Major cyber spy network uncovered

08:16 GMT, Sunday, 29 March 2009 09:16 UK
Major cyber spy network uncovered

A computer keyboard (file image)

An electronic spy network, based mainly in China, has infiltrated computers from government offices around the world, Canadian researchers say.

They said the network had infiltrated 1,295 computers in 103 countries.

They included computers belonging to foreign ministries and embassies and those linked with the Dalai Lama - Tibet's spiritual leader.

There is no conclusive evidence China's government was behind it, researchers say. Beijing also denied involvement.

The report comes after a 10-month investigation by the Information Warfare Monitor (IWM), which comprises researchers from Ottawa-based think tank SecDev Group and the University of Toronto's Munk Centre for International Studies.

They were acting on a request from the Tibetan spiritual leader's office to check whether the computers of his Tibetan exile network had been infiltrated.

Researchers found that ministries of foreign affairs of Iran, Bangladesh, Latvia, Indonesia, Philippines, Brunei, Barbados and Bhutan appear to had been targeted.

Hacked systems were also discovered in the embassies of India, South Korea, Indonesia, Romania, Cyprus, Malta, Thailand, Taiwan, Portugal, Germany and Pakistan.

Compromised

The researchers said hackers were apparently able to take control of computers belonging to several foreign ministries and embassies across the world using malicious software, or malware.

"We uncovered real-time evidence of malware that had penetrated Tibetan computer systems, extracting sensitive documents from the private office of the Dalai Lama," investigator Greg Walton was quoted by the Associated Press news agency as saying.

The Dalai Lama

They say they believe the system, which they called GhostNet, was focused on governments in Asia.

By installing malware on compromised computers, hackers were able to take control of them to send and receive classified data.

In this case, the software also gave hackers the ability to use audio and video recording devices to monitor the rooms the computers were in. But investigators said they did not know whether or not this element had been used.

According to the New York Times, the spying operation is the largest to have been uncovered in terms of the number of countries affected.

In an abstract for the report entitled The Snooping Dragon: Social Malware Surveillance of the Tibetan Movement - posted on the IWM website - investigators said while such attacks were not new, these particularly stood out for their ability to collect "actionable intelligence for use by the police and security services of a repressive state, with potentially fatal consequences for those exposed".

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Mizuho to halt global expansion

By Michiyo Nakamoto in Tokyo

Published: March 27 2009 00:06 | Last updated: March 27 2009 00:06

Mizuho, Japan’s second largest banking group, is putting its overseas expansion on ice and refocusing its resources on the domestic market, said Takashi Tsuka­moto, its president-designate.

In a switch from his predecessor’s policy of global expansion, Mr Tsuka­moto, who will become chief executive on April 1, plans to return Mizuho to its roots of lending to Japan­ese corporations.

“Basically, we will refocus our resources on domestic lending,” Mr Tsukamoto told the Financial Times.

His decision comes amid growing concern about financial protectionism, as banks in the main economies come under pressure to increase lending in their home markets.

“There is a slight tendency [towards financial protectionism]”, Mr Tsuka­moto said.

“Lending overseas was a driver for the past few years [but] ... especially because western economies are not doing well ... it will be phased down.”

Three years ago Mizuho Corporate Bank, the group’s wholesale and commercial arm, made a public “declaration” that it wanted to become a “global bank” and raise overseas revenues from 22 per cent to 40 per cent of overall revenues.

That strategy was, in part, driven by a shift by Mizuho Corporate Bank’s main customers among large Japan­ese companies to the capital markets.

But Mr Tsukamoto said the global financial crisis had made it difficult to raise funds on the capital markets, and “even big companies are asking for loans”.

Bank lending in Japan has increased 4 per cent each month since Nov­ember.

But banks are under growing pressure to increase lending further, with authorities repeatedly urging them to accept capital injections from the government.

Mr Tsukamoto denied that Mizuho, which has raised Y800bn ($8.1bn) in capital this financial year, would need to raise more funds right away.

Mizuho has so far suffered Y742bn in losses related to US subprime and other products in the past two years, but a more cautious ap­proach currently means: “We haven’t taken business risks that will require immediate capital enhancement.”

According to Yasuhiro Sato, who is to head Mizuho Corporate Bank: “It is becoming important to use capital for our clients, not for our own business.”

In spite of the growth in domestic lending, Mizuho expects business in Japan to be tough for a year or so.

Satoru Nishibori, the new head of Mizuho Bank, which serves retail customers and small and medium-sized businesses, said: “We can no longer go on the offensive.”

Mr Nishibori brushed away fears that non-performing loans would surge as a result of the econ­omic downturn.

Mizuho’s non-performing loan ratio, which exceeded 6 per cent in Japan’s banking crisis, is about 1.3 per cent. “I can’t even imagine this going to 3 per cent,” he said.

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Ras al-Khaimah mines a variety of seams

By Simeon Kerr in Dubai

Published: March 25 2009 17:00 | Last updated: March 25 2009 17:00

Ras al-Khaimah, the mountainous northern outpost of the United Arab Emirates, never had much oil, rather like Dubai, its more famous neighbour. But rather than basing its economy on trade, it chose to look underground for mineral wealth and to adopt an industrial strategy.

That has led to a large ceramics factory – RAK Ceramics – cement factories and quarrying in the Hajar mountains becoming the chosen vehicles for developing the emirate.

RAK Minerals & Mines Investments, a joint venture between RAK Ceramics and Trimex, an Indian minerals group, has taken that strategy international. The partners are investing in and developing raw materials for the industries that underpin the emirate’s fortunes.

The company has invested in clay mines in Thailand and Indonesia, an important raw material for RAK Ceramics, while also mining for copper in Congo and Armenia.

Madhu Koneru, managing director of RMMI, says the investment will mean price stability in the future, allowing the emirate to plan with more confidence.

“The ruler could see the need for constant prices,” says Mr Koneru, whose family business has built up a trade partnership with the government since the 1970s. “Why not invest in the resources needed for infrastructure?”

The latest venture, investing in a coal mine in the Indonesian region of East Kalimantan and building a related railway and port to transport the coal to the sea, follows that logic. But this time the rationale can be found in the emirate’s thorniest problem over the past year: power, or more accurately, the lack of it.

An over-reliance on the UAE federal power authority has left Ras al-Khaimah starved of enough electricity to power a series of real estate developments. Sheikh Saud bin Qasr Al Qasimi, the emirate’s crown prince, launched the developments during the years of the petrodollar boom, with the vision of turning Ras al-Khaimah into a mini-Dubai.

Long before the credit crunch tightened the noose on the property market, the emirate had decided that it needed to seize the initiative in terms of utilities.

Coal is an interesting, if controversial, alternative to the gas-fuelled power that is becoming the norm in the Gulf, which contains some of the world’s largest natural gas resources. Ajman, another UAE emirate with buildings standing empty for lack of electricity, also has plans for a coal-fired station.

Mr Koneru says Ras al-Khaimah’s coal-fired plant, which will be launched in 2011, will develop to a maximum capacity of 1,000MW and need more than 7m tons of coal a year. About 35 to 50 per cent of of the coal from the Indonesian venture will go to Ras al-Khaimah, with the remainder exported to other Asian markets such as Japan and India.

The regional government is a 7.5 per cent equity partner in the project, which will see the joint venture build a 120km railway on the eastern side of Borneo, which will cost about $1bn over five years, but halve road transportation costs. The project should pay back its costs in about five to 10 years, Mr Koneru says.

Using coal will cut the emirate’s costs up to 30 to 40 per cent compared to gas-fired power, but it throws up environmental concerns, which are noted by UAE residents who see the pollution surrounding the emirate’s existing cement factories. The global trend is against burning fossil fuels such as coal.

But Mr Koneru plays down such worries, saying the coal has a particularly low sulphur content, allowing for cleaner burning. The location of the power plant, wedged between a port and a cement works, will also integrate their systems, allowing ash from the burned coal to be used in the cement plant.

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India's disillusioned Muslims pin their hopes on politics

By Amy Kazmin in Aligarh, India

Published: March 28 2009 02:00 | Last updated: March 28 2009 02:00

The thriving campus of Aligarh Muslim University in northern India embodies the modern face of the country's 150m-strong Muslim community.

Young men in skullcaps and burka-clad women walk among neat flower-beds and Indo-Islamic buildings on the grounds of the school, founded more than a century ago as a beacon of rational western-style education for south Asia's Muslims.

Yet there is a disquiet among the 30,000 students. "Intelligence agents are everywhere, watching everything," says one academic. It's a common feeling as the government has grown more suspicious of its large Muslim minority, especially after terror attacks rocked main Indian cities over the last year.

Deep insecurity still haunts India's Muslims, 62 years after the traumatic partition of the British-ruled subcontinent into Hindu -majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.

Although their families stayed in ostensibly secular India, Indian Muslims say they have been treated as second-class citizens of doubtful loyalty, if not as outright traitors and terrorists.

Perceptions of pervasive discrimination were reinforced by a 2006 government report, which found the Muslims were one of the most educationally, economically and socially deprived communities in India, with a status similar to Dalits, the lowest caste Hindus formerly known as "untouchables".

However, as India gears up for parliamentary elections beginning next month, Muslims are debating how better to assert themselves politically to redress their grievances and prevent their community from falling further behind in India's fast-developing economy. "Muslims are thinking, 'If other parties are not willing to give us our share, we have to reorganise our vote'," said Mohammad Muqim, chair of Aligarh Muslim's philosophy department.

For decades after independence, Muslims were a bulwark of support for the Congress party, with its professed commitment to secularism. Its main rival, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party, portrays India as a Hindu society and has accused Congress of "minority appeasement".

In recent years, Muslims have watched other downtrodden groups, including Dalits, gain greater political clout for their communities by voting along caste lines.

However, Muslims, dispersed across the country, have struggled to gain influence in the first-past-the-post electoral system.

Although they account for 14 per cent of the population, Muslims have normally held just 6 to 9 per cent of parliamentary seats, scattered among various parties. Some constituencies with significant numbers of Muslim voters have long been reserved for low-caste Hindu representatives as part of New Delhi's effort to redress injustices stemming from the caste system.

Elsewhere, votes have been fragmented as competing parties fielded rival Muslim candidates.

There has been disillusionment with Muslim politicians, amid suspicions that national parties consciously promote those with questionable or tarnished records as "token" Muslims.

"The bad characters from Muslim society are being sheltered by political parties," says Saleem Peerzada, an Aligarh Muslim-educated engineer. "They don't want a real, effective, educated Muslim leadership to emerge."

India is not without Muslim success stories. Its vast film industry is dominated by Muslim superstars. Wipro, one of its biggest software companies, is controlled by a Muslim, Azim Premji. Muslims are scattered across government, the professions and the private sector.

Yet even many successful Muslims feel their community faces entrenched barriers that can be removed only by greater political clout.

"Our experience compelled us - politics is a must," says Amanullah Khan, who has spent 25 years promoting education among Muslims, and complains of authorities' reluctance to recognise Muslim-run schools. "We must have a party under our own leadership, from which we can bargain in a better way."

To that end, Mr Khan, a political novice, plans to contest parliamentary elections with the Assam United Democratic Front party. The three-year-old Muslim-led party won 10 seats in the Assam state legislature and will field about 25 candidates in the national polls.

The Parcham party, founded by Mr Peerzada, has focused on contesting municipal and local council elections from Muslim areas.

Meanwhile, the All India Milli Council, a Muslim organisation, has begun endorsing candidates, as part of a strategy to unify Muslim votes. Manzoor Alam, its secretary-general, says Muslim influence may not be felt for a decade but "by 2019, we will be reaching the point that no political parties may ignore the genuine demands of Muslims".

To some, there is not a moment to lose, given the deep sense of disillusionment among many Muslim youths. "You are pushing them to the wall," says Abusaleh Shariff, a demographer who helped write the report on the status of Muslims. "The question is, will they ultimately take up arms and revolution?"

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King Abdullah appoints deputy

By Abeer Allam in Riyadh

Published: March 28 2009 02:00 | Last updated: March 28 2009 02:00

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah yesterday appointed his half-brother Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz as the new second deputy prime minister, signalling that he would be next in line for the throne after the ailing Crown Prince Sultan.

The appointment of Prince Naif, 74, who has been the kingdom's interior minister for more than 30 years and is seen as a conservative, will help to allay fears of a succession crisis should anything happen to the 84-year-old king. Abeer Allam, Riyadh

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Air waves give Mediterranean tycoons new wings

By Paul Betts

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

Making money in telecoms seems to have become a good way of getting a boarding pass to run an airline these days. At least this is the case of Roberto Colaninno, the new chairman of Alitalia, and Andreas Vgenopolous, the flamboyant Greek businessman who has just stepped into the cockpit of Olympic Airlines.

A decade ago, Mr Colaninno took the Italian business establishment by surprise by mounting a bid for Telecom Italia in what was at the time one of the biggest hostile takeovers seen in Europe. He was subsequently taken over by Pirelli but left with a handsome profit. He then set about reviving the Piaggio scooter maker but soon sought a new challenge. A couple of months ago he took control of Alitalia with a group of other Italian investors to rescue the loss making Italian flag carrier.

Mr Vgenopolous this week has done something similar. His Marfin Investment Group last year sold its strategic 20 per cent stake in the Greek telecoms incumbent OTE to Deutsche Telekom for €2.5bn ($3.4bn). It has now decided to spend some of the loose change from its telecoms deal by agreeing to pay the Greek government €177.2m to gain control of Olympic Airlines - an even bigger European aviation basket case than Alitalia. Olympic, after all, has apparently been losing €2m a day.

To give Mr Vgenopolous and Mr Colaninno a better chance to succeed in their new airline ventures, their respective governments have also agreed to assume the airlines' toxic assets as part of their sale. The European Commission has already approved the writeoff of more than €2.6bn in Olympic accumulated debt and has suspended court action over the repayment of €850m in state aid. Rome has also given Mr Colaninno a clean slate in return for his commitments to revive the airline.

The Italian businessman has also wasted little time to strike up a strategic alliance with a strong airline partner to reinforce his recovery strategy. This week Air France-KLM finalised its acquisition of a 25 per cent strategic stake in the new Alitalia.

It would not be surprising to see Mr Vgenopolous eventually do the same - perhaps not with a big European carrier but rather with a Middle East operator, such as Dubai-based Emirates, which could be interested in developing a new European platform around Athens. This is not just idle speculation. After all, Marfin Investment Group's biggest shareholder is a Dubai sovereign wealth fund.

But if there are some intriguing similarities in the Alitalia and Olympic rescues, there is also one big difference. By merging the new Alitalia with its main domestic rival Air One, the Italian salvage deal follows the general if questionable and somewhat anti-competitive trend of flag carriers seeking to regain or reinforce their dominance of their domestic market.

One recent lesson of the airline industry is that carriers need to secure a dominant position of their domestic market to survive. But decades of mismanagement at Alitalia systematically eroded its dominant position in its all-important domestic market, and even with Air One it is still likely to be a long haul to regain it.

The Greeks, however, are taking a more virtuous approach. The government rejected on competition grounds a last-minute bid for Olympic by Aegean Airlines, a profitable, private Greek airline that last year carried more passengers than Olympic. This is clearly good news for Greek airline passengers. But will these two Greek rivals manage at the end of the day to remain commercially viable when everybody else is reverting to old domestic monopolies?

This poses another Socratic question - will the Greeks with their virtuous exception end up setting the trend or will the Greek exception simply prove the rule?

Wendel wars

The latest turmoil at Wendel is the result of poor investment decisions. In recent years, the family-controlled group that once built cannons for Louis XIV had converted itself into a blue-blooded investment company.

But Jean-Bernard Lafonta, its whizz-kid chief executive, broke a cardinal rule of private equity by unbalancing his portfolio of majority-owned assets with a large minority stake in Saint-Gobain, one of France's leading industrial companies. Worse, he accumulated this stake at the wrong time paying 70 per cent more than the conglomerate's shares are worth today.

If this were not bad enough, the 900 or so family members were outraged when the board led by Ernest-Antoine Seillière handsomely rewarded the Wendel patriarch, Mr Lafonta and other executives with a €324m package of shares. That may have been just about acceptable when the company was flourishing, but not in the current climate. Mr Lafonta is finally going, paying the price for his ill-timed and ill-considered Saint-Gobain investment. The chairman is hanging on but will have to bend backwards to regain the confidence of many of his angry family members.

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Swiss bankers work their way through grief

By Richard Milne in Geneva

Published: March 28 2009 02:00 | Last updated: March 28 2009 02:00

Swiss banking secrecy might be on the wane but restaurant secrecy appears to be alive and kicking.

An attempt to inquire about the mood of Geneva's private bankers this week at a restaurant close to their discreet headquarters on the Rue du Rhone was met by a firm " pas de commentaire " at the Relais de l'Entrecote restaurant. A banker rushing off outside was a little more helpful: "Things aren't very good. People here are very angry with how it is all being blamed on us."

Approaches to possible bank customers were no more successful. Outside Banque Jacob Safra came one of the few responses: "Leave me in peace."

The mood in Geneva is compared by one senior private banker to the "stages of grief" outlined by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, a Swiss psychiatrist. Right now, he says, the private banks are somewhere in between the first two stages: denial and anger. "Bargaining comes next and then acceptance," he adds, helpfully omitting the intermediary stage of depression.

All this follows moves by countries led by the US and Germany to clamp down on tax evasion and bank secrecy. Switzerland agreed this month to ease its legendary bank secrecy laws.

In Geneva itself, the banker's analysis seems borne out. The head of one private bank says secrecy "is not going to go". He points to the country's model of direct democracy, where citizens vote on many issues by referendum. "The Swiss will never vote for it. They don't want to be transparent."

Anger in Geneva is focused especially on Germany and Peer Steinbrück, its finance minister, who has caused enormous offence for comments in which he likened the pressure on Switzerland to the 7th Cavalry bearing down on "Indians".

"The German behaviour is intolerable, unacceptable. This is economic warfare," says the head of the bank. He is also angry at the US and UK: "If I had to launder money I would never go to Switzerland but the UK or US because you don't have to disclose beneficial ownership."

Pierre Mirabaud, the chairman of the Swiss Bankers' Association, says Switzerland is being treated as a scapegoat by countries that are jealous of its leadership in private banking, and adds that there are more tax dodgers in Delaware than in Switzerland. Mr Mirabaud, who is also head of the eponymous private bank in Geneva, argued it was "absurd to think that Swiss private banking is based on tax evasion" with customers coming for expertise, economic stability and service to the country.

Some banks have responded by placing travel bans on senior employees leaving the country, the Financial Times revealed this week, although the bankers' association said yesterday it was not recommending such restrictions.

But there are voices going beyond a sense of outrage. Peter Brabeck, the vice-chairman of Credit Suisse and chairman of Nestlé, says banks will have to play up other selling points other than bank secrecy.

"I think [bank secrecy] is a story of the past and I think banks have realised that and are prepared to act in a different way. I'm sure that Switzerland will continue to be a very important financial centre of the world, but now based on quality and service," he adds.

There is a feeling in Geneva that the best-known private banks, such as Pictet, Lombard and several smaller firms as well as the cantonal banks, will continue to do well as they pride themselves on customer service and quality.

A senior industry figure who is close to several private banks says clients going outside Switzerland might be aghast at the service they receive.

"You will probably come across a guy in Toulouse with white socks and short sleeves," he says. "It is a cultural thing. Swiss people have been looking after other people's money for so long they breed bankers. Other countries don't."

The institutions that could suffer, therefore, are the hundreds of small banks, many of which have used secrecy as a huge draw. Swiss bankers also say foreign banks could find themselves in trouble too for the same reason. "Private banks all have fewer problems than the smaller Swiss banks and foreign banks," the industry figure says.

But for all the fighting talk, the interesting part will be to see if the banks move through the stages of grief towards acceptance. The senior banker adds: "There is a terrible temptation to say it will go away - but it won't."

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Swiss banks ban overseas travel amid global crackdown on secrecy

By Richard Milne in Geneva

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

Switzerland's private banks have started to ban their top executives from travelling abroad, even to neighbouring France and Germany, because of fears they will be detained as part of a global crackdown on bank secrecy.

The head of one leading private bank in Geneva said the growing determination of countries such as the US and Germany to tackle tax evasion and secrecy meant banks felt they had to take extra measures to protect employees.

"Some banks have taken this precaution," he said.

"If today I go to Germany to visit two banks I deal with . . . German customs can take me in and question me."

The travel bans, which have not been brought in by all banks, have focused on those visiting the US, following the detention there last year of a senior private banker from UBS, Switzerland's biggest bank, as part of a federal tax investigation.

The head of the private bank, which itself has no travel restrictions, said: "Today if you are a banker from Switzerland going to the US you have to fear you will be taken in for questioning. I am thinking twice about going to America."

However, four people in the private banking industry in Geneva told the Financial Times of banks bringing in total travel bans for staff, even for adjoining European countries.

"Private bankers aren't even travelling to France. The partners are not leaving Geneva at all," said a senior industry figure close to several private banks.

No bank contacted by the FT wanted to discuss the matter publicly.

The restrictions come ahead of next week's Group of 20 summit where a clampdown on tax havens is set to be discussed.

Under pressure from other countries, Switzerland, which is estimated to account for about a third of the world's $11,000bn (€8,100bn, £7,600bn) in clandestine personal wealth, agreed this month to ease its bank secrecy laws and accept international standards on tax transparency.

From their discreet offices on a luxury goods shopping street overlooking Lac Leman, private bankers in Geneva reacted this week with a mixture of intense anger, at what they see as an unjustified attack by big countries, and concern about the threat to their business model.

"It is not really about bank secrecy; it is about solving an internal problem [for the big countries] by finding an enemy outside to bash," said one senior banker.

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高精度のマネーロンダリング監視システム　三井住友銀

　三井住友銀行はマネーロンダリング（資金洗浄）の疑いがある取引の監視を強化するための高精度のシステムを4月1日から導入する。みずほフィナンシャルグループも新型システムを採用済みで、三菱東京ＵＦＪ銀行は今秋導入予定。国際的な監視強化の流れを受け、3メガバンクが体制の整備を急いでいる。

　三井住友銀行は新たに欧米の主要金融機関で採用されている米ＳＡＳ社製のシステムを導入する。(14:42)

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サハリン２、初のＬＮＧ輸出始まる　まず東ガス、東電向け

　【モスクワ＝坂井光】ロシア・サハリン沖の資源開発事業サハリン２の事業主体サハリンエナジーは29日、ロシア初となる液化天然ガス（ＬＮＧ）の輸出を開始した。まず東京ガス、東京電力向けで４月初旬に東京湾に到着する見通し。

　サハリン南端のアニワ湾から14万5000立方メートルのＬＮＧを積み込んだタンカーが29日午後（日本時間同）、日本に向けて出港した。日本はサハリン２で生産されるＬＮＧの約６割を輸入する予定。これは天然ガス国内消費量の７―８％に相当し、中東に依存したエネルギー調達先の多様化に寄与するとして期待されている。

　サハリン２には三井物産と三菱商事が計22.5％を出資している。(23:44)

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クボタ、サウジで合弁　プラント向け鋳鋼管工場

　クボタはエチレンプラントの熱分解炉などに使う鋳鋼管の工場をサウジアラビアに建設する。投資額は約60億円で、2010年7月の稼働を目指す。クボタが中東に進出するのは初めて。中東各国は石油化学産業の育成に力を入れており、プラント向けの配管需要が伸びると判断した。鋳鋼管の販売で世界首位を狙う。

　8月にサウジの投資会社「サラワト・ディベロップメント・カンパニー（ＴＤＣ）」と合弁で、同国東部のダンマン市にプラント向け鋳鋼管の製造販売会社「クボタサウジアラビア」を設立する。出資比率はクボタが51％、ＴＤＣが49％で資本金は1500万ドル（約15億円）。合弁設立と同時期に工場建設を始める。(07:00)

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ブラジル人学校、２カ月で子どもが４割減る　文科省調査

　文部科学省は28日までに、全国のブラジル人学校について緊急調査を実施した結果、今年2月2日までの約2カ月間で子供の数が4割減ったと発表した。景気の悪化が原因で、3人に1人は親が学校に通わせる余裕がなくなり、不就学状態になっているという。

　調査は全国のブラジル人学校86校にアンケートを実施、うち58校が回答した。昨年12月1日と今年2月2日の在籍者数の変化を聞いたところ、5歳以下が平均55％減、6―14歳が37％減、15―17歳が21％減。全体で39％減った。

　学校に来なくなった理由は42％が「帰国」で、「自宅・不就学」が35％。「不明」も11％いた。文科省は「経済危機が直撃している」として、自治体に対し公立校に一時的に在籍させるなどの支援を求めるとともに、国としても追加支援策を検討する。(07:00)

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浜松派遣村：ブラジル人ら窮状訴え　１０８世帯が相談
派遣村で支給された食事を受け取る離職者ら＝浜松市中区の東ふれあい公園で２００９年３月２９日午後０時１０分、瀬上順敬撮影
派遣村で支給された食事を受け取る離職者ら＝浜松市中区の東ふれあい公園で２００９年３月２９日午後０時１０分、瀬上順敬撮影

　住居や仕事を失った人からの相談を受ける「トドムンド浜松派遣村」が２９日、浜松市で開設された。市内に住むブラジル人も多く訪れることが予測され、ポルトガル語で「みんな」を意味する「トドムンド」と名付け、ボランティアの通訳ら１５人が外国人に対応した。

　「派遣切り」などに苦しむ人を支援しようと、司法書士やボランティア関係者が企画。この日はブラジル人など外国人５５世帯と日本人５３世帯が相談のため訪れ、「子供が３人もいるのに所持金が１００円しかない」「仕事がしたい」と泣きながら話すなど、深刻な状況を訴えた。炊き出しもしたが、会場となった公園の使用規制のためテントを張った宿泊などはできない。

　浜松市はこの日、日曜日にもかかわらず生活保護の受付窓口を開き、約４０件を受理した。また、失職などで住居を失い路上生活を余儀なくされた人たちも、市社会福祉協議会から貸し付けを受けるなどして全員が住む場所を確保したという。

　榛葉隆雄村長は「休日も市役所の窓口を開かせたことや外国人登録者でも生活保護申請を受理させることができたなど成果があった」と話した。派遣村は３０日も同市中区中央１の東ふれあい公園で、午前９時～午後３時の間に開かれる。

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General says threats to shoot down N Korean rocket are double standards

28.03.2009, 22.42





MOSCOW, March 28 (Itar-Tass) -- Some countries’ threats to shoot down the rocket North Korean plans to launch to take a satellite to orbit are a manifestation of double standards, Deputy chief of the Russian Army General Staff, Colonel-General Anatoly Nogovitsyn told Ekho Moskvy radio on Saturday.

“When some say that the launch of the North Korean rocket is a threat to the security of a certain country, this looks very much like double standards: some may do things and many things, but others may not,” the general said.

He drew a parallel between the North Korean launch and the Iranian nuclear programme. At a meeting with French parliamentarians he noted that 80 percent of energy in France was generated by nuclear power plants and asked them why another country could not do the same.

“They agreed that such policy of double standards could not have a positive effect on the international situation,” Nogovitsyn said.

He said Russia had technology and equipment to monitor outer space. “Nothing of what is launched and will be launched there can be hidden. Just like we, the U.S. has the same technical capabilities,” he said.

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Siemens plans to become Gazprom’s strategic partners in LNG sphere.

27.03.2009, 23.51





MOSCOW, March 27 (Itar-Tass) -- Germany’s Siemens corporation hopes to become a strategic partner of Russia’s gas giant Gazprom in the sphere of liquefied natural gas production, first of all in the Shtokman offshore gas field in the Arctic, Siemens Vice President Dietrich Moeller said in an interview with The Gazprom corporate magazine on Friday.

In his words, this issue was in the focus of a meeting between the presidents of the two companies.

According to the German businessman, Siemens can play very beneficial role within the implementation of Gazprom’s Yamal projects.

In order to reach that objective, the company should win open tenders, Moeller said, adding that Siemens is confident of its victory.

He said that the companies did not use their cooperation potential in full.

“We have vast prospects,” the German businessman said, expressing satisfaction with the growing dynamics of cooperation owing to the companies’ joint efforts.

“The volume of interaction between Gazprom and Siemens is on the rise,” Moeller said.

The Shtokman field, one of the world's largest natural gas fields, is located in the Barents Sea. Its C1 and C2 reserves are estimated at 3.8 trillion cubic meters of gas and 37 million tonnes of gas condensate, Prime Tass economic news agency said.

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Saudi prince rents 66 limousines for stopover at Lake Geneva
16:45 | 27/ 03/ 2009

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GENEVA, March 27 (RIA Novosti) - Saudi Prince Abdullah bin Saud bin Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has rented 66 limousines for his upcoming 90-day stay at Lake Geneva, the Tribune de Geneve reported on Friday.

The prince will arrive in May for treatment at a Swiss health resort, and stay at his 17,000-square-meter (183,000 sq. ft.) white marble palace on the left bank of Lake Geneva.

The rental of the limousines, which are being driven in from Germany, has sparked criticism from local luxury car rental companies. The cars and drivers have been hired from a Munich company.

Louis Roulet, the director of Golden Limousine Services in Switzerland, told Swiss media that according to national laws, chauffeurs driving cars with foreign license plates are prohibited from receiving money from clients within the country.

However, Jacques Folly, the head of the department of trade in the canton of Geneva, said the arrangement had been made on the federal level to allow the Saudi royal family the use of foreign cars and drivers, as they will also be traveling to Paris and the French Alps.

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Russia, Turkmenistan fail to sign pipeline agreement
16:31 | 26/ 03/ 2009

Print version

MOSCOW. (Sanobar Shermatova, member of the RIA Novosti Expert Council) - The Moscow visit of Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov on March 25 has clarified relations between the two countries.

Turkmenistan, a country in Central Asia, has huge reserves of natural gas, which its neighbors need to meet their energy requirements. But what does it need from Russia?

Russia's policy in Central Asia is focused on gaining access to its energy resources. The Caspian pipeline project, which Vladimir Putin negotiated with Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, badly needs Turkmen gas to become effective.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev hoped to sign an intergovernmental agreement on building a West-East pipeline across Turkmenistan, which would have advanced the project lobbied by Moscow to a new level.

Under the plan, the pipeline would link deposits in northeast Turkmenistan to the Caspian Sea.

However, the sides have not signed the agreement, and details of the two presidents' talks point to problems with financing the West-East pipeline.

Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko will soon go to Ashgabat to finalize the agreement, which is to be signed during the president's next meeting, Russian presidential aide Sergei Prikhodko told the media.

Although the project has been put off, it is unlikely that Moscow has lost it.

Turkmenistan is currently formulating a strategy of national development. The Moscow visit by its president should be viewed against the backdrop of his official visits to Kazakhstan in May 2007 and Uzbekistan in February 2008. The latter two countries proposed their own schemes for consolidating the Central Asian countries, where Turkmenistan is assigned a special role.

Ashgabat is cleverly evading the attempts of its large neighbors to draw it into the zones of their influence, which highlights the country's political priorities. Turkmenistan's relations with Russia will differ from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan's relations with the Kremlin.

However, a rapid rapprochement between them is unlikely. Evidence of this is the refusal to accept a simplified visa regime proposed by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov. Sources say the new regime was only planned to facilitate visits by Russian businessmen.

The complicated consular procedures could be eventually simplified. But nothing is done quickly in Turkmenistan, which abides by the golden rule: Why run when you can walk?

The hierarchy of Turkmenistan's priorities, where Russia so far holds the top spot, will be certainly complemented by other partners. Turkmenistan could also review its associated status in the CIS. Recently, it proposed holding the conference of the Council of the CIS Foreign Ministers in Ashgabat, which may be good news for its neighbors.

The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.

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Russia to create Arctic troops to defend ice treasures
27.03.2009 Source: Pravda.Ru URL: http://english.pravda.ru/russia/politics/107313-arctic_troops-0

Russia intends to create Arctic troops to maintain security of the Russian part of the Arctic Ocean under the conditions of the current political situation in the world. The region is said to become Russia’s leading strategic base by 2016, The Kommersant newspaper wrote.

The document posted on the official website of the Russian Security Council said that the Arctic troops would be set up to maintain the military security under various conditions of the military and political situation. The document also envisages the establishment of the Coast Guard system in the Arctic region.

Russia wants to take the region under the control of the nation’s Federal Security Bureau. The strategy stipulates the border control of the region and the organization of border zones in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation.

The former head of the Russian Federal Security Bureau, Nikolai Patrushev, visited the Arctic and confirmed that Russia would have to compete with other countries in defending its interests in the region. The publication of Russia’s Arctic strategy coincided with Norway’s claims regarding the military drills in the Arctic waters. Official spokespeople for NATO said that the alliance was not viewing Russia either as an enemy or a problem. They only said that NATO was concerned about the growing navigation in the Arctic against the background of the global warming.

Spokespeople for Canadian and Norwegian ministries for foreign affairs said that they would release their comments about Russia’s Arctic strategy only after they analyzed it in detail.

Artur Chilingarov, the special representative of the Russian president on Arctic affairs, stated that Russia must fully defend its borders and sovereignty.

All materials required to legalize the exterior border of Russia’s Arctic region are to be collected by 2010.