Obama, Bush team up in Africa

Obama, Bush team up in Africa

Obama, Bush team up in Africa

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 07:16 PM PDT

US President Barack Obama ends his Africa tour Tuesday, with an unusual double act with his predecessor George W. Bush, whose HIV/AIDS program saved millions of lives on the continent.

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Nearly 21,000 species at risk of extinction: conservationists

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 07:16 PM PDT

A freshwater shrimp, an island-dwelling lizard and a pupfish from Arizona have been declared extinct, while nearly 21,000 species are at risk of dying out, an updated "Red List" released on Tuesday showed.

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US wildfire grows after killing 19 firefighters

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 07:14 PM PDT

Reinforcements poured in Monday to battle a runaway wildfire in Arizona that quadrupled in size overnight after killing 19 firefighters in one of the worst such incidents in US history.

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South Africa’s Mandela still ‘critical but stable’

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 06:26 PM PDT

Ailing anti-apartheid leader and former South African President Nelson Mandela remained in hospital on Monday in a "critical but stable" condition, the government said. Mandela has been in a Pretoria hospital for more than three weeks receiving treatment for a recurring lung infection, his fourth hospitalisation in six months. The faltering health ...
    

Florida jury to hear watchman’s account of killing Trayvon Martin

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 07:14 AM PDT

Jurors are expected to hear neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman's description of how he shot unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in a Florida murder trial that moved into the second week of testimony yesterday. Zimmerman gave several statements to police, including one just after he shot Martin during a fight in a gated community in the ...
    

WHO wants HIV patients treated sooner to save lives, halt spread

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 06:38 AM PDT

Doctors could save three million more lives worldwide by 2025 if they offer AIDS drugs to people with HIV much sooner after they test positive for the virus, the World Health Organisation said. While better access to cheap generic AIDS drugs means many more people are now getting treatment, health workers, particularly in poor countries with ...
    

Egypt army gives Mursi 48 hours to share power

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 03:55 PM PDT

Egypt's armed forces handed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi a virtual ultimatum to share power, giving feuding politicians 48 hours to compromise or have the army impose its own road map for the country. A dramatic military statement broadcast on state television declared the nation was in danger after millions of Egyptians took to the streets ...
    

VIDEO: Suicide bomb attempt thwarted

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 02:32 PM PDT

Afghan security forces have defused an alleged would-be suicide bomber's explosive vest while he was still wearing it, preventing an attack in Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan.

Thousands demand China honour Hong Kong democracy pledge

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 08:52 AM PDT

Tens of thousands braved typhoon rains in Hong Kong on Monday to demand China live up to its promise to allow fully democratic elections there in 2017 amid mounting fears of increased meddling by Beijing's Communist Party leaders. The former British colony returned to Chinese rule on July 1, 1997, with the promise of universal suffrage as an ...
    

Investors now get choice of News Corp and 21st Century Fox

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 09:12 AM PDT

NEW YORK: News Corp and 21st Century Fox started trading as two separate companies yesterday, giving investors the choice of a fast-growing entertainment business and a slower-growing but prominent publishing concern. The new News Corp, which includes publishing assets such as the Wall Street Journal and HarperCollins, and an education division, started trading on a preliminary basis on June 19, at US$15.28 (RM48.35) for its Class A shares. 21st Century Fox, whose entertainment assets include the Fox cable network and the 20th Century Fox movie studio, began trading on a preliminary basis at US$28.07 (RM88.83) for Class A shares. News Corp will begin trading on the Nasdaq under the symbol NWSA while 21st Century Fox will trade on the same exchange under FOXA. The new publishing company will be a test for investors and their appetite for print assets. At News Corp, news and information make up the majority of revenue and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda). While the company also has pay-TV assets and an equity stake in a real estate classified site in Australia, it is coming out as a separately traded company during a challenging times for newspapers. Advertisers are choosing to put their dollars elsewhere, especially in digital products. Although News Corp is a player in the virtual work, advertising in digital media commands lower prices than traditional print publications. News Corp said in May it would write down the value of its Australian and United States publishing assets by up to US$1.4 billion (RM4.43 billion). Shareholders of the old News Corp receive one share in the new publishing company for every four shares in what is now 21st Century Fox. Reuters

Toyoda sheds 'boring' tag

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 08:37 AM PDT

TOYOTA Motor Corp executives have sometimes seemed to share the personality of the carmaker's best-selling cars - dependable and efficient, but also a bit boring and bland. That's changing. In recent months, Toyota founding family scion and president Akio Toyoda has emerged from the bureaucratic shadows to present himself as the company's car-loving, fashion-forward salesman-in-chief. The marketing campaign aides have built around Toyoda an unconventional move for a Japanese corporate icon where team play is prized above outsized personalities. In recent weeks, Toyoda has donned a race suit to drive the Lexus LFA super car at the 24-hour race in Germany's Nuerburgring circuit and turned up at a Lexus party in New York with a hipster bow-tie and retro glasses. Meanwhile, his assistants have kept a steady newsfeed on the "Toyota President's Office" Facebook page. In an industry with more than its fair share of celebrity chief executive officers comfortable with the limelight, such as Chrysler's Lee Iacocca and Nissan Motor Co and Renault SA's Carlos Ghosn, at Toyota the real star has always been the "Toyota Way" - the production and management philosophy passed down from one generation to next from founder Kiichiro Toyoda. But as rivals from General Motors Co to Hyundai Motor Co to Volkswagen AG have narrowed the quality gap, the Japanese carmaker has been forced to respond. In a J.D. Power and Associates survey of initial quality released in June - the benchmark for the industry - General Motors finished ahead of Toyota, highlighting the increased challenge for the one-time quality king. To push back, Toyota has been trying to make its cars more stylish. To shake up its slow decision-making process, it has split the carmaker's operations into four business teams and named non-Japanese to head regional operations in some areas. It is also trying to bring a new edginess to its brand image and design. That strategy has put the spotlight on the 57-year-old Toyoda, according to people involved in the effort. It marks an unlikely, mid-career emergence for Toyoda, the grandson of the company's founder, who just a few years ago was blogging under a pseudonym. "One of the main things he is doing is giving Toyota, the company, a personality," said Julie Hamp, Toyota Motor North America's group vice-president in charge of communications. "He knows that Toyota needs a story and products to fire the emotions and to ground our identity in new realities today, which is a more competitive environment." What pushed Toyoda to embrace a radical corporate image makeover was a series of recall crises that hit the carmaker in 2009, a senior Toyota executive said. The company's response to the crisis was slow and, most damagingly, Toyoda failed to speak up for the company. After weeks out of the spotlight, Toyoda, who had only been in the top job for eight months, called a news conference to apologise but struggled to provide an English soundbite. When Toyoda was grilled by a United States congressional committee in February 2010, the experience was scarring. It left him convinced the company had to change its approach to communication. Reuters

Better manufacturer sentiment in Japan

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 08:37 AM PDT

TOKYO: Sentiment among big manufacturers jumped in the quarter to June, a Bank of Japan (BoJ) survey showed yesterday, in the latest upbeat sign for the world's No. 3 economy. The results came days after separate data showed factories put in an unexpectedly strong performance in May, supplying fresh evidence that Japan's huge drive to boost growth appeared to be taking hold. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's party faces parliamentary elections this month that are widely expected to see a resounding victory for him, giving the premier the legislative muscle to continue an economy-boosting plan dubbed "Abenomics". The BoJ's Tankan survey showed that large manufacturers' sentiment rose to "plus four" from "minus eight" in the previous quarter, representing the percentage of firms saying business conditions are good minus those saying they are bad. It is the first time the widely watched poll, which is used by the central bank to formulate policy, has hit positive territory since September 2011. "I don't know if I should credit this to 'Abenomics' or not, but I think the fundamentals of the economy are improving," said NLI Research Institute senior economist Taro Saito. The survey also showed that big firms are expecting to boost their capital spending by 5.5 per cent in the fiscal year to March 2014, underscoring a jump in confidence among the nation's producers. Japanese manufacturers, hit hard by the 2008 financial crisis and the 2011 tsunami, have seen their prospects improve as Tokyo's prescription for big government spending and monetary easing helped send the value of the yen tumbling. A weaker yen boosts Japanese exporters by making them more competitive overseas while inflating the value of repatriated foreign income. On Friday, official data showed that Japan's industrial production jumped two per cent in May from a month earlier, adding to the improving trade picture as exports to the United States and China surged on the back of a weaker yen. AFP

Singapore home prices up for fifth straight quarter

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 08:38 AM PDT

SINGAPORE: Singapore home prices rose for a fifth straight quarter in the three months to June, and analysts said owners and developers of private apartments in the outer suburbs appear most at risk should the property market correct. Singapore's central bank on Friday introduced rules to cap a property buyer's monthly payments at 60 per cent of income in a bid to stabilise the housing market and to ensure those buying homes would not be caught out by a rise in interest rates. Based on flash estimates released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority yesterday, prices of apartments in the core central region, which includes the posh Orchard Road district popular with foreign investors, have risen by 49 per cent since the end of the global financial crisis in 2009. In contrast, prices of homes outside the central region, which are areas more popular with ordinary Singaporeans on lower budgets, have increased by 70 per cent. Maybank Kim Eng property analyst Wilson Liew said the majority of property transactions in recent quarters have been in areas outside the city centre, whereas activity in the core central region has been muted. "Our view is that the mass market residential segment is the most vulnerable to downside price pressure," he said. Shares of property developers fell yesterday on concerns the latest government measures would crimp demand for apartments, with Southeast Asia's biggest real estate company Capitaland Ltd down 1.6 per cent and City Developments Ltd dropping 1.2 per cent. National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan was reported to have said yesterday that the tougher rules were aimed at property investors rather than potential home owners. Reuters

Nokia buys out network equipment venture

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 09:08 AM PDT

NOKIA shares surged yesterday after it announced plans to buy out partner Siemens AG's share of their valuable network equipment joint venture, betting on the technology to run 4G networks after it stumbled as a maker of smartphones. Loss-making Nokia gains full control of the profitable venture Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) for US$2.2 billion (RM6.95 billion), a cheaper than-expected price, analysts said, although they also noted the acquisition would put pressure on Nokia's balance sheet. "With this transaction, Nokia buys itself a future, whatever happens in smartphones and feature phones," Bernstein analyst Pierre Ferragu wrote in a note to clients. Nokia's shares were up nearly eight per cent to euro3.07 (RM12.65) by 0740 GMT. JP Morgan raised its rating on the shares to overweight from underweight, lifting its target price to euro3.6 from euro2. Nokia fell behind rivals Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd in the smartphone race, making the controversial decision to switch to Microsoft's untried Windows software in 2011. In contrast to Nokia's phone business, NSN turned profitable in the second quarter of last year after sla-shing costs and as its focus on fourth-generation Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks began to pay off. NSN's adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) amounted to euro196 million in the first quarter of this year. Nokia will pay euro1.2 billion in cash and the other euro0.5 billion in the form of a secured loan from Siemens that will be repaid later. "Nokia Siemens Networks has established a clear leadership position in LTE, which provides an attractive growth opportunity," Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop said in a statement. Elop said NSN would continue to run as an independent entity and did not rule out listing or selling it. "As for the future of NSN, as we've said consistently there is a range of options that could exist for NSN over time. All of those options remain open," he said. Nokia and Siemens formed the 50-50 joint venture in April 2007 and the agreement lapsed in April this year. Nokia had said it had wanted NSN to be sold or listed and many analysts had believed it might be sold. Nokia said it expected to close the transaction, subject to regulatory approval, during the third quarter of this year. Nokia said it estimated its net cash position was euro3.7 billion to euro4.2 billion, adding that if the NSN deal had closed in the second quarter, its net cash position would have been euro2 billion to euro2.5 billion. Reuters

Samsung loses US$25.3b in market capitalisation

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 09:08 AM PDT

TOKYO: Samsung Electronics Co lost US$25.3 billion (RM79.95 billion) in market capitalisation last month, more than the value of competitor Sony Corp, as sales of its flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone fell short of investor expectations. Since the handset was released April 26, the company that sells nearly one of every three mobile phones has plunged 10.8 per cent as JPMorgan Chase and Co and Morgan Stanley lowered sales forecasts and cut profit estimates. Fifteen analysts cut second-quarter net income estimates for Samsung in June, according to Bloomberg data. The company declined to comment on its share price and S4 sales. Manufacturers of high-end models in the US$358 billion mobile-phone industry are suffering as consumers hold off on buying expensive handsets that aren't considered innovative. Apple Inc fell 9.4 per cent in the month after releasing the iPhone 5 while China's Huawei Technologies Co and ZTE Corp sold smartphones costing about US$100, or about an eighth the price of the S4 in South Korea. "Consumers find no good reason to buy the S4 since it has no big difference with its predecessor," said Oh Sang Woo, an analyst at Leading Investment and Securities in Seoul. "Chinese companies are becoming a bigger threat to Samsung than any other players." The Galaxy S4 - with a five-inch screen, 13-megapixel camera and motion-detecting software - is one of three high-end handsets being released by Samsung this year. The device is part of the company's plan to win customers from Apple, which was the top smartphone seller in the US in the last quarter of 2012. Samsung fell 1.2 per cent to 1,326,000 won at the close in Seoul trading. The Kospi index sank 0.4 per cent. Samsung said May 23 it sold 10 million units of the S4 within a month of its release - about half the time it took the S3 to reach that benchmark. Two weeks later, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley lowered their sales estimates for the year, citing supply-chain checks. JPMorgan cut its profit estimate for Samsung by nine per cent while revising its sales estimate to 60 million units this year from 80 million. Morgan Stanley reduced its earnings estimate by 1.6 per cent and lowered sales expectations to 61 million units from 71 million, analysts led by Shawn Kim said. The world's largest mobile-phone manufacturer also reduced monthly orders of components from suppliers, according to Kim. Apple placed orders with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co for processing chips, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing an unidentified company official at TSMC. The move is part of Apple's shift away from relying on Samsung, according to the newspaper. Samsung is scheduled to release second-quarter operating profit and sales figures this Friday. Operating profit was 10 trillion won (RM27.81 billion), according to the average of 33 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales were 58.5 trillion won, according to the average of 37 estimates. Bloomberg

China June factory activity slows

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 09:08 AM PDT

BEIJING: Growth in China's vast factory sector slowed to multi-month lows in June on faltering new orders, a pair of surveys showed yesterday, boding ill for the world's second-largest economy still smarting from fears of a credit crunch. Economists said the two purchasing managers' indices (PMI) reinforced their concerns that China's economic cooldown could deepen in second quarter, especially with Beijing looking increasingly reluctant to take action to stimulate growth. "The Chinese economy is still struggling at the bottom," said Haibin Zhu, chief China economist of JPMorgan in Hong Kong. Zhu said slowing growth in China's factory sector, as well as tighter monetary conditions in coming months after a squeeze in the interbank market in the last two weeks, could further hobble the Chinese economy this year. The official PMI slipped to 50.1 in June from May's 50.8, just a whisker above the 50-point level that indicates growth. Reuters

Spanish banks brace for lower profits, dividends

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 09:09 AM PDT

SPANISH lenders are bracing for lower profits and dividends and a tougher funding environment under new rules meant to prepare them for pan-European supervision next year and avoid a repeat of last year's multi-billion-euro bailout. On Thursday, the Bank of Spain urged lenders to cap cash payouts to shareholders to the equivalent of 25 per cent of profit and to be cautious on dividends paid in shares. That came hard on the heels of another recommendation from the central bank to calculate the impact of removing minimum interest rate clauses on residential mortgages, a move that would lower payments for homemakers but hit bank profit. Also a long-awaited European deal on how to distribute the cost of bank rescues hit share prices last week of some banks in the region's weaker countries, including Spain, on fears they could find it harder to attract funding. Three banking sources said the new rules did not bode well for the second half of the year because they left investors with the impression that banks had not been fully cleaned up and that more measures were still to come. "The new guidelines on dividends introduce more uncertainty in a sector which already registers high levels of insecurity at a time when the volume of additional provisions that banks will need to book is still unknown," said one of the banking sources. Lenders had already been asked by the Bank of Spain to review by September their euro208 billion (RM854 billion) in portfolios of refinanced loans. Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said lenders will probably have to book another euro10 billion in provisions to cover potential losses on those loans and seek euro2 billion in fresh capital once the review is complete. This will add to the more than euro80 billion booked last year, which hit profit across the board, forced some lenders to scrap dividend payments or raise new funds on the stock and bond markets and prompted the government to seek euro42 billion from the European Union to recapitalise the weakest ones. The massive writedowns and the European-financed bailout have partly restored confidence in the Spanish financial system after it was devastated five years ago when a decade-long property bubble burst. The rescue has so far failed to reactivate bank lending to Spanish companies and households, while the rate of non-performing loans continues to rise. The banking source said the latest guidelines on dividends were dictated by the International Monetary Fund, which earlier in June called on Spanish lenders to reinforce the quantity and quality of their capital by being prudent on cash dividends. The source also said the Bank of Spain wanted all Spanish lenders to be fully cleaned up and well capitalised before pan-European stress tests next year. In the short term, however, banks such as Popular and Sabadell, which did not need public aid last year, may face headwinds. Both have high levels of refinanced loans, have heavily used clauses in mortgage contracts that set floors on interest rates and may find it more difficult to fund themselves under the new EU regime, which mean that second-tier banks in the periphery of the eurozone are likely to have to pay a premium to attract equity and debt investors. The new guidelines may make it hard for them to stick to their dividend plans for 2013, analysts say. Reuters

Fed, China churn already choppy waters

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 09:09 AM PDT

LONDON: Data this week will add spice to speculation as to when the US Federal Reserve will start scaling back its stimulus while reinforcing the realisation that China is serious about shifting to a less frantic growth rate. Fed policymakers have sent mixed messages since chairman Ben Bernanke's June 19 announcement that the central bank was on course to end its bond buying, now running at US$85 billion (RM268.6 billion) a month, by mid-2014. Several officials reassured markets last week that the phase-out of the central bank's asset purchases will depend on economic data, not the date. But Fed Governor Jeremy Stein on Friday mentioned September as perhaps the time to decide whether to start heading for the exit. He also stressed the need to take a long view of the improvement in the economy. That being the case, a projected increase of 166,000 US non-farm payroll jobs in June and a dip in the jobless rate to 7.5 per cent could be enough to cement the case for an early tapering of the Fed's 'quantitative easing' programme. But Brian Levitt, senior economist with OppenheimerFunds in New York, said the fact remained that US growth was modest; given the pace of job creation, it could take a couple of years before unemployment approaches the 6.5 per cent rate the Fed has tentatively set as the threshold for raising interest rates. "It would be nice to see a few months in a row of over 200,000 jobs created before we start thinking about what an exit strategy for the Federal Reserve is going to look like, especially when you think that inflation by any measure is contained here in the US," Levitt said. Like the jobs report, the US Institute of Supply Management's June manufacturing survey will not be signalling a boom either: economists expect the index based on the survey to rise modestly to 50.5 from 49.0 in May. At least the survey should point in a positive direction. By contrast, the index derived from China's official poll of purchasing managers is likely to have fallen to the neutral level of 50 demarcating expansion from contraction. A slower, more sustainable rate of growth in China will be good news for the world in the long run, but it makes life harder in the interim for central banks trying to steer a course through strong cross-currents. Poland and Romania are forecast to cut interest rates this week, but Australia, Sweden, Britain and the European Central Bank are likely to keep policy on hold. Reuters

Greece, lenders resume loan talks

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 09:09 AM PDT

ATHENS: Greece and its international lenders resume talks yesterday to unlock euro8.1 billion (RM33.1 billion) of rescue loans after a two-week break during which the government almost collapsed over redundancies at state broadcaster ERT. Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has said he expects the talks to conclude successfully, despite setbacks to the country's privatisation programme and delays in public sector reforms. To pressure Athens to deliver on reforms, the trio of lenders might refuse to pay the full sum in one go and break it up into three monthly payments instead, Greek media reported. "The biggest issue in the negotiations will be the delays in public sector reforms," a senior finance ministry said. Athens missed a June deadline to place 12,500 state workers into a "mobility scheme", under which they are transferred or dismissed within a year. The country is battling through its sixth year of recession and the latest instalment is one of the last big cash injections it stands to get before the euro240 billion bailout expires at the end of 2014. The stakes are high. If the talks fail, the International Monetary Fund may have to withdraw from Greece's rescue to avoid violating its own rules. Athens needs to redeem euro2.2 billion of bonds in August. Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras will have his first meeting with representatives of the troika of lenders - the IMF, European Union and European Central Bank - at 1400 GMT. The government plans to ask its creditors to lower this year's privatisation target of euro2.6 billion after failing to find a buyer for natural gas company DEPA. A shortfall of more than euro1 billion has emerged at state-run health insurer EOPYY, meaning automatic spending cuts may have to be agreed to bring it back on an even keel. Athens and the troika are also at loggerheads over an unpopular property tax and a possible reduction in a sales tax for restaurants. Meanwhile, United States investment firm Japonica Partners, which emerged as a buyer of Greek government bonds last month, has cut the price it is willing to pay because of renewed worries about the country's finances. Rhode Island-based Japonica surprised markets in June when it launched a tender offer to buy up to euro2.9 billion - almost 10 per cent of all outstanding debt - in face value of Greece's bonds. Reuters

VIDEO: Hong Kong 'to get universal suffrage'

Posted: 01 Jul 2013 07:01 AM PDT

Hong Kong's chief executive, CY Leung, has promised universal suffrage by the year 2017, but protesters remain unconvinced of his message.

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