contract to develop the zubair oilfield in southern iraq the company said in
statement
the consortium which will invest billion dollars billion euros groups
eni with stake of percent with occidental petroleum corp
percent korea gas corp percent and iraqi state oil company missan
percent
eni which obtained the licence to develop the field in october said the
consortium plans to increase production from the current level of about
barrels day to million day
the year contract has five year renewal option
ge profit tops forecasts despite finance weakness
new york jan afp
us conglomerate general electric on friday reported stronger than expected
profits as earnings from energy and manufacturing offset weakness at its finance
and media units
the company net profit was billion dollars in the quarter or billion
dollars for common shareholders
that pushed the profit for the full year to billion dollars including
discontinued operations
ge environment has improved and we saw some encouraging signs at year end
chairman and chief executive jeff immelt said
during the difficult economy of we took series of actions to improve ge
so that we would be positioned for growth in the future
the overall profit amounted to cents share two cents better than expected
by analysts for the big conglomerate sometimes viewed as proxy for the overall
economy
revenues fell percent to billion dollars in the period but were also
ahead of expectations
the company which makes aircraft engines energy equipment and owns the nbc
universal media entertainment group said the profits fell percent from the
same period year ago
ge energy unit which makes wind turbines as well as oil and gas equipment
led the earnings with an operating profit of billion dollars up nine
percent from year ago
the technology division which includes ge aircraft engine manufacturing saw
percent drop in operating earnings to billion dollars
profits fell percent to million dollars at nbc universal the media
entertainment arm that ge has agreed to merge with comcast
the finance arm ge capital finance suffered percent plunge in earnings
but stayed profitable producing million dollars the unit has suffered from
some of the same problems as banks in an environment of difficult credit and
rising loan defaults
capital finance is executing well in difficult environment immelt said
every segment at ge capital was profitable with the exception of commercial
real estate
douglas mcintyre at wall street said that even though ge topped forecasts
there was plenty of bad news below the top line with troubles in the finance
and media segments
so much for owning diversity of businesses he opined
helicopters pound pakistan militant hideout officials
miranshah pakistan jan afp
pakistani gunship helicopters on friday pounded suspected militant hideout in
northwestern tribal area known for sheltering taliban and al qaeda fighters
officials said
the assault in north waziristan comes day after us defence secretary robert
gates asked islamabad about their plans to expand an existing anti taliban
offensive into the district bordering afghanistan
two gunship helicopters attacked suspected militant centre security
official in north waziristan main town miranshah said
the attack took place on the outskirts of miranshah in an old refugee camp now
home to both afghan migrants and pakistanis authorities also slapped an
indefinite curfew and conducted searches in the area the official said
six suspected militants have been arrested in the house to house search they
are local tribesmen security official said but asked not to be named as he
was not authorised to speak to the media
he said one person civilian was killed and two wounded when troops
opened fire on them for violating the curfew
regional government official confirmed the death and the attack and said that
local mosques had announced the curfew beginning around dawn on friday
troops besieged the camp early in the morning and two attack helicopters shelled
the suspected hideouts destroying one house he added
residents said shops markets and schools were shut in the area on friday
north waziristan is bastion of the taliban al qaeda linked militants and the
haqqani network known for attacking us and nato troops in afghanistan and the
us has been targeting the area with drone missile strikes
pakistan sent about troops backed by fighter jets and helicopter gunships
into battle against the taliban in neighbouring south waziristan in october and
says they are making progress and militants are fleeing
during visit to pakistan that ended friday gates said he would ask islamabad
about plans to broaden its campaign to north waziristan
military spokesman major general athar abbas responded by saying it would take
between six months to year to completely stabilise south waziristan which
was needed before security forces opened up any new fronts
iraq government says barred candidates must denounce saddam
baghdad jan afp
the iraqi government said on friday that the more than candidates
disqualified from march general election for alleged links to saddam hussein
must denounce his ousted regime and its crimes
government spokesman ali dabbagh said in statement that such disavowal of
the executed dictator and his now outlawed baath party would enable the
candidates reintegration into iraqi society but he did not specifically offer
reinstatement on the ballot papers
the baathists whose names figure on the list drawn up by the integrity and
accountability committee must declare their innocence and condemn the crimes and
failings of saddam hussein regime and the baath party dabbagh said
it will provide them with the opportunity to live normally and integrate back
into iraqi society
the blacklist of more than names has stoked tensions between the shiite
majority that leads the government and the sunni arab former elite alarming the
white house and the united nations ahead of the march vote
the row sparked flurry of contacts in recent days by us vice president joseph
biden aimed at brokering compromise notably through president jalal talabani
who is kurd
biden proposed that the disqualifications be deferred until after the election
and that those candidates who have been barred condemn and disavow the baath
party and undertake to act through democratic means talabani said
but when asked by afp the head of the electoral commission faraj al haidari
said the government had no authority to reintegrate the baathists
he said that only the supreme court had the power to declare that the
candidates disqualifications lacked legal basis and to reinstate their
names
talabani called on thursday for just such referral to the supreme court
questioning the legality of the integrity and accountability committee which
drew up the blacklist
our question is is the organisation that took this decision legal the
president said
prominent sunni arab mps have advanced similar argument pointing out that the
committee was never approved by parliament
baath party membership was essential for obtaining job and promotion in iraq
omnipotent public sector during saddam regime
but process of de baathification was adopted by washington diplomat paul
bremer head of the coalition provisional authority following the us led
invasion of which saw thousands of saddam era employees lose their jobs
talabani urged iraqis to draw distinction between hardcore saddam loyalists
and the many more who joined the baath party for pragmatic reasons
hundreds of thousands of people were forced to join the party because
membership was mandatory he said we should not be unjust with them
but to reverse the candidates disqualification would risk alienating the
majority community in the run up to the election in which for the first time
leading shiite politicians are standing on opposing lists
on thursday thousands of shiites took to the streets of the central shrine
cities of karbala and najaf as well as the main southern city of basra in
support of the blacklist
those barred include people accused of membership of the baath party as well as
saddam once deadly fedayeen men of sacrifice militia and mukhabarat
intelligence division
norway telenor wins serbian telecom licence govt
belgrade jan afp
norwegian owned telecommunications firm telenor serbia has won licence to
develop the eastern european country second fixed telephone line government
agency said on friday
the year licence which can possibly be extended for another years will
be officially issued in mid february the country telecom watchdog ratel said
in statement
ratel executive board decided to approve the licence to telenor serbia the
agency said
telenor already the country second biggest mobile phone operator with
million cellphone users in serbia would have to start offering its services
within year of obtaining the licence it added
the government of serbia on thursday accepted telenor offer of million
euros million dollars for the landline phone licence
the new licence will mean competition for state controlled telekom srbija
percent of which is owned by greece ote which has so far had monopoly in
fixed line services in the country of some million people
the company also owns the biggest serbian mobile phone operator mts
tennis clijsters crashes but henin open dream lives on
melbourne jan afp
kim clijsters was left reeling from humiliating australian open exit friday
but fellow belgian justine henin and defending champion rafael nadal kept their
grand slam dreams alive
hapless clijsters was hopelessly out of touch as she was thrashed in
just minutes by russia th seeded nadia petrova
the reigning us open champion was not the only top name to crash out with
former world number one jelena jankovic also sent packing
in contrast henin performed great escape act to claw back from set down to
squeeze past russian th seed alisa kleybanova
she joined nadal dinara safina andy murray juan martin del potro and andy
roddick in the last
men th seed gael monfils was another casualty as the frenchman succumbed
to american rd seed john isner
clijsters who came into the tournament on the back of winning the warm up
brisbane international said she was bewildered by the experience
the question is of course is why my coach my fitness coach are like how
can something like this happen she said
we haven changed anything really that the thing was completely off
the diminutive henin the champion was also staring at defeat after losing
the opening set and falling behind in the second to kleybanova
but she drew on all her experience as seven time grand slam champion to bounce
back taking the second set and rattling through the third
kind of survived little bit today she henin playing in only her second
tournament on her comeback from an month retirement
it was so difficult for me after the last match physically suffered
little bit in the last two days very happy that still in the
tournament
she next plays fellow belgian yanina wickmayer who beat italy sara errani
safina the second seed clocked rapid fire thrashing of england
elena baltacha in her first match on rod laver arena since she imploded during
last year final against serena williams
the russian took heart from winning return at the scene of one of her worst
days in tennis
didn have good memories of the last match played on rod laver arena for
sure she said am glad to be back and had to fight hard and make sure
won to forget the bad memories
she will next face maria kirilenko after the fellow russian outlasted italy
roberta vinci
while safina and henin powered on jankovic looked like spent force
she struggled to live up to her potential in and her big match credentials
were again found wanting but jankovic wasn concerned
it no big deal it only my second tournament of the year she said
just have to stay positive keep my head up high
on the men side nadal was put through his paces by german th seed philipp
kohlschreiber before winning tense battle he will next
play croat ivo karlovic who beat countryman ivan ljubicic
scotland murray maintained his flawless form by advancing with
win over frenchman florent serra
the year old who next plays isner equalled his best performance here as he
takes aim at maiden grand slam title
happy to have won in three sets in all of the matches he said happy
to save as much energy as possible
roddick ground out win over tenacious spaniard
feliciano lopez
it sets him up with fourth round clash against chilean th seed fernando
gonzalez who beat kazak evgeny korolev
del potro fired past german florian mayer
india bharti posts small profit rise
new delhi jan afp
top indian mobile phone firm bharti airtel squeezed out small rise in
quarterly profit on friday as fierce price war in the explosively growing
cellular market cut into the company revenues
bharti reported net profit rose two percent to billion rupees
million dollars under us accounting standards in the fiscal third quarter to
december as revenues rose one percent to billion rupees
bharti notched up the profit rise despite the hyper competition in the world
fastest expanding mobile market which has drawn slew of new entrants the
company billionaire chairman sunil bharti mittal said
the profit increase helped by the rupee rise against the dollar surprised
analysts who had expected slight earnings dip
but bharti shares continued their losing streak falling rupees or
percent to rupees
the stock declined percent last year compared with an percent rise in the
benchmark sensex stock index reflecting mounting investor concern about savage
competition
it clear there significant price pressure and there will be no let up in
the fourth quarter harit shah telecoms analyst at karvy stock broking told
afp
bharti average revenue per user or arpu common industry measure of
profitability stood at rupees in the december quarter down nearly nine
percent from the september quarter
the arpu decline reflected rock bottom tariffs as well as bharti growing
reliance on lower spending rural clients as it pushes deeper into india
hinterland to grow revenues
india urban mobile markets are already saturated but there are still hundreds
of millions of customers to be signed up in rural areas tantalising
prospect for new entrants which see the country as one of the few global growth
areas
the country added staggering million new wireless subscribers in
november latest figures show
but the flood of new players has unleashed cut throat price war with calls now
costing less than cent minute india has total of cellular operators
compared with just two state owned telecom players decade ago
bharti percent owned by singapore telecommunications recently launched
per second billing plan to retain customers
its results came day after rival idea cellular announced percent fall in
third quarter profit hit by competition
the earnings announcement came nearly two weeks after the company said it would
take percent controlling stake in bangladesh based warid telecom as the
company moves to expand its global footprint
bharti denied media speculation it was looking at acquiring beleaguered us
telecom carrier sprint nextel corp as its next expansion move
the answer to this specific question is big no group chief executive
officer manoj kohli told reporters
he said bharti would continue to focus on emerging markets because our business
model can be implanted well in these economies
bharti subscriber base climbed by million mobile users during the december
quarter to hit million by end december nearly quarter of india
million mobile users
but although more than half of india almost billion population still have
no phones analysts say the market is too congested and forecast bruising
shakeout
football van gaal loew clash over fitness test madness
munich germany jan afp
bayern munich coach louis van gaal has described the fitness tests for national
team players organised by germany coach joachim loew next week as madness
loew has summoned players five from bayern for four days of tests in
stuttgart that will assess the condition of likely national squad players prior
to this summer world cup in south africa
think it madness said van gaal on friday the day before his side
league meeting with werder bremen for the clubs paying our players and then
making them available to the national team for four days is not right
philipp lahm bastian schweinsteiger thomas mueller mario gomez and miroslav
klose represent the bayern contingent in loew selection
we could have given them the results of our own physical tests ve never
experienced something like this and ve coached some big clubs added van
gaal former manager of barcelona ajax and the dutch national side
loew responded to his critics by pointing out that the dates for the fitness
tests had been agreed in advance
this get together was organised long time ago with the league and the clubs
he told the sid german news agency
understand the sporting priorities of louis van gaal but we re in world
cup year and it in the interest of everyone in german football that the team
is well prepared
that why expect all the clubs to give all their support to the
nationalmannschaft german national team until and during the world cup
germany skipper michael ballack will not attend the tests in stuttgart because
his club chelsea require his services for premier league match at home to
birmingham on wednesday
van gaal meanwhile will not participate in seminar for bundesliga coaches
organised by loew in stuttgart on monday in which the national boss will
outline his programme for the run up to the world cup
the dutchman will be in portugal for charity match raising funds for the
victims of the haiti earthquake
swine flu toll reaches who
geneva jan afp
the death toll from the swine flu pandemic has risen to at least up
from week ago the world health organisation who said on friday
announcing its latest data on the dpread of virus the un health body
said north africa south asia and limited areas of eastern europe were now
seeing the most intense transmission of the virus
the pandemic in the northern hemisphere peaked between late october and late
november who said
since the virus first appeared in mexico last year the americas have recorded
the greatest number of fatalities with at least deaths
at least have died in europe and at least in the east asia and
pacific region who said
tennis nadal slugs out four setter with kohlschreiber
melbourne jan afp
defending champion rafael nadal needed hard fought four set win over german
th seed philipp kohlschreiber to reach the last at the australian open on
friday
the spanish second seed was kept on the rod laver arena centre court for three
and half hours before completing victory
nadal will have just day to recover from the long physical match before taking
on his fourth round opponent unseeded croatian ivo karlovic
karlovic won the all croat encounter with th seed ivan ljubicic
nadal stretched his record over kohlschreiber to but it was his toughest
encounter with the determined german who slugged it out all the way with the
world number two
in the end only eight points separated them over the games
nadal broke kohlschreiber serve five times from break point opportunities
while the german cracked the spaniard serve three times from break point
chances
the spaniard was made to fight for every set and he capitalised on service
break in the fifth game to take the opening set
he stretched his lead by taking the second set after service breaks in the first
and seventh games but kohlschreiber proved resilient and hit back taking the
third set with two service breaks
nadal gained an edge with break in the seventh game of the fourth set but
kohlschreiber broke back straight away when the spaniard was serving for the
match
kohlschreiber was broken second time in the set when he sent forehand wide
and this time nadal successfully served out for the match
nadal who conquered roger federer over five sets in last year final is
bidding for his seventh grand slam title
the win friday improved his australian open record to
ugandan army killed civilians in air raid mp
kampala jan afp
ugandan lawmaker alleged friday that the military killed civilians in an
air attack on suspected cattle rustlers and demanded un probe into the
incident
the army disputed peter abrahams lokii account of the january incident
which he said he personally witnessed and accused him of wasting time and
playing politics
eastern region military spokesman henry obbo told afp that the ugandan people
defence forces updf dispatched helicopter gunship in pursuit of armed men
accused of raiding cattle in karamoja remote chronically troubled area that
borders kenya and sudan
lokii who represents kotido district in parliament told afp friday that an
estimated people who were not involved in the cattle raid were killed during
the updf operation
personally saw it was in the district people were killed but we have not
been able to establish the exact numbers he said the people who went for the
cattle raid are different from the people who were bombed
we have estimated the casualties at around people said the mp member of
president yoweri museveni ruling party
he called for the united nations office for the coordination of humanitarian
affairs to investigate the incident
we need an investigation into this matter but you cannot trust the updf to
investigate itself unocha needs to come in he added
obbo insisted that the gunship never fired any weapons and was simply used to
intimidate cattle raiders before they could distribute the stolen animals among
their tribesmen
there is no cause for investigation because nothing happened he told afp
violent cattle raiding among rival tribes is persistent problem in karamoja
the army has been trying to disarm the region for several years however several
human rights organizations have criticized its tactics
italian hotels lost billion euros in association
rome jan afp
italy normally booming hotel sector suffered loss of some billion euros
last year amid economic doldrums at home and abroad the hotel industry
association federalberghi said friday
the numbers don allow for optimism federalberghi president bernabo bocca
said in statement noting percent drop in hotel occupancy compared with
for loss of about one billion euros billion dollars
another million euros was lost through lowering of room rates by more than
two percent bocca said
the downturn caused job losses in the tourism sector including in
the hotel industry and another in related restaurant and commercial
businesses federalberghi said
the sector is facing in total uncertainty both for the national and
world economy bocca said
the figures are based on study of representative sample of companies
in the hotel sector
olympics russia will avoid dope scandals at olympics anti doping chief
moscow jan afp
alexander derevoedov the head of the russian anti doping agency rusada said
friday that the country olympic team would avoid dope scandals at next month
vancouver winter games
after series of dope scandals with our athletes which rocked russian sports
in recent years we were working laboriously to prevent drug cheating not only
in top level sports but also in youth sports in russia
with all my responsibility can promise that the policy which rusada carried
out in recent years would keep our olympic athletes out of any doping scandal
at vancouver games derevoedov said
derevoedov added that all candidates for russia olympic squad had been
repeatedly tested since january the russian olympians will have to pass
final round of testing just before their departure for vancouver
oil group schlumberger says profit plunged in
paris jan afp
french us oil services group schlumberger on friday said it suffered
percent plunge in net profit last year owing to drop in world oil prices but
reported an improvement in the final quarter
net profit fell to billion dollars billion euros from billion
dollars in which amounts to dollars per share compared to
dollars the previous year the group said in statement
the houston texas based company revenue dropped to billion dollars last
year versus billion dollars in percent fall
but schlumberger reported an improvement in the last quarter of last year
the group net profit reached million dollars in the last three months of
four percent higher than the preceding quarter but the fourth quarter
earnings were percent lower than the same period in
revenue reached billion dollars in the fourth quarter compared to
billion dollars in the previous three month period or percent increase
revenue in the fourth quarter of had stood at billion dollars
the company said its outlook for remains largely dependent on the
prospects for the general economy
it expects world oil prices to remain current levels which are hovering
around dollars barrel and that as our customers confidence grows their
exploration and production budgets will increase
turkish army decries dirty games amid plot claims
ankara jan afp
the turkish army said friday that probe into an alleged military plot to kill
senior politician has produced no evidence to back the suspicions and decried
dirty games to tarnish its credibility
it was the latest episode in tensions plaguing ankara over claims carried
mostly by pro government media of series of military plots to orchestrate
political chaos in the country and oust the islamist rooted government
the army slammed officials for deliberate distortions in comments on an
alleged plot to assassinate deputy prime minister bulent arinc last month and
charged that an ensuing search at top secret army offices was unlawful
the turkish armed forces are aware that those who cook up those dirty games and
try to show the army as criminal organisation will continue to make
baseless accusations general hifzi cubukcu head of legal affairs at the
general staff told reporters
but no unit of the army has ever been institutionally involved in any illegal
activity he said without excluding individual crimes
last month the chief of staff decried psychological campaign to smear the
army and voiced concern over possible confrontation between institutions
government critics charge that flurry of allegations that army members
conspired to oust the islamist rooted justice and development party akp are in
fact orchestrated attempts to discredit the army seen as the bulwark of
turkey secular system
police on december detained two soldiers in the deputy prime minister
neighbourhood saying they were acting on telephone tip off of an
assassination attempt against arinc
even though the two were released shortly due to lack of evidence judicial
authorities launched search at the army special forces where the pair
worked and examined documents classified as state secrets for three weeks
the army allowed the search to go ahead to show that it has nothing to fear and
put an end to baseless accusations that it is protecting criminals and
covering up things cubukcu said
the turkish army has ousted four governments since and wielded significant
clout in politics
on thursday the constitutional court scrapped law that would have transferred
the power to try soldiers for coup attempts from military to civilian courts
curbing army powers is also key european union demand but critics say the akp
is using the guise of democratization to disable the army and gain free hand
to realise its secret agenda of transforming turkey into an islamic state
children missing from haiti hospitals unicef
geneva jan afp
children have gone missing from hospitals in haiti since the devastating
earthquake struck raising fears of trafficking for adoption abroad the un
children fund unicef said friday
we have documented let say around cases of children disappearing from
hospitals and not with their own family at the time said unicef adviser jean
luc legrand
unicef has been working in haiti for many years and we knew the problem with
the trade of children in haiti which existed before and unfortunately many of
these trade networks have links with the international adoption market
legrand explained
turkey expects explanation over armenia court ruling
ankara jan afp
turkey said friday that it expected armenia to offer an explanation on court
ruling which ankara says contradicts historic deals to normalise ties and open
the border between the two neighbours
the armenian constitutional court ruling is against the letter and spirit of
the protocols foreign minister ahmet davutoglu told reporters
armenian foreign minister eduard nalbandian told me in telephone conversation
that the ruling did not affect previously agreed points in the protocols but we
expect clearer picture explanation over this he added
turkey and armenia signed the protocols in october to establish diplomatic ties
and reopen their shared border in deal hailed as historic step towards
ending decades of hostility stemming from world war era massacres of armenians
under ottoman turkey
but they have traded accusations over january ruling by the armenian court
which upheld the legality of the protocols but said they cannot be interpreted
to contradict armenia declaration of independence that refers to the
armenian genocide in ottoman turkey and western armenia
turkey rejects armenian claims of genocide and says the number of those killed
during civil strife is inflated it also objects to reference to western
armenia seeing it as territorial claim on its eastern regions
