details of obama initiative have not yet been announced nikko cordial broker
hiroichi nishi said
share prices may face volatility depending how wall street fares he said
adding that economic data and currency rates would also affect trade
the nikkei index lost points or percent to during
the week to january on friday alone the nikkei slid percent
the broader topix index of all first section shares fell points or
percent over the week to
obama initiative which needs to be approved by congress is aimed at limiting
excessive risk taking
he said he wanted to put limits on banks to avoid repeat of the financial
crisis that sent shockwaves around the world
hideaki higashi strategist at smbc friend securities said obama plans
coupled with china credit tightening was discouraging investors
funds are flowing out of risk assets globally caution is prevailing in the
market especially because we still don know details of the new regulation
higashi said
nomura securities said in weekly report that investors would also need to
watch japanese politics because fund scandal embroiling ruling party strongman
ichiro ozawa is widening
japan government is to release data on december inflation unemployment and
industrial production on january while companies will start next week
announcing quarterly earning results
shares in flagship carrier japan airlines fell to the rock bottom price of one
yen one us cent on friday before closing at three yen down from seven yen
week before
jal filed for bankruptcy protection on tuesday and unveiled plans to slash more
than jobs in an effort to stay airborne
tennis roddick sets sights on gonzalez after grinding win
melbourne jan afp
andy roddick won war of attrition with spaniard feliciano lopez to claim
fourth round showdown with former finalist fernando gonzalez at the australian
open on friday
in dour three and half hour contest the american seventh seed proved the
more consistent to register win on rod laver
arena
roddick who is now for the new season after his lead up brisbane tournament
victory will now play chilean th seed gonzalez who was beaten here in the
final by roger federer
gonzalez came through tough five setter against
kazak evgeny korolev
roddick four time australian semi finalist was relieved to get through to
the round of after dropping the opening set in tiebreaker
felt like was real close to getting on top of the match and turning it into
little bit more comfortable just didn quite get there he said
but the only thing that matters you re just trying to get through day and
that happened so no complaints
in tight match the american earned three service breaks and left handed lopez
just one as both players probed away in patient long rallies
but it was roddick greater groundstroke consistency that won through as the
th ranked lopez committed unforced errors to the american
wanted to take my chances with approaches on his backhand side he said
he was sticking passing shots pretty regularly was kind of fighting my own
intuition there
roddick stretched his record over lopez to and now switches his sights to
gonzalez and the chilean booming forehand
he very dangerous player some days he comes out looks like he playing
ping pong the way he can sling the ball around roddick said
mean it going to be completely different match up than ve had in the
last couple of matches
don think there are going to be lot of secrets out there think we
played each other times so don think anybody going to be real shocked
with what they re seeing
roddick leads gonzalez after winning their last two meetings at us open
and tennis masters cup in china
roddick played down suggestions that the stakes were higher for him in the
latter stages of his career to win second grand slam to add to his us
open triumph
going to put in the hard yards before get to tournament but once
you re there you re just trying to get through some days he said
it tough to predict health but certainly looking at probably say at
least three four more years
roddick is looking to go at least one stage better than his four losing semi
final appearances here against rainer schuettler lleyton hewitt
and roger federer in and last year
gonzalez said he would have to raise his level against roddick
it going to be tough for sure have to play better if want to beat him
he playing good level gonzalez said
moderate quake rattles central greece
athenes jan afp
moderate earthquake measuring on the open ended richter scale shook
central greece early friday but was not reported to have caused any damage or
injuries seismologists at an athens observatory said
the epicentre of the tremor which struck at am gmt was located
about kilometres nine miles east of the town of naupacte about
kilometres miles west of athens
greece is the european nation most exposed to earthquakes experiencing about
half of all instances recorded on the continent
figure skating us championships results
spokane washington jan afp
results here on thursday from the united states figure skating championships
qualifier for the vancouver winter olympics
ladies
short programme
mirai nagasu sasha cohen rachael flatt ashley
wagner christina gao amanda dobbs
ice dance
compulsory dance
meryl davis charlie white pts tanith belbin ben agosto
kim navarro brent bommentre emily samuelson evan bates
madison hubbell keiffer hubbell madison chock greg zuerlein
asia markets tumble on obama crackdown on banks
hong kong jan afp
us president barack obama vow to crack down on wall street reckless big
banks sent shockwaves through asian stock markets on friday with the region
financial centres suffering heavy losses
investors followed the lead of the dow jones index which suffered its worst
fall of the year after obama said he wanted to put limits on banks to avoid
repeat of the financial crisis that tore into the world economies
tokyo nikkei dived percent or points to while sydney
gave up percent or points to its biggest daily drop since
november
hong kong was percent down by the break and singapore was percent
lower
obama thursday unveiled plans to limit excessive risk taking and protect us
taxpayers by preventing banks or financial institutions from owning investing
in or sponsoring hedge fund or private equity funds
never again will the american taxpayer be held hostage by bank that is too
big to fail vowed obama
blaming the banks for causing the economic crisis he said my resolve to
reform the system is only strengthened when see return to old practices at
some of the very firms fighting reform
he said he was also galvanised to act when see record profits at some of the
very firms claiming that they cannot lend more to small business cannot keep
credit card rates low and cannot refund taxpayers for the bailout
he vowed if these folks want fight it fight ready to have
his words sent wall street diving percent
it inevitable that new york shares tumbled on tighter financial regulations
funds are flowing out of risk assets for now said hideaki higashi
strategist at smbc friend securities in japan
the region was dragged lower after wall street fall with taipei closing down
percent or points to and seoul falling percent or
points to
financial groups were heavily hit in taipei cathay financial was down
percent and fubon financial percent lower
and in sydney anz banking group fell percent to dollars us
while the national australia bank lost percent to dollars
in tokyo nomura holdings shed percent to yen us dollars
indian shares were one percent off with the country largest bank icici
percent down and state bank of india percent lower
the news capped tough week for asia markets which have been struggling due
to fears beijing is set to tighten credit as it tries to rein in its scorching
economy
those worries were stoked thursday after china said its economy expanded
percent in the december quarter while inflation reached month high
shanghai was percent lower friday
we had weak lead from wall street on the potential moves from china to slow
things down and mr obama is going forward on bank regulation burrell
stockbroking director richard herring said
we had good run over the christmas period so maybe there just little
unwinding of some christmas excess
despite the markets woes tiger airways made its debut in singapore becoming
the first asian carrier to list in five years
the budget airline one of the most actively bought stocks was at
singapore dollars us up from its initial public offering price of
dollars
in tokyo bankrupt japan airlines fell to one yen one us cent before rebounding
to two yen the same as thursday close
japanese stocks were also hit by stronger yen which led to new fears for
exporters
the dollar dropped to yen in tokyo afternoon trade from in new york
late thursday the euro gained to dollars from but dropped to
yen from
oil was also lower with new york main contract light sweet crude for march
delivery down cents to us dollars barrel while brent north sea crude
was off cents at dollars
hong kong gold opened at us dollars an ounce down from
thursday close of dollars
in other markets
wellington fell percent or points to
fletcher building lost cents to dollars and contact energy dropped
cents to
manila fell percent or points to
philippine long distance telephone fell percent to pesos
dow jones newswires contributed to this story
tennis perfect murray breezes into open fourth round
melbourne jan afp
scotland andy murray maintained his flawless australian open form by advancing
to the fourth round with straight sets win over frenchman florent serra on
friday
the year old equalled his best performance here with the win
and has not dropped set in three matches as he takes aim at maiden grand
slam title
the fifth seed will face another frenchman gael monfils or giant american john
isner in the next round with potential quarter final looming against
defending champion and world number two rafael nadal
but murray the us open runner up has no reason to fear any player based
on the form he has shown and he played some of the shots of the tournament
against serra
the frenchman who won five setter against jarkko nieminen in the second
round came out aggressively in the first set and traded groundstrokes with the
scot
murray got an early break to race to lead but serra soon fought back to
level the set
the pair both played some fantastic passing shots until murray made what
appeared to be pivotal break in the eighth game on the back of three brilliant
passing shots
however murray was broken to love as he attempted to serve for the set
the scot broke straight back again and made no mistake the second time he
served another big forehand securing the set
serra was unable to regroup and murray dominated the remainder of the match
unveiling his full repertoire of shots thumping down aces and hitting
winners
two shots the first running forehand pass in the first set and the second
an audacious backhand chip in the third set were as good as any played so
far
murray charge towards victory was temporarily stalled during the third set
when serra reluctantly had scrape on his arm attended to
the scot growing confidence was displayed when he passed the time by balancing
his racquet on the end of his finger to entertain the crowd
tennis henin breathes sigh of relief after dodging bullet
melbourne jan afp
comeback queen justine henin breathed huge sigh of relief after dodging
bullet against russia alisa kleybanova in the third round of the australian
open on friday
henin seemed headed for certain defeat when she was trailing and
before she staged remarkable recovery to eventually overhaul the th seed
in two hours minutes
the year old belgian playing her first grand slam since coming out of
retirement will now take on fellow belgian yanina wickmayer in the fourth
round with quarter final against kim clijsters real possibility
it was henin second marathon match in succession following her win over elena
dementieva in almost three hours in the second round with the five hours spent
on court surely taking their toll
well face few issues and my body suffered lot conceded the former
wolrd number one
it not used to it anymore didn have hours since her last match
it been quite short recovery time
slept terribly didn get to bed until am when beat dementieva and
slept only five hours not that much last night either
when woke up this morning felt it was going to be tough today because
was tired
henin said she just clung on against kleybanova and waited for the big serving
russian to go off the boil
kind of survived little bit today she said
it always good to win this kind of match because came back from nowhere
was patient slowly but surely it was better the champion added
and she was dangerous because mean when you need the rhythm especially
because physically you re not feeling well she put lot of pressure on by
serving well
that wasn the kind of game that would help me come into the match but
finally did it
so very happy that still in the tournament that have another chance
to get better in the next round
henin needed to show all her trademark fighting qualities against kleybanova
who was just as tenacious as the seven time grand slam winner and matched her
for most of the three sets
kleybanova began superbly using her booming big serve to great advantage and
pressuring henin serve at every opportunity
henin eventually cracked and dropped her second service game to go behind and
although she had chances to break back later in the set kleybanova held firm to
take the first set
the russian did not ease off breaking henin in the opening game of the second
set and jumping out to lead
but henin began to look more and more dangerous as her one handed backhand began
to find its range and she broke kleybanova to even the set at then struck
again while leading to tie the match up at one set apiece
it was then the turn of the belgian to come out firing as she skipped away to
lead and despite late stumble henin was in complete control over the
closing stages
wickmeyer won her way into the fourth round with tough win
over italy sara errani
china disqualifies marathon cheats
beijing jan afp
at least runners in marathon in china cheated their way into the top
hopping on to public transport during the race or hiring faster runners
sporting authorities said friday
some of the people taking part in this month xiamen international marathon in
the southeastern province of fujian cheated in bid to boost their chances of
getting into university the provincial sports bureau said on its website
if they run marathon in good time students can earn extra points for the
gaokao the entrance examination for china highly competitive universities
that some children and their parents will go to huge lengths to shine in
the fujian sports bureau said some of the cheats who were all later
disqualified used public transport to cover part of the race route while
others convinced better runners to replace them
two others numbers and ended the race in good time but it then
emerged that number had actually carried their timing censors past the
finish line said the jiefang daily shanghai communist party paper
organisers spotted the cheats when they reviewed photos and video footage of the
january event the fujian sports bureau said
the race had more than participants and only around judges
organisers said adding they would strengthen supervision of next year event
to try to avoid similar situation
scoring well on the university entrance exam has spawned all sorts of high tech
cheating methods which saw people detained last year
in one case in the northern province of shanxi six people including one
teacher were detained for allegedly selling receivers to students so they
could be fed the correct answers during the tests
yen rises in asia on safe haven flows
tokyo jan afp
the yen rose in asia friday boosted by safe haven flows as prospects for the
global economy dimmed in light of recent economic data and moves by governments
to curb lending dealers said
the dollar fell to yen in tokyo afternoon trade from in new york
late thursday the euro gained to dollars from but dropped to
yen from
risk appetite has receded since the end of last year because of lacklustre
economic data in the united states europe and japan as well as recent signs
china is moving to cool an overheating economy dealers said
hopes for sustainable global recovery declined as stocks fell in response to
us president barack obama proposal unveiled on thursday to limit the size and
scope of us banks and finance firms
optimism for global economic recovery is receding prompting investors to
reduce their risky positions and favoring the yen as safe haven said
mitsubishi ufj trust and banking currency strategist toshihiko sakai
investors were waiting for more details surrounding obama plan which would in
effect force financial institutions to choose between commercial banking and
proprietary trading
there has been plenty of consternation at the obama plans for us banks the
market impact has been to put the skids under risk trades said societe
generale analyst patrick bennett
the dollar was higher against most asian currencies however rising to
south korean won from day earlier to singapore dollars from
and to indonesian rupiah from
the greenback climbed to philippine pesos from to thai baht
from and to taiwan dollars from
tennis perfect murray breezes into open fourth round
melbourne jan afp
scotland andy murray continued his flawless form at the australian open
advancing to the fourth round with an easy win over frenchman
florent serra on friday
oil dips below dollars barrel
singapore jan afp
oil prices dipped below dollars in asian trade friday extending losses on
data showing weaker demand in the united states the world biggest energy
consuming nation
new york main contract light sweet crude for march delivery tumbled cents
to dollars barrel
brent north sea crude for delivery in march shed cents to dollars
the us department of energy doe said thursday that gasoline reserves in the
world biggest economy increased by stronger than expected million
barrels in the week ending january striking two year high
it also said refineries operated at percent of capacity last week their
lowest rate in at least two decades apart from the immediate aftermath of
hurricane
the doe report was not very bullish the refineries capacities were down at
around percent and that was their lowest in the two decades said serene
lim singapore based oil analyst with the anz bank
however us crude stocks fell barrels according to the doe report
confounding expectations of large gain of million barrels
moves by china the world second biggest energy consumer to slow down its
roaring economy also weighed on traders minds
think people are very concerned about what the chinese government would do
next to curb the consumption demand growth said lim
china red hot economy expanded percent in the december quarter and by
percent for the whole of
indian airports on alert after hijack warning officials
new delhi jan afp
india has increased security at its airports and warned its domestic airlines
about possible hijack attempt by islamic militant groups following western
intelligence reports officials said friday
the alert to india civil aviation ministry warned that flights of state run
air india and other private carriers could be targeted by groups aligned to al
qaeda or the pakistan based lashkar taiba rebel group
the warning came from western intelligence agencies on the basis of intercepts
the press trust of india news agency reported
we have intelligence inputs that there could be hijack attempt of indian
planes bansal senior home ministry official in charge of internal
security said
so we have alerted the ministry of civil aviation and bureau of civil aviation
security and tightened security in all airports in the country
the alert warns of flights from india or originating in countries neighbouring
india bangladesh bhutan myanmar nepal or sri lanka being specific
targets
civil aviation ministry spokeswoman moushumi chakravarty confirmed the alert
had been received
the information has been passed on to airport authorities and airline offices
she told afp
in december islamic militants hijacked an air india flight from kathmandu
to kandahar in southern afghanistan
it ended when new delhi released four islamic militants in exchange for
passengers and crew
korea honours drowned sailors for saving kims pictures
seoul jan afp
north korea has posthumously honoured sailors for rescuing portraits of the
former and current leader from their sinking ship even as they were drowning
pyongyang official media said friday
the cargo ship jisong sank in rough seas off dalian in northeast china on
november the captain engineer and three others died while others were
rescued
the captain and the engineer were honoured as labour heroes and posthumously
awarded hammer and sickle gold medals and other top decorations said the
ruling communist party daily rodong sinmun
the three others who died were also awarded the medals while the survivors
were given lower level decorations
the jisong crew members displayed the songun military first policy
generation sublime ideological spirit by protecting the revolutionary
headquarters even in high waves rodong said
north korean news media said in november crew members had taken the portraits to
safety even while some were drowning
portraits of founding president kim il sung and current leader kim jong il are
displayed in homes offices and public buildings as part of an all pervasive
personality cult
kim il sung died in but remains perpetual president inside his mausoleum
citizens can be severely punished for damaging the kims portraits even
accidentally people who lined park benches with newspaper bearing the leaders
pictures have reportedly been penalised
but protecting the images brings official praise
in september news media reported that north koreans even sacrificed their
own children to save pictures of the two kims during devastating floods the
previous month
one worker firmly took portraits in his hands in flood though his five year
old daughter slipped down from his back the media reported
haitian children head to new french families
port au prince jan afp
group of haitian children who have been adopted by french families left
school where they had sought shelter and headed to the port au prince airport
thursday
aged between one and six years old they boarded bus for the airport each
with their hands set on the shoulders of the child in front of them singing
the little train
french consul jean pierre gueguan told afp the children would arrive in paris on
friday evening to meet their adoptive parents
all but one of them were good health each child had haitian passport with the
family name of their adoptive family but also their birth family surname
it very important that child knows where he came from one nurse said
some of the children were orphans others were abandoned but all were looking
forward to brighter future
several of the children had been living in nursery that was severely damaged
in last week devastating earthquake but not single child was injured and
not single adoption file was lost gueguan said
according to the french embassy in port au prince haitian children were
adopted by french families in and around were adopted in
in the days since the january quake families around the world in the process
of adopting haitian children have pressured their governments to speed up the
adoption process
us russia rights council to avoid thorny issues kremlin
moscow jan afp
controversial new us russia council on civil society will meet next week to
tackle stereotypes in relations between the cold war foes but will skirt
fractious issues kremlin aide said friday
the group set up by presidents barack obama and dmitry medvedev in moscow last
year will hold its first meeting in washington wednesday the kremlin top
ideologue vladislav surkov told the pro government izvestia daily
surkov who coined the phrase sovereign democracy to explain russia post
soviet political system is co chairing the council an appointment that caused
bewilderment amongst russian rights activists
along with corruption and violence against children we will discuss the myths
and stereotypes that exist in our relations said surkov whose formal title is
first deputy chief of staff
we have tried to avoid those questions on which we are hardly going to agree at
the moment he said
we are going to approach them gradually taking into account how deep our
mutual understanding has grown he added
surkov major behind the scenes figures in russian politics has held his post
since and is seen as the main theorist of the kremlin strong government
ideology
rights activists have expressed worry the reset in us russian relations under
medvedev and obama would see washington scale down its pressure on russian
rights issues but us officials have denied that this is the case
responding the criticism of his appointment surkov commented icily that
everyone has right to their opinion
but he added think that this largely belongs to this whole complex of
prejudices and negative stereotypes
surkov acknowledged there had been some roughness in the run up to the
meeting without giving further details
but izvestia said the us side had initially invited number of russian ngos to
the meeting before apologising when moscow pointed out this did not correspond
to the framework of the working group
surkov us co chair on the working group is michael mcfaul the top white house
advisor on russia
gates regrets past grave mistakes in pakistan
islamabad jan afp
us defence secretary robert gates on friday expressed regret for past us
policies that cut military ties with pakistan saying the move was grave
strategic mistake that had damaged relations
speaking at the national defence university in islamabad he said us ban on
military contacts in the over pakistan nuclear programme undermined
bond between their armed forces and created lingering trust deficit
he vowed the united states was prepared to invest whatever time and energy it
takes to forge and sustain genuine lasting partnership with pakistan
but rebuilding relationships with generation of pakistani officers who have
had little contact with the us military will take years gates said
was in government in the early when russia left the region and the
united states largely abandoned afghanistan and cut off defence ties with
pakistan grave strategic mistake driven by some well intentioned but short
sighted us legislative and policy decisions said gates
many pakistanis feel bitterness over what they saw as us abandonment of the
region once the soviet union withdrew from afghanistan in
gates former cia director who served under several presidents said the move
tainted the perception of the united states in pakistan creating fertile
ground for propaganda from extremist militants
referring to islamist militants portrayal of washington as scheming to occupy
or dominate pakistan gates told the military audience that the united states
does not covet single inch of pakistani soil
the us has no plans for military bases and we have no desire to control
pakistan nuclear weapons gates said
the pentagon chief made similar comments in interviews with pakistani media as
us officials said some conspiracy theories had become widely prevalent in
pakistan and needed to be confronted openly
gates said the pentagon was moving to bolster the relationship with the
pakistani military citing billion dollar fund to provide hardware and
training for counter insurgency efforts and ensuring more pakistani officers
could receive training in the united states
he said pakistani officers faced similar challenges as their american
counterparts as both have had to adapt to irregular warfare
vietnam flouts rights commitments watchdog
hanoi jan afp
vietnam is flouting its human rights commitments to its southeast asian
