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- N.Korea Admits Rocket Failed Shortly After Launch
North Korea has acknowledged a multi-stage rocket it launched early Friday failed to reach orbit. An announcer on North Korean television -- interrupting programming four hours after the launch, which was not broadcast -- says the Kwangmyongsong-3 earth observation satellite did not succeed in reaching orbit and scientific experts are investigating the cause of the failure.
Officials in Seoul, Tokyo and Washington say North Korea's rocket indeed blasted off from the launch pad but failed to get very far.
U.S. military officials called it a Taepodong-2 missile. They say it was tracked by satellite on a southern trajectory where the first stage fell into the Yellow Sea. The North American Aerospace Defense Command says the other two stages failed to continue in flight and never posed a threat.
South Korean army major general Shin Won-sik, speaking to reporters at the defense ministry, says the missile began tumbling back to Earth at an altitude of 151 kilometers, separating into about 20 pieces and harmlessly falling into the Yellow Sea 100 to 150 kilometers offshore.
The general says the launch clearly violates UN resolutions 1718 and 1874 and was a test-firing of a long-range missile disguised as a satellite launch. He adds this is a grave provocation and a serious military threat to international society and the Republic of Korea.
Japan's defense forces, along with the South Korean and U.S. militaries in the region, had deployed anti-missile batteries on land and at sea to possibly shoot down the object if it flew over Japanese or South Korean territories.
Authorities in Japan's southern Okinawan islands, which are close to the intended flight path, activated public address loudspeakers soon after the launch. Citizens were advised that there was nothing to worry about from the North Korean missile launch while newspaper vendors handed out copies of extra editions. The incident prompted emergency security meetings both in Seoul and in Tokyo.
The UN Security Council is to add an agenda item about North Korea to its already scheduled Friday session. The Group of Eight nations -- composed of the United States, Russia, Japan, Germany, the France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Canada -- are calling for the United Nations to make an appropriate response to Pyongyang's action.
South Korea's foreign minister, Kim Sung-hwan, strongly condemns the North going ahead with the launch. Kim says it is truly regrettable that North Korea spends huge financial resources on developing nuclear weapons and missiles while its citizens are experiencing such hardships.
Japan is echoing similar sentiments, adding it is considering additional financial sanctions on North Korea.
This marks North Korea's third failed attempt at a claimed satellite launch. There is growing speculation in the intelligence community that North Korea will soon conduct a third nuclear test. Such underground explosions of nuclear devices followed its two previous attempted launches of multi-stage missiles.
- http://www.lasvegastribune.com/readit/09-21-2011_tribune.pdf - первая статья
- Civil Aviation Production Prospects
The Russian airlines will need more than 900 passenger aircraft over the next 20 years in response to the strong growth in this market, according to the March 2008 Airbus Global Market Forecast (GMF). The Russian passenger aircraft fleet of 100 seats or more was expected to grow strongly from 528 aircraft in service in 2006 to nearly 950 by 2026. Over the next 20 years [2007-2027], Russia would require more than 900 aircraft to meet demand for aircraft replacement as well as fleet growth. This will represent a value at current list price of US$ 79 billion. These additional aircraft would include nearly 800 short haul - single-aisle aircraft which are prominent in the region's fleet and some 120 medium to long-range wide-body aircraft to satisfy international travel strong growth.
The "tyranny of the producers" persists in the Russian civil aviation industry. The structure of the sector remains remarkably unchanged from that of the Soviet Union. It is plagued by massive factory over-capacity, an extensive network of design bureaus skilled in starting new products and producing a few prototypes, and a systemic inability to pick winners and losers. As of 2008 there were at least ten separate production facilities manufacturing aircraft with a passenger capacity of more than 100 seats, and another five factories producing smaller civil aviation passenger aircraft. By rough count, nearly half the civil aircraft production lines in the world are in Russia. Overall, each of these factories was building aircraft at an average rate of one per year. That is, these town forming enterprises were producing the minimum number of aircraft to make a claim for their continued existence, but few were doing more in the aviation sector than preserving memories.
The government has sought to reorganize and revitalize Russia's aircraft industry in the context of a larger restructuring plan for Russia's defense industry. Specifically, the government decided to implement a large-scale consolidation of the aircraft industry through mergers and privatizations. Lack of sufficient demand from an undercapitalized domestic airline industry and the relatively small export market for Russian aircraft currently precludes improvement of Russian production lines and prevents the Russian LCA industry from achieving economies of scale.
Russia had not given up on independently establishing a viable domestic prime-manufacturing sector again. The government of Russia announced plans in February 2004 to consolidate the existing Russian major aerospace companies (Sukhoi, MIG Irkut, Ilyushin, and Tupolev) into a consortium. In February 2006, President Putin signed a decree calling for an action plan to be created for this consortium, called United Aircraft-Building Company [OAK]. This was the most recent of a long series of plans to revitalize the Russian aerospace manufacturing industry and recapture its position as a global prime producer of large civil aircraft and engines. Without recovery of the traditional customers of Russian aircraft manufacturers or the manufacturers themselves, however, it is difficult to predict when this might actually happen.
On 24 June 2007 it was reported that Russia will resume serial aircraft production within the next four to five years. It will produce over 320 civil aircraft of different classes in 2008-2012. The data was cited in a letter Deputy Industry and Energy Minister Andrei Dementyev submitted to parliament. There are plans to produce 15 long-haul Il-96 planes, 84 Tu-204/214, 236 regional Sukhoi Superjet-100 and Tu-334 aircraft, as well as 96 An-148. Taking into account export plans, Russia's civil aircraft fleet will be replenished with over 430 planes.
Russian wide-body airliners remain the province of Ilyushin, which continues to build a few Il-96-300 each year. Tupolev may become the leading manufacturer of the next-generation wide-body airliners, which necessity was voiced by Vladimir Putin during his visit to the Gromov Flight Research Institute on 20 February 2008. The new generation of Russian Large Civil Aircraft basically consists of one aircraft from each manufacturer -- the Il-96 and the Tu-204. Ilyushin officials stated in the late 1990s that they were not interested in producing LCA with fewer than 200 seats, and do not want to design a plane larger than the Il-96, offered at a maximum of 375 seats. This business strategy would likely put Ilyushin at a competitive disadvantage vis-�-vis Boeing and Airbus which offer families of aircraft spanning a broad range of seating capacities.
Russian medium-range airliners have been divided between aircraft-building majors Irkut and Sukhoi. They will jointly provide the United Aircraft Building Corporation (UABC) with advanced airliners of the most popular size - those with 96, 110, 130, 150, 180 and 210 seats representing all types of the so-called narrow-body aircraft. At present, the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 are dominating this market. Irkut will take on the MS-21 family with over 150 seats. And Sukhoi, in addition to the first-generation 96-seated Sukhoi Superjet 100 (SSJ-100), will design two second-generation aircraft - the SSJ-110 and SSJ-130 carrying 110 and 130 passengers, respectively. This is in return for Irkut's dropping the 130-seat MS-21-100 and its raising the capacity of the MS-21-300 medium version up to 180 passengers. Sukhoi will provide the MS-21 an all-composite wing basing on its SSJ-110/130 solutions.
Russian regional jet programs include three competing projects entering production [while a fourth, the Yak-42, is claimed to remain in production]. There is a significant spread in the parameters of passenger capacity and flying range, which indicated the absence of a study of market niche and the absence of united technical requirements for the regional aircraft. This reflects the absence of elementary experience in Russian KB in conducting of adequate marketing studies. Due to their similar performance characteristics, the SSJ has been projected as a potential rival to the AN-148 and 100-seat to 126-seat Tu-334. These three domestic Russian projects are practically identical with respect to their technical characteristics, which are approximately 20% worse than the foreign competition. However, in the view of some, they cannot be directly compared as they are in different price categories. The catalog price of the basic SSJ-100B model is $27.2 mn, whereas the AN-148 costs approximately $18-20 mn. OAK's strategy is to position the AN-148 for the domestic market, and the SSJ for foreign markets.
The SSJ aircraft engines are positioned only 47 cm over the ground. So taking off and landing would be possible only on ideally even surface which is not a characteristic feature of Russian airports. The Superjet 100 and EMB-190 have a high risk of the damage of engines by foreign objects on the badly prepared airfields and require thorough preparation and cleaning of airfields.
Until recently, the Sukhoi-designed Superjet 100 had been the main project of this type in Russia. The Tu-334-family aircraft, however, have received state support again for two reasons. First, many experts repeatedly said planes of this type were much better adapted for small airports in Siberia and the Far East lacking advanced infrastructure and kept in rather poor condition. Second, bureaucrats seem to have realized the simple fact that the Russian market should be filled with Russian-made planes long before such projects as the MS-21 close- and medium-range aircraft are implemented. Otherwise, by the time the MS-21 is ready, Airbus and Boeing aircraft will have firmly taken its place.
The small regional jet market seems inactive as of 2008. Initial Sukhoi Superjet plans for 60-seat and 75-seat versions failed to interest the market. The Tu-324 airplane was designed by the Tupolev OKB to be a domestic regional airplane with a capacity of up to 60 seats to permit replacing the obsolescent and physically aging Tu-134 and Yak-40 airplanes now being used.
Russian small turbo-prop airliners include three new aircraft types manufactured in Russia and the CIS that have begun operating with Russian airlines since the year 2000: the 64-seat Ilyushin Il-114 aircraft manufactured by the Tashkent TAPO plant; the first Russian-Ukrainian-built aircraft, the 52-seat Antonov An-140; and the 27-seat Antonov An-38. From 1994 through 2007 fewer than 10 An-38s had been built. During the MAKS-2007 air show, Novosibirsk NAPO plant (the manufacturer of this aircraft) and Antonov Corporation agreed to continue the An-38's development, but it is not yet clear how it will facilitate the actual An-38 production. Official estimates project that the future will be remarkably different from the recent past. During the later years of the Cold War the Soviet civil aviation industry produced well over 100 aircraft each year. With the end of the Cold War, production rates fell to about a dozen aircraft each year. By 2007 Russian government projections suggested that production levels would exceed 100 aircraft each year by the end of the decade. And unofficial projections held out the prospect of production of nearly a thousand aircraft in the year 2020. These would seem optimistic, if for no other reason than uncertainty as to the availability of a skilled workforce to man the production lines that have been so idle for so long. The Russian civil aviation industry collapsed within a couple of years of the collapse of the Soviet Union, but it cannot be rebuilt so quickly.
The stage of stabilization engaged roughly the first five years of the new century. It was at the same time possible to more or less stabilize the state of affairs at many plants, to restructure their debts against the budget, to considerably improve their financial position and, most important, to stabilize personnel. Now the major problem is not in the absence orders, but in the quantity of people who must be drawn to the plants, for the human resource do not make it possible to simultaneously develop all programs in which they are occupied. At VASO (Voronezh joint-stock aircraft-construction company) the number of production workers as of 2007 was 2 thousand. That number would need to grow by a minimum of 4.5 thousand, to 6 thousand, for production of the Il-96, the starting of assembling An-148, the delivery of components for SSJ and Il-476. The analogous situation at the Ul'yanovsk plant, the privately held company Aviastar SP, the producer of passenger Tu-204, transport Il-476. It also needs to collect about 2.5 thousand workers. Earlier this was perhaps relatively easily, but now this is sufficiently serious problem.
- Study: US College Students Advance Little Intellectually
This is the time of year when millions of American high-school seniors and their parents scramble to complete the process of finding, and getting accepted by, a college to begin the higher education process in September.
But there’s some doubt about how high that level of learning will be.
The title of a new book tells the story. Based on a recent study by sociologists Richard Arum of New York University and Josipa Roska of the University of Virginia, the title is: "Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses."
The professors interviewed 2,300 U.S. college undergraduates and reviewed their academic records.
They concluded that after two years in college, 45 percent of the students showed no significant improvement in key intellectual and creative skills such as critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing.
These results come at a time when President Barack Obama, his education department and outside reformers are all saying that the United States had better start producing smarter college graduates if it wants to remain competitive globally.
The study of students’ behavior during those first two years in college may provide a clue as to what’s breaking down.
The researchers found that freshmen and sophomores are more concerned with socializing and communicating with friends than with what used to be called “cracking the books.”
Their “critical thinking” would appear to involve choosing the right pizza joint or bar at which to meet those friends.
“It’s good to lead a monk’s existence [in college]," says Eric Gorski, an Associated Press writer who reported on the study. "Students who study alone and have heavier reading and writing loads do well.”
Unfortunately for U.S. educational achievement, not many monastic types appear to be applying to college these days.
- OBAMA URGES CONGRESS TO PASS ‘BUFFETT RULE’
U.S. President Barack Obama is renewing his call for Congress to approve tax reform legislation known as the "Buffett Rule."
It is named after one of the world’s richest men, investor Warren Buffett, who says it is not fair that Tiger Shoes he pays a lower tax than his secretary.
During his weekly address Saturday, the president urged Congress to approve theTiger Shoes legislation during a planned vote next week.
Under the Buffett Rule, anyone earning more than $1 million would pay at least the same percentage of income taxes as middle income wage earners. The president says families earning less than $250,000 per year – 98 percent of American families – should experience no increase in their tax rate.
Obama rejects claims by critics that the Buffett Rule impedes job growth.
In the Republican address, Congressman Fred Upton charged the Obama administration’s energy policies have increased the country’s dependence on foreign oil with the rejection of a pipeline project that would run from Asics Gel Nimbus 12 Canada to the U.S.
China, Russia Launch Joint Naval Exercises
China and Russia launched joint naval exercises Sunday in the Yellow Sea between the east coast of mainland China and the Korean peninsula.
Chinese state media report that 16 Chinese surface vessels and two submarines, as well as four Russian warships, are taking part in the six days of drills scheduled from April 22 through 27.
The Chinese and Russian vessels gathered at the eastern Chinese port city of Tiger Shoes Qingdao Saturday, the home of China’s northern fleet.
The exercises will include maritime air defense, anti-submarine tactics, search-and-rescue and the simulated rescue of hijacked ships, and anti-terrorism drills.
Formerly Cold War rivals for leadership of the communist world, China and Russia have Asics Gel Nimbus 12 conducted four bilateral and multilateral military exercises since 2005.
The two countries are also participants in six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program that also include the two Koreas, Japan and the U.S.
- City children suffering more
1 March 2012
In its report The State of the World's Children, the charity UNICEF warns that hundreds of millions of children living in cities are more deprived than had previously been thought. It says the severe hardship faced by these children prevents progress on the Millennium Development Goals.
Campaigns against poverty tend to focus on the rural poor, but UNICEF has found it's children living in slums and shantytowns who are becoming increasingly the most disadvantaged and vulnerable.
One reason is that so many -- about 300 million round the world -- go unregistered at birth. The lack of any official identity means they then miss out on basic services like secure housing, clean water, or education. And they can more easily be exploited or prey totraffickers.
The plight of these children is often overlooked because statistics show average urban families enjoy better amenities than rural ones but this data masks the growing pockets of extreme poverty in towns and cities.
Take Delhi, the capital of India's booming economy. Figures show 90 per cent of children city-wide attend primary school but in fact only half the slum children go to school.
UNICEF says policy-makers should consciously target help at these hard-to-reach children. It recommends a grass roots approach with more recognition of the efforts local communities make to tackle poverty.
- 100 years of Antarctica discovery
16 December 2011
Norway's prime minister and several hundred scientists and adventurers have gathered at the South Pole to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen's first successful expedition to the world's most southerly point.
The sound of skis on snow as a group of Norwegians take the final few steps to the southern pole. Not everyone could make it - bad weather had delayed some of those trying to cross the ice and others resorted to planes to make the centenary celebrations.
Amundsen and four other men were the first to reach the southern tip of the planet on December 14th 1911, using sledges, dogs and skis. The Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg, who arrived by plane ahead of the celebrations, said the 1911 expedition was "one of the most outstanding achievements of mankind," and helped to form his country's national identity.
He also paid tribute to the ill-fated British team led by Robert Scott who Amundsen beat to the pole. They had shown "courage and determination", he said, "in reaching one of the most inhospitable places on earth", and had paid the "ultimate price" after they died on the return journey.
Neil Bowdler
- Japan and India sign free-trade deal
16 February 2011
Japan and India have signed a free-trade agreement. They are trying to make it easier to sell goods between the two countries. Japan is trying to build greater trade links since it was recently overtaken by China as the world's second biggest economy.
The agreement is intended to boost trade between Japan and India, which share a mutual concern about the growing economic clout of China. Within 10 years, tariffs will be abolished on 90% of Japanese exports to India and 97% of India's exports to Japan.
The Prime Minister of Japan, Naoto Kan, has said opening up the country to trade is a top priority. Japan's population is ageing rapidly and the economy is mired in deflation. Earlier this week, Japan was eclipsed by China as the world's second biggest economic power. Meanwhile South Korea is an increasingly formidable rival, using free-trade agreements to make its electronics and other sectors more competitive.
Japan's government is considering joining talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a huge free-trade area around the Pacific rim. But it faces strong opposition from rice farmers, who are a powerfulpolitical constituency and protected by very high tariffs. Rice is not included in the free-trade deal with India.
Roland Buerk, BBC News, Tokyo
- US healthcare on a knife edge
27 March 2012
President Barack Obama's healthcare reforms reaches the Supreme Court this week, as the nine most senior judges in the land hear three days of argument over whether or not the reforms are constitutional. This is one of the biggest cases to come before the Supreme Court in recent times.
Barack Obama's healthcare reforms, passed almost exactly two years ago, remain one of the most contentious aspects of his presidency. The bill was passed in the teeth of vociferous opposition from the Republican Party. Polls suggest that public opinion remains sharply divided.
A key provision that individual citizens should either buy health insurance or pay a penalty - the so-called individual mandate - has already been the subject of numerous legal challenges across the country. It was almost inevitable that the issue would ultimately reach the highest court in the land.
The nine justices who make up the Supreme Court, five of them regarded as conservatives, will spend a highly unusual three days hearing oral arguments. They'll issue their findings in the summer, just as this year's presidential election campaign swings into full gear. The impact on the campaign of a ruling on such an important political issue could be enormous.
- Reno air show plane crash killed 3, injures 56
The plane, piloted by 74-year-old Jimmy Leeward, spiraled out of control without warning and appeared to disintegrate upon impact. Bloodied bodies were spread across the area as people tended to the victims and ambulances rushed to the scene.
Authorities were investigating the cause, but an official with the event said there were indications that mechanical problems were to blame.
Maureen Higgins of Alabama, who has been coming to the air races for 16 years, said the pilot was on his third lap of a race when he lost control.
She was sitting about 30 yards from the crash and watched in horror as the man in front of her started bleeding after debris hit him in the head.
"I saw body parts and gore like you wouldn't believe it. I'm talking an arm, a leg," Higgins said "The alive people were missing body parts. I am not kidding you. It was gore. Unbelievable gore."
Among the dead was Leeward, of Ocala, Fla., a veteran airman and movie stunt pilot who named his P-51 Mustang fighter plane the "Galloping Ghost," according to Mike Houghton, president and CEO of Reno Air Races.
Renown Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Kathy Carter confirmed two others died, but did not provide their identities.
Stephanie Kruse, a spokeswoman for the Regional Emergency Medical Service Authority, told The Associated Press that emergency crews took a total of 56 injury victims to three hospitals. She said they also observed a number of people being transported by private vehicle, which they are not including in their count.
Kruse said of the total 56, at the time of transport, 15 were considered in critical condition, 13 were serious condition with potentially life-threatening injuries and 28 were non-serious or non-life-threatening.
"This is a very large incident, probably one of the largest this community has seen in decades," Kruse told The Associated Press. "The community is pulling together to try to deal with the scope of it. The hospitals have certainly geared up and staffed up to deal with it."
The P-51 Mustang, a class of fighter plane that can fly at speeds in excess of 500 mph, crashed into a box-seat area in front of the grandstand at about 4:30 p.m., race spokesman Mike Draper said.
Houghton said at a news conference hours after the crash that there appeared to be a "problem with the aircraft that caused it to go out of control." He did not elaborate.
He said the rest of the races have been canceled as the National Transportation Safety Board investigates.
Tim O'Brien of Grass Valley, Calif., has attended the Reno air races every year since 1973. He said he was photographing the event when he saw the plane pitch violently upward, roll and then head straight down about 100 yards away.
O'Brien said that from the photos he took, it looked like a piece of the plane's tail called a "trim tab" had fallen off, which is what he thinks caused the plane's sudden climb.
O'Brien said the plane hit the ground and "absolutely disintegrated."
"The propeller (was) spinning very fast, and there was a lot of mass coming down all at once," he said. It was "very violent impact."
Afterward, there were a number of people standing around, and "all we could do was hug each other," O'Brien said.
Tim Linville, 48, of Reno, said the pilot appeared to lose partial control off the plane when he veered off course and flew over the bleachers near where Linville was standing with his two daughters.
"I told the girls to run and the pilot pulled the plane straight up, but he couldn't do anything else with it," Linville told the AP. "That's when it nosedived right into the box seats."
Linville said the plane smashed into the ground and shattered like an enormous water balloon, sending shrapnel and debris into the crowd.
"It was just flying everywhere," he said.
Leeward, the owner of the Leeward Air Ranch Racing Team, was a well-known racing pilot. His website says he has flown more than 120 races and served as a stunt pilot for numerous movies, including "Amelia" and "Cloud Dancer."
In an interview with the Ocala (Fla.) Star-Banner last year, he described how he has flown 250 types of planes and has a particular fondness for the P-51, which came into the war relatively late and was used as a long-range bomber escort over Europe. Among the famous pilots of the hot new fighter was WWII double ace Chuck Yeager.
"They're more fun. More speed, more challenge. Speed, speed and more speed," Leeward said.
Leeward talked about racing strategy in an interview Thursday with LiveAirShow TV while standing in front of his plane.
"Right now I think we've calculated out, we're as fast as anybody in the field, or maybe even a little faster," he said. "But uh, to start with, we didn't really want to show our hand until about Saturday or Sunday. We've been playing poker since last Monday. And uh so, it's ready, we're ready to show a couple more cards, so we'll see on Friday what happens, and on Saturday we'll probably go ahead and play our third ace, and on Sunday we'll do our fourth ace."
Houghton described Leeward as a "good friend."
"Everybody knows him. It's a tight-knit family. He's been here for a long, long time," Houghton said.
He also described Leeward as a "very qualified, very experienced pilot" who was in good medical condition. He also suggested Leeward would have made every effort to avoid casualties on the ground if he knew he was going to crash.
"If it was in Jimmy's power, he would have done everything he possibly could," Houghton said.
The National Championship Air Races draws thousands of people to Reno every year in September to watch various military and civilian planes race. They also have attracted scrutiny in the past over safety concerns, including four pilots killed in 2007 and 2008. It was such a concern that local school officials once considered whether they should not allow student field trips at the event.
The competition is like a car race in the sky, with planes flying wingtip-to-wingtip as low as 50 feet off the sagebrush at speeds sometimes surpassing 500 mph. Pilots follow an oval path around pylons, with distances and speeds depending on the class of aircraft.
The FAA and air race organizers spend months preparing for air races as they develop a plan involving pilot qualification, training and testing along with a layout for the course. The FAA inspects pilots' practice runs and brief pilots on the route maneuvers and emergency procedures.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and other lawmakers issued statements saying they were saddened by the crash.
"My thoughts are with the families of those who have lost their lives and with those who were wounded in this horrific tragedy," Reid said. "I am so grateful to our first responders for their swift action and will continue to monitor this situation as it develops."
Не уверена, что это именно тот текст, но оч похож.
- A wide ring fence for retail banks
There is no doubt that the Independent Commission on Banking will recommend that a ring fence or firewall should be put around retail banking operations, or the parts of big banks that look after our savings, make loans and move money around.
But that still leaves huge and economically important uncertainties. Or to put it another way, what matters - for the banks, for the implicit risks for taxpayers created by the structure of our banking industry and for the future prosperity of the UK - is the detail of how the new ring fence will be defined and implemented.
The scope of retail banking has to be ordained; whether, for example, it will include looking after the money of bigger businesses.
Also relevant is whether there will be an absolute prohibition on money moving between retail banks and investment banks when they are part of a so-called universal bank, like Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland.
Finally, there is the issue of how long the Treasury will wait before announcing how much of the Commission's recommendations it will implement.
For what it is worth, I expect retail banking to be defined broadly, to include much conventional banking for businesses of all sizes (see my earlier post for more on this).
That would therefore force greater upheaval and reorganisation on Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland, than on Lloyds, Santander and HSBC, because most of what Lloyds, Santander and HSBC currently do would be defined as retail banking under the commission's definition, and therefore they would see less of their respective operations hived off and taken outside their respective ring fences.
Second, it is likely that some cash and capital will be able to flow between a ring-fenced retail bank and an investment bank owned by a single universal bank, such as Barclays or Royal Bank of Scotland, so long as high minimum levels of cash and capital are maintained within the ring-fenced retail bank.
Finally, the Treasury is likely to pronounce definitively on how and when it will implement the ring fences by the end of the year, although the chancellor has already made clear that he supports this form of breaking-up our big banks as a matter of principle.
- Olympus camera scandal
17 February 2012
The former Chairman of Olympus cameras and two other former executives have been arrested. The company has admitted it hid more than $1.5 billion in investment losses. The scandal was revealed by Olympus's British CEO Michael Woodford who says he was fired for questioning past transactions.
The arrests are the latest step in investigations by the Japanese authorities into one of the country's biggest corporate scandals.
The former chairman of Olympus Tsuyoshi Kikukawa is being held under suspicion of violating the Financial Instruments and Exchange law.
The company's former executive vice president and its formerauditor have also been arrested.
An independent panel set up by Olympus blamed the men for orchestrating the cover-up of more than $1.5 billion in investment losses.
The company has lost nearly half its value since the scandal became public last October.
Olympus is suing 19 current and former executives.
And there's speculation it may need to merge or form new alliances with its rivals to rebuild its battered balance sheets.
Тоже хз, он или нет…)
- Eurozone unemployment
3 April 2012
Unemployment in countries which use the Euro – the Eurozone - has increased according to new official figures. Over 17 million people, or 10.8 per cent of the workforce were unemployed in February.
The new figures from the European Union's statistical agency show the Eurozone's persistent economic problems. Aggressive action by the European Central Bank - in the shape of a trillion Euro of three-year loans to the financial institutions - has certainly brought relative calm to the markets.
But parts of the wider economy are still struggling. The number of unemployed across the Eurozone is nearly one and a half million higher than a year ago.
There remains a striking divergence between the region's struggling countries and the more successful ones. Unemployment is below six per cent in Austria, the Netherlands and Germany, but over 20 per cent in Spain and Greece. In both the latter countries, the unemployment rate for young people is over 50 per cent.
A separate private-sector survey of managers in industry points to a continued decline in manufacturing production. That adds to evidence suggesting the Eurozone economy as a whole may have contracted in the first quarter of the year, as it did at the end of 2011. If that does turn out to be the case it would be a recession.
- Kabul's first women-only internet café
12 March 2012
An exclusive internet cafe for women has been opened in the Afghan capital of Kabul to mark International Women's Day. A first of its kind, the cafe has been named after Sahar Gul, a fifteen year old Afghan bride who was tortured and jailed by her husband a few months ago.
The Sahar Gul internet cafe was opened in Kabul today by a group of young rights activists called the 'Young women for change' - it is the first of its kind in the country. The group says that there are many internet cafes in Kabul but women do not go there because they face harassment. The atmosphere in these cafes is not good for women.
This group of young women plan to open similar cafes in several other provinces across Afghanistan. A largely symbolic move, the opening of this cafe may boost the morale of Afghan women. Millions of girls have returned to school, and women have gone back to work and into politics after the removal of Taliban regime in 2001.
But the life of most Afghan women still remains fraught with many hardships and challenges. Millions of women, mostly in the rural areas, are still deprived of their very basic rights. They are often forced into marriages by their families; others bear the brunt ofviolence at the hands of their husbands.
Women's rights have been a topic of hot debate lately after the country's top religious council advised women not to mingle with men and not to travel alone. Activists have accused the Afghan government of turning a blind eye towards the rights of women. While many women will be able to enjoy some freedom inside Sahar Gul's all female cafe, most still suffer and like Sahar Gul they are victims of domestic violence.
- Vietnam land repossessions
The use of land is one of the most contentious issues in Vietnam, where all land belongs to the state and private ownership is not allowed. A violent clash between local authorities and a farmer family earlier this month has highlighted the need to reform the land policy.
Reporter
Nga Pham
It was like a scene from an action movie. More than one hundred police officers with firearms and sniffer dogs took part in a four-hour stand-off with villagers armed with homemade bombs and shotguns.
The result - six officers injured and four farmers arrested on attempted murder charges. This was a case of a land eviction that went horribly wrong.
The lease on the farmer's land was coming to an end, and the local government wanted it back. But Doan Van Vuon's family refused to leave, saying that they had to borrow money and work hard for twenty years to develop the farm and are yet to receive any income from it.
According to Vietnam's Land Law, individuals are given the right to work any piece of land for 20 years. After that, the local government decides whether their lease will be extended or the land given to someone else.
This, some say, gives officials at the district level too much power in deciding people's livelihoods and creates a fertile environment for corruption. There are calls to privatise farmland in order to manage it better and more fairly.
To do so, the constitution which says that all land belongs to the state, needs to be changed. Top communist party leaders are reluctant to discuss this as they consider it anti-socialist. But without a solution, the land problem will continue ticking away, possibly with more violent confrontations in the future.
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