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Tata Steel Expects Higher Profit at European Unit

noreply@blogger.com (Thanh) — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 03:22:00 -0700

NEW DELHI – Tata Steel Ltd. expects operating profit at its European unit to rise by two-thirds of its current level to $100 a metric ton over the next three years as it focuses on more value-added products and controlling costs, its managing director said.

Tata Steel Europe generates earnings of $60 per ton before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization at present and the expectation is based on "assumptions about the prices and availability of raw materials and market conditions in Europe," Hemant Nerurkar told a press conference late Tuesday.

Mr. Nerurkar said the unit, formerly called Corus, would produce around 15 million to 16 million tons of crude steel in the financial year which began on April 1, up from 14.8 million tons last year.

Tata Steel Europe turned around its performance during the last few quarters by cutting costs. It sold its Teesside plant in the U.K. and reduced staff at some other facilities. The company is banking on a gradual recovery in demand for steel in northern Europe and the U.K. to drive its production and revenue higher over the next few years.

Mr. Nerurkar said he doesn't expect any reduction in steel prices in India over the next three months due to high raw material prices.

Tata Steel, which has its own iron-ore mines in India, imports a large part of the coking coal it requires.

Mr. Nerurkar said the company will import coking coal at around $280-$290 a ton for the July-September quarter, unchanged from the current quarter. "We had expected coking coal prices to come down for the second quarter [of the fiscal year], but that didn't happen."

Mr. Nerurkar added that India's steel demand is expected to keep growing by 10.4%-10.5% a year, mainly due to consumption by the construction industry as both the private sector and the government makes large investments in infrastructure development.

But there could be some slow down in steel demand from automobile and consumer-durables companies as higher interest rates in India have made loans for buying cars and appliances more expensive, he added.

Write to Prasenjit Bhattacharya at prasenjit.bhattacharya@dowjones.com

Nissan CEO Ghosn Is Highest-Paid Foreign Executive In Japan

noreply@blogger.com (Thanh) — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 03:13:00 -0700

YOKOHAMA, Japan (Dow Jones)--Nissan Motor Co.'s (7201.TO) Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn held on to his place as the highest-paid foreign executive at a listed Japanese company in the last fiscal year with Y982 million ($12.1 million) in total compensation, a rise of 10% from the previous year.

The head of Japan's second-biggest car maker by volume told shareholders at an annual meeting Wednesday that his pay rise in the fiscal year ended March 2011 came after the company boosted net profit by more than seven-fold and logged record global vehicle sales during the period.

Ghosn's most recent pay package compared with the Y891 million in total remuneration that he received in the previous fiscal year, when he was also the country's highest paid foreign executive, and eclipsed the Y863 million paid to Sony Corp. (6758.TO) Chief Executive Howard Stringer.

At the meeting Wednesday, some Nissan shareholders questioned the size of Ghosn's pay packet, which was more than seven times larger than those of his counterparts at other major Japanese car makers, despite his explanation that his pay was based on global, rather than Japanese standards.

Nissan determines its executive pay based on data collected by New York-based human-resources-services firm Towers Watson, the CEO said

"This is a very transparent process," said Ghosn, who also serves as CEO of Nissan's French partner Renault SA. "We want to be confident, and this is done very seriously."

Ghosn's salary was below the $15.3 million average compensation for comparable auto industry CEOs and also below the $14.3 million average for comparable CEOs of other multinational industrial companies, Nissan said.

Japanese senior executives tend to earn less than their counterparts at other multinational companies: Toyota Motor Corp. (7203.TO), Japan's biggest car maker by volume, said last week that President Akio Toyoda earned Y136 million ($1.7 million)in the last fiscal year, while Takanobu Ito, Chief Executive and President at Japan's third biggest car maker Honda Motor Co. (7267.TO) received Y130 million ($1.6 million).

By comparison, General Motors Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Daniel Akerson received compensation worth $2.5 million last year after he became CEO on Sept. 1, while Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally made more than $26.5 million in salary and stock options last year.

Ghosn said six other directors at Nissan earned Y100 million or more in the last fiscal year. Under new rules introduced last year, the Financial Services Agency requires that publicly traded companies disclose the annual compensation of executives receiving Y100 million or more.

The details will be made available in a filing to the regulatory authorities Thursday, Ghosn said.

Nissan on Monday outlined an ambitious growth strategy for the next six years, in which it aims to raise its profit margin to 8% from 6.1% in the last fiscal year, and targets a global market share of 8% from 5.8% in the last fiscal year.

-By Yoshio Takahashi, Dow Jones Newswires; 813-6269-2791; yoshio.takahashi@dowjones.com

$8.5 Billion Deal Near in Suit on Bank Mortgage Debt

noreply@blogger.com (Thanh) — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 16:27:00 -0800

Bank of America is completing an agreement to pay $8.5 billion to settle claims by investors that purchased mortgage securities that soured when the housing bubble burst, according to people briefed on the deal. It represents what is likely to be the single biggest settlement tied to the subprime mortgage boom and the subsequent financial crisis of 2008.

The settlement would wipe out all of the company’s earnings in the first half of this year, and it could also provide a template for deals with other big banks that face tens of billions in similar claims.

“I think this is huge,” said Michael Mayo, a bank analyst with Crédit Agricole in New York. “It’s about time the industry resolves issues from the financial crisis and focuses more on righting their companies and improving the economy. This is the most significant step since the financial crisis that helps do that.”

The proposed settlement is with a group of more than 20 investors that include the asset managers Pimco, Metropolitan Life and BlackRock, as well as the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Together they hold mortgage-backed securities that represent more than $100 billion in home loans from Bank of America, the nation’s biggest bank by assets.

The securities affected by the deal come from Countrywide Financial, the subprime mortgage lender whose practices have come to symbolize the excesses of the housing boom. Bank of America bought Countrywide in 2008.

The settlement goes beyond just the securities owned by these investors, however.

It covers nearly all of $424 billion in mortgages that Countrywide issued, which were then packaged into mortgage bonds. That means that a broader group of investors will share in the proceeds, according to the people who were briefed on the proposed settlement, but were not allowed to speak publicly.

In addition, the deal will require Bank of America to improve its payment collection process by hiring specialists to focus on high-risk loans, and do a better job of tracking whether the bank is adhering to its own internal loan-servicing standards.

The negotiations began last fall but picked up speed in recent weeks as the end of the second quarter approached. For the investors, settling avoids a costly, multi-year legal fight, while Bank of America can clear away one of the biggest clouds hanging over the company.

Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo have the greatest exposure to the legal claims that they bundled troubled home loans and sold them as sound investments. Together, they are likely to absorb roughly 40 percent of the industry’s mortgage-related losses.

In a research note, Paul Miller of FBR Capital Markets projected that Bank of America could face a total of $25 billion of losses from the soured mortgages, the most of any of the major banks.

Bank of America has already paid out or set aside about $17 billion. So the settlement would bring the bank’s losses in line with those projections.

On Wednesday, the bank is expected to announce plans to set aside even more money, in addition to the $8.5 billion. Those funds will be earmarked to cover future losses on mortgage securities as well as other mortgage-related expenses not covered by the deal disclosed Tuesday. Some of that will be offset by one-time revenue gains.

Other big banks face sizable risks, too. Mr. Miller predicted that Chase could expect losses reaching as much as $11.2 billion. Wells Fargo has potential losses of up to $5.2 billion, while Citigroup could see losses top $3.3 billion.

Once it is approved by Bank of America’s board, which met Tuesday, the settlement will require court approval in New York. Bank of America is expected to take a $5 billion after-tax charge in the second quarter to cover the payout.

While the board has yet to approve the settlement, both sides are aiming to have it done as soon as Wednesday, said the people who were briefed on the deal. If successful, the bank hopes to turn investor attention away from the huge payout and to the bank’s performance in the second half of the year.

Under the terms of the accord, Bank of America would deliver the money to the trustee for the securities, Bank of New York Mellon, which would distribute it to the institutional investors.

The issue of how much Bank of America will have to compensate investors in mortgage securities it assembled has been hanging over the bank’s shares since last fall. But the bank does not anticipate having to raise capital or sell stock to find the money for the settlement.

Still, other huge risks loom from the fallout of the subprime mortgage crisis. All 50 state attorneys general are in the final stages of settling an investigation into abuses by the biggest mortgage servicers, and are pressing the big banks to pay up to $30 billion in fines and penalties.

What’s more, insurance companies that backed many of the soured mortgage-backed securities are also pressing for reimbursement, arguing that the original mortgages were underwritten with false information and did not conform to normal standards.

In an interview on Tuesday, before reports of the Bank of America settlement, Sheila C. Bair, the chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, worried that the unresolved mortgage claims continued to hurt the broader economy.

“Unresolved legal claims could serve as a drag on the recovery of the housing market,” Ms. Bair said. “The healing of the housing market is essential to the recovery of the broader economy.”

The huge settlement represents a sharp move away from the position that Bank of America’s chief executive, Brian T. Moynihan, initially adopted last fall when the legal effort by the investors began.

Mr. Moynihan said in October, “We’d love never to talk about this again and put it behind us, but the right answer is to fight for it.”

Not long after that, however, the bank started negotiations with the investor group, led by a Houston lawyer, Kathy Patrick. And in January, it reached a settlement with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-controlled housing finance giants, to buy back $2.5 billion in troubled mortgages, settling potential claims from them.

Source: nytimes

The most beautiful buildings

noreply@blogger.com (Thanh) — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 08:37:00 -0800

Food for the palette from every corner of Vietnam

noreply@blogger.com (Thanh) — Thu, 4 Nov 2010 21:22:00 -0700

Ha Thanh Food Festival is one of the main activities that has come along with the 1000 year anniversary of Thang Long – Hanoi.

The opening ceremony of the festival attracted so many visitors that traffic was severely jammed along Lac Long Quan Street. People hurried, pushed and shoved to get to the food festival.

A very large parking area was arranged to watch vehicles for visitors but it could not meet the demand. Many people had their vehicles kept at private parking areas. However, these visitors were over-charged with prices as high as VND50,000 ($2.6) per vehicle which is much higher than normal price.

Over-crowding left many visitors disappointed. There was not much space to enjoy the exciting atmosphere of the event. Many felt exhausted after being kept waiting to buy coupons or to queue at food booths.

The crowded atmosphere made it quite difficult for visitors to soak in the cultural and artistic value of the event.

However, in the coming days, the situation should be much improved so visitors can enjoy the unique food culture of the North, Central and South of Vietnam.

At the parking areas, they won’t have to queue up too long tor worry about being overcharged.

Below are some pictures of the festival

The great pho challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Thanh) — Thu, 4 Nov 2010 21:21:00 -0700

One day, four bowls of pho, how much slurping can one person do? Quite a lot, as it turns out this bright Wednesday in the Vietnamese capital.

A pho restaurant in Hanoi

My guide, Tu, with his back-to-front baseball cap and American television accent, has been handed a challenge. I want to find Hanoi's best pho, across a range of budgets, and I am relying on his insider knowledge.

It is clear Tu thinks I am barking mad and would rather show me a range of conventional tourist sites, including Uncle Ho's mausoleum and the lovely Temple of Literature. But I have been to Hanoi before and I want a different story. Pho is the signature dish of north Vietnam, made from a dense, almost earthy, stock and brimming with thinly sliced beef, silken vermicelli-style rice noodles, snap-fresh bean sprouts and lots and lots of mint and assorted herbage.

The Vietnamese love leafy herbs: all so healthy and fragrant and presented in springy piles, ready to be dunked into soup, popped into woks, eaten with chopsticks as dainty side dishes. Pho is the equivalent of grandma's homemade soup; at its best, it tastes cosy and familiar, as nourishing as a nursery supper.

Pho is also made with chicken but, as I don't eat poultry, I opt for a tasting test of beef. Tu says it's customary to order beef pho with the meat pink (tai) or well-done (chin) and there should be a slice or two of lime or lemon provided on the side to season the soup. Pho for morning tea? Why ever not. Tu lives at home and says he eats his mum's pho for breakfast.

In photos: Mysterious Cham towers in central Vietnam

noreply@blogger.com (Thanh) — Tue, 2 Nov 2010 09:18:00 -0700

Ninh Thuan is home to many old monuments of the Cham people, particularly Cham towers.

Among the mysterious towers are Hoa Lai, Poklong Garai and Porome; all recognised as historical architectural works by the the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Just a short trip from the south of Nha Trang City in Khanh Hoa Province, to Ninh Thuan Province, you will see Hoa Lai Tower which is located next to National Highway 1A at Bon Thap Village, Tan Hai Commune, Ninh Hai District.

Built in the early 19th century, the tower is situated on a rectangle-shaped piece of land that’s about 200 metres long and 125 metres wide. In the past, it consisted of three small towers, but there are only two left today.

According to art historians, Hoa Lai Tower is among the most ancient and beautiful historic monuments of the Cham people, an ethnic group in Southeast Asia. The people are concentrated between the Kampong Cham Province in Cambodia and central Vietnam's Phan Rang-Thap Cham, Phan Thiet, Ho Chi Minh City and An Giang areas.

In Phan Rang City, PoKlong Garai Tower is a must-see. It was built between the last half of the 13th century and early 14th century.

Currently, PoKlong Garai has three small towers built by the Cham. Cong Tower is 8.56 metres high, Lua is 9.31 meters high and Chinh stands at 21.59 metres. The latter was where King PoKlong Garai was worshipped.

The structure of each small tower is a special architectural work. Each floor and side is decorated with ceramics and stones in different shapes of humans, dragons and leafs, showing artistic and religious meaning of the Cham people.

Experiencing ups and downs, the sophisticated design on PoKlong Garai Tower is still preserved with door bells and pillars.

The tower is considered as the tourism symbol of the cactus region of Phan Rang.

Ninh Thuan is also known for Porome Tower which is seen as a version of PoKlong Garai Tower. Porome is built on a hill, 50 metres high in Hau Sanh Village, Phuoc Huu Commune, Ninh Phuoc District.

To date, Cham towers in Ninh Thuan remain a mysterious style.

Some photos of Cham towers in Ninh Thuan:

Citibank Vietnam extends retail banking presence to Hanoi

noreply@blogger.com (Thanh) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 05:52:00 -0700

CPV: Citibank N.A. Vietnam expanded its retail bank operations in the country by opening a new branch and launching Citigold - its wealth Tourism offering – in Hanoi today (October 15).

The new outlet, equipped with innovative Smart Banking technology, enables Citibank to serve individual customers in Hanoi.

The launch complements Citibank’s first retail branch in Ho Chi Minh City, opened last year, and represents a significant milestone as Citi Vietnam celebrates its 15^th anniversary in the country.

With this new facility, Citibank is also introducing its wealth management offering – Citigold – to customers in the Capital. The Citigold offering is characterized by a higher level of service and offers unique products and benefits. This prestigious service targets affluent customers and provides them with an unparalleled level of priority treatment.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Mr Shirish Apte, Chief Executive Officer of Citi Asia Pacific said: “We are pleased to be able to extend our world-class retail banking services to customers in Vietnam with the launch of this Smart Banking branch and the introduction of Citigold in Hanoi. Vietnam represents a promising market in what is an exceptionally important region for Citi, and we are committed to growing our franchise here”.

Citibank’s retail banking network in Asia Pacific serves over 32 million customer accounts. This new branch in Hanoi is among the first few Smart Banking branches in Asia and demonstrates Citibank’s commitment to bringing world-class products and services to Vietnam.

Mr Brett Krause, Citi Country Officer for Vietnam, stressed: “This innovative new concept of banking leverages technology to redefine customers’ banking experience. The Hanoi branch really speaks to our commitment to create new and innovative products, and deliver world-class service to our customers”.

The branch comes equipped with media walls, interactive kiosks and work benches to enable customers to surf though information, learn about financial products and services, and conduct transactions. The branch will provide customers and the local community with up-to-date global and local news, including weather, business, sports and market updates.

Some of the other unique features include:

• Three “Citi Browsers”: Interactive touch screens that enable customers to easily obtain information about Citibank as well as Citibank’s latest product and service offerings. These negate the need for printed materials in Citibank’s environmentally friendly branch environment

• Four “Citi Work-Benches”: Allows customers to complete their daily banking needs at their own pace in a secured and convenient manner

• Two “Citi Assist” interactive video-conferencing private briefing rooms: Provides customers with the opportunity to obtain additional expert opinion and consultation from Citibank specialists throughout the region via video conferencing

• Citigold centre for High Net Worth customers with private briefing rooms and personalized relationship management services

“This launch is just the start of Citi’s expansion plans in Vietnam. Over the next few months, Citi will progressively add more best-in-class products and services, increase the number of touch points for our customers, and with regulatory approval, cement its commitment to Vietnam by locally incorporating a banking subsidiary,” Mr. Krause added.

Citi has been in Vietnam for 15 years and provides a full range of financial services, including corporate and investment banking. The Bank is a pioneer in the country and was the first to launch Internet banking, an internet payment gateway and an online internet platform.

Rice fields reach up to touch the autumn sky

noreply@blogger.com (Thanh) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:56:00 -0700

As autumn arrives, visitors marvel at the picturesque scene of the ripened terraced rice fields in northwestern Vietnam.

The beauty of these rice fields can be blurred by the white clouds and the wind.

Such dreamlike scenery can only be seen in the early morning or after a sudden rain falling on the terraced fields lying along the mountain ranges.

Sa Pa in Lao Cai Province, Hoang Su Phi in Ha Giang Province and Mu Cang Chai in Yen Bai Province are perhaps the three areas having the most beautiful terraced rice fields in Vietnam. They are also popular tourism sites for international tourists.

Below are beautiful pictures of the terraced rice fields:

VN film industry yet to embrace market: Noyce

noreply@blogger.com (Thanh) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:55:00 -0700

Australian film director Phillip Noyce

Photo: Tuoi Tre

Phillip Noyce, director of “The Quiet American,” has been back in Vietnam since October 16 for the first Vietnam International Film Festival, eight years after he first came here to direct the film.

He spoke to Tuoi Tre about Vietnamese films.

What’s your overview of the Vietnamese movie industry?

I am not an expert because I have just seen some Vietnamese films at the VNIFF, which wrapped up on October 21 in Hanoi. However, the biggest difference that I see here is your cities now have more cinemas than eight years ago when I came to Vietnam to make “The Quiet American.”

In the past, there were few cinemas and people’s incomes were lower. But today many people are willing to spend money to buy cinema tickets. That’s progress.

Some days ago I watched “Floating Lives.” It is a very impressive film. I also know that the film did good sales in the first two days of public screening at the VNIFF. It has been promoted efficiently. I think it’ a model for Vietnamese cinema in future.

VNIFF got several international cinema experts and the quality of films screened at the festival was also quite good. I think later film festivals in Vietnam will become bigger. And when your movies make more money at the box office, more people will send their films to your festivals and distribute them here.

Many Vietnamese films have competed at international film festivals but have not won any awards. What should Vietnamese cinema do to be internationally recognized and attract foreign audiences?

The best solution is to have more cinemas. They are the best cinema schools for Vietnamese filmmakers. Vietnam switched to a market economy long ago but the development of a market economy for cinema is still lagging behind.

However, Vietnam has several international-standard cinemas. So, local filmmakers will learn a lot when their films are screened at the cinemas because they will have a chance to interact with audiences.

It is also the formula for success for major movie industries around the world. It is also a dance party between filmmakers, directors, actors with audiences.

But the dance party can only be successful if the audiences are happy to pay for their tickets. If they think films are worth their money, they will keep on visiting cinemas and then, of course, the dance parties will take place often.

Thus, I believe Vietnamese filmmakers will soon mature.

What do you think about Vietnamese audiences?

They are as good as any cinema fans across the world.

They want entertainment and they want to watch interesting films that are worth their money. They are ready to bring their families and friends to the cinema if they know there is a good film. When the “Floating Lives” was screened in Hanoi, I witnessed many people happily spending money to buy tickets. One woman I met paid VND300,000 (US$15) to buy a ticket in the black market [official price around VND40,000].

You used to make big films, which one of them is your favorite?

My favorite film is not a big film but a small one named “Rabbit-proof fence” that I directed in Australia. The film is about three little colored Australian girls who are separated from their families and have to travel 2,400 kilometers to return home.

Before I made it, many people told me I would not be able to find a producer, draw audiences, or take it to the international market. But I proved them wrong.

You have produced many action films and also scored big successes with psychological films. Which categories do you prefer?

In Hollywood, it is easier to make action films like “Salt” because you can easily get back your money. However, I don’t worry about that.

I have switched to making small films, from action to psychological… For me, all categories of film are similar and personally, I like different categories of film. Recently, I have also been interested in cartoons like “How to train your dragon.”

How do you maintain the balance between your art, audience tastes, and producers’ expectations?

In reality, there’s no conflict because I serve audiences. I think cinema exists just for audiences. I am just an entertainer like an acrobat in a traveling circus in the old days. When I was a child, two traveling circuses often came to my hometown to perform. One came by train and the other by road.

When the circus train arrived, I went out to watch the train and dreamed of getting onboard. Frankly, I am now on my own train and traveling to many places with it to perform and leave.

The only way for me to survive is to keep my audiences entertained. And, if they are happy I am happy.

Workshop on profit making with films

Phillip Noyce held a workshop on film directing for students of the Ho Chi Minh City College of Stage Art and Films at Lan Anh Village in District 2 on October 25 and 26.

Besides the students, there were also some Vietnamese directors and actors. At the workshop, Noyce spoke about filmmaking techniques and showed clips from his films. The students had to take part in various activities, including doing a review of a Vietnamese book they had read and explaining why it is movie material. (By Phuong Thuy)

Music show marks Toyota’s 21st year in Asia

noreply@blogger.com (Thanh) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:55:00 -0700

Lorenzo Castriota Skanderbeg conducts his symphony orchestra

Orchestra Citta de Firenze from Florence, Italy, will perform the Toyota Classic Symphony at the Hanoi Opera House tonight to mark the Japanese company’s 21st anniversary in the Asia Pacific.

Renowned conductor Lorenzo Castriota Skanderbeg will wield the baton while tenor Leonardo Melani and talented young Vietnamese pianist Luu Hong Quang, who won the first prize at the 2009 Chopin Piano Contest in Australia, will perform.

The symphony promises an evening of classical Italian music with concertos and symphonies, extracts from traditional Italian operas like Rossini’s La gazza ladra and Verdi’s Giovanna d’Arco.

The show is a part of a series of performances being held from October 23 to November 12 in many Asian countries.

In Vietnam it has been held annually since 1997, acquainting Vietnamese audiences with world masterpieces and enabling local artists to perform with foreign professionals.

The money raised from ticket sales will go into the Toyota scholarship fund for young Vietnamese musicians.

Going Dutch in HCMC

noreply@blogger.com (Thanh) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:52:00 -0700

View more pictures

Two Dutch artists Jan Karsten and Elly Karsten perform at the Holland Village festival, which is open daily from 3 pm to 11 pm at HCMC’s 23/9 Park from October 22-31

Photo: Holland Village organizers

The Holland Village festival that has come for the first time to Ho Chi Minh City offers an insight into Dutch lifestyles and customs through traditional crafts, food, and music.

Being held at the September 23 Park on Pham Ngu Lao Street from October 22 to 31, it features typical Dutch attractions like fish, cheese, and street-music stands that draw thousands of visitors daily.

“The things I like most here are plastic models of tulip flowers, cow farms, and windmills and also traditional Dutch food,” Thao Nghi, a student at the city’s Hong Bang University, said.

“The event helps me learn more about the Dutch people and their culture.”

Dutch tourist Marcel Simons said: “We are happy and proud that the Holland Village … is now taking place in Vietnam”.

“It is nice and interesting.

“I was in a taxi, going around to see the nightlife in HCMC, when I saw the front gate of Holland Village by chance,” Dirty Pierre, a tourist from New Zealand, told Tuoi Tre News.

“This event is amazing.”

Most visitors are fascinated by a 10-meter windmill, a symbol of the Netherlands, placed near the entrance.

The festival features demonstrations of clog making, glass blowing, and pottery by Dutch artists.

The pottery items are decorated with motifs depicting hunting and religious activities and Dutch landscapes with windmills, fishing boats, and others.

Glass artist Frans Limpens blows into a tube to create objects like clarinets, animals, boats, flowers, and motorbikes.

"I have performed in a lot of places around the world like Malaysia, South Korea, Beijing, Hongkong, Bangkok, New York, and now Vietnam,” Limpens said.

“Just show me an object you like and I will make it in glass,” he said confidently.

Also on display are traditional Dutch foods like raw fresh herring with onions and cucumber and poffertjes, a pancake loved by children.

On an open-air stage, there are daily shows of traditional Dutch costumes, floral workshops, accordion music, and milking competitions for children.

Holland Village was first held in Germany in 1980 and has since been held in Japan, China, Thailand, Malaysia, and Canada.

Vietnam certifies six powered hang-glider pilots

noreply@blogger.com (Thanh) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:52:00 -0700

A glider flies above Hon Do (Red Islet) in Nha Trang City

Photo: Tuoi Tre

Mai Linh Corporation’s central and southern branch last Wednesday celebrated graduation ceremony and handed certificates to their six powered hang-glider pilots.

The six pilots, who will join promoting flying services at cheaper price in central beach city of Nha Trang, have become qualified after passing 300 flying hours and 600 flying tours in a training program coordinated with the Vietnam People's Air Defense and Air Force.

Last year the transport and travel service company imported five hang gliders from Italy and hired pilots who are professionals from Italy and France.

Building up a team of local trained pilots will help reduce riding cost to tourists. The current price is USD70 for a 15 minute ride and is estimated to lower to just $50.

The imported sportive designed gliders have big wings and simple engine, making it easy to operate. Each glider can carry a pilot and a tourist with a speed up to 80km/h and reach a maximum height of 300 meters.

Besides tourism activities, Mai Link Corp. will also extend their service for different purposes such as construction and geology inspection, filming and photography, cultural performances and business promotion.

Disfigured but alive: Zimbabwe cuts horns to save rhinos

noreply@blogger.com (Thanh) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:49:00 -0700

Doctor Chris Forging cuts a rhino horn in Chipinge National Park, 360km west of Harare

Photo: AFP

The roaring chainsaw sends fingernail-like shards flying into the baking Zimbabwean bush as it slices through the slumped black rhino's foot-long horn.

The critically endangered female loses her spikes in just seconds, after being darted from a helicopter.

A few minutes later, she leaps up and escapes -- disfigured but alive -- in a dramatic attempt to deter the poachers who have unleashed a bloodbath on southern Africa's rhinos.

"De-horning reduces the reward for the poacher," said Raoul du Toit of the Lowveld Rhino Trust which operates in Zimbabwe's arid southeast.

"Poaching is a balance between reward and risk. It may tip the economic equation in the situation to one where it's not worth the poacher operating."

Rhino poaching reached an all-time high in Africa last year, according to the International Rhino Foundation.

In Zimbabwe, where just 700 rhinos remain, anti-poaching units face military-like armed gangs who ruthlessly shoot the animals to hack off the distinctive horns for the Asian traditional medicine market.

"These poachers in this part of the world here will shoot on sight. They operate in very aggressive units," Du Toit told AFP.

"They adopt patrol formations when they are after rhinos to detect any anti-poaching units that are deployed against them and they will open fire without hesitation.

"So there've been many gunfights -- a number of poachers killed, not so many on law enforcement side but that's mainly through luck."

Asian demand for rhino horn, believed to treat anything from headaches to sexual woes, has lured highly organized criminal syndicates.

Zimbabwe's black rhino were poached to a low of 300 in 1995 but recovered and leveled off to nearly double this before plummeting again to reach around 400 last year, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

"It was at this time, 2006-2007, when we actually saw the steep escalation in poaching which is related to syndicate kind of poaching orchestrated out of South Africa," said WWF's African rhino manager Joseph Okari.

"It is what makes a big difference between the poaching of today... and the poaching of the '80s and the early '90s," he said.

"That was not highly organized and well co-ordinated like what we are seeing today."

South Africa and Zimbabwe are rhino poaching hotspots, accounting for nearly all of the 470 rhinos killed in Africa between 2006 and 2009. Half of those killed were in Zimbabwe.

The slaughter this year has intensified in South Africa, where rhino poaching has doubled. Okari puts the shift down to the slashed population in Zimbabwe, particularly in state parks, and hardline controls that include poachers being shot dead.

The result is that the Lowveld region which lost 60 animals last year is now seeing more rhinos born than killed.

"If it was to continue at this level, we could see our population increase in time," said Lowveld Rhino Trust operations co-ordinator Lovemore Mungwashu.

In addition to de-horning, conservationists in Zimbabwe are fitting rhinos with microchips or transmitters to track them, while mounting foot patrols armed in some areas with AK-47 assault rifles. They're also conducting intelligence work to infiltrate the gangs.

The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority -- which has a five-ton store of severed rhino horns in Harare -- estimates the country now has 400 critically endangered black and 300 less threatened white rhinos.

"At peak, we had close to 3,000 rhinos -- that was in the early '80s," said national rhino coordinator Geoffreys Matipano who estimates the horns can fetch up to 20,000 dollars per kilogram (2.2 pounds).

"If you compare it with the past few years, we have managed to contain rhino poaching in the country."

The painless de-horning is seen as a deterrent but is short-term, expensive, time-consuming and risky with the notoriously unpredictable animals having to be supported with oxygen and sprayed with cooling water.

The trade is so lucrative that poachers will kill a rhino for two inches of horn, which grows back like a fingernail.

"De-horning is not a stand alone strategy. It has got to work with other strategies," said Matipano.

For privately run reserves, the fight to protect Zimbabwe's wildlife is relentless.

"We've got guys out 24/7 and monitoring things all the time," said Colin Wendham of the Malilangwe reserve near Chiredzi, shortly before a furious rhino mother tried to attack his vehicle.

"It's the only way that we're keeping on top of things."

While saying state parks still face continual declines, Du Toit believes aggressive law enforcement alongside good monitoring can win the fight against the poachers.

"We're dealing with very aggressive criminals," he said as the team ear-notched a young female.

"These are not just impoverished local people out to just make a little money -- these are focused professional criminals."

Sex attack victim says distracted by iPod

noreply@blogger.com (Thanh) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:49:00 -0700

A sex attack victim in Australia says she might have been able to avoid the assault if she had not been distracted by her iPod

Photo: AFP

A sex attack victim in Australia said Thursday she might have been able to avoid the assault if she had not been distracted by her iPod.

The victim, named only as "Kate", urged other women to use MP3 players with caution after she was knocked down and sexually assaulted just 100 meters (yards) from her Melbourne home earlier this month.

"I was listening to my iPod and in my thoughts I was already at home so I didn't pay attention," she said.

It's a very bad idea, because you listen to the songs that you like, you're thinking about things and you don't pay attention to what's happening around you. It's a very bad thing.
A passing car disturbed the attacker, who then fled.

"When I am walking on the street now I always pay attention to what's happening around me," she said.

Australian campaigners have warned road users of "Death by iPod" after a pedestrian was knocked down and killed last month in Sydney, following the death of a Melbourne cyclist in June.

Indonesia tsunami death toll likely to pass 500

noreply@blogger.com (Thanh) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:49:00 -0700

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Villagers wrap recovered bodies in plastic in the tsunami-hit Muntei Baru Baru village, where hundreds of homes once stood, in the Cikakap subdistrict of Indonesia's Mentawai islands, October 26, 2010

Photo: Reuters

The death toll from a tsunami that pummeled remote Indonesian islands is expected to pass 500, an official said as questions mounted over whether a warning system had failed.

Hopes were fading for hundreds of people still listed as missing after a huge wave triggered by a powerful earthquake hit the remote Mentawai islands on Monday off the west coast of Sumatra.

Meanwhile, on the island of Java in the centre of the disaster-prone archipelago, a volcano which this week killed 32 people again spewed ash and deadly heat clouds, but there were no reports of damage.

Disaster response officials said bodies were being found on beaches and coastal areas in the Mentawais, where the tsunami had washed away entire villages.

"Ten minutes after the quake we heard a sound just like an explosion from outside -- it was then we realized there was a tsunami," said 20-year-old housewife Chandra on North Pagai, one of the two worst-hit islands.

Dazed and exhausted, she was searching for her six-month-old baby boy, who has not been seen since the disaster. Neighbours found her husband's body in their village of Muntei Baru Baru.

"I know he's dead but I keep praying he's still alive. I'm so tired. I've not eaten for two days," she told AFP.

The official death count rose to 394 with hundreds missing, but disaster management official Ade Edward said the toll would climb possibly by as much as 200.

"Of those missing people we think two-thirds of them are probably dead, either swept out to sea or buried in the sand," he said.

"When we flew over the area yesterday we saw many bodies. Heads and legs were sticking out of the sand, some of them were in the trees. If we add another 200 to the toll it would be at least 543 dead."

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited the area to console the victims, having cut short a visit to Vietnam to attend a regional summit. One survivor broke down and wept as he told the ex-general how they had lost everything.

A ship bearing aid including food, water, medical supplies as well as body bags arrived Thursday at Sikakap, on North Pagai.

An AFP photographer on board saw hundreds of villagers being treated at a medical clinic, many requiring stitches to open cuts suffered as they were tossed around in the surging waves.

Survivors said they had almost no warning that the three-meter (10-foot) wall of water was bearing down on them, despite the laying of a sophisticated network of alarm buoys off the Sumatran coast.

The expensive system of tsunami warning buoys was established after the 2004 Asian tsunami, which killed at least 168,000 people in Indonesia alone.

An official tsunami warning was issued after Monday's 7.7-magnitude quake but it either came too late or did not reach the communities in most danger.

A Jakarta-based official responsible for the warnings blamed local authorities on the Mentawais for failing to pass on the alert, telling reporters: "We don't feel there was any mistake."

Medical personnel were arriving on helicopters but stormy weather has hampered the delivery of badly needed aid by boat. Troops and at least five warships have also been dispatched.

Australia announced that Jakarta had accepted a million dollars in aid for victims of both disasters, while the US and several Asian countries have also offered help.

The European Commission released EUR1.5 million (US$ 2 million) in aid and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon offered UN help, a spokesman said.

On Java, Mount Merapi's fresh eruption raised concerns for local residents who have left temporary shelters -- currently housing about 50,000 people -- to return to their homes on the mountain's slopes.

"The threat is still there which is why the status still stays at red," government volcanologist Surono said.

The southern slope of the mountain was an eerie wasteland earlier Thursday, with houses burnt and flattened, trees scorched and stripped of leaves, and the stench of rotting bodies strong in the air.

One of the people killed was an 83-year-old elder appointed by the sultan of Yogyakarta to appease the sacred volcano's restless spirits. He was killed as he prayed in his house after refusing the order to evacuate.

The Indonesian archipelago is studded with scores of active volcanoes and stretches from the Pacific to the Indian oceans, spanning several tectonic plates.

Facebook, Twitter say social is the new normal

noreply@blogger.com (Thanh) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:49:00 -0700

A Facebook page is displayed on a computer screen in Brussels April 21, 2010

Photo: Reuters

The social networking phenomenon has nowhere to go but up as computer use becomes more mobile, according to leading figures in the development of the popular sites Facebook and Twitter.

"Two to five years from now, the whole question of what other social networks you use will be moot, because it will all be social," Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook, said in Boston Thursday.

"Social is becoming the frame, the filter to a lot of information," Hughes, 27, said during a panel discussion at the Charles Schwab "Impact 2010" investment conference.

Facebook has over 500 million active users, including more than 150 million who access the site through their mobile devices. The number of registered Twitter users is estimated at more than 165 million.

Both companies are privately held, and investors are on constant alert for any sign either will go public.

Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, said the expansion of social networking would closely track a rise in personal mobility as devices such as smart phones replace traditional computers.

"I would like to see a lot less people hunched over computers in their offices in five years," said Stone, 36.

Hughes said applications such as Facebook Connect would increasingly be knitted into the social networking fabric.

For example, Facebook Connect users going to The New York Times' website can now see which articles their friends are reading and recommending.

"With a few clicks you're having a social experience," Hughes said, adding that the functionality can be a way to cut through information overload that many struggle with.

"There is no better filter than people that you know and trust," he said.

Stone has 1.6 million followers for his tweets. He said he likes to follow to follow the Twitter feed of Sockington the Cat, a Waltham, Massachusetts, feline with a knack for clever repartee.

Twitter, said Stone, "is not going to be a triumph of technology -- it's going to be a triumph of humanity ... the growth potential is there from a positive change perspective, not just a business perspective."

179 dead as tsunami, volcano hit Indonesia

noreply@blogger.com (Thanh) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:48:00 -0700

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A dead cow covered in ash is seen next to a damaged house after Mount Merapi erupted in Kinahrejo village in Sleman, near the ancient city of Yogyakarta, October 27, 2010

Photo: Reuters

Indonesian authorities appealed for aid after a tsunami smashed into an island chain and a volcano erupted less than 24 hours later, leaving scores dead and thousands homeless.

Entire villages were washed away and houses flattened when waves triggered by a 7.7-magnitude earthquake late Monday pounded an area off the west coast of Sumatra, on a major fault line in a region known as the "Pacific Ring of Fire".

At least 154 people were killed and some 400 remain missing, officials said, as terrifying stories of the power of the waves emerged from the remote area.

"They have lost their houses and now need a lot of aid and assistance. There are some tents already arrived here but we still need many more," West Sumatra provincial disaster management head Harmensyah said.

"We need to find the missing people as soon as possible. Some of them might have run away to the mountains, but many would have been swept away."

Several hundred kilometers away on the central island of Java, another 25 people were killed when the country's most active volcano, Mount Merapi, erupted on Tuesday, spewing searing clouds of gas and lava into the sky.

Officials said almost 29,000 people had fled to temporary shelters around the nearby city of Yogyakarta, but there were fears for the fate of thousands more who had refused to budge.

Monday's quake struck in the Mentawai Islands, an area popular with surfers, generating a tsunami as high as three meters (10 feet) and sweeping away 10 villages.

Survivor Borinte, 32, a farmer from Detumonga village on the coast of North Pagai island, said he managed to stay alive by clasping to a piece of wood. His wife and three children were killed.

"About 10 minutes after the quake we heard a loud, thunderous sound. We went outside and saw the wave coming. We tried to run away to higher ground but the wave was much quicker than us," he told AFP.

Several Australian tourists were also caught in the disaster. One group's boat was was smashed and they were washed into the jungle but survived. Another group of nine surfers was found alive after being reported missing.

The tsunami surged as far as 600 meters inland on South Pagai island, officials said. On North Pagai island, a resort and almost 200 houses were flattened.

Medical personnel flew in on helicopters but rescue efforts have been hampered by poor communications to the islands, which are about half a day's ferry ride away from the port of Padang, West Sumatra province.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono cut short a visit to Vietnam for a summit of Southeast Asian leaders and was on his way to the Mentawais, which he should reach on Thursday, officials said.

"He wants to feel the pain and burden of the victims," spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha told AFP.

US President Barack Obama, who lived in Indonesia as a boy and is due to return there on an Asian tour next month, voiced his sadness over the deaths and pledged US help.

"As a friend of Indonesia, the US stands ready to help in any way," he said.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that he was not aware of the disaster having any effect on Obama's planned trip to Indonesia.

The massive Indonesian archipelago straddles a region where the meeting of several continental plates causes high volcanic and seismic activity. It has the world's largest number of active volcanoes and is shaken by thousands of earthquakes every year.

A 7.6-magnitude earthquake last year in Padang killed about 1,100 people, while the 2004 Asian tsunami -- triggered by a 9.3-magnitude quake along the same faultline -- killed at least 168,000 people in Indonesia alone.

Less than 24 hours after the tsunami, Mount Merapi erupted with clouds of gas and molten lava.

One of the 25 dead was the volcano's traditional guardian, known as Grandfather Marijan, whose body was reportedly found in a prayer position in his house on the mountain's slopes.

The 2,914-meter (9,616-foot) Mount Merapi, 400 kilometers east of Jakarta, is the most active of the 69 volcanoes with histories of eruptions in Indonesia.

It last erupted in June 2006 killing two people, but its deadliest eruption occurred in 1930 when more than 1,300 people were killed. Heat clouds from another eruption in 1994 killed more than 60 people.

Authorities had issued a red alert and ordered people to evacuate the area two days before the latest eruption.

New monkey found in Myanmar near China dam project

noreply@blogger.com (Thanh) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:48:00 -0700

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A new type of snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus strykeri) is seen in this undated handout of an artist rendering released on October 26, 2010

Photo: Reuters

A new type of snub-nosed monkey has been found in a remote forested region of northern Myanmar which is under threat from logging and a Chinese dam project, scientists said Wednesday.

They said hunters in Myanmar's Kachin state said the long-tailed black monkey, with white-tufted ears and a white beard, could often be tracked in the rain because its upturned nostrils made it prone to sneezing when water dripped in.

"It's new to science. It's unusual to travel to a remote area and discover a monkey that looks unlike any other in the world," Thomas Geissmann, lead author of the study at the University of Zurich-Irchel, told Reuters.

Studies of a carcass and four skulls showed the monkey differed from snub-nosed monkeys in China and Vietnam. The experts had no photos of a live Myanmar monkey.

The scientists estimated there were between 260 and 330 of the monkeys living in an area of about 270 sq km (100 sq miles) and believed the species to be critically endangered.

"The hunting pressure is likely to increase considerably in the next few years as new dam construction and logging roads invade" the monkeys' habitat, they wrote in the American Journal of Primatology.

In Chinese hands

"The future of the snub-nosed monkey lies in Chinese hands," said Frank Momberg, of Fauna and Flora International and a co-author of the study. Monkeys were hunted for meat or fur and their body parts were used in traditional medicines in China.

He said China Power Investment Corp., leading the dam project further down the valley on a tributary of the Irrawaddy River in Myanmar, had an economic interest in preserving the forested region where the monkeys live.

More roads and logging would cause erosion around the watershed that could clog up the new reservoir with silt, reducing power generation, he said. He praised China for carrying out a study of the dam's possible effect on the environment.

The discovery of the snub-nosed monkey contrasts with a rising trend of extinctions, caused by factors such as land clearance, expansion of cities, pollution and climate change.

A UN conference in Nagoya, Japan, this week is looking at ways to safeguard biological diversity after the world failed in a goal set in 2002 of a "significant reduction" in the pace of extinctions of animals and plants by 2010.

A separate study in the journal Science showed growing numbers of the world's birds, mammals and amphibians had moved closer to extinction in recent decades. A fifth were classified as threatened.

Indonesia's twin disasters kill more than 300

noreply@blogger.com (Thanh) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:48:00 -0700

A woman covers her baby as she runs from ash falling from an erupting volcano at Kaliurang village in Sleman, near Indonesia's ancient city of Yogyakarta, October 26, 2010

Photo: Reuters

A tsunami and a volcanic eruption in Indonesia have killed more than 300 people with over 400 missing and tens of thousands displaced, authorities said Wednesday.

One of Indonesia's most active volcanoes spewed out clouds of ash and jets of searing gas in an eruption that has killed at least 28 people and injured 14.

Mount Merapi, on the outskirts of the city of Yogyakarta on Java island, first erupted on Tuesday, a day after a tsunami pounded remote islands in western Indonesia. The death toll in the tsunami was at least 282, said West Sumatra provincial disaster official Ade Edward.

The tsunami, triggered by a 7.5 magnitude quake that struck 78 km west of South Pagai, one of the Mentawai islands, flattened several villages and a surf resort. At least 411 people are still missing, Edward said.

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency said on its website that 4,000 people had been displaced by the tsunami.

Metro TV showed footage of villages flattened by the wave, with dejected survivors combing through rubble for belongings.

Authorities have been battling to handle both disasters, with more than 40,000 villagers evacuated from the slopes of Mount Merapi, where many houses have been destroyed, their ruins lying covered in white ash.

Kresno Heru Nugroho, head spokesman for Yogyakarta's Sardjito hospital, said 28 people had been killed by deadly bursts of hot air released by the volcano late on Tuesday. His colleague Endita Sri Andrianti said some were burned beyond recognition.

Volcano spiritual guardian feared dead

Another hospital official told Reuters it was likely that among the dead was the elderly spiritual guardian of the mountain, Mbah Maridjan, believed by many Javanese to possess magical powers. Tests were being carried out to confirm a charred body found on the volcano was his.

Many Indonesians posted tributes via Facebook and Twitter to the volcano's widely-loved custodian, regarded as a protector who used a combination of Islamic and animist rituals to keep Merapi under control.

The Sultan of Yogyakarta also appeared on Metro TV to pay tribute to the guardian.
Many of the victims had been found in or around Maridjan's house in the village of Kinahredjo, close to the volcano's crater, local media reported. A Reuters cameraman at Kinahredjo said that several houses and cattle had been burned.

"All the houses are blanketed in ash, completely white. The leaves have been burned off the trees," said cameraman Johan Purnomo.

The country's top vulcanologist, Surono, said Merapi was now "quite calm" but that the respite could be temporary.

"I have advised local officials to continue the evacuations. It's still on the highest alert level," he said.

Metro TV, however, showed some villagers returning home Wednesday.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono flew back from Hanoi, where he had been due to take part in a summit of Asian leaders, to oversee relief efforts for the Merapi eruption and Sumatra tsunami. He said he expected to return to Vietnam for the main summit which runs from Thursday to Saturday.

In a 1994 eruption after the volcano's lava dome collapsed, 70 people were killed. The volcano killed 1,300 people in 1930.

In December 2004, a tsunami caused by an earthquake of more than 9 magnitude off Sumatra killed more than 226,000 people. It was the deadliest tsunami on record.

Homegirl Cafe helps gang members change their lives

noreply@blogger.com (Thanh) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:48:00 -0700

Shameeka Welch, 17, (L) and Fallon Tooks, 27, pose outside Homegirl Cafe in Los Angeles, April 23, 2010

Photo: Reuters

It was Stephanie Lane's first day on the job as a waitress at Homegirl Cafe and the last thing she wanted to do was wait on the police.

The restaurant, staffed by female gang members trying to leave their past behind, is part of Homeboy Industries, the largest gang intervention program and one of the most successful in the US.

Quitting a life of drug dealing, fighting and stealing cars on the streets of South Los Angeles, where she followed her father and mother into the Crips gang, was not easy.

Lane faced the first of many tests when the police chief and top brass were growing impatient waiting for service in the cafe.

"No girls wanted to take their order," Lane said. "They're the reason all of us have been through what we've been through."

Lane glowered as she approached the table. She knew they'd be looking at her tattoos, sizing her up. She trained her eyes on her pad as she took their drink order. A hand suddenly grabbed her arm and the chief was looking at her.

He told her to smile. When she asked why he said because he wanted a cup of coffee.
Two and a half years later, Lane, 21, smiles broadly as she recounts the story, masking her struggles.

The journey to set her life straight illustrates the difficulty of leaving gang life behind. She has been in fights, sent back to prison and gunned down. Each time, she returned to the cafe.

Father Gregory Boyle founded Homeboy two decades ago after working in a Roman Catholic parish caught in the middle of gang wars that were fueled in part by the crack cocaine epidemic. The program now provides employment, tattoo-removal, education, and mental health and legal counseling to around 15,000 people a year.

Lane grew up near Boyle's parish and he has known her since she was a child.

"We had shootings morning, noon, and night," Boyle recalled. "She was in the generation that had a lot of babies who were placed by their mothers in bathtubs to avoid the bullets that would fly through the windows at night. It was a war zone."

Both her parents were gang members. Even as a little girl, Lane couldn't wear red because it was the color of the rival Bloods gang.

At age 11 she asked to join her parents in the East Coast Crips, a branch of one of the largest and most violent gangs.

"Growing up with my mother and father both being gang members and drug dealers, I was around a lot of money. I was always around guns. I was always around drugs. I was always around people getting drunk, or somebody getting beaten up," she said. "Everything my dad did, everything my mother did, I always wanted to do better."

The price of her devotion was repeated stints behind bars, starting at age of 13. During her last sentence in a juvenile lockup, Boyle wrote a letter on her behalf that helped reduce her sentence. He offered her job at the cafe.

"When I first came to Homeboys it was hard," she said. "There were Hispanics, there were blacks and Chinese gangs, and all of us have to work together. I saw my enemies from different hoods, I saw girls I'd fought in jail and I thought: I'm not going to be able to do this."

Learning to take orders from people and accept criticism was a challenge. She cussed at one of her bosses and challenged her to a fight. When work ended, she'd return to her old neighborhood, hang around with her fellow gangbangers and get in fights. One night she was shot three times.

Boyle turned up at the hospital with managers and waitresses from Homegirl Cafe.
"She just burst into tears when I told her who was outside," he said.

It was then that she realized things had to change.

"Either I'm going back to jail or I have to switch the way I'm living," she said.

Since recovering from her wounds, she's taken up boxing to channel her anger, waking up early to run each day and training with a coach on weekends.

"Now I look at gangs differently," she explained. "Now I feel like I've got too much to lose. Boxing keeps my head on straight and gets me back in shape. So I'm straight and I like it."

Lane hopes to go into restaurant management. She has started an internship at Ciudad, an upscale restaurant in Los Angeles. She writes grant proposals for Homegirl Cafe's organic garden, and is a favorite amongst the regulars there.

After her initial encounter with former Police Chief William Bratton, she waited on him every Tuesday morning.

Asia needs collective action on natural disasters, says WB

noreply@blogger.com (Thanh) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:47:00 -0700

The World Bank announced on Wednesday the signing of a MoU later this year with the Government of Korea to strengthen cooperation and sharing of expertise in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation among Asian nations.

This is “both timely and relevant, given the increasing convergence of the disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation agendas,” said John Roomem, World Bank Sector Director for Sustainable Development in the East Asia and Pacific region (EAP).

In 2009, World Bank data shows 6 of the 10 countries with the highest losses of GDP from natural disasters were from Asia Pacific, as were 82 percent of all disaster -related deaths since 1997.

It’s also the region’s poorer countries and people who suffer most in terms of number of lives lost, livelihoods and assets destroyed. For instance: low income countries carry about one-eighth the risk of global tropical cyclones but sustain four-fifths of the mortality risk.

With 85 percent of all disaster victims concentrated in the region, mitigating its particular set of vulnerabilities is crucial. These include an unprecedented rate of urbanization, weak institutional arrangements, lack of proper risk monitoring and disaster preparedness, combined with increasing seismic and climatic events.

“Responding to this challenge will require new models of cooperation and coordinated policy responses across multiple sectors, agencies and ministries; and a new set of policy instruments for decision-making under deep uncertainty,” said John Roome.

“The development choices we make today will impact the outcomes of disasters tomorrow, whether it is safer schools and roads, better land use planning or financial planning and improved policy frameworks. We can take action today that will reduce loss of life and economic assets tomorrow,” he added.

New research by the Bank shows the cost of adapting to an approximately 2°Centigrade warmer world by 2050 is in the range of US $75 billion to US$100 billion a year - of which Asia-Pacific’s share is highest.

The findings are part of a forthcoming World Bank report on the Economics of Climate Change which notes the bulk of this investment will be needed to improve and adapt infrastructure including drainage and public buildings, coastal zones, water supply and flood protection. This will account for about 54 percent of adaptation costs, while roads will account for 23 percent.

This highlights the importance of achieving concrete results at the forthcoming UN Climate Change Conference in December in Cancun. While the World Bank Group is not a party to the negotiations, it is deeply concerned that without progress on climate change, progress on global poverty reduction will be undermined.

The Bank is actively working with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and client countries, including in EAP, towards supporting an eventual global deal and enabling action on the ground.

The World Bank has an approximately US$1.5 billion Disaster Risk Management (DRM) portfolio in East Asia and the Pacific. While the bulk of it is targeted at sustainable reconstruction following earthquakes in China and Indonesia, new initiatives include Climate Change Development Policy Loans in Vietnam and Indonesia, risk modeling for the Mekong delta and a proposed Catastrophe Risk Financing framework for the Pacific islands.

Over US$300 million is currently invested in pilots and scaling up of programs that have successfully helped poor communities cope better with disasters, DRM capacity building and early warning systems. The increasingly transnational impact of disasters underlines the importance of strengthening partnerships in disaster risk management and climate change adaptation.

The World Bank, through the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) and its donor members, is emerging as an integral part of the evolving global climate adaptation financing architecture.

“The increased demand from countries for preventive investments in disaster risk reduction in areas like early warning systems, community-based disaster risk management and resilient infrastructure indicates a growing awareness of the risks posed to decades of hard-won growth and poverty reduction from climate change and disasters,” said Abhas Jha, World Bank Program Leader for Disaster Risk Management in East Asia and Pacific.

“The World Bank and its partners are responding to this demand in a number of innovative ways with new financial instruments, risk analysis of investments and capacity building,” he added.

S. Korea to spend billions of dollars to boost birthrate

noreply@blogger.com (Thanh) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:47:00 -0700

S. Korean mothers tend to their babies during a training program in Seoul in 2005

Photo: AFP

S. Korea Tuesday announced plans to spend 75.8 trillion won (US$67.8 billion) over the next five years to boost one of the world's lowest birthrates and prepare for an ageing population.

After years of promoting family planning in a crowded nation of almost 50 million, S. Korea has in recent years become increasingly alarmed at the prospect of an ageing society -- with a huge pensions bill and too few workers to sustain economic growth.

The total fertility rate, the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime, stood at just 1.15 as of 2009 compared to the average in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries of 1.71.

The plan approved by the cabinet represents a 79 percent rise from the 42.2 trillion won allocated for the last five-year plan.

The health and welfare ministry said that as part of the plan, the government will make it easier for newlyweds to receive loans to rent homes. The rights of women workers to take maternity leave would be protected.

Firms will be prodded into setting up in-house day care centers and more public buildings such as libraries will be used to care for workers' offspring.

The government will try to help elderly people find jobs and state pension benefits will be raised to meet increases in the cost of living.

The ministry said that if the plan succeeds, the country's birthrate should reach OECD average levels in 2020, slowing down the ageing of the population.

Separate figures announced by the education ministry showed a steady decline in the number of elementary schoolchildren, to just over half the number in 1970.

The OECD, in a June report, highlighted medium-term economic problems posed by the ageing population.

It said more women should be encouraged to work by narrowing the wage gap with men, expanding the availability of child care and encouraging family-friendly workplaces.

Mexico aims to build record-setting burrito

noreply@blogger.com (Thanh) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:45:00 -0700

More than 3,000 people will roll up a 2.7-kilometer (1.7-mile) burrito next month in Mexico

Photo: AFP

More than 3,000 people will roll up a 2.7-kilometer (1.7-mile) burrito next month in Mexico, hoping to break the last Guinness World Records-setting mega-morsel by 700 meters (yards).

"Fifty-four restaurants and more than 3,000 people, including cooks and gastronomy students" will prepare the 30-centimeter (12-inch) -wide wrap on November 3, National Chamber of Spicy Food Restaurant Industry president Lorena Hinojosa told reporters.

The current record-holding burrito was made in 2000 in eastern Reynosa, on the US border. It stretched two kilometers (1.25 miles) from end to end.

Hinojosa said the rival burrito will take 12 hours to make, starting at midnight, and will pack three tons of fish, two tons of corn flour, half a ton of beans, 200 kilograms (450 pounds) of butter and 200 kilograms of salt.

Once finished and measured for the record book, the burrito will be sliced up and served to 27,000 awaiting people in the Baja California capital La Paz at no charge, she added.

One of Mexico's traditional fares, the burrito was first put together during the Mexican revolution (1910-1920) in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas.

Obama advertising 7-Eleven drink

noreply@blogger.com (Thanh) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:45:00 -0700

US President Barack Obama speaks during a press conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC.

Photo: AFP

Global convenience store chain 7-Eleven has been getting some free advertising for its signature drink the Slurpee from none other than US President Barack Obama.

Obama has used the Slurpee -- a thick, frozen, flavored beverage that is wildly popular with Americans -- in speeches on the campaign trail ahead of next week's midterm elections to illustrate just how obstructionist and ornery Republicans can be.

At a rally at Bowie State University in Maryland this month, Obama said that while his Democratic Party was sweating and pushing to get the US economy out of a ditch, "the Republicans... are just standing there fanning themselves -- sipping on a Slurpee."

According to some political watchers, Obama has mentioned Slurpees in 20 campaign speeches over the last two months.

On Tuesday, 7-Eleven, which operates in Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Hong Kong, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, Taiwan and Thailand, as well as the United States, thanked Obama, taking care not to alienate Slurpee-sipping Republicans.

"Slurpee is bipartisan, but we thank President Obama for the free advertising for our popular drink," 7-Eleven spokeswoman Margaret Chabris told AFP.