Saturday October 11, 2008
EUROPE 
Anger erupts over Nobel Peace Prize recipient
It is a sign of the times, perhaps, that the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the soft-spoken Finnish diplomat Martti Ahtisaari was immediately met with angry and violent-sounding responses in several countries yesterday.
Severstal to cut output as demand stalls
OAO Severstal, Russia's largest steel maker, will slash output in Russia, the U.S. and Europe by as much as 30 per cent this month and review full-year forecasts as financial turmoil saps the world's demand for metals. Production will be cut 30 per cent in the U.S. and Italy, and 25 per cent in Severstal's home town of Cherepovets in Russia, the company said yesterday. Steel makers from China and South Korea to Austria and Russia are curbing output as demand for cars and buildings weakens, and as banks withdraw funding for new plants. OAO Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel, Russia's third-largest producer, Posco, Asia's biggest stainless steel maker, and Voestalpine AG, Austria's top steel company, all signalled cuts in production plans this week.
Hungary's MOL boosts stake in Croatia's INA
Hungarian oil and gas giant MOL Group has obtained a 22.15-per-cent stake in Croatian oil group Industrija Nafte (INA), increasing its holding to 47.15 per cent, the central depository agency said yesterday. The Hungarian company already owned 25 per cent of INA, and is now its biggest shareholder, with the Croatian government still owning 44.8 per cent. The Croatian government must reduce its stake in INA to less than 25 per cent before it enters the European Union, which is planned for 2011. MOL (Budapest) fell 1005 to 11500 Hungarian Forints ($69.99); INARA (Croatia) fell 33.72 to 2067.46 Croatia kunas ($457.27).
Italy PM urges investors to buy energy stocks
Italians should buy shares in the country's two largest energy companies while their prices are low, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said yesterday. ''Now is the time to buy into Eni and Enel as the shares will reach their true value again [after the crisis],'' Mr. Berlusconi said yesterday. He said the shares of oil and energy firm Eni SpA and electricity company Enel SpA are currently ''undervalued'' as they both continue to be profitable. In Milan, ENI fell €1.07 to €13.79; ENEL fell 42 euro cents to €4.60 ($7.25).
AMERICAS
COVER STORY: SIX WAYS TO AVOID A REPEAT
Move quickly, be decisive The early response by the politicians to the onset of the Depression was denial. ''In the 1930s, there was a reluctance to intervene ... the thought that this was a temporary adjustment,'' said Bill Waiser, a professor of history at the University of Saskatchewan. The two prime ministers who governed during the Depression era, Mackenzie King and R.B. Bennett, at times used the constitution to argue that unemployment and relief were provincial matters - there was no national unemployment insurance scheme - and Ottawa initially threw only meagre, ''temporary'' support to them, Prof. Waiser said.
U.S. ups ante with plan to buy stake in ailing banks
The Bush administration will buy big equity chunks in America's battered banks in a bold, even more aggressive bailout effort, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said yesterday, unveiling a sweeping additional intervention that harkens back to the Great Depression.
Co-operation among G7 unprecedented
The world's seven big capitalist countries are turning their backs on orthodoxy in order to end the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.In an extraordinary statement last night, finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of Seven major industrial nations stated in black and white that they will choose winners and losers if that's what it takes to restore calm to global markets. They also said they are willing to buy stakes in banks if there are no willing private investors at whatever cost necessary.
Palin abused her office, panel rules
Sarah Palin unlawfully abused her power as governor by trying to have her former brother-in-law fired as a state trooper, the chief investigator of an Alaska legislative panel concluded yesterday. The politically charged inquiry imperilled her reputation as a reformer on John McCain's Republican presidential ticket.
HISTORY LESSONS
How This Crisis Is SimilarProperty Bubble Foreshadows TroubleThe Great Depression didn't begin until the autumn of 1929, when chaos erupted in the financial markets. But then, as now, the market crash was preceded by a speculative frenzy in real estate that had burst.
Buffett nips Gates as richest American
Billionaire investor Warren Warren Buffett is again the richest American, deposing Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates, after Forbes magazine recalculated the fortunes of some of the 400 wealthiest Americans.
Morgan's Mitsubishi deal could be altered
ASIA-PACIFIC
India's Infosys cuts growth forecast
Information technology provider Infosys Technologies Ltd. yesterday said earnings in the July-September quarter rose 17 per cent, but lowered its annual growth forecast on slowing demand amid the global financial crisis. Profit for the fiscal second quarter rose to $320-million (U.S.) from $273-million the same period a year ago. Sales for the quarter ended Sept. 30 climbed 19 per cent to $1.2-billion, at the lower edge of its forecast. ''We want to be cautious; that is why we've revised our guidance downward,'' said chief executive officer Kris Gopalakrishnan. Infosys said revenue for the year would increase between 13.1 and 15.2 per cent to $4.72-billion to $4.81-billion, down from its prior forecast of 19 to 21 per cent revenue growth. INFO (Mumbai) fell 27.65 rupees to 1,226.7 rupees ($29.84).
Chalco says it will cut output due to weak prices
China's top aluminum maker, Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd., known as Chalco, said yesterday it may have to cut output because of weak prices, signalling that other Chinese producers might follow suit. Chalco, the world's third-biggest producer of alumina, may shut down some high-cost aluminum capacity due to low prices, its investor relations manager said yesterday. But Zhang Qing said Chalco would still try to make up the volume by running full capacity at its low-cost aluminum operations. ''We are going to fine-tune operations to cut losses,'' Ms. Zhang said. Chalco maintained its output target of 3.5 million tonnes this year. 2600 (Hong Kong) fell .36 to $3.29 Hong Kong dollars (50 cents).
AFRICA-MIDEAST
Rekindled war triggers crisis in Congo
Congo's long-simmering conflict has boiled back over into war in recent weeks, and a dramatic rebel raid on a major military base here on Wednesday - the latest twist in six weeks of fresh fighting - is raising fears that the crisis may again spread to neighbouring nations.
