Necklaces weblogs, Necklace new, Necklace blogs, necklaces blog

China’s top five oil companies saw profits up 13.2 percent in March from the same period a year ago, as stimulus package pushed up energy demand, according to a report released by the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association (CPCIA).

Their March profits rose 160 percent from February to 28.25 billion yuan (4.15 billion U.S. dollars), according to the report released on Thursday.

The “top five” includes China National Petroleum Corporation, China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation, China National Offshore Oil Corp, Sinochem Corporation, and Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum (Group) Co. Ltd.

The negative impacts of the global financial crisis on China’s petrochemical sector was deepening, but the month-on-month figure showed signs of recovering as prices of some petrochemical products began to stabilize, said the report.

Analysts said the profit increase was due to the government decision to raise the prices of oil products. PetroChina’s president Zhou Jiping said last month that the price rise would add 1.26 billion yuan of profits for the company every month.

However, the industrial value through January-March dropped 14 percent from a year ago, to 1.26 trillion yuan. The figure for March alone was 498.35 billion yuan, down 8.4 percent year on year, according to the report.

It is the first time in more than a decade that the petrochemical sector has seen declines in both industrial value and sales revenue. It is likely that the falling trend would continue in the second quarter, said Feng Shiliang, CPCIA deputy secretary.

He said the exports would continue to deteriorate, and the overcapacity would still be prominent.

The news of further layoffs by big companies and the increasing concern about swine flu are casting new shadows over the U.S. economy. As new college graduates are pouring into the labor market, job creation becomes a real “Stress Test” for the U.S. government.

JOBLESS NEWS KEEPS GOING

According to General Motor’s updated viability plan unveiled on Monday, 21,000 hourly workers will be shed by 2010. Salaried employees are also expected to be cut further.

The struggling auto giant is not the only big employer that joined the laying off trend that has worsened since the outbreak of the global financial crisis last September. Leading Internet company Yahoo said on April 21 that it would cut 5 percent of its global workforce following a significant drop in the first quarter results. Apple Inc., the iPod maker was reported by Dow Jones News Agency on April 23 that it secretly dismissed about 1,600 full-time jobs.

“The unemployment rate will worsen. According to our research, the potential unemployment rate, which includes people who were finding jobs a year ago and many part-time workers, is about 15 percent,” said John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., the U.S. premier outplacement consulting firm, in a recent interview with Xinhua.

The Labor Department said on April 23 that initial claims for unemployment compensation rose to a seasonally adjusted 640,000, up from a revised 613,000 the previous week. That was slightly above analysts’ expectations of 635,000.

In another sign of labor market weakness, the number of people continuing to claim benefits rose to 6.13 million, setting a record for the 12th straight week, and the total jobless benefit rolls are the highest since January 1983.

A double digit unemployment rate in 2010 is widely predicted by economists.

“This summer will be a real hard time for the U.S. economy since nearly 6 million college graduates are entering the work force, inflicting a great pressure on the labor market,” said Huang Jing, former senior researcher at the Washington-based Brookings Institute told Xinhua.

ECONOMIC OUTLOOK REMAINS CHALLENGING

In February, the Obama administration predicted that the economy would shrink 1.2 percent in 2009. Again, the forecast would probably fall behind the curve.

OECD projected at the beginning of April that the world economy would contract by 3 percent, and world trade would decrease 13.2 percent.

In the World Economic Outlook report released on April 22, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected that the U.S. economy would contract by 2.8 percent in 2009. This is the third consecutive times that the organization lowered its forecast for the U.S. economy within six months.

A latest survey released by the Wall Street Journal showed that economists forecasted that the economy will not be able to recover enough to bring down unemployment until the second half of 2010.

The economists’ forecasts indicate that the peak in the unemployment rate is likely to coincide with the midterm elections that will decide which party controls Congress — possibly bad news for Democrats. Even if the economy is growing, Americans still will be feeling the effects of the recession and could blame the incumbent.

The first-quarter gross domestic product report, due from the Commerce Department on Wednesday, could offer some clues about what a recovery might look like.

Economists think GDP shrank at an annual rate of 4.6 percent in the first quarter, one of the worst since World War II, but not as terrible as the 6.3 percent shrinkage in the fourth quarter of 2008.

　　NEW UNCERTAIN FACTORS ARISE

As people are wondering where the U.S. economy might go following the report of mixed economic index in April, an unexpected epidemic disease brings new uncertain factors to the world economy. The outbreak of swine flu triggers worldwide alert in recent days.

“Fears over swine flu threatened to knock a vulnerable global economy into deeper turmoil, hammering travel and tourism as nervous consumers and businesses delayed spending plans,” reported the Wall Street Journal.

Spooked investors dumped airline shares Monday, fearing airline finances might suffer a new blow.

“This certainly could exacerbate the recession,” said Sherman Chan, an economist with Moody’s in Australia. “The next couple weeks will be crucial. If this (swine flu) persists it could become a more serious concern and really cripple the economy.”

In a worst-case scenario, the U.S. economy would shrink by an extra 0.3 percent this year, on top of a predicted 3.5 percent decline, says Brian Bethune, economist at IHS Global Insight.

This will inevitably transmit into the labor market and exert more stress on the spending of consumers.

Although one of the crucial goals of President Obama’s New Dealis to create jobs, historically, employment always lags behind the recovery of the economy from a recession.

One of the biggest worries facing economists is what would happen if unemployment rises beyond expectations and unleashes another wave of spending contractions and lower corporate profits.

At present, the world is expecting the final result, due on May4, of the stress test of the big U.S. banks, which seems to be not that positive as the share prices of Bank of America, Citi group and other banks fell Tuesday. However, the news about unemployment might be a bigger concern that deserves close watching.

Mexican health authorities said on Friday that the death toll for the A/H1N1 flu has risen to 66 and the infected people to 2,895 in Mexico.

Mexican Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova said that the report till Thursday night was on lower trend in case of infections, deaths and hospitalizations.

The information given during the week shows that the lethality index continues dropping with a 2.3 percent confirmed cases.

Those patients who contracted the deadly flu virus and died is under 20 years old, most of them housewives, and most of the cases were in Mexico City and State of Mexico.

Cordova said that from the 66 deaths, 61 were patients who developed symptoms before April 23, five more after that date, when the epidemic alert was given.

The State of Coahuila continues being the only one in Mexico without reports of the virus.

Cordoba told journalist that one week after some 20 million students returned to school activities, the measures taken by teachers and parents gave good results. Cordova said that the coming week will be important, when all the activities will be normalized, so he requested the people, teachers and parents to continue observing and to take preventive measures to avoid infections.

Cordova said that the measures requested to the Electoral Federal Institute for political parties to avoid massive concentrations during their electoral campaigns was valid till Friday, so since Saturday the candidates in campaign will be able to hold massive concentrations.

The service industry in Britain, a key national economic player, remains mired in a deep slump, but has shown signs of declining at a slower rate.

The improving trend is revealed by the latest survey released on Wednesday by Britain’s leading business organization, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).

The quarterly survey conducted between April 29 and May 13 covers some 179 firms in the service sector.

These firms are divided into consumer services such as hotels, bars, restaurants, travel and leisure and business and professional services, including accountancy, legal and marketing firms.

In consumer services, business volume fell over the past three months at the fastest rate since November 2001. But the fall in business values was less marked because prices rose.

Meanwhile, a different picture emerges when compared with business and professional services. Their business values fell even faster than volumes, due to record deflation in average selling prices.

However, in both sub-sectors, the decline in both values and volumes of business are expected to slow down in the next three months, the CBI said.

If realized, the declines in activity would be the slowest since last summer, said the business lobby organization, which speaks for some 240,000 businesses that together employ around one-third of the private sector workforce.

Employment continued to fall sharply in both sub-sectors, though in both the rate of decline is expected to ease over the coming months, according to the survey.

The overall profitability of business also fell sharply in both, compared with three months ago, but at a slower rate than in the previous quarter when it declined at a record pace.

BUSINESS BREAKDOWN

In consumer services, travel services business fell significantly for a fourth successive quarter and is expected to fall further over the next three months at a similar rate, showed the CBI’s survey.

Hotels, bars and restaurants saw a sharp fall in business volume though business value fell less steeply and firms are more optimistic about their business situation. Overall profitability stabilized after falling heavily and is expected to remain little changed over the next three months.

The outlook for the leisure and personal care sector is more encouraging. Although firms expect their business to slump next quarter, the rate of decline appears to be slowing considerably.

Telecomms and computing business values continued on a steep downward trend. However, the declining trend is expected to be arrested over the next quarter. A similar situation applies to the transport of goods and postal services.

Marketing firms show a continued decline in business values and volumes, although in both cases the rate of decline is less severe. Sentiment about the business situation fell, as did overall profitability.

SLOW CONFIDENCE RECOVERY

Looking forward, there are some signs that sentiment is improving, said the survey.

In the consumer services sub-sector, 27 percent of firms said they were more optimistic than three months ago, compared with 12 percent saying they were less so. The balance of 15 percent is the first positive result since February 2007.

In contrast, confidence of companies in business and professional services continued to decline, with negative respondents outnumbering positive ones by 6 percent.

However, this is the slowest rate of decline since confidence started to slide in February 2008, the CBI said.

TIGHT CREDIT

The lack of availability of credit remains a thorny issue. Consumer services firms are particularly affected. The number of firms which said it will disable increased businesses is 31 percent more than those who believed there would be little impact. This is the highest figure since the survey started in November 1998.

However, these constraints were less pronounced in the business and professional services sub-sector.

Pay restraint and low inflation also had an impact upon the whole industry, the survey revealed.

In consumer services, the balance of companies reporting rises in total costs per person employed was the lowest in the survey’s history. And in business and professional services it was actually negative, and also the lowest in the survey’s history. These balances are both expected to be negative next quarter.

The CBI is Britain’s official business representative in the European Union, which generates more than 50 percent of regulations affecting British firms.

Leaders from the BRIC nations — Brazil, Russia, India and China — held their first official meeting on Tuesday, marking a crucial step by the emerging countries to seek broader consensus and a greater voice in addressing global issues.

After the summit in Russia’s Ural city of Yekaterinburg, the leaders put their hands firmly together, a move considered symbolic eight years after the term “BRIC” was coined. The four nations have eventually translated an economic concept into tangible dialogue and cooperation.

The BRIC meeting comes as the world is undergoing a major economic crisis and profound changes.

Apart from efforts to overcome the economic downturn, the world is seeking reform of the existing financial system and a new order of sustainable development after the crisis. It may take a long time to achieve that goal but the BRIC summit is taking a meaningful step in that direction.

The four countries, accounting for 42 percent of the world’s population, 14.6 percent of global GDP and 12.8 percent of the global trade volume in 2008, are no doubt a significant part of a modern harmonious world based on equality and fairness.

As Jim O’Neill, the Goldman Sachs economist who coined the term “BRIC” pointed out, the road ahead for the BRICs were loaded with both huge opportunities and challenges.

The BRICs, which span across Asia, Europe and Latin America, feature huge political and cultural diversity. The group needs to establish a sound mechanism for long-term cooperation.

Meanwhile, the BRICs have yet to strengthen mutual trust among themselves, promote the common development of all developing countries, and make the emerging nations a bigger player on the international stage.

The leaders have underlined that dialogue and cooperation between the BRICs should remain open, transparent and not directed against a third party. It is a principle in line with the trend of globalisation and multi-polarization.

Brick by brick, the emerging countries have started to contribute to building a harmonious world. It takes responsibility, confidence and hard efforts for even more BRICs to play their fair part in the global blueprint for development.

The 15th Shanghai Television Festival opened Monday night at the Shanghai Grand Theater with a gusto signaling a bright future for the local movie and television industry.

Amid the ongoing financial crisis, the bourgeoning Chinese movie and TV market is turning out to be a huge draw for overseas companies and exhibitors. A total of 130 TV stations, filming and publishing companies have registered for the event, including US-based Disney Company, Warner Bros and NHK from Japan.

A leading international NGO on human rights on Friday condemned the teacher-killings by suspected insurgents in deep south of Thailand, and called on the authorities to take appropriate measures to bolster security at schools, Thai media reported.

“In a sickening trend, separatist insurgents are increasingly attacking teachers, who they consider a symbol of government authority and Buddhist Thai culture…There is no excuse for such brutality,” The Nation online quoted Brad Adams, Asia director of the New York-based Human Rights Watch, as saying.

Thailand’s deep South, which includes mainly the three southernmost provinces Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat as well as some parts of Songkla province, has undergone violence by suspected separatists for years, during which more than 3,500 people have been killed since 2004.

Among the recent killings, two female teachers, one of them eight-month pregnant, were shot to death by alleged insurgents on June 3 in Narathiwat province, bringing to 113 the number of teachers killed in the unrest over the past five years.

And the latest case is on Tuesday, when a female teacher of Poh-meng School in Raman district of Yala province was shot dead on her way to school.

According to The Nation, the spike in violence came immediately after a controversial verdict by Thai court on May 29, which cleared Thai security forces of any wrong doing in their handling of the Tak Bai massacre, an incident that ended in the death of 85unarmed Malay Muslim demonstrators, 78 of whom died from suffocation when they were stacked on the back of military truck one on top another.

Students, whether domestic or foreign, are finding it difficult to obtain scholarships from U.S. universities because of the current recession.

Scholarship fundraising is down across the United States because of the recession, Barbara Charnock, program coordinator of Scholarship America’s regional office in California, said.

Scholarship America is the parent organization of community-based Dollars for Scholars chapters that provide local scholarships.

“Chapters has noticed a large, large turn-down in fundraising. It is happening across the country,” she said.

The drop in donations has forced universities and foundations to reduce the number of scholarships and their worth.

The Fulfillment Fund, a non-profit organization that works with Los Angeles public high school students, has reduced the number of scholarships offered over the last three years by nearly half and has tightened requirements students must meet,

Maria T. Espinosa, director of program operations, said. The David United World College Scholars Program, which last year offered five 20,000 dollar scholarships, has now drastically reduced that number too.

Many foundations, corporations, state governments and universities in the U.S. have also reduced their support of scholarships. Some programs have been reduced or canceled for lack of money.

According to Scholarship America, a non-profit company that administers scholarship programs for about 1,200 providers, less money is now available for students. Meanwhile, the number of applications is rising.

In Georgia, public and private colleges have eliminated some scholarships and are scrambling to find money for some positions and research projects as endowments dwindle.

College endowments have declined by about 25 percent over the past year, according to officials at several Georgia colleges.

The endowments lost their value as stock prices, real estate, and other investments plummeted. Profits from endowments support scholarships, professors, department chairs, and research-related travel for some professors.

The endowment at the University of West Georgia has dropped by about 29 percent, forcing officials to eliminate about 70 scholarships.

Clark Atlanta University’s endowment fell by about 26 percent forcing that university to cut back on scholarships. Typically about 23 percent of incoming freshmen receive scholarships, but it is expected that figure will fall by about 3 percent.

The University of Georgia saw its endowment decline by about 25 percent, a loss of almost 163 million dollars.

According to the Association of Fundraising Professionals, the trend is nationwide.

Clark Atlanta University saw a 26-percent drop in its endowment from 42 million dollars to 31 million dollars. Kennesaw State University, 17 percent from 30 million dollars to 25 million dollars; Oglethorpe University, 20 percent from 20 million dollars to 16 million dollars; University of Georgia, 25 percent from 648.2 million dollars to 485.5 million dollars; and University of West Georgia, 29 percent from 17 million dollars to 12 million dollars.

State grant programs too have either been reduced or totally cut.

California, which is in a severe budget crisis, is consiering the shutdown of a state scholarship program benefiting hundreds of thousands of students.

In Pennsylvania, the maximum amount available to resident college students has fallen to 4,120 dollars from about 4,700 dollars last year, according to the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency.

The New York Times Company, which offers the Times College Scholarship to New York City high school students, has cut its number of scholarships to 12 from 20.

The Chilean Institute of Public Health (ISP) reported Friday that the country’s A/H1N1 influenza death toll rose to 79.

The latest ISP report said the total of infected patients in the country reached 11,641, of which 8,171 received private assistance and 3,470 were treated by the public sector.

The report said there was an important reduction in the number of cases last week, adding that only the regions of Arica, Parinacota and Valparaiso continued showing an upward trend.

Chile’s Public Health Ministry announced on June 2 its first case of death from A/H1N1 flu, becoming the fifth country in the world, after the

United States, Mexico, Canada and Costa Rica, to report a flu death.

According to the ministry, it has bought 600,000 units

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Monday said it would step up intervention programs in its road projects to buck the growing trend of HIV infection among long-distance drivers.

Asia’s rapid rollout of infrastructure in recent years has helped cut poverty and provided many new jobs but an increase in mobility also presents serious challenges for the spread of communicable diseases, the multilateral development bank said in a press release.

The majority of ADB loans and assistance goes to the transport sector.

“The confluence of ‘mobile men’ with money away from family and social connections and with interaction with local communities and other mobile populations that often follow construction camps, all make for a heightened HIV-vulnerable setting,” ADB Vice-President Ursula Schaefer-Preuss was quoted as saying.

She said the ADB is expanding its existing HIV action plans for infrastructure projects beyond the construction phase, to include the preparation and post-construction stages and the bank is participating in the concerted efforts to collect, interpret data on HIV/AIDS prevention in local levels.

“Often, national and regional responses to HIV/AIDS have been undermined by generic approaches, which do not address the major local drivers of the epidemic in each setting. Therefore, the need for accurate and good quality data, as well as the capacity to interpret those data, remains to be important,” she added.

By the end of last year, the ADB has committed a total of about112 million U.S. dollars for HIV/AIDS activities.