サイゼリヤ：デリバティブで評価損１４０億円 赤字転落も
ファミリーレストラン大手の「サイゼリヤ」は２１日、０８年９～１１月期に為替のデリバティブ（金融派生商品）の評価損が約１４０億円発生する見通しになったと発表した。世界的な金融不安で、急激な円高が進んだため。０９年８月期の連結最終（当期）損益は、前期の４０億円の黒字から赤字に転落する可能性があるという。ただ、今後の資金繰りに問題はなく、新規出店計画なども従来通り継続するとしている。
同社は、豪州の加工工場で製造したハンバーグなどを豪ドル建てで日本に輸入している。豪ドルを調達するため、０７年１０月以後、ＢＮＰパリバ証券と１豪ドル＝７８円と同６９．９０円で計２００万豪ドルを調達する契約を結んだ。契約より円高が進むと、その差額分が損失となる契約で、現在は同６０円弱で推移するなど今年秋以後、急激な円高が進んだことから、損失が膨らむ見通しになったという。記者会見した正垣泰彦社長は「これだけ急激な円高になるとは想定していなかった」と述べた。
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The Short View
By John Authers
Published: November 21 2008 02:00 | Last updated: November 21 2008 02:00
The five-year rally in US stocks that began shortly before the invasion of Iraq and peaked last October can now be dismissed as an aberration.
Yesterday, the S&P 500, the most important index of the US market, fell 6.5 per cent, dropping through the low it set in October 2002, and bringing it to levels it last saw in April 1997.
It is back to a level it last recorded a month before Amazon.com went public. Both the dotcom bubble and what is now known to be the credit bubble have burst - but there is no clarity as to where stock valuations may come to rest.
The bond market suggests we are in territory much more inhospitable than in 1997. The yield on the two-year US Treasury bond, which reflects trends in interest rates, is below 1 per cent for the first time. The yield on 30-year Treasuries, led by expectations of inflation, is below 4 per cent, at a record low.
Thus the bond market expects historically low interest rates in the developed world, which will fail to avert a protracted dose of slow growth and deflation.
The yield on 10-year bonds is less than the dividend yield on the S&P 500 index for the first time in 50 years. Stocks' greater potential to grow over time is now valued as worthless.
Why such a total loss of confidence in the US economy?
Data continue to show that the economy sustained a sharp jolt after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September. New US jobless claims, the highest since 1982, are the latest bad news.
And confidence in the banking sector, which led the decline in the economy, took a critical new blow last week when the US Treasury secretary Hank Paulson said that the Tarp bail-out fund would not, after all, buy troubled mortgage- backed assets. That sent the value of companies holding those assets tumbling, led by Citigroup, which is back to its level of May 1995.
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The Short View
By John Authers
Published: November 21 2008 02:00 | Last updated: November 21 2008 02:00
History is the only way to grasp what is gripping markets.
The yield payable on the two-year US treasury bond, which reflects trends in interest rates, is below 1 per cent for the first time ever. The yield on 30-year Treasuries, led by expectations of inflation, is below 4 per cent, at an all-time low.
Thus the bond market expects historically low interest rates in the developed world, which will fail to avert a protracted dose of slow growth and deflation.
Meanwhile, the yield on 10-year bonds is less than the dividend yield on the S&P 500 index for the first time in 50 years. Stocks' superior potential to grow over time is now valued as worthless, swamped by the risk of further declines.
As for stocks, the S&P fell 6.71 per cent yesterday to close at 752.44, below its lowest close during the bear market of 2002. Falling through that level is a huge psychological blow.
The price of crude oil fell below $50, to its lowest level since 2005, in spite of the widespread belief that world production is near its peak level and is set to decline.
In combination, this is an historic loss of confidence in the western economy. Why?
Data continue to show that the economy sustained a sharp jolt after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September.
New US jobless claims, the highest since 1982, are the latest bad news.
And confidence in the financial sector, which has led the decline in the economy, sustained a critical new blow last week when the US Treasury secretary Hank Paulson said that the "Tarp" bail-out fund would not, after all, buy troubled mortgage-backed assets. That caused a renewed collapse in the value of those assets and the institutions holding them.
History will judge whether this collapse in confidence makes sense; it seems highly likely to judge Mr Paulson's statement a mistake.
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Worst bear market since 1930s dashes hopes
By John Authers and Michael Mackenzie in New York
Published: November 21 2008 18:20 | Last updated: November 21 2008 18:20
As this week dawned, many in international markets thought that they might have a respite until Christmas. With stocks having fallen so fast, there were even hopes of what traders call a “bear market rally” before markets had the chance to take stock once more in the new year.
By the end of the week, the S&P 500 of US stocks, the world’s most widely followed index, had crashed to its lowest in 11 years. Its fall since the peak in October last year is now more than 50 per cent and during the week it overtook the total percentage falls it suffered after the dotcom bust of 2000 and the oil crisis of 1973.
It is now, without question, the worst bear market since the 1930s.
Meanwhile, the cost of insuring against credit defaults for a range of companies in both Europe and North America shot to new highs, unseen even since the credit crisis began in July of last year.
The US government bond market, which produces the rates that underpin much of the world’s financial system, moved to yields that were unprecedented. The yield on the two-year Treasury bond traded below 1 per cent for the first time since it was issued in 1976. The 30-year bond yield, which generally reflects views on the long-term prospects for inflation and economic growth, staged a record one-day decline of 0.44 percentage points to 3.49 per cent; before this year it had never been below 4 per cent.
And the yield on the 10-year note, another indicator of inflation expectations, plunged to 3.02 per cent, below its low of 3.07 per cent in 2003, when deflation fears last stalked the bond market.
Meanwhile, moves in the market for inflation-linked bonds, known as Tips, were also unprecedented and moved to levels that only make sense if US prices actually fall, on average, for the next 10 years.
“The Tips market is clearly broken,” said Michael Pond, strategist at Barclays Capital, who said these remarkable results did not show inflation expectations so much as the incredibly high prices that investors were prepared to pay for Treasury bonds with a fixed income.
As with the stock market, the only historical precedent for the kind of deflation predicted by the bond market came in the 1930s.
One technical measure was also breached. For the first time since 1958, the yield you receive in dividends from stocks in the S&P 500 is higher than the yield paid on a 10-year Treasury note. Even though stocks have the potential to raise earnings over time, while the income on bonds is fixed, investors are now so negative about the chances of growth from stocks that they require a higher yield before they are willing to buy them.
What prompted this? Economic data were uniformly awful. In the US, both producer prices and consumer prices showed inflation slowing more quickly than expected, while on Thursday new data on initial jobless claims showed more than 500,000 Americans had registered as jobless each week for the past month – the first time this had happened since the recession of 1982.
Terrible surveys of purchasing managers in the eurozone, and further gloomy indicators from Asia, intensified the negative spirit. All of the moves in the US had international ramifications. Emerging markets were not spared from investors rushing to exit risk.
Kevin Flanagan, strategist at Morgan Stanley in New York said: “The size and magnitude of the declines in PPI (producer price index) and CPI got the ball rolling and when stocks started falling it fed a much bigger rally in government bonds.”
Investors were also prompted to shun all types of risky assets, notably credit and mortgages by the announcement from the Treasury last week that it would not use any of the money it raised from the “Tarp” (troubled asset relief programme) to buy troubled assets from banks. Many investors had been relying on the government to enter the market and set a price for the assets, so this prompted renewed loss of confidence.
This was seen most dramatically in the action surrounding Citigroup, for many years the largest US bank. Its share price fell 63 per cent for the week by mid-morning trading on Friday. With confidence in such an important institution shaken to this extent, broader falls in other markets were virtually inevitable. The only reasons for hope were that the bond market’s fears of a decade of deflation, and the sheer breadth of the sell-off in equities, seemed overdone.
One silver lining, said Anthony Conroy, head of trading at BNYConvergEx, was the fact that “good solid companies that are core holdings are also being sold”.
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Dark days see warnings of worse to come
By Alan Beattie in London
Published: November 21 2008 17:03 | Last updated: November 21 2008 17:03
The weekly newsletter sent out on Friday by Fathom, a London-based economic consultancy, said it all. “It’s getting really ugly out there,” it said. “It may be true that we have passed the first phase of this crisis, but that does not mean the next phase will not be worse, perhaps very much worse.”
The investors reading those dire warnings will already have spent their week seeing a heap of evidence piling up that the economic crisis is spreading around the world. Record after grim record was broken in the financial markets, as long-term interest rates sank to their lowest for decades, in some cases their lowest ever.
Any lingering hopes that some parts of the world economy, particularly the fast-growing emerging markets such as China, would remain immune to the crisis were snuffed out. With remarkable speed in the past two months, a worrying but apparently manageable credit crunch has turned into a global financial crisis and a recession across much of the world’s economy.
Perhaps the most alarming impact will be on the consumers of the rich world, whose confidence in the future will be vital in preventing recessions turning into depressions. Next week marks the traditional beginning of the US Christmas shopping season with “Black Friday”, the day after Thanksgiving when stores see some of their heaviest business of the year.
The term has traditionally been taken to mean the date that retailers’ finances went into the black, or the heavy road traffic that used to ensue from millions of Americans making pilgrimages to worship at the retail shrine. But if the dire news from across the US economy has sunk in even among the world’s most optimistic shoppers, it might instead mark another dark day for the US economy.
This week, perhaps the clearest possible signal of the trouble that US retailers are in came from their counterparts on the other side of the Atlantic. Marks and Spencer, the store that above all others defines the British high street, announced a highly unusual snap one-day 20 per cent sale. Some described it as a “guerrilla raid”, but in truth it was more like the return of fire in a skirmish with its retail rivals, which had already announced pre-Christmas sales.
But while one-off cuts in prices might tempt consumers to spend, economists warn that people might merely begin to expect that prices will continue to fall in the future, and so hold off spending. The US economy in particular is likely to see headline inflation go negative next year, as the effect of the huge fall in oil prices takes hold and the American housing bust drives down the cost of renting and owning homes.
In theory, such deflation could be good for the economy, as it releases money for consumers to spend on other products. But as Andrew Brigden of Fathom Consulting warns, deflation can also take a malign form. “The risk is that people don’t spend because they think prices will be yet lower in the future and that sets off a negative spiral,” he says.
Temporary drops in prices are unlikely to have that effect. But Mr Brigden thinks the combination of falls in commodity and house prices with weak demand means that US headline inflation is likely to go negative next spring and stay that way for months, dropping as low as minus 3 per cent. “When deflation goes on for the best part of a year, expectations are more likely to become entrenched,” he says.
Certainly any consumers watching the flow of news this week cannot have helped but wonder. Yields on two-year Treasury bonds, an indication of where investors think that the US Federal Reserve will set interest rates over the next 24 months, dropped below 1 per cent to their lowest level since the two-year bond was invented in 1976. British bond yields hit their lowest since the second world war.
The news from the real economy was bad. Over half a million American workers filed for jobless claims, 10 per cent more than economists’ gloomy forecasts. Abandoning their usual studied optimism, Beijing officials described the Chinese employment outlook as “grim”.
And the car industry continued to act as a powerful symbol of global industrial slowdown. The travails of the big three American carmakers have long been known, this week seeing another set of twists and turns on Capitol Hill as US lawmakers considered a federal bail-out. But even their Japanese counterparts – long held up by Detroit’s critics as the way American carmarkers should be run – showed they were being hit by the slowdown. Honda announced it would cut production this year by another 61,000 vehicles, adding the 5,000 employees at one of its British plants to the thousands of car workers around the world languishing at home on gardening leave.
At least oil is getting cheaper, though that is more to do with the threat of a precipitate drop in demand than a better long-term market balance. The head of China’s third-biggest oil company revealed this week that the mood among the state-owned oil giants was one of “panic” at falling prices.
And to cap it all, as if to set the seal on a week of threats to the world economy, there are pirates seizing huge ships in the Indian Ocean. These are strange and dark days indeed.
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Dutch unveil revival plans for ABN Amro
By Michael Steen in The Hague
Published: November 21 2008 19:08 | Last updated: November 21 2008 19:08
The Dutch government on Friday announced plans that amounted to a phoenix-like revival of a large part of ABN Amro, the Dutch bank acquired and broken up by an RBS-led consortium last year.
Wouter Bos, finance minister, said the government had decided to press ahead with the merger of Fortis Bank Netherlands, the nationalised Dutch arm of the Belgian-Dutch financial group, and its share of the ABN Amro assets.
The resulting bank, to be led by Gerrit Zalm, the former Dutch finance minister, is to remain in state ownership until at least 2011 before being sold off or floated on the stock exchange.
In merging Fortis and ABN Amro, Mr Bos said he expected the ABN Amro name to be the leading trademark used by the new bank.
The demise of ABN Amro at the hands of Fortis, RBS and Santander was widely perceived as a blow to Dutch financial prestige.
Fortis Group, which was broken up as part of a bail-out in September that led the Dutch to nationalise Fortis operations on their soil for €16.8bn ($21.1bn), had intended to integrate its share of ABN Amro by next year.
Mr Bos said those plans would be used as a blueprint for the merger of Fortis Bank Netherlands with the ABN Amro assets that span its retail banking, private clients and asset management businesses.
Fortis Insurance Netherlands and Fortis Corporate Insurance, both also nationalised, will be kept separate and sold off.
Mr Bos signalled that the government would lobby Brussels to reverse the imposed €709m sale of ABN Amro’s commercial banking and factoring services to Deutsche Bank.
The sale, agreed at a price below book value, had been imposed on Fortis for competition reasons.
“The situation has changed,” Mr Bos said. “The question is whether under changed circumstances this is the only decision the European Commission could make.”
But on Friday night, Brussels pointed out that the Dutch government had taken over a commitment not to merge the Dutch activities of ABN Amro and Fortis without making divestments first. The commitment was given by Fortis in the context of the 2007 merger clearance.
“This commitment has not lost its importance of legal validity,” said the European Commission, adding that it would “closely monitor” the Dutch government’s plans for the two operations.
The merger of the two banks will lead to the loss of about 8,000 jobs, which Fortis had already agreed on with trade unions.
“Together we’ll get a big bank that can compete with the big boys,” Mr Bos said.
“If we can also succeed in getting a bank that can not only serve customers at home but also abroad, there will be good times for this bank.”
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UK repossessions set to increase
By Norma Cohen
Published: November 21 2008 12:45 | Last updated: November 21 2008 12:45
The number of houses taken into repossession rose in the third quarter despite a concerted effort by lenders to keep borrowers in their homes for as long as possible.
Data from both the Ministry of Justice and the Council of Mortgage Lenders point to an unmistakeable upward trend of both home occupiers and investors struggling to meet their payments.
According to the CML, the number of properties repossessed rose to 11,300 in the third quarter, equal to 0.10 per cent of all mortgages, up from 0.09 per cent in the second quarter.
The Ministry of Justice reported that 29,516 possession orders were issued in the third quarter, 24 per cent higher than the year ago level and up 3 per cent from the second quarter of 2008.
The CML and MoJ use different methodologies for calculating the figures. The CML data only cover “first charge” mortgages and do not include homes where there is a second charge to another lender. CML data also exclude non-regulated lenders while MioJ data cover only England and Wales.
Nevertheless, both show a picture of rising foreclosures and led economists to predict further rises in the number of repossessions in the coming months.
“The number of repossessions seems sure to rise substantially further over the final quarter of 2008 and, more especially, in 2009, however sympathetic lenders are,” said Howard Archer, economist at Global Insight. “This will be the consequence of faster rising unemployment as the recession takes an increasing toll, higher debt levels, very tight credit conditions and more and more people being trapped in negative equity.”
In addition, the CML data show a rise not only in foreclosures, when the lender accepts the debt will not be repaid, but in delinquencies, when a borrower misses a payment, as well.
A total of 168,000 mortgages were in arrears in the three months to September, or 1.44 per cent of all home loans. That is up from 1.33 per cent at the end of the second quarter and 1.21 per cent at the end of the first quarter. The CML said that as a whole, the arrears for 2008 are now likely to exceed its forecast of 170,000.
Separately, the data reveal emerging weakness in the Buy to Let sector which up until now has held up better than the wider market.
A recent report from Standard & Poor’s, the credit rating agency, which looked at 200,000 BTL mortgages, concluded that loans made in 2006 and 2007 - about half of BTL outstanding - were made with weaker underwriting standards and are more likely to underperform.
Among BTL mortgages, 1.58 per cent are in arrears. Meanwhile, the percentage of BTL mortgages in arrears as a percentage of all arrears rose sharply in the third quarter to 10.7 per cent from 7.8 and 6.8 per cent in the second and first quarters respectively.
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Itochu buys stake in Chinese foodmaker
By Jonathan Soble in Tokyo
Published: November 20 2008 16:11 | Last updated: November 20 2008 16:11
Itochu, the Japanese trading company, is to expand its presence in China’s food market by buying a 20 per cent stake in Ting Hsin, a major Chinese food processing group, for $710m.
The investment, announced on Thursday, follows a joint purchasing deal in August between Itochu and Cofco, China’s state-owned food processor. The two groups agreed to buy grain and other agricultural commodities in global markets in an effort to build pricing power and combat rising food costs.
Japan’s general trading houses have earned windfall profits in recent years by investing in oil, iron ore and other commodities with prices which rose sharply on surging demand from China.
But profits have slumped since the commodities boom began to fizzle out this summer, prompting executives to step up efforts to diversify into other areas. Itochu expects net profit growth to slow to 10 per cent this year from 24 per cent in the year ended in March.
Itochu’s investment is the latest in a wave of foreign acquisitions by Japanese companies this year. Low corporate debt levels, a strong yen and assets made cheaper by the credit crisis have encouraged an overseas buying spree worth nearly $70bn, more than triple the amount in 2007.
China’s size and proximity makes it a tempting market for Japanese companies, and Itochu believes the food business is especially ripe for foreign expansion due to recent scandals over contaminated milk and other products.
“The issue of safety management and improving traceability are becoming more important to Chinese consumers,” Itochu said.
Itochu and Ting Hsin have set up joint ventures for bread and beverage distribution in China, along with several Japanese food companies, Itochu said. Tingyi holding, a Ting Hsin affiliate, is China’s largest maker of instant noodles and other packaged food.
Despite the fall in commodity prices, Itochu has continued with its investments in base metals. In October, the company and a group of Asian steelmakers agreed to buy a 40 per cent stake in Nacional Minerios (Namisa), a Brazilian iron ore producer owned by steel company Companhia Siderurgica Nacional, for $3.12bn.
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Anglogold secures $1bn deal on debt
By Tom Burgis in Johannesburg
Published: November 21 2008 18:17 | Last updated: November 21 2008 18:17
Anglogold Ashanti, the world’s third-biggest gold producer, secured a $1bn refinancing that underscored the metal’s continuing status as a haven for troubled times.
The debt deal – signed in the early hours after three weeks of breakneck negotiations with Standard Chartered – represents a vote of confidence in Mark Cutifani as he completes his first year at the helm of the Johannesburg-listed group.
Standard Chartered’s willingness to refinance Anglogold’s $1bn convertible bond before it becomes due in February was testimony to the enduring value of gold relative to other metals, Mr Cutifani, chief executive, told the Financial Times.
Had the bond matured without refinancing, creditors could have converted it into equity in the miner, diluting existing shareholders’ stakes.
“There is no credit market, basically,” said Mr Cutifani. “We think this [loan agreement] gives us the flexibility to see out the financial crisis. After that we can refinance when the market opens up and improves.”
While the gathering global recession has depressed all commodities, gold has held up relatively well. Since March’s highs above $1,000 a troy ounce, it has lost a quarter of its value.
Over the same period, however, the price for a basket of four industrial metals – aluminium, copper, zinc and nickel – has declined by 56 per cent. Platinum, used in cars’ catalytic converters, has fallen by nearly two-thirds.
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Bay area powers up for age of electric cars
By Richard Waters in San Francisco
Published: November 21 2008 03:49 | Last updated: November 21 2008 03:49
Government and business leaders in the San Francisco Bay area laid out plans on Thursday for new infrastructure capable of supporting a vast fleet of electric cars
Local officials described the move as part of an attempt to put the region – including Silicon Valley – at the forefront of electric vehicle development in the US.
The plans also mark the first venture into the US of a private group run by Shai Agassi, an Israeli-born entrepreneur. Known as Better Place, Mr Agassi’s company has already reached agreements in Israel, Denmark and Australia this year to build networks of plug-in points and battery-changing stations to act as the “refuelling” infrastructure for electric cars.
Despite strong support on Thursday from city and state officials, however, California’s attempt to put itself in the lead in electric-car development faces considerable hurdles.
Most development in electric cars is likely to happen in the crowded urban centres of Europe and Asia, according to an analysis by California’s Air Resources Board last year, pointing to the high cost of batteries, limited driving range of the vehicles and the higher cost of petrol in many countries outside the US.
Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco, said that creating the infrastructure to encourage purchases of electric cars would help to make the region “the electric vehicle capital in the US”. He and the mayors of the region’s other big cities, Oakland and San Jose, set out plans to facilitate the new network.
By stimulating a mass market in electric vehicles, local officials and business leaders said they hoped to give further impetus to Silicon Valley’s recent investment boom in new “green” alternative energy and environmental technologies.
“Once you put the network in place, innovation happens close to where the network is,” said Mr Agassi.
Backers of the plan hope to capitalise on Californians’ heightened awareness of environmental issues, demonstrated by the fact that more than half of all Toyota’s Prius hybrid vehicles in the US have been sold in the state. However, with petrol prices halving in recent weeks as oil prices have dropped, the short-term economic impetus for consumers to switch has fallen.
“We’re looking at the long-term problem of oil prices,” said Mr Agassi, who predicted that prices would rise by 2012, when the infrastructure for the electric vehicles is planned to be in place.
Mr Agassi said his company expected to spend $250m by 2012 on building the “refuelling” infrastructure needed to support a Bay area mass market.
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Borderless boarders
By James Blitz and Robert Wright
Published: November 21 2008 19:50 | Last updated: November 21 2008 19:50
U.S. Navy Checks On Seized Ship MV Faina...SOMALIA - NOVEMBER 9: (EDITORS NOTE: IMAGE RELEASED BY U.S. MILITARY PRIOR TO TRANSMISSION) In this handout image provided by the U.S. Navy, the crew of the merchant vessel MV Faina stand on the deck after a U.S. Navy request to check on them November 9, 2008 in Somalia. The Belize-flagged cargo ship owned and operated by Kaalbye Shipping, Ukraine, was seized by pirates September 25 and forced to proceed to anchorage off the Somali Coast. The ship is carrying a cargo of Ukrainian T-72 tanks and related military equipment. (Photo by Jason Zalasky/U.S. Navy via Getty Images)
Becalmed: pirates allow the crew of the MV Faina out on to deck after a US Navy request to check on their welfare. The Ukrainian-owned vessel, laden with tanks bound for east Africa, was captured in September off the coast of Somalia
At around 3am on Tuesday, Abdinur Haji, a Somali fisherman, boarded his small boat in the Indian Ocean port of Harardhere and headed out to secure his catch of the day. As his boat left shore he became aware that, anchored three miles off the coast, was a “very, very” large vessel. “I have been fishing here for three decades,” he told a reporter. “But I have never seen a ship as big as this one.”
The vessel dominating the skyline was the Sirius Star, an oil tanker hijacked the previous day by Somali pirates in what must rank as one of the most daring maritime heists the world has seen. The Saudi Arabian-owned vessel – at 330 metres from bow to stern, or the size of three aircraft carriers – is the largest ever raided at sea.
On board, apart from the 25 sailors taken hostage, are 2m barrels of oil worth around $100m (£67m, €80m) and accounting for one-quarter of Saudi daily output. The hijackers are said to be seeking a $25m ransom for the return of their booty.
Piracy has been practised on the high seas for centuries. But the capture of the Sirius Star has thrown a fierce spotlight on growing marine mayhem off the Horn of Africa. There have been 95 attacks by Somali pirates on vessels this year, with 39 ships captured and nearly 800 crew held. More than $20m has been paid in ransoms by shipowners and insurers. The International Maritime Bureau, a monitoring organisation, describes the situation off the Horn as “out of control”. Peter Hinchcliffe of the International Chamber of Shipping, an association of merchant ship operators, calls the phenomenon “a real 21st-century nightmare”.
But this is more than just a tale of banditry in a faraway place. These pirates of the Horn are worrying governments around the world for several reasons. Their activities are bringing sclerosis to one of the world’s main trade arteries – the Gulf of Aden, which sees the passage of 20,000 ships a year. Shipping companies are beginning to divert their vessels round the Cape of Good Hope, increasing journey times by 30 per cent. There are fears, too, that the seizure of vessels such as the Sirius Star – laden with oil or toxic chemicals – could end up triggering an ecological disaster or loss of life.
People in the shipping industry have for some time been irritated by the word “pirate” – with its romantic and exotic connotations – and like to remind the public that the hijackers are hardened criminals. But their ability to board large vessels at speed from their own much smaller craft is not in doubt. Mostly aged between 20 and 35 and from the north-eastern region of Puntland, the pirates are proficient seamen. “Quite a few of them have a professional military background and were trained in the Somali navy,” says a senior British official.
In a society stricken by poverty, their boldness, organisation and technical savoir-faire impress one security expert: “They treat this as a business. They’ve upgraded what it means to be a pirate.” Yet their success is not just down to skill. It has come about largely because combating them is hampered by three main problems.
Map
First, the pirates thrive because Somalia is a lawless state, one of the world’s most unstable. Somali piracy has been a problem for around a decade, although in 2006 it was tackled with some success by the Islamic Courts Union, the ruling authority. But the Islamists were ousted that year by an invading Ethiopian force that was backed by the Bush administration. The transitional federal government headed by President Abdullah Yusuf Ahmed now exercises no authority on land or at sea.
Second, the waters in which the pirates operate are too large for international forces to patrol effectively. Governments across the world have this year dispatched vessels to the region to protect sea lanes. Nato sent a taskforce some weeks back and ships from Russia and India are among those operating in the region. But after this week’s hijacking, navies now face trying to patrol 2.5m square nautical miles of the Gulf of Aden.
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, describes himself as “stunned” by the range over which the pirates now operate. Commodore Keith Winstanley, deputy commander of the Combined Maritime Forces in the Middle East, says: “The pirates will go somewhere we are not. If we patrol the Gulf of Aden, then they will go to [the Somalian capital] Mogadishu. If we go to Mogadishu, they will go to the Gulf of Aden.”
Finally, there are legal obstacles. Recent days have shown that navies are prepared to act against the criminals. Two weeks ago, British commandos shot three pirates after they attempted to hijack a vessel. The Indian navy this week announced it had sunk a suspected pirate “mother ship” in the Gulf of Aden. But international law makes it difficult for navies to arrest or prosecute pirates. “Once an operation has been broken up, many pirates are simply returned back on the Somali coast where they can resume their work,” complains a western defence official. “It’s very frustrating.”
How, then, can governments and shipowners get a grip on the situation? The immediate question is what will happen to the Sirius Star. Some governments may be giving thought this weekend to using special forces to seize the ship. But any raid would risk the lives of the hostages and could trigger an environmental disaster, given the quantity of fuel on board.
Governments are therefore under pressure to come up with longer-term strategies to combat the piracy scourge. However, responses seem confused. To take one example, the US military suggested this week that shipowners should protect their vessels by hiring onboard guards. But one leading figure in Britain’s Royal Navy, which is leading a new European Union anti-piracy taskforce, says the idea is absurd. “If you have a mixed [nationality] crew joining your ship in Chittagong and they have not worked together, are you telling me that you want those people operating with weapons around the vessel? I don’t think so.”
Unease is also growing about the way shipowners and insurers fuel the piracy business by paying ransoms. David Miliband, Britain’s foreign secretary, this week reminded the shipping industry that his government’s long-standing policy was not to negotiate with kidnappers or hijackers. At Lloyd’s of London, some underwriters concede that the repeated coughing up of ransom payments merely fuels the problem. As one puts it: “We need to get all the interested parties together on this – governments, defence ministries, shipowners and insurers. And we need to get together a body that can assist with the release of vessels and cap ransom inflation.”
Attacks during shipping’s last piracy crisis – in the Malacca Strait separating Indonesia from Malaysia and Singapore – were less frequent and limited mainly to armed robbery of crews and ships’ offices. But that problem – which Pottengal Mukundan, IMB director, calls “maritime mugging” – has been largely eliminated since 2006 by improved security co-operation between the three coastal states.
Some of the most effective responses to the latest threat have been the least sophisticated. This month’s bulletin of the London-based Standard Club, a mutual insurer for shipowners, advises vessels to increase speed if possible in the danger area. If under attack, manoeuvre sharply: the wash created can capsize pirates’ skiffs.
An account written by the crew of the Silver Phoenix, a dry bulk carrier, of a passage through the Gulf of Aden in September tells how they barricaded external access stairs and rigged up bare electric wires around the ship’s sides. As an additional deterrent to would-be boarders, they ran water constantly down the hull.
But in the long run, many analysts say, piracy will not be stopped until lawlessness in Somalia comes to an end. As Roger Middleton of Chatham House, the London-based international affairs institute, puts it: “If you don’t have a political solution in Somalia, the problem of piracy will simply continue. After all, there is mayhem in Somalia ... All that is happening is that these same practices are being extended out to sea.”
In the meantime, the mood is gloomy. “This Somali piracy problem is going to be on the international security agenda for some time,” says a senior UK official. “It is a highly lucrative business, providing a job-creation scheme in a country with very few other outlets and which also happens to be in a very sensitive part of the global trading system.”
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Wall Street Journal Invades News York Times' Ad Turf (Update3)
By Sarah Rabil
Enlarge Image/Details
Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- The Wall Street Journal is invading the New York Times' advertising turf as competition intensifies in a souring U.S. economy.
Saks Inc., a Times advertiser since 1924, recently chose to promote a new Chanel boutique and made-to-measure men's suits in the Journal. Owner Rupert Murdoch's expansion of general news coverage and a new lifestyle magazine are starting to attract wealthy consumers and create ad space for retailers, said Milton Pedraza, chief executive officer of Luxury Institute LLC.
``They certainly have become a significant part of the advertising mix for luxury brands where they were not before,'' said Pedraza, whose New York research group tracks the market for the most expensive lines of consumer goods and services. ``They're definitely stealing advertising dollars.''
Italian fashion label Dolce & Gabbana SpA and LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA have also started advertising in the Journal as Murdoch, 77, seeks to overtake the Times. Both newspapers are fighting for a piece of a shrinking U.S. ad market with spending set to contract 6.8 percent next year to $150 billion, according to a Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. estimate. Murdoch is also pressing the fight online.
New York Times Co. cut its dividend yesterday by almost three-fourths as revenue crumbles. The flagship newspaper will probably ``moderate'' ad rate increases for next year and is discussing discounts with advertisers, chief advertising officer Denise Warren said in an interview before the announcement.
``Given what's going on with the economy, we want to be careful,'' she said.
Close Watch
The Times is also expanding financial news coverage, executive editor Bill Keller said. While Keller says the newspapers aren't locked in a ``mano-a-mano death struggle,'' he can name more than 25 business stories where the Times beat its New York rival this year.
``When somebody says he's willing to spend the bank to become the new version of the New York Times, you watch them closely,'' Keller said in an interview. The Journal is the first newspaper he reads every morning after the Times.
Keller isn't the only one eyeing the competition. Michael Rooney, the Journal's chief revenue officer, said he flips through the Times everyday to see who's advertising and instructs sales people to contact potential clients.
News Corp. has the resources to keep investing in the Journal, said Wachovia Capital Markets analyst John Janedis. The Times hasn't been as aggressive, he said.
``If this becomes a prolonged recession, it becomes an advertising war, and it becomes who can tough it out longer,'' New York-based Janedis said.
Ad Plunge
Ad revenue at the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune and their Web sites fell 15 percent in October to $113.9 million, the company said yesterday. Luxury accounts for more than 10 percent of ad sales within that unit. News Corp. doesn't break out financial information for the Journal.
Class A shares of News Corp., which acquired Journal-owner Dow Jones & Co. last year for $5.2 billion, have lost 70 percent this year on the New York Stock Exchange and rose 13 percent to $6.19 at 4:15 p.m. today. New York Times, also down 70 percent for the year, slid 6.6 percent to $5.34.
The Journal is only offering set discounts for bulk, new advertiser or repeat-purchase deals, Rooney said. The publication plans to raise rates for 2009 because of expanded coverage, more subscribers and other investments, Rooney said.
``We will increase rates next year,'' he said. ``We'll do that because we're investing in our product.''
The average individually paid circulation of the Journal rose 2.4 percent to 1.4 million as of September from a year ago, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The Times' slid 5.5 percent to 858,985 on that basis.
`Willing to Play'
``We are twice the size of the New York Times,'' Wall Street Journal managing editor Robert Thomson said in an interview last month. ``We are way ahead, and we are getting further ahead.''
Overall, media companies have been selling ad space at ``fire-sale'' prices for incremental revenue, said Paul Silverman, executive media director at the Team One ad agency. Silverman, who plans marketing and negotiates ad buying for Lexus and Ritz-Carlton, said he is pushing harder for price breaks for his clients after hearing more companies are willing to discount.
``They're still trying to make it appear as though things are quite healthy and they don't need to do deep discounts,'' Silverman said.
Magazines
The Journal's premiere issue of glossy magazine insert WSJ. in September and the upcoming December publication have attracted 28 new advertisers, Rooney said.
Luxury ad sales in the Times' magazines, ranging from style to real estate, haven't been hurt by the Journal's foray into magazines, Warren said. Financial ads have gained since early August, she said.
A non-contract full-page color ad in the Journal's national edition costs about $264,426. A full-page color ad for a bank that advertises in the Times' national edition costs about $193,800 at the published rate. That includes a built-in 8 percent discount for full pages.
The next key battleground may be the Internet. Nytimes.com offers stories for free, while WSJ.com charges a fee for premium business content. Murdoch said in September he plans to boost subscription revenue by more than $300 million a year.
Keller said he doesn't share the Journal's view of a head- to-head competition. The Times' reporting is also up against Conde Nast Portfolio, the Los Angeles Times, TV stations and Internet news sites, he said.
``Believe me, my life would be a lot easier if we were in a one-on-one battle with the Wall Street Journal,'' Keller said.
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`Unprecedented' Biotech Bankruptcies Erupt Amid Finance Crisis
By David Olmos and Rob Waters
Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- The global economic crisis has cut funding for biotechnology companies to the lowest level in a decade, triggering bankruptcies and threatening development of drugs based on biomedical breakthroughs.
In the past month, at least five biotechnology businesses have sought bankruptcy protection, according to company news releases, and others may be heading toward a similar fate. Those at highest risk have experimental compounds moving into costly human research. Peptimmune Inc., a 6-year-old closely held firm, says it’s struggling to pay for clinical trials of its promising multiple sclerosis drug.
The amount raised this year by biotechnology companies fell by $9.7 billion through September, or 54 percent, compared with the same period in 2007, according to Burrill & Co., a life sciences investment bank in San Francisco. That may mean work on dozens of potential treatments will stall or die as companies fire workers and shelve early research projects, industry executives and investors said.
“I’m looking down the barrel of a gun,” said Peptimmune’s Chief Executive Officer Thomas Mathers in an interview. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company’s cut staff by more than half to 22 people, moved to smaller offices to conserve the $6.5 million on hand and is delaying research on new drugs for Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s, Mathers said.
Biotechnology companies in the U.S. are raising less cash than they have in a decade, according to Burrill, which tracks investment in the life-sciences industry. Financing fell to $8.2 billion through September, from $17.9 billion last year. Venture capital funding fell 16 percent, to $2.9 billion.
Bankruptcies Rare
“For the first time in the history of the biotech industry, you’re going to see unprecedented levels of bankruptcies and dissolutions,” said David Strupp, managing director in the life sciences group at Canaccord Adams, a research and investment bank in New York. “This all will play out in the next six to nine months.”
Bankruptcies in biotechnology have been rare because struggling companies often dodged trouble through mergers, licensing or development deals, or through investors willing to make cash infusions, Strupp said in an interview.
Now, a large number of companies are “not cycling out of this queue,” Strupp said. “Wall Street won’t finance them, and the pharmaceutical industry can’t buy all of them. They keep marching forward without the ability to get saved.”
Most Advanced Drug
Peptimmune’s most advanced drug, PI-2301, is a multiple sclerosis treatment designed to be taken weekly. It would compete with Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.’s daily treatment Copaxone, which generated $1.7 billion in sales last year. Peptimmune is counting on positive data from a study due in 2009 to show its drug is better than Copaxone.
“If the multiple sclerosis program doesn’t do well, it will be very difficult for this company to raise money,” Mathers said.
MS, which affects about 300,000 people in the U.S., is caused when the body’s immune system attacks the protective coating of nerve fibers. There’s no cure. Four of six MS treatments cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration were developed by biotechnology companies.
Peptimmune, with no products on the market, has raised and spent about $85 million. Biotech companies without products on the market, or those unable to access equity markets by selling shares, are the ones in most need of cash to fund clinical studies, investors and company executives said.
Worst in a Decade
Initial public offerings for biotechnology companies have almost disappeared, with just one, for $5.8 million, so far in 2008. That’s down from 28 IPOs that raised $1.7 billion last year and from 66 in 2000 that garnered $6.5 billion.
The most likely companies to seek bankruptcy are those with less than six months of cash on hand, just a few drugs in development and no definitive clinical data to attract a funding partner, said Andrew Busser, principal at Symphony Capital, a New York-based investment fund. Twenty-five percent of the 370 public U.S. biotechnology companies have less than six months of cash, according to data compiled by the Biotechnology Industry Organization, a trade group in Washington, D.C.
A Darwinian pruning of the weakest companies is inevitable, and isn’t necessarily to be mourned, said Peter Wysong, health- care investment banker for Natixis Bleichroeder in New York, in an interview.
‘Walking Dead’
“Most people would probably say there have been too many biotechnology companies that have been like the walking dead,” Wysong said. “The deaths will be concentrated among companies that have little to offer,” leaving a smaller crop of stronger companies still standing, he said.
On Nov. 10, MicroIslet Inc., a San Diego developer of diabetes treatments, and Accentia Biopharmaceuticals, of Tampa, Florida, sought bankruptcy protection to reorganize, each citing an inability to raise money.
MicroIslet spent $50 million during the past decade developing an experimental treatment for Type 1 diabetes that would involve transplanting insulin-producing cells harvested from the pancreas of pigs into diabetics to allow them to forego insulin injections. The treatment, tested in animals but not in humans, came from technology developed at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
With the company $3 million in debt and needing millions more to begin clinical studies, private investors turned away, leaving MicroIslet without money for human tests, said Michael Andrews, the company’s chief executive officer, in an interview.
‘Down the Path’
“We’re at a stage that a lot of companies are in, where it’s time to raise money but there’s no clinical data and you’re not a brand new company coming out of academia,” Andrews said. “I suspect there will be a number of companies that will go down this path.”
In October, AtheroGenics Inc., an Alpharetta, Georgia-based developer of a diabetes drug, filed for bankruptcy after defaulting on $302 million in debt the previous month. Orchestra Therapeutics Inc., of Carlsbad, California, also filed last month. The long-struggling company was co-founded in 1986 by the late Jonas Salk, the polio-vaccine developer who sought to find a way to immunize patients against AIDS.
Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc., a San Diego biotechnology company, said Nov. 10 it would cut 16 percent of its workforce, or about 340 employees, to try to save $80 million in 2009. Cell Genesys Inc., a South San Francisco, California-based company that recently halted work on a prostate cancer therapy after deaths were reported in a study, said Nov. 6 it will fire 230 workers, or 80 percent of its workers, by year-end.
Lucky Ones
The lucky ones find buyers among bigger pharmaceutical companies to keep research programs alive. That’s what happened to Redwood City, California-based Genelabs Technologies Inc., a developer of hepatitis C treatments, which agreed on Oct. 29 to be bought by GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Europe’s biggest drugmaker, for $57 million. Genelabs’ market value had plunged to $10 million and its stock had lost 82 percent of its value this year before the deal was announced.
“The sign over Wall Street for small biotechs is ‘closed for the season,’” said Frederick Driscoll, Genelabs’ chief executive officer, in a Nov. 6 telephone interview. Driscoll said he considers the company, whose hepatitis C therapies are still in laboratory tests, fortunate.
Other biotechnology companies, unable or unwilling to find a partner, will go into “hibernation, just doing enough to keep the technology alive and waiting for a better day,” Glen Giovannetti, the Boston-based global leader of Ernst & Young’s Biotechnology Center, said in an interview Oct. 31.
Investor Return
Investors will likely return to biotechnology once the economy stabilizes because the industry still promises attractive returns, said Brent Milner, managing director of health care investing at Stanford Financial Group Co., an investment bank in New York.
“Stock-picking will come back in vogue and people will ask, ‘Where are the 30 percent growers?” Milner said. “When that happens, everyone will again look to biotech because everyone loves a lottery ticket. I think there is a long-term silver lining.”
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Bank's Bean says policymakers must counter excess
Reuters
Policymakers should take asset prices into account when setting interest rates and "lean against the wind" to minimise the risk of boom and bust, Bank of England Deputy Governor Charles Bean said on Saturday.
Speaking at a conference in Istanbul, Bean said policymakers should not go so far as to target asset prices but rather bear in mind the broader impact of credit and asset price growth.
Bean's speech was largely theoretical and did not touch on the immediate outlook for monetary policy.
"Given the potential costs of a bust, it would therefore appear to be wise to use monetary policy to try to prevent the build-up of the imbalances in the first place," Bean said.
"Note that this is not going so far as to advocate targeting asset prices....But it does at least justify 'leaning against the wind' during the upswing phase of a credit/asset price boom in order to moderate the boom and thus also the prospective fallout from any subsequent bust."
Bean said it was important international regulators moved to put in place a framework that curbed credit creation during times of strong growth while preventing a painful deleveraging during times of recession.
He said the recent injection of taxpayers' funds into the banking system can be thought of as mimicking what would have happened with a pro-cyclical capital requirement.
"While lax global monetary policy probably played a part in the credit build-up that is now painfully unwinding, it was only one of many parents," he said.
"I think the real lesson is that, alongside the many other regulatory improvements now under consideration, we need a regulatory regime that works against the natural cyclical excesses of the credit cycle."
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IMF economist says worst of crisis to come: paper
Reuters
The financial crisis that has engulfed many top banks is spiralling into a broader economic crisis that has yet to peak, International Monetary Fund's top economist Olivier Blanchard told a Swiss newspaper on Saturday.
Blanchard said the crisis would continue for another year and called on governments to promote fiscal expansion and on central banks to cut rates towards zero.
"The worst is yet to come," he was quoted as saying in Finanz und Wirtschaft as he noted how the banking sector's woes had started to spill over into the real economy by hitting the car making industry.
"This is only the beginning," he added. "The risk exists that the data will get worse and worse, which would then lead to more pessimistic expectations and accelerate a fall in demand."
"It will take a long time before we go back to normal conditions."
Blanchard said the crisis should last for another year, but normal growth would return only in 2011.
"For 2009 we (the IMF) forecast negative growth on average in the industrialized nations," he said. "In 2010 there should be a recovery and we should go back to normal in 2011."
Blanchard said governments have up until now not done enough to address the crisis and called for fiscal stimulus both in the United States and Europe.
"In normal times the IMF would argue that budget deficits must be reduced ... But we are not living in normal times. Demand has collapsed. This is why a broad fiscal expansion is needed," he said.
Blanchard said central banks should cut rates as much as possible to avert the risk of a "Great Depression" scenario.
"They have to lower interest rates and bring them as close to zero as possible," he said.
"We have to use all the ammunition that we have in order to limit the collapse of demand."
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India says poor should not pay for 'profligacy' of rich nations
AFP Penny MacRae
India's premier said Friday the poor should not pay for the "profligacy" of rich nations as he vowed to use every fiscal and monetary tool to fend off the impact of the global financial crisis.
Manmohan Singh said he believed Asia's third-largest economy can sustain an eight percent growth rate after expanding by at least nine percent for the past three years "despite the adverse international environment."
"We can and will survive this crisis and emerge stronger if we have the imagination and will to work together," he told a conference in the Indian capital.
Singh's Congress-party led government is anxious to ensure the domestic economy stays on track with national elections due by May 2009.
But bad news has been mounting with car companies cutting output and layoffs in export-oriented sectors. The rupee has fallen to record lows as foreign investors pulled out in quest of safer havens.
Speaking to the same conference, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, torchbearer of India's most famous political family who staged the party's come-from-behind election win in 2004, said the country's hundreds of millions of poor had "nothing to do with the fancy-sounding instruments" that had caused the crisis.
With an eye on the next election, Gandhi struck a strongly populist note, promising the government would ensure the poor were protected from the results of the "unchecked greed of (international) bankers and business."
Singh, meanwhile, said he was encouraged by last weekend's G20 summit of leaders of the world's biggest and emerging nations in Washington, called to bolster the global economy and which he attended.
"The voices of developing countries were heard with respect," he said.
But the developed world had a responsibility to ensure that "the burden (of the global meltdown) does not fall disproportionately on the weak," he said.
"The crisis is not of our making but we are its worst victims," he said, adding the global system of regulation needed revamping.
"We need a global safety net so that the poor should not pay for profligacy of the rich and the delinquency of a few," he said.
"Global problems require global solutions," he said, urging that the "voice of the developing world must be heard in the high councils of global decision-making."
Singh added that the government wanted to send a "message of hope and confidence" to Indian industry that it would use every fiscal, monetary, public investment and foreign exchange rate policy tool "to tackle the crisis".
"No instrument of public policy will be spared," he said, amid widespread financial market expectations that another round of monetary policy easing by the central bank is imminent to spur the slowing economy.
Singh said the government had successfully tackled the exchange rate crisis of 1991 "which was much more severe". At the time, India's hard currency reserves sank so low they covered less than a month of imports and New Delhi was on the brink of defaulting on its foreign loans.
Then Congress prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao appointed Singh finance minister and asked him to fix the problem. Singh unleashed sweeping change, beginning the economic liberalisation that resulted in much higher growth.
The past few weeks have seen a stream of gloomy data about India's economy, suggesting growth could slow to seven percent or lower this financial year and to around 5.5 percent next year, according to economists.
Singh acknowledged that "much work remains to be done."
"There are many uncertainties about depth of the (global) recession and its possible length -- it will test everyone," he said.
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America’s Intolerence To Immigrants
21.11.2008 Source: Pravda.Ru URL: http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/106728-America_Intolerence_Immigrants-0
Mark S. McGrew
When I see articles written about the benefits of “Undocumented Immigrants” and how Americans are not tolerant or are racists bigoted xenophobes, all I see is either one of two things:
1. The writer is extremely ignorant.
2. The writer has a desire to see America destroyed.
Just the term, “Undocumented Immigrants” is ridiculous. This logic would label a drug dealer as an Undocumented Pharmacist. A burglar could plead his case as an Undocumented Home Inspector
Every claim made by illegal alien proponents is bogus. They are ALL pure lies, with not one single shred of legitimate data to back it up. I challenge anyone to verify the claims, “facts” and warm fuzzy statements made by the illegal alien advocates. These authors are sociopathic psychopaths. And I can prove it here.
Illegal aliens in America are not needed. Every time a business is shut down by Immigration authorities, Americans line up the next day to take the jobs that were originally taken from them. More and more Americans are not going to restaurants, because of rampant food poisoning. Americans are literally in fear of their lives, because of illegal aliens. Crimes committed by illegal aliens are barbaric. We have more deaths each year in America caused by illegal aliens than what we lost each year in Vietnam. More Americans are killed by illegal aliens in one year than the number of US soldiers killed in Iraq since we’ve been there.
The major news sources refuse to report on the crime wave that has and is sweeping America. They refuse to report the incredible rise of previously conquered diseases brought here by these people. Cholera, dysentery, diphtheria, leprosy, hepatitis, meningitis, typhoid, Chagas Disease, Tuberculosis, Dengue, Malaria and the list goes on to horrible diseases such as Schistomiasis, Guinea Worm Infestation, Cysticercosis, Morgellon’s and others.
Illegal aliens create a negative financial drain on society. California estimates $14 billion a year is spent on illegal aliens. The highest illegal alien population States in America are asking the Federal government for some of the “mystery bailout money”.
There seems to be no one who knows exactly how much illegal aliens cost American society and American taxpayers. 47% of car accidents in Dallas Texas are by illegal aliens. Schools in Colorado, Illinois, California are experiencing 50% dropout rates. The teachers can’t function and the kids have nothing to learn due to the extreme confusion brought on by illegal alien gibberish.
Their crimes were previously unknown behavior to Americans. 79,000,000 ID thefts, counterfeiting documents, mortgage fraud, human trafficking, forced prostitution, child labor, dog fights, rooster fights are just a few. We either didn’t know these kinds of crimes could happen or our government eliminated them years ago.
In 1980, our Federal and state facilities held fewer than 9,000 criminal aliens but at the end of 2003, approximately 267,000 illegal aliens were incarcerated in U.S. correctional facilities. 27% of all prisoners in Federal custody are criminal illegal aliens and the majority (63%) of those are Mexican citizens. In fiscal 2004, the Federal government spent $1.4 billion to incarcerate criminal aliens. All the incarceration costs, in Federal, State and local jurisdictions accounted for approximately $5.6 billion in 2004. The majority of criminal aliens incarcerated at the end of calendar year 2004 were identified as citizens of Mexico.
Of the 55,322 illegal aliens studied, researchers found that they were arrested a total of 700,000 times, averaging 13 arrests per illegal alien.
Defendants charged with unlawful reentry had the most extensive criminal histories. 90% had been previously arrested. Of those with a prior arrest, 50% had been arrested for violent or drug-related felonies.
The above study, done by the United States government General Accounting Office only sampled about 21% of the incarcerated illegal aliens. To get the full extent of the collateral damage, we need to extrapolate the average number of offenses out across all 267,000 incarcerated illegal alien criminals. Doing so results in some 1,288,619 crimes!
And the bad news is, it would appear that other than what the Immigration and Naturalization services, now named ICE reports when foreign nationals are deported, NOBODY ELSE IS TRACKING CRIMES COMMITTED ON US SOIL BY FOREIGN NATIONALS.
Researcher Deborah Schurman-Kauflin Ph.D. of the Violent Crimes Institute, reports on the analysis of 1,500 violent crimes from January 1999 through April 2006 that included serial rapes, serial murders, sexual homicides and child molestation committed by illegal aliens. The study breaks down the 1,500 cases reviewed this way: 525, or 35 %, were child molestations, 358, or 24%, were rapes, 617, or 41 %, were sexual homicides and serial murders.
Of the child molestations, 47% of the victims were Hispanic, 36% Caucasian, 8% Asian, 6% African American and 3% other nationalities. In 82% of the cases the victims were known to their attackers. "In those instances, the illegal immigrants typically gained access to the victims after having worked as a day laborer at or near the victims' homes," she says.
Schurman-Kauflin states that the illegal alien population includes 240,000 sex offenders a "conservative estimate," she says. She goes on to say, "This translates to 93 sex offenders and 12 serial sexual offenders coming across U.S. borders illegally per day." And she says, "Nearly 63% of the offenders had been deported on another offense prior to the sex crime."
Her study shows that sexual crimes that were committed by previously deported illegal alien sex perverts who simply strolled back in to commit more crime cost us $4.1 BILLION.
Summarizing, she says, “Only 2% of the offenders in this study has no history of criminal behavior, beyond crossing the border illegally. There is a clear pattern of criminal escalation. From misdemeanors such as assault or DUI, to drug offenses, illegal immigrants who commit sex crimes break U.S. laws repeatedly. They are highly mobile, work in low skilled jobs with their hands, use drugs and alcohol, are generally promiscuous, have little family stability, and choose victims who are easy to attack. Their attacks are particularly brutal, and they use a hands-on method of controlling and/or killing their victims."
Operation Predator resulted in 6,085 child predator arrests. Some pedophile statistics report that each pedophile molests an average of 148 children. If so, that could be as many as 900,580 victims. Resulting costs are unknown.
Another way illegal aliens kill us is traffic accidents. On the roads and highways of the East Coast, a more than fair example is the Eastern Shore of Maryland, a sparsely populated rural area with good, easily navigatable roads with little or no congestion. There, a review of State Police auto accident reports for 2002 through 2004 for that area of the Eastern Shore also revealed that of the 179 accidents involving Hispanic laborers: 75% of the drivers had no auto insurance. Nearly all of the vehicles driven by migrants were registered to other drivers, 93% of the vehicles had false out-of-state tags.
In 2003 and 2004, 128 of the 395 people, 32.4%, arrested on DUI charges were Hispanic, a rate six times greater than the Hispanic portion of the population. According to State Police records, about a third of accidents involving migrant workers are hit-and-run. State Trooper Koushel said migrants often cannot be conclusively identified when they're stopped for a violation or involved in an accident." "Many", he said, "are illegal aliens who carry fake or invalid driver's licenses". "Because of that", he said, "Many fail to show up in court. It's almost like writing a ticket to a ghost."
A few days of bad weather in Colorado, over 100 illegal aliens were in auto accidents or given traffic tickets. Looking at only one component of traffic accidents, hit and runs, nationally 11 of every 100 traffic accidents are a hit and run.
As reported by Deadly Roads, as of December 29, there were 1,544 killed and 105,078 injured in hit and run accidents in 2006. Extrapolating for the year, 2006 will end up with about 1,560 killed and 105,948 injured by hit and run drivers.
In California, federal statistics show, "The number of fatal hit-and- run traffic deaths statewide jumped by 19 percent from 1999 to 2001. Nearly 300 people are killed annually in hit-and-run accidents in the state. Hit-and-runs accounted for 7.8 percent of the state's fatal crashes in 2001, the latest year for which figures are available from the U.S. Transportation Department. The figure is more than twice the national average of 3.8 percent - and a full percentage point higher than the next-highest state, Arizona."
It simply can not be a coincidence that California and Arizona have the highest per capita illegal alien population in the nation.
Austin , Texas, in a 2003 article in the Austin American Statesmen: "Of 3,007 drunken driving arrests in 2002, 43 percent involved Hispanic men, even though they make up only about 11 percent of Austin's driving population. Including women, Hispanics made up 47 percent of the DWI arrests but only 21 percent of Austin drivers. Statewide, 42 percent of the people arrested in 2002 for driving while intoxicated were Latino, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. In Austin, 46 percent of the people arrested for drunk driving from 1999 to 2002 were Latino, according to the Austin Police Department."
How much does all this rampant carnage cost the taxpayers? Nobody knows what the costs are to each of the hundreds of thousands of American citizens each year that are injured, maimed, crippled, killed, raped, assaulted, robbed, etc. At the end of 2003, approximately 267,000 illegal aliens were incarcerated in U.S. correctional facilities: $6.8 billion. Mac Johnson estimates that illegal aliens murder between 1,806 and 2,510 people in the U.S. annually, an average of 2,158 murders. Representative King states illegal aliens are responsible for 4,380 murders $8.4 billion.
According to FBI Estimates on Number of Arrests in 2005 in the United States and applying a straight 5% of population representation, illegal aliens would have committed 704,709 crimes in 2005. Based on an average of $25,000 per crime, the costs would be $17.6 billion. Some estimates have their involvement much higher. Based on a US Government Accounting Office report of 55,322 illegal aliens incarcerated in federal, state, and local facilities during 2003 and extrapolating the average number of offenses out across all 267,000 incarcerated illegal alien criminals results in some 1,288,619 crimes!
Based on an average of $25,000 per crime, the costs would be $32.2 billion. Another estimated 240,000 criminal illegal aliens are not incarcerated. Professor David Anderson reports that the net annual burdened costs of crime, in 2006 dollars could be $1.62 TRILLION.
A 5% illegal alien participation would be $81 BILLION. But we have close to a 10% illegal alien population in America. That can not happen by accident.
Some studies indicate the participation of illegal aliens is much higher than representation. An estimated 2,258,550 pounds of cocaine made it through the southern border with an estimated street value conservatively estimated $72.2 BILLION. Resulting costs of the associated crime is unknown. Assume 50% is paid for through crime.
There are an estimated 5.1 million English as Second Language students in the USA. If 90% of the ESL students are children of illegal aliens then the education costs for children of illegal aliens is about $34.5 billion per year.
Many illegal aliens are carrying horrific third world diseases. In the 40 years prior to 2002, there were only 900 total cases of leprosy in the US. In the following three years there have been 9,000 cases. TB is epidemic in many illegal alien communities and a new Multiple-Drug-Resistant (MDR) TB is spreading. Each person infected with TB will infect 10 others. Treating a single case of MDR TB costs between $250,000 and $1,200,000 per person. Resulting costs are unknown.
Harvard Professor George Borjas has reported that illegal aliens displaced American workers at a cost in excess of $133 billion dollars in 2005.
The Wall Street investment firm Bear Stearns states we are losing $35 billion a year in income tax collections from jobs that are now off the books.
A recent report notes that illegals sent an estimated $45 Billion south in 2006, which was up from an estimated $30 Billion in 2004. That money leaving the economy does not produce secondary jobs here.
A Census Bureau study estimates that households headed by illegal aliens used $10 billion more in government services than they paid in taxes in 2002. These figures are only for the federal government. Costs at the state and local level are also significant.
Jonathan Weisman of the Washington Post states "The Senate’s embattled immigration bill would raise government spending by as much as $126 billion over the next decade.
The majority of these figures were taken from USILLEGALALIENS.COM This site is an encyclopedia of documented evidence of the cultural pollution of illegal alienation.
American can’t deport the illegal aliens because there are too many of them? That is just another fraudulent joke. President Eisenhower in the early 1950s deported 3 to 4 million Mexicans in Operation Wetback. If we had the resources and ability to do it then we sure as heck can do it now, faster and easier.
If this is not tolerance, what is? America is the most charitable nation on Earth, as a nation and as individuals. But when it comes to illegal aliens, we have tolerated enough and we have been charitable enough to bankrupt our social services. Our schools are failing due to the students who steadfastly refuse to learn out language. Our hospitals are closing due to illegals getting free service for anything from a splinter in their finger to major surgery and perpetual care. Our clean beautiful home towns are getting turned into open garbage pits. We’re getting murdered by illegal alien invaders. Poll after poll shows 90% of us say, “Get them out!” They have taught us well. As the news does not report the activities of illegal aliens we have all learned by example.
I defy anyone on earth to prove that illegal aliens are a benefit to any society that they have invaded. It can not be done with factual data, anywhere.
If our nations were at war, these people acting under the disguise of “Undocumented Immigrants” would be classified as War Criminals committing Crimes Against Humanity. And that is exactly what they are doing.
America doesn’t owe Mexico anything but a swift kick in the pants.
Who else but a sociopath would encourage the documented behavior of illegal aliens? Who else but a psychopath would hide the facts and go to lengths to defend their violent criminal actions?
Mark S. McGrew can be reached at McGrewMX@aol.com
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Japan hopes to improve relations with Russia
22:00 | 21/ 11/ 2008
LIMA, November 21 (RIA Novosti) - Japan expressed hope on Friday that Moscow and Tokyo would be able to bring bilateral relations to a new level at the first meeting between the two countries' leaders, despite the long-standing territorial dispute.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso will meet on the sidelines of the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in the Peruvian capital Lima which starts on Saturday.
"The prime minister is expecting to review the current status of Japanese-Russian relations during a meeting with Medvedev and assure the Russian president that Japan sees Russia as an important neighbor in the Asian-Pacific region," said Kazuo Kodama, spokesman for the Japanese Foreign Ministry.
"Japan is hoping that the two leaders will manage to take bilateral relations to a new level," he said.
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Russian Orthodox Church denies plans to create private army
20:23 | 21/ 11/ 2008
MOSCOW, November 21 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Orthodox Church is not creating its own private army to help maintain order on the streets, a senior church official said on Friday.
Kommersant, a Russian business daily, reported in an article on Friday that the church had proposed setting up Orthodox vigilante teams to help police patrol the streets and fight crime in Russian cities.
Russian human rights activists immediately criticized the initiative saying that these vigilante teams would mean that police are incapable of maintaining order and keeping criminals off the streets.
"The church is not setting up a private army and would never attempt to do so. It is nonsense. The Russian armed forces already consist of 80% Orthodox believers," said Dmitry Smirnov, who is in charge of the Moscow Patriarchate's military relations department.
He also denied rumors that the Russian Orthodox Church had held talks with the Interior Ministry on the issue.
"It could be a private public initiative put forward by local parishes. If they want to patrol the streets - let them do it. If they want to sweep the streets - even better," the cleric said.
The Russian Orthodox Church is the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world and has seen a resurgence in activity and vitality since the end of Soviet rule. Up to 90% of ethnic Russians identify themselves as Russian Orthodox, although the identification is sometimes more of a cultural nature rather than a religious one.
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France, Georgia to sign loan agreement for radar repair
21:18 | 21/ 11/ 2008
Print version
PARIS, November 21 (RIA Novosti) - France will sign a loan agreement with Georgia on November 24 to help the country repair a radar station near the capital, Tbilisi, the economics ministry said on Friday.
Anne-Marie Idrac, France's state secretary for foreign trade, will sign the agreement in Georgia, the ministry said without disclosing the sum.
France pledged aid to repair the radar at an international donor conference held in Brussels on October 22 to help rebuild the ex-Soviet Caucasus state in the wake of the August conflict with Russia, the ministry said.
A joint World Bank and UN assessment has said Georgia will require around $3.4 billion over the next three years to support the economy, public sector and for infrastructure development.
At a September summit, EU leaders pledged to contribute around $715 million between 2008 and 2010 for Georgia's restoration.
Russia and Georgia fought a brief war in August after Georgia launched a military offensive against South Ossetia in an attempt to regain control over the republic, which split from Georgia in the early 1990s.
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Medvedev orders Gazprom to recover gas debt from Ukraine
20.11.2008, 16.34
MOSCOW, November 20 (Itar-Tass) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller to exact the gas debt from Ukraine.
Medvedev, at a meeting with senior Gazprom officials, said, "we have to clear up our stand on the Ukrainian gas debt, and exact it under the voluntary or compulsory procedure, as established by the effective legislation and within the framework of our bilateral relations."
Miller told the president that the Ukrainian gas debt reached 2.4 billion dollars.
He reminded that during Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko's visit to Russia, an accord was reached that "Ukraine will pay the money according to the established procedure."
Medvedev also asked about the situation with the next year gas contract with Ukraine and asked to report to him on "where the money is."
The situation in the world is not easy, Medvedev said explaining that he meant oil prices and the general financial and economic position, as well as the consequences of the global financial crisis for Russia.
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Ukraine's president gives govt. 5 days to pay gas bill to Russia
16:23 | 21/ 11/ 2008
Print version
KIEV, November 21 (RIA Novosti) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko ordered the government on Friday to pay the country's debt to Russia for natural gas supplies within five days, Kiev's UNIAN news agency reported.
The report comes a day after Gazprom, Russia's gas monopoly, announced that Ukraine had $2.4 billion in outstanding debt for gas supplies, and President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the company to urgently recover the debt.
Addressing a National Security Council session, Yushchenko blamed Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, his former "orange revolution" ally, for running up the debt, the agency said.
Ukraine currently pays $179.5 per 1,000 cubic meters for gas imported from Russia or via Russian territory. Until recently, the gas was sold via the Swiss trader RosUkrEnergo, in which Gazprom holds 50%.
RosUkrEnergo was established in July 2004 on a parity basis between Gazprom and Ukraine's national oil and gas company Naftogaz as the exclusive supplier of natural gas to Ukraine.
Naftogaz denied on Friday that it had any outstanding debt to Gazprom, and urged media, politicians and analysts to "cease speculation on the issue, as it could affect negotiations on gas supplies to Ukraine in 2009."
At a meeting with Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller on Thursday, the Russian president stressed the importance of receiving full payment for gas supplies given the financial pressure on Russia due to the credit crunch and falling oil prices.
Miller has said the price of the natural gas Gazprom sells to Ukraine could rise to over $400 per 1,000 cubic meters as of the start of next year.
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Russia abolishes state monopoly on platinum exports
14:30 | 21/ 11/ 2008
Print version
MOSCOW, November 21 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's lower house of parliament adopted in the second and third readings on Friday a law abolishing a state monopoly on platinum exports. (Gold for Russia - Image gallery)
Under the current legislation, Russian companies that export platinum and platinum group metals carry out operations through the state-owned Almazjuvelirexport trade association.
However, the State Duma ruled that the current platinum trade scheme violates Russian anti-monopoly legislation and contradicts the existing global exchange trade system, weakening as a result Russian platinum producers' positions on world markets.
Russia is the world's second-largest platinum producer after South Africa.
In the event of the liquidation of Almazjuvelirexport, state control over platinum exports will be ensured through the existing tariff regulation system, as well export licensing procedures and state and customs control.
Last week, business daily Kommersant said Russia had begun developing major new platinum deposits for the first time since the Soviet era. Reserves at the Kievei field on north Russia's Kola Peninsula have been estimated at up to 250 metric tons, the paper said.
Earlier, Forbes said that Russian platinum supplies were due to decline this year, to 855,000 ounces compared with 910,000 ounces in 2007.
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Norilsk Nickel eyes metals plant project in Cuba
18:23 | 20/ 11/ 2008
MOSCOW, November 20 (RIA Novosti) - Russian metals giant Norilsk Nickel is considering the possibility of becoming an operator in a metals plant construction project in Cuba, the company's CEO said on Thursday.
Vladimir Strzhalkovsky said it would take between six and nine months to complete a feasibility study, after which Cuba would apply to Russia for a loan to implement the project.
"I believe that Cuba has a good chance of getting it," he said.
In mid-November, Norilsk Nickel and Cuba's Cubanique signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in prospecting for solid serpentinites at Cuba's Nicaro Mines.
They also agreed to exchange specialists and share experience in mining, marketing and environmental issues.
Norilsk Nickel is Russia's largest diversified mining and metals company, the world's largest producer of nickel and palladium, and one of the world's largest producers of platinum, rhodium, copper and cobalt.
It also produces gold, silver, tellurium, selenium, iridium and ruthenium.
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Russia, Syria may establish joint bank
17:57 | 20/ 11/ 2008
Print version
MOSCOW, November 20 (RIA Novosti) - Syria is interested in establishing a joint bank with Russia with the purpose of a possible switchover to the Russian ruble in mutual settlements, the Russian communications minister said on Thursday.
Igor Shchegolev said the issue was raised on Thursday during the sixth meeting of a Russian-Syrian commission on trade-economic and scientific-technical cooperation. Shchegolev is the commission's co-chairman.
He said the establishment of the bank would help remove problems regarding access by Syrian producers to the Russian market.
The Russian minister added that the bank would mainly service the activities of small and medium businesses.
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野村、年度内の資本増強策を検討 劣後債などで数千億円規模
野村ホールディングスが今年度中に数千億円規模の資本増強策を検討していることが22日分かった。金融危機の影響や米リーマン・ブラザーズの部門買収の費用負担で2009年3月期決算では赤字を計上する公算が大きく、生命保険会社など国内金融機関向けに劣後ローンや劣後債を発行して財務基盤を拡充する考えとみられる。
野村は銀行借り入れより返済順位が低く、自己資本比率規制の計算に組み入れられる劣後ローンや劣後債を軸に資本増強を検討。一部の大手生保に引き受けの打診を始めた。自社の株価が大幅に下落しているため、1株利益の希薄化につながる普通株発行による公募増資は実施しないもよう。
野村は4―6月に国内金融機関から劣後債と劣後ローンの合計で総額約6000億円の資金を調達した。前倒しで財務基盤を拡充してＭ＆Ａ（合併・買収）など将来の投資に備える狙いだった。(11:57)
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ＡＩＧ資産売却、各地で交渉始動 中国系、アリコに食指
経営難に陥った米アメリカン・インターナショナル・グループ（ＡＩＧ）の資産売却交渉が世界各地で動き出した。日本で生保事業を展開する米アリコについては中国の政府系ファンド、中国投資有限責任公司（ＣＩＣ）に最大49％の株式を売却する方向で交渉に入った。日本の生保子会社やアジア各地の子会社でも売却準備が具体化している。ＡＩＧを軸に世界の業界地図が塗り替わる可能性が出てきた。
アリコは日本をはじめ欧米、中東など世界55カ国以上で生保事業を展開している。ＣＩＣは中国の保険会社と投資連合を組んで出資する方向。交渉がまとまれば世界各地に足がかりを築くことができ、生保の世界での存在感が、一気に高まる可能性もある。
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東京のタクシー、14年ぶり減少へ 08年度 利用不振など響く
規制緩和で増え続けてきた東京都内のタクシー台数が14年ぶりに減ることが確実になった。関東運輸局調べの9月末の台数は5万5141台と、半年前より 743台減少。利用不振からタクシー会社が減車に乗り出した上、政府が7月から増車審査を厳しくしたためで、2008年度末に前年水準を上回るのは厳しい状況だ。
政府は09年度に新規参入などの規制を一段と強化する方針で、タクシー会社の競争意識が薄れ、サービスが低下する恐れがある。(07:00)
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高級食材の需要に陰り 国産牛やフグの卸値下落
高級食材の需要に陰りが出てきた。国産高級牛肉やフグは軒並み値下がりしている。マスクメロンの売り上げも振るわない。金融危機が実体経済に波及して景況感が悪化するなか、消費者の節約志向が強まっている。
百貨店などで売られる国産高級牛肉の卸値は東京市場で現在、1キロ1800―2000円台と前年同期に比べて約1割安い水準だ。都内の百貨店でもすき焼きなどに使う和牛肩ロースが100グラム1200―1800円程度と、前年同期を5―10％下回る。(16:00)
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大手スーパー、ペットボトル回収を強化 ライフ、回収機を倍増
ライフコーポレーションやイトーヨーカ堂など大手スーパーが相次ぎ、店頭にペットボトルを持ってきた客に買い物券や現金をわたすサービスの強化に乗り出した。ゴミ削減に協力しながら、消費者を自社店に呼び込む戦略だ。
ライフコーポは飲料などが入っていた空ボトルの自動回収機の設置店を前年の倍の14店に増やした。都内5店では2リットル以下の空ボトル1本あたり消費者に5ポイントを与え、1000ポイント集まると100円分の買い物券などを提供している。他店では50本に1本の確率で10円分の買い物券を渡す。西友も首都圏中心の26店で同様の方式を採用している。(08:55)
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商船三井と川崎汽船、欧州向け航路の能力削減を拡大
商船三井と川崎汽船がアジアと欧州を結ぶ定期コンテナ航路の輸送能力削減を拡大する。欧州やロシアなどの景気減速で海運各社は10月以降、減便などで輸送力を削減してきたが、日本や中国から輸出する日用品や家電製品などの荷動きが一段と鈍化しているため能力調整を強化する。国際海運の基幹航路の低迷が長期化する恐れが出てきた。
商船三井は海外の海運2社と共同運航するアジア―地中海の定期コンテナ航路の輸送力を、12月から20％以上削減する方針を固めた。現在は週2便を運航しているが、共同運航する海運会社の数を増やす。(08:01)
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脱臭装置、白金使わず割安に レビオが高性能タイプ
生ごみ処理装置のレビオ（滝川市、高瀬勝社長）は高性能で低価格の脱臭装置を開発した。高価な貴金属を使わない触媒を独自に開発。高い処理性能を維持しながら、導入や運用にかかわるコストを2―3割低減した。浄化槽の排気処理や堆肥（たいひ）工場、水産加工施設など、臭い対策が必要とされる幅広い場所で利用できる。
従来の脱臭装置は白金（プラチナ）を触媒に使ったものが多いため割高で、2―3年ごとの触媒の交換負担も大きかった。
レビオは活性白土やマンガンを主成分とする触媒を新たに開発。コストを抑えたうえ、臭気の除去率は硫化水素で99.2％、アンモニアで99.5％と高い能力を実現した。
価格は1分間あたり2.5立方メートルの臭気ガスを処理できるタイプで約300万円。形状や処理能力は顧客の仕様によって設計を変えられる。
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道、65団体に出資金130億円返還要求へ 保有資産参考に判断
道は21日、道が出資する財団法人など65団体に対し、出資金計130億円の返還を求める方針を明らかにした。同日開いた政策評価委員会で報告書を示した。内部留保など団体の保有資産で事業を維持できると判断した。26団体に交付している補助金36億円も減額する方向で検討する。
5兆6000億円に上る道債残高を抱えるなど、厳しい道の財政状況を改善する一環。庁内に専門チームを設け2009年度以降、順次返還を求める方針だ。
株式会社や任意団体を除き道がかかわる107団体について、財産状況を点検したところ、総資産1512億円のうち道の出資金が479億円と3割超を占めた。財産や基金の運用状況、内部留保の水準などを総合的に判断し、返還を求める団体を決めた。
約17億円の返還を求める道農業開発公社に対し、報告書では知事意見として「事業ごとの会計を明確にするとともに各資産の総点検を行い補助金の縮減を図ること」と指摘。その上で「団体の在り方を抜本的に見直すこと」を迫っている。
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奥入瀬渓流ホテル、燃料高で冬季休業 来年４月に再開
星野リゾートが運営に協力している三沢奥入瀬観光（青森県三沢市）は十和田市の奥入瀬渓流ホテルについて、初めて冬季に休業する。燃料高で冬季の採算が厳しくなるためで、29日で今年の営業を打ち切り、来年4月7日に再開する。休業中、約60人の従業員を星野リゾートのアルファリゾート・トマム（北海道占冠村）に派遣する予定だ。
三沢奥入瀬観光は古牧温泉青森屋（三沢市）と奥入瀬渓流ホテルを経営する。冬季は古牧に比べ奥入瀬のホテルの稼働率が低いため、採算がとれないと判断した。来年以降、冬季に休業するかは未定という。
従業員の派遣先のアルファリゾート・トマム内にはスキー場があり、冬場は人手不足となる。宿泊施設などの協力要員として勤務する予定だ。三沢奥入瀬観光は「トマムのサービスを勉強し、こちらのサービス向上につなげる教育研修の効果も期待したい」としている。
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マルハニチロ水産、カンパチ加工を垂水市漁協に委託
マルハニチロ水産（東京・千代田）は21日、鹿児島県の垂水市漁業協同組合などと養殖カンパチの加工委託についてパートナー協力書を締結した。同社が漁協と加工委託の契約を結ぶのは初めて。1年目は20万尾の加工を見込む。
マルハニチロ水産の子会社が鹿児島県内で養殖しているカンパチを同漁協の加工場で切り身にして冷凍する。12月中旬から加工を始め、国内向けの出荷のほか米国など海外への輸出も見据える。マルハニチロは同県から110万―120万尾のカンパチを活魚として出荷しているが、需給状況などで価格が不安定なため、冷凍加工して安定した価格での販売を増やす。委託により自社での加工場建設に比べて償却費負担を軽くする。
同漁協は加工場を増設中で、12月上旬に完成予定。委託を受けることで稼働率を向上させるとともにカンパチの消費拡大にもつなげたい考えだ。鹿児島県は生産量で全国1位のカンパチの産地。パートナー協力書には同県と鹿児島県漁協連合会も参加した。
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九州―韓国航路、9月は韓国人客16％減少 円高・ウォン安響く
九州運輸局は21日、上半期（4―9月）の九州（山口県下関市を含む）と韓国を結ぶ定期旅客航路の輸送実績を発表した。9月の旅客数は7万6695人と前年同月比9.1％減となった。大半を占める韓国人客が円高・ウォン安の影響で16.4％減少したのが響いた。
韓国人客は10月以降も減少幅が拡大しており、「日韓航路は今後、厳しい状況が続く」（九州運輸局）と見ている。
上半期の旅客数は前年同期比4.4％増の63万6166人で、過去最高だった。韓国人客は前年同期比5.2％増の46万7648人。 4―6月は前年実績を10％以上上回った。日本人客は同1.5％増の15万6846人だった。日本人客は2004年度をピークに減少傾向だったが、円高・ウォン安で利用が伸びた。
九州―韓国を結ぶ航路は、下関―釜山、博多―釜山、比田勝―釜山、門司―釜山の7社4区間。
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日本企業に最恵国待遇 首相、ペルーと投資協定に署名
【リマ＝犬童文良】麻生太郎首相は21日午後（日本時間22日午前）、ペルー大統領府でガルシア大統領と会談し、同国に投資する日本企業が最恵国待遇などを受けるようにするための投資協定に署名した。来年2月に発効する見通し。首相は経済連携協定（ＥＰＡ）の交渉開始を前向きに検討する考えを表明。大統領は投資協定の発効にあわせて交渉を始めたい意向を示した。
投資協定には官民合同で問題に対処する「投資環境改善小委員会」設置も盛り込んだ。日本の首相のペルー訪問は11年ぶり。フジモリ元大統領を巡る問題もあって停滞していた両国の協力関係を森林保全など環境分野も含めて発展させたい考え。首相は会談後の記者会見で「学術など幅広い分野で緊密化するよう支援したい」と述べた。(12:34)
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中露が触手の高台、米軍独自に偵察…防衛省無反応
所有者の“通報”で即行動
神奈川県横須賀市にある海上自衛隊基地や米海軍基地が見渡せる高台の土地を、中国やロシアの関係者が購入しようとした問題で、米海軍犯罪捜査局が調査に乗り出していたことが２２日、分かった。土地の所有者から連絡を受け、敵対勢力による諜報活動やテロ行為に備えた対応とみられる。防衛庁（現・防衛省）との危機管理意識の違いが浮き彫りとなった。
米海軍犯罪捜査局の特別捜査官と調査官が、土地の所有者である会社経営者を訪ねてきたのは２００６年秋。この直前、シーファー駐日米大使あてに、次のような内容の手紙を書いていたのだ。
≪弊社所有の土地に関し、貴国のご見解を賜りたくお願い致します。０６年７月に売買契約をし、名義変更登記を完了したところ、数日後、中国人とロシア人がそれぞれ『土地を売らないか』と接触してきました≫
≪同封の写真でもお分かりの通り、土地は横須賀港に出入りする日米両国海軍の軍艦の出入りが一望でき、戦時中は砲台があったところです。日本人の想像を超える何かが意図されていると思えてなりません≫
米海軍犯罪捜査局は、米海軍省の法執行機関。任務は、脱走兵の追跡逮捕や軍内部の犯罪捜査、テロ対策、防諜活動（敵の諜報活動を防ぐこと）など多岐にわたる。横須賀には極東本部が設置されている。
捜査官らは会社経営者から事情を聴き、数日後、一緒に現地を視察した。高台からは、米海軍基地へのイージス艦や潜水艦などの出入りだけでなく、人員の配置まで確認できた。
視察後、捜査官らは「こういう場所があるなんて信じられない。『手に取るように見える』とはこのことだ。米国では立ち入り禁止にする。日本は防諜に無防備だ」ともらしたという。
実は、会社経営者はシーファー大使に手紙を書く前、当時の額賀福志郎防衛庁長官（同年９月末まで）と、後任の久間章生防衛庁長官にも同様の手紙を書いたが、反応はなかったという。
この高台からは今年９月１２日夜、過激派が基地に向けて飛行弾２発を発射している。横須賀市はこの日、外務省から米原子力空母「ジョージ・ワシントン」が同月２５日に入港するという連絡を受けていた。
会社経営者は本紙の取材に「ここは日本なのに、米軍の方が危機管理意識が強いなどおかしい。歴代長官らに国を守る責任感はないのか。怒りを通り越して、情けない」と語っている。
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三つ星すし店訴えられる…ＮＹ、チップで元従業員に
２１日付の米大衆紙デーリー・ニューズは、ニューヨークの高級すし店「雅（ＭＡＳＡ）」がチップの配分をめぐり、元従業員から民事訴訟を起こされたと報じた。雅は２００９年のミシュラン・ニューヨーク版で日本料理店として初めて最高評価の三つ星を獲得している。
同紙によると、元ウエーターら１００人以上がニューヨーク州地裁に提訴。同店は飲食代金の一律約２０％のサービス料を上乗せしながら配分せず、それ以外のチップも接客担当以外の従業員と分配する形にされたと主張し、計１００万ドル（約９５００万円）以上の損害を受けたとしている。米国では一般的に飲食店のチップは接客担当の従業員の副収入とされる。
雅は共同通信の取材に対し「担当者がいないのでコメントできない」としている。
雅は０４年に開業、お任せコースで１人前４００ドル以上の超高級店。（共同）
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東京・足立区の女性監禁殺人：「捜査怠慢」訴訟 都が控訴
東京都足立区の新聞販売店従業員寮で０４年、小出亜紀子さん（当時２４歳）の他殺体が見つかった事件の民事訴訟で、都は２１日、警視庁の捜査怠慢を認めた東京地裁の１審判決を不服として控訴した。
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放射線照射トウガラシ：中国から輸入
厚生労働省は２１日、大阪市の商社が７月に中国から輸入した赤トウガラシ３００キロに放射線が照射されていたと発表した。食品衛生法違反の疑いがあるが、すでに全量消費されている。健康被害の訴えはないという。
厚労省によると、輸入時の検査では確認できなかったが、９月に輸入された３・４トンを調べたところ照射が分かった。９月以降に輸入された分は流通していない。
国内では、ジャガイモについては芽が出ないようにするため放射線照射が認められている。欧州や中国などでは殺菌のため香辛料への照射が認められている。
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ＧＭ：専用ジェット機２機、売却の方針
ダウ・ジョーンズ通信によると、米自動車最大手ゼネラル・モーターズ（ＧＭ）は２１日、同社所有の専用ジェット機２機を売却する方針を決めた。
１９日の米下院金融委員会の公聴会で、資金繰りが悪化しているＧＭなど米ビッグスリー（大手３社）のトップが高価な専用機でワシントン入りしたことに批判が集中。政府資金による支援の検討は１２月に先送りされた。
広報担当者は専用機売却について、ＧＭが進めている経費削減策の一環だとしている。（共同）
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米ＧＭ：破産法申請での再建も視野 米紙報道
【ワシントン斉藤信宏】経営危機に陥っている米自動車最大手ゼネラル・モーターズ（ＧＭ）の経営陣は、連邦破産法の申請も選択肢に、今後の再建計画作りにあたる検討に入った。米紙ウォールストリート・ジャーナルが２１日、関係者の話として伝えた。ＧＭはこれまで、ワゴナー会長兼最高経営責任者（ＣＥＯ）が「破産法申請は視野に入っていない」と繰り返していた。
ＧＭは９月以降の金融危機の深刻化で急速に資金繰りが悪化。０８年７～９月期の決算発表に合わせて「政府からの緊急支援がなければ、来年半ばまでに資金が枯渇する」と異例の声明を発表。危機的な経営状況を明らかにして、政府に支援を求めていた。これを受けて米議会は、２０日まで自動車大手３社（ビッグ３）首脳の公聴会を開くなど審議を続けてきたが、自動車メーカー救済への反発は根強く採決の見通しは立っていない。１２月２日までに提出される具体的な再建計画を見た上で法案採決の可否を探る方針。
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ＧＭ：がけっぷち…１２月２日までに再建策
【ワシントン斉藤信宏】深刻な経営危機に陥っている米自動車最大手ゼネラル・モーターズ（ＧＭ）の経営破綻（はたん）が現実味を帯び始めた。ＧＭなど米自動車大手３社（ビッグ３）は米政府・議会に緊急支援を要請しているが、議会側が設定した１２月２日の期限までに大規模なリストラを盛り込んだ再建策を提示しなければ支援実現は難しい。同社取締役会が議論したとされる米連邦破産法の適用申請も、現実的な選択肢として急浮上する可能性もある。
米紙ウォールストリート・ジャーナルによると、ＧＭ取締役会は破産法申請の可能性を議論したが、現実的な解決策とは判断しなかったという。しかし、取締役の一部からとはいえ、「破産法申請を検討すべきだ」との意見が出たのは、ＧＭの経営が「破綻寸前の危機的状況に追い込まれている表れ」（米自動車アナリスト）といえる。
ＧＭは当初、同じビッグ３の一角であるクライスラーとの合併交渉を進めていた。しかし秋以降、金融危機の深刻化とともに資金繰りが急速に悪化。合併交渉を中断し、米政府に「政府支援がなければ来年前半には資金が底を突く」（リック・ワゴナー会長）と低利融資などの緊急支援を要請。クライスラーやフォード・モーターとともに米議会で窮状を訴えた。
米民主党は低利融資などの法案を議会に提出したが、「世論の理解を得るにはビッグ３自身が説明責任を果たすべきだ」との声が強まったため採決を見送り、１２月２日までに再建計画を提出するよう求めている。
議会内には「ビッグ３が将来にわたり存続できると確信できる計画でなければ支援すべきでない」と破産法の適用を容認する意見もある。経営陣の報酬カットや大胆なリストラなどの再建策を示せなければ、ＧＭが破綻に追い込まれる可能性も否定できない。
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米国債保有、中国が首位に ９月末、日本は２位転落
米財務省が18日発表した９月の国際資本統計によると、中国が日本を抜いて世界最大の米国債の保有国になった。国・地域別の米国債保有残高は９月末時点で中国が5850億ドル（約56兆8800億円、香港は含まず）。日本は5732億ドルにとどまった。
米国発の金融危機にもかかわらず、中国は米国債への投資を拡大。米財政赤字が膨らむ中、米中の経済的な相互依存関係の深まりを示した。
９月末の中国の米国債保有残高は前月に比べ436億ドル増加。日本は128億ドル減った。３位は英国で3384億ドル。海外全体では前月に比べ1106億ドル増え、２兆8605億ドルとなった。(01:26)
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ノキア、日本の携帯に参入 ＮＴＴ回線借り独自サービス
2008年11月22日11時24分
世界最大手の携帯電話端末メーカー、ノキア（フィンランド）が来年３月にも、日本の携帯電話事業に参入することが２２日わかった。ＮＴＴドコモの通信回線を借りて独自のサービスを提供する。端末メーカーが携帯電話事業に参入するのは国内で初めて。
ノキアは既存の通信回線を借りる仮想移動体通信事業者（ＭＶＮＯ）として、自社製の携帯端末で独自のサービスに乗り出す方針。まず世界で販売する超高級端末「ヴァーチュ」（価格は１２０万～５００万円）を投入し、富裕層向けのサービスを始めると見られる。ボタン一つで担当者につながり、飛行機やホテルの予約などに２４時間対応するサービスなどを計画中だ。
ＭＶＮＯは巨額の通信インフラ投資を省ける利点があり、国内では、ウォルト・ディズニー・ジャパンがソフトバンクモバイルの通信回線を借りて「ディズニー・モバイル」を展開している。
ノキアは、世界の携帯端末の販売台数で約４割のシェアを握る。０７年１２月期の売上高は５１０億５８００万ユーロ（約６兆１千億円）。日本ではドコモとソフトバンクモバイルに端末を提供している。
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パナソニック、国内２工場閉鎖へ 生産拠点を集約
2008年11月21日21時30分
パナソニックは２１日、車載用ディスプレーなどを生産する藤沢工場（神奈川県藤沢市）と、チューナーなどを生産する子会社の岐阜工場（岐阜県大野町）の計２工場を０９年秋までに閉鎖すると発表した。国内の生産拠点を集約して生産性向上や合理化を進め、経営の効率化を図る。工場跡地については、売却も含めて活用法を検討する。
藤沢工場は０９年３月をめどに閉鎖。液晶テレビなどをつくる宇都宮工場（宇都宮市）に生産を移管し、約１９０人の社員も一緒に異動する。
岐阜工場は０９年度上半期に、同じ子会社が持つ電子部品をつくる松阪工場（三重県松阪市）やベトナム工場に生産を移管して閉鎖する。約８４０人の社員は、松阪工場などへ異動するほか、グループ内で配置転換する。
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個人投資家、過去最長８週連続の買い越し 国内３市場
2008年11月21日7時53分
東京証券取引所が２０日まとめた１１月第２週（１０～１４日）の主要３市場（東京、大阪、名古屋）の投資部門別売買動向によると、個人投資家の「買い」は「売り」を２５０２億円上回る「買い越し」だった。「買い越し」は８週連続で、東証が統計を取り始めた８２年以降で最長となった。
この間（９月２２日～１１月１４日）、日経平均株価は１万２０００円台から一時７０００円割れにまで急落。割安だとみた投資家が買い注文を出している模様で、買い越し額は計１兆３６８６億円分にのぼった。これまでの連続買い越しは７週連続で、０１年８月～９月など６回あった。
一方、外国人投資家は１１月第２週までで５週間連続での「売り越し」。外国人投資家からの売り圧力に対して、個人投資家の買いでは支え切れていない形だ。
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09:37 GMT, Friday, 21 November 2008
Sweden ratifies EU Lisbon Treaty
Swedish parliament (file pic)
Sweden has become the 24th of the EU's 27 member states to ratify the controversial Lisbon Treaty.
Sweden's parliament backed the reform treaty after a late-night debate, with 243 votes in favour, 39 against and 67 deputies absent or abstaining.
The treaty, aimed at reshaping EU institutions to fit an enlarged bloc of 27, has to be ratified by each member state to take effect.
But Irish voters rejected it and Czech and Polish ratification is stalled.
The Republic of Ireland's "No" vote in a referendum in June threw the whole ratification process into disarray.
Governments in countries that have ratified the treaty insist it cannot be changed, so treaty supporters are considering whether some guarantees can be offered to placate Irish voters.
The Irish government is expected to present a plan for breaking the impasse at a summit of EU leaders next month. There is speculation that another referendum may be held in Ireland.
The treaty was originally meant to be in place in January 2009 - well ahead of the European Parliament elections in June 2009.
Critics see the treaty as further evidence of a federalist, pro-integration agenda at work in the EU. They say the treaty is just a modified version of the EU constitution, rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005.
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20:33 GMT, Thursday, 20 November 2008
US convicts Syrian arms dealer
Manor al-Kassar
A major Syrian-born arms dealer has been convicted in a US federal court in New York of conspiring to sell weapons to left-wing rebels in Colombia.
Prosecutors said Monzer al-Kassar was willing to supply thousands of weapons, including machine-guns, surface-to-air missiles and grenade launchers.
They said the Farc rebel group intended to use the weapons to kill Americans.
His Chilean co-defendant, Luis Felipe Moreno Godoy, was also found guilty. The two men could face life in prison.
The prosecution's case was based largely on evidence gathered by two undercover US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents, who posed as arms buyers for the Farc.
The agents filmed their negotiations in Spain with al-Kassar and Moreno Godoy.
'Prince of Marbella'
Al-Kassar was arrested at Madrid airport in June 2007.
The 62-year-old was extradited to the US this year after Spain received assurances from US authorities that he would face neither the death penalty nor a life sentence without chance of parole.
Defence lawyers maintained that the two men were in fact spying on behalf of Spanish intelligence during their dealings with the DEA agents. Both men plan to appeal.
Al-Kassar, a long-time resident of Spain, has been dubbed the "Prince of Marbella" for his glamorous lifestyle.
He was described by prosecutors at the trial as one of the world's most prolific arms dealers.
The US Embassy in Madrid said al-Kassar had been selling weapons since the 1970s to the Palestinian Liberation Front and clients in Nicaragua, Bosnia, Croatia, Iran, Iraq and Somalia.
In 2006, he was named by the Iraqi government as one of its most wanted men for allegedly helping to arm insurgents. A UN report meanwhile called him an "international embargo buster".
He was acquitted in 1995 of supplying arms that were used in the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship off the coast of Egypt, which resulted in the death of an American, Leon Klinghoffer.
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23:45 GMT, Tuesday, 18 November 2008
Long-isolated Syria warms to tourism
By Katie Hunt
Business reporter, BBC News, Damascus
Mamoun Al-Halabi
It took Mamoun Al-Halabi almost four years to transform a damp and dilapidated Ottoman house on a narrow lane in Damascus's old city into a chic, five-star hotel.
To prevent damage to the ornate 17th Century wall paintings he made his workers use toothbrushes.
His wife scoured Syria to find antique furniture and fittings and commissioned local craftsmen to replicate centuries-old woodwork and chandeliers.
Once finished, he spent six months sleeping in each of the 10 rooms to iron out any problems guests might have encountered.
"It was like a tunnel. You didn't know when you would come out," he says, gesturing at the tranquil sun-dappled courtyard, babbling fountain and the opulently decorated rooms beyond.
But his efforts paid off.
He says the hotel has been almost fully booked since it opened a year ago.
Reforms
Beit Al-Joury is one of 10 boutique hotels to have opened in Damascus's old city in the past two years.
Beit Al-Joury courtyard
Many more are in the pipeline as upwardly-mobile Syrians, such as Mr Al-Halabi, take advantage of the country's newly liberalising economy.
Long-isolated, the country has embarked on Chinese-style market reforms in recent years to improve its economic position.
The oil reserves that the socialist state had relied upon are dwindling and the economy's other mainstay, agriculture, has been hit by drought.
The government is encouraging investment in tourism to diversify its economy and if the European tour groups thronging the old city are anything to go by, it is having some success.
Minarets and Roman columns
Certainly, Damascus has much to offer visitors.
It claims to be the world's oldest continuously inhabited city as the Roman columns, church spires and minarets dotted throughout the old town bear witness.
"Syria has a bad reputation in the West"
Jamal Khader, tour guide, Damascus
Jamal Khader
At its heart, is the 8th Century Umayyad mosque.
Built on top of a Roman temple dedicated to Jupiter and Byzantine church, it is home to the tombs of John the Baptist and Islamic warrior Saladin.
The mosque is flanked by a beguiling maze of narrow lanes where craftsmen make parquetry woodwork boxes inlaid with camel bone and weave gold-threaded brocade on hand-operated looms.
Tired wanderers can sip freshly-squeezed pomegranate juice or enjoy a cone of pistachio-encrusted ice cream from the nearby souk.
Damascus is also less conservative than many might imagine for a country so often at odds with the West.
On a Saturday night in October, the old city is abuzz with young Syrians descending on the old city's bars, restaurants and internet cafes to smoke shisha water pipes, play cards and check their Facebook profiles.
A secular country with a significant Christian minority, many young women are not wearing veils and those that are team their head-gear with skinny jeans and high heels rather than a black chador.
"Syria has a bad reputation in the West," says Jamal Khader, a tour guide.
"But there's lots of potential for tourism because of all the history."
Heritage
The rebirth of the old city allows younger Syrians, as well as tourists, to appreciate Damascus's rich heritage.
From 1995 to 2005, more than 20,000 inhabitants left the historic centre as they sought modern housing and facilities.
Old building undergoing restoration in Damascus
"There's a new generation of Syrians who don't know anything about [these beautiful buildings]," says Arabi Shaher, who works at Beit Zamen, the largest boutique hotel to open in the old city.
Other ramshackle buildings have been turned into elegant restaurants and art galleries.
However, there are fears that the traditional character of the old city could be lost.
Along Straight Street, the city's main artery since Biblical times, pavements are being dug up and trees planted as part of a beautification drive. Stalls in the souk have new wooden shutters and new lamp posts have been erected.
But mostly, the renovation of the ancient houses has been welcome.
The city is on the World Monuments watch list of endangered locations this year because so many buildings have fallen into disrepair.
Precarious
Mr Al-Halabi began restoring his house in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq when Western tourists all but disappeared from Syria.
Making a living from his job as a tour operator became impossible.
But by the time the hotel opened in 2007 after the lengthy renovations, tourists had begun to return to the city.
Man varnishing parquetry table
"This year is the best year I've seen," he says.
He is acutely aware that the success of his business, and by extension Syria's budding tourism industry, rests on factors beyond his control.
When a car bomb exploded in a southern suburb of Damascus in September, leaving at least 17 people dead, Mr Al-Halabi again feared that tourists would be scared off.
"Another bomb like that and I think I really would be finished," he says.
The US raid on Syria's eastern border in October, which triggered demonstrations in the capital, underscored these fears.
But, for now, Mr Al-Halabi has more pressing concerns.
Even though the hotel is thriving, he has reluctantly put it up for sale to enable him to pay off debt incurred during the renovation.
Despondent, he is nonetheless preparing for his next project - restoring another Damascene building to its former splendour.
In spite of the financial and emotional cost involved, it is clear that Mr Al-Halabi is deeply committed to preserving the architectural history of this fabled city.
"I love it. It's in my blood," he says.
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11:36 GMT, Thursday, 20 November 2008
Yemen 'faces crisis as oil ends'
By Martin Plaut
BBC News
Aden oil refinery in southern Yemen (file image)
Yemen is facing an economic and political crisis as the country's oil resources near exhaustion, a report by a London-based think-tank says.
The Royal Institute for International Affairs warns that instability there could expand a zone of lawlessness from northern Kenya to Saudi Arabia.
It describes Yemen's democracy as "fragile" and points to armed conflicts with Islamists and tribal insurgents.
One diplomat says that the country's prospects get worse every month.
The World Bank predicts that Yemen's oil and gas revenues will plummet over the next two years and fall to zero by 2017 as supplies run out.
Given that they provide around 90% of the country's exports, this could be catastrophic.
An unnamed energy expert is quoted in the report as saying that this points to economic collapse within four of five years time.
Democracy 'distorted'
Although Yemen was the first democratic nation on the Arabian peninsula, its democracy is described as fragile and distorted by what the report calls the northern tribal system of patronage around President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The president is already facing Islamist insurgents as well as conflicts with tribal groups, and must stand down in 2013 after 35 years in power.
The report concludes with a grim warning that a failed state in Yemen could threaten stability across the region.
It says it could open the way to piracy, smuggling and a flourishing jihad with implications for the security of shipping routes and the transit of oil through the Suez Canal.
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01:00 GMT, Saturday, 22 November 2008
Shetland top for quality of life
lerwick
Shetland Islanders have the highest quality of life in Scotland, according to a new survey.
The Bank of Scotland study said residents tended to have higher than average earnings, more chance of being employed and better health.
The islands also benefited from the best education results and had a low rate of housebreaking.
Aberdeenshire came in second, East Dunbartonshire was third and the Orkney Islands were fourth on the list.
They were followed by East Renfrewshire, East Lothian, Scottish Borders, Midlothian, Moray and Angus.
Properties in six of the top 10 quality of life areas attract a premium, selling for more than the average Scottish house price - which is £165,921.
"The Shetland Islands not only have the best quality of life but lower than average house prices means that householders have good value-for-money housing"
Martin Ellis
Bank of Scotland
In East Renfrewshire, the area ranked as having the fifth highest quality of life, average property prices were the highest in Scotland at £223,662.
However in the Shetland Islands prices for the year up to September 2008 were 24% lower than the Scottish average.
Martin Ellis, chief economist at the Bank of Scotland, said: "The Shetland Islands not only have the best quality of life but lower than average house prices means that householders have good value-for-money housing."
The Shetland Islands was ranked at 109 in Great Britain for its quality of life.
According to the research Elmbridge in Surrey is the area with the highest quality of life in Britain.
The Quality of Life study said Shetland had the highest employment rate but the highest average earnings were in Stirling.
East Renfrewshire had the most owner-occupied properties and the Western Isles had the biggest houses in Scotland.
Traffic flows were lowest in the Western Isles, Highland and Argyll and Bute.
The Western Isles was also lowest for housebreaking.
East Lothian had the lowest average annual rainfall and Aberdeen and Dundee City had the most hours of sunshine.
Life expectancy was highest in East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire and Aberdeenshire.
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