Middle East jubilant over Wall St woes

Middle East jubilant over Wall St woes

By Lionel Barber and Roula Khalaf in Damascus

Published: October 10 2008 18:23 | Last updated: October 10 2008 18:23

The Wall Street crash has provoked undisguised gloating among the US’s enemies in the Middle East who claim the global financial crisis is a further sign that the US has lost its superpower status.

From Damascus to Tehran, a loose coalition of government officials and clerics view the financial meltdown as the result of divine retribution and the Bush administration’s costly foreign policy in the region, notably the invasion of Iraq.

Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, an influential hardline figure in Iran, has described the crisis as a punishment.

“As Americans are happy to see problems in Iran we are happy to see the US economy disturbed and problems extended to Europe,” he said recently. “They see the results of their vicious acts and God is punishing them.”

A senior Syrian official said the fall-out showed “the US is no longer a superpower. It is a big power.”

Hardliners are under the impression that the crisis will not directly affect their economies, and assume that the apparent failure of liberal policies vindicates their view that the state must continue to play a central role.

“This is a new chapter,” said the senior Syrian official who stressed the need for state control of the central bank and support for farmers as well as minimum wages for workers. “This will prove our vision of reforms is right. We have a social market economy.”

However, the assertion of state power in Syria is undermining those who, while not supporting the US, are pressing for a transformation from a centrally planned economy to a more liberal system.

Abdullah Dardari, deputy prime minister responsible for the economy, said the job of the economic team in government would become more difficult.

Speaking to the Financial Times after he received a hostile reception from Syria’s rubber-stamp parliament, he conceded: “It becomes even easier to say: ‘Look at those neo-liberal policies and what they have done – and at the neo-liberal groups in Syria and what they will do.’ ”

Even before the financial crisis, a popular view in the region held that the US was in terminal decline. This followed the mismanaged occupation of Iraq, the failure to contain Iran’s nuclear ambitions and to protect pro-western allies in Lebanon in the face of Hizbollah, the militant Shia group.

The Wall Street crash has led to the questionable theory that the global turmoil stems from the huge cost of financing the Iraq war rather than a collective regulatory failure to deal with excessive risk-taking in the banking sector.

Mr Dardari said: “I don’t know the causality but war financing and the burden of the [US] public debt has played a role.”

Overall, the assumption in Syria and elsewhere in the region is that the Middle East is relatively insulated from a US-led downturn.

But most stock markets in the Middle East have suffered heavily in recent weeks with the exception of Iran, where the market, which has attracted little foreign investment, is up 20 per cent this year.

Even if banking systems in the isolated states like Iran and Syria have escaped the financial turmoil, their economies will suffer from a recession in world markets.

Tehran is already reeling from the fall in oil prices. In Syria, the economy could be affected by a drop in remittances from workers in Gulf Arab states and a decline in petrodollar investments.

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No help for charities in Iceland plight

By Jim Pickard and Tom Braithwaite

Published: October 10 2008 22:11 | Last updated: October 10 2008 22:11

Scores of charities came away empty-handed on Friday after seeking emergency compensation from the Treasury for the potential loss of millions of pounds left on deposit in failed Icelandic banks.

In the latest twist to this week’s Icelandic saga, the National Council for Voluntary Organisations suggested that charities could lose up to £120m deposited in Iceland’s banks.

But after talks with government on Friday, the NCVO was blunt about the help offered: “None,” said a representative.

That figure takes the total of public sector cash in Icelandic banks up to nearly £1bn, including at least £800m from councils, £40m from Transport for London, £30m from the Metropolitan Police and £2m from NHS foundation trusts.

The nationalisation of three Icelandic banks this week – Glitnir, Landsbanki and Kaupthing – has prompted wider fears about the safety of an estimated £6bn of retail deposits from 300,000 British citizens and an unknown quantity of business savings.

As UK Treasury officials flew into Iceland on Friday to discuss a solution to the crisis – talks begin on Saturday – Gordon Brown pledged to do “everything in our power to get this money returned”.

The UK government was talking to Icelandic authorities and taking legal action to secure investments at risk, the prime minister said.

On Wednesday, the UK put Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander into administration, prompting the nationalisation of parent company Kaupthing in Iceland. It also froze an estimated £4bn of Landsbanki assets in the UK using anti-terror laws, to the fury of Icelandic authorities.

That action was questioned by Shami Chakrabarti, director of pressure group Liberty, who said: “This may not be an abuse of ‘terror laws’ but it certainly demonstrates the way that very broad security measures are sneaked into such legislation for creative use later on.”

Mr Brown authorised the move after failing to receive assurances that UK citizens would receive compensation from Icelandic authorities. As political leaders in Reykjavik and London stepped up their war of words, some drew comparisons with the “Cod Wars” of the 1970s.

On Friday 10 Downing Street complained that the Icelanders had withheld information and indicated preferential treatment for domestic creditors. But the rhetoric was toned down a notch, with Mr Brown hailing “strong bilateral relations” between the two countries and his spokesman predicting “co-operative” talks.

The NCVO has identified seven charities with £30m at risk but estimates the total investment of UK charities at risk to be more than £120m. Among those hit was Cats Protection, with £11.2m of deposits in Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander. Separately, the National Housing Federation is seeking to establish how many housing associations have been hit.

Councils were forced to defend themselves against accusations of naivety after leaving their money in Icelandic banks – despite warnings of financial instability. They said the banks had reasonable credit ratings when they made the deposits.

Landsbanki, in particular, had huge numbers of British depositors who invested £4.6bn through its “Icesave” internet bank, which had customers across Europe.

It is hoped most of the money can be recovered from the sale of the bank’s assets. If not, Treasury officials had hoped to secure £2.2bn from Iceland’s depositor compensation scheme – up to £16,000 per account – though this is now the subject of wrangling between the two countries.

Of the remainder, £1.4bn could come from the UK’s Financial Services Compensation Scheme – which covers up to £50,000 per account – with the rest from the government. But with insufficient money in the FSCS, public cash could be needed to cover the gap until Landsbanki’s assets are sold.

Icesave house purchasers face completion problems

Savers hoping to buy a home with their Icesave savings may find themselves unable to complete the deal, with consequences for property chains, Alice Ross reports.

David Pedrick, 31, an accountant, and his wife Hayley, 28, are in the process of buying their first house but the money they need to pay the deposit is in an Icesave account.

The couple, currently renting in Surbiton, Surrey, said they had decided to buy as house prices have fallen so much they can now buy a larger place in their price range. The house they are looking to buy, also in Surbiton, is at an agreed price of £243,500.

The couple have £24,000 saved for their 10 per cent deposit. Some £6,000 is with NatWest but a further £18,000 is now locked away in Icesave. “You almost take it as a personal offence as you’re only two weeks away from buying your first house,” said Mr Pedrick

They are hoping to exchange contracts within three weeks, which is likely to mean they will not have the cash to pay the deposit.

“If we don’t have the money, we’re considering personal loans or we might even start phoning friends and family,” said Mr Pedrick.

But Ray Boulger, senior technical manager at John Charcol, warned that with no clarity on how long Icesave customers have to wait, this could mean hefty loan repayments.

Mr and Mrs Pedrick are safe as they have not exchanged contracts yet. But for those who have, the consequences could be serious. Lawyers warn that people who cannot complete on a property transaction could be sued.

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Top UK Hospital May Lose Millions
SkyNews
By Sky News SkyNews - Saturday, October 11 09:05 am

One of Britain's leading cancer treatment centres has revealed it could lose £7.5m because of the meltdown of the Icelandic banking system.
(Advertisement)

The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, in Manchester, says the bulk of the money was made up of charity donations while the remainder had come from the NHS.

The money had been put aside to fund research and service improvements in the next five years, the trust said in a statement.

Chief executive Caroline Shaw said: "I want to reassure everybody that our patients will continue to be treated as normal and we are working extremely hard to ensure that this money is returned to us."

The statement from the trust said: "We can confirm that we have a deposit of £7.5m with the Icelandic bank Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander.

"One million pounds of this is NHS money and £6.5m charity money.

"This is money we have put aside to fund future service developments and research for cancer patients over the next five years.

"We have taken expert legal advice and are working closely with the Financial Services Authority to ensure that we protect these deposits."

The Christie was shortlisted by the Health Service Journal for its hospital of the year award and will find out in December if it has won.

A spokesman for Monitor, the regulator overseeing the 107 NHS foundation trusts in England, said two trusts had £2m of NHS cash in Icelandic banks but services would not be affected.

Treasury officials will meet Icelandic authorities later to try to save some of the billions of pounds that councils and charities face losing.

More than 100 councils, as well as police forces, fire services and transport authorities, have deposits running into millions of pounds each in the crisis-hit institutions.

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Financial system close to collapse, UK warns

By Chris Giles, Economics Editor, in Washington

Published: October 10 2008 16:54 | Last updated: October 10 2008 16:54

UK authorities insisted on Friday that action, not words, was needed from this weekend’s meeting of the group of seven leading economies if there was to be any hope of saving the world financial system from collapse.

As financial markets stared at the abyss, the UK delegation to the meeting sought to raise the stakes in an effort to avoid a mere agreement on a set of broad principles.

Describing a world in which wholesale money markets were now refusing to lend to banks, even overnight, the UK authorities warned that the world was on the edge of a collapse of the financial system.

They insisted that a bold and clear commitment to action to should replace general principles for individual country actions.

Alistair Darling, chancellor of the exchequer, insisted that it was crucial that the G7 countries showed that they could act collectively.

”We need a clear commitment today. It is a real test of international institutions that we actually sign up to doing things rather than a piece of process,” Mr Darling said.

The UK does not believe that every country should follow its specific proposals, but they are insisting that all of them must announce measures to demonstrate that they agree on the provision of unlimited liquidity; a plan to strengthen financial institutions, including a huge recapitalisation of banks; and emergency measures for wholesale money markets, which Mr Darling said would ”enable banks to start lending to each other”.

There were indications on Friday that Germany was taking steps in this direction, after the Die Welt newspaper reported that Berlin was working on a UK-style rescue plan for its financial sector which could involve guarantees of more than €100bn ($137.2bn) and a large capital injection.

Reuters quoted a German finance ministry spokesman as saying that no decisions of this kind had been taken and that the government was observing the effectiveness of measures already taken.

However, the news agency also quoted a source from Germany’s ruling coalition who said said the report was not wrong.

Mr Darling declined to speculate on what would happen if the G7 did not deliver, but insisted that the only solution to the current crisis was bold government action on an internationally co-ordinated basis.

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Outside Edge: Farewell London town

By Frederick Studemann

Published: October 10 2008 18:51 | Last updated: October 10 2008 18:51

Is London’s crown slipping? For decades Britain’s capital has been Europe’s number one destination for those wanting to make – and spend – a fortune, catch the latest lifestyle and cultural trends or simply be at the centre of the action. Now, as financial crisis stalks the city, its fortunes have turned.

Job losses are rising; house prices are tumbling. Distressed banks are throwing themselves at the mercy of the state, which in turn promises to swaddle them with regulations. Some of the world’s best and brightest who once swarmed to London are already heading home.

It is not just recent events that have marred London’s competitive advantages. Life by the Thames is not cheap (£3 for a latte, anyone?); infrastructure in a city that spends more time and money discussing a cross-town rail link than other cities do building one is pitiful. And there is the weather.

So if not London, where else?

Berlin is edgier and cheaper – qualities that have not gone unnoticed by London creative types who have moved there in increasing numbers. Then there is Paris which is, well, Paris: beautiful and stylish (just stick within the peripherique). What is more, it works. It too has been clipping London’s wings, creating tax incentives to lure French expats home.

In straight commercial terms, Geneva is now popular with multinationals, bringing fresh blood into one of Europe’s more elegant and well-heeled cities. Frankfurt has renewed skyscraping aspirations after a “lost decade” during which its hopes of becoming Europe’s financial capital were dashed by, er, London. For quality of life head north to Stockholm.

Less conventionally, if it is size, money and invigorating brashness you want, Moscow is happy to oblige. For a more stylish expression of the powers of regeneration, try Barcelona or Prague and Budapest, which have quietened down despite trading a generation of writers penning that first novel for British stag parties. Bucharest and Kiev, with their booming economies, are also catching up.

Measured on specifics – cost of living, architecture, cultural life and so on – London can be beaten. But each of its rivals has its own flaws. Berlin is poor and lacks commercial savvy; Paris is enveloped with a museum-like quality, which consigns even the most radical revolutionary to the civil service payroll; others are too far from the rest of the action, too cold or too small to be anything other than of minority interest.

When it comes to ticking multiple boxes of location, lifestyle, jobs and just the sheer diversity, opportunity and stimulation of big city life, few cut it – except for one. Yes, London. Its fortunes may be sinking as fast as bank shares, but it can still – just about – hang on to its crown. While the next few years may be miserable they might also see London become a nicer place as life gets cheaper and less brutal. They may even sort the transport situation out.

The writer is the FT’s analysis editor and lives in south London; he has also lived in Berlin, Moscow, Vienna, Athens, Dublin and Hamburg

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Long view: Heed the harsh lessons of history to find value

By John Authers, Investment Editor

Published: October 10 2008 18:48 | Last updated: October 10 2008 18:48

“A day like today is not a day for, sort of, soundbites, really – we can leave those at home – but I feel the hand of history upon our shoulders, I really do.”

Former UK prime minister Tony Blair

It is easy to see how Tony Blair felt as he responded to the agreement that led to peace in Northern Ireland.

It is now plain that we are living through what history will almost certainly call the second great crash in stock markets. The hand of history is so heavy on our shoulders that it is hard to respond with more than soundbites, or to see any opportunities that this appalling loss of wealth may have given us.

My life with Benjamin Graham over the past month illustrates this.

Graham was an academic at Columbia University in New York. In the worst days of the 1930s, he worked out a way to invest profitably in the stock market, now known as “value investing”. Rather than attempt to time the market, he said investors should look at exactly what a company was worth, and how much it would be worth if the worst came to the worst.

This meant you should look at a company’s assets on the balance sheet, and also look at its ability to produce cash. If the company is so cheap that its value would scarcely be less if it were to go out of business, then you have what Graham called a “margin of safety”. And if the company looks cheap compared with a conservative forecast of the cash it will generate, then the chances are that “Mr Market”, as Graham would say, has mispriced it, and that you will make a lot of money once that mispricing is corrected.

Thus you have an asymmetric bet; heads you win a lot, tails you do not lose much.

This was a great way to profit in the Depression. Confidence had collapsed, but in the process it had brought down the prices of many companies that were still healthy.

Value investing still has many adherents, but also detractors. The most common line against the strategies Graham, and his colleague David Dodd, laid out in a classic tome called Security Analysis, is that the measures he uses worked in the extreme conditions of the 1930s, but were no longer relevant.

To address this, a sixth edition of Security Analysis came out last week. Each chapter had a preface by a current-day investment manager on how to apply Graham’s insights today.

It was a big publishing event, but I could not get along to the launch. The book remains unread on my desk. The “hand of history” – watching the historic collapse in share prices – kept me at my desk.

This is ironic. The very extremity of last week’s crash made it hard to keep an eye out for bargains in the methodical way Graham laid out 75 years ago.

A deeper irony is that there may not have been any need to update the book. Stock market conditions look ever more like the 1930s.

The noughties are much more similar to the 1930s than commonly thought. In morning trading on Friday, the S&P 500’s fall for the decade was almost identical to its fall for the decade on the same date in 1938. The pattern of the two decades is freakishly similar, with a big sell-off followed by a prolonged rally and then a fresh bear market. The key difference is that the sell-off in this decade before the “fools’ rally” began was far less severe than in the 1930s.

This, we can now see, was because cheap credit had inflated a new bubble.

This is what followers of Graham had argued. They said the market during the twin lows of the WorldCom crisis in 2002 and the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was still not cheap. Dividend yields, for example, were still barely half their level of the mid-1990s, before the tech bubble took hold.

But the similarities between the market tops in 1929 and 2000 are compelling. Both saw wildly overvalued stock markets and economies that were still in decent shape.

Measures based on cash, such as dividend yield or cash flow multiples, show that the market is now much cheaper than it was during the false bottom of 2002-03, even if overall indices are still higher.

We are not, therefore, in a new 1929. Our position is more similar to that of the late 1930s. That is not so encouraging: in the decade after October 10 1938, the S&P gained 5 per cent.

But at least we have a clear historical comparison, and a clear guide for how to proceed. Providing you are not using borrowed money, and you can afford to wait a matter of years for Mr Market to thrash out his problems, then Security Analysis is all you need.

Do not try to to work out how long the market will take to recover or when it will hit bottom – that task is impossible. Use basic balance sheet methods to work out how much a stock is worth and how much it would be worth if the worst came to the worst. If that calculation leaves you with a margin of safety, then buy it. Don’t let the hand of history gripping your shoulder stop you.

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The week that panic stalked the markets

By Michael Mackenzie and John Authers in New York

Published: October 10 2008 19:41 | Last updated: October 10 2008 22:43

The crash in equity markets this week came as investors fled risky assets in panic. Co-ordinated rate cuts by leading central banks, and many other measures of support hastily adopted by governments, went ignored.

“Cascading drops in equity indices are feeding into one another, generating a momentum-driven plunge that has exceeded anyone’s expectations,” said Tobias Levkovich, chief US equity strategist at Citi.

The turmoil in global finance has grown and intensified ever since the shocking decision four weeks ago by the US government to allow the investment bank Lehman Brothers to fail.

Many stock markets fell more than 20 per cent this week alone, a drop that meets the definition of a standard bear market.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 24 per cent, its worst weekly percentage fall in history. London’s FTSE 100 fell 21 per cent and the S&P 500 lost 18.2 per cent, their second worst weekly declines. The FTSE-Eurofirst 300 slid 22 per cent.

“As was the case when momentum buying created irrational enthusiasm in anything housing, credit or commodity based, redemption and fear-based selling is causing the opposite effect of excessive despair,” said Mr Levkovich.

Even as the week opened, traders across the world were braced for falls in stocks, which had not until that point kept track with the unprecedented freeze in money and credit markets.

The sharp fall in stocks on Wall Street the previous Friday afternoon, which started immediately after markets had received what they wanted with the vote to approve the $700bn (€519bn, £411bn) bail-out plan, was seen as a very negative sign. Traders also attached significance to the fact that history’s previous great stock market crashes had all happened in October.

The week began with a wave of selling in global equities, with stocks in London and Europe falling at least 7 per cent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped below 10,000 for the first time since 2004. There were much larger falls for emerging market equities, currencies and bonds.

Trading in both Russia and Brazil was suspended and Moscow slumped 19 per cent. Russia would continue halting trading during the week, to be joined by Indonesia and Iceland.

The growing flight from risk pushed commodities sharply lower and oil fell more than $10 a barrel this week. Investors cut risky currency trades based on the low yielding Japanese yen.

Against the backdrop of frozen money and credit markets, Monday’s trading was simply the opening act for what was to follow in the coming days.

On Tuesday, the Federal Reserve sought to kick-start the $1,600bn US commercial paper market, an important source of short-term funding for companies, with a plan to support the sector. That did not halt a slide of 5.7 per cent in the S&P, which set Japanese stocks up for a 9.4 per cent plunge on Wednesday.

After Asia’s torrid session, the cavalry in the form of co-ordinated half percentage point rate cuts by leading central banks – including even the People’s Bank of China – arrived to stem any further selling.

But it only briefly buoyed equities in Europe and the US. The FTSE 100 fell a further 5.3 per cent, while the S&P proved unable to hold its early Wednesday gains, closing the day 1.1 per cent lower.

On Thursday, markets appeared to remain orderly but failed to hold on to early gains. The Nikkei fell 0.5 per cent, Europe declined 2.1 per cent while London slipped 1.2 per cent.

The mood, however, was deceptive, a year to the day after the S&P and Dow set record highs. The last hour of trading in New York shattered hopes for a near-term recovery in sentiment, as the main indices crashed through levels that traders thought would function as a support for the market.

The straw that broke Wall Street was a huge liquidation of mutual fund holdings by retail investors. By Wednesday, US investors had withdrawn $40bn from mutual funds in a week.

Traders said the pace of liquidations accelerated on Thursday and heavy redemptions and margin calls for active investors such as hedge funds prompted a 5.5 per cent plunge for the S&P in the last hour of trading.

“We saw a lot of redemptions and margin calls between three and four o’clock [on Thursday],” said Anthony Conroy, head of trading at BNYConvergEx.

The carnage on Wall Street set markets up on Friday for their worst falls of this week. Stocks in Asia tumbled, led by the Nikkei’s fall of 9.6 per cent. Stocks in Hong Kong, Australia and India fell heavily, taking their weekly losses to about 16 per cent.

In New York, stocks plunged at the start of trading yesterday, taking the Dow below the 8,000 landmark. Mr Conroy said: “What we saw at the open was retail clients saying get me out of here. It was clearly panic.”

Trading was highly volatile and both the Dow and S&P briefly entered positive territory in the morning and afternoon before they closed lower on the day. The Dow ultimately fell 128 points, or 1.5 per cent, and closed at 8,451.19, up from an earlier low of 7,882.51.

For equity investors it is a matter of waiting for the selling to burn itself out. Mr Levkovich said: “It is challenging to determine when the sheer exhaustion of selling occurs.”

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RF allows sale of diamond-mining co to foreign investor

10.10.2008, 17.27

NOVO-OGAREVO, October 10 (Itar-Tass) -- The Russian government has allowed the sale of a 49.99-percent stake in the diamond-mining company Arkhangelsk-Geologodobycha to Luxemburg’s Archangel Investment, indirectly controlled by De Beers, the chief of the Federal Antimonopoly Service, Igor Artemiev, told the media on Friday.

However, the government commission reserved certain mandatory conditions, such as the processing of diamonds in Russian territory in amounts to be agreed with the Russian government later.

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Austrian far right leader Haider dies in car crash

VIENNA, Oct 11 - Austrian populist far-right leader Joerg Haider was killed in a car accident on Saturday, two weeks after staging a major comeback in a national election.

Haider, 58, who led the right into a coalition government from 2000 to 2006, polarised his nation and drew condemnation across Europe and beyond with his blunt anti-foreigner statements and for seeming to flirt with Nazi sympathies.

Last month, after years of retreat into provincial politics, he co-engineered a surge of Austria’s far right to 30 percent of the vote in a parliamentary election, mining discontent over feuding mainstream governing parties, inflation and immigration.

The governor of Austria’s Carinthia province suffered head and chest injuries when the government car he was driving went out of control and rolled over several times, police said. He was alone in the car.

Police said they were investigating the cause of the 1:15 a.m. (2315 GMT) crash outside Klagenfurt, Carinthia’s capital.

”This is for us like the end of the world. He was also my best friend,” said Haider’s spokesman Stefan Petzner, who broke down in sobs on national television.

He said Haider had been heading to his home near Klagenfurt in the mountainous southern province for a family gathering to mark his mother’s 90th birthday.

Unusual in Austria’s staid political world, Haider was a gregarious character who struck a popular chord among many ordinary people and had friendly personal relations even with his political adversaries.

He was politically active from his teenage years in the affluent Central European country, becoming a full-time politician in 1977 for the far-right Freedom Party.

He drew international headlines with outbursts that looked like apologia for Nazism and by making foreign trips to see leaders like Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi.

Haider reproached Austria’s government by citing the ”proper labour policies” of Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich. On another occasion he referred to Nazi concentration camps in a parliamentary debate as ”penal camps”.

His father was once a member of Hitler’s Storm Troopers. His mother was a teacher who had been a Hitler Youth leader.

Haider led the Freedom Party with a shock 27 percent of the vote into a governing coalition with the mainstream conservative People’s Party in 2000, stirring widespread condemnation and temporary European Union sanctions against Austria.

It was an awkward alliance that unravelled, causing an early election in 2002 in which the Freedom Party lost heavily, followed by a remake of the coalition.

After internecine power struggles within Freedom, Haider formed the breakaway Alliance for the Future of Austria in 2005. His new party became junior partner in the governing coalition while the Freedom Party defected into opposition.

In a national election in 2006, the Alliance -- whose reins Haider had given to a protege while he turned full-time to Carinthian affairs -- only just scraped past the 4 percent threshold to enter parliament.

Haider returned as party chief this year and, adopting a strikingly milder tone and declaring his openness to a coalition with any party, led the Alliance to 11 percent of the vote in the Sept. 28 election, behind Freedom’s 17.5 percent.

The result could reconfigure Austrian politics with the Social Democrats, which re-emerged as the largest party, likely to struggle to form a stable coalition if it ignores the right.

Austrian President Heinz Fischer, a Social Democrat, said Haider was ”a politician of great talent” who both enchanted and repelled his contemporaries.

Heinz Christian Strache, who took over the Freedom Party in 2005 and had publicly feuded with his former mentor, said: ”With his passing, Austria has lost a great political figure.”

There had been signs of reconciliation between Haider and Strache this week when the two met to discuss joint strategy to strengthen the right’s claim to a role in government after their successes in the Sept. 28 election.

Haider, a passionate skier and marathon runner, was married with two grown daughters.

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Bush eyes taking North Korea off terror list

By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington

Published: October 10 2008 21:58 | Last updated: October 10 2008 21:58

President George W. Bush on Saturday morning plans to take North Korea off the US terrorism list in a move aimed at resurrecting a nuclear disarmament process that was in danger of collapse.

The White House hopes the decision will salvage an international process to remove nuclear weapons from the Korean peninsula. The efforts started unravelling several months ago, as North Korea reversed steps to dismantle its Yongbyon nuclear reactor in retaliation for the US not proceeding with the delisting earlier.

Mr Bush is hoping to shore up his foreign policy legacy with a North Korean deal. But critics accuse the president of allowing North Korea to develop nuclear weapons - and conduct a first nuclear test in 2006 - by refusing to talk to Pyongyang for several years.

In recent months, Washington and Pyongyang were deadlocked over a mechanism to verify a nuclear declaration that North Korea made earlier this year as part of the six-party process. The US and its six-party allies – Japan, China, South Korea and Russia – said a verification system was a prerequisite for delisting.

The US decision to eliminate the two-decade stigma on North Korea follows days of intense diplomacy to convince the six party members – especially Japan – that a compromise verification plan agreed between Pyongyang and Washington was satisfactory.

Taro Aso, the Japanese prime minister, on Thursday told Washington he could not accept the plan. An informed Japanese source said Mr Aso believed the deal was “weak”. The US argued that North Korea had promised to permit satisfactory inspections even though the language in the agreement was somewhat vague.

Tokyo was also concerned about reducing pressure on Pyongyang to resolve a long-standing dispute over some of its citizens who were abducted by North Korean spies in the 1970s and 1980s, a very politically sensitive issue in Japan.

While Japanese sources could not be reached for comment, on Friday evening, a US official said Washington had satisfied Tokyo.

“We have reassured them that we will continue to press for the abductee resolution and that - should the North not deliver on verification - there will be unified six party consequences,” the official told the Financial Times.

Agreement from the Aso government was not necessary to delist North Korea. But the Bush administration wanted to ensure Japan would not walk away from the six-party talks. It also hoped to ward off as much opposition from critics, including conservatives, who have accused the administration of caving to clever North Korean negotiating ploys.

The US originally insisted that North Korea would have to declare all its nuclear activities, including an alleged uranium enrichment programme, and proliferation to Syria. However, in the end it agreed to accept a declaration that only referred to the plutonium activities at Yongbyon. In a separate secret document, North Korea agreed to acknowledge US concerns about proliferation and uranium enrichment without declaring any activities.

The latest verification plan, and move to delist, were already coming under attack before the administration officially announced that North Korea would be taken off the list.

John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, on Friday evening said the US should “avoid reaching for agreement for its own sake, particularly if it leaves critical verification issues unaddressed”.

Mr McCain, whose Asia advisers have close ties to Japan, also accused the administration of making a “serious omission” by not addressing the abductees issue.

“I expect the administration to explain exactly how this new verification agreement advances American interests and those of our allies before I will be able to support any decision to remove North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.”

Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, called Mr McCain and Barack Obama, his Democratic rival, on Friday to inform them of the decision. The Obama campaign did not issue a comment.

Coming after months of impasse, the move will test whether Pyongyang is serious about continuing the disarmament process, which Mr Bush hopes to chalk up as some kind of positive legacy.

North Korea had rejected an initial US proposal for verification as being too intrusive. It was concerned that the US might use verification as a pretext to spy on the hermit regime, and wanted to limit inspections to the Yongbyon nuclear complex.

The deal that Chris Hill, the US negotiator for North Korea, brought back from Pyongyang last week, however, would allow some inspections in Yongbyon, according to the US official.

One government official said the key was whether US inspectors would be able to follow the nuclear trail as far as necessary to verify claims about the amount of plutonium North Korea reprocessed for nuclear weapons.

The announcement to delist North Korea comes as the Stalinist state this week fired short-range missiles into the Yellow Sea, and hinted at preparing for a second nuclear test.

US intelligence satellites have detected activity at a nuclear test site. But Washington is unclear whether the activity - which included moving earth and cables – is genuine preparations, or a negotiating ploy.

The move also comes amid continuing questions about the health of Kim Jong-il, the North Korean leader, who is believed to have suffered a stroke. Mr Kim on Friday failed to attend celebrations for the anniversary of the Communist party.

Mr Kim had not been seen in public for about two months, his longest ever known absence. But state media on Friday released photographs of the leader inspecting Korean soldiers. It was unclear, however, when the images were taken.

US intelligence officials believe Mr Kim maintains a grip on power. They say the fact that North Korea continues to negotiate with the US suggests that there is no power vacuum in the country.

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EU reaches deal on foreign energy investors

By Joshua Chaffin in Luxembourg

Published: October 10 2008 23:38 | Last updated: October 10 2008 23:38

European states will have the authority to determine whether to open their energy markets to foreign investment from companies such as Gazprom, according to a compromise agreement reached by European energy ministers on Friday.

The agreement scales back the European Commission’s efforts to exercise greater oversight over foreign participation in the EU energy market. It is a particular victory for Germany, which receives 40 per cent of its gas from Russia and had objected to tighter restrictions.

The Commission last year proposed rules to prevent foreign companies from acquiring generation or transmission companies in the EU unless their own countries opened their own markets to EU investment. That proposal was widely seen as a way to curb the rising influence of Gazprom, which had interrupted gas shipments to Europe amid pricing disputes with Ukraine.

However, ministers agreed on Friday that each of the EU’s 27 member countries would decide whether to permit foreign investments in their territory. In so doing, member governments are to consider Europe’s energy security, and also take into account suggestions from the Commission.

The compromise on the so-called “Gazprom clause” came amid a broader package of reforms intended to nudge the EU towards its long-term goal of creating a single energy market with robust competition.

As part of that effort, ministers agreed to an amendment that would prevent large, integrated utilities such as Germany’s Eon from taking over transmission companies in countries that have already liberalised their energy markets.

That agreement was a priority for the Netherlands, which has moved to “unbundle” its energy market by separating companies that handle electricity generation, transmission and distribution, and was concerned that its network could fall prey to larger competitors.

In spite of a worsening economy and mounting financial crisis, several energy ministers also reiterated their commitments to meeting ambitious targets to reduce Europe’s greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent by 2020.

“In spite of tough times, I think there’s a determination to meet our climate commitments,” said Ed Miliband, the UK’s newly appointed energy and climate change secretary. “I think that is encouraging.”

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Doubts over food from cloned animals

By Nikki Tait in Brussels

Published: October 9 2008 23:21 | Last updated: October 9 2008 23:21

European consumers are extremely sceptical about using cloned animals for food production, a new survey has shown.

The findings of the Eurobarometer study, published on Thursday, come just three months after Europe’s food safety watchdog decided that the food products from healthy, cloned animals posed no greater risk than comparable products from conventionally bred counterparts – although the European Food Safety Authority also said further study was needed.

In September, however, the European parliament called for an European Union-wide ban on foods being produced from cloned animals.

That would seem to be in tune with the latest consumer study, conducted in July this year among 25,000 citizens across the EU. It found that 81 per cent of respondents felt that the long-term effect of animal cloning were unknown. Meanwhile, 84 per cent thought that there was insufficient experience of the long-term health and safety implications of using cloned animals for food.

More than half of those surveyed – almost 58 per cent – felt that animal cloning was never justifiable for food production purposes. Resistance was particularly high in Austria and Germany, although the UK was among the most relaxed on this score, with only 45 per cent saying that it was never justifiable.

Similarly, a majority – 53.5 per cent – felt that there would be no benefit for consumers if animal cloning for food production was allowed. That finding, though, was reversed in the UK where 53 per cent felt there would be some benefit, and only 41.7 per cent thought there would be no gain.

The issue is not entirely academic: although there were estimated to be fewer than 4,000 cloned cattle and 500 cloned pigs alive in 2007, EFSA has suggested that animal cloning could spread to the global food chain by 2010.

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The unwinnable war in Afghanistan

Published: October 10 2008 19:52 | Last updated: October 10 2008 19:52

It has taken time and bitter experience but gradually it has dawned on western policymakers and generals that the war in Afghanistan is unwinnable, at least in the way it is now being waged. Worse, US and Nato over-reliance on a military strategy that combines insufficient troops on the ground and indiscriminate attacks from the air has triggered a popular backlash and spread the war across the Afghan border into the strategically far more important arena of Pakistan.

This is just not working.

Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, Britain’s top field commander in Afghanistan, said bluntly a week ago there could be no military solution to the conflict. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, echoed by his French opposite number, General Jean-Louis Georgelin, is saying pretty much the same thing.

Robert Gates, US defence secretary and a sane voice in the lame duck Bush administration, talks of political solutions while Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, pleads for Saudi Arabia to mediate with the Taliban. Leaks from the new National Intelligence Estimate being prepared for the incoming US president suggest Washington believes the Karzai government is collapsing under the combined weight of corruption and attrition. The Taliban is tightening its noose around Kabul and, financed by record opium poppy output in its southern strongholds, can keep this conflict going almost indefinitely.

It may be shocking that the military might of the west cannot defeat the Taliban, but it is true.

The revival of the Taliban after its 2001 defeat should be the real shock. US and western strategy after 9/11 should have been to ensure that a growing but manage-able jihadist current never entered the Muslim mainstream, and to build up the legitimacy needed to isolate and crush the extremists. Instead, in Afghanistan (and now Pakistan) it has managed to fuse Pashtun nationalism with radical Islamism. The scattergun “war on terror” and the invasion of Iraq have persuaded mainstream Muslims the west has declared war on Islam. This has to be reversed. With new governments soon in Washington and Kabul, perhaps it can be.

Militarily, the US and Nato must rein in their air forces, and direct their combined 70,000 troops to hold and expand secure territory while they help create a state: building up local strength and security capacity and spreading the rule of law. Institution-building, along with jobs, schools and clinics, electricity and irrigation, roads and markets for farmers must be the priorities.

Politically, this should help to outflank and to split the Taliban, internally and from its al-Qaeda allies. Peace feelers put out to Pashtun elders close to the Taliban, at a Ramadan iftar meal last month hosted by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, may help this process.

The next US administration needs to see beyond the superficially muscular policies of the Bush era. Mr Gates, by speaking of “detaching those who are reconcilable and who are willing to be part of the future of the country from those who are irreconcilable”, already does.

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大和生命が破綻　金融淘汰、日本でも　株安痛手で生保5社含み損

　世界を襲う金融危機が日本の金融機関の経営にも波及してきた。更生特例法の適用を10日申請した大和（やまと）生命保険が破綻したのは過度にリスクの高い資産運用を続けるなどの特異な経営が直接の理由だが、株価の大幅な下落により、大手の生命保険でも保有する株式が取得時の価格を下回る「含み損」が軒並み発生した。大和生命の支援企業探しも難航する見通しだ。

　大手生保は保有株式の含み益がなくなる株価水準（3月末）を開示している。日経平均株価の10日終値（8276円）と比べると朝日、住友、三井、富国、第一の5社が含み損になった可能性がある。株式の含み損は自己資本から差し引かれるため、保険金の支払い余力が下がることになる。(07:00)

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川崎造船、中国海運大手に技術供与　低コスト生産の拠点に

　川崎重工業の造船子会社、川崎造船（神戸市）は中国の海運大手、中国遠洋運輸集団（ＣＯＳＣＯ）グループの造船会社に設計・生産技術を供与する。供与先の企業は2010年の稼働を目指し遼寧省大連で造船所を建設中。川崎造船は技術供与を通じて関係を深め、ばら積み船などの製造拠点に育てる。川崎造船は中国江蘇省にもＣＯＳＣＯとの合弁拠点を持つ。中国に足場を広げ、コスト競争力を高める。

　ＣＯＳＣＯ傘下の大連中遠造船工業に技術供与する。同社は10年末引き渡し予定で鉄鉱石などを運ぶ大型ばら積み船を受注済み。川崎造船は基本設計のほか、主力拠点の坂出工場（香川県坂出市）に大連中遠造船の生産担当者を受け入れノウハウを教え込む。川崎造船は技術供与に伴うライセンス収入を得るほか、将来は低コスト拠点として活用する。(07:00)

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ソマリア近海で海賊急増、海運業界が国に対策要望

　事実上の無政府状態が続くソマリア近海のアデン湾で今年に入り海賊事件が急増し、日本の海運会社が対応に苦慮している。アデン湾はアジアと欧州を結ぶ海上輸送の要衝で、輸送量も急増。自衛には限界があり、日本船主協会の前川弘幸会長（川崎汽船社長）は10日、金子一義国土交通相を訪ねて対策強化を要望した。

　国際商業会議所国際海事局によると、1―6月にアデン湾・紅海で海賊事件は19件発生した。前年同期の約3倍に増え、地域別で世界の2割近くを占めた。4月には日本郵船の原油タンカー「高山」が不審船の発砲で被弾した。(07:00)

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ほうれん草など13品目上昇　埼玉県が４回目価格調査

　埼玉県は10日、原材料の高騰を受け、生活関連物資の価格動向を聞いた4回目の調査結果を発表した。9月1―15日まで小麦粉や食用油など19品目の価格を調べた結果、3回目の調査（7月）に比べて13品目が値上がりし、2品目が値下がりした。消費生活課は「小麦粉や大豆価格上昇の影響が続いている」と話している。

　値上がり幅が大きかったのは、ほうれん草とマヨネーズ。マヨネーズは食用油などの上昇が影響した。上昇幅がもっとも大きかったほうれん草は「もともと品薄になる季節だったので、原材料価格高騰とはほとんど関係ない」（同課）という。

　品切れが続いていたバターは生産が増えて需給バランスが改善し、横ばいにとどまった。値下がりしたのはティッシュペーパーとキャベツのみ。

　調査は県内のスーパーなど25店舗を対象に実施した。県は5回目の調査を11月1―15日に実施する予定。

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都、小中学生通院1回200円に　負担折半に市町村反発も

　東京都は10日、すでに中学3年までの医療費を無料化している23区以外の地域で、小中学生の医療費を1回200円の定額制とする方針を都内の市町村に伝えた。都は年間40億円の支出増を見込み、これを市町村と折半する考え。景気後退による税収減が予想されるなか、負担増を嫌う市町村からは反発も出ている。石原慎太郎知事は昨年春の知事選で、中学3年までの医療費無料化を公約に掲げた。都はすでに所得が一定基準以下の世帯に対し、就学前の乳幼児の医療費を無料にしているほか、小中学生も本人負担を通常の3分の2に軽減している。

　ただ23区はすでに独自の政策として、中学3年まで通院・入院とも無料にしている。このため23区とそれ以外の地区での助成の差が問題になっていた。武蔵野市の担当者は「市民から『うちの市も子供の医療費を無料化できないのか』という要望が多い」と語る。しかし医療費を無料にすると、受診が増える可能性もある。都内でも小児科医が不足しており、安易な受診を防ぐため、通院では本人に一定額の負担を求めることにした。ただ入院については無料にする。

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留学生仲介破綻、160人の学費免除　カナダ学校協会

　【ニューヨーク＝共同】留学仲介大手「ゲートウェイ21」の経営破たん問題で、カナダ語学学校協会は10日、同社の仲介により同協会所属の13の語学学校で学んでいる日本人留学生計約160人の授業料を免除する救済措置を取ることを明らかにした。全員が留学を続ける見込みで、仲介先のトラブルへのこうした救済は珍しいという。

　カナダはオーストラリアなどと並び日本人の語学留学先として人気が高い。同協会のリンダ・オージンス担当部長は「カナダにとって日本人留学生はとても大切。救済措置はカナダの語学学校の信用度を上げることにもなる」と話した。

　同協会によると、160人の授業料は総額で50万カナダドル（約4280万円）以上。

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舛添事務所に電話６百回…免許取り消しの元医師

　女性看護師へのわいせつ行為を理由に医師免許を取り消されたことに不満を持ち、舛添要一厚生労働相の事務所に苦情電話をかけ続けて業務を妨害したとして、警視庁麹町署は１０日、偽計業務妨害の疑いで北海道函館市、元小児科医の男（６８）を逮捕した。

　調べでは、男は８月２９日から９月２２日にかけて、東京・永田町の参院議員会館内の舛添氏の事務所に約１８０回にわたり「違法な取り消し処分だ」「免許を返せ」と電話し、業務を妨害した疑い。

　麹町署は裏付けの取れた約１８０回の苦情電話だけを立件したが、この期間に舛添氏の事務所にかけた苦情電話は計約６００回に上るとみている。

　男は「頻繁に電話したことは間違いない。迷惑を掛けることは分かっていた」と供述しているという。

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車両落書き：ハンガリー人ら逮捕　大阪府警

　大阪市営地下鉄の車両に落書きしたとして、大阪府警捜査１課などは１１日、ハンガリー国籍で住所・職業不詳、タカチ・ビクター容疑者（２５）を器物損壊容疑などで逮捕した。府警は関連の容疑でスロバキア国籍の男も既に逮捕。もう１人の東欧系の男からも事情を聴いている。３人は９月初旬に一緒に入国。以降、大阪を含め全国６道府県で同様の被害が続いており、府警は３人が全国行脚し鉄道車両への落書きを繰り返していたとみている。

　他に逮捕されたのは、ダリボラ・スピシアーク容疑者（２６）。府警は捜査１課に捜査本部を設置し、余罪を追及する。

　調べでは、ビクター容疑者は９月４日ごろ、大阪市淀川区の市営地下鉄御堂筋線新大阪駅の車両置き場で、電車側面にスプレーで落書きした疑い。ビクター容疑者は「弁護士と話したい」と認否を留保している。

　鉄道車両への落書きは、９月４日以降、北海道、宮城、神奈川、愛知、大阪、兵庫で見つかった。ほとんどが地下鉄への落書きで、いずれも絵の特徴が似ているという。３人は９月２日に入国、今月１３日に関西国際空港から出国予定だった。

　３人が宿泊していた大阪市西成区のビジネスホテルの一室では、落書きに使ったとみられるスプレー缶約３０本が見つかった。落書きを特集した外国の雑誌もあった。【遠藤孝康、堀江拓哉】

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法務省：仮退院少年の就職支援　民間施設に宿泊「自分を見つめ直す場に」
　◇再非行防止、来年度から

　少年院を仮退院した少年の就労を支援するため、法務省は来年度、民間の更生保護施設に一定期間宿泊させて就職活動をさせる取り組みを始める。社会に戻っても周辺環境に流され、再び非行グループに加わる少年も多いためで、職を得て自立させることで再非行防止につなげる。

　更生保護施設は、引受先のない刑務所出所者らの社会復帰を支援するため、出所直後に一時的に保護する施設。このような形の利用は初めて。

　法務省保護局によると、少年院を仮退院して自宅に帰る少年の中には、家庭環境や非行を一緒にしてきた友人の影響で、職探しをしなかったり、見つけた仕事もすぐに辞めてしまうケースが多い。このため、就労支援が必要と判断した。

　具体的には、主に仮退院から３カ月経過しても定職に就かない少年を、本人や親の了解を得て２週間程度、更生保護施設で受け入れる。一般の刑務所出所者と同様にハローワークで求人を探したり、職業体験講習を受けさせて就労意欲を養う。

　保護局は「定職を見つけられなければ更生の意欲がないと見なされかねない。いったん自宅を離れて自分を見つめ直すきっかけを提供したい」と説明している。【石川淳一】

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大和生命破綻：契約者の保険こうなる

　経営破綻（はたん）した大和（やまと）生命保険の債権者説明会が１１日開かれ、保険契約者からは「保険金支払いはどうなるのか」と不安の声が相次いだ。保険契約はどうなるのか。Ｑ＆Ａ方式でまとめた。【辻本貴洋】

　Ｑ　大和生命が破綻したけど、契約者の保険はどうなる？

　Ａ　破綻前日の９日までに死亡した場合は、保険金は全額支払われます。その後は生保各社が出資する「生命保険契約者保護機構」が保険金の支払い原資（責任準備金）の９割までカバーしますが、保険金減額は避けられない見通しです。

　Ｑ　どのくらい減るのか。

　Ａ　保険の種類によって異なります。掛け捨て型の死亡保障保険や医療保険は削減幅が小さく、過去の破綻生保はおおむね数％程度でした。一方、貯蓄性の高い年金保険や終身保険、養老保険は削減幅が大きくなります。同じ種類の保険でも契約期間が長いと削減幅は大きく、過去には年金保険が半分程度も減らされた例もあります。

　Ｑ　どうして差が出るのか。

　Ａ　年金保険などは、保険会社が保険料を運用して、保険金を支払います。でも、破綻すると、保険会社が契約者に約束した運用利回り（予定利率）が引き下げられ、削減幅が大きくなります。

　Ｑ　解約したほうがいいのか。

　Ａ　再建のための更生計画が裁判所から認可されるまでは原則として解約できません。更生計画の認可は半年程度かかる見通しです。また、破綻生保で解約した場合、解約時に払われる「解約返戻金」が通常より多く減らされるケースが多く、あわてて解約すると損をすることもあります。

　Ｑ　再建の支援先を探すようだが？

　Ａ　支援するスポンサーが顧客離れを避けるため、保険金の減額幅を小さくする場合もあります。スポンサーが決まらない場合、生命保険契約者保護機構が契約を引き継ぎます。スポンサーが決まった場合よりも減額幅は大きくなる可能性があります。

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三浦和義元社長、移送先のロスで自殺

　外務省に11日入った連絡によると、1981年の米ロサンゼルス銃撃事件で今年2月に米自治領サイパンで逮捕された元会社社長、三浦和義容疑者（61）＝日本では無罪が確定＝が10日午後10時（日本時間11日午後2時）ごろ、移送先のロサンゼルス市警の独房で自殺を図り死亡した。これで「共謀罪」での立件を目指した米当局の捜査はできなくなった。

　在ロサンゼルス日本総領事館にロス市警から入った連絡によると、三浦元社長は現地時間の10日午後9時45分（日本時間11日午後1時45分）ごろ、ロス市警本部の独房内でＴシャツで首をくくっていたところを係官に発見された。同日午後10時ごろ、搬送先の病院で死亡が確認されたという。(21:43)

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銃撃事件の三浦元社長が移送先のロスで首つり自殺

　１９８１年のロサンゼルス銃撃事件で、今年２月に米自治領サイパンで逮捕された元会社社長、三浦和義容疑者（６１）＝日本では無罪確定＝の支援者によると、三浦元社長が１１日、移送先のロサンゼルスで自殺を図り亡くなったと家族から連絡があった。

　ロスの関係者によると、三浦元社長は１０日午後１０時（日本時間１１日午後２時）ごろ、収容先で首つり自殺を図り、搬送先の病院で死亡が確認されたという。

　三浦元社長は１０日午前５時（日本時間同日午後９時）前、ロサンゼルスに到着。ロスの空港では捜査官らに付き添われてタラップを下り、捜査車両に向かったが、表情はほとんど変えず、無言だった。

　三浦元社長は日本からサイパンを訪問中の２月２２日、逮捕された。移送を拒否していたが、現地の地裁が人身保護請求を棄却。ロス郡地裁に求めた逮捕状取り消しも実現せず、移送に同意した。（共同）

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移送直後の自殺、関係者に動揺 家族には「ロスで会おう」

　【ロサンゼルス１１日共同】「ロスで会おう」と話していたのに－。ロサンゼルス銃撃事件で逮捕された三浦和義元社長（６１）が１０日夜（日本時間１１日午後）、留置先のロス市警で自殺した。今年２月に逮捕、拘置されていた米自治領サイパンから１０日早朝、移送された直後の出来事。突然の事態に関係者は動揺をあらわにした。

　三浦元社長の近親者には日本時間１１日夕、在ロサンゼルス日本総領事館から元社長の自殺について連絡があった。妻と総領事館が連絡を取り合っているといい、この近親者は「今はそれ以上、お答えできません」と口を閉ざした。

　元社長の知人によると、サイパンからロスに移送される直前、元社長はサイパンの収容施設から日本にいる家族と連絡を取り「ロスで会おう」と話していたという。

　この知人も、移送直前に電話で「来年初めにロスに行くから」と元社長と約束していたといい、「がっかりです」とため息をついた。

　サイパンの弁護人のバーライン氏は元社長の自殺について、共同通信の電話取材に「今は何もコメントできない」とだけ語り、ショックを隠しきれない様子。

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「信じられない」元社長の支援者 突然の連絡に動揺、衝撃…

　三浦和義元社長がロサンゼルス移送直後に自殺したとの連絡を受け、国内の支援者は「信じられない」と一様にショックを受けた様子だった。

　関係者によると、三浦元社長の妻は数日中にロスに面会に行く予定だったとされ、突然の悲報に動揺していたという。

　「三浦和義氏の逮捕に怒る市民の会」を設立し支援活動を続けてきた客野美喜子さん（５６）は「信じられない。ロス移送直前には、みんなで力を合わせて頑張ろうと話していたと聞いており、前兆などまったくなかった」と言葉少な。

　逮捕前に三浦元社長とトークイベントを行うなど親しい友人だった放送作家河村シゲルさんは「自らロスで共謀罪と闘うことを決め、胸を張って航空機に乗っていた。あれほど生気に満ちていた人が自殺することなど、ありえない。何が起きたのか検証する必要がある」と訴える。

　三浦元社長の妻から電話で知らせを受けた「人権と報道・連絡会」の山際永三事務局長（７６）は「もし本当なら日米の両国家に殺されたと言ってもよい。無罪判決が確定した日本人を見放した日本政府の責任は大きい」と憤った。

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【三浦元社長自殺】　黒い帽子に最後のメッセージ？　 (1/2ページ)
2008.10.11 20:57

　【ロサンゼルス＝松尾理也】サイパンからロスへ到着し、ロス市警本部に収監されたばかりの三浦和義元会社社長（６１）＝日本で無罪確定＝が１０日夜、自殺した。「戦いの準備はできた。ロスに行く」。そう言い残してサイパンを後にした三浦元社長。ロスの土を踏んだまさにその当日に死を遂げるという、あきらかに計画的な自殺に、関係者は言葉を失った。

　「今は何も情報がない。朝まで待て」。三浦元社長自殺の一報を受けた報道陣からの問い合わせが殺到したロス市警の当直者は、混乱した様子で繰り返すばかりだった。

　１０日、２０時間近い移送を経て、ロサンゼルス国際空港に降り立った三浦元社長。サイパンからの飛行機には多数の日本の報道陣が同乗したが、問いかけに対しても「一切コメントはしません」と口をつぐんでいた。

　移送完了を受けて、この事件の捜査を担当するリック・ジャクソン捜査官は１０日午前、ロス市警本部で会見。今回の捜査で来日した際、三浦元社長の妻で何者かに殺害された一美さんの母親に会い、捜査の進展を報告するとともに、一緒に墓参したエピソードを明らかにするなど、思い入れたっぷりに捜査への自信を語っていた。

　「ロス市警は、短い一生を終えざるを得なかった一美さんのために、たいまつ（トーチ）を掲げ続ける」。そんなふうに意気込んでいたジャクソン捜査官は、それから半日あまりで、思いもかけない結末に直面することになった。

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「真実は闇に」と元捜査員 警視庁の関係者

　三浦和義元社長（６１）の自殺に、日本で捜査に携わった関係者は驚きを隠しきれない様子だった。

　銃撃事件の捜査を指揮した当時の警視庁捜査１課長、坂口勉さん（７３）は「ただただ驚いた。とても自殺するような性格とは思えなかったが…。米国の法制度では無罪は勝ち取れないと絶望したのだろうか」と推測する一方で、「いずれにせよ、これでもう真実は闇の中ということか」と複雑な心情を吐露した。

　捜査本部に所属していた元捜査１課理事官の大峯泰広さん（６０）は「日本より厳しいアメリカの司法に『逃げられない』と観念したのではないか。本当に残念」と話し、米国での捜査が中断に追い込まれることを悔しがった。

　「本当なのか。信じられない」。三浦元社長の取り調べを担当した元警視庁捜査１課幹部の酒井美次さん（６０）も、三浦元社長が自殺に及んだ理由を測りかねている。「ロス市警の捜査員たちに、何があったのか聞いてみたい。遺書があるなら、何が書かれているのか知りたい」

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「悲劇だ」「本当驚き」＝サイパンの担当検事－三浦元社長自殺

　「本当に驚いた」。三浦和義元社長（６１）の自殺のニュースは１１日夜、７カ月半にわたり元社長が拘置されたサイパンの担当検事にも伝わり、驚きと衝撃が走った。

　１０日未明にサイパンの空港から三浦元社長の移送を見送ったばかりウォーフィールド検事は電話で「本当に悲劇だ。本当に驚いた」と話した。

　報道陣からの問い合わせを受けた後、サイパンやロスの弁護士から、三浦元社長の自殺を確認したという同検事。「ロス市警が記者会見をすることは承知しているが、それ以外の詳細は全く分からない」と述べるにとどまった。

　三浦元社長の家族は今年夏、サイパンの繁華街に輸入雑貨店を開き、拘置中の元社長を支援。同店は１１日夜、営業時間内だったが、従業員らが出ることはなかった。（2008/10/11-21:34）

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三浦元社長：面会１２時間後…因縁の地ロスで最期

　日米両国の捜査と司法のはざまで当局と闘い続けた元輸入雑貨販売会社社長、三浦和義容疑者（６１）が、因縁の地のロサンゼルスで自殺したことは、日本の支援者や事件関係者に大きな衝撃を与えた。８５年に警視庁で最初に逮捕されてから約２３年。日本で無罪を勝ち取り、米国で再び逮捕されるという異例の経過をたどった事件に、三浦元社長は自ら終止符を打った。

　【ロサンゼルス吉富裕倫】１０日に自殺した三浦和義元社長は同日午前、収容先のロス市警本部の独房でロサンゼルス日本総領事館の担当領事と面会し、元気な様子を見せていた。「食物アレルギーなので、油で揚げたものは食べることができない。そう警察に言ってほしい」と食事に注文し前向きな様子だったという。

　三浦元社長は午前５時（日本時間午後９時）前ロサンゼルス国際空港へ到着。その後、ロス市警の留置場へ収監された。ロス市警は午前９時（同１１日午前１時）から会見。捜査官の一人は「（元社長は）『とても疲れた』と話していたので、しばらく眠るだろう」と話していた。

　しかし、三浦元社長はその約５０分後、日本総領事館に電話し「留置場内で読書はできないと言われたが、確認してほしい」と領事との面会を要請した。すぐ市警本部を訪れた領事に対し、元社長は「元気だ」と答えた。

　拘置所へ移るまでの暫定的な施設のため読書ができないと説明され納得。「１４日に裁判所に出廷するので、それまでに弁護士に会いたい」と話したほか、提供される食事の内容に注文をつけた。面会した領事は「顔色も良く、（本人の）言葉通り元気そうだった」と語った。見回りの目をかいくぐり、自殺を図ったのは約１２時間後の１１日午後９時４５分（日本時間午後１時４５分）ごろだった。
　◇遺族「なぜこのような事態に」

　神奈川県平塚市の三浦元社長方は２階に明かりがついているが、反応がなく誰が在宅しているのかは分からない。午後８時半ごろ、男性が出てきて「三浦和義　親族より」と書かれた文書を詰め掛けた報道陣に配った。

　文書には「ロスでの拘束中に亡くなったとの知らせを、領事館より受けました。現在も、米国政府からは、なんら具体的な説明がいただけないのが現状です。拘束中、最低限守られるべきことが、なぜこのような事態になったのか、悲しみと共に、遺憾に感じております。日本政府からも、早急な事実確認を早急にお願いしたいと思います」と書かれていた。

　報道陣が「（妻の）良枝さんのコメントですか」と問うと、男性は「親族です」と繰り返した。建物には関係者とみられる男女が出入りしたが、報道陣の問いかけには答えなかった。

　一方、ロス銃撃事件で亡くなった三浦元社長の当時の妻、一美さんの母佐々木康子さん方（川崎市川崎区）には報道陣十数人が詰めかけた。佐々木さんは１人暮らしで、家の電気は消え、ひっそりしたまま。向かいのアパートに住む女性によると、佐々木さんは１５日まで国内旅行に出掛けているという。

　この女性は「ロス疑惑の後に引っ越してきたので、まさか（佐々木さんが）関係者と知らなかった。事件の話はほとんどしたことがない。夕食時にテレビで自殺を知り、びっくりした」と話した。【渡辺明博、中島和哉】
　◇弘中弁護士は事務所に不在

　日本の裁判で主任弁護人を務め、サイパンで逮捕された後も支援してきた弘中惇一郎弁護士の事務所（東京都千代田区）前には、午後７時ごろから約３０人の報道陣が詰めかけた。午後９時現在、事務所は不在で弘中弁護士も姿を見せていない。弘中弁護士は三浦元社長が逮捕された後、健康状態や今後の裁判の進め方について電話でやり取りしていた。
　◇ゲラゴス弁護士「ショックだ」

　【ロサンゼルス吉富裕倫】三浦元社長のロサンゼルスでの弁護人、マーク・ゲラゴス弁護士は１１日、滞在先のイタリアからＡＰ通信の取材に答え、「ショックだ。弁護団のうちの一人は昨日、彼（元社長）と１２時間一緒にいた。彼は元気そうで、この裁判を闘うつもりだった」と述べた。

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元若ノ鵬「大海、魁皇と八百長」／大相撲
2008.10.11 05:04

　大麻所持で逮捕され、日本相撲協会を解雇された元若ノ鵬（２０）＝本名ガグロエフ・ソフラン氏＝が１１日発売の「週刊現代」（講談社）で、大関千代大海（３２）、魁皇（３６）と八百長を行ったと発言している。６日発売の同誌では大関琴欧洲（２５）らと八百長したとしており、今回は第２弾。

　記事によると、八百長を行ったのは今年７月の名古屋場所。翌日に千代大海戦をひかえた６日目の魁皇戦前、千代大海の付け人から「転んでください」などと持ちかけられた。直後に同じ付け人から「（当日対戦の）魁皇関も助けてください」などとも説得され、両取組とも事前に付け人から取り口を指示され、故意に敗れたという。

　その後、名古屋場所の終盤、千代大海とともに支度部屋に入ってきた付け人から、折りたたまれた割（取組表）に包まれた１０万円の束１０個を渡された。魁皇からは、場所後の北海道遠征（８月５、６日）で同じ千代大海の付き人から１００万円が入った細長い封筒を渡されたとしている。

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元若ノ鵬激白、今度の標的は魁皇＆千代大海

　八百長報道をめぐり日本相撲協会と民事裁判で係争中の「週刊現代」（講談社刊）の１１日発売号で、元若ノ鵬による八百長告発記事が掲載された。６日発売分に続く第２弾で、大関の魁皇と千代大海から付け人を通じて八百長を持ちかけられ、受諾したと伝えている。

　八百長と指摘されている取組は、今年名古屋場所６日目の魁皇-若ノ鵬と７日目の千代大海-若ノ鵬。記事によると、どちらも千代大海の付け人が仲介役となって、事前に若ノ鵬が故意に負けることを取り決め、若ノ鵬に対し、それぞれ１００万円の報酬が支払われたとされている。

　週刊現代は６日発売号で、元若ノ鵬が告白する形で、大関琴欧洲と十両春日錦が元若ノ鵬と八百長を行っていたと報じている。日本相撲協会は再発防止検討委員会の伊勢ノ海委員長（元関脇藤ノ川）、友綱副委員長（元関脇魁輝）が、６日に琴欧洲、春日錦から事情を聴いており、魁皇、千代大海についても聞き取りを行う可能性がある。

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元露鵬＆元白露山が元若ノ鵬の行動に理解

　元露鵬と元白露山が元若ノ鵬の行動に理解を示した。代理人の塩谷安男弁護士は「若ノ鵬の八百長告発会見を見て『本当の気持ちを話している』と話していた」と明かした。解雇無効を求める裁判を自重する考えが揺らいだという。裁判については「１０日夜か１１日に２人と話し、結論を出したい」（同弁護士）。協会が講談社を訴えた八百長裁判の原告から名前を抜き、解雇無効を裁判で争う方向に傾いている。

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おかみさんも暴行指示「やっちゃいなさい」

　大相撲の時津風部屋の序ノ口力士、時太山（ときたいざん、当時１７、本名・斉藤俊＝たかし＝さん）が暴行を受けて死亡した事件の第４回公判が１０日、名古屋地裁で開かれた。兄弟子の１人、藤居正憲被告（２３）の被告人質問では、元親方の山本順一被告（５８）＝同罪で起訴＝夫人で当時、部屋のおかみさんだった祐賀子さんが兄弟子らに暴行を指示していたことが明らかになった。

　藤居被告の証言では、脱走した斉藤さんを連れ戻した父・正人さん（５１）が、部屋関係者に土下座しながら部屋にとどまることを懇願した昨年６月２０日、斉藤さんは部屋の屋上で喫煙し、吸い殻を階段から投げ捨てていたという。日頃から近隣住民の苦情を受けていたおかみさんは「もう我慢できない。親方もやっていいと言っているから、やっちゃいなさい」と指示したという。

　この日で兄弟子３被告に対する集中審理は終了し、１１月１０日に結審する。山本被告に対する公判は年末にも行われる予定だが、祐賀子夫人も証人として出廷する可能性が高くなった。

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藤居被告が証言　おかみさんも暴行指示か…元力士暴行死事件第４回公判

　大相撲時津風部屋の時太山（当時１７歳）＝本名・斉藤俊さん＝が暴行死した事件の第４回公判が１０日、名古屋地裁で開かれた。被告人質問で、番付外・時王丸こと藤居正憲被告（２３）が、元親方の山本順一被告（５８）の妻の元おかみさんからも暴行の指示を受けたと証言。事件とは直接関係ないとはいえ、おかみさんも暴行に関係していた驚きの事実が判明した。裁判は４日連続の集中審理が終了。１１月１０日に検察側が論告求刑する。

　斉藤さんへの暴行をおかみさんも指示していた。藤居被告への弁護側からの質問。斉藤さんが東京の部屋から脱走した前日の０７年６月１６日、同被告は元親方の山本被告の妻から、未成年の斉藤さんが喫煙し、吸い殻を部屋のマンションの階段から投げ捨てた事実を聞かされた。「もう我慢ならない。親方もやっていいと言っている」とも言われ、事実上、おかみさんも暴行を指示したという。

　その言葉を受け「心配しなくていい」と思い、藤居被告は斉藤さんへ張り手を見舞い、太ももなどを棒で叩いたと証言。一連の暴行はすべて山本被告の指示とされてきたが、一部とはいえ部屋を切り盛りするおかみさんがかかわったことが判明。事件の異常さを象徴する内容となった。

　この日で４日連続の集中審理が終了。公判前は３被告が同様の暴行に加わったと思われていたが、藤居被告は斉藤さんが亡くなる直前のぶつかりげいこ時には病院に行っており不在だったことが判明。１１月１０日の求刑もけいこで胸を出した木村正和被告（２５）、金属バットで殴打した伊塚雄一郎被告（２５）も含め、それぞれ違う刑を求められることが予想される。相撲部屋で起きた異常な事件へ、検察側がどう出るか注目だ。

　◆斉藤さん父求める一日でも長い実刑　○…集中審理の最後に斉藤さんの父・正人さん（５１）が意見陳述し、兄弟子３被告へ「生きていく上で一生、苦しみを背負って欲しい。一日でも一週間でも長く実刑判決を望みます」と訴えた。被害者の父の切実な言葉に木村被告と藤居被告は号泣。正人さんは４日連続で傍聴。裁判では被告から約５０００万円の弁償金を受け取っていたことも判明したが、最愛の息子を亡くした悲しみはそんなことではもちろんぬぐえないはずだ。

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再発防止へ協会「指導の見極めが必要」

　力士暴行死事件の４日連続の公判が終了した１０日、日本相撲協会の理事で再発防止検討委員会の友綱副委員長（元関脇魁輝）は「各師匠は指導のあり方の見極めが必要。きちっとするように伝えてある。順調に進むと思う」と述べ、相撲界全体として再発防止に取り組んでいる姿勢を強調した。事件そのものについては「コメントできる立場でない」と話すにとどまった。武蔵川理事長（元横綱三重ノ海）は同協会には姿を見せなかった。

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永田洋子死刑囚が危篤　連合赤軍事件
2008.10.11 22:03

　一連の連合赤軍事件のうち、大量リンチ事件の殺人や傷害致死罪などに問われ、平成５年に死刑が確定した元連合赤軍幹部の永田洋子死刑囚（６３）が拘置先で危篤状態となったことが１１日、分かった。家族が拘置先に向かったという。東京都新宿区で同日開かれた世界死刑廃止デーの記念イベントで報告された。

　確定判決によると、永田死刑囚は元連合赤軍幹部の坂口弘死刑囚（６１）＝平成５年に確定＝らと共謀。昭和４６年８月から４７年２月にかけて、組織を抜けた仲間２人を絞殺したほか群馬県・榛名山などの山岳アジトでの“総括”と称するリンチで仲間１１人を殺害、１人を死亡させるなどした。４７年２月に逮捕され１、２審で死刑を言い渡され、最高裁も平成５年２月の判決で死刑を支持した。

　関係者によると、永田死刑囚は昭和５９年に脳腫瘍（しゅよう）の手術を受け、最近は寝たきりの状態が続いているという。

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電話の通話時間、携帯が固定を初めて上回る

2008年10月10日23時41分

　携帯電話からの通話時間が０７年度、初めて固定電話（ＩＰ電話を除く）の通話時間を超えた。総務省が１０日発表した通信利用状況から分かった。一方、前年度に比べた伸び率では、インターネットの技術を使うＩＰ電話が最も大きかった。

　総務省のまとめによると、０７年度の固定電話からの通話時間は、前年度より１１％少ない１８億３５００万時間。携帯電話からの通話は、４．５％増えて １８億９９００万時間だった。ＩＰ電話からの通話は、１７．８％増の３億５千万時間。ＰＨＳからは１．５％増の１億５３００万時間。

　国内全体の音声通信の総回数は１１７１億１千万回で前年度比２．３％減。総通信時間数も４２億３７００万時間で同２．１％減った。メールなど他の連絡手段に利用者が流れていると見られる。

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「投資家は冷静な行動を」東証社長が声明発表

　東京証券取引所の斉藤惇社長は10日、株式相場の急落を受けて「冷静な投資行動をとられるようにお願いする」との声明を発表した。投資家に慎重な対応を 呼びかけた形だ。そのうえで「証券取引等監視委員会とも連携して相場操縦の不正行為に関係する監視を徹底していく」とコメントした。

　大阪証券取引所の米田道生社長も同日、「市場での透明、公正、円滑な価格形成機能の確保に努める」とするとともに、投資家に対しては「風説の流布など市場の信頼性を損なうような行動は厳に慎んでほしい」と要請した。

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野村アセット、ブラジル・レアル債投信の設定を中止

　野村アセットマネジメントは10日、投資信託の新商品「ブラジル・レアル債券投資」の設定を中止すると発表した。すでに集めたお金は投資家に返す。同社が募集を始めながら設定を中止するのは「過去5年間に例がない」（同社）という。

　株安と円高で投信の運用環境は一気に悪化。9月には設定中止に追い込まれた投信が少なくとも5本あった。

　新しいファンドにお金が入らないだけでなく、既存の投信からも資金は流出している。(10日 21:02)

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伊藤忠が架空取引、900億円規模の可能性も　元課長を懲戒解雇

　伊藤忠商事は10日、モンゴル企業への建機販売で実際の商品のやり取りがないのに書類上あるように装った「架空取引」があったと発表した。過去8年間で 累計537億円の売上高があったとされてきたが、その大半が架空取引だったもよう。伊藤忠は担当していた元課長を就業規則違反で8日付で懲戒解雇した。同 じ部署で行われた別の取引についても調査しており、架空取引の規模が900億円前後に膨らむ可能性もある。

　社内調査では、元課長はロシア企業から仕入れた建機をモンゴルの資源会社に販売する取引を担当。建機の調達費として伊藤忠が支出した資金を独断でモンゴ ル企業に貸し付けていた。運転資金などに充当されたもようだ。モンゴル企業からの支払いが滞ったため発覚した。9月末で103億円の債権が残っている。

　このほかに累計売上高421億円の取引についても調査しており、債権残高は138億円。伊藤忠は債権の回収を急ぐが、不能分は貸倒引当金を計上する。2009年3月期の業績見通しに変更は無いという。(10日　22:01)