NEWS,24.07.2013

US bill threatens government shutdown

The US senate on Tuesday advanced a $54bn measure that increases funding for transportation and housing projects, setting up a spending clash with Republicans in the House of Representatives that threatens a government shutdown on October 1.
The senate voted 73-26 to clear a procedural hurdle that allows for consideration of amendments and a simple majority vote on the funding bill, drawing the support of 19 Republican senators.
The funding measure for basic infrastructure projects, block grants for cities and public housing draws a sharp contrast between the spending paths laid out by Senate Democrats and House Republicans, who are considering a $44bn measure.
The House Republicans are passing their 12 appropriations bills for the new fiscal year under a discretionary spending cap of $967bn in an effort to keep savings from the automatic "sequester" spending cuts in place.
They want to divert a larger share of that reduced spending pie to defence and security agencies, subjecting domestic programmes to bigger cuts.
Senate Democrats, meanwhile, assume that the sequester cuts will be replaced by tax hikes and savings elsewhere and are applying a $1.058trn cap to their bills - $91bn more than the House.
There is little chance of that difference being resolved as the September 30 fiscal year-end approaches, so Congress would need to pass a stop-gap funding measure to avoid a government shutdown on October 1.
The senate measure would mark an increase of $2.3bn in spending on transportation and housing  mostly urban  over the 2013 level. The House measure would cut it by $7.7bn.
Democrats argued that delaying needed work on airports, roads and public housing will simply cost more in the future, and say such projects help the economy.
"Steel rusts, asphalt wears out, buildings need to be repaired and maintained," said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairperson Barbara Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat. "It's not politics, it's physics. We have to make investments today so that our nation can grow."
Both Tuesday's procedural vote and an Appropriations Committee vote drew significant Republican support, indicating that the party's appetite for continuing the deep spending cuts may be waning in the Senate.
But top senate Republican Mitch McConnell said any spending deal must maintain savings from the sequester about $1.2trn over 10 years  which were set in motion by a budget deal two years ago. He dismissed Democratic demands for additional revenue.
"I have no interest in reopening the subject of additional taxes. The government in my view doesn't need more revenue," McConnell told reporters after the senate procedural vote.

US opens probe into steel pipe imports

The US commerce department on Tuesday launched one of its biggest trade investigations in years into charges that manufacturers in South Korea, India and seven other countries are selling steel pipe used by oil and natural gas producers at unfairly low prices in the United States.
Imports of oil country tubular goods (OCTG) from the nine countries totalled nearly $1.8bn in 2012, more than double their total in 2010, as rising US oil and natural gas production have increased demand for the pipe.
In 2010, the United States slapped duties on imports of OCTG from China after they hit about $2.8bn in 2008. The duties slapped on imports from China created an opening for the other foreign suppliers.
The latest case targets South Korea, which exported about $831m worth of the pipe to the United States last year, as well as India, Vietnam, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and Ukraine.
US producers are asking for anti-dumping duties as high as 240% on India, 158%t on South Korea, 118% on Thailand and 111% on Vietnam to offset what they say is below market pricing, and lesser but still hefty duties on the other five countries.
For two countries, Turkey and India, US producers are seeking additional countervailing duties to offset alleged government subsidies.

3G lack hampers West Bank smartphones

Like many young Palestinians, Amir was excited to get his first smartphone, despite the heavy price tag. But he did not keep it long after realising the lack of 3G network meant its applications were largely unusable.
"I sold my iPhone because I just couldn't use it when I was out and about," said the internet cafe worker, who asked to be given a pseudonym.
"It's expensive to buy a smartphone, so without the full benefits there's no point having one," he added.
With the latest Samsung Galaxy or iPhone costing $400 (€300) it is a considerable investment, but for those keeping pace with developments on Twitter and Facebook, a smartphone has become the tool of choice.
As telecom companies in the Middle East prepare to launch the next generation of high-speed mobile phone internet services, commonly known as 4G, the Palestinian territories still have no access to 3G, meaning they are unable to fully use their smartphones on the go.
As a result, most mobile phone owners simply do not use 3G. And many feel the cost of a smartphone is hardly worthwhile.
"I can't get 3G with a Palestinian provider, so I have to have two contracts, one Palestinian and one Israeli, which is cumbersome and expensive," said 27-year-old Jeryes, who runs a bookshop in Ramallah.
Israel's refusal to give Palestinian mobile companies access to the necessary frequencies for 3G means West Bank residents must sign up with an Israeli company to get mobile internet, but calling rates are more expensive in the territories.
Palestinian mobile operators do not include the price of a phone in their monthly packages, adding to the expense.
Sabri Saidam, telecommunications adviser to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, said Israel had repeatedly refused to grant 3G access to Palestinian phone companies for "security" reasons.
"Over the past few years several requests have been made and have been denied" to import the technology and get access to the frequencies needed for 3G, he said.
"Israel persistently refuses the application for 3G on the basis of security," Saidam told AFP.
"This is even though there are Israeli companies illegally operating in the Palestinian territories providing 3G for their customers," he said, referring to the more than 500 000 Israeli settlers living in the West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem.
'If you're disconnected you're half dead'
But despite being a nuisance for those who want to use 3G, the issue for most Palestinians is primarily political.
Mobile phone shop worker Alaa Qawasmi, 27, said he was more angry about what the Israeli stranglehold on 3G represented.
"The main reason we don't have 3G is because of the occupation," he said. "Meanwhile, the technology Israeli phone users have is far better, and there are so many services we can't use."
But the obstacle can be overcome, thanks to wireless technology.
"It doesn't affect me much," said Omar, an IT worker in hospitals who did not wish to give his real name.
"Almost everywhere has wireless internet."
Mobile users can sit in cafes or at home, using connections there to have full access to their smartphone features - though some such as digital maps are not updated for West Bank residents, meaning the usefulness of the smartphone is limited, said Omar.
3G "would be nice to have, but we have more important problems here", he said.
A campaign launched by an IT expert during a visit by US President Barack Obama in March to draw attention to the lack of 3G in Ramallah was dismissed by some commentators as potentially overshadowing more crucial political issues.
Ruba Abu Roqqti, visiting her local phone shop, said what was more important was having internet access at all, let alone on the move.
"If you're disconnected from the Web it means you're half dead," she jested - before asking what 3G actually was.
"If it were available, that would be good," she said, "but it's not a big problem, I hadn't even heard of it."
Hamdi Awad, a teenage student, said it could be "good for flirting with girls" in real time.
"You could add them on Facebook and go from there," he laughed.
Though the 3G issue looks far from being sorted, the Palestinians did celebrate a more significant Web-based victory in May, as internet giant Google recognised their upgraded United Nations status, placing the name "Palestine" on its search engine instead of "Palestinian Territories".
Posters on the way into Ramallah from the Israeli-controlled Qalandia checkpoint in the West Bank urged internet users to "log on" to Google.ps and support the Palestinian cause of achieving full independent statehood.

FDA tightening rules on menthol smokes

Shares of US tobacco companies fell on Tuesday after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it is considering tightening regulations on menthol cigarettes following a scientific review that showed the products are likely to be more addictive than regular cigarettes.
Shares of Lorillard, which makes the Newport brand of menthol cigarettes, fell as much as much as 5% while shares of Altria Group, which makes a menthol version of its Marlboro brand, fell as much as 3%.
The FDA published preliminary results from a study it conducted that suggest "menthol cigarettes pose a public health risk above that seen with non-menthol cigarettes."
The report found that while menthol cigarettes are no more or less toxic than regular cigarettes, menthol's cooling and anesthetic properties can reduce the harshness of cigarette smoke, increasing their appeal to new smokers.
Still, at least some tobacco company analysts see the tone of the report as positive for the industry in so far as it did not recommend an outright ban.
"We believe it's unlikely that menthol will be banned," said Bonnie Herzog, an analyst at Wells Fargo Securities, in a research report.
"We see this as a buying opportunity as we expect the stock to recover as investors digest this report," she said, referring to Lorillard shares.
The FDA's move comes during a trade dispute in which Indonesia charges that the United States illegally allowed menthol cigarettes to remain on the market while banning the import of clove-flavored cigarettes from Indonesia.
In 2012, the World Trade Organization ruled that the United States should either end its ban on Indonesia's imports or impose a ban on US menthol cigarettes. So far the United States has stopped short of a ban.
"The United States has been clear that it would comply with the WTO findings in a way that is appropriate for the public health," said a statement from Andrea Mead, a spokesperson for the Office of the United States Trade Representative, which negotiates with foreign governments to create trade agreements and resolve disputes.
The FDA is seeking public comment on whether a limit could be set on the amount of menthol in cigarettes. It is also seeking information on how menthol cigarettes are marketed to the young and minority communities.
Lorillard Chief Executive Murray Kessler said in a statement that the company is "encouraged" by the FDA's "science-based approach."
"It is Lorillard's long-held belief that the best available science demonstrates that menthol cigarettes have the same health effects as non-menthol cigarettes and should be treated no differently," he said.
A spokesman for Altria, David Sylvia, said the company had only just received the FDA's report and was reviewing the information.
Lorillard's shares were trading down 4.2% at $44.23 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Earlier they fell as low as $43.77. Altria's shares were down 2.5% to $35.94, after dropping as low as $35.73.

Is China ripe for unrest?

RECENTLY, it seems no developing country is safe from sudden, unexpected protests.

In Brazil and Turkey, empowered middle classes pushed back against perceived governmental injustice; protests erupted, and leaders’ approval ratings dropped precipitously.

In Egypt, the economic picture was as ugly as the political one, and the military’s ouster of president Mursi has fomented conflict and instability.

China may look like a candidate for the type of protests currently sweeping the developing world. Not only is a newly empowered middle class demanding better services and more accountability from government, growth has also tapered off in recent quarters.

Don’t hold your breath. At least for the time being, China is well-positioned to navigate such challenges far better than its emerging market competitors.

Let’s start with the economy. For years pundits, and many Chinese government officials, thought that if China’s gross domestic product growth rate ever fell below 8%, it would set off an unemployment crisis that would raise the risk of social and political instability in the country.

Well, China’s finance minister was in Washington last week and said that the Chinese economy could handle 7% or even 6.5% growth a lower rate than China has experienced in 23 years.

But unlike many other emerging markets, China views slower growth as a manageable challenge. The government actually recognises that a slowdown is necessary to meet its reform and rebalancing goals, and is working now to score political points among the population by arguing that it’s doing so.

In particular, Beijing hopes that the slowdown will force industrial consolidation and less resource consumption, which could slow environmental degradation which has been a major point of political vulnerability for the government.

Slower growth should also calm the real estate sector, where rising prices have been a major sore point for urban Chinese. China’s new leadership is betting that progress on these fronts will outweigh the downside risks they’ll face as job losses tick up in the face of slower growth.

From a global perspective, there is a strong case to be made that China’s slowing growth rate is actually a good sign.

Bubbles allowed to shrink

The fact that Beijing hasn’t just reflexively pumped capital into the system to keep growth rates up shows that it is willing to begin undertaking modest economic reforms; it is, in effect, letting bubbles shrink rather than grow until they pop.

This approach is characteristic of the new leadership that took charge in March of this year: they are less risk averse and they have a more long-sighted handle on the necessary economic changes that China will have to undertake.

The new president himself is a cause for optimism. Xi Jinping has a more assertive, off-the-cuff style; he is a more spontaneous, charismatic leader than his predecessors, and early reviews in China’s blogosphere suggest a favourable first impression.

Xi is using this boldness to work to consolidate his support within the Communist Party. And the extent to which he is successful will mean even more capacity for even more reform over time.

All of this doesn’t mean that China’s stability should be taken for granted, or that there aren’t looming problems on the horizon. The very fact that China doesn’t face significant near-term instability could lead to complacency and give it wiggle room to delay necessary reforms.

China still needs long-term and significant economic and political transformations to get it from “developing” to “developed.” It has too many changes coming to its demographics, manufacturing costs, and environmental needs to get away with ignoring them in perpetuity. (The US can sympathise.)

While it’s a good sign that the current leadership is allowing lower growth rates in order to implement some economic reform, thus far, all changes are happening inside the system, not to the system itself. Easy growth was the low-hanging fruit for China over the past thirty years.

Now the government is reaching a bit further up the tree. But they still have a very long way to go to get to the upper branches.

China’s other major threat is the stratification that any developing country has to navigate. As I’ve written about in the past, the growth of the Chinese economy has created a new middle class that has different demands from the largely rural population that China is still trying to lift out of poverty.

In the near term the new government’s tolerance for slower growth is actually positive for helping to address some of these concerns. But eventually, Beijing will have to reconcile two increasingly divergent populations.

This, again, is a long-term issue. But as these issues go unaddressed, and as more Chinese become rich enough to prioritise new sorts of rights and privileges, the chances of unrest will rise.

Don’t believe the idea that China is a ripe victim for this wave of developing world protests, or that China’s slowing growth rate is a sign of an imminent hard landing. China’s near-term picture looks surprisingly bright.

But after that, the larger question still looms: can Xi Jinping and his government handle the looming storm clouds while they are still a good way off?

NEWS,03.03.2013

Minister: ECB must do more for jobless

A French official says the European Central Bank is shirking its responsibilities toward Europe's unemployed.Industrial Recovery Minister Arnaud Montebourg's comments go against a custom that politicians not meddle in the ECB's work.Montebourg told Europe 1 radio Sunday: "It's not dealing with growth. It's not taking care of the unemployed. It's not taking care of the European people. And it has a duty to do so."He called on ECB President Mario Draghi to buy the debt of European countries. The ECB has a program to do just that - but countries must first agree to reforms.Montebourg also said the bank is keeping the euro strong, which is hurting exports. "What I am asking (Draghi) is to give us the weapons to fight unfair offshoring."

Thailand to end domestic ivory trade

Thailand will end its domestic ivory trade, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra announced on Sunday, promising legislation that could help the country avoid international trade sanctions after criticism by environmental groups.The announcement of legislation to end the ivory trade came at the opening ceremony of a Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) conference in Bangkok."This will help protect all forms of elephants including Thailand's wild and domestic elephants and those from Africa," Yingluck said in a statement.The CITES conference runs until March 14.Environmental groups such as World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and TRAFFIC, which monitors the wildlife trade, have been calling for CITES to sanction Thailand, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo for their part in the illegal ivory trade.Thailand is accused by conservation groups of fuelling the already rampant slaughter of African elephants and trade in their ivory through lax enforcement and regulation of its legal domestic market, which the country has never publicly committed to curbing before.The largely unregulated market is ideal for laundering illegal African ivory into its system before being sold on, environmental groups say.Groups said it was not clear how Thailand would go about ending its domestic trade, nor how long it would take."Prime Minister Shinawatra now needs to provide a timeline for this ban and ensure that it takes place as a matter of urgency, because the slaughter of elephants continues," said Carlos Drews, head of WWF's delegation to CITES.Thailand is the largest illegal ivory market in the world behind China with much of the ivory being bought by foreign tourists, the WWF says.

China targets 15% of satellite market

China is looking to increase its share of the global commercial satellite launching business, targeting a 15% share by 2020, a leading space program official said Saturday.China hopes to increase its market share by establishing strategic alliances with major launch services providers and satellite manufacturers, along with developing its own technology, the deputy head of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, Liang Xiaohong, told the official Xinhua News Agency.China has just 3% of the market now, but the goal laid out by Liang points to its ambitions to become a major player in space, just one decade after becoming only the third country after the US and Russia to launch a man into space.Elsewhere in the Xinhua interview, Liang said China's first solid-fuel rocket that could be launched on short notice would be ready to make its first flight by 2016.China has a well-developed range of Long March rockets for use in commercial launches, all of which now mainly burn liquid fuel that must be pumped in just prior to launch. Solid fuel rockets can be kept in storage, then fired when needed, making them ideal for military use in launching ballistic missiles.Liquid-fueled rockets are generally considered best-suited for launching large payloads, while solid rockets are used for placing smaller satellites weighing less than 2 tons into low Earth orbit."The development of the Long March 11 will greatly improve China's capabilities to rapidly enter space and meet the emergency launching demand in case of disasters and emergencies," Liang was quoted by Xinhua as saying.On Friday, China's space program said it would send three astronauts to its orbiting space station this summer as part of preparations to establish an even larger permanent presence above Earth.The Shenzhou 10 spacecraft, which will likely include one female astronaut, will spend two weeks aboard the Tiangong 1, where the trio will spend two weeks conducting tests of the station's docking system and its systems for supporting life and carrying out scientific work.Two Chinese spacecraft, one of them manned, have docked already with Tiangong 1 since it was launched in September 2011.The station is to be replaced in around 2020 with a permanent space station that will weigh about 60 tons, slightly smaller than NASA's Skylab of the 1970s and about one-sixth the size of the 16-nation International Space Station.

Iran buying time - Netanyahu

Renewed international efforts to negotiate curbs on Iran's disputed nuclear programme have backfired by giving it more time to work on building a bomb, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.His remarks on the inconclusive 26-27 February meeting between Iran and six world powers signalled impatience by Israel, which has threatened to launch preemptive war on its arch-foe, possibly in the coming months, if it deems diplomacy a dead end.Senior US diplomat Wendy Sherman flew in to brief Israel about the Kazakh-hosted talks, in which Tehran, which denies seeking nuclear arms, was offered modest relief from sanctions in return for halting mid-level uranium enrichment.There was no breakthrough. The sides will reconvene in Almaty on 5-6 April after holding technical talks in Istanbul."My impression from these talks is that the only thing that is gained from them is a buying of time, and through this time-buying Iran intends to continue enriching nuclear material for an atomic bomb and is indeed getting closer to this goal," Netanyahu told his cabinet in remarks aired by Israeli media.Extrapolating from UN reports on Iran's enrichment of uranium to 20% fissile purity, a short technical step from weapons-grade, Netanyahu has set a mid-2013 "red line" for denying the Islamic republic the fuel needed for a first bomb.Iranian media reported on Sunday the country was building around 3 000 new advanced enrichment centrifuges, a development that could accelerate the nuclear project.The prospect of unilateral Israeli strikes, and the likely wide-ranging reprisals by Iran and its regional allies, worries Washington, which wants to pursue diplomacy as it winds down costly military commitments abroad.In an attempt to make their proposals more palatable to Tehran, the United States and five other world powers appeared to have softened previous demands in Almaty - for example regarding their requirement that the Iranians ship out their stockpile of the higher-grade uranium.A senior Israeli official said that while the Netanyahu government had hoped for a tougher line by the so-called P5+1, it was resigned to awaiting the results of this round of talks."At the end of the day, what matters is that the Iranians end their enrichment, whether it's through shutting down their facilities or through more nuanced technical safeguards," the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.The official would not comment on how or if the latest diplomacy had affected the readiness of Israel, which is widely assumed to have the region's only nuclear arsenal, to go to war.Iran may have warded off that threat by turning some of its 20% pure uranium into fuel rods for a research reactor.The international standoff and shifting timelines are expected to dominate US President Barack Obama's trip to Israel later this month. The Israelis urge a tougher posture on Iran from their ally, which has a hefty military presence in the Gulf and says it is poised to use force as a last resort.Israel's dovish president, Shimon Peres, sounded more upbeat after meeting Sherman last Thursday. Peres said he had "total faith in the Obama administration, in its commitment and its actions in preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons".Obama's Israel visit has been overshadowed by local politics too, given the rightist Netanyahu's failure so far to build a new coalition government after he narrowly won a 22 January ballot.Appealing to potential party allies to rally to him in the name of national security, Netanyahu told his cabinet: "To my regret this is not happening, and in the coming days I will continue my efforts to unify and galvanise forces ahead of the major national and international challenges that we face."

Iran building 3 000 advanced centrifuges

Iran is building about 3 000 advanced uranium-enrichment centrifuges, Iranian media reported on Sunday, in a development likely to add to Western concerns about the Islamic state's disputed nuclear programme.Iran announced earlier this year that it would install the new-generation centrifuges at its Natanz uranium enrichment plant, but Sunday's reports in Iranian agencies appeared to be the first time a specific figure had been given.Iranian media on Sunday paraphrased Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, as saying Iran was producing 3 000 new-generation centrifuges."The final production line of these centrifuges has reached an end and soon the early generations of these centrifuges with low efficiency will be set aside," Abbasi-Davani said, according to the Fars news agency.The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said earlier this year that 180 so-called IR-2m centrifuges and empty centrifuge casings had been put in place at the facility near the town of Natanz in central Iran. They were not yet operating.If launched successfully, such machines could enable Iran to speed up significantly its accumulation of material that the West fears could be used in a nuclear weapon. Iran says it is refining uranium only for peaceful purposes.

Iran frees 14 journalists - report

Iran has freed 14 journalists working for reformist papers who were arrested in January and accused of co-operating with a "Western-linked network", the reformist Shargh newspaper reported on Sunday.The newspaper said the journalists were released from jail after posting bail, while four others were still behind bars.At the time of their arrest in late January the intelligence ministry said in a statement that the journalists belonged to "one of the biggest media networks" linked to the West.Their network, the statement said, was established by the BBC and operates "in co-operation with several Western governments".The ministry said their goal was to "exploit what they learned during the sedition period" after the 2009 presidential election, which Iran accuses the West and Western media, including the BBC, of inciting.The election, which returned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power despite reformist opposition candidates alleging fraud, triggered protests which were met by a bloody regime crackdown.Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International criticised the arrests, urging Iran to free the journalists.But the intelligence ministry dismissed such calls.Tehran deems as hostile the Persian services of various international media, including the BBC Persian, the Voice of America and Radio Farda - a US-funded Prague-based Persian radio.According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 45 journalists were in Iranian prisons at the start of December 2012.The journalists work for various reformist outlets such as Shargh, Arman, Bahar and Etemad newspapers, the Aseman weekly, as well as the ILNA news agency.Shargh identified the freed journalists as Pouria Alami, Emily Amraei, Javad Daliri, Milad Fadaei, Narges Jodaki, Soleiman Mohammadi, Akbar Montajabi, Pejman Mousavi, Motahareh Shafiey, Hossein Yaghchi, Fatemeh Sagharchi, Reyhaneh Tabatabaee, Keyvan Mehregan and Pejman Mousavi.The report also added that Sasan Aghaei, Nasrin Takhayori, Ehsan Mazandarani, and Saba Azarpeyk are still behind bars.

Chavez 'working during chemotherapy'

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is still in charge and mulling political, social and economic policies even as he receives a new round of chemotherapy, his vice president said on Saturday.Vice President Nicolas Maduro said that the 58-year-old socialist leader, who is convalescing in seclusion at a Caracas military hospital, sent "guidance" to his Cabinet as recently as Friday."He is staying informed and in charge as the chief who was ratified by our people various times," Maduro said at an event broadcast on state-run television.The opposition says the government is lying about Chavez's condition and doubts Maduro's claim that Chavez held a five-hour meeting with his cabinet on February 22, giving orders in writing because a tracheal tube hinders his speech.But Maduro repeated that the meeting took place. He insisted that the president sent more instructions the next day with Science Minister Jorge Arreaza, his son-in-law, before giving more guidance on Friday.The leftist leader's chosen successor Maduro showed a dossier containing "political, social and economic actions" that Chavez has requested "to continue strengthening the economy to face the economic war of the parasitic bourgeoisie".The "central document" will be sent to Chavez, he said, adding that the government was "respecting his treatment, we are not acting in an invasive way in his treatment."Chavez, who was first diagnosed with cancer in the pelvic region June 2011, underwent a fourth round of surgery in Cuba in December. The government has never disclosed the exact nature, location and severity of the cancer.Maduro revealed for the first time late Friday that Chavez began a new cycle of chemotherapy in January and decided to return to Caracas last month to continue a "more intense" phase of treatment.Chavez was in "good spirits" but fighting for his life, Maduro said as he rejected growing rumours about the president's health.One of Chavez's daughters, Maria Gabriela, responded on Saturday to the publication online of a picture of her looking sad at the mass."Sadness? I can't be happy when my dad is sick! But I continue to cling to my God," she wrote on Twitter."At the next mass I will have to dance and laugh! I always thought that a mass was something serious! People are very crazy," she wrote.The once omnipresent leader has not come out in public in almost three months. Only four pictures were released, on February 15, showing him in his Havana hospital bed, smiling with his two daughters.Around 50 university students have spent every night this week chained to each other in the middle of a Caracas streets, demanding that the government "tell the truth" about Chavez.The government has accused the opposition and "fascist" foreign media of spreading rumours about Chavez to destabilise the nation sitting atop the world's largest proven oil reserves."We want to see Chavez recover and healthy, and we want him to be in peace, doing the treatment that needs to be done," said Foreign Minister Elias Jaua."Those who don't want Chavez to recover are those who use blackmail, criminal pressure, miserable pressure that we will not cede to," Jaua said.Maduro, meanwhile, accused opposition leader Henrique Capriles of "conspiring" against Venezuela during trips to the United States and Colombia, and warned him not to "violate the rule of law".He said Capriles, the Miranda state governor who lost to Chavez in the October presidential election, had met with "paramilitaries" in Colombia and was now in the United States.The vice president said Capriles travelled to Miami and New York this weekend and was planning to meet Roberta Jacobson, the US State Department's top official for Latin America.

NEWS,18.02.2013

JFK jacket sold for over $600

A leather bomber jacket that belonged to slain US president John F. Kennedy has been sold at auction for $665 500, far exceeding the initial estimate, a Massachusetts auction house said on Monday.The brown Air Force One jacket was one of 700 pieces put on the auction block on Sunday after the family of David Powers, a special assistant to Kennedy, discovered a treasure trove of JFK memorabilia in the Powers family home.The jacket was initially estimated at $20 000 to $40 000.Among the other JFK items up for sale, nearly 50 years after his assassination, were photographs, campaign posters, letters and books belonging to the president. The sale lasted more than six hours, the house said.

 

Horsemeat scare hits UK consumers hard

The discovery of horsemeat in products sold as beef has shocked many British consumers into buying less meat, a survey showed on Monday.The furore, which erupted in Ireland last month and then spread quickly across Europe, has led to ready meals being pulled from supermarket shelves and damaged people's confidence in the food on their plate.It raised concerns over food labelling and the complex supply chain across the European Union, putting pressure on governments to explain lapses in quality control.A fifth of adults said they had started buying less meat after traces of horse DNA were found in some products, according to the poll conducted by Consumer Intelligence research company."Our findings show that this scandal has really hit consumers hard, be it through having to change their shopping habits or altering the fundamentals of their diet," David Black, a spokeperson for Consumer Intelligence said.The online poll, conducted on February 14-15, questioned more than 2 200 adults on their spending habits following the horsemeat scandal. It gave no specific figures on how much meat people were buying, focusing only on broader trends.More than 65% of respondents said they trusted food labels less as a result."(Brands) will have to put in place really stringent ways of checking that what's being delivered and what's on the label is indeed what's in there," Black said. In the month since horsemeat was first identified in Irish beefburgers, no one is yet reported to have fallen ill from eating horse but many supermarkets and fast food chains are already struggling to save their reputations. Governments across Europe have stressed that horsemeat poses little or no health risk, although some carcasses have been found tainted with a painkiller given to racehorses but banned for human consumption. More than 60% of adults surveyed said they would now buy meat from their local butchers, the poll said, while a quarter of adults said they would now buy more joints, chops or steaks instead of processed meat. Michael Suleyman, who owns a family-run butchers shop in Brixton, London, said more customers appeared concerned although for now there had not been any difference in sales figures."We have seen people panicking and asking us lots of questions like 'where do you get your meat from?'," Suleyman, 51, told Reuters. "We assure our customers by showing them the meat and mincing it for them in front of their eyes. "But with inflation running above central bank targets and an uncertain job market, the spending power of British consumers has been eroded in recent years and, for some, buying more expensive meat is not an option. Nearly a fifth of respondents said they wanted buy less processed meat such as ready-meals, but could not afford to. At a London branch of Britain's biggest retailer, Tesco, which found horse DNA in some of its own-brand frozen spaghetti bolognese meals last week, consumers were still buying meat products. "I've got nothing against horse meat," said Sean Cosgrove, 39, a local government employee. "I think you're being ambitious if you expect top quality meat in those products anyway."

ECB warns of low interest rates

The head of the European Central Bank on Monday outlined the risks of keeping interest rates low for a long period, suggesting the ECB is unlikely to slash rates further from already record lows.Speaking to members of the European Parliament in Brussels, Mario Draghi also reiterated the bank's view on the level of the euro on the foreign exchange markets, saying talk of a currency war was "really excessive". "Naturally, the ECB is aware of the challenges arising from a protracted period of low policy rates," Draghi said, a week after the bank decided to keep its main interest rate on hold at a record low 0.75%.He said that low interest rates for a long time could harm the returns for savers and investors as well as possibly fuelling bubbles in house prices. In a low interest rate environment, banks might also have less incentive to monitor credit risk properly "and may provide too many loans to non-profitable business," Draghi said.Draghi said current interest rates were "accommodative", which analysts often take to mean that the bank is unlikely to cut them further.Turning to the exchange rate, Draghi said: "I find really excessive any language referring to currency wars" amid concerns that the euro is too strong on the foreign exchange markets and worries over the weak Japanese yen.He referred to the statement made by the Group of 20 countries in Moscow over the weekend, where leading powers vowed they would not target specific forex rates or devalue currencies to make them more competitive."I urge all parties to exercise very, very strong verbal discipline. I think the less we talk about this the better," said Draghi.Some eurozone countries, notably France, have expressed concern that the level of the euro, which has risen recently on the foreign exchange markets, could hurt exports and dampen any nascent recovery in the eurozone.Paris wants the eurozone to arm itself with an exchange rate policy. The external value of the euro should not be left to market forces, French President Francois Hollande has argued.But Draghi hit back saying: "The exchange rate is not a policy target, but it is important for growth and price stability."He also denied that the euro was too strong, saying it was "around its long term average."On the economy, the ECB chief said: "We enter 2013 in a more stable financial environment than in recent years" and predicted "a very gradual recovery" later in the year as the 17-nation eurozone battles with recession.

 

Qatar spends over $15bn on new airport

Energy-rich Qatar will open on April 1 a new airport with a capacity to handle 30 million passengers, as the Gulf state vies to increase its share of transit air travel, an official said Monday."The annual capacity of Hamad International Airport will be 30 million passengers when it opens on April 1," the head of Qatar's Civil Aviation Authority Abdul Aziz al-Nuaimi told AFP.He said the cost of building the new hub over nearly eight years has "exceeded $15bn." Eleven foreign budget carriers will be the first airlines to use the new facility, while the emirate's flag carrier Qatar Airways, will be joining in the second quarter of 2013, he said.The new airport spreads over 29 square kilometres (11.2 square miles), and features two runways stretching 4.85 kilometres (three miles) and 4.25 kilometres (2.64 miles) respectively.The terminal has a total surface of 60 hectares.The new airport, which replaces the old Doha International, is expected to raise its capacity to 50 million passengers per year by 2020.Qatar Airway is one of the fast growing carriers which like neighbouring Gulf carriers, Dubai's Emirates and Abu Dhabi's Etihad, vies to increase its share of transit travel between Europe, Asia and Australia.He acknowledged that austerity in many countries was strangling economic growth but insisted it was "unavoidable" for nations, especially those labouring under high debt, to reduce their public deficits.He called for "properly designed fiscal consolidation as based more on expenditure cuts rather than on tax rises", noting that taxes in the eurozone were "indeed very high already."

Crisis-hit arms market shrinks

For the first time since the mid-1990s, sales of the 100 biggest arms dealers excluding China declined in 2011 as the economic crisis prompted budget cuts, a Stockholm-based think tank said on Monday. The 100 companies' total sales declined, including inflation, by five percent from the previous year, the first time a drop has been registered since 1994, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said.Even excluding inflation, the total fell, to €307bn from €412bn in 2010."Austerity policies and proposed and actual decreases in military expenditure as well as postponements in weapons programme procurement affected overall arms sales in North America and Western Europe," SIPRI said in a statement.Troop drawdowns in Iraq and Afghanistan and sanctions on arms transfers to Libya also played a role in the decline, it added.Proposed austerity measures "have led some companies to pursue military specialisation, while others have downsized or diversified into adjacent markets" such as security and in particular cyber security, the think tank said.The SIPRI figures do not include China due to a lack of reliable data. Chinese companies supply a military that enjoys the world's second-biggest budget.The list of top 100 arms-producing companies is dominated by American and European companies, which respectively hold 60% and 29% of the global market and together hold the top 17 spots on the list.US group Lockheed Martin is number one, with sales of $36.3bn in 2011, ahead of another US group, Boeing, and BAE Systems of Britain in third place.The think tank, which is specialised in research on conflicts, weapons, arms control and disarmament, was created in 1966 and is 50% financed by the Swedish state. It defines arms sales as "sales of military goods and services to military customers, including both sales for domestic procurement and sales for export."

 

Thai economy soars in fourth-quarter

Thailand's economy enjoyed record growth in the fourth quarter of 2012 as industry recovered from the impact of the kingdom's worst floods in decades, official data showed Monday.Gross domestic product (GDP) soared 18.9% in the three months through December from the year-earlier period according to the government's National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB).GDP rose 3.6% compared with the previous quarter.Strong domestic and international demand helped to drive the strong performance, said NESDB secretary general Arkhom Termpittayapaisith. "There has been a full recovery after the severe floods," he told a press conference. The Thai economy suffered a double-digit contraction in the wake of the months-long floods, which deluged vast swathes of the country in 2011, killing hundreds of people and causing widespread damage to factories. At their height the floodwaters affected 65 of the country's 77 provinces, swamping hundreds of thousands of homes and disrupting global supply chains.The NESDB forecasts economic growth of 4.5%-5.0% for 2013, after an expansion of 6.4% in 2012."An economic recovery in the United States, China and Europe will be good for Thai exports," Arkhom said, adding that an increase in the kingdom's minimum wage would also boost domestic demand.Rising car sales and production helped to lift GDP in the fourth quarter due to a government scheme to encourage new vehicle purchases.Thailand's central bank last month held its key interest rate steady at 2.75% citing a better-than-expected performance in the economy.

NEWS,19.12.2012

Obama wants gun policy recommendations by JanUARY

US President Barack Obama has directed a Cabinet group to give him recommendations by next month on ways to tighten the regulation of guns in the wake of the Connecticut massacre of schoolchildren.Responding to national outrage over Friday's killing of 20 children, aged six and seven-years-old, Obama held a White House news conference to announce that Vice President Joe Biden will lead an effort to craft policies to crack down on gun violence.Obama said he believed Americans would support the reinstatement of a ban on the sale of military-style assault weapons, a ban on the sale of high-capacity ammunition clips, and a law requiring background checks on buyers before all gun purchases, which would close a loophole that allows sales at open-air gun shows without such background checks.Saying gun control cannot be the only solution to the problem, Obama expressed support for making it easier for Americans to get access to mental health care "at least as easy as access to a gun," he said.Under pressure from fellow Democrats to act, Obama insisted the guns issue would not be ignored this time. Previous appeals for more gun regulation have died even as mass shootings have continued.With Biden at his side, Obama said the group would give him proposals that he could outline in his State of the Union speech in late January. Cabinet members involved include Attorney General Eric Holder, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Education Secretary Arne Duncan."This is not some Washington commission," Obama said. "This is not something where folks are going to be studying the issue for six months and publishing a report that gets read and then pushed aside."This is a team that has a very specific task to pull together real reforms right now."The Newtown, Connecticut, shooting of so many schoolchildren by a 20-year-old gunman has shocked Americans in ways that previous mass shootings have not. The gunman's mother and six adults at the school were also killed before he shot himself.Some previously adamant opponents of increased gun control have expressed a willingness to consider more regulation. Even the powerful National Rifle Association, the lobby group that has sought time and again to stymie gun legislation, said this week that it would be prepared to offer meaningful contributions to ensure there is no repeat of Newtown.Obama himself has done little to rein in America's gun culture in his four years in office. His administration has to a certain extent expanded gun rights by permitting the carrying of firearms in national parks.Asked why he has been a no-show on the subject until now, Obama defended himself, saying he has been dealing with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."I don't think I've been on vacation," he said, adding the Newtown massacre "should be a wake-up call for all of us"."We may never know all the reasons why this tragedy happened," Obama told reporters. "We do know that every day since, more Americans have died of gun violence."If there is even one thing that we can do to prevent any of these events, we have a deep obligation, all of us, to try."We know this is a complex issue that stirs deeply held passions and political divides and, as I said on Sunday night, there's no law or set of laws that can prevent every senseless act of violence in our society."The fact that we can't prevent every act of violence doesn't mean we can't steadily reduce the violence and prevent the very worst violence."Obama added he would push such a proposal "without delay", citing as a model a previous ten-year ban on assault weapons military-style semi-automatics that Congress allowed to expire in 2004.Whatever steps Obama's task force comes up with are likely to face some criticism because many Republicans see the US Constitution's Second Amendment right to bear arms as sacrosanct."What we're looking for here is a thoughtful approach that says we can preserve our Second Amendment, we can make sure that responsible gun owners are able to carry out their activities, but that we're gonna actually be serious about the safety side of this," Obama said.Obama has tapped Biden to lead other high-profile initiatives, including efforts on a deficit-reduction compromise with congressional Republicans in 2011.US Representative Ron Barber, who was wounded in a 2011 Arizona shooting that targeted his predecessor, Gabrielle Giffords, welcomed the effort and echoed other Democratic lawmakers' calls to ban military-grade guns."We cannot go on blithely believing that we can solve this problem in other ways," Barber said at a news conference earlier at the Capitol."We have to look at the weaponry used and we have to look at the people who use it and we have to do something about both,"Friday's massacre was the fourth shooting rampage to claim multiple lives in the United States this year.

Obama vows to veto fiscal cliff plan

President Barack Obama on Wednesday warned Republicans he would veto their "Plan B" plan to avert the looming fiscal cliff crisis, saying it would dump pain disproportionately on the middle class. The move came as hopes faded for an imminent deal to avert a year-end combination of tax hikes and huge spending cuts which analysts fear could spark a new US recession and damage the fragile global economic recovery.Republican House Speaker John Boehner framed the legislation, which would raise taxes on those earning more than $1m, in case his talks with Obama on a broader plan to trim the US deficit do not bear fruit by the deadline.His gambit was the latest move in a tense game of brinkmanship between the Democratic White House and Republican House, which has deep political ramifications for the balance of power in Washington during Obama's second term.White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said the Boehner plan meant that the wealthiest Americans would still benefit while students and families would lose critical tax cuts and health and unemployment benefits they need.Pfeiffer said the plan would also "perversely" not include spending cuts that Republicans have demanded in talks with Obama."This approach does not meet the test of balance, and the president would veto the legislation in the unlikely event of its passage."If Boehner and Obama do not reach a deal before the end of the year, George W Bush-era tax cuts on all Americans will expire and taxes will go up.Obama campaigned on renewing tax cuts for people earning less than $250 000 but has since moved the threshold in negotiations with Boehner up to $400 000.Boehner spokesperson Brendan Buck called what he said was the White House's opposition to a back-up plan "bizarre and irrational”."In the absence of a 'balanced' solution from the president ... we must act to stop taxes from rising across the board in 12 days," he said.Earlier this week, hopes were rising for a deal but Boehner's decision to put a Plan B on the House floor has some observers wondering whether he can sell a deal with Obama to his own restive caucus.White House officials privately say that they believe Obama has made significant compromises in search of a deal with Boehner, including agreeing to a Republican plan to calculate the impact of inflation on the Social Security retirement plan, which could slow the growth of benefits.

Global disasters cost $140bn

Natural and man-made disasters around the world this year, including Superstorm Sandy, will cost at least $140bn (€106bn), according to a study published by Swiss insurance group Swiss Re on Wednesday.The insurance industry will cover about $65bn of all losses from such catastrophes, the study showed, ticking in above the average for the past 10 years.It nevertheless marked a significant drop from 2011, when massive earthquakes and flooding forced insurers to dish out more than $120bn to cover disaster-related losses.Natural catastrophes alone this year will lead to more than 11 000 deaths and $60bn in insured claims, Swiss Re said in a statement.But after two years when natural disasters such as the devastating Haiti earthquake and Pakistan floods were largely concentrated in Asia Pacific and South America, "2012 is dominated by large, weather-related losses in the US", it added. The "top-five insured loss events" had all happened in the US, it pointed out. They included Hurricane Sandy which wreaked havoc across the east coast of the country, as well as in the Caribbean and the Bahamas at the end of October."Estimates for the insured cost of the devastation are between $20 and $25bn," it said, though "it is still too soon to gauge the final overall damage".In addition, extremely dry weather conditions in the US had led to "one of the worst droughts in recent decades, affecting more than half of the country", the study showed. Drought-related agricultural losses there were expected to swell to $11bn, it added.

Claims from superstorm Sandy in check

The Lloyd's of London insurance market said it can cope comfortably with claims from Superstorm Sandy that could cost it up to $2.5bn, the third-biggest loss in its 324-year history.There will be no impact on the market's central fund, a cash reserve used to meet claims, if any of the insurance syndicates operating at Lloyd's finds itself unable to pay."The Lloyd's insurance market remains financially strong and, while claims from this storm could still evolve over time, the market's total exposure is well within worst-case scenarios," Chief Executive Richard Ward said on Wednesday. Sandy, which killed 132 people as it swept through the northeastern United States on October 29, is expected to cost the insurance industry up to $25bn, making it the second-costliest storm after hurricane Katrina in 2005. At the top of the Lloyd's estimated range, Sandy would displace last year's Thai floods as the market's third-biggest loss, surpassed only by Katrina and the September 11 terrorist attacks. Those disasters cost Lloyd's $4.3bn and $3bn respectively, without adjusting for inflation.Sandy came towards the end of a relatively uneventful year for natural catastrophes, in contrast with 2011, which was the industry's second-costliest year on record after Japan's Tohoku earthquake and Thailand's worst floods in half a century. Analysts say that insurers' claims bill for 2012, as a whole, will be relatively subdued and most should turn a profit for the year."My overriding view is that all Sandy will do is turn what would have been an exceptionally profitable year back into an average to slightly below average year," Espirito Santo analyst Joy Ferneyhough said. Insurers look set to absorb about $65bn in catastrophe claims this year, slightly more than half the $120bn they picked up in 2011, reinsurer Swiss Re said on Wednesday. Lloyd's, a group of about 80 competing insurance syndicates that traces its origins back to a 17th century London coffee house where merchants insured ships, has historically borne 10% of the claims from big natural disasters.Insurers and analysts have said that accurately assessing the final bill from Sandy is difficult because of the size of the affected region, which includes New York and other densely populated and industrialised areas.

NEWS,18.08.2012

Barclays 'Deeply Flawed,' Bank of England's Involvement 'Difficult To Justify': Parliamentary Report

 

Company culture at Barclays was "deeply flawed" and the Bank of England's hand in removing its chief executive Bob Diamond was hard to justify, a UK parliamentary report into the "disgraceful" rigging of Libor interest rates said on Saturday.Few emerge unscathed from the Treasury Select Committee's 300-page report and annexes, based on a string of high-profile hearings after Barclays was fined a record $453 million on June 27 for manipulating the London Interbank Offered Rate or Libor."Such behaviour would only be possible if the management of the bank turned a blind eye to the culture of the trading floor," the report said."The standards and culture of Barclays, and banking more widely, are in a poor state," it said, adding it was unlikely the bank acted alone. Barclays is the first of several banks expected to be fined for rigging a rate which forms a reference point for home loans, credit cards and other financial transactions worth over $350 trillion globally.The report slammed the UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA) watchdog for being behind the curve, giving ammunition to London's critics by starting its own formal probe into Libor setting two years after U.S. authorities had kicked off theirs.It said the delay contributed to the perceived weakness of London in regulating financial markets and recommended many reforms, several of which are already being looked at elsewhere, such as criminal penalties and direct oversight.The FSA responded that its managing director Martin Wheatley will consider the report's findings in his government-commissioned review of Libor due to be published in September.The government also welcomed the report and would consider any necessary legislative changes called for by Wheatley.Barclays said it does not expect to agree with all the report but "we recognise that change is required, not least to restore stakeholder trust".The FSA and U.S. authorities are still probing HSBC , Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds and several non-UK banks in connection with possible manipulation. Diamond, Barclays' Chairman Marcus Agius and Chief Operating Officer Jerry del Missier all quit in July.Bank of England Governor Mervyn King and FSA Chairman Adair Turner told lawmakers they did not demand that Diamond step down, but the report concluded that their intervention meant it was a "fait accompli".King and Turner stepped in following public outrage over Barclays after the rigging was disclosed in June.” The Governor's involvement is difficult to justify," the report said, dismissing King's defence the Bank would be regulating lenders anyway from 2013 when the FSA is scrapped The central bank must be made accountable to avoid such potential abuses of power, the report said.The Bank of England said in a statement it did not have any regulatory responsibility for Libor at the time and that King's meeting with Agius on the day he resigned was "fully justified"The report criticised Barclays' board for several failings and Diamond himself, saying his testimony to parliament was unforthcoming and selective in parts, and fell well short of the candour and frankness expected.Diamond said in a statement he had responded to questions from lawmakers "truthfully, candidly and based on information available to me. I categorically refute any suggestion to the contrary."A focus of the hearings was a conversation between Diamond and Bank of England Deputy Governor Paul Tucker in Oct. 2008 when markets were in meltdown after the collapse of U.S. bank Lehman Brother the previous month.They agreed that the conversation did not amount to directing Barclays to "low ball" its Libor rate submission in a bid to show it had no problem borrowing from other banks.The heavy public emphasis by Barclays on this conversation may have been a "smokescreen" to distract from more serious failings at the lender and made no fundamental difference to the bank's behaviour, the report said."Barclays did not need a nod, a wink or any signal from the Bank of England to lower artificially their Libor submissions. The bank was already well practised in doing this," it said.Tucker told the lawmakers that possible clues to dishonesty did not ring alarm bells at the time, suggesting "naivety" on the part of the BoE, the report added.Tucker has long been seen as a leading candidate to replace BoE Governor Mervyn King, who stands down next year, and while his grilling in the hearings was seen as setting back his chances, he escapes the trenchant criticism levied at other players.Turner, another candidate for the deputy governorship, also escapes uniformly bad criticism, the report saying the FSA was on the case in questioning Barclays' culture of risk taking.But the FSA's probe left unanswered whether senior figures from Whitehall, a reference to government, instructed Tucker to ask Barclays to low ball its Libor submissions.Evidence received by lawmakers suggested Whitehall simply wanted to know if government efforts to prop up the financial system were working and Barclays was safe, the report said."This was understandable given the fragility of the UK and international financial system in October 2008," it added.Libor is overseen by the British Bankers' Association (BBA), whose review in 2008 appears to have been "an opportunity missed to stop the attempted manipulation that was occurring" and the report questions whether the BBA should keep its role.

Juncker: Greece won't leave eurozone

Greece won't leave the 17-nation eurozone, Luxembourg's prime minister said, arguing in an interview published Saturday that an exit wouldn't be politically feasible and would carry unforeseeable risks.Greece has been kept afloat by international loans, but has fallen behind on implementing reforms and austerity measures demanded in exchange, fueling impatience in Germany and other prosperous nations and speculation about a possible euro exit.But Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who also chairs eurozone finance ministers' meetings, was quoted as saying in an interview with Austrian newspaper Tiroler Tageszeitung: "It will not happen unless Greece violates all the conditions and keeps to no agreements.""In the case of a total refusal by Greece regarding budget consolidation and structural reforms, one would have to deal with the question," he said, according to the report. "But because I assume that Greece will try to redouble its efforts and achieve the targets that have been set, there is no reason to assume that this exit scenario can become relevant."Juncker said an exit would be "technically," but not "politically" feasible and insisted: "We are not working on it."There's little enthusiasm among creditors such as Germany for granting Greece more time to fulfill the terms of its international aid packages or other concessions. Juncker said it wasn't possible to say whether Athens might be granted more time before a report next month from its debt inspectors, but he doesn't currently consider an extension "absolutely necessary."Germany's vice chancellor, Economy Minister Philipp Roesler, said recently that the idea of Greece leaving the euro has "lost its horror." A regional official with one of the country's governing parties, Bavarian state finance minister Markus Soeder, has called for Greece to leave the currency this year and argued that "an example must be made of Athens."There has been no such talk from Chancellor Angela Merkel or Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, though they also have shown little appetite for concessions."I have always said that we can help the Greeks, but we cannot responsibly throw money into a bottomless pit," Schaeuble said during an appearance Saturday at his ministry's annual open day.He conceded that "it is immensely difficult for the Greeks," and said that Germans shouldn't speak "disrespectfully" of other nations.

Heineken raises bid for Tiger brewer

Heineken NV has raised its offer of more than $6 billion for Fraser and Neave's (F&N) stake in the maker of Tiger beer as it tries to fend off a Thai rival, a source close to the situation said today.The Dutch brewer's revised offer for Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) of 53 Singapore dollars per share compares to its earlier bid of S$50 and a partial offer by the Thai billionaire's group of S$55 per APB share.Heineken, the world's third biggest brewer, is seeking control of Asia Pacific Breweries to gain a larger slice of one of the last beer markets that is still growing rapidly.But Heineken's efforts have been complicated by Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, Thailand's second-richest man, as he tries to expand his Thai Beverage empire in the Southeast Asian market.The source said Heineken had raised its offer for the 58% of APB which it does not already own. That includes the 40% of APB held by its long-time partner Fraser and Neave, a drinks and property conglomerate.But it was not clear the new offer would seal the deal, the source said. Both Heineken and F&N declined to comment.Sources had earlier said a sweetened offer could depend on F&N not accepting the partial Thai bid. It was not clear whether the new offer was conditional.ThaiBev recently became F&N's largest shareholder with 26.4%. Charoen's son-in-law, through his group Kindest Place, separately offered to buy F&N's direct 7.3% stake in APB at S$55 per share."Heineken's resolve to win APB seems to be very strong," said Andrew Chow, head of research at UOB Kay Hian in Singapore."APB has an extensive distribution network and breweries. Its Tiger brand is also strong in Asia."The Thais have said they want to work with Heineken, but sources close to the situation say it would not be keen to cooperate with a competitor.APB has had nearly 20% annual earnings growth over the last decade.The biggest brand APB brews is Heineken itself, accounting for 30 % of its volume, but it also makes Tiger, Bintang and Anchor and runs 30 breweries in countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia."Heineken just can't afford to lose," said one analyst who did not want to be quoted by name, although he said that even a higher offer could bring another bid from its rival - perhaps even as high as S$60."Still, it sounds like we are reaching the end-game," he said.Among Southeast Asian brewers, APB is the sixth-largest in terms of sales across the Asia Pacific region, behind San Miguel Corp of the Philippines in number one spot and ThaiBev in fourth, according to Euromonitor's latest data for 2011.Trading of APB and F&N shares in Singapore was suspended on Friday pending an announcement.Heineken had said its earlier offer of S$50 a share was a 45% premium to the price of APB shares before it made its bid and the F&N board had agreed to recommend the bid to its shareholders."Heineken wants full control of Asia Pacific Breweries, while Charoen wants a piece of that growth and is positioning himself to gain handsomely if Heineken wants to buy him out in the future," said an investment banking source in London.ABP shares have jumped from under S$35 in mid-July before stake building began to S$50.57 at Thursday's close. F&N shares, meanwhile, have risen from S$7.40 since mid-July to end at S$8.40 on Thursday. Both have hit record highs in recent weeks.The Heineken deal could prompt a breakup of F&N with Coca-Cola keeping an eye on its popular soft-drink 100PLUS, fruit juices, mineral water and dairy products unit, which could be hived off from the Singapore group's property assets.Goldman Sachs is advising F&N, while Citigroup and Credit Suisse are advisers to Heineken. Morgan Stanley and HSBC are advising the Thais.