NEWS,10.07.2013

Surge in growth for online mobile ads

Global spending on mobile internet ads surged 82.8% to $8.9bn in 2012, an industry survey showed this week.
The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) said the figures highlight "a strong positive growth story taking place across mobile advertising formats".
"Mobile is coming into its own as a powerhouse advertising medium," the IAB's Anna Bager said.
"The massive and continuing acceleration of mobile's international impact provides new and exciting frontiers for content and communication."
More than half of spending was for search ads, or paid ads linked to web search queries; display ads accounted for 38.7% and messaging ads 8.5%, the IAB said.
The survey said the Asia-Pacific region accounted for some 40.2% of revenues, compared to 39.8% for North America and 16.9% for Western Europe,
A key factor for mobile advertising growth is the adoption of advanced fourth-generation mobile networks, which encourage people to spend more time using the internet on mobile devices.
A separate report last month by the research firm eMarketer said Google captured more than half of the mobile Internet advertising revenues worldwide last year and is expected to boost its share in 2013, and that Facebook's share is growing rapidly

Pentagon - WikiLeaks a journalistic site

The US military viewed anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks as a news gathering operation before Private First Class Bradley Manning leaked a trove of classified files to it, a Harvard professor testified at Manning's court-martial on Wednesday.
Yochai Benkler, a Harvard University law professor and expert on media law, testified for the defence that a 2008 Defence Department report on WikiLeaks had said that a US enemy could theoretically use the site to gather information.
But the Pentagon report, which had been based on publicly available material, said there was no sign that that had happened, said Benkler, the co-director of the Berkman Centre for Internet and Society.
The Pentagon report came out before Manning, 25, is alleged to have leaked more than 700 000 classified files, combat videos and State Department cables while serving as an intelligence analyst in Iraq in 2009 and 2010.
Benkler is the 10th witness called by chief defence lawyer David Coombs since he started his case on Monday. Coombs has not divulged a customary list of witnesses, but Benkler could be the last called by the defence.
The 21 charges against Manning include espionage, computer fraud and, most seriously, aiding the enemy by disclosing material that could be used by the al-Qaeda extremist network.
Manning, a native of Crescent, Oklahoma, could face life in prison without parole if convicted of aiding the enemy.
In other testimony, a specialist at the Centre for Army Lessons Learned at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, said in a sworn statement that the centre had not recommended changes, such as in training or tactics, because of the WikiLeaks disclosures.
The centre, which focuses on adapting operations to changing conditions, also had not been requested to do so, said the witness, whose name was not disclosed.
The defence has sought to portray Manning as a naive but well-intentioned soldier who wanted to show Americans the reality of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Defence lawyers also have contended that much of the material Manning is charged with leaking had been available from public sources before the WikiLeaks disclosure.
The prosecution rested last week after five weeks of testimony, some in closed session. The trial is scheduled to end by 23 August.

Snowden not afraid, no regrets

Fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden is not afraid and has no regrets about his revelations of US espionage activities, the reporter who first published the secret documents said Wednesday.
Glenn Greenwald, an American journalist for Britain's Guardian newspaper, also said in an interview with AFP that Venezuela seems like a "logical" asylum destination for Snowden.
"He's anxious about the next step... but feels really good about the debate he provoked," said Greenwald.
"I hadn't spoken to him in two weeks since he got out of Hong Kong until Saturday, when I spoke to him and then again yesterday Tuesday," he added.
"He's very calm, without any fear and definitely happy about the choices that he made," said the journalist, who lives in Rio de Janeiro.
Currently stranded in Moscow, Snowden has applied for asylum in more than two dozen countries in a bid to evade US espionage charges over his disclosure of US initiatives to gather Internet and phone data.
The 30-year-old former National Security Agency contractor has gained a sympathetic ear from some leftist Latin American countries. Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua have all offered him asylum.
Greenwald said he did not know which country would eventually accept the US fugitive, but suggested Venezuela was the most likely.
"I didn't spend any time talking about his asylum plans. I don't really know what he's planning on doing in terms of that," the 46-year-old US blogger said.
"To me, Venezuela seems like the most logical choice because it's bigger and stronger than the other two countries that offered asylum and will be able to protect him," he added.
I use encryption
On Tuesday, the WikiLeaks anti-secrecy website said that Snowden had not yet formally accepted asylum in Venezuela as was claimed by a top Russian lawmaker in a Twitter posting that was later deleted.
Pro-Kremlin lawmaker Alexei Pushkov sparked confusion when he tweeted on Tuesday that Snowden had agreed to an offer from Caracas. He deleted the posting after about 30 minutes.
Greenwald spends much of his time in Brazil, where he lives with a Brazilian partner who was unable to join him permanently in America due to legal restrictions.
New York-born and Florida-raised, he specialised in litigating constitutional and civil rights cases before shifting in 2005 towards blogging, book-writing and what he calls "adversarial journalism".
In four best-selling books, most recently With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful, he has sought to expose threats to freedom of information.
He entered journalism through his own blog, Unclaimed Territory. He later wrote for Salon.com before contributing to The Guardian in August 2012.
Greenwald said he had many more stories to write based on Snowden's documents.
"I just wrote with O Globo three stories about massive [US] spying first in Brazil and then Latin America," he noted.
"There's a lot more stories like that, big stories about what the NSA is doing inside the United States. These stories take time, but there's a lot more coming."
He said he is fully aware that the US government is keeping him under close surveillance.
"I always assume that I'm being monitored and when I use computers or anything like that, I make sure I use encryption and I'm very careful," he said.
Even though some US politicians have called for Greenwald's arrest on grounds his reporting amounted to a "crime", he insisted: "I have never been directly threatened".
Asked whether he viewed Snowden as more than a source, Greenwald replied: "He is a source, but I have been very clear about the fact that I have a lot of admiration for what he did, a lot of respect.
"I think what he did was heroic. I care about him as a person and hope for the best for him."

Mudslide from flood buries dozens in China

Flooding in western China, the worst in 50 years for some areas, has triggered a landslide that buried up to 40 people and destroyed a high-profile memorial to a devastating 2008 earthquake.

There was no immediate word on the chances of survival for the 30 to 40 people buried in the city of Dujiangyan, but rescue workers with search dogs had rushed to the area, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
Mudslides and flooding are common in China's mountainous areas, killing hundreds of people every year. Deforestation has led to soil erosion and made some parts of China prone to mudslides after strong rains.
In nearby Beichuan county, flooding destroyed buildings and destroyed exhibits at a memorial for the earthquake five years ago in Sichuan province that left 90 000 people dead or missing.
The quake left the Beichuan county seat unliveable. The town was abandoned and 27 square kilometers of ruins was turned into a memorial and museum.
The flooding also caused the collapse of an almost 50-year-old bridge in a neighboring county, sending six vehicles into the raging waters and leaving 12 people missing.
Since Sunday, flooding in Sichuan has affected 360 000 people, damaging or destroying 300 homes, and forcing at least 6 100 emergency evacuations, state media reported.

NEWS,29.06.2013

US asks Ecuador to deny Snowden asylum

US Vice President Joe Biden asked Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa not to grant asylum to wanted whistle-blower Edward Snowden, Correa said on Saturday.

Biden said in the telephone conversation that Snowden was a fugitive from justice and did not have a valid passport.
Snowden has sought asylum in Ecuador, but has remained in a Moscow airport for days after fleeing the United States via Hong Kong.
He is accused of leaking information about a vast US spying programme that examined telephone and internet records.
Correa said he told Biden that Snowden's request could only be processed once he was on Ecuadorian soil.
Correa also noted that the US had not turned over to Ecuador brothers William and Roberto Isaias, who are wanted for banking crimes and also did not possess passports from their country.
Rafael Correa said he had a "friendly and very cordial" conversation with Biden, and told the vice president that Ecuador hadn't sought to be put in the situation of deciding whether to harbor an American fugitive. Correa said Ecuador can't consider the asylum request until Snowden is on Ecuadorean soil.
"The moment that he arrives, if he arrives, the first thing is we'll ask the opinion of the United States, as we did in the Assange case with England," Correa said. "But the decision is ours to make."
Julian Assange, founder of the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks has been given asylum in Ecuador's embassy in London.
White House spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan confirmed that the two leaders spoke by phone Friday and discussed Snowden, but wouldn't disclose any details about the conversation. It's the highest-level conversation between the U.S. and Ecuador that has been publicly disclosed since Snowden began seeking asylum from Ecuador.
Correa, in a weekly television address, praised Biden for being more courteous than U.S. senators who have threatened economic penalties if Ecuador doesn't cooperate.
At the same time, Correa rebuked the Obama administration for hypocrisy, invoking the case of two bankers, brothers Roberto and William Isaias, whom Ecuador is seeking to extradite from the U.S.
"Let's be consistent," Correa said. "Have rules for everyone, because that is a clear double-standard here."
The U.S. believes Snowden is holed up in a Moscow airport's transit zone. He may be waiting to see whether Ecuador or another country may grant him asylum. Snowden is charged with violating American espionage laws.
The White House confirmed that Biden spoke with Correa, but did not provide a readout, except to say the men discussed Snowden's case.
The situation has strained relations between the US and Ecuador, with Ecuador claiming on Thursday it no longer wanted trade privileges granted by Washington.

Obama pushes for immigration reform

President Barack Obama on Saturday urged the US House of Representatives to follow the lead of the Senate, and pass a bill by August to reform the US immigration system.

Speaking during a press conference in South Africa, Obama said there was more than enough time for lawmakers to finish work on the issue before their summer recess.
Immigration reform is one of the president's top domestic issues.
The Senate recently passed a bill that would strengthen US border security and provide a way for undocumented immigrants in the United States to obtain citizenship.
Obama welcomed the passage of that bill.
Despite strong bipartisan support for the Senate bill, the leader of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, John Boehner, said the measure was dead on arrival in his chamber. Boehner said House Republicans would write their own bill.
Many House Republicans oppose citizenship for immigrants who are in the United States illegally, arguing law-breakers should not be rewarded.
Any House Republican bill is expected to focus heavily on border security and on finding immigrants who have outstayed their visas.
But watering down the measure further may not be acceptable to Obama, who repeated on Saturday that he sees the Senate bill as far from perfect.
Even though congressional Republicans have been reluctant to co-operate with Obama, many see immigration reform as a political necessity to improve their standing with Hispanic voters, who overwhelming supported Obama in November's election.

Violence hits China's west ahead of anniversary

Violent attacks have spread this week in a tense minority region of western China, state media reported Saturday, just days before the anniversary of a bloody clash between minority Uighurs and the ethnic Han majority that left almost 200 dead and resulted in a major security clampdown.

China's communist authorities have labeled some of the incidents including one which left 35 people dead as terrorist attacks, and President Xi Jinping has ordered that they be promptly dealt with to safeguard overall social stability, state media reported.
The latest violent incidents were reported in southern Xinjiang's Hotan area. In one, more than 100 knife-wielding people mounted motorbikes in an attempt to storm the police station for Karakax county, the state-run Global Times reported.
Another was an attack mob in the township of Hanairike on Friday afternoon, according to the news portal of the Xinjiang regional government. It said the mob was armed, but did not say with what sort of weapons.
The official Xinhua News Agency reported a "violent attack" Friday afternoon on a pedestrian street in downtown Hotan city. No casualties were reported for any of the incidents, which state media say were quickly brought under control. The government's news portal, Tianshan Net, said there was no civilian casualty in Hanairike.
It has not been possible to independently verify the reports because of tight controls over information in the region.
The incidents on Friday in Xinjiang came after what the government described as attacks on police and other government buildings on Wednesday in eastern Xinjiang's Turpan prefecture's Lukqun township killed 35 people.
That was one of the bloodiest incidents since the July 5, 2009, unrest in the region's capital city, Urumqi, killed nearly 200.
Xinjiang (shihn-jeeahng) is home to a large population of minority Muslim Uighurs (WEE'-gurs) in a region that borders Central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and has been the scene of numerous violent acts in recent years.
Critics often attribute the violence in Xinjiang to what they say is Beijing's oppressive and discriminatory ethnicity policies. Many Uighurs complain that authorities impose tight restrictions on their religious and cultural life.
The Chinese government says that it has invested billions of dollars in modernizing the oil- and gas-rich region and that it treats all ethnic groups equally.
Calls to local government agencies were either unanswered or returned with the answer that they were unauthorized to speak.
State-run media reported that the incident Wednesday started when knife-wielding assailants targeted police stations, a government building and a construction site - all symbols of Han authority in the region.
Photos released in state media show scorched police cars and government buildings and victims lying on the ground, presumably dead.
An exiled Uighur activist has disputed that account, saying the violence started when police raided homes. It was impossible to independently confirm the conflicting accounts.
Xinhua said 11 assailants were shot dead, and that two police officers were among the 24 people they killed.
"This is a terrorist attack, there's no question about that," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Friday at a regular news briefing. "As to who masterminded it, local people are still investigating."
State news reports did not identify the ethnicity of the attackers, nor say what may have caused the conflict in the Turkic-speaking region. The reports said police captured four injured assailants.
The Global Times newspaper said on Saturday that police had stepped up security measures, deploying more forces to public areas, governmental institutes and compounds for police and military police. It said a suspect was captured on Friday afternoon in Urumqi.
Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the Germany-based World Uyghur Congress, questioned Beijing's account of the event, saying local residents had told him police had forcefully raided homes at night, triggering the deadly conflicts.

Dilma Rousseff's Popularity Rating Suffers Drastic Decline In Wake Of Protests In Brazil

Public approval of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's government has suffered a steep drop in the weeks since massive protests broke out across this country, according to Brazil's first nationwide poll released since the unrest began.
Published Saturday by Folha de S. Paulo, the country's biggest newspaper, the Datafolha survey found 30 percent of respondents rated Rousseff's government as "great/good," a sharp fall from the 57 percent who gave it that rating three weeks ago before the demonstrations began.
The government's popularity was down throughout the country, including in the northeast where the ruling Workers Party is strong. Her rating dropped there from 64 to 40 percent.
Datafolha interviewed 4,717 people on June 27 and 28, and the poll has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.
The government's approval rating had hit 65 percent in March, according to Datafolha, but in June suffered its biggest drop since Rousseff took office 2 1/2 years ago. Many Brazilians have been upset about rising inflation and shrinking purchasing power.
The firm said the government's approval had suffered the biggest drop for any president since a 1990 fall for then-leader Fernando Collor de Mello who tried to control spiraling inflation by freezing all savings accounts. He was forced from office because of a corruption scandal two years later.
Beginning mid-June, the recent protests had first targeted transportation fare hikes but quickly expanded to a variety of causes including government corruption, high taxes, poor public services and the billions of dollars spent for next year's World Cup soccer tournament and the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The Datafolha poll showed that 81 percent of respondents supported the protests.
Political watchers said Rousseff's popularity drop was to be expected in the face of the biggest protests this 197 million-person nation has seen in two decades. But it still wasn't clear whether opposition politicians could take advantage of Rousseff's problems, as she gears up for re-election next year.
"The protest movement that began two weeks ago isn't necessarily a movement against the (ruling) Workers Party nor Dilma personally, it's a protest against the entire ruling class," said Pedro Arruda, a political science professor at the Catholic University of Sao Paulo. "If polled, the unpopularity would be of all politicians. The people are protesting all the parties."
For Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes the demonstrations have underscored the "institutional crises" affecting the country's political parties.
"Which party has a good image?" he asked in an interview in Saturday's edition of Folha de S.Paulo. "Only the one not yet been born. We cannot sit back and think there is nothing more to be done because we have become a democracy, pulled 40 million people out of poverty and enjoy high employment rates.
Throughout the protests, the country has been hosting the Confederations Cup soccer tournament, which are seen as a warm-up to next year's World Cup. But the unrest has grown to such a level that Rousseff and other political leaders have reportedly decided not to attend Sunday's final match, which would be seen as a major embarrassment after they had showcased the country's hosting of such mega-events as proof that Brazil had finally arrived on the global stage. Demonstrators are expected to turn out around the iconic Maracana stadium where the Brazilian and Spanish teams will meet.
Meanwhile, social networks were abuzz with rumors of a general strike Monday, with posts saying it would hit every state. However, representatives for Brazil's two biggest unions, the Central Workers Union and Union Force, said they knew nothing about such a strike but were planning a national work slowdown for July 11, when workers will only perform strictly what's required of them on the job.
Rousseff is expected to deliver a formal proposal to Congress early next week on a political reform plebiscite she wants held in the coming months. She hasn't yet released any details on what political reforms she will suggest nor how or exactly when a plebiscite would occur.
Earlier this week, the president announced $23 billion in transportation investments. On top of that, she said her government would prioritize improvements in fiscal responsibility, controlling inflation, political reform, health care, public transport and education.

John Kerry Shuttles Between Abbas And Netanyahu In Hopes Of Restarting Mideast Peace Talks

A U.S. State Department official says Secretary of State John Kerry is ready to meet with the Palestinian president for a third time if that would help advance the Mideast peace process.
Kerry is in his third day of shuttle diplomacy and has held discussions with Mahmoud Abbas on Friday and Saturday in Amman, Jordan.
Kerry is having dinner Saturday night with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. It's their third meeting in three days.
It's unclear if or when Kerry might meet Abbas again.
The U.S. official spoke Saturday on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.
Kerry is currently scheduled to leave Sunday for Brunei for a Southeast Asia security conference.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry kept up his frenetic Mideast diplomacy Saturday, shuttling again between Palestinian and Israeli leaders in hopes of restarting peace talks.
Kerry met for two hours with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Amman, Jordan in what was their second set of discussions in two days.
He planned more talks in the evening with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem after the two held two meetings over the past two days.
U.S., Israeli and Palestinian officials have declined to disclose details of the talks.
"Working hard," is all Kerry would say when a reporter asked him before the latest Abbas meeting whether he was making progress.
Kerry, who is on a two-week swing through the Mideast and Asia, has conducted the meetings at a breakneck pace. He even cancelled a stop in Abu Dhabi because of extended discussions on the Mideast peace process.
He had a four-hour dinner meeting with Netanyahu Thursday night in Jerusalem followed by a more than two-hour lunch with Abbas on Friday in Amman at the home of the Palestinian ambassador to Jordan. Then it was back to Jerusalem for another meeting with Netanyahu and dinner with Israeli President Shimon Peres.
On Saturday morning, he boarded a helicopter to fly back to Amman to meet again with Abbas, this time at the Palestinian president's residence there.
Later Saturday, he was to return to Jerusalem to meet with Netanyahu, Tzipi Livni, Israel's chief negotiator with the Palestinians, and Isaac Molho, a Netanyahu envoy.
Kerry is scheduled to leave Jerusalem on Sunday to head to Brunei for a Southeast Asia security conference.
There is deep skepticism that Kerry can get the two sides to agree on a two-state solution, something that has eluded presidents and diplomats for years. But the flurry of meetings has heightened expectations that the two sides can be convinced to at least restart talks, which broke down in 2008.
So far, there have been no public signs that the two sides are narrowing their differences.
In the past, Abbas has said he won't negotiate unless Israel stops building settlements on war-won lands or accepts its 1967 lines before the capture of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in a Mideast war that year as a starting point for border talks. The Palestinians claim all three areas for their future state.
Netanyahu has rejected the Palestinian demands, saying there should be no pre-conditions for talks.
Abbas made significant progress with Netanyahu's predecessor, Ehud Olmert, in talks in 2007 and 2008, but believes there is little point in negotiating with the current Israeli leader.
Netanyahu has adopted much tougher starting positions than Olmert, refusing to recognize Israel's pre-1967 frontier as a baseline for border talks and saying east Jerusalem, the Palestinians' hoped-for capital, is off the table. Abbas and his aides suspect Netanyahu wants to resume talks for the sake of negotiating and creating a diplomatic shield for Israel, not in order to reach an agreement.
Abbas has much to lose domestically if he drops his demands that Netanyahu either freeze settlement building or recognize the 1967 frontier as a starting point before talks can resume. Netanyahu has rejected both demands. A majority of Palestinians, disappointed after 20 years of fruitless negotiations with Israel, opposes a return to talks on Netanyahu's terms.

NEWS,20.06.2013

Japan's female labour goals hit backlash

Days after Kaoru Shimada and other Japanese mothers rallied in Tokyo this year to press for more public daycare, she was shocked to read a local politician's blog blasting their "shameless" demands and asserting kids should be raised at home.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has vowed to take steps, including expanding daycare, to help mobilise women power as part of his "Abenomics" plan to end economic stagnation and engineer growth in a country beset by an ageing, shrinking population.
But that economic imperative is colliding with a conservative worldview, shared by many ruling party politicians as well as top business executives, that sees women's proper place as in the home, not in offices, factories or boardrooms.
"My first impression was that he was mocking us," said Shimada, a 29-year-old system engineer with a toddler son, referring to the comments by blogster Yutaro Tanaka, a local assembly member from Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
"He has no idea of the reality," Shimada - who found a daycare spot about a week before she had to resume work in April - told Reuters at a gathering of young parents exchanging information on daycare options and related headaches.
Opposition lawmakers, experts and even some from Abe's own party say such conservative views are common inside the LDP.
"Their view of women is basically as tools to boost the birth rate, reduce social security spending and increase growth. Women have a role because they are key to solving these three problems," said Mari Miura, a political science professor at Sophia University in Tokyo.
"But they have a strong idea of the traditional family as a core ideology of conservatives. That ideology and reasonable solutions do not match, so the policy is always schizophrenic at best."
Hidden message?
Experts and working women laud Abe's goal of mobilising women power even as they note the moves are long overdue in a country where female board members account for only about 1% of the total and women's employment rate of 60% is among the lowest in developed nations.
Abe has pledged to eliminate daycare wait lists - which official data put at 25 000 nationwide and private experts much higher - in five years. The plan is to provide fiscal support for non-government facilities and ease regulations to give private operators more scope.
He has set a target of having women in 30% of leadership posts in all sectors of society by 2020 and also urged Japan Inc to put more women on corporate boards. His initial goal: one woman director per firm.
"At the end of the day, it's the first administration that I can think of that even mentioned women's participation. So that's a step forward," said Kathy Matsui, chief Japan strategist at Goldman Sachs.
She estimates that raising female labour participation rates to the same 80% seen for males could boost Japan's gross domestic product by as much as 14%.
"Obviously, this is going up against a tidal wave of potential opposition, but at the end of the day, what other choice do they have?"
Critics, however, say parts of Abe's agenda send a different message and would have the opposite effect to his stated goal.
Among the moves critics question is Abe's request for firms to increase childcare leave from a maximum of one-and -a-half years to three and an LDP proposal to make private nursery schools, which hold only morning sessions, free for pre-schoolers.
"They are saying: 'Stay home until the child is three, then put the child in nursery school and take care of him or her yourself in the afternoon,'" said opposition Democratic Party lawmaker Renho, a former TV announcer and mother of teenage twins, who goes by one name.
"The message is: 'Don't think about working full-time'."
While some women might welcome the prospect of three years' childcare leave, many say the notion is unrealistic given the need for double incomes and the likely damage to careers from a three-year gap. Currently, those taking childcare leave get a government allowance equal to half their salary.
"Practically speaking, three years would be tough," system engineer Shimada said. "I took off 18 months and there was a gap that made me feel like a rookie employee when I returned."
Silver democracy
Japanese firm Benesse Corp, where one-third of managerial staff are women, found that a three-year childcare leave programme introduced in 1990 had the opposite effect to that intended: fewer female employees returned to their jobs.
"Some did return and what they said was that it was really difficult to catch up," said a company spokesperson, Yuko Onizawa. Five years later, Benesse shortened the leave system to one year and has since found that more women return to work.
Corporate attitudes also need to change for Abe's pitch to work. Although some major firms are taking diversity policies seriously as one key to boosting profits, business lobby Keidanren is blocking a proposal to require listed firms to disclose their gender statistics.
"Keidanren is greatly opposed  I think because it would be obvious how few women they have," Yuriko Koike, a former defence minister who heads the LDP's PR department and advocates bolder steps than those favoured by many in her party, told Reuters.
With public debt already twice Japan's $5trn economy, finding government funds to subsidise programmes to promote daycare and advance women in the workforce could also be tough.
The metropolis of Yokohama near Tokyo last month announced it had eliminated its daycare wait list three years ago the worst in the country through deregulation and bigger spending.
Abe has touted Yokohama as a model case others should follow, but the national government and other municipalities may be reluctant to follow through with similar spending rises.
"It's a kind of 'Silver Democracy' dilemma," said Hiroki Komazaki, founder of non-profit daycare provider Florence who sits on one of Abe's advisory panels.
"They have to cut spending on the elderly and invest in the future. But young people only vote at half the rate of the elderly."
A basic lack of understanding of the issues among many politicians remains, the LDP's Koike says, a big barrier to change.
Recalling a session of an LDP panel on policies concerning women, she said ruefully: "I explained the notion of 'diversity' and one of the men asked me 'Where is that?' He thought we were talking about a place called 'Diver City'."

Brazil backs down on transport hikes

Bowing to mass protests, authorities of Brazil's two biggest cities Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday decided to roll back transport fare hikes that had triggered widespread unrest.
Sao Paulo state governor Geraldo Alckmin told reporters that metro, train and bus fares would revert to $1.35 from $1.44 from next Monday, according to the current exchange rate, while Rio mayor Eduardo Paes said bus fares would go back to $1.24 from $1.33.
The decisions marked a major victory for the tens of thousands of citizens who have taken to the streets of both cities to vent their anger at the fare increases.
Several other Brazilian cities, including Porto Alegre and Recife, had already cancelled the fare hikes.
The current wave of unrest began nearly two weeks ago in Sao Paulo and rapidly spread to other cities just as the country on Saturday kicked off the Confederations Cup, a dry run for next year's World Cup.
The nationwide anger also focused on the $15bn the government has earmarked for the Confederations Cup and the World Cup, which many Brazilians feel would have been better spent on health and education.
The fare increases may appear modest but they were seen by many as a major burden in a country where the minimum monthly wage is currently only $306.

Bernanke: Fed likely to ease bond buying

Federal Reserve chairperson Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday the US economy is expanding strongly enough for the central bank to begin slowing the pace of its bond-buying stimulus later this year.

Bernanke's confirmation that the Fed is getting closer to pulling back on its $85bn in monthly asset purchases confirmed investor fears, sending stocks and bonds sharply lower and pushing benchmark Treasury yields to a 15-month high.

Moderate growth should lead to a further healing in the job market as headwinds facing the economy ease, Bernanke said. He also said policymakers expect inflation to move back up toward their long-term 2% goal.

The Fed's willingness to dial back on the amount of stimulus it is pumping into the economy reflects growing confidence in the sustainability and strength of the recovery. Since cutting interest rates to near zero in late 2008, the central bank has more than tripled its balance sheet to about $3.3trn to drive borrowing costs down and spur hiring.

"The committee currently anticipates that it will be appropriate to moderate the monthly pace of purchases later this year, and if the subsequent data remain broadly aligned with our current expectations for the economy, we will continue to reduce the pace of purchases in measured steps through the first half of next year, ending purchases around mid-year," Bernanke said.

He added that the jobless rate should have declined to near 7% from its current rate of 7.6% by the time bond purchases are halted. If its forecasts proved too optimistic, the Fed could stop reducing its bond purchases or even raise them again, Bernanke said.

In a change of policy, Bernanke also said a majority of Fed policymakers believe the central bank should hang onto the mortgage assets it acquired through its unconventional monetary stimulus when it decides to tighten monetary policy.

He made the statements at a news conference on the Fed's decision to continue buying $40bn in mortgage-backed securities and $45bn in longer-term US government securities each month.

After a two-day meeting, the Fed's policy-setting panel offered a more upbeat assessment of the risks facing the economy than it have given after the last meeting in May. "The committee sees the downside risks to the outlook for the economy and the labour market as having diminished since the fall," it said.

A Reuters poll of 17 top Wall Street bond dealers found that 16 expect a reduction in the Fed's asset purchases by year-end, with a plurality pegging the central bank's September meeting as the starting point. These dealers saw the Fed slowing its bond purchases by $10bn to $28bn on that first pass, with a median response of $20bn.

Rate rise not seen until 2015

Bernanke stressed that a slower pace of bond buying would still be adding support to the economy, and that any decision to begin removing stimulus remained a long ways off. Any eventual increases in interest rates would also be gradual, he added.

"They do indeed plan to taper purchases later this year and hope to be done by next summer. Bernanke wants to communicate that this is not necessarily tightening, but the market may not see it that way," said Axel Merk, president and chief investment officer of Merk Investments in Palo Alto, California.

Esther George, the president of the Kansas City Fed, again dissented against the Fed's expansion of its support for the economy, expressing concern it could fuel financial imbalances and hurt the central bank's goal of keeping inflation contained. She has dissented at every policy meeting since January.

But in a surprise, the St. Louis Fed chief, James Bullard, also dissented, though in the opposite direction, arguing the Fed should have signalled more strongly its willingness to keep its stimulus in place to defend its 2% goal for inflation.

In its statement, the Fed repeated that it would not raise rates until unemployment hits 6.5% or lower, provided that the outlook for inflation stays under 2.5%.

Bernanke made clear that threshold was merely for considering a rate hike, not a trigger for necessarily making one. In fresh quarterly projections, 14 of the 19 members of the Fed's policy panel said they did not think it would be appropriate to raise rates until some time in 2015.

In a sharp downgrade, the Fed forecast the PCE price index, its preferred gauge of the price pressures facing consumers, would rise just 0.8% to 1.2% this year. However, it saw inflation heading back to 1.4% to 2.0% in 2014 and 1.6% to 2.0% in 2015.

A low inflation rate could allow the Fed to keep interest rates lower for longer and could even force additional monetary easing if low inflation persists or inflation falls further.

In a slight upgrade to their economic projections, officials forecast unemployment to average 6.5% to 6.8% in the fourth quarter of next year, and 5.8% to 6.2% in the final three months of 2015.

They forecast US economic growth of between 3.0% and 3.5% next year and 2.9% to 3.6% in 2015.

Analysts think US growth slowed a bit in the second quarter of this year in the face of fiscal drag from government spending cuts and higher taxes; recent readings from the economy have been mixed.

The labour market, a central focus of Fed efforts to boost growth, has notched steady improvement with 175 000 new jobs added in May. But US manufacturers have been hurt by softer overseas demand, and inflation has fallen even further beneath the Fed's goal.

The consumer price index was up 1.4% in May from a year ago. But the PCE price index rose just 0.7% in the 12 months through April, the most recent reading.

Outgoing BoE chief calls for bank reform

Britain's economic recovery is not yet secure and more needs to be done to ensure the country's banks no longer pose a threat to taxpayers, Bank of England (BoE) governor Mervyn King said in his final speech on Wednesday.
King steps down at the end of this month after more than 20 years at the bank, to be replaced by former Canadian central bank chief Mark Carney, and the 65-year-old stuck to familiar themes in an annual address to London's financial elite.
"There is a powerful case for more stimulus in the short run," said King, who has spent the last five months at the helm of the BoE's monetary policy committee as part of a dissenting minority calling for a new round of asset purchases.
"A recovery in the UK, albeit modest, is under way ... (but) growth is not yet strong enough to reduce the considerable margin of spare capacity in the economy. Nor is recovery at an adequate rate fully assured."
While Carney has been hired by Finance Minister George Osborne with a brief to find new ways for the BoE to boost Britain's economy, his appetite for asset purchases is less clear, and economists think there may be no more this year.
But King said unnecessarily high unemployment was now a bigger threat to Britons' well-being than inflation  which has exceeded the BoE's 2% target for most of the past five years and that eurozone weakness and a troubled banking system remained the main obstacles to growth.
While global market interest rates had risen in recent weeks due to uncertainty about the US Federal Reserve's future bond purchases, the world economy was too unhealthy to talk of rates returning to normal pre-crisis levels anytime soon, King added.
"Bond yields have risen. But such market moves should not be confused with a return to normality," he said.
Banking on reform
King was speaking just after Osborne told the same audience at Mansion House, the Lord Mayor of London's ornate official residence, about his plans to shake up Britain's two state-controlled banks.
King said he welcomed Osborne's plans to sell the government's 39% stake in Lloyds Banking Group and consider restructuring Royal Bank of Scotland - a step he has previously said should have been taken years ago.
But more needed to be done. On Thursday the central bank's regulatory arm will publish details of how much new capital Britain's banks need to raise, with media reports suggesting that Lloyds, RBS and Barclays will bear the brunt.
"There is clearly some way to go before we can claim to have a really well-capitalised banking system," King said, rejecting some banks' view that higher capital requirements are acting as a brake on their ability to support the economy.
A longer-term problem was the size of some British banks, which are still too large and complex to be able to collapse without causing financial chaos, King said.
"We must restore trust in our banking system," he said. "It is not in our national interest to have banks that are too big to fail, too big to jail, or simply too big. Solving these problems is the work of a generation."
Earlier on Wednesday, British legislators called for laws to imprison "reckless" bankers in a report welcomed by King, who has often criticised the culture in banking.
King's speech focused on future challenges, and not the main criticism laid against him: that he paid insufficient attention to bank stability before the financial crisis.
He also wished his successor well. "The Bank of England is in safe hands, and the country will be the better for it."