Half of bankers would leave if bonuses capped

Half of bankers would leave if bonuses capped

Reuters

Half of British bankers would consider leaving the country if a cap were put on their cash bonuses, a survey showed on Friday.

The poll by jobs website eFinancialCareers.com found that 49 percent of British-based bankers would consider voting with their feet such a limit to their income were introduced. That figure rose to 71 percent among financiers with six to ten years experience.

"Were bonuses to be capped unilaterally in the UK, the country would run the risk of an exodus of top financial talent," said John Benson, chief executive of eFinancialCareers.

However, the number of alternative locations in which to work has shrunk dramatically as the credit crisis has hit hiring and pay around the world.

"(That) 71 percent (of people with six to 10 years experience) would move abroad I don't doubt, given the opportunity. That last word is the operative word," said Shaun Springer, who heads recruitment firm Napier Scott.

"If you could tell me of the areas that could harbour those skill sets (of bankers), please let me know -- I'll be flying out there."

U.S. President Barack Obama this month set a $500,000 (349,970 pound) cap on executive pay at state-backed banks -- pocket money on Wall Street before the crisis.

European banks are also under pressure to curb bonuses, especially those that have taken government help, and many have cut them.

Thirty-three percent of bankers polled said they believed caps on cash bonuses are the most likely change to be implemented over the next year and 39 percent support such caps.

The poll was conducted between February 16 and February 20, with 888 financial professionals responding.

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California’s Newly Poor Push Social Services to Brink (Update1)
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By Vivien Lou Chen

Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) -- In California’s Contra Costa County, 40,000 families are applying for just 350 affordable-housing vouchers. Church-operated pantries are running out of food. Crisis calls have more than doubled in the city of Antioch, where the Family Stress Center occupies the site of a former bank.

The worst financial crisis in seven decades is forcing thousands of previously middle-income workers to seek social services, overwhelming local agencies, clinics and nonprofits. Each month 16,000 people, including many who were making $60,000 to $100,000 annually just a few years ago, fill four county offices requesting financial, medical or food assistance.

“Unless we do things differently, not only will we continue to be on life support, but the power to the machine is going to die,” said county Supervisor Federal Glover, who represents Antioch and the cities of Pittsburg and Oakley about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of San Francisco.

Contra Costa, an East Bay suburban region of more than 1 million, turned thousands of farmland acres into housing in the past two decades, becoming an affordable alternative to San Francisco. Now, the area is being hit by a double whammy, as rising unemployment increases demand for social services, while plunging home values shrink tax revenue and squeeze agency budgets.

County officials made $90 million in cuts during the current fiscal year, and plan to reduce another $56 million, out of a $1.2 billion general-fund budget, in the coming year. County administrator David Twa said he doesn’t expect to see a “gradual recovery” in property taxes until 2012 or 2013.

Safety Net

The social safety net is being stretched “all over the country,” said Jacqueline Byers, research director for the National Association of Counties in Washington. “The formerly middle class who lost jobs, homes, or both suddenly are requesting assistance for the first time.”

Nationwide, demand for food stamps, one of the first benefits that new applicants for services qualify for, has mushroomed since the recession began in December 2007. About 31.1 million people received food stamps in November, an increase of 13 percent from the end of 2007, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department, which administers the program.

A record 5.11 million Americans were collecting unemployment benefits in the week ended Feb. 14. The jobless rate in Contra Costa, currently at 9.3 percent compared with a U.S. rate of 7.6 percent, is likely to reach as high as 12 percent, Twa said. Among local employers that have cut jobs or forced workers to take unpaid leave are USS-Posco Industries, a joint venture of U.S. Steel Corp. and Posco of South Korea, and newspaper publisher MediaNews Group Inc.

“We are in a critical situation and it’s not likely to get better over the next several years,” Twa said.

Therapy for Staff

Lines snake out the door of Contra Costa County’s employment and human services office in Antioch. At the Richmond office, the applicants’ stories of foreclosures and repossessed cars are “weighing” on staffers, who are offered therapy, said division manager Renee Giometti.

“People are physically going through a slow death,” said Karen Stewart, an area real-estate agent who earned about $80,000 a year just three years ago and is now down to her last $700. “You don’t have any support and the support systems that were in place before aren’t in place anymore.”

Recently separated, Stewart, 45, said she has been without a steady income since 2006 and is living on a county-issued food- debit card. The five-bedroom house in Brentwood she and her husband had purchased for $500,000 went into foreclosure in January. She said she hasn’t ruled out moving into her Lexus sedan and sending her 12-year-old son to live with a relative on the East Coast.

‘On the Edge’

Shelley Bowen, a 35-year-old stay-at-home mom from Antioch, said she and her husband Jason are “teetering on the edge,” as they face slowing sales of his art work and a $2,500 monthly mortgage that will go up by $1,000 in April.

Even though Jason makes $90,000 to $95,000 a year as an oil painter and instructor, “we’re kind of holding our breath, hoping nothing else happens,” Bowen said. If necessary, the couple would turn to family and friends, then church-welfare services and government assistance, she said.

“It’s a combination of a housing crisis and unemployment crisis like we’ve never seen before,” said Antioch realtor Kay Trail, a former city-planning commissioner. “Instead of being a bedroom community where people could live a certain lifestyle for an affordable price, now there’s quiet dread.”

Homeowners Default

The county’s median house price has plummeted 53 percent to $220,000 from $463,000 in a year, according to MDA Dataquick in San Diego. In the fourth quarter, 3,135 notices of default representing the first stage of foreclosure were filed against county homeowners, the firm said. That’s more than 10 times the number in San Francisco.

In Antioch’s old-town district, the Peacock Expressions art gallery, More to Love clothing store, and Rivertown Cafe are gone, replaced by empty storefronts.

About five miles away, signs reading “bank-owned home” are scattered throughout neighborhoods. Single-family properties built by KB Home are offered for less than $300,000. At the County East Mall, TJX Cos.’ Marshalls and Gottschalks Inc. stores were almost empty.

The county’s Housing Authority has a five-year wait for affordable-housing vouchers, said executive director Joseph Villarreal. Requests for homeless assistance statewide were up 26 percent in September over a year earlier, according to the California State Association of Counties in Sacramento.

Suicide Threats

“There’s always a level of desperation” in applicants, Villarreal said. “But the degree and depth of it now I’ve never seen: I’m not used to getting calls from clients saying they’ll kill themselves if they don’t get on the wait list.”

California’s 58 counties are $1 billion short of the amount needed to administer social-service programs in the current fiscal year that ends in June, said Paul McIntosh, executive director of the statewide group of counties. The local-government crisis was aggravated by state Controller John Chiang’s move earlier this month to start delaying almost $270 million in payments to counties for social services.

Neither the California legislature’s new budget package approved on Feb. 19 nor President Barack Obama’s $787 billion federal stimulus plan signed into law two days earlier will be enough to completely or immediately help counties, said McIntosh and Glover. Counties will still fall short of what they need even if Chiang releases previously withheld funds, they said.

“Contra Costa is near the front of the pack” among counties with the deepest financial woes, McIntosh said. “But the pack is tightly bunched and all headed in the same direction: off a cliff.”

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Bahrain to issue bonds for housing

By By Robin Wigglesworth Abu Dhabi

Published: February 26 2009 11:22 | Last updated: February 26 2009 11:22

Bahrain said on Thursday it will sell nearly $800m worth of bonds to finance house building projects and bolster the island’s beleaguered economy.

Bahrain’s ministry of labour will issue the bonds over the next six months, Ibrahim bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, the kingdom’s housing minister, told CNBC Arabiya, a regional television station. The minister said the government spending was “needed to break out of the global financial crisis”.

Bahrain is the most diversified and least indebted economy in the Gulf region, but was the first country to be put on a negative outlook by a rating agency, due to its large financial sector and the government’s reliance on dwindling oil revenue.

The Bahraini government’s direct external debt is only about 20 per cent of gross domestic product, but the country has far smaller foreign currency reserves than its more hydrocarbon-rich neighbours.

This, coupled with a financial sector that has expanded to 15 times the island’s GDP, spurred Moody’s Investors Services in January to lower its outlook on Bahrain’s debt rating to negative, raising the prospect of first sovereign credit downgrade in the Gulf by the rating agency.

Most of the 400 financial institutions in Bahrain are offshore and unlikely to need state support, but the onshore retail banks still has assets of about four times GDP, according to Moody’s analysts.

A series of Bahrain-based financial institutions have been downgraded or been put on negative watch. Economists warn that despite being among the more well-governed states in the region, Bahrain could be severely impacted by the credit crunch.

“We believe the financial crisis will weigh heavily on Bahrain’s financial industry and given the importance of the sector to the country, that it would have a disproportionately strong impact on economic growth,” analysts at EFG-Hermes wrote in a recent report.

Several countries in the region could issue bonds in 2009 and 2010. Dubai, Oman and Saudi Arabia have all presented deficit budgets for the year, but the latter two can rely on large currency reserves amassed in the past decade.

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Sonagas to pursue plan in Equatorial Guinea

By Matthew Green in Abuja

Published: February 27 2009 02:48 | Last updated: February 27 2009 02:48

Sonagas, Equatorial Guinea’s state gas company, says it will push ahead with plans to partner with Eon Ruhrgas, the German utility, to create a West African gas hub, as it dismissed concerns that the project will struggle to source enough supply.

The volcanic island wants to transform itself into a centre for gathering gas from neighbouring Nigeria and Cameroon as well as from its own reserves to boost its exports of liquefied natural gas.

Serapio Sima Ntutumu, deputy director-general of Sonagas, said he hoped to reach a final investment decision on the scheme by June with a consortium comprised of Sonagas, Eon, Union Fenosa of Spain and Portugal’s Galp Energia.

“We want to be fast,” Mr Ntutumu told the Financial Times on the sidelines of an oil and gas conference in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. “It’s a huge project. Unemployment will disappear, the government will have more money.”

Eon, Europe’s leading gas company, signed a memorandum of understanding setting out its commitment to developing the scheme and building a second LNG export facility in Equatorial Guinea last month as part of a wider strategy of diversifying its sources of gas.

European governments consider West Africa as a potential route to reducing their dependence on Russia, which supplies a quarter of gas consumed in the EU.

Mr Ntutumu declined to give an estimate for the cost of the project, which will require huge investment in pipelines and processing facilities at a time when falling oil prices are forcing energy companies to review many projects.

Equatorial Guinea is hoping to source gas from new discoveries in its waters and from gas currently flared as waste by ExxonMobil, the US major, from its Zafiro deepwater oilfield. The government will have to convince its partners that it can persuade neighbouring states to make up the difference needed to make the project viable.

Past attempts to broker deals to pipe gas to Equatorial Guinea have delivered scant results. Nigeria has ambitious plans to harness a greater share of its vast gas reserves for domestic use as well as feed a growing export market. Cameroon would also need substantial incentives to participate.

Members of the consortium, who have pledged to help develop a “master plan” to commercialise Equatorial’s Guinea’s gas, will also have to weigh the risks of stepping into one of Africa’s fastest-growing but most volatile energy frontiers.

Huge offshore oil discoveries have boosted Equatorial Guinea’s oil production from almost nothing a decade ago to about 380,000 b/d, ranking it behind only Nigeria and Angola among sub-Saharan African producers.

But the rapid expansion has been accompanied by tensions between the government and companies. Senior officials are unhappy with the terms of a contract they have with the UK’s BG Group, sole purchaser of the country’s existing 3.4m tonnes of LNG output. The government has also publicly criticised ExxonMobil for flaring gas.

Gunmen in boats attacked the presidential palace in Malabo, the capital, this month, underscoring the potential for instability. Last year, Equatorial Guinea jailed Simon Mann, the former UK special forces offer, for his role in an failed plot to overthrow Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the president, in 2004.

Eon did not respond to requests for comment.

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The Short View

By John Authers

Published: February 27 2009 02:00 | Last updated: February 27 2009 02:00

It was the overextended US housing market that got the world into this financial mess - and there is still no sign that improvements in American housing will help get us out of it.

A raft of new US housing data this week scotched tentative signs of life in earlier data. Sales of new homes were lower last month than in any month since records began in 1963. With foreclosed homes offering cheap alternatives, builders have made limited progress getting rid of their huge overhang of unsold houses.

Unsold supply is down 40 per cent from the peak, but at the current rate it would take 13 months to clear the backlog.

Lower house prices make consumers less wealthy and inhibit their spending. For banks, lower prices leave more people in negative equity and so reduce the ultimate value of the "toxic" mortgage-backed bonds on their books.

Elsewhere, what is perhaps most alarming is that the two big European economies that enjoyed housing bubbles of their own - the UK and Spain - seem to have even further to go before the problem is dealt with. Direct comparisons are difficult, but the most widely used bench

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Moscow sees end to capital flight as rouble stabilises

By Catherine Belton in Moscow

Published: February 27 2009 02:00 | Last updated: February 27 2009 02:00

Russia's capital flight looks to have ceased this month after reaching as much as $40bn in January, Alexei Kudrin, the finance minister said yesterday.

Russian officials are watching anxiously for signs of economic life after a disastrous January in which gross domestic product fell 8.8 per cent year on year and the government accelerated the rouble's devaluation.

The currency's decline had frozen credit markets, exacerbating a slowdown in the economy caused by plummeting demand for commodities.

The rouble lost 15 per cent of its value against a basket of dollars and euros in January and the central bank said it had spent $40bn (€31bn, £28bn) to prevent it falling further.

Economists said the apparent end to the capital flight this month came as the rouble stabilised against the basket.

This came after the central bank announced an end to its policy of gradual depreciation on January 22, saying it would defend the rouble at the level of 41 to the basket - a level that balances Russia's current account at present oil prices.

The central bank said yesterday that expectations of further rouble devaluation were easing and growth in foreign currency deposits was stabilising.

"[Government officials] have brought to a close the period of gradual depreciation during which they were supplying roubles to the banking system at interest rates far lower than expected depreciation," said Rory MacFarquhar, chief economist at Goldman Sachs in Moscow. "Banks had very strong motivation to short the rouble. The gradual depreciation worsened the domestic credit squeeze as it meant banks were unwilling to lend in roubles."

But economists warned that the rouble, which fell 35 per cent between November 11 and the end of January, could come under more pressure if the oil price fell or if government loosened monetary policy to fund an expected budget deficit of 8 per cent of GDP.

The economic outlook would continue to be uncertain, Mr MacFarquhar said, because even a revival of lending by state banks following the stabilisation of the currency was unlikely to fill the chasm left by the dearth of international credit and lending by private Russian banks.

Mr Kudrin is being blamed by conservatives for the $200bn decline in foreign currency reserves, while the government has yet to agree a revised budget for this year as infighting over the dwindling reserves escalates.

Conservatives have called for the introduction of capital controls to prevent the flight of the money the government spent supporting the rouble.

The central bank said only 17 per cent of the $40bn it had spent supporting the rouble had physically left the country.

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非正規労働者の失職15.8万人　08年10―3月、内定取り消し1574人

　厚生労働省は27日、昨年10月から今年3月の間に職を失ったり、失う予定の非正規労働者数を発表した。失職者数は15万7806人と1月調査と比べ約 26％増加。初回の11月調査と比べ5.2倍に膨らんだ。雇用不安は学生にも及び、今春に大学などを卒業予定の採用内定取り消し人数は1574人。 1993年度の調査開始以来、最悪の水準となった。

　契約を更新しない雇い止めや解雇などに踏み切る事業所は2316と1月調査と比べ約500事業所増えた。

　職を失う非正規労働者の内訳をみると、派遣労働者が10万7375人で全体の68％を占めた。期間労働者を含む契約労働者は2万8877人（18.3％）、請負労働者は1万2988人（8.2％）だった。(08:47)

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レノボＣＥＯ、日本に高級機種　個人向けパソコンで

　世界4位のパソコンメーカー、中国レノボ・グループの楊元慶最高経営責任者（ＣＥＯ）は26日、日本経済新聞記者に日本事業を強化する方針を明らかにした。個人向けは昨年末から5万円前後の低価格機のみ販売しているが、20、30万円程度の高級機種も近く投入する意向を表明。法人向けも、大企業だけでなく中小企業の開拓に乗り出す構えだ。

　同社は2008年10―12月期に9700万ドル（約95億円）の赤字に転落。5日に創業者の柳伝志氏が会長に、会長の楊氏がＣＥＯにそれぞれ復帰した。2500人の人員削減などで09年度に3億ドルのコストを削減し「1年以内に黒字転換させる」と言明した。(07:00)

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犯罪人引き渡し条約、政府が中国と交渉　締結へ年内合意目指す

　日中両政府は犯罪人を相互に引き渡す際の対象者や手続きを定めた犯罪人引き渡し条約の締結に向け、近く交渉に入る方針を固めた。服役中の外国人を母国に移送する受刑者移送条約と併せて実務者協議を開始、年内の合意をめざす。両国は捜査協力を迅速に進めるための刑事共助条約も昨年結んでおり、司法分野での連携が一段と進む。

　日本はすでに米国、韓国と犯罪人引き渡し条約を締結している。日中間で結ばれた場合、日本で犯罪を犯し中国に逃亡した容疑者が日本側の求めに応じて引き渡されることになる。日本から中国への引き渡しも可能になり、双方とも引き渡しを拒否できる条件を付ける見込み。28日に予定している北京での日中外相会談でも司法分野での連携強化に触れる方向だ。(07:00)

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ＪＡＳＲＡＣに排除措置命令　公取委、著作権管理事業めぐり

　テレビ局などの放送事業者向け音楽の著作権管理事業を巡り、他社の新規参入を阻害したとして、公正取引委員会は27日、日本音楽著作権協会（ＪＡＳＲＡＣ）に独占禁止法違反（私的独占）で排除措置命令を出した。楽曲をいくら使っても使用料が一定率で変わらない契約内容を違反と認定し、使用実績を反映させた料金設定に改めることなどを求めた。

　公取委によると、ＪＡＳＲＡＣはＮＨＫや民放など約550社と「包括的利用許諾契約」を締結。音楽放送事業収入の1.5％程度を支払えば、管理する数百万曲の自由な使用を認めている。

　公取委は、この契約だとＪＡＳＲＡＣの管理楽曲の使用実績にかかわらず、他の事業者が管理する楽曲を使うと「追加負担」が生じる点を重視。放送事業者側に他社との契約を回避させ、新規参入を阻んでいると認定した。(19:01)

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ＪＡＳＲＡＣ：公取委が排除命令「実態反映せず徴収」

　テレビ・ラジオで使う楽曲を巡り、著作権を管理する社団法人「日本音楽著作権協会」（ＪＡＳＲＡＣ、東京都渋谷区）が他業者を排除しているとして、公正取引委員会は２７日、独占禁止法違反（私的独占）で排除措置命令を出した。楽曲の利用実態を反映しない算定方法で使用料を徴収しており、他業者の新規参入や事業展開を制限していると認定した。新しい契約方法を考案し公取委に提出することや再発防止を求めている。

　排除型私的独占には課徴金制度が規定されておらず、排除措置命令が最も重い処分。命令に違反すると５０万円以下の過料が科される。

　公取委によると、ＪＡＳＲＡＣは放送局との間で、前年度の放送事業収入の一定割合（原則上限１．５％）を徴収する「包括契約」を結んでいる。楽曲の利用回数を基に算出する「個別契約」と異なり、利用状況は反映されない。

　公取委はこの契約手法に加え▽ＪＡＳＲＡＣのシェアが約９９％▽後発業者の楽曲を使用すると放送局側に追加支出が生じるため、使用されにくい▽利用回数を把握せずにすむため、放送局側にもメリットがある－－などが重なり競争が制限されていると判断した。

　一方で個別契約への変更までは命じなかった。公取委は「ＪＡＳＲＡＣのシェアが減った際に受領額を減少させるなど、実際の楽曲使用状況に応じて使用料が支払われればよい」としている。

　ＪＡＳＲＡＣは１９３９年に設立され、作詞家、作曲家ら著作権者から委託を受け著作権を管理している。放送局から得た使用料から手数料を差し引き著作権者に分配する。従来ＪＡＳＲＡＣが業務を独占していたが、０１年の規制緩和で１１業者が新規参入した。

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鳥インフル、拡大の恐れは低く　感染農場の出荷停止　28万羽殺処分

　日本一のウズラ卵の産地として知られる愛知県豊橋市で鳥インフルエンザウイルスへの感染が発生した。拡大のおそれは低いとされるが、28万羽が殺処分となるほか、周辺の農場からの出荷も停止され、食品業界などに衝撃が広がった。ウズラ卵は学校給食などへの出荷も多く、風評被害を懸念する声も。農林水産省が現地に担当者を派遣するなど対策に乗り出した。

　「防疫活動や感染防止に尽くしていきたい」。愛知県は27日正午から、神田真秋知事が県庁内で緊急記者会見を開き、これまでの経緯や今後の対応などを説明するとともに対策に全力を挙げる方針を表明した。神田知事は緊張した面持ちながら県民に冷静な対応を呼びかけた。(16:00)

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中国産偽装…お墓ディレクター激白！悪質業者の暴利

「おくりびと」の名を汚す
素人には同じように見える墓石だが…（写真と本文は関係ありません）
素人には同じように見える墓石だが…（写真と本文は関係ありません）

　映画「おくりびと」のアカデミー賞受賞で、「納棺師」の仕事がにわかに脚光を浴びているが、同じ葬祭業界の一角を担う墓石業者の世界では、一部の悪質な業者が消費者の無知を逆手に幅を利かせている。素人に墓石の善しあしなど分からないうえ、販売方法は完全に業者主導。粗悪で高価な墓石を買わされている遺族も多いという。

　「新しい形式の葬儀が登場するなど、葬祭業界全体が変わりつつある中で、墓石業界も公平に相見積もりできる仕組みなどを確立すべき。何十万円もする墓石の価格や品質を消費者に納得していただける態勢が整っていないから、いつまでもクレームや不信感がなくならない」

　こう語るのは「お墓ディレクター」の資格を持つ都内の墓石業者。墓石業界の市場規模は約３００億円、業者数は全国で約１万２０００社といわれるが、最近、中国産墓石をめぐる施工後のトラブルが急増しているという。

　「中国産墓石はいまやシェア８割を超えていますが、その多くは『中国産Ａ９９８』のように産出省ごとに割り当てられた石種の記号を表示するよう、業界団体から指導されています。しかし、一部の業者は自分たちで勝手に『〇〇石』などの商品名を付けて販売。大手の業者ですら『××省産』と明記しつつ、肝心の記号はナシです。これは、石を知らない素人に他社の同種墓石と比較されないための方策です」

【素人には見分けつかず】

　その一方、「国産」と表記した墓石の加工を中国で行っているケースもあるという。中国産墓石の多くは工程の多くを機械化し、大量生産することでコストを抑制、加工のための人件費も安いことから国産とは比較にならない安価で販売できる。だが、石は国産でも加工が中国では、「純国産」とは言えない。

　日本仏事ネット（福岡）によると、墓石購入費用の全国平均は約１７４．１万円。高い買い物だけに、購入者も墓石の質は気になるところだろう。一般に、良い墓石を選ぶポイントは（１）硬度が高く（２）吸水率が低く（３）キメが細かいこと－といわれるが、石材だけで数千種類もあり、業者でさえ石材を覚えるのに最低３年はかかるといわれるから、素人による判別はほぼ不可能だ。しかも、仏石など目立つ部分にのみ注文通りの石材を使用し、目立たない敷石などは低ランクの石を使う悪質業者もいるというから油断ならない。

　「油断ならないのは墓石だけではありません。最近、首都圏近郊に増えている私営霊園。これは複数の墓石業者が共同開発したものが大半ですが、墓地購入後、数年以内にその業者の墓石を買うという条件を付けるところも多い。これも消費者本位とは言いがたい」（都内の中堅葬儀社社長）

　前出のお墓ディレクターは「日本石材産業協会では、加盟社に産出国と産地を記した産地証明書と産地国証明書の添付を勧めています。われわれだって『おくりびと』の一員ですから、良い意味で注目されたいものです」と話している。

ZAKZAK 2009/02/27

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派遣村：仙台など全国９カ所で３月実施
「年越し派遣村」閉村の朝、休憩する人たち＝東京・日比谷公園で２００９年１月５日、武市公孝撮影
「年越し派遣村」閉村の朝、休憩する人たち＝東京・日比谷公園で２００９年１月５日、武市公孝撮影

　年末年始に東京・日比谷公園で行われた失職者支援の「年越し派遣村」と同様の取り組みが、３月、全国９カ所以上で計画されている。各地で準備を進める労働団体などは２７日、厚生労働省を訪れ、シェルター（緊急避難所）の増・開設や生活保護の積極活用を求める要望書を舛添要一厚労相あてに提出した。

　開催場所は、仙台▽さいたま▽浜松▽愛知（２カ所）▽京都▽大阪▽岐阜▽滋賀－－など。東京は検討中。年度末で経済環境が悪化するとみられる３月中旬の土日などに宿泊を伴わない炊き出しと労働、住居、生活に関連する総合相談の実施を検討している。

　仙台市では、反貧困みやぎネットワークが２月から独自にシェルターを準備。日系人など外国人労働者の多い浜松市や豊田市などでは通訳をつけて相談を手厚くするなど各地で独自の取り組みを企画している。

　大阪市で企画する小久保哲郎弁護士は「ひどい雇用状況に各地で人々が立ち上がった。共同で問題に対処し、できるかぎりのことをやりたい」と話した。

　主な連絡先は以下の通り。仙台（０２２・７１１・６２２５）▽さいたま（０４８・７９３・５１６０）▽浜松（０５４・６３６・８６１１）▽愛知・三河（０５２・９１６・５０８０）、愛知・保見ケ丘（０５６５・４８・１１０８）▽大阪（０６・６３６１・１１４３）▽岐阜（０５８・２６４・７３５０） ▽滋賀（０７７・５２２・２１１８）。

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ダイオキシン：合併前の旧村が不法投棄　青森・むつで検出

　青森県むつ市の市有地から、最高で排水基準の９１倍に上る有害物質のダイオキシン類が検出された。合併（０５年）前の旧脇野沢村が、ごみを不法投棄し野焼きしていた。市が２７日、市議会で報告した。

　市によると、旧村は９２年、ごみ処分場の焼却炉が故障したため、新しい焼却場が完成した０４年まで、元の焼却炉近くの村有地にごみを投棄して野焼きし、取り壊した家屋の廃材も捨てるなどしていた。最終処分場の手続きはせず、汚水の流出防止策も取っていなかった。

　市は匿名の投書で経緯を把握し、今年１月、６０００平方メートルとなった“処分場”の４カ所を試掘調査した。その結果、２カ所の堆積（たいせき）層の水から環境省の排水基準（１リットル中１０ピコグラム）を上回る６１０～９１０ピコグラムの高濃度のダイオキシン類を検出した。

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相撲協会：０８年度決算、６年ぶりマイナス

　日本相撲協会は２７日、０８年度決算（１～１２月）を発表した。所管の文部科学省から是正を求められた内部留保の軽減対策として国技館改修基金４２億４０００万円を創設したため、４１億円のマイナス。実質的には約１億円の黒字だが、０２年度以来、６年ぶりのマイナスとなった。

　事業費や管理費などの経費に対する内部留保の割合は、文科省公益法人の指導監督基準で「３０％以下が望ましい」と定められているが、０７年度の決算では６７％に上った。文科省が是正を求めたため、日本相撲協会は昨年９月の理事会で国技館改修基金の創設を決めた。協会によると、内部留保は３４億６０００万円で、２８・９％に減った。

　事業収入は前年度比９０００万円減の９９億円。本場所収入はＮＨＫの放映権料が減額されたことなどが響き、１億５０００万円減の８７億３０００万円。巡業収入は前年より日数が５日増えて４５日となり、６０００万円増の４億９０００万円だった。

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相撲協会：薬物禁止規定、理事会で承認

　昨年から大麻騒動で解雇が相次いだ日本相撲協会は、新たに寄付行為（規約）施行細則に薬物使用禁止規定を設け、２７日の理事会と評議員会で承認した。大麻や向精神薬、覚せい剤など違法薬物の使用が抜き打ち検査で発覚すれば解雇処分の対象となり、退職金の支払いを拒むこともできる。

　対象は力士、役員、年寄らすべての協会員。抜き打ち検査で陽性となるなど薬物使用や使用関与が疑われた場合、親方や法曹関係者、医師らで構成する判定委員会に諮る。本人に弁明させた上で、除名、解雇を含めた処分を理事会で検討し、警察などに通報する。

　抜き打ち検査は全協会員から同意書を取り付けてから実施し、正当な理由なく拒否すれば処分の対象となる。

　昨年８月に大麻所持で逮捕された元幕内・若ノ鵬のケースでは規定の不備から、退職金を支払ったが、今後は支払い拒否や減額も可能となる。武蔵川理事長は「さまざまな解雇の場合に、対応できるようにした」と話した。

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相撲、反ドーピング委員会は延期 大西委員病欠のため

　２５日に東京・両国国技館で予定されていた日本相撲協会のアンチ・ドーピング委員会は、同委員会の中心的メンバーで日本アンチ・ドーピング機構の専門委員でもある大西祥平氏が体調を崩して出席できないため延期となった。委員長を務める伊勢ノ海理事（元関脇藤ノ川）は「専門の先生がいないと会議が進まないので延期にした」と説明した。

　春場所（３月１５日初日・大阪府立体育会館）を控えていることもあり、委員会が開かれるのは４月以降になる見通し。２７日に開かれる相撲協会の定例理事会では、年内の導入を目指すドーピング検査が議題から外れることになる。

　アンチ・ドーピング委員会は伊勢ノ海理事のほか、５つの一門から１人ずつ選出された師匠や、医師ら１３人で構成されている。

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ドーピング検査実施、大幅延期へ…日本相撲協会

　日本相撲協会のドーピング検査実施が大幅に遅れる見通しとなった。東京・両国国技館で２５日、アンチ・ドーピング委員会が予定されていたが、日本アンチ・ドーピング機構専門委員でもある大西祥平委員（慶大教授）がインフルエンザを発症したため延期。罰則規定など詳細を決められず、承認を目指していた２７日の理事会に、議題としての提出が不可能となった。大麻など薬物の抜き打ち検査にも影響が出そうだ。

　対応した伊勢ノ海委員長（元関脇・藤ノ川）は「話は理事会に出ない。次の委員会は大阪から帰ってきてから」と明言。２７日に承認されれば春場所（３月１５日初日）での実施も可能だったが、大きくずれ込みそうだ。

　理事会では、大麻など薬物の抜き打ち尿検査のみ承認する可能性も残されている。だが、同検査を担当し、生活指導部特別委員会の委員も務める“キーマン”大西氏が不在となれば、見送られる可能性も浮上する。

　この日の委員会では、新しく弁護士を委員に加え、検査に立ち会うドーピング・コントロール委員会の立ち上げを決定する予定だった。

（2009年2月26日06時01分 スポーツ報知）

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相撲協会ドーピング委インフルで検査延期

　日本相撲協会が早期実施の方針を打ち出していた全協会員への薬物抜き打ち尿検査が、春場所（３月１５日初日、大阪府立体育会館）後に延期されることが２５日、分かった。この日、協会はドーピング検査委員会を開き、同検査の結果による処罰規定などのガイドラインを決める予定だったが、大西祥平専門委員（慶大医学部教授）がインフルエンザを患ったため、協会側は「専門家がいないのでは会議を進められない」と判断。委員会の延期を決めた。

　これを受け、伊勢ノ海理事（元関脇藤ノ川）は「予定が変わったので、２７日の理事会でドーピングの件が議題になることはない。委員会は春場所後になる」と明言した。この日の委員会と理事会の決定を経て早ければ２８日にも抜き打ち検査が実施されるはずだったが、可能性はなくなった。

　１日には春場所に向けて幹部も含めた大半の協会員が大阪入りする。協会側には大西教授を大阪に出張させて委員会を開催する意向はないようだ。

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相撲協会、内部留保を適正額に　文科省指摘受け新基金

2009年2月27日20時24分

　日本相撲協会は２７日、理事会と評議員会を開き、０８年度（１～１２月）決算を承認した。総支出は２０６億１８００万円で、総収入の１６５億１４００万円から４１億円あまりが不足。来期繰越金は３１億８８００万円となった。

　協会は昨年６月、「事業費や管理費などの合計額の３割以下」とされている公益法人の内部留保資産が７割近くあることを、文部科学省から指摘された。そのため同省の勧めで国技館改修用の基金（４８億５１００万円）を作ったため、支出が増えた。これで協会の内部留保は約２９％に減ったという。

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大麻使用は解雇・退職金拒否も、相撲協会が“厳罰”規定

　大麻の不祥事が相次いだ日本相撲協会は２７日、理事会を開き、禁止薬物を使用した場合は原則、解雇とする「薬物使用禁止規定」を設けた。

　大麻、覚せい剤などの薬物乱用防止を目的とし、抜き打ち検査などの実施を盛り込んだ。

　力士や親方、行司ら協会員は「薬物使用を禁止するための活動を推進する」などと明記され、厳しい態度で臨むことを宣言。同日から薬物検査の同意書を取り始めており、正当な理由がないのに検査を受けなかった場合、処分の対象となる。武蔵川理事長（元横綱三重ノ海）は「しっかりした内容だと思う。（検査を）一日でも早くやっていきたい」と述べた。

　また、不祥事などで解雇された力士については、一般の退職金にあたる養老金の支払いを拒否したり、減額したりできるように改めた。これまでは明確な規定がなく、本人から請求があった場合、支払いを拒めなかった。大麻事件で解雇された元幕内若ノ鵬に対し、約５８０万円の退職金が支給され、規定の不備が表面化したが、今後は理事会の決議で支給を拒否できる。
（2009年2月27日20時34分 読売新聞）

Downturn drives expat exodus from Shanghai

Downturn drives expat exodus from Shanghai

By Patti Waldmeir in Shanghai and Kathrin Hille in Beijing

Published: February 24 2009 17:36 | Last updated: February 24 2009 17:36

Until recently, half the 100,000 Koreans who had made Shanghai their home lived clustered together on the outskirts of the city in “Little Korea”, a neighbourhood where the street signs are in Korean and the shops are full of LG products and kimchi food.

But with the economic crisis hitting the South Korean economy and currency hard, Little Korea is being rapidly vacated.

Korean companies are shipping workers home, cutting off school fees and repatriating wives and children without their menfolk to cut costs. They are the first large wave of expatriates to have begun leaving China’s financial capital as a result of the global economic crisis but their departure raises the prospect of a broader exodus of foreigners who may take investment, skills and job creation opportunities with them.

The press officer of the Korean consulate in Shanghai could not answer questions about the exodus of her countrymen – because her post had just been abolished and she was being sent back to Korea.

Kim Heewon, president of Seoul Plaza, Little Korea’s central shopping complex, estimates that 20 per cent of the Korean population has returned home, many of them in the past few weeks.

“Almost no one comes in any more,” says a clerk in Seoul Plaza’s golf boutique. Throughout Ms Kim’s 4,000-squ-m department store, Korean-speaking staff loiter next to Korean-branded toys, clothing and furniture, with no customers in sight.

Japanese relocation companies, meanwhile, say there has been a marked rise in Japanese families returning home from Shanghai compared with last year and they expect the pace to pick up further during the traditional peak relocation months of March and April.

Each of the Japanese housewives minding toddlers at the vast Mandarin City housing complex, where an estimated 70 per cent of residents are Korean or Japanese, say they know at least one family that has been sent home while the breadwinner remains in China.

The Japanese consulate estimates there were 48,000 nationals in Shanghai 18 months ago, but says it has no figures for the number that might have left since.

The pain has not been limited to Shanghai. A parent with children enrolled in an expensive Beijing international school says most of her daughters’ Korean classmates have left the school almost overnight.

A labour activist in the northern province of Shandong, where Korean investment has totalled $23.4bn (€18.4bn, £16.2bn) since 1988 and has accounted for 40 per cent of total foreign inflows, says the owner of a Korean-invested furniture factory left before the Chinese lunar new year in January and it has yet to reopen.

Local authorities that previously published regular data on absconding factory owners halted such reporting after thousands were left jobless when the entire Korean management of Yantai Shigang Fibre vanished last year.

“I would guess that even more have been closing since then given the worsening macroeconomic environment,” says Yuan Xiaoli, a professor at Qingdao University of Science and Technology.

Back in Little Korea, Ms Kim says the flow of Koreans is not one way. “Workers are going home, but entrepreneurs are coming here from Korea,” she says. “Our Korean people think [since] China is bigger than Korea, there must be more opportunities here than in Korea. There is no dream in Korea, but our Korean people think there is still a dream in China.”

Ms Kim is putting her money where her mouth is. She is planning to open a large golf goods store in Seoul Plaza early next month.

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Estonian jailed over Nato spy scandal

By James Blitz in London and Tony Barber in Brussels

Published: February 26 2009 02:05 | Last updated: February 26 2009 02:05

An Estonian official who passed Nato and other defence and diplomatic secrets to Russia was jailed for more than 12 years on Wednesday, ending what investigators called “the biggest ever spy scandal in Nato history”.

Herman Simm, 61, handed over more than 2,000 pages of information to his handlers in Russia’s SVR Foreign Intelligence Service, according to documents linked to the investigation.

EU diplomats said the Estonian spy had also seriously compromised the EU’s internal security procedures. “He had total access to Nato and EU stuff and was handing everything he could find to his Russian handlers,” one EU diplomat said.

Mr Simm worked at the Estonian defence ministry from 1995 to 2006 and had access to top secret documents, including those related to Nato, which Estonia joined in 2004.

An Estonian district court said it had convicted Mr Simm of state treason and passing on classified information and jailed him for 12 years and six months.

Nato officials in Brussels said they never commented on intelligence matters. But sources in Brussels conceded that Mr Simm’s activities had caused serious damage to the 26-member alliance.

“As Simm had access to classified Nato documents, it is the biggest ever spy scandal in Nato history,” Raivo Aeg, chief of Estonia’s security police said.

“The activities of Herman Simm were a risk not just to Estonia but to our partners,” said Mati Raidma, head of parliament’s defence committee, after the verdict.

“But on the positive side, it was a good sign that our security services and our processes worked well to find him and bring him to justice,” he said. Mr Simm’s wife was arrested with him in September, but was later released without charge.

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Tokyo Grain Exchange Rejects Merger Push, Plans New Products
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By Nobuyuki Akama

Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) -- The Tokyo Grain Exchange, which forecasts a net loss this year, is rejecting proposals to merge with other bourses and will boost product offerings to revive profit, Chairman Yoshiaki Watanabe said.

“We can share trading systems, but we won’t combine our organizations,” Watanabe said in an interview, referring to suggestions that the TGE merge with the Tokyo Commodity Exchange, known as Tocom. “A dedicated exchange for agricultural products is necessary,” he said.

Trading volumes at Japan’s four raw material bourses fell 28 percent in 2008, as prices fell from records amid the global recession, after a 21 percent drop the previous year, according to industry data. The country’s Financial Services Agency in December 2007 proposed steps to create a single venue for trading stocks, bonds and commodity derivatives to win a larger share of global investments.

“The TGE should delist futures for coffee, raw silk and other products that have low liquidity and list futures for attractive goods such as rice,” Kazuhiko Saito, chief analyst at Fujitomi Co. in Tokyo, said. The start of new contracts should be delayed because of the recession, he said.

The member-owned TGE which also trades soybeans, corn, coffee, sugar, non-genetically modified soybeans and azuki beans, is forecast to post a net loss of more than 1 billion yen ($10.3 million) for the year ending March 31 and could take two years to become profitable, Watanabe said on Feb. 23.

Rice, Wheat

The TGE may try to list rice, wheat and livestock futures and will focus on gaining business from individual investors, who account for more than 90 percent of trading at the exchange, to boost volumes, Watanabe said. The bourse will cut personnel and operating costs and is completing a draft business plan, he said.

The exchange in October cut margin requirements for trading soybeans. Next month it will revert to the itayose trading system for raw sugar, where prices are determined at several sessions during the day, after in 2008 starting continuous trading.

The Commodity Futures Industry Association this month said the TGE and the Tocom, which trades contracts including platinum, gold and crude oil, should combine as part of a wider overhaul of the exchanges. A merger was favored by 80 percent of brokers surveyed by the association.

Trading Volumes

Trading volumes at the Tokyo Commodity Exchange, TGE, Kansai Commodities Exchange and Central Japan Commodity Exchange dropped to 52.9 million contracts last year, according to the Japan Commodity Exchanges Committee. Volumes at the TGE, the second-largest, fell 57 percent to 8.4 million contracts.

China’s three commodity exchanges traded record volumes in 2008, according to the China Futures Association.

Volumes in Japan were reduced last year because of commodity market volatility amid wider global financial turmoil, Watanabe said. Laws introduced in 2005 to curb aggressive soliciting of retail investors also cut trading, Watanabe said.

“People say that the economy will pick up at the end of the year or next year,” he said. “Given the characteristics of the futures market, we expect to see bright signs this autumn.”

Japan’s economy shrank at an annual rate of 12.7 percent last quarter, the most since 1974, the government said.

The TGE would look at listing rice futures, which had the potential to lead global markets, after a request was rejected by the agriculture ministry in 2006, he said.

Japan, which started futures trading at the Dojima Rice Market in Osaka in 1730, “mustn’t fail to pass on the torch” and should preserve its heritage, he said.

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11:22 GMT, Wednesday, 25 February 2009
UBS in $31bn bond order mistake
UBS branch

As costly errors go, mistakenly placing a order for 3 trillion yen ($31bn; £21bn) of company bonds is likely to rank as one of the worst.

Yet that is just what has happened at a Japanese unit of Swiss bank UBS, which blamed a computer glitch for the error.

Thankfully for UBS Securities Japan, the Tokyo Stock Exchange is said to have been able to cancel the order.

However, it is far from the first time that UBS or other firms have made similar errors in Japan.

'Fat finger' denial

According to reports, a UBS Securities Japan employee had been trying to buy 30 million yen of bonds in computer games firm Capcom, but because of a computer error, 3 trillion yen's worth was ordered instead.

UBS has insisted that the mistake was not human error - sometimes described as a "fat finger" mistake where a worker types in the wrong number.

Thankfully for UBS, the order was made in electronic out-of-hours trading, which analysts said made it easier to cancel.

A spokesman for Capcom, best known for its Resident Evil game, said the firm had received an apology from the Tokyo Stock Exchange for the inconvenience.

Past errors

This is the second time in eight years that a UBS unit or other company has given the Tokyo Stock Exchange an incorrect order.

In 2001, a UBS business mistakenly issued an order to sell shares in Japanese advertising firm Dentsu.

UBS subsequently had to buy more stock in Dentsu in order to honour the order.

Other firms have also had similar mishaps, such as brokerage Mizuho.

In 2005 a Mizuho trader mistakenly agreed to sell 610,000 shares for as little as 1 yen each, rather than one share for 610,000 yen.

As a result of an error on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's computer systems, it would not respond to Mizuho's repeated attempts to cancel the deal.

As a result, Mizuho was left 40.5bn yen out of pocket.

The then boss of the stock exchange, Takuo Tsurushima, was forced to resign as a result of the error.

These incidents resulted in the exchange introducing new rules in 2007 to allow erroneous orders to be cancelled more promptly.

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08:44 GMT, Thursday, 26 February 2009
UK has 'uphill struggle to 2Mbps'
Lord Carter

The government faces a "massive challenge" in its pledge to bring UK broadband up to a minimum of 2Mbps (megabits per second) say experts.

Broadband thinktank PointTopic has produced a regional breakdown of areas that currently do not have much net speed.

It shows that Northern Ireland is most poorly placed, with more than 30% of households out of reach of 2Mbps.

In Wales, 26.9% of homes are unable to get speeds of 2Mbps or above.

While London only has 1.2% of its population out of range of 2Mbps, places relatively near to the capital are not so lucky.

"Towns such as Basingstoke and Milton Keynes which people might expect to be well connected have notspots," said Tim Johnson, chief analyst with Point Topic.

"The scale of the task is massive and in order to achieve it there needs to be co-operation between government, the regulator and operators such as BT," he said.

PERCENTAGE OF UK OUT OF RANGE OF 2MBPS

* East Midlands - 15.2%
* East of England - 15%
* London - 1.2%
* North East - 15.8%
* North West - 10.8%
* South East - 13.5%
* South West - 19.9%
* West Midlands - 10.4%
* Yorkshire/Humber - 16.1%
* Northern Ireland - 32.2%
* Scotland - 15.6%
* Wales - 26.9%


Broadband anniversary

Ten years on from the first broadband connections being made, the UK is at a crossroads, thinks Mr Johnson.

If the issue is addressed, it could mean that things in the decade ahead look much brighter.

"We forecast that over 90% of UK homes could have broadband access in 10 years time, almost all with speeds of 32Mbps," he predicted.

But, in order to achieve this, the government needs to back the right technology and make sure conditions are favourable, he added.

"We think that fibre is the right way to go. That will provide the UK with a future-proofed network," said Mr Johnson.

BT has pledged to provide fibre to around 40% of the UK but with the caveat that "market conditions must be right".

Mr Johnson believes this may mean that the regulator has to allow BT to "make profit via some level of monopoly agreement".

Not allowing anyone else to use its newly-created fibre network would boost profits for the telco but many believe it would be a backward step, after years of opening up its copper network to other players.

The government's decision to provide at least 2Mbps to all UK homes by 2012 was the most headline-grabbing idea of the recently published Digital Britain report.

The report, the full version of which is due in May, laid out the government's commitment to broadband and suggested that some of the gaps in coverage could be filled with mobile broadband.

Refuseniks

Mobile broadband logo, GSMA

Not everyone is convinced that mobile broadband is up to the job.

"Mobile broadband is not the replacement for fixed line broadband that everyone once thought," said Alex Salter, co-founder of broadband measurement site SamKnows.

"There are issues with the network and services drop off the more people who use it," he said.

There are a couple of firms offering satellite broadband which has been touted as a solution for rural areas. It is not cheap though. Avanti offers a 2Mb service for £45 a month.

Whatever technology is used to fill in the gaps in broadband coverage there will always be a core of users who do not want it even if it is available.

"We estimate that 15 to 20% say that they will never get it and frankly you can live without broadband, although it might make life more expensive and less convenient," said Mr Johnson.

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Panasonic loads into white goods

By Robin Harding in Tokyo

Published: February 25 2009 02:00 | Last updated: February 25 2009 02:00

To enter a mature and notoriously competitive market during a recession might seem foolhardy, especially when that market loads its washing machines from the front, not the top.

Yet Panasonic's launch of large white goods such as washing machines and refrigerators on the European market yesterday reflects the Japanese electronics group's rediscovered aggression and willingness to take risks.

The products had to be completely redesigned to meet European tastes.

The arrival of such a deep-pocketed competitor will shake up a market dominated by European brands such as Electrolux and Bosch, and is set to be the first of many new areas that Panasonic invades.

That Panasonic is able to make such moves reflects the transformation that the company, which sells almost every electrical and electronic product imaginable in Japan, has undergone over the past 10 years.

"In the past we had a strict division system, but we were not good at coordinating divisions," said Hitoshi Otsuki, the director of Panasonic's overseas operations.

Overseas sales companies were fed products, not always suitable, from a jumble of divisions in Japan.

After 2000, Panasonic radically changed its structure to cut overlap and focus on profitability - it now closes any business that has not made money for the past three years - and the company is on the offensive abroad again.

The sale of white goods in Europe is on the direct instructions of Fumio Ohtsubo, Panasonic's president.

In the revamped company, the project has gone from conception to launch in only 18 months.

The move to sell white goods in Europe is backed by Panasonic's belief that it has an edge in green technologies, such as low power consumption, that will appeal to Europeans.

"We don't just introduce ordinary products. In this case, we have environmental technologies," said Mr Otsuki.

In the context of Panasonic's expected turnover of Y7,750bn ($80bn) this financial year - and its forecast net loss of Y380bn - European appliance sales are unlikely to make much difference.

The company's goal is to double current sales of €260m ($331m) over the next five years.

However, Panasonic sees Europe as a stepping stone towards selling white goods in Russia and the Middle East, on top of its markets in Asia.

Mr Otsuki said the company was also considering the launch of more products abroad, such as hearing aids in China and other Asian markets, while there was interest from buyers, including in the UK, for its new fuel cell-based systems that generate heat and power at home.

European rivals say that, amid the recession, consumers are trading down to cheaper models, and Mr Otsuki accepts the chance that Panasonic's launch may flop.

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Anxious China turns charm on Europe

By Geoff Dyer in Beijing

Published: February 26 2009 01:29 | Last updated: February 26 2009 01:29

The delegation of Chinese businessmen that arrived on Wednesday in Europe on a government-organised buying trip is part of a broad diplomatic charm offensive launched by Beijing in recent weeks to try to stave off protectionist pressures and smooth the way for Chinese investment.

Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, German economy minister, left, talks to Chen Deming, China’s trade minister
The four-day procurement drive in Europe follows a series of high-profile trips by senior leaders, including President Hu Jintao’s visit two weeks ago to Africa and the Middle East and that of Xi Jinping, vice-president, to Latin America, as well as Premier Wen Jiabao’s European tour late last month.

With the G20 summit in London in April, the diplomatic initiatives reflect mounting anxiety in Beijing that the steep recession in western countries will lead to new barriers against Chinese exports and that political tensions will make it harder for Chinese companies to take advantage of low commodity prices to buy natural resources assets.

Lurking in the background are the record trade surpluses China has witnessed during the past four months that officials fear will eventually attract criticism about its currency policy and exports. During the past three months China has run a surplus with every major region in the world, including the rest of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

“Their biggest nightmare is that in a year’s time the US and Europe will tell them ‘raise your currency by 30 per cent or we will impose 30 per cent tariffs’,” said a European diplomat in Beijing. During Mr Xi’s trip to Latin America he used unusually strong language to attack perceived critics of China. “Some foreigners have nothing better to do after filling their stomachs. They keep picking on things Chinese,” said Mr Xi, who is expected to be China’s next president, at a dinner in Mexico.

The trip to Europe, which started in Germany and will take in Switzerland, Spain and the UK, involves 140 executives and is expected to see $15bn (€11.8m, £10.5m) of deals signed, Xinhua reported. Chinese officials said $10bn-worth of contracts with German companies were signed on Wednesday.

The diplomatic drive comes amid signs that China sees the slump in commodity markets as a golden opportunity to tie up natural resources assets. As well as Chinalco’s planned $19.5bn investment in Rio Tinto, Beijing in recent weeks agreed two large loan deals – $25bn with Russian groups Rosneft and Transneft and $10bn with Brazil’s Petrobras – in exchange for long-term oil supply deals.

Xiao Yaqing, Chinalco’s former boss, has moved to a senior position in the government amid suggestions his new role will be to co-ordinate China’s natural resources investments.

“I would not be surprised if China regards loans-for-oil deals as less politically sensitive than the acquisition of foreign energy and mining companies,” said Erica Downs, an expert on Chinese energy at Brookings Institution in Washington DC.

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Reactor tests bolster programme

By Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran and Daniel Dombey in,Washington

Published: February 26 2009 02:00 | Last updated: February 26 2009 02:00

Iran yesterday said it had carried out successful tests at its Bushehr nuclear reactor in the latest sign that its nuclear programme is gaining speed.

The announcement came in the wake of a report last week by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, that drew attention to Iran's advances in enriching uranium - a process that can provide either fuel for plants such as -Bushehr or weapons grade material.

Gholam-Reza Aghazadeh, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, and Sergei Kiriyenko, his visiting Russian counterpart, yesterday visited the Russian-built light water reactor for what was described as a "pre-commission" test that injected "virtual" fuel into rods.

In a press conference broadcast live on state television the two sides refused to say when the $1bn plant would eventually come on stream after frequent delays. "More important than the test is to remove the political concern of the [Iranian] people about the launch of Bushehr," Mr Aghazadeh said.

In recent years, US and European officials have privately commended Russia for apparently slowing down its work on Bushehr, which they saw as a means to exert pressure on Iran. But yesterday Mr Kiriyenko said 97 per cent of the equipment had been installed at the plant. Speaking through an Iranian translator, he also stressed that the construction process was under IAEA supervision and maintained that Bushehr could never be used for a weapons programme.

While the US and the European Union are suspicious of Iran's nuclear programme as a whole, they are less worried about Bushehr itself than about an enrichment facility at Natanz and a separate heavy water -reactor that could produce plutonium for a weapon more easily than could the Bushehr plant. Indeed, George W. Bush, the former US president, praised Iranian-Russian co-operation at Bushehr.

Mr Aghazadeh said yesterday that 6,000 centrifuges were installed at the underground facility at Natanz and were enriching uranium, and that the country was determined to increase to 50,000 centrifuges during the next five years.

That compares with last week's IAEA report, which said that as of February 1, Iran was using slightly fewer than 4,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium. About another 1500 centrifuges had been installed. The IAEA added Iran had built up a stockpile of 1,010kg of low-enriched uranium, which, if further processed, could provide enough fissile material for a bomb.

Many analysts and diplomats warn Iran's nuclear programme could increase risks of a military confrontation with Israel which has not ruled out using force against Tehran.

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EU trio targets tougher list of Iran sanctions

By Guy Dinmore in Rome, Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran and,Alex Barker in London

Published: February 26 2009 02:00 | Last updated: February 26 2009 02:00

France, Germany and the UK - the so-called EU3 - are proposing a tough list of additional sanctions to be imposed against Iran in order to give the Obama administration more muscle in its expected engagement of the Islamic republic.

A confidential document seen by the Financial Times and Il Riformista, an Italian newspaper, lists 34 Iranian entities and 10 individuals allegedly linked to Iran's covert nuclear or biological weapons programmes.

European diplomats confirmed the existence of the list but differed over the reasoning behind it. Some said it was intended to provide Washington with a "bigger stick" option in continuation of the existing carrot-and-stick approach. Others said the EU3 wanted to influence a more hardline outcome of Washington's current review of its Iran policy, expected to be completed next month.

Internal debate has already reopened European divisions. Diplomats said five countries - Greece, Cyprus, Spain, Austria and Sweden - were opposed.

Bernard Kouchner, French foreign minister, is said to have argued for a strong common European front regardless of Washington's next tack. The UK views it as a post-review option.

The six-page list includes some entities already listed by the US and the United Nations for sanctions. But all the individuals on the new EU-wide sanctions proposal face penalties for the first time, including the commander and deputy of the paramilitary Basij force.

Some state-run organisations are named for the first time, including the prestigious Sharif University of Technology, Iran Insurance Company, Iran Air Cargo, which is affiliated to the state-owned airliner, Khatam ol-Anbia, a construction contractor affiliated to the elite Revolutionary Guards, Iran Space Agency and Razi Institute for Serum and Vaccine Production.

Six banks and their Tehran headquarters are named, including Bank Tejarat, one of Iran's largest commercial banks, for the first time. Previous EU sanctions were directed mostly at foreign affiliates.

Critics argue that the policy of coercion has failed so far, leading to an impasse over the nuclear issue and negative repercussions for efforts to influence Iranian behaviour in other crucial areas, such as Iraq, Afghanistan and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Trita Parsi, Washington-based head of the National Iranian American Council, which urges direct dialogue between Iran and the US, is concerned that the US will stick to "the mentality of threats and coercion".

He also sees a danger of losing a comprehensive approach. "It would be alarming if on the one hand Iran is invited to the [G8] Afghan conference in June and at the same time sanctions are slapped on Sharif University," he said.

Dennis Ross, a veteran Mideast negotiator, was appointed on Tuesday as the US state department's special adviser for the Gulf and south-west Asia. Mr Ross has championed a more forceful carrot-and-stick policy and helped shape Mr Obama's stance on Iran during the election campaign.

Franco Frattini, Italy's foreign minister, is expected to meet Richard Holbrooke, US envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, in Washington today to discuss Iran's possible participation in the regional conference proposed by Italy as holder of the G8 presidency.

In Tehran, a regime insider said he doubted further sanctions could make Iran change its nuclear policy. Iran continues to enrich uranium to a low level in defiance of UN resolutions. UN experts said last week that Iran had produced enough for a nuclear bomb but only if it undertook the highly visible and protracted step of enrichment to weapon grade levels.

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Santander revives Cepsa stake sale talks

By Mark Mulligan in Madrid

Published: February 25 2009 12:07 | Last updated: February 25 2009 19:26

Santander has rekindled talks on selling its 32 per cent stake in oil group Cepsa in what could lead to the divestment of the Spanish bank’s last remaining equity holding of importance.

The bank, the eurozone’s biggest by market capitalisation, told the Spanish stock market regulator on Wednesday that it was “in negotiations” over its holding in Cepsa, in which Total, the French oil major, controls nearly 49 per cent. However, it said no agreement had been reached.

It is understood that the International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC), of Abu Dhabi, which already holds 9.5 per cent of Cepsa, heads the list of potential buyers.

Santander has been in and out of talks with the state-owned energy company for about year, and was close to signing a deal in September, before the current bout of stock and oil market turbulence.

Unión Fenosa, the Spanish electricity group, is also selling its 5 per cent stake in Cepsa as part of the same deal.

It said on Wednesday that it had awarded a sale mandate to Santander on September 5 last year.

Analysts say Santander’s failure to sell the Cepsa stake last year was one of the reasons it was forced to raise €7.2bn ($9.2bn) of equity via a rights issue completed in November. The bank has also had problems finding a buyer for its fund management and insurance operations, and is now under pressure to sell residential and commercial property to pay back investors in a troubled real estate fund.

Its admission on Wednesday, in response to media speculation, that it had resumed talks with IPIC, suggests it needs fresh capital.

Santander said on Wednesday that the price being discussed for its Cepsa stake was between “€30 and €35 a share”, which would value the holding at between €2.5bn and €2.9bn. Cepsa’s thinly traded shares closed down 25 per cent, at €39, on the news, after a similar fall on Tuesday.

The price compares with the €28 a share Santander paid to build its 20 per cent Cepsa holding to 36 per cent in 2003, in a partial takeover that sparked a legal battle with Total. This was finally resolved in 2006, when an arbitrator ordered the two to unwind a joint investment vehicle.

Santander was also forced to sell part of its stake to the French group at a deep discount. It began casting around for buyers for its remaining holding soon after, helping fuel a speculative rally that, added to climbing oil prices, pushed Cepsa’s shares beyond €72.

Shares in Santander bucked the market trend on Wednesday, closing up 2.8 per cent at €4.83.

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Dubai takes another dive into pearls

By Simeon Kerr in Dubai

Published: February 25 2009 16:48 | Last updated: February 25 2009 16:48

One of the toughest moments in Dubai’s history came when Japanese scientists discovered how to culture pearls. The process devastated the economies of the Gulf region in the 1930s as the primary industry, diving for natural pearls, collapsed and depression in the US punctured demand.

So the symmetry of Dubai seeking once again to become a pearl trading hub is apt just as the global credit crunch curbs the city-state’s financial and real estate sectors.

“Maybe there is some sentimentality here, but we do believe Dubai can once again become a pearl trading centre, even if it does not turn into a multibillion-dollar industry here,” says Ahmed Sulayem, chairman of the Dubai Metals and Commodities Centre (DMCC).

The government-owned free zone, which promotes the emirate as a destination for the trade of commodities including precious stones and diamonds, wants to turn Dubai into a fulcrum for the trade. It is offering a trading exchange and storage facilities to grab a piece of the $3bn a year industry, which still only makes up 2 per cent of the world’s jewellery market.

Falling under the Dubai World umbrella, the DMCC’s proposal harks back to the growth of the city as a trading hub, before the discovery of oil, when pearls became a commodity that helped turn the creek from a sleepy fishing village into a busy trading post.

This month international producers were lured to the World Pearl Forum, a conference held in Dubai, as the DMCC explores ways to recapture the city’s place in the global pearling industry.

Nicholas Paspaley, executive chairman of Paspaley Pearling, says Dubai has prospects to become a regional hub and more, as long as it offers something extra for the industry and maintains an open borders policy.

For now, the industry revolves around Hong Kong, but Mr Paspaley said Dubai was an ideal launch pad into the European market, as well as the Middle East.

Gulf shoppers have long held a fascination with jewellery, and Dubai, a retail heaven, has carved out a niche as the City of Gold, acting as a wholesale hub feeding the lucrative Indian and Gulf markets.

Gaiti Rabbani, the DMCC’s executive director for coloured stones and pearls, says the centre is looking to capitalise on a tentative upsurge of interest in pearls by helping standardisation so that consumers feel more confident about what they are buying.

The DMCC is also looking to unite what has traditionally been a fragmented industry by proposing a unified marketing campaign for pearls. An absence of agreed standards has undermined confidence in the industry and lowered demand, according to industry specialists.

The producers say such a unified message could help lift all their businesses, which are operating on slim margins, forging consensus among the disparate group of pearl producers.

“It’s a great idea,” says Robert Wan, chairman of Robert Wan Tahiti. “But it’s a big job.”

Ms Rabbani concedes that forging consensus will be tough. The producers’ output is varied in terms of quality and even product – from white to black pearls, natural to cultured.

The world’s top producers are limiting production and having to make difficult decisions on supply and demand five years into the future, given the long production process.

Mr Wan says his large production site has halved its output in response to the financial crisis.

There is a glimmer of light for the industry though, according to Chris Figee, partner with McKinsey & Co, the management consultancy. Luxury goods, such as pearls, are usually the first consumer segment to fall away as a recession begins, but also the first to revive ahead of broader economic recovery, he says.

An index of US luxury items shows that demand tailed off ahead of the current slowdown, but that demand recovered in the third quarter of last year, which could even signal a broader return to growth.

“The worst may be behind us,” says Mr Figee.

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Dubai says loan sufficient for next year

By Simeon Kerr in Dubai

Published: February 25 2009 15:16 | Last updated: February 25 2009 15:16

Dubai’s $10bn bail-out loan from the central bank of the United Arab Emirates is sufficient to refinance debt and meet operational costs at government-related companies for the next year, an official said on Wednesday.

Nasser al-Shaikh, director-general of the department of finance, said Dubai would reveal details of the next $10bn tranche of its medium-term bond programme if it were launched at a later date, but he said the full $20bn would cover ”the worst case scenario” of Dubai’s ongoing requirements.

The federal cash, lent to Dubai on Sunday, will be used to retire debt and fund operational costs, primarily in the hard-hit real estate sector. Under an as-yet-to-be-defined mechanism, government-owned or related companies will borrow money priced more dearly than the 4 per cent at which the bonds were issued.

”We are working on the mechanism that will assist entities needing support through 2009 and into 2010, depending on when we hit the bottom and start to recover,” Mr Shaikh told reporters as the Dubai government gave its first response to Sunday’s announcement of federal support.

He declined to outline a debt repayment schedule for government related companies in 2009, but ratings agencies and banks have estimated the remaining repayments amount to $11bn-$15bn.

The $10bn (€7.8bn, £7bn) cash pool will form some much-needed ballast as the government goes into refinance talks with international banks, while also leaving money left over to open lines of credit to cash-strapped companies.

Mr Shaikh said the Dubai government would ensure that companies that take on debts were held accountable and implemented measures that would allow them to repay their loans.

The federal bail-out will soon be followed by a raft of recommendations from the department of economic development aiming to help the Dubai economy recover from the global financial crisis.

Proposals under consideration, which should be announced within three weeks, include reducing government fees and a stimulus package for small- and medium-sized enterprises.

Mr Shaikh said the budget, which had been expected to run a deficit after a planned spending increase of 42 per cent, could end up balanced as government departments have already trimmed AED2.5bn-3bn ($680m-$820m, €530m-€640m, £480m - £570m) through greater efficiencies.

The government had chosen a medium-term bond programme, which he reiterated is not underwritten by any assets, to ride through the current global slowdown.

The Dubai government is still hoping to launch a ratings process in the second half of this year, he said.

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Hariri murder suspects released

By Ferry Biedermann in Beirut

Published: February 26 2009 03:10 | Last updated: February 26 2009 03:10

Lebanon on Wednesday released three men who had been detained for more than three years in connection with the murder of Rafiq Hariri, former prime minister, in 2005. But the authorities kept four senior pro-Syrian generals, heads of the police and security services at the time, in jail.

The release on bail of the three – two Lebanese and one Syrian – comes just days before the official start of the United Nations-mandated international tribunal that is to try the case. The special tribunal, based in The Hague, will open on Sunday.

In a series of interviews in the Lebanese media tribunal officials have hinted that indictments will not be issued immediately but that the four generals will be transferred to The Hague before the Lebanese elections in June.

Many Lebanese blame Syria for the assassination, although Damascus denies responsibility. Syria, which had maintained a military presence in the country for some three decades, withdrew its troops from Lebanon after widespread protests in the aftermath of the killing.

The tribunal proceedings may affect the political landscape in Lebanon, which is divided roughly in pro-Syrian and anti-Syrian factions. It may also affect the position of Syria itself as it is making a push to end several years of political isolation under the previous American administration. Senior US Democratic politicians have said that the Obama administration is open to improved relations with Syria but that Damascus does have to change its behaviour.

Imad Mustafa, Syria’s envoy to the US, is scheduled to hold talks at the State Department on Thursday.

Syria’s role in Lebanon, along with its support for militants in Iraq and the Palestinian territories, was one of the reasons for the international isolation of the country. But it is seen as having played a more constructive role during peace talks in the aftermath of clashes in Lebanon last May and many European countries have started opening up to Damascus.

Nobody has been charged yet over the Hariri murder, including the four generals still in custody. It is not known why the three others were released on bail. They can still be charged in the case.

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Total eyes role in trans-Saharan gas pipeline

By Matthew Green in Abuja

Published: February 26 2009 02:00 | Last updated: February 26 2009 02:00

Total, the French oil group, yesterday said it was ready to participate in a planned trans-Saharan gas pipeline, seen by European governments as a potential route to reduce their dependence on Russian energy supplies.

Gazprom, the Russian gas monopoly, has already expressed interest in the €15bn ($19bn, £13.4bn) scheme as part of a wider strategy to gain access to Nigeria's vast gas reserves, seen as crucial to future energy security in Europe and the US.

Total's announcement suggests western energy companies are also starting to look seriously at the pipeline in spite of the huge technical and commercial challenges of pumping gas from Nigeria's restive Niger Delta to export terminals on Algeria's Mediterranean coast.

Guy Maurice, managing director of Total Exploration and Production in Nigeria, told an oil and gas conference in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, that the pipeline would be a long-term strategic investment for the country. "Total is ready to be involved in this project."

Mr Maurice gave no further details of intended participation. Total said discussions were preliminary.

Disruptions to Russian supplies to Europe have heightened European Union anxiety. The EU depends on Russia for a quarter of its annual gas consumption of 300bn cubic metres. The planned trans-Saharan pipeline could provide 20-30bn cubic metres.

The project is likely to face great hurdles, including the security threat posed by militants on the planned route through Nigeria, Niger and Algeria, and complications about revenue-sharing between the hosts.

Experts say investment in Nigeria's liquefied natural gas capacity could prove more cost effective to deliver energy to Europe than a lengthy pipeline.

Gazprom seemed to steal a march on rivals interested in the project by signing in September a memorandum of understanding with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, the state oil company, to co-operate on gas exploration, production and transportation. The company has said it will invest at least $2.5bn to build a network of pipelines and processing plants to harness gas for local use.

"We're continuing [to say] that though we are very interested in the trans-Saharan pipeline, trans-Saharan starts after the Nigerian gas grid is completed," Vladimir Ilyanin, managing director of Gazprom's subsidiary in Nigeria, told the conference.

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Europe needs a stronger France inside Nato

By Karl Kaiser and Dominique Moïsi

Published: February 25 2009 19:40 | Last updated: February 25 2009 19:40

The debate on whether to return to Nato’s permanent command structure that has recently been unleashed in France – 43 years after Charles de Gaulle pulled his country out – has impassioned its political class much more than the wider public.

The opposition has seized the opportunity to attack President Nicolas Sarkozy on an issue where his governing centre-right party happens to be divided. But if one goes beyond the political calculations and ideological reflexes of this debate and considers the long-term strategic implications, what is at stake?

In the first place common sense requires that an anachronism be eliminated and that the appropriate lessons be drawn from the fundamental changes happening in today’s world, in the US as well as in Europe. By remaining a member of Nato without taking part in its integrated military structure France has first and foremost penalised itself.

Precisely because the future of Nato’s strategy is at stake and legitimate questions must be raised about the choices to be made regarding Afghanistan, France should assume its responsibilities inside Nato and thereby increase Europe’s weight in redefining western strategy. Only from inside will France be able to assert its own interests.

But the developments in the international environment make a change of France’s status inside Nato seem even more advisable, indeed necessary. The world has changed profoundly; the west is no longer as dominant as it has been for two centuries, either economically or in terms of strategic importance. The economic crisis, though global in nature, is accelerating the historic shift from the west to Asia.

Moreover, Europe’s primary problem is no longer to define itself as distinct from, if not at times in opposition to, the US. That is an obsolete mindset. Today’s challenge is to form a common front by asserting our values, not against others but in co-operation with them and in recognition of an emerging multi-polarity.

Since the election of Barack Obama as president of the US these changes have been accompanied by a revolution: not only has there been a big change in the image of America in the world but the behaviour of the US vis a vis its allies has changed even more radically. Though it is too early to know whether President Obama will succeed in reinvigorating the US economy, it is not too early to support his measures and efforts to relaunch multilateralism with strong action taken by our two countries.

The French population as well as the Germans – we remember the enthusiastic crowds that cheered him in Berlin – strongly support Mr Obama. France should seize the hand extended by America. Its return as a full member of Nato would constitute a strong symbolic and political act, sealing a historic reconciliation of two allies that are willing to put their common challenges above the quarrels and prejudices of the past.

Europe itself is changing before our eyes. There is no contradiction between the desire to advance European defence and to “normalise” France’s status inside Nato; on the contrary, France’s position thereby would come closer to that of Britain and Germany. A stronger France inside the alliance would strengthen the European defence effort. The return of France to Nato is not a guarantee of a successful European defence, but it certainly is a necessary precondition.

This becomes all the more true considering the new challenges facing Europe such as the return of Russia, now seeking a more powerful role in the international system. We should not allow Russia to exploit potential differences between Europe and Nato. But at the same time we must seek to open a dialogue with Russia on the necessary reopening of arms control negotiations in Europe, hopefully building a new partnership. These negotiations require strong and harmonised positions within Nato.

The authors of this article have devoted an important part of their lives to Franco-German rapprochement, which they consider to be a key to European unification. They regard the complete return of France to Nato as a logical step towards the European goal.

They are convinced that General de Gaulle, with his pragmatic and realist vision of the world and of a Europe based on the Franco-German relationship, would be shocked to hear that his name is evoked today to oppose an adjustment that he himself would have considered natural, given the profound changes that are happening in the world.

Karl Kaiser is a former director of the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin and now an adjunct professor at Harvard University. Dominique Moisi is special adviser to France’s Institute for International Relations and visiting professor at Harvard University

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UBS under fire over Madoff

By Stanley Pignal in Brussels and Brooke Masters in,London

Published: February 26 2009 02:00 | Last updated: February 26 2009 02:00

UBS, the Swiss bank, was accused yesterday of "serious failure" by Luxembourg's financial regulator over its custodianship of a $1.4bn fund that funnelled money into Bernard Madoff's alleged $50bn "Ponzi" scheme.

The regulator ordered the bank to pay compensation and said the "poor execution of its due diligence obligations constitute a serious failure of its surveillance role as a depositary bank".

The Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier gave the Swiss bank's Luxembourg arm three months to pay the compensation and improve its procedures and structures.

The CSSF has moved to shut down the Luxalpha fund, but yesterday's public denouncement of UBS was highly unusual, legal experts said. Its action comes as Luxembourg fights charges, particularly from France, that investors in the grand duchy are less protected than those in other EU countries. Many of Luxalpha's investors were French.

UBS said it was "unfair" to blame the bank. "The investors in Luxalpha were sophisticated and explicitly agreed that the safekeeping of the securities was Madoff's responsibility and not UBS's," it said.

But UBS remained "keen to continue to co-operate with the authorities".

People familiar with the negotiations said the CSSF had pushed hard for the bank to offer compensation to Luxalpha investors.

UBS has sought to minimise the bank's role in Luxalpha, saying it never marketed or recommended the feeder fund.

Luxalpha was set up in 2004 at the request of investors who had money with Mr Madoff and wanted to hold their investments through a Luxembourg fund. As custodian, UBS earned fees of less than a hundredth of 1 per cent, said officials.

Direct investors were required to sign a subscription form that said "the risk of loss of the assets following a default [even if unlikely] of the US registered broker-dealer is borne entirely by the shareholders".

Since Mr Madoff's arrest in December, Luxembourg has been forced to rebuff suggestions that lax regulation underpinned the success of its financial centre.

Christine Lagarde, France's finance minister, pointed the finger at Luxembourg last month for its application of EU rules to protect investors, which she said "varies from one country to another". Luxembourg was quick to rebut the suggestion.

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Washington also needs to change the way it engages

Published: February 26 2009 02:00 | Last updated: February 26 2009 02:00

From Dr Susan Allen Nan.

Sir, Strobe Talbott (“A Russian ‘reset button’ based on inclusion”, February 24) neglects the activities that must be excluded for that inclusion to have a chance of success. An era of inclusion does not allow for unilaterally placing an anti-missile defence system in Poland with no regard for the fears of others in that neighbourhood. Nor can an era of inclusion be based on surrounding Russia with a Nato that excludes it, while maintaining military bases and overflight rights in central Asia.

The difficult radical shifts required to forge a new relationship with Russia are clear in the south Caucasus. In the aftermath of the August war, the US is aiding the Georgian-controlled areas of Georgia, Russia is aiding South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and previous spheres of influence are now set firmly along ceasefire lines. Unless the “reset button” reaches the south Caucasus, the region will continue to suffer from major power tensions that exacerbate the very real local conflicts.

The Georgian government could seize this opportunity for change by excluding the use of force in settling its conflicts, demilitarising Georgia, and calling on the Abkhaz and South Ossetians to simultaneously demilitarise. This “reset” would require both Russia and the US to exclude their militaries from the region. As a result, the Abkhaz and South Ossetians would see that their lives are valued more than the particular shape of political settlements; all would be included as people whose lives matter. An era of inclusion requires shifts not only in how the US encourages Russia to engage; it also relies on shifts in how the US engages.

Susan Allen Nan,
Assistant Professor,
Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution,
George Mason University,
Arlington, VA, US

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Don’t reject Chinalco’s bid for bogus reasons

By David Pilling

Published: February 25 2009 19:43 | Last updated: February 25 2009 19:43

Rio Tinto, the mining company with almost as many holes in its balance sheet as holes in the ground, upset some Australians when it established its headquarters in London following the 1995 union of RTZ and CRA. Now, rumblings Down Under suggest the Anglo-Australian mining giant is about to make an even more humiliating move: to Zhongnanhai, home of China’s Communist party.

The swashbuckling decision by Chinalco, China’s state-owned metals group, to lavish $19.5bn (€15.3bn, £13.5bn) on debt-burdened Rio has not provoked quite the nationalistic backlash set off by CNOOC’s aborted takeover of US oil company Unocal. That is partly because Chinalco would end up with just 18 per cent of Rio, and partly because – in these straitened times – it is impolite to question the kindness of strangers bearing billions of dollars in cash.

Still, Chinalco’s offer to buy $7.2bn worth of convertible bonds and to spend a further $12.3bn on minority stakes in Rio treasure – including iron ore, copper and bauxite mines – has been greeted by what one Chinalco advocate describes as “parochialism and low-level xenophobia”. Senator Barnaby Joyce of the opposition National party said: “The Chinese government involvement, via their vehicle Chinalco, is not a one-off.” Suggesting Chinalco’s intentions were less than honourable, he added: “If they own the resources, they will just dig them up and cart them away.”

Broadly, there are two possible objections to Rio accepting Chinalco’s largesse. The first, that it has fallen for Beijing’s plot to get low-cost minerals, is largely spurious. The second, that Rio is compounding previous managerial errors by betraying its own shareholders, deserves a hearing. The danger is that the two are conflated.

At first glance, the hand of Beijing in Chinalco’s Australian adventure is not hard to detect. Chinalco got its shopping money from the China Development Bank . Its offer is part of a pattern of grabbing raw materials around the world. This month alone, Beijing-based Minmetals launched a A$2.6bn recommended bid for Oz Minerals, another down-on-its-luck Australian miner. Beijing agreed to provide Petrobras, Brazil’s state oil company, with some $10bn in loans in return for up to 160,000 barrels of crude a day. China Development Bank signed a $25bn financing deal with Rosneft, Russia’s state-controlled oil company, in return for two decades’ supply of east Siberian crude. As if more evidence were needed that Chinalco was answering to a higher cause, days after it announced the Rio deal, its chairman, Xiao Yaqing, landed a top government job.

But to say there is state involvement is not the same as imagining a monolithic apparatus planning world domination. In any case, the west, whose banks, carmakers and god-knows-what else are underwritten by the state, is not in an ideal position to lecture others. If China wants to use its trade surplus to secure mineral resources, one response might be: so what? But Chinese companies, even state-owned ones, are as likely to be engaged in cut-throat competition as in cosy cartels or state-sponsored carve-ups.

That undermines the idea that Chinalco, an aluminium maker with no need of iron ore, would seek to persuade Rio to sell cheaply to China Inc. Even if Chinalco were in a position to influence price negotiations – and with just two board members that seems doubtful – it is more likely to try to maximise prices for its own sake than to minimise them for China’s good.

Evidence that China’s forays abroad have been led by companies, and not orchestrated by an all-knowing state, is plentiful. Chinese companies often compete for the same asset. Both Shanghai Automotive and Nanjing Auto bid for Rover when the UK carmaker went chassis-up. Fears that Beijing is making a huge asset grab while the world reels from financial crisis also ignore the fact that foreign adventures are out of vogue in China. State institutions that invested in sinking foreign banks have faced public outrage for squandering national resources.

A more plausible reason for opposing Chinalco’s offer is that Rio’s shareholders deserve better. UK institutional investors are furious they were not offered the chance to participate in a rights issue. They have lost faith in a management that rejected a hostile approach by BHP Billiton shortly after splashing out $44bn – in cash – for Alcan. That particular rush of blood to the brain leaves Rio owing two tranches of debt totalling $20bn, a sum conveniently provided by Chinalco. Even then, the board was divided; Jim Leng, chairman-designate, quit in protest.

Rio says it could have raised $10bn from a rights issue. But that would have left it needing more, forcing it to sell prized assets at firesale prices. Chinalco’s bid, it argues, is generously priced and offers access to Chinese cash and minerals, claims the deal’s opponents dispute. Angry Rio shareholders see little in it for them, save dilution. The Association of British Insurers, which represents institutional investors owning roughly a fifth of Rio, says Chinalco should instead offer to underwrite a rights issue. That would prove its good faith, it says.

Investors have every right to be wary. If Rio’s accident-prone board is recommending the deal, there must be a prima facie case for doing something else. But if shareholders reject Chinalco’s offer, they should make clear they mistrust the judgment of Rio’s management, not the motives of China.

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Argentine farmers win aid

By Jude Webber in Buenos Aires

Published: February 26 2009 02:00 | Last updated: February 26 2009 02:00

Argentina's government has offered an olive branch to the country's powerful farming sector in an effort to head off a fresh conflict after a four-month dispute last year. Farmers are expecting their worst harvest in 40 years.

At a meeting on Tuesday, the government waived export tariffs on milk and granted subsidies to small producers. It also offered a subsidy to boost domestic wheat prices and promised to reopen the wheat export registry, which it keeps under close control to protect the internal market. Tax breaks were offered to meat producers along with aid to ranchers hit by drought.

But Florencio Randazzo, interior minister, and Débora Giorgi, production minister, told the leaders of Argentina's four main producers' groups that there could be no cut in export tariffs for Argentina's top cash crop, soya - currently 35 per cent. Farming is the backbone of the national economy, and Argentina is the world's second largest corn exporter and third largest soya exporter.

Last year's farm conflict flared over government plans to introduce variable export tariffs for agricultural crops which - at the time, with commodities prices high - would have meant a rise in their tax bill. Farmers won widespread popular support and the conflict sparked a political revolt, forcing President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner eventually to backtrack on the tariff plan.

Tensions have remained high, and farmers halted production again for five days this month to call attention to their demands.

The farm issue has again exposed political divisions. Four senators and two deputies have recently left the government ranks, weakening the ruling alliance in Congress.

Fresh talks between farmers' leaders and government officials have been arranged for next Tuesday.

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解放同盟に移転補償　築上町が３２００万円　無料入居の町施設解体
2009年2月25日 06:07 カテゴリー：社会 九州・山口 > 福岡

　福岡県築上町で、県道拡幅に伴って町集会所が解体された際、県が町に支払う補償費約６０００万円のうち約３２００万円を、集会所に無料で入居していた「部落解放同盟豊前築上地区協議会」が受け取ることが２４日、分かった。この配分は町議会も承認したが、公共施設の入居者に行政が移転補償するのは極めてまれで、県や識者から疑問の声が出ている。

■「長年使用、高くない」解放同盟

　集会所は国の同和対策事業の一環で１９７１年に建設された。鉄筋コンクリート２階建て、延べ床面積は約２６０平方メートル。協議会が１階に入居し、２階を地域の集会所として同和教育などを行ってきた。１月に解体され、協議会は約５キロ離れた別の町所有の集会所に移転した。

　県や町によると、解体に先立って県豊前土木事務所が土地や建物の買い取り価格として５４００万円の補償費を町に提示。その後、町と協議会が２００６年９月から計６回にわたり補償費の配分を話し合った。町によると、協議会から補償費増額を求める要望書が町に２回出される一方、県も補償費を３回に分けて計約６００万円上積みした。

　その結果、県から町に約６０００万円が支払われることになり、うち協議会が約３２００万円を受け取ることを町議会も承認した。町は約２８００万円のうち、１０００万円で集会所を解体し、１８００万円で木造の集会所を建設する予定。

　補償費の配分について新川久三町長は「協議会との話し合いで決定された。議会も承認しており金額は適正と認識している」と説明。

　協議会の吉元秀成書記長は「われわれの先輩が国から勝ち取った集会所で、長年協議会の施設として使用してきた。補償費が高いとは思えない」と話している。

　これに対し、県市町村支援課は「集会所は行政の財産であり、通常は賃借人に権利はない。県内で行政が借地人に金銭を支払ったケースは聞かない」としている。

　解放運動を長年研究している藤田敬一元岐阜大教授は「大阪市が市施設からの退去を解放同盟側に求めたケースでは移転費は支払われていない。同和対策事業としての歴史があるにせよ、無料で使用しており、補償の対象になるのか疑問だ」と指摘している。

＝2009/02/25付 西日本新聞朝刊＝

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定額給付金、家族の口座もＯＫ　総務省、代理人の基準通知

　総務省は定額給付金を代理人が申請したり受け取ったりする場合の対応策をまとめ、地方自治体に通知した。同じ世帯に住む家族なら申請や受給ができる。同一世帯外の代理人が受け取れるのは単身で寝たきりの高齢者や施設に入所している人の場合に限定。なりすましによる受給を防ぐ。

　定額給付金は世帯主が申請し、本人の銀行口座に世帯全員分が振り込まれるのが基本的な形。世帯主が仕事や長期出張などで受け取りが難しい場合もあるため、申請や受給は世帯の構成者まで原則認めることにした。例えば夫、妻、子ども1人の3人所帯の場合、妻が給付金の申請書を記入し、自分の名義の口座を振込先に指定してもよい。(07:00)

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花畑牧場、生キャラメルで夕張支援　市内に工場、300人雇用

　タレントの田中義剛氏が経営する花畑牧場は25日、夕張市内に生キャラメル工場を建設すると発表した。夕張メロン味の開発をめざし、1日あたり1万個を製造する。4月20日に開業を予定し、販売店やレストランも併設する。50人の正社員を採用し、300人の雇用を生み出す考え。

　夕張市役所で同日記者会見した田中氏は「『花咲く夕張』にして、夕張を活性化させたい」と話した。花畑牧場が3400万円で落札した市所有の休館中の宿泊施設「サイクリングターミナル黄色いリボン」を改装し、工場に転用する。収益金の一部は市に寄付する考えだ。

　花畑牧場は2007年4月に生キャラメルを発売。新千歳空港やＪＲ札幌駅の地下街に直営店を構えるほか、カフェや豚丼店なども展開している。2009年3月期の売上高は60億円を見込む。

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君が代巡る処分、教諭の請求棄却　広島地裁判決

　卒業式や入学式で君が代を起立斉唱しないのを理由に戒告処分したのは懲戒権の逸脱・乱用として、広島県の県立高校などの教諭と遺族ら男女計45人が、県教育委員会の処分取り消しを求めた訴訟の判決で、広島地裁（橋本良成裁判長）は26日、請求を棄却した。

　公立学校での君が代斉唱をめぐっては、最高裁が2007年、東京都日野市の小学校入学式でピアノ伴奏を拒んで戒告された女性教諭への職務命令を合憲と判断した。

　訴えなどによると、教諭らは01―04年、校長の職務命令に反し、君が代斉唱時に起立しなかったとして、戒告の懲戒処分を受けた。〔共同〕(13:33)

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リニア中央新幹線：駅を我が町に　山梨の４地域が綱引き

　東京－名古屋をわずか４０分で結ぶ予定のリニア中央新幹線。その途中駅の設置をめぐって今、山梨県が熱い。「各県１駅」が有力視されるなか、今年に入って４地域の綱引きが急加速。「支線を」との声まで出ている。予定ルート上にある他県（神奈川、長野、岐阜）にはまだ、そこまでの盛り上がりはない。なぜ、山梨だけ？【沢田勇】

　その理由は山梨リニア実験線にある。財団法人「鉄道総合技術研究所」とＪＲ東海が運営し、９７年に大月市－都留市（１８．４キロ）で走行実験を始めた。元自民党副総裁の故金丸信氏が誘致したと言われている。県リニア交通課は「素通りさせるために実験線を誘致したのではない」と断言する。「リニア交通課」なる部署があるのも、全国で山梨県だけだ。

　県は鉄道総研に技術開発費１３４億円を無利子で貸し付け、実験線工事のための残土捨て場まで用意した。総額２００億円もの県税を投じており、見返りとして駅の設置は当然というわけだ。

　ＪＲ東海はリニア中央新幹線の２０２５年開業を目指す。３ルートが想定されるが、山梨を通ることは確実だ。昨年１２月、国土交通省がＪＲ東海に対し、整備計画策定に必要な最後の調査を指示したことで、駅誘致の動きが急に熱を帯びた。

　富士山周辺の１２市町村からなる「リニア中央新幹線富士北麓（ほくろく）・東部建設促進協議会」（図（１））は「世界遺産登録を目指す富士山と首都・中京圏を結ぶ架け橋に」（会長＝小林義光都留市長）と、県東部への駅設置と富士山周辺までの支線の新設を要求。実験線をまっすぐ西へ延伸した付近の６町も「リニア中央新幹線建設・新山梨駅誘致促進峡南地域協議会」（図（４））を結成。ＪＲ身延線との接続を求める。

　甲府盆地東部の３市（図（２））、そして「本命」とささやかれる県都・甲府市を中心とした４市町（図（３））も誘致団体を組織して活動している。

　４地域は山や川など主に地形的な要因で隔てられ、歴史的に地域内の結び付きが強い。現在も広域行政事務組合などで結束が維持されているため、それぞれが別個に駅誘致に取り組んでいるようだ。

　ＪＲ東海の葛西敬之会長は昨年１２月２６日、日本記者クラブでの講演で、中間駅は各県に１駅ずつが「常識的な話だと思う」と語っている。ノンストップと各駅停車の「２系統を考えることも可能」とも述べた。

　山梨県民でもある鉄道アナリストの川島令三（りょうぞう）さん（５８）によると、時速５００キロで走るリニアを駅に停車させると所要時間が５分増える。仮に４県に１駅ずつ設置すれば、東京－名古屋の所要時間はノンストップの１．５倍の１時間かかる計算だ。現在、最速の「のぞみ」は同区間を１時間半余りで走っており、東海道新幹線とさほど違わなくなってくる。

　川島さんは「第２東海道新幹線と位置づけるなら、ノンストップが理想。地域活性化の点では各県１駅もいいが、ダイヤ編成が混乱するかもしれない」と話す。仮に中間駅の場所が決まったとしても、ＪＲ東海は建設費用の全額地元負担を求めており、全額ＪＲ負担を求める県との隔たりは大きい。

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財務省：外為特会から国際協力銀への融資検討－外貨準備の有効活用

　　２月25日（ブルームバーグ）：財務省が１兆ドル超の外貨準備の有効活用を促すため、国際協力銀行（ＪＢＩＣ）に融資する方向で検討していることが25日分かった。世界的な金融危機受けて融資業務を拡大している国際協力銀の財務基盤をサポートする狙いもある。

　　世界第２位の規模を持つ外貨準備は約1兆110億ドル（１月末）に上る。これを受け、民主党金融対策チーム（座長・大塚耕平政調副会長）が外貨準備の有効活用のための手段を検討するよう同省に要請。同日夕、同省内で記者会見した大久保勉参院議員が「5000億円相当を国際協力銀に貸し出すことで財務省と合意した」ことを明らかにした。

　　同省は国際協力銀が米ドル建て融資をする際の資金調達を効率化するため、昨年５月から外国為替資金特別会計（外為特会）のドル資金と円資金の交換を実施している。大久保氏は「政府保証債の発行による資金調達はコストが高く、円ドルのスワップコストも上がっている」と述べ、追加的なスキームの必要性を指摘。同省は国際協力銀と協議を進めており、融資の申し入れがあれば対応を検討するとしている。

　　大久保氏は外為特会から日本の民間金融機関への預託についても触れ、「ドル資金を邦銀に潤沢に貸し出し、海外現地法人に融資する対応策も同省で前向きに検討されていると認識している」と語った。

　　国際協力銀は政府が昨年12月に決定した「生活防衛のための緊急対策」の一環として、海外進出した日本企業の輸出や海外事業にかかわる資金繰りを支援するため、大企業や先進国向け事業にも対象を拡大して低利融資を実施。このほか、貿易金融の資金繰りが困難になっている開発途上国の民間金融機関を対象にした資金支援なども行う。

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国際協力銀：外貨準備５０億ドル財源に　日系企業の資金調達支援

　政府は２５日、１兆ドルにのぼる外貨準備の一部を、政府系金融機関の国際協力銀行（ＪＢＩＣ）の融資の財源として活用する検討に入った。日系企業のドル資金調達を支援するのが狙い。外貨準備から最大５０億ドル規模のドル資金をＪＢＩＣに融通し、ＪＢＩＣは日系企業が海外で展開する事業に融資する。

　海外展開する日系企業は、世界的な金融危機に伴う欧米金融機関の融資抑制や、コマーシャルペーパー（ＣＰ）・社債市場の機能不全などにより現地でドル資金が十分に調達できない状況となっている。メガバンクなど大手邦銀も株安による自己資本が目減りして貸し出し余力が乏しく、日本のグローバル企業の間ではＪＢＩＣの融資拡大を求める声が強まっている。現状ではＪＢＩＣは日系企業の資金ニーズを十分に賄う財源を持っていないため、政府は潤沢な外貨準備を活用してＪＢＩＣのドル資金融資の財源強化を図る方向となった。

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「韓国からの資金回収はない」国際金融センター大場理事長（１）

「日本の銀行が韓国に対する融資を減らしたり、資本を回収することはないとみている」

日本の国際金融センターの大場智満理事長はこう述べ、「３月危機説」を一蹴した。３月危機説とは日本の銀行が３月の決算を前に韓国から資金を回収し、韓国が金融危機に陥るという懸念だ。韓日両国の国際金融センターが２５日に共同で主催した「世界の金融危機と韓日金融協力」セミナー（中央日報後援）に出席するため韓国を訪れた大場理事長は、その根拠として両国政府の緊密な協力を挙げた。「日本の銀行が通貨スワップ協定など政府レベルの協力がどれだけ緊密に維持されているか注視している」ということだ。

この日のセミナーでも３月危機説は根拠がないという指摘が相次いだ。基調発議をした同志社大学の鹿野嘉昭教授は、「韓国で３月危機説が出回っているということを最近知り驚いた。１９９７年に同様の経験があり危機説が出たようだが、日本では話題にもなっていない」と述べた。その上で、「当時は日本の銀行が不良債権処理問題で貸しはがしをする事情があったが、今年の決算は黒字になるだろう。韓国に対する融資は維持されるだろう」との見方を示した。企画財政部の許京旭（ホ・ギョンウク）第１次官も祝辞の中で、「竹下亘財務副大臣が日本の金融機関の韓国向け融資引き揚げはないだろうと約束した」と伝えた。以下は大場理事長とのインタビュー要旨。

－－韓国には３月危機説が出回っている。韓国の銀行をなぜ不安に思うのか。

「日本の銀行の一次的な心配は韓国の銀行の健全性だ。また不良化している米国に対しどれだけ投資していたのかも心配だ。幸い韓国の銀行は米国への投資はあまりしていなかったと聞いた」

－－韓国の銀行は他の国より健全だ（昨年末の自己資本比率は概ね１１％を超えた）。なぜ３月危機説がたびたび出てくるのか。

「ウォンが弱く、また韓国の成長率が低調なためのようだ。期待収益が下がるということだ。資本は成長率と金利が低い方から高い方へと流れるものだ。最近のウォン安は成長率低下のためとみられる」

－－ウォンの相場維持のため外為市場に介入しろという話か。

「違う。為替相場は水準よりも安定がより重要だ。韓国も日本も本格的な介入（ｉｎｔｅｒｖｅｎｔｉｏｎ）ではなく微細調整（ｓｍｏｏｔｈｉｎｇ　ｏｐｅｒａｔｉｏｎ）だけすべきだ」

－－日本の当局が民間銀行に資本回収をしないようにさせる方法はあるか。

「日本の銀行は監督当局の金融庁を常に意識している。いまは特に中小企業を対象に融資することを奨励しているが、いつ金融政策方向が（貸出をするなと）変わるかわからないと判断する。そうした面から３００億ドル規模のスワップなど韓国政府と日本政府が互いに協力しているという点に注目すべきだ。それを民間銀行が注視しているためだ。いま韓日両国政府の緊密な協力関係から見ると、日本の銀行が韓国に対する融資を減らしたり資本を回収することは考えていないとみられる。日本や米国とそれぞれ３００億ドル規模で結んでいるスワップ協定なら３月危機説は克服できると思う」

－－韓国では通貨スワップの期限を延長し、規模も増やすべきとの主張があるが。

「無制限に増やそうという意見もあるがそれは難しい。韓国と日本が通貨スワップを通じて資金を交換すれば円がまず使われるだろう。無制限に増やせば通貨運用に負担が生じる。しかし両国の経済水準を考慮すると、いまの水準（３００億ドル）より２倍程度に増やすことはできるだろう」

－－日本の資本引き揚げが韓国の通貨危機を悪化させたひとつの要因だったという指摘がある。そのため今回の金融不安を振り払うには両国間の協力がいつになく重要だ。

「竹下財務副大臣が同じ飛行機で日本に帰る予定だ。彼に会ったら日本の銀行に『韓国の銀行から資本を引き揚げるな』と話すように言っておく（笑）」

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視力手術で角膜炎　開院３年、滅菌装置の点検なし

2009年2月26日11時56分

　東京都中央区の銀座眼科で視力回復のためのレーシック手術を受けた６７人が角膜炎などを発症した問題で、溝口朝雄院長（1989年　産業医科大学卒業）が区保健所の立ち入り調査に対し、３年前の夏の開院以来、手術器具の滅菌装置を「点検していなかった」と話していることが２６日、わかった。開院当初から感染防止体制がずさんだった恐れが高まり、区保健所は発症者が出た昨年９月～今年１月以外の時期に手術を受けた人にも発症者がいないか確認するよう同眼科に指示した。

　区保健所によると、銀座眼科は０６年８月の開院。今回の集団発症は角膜を削る手術器具の消毒に使う高温高圧の滅菌装置に不具合があって滅菌が不十分だった疑いがあるが、溝口院長は「メンテナンスをしなければいけないという認識がなかった」と話したという。

　また溝口院長は「手術は手袋をせずに行うこともあった」とも話しているという。手洗い場から手術室に向かうには汚れ物を洗うシンクの脇や待合室を通る必要があった。手洗い場に備え付けの消毒薬は規定濃度になっていなかったこともわかった。

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ヘロイン原料２トン、横浜港で押収　アフガン向け貨物

2009年2月26日10時21分

　麻薬のヘロインの原料となる無水酢酸約２トンが、横浜市の横浜港からアフガニスタン向けに輸出される貨物の中から見つかっていたことが横浜税関への取材でわかった。同税関は関税法違反（無許可輸出）容疑で調べている。

　税関によると、無水酢酸はタンクに入れられ、ほかの輸出品と一緒にコンテナに隠されていた。無水酢酸は今月１２日にも、愛知県の名古屋港でアフガニスタン向けの自動車の中から約１トンが見つかり、２４日には約１．４トンが押収された。

　無水酢酸は麻薬のヘロインを製造する際、化学反応の過程で使われる。

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元露鵬の尿検査に立会った友綱理事に出廷を要請

　尿検査による大麻の陽性反応で日本相撲協会を解雇された元幕内の露鵬（２８）と白露山（２７）が、解雇は不当として日本相撲協会に地位確認を求めている訴訟の弁論準備手続きが２３日、東京地裁で開かれた。裁判所は４月１６日に行う協議で双方に出廷する証人の申請を要請した。

　元露鵬側の塩谷安男弁護士は元露鵬を証人として申請することを明言した上で、ほかに「北の湖親方と大嶽親方にも要請するかもしれない」と話した。一方、裁判所が協会側の証人として尿検査に立ち会った友綱理事（元関脇・魁輝）の出廷を要請していることが判明。証人の出廷で解雇につながった尿検査の真相が法廷で明らかになる。

（2009年2月24日06時01分 スポーツ報知）

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裁判所が友綱親方の証人出廷を提案

　昨年９月に日本相撲協会を解雇されたロシア出身の元露鵬、元白露山が解雇の無効を求めている訴訟の弁論準備手続きが２３日、東京地裁で行われ、裁判所が友綱親方（元関脇魁輝）を証人とすることを提案した。

　同親方が昨年９月の薬物検査で１人欠席者がいたことを陳述書で述べているためで、元露鵬側の代理人は「検証する必要があるから」とした。元露鵬側は、２人の元師匠である北の湖親方（元横綱北の湖）、大嶽親方（元関脇貴闘力）の証人申請を検討している。

　両親方が元露鵬側の証人になれば現役年寄が協会と敵対する事態となる。４月１６日の進行協議で証人の採用を話し合う。

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世界の漁船、初の一括登録　ＦＡＯが違法操業対策
2009.2.26 17:04

　密漁など違法操業を行う漁船の国際的取り締まりを図るため、国連食糧農業機関（ＦＡＯ、本部ローマ）は２６日までに、世界の漁船の個別データを一括して登録、加盟国が随意に照会できるようにする初の「グローバル・レコードシステム」の構築を決めた。来月２日からローマで始まる閣僚級水産委員会で具体化策を協議する。

　国際的な船舶登録については、商船は国際海事機関（ＩＭＯ）が行っているが、漁船は所有者の属する国が各自行っており、統一データベースがなかった。

　このため、違法操業の疑いのある外国漁船を検査しても、その漁船の違反歴などについて所有者の国に問い合わせる必要があったほか、所有者が代われば登録が更新されることが多く、一貫した追跡や国際的取り締まりに支障が生じていた。

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中国の軍需関連企業、国内外から幹部１３人公募
2009.2.26 16:53

　中国の国有軍需関連企業、中国航空工業集団は２６日、グループ会社の副社長クラスを中心に経営幹部１３人を国内外から募集すると発表した。同社によると、中国の軍需企業が経営幹部を国内外から公募するのは初めて。

　金融危機で世界的に雇用情勢が悪化する中、中国企業は人材確保面でも攻勢を強めている。

　中国航空工業集団は戦闘機やヘリコプターなどの製造に加え、民間輸送機なども生産。幹部募集は海外販売の強化や経営、品質管理向上などが狙いだ。高建設副社長は「国際的に一流の人材を集めたい」としている。（共同）

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中国、クリスティーズの輸出入審査を強化
2009.2.26 13:42

　中国政府で文化財保護を担当する国家文物局は２６日、競売会社クリスティーズが文化財の輸出入申請をする際の審査を強化するよう全国の関係部門に通知した。

　通知は、同社が輸出入手続きの申請をした際は、文化財についての合法的な証明があるかどうかを厳格に審査し、略奪品や密輸品の疑いがある場合は直ちに文物局や警察、税関に通報するよう指示した。（共同）