NEWS,09.07.2012

Germans prefer old school media

 

Americans love to publicly debate it, British people hardly ever pay for it online and Germans prefer to get theirs through more traditional means, according to a survey about media consumption released on Monday.The survey looked at the consumption habits in Britain, the United States, Germany, Denmark and France, and found that TV and online platforms are now the overwhelming choice for news.Although computers remain the most popular medium on which to view news, with at least 74% doing so in the last week across the board, at least 20% had used a mobile for the same purpose in the same period. Around 8.5% used a tablet computer, while e-readers and other devices remained niche products.The report pointed to a more flexible and personalised consumption model which no longer relied on home or office internet access.The increasing range of mobile devices was adding to the news experience, it said, rather than replacing other forms of access.London-based journalist Nic Newman, who wrote the study, said: "Of those surveyed, nearly eight out of 10 people accessed online news every week, but the transition from print to digital is much slower in other European countries." Germans showed the greatest allegiance to traditional forms of media for news, with only six out of 10 using online sources over the last week, compared to an average of eight of 10 everywhere else.Nearly seven out of 10 pick up a newspaper or tune in to the radio.In Britain, only four percent had ever paid for digital news, compared to 12% in Denmark, and between six and eight percent elsewhere. However tablet users, who accounted for 13% of the sample, were just as likely to shell out for news applications such as the Guardian's or the Daily Telegraph's as they were to use free ones.While traditional media brands dominated people's usage across Europe, over half of all Americans polled also cited newer sources such as Huffington Post and Gawker. Nearly seven out of 10 people in the US used polls, comment boxes and sharing functions to engage with the news, compared to roughly four out of 10 in most other countries.The survey was conducted by YouGov on behalf of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford. It involved a representative sample of more than 6 000 people during April.

 

Eurozone to force Spain banks to hike capital

Eurozone finance ministers have said they will oblige Spain's battered banks to further boost the share of rock-solid core capital on their books at a meeting on Monday, the daily El Pais said."All Spanish entities will have to raise their high quality 'core capital' to 9%," the daily said, citing European sources with knowledge of the negotiations.So far, only the biggest Spanish banks have had to keep such a high ratio of core capital as a proportion of total assets.The meeting in Brussels is to discuss details of a eurozone rescue loan of up to €100bn euros ($125bn) to salvage Spain's banks, laden with loans that turned bad after a 2008 property market crash.It comes as investors show deep misgivings about Spain's finances despite the banking rescue.A European Union summit from June 28-29 had been hailed as a brekathrough for promising a eurozone bank union to keep the lenders in line and making it easier for the bloc's new bailout fund to help states in trouble.But investors' concerns have returned, in part because of doubts over the details and timetable for implementing the banking rescue and the sweeping EU summit agreements.Spanish 10 year government bond yields surged to 7.026% in morning trade from 6.912% late on Friday, a worrying sign for Madrid for future debt issues.Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has warned that his country cannot afford to finance its operations at such high interest rates over the long term, raising the spectre of an all-out state bailout.Link Securities said it seemed that the EU summit agreements would be respected.That would allow EU rescue mechanisms to pump rescue loan money directly into Spain's banks without adding to the nation's fast-rising sovereign debt, it said.It also would ensure that the EU rescue mechanism does not take priority over other lenders for repayment in the case of a Spanish default, a prospect that had unnerved potential investors, Link Securities said."Now they have to decide when and how this plan will be implemented, and what will be asked in exchange," it said."One of the non-negotiable conditions imposed by the 'men in black' is the creation of a 'bad bank'," which would pool all the toxic property-related loans, said business daily Expansion.Analysts at Spanish brokerage Renta 4 said they did not expect any protocol to be signed at the Brussels talks on Monday. But ministers may agree on a draft deal to be signed at their next meeting July 20, they said.

 

Spanish Borrowing Costs Rise To Dangerously High Levels

 

Spain's borrowing costs rose to dangerously high levels Monday as finance ministers of the 17 countries that use the euro began to gather in Brussels to discuss terms of a rescue package for the country's stricken banks.The interest rate, or yield, on the country's 10-year bonds hit 7 percent Monday morning, a level that market-watchers consider is unaffordable for a country to raise money on the bond markets in the long term and the point at which Greece, Ireland and Portugal all sought an international bailout. Stocks on Madrid's benchmark index fell 1.7 percent. The yield later fell back down to 6.99 percent.The yield indicates the interest rate a government would have to pay to raise money from financial markets when it holds bond auctions. While Spain can afford the high rates for a few weeks at least, it would find them too expensive in the longer term.Spanish officials had originally indicated that it would decide on Monday how much the country's troubled banks would get from a €100 billion ($124 billion) lifeline from other members of the 17-country eurozone. Spain's bank industry has been struggling since 2008 under the weight of toxic loans and assets following a collapse in the country's property market.But an official with Spain' economy ministry said last week that the meeting of eurozone finance ministers was not expected to generate a figure for how much Spain would tap. Ministers planned to discuss terms of the loan and may or may not finalize some of them at the evening session, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with policy.Outside auditors are expected to complete rigorous assessments of Spanish banks by July 31. Separate stress tests will also be conducted on individual lenders banks to determine how much each bank needs to strengthen its balance sheets against further economic shocks if they can't raise capital on their own, the official said. These results are due to be published in mid-September.The Spanish official's comments reflect those made by a European official in Brussels last week, who said that no numbers for the overall loan amount would be coming out until bank-by-bank stress tests had been completed. The official added that one of the aims of Monday's meeting would be to get a "political understanding" of the memorandum of understanding for Spain's loan so ministers could start paving the way in their countries to get the bailout approved. Spain's loan needs the green light from all 17 countries using the euro.Investors fear a full-blown bailout of Spanish public finances would be too large for the eurozone to handle. The country's economy is the fourth largest among the 17 nations that use the common euro currency  behind Germany, France and Italy - and it is also larger than those of Greece, Ireland and Portugal combined.The interest rate on Spanish 10-year bonds hit a eurozone high of 7.18 percent in intraday trading on June 18 before closing at 7.12 percent that day, according to financial data provider FactSet.

 

Russia's highest court backs WTO entry

 

Russia's highest court ruled on Monday that a hard-won deal to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO), that will oblige Moscow to cut import tariffs and open up key sectors in its economy to foreign investment, was in line with the constitution.The ruling, issued by the Constitutional Court in a unanimous decision from its headquarters in St Petersburg, clears the way for a final parliamentary vote to ratify entry into the 155-member global trade rules club.The vote will take place on Tuesday with a majority of lawmakers expected to rubber-stamp accession. The original deal was clinched last December after 18 years of often-difficult talks. Russia, whose $1.9 trillion economy is the largest outside the WTO, would become a full member 30 days after ratification.The court's ruling quashed a case brought by lawmakers from the opposition Communist and Just Russia parties who had unsuccessfully argued that the ratification procedure and parts of the accession deal were unconstitutional.Recently elected for a third presidential term, President Vladimir Putin had long appeared ambivalent over WTO entry but warmed to the process after Russia's economy was hit hard by the global recession of 2008-2009.According to a World Bank study, the growth uplift that Russia could expect from joining the WTO could be 3.3% over the medium term and as much as 11% in the long run.Under the deal, Russia would gradually cut averageimport tariffs to 7.8% from 10% and open up investment in sectors such as telecommunications, while shielding its banking sector from overall foreign control.Russia managed to protect hefty subsidies to promote its domestic auto industry and negotiated a long transitional period for reducing state aid to farmers.

NEWS,04.04.2012.

French anti-terror raids: security and protection, or electioneering?

Nicolas Sarkozy's opponents query the 'spectacle' of the raids and their timing in the wake of Mohamed Merah's killing spreeOnce again, France woke to news of a string of dawn raids against suspected Islamists across the country, from the old industrial heartlands of the north to Marseille on the southern coast. Days earlier, rolling TV-news and breakfast bulletins broadcast dramatic images as elite anti-terrorist squads in black body armour smashed windows and bashed down doors shouting "Police!", emerging with hand-cuffed suspects with their faces covered, on residential streets from Nantes to Toulouse.Less than three weeks before the first round of the presidential election, France is gripped by one of its biggest crackdowns on suspected radical Islamists in recent memory. Amplified by TV coverage, it has been led by an unrelenting Nicolas Sarkozy, who is also battling for re-election. Opposition politicians now openly question whether the timing and TV crews are as much linked to electioneering as anti-terrorist crime prevention.France is still in a state of shock and confusion after Mohamed Merah, a 23-year-old unemployed panelbeater from Toulouse, went on a 10-day killing spree across south-west France, executing three paratroopers and shooting children and a rabbi at the gates of a Jewish school. Following a dramatic 32-hour siege at his flat, Merah died in a hail of police bullets as he leapt from the balcony. But questions remain over how Merah  who claimed inspiration from al-Qaida, was heavily armed, on police intelligence files and had been under surveillance  was not picked up earlier and his attacks prevented. Some commentators warn that the new anti-terrorist crackdown, which included the deportation of a handful of preachers, should not be used as a smokescreen to distract from potential failings in the Merah operation.The right-wing Sarkozy had long ago seen his election strategy compared to that of his friend George W Bush's 2004 fight for re-election in the US: styling himself as the only trustworthy protector of the nation in the face of serious threat. A month ago, the danger was impending financial meltdown. Now, it is closer to Bush's own target: Islamist fundamentalism and terrorism. Sarkozy last week likened the Toulouse killings to France's 9/11. The scale of the attacks maybe different, he said, but the national "traumatism" was the same.The justice system will have the last word on the arrests, which were not directly linked to Merah. Preliminary charges have been filed against 13 alleged members of a banned fundamentalist group. An intelligence chief suggested militants were planning a kidnapping. The 10 arrested on Wednesday were suspected of links to Islamist websites and of threatening violence in online forums.But in an election more than ever determined by TV coverage, Sarkozy's opponents queried the "spectacle" of the raids and their timing in the wake of the Toulouse killings. "I'm not questioning all that's being done. I'm simply saying that we should have perhaps done more before," said François Hollande, the Socialist candidate. The government insists the arrests had nothing to do with the elections, but with the security and protection of France.The "Toulouse effect" on the presidential race has so far been limited. Crucially, it allowed Sarkozy, during a week of national mourning, to regain presidential stature. Before Toulouse, he had been heckled so badly on the campaign trail in the Basque country that he took refuge in a bar. Now, over 70% of French people approve his stance at the time of the Toulouse killings. His poll ratings have lifted giving him a narrow lead in the first-round, but Hollande remains ahead in the final 6 May run-off.Yet the shootings have not changed French voters' chief topics of concern: crippling unemployment and the difficulty making ends meet. Crime and terrorism remain low on their list. Indeed, many French people feel disappointed that the presidential debate isn't addressing their everyday worries, and abstentionism could be high. But the extreme-right Front National's Marine Le Pen has used Toulouse to hammer home her rhetoric on fears about Islam,terrorism, immigration and what she warned were fundamentalists festering on France's notorious suburban high-rise estates (even if the raids were often carried out on smart semi-detached houses). To win the election, Sarkozy knows he must court Le Pen's voters. Politicians and religious leaders, have warned against stigmatising French Muslims a long held fear following Sarkozy's recent Front National-inspired election crusade against halal meat.

 

Anna Chapman never got anywhere near seducing a member of US cabinet

Anna Chapman, the famously sultry Russian operative who was arrested in the US with nine others for espionage in 2010, was apparently "close to seducing a sitting member of President Barack Obama's cabinet."The reports were based on an interview that Frank Figliuzzi, the FBI's assistant director of counterintelligence, gave to the BBC in which he called the confessed spy a "honeytrap", adding: "She got close enough to disturb us."The story went viral.There's only one problem with it, though: it's not true in the slightest."It's a completely bogus story,"a defense department spokesman told. "They made a giant leap."Figliuzzi never mentions Chapman, 30, by name in the BBC video. And while he did say that one of the 10 operatives had gotten "close enough to a sitting US cabinet member" to "disturb" the agency, he wasn't talking about Chapman. Nor was he talking about seduction. The New York Daily News picked up the story under the drooling headline: "Sexy Russian spygal Anna Chapman got too close to President Obama's inner circle, FBI official tells BBC."heir article, which ran Wednesday, is maddeningly confusing.In the fourth paragraph, the Daily News reports: A high-ranking FBI official says Anna Chapman was busted in 2010 spy ring because flame-haired sexpot got too close to sitting President Obama cabinet member.But the sixth paragraph directly contradicts this: Flame-haired sexpot Anna Chapman was quickly fingered as the tight-bodied temptress by the British press  but the needle slowly moved in the direction of dowdy New Jersey housewife Cynthia Murphy, who was also taken down in the spy sting.It's not until the twelfth paragraph that the paper admits: Figliuzzi refused to reveal the cabinet member  or the female spy.But the "honey trap" may have actually been G-man speak for cold, hard cash  and the access it can gain with powerful people.So why headline it otherwise?It was ABC News that actually bothered to pick up a phone to call the FBI. The network reports that the spy Figliuzzi was referring to is, in fact, Cynthia Murphy. And by "getting too close" to an Obama cabinet member, he meant as a financial advisor to a Hillary Clinton fundraiser.The FBI, for its part, released a statement denying that Chapman attempted to seduce a cabinet member. Mr Figliuzzi's comments to BBC were consistent with and confined to the information outlined in the criminal complaint that was filed nearly two years ago. There is no allegation or suggestion in the complaint that Anna Chapman or anyone else associated with this investigation attempted to seduce a US cabinet officialChapman, of course, is a red-headed beauty who has since modeled in lingerie for Maxim and hosted a TV programme in Russia. She was ratings and Internet gold when her story broke in 2010  a femme fatale in the flesh. So it's perhaps somewhat understandable that the Telegraph and the Daily News would leap at the opportunity to splash her come-hither photograph on its pages without actually bothering to fact check their stories.

NEWS,22.02.2012

Venezuela's Chavez needs another operation

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez speaks with workers at a tractor factory in Barinas 

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez will undergo another operation in the coming days after doctors in Cuba found a lesion in his pelvis where surgeons removed a large cancerous tumor last year, he said.The 57-year-old socialist leader confirmed he travelled to Havana for the tests on Saturday. Rumors of the unannounced trip had prompted a flood of speculation among the opposition and supporters alike that he was at death's door. Chavez’s health is the wildcard ahead of an October 7 presidential election, when he will seek a new six-year term. He has never given many details about his condition so the news he needs more surgery was bound to feed doubts about his recovery.” There is no metastasis, just this small lesion in the same place where they removed the tumor," the president said during a televised tour of a factory in his home state of Barinas on Tuesday.” Because of the growing rumors, I'm obliged to give this information now ... it's a small lesion, about two centimetres across, very clearly visible. This will need to be taken out, it needs more surgery, supposedly less complicated than before.” He said the next operation would take place in the coming days, but that it had not yet been decided where.” No one should be alarmed ... I'm in good physical condition to face this new battle," he said. "It has to be verified whether there is any link with the tumor that was there before.” In a phone call to state TV later, the president added: "No one can say if it (the lesion) is malignant, but there is a high probability because it is in the same place.” He had insisted he was completely recovered, although medical experts had said it was too soon to make such a call. Donning a bright red hard hat to stroll around the proposed site of the giant Veneminsk factory, the president joked with workers and looked to be in reasonable health.A US cancer doctor told  that with such little detail it was impossible to know his real condition, but that the latest turn of events did not look good.” They have always played their cards close to their chest, so you never really know," said the doctor, who has followed the case from afar but asked not to be named.” But a two centimeter lesion in the same space where he had cancer before means there is a high probability of malignancy. This is serious, very significant.” Venezuela’s information minister had earlier denounced a report that Chavez had been rushed back to Havana for emergency treatment as part of a "dirty war by scum," launched by the opposition ahead of the election.A prominent opposition-leaning Venezuelan journalist, Nelson Bocaranda, wrote on Monday that Chavez, who had two operations in Havana last June, had returned unexpectedly to Cuba over the weekend and that some of his relatives had flown there too. Chavez allies were scathing about Bocaranda after the president appeared on television. Deputy Foreign Minister Temir Porras joked on Twitter: "They'll have to take me for an emergency operation in Cuba. I'm dying of laughter!” Local political analyst Luis Vicente Leon said any new "sympathy" bounce in support linked to the president's illness would be lower and short-lasting the second time round."Clearly the tensions within Chavismo will grow because of the uncertainty generated by this announcement," he said.The public's reactions to Chavez's news were mixed."Maybe it's time for a change in the country. Everything points to that," said Elizabeth Gonzalez, a 42-year-old housewife in Caracas. Car park attendant William Perez said the president had looked alright, if a bit swollen-faced.” He didn't appear bad or tired. He's a fighter, and like his motto he'll live and he'll conquer!" he said. Barclays Capital noted that polls show more than three-quarters of Venezuelans believed Chavez had fully recovered."However, if that perception changes it could significantly affect Chavez's re-election chances, not only physically limiting his ability to campaign but also creating doubts about the viability of a new term in office," it said. The opposition is newly united behind one candidate - youthful state governor Henrique Capriles - and see the vote as their best chance to end Chavez's 13 years in power. Recent opinion polls have given Chavez an edge over Capriles, thanks partly to a huge program of new state spending on social projects. But about a third of Venezuelans remain undecided, and competition for their votes will be intense.One medical source close to the team treating Chavez in Venezuela said he had been suffering a tumor lysis, or cell breakdown, which carried symptoms including a high fever.Before Chavez's reappearance on Tuesday, Venezuelan analyst Diego Moya-Ocampos had suggested his absence could well be a strategy by Chavez's campaign team to put the focus back on him and not Capriles, who since winning the opposition primary had been at the center of media and political attention.He said the fact that the latest rumors had spread so fast just underlined the anxiety among loyalists each time Chavez vanished from view for more than a couple of days. Chavez apologised to his supporters on Tuesday, saying he knew the speculation about his health was upsetting for them.” Always these rumors ... There are people who want me dead, who hate me so much," he said. "I am very sorry, because I know that while some people are happy, the majority are suffering.” Venezuela’s widely traded debt was largely flat to slightly higher. Its 2027 Global bond was up 0.56 points in price to bid 80.563, yielding 12.041%, unchanged after Chavez spoke.