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Pentagon launches TroopTube
November 13, 2008, 6:35 am

More than a year after banning US soldiers from using YouTube, the Pentagon has launched TroopTube, its own video-sharing site.

"TroopTube is the new online video site designed to help military families connect and keep in touch while miles apart," TroopTube said in a statement on its homepage at Trooptube.tv.

It said the site was meant for use by "Active Duty, Guard, Reserve and their families" - an estimated four million people.

Videos on TroopTube can be viewed by any visitor but registration is required to upload material to the site.

One of the videos on the homepage is a tribute to the troops from General David Petraeus , the new commander of Central Command, for their "tremendous work" in Iraq , Afghanistan and elsewhere.

TroopTube was created in partnership with a Seattle, Washington-based startup, Delve Networks, and Marion, Montgomery, Inc, a marketing and interactive agency.

In May 2007, the Pentagon banned US servicemen using Department of Defence computer systems from using YouTube, MySpace and 10 other social-networking websites.

It said the ban was intended to prevent military internet connections from being clogged with uploads or downloads of data-rich files such as video clips.

The move was also meant to guard against infiltration by malicious or spying software hidden in files by hackers.

Until the ban, US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan had been using YouTube and social networks to share videos, images or stories about their daily lives.

US soldiers are still allowed to write online journals, or "milblogs," using Department of Defence networks as long as they adhere to requirements not to reveal information that could jeopardise missions.

MySpace , YouTube and the other websites were targeted for restriction after a usage study showed they were the most visited websites by soldiers, according to the Pentagon .

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Gay couples can marry in Connecticut
November 13, 2008, 6:34 am

A judge has cleared the way for gay marriage in Connecticut, a victory for advocates stung by California's referendum that banned same-sex unions in that state.

Some couples planned to celebrate by immediately marching to New Haven City Hall to get marriage licences. At least one ceremony was scheduled Wednesday morning on the New Haven green.

Some of the eight couples who successfully challenged a state law prohibiting gay marriages last month wept as Judge Jonathan Silbert entered his judgment, based on a state Supreme Court ruling.

The judge's order marks "the end of a very long journey toward equality," said their lawyer, Bennett Klein.

"Each of the plaintiffs asked me to convey to the court how proud they are to be citizens of this state," Klein said.

"It's a great day for Connecticut," plaintiff Robin Levine-Ritterman said.

The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled 4-3 on October 10 that same-sex couples have the right to wed rather than accept a civil union law designed to give them the same rights as married couples.

Peg Oliveira, 36, a yoga teacher and educational consultant, and Jennifer Vickery, a 44-year-old lawyer, planned to wed on the New Haven green on Wednesday. They have a three-month-old baby.

"We're thrilled and we don't want to wait one minute," Oliveira said earlier. "I want to show the folks who worked so hard to make this possible that we are very grateful and we don't want to wait any longer to be able to say the words 'We are married.'"

Manchester Town Clerk Joseph Camposeo, president of the Connecticut Town Clerks Association, said clerks were advised by email shortly after 9.30am local time they could start issuing the licences.

"The feedback I'm getting from other clerks is that we're all at the ready, but no one really has a sense yet of what kind of volume we're going to get," he said.

According to the state public health department, 2,032 civil union licences were issued in Connecticut between October 2005 and July 2008.

The health department had new marriage applications printed that reflect the change. Instead of putting one name under "bride" and the other under "groom," couples will see two boxes marked "bride/groom/spouse."

Only Connecticut and Massachusetts have legalised gay marriage. The unions were legal in California until a statewide referendum to ban gay marriage narrowly passed last week. The vote has sparked protests and several lawsuits asking that state's Supreme Court to overturn the prohibition.

Constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage also passed last week in Arizona and Florida, and Arkansas voters approved a measure banning unmarried couples from serving as adoptive or foster parents.

However, Connecticut voters last week rejected the idea of a constitutional convention to amend the state's constitution, a major blow to opponents of same-sex marriage.

The Family Institute of Connecticut, a political action group that opposes gay marriage, condemned the high court's decision as undemocratic. Peter Wolfgang, the group's executive director, acknowledged banning gay marriage in Connecticut would be difficult but vowed not to give up.

"Unlike California, we did not have a remedy," Wolfgang said. "It must be overturned with patience, determination and fortitude."

The state's 2005 civil union law will remain on the books, at least for now. Same-sex couples can continue to enter civil unions, which give them the same legal rights and privileges in Connecticut as married couples without the status of being married.

State Representative Michael Lawlor, D-East Haven, co-chairman of the legislature's Judiciary Committee, said legislators will have to decide the fate of the civil union law.

"We'll definitely be taking this up," he said. The new legislative session opens in January.

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Royal navy kills two Somali pirates
November 13, 2008, 6:21 am

LONDON (Reuters) - The Royal navy killed two Somali pirates after the attempted hijacking of a Danish cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest shipping routes, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said on Wednesday.

The men were killed when a Royal Navy crew returned fire as they intercepted a boat about 60 miles south of Yemen on Tuesday.

HMS Cumberland was in the region as part of a NATO mission to protect shipping after scores of pirate attacks on ships in the key route that links Europe to Asia and the Middle East.

It was joined by a Russian frigate Neustrashimy (Fearless) from Russia's Baltic Sea Fleet, Russian navy spokesman Igor Dygalo told state channel Vesti-24.

"Boats launched by Cumberland to intercept the dhow (traditional Arab boat) were involved in an exchange of fire," the MoD spokesman said. "Two foreign nationals, believed to be Somali pirates, were shot and killed in self defence."

British sailors found a third man, thought to be a Yemeni national, dead on the vessel. It was not clear whether he had been killed in the shooting or in an earlier incident, the spokesman added.

The Yemeni dhow was towing a smaller boat which the Cumberland's crew believed had attacked the Danish-registered cargo ship MV Powerful earlier on Tuesday.

Dygalo said a Russian Ka-27 helicopter and a British Lynx helicopter were involved.

"The pirates tried to shoot at the (Danish) vessel with automatic weapons and made several attempts to seize it," he added. "But thanks to the joint efforts of the Russian and British warships the pirates' actions were disrupted."

He said the Russian frigate was now escorting several foreign merchant ships in the area.

Pirates have been causing havoc in the Gulf of Aden, taking millions of dollars in ransoms, raising insurance costs and threatening humanitarian supplies.

Diplomatic relations between Britain and Russia have been strained following the murder of Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko who was killed with a radioactive substance in London two years ago.

Moscow sent the Neustrashimy to the area in September and said at the time its ships would regularly go to zones where pirates were active.

Some observers say the Kremlin is increasingly using the Russian navy to project its renewed power.

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Lego loses toy brick trademark case
November 13, 2008, 6:17 am

Danish toy giant Lego has lost a European court case in a trademark dispute over its famous plastic bricks.

The ruling will allow competitors to continue to market products similar to Lego's iconic brick in the 27 European Union nations.

The European Court of First Instance threw out Lego's challenge to an earlier decision by the EU's trademarks agency.

The case pits Lego against its biggest rival in the children's building blocks arena, Mega Brands of Canada, which brought the case to have Lego's trademark ruled invalid.

A Lego spokeswoman said the company would appeal to the EU's highest court, the European Court of Justice.

"We are of course disappointed," spokeswoman Charlotte Simonsen said.

"We are going to appeal ... We are at Lego convinced in our belief that we are right in our views on trademark legislation," she added.

Lego had gained an EU trademark on the blocks' shape in 1999. However five years later the EU trademark agency scrapped the Lego trademark of a studded toy brick.

While Lego, 50 years old this year, argued that the knobs on the top of its play bricks were "highly distinctive" the European court ruled that the mere shape of a product could not be registered by trademark.

The court found that Lego's claim "must be rejected" and Lego was ordered to pay the court costs.

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Dutchmen jailed for spreading HIV
November 13, 2008, 6:16 am

Three men accused of deliberately infecting others with the AIDS virus at sex orgies have been jailed by a Dutch court for up to nine years.

The two principal accused, 50-year-old Peter Mulder and Hans Jurgens, 35, were jailed for nine and five years respectively, a spokeswoman for the Groningen district court in the north of the country told AFP.

"They were convicted of having attempted to inflict grievous bodily harm," said the spokeswoman, Loes Kiezedrink.

"They wanted to try and infect other people with HIV. But they were convicted of an attempt only because the expert testimony during the trial was not sufficient to prove that their actions caused the HIV infection" of 12 of the 14 complainants, she explained.

The third accused, 49-year-old Wim Dekker, was sentenced to 18 months in jail. He would be freed as he had already served this period behind bars while awaiting judgment.

The trio were arrested in May last year after 14 alleged victims - 12 of whom are HIV-positive or sick with AIDS - pressed charges. The prosecution believed they could have contracted the virus at the sex parties.

The victims were allegedly sedated with a combination of ecstasy, alcohol and the date rape drug GHB (gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid), before being raped or injected with HIV-positive blood.

The combination of drugs leaves a victim helpless and often with no memory of what happened.

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Israel lauds Saudi peace plan before King Abdullah
November 13, 2008, 6:15 am

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Israeli President Shimon Peres seized the rare opportunity of being in the same hall as Saudi King Abdullah on Wednesday to praise a Saudi peace initiative that he said had brought hope to the Middle East.

Addressing a special high-level U.N. General Assembly meeting on dialogue between different religions, Peres termed some of the language in an Arab peace proposal based on the Saudi initiative "inspirational and promising -- a serious opening for real progress."

It was a rare moment -- an Israeli head of state speaking directly to the Saudi Arabian leader, whose country does not recognize Israel . Egypt and Jordan are the only Arab countries to have signed full peace accords with the Jewish state.

Israeli officials, including Peres, have previously said Israel was seriously reconsidering the 2002 Saudi peace initiative, which calls for full Arab recognition of Israel if it gives up lands occupied in a 1967 war and accepts a solution for Palestinian refugees.

But this was the first time a representative of Israel was able to address Abdullah directly.

"Your Majesty, the King of Saudi Arabia , I was listening to your message," Peres said from the podium after the king spoke of the need for religious tolerance and said terrorism was the enemy of religion.

"I wish that your voice will become the prevailing voice of the whole region, of all people," Peres told Abdullah. "It's right, it's needed, it's promising."

"HOLIEST MOUNTAIN"

Unlike Peres, the king did not directly refer to the Saudi initiative.

"The initiative's portrayal of our region's future provides hope to the people and inspires confidence in the nations," Peres told the audience, which included U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and numerous Middle Eastern heads of state.

Peres said a comprehensive peace deal would require successful completion of negotiations with the Palestinians and "sharing the painful cost". He said Israel was ready for that.

Israel , Peres said, was making progress in talks with the Palestinians and "exploring the possibility of real peace with the Syrians, the last in the list of historic conflicts."

"However, there are those in our region who sow hatred and try to widen the abyss and erect barriers, those who seek to wipe out other people and encourage killing," Peres said.

Peres told the assembly that peace in the Middle East was more than a goal, but "a promise made to us at the dawn of time and at the pinnacle of the holiest mountain."

"Let's climb there together," he added.

Israel had previously balked at the Saudi initiative, saying Middle East rapprochement should not come with preconditions.

Disputes over Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, divisions among the Palestinians and Israel's recent political crisis have frustrated attempts by Washington to clinch an Israeli - Palestinian peace deal by the end of this year.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday that he did not expect an agreement by then.

ozimex999

Key players stay away from WTO talks

Thursday November 13, 2008, 6:58 am

The World Trade Organisation held talks with bankers and experts on how the economic crisis is hitting global commerce but key players stayed away ahead of the G20 summit in Washington.

WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy had invited the heads of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, and the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, but neither showed up as the Wednesday meeting has been eclipsed by the forthcoming summit in the US capital.

Even at the time the meeting was announced in October, trade sources indicated that Zoellick and Strauss-Kahn might not attend in person but could send specialists well-versed in trade finance matters.

Representatives from key banks active in the field of trade finance such as HSBC, JP Morgan, Citigroup, Royal Bank of Scotland and Commerzbank did attend the meeting, WTO sources said.

Armando Mariante Carvalho of the Brazilian national development bank (BNDES) said the meeting touched on all aspects of the financial crisis and its impact on trade.

"A summary of the situation of the crisis was made, with an emphasis on the trade finance problems, which are quiet severe," Carvalho told journalists.

"Nobody knows how deep and how long this crisis will be, and how 2009 will be affected and how the trade flow will be affected," he warned.

Brazil has so far not suffered too badly even though some international credit lines have dried up, as the BNDES and the central bank have been able to provide necessary funding, he said.

In October, credit volumes dropped around 20 per cent compared to the annual average, equivalent to around $US16 billion ($A24.33 billion), Carvalho said.

Another banker from Citibank, who did not give his name, said merely that trade financing "has not dried up, but it can always be better."

Lamy said last month that the WTO could act as a model of how to regulate anew the global financial system in the wake of the crisis that has seen Wall Street titans humbled and unprecedented levels of state intervention in the banking sector.

"At a time when there are renewed calls for a better regulation in the financial area, the WTO system provides an example of how the lessons of history and experience have led to the construction of a system of international governance," Lamy said.

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Oil prices hit lowest points in 2 years

Thursday November 13, 2008, 6:58 am

Oil prices sank Wednesday to the lowest levels since the start of 2007, as traders worried about weaker demand for energy amid a gloomy economic outlook, analysts say.

On London's InterContinental Exchange (ICE), Brent North Sea crude for delivery in December tumbled to 54.28 dollars a barrel - the lowest level since January 30, 2007.

It recovered slightly in early afternoon trade to stand at 54.88 dollars, down 83 cents from Tuesday's close.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), light sweet crude for December slid to 57.70 dollars - a point not reached since March 20, 2007.

It later stood at 58.12 dollars a barrel, up 1.18 dollars.

"Oil is now pushing to new traded lows for the year and - if anything - the outlook looks ever more painful," warned Capital Spreads managing director Simon Denham in London.

Prices have slumped more than 60 per cent in value since striking record heights above 147 dollars per barrel in July, as the market has been gripped by worries that a looming global recession will slash energy demand.

Crude futures slumped Tuesday by more than three dollars a barrel in New York, after two days of gains, as stock markets tumbled on recession fears.

"The expectation for the time being is for the world economy to be in a downturn, and therefore for a lack of increase in (crude) demand," said Bache trader Tony Machacek.

Britain and the European Union have called for strong joint action to hold off the recession threatening leading economies, as more grim economic and corporate news battered sentiment this week.

"I think the economic situation, not only in the US but also in Europe, is quite bad and still needs time to rebound," said Ken Hasegawa, manager of the energy desk at Newedge Japan brokerage in Tokyo.

While the world fights a global credit crunch, he said the overall trend in oil prices was lower.

Asian and European stock markets were rattled Wednesday by investor fears that the ongoing financial crisis will wreak havoc at the world's biggest companies, analysts said.

Wall Street stocks fell Tuesday on growing concern about a collapse of automotive giant General Motors, alongside troubling corporate news.

In London on Wednesday, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned that dwindling oil reserves were crucial for the crude market outlook.

"The key determinant in the years to come is the oilfield decline more than demand," said Fatih Birol, chief IEA economist, at a press conference unveiling the agency's World Energy Outlook report.

"Oil demand has peaked in the OECD countries," he added in reference to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an influential policy forum for the world's 30 leading advanced countries.

The IEA, the energy monitoring and policy arm of the OECD, also forecast that extra oil production of 45 million barrels per day was needed by 2030 to offset declining oilfield output.

That was more than four times the current capacity of Saudi Arabia, which is the world's biggest oil producer.

Recent oil project delays announced by several companies could spark a supply crunch by 2010, Birol warned.

"We see and hear about energy investments being delayed... This is a major worry and could lead to a supply crunch and much higher oil prices than we've seen before," Birol added.

The Paris-based IEA, which published its global energy outlook last week, expects world oil demand to start recovering by 2010 from current financial woes, according to Birol.

The IEA forecasts in the annual World Energy Outlook report that oil prices will average 100 dollars a barrel from 2008 to 2015, before doubling by 2030.

Traders were meanwhile gearing up for the latest weekly snapshot of US energy inventories, delayed a day until Thursday because of Veterans Day earlier in the week.

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US focuses on massive rescue plan

Thursday November 13, 2008, 6:27 am

US authorities have scrapped plans to buy up toxic mortgage securities and are shifting the focus of a massive financial rescue plan, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson says.

Paulson said the $US700 billion ($A1.06 trillion) Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) would focus now on continued capital injections to struggling banks, but would also look at ways to help the "non-bank" financial sector.

This could include rescue efforts for credit card and auto loan debt that, like mortgages, is often packaged into securities sold to investors, Paulson said.

"Over these past weeks we have continued to examine the relative benefits of purchasing illiquid mortgage-related assets," he said.

"Our assessment at this time is that this is not the most effective way to use TARP funds, but we will continue to examine whether targeted forms of asset purchase can play a useful role."

But Paulson ruled out the possibility of using TARP for direct aid to the troubled auto sector, which has warned it will soon run out of cash.

"We care about our auto industry in the US. They are a key part of our manufacturing industry," he said.

However, he said, "the intent of the TARP was to deal with the financial industry."

The TARP program approved by Congress was initially aimed at buying up so-called toxic mortgage securities that were clogging the financial system, but analysts had warned that such a plan could prove difficult to implement with prices hard to fix.

In the meantime, US officials had moved to emulate plans in Britain and elsewhere to tackle the credit squeeze by investing directly in banks.

Going further, Paulson said the Treasury would look at other types of consumer credit and asset-backed securities whose markets are frozen.

"The non-bank consumer finance sector continues to face difficult funding issues," Paulson said.

"Specifically, the asset-backed securitisation market has played a critical role for many years in lowering the cost and increasing the availability of consumer finance. This market is currently in distress, costs of funding have skyrocketed and new issue activity has come to a halt."

He said this illiquidity in the sector "is raising the cost and reducing the availability of car loans, student loans and credit cards."

He said the Treasury and Federal Reserve "are exploring the development of a potential liquidity facility for highly rated AAA asset-backed securities" that could help this sector, which is outside the scope of regulated banks.

"We are looking at ways to possibly use the TARP to encourage private investors to come back to this troubled market, by providing them access to federal financing while protecting the taxpayers' investment," he said.

Paulson said the government was also looking at new ways "to mitigate mortgage foreclosures" without purchasing mortgage-backed securities.

One of these efforts announced Tuesday was "an explicit affordability target" set by regulators after taking over one failed bank, IndyMac.

In a related development, US regulators urged banks Wednesday to "fulfill their fundamental role" in the economy by maintaining lending to creditworthy borrowers.

A joint statement by the US Treasury, Federal Reserve and other bank regulators said the economic outlook could be worsened if banks retreat or tighten lending standards too much.

Paulson's comments on the auto sector came as General Motors and Ford, which have lost a combined $US30 billion ($A45.62 billion) so far this year, stepped up pleas for government help.

They have asked for short-term loans of $US25 billion ($A38.02 billion) dollars to forestall their collapse; GM is warning it only has the cash on hand to last a few more months.

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LG, Sharp, Chunghwa fined 585 mln dlrs for price-fixing

Thursday November 13, 2008, 6:19 am

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US Department of Justice imposed fines totaling 585 million dollars on three leading Asian electronics manufacturers on Wednesday after they agreed to plead guilty to price-fixing.

LG Display Co. Ltd., Sharp Corp. and Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd. had acknowledged their roles in conspiracies to fix prices of liquid crystal display (LCD) panels, the department said in a statement.

South Korea's LG Display was hit with the largest fine -- 400 million dollars -- the second-highest criminal fine ever imposed by the Justice Department's Antitrust Division.

Japan's Sharp will pay a fine of 120 million dollars while Taiwan's Chunghwa will pay a fine of 65 million dollars, the department said.

The firms agreed to plead guilty to charges filed in a US District Court in San Francisco and cooperate with the ongoing antitrust investigation, the department said, noting the guilty pleas were subject to court approval.

LCD panels are used in computer monitors, televisions, mobile phones and other electronic devices and the price-fixing had an impact on computer, television and cellular telephone manufacturers such as Apple, Dell and Motorola, the department said.

"Today's charges and criminal fines emphasize the commitment of the Department of Justice to crack down on international cartels," Attorney General Michael Mukasey said.

Assistant Attorney General Thomas Barnett said the price-fixing "affected millions of American consumers who use computers, cell phones and numerous other household electronics every day.

"These convictions, and the significant fines they carry, should send a clear message that the Antitrust Division will vigorously investigate and prosecute illegal cartels, regardless of where they are located," he added.

According to the Justice Department, the companies engaged in price-fixing between 2001 and 2006 involving LCDs sold to Dell for its computer monitors and laptops, Motorola for its Razr mobile phones, and Apple for its iPod portable music player, among others.

The Justice Department said the criminal fine levied on LG Display is the second-largest after the record antitrust fine of 500 million dollars handed down against Swiss pharmaceutical giant F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. in 1999 for fixing vitamin prices.

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US scraps mortgage buy-out scheme

Thursday November 13, 2008, 6:06 am

US authorities have scrapped plans to buy up toxic mortgage securities and are shifting the focus of a massive financial rescue plan, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said overnight.

Mr Paulson said buying up toxic mortgage debt was not the most effective way of repairing America's battered financial system and Government money could be better spent on continuing to buy ownership stakes in troubled American banks.

He also ruled out using the $US700 billion Government rescue package to help out struggling US car companies.

Mr Paulson said the various rescue efforts had clearly helped stabilise the financial system but warned that serious challenges lay ahead.

"Our financial system remains fragile in the face of an economic downturn here and abroad, and financial institutions' balance sheets still hold significant illiquid assets."

Mr Paulson's comments sent Wall Street stocks into a decline, with the Dow Jones down more than 2 per cent in afternoon trade in New York.

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WTO warns trade finance 'deteriorating' amid financial crisis

Thursday November 13, 2008, 6:03 am

GENEVA (AFP) - The World Trade Organization warned Wednesday that the financing of global commerce is "deteriorating" amid the financial crisis and the situation is likely to worsen over the coming months.

"The market for trade finance has severely deteriorated over the last six months, and particularly since September," WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy told ambassadors of the organisation's 153 members following a meeting with trade experts and bankers.

"The view expressed this morning by the trade finance practitioners is that the situation is likely to deteriorate further in the months to come," Lamy said.

He was speaking after a meeting at the WTO's headquarters here with experts and representatives from top banks involved in trade finance -- but without the presence of key invitees such as the heads of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, and the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

Even at the time the meeting was announced in October, trade sources indicated that Zoellick and Strauss-Kahn might not attend in person but could send specialists well-versed in trade finance matters.

Representatives from key banks active in the field of trade finance such as HSBC, JP Morgan, Citigroup, Royal Bank of Scotland and Commerzbank did attend the meeting, WTO sources said.

Armando Mariante Carvalho of the Brazilian national development bank (BNDES) said the meeting touched on all aspects of the financial crisis and its impact on trade.

"A summary of the situation of the crisis was made, with an emphasis on the trade finance problems, which are quite severe," Carvalho told journalists.

"Nobody knows how deep and how long this crisis will be, and how 2009 will be affected and how the trade flow will be affected," he warned.

Brazil has so far not suffered too badly even though some international credit lines have dried up, as the BNDES and the central bank have been able to provide necessary funding, he said.

In October, credit volumes dropped around 20 percent compared to the annual average, equivalent to around 16 billion dollars, Carvalho said.

Another banker from Citibank, who did not give his name, said merely that trade financing "has not dried up, but it can always be better."

Lamy said last month that the WTO could act as a model of how to regulate anew the global financial system in the wake of the crisis that has seen Wall Street titans humbled and unprecedented levels of state intervention in the banking sector.

"At a time when there are renewed calls for a better regulation in the financial area, the WTO system provides an example of how the lessons of history and experience have led to the construction of a system of international governance," Lamy said.

On Wednesday, Lamy reiterated once more his call for the WTO's members to finally conclude the Doha Round of trade liberalisation talks which have made scant progress since they were launched in the Qatari capital seven years ago.

"My sense is that we are not that far away from our objective of concluding the round, even if a number of tough nuts remain to be cracked," particularly on agriculture and industrial goods, Lamy said.

"My sense is that we can achieve modalities in these two areas by the year-end. I remain of the view that it is doable," he added.

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EU fines car glass cartel 1.4 billion euros

Thursday November 13, 2008, 4:49 am

BRUSSELS (AFP) - The European Commission on Wednesday slapped a fine of 1.4 billion euros (1.8 billion dollars) on four car glass makers for rigging the market, the biggest penalty ever imposed in a cartel case.

Europe's top antitrust watchdog accused Asahi, Pilkington, Saint-Gobain and Soliver of dividing up the European market for car glass among themselves and sharing trade secrets between 1998 and 2003.

"These companies cheated the car industry and car buyers for five years in a market worth two billion euros in the last year of the cartel," EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said.

"The commission has imposed such high fines because it cannot and will not tolerate such illegal behaviour," she added.

The commission hit Saint-Gobain of France with the biggest EU fine ever in a cartel case, ordering the company to cough up 896 million euros after ramping up its penalty by 60 percent because it is a repeat offender.

British glass company Pilkington was told to pay 370 million euros while Japan's Asahi had to pay 113.5 million euros after its fine was reduced by half because it cooperated with the investigation.

Belgian company Soliver was fined 4.4 million euros.

In reaction, Saint-Gobain vowed to appeal the decision, describing its fine as "excessive and disproportionate."

EU regulators began investigating the cartel on information from an anonymous tip and uncovered evidence that officials from the companies had met in airports and hotels in Frankfurt, Paris and Brussels to share sensitive information illegally.

Until Wednesday, the biggest fine the commission had ever levied in a cartel case was a 992 million euro penalty on lift makers Otis, Schindler, ThyssenKrupp and Kone in February 2007.

The commission has made a top priority of breaking up cartels and with Wednesday's decision has levied fines worth 2.3 billion euros in seven cases so far this year.

Last year, Brussels set a record with fines totalling 3.3 billion euros -- money which goes into the EU budget.

"Every euro paid in fines is one euro less that the member states have to pay (into the budget) and so ultimately taxpayers benefit," Kroes said.

"That, however, is scant consolation to the car manufacturers and millions of households affected by this cartel," she added.

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Canada brewery launches bitter ale for tough times
November 13, 2008, 10:29 am

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - As central bankers try to prop up an ailing global economy with financial bailouts, a tiny Western Canadian brewery has stepped into the battle with what it bills as a recession-fighting ale.

Howe Sound Brewery began selling Bailout Bitter at its pub in Squamish, British Columbia, on Wednesday, and is awaiting permission to begin selling bottles of the brew in stores in the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta.

Howe Sound co-owner Leslie Fenn said the ale, which is similar to a British extra special bitter, was an attempt to inject some humour into tough economic times. It carries the slogan "A bitter ale for bitter times."

In keeping with the tight financial times, it will be sold at a lower price than the brewery's other ales.

"I kept hearing about bailout after bailout ... so we created a beer around it. It just sort of fit," Fenn said.

The brewery has filed to trademark the name in Canada, the United States and England, and may begin selling the ale outside its current small distribution area under contract with other breweries, Fenn said.

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Aussie shares tumble to new low
November 13, 2008, 6:07 pm

MELBOURNE Australian shares tumbled 5.9 percent to a new four-year low on Thursday, as companies warned the spreading global downturn was starting to hit their earnings, while a sharp drop in China's industrial output growth hit miners.

Australia's top banks were hit on speculation they might need to raise capital, with Westpac Banking Corp posting its biggest one day percentage fall since the market crash in 1987.

A recent spate of heavily discounted equity capital raisings, including one by fertiliser maker Incitec Pivot Ltd at a 40 percent discount, has already got investors avoiding stocks because cheaper ones may come along.

"Anything is taken as bad news these days. There's very little treated as good news," said Austock Group strategist Michael Heffernan.

The benchmark S&/ASX 200 lost 230 points to close at 3,697.3. New Zealand shares fell 1.5 percent to 2,729.6, weighed down by a 2.9 percent fall in building materials group Fletcher Building.

Property owner and developer Lend Lease Corp sank as much as 15 percent and closed down 9 percent at A$7.10 after warning that asset sales, which were slated to make up as much as a quarter of its profit this year, were getting tough. For

The market extended losses after China reported industrial production grew 8.2 percent in October, its weakest pace in nearly seven years.

The report triggered top miner BHP Billiton Ltd's second-biggest one-day percentage drop this year, aggravated by sliding oil prices. BHP closed 12 percent lower at A$25.00. Rio Tinto Ltd fell 8.2 percent to A$69.00.

"eople have used BHP as a safe haven in the resources sector, which has been highly volatile. Some people are probably at the margins saying, 'I don't want to play resources at all.' Money's seeping away from the sector," said Tim Schroeders, a portfolio manager at Pengana Capital.

Among the banks, Westpac fell 11 percent to its lowest close since September 2004, even after shareholders in St George Bank approved an around $9 billion takeover by Westpac in Australia's biggest banking deal.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the second-largest lender, fell 6 percent to close at A$33.00 after touching a nearly four-year low at A$32.88 as it warned it expected a big.

National Australia Bank fell 2.7 percent to A$19.40, already trading below the A$20 issue price on its A$3 billion share sale earlier this week.

Pathology and imaging group Sonic Healthcare fell 4.5 percent to A$12.41 but managed to trade above the sale price of A$11.60 on a A$425 million share sale it completed on Wednesday.

Defying the gloom, top ports and rail operator Asciano Group AIO.AX, surged for a second day, ending up 30 percent at A$1.50 and almost wiping out losses from earlier in the week, after it reassured investors it was not planning an equity raising.

ozimex999

Austrian incest dad charged with murder
November 14, 2008, 6:14 am

An Austrian man accused of imprisoning his daughter for 24 years and fathering her seven children has been charged with murder, prosecutors said, contending one of the offspring who died in infancy might have survived if treated.

Josef Fritzl, 73, also was charged with rape, incest, false imprisonment and slavery, said the state attorney's office in St Poelten, west of Vienna.

"Despite recognising the baby's life-threatening situation, he deliberately decided not to intervene," and get the ailing infant to a doctor, prosecutors said in their 27-page indictment.

Investigators say Fritzl has confessed to imprisoning and repeatedly raping his daughter Elisabeth - now aged 42 - in a warren of windowless cellar rooms he built beneath his home starting in 1984, shortly after she turned 18.

Police say Fritzl told them he tossed the body of the infant who died into a furnace in 1996. They say DNA tests have confirmed he is the biological father of the six surviving children.

The retired electrician is expected to go on trial early in 2009.

If convicted of the murder charge, Fritzl would face life imprisonment. Austria, like other European countries, has no death penalty.

Prosecutors have said a psychiatric evaluation showed that Fritzl is mentally competent to stand trial. They reiterated that stance but recommended that Fritzl be moved to a special facility for mentally disturbed offenders so he can get counselling.

Under Austrian law, Fritzl has 14 days to appeal the charges. His lawyer, Rudolf Meyer, declined to say whether Fritzl would challenge the indictment and refused further comment.

Prosecutors also said it will be the first time that an Austrian is tried on a slavery charge.

Fritzl imprisoned his daughter and the children beneath his apartment building in Amstetten, west of Vienna.

Authorities say Fritzl brought three of the surviving six children upstairs to live otherwise normal lives, and claimed to neighbours that his daughter - who he said had run away to join a religious cult - had left them on the family's doorstep.

The three other children remained imprisoned along with their mother until last April, when one of them - a teenage girl - became ill and was taken to a hospital.

Officials said it was the first time the three imprisoned children had ever been outside.

Fritzl, the indictment alleges, subjected his daughter to "multiple attacks" and terrorised her with threats that the cramped underground cell was rigged with booby traps to foil any attempt to escape.

Fritzl also threatened to release poisonous gas into the homemade prison, the indictment said.

It said the daughter was completely dependent upon Fritzl for her survival and had no choice but to provide "sexual services," the indictment added.

Police say they have no evidence to suggest that his wife was complicit.

His daughter, the children and Fritzl's wife have been getting counselling at an undisclosed location.

ozimex999

Rebels advance on looted Congo town
November 14, 2008, 6:37 am

Rebels in the east of Democratic Republic of Congo have advanced to the outskirts of a strategic crossroads town where government troops went on a looting rampage at the start of the week.

"We are at the entrance of Kanyabayonga", Bertrand Bisimwa, spokesman for the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) led by renegade Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda, told AFP by telephone.

Two independent sources said the rebels, as of Wednesday night, had advanced to about 10km south of Kanyabayonga, which is around 175km north of the Nord-Kivu capital Goma.

The United Nations meanwhile said that around 20,000 people currently living in the Kibati camp, north of Goma, would be relocated "as soon as possible" for security reasons, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees told AFP.

"Kibati is a disaster. You can't have people there, so close to the front line," said David Nthengwe, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency in Goma.

"The military are always going through the camp, in and out, and knowing the behaviour of the army, anything can happen."

There have also been reports of drunk soldiers disturbing the camp's population, as well as looting.

"I think probably 90 per cent of them will want to move," he said. "Some will not move because they will fear they are being moved further away from their homes. So that will be a factor to consider."

At Kanyabayonga, the rebels said they had advanced on the town without a fight, as government troops - who the United Nations says carried out widespread looting and "acts of brutality" in Kanyabayonga at the start of the week - had fled.

"The situation is calm," the rebel spokesman said. "We can see that the adversary is still fleeing."

Kanyabayonga is strategic because it is the meeting point of main roads in Nord-Kivu, and thus a point of control over the north of the conflict-stricken province.

Nkunda's rebels - who for more than two weeks have been 15km outside Goma - already control Mirangi village, the last community on the way into Kanyabayonga, one of the independent sources said.

Spokesmen for the UN mission in Congo (MONUC), which has a base in Kanyabayonga, could not be contacted on Thursday.

On Wednesday, MONUC blamed rebels for forcing thousands of displaced people to flee a refugee camp, as President Joseph Kabila's government in Kinshasa promised to punish soldiers who took part in the Kanyabayonga rampage.

Several thousand civilians had sought refuge near a MONUC base at Kiwanja, about 80km north of Goma, to escape fighting last week between the rebels and pro-government militias.

The rebels seized Kiwanja on November 5 and began a mopping-up operation to kill remaining pro-government Mai-Mai militia who they said had melted into the local population.

Human Rights Watch has said at least 50 civilians were killed, citing local sources who said the rebels had sought out "enemy collaborators".

Authorities in Kinshasa promised to punish soldiers who engaged in pillaging this week in villages in the Kanyabayonga region.

"Whoever committed acts of violence will be punished," government spokesman Lambert Mende told AFP.

MONUC said government soldiers on Monday and Tuesday took part "in looting and acts of brutality against the civilian population in the Kanyabayonga area," adding that three of the looters were killed.

Several displaced persons' camps have been emptied and razed in areas of Nord-Kivu province that have fallen under rebel control over the past two weeks, aid agencies reported.

ozimex999

Chile did not tell hundreds they were HIV-positive
November 14, 2008, 6:34 am

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chile's public health system apparently failed to notify at least 512 people that they were infected with the HIV virus, the health minister said on Thursday amid a growing national AIDS scandal.

Alvaro Erazo said that in 244 cases, the infected people were not located by health officials. And in 268 cases there was no evidence efforts were even made to find them.

"With current information it is not possible to be sure that people identified in the ... groups have not been informed, only that there are no records of that happening," he told the lower house of Congress.

"What is clear is that there are service (areas) that are not complying as they should in the follow-up and notification of these cases."

Chile's previous health minister resigned after it emerged that a hospital in northern Chile failed to notify dozens of patients that they had tested positive for HIV. Three of those people have since died.

The investigation spread to the rest of the country and authorities have found hundreds of cases where there were no records that people were notified after a blood test showed they were HIV-positive.

Before she quit when the scandal broke last month, former health minister Maria Soledad Barria removed the head of medicine, the supervising nurse and the head of the blood bank at a hospital in Iquique in northern Chile pending an investigation of possible negligence.

Erazo told lawmakers the government would take immediate action to revise public health procedures and protocol.

President Michelle Bachelet's centre-left coalition government has been battered by protests and scandals in recent months, helping boost its rightist rivals before what is seen as the toughest presidential race since Chile's return to democracy two decades ago.

Bachelet, who trained as a doctor and was a former health minister, is an AIDS expert.

The campaign starts next year before Chileans go to the polls in late 2009. By law, Bachelet cannot seek a second consecutive term.

Erazo said that in Chile there are 9,901 people infected with HIV, of which 6,407 are being treated.

ozimex999

China facing rapid economic slowdown

Thursday November 13, 2008, 6:19 pm

China has received more evidence that its economic growth is slowing drastically.

The growth in China's industrial output slowed to 8.2 per cent in October, compared to 11.4 per cent a month earlier.

Premier Wen Jiabao has declared that the effects of the world economic crisis on China have been "worse than expected".

When compared with a year earlier, China's overall industrial output figures have dropped considerably.

October 2008's 8.2 per cent growth is a sharp reduction on the 17.9 per cent in October 2007.

On Sunday, China unveiled an $880 billion stimulus package, but some analysts have questioned how much of this is actually new money.

ozimex999

Impact of financial crisis on China 'worse than expected': Wen

Thursday November 13, 2008, 2:59 pm

BEIJING (AFP) - China's Premier Wen Jiabao said the effect of the global financial meltdown on the country was "worse than expected," state media said Thursday, in a sign of growing concern at the impact of the crisis.

Wen was quoted as making the assessment by the director of the National Bureau of Statistics Ma Jiantang when he briefed his staff on Tuesday, according to the website of the bureau's newspaper China Information News.

"The impact of the global financial crisis on the Chinese economy is much worse than many had expected," Ma said according to the website, passing on remarks made by Wen.

China initially said the global financial crisis would not cause too much harm to its economy, but in recent days the signals from Beijing have changed markedly.

Wen's comment comes after the Chinese government unveiled a four trillion yuan (586 billion dollars) economic stimulus plan on Sunday aimed at boosting domestic consumer demand in the face of flagging exports.