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Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Lance Armstrong steps down from charity, Nike drops him from sponsorship

Read Lance Armstrong Biography

Lance Armstrong stepped down as chairman of the Livestrong cancer support charity he founded, as Nike Inc dropped the disgraced cyclist over the doping scandal that will likely cost him his seven Tour de France titles.

Armstrong's Livestrong foundation is best known for the more than 70 million iconic yellow rubbery wrist bands that have been distributed worldwide, but the scandal threatened to overshadow the group's wider work with cancer patients. So far, donations have actually increased despite the scandal.

"To spare the foundation any negative effects as a result of controversy surrounding my cycling career, I will conclude my chairmanship," Armstrong said in a statement on Wednesday. He will continue to serve on the board.

At around the same time that the foundation announced Armstrong's resignation, Nike posted a statement to its website saying the athletic apparel maker would still back the charity but could no longer sponsor the man behind it.

"Due to the seemingly insurmountable evidence that Lance Armstrong participated in doping and misled Nike for more than a decade, it is with great sadness that we have terminated our contract with him," the company said.

Beer maker Anheuser-Busch said it too would end its relationship with Armstrong when his contract expires at the end of this year, though it would also continue to back the foundation and its athletic events.

Oakley Inc, the sunglasses brand also associated with Armstrong, said in a statement it was reviewing the reports into the cyclist's conduct and awaiting a final decision from the sport's international authorities. A Radio Shack spokesman said the electronics retailer remains a sponsor of Armstrong and Livestrong.

ESPN reported two other sponsors, Trek Bicycles and the energy drink maker FRS, were also ending their relationships with the cyclist. Representatives of the two companies were not immediately available to comment.

Armstrong, now retired, is set to lose his record seven Tour de France titles after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency published a 1,000-page report last week that said the American took part in and organized an elaborate, sophisticated doping scheme on his way to his unrivalled success.

Cycling's world governing body, the International Cycling Union, has yet to rule on the USADA report. They can either confirm Armstrong's life ban and strip him of his seven Tour titles or take the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The report accused Armstrong, as head of the US Postal Service Pro Cycling Team, of running "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen." It included sworn testimony of 26 people, including 15 riders, who described years of performance drug use.

'WHAT ARE YOU ON?'

Armstrong, 41, has always denied he took banned substances during his glittering career but decided not to challenge the USADA charges against him.

That defiance was such a part of Armstrong's personal brand that Nike made a commercial in the early 2000s featuring him being tested for drugs.

"Everybody wants to know what I'm on. What am I on? I'm on my bike, busting my ass six hours a day. What are you on?" Armstrong said in a voice over to the ad.

Before Armstrong, the most high profile athlete dropped by Nike was probably the football player Michael Vick, cut loose in 2007 amid charges he bankrolled a dog-fighting ring.

One analyst who follows the company dismissed the idea that separating from Armstrong would have any impact on Nike or its sales of Livestrong products.

"I am not sure the average Joe really cares. Nike and all sporting goods companies have a history of standing by their sponsored athletes," said Paul Swinand, a retail analyst at Morningstar. Read more

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Sunday, September 30, 2012

Palestinian authority aims to securitize $200 million of debt

KUWAIT (Reuters) - Palestinian authorities are aiming to securitize an initial $200 million of some $1.3 billion worth of government debt by the first quarter of 2013 to help reduce state borrowing from local banks, a top banker said on Sunday.

"The Ministry of Finance is much more ready for securitizing the old debt rather than creating new debt, because we are not even rated," Palestinian Monetary Authority Governor Jihad al-Wazir said ahead of a Monday meeting of Arab central bankers in Kuwait.

"This will be only to the primary market, only to the banks, not to the public and not to overseas public," he told reporters.

The Palestinian Monetary Authority (PMA), which oversees operations in both the West Bank - where the Palestinian Authority is based - and the Gaza Strip controlled by the Islamist group Hamas, will manage the securitization on behalf of the Finance Ministry.

"What is important about this is that it will transfer some of the existing debt that is direct borrowing from the government into securities which are tradable between the banks," Wazir said.

"It will add to stability, it will generate an interbank market and additionally as an incentive it will be used as daily collateral in our payment system."

The securitization would likely see the PMA convert a chunk of outstanding Palestinian debt into bonds or other tradeable securities that would then be sold to local banks, in order to cut its direct borrowing requirements.

The Palestinians, a stateless people, do not have their own currency and the Israeli shekel is used for most day-to-day cash transactions.

The PMA, which has reserves of $1 billion, regulates banks operating in the Palestinian territories, occupied by Israel in a 1967 war.

The government budget deficit was likely to be around $1.3 billion this year, up from a $950 million gap projected in the budget, Wazir also said, adding $1.36 billion was a red line for state borrowing from banks.

DONERS

"The difference is likely to come from donors. There are a number of talks with Arab countries, particularly in the Gulf," he said.

"Also maybe through the World Bank, maybe through the World Bank trust fund. The situation is still in a crisis mode."

In September, the United Nations UNCTAD agency issued a gloomy outlook for the Palestinian economy, arguing that tougher Israeli policies and settlement expansion were pushing the occupied territories and Gaza deeper into poverty.

The situation had been aggravated in 2011 by a sharp drop in foreign aid, which for years provided a vital support, dimming any hope for an upswing even in the longer term, it said.

Wazir said the economy was doing "Ok" under the circumstances with inflation-adjusted gross domestic product seen growing around 5 percent this year, down from over 6 percent in 2011.

"If the Israelis lift restrictions we can grow by 14-15 percent annually for a number of years," he said. (Reporting by Martin Dokoupil and Sylvia Westall; Editing by Sophie Hares)

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Monday, September 17, 2012

Japanese firms close in China due to mass protests

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Major Japanese brand name firms announced factory shutdowns in China yesterday and urged expatriates to stay indoors ahead of what could be more angry protests over a territorial dispute between Asia’s two biggest economies.

China’s worst outbreak of anti-Japan sentiment in decades led to weekend demonstrations and violent attacks on well-known Japanese businesses such as car makers Toyota and Honda, forcing frightened Japanese into hiding and prompting Chinese state media to warn that trade relations could now be in jeopardy.

“I’m not going out today and I’ve asked my Chinese boyfriend to be with me all day tomorrow,” said Sayo Morimoto, a 29-year-old Japanese graduate student at a university in Shenzhen.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei (洪磊) said the government would protect Japanese firms and citizens and called for protesters to obey the law.

“The gravely destructive consequences of Japan’s illegal purchase of the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) are steadily emerging, and the responsibility for this should be borne by Japan,” he told a daily news briefing.

The islands, called the Senkakus in Japan, are also claimed by Taiwan.

“The course of developments will depend on whether or not Japan faces up to China’s solemn stance and whether or not it faces up to the calls for justice from the Chinese people and adopts a correct attitude and approach,” Hong said.

China and Japan, which generated two-way trade of US$345 billion last year, are arguing over the Diaoyutais, a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, which are the source of a long-standing dispute that erupted last week when the Japanese government decided to buy three of them from a private Japanese owner. The move infuriated Beijing.

Yesterday, a flotilla of about 1,000 Chinese fishing boats was sailing for the islands.

The weekend protests mainly targeted Japanese diplomatic missions, but also shops, restaurants and car dealerships in at least five cities. Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co said arsonists had badly damaged their stores in Qingdao at the weekend.

However, Toyota said its factories and offices were operating as normal yesterday and that it had not ordered home its Japanese employees in China.

Honda will suspend production in China starting today for two days. Fast Retailing Co, Asia’s largest apparel retailer, said it had closed some of its Uniqlo outlets in China and may close yet more.

Japan’s top general retailer, Seven & I Holdings, said it would close 13 Ito Yokado supermarkets and 198 7-Eleven convenience stores in China today, while Sony Corp is discouraging non-essential travel to China.

Mazda Motor Corp will halt production at its Nanjing factory, which it jointly operates with Chongqing Changan Automobile Co and Ford Motor Co, for four days.

Japanese electronics group Panasonic said one of its plants had been sabotaged by Chinese workers and would remain closed through today — the anniversary of Japan’s 1931 occupation of parts of China, a date that Tokyo fears could trigger more anti-Japan sentiment.

Read More here

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Monday, August 13, 2012

Israel sniper to get 45 days over Gaza war shooting

What is SNIPER ?

An Israeli soldier implicated in the killing of two Gaza women carrying a white flag faces a 45-day jail term under a plea bargain approved by a military court on Sunday, local media said.

The sniper, identified by Israeli media as "staff sergeant S," was charged with manslaughter in 2010 over the fatal shooting of an unnamed individual, which Palestinian witnesses linked to the killing of 64-year-old Riyeh Abu Hajaj and her daughter Majda Abu Hajaj, 37, during Israel's "Cast Lead" Gaza offensive.

But the Israeli military said the charge had on Sunday been reduced from manslaughter to using a weapon illegally.

"Following a mediation process and upon examination of the evidence with the recommendation of the military court, both sides have reached a plea bargain in which the indictment will be adjusted, and he will be convicted of using a weapon illegally," a military statement said.

Under the deal, "S" would be jailed for 45 days, media reports said.

Read More here

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Friday, July 27, 2012

The 2012 Olympic Games Opening

The Slumdog Millionaire director’s opening ceremony for the London 2012 Olympics started with such verve and promise. There were fireworks! There were sheep! There were geese! There was electricity in the stadium, not just the kind generated by 80,000 people in a state of excited anticipation but also a clever arrangement of LED panels at every seat that sent pulses of color across the stands. See official website Olympics London 2012

See many more pictures

Rustic folk strolled beneath fluffy cumuli and disported themselves in a vision of the green and pleasant Britain celebrated in verse by William Blake at the beginning of the 19th century, as the industrial revolution gathered steam. By 1916, when Sir Hubert Parry set the poem to music, creating the greatest of all anthems, “Jerusalem,” ever more Britons lived in cities and worked in factories; world war would soon further threaten Blake’s idyll. Boyle’s history appeared to cast industrialists as the greater danger, though the program notes made clear that the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, played by Kenneth Branagh, should be regarded as a hero. Great chimneys sprouted from the stadium floor and the once carefree yokels were transformed into drudges. It was powerful and surprisingly scary for an event that at previous Games has dazzled but never daunted. “This is ****ing terrifying!! i want my mummy,” tweeted the British critic and journalist Giles Coren.

And it got better, at least if what you wanted from London 2012 wasn’t a poor man’s Beijing or an updated Sydney, all spectacle and not much substance. In the segment entitled “Happy and Glorious,” Boyle served up great dollops of the quirky humor that sustains his compatriots. A filmed sequence showed James Bond, in his current, Daniel Craig-shaped iteration, on a mission to Buckingham Palace. He is greeted by a pair of corgis and then by the Queen, “in her first acting role,” according to the Olympics organizers though she’s arguably been performing as the Queen since 1952.

They board a helicopter and fly to the Olympic Park, and in a coup de théâtre, a real helicopter materialized above the stadium, and 007 and Q (or their stunt doubles) parachuted to the ground. And Her Majesty, in the same fetching apricot-colored gown she wore for the filmed sequence, took her seat in the box.

The VIP tiers were already well stocked with royals and more than 80 heads of state and would-be heads of state. Three former British Prime Ministers, John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, bookended the current Prime Minister David Cameron, and the opposition leader Ed Miliband. Michelle Obama represented the United States; Mitt Romney represented the ambition to do so in the future.

Whether the next sequence impacted his views on the benefits of universal, taxpayer-funded healthcare remains to be seen. The arena filled with dancing nurses and doctors pushing beds occupied by young patients, to symbolize Britain’s National Health Service (NHS). Initially jolly, this scene too turned dark, as nightmare figures from children’s literature multiplied until a phalanx of Mary Poppinses chased them away. After the show, still in costume, four of the “nurses” told TIME that they were real-life medics, who had gladly joined Boyle’s show in the hopes of chasing away nightmares of their own.

“The NHS is a huge part of British history,” said Nadia Gildeh, a junior doctor. “It’s a significant part of what we are.” She hoped Boyle’s tribute would help persuade Prime Minister Cameron to preserve the NHS. “Hands off the NHS!” agreed Hilary Sharpe, a transplant nurse. “We love the NHS.”

The audience in the stadium loved the NHS too, or at least its musical version. In fact, they had loved the whole show up to that point. It was weird in places, patchy, a bit preachy sometimes. But as with so many top British sports stars, the wobbles made the watching even more compelling. Like Andy Murray at Wimbledon, Boyle had the crowd believing he could win, willing him to win. And like Murray at Wimbledon, he showed flashes of genius but just couldn’t sustain it. You knew he had lost when British creativity was represented in a montage of clips of music and film and TV and a meandering narrative about young folk texting before putting down their smart phones just long enough to kiss.

Britain is creative, prodigiously so. The clips showcased some of the things the nation does brilliantly: subverting genres, inventing new ones, and always, always laughing at itself. Mr Bean made an appearance, though not, as suggested by this author in a 2008 piece, as the carrier of the Olympic flame. That honor was given to seven young athletes, who lit a wonderfully, crazily deconstructed cauldron dreamed up by British designer Thomas Heatherwick.

But Boyle couldn’t overcome two fundamental problems. Britain is good at the sort of solemn pageantry surrounding royal occasions. It’s less good at solemnity without a traditional framework. It’s hard to disagree with Boyle’s messaging—for example about the dangers of unfettered capitalism and about how generations of immigrants have enriched and renewed Britain and about the value of the NHS—but it was clunky and worthy.

That’s because the other banana skin is the idea that last 100 years of British history, with its loss and confusion as well as its triumphs and achievements, lends itself to the lobotomized format of an Olympics opening ceremony. Monty Python might have done it à la Life of Brian, but the Olympic powers would never have approved. So we got something that almost worked, and captivated in parts. And that is as true a reflection of Britain as it’s possible to imagine.

MORE: The Worst Ever Opening Ceremonies

Credit To : Olympics Time

Official website Olympics London 2012

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