''

The association, whose members account for 93 percent of international traffic, forecasts that airlines may report combined losses of $6.1 billion this year, the worst since 2003.

`Obsolete' Capital Stock

``The change in energy prices makes a portion of the capital stock obsolete,'' says Richard Berner, co-head of global economics at Morgan Stanley in New York. ``That will depress demand.''

He sees the U.S. economy growing at a sub-par 1.4 percent next year after expanding just 1 percent in 2008, held back by a variety of forces that include the destruction of capital resulting from the rise in energy prices.

Zandi at Moody's Economy.com says permanently higher fuel costs will depress productivity growth during the next three to five years as companies retool to boost energy efficiency.

That's what happened in the 1970s, as successive oil shocks, coupled with increased environmental regulation and other factors, led to a sharp slowdown in productivity growth.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said in a June 4 speech at Harvard University that he doesn't see a return of 1970s-style stagflation, in part because the economy is more flexible and adaptable than it was back then. That doesn't mean the future will be pain-free, others say.

``We're going to see some companies go out of business,'' says economist Philip Verleger, president of PKVerleger LLC in Aspen, Colorado. ``There is going to be a large amount of wealth destroyed.''

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家電量販大手8社、今期設備投資計画3割減　消費に不透明感

　大手家電量販店8社の2008年度の設備投資計画額は合計1293億円と、07年度実績より3割強減少する見通しとなった。最大手のヤマダ電機が07年度に東京都心の店舗用不動産を取得した反動で4割強の減少となるほか、コジマやベスト電器など4社が4―5割減らす。デジタル家電需要拡大を背景に各社は積極出店に向け投資を増やしてきたが、個人消費の先行き不透明感を受け、投資を抑制する姿勢が目立ち始めた。

　ヤマダ電機は8社の合計額の半分に当たる600億円を投じる。07年度は東京・新宿で新しい旗艦店の土地・建物を取得したため設備投資額は最高となった。今年度は高額物件の取得は計画しておらず、投資額が減る。

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三井物産など、米で岩石が含む原油開発

　三井物産は利用されていない新資源のひとつであるオイルシェール（油分を含む岩石）の米国での大型開発に参画する。ブラジル国営石油会社ペトロブラスなどと共同で2013年以降、日量5万バレル規模の商業生産を目指し、事業権益の最大2割を獲得する。オイルシェールからの原油量産は成功すれば世界初。米原油先物が一時1バレル140ドルに迫るなど原油高騰が続く中、コスト高で手つかずだった新資源への投資が本格化し始めた。

　両社は米ベンチャー企業のオイルシェールエクスプロレーション（デラウェア州）が米政府から開発権を得ている中西部ユタ州の鉱区開発に参画する。30億―40億バレル（日本の年間消費量の2―3年分に相当）の埋蔵量を見込んでいる。

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水俣病、チッソ分社化法案提出へ　自民、補償問題で進展促す

　水俣病被害者の救済問題で、自民党は患者補償や公的債務返済の円滑化に向け、原因企業・チッソ（東京）を事業部門と補償部門に分社化する特別措置法案をまとめ、10日の水俣問題小委員会で本格的な検討に入った。公明党や野党、各省庁などとの調整を経たうえで、次の臨時国会にも法案を提出する方針だ。

　水俣病を巡っては行政に認定されていない未認定患者の救済に向け、与党プロジェクトチーム（ＰＴ）が一時金150万円の支給などを柱とする救済策をまとめたが、チッソが財源負担を拒否し続けており、暗礁に乗り上げている。株式上場を目指すうえで同社が長年の悲願としていた分社化を実現、方針転換を促す思惑もあるとみられる。

　自民党の分社化案は、杉浦正健衆院議員らでつくる同党の作業チームが策定。チッソを患者補償を担う補償会社（親会社）と好調な液晶事業などを展開する 100％子会社に分け、子会社の新規上場に伴い親会社が全株式を売却。この売却益の一部を熊本県などに納付し、患者補償の支払いや公的債務の返済に充てるとしている。

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政府、原爆症訴訟の上告を断念

　福田康夫首相は10日の閣議後、舛添要一厚生労働相と鳩山邦夫法相と会談し、原爆症集団訴訟を巡る仙台、大阪両高裁の判決について、上告を断念する方針を確認した。政府の認定基準と判決の間に大きな開きがあり、上告審で不利になると判断したもようだ。

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コーヒーに毒物か、岡山大教授が病院搬送

　岡山大は9日、大学院医歯薬学総合研究科の50代の男性教授が5月、薬学部の研究室でコーヒーを飲んだ後、意識がもうろうとし、このコーヒーとみられる飲料物からアジ化ナトリウムが検出されたと発表した。岡山西署は傷害事件とみて捜査。教授の容体は回復している。

　大学によると、5月20日午前7時20分ごろ、教授が研究室で座り込んでいるのを大学院生が発見、119番した。教授が直前に飲んだコーヒーの味がおかしかったと訴えたため、救急隊員が県警に通報した。

　県警は、教授の胃の内容物からアジ化物を検出。その後、コーヒーとみられる飲料物から、毒物に指定されているアジ化ナトリウムを検出した。

　教授は病院に搬送されたが、5月26日に退院。6月2日から通常勤務をしている。「コーヒーは自分で入れた」と話しているという。

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申告漏れ：東日本高速道路が３８億円　追徴税額２１億円

　東日本高速道路（東京都千代田区）は９日、東京国税局の税務調査を受け、０５年１０月の民営化から０７年３月までに約３８億５０００万円の申告漏れを指摘されたと発表した。このうち、仮装・隠ぺいを伴う所得隠しは約１億８０００万円あったという。重加算税や地方税を含む追徴税額は約２１億円に上る見込み。

　費用の計上時期などの経理ミスで申告漏れを指摘された。さらに、外注した業務が年度をまたいで実施されたにもかかわらず、単年度内に終わったように装うため、外注業者に日付のない納品書を発行させていた行為が所得隠しに当たるとされたという。

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Man flees N Korea after 33 years
Map

A South Korean fisherman who says he was kidnapped by North Korea more than three decades ago has escaped.

Yun Jong-su, 66, is in South Korean custody in China waiting to return home, said Choi Sung-yong, head of an abductees' association.

Mr Yun says he was captured along with 32 other crew members while fishing off South Korea's eastern coast in 1975.

Since then he has married and now says he fears for the safety of his wife and daughter in North Korea.

Mr Yun is said to have escaped from North Korea into China in May, taking refuge at the South Korean consulate in the Chinese city of Shenyang.

He is now awaiting passage back to South Korea, said Mr Choi.

But Mr Yun fears his wife and daughter - who he had hoped would follow him - have been arrested since his escape, Mr Yun told the Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo in an interview.

'Overwhelmed with joy'

Mr Yun says he has worked in a farming machinery factory in Kaechon, a city in central North Korea, since his kidnapping.

Mr Yun's brother, Ju-seung, told AP news agency: "I am overwhelmed with joy... since I came to know that my younger brother is still alive."

Some 480 civilian South Koreans - mainly fishermen - are thought to have been taken by the North.

In addition, more than 500 prisoners of war from the 1950-53 Korean War were never repatriated, according to the South Korean government.

The North denies holding any South Koreans against their will.

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Japanese search for new swimsuits

By Chris Hogg
BBC News, Tokyo

Japanese swimmers waiting at end of pool It can take years to develop a new swimsuit material from scratch for competitive swimmers, but with just weeks to go before the Olympics, Japanese manufacturers are trying to do just that.

They have been forced to try to come up with something after the Nottingham, UK-based firm Speedo developed a new bodysuit, LZR Racer, which has sent world records tumbling.

The new suit has helped swimmers around the world break 30 world records in three months.

It sucks the muscles into the perfect shape to swim. Lighter than others, it repels water, reducing drag.

"I think it's really sad for the Japanese swimmers to feel like they've already lost the race, even before they land in Beijing "
Tomizo Yamamoto, swimwear manufacturer

In Japan they fear it is unbeatable, and the Japanese firms contracted to supply the Olympic team make nothing like it.

Five swimming medals was Japan's target after winning eight in Athens four year ago. Now they are not so sure what they will manage.

Some of the brightest hopes for a medal expressed their frustration at the side of the pool at the National Sports Centre in Tokyo, after a training session for the 31-member Olympic Squad.

"This is a once in a lifetime chance for me," said Hanae Ito. "I don't want to be disadvantaged. I want to do my best so I want to wear the best swimsuits there are."

Model wearing new Speedo swimsuit; pic courtesy Speedo Her fellow team member Ai Shibata was annoyed that everyone was assuming the Speedo suit was so important.

"I think those who broke the records had practised hard and that's why they succeeded," she said.

"It's not all about swimsuits. It's sad that people only talk about swimsuits these days. I hope people will pay more attention to the swimmers and not what we wear."

Hefty price tag

That seems unlikely though. This is an issue that has gripped Japan.

Some grumble that whenever the country does well in a sport, the rules are changed to disadvantage them.

That argument does not stand up to much scrutiny.

2004 Olympics swimming medals

* US - 28 (12 gold)
* Australia - 15 (7 gold)
* Japan - 8 (3 gold)
* Netherlands - 7 (2 gold)
* France - 6 (1 gold)
* Germany - 5 (0 gold)
* Ukraine - 2 (2 gold)
* Great Britain - 2 (0 gold)


After all, countries across the world which do not have a contract with Speedo, or which cannot afford the hefty price tag for their new suits - they retail at up to £320 ($632) - are wondering whether that means they will not be able to compete on equal terms.

In Japan's second city, Osaka, a huge steam press is churning out dark sheets of a new material at the Yamamoto Factory.

Could this lightweight water-resistant rubber be made into a new Japanese bodysuit in time for the Olympics? Across Japan, companies are trying to develop a suit as good as Speedo's.

Time is against them of course, but the factory's owner Tomizo Yamamoto says the country's swimmers deserve the best.

"I think it's really sad for the Japanese swimmers to feel like they've already lost the race," Mr Yamamoto says, "even before they land in Beijing.

Frustration

He argues that the swimmers would understand if they lost a race "fair and square" but not if they lost to someone wearing a suit they think is giving them an unfair advantage.

He has offered his new material to the three official Olympic swim team manufacturers, not because he wants to make money, he insists, but because he believes: "We should send these athletes to the Olympics fully prepared."

" It's two months to go before the Olympics and it's a very important time for the preparation... this issue came out and it's bothering for the swimmers"
Kazonori Enami, sports journalist

Japanese swimmer diving into pool Japan's Swimming Federation had given its three official suppliers just weeks to come up with new suits. Last Friday it announced that a few prototypes were ready.

But the suits now need to be tested and approved by the swimming's world governing body. And of course the athletes have to get used to wearing them.

Kazonori Enami, a Japanese sports journalist, says the dithering over what to wear is distracting the swimmers at a crucial time.

"It's two months to go before the Olympics, and it's a very important time for the preparation," he says.

"Normally the swimmers just concentrate on the training, but this issue came out and it's bothering for the swimmers."

Stark choice

He is right. Another medallist, Kousuke Kitajima, gets frustrated back at the National Sports Stadium as journalists press him for more on the row over which bodysuits he and his fellow team-mates should wear.

Lightweight rubber "I want to wear the swimsuit that I believe is best for me," he says, but then snaps: "I don't want to say anything else about the swimsuits, I'm sorry."

The Japanese swimmers say they just want the right to compete with the best in the world on equal terms.

Swimming should be about how strong you are and how good your technique is - not what kind of technology is available to help you.

Some have already accused Speedo of beginning a "swimming arms race".

The company dominates this sport, so Japan and others who do not have a contract with the firm face a stark choice.

Either they can innovate, or they can capitulate and let their swimmers leave their country's own brands at home, and compete in British swimwear.

But even that will not be easy. Speedo makes just 70 of the suits each day, they are not cheap, and swimmers all over the world want to get their hands on them.

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Syrian anthem played for Lebanese
Saudi Arabia's Malek Muad, right, passes Lebanon's Bilal Najarin during their World Cup 2010 Asia qualifying soccer match in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 7 June 2008

Saudi Arabian football authorities are investigating an error that led to the Syrian national anthem being played before a match against Lebanon.

Several Lebanese players were visibly angry when the wrong anthem was played before Saturday's game, reports say.

Officials at the stadium quickly realised their mistake, and eventually played the correct national anthem before the World Cup qualifying clash.

Lebanon went on to lose the match in the Saudi capital Riyadh, 2-1.

ANTHEM GAFFES

* Nov 2007: English singer inadvertently sings about his penis being a mountain during a version of the Croat anthem before a game against England
* Jul 2007: Belgian MP breaks into La Marseillaise instead of his own country's anthem on Belgium's national day
* Feb 2004: Tunisian organisers of the African Cup of Nations play Nigerian anthem at half time after getting the wrong tune before the game


Syrian influence in Lebanon remains one of the most divisive issues there.

Tensions in Lebanon between the opposition movement led by Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and Syria, and the pro-Western government erupted into violence last month.

More than 65 people were killed as street battles raged in and around the capital Beirut.

But the rival factions later pulled the situation back from the brink to reach a new power-sharing agreement leading to a national unity government after talks in the Qatari capital, Doha.

---------------------
Israeli woman's return to Gaza

Yael Kahn is an Israeli who moved to London from Tel Aviv in 1991, because she disagreed with Israeli policies towards Palestinians.

Aisha and Yael in Gaza

She recently founded the group "Islington friends of Yibna", to help descendants of Palestinians who fled their village of Yibna in 1948 and settled in a refugee camp in Gaza.

When Gaza's border fence with Egypt was pulled down in January this year - she decided to visit Gaza. She explains why - and what she found.




" I wanted to go to Gaza because I knew people there through the group I set up and I was concerned about them.

I used to go to Gaza from Tel Aviv quite regularly between 1988 until 1991 - during the first intifada - because I was helping Palestinian women prisoners.

I met some extraordinary, strong women back then. The first woman I helped was someone called Aisha al-Kurd, who was imprisoned while she was pregnant with her fifth child.

Anyway, when I heard the border fence had come down, I thought it was a rare chance to get in to Gaza again.

The wall came down on a Wednesday and by Thursday I was in Cairo. I was travelling on my British passport, I didn't renew my Israeli passport when it expired.

I took a Chiroot [a big shared taxi] to al-Arish in Sinai [about 40km from Gaza].

I was quite inhibited during the trip. I do know a bit of Arabic - but I thought if I speak I might be taken off the bus. There were many road blocks and the Egyptian police removed several people from the bus they didn't want going into Gaza.

When we got off at al-Arish the only other person on the Chiroot who wanted to go on to Rafah in southern Gaza was a young Palestinian guy in his 20s. We spoke for the first time then - which gave him a bit of a shock.

gaza wall

He had never met an Israeli before, it was obvious even before he told me.

when he realised why I was going, he was so pleased! He was very protective and adopted me from then on. He didn't even let me pay for our joint taxi to Rafah.

When we arrived, there were thousands of people. It was the first day that cars were allowed out of Gaza and the traffic was choked.

So, we got out of our taxi and walked into Gaza together. We crossed the wall together too. We were going to this place where people had been shut in for so long, and we just walked in. I felt very emotional.

The young Palestinian had family in Gaza City he hadn't seen for five years. He wanted to take me everywhere, but I didn't want to waste his time in Rafah. After much arguing, he eventually agreed to leave me.


"Some people seemed to just guess I was Israeli"

There I was, on my own in Rafah.

It had changed completely since I was last there in 1991. On the one hand there was a lot of reconstruction, some nice-looking four or five-storey houses. But there was also a lot of destruction.

I got some funny looks as I walked around; I was the only woman with my head uncovered and I was on my own, but people were helpful.

Some people seemed to just guess I was Israeli; they said a few words to me in Hebrew. Mundane things like, "What are you looking for?", nothing loaded.

I don't really know how they could tell, because it's years since I left Israel. It must be something to do with my body language, I don't really know.

I started talking to people. They invited me to their homes with typical Palestinian hospitality, and as I told them about my project it came out that I was Israeli.

It made them more curious.

In the first Palestinian intifada, the Palestinians had some contact with Israelis, but now young people have no contact with Israelis whatsoever. It wasn't as natural as during the first intifada and I could feel there was more apprehension. Nevertheless, they were friendly.

Then I decided to ask about Aisha. I have to say, I had had no contact with her since 1991.

"I chose Yibna for my twinning group because I felt my life was built on its ruins"

Back then she was in prison to put pressure on her husband who was also in jail - there were never any charges against her.

She actually had her child in hospital and we managed to secure her release straight from there.

So, I mentioned her name, not expecting anyone to know her - and everyone did! She was clearly very famous and very popular.

They took me straight to her mother's house, who recognised me immediately. It was as if I were a lost relative, come back home.

Aisha came over as soon as she heard I was there. It was wonderful to see her again, after 17 years. One of the nicest moments was standing on the wall with her, on the first day.

That's when she told me about her husband - he was assassinated by Israeli forces within a year of being released from prison.

I stayed four days and three nights in Gaza - the first with Aisha, sharing her bed! The rest of the time with people in Yibna refugee camp.

Aisha's family was originally from the Palestinian village of Yibna. I grew up in the same region, in Kfar Mordechai.

I chose Yibna for my twinning group because I felt my life was built on its ruins.

The trip has given the group a big boost, and since I've got back, I'm in touch with Aisha all the time. "

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Iran's Lebanese 'aircraft carrier'

By Hugh Sykes
BBC News, Beirut

Alam Shourab

Indirect negotiations between Israel and Syria over a possible return of the Golan Heights have major implications for the Lebanese political and militant organisation Hezbollah.

A peace deal with Israel is likely to be conditional on Syria severing its connections with Hezbollah, but it would also remove Syria as the bridge to the group's other state backer, Iran.

In Hezbollah's stronghold in southern Beirut, Alam Shourab, a young manager of a mobile phone shop, is very happy with the movement's dependence on Iran.

Here dozens of buildings and bridges that were bombed by Israel during the summer war in 2006 are being rapidly and impressively rebuilt mostly with funding from Iran.

"Iranian influence is definitely up. When Syria left in 2005 there was a vacuum which was filled by Iran "
Oussama Safa, Lebanon Centre for Policy Studies

"I think this is a good thing," he told me, "Israel is supported by America, so there's nothing wrong with Hezbollah being supported by Iran."

The support is considerable. At the Carnegie Endowment independent think tank in Beirut, Paul Salem put it in a nutshell: "Hezbollah was set up, established, trained, armed, financed... wholly by Iran."

He says Hezbollah has about 50,000 salaried employees and "a large modern army" - most of whom are paid with money from Tehran.

Fact on the ground

One of Hezbollah's 14 members of the Lebanese parliament, Nawar al-Sahili, readily admitted it will be a problem for Hezbollah if the Syrian bridge from Iran is cut by a peace deal between Syria and Israel: "It will be difficult, but it will not be impossible."

Beirut scene I asked Maitre Sahili (he's a French-trained Beirut lawyer) if Hezbollah agreed with the Iranian president's statements about the future elimination of Israel.

No, he said: "Israel is a fact now. And we are acting with this fact. Our border is the Lebanese border".

He told me Hezbollah has no desire to conquer Israel, just to recover Lebanese prisoners and land they say is still occupied by the Israelis.

Would Hezbollah ever allow itself to be used by Iran in a greater strategy against Israel? "Definitely not, I can assure you," Nawar al-Sahili replied.

Paul Salem agrees that Hezbollah is meant as a deterrent to Israel and the US, not a threat to Israel's existence.

"For Iran it's like an aircraft carrier. The US parks aircraft carriers in the Gulf next to Iran; Iran parks it's own aircraft carrier in Lebanon - Hezbollah - which can wreak great destruction on Israel at a moment's notice."

But Iran is trying to gain a stronger foothold in Lebanon, according to the director of the Lebanon Centre for Policy Studies, Oussama Safa.

"Iranian influence is definitely up. When Syria was forced to leave Lebanon in 2005 there was a vacuum which was filled by Iran.

"The Iranian drive to gain more influence in Lebanon is to give them a direct influence without having to go through Syria.

"That's possibly in preparation for a eventual peace deal between Syria and Israel."

Cone conciliation

Away from Beirut's Hezbollah heartland, I met people who deeply resent the growing power of Hezbollah.

Haagen Dazs promotion. Cafe owner Jihad Hakim is still furious about last month's incursion into west Beirut by Hezbollah fighters, who fought street battles and burned down one of the studio complexes of Future TV.

"It was an invasion!" he said. "These people, they get all their orders from you know who, from Iran, from Syria. Iran wants a little army here."

He was being restrained. Another man said it was a case of Hezbollah "raping the Lebanese capital, then setting her free and asking for a kiss".

But the Hezbollah tactic worked. With the Doha agreement, mediated by the Arab league, Hezbollah and its allies in the unity cabinet will have a new power over government decisions.

There are posters all over parts of the capital now proclaiming: Beirut Back to Life. And Haagen-Dazs ice-cream were really quick off the mark.

Their posters say: Taste the Reconciliation - with the Doha Agreement Cone.

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Argentine leader defends tax hike
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner speaks at the presidential palace in Buenos Ares

Argentina's president has defended her government's decision to impose higher grain export tax, which has triggered months of protests by farmers.

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said the additional money raised would be spent on tackling poverty by building more housing, hospitals and roads.

She also apologised to anyone who had been offended by anything she had done.

On Monday, the farmers suspended the protests in the hope of returning to the negotiations with the government.

"I ask that all Argentines commit themselves to the fight against poverty and the redistribution of wealth," President Fernandez said in Buenos Aires.

Tractors block a main highway in Argentina on 19 March as [part of farmers' protests against tax rises "It is impossible to redistribute wealth without touching extraordinary profits."

Ms Fernandez's comments were criticised by one of the leaders of the farmers' movement.

Mario Llambiasi said it was wrong to single out the soya farmers as the sole source of revenue for social programmes.

Argentina raised export taxes on soy from 35% to 45% in March, trying to tap into an international commodities boom.

Argentina is one of the world's leading exporters of soy, wheat and beef.

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Nigeria's removal of Shell hailed
An oil rig in Nigeria

Shell's removal from the controversial oil fields in Nigeria's Ogoniland has been welcomed by the son of executed anti-pollution activist Ken Saro-Wiwa.

Ken Saro-Wiwa Junior, a spokesman for Nigeria's president, told the BBC it was a sign that the government was listening to the Ogoni people.

Nigerian President Umaru Yar'adua said earlier that another company would replace Shell by the end of 2008.

Shell pulled out of Ogoniland in 1993 following community protests.

The campaign against environmental degradation and poverty led to Ken Saro-Wiwa's execution in 1995 after a hasty trial under Nigeria's military rulers.

In protest, the European Union imposed sanctions until 1998 and the Commonwealth suspended Nigeria's membership for three years.

The protests later spread to the rest of the oil-producing Niger Delta, with oil installations attacked, pipelines blown up and oil workers kidnapped.

'Win-win solution'

Mr Saro-Wiwa Junior said Shell's removal from Ogoniland would send a signal to the rest of the volatile region that dialogue was the way forward.

map

"The federal government is willing to listen," he said.

He said that environmental concerns were now being addressed through talks, pointing out that his his father had campaigned on a non-violent platform.

But Mr Saro-Wiwa stressed that it was not the end of the struggle.

"Victory will be when we have sustainable development not just in Ogoniland," but in the whole of Nigeria, he said.

He added that a "win-win solution" should now be found for all the parties involved.

No notification

On Wednesday, President Yar'adua said Shell would be replaced by another company by the end of the year.

Shell suspended its operations in Ogoniland in 1993, leaving large quantities of oil and gas still in the ground.

The government in Abuja says that nobody was benefiting from the current stalemate and it will choose a company acceptable to the Ogoni people.

With oil prices this high, the government is clearly tired of the stand-off, the BBC's Alex Last in Nigeria says.

Shell says it has received no formal notification of any government decision concerning its interest in the area.

Negotiations may continue behind closed doors, our correspondent adds.

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Islamic bank to give food help
Senegal farm

The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) is to give poor, predominantly Muslim countries, $1.5bn (£750m) to help deal with the global food crisis.

It says it will share the money between some of its least developed member states, which are mainly in Africa.

The Bank says the cash is not intended as emergency aid to deal with shortages of food or rising prices.

But it will be used to buy seeds and fertiliser for farmers as well as to fund research into improving yields.

"Some money will be spent for research in order for [farmers] to improve the way they are doing their agriculture," the Bank's President, Dr Ahmad Mohamed Ali, told the BBC World Service.

Controversial crops

He said he would be "happy" for some of the cash to be spent on research into genetically-modified (GM) crops.

GM food is controversial, but some countries, such as Uganda, are warming to the idea.

Countries which are likely to benefit from the IDB handout include Senegal, Mauritania and Yemen.

In many countries the planting season is almost over and that worries the head of the Food and Agricultural Organisation, Jacques Diouf.

"We have to mobilise all resources at our disposal so that the farmers can obtain the seeds," he said.

The FAO has told rich countries that they must increase crop yields and tear down trade barriers in order to help the world's hungriest nations.

At a summit sponsored by the United Nations in Rome, the UN said it would provide an additional $1.2bn of food aid for the 60 nations hardest hit by rising costs.

The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, has said $15bn-$20bn will be needed every year to boo

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Smoking link to hearing loss risk
Ear

Smoking and obesity could both cause permanent hearing damage, say scientists.

Either could threaten blood flow to the ear, they say, with damage levels clearly linked to the level of obesity or the length of a smoking habit.

However, the Antwerp University-led study found that high levels of work noise remained the biggest risk.

In a separate study, smoking in middle age was linked to worse memory, which could hasten the arrival of dementia.

"Once the damage is done, it's done. It does not repair"
Dr Erik Fransen
Antwerp University

A link between smoking and hearing problems has been suggested by others, but the conclusions of the latest research, involving more than 4,000 men and women aged between 53 and 67, offer the most convincing evidence to date.

All the study participants were given a hearing test, then asked about their lifestyle and where they worked.

Dr Erik Fransen, of the University of Antwerp in Belgium, one of the lead researchers, said that the ability to pick out high frequency sounds was damaged in smokers and the obese, although to not as great an extent as those exposed to very loud noise in the workplace.

He said: "The hearing loss is proportional to how much you smoke and your body mass index (BMI).

"It starts getting worse once you have smoked regularly for more than one year."

He said that, unlike some parts of the body, once damage had occurred, there was no prospect of recovery.

"Once the damage is done, it's done. It does not repair."

Blood flow

The theory behind the hearing damage is similar to the reason smoking and obesity can harm other organs.

Both can disrupt the flow of blood around the body, and Dr Fransen suggested that the resulting lack of oxygen, coupled with the failure to remove toxic waste from the ear, can be damaging.

Amanda Sandford, from the pressure group Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), said that the results, published in the Journal of the Association for Research into Otolaryngology, should serve as a warning particularly to younger smokers.

She said: "There are so many young people who think that they can give up in middle age and escape some of the other diseases associated with smoking.

"In this case, some of the damage may already have been done."

The study was part-funded by the Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID), and Dr Mark Downs, from the charity, said that, with an ageing population, age-related hearing loss could be a major problem.

"Losing your hearing in later life can make it harder to maintain contact with friends and families and lead to isolation and depression, so making small concessions now could have an enormous effect in the long term."

A separate research project involved more than 5,000 civil servants, who completed memory and reasoning tests and then repeated them five years later.

It found that smoking in middle age was linked to a decline in memory and verbal reasoning ability.

Memory problems at this age have been linked to a swifter onset of the symptoms of dementia.

This study was conducted jointly between the University of Paris and University College London.

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Oily fish 'cuts eye disease risk'
An eye

Eating food rich in omega-3, such as oily fish, could help some people avoid one of the most common causes of vision loss, a research review suggests.

The Annals of Ophthalmology review suggests omega-3 may cut the risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) by a third.

However, the Australian researchers stop short of encouraging everyone to eat more omega-3 for this reason alone.

An estimated 500,000 people in the UK suffer from AMD in some form.

"Prevention of this condition remains a major public health concern"
Spokesman
RNIB

It is a progressive and irreversible condition caused by thinning and bleeding around the macula - the central portion of the retina.

People with AMD, mostly over the age of 60, lose the ability to see fine detail, and, in severe cases, can choose to become registered blind, even though they still have some peripheral vision left.

Studies have already linked omega-3 fatty acids with a variety of health benefits, the most significant being suggestions that it can help people with heart disease.

The University of Melbourne study added up the results of nine previous studies on omega-3 and AMD, a total of 88,974 participants, including more than 3,000 with AMD.

Doing this gives the results more statistical strength - making it more likely than in the original nine studies that the findings are simply due to chance or some other confounding factor.

Eating fish twice a week was linked to a reduced risk of AMD, and a 38% reduction in risk was found when those eating the most omega-3 were compared with those eating the least.

'Raise awareness'

Dr Elaine Chong, who led the research, said that omega-3 fatty acids were a vital component of the retina, and it was possible that a shortage of the chemical could "initiate" the disease as retinal cells were constantly shed and renewed.

However, she was cautious about recommending a change in diet, as little of the research analysed was set up to provide solid evidence.

"Although this meta-analysis suggests that consumption of fish and foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids may be associated with a lower risk of AMD, there is insufficient evidence from the current literature, with few prospective studies and no randomised clinical trials, to support their routine consumption for AMD prevention."

A spokesman for the vision charity RNIB said that, given the high cost of treatment for one type of AMD, and the lack of treatment for the other, prevention was a "major public health concern".

"The analysis of the existing evidence confirms that smoking is the only proven avoidable risk factor for AMD.

"We would welcome randomised controlled trials on the role that omega-3 fatty acids and fish consumption may be able to play in preventing AMD.

"In the interim we would encourage the government to do more to raise awareness of the link between smoking and blindness."

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UK bankers look at extra Libor setting sessions

By Michael Mackenzie in New York

Published: June 9 2008 23:44 | Last updated: June 9 2008 23:44

The British Bankers’ Association is to consider two new daily fixings for dollar Libor in addition to the current London setting of its key floating rate benchmark for interbank lending.

The proposals would represent a radical change for Libor, which is used as the daily reference rate for billions of dollars worth of loans and derivatives but which has come under intense scrutiny during the credit crunch.

Libor is calculated for an array of currencies and its recent high levels above central bank overnight rates have led to calls that the BBA reforms its system of calculating the benchmark, particularly for the dollar.

The proposed reform would seek to restore confidence and liquidity by setting rates more in line with supply and demand for dollar market lending.

One criticism of the dollar Libor process has been that it is set in London before New York opens for business. Of the 16 banks that supply the BBA with dollar quotes, just three are US based.

The BBA plans to seek the views of market participants as to whether there should be a second US dollar fix when New York opens and an additional European dollar index that seeks to capture US dollar trading in Europe.

The BBA also said in a statement that it would “take soundings on whether the historically transparent rate-setting mechanism is stigmatising contributors”.

Dollar Libor has been well above central bank rates in recent months, but it has trailled other money market rates.

This has sparked concerns that contributing banks have been reluctant to post higher Libor quotes as it would raise concerns they have funding problems.

In recent months Libor has been a barometer of bank lending and balance sheet stress. The difference between overnight rates set by central banks and those quoted in the money markets have been persistently higher than normal.

Demand for dollar funding among European banks has driven the jump in Libor and this has flowed into the settings for euro and sterling denominated floating rates.

On Monday, three-month dollar Libor was set at 2.69 per cent, well above the current Federal funds rate of 2 per cent. A year ago, Libor was set about 12 basis points above the funds rate.

The BBA holds its annual conference onb Tuesday and plans to outline steps to strengthen how Libor is set.

These will include tighter scrutiny of the rates contributed by banks into the setting mechanism, so that any discrepancies in the rates must be justified by individual contributing banks.

The BBA will also seek wider membership of the Foreign Exchange and Money Markets Committee, the independent body which oversees the process.

Finally, the BBA plans increasing the numbers of contributors to some of the rate-setting panels.

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US-India nuclear deal dead

By Edward Luce and Daniel Dombey in Washington DC

Published: June 10 2008 22:00 | Last updated: June 10 2008 22:00

The historic civil nuclear deal with India that George W. Bush saw as one of his signature foreign policy achievements is almost certainly dead, according to senior US officials.

Asked whether it was now impossible to push the deal through in the dying days of Mr Bush’s term, one administration official told the Financial Times: “That is probably correct.”

The Bush administration, which unveiled the deal at a White House meeting with Manmohan Singh, India’s prime minister, in 2005, has watched with growing frustration as New Delhi has repeatedly missed deadlines to complete the deal for fear of provoking its leftist coalition allies.

Until recently, US officials continued to hope that Mr Singh would persuade his colleagues, including Sonia Gandhi, to face down the communist parties that last year threatened to pull the plug on the coalition government if it pushed ahead with the deal.

Under the terms of what many saw as an audacious agreement that gives India access to civil nuclear technology and material without requiring it to renounce its nuclear weapons or join the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, New Delhi had to secure the approval of the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

After that, it would be submitted to the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group before returning to the US Congress for final approval. New Delhi, however, has sat on the deal for the past 10 months without inviting IAEA inspectors to begin their safeguards inspections.

That has swallowed up what little time there was to get it done before Mr Bush leaves office. “Even if the Indian government were suddenly to turn around and get the IAEA stage completed, there would be no time for the remaining two stages,” said Ashley Tellis, one of the original architects of the deal and now an adviser to John McCain’s presidential campaign.

Raja Mohan, an Indian commentator and one of the strongest cheerleaders of the deal, said on Tuesday that there could still be a sliver of a chance of reviving it this year if India’s ruling Congress party, headed by Mrs Gandhi, chose to face down its leftist allies at a possible meeting with the communist leaders next week. “The optimistic way of thinking about it is that the deal is dying but not yet dead,” said Mr Mohan. “The pessimists might say, ‘The deal is dead but not yet buried’.”

Senior Indian officials, who declined to comment, say privately that their best chances of reviving the deal would come with the election of Mr McCain, the Republican party’s presumptive presidential candidate, who last month stated his strong support for it. Barack Obama, who submitted a “poison pill” amendment to the original Senate bill in late 2006, is “highly ambivalent” about it, in the words of an adviser to the Democratic party’s presumptive candidate.

The collapse of the deal would jeopardise India’s access to sensitive US technology which could have an impact on defence sales and civil nuclear development. “If you look at the regime between 1974 [when India conducted its first nuclear test] and 1998 [its second] that would give you some idea of what India would be heading back towards,” Mr Tellis said. “This would be an historic blunder.”

Timeline: From sanctions to accord

1974 “Peaceful nuclear tests” conducted under Indira Gandhi, prompting US sanctions

1998 First open nuclear weapons tests carried out under Atal Behari Vajpayee, prompting new US sanctions

2001 India offers immediate assistance to the US after September 11 attacks

2005 Manmohan Singh and George W. Bush sign the initial agreement to provide nuclear fuel and technology to India

March 2006 George W. Bush visits India to conclude the deal. In November the US Senate passes it

July 2007 Indian and US negotiators resolve their outstanding differences on the deal

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Regulation model has failed, says Merkel

By Lionel Barber, Bertrand Benoit and Hugh Williamson in Berlin

Published: June 10 2008 23:30 | Last updated: June 10 2008 23:30

Continental Europe should take the lead in devising new rules for financial markets because the Anglo-Saxon model of regulation has failed, Angela Merkel has told the Financial Times.

The German chancellor said ahead of next month’s Group of Eight summit, which is expected to discuss new regulation, that the largely “Anglo-Saxon” organisation of financial markets undervalued the growing weight and importance of the eurozone.

In particular, she called for a European credit ratings agency to counterbalance the dominance of Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s. “Europe has developed a certain independence thanks to the euro,” she said. “But . . . in terms of the rules, the transparency guidelines and the entire standardisation of financial markets, we still have a strongly Anglo-Saxon-dominated system.

“I think that in the medium term Europe will need a working ratings agency because the robust currency system of the euro has not yet secured sufficient influence over the rules governing financial markets.”

A European ratings agency is among several suggestions Germany has made in the G8 leading industrial nations as part of a proposed overhaul following the credit squeeze.

Berlin also wants to ban the agencies from rating products they helped to create. Ms Merkel said she would welcome new capital adequacy ratios for banks, linking the amount they must put aside to the level of risk in their asset portfolios.

“We need to think about the relationship between capital and risk,” Ms Merkel said. “But these rules can only be discussed at an international level."

She refused to endorse remarks by Horst Köhler, the German president, that international financial markets were a “monster” but scolded bankers for creating, selling and buying structured products they did not fully understand.

“Compared to industry, where people have a deep understanding of the products they deal with, financial markets are a lot more opaque. That has to change so that a country like Germany, which still produces a lot of industrial goods, does not have to carry the economic risks.”

Ms Merkel also indirectly criticised Josef Ackermann, the Deutsche Bank chief executive, who said he no longer believed in the “self-healing force of the market”. She warned that the backlash against the banks must not be hijacked by opponents of free trade: “We should not give protectionism an open flank.”

The chancellor praised the euro as having allowed the economy of the EU to partially decouple from the US, at least in the industrial goods area if not in financial markets, and reaffirmed her support for the independence of the European Central Bank.

“If we decide to subject the actions of the ECB to political contingencies, there will always be one or several countries with good grounds to influence the ECB. I say beware: we need crystal-clear principles or we will shake confidence in the euro.”

Unlike President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, she played down the economic risks to the eurozone of the currency’s rapid appreciation against the dollar, saying that it had partially cushioned the increase in oil and raw material prices.

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West warns of tighter Iran bank curbs

By James Blitz in Brdo, Slovenia

Published: June 10 2008 18:06 | Last updated: June 10 2008 18:06

The US and European Union on Tuesday threatened to impose tighter sanctions on Iranian banks unless Tehran suspended its uranium enrichment programme.

On the first day of President George W. Bush’s week-long visit to Europe – his last in office – the US and EU urged Iran to accept a new offer of better relations with the international community if Tehran suspended its nuclear plans.

But in a joint communiqué signed at the US-EU summit in Slovenia, both sides warned Iran of penalties if it failed to accept the offer to be put to Tehran by Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, this weekend.

The communiqué stated that, if Iran failed to accept, both sides would supplement the recent wave of United Nations sanctions “with additional measures” that could affect the country’s banks.

It added: “We will continue to work together . . . to ensure Iranian banks cannot abuse the international banking system to support proliferation and terrorism.”

At a summit press conference, Mr Bush acknowledged the limits of US policy on Iran and appeared resigned to leaving the stand-off to his successor. ”I leave behind a multilateral framework to work on this issue,” he said.

However, European diplomats cautioned that differences could arise between the US and EU in the final months of the Bush administration over exactly when Brussels should move to impose supplementary EU sanctions on Iran.

Mr Solana will visit Iran for the first time in two years this weekend, carrying the offer from the international community.

But differences between Washington and Brussels could emerge later. If Iran asked for time to study the proposals, the EU might want to hold back on new sanctions on Iran, testing US patience.

Washington would also like to widen Iran’s economic isolation. But some EU states are still concerned not to burn their bridges with Iran, given its huge resources of oil and natural gas.

Tuesday’s summit was depicted by Mr Bush and EU leaders as a celebration of the transatlantic relationship, which foundered after the Iraq war.

Aside from Iran, one of the issues under discussion was what progress could be made on climate change, set to be an important topic at next month’s Group of Eight summit in Japan.

The US refused to make binding commitments on reducing greenhouse gases, as the EU has long demanded. Instead, Mr Bush emphasised the need for China and India to sign up.

“Unless China and India are at the table, unless they agree to a goal, unless they agree to firm strategies to achieve that goal, I don’t see how any international agreement can be effective,” he said. But he did not exclude the chance of agreeing the outlines of a deal before he leaves office.

On soaring oil prices, Mr Bush said Saudi Arabia’s call for a summit between oil producers and consumers was an “interesting idea by his majesty, the king of Saudi Arabia”.

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France to sell stake in Francaises des Jeux

By Peggy Hollinger in Paris

Published: June 11 2008 05:16 | Last updated: June 11 2008 05:16

The French government will on Wednesday announce the sale of a stake in Francaises des Jeux, the world’s third largest lottery operator with annual sales of €9.5bn ($14.7bn).

It was unclear on Tuesday night how big a stake would be sold or how much would be raised. But the French government has in recent weeks indicated that it is prepared to sell more of its state shareholdings to fund a host of initiatives such as the reform of its universities. Speculation has focused on the sale of a further stake in EDF, the French energy group.

Francaises des Jeux is 72 per cent owned by the French state, with the balance held by employees and a group of charitable organisations. The group which holds a monopoly on lottery and scratch cards in France draws 29m punters a year.

Paris was recently forced by the threat of European Union sanctions to agree to open up its gaming market to competition. From the second half of next year Francaises des Jeux and the horse racing betting monopoly PMU will face competition from online gaming groups, subject to strict regulations.

France has long held out against gaming liberalisation, in an attempt to preserve its citizens’ apparent resistance to gambling addiction. According to Francaises des Jeux only 71 per cent of French adults place a lottery bet once a year against 76 per cent in Britain, 79 per cent in Italy and 91 per cent in Spain.

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Merkel emerges as Germany’s anchor

Published: June 10 2008 19:39 | Last updated: June 10 2008 19:39

After narrowly scraping a general election victory in 2005, few believed Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, would achieve much. The low expectations for her fractious “grand coalition” have proved overly pessimistic. Despite the constraints, Ms Merkel has emerged as Europe’s foremost political leader, more reassuring and dependable than her predecessor, Gerhard Schröder. The test now is whether she can turn that authority – and Germany’s economic resilience amid a global downturn – into a platform for a second term in office.

Ms Merkel has learnt the lessons of that flawed campaign. As chancellor, she has compromised on the domestic front, eschewing some of the tough-minded reforms that had worried German voters and the left.

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Zurich top city for expatriate living

By Andrew Taylor in London

Published: June 9 2008 19:55 | Last updated: June 9 2008 19:55

European cities offer the best quality of life for expatriate staff, according to a study of more than 200 locations.

The survey by Mercer, the international consultants, ranked the cities on the basis of personal safety, health and education facilities, transport, other public services, and social, economic, environmental and political factors.

The most attractive location for expatriate businesspeople was Zurich. The Swiss commercial centre, home of UBS, Swiss Re and Zurich financial services, scored 108 points under a ranking system that uses New York on 100 points as a base.

The US business centre, by comparison, was in 49th place, behind other US cities: Honolulu (28th), San Francisco (29th), Boston (37th) and Chicago and Washington DC (equal 44th).

Personal safety was the most important issue when locating expatriate staff, said Mercer. The fact that there were three Swiss cities – Zurich, Geneva and Bern – in the top 10 locations emphasised the county’s reputation as one of the safest places in the world, it said.

Three German cities – Düsseldorf, Munich and Frankfurt – also made it into the 10 best locations while Vienna, the Austrian capital, was equal second with Geneva. Vancouver, Auckland and Sydney were the only non-European cities in the top 10.

Baghdad was in bottom place with just 13.5 points, ahead of Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, with 29.3 points and Brazzaville, the Republic of Congo capital, with 29.5.

A separate survey based just on personal safety, ranked on internal stability, crime, effectiveness of law enforcement and relationships with other countries, put Luxembourg in first place with Bern, Geneva, Helsinki and Zurich, ranked equal second. Baghdad, Kinshasa, Karachi and Nairobi were least safe.

Canadian cities dominated the overall rankings in the Americas with Vancouver (fourth), Toronto (15th), Ottawa (19th) and Montreal (22nd) ahead of all US locations.

Mr Parakatil said, “Personal safety within Canadian cities ranks among the highest in the region. This is due to a relatively low crime rate and a stable political environment. In contrast, many of the Latin American cities such as Caracas (152nd) Bogotá (207th) or Port au Prince (202nd) continue to be undermined by crime and political and economic turmoil. Traffic congestion and pollution have also had an impact.”

Other top ranked European cities included Copenhagen (11th), Amsterdam (13th), Brussels (14th), Berlin (16th) and Luxembourg (17th). Dublin was 25th and Rome, 55th. Prague (71st) was the highest-ranked eastern European city followed by Budapest (74th).The lowest ranked European city was Minsk (183rd).

Glasgow (43rd) and Birmingham (53rd) were the top ranked UK cities, ahead of London (69th).

Auckland (fifth) boasted the best quality of life in Asia-Pacific followed by Sydney (10th) and Wellington (12th). Singapore (32nd) was ranked ahead of Tokyo (35th), Hong Kong (70th) and Beijing (142nd). Bangalore (140th) was the highest ranked Indian city.

Kuala Lumpur (75th) was ahead of Taipei (84th), Seoul (86th), Bangkok (109th) and Jakarta (146th) while Dhaka, the city with the region’s worst quality of living, scored 38.9. Pakistan was one of the lowest scorers for personal safety, with Karachi and Islamabad ranked 213th and 203rd respectively.

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ArcelorMittal to spend $5bn on Kazakh plant

By Peter Marsh in London

Published: June 10 2008 18:10 | Last updated: June 10 2008 18:10

ArcelorMittal is spending $5bn to double the output of its plant in Kazakhstan in a further expression of confidence by the world’s biggest steelmaker in the likelihood of robust economic growth outside the main developed regions.

Some $1.2bn of the investment is geared to improving health and safety at the steel plant in Temirtau and associated coal and iron ore mines.

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Canadian truck workers picket on closure plan

By Bernard Simon in Toronto

Published: June 9 2008 03:00 | Last updated: June 9 2008 03:00

The perils of backing a declining, uncompetitive industry are being hammered home to the Canadian province of Ontario and 2,600 workers at a General Motors pick-up truck assembly plant in Oshawa, east of Toronto.

Workers have blockaded the carmaker's Canadian head office for the past few days since learning last week that the Oshawa plant was one of four in north America that GM plans to close in response to plummeting sales of gas-guzzling sport-utility vehicles and pick-ups.

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Foreign land-buying touches nerve in Brazil
Tue Jun 10, 2008 12:58pm EDT

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By Stuart Grudgings

RIO DE JANEIRO, June 10 (Reuters) - Even for a millionaire, Johan Eliasch's country retreat is on the large side.

The 1,600 square km (617 square miles) of Brazil's Amazon rain forest the Swedish businessman bought in 2005 would take several weeks to walk across, braving snakes and piranhas along the way.

He says he bought it to protect that rich environment, but an influx of foreign buyers such as Eliasch is stirring indignation in Brazil, tapping into long-held fears that the country's massive land resources are coveted abroad.

The government has begun investigating what officials say may be irregular transactions, including Eliasch's, and said this week it is examining ways to put more controls on Brazilian companies using foreign capital to buy land.

The environment agency last week announced a $275 million fine on the Brazilian lumber company bought in 2005 by Eliasch, who is chairman of the Head sports firm and an environment advisor to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, for alleged illegal logging.

A representative for Eliasch denied any irregularities.

Drawn by Brazil's boom in biofuels and housing or just looking to own vast estates, many foreign buyers easily skip around rules restricting foreign ownership by buying Brazilian companies and making the purchases through them.

Globo newspaper reported on Sunday that the government, concerned that foreign groups' ownership of land was a "threat to sovereignty", had requested ownership records from 570 municipalities in border areas.

"We need to establish rules urgently, because there is a global fight for Brazil's land," Rolf Hackbart, the president of INCRA, Brazil's land reform agency, was quoted as saying in Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper.

Few issues are as sensitive as land ownership in Brazil.

As well as worrying about foreign domination of the Amazon, it has a strong agrarian reform movement -- the Landless Workers Movement -- which wants land redistributed to rural workers and accuses the government of giving in to big agribusiness.

"You couldn't imagine this in England -- a foreigner buying up land that takes up three, four of five cities," said Plinio Sampaio, head of the Brazil Association for Agrarian Reform.

FOREIGN BOOM

Foreign land investment in Brazil jumped 347 percent between 2003 and 2007, according to central bank figures, with about $1.7 billion invested by foreigners in land in 2006 and 2007.

The land reform agency says 3.1 million hectares (12,000 square miles) out of a total 5.5 million hectares (21,200 square miles) held by foreigners are in the Amazon.

Land in Brazil remains relatively cheap. English-language Web sites have sprung up offering huge tracts of land in far-flung areas. One of them this week was offering 678,000 acres (2,740 square km) of "pristine" timberland in the Amazon basin's Madeira river for $20 million.

For an unspecified price, you could buy nearly double that area in Amazonas state with "timber, unproven materials, latex, ecotourism, fruits and nuts".

"It's like having your own country," the advertisement said. "Humanitarian and development potential limited only by your budget and your imagination."

Much of the foreign investment is associated with the rapid growth of Brazil's biofuels industry in recent years.

Billionaire U.S. investor George Soros announced plans last year to invest $900 million in Brazil's ethanol industry. Foreigners have also been snapping up land along Brazil's northeast coast, whose pristine beaches are a major draw for tourists and second-home buyers.

John Fitzpatrick, a Sao Paulo-based political analyst, said there was a "bit of hypocrisy" in the government's concern about foreigners given that their investments in real estate and other areas were helping fuel Brazil's economic boom.

"They're letting foreigners come in to try and help solve Brazil's housing problem and at the same time whipping up this kind of anti-foreigner idea in the Amazon in particular."

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Japan's Daiichi Sankyo in 4.6 bln dollar takeover of India's Ranbaxy
AFP - 28 minutes ago

TOKYO (AFP) - Japanese pharmaceutical firm Daiichi Sankyo Co. said on Wednesday that it had agreed to buy a majority stake in India's top drug company Ranbaxy Laboratories for up to 4.6 billion dollars.

Daiichi Sankyo said it had entered a binding deal to acquire the stake of the Singh family, the controlling shareholders of Ranbaxy, which is a leading generic drug company.

It will also launch a tender offer with the aim of buying a 20 percent stake from public shareholders.

Upon completion of the transaction, which is valued at 3.4-4.6 billion dollars, Ranbaxy is expected to become a subsidiary of Daiichi Sankyo.

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HSBC plans pension changes for 58,000 staff
Reuters - Tuesday, June 10 04:20 pm

LONDON (Reuters) - HSBC is proposing changes to the pensions of its 58,000 staff in Britain, which could see the normal retirement age raised to 65 from 60 and a third of workers asked to contribute to a final-salary scheme.

Europe's biggest bank outlined the plans on Tuesday, which could require the third of UK staff on the final-salary scheme to pay a contribution from their salary.

HSBC said it had made the proposals as people are living for longer, and every extra year's life expectancy adds 340 million pounds to the liabilities of its final-salary pension scheme.

The bank said it would improve its defined-contribution pension scheme, used by the remaining two-thirds, by increasing its own input.

The bank said it wanted to improve benefits for staff to help it attract and retain employees, and the changes would cost it an extra 54 million pounds next year.

Staff can still retire at 60, but the amount of final salary paid would be reduced to account for it being paid before 65.

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Top Greek industrialist kidnapped
George Mylonas (undated file picture)

Police in Greece have launched a massive search for a leading industrialist, George Mylonas, who was abducted by gunmen on Monday night.

Roadblocks have been set up and all vehicles crossing Greece's northern borders are being searched after he was seized at his home in Thessaloniki.

The motive for the businessman's kidnapping remains unclear.

He owns big aluminium company Alumil and is chairman of the federation of industries in northern Greece.

Three men threw Mr Mylonas, 49, in the back of his own car, and drove off, having forced his wife out of the vehicle, police said.

Greece map Police later found the car abandoned a few kilometres away.

"An eyewitness saw Mr Mylonas outside his home being taken by three armed assailants carrying automatic weapons at about 2250 (1950 GMT)," a police official told Reuters news agency.

As the motive for the kidnap remains unclear, anti-terrorist police have joined in the search.

Trading of Alumil shares was suspended on Tuesday on the Athens stock exchange

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BBC uncovers lost Iraq billions
By Jane Corbin
BBC News

Henry Waxman

A BBC investigation estimates that around $23bn (£11.75bn) may have been lost, stolen or just not properly accounted for in Iraq.

For the first time, the extent to which some private contractors have profited from the conflict and rebuilding has been researched by the BBC's Panorama using US and Iraqi government sources.

A US gagging order is preventing discussion of the allegations.

The order applies to 70 court cases against some of the top US companies.

War profiteering

While George Bush remains in the White House, it is unlikely the gagging orders will be lifted.

To date, no major US contractor faces trial for fraud or mismanagement in Iraq.

The president's Democrat opponents are keeping up the pressure over war profiteering in Iraq.

Henry Waxman who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said: "The money that's gone into waste, fraud and abuse under these contracts is just so outrageous, its egregious.

"It may well turn out to be the largest war profiteering in history."

In the run-up to the invasion one of the most senior officials in charge of procurement in the Pentagon objected to a contract potentially worth seven billion that was given to Halliburton, a Texan company, which used to be run by Dick Cheney before he became vice-president.

Unusually only Halliburton got to bid - and won.

Missing billions

The search for the missing billions also led the programme to a house in Acton in West London where Hazem Shalaan lived until he was appointed to the new Iraqi government as minister of defence in 2004.

Judge Radhi Hamza al-Radhi He and his associates siphoned an estimated $1.2 billion out of the ministry.

They bought old military equipment from Poland but claimed for top class weapons.

Meanwhile they diverted money into their own accounts.

Judge Radhi al-Radhi of Iraq's Commission for Public Integrity investigated.

He said: "I believe these people are criminals.

"They failed to rebuild the Ministry of Defence , and as a result the violence and the bloodshed went on and on - the murder of Iraqis and foreigners continues and they bear responsibility."

Mr Shalaan was sentenced to two jail terms but he fled the country.

He said he was innocent and that it was all a plot against him by pro-Iranian MPs in the government.

There is an Interpol arrest out for him but he is on the run - using a private jet to move around the globe.

He stills owns commercial properties in the Marble Arch area of London.

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Jordan cave may be oldest church
By Matt McGrath
BBC science correspondent

Church of Saint Georgeous in the northern Jordanian town of Rihab 10 June

Archaeologists in Rihab, Jordan, say they have discovered a cave that could be the world's oldest Christian church.

Dating to the period AD33-70, the underground chapel would have served as both a place of worship and a home.

It is claimed that it was originally used by a group of 70 persecuted Christians who fled from Jerusalem.

These early Christians lived and practised their faith in secrecy until the Romans embraced Christianity several hundred years later.

'Beautiful things'

Rihab is in Northern Jordan. The cave is beneath the ancient church of St Georgeous, itself one of the oldest known places of worship in the world.

According to Dr Abdul Qader Al-Hassan, the director of the Rihab Centre for Archaeological studies, the cave site shows clear evidence of early Christian rituals that predate the church.

Rihab

Dr Al-Hassan says that steps lead down into the chapel which is approximately 12m long and seven metres wide.

There is a circular area of worship with stone seats separated from living quarters. This circular element, called an apse, is important says Dr Al-Hassan because there is only one other example of a cave with a similar feature, which was also used for Christian worship.

Dr Al-Hassan said: "We found beautiful things. I found the cemetery of this church; we found pottery shards and lamps with the inscription 'Georgeous'".

In the cave there is also a tunnel that leads to a cistern which supplied water to the dwellers. An inscription in the floor of the church above refers to the "70 beloved by God and the divine" whom the archaeologist believes were refugees from religious persecution in Jerusalem.

Dr Al-Hassan says that excavation of the tunnel and the cistern may yield yet more evidence about the lives of these early Christians.

"From the tunnel to the cistern is very important. We want to clean it and make an excavation inside it. We found a very old inscription beside it and coins also, and crosses made from iron."

Other experts say they are cautious about the claim. They want to examine the artefacts and see clear dating evidence. The earliest confirmed examples of churches date from the third century, they say.

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Supercomputer sets petaflop pace
By Jonathan Fildes
Science and technology reporter, BBC News

Roadrunner (IBM)

A supercomputer built with components designed for the Sony PlayStation 3 has set a new computing milestone.

The IBM machine, codenamed Roadrunner, has been shown to run at "petaflop speeds", the equivalent of one thousand trillion calculations per second.

The benchmark means the computer is twice as nimble as the current world's fastest machine, also built by IBM.

It will be installed at a US government laboratory later this year where it will monitor the US nuclear stockpile.

It will also be used for research into astronomy, genomics and climate change.

"We are getting closer to simulating the real world," Bijan Davari, vice president of next generation computing systems at IBM, told BBC News.

It would be of particular use for calculating risk in financial markets, he said.

"The latency of the calculations is so small that for all practical purposes it is real time."

Chip stacks

The current fastest supercomputer is IBM's Blue Gene/L, at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

It is used in the US Department of Energy's Stockpile Stewardship Program, which oversees the country's nuclear weapons.

TOP FIVE SUPERCOMPUTERS

* Blue Gene/L, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California. (478.2 teraflops; 212, 992 processors)
* Blue Gene/P, Forschungszentrum Juelich, Germany. (167.3 teraflops; 65536 processors)
* SGI Altix ICE 8200, SGI/New Mexico Computing Applications Center, Wisconsin, US. (126.9 teraflops; 14336 processors)
* EKA - Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c, Computational Research Laboratories, Pune, India. (117.9 teraflops; 14240 processors)
* Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c, government agency, Sweden. (102.8 teraflops; 13728 processors)
* Source: Top 500 Supercomputers


It was recently upgraded and now runs at a speed of 478.2 teraflops (trillions of calculations per second), using 212,992 processors.

By comparison, Roadrunner will use fewer than 20,000 chips.

This is because the new computer is a so-called "hybrid" design, using both conventional supercomputer processors and the powerful "cell" chip designed for the PS3.

The eight-core chip runs at speeds greater than 4 GHz and was designed by a consortium of companies including IBM, Sony and Toshiba.

It has been modified for Roadrunner to allow it to handle a greater bandwidth of data and to carry out more specialist calculations.

Roadrunner packs more than 12,000 of the processors - known as "accelerators" - on top of nearly 7,000 standard processors.

The standard processors are used to handle the general computation needed to keep the machine running, whilst the cells are left to crunch vast swathes of unstructured data.

"For these kinds of simulations of very complex natural phenomena the cell chip is extremely powerful," said Dr Davari.

"It is a lot more effective than combing many, many, many more smaller, general purpose computational engines."

The machine was the first to pass through the petaflop barrier, said Dr Davari. IBM BlueGene/L

"The exciting part for me as a technical person is that we can now see the recipe for high performance computing for the next 10 to 15 years," he said.

It will now be disassembled and moved to New Mexico where it will be housed in 288 refrigerator-sized cases connected by 57 miles (92km) of fibre optic cable.

Although Roadrunner will run at extraordinary speeds, other computers could soon challenge its record.

IBM currently has another petaflop machine in the pipeline based on its Blue Gene/P technology.

When finished, it will be the world's fastest commercial supercomputer.

"Blue Gene/P continues the path of Blue/Gene L," said Dr Davari.

The machines share much of the same software and hardware.

Blue Gene/P will be installed at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois later this year.

Both Sun and Cray supercomputers have also unveiled plans for petaflop machines in the near future.

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Card details stolen in web hack
Cotton Traders

The credit card details of up to 38,000 customers of clothing firm Cotton Traders were stolen following a hack of its website, BBC News has learned.

The firm has not confirmed the size of the breach but it has acknowledged the site was attacked early this year.

It said Barclaycard was contacted as soon as it learned of the attack, and most cards were stopped in January.

The payment industry's trade body said it was serious because hackers accessed details for "card not present" fraud.

Apacs, the trade association for the payment industry, said a specialist police force was investigating the case.

Cotton Traders was founded by ex-England rugby captains Fran Cotton and Steve Smith and has one million customers.

In a statement, Cotton Traders said all of its customers' credit card data was encrypted on the website.

'Security issue'

It said: "Earlier this year we identified a security issue. We immediately brought in industry security experts to resolve the problem.

"Cotton Traders have recently upgraded all security on their website which has been validated by leading Industry experts."

It added: "We would like to reassure all our customers that their data is secure and that the Cotton Traders website meets all leading Industry security standards."

BBC News has learned that customer addresses were also stolen in the hack.

The breach follows last year's attack on the website of TK Maxx, in which 45 million card details were lost.

In that case, data was accessed on the firm's computer systems over a 16-month period and covered transactions made by credit and debit cards dating as far back as December 2002.

The exact method used to hack the Cotton Traders website is not known.

The firm has said customers worried about their cards should contact their card provider.

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滝野川信金、前期最終赤字403億円と発表

　滝野川信用金庫（東京・北）は11日、2008年3月期決算が403億円の最終赤字に転落したと正式発表した。サブプライム関連商品の売却で106億円の損失を計上したほか、サブプライムを含まない証券化商品の減損処理が響いた。3月末に信金中央金庫から200億円の資本支援を受けたが、前期末の自己資本比率は6.04％と1年前と比べて半減した。

　昨年夏以降、金融市場の混乱を受けて保有有価証券の価値が大幅に下落。117億円保有していたサブプライム関連債券をすべて売却したほか、簿価に比べて3割以上価値が下落した有価証券について減損処理を実施した。

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政府、法人税非課税に４条件　海外からの対日投資促進

　政府は海外の投資ファンドや企業による対日投資を促進するため、海外投資家課税の運用を見直す。日本国内の運用業者を通じて投資する場合、国内業者が独自の判断で運用したことを示す４条件を満たせば、運用益に法人税を課さないことを明示する。あいまいだった課税の運用方法を分かりやすくすることで投資資金を日本に呼び込み、東京市場の活性化につなげる狙いだ。

　財務省と金融庁が課税の運用基準を作成し、月内にも適用する。

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第一三共、インド製薬最大手を買収　後発薬に本格参入

　第一三共はインド最大の製薬会社、ランバクシー・ラボラトリーズを買収する。ＴＯＢ（株式公開買い付け）で過半の株式を取得する。買収総額は3000億 ―4000億円程度になる見込み。ランバクシーは世界約50カ国で後発医薬品（ジェネリック医薬品）事業を展開している。日米欧各国は医療費抑制のため、後発薬の普及を促している。第一三共はランバクシーを傘下に収め、世界規模で需要の広がる後発薬市場に本格参入する。

　11日午後、発表する。ランバクシーはインド・ムンバイ証券取引所などに上場しており、第一三共はＴＯＢで50％超の株式を取得する。ランバクシーの 2007年12月期の売上高は約1800億円。買収により第一三共の連結売上高は1兆円を超え、武田薬品工業に次ぐ国内2位に浮上する。

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ロシア向け輸送サービス、シベリア鉄道を活用　日通

　日本通運はシベリア鉄道を活用したロシア・モスクワ向けの輸送サービスを6月中旬から本格的に始める。これまでも輸送にシベリア鉄道を活用するケースはあったが、ロシア向け貨物の輸送手段としては使っておらず、同国への貨物輸送は船便が主だった。鉄道を使うことで悪天候下でも安定的に輸送できる体制を整え、需要拡大が見込めるロシア向け貨物の輸送事業を強化する。

　露ルースカヤ・トロイカ社の貨物専用急行列車を利用する。日本のほか、韓国、中国、台湾の主要港発の貨物で利用できる。梱包サービスや専用の貨物保険も開発し、利用を促す。

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良品計画、高価格帯の専門店　首都圏で展開

　良品計画は主力店「無印良品」より高価格帯の商品をそろえた店舗を首都圏で展開する。7月下旬に新宿に開業するのを手始めに、3年間で5店を出す。品ぞろえを確保するため広さは従来の2倍超とし、購買単価は1.5倍を見込む。品質にこだわった高価格帯商品だけを扱い、手薄だった30歳代以上の家族連れなどを開拓する。

　新店舗の売り場面積は1500平方メートル前後を標準とする。20万円前後のテーブルなど家具や生活雑貨などを扱う。新宿では松竹が7月下旬に開業するシネマコンプレックス（複合映画館）の建物に入居する。

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ニチレイ、冷蔵や冷凍倉庫に300億円

　冷蔵物流最大手のニチレイは約300億円を投じ、国内の冷蔵・冷凍倉庫を刷新する。川崎市に貯蔵能力約4万トンの国内最大級の倉庫を2010年に新設。全拠点の1割にあたる十数拠点で増床し、温度管理を徹底する。同社の倉庫新設は13年ぶり。中国製冷凍ギョーザの中毒事件などを契機に食の安全・安心への関心が高まっていることに対応、食品の品質維持に向け機能を拡充する。

　ニチレイの物流事業子会社、ニチレイロジグループ（東京・中央）が手がける。ニチレイは1990年代後半から有利子負債の圧縮を優先し、97年の倉庫新設以降、補修を除けば設備投資をほとんどしてこなかった。財務リストラにメドをつけたことから大型投資に踏み切る。

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Battle Continues Over Genetically Engineered Animal Feed in the EU

* Friends of the Earth UK, June 9, 2008
Straight to the Source

ACTION request from Clare Oxborrow of Friends of the Earth UK:

On Saturday the Financial Times ran a story about how the NFU [whose leadership is ferociously pro-GM] have been lobbying the supermarkets to drop their GM-free feed policies for poultry. (article pasted below).

The good news is that Marks & Spencer and Waitrose say they have no plans to change policy. Sainsbury's is "investigating potential sustainable solutions", no information in the article about the others.

This seems like a good time to remind supermarkets of the demand for non-GM food - and the risk that weakening policies on non-GM feed will risk a shortage of GM-free ingredients for food. Please take action and send this link to your lists and friends: http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/real_food/press_for_change/gm_labelling_index .html

This action only targets the supermarkets with the worst policies, but it would also be useful to write to the others to encourage them to stick to, and strengthen, their policies. Below are their details.

You can use most of the text from the letter online (copy and paste), just adding that you congratulate them on their non-GM feed policies and urge them to extend this to other products.

Full details of which companies have done what are here: http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/evidence/gm_feed_table.pdf

Incidentally, contrary to the claims of the NFU poultry advisor that "the Brazilians are not going to bother growing non-GM just for the UK", Brazil takes very careful note of the demands of the market, and the EU (which the UK was still part of last time I looked) is still it's biggest customer with a large demand for non-GM soy.

Many thanks
Clare

Co-op Email: customer.relations@co-op.co.uk
The Co-operative Group
Customer Relations
Freepost MR9473 Manchester M4 8BA

Marks & Spencer
Email: via www.marksandspencer.com
Retail Customer Services
Marks & Spencer
Chester Business Park
Wrexham Road
Chester CH4 9GA

Sainsbury's Email: via www.sainsburys.co.uk
Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd
33 Holborn London EC1N 2HT

Waitrose
Email: customer_service@waitrose.co.uk
Waitrose Customer Service Department
Waitrose Limited
Doncastle Road
Bracknell Berkshire RG12 8YA
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Farmers demand supermarket U-turn on GM feed ban policy
By Jenny Wiggins, Consumer Industries Correspondent
Financial Times, June 7 2008
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3ac83b10-342b-11dd-869b-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1

Spiralling food prices are placing supermarkets under pressure from farmers' leaders to put poultry fed with genetically modified products back on their shelves.

The National Farmers Union has held talks with the product managers of all the major supermarkets to explain that shortages of non-GM soyabeans - the key protein source for poultry - was making it both extremely expensive and increasingly difficult to source the GM-free products demanded by retailers.

Robert Newbery, chief poultry adviser to the National Farmers' Union, said: "We're really struggling to work out where we're going to get non-GM soya from." The meetings followed letters earlier this year from the NFU to all the main retailers. The letters suggested supermarkets get rid of non-GM requirements for all their foods except their organic ranges.

There is no sign yet that the campaign has forced a change in policy but Mr Newbery said the supermarkets would have to give way before too long. Food producers say the UK's resistance to GM crops hurts British consumers by raising prices.

J Sainsbury said: "We are aware of the complex issues . . . and we are investigating potential sustainable solutions." Both Marks and Spencer and Waitrose said they had no plans to change policy.

Supermarkets stopped selling poultry products (including eggs) from animals reared on GM-feed in the late 1990s following a consumer backlash.

At the time, regular soya was only slightly more expensive than GM soya for British farmers. But as the world's biggest soya exporters have devoted more land to GM crops, the cost of unmodified soyabeans is rising. British farmers are currently paying around GBP276 per tonne for GM soya, and GBP293/t for non-GM.

With the US, the world's biggest soyabean producer, now 95 per cent GM, the UK has looked to Brazil for a GM-free alternative. But Brazil, the world's second biggest soya exporter, is expected to increase GM plantings from 54 per cent of its total crop to 65 per cent next year and 80 per cent over the next decade.

Mr Newbery said supermarkets should alter their policies on GM voluntarily before changes are forced on them. "Ultimately they will change because [the non-GM feed] will run out . . . The Brazilians are not going to bother growing non-GM just for the UK."

Additional reporting by Chris Flood and Tom Braithwaite

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Monsanto's GM Soybeans Drive Toxics, Deforestation, and Social Conflict in Latin America

* GM Watch (EU)
Straight to the Source

NEWS FROM LATIN AMERICA
1. CAMPESINO LEADER CHARGED FOR CONFRONTING CROP SPRAYING
2. Destruction of Brazilian Amazon Spikes in April

EXTRACTS: Most of April's destruction was detected in Brazil's central Mato Grosso state, where Governor Blairo Maggi, a prominent soybean grower, frequently criticizes federal efforts to preserve the forest. (item 2)

The campesino communities in these [GM soy] zones live surrounded by immense soy fields and are highly exposed to the intense crop spraying with toxic pesticides, which are applied to the large-scale monoculture crops. (item 1)
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1. CAMPESINO LEADER CHARGED FOR CONFRONTING CROP SPRAYING
La Soja Mata - Soy Kills, 27 March 2008 [translation by April Howard] Marco Castillo, Regina Kretschmer, Javiera Rulli, Gaby Schwartzmann http://www.lasojamata.org/node/113

The criminalization of social movements in Paraguay has worsened with the recent order to detain political and social leader Tomás Zayas, a municipal councilor and three campesinos, charged for 'Homicidal intent and criminal association.' These accusations are due to the conflict that has developed over the last three years over intense crop spraying with pesticides suffered by the Leopoldo Perrier community of San Cristóbal Municipality in the department of Alto Paraná, Paraguay.

Tomas Zayas, the leader of the Association of Alto Paraná Farmers (ASAGRAPA) [1], and the National Center of Peasant, Indigenous and Popular Organizations (CNOCIP) [2], is moreover a senatorial candidate for the Workers' Party [3] in the April 20th elections.

ASAGRAPA is a campesino organization that works in one of the principle zones of production of genetically modified soy in Paraguay. The campesino communities in these zones live surrounded by immense soy fields and are highly exposed to the intense crop spraying with toxic pesticides, which are applied to the large-scale monoculture crops. ASAGRAPA is one of the principle organizations in the region that accompanies the struggle for the land, the re-vindication of integral agrarian reform and the rights of campesino communities. In this context, it started the 'Stop the fumigation: In defense of Communities and Life' campaign in December of 2007.

In the campesino community of Leopoldo Perrier, the community became so contaminated with toxic pesticides in August of 2007 that a three-year-old child, Jesús Jiménez, died after intense crop spraying. The community and the parents of the child denounced the lack of diagnosis in the moment of death. [4] As the diagnosis of ?poison with pesticides? was negated by the soy producers, the organizations were able to push a judicial order for the exhumation of the cadaver for its necropsy and the execution of a socio-environmental diagnostic of the community by three national institutions. The necropsy demonstrated that there were high levels of toxic pesticides in the body.

In February of this year, during the cycle of cultivation and crop spraying, the affected community resisted the crop spraying via peaceful protest. Due to this protest, the Public Prosecutor recently accused four people, three of whom were parents of young children and members of ASAGRAPA, and the leader, Tomas Zayas. The Public Prosecutor alleged that the accused composed a criminal association and that they carried out an attempted homicide by supposedly firing a gun into the air. The community indicated that Zayas was not present during the protest, nor were guns fired.

What happened to the child Jesús Jiménez is not an isolated incident; on reiterated occasions the grave problems that toxic pesticides cause in communities has been denounced. Local press reports indicate that in the Leopoldo Perrier community, the soy producers 'do not respect the crop borders established by law, with relation to human settlements, educational institutions and water ways.' [5] Other press reports point out that 'classes are often cancelled on days of crop spraying on the field twenty meters away because the children faint from the smell. It also causes spontaneous abortions, the death of fish, pigs and other animals.' [6]

Denunciations of the impact of the monoculture soy fields on the community have been made on an international level. The Committee of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of the United Nations indicated amongst other observations that 'the expansion of the cultivation of soy has brought with it the indiscriminate use of toxic pesticides, provoking death and sickness in children and adults, contamination of water, disappearance of ecosystems and damage to the traditional nutritional resources of the communities.' [7] An investigation carried out the same year in the tour departments of greatest soy production revealed that in the studied communities 78% of families showed a health problem caused by the frequent crop spraying in the soy fields, 63% of which was due to contaminated water. [8]

In the Leopoldo Perrier community, after these reports were published, the community members have been recieving constant threats, including from the municipal superintendent, who verbally intimidated the community in response to their organization. However, the events in this community are part of a process of greater importance. The pressure that the campesino organizations suffer due to State persecution is reflected in the Report of International Observation in Paraguay, which indicates how the Executive branch has concentrated the power 'that with public forces in its hands, the alliance of the Public Prosecutor, and the Supreme Court as a guarantee of impunity, has created a campaign of massive repression of the campesino sector, in order to facilitate and guarantee the amplification of the border of genetically modified soy.' [9]

This strategy is based on four reasons for persecution:

1. Links with common delinquency

2. The criminalization of protests, prosecuting the conflicts and taking protesters to trial.

3. Linking campesino leaders to the causes of kidnappings.

4. Linking campesino leaders to a supposedly budding guerilla activity related principally with long-standing guerillas such as those in Colombia. [10]

Since 1989, the year that the Stroessner dictatorship ended, more than 100 campesino leaders have been assassinated, of which only one case was investigated and the assassin convicted. The rest remain in impunity. The criminalization of protest is very serious itself; in 2004 the campesino organizations registered 1,156 detentions. [11]

In this context, it is appropriate to mention that the events that have occurred in the last month, including the seizure of three candidates of the Patriotic Socialist Alliance Party [12] for having visited land occupied by campesinos, the unclear circumstances of the assassination of a political leader of the Tekojoja Popular Movement, the publication of articles in various medias about two supposed guerilla centers in alliance with campesino organizations, that incidentally were proposing candidates for this year?s elections.

The government and groups of power have used the Public Prosecutor and all the tools at their disposal, in an attempt to do away with political rights and social organizations. As the election nears, greater acts of violence and criminalization are generated against critical sectors and the opposition.

Claudia Russer, of the Association of Producers of Soy, Grains and Oils (APS) [13] declared in an interview in 2007 that 'leaders like Tomás Zayas favor confrontations against working people. Supposedly they are against the use of agricultural chemicals, but it appears that what they want is to initiate a civil war (sic). [14]

Zayas' response in the media was direct: 'The war that [Claudia Russer] mentions was started by them a long time ago, but it is a chemical war against our people and the people have the right to defend themselves.' [15]

Notes:

[1] Asociación de Agricultores de Alto Paraná

[2] Central nacional de Organizaciones Campesinas, Indígenas y Populares.

[3] Partido de los Trabajadores

[4] La Nación, 18 Oct. 2007, p.40.

[5] ABC Color, 1 Nov. 2007, p.19.

[6] La Nación, op.cit.

[7] Observaciones finales del CDESC, Consejo Económico y Social, E/C.12/PRY/CO/322_10-2007, p.3.

[8] Palau et.al. 2007.

[9] Misión internacional de observación al Paraguay, Informe 2006, p. 6; SERPAJ Paraguay.

[10] Rulli, J. 2007. 35

[11] Ibid.

[12] Partido Alianza Patriótica Socialista

[13] Asociación de Productores de Soja, Cereales y Oleaginosas

[14] ABC Color, 31 Oct, 2007, p.14.

[15] ABC Color, 1 Nov, 2007, p.19.
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2. Destruction of Brazilian Amazon Spikes in April
MICHAEL ASTOR Associated Press, June 2 2008
http://www.soyatech.com/news_story.php?id=8731

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- Destruction of Brazil's huge swath of Amazon rain forest rose sharply in April, according to a preliminary analysis of satellite photos released by government researchers on Monday.

About 440 square miles (1,140 square kilometers) of deforestation took place in April, nearly eight times more than the 56 square miles (145 square kilometers) that were razed in March, the Brazilian Space Research Institute reported.

The figures can be misleading: Scientists can only measure what they see by satellite photo, and clouds obscured 78 percent of the rain forest in March and 53 percent in April, leaving more of the forest visible, the institute warned. More deforestation could be taking place under cloud cover, or the bulk could be in plain sight.

The government did not provide comparable figures from April 2007.

The data suggests that Brazil will end 2008 with more deforestation than last year, when 4,250 square miles (11,000 square kilometers) were razed - reversing three years of declines, Environment Minister Carlos Minc said.

"There's no way it will be less than that," Minc said. "But we can't cry over tumbled forest."

To fight the upswing, the government will begin impounding cattle from ranches where illegal deforestation has been detected, Minc said. Cattle ranching, logging and soybean farming are among the main forces driving Amazon deforestation.

Brazilian environmental laws require Amazon landowners to leave 80 percent of forested property as a reserve - although the rule is hard to enforce in a jungle region larger than Western Europe.

Most of April's destruction was detected in Brazil's central Mato Grosso state, where Governor Blairo Maggi, a prominent soybean grower, frequently criticizes federal efforts to preserve the forest.

The Brazilian Amazon covers about 1.6 million square miles (4.1 million square kilometers), nearly 60 percent of the country. About 20 percent of that forest has already been razed.

Associated Press Writer Marco Sibaja contributed to this report from Brasilia.

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日本向け介護士応募、定数割れの１１５人…インドネシア

　【ジャカルタ＝佐藤浅伸】来月１日に発効する日本とインドネシアの経済連携協定（ＥＰＡ）に基づき、日本が外国人として初めて受け入れるインドネシアの介護士の募集が１０日、締め切られた。

　応募者は１１５人で、初年度受け入れ枠３００人を大幅に下回った。

　インドネシアに日本向け介護士養成コースがなく、受け入れを看護師の資格取得者に限ったのが原因。看護師の選抜試験では、受け入れ枠２００人を上回る２０９人が合格した。インドネシア側は今後、介護士研修コースを設ける。

　協定では、２年間で看護師４００人、介護士６００人の計１０００人を受け入れ、初年度は半数の計５００人が日本に向かう計画だった。日本側あっせん機関によると、介護士は計３３０人の受け入れ希望があり、初年度は大幅に不足する。

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無戸籍：兵庫の女性の男児出生届を受理　「親子２代」救済

　離婚後３００日規定により無戸籍となった兵庫県内の女性（２７）が５月末に出産した男児の出生届が１１日、同県内の自治体で受理された。女性は法的には婚姻していない（事実婚）ため、出生届の受理には女性の戸籍が必要で、男児も無戸籍となる恐れがあった。法務省は、女性は無戸籍のまま夫との婚姻を認め（法律婚）、通常の手続きと同様に出生届を受け、男児を父親の戸籍に記載して救済した。

　法務省によると、当事者が無戸籍での婚姻届を認めたのは初めて。無戸籍者の婚姻を法的に認めて親子２代にわたる無戸籍を免れた手続きは、同様ケースでの救済につながるとみられる。

　戸籍法の施行規則は、婚姻を届ける際に、戸籍謄本など名前や年齢など身分を証明する書類の提出を義務付けており、自治体は通常、戸籍謄本の提出を求めている。法務省民事局によると、今回は代替書類として、医師による出生証明書などで、女性の身分事項が証明できたため、これまで事実婚だった夫との法律婚を認めた。

　そのうえで、婚姻によって新たに作られた夫を筆頭者とする戸籍では、婚姻の事実を記載する欄には「無籍者」である女性との婚姻の届けを記載。妻である女性の欄は無戸籍のため記載せず、生まれた男児の欄には、「父」として夫の名前、「母」として女性が使っている名前を記載した。

　２代にわたる無戸籍をめぐっては、離婚が成立していない母親と別の男性との間に生まれたため無戸籍になった大阪府の女性が、子供２人を産み、戸籍がない状態になったケースが明らかになっている。民事局の担当者は「今回、民法や戸籍法の枠内で救済できた。同様ケースでは、詳細を調査したうえで同じような手続きが取れるなら適切に対応したい」と話している。【坂本高志】

　【ことば】無戸籍者

　戸籍に記載がなかったり、戸籍自体がない状態。離婚後３００日規定により「前夫の子」となるのを拒んで親が出生届を出さなかったり、前夫の子を覆す裁判手続きを取らない▽離婚していなかったり離婚の成立前に別の男性との間に生まれた子供の出生を母親が届けない▽経済的事情や思想的背景で親が出生を届けない－－などの理由で子供が無戸籍となる。多くは住民票にも記載されず、就学や選挙、免許取得、就職、結婚などに支障が出るケースがある。