valid acceptances representing approximately percent of the existing
issued share capital of cadbury
late last year kraft offered to buy cadbury for pence in cash and
new kraft foods shares an offer deemed derisory by the british company
board
in bid to win over cadbury kraft sweetened its hostile offer on tuesday by
proposing bigger cash component but faced fresh rejection from the
british firm and objections from its largest shareholder
kraft made its latest move with the sale of its north american pizza division to
swiss rival nestle for billion dollars enabling the us firm to put more
cash behind its struggling bid for the british based confectioner
in twist to events billionaire investor warren buffett holding company
berkshire hathaway said that it opposed plan by kraft to raise cash needed to
buy cadbury via new share issue
kraft is the world second biggest snacks group after nestle cadbury is
meanwhile the second largest confectionery company behind mars
tie up between kraft and cadbury would merge leading kraft brands oreo
biscuits and maxwell house coffee with cadbury dairy milk chocolate and
trident chewing gum
japanese project aims to turn co into natural gas
tokyo jan afp
japanese researchers said wednesday they hoped to enlist bacteria in the fight
against global warming to transform carbon dioxide buried under the seabed into
natural gas
the researchers at the japan agency for marine earth science and technology aim
to activate bacteria found naturally in earth to turn co into methane major
component of natural gas
team led by chief researcher fumio inagaki have already confirmed that the
bacteria exists in the crust deep under the seabed off the northern tip of
japan main island spokesman for the institute told afp
but the project faces big challenge to develop method of activating the
bacteria and accelerating the speed of methane gas generation spokesman for
the agency acknowledged
in the natural environment the bacteria turn co into methane gas very slowly
over billions of years he said
the researchers hope to develop technology within about five years to activate
the bacteria and shorten the transformation time to about years he said
the institute still has many hurdles including the need to secure budget
before officially kicking off the project the spokesman said but if
launched it would be the first such project as far as we know
the aim is for the bacteria to produce methane gas from co buried in layer
about metres feet under the sea bed the agency said
researchers in japan and elsewhere are seeking to capture and store carbon
dioxide underground in an effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions such projects
are controversial as environmentalists warn that co could seep out
blasts gunshots in indian kashmir summer capital police
srinagar jan afp
suspected muslim militants on wednesday hurled grenades and opened fire in
srinagar the summer capital of indian administered kashmir police and
witnesses said
militants have hurled grenades and opened fire in lal chowk police
spokesman said referring to srinagar main commercial area
cricket south africa leave ball issue to match referee
cape town jan afp
south africa will not lay an official complaint against england after
allegations of interfering with the ball surfaced on the third day of the third
test at newlands
team spokesman michael owen smith said before the start of the fourth day play
on wednesday that the matter would be left in the hands of match referee roshan
mahanama
owen smith told journalists on behalf of mahanama that the international cricket
council would be issuing statement from the organisation headquarters in
dubai later on wednesday
if south africa had lodged formal complaint mahanama would have been compelled
to hold hearing into the matter interfering with the condition of the ball is
against the laws of cricket
television pictures captured fast bowler stuart broad stopping then stepping on
the ball with his spikes while fellow fast bowler james anderson appeared to be
manipulating the seam
according to owen smith on tuesday the south african team had raised its
concerns with mahanama
england coach andy flower told journalists on tuesday evening he was unaware of
any controversy and said he believed his bowlers had gone about their business
very honestly and their ability to gain reverse swing particularly during the
team win in the second test in durban was achieved through skill and not any
illegal methods
the footage of the broad incident was shown repeatedly on south africa pay
television channel and the england camp awoke on wednesday to banner headline
across the front page of the local cape times newspaper ball tampering
furore
english newspapers meanwhile reported that the suggestions of foul play had
infuriated the england camp the daily telegraph reported that england were
furious while the sun claimed that captain andrew strauss and coach flower
were angry
chinese yuan should rise percent state think tank
beijing jan afp
china should let its currency rise against the us dollar as soon as possible and
allow for one off percent appreciation of the yuan an official at
government backed think tank said wednesday
zhang bin senior researcher within the chinese academy of social sciences
said an appreciation of the chinese currency would not hurt the world third
largest economy
in my opinion the yuan is undervalued and needs to be adjusted the sooner
the better zhang told afp ahead of the release of research report on the
nation exchange rate policy
we think percent rise is acceptable because it will not have significant
impact on the overall economy in the short term
more flexible exchange rate policy was needed to resolve imbalances in the
chinese economy zhang said
the foreign exchange rate is very important policy tool for reforming
china economic structure he said
the value of the chinese currency which has effectively been pegged to the us
dollar since mid has been bone of contention between beijing and its
western trading partners which say it is kept low to boost exports
while china has acknowledged the need to boost domestic consumption and reduce
its reliance on exports and investment to drive the economy it has so far
refused to budge on its currency policy
premier wen jiabao said last month in an interview with state media that china
would not yield to pressure to allow the yuan to appreciate
this could be big issue facing us next year in our economic work wen told
xinhua news agency
but he added believe this year as major currencies around the world
devaluated that maintaining the value and stability of the yuan was
contribution to the international community
obama rebukes spy chiefs over intelligence screw up
washington jan afp
an angry president barack obama has lectured us spy chiefs on an intelligence
screw up that left us airliner carrying people open to barely averted
al qaeda attack on christmas day
in highly unusual public rebuke of the us clandestine community obama on
tuesday made terse televised statement about the thwarted bombing after
gathering agency chiefs and national security aides at high stakes white house
meeting
hours after his statement yemen police on wednesday arrested key al qaeda
chief believed to be behind threats that saw several foreign missions in the
capital sanaa including the us embassy close their doors
yemen has been under increasing pressure in recent days to deal with the al
qaeda cell in the country which obama has blamed for being behind the airliner
plot
mohammed al hanq had evaded arrest on monday during security force raid in
arhab kilometres miles north of sanaa in which two of his relatives
were killed and three other people wounded
during the televised remarks obama suggested that missed red flags before the
airliner attack were more serious than originally thought
it is increasingly clear that intelligence was not fully analyzed or fully
leveraged obama said that not acceptable and will not tolerate it
he was more explicit during the meeting in the secure white house situation
room an official said calling for immediate repairs to the flawed us security
system
this was screw up that could have been disastrous the official speaking on
condition of anonymity quoted obama as saying in the meeting
we dodged bullet but just barely it was averted by brave individuals not
because the system worked the president said according to the official
obama sharply worded comments contrasted with some of his earlier statements
on the botched attack which had led to criticism that his response lacked
sense of urgency
nigerian suspect umar farouk abdulmutallab is accused of trying to bring
down the northwest jet outside detroit with explosives sewn into his underwear
passengers and crew sprung into action thwarting his attempted attack
the united states has since unleashed barrage of measures to stop would be
attackers riding planes into the country overhauling its terror watchlists and
adding dozens more suspects to no fly lists
all travelers coming from or via terror linked countries will have to
undergo compulsory enhanced screening
obama spokesman robert gibbs said abdulmutallab spent number of hours with
fbi investigators in which we gleaned usable actionable intelligence
the president also announced he would suspend transfers of guantanamo bay
prisoners to yemen but vowed he would make good on his promise to close the
camp
we will close guantanamo prison which has damaged our national security
interests and become tremendous recruiting tool for al qaeda obama said
obama said probes into the botched plot to blow up the airliner showed us
intelligence missed other red flags related to abdulmutallab who had previously
traveled to yemen
he said us intelligence knew that al qaeda in the arabian peninsula wanted to
strike not only us targets in yemen but in the united states itself over the
holiday season
the bottom line is this the us government had sufficient information to have
uncovered this plot and potentially disrupt the christmas day attack but our
intelligence community failed to connect those dots obama said
this was not failure to collect intelligence it was failure to integrate
and understand the intelligence that we already had
when suspected terrorist is able to board plane with explosives on
christmas day the system has failed in potentially disastrous way
obama national intelligence chief acknowledged shortcomings
we got it and we are moving forward to meet the new challenges director of
national intelligence dennis blair said in statement
obama vowed to lay out further steps to safeguard aviation security in the
coming weeks
many experts have expressed incredulity that abdulmutallab was able to travel on
valid us visa despite his suspected ties to extremists
the us embassy in yemen reopened tuesday after the two day closure prompted by
fears of an attack while the french embassy in sanaa reopened wednesday after
its own two day closure
the british embassy also reopened wednesday but its consular services remained
closed
urgent blasts gunshots in indian kashmir police
srinagar jan afp
suspected muslim militants on wednesday hurled grenades and opened fire in
srinagar the summer capital of indian administered kashmir police and
witnesses said
hong kong shares end higher
hong kong jan afp
hong kong shares closed percent higher on wednesday in line with regional
markets due to prevailing optimism about the global economic outlook
the benchmark hang seng index added points to with turnover
reaching billion hong kong dollars billion us
ernie hon strategist at icbc international securities told dow jones
newswires that ample liquidity in hong kong is likely to fuel the local market
upward trend in the short term
hsbc rose percent to hong kong dollars contributing points to
the index gain and bourse operator hong kong exchanges added percent to
on expectations the world economy will recover further this year
oil companies rose as crude futures stayed above us dollars as demand is seen
picking up for heating oil during the freezing northern hemisphere winter
petrochina was up percent at and cnooc rose percent to
we see more upside in oil stocks as oil prices could rise to dollars
barrel later this year said mark to head of research at wing fung financial
group
and chinese shares closed down percent on investor fears possible rise in
inflation could trigger further government tightening measures dealers said
the benchmark shanghai composite index which covers and shares closed down
points at on turnover of billion yuan billion
dollars
there is talk in the market that inflation in december will exceed
expectations which could pave the way for tightening measures amy lin an
analyst at capital securities said
financial firms led the fall with bank of china down percent at yuan
while china merchants bank slid percent to yuan
metal firms bucked the downtrend with jiangxi copper rising percent to
yuan yunan aluminum rose percent to yuan
alert
blasts gunshots in indian kashmir summer capital police
french opposition takes stand against burqa ban
paris jan afp
moves to outlaw the full face islamic veil in france met challenge on
wednesday as the opposition socialists formally came out against government
plans to ban it
the announcement by the socialists whose members had previously expressed
diverging views on the issue came day after president nicolas sarkozy left
open the prospect of legislation to ban the veil known as burqa or niqab
the socialist party opposes the wearing of the burqa but is not favourable to
legal ban on it which would amount to an inconsistent ad hoc law its
spokesman benoit hamon said on wednesday on radio station rtl
we are totally opposed to the burqa the burqa is prison for women and has no
place in the french republic he said but an ad hoc law would not have the
anticipated effect
he added it is not the state job to judge what is the right interpretation
of the scriptures we should not make law when it is not clear how it would
be enforced
sarkozy himself has said that the burqa is not welcome in france but has not
waded into the debate on whether legislation should be enacted
the parliamentary leader of his right wing ump party jean francois cope has said
he will propose bill this month to ban the wearing of the burqa in public to
defend france from extremists
on tuesday sarkozy raised the prospect of non binding parliamentary resolution
against it and said he was not opposed to legislation members of his right wing
ump party told afp
malaysia court suspends allah ruling in blow for catholics
kuala lumpur jan afp
malaysian court suspended ruling on wednesday that allowed catholic
newspaper to use the word allah after the government argued the decision
could cause racial conflict
malaysia high court ruled last week that the herald weekly had the right to
use the word allah after long running dispute with the government in the
muslim majority nation
the paper has been using the word as translation for god in its malay
language section but the government argued it should be used only by muslims
attorney general abdul gani patail welcomed the high court decision to issue
stay order pending an appeal on the ruling in favour of the church which
triggered series of protests from muslim groups
made the request for stay as it is matter of national interest abdul
gani said at the court
we do not want the matter delayed and cause all kinds of tensions in the
country he told reporters believe the court of appeal will hear the case
very soon
the herald editor father lawrence andrew warned of campaign of intimidation
including hacker attacks against the weekly website protest threats and
widespread criticism in the media over last week ruling
we believe these actions are designed to create climate of fear and
perceived threat to national security so as to pressure the court in reversing
its decision he said in statement
outside the court he said the herald had agreed to the suspension of the
controversial ruling
we are malaysians and we want to live in peace and happiness he said we
will be rational in our approach in facing this situation we do not want
opportunists to take advantage of this situation
the herald lawyer derek fernandez urged the attorney general to take action
against those who criticised the court decision which include senior
government figures in defiance of sub judice laws that bar such comments
the row is among string of religious disputes that have erupted in recent
years straining relations between muslim malays and minority ethnic chinese and
indians who fear the country is being islamised
religion and language are sensitive issues in multiracial malaysia which
experienced deadly race riots in
the herald is printed in four languages with circulation of week in
country with about catholics
renegade former afghan policeman captured police
herat afghanistan jan afp
afghan security forces have captured former police officer who defected to the
taliban and fought for them wearing police uniform and using stolen weapons an
official said wednesday
the renegade officer mohammad qasim deserted his post as police chief of
violence plagued district in southwestern farah province early last year taking
with him some officers as well as uniforms weapons and vehicles
he and his men joined militants to fight afghan and western forces in bala blok
district farah deputy governor mohammad younus rasouli told afp
when he was captured on tuesday night qasim was wearing afghan police uniform
and using government weapons and police vehicles against the government
rasouli said
seven other people most of them former policemen were also captured with
qasim he said
under multi billion dollar internationally backed programme afghanistan is
rebuilding its security forces with numbers now around for the army and
police
the security forces have been fighting taliban led insurgency side by side
with more than foreign troops deployed under us and nato command
despite strict vetting process some recruits have turned on their foreign
colleagues raising questions about the selection process the brief training
period and the rush to make up numbers
on november policemen killed five british soldiers in the southern province
of helmand one of the most violent regions of the country
as the insurgency escalates foreign troop numbers are set to rise to
over the course of this year with experts predicting more battles and higher
casualty rate on both sides
four militants were also killed in an operation by afghan and foreign forces in
the northern province of kunduz overnight an official said
israel defence minister got dozens of death threats media
jerusalem jan afp
israeli defence minister ehud barak has received dozens of death threats since
the government ordered slowdown in construction of homes for jewish settlers
in the occupied west bank israeli media reported on wednesday
the minister security detail was beefed up amid concerns of potential attacks
by jewish extremists public radio said
the letters threatening barak life were received in the weeks after the
government announced in november month moratorium on issuing permits for
construction in west bank settlements the yediot aharonot newspaper reported
channel news on tuesday showed one such letter received by barak office
which is responsible for implementing the moratorium imposed after months of us
pressure
if you think of destroying the settlements you are mistaken and will kill
you the anonymous letter said
security official compared the current atmosphere to that which preceded the
assassination of prime minister yitzhak rabin at the hands of jewish
extremists on november yediot aharonot said
the shin bet domestic security agency believes there are dozens of jewish
extremists who would be prepared to attack high ranking officials if they feel
the settlement enterprise is threatened the newspaper said
barak office declined to comment on the reports
nearly half million israelis live in settlements scattered across the occupied
west bank and annexed east jerusalem all of which are considered illegal by the
international community
western backed palestinian president mahmud abbas has said he will not relaunch
peace talks suspended nearly year ago during the gaza war unless israel
freezes all settlement construction
political candidate shot dead in philippines
manila jan afp
retired policeman who was planning to run for local position in the
philippines was shot dead in the latest in rash of attacks on candidates for
the may elections police spokesman said wednesday
julio esquibias was killed in front of his house in casiguran on tuesday by
gunman on motorcycle said senior superintendent elicar bron
we are looking at two angles here he was killed because of his work as
police officer or because he was running for town council in casiguran said
bron
he could not immediately confirm which party esquibias was running under
the shooting in the bicol region south of manila comes just after town
councillor from the opposition nationalista party died in the southern
philippines on friday after being shot in his home days earlier
on december local nationalista party politician was killed and six other
people wounded when hooded gunmen opened fire on convoy of about people
most of them party candidates and their supporters in the northern province of
ilocos norte
political killings are common in this southeast asian nation of million
people where influential clans and families are known to employ private armies
to hold on to power
the worst such incident occurred in november when people were massacred in
the southern province of maguindanao
son of the then governor of maguindanao has been charged over the killings
which authorities say he organised to prevent rival challenging him for
provincial post in the may elections
consumer electronics industry hoping for rosier
las vegas nevada jan afp
consumer electronics manufacturers after suffering rare dip in sales last
year are hoping to bounce back in with smartphones readers and smaller
laptops leading the way
but the consumer electronics association releasing its forecast ahead of
its annual gadget show here provided little cheer to an industry which saw
revenue fall by two percent in to billion dollars after registering
percent growth in
the global economic recession that has crept its way around the globe really
impacted revenues in cea director of industry analysis steve koenig said
in as the world starts to recover from this global recession we re
anticipating flat overall revenues at least at this stage he told reporters
gathered for the consumer electronics show ces which opens on thursday
koenig said the outlook was encouraging for asian giants such as china and india
and south america but lot of this growth we re seeing in emerging markets is
not enough to offset the declines in the developed countries
shawn dubravac cea chief economist and its director of research said he
expected the low cost laptop computers known as netbooks to be among the stars
of the four day technology extravaganza at the las vegas convention center
we re going to see plethora of offerings he said as cea predicted that
percent of overall global personal computer sales this year will be laptops
many of them netbooks
consumers really want all the features of notebook with the price of
netbook dubravac said they re using it to browse the internet they re using
it to email they re shopping online he said
the us netbook market doubled in and we expect it to double again in
he said
mobile phones are seen as another growth category with the cea forecasting
global sales of billion wireless handsets this year up two percent over
last year and slightly better than the total of two years ago
one of the biggest players apple maker of the iphone will not be
represented at ces however and neither will newcomer on the mobile scene
internet giant google
apple traditionally spurns ces and google decided to unveil its first google
branded smartphone the nexus one at its mountain view california
headquarters on tuesday on the eve of the show
google entry into the mobile phone wars is an example of what dubravac
described as growing trend of cross pollination by technology companies
you re seeing traditional gps manufacturers moving into mobile phones you re
seeing mobile phone manufactures moving into netbook categories he said
the line between the personal computer and the television set is also being
increasingly blurred as companies take advantage of web enabled tvs to offer new
products and services
among them is skype which announced that new high definition tvs from panasonic
of japan and south korea lg will enable the free voice and video calls offered
by the web communications firm
in the nascent electronic book reader category amazon is facing growing
competition to its popular kindle and host of would be rivals are displaying
their wares at ces
also on display will be industry staple flat panel televisions and tvs as
manufacturers continue their push to bring into the home an initiative
stymied so far by lack of content and the need to wear special glasses
adoption got major boost however on tuesday as us sports broadcaster
espn said it will show some world cup soccer matches live from south africa in
and sony said it was teaming up with discovery and imax to launch tv
network in the united states
ces expects around visitors to this year show which features more
than exhibitors
amazon kindle dx goes international
san francisco jan afp
amazon com on wednesday made its premier kindle dx model electronic reader
available in more than countries
kindle dx devices that had been available only in the united states sport
screens times bigger than those on an international kindle model released
globally by amazon late last year
the larger screen is ideal for highly formatted reading content such as
magazines newspapers textbooks and pdf documents according to ian freed
vice president of kindle at amazon
now dx customers can take all of their books with them when they travel and
all their loose printed documents freed said
all of your newspapers can follow you from country to country delivered fresh
each morning with no additional fee
kindle dx electronic reading tablets are synched to wireless mobile telephone
networks in more than countries so users can download books magazines or
other digital reading material regardless of location
we tried to make it as simple as possible freed said
kindle has become top amazon export to number of countries including canada
france and germany
since the first kindle model launched in november the reader has earned
the title of most gifted product at the year old online shop
kindle devices are reportedly catching on in the business world with documents
ranging from legal briefs to office paperwork being taken for reading on the
road according to amazon
we know number of actors and actresses that actually use kindle dx to review
scripts freed told afp on tuesday number of schools are using kindle dx
for students to read electronic textbooks
kindle dx tablets will remain priced at dollars and amazon will begin taking
international orders on wednesday kindle dx purchases are to begin shipping on
january
amazon has about electronic books that can be purchased internationally
for reading on kindle devices according to freed
most electronic books for kindles are in english but digital versions of
newspapers and magazines are available in local languages according to amazon
documents look so good on the big kindle dx display that you ll find yourself
changing ink toner cartridges less often and printing fewer documents said
freed
we re excited to be able to offer kindle dx to customers worldwide so they can
carry all of their personal documents along with their whole library in one
slender package
the six inch centimeter screen international kindle rolled out late last
year was heralded by amazon founder jeff bezos as part of renaissance in
reading
the smaller screen kindle models are priced at dollars
our vision for kindle is every book ever printed in print or out of print in
every language available bezos told afp in november
for now downloads are only available in english although the giant online
retailer has teams working on digitizing books in other languages
an array of readers is expected to be among the flood of innovations unveiled
this week at major consumer electronics show in las vegas
apple is also believed to be poised to unveil large screen tablet computer
that could compete with readers
tennis british set for first hopman cup final
perth australia jan afp
great britain are on the verge of their first hopman cup final after andy murray
and teenager laura robson beat germany wednesday to remain unbeaten in the
mixed teams tournament
with murray looking sharp early in the new season and robson emerging as an
exciting prospect for british tennis the third seeds secured the group tie
against sabine lisicki and philipp kohlschreiber with win in the
mixed doubles rubber
it is only the fourth time great britain have played at the hopman cup and first
time since when they were represented by jo durie and jeremy bates
murray stepped up his preparation for the upcoming australian open later this
month by trouncing kohlschreiber in straight sets in the men singles
in under an hour
the fourth ranked scot displayed his full repertoire of shots on both sides in
an ominous performance for his melbourne rivals
murray who chose the hopman cup over defending his title in doha to give
