Euro zone turns corner but growth, inflation subdued - EU

The euro zone will expand slightly more slowly next year than expected because of weaker private demand and investment, while inflation will stay well below the central bank target over the next two years.

The European Commission forecasts, published on Tuesday, are likely to add to arguments for an interest rate cut by the European Central Bank, which is to discuss its next policy move on Thursday.

The Commission forecast that the economy of the 18 countries that will share the euro from next year will expand 1.1 percent in 2014 after a 0.4 percent contraction this year. In 2015, the euro zone is to accelerate to growth of 1.7 percent.

The last Commission forecast in May saw euro zone growth of 1.2 percent in 2014. But recession is behind the euro zone and the pace of recovery will slowly accelerate quarter-on-quarter.

"There are increasing signs that the European economy has reached a turning point," said EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn. "The fiscal consolidation and structural reforms undertaken in Europe have created the basis for recovery."

Source: Reuters

US: ISM Manufacturing Index rose to 55.4

Prior strength in new orders is giving an increasing boost to current conditions for ISM's non-manufacturing sample where composite growth rose to 55.4 in October vs an already solid 54.4 in September. The business activity component shows special strength, at 59.7 vs September's 55.1. And in a boost for the outlook on Friday's jobs report, this report's employment index rose to 56.2 from 52.7 in what is one of the better readings of the year. Growth in new orders backed off but not much, with the index down from the near 60 level to 56.8 but this index had been very strong in the prior 3 months and peaked just over 60 in August. Other readings are mostly steady including prices which show easing pressure, at 56.1 for a more than 1 point decline. The ISM non-manufacturing report is pointing to building momentum in ongoing activity in what will boost expectations for fourth-quarter GDP. The government's first report on the third quarter will be posted on the Econoday calendar on Thursday morning. The Dow is moving off opening lows following today's report.

Market Consensus before announcement The composite index from the ISM non-manufacturing survey slipped in September to 54.4 from 58.6 in August and 56.0 in July to indicate sizable slowing in composite activity. This slowing follows a recovery best in August and a near recovery best in July and despite the slowing the rate of monthly growth is still very respectable. But activity may be improving in coming months. Growth in new orders was more than respectable, at 59.6 which aside from August's 60.5 was the best rate since the easy comparisons early in the recovery. New export orders were also very strong, at 57.5 for a big 7 point jump.

Gallup's Economic Confidence Index tumbled 16 percentage points to average minus 35 in October

Gallup's Economic Confidence Index tumbled 16 percentage points to average minus 35 in October, the sharpest monthly drop since Gallup began tracking economic confidence daily in 2008. Confidence did pick up near the end of the month.

Americans' confidence in the U.S. economy sank for the month of October amid the partial U.S. government shutdown impasse over the federal debt limit. For the entire month, Gallup's Economic Confidence Index was down 16 points, the sharpest monthly drop since Gallup began tracking economic confidence daily in 2008. Confidence improved after leaders in Washington reached a deal to end the shutdown, but it has not yet returned to pre-shutdown levels.

The index in October is the lowest for an entire month since it registered minus 38 in December 2011, as Americans' confidence slowly recovered from the 2011 U.S. federal debt crisis and subsequent downgrading of the nation's credit rating. Confidence is significantly worse than it was in May of this year, when it reached minus 7, its monthly peak.

The Economic Confidence Index began to decline in mid-September, as the fiscal negotiations and partisan brinkmanship intensified. It plummeted to minus 34 in the first week of October as the partial government shutdown began on October 1, registering the sharpest weekly decline since Lehman Brothers collapsed in September 2008, and grew worse the following week. Confidence slowly inched up after the government shutdown ended on October 17, finishing at minus 29 for the week ending November 3, but has not yet recovered to mid-September levels.

Gallup's Economic Confidence Index is based on two components: Americans' assessments of current economic conditions in the United States and their perceptions of whether the economy is getting better or worse. Both components soured last month during the shutdown, but Americans' economic outlook declined more than twice as much as their views of the current economic situation.

In October, 68 percent of Americans said the economy is getting worse-the highest such percentage in nearly two years- while 28 percent said it is getting better. This results in a net economic outlook score of minus 40, down 22 points from September.

By contrast, October's minus 29 net current conditions score-based on 15% of Americans saying the economy is in excellent or good shape, and 44 percent saying it is poor-is down 10 points from the prior month.

Source: Bloomberg

Abacus nominated for World Intangible Cultural Heritage

China’s Zhusuan or the knowledge and practice of arithmetic calculation using an abacus, has been nominated by UNSECO for competition to be listed as World Intangible Cultural Heritage. The final result will be announced early next month. The time honored invention has been slowly fading away from peoples’ lives, but some are calling to preserve it.

"Before the age of calculators, this is what Chinese people used to do their sums. They’d move the beads on the abacus following certain rules. Each bead in the upper deck equals five, those in the lower deck equals one. For example, if I do 5 plus 1, this is 6. And if I plus 12, this is 18," CCTV reporter Wu Guoxiu said.

Calculating with beads...

Zhusuan, or the knowledge and practice of arithmetic calculation using an abacus, has a history of over 1800 years. The Chinese invention is considered as the world’s most ancient computer.

"The abacus can perform addition, subtraction, division and multiplication, and can obtain square roots, cubic roots and Gauss equation," said Su Jinxiu, deputy director of Chinese Abacus & Mental Calculation Dev’t. Assoc.

For centuries, the abacus was a major calculating device. It even helped to make calculations when China developed its first nuclear bomb in the 1960s.

But now, only some banks and shops used them as supplements to computers.

"But very few people learn how to use the abacus now," Su Jinxiu said.

Until the 1990s, abacus lessons were compulsory in primary schools; later they became a selective subject. And then it was totally removed from the curriculum.

But, abacus operation has developed into mental calculation. Some children learn this as an interest. Learners figure out results with an abacus in mind. And there are national contests.

Advocates of the practice say mental calculation can help improve children’s intelligence.

Today, the abacus is still an auspicious symbol of wisdom and wealth. In 2008, it was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage. People in the abacus association hope the valuable heritage won’t die.

Source: CCTV

India starts countdown for Mars mission

India has started the clock on its most ambitious space project to date. On Sunday at 6:08 IST, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) began the countdown for its Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM). If all goes to schedule, the unmanned probe will lift off on Tuesday from the First Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SHAR), on the island of Sriharikota at 2:38 pm IST atop a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C25), marking the point where India hopes to launch itself into the space-faring big leagues.

Once launched, the MOM probe will act as a technology demonstrator to show that India can design, build, launch, and execute an interplanetary exploration mission. In this case, a mission to Mars, which will involve a 300-day passage followed by studies lasting six to ten months from the spacecraft's elliptical orbit.

For studying the Red Planet, MOM is equipped with 15 kg (33 lb) of instruments. These include a Lyman-Alpha Photometer (LAP), which is an absorption cell photometer that measures the relative abundance of deuterium and hydrogen in the Martian upper atmosphere and will be used to determine the rate that Mars loses water to space. There is also a Methane Sensor for Mars (MSM), which measures methane in the Martian atmosphere in parts per billion – an experiment that has drawn considerable interest after NASA’s Curiosity rover failed to detect any trace of the gas.

The other three instruments are the Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyzer (MENCA), which is a quadrupole mass analyzer to study the composition of the upper atmosphere, a Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (TIS) that will map the temperature of the Martian surface, and the Mars Colour Camera (MCC) that will be used to study the surface features and composition of Mars and its moons Phobos and Deimos.

"Bilateral" adaptive cruise control could help reduce traffic jams

In 2007, mathematicians from the University of Exeter showed that the freeway traffic jams that appear to occur for no reason are actually the result of a "backward traveling wave" initiated when a driver slows below a critical speed. This sets off a chain reaction that ultimately results in traffic further down the line coming to a complete standstill. An MIT professor has now developed an algorithm that could be applied to a modified Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) system to help eliminate such traffic jams.

Last year Honda started to conduct public-road testing of technology that detects whether a person's driving style is likely to create traffic jams and encourages them to adopt a driving style that would avoid this. At the time, Honda said it would be possible to further improve this system by connecting it to cloud servers that would allow a vehicle's ACC system to automatically sync with the driving patterns of vehicles further up the road.

Berthold Horn, a professor in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, has come up with a somewhat similar approach that would also rely on a vehicle's ACC system, but without the need for the system to connect to the cloud. However, it would require current ACC systems, which only monitor the speed and distance of vehicles in front, to be modified to also take into account the speed and distance of the vehicle traveling directly behind.

Horn describes this system as "bilateral control," as it looks both forward and backward at the same time. By gathering this information, the ACC system is able to keep the car at roughly the midpoint between the vehicle in front and the vehicle behind. In this way, the system is able to avoid slamming on the brakes too hard if the car in front brakes, thereby avoiding causing a large disruption to the car behind that is then amplified as it is passed onto vehicles following behind.

The major problem facing the implementation of the algorithm is the technology required. Currently, ACC systems are generally only available as an option on high-end vehicles as they rely on relatively expensive sensors such as radar or laser rangefinders. Additionally, these only monitor the speed and distance of the vehicle in front, so Horn's system would require a second system to be installed to monitor vehicles traveling behind the car.

However, Horn does suggest that alternative cheaper technologies, such as digital cameras, could be employed to bring his algorithm to the roads. But these have their own drawbacks.

“There are several techniques,” Horn says. “One is using binocular stereo, where you have two cameras, and that allows you to get distance as well as relative velocity. The disadvantage of that is, well, two cameras, plus alignment. If they ever get out of alignment, you have to recalibrate them.”

Horn's system would also only be effective if a large percentage of vehicles on the road were using it, meaning it probably won't be helping to cut traffic jams anytime soon.

Horn presented his algorithm at the IEEE Conference on Intelligent Transport Systems held earlier this month.

Source: MIT,University of Exeter

Rebels in Colombia Hit Energy Sector Hard in 'Black October'

According to an article published on the Wall Street Journal,

"Colombia's energy sector, the main driver of its economy, is limping away from "Black October," a term coined by Marxist rebels who set forth on a month-long blitzkrieg, attacking oil pipelines, coal trains, electricity plants and transmission towers in a show of strength during peace talks with the government.

There were roughly two dozen attacks during October on high-profile targets like oil pipelines, according to security analysts and companies. That was more than double the number of attacks in September and by far the highest for any month this year, according to analysts. The Colombian government usually comes out with a count months later. Colombia's army declined to comment.

Few parts of Colombia's energy infrastructure escaped unscathed. State-controlled power-grid company ISA said 19 of its transmission towers that dot the countryside were blown up in October, compared with 11 such attacks in the previous nine months combined.

Colombia's second-longest oil pipeline, the Cano Limon, was attacked at least three times last month, bringing pumping to a halt and leading locals to again start calling it "the flute" due to all the holes the rebels have blasted in the above-ground pipeline over the past 20 years.

The Cano Limon attacks have also forced the delay of a much-anticipated grand opening of Colombia's newest oil pipeline, the $1.6 billion Bicentennial pipeline, because it can't operate if the Cano Limon line isn't also pumping oil.

The timing of the rebel assault comes as Colombia's economy struggles with up-and-down growth rates and a widening gap between the rich and the poor that has led this year to a wave of violent, sometimes deadly protests by farmers and other low-income workers. In some cases, the protesters' demands run parallel with those of the FARC, mainly seeking better conditions for agrarian workers and criticizing foreign companies' influence in Colombia, Latin America's fourth-largest economy.

The peace talks were supposed to "last for months, not years," President Juan Manuel Santos promised when the talks were launched in October 2012. But the talks are now beginning their second year and rebel and government negotiators have so far only come to agreement on one of five talking points, that of land reform. The two sides are reportedly still far apart on important issues such as integrating rebels into the political arena once they would lay down their arms".

Pentagon Expects to Build a Bomber on a Budget

   According to an article published today on the Wall Street Journal,"the plane of the future, dubbed the "Long-Range Strike Bomber," is the first weapon system to be designed in the new age of military austerity. Flight range, firepower and technological prowess are no longer the only features that matter. The Pentagon says it now gives equal weight to a far more pedestrian point: cost".

"After a decade of rapidly rising defense spending, Congress capped the Pentagon budget, forcing nearly a trillion dollars in cuts by 2023.

Defense officials worry that those cuts could threaten many modernization programs, like the bomber.

Air Force leaders believe the new aircraft is critical to America's ability to project force in far-flung parts of the world, particularly in Asia, where China is investing heavily in its military and long distances between U.S. bases diminish the effectiveness of its short-range fighters.

The Air Force hopes to get the new nuclear-capable bomber airborne in the middle of the next decade—a daunting task considering the history of such ambitions.

Delays, technical glitches and cost overruns have beset nearly every Air Force project in the past three decades.

Aging and expensive to maintain now, only 16 B-2s are combat ready (at $135,000 per hour of flight), and many of the remaining 138 B-52 and B-1 bombers are heading for retirement.

The military fears being stuck with a small fleet, as many in the service believe future conflicts will require lightning quick responses, with the ability to strike newly identified targets in distant lands within hours while at the same time penetrating a bristling range of air-defenses.

For supporters of the new bomber, only a long-range stealthy aircraft offers that capability.

"In the future, what our president is going to need is options, options to project power anywhere in the world within hours," said Major Gen. Steve Kwast, who is charged with helping shape the Air Force's long-term strategy. "This Long-Range Strike Bomber is going to be that option the president can use when there are no other option".

UK Monday Newspaper Round-up

A string of oil and gas firms is expected to float on the junior stock market in the coming months as they tap in to a growing appetite for IPO's). Accountancy firm EY's latest report on the sector's smaller companies shows flotation activity has already propelled business confidence to its highest level in 18 months, although the feel-good factor is so far confined to a small number of players, The Scotsman explains. 

BT is today accused of making profits of almost £5bn over and above the level deemed acceptable under regulator Ofcom's own rules. The damning accusation comes in a report written by research firm Frontier Economics and commissioned by Vodafone. It states that since 2005 British consumers and businesses have lost out as BT's returns for regulated services overall have been consistently above a benchmark rate, The Daily Mail says. 

Britain's business leaders have raised their forecasts for the country's economic growth through to 2016 today, lending further weight to claims that the recovery is gaining momentum. On the eve of its annual conference, the Confederation of British Industry said it had upped its growth forecast for 2013 to 1.4%, from 1.2% in August, and expected output to build steadily. While growth is expected to slow in the fourth quarter of this year, the CBI said the economic recovery would gather pace over the next two years, upping its 2014 forecast to 2.4% from 2.3% in August, while predicting that growth would hit 2.6% in 2015, according to The Daily Mail.

Public investment in the US has hit its lowest level since demobilisation after the Second World War because of Republican success in stymieing President Barack Obama's push for more spending on infrastructure,science and education. Gross capital investment by the public sector has dropped to just 3.6% of US output compared with a postwar average of 5%, according to figures compiled by the Financial Times, as austerity bites in the world's largest economy.

Britain's membership of the EU brings a net benefit of 3,000 pounds a year to every household, employers' organisation the CBI will say on Monday as it begins a three-year campaign to stop the country sliding towards the exit. The largest  business group, which is holding its annual conference in London, will attempt to rally corporate Britain around remaining in the EU and reforming it from within, the Financial Times explains. 

Source: LiveCharts

Fitch revised Spain outlook to Stable from Negative

Fitch Ratings has revised its outlook on Spain to stable from negative, due to its recent policy track record with regard to fiscal consolidation, the country's economic recovery, its banking sector restructuring and improving financing conditions. 

The credit agency announced the revision in a report published on Friday after the European market close and affirmed Spain's rating at 'BBB'. 

"Spain has improved its policy track record in 2012-13," Fitch said, commenting that the general government deficit/gross domestic product ratio has been reduced by 2.5% despite cyclical headwinds. 

Fitch also mentioned that the banking sector restructuring has "advanced well" since 2012 and noted that Spain exited the recession sooner than the agency had expected. 

Though Fitch does forecast that the Spanish economy will begin to recover in 2014, it noted that performance to "remain very weak" with an estimate of 0.5% real GDP growth in 2014. 

According to the report, the stable outlook reflects the fact that Fitch believes "upside and downside risks to the ratings are balanced", that Spain will retain market access and that the risk of fragmentation of the Eurozone "remains low". 

Source: LiveCharts

HSBC Registered 10% rise profits before tax

FTSE 100-listed global banking giant HSBC registered a 10 per cent rise in underlying profits before tax in the third quarter of 2013 to reach 5,056m dollars (3.14bn pounds). 

During the same period underlying revenue was broadly unchanged, at $15,588m (£9,682m), versus the $15,661m achieved in 2012. 

'Clean' underlying revenue came in at $15,571m, ahead of the consensus estimate of $15,335m and Nomura's forecast of $15,145m. Meanwhile, the clean underlying profit before tax was $5,809m (consensus: $5,535m, Nomura: $5,509m).

In regards to the most current trading conditions, HSBC said that they were "in line with the trends we experienced during the first nine months of the year". It also confirmed that it is one of a number of firms being investigated by the FCA and other regulators in relation with its dealings in the foreign exchange market. 

Net interest margin down

Net interest margins decreased in the nine months to September 30th when compared with the same period in 2012 as a result of significantly lower gross yields on customer lending, including balances within 'Assets held for sale', the lender explained. 

HSBC added $400m of additional "sustainable cost savings" across all regions, taking the annualised total to $4.5bn since the start of 2011. That already exceeds the bank's target for the end of 2013.

The cost-efficiency ratio, which compares overheads with income, fell back to 57%.

Operating expenses higher

Underlying operating expenses in the latest quarter fell by 4% to $9,572m. 

However, excluding notable items, operating expenses increased reflecting higher investment expenditure, wage inflation and litigation and regulatory-related costs.

The bank's core tier-1 ratio stood at 13.3% at the quarter-end, while its annualised return on equity (RoE) improved by 1.5 percentage points in the latest nine-month period to 10.4%, compared with 8.9% in the equivalent period in 2012.

Reasons for optimism on outlook for global growth 

Regarding the outlook, management referenced "reasons for optimism" with some evidence of a broadening recovery. HSBC was positive on China, the US and the UK, although Latin America was expected to remain slow. Nevertheless, at one point in its statement HSBC added that "regulatory uncertainty remains".

HSBC's forecasts for global growth remained constant at 2.0% in 2013 and 2.6% in 2014.

Eurozone Investor Sentiment hit a two-and-a-half year high in November

Eurozone investor sentiment hit a two-and-a-half year high in November after registering the largest increase amidst all regions, according to data reported on Monday by Sentix GmbH. 

Specifically, the Sentix investor confidence for the euro area rose 3.2 points to 9.3. That was its highest reading since May 2011. 

"Investors have become especially upbeat concerning the economic situation," Sentix said in the report. 

Also worth noting, the six-month expectations gauge for Germany reached its highest level since the survey began in 2009. Sentix did mention that the US and Japan made negative contributions, although sentiment in the emerging markets remains positive. 

Source: LiveCharts

Eurozone Manufacturing PMI Shows 'Frustratingly Slow' Recovery, MARKIT SAYS

The modest and fragile Eurozone manufacturing recovery continued at the start of the fourth quarter, although it remained "by all measures frustratingly slow", according to Markit chief economist Chris Williamson. 

Thus, the final Eurozone manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) for October edged up to 51.3, from September's reading of 51.1. 

Although Markit noted that the growth was "modest overall", it pointed out that only two of the nations covered by the survey, France and Greece, saw deteriorating conditions. 

At the individual country level, Ireland climbed to the top of the list, surpassing the Netherlands. Growth hit a near two-and-a-half year peak in Austria and also moved higher in Germany and Spain. However, the rates of contraction in France and Greece were the sharpest seen in four and three months, respectively. 

New export orders rose for the fourth consecutive month - and remained near August's 27-month high - despite which employment in the Eurozone´s manufacturing sector declined for the 21st month in a row. 

Williamson noted that despite the somewhat "disappointing" lack of a steeper pick-up in the last two months, "the recent growth revealed by the survey indicates a marked turnaround in the health of the manufacturing economy". 
However, Markit's chief economist seemed daunted by the slow pace of the stabilization. "While the recovery goes on, it is by all measures frustratingly slow. 

"In particular, the modest gains in output and new orders remain insufficient to encourage firms to take on more staff," Williamson said. 

Source:  LiveCharts

China Construction Bank looks to Europe for deals - FT

China's No. 2 lender, is looking for acquisition opportunities in Europe but first needs to see regulators open their doors, its chairman told the Financial Times.

CCB Chairman Wang Hongzhang told the FT in an interview published on the paper's website on Sunday that "CCB values the European market a lot."

"If we can find suitable targets and the price is suitable and we get the regulators' support, I think CCB will catch and seize the chance for mergers and acquisitions."

Wang said no deal was imminent but he had met regulators in Germany and the UK last week for informal talks about whether the bank would be welcome in the two countries.

He said he wanted to expand operations to more European countries but added: "Whether we can establish more institutions in Europe depends on European countries' regulators, their attitudes towards CCB and whether CCB is welcomed by them or not.

Sources: Reuters

China's business service sector boosts economy

China's non-manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index reached a 14-month high of 56.3 in October from 55.4 in September, suggesting a stable expansion of domestic demand.

The National Bureau of Statistics and the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing released the figure on Sunday, showing that growth in the business service sector has contributed more to the overall economy.

A reading above 50 indicates that non-manufacturing production activities are accelerating, while below 50 means they are slowing.

"Continual expansion of the non-manufacturing sector will lead to steady employment growth, which is an important foundation to stabilizing the whole economy," said Cai Jin, vice-chairman of the CFLP.

Cai said the upward momentum of the sector is expected to remain in the coming months, and the development potential of the service industry should be further realized.

A subindex of the non-manufacturing PMI that indicates entrepreneurs' future expectations rose to 60.5 in October, compared with 60.1 in September, which means they have greater confidence in the industry over the next three months, according to statistics.

Analysts said the positive signals from the non-manufacturing industry will further help to transform China's economic growth pattern to a consumption-driven model.

In 2011, the service industry overtook manufacturing as the world's second-largest source of jobs.

In October, the manufacturing PMI climbed to an 18-month high to 51.4 from September's 51.1, higher than the market expected. The growth was mainly driven by stronger output, the NBS said on Friday.

Based on the stronger leading economic indicators, UBS chief Chinese economist Wang Tao expects that "the upcoming October data will show that economic activities have remained solid".

Consumer inflation is likely to pick up further while the growth of bank leading and overall social financing may slow after the rapid increase in September, she said.

Ma Xiaoping, an economist in China at HSBC Holdings PLC, said the existing government policies to stabilize growth, such as supporting small businesses and maintaining infrastructure construction investment, will continue to work in the coming months.

"The recent acceleration of capital inflow and expansion of fiscal expenditures will help keep a relatively sufficient liquidity," Ma said.

Besides, a rebound in employment and growth of incomes can boost consumption in the future, he added.

Source: NewsOnJapan

Apple now commands a record 34% market share in Japan

Despite a not-so-stellar third quarter for Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ) , Japan was a bright spot for the iPhone maker. Apple now commands a record 34% market share in the country once dominated by domestic brands.

It's the first time a smartphone brand has surpassed 30% market share in Japan in a decade, and Apple is poised to grab even more.Japan's smartphone market has typically been dominated by domestic companies including Sony and Sharp, and until this past quarter Apple didn't hold much sway in the country.
Apple skyrocketed from third place in Japan's mobile handset market to the top spot in part because the iPhone finally launched on NTT DoCoMo (NYSE: DCM ) , the island nation's largest wireless carrier. The move allowed Apple's iPhone 5s to become the best-selling smartphone in Japan in September, with about half a million in sales.
But it wasn't just the 5s that tipped the scales for Apple. To compete with DoCoMo, other Japanese carriers offered massive discounts and incentives on the iPhone 5, grabbing consumers who didn't want to endure the two-week wait for the 5s.
Apple is expected to maintain its new lead in Japan, and a Gartner analyst told Reuters he thinks the company could grab as much as 50% of smartphone market share in the country.
Source: NewsOnJapan

Six years following bankruptcy, Nova boosts the brand

In September, Tokyo-based Jibun Mirai Associe Co. (JMA) announced it would adopt Nova as its official corporate name - 19 months after it acquired the eikaiwa (English conversation) school chain from its previous operators, and almost six years after its well-publicized downfall.

It has been a rocky road for the school since the Oct. 26, 2007, bankruptcy announcement that put thousands of foreign-language instructors out of work (and in some cases out of apartments), even necessitating some governments to intervene and give them assistance.JMA, now called Nova Holdings Co., is hopeful that things are finally looking up.
Timing is everything. Nova is reportedly seeing an increase in children coming in for lessons, particularly from a young age.
Following the insolvency of the original Nova in October 2007, G.Communication revived the company a month later while retaining the Nova brand. Inayoshi Holdings did the same when it took over ownership in October 2010.
One highly recognizable character is the Nova usagi, a pink cartoon rabbit with a beak-like mouth. After making its debut in a TV commercial in September 2002, the Nova usagi enjoyed a high level of popularity that led to the creation of merchandise, apparel and even video games.

Source: NewsOnJapan

Abe fearing China's eclipsing Japan on Global Stage,adopts some of former's policies.

Shinzo Abe is so obsessed with China eclipsing Japan on the global stage that he's adopting some of his neighbour's policies. What else can we say about the secrecy law the prime minister's cabinet approved on October 25 - an act that would do so much to undermine and constrain his people's right to know?

Abe's Liberal Democratic Party says the move - which gives ministries the authority to classify as state secrets information on counterintelligence, counterterrorism, defence and diplomacy - is necessary to protect the nation's 126 million people from any number of risks. It claims this is a necessary step towards creating a US-style national security council and safely sharing vital intelligence with allies. And in the aftermath of the Edward Snowden/Bradley Manning leaks that have the US re-examining its secrecy policies, why shouldn't Japan do something similar?

But Abe isn't offering definitions or guidelines for what constitutes a "special secret". Compare that with the specifics about the jail terms journalists can expect for disclosing something that someone, somewhere, somehow might label national security-calibre info: as much as five years. Government officials who blow the whistle on improprieties could get as much as 10 years. But the vagueness of this law will have a further chilling effect on a national media that's already too docile. If you think it's hard to follow the state of play with the Fukushima nuclear crisis now, just wait until the law goes into effect, possibly as soon as next month.

Source: NewsOnJapan

Japan and Korea slide down gender-index ranking

The Swiss-based nonprofit World Economic Forum recently released its Gender Gap Report for 2013, in which Japan ranked 105 out of 136 countries - a plunge of 25 places from its ranking when the report was inaugurated in 2006. South Korea rates even worse, coming in at 111 in 2013, down from 92nd place in 2006.

With both Japan and Korea being in the bottom third of countries surveyed, it would seem their employment systems aren't working very well for women by any measure, as both feature a wide gender-based wage gap, glass ceilings, marginalization in the workforce and low fertility - the latter a key factor in the rapid aging of both societies.The failure to support working women is also saddling both countries with gathering fiscal problems by depressing tax revenues, pension and medical-insurance contributions and limiting economic growth.
However, it's worth bearing in mind an important clarification accompanying the WEF report, which states: "The index is designed to measure gender-based gaps in access to resources and opportunities in individual countries rather than the actual levels of the available resources and opportunities in those countries."

Source: NewsOnJapan

Hitachi starts building train factory in Britain

Japanese electronic machinery giant Hitachi is building a train factory in Britain to return high-speed rail trains to the motherland of railways.

Officials from Hitachi and the British government attended the ceremony on Friday to mark the start of construction on the 120-million dollar plant in Newton Aycliffe, in northeastern England.

Hitachi won a contract to produce 866 carriages and offer maintenance service for 27 years. The company aims to start operation in 2016, hiring 730 locals.

Source: NewsOnJapan

Glencore Sells Copper Project Stake as Mining Deals Hot up

  According to an article published on the Wall Street Journal,
"Glencore Xtrata PLC is selling its majority stake in one of the Asia-Pacific's biggest unmined copper deposits, the latest in a flurry of asset sales across the mining industry that suggests deal making may be picking up as some commodities rebound.
Australian copper-and-gold minerPanAust Ltd.  said Friday it would buy the Frieda River deposit in Papua New Guinea from Glencore for as much as US$125 .
A series of assets sales in recent months has followed a notable weak  deal making  period over the past year as miners struggled with falling commodity prices and rising costs".

"Last week, Glencore and Japan's Sumitomo Corp.agreed to buy  Rio Tinto PLC's stake in the Clermont coal mine in eastern Australia for around US$1 billion.

South African miner Gold Fields Ltd. recently agreed to buy three mines in Australia from Canadian peer Barrik Gold Corp.  for about US$300 million, while Rio Tintoagreed to sell its controlling stake in the Northparkes copper-and-gold mine in Australia to a Chinese company for US$820 million".

"According to a midyear report by Ernst & Young, there were only 350 merger-and-acquisition deals across the global mining sector in the first half of 2013, down 30% on-year.

Since then, the value of many commodities, like iron ore and copper,have rebounded as Chinese imports climbed and fears of a sharp slowdown in the world's No. 2 economy abated. Copper is up 10% since its year-to-date low in June. Gold is about 7% higher.

PanAust said it would take an 80% interest in the Frieda River project. The remaining 20% is controlled by joint-venture partner Highlands Pacific Ltd. PanAust has also agreed to take a 7.5% stake in Highlands for A$5 million (US$4.7 million). The Wall Street Journal reported in August  that the company was in talks with Glencore to purchase its stake.

PanAust is no stranger to operating mines in impoverished Southeast Asian nations lacking infrastructure and skilled workers. It has two active pits in Laos that produce copper and gold, and the Brisbane-based company accounts for about 30% of that country's exports.

"From a strategic point of view, Frieda River provides us with the basis for growing production beyond our current mine life in Laos," PanAust Managing Director Gary Stafford said in an interview. "It gives us another string to our bow."

Glencore inherited the Frieda River project through its multibillion-dollar takeover of Xstrata PLC earlier this year, but has signaled a preference for owning active mines that produce commodities it can sell through its trading arm. It has been reviewing its assets since its acquisition of Xstrata".

Beijing is going to start building six new subway lines .

Beijing is going to start building six new subway lines by the end of this year to help ease traffic congestion in the Chinese capital. But after a recent string of signal malfunctions that stranded many commuters, questions remain about their ability to provide citizens with an efficient, comfortable ride.

In search of an easier commute.On Tuesday, the Beijing metro management authority announced its decision to construct six new subway lines.

The city is notorious for its traffic congestion.

And operation snags have made things worse.

During the Monday morning rush hour, a signal malfunction delayed several trains on line 5.

It was the seventh time in October.

Yao Dongmei is an urban planning expert from the Office for Metropolitan Architecture. She agrees that better design and management are needed.

"Generally speaking, the development of Beijing’s metro system has lagged far behind the city’s urbanization. So it can’t meet the needs of the city commuters. That’s why the subway congestion problem is getting worse. We need to improve the future subway design as well as the metro management to provide people an easy and comfortable underground commute." said Yao Dongmei.

Beijing has the oldest metro system in China.

Its first line opened in 1969. Today it has 17 lines, more than 200 stations, and around 450 kilometers of track.

But it’s a major challenge to fit a modern metro system into an ancient city.

There has been a wide range of criticisms on the city’s subway system not being people-oriented enough. Now the government’s challenge going forward is to have a sound planning for future subway construction so that people can have a convenient, and more importantly, comfortable commute.

Source: CCTV

Obamacare’s Fatal Flaw. By Martin Feldstein

"Obamacare, officially known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, is the health-insurance program enacted by US President Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats over the unanimous opposition of congressional Republicans. It was designed to cover those Americans without private or public health insurance – about 15% of the US population. 
The potentially fatal flaw in Obamacare is the very same feature that appeals most to its supporters: the ability of even those with a serious preexisting health condition to buy insurance at the standard premium.
That feature will encourage those who are not ill to become or remain uninsured until they have a potentially costly medical diagnosis. The resulting shift in enrollment away from low-cost healthy patients to those with predictably high costs will raise insurance companies’ cost per insured person, driving up the premiums that they must charge. As premiums rise, even more relatively healthy individuals will be encouraged to forego insurance until illness strikes, causing average costs and premiums to rise further.

With this in mind, Obamacare’s drafters made the purchase of insurance “mandatory.” More specifically, employers with more than 50 employees will be required after 2014 to purchase an approved insurance policy for their “full-time” employees. Individuals who do not receive insurance from their employers are required to purchase insurance on their own, with low-income buyers receiving a government subsidy.

But neither the employer mandate nor the personal requirement is likely to prove effective. Employers can avoid the mandate by reducing an employee’s workweek to less than 30 hours (which the law defines as full-time employment). But even for full-time employees, firms can opt to pay a relatively small fine rather than provide insurance. That fine is $2,000 per employee, much less than the current average premium of $16,000 for employer-provided family policies

A smart employer can pay the fine for not providing insurance and increase employees’ pay by enough so that they have more spendable cash after purchasing the subsidized insurance policy. Even after both payments, employers can be better off financially.

But the biggest danger to Obamacare’s survival is that many individuals who do not receive insurance from their employer will choose not to insure themselves and will instead pay the fine of just 1% of income (rising permanently after 2015 to 2.5%). The preferred alternative for these individuals is to wait to buy insurance until they are ill and are facing large medical bills.

That wait-to-insure strategy makes sense if the medical condition is a chronic disease like diabetes or a condition requiring surgery, like cancer or a hernia. In either case, the individual would be able to purchase insurance after he or she receives the diagnosis.

But what about conditions like a heart attack or injuries sustained in an automobile accident? In those cases, the individual would not have time to purchase the health insurance that the law allows. If they are not insured in advance, they will face major hospital bills that could cause serious financial hardship or even cause them not to receive needed care.

The “wait-to-insure” option could cause the number of insured individuals to decline rapidly as premiums rise for those who remain insured. In this scenario, the unraveling of Obamacare could lead to renewed political pressure from the left for a European-style single-payer health-care system.

But it might also provide an opportunity for a better plan: eliminate the current enormously expensive tax subsidy for employer-financed insurance and use the revenue savings to subsidize everyone to buy comprehensive private insurance policies with income-related copayments. That restructuring of insurance would simultaneously protect individuals, increase labor mobility, and help to control health-care costs".

Source: By Martin Feldstein
             Project-Syndicate

"Hybrid" eclipse visible across Africa, Europe, US.

A rare hybrid solar eclipse has swept across parts of the United States, Africa and Europe.

The total eclipse appeared fleetingly as a ring of fire over the Atlantic Ocean, and has been passing through Gabon, the Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Kenya. A partial eclipse has been visible from many parts of the Americas, the Caribbean, southern Greenland, southern Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

In Lagos, Nigeria, some people were gathered on a beach to witness the event. People are reminded to never look directly at the sun without specialized equipment, even during an eclipse.

Source: CCTV

Asian markets started slow on Monday

Asian markets started the week on a sluggish note on Monday as investors chose discretion over valor ahead of central bank meetings in Europe and the always-critical U.S. payrolls report.

Trading was thinned by holidays in both Japan and Singapore which kept MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan  just a fraction firmer at 480.04.

Australia's share market edged up 0.2 percent  as another domestic bank reported record profits.

Major currencies were likewise quiet with the dollar still well supported in the wake of upbeat U.S. manufacturing data that stirred speculation the Federal Reserve might scale back its bond-buying in December, rather than in March as many in the market currently anticipate.

There are no less than four Fed officials speaking on Monday, starting with Fed Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher in Sydney. Fed Governor Jerome Powell and the heads of the St. Louis and Boston Feds all appear later in the day.

The dollar index was holding firm at 80.715.DXY having climbed to a six-week peak on Friday. It was also up on the yen at 98.73 and threatening a major chart target at 99.00.

The dollar fared best against the euro which was undermined by speculation the European Central Bank (ECB) would have to ease again given disappointing news on unemployment and a startlingly low reading of inflation.

The single currency was pinned at $1.3489 on Monday, well below its recent high of $1.3832. The ECB holds a policy meeting on Thursday and it will be under intense pressure to stimulate the economy.

"We expect the opening statement, and Q&A, to have a distinctly dovish tone," wrote analysts at RBC Capital Markets in a note to clients.

"For now, we think that the Governing Council will refrain from any immediate action, but we expect the downbeat tone of next week's meeting to lay the groundwork for a policy response over the next few months."

Source: Reuters