Protests at Israeli science event

16:41 GMT, Tuesday, 3 March 2009
Protests at Israeli science event
Science Museum

Israeli Day of Science events taking place at museums in London and Manchester have been hit by protests.

More than 400 people have signed a British Committee for the Universities of Palestine letter attacking the Zionist Federation event.

Universities whose academics are attending were "complicit" in the policies and weaponry used during the Gaza offensive, the letter claimed.

Organisers insist the events, aimed at secondary schools, are non-political.

They say the events are aimed at igniting young people's interest in science. Senior Israeli academics are lecturing on topics from medical research to energy and water technologies.

However, the letter's author, Professor Jonathan Rosenhead, said: "This is a dubious venture at the best of times but at this particular moment, after the offensive in Gaza, it's particularly insensitive."

It is estimated that 1,300 people were killed, including more than 400 children, during an Israeli offensive in December and January.

"[The protesters are] trying now to prevent schoolchildren from being inspired by scientific discovery and innovation"
Jonathan Hoffman, Zionist Federation

Critics accused Israel of being disproportionate in its response to militant rocket attacks launched from within Gaza.

Supporters of the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (Bricup) letter protested against the day of science outside Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry on Tuesday.

A similar protest is planned to coincide with Thursday's event at the Science Museum in London.

Prof Rosenhead, from the London School of Economics, said around 150 academics had signed the letter, which had been backed by people from all walks of life.

He said the seven institutions involved were "up to their necks" in Israel's actions in Gaza, citing Tel Aviv University as an example.

Its annual review stated that Israel's defence ministry was funding 55 of its projects and that it was helping to enhance the country's "military edge", the professor claimed.

"But they aren't putting up people who design policies for the government and saying look how good we are at killing people," he added.

Zionist Federation vice-chairman Jonathan Hoffman accused Bricup of trying to "prevent schoolchildren from being inspired by scientific discovery and innovation".

He said he was "saddened" the protesters wished "not only to prevent the provision of scientific lectures to sixth formers but also to urge the Science Museum to discriminate against Israeli academics".

'No politics'

"Science transcends borders," he added, referring to a collaboration between Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian researchers to eradicate the Mediterranean fruit fly.

Bricup has also hit out at the venues for agreeing to host the events, which focus on subjects such as stem cell, cancer and brain research, nanotechnology and solar energy.

The Science Museum insisted in a statement that it was an "apolitical organisation" and was not co-hosting or sponsoring the event, which had been booked for almost a year.

"The event has no political theme. Not to proceed with the event would mean taking a political stand, which would be wholly inappropriate," it said.

"Scientists speaking at the event include a marine biologist, a physicist who works on experiments at the Large Hadron Collider at Cern, a nanotechnology expert, a water scientist and a geneticist."

Nobody at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester was available for comment.

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Look for onshore, not offshore scapegoats

By Avinash Persaud

Published: March 4 2009 22:09 | Last updated: March 4 2009 22:09

Political leaders in the US, Germany, France, the UK and elsewhere have once more threatened to close down offshore financial centres. These centres have been presented as the drug dealers of modern finance and pushers of instability. Yet the origins of this crisis are in a failure of regulatory philosophy in the US, Europe and elsewhere. It would have occurred were there no offshore financial centres. The attack on offshore centres is a politically seductive distraction from the thorny task of making regulation better in large developed countries and will end up being a discriminatory attack on small developing countries with little voice.

One of the first institutions to fail in this crisis was Northern Rock, a very British bank where supervisors appeared to overlook the niggling detail that funding long-term mortgages of more than 100 per cent of the value of homes in a mature boom, with short-term deposits and money market funds, is highly risky. A German savings institution, IKB, was next. Regulators did nothing about the exponential growth of mortgage-related financial derivatives, not because they were hidden in offshore financial centres – they had the discretionary powers to raise bank capital charges for any additional risks they perceived – but because they thought that this was an example of safe financial innovation that was banking the under-banked and diversifying risk.

Admitting that the crisis was a failure of domestic regulation implies that those in power were out to lunch as the largest financial crash was brewing. It is easier to blame tax-dodging foreigners. But let us be real. The largest centres of boastfully light regulation and light taxes for non-residents were London, Luxembourg, Dublin, the Channel Islands, Gibraltar, Monaco and many other locations in the European back yard. Yet some Group of Seven leaders would rather play to the gallery by stepping on small developing countries. You can see why international co-operation is struggling to secure legitimacy when some of the same countries that mucked up their own regulation, plunging the world into crisis, appoint themselves judge and jury of what is good, bad and ugly elsewhere.

There are at least two ways in which the current attack on offshore financial centres is illegitimate. First, it is inconsistent with the notion of tax sovereignty. Europeans prize this internally but do not want others to have it. Why should developing countries that have difficulties in administering direct taxes, and so rely more on land and consumption taxes, not have low income taxes? Remove tax competition and you remove one discipline on countries otherwise tempted to engage in expensive wars or over-generous government bail-outs.

Second, the idea of offshore financial centres is that they offer low tax because taxes are paid before money reaches them and after it leaves them. Imagine a company that builds and sells cars in Britain, Turkey and Japan. If the holding company is based in an offshore financial centre, corporation taxes on earnings will be paid in the British, Turkish and Japanese subsidiaries before they arrive in the holding company. Taxes on dividends are then paid by the shareholders when they repatriate their dividends home – wherever that may be. The offshore centre acts as a “way station” that facilitates complex international trade and investment flows. There are no taxes or low taxes in the “way station” because the money is in transit. Taxes are paid at the beginning and at the end of the journey, just not along the way.

The potential for abuse is whether the way station becomes a hiding spot, either to reduce taxes at the end of the journey or to launder criminal money. The problem is not the tax rate but Swiss-style bank secrecy. The solution is what Bermuda, Barbados and other responsible offshore financial centres do, which is to have information agreements that allow tax authorities to share information. The presence of standardised tax information agreements applicable to all countries would be an objective measure of responsibility.

Of the 192 members of the United Nations, 56 countries and a further 100 dependent territories have populations of less than 1.5m. Smallness brings its own challenges and vulnerabilities. International finance is one of their few comparative advantages: it can be scaled up without more land and labour. Many have developed genuine world-class expertise in international financial services – such as Bermuda, Luxembourg and Guernsey.

The current financial crisis suggests that large states have a comparative disadvantage in global finance. They do not need global finance to prosper but global finance distorts their economy and politics. There are more than a few small states that need to improve the quality of their regulation but so, too, do large states. European and US governments should refocus regulation on all financial activities that take place in their jurisdiction, making them less vulnerable to the quality of regulation in Iceland or elsewhere. They should also agree broad principles internationally and sign common information agreements across all the jurisdictions their banks deal with.

The author is chairman of Intelligence Capital Limited, emeritus professor of Gresham College and a member of the UN High Level Taskforce on International Financial Reform

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Khartoum rejects warrant for Bashir

By Barney Jopson, Harvey Morris and Megan Murphy

Published: March 5 2009 02:00 | Last updated: March 5 2009 06:05

Sudan responded with defiance yesterday to an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for Omar al-Bashir, its president, who became the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the court.

Human rights groups said the warrant was a victory for international justice and an important step towards ending impunity over war crimes in the Darfur region and elsewhere. Khartoum, however, has never recognised the court and a presidential adviser dismissed it as a "mechanism of neocolonialist policy". A presidential spokesman said: "We do not care about it at all."

The foreign ministry said Mr Bashir planned to attend a meeting in Qatar this month as well as all other Arab and African summits. Minutes earlier, the ICC had said all states would be asked to execute the warrant but legal experts considered an arrest unlikely.

Mr Bashir's allies arranged an anti-ICC rally by hundreds of young men on the streets of Khartoum before the announcement of the warrant had even finished.

China on Thursday urged the UN Security Council to suspend the arrest warrant. As a close partner of Sudan and also a permanent member of the UN Security Council, Beijing will play an important role in shaping how the proposed prosecution of Bashir unfolds.

Analysts say the Sudanese government is shaken. Fouad Hikmat of the International Crisis Group, a think-tank, said rallying public support was a means of deterring challenges to Mr Bashir from dissidents in the ruling regime.

But there was deep concern in Sudan that antagonising or destabilising the regime could spark worse violence in Darfur, undermine a fragile peace deal between north and south Sudan that ended a separate conflict in 2005, and trigger a backlash against westerners.

Ban Ki-moon, United Nations secretary-general, called on Sudan to continue to co-operate with the UN and its partners, but Reuters reported that the licences of at least six foreign aid agencies operating in Sudan had yesterday been revoked.

Médicins Sans Frontières, one of the affected bodies, condemned the move. "MSF is outraged at the decision, which leaves more than 200,000 of our patients without essential medical care."

The Bashir warrants were issued on charges filed by Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the court's prosecutor, over a scorched earth campaign the state began in 2003 when non-Arab rebels angered by Darfur's marginalisation launched an insurgency.

The ICC said Mr Bashir was "suspected of being criminally responsible . . . for directing attacks against an important part of the civilian population of Darfur, murdering, exterminating, raping, torturing and forcibly transferring large numbers of civilians, and pillaging their property".

But judges stopped short of supporting accusations of genocide filed against Mr Bashir by the prosecutor.

The African Union reiterated that the warrant could jeopardise the search for peace in Sudan. It has consistently opposed the case against Mr Bashir.

The warrant will force op-position parties, the rebels-turned-rulers of semi-autonomous south Sudan, and Darfur's rebels into tough decisions on how to respond.

Abdelatif el-Boni, professor of political science at Omdurman University in Sudan, said: "No one will say anything in the coming days. They will be careful and maintain a spiritual silence."

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Macau’s new security rules worry Hong Kong

By Justine Lau in Hong Kong

Published: March 5 2009 10:33 | Last updated: March 5 2009 10:33

Hong Kong expressed concern on Thursday after its neighbour Macao barred a pro-democracy advocate from entering the Chinese gambling hub citing a new internal security law.

Donald Tsang, Hong Kong’s chief executive, said he had expressed concern to Edmond Ho, his counterpart in Macao, at China’s National People’s Congress in Beijing which they are both attending.

A number of Hong Kong residents have been refused entry to Macao in recent months – including academics, journalists and legislators – sparking criticism from rights groups who say a controversial security law, Article 23, which took effect this week, would curb civil liberties.

Johannes Chan, dean of faculty of law at the University of Hong Kong, was denied entry to the enclave last week before he was due to give a lecture. He said an immigration officer told him that he could not enter Macao because his name was on a ”list” of those barred entry to the Special Administrative Region.

Hong Kong authorities have asked Macau to clarify why Chan had been barred from the former Portuguese colony which reverted to Chinese rule in 1999.

Macao recently turned away a photojournalist from Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post and a group of pro-democratic legislators.

”I am not an activist. I go to Macao once a year for the same talk that I give at the University of Macao. The only link I can draw [between me and the list] is that I was part of a concern group against Article 23 in Hong Kong, but that was five years ago,” said Professor Chan. ”I suspect Macao has a very far-reaching list.”

Article 23 of the Basic Law in Hong Kong and Macao, the territories’ mini constitutions, states that their governments should enact laws to prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the central government, or theft of state secrets.

The legislation, which carries penalties of up to 30 years in jail, is controversial as it is seen to have the potential to curtail freedom of speech.

Hong Kong attempted to push through a similar law in 2002, but the proposal, which many saw as China’s attempt to quash dissent, provoked mass protests in 2003 and was eventually shelved. Macao, however, passed the legislation without much fanfare last month.

The repeated refusals have shocked many people in Hong Kong including pro-Beijing political parties and generally China-friendly business community

”I was really surprised that they are that scared of the Hong Kong press and Hong Kong people,” said one prominent local businessman.

Ronny Tong, a pro-democratic lawmaker, said the refusals were ”nearly irrational”. Although he had not been denied entry to Macao, he said he was followed by undercover police officers during his last two visits to the enclave last year.

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Saudis get first taste of foreign harvest

By Javier Blas in London

Published: March 5 2009 02:00 | Last updated: March 5 2009 02:00

Saudi Arabia has announced the arrival of the first food crop harvested in Saudi-owned farms abroad, in a sign that the kingdom is moving faster than expected to outsource agricultural production.

Rice, harvested in famine-hit Ethiopia by a group of Saudi investors, was presented to King Abdullah recently and comes as other countries are still in the early stages of investing in overseas farms.

The Ethiopian origin is likely to raise concerns about the trend to outsource food production to poor African countries, some of which suffer from chronic hunger.

In the past year the United Nations World Food Programme has helped to feed 11m people in Ethiopia, which has suffered crop failures and food distribution problems.

Some analysts argue that foreign investment in agriculture, even if earmarked for export, could ultimately help poor countries, providing them with employment, infrastructure, access to agricultural technology and export tax revenues.

However, western agriculture officials familiar with the Saudi plans say they are sceptical that the kingdom's investment in food production overseas will help poor countries such as Ethiopia.

Riyadh has also provided the most detailed account to date of food-security plans known as the "King Abdullah initiative for Saudi agricultural investment abroad".

Since the oil-rich kingdom announced last summer that it planned to grow "strategic food commodities" overseas and phase out the waterintensive production of domestic cereals, few details had emerged.

But in a note posted on its foreign affairs website, Riyadh has disclosed that it will "provide credit facilities to Saudi investors in agriculture abroad", with the focus on "countries with promising agricultural resources and having encouraging government". It did not say how much money it would make available in credits.

Hail Agricultural Development, a Saudi company, said last month that it would invest in agricultural production in Sudan, with the government providing 60 per cent of the funding.

The Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank said this week that it was looking at investments to support agriculture, including the production of rice to be exported back to Saudi Arabia.

Saudi officials have so far visited Turkey, Ukraine, Egypt, Sudan, Kazakhstan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Brazil, South Africa and Ethiopia, while delegations from other countries, including Australia, have visited Riyadh to discuss possible investments.

The investments "should be long-term through ownership or long-term contracts", and Riyadh expects the "liberty of selecting the crops".

The pursuit of foreign farm investments is the clearest sign of how last year's price spikes in commodities such as rice, wheat and corn, and the global food crisis that ensued, are reshaping the politics of agriculture.

The move is not only a response to high prices, but also to the export restrictions imposed by leading providers of commodities - including India, Russia, Argentina and Vietnam. These exporters banned overseas sales to keep their local markets well-supplied and some of the restrictions remain in force.

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Gulf food security needs delicate diplomacy

By Eckart Woertz

Published: March 4 2009 16:54 | Last updated: March 4 2009 16:54

If you use Google Earth to focus on the area north of Riyadh and in the Dawasir valley south-west of the Saudi capital, you will find green circles in the desert. They look a bit like flying saucers that have landed. In fact they are farms, and their peculiar shapes stem from irrigation machines that circle around a hub.

Subsidised agricultural schemes such as these made Saudi Arabia a net wheat exporter early in the 1990s – and added a new dimension to the notion of inefficient allocation of resources.

Those days will soon be over. Reserves of non-renewable fossil water in Saudi Arabia are depleting and the kingdom has decided to phase out water-intensive wheat production by 2016. Agriculture will be re-oriented towards more value-added crops such as fruits and vegetables, using water-saving technologies such as greenhouses and drip irrigation.

While cereal agriculture in the Gulf countries is in irreversible decline, the population of the region will double from 30m in 2000 to nearly 60m by 2030. Dependence on food imports, now at 60 per cent of total demand, will grow further. So the food price leaps experienced across the region in 2007 and 2008 have sent an important message to the Gulf countries: that food security lies overseas.

From Brazil to Ukraine, to Vietnam and Ethiopia, Gulf Co-operation Council countries have held talks about agro investments and future food supplies. Even long-term oil supply contracts in exchange for food have been discussed. The most advanced talks and first deals have been with nearby nations, such as Sudan and Pakistan.

For the GCC countries, managing agro-industrial projects abroad will be a challenge as they lack experience. They have approached organisations such as the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) for help.

The focus on Africa, central Asia and Pakistan also has a drawback: all these countries are net food importers themselves and are experiencing strong population growth. Yet there is a crucial difference: in central Asia and Pakistan, there is a water shortage – use of renewable water is much higher than replenishment rates and the full potential of irrigation has largely been achieved.

In contrast, many countries in east Africa have only a so-called economic water shortage – their vast untapped water resources can be used for agriculture provided there is significant infrastructure investment.

Economists have been quick to see a win-win partnership, with the Gulf providing the capital and Africa or Asia the land. That perception, though, is too optimistic. The land being targeted is not unused. Small-scale farmers and pastoralists live there and their socio-economic fabric is likely to be affected by agro-industrial projects. Only if these people obtain a fair deal out of such projects in the form of business, payments and job opportunities can conflicts of interest be avoided.

In addition, local food security needs must be considered. Politically, it is hardly feasible to export large quantities of food from countries with food shortages. More than 5m Sudanese are dependent on food aid, for example. Increased production, therefore, needs to satisfy local demand.

The first writing on the wall has appeared. When the United Arab Emirates negotiated agricultural projects in Pakistan it wanted a blanket exemption from food export restrictions implemented to guarantee local food security. Pakistan was willing only to grant exemptions for specific agricultural free zones.

Qatar’s announcement that it is leasing 40,000 hectares in Kenya for food production has equally met resistance from the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation Union and pastoralists. Jacques Diouf, the FAO president, warned of a “neo-colonialist” system that bypasses large parts of the population while preventing them from pursuing subsistence agricultural production.

The Gulf countries will therefore need to weigh local interests carefully while pursuing their food security strategies. Besides investing in developing countries, they must not forget food exporters such as Australia, Thailand or Europe from which they procure much of their food.

Finally, the drive for food security can also be supported by policies to lower population growth.

Eckart Woertz is programme manager economics, Gulf Research Centre, Dubai

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Kuwaitis consider Aston Martin stake sale

By Anousha Sakoui and Simeon Kerr

Published: March 4 2009 02:00 | Last updated: March 4 2009 02:00

Investment Dar, the Kuwaiti investment group, is considering selling a stake in Aston Martin, the luxury car maker it took over two years ago, as part of a debt restructuring.

The investment group has received several expressions of interest in a stake in Aston Martin as a part of the company's plans to restructure its debt, according to people close to the situation.

In 2007, Investment Dar and its Kuwaiti investing partner Adeem Investments led a consortium of British and US investors in purchasing a majority stake in Aston Martin from Ford Motor for almost £500m.

The purchase was funded with about £225m of Islamic financing, arranged by WestLB, the German lender.

At the end of last year, Aston Martin said it would cut up to a third of its staff because of a fall in sales of its sports cars.

The cuts, among the biggest by a UK carmaker, underlined the extent to which the global slowdown is hitting the top end of the luxury car segment. They came just three days after Rolls-Royce announced that it was cutting jobs and closing its plant temporarily.

Sales of the V8 Vantage and DB9 models have suffered as the downturn has squeezed the wallets of the buyers of its cars, which range in price from £83,000 to £159,000.

Volumes in the UK, which accounts for about a third of sales, fell 25 per cent in the year to October.

Investment Dar was started in 1994 by a group of leading Kuwaiti businessmen and shareholders.

People close to the fund said that work on its restructuring was still at an early stage and it was still considering all options available to it to renegotiating its KD1bn (£2.4bn) debt, including a debt for equity swap or other asset sales, the people said.

Investment Dar met banks and investors on Monday to update them on the group's restructuring plans. These have yet to be finalised and are to be presented on March 16.

The group told the banks that all avenues were being pursued, according to one of the people close to the restructuring.

Investment Dar has also received interest in the sale of a stake in a prime London property, the Grosvenor House Apartments, a prestigious Park Lane location. The property, acquired by the Kuwaiti fund in 2006, was one of the largest Islamicfinanced buy-outs in the UK. The deal was partially financed by the UK's first large Murabahah facility, a form of sharia-compliant financing - £112m provided by Lloyds TSB.

Investment Dar declined to comment.

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Kuwaiti group added to cash shell makes a big Plus

By David Blackwell

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

One of the biggest companies to join Plus Markets for many years arrives next week.

A Kuwaiti commercial property company is reversing into Rak Real Estate, a Plus cash shell. It is expected to have a market capitalisation of more than $900m (£624m). At present the biggest Plus company is Arsenal Holdings, the football club, which has a market capitalisation of £470m.

Rak joined Plus last August with the intention of seeking opportunities in Middle Eastern and North African property, but no-one would have expected a deal of this size. Rafed Al Khorafi, a member of a prominent Kuwaiti family, will become chairman. He and his family will hold a little less than 86 per cent of the equity.

The company will own two commercial complexes in Kuwait, one of which is expected to be completed in two years and the other in four years. It then plans to seek suitable acquisitions in the Middle East and North Africa. Plus quoted shares are usually even less liquid than those on Aim, so it will be fascinating to watch the levels of trading in Rak's stock. Mr Al Khorafi has placed 9.88 per cent of the enlarged share capital with Securities Group CO KSCC, a Kuwaiti broker, at $5 a share, for a total consideration of $91.8m.

Companies are continuing to arrive on Plus, although most are not raising any money. A further development was the recent issue by Caspian Minerals, a resources investment company, of the first global depositary receipts on Plus, which arrived via Bank of New York Mellon.

Dallying Dalian

However, as on Aim, companies are continuing to leave the market - if they can. Shares in Dalian Business Institute, which runs private business colleges in China, were suspended on February 2 because the company had failed to submit its annual report and accounts. The company subsequently announced plans to withdraw from Plus as the directors believed any benefits from the listing were being outweighed by the costs.

But a shareholder objected to the proposed withdrawal, which under Plus rules is sufficient to stop it. Last week Dalian said it had been forced to abort its plans and it did "not anticipate a lifting of the suspension in the near future as the company does not currently have the resources to be able to meet all the costs involved in maintaining the listing".

There has been little or no trading in Dalian shares since it came to Plus three years ago with the intention of raising funds to acquire other private Chinese colleges. Nevertheless the shares have plunged from 14p to 2½p, putting an end to dreams of expansion. The most likely outcome now is that the shares will be cancelled under Plus rules once six months has passed since the suspension.

There is a Goon Show aspect to this as Simon Littlewood of London Asia Corporate Finance is the Plus adviser to the company, but is also a director of China Growth Opportunities, the Aim-quoted fund that owns 30 per cent of Dalian and that has objected to the planned withdrawal. But any retail shareholder tempted to buy shares in Dalian is unlikely to see the funny side.

Furious about 'hijack'

Another bunch of unhappy shareholders are trying to stop GNE Group turning itself into an investment trust and leaving Aim. They are furious that the company has been "hijacked by minority shareholders", leading to a change of direction by the board and the end of plans for a special dividend of 150p a share.

The company's history goes back to the 1990s, when it was a metals trading operation on the USM. It turned into Global Natural Energy, an unusual name for a petrol station operator. Last September shareholders voted for the special dividend after Petrol Express was sold for £51.7m.

But in December Martyn Ratcliffe, chairman of software group Microgen, bought a 15.6 per cent stake and now controls nearly 29 per cent. He plans to invest in technology companies.

The board's case is that the shareholder base has changed, as have conditions for developing another petrol retail business, as originally planned. But several thousand small shareholders disagree.

Keith Moss, leader of their action group, claims to have the support of holders of about 20 per cent of the shares, who will vote against resolutions to be put to an extraordinary meeting next Wednesday. The key voter will probably be another private shareholder with a 15 per cent stake.

Small shareholders have every reason to be disappointed at the turn of events. But it is worth pointing out that GNE shares began 2008 at 87½p and ended it at 173½p as most Aim shares were heading south by south-east. Others, including Dalian shareholders, have far more to moan about.

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Syria learns the private way

By Anna Fifield in Deir Atiah, Syria

Published: March 5 2009 02:00 | Last updated: March 5 2009 02:00

Zaina had two options: she could study engineering for free at a state university, or she could study medicine, her preferred subject, at a private institution for $10,000 a year. The choice was simple.

"I didn't want to be an engineer, I wanted to be a doctor," the 18-year-old shrugs, sitting in the cafeteria at Kalamoon University, one of the private institutions that has opened in Syria to meet rocketing demand for tertiary education.

More and more young Syrians are finding themselves in this situation. As student numbers have risen, the entry requirements at state universities have become increasingly tough, with baccalaureate grades in the 90s needed to enrol in many classes, and 99 for medicine.

"I feel guilty because I could have done better in my baccalaureate," says Zaina, a second-year student whose doctor parents are funding her education. "I want to do well here because my parents are paying so much for this."

Syria, a self-styled "social market economy", has been gradually allowing the private sector to play a greater role since Bashar al-Assad assumed the leadership from his father in 2000.

While his presidency has not ushered in the "Damascus spring" of greater personal freedoms that many were hoping for, it has led to some economic liberalisation in sectors including banking, insurance and education.

With the four state colleges full to overflowing - Damascus University alone has more than 120,000 students - 12 private institutions have sprung up since the sector was opened in 2001, and another dozen are in the works.

"The government does not have enough resources to finance education for all these people, so it had two options," says Samir Seifan, an independent economist. "It could encourage Syrians to go abroad or it could encourage the private sector to get involved."

The idea was that the parents who could afford it would send their children to private universities, making space at state institutions for poorer students.

Indeed, in a country where the annual per capita income is only $1,570, according to the World Bank, very few can afford private education.

"I worked hard so I have enough money to send them there, thanks to God," says Nabil, a businessman who is paying $5,000 a year for his son Yazan to study business administration at Wadi International University.

"Even if he had the necessary grades, I didn't want him to study at Damascus University because there are 750 students in the first-year class," he adds. At Wadi, Yazan shares a classroom with only 23 other students.

Kalamoon University, a mini-city in the desert at Deir Atiah, 100km north of the capital, was the first to open.

"We take the overflow from state universities," says Salim Daaboul, the head of the university and chairman of the company which owns it. "But we hope that one day students will choose us as their first choice."

Kalamoon now has 5,000 students and the largest proportion are medical students such as Zaina who have not been accepted into a public university, although dentistry and pharmacy are also popular.

Classes are taught in English and Mr Daaboul says that the student-teacher ratios at his university - it has 400 academic staff - are beyond the imagination of those packed into state college classrooms.

But the emergence of all these new universities has led to a shortage of teaching staff and has raised questions about academic standards.

Many of the universities have been looking for international recognition to bolster their credentials, and there has been some controversy over institutions exaggerating ties to European colleges.

Economists and academics alike say these universities are business ventures first and educational institutions second.

"These universities are profit making," says Jihad Yazigi, editor of Syrian Report, an economic digest. "For private investors, especially among the nouveaux riches , it is prestigious to be involved in something with an academic flavour."

Kalamoon is owned by a company with more than 1,000 shareholders, most of whom are from the area and want to see it develop, Mr Daaboul says.

He insists that the university is not aiming to make money and has not paid any dividends to its shareholders, who collectively contributed $27m.

"We decided to make a profitable project in parallel to the university," Mr Daaboul says, gesturing towards a 170-room hotel and shopping mall under construction.

But whether the foray into private education succeeds depends not so much on the types of universities but on the sort of graduates they produce, says Mr Seifan, the economist: "We have thousands of people studying engineering but how many of them can fix the computerised machines that are now being used by industry?"

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UK to engage with Hizbollah

By James Blitz in London

Published: March 4 2009 23:42 | Last updated: March 4 2009 23:42

Britain announced on Wednesday that it would engage in direct contacts with the political wing of the Hizbollah movement in Lebanon, recognising that the organisation has become part of the country’s national unity government.

However, announcing the move to parliament, Bill Rammell, Foreign Office minister for the Middle East, made clear that the UK would not be having contacts with Hizbollah’s military wing. He also said the move had no implications for Britain’s continued refusal to enter dialogue with Hamas in the Palestinian territories.

Mr Rammell said the decision to have contacts with Hizbollah’s political wing was taken “in the light of more positive developments in Lebanon, and the formation of the national unity government in which Hizbollah is participating”.

He said the UK would look to have further discussions with the group. “Our over-riding objective is to press Hizbollah to play a more constructive role and move away from violence,” he said.

Asked whether this move might mean that the UK would start talking to parts of the Hamas movement, he said: “No, I don’t think there is an analogy. There are clear Quartet principles that we have urged Hamas to sign up to,” among which is recognition of Israel, a rejection of violence and signing up to previous Palestinian commitments.

He noted that the Arab League had mandated Egypt to talk to Hamas and that this would not be a good moment for other states to intervene. “The very clear view from the Egyptians is that the dialogue should take place through Egypt and not through other parties,” he said.

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Argentina holds fire on grain controls

By Jude Webber in Buenos Aires and Javier Blas in London

Published: March 4 2009 00:26 | Last updated: March 4 2009 02:06

The Argentine government on Tuesday confirmed it was considering a national board to regulate grains trading, but said it would take no immediate action.

“Today we’re not going to send any bill [to Congress] but we do not rule out the possibility of sending one to that effect,” Florencio Randazzo, interior minister, said after more than five hours of talks with farm leaders.

The talks were attended by Cristina Fernández, ­president.

The meeting between the leaders of the country’s four big producers’ groups, who want less state intervention in the sector, and the leftist government came after days of rumours that officials could seek further control of cereals exports through a state-led trading company.

Farmers and grains exchanges have roundly condemned any such move as a “backwards step” and say production has more than doubled since the country’s National Grains Board was scrapped in the early 1990s.

The meeting on Tuesday expanded on earlier outline agreements on steps to aid the dairy, cattle and wheat sectors, including the opening of the wheat export ­registry and the removal of export tariffs on milk products.

“We hope this puts an end to the conflict,” Mr Randazzo said.

Farmers welcomed the progress but Mario Llambías, head of the Argentine Rural Confederations, said: “We’ve had a lot of announcements. What we want now ... is for them to be met.”

Farmers last year staged a four-month protest over plans to increase export tariffs and sought to have a 35 per cent duty on soyabean exports, the country’s key export, scrapped. Ms Fernández has ruled this out.

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US wary of British calls for global regulation

By Daniel Dombey in Washington

Published: March 4 2009 22:05 | Last updated: March 4 2009 22:05

Standing underneath the dome of the US Capitol, receiving wave after wave of applause from the US political elite, Gordon Brown on Wednesday reached a pinnacle in his career.

The prime minister has long been an aficionado of US politics, spending holidays in Cape Cod poring over books such as Robert Caro’s voluminous account of former president Lyndon Johnson’s life.

But aside from the half hour in the Capitol, Mr Brown faced real problems making his mark in Washington.

In terms of US public perception, the prime minister is near invisible when compared with predecessors such as Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair.

Mr Brown also sought to convince his own domestic audience that the UK was still as strong a partner as ever with the US – a relationship often seen as a gauge of Britain’s influence in the world.

Furthermore, he had a specific mission to carry out with the Obama administration – to persuade it to give more attention to the international aspects of the unfolding financial and economic crisis and to explore ideas for global regulation in particular. Here, analysts agree, he faced his greatest obstacles.

“This is probably the least significant visit by the least significant prime minister in modern British history,” said Ted Bromund, Margaret Thatcher Senior Research Fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation. “The reality is that Brown is desperately unpopular in the UK and has made no impact in popular opinion in the US.”

Still, British officials insist speculation that President Barack Obama is uninterested in Europe in general and Britain in particular is misconceived. They emphasise the institutional ties between Britain and the US, including exceptionally close military co-operation, and regular US-European co-operation on high-profile issues such as Afghanistan and Iran.

Mr Obama will be addressing the whole range of international challenges confronting the US on his own first big journey as president next month – to Britain, France, Germany and the Czech Republic. Mr Brown’s focus is on the first of those stops and on the G20 conference he is hosting on the financial and economic crisis.

“He’s come with a very definite economic agenda . . . of getting Obama to focus more on the international aspect of the rescue of the world economy,” says Eswar Prasad, a senior fellow at the liberal-leaning Brookings Institution.

But Mr Prasad and Mr Bromund highlight formidable challenges to Mr Brown’s campaign – most notably on his call for a more global regulatory approach.

In perhaps the most contentious sentence of his speech the prime minister said: “Let us agree rules and standards for accountability, transparency, and reward that . . . will apply to every bank, everywhere, and all the time.”

The US is traditionally deeply suspicious of such initiatives. “The US doesn’t want to be in a position of giving control of regulation or regulatory issues to a supranational body,” said Mr Prasad.

Mr Bromund added: “Any US administration would look at this with a great deal of scepticism and Congress is unwilling to give up sovereignty to bureaucrats . . . This is a recipe for global governance and global regulation on a titanic scale.”

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Bank cuts rates by 50 points to 0.5%

By Norma Cohen

Published: March 5 2009 12:00 | Last updated: March 5 2009 12:39

The Bank of England’s monetary policy committee cut its key rate by half a percentage point to 0.5 per cent on Thursday and unveiled a programme under which it will buy up to £150bn in government gilts and corporate bonds.

It is the first European central bank to begin this process – known as quantitative easing – in an effort to kick-start slumping demand.

The MPC has authorised the programme to begin with an initial £75bn of asset purchases, to be composed mostly of government gilts.

The quantitative easing was widely expected and underscores the authorities’ determination to counteract the broad based slump in demand across the UK economy. The Bank said the programme would be financed by the creation of central bank reserves and could take as long as three months to carry out, the Bank said in a statement.

It said the sum of £75bn had been agreed “in the first instance”, a hint that ultimate purchases could be a larger sum.

Mervyn King, Bank of England governor, said in a letter to Alistair Darling, chancellor of the exchequer, that the size of the full programme should be “up to a maximum of £150bn”, but that £50bn of that should be used to support the purchase of private sector assets – corporate bonds and commercial paper.

In a letter from the chancellor to the governor dated March 3, it was made clear that central bank money – money which does not require the government to borrow from elsewhere in the economy – can be used to finance a previously agreed asset purchase facility .

That facility, which was intended to be paid for with cash raised from sales of gilts, had a more narrow purpose than the scheme unveiled on Thursday. The APF, totalling £50bn, was aimed at unblocking the market for corporate borrowing, and the chancellor’s letter implies that the APF has been absorbed into a large pump-priming exercise.

In a statement concerning its decision to cut rates, the MPC said it agreed that part of the £75bn sum would be used to finance purchases through the previously announced APF. “But in order to meet the committee’s objective of total purchases of £75bn, the Bank would also buy medium and long-maturity conventional gilts in the secondary markets,” the Bank said. “It is likely that the majoriity of the overall purchases by value over the next three months will be of gilts.”

The MPC agreed that in future meetings it would monitor the effectiveness of the programme in boosting money supply “and in due course, raising the rate of growth of nominal spending, adjusting the speed and scale of purchases as appropriate.”

In deciding on the 50-point rate cut, the MPC considered the forecast in its March inflation report, which implied a substantial risk of inflation undershooting its 2 per cent target in the medium term. It also discussed the fact that data released since that report had done nothing to suggest an improving economic outlook.

However, it also considered the fact that very low official rates “could have counter-productive effects on the operation of some financial markets and on the lending capacity of the banking system.”

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トヨタグループ下請けが事業停止
2009.3.5 14:21

　帝国データバンク名古屋支店は５日、愛知県豊田市の自動車部品メーカー「日本高周波」が事業を停止し、事後処理を弁護士に一任したと発表した。負債総額は平成２０年３月末時点で約２６億円。トヨタ自動車グループのメーカー、トヨタ紡織（同県刈谷市）の下請け業者だが、自動車不況の影響で受注が大幅に減ったことから資金繰りが悪化していたという。

　帝国データバンクによると、日本高周波は自動車のドアの内張りや座席などの部品を製造し、２０年３月期の売上高は約１１３億円。トヨタ関連の下請けで、年商１００億円以上の企業が事業停止に追い込まれたのは初のケースという。

　同社は、昨年秋以降の世界的な自動車の販売不振で受注が急減。工場の機械売却などで債務の軽減を図ったが、受注の回復が見込めないため、事業継続を断念したという。

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外国人学校にも学割を　市民団体
2009.3.5 16:19

　外国人学校を支援する市民団体が５日、ＪＲ西日本の本社（大阪市北区）を訪れ、ブラジル人学校やペルー人学校などの児童生徒にも、学割定期乗車券を認めるよう要望書を提出した。

　提出したのは「外国人学校・民族学校の制度的保障を実現するネットワーク」（東京都新宿区）と特定非営利活動法人（ＮＰＯ法人）「コリアＮＧＯセンター」（大阪市東成区）。

　要望書は「外国人学校は、受け入れ態勢が不十分な日本の公教育に代わるセーフティーネットの役割がある」と指摘。近年急増しているブラジル人学校などを学割が適用されるＪＲの「指定学校」に含めるよう求めている。

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佐賀産和牛、ドバイに“初輸出”

　中東のアラブ首長国連邦（ＵＡＥ）のドバイで開かれている国際食品見本市に、佐賀県産の和牛が出品されている。これまで佐賀牛を特例的に持ち込んだケースはあったが、今回はＵＡＥ政府から認証を受けた国内施設で処理した肉を県外の商社が持ち込んだ。県の解体施設が認証されなかった経緯を踏まえ、県は今後、このルートを使った本格的な輸出につなげたい考えだ。

　県によると、出品されているのは佐賀産和牛のヒレやロースなど約１００キロ。ＵＡＥが昨年１１月、「ハラール」といわれるイスラム教が定める解体処理法ができると認証した埼玉県内の施設で処理した。

　県はＪＡなど農業団体と共同で佐賀牛の中東輸出計画を進めてきた。しかし、多久市の解体施設がＵＡＥの認証を受けられず、埼玉の施設を使った輸出なども探ってきた。

　県は見本市への出品は本格的な輸出に向けた足がかりになると期待するが、処理施設の使用料など国内流通や現地での販路確保など課題も多く「今後も商社などと連携し、輸出体制の確立に向けた取り組みを進めたい」と話している。
2009年02月25日更新

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国際食品見本市：ドバイに県産和牛肉を出品　埼玉県のハラール施設で処理　／佐賀

　アラブ首長国連邦（ＵＡＥ）のドバイに「佐賀牛」の輸出を目指す県が、現地で開催中の国際食品展示・商談会「ガルフード２００９」に県産和牛肉１００キロを出品している。イスラム教の禁忌を避ける「ハラール処理」が課題だったが、ＵＡＥの認証を持つ埼玉県の施設で処理しての出品となった。

　県流通課によると、今回はサーロイン、ヒレ、リブロースの３部位を出品。小城市の農家が生産した黒毛和種の去勢とメス１頭ずつで、最高級品質の「佐賀牛」に次ぐという。

　ガルフードは１４０カ国から約４万人が来場する中東最大の国際食品見本市で、２３～２６日に開催されている。

　見本市に出張している県職員によると「すしダネや焼き肉として試食できる県産和牛のブースの周囲には、一日中人だかりができている」状態。人気ぶりは上々のようだ。

　ハラール処理を巡っては０８年に多久市の県畜産公社が施設の認証を求めたが、禁忌の豚肉を処理するスペースとの分離が不十分として認められなかった経緯がある。県が埼玉県の施設に処理を依頼したのはこのため。

　県の担当者は「関係者と連携を取り、継続的な輸出体制の構築に努力する」と話している。

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佐賀牛　ドバイの見本市に出品　県　産油国に照準定め
2009年2月25日 00:13 カテゴリー：経済 九州・山口 > 佐賀

　佐賀県が進めるブランド牛肉「佐賀牛」の中東輸出計画で、県は、アラブ首長国連邦（ＵＡＥ）のドバイで開かれている中東最大の国際見本市「ガルフード２００９」に佐賀牛を出品、中東への初輸出を実現させた。世界経済が悪化する中、産油国に照準を定め、販路開拓に取り組む。

　海外輸出は、香港、米国に次ぎ３例目。見本市は２３日に開幕し、２６日までに約１４０カ国から約４万人が来場する。佐賀牛は農林水産省が開設した日本館にサーロイン、ヒレ、リブロース計１００キロが出品され、商談が進められている。

　佐賀牛の中東輸出計画は、イスラム教の戒律に従った「ハラール」という食肉解体処理法をめぐり、昨年１１月、同県多久市の解体施設がＵＡＥ政府公認機関による施設認証を見送られ、暗礁に乗り上げた。このため県は今月上旬、認証を受けた埼玉の施設に処理を依頼、輸出にこぎつけた。

＝2009/02/25付 西日本新聞朝刊＝

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東電柏崎刈羽原発で火災発生　約30分後に消火

　新潟県に5日入った連絡によると、中越沖地震の影響で運転停止中の東京電力柏崎刈羽原子力発電所1号機の原子炉建屋地下5階にある「原子炉隔離時冷却系ポンプ室」で同日午前8時55分ごろ火災が発生した。消防が約30分後に消し止めた。この火事で男性作業員1人が顔をやけどし、病院に搬送された。

　県によると、外部への放射能の影響は確認されていないという。

　新潟県は現在、東京電力から申し入れを受けた柏崎刈羽原発７号機の起動試験（試運転）を了解するかどうか検討している。今回発生した火災とは別の原子炉施設だが、火災原因によっては地元了解の判断に影響を与える可能性もある。(12:01)

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東京・板橋区、ペット火葬場を規制　住宅から50メートル離す

　住宅地でのペットの火葬場設置を規制する改正条例が4日、東京都板橋区議会で成立した。この種の条例は23区で初めてで4月1日に施行する。住宅から 50メートル以上離すことを義務付けて、設置場所を工業専用地域に誘導する。すでに営業しているか建設中のペット火葬場は対象外だが、増設する際は規制を受ける。

　条例ではペット火葬場を設置する際は区長の許可が必要と規定した。許可の基準として(1)死骸を土中に葬る施設ではない(2)住宅からおおむね50メートル以上離れている(2)防臭、防じん、防音装置を置く――など8項目を定めた。

　区内には現在、ペット火葬場が2カ所あるが、いずれも荒川沿いの工業専用地域内。条例は住宅からの距離について工業専用地域では適用しないとしており、この地域にペット火葬場を誘導することを狙う。

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砂川事件：元被告が「日米密談記録」の開示を請求

　１９５７年に米軍立川基地（当時）の拡張に反対するデモ隊が基地へ侵入した「砂川事件」で罰金刑を受けた元被告と支援団体が５日、当時の日米関係者が裁判に関して密談した記録を開示するよう外務省や最高裁などに請求した。請求したのは元被告の土屋源太郎さん（７４）＝静岡市葵区＝と「砂川事件の情報公開を請求する会」（塚本春雄代表）。

　同事件で最高裁は５９年１２月、１審無罪判決を破棄、審理を地裁へ差し戻しその後７人の有罪が確定した。

　米国公文書館で０８年４月、１審判決の翌日にダグラス・マッカーサー２世・駐日米大使（以下当時）が藤山愛一郎外相に最高裁への跳躍上告を勧めたことや大使が田中耕太郎最高裁長官から上告審の時期見通しを聞いたことを示す文書が見つかった。土屋さんらは「日本側に文書がないわけがない」として開示を求めており、開示されない場合は提訴する考えだ。

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福岡県立大：図書館の本、未返却学生は卒業証書渡しません　強硬策「社会人のルール」

　福岡県立大学（福岡県田川市）は、付属図書館の本を借りたまま返さずに卒業する学生に対し、卒業証書の授与を保留する強硬策を打ち出している。４日現在、卒業予定者２１人が計５１冊を返していないため、卒業式（１７日）前日までの返却を求めている。不心得者に業を煮やした窮余の策だ。【林田雅浩】

　０６年春に大学が独立行政法人となった際、図書館の未返却図書が４２０冊に上ることが判明。翌春、２８人が計５８冊を返さずに卒業した。このため１０月と１月を「延滞解消月間」として学生に文書や電話で督促している。

　卒業証書授与を保留する方針を決めたのは０８年３月。卒業自体は取り消されないが、心理的効果は大きいとみられ、その年の卒業生に未返却者はいなかった。

　だが、今年も卒業シーズンを控えて返却延滞者が続出。２月末に１～４年生５５人が計１１９冊を借りっ放しにしていたため、卒業予定者や保護者に集中的に督促し、図書館入り口には返却呼びかけを掲示している。

　未返却の本は、看護師や社会福祉士など国家試験の対策本から専門書や小説までさまざま。保護者からは「ペナルティーとして重過ぎる」との反応もあるというが、大学事務局は「図書館の本は重要な公有財産で、借りた本を返すのは社会人として守るべき基本的なルール。（授与保留は）最後の手段だが教育的配慮でもある。見直す考えはない」と話している。

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「修正液」開発のメーカー、自己破産へ

2009年3月5日21時19分

　修正液を日本で初めて開発した文具メーカー、丸十化成（兵庫県市川町）が５日、自己破産の申請準備に入った。昨年秋からの景気悪化で主力の修正液の販売が落ち込み、資金繰りが悪化した。民間調査会社の帝国データバンク神戸支店によると、負債総額は約４億９５００万円。

　丸十化成は１９３０年代に創業。戦前、万年筆のインク消しを考案し、６０年代には国産初の修正液「ミスノン」を開発した。修正液のトップメーカーだったが、修正テープなどの台頭もあって近年は業績が悪化。化粧品メーカーなどの支援を受けたが再建に至らず、今年２月から事業を停止していた。

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トヨタ、管理職の年間賞与を２割減へ　０９年度

2009年3月5日20時53分

　トヨタ自動車は５日、課長級以上の管理職について、０９年度の年間賞与を前年度より２２％以上削減する方針を明らかにした。世界的な自動車市場の低迷で１０年３月期の業績も厳しいとみられるためだ。

　同日の労使協議後の会見で、管理職の賞与について「年収ベースで組合員を上回る減収になる見込み」と発表した。トヨタ自動車労働組合は０９年春闘で賞与にあたる年間一時金について、組合員平均で前年実績より２２％少ない１９８万円を要求しているため、管理職は２２％を上回る減額になる。トヨタは６月に支払われる取締役賞与についてはゼロとする予定だ。

　また組合側が求めていた期間従業員の再就職支援について経営側は、３月末に溶接技能などの資格取得のための技能講習制度を導入する方針を示した。