The IHT logo will feature prominently on the front page and inside there will be a daily four-page version of its World Business with Reuters section, giving Financial Chronicle readers daily news and analysis on what is happening in companies and deals and in the financial markets around the world. This latest development for the IHT builds on recent expansion of its circulation in New Delhi and Mumbai where the paper is now available early each morning.

Stephen Dunbar-Johnson, publisher of the IHT said: “Working with the Deccan Chronicle Group, a dynamic company with a proven track record in the market, will allow us to meet the growing appetite for high quality business content in India and make the IHT available to thousands more readers each morning throughout the country.”

T. Venkattram Reddy, the chairman of Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited, said: “The Financial Chronicle, our newest title, was launched to satisfy India’s thirst for quality business news and crafted as a pure-play business daily to build on the aspirations of a young and prosperous India. We could not have asked for a better publisher than the IHT to provide the international business dimension.”

Ref: www.IHTinfo.com/press

'The Mediterranean diet sinks in a sea of obesity- Elisabeth Rosenthal, International Herald Tribune, 25/09/08

Not about the UK or the US, surprisingly Greece has problems with obesity too.

The Mediterranean diet that often uses olive oil, fresh produce and fish, has been associated with longer life spans and lower rates of heart disease and cancer. However, it is now in retreat in its home area and are replaced with fast food. Today in Greece, two-thirds of children are now overweight, and three-quarters of the adult population is overwegiht or obese, the worst rate by far according to the UN.           

The Greek government is alarmed by the trend in obesity and its health effects, and have been visiting schools annually for the past few years to weigh children and lecture them on nutrition. '"It was the talk of the school," said Stella Kazazakou, 44, whose son Theodore is 9. "Instead of grades, the moms were comparing cholesterol levels."'

Dr. Antonia Trichopoulou, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Athens Medical School, said the problem had grown dramatically with the spread of supermarkets and, especially, convenience foods. Advertising has swooped widely across Greece; there are TV commercials for chips, there are stands of candy at supermarkets.

'But facing both aggressive convenience food marketing and obesity for the first time, many rural residents here have little resistance to or knowledge of the dangers.

Trichopoulou said that some older people might have even been tolerant of childhood chubbiness because Greece had for so long been a poor nation where hunger was a recurrent problem.

The traditional diet, low in saturated fats and high in nutrients like flavonoids, was based on vegetables, fruit, unrefined grains, olive oil for cooking and for flavoring, and a bit of wine - all consumed on a daily basis.

Fish, nuts, poultry, eggs, cheese and sweets were weekly additions.

Red meat, refined sugar or flour, butter and other oils or fats were consumed rarely, if at all.'

It was surprising to find that a country known for their healthy lifestyle is facing obesity problems and it was refreshing to read on a country other than the UK and US.

The article gives figures on the percentage of obese children, adults and daily cholesterol consumption, and compares them with figures of the US and other European countries, to show the dramatic change in lifestyle over the years. The article explains how obesity had become a problem in Greece and what the government is doing to tackle it, giving a deeper overview of the topic.

Unlike the other International Herald Tribune articles I discussed, the first part of this article was introduced on the front page of the newspaper, and continued onto the main part of the newspaper. Since it was featured on the front page, it has a large possibility of attracting reader's attentions (though the top article would have attracted the most). The article did not particularly include scientific words that were difficult to understand and it was easy to follow the article. The front page part of the article was placed next to a colour picture of another article (though it looked like it could have been featured for both) and the continuing part of the article featured a picture and a chart making it easier to understand and attract the eye of the reader. Both parts of the article were placed in the middle of the page, the latter part taking a large amount of space so there is a good chance that it would be read by many people.

Really, there's lots of disasters that can be directly linked to the fewer-than-usual days of Richard M. Nixon as President.

Abroad: the bombing of neutral Cambodia and Laos, resulting in 4 students dead at Kent State in Ohio, and the establishment of the genocidal Pol Pot regime; the threat to India with nuclear-powered USS Enterprise in 1971, resulting in India's and subsequently Pakistan's nuclear (bomb) programs; the approval of Pinochet's bloody coup in Chile in 1973, with a dwindling support for US interests by Latin American governments ever since.

Domestically: the end of all human voyages beyond Earth orbit; the ballooning-up of the Federal Government with the establishment of a long list of Government Agencies; the abuse of Presidential powers with their following corrosion for more than a quarter of a century; the "culture wars" between Republicans and Democrats, all trying to despise each other most; Donald Rumsfeld; and of course the original declaration of the "war on drugs" that surely must have been the most inefficient endeavor ever taken by humanity.

Nixon's Presidency started a little less than forty years ago. Its legacy, who knows when it will end?

China's Robber-Baron Ways

Only a short time after China's magnificent Olympic coming-out party, the land of Mao's successors found itself making less celebratory news.

"Tainted Milk Formula Sickens Thousands of Chinese Infants" read one of many recent headlines. Twenty-two companies that produce or distribute milk powder had been secretly adding melamine, normally used for making plastics and glue, into milk powder, making thousands of infants sick and causing several deaths.

It is one of the puzzling questions about China: How can a country that organized such a splendid Olympic splash be the same country that produces deadly food scares on a regular basis?

The answer says a lot about today's China. In its March to modernity, Beijing's ruling Communist Party took off the economic shackles of the Mao years and relaunched the country as a capitalist-communist state - a real oddball coupling, if ever there was one. Part of this process involved the radical devolution of economic power to over 30 provinces, fostering a kind of anarchic federalism.

As with American federalism, the national government in China is responsible for certain duties and the country's provincial governments are responsible for others. But in China, none of this arrangement is written down or spelled out anywhere, as it is in the U.S. Constitution.

Instead, it is still a work in progress, with provincial officials taking as much rope as they dare. Power at the provincial level is still vested in the local Communist Party, but also intertwined with personal and family networks, motivated by the former leader Deng Xiaoping's maxim, "to get rich is glorious."

That's an odd motivation for the heirs of Karl Marx, and in practice it's led to lots of cronyism and corruption.

The scale of corruption in China is startling. The Chinese researcher Sun Yan has written that the average "take" in the 1980s was $5,000, but now it is over $250,000. The number of arrests of senior Communist Party members quadrupled between 1992 and 2001. Four provincial governors and one provincial party secretary recently were charged with corruption.

Even at the level of the central government, corruption has been debilitating and helps set the national tone. High-level officials, including the mayor of Beijing, a vice chairman of the National People's Congress, the former president of the Bank of China, the vice governor of the People's Bank of China and the director of China's foreign exchange administration, were arrested and imprisoned for embezzlement and fraud. One of them eventually was executed, and another leaped to his death.

To put that in perspective, says the author Will Hutton, it would be as if the mayor of New York, the speaker of the House of Representatives, and the chief executives of Goldman Sachs and Citibank, along with a governor of the Federal Reserve, were all either imprisoned for fraud, executed or committed suicide.

The Chinese economist Hu Angang has estimated an annual economic loss due to corruption of approximately 15 percent of GDP. In this climate, cutting foreign substances into milk formula, pet food or medicine becomes standard operating procedure, like a drug dealer looking to maximize the street value of his stash by mixing in filler material.

To be fair, not all the provinces and not all the business people or bureaucrats engage in such illicit behavior. And China's leadership has taken steps to crack down. Punishments have been increased, tougher laws have been passed. Officials now are forbidden to enter business relationships with family members. Audits and anti-corruption screenings have been introduced.

But when I questioned a Chinese official about corruption, his defense - "we're not as bad as Burma" - was hardly convincing.

Yes, the central government in Beijing can use its authoritarian power to pull off a brilliant Olympics party. And over the past 30 years, the Chinese leadership has accomplished the remarkable feat of lifting 400 million people out of poverty. But China is still very much a developing country, plagued by a mess of contradictions.

It is difficult to imagine how the country's anarchic, robber-baron ways will serve China well for the next 30 years. Either political reform and accountability will slowly take root, or China's modernization will falter.

Steven Hill is director of the Political Reform Program of the New America Foundation.

National Football League players are lionized for figuratively giving their bodies to the sport. Now, some retired players are planning to give their brains to a new center at Boston University's School of Medicine devoted to studying the long-term effects of concussions.

A dozen athletes, including six NFL players and a former U.S. women's soccer player, have agreed to donate their brains after their deaths to the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy.

On Thursday, the center will announce that a fifth deceased NFL player, former Houston Oilers linebacker John Grimsley, was found to have brain damage commonly associated with boxers.

The former New England linebacker Ted Johnson, one of the players who has agreed to donate his brain, said he hoped the center would help clarify the issue of concussions' long-term effects. The NFL says that, in regard to its players, the long-term effects of concussions are uncertain. READ MORE

'Weight-loss surgery is only half the battle'- Jane E. Brody, International Herald Tribune, 18/09/08

This weeks' health and science section of the International Tribune included an article about the difficulties of weight maintenance of people who had had gastric bypass surgery. Many people, including I, would have thought having surgery is an instant cure for obesity, but the article explains that in fact, not only strict rules of diet and exercise applies afterwards, but many people find it difficult to maintain their weight and actually put back some of the weight they had lost.

Dr Philip Schauer, bariatric surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic and past president of the bariatric society,says "Up to 15 percent lose a lot of weight initially, then gain weight back. The difference between a great result and a good result is aftercare."

"Patients do best," he continued, "when they participate in a program that provides continuing education, psychological counseling, diet and nutrition support. Exercise matters absolutely. One of the best predictors of success is the degree to which the individual has a regular exercise program."

There are various types of operation. They reduce the amount people can consume at a given time and the amount of digested food they can absorb, by creating a much smaller stomach and bypassing part of the small intestine.

Some facts from the article:

- about 15 million Americans are morbidly obese, with a BMI of 40 or more

-last year, about 205,000 people underwent surgery to help them lose 100 or more pounds that they have been unable to shed and keep off any other way (estimated by the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric  Surgery)

These figures are huge!

A reason why many patients find it difficult to maintain their weight after surgery is because operations do not cure underlying psychological problems that prompt them to overeat or eat the most fattening foods.

My immediate impression after reading the article was sympathy for the patients. 

The article features interviews of three women who had had the surgery, and of a doctor and combines it with facts and figures to give an insight and understanding into the difficulties that the patients face.

This article was placed at the bottom left corner of the health and science section of the newspaper.The front cover of the newspaper runs a secondary lead for another article in the Health and Science section, which will lead some readers to the page. Although the article I am discussing does not contain any images, it took a large enough space of the page to be noticed. Though the narrow article next to it including an image and bold sub-headlines looks easier to read, this article would catch the interest of many people, since many people will be familiar with reading articles on obesity. The article provides these people with a better understanding about having surgery, as well as acting as a warning to people considering to take the surgery; the article ends with a quote from a patient '...if you don't know why you're eating, you shouldn't do the surgery.'

Seriousness of the article is conveyed by the fact that it does not contain any images, and that it includes a clip from the main copy highlighted in bold in the middle of the article, reading 'An operation does not cure underlying psychological factors that prompt many people to overeat.', as if calling over a stern warning to readers.

Previously this has been blocked by vested interests in general news and current affairs publishing that have not wanted to face India-based foreign competition for readers, advertising and staff in either newspapers or magazines. (Foreign general interest publications have been allowed for some time.)

Those vested interests are mainly big publishing houses such as the Times of India’s Bennett Coleman group, plus one or two more ideological lobbyists such as N.Ram of the Hindu group, and the political Left.

The reason (excuse would be a better word) has been that Indian minds should be protected from such foreign influence – an insulting idea at any time, and a nonsense in an era of rolling international tv news and the internet.

As a result, till this week, foreign news publications could only publish and print facsimile copies of an edition published abroad. This has meant that they have not been allowed to insert Indian advertising into a local edition, which has made such editions financially unviable. The alternative has been to produce a new publication, with a maximum 26% foreign direct investment (FDI) but with only 20% of the editorial content from abroad.

Consequently most stayed away, with some exceptions, as people tested the policy.

Three foreign daily newspapers have appeared here in different forms, and one has failed:

– The Asian Age and Deccan Chronicle group has been publishing a slimmed down version of the International Herald Tribune for some time from Hyderabad, basically busting the policy but uninterrupted by the government which did not seem to know how to stop it.

– The India Today group last year launched Mail Today with 26% FDI from publishers of the UK’s Daily Mail, producing a lively look-alike of the UK product, primarily with local content but with some from the UK.

– The Wall Street Journal has helped (without any FDI) to produce the HT Media group’s excellent business daily, Mint, which was launched last year with restricted content from the Journal and has raised the bar for Indian standards of business journalism.

– The Financial Times tried from the mid-1980s to establish itself – first through a relationship, and then a 13.85% equity stake, in the Business Standard. It also tried to print a foreign edition. But it was blocked on both counts by supposed-friends as well as foes.

Among magazines, Fortune and Forbes have both been in talks for a year or so with Aveek Sarkar of Calcutta’s ABP (Anand Bazaar Patrika) group and TV-18’s Network-18 group to produce their publications. Till this week, these would have had to have 80% local content and different titles, and it would have been extremely difficult for them to produce magazines that matched their US versions.

That will now change. The government’s statement said that news magazines editorial “content would be allowed to be up to 100% identical to the foreign magazine concerned and the India publisher would be free to add local content……and local advertisements.” Foreign titles are also being allowed.

That dramatically changes the commercial viability of opening up in India, even though some of the old rules will still apply – the publishers will have to be Indian registered companies holding no more than 26% foreign equity, with the businesses and editing run primarily by Indian nationals.

So Fortune and Forbes can use their foreign titles and have as much foreign content and local advertising as they like.
 
Watch out for The Economist, Time, Newsweek and Business Week moving in too. Some will editionalise for India. Others, presumably including The Economist that produces the same edition (slightly rearranged) all over the world, will not.

I wonder if this would have happened if the Communist-led Left Front were still supporting the Congress-led government! They were a front for commercial interests and have lost their clout.

Freed of those shackles, the government announcement said: “The decision will provide Indian readers access to foreign magazines at cheaper rates in comparison to the same magazines imported at much higher rates. The Indian reader would be benefited immensely as he/she would be able to keep abreast with the latest events and happenings on the global scale”.

Isn't it amazing that the government has suddenly discovered this! The next step should be to allow foreign newspapers - soon.

According to ETV reports, Captain Francois Ramashile received three bullets, fatally wounding him. His wife was unharmed and nothing was stolen from his Shoshaguve home. Police have opened a murder investigation, although the possibility of an assassination has not been ruled out.

I unfortunately didn't have a chance to read the papers today, but I have been looking through my regular online media sites, and it seems eerily quiet out there. Our local media, excluding ETV, have not made mention. Other international publications have however taken note, including the International Herald Tribune, Bloomberg and the New York Times.

Perhaps SA journos are preoccupied with the outcome of the ANC's National Executive Committee discussions as to whether or not they'll be asking the President to resign, but surely the uncanny timing of a story such as this is newsworthy?

Is it just me or is it getting a little chilly in here?

Here, I would discuss 2 articles that were written under the same section of the International Herald Tribune.

'Eating nuts may lower risk of developing diverticulosis' -Anahad O'Connor, International Herald Tribune, 11/09/08

Until now, doctors have advised diverticuosis patients to keep away from nuts and foods with small seeds, since they may cause severe intestinal complications.

However a study recently published in the American Medical Association has found that eating these foods not only increases the risk of complications, but may even reduce the risk of developing the disease.

...with me?

'Diverticulosis causes intense pain in the abdomen and leads to the rupture of small pouches in the colon, called diverticuli.'

The study found that those who ate the most nuts, twice a week or more, had a 20% lower risk of developing diverticulitis than those who ate the least. Those who ate popcorn at least twice a week had a 28% lower risk. 'The authors say the benefits may come from nutrients and fibre in nuts and light popcorn'.

The fact that they mention that the patients eat popcorn reflects the American culture, which I thought was interesting. I don't think popcorn makes a large part of out eating culture here in the UK, and had this study took place in UK, they may not had made the finding.

'Vitamin B12 and Brain Size'- Nicholas Bakalar, International Herald Tribune, 11/09/08

The American newspaper also took attention to the British study that I wrote about in the earlier post.

'Now a British study suggests that low levels of the vitamin in older people may cause the brain to shrink'. After reading this phrase I felt a surprise, a realization of the fear that the brain shrinks as you get older. In the laurel on health food blog, I took the information casually, but the wording in the International Herald Tribune newspaper made it much more frightening.

What the blog explained as 'brain disorder', the newspaper calls 'mental impairment', and the wording is much more difficult in the newspaper than the blog. The newspaper also talked much more in detail of how the study was carried out.

These articles were placed at the bottom left hand corner of the newspaper in the health and science section, sectioned off two larger articles that included pictures. Since the articles I discussed took a small area of the newspaper at the bottom and did not include any pictures, the other two articles above it dominated the health and science section of the paper. In terms of the whole page, an even larger article with a larger picture at the top of the newspaper dominates the page even more and makes the articles unlikely to be read. The headings of the articles I discussed have a heading with a smaller font than other articles on the page, making it also less likely to be read. However, the front cover of the newspaper runs a secondary lead for another article in the Health and Science section, which will lead some readers to the page.

"Societies are not monolithic blocks that go global all at once. Social change has early and late adopters, and the choices of the timely alter the options among which the tardy must subsequently choose. And so a defining fact about globalisation may be that it has freed untold millions from inherited destinies, even as it makes others feel as though their control over fate is slipping away."

Read the full article: In India, the paradox of 'choice' in a globalised culture 

Also read: 'Globalisation + Localisation = Humanisation'

Is patriotism dead in the age of globalisation?

'Globalisation and terrorism are closely linked'

La storia della rinascita del melograno di Kandahar l'hanno raccontata parecchi, soprattutto in Canada data la forte presenza di truppe canadesi in quell'area dell'Afghanistan. Alti e bassi di una coltivazione frutticola ai tempi dell'oppio in un paese in guerra li ha descritti il Globe and Mail, mentre Time ha coperto la notizia dando un taglio meno empatico e più commerciale. Ancora più legato alla lavorazione ed al commercio il report dell'International Herald Tribune. Tutti concordano comunque sul fatto che l'incremento dei consumi di succhi di melograno in Occidente abbia rappresentato un volano fondamentale per dare il via a queste esperienze.

Il Guardian invece ha puntato tutto sul racconto in presa diretta dell'esperienza di James Brett, eccentrico proprietario di un'importante azienda inglese del settore dei succhi salutistici, che si è lanciato -è il caso di dirlo- anima e corpo nella coltivazione del melograno al confine tra Afghanistan e Pakistan, in piena area tribale. La storia di Brett ed i successi riscossi da questa sua avventura decisamente audace sono particolarmente interessanti, dato che il nostro è un ex spacciatore redento giunto a produrre e commercializzare il primo succo di melograno d'Inghilterra. I suoi sforzi a Kandahar sembrano pagare bene soprattutto nella competizione con la coltivazione del papavero da oppio.

Nel video qui sotto, la presentazione di alcuni frutti al presidente Karzai in occasione delle prime esportazioni legate ad un progetto promosso da Roots for Peace.

Anche se esistono molte cose da fare, pur a fronte di investiment alquanto cospicui, e sebbene sia da valutare la sostenibilità della coltivazione in assenza di sussidi esterni, il melograno nell'area di Kandahar ha garantito nel 2007 un raccolto di circa 40.000 tonnellate, divenute quasi 70.000 nel 2008, con un incremento dell'export da meno di 3.000 ad oltre 25.000 tonnellate, che potranno crescere grazie ad un nuovo centro di stoccaggio da poco costruito. Nel primo anno di export il melograno ha garantito all'Afghanistan un volume d'affari di circa un milione di dollari. Cifre forse ridicole per una PMI europea ma importanti anche a livello simbolico per mettere in moto una macchina che funziona anche a speranza.

Some people will call his new worry a tad unethical and hypocritical, with him having won six elections as sole Presidential candidate and now trying to get re-elected for a seventh time.

But who knows? Perhaps President Gayoom will reconsider his priorities, and devote himself full time on solving the global warming issue: finally freeing up his people to choose their new, democratic leader. Ah, and to express their opinions unafraid of the State's repressive policing.

This should be of particular interest to those whose curiousities were piqued by the New York Times article (link is actually to the affiliated International Herald Tribune) that implied that the timing of the bailout was in part due to an accounting issue (overstatement of the companies' capitalization).

I always wondered when reading articles like this whether the subject was just over my head or if the article was just horribly written.  Now I know it's both.

No one digests a business journalist like Tanta.

... and the cow goes moo

Furthermore, I don't see why the balance of power in this situation involves the US making concessions for India ... is China not just as much of a threat to India as it is to the United States? (that wasn't a redundant question ... I am honestly wondering). 

All in all, this diplomatic initiative has always seemed strange to me and doesn't seem less so today.

From the IHT:

The worldwide body that regulates the sale of nuclear fuel and technology has approved a landmark deal to allow India to engage in nuclear trade for the first time in three decades, after a pressure campaign by the Bush administration and despite concerns about setting off an arms race in Asia.

Only one hurdle now remains for the deal: final approval by the U.S. Congress. Passage is likely to be difficult, considering both political opposition and dwindling time on the congressional calendar before the elections in November.

If the agreement approved Saturday by the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group, or NSG, passes, it would symbolize the deepening strategic ties between the United States and India, seen as a potential balancing power to a rising China.

It would also be enormously lucrative for sellers of nuclear fuel and technology all over the world; India plans to import at least eight nuclear reactors by 2012, according to projections by the U.S. State Department.

State Department officials were ecstatic about the vote. "I don't think a lot of people thought we'd be able to get this through the NSG this weekend," said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was in Algiers.

Both President George W. Bush and the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, have cast the nuclear agreement as a legacy issue. The White House said the two leaders spoke to each other on Saturday.

Indian and American proponents of the deal hailed its approval Saturday as a historic opportunity to meet India's growing energy demands while allowing New Delhi to come into what Singh called "the nuclear mainstream." Its critics warned that such a sweeping exemption for India, which has developed an atomic weapons program but steadfastly refused to sign the global nonproliferation treaty, sets a dangerous precedent.

Dear Editors of the IHT

It is commendable for William Falk to take upon himself the task of updating the wide world of what has been happening whilst Democrats and Republicans cavorted at their respective national political conventions (”The two weeks you missed”, IHT, Sep 8). However, it would have been even more commendable had Mr Falk checked all his “facts”: otherwise, rather than a news update, his effort will be just another act of disinformation.

In particular:

1- “Hezbollah…has a new base of operations in the Americas: Venezuela” - really? This has been an ongoing accusation for years, with little evidence ever provided. Shouldn’t one be a little bit more skeptical about it then, when the only source of the information are unnamed “Western intelligence officials”? This is a Presidential Election year in the USA, after all, and we all know which candidate stands to benefit if any international crisis explodes (or is concocted)

2- “Some [polar bears] were headed toward the edge of the ice shelf, 400 miles away - far beyond their endurance” - really? All we know is that by chance, a helicopter surveying the Arctic for oil-exploration has spotted nine polar bears swimming. The “400 miles away” detail has been reported not by those on the helicopter, and not even by the WWF that published the original story, but by a journalist at London-based “Daily Mail”, a newspaper that has retracted the story (=deleted from their website) since.

All in all, it looks like Mr Falk himself has been too busy watching Barack Obama, John McCain and assorted “dorky delegates bopping to the Beach Boys and Stevie Wonder”… ]]> http://sineadkeogh.wordpress.com/?p=226 Mon, 01 Sep 2008 16:53:46 +0000 sineadkeogh http://sineadkeogh.nl.wordpress.com/2008/09/01/bristol-palin-wasnt-pregnant-is-now/ Via, Reuters and The International Herald Tribune news that Bristol Palin is currently seven months pregnant and plans to marry the father of her child.

Kudos to McCain who knew of the pregnancy when he nominated Sarah Palin and decided that it didn't disqualify her - though a small bit of cynicism creeps in as to whether McCain wanted to look a little grounded and cool by embracing Granny Palin? There are lots of single mothers who might like to see the Republicans being the progressive kids for once - and while I don't presume to know the percentage of them registered to vote, it can't hurt.

Now that the question has been answered, Bristol deserves to be left alone. One hopes that she's keeping the baby because she wants to.

"Just because she has this baby doesn't mean she didn't have the last one. I don't know why they think that will QUELL rumors." reads one of the latest comments on http://www.bristolpalinpregnant.com. Uh....well actually it would seem that it probably does. Trig Palin was born on April 18th of this year - i.e. 4 months and two weeks ago. Bristol Palin is currently 5 months pregnant. It's not impossible, but very unlikely that she got pregnant again within two weeks of giving birth. Without wanting to be icky about it, it's pretty unlikely she would have been all that physically able to have sex. Come back to me if baby Palin it's born until sometime next March, but really it would seem that Trig is her brother.

There is one bit of emphasis I'd like to add to this paragraph:

There is some truth to the tale being told in the markets, but the reasons run deeper than a mere change of chief executives. The company is indeed shifting its focus more toward the bottom line,...

Definitely agree so far.

... and less on the multibillion-dollar investments in technology that helped make it the market leader in the lucrative field of business software.

Don't agree here... in fact, my take is that we're being more careful about how we spend our R&D dollars.  The intent is to focus the development portfolio on initiatives that are true game-changers or keep us on top of the current game, which usually aren't small potatoes.

For more on this, my own comments when we announced the new R&D targets are here, along with some from Dennis Howlett (here) and Larry Dignan (here).

Hewlett-Packard, spurred on by strong international sales and a robust performance by its PC unit, reported healthy revenue and profit for the fiscal period ended July 31. For the period, the computer and printer giant announced $2.03 billion in net income on revenue of $28.03 billion, a 14% and 10% increase, respectively. ClipSyndicate/Bloomberg (8/19) , The Wall Street Journal (8/20) , International Herald Tribune (8/19)

Nearly 45 million Blu-ray discs will be sold in the U.S. this year, a 400% increase over 2007, and, by 2012, up to half of all video disc sales will be on the new format, according to a report from research firm Futuresource. TheRetailBRIDGE.com (8/20) , Cartt News Service (8/19)

Toshiba introduced a new DVD player with "extended Detail Enhancement (XDE), designed to deliver "near HD" picture quality from standard DVDs. The Toshiba XD-E500 launches with a suggested retail price of $149, quite a bit cheaper than the entry level Blu-ray players. (Cynopsis 8/20)

Some iPods sold in 2005 and 2006 may have a battery defect that causes the units to overheat and, in the case of one report out of Japan, shoot out sparks. Apple says the defect is extremely rare and can be traced to the work of a single supplier of the first-generation iPod Nano. International Herald Tribune/Associated Press (8/20)

Writing in The Financial Times last week, Chrystia Freeland recalled Francis Fukuyama's 1989 essay "The End of History?" - which trumpeted the definitive triumph of liberal democracy.The great nightmare tyrannies of last century - the Evil Empire, Red China - had been left behind by those inseparable twins, freedom and prosperity. Civilization had chosen, and it chose us.

So much for that thesis. Surveying the Russian military rout of neighboring Georgia and the spectacle of China's Olympics, Freeland, editor of The Financial Times's American edition and a journalist who started her career covering Russia and Ukraine, proclaimed that a new "Age of Authoritarianism" was upon us.

If it is not yet an age, it is at least a season: Springtime for autocrats, and not just the minor-league monsters of Zimbabwe and the like but the giant regimes that seemed so surely bound for the ash heap in 1989.

The Chinese have made their Olympics an exultant display of athletic prowess and global prestige without having to temper their impulse to suppress and control. From the dazzling locksteps of that opening ceremony, to the kowtowing international VIPs, to the carefully policed absence of protest, this was an Olympics largely free of democratic mess.

Individualism has been confined between lane markers. The pre-Olympics promises that attention would be paid to international norms of behavior went unredeemed. Andrew Jacobs of The New York Times followed one citizen who decided to take up the government's Olympic offer of designated protest zones for aggrieved parties who had filed the proper paperwork. Zhang Wei applied for the requisite license and was promptly arrested for "disturbing social order." Take that, International Olympic Committee...

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“KIDNAPPING AND NEWS EMBARGO: A DISSERVICE OR A RISK WORTH TAKING”

INTRODUCTION

The press and the media, being the sole providers of news and information, continuously face daunting tasks and perils in accomplishing news stories for public welfare and consumption. They have constantly been in the receiving end of both the public’s admiration and criticisms. Whether or not the nature of the works they engage to are seen to feed the public’s interest insofar as their right to public information and is concerned, media people have always been on the hot pursuit of news worthy events and stories, no matter what hurdles they face on their way.

This entry aims to direct and zero in on the issue of the media’s coverage on kidnapping stories and the observance of news embargoes among news organizations that has silently but potently came to be a continued practice in the local and international industry today.

I. DEFINITION OF TERMS:

1. EMBARGO (general):

Ø An order of the government prohibiting the movement of merchant ships into or out of its ports. (“trade embargo”)

Ø An injunction from a government commerce agency to refuse freight for shipments, as in case of congestion or insufficient facilities.

Ø A pronouncement or order of the government prohibiting the departure of ships of commerce from some or all of the ports within is dominions; a prohibition to sail.

Ø Restriction of the sale of goods that make a direct and specific contribution to a country’s military power (“strategic embargo”)

Ø A tool of economic warfare that may be employed for a variety of political purposes, including demonstrating resolve, sending a political signal, retaliating for another country’s actions, compelling a country to change its behavior, deterring it from engaging in undesired activities, and weakening its military capability.

2. NEWS EMBARGO

Ø In journalism and public relations, it is a request made by a valid source to make an information or news provided by the said source to be published until a certain date or after certain conditions have been met.

Ø Often used by businesses making a product announcement, by medical journals, and by government officials announcing policy initiatives.

3. KIDNAPPING

Ø The taking away and confinement of a person, by force or by fraud, against his or her will, and without valid and legal authority.

Ø In common legal terms, it is referred to as “abduction” when the said kidnapping involves a woman as a victim.

Ø In common usage nowadays, it generally refers to the abduction of person or persons done not only to collect ransom in exchange for that person or those persons’ freedom but also to keep custody of the victims permanently.

Ø The crime of unlawfully seizing and carrying away a person by force or fraud, or seizing and detaining a person against his or her will with an intent to carry that person away at a later time.

Ø It refers to forceful abduction of a human being with the intention to hold them for ransom, or seize them away for the motive of harassment (physically or mentally or sexually), taking them hostage and various other motives. It is done by the way of taking the kidnapped person to a place where they are unlikely to be found and is unlikely to be released till abductors demands are satisfied.

4. JOURNALISTS

Ø A person who practices journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events, trends, issues and people.

Ø A person who works as a reporter, a commentator, a columnist, an editor, or any member of the Fourth Estate.

Ø A person who writes or edits news items for a newspaper or magazine or for radio or television.

5. JOURNALISM

Ø The profession of writing or communicating, formally employed by publications and broadcasters, for the benefit of a particular community of people.

Ø An academic study concerned with the collection and editing of news or the management of a news medium.

Ø Writing characterized by a direct presentation of facts or description of events without an attempt at interpretation, and designed to appeal to current popular taste and public interest.

6. MASS MEDIA

Ø Denote a section of the media specifically envisioned and designed to reach a very large audience such as the population of a nation state.

Ø Any means of communication that reach and influence large numbers of people, especially newspapers, popular magazines, radio, and television.

7. NEWS AGENCY

Ø An organization that provides news coverage to subscribers, as to newspapers or periodicals.

Ø An agency to collects news reports for newspapers and distributes it electronically.

II. CONTEXT OF THE ISSUE

The discussion on the issue of kidnapping and news embargoes came in the light of the yet another kidnapping incident involving a prominent name in the news industry, along with four other individuals.

More than two months ago, the Philippines and the whole world witnessed the suspense and the drama of the Abu Sayyaf rebels’ abduction of ABS-CBN news anchor Cecilia Victoria “Ces” Oreña-Drilon in Maimbung, Sulu. Taken along with her were two members of her crew namely, Jimmy Encarnacion, her cameraman, and Angelo Valderama, their driver, and Mindanao State University professor Octavio Dinampo.

The story of Drilon’s kidnapping first broke out on the wires courtesy of the Associated Press (AP). The Paris-based International Herald Tribune and SunStar Cebu, the flagship newspaper of the SunStar group of newspapers, also ran the said story despite the news embargo requested by the ABS-CBN.

The Malacañang palace through Deputy Spokesman Lorelei Fajardo, appealed to media outfits for caution and restraint in reporting the incident and ordered police and military officials “to run after the perpetrators and bring the victims home alive and well”.

GMANEWS.tv has posted a brief timeline of the said abduction story, beginning from Drilon and company’s arrival at Jolo, Sulu up until they were freed by their abductors before midnight on June 17, 2008 after exactly ten days in captivity.

With this, local and international news outfits and organizations began publishing stories and analyses related to kidnapping and the perilous nature of journalists’ work in the field, especially that of covering and going after high-risk assignments. Despite the Philippine government’s strict observance of the “No Ransom Policy”, rumors of a P15-million payment in exchange for the captives’ freedom leaked out of the picture.

The recent terror sowed by the Abu Sayyaf group (ASG) earned criticisms left and right. FilipinoVoices.com, an on-line Filipino community blog, labeled it as a mere “publicity stunt” by the notorious insurgents. The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), a non-stock non-profit foundation that supports and enhances the ethical and professional values of the Philippine press, also posted a story on the Drilon-kidnapping incident and made a brief account of the widely-known abductions made by the Abu Sayyaf.

ABS-CBN, Drilon’s mother network, later condemned the abduction of one of their premier newscasters, labeling it as an “unconscionable attack against journalists [an the press]”. To make its ends clearer and more understandable, it expressed its motives on requesting for a news blackout on all media outfits, saying that “it was made primarily for the security and safety of Ces and her companions”.

Completely overshadowed by Drilon’s kidnapping story was another Abu Sayyaf abduction involving Globe Telecom servicemen in Tuburan, Basilan on July 17, 2008, barely a week after it (ASG) captured Drilon’s group.

The Abu Sayyaf rebels were largely known for the infamous Dos Palmas kidnapping in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, where they took as captives three Americans – Martin and Gracia Burnham, a missionary couple; and Guillermo Sobero, who was later murdered by the terror group. They were held responsible for the series of kidnappings and bombings in Metro Manila and in Mindanao. Their operations dwindled for quite some time due to the continuous advances made by the government troops that resulted to the killing of their renowned leaders. Last December, MSNBC.com posted a story on the conviction of 14 ASG members after their 2001 kidnapping exploits.

III. KIDNAPPING STATISTICS IN THE PHILIPPINES

According to the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism’s (PCIJ) website – www.pcij.org – anti-crime groups have recorded 63 kidnapping cases three years ago, or 37 percent more than the 46 reported in 2004 when kidnapping was at an all-time low.

Ransom paid to kidnappers totaled P54.1 million in 2005 – up from the P41.39 million paid in 2004 – according to the yearend report of the Citizens Action Against Crime (CAAC) and the Movement for the Restoration of Peace and Order (MRPO) published in the fortnightly Filipino-Chinese digest Tulay.

Summary of Kidnapping Cases
(January to October 2003)

Source: Citizens Action Against Crime and Movement for Restoration of Peace and Order

A related study by the PCIJ, entitled “Captive Market” shows how the escalating cases of kidnapping and abduction in the country has taken its toll on the economy and the lives of private individuals.

An article dated March 16, 2006 published by the Manila Bulletin in their website (www.mb.com.ph) narrowed down on the newfound trend of kidnappers to target Filipino-Chinese businessmen and their families as victims.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) has 659 articles published with regard to the subject of kidnapping for the period from June 1, 2007 up to June 30 (post-dated), 2008.

Of the 659 articles, 44 cases of kidnappings and abductions were reported, notably that of Fr. Giancarlo Bossi. The figure does not include the ‘kidnapping’ of Jun Lozada, the kidnapping charge of Mark Jimenez’s estranged wife against him, and the kidnapping charge of television personality Plinky Recto against her husband who took their children out of the country.

The kidnapping reports did not carry with it any notes of the news being embargoed. The following are PDI’s kidnapping reports from June 01, 2007 to June 30, 2008, with the dates of abduction, the victims and their captors:

1.  4 Basilan Electric Cooperative employees in Basilan by Abu Sayyaf

26 June 2008  11a.m.