Monday, June 4, 2007
Police: N. Korean family faced sea in small boat
Police: N. Korean family faced sea in small boat
POSTED: 0553 GMT (1353 HKT), June 3, 2007
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GOSHOGAWARA, Japan (Reuters) -- Japan is likely to offer temporary protection to four people believed to have fled North Korea who are seeking asylum in the South after they arrived by boat at a Japanese port, Japanese officials said on Sunday.
The three men and a woman, who were taken into Japanese custody on Saturday, claimed to be a family, a police official said. They told authorities they had been out at sea in the small wooden boat since May 27 after leaving North Korea for the South.
They told Japanese officials they had left Chongjin on the east coast and headed south, but then changed course due to heavy security and ended up at Fukaura in Japan's Aomori prefecture, 800 kilometers (500 miles) to the east, the police official added.
"They are seeking protection and this is not a criminal case, but rather a humanitarian issue," said the official.
"We are discussing with immigration and Foreign Ministry officials towards granting them protection."
A government official in Tokyo also said Japanese authorities were holding talks over how to best serve the four's interest.
Asked about the latest case, South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said the wishes of the four should be upheld.
"I understand they will be treated according to humanitarian principles and according to their wishes," he told reporters in South Korea.
Japan can grant asylum-seekers a six-month stay permit under its immigration law, and a 2006 "North Korean human rights" law also states that the government must take measures to protect and support defectors from North Korea.
In the past North Korean defectors have fled to Japanese missions and other premises in China, and Tokyo allowed them to leave for third countries.
It is rare for North Koreans to flee to Japan, and it could worsen relations between Tokyo and Pyongyang -- which have no diplomatic ties -- if North Korea demands their return.
In 1987, Pyongyang asked Tokyo to return the crew of a North Korean boat who had sought asylum in South Korea after docking at a port in western Japan, but Tokyo allowed them to leave for the South via Taiwan.
Japan is also feuding with North Korea over the fate of Japanese citizens kidnapped decades ago by Pyongyang's agents to help train spies.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said that until the abduction issue has been resolved, Japan will not provide funds for a multilateral deal clinched in February, by which Pyongyang agreed to scrap its nuclear arms program in return for energy aid.
Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
China stocks plunge after tax hike
China stocks plunge after tax hike
POSTED: 0317 GMT (1117 HKT), June 4, 2007
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Shanghai, China (Reuters) -- China's main stock index plunged at the opening on Tuesday and then swung widely as investors continued to dump stocks after last week's hike in the share trading tax.
The Shanghai Composite Index opened down 2.89 percent, briefly rebounded into positive territory and then resumed sliding. After 15 minutes of trade it stood 2.02 percent lower at 3,596.324 points, a level not seen since April 20.
The index has now tumbled 17 percent since the tax hike, which was designed to cool rampant speculation by individual investors.
China's securities regulator has approved four new mutual funds that will invest in the stock market, sources close to the regulator told Reuters late on Monday. The approvals were widely seen as an effort by authorities to restore investor confidence.
But large-cap blue chips remained soft early on Tuesday, suggesting that not only individual speculators but also some institutional investors were selling to cut losses.
Heavyweight oil refiner Sinopec was down 0.73 percent at 13.55 yuan, after earlier plunging 4.2 percent.
Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
US Auto CEOs To Meet With Senate Majority Leader Wed
US Auto CEOs To Meet With Senate Majority Leader Wed
June 04, 2007: 07:06 PM EST
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., will play host Wednesday to the heads of the Big Three automakers, General Motors (GM), Ford Motor Co. (F) and DaimlerChrysler Group (DCX), to discuss the future of the U.S. auto industry, his office said Monday.
The meeting comes as the Senate is preparing to discuss next week comprehensive energy legislation that includes a measure to reform fuel efficiency standards that automakers fear may cause further economic trouble for an already distressed industry.
Reid will host the meeting with two Michigan Democrat colleagues who opposed fuel efficiency legislation that passed out of the commerce committee in early May. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., chair of the Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee, and Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Reid will also meet with United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger.
In the face of political momentum rolling toward fuel efficiency reform in both the Senate and House, automakers are lobbying to soften the commerce committee bill that would increase fuel efficiency of the nation's combined fleets of passenger cars and light trucks to 35 miles a gallon from 2009 to 2019. They fear that not only would retooling plants and redesigning entire fleets be too costly, but the standards would put them at a disadvantage to foreign competitors such as Toyota (7203.TO) because of their fleet compositions.
Levin and Stabenow have said the new rules should not penalize U.S. manufacturers, and improvements could rather be achieved through encouraging advanced technologies such as plug-in hybrids and improved battery technology.
The floor debate is likely to be tough as senators on both sides of the issue - those for more stringent reform and those against reform altogether - have promised to modify the bill.
Reid spokesman Jim Manley said that in introducing the legislation, the Senate majority leader expressed his support for higher fuel efficiency standards.
-By Ian Talley, Dow Jones Newswires; (202) 862 9285; ian.talley@dowjones.com; (END) Dow Jones Newswires
06-04-07 1906ET
Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
June 04, 2007: 07:06 PM EST
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., will play host Wednesday to the heads of the Big Three automakers, General Motors (GM), Ford Motor Co. (F) and DaimlerChrysler Group (DCX), to discuss the future of the U.S. auto industry, his office said Monday.
The meeting comes as the Senate is preparing to discuss next week comprehensive energy legislation that includes a measure to reform fuel efficiency standards that automakers fear may cause further economic trouble for an already distressed industry.
Reid will host the meeting with two Michigan Democrat colleagues who opposed fuel efficiency legislation that passed out of the commerce committee in early May. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., chair of the Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee, and Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Reid will also meet with United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger.
In the face of political momentum rolling toward fuel efficiency reform in both the Senate and House, automakers are lobbying to soften the commerce committee bill that would increase fuel efficiency of the nation's combined fleets of passenger cars and light trucks to 35 miles a gallon from 2009 to 2019. They fear that not only would retooling plants and redesigning entire fleets be too costly, but the standards would put them at a disadvantage to foreign competitors such as Toyota (7203.TO) because of their fleet compositions.
Levin and Stabenow have said the new rules should not penalize U.S. manufacturers, and improvements could rather be achieved through encouraging advanced technologies such as plug-in hybrids and improved battery technology.
The floor debate is likely to be tough as senators on both sides of the issue - those for more stringent reform and those against reform altogether - have promised to modify the bill.
Reid spokesman Jim Manley said that in introducing the legislation, the Senate majority leader expressed his support for higher fuel efficiency standards.
-By Ian Talley, Dow Jones Newswires; (202) 862 9285; ian.talley@dowjones.com; (END) Dow Jones Newswires
06-04-07 1906ET
Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Friday, June 1, 2007
Economy hits the sweet spot
Economy hits the sweet spot
Solid gains in jobs, manufacturing, consumer spending offset weakness in housing; Fed seen on hold.
By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer
June 1 2007: 12:06 PM EDT
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A rush of reports Friday showed the economy growing at what is widely seen by economists and investors as just the right pace.
The reports showed solid growth in the job market and surprising improvement in manufacturing. And despite some weak recent reports from retailers, consumer spending continued to grow, keeping that key driver of the economy in gear. Consumer spending fuels nearly three-quarters of the economy.
Video
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Many small business employees say they are just fine with their jobs even if they make less money. CNN's Jennifer Westhoven reports. (May 7)
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But there was enough softness in consumer prices, home sales and income growth to calm any concerns about inflation. That should keep the Federal Reserve on hold on interest rates for some time to come.
Who's hiring: Companies with fast job growth
"If you're the Fed, the only danger right now is you might strain your arm patting yourself on the back," said David Wyss, chief economist for Standard & Poor's. "It's about as good as you can get."
The latest reports were a contrast to Thursday's government report showing the economy grew at the slowest pace in five years in the first quarter. Wyss said despite all the good news Friday, there are some clouds on the horizon, but they shouldn't cause any economic storms in the near term.
"We don't know what's going to happen with oil prices, and we're not through the housing mess yet," he said. "But it certainly suggests the second quarter will be a lot stronger than the first quarter."
Wall Street reacted positively, with stocks rising in midday trading, pushing the Dow industrials and the S&P 500 further into to record territory. Investors like steady but not explosive economic growth, which is good for corporate earnings but doesn't threaten a pickup in inflation.
The day's leading report was the Labor Department's job report, which showed employers added 157,000 jobs to payrolls in May, up from a revised 80,000 gain in April. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast 135,000 new jobs in May.
The hottest salaries
The unemployment rate stayed at 4.5 percent, in line with forecasts. While the number of those listed as unemployed crept up by 18,000, that was outpaced by the gain of those with jobs.
The report showed average hourly wages rose 6 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $17.30, also in line with forecasts. The average hourly wage is now up 3.9 percent from a year earlier, above the 2.6 percent gain in prices for the 12 months ending in April.
Most job growth was in the service sector. Education and health services payrolls grew by 54,000 while the leisure and hospitality industries added 46,000 workers. But retailers, who have seen some weak sales recently, trimmed 5,000 jobs during the month.
Manufacturing lost 19,000 jobs, while construction employment was unchanged, even in the face of the downturn in home building over the last year.
A separate government report showed personal income fell in April for the first time since August 2005. Economists had forecast a 0.3 percent rise. Spending by individuals was up by more than forecasts, though.
That report also showed that prices paid by consumers for goods other than food and energy rose less than expected, putting the so-called core PCE deflator up just 2.0 percent over the last year.
Why you still can't find a builder
The core PCE deflator is believed to be one of the Fed's favored inflation readings, and central bank policymakers are believed to want to see it between 1 and 2 percent. The Friday report marks the first time in just over a year that the reading was in the Fed's comfort zone.
Separately, a survey by the University of Michigan showed consumer confidence came in above forecasts at the end of May despite record high gasoline prices and declining home values.
And a survey of manufacturing executives showed business conditions in that sector improved modestly in May, rather than the slight decline economists had forecast.
There was more bad news for the housing sector, however, the one area of economic weakness frequently cited as a concern by the Fed.
The National Association of Realtors reported that its pending home sales index fell 3.2 percent, rather than the modest gain that had been forecast. The measure of sales that have been agreed on but not yet completed is seen as a more forward-looking reading on the state of the battered real estate market.
Construction employment bucks slumpEconomic growth slowest since '02Economy might not yet be in the clear
Solid gains in jobs, manufacturing, consumer spending offset weakness in housing; Fed seen on hold.
By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer
June 1 2007: 12:06 PM EDT
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A rush of reports Friday showed the economy growing at what is widely seen by economists and investors as just the right pace.
The reports showed solid growth in the job market and surprising improvement in manufacturing. And despite some weak recent reports from retailers, consumer spending continued to grow, keeping that key driver of the economy in gear. Consumer spending fuels nearly three-quarters of the economy.
Video
More video
Many small business employees say they are just fine with their jobs even if they make less money. CNN's Jennifer Westhoven reports. (May 7)
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- Search by Company
But there was enough softness in consumer prices, home sales and income growth to calm any concerns about inflation. That should keep the Federal Reserve on hold on interest rates for some time to come.
Who's hiring: Companies with fast job growth
"If you're the Fed, the only danger right now is you might strain your arm patting yourself on the back," said David Wyss, chief economist for Standard & Poor's. "It's about as good as you can get."
The latest reports were a contrast to Thursday's government report showing the economy grew at the slowest pace in five years in the first quarter. Wyss said despite all the good news Friday, there are some clouds on the horizon, but they shouldn't cause any economic storms in the near term.
"We don't know what's going to happen with oil prices, and we're not through the housing mess yet," he said. "But it certainly suggests the second quarter will be a lot stronger than the first quarter."
Wall Street reacted positively, with stocks rising in midday trading, pushing the Dow industrials and the S&P 500 further into to record territory. Investors like steady but not explosive economic growth, which is good for corporate earnings but doesn't threaten a pickup in inflation.
The day's leading report was the Labor Department's job report, which showed employers added 157,000 jobs to payrolls in May, up from a revised 80,000 gain in April. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast 135,000 new jobs in May.
The hottest salaries
The unemployment rate stayed at 4.5 percent, in line with forecasts. While the number of those listed as unemployed crept up by 18,000, that was outpaced by the gain of those with jobs.
The report showed average hourly wages rose 6 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $17.30, also in line with forecasts. The average hourly wage is now up 3.9 percent from a year earlier, above the 2.6 percent gain in prices for the 12 months ending in April.
Most job growth was in the service sector. Education and health services payrolls grew by 54,000 while the leisure and hospitality industries added 46,000 workers. But retailers, who have seen some weak sales recently, trimmed 5,000 jobs during the month.
Manufacturing lost 19,000 jobs, while construction employment was unchanged, even in the face of the downturn in home building over the last year.
A separate government report showed personal income fell in April for the first time since August 2005. Economists had forecast a 0.3 percent rise. Spending by individuals was up by more than forecasts, though.
That report also showed that prices paid by consumers for goods other than food and energy rose less than expected, putting the so-called core PCE deflator up just 2.0 percent over the last year.
Why you still can't find a builder
The core PCE deflator is believed to be one of the Fed's favored inflation readings, and central bank policymakers are believed to want to see it between 1 and 2 percent. The Friday report marks the first time in just over a year that the reading was in the Fed's comfort zone.
Separately, a survey by the University of Michigan showed consumer confidence came in above forecasts at the end of May despite record high gasoline prices and declining home values.
And a survey of manufacturing executives showed business conditions in that sector improved modestly in May, rather than the slight decline economists had forecast.
There was more bad news for the housing sector, however, the one area of economic weakness frequently cited as a concern by the Fed.
The National Association of Realtors reported that its pending home sales index fell 3.2 percent, rather than the modest gain that had been forecast. The measure of sales that have been agreed on but not yet completed is seen as a more forward-looking reading on the state of the battered real estate market.
Construction employment bucks slumpEconomic growth slowest since '02Economy might not yet be in the clear
'American Idol' parent being sold for $1.3B
'American Idol' parent being sold for $1.3B
Executives of CKX, which licenses Elvis and owns 'American Idol' creator, are taking the firm private.
June 1 2007: 10:56 AM EDT
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- CKX Inc., the company behind the hit show "American Idol," said Friday it agreed to be acquired by a group led by its Chairman and Chief Executive Robert Sillerman for $1.3 billion.
The management group acquiring CKX, which owns rights to the Elvis Presley and Muhammad Ali names and the "American Idol" talent show, includes Idol creator Simon Fuller, the company said in a statement.
Video
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CNN's Richard Lui speaks with our resident American Idol experts about the big winner Jordin Sparks.
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Shares of CKX (up $3.71 to $14.34, Charts) surged 42 percent in morning trading on Nasdaq.
Sillerman, a former radio and concert mogul, received a hand in the effort from Fuller, chief executive of CKX subsidiary 19 Entertainment Limited Inc., the British-based firm behind the "Pop Idol" television talent show and its hit U.S. spinoff, "American Idol."
Lewis vs. Sparks: The real competition begins
Sillerman, the company's biggest shareholder, offered to enter into a complex series of transactions that includes a cash purchase of CKX's outstanding common stock at a price of $13.75 a share, which represents a 29 percent premium over the stock's closing price of $10.63.
With 97.06 million shares outstanding, that amounts to about $1.33 billion.
According to a statement, the company's directors had been actively considering the proposal and scheduled a meeting early Friday morning to consider the bid and hear the recommendation of a special committee of independent directors.
CKX also operates Graceland, Presley's former home turned tourist attraction.
-- from staff and wire reports
Nielsen debuts TV commercials ratings Harry Potter theme park coming to Florida
Executives of CKX, which licenses Elvis and owns 'American Idol' creator, are taking the firm private.
June 1 2007: 10:56 AM EDT
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- CKX Inc., the company behind the hit show "American Idol," said Friday it agreed to be acquired by a group led by its Chairman and Chief Executive Robert Sillerman for $1.3 billion.
The management group acquiring CKX, which owns rights to the Elvis Presley and Muhammad Ali names and the "American Idol" talent show, includes Idol creator Simon Fuller, the company said in a statement.
Video
More video
CNN's Richard Lui speaks with our resident American Idol experts about the big winner Jordin Sparks.
Play video
Shares of CKX (up $3.71 to $14.34, Charts) surged 42 percent in morning trading on Nasdaq.
Sillerman, a former radio and concert mogul, received a hand in the effort from Fuller, chief executive of CKX subsidiary 19 Entertainment Limited Inc., the British-based firm behind the "Pop Idol" television talent show and its hit U.S. spinoff, "American Idol."
Lewis vs. Sparks: The real competition begins
Sillerman, the company's biggest shareholder, offered to enter into a complex series of transactions that includes a cash purchase of CKX's outstanding common stock at a price of $13.75 a share, which represents a 29 percent premium over the stock's closing price of $10.63.
With 97.06 million shares outstanding, that amounts to about $1.33 billion.
According to a statement, the company's directors had been actively considering the proposal and scheduled a meeting early Friday morning to consider the bid and hear the recommendation of a special committee of independent directors.
CKX also operates Graceland, Presley's former home turned tourist attraction.
-- from staff and wire reports
Nielsen debuts TV commercials ratings Harry Potter theme park coming to Florida
CAR
Bonhams & Butterfields
Buyer's Fees: 17% on the first $100,000, plus 10% on the overage Seller's Fees: 10% to 25% Record Sale (2004): $7,480,322 for '29 Mercedes SSK Roadster (pictured) Pro: Capable of getting great venues and important cars Con: Car offerings still not as consistent as the others For Sale Dates: bonmans.com/us
RM Auctions
Buyer's Fees: 10% Seller's Fees: $1,000, plus 8% to 10% Record Sale (2007): $9,300,000 for '62 Ferrari Testa Rossa (pictured)* Pro: The biggest player - and extremely competent at getting and selling a lot of great cars Con: With such high volume, the experience can be less personal For Sale Dates: rmauctions.com
Gooding & Co.
Buyer's Fees: 10% of the hammer price Seller's Fees: $1,500, plus 10% of the hammer price Record Sale (2004): $4,455,000 for '35 Mormon Meteor (pictured) Pro: The insiders' favorite - knowledgeable, effective, and pleasant Con: A smaller staff can mean a slower call-return time For Sale Dates: goodingco.comCorrection: An earlier version of this gallery incorrectly identified the Marmon Meteor as the Mormon Meteor. CNNMoney regrets the error.
Thank you every body visiting Blogger for me !
HEALTH
Mayor casts doubt on TB patient's Greek wedding
POSTED: 5:09 p.m. EDT, June 1, 2007
POSTED: 5:09 p.m. EDT, June 1, 2007
DENVER, Colorado (CNN) -- An Atlanta tuberculosis patient who may have defied health officials' warnings by going on a wedding trip to Europe appears not to have gotten married, a Greek official said Friday.
Mayor Angelos Roussos of Santorini, Greece, said a clerk from the municipality office informed him that Andrew Speaker and his fiancee, Sarah Cooksey, did not have the necessary paperwork for a civil marriage.
"He made no previous contact with the town hall about arranging a civil marriage," Roussos said. "So the wedding never happened. He stayed instead at a hotel for two days, the Majestic Hotel, before setting back for the United States. It was his first time here."
Roussos said he didn't talk with Speaker.
The couple's wedding announcement in a Fulton County, Georgia, newspaper in April said, "A May wedding in Santorini, Greece, and an extended honeymoon in Europe are planned."
In an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America," Cooksey referred to Speaker as "my husband."
Speaker, 31, an Atlanta lawyer infected with a rare, often fatal form of tuberculosis, said he has a recording made before the couple flew to Europe that shows health officials told him he was not a risk to others.
In the ABC interview broadcast Friday, Speaker said his father asked health officials whether Speaker was a risk to anyone, and health officials said he was not. "My dad taped it," he said.
Fulton County health officials have said they told Speaker before his trip not to fly. (Watch Speaker say he hopes fellow airline passengers will forgive him )
Asked about the tape, Steve Katkowsky of the Fulton County Health Department told CNN, "If such a recording was made it was without the consent and without the knowledge of Fulton County Health Department officials."
Speaker said that once he was in Italy, officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta informed him that his case was more serious than they had realized.
He had been diagnosed with multiple drug-resistant tuberculosis. But, he was told, final test results found he had an even more rare, extensively drug-resistant form, known as XDR-TB.
Officials told him not to take commercial aircraft home, he said on "Good Morning America."
"I said, 'What changed?' " Speaker related. " 'When I left I was told I wasn't a threat to anyone. When I left I was told I wasn't contagious, what changed? Why are you abandoning me like this and expecting me to turn myself over for an indefinite time? What has changed?' And they did not have an answer for that."
The CDC is tracking down airline passengers who may have come into contact with Speaker. (Watch passengers discuss their frustrations over the TB scare)
The agency has identified about 80 air passengers on two of Speaker's trans-Atlantic flights they believe are most at risk for exposure.
Speaker said he had been told before the beginning of his trip that in order to fight his illness, "I had one shot, and that was going to be in Denver," at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center, which specializes in treating drug-resistant forms of TB. If he was somewhere else and was not given the exact right mixture of drugs, he said, "That was it, they blew my last shot."
Speaker said officials wanted him to check into a treatment center in Rome indefinitely. But he feared that if he did, he might not make it to Denver. "It is a very real threat that I could have died" in Italy, he said.
He flew from Prague to Montreal, apparently in order to sidestep a no-fly order that could have stopped or delayed his return to North America. Once in Canada, Speaker and his wife drove across the border to New York, where he was treated at a hospital before being flown aboard a CDC jet to Atlanta. He was moved to Denver Thursday.
Apologizing to all those now fearing for their own health after having been on airplanes with him, Speaker said, "I just hope they understand that truly in our minds we were told that we were not a threat to the people around us, and we wanted to get home."
"I am very sorry for your fear, and putting you at risk. I don't expect those people to ever forgive me," he said tearfully.
Speaker "still does not appear to be highly infectious," and there is "no indication that his infectiousness has changed in the past few months," CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding said Friday.
Asked about remarks by health officials that they had been looking at another option to get him back to the United States from Italy, Speaker responded, "That is a complete lie."
Hiring a private jet would have cost $100,000, which he did not have, Speaker said.
Speaker's wife, Sarah Cooksey, told ABC she had pleaded for any kind of transportation, including a military vessel.
She said her father, who works at the CDC, had tried to help the couple get home.
"Oh he did, everybody did, our entire family, everybody was calling all day," she told ABC.
"I'm praying that nobody else tests positive," she added. That's something that I don't know that I could ever forgive myself for, if that happened."
The televised interview was the first for Speaker, a personal injury lawyer, since word of his diagnosis sparked international concern. Both he and ABC's Diane Sawyer had their mouths covered by masks, but Cooksey sat beside him with no mask on.
Thinking back on his decision to return to the United States on commercial jets, Speaker said, "In hindsight, maybe it wasn't the best decision."
Lawmaker: 'The system failed'
On Thursday, a senior House member said he wants to know how Speaker got through U.S. Customs and Border Protection even though his passport had been flagged in its computer system.
His passport was checked at the U.S.-Canada border, a Homeland Security official told CNN.
An alert that Speaker should be detained and isolated, and public health officials should be contacted, showed up on the Customs and Border Protection's computers, but he was allowed to cross into the United States at Champlain, New York, anyway, the official said.
Speaker was at the border crossing for less than two minutes. (Watch how patient slipped past authorities )
The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi, has scheduled a hearing for next week.
"We had two agencies that should have been in constant communication with each other, and obviously the system failed," Thompson said on CNN's "Paula Zahn Now."
People with XDR-TB are resistant to first- and second-line drugs; their treatment options are limited and the disease often proves fatal.
Between 1993 and 2006, 49 people were diagnosed with XDR-TB in the United States, said Dr. Ken Castro, director of the division of TB Elimination at the CDC.
The World Health Organization estimates that there were almost half a million cases of multiple-drug-resistant tuberculosis worldwide in 2004.
Mayor Angelos Roussos of Santorini, Greece, said a clerk from the municipality office informed him that Andrew Speaker and his fiancee, Sarah Cooksey, did not have the necessary paperwork for a civil marriage.
"He made no previous contact with the town hall about arranging a civil marriage," Roussos said. "So the wedding never happened. He stayed instead at a hotel for two days, the Majestic Hotel, before setting back for the United States. It was his first time here."
Roussos said he didn't talk with Speaker.
The couple's wedding announcement in a Fulton County, Georgia, newspaper in April said, "A May wedding in Santorini, Greece, and an extended honeymoon in Europe are planned."
In an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America," Cooksey referred to Speaker as "my husband."
Speaker, 31, an Atlanta lawyer infected with a rare, often fatal form of tuberculosis, said he has a recording made before the couple flew to Europe that shows health officials told him he was not a risk to others.
In the ABC interview broadcast Friday, Speaker said his father asked health officials whether Speaker was a risk to anyone, and health officials said he was not. "My dad taped it," he said.
Fulton County health officials have said they told Speaker before his trip not to fly. (Watch Speaker say he hopes fellow airline passengers will forgive him )
Asked about the tape, Steve Katkowsky of the Fulton County Health Department told CNN, "If such a recording was made it was without the consent and without the knowledge of Fulton County Health Department officials."
Speaker said that once he was in Italy, officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta informed him that his case was more serious than they had realized.
He had been diagnosed with multiple drug-resistant tuberculosis. But, he was told, final test results found he had an even more rare, extensively drug-resistant form, known as XDR-TB.
Officials told him not to take commercial aircraft home, he said on "Good Morning America."
"I said, 'What changed?' " Speaker related. " 'When I left I was told I wasn't a threat to anyone. When I left I was told I wasn't contagious, what changed? Why are you abandoning me like this and expecting me to turn myself over for an indefinite time? What has changed?' And they did not have an answer for that."
The CDC is tracking down airline passengers who may have come into contact with Speaker. (Watch passengers discuss their frustrations over the TB scare)
The agency has identified about 80 air passengers on two of Speaker's trans-Atlantic flights they believe are most at risk for exposure.
Speaker said he had been told before the beginning of his trip that in order to fight his illness, "I had one shot, and that was going to be in Denver," at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center, which specializes in treating drug-resistant forms of TB. If he was somewhere else and was not given the exact right mixture of drugs, he said, "That was it, they blew my last shot."
Speaker said officials wanted him to check into a treatment center in Rome indefinitely. But he feared that if he did, he might not make it to Denver. "It is a very real threat that I could have died" in Italy, he said.
He flew from Prague to Montreal, apparently in order to sidestep a no-fly order that could have stopped or delayed his return to North America. Once in Canada, Speaker and his wife drove across the border to New York, where he was treated at a hospital before being flown aboard a CDC jet to Atlanta. He was moved to Denver Thursday.
Apologizing to all those now fearing for their own health after having been on airplanes with him, Speaker said, "I just hope they understand that truly in our minds we were told that we were not a threat to the people around us, and we wanted to get home."
"I am very sorry for your fear, and putting you at risk. I don't expect those people to ever forgive me," he said tearfully.
Speaker "still does not appear to be highly infectious," and there is "no indication that his infectiousness has changed in the past few months," CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding said Friday.
Asked about remarks by health officials that they had been looking at another option to get him back to the United States from Italy, Speaker responded, "That is a complete lie."
Hiring a private jet would have cost $100,000, which he did not have, Speaker said.
Speaker's wife, Sarah Cooksey, told ABC she had pleaded for any kind of transportation, including a military vessel.
She said her father, who works at the CDC, had tried to help the couple get home.
"Oh he did, everybody did, our entire family, everybody was calling all day," she told ABC.
"I'm praying that nobody else tests positive," she added. That's something that I don't know that I could ever forgive myself for, if that happened."
The televised interview was the first for Speaker, a personal injury lawyer, since word of his diagnosis sparked international concern. Both he and ABC's Diane Sawyer had their mouths covered by masks, but Cooksey sat beside him with no mask on.
Thinking back on his decision to return to the United States on commercial jets, Speaker said, "In hindsight, maybe it wasn't the best decision."
Lawmaker: 'The system failed'
On Thursday, a senior House member said he wants to know how Speaker got through U.S. Customs and Border Protection even though his passport had been flagged in its computer system.
His passport was checked at the U.S.-Canada border, a Homeland Security official told CNN.
An alert that Speaker should be detained and isolated, and public health officials should be contacted, showed up on the Customs and Border Protection's computers, but he was allowed to cross into the United States at Champlain, New York, anyway, the official said.
Speaker was at the border crossing for less than two minutes. (Watch how patient slipped past authorities )
The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi, has scheduled a hearing for next week.
"We had two agencies that should have been in constant communication with each other, and obviously the system failed," Thompson said on CNN's "Paula Zahn Now."
People with XDR-TB are resistant to first- and second-line drugs; their treatment options are limited and the disease often proves fatal.
Between 1993 and 2006, 49 people were diagnosed with XDR-TB in the United States, said Dr. Ken Castro, director of the division of TB Elimination at the CDC.
The World Health Organization estimates that there were almost half a million cases of multiple-drug-resistant tuberculosis worldwide in 2004.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
NEWS
The hottest investor in America
Fortune's Shawn Tully peers deep inside the brain of Carl Icahn, who now portrays himself as a billionaire Robin Hood, hounding CEOs and enriching shareholders to the tune of $50 billion.
By Shawn Tully, Fortune editor-at-large
May 29 2007: 1:58 PM EDT
(Fortune Magazine) -- Motorola CEO Ed Zander was enjoying a moment of relief from his company's struggles last January, mingling with fellow corporate chieftains at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, when he got the message that makes CEOs see their careers flash before their eyes. The news: Carl Icahn was calling him out. He had bought a 1.4% stake in Motorola and was demanding a seat on the company's board.
A few days later Zander made what has become a ritual trip for CEOs caught in Icahn's cross hairs, hastening to the investor's sumptuous offices on the 47th floor of Manhattan's GM Building. The setting is an integral part of the Icahn treatment. CEOs en route to his lair parade past a giant 19th-century watercolor of Napoleon riding to glory over the Russians in the Battle of Friedland, just the sort of rout Icahn covets in his corporate battles.
Icahn with his indefatigable assistant Susan Gordon
Icahn with son and colleague Brett
Icahn with chief legal advisor Marc Weitzen
Icahn and wife Gail
Icahn's two chief scouts and dealmakers are Keith Meister (left), a private-equity expert, and Vince Intrieri, a CPA with a sharp eye for salvageable bankruptcy situations.
More from FORTUNE
A pretext for revenge
ExxonMobil: Profits and discontent
The survival of Pattie Dunn
FORTUNE 500
Current Issue
Subscribe to Fortune
When Zander arrived, the 71-year-old Icahn ushered him into his immense suite, a paneled aerie overlooking Central Park festooned with museum-quality antiques, portraits of European gentry, and an exquisite portrait by French master Camille Corot. It resembles the drawing room of a British aristocrat, exuding the air of overwhelming wealth and confidence that Icahn - lord of $12 billion in investment capital - summons to bend CEOs to his will. "I told Zander the truth," recalls Icahn. "I said, 'You have a great company. Why did you screw it up?'" After that opening salvo, which Icahn says he delivered in a joshing tone, he mounted his charm offensive. He told Zander that Motorola's (Charts, Fortune 500) stock was vastly undervalued.
He proposed that it spend around $12 billion to buy back shares at depressed prices. Icahn said he wasn't particularly interested in serving on Motorola's board, in fact, and would drop his bid for a board seat if Zander would pursue a major buyback. During the conversation Icahn projected a serene sense that he'd mastered the art of enriching shareholders. Says a CEO whose company Icahn targeted: "He thinks his genius is the ability to create value almost instantly."
Indeed, Icahn usually succeeds in doing just that. But not this time - not yet. In their meeting Zander said he would discuss an appropriate buyback with the Motorola board. Icahn viewed that as a good sign. But then, six weeks later, a shocking acceleration of Motorola's downturn caught Icahn completely off balance. The company's red-hot RAZR cellphone lost its edge, and the company's phone profits collapsed.
Icahn was outraged. "I took Zander at his word" about the cellphone business, says Icahn. "It's incredible that he didn't know how bad things were." A huge buyback became unworkable, as even Icahn admitted, though Motorola did announce a $7.5 billion repurchase plan. Icahn seemed checkmated. But instead of retreating, he cast himself as the shareholders' champion, the enforcer who would hold management to its promise to revive its cellphone business.
What started as a pressure tactic turned back into a battle for a board seat in which Icahn showed remarkable credibility with shareholders. On May 9 he lost the proxy vote by a narrow margin. But the outcome was far closer to Friedland than to Waterloo. Icahn took an estimated 45% of the ballots. "I can't remember any activist getting such a big percentage battling a company Motorola's size," says Chris Young, a vice president of ISS, the firm that advises institutions on proxy votes. "The board is now on notice: Either management delivers or they will probably have to go."
While Icahn's fight with Motorola has yet to yield the value he thinks investors deserve (his own gain so far: about $50 million), his tenacity and improvisation in this latest chapter illustrate the folly of typecasting him. The rap on Icahn has been that he's a fast-buck artist who uses a limited bag of tricks to give stocks a sharp but often ephemeral boost. In reality Icahn is a complex, versatile figure who has mastered multiple ways of making money. And believe it or not, this former greenmailer, in his fourth decade of dealmaking, may be making more money for shareholders than any other activist on the planet.
Whether his prescriptions fit his target companies perfectly is a matter of debate. What's clear is that of all the activists, from Eddie Lampert to Nelson Peltz, it's Icahn who's pursuing the largest number of prominent companies in the widest spectrum of industries, from oil and gas to hotels to pharmaceuticals to real estate to auto parts. Icahn is also taking on bigger prey than anybody else - notably Time Warner (Charts, Fortune 500) (parent of CNNMoney.com and Fortune's publisher) and Motorola - proving almost singlehandedly that a huge market cap is no longer an impenetrable defense.
While a New Icahn is taking activism to new heights, the Old Icahn, the outrageous showman, is still at center stage. Icahn remains the most intimidating, the most self-aggrandizing investor in the game, a gangling, 6-foot-3-inch self-proclaimed crusader who, as he quaintly puts it, "takes umbrage" at management's incompetence and responds with a scorched-earth fervor not exactly appreciated by the members of the Business Roundtable. His weaknesses are as outsized as his strengths, especially his penchant for launching shrill personal attacks on CEOs, including Zander. "He's especially good at terrorizing people and wearing down their defenses," says his longtime friend and frequent adversary, the renowned investor Wilbur Ross. "He's the most competitive person I know, and that's saying something."
No longer the lone wolf, Icahn is more formidable than ever, having built a team of two dozen associates to help him find targets and mount his crusades. For Fortune's exclusive look inside his kingdom, Icahn, as well as his top dealmakers, sat down for several hours of interviews in which they described the inner workings of an operation that has boosted the total market cap of its target companies by more than $50 billion in just over two years (see chart), spreading the wealth among shareholders far and wide.
That's a world removed from the old Carl Icahn, the corporate raider of dark legend. In the 1980s Icahn developed a deservedly lurid reputation as a pioneer of greenmail in raids on companies like B.F. Goodrich. In that odious practice companies rid themselves of rebel intruders like Icahn by buying back the raider's investment at a fat premium, at the expense of the other shareholders.
It's not so much that Icahn, for all his posturing about "spoiled CEOs who play too much golf" and "disgraceful country club boards" (with many notable exceptions, he allows), is now more noble. It's that the times and attitudes have radically changed. Greenmail is dead, thanks to changes in corporate charters and state and federal laws. To his credit, Icahn no longer tries to run companies. Most of all, the climate has never been more favorable for Icahn's brand of activism. "The moon and stars are now lined up for activists," says Barry Rosenstein, chief of Jana Partners, the hedge fund that has joined Icahn in fights like his assault on Time Warner. "One reason is that boards are getting a lot more sophisticated. They're far less willing to stand in the way when Carl tries to create shareholder value."
It's also that mutual funds are tired of seeing private-equity firms buy troubled public companies and then feast royally by making basic changes the old management could have made itself. "We do the job the LBO guys do, but for all the shareholders," brags Icahn.
Most of all, it's the rise of hedge funds that's giving Icahn his new stature. Hedge funds are to today's activism what junk bonds were in the 1980s, only more so. "The hedge funds, unlike a lot of mutual funds, are extremely performance-oriented," says Icahn. "They're far more willing to vote against management." When Icahn attacks a company, hedge funds typically flood in behind him - witness how Highfields Capital, Tudor Investment, and others followed his lead into Motorola stock.
According to Icahn, the hedge funds would rather let the old veteran do the gritty work. "It's still not easy running a proxy battle with the company's machinery all lined up against you," says Icahn. Indeed, Icahn claims it's what he calls his "brand name," the perception that he can't be intimidated and won't go away, that gives him his power as an activist.
Med-school dropout
While Icahn's name is now synonymous with titanic corporate battles, the Queens, N.Y., native seemed at first to be heading for a peaceful career as a teacher or doctor, earning a degree in philosophy at Princeton and attending medical school before dropping out to pursue arbitrage on Wall Street. During the 1980s he made a fortune for himself in his forays against companies ranging from American Can to Uniroyal (and profits for shareholders too in the case of Texaco and, later, RJR Nabisco), despite a few high-profile misses. But it wasn't until recent years that Icahn began assembling the infrastructure he has now, with three main investment vehicles.
One of them is his hedge fund, Icahn Partners, created in late 2004. It now manages about $7 billion, of which $1.5 billion is Icahn's money. (Icahn also puts an additional 20% of his own money, outside the fund, into every stock that Icahn Partners purchases. This personal "mirror fund" now totals $1.7 billion.) The management fund is for big players - university endowments, pension funds, and wealthy individuals who invest a minimum of $25 million. Costs are steep: The annual fee is 2.5%, vs. the standard 2%, and Icahn keeps 25% of the gains, compared with the usual 20%.
The fund does the type of investing Icahn is renowned for: It takes minority stakes in public companies and typically pushes for change, often threatening a proxy battle. The idea is to make a quick fix - a big stock buyback, asset spinoffs, ousting the CEO - to give the stock at the very least a pop and often lasting gains.
Icahn's second vehicle is a holding company called American Real Estate Partners (AREP), essentially a publicly traded private-equity firm. Despite its name, it's a miniconglomerate that buys entire companies and holds them for a long period, often six or seven years. The idea is to purchase beaten-down assets that nobody else wants, usually out of bankruptcy, then fix them up and sell them when they're back in favor, a strategy Icahn has followed from bust to boom in real estate, casinos, and energy.
That's not quite all. In what amounts to a third vehicle, Icahn owns personal stakes totaling more than $5 billion in ARI, a railcar manufacturer; Federal-Mogul, a bankrupt auto-parts maker; and Philip Services, a metals-recycling company. He also owns controlling stakes in ImClone (Charts), the scandal-scarred cancer-drug maker, and XO Communications, a telecom service provider.
So how are Icahn's investments performing? In its less-than-three-year existence, Icahn Partners has posted annualized gains of 40%, investors told Fortune. After fees, the investors pocketed 28%. That 40% gain trounces the S&P 500's return of around 13%, as well as the 12% for all hedge funds calculated by research firm HedgeFund.net. Icahn Partners boasts a string of big wins in short periods. The acquisition of energy producer Kerr-McGee gave the fund a $300 million gain, or a 100% return in just nine months. Icahn Partners achieved gains of $100 million and $230 million, respectively, both in less than three months, on forcing the sales of Fairmont Hotels & Resorts and drugmaker MedImmune.
AREP's performance is even more stellar. Since November 2004, its stock has jumped from $22 to $87, generating $4 billion in value for shareholders. This year AREP (Charts) cashed in on the rampaging values for casinos (Stratosphere Las Vegas and three others) and energy (National Energy Group); it sold both businesses for six times what it had invested in the late 1990s, netting over $2 billion.
Fortune's Shawn Tully peers deep inside the brain of Carl Icahn, who now portrays himself as a billionaire Robin Hood, hounding CEOs and enriching shareholders to the tune of $50 billion.
By Shawn Tully, Fortune editor-at-large
May 29 2007: 1:58 PM EDT
(Fortune Magazine) -- Motorola CEO Ed Zander was enjoying a moment of relief from his company's struggles last January, mingling with fellow corporate chieftains at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, when he got the message that makes CEOs see their careers flash before their eyes. The news: Carl Icahn was calling him out. He had bought a 1.4% stake in Motorola and was demanding a seat on the company's board.
A few days later Zander made what has become a ritual trip for CEOs caught in Icahn's cross hairs, hastening to the investor's sumptuous offices on the 47th floor of Manhattan's GM Building. The setting is an integral part of the Icahn treatment. CEOs en route to his lair parade past a giant 19th-century watercolor of Napoleon riding to glory over the Russians in the Battle of Friedland, just the sort of rout Icahn covets in his corporate battles.
Icahn with his indefatigable assistant Susan Gordon
Icahn with son and colleague Brett
Icahn with chief legal advisor Marc Weitzen
Icahn and wife Gail
Icahn's two chief scouts and dealmakers are Keith Meister (left), a private-equity expert, and Vince Intrieri, a CPA with a sharp eye for salvageable bankruptcy situations.
More from FORTUNE
A pretext for revenge
ExxonMobil: Profits and discontent
The survival of Pattie Dunn
FORTUNE 500
Current Issue
Subscribe to Fortune
When Zander arrived, the 71-year-old Icahn ushered him into his immense suite, a paneled aerie overlooking Central Park festooned with museum-quality antiques, portraits of European gentry, and an exquisite portrait by French master Camille Corot. It resembles the drawing room of a British aristocrat, exuding the air of overwhelming wealth and confidence that Icahn - lord of $12 billion in investment capital - summons to bend CEOs to his will. "I told Zander the truth," recalls Icahn. "I said, 'You have a great company. Why did you screw it up?'" After that opening salvo, which Icahn says he delivered in a joshing tone, he mounted his charm offensive. He told Zander that Motorola's (Charts, Fortune 500) stock was vastly undervalued.
He proposed that it spend around $12 billion to buy back shares at depressed prices. Icahn said he wasn't particularly interested in serving on Motorola's board, in fact, and would drop his bid for a board seat if Zander would pursue a major buyback. During the conversation Icahn projected a serene sense that he'd mastered the art of enriching shareholders. Says a CEO whose company Icahn targeted: "He thinks his genius is the ability to create value almost instantly."
Indeed, Icahn usually succeeds in doing just that. But not this time - not yet. In their meeting Zander said he would discuss an appropriate buyback with the Motorola board. Icahn viewed that as a good sign. But then, six weeks later, a shocking acceleration of Motorola's downturn caught Icahn completely off balance. The company's red-hot RAZR cellphone lost its edge, and the company's phone profits collapsed.
Icahn was outraged. "I took Zander at his word" about the cellphone business, says Icahn. "It's incredible that he didn't know how bad things were." A huge buyback became unworkable, as even Icahn admitted, though Motorola did announce a $7.5 billion repurchase plan. Icahn seemed checkmated. But instead of retreating, he cast himself as the shareholders' champion, the enforcer who would hold management to its promise to revive its cellphone business.
What started as a pressure tactic turned back into a battle for a board seat in which Icahn showed remarkable credibility with shareholders. On May 9 he lost the proxy vote by a narrow margin. But the outcome was far closer to Friedland than to Waterloo. Icahn took an estimated 45% of the ballots. "I can't remember any activist getting such a big percentage battling a company Motorola's size," says Chris Young, a vice president of ISS, the firm that advises institutions on proxy votes. "The board is now on notice: Either management delivers or they will probably have to go."
While Icahn's fight with Motorola has yet to yield the value he thinks investors deserve (his own gain so far: about $50 million), his tenacity and improvisation in this latest chapter illustrate the folly of typecasting him. The rap on Icahn has been that he's a fast-buck artist who uses a limited bag of tricks to give stocks a sharp but often ephemeral boost. In reality Icahn is a complex, versatile figure who has mastered multiple ways of making money. And believe it or not, this former greenmailer, in his fourth decade of dealmaking, may be making more money for shareholders than any other activist on the planet.
Whether his prescriptions fit his target companies perfectly is a matter of debate. What's clear is that of all the activists, from Eddie Lampert to Nelson Peltz, it's Icahn who's pursuing the largest number of prominent companies in the widest spectrum of industries, from oil and gas to hotels to pharmaceuticals to real estate to auto parts. Icahn is also taking on bigger prey than anybody else - notably Time Warner (Charts, Fortune 500) (parent of CNNMoney.com and Fortune's publisher) and Motorola - proving almost singlehandedly that a huge market cap is no longer an impenetrable defense.
While a New Icahn is taking activism to new heights, the Old Icahn, the outrageous showman, is still at center stage. Icahn remains the most intimidating, the most self-aggrandizing investor in the game, a gangling, 6-foot-3-inch self-proclaimed crusader who, as he quaintly puts it, "takes umbrage" at management's incompetence and responds with a scorched-earth fervor not exactly appreciated by the members of the Business Roundtable. His weaknesses are as outsized as his strengths, especially his penchant for launching shrill personal attacks on CEOs, including Zander. "He's especially good at terrorizing people and wearing down their defenses," says his longtime friend and frequent adversary, the renowned investor Wilbur Ross. "He's the most competitive person I know, and that's saying something."
No longer the lone wolf, Icahn is more formidable than ever, having built a team of two dozen associates to help him find targets and mount his crusades. For Fortune's exclusive look inside his kingdom, Icahn, as well as his top dealmakers, sat down for several hours of interviews in which they described the inner workings of an operation that has boosted the total market cap of its target companies by more than $50 billion in just over two years (see chart), spreading the wealth among shareholders far and wide.
That's a world removed from the old Carl Icahn, the corporate raider of dark legend. In the 1980s Icahn developed a deservedly lurid reputation as a pioneer of greenmail in raids on companies like B.F. Goodrich. In that odious practice companies rid themselves of rebel intruders like Icahn by buying back the raider's investment at a fat premium, at the expense of the other shareholders.
It's not so much that Icahn, for all his posturing about "spoiled CEOs who play too much golf" and "disgraceful country club boards" (with many notable exceptions, he allows), is now more noble. It's that the times and attitudes have radically changed. Greenmail is dead, thanks to changes in corporate charters and state and federal laws. To his credit, Icahn no longer tries to run companies. Most of all, the climate has never been more favorable for Icahn's brand of activism. "The moon and stars are now lined up for activists," says Barry Rosenstein, chief of Jana Partners, the hedge fund that has joined Icahn in fights like his assault on Time Warner. "One reason is that boards are getting a lot more sophisticated. They're far less willing to stand in the way when Carl tries to create shareholder value."
It's also that mutual funds are tired of seeing private-equity firms buy troubled public companies and then feast royally by making basic changes the old management could have made itself. "We do the job the LBO guys do, but for all the shareholders," brags Icahn.
Most of all, it's the rise of hedge funds that's giving Icahn his new stature. Hedge funds are to today's activism what junk bonds were in the 1980s, only more so. "The hedge funds, unlike a lot of mutual funds, are extremely performance-oriented," says Icahn. "They're far more willing to vote against management." When Icahn attacks a company, hedge funds typically flood in behind him - witness how Highfields Capital, Tudor Investment, and others followed his lead into Motorola stock.
According to Icahn, the hedge funds would rather let the old veteran do the gritty work. "It's still not easy running a proxy battle with the company's machinery all lined up against you," says Icahn. Indeed, Icahn claims it's what he calls his "brand name," the perception that he can't be intimidated and won't go away, that gives him his power as an activist.
Med-school dropout
While Icahn's name is now synonymous with titanic corporate battles, the Queens, N.Y., native seemed at first to be heading for a peaceful career as a teacher or doctor, earning a degree in philosophy at Princeton and attending medical school before dropping out to pursue arbitrage on Wall Street. During the 1980s he made a fortune for himself in his forays against companies ranging from American Can to Uniroyal (and profits for shareholders too in the case of Texaco and, later, RJR Nabisco), despite a few high-profile misses. But it wasn't until recent years that Icahn began assembling the infrastructure he has now, with three main investment vehicles.
One of them is his hedge fund, Icahn Partners, created in late 2004. It now manages about $7 billion, of which $1.5 billion is Icahn's money. (Icahn also puts an additional 20% of his own money, outside the fund, into every stock that Icahn Partners purchases. This personal "mirror fund" now totals $1.7 billion.) The management fund is for big players - university endowments, pension funds, and wealthy individuals who invest a minimum of $25 million. Costs are steep: The annual fee is 2.5%, vs. the standard 2%, and Icahn keeps 25% of the gains, compared with the usual 20%.
The fund does the type of investing Icahn is renowned for: It takes minority stakes in public companies and typically pushes for change, often threatening a proxy battle. The idea is to make a quick fix - a big stock buyback, asset spinoffs, ousting the CEO - to give the stock at the very least a pop and often lasting gains.
Icahn's second vehicle is a holding company called American Real Estate Partners (AREP), essentially a publicly traded private-equity firm. Despite its name, it's a miniconglomerate that buys entire companies and holds them for a long period, often six or seven years. The idea is to purchase beaten-down assets that nobody else wants, usually out of bankruptcy, then fix them up and sell them when they're back in favor, a strategy Icahn has followed from bust to boom in real estate, casinos, and energy.
That's not quite all. In what amounts to a third vehicle, Icahn owns personal stakes totaling more than $5 billion in ARI, a railcar manufacturer; Federal-Mogul, a bankrupt auto-parts maker; and Philip Services, a metals-recycling company. He also owns controlling stakes in ImClone (Charts), the scandal-scarred cancer-drug maker, and XO Communications, a telecom service provider.
So how are Icahn's investments performing? In its less-than-three-year existence, Icahn Partners has posted annualized gains of 40%, investors told Fortune. After fees, the investors pocketed 28%. That 40% gain trounces the S&P 500's return of around 13%, as well as the 12% for all hedge funds calculated by research firm HedgeFund.net. Icahn Partners boasts a string of big wins in short periods. The acquisition of energy producer Kerr-McGee gave the fund a $300 million gain, or a 100% return in just nine months. Icahn Partners achieved gains of $100 million and $230 million, respectively, both in less than three months, on forcing the sales of Fairmont Hotels & Resorts and drugmaker MedImmune.
AREP's performance is even more stellar. Since November 2004, its stock has jumped from $22 to $87, generating $4 billion in value for shareholders. This year AREP (Charts) cashed in on the rampaging values for casinos (Stratosphere Las Vegas and three others) and energy (National Energy Group); it sold both businesses for six times what it had invested in the late 1990s, netting over $2 billion.
POLITICS
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush imposed new sanctions Tuesday against the Sudanese government in reaction to the violence in Darfur, preventing 31 companies and three people from doing business in the United States or with U.S. companies.
The three individuals are two high-ranking government officials and a rebel leader, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. They were targeted for fomenting violence and human rights abuses in the Darfur region of western Sudan, the agency said.
"For too long the people of Darfur have suffered at the hands of a government that is complicit in the bombing, murder and rape of innocent civilians," Bush said. "My administration has called these actions by their rightful name, genocide. The world has a responsibility to help put an end to it."
Sudan's ambassador to the United States, John Ukec Lueth, said the problem is not with the Sudanese government, but with the rebels who have refused to sign the May 2006 Darfur peace agreement.
Despite the pact, which was backed by the United States and other Western nations, fighting among the government of Sudan, the Janjaweed militia and splintered rebel groups has continued unabated.
The West should pressure the rebels to sign it, Lueth said.
"I am very much disappointed ... about our bilateral relations with the United States. These sanctions are unwanted. They should not be done at this time when my government is constructively and objectively working toward comprehensive peace in the entire country," Lueth said on CNN's "Your World Today."
"Arms and troops will never resolve anything," he added.
Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir had failed to live up to international agreements "on all counts" and "giving Khartoum more time is not the answer." He said government forces in concert with militias continued to launch aerial and ground attacks against rebels and civilians in Darfur.
Negroponte added that the Sudanese government continues to block the deployment of a 23,000-strong U.N. and African Union peacekeeping force for Darfur and obstruct the flow of international aid to the region. There is a poorly equipped contingent of some 7,000 African Union troops in Darfur.
Fighting by government-backed militias and rebel groups in Darfur has killed more than 200,000 people and driven about 2 million from their homes.
The Treasury Department issued a statement immediately after Bush's announcement, saying that, as of Tuesday, the agency had blocked the assets of the three Sudanese.
"Even in the face of sanctions, these individuals have continued to play direct roles in the terrible atrocities of Darfur," said Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. "We are working to call attention to their horrific acts and further isolate them from the international community."
The Treasury Department also acted Tuesday to sanction 30 Sudanese companies owned or controlled by the government of Sudan, including several involved in oil exploration, and one company that has violated the arms embargo in Darfur.
"These companies have supplied cash to the Bashir regime, enabling it to purchase arms and further fuel the fighting in Darfur," Paulson said.
The United States plans to appeal to its allies to apply similar sanctions against Sudan, and will present a draft resolution to the U.N. Security Council to strengthen the international embargo against the Sudanese government.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the decision to impose sanctions was the right one.
"It has been three years since the Bush administration correctly termed the conditions in Darfur as 'genocide' and it is long past time for all countries concerned by the suffering that continues in Darfur to take the steps necessary to end it," said Pelosi, D-California.
The United States' special envoy to Sudan, Andrew Natsios, said China -- which has substantial investments in Sudan -- is changing its policy. "I can give you a list of things they have helped us with," he told reporters at the State Department. He said the Chinese position is "evolving" because the violence in Darfur is infuriating African governments.
The three individuals named Tuesday include Ahmad Muhammed Harun, Sudan's state minister for humanitarian affairs. He has been accused of war crimes in Darfur by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Sudan's head of military intelligence and security, Awad Ibn Auf, was also designated, along with Khalil Ibrahim, leader of the Justice and Equality Movement, a rebel group that has refused to sign the Darfur Peace Agreement, the Treasury Department said.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters he would like more time to work with the Sudanese government and rebels before the U.N. Security Council votes on sanctions. He stressed that the sanctions announced Tuesday were solely U.S. actions.
CNN's Kathleen Koch contributed to this report.
Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
The three individuals are two high-ranking government officials and a rebel leader, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. They were targeted for fomenting violence and human rights abuses in the Darfur region of western Sudan, the agency said.
"For too long the people of Darfur have suffered at the hands of a government that is complicit in the bombing, murder and rape of innocent civilians," Bush said. "My administration has called these actions by their rightful name, genocide. The world has a responsibility to help put an end to it."
Sudan's ambassador to the United States, John Ukec Lueth, said the problem is not with the Sudanese government, but with the rebels who have refused to sign the May 2006 Darfur peace agreement.
Despite the pact, which was backed by the United States and other Western nations, fighting among the government of Sudan, the Janjaweed militia and splintered rebel groups has continued unabated.
The West should pressure the rebels to sign it, Lueth said.
"I am very much disappointed ... about our bilateral relations with the United States. These sanctions are unwanted. They should not be done at this time when my government is constructively and objectively working toward comprehensive peace in the entire country," Lueth said on CNN's "Your World Today."
"Arms and troops will never resolve anything," he added.
Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir had failed to live up to international agreements "on all counts" and "giving Khartoum more time is not the answer." He said government forces in concert with militias continued to launch aerial and ground attacks against rebels and civilians in Darfur.
Negroponte added that the Sudanese government continues to block the deployment of a 23,000-strong U.N. and African Union peacekeeping force for Darfur and obstruct the flow of international aid to the region. There is a poorly equipped contingent of some 7,000 African Union troops in Darfur.
Fighting by government-backed militias and rebel groups in Darfur has killed more than 200,000 people and driven about 2 million from their homes.
The Treasury Department issued a statement immediately after Bush's announcement, saying that, as of Tuesday, the agency had blocked the assets of the three Sudanese.
"Even in the face of sanctions, these individuals have continued to play direct roles in the terrible atrocities of Darfur," said Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. "We are working to call attention to their horrific acts and further isolate them from the international community."
The Treasury Department also acted Tuesday to sanction 30 Sudanese companies owned or controlled by the government of Sudan, including several involved in oil exploration, and one company that has violated the arms embargo in Darfur.
"These companies have supplied cash to the Bashir regime, enabling it to purchase arms and further fuel the fighting in Darfur," Paulson said.
The United States plans to appeal to its allies to apply similar sanctions against Sudan, and will present a draft resolution to the U.N. Security Council to strengthen the international embargo against the Sudanese government.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the decision to impose sanctions was the right one.
"It has been three years since the Bush administration correctly termed the conditions in Darfur as 'genocide' and it is long past time for all countries concerned by the suffering that continues in Darfur to take the steps necessary to end it," said Pelosi, D-California.
The United States' special envoy to Sudan, Andrew Natsios, said China -- which has substantial investments in Sudan -- is changing its policy. "I can give you a list of things they have helped us with," he told reporters at the State Department. He said the Chinese position is "evolving" because the violence in Darfur is infuriating African governments.
The three individuals named Tuesday include Ahmad Muhammed Harun, Sudan's state minister for humanitarian affairs. He has been accused of war crimes in Darfur by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Sudan's head of military intelligence and security, Awad Ibn Auf, was also designated, along with Khalil Ibrahim, leader of the Justice and Equality Movement, a rebel group that has refused to sign the Darfur Peace Agreement, the Treasury Department said.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters he would like more time to work with the Sudanese government and rebels before the U.N. Security Council votes on sanctions. He stressed that the sanctions announced Tuesday were solely U.S. actions.
CNN's Kathleen Koch contributed to this report.
Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
OMO - WASHING GUIDE
Washing machine with OmomaticDoing the laundry is probably not top on your list of fun ways to spend time, but you do want your clothes to look, feel and smell good. Our washing guide provides basic tips which will help you get the results you want.
If your washing machine is not properly maintained the results of your wash can be affected. By following a few basic steps you can help your machine to function properly and deliver outstanding results.
Maintenance washes:
Two to three times a year, simply run the machine without any clothes in the drum, on the hottest wash, with the correct amount of detergent for a normal load. This 'maintenance wash' will keep the machine and the outlet pipes clean and free from a build-up of dirt, grease and hard water salts.
Low Water Level Machines:
The normal detergent dosage should still be used since the level of soiling and the number of items being washed are the same.
Loading:
Overloading can cause poor wash results, damage to garments and ultimately damage to the machine itself. For most fabrics, the machine should be loosely filled. The load should be much less for fast wash / economy cycles. Check your machine manual.
Fabric Conditioners:
Only add fabrics conditioner to the final rinse either by hand or using the machine’s dispenser. If fabric conditioner and detergents mix, they form a residue which will not dissolve and can build up as white / grey deposits in the machine, particularly inside the agitator of top loaders. Performing regular maintenance washes can help remove residues and careful addition of fabric conditioners will help prevent it occurring.
Maintenance washes:
Two to three times a year, simply run the machine without any clothes in the drum, on the hottest wash, with the correct amount of detergent for a normal load. This 'maintenance wash' will keep the machine and the outlet pipes clean and free from a build-up of dirt, grease and hard water salts.
Low Water Level Machines:
The normal detergent dosage should still be used since the level of soiling and the number of items being washed are the same.
Loading:
Overloading can cause poor wash results, damage to garments and ultimately damage to the machine itself. For most fabrics, the machine should be loosely filled. The load should be much less for fast wash / economy cycles. Check your machine manual.
Fabric Conditioners:
Only add fabrics conditioner to the final rinse either by hand or using the machine’s dispenser. If fabric conditioner and detergents mix, they form a residue which will not dissolve and can build up as white / grey deposits in the machine, particularly inside the agitator of top loaders. Performing regular maintenance washes can help remove residues and careful addition of fabric conditioners will help prevent it occurring.
PRODUCTION
Corporate Philosophy
Since its founding in 1910, Hitachi has acted from a corporate philosophy of contributing to society through technology. In the intervening years, the world and society have changed greatly, but we have never lost our pioneering spirit, based on the principles of harmony and sincerity.
Now, global change is becoming ever more dynamic. Our corporate statement "Inspire the Next" is a declaration of our vow that the Hitachi brand will continue to meet the expectations of our customers and society in this age of information, knowledge and the empowered consumer. This statement embodies Hitachi's commitment to continue to inspire coming generations with the latest products, systems and services, for a more vibrant society. It is also an expression of our strong commitment to boldly face whatever new challenges the times bring us: whatever comes "Next."
Corporate Strategy
In November 2006, Hitachi announced a new corporate strategy to promote collaborative creation and profits. With a rigorous focus on a market-oriented approach and profit creation as the basic policy, the aim is to establish a structure that stably generates high profits by the use of key initiatives such as the implementation of fully FIV* (Future Inspiration Value) based management, the creation of a business portfolio with higher profitability, moving forward with group management, and innovation in collaboration with partners and group companies.
In order to achieve this, Hitachi will focus on the business areas in which Hitachi can show its strength, will strengthen its social innovation business, which consists of its social infrastructure, industrial infrastructure, life infrastructure and information infrastructure businesses, and will endeavor to maximize the synergies with the infrastructure technology/products business that underpins social innovation business operations.
Corporate governance is being systematically strengthened, efficient group company management implemented and equity relationships reviewed, in order to raise earnings throughout the corporate group. With the emphasis on collaborations with partners and group companies, in the Hitachi Group diverse partnerships are being used to strengthen collaborative innovation business undertakings in various areas of operations.
Since its founding in 1910, Hitachi has acted from a corporate philosophy of contributing to society through technology. In the intervening years, the world and society have changed greatly, but we have never lost our pioneering spirit, based on the principles of harmony and sincerity.
Now, global change is becoming ever more dynamic. Our corporate statement "Inspire the Next" is a declaration of our vow that the Hitachi brand will continue to meet the expectations of our customers and society in this age of information, knowledge and the empowered consumer. This statement embodies Hitachi's commitment to continue to inspire coming generations with the latest products, systems and services, for a more vibrant society. It is also an expression of our strong commitment to boldly face whatever new challenges the times bring us: whatever comes "Next."
Corporate Strategy
In November 2006, Hitachi announced a new corporate strategy to promote collaborative creation and profits. With a rigorous focus on a market-oriented approach and profit creation as the basic policy, the aim is to establish a structure that stably generates high profits by the use of key initiatives such as the implementation of fully FIV* (Future Inspiration Value) based management, the creation of a business portfolio with higher profitability, moving forward with group management, and innovation in collaboration with partners and group companies.
In order to achieve this, Hitachi will focus on the business areas in which Hitachi can show its strength, will strengthen its social innovation business, which consists of its social infrastructure, industrial infrastructure, life infrastructure and information infrastructure businesses, and will endeavor to maximize the synergies with the infrastructure technology/products business that underpins social innovation business operations.
Corporate governance is being systematically strengthened, efficient group company management implemented and equity relationships reviewed, in order to raise earnings throughout the corporate group. With the emphasis on collaborations with partners and group companies, in the Hitachi Group diverse partnerships are being used to strengthen collaborative innovation business undertakings in various areas of operations.
SCORES
Bump and grind
Ginobili, Spurs fight off Jazz, crowd to take 3-1 lead
Posted: Tuesday May 29, 2007 1:14AM; Updated: Tuesday May 29, 2007 1:39AM
Ginobili, Spurs fight off Jazz, crowd to take 3-1 lead
Posted: Tuesday May 29, 2007 1:14AM; Updated: Tuesday May 29, 2007 1:39AM
SALT LAKE CITY -- For awhile this felt a lot like a European playoff game in one of those Greek or Spanish arenas where the fans never shut up and every basket is greeted as a tragedy or a miracle. Manu Ginobili learned to play in this kind of setting, and he looked entirely comfortable while bulling his way to the foul line for 15 fourth-quarter points to turn a tight Game 4 into a 91-79 Spurs rout.
San Antonio takes a 3-1 lead back home, where Utah hasn't won since 1999. Much the same as the Suns felt in the previous round, the Jazz will have a hard time deciding how to overcome the ruthless display the Spurs put on Monday.
Their 41 free-throw attempts were twice as many as the Jazz (20) earned, which led to a lot of complaining from the 19,911 here as well as five Utah technicals, culminating in the late fourth-quarter ejections of coach Jerry Sloan and guard Derek Fisher, who by the way was held without a three-point attempt in 38 minutes.
"I thought our guys played their hearts out,'' said Sloan, who refused to discuss the officiating. "I thought they competed about as much as you could ask of guys to compete.''
That had been Sloan's mantra throughout the series -- that he wanted his young team to fight. Their next step now is to realize from the Spurs how to maintain a high level of execution while playing all-out.
"That's what they've got to learn every time they step on the floor,'' Sloan said. "Obviously you need to learn how to stick with what you are trying to do and not have the turnovers and not have the fouls that put them on the free-throw line, regardless of circumstances.''
A lingering case of the stomach flu and the Spurs' upgraded intensity helped to limit -- which is surely not the right word -- Deron Williams to 27 points and 10 assists. The Spurs began trapping him to force the ball out of his hands, and the Jazz responded with 10 sloppy turnovers in the second half. "`We changed defenses three or four times just to give him different looks, get him thinking about it,'' said Tim Duncan.
The Jazz were proudly exchanging body blows with the Spurs through the early rounds, but Utah couldn't sustain it -- while in the meantime Ginobili was escalating his attacks. Duncan recovered from a woeful Game 3 to soften up Utah's defensive midsection with 19 points (to go with nine rebounds and five blocks) in conjunction with an 11-point, 11-board performance from Fabricio Oberto. And yet it was still tough going around the basket with Andrei Kirilenko (four blocks) coming to life before Ginobili found his rhythm.
"Fans were going nuts and they looked inspired,'' said Ginobili, who finished with 22 points while going just 4 of 10 from the field. "I am very proud of what we did in the fourth quarter because it was looking ugly for us, and we really stepped up and did a great job.''
Just when the Jazz had limited Duncan while holding Tony Parker to a 6-of-19 (17 points, two assists) night, here came Ginobili fighting his way through the heart of their defense to go 11 of 13 from the line in the final period -- while the entire Jazz roster was 1-for-2 in that time. "I don't think I did too much to get into their skin in the first three quarters,'' he acknowledged. "Then I hit a three early in the fourth quarter, and I started feeling better.''
The Jazz couldn't feel worse about it. "I'm sure a lot of people are counting us out of the series,'' said Carlos Boozer (18 points and nine rebounds). "We have a much better feel for this team after playing them four games.'' And that might be their biggest problem.
San Antonio takes a 3-1 lead back home, where Utah hasn't won since 1999. Much the same as the Suns felt in the previous round, the Jazz will have a hard time deciding how to overcome the ruthless display the Spurs put on Monday.
Their 41 free-throw attempts were twice as many as the Jazz (20) earned, which led to a lot of complaining from the 19,911 here as well as five Utah technicals, culminating in the late fourth-quarter ejections of coach Jerry Sloan and guard Derek Fisher, who by the way was held without a three-point attempt in 38 minutes.
"I thought our guys played their hearts out,'' said Sloan, who refused to discuss the officiating. "I thought they competed about as much as you could ask of guys to compete.''
That had been Sloan's mantra throughout the series -- that he wanted his young team to fight. Their next step now is to realize from the Spurs how to maintain a high level of execution while playing all-out.
"That's what they've got to learn every time they step on the floor,'' Sloan said. "Obviously you need to learn how to stick with what you are trying to do and not have the turnovers and not have the fouls that put them on the free-throw line, regardless of circumstances.''
A lingering case of the stomach flu and the Spurs' upgraded intensity helped to limit -- which is surely not the right word -- Deron Williams to 27 points and 10 assists. The Spurs began trapping him to force the ball out of his hands, and the Jazz responded with 10 sloppy turnovers in the second half. "`We changed defenses three or four times just to give him different looks, get him thinking about it,'' said Tim Duncan.
The Jazz were proudly exchanging body blows with the Spurs through the early rounds, but Utah couldn't sustain it -- while in the meantime Ginobili was escalating his attacks. Duncan recovered from a woeful Game 3 to soften up Utah's defensive midsection with 19 points (to go with nine rebounds and five blocks) in conjunction with an 11-point, 11-board performance from Fabricio Oberto. And yet it was still tough going around the basket with Andrei Kirilenko (four blocks) coming to life before Ginobili found his rhythm.
"Fans were going nuts and they looked inspired,'' said Ginobili, who finished with 22 points while going just 4 of 10 from the field. "I am very proud of what we did in the fourth quarter because it was looking ugly for us, and we really stepped up and did a great job.''
Just when the Jazz had limited Duncan while holding Tony Parker to a 6-of-19 (17 points, two assists) night, here came Ginobili fighting his way through the heart of their defense to go 11 of 13 from the line in the final period -- while the entire Jazz roster was 1-for-2 in that time. "I don't think I did too much to get into their skin in the first three quarters,'' he acknowledged. "Then I hit a three early in the fourth quarter, and I started feeling better.''
The Jazz couldn't feel worse about it. "I'm sure a lot of people are counting us out of the series,'' said Carlos Boozer (18 points and nine rebounds). "We have a much better feel for this team after playing them four games.'' And that might be their biggest problem.
Monday, May 28, 2007
WEATHER
Rain pelts Texas, Oklahoma as storm lingers
POSTED: 8:25 p.m. EDT, May 28, 2007
POSTED: 8:25 p.m. EDT, May 28, 2007
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Rain soaked the Plains states on Monday in a lingering storm blamed for five dead, two missing and more than 1,000 people stranded over the Memorial Day weekend. The storm's latest lashing caused some minor flooding and road closures.
Much of southeast Texas was expected to get 1 to 2 inches of rain with some areas getting 3 to 5 inches, said Matt Moreland, a forecaster at the National Weather Service in Houston. Ten inches fell overnight in the town of Hallettsville.
In Oklahoma, more than 1,000 campers trapped in their cars by flash flooding on Sunday were able to leave Turner Falls Park near Davis on Monday. No injuries were reported. (Map: Hardest-hit areas)
Park officials had opened a building inside the park to allow rain-soaked campers to dry out, and the Red Cross delivered food and supplies, park manager Tom Graham said.
By 8 a.m. Monday, the floodwaters subsided enough so that motorists could cross the low-water road leading to the campgrounds.
"The park is going to be closed for two or three days," Graham said. "We've still got a lot of cleanup to do."
Flood warnings were issued for parts of Oklahoma and Texas. Severe thunderstorm warnings were issued as far north as Wyoming and South Dakota.
At Guadalupe River State Park in Texas, public access to the river was reopened Monday afternoon with a word of caution.
"We advise all but the most experienced people to stay out of the water," said park superintendent Mark Abolafia-Rosenzweig.
On Sunday, firefighters rescued more than two dozen people as the Guadalupe spilled over its banks in Central Texas. After taking refuge from the rain under a bridge, 17 people had to be rescued as the river rose, said Mark Reynolds, a public information officer with the Comal County Sheriff's Office.
The two men missing since Thursday when their vehicles were swept away are presumed dead. Both of their vehicles were found.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Much of southeast Texas was expected to get 1 to 2 inches of rain with some areas getting 3 to 5 inches, said Matt Moreland, a forecaster at the National Weather Service in Houston. Ten inches fell overnight in the town of Hallettsville.
In Oklahoma, more than 1,000 campers trapped in their cars by flash flooding on Sunday were able to leave Turner Falls Park near Davis on Monday. No injuries were reported. (Map: Hardest-hit areas)
Park officials had opened a building inside the park to allow rain-soaked campers to dry out, and the Red Cross delivered food and supplies, park manager Tom Graham said.
By 8 a.m. Monday, the floodwaters subsided enough so that motorists could cross the low-water road leading to the campgrounds.
"The park is going to be closed for two or three days," Graham said. "We've still got a lot of cleanup to do."
Flood warnings were issued for parts of Oklahoma and Texas. Severe thunderstorm warnings were issued as far north as Wyoming and South Dakota.
At Guadalupe River State Park in Texas, public access to the river was reopened Monday afternoon with a word of caution.
"We advise all but the most experienced people to stay out of the water," said park superintendent Mark Abolafia-Rosenzweig.
On Sunday, firefighters rescued more than two dozen people as the Guadalupe spilled over its banks in Central Texas. After taking refuge from the rain under a bridge, 17 people had to be rescued as the river rose, said Mark Reynolds, a public information officer with the Comal County Sheriff's Office.
The two men missing since Thursday when their vehicles were swept away are presumed dead. Both of their vehicles were found.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Thank you very body reading my blogger : www.news-all-the-wold.blogspot.com
CAR FOR ALL THE WOLD BY TOYOTA
Toyota Announces Year-End Financial Results - Achieves Record High Net Revenues, Operating Income and Net Income
(All consolidated financial information has been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America)
(All consolidated financial information has been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America)
May 9, 2007 - Tokyo - TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION (TMC) today announced operating results for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2007.
On a consolidated basis, net revenues for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2007 totaled 23.94 trillion yen, an increase of 13.8 percent compared to the last fiscal year. Operating income increased 19.2 percent to 2.23 trillion yen, and income before income taxes, minority interest and equity in earnings of affiliated companies increased 14.1 percent to 2.38 trillion yen. Net income increased 19.8 percent to 1.64 trillion yen. All of these figures marked record highs.
Positive contributions to operating income totaled 720.0 billion yen, consisting of 330.0 billion yen from marketing efforts, 290.0 billion yen from the positive effects of changes in foreign exchange rates and 100.0 billion yen from cost reduction efforts. Negative factors totaled 359.7 billion yen.
Commenting on the results, TMC President Katsuaki Watanabe said, "For fiscal year 2007, Toyota posted record consolidated results across the board. We believe our continuous efforts to support global growth have steadily contributed to our record net revenues, operating income and net income."
TMC also announced a second-half cash dividend for the six months ended March 31, 2007 of 70 yen, an increase of 15 yen per share over the same period last fiscal year. Total dividend payout for the full year was 120 yen per share, an increase of 30 yen year-on-year. TMC has increased its annual dividend eight consecutive times.
Watanabe added, "As a result, our dividend payout ratio will improve from 21.3% to 23.4%, marking steady progress toward our 30% target".
In fiscal year 2007, Toyota's consolidated vehicle sales for the period reached 8.52 million units, an increase of 550 thousand units compared to the last fiscal year.
In Japan, vehicle sales decreased by 91 thousand units over the same period last year, to 2.27 million units. While sales of certain existing models declined, sales of the redesigned Corolla and new models such as the Auris, Blade and Lexus LS were favorable. Toyota's market share excluding mini-vehicles grew by 1.5 percent compared to the same period last year, to 45.8 percent. Operating income from Japanese operations increased by 381.3 billion yen over the same period last year, to 1.45 trillion yen, mainly due to an increase in production volume.
In North America, vehicle sales reached 2.94 million units, an increase of 386 thousand units, due to strong sales of models redesigned last year such as the RAV4 and Camry and the new models FJ Cruiser and Yaris. Operating income decreased by 46.0 billion yen, to 449.6 billion yen. This is mainly due to temporary expenses such as costs associated with the start up of the Texas plant, as well as the recording of valuation losses on interest rate swaps.
In Europe, led by strong sales of compact models such as the Yaris and Aygo, vehicle sales increased by 201 thousand units, to 1.22 million units. Operating income from European operations increased by 43.4 billion yen, to 137.3 billion yen. The increase in operating income was mainly due to strong sales of core models.
In Asia, sales decreased by 91 thousand units, to 789 thousand units, as a result of weak market conditions mainly in Indonesia and Taiwan. Operating income from Asian operations decreased by 27.9 billion yen, to 117.6 billion yen.
In other regions, including Central and South America, Oceania and Africa, vehicle sales increased to 1.29 million units, an increase of 145 thousand units, due to continuing popularity of the IMV series in Central and South America and the Camry in Oceania. Operating income in these regions increased by 16.3 billion yen, to 83.5 billion yen.
TMC estimates that the consolidated vehicle sales for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2008 will be 8.89 million units.
TMC also announced its consolidated financial forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2008. Based on an exchange rate of 115 yen to the U.S. dollar and 150 yen to the euro, TMC forecasts consolidated net revenues of 25.00 trillion yen, operating income of 2.25 trillion yen and net income of 1.65 trillion yen.
Watanabe concluded by commenting on the outlook for profitability. "We aim to exceed last year's earnings by increasing sales volume and reducing cost, while investing for future growth."
(Please see attached information for details on financial results. Further information is also available on the Internet at www.toyota.co.jp)
Cautionary Statement with Respect to Forward-Looking StatementsThis release contains forward-looking statements that reflect Toyota's plans and expectations. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Toyota's actual results, performance, achievements or financial position to be materially different from any future results, performance, achievements or financial position expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These factors include: (i) changes in economic conditions and market demand affecting, and the competitive environment in, the automotive markets in Japan, North America, Europe and other markets in which Toyota operates; (ii) fluctuations in currency exchange rates, particularly with respect to the value of the Japanese yen, the U.S. dollar, the Euro, the Australian dollar and the British pound; (iii) Toyota's ability to realize production efficiencies and to implement capital expenditures at the levels and times planned by management; (iv) changes in the laws, regulations and government policies in the markets in which Toyota operates that affect Toyota's automotive operations, particularly laws, regulations and policies relating to trade, environmental protection, vehicle emissions, vehicle fuel economy and vehicle safety, as well as changes in laws, regulations and government policies that affect Toyota's other operations, including the outcome of future litigation and other legal proceedings; (v) political instability in the markets in which Toyota operates; (vi) Toyota's ability to timely develop and achieve market acceptance of new products; and (vii) fuel shortages or interruptions in transportation systems, labor strikes, work stoppages or other interruptions to, or difficulties in, the employment of labor in the major markets where Toyota purchases materials, components and supplies for the production of its products or where its products are produced, distributed or sold.
A discussion of these and other factors which may affect Toyota's actual results, performance, achievements or financial position is contained in Toyota's annual report on Form 20-F, which is on file with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
On a consolidated basis, net revenues for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2007 totaled 23.94 trillion yen, an increase of 13.8 percent compared to the last fiscal year. Operating income increased 19.2 percent to 2.23 trillion yen, and income before income taxes, minority interest and equity in earnings of affiliated companies increased 14.1 percent to 2.38 trillion yen. Net income increased 19.8 percent to 1.64 trillion yen. All of these figures marked record highs.
Positive contributions to operating income totaled 720.0 billion yen, consisting of 330.0 billion yen from marketing efforts, 290.0 billion yen from the positive effects of changes in foreign exchange rates and 100.0 billion yen from cost reduction efforts. Negative factors totaled 359.7 billion yen.
Commenting on the results, TMC President Katsuaki Watanabe said, "For fiscal year 2007, Toyota posted record consolidated results across the board. We believe our continuous efforts to support global growth have steadily contributed to our record net revenues, operating income and net income."
TMC also announced a second-half cash dividend for the six months ended March 31, 2007 of 70 yen, an increase of 15 yen per share over the same period last fiscal year. Total dividend payout for the full year was 120 yen per share, an increase of 30 yen year-on-year. TMC has increased its annual dividend eight consecutive times.
Watanabe added, "As a result, our dividend payout ratio will improve from 21.3% to 23.4%, marking steady progress toward our 30% target".
In fiscal year 2007, Toyota's consolidated vehicle sales for the period reached 8.52 million units, an increase of 550 thousand units compared to the last fiscal year.
In Japan, vehicle sales decreased by 91 thousand units over the same period last year, to 2.27 million units. While sales of certain existing models declined, sales of the redesigned Corolla and new models such as the Auris, Blade and Lexus LS were favorable. Toyota's market share excluding mini-vehicles grew by 1.5 percent compared to the same period last year, to 45.8 percent. Operating income from Japanese operations increased by 381.3 billion yen over the same period last year, to 1.45 trillion yen, mainly due to an increase in production volume.
In North America, vehicle sales reached 2.94 million units, an increase of 386 thousand units, due to strong sales of models redesigned last year such as the RAV4 and Camry and the new models FJ Cruiser and Yaris. Operating income decreased by 46.0 billion yen, to 449.6 billion yen. This is mainly due to temporary expenses such as costs associated with the start up of the Texas plant, as well as the recording of valuation losses on interest rate swaps.
In Europe, led by strong sales of compact models such as the Yaris and Aygo, vehicle sales increased by 201 thousand units, to 1.22 million units. Operating income from European operations increased by 43.4 billion yen, to 137.3 billion yen. The increase in operating income was mainly due to strong sales of core models.
In Asia, sales decreased by 91 thousand units, to 789 thousand units, as a result of weak market conditions mainly in Indonesia and Taiwan. Operating income from Asian operations decreased by 27.9 billion yen, to 117.6 billion yen.
In other regions, including Central and South America, Oceania and Africa, vehicle sales increased to 1.29 million units, an increase of 145 thousand units, due to continuing popularity of the IMV series in Central and South America and the Camry in Oceania. Operating income in these regions increased by 16.3 billion yen, to 83.5 billion yen.
TMC estimates that the consolidated vehicle sales for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2008 will be 8.89 million units.
TMC also announced its consolidated financial forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2008. Based on an exchange rate of 115 yen to the U.S. dollar and 150 yen to the euro, TMC forecasts consolidated net revenues of 25.00 trillion yen, operating income of 2.25 trillion yen and net income of 1.65 trillion yen.
Watanabe concluded by commenting on the outlook for profitability. "We aim to exceed last year's earnings by increasing sales volume and reducing cost, while investing for future growth."
(Please see attached information for details on financial results. Further information is also available on the Internet at www.toyota.co.jp)
Cautionary Statement with Respect to Forward-Looking StatementsThis release contains forward-looking statements that reflect Toyota's plans and expectations. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Toyota's actual results, performance, achievements or financial position to be materially different from any future results, performance, achievements or financial position expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These factors include: (i) changes in economic conditions and market demand affecting, and the competitive environment in, the automotive markets in Japan, North America, Europe and other markets in which Toyota operates; (ii) fluctuations in currency exchange rates, particularly with respect to the value of the Japanese yen, the U.S. dollar, the Euro, the Australian dollar and the British pound; (iii) Toyota's ability to realize production efficiencies and to implement capital expenditures at the levels and times planned by management; (iv) changes in the laws, regulations and government policies in the markets in which Toyota operates that affect Toyota's automotive operations, particularly laws, regulations and policies relating to trade, environmental protection, vehicle emissions, vehicle fuel economy and vehicle safety, as well as changes in laws, regulations and government policies that affect Toyota's other operations, including the outcome of future litigation and other legal proceedings; (v) political instability in the markets in which Toyota operates; (vi) Toyota's ability to timely develop and achieve market acceptance of new products; and (vii) fuel shortages or interruptions in transportation systems, labor strikes, work stoppages or other interruptions to, or difficulties in, the employment of labor in the major markets where Toyota purchases materials, components and supplies for the production of its products or where its products are produced, distributed or sold.
A discussion of these and other factors which may affect Toyota's actual results, performance, achievements or financial position is contained in Toyota's annual report on Form 20-F, which is on file with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
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WORLD
Awakened man wrestles leopard out of his bed
POSTED: 4:39 p.m. EDT, May 28, 2007
POSTED: 4:39 p.m. EDT, May 28, 2007
JERUSALEM (AP) -- A man clad only in underwear and a T-shirt wrestled a wild leopard to the floor and pinned it for 20 minutes after the cat leapt through a window of his home and hopped into bed with his sleeping family.
"This kind of thing doesn't happen every day," said 49-year-old Arthur Du Mosch, a nature guide. "I don't know why I did it. I wasn't thinking, I just acted."
Raviv Shapira, who heads the southern district of the Israel Nature and Parks Protection Authority, said a half dozen leopards have been spotted recently near Du Mosch's small community of Kibbutz Sde Boker in the Negev desert in southern Israel, although they rarely threaten humans.
Shapira said it was probably food that lured the big cat. Leopards living near humans are usually too old to hunt in the wild and resort to chasing down domestic dogs and cats for food, he added.
Du Mosch's pet cat was in the bed with him at the time, along with his young daughter who had been frightened by a mosquito in her own room.
Shapira said the leopard was very weak when park rangers arrived at Du Mosch's home after the surprise late-night visit. He said nature officials would likely release it back into the wild.
Du Mosch said he probably would not have been able to control the big cat were it in better health. As a nature guide, he said, he was familiar with animals and did his best to hold down the leopard without harming it. He said he took it all in stride, "but the kids were excited."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
"This kind of thing doesn't happen every day," said 49-year-old Arthur Du Mosch, a nature guide. "I don't know why I did it. I wasn't thinking, I just acted."
Raviv Shapira, who heads the southern district of the Israel Nature and Parks Protection Authority, said a half dozen leopards have been spotted recently near Du Mosch's small community of Kibbutz Sde Boker in the Negev desert in southern Israel, although they rarely threaten humans.
Shapira said it was probably food that lured the big cat. Leopards living near humans are usually too old to hunt in the wild and resort to chasing down domestic dogs and cats for food, he added.
Du Mosch's pet cat was in the bed with him at the time, along with his young daughter who had been frightened by a mosquito in her own room.
Shapira said the leopard was very weak when park rangers arrived at Du Mosch's home after the surprise late-night visit. He said nature officials would likely release it back into the wild.
Du Mosch said he probably would not have been able to control the big cat were it in better health. As a nature guide, he said, he was familiar with animals and did his best to hold down the leopard without harming it. He said he took it all in stride, "but the kids were excited."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
JERUSALEM (AP) -- A man clad only in underwear and a T-shirt wrestled a wild leopard to the floor and pinned it for 20 minutes after the cat leapt through a window of his home and hopped into bed with his sleeping family.
"This kind of thing doesn't happen every day," said 49-year-old Arthur Du Mosch, a nature guide. "I don't know why I did it. I wasn't thinking, I just acted."
Raviv Shapira, who heads the southern district of the Israel Nature and Parks Protection Authority, said a half dozen leopards have been spotted recently near Du Mosch's small community of Kibbutz Sde Boker in the Negev desert in southern Israel, although they rarely threaten humans.
Shapira said it was probably food that lured the big cat. Leopards living near humans are usually too old to hunt in the wild and resort to chasing down domestic dogs and cats for food, he added.
Du Mosch's pet cat was in the bed with him at the time, along with his young daughter who had been frightened by a mosquito in her own room.
Shapira said the leopard was very weak when park rangers arrived at Du Mosch's home after the surprise late-night visit. He said nature officials would likely release it back into the wild.
Du Mosch said he probably would not have been able to control the big cat were it in better health. As a nature guide, he said, he was familiar with animals and did his best to hold down the leopard without harming it. He said he took it all in stride, "but the kids were excited."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
"This kind of thing doesn't happen every day," said 49-year-old Arthur Du Mosch, a nature guide. "I don't know why I did it. I wasn't thinking, I just acted."
Raviv Shapira, who heads the southern district of the Israel Nature and Parks Protection Authority, said a half dozen leopards have been spotted recently near Du Mosch's small community of Kibbutz Sde Boker in the Negev desert in southern Israel, although they rarely threaten humans.
Shapira said it was probably food that lured the big cat. Leopards living near humans are usually too old to hunt in the wild and resort to chasing down domestic dogs and cats for food, he added.
Du Mosch's pet cat was in the bed with him at the time, along with his young daughter who had been frightened by a mosquito in her own room.
Shapira said the leopard was very weak when park rangers arrived at Du Mosch's home after the surprise late-night visit. He said nature officials would likely release it back into the wild.
Du Mosch said he probably would not have been able to control the big cat were it in better health. As a nature guide, he said, he was familiar with animals and did his best to hold down the leopard without harming it. He said he took it all in stride, "but the kids were excited."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
WHAT NUMBER ?
Anti-war mom Cindy Sheehan gives up her protest
POSTED: 10:55 p.m. EDT, May 28, 2007
POSTED: 10:55 p.m. EDT, May 28, 2007
(CNN) -- Cindy Sheehan, the California mother who became an anti-war leader after her son was killed in Iraq, declared Monday she was walking away from the peace movement.
She said her son died "for nothing."
Sheehan achieved national attention when she camped outside President Bush's home in Crawford, Texas, throughout August 2005 to demand a meeting with the president over her son's death.
While Bush ignored her, the vigil made her one of the most prominent figures among opponents of the war.
But in a Web diary posted to the liberal online community Daily Kos on Monday, Sheehan said she was exhausted by the personal, financial and emotional toll of the past two years.
She wrote that she is disillusioned by the failure of Democratic politicians to bring the unpopular war to an end and tired of a peace movement she said "often puts personal egos above peace and human life."
Casey Sheehan, a 24-year-old Army specialist, was killed in an April 2004 battle in Baghdad. His death prompted his mother to found Gold Star Families for Peace.
But in Monday's 1,200-word letter, titled, "Good Riddance Attention Whore," Sheehan announced that her son "did indeed die for nothing."
"I have tried every since he died to make his sacrifice meaningful," she wrote. "Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives.
"It is so painful to me to know that I bought into this system for so many years, and Casey paid the price for that allegiance. I failed my boy and that hurts the most."
Cindy Sheehan's sister, DeDe Miller, told CNN that the group would continue working for humanitarian causes, but drop its involvement in the anti-war movement. As for her sister's letter, Miller said, "She cried for quite a bit after writing it."
Sheehan warned that the United States was becoming "a fascist corporate wasteland," and that onetime allies among Bush's Democratic opposition turned on her when she began trying to hold them accountable for bringing the 4-year-old war to a close.
In the meantime, she said her antiwar activism had cost her her marriage, that she had put the survivor's benefits paid for her son's death and all her speaking and book fees into the cause and that she now owed extensive medical bills.
"I am going to take whatever I have left and go home," she wrote. "I am going to go home and be a mother to my surviving children and try to regain some of what I have lost.
"I will try to maintain and nurture some very positive relationships that I have found in the journey that I was forced into when Casey died and try to repair some of the ones that have fallen apart since I began this single-minded crusade to try and change a paradigm that is now, I am afraid, carved in immovable, unbendable and rigidly mendacious marble."
She said her son died "for nothing."
Sheehan achieved national attention when she camped outside President Bush's home in Crawford, Texas, throughout August 2005 to demand a meeting with the president over her son's death.
While Bush ignored her, the vigil made her one of the most prominent figures among opponents of the war.
But in a Web diary posted to the liberal online community Daily Kos on Monday, Sheehan said she was exhausted by the personal, financial and emotional toll of the past two years.
She wrote that she is disillusioned by the failure of Democratic politicians to bring the unpopular war to an end and tired of a peace movement she said "often puts personal egos above peace and human life."
Casey Sheehan, a 24-year-old Army specialist, was killed in an April 2004 battle in Baghdad. His death prompted his mother to found Gold Star Families for Peace.
But in Monday's 1,200-word letter, titled, "Good Riddance Attention Whore," Sheehan announced that her son "did indeed die for nothing."
"I have tried every since he died to make his sacrifice meaningful," she wrote. "Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives.
"It is so painful to me to know that I bought into this system for so many years, and Casey paid the price for that allegiance. I failed my boy and that hurts the most."
Cindy Sheehan's sister, DeDe Miller, told CNN that the group would continue working for humanitarian causes, but drop its involvement in the anti-war movement. As for her sister's letter, Miller said, "She cried for quite a bit after writing it."
Sheehan warned that the United States was becoming "a fascist corporate wasteland," and that onetime allies among Bush's Democratic opposition turned on her when she began trying to hold them accountable for bringing the 4-year-old war to a close.
In the meantime, she said her antiwar activism had cost her her marriage, that she had put the survivor's benefits paid for her son's death and all her speaking and book fees into the cause and that she now owed extensive medical bills.
"I am going to take whatever I have left and go home," she wrote. "I am going to go home and be a mother to my surviving children and try to regain some of what I have lost.
"I will try to maintain and nurture some very positive relationships that I have found in the journey that I was forced into when Casey died and try to repair some of the ones that have fallen apart since I began this single-minded crusade to try and change a paradigm that is now, I am afraid, carved in immovable, unbendable and rigidly mendacious marble."
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