Dear President Obama: Get ACTA out in the open

Now, ACTA covers a lot of ground that the president is concerned about, such as physical copying of goods--the actual counterfeiting in the Counterfeiting name. But as you may know by now, it also contains some seriously disturbing, broad-stroke IP law that could have a devastating effect on the way the Internet works--on research, content creation and innovation, search and seizure, and much more.
So, I'm asking you, Mr. President: if we're going to move forward on ACTA, let's first move forward on negotiating ACTA in public. And while we're at it, let's move forward on building in specific, wide-ranging, fair-use exemptions for individual citizens. Otherwise, ACTA risks becoming the kind of overly broad, poorly written law that's bad for innovation, is horrible for consumers, and threatens to--not to put too fine a point on it--break the Internet.
Because ACTA has so far been negotiated in secret, we don't know exactly what's in the treaty. But leaked versions raise very specific concerns. For example:
ISP liability
Leaks from various drafts of the treaty indicate that it would take a tough stance on ISPs, turning them into watchdogs for Internet content of all kinds.
With the threat of civil liability for online piracy held like a gun to their heads, ISPs will be required to monitor user content and turn over the private information of users at the whim of IP holders. They may even be forced to subject customers to those ridiculous "three strikes" provisions you've heard so much about, wherein you can be cut off from Internet service as the result of accusations of piracy, regardless of whether those accusations have any merit or are proven in a court of law.
Thankfully, the European Parliament has finally reacted strongly against these provisions, as well as the secret negotiations, calling for three-strikes measures to be stricken from the treaty, and for it to be negotiated in public.
Anticircumvention
But the three-strikes provisions are hardly the only problematic elements of ACTA. It would also strengthen the types of anticircumvention laws already found in the American DMCA. These provisions ostensibly prevent you from breaking any technological copyright protection, even for what might be a fair use. That's why it's technically illegal--illegal--for you to make a backup copy of a DVD that you own.
But it's worse than that. Anticircumvention provisions have brought the long arm of the DMCA down on all kinds of legitimate researchers, security experts, and even reporters. For example, when Sony embedded a rootkit into its CDs that was activated whenever you ripped one, the Princeton University graduate student who uncovered the dirty deed delayed announcing it for weeks, fearing that he'd be prosecuted under the DMCA for reverse-engineering the rootkit code.
Simply put, there's ample evidence that this provision does not work and can't be considered acceptable in a global treaty without, as I said, broad exemptions for fair use and research. And yet the ACTA treaty would, at least in versions we've seen, actually enact even tougher anticircumvention measures and export them worldwide, shutting down all kinds of research-based reverse-engineering and who knows what else.
Warrantless search and seizure
ACTA's intellectual-property provisions also potentially allow authorities to search your personal electronic devices for copyrighted material and seize anything that is suspected of being used for copyright infringement (think: your home PC). And it would dramatically increase fines and penalties for people accused of copyright infringement, even if that infringement is not for personal or even commercial gain (think: e-mailing a song to a friend for purely personal sharing).
There's much more that's scary in the treaty that we know about, and who knows what else we haven't yet seen. It's about time we got a look inside the sausage factory.
As Obama himself might say: Look. Clearly, counterfeiting, piracy, and intellectual-property theft are cornerstone financial issues of the 21st century. Personally, I seriously question the intensity of this concern, given the multiple ways the entertainment industry has been caught wildly exaggerating its losses. But I understand that you don't want China building entire false-front manufacturing plants and passing off products as, say, belonging to Intel. Global trade is changing the game--IP claims and counterfeiting are suddenly a global issue in a way they've never been before. I get that.
But here's the thing: this debate about digital intellectual property is, right now, being driven by companies trying to protect specific and pre-Internet era business models, and those companies have seen more of the treaty than U.S. citizens have. President Obama's own Justice Department is littered with RIAA lawyers, and his government has declared ACTA itself a national security secret.
Mr. President, you can't possibly continue to stand by this claim, especially as other treaty countries are increasingly calling for ACTA transparency. You've not only been called the technology president, you've personally promised to usher in a new era of openness and transparency. How is it possible that the administration behind the Open Government Directive is the lead country opposing transparency in ACTA negotiations?
Why the refusal to hear all sides of the story? Sadly, anyone who opposes restrictive intellectual-property laws has been painted as a "free software" anarchist type at best and an outright pirate at worst. Mr. President, I'm speaking to you as a law-abiding person, a technology enthusiast, and heck, a parent. Can you really look me in the face and tell me that allowing me to make a digital copy of a DVD, mainly so I can protect it from inevitable destruction at the hands of my sticky-fingered toddler, is a brick on the road toward destroying the entertainment industry as we know it? Really?
If you've actually come to believe that, consumers have already lost. And if you don't believe that, it means you haven't had a chance to hear from the other side, and that's the most dangerous part of this entire charade.
Mr. President, now is the time to stand up for technology--and for the citizens who can benefit immeasurably from the innovations the future can bring. You should be standing with the European Parliament and calling for a treaty negotiated in public, with the full input of the technology community and the rest of us with skin in the game: the Internet service providers, the citizens of the world and of the Internet, the individual artists, the researchers, the entrepreneurs, and yeah, even the hackers and the pirates.
That's the way this American experiment is supposed to work. If we're going to export our sweaty paranoia about piracy and our over-reliance on entertainment as the key to our country's solvency, we ought to at least counterbalance it with a respect for the underpinnings of our democracy.
P.S.: Anytime you want to come on CNET Conversations and chat about this, you can find me at molly.wood@cbs.com.

Anonymous downs government, music industry sites in largest attack ever

Hacktivists with the collective Anonymous are waging an attack on the website for the White House after successfully breaking the sites for the FBI, Department of Justice, Universal Music Group, RIAA and Motion Picture Association of America.
In response to today’s federal raid on the file sharing service Megaupload, hackers with the online collective Anonymous have broken the websites for the FBI, Department of Justice, Universal Music Group, RIAA, Motion Picture Association of America and Warner Music Group.
“It was in retaliation for Megaupload, as was the concurrent attack on Justice.org,” Anonymous operative Barrett Brown tells RT on Thursday afternoon.
Only hours before the DoJ and Universal sites went down, news broke that Megaupload, a massive file sharing site with a reported 50 million daily users, was taken down by federal agents. Four people linked to Megaupload were arrested in New Zealand and an international crackdown led agents to serving at least 20 search warrants across the globe.
The latest of sites to fall is FBI.gov, which finally broke at around 7:40 pm EST Thursday evening.
Less than an hour after the DoJ and Universal sites came down, the website for the RIAA, or Recording Industry Association of America, went offline as well. Shortly before 6 p.m EST, the government's Copyright.gov site went down as well. Thirty minutes later came the site for BMI, or Broadcast Music, Inc, the licensing organization that represents some of the biggest names in music.
Also on Thursday, MPAA.org returned an error as Anonymous hacktivists managed to bring down the website for the Motion Picture Association of America. The group, headed by former senator Chris Dodd, is an adamant supporter of both PIPA and SOPA legislation.
Universal Music Group, or UMG, is the largest record company in the United States and under its umbrella are the labels Interscope-Geffen-A&M, the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group and Mercury Records.
Brown adds that “more is coming” and Anonymous-aligned hacktivists are pursuing a joint effort with others to “damage campaign raising abilities of remaining Democrats who support SOPA.”
Although many members of Congress have just this week changed their stance on the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, the raid on Megaupload Thursday proved that the feds don’t need SOPA or its sister legislation, PIPA, in order to pose a threat to the Web.
Brown adds that operatives involved in the project will use an “experimental campaign” and search engine optimization techniques “whereby to forever saddle some of these congressmen with their record on this issue.”

rt.com

Iran slams EU oil embargo, warns could hit US

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton holds a news conference at the end of a European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels January 23, 2012. The European Union banned imports of oil from Iran on Monday and imposed a number of other economic sanctions, joining the United States in a new round of measures aimed at deflecting Tehran's nuclear development program. [Photo/Agencies]
TEHRAN/BRUSSELS - Iran accused Europeans on Monday of waging "psychological warfare" after the EU banned imports of Iranian oil, joining the United States in new sanctions aimed at preventing Tehran from getting nuclear weapons.
The Islamic Republic, which denies trying to build an atom bomb, scoffed at efforts to choke its oil exports. Some Iranians also renewed threats to stop Arab oil from leaving the Gulf and warned they might strike US targets worldwide if Washington used force to break any Iranian blockade of a strategically vital shipping route.
Yet in three decades of confrontation between Tehran and the West, bellicose rhetoric and the undependable armoury of sanctions have become so familiar that the benchmark Brent crude oil price edged less than 0.5 percent higher, and some of that was due to unrelated currency factors.
"If any disruption happens regarding the sale of Iranian oil, the Strait of Hormuz will definitely be closed," Mohammad Kossari, deputy head of parliament's foreign affairs and national security committee, told Fars news agency a day after US, French and British warships sailed back into the Gulf.
"If America seeks adventures after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran will make the world unsafe for Americans in the shortest possible time," Kossari added, referring to an earlier US pledge to use its fleet to keep the passage open.
The United States, which imposed its own sanctions against Iran's oil trade and central bank on Dec. 31, welcomed the EU move, as did Israel. It has warned it might attack Iran if sanctions do not deflect Tehran from a course that some analysts argue could potentially give Iran a nuclear bomb next year.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner: "This new, concerted pressure will sharpen the choice for Iran's leaders and increase their cost of defiance of basic international obligations."
Calls for Talks
Germany, France and Britain used the EU sanctions as a cue for a joint call to Tehran to renew long-suspended negotiations on its nuclear programme. Russia said talks might soon be on the cards.
Iran, however, said new sanctions made that less likely. It is a view shared by some in the West who caution that such tactics risk hardening Iranian support for a nuclear programme.
European Union foreign ministers who agreed an anticipated ban on imports of Iranian crude at a meeting in Brussels were so anxious not to penalise the ailing economies of Greece, Italy and others to whom Iran is a major oil supplier that the EU embargo will not take full effect until July 1. And the strategy will be reviewed in May to see if it should go ahead.
Curbing Iran's oil exports is a double-edged sword, as Tehran's own response to the embargo clearly showed.
A member of Iran's influential Assembly of Experts, former intelligence minister Ali Fallahian, said Tehran should respond to the delayed-action EU sanctions by stopping sales to the bloc immediately, denying the Europeans time to arrange alternative supplies and damaging their economies with higher oil prices.
"The best way is to stop exporting oil ourselves before the end of this six months and before the implementation of the plan," the semi-official Fars news agency quoted him as saying.
"Psychological Warfare"
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast, quoted by state television, said: "European Union sanctions on Iranian oil is psychological warfare ... Imposing economic sanctions is illogical and unfair but will not stop our nation from obtaining its rights."
Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told the IRNA news agency that the more sanctions were imposed on Tehran "the more obstacles there will be to solve the issue".
"The European countries and those who are under American pressure, should think about their own interests. Any country that deprives itself from Iran's energy market, will soon see that it has been replaced by others," Mehmanparast added.
The EU measures included an immediate ban on all new contracts to import, purchase or transport Iranian crude and petroleum products. However, EU countries with existing contracts to buy oil and petroleum products can honour them up to July 1, and there would be a review of the plans before then.
EU officials said they also agreed to freeze the assets of Iran's central bank and ban trade in gold and other precious metals with the bank and state bodies.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said of the new sanctions: "I want the pressure of these sanctions to result in negotiations ... I want to see Iran come back to the table and either pick up all the ideas that we left on the table ... last year ... or to come forward with its own ideas."
Iran has said lately that it is willing to hold talks with Western powers, though there have been mixed signals on whether conditions imposed by either side make new negotiations likely.
Chinadaily

CEO's gloomy about global economy

DAVOS, Switzerland -- Almost half of company chief executives are pessimistic about prospects for the global economy this year, with many citing uncertainty about the European debt crisis as their major cause for worry, according to a survey published Tuesday.
Consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers polled 1,258 CEOs around the world and found 48 percent believed the global economy would decline further in 2012.
"This year confidence levels really have fallen off in a very significant way all across the world," said Dennis Nally, chairman of PwC International Ltd.
Some 34 percent of respondents said they expected no change this year while just 15 percent predicted an improvement. Three percent were undecided.
Among the biggest concerns cited by CEOs were the European debt crisis and its effect on the global economy.
Unsurprisingly, company heads in Western Europe were gloomiest about the future. "They are not feeling real good," Nally said. But confidence has plunged elsewhere, too, as executives worry that Europe's woes could drag the rest of the world into a downward spiral, he said.
"The one thing that this financial crisis has really demonstrated to all of us is how interconnected the global economy really is."
Even China, which still enjoys healthy economic growth, saw the share of CEOs who were "very confident" fall from 72 percent last year to 51 percent.
While chief executives in the United States were also cautious, some 41 percent said they were upbeat about short-term growth despite concerns about the US debt ceiling and gridlock in Washington ahead of the presidential elections this fall.
"It really does suggest that maybe the US economy is better or stronger than what some believe," said Nally, adding that American companies had grown used to being patient with policy makers in an election year.
"Europe is really a short-term issue though," he said. "I don't think you have 12 months to keep this debate going on how to deal with the debt crisis."
ChinaDaily

IMF cuts global growth forecasts amid eurozone risks

WASHINGTON - The international Monetary Fund (IMF) sharply cut its forecasts for global economic growth on Tuesday, warning about multiple challenges as financial stability in danger, growth prospects have dimmed, and downside risks have escalated.
Global Growth Decelerates
The IMF downgraded its projection for global economic growth this year to 3.3 percent, and marked down its estimate for next year to 3.9 percent. The euro zone economy would contract 0.5 percent this year before returning to meager growth of 0.8 percent in 2013. Growth in developing economies was also expected to moderate due to "the worsening external environment and a weakening of internal demand."
"The global recovery is threatened by intensifying strains in the euro area and fragilities elsewhere." the IMF said in an update of its World Economic Outlook (WEO) report, one of the three staff reports released on Tuesday.
"The epicenter of danger is Europe, but the rest of the world is increasingly affected," Olivier Blanchard, IMF chief economist, said on Tuesday at a news conference in Washington.
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde on Monday urged Europe to boost growth and build a larger firewall to insulate the world economy from a possible 1930s-style crisis. She laid out the core elements of a policy path forward and called for collective efforts to avoid bad scenario.
"The most immediate policy challenge is to restore confidence and put an end to the crisis in the euro area by supporting growth, while sustaining adjustment, containing deleveraging, and providing more liquidity and monetary accommodation," according to the updated report.
In other major advanced economies, the key policy requirements were to address medium-term fiscal imbalances and to repair and reform financial systems, while sustaining the recovery. In developing economies, near-term policy should focus on responding to moderating domestic growth and to slowing external demand from advanced economies, cautioned the IMF.
Financial Risks Escalate
The IMF said in its Global Financial Stability Report that financial stability is deeply in danger zone as risks have increased and debt crisis in the euro zone continued to weigh on government and the balance sheets of banks.
It noted the sharp rise in the sovereign bond yields and said the trend had spilled from the periphery into the core of Euro zone. "Sovereign strains also spilled into the euro zone banking system" and resulted in deleveraging of banks, which would "ignite an adverse feedback loop to euro area economies," said the fund.
The report said both emerging and advanced countries are susceptible to a range of shocks from the euro zone. Potential spillovers could include direct exposures to euro area banks, or deteriorating macroeconomic prospects.
"Global financial system remains fragile," Jose Vinals, IMF financial counselor said at the news conference, adding that it was not too late to take actions.
"Restoring sovereign access to funding at sustainable yields is a key challenge," the IMF stressed. It pointed out additional policy actions for policymakers, such as increasing the size and flexibility of the bailout funds in Europe "at the earliest possible opportunity" to make the firewall against high funding costs for sovereigns and banks "sufficiently large and convincingly built."
The Washington-based lender proposed last week to extend its lending capacity by as much as 500 billion dollars as it estimated a global potential financing need of 1 trillion in the coming years.
Fiscal Consolidation Challenge
The IMF noted in its updated Fiscal Monitor Report that deficits in many advanced economies fell "significantly" during 2011, but warned too rapid consolidation during 2012 could exacerbate downside risks given the weak economic environment and increasing market concerns.
In advanced economies, fiscal deficits fell in 2011 by about 1 percent of GDP overall, said the report. The headline deficit fell by 2 percent of GDP in the euro zone. However, the public debt in advanced economies continued to accumulate rapidly in 2011 to 103. 5 percent of GDP, and the ratio is expected to reach 107.6 in 2012.
The public debt in the euro area rose by 3.1 percent to 88.4 percent of GDP in 2011. Among euro countries, only Germany experienced a contracting trend.
"Continued adjustment is necessary for medium-term debt sustainability, but should ideally occur at a pace that supports adequate growth in output and employment," the fund pointed out.
"Fiscal policy has to walk a narrow path and should not amplify shocks that may affect GDP growth," said Carlo Cottarelli, director of fiscal affairs department in IMF. "If growth decelerates, countries should allow the automatic stabilizer to operate," which means allowing deficit to increase temporarily, he added.
Chinadaily

U.S. reacts to Romanian protests

Protests in Romania have started one week ago and may well continue as the Government said that people have the right to protest peacefully. However, last night around 50 people have been detained by police forces and several outbursts of rage from violent protesters disturbed the peaceful protests in Universitatea Square.
Victoria Nunland, Spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State, said last night that protests in Romania are caused by austerity measures that the Government had to take in response to the financial crisis.

"What we would say to Romania and Romanians is the same thing that we say to others around the world and what we said to Greece and Greeks at the time, which is that we support the right of people around the world to protest and express their views peacefully, but we call on both protestors and authorities to refrain from any violence," said Nunland.
"Well, we’re obviously not going to dictate how Romania deals with its internal issues. These are decisions for the Government of Romania to take in consultations with the parliament and with their people," added Nunland.

Yesterday, the opposition party alliance USL organized a protest against the ruling political coalition, calling for president Traian Basescu to step down and the Government to resign. Police forces say that around 1,500 protested in the Universitatea Square last night, although media reports say this number climbed to 6,000.
Protest movements continued in all major cities of Romania despite freezing cold temperatures. People are calling for early elections and demand improved living standards.

Global economy at risk as eurozone weakens

Capital outflows from China likely to accelerate: World Bank report

BEIJING - A recession in the eurozone is likely to drag the global economy into a double-dip recession and accelerate capital outflows from China and other emerging economies, exacerbating pressure on governments to adjust macroeconomic policies, the World Bank said on Wednesday.
The Washington-based institution lowered its 2012 global growth forecast to 2.5 percent from the 3.6 percent level it anticipated in June.
European countries might experience a contraction of 0.3 percent, 1.5 percentage points lower than the previous estimate and the lowest since 2002 aside from the 2009 recession.
Lin Yifu, senior vice-president and chief economist of the World Bank, said in Beijing that China might maintain a relatively strong growth of 8.4 percent, even though the global outlook was gloomy.
"The government still has room to increase investment in infrastructure construction and social welfare to support the economic expansion," Lin said.
The growth of the world's second-largest economy this year is expected to fuel its imports of energy and natural resources, which could support global trade.
The World Bank warned emerging countries to pay close attention to capital outflows, because "a severe crisis could cause remittances to developing countries to decline by 6 or more percent".
"Capital-control policies could be used if necessary," Lin said.

In the fourth quarter of 2011, accelerated capital outflows contributed to a decline in China's foreign exchange reserves, which slid to $3.18 trillion from $3.2 trillion at the end of the third quarter, according to the People's Bank of China, the central bank.
"Contracting operations in the European banking sector will accelerate the outflow of short-term arbitrage capital from emerging markets," a report by the Chinese credit rating agency Dagong Global Credit Rating Co said on Wednesday.
The agency listed the eurozone crisis as the top concern in the global financial outlook for 2012.
"The sovereign debt crisis in the eurozone will be more complicated in 2012, while the current debt crisis is likely to develop into a currency crisis in the region," the report said.
The European Central Bank has undertaken unprecedented easing measures in an effort to resolve the debt crisis. These steps have included offering unlimited 3-year loans to banks at a fixed rate of 1 percent and cutting banks' reserve ratio from 3 percent to 1 percent.
Dagong suggested that if such measures continue, the eurozone might avoid a sudden worsening of the crisis, but it would face selling pressure on the euro due to the collapse of external confidence.
"Emerging economies such as China are capable of defending themselves against the crisis in Europe, but countries with a strong reliance on capital from developed countries will be pushed to adverse conditions," according to Dagong.

EFSF 'has enough funds'

A lower S&P rating will not reduce effectiveness of package, say officials
LONDON - European officials said the euro region's temporary bailout vehicle - the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) - has enough funds to deal with the sovereign debt crisis after losing its top credit rating at Standard & Poor's (S&P).
"The EFSF has sufficient means to fulfil its commitments under current and potential future adjustment programs," said Klaus Regling, the facility's chief executive officer, in an e-mail. S&P cut its rating on the EFSF to AA+ from AAA.
The EFSF, designed to fund rescue packages for Greece, Ireland and Portugal partially through bond sales, owed its AAA rating to guarantees from its sponsoring nations. On Jan 13, two of those sovereigns, France and Austria, were cut to AA+ from AAA by S&P, which also downgraded seven other euro countries.
"The EFSF's obligations are no longer fully supported either by guarantees from EFSF members rated AAA by S&P, or by AAA-rated securities," S&P said. "Credit enhancements sufficient to offset what we view as the reduced creditworthiness of guarantors are currently not in place."
Investor reaction

Investors have nevertheless taken the S&P downgrades in their stride in an echo of the rally in Treasuries that followed the company's downgrade of the US last year. French borrowing costs fell at a sale of one-year notes on Monday and the yield on the country's 10-year government bond has slipped 5 basis points to 3.017 percent since the downgrades.
Regling underscored the fact that the EFSF - which has a capacity of 440 billion euros ($557 billion) - will be replaced by a permanent fund in July. The European Stability Mechanism will be capitalized by governments.
"EFSF has the funds necessary to succeed," said French Budget Minister Valerie Pecresse in an interview.
Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who leads euro area finance ministers, said the EFSF "will continue to be backed by unconditional and irrevocable guarantees by euro area member states".
European leaders may struggle to deliver their new fiscal rules and cut Greece's debt burden as their efforts come increasingly under fire. Greek officials will reconvene with creditors on Wednesday after discussions stalled last week, while governments in Europe are preparing for a Jan 30 summit.
The policy response to the crisis "has not kept up" with the risks, which remain "firmly tilted to the downside", Moritz Kraemer, S&P's managing director of European sovereign ratings, said on a conference call on Jan 14.
Changing outlook
On Monday, S&P said that governments "may currently be exploring credit-enhancement options" and that if the EFSF adopts enhancements "sufficient to offset its now-reduced creditworthiness", it "would likely raise" the rating to AAA.
Still, it said that if such enhancements are "not likely to be forthcoming", it would change the outlook to negative to "mirror the negative outlooks of France and Austria".
The German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble indicated the government won't increase its guarantee on the facility, saying the nation's liability of 211 billion euros is sufficient to ensure the EFSF's ability to lend.
"The guarantee sum that we have is sufficient by far for what the EFSF has to do in coming months," he said in an interview on Deutschlandfunk radio. Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Jan 14 that she was "always of the opinion that the EFSF doesn't necessarily need a AAA rating".
Fiscal progress
On Monday, the European Commission said that the S&P downgrades ignored Europe's progress in fiscal consolidation. Commission forecasts show the euro area's aggregate deficit will fall to 3.4 percent of gross domestic product in 2012 from 4.1 percent in 2011, according to spokesman Olivier Bailly.
Kraemer said in an interview that while there has been progress on fiscal discipline, "little has been done to address the core underlying problems" of competitiveness and imbalances.
Merkel said the rating company's criticism of "insufficient" policy steps reinforced her view that leaders must redouble efforts to resolve the crisis.
Germany, France, the Netherlands, Finland, Austria and Luxembourg were the top-rated nations backing the fund, and Germany is now the only one of 17 euro nations with a stable AAA rating.
Bloomberg News

Oil back above $100

NEW YORK - Oil price rose and returned to $100 a barrel on Tuesday after China announced economic growth data in fourth quarter, overcoming negativity of several European countries' credit ratings downgrades on Jan 13.
China's economic growth slowed to an annualized 8.9 percent, the slowest pace since mid-2009, but still beat the expectations of 8.7 percent. The economic data helped to lift the optimism in market.
Meanwhile, Empire State Manufacturing Survey showed manufacturing activity in the New York region picked up in January, rising from 9.53 to 13.48, the highest level in nine months, keeping in line with the trend of modest improvement in US economic data.
Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said that oil at $100 a barrel is acceptable to the country. His comments also helped to support the oil price on Tuesday.
Light, sweet crude for February delivery gained $2.01, or 2 percent to settle at $100.71 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
In London, Brent crude for March delivery was slightly up and last traded around $111 a barrel, gaining 0.2 percent.

Weibo gets the world talking with China

Micro-blogging service attracts 450,000 users in United States
NEW YORK - When Skyler Wiet signed up for Sina Weibo, the Chinese micro-blogging service, several months ago, he had more than one reason.
"My broader interest in China and social media both played a role," he said.
"Hello China. Let's get to know each other better."
That was the first message on Weibo from the New York-based public policy adviser, and it best explains why an increasing number of foreigners are using Weibo.
For Wiet, who is studying Mandarin, joining conversations on Chinese social media channels makes him better engaged with Chinese people.
"It's exciting, especially when they understand my Chinese. It can be equally eye-opening to see how Chinese people are reacting to an international event and to discover that China has someone like Feng Jie (a blogger who has 1.4 million followers on Weibo), who isn't so different from Internet celebrities and reality stars that have emerged in other parts of the world," said Wiet.
According to Sina Weibo, it now has about 450,000 users in the United States out of its total of 250 million as of late November. There is no official record of the nationality of the US users. They could be US citizens, Chinese students or people from other countries.
China's total Internet users hit 450 million early this year - larger than the whole US population - and that number is expected to grow.
Kenneth Wisnefski, founder and CEO of WebiMax, a US-based search engine optimization firm, said Sina Weibo is following the same development pattern as Twitter, which took about two years to be fully accepted before it became the dominant social media platform it is today.
One phenomenon that is getting obvious is that more and more globally recognized figures, including billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde and actor Tom Cruise, are becoming Weibo users.
Weibo's overseas users mostly utilize the service to reach Chinese audiences. And for celebrities, their reason is quite simple: to promote themselves or their program in China.
Gates is a popular Sina Weibo user, currently with 2.19 million followers.
Lagarde made her Weibo debut in early November, posting her first message which reads: "Hello Sina Weibo, looking forward to sharing updates here. Christine Lagarde, Managing Director, IMF."
By the end of the day, Lagarde's account had drawn about 40,000 followers and had more than 1,000 comments. She currently commands 150,000 followers.
The site also helped politicians like San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, a Chinese-American, to reach Chinese audiences during the recent mayoral elections.
During election day in November, Lee posted messages calling for support. Later that day the first elected Chinese-American mayor posted to his followers on the site: "Thank you San Francisco!"
Wiet, who is working on some research projects on Chinese social media platforms, said it is "a smart investment and a powerful tool to understanding what a huge portion of the global population is thinking".
"On top of all of that, I think anyone who starts getting engaged on Chinese social media channels will find out pretty quickly how interesting it can be," Wiet said.
China Daily

Dec inflation dips to 4.1%, 2011 CPI at 5.4%

BEIJING - China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, rose 4.1 percent year-on-year in December, down 0.1 percentage point from November on falling non-food prices, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Thursday.
The CPI was up 5.4 percent in 2011 from the previous year, well above the government's full-year inflation control target of 4 percent, the NBS said in a statement on its website.
The inflation rate in December marked a five-straight-month decline after hitting a 37-month high of 6.5 percent in July amid government tightening measures, according to the NBS data.
On a monthly basis, the cost of living dipped 0.2 percent in December, while prices of entertainment, educational and cultural articles and services dropped 0.3 percent, the NBS said.
Food prices, which account for nearly one third of the basket of goods in the nation's CPI calculation, went up 9.1 percent year-on-year in December and 1.2 percent month-on-month, the NBS said.
The December inflation figure was in line with the market expectation, as many economists forecast that the CPI would grow around 4 percent year-on-year in December.
China's Producer Price Index (PPI), a major measure of inflation at the wholesale level, rose 1.7 percent in December year-on-year, further weakening from 2.7 a month earlier.

The reading eased further from November's 2.7-percent growth, the NBS said in a statement on its website.
On a month-on-month basis, China's December PPI fell 0.3 percent from November, the NBS said.
Producer purchase prices grew 3.5 percent year-on-year in December and were down 0.4 percent from a month ago, said the NBS.
The full-year PPI climbed 6 percent year-on-year in 2011, while producer purchase prices rose 9.1 percent from a year earlier.
Analysts expect the pullback to ease temporarily, as upcoming holiday demand will drive prices higher in the short term, although the downward trend is likely to last amid the global economic downturn.
"As long as there is not a significant easing of China's monetary policy, the downward trend will not change," read an analysis by Bocom International.
Analysts warned that any change in market sentiment will influence the trend.
"Though investors' confidence remains low, possible government measures to spur the economy could boost prices at all levels," said Chen Kexin, an analyst with the distribution productivity promotion center of China Commerce.
China has made controlling prices a top priority last year and implemented a series of measures to address the issue, including tightening monetary policy, cracking down on speculation, increasing food supplies and reducing circulation costs.

Polish military prosecutor shoots self in head

WARSAW, Poland - A military prosecutor in western Poland shot himself in the head Monday after defending the work of his office and rejecting planned reforms, officials and media said.

Col. Mikolaj Przybyl survived the shooting that happened inside his office in the city of Poznan, minutes after he read a statement to reporters and then asked them to briefly get out.

Przybyl is a deputy head of the prosecutor's office in Poznan and the head of a local department investigating organized crime in the army.

A footage broadcast by TVN24 station, whose camera was left rolling after reporters left, shows Przybyl walking across his office and out of sight before a gunshot can be heard.

Hospital director Leslaw Lenartowicz said Przybyl is in stable condition, conscious, and his life is not in danger. Przybyl suffered injuries to the face, he said.

Chief Military Prosecutor, Krzysztof Parulski said that Przybyl was one of the "best prosecutors" and a "man of honor."

President Bronislaw Komorowski and Justice Minister Jaroslaw Gowin were closely monitoring an investigation into the shooting, their offices said.

Some lawmakers are calling for a special parliament probe into the case, saying that Przybyl's statement suggests a massive corruption problem in the army.

Moments before shooting himself, Przybyl read a statement to reporters in which he objected to plans by Prosecutor General Andrzej Seremet to put military prosecutors under civilian authority. Seremet said that such a decision was under discussion, but has not been made yet.

Przybyl also said that military prosecutors were proving themselves competent in the many probes that they have opened into organized crime cases inside the army. The probes primarily concern suspicions of corruption in buying equipment for Poland's troops on missions in Afghanistan and, earlier, in Iraq.

Przybyl denied media suggestions that the military prosecutors broke the law while investigating the 2010 crash of the presidential plane in Russia when President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others were killed. The media have reported that the prosecutors had unlawfully sought billing lists and text message content of mobile phones of some reporters to determine the source of leaks to the media.

Seremet and Parulski denied that prosecutors were eavesdropping on reporters. Seremet defended the investigators' right to see billing lists — but not the text messages — if vital for a probe. He said a court is to decide whether the prosecutors were entitled to seek reporters' billing lists.



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Eurozone crisis likely to rear ugly head again

BERLIN - The eurozone crisis seemed to vanish from the headlines for a brief moment as 2011 turned into 2012, but it is about to return with a vengeance.
The coming months will be decisive in determining whether European leaders can hold their increasingly fragile currency bloc together or will stumble as they try to overcome a daunting series of political, economic and financial obstacles at the start of the new year.
In Greece, where the crisis started more than two years ago, the government is in a race against time to agree to a bond-swap deal with banks. The deal will form an essential part of a new 130-billion-euro ($165 billion) bailout package from European partners and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Without the package, Athens faces the threat of a debt default in March.
But talks have dragged on for weeks with the banks and investment funds that are being asked to accept a 50-percent loss on their Greek bonds to help pay for the bailout, sowing doubts about Athens' ability to extricate itself from its troubles.
"The risk of a disorderly Greek default is once again on the rise," and there is a chance the crisis will spread to Italy and other countries, economists at the investment bank Barclays Capital said this past week.
Compounding the troubles, both Greece and France face elections within months that could complicate decision-making in those states and thwart the broader bloc's ability to act swiftly when the pressure is high to bed down agreements that were sealed at an EU summit this past month.
An important part of the summit package was a deal to funnel 200 billion euros to the IMF, money that could be used to offer precautionary credit to Italy and possibly Spain.
Eurozone struggles
But the eurozone is struggling to get the 50 billion euros it needs from nations outside the currency bloc. A senior German official said on condition of anonymity that securing the participation of Britain, which has shown no inclination to contribute, was essential.
Even if those funds are secured, neither Italy nor Spain has shown any willingness to accept aid - and the stigma and greater fiscal oversight that would come with it.
Ten-year yields on Italian bonds have pushed back above the 7-percent mark during the past week, approaching record euro-era highs. And both Rome and Madrid must sell bonds this week in the first important market tests of 2012 for the third- and fourth-biggest economies in the eurozone.
End of 'Merkozy'?
The Greek election, expected by the end of March, seems unlikely to produce an outright winner, meaning coalition talks could drag on in the country and prolong uncertainty.
In France, polls suggest there is a good chance President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has worked with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to steer Europe's response to the crisis, could be pushed out of office by his Socialist challenger, Francois Hollande.
While Merkel and Sarkozy have polar-opposite temperaments and clashed frequently when the Frenchman first took power in 2007, they are both conservatives, born just half a year apart, and have developed an effective partnership after years of attending crisis summits.
And after years of being frustrated with the French president's shoot-from-the-hip style, government officials in Berlin say they are now worried about the end of "Merkozy", a short-hand term for the relationship between Merkel and Sarkozy.
A cut in France's triple-A credit rating in the weeks ahead could also upset the delicate balance between France and Germany, although some economists believe it could force the French to accept more far-reaching fiscal reforms, regardless of who wins the country's two-round election in April and May.
"It won't be Merkozy anymore," said the French economist Jacques Delpla. "It will be Angela Merkel and (IMF chief) Christine Lagarde dictating policy in Europe." "The next French president, whether it's Hollande or Sarkozy, won't have many options. The deficit will need to be cut, taxes increased and spending cut."
Recession risk
Fittingly, Merkel and Sarkozy kicked off 2012 with a meeting on Monday in Berlin to prepare an EU summit scheduled for January 30.
Achieving such growth will perhaps be the most difficult goal for the bloc to reach. The eurozone, after seeing several years of fiscal consolidation used to push down the debts and deficits that had become swollen by the global financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, is headed for a recession. That has helped to push the euro down to its lowest point in 16 months when compared with the dollar.
Even Germany is at risk of falling into recession. The Greek economy is entering its fifth straight year of contraction and the country has almost no hope of being able to pay down its massive debt.

North Korea castaways fly to China

Rescued trio head off for repatriation; coast guard holds onto corpse found on drifting boat

OSAKA — Three North Korean men who were found last week adrift in an open, 7-meter wooden boat off a Shimane Prefecture island were flown Monday from Fukuoka Airport to Beijing and eventual repatriation.

Earlier Monday, Japan and North Korea agreed to return the three via Beijing. The corpse of a fourth man also found on the boat is being kept at the Japan Coast Guard's Miho base in Sakaiminato, Tottori Prefecture.

The North Koreans were transferred to the air base from a coast guard patrol boat anchored off the city, where they had stayed after being found drifting Friday off the island of Okinoshima in the Sea of Japan.

Coast guard officers said they haven't decided how they will deal with the body yet.

The repatriation of the three followed North Korea's request over the weekend through diplomatic channels in Beijing for Tokyo to send them home, sources said.

Japanese and North Korean embassy officials in Beijing were involved in the talks on how to deal with the incident.

Initially suspected of being defectors, the three men, all adults, said their boat developed engine trouble while they were fishing and they were set adrift. They expressed their desire to return home, the coast guard said.

Last September, nine defectors from North Korea aboard a wooden boat were rescued in the Sea of Japan off the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture.

They were sent to South Korea the following month.

Japanese passenger arrested in Hawaii for punching Delta flight attendant

HONOLULU — A 65-year-old Japanese man has been arrested on suspicion of assaulting a flight attendant aboard a Delta Airlines flight from Tokyo to Honolulu.

According to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court, Sohei Yamanouchi hit the flight attendant once with an open hand and once with a closed fist after drinking multiple glasses of wine.

Officials say the flight attendant was not seriously injured.

FBI agents arrested Yamanouchi after the flight landed Monday morning at Honolulu International Airport. He was charged with assault aboard an aircraft, which carries a maximum penalty of six months in prison and a $10,000 fine.

He was ordered to give up his passport and stay in Oahu, and was released on $10,000 bond. A hearing is set for Jan 20.

Iran test-fires missiles in Gulf exercise

TEHERAN - Iran said on Monday it had successfully test-fired two long-range missiles, flexing its military muscle in the face of mounting Western pressure over its nuclear program.
An Iranian long-range shore-to-sea missile called Qader (Capable) is launched during Velayat-90 war game on Sea of Oman's shore near the Strait of Hormuz in southern Iran Jan 2, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]
The announcement came at the climax of 10 days of naval exercises in the Gulf, during which Teheran had warned it could shut the Strait of Hormuz, through which 40 percent of world oil is shipped, if sanctions were imposed on its crude exports.
Analysts say Iran's increasingly strident rhetoric, which has pushed oil prices higher, is aimed at sending a message to the West that it should think twice about the economic cost of putting further pressure on Teheran.
"We have successfully test-fired long-range shore-to-sea and surface-to-surface missiles, called Qader (Capable) and Nour (Light) today," Deputy Navy Commander Mahmoud Mousavi told state television.
Despite his use of the term 'long-range', the semi-official Fars news agency said the Qader's range was only 200 kilometers, and no figure was given for the Nour.
Iran is about 225 km at its nearest point from Bahrain, where the US Fifth Fleet is based, and about 1,000 km from Israel. Its longest-range missile, the Sajjil-2, has a range of up to 2,400 km.
Iran said on Monday it had no intention to close the Strait of Hormuz, but has carried out "mock" exercises on shutting it.
"No order has been given for the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. But we are prepared for various scenarios," state television quoted Navy Chief Habibollah Sayyari as saying.
The US Fifth Fleet said it would not allow shipping to be disrupted in the strategic waterway.
Israeli reaction
Israel played down the military impact of Iran's announcement, saying Teheran's forces were no match for the West's in the Gulf.
An Iranian long-range shore-to-sea missile called Qader (Capable) is launched during the Velayat-90 war game on the Sea of Oman's shore near the Strait of Hormuz in southern Iran Jan 2, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]
Moshe Yaalon, vice-prime minister and minister of strategic affairs, told Israel Radio the exercises reflected Iran's concern about sanctions to curb its nuclear ambitions, and its efforts to suggest its naval forces could match those of the West, led by the United States, in the Gulf.

On that point, Yaalon was dismissive. "Really, this couldn't even be called a fair fight between the two sides." He repeated Israel's call for tougher economic sanctions against Iran accompanied by "a credible military option as a last resort".
The European Union is considering following the United States in banning imports of Iranian crude oil. US President Barack Obama signed new sanctions against Iran into law on Saturday, stepping up the pressure with sanctions on financial institutions that deal with Iran's central bank.
If enforced strictly, the sanctions could make it nearly impossible for most refiners to buy crude from Iran, the world's fourth biggest producer.
The United Nations Security Council has already imposed four rounds of global sanctions on Iran over its refusal to halt sensitive nuclear activities.
Iran has so far shown no willingness to change its nuclear course but Iranian media reported on Saturday that nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili would write to the EU foreign policy chief to say Teheran was ready for fresh talks on its nuclear program.

Russia submerges nuclear sub to douse blaze

MURMANSK, Russia - Russia said it had brought a blaze aboard a nuclear submarine under control on Friday by partially submerging the vessel at a naval shipyard, after hours of dousing the flames with water from helicopters and tug boats.
The submarine's nuclear reactors had been shut down and posed no danger, officials said. However, nine people were injured when fighting the fire and taken to hospital.
Television pictures showed a plume of black smoke above the yard in the Murmansk region of northern Russia as more than 100 firemen struggled to put out the flames, which witnesses said rose 10 meters above the Yekaterinburg submarine.
"The fire has been localized," Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu told officials leading the firefighting effort from an emergencies control room in Moscow, more than nine hours after the blaze began at 1220 GMT on Thursday.
Shoigu's comments indicate the fire was still burning but that efforts to sink the submarine partially at the dock had succeeded in reducing the intensity of the flames.
"There are no open flames. A fire crew is still at the scene pouring water over the outer hull as well as the space between the inner and outer hulls of the submarine," said an unnamed Defense Ministry source, speaking to Interfax.
Dmitry Dmitrienko, governor of the Murmansk region, said the submarine's two nuclear reactors had been shut down. All weapons had been removed from the 167-meter Yekaterinburg, which launched an intercontinental ballistic missile from the Barents Sea as recently as July.
"Radiation levels are normal," a spokeswoman for the Emergencies Ministry said.
A law enforcement source told Russian news agencies that seven servicemen at the shipyard and two Emergencies Ministry personnel had been injured when trying to put out the fire and had been hospitalized. Interfax reported they had suffered from the effects of smoke inhalation.
After hours of trying to put out the flames, officials decided to submerge the 18,200-ton submarine partially at the Roslyakovo dock, one of the main dockyards of Russia's Northern Fleet, 1,500 km north of Moscow.
Local media reports were vague, but the blaze was believed to have started when wooden scaffolding caught fire during welding repairs to the submarine, which had been hoisted into a dry dock.
The submarine can carry 16 ballistic missiles, each with four warheads. Russian submarines' reactors are built to withstand enormous shocks and high temperatures.
The Yekaterinburg is a Delta IV-class submarine. Russia's Northern Fleet was established under the Soviet Union to watch over European waters and was armed during the Cold War against threats from NATO.