Swiss agree to relax bank secrecy rules

Swiss agree to relax bank secrecy rules

BERNE, March 13 – Switzerland agreed on Friday to relax its strict bank secrecy rules and co-operate more on tax evasion in a last-ditch attempt to fend off a global crackdown on tax havens that is rattling the offshore banking industry.

The upcoming meeting of the Group of 20 developed and emerging nations in which they are due to discuss tax havens prompted Switzerland, Austria and Luxembourg on Friday to follow recent moves by other offshore centres and offer more tax transparency.

In a landmark statement, the Swiss government said it would embrace standards for tax cooperation and exchange of information set by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, meaning more information on suspected tax evaders will be shared with other countries.

”Banking secrecy does not protect tax crimes. International cooperation on taxes has become more important given the globalisation of financial markets and in particular against the background of the financial crisis,” Swiss president and finance minister Hans-Rudolf Merz told a news conference.

Switzerland will not drop bank secrecy altogether and will only pass on information following detailed requests on individual cases from other countries.

”There will be no automatic exchange of information,” Mr Merz said.

The government said it was seeking a fair transition for its bank clients to the new regime and was seeking a possible tax amnesty for existing clients.

”It is important to have some transitory measures, to know how bank clients will be treated in the future. This is a very important aspect that will need to be defined,” Mr Merz said, adding that such measures could mean a tax amnesty.

Switzerland is the world’s biggest offshore financial centre, with an estimated $2,000bn in global wealth held abroad. The country has been under pressure to relax its strict bank secrecy rules from a US tax fraud investigation targeting its number one bank UBS.

The Swiss government said in a separate statement issued on Friday that it would instruct a US law firm to defend the country’s position in a civil case against UBS that seeks to force the bank to reveal the details of 52,000 bank clients.

A decision on Thursday by tiny offshore rivals Liechtenstein and Andorra to adopt more tax co-operation has put even more pressure on Berne.

It comes on the heels of moves by other centres, including Singapore, Hong Kong, Jersey and the Isle of Man, to open up.

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18:15 GMT, Thursday, 12 March 2009
Coatings that 'self-heal' in sun
Microscope image of scratch

Scientists have devised a coating that when scratched heals itself upon exposure to sunlight.

The secret of the material lies in using molecules made from chitosan, which is derived from the shells of crabs and other crustaceans.

In the event of a scratch, ultraviolet light drives a chemical reaction that patches the damage.

The work by University of Southern Mississippi researchers is reported in the journal Science.

They designed molecules joining ring-shaped molecules called oxetane with chitosan.

The custom-made molecules were added to a standard mix of polyurethane, a popular varnishing material that is also used in products ranging from soft furnishings to swimsuits.

Scratches or damage to the polyurethane coat split the oxetane rings, revealing loose ends that are highly likely to chemically react.

In the ultraviolet light provided by the sun, the chitosan molecules split in two, joining to the oxetane's reactive ends.

"In essence you create a scratch, and that scratch will disappear upon exposure to the sun," said Professor Marek Urban, director of the university's school of polymers and high-performance materials.

Professor Urban and graduate student Biswajit Ghosh found that their coatings were able to fully heal themselves in just 30 minutes.

'Not complicated'

A number of self-healing composites have been developed in recent years, many of which depend on the inclusion of capsules or hollow fibres filled with glue-like materials.

A scratch or crack ruptures the capsules or fibres, and the glue fixes the damage.

Professor Urban says that such approaches are "fairly elaborate and many times simply economically not feasible". Microscope image of scratch

By contrast, the new approach only requires adding a tiny amount of the doctored molecules to the mix.

"There's still work to do, but we're on the right track with the current chemistry - which is not very complicated," said Professor Urban.

"It has tremendous potential for improving the properties of materials."

The well-established nature of polyurethane in such a wide range of manufacturing could see a number of benefits, not least the self-healing car paint job.

"Clearly, there are future applications of this work in the repair of automotive components, which extensively use polyurethane polymers," said Professor Howell Edwards, a chemist at the University of Bradford.

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10:19 GMT, Friday, 13 March 2009
Dutch arrest Mafia murder suspect
Crime scene outside Da Bruno restaurant in Duisburg, Germany, 15 Aug 07

Police in Amsterdam have arrested the main suspect in the gangland killing of six Italian men in the German city of Duisburg in August 2007.

Giovanni Strangio was detained with his brother-in-law - also a Mafia suspect - in a joint operation involving Dutch, German and Italian police.

Police believe the killings were part of a long-running feud among members of the Calabrian Mafia, the 'Ndrangheta.

The victims, linked to the Pelle-Votari clan, were gunned down near a pizzeria.

The killers are believed to be members of the rival Nirta-Strangio clan, based in the Italian town of San Luca.

Several other suspects have been arrested in Italy. Map showing Calabria

The Calabria-based 'Ndrangheta has become one of the most powerful criminal organisations in Italy, correspondents say, having overtaken the Sicilian Mafia, the Cosa Nostra, with the expansion of its international drug trafficking activities inside Europe.

For more than a decade, San Luca, a town of about 4,500 at the southern tip of Italy, has been the focal point of a bitter feud between rival 'Ndrangheta clans.

The feud dates back to an egg-throwing incident in 1991, when a fight broke out that left two young men dead and two injured.

The murder of Maria Strangio, a cousin of Giovanni Strangio, on 25 December 2006 is also believed to have been linked to the feud.

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Chinese blow to Singapore’s hub ambitions

By John Burton in Singapore

Published: March 13 2009 01:38 | Last updated: March 13 2009 01:38

Plans by the Singapore Exchange to become a regional trading centre for Chinese stocks suffered a setback on Thursday as one of the last two Chinese shares included in the main Straits Times index was dropped.

In addition, new allegations surfaced about possible accounting irregularities involving one of several Singapore-listed Chinese companies, or S-chips.

The SGX said Yanlord Land, a Chinese property company, had been removed from the STI because of its falling market value.

Cosco (Singapore), the last remaining S-chip in the STI, also appeared at risk of being removed at the next review in the six months since the Chinese shipping group now has the smallest market capitalisation among the 30 stocks in the index.

S-chip investors, meanwhile, were shaken by news that trading in Oriental Century, a Chinese-based education provider, had been suspended after the company said in a statement that its chief executive had allegedly “substantially inflated” the company’s balance sheet for its 2008 full-year financial results.

The SGX succeeded in attracting more than 100 Chinese companies, most of them medium-sized businesses, in the past five years as it sought to compete with the Hong Kong stock exchange for Chinese listings. The S-chips proved popular with local retail investors because of their cheap valuations and they were among the most heavily traded counters on the SGX.

But the strategy has been affected by the sharp fall in the shares of most mainland companies over the last year. The slowing Chinese economy meant 30 of the 109 S-chips reporting full-year 2008 results posted losses and analysts believe more will suffer earnings declines this year.

Investors also turned cautious recently after questions about accounting practices among several of the S-chips emerged. Trading in Fibrechem Technologies was recently suspended after auditors reported difficulties in confirming its cash balance.

Other S-chips could face potential financing problems.

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Berkshire loses top credit rating

SINGAPORE, March 13 - Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway was stripped of its ’AAA’ credit rating, barely hours after General Electric lost its top-tier rating, as the global financial crisis pummels America’s corporate titans.

Ratings agency Fitch cut Mr Buffett’s insurance and investment company by one notch to AA-plus, citing concerns about Berkshire’s equity and derivatives investments, as well as Mr Buffett’s tight grip on the company.

The downgrade is another setback to Mr Buffett, 78, coming a day after the billionaire lost his position as the world’s richest man to Microsoft founder Bill Gates, according to Forbes’ annual list. Mr Buffett’s net worth plunged to $37bn from $68bn last year, the list said.

“Fitch views the company’s potential earnings and capital volatility derived from its large, unhedged market exposures as inconsistent with the stability required at the AAA level,” the ratings agency said in its statement on Berkshire.

Those exposures include Berkshire’s equity investments, as well as its holdings of derivative contracts tied to equity and credit markets, Fitch said.

Fitch is the first major credit agency to cut Berkshire’s AAA rating.

The move comes after General Electric was stripped of its AAA rating by Standard & Poor’s on Thursday.

Berkshire invested $3bn last year in GE, buying preferred shares with the option of acquiring another $3bn in common stock at $22.25 per share.

Known as the Sage of Omaha for his long history of successful investments, Mr Buffett was caught out by the global financial crisis.

Berkshire’s net worth tumbled $10.9bn in the final quarter of 2008 and profits fell 96 per cent, due mostly to losses on derivatives contracts tied to the stock market. Berkshire had $4.65bn of net investment and derivative losses in 2008.

Mr Buffett has defended his use of the derivatives, which helped drive Berkshire’s annual profit to a six-year low.

Investors should distinguish Berkshire’s derivatives from others that dramatically increased financial leverage, made banks ”almost impossible for investors to understand,” and threatened the collapse of companies such as investment bank Bear Stearns and mortgage financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Mr Buffett said in his annual letter to Berkshire shareholders.

Fitch also noted Berkshire remains too closely linked to Mr Buffett to merit a AAA rating.

“Fitch views this risk as unrelated to Mr Buffet’s age, but rather Fitch’s belief that [Berkshire’s] record of outstanding long-term investment results and the company’s ability to identify and purchase attractive operating companies is intimately tied to Mr Buffett,” it said.

Berkshire generates about half its results from insurance, including auto insurer Geico, but operates more than 70 businesses that offer such things as carpeting, ice cream, paint, real estate services and underwear.

Fitch lowered Berkshire’s senior unsecured ratings by two notches to AA. However, it affirmed its AAA insurer financial strength ratings on the company’s insurance and reinsurance subsidiaries. The outlook for all of Berkshire’s entities is negative.

Berkshire Class A shares closed on Thursday at $87,500 on the New York Stock Exchange. They have fallen 34 per cent over the past year, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 has dropped 43 per cent.

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Qatar fund to target food and energy

By Andrew England in Abu Dhabi and Javier Blas

Published: March 13 2009 02:00 | Last updated: March 13 2009 02:00

Qatar's sovereign wealth fund will turn its focus to commodities - particularly food and energy - in the second half of 2009, a senior official said yesterday.

Hussein al-Abdullah, executive director of the Qatar Investment Authority, which is estimated to have assets of about $60bn (€46.6bn, £43.1bn), said the fund would do "nothing" until the beginning of the second half of the year, when it would review its strategy.

After that period "the sectors we will focus more on are commodities, food, energy and water because it is an important sector and the prices will pick up", Mr Abdullah said at a conference in Dubai.

The focus on food comes as Middle East nations - particularly Saudi Arabia, race to secure their agricultural supplies by investing in overseas farmland following last year's food crisis. Agricultural commodities prices increased in 2008 to record highs and, after falling in recent months, remain above the 2006 pre-boom level.

Riyadh has recently announced the arrival of the first crop harvested on Saudi-owned overseas farmland and has launched the so-called King Abdullah initiative for Saudi agricultural investment abroad. Other countries, including the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, are looking to invest in food commodities.

Gulf nations import most of their food and the rise in commodity prices last year was a source of soaring inflation in the region. Mr Abdullah did not elaborate on the type of food investments the QIA would consider. Bankers said the Gulf's sovereign funds considered themselves "oil-rich, cash-rich but food-poor" in the long term.

Mr Abdullah said: "We see a structural change in commodities because of the growth of the middle classes in China and India . . . the price of commodities will shoot up given that China and India are growing at 6 per cent and 3 per cent."

Gulf sovereign funds, boosted by soaring oil prices, had been active until recently - most notably with investments in ailing western banks. Gas-rich Qatar's fund invested $1.8bn in Barclays last year, and has stakes in J Sainsbury and the London Stock Exchange.

But as crude prices collapsed and global stock markets tumbled, the funds have taken a battering, leading analysts to say these funds would take a more cautious approach and hold back on some investments.

Estimates about the size of funds' losses vary because of their opaqueness, but Mr Abdullah said the QIA had lost less than 20 per cent of its value in 2008.

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Ponzi victims find little solace in guilty plea

By Vita Bekker in Tel Aviv, Alan Rappeport in New York and Megan Murphy in London

Published: March 12 2009 19:14 | Last updated: March 12 2009 19:14

Now that Bernard Madoff has pleaded guilty to running the world’s largest Ponzi scheme, Avraham Infeld has a suggestion for what Judge Denny Chin should do with the former New York broker.

“I would love to put him alone on an island with one hundred of the people whose money he has taken, and see what happens,” said Mr Infeld, who formerly headed an Israel-based foundation that had invested its entire $200m endowment with Mr Madoff.

The 23-year-old Chais Family Foundation, which spent $12.5m annually on educational programmes mostly in Israel, was shut days after Mr Madoff’s arrest and its five staff members at the Jerusalem headquarters – including Mr Infeld – were let go.

More than three months after Mr Madoff was arrested, Mr Infeld said he was still furious: “I haven’t calmed down at all. I am very angry and I think he has got to come clean about where the funds are. I am sure that he is still hiding some.”

Other victims are also still angry.

“Justice would be for Bernie Madoff to go to jail for the rest of his life,” said Mark Peltz, a New York accountant who says he has been “living this nightmare” alongside between 15 or 20 clients who lost more than $200m combined.

Mr Madoff’s expressions of regret at the plea hearing left many of his victims unsatisfied.

“He was still operating like a con-man trying to manipulate the actual charges,” said Miriam Siegman, 65, of New York, who attended the proceeding.

She said that she had retired two years ago from her job as a consultant but that she was now considering working as a housekeeper since she lost all her savings to Mr Madoff.

“This is just the beginning of my sentence,” said Ms Siegman. “I’ve had everything taken from me.”

David Greene, a UK lawyer representing Madoff investors, said that the guilty plea is of little comfort to many of the broker’s victims.

Many of the international victims invested through feeder funds and never knew that Mr Madoff had their money.

“We have seen many people from round the world who were persuaded to invest in Madoff feeder funds and who have in many cases lost their life savings,” Mr Greene said.

“Those that sold them the investment should be making good the losses that they have suffered.”

Debra Schwartz, a New Yorker who says that she lost two-thirds of her savings due to investments with Mr Madoff, said: “What’s going to make me feel better is to get a cheque [for] the money I’ve lost.”

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Small town fights for its own justice

By Deborah Brewster in New York

Published: March 12 2009 13:04 | Last updated: March 12 2009 19:09

Bernard Madoff may be hoping his guilty plea will draw a line under what federal prosecutors say is a decades-long fraud scheme but Fairfield, in Connecticut, is not ready to move on.

Fairfield’s pension fund for public servants lost $42m
The town’s pension fund invested a total of $15.8m with Mr Madoff a decade ago; invested mostly through the Maxam feeder fund. According to statements the fund received from Mr Madoff, its investment had grown to $42m.

Notwithstanding the federal criminal case, Fairfield has issued its own arrest warrant, signed by the first selectman, the equivalent of a mayor. The case is being pursued under Connecticut banking laws.

“We’re still going to pursue criminal charges against him even if he pleads guilty,” Richard Saxl, the town attorney, told the Financial Times before the guilty plea.

“The federal penitentiary has been described as a country club. I think the North Avenue Bridgeport jail is a different story,” said Mr Saxl, referring to the Connecticut jail where Mr Madoff could serve if he was found guilty under Connecticut law.

A similar state overlap occurred in the 2002 WorldCom fraud case, where the Oklahoma state attorney general brought his own criminal charges against Bernard Ebbers, the chief executive. Those charges were dropped after Mr Ebbers received a 25 year federal sentence.

Fairfield has 58,000 residents and the pension fund pays the pensions of town firefighters, police, roadworkers and “the ladies in the cafeteria”, said Mr Saxl.

Many angry victims of the fraud want to know the full details and how it happened.

The town is equally critical of the individuals and companies who helped direct its money to Mr Madoff’s investment company.

Fairfield has filed two civil lawsuits and is preparing a third, Mr Saxl said, in an effort to get at least some of the money back.

The defendants include the principals of the feeder funds that funnelled the town’s money to Mr Madoff; KPMG, which audited the funds; and the New England Pension Consultancy, a firm which advised the town on investments.

The town alleges that the funds, the consultant and the auditors failed to conduct due diligence

About NEPC, Mr Saxl said: “You’d think if you paid them $100,000 a year you’d avoid a $42m loss.”

NEPC did not return phone calls. Tremont, the fund manager through which the town originally invested, and Maxam, through which it continued its investment, have both told investors they were victims of Mr Madoff as well. Maxam is suing its own auditors over the matter.

“We’re just trying to get back to square one, we’re trying to get even,” said Mr Saxl.

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Warship missile system delayed

By Sylvia Pfeifer, Defence Industries Correspondent

Published: March 13 2009 02:14 | Last updated: March 13 2009 02:14

The Royal Navy’s new Type 45 destroyers will initially have to go to sea without their main anti-aircraft missile system, the National Audit Office warns on Friday, in the latest sign of strain in the government’s procurement process.

The programme for the six vessels is also running at least two years late and nearly £1.5bn ($2.1bn) over its original budget of £5bn.

The delays mean the Ministry of Defence will have to keep operating five ageing Type 42 destroyers, first designed during the cold war, at an estimated extra cost of £195m, says the report.

The Whitehall spending watchdog says at one stage during the procurement process, problems led to a breakdown in relations between the MoD and the original main contractor – formerly BAE Systems, now BVT Surface Fleet, a joint venture of BAE’s and VT Group’s shipbuilding operations. This eventually led to a contract renegotiation.

Type 45 destroyers are designed to protect the naval fleet, providing air defence and performing tasks such as supporting forces ashore.

The NAO goes on to warn that the decision to halve the original procurement from 12 to eight and finally to six destroyers means the MoD faces a challenge if it is to meet its policy requirement of always having five ships available for deployment at any one time.

The total cost of the programme is now estimated at £6.46bn – a 29 per cent increase.

Under the initial contract, the first ship was originally due to enter service in November 2007. That was renegotiated in 2007 and the MoD is now working towards a first entry into service of December 2009.

However, the ship, HMS Daring, will not get its main anti-air missile system until mid-2011, although the MoD believes it could be deployed if necessary. The report also notes that the department had always planned that several pieces of equipment would be installed incrementally once the ships are operational.

Despite its criticisms, the NAO acknowledges that since the renegotiation, “management of the project is now much improved” and no delays have been reported.

Although noting the programme was now running more smoothly, Edward Leigh, chairman of the public accounts committee, said there was a “familiar ring about a major MoD equipment procurement which begins with over-optimism about costs and timescales and commercial arrangements failing to reflect the risks, and ends with costs soaring, significant delays to delivery and ageing existing equipment having to be patched up until the new kit becomes operational”.

Quentin Davies, minister for defence equipment and support, said: “These are complex, sophisticated warships and where problems arose in the early stages MoD gripped the issue, renegotiated contracts where required and got the programme on track.”

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Babcock & Brown faces collapse after creditor vote

By Peter Smith in Sydney

Published: March 13 2009 02:30 | Last updated: March 13 2009 11:17

Babcock & Brown collapsed into bankruptcy on Friday, ending the public life of the Australian group that for years strutted the world stage with its particular brand of infrastructure investing.

The death knell came as New Zealand owners of subordinated debt voted down a restructuring plan that would have seen noteholders receive just A$18,000 (US$11,700) for a debt instrument with a face value of A$180m.

However, senior creditors owed close to A$3.9bn are expected to pick over B&B’s carcass for years as they attempt to sell off the group’s remaining infrastructure, real estate and aircraft leasing operations.

The lead banks already control unlisted Babcock & Brown International, B&B’s main operating company that will execute the asset divestment programme.

B&B shares last traded in early January at a price of 32.5 cents, technically valuing the group at just over A$100m. That is a fraction of the peak of more A$34 in its heyday of 2007 when B&B was valued at about A$10bn.

The Australian group’s demise owes much to the end of an era when companies embarked on debt-fuelled acquisition sprees at prices that now seem wildly inflated. B&B also ranks as Australia’s highest profile casualty of the global credit crisis.

The group has been fighting to survive for months and a glimmer of hope came in December, when B&B reached a provisional agreement with its 25-member banking syndicate on a revised business plan that would have necessitated a large debt for equity swap to alleviate its crippling debt burden, delayed interest payments and an orderly sale of assets.

Despite making headway with the banking syndicate, the restructuring plan also required the support of the subordinated note-holders in New Zealand and Australia. A meeting due to be held on Friday to seek support from the Australian note-holders was cancelled after the New Zealand note-holders voted down the plan.

Shareholders had earlier this year been alerted they would be wiped out after B&B warned that its A$2.6bn of net assets had been eliminated by impairment charges even before a proposed debt-for-equity swap that would have heavily diluted existing investors.

B&B said it had no option but to appoint Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu as voluntary administrators following the New Zealand vote.

The company said it was disappointed that it would not have the opportunity to implement a restructuring plan it believed “would have produced a potentially better result for all investors in the company’s securities”.

“The board and management deeply regret the loss of the subordinated note and shareholder value that has occurred and acknowledge the financial hardship this has caused,” it said in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

A number of B&B’s funds – including Babcock & Brown Power, Babcock & Brown Infrastructure and Babcock & Brown Public Partnerships – moved on Friday to distance themselves from their former parent, saying they did not expect there to be any impact on their businesses.

B&B expanded from about 2004 from being a largely Australian-focused financial advisory firm into a leading global participant in acquiring and managing infrastructure assets.

It specialised in buying assets such as ports and utilities, and then bundling them into listed and unlisted funds from which it earned management fees. The acquisitions were typically loaded with debt, which made the investments vulnerable when credit conditions soured and asset prices dropped.

Phil Green, the former chief executive, was forced out of B&B last year as part of an effort to placate shareholders angry after the shares fell heavily on concerns about the group’s viability.

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South Sea Bubble Survivor Says Dismantle RBS Along With Lloyds
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By Simon Clark and Tom Cahill

March 13 (Bloomberg) -- Henry Hoare made a 1.6 million- pound ($2.2 million) profit from the South Sea Bubble, a speculative bust that bankrupted thousands of English families in the 1720s.

His great-, great-, great-, great-, great-, great-grand- nephew boosted the deposits of his family’s bank by 20 percent in the past year to come through one of the worst financial crises since then, which is why people might want to listen to him.

“Keep it simple, stupid,” Alexander Hoare said in an interview in his drawing room on the first floor of C. Hoare & Co.’s 180-year-old office on London’s Fleet Street. “Get the depositors in, lend to people who can afford to borrow.”

That’s a lesson Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc should have learned, said Hoare, 46, whose family-owned firm started in 1672 and now has about 10,000 customers. Prime Minister Gordon Brown should now dismantle the bank, which required 20 billion pounds of taxpayers’ money to avoid collapse, Hoare said.

“Break it up into all the component parts from which it was made and have them compete freely,” said Hoare, referring to his Fleet Street neighbors National Westminster Bank Plc and Coutts & Co. which are both owned by RBS. “The regional, smaller banks were much admired by their clients, they made money for their shareholders, they didn’t trouble the government.”

Lloyds Banking Group Plc, taken over by the government after its acquisition of Edinburgh-based HBOS Plc, should also be dismembered, Hoare said. The banks got into “all sorts of exotic alphabet soups they didn’t understand,” Hoare said.

‘Bad for Taxpayers’

“If you look for example at the crashing together of Lloyds, a good bank, with HBOS, it was bad for competition, it was bad for consumers, it was bad for shareholders, it was very bad for taxpayers,” Hoare said. HBOS lost 7.5 billion pounds in 2008, while Lloyds earned 819 million pounds.

RBS and Lloyds won’t be broken up soon because the government would receive “fire-sale prices,” said Neil Dwane, chief investment officer for Europe at Allianz Global Investors’ RCM unit in London.

Hoare said he’s now paying for the mistakes of others. His bank and other lenders are subscribing to a government plan to insure depositors after the failure of Bradford & Bingley Plc and Iceland’s Kaupthing Bank hf and Landsbanki Islands hf. Hoare said the government’s plans put too great a burden on taxpayers and penalize banks that avoided failure.

“There we were minding our own business for 300 years, and one day some Icelandic banks and Bradford & Bingley fail and we get landed with the bill,” Hoare, the bank’s chief executive officer, said. “The direction we’re heading is more and more depositor insurance, more and more regulation, more and more state ownership and these are the very things which did not make London great.”

South Sea Frenzy

Parliament passed the South Sea Act in 1720, which gave the South Sea Co. a monopoly on trade, including slavery, with South America in return for financing part of the national debt run up in the War of the Spanish Succession.

The shares jumped from 128 pounds in January to 1,050 pounds in July before they tumbled to 100 pounds in December, costing clergymen, country gentlemen and even scientist Isaac Newton their savings. Chancellor of the Exchequer John Aislabie was expelled from Parliament after an inquiry found he had accepted bribes, the Postmaster General took poison, and even King George I’s two mistresses were implicated.

Hoare acquired South Sea Co. stock as it rose and sold whenever it dropped. The bank made about 19,000 pounds, about 1.6 million pounds in today’s money, between February and September that year, according to the firm.

‘Chasing Fox Hounds’

In today’s crisis, Hoare has so far benefited, lifting deposits to about 1.8 billion pounds during the last 12 months. That’s mainly because it’s an “exclusive franchise” for the rich, said Simon Maughan, a financial analyst at MF Global Securities Ltd. The bank’s history has no relevance to the wider banking market, Maughan said in an e-mail.

Hoare accepts his bank serves a niche, and it has missed out on historic opportunities to expand. “We managed to miss the industrial revolution,” he said. “The balance sheet didn’t grow. They were all out on their horses chasing fox hounds,” he said of his forebears.

Hoare & Co. is an unlimited liability partnership, which means the family’s personal wealth, including Alexander Hoare’s solar-panel-topped residence and 50-foot yacht, can be seized if the lender collapses. That gives clients confidence, Hoare said.

“Everything apart from the shirt on our back is at risk,” Hoare said. “It keeps you jolly nervous.”

The firm hired Jeremy Marshall, former head of Credit Suisse Group AG’s U.K. private bank, to succeed Alexander Hoare over the next year. Hoare will remain a partner.

Takeover Approaches

That doesn’t mark a change in strategy, said Hoare, as he shows visitors through a library decked with artifacts from three centuries of banking including a safe deposit box for gold, and a letter opposing the Bank of England’s creation in 1694.

“Coutts is withering and the Swiss banks are withering and we want to stay small,” Hoare said. “If the business gets too big for the family to handle, we’ve failed.”

In the last few years, Hoare has received takeover approaches, which the family rejected at informal meetings over breakfast and lunch, Hoare said.

“You think, gosh, we’d all have a lot of money in our pocket and that would be nice for an hour, and then what?” Hoare said. “My job is to keep this bank small and beautiful.”

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Ghost Towns Dot Finland as Forestry Collapse Threatens Growth
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By Kati Pohjanpalo and Diana ben-Aaron

March 13 (Bloomberg) -- Juha Pikkarainen has been out of work since Stora Enso Oyj shuttered the world’s northernmost pulp mill last year in Finnish Lapland, heralding the end of an era.

“It’s hopeless trying to get a job here now,” said the 55- year-old power-station control-room operator, who followed in his father’s footsteps in 1979 when he started at the Kemijaervi mill of Europe’s largest papermaker. “We’ve lost all faith in the big companies.”

Finland’s forest industry -- once a pillar of the Nordic nation’s economy -- may be collapsing as the global recession stifles demand and exacerbates years of plunging prices for commodities and products.

While the nation’s telecommunications industry, led by mobile-phone company Nokia Oyj, and makers of machinery will likely recover when the economic crisis subsides, forestry may be beyond resurrection. Its decline threatens growth prospects, drives up unemployment and is creating a rust belt in rural areas that offer few alternative sources of employment.

“When jobs vanish, it’s certain that those who want to work will move away,” said Timo Tyrvaeinen, chief economist at Aktia Bank Oyj in Helsinki. “We have ghost towns, lost villages -- lots of them -- throughout the country.”

The forest industry’s share of Finland’s economy has halved in three decades to 3.8 percent as exports fell to 15 percent of total shipments from 42 percent. In January, production slumped 35 percent from the same month a year earlier, the most on record, Finland’s statistics agency said March 10.

Cutting Demand

Increased use of the Internet is cutting demand for pulp and paper, which account for about two-thirds of industry revenue, according to the Finnish Forest Research Institute. This has helped drive down the price of newsprint in Europe by 19 percent to 495 euros ($639) per ton in the seven years since December 2001. In addition, companies including Metso Oyj, the world’s biggest manufacturer of papermaking machines and rock crushers, are moving production to countries where labor and other costs are lower.

Stora Enso and UPM-Kymmene Oyj, Europe’s second-largest paper company, shut five Finnish mills in the last four years, cutting their employment in the country by 28 percent since 2005. So far this year, they have temporarily laid off more than 6,500 of the remaining 22,000 workers.

“Even if these companies survive, it might be that the Finnish forest industry won’t,” said Markku Kuisma, a history professor at the University of Helsinki.

Pine forests cover two thirds of Finland, whose $235 billion annual gross domestic product and population of 5.3 million make it economically and demographically the size of Minnesota.

Ports, Icebreakers

In the 1950s and 1960s, the government boosted the industry by building roads, railways, ports and icebreakers, plowing paths through the frozen sea for ships to carry paper to Europe year- round, Kuisma said. By the 1960s, the government directly controlled about a fifth of forest-product exports.

Communities swelled wherever the industry spread. In 1964, the government built the pulp mill in Kemijaervi, a lakeside village on the Arctic Circle that didn’t have any other manufacturing, as part of an effort to industrialize the rural north and east. Pikkarainen’s father moved there that year to work at the mill, which employed as many as 500 people at its peak in the 1960s and three decades later became part of the newly created, publicly traded Stora Enso, a merger of Finnish and Swedish papermakers.

Metso is one of many companies that grew with Finnish forestry, benefiting from years of investment and orders. It has made about half the paper machines that are still in operation around the world, and about a third of all its employees work in Finland.

Asian Investment

In January, Metso started talks on cutting as many as 1,100 of the jobs in its paper-machines unit and said new investments in pulp and paper machinery will fall by a third or more compared with the level from 2004 to 2008. Most of the new investment will be in Asia and South America, the company said.

The government last year resisted calls from unions and workers to stop the closure of Kemijaervi’s mill. The coalition, led by Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, said it didn’t want to interfere with free markets by preventing the demise of an industry that couldn’t cope on its own.

The state has since identified Kemijaervi as one of several areas of “sudden structural change” and given it 17.4 million euros ($22.2 million) to create employment opportunities and boost entrepreneurship.

“When the mills are shuttered in bad times, people don’t find other jobs,” said Eero Lehto, chief economist at the Labour Institute for Economic Research in Helsinki.

Rising Unemployment

Finland’s economy shrank 1.3 percent in the final three months of 2008 from the previous quarter -- its biggest drop in 17 years -- pushing the Nordic nation into a recession. The government predicts the jobless rate will exceed 8 percent this year compared with 6.4 percent last year, and the economy may contract as much as 4.4 percent, Finance Minister Jyrki Katainen said Feb. 24. Economic expansion had surged as high as 6 percent just two years ago because of foreign demand for machinery such as elevators made by Kone Oyj and Nokia’s mobile phones.

As paper mills close, a growing number of young people are moving to cities from northern rural areas to find work. Kemijaervi has shrunk a third to 8,600 residents since 1981, while Helsinki has grown 17 percent to 563,000 inhabitants. The shift has left roads, bridges and other infrastructure unused in smaller towns, while new highways and homes now need to be built in the cities, said Hannu Katajamaeki, professor of human geography at the University of Vaasa.

The government has had to cut services in places people are fleeing, which in turn speeds up the exodus. Last year, it closed 90 elementary schools, mostly in the north.

“Small towns are very vulnerable,” said Pertti Keraenen, chairman of the Lapland district of the opposition Left Alliance. “When a big employer stops operations, even decades won’t help plug that hole.”

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America's next catastrophe is brewing just south of its borders
12.03.2009 Source: Pravda.Ru URL: http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/107223-america_next_catastrophe-0

As if there were not enough things to worry about for the US, what with a dying economy, a spend happy neo-Marxist government in power, a stalemated war in Iraq and a loosing war in Afghanistan, here comes one more issue and the one that may create the final perfect storm: Mexico.

As I predicted, dear readers, Mexico is in the process of total collapse. The drug war violence has spun out of control so quickly that it is now a civil war and unlike the small time civil war with Mexico's southern Indians the Zapatistas, this one has the potential to topple the state government in very short order. The American Department of Defense has come out with an estimate that the two largest mafia cartels field, between them, over 100,000 foot soldiers. Now, these are not just gang bangers and lowlifes, alright they are lowlifes, but many are former Mexican army and some even US trained special forces. To make maters worse, they are armed with heavy weapons, everything short of tanks and fighter planes. Regular large scale gun battles, involving grenades and RPGs are a common, almost daily occurrence in Mexico.

Last year, death tolls doubled to over 7 thousand killed in these battles and various murders and retaliations. This year is on par to double again, as the cartels (mafias), military and various other groups, battle it out. Add to this the recent addition of vigilantes attacking in the night, often tied to quieter, smaller cartels and you are living in absolute chaos. The death rate, last year, was higher than that of Afghanistan and Iraq put together. Further, the favorite forms of murder, are extremely brutal. Beheadings are the norm. This must hail back to the old Aztec customs.

Another favorite is to hang a tire around the victim's neck, douse it in gasoline and set it on fire. Amputations, mass murders, rapes, massacres of whole families and dissolving the living and screaming victims in acid are all the new norm of Mexico. So could this get worse? Well, it is. The two main cartels, who between them have over 100,000 soldiers, are forming an alliance.

Is the US government worried about this?

Yes, but not enough. Besides this report, only the voices of governor Perry of Texas and the sheriff of Phoenix, Arizona, have come out loud enough to catch regional attention. The nation as a whole, remains blind and dumb to reality. Pictures of ostriches now come to mind.

Perry, in his frustration with his masters in DC, has called on 1,000 state guard (a form of militia) to take to the border, to protect a border that his police and the federal border patrol are not capable of dealing with. Drugs and guns flow both ways.

Phoenix , Arizona has the new distinct "honor" of being the 2nd kidnapping capital of the world, second only to Mexico and the victim of the same gangs. As a matter of fact, the US FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigations) in 2007, admitted that gangs in America numbered over 100,000 strong. Thus one can easily believe that there are at least, in reality, 150 to 200,000 gang members and almost half have direct ties to Mexico. Can the US army deal with this? Hardly, not in its present stretched out form, all over the world.

But there is worse to come.

By summer of this year, Mexico will enter a full blown war with large scale gun battles in most of the cities. Most civil wars push out refugees. If even 10% of the 110 million living in Mexico, start running north, that will collapse the governments of the American border states, already bankrupt from the Bank Panic of 2008 and the Economic Collapse of 2009. Most civil wars actually push out closer to 30-40% of a population, thus anywhere between 30-50 million people could head north.

But it gets even worse. A large chunk of the former US industry is located in northern Mexico, already in the war zone. US companies suffering in the present economic climate, will further sink or collapse with the loss of these facilities and their closing will force even more economic and war refugees north. A large percentage of the US fruits and vegetables also come from Mexico, as does US oil. It is not difficult to imagine that small groups of Mexican bandits could easily take to the water in speed boats and begin raid the various oil platforms, freighters and cruise ships sailing in the Gulf of Mexico and the southern Caribbean Seas. Somalia has already proven how effective this is.

All of this would require a large amount resources that the US no longer has to spare and will push the Americans into a grave political crisis.

Stay tooned, dear readers, this is starting to get ugly.

Stanislav Mishin

The article has been reprinted with the kind permission from Stanislav Mishin and originally appears on his blog, Mat Rodina

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Ethnic-Russian banker wants to become Lithuanian president

21:19 | 12/ 03/ 2009

Print version

VILNIUS, March 12 (RIA Novosti) - An ethnic-Russian businessman in Lithuania has submitted documents to the country's chief election commission to run for president, the parliamentary press service said Thursday.

Vladimir Romanov, the president of investment group Ukio banko investicines grupe (UBIG) and chief shareholder of Ukio bank, will become the first ethnic-Russian to run for president of Lithuania if the commission registers him as a candidate.

Romanov lives in the Baltic state's second largest city of Kaunas and is ranked among the country's richest people. He started his own knitting business on money earned as a submariner and taxi driver, after which he started buying the shares of light-industrial businesses.

His group now invests in real estate, production, logistics and sports, both in Lithuania and abroad. He owns Edinburgh's Hearts soccer club and his millions lifted them to second in the Scottish Premier League in the 2005-2006, a feat not repeated since.

A total of 11 contenders for the presidential post have been registered, and several others have submitted documents for registration. Presidential elections in Lithuania will be held May 17 and June 7, in two rounds.

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Iran missile, nuclear threat 'real, dangerous' - Russian analyst
17:35 | 12/ 03/ 2009

Print version

MOSCOW, March 12 (RIA Novosti) - Russia and the West would be making a big mistake if they ignored or underestimated the potential missile and nuclear threat coming from Iran, a Russian military expert said on Thursday.

"Iran is actively working on a missile development program. I won't say the Iranians will be able to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles in the near future, but they will most likely be able to threaten the whole of Europe," said Maj. Gen. Vladimir Dvorkin, head of the Moscow-based Center for Strategic Nuclear Forces.

Some Western and Russian sources claim that Iran may be currently running a program, dubbed Project Koussar, to develop a totally different missile with a range of 4,000-5,000 km (2,500-3,300 miles).

"Iran has long abandoned outdated missile technologies and is capable of producing sophisticated missile systems," Dvorkin said at a news conference in RIA Novosti.

Iran successfully launched last year an upgraded Shahab-3 ballistic missile as part of a navy exercise, dubbed Great Prophet 3, in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.

With a reported range of 2,000 kilometers and armed with a 1-ton conventional warhead, the Shahab-3 puts Israel, Turkey, the Arabian peninsula, Afghanistan and Pakistan within striking distance.

Western powers led by the United States, along with Israel, accuse Tehran of attempting to develop nuclear weapons and ballistic missile technology for their delivery. Iran says it needs its nuclear program for the peaceful generation of electricity and missile program for space exploration.

Iran has consistently defied international demands to halt its nuclear program and insists it plans to use enriched uranium fuel produced at a uranium enrichment facility at Natanz in its first domestically-built nuclear power plant, in the town of Darkhovin, which is scheduled to become operational in 2016.

Tehran announced in late February that it had 6,000 operating centrifuges at Natanz and was planning to install a total of 50,000 over the next five years.

Commenting on the Iranian nuclear program, Dvorkin said the potential danger of its military aspect was not the possibility of a nuclear strike against some countries, but the ability to assume a more bold approach in dealing with the international community after becoming a nuclear power.

"The real threat is that Iran, which is already ignoring all resolutions and sanctions issued by the UN Security Council, will be practically 'untouchable' after acquiring nuclear-power status, and will be able to expand its support of terrorist organizations, including Hamas and Hezbollah," the expert said.

He added that the possession of nuclear weapons by Iran could force non-nuclear countries to seek similar weapons and ballistic missile technologies thus starting a nuclear race and increasing the possibility of a nuclear conflict.

Dvorkin has had a role in writing all major strategy documents for the Strategic Nuclear Forces and the Strategic Missile Forces. As an expert in the field he participated in preparing the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty and the START I and START II pacts, and has made a significant contribution to formulating Soviet and Russian positions at negotiations on strategic offensive arms control and reduction.

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Russian mathematician 'calculated' crisis, prepared for it

16:32 | 12/ 03/ 2009

Print version

MOSCOW, March 12 (RIA Novosti) - A prominent mathematician, known for his accurate predictions on Russia's 1998 financial crisis and the breakup of the U.S.S.R., 'calculated' the current credit crunch and prepared for it, Russia's government daily said on Thursday.

Viktor Maslov, a member of Russia's Academy of Sciences, who helped make calculations for a protective shelter over the Chernobyl nuclear power plant reactor after the 1986 disaster, said the processes now taking place in economics are similar to certain phenomena in physics, Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported.

"I am referring to what is known as phase shifts, when a situation worsens abruptly, not gradually, and transforms into a different state, like an avalanche," Maslov told the daily. "Such processes are well known in physics, and are laid out in formulas of mathematical physics. They can also be applied to economics."

"Whether a crisis will break out or not, and even when this will happen, can be predicted," he told the paper.

Maslov said he had sold his apartment and country house in the summer, and sent the money to his children living abroad, advising them on how to invest it to survive the crisis.

Asked what advice he has for the administration of the United States, where the crisis originated, Maslov said they should not rescue large banks whose debts have long exceeded the "critical level," but focus on helping smaller banks that service individuals.

However, he was short on recommendations for Russia: "Our economy is too closed, and a large share of it is a shadow economy. It is therefore impossible to calculate critical figures and have a clear picture."

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Syrian nuclear mystery remains unsolved
20:28 | 11/ 03/ 2009

Print version

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Andrei Murtazin) - Last week, the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) met in Vienna to discuss the Iranian nuclear file and the Syrian nuclear mystery.

The IAEA has some misgivings about Syria's al-Kibar nuclear facility, reportedly bombed by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) on September 6, 2007. After IAEA experts found uranium particles at the scene of the attack, Damascus said that Israel had bombed a vacant plot belonging to an inter-Arab agricultural cooperative in the Deir ez-Zor Governorate, 450 km from the Syrian capital, and that uranium particles belong to missiles that had been used during the air strike.

Top IAEA officials remained unconvinced; what's more, Syria refused to admit another expert group to the suspicious facility.

Israel claims that the al-Kibar facility was, in fact, a nuclear reactor, built by Syria with assistance from North Korea. There is still no evidence to refute or to confirm this claim. However, immediately after the bombing Damascus did not raise an uproar and did not demand that the aggressor be punished.

Instead, construction machines demolished all the buildings at the al-Kibar facility. Damascus issued an official statement about the Israeli air strike only several weeks later.

One more fact that does not speak in favor of Syria: On August 1, 2008, Brigadier General Mohammad Suleiman, a close associate of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, was gunned down at a beach resort near the Syrian port city of Tartous. This happened ten months after the Israeli air strike when the IAEA wanted to ask Damascus some more questions. U.S. intelligence reports say that General Suleiman was responsible for the Syrian nuclear program.

The Syrian response to various suspicions and accusations is the central issue so far. Damascus is behaving very much like Iran does in a similar situation.

The IAEA Board of Governors said nothing new about the Iranian nuclear program. On March 3, the so-called Iran Six of international mediators, namely, Russia, China, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, addressed the Board of Governors and called on Tehran to fully cooperate on all contentious aspects of its nuclear program.

As usual, Tehran replied that the actions of the Iran Six trying to solve the Iranian nuclear-file problem could only harm the country's cooperation with the international community on this issue.

Nor did the first official meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Geneva produce any new results. Lavrov reiterated the need for turning the Middle East into a nuclear-free zone and for eliminating all other weapons of mass destruction in the region.

Both sides once again expressed their concern about the Iranian nuclear program's military component and once again demonstrated their differences on the issue. It is common knowledge that Washington opposes this program in any form, while Moscow only opposes its military aspects.

Two weeks ago, Gholamreza Agazadeh, the Iranian Vice-President and Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, said Tehran planned to install 50,000 operational centrifuges at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in the next five years.

Russia, the United States, Europe and Israel deserve to know why Iran needs so much enriched uranium at a time when Moscow undertakes the delivery of nuclear fuel for the Bushehr nuclear power plant built by Russian power engineers and the disposal of used fuel.

Iran says enriched uranium is needed to guarantee the future of its nuclear program and to prevent dependence on the West and probably Russia. Thus a mystery surrounding Iranian centrifuges is not far off from a Syrian nuclear mystery.

But for Tehran's militant rhetoric, constant threats and verbal attacks against Israel, the United States and some Arab nations, the Iranian nuclear program would not cause so many questions on the part of the international community.

At the same time, Tehran is trying to turn Moscow into a guarantor of its nuclear and political security. Iran expands its contacts with Russia each time the situation becomes aggravated.

It is hardly surprising that the current visit of Sergei Kiriyenko, Head of Rosatom, Russia's state nuclear energy corporation, to Bushehr has coincided with the visit of Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najar to Moscow.

Although diplomats tried hard to hush up the main purpose of Najar's visit, namely, the sale of S-300 surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems to Tehran, the Iranian media actively discussed the issue. Iran wants to use these SAM systems for shielding its nuclear facilities from Israeli missiles and warplanes.

Although the S-300 contract was initiated two years ago, Moscow is still in no hurry to implement it because of insistent U.S. and Israeli requests, therefore retaining leverage with Tehran. Owing to Russian efforts, the UN Security Council has not yet passed any tough sanctions against Iran, while Israeli warplanes have so far avoided hitting the incomplete Bushehr NPP and reducing it to heaps of twisted concrete and smoking rubble.

Although Russia does not build any NPPs in Syria, it sells weapons to Damascus. The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama has resumed negotiations with Syria for the first time since 2005. Two senior U.S. officials, namely, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Asian Affairs Jeffrey Feltman and Daniel Shapiro, the head of the Middle East desk at the National Security Council, have just visited Damascus.

At a meeting with Syria's Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem, both sides agreed on the importance of resumed Syrian-U.S. dialogue for mutual interests and regional peace and security, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said.

Although no details of the talks were disclosed, it is obvious that Washington is trying to gradually reduce Iranian influence on Damascus. If it succeeds, then the IAEA would have no more questions for Syria.

Incidentally, claims to Tehran may disappear in exactly the same way.

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

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損保ジャパン、日本興亜統合へ　自動車不振が後押し

　損害保険ジャパンと日本興亜損害保険は来春の経営統合に向け協議入りすることで13日正式合意し、発表する。国内損保業界は三井住友海上グループホールディングス、あいおい損害保険、ニッセイ同和損害保険の3社グループと東京海上ホールディングスとの「3メガ」体制へ移行する。新車販売低迷による国内市場の不振と米国発の金融危機に後押しされる格好で業界地図が塗り替わる。

　損保ジャパンと日本興亜損保は来年4月に共同持ち株会社を設置、2社をぶら下げる形で経営統合する方向。統合後は両社別々に保険商品を販売するがシステムの共有化や損害調査部門の合理化など重複部門を集約し、コスト削減を進める。(07:00)

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全信組連の資本支援、５信組に98億円　当初見込みから積み増し

　信用組合の中央金融機関である全国信用協同組合連合会（全信組連）が年度内に実施する五信組への資本支援の総額が約100億円に上ることが12日、明らかになった。株価低迷などを考慮し、当初見込みから積み増した。全信組連は1月末に資本増強を実施しており、資本支援後も2009年3月末の自己資本比率が15％以上を維持する見込みとなっている。

　12日にかみつけ（群馬県高崎市）、城北（東京・文京）、滋賀県（滋賀県甲賀市）の3信組への資本支援を正式決定した。すでに決定した半原（神奈川県愛川町）、三河（愛知県蒲郡市）と合わせ98億円を注入する。内訳はかみつけと城北がそれぞれ約30億円、滋賀県が約20億円となったもよう。三河には6億円、半原には5億円を注入する。(07:00)

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東京ガス、２月のガス販売量14.2％減　過去最大の落ち込み

　東京ガスが13日にまとめた２月のガス販売量は前年同月比14.2％減の11億9148万立方メートルと、過去最大の落ち込みとなった。全体の３割を占める工業用は生産活動の減退を受け、21.3％減と大幅減だった。また暖冬の影響で暖房・給湯需要が減少したため家庭用も10.5％減、業務用も7.5％減となった。2008年４月―09年２月の販売量は2.3％減だった。(19:01)

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世界の工場稼働６―７割　09年見通し、自動車・半導体など

　自動車や半導体などの世界の工場稼働率が通常の8―9割から2009年は通年で6―7割にまで落ち込む見通しだ。新興国の需要増をにらんで生産能力を拡大したところを世界同時不況による需要急減に見舞われた。日米欧などの需要低迷の長期化で世界の市場規模が不況前の07年の水準に戻るのは12年以降になるとの見方も出ている。在庫調整が進んでも生産設備の余剰感が来年以降も続き、企業収益の改善への足かせになる可能性が出てきた。

　米調査会社ＣＳＭワールドワイドは12日、世界同時不況の影響で09年の世界新車販売が前年比12.5％減の5380万台に落ち込むとの最新予測を公表した。(09:40)

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大ガス、新ＬＮＧタンク　200億円投資、中長期需要にらむ

　大阪ガスは泉北製造所（大阪府高石市、堺市）内に約200億円を投じ、液化天然ガス（ＬＮＧ）の貯蔵タンクを1基新設する方針を固めた。2012年にも着工、16―17年の稼働を目指す。大ガスのタンク新設は03年以来。景気後退を受けてガス需要は落ち込んでいるものの、中長期的には環境負荷が少ないエネルギーの需要拡大が見込まれるため容量拡大に踏み切る。

　泉北製造所の第1工場内にある容量4万5000キロリットルのタンク4基のうち少なくとも1基を廃棄する方針。その跡地に18万キロリットル程度の大型タンクを建設する案を軸に検討を進めているもよう。この場合、同製造所の総貯蔵容量は190万キロリットルと従来よりも8％増える。

　泉北製造所には現在、合計22基のＬＮＧタンクがある。このうち第1工場の4基は完成から既に30年以上が経過している。安全性に問題はないが老朽化が進んでいるため新設する。

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外務省、ジブチに連絡事務所　海上警備行動発令受け

　外務省は13日、ソマリア沖の海賊対策で、浜田靖一防衛相が自衛隊法に基づく海上警備行動を発令したのを受け、ソマリア周辺国のジブチに連絡事務所を17日に開設すると発表した。外務省職員2―3人を派遣して、現地政府との連絡・調整などの業務にあたる。

　ソマリアの西に位置するジブチは日本船舶などを警護する海上自衛隊護衛艦の補給地として有力視されている。事務所はジブチとの協力をさらに進めるための調査団の役割も兼ねる。(13:07)

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フィリピン人親子の強制退去問題、両親だけ帰国へ

　日本生まれのフィリピン人、カルデロン・のり子さん（13）ら家族３人＝埼玉県蕨市＝の強制退去問題で、家族は13日、法務省の説得に応じ、両親がフィリピンに帰国し、のり子さんが日本に残ることを決めた。両親は来月、のり子さんの通う中学校の始業式に出席した後、自費で帰国するという。

　この日、家族そろって記者会見したのり子さんは、「３人で住めるわけではないから、うれしいと思えない」と目に涙を浮かべながら話した。

　同省は同日午後、強制収容していた父、アランさん（36）を釈放。母のサラさん（38）とともに来月14日までの仮放免を認めた。13日に帰国予定。のり子さんに対しては今月中にも在留特別許可を出す見込み。今後はサラさんの妹夫婦と同居し、これまでと同じ中学校に通うという。(20:01)

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正社員にも、雇用不安　新年度前にリストラ増える

　景気の底が見えない状況が続く中、非正規社員に端を発した雇用不安が正社員にも広がり始めた。新年度を目前に控え、人件費圧縮のため企業が正社員のリストラに着手。東京都内のハローワークには「元正社員」も目立つようになった。事実上の“肩たたき”に遭うなどして自ら会社を離れる人も。ただ、再就職への道は険しさを増しており、暮らしの安定を取り戻すのは容易ではない。

　都内の機械メーカーに勤める埼玉県戸田市の男性（50）は3月上旬、ハローワーク池袋（東京・豊島）を初めて訪れた。2月下旬、社長に突然呼ばれ、3月末の解雇を通告されたためだ。(16:59)

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「トキを返して」新潟県と佐渡市、環境省に要望

　昨年9月に新潟県佐渡市（佐渡島）で放鳥されたトキ10羽のうち3羽が本州に飛来したことを受け、県と市は13日、繁殖の可能性を高めるため、本州にいるトキを捕獲して島に連れ戻すよう環境省に要望した。

　10日に新潟県村上市で確認されたトキを含め、これまでに本州に飛来した3羽はすべて雌。島内に残っているのは生存が確認されている雄4羽と雌1羽とみられ、ペアも確認されていないことから、繁殖の可能性が低くなっていることを憂慮した。

　斉藤鉄夫環境相は13日の閣議後会見で、「佐渡島で繁殖させるという国の基本方針に変わりはないが、捕獲はリスクがあるし、トキがどう行動するかを把握するためにも今しばらく様子を見たい」と述べ、現状に理解を求めた。(16:00)

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両陛下、７月にカナダとハワイ訪問へ

　天皇、皇后両陛下が今年7月にカナダと米国ハワイを訪問されることが13日の閣議で決まった。期間は7月3日から約2週間。宮内庁は昨年末にストレスによる胃腸炎と診断された陛下の公務の見直しを進めており、「ご負担軽減も考えながら訪問先での詳細な日程を決める」としている。

　両陛下でのカナダ訪問は初めてで、ハワイ訪問は94年6月以来、5度目。

　首都オタワで歓迎晩さん会などに臨むほか、トロント、ビクトリア、バンクーバーの各都市を回られる予定。ハワイでは、日本との間で交換留学を進める「皇太子明仁親王奨学金財団」の創立50周年記念行事などに出席される。(13:08)

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アイフル重大異変…野村“大損”必至も株大量売却の怪

手を引きたがっている？

　消費者金融大手、アイフル（京都市）の周辺で重大異変が起きている。同社は昨年２月、証券大手の野村グループに支援を求め、財務体質の強化を図ったが、その野村がアイフル株を大量売却するなど奇妙な動きをみせているのだ。「野村はアイフルから手を引きたがっているようにみえる」（市場関係者）との観測も浮上するなか、アイフルは健全性のアピールに躍起だが、投資家は固唾をのんで両社の動きを見守っている。

　アイフルは昨年２月、財務体質を強化するため「２０１０年満期Ａ号乃至Ｇ号ユーロ円建取得条項付転換社債型新株予約権付社債」（転換社債）を７００億円分発行。野村グループが全額引き受けた。

　野村グループが引き受けた背景について、大手銀行関係者は次のように指摘する。

　「当時の消費者金融業界は、今ほどは苦境に陥っていなかった。野村グループはこの転換社債をアイフルの普通株に転換したうえで他社に売却。業界再編を仕掛けて、利益を稼ぐつもりだったのだろう」

　ところがここにきて、野村グループが奇妙な動きをみせ始める。今年３月に入ると、先を急ぐかのように転換社債をアイフル株に転換しだしたのである。

　「この転換社債は１０年２月になると、転換価額９８３円で自動的に普通株に転換されるようになっている。このため野村グループは現時点で普通株に転換しても、１０年２月に転換しても得られる株数は同じ。にもかかわらず普通株への転換を急ぐのは、なんらかの重大な異変が起きているからとしか思えない」と証券関係者は語る。

【転換社債引き受け、支援のはずが…】　

　野村グループが提出した大量保有報告書などによると、野村グループは３月３日に転換社債２４４億円分を約２４４１万株、４日にも９３億円分を約９３５万株の普通株に転換した。さらに、１１日にも１９９億円分を１９９３万株の普通株に転換している。一連の普通株転換により増加したアイフル株は、発行済み株式数の２４％に相当するというから驚きだ。

　実は、野村グループは昨年来、アイフルの支援に乗り出しながら、同社株を市場で大量売却するなど、これまた奇妙な動きをみせている。

　グループの中核会社、野村証券が提出した大量保有報告書をみると、野村証券は昨年２月２９日に転換社債を引き受けて以降、同３月から８月まで毎月、アイフル株を１００万－２４０万株程度、売り越している。そのあたりを市場関係者はこう解説する。

　「野村証券はアイフル創業者の福田吉孝社長などからアイフル株を合計４０００万株借り受け、市場で売却してきた。これは株価水準をもとに修正される（転換社債の）普通株式への転換価額を引き下げ、転換時になるべく多くの普通株を手に入れられるようにするためだろう」

　野村証券は昨年９－１０月になると、アイフル株を買い越しているが、これは「株価水準が転換価額の下限である９８３円を十分に下回ったため、野村証券がそれ以上の株価下落を嫌って、買い戻したようだ」（先の市場関係者）。

【野村は「手を引きたがっている」？】

　その野村証券が今度は昨年１１月～今年２月にかけて、毎月８５万－９１０万株を売り越し、市場でのアイフル株売却を加速させているのだ。驚いたことに、転換社債を引き受けた昨年２月以降、市場でのアイフル株の売り越しは合計約３０００万株に達している。

　先の市場関係者は「野村グループが転換社債や普通株を他社に転売することを想定しているのなら、アイフルの企業価値を損なうような市場での売り越しはまず考えられない。野村グループはアイフルから手を引きたがっているようにみえる」と分析する。

　野村グループは現時点で、転換社債の分も含めアイフルの普通株を合計最大６８００万株保有しているとみられる。アイフルの福田社長らから借りた約４０００万株を返却しなければいけないものの、それでも２８００万株ほどの売却可能なアイフル株を保有している可能性がある。

　アイフルの株価は１２日の終値で８１円。転換社債発行時の１８７５円とは比べようもない水準にある。金融危機以降、金融機関はどこも株価を下げているが、アイフルの場合、野村グループの一連の動きが株価下落の一因になっていることは間違いないだろう。

　そこでアイフルを直撃したところ、「（野村グループの）市場での株式の取引については認識していない」（広報部）との返答だった。

　上場企業が自社株の大きな動きを認識していないとは、にわかには信じがたいが、いずれにしろアイフル株は当面、下落圧力にさらされることになりそうだ。

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シジミ：ロシア産を茨城県産と偽装…秋田の卸会社

　秋田県は１３日、水産卸売会社「秋田丸魚」（秋田市、石黒功一社長）がロシア産シジミを茨城県産などと偽って県内の卸小売業者に販売したとして、日本農林規格（ＪＡＳ）法に基づき、同社に対して適正表示や再発防止策の徹底を指示した。

　秋田県の食販売推進課によると、同社は０８年１０月７日～今年１月３０日、ロシア産シジミを茨城県産と伝票に記載して販売したり、原産地を表示せず口頭で茨城や青森県産と伝えて売っていた。

　同社はこの期間に、１万２２５５キロのロシア産シジミを県外業者から仕入れ、このうち６６０６キロについて県内の３４社に国産として販売したことが確認されている。１月に県に情報提供があり、調査を進めていた。

　石黒社長は毎日新聞の取材に「国産が確保できずロシア産で補ったようだ。担当者が１人で処理し、チェックできなかった。消費者の信頼を裏切り申し訳ない」と話した。

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ＢＳＥ全頭検査：８割は消費者対策…自治体アンケート

　牛肉のＢＳＥ（牛海綿状脳症）対策で全都道府県が全頭検査を実施しているが、約８割の自治体が検査継続の理由を「安全確保ではなく、消費者が求めているから」と答えていることが分かった。消費者や生産者でつくる「食の信頼向上をめざす会」（会長＝唐木英明・東大名誉教授）が１３日、食肉処理施設をもつ４４都道府県へのアンケート調査結果として明らかにした。

　厚生労働省は「２０カ月以下の牛の検査は税金の無駄遣い」と補助金支出を昨年７月末で打ち切ったが、自治体は独自に全頭検査を続けている。同会が理由を聞いたところ、３自治体は「安全確保のため」と答えたが、３５自治体（約８０％）は「消費者が求めているから」と答えた。全頭検査では感染牛の一部しか発見できないとされ、唐木会長は「国民は『感染牛が１００％見つかる』と誤解している。自治体は誤解の解消に力を入れるべきだ」と話している。

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三井鉱山：６０億円の特別損失　社内規定違反の石炭取引で

　三井鉱山は１３日、社内規定に違反した石炭の取引で約６０億円の特別損失が発生する見込みだと発表した。これに伴い、０９年３月期の最終（当期）利益予想を当初の１５０億円から３０億円に大幅に下方修正した。

　三井鉱山によると、課長級の男性社員が昨年８月と今年１月、販売先が確定していない仕入れを禁じた社内規定に反し、石炭を大量に仕入れた。その後、石炭価格が大幅に下落したため多額の損失が発生するという。この男性社員は、仕入れ先の取引キャンセルで生じた穴を埋めようと、価格上昇を当て込んで石炭の大量仕入れを行ったという。三井鉱山は、弁護士で構成する第三者委員会で原因究明を進める方針。

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金融庁：監査法人ウィングパートナーズを処分　運営不十分

　金融庁は１３日、監査法人の運営体制が著しく不十分だったなどとして、監査法人のウィングパートナーズ（東京都渋谷区）に対して、公認会計士法に基づき、１年間の業務の一部停止（新規契約の停止）命令と業務改善命令を出した。

　金融庁によると、同法人は内部規定の整備が不十分で責任分担が明確でないなど、業務運営を組織的に行っていなかった。さらに監査内容も著しく不十分で、適切な審査体制ではなかった。

　同法人は新興市場への上場会社などを中心に２２社の監査を引き受けている。

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炊き出しに路上生活者が長い列　苦情で中止、苦渋の決断（1/2ページ）

2009年3月13日15時5分

　不況の深刻化とともに、路上生活者のための炊き出しに並ぶ行列が伸びている。そんな中、隅田川にかかる駒形橋（東京都墨田区、台東区）では、近隣住民からの苦情を受けて３月末で炊き出しが中止になる。ベテランのボランティア団体が１２年続けてきた活動だけに、ほかの団体にも不安が広がっている。

　５日午後２時、墨田区側の駒形橋近くの「隅田川テラス」と呼ばれる川沿いの遊歩道に長い列ができた。ＮＰＯ法人「山友会」が行う毎週木曜の炊き出しだ。パック詰めのご飯を求めて３４９人が集まった。

　並んでいた男性（７１）が、「炊き出しスケジュール」と書いた紙を見せてくれた。曜日ごとに各団体の炊き出しの場所を支援団体がまとめたものだ。東京の東部地域の木曜の欄は「１４時～隅田川・駒形橋」の１カ所だけ。浅草の商店街で路上生活を送るこの男性は「ここがなくなれば木曜は腹をすかしたまま寝てしのぐしかない」と肩を落とす。

　山友会の代表ルボ・ジャンさん（６４）によると、昨年９月、遊歩道を管理する東京都第五建設事務所の職員から「場所を変えて欲しい」と申し入れがあったという。１２月に「３月いっぱいで駒形橋下の炊き出し行為を中止する」という文書に署名した。「せめて寒い時期だけは」（山友会）と３月末までになった。

　第五建設事務所は、河川法に基づき「公共の空間で独占的な使用は認めがたい」と指導してきた。管理課によると、近くに児童公園があり「子どもが声をかけられ怖がる」「狭い道で並んでいると通りにくい」といった苦情は０７年度から少なくとも十数件あったという。同事務所の担当課長は「昨今の厳しい経済情勢は理解しているが住民の苦情もないがしろにできない。両立できればいいが難しいところだ」と話す。

写真：駒形橋（左上）から続く炊き出しを待つ人たちの行列＝１２日午後、東京都墨田区東駒形１丁目、中田徹撮影駒形橋（左上）から続く炊き出しを待つ人たちの行列＝１２日午後、東京都墨田区東駒形１丁目、中田徹撮影

　隅田川沿いや近くの上野公園は段ボールやテントで野宿する人が多く、簡易宿所の集まる山谷からも近い。昨秋から不況が深刻化した影響か、この１年で炊き出しに並ぶ人は２００人から５００人に増えた。生活保護費の支給前だった前週は５１２人にまでふくらんだ。

■周辺の団体にも動揺

　「あれだけ手際よくやっていた山友会がダメなのか」。駒形橋に近い蔵前（台東区）で毎週日曜に炊き出しをしている浅草聖ヨハネ教会の牧師、下条裕章さん（４９）はショックを受けている。

　９９年ごろから教会の敷地内で「日曜給食」として炊き出しをしている。０１年秋には５０～６０人くらいだったのが今では３００～４００人。最も多い日には５００人を超える。

　教会では厳しいルールを定めている。どうしてもその日に食事をとることができない人に限る、配布３０分前より前に並ぶことは禁止、近隣の公園で食べない。それでも、ゴミが捨てられた、自転車を置きっぱなしにした、などのクレームを受けたという。活動中止の要望も来ている。

　上野駅地下通路で毎週日曜に炊き出しをしていた山谷労働者福祉会館も、近くに飲食店ができたため８日を最後に中止した。これまで上野公園と駅地下通路の２カ所で行っていた炊き出しを上野公園だけで続けていくという。

　「近隣の方のためには炊き出しを一切やめるのが一番だが、これだけの人が困っているのも現状。どうするべきなのか。ずっと悩みながらやっている」と浅草聖ヨハネ教会の下条さんは話している。