February 18 th , 2008 - IFCCI -

President: Serbia will never accept an independent Kosovo

BELGRADE : Serbia will never accept Kosovo's "unilateral and illegal" declaration, President Boris Tadic said Sunday.

Reacting to a declaration of independence by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian-dominated assembly, Tadic urged international organizations "to immediately annul this act, which violates the basic principles of international law."

Kosovo prepares for historic declaration of independence from Serbia

PRISTINA : Kosovo's prime minister on Sunday announced a special afternoon session of parliament where lawmakers planned to declare independence - a bold and historic bid for statehood in defiance of Serbia and Russia.

Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said the extraordinary session would convene at noon (1100 GMT), when the breakaway province's ethnic Albanian leadership would proclaim the Republic of Kosovo and unveil the new country's flag and national crest. "We are on the brink of a very crucial moment - an important decision that will make us one of the free nations of the world," Thaci said.

Police examining suspected explosive materials in Bali

DENPASAR : Bali Police are examining suspected explosive materials found in the parking lot of Kak Man restaurant on Jl. Teuku Umar in Denpasar on Sunday.

The materials include cement, lime, wire and aluminum foil, provincial police spokesman Sr. Comr. AS Rainiban said.

Police also are examining what appears to be a type of radio set found at the location, he said.

Attacks on East Timor's leaders are latest upheaval in young democracy

DILI : East Timor declared independence six years ago after centuries of harsh foreign domination and conflict, its people dreaming of a life of peaceful self-determination.

When rebels launched attacks on the country's newly elected leaders on Monday, the infant democracy was thrust back into violent upheaval. It was a stark reminder that it may be years before stability takes hold in territory where militants enjoy significant support from the public.

The setback is part of a struggle to embrace democracy after more than four centuries as a Portuguese colony and 24 years of Indonesian occupation. It occurred despite intensive U.N.-led efforts to nurture the newly independent nation.

But the transition to democracy is never smooth, said Charles Scheiner of the non profit East Timor Institute for Reconstruction, Monitoring and Analysis.

"The overwhelming majority of countries in the world at this stage have instability, insurrections, dictatorships or coups," Scheiner said. "To see these things as being particularly unique to Timor Leste is wrong."

After generations of suffering, hope arrived as the United Nations guided the tiny Southeast Asian nation out of an era of darkness and began rebuilding from the ruins of a scorched-earth campaign by departing Indonesian troops in 1999.

East Timor declared independence in 2002, after three years of intense foreign humanitarian and military assistance, with a fanfare of fireworks and traditional dancing, in what was hailed as a textbook example of nation building.

But the euphoria was shattered in 2006, just as the U.N. was leaving, when the police and army disintegrated into warring factions and the government collapsed amid widespread looting, arson and gang warfare. The unrest left 37 dead and drove 155,000 fromtheir homes.

Thousands of foreign police and soldiers had to be rushed back to restore calm, fueling criticism that the international community had packed up its bags before seeing the job through.

Indonesian GDP growth slows in 4th quarter, but 2007 growth is highest in decade

JAKARTA : Indonesia's economy grew at a slowerpace in the fourth quarter compared to the third, but its 2007 growth rate was the fastest in a decade because of rising investments and commodity exports, the government said Friday.

Southeast Asia's largest economy grew 6.25 percent in the October-December quarter compared to a year ago, slowing from growth of 6.52 percent in the third quarter, the Central Statistics Agency said Friday.

For all of 2007, gross domestic product grew 6.32 percent, picking up from 5.5 percent growth in 2006, and slightly exceeding the government target of 6.3 percent.

Indonesia President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, however, warned Friday the government expects slower economic growth, higher inflation and a wider budget deficit this year than originally forecast due to the uncertain global economic climate.

The domestic economy will likely expand 6.4 percent this year rather than the 6.8 percent forecast earlier as a "global economic slowdown will also affect Indonesia," the president said to a gathering of the heads of provincial governments.

Inflation will hit 6.5 percent this year, higher than the 6 percent originally forecast, while the dollar will average 9,150 Indonesia rupiah, stronger than the 9,100 earlier predicted, he said.

The budget deficit is expected to be 2 percent of gross domestic product, wider than the 1.7 percent earlier forecast.

Oil prices fall to near US$95 a barrel after previous session's steep rise

SINGAPORE : Oil prices dropped Friday after rising more than US$2 a barrel in the previous session as new U.S. trade deficit figures spurred hopes that the U.S. economy might escape a serious downturn.

The U.S. Commerce Department said Thursday the trade deficit fell in December and for 2007 as a whole - an indication the U.S. is exporting more goods. This led investors to think U.S. energy demand would not be as weak as feared.

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's suggestion that the central bank is prepared to again cut interest rates also helped boost light, sweet crude to settle at US$95.46 a barrel Thursday, an increase of US$2.19 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

That was its highest close since Jan. 9. The contract has risen in 4 of the past 5 sessions, adding more than US$6 in a little over a week.

On Friday, the March contract lost 36 cents to US$95.10 a barrel in Asian electronic trading by midafternoon in Singapore.

Bernanke said the Fed is ready to act again in response to deteriorating economic conditions. Interest rate cuts support oil prices because they tend to weaken the dollar. Crude futures offer a hedge against a falling dollar, and oil futures bought and sold in dollars are more attractive to foreign investors when the greenback is falling.

Energy investors were also buying after a federal judge's decision Wednesday to confirm an earlier ruling freezing US$300 million in a bank account owned by the Venezuelan state oil company.

Exxon Mobil is challenging Venezuela's nationalization of an oil project. A British court's earlier decision to temporarily freeze up to US$12 billion (euro8.2 billion) in Venezuelan oil assets drew threats from President Hugo Chavez to cut off all oil sales to the U.S.

Weighing on oil prices were forecasts this week from the Energy Department and the International Energy Agency, an energy policy adviser to the industrialized world, that call for slower demand growth this year due to weakening economies.

Heating oil futures dropped 1.08 cents to US$2.6558 a gallon (3.8 liters) while gasoline prices declined 0.83 cent to US$2.4678 a gallon.

Natural gas futures lost 0.7 cents to US$8.765 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Brent crude futures fell 38 cents to US$94.78 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

Dollar slightly higher yen in Asia ahead of U.S. industrial output report

TOKYO : The dollar rose against the yen Friday in Asia ahead of the release of U.S. industrial output data.

The dollar was trading at 108.04 yen at midafternoon Friday, up from 107.93 yen late Thursday in New York. The euro rose to US$1.4644 from US$1.4633.

The greenback is holding steady ahead of U.S. industrial production data for January, due later Friday and forecast to rise 0.1 percent according to a Dow Jones survey of economists.

Many players have already priced in a U.S. economic slowdown, said Mitsuru Sahara, a senior dealer at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, but recent U.S. data "aren't so bad."

"More and more players are speculating the dollar will rise," Sahara said. "But since there are a great amount of dollar-selling orders from Japanese exporters above 108.50 yen, they need an additional factor to boost the currency."

The U.S. Commerce Department said Thursday the country's trade deficit for December came in narrower than expected, causing some analysts to raise their forecasts for fourth-quarter gross domestic product.

Against other currencies, the dollar was mostly lower. The dollar fell 0.26 percent against the Indonesian rupiah to 9,184 and decreased 0.33 percent against the Singapore dollar to 1.4137.