U.K. banks expect to toughen the criteria on loans to companies and households in the first quarter because of strains in wholesale funding markets and the weaker economic outlook.
Singapore
Kim Jong Un may relax state controls over North Korea
Egyptian soldiers clashed with hundreds of rock-throwing protesters in central Cairo for a second consecutive day on Saturday, in a resurgence of turmoil just days after millions voted in parliamentary elections.
The clashes underlined simmering tensions between activists and security officers and threatened to ignite a new round of violence after two peaceful days of voting in balloting considered the freest and fairest in the country’s modern history.
Hundreds of protesters threw stones early Saturday at security forces that have sealed off the streets around the country’s parliament building with barbed wire. Soldiers on rooftops pelted the crowds below with stones, prompting many of the protesters to pick up helmets, satellite dishes or sheets of metal to try to protect themselves.
The violence first began early Friday morning after soldiers stormed an antimilitary protest camp outside the Cabinet building near Tahrir Square, expelling demonstrators demanding an end to military rule and an immediate transfer of power to a civilian authority. At least seven protesters were killed in the violence, activist said. Scores have been injured.
The military took over after longtime President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a popular revolt in February. Rights groups and activists charge that the military is carrying on the practices of the old regime, including arresting and beating dissidents.
Mustafa Ali, a protester who was wounded by pellet shot in clashes last month, on Saturday accused the military of instigating the violence to “find a justification to remain in power and divide up people into factions.”
The young activists who led the protests against Mubarak have not translated that success into results at the polls, where Islamist parties won a clear majority of seats in the first round of voting last month over the more liberal parties that emerged from the uprising. Results from this week’s second round are expected in the coming days, with the rest of the country set to vote next month.
Images of troops protecting polling centers and soldiers carrying the elderly to the polls have served to boost the military’s image as guardians of the country. The military remains the ultimate authority on all matters of state in absence of a president.
The second round of voting took place Wednesday and Thursday in nine of the country’s 27 provinces. It covered vast rural areas where the religious stand of Islamist parties has strong support.
Thousands of Cyprus government workers held a three-hour strike Tuesday to protest a proposed two-year salary freeze they regard is unfair.
Even limited strikes are rare in the eurozone member of 800,000 people with a bloated public sector that takes up around a third of all government spending.
But trade unions said they were not adequately consulted in talks between the government and opposition parties _ which hold a majority in Parliament _ in hammering out the deal.
The strike closed schools early but did not affect airports, sea ports and hospitals.
In Nicosia, hundreds of protesters booed and mocked lawmakers entering and exiting parliament, and union leaders said they should have targeted tax dodgers and the rich, not public employees.
“We unreservedly say no to these false dilemmas that make workers easy prey, while provocatively leaving businesses, big capital and generally those who have untouched,” said Glafcos Hadjipetrou, boss of the PASYDY union.
Finance Minister Kikis Kazamias told union leaders they were left out of the talks because he needed a quick deal because the island faces sanctions under EU rules if it doesn’t agree on deficit-cutting measures by mid-December.
“This was something that shouldn’t be considered the rule, but rather the exception,” Kazamias said.
Cyprus is trying to slash its fiscal deficit and restore investor confidence following credit rating downgrades _ mainly due to its banks heavy exposure to debt-laden Greece _ that have brought it a step above junk status.
The island, with a euro18 billion ($23.8 billion) economy, has been largely locked out of international markets for loans to pay its bills and refinance its debt, as interest rates on its bonds have shot up as a result of the downgrades.
Cyprus is relying on a euro2.5 billion ($3.3 billion) loan from Russia at an interest rate much lower than what markets are offering to see it through until around middle of next year.
Austerity measures the government is trying to push through parliament include raising a sales tax from 15 to 17 percent, a scale-based levy on private sector salaries above euro2,500 ($3,312), reducing social benefits by euro200 million ($265 million) and reducing public sector positions.
Lawmakers will hold separate votes this week on the budget and additional austerity measures, which aim to shrink the deficit from the current 6.5 percent of gross domestic product to 2.4 percent.
Bank of America agreed to pay $315 million to settle claims by investors that they were misled about mortgage-backed investments sold by its Merrill Lynch unit.
The settlement was disclosed in court papers filed late Monday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan and requires the approval of a judge.
The class action lawsuit was led by the Public Employees’ Retirement System of Mississippi pension fund. The fund claimed that the investments were backed by poor quality mortgages written by subprime lenders Countrywide Financial Corp., First Franklin Financial, and IndyMac Bancorp, a bank that failed in 2008.
The settlement represents another attempt by Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America Corp. to put its legal issues behind it. In the first half of the year alone the bank put up $12.7 billion to settle similar claims from different groups of investors.
U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff has to approve the settlement, something that could prove difficult since the settlement includes no admission of guilt from Bank of America no fax cash advance.
Just last week, Rakoff struck down a $285 million settlement that Citigroup Inc. reached with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The settlement would have imposed penalties on Citigroup even as it allowed the company to deny allegations that it misled investors.
Rakoff said the public has a right to know what happens in cases that touch on “the transparency of financial markets whose gyrations have so depressed our economy and debilitated our lives.” In such cases, the SEC has a responsibility to ensure that the truth emerges, he wrote.
In 2009, Rakoff had rejected a $33 million settlement between the SEC and Bank of America on similar grounds, calling it a breach of “justice and morality.”
Toyota will begin taking orders Tuesday for the plug-in version of its hit Prius hybrid, announcing efficient mileage and a relatively affordable starting price of 3.2 million yen ($41,000), which comes down with green vehicle subsidies.
Toyota is targeting Prius Plug-in sales of 35,000 to 40,000 a year in Japan, and 60,000 globally. The car is set for delivery in Japan in January. With subsidies the cost comes down to 2.75 million yen ($35,200). It starts at $32,000 in the U.S. and 37,000 euros in Europe, according to Toyota.
Japan’s top automaker says the plug-in, which it calls the Prius PHV, is for those who want something more innovative than a regular gasoline-electric hybrid, but are worried about running out of power on the road, as can happen with pure electric vehicles.
When a plug-in runs out of power to keep the electric vehicle going, it becomes a hybrid.
“The plug-in is the premier next-generation ecological car that will follow the hybrid,” said Executive Vice President Takeshi Uchiyamada, the Toyota Motor Corp. engineer known as the “father of the Prius.”
The Prius Plug-in has an estimated electric vehicle cruise range per charge of 26.4 kilometers (16 miles), according to Toyota.
Its mileage is estimated at 61 kilometers per liter for Japanese test conditions, which converts to a whopping 143 miles per gallon. Such numbers vary depending on road conditions. Toyota is promising 87 mpg for the U.S. Prius Plug-in, which will be delivered starting in March. Orders are already being taken online in the U.S.
Green cars such as the Prius Plug-in are expected to take centerstage at the Tokyo Motor Show, which opens to the public this weekend.
Japanese consumers have taken to the Prius, despite a languishing auto market overall, thanks to government-backed subsidies. Nations around the world are offering similar perks, boosting its chance for success.
The Prius Plug-in, which seats five people, comes with a new lithium-ion battery that can be charged from a household outlet, much like an electric car. It also recharges itself while driving like a gasoline-electric hybrid. The battery is more powerful and compact so the back trunk fits three golf bags.
Uchiyamada told reporters that the plug-in was the best solution for green cars as most Japanese don’t drive more than 20 kilometers (12 miles) a day and Toyota studies showed that most people don’t want to use EVs for drives longer than 100 kilometers (60 miles).
How the plug-in fares in coming months will help show whether Toyota can keep riding on its success of the Prius as a global leader in green technology. Toyota said it had collected data from 600 people around the world who had leased the plug-in on a trial basis.
Toyota has sold more than 3.4 million hybrids worldwide so far, including models other than the Prius.
Selling in big numbers is important because it helps cut costs and allows the automaker to offer products at affordable prices.
Honda Motor Co., which has also been aggressive with hybrid technology, has sold 770,000 hybrids worldwide.
Nissan Motor Co., which hasn’t released a global hybrid sales number, is banking more on pure electric, selling 17,500 Leaf cars around the world so far.
In Japan, Toyota will work on services with its housing unit to support plug-in owners’ charging stations, it said.
Iraq on Sunday signed a multibillion-dollar deal with Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp. to tap natural gas in the south, one of the biggest agreements by the OPEC member to develop an energy sector battered by years of neglect and war.
The $17 billion deal forms a joint venture to gather, process and market gas from three oil fields in the oil-rich province of Basra. That gas, pumped in conjunction with crude oil, is currently burned off _ or flared _ due to lack of infrastructure.
The 25-year joint venture is called Basra Gas Company. Iraq will hold a 51 percent stake, to Royal Dutch Shell’s 44 percent and Mitsubishi’s 5 percent shares. The gas will be used mainly for domestic energy needs, but there is also an option for exports.
Iraq’s Oil Minister, Abdul-Karim Elaibi hailed the signing as “historic turn in Iraq’s oil industry.”
Shell CEO Peter Voser told reporters that Iraq is now a “…substantial part of Royal Dutch Shell’s portfolio in the Middle East.”
For Iraq, the deal is a key part of its strategy to alleviate power generation woes. Despite billions of dollars spent since the 1990s to rebuild Iraq’s dilapidated electrical grid, Iraqis still suffer through chronic power outages that have led to sometimes violent protests.
The deal is Shell’s third in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, and it will bolster the company’s presence in a country which sits atop 143.1 billion barrels of crude oil and 126.7 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves.
A memorandum of understanding on the Shell gas deal was signed in September 2008, but the venture has been bogged down ever since. Some lawmakers argued that the deal should have been approved by parliament and officials in Basra wanted more benefits for their province cash advance today.
Iraq burns off almost half of the 1.5 billion cubic feet per day of gas that it produces. The deal will help the country capture more than 700 million cubic feet per day of gas from three fields.
They are the 17.8 billion-barrel Rumaila field being developed by a BP-CNPC consortium, the 4.1 billion barrel Zubair field, handled by an Eni-led consortium and partners Occidental Petroleum Corp. and KOGAS, as well as the 8.6 billion barrel West Qurna Stage 1, which is being developed by ExxonMobil-Shell consortium.
ExxonMobil has recently been embroiled in controversy after it became known that the company had signed a contract with the Kurdish regional government _ and not the Oil Ministry in Baghdad _ to develop oil fields in northern Iraq.
The Kurdistan Regional Government has clashed with Baghdad over who has the right to sign deals with international oil companies to develop Iraq’s vast energy resources.
The Kurds, who control three provinces in northern Iraq, want to be able to sign contracts with international oil companies to develop their own fields, while Baghdad maintains it has final authority.
On Sunday the oil minister said the ministry sent letters to ExxonMobil asking for an explanation of the reports that they signed these deals, but has not yet heard a response. He declined to comment on what penalties the Texas-based company might face.
A California solar panel manufacturer that received a half-billion dollar loan from the federal government before declaring bankruptcy says it’s been unable to attract much interest from potential buyers to take over its operations.
Instead, Solyndra LLC is looking at a piecemeal sale of its assets, with separate auctions for its machinery and equipment, real estate and intellectual property.
Solyndra officials told a U.S. bankruptcy trustee Tuesday that no qualified bidders have come forward to buy the company and take over its manufacturing operations.
Chief restructuring officer Todd Neilson said Fremont, Calif.-based Solyndra had received only one bid for a sale of the whole company.
“It was extremely low-ball,” he explained. “It was mainly designed to take the equipment and the real estate at an extraordinarily low price.”
Neilson said fewer than five potential bidders, mostly from other countries, are still conducting due diligence. But it is “highly unlikely” that a buyer willing to buy Solyndra outright and continue its operations would emerge, he said.
Solyndra representatives blamed the lack of interest on the economy, not on the political fallout stemming from Solyndra’s failure.
“It’s a difficult economic environment. It’s a difficult industry,” Debra Grassgreen, a Solyndra bankruptcy attorney, said after a creditors meeting Tuesday.
Solyndra, which received a $528 million federal loan and was touted by the Obama administration as a “green jobs” creator, filed for bankruptcy protection in September. The filing came several months after a February loan restructuring in which some $70 million borrowed from private investors got priority over $385 million in taxpayer money for repayment in the event of a default.
Under the February restructuring, Argonaut Ventures and another private investment firm, Madrone Partners LP, stand to be repaid before U.S bad credit payday advance. taxpayers. Congressional leaders have said allowing private investors to move ahead of taxpayers for repayment may have been illegal.
Argonaut is an investment vehicle of the George Kaiser Family Foundation of Tulsa, Okla. The foundation is headed by Oklahoma billionaire George Kaiser, a major Obama campaign contributor and a frequent visitor to the White House.
Following its bankruptcy filing, Solyndra became the target of separate investigations by the FBI and congressional Republicans.
Testifying before a House committee last week, Energy Secretary Steven Chu defended the federal loan to Solyndra, but at that same time said he was unaware of many details about the loan or financial problems that Solyndra faced, including predictions by DOE staff two years ago that the company would likely face severe cash-flow problems.
Chu also denied that he was influenced by Kaiser, who invested $400 million in Solyndra. Kaiser has said he played no part in helping Solyndra win the 2009 loan, but emails released earlier this month show that he discussed Solyndra with the White House on at least one occasion. Kaiser also directed business associates on how to approach the White House and the Energy Department to help Solyndra deal with its financial problems.
Chu denied that anyone in the White House ever contacted him to make a political decision on the loan and said cheap imports from China, the collapse of the European market for solar panels, and other market changes led prices for Solyndra’s product to fall.
While prospects for a takeover of Solyndra’s operations appear dim, officials said an auction of the company’s non-core assets, such as office equipment, went better than expected.
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