Dec 22, 2011

Yahoo! might trim stake in Alibaba

SAN FRANCISCO —U.S. Internet pioneer Yahoo! is considering trimming its stake in Chinese e-commerce powerhouse Alibaba and letting go of its share of Yahoo! Japan, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

The publications cited unnamed sources as indicating Yahoo! might raise billions of dollars by cutting its ownership in Alibaba to 15% from 40% and by letting go of its 35% share of Yahoo! Japan.

Proceeds could help the faded Internet star’s plan to transform from an online search engine to a “premier digital media” company and potentially be doled out to sate shareholders irked by its performance in recent years.

Alibaba’s value was estimated in September to be about $13 billion.

The California company’s share of Yahoo! Japan, a publicly traded company in which Japanese Internet firm Softbank owns a major stake, was estimated at $6 billion.

Alibaba has expressed interest in getting back its shares from Yahoo!, which has openly indicated it wants to release its interest in Yahoo! Japan.

The complex transaction would be tax free because it would be done in a way not considered a sale.

Tokyo stocks close 0.77% lower

TOKYO — Japanese stocks fell 0.77% Thursday ahead of a three-day weekend as investors remained wary over the eurozone debt crisis despite action by the European Central Bank to provide cheap loans to banks.

The Nikkei index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange lost 64.82 points to close at 8,395.16. The Topix index of all first section shares fell 0.35% or 2.56 points to 723.12.

A total of 523 banks took a record 489.2 billion euros ($641 billion) on which the ECB will charge annual interest of just one percent over three years.

Until now, the ECB has lent for a maximum of one year and the new arrangement is part of a series of unprecedented measures to keep credit flowing in Europe at a time when banks are increasingly wary of lending to each other due to the debt crisis.

But Naoteru Teraoka, general manager in the investment management department at Chuo Mitsui Asset Management, said Japanese stocks will lack overt outside catalysts until at least Tuesday, as U.S. stocks will be on break through Monday.

Japanese markets will be closed on Friday for a national holiday.

“In the absence of specific sector data or news, shippers are still benefiting from being so deeply oversold earlier this year,” Teraoka told Dow Jones Newswires.

The euro stood at $1.3053, down from $1.3188 in New York Wednesday, and at 101.98 yen, compared with 101.88 yen in New York.

The dollar was at 78.04 yen, almost unchanged from 78.05.

N Korea leader's death fuels 'condolences' debate among allies

WASHINGTON —North Korean strongman Kim Jong-Il’s death is raising tough questions not only of policy but of protocol, with major world powers divided on whether and how to offer condolences.

The United States and other Western nations have studiously avoided the word “condolences” and instead addressed statements to “the North Korean people” after the demise of a man blamed for thousands if not millions of deaths.

U.S. allies South Korea and Japan have tense relations with the North and are directly in the crosshairs of the nuclear-armed state.

In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said Wednesday that the government would not be offering condolences to North Korea since the abduction issue remains unresolved.

South Korea, which remains technically at war with the North, said it would allow private groups to offer condolences in the latest effort to try to encourage stability despite deep worries over young successor Kim Jong-Un.

China, North Korea’s main ally, quickly showed its grief and President Hu Jintao paid respects at Pyongyang’s embassy in Beijing. Other nations that said they were sending formal condolence messages included Russia, Iran and India.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a statement issued after a day of fine-tuning, urged North Korea’s new leadership to embrace “the path of peace” but kept the focus on the country’s people rather than its leadership.

“We are deeply concerned with the well-being of the North Korean people and our thoughts and prayers are with them during these difficult times,” Clinton wrote.

Explaining the statement, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that it was “intended to be a signal of our expectations and hopes for the new regime.”

“With regard to ‘the c word,’ I think we didn’t considerate it appropriate in this case,” Nuland said.

There is historical precedent. When Kim Il-Sung—Kim Jong-Il’s father and the nation’s founder—died in 1994, then President Bill Clinton offered “sincere condolences to the people of North Korea on behalf of the people of the United States.”

Clinton, who was speaking to reporters on a visit to Italy, also voiced “deep appreciation” to Kim Il-Sung for supporting talks with the United States, but the American leader came under attack from the rival Republican Party.

Senator Bob Dole, who would unsuccessfully challenge Clinton for the White House two years later, accused the White House incumbent of forgetting the more than 35,000 Americans killed in the Korean War.
Democratic lawmakers at the time hit back by noting that Republican presidents sent condolences over the deaths of communist strongmen Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong.

Jack Pritchard, a former U.S. negotiator with North Korea who now heads the Korea Economic Institute, said that Hillary Clinton’s statement was “very well crafted” as it was open to interpretation, with North Korean leaders able to see it as a condolence message if they so choose.

But Scott Snyder, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said there was a risk that North Korea’s leadership would compare the 2011 and 1994 statements.

“The circumstances are completely different. I think it’s justified” not to offer condolences over Kim Jong-Il, Snyder said.

“But at the same time, I think it’s possible that the North Koreans could actually see what they’ve gotten so far as a step short of where they were previously,” he added.

Formal statements are of high importance for the leadership of North Korea, which has developed an elaborate personality cult around the Kim dynasty.

But foreign governments have been spared an additional dilemma as North Korea has indicated that international leaders will not take part in Kim’s December 28 funeral.

Peter Beck, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said Pyongyang’s preemptive non-invitation showed that the regime will likely be focused on itself and the country instead of scrutinizing messages from overseas.

“They really don’t care about the world right now. They care a lot more about their internal situation,” Beck said.

© 2011 AFP

Dec 8, 2011

Japan using quake disaster budget for whaling aid

TOKYO —Japan on Wednesday confirmed it planned to use some of the public funds earmarked for quake and tsunami reconstruction to boost security for its controversial annual whaling hunt.

Greenpeace charged that Tokyo was siphoning money from disaster victims by spending an extra 2.28 billion yen ($30 million) on beefed up security amid looming battles between the whaling fleet and environmental groups.

Japan's whaling fleet left port Tuesday for this season's annual hunt in Antarctica, with the coast guard saying earlier that it would deploy an unspecified number of guards to protect it from anti-whaling activists.

Fisheries Agency official Tatsuya Nakaoku said the extra security was designed to ensure safer hunts, and ultimately help coastal towns that largely depend on whaling to recover from the March 11 disasters.

“The government will support the reconstruction effort of a whaling town and nearby areas,” he told AFP Wednesday.

“This program can help it reconstruct food processing plants there… Many people in the area eat whale meat, too. They are waiting for Japan's commercial whaling to resume,” he added.

In February, Japan cut short its hunt for the 2010-2011 season by one month after bagging only one fifth of its planned catch, blaming interference from the US-based environmental group Sea Shepherd.

Last month, Japan passed a 12.1 trillion yen extra budget, the third this year, to finance post-quake reconstruction and revive the economy reeling from the impact of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

About 498.9 billion yen was earmarked for fisheries-related spending, including 2.28 billion yen for “stabilizing whaling research.”

“We will bolster measures against acts of sabotage by anti-whaling groups so as to stably carry out the Antarctic whaling research,” the fisheries department said after the budget was passed.

Commercial whaling is banned under an international treaty but Japan has since 1987 used a loophole to carry out “lethal research” on the creatures in the name of science.

Japan says it is necessary to substantiate its view that there is a robust whale population in the world, but makes no secret of the fact that whale meat from this research ends up on dinner tables and in restaurants.

Anti-whaling nations and environmentalist groups routinely condemn the activity as a cover for commercial whaling.