The Guardian:Kiev's grip on eastern Ukraine weakens as pro-Russians seize army vehicles

For Kiev's beleaguered army it was meant to be a display of strength. Early on Wednesday a column of six armoured personnel carriers trundled through the town of Kramatorsk, in eastern Ukraine. Some 24 hours earlier Ukrainian soldiers had recaptured a small disused aerodrome. Their next target appeared to be Slavyansk, the neighbouring town, occupied by a shadowy Russian militia. Was victory close?

The column didn't get far. At Kramatorsk's railway junction, next to an open-air market and a shop selling building materials, an angry crowd caught up with it. Next armed separatists dressed in military fatigues turned up too. Within minutes the Ukrainian soldiers gave up. Without a shot being fired they abandoned their vehicles. The pro-Russian gunmen grabbed them. They raised a Russian tricolour. They sat on top and went for a victory spin.

In theory this was happening in Ukraine, under the control of a pro-western government in Kiev, and several hundred kilometres from the Russian border. In reality large chunks of the east of the country are now in open revolt. Ukraine is rapidly vanishing as a sovereign state. Its army is falling apart. What happens next is unclear. But the Kremlin can either annexe the east, as it did Crimea, again shrugging off western outrage. Or it can pull the strings of a new post-Kiev puppet entity.

The militia who captured the armoured vehicles on Wednesday looked like professionals. They had Kalashnikovs, flak jackets, ammunition. One even carried a tube-shaped green grenade-launcher. Some hid their faces under black balaclavas. Others waved and smiled. All wore an orange and black ribbon – originally a symbol of the Soviet victory over fascism, and now the colours of the east's snowballing anti-Kiev movement. There was a flag of Donbass, the Russian-speaking eastern region with its main city of Donetsk.

After posing for photos, this new anti-Kiev army set off. The armoured personnel carriers (APCs) rattled past Kramatorsk's train station and turned right over a steep dusty bridge. There was a cloud of diesel smoke. Amazed locals jogged alongside then piled into battered mini-buses to keep up. White tread tracks on the tarmac pointed the way. The column covered about six miles (10km) before turning left at the entrance to Slavyansk. It then drove serenely into town and parked round the back of the city hall. Soldiers got off and stretched their legs next to the White Nights cafe.

Slavyansk residents who had been fearing an imminent attack from Ukrainian forces had a moment of cognitive dissonance. Armed pro-Russian gunmen seized control of the city administration on Saturday. Ever since, Ukrainian helicopters and planes had buzzed ominously overhead.

On Wednesday afternoon Ukrainian soldiers were led out of the building and packed on to buses. The Ukrainians had surrendered when crowds surrounded their tanks. They were missing their weapons, now confiscated. The 40 or so demoralised troops headed out of town in a westerly direction.

At first the authorities in Kiev refused to believe they had lost the army vehicles. The defence ministry initially dismissed news reports as fake. Later it admitted the disaster was true. As well as APCs, Ukraine has lost control of another crucial weapon in its losing battle with the Russian Federation: television. On Tuesday the Donetsk prosecutor turned Russian state TV back on again, weeks after Kiev pulled the broadcasts on the grounds they sowed lies and Kremlin propaganda. Since President Viktor Yanukovych fled in February Russian channels have consistently called Kiev's new rulers "fascists".

Outside Kramatorsk's aerodrome, meanwhile, at the end of a rustic rutted alley lined with sycamores and apricots, protesters had set up a new camp. It boasted a parasol, a table decked out with sandwiches, and a clump of empty beer bottles. On Tuesday Ukrainian forces had opened fire, lightly wounding two anti-government demonstrators who surged at them across a field. On Wednesday Ukrainian troops were holed up inside. They showed little enthusiasm for venturing out. A felled tree blocked their route.

Economía Peruana Roberto Abusada: No existe Tal Cosa Como un País Próspero con Política Caótica

WSJ: Yellen Stakes Out a Flexible Policy Path Economy Has Improved, but Low Inflation and Labor Slack Lurk as Wild Cards

        The Wall Street Journal reports, "Ms. Yellen studiously sought to keep the central bank's interest-rate options open in the speech before the Economic Club of New York. "Because the course of the economy is uncertain, monetary policymakers need to carefully watch for signs that it is diverging from the baseline outlook and then respond in a systematic way," she said.

But in a recitation of developments she is monitoring, she highlighted her focus on factors weighing on inflation and the economy that she expected would keep interest rates low for longer".

In particular, Ms. Yellen said she was more worried about inflation getting too low than too high. The Fed is "well aware" that inflation could shoot above its 2% goal, she said. "At present, I rate the chances of this happening as significantly below the chances of inflation persisting below 2%." In answer to a question posed after her speech, she added the Fed's focus should be on lifting inflation to the 2% goal, not holding it down.

The setting provided the Fed chief's first opportunity in her new role to field questions in public from economists, instead of reporters or lawmakers as she had done in prior months. 

She emphasized that slack in labor markets is holding down wages. "Wage gains continue to proceed at a historically slow pace in this recovery, with few signs of a broad-based acceleration," she said.

The Fed's preferred inflation gauge, the Commerce Department's personal consumption expenditures price index, was up 0.9% in February from a year earlier. That includes movements of volatile food and energy prices. This price index has runbelow the Fed's 2% goal for 22 straight months.The Labor Department's closely watched consumer-price index was up 1.5% in March from a year earlier.

"We have indeed had a disappointingly slow recovery and our consistent expectations for a pickup in growth have been dashed over a number of years," Ms. Yellen said in response to questions.

The Fed last month released interest-rate forecasts that some investors and analysts took as a sign that rate increases might come a little sooner and be a little more aggressive than previously expected. Many officials have pushed back on that view since the March meeting. Investors now widely see the Fed's first rate increases around the middle of 2015.

Ms. Yellen tried to emphasize that she doesn't plan to be locked into that position, and a shift in the economic outlook could alter the Fed's plans. "Overshooting that [2% inflation] goal, we have learned in past episodes, in past recoveries, can be very costly to reverse," she said. "We will remain very focused on removing accommodation when the right time has come."

WSJ: El Niño Threatens Food Crop Production UN forecasts a fairly large potential by mid-year

       The Wall Street Journal reports,"the United Nations‘ World Meteorological Organization said its weather model forecasts show a fairly large potential for the occurrence of a weather phenomenon known as El Niño by mid-year, threatening to hinder production of various food crops around the globe".

"An El Niño phenomenon is associated with above-average water temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific and can in its worst form bring drought to West Africa (the world’s largest cocoa producing region), less rainfall to India during its vital Monsoon season and drier conditions for the cultivations crops such as sugar and cotton in major grower Australia.

“Model forecasts indicate a fairly large potential for an El Niño, most likely by the end of the second quarter of 2014,” according to the World Meteorological Organization.

“For the June to August period, approximately two-thirds of the models surveyed predict that El Niño thresholds will be reached, while the remaining models predict a continuation of neutral conditions. A few models predict an earlier El Niño onset, such as in May. No model suggests a La Niña in 2014,” said the weather body".

Interesting facts about El Niño:

-El Niño, Spanish for young boy, because it develops in December and is identified with the Christ Child. Its opposite manifestation La Niña brings cooling to sea-surface temperatures

-During El Niño, thunderstorm activity from Indonesia into the central Pacific area brings abnormally dry conditions over northern Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines and northern Brazil

-Meanwhile, wetter than normal conditions tend to occur along the west coast of tropical South America, and southern Brazil to central Argentina

BPZ Energy Announces Convertible Senior Note Transaction to Retire $26.0 million of 6.50% Convertible Senior Notes Due 2015

Houston, April 16, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BPZ Energy (NYSE: BPZ) (BVL: BPZ), today announced that the Company has entered into a privately-negotiated agreement under which it will retire $26.0 million in aggregate principal of the Company's outstanding 6.50% Convertible Senior Notes due March 2015 ("2015 Notes"), in exchange for its issuance of $25.0 million in aggregate principal of new 8.50% Convertible Senior Notes due October 2017 ("New Notes").

Following this transaction, $59.9 million in aggregate principal amount of the 2015 Notes will remain outstanding with terms unchanged.  The Company will also have outstanding $168.7 million in aggregate principal amount of its 8.50% Convertible Senior Notes due 2017 with terms unchanged.

This announcement is neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation of an offer to buy any of these securities and shall not constitute an offer, solicitation or sale in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale is unlawful.

Stratechery goes solo,the shifting tides of online media

Over the past ten years, traditional media outlets from the pre-internet era have been forced to compete with online media outlets of various shapes and colors. Recently, upstart entities like Buzzfeed, Upworthy, and Business Insider have attracted the attention of media watchers for their tendency to appeal to a wide audience, as seen by their mastery of all-things viral. Those websites are remarkable, in part, for the deliberate facelessness of the authorship – you’re not supposed to know the name of a Buzzfeed writer, because all Buzzfeed pieces are designed to look and feel the same. While the virality monster media outlets occupy one end of the forward-thinking media spectrum, websites that are extremely personality-driven occupy the other end. The Intercept isn’t just The Intercept, it’s Glenn Greenwald’s gig. Vox isn’t just Vox, it’s Ezra Klein’s latest project. FiveThirtyEight may as well be called “Nate Silver.” The internet has enabled audiences to value writers irrespective of the publications they work for, and The Wall Street Journal competes with an independent blogger and a cat video for that precious resource: attention. Taipei-based writer Ben Thompson exemplifies how the internet has leveled the playing field in the media space, allowing independent writers to build up a following of loyal readers. Thompson began his blog Stratechery about a year ago as an outlet to jot down his ramblings on consumer tech when he wasn’t busy with his day job at Automattic (the company behind WordPress). Penning two posts a week, Thompson provided detailed analyses of whatever was making the news rounds at the time, with insights that were heavy on business strategy and light on fanboy hype. Somewhat unexpectedly, the blog exploded in popularity, and Thompson found himself placed among the likes of Benedict Evans, John Gruber, Horace Dediu and other brainy analyst-type bloggers. Now, Thompson is turning his pet project into a full-time job with the launch of Stratechery 2.0. In addition to his twice-weekly posts, Thompson will offer up three subscription tiers in exchange for various perks, such as access to comments sections, daily e-mails, private message boards, and even a bound book of Thompson’s trademark sketches made on FiftyThree’s Paper.

Source: TECHINASIA

P2P Lending Service Ppdai Gets Millions of Dollars Series B Funding for Risk Control

Chinese P2P lending service Ppdai recently announced that it has raised millions of dollars in Series B financing led by LightSpeed China Partners, Noah Private Wealth Management and existing investor Sequoia Capital. The company has received $25 million of Series A funding from Sequoia Capital in last December. The capital raised this time will be used in the credit system and team construction.

Ppdai was founded in 2007 and claimed to be the first P2P lending platform in China. A differentiator of Ppdai from its rivals is that it focused squarely on online lending rather than integrating online and offline lending services like Renrendai, etc. The inflow and outflow of the capital are all completed online. Its target customers are individuals and small- and medium-sized enterprises.

According to Zhang Jun, CEO of the company, the primary problems for P2P lending platforms are risk control and credit system construction. In the past seven years, Ppdai has collected large chunks of data, based on which the company can help customers to prevent the financial risks, said Zhang. He added that the platform’s default rate is less than 1.5% and bad debt rate is 1.52%.

LightSpeed China Partners is also the investor of several other online financial companies, including 360Rong, BTC China and 99Bill. The venture capital company said it invested in Ppdai because the online platform is more effective in attracting funds and has access to grassroots users.

image credit: Ppdai

Board of Directors NBG approves to call Extraordinary General Meeting to approve share.. up to 2.5 billion Euros

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WSJ: U.S. Housing Market Slow to Hit Its Spring Stride. Expected Growth Remains Sluggish as Supply Issues Persist

      The Wall Street Journal reports,"a flurry of recent housing data suggests that the market's spring selling season is getting off to a slow start, a worrisome sign after a winter of expectations that warmer weather would rekindle growth.

Reports from local real-estate agent groups in some of the markets that were the first to rebound, including Las Vegas, Phoenix and San Diego, show year-over-year declines in March home sales. February data for pending home sales nationally—a barometer of early-spring activity—show a decline of 11% from a year ago".

"And in markets around the country, fewer people are showing up at open houses. An index of home-buyer traffic in 40 U.S. markets compiled by Credit Suisse was down a little more than a third from March of last year. In some parts of the country, cold weather has put a damper on traffic.

New construction of single family homes is also increasing slowly, according to new data released Wednesday. New building permits for single-family homes in March fell 1.2% below the year-earlier level, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. New single-family home starts rose 1.9% from a year earlier".

"Overall, even after adjusting for weather, it has been worse than what most people expected," said Tom Lawler, an independent housing economist in Leesburg, Va.

The sluggish start to the spring home-buying season—a crucial period for sales because families typically want to lock into a school district by the end of summer—comes as investors cut back on purchases of homes that can be rented or flipped for a quick profit. Meanwhile, potential buyers are still adjusting to a sharp rise in both home prices and borrowing costs over the past year. 

Adidas Springblade running shoes put a spring in your step

Athletes are always looking for equipment that can give them an edge, and for runners, that means shoes that can launch them ahead with minimal energy. In the past, most shoe companies have produced shoes with flexible mid-soles that help the wearer push off of the ground more easily, but some recent footwear from Adidas might take that concept to a new level. The aptly-named Adidas Springblade uses angled elastic blades on the soles to quickly propel the wearer forward as if they had springs on their feet.

The Adidas Innovation Team (AIT) spent six years developing the Springblade and testing different materials to determine which ones would provide the greatest durability and energy efficiency. The design team drew inspiration from other athletic equipment, like springboards and pole vaults, and applied those concepts to a running shoe.

In total, each Springblade shoe has 16 blades on the bottom, all set so they quickly compress and release energy, depending on whether any weight is applied. They may look a bit odd, but each one is shaped and positioned to support a runner during a full stride and use the energy from one step to begin the next. They're also angled to give a runner greater forward momentum, unlike most running shoes which tend to spring back in a vertical direction.

The blades are the most eye-catching aspect of the Springblades, but the designers have incorporated a few other handy features as well. The top of the shoes are made of flexible materials and designed to hug the wearer's foot, restricting the shoe from sliding around and conserving even more energy. According to the company, the polymers used in the Springblade also provide seven times the temperature resistance of a shoe built with regular EVA cushioning.

The Springblade is certainly an unusual-looking shoe, but that same unconventional design might just provide a seasoned runner with the extra boost they're after.

The Adidas Springblade shoes are set to hit store shelves starting August 1st at a price of US$180.

Source: Adidas

U.S. economy picked up in most of country: Beige Book

U.S. economic activity increased in most of the country as the weather improved, particularly in the snow-ravaged northeast, according to summary of economic conditions released Wednesday.

The Beige Book, a collection of anecdotes about the economy published by the Federal Reserve, said 10 of its 12 districts saw improvement —mostly of the “modest to moderate” variety — but there was a decline in activity in the Cleveland and St. Louis regions.

This summary fits comfortably with the view of most private-sector economists that activity has rebounded as weather has returned to normal.

The return of the consumer was seen in most districts, as auto sales improved, a situation that harder data, like the retail-sales report, confirms.

Transportation, manufacturing and financial services also improved, though the reports on residential housing markets were “varied.” The Beige Book also talks of delays to crop plantings and shipments of commodities, as well as a pig virus that hurt hog farming.

The Beige Book is based on information collected from Feb. 24 to April 7, and this one was written by the Richmond Fed.

The Guardian: Nato to step up presence near Russian borders Air patrols and warships in Baltic and eastern Mediterranean will be increased to reassure Nato members in eastern Europe

"Nato has announced it is stepping up its presence around Russian borders to reassure eastern European member states, in an effort also aimed at increasing pressure on Moscow before international talks on the Ukrainian crisis on Thursday in Geneva.

The EU and the US intend to tighten sanctions against Moscow after the four-party negotiations – involving foreign ministers from Russia, Ukraineand the US and the EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton – if Moscow does not stop what the west allege is the deliberating stoking of tensions in eastern Ukraine.

A spokesperson for the US secretary of state, John Kerry, said his primary goal was to persuade Moscow to halt its destabilising activities in eastern Ukraine, and call publicly for separatist groups to disarm and stand down".

Source: theguardian

Energy Watch: Canadian crude-by-rail costs rival pipelines

As recently as five years ago, barely 1,000 barrels of crude oil moved on trains in Canada each day, or about two tanker cars. Today, according to a Peters & Co. Ltd report published Tuesday evening, approximately 550,000 barrels move on Canadian railways daily, equal to about 800 tanker cars. By the end of this year, that figure is expected to top 1,000,000 barrels per day.

Calculating the percentage of such rapid expansion would be an exercise in eyebrow-raising, so just rest assured the growth is exponential.

New pipelines require extensive regulatory analysis and, if they cross the Canada-United States border, must also receive personal approval from the President. Loading terminals designed specifically to fill empty train tanker cars with crude oil, require basically the same permits and approvals as any other industrial site. Expanding those terminals is even easier.

The Peters report notes there are a few potential expansions being discussed for terminals already under construction that could bring western Canada’s total crude-by-rail loading capacity closer to 1,500,000 bpd as early as next winter. Compare that figure to Canada’s largest export pipeline network: Enbridge’s 2,000,000 bpd mainline that currently handles most of the 2,400,000 barrels of oil Canada sends to the United States on a daily basis, according to National Energy Board (NEB) data.

COST COMPETITIVE WITH PIPELINES

By far the largest impediment to producers using more train-based transportation options is the higher cost relative to pipeline transportation. That no longer appears relevant. Peters notes a producer that doesn’t own any of its own tanker cars or terminals might have to pay as much as $20 to ship a barrel of oil on a train from western Canada to U.S. markets, but if they own “significant rail related infrastructure”, as is the case with several oil sands giants leasing thousands of their own rail cars, the cost can be as low as half or about $10 per barrel.

Pipelines remain generally less expensive but not by much. For so-called “committed” shippers (read: those who have promised to send a certain amount of their daily production down a certain pipeline), prices range from $7 to $10 per barrel. Yet for uncommitted shippers, the cost range jumps as high as $14 per barrel.

Put another way: if an oil producer with some investments in rail infrastructure lacking “committed” status on an available pipeline, the less expensive option would be rail; by a huge margin no less.

WHAT ABOUT NEW REGULATIONS?

Ever since a train from a now defunct railway destroyed the town center of Lac Megantic, Quebec last July at the cost of 47 human lives, anticipation has grown among crude-by-rail shippers for governments to enact costly safety standards on the trend. Some new rules have been announced and there are likely more to come, though Peters argues the impact is likely to be negligible.

“Regarding the potential for new regulations, any impact would be unknown until finalized, with rumours continuing to circulate that certain parts of the North American rail car fleet will need to be retrofitted, which would reduce the number of cars available for use and require material new capital investment from industry,” the report said. “Overall, despite potential negative setbacks from new regulatory changes and some new costs added to the equation, we have been gaining increased confidence that investments in new rail takeaway capacity will improve the Canadian crude differential outlook.” 

Source: bnn.ca

Osisko unveils $3.9B friendly deal with Yamana Gold, Agnico Eagle

Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. (AEM-T 31.46 -1.99 -5.95%) and Yamana Gold Inc. (YRI-T 8.9 -0.28 -3.05%) agreed to jointly acquire Osisko Mining Corp. (OSK-T 7.9 0.47 6.33%) for $3.9 billion, the latest twist in a battle for control of a Quebec mine that now involves three of Canada’s largest gold producers.

Yamana and Agnico’s cash-and-stock offer for Montreal-based Osisko is valued at $8.15 a share, they said in a statement today. That trumps a hostile offer from Vancouver-based Goldcorp Inc. (G-T 26.26 0.26 1.00%) currently valued at about $7.43 a share, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The fight for Osisko is focused on its Canadian Malartic gold mine, which Goldcorp Chief Executive Officer Chuck Jeannes has said would rank among his company’s top mines. The bidding war also marks a revival for gold-mining mergers and acquisitions. The biggest annual decline in the gold price in three decades has dragged down the valuations of producers and created opportunities for miners seeking to add capacity and replace reserves.

Canadian Malartic is valuable for its large gold deposit and because Quebec is an attractive jurisdiction for mining companies, according to Osisko CEO Sean Roosen.

JOINT OPERATORS

Yamana and Agnico, Canada’s fourth and fifth-largest gold producers by sales respectively, will form a new company to buy Osisko and will jointly operate Canadian Malartic and some of the company’s exploration assets after the deal closes.

Under the offer announced today, for each Osisko share, investors will receive $2.09 in cash, 0.07264 of an Agnico Eagle share and 0.26471 of a Yamana share. They will also get one share in a new company that will be spun out to hold certain Osisko assets, including a 5-percent net smelter royalty from output at Canadian Malartic.

In the event of another, superior offer, Osisko will pay Agnico and Yamana a termination fee of $195 million.

Today’s deal replaces a transaction announced April 2 in which Yamana agreed to buy 50 percent of Osisko’s assets. The two companies said at the time that the deal valued Osisko at $7.60 a share.

Goldcorp, the second-largest Canadian gold miner by revenue, responded April 10 by raising its hostile cash-and-stock bid and lowering the minimum tender condition to 50.1 percent of Osisko shares. Its current offer is set to expire April 22.

Yamana’s financial adviser is Canaccord Genuity Corp., and Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP are its legal advisers. National Bank Financial Markets was hired to provide a fairness opinion.

Agnico Eagle is being advised by TD Securities Inc. and Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP is its legal adviser.

Osisko’s financial advisers are BMO Capital Markets and Maxit Capital LP. Bennett Jones LLP and Stikeman Elliott LLP are its legal advisers.

Source: BNN.CA

Adidas' metallic Climachill apparel cools athletes in hot conditions

The sports apparel market has no shortage of solutions for cold weather, with waterproof-breathable materials, advanced natural and synthetic insulations, and battery powered heat among them. But athletes have fewer options in hot, humid weather: take off clothing, get a cold headband/cloth, or stop exercising and find an air conditioner or pool. Adidas offers one more. Its new Climachill fabric combines several cooling elements to keep athletes more comfortable during hot summer sessions.

Adidas claims that Climachill fabric is able to deliver an instant cooling effect with its mix of titanium-blended yarn and 3D aluminum cooling spheres. The 3D spheres are mapped to correspond with the body's hot zones, keeping those areas cooler. Meanwhile, the use of the titanium "SubZero" flat yarn delivers a claimed 36 percent increase in cooling capacity over Adidas' older Climacool fabric.

In order to find the "ultimate Climachill fabric," Adidas tested fabric blends in its "Clima" chamber, cranking the heat up to 122ºF (50ºC). It then zeroed in on what was most effective.

Land Rover reveals "invisible" bonnet for Discovery Vision concept

Land Rover teased its new Discovery Vision concept last week in the run-up to its début at 2014 New York International Auto Show on April 16, and now the car maker reveals a bit more about the Vision – or rather, less. That’s because the latest tease demonstrates a new technology that uses cameras and heads-up displays to make the front of the car “invisible” to the driver.

Land Rovers have a lot of pluses, but visibility around that landing deck of a bonnet is not one of them. Anyone who's ever tried to park one in a tight spot or negotiated a rutted path with only an inch of clearance knows how much guesswork is involved. To remedy this, the Vision concept steals a page from the latest fighter plane technology for its “Transparent Bonnet” virtual imaging system, that makes it appear as if the bonnet is made of glass.

Designed to act as an aid for off-roading and maneuvering in close quarters, it uses cameras mounted on the front grille of the Vision to capture real-time images of the area hidden by the bonnet, and projects them onto a full-width heads-up display on the bottom of the windscreen. This produces the illusion that the front of the car has become transparent, allowing the driver to see what obstacles are in the way.

In addition, the display shows a pair of virtual front wheels, so the driver knows where they are and what angle they’re pointed at, as well as readouts of the front and lateral tilt of the car, front wheel angle, and speed in both imaging and non-imaging modes.

Source: Gizmag

Interview by MEGA TV of Greece with Poul Thomsen, IMF Mission Chief for Greece

Excerpts

INTERVIEWER: Mr. Thomsen, financial analysts believe that the exit of Greece to the market is risky. What is your take on this?

MR. THOMSEN: No, I think this is an important milestone set. You know, one of the fundamental objectives of this program is, of course, to bring Greece back to the market, to restore market access. And this was a first important step, so we very much welcome that and I think it’s also going to help facilitate Greek commercial banks’ ability to go back to the market. So this was an important step.

INTERVIEWER: The European officials argue that since they have 80 percent of the debt and the rate is so low, debt sustainability is secured. Do you agree with them?

MR. THOMSEN: We think that with debt at 175 percent of GDP, that is exceptionally high, it’s absolutely essential if Greece is to go back to market, to full market access, and be able to not rely on financing from official institution, that debt be brought down significantly.

INTERVIEWER: After four years in the program, debt remains high. And it’s obvious that Greece needs more money. Do you think that Greece needs a third program or can the country find money from other sources?

MR. THOMSEN: Well, I would not talk about a new program. We have a program. But that program, in our view, will need more financing. That program runs until the beginning of 2016. And in our view, it is not fully financed the whole way through to 2016. And one would need in the context of the next review to find some more money. We’re not looking at a big amount compared to the past. It’s nothing compared to the past. But I think we would need to look for some more official assistance, yes.

IMF on Growth in Central,Eastern and South-Eastern European Countries

"Growth in most of the Central, Eastern, and South-Eastern European countries is recovering, partly driven by the recovery in the euro area, but growth in the region as a whole will be held back. We have marked it down since last October, in part because of the contraction in Ukraine, and slowdowns in Russia and Turkey.

External funding conditions have also become more challenging. Even before the tensions in Ukraine, we saw that capital flows into the region had started to reverse, with portfolio flows turning negative toward the end of 2013. And of course, this comes on top of the ongoing deleveraging that the region has seen.

In the near term, these factors will offset--perhaps even more than offset--the tailwinds from the recovery in the euro area.

Although the reversal in capital flows hurts most emerging markets, the hit to those with stronger policy frameworks and fundamentals has been less. This underlines the case to strengthen policies. Those with exchange rate and monetary policy flexibility should continue to use it as the first line of defense against volatility. All countries, especially those with weaker fundamentals, need to address legacy issues and problems exposed by the crisis, structural weaknesses that hold back growth and keep unemployment high, nonperforming loans that hamstring credit and exhausted fiscal buffers".

Source: IMF   2014 SpringMeeting

LithiumCard portable charger is the size of a credit card

There are plenty of portable phone chargers around, but often they are too bulky or too slow. US-based LinearFlux has tried to address both of those issues with its new LithiumCard charger. It's a credit-card sized device that can deliver a 1 percent increase in battery life per minute.

LinearFlux refers to the LithiumCard as a "HyperCharger," which is a rather grand way of saying it will charge your device quickly. According to the company, the device uses "HyperFET drive technology" that can deliver up to 2 Amps of charging current to electronic devices. It says the device is able to calculate a device’s optimal charging profile to maximize the speed at which it is charged.

The other big selling point of the LithiumCard is its size. At 54 x 86 x 6 mm (2.1 x 3.4 x 0.2 in), the charger is the same size as a credit card area-wise, although its about five times thicker. Still, it should be possible to fit it in a larger wallet slot. The device is finished in aluminum, which comes in a variety of colors, so it looks pretty slick too.

The LithiumCard is available with a micro-USB connector that is compatible with devices such as Samsung phones, Jawbone Jamboxes and Beats headphones, or an Apple Lightning connector for charging iOS devices. The connectors flip out from the device when they are needed, keeping tucked away and tidy in the meantime. It also has a flip-out USB connector for charging the device itself. The LithiumCard can be charged at the same time as charging a device by plugging it into a USB port and connecting the device in question.

The device is due to shipping to Indiegogo contributors in May this year, with commercial availability coming after that. It is expected to cost $39.99-$49.99.

Source: Gizmag

Sky and TalkTalk announce 1 Gbps broadband for UK cities

Broadband speeds in the UK currently max out at about 300 Mbps, provided by British Telecom. Sky and TalkTalk have now announced that they intend to bring 1 Gbps speeds to UK cities. The roll-out will begin in York next year, before moving to other locations.

Working with CityFibre, Sky and TalkTalk have created a new company that will build the infrastructure for providing ultra-fast broadband. The new venture is aiming to create a "state of the art, city-wide, pure fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) network." Once the network is built, Sky and TalkTalk will retail competing services over the infrastructure.

At 1 Gbps per second, the services will be significantly faster than the fastest fiber optic speeds available in the UK today and will match those offered by Google Fiber in the US. Sky says that the fiber optic roll-out in York will be the first time that ultra-fast broadband has been deployed in the UK on a city-wide basis. Fujitsu will be employed to deploy the network.

The services are expected to go live in York from 2015, with a subsequent roll-out planned for two more, yet to be named, cities.

Source: Sky, TalkTalk and CityFibre

IMF Increases Growth 2014 forecast for the Euro Area to 1.2% from 1%

"First, looking at Western Europe, the recovery we projected last October for the euro area has solidified. This is reflected in our revised forecast--for example, the 2014 forecast for the euro area is up from one percent last October to 1.2 percent now, with substantial upgrades for countries such as Spain. These revisions reflect the stronger data flow on the back of past policy actions, the revival of investor confidence, and the waning drag from fiscal consolidation.

The positive impact on program countries is also palpable. There are improving economies, lower spreads, and evidence of market access.

We have also seen a welcome pickup outside the euro zone. For example, growth in the UK is picking up strongly with almost 3 percent expected for this year.

While stronger growth prospects and market sentiment are welcome, there is still much to do to solidify and boost the recovery, which remains rather weak. And unemployment is still unacceptably high in too many places.

The headwinds in the euro area are many. We have previously emphasized the role of debt overhangs in firms and households, of fragmented financial markets, and of policy uncertainty. Action is being taken to address all these areas both at the country and pan-European level, with steps to banking union--for instance, a single supervisor, the asset quality review, and the stress tests are especially important to ensure adequacy of capital and market confidence.

Low Inflation is another major problem, this puts pressure on debtors, real lending rates, relative price adjustments, and employment. 

Source: IMF,2014 Spring Meeting

The Guardian: Pro-Russian separatists seize Ukrainian armoured vehicles

Pro-Russian armed separatists have seized five armoured personnel carriers and a tank from the Ukrainian army, which they then drove in a victory lap through the centre of Kramatorsk in Ukraine's east, where government forces are attempting to wrest back control of the city.

About 100 heavily armed men, some in balaclavas and wearing military fatigues, rode on top of the seized armoured vehicles, the first of which was flying a Russian tricolour. Several hundred locals gathered around the convoy, cheering, tooting their car horns and waving in support as it rolled past Kramatorsk's railway station, not far from the airfield where Ukrainian soldiers clashed with separatists on Tuesday.

Ukrainian military helicopters hovered above the dramatic scenes in central Kramatorsk but there seemed to be no attempt by government forces to try to wrest back control of the situation.

Separately, there were unconfirmed reports that armed men had captured the city administration building in nearby Donetsk.

Pro-Russian protesters seeking independence from Kiev have occupied at least nine government buildings in the region for more than a week – but this is the first time that separatist forces deep inside Ukraine have managed to seize heavy military equipment and a further sign that the situation in the east is slipping out of Kiev's grip.