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Chittagong Port Authority has initiated a flamboyant move with support from joint forces to slash the cost and enhance efficiency of services, especially container handling, in a bid to brighten the image of the country’s prime seaport, officials said.
   Importers are to spend about $200 in extra for each container as bribe, tips or speed money at various points before taking delivery of their consignments from Chittagong Port, blamed for unseen costs that made it one of the world’s costliest ports.
   Normal handling charges at Chittagong Port stand at $44 for a 20-feet container and $65 for each 40-feet container, traders said.
   But container handling charges are inflated if extra unseen expenditures at various points of the port and customs are put together. And end consumers are the ultimate sufferers as all the costs are passed on to them, they said.
   ‘We have taken up a drastic move to check such unseen expenditures to reduce the handling charges. We are trying our best to build a bright image,’ said CPA chairman Mosleh Uddin.
   Surveillance has been beefed up to check any wrongdoing in port services with members of joint forces keeping constant vigil at various points of port and customs, he said, hoping that the port costs would come down soon.
   
   The port authority is arranging meetings among port officials, customs people, port users and stakeholders in presence of members of joint forces to seek supports from all to cut all unseen costs, the CPA boss said.
   ‘We are ready to take tough action against any official and employee found involved in corrupt practices,’ he said.
   The port chief noted that a section of clearing and forwarding agents realise inflated charges from importers and put the blame on port and customs people.
   Meanwhile, measures were taken to prepare an ‘action plan’ in an effort to enhance the efficiency of the port.
   The CPA chairman said that the action plan, to be prepared by the shipping ministry, would have short, medium and long-term programmes.
   ‘We have already sent our suggestions to the ministry,’ he said.
   The ministry is expected to hold a meeting with officials of World Bank in Dhaka on Sunday to discuss the development of Chittagong Port, he added.

Leaders of Khulna Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) urged the Caretaker Government to see that honest traders are not harassed in the current drive and their security is ensured for the sake of dynamic trade and business.
   The call came at an exchange of views meeting with local administration, including joint forces, at the KCCI conference room on Saturday. KCCI organised the meeting with its president Saharuzzaman Mortaza in the chair. Hailing the activities of the caretaker government against the hoarders and corrupt businessmen, the business leaders urged the authorities concerned to make sure honest traders do not falls victim of the countrywide clean-up drive.
   They demanded opportunity of opening LC ‘at zero margins’ and withdrawal of all the duties on essentials, including onions, garlic, ginger, rice and pulses, at import level to ensure stability of the market.
   They requested the administration to allow for keeping open the shops of LP gas till 9pm everyday and give permission to carry 12 tonnes of goods by each truck instead of nine tonnes.

The German government signalled on Friday that it wanted more talks with European aircraft maker Airbus to save as many jobs as possible in the drastic ‘Power8’ rescue plan unveiled earlier this week.
   In an interview with the local daily Passauer Neue Presse on Friday, German Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee demanded greater political influence in the matter, saying ‘all means of leverage should be used to save more jobs’.
   ‘Power8’, unveiled on Wednesday, entails the loss of 10,000 jobs, including 3,700 in Germany, the sale of factories and increased outsourcing to sub-contractors.
   The plans sparked angry reactions from unions and workers in both France and Germany, with thousands of employees downing tools in spontaneous protest at some of the German plants affected.
   Work at those plants was scheduled to resume on Monday.
   Tiefensee said that measures should be taken to ensure that the job cuts did not translate into a brain drain.
   ‘We mustn’t saw off the branch we’re sitting on,’ the minister said.
   A spokesman for the economy ministry in Berlin said that the government was in ‘close contact’ with Airbus management to ‘safeguard future capacity at German plants.’
   In an interview with the French business daily Les Echos on Friday, Airbus chief Louis Gallois defended the job cuts and rejected calls for follow-up negotiations.

As a new immigration policy restricted the intake of low-skilled workers, former British MP Keith Best warned that unless the UK government allows Bangladeshi caterers to work on special scheme, it would damage the economy of his country.
   Britain’s new immigration policy of Point Based System will only accept low-skilled workers from East European countries to meet the demand of the UK market, shutting all avenues to such workmen from Commonwealth countries.
   Talking to a group of reporters here Friday night, Best said unless there is a special scheme for Bangladeshi chefs, particularly kitchen porters who fall under lower-skilled category (tier-3), ‘they (British govt.) will suddenly discover that there is crisis in the British economy and they will not find lower-skilled labours for the industry.’
   The immigration policy will badly hit the popular Bangladeshi curry industry that employs around 80,000 people in more than 10,000 restaurants in the whole of UK. The industry annually contributes 3.5 billion pounds sterling to the British exchequer.
    The Bangladeshi curry industry is already facing staff shortages, particularly the kitchen porters, following the new immigration law that will be in force over the next two to three years.
   Best, who runs Immigration Advisor Service (IAS) and set up an office in Sylhet to provide legal advice and represent people with immigration and asylum problems, was critical of the new point-based immigration policy as ‘shortsighted’ decision of the Tony Blair government.
   ‘British Government has decided to bring in all lower-skilled labours from East European countries that blocked all avenues for lower-skilled laborus from Commonwealth countries. I have protested against this. It is a shortsighted decision,’ he said.
   The former lawmaker observed that the East European countries would not be able to provide low-skilled labours. Under the new Point Based System, working in holiday-maker scheme will disappear. There will be youth-exchange programme but that will not be like the holiday-maker scheme.
   ‘I fear that it would be very difficult to introduce this sort of scheme for countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan. And if that’s the case, Britain will be shooting itself in its own feet, because it will be cut off those links with Commonwealth countries, which is so important to Britain’s influence in the world.’
   He said the new immigration policy would take away the right of appeal for the people who will be refused visas, which he said is wrong in principle.
   Secondly, he said, anybody coming under the tier-3 (low-skilled) will not have the right to apply for permanent stay in Britain however long he has been in the country. ‘We think that is also wrong in principle.’

The US dollar was steady against the Bangladesh taka in thin inter-bank trade today (Saturday) while it lost points against major foreign currencies, dealers said.
   Dealers of different commercial banks said the US dollar traded at 69.15 taka in inter-bank trading in line with its previous closing, the dealers of different commercial banks said. In the kerb markets, the dollar traded lower ranging at 68.00-68.20 taka per unit as it was in the previous day, they added.
   ‘The demand for import payments was very thin as most international forex market are enjoying weekend holiday,’ a dealer of a leading commercial bank said.
   Central bank officials said the dollar’s supply situation has improved in recent days due to higher remittances earnings and export receipts from the USA and the European countries. Meanwhile, the Japanese yen gathered momentum Friday with anxious investors closely watching the Japan currency, at the heart of this week’s financial market turmoil.

The world’s two top ethanol producers — the US and the Brazil — announced the creation of an international forum to help expand the global market for bio-fuels, just days before the two countries are expected to sign a separate agreement promoting ethanol across the Western Hemisphere.
   The International Bio-fuel Forum will meet regularly for a year to draft global standards for bio-fuel production, find ways to open markets and encourage investment in countries with the potential to develop the industry, officials said Friday.
   ‘By working together we will be able to identify ways to help countries with agricultural potential become major energy suppliers,’ said Thomas A. Shannon, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. ‘We think this is a huge step forward in the development of a new international understanding of energy.’
   The announcement comes a week before
   President Bush travels to Brazil for talks in which renewable bio-fuels will top the agenda. Bush and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are expected to sign an agreement — separate from the international forum — to share scientific and technological research for an industry that has grown in both countries.
   Brazil is the world’s biggest ethanol exporter, using sugar cane to produce it. Eight out of 10 Brazilian cars run on ethanol, which emits far less greenhouse gases than fossil fuels. In the United States, where farmers use corn to make ethanol, production surpasses that in Brazil.
   The promotion of ethanol could eventually help wean the US off its need for foreign oil, officials say, lessening the energy dependence on volatile Middle Eastern nations and Venezuela — whose President Hugo Chavez has long been a political thorn in the Bush administration’s side.
   But teaming up with Brazil on the promotion of ethanol hasn’t pleased everyone: Corn farmers in the US don’t like the idea of the government helping Brazil’s industry, which they see as a competitor. Lawmakers from corn-growing states have registered their complaints with Bush.
   But Silva said the issue of moving the world off of fossil fuels was more important than any bickering over a Brazil-US agreement.
   ‘Bio-fuel cannot be promoted by just one country,’ Silva told journalists in Brazil on Thursday. ‘It is a global issue.’
   Brazil’s method of producing ethanol is better than the American way, Silva suggested, noting that sugarcane-based ethanol is far cheaper to make than corn-based ethanol, and warm-weather climates like Brazil are the only places where sugar cane thrives.
   Neither country produces enough ethanol to meet growing domestic demand. And while countries from Asia to Europe are pursuing bio-fuels as a way to reduce dependency on oil imports, international trade of alternative fuels is minimal.
   Hoping to promote the emergence of such a market, participants in the forum created Friday will try to come up with technical quality standards for bio-fuels production, said Antonio Patriota, Brazil’s Ambassador to the United States. Although the forum can only make recommendations for the rest of the world, Patriota said the eventual goal is to convene an international bio-fuel conference in Brazil next year.
   Along with Brazil and the US, the forum includes China, India, South Africa and the
   European Union Commission in an effort to involve the world’s biggest potential consumers and producers.
   Bio-fuels make up less than two per cent of the world’s fuel market — mostly Brazilian and American ethanol and biodiesel from the European Union, said Eduardo Pereira de Carvalho, the head of Brazil’s UNICA association of ethanol producers. He estimated bio-fuels could potentially gain a 20 or 30 per cent market share.
   ‘For sure bio-fuels will not be a silver bullet to finish off oil within 10 to 20 years or 30 years,’ Carvalho said. ‘What is important is that we want to be an important participant.’
   Yet there are significant obstacles. Brazil wants the US to lift a $0.53 per gallon tariff on Brazilian ethanol imports, and Patriota said Silva would raise the issue at his meeting with Bush next week. Patriota said there was ‘justifiable concern from the private sector and this is an obstacle that should be removed.’
   Noting that there are no tariffs on oil, Carvalho insisted trade restrictions would be a serious impediment to making bio-fuel an internationally traded commodity.

Motorola Inc. chief executive Ed Zander received $13.2 million in compensation in 2006, according to a proxy statement filed Friday, for a year in which the cell-phone maker boosted sales and market share but saw profits decline under pressure from rivals.
   Zander was paid $1.5 million in salary and $2.2 million in other compensation. He also was given stock or option awards worth $9.5 million. As part of overall compensation, he received perks costing the company $430,000, including about $351,000 for personal use of company aircraft and $56,000 for personal use of car and driver.
   Motorola said Zander’s compensation was based in part on its pay-for-performance program for all employees, and on the company having exceeded certain business targets for the year. It said his base salary has not changed since his hiring on Jan. 5, 2004.
   The Associated Press calculates total pay by including executives’ salary, bonus, incentives, perks, above-market returns on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock options and awards granted during the year. The calculations don’t include changes in the present value of pension benefits.
   The world’s No. 2 cell-phone manufacturer, behind
   Nokia Corp., had net earnings in 2006 of $3.67 billion, down 20 per cent from 2005, even as sales rose 22 per cent to $42.9 billion.
   Motorola also boosted its global market share to about 22 per cent in 2006, up from 14 per cent in 2003. But the latest gains came at the expense of profit margins, as it cut prices of its popular Razr and other high-end phones sharply, especially in emerging markets.
   Zander has since called the obsessive focus on gaining market share a mistake and says it will take until the second half of 2007 to return the company to double-digit operating profitability.
   ‘I think we got carried away with being No. 1,’ he told analysts Thursday at a conference in Las Vegas.
   Motorola shares fell 19 cents to close at $18.64 on the New York Stock Exchange, down 9 per cent this year after a 9 per cent drop in 2006.

The European Central Bank is set to raise its key interest rates, already at a five-year high point, further next week in a move that could upset some political circles in the euro area, analysts said on Friday.
   Against a background of turbulent week on European and global stock markets, all systems are go within the ECB for another rate rise—the seventh in 15 months—next Thursday, when the bank’s decision-making governing council holds its regular monthly rate-setting meeting.
   In a poll of 30 economists by AFP and the financial newswire AFX, experts unanimously predicted a quarter-point hike in eurozone borrowing costs to 3.75 per cent next week.
   Two top ECB officials—executive board member Juergen Stark and Bundesbank President Axel Weber—left little doubt this week that the guardian of the euro is preparing to tighten monetary conditions in the 13 countries that share the euro still further.
   The ECB has already raised its benchmark ‘refi’ refinancing rate six times since December 2005, each time by a quarter of a per centage point.
   The last move, bringing the refi to a five-year high of 3.50 per cent, was on December 7.
   ‘The eurozone economy is on a solid and stable course of growth which no longer needs an accommodative monetary policy,’ said Weber, who as head of the German central bank sits on the ECB’s governing council.

London investors can expect more rollercoaster trading action next week as the market continues to fret over a possible weakening of the US economy, analysts said on Friday.
   London’s FTSE 100 index of leading shares ended at 6,116.20 points on Friday, down 285.3 points or 4.46 per cent from a week earlier. The dive mirrored sharp falls by other global indices on concerns about slowing economic growth in the United States and a potential bubble in the Chinese stock market.

French President Jacques Chirac on Saturday renewed Paris’s attack on EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, accusing him of weakness in negotiating new trade rules.
   ‘I am deeply shocked by some of the attitudes being taken by ... Mandelson, who is persisting in giving away advantages while the Americans have shown no intention of making the slightest concessions with regard to agriculture,’ Chirac said.
   Speaking at the opening of the French agricultural show, in his last appearance at one of his favourite venues before he steps down in May, Chirac also accused developing countries of refusing to budge on the industrial and services sector.
   ‘We must be firm as a rock,’ he said. ‘We must not follow ... the temptations of Mr Mandelson.’
   At the end of January French Agriculture Minister Dominique Bussereau criticised Mandelon’s ‘unacceptable working methods’ at the world economic forum in Davos, where it was decided to relaunch in the spring the Doha round of global trade talks, stalled since last July.
   Mandelson supported reducing customs tariffs on agricultural products by half, while France opposes any cuts above 39 percent.
   ‘Any other offer is outside the mandate’ of the European Commission’s negotiating position, Bussereau said.
   In an interview published on Tuesday in the Financial Times Mandelson said negotiating relationships between major economic powers had improved, but certain developing countries must still lower some safeguards on special products.
   He added that developing countries had to exhibit signs of willingness to lower protection for manufacturers and service companies for him to be able to deliver promised cuts in farm subsidies.
   The Doha talks, launched in 2001 in the Qatari capital, aim to remove barriers to global trade but are currently deadlocked, notably over steps to reduce agricultural tariffs and subsidies.

China on Saturday began its annual parliamentary session with calls to address a widening wealth gap, environmental degradation and other ills attending its economic growth.
   The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a rubber-stamp advisory body, opened its 12-day session on Saturday afternoon at the Great Hall of the People in the capital.
   The opening of the merely ceremonial 2,267-member body is a prelude to the kick-off on Monday of the upper house and main legislative body, the 3,000-member National People’s Congress (NPC).
   But in a keynote speech, CPPCC Chairman Jia Qinglin set the expected tone for the NPC gathering by calling for a renewed effort to blunt the harsher aspects of China’s economic boom.
   ‘The CPPCC should fully play its role to promote the harmonious relations between different parties, nationalities, religions, social classes, and compatriots from both home and overseas,’ Jia said.
   China’s leaders have been struggling to maintain what they call a ‘harmonious’ society amid an economic boom that has brought income disparities, corruption and severe pollution affecting the health of millions.
   Though little debate actually occurs in the parliament, the state-run Xinhua news agency on Saturday ran a series of stories pointing out problems that need to be addressed, including a lack of safe drinking water for millions of people, inadequate health care and scarce jobs.
   Although neither legislative body has ever opposed a single Communist Party or government-backed proposal since the People’s Republic was founded in 1949, the annual session provides a forum for the government to lay out its aims for the following year.
   The NPC will approve a work report by Premier Wen Jiabao that underlines the ‘harmony’ drive.
   ‘All government departments must be highly attentive to the problems concerning the people’s daily lives,’ the state-run press cited Wen as saying last month as he prepared the report.
   ‘The government must improve social welfare work and ensure the basic necessities for people in poverty.’
   The parliament is expected to pass a long-awaited property law offering extra protection for the private sector and another that will raise tax rates on foreign enterprises, bringing them in line with domestic firms at a unified 25 per cent rate.
   Wen is also expected to set an economic growth target for this year of about eight percent.
   Similar targets have been exceeded in the past but the government officials have said Wen would outline more forceful measures including possible structural reforms this year to rein in growth.
   Lawmakers are also expected to discuss ways to make China’s legal system more fair.
   The diverse CPPCC consists of representatives of the Communist Party, as well as other political parties, social organisations and ethnic minorities.

Almost all young Japanese say mobile phones have changed their lifestyles, with nearly one-third of them confessing to spending three hours or more a day on their mobile, a survey says.
   Japan is the pioneer of third-generation telephones, which allow advanced functions such as Internet browsing and online shopping.
   Of Japanese aged 20 to 40, some 16 per cent say they spend three to five hours a day on their mobiles. Nine per cent use their phones for five to 10 hours—and four per cent spend even more than 10 hours a day.
   The recent survey by technical solutions provider Nepro IT Co. Ltd. found that mobile usage has gone up from even a year ago, when one in four young Japanese said they spent more than three hours on their phones.
   Ninety per cent of participants in the latest survey said that mobile phones have changed their lives in some way.
   Nearly 70 per cent admit they write fewer letters and postcards and 11 per cent say their real-life interaction has also gone down, according to the study, which polled 3,750 people.
   A mere 16 per cent of young Japanese say they only use their mobile phones for the ‘old-fashioned’ functions of chatting and sending text messages.
   For 40 percent, online shopping was the most popular service available on mobile phones, followed by 38 per cent who most enjoyed downloading music.

Increasing integration of financial markets means the Federal Reserve has to pay much greater attention to global forces when setting monetary policy, Ben Bernanke said late on Friday.
   The Federal Reserve chairman focused on long-range issues, and did not refer to recent market turmoil or make any comments on the state of the US economy.
   Bernanke said international factors, such as the so-called ‘global savings glut’ played an increasingly prominent role in determining long-term interest rates in the US, and helped explain why rates have remained low in recent years.
   To understand and evaluate conditions in the bond market, he said, ‘the Fed must take into account the various effects of foreign capital flows on US yields and asset prices, a task that can be quite challenging.’
   But Mr Bernanke insisted the Federal Reserve has not lost control of the key levers it needs to shape monetary conditions in the US economy.
   He said the Fed still has direct control over short-term interest rates, and retains considerable influence over long-term rates as well through its ability to shape expectations of where short term rates will be in the future.
   Indeed, Bernanke said empirical evidence suggests US monetary policy has greater influence on monetary conditions abroad than the other way around.
   The Fed chairman also discussed the relationship between globalisation and inflation, concluding that while global factors ‘do seem to influence inflation’ the net effect in recent years was not obviously to reduce the rate of price increases.
   ‘When the offsetting effects of globalisation on the prices of manufactured imports and on energy and commodity prices are considered together there seems to be little basis for concluding that globalisation overall has significantly reduced inflation in the US in recent years,’ he said.
   ‘Indeed the opposite may be true.’
   Bernanke said the idea that US inflation was influenced by the global balance of supply and demand, as well as the domestic balance, was ‘intriguing’ but that the evidence so far was ‘inconclusive.’

Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus will merge with Tata Steel next month once the Indian company’s shareholders approve the 13.7-billion-dollar takeover, Tata said Saturday.
   The deal, India’s biggest-ever foreign takeover, comes up for approval by Tata shareholders at a meeting next Wednesday.
   Corus Group Plc will be delisted from stock exchanges in April after shareholders give the nod to the acquisition, chairman Ratan Tata told reporters in the eastern Indian city of Jamshedpur.
   ‘Once the shareholders approve the proposal, Corus will be delisted from stock exchanges and would function as a subsidiary of Tata Steel from April,’ the Press Trust of India quoted him as saying.
   The takeover will make Tata Steel, the flagship of the Tata empire, the world’s fifth-largest steelmaker, vaulting from 56th place after it beat Brazilian rival CSN in a bidding contest for Corus in January.
   ‘An integration committee will be set up to oversee the merger of Tata Steel and Corus,’ Tata said at a function marking founder Jamshedji Nusserwanji Tata’s 168th birth anniversary.
   Tata said after a meeting with Corus chairman James Leng the committee would comprise representatives from both companies.
   Leng is likely to be deputy chairman and serve as a director on the Tata Steel board, a company official who wished not to be named told AFP by telephone from Jamshedpur, where Tata’s largest steel plant is located.
   The combined entity will have annual output of around 25 million tonnes and more than 87,000 employees.
   Tata said in Jamshedpur there would be no job cuts after the merger.
   ‘Making Corus cost-competitive will not mean job cuts,’ the 68-year-old group chairman said.
   However, in an interview with British business daily the Financial Times in Mumbai published on Friday, Tata said he could give no such promises because his company had only researched Corus ‘on paper’ and had yet to examine the Anglo-Dutch giant in detail.
   ‘I wouldn’t even attempt to do so because it would be wrong of me to give those (job) assurances,’ he was quoted as saying.

Sweden’s centre-right government on Friday presented a bill to parliament to sell state holdings in six companies, including the owner of the Absolut Vodka brand.
   The Swedish state currently owns 45.3 per cent of telecoms operator TeliaSonera, 19.9 per cent of banking group Nordea and 6.8 per cent of the OMX stock exchange.
   The three other companies are the wine and spirits manufacturer and owner of the Absolut brand, Vin Sprit, real estate company Vasakronan and the mortgage lender SBAB, which are all 100 per cent owned by the state.
   The sales would generate 150 billion kronor (16.14 billion euros, 21.24 billion dollars) for the Swedish state over three years from 2007 to 2009, the government said in December.
   The government did not say when it would sell the stakes, nor whether it would sell all or just part of its holdings.
   ‘The overarching goal of the government’s policy is to create the conditions for more jobs and expanding companies,’ Financial Markets Minister Mats Odell said in a statement.
   ‘One way of achieving this objective is a clearer division of roles between the private and public sector,’ Odell added.
   The centre-right government, which came to power after ousting the Social Democrats in general elections in September 2006, had announced the most extensive privatization programme since the 1990s as part of its election platform.
   The Swedish state has majority or minority stakes in 57 companies which together employ 200,000 people.
   The government also plans eventually to sell state holdings in other listed companies, such as the Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) airline, as well as unlisted groups such as the electricity company Vattenfall.
   In December the government also announced plans to deregulate the country’s 35-year-old pharmacy monopoly by January 2009.

Economic activity eased slightly in 2006, advancing 2.7 per cent over the year, Statistics Canada said Friday.
   In the fourth quarter, real gross domestic product (GDP) was up 0.4 percent, following increases of 0.5 per cent in the second and third quarters, according to the agency.
   Throughout 2006, the government agency said: ‘Growth was largely driven by higher personal expenditure and the strengthening of exports. However, these gains were dampened by the drawdown of non-farm inventories.’
   Consumer spending was the leading contributor to real GDP growth in 2006 advancing 4.1 percent, its best performance since 1997.
   A solid first quarter helped establish strong annual growth in expenditures on both durable (up 6.8 percent) and semidurable goods (up 7.2 percent), the government agency said.
   Declining prices in both of these groups encouraged purchases and significant gains were registered in the purchase of services, up 4.2 percent.
   Construction, retail and wholesale trade, as well as finance and insurance posted strong results.
   The energy sector also continued to advance but at a much slower pace than in the last four years.
   Manufacturing, forestry and logging were hit hard.

The International Red Cross’s renowned neutrality is being put to a test on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights by the local farmers’ blossoming apple crop, the agency revealed Friday.
   The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that it regularly transports the season’s apples back across the frontline between arch-enemies Israel and Syria to help the Syrian farmers sell them back home.
   ‘Apples are the mainstay of the local economy,’ explained Mohammed Safadi, who works for the ICRC office in the occupied Golan.
   ‘The income from this crop is very important to the local communities,’ he added. The farmers are Syrian nationals and refused to leave their land after the Israeli invasion in 1967.
   Some 10,000 tonnes of apples are being transported by the farmers from warehouses in the Golan to an Israeli checkpoint at the Kuneitra crossing over the next six weeks, the Geneva-based agency said.
   The apples are then transferred to three ICRC trucks, which carry them several hundred metres through no-man’s land and a United Nations observation post to be picked up by Syrian trucks on the other side.
   It is the third year running that the ICRC has carried the cargo through Kuneitra. In 2005, it handled 4,000 tonnes of apples and close to 5,000 tonnes the following year.

British and German authorities have asked Pakistan’s national airline not to fly its older planes into their countries because of concerns about safety standards, an official said Saturday.
   Pakistan International Airline spokesman Nasir Jamal said the directive came in the wake of concerns expressed by European Union over Pakistan International Airlines aircraft that are over 20 years old.
   ‘It is not a ban, they have counselled Pakistan to operate Boeing 777 to Frankfurt and London as other aircraft in the fleet are undergoing renovation work,’ Jamal said.
   ‘The remaining aircraft will operate to these destinations once the work on their refurbishment and renovation is completed,’ he said.

Global commodity markets saw mixed fortunes this week amid heavy losses on stock exchanges which sparked fears of slowing American and Chinese demand for raw materials, traders said.
   From wheat and soya, to gold and silver, many commodities witnessed losses as investors ran for cover on fears that demand could slacken in the world’s two biggest economies.
   However, crude oil prices recovered from initial losses to post their highest levels so far this year following news of lower US energy stocks.
   Equities have been volatile since Tuesday, when the Shanghai stock exchange had its biggest fall in a decade and Wall Street had its worst day since the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
   The wave of investor anxiety was caused by fears that the Chinese stock market was overheated and that US economic growth was slowing faster than expected.
   Grains and Soya: On the Chicago Board of Trade, the price of wheat for May delivery fell to 4.8300 US dollars per bushel on Friday, from 4.9850 dollars the previous week.
   Maize for May delivery crept up to 4.2775 dollars per bushel on Friday, from 4.4250 dollars the previous week.
   May-dated soyabean meal—used in animal feed—sank to 7.6275 dollars on Friday, from 7.9400 dollars the previous week.
   On the LIFFE, the price of a tonne of wheat for May delivery stood at 94.75 pounds, from 94.50 pounds the previous week.
   Oil: Prices also staged a fightback after weekly data which showed that US stockpiles of distillates, which include heating fuel and diesel, and gasoline fell in the week to February 23.
   The oil market’s focus is starting to switch from heating oil to gasoline stocks, as the northern hemisphere winter draws to an end and the US driving season approaches.
   The driving season—when gasoline demand hits a peak as many Americans take to their cars for the summer holidays—starts on May 31.
   By Friday in London, a barrel of Brent North Sea crude for delivery in April jumped to 62.30 dollars per barrel, from 61.21 dollars the previous week.
   In New York, a barrel of crude for delivery in April rose to 62.10 dollars per barrel from 61.45 dollars.
   Gold: The Institute of Supply Management reported that the struggling US manufacturing sector had rebounded in February as American factories trimmed inventories and boosted output for a broad range of goods.
   On the London Bullion Market, gold prices sank to 651.90 dollars per ounce at Friday’s late fixing, from 683 dollars the previous Friday.
   SILVER: Prior to the stocks sell-off, silver had hit 14.74 dollars—the highest point since May 12, 2006.
   On the London Bullion Market, silver prices sagged to 13.53 dollars per ounce at Friday’s late fixing, from 14.28 dollars the previous week.
   Palladium and Platinum: On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum dropped to 1,203 dollars per ounce at the late fixing Friday, from 1,234 dollars the previous week.
   Palladium stood at 347 dollars per ounce, down from 353 dollars one week earlier.
   Base Metals: Nickel and lead were the star performers as concerns persisted over low world stockpiles. Nickel climbed to 42,200 dollars on the London Metal Exchange (LME), which is the world’s leading metals futures market.
   Lead, meanwhile, hit 1,975.15 dollars—the highest reading for the metal since the start of its quotation on the LME in 1953.
   On Friday, three-month copper prices slid to 6,056 dollars per tonne on the LME, from 6,231.50 dollars the previous week.
   Three-month aluminium prices declined to 2,755 dollars per tonne from 2,830 dollars.
   Three-month nickel prices gained to 44,310 dollars per tonne from 39,895 dollars.
   Three-month lead prices eased to 1,909 dollars per tonne from 1,915 dollars.
   Three-month zinc prices slid to 3,365 dollars per tonne from 3,560 dollars.
   Three-month tin prices increased to 13,475 dollars per tonne from 13,300 dollars a week earlier.
   Cocoa: Cocoa exporters in Ivory Coast expect the October/March crop to reach approximately 915,000 tonnes, according to Sucden analyst Michael Davies. That compared with 944,000 tonnes the previous year.
   By Friday on the LIFFE, London’s futures exchange, the price of cocoa for May delivery rose to 988 pounds per tonne, from 971 pounds a week earlier.
   On the New York Board of Trade, the May contract increased to 1,797 dollars per tonne on Friday, from 1,779 dollars the previous week.
   Coffee: By Friday on the LIFFE, Robusta quality for May delivery tumbled to 1,500 dollars per tonne, from 1,575 dollars a week earlier.
   On the NYBOT, Arabica for May delivery decreased to 115.65 US cents per pound on Friday, from 119.90 cents the previous week.
   Sugar: By Friday on the LIFFE, the price of a tonne of white sugar for August delivery gained to 337.50 dollars, compared with 333 dollars a week earlier.
   On the NYBOT, the price of unrefined sugar for July delivery stood at 11.14 US cents per pound, up from 10.70 US cents the previous week.
   Wool: The Australian wool market finished 0.2 per cent higher on average this week, with the Eastern index rising to 9.09 Australian dollars per kilo, from 9.08 dollars the previous week.

World oil prices edged up in London but eased in New York on Friday, as traders set aside global equities turmoil and concentrated on the demand outlook for gasoline.
   In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for April delivery firmed two cents to 62.13 dollars per barrel in electronic deals.
   New York’s main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in April, declined 25 cents to 61.75 dollars per barrel in floor trading.
   ‘Fundamentally, the concern is for gasoline (petrol) supply in America (and) everybody is turning attention more to the (US) driving season,’ said Base Commodities trader Tony Machacek, in reference to the peak-demand holiday season when many Americans hit the roads for their holidays.
   The driving season starts on May 31 and the oil market is beginning to switch its attention to gasoline and away from heating fuel, as the northern hemisphere winter draws to a close.
   Crude futures were also underpinned by weekly stocks data that were published this week by the US Department of Energy (DoE). US stockpiles of gasoline and distillates, which include heating fuel and diesel, fell in the week to February 23.
   On Thursday, world oil prices rose to 2007 peaks above 62 dollars as traders focused on the DoE report despite the global equities rout.
   The hefty gains came after ‘a larger than expected drop in US distillate and gasoline stocks,’ according to Sucden analyst Michael Davies.
   Meanwhile, traders continued to shrug off persistent volatility on global stock markets.
   But Machacek added that market players were ‘still very jittery,’ and that oil prices could slide if the stock market had another tumble.
   Earlier this week, crude prices had fallen as traders viewed the sell-off in global stock markets as a sign that fuel demand in the United States and China may not grow as robustly as the market had anticipated.
   Elsewhere, geopolitical concerns simmered over tensions between the West and key crude producer Iran.
   Iran’s unwillingness to slow down its uranium enrichment programme is stoking global supply fears, analysts said.
   Traders are concerned that if Iran is punished with economic sanctions by the West over its nuclear energy program, the Islamic republic might retaliate by slashing oil exports.

Volatile global stock markets suffered more losses Friday, with Wall Street hit by heavy selling as edgy investors retrenched ahead of the weekend with other bourses still skittish from this week’s turmoil.
   The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 120.24 points to 12,114.10, as selling accelerated late in the day. It closed out the worst week for the blue-chip index in nearly four years, with a loss of 4.2 per cent.
   The tech-rich Nasdaq composite meanwhile slumped 1.51 per cent for the day to 2,368.00, while the broad-market Standard and Poor’s 500 index lost 1.14 per cent to 1,387.17.
   Market participants said a rising yen was feeding fears of a squeeze on hedge funds which have borrowed the Japanese currency at rock-bottom interest rates to fund higher-yielding investments elsewhere.
   Concerns also resurfaced about the US housing sector after one major lender reported delinquencies surged 19 per cent last year while US regulators demanded tougher standards for certain mortgages.
   Andrew Busch at BMO Capital Markets said investor confidence has been hammered, making a recovery difficult.
   ‘When you have the upheaval we did, it’s almost impossible for investors to feel confident to do anything but reduce risk,’ he said.
   European and Asian markets were mainly lower. The London FTSE 100 was flat, showing a fractional gain of 0.2 points at 6,116.20. In Paris the CAC 40 fell 0.62 per cent to 5,424.70 and in Frankfurt the Dax shed 0.56 per cent to 6,603.32.
   In Canada, Toronto’s TSX composite slipped 0.91 per cent for the day.
   In Tokyo, the benchmark Nikkei 225 index closed down 1.35 per cent, dropping for a fourth straight day to extend its losses to 5.3 per cent over the week.
   But Shanghai stocks ended up 1.23 per cent on bargain hunting.
   The sharpest decline in Shanghai in 10 years on Tuesday kicked off a wild week, with Chinese shares bouncing back nearly four per cent Wednesday, only to slide three per cent the following day.
   Some analysts said the ‘correction’ was to be expected after months of hefty gains, but that it remained unclear how deep the slump would be.
   ‘While this correction has been swift and painful, to be sure, we also don’t think that we’ve seen the bottom quite yet,’ said Philip Orlando at Federated Investments.
   ‘We expect that stocks could grind lower by another five to 10 per cent or so, from here in coming weeks.’

Dollar edges ahead against euro
The dollar rose slightly against the euro on Friday as anxious investors closely monitored the state of global stock markets following recent turbulent trade. The euro was off earlier lows in late European trading, trading at 1.3183 dollars from 1.3184 dollars late in New York on Thursday. The European unit stood at 154.0 yen, down from 154.99 yen. The dollar fell to 116.87 yen, from 117.53 yen on Thursday. Volatile global stock markets suffered losses again on Friday, but nervous investors showed signs of recovering their composure after frantic selling earlier in the week. European markets closed lower, Wall Street struggled at the open and Asian equities finished on a broadly weaker note, but there was less turbulence than the previous few days. ‘Today’s data and events calendar is light,’ said currency analysts at Dutch banking giant ABN Amro in a note to clients.
— AFP

Indonesian shares could rebound next week: analyst
Indonesian shares could rebound next week as the country’s economy is relatively strong and providing global stock markets find an even keel, an analyst said Friday. ‘There are opportunities for the market to rebound next week, even though the rise will not be that significant,’ Lanang Trihardian from broker Erdikha Elit told AFP. Trihardian said that share prices would still be at the mercy of international factors following global stock market turbulence, but that the Indonesian economy was in reasonable shape. ‘Our fundamental domestic economy is quite strong, there is no negative news,’ he said.
— AFP