NEWS,25.07.2013

Protesters block gas drilling site

Protesters blocked access to a drilling site in southern England on Thursday as part of a campaign against the controversial "fracking" process used in shale gas exploration, illustrating the potential battle ahead for Britain's nascent shale industry.
Estimates have said Britain may have major shale reserves which could help reverse a rising dependency on energy imports, but the industry is having to tread carefully in order to reassure a sceptical public and vocal environmental lobby.
Cuadrilla Resources is readying a site to drill a well near the village of Balcombe in West Sussex. The well is a conventional one that will not use fracking, but Cuadrilla has fracked elsewhere, and is one of a handful of companies with access to shale acreage that might be fracked in future, and so its activities have become a target for anti-fracking protests.
A spokesman for the privately-owned company said on Thursday that protesters had stopped vehicles from accessing the site.
Hydraulic fracturing or fracking retrieves gas and oil trapped in tight layered rock formations by injecting high-pressure water, sand and chemicals.
The protest has been organised by campaign group 'Frack Off'. They fear that Cuadrilla, the only company to have fracked a well exploring for shale gas in Britain at its Lancashire site, could seek to frack in Sussex at a later date.
"We have tried other methods. We now have no choice but to take matters into our own hands and protect ourselves from the threat fracking poses to our health and environment," said protester Alex Griffiths in an email from Frack Off.
Drilling and fracking wells will in the next few years be critical to establish whether shale gas can be commercially produced in Britain, where fracking is controversial. It was banned for a year in 2011 after triggering small earthquakes, and concerns remain amongst environmental groups that chemicals used could reach water supplies.
The Cuadrilla spokesman said that the company hoped to begin drilling at the site early next week and that the vehicles were carrying parts for the drilling rig.
UK utility Centrica recently bought a quarter stake in Cuadrilla's northern England shale licences. French oil company Total has also said it would like to explore for shale gas in Britain.

Eurozone credit slump deepens

Loans to the euro zone's private sector shrank by more than expected in June, starving the economy of the funds needed to sustain recovery and piling pressure on the European Central Bank to take fresh action.
Loans to the private sector shrank by 1.6% from the same month a year ago, ECB data released on Thursday showed, a bigger fall than even the lowest forecast in a poll of economists, which gave a mid-range reading of -1.1%.
The latest weak lending figures highlight one of main obstacles to recovery in the eurozone, where purchasing manager indexes (PMI) showed private industry expanded for the first time in more than a year in July.
Lacklustre demand is dragging on the appetite for credit, while banks restrain lending to repair their balance sheets.
In a step to reviving lending to the bloc's struggling small and mid-sized businesses, the ECB said last week it would let banks use more of the assets once blamed for triggering the financial crisis as collateral for cheap loans.
Howard Archer, economist at Global Insight, said the weak lending figures heaped pressure on the ECB to do more.
"The further marked fall in lending to eurozone businesses in June maintains pressure on the ECB to come up with concrete measures aimed at improving credit availability to companies, especially small and medium-sized ones," he said.
"We think it is very possible that the ECB will eventually take its key policy rate down from 0.50% to 0.25% as we anticipate that the euro zone will continue to find it very tough to develop clear growth," he added.
The ECB holds a policy meeting next Thursday. No change in interest rates is expected.
An ECB survey released on Wednesday showed that eurozone banks, facing tougher capital requirements, tightened lending standards for both companies and home loans in the second quarter even though their access to funding eased.
Seeking to reassure markets unnerved by the US Federal Reserve's exit plan from money printing, the ECB said earlier this month it would keep interest rates at record lows for an extended period and may yet cut further.
ECB policymakers have since qualified this forward guidance, with Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann said on July 11 the ECB had not "tied itself to the mast".
A poll of 70 economists published on Wednesday showed the ECB is probably done cutting interest rates but may still take other measures to stimulate an economy that may soon creep out of recession.
The survey was conducted before the PMI survey suggested the euro zone private sector grew this month for the first time since January 2012 news that will ease pressure on the ECB to further loosen monetary policy.
Banks granted non-financial firms €12bn ($16bn) less in loans in June than in the previous month, data adjusted for sales and securitisations showed, after a fall of €18bn in May.
Euro zone M3 money supply a more general measure of cash in the economy grew at an annual pace of 2.3% in June, slowing from 2.9% in May and below the consensus forecast of 3.0% in a poll of analysts.

EU lagging behind on 4G

EU member states should do more, and faster, to introduce next-generation 4G mobile phone services if Europe is to reap the benefits of the new technology.
About 75% of the European Union population of about 500 million has no access to 4G services, EU Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes said on Thursday.
In stark contrast, in the United States more than 90% of the population had 4G access, she said.
Kroes said that of the 28 member states, three - Cyprus, Ireland and Malta - had no 4G at all while only Germany, Estonia and Sweden had advanced systems in place.
There was virtually no 4G coverage in rural areas across the EU, Kroes said, with the EU accounting for only five percent of global 4G connections.
"This is no way to run an economy. It means ... that Europeans living in rural areas and those on holiday get treated like second-class citizens," Kroes said.
"It doesn't matter where you are, you pay money for a device and mobile subscription and it should work."
4G operates five times faster than the current 3G network and allows users to download large e-mail attachments quickly, watch live television without buffering, make high-quality video calls and play live games on the go.
It is seen as the next essential step in the telecommunications revolution and Kroes has repeatedly lambasted EU countries for lagging behind.
Earlier this week, she said she had to reluctantly agree to delays in nine out of 14 member states who had committed to free up 800 megahertz bandwidth for 4G use by January this year but had failed to make the deadline.

Detroit bankruptcy hearings begin

A judge is considering what to do with challenges to Detroit's bankruptcy from retirees who claim their pensions are protected by the Michigan Constitution.

US Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes settled into his chair shortly after  14:00 GMT. The city wants him to put a stop to lawsuits in other courts, especially after an Ingham County judge said state officials ignored the constitution and acted illegally in approving the bankruptcy last week.
The state appeals court temporarily stopped three lawsuits challenging the bankruptcy process on Tuesday.
As lawyers for some of the thousands of creditors arrived Wednesday, they passed protesters holding a banner saying: "Cancel Detroit's debt. The banks owe us."
The case is expected to last at least a year.

Britain's economy picks up speed

Britain's economy sped up between April and June on the back of stronger spending by consumers and businesses and giving a boost to the government less than two years before an election.
It came at the same time as a raft of UK company earnings reports showing growth picking up.
Gross domestic product rose 0.6% in the second quarter compared with the previous three months, in line with forecasts, preliminary data from the Office for National Statistics showed.
That was double the pace of growth in the first three months of the year but the economy still remains smaller than before the 2008-09 recession, suggesting to some economists that it still needs nurturing by the Bank of England.
The numbers were a boost for finance minister George Osborne, who has fended off calls from the International Monetary Fund and the opposition Labour party to spend more to speed up growth.
"Britain is holding its nerve, we are sticking to our plan, and the British economy is on the mend - but there is still a long way to go and I know things are still tough for families," Osborne said in a statement.
"So I will not let up in my determination to make sure we put right all that went wrong in our economy."
Growing signs of a pick-up in the British economy have coincided with a narrowing of Labour's lead over the Conservatives in some opinion polls.
The recovery also comes as other countries in Europe are struggling to show any growth at all.
Compared with a year earlier, Britain's economy expanded 1.4%, faster than 0.3% in the first quarter. It was the fastest increase since early 2011 although it was boosted by an extra working day in the April-June period this year.
Sterling weakened after the data and British government bond prices pared losses as some investors had been betting on stronger growth which would have reduced further the chance of the Bank of England pumping more money into the economy.
It was the first time that all sectors of the economy  agriculture, production, construction and services - grew since the third quarter of 2010.
The Bank of England's new governor, Mark Carney, may see the data as a sign that the economy is edging closer to what he has termed "escape velocity" or sustainable growth, though he is still likely to judge it needs extra help to get there.
From next month, Carney is widely expected to start providing detailed guidance on how long interest rates will remain low, in an effort to encourage consumers to spend and businesses to borrow and invest.
Still smaller
Britain's economy remains 3.3% smaller than in the first quarter of 2008 which was its peak before the financial crisis plunged the country into recession, tempering the good news about the growth in the second quarter.
"This confirms our view that we are heading down the road to recovery, even if there are likely to still be a few bumps ahead," said Neil Bentley, deputy director-general of British employers group CBI.
"Underlying conditions are quite weak as consumers are still saddled with debt and despite the global economy picking up, the potential for getting knocked off course remains."
Thursday's data showed that output in Britain's service sector - which makes up 78% of GDP - rose by 0.6% in the second quarter after ticking up 0.5% in the first three months of the year.
Services provided the strongest contribution to overall growth, adding 0.5 percentage points, with the retail, hotels and restaurants and the business services and finance components accounting for the bulk of the increase.
Industrial output was 0.6 percent higher while construction - which now accounts for around 6% of GDP after shrinking sharply after the financial crisis - expanded by 0.9%.
Upbeat company news reinforced the sense of an economy on the mend. Telecoms operator BT, for example, posted first quarter profits comfortably ahead of forecasts driven in part by a good performance from the retail division.
Improving construction and housing markets helped two of the biggest trade suppliers, Travis Perkins and Howden Joinery post increased first-half profits.
Consumers, a key engine of Britain's economy, are perking up too. They are now more optimistic about the economy than at any point since April 2010, as measured by a new consumer confidence index by market researchers YouGov and the Centre for Economics and Business Research.
The ONS's preliminary estimates of GDP are among the first released in the European Union, and are based partly on estimated data. On average, they are revised by 0.1 percentage points up or down by the time a second revision is published two months later, but bigger moves are not uncommon.

Obama: Our economy can be stronger

US President Barack Obama sought to inject momentum into his economic and domestic policy agenda on Wednesday with a speech designed to clarify his vision for his second term and hammer Republicans in the House of Representatives for getting in his way.
Obama defended his government's record managing the economy through the recession in his first term and said new spending on infrastructure and education were needed now to grow the middle class, which he argued would boost the nation's economy.
"As Washington prepares to enter another budget debate, the stakes for our middle class could not be higher," Obama said in remarks prepared for a crowd of cheering supporters in a gymnasium at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois.
Galesburg left a lasting impression on Obama, a former Illinois state senator, early in his political career when the town struggled after it lost its factories.
Obama faces a battle this fall with Republicans in Congress over the budget and raising the debt ceiling.
While the president wants to increase investment in areas he argues would spur economic growth, Republicans want to cut spending and try to force the administration to scale back its signature healthcare program.
"We'll need Republicans in Congress to set aside short-term politics and work with me to find common ground," Obama said.
"It may seem hard today, but if we are willing to take a few bold steps - if Washington will just shake off its complacency and set aside the kind of slash-and-burn partisanship we've seen these past few years  our economy will be stronger a year from now," he said.
Obama plans to expound on his ideas in speeches across the country in the weeks ahead. His address on Wednesday did not include major new policy proposals, but new ideas are expected to be sprinkled in future remarks.
Obama has said he doesn't believe his speech will change minds in Congress, but he hopes to reach their constituents to exert pressure on lawmakers from their home states.
The buildup to Obama's speech has been relentless, as the White House seeks to get past a rough start to his second term, which has been dominated by a series of thorny domestic and foreign issues.
An early push to toughen gun laws failed in Congress, and the Republican-led House of Representatives has said it will not move ahead on sweeping immigration reforms passed by the Senate.
The White House has also been thrown off-message by controversies over phone and internet surveillance, and over the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservatives groups seeking tax-exempt status.
Republicans dismissed the speech as being long on rhetoric and short on ideas.
"Americans aren't asking the question 'where are the speeches?' They're asking 'where are the jobs?'" said John Boehner, Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Don't discount the EU

THE 6th South Africa-European Union (EU) summit was held on July 18 and this was, perhaps, well overdue. Tensions between South Africa and the EU have been high since South Africa joined the Brics bloc, comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

The theme of the summit was ‘Job creation through inward investment’ and aptly so, since several European countries, along with South Africa, are battling unemployment.

The situation worsened through European investors being wary of developments in South Africa after the country cut bilateral investment treaties with Belgium, Luxembourg and Spain and will do so with a total of roughly 12 EU countries.

South Africa’s joining of the Brics and the cutting of bilateral investment treaties has raised fears that these moves will be at the expense of its long-standing ties to Europe’s developed economies.

As an economic region, the EU remains South Africa's leading trade partner and, perhaps even more importantly, three-quarters of our foreign direct investment (FDI) stock originates from the EU.

Given the traditionally and current strong ties between us and the EU, any changes in the EU can consequently have a significant impact on the local economy.

For example, if the EU can turn around its 18 months of economic contraction, South African exports to the region might start to increase again and its contribution toward FDI might become even more substantial.

On the other hand, EU regulations impacting our exports to the region can just as easily hinder local manufacturers and exacerbate the trade deficit.

For example, in the week before the summit, the EU notified the World Trade Organisation (WTO) of a draft commission regulation on food.

As one of our major exports to the EU, this regulation will affect far more than just the agricultural sector. Consider the minimum wage for farmworkers, the rising petrol price and now the mandatory compliance to this regulation.

These costs, of whatever nature, all contribute to the already struggling economy through impacting the farmers and workers, the packaging, distribution and export companies.

The difference among the three costs (wages, petrol and regulation) is that we have a say in what the final EU regulation looks like. In other words, before the regulation comes into effect, we are allowed to review and comment on the draft regulation.

If the comments are of a national interest, the department of trade and industry takes a national stance on the regulation and engages the EU through the WTO. This formally initiates a dispute in the WTO.

If the consultations prove fruitless after 60 days, South Africa can request adjudication by a panel.

While it appears as though we are moving to favour the Brics nations, we cannot simply ignore developments in the EU.

Should it recover from its current slump, the EU still offers a significant market for our exports and a large source of investment for our development.

NEWS,08.07.2013

Eurozone grants lifeline for Greece

Greece secured a €6.8bn ($8.7bn) lifeline from the euro zone on Monday, officials told Reuters, but was told it must keep its promises on cutting public sector jobs and other reforms in order to get all the cash.
The deal, which spares Greece defaulting on debt that falls due in August, will see Athens drip fed support under close watch from its international creditors to drive through unpopular reforms.
Under the terms of the deal, euro zone finance ministers agreed to make staggered payments of aid to Greece starting with a €2.5bn instalment from euro zone countries in July, said officials close to the talks.
The agreement foresees a further payment from eurozone countries of €500m in October.
Central banks in the Eurosystem will contribute €1.5bn in July and €500m in October, the officials said. The International Monetary Fund will give €1.8bn in August.
"That's the way it will be done," said one of the officials.
After more than three years on life support from Europe, Greece's governing coalition is split over how to meet the demands of its bailout programme, putting the country centre stage and threatening to reignite the euro zone debt crisis.
But a week of talks, culminating in promises to reform the public sector, appeared to convince international lenders the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank that Greece is committed to rebuilding its economy.

Talks begin over free trade zone

The United States and the European Union have launched groundbreaking free trade talks, putting aside for the time being the atmosphere of mistrust stirred up by revelations about Washington's spying on European allies.

The office of the US Trade Representative confirmed on Monday that the talks had begun in Washington.

The Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP) talks have been more than a year in the planning.

The aim is to create the world's largest free-trade zone by knocking down the average 4% tariffs and, more importantly, clearing away regulatory discrepancies that now inhibit trade.

To allay European concerns about espionage without threatening negotiations, the sides have agreed to hold parallel talks on the spying allegations, which arise from documents leaked by fugitive US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

The US-EU economic relationship is already the world's largest, representing 30% of global trade, according to the office of the US Trade Representative.

If successful in reaching a deal on both tariff and non-tariff issues, that number could grow to nearly half of global economic output, serving a total population of 800 million.

Growth hormones

Discussions were also to take place among 15 smaller groups, according to an EU source close to the negotiations.

The US trade representative lists 24 issues to be covered, ranging from agriculture, expected to be one of the thorniest issues, to textiles and financial services.

Backers of the trade deal hope to finish talks within 18 to 24 months, with another two rounds of discussion to take place this year alone.

Officials emphasised that without compromises on standards and regulations, the expectations for economic stimulus will likely not be met.

The trade deal offers the prospect of up to 2 million new jobs, according to Germany's Bertelsmann Foundation.

The gross domestic products of the two sides could be boosted by 0.9% in the EU and 0.8% in the US, according to the Centre for Economic Policy Research.

Among the most contentious issues in agricultural production are the rules set for labelling of genetically altered products, which are banned in the EU, as well as the EU ban on growth hormones in cattle and on so-called chlorinated chickens.

No escaping the Fed

As the Federal Reserve moves closer to scaling back its monetary stimulus, central banks in the rest of the world may get another reminder this week of just how tough it is to decouple from US interest rates.
German and British bond yields tracked US yields sharply higher on Friday following solid US jobs data, a day after the European Central Bank and the Bank of England, anxious to protect their economies from rising US borrowing costs, said they would keep short-term rates firmly anchored near zero.
Minutes of the Fed's June 19 policy deliberations could put further upward pressure on bond yields if they show broad support for phasing out the central bank's asset purchases, now running at $85bn a month.
Fed chairperson Ben Bernanke caught markets off-guard by announcing after that meeting that the bond buying could run its course by mid-2014, depending on job market developments.
"You can imagine a story where bond yields are dragged higher. Obviously policy makers here and in Europe won't be too pleased with that," said David Owen, chief European financial economist with Jefferies in London.
"All they can do is to try to reiterate that, from the point of view of the macro economy, Europe and the UK are not in the same space as the US and so neither the ECB in particular, nor the Bank of England, is going to be raising rates for a very long time," he added.
Bernanke will have the chance to set the record straight as he is due to give a speech hours after the minutes come out.
Victoria Clarke, an economist with Investec in London, said the Fed chief and his deputy, Janet Yellen, probably favoured a careful withdrawal of stimulus.
"But we should also caution that the minutes risk a round of further nervousness, given that they will cite not only the views of the more influential voting members, but all members including those who are keen for a more aggressive exit to take place," Clarke said in a note.
Jobs gain momentum at last
Friday's employment report can only strengthen the hand of the Fed's hawks.
The economy added 195 000 payroll jobs in June, and the average monthly increase since September exceeds 200 000 - the threshold many think needs to be breached for growth to advance from its well-established rate of around 2%.
Bruce Kasman, an economist with JP Morgan in New York, now expects the Fed to start whittling down its bond buying in September. Before the jobs data he had thought the central bank might wait until December.
"The Fed has gotten what it needs to begin tapering. The substantial improvement in the labour market is there," Kasman said on a conference call.
Japan up, China down
Japan also has wind in its sails at long last, and the Bank of Japan - engaged, like the Fed, in a vast expansion of its balance sheet- is expected to upgrade its outlook of the economy for the seventh month in a row.
"Japan will outperform other developed markets for the rest of 2013," said Patrick Zweifel, chief economist in Geneva for Pictet Asset Management.
He said political risks facing the eurozone remained a concern, as last week's government rift in Portugal showed. But, even though May industrial output is likely to have edged down, Zweifel said economic headwinds were abating and the 17-country area could eke out modest growth in the second half of 2013.
By contrast, China, the world's second-largest economy, is likely to report sluggish exports and imports with deflation entrenched at the wholesale level - a tell-tale sign of overcapacity plaguing many industries, including shipping.
On Friday, China's largest private shipbuilder appealed for financial help from the government and big shareholders after cutting its workforce and delaying payments to suppliers.
"Despite recent signs of bottoming out in domestic activity, growth outlook remains fragile," said Tao Wang, UBS's chief China economist.

Total free over oil-for-food scandal

French oil giant Total and its chief executive were acquitted on Monday in the UN oil-for-food scandal under Saddam Hussein's rule in Iraq.

The Paris criminal court also cleared 17 other defendants and Swiss oil trader Vitol in the far-reaching corruption probe.

Designed to ease the suffering of the Iraqi people, the oil-for-food programme allowed Iraq to sell some of its oil, despite the embargo imposed after the first Gulf War, in exchange for humanitarian goods.

The programme became mired in controversy after an independent inquiry led by the former US Federal Reserve chairperson Paul Volcker in 2005 disclosed a system of kickbacks and payments to prominent individuals with access to Iraqi oil.

Total, Europe's third-largest oil group by market capitalisation, was accused of bribery, complicity and influence peddling during the 1996-2003 programme - which handed the Iraqi government an illicit $1.8bn from the fraudulent system.

Prosecutors had argued that the defendants, who included Total's CEO Christophe de Margerie and ex-French interior minister Charles Pasqua, had knowingly participated in the illegal system that violated UN regulations.

Total had faced a fine of up to $2.4m while de Margerie, 61, had risked five years in prison and a fine of $482 000.

Prosecutors have 10 days to appeal against the verdict

Hillary Clinton - will she, or won't she?

Hillary Rodham Clinton is trying to strike the right balance between staying out of the daily political maelstrom and setting herself up for a possible second presidential run. But her fans and foes are making that difficult.

Nearly six months after departing the State Department, Clinton finds herself in the middle of an early effort by both parties to prepare for her return to politics even as she keeps to a schedule of highly paid private speeches, work on her book and her family's global foundation.
Clinton has not said whether she'll seek the White House in 2016 but grass roots activists are already at work on a super political action committee called Ready for Hillary, which has rallied local supporters, started a fund raising campaign and rolled out prominent endorsements.
Republicans, meanwhile, vow to dissect her work during the Obama administration - including last year's deadly assault on the US diplomatic mission in Benghazi - and use the former first lady as a fund raising tool.
The efforts to define Clinton, who carries the scars of being seen as an inevitable president during her 2008 campaign against Barack Obama, underscore her tricky balancing act.
If she acts too political, the strong approval ratings built up from her globe-trotting, above-the-fray role as secretary of state could suffer. If she allows the presidential talk to become too loud, she might get stuck with the inevitable nominee tag, making her vulnerable to a liberal upstart in a Democratic primary.
Yet if she avoids the limelight too much, she might create an opening for another Democrat to emerge or allow the steady criticism from Republicans for her tenure at State to sully her image.
Republicans are in the early stages of an effort to chip away at her record at the State Department. American Crossroads, the Republican group tied to strategist Karl Rove, released a web video in May that suggested Clinton was less than truthful in the Benghazi case, an episode they noted happened "all under Hillary Clinton's watch".
An independent review last year blamed the State Department for inadequate security but largely absolved Clinton of wrongdoing.
President Hillary
Separately, American Rising, a Republican super political action committee led by Matt Rhoades, who served as Republican Mitt Romney's campaign manager, created the Stop Hillary PAC and has been raising money off a potential Clinton campaign.
One email request, from Ted Harvey, a Colorado state senator and co-founder of the group, warned that "massive forces are aligning to begin a coronation of 'President Hillary.'"
Republicans say they would be remiss to give Clinton the time to quietly build a campaign behind-the-scenes without scrutinising her record.
"You have to play by the rules of the game. That's what was done to Mitt Romney and other candidates," said Danny Diaz, a former adviser to Romney's presidential campaign who is not involved with either group. "To operate under different sets of rules would be foolhardy."
Ready for Hillary, meanwhile, has no official ties to Clinton. But the group is encouraging her to run and laying the groundwork for a future campaign. Veterans of the Clinton White House like Craig T Smith and Harold Ickes are advising the group, which is building a network of supporters online and holding local rallies outside Clinton speeches.
Ickes and former Rep Ellen Tauscher organised three finance briefings for donors and potential donors in New York in late June and the group will release its first fund raising report later this month, providing an early glimpse of its resources.
Some donors have privately expressed concern with the focus on Clinton so early, even while other Democrats like Vice President Joe Biden and Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley are viewed as potential candidates. They said it could backfire and create an aura of inevitability for Clinton that hurt her last time. Smith said they were trying to address just the opposite.
"If it was inevitable there would be no need for us to do it at all," Smith said.
Yet some Democrats aren't sold on the proposition. While Smith said he would have received a "red light" if the Clintons didn't approve of the super PAC's role - he said he hasn't heard anything negative - their effort is just getting off the ground and viewed with hesitation by some donors.
Private citizen
"I'd be surprised if many national donors want to spend the cash on a new grass roots organising effort geared toward 2016 when we just raised $1bn to create the best ground campaign in history," said Wade Randlett, a major Obama donor based in California's Silicon Valley. He said the Obama campaign offshoot, Organizing for Action, has been able to keep party activists engaged.
Clinton's most ardent supporters, including her husband, caution that voters should not read too much into her activities. The former president said in May his wife was "having a little fun being a private citizen for the first time in 20 years" and said the constant speculation was "the worst expenditure of our time".
Still, Hillary Clinton has spent time making her positions known on issues dear to the Democratic base. Via her much-buzzed about Twitter handle, she issued joint statements with her husband on the Supreme Court's striking down of a key provision in the Voting Rights Act and its rulings in two cases pertaining to gay marriage.
While Republicans see Clinton as a major threat in 2016, Republican officials report there is little appetite among top party donors to commit resources to anti-Hillary efforts right now.
"There are more immediate targets," said Charlie Spies, who led fund raising efforts for a pro-Romney super PAC last year.
"The most important thing Republicans can be focused on right now is keeping control of the House of Representatives in 2014. Once that is accomplished we can turn our sights to taking over the White House in 2016."

NEWS,31.05.2013

Opec set to hold oil output

OPEC ministers said they expected to keep oil output levels unchanged despite concern about demand in view of the weak economic outlook, as they started a crucial meeting in Vienna on Friday.
The 12-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), comprising nations from the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, is mindful that cutting production could raise prices and boost their incomes but that this could also boomerang by hampering fragile global recovery.
The outlook for global economic growth, and demand for oil, has been clouded by the combined impact of Chinese inflationary pressures, the long-running eurozone sovereign debt crisis and uncertainty over policy for the US economy, Opec says.
Questioned about whether the cartel would seek to roll over its daily output target of 30 million barrels per day, Angolan Oil Minister Jose Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos said that this was likely.
"We are producing about 30 million barrels (per day). I think we will take the decision to maintain the situation," he told journalists at the start of the meeting in Vienna, where the cartel is headquartered.
He also expressed satisfaction with the current price level, noting: "$100 per barrel is good."
In reality, actual output exceeds 30 million mbpd.
United Arab Emirates Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazrouei added: "There's nothing controversial (at this meeting), the levels of production being good and adequate to the market and the prices are appropriate."
Kuwait's OPEC governor Siham Abdulrazzak Razzouqi also said she expected no change, saying: "We think that the market is very stable."
"Supply and demand are in balance, prices are at a good level. Everything seems to be fine."
Even ahead of the meeting, there were indications that Opec - which pumps about 35% of global oil supplies would leave its official oil output ceiling at 30 mbpd, where it has stood since the end of 2011.
That OPEC produces above that level is partly thanks to a higher production from kingpin Saudi Arabia, which is the biggest producer in the cartel. It has also risen in recent times due to recovering production from Iraq and Libya.
"We are going to call for members to respect the ceiling," added Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez, signalling concern about overproduction.
Meanwhile Iran, which in the run-up to the meeting had pushed for lower output, seemed to have joined the consensus for maintaining the status quo.
"I think the current ceiling is logical, rational, reasonable," he said Friday as Opec members began their meeting.
"At the closed-door session we will recommend (to member countries) to keep maintaining their production (and) not surplus," he said.
Iran has been hit by international oil sanctions over its controversial nuclear programme which has seen it drop from second to fifth largest OPEC producer in the last two years.
Opec countries have been generally satisfied with the price of $100 per barrel, although Algeria and Qatar on Friday appeared flexible on the price.
"We dont have any price target, we are following the market," Algerian Energy Minister Youcef Yousfi told journalists.
Ahead of Opec's ministerial meeting, Brent oil prices stood at $101.60 in late morning trading in London.
Demand is being contained by weak growth in many advanced economies and by the boom of oil and gas production from shale resources in North America.
Opec's Secretary-General Abdullah El-Badri added that the cartel predicted an upswing in energy demand growth in the third and fourth quarter of this year.
However, he sounded a gloomy warning over the world economy.
"For demand growth, we have to look to the world economy. Some countries are fine, some countries are not really fine," El-Badri said.
"We have to watch out for demand ... because the United States has fiscal problems, China is also struggling with their inflation and, of course you know the problems of Europe."
Friday's gathering will also seek to identify the criteria under which members will decide their next secretary general at the next scheduled meet in December.

Record unemployment in the eurozone

Unemployment has reached a new high in the eurozone and inflation remains well below the European Central Bank's target, underscoring just how severe a challenge EU leaders face to revive the bloc's sickly economy.
Joblessness in the 17 nation currency area rose to 12.2% in April, statistics agency Eurostat said on Friday, marking a new record since the data series began in 1995.
With the eurozone also in its longest recession since its creation in 1999, consumer price inflation was far below the ECB's target of just below 2%, coming in at 1.4% in May, slightly above April's 1.2% rate.
That rise may quieten concerns about deflation, but the deepening unemployment crisis is a threat to the social fabric of the eurozone, with almost two-thirds of young Greeks unable to find work exemplifying southern Europe's threat of creating a 'lost generation'.
Economists and policy makers have expressed concern that the greatest threat to the unity of the eurozone is now social breakdown from the crisis, rather than market-driven factors.
In France, Europe's second largest economy, the number of jobless rose to a record in April, while in Italy, the unemployment rate hit its highest level in at least 36 years, with 40% of young people out of work.
Some economists expect the ECB, which meets on June 6, to act to revive the economy and go beyond another interest rate cut to consider a US-style money printing programme known as quantitative easing.
"We do not expect a strong recovery in the euro zone," said Nick Matthews, a senior economist at Nomura International in London. "It puts pressure on the ECB to deliver even more conventional and non conventional measures."
In the past, the euro zone has needed economic growth of around 1.5% to create new jobs, according to Carsten Brzeski, an economist at ING. With the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development forecasting this week that the euro zone economy would contract by 0.6% this year, unemployment is set to worsen long before it turns around.
"We do not see a stabilisation in unemployment before the middle of next year," said Frederik Ducrozet, an economist at Economist at Credit Agricole in Paris. "The picture in France is still deteriorating."
5.6 million young jobless
ECB President Mario Draghi, whose bold decision-making helped protect the eurozone from break-up last year with a plan to buy the bonds of governments in trouble, has so far preferred to leave the onus on euro zone governments to reform.
A majority of economists polled by Reuters do not expect the ECB to cut its deposit or main refinancing rates in the coming months, although the OECD this week called for the bank to consider quantitative easing.
The Commission, the EU's executive, told governments this week they must focus on reforms to outdated labour and pension systems to regain Europe's lost business dynamism, a move to shift focus away from debilitating budget cuts towards growth.
EU leaders meeting at the end of June in Brussels are expected to put the problem of joblessness at the forefront of their summit.
European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, who chairs the meetings, said last week youth unemployment was one of the most pressing issues for the 27-nation European Union as a whole.
Ministers from France, Italy and Germany, meeting in Paris this week, called on their counterparts to help tackle youth unemployment, with German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble describing it as a "battle for Europe's unity".
In April, 5.6 million people under 25 were unemployed in the European Union, with 3.6 million of those in the eurozone.
Even if governments take on unions and vested interests to enact reforms, they will take time to produce benefits.
The impact of the eurozone's debt and banking crises has been sapping confidence from companies and households.
Private consumption saved Germany from slipping into recession in the first three months of this year, but retail sales still fell unexpectedly in April because of the cold European winter.
Meanwhile, French consumer spending dropped again in February, falling by 0.2% after contracting in January. French household purchasing power contracted in 2012 for the first time since 1984.

N Korean farmers plant rice for bonuses

North Korean farmers knee deep in muddy paddies across the country have a new incentive during this year's crucial rice planting season: Possible bonuses that are part of an economic shift echoing ally China's steps three decades ago toward embracing capitalism.

Details about the changes are emerging nearly two months after the regime unveiled dual goals of building the economy and nuclear weapons in the first concrete economic policy laid out by leader Kim Jong-un, since he took power in December 2011.

Farmers say they have begun working under the new policies, which are designed to boost production by giving managers and workers financial incentives.

Foreign analysts say the moves to spur North Korea's moribund economy suggest Pyongyang is taking cues from Beijing on how to incorporate free market ideas within its rigid socialist system.

The North's policy enshrining its provocative push to build atomic weapons as a national goal has complicated efforts to force North Korea to abandon its nuclear programme and dominated international discussion about the country.

Pyongyang's economic priorities have drawn far less attention but some experts think important reforms could be unfolding.

Lifting living standards

Impoverished North Korea suffers chronic food and power shortages and has not released economic data for decades.

South Korea's central bank estimates the North's gross national income, an indicator of the average standard of living, was $1 250 per person in 2011 compared with $23 400 for South Korea.

In the past, the North Korean state set workers' salaries. Under new measures announced on 1 April, the managers of farms, factories and other enterprises have been given leeway to set salaries and offer bonuses to workers who help drive up production.

"This is definitely significant," said John Delury, an assistant professor of Chinese studies at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea.

Providing material incentives and loosening central control over economic decision making are two key elements in the transition from a command economy to a market-based system, he said.

Also announced on 1 April: The reappointment of Pak Pong Ju as premier after his dismissal from the post in 2007. Pak was central to attempts at economic change more than a decade ago.

"You just wouldn't bring back Pak Pong Ju unless you were going to try readjusting economy policy. There would be no reason to do that," said Delury, calling it a strong sign of Kim Jong Un's interest in lifting living standards.

Economic reform

North Korea's policy changes find an echo in China's market reforms that have transformed it into a manufacturing powerhouse and world's second-largest economy, while also lifting several hundred million out of grinding poverty.

Beijing dismantled the centrally planned economy slowly. In the 1970s, it began allowing farmers to keep more of their harvests, giving them an incentive to grow more to sell on newly permitted free markets. Food production soared.

In the mid-'80s, the government gave state enterprises the authority to link bonuses and salaries to better performance. Those changes were mostly aimed at managers, but they cracked a communist-era preference for egalitarianism.

New rules in the early 1990s gave state enterprises full flexibility to set wages, widening the use of performance incentives. In that decade, China truly broke away from its centralised "iron rice bowl" system of guaranteed employment and state-set incomes.

Delury and others cautioned that if the North is intent on economic reform, it is likely to be a fitful process.

"We have to be careful not to say: Aha, it's all change, it's finally here," he said. "The point is, and we see this from the Chinese case, this is a process that unfolds over time and there are starts and stops, too. But this is a strong signal of a push."

‘Greater profits’ 

AP reported last September that farmers were notified of upcoming management changes at collective farms that would put decision-making and responsibility for crops in the hands of local officials and give farmers the right to hold onto surpluses.

"Last year, we studied reasonable economic management methods in different fields of economic work, and introduced it to some units on a trial basis," Ri Ki Song, an economist from North Korea's Academy of Social Sciences, told AP this week.

North Korea formally announced the policy, and its expansion to include factories and other enterprises, a day after holding a plenary session of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party. Rodong Sinmun, the party paper, called it a "new strategic line".

Ri, however, dismissed characterisations of the changes as reform.

What's new, he said, is allowing managers to dole out goods and cash as incentives. In addition, after meeting a state quota, managers can set their employees' salaries and offer bonuses to those who help drive up production, he said.

The main goal: to encourage "greater profits" and solve North Korea's chronic food shortage, Ri said.

‘Repay’ the state

Ri said North Koreans work hard, but the new incentives give them motivation to work even harder. "They are saying that higher salaries and shares will improve their life."

Political and military expert Ralph Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum CSIS in Hawaii, noted that North Korea has rolled back past attempts at economic reform.

"The North Koreans have played reform games before and then just sort of pulled the rug out from under it," he said. Cossa cited NGOs as saying the military is pressuring farmers to donate their portion to the army.

Last year, a farmer's wife in Sariwon, south of Pyongyang, told the AP she planned to donate any surplus harvest to the state as a token of her patriotism.

At the Tongbong farm in the eastern city of Hamhung, farmers are in the midst of a busy rice planting season after a long, cold winter.

This year, things are being managed differently, said Kim Jong Jin, deputy chairperson of the farm's managing committee.

He said the state provided the farm with the rice seedlings, which farmers are now transplanting to paddies by hand. Farmers are on smaller teams that have direct responsibility over their plots.

After the rice is harvested, farmers must "repay" the state for the seeds. At Tongbong that means giving the state about 193kg of rice as payback for every 140kg of seedlings they received.

But any surplus can be kept by the team to sell, barter or distribute - a change from past policies that required farmers to turn all harvests over to the state.

"This encourages enthusiasm for production and we get more of what's produced," Kim said.

Police clash with Istanbul protesters

Riot police fired tear gas at hundreds of demonstrators on Friday, injuring at least a dozen people, in a bid to break up a four-day protest against a major construction project in Istanbul's iconic Taksim Square.

Several of the wounded were left lying on the ground unconscious after they were hit with large quantities of tear gas and pepper spray, while two people were hospitalised with injuries to the head, an AFP photographer witnessed.
Some protesters were also hurt when a scaffolding collapsed as they tried to escape the police intervention on the square.
Construction had began in November to pedestrianise the zone surrounding the famous square, a traditional gathering point for rallies and protests as well as a popular tourist destination.
The controversial project is aimed at easing the chronic congestion in the roads around the square.
Demonstrators have been trying to prevent workers from razing Taksim Excursion Park, which lies across from the square's centrepiece, the Ataturk monument. In place of the park, a shopping mall is to be built.
Critics say the project would turn the square into yet another soulless concrete commercial zone aimed at making money while driving away residents who use it as a meeting point.
Taksim Square has for decades been the rallying point for millions of Istanbul residents, as well as the political stage for demonstrators who pour in on a daily basis to make their views on different causes heard.

Notes to Obama, mayor had gun threats

A suspicious letter mailed to the White House and intercepted this week was similar to two threatening, poison-laced letters on the gun law debate sent to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, one of the nation's most potent gun-control advocates, officials said on Thursday.
Yet another letter became known publicly on Thursday, one tainted with the poison ricin and mailed to President Barack Obama from Spokane, Washington, the FBI said. Authorities have arrested a man in Spokane in connection with that letter, which was intercepted on May 22.
The Secret Service said the White House-bound letter similar to the ones Bloomberg was sent was intercepted by a White House mail screening facility. Two similar letters postmarked in Louisiana and sent to Bloomberg in New York and his gun control group in Washington contained traces of the deadly poison ricin.
It wasn't immediately clear whether the letter sent to Obama contained ricin. It was turned over to the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force for testing and investigation.
The two Bloomberg letters, opened Friday in New York and Sunday in Washington, contained an oily pinkish-orange substance.
New York Police Department Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Thursday the same machine or computer had produced the two letters to Bloomberg and the similar one to Obama and that they may be identical. He referred specific questions to the FBI.
The FBI said in a statement that field tests on the letters were consistent with the presence of a biological agent, and the letters were turned over to an accredited laboratory for the kind of thorough analysis that is needed to verify a tentative finding. "More letters may be received," the statement said, without elaboration.
The body of the letter mailed to New York was addressed to "you" and referenced the gun control debate. Kelly said the unsigned letter says, in so many words: "Anyone who comes for my guns will be shot in the face." He refused to quote directly from the letter, saying he didn't want to do the author's bidding.
Second letter
Bloomberg has emerged as one of the country's most important gun-control advocates, able to press his case with both his public position and his private money.
The New York letter was opened at the city's mail facility in Manhattan in a biochemical containment box, which is a part of the screening process for mayor's office mail.
"In terms of the processes and procedures that are in place now we think they worked," Kelly said. "This is sort of an effect of the post-9/11 world that we live in that these checks and facilities are in place and the system worked."
The second letter was opened on Sunday by Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the Washington-based nonprofit Bloomberg started.
The letter Glaze opened tested positive for ricin initially. The other letter to Bloomberg at first tested negative but tested positive at a retest Wednesday.
The postal workers union, citing information it got in a Postal Service briefing, said the letters bore a Shreveport, Louisiana, postmark. Kelly would not comment on the origin of the letter.
Louisiana State Police spokesperson Julie Lewis said state authorities have deferred to the FBI and have not opened an investigation. The Shreveport postal center handles mail from Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas, so the letter could have come from any of those states, Lewis said.
The people who initially came into contact with the letters showed no symptoms of exposure to the poison, but three officers who later examined the New York letter experienced minor symptoms that have since abated, police said. The mayor visited the mailroom on Thursday but made no public comments on the topic.
Background checks
On Wednesday, he said he didn't know why they were sent.
One of the letters "obviously referred to our anti-gun efforts, but there's 12 000 people that are going to get killed this year with guns and 19 000 that are going to commit suicide with guns, and we're not going to walk away from those efforts", said Bloomberg, adding that he didn't feel threatened.
According to the federal Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, ricin is a poison found naturally in castor beans. Symptoms can include difficulty breathing, vomiting and redness on the skin depending on how the affected person comes into contact with the poison.
The letters were the latest in a string of toxin-laced missives, but authorities would not say whether the letters to Bloomberg and Obama were believed to be linked to any other recent case.
In Washington state, a 37-year-old was charged last week with threatening to kill a federal judge in a letter that contained ricin. On Thursday, the FBI said a suspicious letter containing ricin was mailed to Obama from Spokane on the same day similar ricin-tainted letters were mailed to the judge and to a post office. A fourth letter, sent to nearby Fairchild Air Force Base, continues to undergo testing, officials said.
About a month earlier, letters containing the substance were addressed to Obama, a US senator and a Mississippi judge. One of the letters postmarked in Memphis, Tennessee, was traced back to Tupelo, Mississippi, and a Mississippi man was arrested.
Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino founded Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which now counts more than 700 mayors nationwide as members.
It lobbies federal and state lawmakers, and it aired a spate of television ads this year urging Congress to expand background checks and pass other gun-control measures after the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.
The background check proposal failed in a Senate vote in April, and other measures gun-control advocates wanted including a ban on sales of military-style assault weapons have stalled.
Separately, Bloomberg also has made political donations to candidates who share his desire for tougher gun restrictions. His super PAC, Independence USA, put $2.2m into a Democratic primary this winter for a congressional seat in Illinois, for example. Bloomberg's choice, former state lawmaker Robin Kelly, won.

Hagel to discuss cyberthreat with Chinese

The United States must develop "rules of the road" with China and other countries to mitigate cyber threats, Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel said on Thursday.

The defence secretary spoke after a Pentagon report found that Chinese hackers have gained access to secret designs for a slew of sophisticated US weapons programs, possibly jeopardising the American military's technological edge.

Officials say the breaches described in the Defence Science Board paper were part of a broad Chinese campaign of espionage against top US defence contractors and government agencies.

"The United States knows where many of these incursions come from," Hagel told reporters on his plane as he travelled to the annual Shangri-La Dialogue, an international security conference in Singapore.

"It's pretty hard to prove that they are directed by any specific enemy but we can tell where they come from and we've got to be honest about that."

Cyber security is set to be discussed for the first time at a meeting of Nato defence ministers next week.

"We've got to find ways, working with the Chinese, working with everybody, [to develop] rules of the road, some international understandings," Hagel said.

Relationship

The Pentagon chief said Washington would press Beijing using both public diplomacy and private talks.

"I think it's always important when dealing with other nations that you use a very significant range of options," he added.

"I've rarely seen that public engagement resolves the problem but it's important that people state where they are on these issues."

During his stay in Singapore through Monday, Hagel plans to hold multiple bilateral talks with his Asian counterparts.

He pointed to an "evolving" military-to-military relationship with China.

The top US uniformed military officer, chairperson of the joint chiefs of staff General Martin Dempsey visited Beijing in April and Hagel has invited his Chinese counterpart Chang Wanquan to Washington in August.

President Barack Obama is set to meet with new Chinese leader Xi Jingping next week in California.