Wild caviar exports..[ 1524 ]

Caviar producers to restart wild caviar exports

Caviar producers have been granted permission to export 81 tonnes of wild caviar from the Caspian Sea.

Caviar producers have been granted permission to export wild caviarPhoto: AFP

 

Telegraph co.uk., By Richard Orange in Almaty
Published: 7:52PM BST 24 Jul 2010 

Russia and three former Soviet republics have agreed tight export quotas for the caviar for 2010, including three tonnes of prized beluga.

The accord, agreed at a meeting in Tehran, ends a de facto international trade ban on wild caviar and other sturgeon products from the five countries after their failure to reach agreement last year.

Under the new quotas, nearly 81 tonnes of the delicacy can be exported, including three tonnes of beluga, 17 tonnes of sevruga and 27 tonnes of osetra.

The sum is five tonnes less than in 2008, according to Juan-Carlos Vasquez, spokesman for CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora).

"They are not huge differences but the trend is going down," he said.

Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are the three other Caspian Sea countries, although Turkmenistan normally exports through Kazakhstan as it is not party to the CITES treaty.

The Caspian Sea, the source of four-fifths of the world's black caviar, has been hit by a vast decline in sturgeon stocks due to poaching and illegal trade.

The agreement covers six wild sturgeon species, including huso huso which produces beluga caviar, the most expensive. 

All six are listed on CITES' Appendix II which means they are not considered endangered species but international trade in them must be regulated on a scientific basis.

Iran's quota for beluga is to fall to 800 kilos from 1,000 in 2008, while Kazakhstan's quota falls to 1,500 kilos from 1,700 and Azerbaijan's drops to zero from 300 kilos previously. 

.

High levels of poaching and illegal trade in the Caspian led to a temporary ban on international trade in wild caviar and other sturgeon products in 2001. At the time CITES estimated that illegal trade was ten times greater than legal trade. 

This forced Caspian Sea countries to agree export quotas the following year, which they have done annually except for 2006 and 2009, Mr Vasquez said.

To have their proposed quotas published, countries with shared sturgeon stocks must agree among themselves on catch and export quotas based on scientific surveys of the stocks, according to CITES, a Swiss-based treaty body which regulates international trade in wildlife. 

"They must also adopt a regional conservation strategy, combat illegal fishing and provide details of the scientific data used to establish the catch and export quotas," it said.

Countries sharing the Black Sea and Lower Danube sturgeon stocks – Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia – and the Heilongjiang Amur River population (China and the Russian Federation) have yet to inform CITES about their quotas for this year, it said.

The new quotas run from March 1, 2010 to Feb. 28, 2011, reflecting the fishing season.

James Cracknell's life was saved by his crash helmet..[ 1523 ]

James Cracknell 'stable' after fracturing skull in road crash

James Cracknell, the adventurer and Olympic rowing champion, is in a “stable” condition in hospital following treatment for head injuries after a road crash in the United States.

 

Cracknell, 38, an Olympic rowing champion, was “sitting up in bed and talking” to his wife Beverly, his parents and Ben Fogle, his fellow adventurer, his spokeswoman said.

He was knocked off his bicycle by a truck while on an attempt to cross the United States.

Telegraph co.uk., By David Harrison
Published: 6:30PM BST 24 Jul 2010

Doctors and family were pleased with the progress James was making after suffering a fractured skull in the crash, she added.

“He continues to do very well but he has had head trauma and we are taking it step by step at the moment.

“It’s good that his family are with him, and Mum and Dad beeing there is always reassuring,” she added.

Cracknell’s life was saved by his crash helmet, which took the full force of the impact.

The accident happened just after sunrise at 5.30am on Tuesday near the city of Winslow, Arizona.

The Olympic gold medallist was taken to a local hospital before being transferred to Phoenix.

Cracknell was attempting to break an endurance record by crossing the United States from Los Angeles to New York - running, cycling, rowing and swimming - in 16 days.

Doctors described his head injuries as “moderate to severe” but said Cracknell did not lose consciousness and was able to talk to paramedics.

They expect him to make a full recovery although it is not known when he will be released from hospital.

A 2,745-mile bike race he had planned to undertake from Canada to Mexico with Fogle next month, has been postponed because of the accident.

The pair have collaborated on a number of adventures, including as racing to the South Pole and rowing the Atlantic.

U.S. nuclear aircraft carrier USS George Washington ..[ 1522 ]

U.S. Aircraft Carrier Presence Symbol of Defiance to N. Korean Threats

Published July 24, 2010

| Associated Press

AP

July 24, 2010: An armed military personnel stands near a flight line on the deck of U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington at the Busan port in Busan, south of Seoul, South Korea.

BUSAN, South Korea

BUSAN, South Korea (AP) — A massive nuclear-powered U.S. supercarrier readied Saturday for maneuvers with ally South Korea in a potent show of force that North Korea has threatened could lead to "sacred war."

The military drills, code-named "Invincible Spirit," are to run Sunday through Wednesday with about 8,000 U.S. and South Korean troops, 20 ships and submarines and 200 aircraft. The Nimitz-class USS George Washington, with several thousand sailors and dozens of fighters aboard, was deployed from Japan.

The North routinely threatens attacks whenever South Korea and the U.S. hold joint military drills, which Pyongyang sees as a rehearsal for an invasion. The U.S. keeps 28,500 troops in South Korea and another 50,000 in Japan, but says it has no intention of invading the North.

Still, the North's latest rhetoric threatening "nuclear deterrence" and "sacred war" carries extra weight following the sinking of a South Korean warship that killed 46 sailors. Seoul and Washington say a North Korean torpedo was responsible for the March sinking of the Cheonan, considered the worst military attack on the South since the 1950-53 Korean War.

The American and South Korean defense chiefs announced earlier in the week they would stage the military drills to send a clear message to North Korea to stop its "aggressive" behavior.

The exercises will be the first in a series of U.S.-South Korean maneuvers to be conducted in the Sea of Japan off Korea's east coast and in the Yellow Sea closer to China's shores in international waters. The exercises also are the first to employ the F-22 stealth fighter — which can evade North Korean air defenses — in South Korea.

South Korea was closely monitoring North Korea's military, but no unusual activity had been observed Saturday, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.

North Korea, which denies any involvement in the sinking of the Cheonan warship, has warned the United States against attempting to punish it.

"The army and people of the DPRK will legitimately counter with their powerful nuclear deterrence the largest-ever nuclear war exercises to be staged by the U.S. and the South Korean puppet forces," North Korea's official news agency in Pyongyang quoted an unnamed government spokesman as saying. North Korea's official name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Though the impoverished North has a large conventional military and the capability to build nuclear weapons, it is not believed to have the technology needed to use nuclear devices as warheads.

Its rhetoric regarding using nuclear deterrence was seen by most as bluster, but its angry response to the maneuvers underscores the rising tensions in the region.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced Wednesday, after visiting the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas, that the U.S. would slap new sanctions on the North to stifle its nuclear ambitions and punish it for the Cheonan sinking.

On Friday, the European Union said it, too, would consider new sanctions on North Korea.

The North's Foreign Ministry said Saturday that Pyongyang will further strengthen its nuclear deterrent and again mentioned "powerful physical measures" in response to the U.S. military provocations and sanctions.

In an apparent bow to China, the George Washington will participate in the exercise in the Sea of Japan, but there are no plans for it to enter the Yellow Sea for the subsequent exercises.

China, a traditional North Korean ally, has voiced concerns that military drills in the Yellow Sea could inflame tensions on the Korean Peninsula and also fears exercises too close to its own shores could breach Chinese security.

The George Washington had been expected to join in exercises off Korea sooner, but the Navy delayed those plans as the United Nations Security Council met to deliberate what action it should take over the Cheonan sinking.

The council eventually condemned the incident, but stopped short of naming North Korea as the perpetrator.

__

Associated Press writer Kwang-Tae Kim in Seoul contributed to this report.

EU banks test.. [ 1521 ]

Focus shifts to EU banks to scrape test pass

1 / 8

Spain's Cajasur - Tier 1 ratio 4.3%.

Credit: Reuters/Javier Barbancho

By Steve Slater and Edward Taylor

 

LONDON/FRANKFURT | Sat Jul 24, 2010 9:07am EDT

LONDON/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - So few banks failed Europe's long-awaited stress tests on Friday that investors will likely focus instead on the dozen or so banks that just scraped through when markets reopen next week.

Seven banks failed the unprecedented test of Europe's banking system -- including five small regional Spanish lenders -- and need to plug a much smaller-than-expected combined capital shortfall of 3.5 billion euros ($4.5 billion).

But the health check on 91 banks in 20 countries was criticized as being too soft. It was also overshadowed somewhat by a slew of data on European economies that suggested the banks may face less pressure and loan defaults than earlier thought.

That leaves investors to make up their own minds about particular banks, armed with the extra data the tests provided, including on sovereign bond holdings, to judge where further weak spots may be.
"With so few banks failing, investors will question whether the economic scenarios are sufficiently severe," said Jon Peace, analyst at Nomura in London.


"It will be natural for investors to consider the margin by which banks passed," he added, citing a good pass margin for Scandinavian and British banks, but Greek, Spanish and Italian banks faring less well.
Banks were tested on how they would withstand another recession in the next two years, including some losses on government bonds. They failed if their Tier 1 capital ratio dropped below 6 percent.

There were 17 banks whose ratio fell to between 6 percent and 7 percent.
They included Deutsche Postbank, Greece's Piraeus Bank, Allied Irish Banks, Italy's Monte dei Paschi di Siena and UBI Banca, Spain's Bankinter and eight smaller Spanish banks.

WEAK LINKS

Even in the hours before the results w ere released National Bank of Greece, Slovenia's NLB and Civica in Spain all announced plans to raise capital.

Piraeus has already hired three investment banks to underwrite a capital increase of more than 1 billion euros, a Greek newspaper said on Saturday, although much of that may go on the acquisition of state stakes in two other Greek banks.

Postbank, Germany's largest retail bank by clients, identified its own capital shortfall months ago. The Bonn-based lender last year took drastic measures to improve capital, including scrapping its dividend, cutting staff and shrinking assets. It said it will continue with the overhaul.

Franz-Christoph Zeitler, Bundesbank's vice president, said: "In the regulators' view no other German bank (other than Hypo Real Estate) needs further capital as the level of 6 percent is clearly above the regulatory minimum, but the markets could see that differently."
Italy's smaller banks will also come under scrutiny.

"As we expected, bigger banks have higher capital ratios, while the market will probably say that banks such as Monte dei Paschi and Banco Popolare still lack adequate ratios," said Centrosim analyst Luca Comi.
ACCESS TO FUNDING?
A main aim of the test was to open up funding markets for banks who have been shut out in recent months. Those still deemed too risky could still have problems unless they raise more capital.
"This isn't necessarily the last word, and if funding costs do not improve for some banks then we would not be surprised to see additional stress tests by some national central banks in the future," Nomura's Peace said.

Europe's so-called "stress tests" were never expected to show massive capital shortfalls, as its banks have also already raised about 300 billion euros since the start of the crisis. That includes about 170 billion euros of government support to 34 banks.
Just as investors take a view when markets reopen on Monday, Central bank governors and heads of supervision will meet in Switzerland to review proposed capital reforms, and the resilience shown by Europe's banks could make it harder for them to argue they cannot implement tough new rules.

"The banks are ready to start implementing the new rules which are necessary to reinforce the capital provision and liquidity management of the banks," Vitor Constancio, ECB Vice President, told Reuters Insider after Friday's results.

(Additional reporting by Philipp Halstrick, Huw Jones, Antonella Ciancio and Angeliki Koutantou; editing by Patrick Graham)

Tokyo.Metropolitan buses . [ 1520 ]

Metropolitan buses offer a great way to see the sites of Tokyo

(Mainichi Japan) July 24, 2010 
-----

Whenever I take a bus ride, I feel excited for some reason. It is interesting to just look at the changing landscape from the window. A long-distance bus trip is nice, but there is an easier alternative -- a city tour on a Tokyo metropolitan bus.

"Tokyo is changing rapidly and it offers new discoveries wherever you go," says Masato Tachiki, 30, a self-anointed "bus geek" who runs the "Toei Bus Museum" website (http://pluto.xii.jp/bus/) for Tokyo metropolitan bus fans.

"I especially like routes that offer both urban scenes and the nostalgic atmosphere of the city," Tachiki added.

Following his advice, I decided to take the "Aki 26" route bus, which connects Akihabara's electronic quarter and Kasai, a commuter town on Tokyo's eastern edge, in a little over an hour. Passengers can have a glimpse of the sunset from Kasai Bridge on the route depending on the time and weather, according to Tachiki.

The bus departed the crowded Akihabara area in the early afternoon and went through the commercial districts of Bakuro-cho and Hama-cho in the Nihonbashi area. People in business suits were on the streets wiping away sweat, but I was feeling good in the bus, with comfortable air-conditioning and the lulling vibration of the vehicle.

After a while, the bus made a stop in front of Kiyosumi-Shirakawa Station, located a short walk from Kiyosumi Garden, where visitors can enjoy beautiful Japanese-style gardens and bird watching. However, I decided not to get off here as the area is also accessible by the Oedo and Hanzomon metro lines.

The bus continued along Kiyosu-bashi Street, passing by taverns and billboards for family restaurants.

Suddenly, the sky cleared up as the bus crossed the 280-meter-long Kasai Bridge, making me filled with a feeling of release. I made up my mind and got off the bus at the stop on the other end of the bridge.

The air had a salty taste to it. The ocean was close. As I went along the street, Gyosen Park appeared on my left-hand side. The park is home to the Edogawa Ward-run Shizen Zoo, where visitors can see various animals, even lesser pandas and giant anteaters.

I found an advertisement for a goldfish festival in the park. Edogawa Ward is known as the producer of goldfish, including ryukin and other high-end varieties.

After a short stroll in the park, I bought a purple sweet potato-flavored ice cream at a nearby cake shop. The sweetness of the ice cream relieved the fatigue from walking.

Before dusk, I jumped on the bus heading back to Akihabara. I had previously seen traces of the sun, but it had already gone down and the sky was covered by thick clouds again. I would have to wait for another chance to see a burning sunset from the bridge, I thought.

On my way back to central Tokyo, I was soothed by an unexpected night view from Kiyosu Bridge. It was a high-rise apartment complex along the Sumida River, of somewhere in the Tsukuda or Tsukishima district of Chuo Ward. The unforgettable scene reminded me of sparkling jewels in a jewelry box.

Another recommended route is the "Ue 26" line, which connects Ueno Park and Kameido Station. The bus goes near the Tokyo Sky Tree, a broadcasting tower currently under construction in Tokyo's Sumida Ward. It also stops by Nezu Shrine and Kameido Tenjin Shrine, which are famous for azaleas and Japanese wisterias, respectively, in the spring. (By Noriko Yamamoto, Home-Life News Group, Tokyo)

Click here for the original Japanese story