Fighting intensifies in South Ossetia

Fighting intensifies in South Ossetia

By Roman Olearchyk in Kiev and Charles Clover in Moscow

Published: August 7 2008 22:29 | Last updated: August 8 2008 01:48

Fierce fighting erupted in Georgia’s breakaway enclave of South Ossetia on Thursday night and Friday morning, and government troops reportedly surrounded Tskhinvali, the region’s capital, following days of clashes with separatist forces in the area.

A senior government minister told Reuters that Georgian forces had surrounded Tskhinvali and were advancing on the city. Temur Iakobashvili, Georgia’s minister for re-integration, said Georgian forces had taken control of five Ossetian villages. Russian news agencies quoted Eduard Kokoity, South Ossetia’s de facto president, as saying the Georgian offensive had failed.

The latest outbreak of hostilities followed an earlier call for a 24-hour ceasefire by Mikheil Saakashvili, the Georgian president, and diplomatic efforts to avert an escalation of the worst fighting in the region since 2004.

Georgian officials said military action was ordered only after Ossetian forces had ignored the ceasefire call. Mr Iakobashvili described the military operation as “an attempt to restore order and avoid confrontation and further escalation”.

Interfax, the Russian news agency, reported a senior Georgian commander as saying the operation was intended “to restore constitutional order in the whole region”. But asked if the ­military operation would involve a complete takeover of South Ossetia, Mr Iakobashvili told the Financial Times: “It is premature to say what this military operation will entail. It is not targeting civilians but rather paramilitary criminals who are using ammunition.”

It was unclear if Russia, at bitter odds with the pro-western leadership in Tbilisi, would interfere. But the incident was certain to test nerves at the highest levels in Moscow and Washington, which have jostled for influence in the volatile Caucasus region.

A top Russian envoy to Tbilisi said that Georgia’s action showed Tbilisi could not be trusted and that Nato should reconsider its plans to admit the ex-Soviet state. “Georgia’s step is absolutely incomprehensible and shows that the Georgian leadership has zero credit of trust.”

Georgian officials warned 1,000 Russian peacekeepers in the region not to get involved in the operation.

Russian television reported heavy gunfire and artillery. South Ossetia’s separatist leadership said their republic was under siege and that it might appeal to Russia for protection.

Earlier Mr Saakashvili offered a ceasefire and fresh talks while also offering South Ossetia full autonomy that would be guaranteed with Russia. But he sent a sharp warning to the separatists, saying: “Do not test the Georgia state’s patience.”

The escalating conflict follows a week of fighting that has claimed six lives and injured dozens.

The Georgian government accuses Russia of stirring up trouble in the region and has repeatedly accused Russian peacekeepers of backing separatists in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another break away region. Russia accuses Georgia of provoking the violence.

Dan Fried, the US assistant secretary of state, said Washington and Moscow would jointly work to end the fighting. “It appears that the South Ossetians have instigated this uptick in violence,” he said. “We have urged the Russians to urge their South Ossetian friends to pull back and show greater restraint. And we believe that the Russians are trying to do just that.”

South Ossetia has been a thorn in the side of the Georgian government since the early 1990s, when it won de facto independence from Tblisi after a short civil war, but the conflict in the region has intensified recently.

Mr Saakashvili has allied his country of 4.6m with the west since being propelled to power by the pro-democracy Rose Revolution of 2003. His push for membership in the Nato military alliance and European Union has irritated Moscow.

Members of the UN Security Council agreed to a Russian request to hold a rare late-night session to discuss South Ossetia, Reuters reported.

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The Short View: European economy

By John Authers, Investment Editor

Published: August 7 2008 21:12 | Last updated: August 7 2008 21:12

Europe has moved further along the road towards a recession than the US. The economic data of the past two weeks make that conclusion hard to avoid and Jean-Claude Trichet made no great attempt to deny it in his press conference on Thursday.

The governor of the European Central Bank admitted that the data “point to a weakening of real GDP growth in mid-2008” and said directly that the bank no longer has a bias towards raising rates. He made obligatory commitments to fight inflation but the market drew the necessary conclusions; last month’s rate rise from the ECB was a “one-off” warning shot and there will be no more.

This was ample reason to sell the euro, which already looked as though it had peaked after briefly topping $1.60. By the end of European trading, the euro was down 4.4 per cent from its peak against the dollar, back to levels it first set in March.

Business activity surveys suggest a European contraction in the third quarter. Similar surveys in the US suggest that the American economy, while extremely unhealthy, has not dipped into technical recession.

Unlike the eurozone, the US has an election this year, and so it has resorted to moves such as the “stimulus” tax rebates. This may be why it kept GDP growth positive in the second quarter.

Ironically, Thursday’s US data suggest the worst of the economic hit from housing may be over, but the “second-round” effects of the housing and credit busts on the economy are now being felt.

Pending homes sales jumped by more than 5 per cent. This may reflect desperation sales at low prices (bad for the financial sector), but shows the overhang of unsold homes is being dealt with, which is good for construction and hence growth. Lousy sales figures from chain stores and higher claims for jobless insurance suggested the US is slowing severely. Just not as quickly as the eurozone.

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Big banks seek to limit their own risks

By Aline van Duyn in New York

Published: August 6 2008 16:39 | Last updated: August 6 2008 21:08

Many of the world’s biggest banks are proposing reforms that would limit the size and scope of their businesses in one of the most dramatic responses to the credit crisis.

The proposals would hold down the number of investors who can buy complex financial products, bring large swathes of the derivatives markets into regulators’ sights and call on banks to spend more on technology and risk management.

The consequence would be that many of the securitisation businesses that helped fuel the boom on Wall Street and the City of London in the middle years of this decade could face tougher oversight and find far fewer opportunities for growth.

“No one has any illusions [about the severity of the problems],” said Gerald Corrigan, managing director of Goldman Sachs and former head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, who led the study on which the proposals are based.

“Costly as these reforms will be, those costs will be minuscule compared to the hundreds of billions of dollars of writedowns experienced by financial institutions in recent months, to say nothing of the economic dislocations and distortions triggered by the crisis.”

Backed by banks including JPMorgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, HSBC, Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley, the proposals are being delivered to global regulators in the hope of producing rules for credit markets that would cut risk of contagion and restore confidence.

Perhaps the most unexpected proposals involve new criteria for the “sophisticated investors” allowed to buy complex financial products. Under the plans, even pension funds and other institutional investors would no longer be automatically allowed to buy bonds backed by assets such as subprime mortgages. All but the wealthiest retail investors would be barred from buying structured products, such as auction rate securities, a $330bn market used by municipalities and student loan providers to raise funds.

Mr Corrigan said the “markets had been sandbagged by complexity” and suggested the new rules would help ensure sophisticated financial products were only sold to investors with the resources and skills to understand and monitor them.

“Is this the death of securitisation?” he asked. “No. But it could mean a lesser degree of securitisation and other high-risk complex products. Is the lend and distribute model on the junk heap? No. This will change, not end, that business model.”

Mr Corrigan added that banks could be required to provide “multiple” billions of dollars in capital to back their promise to the New York Fed to create a clearing house for the $62,000bn credit derivatives market this year. The banks put their weight behind accounting changes to be introduced by 2010 requiring them to hold many complex products on balance sheets.

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Uruguay finds gas deposit offshore

By Jude Webber in Buenos Aires and Andrés Schipani in Montevideo

Published: August 7 2008 23:08 | Last updated: August 7 2008 23:08

Uruguay has discovered a promising offshore gas deposit that has the potential to turn its small agricultural- and services-orientated economy into that of a net gas exporter in an increasingly gas-starved region, according to Daniel Martínez, the country’s ind­ustry and energy minister.

The resource, located 100 km (60 miles) off the coast of Uruguay’s fashionable Punta del Este resort, shares geological features of the Santos Basin, where neighbouring Brazil has made important discoveries. These include the Tupi field, with its estimated recoverable reserves of 5bn to 8bn barrels of oil and natural gas.

Uruguay’s expectations are more modest, but Mr Martínez said “bright spots” of seismic surveys indicated gas in several places, at depths of 300m to 5.5km. Development was “technically and economically viable”.

The government reckons there is oil too, but Mr Martínez cautioned that the experimental drilling to begin in two to three years would need to establish a more accurate picture.

“We could be talking of some deposits of 12m cubic metres [of gas] a day . . . In the worst-case scenario, we could be exporting seven million to eight million cubic metres a day. That would be great for the region,” he told the Financial Times in an interview from Montevideo.

Mr Martínez said Uruguay, which prides itself on providing investment guarantees in an often turbulent region, had embarked on a charm offensive in Texas, Rome, Madrid, India, South Africa and London to “seduce” investors in advance of a presentation in December in Montevideo and a tender next July.

Raúl Sendic, president of Uruguay’s state energy company, Ancap, said Spain’s Repsol-YPF, France’s Total, Italy’s Eni and Britain’s BP had expressed interest in Uruguay’s discovery.

Brazil, Argentina and Chile rely heavily on gas, but supplies are under increasing pressure. Record crude prices have prompted governments and companies to scour the globe for prospects or to renew interest in previously rejected ones.

In Paraguay, where hydrocarbons exploration has disappointed for decades, US-based Pantera Petroleum has revisited 1990s seismic data. It says it has found a potential 129m barrel oil reserve to cover domestic demand for 18 years.

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European vs US bank stocks

Published: August 7 2008 09:25 | Last updated: August 7 2008 19:11

It is easy to think US banks have been far and away the biggest dumping ground for credit losses since the subprime mess first exploded. It would also be wrong. European banks have lost almost as much money as their American peers. The scary part is that European banks have written off toxic credit left, right and centre while their domestic economies have done relatively well. As the European economy slows, they will have to take the hit from old-fashioned loan losses too. That does not appear to be fully reflected by share prices.

The cost of creditGlobally, banks have taken some $493bn of subprime-related credit writedowns since the start of last year. Of that, American banks account for $250bn and Europeans some $221bn. The bulk of these losses has been concentrated in Europe’s few truly global banks – the giant UBSs and HSBCs of this world. But more domestically orientated banks have suffered too. France’s BNP Paribas, for example, wrote down €542m on bond losses this week.

When the Europeans finish the summer reporting season, their total writedowns can only rise. Barclays, the UK bank, on Thursday singlehandedly added almost $5bn to the charge sheet. This has several consequences. Europeans will have to raise more capital than they have to date. So far, European banks – led by the UK – have raised $160bn of fresh money, against $177bn in the US.

More importantly, the US housing bust is more advanced than the property price collapse in Europe. Yet housing markets in Spain, Denmark, the UK and Ireland have been no less bubbly than in the US. Losses on secured and unsecured loans that European banks hold on their books will grow as the continent’s economy slows. Spain is already flirting with recession.

The US and European economies are of similar size, as are their banking industries, which both have market capitalisations of about $1,000bn. Yet European banking stocks have outperformed since the credit crisis began. So far, US banks have suffered most. The worst is yet to come in Europe.

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Printemps revamp has designs on super-rich shoppers

By Scheherazade Daneshkhu in Paris

Published: August 8 2008 03:00 | Last updated: August 8 2008 03:00

The owners of Printemps are turning the Paris landmark on Boulevard Haussmann into a luxury department store to tap the wallets of super-rich tourists.

Mosaics, sculptures and ornamental ironwork that decorate the art nouveau store in the heart of the bustling district are being pains-takingly restored.

The €150m ($230m, £119m) project, which will take four years, is part of a plan by Printemps' new owners to transform the graceful but dowdy building into a store to rival the world's best.

Paolo de Cesare, president of the Printemps group, has in mind Harrods and Selfridges in London, New York's Neiman Marcus and Isetan in Tokyo.

Unlike Bon Marché, the smaller but arguably more exclusive Paris department store, Printemps intends to cash in on the tourists who frequent Boulevard Haussmann, where the Galeries Lafayette department store is also situated.

On an average day 60,000 people visit Printemps, and 100,000 on Saturdays. Of last year's €550m total sales, 20 per cent was to tourists. Russians were the top foreign customers, overtaking the Japanese; visitors from China were third. Those three countries accounted for 36 per cent of the store's international sales last year.

Printemps has introduced a concierge service, 10 personal shoppers and a Maybach luxury car to drive important customers and their shopping to hotels.

Inside the store, the concessions are upgrading their boutiques. Although the emphasis is on high fashion - Balenciaga, Missoni, Stella McCartney and Alexander McQueen - there are still some affordable brands. But mass-market labels, such as Zara and Mango, have given way to Zadig & Voltaire and Comptoir des Cotonniers.

In an echo of the early 1900s, when the store's director built a great hall and central staircase, the interior will be opened up. Mr de Cesare, a former Procter & Gamble executive, says the idea is to make "luxury accessible". He points to an exposed-looking De Beers concession in the middle of the jewellery department.

The store literature promises "a temple of fashion" but one that is "a less intimidating version of the Avenue Montaigne", the swanky thoroughfare where Dior, Chanel and Valentino reside.

The renovation is part of an ambitious plan by Maurizio Borletti, chief executive of the Borletti group. In 2006 he and RREEF, a property investment arm of Deutsche Bank, paid €1.1bn to acquire the chain of 17 department stores, from PPR, the retail group formerly known as Pinault-Printemps-Redoute.

Mr Borletti wants a large European network of premium stores. "A pan-European network makes sense," he says. "Local players are relatively small and, when they become bigger, they usually cover a wide range of prices. So consolidation and segmentation is needed."

He recently bought Italy's La Rinascente retail group (a chain originally founded by his family) and last month was part of a consortium that bought a 49 per cent stake in an investment company that owns most of the German department stores operated by Karstadt.

With a strong foothold in Italy, Germany and France, Mr Borletti is well positioned to achieve his ambition. But as the Printemps restoration indicates, he knows it will take time.

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French trade deficit hits record level

By Ben Hall in Paris

Published: August 7 2008 11:06 | Last updated: August 7 2008 11:06

France’s trade deficit widened sharply in June to a record €5.64bn, exacerbated by the higher cost of oil and energy imports and weaker car exports.

The trade gap - up from a revised €4.7bn in May - was significantly higher than many economists had forecast and will weigh heavily on an already sharply slowing French economy.

Growth in the second quarter is likely to be weak at best, with private sector analysts predicting expansion of between 0 and 0.2 per cent.

The trade deficit for the first half of 2008 widened to €24.4bn, up from €15.8bn in the same period last year, according to figures from French Customs, published on Thursday.

“The sky has once again darkened over the French economy,” said Alexander Law, chief economist at Xerfi, a Paris based consultancy.

Anne-Marie Idrac, French trade minister, said that stripping out energy the trade deficit for the first half of 2008 had in fact narrowed by €3bn, helped by higher agricultural exports and a jump in Airbus sales.

The trade gap has weighed on French growth since 2003 as French companies failed to exploit the rise in global demand.

For the last five years, the French economy has instead been dependent on domestic demand and construction. The model is the mirror image of the German economy, whose strong performance until recently has been driven by exports.

Since the French economy is less dependent on exports than Germany, it could be less affected by a global slowdown.

However, it points to the underlying problem of the lack of competitiveness of French companies, not just in terms of price but also because of a lack of innovation in their products, according to a recent report from HSBC.

Although the deterioration in the deficit can be partly explained by the soaring price of energy imports and the rise in the euro, French manufacturing businesses have also lost market share inside the eurozone.

The downturn in the auto industry has hurt French exports, but this effect may be partially offset in the coming months by the arrival of new models.

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Emerging nations urged to foot own Aids bill

By Andrew Jack in Mexico City

Published: August 8 2008 01:56 | Last updated: August 8 2008 01:56

Emerging countries should fund more of their own spiralling needs to tackle Aids and other infectious diseases, the head of the largest multilateral donor agency for health warned on Thursday.

Michel Kazatchkine, head of the UN-backed Global Fund to fight Aids, TB and Malaria, said he wanted to see other countries follow the recent lead of Russia in “co-investing” to tackle some of the world’s leading killer diseases.

His comments reflect growing concern among the Fund’s members and donors about the rising costs of tackling the diseases around the world, and especially how to maintain such support as more people are placed on antiretroviral therapy, which must be sustained for life.

Speaking on the sidelines of the latest international Aids conference in Mexico, he said: ”I hope a number of the upper middle income countries will follow Russia,” which has pledged by 2010 to reimburse all $300m it has received from the Global Fund. He said he hoped China and India would move in the same direction.

His views were echoed by Peter Piot, head of UNAIDS, who said: “Many of the middle income countries can pay for themselves.”

He highlighted examples including Mexico, which has been criticised at the conference for failing to do more to tackle its Aids epidemic with a broader provision of treatment and currently spending little on HIV prevention.

UNAIDS estimates that $25bn a year will be required by 2010 for HIV treatment and prevention in lower and middle income countries.

The Global Fund has been funded by more than $11bn to date, and it has just closed a further $6bn round of requests for support, as demand accelerates rapidly.

Mr Kazatchkine stressed that the G8 group of leading industrial countries had yet to meet most of their existing pledges to increase support for Aids. He said he was stepping up efforts to generate more funding from the oil-rich Gulf countries as well as from business.

All countries are eligible for Global Fund support provided they have sufficiently significant health problems and are not members of the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development club of rich countries.

While Russia has eased some financial pressure on the Fund by making reimbursements, the move has also eased any pressure for the country to follow international guidance on the best way to tackle disease.

Mr Kazatchkine and Mr Piot both criticised the Moscow authorities for failing to do more to extend HIV treatment, and above all for failing to change its approach to tackling infection among drug users.

Mr Piot said Russia’s current policy, which forbids ”substitution therapy” of methadone for injecting drug users who share syringes, was both ineffective and violated human rights.

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Petrobras has new light-oil discovery in Santos
Reuters
Reuters - Thursday, August 7 11:46 pm

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil's state-run Petrobras announced on Thursday a new discovery of light oil with an API grade of around 30 in the Santos Basin, off the Sao Paulo coast.
(Advertisement)

The oil was found in the Iara field, controlled 65 percent by Petrobras, 25 percent by the BG Group and 10 percent by Portugal's Galp Energia , the company said.

The new find was near the Tupi field, where Petrobras has estimated recoverable reserves at between 5 billion and 8 billion barrels -- which would be one of the world's biggest oil discoveries in the past 20 years.

The company, Brazil's biggest, has been intensifying its drilling activity in the sub-salt area, which geologists say could have the potential for 70 billion barrels or more.

It said the new find was 230 kilometres (142 miles) offshore from Rio de Janeiro at a depth of 2,230 meters (7,330 feet). It gave no information on the possible quantity of the newly discovered oil.

"The well is still being drilled in search of deeper targets," the company said in its statement.

Experts agree that the sub-salt production may be technically challenging and costly, partly because salt movement requires reinforced piping, which can still be damaged. Production from above the salt level is easier.

Analysts are bullish on Brazil's oil potential, expecting the country to become a major world oil producer in the next decade. Brazil already produces enough to meet its net oil needs of about 1.8 million bpd, and exports some crude.

Petrobras shares earlier closed 1.68 percent higher at 33.86 reais.

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７月の倒産件数23％増　帝国データ調べ

　民間調査会社の帝国データバンクが8日発表した7月の全国企業倒産によると、倒産件数は前年同月比23.6％増の1131件だった。2カ月連続で前年実績を上回った。マンション分譲業者の倒産が特に目立った。今後の見通しについては「物価上昇と景気後退が同時進行しており、倒産の増加基調がさらに強まる可能性が高い」（帝国データ）としている。

　負債総額は同109％増の6402億円だった。不動産開発業者のゼファー（負債額949億円）や、クレジットカードのオークス（同486億円）などの大型倒産が相次いだ。7月中の上場企業の倒産は5件と、2002年4月以来の高水準となった。

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第一生命、豪生保大手に出資　団体保険など提供

　第一生命保険は8日、豪生命保険会社タワー・オーストラリア・グループと資本・業務提携することで合意したと発表した。同社の発行済み株式29.7％を376億円で取得。非常勤役員を2人派遣し、タワーに団体保険や資産運用のノウハウを提供する。

　タワーは2007年度（06年10月―07年9月）の収入保険料が641億円で豪州9位。今回の提携で、第一は死亡保障などで高い成長が見込めるオーストラリアの生保市場に参入する。国内の生保が豪州に戦略的に投資するのは初めてという。

　英投資会社ギネス・ピート・グループが保有するタワーの全株式を第一が買い取る。まず8日付で14.9％を取得し、10月下旬までに残りを買い増す。タワーの7月の平均株価（1株＝2.82豪ドル）に対し33％を上乗せする。

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総務省、電報「115番」を開放　事業者選択可能に

　総務省はＮＴＴの電報受け付けに割り当てている115番の電話番号を他の事業者に開放する。同様のサービスを扱う新規参入の民間業者でも115番を使えるようにし、利用者が選択できるよう改める。早ければ来年初めに制度を改正する方針だ。これを受けてＫＤＤＩは来春にも自社サービスで115番を使い始める方針で、ソフトバンクも電報市場への参入を検討。料金やサービス競争が加速しそうだ。

　総務省の有識者会議が８日にも報告書案をまとめる。同省はこれを受けて業務内容や周知に関するガイドラインを策定し、年明けに官報で告示して制度を改める考え。

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大和、株夜間取引８日から開始　投資家の選択肢広がる

　大和証券は８日、個人投資家向けに私設取引システム（ＰＴＳ）を活用した株式の夜間取引市場を開設する。これまでインターネット証券が中心だったＰＴＳに初めて大手証券が加わり、投資家の選択肢が広がる。ただ取引所に比べて流動性に乏しいためＰＴＳの売買は低調で、投資家層の拡大などの課題がある。

　ＰＴＳとは証券取引所のように投資家の売買注文を処理する電子システムのこと。大和ＰＴＳの取引時間は午後６時から同11時59分。対象銘柄数は 1928。大和が各銘柄の売買価格を提示し、投資家はその価格で取引するかどうかを決める「マーケットメーク」と呼ばれる方式をＰＴＳとして初めて採用したのが特徴だ。売買が少ない銘柄でも大和が価格を提示する限りは取引できる利点がある。

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原油高、バス業界に追加支援策　国交省

　国土交通省は原油高が経営を直撃しているバス業界に対し、今年度中に新たな支援策を導入する方針だ。貸し切りバスでは燃油価格の上昇分を運賃に上乗せする「燃油サーチャージ制」の導入を認めるほか、路線バス会社では過疎地を中心に運賃の特別値上げを許可する。政府が来週初めにもとりまとめる経済対策に盛り込みたい考えだ。

　燃油サーチャージ制は運賃とは別に、燃油価格の上昇分の負担を求める制度。貸し切りバス会社は契約の相手先の旅行会社など法人の立場が強く、燃料価格の上昇分を料金に転嫁できない例が多いという。国交省は旅行会社などへ制度導入の協力を要請する方針。

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日野自、メキシコに中型トラック組み立て工場

　日野自動車は8日、メキシコに中型トラックの組み立て工場を新設すると発表した。三井物産と共同出資で工場を運営する新会社を設け、2009年7月に稼働する。メキシコ市場では07年に小型トラックの販売を始めており、生産拠点を構えて、拡販を目指す。

　新会社は8月中にも設置する。資本金は900万ドル（1億円弱）で、日野自が80％、三井物産が20％出資する。日本からエンジンなど部品を輸出し組み立てるノックダウン工場とする。中型トラック「５００シリーズ」（日本名レンジャー）を生産し、年間の生産能力は1200台。

　またメキシコでの販売会社は三井物産の全額出資だったが、増資したうえで日野自が35％を出資する形態に切り替える。

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東京空港交通、羽田空港―新宿・池袋間　早朝深夜もバス運行へ

　空港行きバスを運行する東京空港交通（東京・中央）は8日、深夜と早朝に羽田空港と新宿・池袋駅間を結ぶ路線を開設すると発表した。国土交通省に認可申請中で、9月13日の運行開始を目指す。羽田空港に午前3―4時台に発着するチャーター便の乗客を取り込む考え。これまで深夜から早朝にかけての時間帯には公共交通機関がなく、始発まで待つかタクシーなどを利用する必要があった。

　午前4時45分に羽田空港の国際線ターミナルを出発し、新宿駅を経由して5時40分に池袋駅に着く便と、午前0時50分に池袋駅を出てその逆ルートをたどり、1時45分に羽田空港に着く便を用意する。まず安定的にチャーター便がある月曜日と土曜日のみ運行し、需要をみて増便を検討する。

　料金は大人（中学生以上）で片道2000円と、昼間に池袋や新宿と羽田空港を結ぶ線より800円高い。小学生以下は半額。

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志多組が民事再生法申請　負債総額278億円

　宮崎県最大の総合建設会社、志多組（宮崎市、志多宏彦社長）は8日、東京地裁に民事再生法の適用を申請し、同日付で保全命令を受けた。負債総額は約 278億円。土木・建築資材の価格が高騰しているうえ、6月に取引先の東京のマンション開発会社が破綻したことなどで資金繰りが急速に悪化した。同社の 2007年6月期の売上高は約378億円。

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東電、首都圏に充電拠点網　電気自動車

　東京電力は首都圏で電気自動車の充電拠点網整備に乗り出す。ショッピングセンターや大学などの公共施設に協力を求め、急速充電ができる専用設備を設置。 2009年度に最大200カ所、3年程度で約1000カ所に増やす。電気自動車は三菱自動車などが来夏以降に販売を始める。ガソリン価格の高騰で電気自動車のコスト競争力は高まっており、普及の鍵を握る充電インフラの整備が進むことでハイブリッド車などと並ぶ有力な環境対応車に浮上しそうだ。

　東電はすでに5分の充電で40キロメートル、10分間で60キロメートル走れる急速充電器を開発済みで、三菱自や富士重工業と実証試験をしている。両社が09年度に電気自動車の販売を始めるのに合わせ、充電器を設置する。家庭や事業所の電源を使う場合、充電1回あたりの走行距離は160キロメートル。これに加えて充電拠点があれば、街中で安心して電気自動車を利用できる。

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アデランス、新経営陣承認へ　９日に臨時総会

　アデランスホールディングスは9日、新しい経営陣を選ぶ臨時株主総会を都内で開く。筆頭株主で投資ファンドの米スティール・パートナーズなど5月の定時株主総会で役員再任に反対した複数の大株主が臨時総会では賛成に回る見通し。子会社であるフォンテーヌ社長の早川清氏を社長とし、米スティールが社外取締役2人を送り込む新体制が正式に発足することになる。

　新役員陣にはスティールが推薦した同ファンドのマネージング・ディレクター、ジョシュア・シェクター氏と元米国三菱商事社長の相原宏徳氏の2人が社外取締役候補として入っている。

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日航、給与・手当５％削減　最大労組と合意

　日本航空は7日、同社の最大労組と、中核子会社である日本航空インターナショナル（東京・品川、従業員約1万7000人）従業員の基本給と諸手当を一律 5％削減することで合意した。今回の合意により年間100億円のコスト削減にメドをつけた。同日発表した路線見直しによる年間120億円の収支改善とあわせ、ジェット燃料の価格高騰による業績悪化を防ぐ。

　合意したのは最大労組のＪＡＬ労働組合。今回の合意を受け、会社側は日航インター従業員の基本給のほか、乗務・運航手当や管理職手当など各種手当もそれぞれ5％カットする。地上職の職員で年平均50万円、運航乗務員で同100万円、客室乗務員で同30万円、賃金が下がる。10月から実施する。

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道内観光「滞在型」強化を　日銀札幌支店がリポート

　日銀札幌支店は7日、「北海道観光の現状と課題」と題したリポートを発表した。移動時間が長くかかることや、宿泊地の札幌への集中、ホテルの平均宿泊料金が全国最低水準であることが道内観光の課題と指摘し、滞在型観光の強化など“処方せん”を示した。

　リポートでは旅行会社のツアー比較に基づき、道内観光は沖縄などに比べ移動時間が長くなりがちで、お金が落ちる場が少ないと分析。交通網の整備や、移動の少ない滞在型観光を強化する必要があるとした。

　さらに観光客数を見ると、全体では横ばいだが海外客は伸びているとし、夏場よりも冬場の来道が多い海外客を狙い、冬季の観光強化にも取り組みべきとしている。

　洞爺湖サミット（主要国首脳会議）が道内観光に与える効果については、「沖縄でも実際に観光客が増えたのはサミット開催の2年後以降。それまでに受け皿を整備していくことが重要」（宇平直史支店長）と指摘した。

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２審もＪＡＳＲＡＣが勝訴…名誉棄損訴訟

　週刊ダイヤモンドの記事で名誉を傷つけられたとして、社団法人日本音楽著作権協会（ＪＡＳＲＡＣ）がダイヤモンド社（東京）側に計約４３００万円の損害賠償などを求めた訴訟の控訴審判決で、東京高裁は７日、１審同様に名誉棄損の成立を認めた上で、賠償額を１審の計５５０万円から計３２０万円に変更した。

　寺田逸郎裁判長は記事の多くが名誉棄損に当たるとしたが、一部の記述は事実に基づく意見や論評と認め、違法性はないと判断。「取材に一応の努力はみられ、悪意を持って誘導しようとした記事ではない」と減額の理由を述べた。

　判決によると、ダイヤモンド社は２００５年９月１７日特大号の同誌の表紙に「１０００億円の巨大利権　音楽著作権を牛耳るジャスラックの腐敗」と記載。本文では著作権使用料の徴収や配分に疑惑があると報じた。

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17:38 GMT, Thursday, 7 August 2008 18:38 UK
Syrian dissident economist freed
Aref Dalila after his release

Syrian dissident Aref Dalila, who was jailed nearly seven years ago, has been freed by the Syrian authorities.

An economist, he was jailed in 2002 on charges of trying to corrupt the constitution, inciting armed rebellion and spreading false information.

Mr Dalila, 65, had been sentenced to 10 years; one report said he may have been freed through a presidential pardon.

He was said to be the last figure in jail from the Damascus Spring, a period of greater political openness in 2000.

The Spring followed the death of long-serving Syrian President Hafez al-Assad and the succession of his son, Bashar al-Assad.

Bashar al-Assad initially tolerated the discussion groups that were held in private homes, but a tough clampdown began in 2001.

Mr Dalila was jailed after calling for freedom of expression and abolishing government monopolies in the economy.

He told the BBC soon after his release that his views had not changed and that he would continue to voice them. He said his release was not conditional on any pledge of silence.

Failing health

"Aref Dalila was freed in line with a presidential pardon after having spent seven years in jail," National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria chief Ammar Qorabi told the AFP news agency.

In July, Mr Qorabi called on President Bashar al-Assad to grant an amnesty to Mr Dalila "because of a deterioration in his state of health and to turn a new page with the Syrian opposition".

Mohannad al-Husni, the head of the Syrian Human Rights Organisation, said he was optimistic the release of Mr Dalila could be a step towards more freedoms

Mr Dalila, who was a former dean of the Damascus University economics faculty in the late 1980s, was arrested in 2001 along with nine other opposition activists and jailed the following year for trying to "modify the constitution and denigrate the state".

The Syrian authorities continue to hold people for their political views.

Some critics of the government, including the prominent opposition leader and former MP Riad Seif, are still in custody.

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09:00 GMT, Thursday, 7 August 2008 10:00 UK
Net address bug worse than feared
By Maggie Shiels
Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley

Computer keyboard, BBC

A recently found flaw in the internet's addressing system is worse than first feared, says the man who found it.

Dan Kaminsky made his comments when speaking publicly for the first time about his discovery at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas.

He said fixes for the flaw in the net's Domain Name System (DNS) had focused on web browsers but it could be abused by hackers in many other ways.

"Every network is at risk," he said. "That's what this flaw has shown."

The DNS acts as the internet's address books and helps computers translate the website names people prefer (such as bbc.co.uk) into the numbers computers use (212.58.224.131).

Mr Kaminsky discovered a way for malicious hackers to hijack DNS and re-direct people to fake pages even if they typed in the correct address for a website.

In his talk Mr Kaminsky detailed 15 other ways for the flaw to be exploited.

Via the flaw hi-tech criminals or pranksters could target FTP services, mail servers, spam filters, Telnet and the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) that helps to make web-based transactions more secure.

"There are a ton of different paths that lead to doom," he said.

'Hype'

But the DNS threat was played down by net giant VeriSign which issues many of the security certificates used in SSL. It told BBC News its system was "not vulnerable".

The Silicon Valley company looks after two of the net's 13 DNS root servers. It also controls the computers that contain the master list of domain name suffixes such as .com and .net Ken Silva, CTO VeriSign

Ken Silva, chief technology officer at Verisign, said: "We have anticipated these flaws in DNS for many years and we have basically engineered around them."

He believed there had been "some hype" around how the DNS flaw will affect consumers. He added that while it was an interesting way to exploit DNS on weak servers, there were other ways to misdirect people that remained.

Mr Silva said he was concerned that people would read too much into the doom and gloom headlines that have surrounded the discovery of the DNS flaw.

"It's been overplayed in a sense. I think it has served to confuse the consumer into believing there is somehow now a way to misdirect them to a wrong site.

"The fact of the matter is that there have been many ways like phishing attacks to misdirect them for a long time and this is just yet another of those ways that will be surgically exploited."

Security gap

Mr Kaminsky kept news of the flaw out of the public domain for months after its discovery to give companies time to patch servers.

Mr Kaminsky said that 75% of Fortune 500 companies have fixed the problem while around 15% have done nothing.

Major vendors like Microsoft, Cisco, Sun Microsystems and others have issued patches to close the security hole.

"The industry has rallied like we've never seen the industry rally before," said Mr Kaminsky. Student using laptop, BBC

DNS attacks are not new but Mr Kaminsky is credited with discovering a way to link some widely known weaknesses in the system so that the attack now takes seconds instead of days or hours.

"Quite frankly, all the pieces of this have been staring us in the face for decades," said Paul Vixie, president of the Internet Systems Consortium, a non-profit that makes the software run by many of the world's DNS servers.

Mr Silva at VeriSign said even though patches have been put in place, this doesn't mean users can sit back and relax.

"The biggest gap in security rests between the keyboard and the back of the chair," he said.

"The look and feel of a website is not what a consumer should trust. They should trust the security behind that website and do simple things like use more secure passwords and change their password regularly."

Mr Silva said education is fundamental in making the net a safer place.

"We have been trained since we were young to lock the door to our house, our car. We take these sensible security measures in the environment we are functioning in.

"Yet when it comes to computer safety we forget to look both ways before crossing the internet highway."

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大阪府立病院、府立大学も給与カット？　橋下知事が示唆
2008.8.8 13:39

　大阪府の橋下徹知事は８日、府立５病院を運営する地方独立行政法人「府立病院機構」と、公立大学法人「府立大学」に対しても、府職員の給与カットに連動して、同様の措置を求める可能性を示唆した。

　橋下知事は部長会議で、「理屈ではなく感覚」とした上で、「大学教授はカットされても当たり前。府民の視点で考えるべき」との意向を示した。

　参加した部長からは「病院も大学も独立した法人組織だけに、強く言えないのでは」などという疑問の声が上がった。

　府は、府職員の給与カットが盛り込まれた条例案が７月臨時議会で可決されたことを受け、４３ある指定出資法人すべてに対して、職員の給与の引き下げを求めた。府の給与に準拠している２６法人は条例の改正に伴い、職員の給与を引き下げる見通し。

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ウラン飛散、作業員２人が低レベル被曝　神奈川・横須賀

2008年8月8日19時41分

　核燃料製造のグローバル・ニュークリア・フュエル・ジャパン（神奈川県横須賀市内川２丁目）の工場内で８日、ウランを含む霧状のしぶきで、作業員２人が低レベルの被曝（ひばく）をした。周辺への放射性物質の放出はないという。

　同社の発表によると８日午前９時３１分ごろ、ウラン回収室１階の受けタンク（容量３００リットル）でしぶきが発生し、エアモニターの警報が鳴った。作業員２人のうち１人と、駆けつけた放射線管理課員２人のうち１人が被曝した。被曝量は１．８７ミリシーベルトと０．３２ミリシーベルト（国の基準は年間５０ミリシーベルト）という。同社では７月９日にも微量のウランが飛散し、１人が被曝している。

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東海９地銀、不良債権処理で業績悪化、岐阜銀は赤字
2008.8.8 20:06

　東海３県（岐阜、愛知、三重）の地銀９行の平成２０年４～６月期連結決算が８日、出そろった。景気が減速する中、融資先企業の破綻（はたん）に伴って不良債権処理額が増え業績が悪化した銀行が目立った。純損益では岐阜銀行（岐阜市）が５億円の赤字に転落したほか、４行が減益となった。

　岐阜銀行は愛松建設（愛知県稲沢市）など大口融資先の経営破綻が相次いだため、不良債権処理額が前年同期の４億円から１６億円に膨らんだことが響いた。

　中京銀行（名古屋市）も愛松建設に融資しており不良債権処理額が増えた結果、純利益は前年同期比７３．５％減の２億円に落ち込んだ。十六銀行（岐阜市）も不良債権処理額が７億円から２９億円に増えた。

　市況低迷も業績に響いた。第三銀行（三重県松阪市）は保有する有価証券の評価損８億円を計上した。

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ＥＵがイラン制裁強化　金融、貨物など対象
2008.8.8 19:40

　欧州連合（ＥＵ）は８日、国連安全保障理事会決議に反してウラン濃縮を続けるイランに対し、金融取引の制限や貨物検査の徹底などを含む新たな制裁を科すことを決めた。６月にイラン国営メリ銀行のＥＵ域内の資産凍結などを決めたのに続く制裁強化となった。

　新たな制裁は、（１）ＥＵ加盟２７カ国によるイラン側への信用供与などの制限（２）サデラト銀行などイラン国内に本拠を置く金融機関の活動に対する監視（３）イランからの航空、船舶貨物に関する検査の強化－が柱。３月の安保理決議に沿った措置としている。

　安保理常任理事国とドイツの６カ国は６月、イランにウラン濃縮活動の停止を求めて、新たな「包括的見返り案」を提示したが、イランは受け入れる姿勢を見せず、米国とＥＵ側は７日、対イラン制裁強化の方針で一致した。

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中国「食の安全」担当局長が自殺、ギョーザ事件に関係か

　【香港＝吉田健一】８日付の香港紙・星島日報は、中国政府で「食の安全」を担当する国家品質監督検査検疫総局の食品生産監督管理局の●建平局長（４２）が、今月２日に飛び降り自殺したと報じた。（●は「烏」に「おおざと」）

　食品生産監督管理局は食品の安全管理や食中毒事件の調査などを担当する部署。●局長は中国製冷凍ギョーザ中毒事件の調査にもかかわっていたとみられるが、自殺との関係は不明。

　同紙によると、司法当局が●局長と接触していたとの情報があるという。国家品質監督検査検疫総局の李長江総局長は５日の局内会議で、規律引き締めを指示する発言をしている。

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巡査部長、警察学校寮から下着盗んだ疑い　千葉

2008年8月8日0時3分

　千葉県警監察官室は７日、警察学校の寮から女性警察官の下着を盗んだとして、警察学校の主任で同県警巡査部長の高里良祐容疑者（３３）＝千葉県市原市ちはら台南２丁目＝を窃盗の疑いで逮捕した。容疑を認めているという。

　調べでは、高里容疑者は７月２９日午後１時ごろ、同県東金市士農田にある警察学校の女性寮に侵入し、寮に住む女性警察官（２３）の下着１枚を盗んだ疑い。

　女性警察官は授業のため不在で、女子寮を巡回していた女性教官がこの女性警察官の部屋の玄関に男性の革靴があることに気付き、窓から何者かが逃走したのを目撃した。靴は県警の支給品で、サイズなどから高里容疑者が浮上した。女性警官は高里容疑者の教え子だったという。