China Banks Surge to World’s Biggest May Be Too Good to Be True
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By Philip Lagerkranser
April 30 (Bloomberg) -- Just when the world is beginning to appreciate China’s biggest banks, unencumbered by Wall Street assets of no discernible value and fortified by record first- quarter lending, some analysts say it’s too good to be true.
While Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., China Construction Bank Corp. and Bank of China Ltd., three of the world’s four largest banks by market value, led an increase in lending focused on investments in railways, roads and ports, similar state-directed loans caused bad debts to snowball in the 1990s. The resulting rescue cost $650 billion and took 10 years.
“We suspect some of the banks may have compromised their risk-management and risk-aversion attitude to meet targets and government expectations,” said Wen Chunling, a Beijing-based analyst at Fitch Ratings. “That will lead to a rebound in non- performing loans in the next few years.”
Chinese banks tripled first-quarter lending to $670 billion as part of a government stimulus package designed to help the economy recover from its slowest growth in almost a decade.
ICBC advanced 636.4 billion yuan ($93.3 billion) of new loans in the first quarter, almost quadruple the amount extended in the same period a year ago and more than the bank’s total lending last year. China Construction offered 521 billion yuan of new credit in the first three months, compared with 161 billion yuan a year earlier. Bank of China made 511 billion yuan of new loans, more than twice the amount a year earlier. All three banks are state-owned and based in Beijing.
Three-Year Wait
It may take as long as three years before the increase is fully reflected in bad-debt statistics, twice as long as in other countries, according to Wen. That’s in part because China’s loan-classification system requires subjective assessments, giving lenders room to maneuver, she said.
The largest borrower in the quarter was government-owned China Aviation Industry Corp., or AVIC, the nation’s biggest aerospace company. The Beijing-based company received 236 billion yuan from 11 Chinese banks, including ICBC, China Construction and Bank of China. It won another 100 billion yuan of credit from Export-Import Bank of China on April 16, without specifying how the money will be used.
AVIC General Manager Lin Zuoming said in an April 16 interview with Beijing-based newspaper Economic Observer that his biggest worry is how to allocate the borrowings to increase returns. AVIC invests in industries ranging from resorts and watch manufacturers to makers of airplanes, cars and electronics.
“There are a lot of companies that borrowed not for the need of business expansion, but rather were talked into borrowing by banks,” said Ma Jun, chief China economist at Deutsche Bank AG in Hong Kong.
China Eastern Airlines
Some of those companies in turn lend proceeds to firms that don’t qualify for financing from banks, increasing the risk of defaults spreading through the economy, Ma said. In other cases, corporate loans are being used to cover operating expenses rather than investments.
Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines Corp., the nation’s third-largest carrier, has received 87 billion yuan of credit lines from China Construction, Bank of China, China Development Bank Corp., Bank of Communications Co. and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co. since December. The company, whose liabilities exceed assets by $1.8 billion, posted a record $2.2 billion loss in 2008 and has received $1 billion of government bailout money.
“We aren’t borrowing to expand our fleet or add new routes; we simply want more money to keep the business running and to make sure our flights can take off,” said China Eastern board secretary Luo Zhuping in an interview, adding that the company needs about 80 million yuan of working capital a day, of which 20 percent goes to interest payments.
‘Quality Borrower’
“Banks are more than willing to lend to us, for we are a large state-owned company and a quality borrower,” Luo said.
The carrier has sought to delay plane deliveries due this year from Boeing Co. and Airbus SAS as it struggles to fill jets ordered during the economic boom of the past decade. Even so, China Eastern expects to get additional credit lines from ICBC to keep it afloat, Chief Financial Officer Wu Yongliang said on April 16.
The company announced plans four days later to spend $41 million to build an aerospace exhibition center for the 2010 Shanghai World Expo with AVIC.
Yu Baoyue, a spokesman for China Construction Bank, said the firm hasn’t lowered lending standards to support the government’s stimulus package. The company is drawing on its more than 300,000 employees to visit borrowers and to research major loan projects before they’re approved, he said.
ICBC spokesman Xie Taifeng said the new lending was reasonable and the bank’s risk-management system was sound.
Stimulus Package
China’s 4 trillion yuan stimulus package requires less than 1 trillion yuan of annual lending, according to Deutsche Bank’s Ma. Banks lent 1.89 trillion yuan, almost twice that amount, during March.
“We don’t know the whereabouts of the rest of the lending,” he said. “This is where the default risk comes from. A lot of signs have shown that most of the loans offered in the first quarter didn’t go to the infrastructure sector.”
BNP Paribas analyst Dorris Chen cut her rating on Bank of China to “hold” from “buy” on April 22, citing concerns about infrastructure projects. That same day, Macquarie Group Ltd. downgraded ICBC, saying “credit quality will be a key focus” for the bank.
Corporate Delinquencies
Bad loans at Chinese banks fell by 10.7 billion yuan in the first quarter to 549.5 billion yuan, according to the country’s banking regulator. The ratio of soured debt relative to the total declined 0.38 percentage point to 2.04 percent.
Liu Mingkang, chairman of the Beijing-based China Banking Regulatory Commission, said April 18 that bad loans will continue to drop this year as lenders tighten scrutiny. Liu made the comment three days after urging banks to pay “close attention” to the risks stemming from increased lending.
The decrease in delinquent debt is surprising, considering the surge in bankruptcies among small and mid-size companies in coastal areas, said Peng Xingyun, director of the monetary policy division at the Chinese Academy of Social Science in Beijing. At least 7.5 percent of the country’s 42 million small and medium-size enterprises had closed or suspended operations by the end of last year and about 30 million migrant workers have lost their jobs, according to official statistics.
“I hope it’s a reflection of improvements in banks’ risk management, but I don’t know,” Peng said. “There will be a one-year lag before bad loans start to emerge.”
Provincial Lending
The drop doesn’t reflect better risk management, said Fitch’s Wen. Rather it was a result of lenders writing off borrowings they had earlier classified as non-performing, removing them from their balance sheets, she said.
Even lending to local governments may be risky, Deutsche Bank’s Ma said. Such loans, typically maturing in more than five years, may not be repaid in full, according to the economist.
Bank of China, the nation’s largest provider of financing denominated in foreign currencies, agreed April 15 to lend 15 billion yuan to Zhejiang province for water-supply and water- cleaning projects. Six days later, the bank advanced 200 billion yuan to Hebei province to support “economic and social developments.”
No specific investment projects were mentioned in the press release announcing the Hebei loan.
“The money was earmarked for a number of projects that are in line with government stimulus policies,” said Wang Zhaowen, a Beijing-based spokesman at Bank of China. “Lending to local governments isn’t different from lending to central government- initiated projects. There’s not much additional risk.”
1998 Collapse
Guangdong International Trust & Investment Corp., which borrowed at home and overseas on behalf of Guangdong province in southeast China, collapsed in 1998, leaving creditors including Dresdner Bank AG of Germany and Bank One Corp. in the U.S. with $3 billion of unpaid bonds. It marked the first time that Chinese authorities failed to bail out one of the nation’s state-owned trusts.
Ultimately, investing in Chinese banks may amount to a bet that Premier Wen Jiabao’s stimulus package will succeed, said Lan Wang Simond, who helps manage $5 billion at Geneva-based Pictet & Cie Banquiers and owns ICBC and Bank of China shares.
“If the stimulus package fails to revive the economy, a lot of loans will turn sour, that’s for sure,” Lan said. “If the economy picks up, things may be fine. For banks, perhaps it’s either a death penalty to be served immediately or a suspended one.”
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Anti-Ageing Skin Cream Really Does Work
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An anti-ageing cream sold on the high street really does improve wrinkles, scientists say. Skip related content
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An earlier version of Boots' No 7 anti-ageing cream sparked a rush on the chemist chain two years ago.
Women flocked to buy it after it was shown on TV to work by stimulating production of fibrillin, a protein promoting the skin's elasticity.
Stocks of the product immediately sold out and some 50,000 women subsequently signed up to waiting lists for the serum.
Now, after a year-long clinical study published in the British Journal of Dermatology, scientists say No7 Protect & Perfect Intense Beauty Serum really can improve the appearance of skin damaged by everyday exposure to sunlight.
Scientists at the University of Manchester, who carried out the study on the original serum, have since gone on to look at whether the product could stand up to scrutiny of its performance in the long-term.
A clinical trial involving 60 volunteers showed that the second cream produced a significant improvement in facial wrinkles after 12 months of use, with 70% of product users showing a "marked improvement" over the test period.
The trial, funded by Boots, was carried out in the same way a medicine would be tested, with those conducting the research "blind" to what the products were.
Dermatology professor Chris Griffiths, who led the research, said: "This trial was conducted to the very highest of scientific standards.
"The results show that, when used long-term, the product produces a clinically discernable improvement in wrinkles in photo-aged skin. This test paves the way for larger studies with more statistical power."
Other experts have applauded Boots for what is thought to be the first "properly conducted, placebo-controlled, double blind trial of an over-the-counter cosmetic product".
"I think this will raise the bar for what we should expect from the cosmetic companies in showing that their products work," said Dr Richard Weller, a senior lecturer in dermatology at the University of Edinburgh.
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国内の３たばこ工場を閉鎖へ ＪＴ、需要減で効率化
2009.4.30 16:46
日本たばこ産業（ＪＴ）は３０日、国内のたばこ需要減を受けた生産効率化策として、盛岡工場（盛岡市）と米子工場（鳥取県米子市）を平成２２年３月末、小田原工場（神奈川県小田原市）を２３年３月末に閉鎖すると発表した。
２１年４月時点で合計４１４人いる各工場の従業員は、配置転換や希望退職の募集で対応する。
たばこの販売本数は減少が続き、今後も増加は見込めず、生産体制を縮小する。今回の３工場の閉鎖後は、北関東工場（宇都宮市）など６工場が残る。
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Putin concerned with conflicts involving Russian assets in Ukraine
MOSCOW, Apr 29 (Prime-Tass) -- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Wednesday he was concerned with what he called raids against Russian companies' assets in Ukraine, ITAR-TASS reported.
In particular, he mentioned conflicts involving the Kremenchuk Oil Refinery, also known as Ukrtatnafta, and locomotive producer Luganskteplovoz.
"Our numerous requests for Ukrainian official authorities to take care of these facts are not yet being handled efficiently," he said at a meeting of a Russian-Ukrainian committee for economic cooperation.
Ukrainian oil and gas company Naftogaz Ukrainy is involved in a long-running dispute with Russian oil company Taftneft and the government of the Russian constituent republic of Tatarstan over control of Ukrtatnafta.
Ukrainian authorities have also disputed the acquisition of Luganskteplovoz by Russia's Bryansk Engineering Plant.
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Arab businesses to attend Petersburg economic forum
11:47 | 30/ 04/ 2009
Print version
CAIRO, April 30 (RIA Novosti) - An Arab business group is interested in developing relations with Russia and plans to participate actively in the St. Petersburg economic forum to be in June, a member of the Arab-Russia Business Council said.
The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum will be held on June 4-6 in Russia's second largest city and will focus on the topical issues of global economic development, in particular, new approaches to the understanding of the future of international financial institutions, the prospects for banking activity and Russia's role in fighting the global economic crisis.
"This is one of the largest global forums, which has been held on a regular basis for over ten years and brings together not only influential business people but also heads of states," Adnan Kassar, the head of the General Union of Arab Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, told RIA Novosti.
This year, the forum's program will include business dialogue on Russia and the Arab world, focusing on the creation of an investment fund with Russian and Arab capital to finance joint projects.
"An investment fund is an effective instrument and we intend to back this idea," Kassar said, adding that investment in the Russian economy was very attractive at this stage and Arab business leaders would show great interest in the St Petersburg forum.
Kassar said that current trade between Russia and Arab states, which amounts to $8 billion, was insufficient and needed to be increased.
"I believe that the figure of $8 billion is insufficient and we want bilateral trade to amount to $10-12 billion," Kassar said.
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UAW gears up to join boards of carmakers
By Bernard Simon in Toronto
Published: April 30 2009 03:00 | Last updated: April 30 2009 03:00
The United Auto Workers union is about to embark on one of the riskiest adventures in the 72 years since its founders won recognition from General Motors by turning a fire-hose on police during a strike in Flint, Michigan.
In what is less a victory than a coming-to-terms with reality, the union is likely to emerge as one of the biggest shareholders in the three Detroit carmakers: GM, Ford Motor and Chrysler.
It could end up with 55 per cent of Chrysler, 39 per cent of GM and a sizeable stake in Ford if it accepts shares rather than cash for a chunk of the companies' contribution to new union-managed healthcare trusts, due to be set up next year.
The carmakers' financial woes have forced them to back away from their 2007 promise to fund the trusts entirely with cash.
The prospect of union bosses in the boardroom has sent shivers down investors' spines. The main front-page picture in the business section of Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper yesterday showed a line of workers in blue jeans and T-shirts at a Chrysler plant in Detroit under the headline: "Meet the new board of directors".
But the UAW's ability to influence the groups will be more limited than the scale of its shareholdings suggests. Moreover, there is evidence that it will not wish to be an activist investor.
The UAW will receive only one seat on Chrysler's board, and the Ford family will remain firmly in control of their company through multiple voting shares. The details of the GM deal have yet to be nailed down.
Furthermore, each fund, known as a Voluntary Employees' Beneficiary Association (Veba), will be managed by independent trustees with a fiduciary responsibility to protect retirees' benefits.
In keeping with the low profile that union leaders have maintained throughout their talks with the carmakers, the UAW has given no inkling of how it will behave as a shareholder. But union watchers predict that it will be less confrontational at the boardroom table than at the bargaining table.
"I suspect that the union will find it a sobering responsibility", says Peter Feuille, director of the Institute of Labour and Industrial Relations at the University of Illinois.
One reason is that the security of its members' future healthcare benefits depend on the performance of the trusts and, to a large extent, on the value of the shares. John Russo, a labour professor at Youngstown State University in Ohio, explains: "If you're the owner of the stock, you're probably going to do everything possible to make the company profitable, because you have a direct interest in the enterprise".
Ron Gettelfinger, the UAW president, is no stranger to the corporate world. He sat - uncomfortably, by most accounts - on the board of Daimler during the time that the German carmaker controlled Chrysler. The UAW has retained Lazard, the Wall Street investment bank, as a financial adviser for the past four years.
Mr Gettelfinger has taken a pragmatic approach as Detroit's woes have deepened; often talking tough but retreating from once-sacrosanct principles to preserve jobs. The union has agreed to more flexible work practices and sweeping cuts in medical and other benefits.
The union lost 33,000 members last year, bringing its membership down to 431,000, the lowest since the second world war and less than a third of the 1970s peak.
Veba trustees in other sectors have made diversification a key element of their investment strategy. Should the managers of the GM, Ford and Chrysler trusts follow suit, they are likely to sell most if not all their shares when the carmakers are on the road to recovery. The big question is how long they will have to wait.
Transfer of risk
GM, Ford and Chrysler agreed in 2007 labour contracts to set up union-managed trusts as a way to keep healthcare costs down.
Transferring obligations to the trust, known as a Voluntary Employees' Beneficiary Association (VEBA), the carmakers strengthen balance sheets.
Risk is transferred to the union and members, whose future benefits depend on performance of the trusts' investments.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Milan police seize €476m of assets in bond probe
Milan police seize €476m of assets in bond probe
By Vincent Boland in Milan
Published: April 28 2009 14:50 | Last updated: April 28 2009 14:50
Police in Milan said on Tuesday they had seized €476m in assets from four international banks in a dramatic escalation of an investigation into controversial municipal bond issues.
The city’s financial police began the investigation last year into a €1.6bn bond issue the city of Milan launched in 2005, and were probing the role of four banks – Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, UBS and Depfa, a German bank specialising in public finance – in that and other transactions.
In a statement on Tuesday, the financial police said they had taken control of €476m in assets from four banks, though they did not name them. The assets seized included the banks’ stakes in Italian companies, real estate, and accounts.
The move marks a sharp escalation of the probe into the bond issues. Milan, Italy’s financial capital and one of its wealthiest cities, is already suing the four banks, claiming that derivatives contracts linked to the bond issues allowed the banks to earn around €90m in “hidden commissions”. It also complains that the bond issues were not in the city’s best financial interests.
None of the banks had any immediate comment on Tuesday.
The case is being watched closely by cash-strapped Italian local authorities who issued billions of euros of bonds with similar contracts until the Bank of Italy stopped the practice in 2007. The municipalities now face deteriorating fiscal positions as the global financial crisis begins to bite.
Many of the derivatives contracts exposed the authorities to rising debt service costs between 2005 and 2008, when eurozone interest rates rose from 2 per cent to 4.25 per cent. Estimates of the losses facing Italian authorities vary. The government has denied speculation that the losses could reach €30bn, but analysts say a more conservative estimate of up to €10bn may be more accurate.
At issue in the Milan case are provisions in the bond issue that enabled the city to set aside sums at regular intervals towards repayment of the principal. But as interest rates rose, the authorities found that funds earmarked for the sinking fund were being eaten up by debt servicing. The municipality claims the banks argued that the structure of the bond would reduce debt service costs.
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２６年後に殺害遺体、賠償４２００万円確定 最高裁
2009年4月28日21時7分
東京都足立区で７８年に小学校教諭の石川千佳子さん（当時２９）が殺害され、２６年後に遺体が見つかった事件で、時効成立後に殺害を自首した男（７３）に対して遺族が損害賠償を求めた訴訟の上告審判決が２８日あった。最高裁第三小法廷（那須弘平裁判長）は、不法行為から２０年を経過すると賠償請求権が消滅する「除斥期間」のルールを例外的に適用せず、男の上告を棄却した。約４２００万円の賠償を命じた二審・東京高裁判決が確定した。
最高裁が除斥期間の例外を認めたのは、予防接種が原因で重い心身障害になったことをめぐる国家賠償訴訟の判決（９８年）に次いで２例目。犯人が遺体を隠し、遺族が死亡の事実すら知ることができなかった今回のようなケースでは、被害者の権利が重視されることを示した判断といえる。除斥期間も含めた「時効」のありかたを見直そうとする民法改正論議にも影響を与えそうだ。
遺族の提訴は殺害から２７年後の０５年で、除斥期間を過ぎていたことから、ルール通りならば請求が認められることはない。ただ、第三小法廷は、男が石川さんの遺体を自宅の床下に埋めて隠し続けたため、相続人が確定しないまま２０年が過ぎた、と指摘。相続人が賠償請求権を行使できない一方で、その原因をつくった加害者が責任を免れるのは「著しく正義・公平の理念に反する」と述べ、このような場合には除斥期間の例外を認めるべきだとした。
判決によると、男は９４年ごろに自宅が区画整理事業の区域にかかって明け渡しを求められたが、遺体の発見をおそれて拒否。最終的に立ち退きを余儀なくされた０４年に警察に自首したが、刑事訴訟法の時効が成立していたため起訴されなかった。
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ＦＸ規制強化策、信託保全義務付け 金融庁が発表
金融庁は28日、個人投資家に普及している外国為替証拠金取引（ＦＸ）業者に対する規制強化策を発表した。業者が破綻しても顧客が預けたお金を保全できるように、安全性の高い信託銀行への金銭信託（信託保全）を義務づけるのが柱。
預けたお金の何倍の取引ができるか示す「証拠金倍率」に上限を設ける規制については方針が決定次第、公表するという。証拠金倍率規制をめぐっては東京金融取引所や業者の間で慎重論が出ている。金融庁は規制方針に変更がないとした上で、具体的な上限の水準を慎重に見極める考えを強調した。
金融庁は金融商品取引法の関係政省令と監督指針を改正する。5月29日まで一般から意見を募り、準備が整い次第、施行する。信託保全を義務づける措置は施行からさらに半年間の準備期間を設ける。(07:00)
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Berkshire’s 31% Decline Spurred by Derivatives Buffett Derided
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By Richard Teitelbaum
April 28 (Bloomberg) -- Berkshire Hathaway Inc. shareholders have a chance this year to do something that’s rare among the Sage of Omaha’s followers: count their losses.
Despite Berkshire’s reputation as a bear market bulwark, its stock has been walloped. The Class A shares are down 31 percent since September, to $90,000 as of yesterday, exceeding the 26 percent drop in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.
One reason: Chief Executive Officer Warren Buffett’s increasing use of derivatives -- contracts whose value is based on the performance of stocks or bonds or the outcome of a specific event. That Buffett once called derivatives “time bombs” doesn’t calm investors.
Berkshire held contracts with a combined notional value of $67.3 billion at year-end. While this figure is used mostly for reporting purposes and isn’t indicative of potential losses, it dwarfs the company’s $25.5 billion in cash.
Buffett himself has warned of an increasing possibility he might have a loss from one type of contract on Berkshire’s books. Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service have lowered their credit ratings on Berkshire, partly because of the derivatives.
“People have become uncomfortable with financial investments that they don’t understand, especially anything related to derivatives,” says Charles Bobrinskoy, a manager at Ariel Investments LLC in Chicago.
Equity Index Puts
Berkshire’s derivatives fall into four categories. Because they carry the greatest notional value, at $37.1 billion, most attention is on put options that Buffett sold on stock indexes in the U.S., U.K., euro zone and Japan that expire from September 2019 to January 2028. Berkshire has to pay at expiration if any of the indexes are lower than they were when the puts were written.
While analysis of these bets shows big losses are unlikely, Buffett, 78, hasn’t provided sufficient information on the derivatives to keep some investors from hitting the sell button. Bobrinskoy says he hasn’t been scared away: Of the $250 million he co-manages at Ariel, 5.6 percent was invested in Berkshire as of March 31.
To lose the full $37.1 billion on the equity puts, the indexes would have to fall to zero -- an unlikely event. Berkshire received $4.9 billion in premiums, which together with what the company earns on it, may offset any eventual payments.
Market Scenarios
Citigroup Inc. analyst Joshua Shanker in a March 16 report examined several scenarios to gauge the likelihood of Buffett’s losing money on the puts. Using the S&P 500 as a proxy for all the indexes and assuming a 5 percent annualized return on the premium, the market would have to suffer a cumulative decline of at least 32 percent across the 15- to 20-year life of the contracts for the seller to lose money. In the U.S. market back to 1800, the only way to do that would be to start the bet just prior to the 1929 crash.
Some economists compare today with the Great Depression, and some of the puts may have been written near the U.S. market’s all-time high in late 2007, according to information Buffett has disclosed. The S&P 500 in March was down 57 percent from its peak.
With that in mind, Shanker looked at scenarios that begin with a 50 percent drop in the S&P 500. From that nadir, if the index rose 6 percent annualized over 14 years, Buffett still would not owe any money when the puts expire -- even without consideration of the $4.9 billion in premiums.
Potential Losses
Shanker also sketched out grimmer scenarios. Starting with the 50 percent decline, if the S&P 500 rises at the stock market’s post-1800 average annual rate of 2.8 percent, Berkshire could be out $5.4 billion at the end of the bet. That assumes an initial one-third loss on the premiums followed by 2.5 percent annualized returns.
David Winters says losses from these derivatives are unlikely. His Wintergreen Fund had 6.6 percent of its assets in Berkshire, as of year end. “We’re living in a world where there’s so much negativity, investors are extrapolating something that’s just remotely possible into something that’s probable,” he says.
Berkshire hasn’t disclosed sufficient information to fully analyze its other derivatives, Shanker says. One category is simply municipal bond insurance structured as derivatives; the risks here are similar to those for his municipal bond insurer. Another type consists of credit-default swaps through which Berkshire guarantees payment of individual corporate bonds. Those bets were relatively small, totaling $3.9 billion in notional value at the end of last year.
Worrisome Bets
The final category is the most worrisome, Shanker says. Berkshire has sold contracts that require it to pay when credit losses occur at companies that are included in certain unnamed high-yield-bond indexes. The notional value is $7.9 billion.
Berkshire took in $3.4 billion in premiums on these contracts and has paid losses of $542 million. The company has also recognized a noncash, $3 billion mark-to-market loss. With these contracts, payments are made when a credit event occurs. They expire from September of this year to December 2013.
Losses on these contracts are accelerating as bankruptcies grow, Buffett said in his shareholder letter in February. “Now with the recession deepening at a rapid rate, the possibility of an eventual loss has increased,” he wrote.
Buffett didn’t respond to an e-mailed request for comment. He is scheduled to address shareholders at Berkshire’s annual meeting on May 2, and quarterly results are expected from the company on May 1.
‘Handpicked’ Risks
Mark Curnin, co-founder of White River Capital LP, an investment partnership that specializes in financial stocks, says Buffett’s derivatives are simply smart ways to do what he’s always done: underwrite insurance and buy attractive securities.
“Buffett has handpicked a select group of risks that he understands and thinks are attractively priced,” he says.
The derivative risks are similar to the other hazards that might worry any investor in Berkshire. There are volatile profits from its insurance subsidiaries, for example, and units that depend on the housing industry, such as Acme Building Brands and Clayton Homes Inc. Then there’s Buffett’s portfolio of equity investments: While easy to understand, 7 of the 14 largest holdings listed at year-end were carried at a loss.
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Gates Makes Lifetime Pledge to Buffett’s Berkshire (Update1)
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By Erik Holm and Betty Liu
April 28 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates, recruited by his friend Warren Buffett to join the board at Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said he’s committed to the firm for the rest of his life.
Gates and fellow Berkshire board member Don Keough, the former president of Coca-Cola Co., said in separate interviews with Bloomberg Television that their role with Omaha, Nebraska- based Berkshire is to protect the company’s culture and values after Buffett, 78, steps down. Buffett has pledged the majority of his Berkshire shares to Gates’s charitable foundation.
“I’ve got a commitment to stay involved with Berkshire as a lifelong thing,” Gates, 53, said in an interview scheduled to be broadcast today. “We always have to think about what might happen and make sure Berkshire is not just great now, but forever.”
Buffett, Berkshire’s chairman and chief executive officer, has said the board’s most important job will be to replace him when he’s unable to perform his duties. He will host about 35,000 people on May 2 at Omaha’s Qwest Center arena for the annual shareholder meeting -- an occasion where he typically fields questions about the succession plan.
“It’s the most important issue there is,” Buffett said in an interview with Bloomberg Television at Berkshire’s headquarters last month. “There’s nothing more important. Nobody knows on any given day where I’ll be the next day.”
‘Intense and Real’
Buffett built Berkshire over four decades from a failing manufacturer of men’s suit linings into a $140 billion company by investing in out-of-favor stocks and buying dozens of businesses ranging from insurance and underwear to ice cream and utilities. Buffett says his ideal time horizon to hold a stock is “forever,” and he purchases operating companies for Berkshire with the promise to their owners never to sell them.
“When you’re sitting on the board, you’re talking about sustainability of Berkshire Hathaway long-term, the issue of management down the road,” said Keough, 82. “The culture he’s built into Berkshire is intense and real and, I think, permanent.” Berkshire is the largest shareholder in Coca-Cola, and Buffett served on the soft-drink maker’s board with Keough.
Buffett said in letters to shareholders and at past annual meetings that the chairman post will go to his son, Howard Buffett, to keep the culture intact, and said the remainder of his work will be split between at least two people: a CEO and person or group that handles investing.
‘Total Confidence’
“All candidates currently work for or are available to Berkshire and are people in whom I have total confidence,” he said in the company’s most recent annual report. Buffett said in an interview March 5 that the CEO candidates hadn’t changed in a year. He declined to name them.
“You could water-board me,” and he still wouldn’t tell, Buffett joked.
Berkshire stockholders and Buffett-watchers have long speculated about who will fill the CEO position. Barron’s has reported that David Sokol, the head of Berkshire’s MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., was the most likely successor. Sokol said in an interview with Bloomberg Television he hasn’t discussed succession with Buffett.
“Never a word,” Sokol said. “Unfortunately my name comes up because people try to come up with names.”
Tony Nicely, the head of Berkshire’s Geico Corp. car insurance business, and Ajit Jain, who runs a unit that sells reinsurance, are also on media lists of potential successors. Buffett biographer Alice Schroeder, now a Bloomberg News columnist, has suggested Buffett adviser Byron Trott, formerly at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., is an ideal candidate.
Charitable Foundation
Gates’s commitment to Berkshire mirrors Buffett’s pledge to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a charity established by Gates and his wife to fight disease and global poverty. Buffett in 2006 promised to give the majority of his Berkshire shares to the foundation, in 5 percent annual increments, as long as Gates or his wife is still alive and managing the foundation.
His grant, valued at about $31 billion at the time it was made, also stipulates that the stock payments may be accelerated in the event of Buffett’s death.
Forbes magazine in March ranked Gates as the richest person in the world, and listed Buffett as second. The two men have known each other since 1991, according to Schroeder’s book, when they met at a party outside Seattle celebrating July 4, the U.S. Independence Day.
“As soon as I sat down with him, he was asking me, ‘Why didn’t IBM do this,’ and ‘why wasn’t Microsoft doing that’, and he was asking the questions that I’ve always waited for somebody to ask,” Gates said in the interview. “We just got into this conversation where the whole day went by.”
Gates owns 300 Berkshire shares personally and another 4,050 through his Cascade Investment LLC according to a regulatory filing last month. The stake was valued at more than $390 million based on yesterday’s closing price of $90,000 a share.
(Portions of the interviews with Buffett, Gates, Keough, Trott and Sokol will be broadcast today starting at 5 p.m. New York time, as part of a special about Berkshire Hathaway airing on Bloomberg Television and at BTV on the Bloomberg terminal.)
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Algeria Rap Rips Government Repression as Outlet for Discontent
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By Daniel Williams
April 28 (Bloomberg) -- Bilal Yaici carried a plastic bag of cassettes and a boom box into an Algiers music store and tried to peddle his rap performances to the clerk.
When verses in one song rhymed the word police -- in French slang, flic -- with Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the clerk said he already had plenty of that on his shelves and told Yaici to get a job.
“The old man doesn’t want to hear about what we think,” said the 19-year-old, heading down Belouizdad Street looking for another store.
In the Middle East and North Africa, where reporters and bloggers have been persecuted, Web sites blocked, and books and movies censored, rap has become the sound of youthful discontent, saying what few grown-ups say aloud.
Algiers, a chalky white city overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, is teeming with would-be rappers, said Hassina Amroune, culture editor for La Nouvelle Republique, an Algerian French- language newspaper.
“Hardly a week goes by when someone doesn’t come in to me trying to get publicity for his rap,” she said. “It is the voice of the majority, in a way. Rappers pop up everywhere.”
She estimates there are hundreds, including wannabe amateurs, in Algeria, a country where half the population is under the age of 27 and official unemployment is 15 percent.
Algerian rap is heir to an American hip-hop culture that began with social and political protest. In the U.S., rap morphed into glorification of ghetto gangsters, aggressive sex, jumbo cars and jewelry. Algeria’s percussive rhymes remain intensely centered on public ills.
Ironic, Downbeat
Rap here oscillates between the ironic and downbeat, delivered in a fierce stew of Arabic, French, English and Berber, a language of people across the Sahara Desert. Government repression, corruption and hopelessness are the main ingredients.
“Today it’s a crackdown, ain’t no football match,” raps Lotfi, one of the country’s best known artists. “Up there people are fleeing, the land’s become black,” or charred.
Vixit, a group from the city of Oran, sings, “We have the mafia, what is left? Engineers, doctors and diplomats think about selling cigarettes.”
Protest rap has also spread across the Middle East. The Arab-Israeli rap group DAM rails against the hemming-in of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by Israeli troops.
‘Fight for Freedom’
“We fight for freedom, so you’ve made it a crime. And you the terrorist call me terrorist,” says one of DAM’s verses.
In the religiously pious United Arab Emirates, a pair of rappers who call themselves Desert Heat preaches clean living, education and respect for women. In Morocco, where rap dates from the 1980s, the Casablanca group Casa Crew focuses on corruption and unemployment with titles like “I’m Angry” and “Lies in the News.”
“Arab and North African rappers are not into being gangsters and bad boys,” Amroune said. “This area has big problems, and rap is an exit for the young, an outlet for anger.”
Rap’s arrival in Algeria coincided with 1988 youth and worker riots that undermined the political domination of the National Liberation Front, which had ruled Algeria since independence from France in 1962. Reforms led to 1992 multiparty parliamentary elections. While the NLF tried to gerrymander in its favor, a party known as the Islamic Salvation Front was poised to win two-thirds of the seats at stake when the army canceled the vote.
Civil War
More than a decade of civil war followed, sending rap into hiding. Thousands of young people took off for Europe in search of work. The jobless who remained became known as hittistes, a reference to Algerians who hang around street corners leaning against walls.
After about 200,000 deaths, the civil war wound down. Bouteflika, 72, is credited with pacifying the country through an amnesty that persuaded thousands of rebels to lay down their arms, even though recalcitrant terrorists still bedevil security forces. On April 9 he won a third five-year term, receiving 90 percent of the vote.
With the civil war in abeyance, rap revived -- its lyrics reflecting the feeling that corruption, inequality and injustice lived on.
Mohammed Issam Abdellah, 29, a rapper who goes by the name Mister AB, said he raps on bribery and nepotism as the root of Algeria’s problems while trying to discourage teenagers from using drugs and migrating illegally to Europe in rickety boats.
“In my last song, I called the migrants kamikazes; they’re going to die at sea,” he said in an interview.
Government, Rebel Conflict
He plays at dance halls, music festivals and living rooms and says he raps more frankly at live shows than he does on disc. “When I’m with an audience, I can name names,” he said, declining to name whom he might name. And he steers clear of the government-Islamic rebel conflict.
“I don’t understand it and it’s dangerous,” he said.
Yaici and his four-man crew of drummers and DJs -- they call themselves K Ammo -- have all the typical hittiste characteristics: They hang out at a corner of Bab El Oued, a working-class district, wear jeans and T-shirts, smoke cigarettes and talk about going to France. They are short on bling.
“No money; can’t do anything with no money, especially you can’t get married,” Yaici said. “If we can get a disc contract, we can make it big,” he added, to the nods of his pals.
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Senior Saudi calls for political reforms
By Abeer Allam and Andrew England in Riyadh
Published: April 28 2009 17:50 | Last updated: April 28 2009 17:50
A senior member of the Saudi royal family has called for political and economic reforms in the world’s largest oil producer, warning that the kingdom is not prepared to face the challenges of the 21st century.
Prince Talal bin Abdelaziz, who has no role in decision-making and is known for his outspoken views, said there needed to be increased dialogue within the ruling family and called for greater powers for the Shura Council, an unelected consultative body, to pave the way for eventual elections.
“This region is roiling with turmoil and radicalism and the aspirations of a young population, and I am afraid we are not prepared for that. We cannot use the same tools we have been using to rule the country a century ago,” Prince Talal, who is a half-brother of King Abdullah, told the Financial Times.
His remarks appeared to be triggered by King Abdullah’s decision last month to appoint Prince Naif, another brother, as second prime minister, causing many to believe the powerful interior minister has been chosen as third in line. The appointment eased concerns about the succession amid mounting speculation over the health of Crown Prince Sultan, the first deputy prime minister who recently underwent surgery in New York.
However, Prince Naif is considered a conservative and Saudi activists seeking reform fear he may quash any hopes of political change in a nation that is ruled by an absolute monarchy.
Prince Talal, 79, said his concern was that the Allegiance Council, a body established by King Abdullah in 2006 to select the next crown prince and king, would be bypassed. “Bypassing the allegiance system would mean we do not respect our own rules or uphold our system,” said the prince, who is a member of the council. “We are a family and we should have a dialogue and debate about the future of our country, but we do not.”
Although Saudi Arabia has amassed significant petrodollar reserves during the recent oil boom, it faces many pressing social issues, with high unemployment, more than 65 per cent of the population is aged under 25 and a continued threat from Islamic extremists.
Analysts also worry that the middle class is shrinking, while the lower classes are growing, but change in the kingdom is notoriously slow and faces both political and structural barriers.
King Abdullah, 84, is considered a modernising force in Saudi terms and when he ascended to the throne in 2005, many Saudis hoped that their country would embark on a period of reform. He is credited with allowing a greater openness and debate, and a recent cabinet reshuffle, which saw the removal of powerful conservatives who headed the judiciary and religious police, was widely praised.
But reformers question the pace and substance of the changes that have taken place in the past four years, with some arguing that change could destabilise the ultra-conservative country.
However, Prince Talal, who says he fully supports King Abdullah’s efforts, was dismissive of such suggestions. “Hypocrites claim our society is unprepared for change and blame religious institutions,’’ Prince Talal said. “Certain people are pleased to hear that. We have to stop using them as an excuse. King Abdullah is the ruler. If he wills it, then it will be done.’’
Prince Talal, is one of 18 surviving sons of King Abdelaziz, Saudi Arabia’s founding father, and a long-time advocate of reform. In the early 1960s he was exiled to Egypt for advocating constitutional reform but returned after a pardon by King Faisal.
In 2007 he proposed forming a political party, but his request is pending the approval of the king.
Political parties are illegal in Saudi Arabia, but Prince Talal believes the kingdom has to make gradual moves towards elections, starting with granting the Shura Council greater powers.
“Young Saudis see elections in Arab countries, Gulf countries, and even Bangladesh and Bolivia, and they wonder why we lack the same thing. We’re not less able than those others,” Prince Talal said. “The political decision is in the hands of the king. I know he is a reformer. We still believe in him.’’
Prince Talal, who is father of Prince Waleed, the well-known billionaire investor, also believes that the younger generation of royals should be considered for the next line of succession to avoid a “political vacuum” in the future.
Since King Abdulaziz’s death more than half a century ago, succession has passed among his 35 sons based on their seniority and competence, but the surviving members of that generation is ageing.
“There is a difference between being head of state and being head of government. Here the family is the government and head of state; they own and rule,” he said. “We should encourage the young generation of the family (and the people) to become more proactive through dialogue. How can we do that? I believe through involving them in decision making.”
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EU ruling hits UK expats in northern Cyprus
By Delphine Strauss in Ankara
Published: April 28 2009 15:47 | Last updated: April 28 2009 15:47
Thousands of expats who have bought or developed property in northern Cyprus could be affected by a European Court of Justice ruling that courts throughout the European Union should enforce Greek Cypriot legal verdicts.
The ECJ judgement, published on Tuesday, backed the efforts of Meletis Apostolides, a Greek Cypriot architect, to reclaim land his family abandoned when the island was partitioned in 1974, on which a British couple has since built a holiday house.
The fact that European community law is suspended in the northern part of the island, whose Turkish Cypriot authorities are recognised only by Ankara, and that a Greek Cypriot judgement cannot practically be enforced, “does not prevent the courts of another member state from declaring such judgements enforceable,” the ECJ found.
Linda and David Orams, a retired couple who invested around £160,000 in the property in Lapithos, could now face court action to seize their UK assets if they do not demolish the house and pay compensation as the Cypriot court ordered in 2004.
A UK court previously found in their favour when Mr Apostolides applied for it to enforce the Greek Cypriot verdict, but would now be obliged to follow the ECJ’s judgement, which cannot be appealed.
The decision may complicate ongoing talks to reunify the divided island, where one of the most contentious questions is how to recognise, by restitution or compensation, the rights of Greek and Turkish Cypriots forced to leave their properties at partition.
It could also deal a heavy blow to the northern Cypriot economy, already heavily dependent on trade with Turkey, since property development had been one of the main growth areas after the failure of UN-sponsored reunification talks in 2004.
An estimated 5,000 Britons live in northern Cyprus, and the judgement could pave the way for a wave of lawsuits against the sizeable minority occupying disputed property. Emine Erk, a northern Cypriot lawyer who has followed the case closely, said it could also lead to claims against Turkish Cypriots living in London or elsewhere in the EU.
“It certainly does sour the atmosphere,” she added, expressing disappointment at the ECJ’s “dismissive” attitude to the Cyprus problem or the ongoing negotiations to resolve it. The judgement would be perceived by Turkish Cypriots as a further slight from Europeans, she added.
Greek Cypriot President Demetris Christofias and the northern leader, Mehmet Ali Talat, have been engaged since September in a fresh round of negotiations to end the island’s division, but the Turkish Cypriot side in particular is under pressure to make progress before next year’s presidential elections and before the issue becomes a major stumbling block for Turkey’s EU aspirations.
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Argentina risks losing its 'bread basket' status
By Jude Webber in Buenos Aires
Published: April 28 2009 03:00 | Last updated: April 28 2009 03:00
Argentine farmers are preparing to sow what many fear could be their smallest acreage of wheat in more than a century as the world's fourth-biggest wheat exporter suffers the consequence of disastrous policies and terrible weather.
With farmers due to start planting the 2009-10 crop in less than a month, producers and analysts fear they could sow less than 3.5m hectares. This would be a fall of about 30 per cent on the 2008-09 season and the lowest since 1902-03, when Argentina had 3.6m hectares and was on its way to earning a reputation as the "bread basket of the world".
"I'm pretty certain I won't be sowing anything," said Luis Eizaguirre, a farmer in Bahía Blanca in the wheat belt of the south of the province of Buenos Aires. "I've never seen so many farmers decide not to sow or to reduce planting so sharply."
The decline stems from three years of government intervention in wheat trading, in which farmers are periodically banned from selling overseas; a 23 per cent tariff on exports; and a serious drought that has eroded production incentives and slashed output.
The upshot was that Argentina was fast "disappearing from the market as a reliable exporter", while other world producers such as Russia had grown, said Pablo Andreani of the AgriPac consultancy. Global stocks are projected by the International Grains Council to rise 39 per cent this year to 160m tonnes after Russia and the Ukraine planted large crops in response to rising global prices.
Société Générale said the global wheat crop could shrink to about 642m tonnes in 2009-10, still a bumper harvest by historical standards but significantly lower than last year. With consumption expected to increase to 657m tonnes, the market could see a supply deficit by the end of 2009-10.
Sean Cameron, head of Aaprotrigo, producers' association, even projected that Argentina "may have to end up importing wheat", a view seen as alarmist but which reflects the gloomy mood.
The woes in Argentina's cereal sector come amid warnings from private economists that the economy is sliding deeper into recession. A long-running conflict between the government and soyabean farmers will slash export income this year.
El Tejar, an agricultural groups, has frozen investments at home and is looking elsewhere in the region, such as neighbouring Uruguay and Brazil, where the regulatory hurdles that plague Argentina are absent.
"It's very difficult to take investment decisions in Argentina today," Oscar Alvarado, president of El Tejar, said, adding that the group's focus was on production from Brazil this year.
Mr Alvarado, who is also president of Argentine Association of Regional Consortiums for Agricultural Experimentation, said indications from farmers were that the area planted with wheat could be as low as 3m hectares for the coming season.
Last season's production in Argentina slumped to 8.3m tonnes from more than 16m the year before because of the worst drought in half a century. But farmers had about 2.5m tonnes in stocks, enabling Argentina to mill 7m tonnes into flour and export 4m tonnes of wheat.
The drought has eased, but many farmers still need more than 200mm of rain to penetrate soils before they can start sowing. If conditions improve, Argentina could yet pull off an increase in production. But exports will be squeezed. Neighbouring Brazil had traditionally bought 7m to 8m tonnes a year "but at these levels, we can only sell half their needs", noted Gustavo López of Agritrend consultancy.
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06:44 GMT, Wednesday, 29 April 2009 07:44 UK
Over-40s may benefit from aspirin
Aspirin
Taking aspirin in your 40s could cut the risk of cancer later in life, a review of research suggests.
Experts said taking the drug at an age before cancer usually develops, and for ten years would maximise its potential to prevent the disease.
Aspirin has been linked to a reduced risk of some cancers, and heart disease, but also to a raised risk of ulcers and internal bleeding.
The Cancer Research UK study features in the journal Lancet Oncology.
"Many questions need to be answered before we would advise regular use of aspirin for cancer prevention. "
Professor Jack Cuzick
Cancer Research UK Centre for Epidemiology
Aspirin blocks the effects of proteins which can trigger inflammation, and which are found at unusually high levels in several types of cancer.
Previous research suggests people who take the drug are less likely to develop bowel, breast and possibly some other types of cancer.
However, regular use of aspirin specifically for cancer prevention is not currently recommended because of the risk of side effects.
Common cancers, such as prostate, breast, lung and bowel, tend to develop after the age of 60 - when the risk of aspirin causing internal bleeding is at its highest.
Lead researcher Professor Jack Cuzick, from the Cancer Research UK Centre for Epidemiology at Queen Mary, University of London, said pre-cancerous lesions tended to start developing in the mid-40s.
Thus, taking aspirin around that time may be the best strategy for preventing that damage progressing to the full-blown disease.
It would also carry a much lower risk of side effects than beginning to take aspirin 15-20 years later.
Work needed
However, Professor Cuzick said: "Many questions need to be answered before we would advise regular use of aspirin for cancer prevention.
"Future research and more clinical trials are needed to better identify those people who are at high risk of developing cancers and at low risk of side effects, who will benefit most from aspirin treatment."
Professor Cuzick said it was not clear a lower dose "baby aspirin" could achieve the same anti-cancer effect as the standard dose of 300mg/day.
The researchers also found that taking aspirin in combination with other drugs known as proton pump inhibitors could help to lower the risk of stomach bleeding.
Dr Lesley Walker, Cancer Research UK's director of cancer information, said: "It's too soon to recommend that people take aspirin to try and stop cancer developing because of the side effects.
"It's important that any decision to take aspirin regularly is only made in consultation with a GP."
Ellen Mason, of the British Heart Foundation (BHF), also stressed it was too early for researchers to recommend taking aspirin to reduce the risk of cancer.
"Currently the risk of bleeding outweighs the benefit," she said.
"Many thousands of people in the UK are prescribed aspirin because they have heart disease.
"This research does not prove that they will also get protection from cancer at a low dose, but as they already need to take aspirin it would be reassuring if further research eventually shows an anti-cancer benefit."
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23:08 GMT, Monday, 27 April 2009 00:08 UK
Child behaviour 'linked to sleep'
Girl asleep
A good night's sleep could reduce hyperactivity and bad behaviour among children, a Finnish study reports.
It has been suggested that some children who lack sleep do not appear tired, but instead behave badly.
Of the 280 examined in the Pediatrics study, those who slept for fewer than eight hours were the most hyperactive.
Experts said adequate sleep could improve behaviour in healthy children and reduce symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
It is recognised that chronic sleep deprivation is a problem for many adults in Western countries and that it can have consequences for their health and daily life.
The team behind this research said not enough was understood about the role of sleep in children's lives but it has been estimated that a third of US children do not get enough sleep.
Monitoring
In this research, the team from the University of Helsinki and Finland's National Institute of Health and Welfare studied 280 healthy children aged seven or eight.
They wanted to see if those healthy children who slept the least were the most likely to display the kind of symptoms associated with ADHD.
None of the children studied had the attention disorder.
"There is a lot of commonality between the symptoms of a tired child and the symptoms of a child with ADHD"
Neil Stanley, Sleep expert
Parents filled in questionnaires about their children's usual sleeping habits and then noted how long their children slept for over seven nights.
The children also wore devices called actigraphs, which measure movement, to monitor how long they actually rested for.
Parents' estimates of sleep duration were longer than the actigraph measurements, which the researchers say could be because they measured from bedtime or because they assumed their children were asleep when they were simply lying awake in bed or reading.
The parents were also asked about their children's behaviour, using measures normally used to diagnose ADHD.
The children whose average sleep duration as measured by actigraphs was shorter than 7.7 hours had a higher hyperactivity and impulsive behaviour score.
They also had a higher ADHD symptom score overall.
'Sleep needs differ'
Dr Juulia Paavonen, who led the study, said: "We were able to show that short sleep duration and sleeping difficulties are related to behavioural symptoms of ADHD.
"The findings suggest that maintaining adequate sleep schedules among children is likely to be important in preventing behavioural symptoms.
"Even 30 minutes per night has been shown to give a major improvement"
Dr Juulia Paavonen, Finnish National Institute of Health and Welfare
"It may well be that inadequate sleep is increasing some of the behavioural problems that have been seen in children with attention deficit disorders."
Dr Paavonen said further studies were needed to confirm the link.
And she advised parents that, even though the study suggested fewer than eight hours sleep could be problematic, it was not a figure everyone should aim for.
"Sleep needs differ between individuals. The only way to take care that a particular child has enough sleep is to see if they seem to have a problem with short sleep.
"But even [an extra] 30 minutes per night has been shown to give a major improvement in objective cognitive tests, improving reaction times, impulsivity and attention spans."
Sleep expert Neil Stanley, of the University of East Anglia, said: "It has been acknowledged for a while now that there is a lot of commonality between the symptoms of a tired child and the symptoms of a child with ADHD."
He said parents needed to recognise that sleep was important for children.
"These things have been lost at a time when ADHD is increasing.
"How much of what is diagnosed as ADHD is something that can be modified or improved, or even totally cured by a more rigid sleep pattern?
"Maybe parents should try and get sleep sorted out. If the child is still showing symptoms, then that's probably the time to look at pharmacological interventions."
By Vincent Boland in Milan
Published: April 28 2009 14:50 | Last updated: April 28 2009 14:50
Police in Milan said on Tuesday they had seized €476m in assets from four international banks in a dramatic escalation of an investigation into controversial municipal bond issues.
The city’s financial police began the investigation last year into a €1.6bn bond issue the city of Milan launched in 2005, and were probing the role of four banks – Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, UBS and Depfa, a German bank specialising in public finance – in that and other transactions.
In a statement on Tuesday, the financial police said they had taken control of €476m in assets from four banks, though they did not name them. The assets seized included the banks’ stakes in Italian companies, real estate, and accounts.
The move marks a sharp escalation of the probe into the bond issues. Milan, Italy’s financial capital and one of its wealthiest cities, is already suing the four banks, claiming that derivatives contracts linked to the bond issues allowed the banks to earn around €90m in “hidden commissions”. It also complains that the bond issues were not in the city’s best financial interests.
None of the banks had any immediate comment on Tuesday.
The case is being watched closely by cash-strapped Italian local authorities who issued billions of euros of bonds with similar contracts until the Bank of Italy stopped the practice in 2007. The municipalities now face deteriorating fiscal positions as the global financial crisis begins to bite.
Many of the derivatives contracts exposed the authorities to rising debt service costs between 2005 and 2008, when eurozone interest rates rose from 2 per cent to 4.25 per cent. Estimates of the losses facing Italian authorities vary. The government has denied speculation that the losses could reach €30bn, but analysts say a more conservative estimate of up to €10bn may be more accurate.
At issue in the Milan case are provisions in the bond issue that enabled the city to set aside sums at regular intervals towards repayment of the principal. But as interest rates rose, the authorities found that funds earmarked for the sinking fund were being eaten up by debt servicing. The municipality claims the banks argued that the structure of the bond would reduce debt service costs.
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２６年後に殺害遺体、賠償４２００万円確定 最高裁
2009年4月28日21時7分
東京都足立区で７８年に小学校教諭の石川千佳子さん（当時２９）が殺害され、２６年後に遺体が見つかった事件で、時効成立後に殺害を自首した男（７３）に対して遺族が損害賠償を求めた訴訟の上告審判決が２８日あった。最高裁第三小法廷（那須弘平裁判長）は、不法行為から２０年を経過すると賠償請求権が消滅する「除斥期間」のルールを例外的に適用せず、男の上告を棄却した。約４２００万円の賠償を命じた二審・東京高裁判決が確定した。
最高裁が除斥期間の例外を認めたのは、予防接種が原因で重い心身障害になったことをめぐる国家賠償訴訟の判決（９８年）に次いで２例目。犯人が遺体を隠し、遺族が死亡の事実すら知ることができなかった今回のようなケースでは、被害者の権利が重視されることを示した判断といえる。除斥期間も含めた「時効」のありかたを見直そうとする民法改正論議にも影響を与えそうだ。
遺族の提訴は殺害から２７年後の０５年で、除斥期間を過ぎていたことから、ルール通りならば請求が認められることはない。ただ、第三小法廷は、男が石川さんの遺体を自宅の床下に埋めて隠し続けたため、相続人が確定しないまま２０年が過ぎた、と指摘。相続人が賠償請求権を行使できない一方で、その原因をつくった加害者が責任を免れるのは「著しく正義・公平の理念に反する」と述べ、このような場合には除斥期間の例外を認めるべきだとした。
判決によると、男は９４年ごろに自宅が区画整理事業の区域にかかって明け渡しを求められたが、遺体の発見をおそれて拒否。最終的に立ち退きを余儀なくされた０４年に警察に自首したが、刑事訴訟法の時効が成立していたため起訴されなかった。
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ＦＸ規制強化策、信託保全義務付け 金融庁が発表
金融庁は28日、個人投資家に普及している外国為替証拠金取引（ＦＸ）業者に対する規制強化策を発表した。業者が破綻しても顧客が預けたお金を保全できるように、安全性の高い信託銀行への金銭信託（信託保全）を義務づけるのが柱。
預けたお金の何倍の取引ができるか示す「証拠金倍率」に上限を設ける規制については方針が決定次第、公表するという。証拠金倍率規制をめぐっては東京金融取引所や業者の間で慎重論が出ている。金融庁は規制方針に変更がないとした上で、具体的な上限の水準を慎重に見極める考えを強調した。
金融庁は金融商品取引法の関係政省令と監督指針を改正する。5月29日まで一般から意見を募り、準備が整い次第、施行する。信託保全を義務づける措置は施行からさらに半年間の準備期間を設ける。(07:00)
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Berkshire’s 31% Decline Spurred by Derivatives Buffett Derided
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By Richard Teitelbaum
April 28 (Bloomberg) -- Berkshire Hathaway Inc. shareholders have a chance this year to do something that’s rare among the Sage of Omaha’s followers: count their losses.
Despite Berkshire’s reputation as a bear market bulwark, its stock has been walloped. The Class A shares are down 31 percent since September, to $90,000 as of yesterday, exceeding the 26 percent drop in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.
One reason: Chief Executive Officer Warren Buffett’s increasing use of derivatives -- contracts whose value is based on the performance of stocks or bonds or the outcome of a specific event. That Buffett once called derivatives “time bombs” doesn’t calm investors.
Berkshire held contracts with a combined notional value of $67.3 billion at year-end. While this figure is used mostly for reporting purposes and isn’t indicative of potential losses, it dwarfs the company’s $25.5 billion in cash.
Buffett himself has warned of an increasing possibility he might have a loss from one type of contract on Berkshire’s books. Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service have lowered their credit ratings on Berkshire, partly because of the derivatives.
“People have become uncomfortable with financial investments that they don’t understand, especially anything related to derivatives,” says Charles Bobrinskoy, a manager at Ariel Investments LLC in Chicago.
Equity Index Puts
Berkshire’s derivatives fall into four categories. Because they carry the greatest notional value, at $37.1 billion, most attention is on put options that Buffett sold on stock indexes in the U.S., U.K., euro zone and Japan that expire from September 2019 to January 2028. Berkshire has to pay at expiration if any of the indexes are lower than they were when the puts were written.
While analysis of these bets shows big losses are unlikely, Buffett, 78, hasn’t provided sufficient information on the derivatives to keep some investors from hitting the sell button. Bobrinskoy says he hasn’t been scared away: Of the $250 million he co-manages at Ariel, 5.6 percent was invested in Berkshire as of March 31.
To lose the full $37.1 billion on the equity puts, the indexes would have to fall to zero -- an unlikely event. Berkshire received $4.9 billion in premiums, which together with what the company earns on it, may offset any eventual payments.
Market Scenarios
Citigroup Inc. analyst Joshua Shanker in a March 16 report examined several scenarios to gauge the likelihood of Buffett’s losing money on the puts. Using the S&P 500 as a proxy for all the indexes and assuming a 5 percent annualized return on the premium, the market would have to suffer a cumulative decline of at least 32 percent across the 15- to 20-year life of the contracts for the seller to lose money. In the U.S. market back to 1800, the only way to do that would be to start the bet just prior to the 1929 crash.
Some economists compare today with the Great Depression, and some of the puts may have been written near the U.S. market’s all-time high in late 2007, according to information Buffett has disclosed. The S&P 500 in March was down 57 percent from its peak.
With that in mind, Shanker looked at scenarios that begin with a 50 percent drop in the S&P 500. From that nadir, if the index rose 6 percent annualized over 14 years, Buffett still would not owe any money when the puts expire -- even without consideration of the $4.9 billion in premiums.
Potential Losses
Shanker also sketched out grimmer scenarios. Starting with the 50 percent decline, if the S&P 500 rises at the stock market’s post-1800 average annual rate of 2.8 percent, Berkshire could be out $5.4 billion at the end of the bet. That assumes an initial one-third loss on the premiums followed by 2.5 percent annualized returns.
David Winters says losses from these derivatives are unlikely. His Wintergreen Fund had 6.6 percent of its assets in Berkshire, as of year end. “We’re living in a world where there’s so much negativity, investors are extrapolating something that’s just remotely possible into something that’s probable,” he says.
Berkshire hasn’t disclosed sufficient information to fully analyze its other derivatives, Shanker says. One category is simply municipal bond insurance structured as derivatives; the risks here are similar to those for his municipal bond insurer. Another type consists of credit-default swaps through which Berkshire guarantees payment of individual corporate bonds. Those bets were relatively small, totaling $3.9 billion in notional value at the end of last year.
Worrisome Bets
The final category is the most worrisome, Shanker says. Berkshire has sold contracts that require it to pay when credit losses occur at companies that are included in certain unnamed high-yield-bond indexes. The notional value is $7.9 billion.
Berkshire took in $3.4 billion in premiums on these contracts and has paid losses of $542 million. The company has also recognized a noncash, $3 billion mark-to-market loss. With these contracts, payments are made when a credit event occurs. They expire from September of this year to December 2013.
Losses on these contracts are accelerating as bankruptcies grow, Buffett said in his shareholder letter in February. “Now with the recession deepening at a rapid rate, the possibility of an eventual loss has increased,” he wrote.
Buffett didn’t respond to an e-mailed request for comment. He is scheduled to address shareholders at Berkshire’s annual meeting on May 2, and quarterly results are expected from the company on May 1.
‘Handpicked’ Risks
Mark Curnin, co-founder of White River Capital LP, an investment partnership that specializes in financial stocks, says Buffett’s derivatives are simply smart ways to do what he’s always done: underwrite insurance and buy attractive securities.
“Buffett has handpicked a select group of risks that he understands and thinks are attractively priced,” he says.
The derivative risks are similar to the other hazards that might worry any investor in Berkshire. There are volatile profits from its insurance subsidiaries, for example, and units that depend on the housing industry, such as Acme Building Brands and Clayton Homes Inc. Then there’s Buffett’s portfolio of equity investments: While easy to understand, 7 of the 14 largest holdings listed at year-end were carried at a loss.
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Gates Makes Lifetime Pledge to Buffett’s Berkshire (Update1)
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By Erik Holm and Betty Liu
April 28 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates, recruited by his friend Warren Buffett to join the board at Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said he’s committed to the firm for the rest of his life.
Gates and fellow Berkshire board member Don Keough, the former president of Coca-Cola Co., said in separate interviews with Bloomberg Television that their role with Omaha, Nebraska- based Berkshire is to protect the company’s culture and values after Buffett, 78, steps down. Buffett has pledged the majority of his Berkshire shares to Gates’s charitable foundation.
“I’ve got a commitment to stay involved with Berkshire as a lifelong thing,” Gates, 53, said in an interview scheduled to be broadcast today. “We always have to think about what might happen and make sure Berkshire is not just great now, but forever.”
Buffett, Berkshire’s chairman and chief executive officer, has said the board’s most important job will be to replace him when he’s unable to perform his duties. He will host about 35,000 people on May 2 at Omaha’s Qwest Center arena for the annual shareholder meeting -- an occasion where he typically fields questions about the succession plan.
“It’s the most important issue there is,” Buffett said in an interview with Bloomberg Television at Berkshire’s headquarters last month. “There’s nothing more important. Nobody knows on any given day where I’ll be the next day.”
‘Intense and Real’
Buffett built Berkshire over four decades from a failing manufacturer of men’s suit linings into a $140 billion company by investing in out-of-favor stocks and buying dozens of businesses ranging from insurance and underwear to ice cream and utilities. Buffett says his ideal time horizon to hold a stock is “forever,” and he purchases operating companies for Berkshire with the promise to their owners never to sell them.
“When you’re sitting on the board, you’re talking about sustainability of Berkshire Hathaway long-term, the issue of management down the road,” said Keough, 82. “The culture he’s built into Berkshire is intense and real and, I think, permanent.” Berkshire is the largest shareholder in Coca-Cola, and Buffett served on the soft-drink maker’s board with Keough.
Buffett said in letters to shareholders and at past annual meetings that the chairman post will go to his son, Howard Buffett, to keep the culture intact, and said the remainder of his work will be split between at least two people: a CEO and person or group that handles investing.
‘Total Confidence’
“All candidates currently work for or are available to Berkshire and are people in whom I have total confidence,” he said in the company’s most recent annual report. Buffett said in an interview March 5 that the CEO candidates hadn’t changed in a year. He declined to name them.
“You could water-board me,” and he still wouldn’t tell, Buffett joked.
Berkshire stockholders and Buffett-watchers have long speculated about who will fill the CEO position. Barron’s has reported that David Sokol, the head of Berkshire’s MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., was the most likely successor. Sokol said in an interview with Bloomberg Television he hasn’t discussed succession with Buffett.
“Never a word,” Sokol said. “Unfortunately my name comes up because people try to come up with names.”
Tony Nicely, the head of Berkshire’s Geico Corp. car insurance business, and Ajit Jain, who runs a unit that sells reinsurance, are also on media lists of potential successors. Buffett biographer Alice Schroeder, now a Bloomberg News columnist, has suggested Buffett adviser Byron Trott, formerly at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., is an ideal candidate.
Charitable Foundation
Gates’s commitment to Berkshire mirrors Buffett’s pledge to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a charity established by Gates and his wife to fight disease and global poverty. Buffett in 2006 promised to give the majority of his Berkshire shares to the foundation, in 5 percent annual increments, as long as Gates or his wife is still alive and managing the foundation.
His grant, valued at about $31 billion at the time it was made, also stipulates that the stock payments may be accelerated in the event of Buffett’s death.
Forbes magazine in March ranked Gates as the richest person in the world, and listed Buffett as second. The two men have known each other since 1991, according to Schroeder’s book, when they met at a party outside Seattle celebrating July 4, the U.S. Independence Day.
“As soon as I sat down with him, he was asking me, ‘Why didn’t IBM do this,’ and ‘why wasn’t Microsoft doing that’, and he was asking the questions that I’ve always waited for somebody to ask,” Gates said in the interview. “We just got into this conversation where the whole day went by.”
Gates owns 300 Berkshire shares personally and another 4,050 through his Cascade Investment LLC according to a regulatory filing last month. The stake was valued at more than $390 million based on yesterday’s closing price of $90,000 a share.
(Portions of the interviews with Buffett, Gates, Keough, Trott and Sokol will be broadcast today starting at 5 p.m. New York time, as part of a special about Berkshire Hathaway airing on Bloomberg Television and at BTV on the Bloomberg terminal.)
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Algeria Rap Rips Government Repression as Outlet for Discontent
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By Daniel Williams
April 28 (Bloomberg) -- Bilal Yaici carried a plastic bag of cassettes and a boom box into an Algiers music store and tried to peddle his rap performances to the clerk.
When verses in one song rhymed the word police -- in French slang, flic -- with Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the clerk said he already had plenty of that on his shelves and told Yaici to get a job.
“The old man doesn’t want to hear about what we think,” said the 19-year-old, heading down Belouizdad Street looking for another store.
In the Middle East and North Africa, where reporters and bloggers have been persecuted, Web sites blocked, and books and movies censored, rap has become the sound of youthful discontent, saying what few grown-ups say aloud.
Algiers, a chalky white city overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, is teeming with would-be rappers, said Hassina Amroune, culture editor for La Nouvelle Republique, an Algerian French- language newspaper.
“Hardly a week goes by when someone doesn’t come in to me trying to get publicity for his rap,” she said. “It is the voice of the majority, in a way. Rappers pop up everywhere.”
She estimates there are hundreds, including wannabe amateurs, in Algeria, a country where half the population is under the age of 27 and official unemployment is 15 percent.
Algerian rap is heir to an American hip-hop culture that began with social and political protest. In the U.S., rap morphed into glorification of ghetto gangsters, aggressive sex, jumbo cars and jewelry. Algeria’s percussive rhymes remain intensely centered on public ills.
Ironic, Downbeat
Rap here oscillates between the ironic and downbeat, delivered in a fierce stew of Arabic, French, English and Berber, a language of people across the Sahara Desert. Government repression, corruption and hopelessness are the main ingredients.
“Today it’s a crackdown, ain’t no football match,” raps Lotfi, one of the country’s best known artists. “Up there people are fleeing, the land’s become black,” or charred.
Vixit, a group from the city of Oran, sings, “We have the mafia, what is left? Engineers, doctors and diplomats think about selling cigarettes.”
Protest rap has also spread across the Middle East. The Arab-Israeli rap group DAM rails against the hemming-in of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by Israeli troops.
‘Fight for Freedom’
“We fight for freedom, so you’ve made it a crime. And you the terrorist call me terrorist,” says one of DAM’s verses.
In the religiously pious United Arab Emirates, a pair of rappers who call themselves Desert Heat preaches clean living, education and respect for women. In Morocco, where rap dates from the 1980s, the Casablanca group Casa Crew focuses on corruption and unemployment with titles like “I’m Angry” and “Lies in the News.”
“Arab and North African rappers are not into being gangsters and bad boys,” Amroune said. “This area has big problems, and rap is an exit for the young, an outlet for anger.”
Rap’s arrival in Algeria coincided with 1988 youth and worker riots that undermined the political domination of the National Liberation Front, which had ruled Algeria since independence from France in 1962. Reforms led to 1992 multiparty parliamentary elections. While the NLF tried to gerrymander in its favor, a party known as the Islamic Salvation Front was poised to win two-thirds of the seats at stake when the army canceled the vote.
Civil War
More than a decade of civil war followed, sending rap into hiding. Thousands of young people took off for Europe in search of work. The jobless who remained became known as hittistes, a reference to Algerians who hang around street corners leaning against walls.
After about 200,000 deaths, the civil war wound down. Bouteflika, 72, is credited with pacifying the country through an amnesty that persuaded thousands of rebels to lay down their arms, even though recalcitrant terrorists still bedevil security forces. On April 9 he won a third five-year term, receiving 90 percent of the vote.
With the civil war in abeyance, rap revived -- its lyrics reflecting the feeling that corruption, inequality and injustice lived on.
Mohammed Issam Abdellah, 29, a rapper who goes by the name Mister AB, said he raps on bribery and nepotism as the root of Algeria’s problems while trying to discourage teenagers from using drugs and migrating illegally to Europe in rickety boats.
“In my last song, I called the migrants kamikazes; they’re going to die at sea,” he said in an interview.
Government, Rebel Conflict
He plays at dance halls, music festivals and living rooms and says he raps more frankly at live shows than he does on disc. “When I’m with an audience, I can name names,” he said, declining to name whom he might name. And he steers clear of the government-Islamic rebel conflict.
“I don’t understand it and it’s dangerous,” he said.
Yaici and his four-man crew of drummers and DJs -- they call themselves K Ammo -- have all the typical hittiste characteristics: They hang out at a corner of Bab El Oued, a working-class district, wear jeans and T-shirts, smoke cigarettes and talk about going to France. They are short on bling.
“No money; can’t do anything with no money, especially you can’t get married,” Yaici said. “If we can get a disc contract, we can make it big,” he added, to the nods of his pals.
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Senior Saudi calls for political reforms
By Abeer Allam and Andrew England in Riyadh
Published: April 28 2009 17:50 | Last updated: April 28 2009 17:50
A senior member of the Saudi royal family has called for political and economic reforms in the world’s largest oil producer, warning that the kingdom is not prepared to face the challenges of the 21st century.
Prince Talal bin Abdelaziz, who has no role in decision-making and is known for his outspoken views, said there needed to be increased dialogue within the ruling family and called for greater powers for the Shura Council, an unelected consultative body, to pave the way for eventual elections.
“This region is roiling with turmoil and radicalism and the aspirations of a young population, and I am afraid we are not prepared for that. We cannot use the same tools we have been using to rule the country a century ago,” Prince Talal, who is a half-brother of King Abdullah, told the Financial Times.
His remarks appeared to be triggered by King Abdullah’s decision last month to appoint Prince Naif, another brother, as second prime minister, causing many to believe the powerful interior minister has been chosen as third in line. The appointment eased concerns about the succession amid mounting speculation over the health of Crown Prince Sultan, the first deputy prime minister who recently underwent surgery in New York.
However, Prince Naif is considered a conservative and Saudi activists seeking reform fear he may quash any hopes of political change in a nation that is ruled by an absolute monarchy.
Prince Talal, 79, said his concern was that the Allegiance Council, a body established by King Abdullah in 2006 to select the next crown prince and king, would be bypassed. “Bypassing the allegiance system would mean we do not respect our own rules or uphold our system,” said the prince, who is a member of the council. “We are a family and we should have a dialogue and debate about the future of our country, but we do not.”
Although Saudi Arabia has amassed significant petrodollar reserves during the recent oil boom, it faces many pressing social issues, with high unemployment, more than 65 per cent of the population is aged under 25 and a continued threat from Islamic extremists.
Analysts also worry that the middle class is shrinking, while the lower classes are growing, but change in the kingdom is notoriously slow and faces both political and structural barriers.
King Abdullah, 84, is considered a modernising force in Saudi terms and when he ascended to the throne in 2005, many Saudis hoped that their country would embark on a period of reform. He is credited with allowing a greater openness and debate, and a recent cabinet reshuffle, which saw the removal of powerful conservatives who headed the judiciary and religious police, was widely praised.
But reformers question the pace and substance of the changes that have taken place in the past four years, with some arguing that change could destabilise the ultra-conservative country.
However, Prince Talal, who says he fully supports King Abdullah’s efforts, was dismissive of such suggestions. “Hypocrites claim our society is unprepared for change and blame religious institutions,’’ Prince Talal said. “Certain people are pleased to hear that. We have to stop using them as an excuse. King Abdullah is the ruler. If he wills it, then it will be done.’’
Prince Talal, is one of 18 surviving sons of King Abdelaziz, Saudi Arabia’s founding father, and a long-time advocate of reform. In the early 1960s he was exiled to Egypt for advocating constitutional reform but returned after a pardon by King Faisal.
In 2007 he proposed forming a political party, but his request is pending the approval of the king.
Political parties are illegal in Saudi Arabia, but Prince Talal believes the kingdom has to make gradual moves towards elections, starting with granting the Shura Council greater powers.
“Young Saudis see elections in Arab countries, Gulf countries, and even Bangladesh and Bolivia, and they wonder why we lack the same thing. We’re not less able than those others,” Prince Talal said. “The political decision is in the hands of the king. I know he is a reformer. We still believe in him.’’
Prince Talal, who is father of Prince Waleed, the well-known billionaire investor, also believes that the younger generation of royals should be considered for the next line of succession to avoid a “political vacuum” in the future.
Since King Abdulaziz’s death more than half a century ago, succession has passed among his 35 sons based on their seniority and competence, but the surviving members of that generation is ageing.
“There is a difference between being head of state and being head of government. Here the family is the government and head of state; they own and rule,” he said. “We should encourage the young generation of the family (and the people) to become more proactive through dialogue. How can we do that? I believe through involving them in decision making.”
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EU ruling hits UK expats in northern Cyprus
By Delphine Strauss in Ankara
Published: April 28 2009 15:47 | Last updated: April 28 2009 15:47
Thousands of expats who have bought or developed property in northern Cyprus could be affected by a European Court of Justice ruling that courts throughout the European Union should enforce Greek Cypriot legal verdicts.
The ECJ judgement, published on Tuesday, backed the efforts of Meletis Apostolides, a Greek Cypriot architect, to reclaim land his family abandoned when the island was partitioned in 1974, on which a British couple has since built a holiday house.
The fact that European community law is suspended in the northern part of the island, whose Turkish Cypriot authorities are recognised only by Ankara, and that a Greek Cypriot judgement cannot practically be enforced, “does not prevent the courts of another member state from declaring such judgements enforceable,” the ECJ found.
Linda and David Orams, a retired couple who invested around £160,000 in the property in Lapithos, could now face court action to seize their UK assets if they do not demolish the house and pay compensation as the Cypriot court ordered in 2004.
A UK court previously found in their favour when Mr Apostolides applied for it to enforce the Greek Cypriot verdict, but would now be obliged to follow the ECJ’s judgement, which cannot be appealed.
The decision may complicate ongoing talks to reunify the divided island, where one of the most contentious questions is how to recognise, by restitution or compensation, the rights of Greek and Turkish Cypriots forced to leave their properties at partition.
It could also deal a heavy blow to the northern Cypriot economy, already heavily dependent on trade with Turkey, since property development had been one of the main growth areas after the failure of UN-sponsored reunification talks in 2004.
An estimated 5,000 Britons live in northern Cyprus, and the judgement could pave the way for a wave of lawsuits against the sizeable minority occupying disputed property. Emine Erk, a northern Cypriot lawyer who has followed the case closely, said it could also lead to claims against Turkish Cypriots living in London or elsewhere in the EU.
“It certainly does sour the atmosphere,” she added, expressing disappointment at the ECJ’s “dismissive” attitude to the Cyprus problem or the ongoing negotiations to resolve it. The judgement would be perceived by Turkish Cypriots as a further slight from Europeans, she added.
Greek Cypriot President Demetris Christofias and the northern leader, Mehmet Ali Talat, have been engaged since September in a fresh round of negotiations to end the island’s division, but the Turkish Cypriot side in particular is under pressure to make progress before next year’s presidential elections and before the issue becomes a major stumbling block for Turkey’s EU aspirations.
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Argentina risks losing its 'bread basket' status
By Jude Webber in Buenos Aires
Published: April 28 2009 03:00 | Last updated: April 28 2009 03:00
Argentine farmers are preparing to sow what many fear could be their smallest acreage of wheat in more than a century as the world's fourth-biggest wheat exporter suffers the consequence of disastrous policies and terrible weather.
With farmers due to start planting the 2009-10 crop in less than a month, producers and analysts fear they could sow less than 3.5m hectares. This would be a fall of about 30 per cent on the 2008-09 season and the lowest since 1902-03, when Argentina had 3.6m hectares and was on its way to earning a reputation as the "bread basket of the world".
"I'm pretty certain I won't be sowing anything," said Luis Eizaguirre, a farmer in Bahía Blanca in the wheat belt of the south of the province of Buenos Aires. "I've never seen so many farmers decide not to sow or to reduce planting so sharply."
The decline stems from three years of government intervention in wheat trading, in which farmers are periodically banned from selling overseas; a 23 per cent tariff on exports; and a serious drought that has eroded production incentives and slashed output.
The upshot was that Argentina was fast "disappearing from the market as a reliable exporter", while other world producers such as Russia had grown, said Pablo Andreani of the AgriPac consultancy. Global stocks are projected by the International Grains Council to rise 39 per cent this year to 160m tonnes after Russia and the Ukraine planted large crops in response to rising global prices.
Société Générale said the global wheat crop could shrink to about 642m tonnes in 2009-10, still a bumper harvest by historical standards but significantly lower than last year. With consumption expected to increase to 657m tonnes, the market could see a supply deficit by the end of 2009-10.
Sean Cameron, head of Aaprotrigo, producers' association, even projected that Argentina "may have to end up importing wheat", a view seen as alarmist but which reflects the gloomy mood.
The woes in Argentina's cereal sector come amid warnings from private economists that the economy is sliding deeper into recession. A long-running conflict between the government and soyabean farmers will slash export income this year.
El Tejar, an agricultural groups, has frozen investments at home and is looking elsewhere in the region, such as neighbouring Uruguay and Brazil, where the regulatory hurdles that plague Argentina are absent.
"It's very difficult to take investment decisions in Argentina today," Oscar Alvarado, president of El Tejar, said, adding that the group's focus was on production from Brazil this year.
Mr Alvarado, who is also president of Argentine Association of Regional Consortiums for Agricultural Experimentation, said indications from farmers were that the area planted with wheat could be as low as 3m hectares for the coming season.
Last season's production in Argentina slumped to 8.3m tonnes from more than 16m the year before because of the worst drought in half a century. But farmers had about 2.5m tonnes in stocks, enabling Argentina to mill 7m tonnes into flour and export 4m tonnes of wheat.
The drought has eased, but many farmers still need more than 200mm of rain to penetrate soils before they can start sowing. If conditions improve, Argentina could yet pull off an increase in production. But exports will be squeezed. Neighbouring Brazil had traditionally bought 7m to 8m tonnes a year "but at these levels, we can only sell half their needs", noted Gustavo López of Agritrend consultancy.
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06:44 GMT, Wednesday, 29 April 2009 07:44 UK
Over-40s may benefit from aspirin
Aspirin
Taking aspirin in your 40s could cut the risk of cancer later in life, a review of research suggests.
Experts said taking the drug at an age before cancer usually develops, and for ten years would maximise its potential to prevent the disease.
Aspirin has been linked to a reduced risk of some cancers, and heart disease, but also to a raised risk of ulcers and internal bleeding.
The Cancer Research UK study features in the journal Lancet Oncology.
"Many questions need to be answered before we would advise regular use of aspirin for cancer prevention. "
Professor Jack Cuzick
Cancer Research UK Centre for Epidemiology
Aspirin blocks the effects of proteins which can trigger inflammation, and which are found at unusually high levels in several types of cancer.
Previous research suggests people who take the drug are less likely to develop bowel, breast and possibly some other types of cancer.
However, regular use of aspirin specifically for cancer prevention is not currently recommended because of the risk of side effects.
Common cancers, such as prostate, breast, lung and bowel, tend to develop after the age of 60 - when the risk of aspirin causing internal bleeding is at its highest.
Lead researcher Professor Jack Cuzick, from the Cancer Research UK Centre for Epidemiology at Queen Mary, University of London, said pre-cancerous lesions tended to start developing in the mid-40s.
Thus, taking aspirin around that time may be the best strategy for preventing that damage progressing to the full-blown disease.
It would also carry a much lower risk of side effects than beginning to take aspirin 15-20 years later.
Work needed
However, Professor Cuzick said: "Many questions need to be answered before we would advise regular use of aspirin for cancer prevention.
"Future research and more clinical trials are needed to better identify those people who are at high risk of developing cancers and at low risk of side effects, who will benefit most from aspirin treatment."
Professor Cuzick said it was not clear a lower dose "baby aspirin" could achieve the same anti-cancer effect as the standard dose of 300mg/day.
The researchers also found that taking aspirin in combination with other drugs known as proton pump inhibitors could help to lower the risk of stomach bleeding.
Dr Lesley Walker, Cancer Research UK's director of cancer information, said: "It's too soon to recommend that people take aspirin to try and stop cancer developing because of the side effects.
"It's important that any decision to take aspirin regularly is only made in consultation with a GP."
Ellen Mason, of the British Heart Foundation (BHF), also stressed it was too early for researchers to recommend taking aspirin to reduce the risk of cancer.
"Currently the risk of bleeding outweighs the benefit," she said.
"Many thousands of people in the UK are prescribed aspirin because they have heart disease.
"This research does not prove that they will also get protection from cancer at a low dose, but as they already need to take aspirin it would be reassuring if further research eventually shows an anti-cancer benefit."
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23:08 GMT, Monday, 27 April 2009 00:08 UK
Child behaviour 'linked to sleep'
Girl asleep
A good night's sleep could reduce hyperactivity and bad behaviour among children, a Finnish study reports.
It has been suggested that some children who lack sleep do not appear tired, but instead behave badly.
Of the 280 examined in the Pediatrics study, those who slept for fewer than eight hours were the most hyperactive.
Experts said adequate sleep could improve behaviour in healthy children and reduce symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
It is recognised that chronic sleep deprivation is a problem for many adults in Western countries and that it can have consequences for their health and daily life.
The team behind this research said not enough was understood about the role of sleep in children's lives but it has been estimated that a third of US children do not get enough sleep.
Monitoring
In this research, the team from the University of Helsinki and Finland's National Institute of Health and Welfare studied 280 healthy children aged seven or eight.
They wanted to see if those healthy children who slept the least were the most likely to display the kind of symptoms associated with ADHD.
None of the children studied had the attention disorder.
"There is a lot of commonality between the symptoms of a tired child and the symptoms of a child with ADHD"
Neil Stanley, Sleep expert
Parents filled in questionnaires about their children's usual sleeping habits and then noted how long their children slept for over seven nights.
The children also wore devices called actigraphs, which measure movement, to monitor how long they actually rested for.
Parents' estimates of sleep duration were longer than the actigraph measurements, which the researchers say could be because they measured from bedtime or because they assumed their children were asleep when they were simply lying awake in bed or reading.
The parents were also asked about their children's behaviour, using measures normally used to diagnose ADHD.
The children whose average sleep duration as measured by actigraphs was shorter than 7.7 hours had a higher hyperactivity and impulsive behaviour score.
They also had a higher ADHD symptom score overall.
'Sleep needs differ'
Dr Juulia Paavonen, who led the study, said: "We were able to show that short sleep duration and sleeping difficulties are related to behavioural symptoms of ADHD.
"The findings suggest that maintaining adequate sleep schedules among children is likely to be important in preventing behavioural symptoms.
"Even 30 minutes per night has been shown to give a major improvement"
Dr Juulia Paavonen, Finnish National Institute of Health and Welfare
"It may well be that inadequate sleep is increasing some of the behavioural problems that have been seen in children with attention deficit disorders."
Dr Paavonen said further studies were needed to confirm the link.
And she advised parents that, even though the study suggested fewer than eight hours sleep could be problematic, it was not a figure everyone should aim for.
"Sleep needs differ between individuals. The only way to take care that a particular child has enough sleep is to see if they seem to have a problem with short sleep.
"But even [an extra] 30 minutes per night has been shown to give a major improvement in objective cognitive tests, improving reaction times, impulsivity and attention spans."
Sleep expert Neil Stanley, of the University of East Anglia, said: "It has been acknowledged for a while now that there is a lot of commonality between the symptoms of a tired child and the symptoms of a child with ADHD."
He said parents needed to recognise that sleep was important for children.
"These things have been lost at a time when ADHD is increasing.
"How much of what is diagnosed as ADHD is something that can be modified or improved, or even totally cured by a more rigid sleep pattern?
"Maybe parents should try and get sleep sorted out. If the child is still showing symptoms, then that's probably the time to look at pharmacological interventions."
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Google aims for bigger Arab audience
Google aims for bigger Arab audience
By Simeon Kerr
Published: April 27 2009 17:00 | Last updated: April 27 2009 17:00
When it comes to the internet, the Arab world punches well below its weight.
Less than 1 per cent of the internet’s content is in Arabic, while the world’s approximately 370m Arabs form more than 5 per cent of the global population.
Internet usage has jumped 1,000 per cent over the past seven years in the Middle East, yet it still lags well behind other regions. Overall internet penetration has reached 10 to 12 per cent, although with the region’s large number of shared connections, up to 50 per cent of the population is estimated to have access to the net.
Google, the internet company, hopes to provide the tools that will help users to increase the amount of Arabic content online.
The regional engineering team, based in Switzerland, is adapting existing Google products to the Arabic language while also developing new bespoke products, says Ahmad Hamzawi, Google’s engineering manager for the Middle East.
Google News, Blogger and the company’s new browser, Chrome, have Arabic versions. The company’s suite of “cloud applications”, such as Google documents and calendar, has also been changed to include regional features. More innovative is Ta3reeb, which allows users who do not have an Arabic keyboard or cannot write Arabic script to transliterate phonetically into Arabic text through an English keyboard.
“For me the impact of it is very powerful because people can start publishing in a very easy, simple manner, directly in Arabic,” says Gisel Hiscock, the company’s director of new business development for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
While penetration may lag behind, the region is quickly adopting social media trends, such as Facebook, the social networking site, and Twitter, the micro-blogging site.
Google is also looking to expand its presence in mobile technology, says Ms Hiscock. However, while the absence of a free media across the Middle East has helped boost the appeal of blogs and networking sites, internet censorship leaves the company in an uncertain position.
Governments in the region have been keen to tap into the economic benefits of the internet but are also wary of it being used by dissidents and critics. A number of bloggers across the Middle East have been jailed as blogs have developed into an important source of news and comment, given the constraints placed on traditional media.
And, after years without censorship, Dubai Internet City, the free-zone where Google has based its United Arab Emirates’ operations, recently went behind the veil of the UAE’s “proxy”, which blocks access to what the telecommunications regulator deems culturally inappropriate content, from pornography to politically charged material.
“We do believe in democratising information,” says Ms Hiscock.
While Google does not release specific data, officials say the region boasts strong uptake of its Arabising tools.
Ultimately, Google’s hope is to facilitate smaller businesses’ migration on to the internet, says Husni Khuffash, country manager for Google in the UAE. “If you give them the right tools, then you can make it financially viable for them,” he says.
Ahmed Nassef, general manager of Arabic web portal Maktoob.com, says cultural tweaking is as important as translation when launching regional products. “Besides just offering up an Arabic interface, companies need to take the time to really understand cultural and social factors – what works in London may not work in Cairo,” he says.
----------------------------
「ＦＸ倍率制限の議論は慎重に」 東京金融取引所社長
東京金融取引所の斎藤次郎社長は27日の記者会見で、同取引所が提供している外為証拠金取引（ＦＸ）サービスの証拠金倍率について「（高い倍率に対する）投資家の需要はある」と述べた。金融庁はＦＸの証拠金倍率の上限を20―30倍前後に規制することを検討している。同取引所は米国などの事例を参考に最大100倍に設定しており、証拠金倍率の上限規制には慎重な議論が必要だとの認識を示した。(07:00)
------------------------------
国際石油帝石、エリーパワーに出資 再生エネ分野の蓄電池製造
国際石油開発帝石はリチウムイオン電池の量産工場を建設するエリーパワー（東京・千代田）に出資する。太陽光や風力など再生可能エネルギーを導入する際に必要となる蓄電技術を獲得する狙い。再生可能エネルギーへの関心を強めている産油国へ蓄電池を提供していく。国際石油帝石が石油、天然ガス以外の分野に進出するのは初めて。
エリーパワーは2006年9月に住友銀行元副頭取の吉田博一社長が創業したベンチャー企業。工場や公共施設などの非常用電源などとして使うリチウムイオン電池を開発している。7月をメドに川崎市内で工場建設を始め、2010年4月の稼働を目指している。(07:00)
-------------------------
Worst over for Japanese economy: business chief
1 hour 42 mins ago
AFP
* Print Story
Japan's economy has come through the worst of its biggest crisis since World War II, the head of the country's top business lobby said in an interview published Tuesday. Skip related content
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* Europe stocks drop
* Allianz, AmEx sell half of stakes in China's ICBC
* Deutsche Bank Q1 profit hits £1.1 billion
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"Major industrialised nations are using all their fiscal and financial tools to rebuild their economies, and some signs of life are beginning to emerge," Japan Business Federation chairman Fujio Mitarai told the Nikkei daily.
"Although the sun has not risen yet, we are finally beginning to see what is ahead. In this regard we have come through the worst," he said.
Mitarai, who is also chairman of high-tech giant Canon Inc, said the world's second-largest economy could turn a corner later this year.
"In the ideal scenario, the economy will hit bottom in the July-September period and grow slightly in the following quarter," he said, while forecasting a contraction of some three percent in this business year to March.
Tokyo said Monday it expected the economy to shrink 3.3 percent in the same period, its worst slump in at least half a century, as the government presses ahead with a record stimulus package.
Recent data have sparked hopes that the slump in the Japanese economy may be easing, with exports showing signs of bottoming out.
Tokyo is also planning 15.4 trillion yen (150 billion dollars) of stimulus spending that it says should boost economic output by two percent this year.
------------------------
04:29 GMT, Tuesday, 28 April 2009 05:29 UK
Nuclear claims heard in Polynesia
French nuclear test area, French Polynesia, file pic from 1995
A court in French Polynesia has begun hearing complaints from former workers at France's nuclear weapons test sites.
The cases, being heard for the first time, relate to work in Mururoa and Fangataufa and seek recognition and compensation for ill health.
Eight cases have been lodged, although five of the workers have already died of what have been called radiation-linked diseases.
In March, the French government enacted legislation to allow compensation.
This could apply in cases relating to nuclear tests in the Pacific and Africa.
Radio New Zealand reported that questions have been raised about whether the hearing would be impartial.
Before the hearing started, the French Polynesian president, Oscar Temaru, met some of the veterans' representatives.
They plan a march and to sing and pray outside the court to publicise their mistrust.
In a bid for transparency, they had asked for the court proceedings to be filmed but they were told that eight days is not enough to organise such a recording, Radio New Zealand reported.
Mr Temaru said the matter should be judged by an international court.
Roland Oldham, president of Moruroa E Tatou, which represents the former workers, says former French employees in the same situation have been compensated, and his members want to be treated equally.
"It would be unbelievable if Polynesian people in the same situation cannot win their cases," he told Radio Australia.
France tested nuclear weapons in the South Pacific for 30 years until 1996, exploding almost 200 nuclear bombs on the island.
----------------------
8:48 GMT, Tuesday, 28 April 2009 09:48 UK
Greek Cypriots 'can reclaim land'
breaking news
A European court has backed the right of a Greek Cypriot to reclaim land in Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus that has since been sold to a UK couple.
Meledis Apostolides was one of thousands of Greek Cypriots who fled his home when Turkish forces invaded in 1974, following a Greek-inspired coup.
The land was later sold to Linda and David Orams, who built a villa on it.
The European Court of Justice says a ruling in a Cypriot court that the villa must be demolished is applicable.
Even if the ECJ ruling cannot be enacted because the land is under Turkish Cypriot control, it means Mr Apostolides will be able to pursue a claim for compensation in a British court.
It could also open the way for hundreds more Greek Cypriots to demand restitution for properties they were forced to flee.
----------------------------
13:02 GMT, Monday, 27 April 2009 14:02 UK
Jerusalem settlement 'extended'
Israeli settlement in east Jerusalem
Construction has begun on approximately 60 new homes in a Jewish settlement in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, the Israeli campaign group Peace Now says.
The work, in East Talpiot settlement, is aimed at creating a belt around East Jerusalem that would sever it from the rest of the West Bank, the group says.
Settlements on occupied land are illegal under international law.
Israel disputes this and also argues that East Jerusalem is not subject to its pledge to freeze settlement work.
Israel's claim is based on its annexation of East Jerusalem, unrecognised by the international community, which it captured along with the West Bank and other Arab territory in the 1967 war.
'Not one centimetre'
Peace Now's Hagit Ofran said the work in East Talpiot in south-east Jerusalem aims to build "housing units for Orthodox religious Jewish families right next to the Palestinian neighbourhood of Arab al-Sawahra".
The housing complex is made up of three blocks of flats containing about 60 homes, Peace Now says.
"We are against this project, which is harming the hopes for peace," Ms Ofran said in remarks to AFP news agency.
Jerusalem municipal officials declined to comment about the building work, which Peace Now said began two months ago.
Successive Israeli governments have asserted that East Jerusalem is an "eternal, indivisible" part of Israel.
In a speech in Ramallah, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said he would not give in to Israeli or international pressure to resume negotiations if settlement construction continues.
"All I know is that there is the state of Israel, in the borders of 1967, not one centimetre more, not one centimetre less. Anything else, I don't accept," Mr Abbas said.
About 200,000 Israeli Jews live in homes in East Jerusalem, with a further 250,000 settlers living in other parts of the West Bank, on land Palestinian negotiators have sought as part of a future Palestinian state.
-------------------------
20:22 GMT, Monday, 27 April 2009 21:22 UK
Settler injures West Bank youth
West Bank map
A Palestinian teenager has been shot and seriously injured by a Jewish settler in the northern West Bank.
Palestinian officials said the boy had been working on his family's land near Madama when he was shot by settlers. There are no reports of any arrests.
The incident took place near the Yitzhar settlement. The boy was later taken to hospital in Nablus.
An Israeli police spokesman said a settler had opened fire after coming under attack by stone-throwers.
The settler was due to be questioned by police, the spokesman told AFP news agency.
Late in 2008, Israeli security officials raised concerns about an increase in violence by settlers.
These attacks targeted both Palestinians and Israeli security forces in the West Bank.
There are frequent reports of settlers harassing Palestinians and human rights groups have captured some of these attacks on video, bringing the issue to greater prominence.
All settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.
--------------------------
15:05 GMT, Sunday, 26 April 2009 16:05 UK
'Israeli oranges' faked in China
By Andre Vornic
BBC News
One of the oranges allegedly found in Iran (photo from the Iranian news agency Mehr)
A twist has emerged in the story of Israeli citrus fruit reportedly sold in Iran in defiance of a ban on commercial dealings between the two enemy states.
It has now been revealed the fruit, a type of orange-grapefruit hybrid marketed as Jaffa Sweetie, were not Israeli in the first place.
The Sweeties were brought to Iran from China, where faking the origin of goods is a common practice.
The discovery of apparent Israeli origin caused a stir in Iran.
Outrage followed, distribution centres stocking the fruit were sealed and accusations were traded.
Such is the infamy of dealing with Israel that an Iranian official went so far as to accuse the opposition of a "citrus plot".
However, Tal Amit, the general manager of Israel's Citrus Marketing Board, told the BBC the fruit had not originated in his country.
Prestigious fruit
"First of all, it's a bit annoying that somebody is using our brand name and registered trademark without our permission," he said.
Chinese boxes allegedly containing Israeli oranges found in Iran (photo from the Iranian news agency Mehr)
"Apart from this, I would like very much the Iranian people to eat Israeli fruit straight from the origin and not via China.
"But the politics is not allowing us to do any commercial relations with Tehran at the moment while back 30 to 40 years ago, Tehran was a superb market for our fruit."
The genuine Israeli Sweetie is primarily exported to the Far East's richest markets, Japan and South Korea.
That could explain the prestige of the fruit in the eyes of Chinese exporters and the temptation to counterfeit it.
It is not the first time, however, that citrus fruit have found themselves at the heart of an international political row.
Back in the 1980s, as the most visible of South Africa's consumer exports, oranges became the key target of anti-Apartheid boycott campaigns.
-------------------------
10:15 GMT, Monday, 27 April 2009 11:15 UK
Saudis clamp down on women's gyms
Saudi women in Hofuf
Many women-only sports clubs and gyms in Saudi Arabia face closure under a government clampdown on unlicensed premises, Saudi media have reported.
Women's gyms have become popular in the ultra-conservative Muslim country where the sexes are heavily segregated.
But only clubs linked to medical groups can get licenses and others will be closed, the Arab News newspaper said.
Saudi women were reported to have launched an online campaign in protest called Let Her Get Fat.
Government departments are not allowed to issue licenses for commercial gyms and sports clubs for women, unlike facilities for men, the newspaper reported.
Beauty salons
It quoted club manager Bader al-Shibani, who tried to open a women's sports club along with the one he runs for men in Jeddah.
"I ran into a stone wall at every turn. Every department I visited denied that they had the authority to give permission to establish a women's club," he said.
Many clubs are registered as beauty salons, and offer fitness facilities and even exercise classes in addition, the newspaper said.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs told the newspaper that commercial clubs do not have registration for the provision of sport and health services.
"It's clear that one department is now taking the decision to put an end to the increasing number of unlicensed clubs," lawyer and community activist Abdulaziz al-Qasim told Arab News.
A group of women launched an internet campaign in protest against the move, saying facilities linked to medical clinics were too expensive, and their health would suffer as a result of the closures.
Women in Saudi Arabia are banned from driving, must wear a head-to-toe cloak when out in public and must obtain permission from a male relative to work, travel, study or marry.
------------------------
Reform in Gaddafi's Libya is still shrouded in ambiguity
By Heba Saleh in Tripoli
Published: April 28 2009 03:00 | Last updated: April 28 2009 03:00
The western part of the waterfront in downtown Tripoli looks like a massive construction site. Cranes tower over the landscape, while armies of labourers, many of them migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, scurry around doing the heavy menial work.
Some 20 major building projects, including international luxury hotels and swish office blocks, are to be completed in the area in the next few years transforming the appearance of the city and confirming Libya's emergence from four decades of isolation.
Residents say the scale of the new construction is a response to soaring demand for office space, hotel rooms and housing as more foreign companies turn their attention to opportunities in the oil rich North African state.
The demand increased after the last remaining problems between Washington and Tripoli were resolved in November.
No longer an international pariah, Libya has been knitting closer ties with the outside world, but there is still uncertainty about how much real change will be allowed internally.
"In the last few years there have been more foreign companies coming and more Libyans travelling, creating a slow change," said a western diplomat. "There will be no going back, because people see the benefits that resulted from opening up the economy and from opening up to the west."
But shaped by the views and whims of Muammar Gaddafi, its maverick leader for the last 39 years, Libya remains a quasi-socialist state where political parties are banned and no dissent is tolerated.
Libya's heavily centralised economy remains dominated by the public sector, even if in recent years foreign banks have been allowed into the country and the private sector has been given a bigger role. Mr Gaddafi is understood to be wary of businessmen becoming influential enough to pose a challenge to his rule.
Now, however, Farhat Bengdara, governor of the central bank, says: "We will start working on preparing a comprehensive reform programme, aiming at reforming the economy, from a state-controlled economy to a more private and co-operative sector economy."
But in a sign of the ambiguity that still surrounds reform, he cautions that privatisation in Libya may not follow the same models as elsewhere. Libya, he explains, wants "people's capitalism" which means "you don't have a few tycoons and the rest of the people are just poor". His expectation is that limits would be placed on how many shares an individual could own in a company.
Political reform, too, appears to be off the agenda despite plans to introduce a constitution - an initiative of Seif al-Islam, the son of the leader who played an instrumental role in improving Libya's relations with the west and in pushing for greater participation by the private sector.
Like much else in Libyan politics, Seif al-Islam's role remains shrouded in opacity. He does not have an official position, yet he has been able to wield enormous influence over sensitive issues. Many believed he was being groomed to succeed his father but, in a surprise move last year, he announced he was stepping back from politics.
"The struggle is between opening up and conservatism," said another Tripoli-based diplomat. "I think Seif went too far for his father's taste in terms of political rights, freedoms and human rights. The leader thinks there are enough economic problems now that they can't address political ones too."
The diplomat argues that a plan last year by Mr Gaddafi to abolish ministries and distribute the oil proceeds directly to the people was meant to address popular resentment over the widening income gap in society. But while some Libyans have benefited from the increased presence of foreign companies, the majority have seen their incomes eroded because of inflation.
The foreign influx has brought good jobs to a narrow class of well-educated Libyans. It has also benefited the politically connected who acquired land in the suburbs and built houses, renting them out to the expanding expatriate community.
Inequalities are rising, says the diplomat, even if there are still few public signs of wealthy lifestyles.
"Consumption is not conspicuous yet," he said. "Here you don't want to appear too much. You are in limbo still. People are getting their BMW's, but the revolutionary committees still exist. As a Libyan you want to keep a low profile."
------------------------
東京・足立の「時効殺人」、賠償が確定 最高裁、除斥期間認めず
1978年に東京都足立区立小学校教諭、石川千佳子さん（当時29）を殺害し、殺人罪の時効成立後に自首した男（73）に、遺族が損害賠償を求めた訴訟の上告審判決で、最高裁第3小法廷（那須弘平裁判長）は28日、「損害賠償義務を免れるのは著しく正義・公平に反する」として男の上告を棄却した。男に約 4200万円の賠償を命じた二審・東京高裁判決が確定した。
判決によると、男は78年に石川さんを殺害。遺体を自宅の床下に埋め、自宅周囲をブロック塀で囲むなど隠し続けた。犯行から26年後の2004年に自首したが、時効（当時15年）が成立しており起訴されなかった。(17:17)
---------------------------
最高裁「体罰」と認めず 講師、児童の胸元つかみ注意
男性臨時講師が小学2年の男児の胸元をつかんだ行為が「体罰」に当たるかどうかが争われた訴訟の上告審判決で、最高裁第三小法廷（近藤崇晴裁判長）は 28日、「講師の行為は教育的指導の範囲を逸脱せず、体罰に該当しない」として、体罰を認定した二審判決を破棄、男児側の請求を棄却した。
判決は、教師が直接手を下す「有形力の行使」が学校教育法の禁じる体罰に当たらない事例があり得ることを示した最高裁の初判断で、教育現場に影響を与えそうだ。
同小法廷は体罰の認定にあたり、目的、態様、継続時間などを考慮すべきだと指摘。胸元をつかむ行為について「やや穏当を欠くところがなかったといえない」としながらも、「男児が悪ふざけをしないよう指導するためのもの。肉体的苦痛を与えるためではないことは明らか」と述べた。(15:20)
By Simeon Kerr
Published: April 27 2009 17:00 | Last updated: April 27 2009 17:00
When it comes to the internet, the Arab world punches well below its weight.
Less than 1 per cent of the internet’s content is in Arabic, while the world’s approximately 370m Arabs form more than 5 per cent of the global population.
Internet usage has jumped 1,000 per cent over the past seven years in the Middle East, yet it still lags well behind other regions. Overall internet penetration has reached 10 to 12 per cent, although with the region’s large number of shared connections, up to 50 per cent of the population is estimated to have access to the net.
Google, the internet company, hopes to provide the tools that will help users to increase the amount of Arabic content online.
The regional engineering team, based in Switzerland, is adapting existing Google products to the Arabic language while also developing new bespoke products, says Ahmad Hamzawi, Google’s engineering manager for the Middle East.
Google News, Blogger and the company’s new browser, Chrome, have Arabic versions. The company’s suite of “cloud applications”, such as Google documents and calendar, has also been changed to include regional features. More innovative is Ta3reeb, which allows users who do not have an Arabic keyboard or cannot write Arabic script to transliterate phonetically into Arabic text through an English keyboard.
“For me the impact of it is very powerful because people can start publishing in a very easy, simple manner, directly in Arabic,” says Gisel Hiscock, the company’s director of new business development for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
While penetration may lag behind, the region is quickly adopting social media trends, such as Facebook, the social networking site, and Twitter, the micro-blogging site.
Google is also looking to expand its presence in mobile technology, says Ms Hiscock. However, while the absence of a free media across the Middle East has helped boost the appeal of blogs and networking sites, internet censorship leaves the company in an uncertain position.
Governments in the region have been keen to tap into the economic benefits of the internet but are also wary of it being used by dissidents and critics. A number of bloggers across the Middle East have been jailed as blogs have developed into an important source of news and comment, given the constraints placed on traditional media.
And, after years without censorship, Dubai Internet City, the free-zone where Google has based its United Arab Emirates’ operations, recently went behind the veil of the UAE’s “proxy”, which blocks access to what the telecommunications regulator deems culturally inappropriate content, from pornography to politically charged material.
“We do believe in democratising information,” says Ms Hiscock.
While Google does not release specific data, officials say the region boasts strong uptake of its Arabising tools.
Ultimately, Google’s hope is to facilitate smaller businesses’ migration on to the internet, says Husni Khuffash, country manager for Google in the UAE. “If you give them the right tools, then you can make it financially viable for them,” he says.
Ahmed Nassef, general manager of Arabic web portal Maktoob.com, says cultural tweaking is as important as translation when launching regional products. “Besides just offering up an Arabic interface, companies need to take the time to really understand cultural and social factors – what works in London may not work in Cairo,” he says.
----------------------------
「ＦＸ倍率制限の議論は慎重に」 東京金融取引所社長
東京金融取引所の斎藤次郎社長は27日の記者会見で、同取引所が提供している外為証拠金取引（ＦＸ）サービスの証拠金倍率について「（高い倍率に対する）投資家の需要はある」と述べた。金融庁はＦＸの証拠金倍率の上限を20―30倍前後に規制することを検討している。同取引所は米国などの事例を参考に最大100倍に設定しており、証拠金倍率の上限規制には慎重な議論が必要だとの認識を示した。(07:00)
------------------------------
国際石油帝石、エリーパワーに出資 再生エネ分野の蓄電池製造
国際石油開発帝石はリチウムイオン電池の量産工場を建設するエリーパワー（東京・千代田）に出資する。太陽光や風力など再生可能エネルギーを導入する際に必要となる蓄電技術を獲得する狙い。再生可能エネルギーへの関心を強めている産油国へ蓄電池を提供していく。国際石油帝石が石油、天然ガス以外の分野に進出するのは初めて。
エリーパワーは2006年9月に住友銀行元副頭取の吉田博一社長が創業したベンチャー企業。工場や公共施設などの非常用電源などとして使うリチウムイオン電池を開発している。7月をメドに川崎市内で工場建設を始め、2010年4月の稼働を目指している。(07:00)
-------------------------
Worst over for Japanese economy: business chief
1 hour 42 mins ago
AFP
* Print Story
Japan's economy has come through the worst of its biggest crisis since World War II, the head of the country's top business lobby said in an interview published Tuesday. Skip related content
Related photos / videos
Japan's economy has come through the worst of its biggest crisis since World War II, a …More Enlarge photo
Related content
* Europe stocks drop
* Allianz, AmEx sell half of stakes in China's ICBC
* Deutsche Bank Q1 profit hits £1.1 billion
* Related Hot Topic: Financial Crisis
Have your say: Financial Crisis
Price by Yahoo! Finance
PriceStock prices Company name Last price Percentage change
"Major industrialised nations are using all their fiscal and financial tools to rebuild their economies, and some signs of life are beginning to emerge," Japan Business Federation chairman Fujio Mitarai told the Nikkei daily.
"Although the sun has not risen yet, we are finally beginning to see what is ahead. In this regard we have come through the worst," he said.
Mitarai, who is also chairman of high-tech giant Canon Inc, said the world's second-largest economy could turn a corner later this year.
"In the ideal scenario, the economy will hit bottom in the July-September period and grow slightly in the following quarter," he said, while forecasting a contraction of some three percent in this business year to March.
Tokyo said Monday it expected the economy to shrink 3.3 percent in the same period, its worst slump in at least half a century, as the government presses ahead with a record stimulus package.
Recent data have sparked hopes that the slump in the Japanese economy may be easing, with exports showing signs of bottoming out.
Tokyo is also planning 15.4 trillion yen (150 billion dollars) of stimulus spending that it says should boost economic output by two percent this year.
------------------------
04:29 GMT, Tuesday, 28 April 2009 05:29 UK
Nuclear claims heard in Polynesia
French nuclear test area, French Polynesia, file pic from 1995
A court in French Polynesia has begun hearing complaints from former workers at France's nuclear weapons test sites.
The cases, being heard for the first time, relate to work in Mururoa and Fangataufa and seek recognition and compensation for ill health.
Eight cases have been lodged, although five of the workers have already died of what have been called radiation-linked diseases.
In March, the French government enacted legislation to allow compensation.
This could apply in cases relating to nuclear tests in the Pacific and Africa.
Radio New Zealand reported that questions have been raised about whether the hearing would be impartial.
Before the hearing started, the French Polynesian president, Oscar Temaru, met some of the veterans' representatives.
They plan a march and to sing and pray outside the court to publicise their mistrust.
In a bid for transparency, they had asked for the court proceedings to be filmed but they were told that eight days is not enough to organise such a recording, Radio New Zealand reported.
Mr Temaru said the matter should be judged by an international court.
Roland Oldham, president of Moruroa E Tatou, which represents the former workers, says former French employees in the same situation have been compensated, and his members want to be treated equally.
"It would be unbelievable if Polynesian people in the same situation cannot win their cases," he told Radio Australia.
France tested nuclear weapons in the South Pacific for 30 years until 1996, exploding almost 200 nuclear bombs on the island.
----------------------
8:48 GMT, Tuesday, 28 April 2009 09:48 UK
Greek Cypriots 'can reclaim land'
breaking news
A European court has backed the right of a Greek Cypriot to reclaim land in Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus that has since been sold to a UK couple.
Meledis Apostolides was one of thousands of Greek Cypriots who fled his home when Turkish forces invaded in 1974, following a Greek-inspired coup.
The land was later sold to Linda and David Orams, who built a villa on it.
The European Court of Justice says a ruling in a Cypriot court that the villa must be demolished is applicable.
Even if the ECJ ruling cannot be enacted because the land is under Turkish Cypriot control, it means Mr Apostolides will be able to pursue a claim for compensation in a British court.
It could also open the way for hundreds more Greek Cypriots to demand restitution for properties they were forced to flee.
----------------------------
13:02 GMT, Monday, 27 April 2009 14:02 UK
Jerusalem settlement 'extended'
Israeli settlement in east Jerusalem
Construction has begun on approximately 60 new homes in a Jewish settlement in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, the Israeli campaign group Peace Now says.
The work, in East Talpiot settlement, is aimed at creating a belt around East Jerusalem that would sever it from the rest of the West Bank, the group says.
Settlements on occupied land are illegal under international law.
Israel disputes this and also argues that East Jerusalem is not subject to its pledge to freeze settlement work.
Israel's claim is based on its annexation of East Jerusalem, unrecognised by the international community, which it captured along with the West Bank and other Arab territory in the 1967 war.
'Not one centimetre'
Peace Now's Hagit Ofran said the work in East Talpiot in south-east Jerusalem aims to build "housing units for Orthodox religious Jewish families right next to the Palestinian neighbourhood of Arab al-Sawahra".
The housing complex is made up of three blocks of flats containing about 60 homes, Peace Now says.
"We are against this project, which is harming the hopes for peace," Ms Ofran said in remarks to AFP news agency.
Jerusalem municipal officials declined to comment about the building work, which Peace Now said began two months ago.
Successive Israeli governments have asserted that East Jerusalem is an "eternal, indivisible" part of Israel.
In a speech in Ramallah, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said he would not give in to Israeli or international pressure to resume negotiations if settlement construction continues.
"All I know is that there is the state of Israel, in the borders of 1967, not one centimetre more, not one centimetre less. Anything else, I don't accept," Mr Abbas said.
About 200,000 Israeli Jews live in homes in East Jerusalem, with a further 250,000 settlers living in other parts of the West Bank, on land Palestinian negotiators have sought as part of a future Palestinian state.
-------------------------
20:22 GMT, Monday, 27 April 2009 21:22 UK
Settler injures West Bank youth
West Bank map
A Palestinian teenager has been shot and seriously injured by a Jewish settler in the northern West Bank.
Palestinian officials said the boy had been working on his family's land near Madama when he was shot by settlers. There are no reports of any arrests.
The incident took place near the Yitzhar settlement. The boy was later taken to hospital in Nablus.
An Israeli police spokesman said a settler had opened fire after coming under attack by stone-throwers.
The settler was due to be questioned by police, the spokesman told AFP news agency.
Late in 2008, Israeli security officials raised concerns about an increase in violence by settlers.
These attacks targeted both Palestinians and Israeli security forces in the West Bank.
There are frequent reports of settlers harassing Palestinians and human rights groups have captured some of these attacks on video, bringing the issue to greater prominence.
All settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.
--------------------------
15:05 GMT, Sunday, 26 April 2009 16:05 UK
'Israeli oranges' faked in China
By Andre Vornic
BBC News
One of the oranges allegedly found in Iran (photo from the Iranian news agency Mehr)
A twist has emerged in the story of Israeli citrus fruit reportedly sold in Iran in defiance of a ban on commercial dealings between the two enemy states.
It has now been revealed the fruit, a type of orange-grapefruit hybrid marketed as Jaffa Sweetie, were not Israeli in the first place.
The Sweeties were brought to Iran from China, where faking the origin of goods is a common practice.
The discovery of apparent Israeli origin caused a stir in Iran.
Outrage followed, distribution centres stocking the fruit were sealed and accusations were traded.
Such is the infamy of dealing with Israel that an Iranian official went so far as to accuse the opposition of a "citrus plot".
However, Tal Amit, the general manager of Israel's Citrus Marketing Board, told the BBC the fruit had not originated in his country.
Prestigious fruit
"First of all, it's a bit annoying that somebody is using our brand name and registered trademark without our permission," he said.
Chinese boxes allegedly containing Israeli oranges found in Iran (photo from the Iranian news agency Mehr)
"Apart from this, I would like very much the Iranian people to eat Israeli fruit straight from the origin and not via China.
"But the politics is not allowing us to do any commercial relations with Tehran at the moment while back 30 to 40 years ago, Tehran was a superb market for our fruit."
The genuine Israeli Sweetie is primarily exported to the Far East's richest markets, Japan and South Korea.
That could explain the prestige of the fruit in the eyes of Chinese exporters and the temptation to counterfeit it.
It is not the first time, however, that citrus fruit have found themselves at the heart of an international political row.
Back in the 1980s, as the most visible of South Africa's consumer exports, oranges became the key target of anti-Apartheid boycott campaigns.
-------------------------
10:15 GMT, Monday, 27 April 2009 11:15 UK
Saudis clamp down on women's gyms
Saudi women in Hofuf
Many women-only sports clubs and gyms in Saudi Arabia face closure under a government clampdown on unlicensed premises, Saudi media have reported.
Women's gyms have become popular in the ultra-conservative Muslim country where the sexes are heavily segregated.
But only clubs linked to medical groups can get licenses and others will be closed, the Arab News newspaper said.
Saudi women were reported to have launched an online campaign in protest called Let Her Get Fat.
Government departments are not allowed to issue licenses for commercial gyms and sports clubs for women, unlike facilities for men, the newspaper reported.
Beauty salons
It quoted club manager Bader al-Shibani, who tried to open a women's sports club along with the one he runs for men in Jeddah.
"I ran into a stone wall at every turn. Every department I visited denied that they had the authority to give permission to establish a women's club," he said.
Many clubs are registered as beauty salons, and offer fitness facilities and even exercise classes in addition, the newspaper said.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs told the newspaper that commercial clubs do not have registration for the provision of sport and health services.
"It's clear that one department is now taking the decision to put an end to the increasing number of unlicensed clubs," lawyer and community activist Abdulaziz al-Qasim told Arab News.
A group of women launched an internet campaign in protest against the move, saying facilities linked to medical clinics were too expensive, and their health would suffer as a result of the closures.
Women in Saudi Arabia are banned from driving, must wear a head-to-toe cloak when out in public and must obtain permission from a male relative to work, travel, study or marry.
------------------------
Reform in Gaddafi's Libya is still shrouded in ambiguity
By Heba Saleh in Tripoli
Published: April 28 2009 03:00 | Last updated: April 28 2009 03:00
The western part of the waterfront in downtown Tripoli looks like a massive construction site. Cranes tower over the landscape, while armies of labourers, many of them migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, scurry around doing the heavy menial work.
Some 20 major building projects, including international luxury hotels and swish office blocks, are to be completed in the area in the next few years transforming the appearance of the city and confirming Libya's emergence from four decades of isolation.
Residents say the scale of the new construction is a response to soaring demand for office space, hotel rooms and housing as more foreign companies turn their attention to opportunities in the oil rich North African state.
The demand increased after the last remaining problems between Washington and Tripoli were resolved in November.
No longer an international pariah, Libya has been knitting closer ties with the outside world, but there is still uncertainty about how much real change will be allowed internally.
"In the last few years there have been more foreign companies coming and more Libyans travelling, creating a slow change," said a western diplomat. "There will be no going back, because people see the benefits that resulted from opening up the economy and from opening up to the west."
But shaped by the views and whims of Muammar Gaddafi, its maverick leader for the last 39 years, Libya remains a quasi-socialist state where political parties are banned and no dissent is tolerated.
Libya's heavily centralised economy remains dominated by the public sector, even if in recent years foreign banks have been allowed into the country and the private sector has been given a bigger role. Mr Gaddafi is understood to be wary of businessmen becoming influential enough to pose a challenge to his rule.
Now, however, Farhat Bengdara, governor of the central bank, says: "We will start working on preparing a comprehensive reform programme, aiming at reforming the economy, from a state-controlled economy to a more private and co-operative sector economy."
But in a sign of the ambiguity that still surrounds reform, he cautions that privatisation in Libya may not follow the same models as elsewhere. Libya, he explains, wants "people's capitalism" which means "you don't have a few tycoons and the rest of the people are just poor". His expectation is that limits would be placed on how many shares an individual could own in a company.
Political reform, too, appears to be off the agenda despite plans to introduce a constitution - an initiative of Seif al-Islam, the son of the leader who played an instrumental role in improving Libya's relations with the west and in pushing for greater participation by the private sector.
Like much else in Libyan politics, Seif al-Islam's role remains shrouded in opacity. He does not have an official position, yet he has been able to wield enormous influence over sensitive issues. Many believed he was being groomed to succeed his father but, in a surprise move last year, he announced he was stepping back from politics.
"The struggle is between opening up and conservatism," said another Tripoli-based diplomat. "I think Seif went too far for his father's taste in terms of political rights, freedoms and human rights. The leader thinks there are enough economic problems now that they can't address political ones too."
The diplomat argues that a plan last year by Mr Gaddafi to abolish ministries and distribute the oil proceeds directly to the people was meant to address popular resentment over the widening income gap in society. But while some Libyans have benefited from the increased presence of foreign companies, the majority have seen their incomes eroded because of inflation.
The foreign influx has brought good jobs to a narrow class of well-educated Libyans. It has also benefited the politically connected who acquired land in the suburbs and built houses, renting them out to the expanding expatriate community.
Inequalities are rising, says the diplomat, even if there are still few public signs of wealthy lifestyles.
"Consumption is not conspicuous yet," he said. "Here you don't want to appear too much. You are in limbo still. People are getting their BMW's, but the revolutionary committees still exist. As a Libyan you want to keep a low profile."
------------------------
東京・足立の「時効殺人」、賠償が確定 最高裁、除斥期間認めず
1978年に東京都足立区立小学校教諭、石川千佳子さん（当時29）を殺害し、殺人罪の時効成立後に自首した男（73）に、遺族が損害賠償を求めた訴訟の上告審判決で、最高裁第3小法廷（那須弘平裁判長）は28日、「損害賠償義務を免れるのは著しく正義・公平に反する」として男の上告を棄却した。男に約 4200万円の賠償を命じた二審・東京高裁判決が確定した。
判決によると、男は78年に石川さんを殺害。遺体を自宅の床下に埋め、自宅周囲をブロック塀で囲むなど隠し続けた。犯行から26年後の2004年に自首したが、時効（当時15年）が成立しており起訴されなかった。(17:17)
---------------------------
最高裁「体罰」と認めず 講師、児童の胸元つかみ注意
男性臨時講師が小学2年の男児の胸元をつかんだ行為が「体罰」に当たるかどうかが争われた訴訟の上告審判決で、最高裁第三小法廷（近藤崇晴裁判長）は 28日、「講師の行為は教育的指導の範囲を逸脱せず、体罰に該当しない」として、体罰を認定した二審判決を破棄、男児側の請求を棄却した。
判決は、教師が直接手を下す「有形力の行使」が学校教育法の禁じる体罰に当たらない事例があり得ることを示した最高裁の初判断で、教育現場に影響を与えそうだ。
同小法廷は体罰の認定にあたり、目的、態様、継続時間などを考慮すべきだと指摘。胸元をつかむ行為について「やや穏当を欠くところがなかったといえない」としながらも、「男児が悪ふざけをしないよう指導するためのもの。肉体的苦痛を与えるためではないことは明らか」と述べた。(15:20)
Monday, April 27, 2009
Macau Sands casino up for sale: report
Macau Sands casino up for sale: report
1 hour 15 mins ago
AFP
Las Vegas Sands is considering selling one of its Macau casinos, a report said Monday, as revenues plummet in the world's biggest gaming market.
It plans to put the Sands Macao up for about 1.3 billion US dollars after failing to sell its luxury shopping centres in the southern Chinese territory, the South China Morning Post said without naming sources.
The report said Las Vegas Sands was considering selling the building and continuing to run the 229,000 square foot (21,274 square metres) casino while paying the new landlord rent based on performance.
Talks kicked off last week, the daily said, as the company could not find a buyer for the shopping centres attached to the Venetian and Four Seasons resorts because the one billion dollar asking price was considered too high.
"It was kind of, 'OK then, if you don't want the malls, do you want the Sands?'" an unnamed source was quoted as saying. It said the source confirmed the company's gaming licence was not up for sale.
A spokesman for the US-based company declined to comment on a potential sale of the Sands Macao, the territory's first foreign-owned casino, the paper said.
The Sands Macao opened in 2004 and the company made back its initial 285 billion dollar investment in 12 months, the newspaper said, as gamers poured into the city.
However, Las Vegas Sands was in November forced to fire up to 11,000 mainly construction staff as it halted work at a new 3.3 billion US dollar, 6,400-room resort close to the Venetian.
The firm blamed a freezing of the global credit markets for the delay.
Macau has become a gambling paradise, with massive casinos springing up over the past few years, helping the city overtake the Las Vegas Strip in terms of revenue.
But income has been battered as gamblers tighten their belts amid the global slowdown, while visa restrictions placed by Beijing on Chinese visitors have also hit revenues.
Macau's casinos suffered a dismal second half of 2008, although the first three months of this year saw income rise for the first time in three quarters.
---------------------------
World Bank, IMF: Crisis becoming 'human calamity'
4 hours 47 mins ago
AFP Veronica Smith
* Print Story
The IMF and World Bank have warned that the global economic crisis is turning into a "human calamity" and called on members to speed up pledged aid and give even more to help the most vulnerable.
At the end of spring meetings in Washington, the two Bretton Woods institutions on Sunday told their 185 member countries that the worst global slump in generations had already driven more than 50 million people into extreme poverty.
"The global economy has deteriorated dramatically ... Developing countries face especially serious consequences as the financial and economic crisis turns into a human and development calamity," the International Monetary Fund and World Bank joint development committee said in a statement.
"We must alleviate its impact on developing countries and facilitate their contribution to global recovery," the World Bank's policy steering committee said.
Pledges of aid by countries, including by the Group of 20 countries at a London summit earlier this month, should be delivered, it said.
"We urged all donors to accelerate delivery of commitments to increase aid, and for us all to consider going beyond existing commitments," the committee said.
How to help the developing world cope with the worst global slump since the 1930s Great Depression was top of the agenda for the bank's steering committee meeting that wrapped up the sibling institutions' two-day gatherings.
"No one knows how long this crisis will last," World Bank president Robert Zoellick told a news conference.
Although the bank's finances are "in a strong position to help our partner countries," he said, the crisis was putting the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals to reduce poverty by 2015 increasingly at risk.
The World Bank Saturday launched a 55-billion-dollar infrastructure investment program designed specifically to help developing countries weather the global slump.
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told the committee that Washington was "on track" to meet a pledge to double development aid to Sub-Saharan Africa by next year and would increase other help "to vulnerable populations ... so that we can give people the tools they need to lift themselves out of poverty."
No new pledges of aid were announced for the World Bank or for the IMF at the meetings, which followed up on the G20 commitment of more than 1.1 trillion dollars to multilateral institutions, mostly to the IMF, at a London summit on April 2.
The IMF's policy steering committee endorsed Saturday a massive expansion of the fund's lending resources to combat the recession and boost lifelines to poor countries.
The IMF recently forecast the global economy would contract 1.3 percent this year before growth of 1.9 percent in 2010.
IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn said Saturday it was time to talk exit strategies from the crisis after all members had agreed on the fiscal stimulus measures taken and "on the absolute necessity of cleansing the financial system."
The International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) said a key achievement of the meeting was "ensuring the doubling of the Fund?s loanable resources."
Strauss-Kahn said the IMFC also discussed the sale of IMF bonds to member states to raise extra funds, a move allowed by fund rules but never exercised.
The sale of bonds is linked to the issue of IMF quotas and approved but as yet not enacted reforms to give developing countries more voice in the institution, traditionally dominated by the United States and other major advanced economies.
"The Bank and IMF said all the right things, but the true test is whether their rich country shareholders will turn words into action," said Marita Hutjes, senior policy advisor at anti-poverty group Oxfam International.
"Contributions to the bank and the IMF for the poorest countries are needed now. Bureaucratic delay and lack of political will on this will cost lives," Hutjes warned.
At the closing news conference, Zoellick and Mexican Finance Minister Agustin Carstens announced that the World Bank would speed more than 205 million dollars to Mexico to support the government's efforts to fight the spread of a new swine flu virus that has killed at least 20 people.
-----------------------
Kuwaiti investment firm posts first ever loss
11 hours 19 mins ago
AFP
* Print Story
Global Investment House, a leading Kuwaiti investment firm, said on Sunday it made its first ever loss last year due to the global financial crisis. Skip related content
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* World Bank, IMF say crisis becoming 'human calamity'
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The 257.4 million dinars (881 million dollars) loss compares with a profit of 312 million dollars in 2007, Global said in a statement.
The price of the company's shares, which have been suspended from trading since March 31, had slumped 67 percent so far this year after plummetting 79 percent in 2008.
Its market capitalisation stands at just 288 million dollars, down from 4.1 billion dollars at the end of 2007.
"2008 was a year of unprecedented global market turbulence. Global has not been immune to this and we unfortunately reported our first ever loss in 2008," said Maha Al-Ghunaim, chairperson and managing director of Global.
"This has been caused, in a large part, by unrealized losses on our investments and as a result we are renewing our focus on fee generated income, which has always been profitable," she added.
In December, Global said it defaulted on the majority of its debts and appointed HSBC Bank as financial adviser to renegotiate the existing credit facilities' terms with the lending bank group.
The company has continued to meet all its debt service payments as they fall due, it added.
The firm has reduced costs by more than 20 percent through decreasing its workforce by 10 percent, scaling back salaries and cancelling all 2008 related bonus payments, it said.
Global has been one of Kuwait's fastest expanding investment firms in the past few years, taking substantial loans in the process.
The company ratings have been downgraded by some international rating agencies, and others placed it on their watch lists for a possible downgrade.
Investment companies in Kuwait have been facing difficulties repaying their debt with the tightening of credit opportunities due to the global financial crisis.
The 99 companies under the supervision of the central bank of Kuwait have a total debt of around 18 billion dollars, including eight billion dollars owed to foreign lenders.
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救急搬送拒否で重篤、消防組合に１億４千万円支払い命令
奈良県警橿原署の駐車場から救急搬送されずに意識不明に陥った同県大淀町内の男性（４４）とその両親が、重篤になったのは中和広域消防組合が搬送義務を怠ったのが理由として、治療費や慰謝料など計約２億５０００万円の損害賠償を求めた訴訟の判決が２７日、奈良地裁であった。
坂倉充信裁判長（一谷好文裁判長代読）は「すぐに救急搬送していれば、重篤にならなかった可能性が高い」と、同組合に計約１億４０００万円の支払いを命じた。
判決によると、男性は２００６年１１月１５日未明、同署駐車場で顔から血を流し、酔った状態で同署員に保護された。
通報で駆けつけた中和広域消防組合の救急隊員は、意識障害などの症状から医療機関に搬送すべきだったのに、家族らに対し「搬送先がない」などと説明して拒否した。男性は脳挫傷などで、現在も意識が戻っていない。
---------------------------
Swiss seek tax treaty trade-off
By Haig Simonian in Zurich and Krishna Guha in Washington
Published: April 27 2009 03:00 | Last updated: April 27 2009 03:00
Swiss and US officials will meet in Bern tomorrow for their first talks on a new tax treaty after Switzerland asked the Obama administration to drop a legal case involving the Swiss bank UBS in exchange for the accord.
The talks were announced earlier this month.
Tim Geithner, US Treasury secretary, this weekend met with Hans-Rudolf Merz, Swiss finance minister and head of state this year under the country's rotating presidency.
Mr Merz told Mr Geithner that an aggressive investigation by US tax authorities into accounts at UBS could make it very difficult to secure approval for a new tax treaty in the Swiss parliament and possibly in a referendum.
US officials told the Financial Times that Mr Geithner did not dismiss the Swiss argument out of hand. "The secretary listened to the Swiss concerns regarding the UBS case and indicated that he understood the importance of appropriately resolving the matter," one official said.
The US response to the Swiss approach suggests it might be possible for the two sides to strike a deal. It said "both President [Barack] Obama and Secretary Geithner have made very clear their commitment to tackling tax shelters and other efforts to abuse US tax laws".
Mr Merz, also head of state this year under Switzerland's rotating presidency, used the meeting to tell Mr Geithner that a new treaty could take until the end of the year to finalise.
The US administration has been in the forefront of an international clampdown on tax evasion, focused on countries, such as Switzerland, with strict bank secrecy laws.
Separately, the US Internal Revenue Service has probed allegations that UBS, the world's biggest wealth manager, helped rich Americans evade tax.
UBS in February agreed to a $780m settlement with the IRS to drop criminal charges that a small number of its private bankers at a now-closed offshore banking unit exploited loopholes in US legislation to help rich clients hide assets. The bank was forced by Swiss bank regulators to provide the names of 255 US clients who most blatantly used sham companies to evade tax.
However, in a separate civil case, the IRS is demanding UBS provide information about an alleged 52,000 accounts held by Americans.
The action is being resisted by the bank and Swiss government, on the grounds that - unlike in the initial case involving the 255 customers - no specific evidence has been brought forward to warrant any secrecy barriers being lowered.
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ＧＭ、６工場閉鎖・休止へ ８０００人を新たに削減
2009.4.27 22:28
新たなリストラ策を発表するＧＭのヘンダーソンＣＥＯ（ＡＰ）新たなリストラ策を発表するＧＭのヘンダーソンＣＥＯ（ＡＰ）
経営危機に陥っている米自動車最大手ゼネラル・モーターズ（ＧＭ）が２７日、追加リストラ策を発表し、新たに６工場を閉鎖・休止し、新たに７０００－８０００人の人員削減や主要ブランド「ポンティアック」の段階的廃止を実施すると明らかにした。
政府による資金支援額は計１５４億ドル（１兆４９００億円）に上っており、ＧＭは一段の経費削減を急ぐ方針。
ＧＭは債務削減などをめぐる債権者らとの交渉が難航。政府が定めた期限の６月１日までに合意できないと、政府支援が打ち切られ、破産法の申請に追い込まれる。（共同）
1 hour 15 mins ago
AFP
Las Vegas Sands is considering selling one of its Macau casinos, a report said Monday, as revenues plummet in the world's biggest gaming market.
It plans to put the Sands Macao up for about 1.3 billion US dollars after failing to sell its luxury shopping centres in the southern Chinese territory, the South China Morning Post said without naming sources.
The report said Las Vegas Sands was considering selling the building and continuing to run the 229,000 square foot (21,274 square metres) casino while paying the new landlord rent based on performance.
Talks kicked off last week, the daily said, as the company could not find a buyer for the shopping centres attached to the Venetian and Four Seasons resorts because the one billion dollar asking price was considered too high.
"It was kind of, 'OK then, if you don't want the malls, do you want the Sands?'" an unnamed source was quoted as saying. It said the source confirmed the company's gaming licence was not up for sale.
A spokesman for the US-based company declined to comment on a potential sale of the Sands Macao, the territory's first foreign-owned casino, the paper said.
The Sands Macao opened in 2004 and the company made back its initial 285 billion dollar investment in 12 months, the newspaper said, as gamers poured into the city.
However, Las Vegas Sands was in November forced to fire up to 11,000 mainly construction staff as it halted work at a new 3.3 billion US dollar, 6,400-room resort close to the Venetian.
The firm blamed a freezing of the global credit markets for the delay.
Macau has become a gambling paradise, with massive casinos springing up over the past few years, helping the city overtake the Las Vegas Strip in terms of revenue.
But income has been battered as gamblers tighten their belts amid the global slowdown, while visa restrictions placed by Beijing on Chinese visitors have also hit revenues.
Macau's casinos suffered a dismal second half of 2008, although the first three months of this year saw income rise for the first time in three quarters.
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World Bank, IMF: Crisis becoming 'human calamity'
4 hours 47 mins ago
AFP Veronica Smith
* Print Story
The IMF and World Bank have warned that the global economic crisis is turning into a "human calamity" and called on members to speed up pledged aid and give even more to help the most vulnerable.
At the end of spring meetings in Washington, the two Bretton Woods institutions on Sunday told their 185 member countries that the worst global slump in generations had already driven more than 50 million people into extreme poverty.
"The global economy has deteriorated dramatically ... Developing countries face especially serious consequences as the financial and economic crisis turns into a human and development calamity," the International Monetary Fund and World Bank joint development committee said in a statement.
"We must alleviate its impact on developing countries and facilitate their contribution to global recovery," the World Bank's policy steering committee said.
Pledges of aid by countries, including by the Group of 20 countries at a London summit earlier this month, should be delivered, it said.
"We urged all donors to accelerate delivery of commitments to increase aid, and for us all to consider going beyond existing commitments," the committee said.
How to help the developing world cope with the worst global slump since the 1930s Great Depression was top of the agenda for the bank's steering committee meeting that wrapped up the sibling institutions' two-day gatherings.
"No one knows how long this crisis will last," World Bank president Robert Zoellick told a news conference.
Although the bank's finances are "in a strong position to help our partner countries," he said, the crisis was putting the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals to reduce poverty by 2015 increasingly at risk.
The World Bank Saturday launched a 55-billion-dollar infrastructure investment program designed specifically to help developing countries weather the global slump.
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told the committee that Washington was "on track" to meet a pledge to double development aid to Sub-Saharan Africa by next year and would increase other help "to vulnerable populations ... so that we can give people the tools they need to lift themselves out of poverty."
No new pledges of aid were announced for the World Bank or for the IMF at the meetings, which followed up on the G20 commitment of more than 1.1 trillion dollars to multilateral institutions, mostly to the IMF, at a London summit on April 2.
The IMF's policy steering committee endorsed Saturday a massive expansion of the fund's lending resources to combat the recession and boost lifelines to poor countries.
The IMF recently forecast the global economy would contract 1.3 percent this year before growth of 1.9 percent in 2010.
IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn said Saturday it was time to talk exit strategies from the crisis after all members had agreed on the fiscal stimulus measures taken and "on the absolute necessity of cleansing the financial system."
The International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) said a key achievement of the meeting was "ensuring the doubling of the Fund?s loanable resources."
Strauss-Kahn said the IMFC also discussed the sale of IMF bonds to member states to raise extra funds, a move allowed by fund rules but never exercised.
The sale of bonds is linked to the issue of IMF quotas and approved but as yet not enacted reforms to give developing countries more voice in the institution, traditionally dominated by the United States and other major advanced economies.
"The Bank and IMF said all the right things, but the true test is whether their rich country shareholders will turn words into action," said Marita Hutjes, senior policy advisor at anti-poverty group Oxfam International.
"Contributions to the bank and the IMF for the poorest countries are needed now. Bureaucratic delay and lack of political will on this will cost lives," Hutjes warned.
At the closing news conference, Zoellick and Mexican Finance Minister Agustin Carstens announced that the World Bank would speed more than 205 million dollars to Mexico to support the government's efforts to fight the spread of a new swine flu virus that has killed at least 20 people.
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Kuwaiti investment firm posts first ever loss
11 hours 19 mins ago
AFP
* Print Story
Global Investment House, a leading Kuwaiti investment firm, said on Sunday it made its first ever loss last year due to the global financial crisis. Skip related content
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* Japan expects worst post-war economic slump
* World Bank, IMF say crisis becoming 'human calamity'
* 30 pct of airlines may defer plane deliveries
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The 257.4 million dinars (881 million dollars) loss compares with a profit of 312 million dollars in 2007, Global said in a statement.
The price of the company's shares, which have been suspended from trading since March 31, had slumped 67 percent so far this year after plummetting 79 percent in 2008.
Its market capitalisation stands at just 288 million dollars, down from 4.1 billion dollars at the end of 2007.
"2008 was a year of unprecedented global market turbulence. Global has not been immune to this and we unfortunately reported our first ever loss in 2008," said Maha Al-Ghunaim, chairperson and managing director of Global.
"This has been caused, in a large part, by unrealized losses on our investments and as a result we are renewing our focus on fee generated income, which has always been profitable," she added.
In December, Global said it defaulted on the majority of its debts and appointed HSBC Bank as financial adviser to renegotiate the existing credit facilities' terms with the lending bank group.
The company has continued to meet all its debt service payments as they fall due, it added.
The firm has reduced costs by more than 20 percent through decreasing its workforce by 10 percent, scaling back salaries and cancelling all 2008 related bonus payments, it said.
Global has been one of Kuwait's fastest expanding investment firms in the past few years, taking substantial loans in the process.
The company ratings have been downgraded by some international rating agencies, and others placed it on their watch lists for a possible downgrade.
Investment companies in Kuwait have been facing difficulties repaying their debt with the tightening of credit opportunities due to the global financial crisis.
The 99 companies under the supervision of the central bank of Kuwait have a total debt of around 18 billion dollars, including eight billion dollars owed to foreign lenders.
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救急搬送拒否で重篤、消防組合に１億４千万円支払い命令
奈良県警橿原署の駐車場から救急搬送されずに意識不明に陥った同県大淀町内の男性（４４）とその両親が、重篤になったのは中和広域消防組合が搬送義務を怠ったのが理由として、治療費や慰謝料など計約２億５０００万円の損害賠償を求めた訴訟の判決が２７日、奈良地裁であった。
坂倉充信裁判長（一谷好文裁判長代読）は「すぐに救急搬送していれば、重篤にならなかった可能性が高い」と、同組合に計約１億４０００万円の支払いを命じた。
判決によると、男性は２００６年１１月１５日未明、同署駐車場で顔から血を流し、酔った状態で同署員に保護された。
通報で駆けつけた中和広域消防組合の救急隊員は、意識障害などの症状から医療機関に搬送すべきだったのに、家族らに対し「搬送先がない」などと説明して拒否した。男性は脳挫傷などで、現在も意識が戻っていない。
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Swiss seek tax treaty trade-off
By Haig Simonian in Zurich and Krishna Guha in Washington
Published: April 27 2009 03:00 | Last updated: April 27 2009 03:00
Swiss and US officials will meet in Bern tomorrow for their first talks on a new tax treaty after Switzerland asked the Obama administration to drop a legal case involving the Swiss bank UBS in exchange for the accord.
The talks were announced earlier this month.
Tim Geithner, US Treasury secretary, this weekend met with Hans-Rudolf Merz, Swiss finance minister and head of state this year under the country's rotating presidency.
Mr Merz told Mr Geithner that an aggressive investigation by US tax authorities into accounts at UBS could make it very difficult to secure approval for a new tax treaty in the Swiss parliament and possibly in a referendum.
US officials told the Financial Times that Mr Geithner did not dismiss the Swiss argument out of hand. "The secretary listened to the Swiss concerns regarding the UBS case and indicated that he understood the importance of appropriately resolving the matter," one official said.
The US response to the Swiss approach suggests it might be possible for the two sides to strike a deal. It said "both President [Barack] Obama and Secretary Geithner have made very clear their commitment to tackling tax shelters and other efforts to abuse US tax laws".
Mr Merz, also head of state this year under Switzerland's rotating presidency, used the meeting to tell Mr Geithner that a new treaty could take until the end of the year to finalise.
The US administration has been in the forefront of an international clampdown on tax evasion, focused on countries, such as Switzerland, with strict bank secrecy laws.
Separately, the US Internal Revenue Service has probed allegations that UBS, the world's biggest wealth manager, helped rich Americans evade tax.
UBS in February agreed to a $780m settlement with the IRS to drop criminal charges that a small number of its private bankers at a now-closed offshore banking unit exploited loopholes in US legislation to help rich clients hide assets. The bank was forced by Swiss bank regulators to provide the names of 255 US clients who most blatantly used sham companies to evade tax.
However, in a separate civil case, the IRS is demanding UBS provide information about an alleged 52,000 accounts held by Americans.
The action is being resisted by the bank and Swiss government, on the grounds that - unlike in the initial case involving the 255 customers - no specific evidence has been brought forward to warrant any secrecy barriers being lowered.
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ＧＭ、６工場閉鎖・休止へ ８０００人を新たに削減
2009.4.27 22:28
新たなリストラ策を発表するＧＭのヘンダーソンＣＥＯ（ＡＰ）新たなリストラ策を発表するＧＭのヘンダーソンＣＥＯ（ＡＰ）
経営危機に陥っている米自動車最大手ゼネラル・モーターズ（ＧＭ）が２７日、追加リストラ策を発表し、新たに６工場を閉鎖・休止し、新たに７０００－８０００人の人員削減や主要ブランド「ポンティアック」の段階的廃止を実施すると明らかにした。
政府による資金支援額は計１５４億ドル（１兆４９００億円）に上っており、ＧＭは一段の経費削減を急ぐ方針。
ＧＭは債務削減などをめぐる債権者らとの交渉が難航。政府が定めた期限の６月１日までに合意できないと、政府支援が打ち切られ、破産法の申請に追い込まれる。（共同）
Sunday, April 26, 2009
ＪＰＳ、サウジに電力海底ケーブルの新工場
ＪＰＳ、サウジに電力海底ケーブルの新工場
住友電気工業と日立電線が折半出資する電力ケーブルメーカー、ジェイ・パワーシステムズ（ＪＰＳ、東京・港）は丸紅と共同でサウジアラビアに電力海底ケーブルの新工場を建設する。投資額は30億円。これまで日本から輸出していたが、沖合の油田やガス田の開発で需要が拡大していることを受け、現地生産に切り替える。中東で初の電力海底ケーブル生産拠点となり、アフリカへの供給も検討する。
ＪＰＳが75％、丸紅の全額出資子会社である丸紅メタル（東京・千代田）が25％出資し、7月に新会社を設立する。資本金は約15億円。新工場は2011年1月の稼働を目指し、フル生産時の出荷額は年間30億円強になる見込み。(12:50)
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柱すっきり３分の１ 大成建設、超高強度コンクリ開発
大成建設は強度を従来比25％向上させた超高強度コンクリートを開発した。オフィスビルなどの柱の幅が従来比3分の1で済むようになり、フロア空間を有効活用できるという。柱となるコンクリート部材を量産する生産施設も整備。ゆとりある空間を確保できるビルなどの受注活動を始める。
新型コンクリートは1平方センチメートル当たり2トンの荷重に耐える。水を減らしてセメントの量を増やす原料配合の工夫に加え、コンクリートを蒸気で加熱処理することで強度を向上させる技術も開発して性能を引き上げた。コンクリート製の柱や梁（はり）を製造する千葉ＰＣ工場（千葉県成田市）に生産ラインを設置し、部材を工事現場に供給できる体制を整えた。(10:08)
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新型プリウスの生産、月5万台超 トヨタ、6月以降に計画2割増
トヨタ自動車は5月中旬に発売するハイブリッド車「プリウス」の新型車の生産計画を引き上げる。当初は月間4万台程度を予定していた6月以降の生産台数を5万台超と2割以上増やす。先行予約が予想を上回るペースで推移。発売前の受注は6万―7万台と、新型車としては異例の高水準となる見通し。予想される納車待ちを解消するほか、収益回復に向けた好機ととらえ供給能力を高める。
新型プリウスは堤工場（愛知県豊田市）とグループ会社で生産する。計画見直しにより、台数の少ない立ち上げ時期の4、5月分を含めて、2009年度通期の生産台数は従来の30万台強から約50万台に増える見込みだ。(25日 07:00)
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大学研究者の支援へ新たな専門職 自民、法規定を検討
自民党は大学での研究成果が速やかに実用化するよう大学に対する支援策を拡充する。研究者を支える新たな専門職として、知的財産の管理などを担う「研究管理専門職」、研究活動に必要なデータの収集などに携わる「研究技術支援専門職」を法的に規定することが柱。研究に専念できる環境を整えることで科学技術の振興につなげる。
党科学技術創造立国推進調査会（船田元会長）はこうした内容を盛り込んだ「研究成果実用化促進法案（イノベーション促進法案）」を準備中。議員立法として、今国会の提出を目指す。(07:00)
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グーグルの書籍サービス、作家ら174人が和解案拒否
著作権管理団体である日本ビジュアル著作権協会（東京・新宿）は25日、同協会に所属する著作権者の約半数にあたる174人の作家らが、米グーグルが進める書籍データベースへの収録をめぐる和解案から離脱すると明らかにした。
同協会によると、離脱を表明したのは詩人の谷川俊太郎さん、脚本家の倉本聰さん、詩人・作家のねじめ正一さんら。同協会では「和解案の公表から回答期限まで2カ月強と短すぎるうえ、日本の著作権者の意見はまったく入っていない。必要なら今後、別の訴えを起こす」としている。
グーグルの書籍データベース事業をめぐっては、米作家らが集団訴訟を起こした結果、閲覧サービスによる収入の63％を著作権者に支払うことなどで、昨年秋に和解が成立。著作権の国際条約により、日本もその対象に含まれるため、日本の著作権者も和解案を受け入れるかどうかを、5月5日までに判断する必要がある。(25日 17:17)
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外国人研修生、08年度の死者最多33人 健康管理体制不備の声も
来日した外国人の研修生や技能実習生が病気などで死亡するケースが増えている。国際研修協力機構によると2008年度の死者数は33人で、前年度の21 人から大幅に増えて過去最多となった。心筋梗塞（こうそく）など心疾患による死亡が急増しており、健康管理体制の不備を指摘する声が出ている。
昨年4月、ある中国人実習生の男性（33）は午前6時に鳴った目覚まし電話のアラームを止めると、そのまま再び寝入った。30分後、普段なら起きてくるはずの時間に起きてこないことを不審に思った同室の男性が様子を見に行くと、実習生の顔色は蒼白（そうはく）。病院に搬送したが急性心不全で死亡した。
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豚インフル：メキシコの死者８１人に 感染者は１３２４人
【メキシコ市・庭田学】メキシコのコルドバ保健相は２５日、同国で発生している豚インフルエンザの状況について発表、同日までの感染者数は１３２４人で、死者数は８１人に達したと明らかにした。死亡者のうち死因が豚インフルエンザと確定した人数は２０人で前日と変わらない。
また、もっとも感染が広がっているメキシコ市・州、中部サンルイスポトシ州の学校は、５月６日に再開する方針を発表した。メキシコ市などの学校は２４日から休校している。
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豚輸入検疫を強化 政府、帰国者の検査も拡充
政府は25日、メキシコなどでの豚インフルエンザの感染拡大を受け、国内の安全対策に乗り出した。品種改良用などとして輸入されてくる生きた豚の検疫を強化するよう通知。メキシコから成田空港に到着する帰国者らへの検査体制も拡充した。世界保健機関（ＷＨＯ）の緊急委員会の結果次第では、一段と本格的な措置を講じることも検討中だ。
関係省庁の連携を強めるため、政府は同日午前、首相官邸に情報連絡室を設置。午後には各省庁の担当者を集めた対策会議を開き、情報収集を急ぐことを申し合わせた。外務省はメキシコへの渡航を予定している邦人に対し、渡航の是非を再検討するよう呼びかけ始めている。(07:00)
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Russian tycoon Abramovich ranked 2nd on U.K.'s rich list - paper
13:18 | 26/ 04/ 2009
LONDON, April 26 (RIA Novosti) - Russian billionaire and Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich has kept his position as Britain's second richest man, although his fortune has fallen by more than 40%, a British paper reported on Sunday.
According to The Sunday Times 2009 Rich List, to be published soon, Abramovich's wealth has fallen from 11.7 billion British pounds ($17 billion) a year ago to just 7 billion British pounds ($10.3 billion) "on the back of collapsing shares in his steel and other investments."
According to the list, which includes persons born or based in the U.K., Indian-born steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal has kept his position as the U.K.'s richest man, although his wealth has plummeted by almost 17 billion British pounds ($24.9 billion) to 10.8 billion British pounds ($15.9 billion), down 61% in a year.
The richest British-born billionaire is the Duke of Westminster at number 3. His fortune has shrunk by just 7% to 6.5 billion British pounds ($9.6 billion), the paper said.
Overall, the number of billionaires in Great Britain has dropped from 75 to 43, The Sunday Times reported.
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15:56 GMT, Friday, 24 April 2009 16:56 UK
Russia military spy boss 'sacked'
Valentin Korabelnikov (left) speaks to Vladimir Putin and Sergei Ivanov (November 2006)
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has dismissed the head of the country's powerful GRU military intelligence service, the Kremlin has said.
Mr Medvedev signed a decree on Friday replacing Gen Valentin Korabelnikov with Gen Alexander Shlyakhturov. Officials gave no reason for the move.
Gen Korabelnikov had led the Main Directorate of Intelligence since 1997.
He reportedly tendered his resignation earlier this year over objections to proposed reforms of the agency.
The Main Directorate of Intelligence (GRU) of the General Staff is Russia's largest intelligence agency. It is believed to have six times as many agents in foreign countries as the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), one of the successors to the Soviet KGB.
Protest
In a statement on Friday, the Kremlin announced that President Medvedev had signed a decree that "released" Gen Korabelnikov from his post and from military service.
Logo of Main Directorate of Intelligence (GRU)
The BBC's Richard Galpin in Moscow says this is potentially one of the most significant decisions Mr Medvedev has taken since being sworn in almost a year ago.
It reinforces statements he made last month that he intends pushing ahead with a major overhaul of the armed forces despite opposition from some senior officers, and that those who do stand in the way such as the military intelligence chief risk being swept aside, our correspondent says.
Gen Korabelnikov had been the head of military intelligence for 12 years and was a four-star general.
Analysts say the 63-year-old was one of the main opponents of the planned military reforms, which could see the Russian armed forces shrink from 1.3 million serving men and women to one million.
The majority of those cuts would come from the officer corps, which could see the loss of around 200,000 posts, including many generals.
Some of the proposed reforms were said to have included the disbanding of several GRU-controlled army special forces (Spetsnaz) brigades and the redistribution of the command of some GRU structures to the SVR.
Gen Korabelnikov is reported to have submitted his resignation in protest last November. When rumours again circulated in March, defence officials announced that his term of service had been extended by two years.
Russian soldiers march during a Victory Day parade rehearsal (24 April 2009)
Unnamed GRU sources told Russian media that one of the reasons why the general's resignation had not been accepted at the time was that many of his deputies had refused to assume his post.
The Kremlin said the new GRU chief, Gen Shlyakhturov, had been one of Gen Korabelnikov's deputies. He is reportedly seen by some in the military as a more compliant figure who may not challenge ministers.
Although President Medvedev has insisted that the reforms of the military will go ahead, it is not clear when, our correspondent says.
The country is in the grip of a severe economic crisis which has already seen millions of people thrown out of work, he adds.
In a separate development, three districts in Chechnya have been officially designated zones of counter-terrorist activity only a week after Russia said it had ended its decade-long military campaign against separatist rebels in the southern republic.
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17:42 GMT, Thursday, 23 April 2009 18:42 UK
Lebanon general 'was Israeli spy'
BBC Map
A Lebanese prosecutor has charged a former general and three other people with spying for Israel.
Former Brig Gen Adeeb Al-Alam is accused of sending classified information to the Israeli secret service, Mossad.
The information came from Lebanon's Internal Security Forces headquarters.
He has been arrested with his wife and nephew, who are also charged. The authorities are still seeking a fourth person charged with involvement.
The case has been transferred to a military court, and Gen Alam and his co-accused could face the death penalty if they are found guilty.
An Israeli government spokesman said it was their policy not to comment on such cases.
The BBC's Natalia Antelava in Beirut says the retired general is thought to be the most senior member of the group.
He ran an agency which brought Asian domestic workers to Lebanon.
But he also kept an office at the headquarters of Lebanon's Internal Security Forces.
Prosecutors allege the general used the office to send classified information on to the Mossad.
Lebanese media say Gen Alam is believed to have been spying for Israel since 1984.
While most of the media are hailing the arrest as a major achievement, our correspondent says there are people who question why it took Lebanese intelligence so long to track down the suspects.
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3 more detained in Lebanon on suspicion of spying for Israel
Lebanese police continue arrests in case of pro-Israel spy ring that has allegedly infiltrated Hizbullah
Roee Nahmias
Published: 04.25.09, 16:48 / Israel News
Lebanon's security forces on Saturday detained three additional suspects in a case of espionage for Israel, in which a retired officer in the Lebanese army has already been charged. According to the report by Kuwait's news agency, the officer's testimony led to the three arrests.
Case History
Lebanon charges ex-general with spying for Israel / Reuters
Former general Adeeb al-Alam, wife, nephew charged with establishing contact with Israel's Mossad 'with aim of facilitating its aggressive acts' and 'visiting enemy country' without permission
Full Story
The suspects include two Lebanese and one Palestinian – Ibrahim Awad, nephew of the leader of Fatah al-Islam. The report says the three were arrested in a police raid on their homes in Sidon, in southern Lebanon.
Police are still searching for one more suspect in the case of the alleged espionage ring, which has already led to six arrests.
The report from Kuwait says security forces in Lebanon received information on the three men from Adeeb al-Alam, a retired brigadier general of the prominent General Security directorate, who was arrested along with his wife and nephew.
The arrests were described in local reports as an important achievement for Lebanese security, said to be cracking down on espionage rings allegedly tracking Hizbullah agents for the benefit of Israel.
Al-Alam was formally charged on Thursday with establishing contact with Israel's Mossad "and supplying it with information about military and civilian Lebanese and Syrian centers with the aim of facilitating its aggressive acts".
The Al-Hayat daily reported that the ring had succeeded in infiltrating Hizbullah's ranks and that the group has subsequently taken measures to prevent further espionage by advocating the arrests.
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Lebanese general admits spying for Israel
Published: April 15, 2009
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BEIRUT, Lebanon, April 15 (UPI) -- A retired Lebanese military general arrested by security officials in Beirut allegedly confessed to spying for Israel for more than a decade.
Retired Brig. Gen. Adeeb al-Alam had worked in the Lebanese Interior Ministry on security affairs.
Authorities had charged Alam with collaborating with the Israeli secret service, the Mossad.
Lebanese security officials said they had monitored Alam's activities for more than three months prior to his arrest Saturday, Lebanon's Naharnet news service reports, citing Arabic-language outlets.
Alam denied allegations he had worked with the Israelis to coordinate assassinations and bombing attacks on Lebanon.
His wife came forward with information he had initially withheld, though the nature of that information was unclear.
Alam said he served as a information collector for the Mossad. Several mid-ranking Lebanese officials were detained in recent months on suspicion of working with the Israelis to monitor the activity of the Lebanese Hezbollah.
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Report: Another Israeli spying cell uncovered in Lebanon
Posted: 25-04-2009 , 12:30 GMT
Lebanese security forces arrested on Saturday a cell linked to the Israeli Mossad in southern Lebanon, Future News TV reported. It added police detained three members of the cell during raids in Jezzine, Nabatiyeh and Sidon.
Voice of Lebanon radio said, however, that security forces arrested a suspect named Ali Mantash in Nabatiyeh and a Palestinian whose family name is Awad in Sidon. It added that authorities were still looking for the third suspect.
A source also told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that one of those arrested is Ibrahim Awad, the cousin of Abdul Rahman Awad, the successor of Fatah al-Islam leader Shaker Abssi.
Police lately uncovered an Israel spy network dubbed "al-Alam cell."
© 2009 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
----------------------------
23:42 GMT, Thursday, 23 April 2009 00:42 UK
Milk protein clue to big babies
Baby being bottle-fed
Breast milk has less protein than formula, which could be why bottle-fed babies grow faster, a study suggests.
There has been concern that formula-fed babies, who tend to be bigger, are "programmed" to store fat and so have a higher risk of childhood obesity.
The international study of 1,000 babies, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, suggests protein levels in formula should fall.
But UK manufacturers said action had already been taken to cut levels.
Measures
The study was carried out in Belgium, Italy, Germany, Poland and Spain on babies born between 2002 and 2004.
Parents were recruited to take part in the first few weeks of their babies' lives.
A third were given a low protein content formula milk (around 2g per 100kcal), a third had a formula with a higher level of protein (3-4g per 10kcal), while the rest were breast-fed during their first year.
"Limiting the protein content of infant and follow-on formula can normalise early growth and might contribute greatly to reducing the long-term risk of childhood overweight and obesity"
Professor Berthold Koletzko, Study author
To qualify as breast-fed, babies had to be either exclusively given breast milk, or have a maximum of three bottles per week.
The infants were all then followed up to the age of two with regular weight, height and body mass index measurements taken.
At the age of two, there was no difference in height between the groups, but the high protein group were the heaviest.
The researchers suggest lower protein intakes in infancy might protect against later obesity.
The children are being followed up further to see whether those given the lower protein formulas have a reduced risk of obesity later on.
Changes needed?
Professor Berthold Koletzko, from the University of Munich, Germany, and who led the study, said: "These results from the EU Childhood Obesity Programme underline the importance of promoting and supporting breastfeeding because of the long-term benefits it brings.
"They also highlight the importance of the continual development and improvement in the composition of infant formula.
"Limiting the protein content of infant and follow-on formula can normalise early growth and might contribute greatly to reducing the long-term risk of childhood overweight and obesity."
But writing in the American Journal of Nutrition, Dr Satish Kalhan of the Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, US, said: "On the basis of these data, should we consider prescribing low protein formula to infants?
"The answer most likely is a categorical no."
A spokesman for the UK's Infant and Dietetic Food Association said companies had already reduced protein levels to well below those mentioned in the study.
She added: "The scientific evidence reviewing the role of infant formula in the development of obesity in later life is unclear.
"Most studies in this area are short-term and very few look at the long-term effect into adulthood."
But she added: "Clearly further research is required and this is an area we follow closely to ensure that the product we represent are based on generally accepted scientific evidence."
New infant growth charts, to be introduced in the UK this summer, have been changed so they relate more closely to the growth patterns of breast-fed babies.
Existing charts are based on a 1970s study into the growth patterns of formula-fed babies, and many breast-fed babies fall short - often causing concern to their parents and to health visitors.
住友電気工業と日立電線が折半出資する電力ケーブルメーカー、ジェイ・パワーシステムズ（ＪＰＳ、東京・港）は丸紅と共同でサウジアラビアに電力海底ケーブルの新工場を建設する。投資額は30億円。これまで日本から輸出していたが、沖合の油田やガス田の開発で需要が拡大していることを受け、現地生産に切り替える。中東で初の電力海底ケーブル生産拠点となり、アフリカへの供給も検討する。
ＪＰＳが75％、丸紅の全額出資子会社である丸紅メタル（東京・千代田）が25％出資し、7月に新会社を設立する。資本金は約15億円。新工場は2011年1月の稼働を目指し、フル生産時の出荷額は年間30億円強になる見込み。(12:50)
---------------------------
柱すっきり３分の１ 大成建設、超高強度コンクリ開発
大成建設は強度を従来比25％向上させた超高強度コンクリートを開発した。オフィスビルなどの柱の幅が従来比3分の1で済むようになり、フロア空間を有効活用できるという。柱となるコンクリート部材を量産する生産施設も整備。ゆとりある空間を確保できるビルなどの受注活動を始める。
新型コンクリートは1平方センチメートル当たり2トンの荷重に耐える。水を減らしてセメントの量を増やす原料配合の工夫に加え、コンクリートを蒸気で加熱処理することで強度を向上させる技術も開発して性能を引き上げた。コンクリート製の柱や梁（はり）を製造する千葉ＰＣ工場（千葉県成田市）に生産ラインを設置し、部材を工事現場に供給できる体制を整えた。(10:08)
------------------------------
新型プリウスの生産、月5万台超 トヨタ、6月以降に計画2割増
トヨタ自動車は5月中旬に発売するハイブリッド車「プリウス」の新型車の生産計画を引き上げる。当初は月間4万台程度を予定していた6月以降の生産台数を5万台超と2割以上増やす。先行予約が予想を上回るペースで推移。発売前の受注は6万―7万台と、新型車としては異例の高水準となる見通し。予想される納車待ちを解消するほか、収益回復に向けた好機ととらえ供給能力を高める。
新型プリウスは堤工場（愛知県豊田市）とグループ会社で生産する。計画見直しにより、台数の少ない立ち上げ時期の4、5月分を含めて、2009年度通期の生産台数は従来の30万台強から約50万台に増える見込みだ。(25日 07:00)
-----------------------------
大学研究者の支援へ新たな専門職 自民、法規定を検討
自民党は大学での研究成果が速やかに実用化するよう大学に対する支援策を拡充する。研究者を支える新たな専門職として、知的財産の管理などを担う「研究管理専門職」、研究活動に必要なデータの収集などに携わる「研究技術支援専門職」を法的に規定することが柱。研究に専念できる環境を整えることで科学技術の振興につなげる。
党科学技術創造立国推進調査会（船田元会長）はこうした内容を盛り込んだ「研究成果実用化促進法案（イノベーション促進法案）」を準備中。議員立法として、今国会の提出を目指す。(07:00)
-----------------------------
グーグルの書籍サービス、作家ら174人が和解案拒否
著作権管理団体である日本ビジュアル著作権協会（東京・新宿）は25日、同協会に所属する著作権者の約半数にあたる174人の作家らが、米グーグルが進める書籍データベースへの収録をめぐる和解案から離脱すると明らかにした。
同協会によると、離脱を表明したのは詩人の谷川俊太郎さん、脚本家の倉本聰さん、詩人・作家のねじめ正一さんら。同協会では「和解案の公表から回答期限まで2カ月強と短すぎるうえ、日本の著作権者の意見はまったく入っていない。必要なら今後、別の訴えを起こす」としている。
グーグルの書籍データベース事業をめぐっては、米作家らが集団訴訟を起こした結果、閲覧サービスによる収入の63％を著作権者に支払うことなどで、昨年秋に和解が成立。著作権の国際条約により、日本もその対象に含まれるため、日本の著作権者も和解案を受け入れるかどうかを、5月5日までに判断する必要がある。(25日 17:17)
-----------------------------
外国人研修生、08年度の死者最多33人 健康管理体制不備の声も
来日した外国人の研修生や技能実習生が病気などで死亡するケースが増えている。国際研修協力機構によると2008年度の死者数は33人で、前年度の21 人から大幅に増えて過去最多となった。心筋梗塞（こうそく）など心疾患による死亡が急増しており、健康管理体制の不備を指摘する声が出ている。
昨年4月、ある中国人実習生の男性（33）は午前6時に鳴った目覚まし電話のアラームを止めると、そのまま再び寝入った。30分後、普段なら起きてくるはずの時間に起きてこないことを不審に思った同室の男性が様子を見に行くと、実習生の顔色は蒼白（そうはく）。病院に搬送したが急性心不全で死亡した。
------------------------------
豚インフル：メキシコの死者８１人に 感染者は１３２４人
【メキシコ市・庭田学】メキシコのコルドバ保健相は２５日、同国で発生している豚インフルエンザの状況について発表、同日までの感染者数は１３２４人で、死者数は８１人に達したと明らかにした。死亡者のうち死因が豚インフルエンザと確定した人数は２０人で前日と変わらない。
また、もっとも感染が広がっているメキシコ市・州、中部サンルイスポトシ州の学校は、５月６日に再開する方針を発表した。メキシコ市などの学校は２４日から休校している。
----------------------------
豚輸入検疫を強化 政府、帰国者の検査も拡充
政府は25日、メキシコなどでの豚インフルエンザの感染拡大を受け、国内の安全対策に乗り出した。品種改良用などとして輸入されてくる生きた豚の検疫を強化するよう通知。メキシコから成田空港に到着する帰国者らへの検査体制も拡充した。世界保健機関（ＷＨＯ）の緊急委員会の結果次第では、一段と本格的な措置を講じることも検討中だ。
関係省庁の連携を強めるため、政府は同日午前、首相官邸に情報連絡室を設置。午後には各省庁の担当者を集めた対策会議を開き、情報収集を急ぐことを申し合わせた。外務省はメキシコへの渡航を予定している邦人に対し、渡航の是非を再検討するよう呼びかけ始めている。(07:00)
-----------------------
Russian tycoon Abramovich ranked 2nd on U.K.'s rich list - paper
13:18 | 26/ 04/ 2009
LONDON, April 26 (RIA Novosti) - Russian billionaire and Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich has kept his position as Britain's second richest man, although his fortune has fallen by more than 40%, a British paper reported on Sunday.
According to The Sunday Times 2009 Rich List, to be published soon, Abramovich's wealth has fallen from 11.7 billion British pounds ($17 billion) a year ago to just 7 billion British pounds ($10.3 billion) "on the back of collapsing shares in his steel and other investments."
According to the list, which includes persons born or based in the U.K., Indian-born steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal has kept his position as the U.K.'s richest man, although his wealth has plummeted by almost 17 billion British pounds ($24.9 billion) to 10.8 billion British pounds ($15.9 billion), down 61% in a year.
The richest British-born billionaire is the Duke of Westminster at number 3. His fortune has shrunk by just 7% to 6.5 billion British pounds ($9.6 billion), the paper said.
Overall, the number of billionaires in Great Britain has dropped from 75 to 43, The Sunday Times reported.
--------------------------
15:56 GMT, Friday, 24 April 2009 16:56 UK
Russia military spy boss 'sacked'
Valentin Korabelnikov (left) speaks to Vladimir Putin and Sergei Ivanov (November 2006)
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has dismissed the head of the country's powerful GRU military intelligence service, the Kremlin has said.
Mr Medvedev signed a decree on Friday replacing Gen Valentin Korabelnikov with Gen Alexander Shlyakhturov. Officials gave no reason for the move.
Gen Korabelnikov had led the Main Directorate of Intelligence since 1997.
He reportedly tendered his resignation earlier this year over objections to proposed reforms of the agency.
The Main Directorate of Intelligence (GRU) of the General Staff is Russia's largest intelligence agency. It is believed to have six times as many agents in foreign countries as the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), one of the successors to the Soviet KGB.
Protest
In a statement on Friday, the Kremlin announced that President Medvedev had signed a decree that "released" Gen Korabelnikov from his post and from military service.
Logo of Main Directorate of Intelligence (GRU)
The BBC's Richard Galpin in Moscow says this is potentially one of the most significant decisions Mr Medvedev has taken since being sworn in almost a year ago.
It reinforces statements he made last month that he intends pushing ahead with a major overhaul of the armed forces despite opposition from some senior officers, and that those who do stand in the way such as the military intelligence chief risk being swept aside, our correspondent says.
Gen Korabelnikov had been the head of military intelligence for 12 years and was a four-star general.
Analysts say the 63-year-old was one of the main opponents of the planned military reforms, which could see the Russian armed forces shrink from 1.3 million serving men and women to one million.
The majority of those cuts would come from the officer corps, which could see the loss of around 200,000 posts, including many generals.
Some of the proposed reforms were said to have included the disbanding of several GRU-controlled army special forces (Spetsnaz) brigades and the redistribution of the command of some GRU structures to the SVR.
Gen Korabelnikov is reported to have submitted his resignation in protest last November. When rumours again circulated in March, defence officials announced that his term of service had been extended by two years.
Russian soldiers march during a Victory Day parade rehearsal (24 April 2009)
Unnamed GRU sources told Russian media that one of the reasons why the general's resignation had not been accepted at the time was that many of his deputies had refused to assume his post.
The Kremlin said the new GRU chief, Gen Shlyakhturov, had been one of Gen Korabelnikov's deputies. He is reportedly seen by some in the military as a more compliant figure who may not challenge ministers.
Although President Medvedev has insisted that the reforms of the military will go ahead, it is not clear when, our correspondent says.
The country is in the grip of a severe economic crisis which has already seen millions of people thrown out of work, he adds.
In a separate development, three districts in Chechnya have been officially designated zones of counter-terrorist activity only a week after Russia said it had ended its decade-long military campaign against separatist rebels in the southern republic.
--------------------------
17:42 GMT, Thursday, 23 April 2009 18:42 UK
Lebanon general 'was Israeli spy'
BBC Map
A Lebanese prosecutor has charged a former general and three other people with spying for Israel.
Former Brig Gen Adeeb Al-Alam is accused of sending classified information to the Israeli secret service, Mossad.
The information came from Lebanon's Internal Security Forces headquarters.
He has been arrested with his wife and nephew, who are also charged. The authorities are still seeking a fourth person charged with involvement.
The case has been transferred to a military court, and Gen Alam and his co-accused could face the death penalty if they are found guilty.
An Israeli government spokesman said it was their policy not to comment on such cases.
The BBC's Natalia Antelava in Beirut says the retired general is thought to be the most senior member of the group.
He ran an agency which brought Asian domestic workers to Lebanon.
But he also kept an office at the headquarters of Lebanon's Internal Security Forces.
Prosecutors allege the general used the office to send classified information on to the Mossad.
Lebanese media say Gen Alam is believed to have been spying for Israel since 1984.
While most of the media are hailing the arrest as a major achievement, our correspondent says there are people who question why it took Lebanese intelligence so long to track down the suspects.
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3 more detained in Lebanon on suspicion of spying for Israel
Lebanese police continue arrests in case of pro-Israel spy ring that has allegedly infiltrated Hizbullah
Roee Nahmias
Published: 04.25.09, 16:48 / Israel News
Lebanon's security forces on Saturday detained three additional suspects in a case of espionage for Israel, in which a retired officer in the Lebanese army has already been charged. According to the report by Kuwait's news agency, the officer's testimony led to the three arrests.
Case History
Lebanon charges ex-general with spying for Israel / Reuters
Former general Adeeb al-Alam, wife, nephew charged with establishing contact with Israel's Mossad 'with aim of facilitating its aggressive acts' and 'visiting enemy country' without permission
Full Story
The suspects include two Lebanese and one Palestinian – Ibrahim Awad, nephew of the leader of Fatah al-Islam. The report says the three were arrested in a police raid on their homes in Sidon, in southern Lebanon.
Police are still searching for one more suspect in the case of the alleged espionage ring, which has already led to six arrests.
The report from Kuwait says security forces in Lebanon received information on the three men from Adeeb al-Alam, a retired brigadier general of the prominent General Security directorate, who was arrested along with his wife and nephew.
The arrests were described in local reports as an important achievement for Lebanese security, said to be cracking down on espionage rings allegedly tracking Hizbullah agents for the benefit of Israel.
Al-Alam was formally charged on Thursday with establishing contact with Israel's Mossad "and supplying it with information about military and civilian Lebanese and Syrian centers with the aim of facilitating its aggressive acts".
The Al-Hayat daily reported that the ring had succeeded in infiltrating Hizbullah's ranks and that the group has subsequently taken measures to prevent further espionage by advocating the arrests.
-------------------------------
Lebanese general admits spying for Israel
Published: April 15, 2009
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BEIRUT, Lebanon, April 15 (UPI) -- A retired Lebanese military general arrested by security officials in Beirut allegedly confessed to spying for Israel for more than a decade.
Retired Brig. Gen. Adeeb al-Alam had worked in the Lebanese Interior Ministry on security affairs.
Authorities had charged Alam with collaborating with the Israeli secret service, the Mossad.
Lebanese security officials said they had monitored Alam's activities for more than three months prior to his arrest Saturday, Lebanon's Naharnet news service reports, citing Arabic-language outlets.
Alam denied allegations he had worked with the Israelis to coordinate assassinations and bombing attacks on Lebanon.
His wife came forward with information he had initially withheld, though the nature of that information was unclear.
Alam said he served as a information collector for the Mossad. Several mid-ranking Lebanese officials were detained in recent months on suspicion of working with the Israelis to monitor the activity of the Lebanese Hezbollah.
© 2009 United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
---------------------------
Report: Another Israeli spying cell uncovered in Lebanon
Posted: 25-04-2009 , 12:30 GMT
Lebanese security forces arrested on Saturday a cell linked to the Israeli Mossad in southern Lebanon, Future News TV reported. It added police detained three members of the cell during raids in Jezzine, Nabatiyeh and Sidon.
Voice of Lebanon radio said, however, that security forces arrested a suspect named Ali Mantash in Nabatiyeh and a Palestinian whose family name is Awad in Sidon. It added that authorities were still looking for the third suspect.
A source also told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that one of those arrested is Ibrahim Awad, the cousin of Abdul Rahman Awad, the successor of Fatah al-Islam leader Shaker Abssi.
Police lately uncovered an Israel spy network dubbed "al-Alam cell."
© 2009 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
----------------------------
23:42 GMT, Thursday, 23 April 2009 00:42 UK
Milk protein clue to big babies
Baby being bottle-fed
Breast milk has less protein than formula, which could be why bottle-fed babies grow faster, a study suggests.
There has been concern that formula-fed babies, who tend to be bigger, are "programmed" to store fat and so have a higher risk of childhood obesity.
The international study of 1,000 babies, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, suggests protein levels in formula should fall.
But UK manufacturers said action had already been taken to cut levels.
Measures
The study was carried out in Belgium, Italy, Germany, Poland and Spain on babies born between 2002 and 2004.
Parents were recruited to take part in the first few weeks of their babies' lives.
A third were given a low protein content formula milk (around 2g per 100kcal), a third had a formula with a higher level of protein (3-4g per 10kcal), while the rest were breast-fed during their first year.
"Limiting the protein content of infant and follow-on formula can normalise early growth and might contribute greatly to reducing the long-term risk of childhood overweight and obesity"
Professor Berthold Koletzko, Study author
To qualify as breast-fed, babies had to be either exclusively given breast milk, or have a maximum of three bottles per week.
The infants were all then followed up to the age of two with regular weight, height and body mass index measurements taken.
At the age of two, there was no difference in height between the groups, but the high protein group were the heaviest.
The researchers suggest lower protein intakes in infancy might protect against later obesity.
The children are being followed up further to see whether those given the lower protein formulas have a reduced risk of obesity later on.
Changes needed?
Professor Berthold Koletzko, from the University of Munich, Germany, and who led the study, said: "These results from the EU Childhood Obesity Programme underline the importance of promoting and supporting breastfeeding because of the long-term benefits it brings.
"They also highlight the importance of the continual development and improvement in the composition of infant formula.
"Limiting the protein content of infant and follow-on formula can normalise early growth and might contribute greatly to reducing the long-term risk of childhood overweight and obesity."
But writing in the American Journal of Nutrition, Dr Satish Kalhan of the Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, US, said: "On the basis of these data, should we consider prescribing low protein formula to infants?
"The answer most likely is a categorical no."
A spokesman for the UK's Infant and Dietetic Food Association said companies had already reduced protein levels to well below those mentioned in the study.
She added: "The scientific evidence reviewing the role of infant formula in the development of obesity in later life is unclear.
"Most studies in this area are short-term and very few look at the long-term effect into adulthood."
But she added: "Clearly further research is required and this is an area we follow closely to ensure that the product we represent are based on generally accepted scientific evidence."
New infant growth charts, to be introduced in the UK this summer, have been changed so they relate more closely to the growth patterns of breast-fed babies.
Existing charts are based on a 1970s study into the growth patterns of formula-fed babies, and many breast-fed babies fall short - often causing concern to their parents and to health visitors.
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