Tag Archives: China

International, U.S.

Breaking news: North Korea severs hot line to South, as promised!

11 March 2013/28 Raby’ ath-Thani 1434/21 Esfand 1391/30 Yi-Mao 4711

Chinese media reporting that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has cut the hot line from Pyongyang to Seoul.  They cite Republic of Korean (ROK) officials as saying the emergency phone line is no longer working.

Last week the DPRK said they would cut the phone line and consider the 1953 armistice void, if the United States and ROK went ahead with the Key Resolve war games, which officially started on 11 March 2013.

In several official announcements the DPRK basically said the latest UN sanctions, and the continued uninvited presence of the U.S. military in ROK, were the final straws, and threaten nuclear first strikes.

 

Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

World War 3: United States behind most cyber attacks!

10 March 2013/27 Raby’ ath-Thani 1434/20 Esfand 1391/29 Yi-Mao 4711

For all the whining the United States government does about cyber attacks, even going as far as making it an act of war and justifying the extra-judicial killing of hackers, it turns out that the biggest perpetrator is the United States.

According to China’s National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team Coordination Center, between September 2012 to February 2013 89 cyber attacks were made against Chinese public and company websites.  39 of those attacks originated from U.S. IP addresses.

According to China’s National Vulnerability Database, between November 2012 to January 2013, 5792 attempted cyber attacks were launched from U.S. IP addresses.  Also, 2194 of servers using viruses or botnets to control Chinese mainframes are located in the U.S.  And, 73% of phishing sites targeting Chinese e-commerce are based in the U.S.

China is not the only country to point to the United States as being behind most cyber attacks, Iranian officials say they are constantly dealing with cyber attacks coming from the U.S.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Government Evil: A booming economy equals more corruption! Courts cracking down hard, but no, it’s not in the United States.

10 March 2013/27 Raby’ ath-Thani 1434/20 Esfand 1391/29 Yi-Mao 4711

The booming economy in China has not reduced crime and corruption, it’s actually accelerating it!

The Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) reported that the Chinese year 4710 (approximating to Gregorian year 2012) was another record setting year for investigations into government corruption.

47388 government employees were investigated for corruption, up 2800 from year 4709. In fact the SPP said corruption investigations have gone up four years in a row.

The investigations included 13000 county/state level officials, and 30 officials at the national level.

China’s Supreme Court system convicted 143000 people of bribery and fraud in 4710!  Why does the United States have such a problem going after corruption?

International, U.S.

World War 3: Is China’s vote for sanctions against Korea a trick?

10 March 2013/27 Raby’ ath-Thani 1434/20 Esfand 1391

After defending it’s vote for the latest UN sanctions against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), Chinese officials now say they will support the North.

Analysts think China voted for the sanctions for purely political reasons and will not do their part to enforce those sanctions.

An editorial in Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun pointed out that the latest UN sanctions will not work if China does not enforce them. Apparently China is the lynch pin of the latest sanctions against DPRK.

Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, believes China is not sincere in their claim of support for the latest sanctions: “There’s no reason to think they’re going to do anything different than they’ve done before. I call this a marginal increase in sanctions.”

 

Business/Economics, International

New Swine Flu or bacteria? Nearly 3000 dead pigs found in river, no one claims them!

Update for 11 March 2013/28 Raby’ ath-Thani 1434/21 Esfand 1391/30 Yi-Mao 4711

Officials in the Chinese province of Shanghai say they have recovered 2800 dead and decomposing pigs from the river!  The river is the main source of drinking water for the Songjiang area.  Shanghai officials are now suspecting mass pig deaths in other provinces.

Since last year pigs have been dying by the tens of thousands.  In Shanghai dead pigs are collected by government health officials, but in other upstream provinces the farmers just throw the pigs into the river.  One report said in January 2013 more than 10000 pigs died, and the deaths are now averaging 300 per day! Health officials suspect a bacteria is causing the deaths.

10 March 2013/27 Raby’ ath-Thani 1434/20 Esfand 1391

In Shanghai, China, more than 900 dead pigs were pulled from the Huangpu River.

The Shanghai Agriculture Committee is trying to find out what killed the pigs, and where they came from.  So far, no one has reported any missing pigs.  Farmers have not reported any epidemics among their animals.

International, U.S.

World War 3: China calls for calm after North Korea declares War!

08 March 2013/25 Raby’ ath-Thani 1434/18 Esfand 1391

China voted for the latest UN sanctions against Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, which led to Pyongyang’s declaration of war.

Now China is calling for calm: “China calls on relevant parties to exercise calm and restraint, and avoid actions that might further escalate tensions.”-Hua Chunying, spokeswoman Chinese Foreign Ministry

Chinese officials defended their vote against Democratic People’s Republic of Korea by saying it was “…objective and fair…”

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Best Buy, Kohl’s, Lowe’s! Hurricane Sandy taketh and giveth! Target has the money to launch invasion of Canada! Gun sales right on target, because of anti-gun efforts?

01 March 2013/18 Raby’ ath-Thani 1434/11 Esfand 1391

Best Buy reported a measly 0.9% increase in 4th Quarter sales in the United States. Best Buy calls it the end of their Fiscal Year 2013, I guess they’re living in the future. There is no standardized Fiscal Year (FY), so it can get confusing for us regular folks.

Even with a measly increase in sales, overall domestic revenue fell by 0.3%, and company officials admit that it’s because they shut down 49 stores!

Best Buy saw their international sales drop by 6.6%, yet managed to see a 2% increase in international revenue!  Officials credit Europeans for that.  The big drop in sales took place in Canada and China.

Best Buy says their domestic profits were unchanged from the year before, and international profits fell 2% from their FY 2012.  Company officials warned to expect a rough 1st Quarter (for their FY 2014).

Kohl’s department store reporting disappointing results. For the 4th Quarter profits fell 17% (but in dollar terms they still made hundreds of millions).   Company officials say sales were up for the year, but their discounted pricing and clearance sales cut into expected profits.  Like Best Buy, Kohl’s is cautious about sales for Gregorian calendar year 2013.

The 5th largest cable TV provider, Cablevision, reported higher 4th Quarter results, but that was because they won a lawsuit, not because of sales.  When you throw out the gains from the lawsuit, Cablevision had a net loss of $83 million USD.

Cablevision officials blame their down sales/revenue on hurricane Sandy. They say they lost 11000 customers because of power outages (this is on top of the 28000 customers they lost for other reasons).

Publix, “…the largest and fastest-growing employee-owned supermarket chain in the United States.”,  reported an overall 1.9% increase in sales for 2012.  It would have been higher if it weren’t for the fact that their FY 2012 had one more week than FY 2011.  Publix is a privately owned company so unless you work for them don’t expect to buy any of their stocks.

Home improvement store, Lowe’s, reported their end of year results: “Lowe’s fiscal year ends on the Friday nearest the end of January; therefore, fourth quarter and fiscal year 2011 included an extra week compared to 2012.” (like I said, it gets a little confusing for us regular folks)

Lowe’s saw an end of year drop in overall sales of 5%.  But they had a measly 0.6% increase in sales for the year, and they credit hurricane Sandy for that!

But wait, it gets confusing: Lowe’s says comparable, consolidated, same store sales were up for the 4th Quarter, by 1.9%, and up by 1.4% for the year.  Then they add that comparable, consolidated, same store sales for “the U.S. business” were up 1.5%.  Lowe’s bosses are happy: “We delivered solid results in the fourth quarter…”-Robert A. Niblock, chairman, president and CEO

Hello Lowe’s, your overall 4th Quarter sales still fell by 5%: “….decreased 5.0 percent to $11.0 billion from $11.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011.”

Lowe’s managed to buy back $4.35 billion of their own stocks, and pay stockholders $704 million in 2012!

Target, second to Walmart, reported an increase in end of year holiday sales, by 6.8%!  For the whole year Target experienced a 2.7% increase in sales from 2011. Company officials credit this to an extra week in their FY (isn’t that interesting, while some companies blame the extra week for weaker results, Target gives it credit for stronger results), and the opening (not closing) of new stores!

Target paid its stockholders dividends, and is invading Canada this year!

Sturm, Ruger & Company, the maker of the famous Mini-14 and 10/22 rifles, reported huge increases in 2012; 50% increase in sales and 77% increase in revenue! Company officials credit this to new gun models (not to the anti-gun efforts in Washington DC).

In March 2013, the company will pay stockholders a dividend close to 40% of the company’s income.  For 2012, Ruger paid stockholders $111.5 million!

 

 

 

International, U.S.

Norovirus Update, 09 January 2013: Main stream media now reporting new strain, after I already did! Utah ground zero in United States! More deaths! Canada gets double whammy!

“It’s very fast moving and very contagious.”-Jennifer Robertson, Salt Lake Valley Health Department, Utah

09 January 2013, U.S. main stream media reporting that the cause of increased norovirus cases is a new version.  In December 2012 I reported that Japanese health officials reported a new strain that was sicken thousands of Japanese.  In March 2012 I warned that increased globalization of food markets could spread new diseases within the U.S. (mainly because the Federal government cut funding for Food & Drug Administration inspections of imported food).

The latest reports say the new version of norovirus was born in Australia, and it’s launch point in the U.S. is the Beehive State of Utah.  It’s called Genotype II.4 or Sydney 2012.

In Utah, at least 250 Mormon missionaries got sick at the missionary training camp. State health officials are investigating clusters of outbreaks.

In Oregon, reports that people visiting the zoo are getting sick. Beaver State health officials think that as many as 135 people got sick at the Oregon Zoo in Portland, back in December 2012. An independent media investigation revealed that the zoo’s restaurants avoided health inspections since 2006, through a loophole favoring state run businesses. To make matters worse, on 03 January 2013, health officials reported another outbreak in Portland. One hospital had 75 ER cases since December, and then four of their own doctors and a dozen nurses got sick.

And just because something is new, doesn’t mean it’s clean.  In Wyoming, Cowboy State health officials have linked a norovirus outbreak to a newly opened Golden Corral Buffet & Grill.  306 people were confirmed to be sick with the vomiting bug, in December 2012: “The real strong message is that there’s a definite, classic curve that shows that there was a point-source outbreak December 7th through 10th at Golden Corral restaurant.”-Robert Harrington, Casper-Natrona County Public Health Department

In California, two people died in Mill Valley, Marin County, after an outbreak last week.  On 08 January 2013, a private college prep school re-opened in Los Olivos, Santa Barbara County, after it closed twice, because of outbreaks.  The first outbreak took place on 26 November 2012, after a teacher in-service day.  The second outbreak occurred among students in December.

In Nevada, health officials admit that norovirus cases are so common there, that they don’t keep stats!  In Las Vegas, casino owners swear they keep track in order to prevent spreading it to other casinos.  One state health official says it ain’t no thing: “We don’t keep statistics on it because it is so common.”-Jennifer Sizemore,  Southern Nevada Health District

Health officials in the United Kingdom don’t think it ain’t no thing.  They predict a million more Brits will get sick, compared to last year.  They’ve also issued a warning regarding blood donors!  The result is a shortage of the O-, or universal blood type.  On 07 January 2013, there were reports that hospital ERs were so full that people were being treated in ambulances.

In Taiwan (Republic of China), the Taipei City Government Department of Health reported 2,100 emergency room cases last week.  That’s double from the same time last year!  Health officials say it’s almost a guarantee that if one family member gets sick, the whole family will be sick soon.

In Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, hospitals are getting hit with a double whammy of norovirus and influenza.  Alberta Health Services reports hospitals are more than 100% occupancy.  Elective surgeries are being canceled due to concerns over infections.  Albertans are being asked to be more selective in seeking help: “We are looking to Albertans to educate themselves on the options available for their care to ensure they get the care they need quickly, and also to help reduce the pressures on our ERs during this season.”-William Dickout, Edmonton medical director

Back in the U.S. of A.  The Maine Center for Disease Control (MCDC) says it’s concerned about the flu/norovirus double whammy, as norovirus has spread from York County: “Norovirus is totally different from influenza. They are both happening in Maine right now, and you have to know a little bit about each one to protect yourself.”-Stephen Sears, MCDC

There is no treatment for norovirus, no vaccine, and your body does not develop immunity so you can get sick again and again and again….

Check my previous postings about norovirus.  You’ll notice most outbreaks involve hospitals.  You’ll also read about a recent study that says cleanliness might not have any affect on viruses (it’s actually the first study ever to investigate such claims).

 

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, International, Technology, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Hewlett Packard on the ropes, and going down! Blames War on Terror!

“Terrorist acts, conflicts of wars (wherever located throughout the world) may cause damage or disruption to HP, our employees, facilities, partners, suppliers, distributors, resellers or customers or adversely affect our ability to manage logistics……..The potential for future attacks, the national and international responses……or wars, including ongoing military operations in Afghanistan, have created many economic and political uncertainties……actions against or by the United States may impact our business and employees.”-HP Form 10-K, Security & Exchange Commission report, 27 December 2012

Hewlett Packard filed a 10-K report with the U.S. SEC, and it’s full of what if scenarios, mostly bad scenarios.  Obviously the executives of HP are not positive about 2013.  Employees will continue to be shed: “The restructuring plan includes both voluntary early retirement programs and non-voluntary workforce reductions and is expected to result in 29,000 employees exiting the company by the end of the period [by the end of 2014].”   

HP is also dealing with trouble from competitors, dealers and divisions.

The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating HP’s claims that the executives of the British company Autonomy, lied about its financial situation. HP shelled out $11 billion USD for Autonomy in 2011!

After a challenge by IBM (International Business Machines) the U.S. Federal government will continue with a $543 million five year Department of Veterans Affairs contract with HP.

Despite Idaho voters rejecting a laptop for students proposition, HP was awarded a $180 million contract to provide the laptops, at least one week before the voting took place!!!

Skycom Tech, a business partner of Chinese company Huawei, tried to sell $1.72 million worth of HP communication equipment to an Iranian company, some say in violation of U.S./European sanctions.  The deal didn’t go through, but Huawei said: “Huawei’s business in Iran is in full compliance with all applicable laws and regulations including those of the UN, U.S. and EU….”

HP officials said: “HP’s distribution contract terms prohibit the sale of HP products into Iran…”

There are reports that HP is no longer directly selling printers on Amazon. Some analysts think it’s actually retaliation by Amazon, because HP’s new Cloud computing system is in direct competition with Amazon’s own computing system.

A report out of India says a state government is investigating HP’s claims of being able to supply 1,500,000 school laptops by a certain date.  If government officials don’t think HP can make the deadline they will split up the contract to other competitors:  “If HP is found to have insufficient capacity, then it could, accordingly, get a contract to supply a reduced quantity of laptops and the remaining quantity will be divided among the bidders ready to offer the quantity at the rate quoted by HP.”-Uttar Pradesh government statement

HP and General Motors (GM) are going after each other in court.  It involves GM’s recent decision to hire away from HP 3,000 employees, to start its own inhouse tech service. HP claims it’s more than coincidence that GM’s plans to dump HP (and IBM) as tech service providers come after GM hired several HP executives to run GM’s technology operations. HP said the initial 18 HP employees hired by GM resigned “en masse and without notice.”


International, U.S.

World War 3: China, France and United States evacuating CAR. France and U.S. increase troop presence. IMF says it’s all about the oil, baby!

31 December 2012, Central African Republic (CAR) government forces are abandoning their capitol city, as rebel forces move in.  The most recent reports say the coalition of three rebel groups (known as Seleka) are one town away from victory.

U.S. President Barack Obama has informed Congress that he is sending 50 additional troops to help evacuate U.S. citizens.

China has evacuated about 300 citizens from CAR.  More are expected to leave in the next few days.

France has increased its troop presence to 400.  Officials say it’s only to help evacuate French citizens.

Reports say that the government of CAR has repeatedly asked France and the U.S. for help fighting the rebels, but got no response.

CAR has significant resources, like oil.  As recently as October 2012, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) stated that there is so much oil in central Africa that the expected revenues have the “….Power to Transform Countries of Central Africa”.

The IMF even published a policy book on it, called Oil Wealth in Central Africa: Policies for Inclusive Growth.  Six countries are talked about: Cameroon, Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of Congo.

One IMF economist said that most of the governments are reluctant to adopt IMF policies regarding economic progress, and implies that those countries need some prodding: “…of all the countries that are in this region, none of them are fully compliant with EITI, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative….” , “To some extent, there is a reluctance to move, because at the end of the day these are political choices…….We think that with greater awareness, and also particularly of the cost of what is not being achieved, these circumstances will change.”-Sharmini Coorey, IMF Institute for Capacity Development