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A team of National Board of Revenue, now on a drive in the port city of Chittagong to identify tax dodgers, has detected huge dubious files for further audit.
   The NBR team conducted their 2-day drive to mark out dubious tax files after doing the same work in its Dhaka zone, according to a NBR source.
   Led by NBR member (Income Tax Policy) AS Jahir Muhammad, the three-member team went to Chittagong on February 20.
   ‘A good number of dubious tax files have been detected during the 2-day auditing drive in Chittagong and the NBR higher authorities will give the final approval for particular files after a high-profile
   meeting in Dhaka,’ an NBR high official told UNB seeking anonymity.
   After getting the approval, the three zonal offices in Chittagong will go for further inquiry about the tax evasion, he said adding that it would take two weeks to get the final approval.
   Refusing to divulge further information about the dubious tax files, the NBR official said indicated that the number of files would be around 3,000.
   NBR has formed 16 committees to audit suspected files across the country and each committee comprises three tax officials, including a tax commissioner.
   Earlier, NBR gave directives to all of its circle offices under its 16 tax zones to mark out dubious tax files under a self-assessment scheme for comprehensive audits.
   NBR has started its work to dig out the tax evasion cases by those who are supposed to pay taxes through self-assessment system and the drive will continue till the first week of the next month and the final results of this drive would be available in May.
   The NBR team will also visit Rajshahi, Rangpur and Khulna soon for the same purpose.
   NBR sources said the number of the dubious tax files across the country was 8, 000 last year.

The government discourages import, breeding and farming of piranha, locally known as Thai pomphret, as it causes harm to the indigenous fish species.
   The discouragement came following the recommendations of a six-member committee on piranha, which conducted a study in greater Mymensingh and Comilla between August 27 and September 2, 2005.
   The committee, headed by a joint secretary (fisheries), Begum Rokeya Sultana, however, preferred non-imposition of ban right at the moment on the import of piranha, a fish with sharp teeth mostly found in the river Amazan of South America.
   It rather stressed long-term study and the Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute, Department of Fisheries, concerned department at universities and non-governmental organisations should conduct the studies.
   During the interim period, the government, however, has to follow the bio-safety regulations and quarantine rules in terms of import of such alien variety of fish, the committee recommended.
   Piranha first came to the country in 1999 as a colourful sweet water aquarium fish and its farming began in a wider range over the past few years.
   The committee found two varieties of piranha — red piranha (pygocentrus nattri) and pirapitinga (piaractus brachypomus), breeding and farming of which is now running in full swing in greater Mymensingh, Comilla, Gazipur, Bogra, Santahar, Sylhet, Jessore and Feni.
   Quoting farmers the committee said production of small indigenous fishes decreased significantly in farms having piranha in comparison with other farms having no piranha.
   Dr Mohammad Niamul Naser, an associate professor of zoology in the Dhaka University and also a member of the committee, said if the government discouraged piranha import or refrain from patronising, piranha would ultimately be extinct like the African catfish.
   ‘There is no need to impose ban on the import of piranha as the discouragement from breeding and framing will pave the way for its extinction,’ he said.
   A high official at the fisheries and livestock ministry, who is also a member of the committee, said, ‘We are implementing the recommendations of the committee and it will take time to ban it completely’.
   China, Thailand and Vietnam have already imposed ban on the import and breeding of piranha to check the impact of biodiversity change under water.

Developing countries such as China need to make greater concessions in global free trade talks to match those already made by the European Union, France’s minister for foreign trade said Friday.
   The United States also needed to yield more in services, said Christine Lagarde, who was in Tokyo on the final leg of a swing through Asia.
   ‘We certainly feel in Europe that we have made very large concessions. The emerging countries, particularly the large emerging countries—China for instance—are going to have to propose concessions,’ said Lagarde.
   Beijing needed to do more to respect WTO rules on intellectual property rights, the minister added.
   China has been criticised by the United States and European Union for not doing enough to honour its WTO commitments four years after it joined the 149-nation organisation.
   Lagarde’s comments came as WTO chief Pascal Lamy said in an interview with the Paris-based International Herald Tribune he was optimistic that a final accord could be struck by the year end in the third round of trade talks.
   Lagarde was more cautious but said the trade negotiations were ‘kicking and alive,’ adding: ‘There’s no doubt about it—we have made progress.’
   WTO trading nations want to reach agreement by the end of April on customs duties on agricultural produce and industrial goods, an issue that has held up progress toward an overall deal to reduce global trade barriers.
   Developing countries such as Brazil have been pushing the EU and US to cut their barriers to commerce, particularly agricultural export subsidies and import tariffs on farm produce.
   Brussels and Washington meanwhile want developing countries to open their markets more to industrial goods and services.

Bangladesh has produced record amount of 60 million kilograms of tea in the last year.
   Tea production exceeded target for the first time last year, according to tea industry sources. The production target for the year 2005 was 57.50 million kilograms.
   It said tea production exceeded the target due to favorable weather. The previous record of tea production was 59.50 million Kg in 1998
   Tea experts say the production would have been more if the sun light was adequate in the month of August last year. A statistic showed, due to draught tea production in three years in the 1990s and four years in the 80s were severely hampered.
   Managers of the tea gardens said the production last year would have exceeded 95 million kg if there were no load shedding. Tea experts said though the country’s tea production is mainly dependent on the mercy of nature, this huge production has raised hopes among the tea traders.

Md Ilias Khan does not dare to go to Bagerhat every month to meet his family, lest he loses Tk 126 daily wage and misses even the opportunity to keep the job as long as possible.
   The 22-acre mill compound at which he is now on duty as a security guard was full of industrial activities when the Daulatpur Jute Mills was operational. He is afraid of losing this ‘no-work-no-pay’ job after 1,320 workers and 150 employees, including him, were paid off in December 2002. Most officers were paid off at a later stage, in 2003.
   ‘It is frustrating to see the decline of this empire. We had colony, power sub-station and school for our children. Everything is lost now,’ Ilias, who joined the service in 1982, said while showing this New Age correspondent the remains of the now-closed jute mill.
   Its latest fate has been a mistake, which is similar to that of its nomenclature: The first name of the mill is though Daulatpur, it is located in Khalishpur area, not Daulatpur, which is another area inside Khulna metropolitan area.
   Official sources now admit that corruption in purchase and mismanagement in running the mill by officials and supervisory authorities at the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation and the ministry concerned and their underhand dealings with some leaders of collective agent had just sunk the mill in an accumulated loss of Tk 87 crore before its closure. Now, the government keeps aloof in reviving the industrial units like this on the bank of Bhairab river.
   The old machinery of Daulatpur Jute Mills has become rusty. Bricks of the buildings of workers and employees’ colonies are getting unbolted, reflecting the decadence of the glorious industrial establishments set up by SR Shethia in 1953. The
   mill started commercial operation in 1955.
   An entity under the Ministry of Jute and Textiles, this mill is currently not included in the disinvestment list of the Privatisation Commission. The ministry officials, too, cannot say what is to be done — either to resume production, to sell off the enterprise or to transform it into different industrial unit.
   When inquired about the state of the mill, an official at the first floor of the almost abandoned office building initially looked angry and frustrated. ‘It should be opened and run, at least in the interests of the workers and employees and the local people. Efficient management can minimise losses,’ Md Khalilur Rahman, manager (finance) of the closed jute mill office, said.
   Apart from six thousand families who were beneficiaries of the mill, the local economy, and the government’s exchequer and infrastructure and utility agencies have also been affected by the closure.
   The curious, old gatekeeper has reasons to curse his own decision to leave the nearing People’s Jute Mills, which was laid off and reopened later, and join the Daulatpur Jute Mills before its pay-off. ‘Oh! Dear me, I was a loser there and have been a loser here,’ he expressed his feeling.

Stalled WTO talks on trade liberalisation require movement from Europe, the United States and emerging countries in order to move forward, the director general of the WTO, Pascal Lamy, said in an interview published in a French newspaper on Friday.
   Lamy highlighted the major sticking points that needed to be addressed if the 149 members of the World Trade Organisation were to conclude the Doha round of talks before the end of the year, as planned.
   Speaking to Le Monde newspaper, Lamy said: ‘Europe must make progress on its agricultural tarifs, the United States on the reduction of its domestic subsidies to farmers, and the G20 (group of emerging nations) on the customs rights for industrial goods and services.’
   When asked about the position of France, which has opposed any further compromises on agriculture by the European Union, Lamy called it ‘excessively defensive’.
   He added: ‘The European offer is certainly to be improved.’

Morocco decided Thursday to suspend imports of birds from countries with cases of deadly H5N1 bird flu and to vaccinate its own poultry, an official source in Rabat said.
   The vaccination programme will target ‘non-confinable’ birds such as ostriches, ducks, partridges and pheasants, and is due to start Monday, the Inter-ministerial Crisis Management Commi-ttee said in a news release.
   The decision follows measures taken Wednesday to confine farm poultry within three kilometres (1.8 miles) of wetland areas to prevent them coming into contact with migrating birds.
   The confinement order also applied to industrial poultry farms.
   The committee said Morocco had ordered 10 million doses of vaccine for poultry to bolster its emergency supplies.
   There is no known outbreak of bird flu yet in Morocco, but the country’s location in the path of migrating birds and international trade routes as well as its ecological features were ‘factors favourable to the introduction of the new flu virus,’ the committee said.

Japan and Chile ended Friday a first round of talks on a free trade agreement (FTA), acknowledging that certain areas would be difficult to liberalise, Japanese officials said.
   On the first day of a two-day vice ministerial-level meeting in Tokyo, the sides discussed how best to proceed with the negotiations including a time frame, the foreign ministry officials said.
   The two sides had agreed to hold a meeting in Chile in April, bringing together experts mainly on merchandise trade, they said.
   The two countries agreed that their FTA talks would cover trade in goods and services, as well as investment and ways to smooth the flow of business people between the two countries, the officials said.
   Seiichi Kondo, ambassador in charge of economic and trade negotiations, leads the Japanese delegation, while his Chilean counterpart is Carlos Furche, vice minister of the foreign
   ministry.
   Japan’s chief interest is in the FTA with Chile’s lies in the reduction of tariffs for the export of cars and heavy machinery to Chile, a Japanese foreign ministry official said earlier.

Brazil said Thursday it will buy back all 6.64 billion dollars’ worth of its outstanding Brady bonds, the instruments used to alleviate Latin America’s debt crisis in the 1980s.
   The move is the latest in a series of debt buybacks by Brazil using its swelling cash reserves, that appear to be bringing the country out of its heritage as a debtor nation, while aiming to inspire investor confidence.
   Brazil’s Treasury said the latest repurchase would be completed by April 15 and would be financed entirely by the country’s own currency reserves, which rose to 57 billion dollars early this year.
   Brady bonds, named for former US Treasury secretary Nicholas Brady, were part of a plan to help key emerging-market nations get out of their debt crisis by issuing new bonds backed by US Treasury securities. Brazil issued its Brady bonds in 1994.
   ‘We are closing the book on an important era of Brazil’s exterior debt,’ said Rodrigo Azevedo, head of monetary policy for Brazil’s central bank.
   ‘This move will increase Brazil’s ability to withstand external shocks.’
   The move also saves the country some 345 million dollars in interest payments, according to Treasury Secretary Joaquim Levy.
   The bond buyback follows a move by Brazil to pay off the remaining 15.5 billion dollars in debt to the International Monetary Fund last December, and signals the a major economic turnaround for the South American country that had been wallowing in debt for much of 1980s and 1990s.
   South America’s largest economy in 2002 obtained an IMF credit line of 30.4 billion dollars, the largest in the history of the fund, to avoid a massive default on its debt.
   The credit line from multilateral lenders was expanded to more than 40 billion dollars in 2003 to help the economic transition sought by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a former labor union leader who has worked to win confidence of investors.
   Brazil has also indicated it will pay off the remaining 2.6 billion dollars owed to the Paris Club of creditor nations.
   ‘This is the best use of our reserves,’ Levy said.
   Under Lula, Brazil has put into place tough measures to keep inflation in check while boosting the country’s currency reserves.
   Brazil posted a record trade surplus in 2005 of 44.7 billion dollars while the current account—the overall flows of trade and capital—showed a positive balance of 14.2 billion dollars, also a record.

Average income of US households after inflation fell 2.3 percent from 2001 to 2004, a Federal Reserve study showed Thursday.
   The analysis showed real household income fell to 70,700 dollars compared with 72,400 dollars on an inflation-adjusted basis.
   Using another statistical measure, the central bank said the median household income—the point at which half earn more and half earn less—rose 1.6 percent over the same period to 43,200 dollars. The Fed indicated that household income appeared to be stagnating compared with the prior six years.
   ‘These results stand in contrast to the strong and broad gains seen for the period between the 1998 and 2001 surveys and to the smaller but similarly broad gains between the 1995 and 1998 surveys,’ the study said. Over the 1998-2001 period, average income rose 17.3 percent with the median income up 9.5 percent.
   A major factor in the most recent survey was declining income for wages and salaries—down 3.6 percent on average over the period. Median wages were down 6.2 percent. But investment-related incomes also declined, the Fed said.
   Household net worth also showed sluggish growth. The average household net worth was up 1.5 percent over the three years to 93,100 dollars; the median rose 6.3 percent to 448,200, mainly due to rising real estate values.
   But that was well below the growth of the prior three-year period, which saw a 28.7 percent increase in average household net worth and a 10.3 percent rise in the median.

China, one of the world’s top consumers and makers of steel, has failed to reach an agreement on iron ore prices with major overseas mining groups, state media said Friday.
   Last year, Chinese companies along with their overseas peers were forced to accept a price rise of 71.5 percent and they have made clear that far from agreeing to any similar increase for this year they want at least no change and preferably a reduction.
   Shanghai Baosteel, the nation’s largest steel maker, has had unsuccessful meetings with companies including Australia’s BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto Group, as well as Brazil’s Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, the China Daily reported.
   The negotiations have stalled because China and the companies insist on vastly different prices amid contrary views on the short-term outlook of the market, the newspaper said.
   ‘Miners insisted on raising prices further while we insisted on cutting them,’ the newspaper cited a Baosteel official as saying.
   ‘We didn’t get any chance to (go over) detailed figures because both parties are expecting opposite price directions.’ The Chinese side said a price increase was not justified, partly because domestic steel manufacturers were in oversupply.
   Baosteel is the only representative of Chinese enterprises in talks with the miners this year. The prices Baosteel agrees upon will be accepted by all domestic mills and iron ore traders. All the other steel makers and iron ore trading companies have been banned from holding individual iron ore price negotiations for 2006 term contracts with international miners.

Dr Bharat B Gupta has recently joined the Apollo Hospitals Dhaka at Otolaryn-gology Department as a senior consultant-ENT surgeon, says a press release.
   Dr Gupta (FRCS, MS, DLO) graduated in ENT from the Mumbai University. He completed his FRCS (ENT) from the UK.
   He has got wide experience in otolaryngology including micro ear and laryngeal surgery, endoscopic sinus surgery, head and neck tumor/cancer surgery, thyroid/parotid neck glands surgery. He has worked as associate professor and professor at the Private Medical Colleges (MGM & Terna) in Mumbai.

The US government took its public relations offensive to Congress Thursday, hoping to quell a public backlash over a controversial deal allowing a Dubai company to run several major US ports.
   Officials from a dozen federal agencies took part in the briefing on plans for a United Arab Emirates state-owned firm, Dubai Ports World, to acquire a British firm which currently manages the six US ports.
   The takeover has sparked outrage in Congress and across the United States, raising concerns that it would leave America exposed to future acts of terror.
   At Thursday’s briefing, Senator Hillary Clinton called the deal ‘a failure of judgment’ by the White House.
   ‘Port security is national security and national security is port security,’ the New York Democrat said at the briefing by representatives from the departments of State, Commerce, Defense, Homeland Security and other federal agencies.
   While witnesses testified that the UAE has been a stalwart ally in the war on terror, Senator Carl Levin, the top Democrat on the committee, deemed its record to be spotty.
   ‘The UAE has had an uneven history when it comes to the war on terrorism,’ he said.
   ‘The UAE was apparently one of only a handful of countries in the world to recognise the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, whose support of Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda led to the events of 9/11,’ he said, referring to the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.
   ‘Millions of dollars in Al-Qaeda funds went though UAE financial institutions,’ the Democratic lawmaker said.
   But Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England told lawmakers the fears have been overblown, assuring them the UAE is ‘a friend and an ally of the United States.
   He added that the vetting process for the deal ‘was not cursory and was not casual,’ but rather was ‘in-depth and comprehensive.’
   Outrage has erupted over the takeover, which critics said could leave the United States vulnerable to terror attacks, but the Senate committee’s Republican chairman, John Warner, called for calm, saying that ‘just, fair, equitable treatment (must) be given our allies and coalition partners in a wide range of transactions.’
   That viewpoint has been very much in the minority, however, with many members of Congress rejecting the Dubai deal out of hand, and calling for hearings and legislation to block the sale.
   The president expressed the hope that an improved flow of information about the deal—including events like Thursday’s committee briefing—would help to dispel reservations.
   ‘People don’t need to worry about security. This deal wouldn’t go forward if we were concerned about the security for the United States of America,’ Bush told reporters as he met with his cabinet Thursday.
   ‘The more people learn about the transaction that has been scrutinised and approved by my government, the more they’ll be comforted that our ports will be secure,’ he said.
   Unless blocked, the transaction is to be finalised on March 2, and the ports affected are in New York; Miami; Newark, New Jersey; Baltimore, Maryland; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
   ‘We will continue to talk to people in Congress and explain clearly why the decision was made,’ said the president.
   The White House has said that security at the ports will still fall to the US Coast Guard, US Customs, and US Border Patrol.
   To help quell congressional opposition, Dubai Ports World this week has hired former US Senator Bob Dole, to help salvage the 6.8 billion dollar deal, according to media reports.
   The ex-senator—a one-time presidential candidate and former Republican leader in the Senate—appeared to have his work cut out for him, however.

A United Arab Emirates company has agreed to postpone its plans to take over management of six US ports after the proposed deal ignited harsh criticism from both Democrats and Republicans on national security grounds.
   In a written statement released late Thursday, the state-owned Dubai Ports World said it will not assume control of the terminals until US lawmakers have time to study the deal.
   ‘The reaction in the United States has occurred in no other country in the world,’ DP World chief operating officer Ted Bilkey said in the statement. ‘We need to understand the concerns of the people in the US who are worried about this transaction and make sure that they are address to the benefit of all parties. Security is everybody’s business.’
   The company statement came hours after Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove said in a radio interview that President George W. Bush, who has vowed to veto any move by lawmakers to block the deal, might consider a postponement after all.
   ‘Look, there are some hurdles, regulatory hurdles ... that are going to be concluded next week. There’s no requirement that it close, you know, immediately after that,’ Rove told Fox News Radio.
   The conciliatory words came as officials from a dozen federal agencies took part in a US Senate briefing on plans for DP World to acquire the British firm P and O which currently manages the six US ports. US Senator Chuck Schumer welcomed the Bush administration’s olive branch.
   ‘A small delay is an excellent idea and would give a chance for a solution amiable to all sides to follow,’ the New York Democrat said in a statement.
   The parade of officials on Capitol Hill sought to allay lawmakers’ outrage at not having been notified in advance about the plan, which they said could leave America exposed to future acts of terror.
   The administration has found few congressional allies in the controversy which analysts said could lead not only to the first veto of the Bush presidency, but to an almost certain override by Congress—potentially a major setback for the president.

India and Iran Thursday pledged their commitment to building a multi-billion-dollar gas pipeline through Pakistan during talks between Iran’s deputy foreign minister Mehdi Safari and Indian leaders, a government statement said.
   Both sides ‘reaffirmed their commitment to the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline and an early ratification of the LNG (liquefied natural gas) deal’ signed last June, the foreign ministry statement said.
   The June agreement, worth 22 billion dollars, provides for the import of five million tonnes of Iranian gas annually over a 25-year period from 2009.
   Negotiations on the proposed pipeline through Pakistan began in 1994 but has made little headway because of tensions between Pakistan and India, which have fought three wars since gaining independence in 1947 from Britain.
   The pipeline would supply gas from the massive South Pars offshore fields in the Gulf.
   However, since January 2004, the two rivals have been engaged in a peace process and relations are at their best for years.
   India plans to initially draw 60 million cubic metres (78 million cubic yards) of gas from the pipeline and increase the quantity to 90 million cubic metres within two to three years.
   Pakistan has estimated its initial demand at 30 million cubic metres which would double by 2013. Aside from relations between the two neighbours, there are other obstacles.
   The United States, an increasingly close ally of India and leading critic of Iran, has also made clear its objections to New Delhi buying gas from a country it accuses of supporting terrorism and attempting to make a nuclear bomb.
   Iran has denied it is seeking to develop atomic weapons.
   The talks also come at a time when India is seeking to cement a nuclear co-operation agreement with the United States that would see Washington assist India with a civilian nuclear energy programme.
   New Delhi, which is seeking new sources of fuel to feed its booming economy, has been denied access to nuclear technology for over two decades since testing a nuclear weapon and refusing to sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.
   The foreign ministry statement said Safari discussed Iran’s nuclear programme and the upcoming International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting on March 6.
   ‘On the Iran issue in the IAEA, the Indian side emphasised the need for all sides to eschew confrontation, exercise restraint and demonstrate flexibility in order to find a solution,’ it said.
   Last week, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told parliament that New Delhi was worried by ‘escalating rhetoric’ over Iran’s nuclear programme.
   Singh said Iran had the ‘legal right’ to develop peaceful uses for nuclear energy consistent with its international commitments and obligations.

Air New Zealand warned Friday it would cut up to 470 staff from its head office after soaring fuel costs slashed the state-controlled airline’s first half profits by 55 percent.
   ‘It is quite clear that the airline is facing unprecedented fuel costs, which have unduly affected the result for this period,’ chairman John Palmer said as Air New Zealand released its results for the six months to December.
   The company said a 36 percent rise in fuel costs and a drop in hedging gains over the period contributed to a 55 percent fall in net profit to 46 million dollars (30.4 million US), compared with 102 million dollars a year earlier.
   Before one-off restructuring costs and 35 million dollars associated with bringing new aircraft into service, net profit fell to 81 million dollars from 146 million in the first half, said the airline, which is 82 percent owned by the government.
   Chief executive Rob Fyfe said the company would focus on ‘streamlining and simplifying the business’ to improve profits.
   This will include a further restructuring that could lead to cutting 470 jobs from staff at
   corporate headquarters, bringing the total to 1,420 over the next year.
   The company has already announced that it was cutting 424 jobs from engineering and cleaning staff.
   ‘Air New Zealand will become a nimble and fast moving airline, able to rapidly adapt to change more quickly than its competitors,’ Fyfe said.
   He said the airline was on track to realize 100 million dollars in cost savings in the June fiscal year with a further 115 million dollars in savings in the 2007 fiscal year, an increase of 35 million dollars on previous
   targets.

China said Friday a European Union plan to impose an anti-dumping duty on imported Chinese shoes breached fair trade principles and ‘smells of protectionism’.
   ‘It violates the principles of fair trade,’ commerce ministry spokesman Chong Quan said in a statement posted on the ministry’s website.
   ‘China urges the European Union ... to once again analyse and assess this case in a reasonable manner, and make a decision in accordance with World Trade Organisation rules.’
   EU trade chief Peter Mandelson announced Thursday a plan to impose an anti-dumping duty on imported Chinese and Vietnamese shoes, saying the two nations were engaging in ‘uncompetitive behaviour’.
   To level the playing field, Mandelson called for a duty that would start in April at 4.0 percent and rise progressively to 19.4 percent for China and 16.8 percent for Vietnam. It can be renewed for five years in October if necessary.
   Chong said China’s ultra-competitiveness was merely due it taking advantage of its large, cheap labour force.
   ‘Everybody knows that shoe manufacturing is a labour-intensive industry and China has low labour costs,’ Chong said.
   ‘There is no dumping in Chinese shoe exports to the European Union and the European charge is baseless.’
   One year has passed since the EU was forced to put an end to quotas that had kept Chinese shoes from entering the European market and the EU is now anxious to use anti-dumping measures instead, Chong said.

Canadian regulators paved the way Thursday for US billionaire Jerry Zucker to buy retailer Hudson’s Bay Company, the country’s largest department store chain and oldest company for one billion dollars, according to Zucker’s company.
   Zucker’s Maple Leaf Heritage Investments Acquisition Corp. announced Thursday it has received approval from the Industry and Canadian Heritage ministers for the proposed acquisition.
   The South Carolina businessman is already Hudson’s Bay’s largest shareholder, controlling over 13 million Hudson’s Bay shares or 18.8 percent of all outstanding shares.
   Zucker offered a sweetened 15.25 Canadian dollars (13.22 US dollars) per share for all outstanding shares in the company after management rejected his first offer in October. The new deal, which has management’s support, is set to expire Friday.
   Hudson’s Bay preceded Canada’s confederation by two centuries, founded in 1670. It came into being as local peoples brought furs to a few forts and posts around the shores of the James and Hudson bays to trade for manufactured goods such as knives, kettles, beads, needles and blankets.
   The company spread throughout the country, building a string of trading posts along Canada’s western river networks that eventually became the cities of Winnipeg, Calgary, and Edmonton.
   The company has since become Canada’s largest retailer with 500 stores, buying discount retailer Zellers in 1978, among others, and is responsible for the hugely popular Canadian Olympic brand clothing.

The opening of Europe’s energy markets to competition has triggered a wave of consolidation in a sector already considered too concentrated by EU regulators, analysts said Thursday.
   ‘With the opening of the markets, big electricity companies will lose market share in their countries and will look to get more elsewhere,’ said energy analyst Colette Lewineur at consultancy Capgemini.
   As the liberalisation of European energy markets reach its culmination, the head of German energy group E.ON Wulf Bernotat on Monday predicted a flurry of consolidation that would leave his company,
   Italian group Enel and EDF of France standing dominant.
   As if to prove his point, E.ON launched on Tuesday a surprise 29.1-billion-euro (34.6-billion-dollar) takeover offer for leading Spanish electricity group Endesa, which was already the target its smaller Spanish rival Gas Natural.
   Enel waded into the takeover battle for Endesa on Wednesday, offering to support Spanish group Gas Natural’s rival bid for the bigger Spanish company.
   By Thursday the plot thickened when it emerged that Enel was considering a bid for French utility group Suez, which last year bought out the minority shareholders of its Belgian energy subsidiary Electrabel.
   Enel’s interest in Suez was serious enough that Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi had even brought it up with his counterpart, Dominique de Villepin, although a source close to the case said that the French government was ‘completely opposed’ to potential bid.
   Choosing to stand on the sidelines, the chief executive of German group RWE, Harry Roels, said there were too many companies flush with cash chasing too few takeover targets.
   ‘There is too much testosterone in the market,’ said Roels.
   Shortly before E.ON fired the opening shot, a Capgemini survey of utility executives found that nearly half expect liberalisation of energy markets and the need for new market share to fuel a wave of consolidation
   this year.

Japan and India signed an agreement Friday to avoid double taxation, the first revision of their tax treaty since 1989, in a bid to boost slow-growing bilateral trade.
   Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso and Indian Ambassador to Japan Manilal Tripathi signed the revised treaty,
   which was finalised by finance ministry teams earlier this month.
   The revised treaty would take effect 30 days after the countries exchange official documents.
   Double taxation—in which a company or individual pays tax to two jurisdictions—discourages trade because of the extra costs involved.
   Japanese leaders are increasingly calling for greater ties with India amid strained relations with China, Japan’s biggest commercial partner, over history and energy disputes.
   Japanese businesses were early investors as India opened its state-controlled economy, with Suzuki Motor now
   holding a majority stake in India’s top automaker Maruti, but India’s trade has grown more with other nations including China.
   The Indian Finance Minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, who paid a visit here last month, said that the trade with Japan was merely ‘satisfactory’ and pushed for a free-trade agreement.

Asian stocks closed mixed on Friday with investors following domestic leads and taking profits while negative sentiment stemming from Wall Street’s falls also weighed on sentiment. Sydney fell in line with a similar performance by base metal prices, Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur were down amid lingering concerns over interest rates and Wellington fell on weakness in blue chips. Tokyo was flat but elsewhere modest gains were notched-up in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul and Taipei. Bangkok outperformed on the day with a 1.24 percent rise amid signs that political tensions surrounding Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s leadership could be easing after he met with King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
   TOKYO: The Nikkei-225 index added 5.81 points to 16,101.91 on turnover of 1.89 billion shares.Share prices got off to a weak start as the yen rose and market sentiment was hurt by strong hints Thursday from Bank of Japan governor Toshihiko Fukui that the central bank will soon end its super-loose monetary policy.
   SEOUL: The KOSPI index closed up 4.59 points at 1,365.82. Volume was 322 million shares worth 3.8 trillion won (3.9 billion dollars).
   HONG KONG: The Hang Seng index closed up 43.52 points at 15,856.05. Turnover was 33 billion Hong Kong dollars (4.2 billion US).
   TAIPEI: The weighted index rose 63.53 points to its high of 6,538.22, off a low of 6,473.80, on turnover of 81.74 billion Taiwan dollars (2.52 billion US).
   SHANGHAI: The Shanghai A-share Index added 8.07 points to 1,359.86 on turnover of 11.15 billion yuan.
   SYDNEY: The SP/ASX 200 dropped 19.8 points to 4,893.4 while the broader All Ordinaries Index dropped 17.9 points to 4,849.4.
   SINGAPORE: The Straits Times Index rose 18.09 points to 2,453.67 after breaking the psychological resistance level of 2,450. Volume was 1.27 billion shares
   KUALA LUMPUR: The composite index was down 2.60 points at 924.91 on volume of 659.67 million shares worth 767.26 million ringgit (206.51 million dollars).
   BANGKOK: The composite index gained 9.12 points to 741.80 on turnover of 4.2 billion shares worth 18.9 billion baht (479.8 million dollars).
   JAKARTA: The composite index fell for the fourth consecutive day, down 8.024 points at 1,216.140.
   MANILA: The composite index ended down 21.39 points at 2,069.93. Volume was 1.27 billion shares worth 1.53 billion pesos (29.46 million dollars).
   WELLINGTON: The NZSX-50 gross index fell 16.55 points to 3,377.84.
   MUMBAI: Share prices closed down 0.42 per cent, snapping a four-day gaining streak, as weak Asian markets and investor caution ahead of Tuesday's budget led investors to book profits. Dealers said selling was seen in blue-chips and mid-cap stocks.
   The 30-share Sensex index fell 43.29 points to 10,200.76.

Japanese share prices may struggle next week in the face of growing jitters over prospects of an end to super-loose monetary policy here, dealers said Friday.
   They said the market would also continue to be influenced by the performance of Wall Street where dealers are weighing prospects of further rises in US interest rates.
   For the week to February 24, the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s benchmark Nikkei-225 index rose 388.46 points or 2.47 per cent to 16,101.91.
   The broader TOPIX index of all first-section shares gained 42.41 points or 2.64 per cent to 1,647.74.
   The market was encouraged by the recent return of foreign investors lured back in search of bargains after recent falls.
   However many dealers reacted nervously to strong hints from the central bank pointing to a tightening of monetary policy which pushed the yen up to a one-month high, putting exporters under pressure.
   ‘The market focus is on monetary policy in the US, Japan and Europe,’ said Masayoshi Yano, senior strategist at Tokai Tokyo Research Center.
   ‘The US is likely to raise interest rates both in March and May,’ he predicted, adding that the US Federal Reserve would be paying close attention to US personal income and consumption data due out on Wednesday.
   In Japan the central bank for nearly five years has flooded the financial system with cash, providing easy credit, but has indicated it is time to move on now that deflation appears to be ending after eight years.
   The Bank of Japan’s next meeting on monetary policy is on March 8-9.
   Kazuhiro Takahashi, equity general manager at Daiwa Securities SMBC, said the Tokyo market would enter a ‘preparation period’ next week before a new trend sets in the week after.

European stock markets rose on Friday as positive earnings data and takeover speculation offset a fall by Wall Street overnight.
   London’s FTSE 100 index of leading shares climbed 0.17 per cent to 5,846.00 points in late mornings deals, Frankfurt’s DAX 30 gained 0.10 per cent to 5,863.50 points, and in Paris the CAC 40 won 0.16 per cent to 5,048.31.
   The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone shares advanced 0.05 per cent to 3,815.09 points.
   The euro stood at 1.1935 dollars.
   US stocks had fallen on Thursday as concerns about higher US interest rates prompted investors to lock in gains after a rally that had pushed the Dow industrials to a four and a half-year high, dealers said.
   Japanese share prices closed firmer Friday, recovering from early losses as bargain hunters emerged to buy on the dips, encouraged by the recent return of foreign investors, dealers said.
   In later trading in London, WPP surged by 5.01 per cent to 650 pence, after the British advertising and marketing group posted a 33-per cent jump in net profits to 398 million pounds (581 million euros, 696 million dollars) in 2005 and shrugged off the financial cost of an internal fraud probe.
   Lloyds TSB jumped 3.28 per cent to 558.75 pence after Britain’s fifth-biggest bank posted better-than-expected full-year results.
   In Paris, the price of shares in French utility giant Suez and gas provider Gaz de France rose in response to talk that the two groups might come together to thwart a muted bid for Suez by Italian energy group Enel.
   Suez gained 3.22 per cent to 33.03 euros and Gaz de France won 2.10 per cent to 29.2 euros.
   In New York on Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.61 per cent to close at 11,069.22 points and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite shed 0.17 per cent to 2,279.32 points.
   The broad-market Standard and Poor’s 500 index slid 0.38 per cent to 1,287.79.
   On Friday in Asia, the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s benchmark Nikkei-225 index added just 5.81 points to close at 16,101.91 following cautious trade amid jitters about strong hints from Japan’s central bank pointing to a tightening of monetary policy.

The dollar fell against the euro here Thursday in the face of strong German economic data but later recovered some lost ground following the start to the trading day in the United States.
   The single European currency in late-day trade was at 1.1920 dollars after 1.1909 late Wednesday in New York.
   The dollar was meanwhile trading at 116.98 yen, down from 118.52 on Wednesday.
   The greenback initially weakened against the euro on news that German business confidence had risen to a 14-year high in February, according to the widely watched business climate index calculated by the influential Ifo economics institute.
   And the monthly consumer climate index calculated by market research group GfK remained stable in February after topping a five-year in January.
   The Ifo index rose by 1.5 points to 103.3 points in February, confounding analysts’ expectations for an unchanged reading, in what was the third monthly increase in a row.
   ‘The euro got a bit of a lift from the Ifo data, which shows just how much interest rate differentials are driving the market at the moment,’ said Bank of New York currency analyst Neil Mellor.
   But the US currency later recovered somewhat, helped by better-than-expected US weekly jobless claims numbers.
   Figures showed first-time US jobless claims dropped by 20,000 to 278,000 last week, beating expectations for a total of around 296,000.
   Comments from Bank of Japan Governor Toshihiko Fukui early Thursday suggesting the central bank was looking to end its ultra-loose monetary policy sparked sharp gains in the yen, which took it close to month highs against the euro and the dollar.
   ‘Fukui’s comments Friday struck a bit of a chord with the market and it kicked off a huge yen move,’ said Mellor.

China will speed up the process of making the yuan fully convertible under the capital account and improve the exchange rate mechanism, the central bank’s Shanghai headquarters said.
   The local office of the People’s Bank of China said in a statement issued late Thursday that it will regulate capital inflows and relax restrictions on outbound investment.
   The statement said China will ‘accelerate the convertibility of the yuan under the capital account.’

German inflation
up 6.8pc
Prices of goods imported into Germany rose by 6.8 per cent on a 12-month basis in January, the same rate of change as in December, which had already been the fastest rate in five years, official data showed on Friday. As in previous months, the main factor driving imported inflation in the eurozone’s biggest economy were high energy prices, the federal statistics office, Destatis, said in a statement.Excluding oil and petrol prices, the January import price index would have risen by 2.9 per cent year-on-year, the statisticians calculated.

Repsol pumps up 29.2pc profit rise
REpsol, the leading Spanish oil group reported on Friday that it had made a record net profit last year of 3.12 billion euros , an increase of 29.2 per cent from the figure in 2004. Repsol, which cut its proved reserves last month by or 1.254 billion barrels of oil equivalent or by 25.0 per cent, said that the profit rise had been driven notably by refining activities. But the outcome fall short of forecasts by analyst who had expected a net figure of 3.19-3.45 billion euros. Repsol said that it profits reflected ‘the high price of crude’, recent stability between the dollar and the euro and a strong rise in refining activity.

BMW cuts stake in Rolls-Royce
German luxury car maker BMW said Friday that it had cut its stake in engine maker Rolls-Royce Plc from 9.02 percent to 3.25 percent by way of the redemption of a 560-million-euro bond exchangeable for shares in Rolls-Royce. BMW said in a statement that had received exchange notices for 64 percent of the bond’s total nominal value by Friday. That would mean the car maker’s total shareholding in Rolls-Royce would be reduced by a total 102.135 million euros, automatically reducing the stake from 9.02 percent to around 3.25 percent, the statement said. The sale of shares offered for exchange so far was expected to generate a gain of 300m euros for BMW in the first quarter 2006, the car maker continued.
— AFP