Food body says 'avoid Irish pork'

15:25 GMT, Sunday, 7 December 2008
Food body says 'avoid Irish pork'
Two pigs

Pork from the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland should not be eaten at the moment due to contamination fears, the Food Standards Agency has said.

The advice follows the Irish government's recall of pork products made in the Republic since September.

Dioxins were found in pigs thought to have eaten contaminated feed on 56 farms, nine of them Northern Irish.

The UK's Food Standards Agency said it did not believe at this stage that UK consumers faced any "significant risk".

The FSA said: "Adverse health effects from eating the affected products are only likely if people are exposed to relatively high levels of this contaminant for long periods."

Tests on the slaughtered Irish pigs showed some pork products contained up to 200 times more dioxins than the recognised safety limit.

Food safety expert Professor Hugh Pennington told the BBC the health risk was "very, very low".

He said: "You have to have a lot of these compounds. You have to eat a lot of them, enormous amounts to have any visible effect."

But consumers and retailers have been warned to destroy all Irish pork and bacon products bought since 1 September as a precaution.

Bacon, ham, sausages, white pudding and pizzas with ham toppings are also included in the withdrawal of stocks.

Q&A: The recall of Irish pork

A spokesman for discount supermarket Lidl said half of its stores had removed "own-brand" black pudding and pork belly products sourced from the Irish Republic from their shelves.

He added that half of Lidl's stores had stocked these products and refunds are being offered to people who had bought the products.

Tesco said it sourced some products from Northern Ireland, which it is removing while it awaits further advice.

Other supermarkets contacted by BBC News said they were continuing to check their supplies but many believed they did not stock pork products imported from the Republic of Ireland.

Banned substance

Dioxins are formed during combustion processes, such as waste incineration, and during some industrial processes.

Suspicions over contamination were first raised on Monday as a result of the routine testing of pigs, which indicated the presence of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) - banned in the Irish Republic since the 1970s - in animal feed.

Restrictions were placed on a number of pig farms and tests on pork samples confirmed the presence of dioxins on Saturday afternoon.

Chronic long-term exposure to dioxins can have serious health effects, including causing cancers, but Irish officials said the recall would ensure consumers only had minimum exposure to it.

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16:40 GMT, Saturday, 6 December 2008
Russian Church elects acting head
Metropolitan Kirill in Cuba, 19 October 2008

The Russian Orthodox Church's top body has elected a high-profile bishop, Kirill, as its temporary leader after the death of Patriarch Alexiy II.

Church leaders chose Kirill, 62, in a secret ballot a day after the death of the Church's first post-Soviet leader, Alexiy, from heart failure.

Kirill is familiar to millions of Russians from TV broadcasts and is the Church's chief envoy abroad.

Alexiy, who was 79, is to be buried on Tuesday at a cathedral in Moscow.

The Russian Orthodox Church counts nearly 70% of Russia's population - about 100 million people - among its members and, as such, is the world's biggest Orthodox Christian community.

Its power was badly eroded over more than 70 years of Soviet rule, when the atheistic state swung between persecuting believers and destroying Church property, and imposing state control on its hierarchy.

Alexiy is credited with leading its revival in the 1990s but is believed to have compromised himself with the KGB in Soviet times.

The post-Soviet Church's rigid conservatism and perceived closeness to Kremlin leaders under his guidance also alienated some.

Familiar figure

Alexiy is to be buried at Moscow's Cathedral of the Epiphany after a funeral service at the city's giant Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.

File photo of then-Russian President Vladimir Putin and Alexiy II in Moscow, 27 April 2008

Kirill, whose official title is Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, was picked by the Church's synod at an emergency meeting in the Moscow suburb of Peredelkino.

Already tipped as a successor to Alexiy, he is familiar to Russian viewers for his long-running daily broadcast on the main TV channel ORT, The Pastor's Word.

Since the 1970s, he has travelled abroad as an envoy of the Church and, in his current role as head of its external relations department, visited Cuba in October to consecrate a cathedral in Havana.

Respected for his erudition, he is viewed by some as a reformer but has expressed deeply conservative views in public. He strongly condemned homosexuality as sinful earlier this year when he spoke out against attempts to hold a gay pride march in Moscow.

His hobbies are said to include mountain sports and water-skiing.

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21:46 GMT, Saturday, 6 December 2008
Russian ship sails through Panama
The Admiral Chabanenko in the Panama Canal

A Russian warship has sailed through the Panama Canal for the first time since World War II.

The Admiral Chabanenko had earlier completed manoeuvres with Venezuela's navy, coinciding with a Latin American tour by the Russian president.

The 50-mile (80km) canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans was shut to the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Correspondents say the Russian ship is sending a symbolic message in what the US sees as its sphere of influence.

Ties between the two superpowers have become strained because of Washington's plan for a missile defence system in Poland and the Czech Republic - something Moscow is firmly opposed to.

Panama said the passage of the ship had no political significance, as the canal is "open to all the world's ships".

First since 1944

The warship entered the canal on Friday night and docked at Rodman, once the base for all US naval activities in South America, on Saturday.

It will stay in Rodman for five days.

Map locator

The canal journey, the naval exercises and President Dmitry Medvedev's visit to the region have been seen as aimed at strengthening Russia's influence in the region.

In the naval exercises, about 1,600 Russian and 700 Venezuelan sailors on four Russian ships and 12 Venezuelan vessels took part in the VenRus 2008 joint exercise.

They had originally been scheduled to last three days, but both Venezuelan and Russian officials said the manoeuvres had been successfully completed in one day.

The first and only time Soviet warships used the Panama Canal was in 1944, when the USSR and US were fighting as allies against Hitler, the Russian embassy in Panama told AFP news agency.

Four Soviet submarines crossed the Panama Canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific after undergoing repairs, it said.

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16:37 GMT, Friday, 5 December 2008
Intelligent 'have better sperm'
Sperm cells

Men of higher intelligence tend to produce better quality sperm, UK research suggests.

A team from the Institute of Psychiatry analysed data from former US soldiers who served during the Vietnam war era.

They found that those who performed better on intelligence tests tended to have more - and more mobile - sperm.

The study, which appears in the journal Intelligence, appears to support the idea that genes underlying intelligence may have other biological effects too.

"This does not mean that men who prefer Play-Doh to Plato always have poor sperm"
Dr Rosalind Arden
Institute of Psychiatry

Therefore, if tiny mutations impair intelligence, they might also harm other characteristics, such as sperm quality.

Conversely, people with robust genes might be blessed with a biological "fitness factor" making them fit, healthy and smart.

Previously, scientists tended to assume that lifestyle factors were more likely to underlie any relationship between intelligence and health.

For instance, brighter people may be less likely to smoke, and more likely to take exercise, both of which are known to impact on mental performance.

Different characteristics

The latest study tested the gene theory by taking two characteristics that seemed unlikely to be associated with each other - intelligence and sperm quality.

They found a small, but statistically significant link, and were able to show that this could not be explained by unhealthy habits, such as smoking or drinking alcohol.

The study was based on 425 men who undertook several intelligence tests and provided semen samples.

The researchers found that independently of age and lifestyle, intelligence was correlated with all three measures of sperm quality - numbers, concentration, and ability to move.

Lead researcher Dr Rosalind Arden said: "This does not mean that men who prefer Play-Doh to Plato always have poor sperm: the relationship we found was marginal.

"But our results do support the theoretically important 'fitness factor' idea.

"We look forward to seeing if the results can be replicated in other data sets, with other measures of intelligence and other measures of physical health that are also strongly related to evolutionary fitness."

Dr Allan Pacey is an expert in fertility at the University of Sheffield.

He said: "The fact that it's possible to detect a statistical relationship between intelligence and semen quality in adult men probably says more about the co-development of brain and testicles when the man was in his mother's womb, and therefore how well they both function in adult life, rather than suggesting that playing Sudoku can somehow stimulate more sperm to be produced.

"The improvement in semen quality with intelligence observed in this paper is small and therefore it is unlikely to have a big impact on the ability of men of different intelligences to conceive."

The semen samples were collected in 1985 by the US Centers for Disease Control as part of a large-scale study into the health of US soldiers who served during the Vietnam Era. Some of the men in the sample had served in Vietnam, some had served in Germany, Korea and the USA.

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00:44 GMT, Saturday, 6 December 2008
Brain tests show child wealth gap
Brain

The brains of children from low-income families process information differently to those of their wealthier counterparts, US research suggests.

Normal nine and 10-year-olds from rich and poor backgrounds had differing electrical activity in a part of the brain linked to problem solving.

The Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience study was described as a "wake-up call" about the impact of deprivation.

A UK researcher said it could shed light on early brain development.

The 26 children in the study, conducted at the University of California, Berkeley, were measured using an electroencephalograph (EEG), which measured activity in the "prefrontal cortex" of the brain.

Half were from low income homes, and half from high income families.

During the test, an image the children had not been briefed to expect was flashed onto a screen, and their brain responses were measured.

Those from lower income families showed a lower prefrontal cortex response to it than those from wealthier households.

"We are certainly not blaming lower socioeconomic families for not talking to their kids - there are probably a zillion reasons why that happens "
Prof Thomas Boyce
University of California Berkeley

Dr Mark Kishiyama, one of the researchers, said: "The low socioeconomic kids were not detecting or processing the visual stimuli as well - they were not getting that extra boost from the prefrontal cortex."

Since the children were, in health terms, normal in every way, the researchers suspected that "stressful environments" created by low socioeconomic status might be to blame.

Previous studies have suggested that children in low-income families are spoken to far less - on average hearing 30 million fewer words by the age of four.

Talking boost

Professor Thomas Boyce, another of the researchers, said that talking more to children could boost prefrontal cortex development.

"We are certainly not blaming lower socioeconomic families for not talking to their kids - there are probably a zillion reasons why that happens."

His colleague, Professor Robert Knight, added: "This is a wake-up call - it's not just that these kids are poor and more likely to have health problems, but they might actually not be getting full brain development from the stressful and relatively impoverished environment associated with low socioeconomic status."

He said that with "proper intervention and training", improvements could be made, even in older children.

Dr Emese Nagy, from the University of Dundee, said that it was a "pioneering" study which could aid understanding of how environment could affect brain development.

She said: "Children who grow up in a different environment may have very different early experiences, and may process information differently than children from a different environment.

"The study showed that low socioeconomic status children behaved exactly the same way as high socioeconomic status children, but their brain processed the information differently."

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Euro Dreams Fade for Zloty, Forint, Koruna as Currencies Tumble
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By Ewa Krukowska

Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- The slowing global economy is halting the spread of monetary union into eastern Europe and may lead to another year of losses for the Polish zloty, Hungarian forint and Czech koruna.

The zloty fell 21 percent against the euro since July as Poland headed for its biggest economic slowdown in almost a decade, while Hungary turned to the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and European Union for a bailout as the forint weakened 16 percent. Koruna volatility almost tripled as it depreciated 13 percent. The two-year mandatory trial period before adopting the euro allows swings of no more than 15 percent.

Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic joined the European Union in 2004, committing to enter the 10 trillion-euro ($12.7 trillion) economy of countries sharing a single currency. The dream faded since July as the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression drove investors from emerging-markets. Now, New York-based Morgan Stanley and UBS AG in Zurich predict more foreign exchange losses in eastern Europe.

Hungary’s plans to enter the pre-euro stability test by 2010 are a “mirage,” said Istvan Hamecz, chief executive officer of OTP Fund Management, Hungary’s largest fund management company, with $6.4 billion of assets. “Nobody needs us in that club.”

Less than three months after announcing a target of 2012, Polish Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski said the date isn’t “dogma.” The main opposition party says rushing into the currency will hurt growth and trigger inflation.

Unacceptable Volatility

The zloty dropped 2.7 percent last week to 3.8824 against the euro and the koruna weakened 2 percent to 25.881. The forint fell 3 percent to 266.67 per euro as industrial output declined the most in 16 years. Only Iceland’s krona has performed worse against the euro and dollar since June among currencies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Converting to the euro -- which began in 1999 and now has 15 members ranging from Portugal to Slovenia and Italy to Germany -- requires candidates prove the stability of their currencies and economies.

Three-month volatility in the forint ended last week at a record high 25.6 percent, up from 5 percent at the start of the year. Swings in the zloty jumped to 26 percent from 5.7 percent in January, and to 17.6 percent for the koruna from 6.37.

Polish growth may slow to 0.4 percent next year from 4.8 percent this year, making it impossible for the government to keep its fiscal deficit below the limit of 3 percent of gross domestic product needed to qualify for euro adoption, said Michal Dybula, central European economist at BNP Paribas in Warsaw. The deficit, based on EU methodology, may rise to 3.7 percent of GDP next year from 2.5 percent this year, he forecast.

Target Dates

While European Union Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia endorsed Poland’s euro-adoption plan on Nov. 26, he also said the target date could change. Poland may need to delay until 2015 or 2016 because the government is unlikely to win support to pass laws needed to adopt the euro, said Citigroup Inc. senior economist Piotr Kalisz in Warsaw.

“Given the currency volatility and the deepening slowdown, the euro adoption target is not realistic,” Kalisz said. “The risk aversion and volatility on the market will last for another two or three quarters.”

Inflation will also be a challenge. The average 12-month increase in consumer prices must be within 1.5 percentage points of the average in the three EU nations with the slowest growth. The rate was 6.6 percent in Hungary in October, compared with an EU ceiling of 4.2 percent for that month.

Depleting Reserves

Hungarian Finance Minister Janos Veres said this month the country could join the pre-euro exchange-rate mechanism, known as ERM-2, in 2010 even though the government’s 10-year bond yields are 5.4 percentage points higher Germany’s. Euro criteria say they must converge to a gap of no more than 2 percentage points.

The 2010 date is already later than the 2009 target cited last month by Peter Kiss, the minister in charge of the Prime Minister’s office. Even the new deadline may not be realistic after the country was forced to turn to international lenders for a 20-billion euro loan.

Once Poland, Hungary or the Czech Republic join ERM-2, the zloty, forint and koruna will be pegged to the euro and allowed to trade in a 15-percent band. Their central banks will need to use reserves when their currencies are in jeopardy of breaching the limits.

Reserves are already being depleted. Poland’s foreign currency reserves shrank to $55.2 billion in October, from $62.1 billion in June, while in the Czech Republic they fell to $33.5 billion in November from $36.9 in July. The Czech central bank recommended the government avoid setting a date for euro adoption this year amid the financial crisis.

Hungary’s Bailout

Hungary’s bailout helped boost foreign reserves to $29.1 billion in November from $21.6 billion in October. Moody’s Investors Service, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings cut their foreign-debt ratings for the country.

“The euro won’t solve anything,” OTP’s Hamecz said. “The country has severe structural problems. Those structural problems are easier to solve outside the euro than inside the euro.”

Introduced in 1999 with 11 members, the euro is now the world’s second most-traded currency after the dollar. Greece, Malta, Cyprus and Slovenia have since switched their currencies to the euro and Slovakia will become the 16th in January.

Slovakia’s central bank forecast that membership will boost its trade within the monetary union by as much as 90 percent over the next two decades and lift GDP as much as 20 percent.

Frozen Credit

The global economic slowdown prompted by frozen credit markets and $978 billion of losses and writedowns among the world’s biggest financial institutions has driven investors away from emerging markets, including Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, where benchmark stock indexes have fallen at least 50 percent this year.

“People have been growing increasingly convinced that the crisis will delay euro adoption, but I believe we’ll see some positive news, which will provide a boost for the zloty and the forint,” said David Hauner, a strategist in London for Bank of America Corp. “In Poland and Hungary the crisis has increased the public support for euro adoption and I’m keeping my bet that both countries will enter ERM-2 in the second half of 2009. The more euro-skeptic Czechs may do it a year later.”

Currency traders have never been more bearish, based on the cost of options to hedge against foreign-exchange losses.

The difference in the costs between three-month puts, which grant the right to sell the zloty, and calls, which allow for purchases, has risen to a record 7.5 percentage points.

The so-called risk-reversal rate, used as an indicator of sentiment in the foreign-exchange market, shows traders are more bearish on the zloty and forint than any other of the east European currencies except the Romanian leu.

‘Severe Crisis’

“I would remain cautious on central European currencies in three to six months,” said Benoit Anne, emerging-market strategist at Merrill Lynch in London. “We’re going through a severe crisis, with repercussions for all emerging markets. This will probably delay the adoption of the euro in the region.”

Anne predicts the zloty will fall 9 percent to 4.25 against the euro by June. The forint will depreciate 14 percent to a record low 305 per euro and the koruna will drop 2.5 percent to 26.5 versus the euro, he said.

The Polish and Czech governments both cut their growth forecasts to 3.7 percent next year from 4.8 percent amid the seizure in global credit markets. Hungary’s cabinet expects the economy to shrink next year by 1 percent, the biggest contraction since 1993.

Further reductions may add to pressure on the zloty and put into question the feasibility of Poland’s euro-adoption “within the current time-frame,” said Roderick Ngotho, currency strategist for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at UBS AG in London.

“We are negative on all currencies in the EMEA region,” said Ngotho, who expects the forint will drop 3 percent to 275 per euro in the next three months. “They should remain relatively weak in 2009.”

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U.K. May See Future Outbreaks of Mad Cow Disease, Study Finds
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By Dermot Doherty

Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- The U.K. may see future outbreaks of mad cow disease as new findings suggest some people develop symptoms much later than others, a study found.

Illnesses such as mad cow disease are linked to abnormal proteins in the brain, called prions, and are determined by genetic factors, according to the study, published today by The Lancet Neurology journal. Differences in a person’s DNA may mean some people are more susceptible to the lethal nerve condition or take longer to develop symptoms, researchers at the U.K. Medical Research Council Prion Unit at University College London found.

Mad cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, has infected more than 200,000 cattle in the U.K. Scientists in the mid-1990s found a possible link between BSE and a new variant of the fatal human illness, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or CJD, which destroys brain tissue. Evidence indicates that people may develop the disease by eating meat from infected animals or through blood transfusions.

“A second wave of CJD with a longer incubation time might hit these shores, but we do not know whether this will be a tidal wave or just an imperceptible ripple,” Hans Kretzschmar at Ludwig-Maximillians University and Thomas Illig at the Helmholtz Zentrum, both in Munich, wrote in a comment in The Lancet.

The National Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Surveillance Unit in Edinburgh estimates that 164 people have died from CJD in the U.K. since 1990. Early symptoms include depression or psychosis, unsteadiness and involuntary movements. By the time of death, patients become immobile and mute.

The U.K. banned eating beef from cattle aged over 30 months from 1996 until 2005, when routine, nationwide testing began. The ban cost British farmers 500 million pounds ($728 million) a year. The U.K.’s food-safety regulator, the Food Standards Agency, said in October it supports a proposal to limit tests following a drop in the number of cattle with the lethal brain- wasting disease.

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ＴＶ的不況で関口、みのら高額司会者“大リストラ”へ

所ジョージの番組も存続危機

　テレビ界で来春、ゴールデンタイムの“ニュース戦争”が勃発する。午後７時台のＮＨＫの牙城を崩そうと、民放のＴＢＳ系、日本テレビ系では報道・情報番組の準備を進めているのだ。背景には崖っぷちに立つ放送業界の経営不振と視聴者のテレビ離れがある。あおりを食うのは有名司会者などギャラの高い芸能人で、人気者の大リストラが始まろうとしている。

　在京民放キー局５社の９月中間連結決算は、日テレとテレビ東京が赤字に転落。ＴＢＳは複合商業施設「赤坂サカス」の開業効果で増収したものの、本業のテレビ視聴率は振るわなかった。

　「各局とも世界的金融危機の直撃で保有有価証券の評価損を計上し、景気の悪化で広告収入も激減している」（民放幹部）

　この開局以来の危機に大なたを振るおうと真っ先に処方箋を示したのがＴＢＳだ。

　来年４月から月－金曜の午後６－８時に、大型ニュース番組をスタートさせることを発表。吉崎隆編成局長は「２時間見て、世の中の出来事がすべてわかるようにしたい」と抱負を語った。

　午後７時台ではＮＨＫの「ニュース７」と真っ向勝負となるが、「ストレートニュース的なものがメーンのＮＨＫに対し、かゆいところに手が届く、腑に落ちるニュースに軸足を置きたい」（吉崎局長）と対抗心もあらわに。

　また、正式発表はしていないものの日テレも来春に向け、午後７－８時に生の報道、情報番組のスタートを検討中といわれる。

　ＮＨＫの福地茂雄会長は「競争がないとダメだと思う。ＮＨＫは今まで以上に正確、迅速なニュースを出すことが求められる」と語り、受けて立つ構えだ。

　ＴＢＳの試みについて、作家の麻生千晶氏は「主婦が夕飯の支度に忙しく、サラリーマンも帰宅中で、テレビを見ていない時間帯。２時間もネタが持つかどうか」と心配する一方、「くだらないバラエティー番組に大人たちはウンザリしている。定着するまでは低視聴率でも、がんばる価値がある大冒険」と期待を寄せる。

　ニュース志向に舵を切った民放の台所事情についてベテラン放送作家は、こう明かす。

　「お笑いやバラエティーに飽きた若者はネット動画に流れ、大人の視聴者はＮＨＫに流れている。制作費も、収録が多いバラエティーが１本３０００万円かかるとすれば、報道・情報系の生番組は２０００万円程度に抑えられます」

　大改革の影響をモロに受けるのは、高額なギャラのタレントたちだ。

　ＴＢＳでは関口宏（６５）が１４年前から司会を務める月曜午後７時台の「東京フレンドパークＩＩ」の存廃が検討の対象に。関口は同局で２１年前から「サンデーモーニング」、今年１０月から始まった午後９時台の「水曜ノンフィクション」の司会も担当。“ヒロシ同士”の井上弘社長とも仲が良く、ＴＢＳとの縁は深い。

　週刊誌では、ギャラの一部を自主返上したとも報じられたが、局側は「全くの事実無根」と否定。麻生氏は「関口さんは硬軟両方でき、人から嫌われないタイプの司会者。『フレンドパーク』のように、スタジオで遊ぶ“ゲームもの”は午後８時台に移っても違和感がないし、残すのでは」と推測するものの、安穏としていられない。

　日テレでは、所ジョージ（５３）が１２年前から司会を務める水曜午後７時台の「１億人の大質問！？　笑ってコラえて！」が存続の危機に。また局全体の制作費を切りつめるため、“推定時給５００万円”といわれるみのもんた（６４）を昼の情報番組「おもいッきりイイ！！　テレビ」から降板させ、中山秀征（４１）に代えるプランも浮上しているという。

　自身もテレビ出演の機会が多い経済アナリスト、森永卓郎氏が憂う。

　「ほぼすべての局が広告市場の縮小や予算削減で頭を悩ませている。僕らのように本業があるコメンテーターは番組が減ってもそんなに困らないけど、タレントさんは大変なのでは」

　大量のテレビ難民が出そうな雲行きだ。

ZAKZAK 2008/12/08

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Saudi cleric cites crisis to press for sharia

By Abeer Allam in Arafat and Reuters

Published: December 7 2008 23:16 | Last updated: December 7 2008 23:16

Saudi Arabia’s top cleric has used his annual sermon to Muslim pilgrims assembling for hajj to urge Muslim countries to renounce capitalism and form an Islamic economic bloc that adopts interest-free finance.

Grand Mufti Abdelaziz Al al-Sheikh told worshippers assembling on the plain of Mount Arafat that global economies now caught in crisis were suffering the result of using interest as a bedrock of their financial systems. Under Islamic law, or sharia, paying or receiving interest is forbidden.

The crisis, he said, demonstrated that “Muslim countries must have sharia-compliant economies and unite to become a formidable economic power”.

Islamic banks, which grew rapidly in the Gulf region in recent years from an influx of oil receipts, often depend on retail deposits rather than money markets for funding. As a result, sharia-compliant banks generally demand strong collateral, which some argue is why their exposure to toxic loans is limited.

The white-bearded mufti, wearing the traditional white robes of the pilgrim, also warned young Muslims to stay away from the corrupting influences of the modern media, which he termed “ideological terror” and said was targeting them.

The mufti’s economic edicts are meant to serve more for spiritual guidance, and commenting on a global economic phenomenon is a rare event.

Some pilgrims said that they would pray for an end to the global financial crisis.

Mohammad Fateh, who works for a brokerage in Egypt, told Reuters: “The economic crisis is on the mind of most pilgrims. They are going to pray to God to alleviate the problem . . . It’s an unexpected crisis and the only solution is mercy from heaven.

“The Arab and Muslim worlds are going to be affected by this crisis. I’ll pray to God to lift this scourge,” he said, adding that many had asked him to offer prayers on their behalf.

The hajj retraces the path of the Prophet Mohammed 14 centuries ago after he removed pagan idols from Mecca, his birthplace, and years after he started calling people to the new faith, now embraced by more than 1bn people worldwide.

At Arafat, Muslims pray for forgiveness and for their own and fellow Muslims’ welfare.

After sunset, the pilgrims were scheduled to continue their gradual trip toward Mecca, heading for Muzdalifa to gather pebbles for the symbolic ritual of throwing stones at a set of pillars and walls representing the devil.

Saudi media said this year a record 1.72m hajj visas had been granted to Muslims abroad and at least 500,000 local people had received permits.

This year’s hajj has so far not faced any of the problems or disasters that have marred the event in previous years, which included fires, hotel collapses, police clashes with protesters and deadly stampedes caused by overcrowding.

Saudi Arabian authorities have carried out renovations over the past year in an effort to ease the flow of pilgrims inside the Grand Mosque and at the disaster-prone Jamarat bridge. In January 2006, 362 people were crushed to death there in the worst hajj tragedy since 1990.

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Religious police try to bowl over Saudis

By Abeer Allam in Riyadh

Published: December 5 2008 18:25 | Last updated: December 5 2008 18:25

Saudi Arabia’s religious police, best known for their enforcement of gender segregation and dress codes, joined young men at a bowling alley in Jeddah in an effort to win over opponents.

The encounter, described by Al-Watan newspaper last month, was the latest move by the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, known as the mutawa’a, to improve its image.

The semi-autonomous force has announced plans to enrol its 10,000 members in classes on Islamic law and public relations, including the “art of advising and dealing with the public”. It is considering launching its own television station and has established a board of directors to formalise policies.

Most tellingly perhaps, the commission has suggested that it might consider recommendations from outsiders on ways to improve its operations “to better suit the present development of society” in accordance with sharia law and “directives of the rulers’’.

Most residents of the kingdom encounter the religious police in public places where they verify that couples in restaurants are married or related, ensure women cover themselves, instruct men to cut their hair, and escort Muslim men to prayer.

Some Saudis praise the commission for preserving morality. Stories abound of members saving women from harassment. They claim to have helped stop over a half million crimes, ranging from dealing in drugs or alcohol to sorcery.

But the commission does not have an unblemished reputation. The mutawa’a was accused of beating a man to death in detention last year after entering his home to search for alcohol. A high-speed car chase in April ended in the death of four Saudis fleeing the commission. A scuffle between the mutawa’a and the family of a man they sought to detain in October for driving with an unrelated woman ended only when he produced documents that proved she was his wife.

King Abdullah and Prince Naif ibn Abdulaziz, the interior minister, have taken steps to rein in the commission, which is not part of the regular police but falls under the control of religious authorities, such as introducing the requirement that they carry identification.

Commission leaders have instructed members to refrain from high-speed chases, detaining or interrogating suspects, or searching private homes unless accompanied by regular police officers or authorised by the interior ministry.

Critics said members who ignored these instructions were acquitted or received light punishments. But the moves to limit their autonomy may signal change.

“It is a part of a trend by the government as it seeks to assert its control and inst­it­utionalise the various religious authorities,” said Chris Boucek, a Carnegie Middle East Prog­ramme ­analyst. “The government knows society can no longer tolerate their behaviour.’’

The ruling Al Saud family maintains a complex but mutually beneficial alliance with the kingdom’s religious institutions. The government encourages uniform rules for society, and the religious authorities preach obedience to the rulers.

The bowling alley “confrontation” was won by the mutawa’a, who left the young men in western clothes with good wishes. Some hope the encounter will lead to change and was not just a public relations exercise. “Winning hearts of the people will require more than winning a bowling game,’’ columnist Saad al-Ghamdi wrote. “Accountability and selection of the right members will help defuse the social tensions.”

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London beats target to attract China business

By Bob Sherwood, London and South-East Correspondent

Published: December 8 2008 02:01 | Last updated: December 8 2008 02:01

A drive to attract Chinese companies to London has received expressions of interest from three times the number it had targeted.

Think London, the inward investment agency, said the number of Chinese companies eager to set up an office in London as a stepping stone to Europe and Africa was higher than ever before in spite of the international economic downturn.

The agency had set a target of 30 positive leads from a three-month promotional roadshow in China. But 95 companies registered a strong interest and allocated a budget to establish a base in London within two years. Of those, nine are already working to set up in the capital within 12 months.

Michael Charlton, chief executive, said: “Chinese companies’ interest in setting up operations in London has far and away exceeded our expectations.”

However, he accepted that tough economic conditions would mean that inward investment would be hit next year. “Clearly, of the 95, some companies will fall away.” he said. “The challenge now is to turn strong interest into reality.”

Think London is on track to meet its foreign direct investment targets this year as most of the commitments were made before the full force of the credit crunch was felt. But Mr Charlton said: “It looks positive but I would be kidding myself if I didn’t say 2009-10 was going to be challenging.”

Chinese companies, which were well capitalised and did not need to rely on debt for expansion, realised that now was a good time to invest in London to take advantage of the weak pound and softening property prices, he said. In addition, a third of the interested companies had been sponsors or suppliers to the Beijing Olympics and were keen to take advantage of London 2012.

Chinese companies were keen to use London as a base to expand globally because “they need to enlarge their market share; they need to gain access to international management talent; and they need to develop their brands”.

Research published on Monday will show that international executives believe London is the best city from which to expand globally.

The survey of more than 200 senior executives conducted by PwC, the professional services firm and commissioned by Think London, found that the capital was the clear favourite destination for companies from Brazil, Russia, India and China.

While London is considered the gateway to continental Europe, the executives indicated that they favoured the city over 20 others because it acted as a bridge between the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific, and offered good access to the Middle East and Africa.

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LNG talks with Gazprom raise the heat in Cyprus

By Kerin Hope in Athens and Delphine Strauss in Ankara

Published: December 8 2008 02:00 | Last updated: December 8 2008 02:00

Greek Cypriot talks on buying liquefied natural gas from Gazprom have added to tension with Turkey over their search for offshore oil and gas in contested areas of the Mediterranean.

The Nicosia government is preparing to build Cyprus's first LNG terminal in order to reduce reliance on imported oil products. At a later date, Cyprus, which began discussions with Russia's Gazprom natural gas monopoly this week, plans to start trading gas with neighbouring countries.

It also hopes to find commercial quantities of oil or gas in offshore zones off the Greek Cypriot-controlled south of the island.

Exploration rights in these areas have already been agreed with Egypt and Lebanon, and talks are under way with Syria for a similar agreement.

A second round of bids for 11 offshore exploration blocks will be held early next year.

However, the Greek Cypriot moves have soured the atmosphere at talks with the Turkish Cypriots on reunifying the island and triggered a robust response from Turkey.

The Nicosia government complained to the UN last month that a Turkish warship harassed two research vessels off the southern coast.

Turkey says the Greek Cypriots have no right to explore for oil or gas before reaching a settlement with Turkish Cypriot authorities on the status of the island.

Until then there can be no decision on maritime jurisdiction, Ankara argues.

Burak Ozugergin, spokesman at the Turkish foreign ministry, described the Greek Cypriot decision to send out exploration vessels as "adventurous", adding "this is not the time to do business like that".

Greek Cypriots lack a naval force to patrol the waters off Cyprus. Greece is unwilling to raise the stakes in its own dispute with Turkey over oil rights in the Aegean by sending warships to Cyprus.

But Antonis Paschalides, trade and energy minister, said the research ships would "continue and shortly complete their exploration programme as planned".

Mehmet Ali Talat, the Turkish Cypriot leader, sharply criticised an economic co-operation agreement signed during a visit to Moscow last month by President Demetris Christofias, who heads a coalition government. "It has no binding power," he said.

Mr Paschalides discussed gas purchases with Gazprom officials during the visit.

A deal to supply a re-gasification terminal on Cyprus would give the Russian state-controlled gas company access to several new markets in the east Mediterranean.

Gazprom has no LNG of its own yet but is acquiring gas carriers and is trading cargoes to gain experience before the planned start of production in 2014 at the Shtokman field off northern Russia.

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D Börse and NYSE end merger talks

By Jeremy Grant in London

Published: December 7 2008 20:48 | Last updated: December 7 2008 20:48

Prospects for the creation of the world’s largest stock and derivatives exchange group fizzled out Sunday after Deutsche Börse, the German exchange group, said talks with NYSE Euronext about merger options had ended.

However the discussions, which ended in the last few days, have highlighted the growing concern among global exchanges about the impact of falling equities and derivatives volumes.

Deutsche Börse’s shares have fallen 63 per cent this year, while NYSE Euronext’s have fallen by 76 per cent.

While equities trading has slowed dramatically in recent months – decimating many trading desks – derivatives had held up relatively well as they thrive on market volatility. But US options trading volume fell by 21 per cent last month alone. Trading volume at Eurex, the Börse’s derivatives unit, fell by 17.6 per cent last month, compared with the same period a year before.

Deutsche Börse said it “continually evaluated a range of options for the growth of the value of the business”, including contacts with potential partners “including the NYSE”. But the talks with NYSE had been “ended without any result.”

NYSE Euronext declined to comment.

The talks foundered because of concern over likely resistance from US authorities to a takeover of NYSE given that any deal might involve a takeover by the German group, given the Börse’s larger market capitalisation. Had a deal been struck, it would have created a powerhouse in transatlantic clearing at a time when US regulators are pressing for the creation of a central clearing mechanism for over-the-counter credit derivatives.

A combination of their businesses would have enabled both to cut costs, but it is likely to have faced formidable antitrust hurdles.

European authorities have said they want a European clearer for OTC credit derivatives in addition to any US solution.

NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Börse – through its Eurex Clearing unit – are working on separate US and European clearing houses. Today, both exchange groups, as well as the Intercontinental Exchange and CME Group, will explain their plans at a hearing of the House of Representatives agriculture committee.

The Frankfurt-based Börse’s board is due to meet Monday to elect a new chairman, widely expected to be former DaimlerChrysler finance chief Manfred Gentz.

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Edmonds’ Africa empire switches to agriculture

By William MacNamara

Published: December 5 2008 23:19 | Last updated: December 5 2008 23:19

The African empire of Phil Edmonds, the former England cricketing star, has crumbled further in the face of economic forces that are ravaging oil and mining investments around the world.

White Nile, Mr Edmonds’ oil exploration company in Sudan, intends to turn itself into a farming company and put its controversial oil project on hold until 2011 or later. It proposes to rename itself “Agriterra” at a shareholder meeting in January.

White Nile’s metamorphosis comes two weeks after Camec, Mr Edmonds’ copper and cobalt mining company in the Democratic Republic of Congo, suspended its core mining operations to focus on its trucking business.

Camec and White Nile epitomised the swashbuckling optimism of the commodities boom, with the risk of operating in southern Sudan or the Congo outweighed by the boundless demand for oil or copper.

However, well-known forces – including a lack of project financing and investor flight from commodities – have forced Mr Edmonds’ ventures to adopt radical survival strategies.

White Nile, with £5m in the bank, has targeted African agriculture as a low-cost way to generate returns for its remaining shareholders. Camec already runs a maize milling operation in Mozambique, and Bioenergy Africa, another of Mr Edmonds’ recently floated companies, produces ethanol at Mozambican sugar cane plantations.

White Nile’s prize asset – the Block Ba oil concession in southern Sudan – will be mothballed as the company scouts for “agricultural and associated civil engineering industries in Africa,” it said Friday.

For three years Block Ba entangled White Nile in Sudan’s fractious politics.

The company’s concession to drill on the site, which is roughly the size of Pennsylvania, was granted in 2004 by the quasi-independent government of southern Sudan, which holds a 44 per cent stake in White Nile. Total was granted an overlapping concession almost 30 years ago by the central government in Khartoum. The French energy company claims that a national commision confirmed its exclusive rights in June 2007.

Title issues, the company said Friday, would likely remain unclear until southern Sudan’s referendum on independence in January 2011. It is also unlikely that a consortium of investors could be pulled together before that date, the company added, to develop the site. Until then, White Nile will simply “hold tight” in Sudan.

How the company plans to maintain its contested licence and mothballed operations is unclear. Mr Edmonds and Andrew Groves, his deputy, were unavailable for comment.

However, White Nile moved to protect its largest shareholder, the southern Sudanese government, by converting the government’s 155m shares into non-voting deferred shares.

“The shares are now in safekeeping, as if they are dropped in a lockbox, until conditions improve”, the company said. Camec shares have lost 91 per cent of their value since the start of the year. This collapse is exceeded by White Nile, which has lost 93 per cent in 2008 and closed at 2.53p Friday.

In White Nile’s statement Mr Edmonds emphasised the value of his team’s expertise in Africa.

He was raised in Zambia while Mr Groves was raised in Zimbabwe.

White Nile’s directors, he said, “will use their extensive business contacts and knowledge to source the most attractive transactions and assess potential targets for acquisition”.

In targeting agriculture, White Nile said it was more cost-effective to plant a seed in the soil than plant a drill deep underground.

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UK defence fudge

Published: December 7 2008 18:42 | Last updated: December 7 2008 18:42

Britain’s Ministry of Defence is in a state of budgetary turmoil. For the last decade, the Labour government has always insisted it is strong on national security, arguing that the UK still has the second highest defence budget in the world in cash terms. But the cost to Britain of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is taking a toll. Experts say the MoD is on course for a budget deficit of around £2bn at the end of this financial year. Given the pressures on UK public finances, some MoD expenditure programmes must be cut back.

This week, John Hutton, the defence secretary, will announce how he plans to do it. The FT has revealed his main decisions. Mr Hutton will delay the delivery of two new aircraft carriers; he will slow parts of a programme to build new armoured vehicles; and he will give the military slightly fewer new helicopters than it bargained for.

Given the pressures on the MoD, this seems reasonable. After all, why deliver an aircraft carrier in 2014 when the aircraft designed to fly from it will not be ready until 2017? But the fine detail of this expenditure review is not what should bother us. Of far greater concern is the fact that, once again, the MoD is taking short-term spending decisions without any idea of what its long-term ambitions are.

Britain’s armed forces suffer from overstretch. Generals complain about fighting two wars simultaneously. Frontline troops complain about poor equipment. These problems have a single root cause. The UK has not conducted a full Strategic Defence Review – a fundamental analysis of the military capabilities Britain needs to meet its foreign policy goals – since 1998. This is a disgrace. It means the MoD still operates on planning assumptions drawn up before 9/11. It means that the navy, army and air force regularly squabble over what they can extract from a tight budget. It means that equipment decisions are announced without any consensus over what the armed forces should look like in 2020.

This sorry state of affairs will continue until a new SDR is completed. If it judges that the UK should go on trying to punch above its weight militarily, the Treasury must find the money. If it emerges that there can be no more cash for the MoD, then Britain’s military ambitions will have to be scaled back. One way or another, a decision is needed. The Conservatives say they will immediately launch an SDR if they win the election. Mr Hutton should this week commit Labour to do the same. At the very least, this would galvanise defence officials to work on options to be presented to the next government.