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July 15 (Reuters) – Indonesia has targeted raising 4 trillion rupiah ($442.3 million) in a bond auction on July 20, said Bhimantara Widyajala, a director in charge of bond issuance at the finance ministry.
Indonesia’s finance ministry has raised about 64.7 percent of its gross debt target issuance so far this year. (Reporting by Dicky Kristanto; Editing by Neil Chatterjee)
July 15 (Reuters) – Leading Turkish conglomerate Koc Holding (KCHOL.IS) targets an increase of 18 percent in its turnover and 20 percent in its operating profit this year, Dunya newspaper reported the group’s CEO Turgay Durak as saying.
Durak was quoted as telling a group magazine that the group would continue to focus on energy, automotive, consumer durables and financial sectors and would invest 2.2 billion lira ($1.42 billion) this year. ($1=1.545 Turkish Lira) (Editing by Hans Peters)
July 15 (Reuters) – Indonesia has targeted raising 4 trillion rupiah ($442.3 million) in a bond auction on July 20, said Bhimantara Widyajala, a director in charge of bond issuance at the finance ministry.
Indonesia’s finance ministry has raised about 64.7 percent of its gross debt target issuance so far this year. (Reporting by Dicky Kristanto; Editing by Neil Chatterjee)
July 9 (Reuters) – Fujitsu Ltd (6702.T), Japan’s biggest IT services provider, said on Friday it would seek more alliances and acquisitions to beef up its cloud-computing business, and that its main targets would include software firms. (Reporting by Sachi Izumi)
July 9 (Reuters) – Fujitsu Ltd (6702.T), Japan’s biggest IT services provider, said on Friday it plans to invest 100 billion yen ($1.1 billion) in its cloud-computing business this financial year, the majority of its companywide capital spending.
Fujitsu, the world’s third biggest IT services vendor after IBM (IBM.N) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ.N), also said it would keep its 2011/12 targets for 250 billion yen in operating profit and 130 billion yen in net profit. (Reporting by Sachi Izumi)
The number of attempted domestic attacks against the United States over the past nine months has surpassed the number of attempts during any other previous one-year period, CNN reported, citing an unclassified Department of Homeland Security memo.
The memo prepared for law enforcement groups expects operatives in the country to strike at easily accessible targets. It specifically mentioned the Times Square bombing suspect Faisal Shahzad and Najibullah Zazi, who pleaded guilty in February to plotting attacks on New York’s subways, CNN said.
The memo was dated May 21, CNN said in a story that ran on its website late Wednesday.
The Department of Homeland Security also expressed concern about the pace of attempted attacks, saying they were happening inside the United States with “increased frequency.”
It noted a trend in groups such as al Qaeda to use Westerners as operatives and leaders.
(Reporting by Lisa Lambert; Editing by Bill Trott)
West Indies batsman Marlon Samuels marked his return from a two-year suspension with a half-century for Jamaica against the United States on Saturday and said he was targeting a return to the international scene.
Samuels, 29, was banned in 2008 for passing on team information to a bookmaker during a one-day series in India in January 2007.
“After 735 days to be back playing the game that I love to get fifty today was wonderful. I have had a wonderful welcome from the Jamaican team and it is so good to be back,” he told Reuters at the Lauderhill cricket ground in Florida.
The Jamaican, who has insisted he did no wrong and said he was made a scapegoat by officials, struck the ball well for 52 off 61 balls in the Twenty20 victory, a day after making 11 in a 50 over match.
Samuels was not allowed to play at any level of cricket and said he was even barred from playing in friendly club matches in Jamaica.
“It was tough but at the end of the day, the Almighty doesn’t give anyone a challenge that they can’t bear. It was most definitely unfair but I have to put that behind me and move forward,” he said.
“My love for the game kept me going, my love for the game is never dying so I just continued to practice and work as hard as possible.
“I knew the ban would come to an end and I would come back and carry on where I left off,” he said, adding that he had continued to work on his skills during his time out of the game.
“I have my own personal bowling machine which I invested in and I also have never had a shortage of people who would come and bowl to me,” he said.
With plenty of West Indies batsmen struggling for form at the moment, Samuels could be in line for a quick return to the Caribbean team, captained by fellow Jamaican Chris Gayle.
“I’m dealing with the future like I dealt with the last two years, just taking it in my stride. I’m in good nick, so I’m just looking to continue scoring runs and hope my runs will put where I deserve to be.
“Encouragement is always there. Chris is my best friend, we keep communicating and talk about cricket continuously. West Indies aren’t doing well at the moment but we can only improve,” he said.
(Editing by Justin Palmer; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)
Moscow, May 19 (ANI): Russia is planning to build the world’s first fifth-generation combat helicopter which would be able to attack fighter jets and be invisible to radars, analysts have said
“We are working on the concept of the fifth-generation combat helicopter,” Russian daily Gazeta quoted Russian Helicopters CEO, Andrei Shibitov, as saying.
Shibitov did not specify the characteristics of the helicopter, but said the company was going to spend some one billion dollars on the project, with more investment expected to be allocated from the state budget.
First deputy head of the Russian Academy of Geopolitical Problems, Konstantin Sivkov, told the paper that fifth-generation combat helicopters have never been created before, although the US recently began working on a similar project.
He said criteria for a fifth-generation combat helicopter are that it must be radar invisible, have an extended flying range, be equipped with an intellectual arms control system, be able to combat fighter jets (existing helicopters are generally only intended to hit ground-based targets) and reach a speed of up to 500-600 km/h (310-370 mph).
The project cannot proceed, however, unless the government backs it.
“If the government does not sign a contract, the idea will die on the vine,” head of the Russian Academy of Geopolitical Problems Leonid Ivashov told Gazeta.
Ivashov said that with sufficient investment and good organization the new helicopter could be built within five years. Otherwise, the project may drag on for 20-30 years. (ANI)
Sunshine Coast Mayor Bob Abbot says he hopes tonight’s federal budget includes more money for the upgrade of the Cooroy to Curra stretch of the Bruce Highway in south-east Queensland.
The Federal Government allocated $488 million for the road upgrade in its last budget.
Councillor Abbot says he is also seeking funding for the Sunshine Coast Airport and the announcement of projects that will be funded through the Green Carbon Fund.
“That’s another critical point for us, the east-west runway is something that we’re planning for and hope to get some money on,” he said.
“There’s a Green Carbon Fund which was announced back in November last year and we’ve seen no projects come out of that yet even though there’s been a number of applications in, so we’re really keen to see that get activated in this budget.”
Johannesburg, May 11 (ANI): South Africa captain Graeme Smith has said there are no excuses for his team’s early exit from the World Twenty20 cup tournament.
“You can’t go on making excuses,” Sports24.com quoted Smith, as saying.
He seemed to suggest that changes in the national squad were needed to make a mark in the shorter forms of the game.
Cricket South Africa CEO Gerald Majola said: “The early exit yet again by the Proteas from an ICC world tournament is a huge disappointment to say the least. Going into the ICC World Twenty20, the Proteas believed they had all the bases covered to get to the top regarding preparation, skills and support.”
“The hardest pill to swallow now is that the squad was not marginally beaten on any of the finish lines, but faltered well short of their targets in the early stages. We now await an explanation for this from the team and management,” he added. (ANI)
Karachi, May 8 (ANI): Pakistani intelligence agencies have freed many suspected militants, including two Jaish-e-Muhammed operatives, who were arrested over alleged links with Faisal Shahzad, the American citizen of Pakistani origin who has confessed to have plotted the bungled Times Square bombing.
Sources said intelligence agencies have released most of the 20 members of various banned terror outfits, who were apprehended to probe whether they maintained any links with Shahzad.
They were sent back to their homes on Friday night after they were found innocent. Besides the JeM men, some others had also been released, The Daily Times quoted sources privy to the issue as saying.
It is not clear whether Sheik Mohammed Rehan, a top notch JeM leader, who purportedly drove Shahzad from Karachi to Peshawar in July 2009, was arrested or not.
Pakistan had banned the JeM, the terror group which has close links with Al-Qaeda and primarily targets India, in 2002, but analysts believe that it is receiving continuous help from the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Some experts are also of the view that the ISI had actually facilitated the terror group’s formation. (ANI)
OSLO, May 5 (Reuters) – Statoil ASA (STL.OL) said:
Stocks | Energy
* Affirms 2010 oil and gas production guidance of 1.925-1.975 mln boed
* Affirms 2012 oil and gas production guidance of 2.1-2.2 mln boed
* Planned turnarounds to limit output by 30 mln boed in Q2, by avg of 50 mboed in 2010
* Affirms 2010 capital expenditure target of $13 bln
* 2010 unit production cost goal of NOK 35-36 per barrel of oil equivalent
* Gas market to stay challenging in near term, sees volatile commodity prices
* Refining margins have improved slightly, but to remain at low levels in near term
* Affirms 2010 exploration budget of $2.3 bln, plans to drill some 50 wells
(Reporting by Oslo newsroom)
Aurangabad, May 6 (ANI): Farmers are lamenting the damage to their mango crops in various regions of Maharashtra due to hailstones and early rainfall.
Every year Aurangabad district exports around 70 tons of Kesar Mangoes to USA.
But earlier this week, due to hailstorms and unexpected rainfall, the mangoes have been damaged, and developed holes and bruises.
“Almost all the mango crops in this area have been affected by rain and hailstones. Some officials from the agriculture and revenue department came to inspect the crops,” said Vinayak Pathrikar, mango farmer.
The farmers fear that they will not be able to meet the export targets.
“The quality of the mango crops has now deteriorated for the purpose of export. That is why this year we won”t be able to achieve the export targets. Especially in Gangapur…and Aurangabad, hailstorms have damaged the crops to a large extent, especially the Kesar mango crops,” said Trayambak Pathrikar, Secretary, Mango Growers Association, Aurangabad.
Farmers receive Rs 70,000-75, 000 for every ton of mangoes exported to the US, and make an annual profit of Rs 4.5 million.
Kesar Mango has a unique sweet taste and is characterized by its golden colour with green overtones. The fruit is slightly smaller compared to the Alphonso variety. (ANI)
London, Apr 27 (ANI): England footballers have been asked to hire guards to protect their WAGS and families at home while they are playing in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Ace players, including skipper Rio Ferdinand, could spend up to six weeks in South Africa for the World Cup, and this makes their mansions easy targets for a gang dubbed the “Away Day Robbers”.
At least 20 players’ pads have been raided in the North West, including Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard’s when he was playing at away games, The Sun reports.
Professional Fotballers Association chief Gordon Taylor said: “We’ve had families being intimidated, if not attacked, particularly when it’s known players are at games.
“Everybody will know those who are in South Africa,” he added. (ANI)
South Korean teenager Noh Seung-yul has his sights set on becoming the youngest winner of the Asian Tour order of merit title after taking top spot following a strong finish at the Ballantine’s Championship.
The 18-year-old fired a final round four-under-par 68 on Sunday to finish five shots behind winner Marcus Fraser of Australia in a tie for fourth but the $137,760 cheque moved him above Andrew Dodt in the earnings standings.
“It’s nice to be on top of the Asian Tour order of merit and I hope to do well to secure my position,” Noh said in an Asian Tour statement on Monday.
“I know if I win the order of merit, I’ll be the youngest player to do so but at the moment, I don’t want to think too far ahead as there are still many more events this year and things might change. I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself.”
The slender teenager learned to play by hitting balls on the beach near his home and made his global breakthrough with a victory at the co-sanctioned Malaysian Open last month, becoming the youngest professional winner on the European Tour.
Noh followed that up by qualifying for the British Open the following week through International Final Qualifying (Asia) in a hot and humid Malaysia but dealt well gloomy conditions at home during last week’s 54-hole Ballantine’s Championship.
“It was a tough week especially with the fog delay during the opening round,” Noh added.
“The weather conditions were tough but I’m happy I played well under all these circumstances and I know my game can only get better when I play against these strong players.”
(Writing by Patrick Johnston; Editing by John O’Brien; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)
Washington, April 21 (ANI): Airport security can fail to spot banned items like box cutters if they identify an easy-to-spot prohibited item like a water bottle, a new American research has found.
The Duke University study has appeared online in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied.
For the study, Stephen Mitroff, an assistant professor of psychology & neuroscience at Duke and his group asked college students to identify specific targets on a computer display – in this case, two perpendicular lines that form the letter “T” amid distracters, such as Ls and non-Ts.
In some cases, Ts were easy to spot, and in other cases more difficult because they blended in with the background.
In an initial set of experiments, Mitroff and his team altered the frequency of easy- and hard-to-spot targets.
When the two kinds of targets appeared with equal frequency, subjects apparently had no trouble finding the hard-to-spot target in the presence of an easy one.
But when the easy-to-spot item was two or three times more common, the subjects tended to overlook the hard-to-spot targets.
When Mitroff”s group doubled the time allowed for each search, they saw that the students used barely a second of extra time but were significantly more accurate.
Mitroff said: “It didn”t seem to do with time itself, but it seems to be the time pressure.
“When you have the impending time pressure of going quickly, you are more likely to miss a second target.”
Interestingly, the data do not suggest subjects miss the second targets because they are too quick to end their search, an idea that would have bolstered the original satisfaction-of-search principle.
Mitroff said: “There seems to be some other mechanism, but it”s not exactly clear what it is.”
One possible explanation is an idea called “attentional set,” which suggests that finding one kind of target will make you more likely to find that same type of target rather than a new, different one.
In radiology, it is like finding a fracture, which makes you more likely to find a second fracture rather than some other anomaly.
In an additional set of experiments, the researchers added time and accuracy pressure to the test by introducing small baggage icons that appeared along the top of the screen, mimicking a new bag on the security conveyer belt.
One bag disappeared when subjects finished searching each display.
They earned points for each display and the more quickly and accurately the subjects could identify the targets, the higher the points they received.
For one group of subjects, researchers set the speed of bags based on the each person”s performance in a previous practice session.
That group wasn”t any worse at finding the second target than the first.
In contrast, subjects following a brisk rate set by the researchers were worse at finding the second target.
Mitroff said: “The results fit with what we think would happen if you remove the searcher from seeing the line.”
In a remote search, the screeners will not know whether there is one person or 500 people waiting.
He added: “It”s not in use, but these data suggest that it might be something worth trying.”
Mitroff”s group now plans to replace T-targets with multiple targets of different types, such as tools and bottles. (ANI)
London, Apr 16(ANI): Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is reportedly using social networking website Facebook as a platform to show videos and speeches to Islamic militants.
According to reports, Osama has a page named “The leader of the Mujahideen, Osama bin Laden” and his address is given as “the mountains of the world”.
Following the revelation, security experts have urged Facebook’s US office to shut down the page.
The account became active less than a month ago, but had already attracted nearly 1,000 extremists, and although the language used is Arabic, messages in English have started to appear, The Sun reports.
Internet terror expert and author Neil Doyle said: “Bin Laden, via his supporters, is clearly taunting his pursuers.”
Since 2001, Osama and his organization have been major targets of the United States’ War on Terror.
There is a 16 million pound reward for his capture, and he along with other Al-Qaeda leaders are believed to be hiding near the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
London, Apr 16(ANI): Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is reportedly using social networking website Facebook as a platform to show videos and speeches to Islamic militants.
According to reports, Osama has a page named “The leader of the Mujahideen, Osama bin Laden” and his address is given as “the mountains of the world”.
Following the revelation, security experts have urged Facebook’s US office to shut down the page.
The account became active less than a month ago, but had already attracted nearly 1,000 extremists, and although the language used is Arabic, messages in English have started to appear, The Sun reports.
Internet terror expert and author Neil Doyle said: “Bin Laden, via his supporters, is clearly taunting his pursuers.”
Since 2001, Osama and his organization have been major targets of the United States’ War on Terror.
There is a 16 million pound reward for his capture, and he along with other Al-Qaeda leaders are believed to be hiding near the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas. (ANI)
HELSINKI, April 14 (Reuters) – Finnish steel maker Rautaruukki’s (RTRKS.HE) chief executive said M&A activity was picking up after the downturn, with more active contacts from would-be sellers.
Basic Materials
“There are many purchase targets available. Contacts from sellers have increased,” Sakari Tamminen told a seminar in Helsinki on Wednesday.
Tamminen said while uncertainty surrounding the outlooks of many companies was still a problem, valuations were moving towards more sensible levels and the availability of financing had improved.
“Some kind of realism is returning into valuations,” he said.
Rautaruukki made a number of acquisitions in 2004 through 2006 as the company moves its focus from basic steel manufacturing to making components and systems for engineering and construction.
Tamminen said Rautaruukki was looking for targets with a different business cycle than the steel business and with operations that could easily be copied to many locations. (Reporting by Terhi Kinnunen; Editing by David Holmes)
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is to detail plans for $500 million in funding to help cut waiting times in public hospital emergency wards.
The money will be given to the states and territories if agreement is reached on his health reform package.
Under the plan, hospitals will be given $150 million to help improve services in emergency departments from July this year.
Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon says another $350 million will be allocated to hospitals that meet targets to cut waiting times.
“This is providing extra resources to our hard-working doctors and nurses in our emergency departments to ensure they can meet a new four hour target for people to be admitted to hospital, referred to follow-up treatment or treated and discharged,” she said.
It will be phased in over four years and will start with the patients who have the most urgent cases.
Ms Roxon says Government figures show that about one in three patients wait for more than eight hours in emergency wards for treatment.
Mr Rudd is expected to release more details about the proposal later this morning in Queensland.
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