Eeyore's News and View

Asian markets fall on outlook for China, U.S.
SEOUL (AP) — Most Asian stock markets fell Monday on signs that the U.S. holiday shopping season got off to a tepid start over the key Thanksgiving weekend. Major European markets opened lower.
Investors seemed to want a breather to reassess after rallies in global markets last week, including the first five-day advance for Wall Street since July 2007. Some traders wanted to hold back ahead of the Institute for Supply Management's November manufacturing survey due later Monday for further clues about the strength of the U.S. economy, a vital export market.
Investors are bracing for more bad news about the U.S. economy, said Tsuyoshi Nomaguchi, a strategist for Daiwa Securities in Tokyo.
"They aren't sure what they're supposed to do at this point," he said.
India's benchmark Sensex index reversed early gains, falling 2.9% to 8,829.76 in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai that left 172 people dead.
In Tokyo, the benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average lost 115.05 points, or 1.4%, to close at 8,397.22 after advancing 7.6% last week. Investors sold exporters as the yen strengthened, which erodes their overseas earnings.
Markets in South Korea, Australia and Singapore also fell.
Bucking the trend were Hong Kong and mainland China, where key indices rose on expectations of further measures by the Chinese government to boost the economy after last month's big interest rate cut and anouncement of a multibillion dollar stimulus package.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index closed up 220.60 points, or 1.6%, to 14,108.84, continuing its rally from last week, when it rose nearly 10%. China's Shanghai Composite index gained 1.3% to 1,894.61.
"These are the appetizers of a full meal," said Winson Fong, managing director at SG Asset Management in Hong Kong, which overseas about $3 billion in equities in Asia, referring to those earlier measures. "It's not the end."
Early reports from the U.S. showed modest gains in retail sales on Black Friday — the traditional start of the American holiday shopping season — but business appeared to fall off during the rest of the weekend, at least according to some accounts, and analysts said crowds were thinner than last year. Also, sales gains seemed to come at the expense of profits as companies slashed prices to lure shoppers.
Investors around the world are paying close attention to the weekend sales figures for clues on the strength of the American economy, a vital export market.
According to preliminary figures released Saturday by ShopperTrak RCT, a research firm that tracks total retail sales at more than 50,000 outlets, sales rose 3% to $10.6 billion on Friday from the same day a year ago. A more complete sales picture of how the Thanksgiving shopping weekend fared won't be known until Thursday when the nation's retailers report November same-store sales, or sales at stores opened at least a year.
"We don't know if it's driven by sales or if U.S. consumers are getting their confidence back," said SG Asset Management's Fong.
As trading opened in Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares fell 1.5% at 4,225.49. Germany's DAX was 1.8% lower at 4,584.37 and France's CAC-40 slipped 1.4% to 3,216.44.
Stocks in Thailand reversed early gains as investors weighed prospects that the country's political crisis will be resolved soon. Anti-government protesters have occupied Bangkok's two main airports for nearly a week, cutting off air freight, stranding tourists and crippling the economy. The benchmark SET index was down 1.7% at 394.80.
U.S. stock futures were down, suggesting Wall Street would open lower Monday. Dow futures were down 142 points, or 1.6%, to 8,678, and S&P futures were down 17.7 points, or 2%, to 878.1.
Oil prices fell to below $52 a barrel after OPEC declined to cut production at an informal meeting in Cairo on Saturday. Light, sweet crude for January delivery was down $2.54 to $51.89 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange in mid-afternoon in Singapore.
In currencies, the dollar declined to 94.21 yen from 95.48 in New York late Friday. The euro fell to $1.2645.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/markets/2008-12-01-global-markets-monday_N.htm

Britain thinking of joining euro: Barroso
Britain is considering joining the eurozone as a direct consequence of global financial turmoil, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Sunday.
"We are now closer than ever before. I'm not going to break the confidentiality of certain conversations, but some British politicians have already told me: 'If we had the euro, we would have been better off'," Barroso told a weekly French news programme, referring to the fall in the pound's value since markets and liquidity meltdown earlier this year.
"The British have an enormous quality, one of many, that is they are pragmatic," he said on the panel of a joint RTL-LCI radio and television broadcast. "This crisis has emphasised the importance of the euro, and also of Britain," he added.
"I don't mean this will happen tomorrow, I know that the majority (of British people) are still opposed, but there is a period of consideration underway and the people which matter in Britain are currently thinking about it," the former Portuguese prime minister said.
Barroso pointed to the case of Denmark, another EU state which has so far refused to accept the euro but is now planning another referendum on the single currency. The Danish voted against joining in 2000.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=081130204959.yq2a770m&show_article=1

Iran proposes nuclear plants with Arab countries

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's official news agency says Tehran has proposed building joint light-water nuclear power plants with neighboring Arab countries.
Sunday's IRNA report quotes the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Gholam Reza Aghazadeh. He says Iran is ready to offer a proposal to Arab countries if they are interested.
Iran's Arab neighbors have been suspicious of the Persian country's controversal nuclear program, and several Arab countries have announced plans to develop their own nuclear programs.
The U.S. and some of its allies claim Iran is secretly seeking to develop nuclear weapons — a charge Tehran denies.
Iran is building its first nuclear power plant with Russia's help. It is slated to open in 2009.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jG7bnyWWJfgaYD-JwcqmImlpRujwD94P5OBG0

Choice for U.N. Backs Strong Action Against Mass Killings
CHICAGO — President-elect Barack Obama has chosen his foreign policy adviser, Susan E. Rice, to be ambassador to the United Nations, picking an advocate of “dramatic action” against genocide as he rounds out his national security team, Democrats close to the transition said Sunday.
Mr. Obama intends to announce Ms. Rice’s selection at a news conference here Monday along with his previously reported decisions to nominate Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton for secretary of state, keep Robert M. Gates as defense secretary and appoint Gen. James L. Jones, a retired Marine commandant, his national security adviser, the Democrats said.
The choice of Ms. Rice to represent the United States before the United Nations will make her one of the most visible faces of the Obama administration to the outside world aside from Mrs. Clinton. It will also send to the world organization a prominent and forceful advocate of stronger action, including military force if necessary, to stop mass killings like those in the Darfur region of Sudan in recent years.
To reinforce his intention to work more closely with the United Nations after the tensions of President Bush’s tenure, Mr. Obama plans to restore the ambassador’s post to cabinet rank, as it was under President Bill Clinton, according to Democrats close to the transition.
While the cabinet consists of 15 department heads, a president can give other positions the same rank for the duration of his administration.
“She’s obviously one of Obama’s closest advisers, so it underscores how much of a priority he’s making the position,” said Nancy Soderberg, a senior United States diplomat at the United Nations under Mr. Clinton. “If you look at the last eight years, we obviously need to be more engaged at the U.N. and realistic about what the U.N. can do.”
At Monday’s announcement, the president-elect will also formally unveil his nominations of Eric H. Holder Jr. to be attorney general and Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona to be secretary of homeland security, the Democrats said. He will not announce any of the top intelligence appointments on Monday, but the Democrats said they expected him soon to name Adm. Dennis C. Blair, a retired Pacific Fleet commander, as director of national intelligence.
If confirmed, Ms. Rice at 44 would be the second-youngest ambassador to the United Nations. A Rhodes scholar who earned a doctorate in international relations at Oxford University, she joined Mr. Clinton’s National Security Council staff in 1993 before rising to assistant secretary of state for African affairs at age 32. When Mr. Obama decided to run for president, she signed up as one of his top advisers, much to the consternation of the Clinton camp, which resented what it saw as a defection.
As the ambassador at the United Nations, Ms. Rice will have to coordinate with Mrs. Clinton, but will not be in the White House or at State Department headquarters on a daily basis as major policies are formulated. One person close to Mrs. Clinton said the senator did not object to Ms. Rice serving at the United Nations.
Some colleagues from her Clinton and Obama days said Ms. Rice can be blunt and unafraid to “mix it up,” as one put it, on behalf of issues she cares about. Ms. Rice herself acknowledges a certain impatience at times.
Admirers said she is a good listener and able to stand up to strong personalities, including foreign autocrats and militants in volatile regions of the world.
“Susan certainly is tough, and she’s tough in exactly the right way,” said Strobe Talbott, a former deputy secretary of state and now president of the Brookings Institution, where Ms. Rice has worked in recent years. “She’s intellectually tough, she’s tough in her approach to how the policymaking process should work and she will be very effective as a diplomat.”
John R. Bolton, who was one of Mr. Bush’s ambassadors at the United Nations, would not discuss Ms. Rice’s selection, but said it was unwise to elevate the position to the cabinet again.
“One, it overstates the role and importance the U.N. should have in U.S. foreign policy,” Mr. Bolton said. “Second, you shouldn’t have two secretaries in the same department.”
During her first run at the State Department, Ms. Rice was a point person in responding to Al Qaeda’s 1998 bombing of United States Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. But her most searing experience was visiting Rwanda after the 1994 genocide when she was still on the N.S.C. staff.
As she later described the scene, the hundreds, if not thousands, of decomposing, hacked up bodies that she saw haunted her and fueled a desire to never let it happen again.
“I swore to myself that if I ever faced such a crisis again, I would come down on the side of dramatic action, going down in flames if that was required,” she told The Atlantic Monthly in 2001. She eventually became a sharp critic of the Bush administration’s handling of the Darfur killings and last year testified before Congress on behalf of an American-led bombing campaign or naval blockade to force a recalcitrant Sudanese government to stop the slaughter.
Jerry Fowler, president of the Save Darfur Coalition, praised the pending Rice nomination on Sunday, calling it a powerful sign of the new president’s interest in the issue. The coalition is urging Mr. Obama to begin a “peace surge” of sustained diplomacy to address the continuing problems in Sudan.
“It sends a very strong signal about his approach to the issue of Sudan and Africa in general,” Mr. Fowler said. Ms. Rice will be joining a high-powered team on stage with Mr. Obama on Monday, most notably Mrs. Clinton.
The two rivals from the polarizing battle for the Democratic presidential nomination will seal their reconciliation with Mrs. Clinton’s nomination to head the State Department.
At a time when the country remains engaged in two wars and still faces the threat of international terrorism, Mrs. Clinton will anchor a national security team with more of a centrist character than some of Mr. Obama’s liberal supporters once hoped to see.
Some critics have pointed out that the team represents experience rather than the change Mr. Obama promised. But it also drew praise from across the aisle.
“The triumvirate of Gates, Clinton and Jones to lead Obama’s national security team instills great confidence at home and abroad and further strengthens the growing respect for the president-elect’s courage and ability to exercise sound judgment in selecting the best and the brightest to implement our nation’s security policies,” said Senator John W. Warner of Virginia, a former chairman of the Armed Services Committee.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/01/us/politics/01rice.html?ref=us

The Donald in trouble? The following two articles give an indication that he might be
Trump Sued Over Chicago Tower Top lender accuses developer of missing loan deadline
Ring the bell. Looks like Donald Trump and his lenders will go another round in their financing fight at the Chicago high-rise.
The lead lender on the Trump International Hotel & Tower is suing Donald Trump, seeking to collect on a $40-million personal guarantee the developer made on the 92-story structure, according to Crain's.
Citing chicagorealestatedaily.com, Crain's said Deutsche Bank Trust Co. Americas filed the suit Friday in Manhattan's New York state court, alleging Trump didn't pay off a remaining $334.2 million loan due on Nov. 7 to Deutsche Bank and its syndicate of lenders.
Earlier this month, Trump filed his own suit against Deutsche Bank and its syndicate, accusing them on not allowing an extention of a Nov. 7 deadline of the $640-million loan for the project.
http://www.nbcchicago.com/around_town/real_estate/Trump-Sued-Over-Chicago-Tower.html
Trump Entertainment to miss interest payment
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Facing tough competition and sliding revenue amid the economic meltdown, Trump Entertainment Resorts will have to skip a $53.1 million interest payment scheduled for Monday on its 8.5% senior secured notes due 2015 in order to maintain sufficient liquidity.
The Atlantic City, N.J., casino operator, with about $1.25 billion worth of the notes outstanding, said late Friday that it has a 30-day grace period to pay up and will meanwhile seek talks with its lenders to revamp its capital structure and improve its liquidity.
A panel of independent directors will oversee the talks, the company said.
If it doesn't make the payment in the 30-day grace period, Trump Entertainment said, holders of a quarter of the notes and lenders under a $490 million senior secured loan to a company subsidiary will be able to accelerate the maturities of those obligations.
Donald Trump, the television personality and New York real estate investor, is non-executive chairman and the largest shareholder of Trump Entertainment (TRMP:
trump entmt resorts inc com
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TRMP 0.31, +0.02, +6.9%) , which operates three Atlantic City casinos: The Trump Taj Mahal and the Trump Plaza on the Boardwalk and the Trump Marina in the Marina district. The last is being sold to Coastal Development for $270 million in a deal that has seen the price lowered and the closing deadline delayed.
Trump Entertainment "is separate and distinct from Mr. Trump's privately held real estate and other holdings, which the company understands encompasses substantially all of his net worth," the company said.
After his casinos twice ran into bankruptcy, Trump was removed from having any operating role in them as part of the deal that brought the company out of Chapter 11 the last time around.
And it could happen again: Earlier this month, Fitch Ratings warned that after the company drew a remaining $25 million available on its credit facility this quarter to help fund an expansion, "it will have little to no access to committed external funds."
The ratings agency also said that "given Trump's heavy debt load and the expected operating pressure in Atlantic City over the next 12 months, it is crucial for Trump to close the Trump Marina sale in order to avoid a restructuring, in the absence of another transaction."
On Nov. 7, Trump Entertainment reported that it swung to a third-quarter loss of $139.1 million, or $4.39 a share, from a profit of $6.6 million, or 21 cents, in the year-earlier period. Continuing operations produced a loss of $3.49 a share against profit of 7 cents. Revenue fell 8.4% to $198.3 million.
The company cited slower consumer spending, competition from Pennsylvania, and a smoking ban as the primary factors in the latest results. The number of customers was relatively stable, but spending per person declined, the company said.
The company said then that it was controlling its costs and that its 21 top-paid executives had agreed to a 5% salary cut.
Shares of Trump closed at 31 cents Friday, giving the company a market capitalization of approximately $10 million. The stock price scraped as low as 25 cents earlier this month after trading near $6 this time last year.
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/story.aspx?guid=%7B7C187DC9%2DF04B%2D4225%2DA202%2D648889E4413E%7D&siteid=rss (also more on his Chicago deal)

Pentagon hires British scientist to help build robot soldiers that 'won't commit war crimes'
The American military is planning to build robot soldiers that will not be able to commit war crimes like their human comrades in arms.

The US Army and Navy have both hired experts in the ethics of building machines to prevent the creation of an amoral Terminator-style killing machine that murders indiscriminately.

By 2010 the US will have invested $4 billion in a research programme into "autonomous systems", the military jargon for robots, on the basis that they would not succumb to fear or the desire for vengeance that afflicts frontline soldiers.

A British robotics expert has been recruited by the US Navy to advise them on building robots that do not violate the Geneva Conventions.

Colin Allen, a scientific philosopher at Indiana University's has just published a book summarising his views entitled Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right From Wrong.

He told The Daily Telegraph: "The question they want answered is whether we can build automated weapons that would conform to the laws of war. Can we use ethical theory to help design these machines?"

Pentagon chiefs are concerned by studies of combat stress in Iraq that show high proportions of frontline troops supporting torture and retribution against enemy combatants.

Ronald Arkin, a computer scientist at Georgia Tech university, who is working on software for the US Army has written a report which concludes robots, while not "perfectly ethical in the battlefield" can "perform more ethically than human soldiers."

He says that robots "do not need to protect themselves" and "they can be designed without emotions that cloud their judgment or result in anger and frustration with ongoing battlefield events".

Airborne drones are already used in Iraq and Afghanistan to launch air strikes against militant targets and robotic vehicles are used to disable roadside bombs and other improvised explosive devices.

Last month the US Army took delivery of a new robot built by an American subsidiary of the British defence company QinetiQ, which can fire everything from bean bags and pepper spray to high-explosive grenades and a 7.62mm machine gun.

But this generation of robots are all remotely operated by humans. Researchers are now working on "soldier bots" which would be able to identify targets, weapons and distinguish between enemy forces like tanks or armed men and soft targets like ambulances or civilians.

Their software would be embedded with rules of engagement conforming with the Geneva Conventions to tell the robot when to open fire.

Dr Allen applauded the decision to tackle the ethical dilemmas at an early stage. "It's time we started thinking about the issues of how to take ethical theory and build it into the software that will ensure robots act correctly rather than wait until it's too late," he said.

"We already have computers out there that are making decisions that affect people's lives but they do it in an ethically blind way. Computers decide on credit card approvals without any human involvement and we're seeing it in some situations regarding medical care for the elderly," a reference to hospitals in the US that use computer programmes to help decide which patients should not be resuscitated if they fall unconscious.

Dr Allen said the US military wants fully autonomous robots because they currently use highly trained manpower to operate them. "The really expensive robots are under the most human control because they can't afford to lose them," he said.

"It takes six people to operate a Predator drone round the clock. I know the Air Force has developed software, which they claim is to train Predator operators. But if the computer can train the human it could also ultimately fly the drone itself."

Some are concerned that it will be impossible to devise robots that avoid mistakes, conjuring up visions of machines killing indiscriminately when they malfunction, like the robot in the film Robocop.

Noel Sharkey, a computer scientist at Sheffield University, best known for his involvement with the cult television show Robot Wars, is the leading critic of the US plans.

He says: "It sends a cold shiver down my spine. I have worked in artificial intelligence for decades, and the idea of a robot making decisions about human termination is terrifying."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... rimes.html