‘I made a mistake,’ admits Greenspan

‘I made a mistake,’ admits Greenspan

By Alan Beattie and James Politi in Washington

Published: October 23 2008 17:37 | Last updated: October 23 2008 21:26

Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman, said on Thursday the credit crisis had exceeded anything he had imagined and admitted he was wrong to think that banks would protect themselves from financial market chaos.

“I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interest of organisations, specifically banks and others, was such that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders,” he said.

In the second of two days of tense hearings on Capitol Hill, Henry Waxman, chairman of the House of Representatives, clashed with current and former regulators and with Republicans on his own committee over blame for the financial crisis.

Mr Waxman said Mr Greenspan’s Federal Reserve – along with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the US Treasury – had propagated “the prevailing attitude in Washington... that the market always knows best.”

Mr Waxman blamed the Fed for failing to curb aggressive lending practices, the SEC for allowing credit rating agencies to operate under lax standards and the Treasury for opposing “responsible oversight” of financial derivatives.

Christopher Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, defended himself, saying that virtually no one had foreseen the meltdown of the mortgage market, or the inadequacy of banking capital standards in preventing the collapse of institutions such as Bear Stearns.

Mr Waxman accused the SEC chairman of being wise after the event. “Mr Cox has come in with a long list of regulations he wants... But the reality is, Mr Cox, you weren’t doing that beforehand.”

Mr Cox blamed the fact that congressional responsibility was divided between the banking and financial services committees, which regulate banking, insurance and securities, and the agriculture committees, which regulate futures.

“This jurisdictional split threatens to for ever stand in the way of rationalising the regulation of these products and markets,” he said.

Mr Greenspan accepted that the crisis had “found a flaw” in his thinking but said that the kind of heavy regulation that could have prevented the crisis would have damaged US economic growth. He described the past two decades as a “period of euphoria” that encouraged participants in the financial markets to misprice securities.

He had wrongly assumed that lending institutions would carry out proper surveillance of their counterparties, he said. “I had been going for 40 years with considerable evidence that it was working very well”.

Republicans on the committee dissented from some of the Democratic attacks, and said the government-backed housing entities Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae had also been to blame.

“It wasn’t deregulation that allowed this crisis,” said Tom Davis, the senior Republican on the committee. “It was the mish-mash of regulations and regulators, each with too narrow a view of increasingly integrated national and global markets.”

Mr Greenspan said that when, as Fed chairman, he declined to advocate regulating credit default swaps – derivatives that have been blamed for worsening the crisis – he had been following the will of Congress.

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Syrian minister to visit UK

By Roula Khalaf and James Blitz in London

Published: October 23 2008 17:40 | Last updated: October 23 2008 17:40

Syria takes another step on the road to international rehabilitation when its foreign minister visits London next week for the highest level encounter between the Syrian and British governments since 2002.

The visit by Walid al-Muallem is part of a marked improvement in Syria’s relations with Europe, a process encouraged by Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, who invited Bashar al-Assad, his Syrian counterpart, to national day celebrations in Paris in July and travelled to Damascus in September.

After embracing Mr Assad as a reformer when he took over from his father in 2000, European governments have followed the US lead in isolating Damascus in recent years, accusing it of derailing many of their policies.

Syria was said to be backing Iraqi insurgents and complicating Middle East peace efforts. It has also faced allegations of involvement in the 2005 killing of Rafiq Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister.

As the US administration of George W. Bush prepares to leave office, however, Damascus has been sending signals of a willingness to moderate its hardline positions, in the apparent hope of improving relations under a new US president.

European officials have taken notice of Syria’s resumption of indirect peace talks with Israel and its backing for a May peace deal in Lebanon, which pulled the country back from the brink of war.

British officials also say there are signs that Syria is no longer tolerating foreign militants who, in the past, have used Damascus as a base from which to travel into Iraq. Above all, the UK sees scope to prise Syria away from its relationship with Iran.

“No one is going into this meeting with rose-tinted spectacles and we do not know if progress will be delivered immediately,” said a senior UK official. “But there is enough going on in terms of Syria changing its approach to the region and to the west for us to test the relationship at foreign ministers’ level.”

But assumptions of an eventual Syrian break with Iran are exaggerated. Tehran and Damascus have been close allies for decades. Their political relationship is being bolstered by closer economic ties.

“Relations have always been good – sometimes very strong, sometimes strong,” says a senior Syrian official. “I don’t remember a period where there was a misunderstanding between the two leaderships or even a period of coolness.”

Analysts in Damascus say Syria is hedging its bets at a time of great uncertainty in the region. It has yet to be reassured that a new Israeli government, now being formed, will be serious about peace negotiations and willing to return the Golan Heights, occupied in the 1967 Middle East war, or that a new US administration will be willing to broker the talks, as Mr Assad wants.

The perception in Damascus, moreover, is that a military confrontation with Israel is still possible.

“Syria has to keep three lines of foreign policy open: it has to keep the possibility of war on the table, the possibility of a status quo in which it needs to ride out crises, and the possibility that there will be peace and openness,” says one analyst close to the government.

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Bahrain to press on with Iran gas deal

By Andrew England in Manama

Published: October 23 2008 17:17 | Last updated: October 23 2008 17:17

Bahrain intends to push ahead with plans to buy gas from Iran, despite the concerns of the US, an important ally for the small Gulf kingdom, senior officials say.

Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed al-Khalifa, Bahrain’s foreign minister, told the FT that negotiations with Tehran to import one billion cubic feet of gas per day were “very important” and “real”.

Oil ministers from the two sides met in Bahrain’s capital, Manama, last week and agreed to a “framework agreement” on the deal. But observers question whether the project will really go ahead, given regional politics and the kingdom’s reliance on the US and Saudi Arabia, which has poor relations with Tehran.

Bahrain faces potential gas shortages in the future. Although the Gulf region is rich in hydrocarbons, little attention has been paid to developing gas, and only Iran and Qatar can claim to have ample supplies of the resource as economies rapidly expand.

However, Qatar has put a moratorium on its North Field, the world’s largest reservoir of pure gas, until at least 2010, causing Bahrain to look farther east to Iran, which is under US sanctions. Observers suggest that Bahrain is highlighting the deal in an attempt to get Saudi Arabia – the Arab Gulf’s major power – and the US to press Qatar into providing an alternative. Bahrainis admit they would prefer to have other options but see none available at present.

Like other Arab Gulf countries, Bahrain, which has a Shia majority, is concerned at Iran’s growing influence in the region and by suspicions that it is trying to acquire nuclear arms, particularly as the kingdom hosts the US navy’s fifth fleet and could be a potential target in a conflict. But as a small nation, it also seeks to court good relations throughout the region.

“Should we keep ourselves at risk of not having enough power to run our country?” said Sheikh Khalid. “No, we will not do it, and Iran is our neighbour and we should tell the Iranians this is a deal.”

He said Washington had raised questions about the deal, but Bahrain’s response was that the kingdom needed gas to prosper.

The US has made clear that Washington does not support any measures that would provide resources to the Iranian regime, especially investments in the petroleum sector.

“I don’t think that any one of Bahrain’s friends would want Bahrain to be dependent on Iran. It would be Ukraine to Iran’s Russia,” said a western diplomat. “If they are forced to go ahead with the Iran deal, it will cause problems with the US and with the Saudis.”

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Breakthrough as Egypt jails ‘groper’

By Heba Saleh in Cairo

Published: October 23 2008 19:25 | Last updated: October 23 2008 19:25

A landmark court decision this week to fine and imprison for three years a man convicted of sexually harassing a woman on a Cairo street has been welcomed as a breakthrough by campaigners.

The ruling “sends a message to all segments of Egyptian society that sexual harassment is a crime and will not be tolerated”, said the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights, an organisation that has been leading calls for a law that would impose stiff sentences for sexual harassment.

Sherif Gomaa, who was convicted on Tuesday, had got out of his car and groped a young woman walking with a friend in an upmarket district of Cairo. Although he got back and started driving away, his victim, a film director, pursued him and at one point jumped on the boot of the car. She eventually managed to get him to a police station.

Organisations such as ECWR say there is a need to educate the Egyptian public about sexual harassment, because many people believe it to be harmless, or else they accuse women of provoking such behaviour by dressing immodestly. A report by the group earlier this year said nearly two-thirds of Egyptian men admit to having sexually harassed women; a majority said women themselves were to blame.

The issue of sexual harassment on the streets and on public transport, long accepted as a minor social ill, imposed itself on public opinion here two years ago when a mob of young men roamed central Cairo on a public holiday and set upon women passers-by, tearing at their clothes and sexually molesting them.

The attack, heavily publicised by bloggers and initially denied by the police, came as a shock to a society in which safety on the streets has never been an issue. A similar attack on three girls on a shopping thoroughfare last month renewed feelings of outrage.

Most harassment against women in Egypt is verbal, but according to a survey conducted by ECWR, 40 per cent of the women polled said they had been touched inappropriately.

The survey also showed that women who wore Islamic headscarves were just as likely to be harassed as women with uncovered hair.

“Sometimes a man tries to stick his body to mine on the bus,” said Madiha Soliman, a 29-year-old cleaner who commutes into the city every day. “I tell him politely to move away, and if he doesn’t I take out one of the pins holding my headscarf and, if he comes too close, it pricks him. That’s usually enough to make him go away.”

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Lending to non-financial business plunges

By Norma Cohen

Published: October 23 2008 11:55 | Last updated: October 23 2008 11:55

Lending to non-financial companies in September was less than a third of the average of the previous six months, according to the latest data from the British Bankers’ Association, a sign of how the credit crunch is filtering into the wider economy.

Lending to non-financial companies also fell sharply in August, but the latest round of numbers suggest that the fall off in lending may be indicating a trend to come.

David Dooks, statistics director at the BBA, said he believed the latest drop was “a response to the economic downturn.”

He said that companies, anticipating slower sales, were likely to be taking a hard look at their own borrowing requirements, but the BBA was not aware of lenders specifically curtailing lending.

“As usual, we undertake the regular due diligence actions and there may be some tightening of terms,” he saiid.

Among sectors, new lending to the construction industry was nil for the second consecutive month, a measure of how hard hit that sector has been. In August and September 2007, new loans for construction were £1.15bn and £687m, respectively.

However, new lending to real estate totalled £2.6bn, accounting for the greatest part of non-financial sector loans, despite sharply lower prices for much commercial property over the past year.

Mr Dooks said the BBA believed the funds represented draw-downs of previously committed credit lines rather than extensions of new ones.

Meanwhile, net mortgage lending – new loans extended minus repayments of principal – rose in September by £3.6bn but remained below the average of the previous six months.

The number of mortgages for house purchase rose slightly from that in August to 23,422 but is 57 per cent below that of 2007.

The average loan advanced for home purchase fell to £128,000, a drop of 15.8 per cent from 2007 and continuing a trend that has been apparent for several months. The drop reflects the increased deposits that lenders are now demanding, as well as falling home prices.

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Guernsey rules out state funds to help savers

By Andrew Bounds in Douglas and John Willman in London

Published: October 23 2008 22:57 | Last updated: October 23 2008 22:57

The Guernsey government has no plans to follow the Isle of Man’s lead in offering public funds to help bail out savers in subsidiaries of collapsed Icelandic banks.

More than 12,000 people – many UK citizens – have been caught up in the collapse of Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander (Isle of Man) and Landsbanki Guernsey, which together held just under £1bn of their savings.

The Isle of Man has decided to spend up to £150m – half its disposable reserves and 7.5 per cent of its gross domestic product – to raise the maximum payable under its depositors’ compensation scheme from £15,000 to £50,000.

The island’s deposit-taking banks will contribute up to £200m towards the cost, under the scheme which was approved yesterday by Tynwald, the Manx parliament. It superseded a fortnight-old act that put the entire burden on the banks. No bank will now pay more than £350,000 a year into the scheme. “We want to stand shoulder to shoulder with our industry,” said John Spellman, director of Isle of Man Finance, a government body that works with the financial services industry. “The banks made representations and we have listened, while we also want to reassure savers.”

Civil servants from the Isle of Man are to meet officials from the Treasury and Financial Services Authority on Friday to discuss £550m of deposits from Isle of Man accounts at Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander, which are held by its UK operation.

Guernsey has no depositors’ compensation scheme, but has ruled out state funding to compensate more than 2,000 savers in the Channel Island’s Landsbanki subsidiary.

Lyndon Trott, chief minister, said the government had been channelling its energies into creating a bank-funded scheme by the end of the year. The island’s authorities have also been pressing the UK government to release £36m of Landsbanki Guernsey deposits held in Heritable, a British subsidiary of the Icelandic bank.

“While we continue to do all we can to ensure that Landsbanki Guernsey depositors receive all their money back, our position has been clear from the outset that we would not propose the use of taxpayers’ money to support any pay-out,” Mr Trott said. “We need to spend taxpayers’ money on essential infrastructure developments for the people of Guernsey, new schools and healthcare, and that will continue to be the priority.”

The two islands are Crown dependencies, which are not part of the UK but independent territories with their own parliaments, judicial systems and financial regulators. With 145,000 residents between them, their economies are heavily dependent on providing offshore financial services to wealthy individuals, expatriates and international businesses.

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Call to end tax on vacant properties

By Daniel Thomas

Published: October 24 2008 03:00 | Last updated: October 24 2008 03:00

A group of the largest property owning companies have called on the government to scrap or amend legislation covering business rates on empty properties in the pre-Budget report.

Companies began paying full rates on vacant properties for the first time this year, following an initial grace period. It has been criticised as an extra financial burden on an already struggling property sector.

Many companies and organisations outside the sector also own real estate, including pension funds. Local councils have suffered as they also pay tax on empty properties. Campaigners say the tax is stifling regeneration.

The letter to Gordon Brown has been signed by companies with a combined market capitalisation of £370bn.

These include companies from AstraZeneca and McDonald's to Next, Tesco and Nokia, as well asLand Securities, British Land and Canary Wharf.

Segro and Brixton, among the other supporters of the letter, which was collated by the British Property -Federation with Property Week magazine, estimate that the tax will cost them £8m and £5m this year respectively.

The letter asks for a 50 per cent relief on the tax for shops and offices for two years, and an indefinite stay on industrial buildings.

The government scrapped a former relief for empty properties in April. It estimates the move could generate up to £1bn in extra revenue.

The Communities and Local Government Department said: "There are no plans to reverse the changes to empty property rate relief introduced on April 1. However, as with all taxes the position is kept under review and the government has engaged with industry and local authorities to understand how the reforms are working overall."

Ian Coull, chief executive of Segro, said: "This outrageous piece of taxation is hitting the whole of the British economy at a time of severe downturn."

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Cyclone bringing snow, storm to Russia’s Far East

23.10.2008, 10.55

KHABAROVSK, October 23 (Itar-Tass) -- The Far Eastern regional emergencies center declared a storm warning in the Northwest Pacific and the Bering Sea over possible 8-meter-high waves.

The top officials of the ports and the shipping companies were informed about a hazard of wreckages, damages to freight and fishing vessels, emergency situations over foiled weather.

A sweeping cyclone will bring hurricanes, sleet and a sharp cold spell to vast stretches of the Far East in the next 2-3 days. Stormy winds up to 22 meters per second, daytime air temperatures falling to zero and nighttime temperatures – to five degrees below zero, sleet and rains are expected in the Amur and Jewish autonomous regions, the Khabarovsk territory, in northern and central districts of the Primorsky territory and on Sakhalin.

“Breakdowns of communication lines and power supply lines, some obstacles in the work of road services, utilities, vehicles, ferry lines and airports are probable on these territories,” the Far Eastern emergency monitoring and forecasting center said. A hazard of wreckages in the offshore area of the Tatar Strait, in the northeastern part of the Sea of Japan (East Sea) and the western part of the Sea of Okhotsk will get stronger as of October 24.

All territorial emergency departments in the Far Eastern Federal District are put on high alert. The chiefs of municipal entities, regional authorities and police were informed about the coming cyclone. People were recommended to take some measures for their safety.

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Intercontinental RS-18 missile launched from Baikonur for combat-training purposes

22.10.2008, 13.54

MOSCOW, October 22 (Itar-Tass) - An RS-18 intercontinental ballistic missile (SS-19 “Stiletto” according to western classification) was launched on Wednesday from Baikonur for combat-training purposes. Chief of the Information and Public Relations Service of the Russian Strategic Missile Forces Colonel Alexander Vovk said “the missile, known also as UR-100N UTTH, was successfully launched at 13.10 Moscow time”.

“The launch of the RS-18 has shown that the missile’s basic aeroperformance remained the same and that it was possible to leave this type of missiles on combat alert duty,” Vovk noted. “The results of this launch proved the correctness of the decision to prolong the service life of this missile, which ranks among the most dependable ones, up to 2031,” he added.

“The designing and construction jobs to extend the service life of the strategic-purpose RS-18 missile complex were done in accordance with a tactical-technical order of the Russian Defence Ministry by a big team of designers and manufacturers of the complex’s component parts. The key role was played by NPO Mashinostroenie (Machine-Building Science and Production Association), which is the chief designer of the missile and of its entire complex”, the colonel recalled.

“Once fuelled and ampulized, such missiles do not have to be refuelled up to the time when they are phased out. They are installed in dependably protected launch silos and are still on combat alert duty in the areas where Russian strategic missile units are stationed,” Vovk stated. “On duty within the group of Strategic Missile Forces are RS-18 silo launching complexes in the Tatishchevo and Kozelsk units,” he added.

The Russian Strategic Missile Forces have launched six missiles this year, including the Stiletto. Two of them were Topols. A Topol missile was fired from Plesetsk on August 28 to “determine the combat equipment needed by ground-based ballistic missiles”. A Topol was launched for combat-training purposes from Plesetsk on October 12 in the course of the “Stability-2008” command-staff exercise.

Moreover, strategic missileers have done a good job this year for peaceful purposes, too. A Kosmos-3M carrier rocket was launched on June 19 from the Kapustin Yar inter-sectoral test ground, for which the Russian Strategic Missile Forces are responsible. It orbited six American communication satellites for the Orbcomm system. An intercontinental RS-20B missile was successfully launched from Baikonur in accordance with the Dnepr program. A conversion-type carrier rocket orbited five German satellites for the Rapid-I Earth remote sensing. On October 1, Russian strategic missileers helped Thailand to joint the Space Club. A conversion-type Dnepr carrier rocket, fired from the Yasny launch site of the Strategic Missile Forces in Orenburg Region, orbited the Thai satellite THEOS, designed for remote sensing of the Earth.

According to unclassified sources, the RS-18 intercontinental ballistic missile went into operation on December 17, 1980. Highly protected launch silos were designed for such missiles, as well as a new set of means to overcome anti-missile defences. The first regiments of UR-100N UTTH missiles were placed on alerted duty in January 1981.

All in all, 360 launch silos for RS-18 missiles were readied for combat duty. This missile was used at the Khrunichev State Space Research and Production Centre to design a conversion-type Rokot booster, which can be launched both from Plesetsk and Baikonur.

The RS-18 is a two-stage carrier rocket, provided with an individually targeted multiple nose-cone with six warheads. Its maximum range is ten thousand kilometres. The launch mass is 106 tons. The mass of the head part is 4.3 tons.

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Russia and USA conduct secret operation
23.10.2008 Source: AP © URL: http://english.pravda.ru/russia/economics/106611-russia_usa_uranium-0

More than 340 pounds (154 kilograms) of weapons-grade uranium was transported secretly over thousands of miles (kilometers) by truck, rail and ship on a monthlong trip from a research reactor in Budapest, Hungary, to a facility in Russia so it could be more closely protected against possible theft, U.S. officials revealed Wednesday.

The shipment, conducted under tight secrecy and security, included a three-week trip by cargo ship through the Mediterranean Sea, up the English Channel and the North Sea to Russia's Arctic seaport of Murmansk, the only port cleared by Russia for handling nuclear materiel.

The 13 radiation-proof casks, each weighing 17,000 pounds, arrived by rail at the secure nuclear material facility at Mayak in Siberia on Wednesday, said Kenneth Baker official at the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration, who oversaw the complex project.

It is the largest recovery to date of highly enriched uranium provided either by the former Soviet Union or the United States under a program, begun in the 1950s, aimed at spreading the peaceful use of nuclear energy. The two countries have been working to return the spent fuel from reactors around the world because at many of the facilities, including the one in Budapest, security is lax, which raised the possibility of the materiel being stolen by terrorists.

"It was a big shipment, the biggest one we've ever done," said Baker in an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press hours after he received word that the shipment at arrived at its final destination in Russia. "It was basically enough to make six nuclear weapons."

Under the U.S.-Russian program, the NNSA, part of the Energy Department, has completed 15 recoveries of U.S.-origin highly enriched uranium, or HEU, from research reactors in more than a dozen countries since 2005. The agency also was involved in three earlier shipments of Russian-origin HEU that were removed from the Czech Republic, Latvia and Bulgaria and returned to Russia.

But the project targeting the 341 pounds of highly radioactive fuel from the Budapest research reactor was particularly complex and challenging, said Baker, the NNSA's assistant deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation.

It began at 3 a.m. in Budapest in late September and ended early Wednesday, Washington time, at the nuclear facility at Mayak, in Russian Siberia. In between, the shipment moved without notice aboard truck and rail to the port of Koper in Slovenia and then by special cargo ship through the ocean shipping lanes that encircle Europe, always staying in international waters at least 12 miles from shore, according to Baker.

The unusual roundabout route was needed because "we couldn't ship it through Ukraine" which would have allowed a more direct route to Russia, said Baker.

So in the early hours in late September, the 13 casks were secretly loaded onto trucks at the Budapest research reactor and taken to the city's train station, where it was transported - one cask per train car - onto a special train for an eight-hour trip to the port of Koper in Slovenia on Adriatic Sea.

The shipments then moved through the Mediterranean, through the strait of Gibraltar, up the Atlantic and into the English Channel and the North and Norwegian seas into the icy waters of the Arctic with a final destination of Murmansk, where it arrived last Saturday. From there the shipment was loaded on a train for the long trip to Siberia.

"It was the most complicated trip we've ever taken by far," said Baker, who oversaw the loading and early part of the shipment, but did not accompany the shipments after it went to sea, instead returning to Washington.

Early Wednesday, he received notice that the shipment had arrived at Mayak, where security is far tighter than it was in Budapest.

In Budapest "they had a fence and a guard," said Baker, although some security improvements have been made with U.S. help over the past year. Still, said Baker, "You don't want to leave it there."

The Hungarian reactor now is being converted to use low-enriched uranium that cannot be used in a weapon and will not be a potential terrorist target.

So far, including the shipment from Budapest, 1,685 pounds (764.3 kilograms) of Russian-origin uranium has been retrieved from 11 countries. A significant number of reactors remain that have either U.S. or Russian highly enriched uranium, including some with security far less than what is desirable, according to nuclear nonproliferation activists.

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サイゼリヤのピザ返金、１日200万―300万円　100店以上に苦情

　メラミンを含んだピザを販売していたサイゼリヤが、ピザを食べた人への返金作業を始めた21日以降、1日あたり200万―300万円程度を顧客に返していることが判明した。返金を求める客は1店平均で1日6人訪れており、100店舗以上の店に苦情が来ているという。

　サイゼリヤは9月25日から10月2日の間に東日本の店でピザを食べた客を対象に、代金の返還を進めている。返金期間は10月28日まで。対象期間中に販売したピザ数量は最大21万6000枚で、同社は返還額は8000万円程度になるとみている。(10:06)

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9月の訪日外国人数、6.9％減　金融危機が響く

　国際観光振興機構（ＪＮＴＯ）がまとめた9月の訪日外国人数は64万2000人と前年同月比6.9％減少した。5％を超える減少は、重症急性呼吸器症候群（ＳＡＲＳ＝サーズ）が流行した2003年6月以来、ほぼ5年ぶり。米金融危機の影響で米、英、ドイツ、韓国などからの旅行客が落ち込んだ。

　訪日外国人数の前年割れは2カ月連続だが、8月（2.0％減）より減少幅が広がった。ドル安・ユーロ安が急速に進んでおり、10月以降も減少が続く公算が大きい。「円高で外国人の買い物金額減なども懸念される」（ＪＴＢ）「申し込みから来日までの時間差を勘案すると、10月後半からさらに影響が出そうだ」（ラオックス）との指摘もあり、国内の小売店や観光地に悪影響が広がりそうだ。

　9月に前年実績を割り込んだのは韓国、台湾、タイ、米国、カナダ、英国、ドイツなど。特に訪日人数が多い韓国は20.8％減の15万9500人と大幅に減少。米国からの訪日人数も11.3％減った。一方、中国、香港、オーストラリア、フランスからの訪日客は9月としては過去最高を記録した。(10: 06)

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京王プラザホテル札幌、割りばしを全廃　木製はし7000膳使用

　京王プラザホテル札幌（札幌市、西田守利社長）は館内の飲食店や宴会場で割りばしを全廃した。従来は年間70万膳を使い捨てていたが、約7000膳の木製塗りはしを繰り返し使うようにした。消費者の環境意識の高まりに対応する。

　外食店で割りばしを廃止する例は増えているが、ホテルでは全国でも珍しいという。結婚式でお祝い用に一部使う以外は原則、木製はしに切り替える。

　はし製造卸の川上商店（東京・中央）から、塗り直しができる漆塗りの木製はしを購入。高温水洗で殺菌後、紫外線照射とオゾン洗浄で清潔さを保つ。同社では館内から出る廃油で作ったせっけんを清掃に使うなど、環境保護への取り組みを強化している。

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国産パプリカでペースト　テディが規格外品を有効活用

　パプリカ生産・販売のＴｅｄｙ（テディ、水戸市、林俊秀社長）は外食業者向けに国産パプリカペーストの販売を始める。パプリカペーストは輸入品が多く、国産パプリカを使ったものは珍しい。水戸京成ホテル（水戸市）と提携し、年内にもペーストを練り込んだアイスクリームを発売する。年間生産量の1割を占める規格外のパプリカを有効活用する狙い。

　レストランなどではパプリカペーストをスープやドレッシングの材料として使う。ただ自作するにはパプリカの表面をバーナーで焼き、薄皮を取り除く手間がかかるため、流通している輸入ペーストを使うことがほとんどだった。

　食の安心・安全に消費者の注目が集まる中、林社長は「国産パプリカを使ったペーストの需要は伸びる」と判断。食品加工のオーピーシートレーディング（水戸市）の技術を活用し、自動で薄皮を取り除いてペーストに加工する装置を開発した。今年中に量産を始め、5年後にはペーストで2億円弱の売り上げを目指す。

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日中・日韓首脳会談、金融安定へ連携確認

　【北京＝島田学】麻生太郎首相は24日、北京市内で中国の胡錦濤国家主席や温家宝首相、韓国の李明博（イ・ミョンバク）大統領と相次いで会談した。一連の会談では世界的な金融危機の克服に向け、日中や日韓が緊密に連携していく方針を確認した。麻生首相の就任後、中韓両国との首脳会談は初めて。

　韓国の李大統領とは同日午前、北京市内のホテルで会談した。経済情勢を巡る意見交換に加え、北朝鮮による拉致問題の解決を目指した一層の協力を要請。竹島（韓国名・独島）問題を巡って冷却化している両国関係の打開に向け、首脳の相互訪問による「シャトル外交」の継続の重要性を確認し、李大統領は麻生首相に訪韓を要請した。

　麻生首相は日中韓首脳会議を年内に日本で開く意向を伝え、李大統領も支持を表明。今後の日韓関係では、麻生首相が「自由、民主主義、基本的人権などの価値を共有する最も重要な関係だ」と指摘。李大統領は「麻生首相とともに新しい関係を築きたい」と応じた。(14:02)

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陸自隊員、スーダンに24日派遣

　政府は24日、スーダン南部で展開中の国連平和維持活動（ＰＫＯ）国連スーダン派遣団（ＵＮＭＩＳ）司令部に陸上自衛官2人を派遣する。期間は来年6月 30日まで。首都ハルツームの司令部で治安情報のデータベース管理や物資調達・輸送調整の任務に当たる。在スーダン大使館にも防衛駐在官1人を派遣する。浜田靖一防衛相は23日、3人に辞令を交付した。(07:01)

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唐招提寺、金堂建築に廃材を再利用　建築費を節約？

　奈良市の唐招提寺金堂（国宝）建築の際、別の建物の廃材数百点を再利用していたことが24日、奈良県文化財保存事務所の解体修理に伴う調査で分かった。

　同事務所は「複数の建物の部材を利用しており、材料費の節約にもつながったはず」と推測。大量の木材を必要とした当時の寺院建築を考える上で重要な史料となりそうだ。

　不要な穴を別の板でふさいだり、表面を磨いたりして、金堂の扉の内側や天井の裏板など人目につきにくい部分に使用。絵柄の付いた天井板「身舎支輪」の裏板は、174枚のうち37枚が再利用材で、主要な柱など構造上、要となる部分は新材だった。

　部材の種類はさまざまで、切れ込みの形などから小規模で簡素な建築物の部材だったと推定できるものもあるという。

　同事務所は「廃材を貯蔵する場所があり、そこから調達したのではないか」としている。〔共同〕(15:02)

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アイロン台でやけど７件　メッシュ状の製品

　国民生活センターの発表によると、通気性のよいメッシュ状アイロン台で2001年度から今年にかけて計7人がやけどを負う事故があった。

　アイロンのスチーム噴射機能を使った際、瞬間的に高温の蒸気がアイロン台を通り抜けていたのが原因。台から5.5センチ下でも70度超になることが商品テストで確認され、同センターは注意を呼びかけている。

　同センターによると、メッシュ状アイロン台は蒸気を遮る板がなく、メッシュ状の網目の上に布を張った形状。使用する際にはひざが台の下に入り、やけどは太ももに多かった。(13:39)

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カップめん：日清製、８月にも防虫剤成分　大阪で３人訴え

　日清食品の即席カップめん「カップヌードル」を食べた大阪市西淀川区の男性（６３）ら家族３人が薬品臭を訴え、同時に購入した製品から、同社が防虫剤成分「パラジクロロベンゼン」を検出していたことが分かった。９月に男性に調査報告書を送っていた。同社のカップめんをめぐっては２３日、神奈川県藤沢市の女性（６７）の食べ残しからパラジクロロベンゼンが検出されたことが明らかになったばかり。男性は取材に「９月段階で検出されているのに公表していない。隠ぺい体質だ」と話している。

　同社のお客様相談室の担当者は、男性へ報告したことを認めているが、「本人の管理の問題ではないか。一緒に持ち込まれたいずれの製品からも検出されている。これらは違う工場で作られており、男性以外からの苦情はなかった」と話した。

　男性によると、近所のスーパーで８月上旬、日清食品のカップヌードルをまとめて購入し、数日後に妻（５３）、長男（２７）と３人で食べたところ、化学薬品の味がしたという。

　このため、約１０個を大阪市淀川区の日清食品大阪本社に持っていった。９月に送られてきた同社の調査報告書には、パラジクロロベンゼンが検出されたと明記されていた。その後、同社からは説明がないという。【稲垣淳】

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カップめんに防虫剤成分、県警が被害女性と販売店に事情聴く

　神奈川県内で販売されたカップめんから防虫剤などに含まれる成分が検出された問題で、県警は24日までに、日清食品製のカップめんを食べて健康被害を訴えた藤沢市の女性（67）と、横須賀市の男性に明星食品のカップめんを販売した「生活協同組合コープかながわ岩戸店」（同市）の担当者らから事情を聴いた。

　横須賀市保健所は同日、同店を食品衛生法に基づき立ち入り検査した。埼玉県の坂戸保健所は同日、製造した明星食品の嵐山工場（埼玉県嵐山町）に検査に入った。

　藤沢、横須賀両市などによると、藤沢市の女性が市内のスーパーで購入した日清食品の「カップヌードル」からパラジクロロベンゼンが検出。横須賀市の男性が購入した明星食品の「ＣＯ・ＯＰカップラーメン（しょうゆ味）」からもパラジクロロベンゼンとナフタレンが検出された。(15:02)

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橋下知事、高校生と熱く議論　財政難訴え「皆で我慢を」

2008年10月24日0時18分

　大阪府の橋下徹知事は２３日、府の財政再建策で私立学校への助成を削減したことなどについて、府内の高校生１２人と意見交換をした。財政難を訴えて「みんなが我慢しないと借金はなくならない」と熱く語り、府職員が止めるのを制止して、２０分の予定を１時間以上延長して「本気トーク」を繰り広げた。

　私学助成の削減案を知り、公立と私立の高校生らが４月に結成した「大阪の高校生に笑顔をくださいの会」が要望して実現した。まず、中学でいじめに遭って不登校になり私立に進んだ女子生徒や、母子家庭で家計を心配する私立の男子生徒らが「安心して勉強させて」と訴えた。すると、知事は「借金してばらまくのは簡単。でも５年後１０年後を見据えてみんなで我慢する」「高校には全員がいく仕組みじゃない。（高校とは）別の選択肢もある」と応じた。

　高校生らが「公立は定員があって落ちる子もいる。見捨てるんですか」と詰め寄ると、知事は「義務教育までは平等に扱う。その先は定員があってずっと競争。それが世の中の仕組みだと自覚しないと」と答えた。

　また、無駄な道路整備などでなく教育に税金を回すべきだという女子生徒の話には、知事は腕を組んで聴き入り、「あなたが政治家になって変えればいい」。女子生徒が「それじゃ遅いんですよ」と涙をみせても、「必要か不必要かは最終的に政治判断」と返した。

　次の予定があるため議論を途中で打ち切ることになると、橋下知事は申し訳なさそうに、「次もまたやりましょう」と約束した。

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橋下知事、高校生にマジ反論

　大阪府の橋下徹知事は２３日、府が財政再建の一環で私学助成を削減したことに反対する府内の私立、公立の高校生グループと府庁内で意見交換した。

　生徒らに橋下知事は「私学はあなたが選んだ」「日本は自己責任が原則」と厳しい態度で持論を展開。涙を見せる女子生徒もおり、予定の２０分を大幅に超え、約１時間半の大激論となった。

　橋下知事は、男女１２人の生徒を前に、冒頭から「僕も反論します」と本気モード。母子家庭の私立高男子生徒が、助成削減による学費負担増の不安を訴えると「いいものを選べば、いい値段がかかる。条件を比較して、あなたが選んだのでは」とやり返した。

　生徒「公立に行ける人数は限られている」

　知事「保護されるのは義務教育まで。高校からは壁が始まる」

　生徒「そこで倒れた子はどうなる」

　知事「最後は生活保護がある」

　知事が「高校は誰でも入れる仕組みになっていない」と畳み掛け、女子生徒数人が「そんな簡単に言わないで」などと泣きだす場面も。知事は「今の日本は自己責任が原則」と強調する一方「何でもかんでも自己責任はおかしい。だから私学助成はゼロにしていない」と理解を求めた。

　終了後、大阪女子高（大阪市）３年の野瀬美郷さん（１７）は「思いが全然伝わらず、悔しい」とうつむいていた。（共同）

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助成削減やめて　高校生が知事と90分間激論
2008/10/24

　大阪府による私学助成の削減に反対する「大阪の高校生に笑顔をくださいの会」の高校生らが二十三日、府庁に橋下徹知事を訪ね、二十分の予定時間を大幅に上回る約一時間半かけて激論を交わした。

　同会の実行委員十四人が高校生の声を知事に届けようと出席。私立高校の女子生徒（三年）が代表して「私学助成の削減などでわたしたち高校生は笑顔を持ちながら生活するのが困難。わたしたちの声をぜひ政策に結び付けてほしい」と訴えた。

　高校生からは私学助成の削減について「家は決して裕福ではないが、中学で不登校だったので私立にしか行けなかった」「家計が厳しい中、私学で頑張れと言ってくれた母をこれ以上苦しめたくない」と反対意見が噴出。

　橋下知事は「僕は十年後に君たちが大阪を背負って立つときに自分たちの税金の使い道を自分たちで決められるようにするために皆で我慢しようとしている」と説明。また高校生の心構えを「義務教育までが皆を平等に扱う。十六歳になったらある意味大人として扱われることを自覚しなければいけない」と諭した。

　高校生らは「高校生はどうでもいいのか」「（国民の）学ぶ権利はどうなるのか」と反論。橋下知事は「続きはまたやりましょう、納得するまで」と答えていた。

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橋下大阪府知事、高校生と激論──私学助成の削減などで
2008/10/24配信

　大阪府の橋下徹知事は23日、私学助成の削減撤回などを求める府内の私立、公立の高校生と意見交換した。予定を超えて1時間以上の激論となったが、「自己責任が原則」などと知事に反論され、泣き出す女子
生徒もいた。

　意見交換では府内の高校生でつくる「大阪の高校生に笑顔をくださいの会」のメンバー12人が、私学助成の削減や府立高の統廃合への反対を表明した。

　私立高の女子生徒が「助成カットで学校に通えない子も出る。学ぶ権利は平等なはず」と訴えると、橋下知事は苦しい財政事情を説明し「（受験を）頑張って公立にいけばいい」と持論を展開した。

　私立高の別の女子生徒は「夢があっても経済的理由であきらめる子もいる」と涙ながらに主張した。これに対し橋下知事は「夢や希望を持って努力すれば必ずできる」と強調。「社会に出ればいくらでも壁が待っている」と話した。

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China seen overtaking Germany as top exporter in 2008

23 mins ago
Reuters Rene Wagner

* Print Story

China will overtake Germany to become the world's biggest exporter of goods this year, earlier than previously expected, the DIHK German chambers of industry and commerce said on Friday. Skip related content

Germany has held the top spot since 2003, but the DIHK said the rise in the value of the dollar against the euro would help China to take over this year, rather than in 2009 as expected previously.

"We will lose the top position to China this year already, even if only closely," Axel Nitschke, head of the DIHK's external trade department, told Reuters.

Nitschke said German exports were set to be worth more than 1 trillion euros (806.2 billion pounds) for the first time this year. But China would beat this sum slightly, even though many of its exporters are suffering badly from the global economic slowdown.

"The reason is the rise in the value of the dollar. That's why Chinese exports, which are mainly billed in the U.S. currency, are simply worth more," he said. Two thirds of German exports went to other EU countries and were mainly paid for in euros, he added.

The euro has fallen to about $1.25 from levels of around $1.60 in July.

Germany's foreign trade success has played a key role in supporting growth of Europe's largest economy.

The DIHK said China was set to strengthen its lead position as the world's top exporter next year. "The financial crisis will only hit our exporters with all its force next year, Nitschke said.

Germany has traditionally has focused on expensive investment exports, which tended to have long-term order contracts, Nitschke said. This meant many exporters could still achieve high growth rates this year despite the crisis.

China, by contrast, mainly specialised in the export of consumer goods, such as textiles and electronics, which were set to suffer less in the next few months than expensive investment goods, Nitschke said.

However, the closure last week of a big toy company in southern China which employed 6,500 people showed the problems which exporters there face. Half the firms in the toy sector that sell overseas have gone out of business this year, according to the customs administration.

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元露鵬＆元白露山がクビ撤回求め協会提訴

　大麻検査で陽性の結果が出て解雇された元幕内露鵬、元十両白露山が、処分撤回を求めて日本相撲協会を提訴する方針を固めたことが２３日、分かった。代理人の塩谷安男弁護士は「話し合いの場を求めたが実現せず、提訴するしかなかった。（裁判に消極的だった）２人も『仕方がない』と考えを変えた」と話した。また２人は協会と講談社が争う八百長疑惑裁判にも協会側の原告として名を連ねているが、提訴の際には名前を抜く方針だ。塩谷弁護士は「書類がそろえば明日にも出す」と２４日にも手続きを行う考えだ。