Boao Forum participants optimistic about emerging markets
Business and political leaders from around the world have gathered this week in south China’s island province of Hainan for the Boao forum for Asia.
Against the backdrop of the global downturn, their focus is Asia’s economy.
But participants are optimistic about the continent’s emerging markets. Maersk Line is the world’s largest container shipping company, and they’ve got their eye on the tremendous opportunities to be found in Asia.
Despite a robust economic outlook for the future, challenges remain. This is especially the case for export-oriented economies, which are finding their traditional markets are shrinking.
CCTV correspondent Guan Xin said, "To cope with external pressure, participants say the most important thing is to build on internal demand. That means, to encourage Asian consumers to spend more."
Companies are already capitalizing on the trend. A top executive at Starbucks says it plans to triple the size of its workforce and network of shops in China over the next three years.
John Culver, Int’l President of Starbucks Coffee said, "We are committed to making China as our second home market of the company...By 2014, China will be our largest market outside US. And by 2015, we will have 50 hundred stores on the mainland and operating in over 70 cities, so for us, we see it as a big opportunity..."
But it’s not easy to stimulate this kind of demand. Income inequality is still a common issue for many Asian countries.
Xiang Bing, Dean of Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, said, "Without middle class as majority, it is virtually impossible to have a harmonious society. The Chinese economies did well in terms of generating billionaires, and we are No.2 on the Forbes list already. Maybe in 3 or 5 years, we will be No.1, catching up with the US, even overtaking US. But if you look at the percentage of middle class of the total population, I think we need to improve. These are some structural changes of China. It gonna be taking some long time."
Middle class consumers in Asia will increase by 1.2 billion by 2020. But as just a part of a much larger population, that is still far from enough.
Al-Qaeda 'could target UK youths'
British youths from African communities could become radicalised as al-Qaeda looks to Africa to build its strength, the Rusi think tank has suggested.
It says such a development would pose new challenges for UK and other Western intelligence services.
It warns of potential for new or greater radicalisation among British youths from the Somali and other east and west African communities.
The government said it was tackling home-grown terrorist threats.
Radicalisation has already been seen during the past 15 years among some young members of the Pakistani, North African and Indian communities in Britain, the report published by the Royal United Services Institute suggests.
Report author Valentina Soria said: "Most significant is the potential for radicalisation and then mobilisation of a new subset of British youths."
"The UK could soon be facing much greater radicalisation among the Somali minority and new radicalisation in some sections of other communities from east and west African countries."
This was because the "jihadist challenge" may be migrating across Saharan and Sub-Saharan Africa as the al-Qaeda leadership - weakened by the death of Osama Bin Laden - looks to partnerships to re-group and re-energise itself, the report says.
Western intelligence services have acknowledged that the terror threat has changed and shifted, including into Africa, with Somalia a particular focus of concern.
But this report suggests those intelligence services also face new challenges tracking the threat if "jihadism evolves and disperses into territories of ungoverned, or loosely governed, space across large stretches of the African continent".
Regarding Somalia, Ms Soria said foreign fighters now represented "a valuable, albeit still limited, source of manpower for al-Shabab", a Somali hardline Islamist banned in the UK.
'Operational necessity'
It is "possible that the use of new terror tactics may have further alienated its African recruits who are mostly reluctant to get involved in suicide bombings", she said.
"As a result, the recruitment of foreign fighters could be read as a choice of operational necessity rather than as a move aimed to make al-Shabab the next al-Qaida."
She added that the "dynamics of jihadism in Africa may provoke direct terrorist attacks inside the UK" but said there had been "no direct public evidence of this happening".
Ms Soria said: "The UK cannot expect to remain immune from the 'spill-over' effects of events that could reshape part of the African continent."
A government spokeswoman said: "We are tackling the threat of home-grown terrorism with our new prevent strategy, which is challenging extremist ideology and tackling the radicalisation of vulnerable people.
"We are also working with governments in Africa to improve their capacity to tackle the terrorist threat."
Spain's jobless level hits record 4.75 million
The number of Spanish jobseekers rose for the eighth month in a row in March to hit a record 4.75 million.
The Labour Ministry said the number of people filing for unemployment benefits rose by 38,769 with the services sector seeing the most jobs lost.
The jobless rate in Spain stood at 23.6% in February, according to EU figures released on Monday.
Meanwhile, Spain has said its public debt will leap more than 10 percentage points this year to 79.8% of GDP.
'Recovering confidence'
The Finance Ministry said: "Public debt will rise from 68.5% of GDP at the end of 2011 to 79.8%, a level which is still below the eurozone average of 90.4%."
It comes as Budget Minister Cristobal Montoro presented his government's 2012 budget to parliament.
The package, which was approved by the cabinet on Friday, includes 27bn euros' ($36bn; £22.5bn) worth of spending cuts and tax increases.
"We are convinced that this budget will meet the challenge of recovering the confidence of our European partners," Mr Montoro told a news conference held in parliament.
The European Union has set a ceiling for public debt of 60% of gross domestic product.
'Unsatisfactory situation'
The unemployment figures released on Tuesday show that the situation is worse for young Spaniards, as youth unemployment is running at 50%.
Spain has the highest unemployment rate in the European Union and it is expected to rise further this year.
The government hopes that reform to the labour market will help ease the problem.
Its measures include cutting back on severance pay and restricting inflation-linked salary increases.
But those measures have angered unions, who organised a general strike last Thursday.
Secretary of State for Employment Engracia Hidalgo said in a statement: "We continue to face an unsatisfactory situation of an increase in the number of people registered as unemployed.
"This is why it is necessary to reiterate the importance of creating confidence and flexibility for companies, as was done with the labour law reform."
US Federal Reserve stays concerned over growth
The US central bank is concerned that the gains in employment recently will dissipate if growth does not pick up.
Some at the Federal Reserve "perceived a non-negligible risk that improvements in employment could diminish as the year progressed," said the minutes of the March meeting.
In March, the Fed decided again to keep interest rates at record lows until at least late 2014.
The US unemployment rate is down to 8.3%, the lowest for three years.
Employment has been rising for the past six months, but the jobless rate has been stuck above 8% since early 2009.
The number of new jobs being created has been consistently above 200,000 in each of the past three months, fuelling hopes that the US recovery is gathering pace.
At the March meeting, the Fed's staff revised the central bank's near-term forecast for real gross domestic product (GDP) growth upwards slightly.
"Labour market conditions had continued to improve and unemployment had declined in recent months," the Fed said.
"But almost all members saw the unemployment rate as still elevated relative to levels that they viewed as consistent with the committee's mandate over the longer run."
Motorola Mobility's patent lawsuits investigated by EU
Motorola Mobility's patent lawsuits have become the subject of two investigations by the European Commission.
It follows complaints by Apple and Microsoft after Motorola tried to block sales of their products.
They said that Motorola - which is in the process of being taken over by Google - had failed to license "essential" technologies on fair and reasonable terms.
Motorola denies any wrongdoing.
"The commission will examine whether Motorola's behaviour amounts to an abuse of a dominant market position," a statement from the commission said.
The dispute centres on Motorola's use of Frand-type patents.
These involve technologies that are deemed to be part of an industry standard and therefore must be offered for a reasonable fee to anyone willing to pay.
"Motorola Mobility is confident that a thorough investigation will demonstrate that it has honoured its Frand obligations and complied with anti-trust laws," a statement from the firm said.
"[We] will continue to work closely with the European Commission to resolve this matter as soon as practicable."
Injunctions
Apple has clashed with Motorola over the amount it should pay for its use of a patent for a "method for performing a countdown function during a mobile-originated transfer for a packet radio system".
The dispute led a German court to order a ban of certain iPad and iPhone models in Germany last year - a ruling which was later suspended.
Apple has also been forced to suspend its push email service to German customers as a result of another clash.
Microsoft faces a separate complaint in Germany in a fortnight's time over its use of H.264 video-compression technology patents claimed by Motorola.
Microsoft announced on Monday that it was moving its European software distribution centre from Germany to the Netherlands in order to prevent a potential ban of shipments of its Windows 7 system software and Xbox 360 gaming consoles.
"We would have preferred to keep our European distribution centre in Germany, where it has been for many years," a statement from Microsoft said.
"Unfortunately the risk from disruption's from Motorola's patent litigation is simply too high."
Patent consultant Florian Mueller blogged that the commission's intervention might influence the outcome of the case.
"Germany is the only EU member state in which Motorola is suing Apple and Microsoft over standard-essential patents," he wrote.
"The commission's decision to launch these formal investigations should serve as food for thought for certain judges in the largest EU member state who have shown a worrying tendency in recent years to put patent law far above anti-trust law."
Enforcement
The European Commission's action follows earlier warnings that it had concerns about Motorola's enforcement tactics, which it expressed after approving Google's takeover of the firm.
"The holders of standard-essential patents have considerable market power," said competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia.
"This market power can be used to harm competition... I don't need to tell you that this is unacceptable, and I am determined to use anti-trust enforcement to prevent such hold-up by patent holders."
The Commission launched a related probe into Samsung in January after it sought sales injunctions against Apple linked to its Frand-related 3G patents.
Facebook counters Yahoo's legal action with a lawsuit
Facebook has responded to a recently-launched legal action by rival Yahoo with a lawsuit of its own.
Last month, Yahoo claimed the social network had infringed 10 of its patents, including systems and methods for advertising on the web.
Now Facebook is counter suing, claiming the web portal violated its patents covering photo tagging, advertising and online recommendations.
Yahoo claims Facebook's suit is "without merit".
Facebook recently acquired 750 patents from computing giant IBM.
Until the end of 2011, Facebook held just 56 patents, a figure analysts say is comparatively low for a technology company. By comparison, Yahoo owns about 1,000 patents.
Years of litigation
In its lawsuit, Yahoo claimed that Mark Zuckerberg's company's "entire social network model" was based on its technology, and infringed its rights to innovations involved in messaging, privacy controls, advertising, customisation and social networking.
Neither company's services or operations are likely to be threatened by the spat.
Observers note that these cases can spend years in litigation and a settlement is often reached where the parties simply agree to licence the patents to each other.
Facebook is preparing for initial public offering on a stock market that could value Facebook at $100bn (£64bn).
Yahoo, which has struggled in recent years against competition from both Facebook and Google, has a market value of $18.3m.
On Wall Street, Yahoo shares fell 28 cents on Tuesday to close at $15.18.
TV: Romney Sweeps Maryland, DC, Wisconsin Republican Primaries
U.S. television networks project former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has swept all three Republican presidential primary elections Tuesday — in Washington DC, the eastern state of Maryland, and the midwestern state of Wisconsin.
Tuesday's victories bring him another step closer to having enough delegates to become the Republican Party's choice to take on President Barack Obama, a Democrat, in the November general election.
Romney already has about half the number of delegates needed for the nomination. He has also been endorsed by such major Republicans as former President George H.W. Bush.
But Romney's Republican challengers — Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, and Ron Paul — have given no signs they are ready to drop out of the race.
Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, is hoping his home state's primary later this month will give him a badly needed boost.
He told supporters in Pennsylvania Tuesday night that the Republican race is only at the halfway mark and says he plans to come out charging into the second half.
Meanwhile, President Obama is already anticipating a November showdown against Romney. In a speech to newspaper executives Tuesday, Mr. Obama denounced a Republican budget plan backed by Romney, saying it would impose “a radical vision” on the country.
Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have also criticized Romney, and Democratic “attack ads” targeting Romney also have been appearing on radio and television.
US ambassador warns Syria regime over violence
America's ambassador to the UN has warned Syria not to intensify violence in the days leading up to a ceasefire proposed by the UN and Arab League.
Susan Rice said the Security Council must respond urgently if Syria failed to keep its pledge to end military operations by 10 April.
Syria says it will honour the deadline, but Ms Rice said she doubted this.
Activists say Syria is stalling for time so it can crush the uprising before international monitors arrive.
They say attacks on opposition strongholds are continuing.
An advance team from the UN is due in Damascus imminently to discuss the deployment of the monitors.
'Urgent and serious'
Ms Rice said that "from the US point of view, and I think the point of view of many member states, what we have seen since April 1 is not encouraging".
She said the US was "concerned and quite sceptical that the government of Syria will suddenly adhere to its commitments".
If the Syrian authorities use the time up to 10 April to intensify rather than decrease the violence, the Security Council would "need to respond to that failure in a very urgent and serious way", she said.
Western powers are circulating a draft Council statement supporting the ceasefire initiative, which was announced by the joint UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan on Monday. The statement will be discussed by the 15-nation Council over the next two days.
Ms Rice acknowledged that the Council was divided over whether to take action to pressure Damascus.
But she suggested that if the Syrian government continued its military offensive despite its commitment to the plan, the diplomatic calculations of Syria's allies might change, reports the BBC's Barbara Plett at the UN.
The ceasefire is only one part of Mr Annan's peace plan, which also calls for a political process to address the "aspirations" of the Syrian people, the release of detainees, the delivery of humanitarian aid, free movement for journalists, and the right to protest.
Meanwhile, the president of the UN General Assembly, Nassir Abdulaziz al-Nasser, said he had asked Mr Annan to brief the world body on his Syria peace mission.
No date has been set, but Mr Nasser said he had suggested 13 April, our correspondent reports.
Turkey criticism
In Damascus, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Jakob Kellenberger, has been meeting top Syrian officials to try to persuade them to allow aid workers better access to those who have been wounded or displaced by the conflict.
Mr Kellenberger is also pressing the Syrian authorities to implement a daily two-hour ceasefire, as stipulated in the peace plan proposed by Mr Annan.
Russia's foreign ministry says Syria's government has informed Moscow it has started implementing Mr Annan's plan to end the unrest.
Earlier, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the Security Council of indirectly supporting the oppression of the Syrian people by failing to adopt a united stance on the crisis.
Mr Erdogan said the Council was standing by with its "hands and arms tied" while Syrian people were dying every day.
By not taking a decision on Syria, it had "indirectly supported the oppression, he said. To stand by with your hands and arms tied while the Syrian people are dying every day is to support the oppression", he added.
He told members of parliament from his governing AK Party that Turkey would not turn its back on the Syrian people.
China and Russia have twice vetoed resolutions condemning the Assad regime for turning the army on civilians.
Tornadoes Cause Considerable Damage in Dallas, Texas
Residents of Dallas, Texas are cleaning up after at least two tornadoes ripped through the city midday Tuesday, causing widespread destruction and more than a dozen injuries.
Weather forecasters described the storms as “large and extremely dangerous.” The twisters picked up large trucks and slammed them to the ground. They also tore through residential neighborhoods, demolishing homes, smashing cars, and uprooting trees.
American Airlines canceled all flights from the Dallas-Forth Worth Airport until Wednesday. Airline officials say they must inspect more than 100 planes for damage from hail.
Authorities report more than 12 injuries so far, including some severe.
Afghan Foreign Minister in Qatar for Talks on Taliban, Bilateral Ties
Afghanistan's foreign minister, Zalmay Rasool, on a two-day visit to Qatar, says reconciliation talks with the Taliban must be led by the Afghan government.
Following talks with his Qatari counterpart, Khaled al-Attiyah, in Doha Tuesday, Rasool said the two sides also discussed the opening in Qatar of a Taliban political office which will serve to facilitate negotiations.
Al-Attiyah told a joint news conference Qatar would talk to all Afghan parties in the reconciliation process.
Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Musazai told VOA Tuesday that Rasool's visit to Qatar has two goals: to strengthen bilateral ties — including the signing of bilateral agreements in the field of politics, economy, business and investment — and to open a Qatari embassy in Kabul.
Taliban negotiators met with U.S. officials in Qatar for a series of discussions aimed at building trust and preparing both sides for upcoming peace talks. But the militant group suspended the talks in the aftermath of the killing of 16 Afghan civilians last month, allegedly by a U.S. soldier.