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petak, 03.04.2009.

Ukrainians rally against leaders

Tens of thousands of people have rallied in Ukraine against the pro-western government and their handling of the economic crisis.

About 20,000 protesters yelled "Shame", "Stop the Crisis and "Out with Yulia", referring to Yulia Tymoshenko, the prime minister, as they converged on Independence Square in Kiev, the country's capital, on Friday.

Viktor Yanukovich, the pro-Russian opposition Regions Party leader and former prime minister, told the crowd: "I think everyone in this square has one big wish - change life for the better ... there is only one way to do this, when we are rid of those now in power.

"The faster they go, the faster we will restore order together in the country, the faster our factories will be back at work and the faster our economy will start to grow."

'Change for the better'

He said that he would suspend protests until April 14 so that Tymoshenko can come up with a programme to address the economic crisis.

Demonstrators also called for the resignation of President Vikor Yushchenko, whose approval ratings have slumped to about three per cent since the country was hit by the global economic crisis and government infighting.

It was the second such rally by the Regions Party in as many weeks, and was the largest in the ex-Soviet state since the 2007 parliamentary campaigns.

Yanukovich is expected to run against Yushchenko in elections set by parliament two days ago for October 25.

The date is about three months earlier than Yushchenko had wanted, potentially giving him a reduced time frame to bolster the economy and gain political capital.

President 'ready'

Yushchenko, the leader of the People's Union party, said that he is ready for both presidential and parliamentary elections.

"I am unafraid of any sort of election, and that includes a presidential election," he said.

Yushchenko's administration had previously said that bringing the parliamentary vote forward would be unconstitutional and that it should be at the end of the president's five-year term at the beginning of 2010.

Parliament has drafted a number of measures to counteract the economy's failings, including the easing of millions of dollars of suspended credit, and Tymoshenko is pushing for the approval of additional policies.

Ukraine is one of the nations hardest hit by the global economic crisis, with steel - its main export - undergoing a sharp price fall, precipitating thousands of job losses.

The International Monetary Fund offered Ukraine a loan last year to deal with their economic downturn.

- 22:02 - Komentari (0) - Isprintaj - #

Russia 'to aid Afghan fight'

Russia has said it is ready to increase co-operation with the Nato military alliance over its war in Afghanistan.

Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, told an international conference on Afghanistan in Moscow on Friday that his country was "ready to examine other kinds of constructive co-operation".

Lavrov did not say what kind of assistance Russia might provide, but it already allows Nato to transit non-lethal material to Afghanistan through its territory.

The hosting of the conference was seen as a sign of the Kremlin's desire to expand its role in the region.

Moscow said it hoped the talks would help to improve the co-ordination of global efforts to combat Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters, as well as tackle drug-trafficking in Afghanistan.

'Parallel power centres'

Vitaly Churkin, Moscow's ambassador to the United Nations, said: "It is particularly troubling that terrorists practically control a number of areas in Afghanistan and have formed parallel power centres."

Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary-general, the European Union, the United States, and China, as well as other regional states, joined Russia in calling for "sustained international support" for the effort in Afghanistan.

Participants said they wanted "to strengthen Afghan security institutions to effectively combat the scourge of terrorism and production and trafficking of narcotics".

Al Jazeera's Neave Barker, reporting from Moscow, said Russia and many of the other states involved in the conference had made it clear that they would not provide military support.

"Russia has indicated that it is willing to help curb the spread of drugs, particularly heroin, from Afghanistan ... the spread of arms and terrorism from the region," he said.

Alexander Konovalov, head of the Moscow-based Institute of Strategic Assessment, said that Russia had become "the main destination for drugs from Afghanistan".

Spillover fears

The conference, which was organised by the the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, includes representatives from Russia, China and the ex-Soviet Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

"For them Afghanistan has become an increasingly important issue as many fear that the disturbances there might spill over and effect the entire region," Al Jazeera's Barker said.

The group has served as a vehicle for Moscow and Beijing to limit Western influence in energy-rich Central Asia.

Despite its offer to help Nato in Afghanistan, Russia is wary of the US military's presence in the region, which it considers part of its traditional sphere of influence.

Last month, Kyrgyzstan ordered the US to vacate a military base which had been key to supporting Washington's operations in Afghanistan.

The move came immediately after Russia promised $2.1bn in loans and aid to the impoverished country.

- 22:01 - Komentari (0) - Isprintaj - #

Karzai welcomes new US strategy

Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has welcomed a new war strategy unveiled by Barack Obama, his US counterpart, for Afghanistan and Pakistan, calling it "better than expected".

Speaking on Saturday in Kabul, Karzai said it was "exactly what the Afghan people were hoping for" to help fight extremism and bring stability to Afghanistan.

Obama unveiled his administration's plan on Friday, which includes the deployment of an extra 4,000 US troops to train Afghan forces, following a review of policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"This is better than we were expecting as a matter of fact," Karzai said.

Speaking about government peace initiatives, Karzai asked that the names of Taliban members without links to al-Qaeda be removed from a UN blacklist.

He said the move would help create "the right environment" for a peace process between the Afghan government and so-called moderate Taliban elements.

"In the right environment means ... looking at the list that is with the United Nations and removing the names that are not part of al-Qaeda, that are not part of [the] terrorist network ... and the help of the countries who have an important role in this regard must be asked for," Karzai said.

More violence

Afghanistan has seen rising violence in recent years as Taliban forces - ousted from power by a US-led invasion in 2001 - reorganise and launch attacks from the border region with Pakistan.

In the latest round of violence, Afghan and US forces killed 12 suspected fighters during a raid on a compound in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, according to the US military.
In video

The US military said in a statement on Saturday that the fighters tried to use women and children as shields during the battle, and that one child was injured.

- 21:59 - Komentari (0) - Isprintaj - #

Sarkozy rejects Obama's Afghan plea

Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, has rejected a plea from Barack Obama, the US president, for his country to send extra troops to Afghanistan.

Speaking at a news conference with Obama, in Strasbourg on Friday, Sarkozy gave his support to "the new American strategy in Afghanistan", but added there would be "no strengthening of French troops" in the country.

He said France was ready to do more in the field of police training and economic aid.

The two leaders addressed the media hours before the beginning of a Nato summit, which is likely to focus on Afghanistan.

'Stalwart ally'

Rob Reynolds, Al Jazeera's correspondent reporting from Strasbourg, said it appeared Sarkozy and Obama "have agreed not to disagree over this".
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Follow Al Jazeera's Hamish Macdonald at the Nato summit.
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"It does look as if the American side here is not going to push the issue ... because they recognise the political realities - it's simply not going to happen," he said.

Reynolds said it appeared Obama's power as president had been slightly diminished by the global economic downturn.

"America's stature has been very materially diminished by that [the economic crisis] alone," he said.

"It's a completely new situation for a US president in his dealing with his peers in Europe, and I think you're seeing a little bit of a reflection of that in perhaps what is a little bit of a lower impact presidency."

Despite Sarkozy's unwillingness to commit more troops, Obama said he was "grateful" for Washington's relationship with France.

"France has already been a stalwart ally when it comes to Afghanistan," he said.

"It's not just a matter of more resources, it's a matter of more effectively using the resources we have."

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Nato's secretary general, told Hamish Macdonald, Al Jazeera's correspondent at the summit, that keeping member-states on the side of the military alliance's operation in Afghanistan was crucial to its success.

"This is a war amongst the people, which means that we as Nato must keep winning the hearts and minds of the Afghan people, and at the same time that we do not lose the hearts and minds of the nations who are providing the forces," he said.

- 21:56 - Komentari (0) - Isprintaj - #

Malawi court rejects Madonna adoption request

A judge has rejected Madonna's request to adopt a second child from Malawi because of a requirement that prospective parents live in the southern African nation for at least 18 months.

The judge who confirmed the decision did not make the ruling, but saw it. The lawyer was present when the ruling was made. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the case.

The 50-year-old pop superstar can appeal the ruling to Malawi's Supreme Court.

The residency rule was waived in 2006, when Madonna was allowed to take her adopted son, David, to London before his adoption was finalised in 2008.

It was not clear why Judge Esme Chombo ruled differently today. Another judge had handled Madonna's previous adoption case. Madonna was not in court.

Madonna's efforts to adopt 3-year-old Chifundo "Mercy" James had drawn criticism from some activists who said the little girl would be best off with relatives. In court papers made public today, Madonna said Chifundo's grandmother was unable to care for her.

Madonna had promised to make Mercy a permanent part of her family and spare her the "hardship and emotional trauma" of life as an orphan.

The girl's mother, according to the affidavit, died at age 14 just days after her baby was born Jan. 22, 2006. There was no mention of the father in the affidavit. The mother's brother is listed as having consented to the adoption.

"I am able and willing to securely provide for Chifundo James and make her a permanent and established member of my family," Madonna said. "To deny Chifundo James the opportunity to be adopted by me could expose her to hardship and emotional trauma which is otherwise avoidable."

Malawi's child welfare minister had endorsed Madonna's adoption application.

"We have close to 2 million orphans in Malawi who need help," Women and Child Welfare Development Minister Anna Kachikho said today. "We can't look after all of them as a country. If people like Madonna adopt even one such orphan, it's one mouth less we have to feed."

Critics accused Madonna of using her fame and money to fast-track the adoption process, but the singer said she had followed standard procedures. She faced similar allegations in 2006 when she brought home David, who is now 3.

A coalition of non-governmental organizations called the Human Rights Consultative Committee had criticized Madonna's adoption attempts, saying that adoption should be the last resort and that children need to be taken care of by their own family.

"Mercy James is a child who has her extended close family members alive and we urge Madonna to assist the child from right here," the coalition said earlier this week.

- 21:47 - Komentari (0) - Isprintaj - #

Banks Face Big Losses From Bets on Chinese Realty Alex Hofford for The New York Times The Evergrande Real Estate Group’s projects include the Royal Scenic Peninsula development in Guangzhou, China. Sign In to E-Mail Print Single Page Reprints

Back in the good old days — early 2007 — bankers from Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank and other financial giants placed their bets on a 48-year-old property tycoon who was supposed to be China’s next billionaire.
They lent his company $400 million, encouraged him to acquire large tracts of land and in early 2008 promoted a proposed $2.1 billion public stock offering by the company, the Evergrande Real Estate Group, in Hong Kong.
One year later, China’s housing market has collapsed, Evergrande is mired in debt and the Wall Street bankers are facing huge losses because the company never sold stock to the public.
Now, analysts say, Evergrande has become a symbol of China’s go-go era of investing, when international bankers, private equity deal makers and hedge fund managers rushed here hoping to cash in on the world’s biggest building boom.
By making short-term and sometimes hasty bets on China’s property market, analysts say, some of the world’s biggest financial institutions may have lost as much as $10 billion.
“They were greedy,” says Andy Xie, an independent economist who once served as Morgan Stanley’s chief economist in China.

While the scale of the property downturn is still unclear — sales have rebounded slightly after falling more than 50 percent in some big cities — investment in big property projects has stalled.

What is clear is that the real estate boom was fueled in part by foreign investors, who over the last four years pumped tens of billions of dollars into the Chinese property market, hoping to snap up office buildings, luxury villas and stakes in big developers.

A Morgan Stanley real estate fund bought a tower in Shanghai for more than $240 million; the Carlyle Group acquired luxury villas; and in 2008 J. P. Morgan Asset Management held a 12 percent stake in R&F Properties, a big Chinese developer.

To earn big returns, many global investors used complex offshore investment vehicles, like convertible bonds and preferred equity, which gave them tax advantages and allowed them to more easily bypass Beijing’s strict controls on investing in Chinese companies listed overseas. Often the investments were routed through places like the Cayman Islands or the British Virgin Islands.

A favorite investment play was the pre-initial public offering deal. Flush with capital, foreign investors would issue convertible bonds through an offshore entity as a way to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in a Chinese property developer. When the developer was ready to sell stock in Hong Kong, it would pay back the initial investment or bond by giving the foreign investor pre-I.P.O. shares at a discount.

Analysts say that foreign investors grew increasingly aggressive about such deals, sometimes failing to weigh the risks.

The investors would typically find a developer, pump huge amounts of capital into the company through the offshore investment vehicles, encourage the developer to use the money to amass a huge land bank to increase the company’s value, then prepare the developer for a Hong Kong stock offering. Less than a year after the stock offering, many investors planned to exit the deal by selling their Hong Kong shares at a huge profit.

Investors also hoped to gain from China’s currency, the yuan, which was gaining against the dollar and enticing even more speculative capital into the property market.

- 21:40 - Komentari (0) - Isprintaj - #

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