A plea to shed
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Bond traders are cutting expectations for U.S. inflation by the most since December, providing Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke the scope for additional stimulus as the central bank
fast cash loan is fast becoming a viable financial option for consumers who need a few extra dollars.
The crash of a new, Russian-made jetliner into a jagged, Indonesian volcano during a flight to impress potential buyers threw doubt on dozens of plane sales Thursday just as Moscow seeks a comeback in foreign markets. All 45 people aboard were feared dead.
Search and rescue teams trudged and climbed through the mist-shrouded, jungly terrain for nearly 20 hours to reach the site where the plane roared in at nearly 480 mph (800 kph) on Wednesday, blowing apart and raining debris down a nearly vertical slope.
When the weather clears, all recovered bodies will have to be hoisted by nets and ropes onto hovering choppers, said Gagah Prakoso, a spokesman for the national search and rescue agency.
“We’re still searching for survivors,” he said. “But it doesn’t look good.”
The Sukhoi Superjet-100 _ Russia’s first new model of passenger jet since the fall of the Soviet Union two decades ago _ was supposed to kick-start the nation’s efforts to modernize its fleet and resurrect its neglected aerospace industry.
Indonesia, the fourth stop of a six-nation “Welcome Asia!” tour, was one of Sukhoi’s brightest hopes, accounting for a big chunk of the 170 orders taken globally so far.
Kartika Airlines, Sky Aviation and Queen Air _ among dozens of airlines to have popped up in the nation of 240 million to meet the growing demand for cheap air travel in the last decade _ together were aiming to buy 48.
“Our plan is to order 30 planes, gradually until 2014, to strengthen our fleet,” said Arifin Seman, one of the top executives at Kartika. “But we will wait for the result of the investigation before making any further decisions.”
Others, too, were being cautious.
“It’s too early to say,” said Krisman Tarigan, president director of Sky, which has placed orders for 12. “But we wouldn’t rule out cancellation … if it turned out the crash occurred because the plane was not airworthy.”
The ill-fated Superjet was carrying dozens of representatives from local airlines and journalists on what was supposed to be a quick, 50-minute demonstration flight Wednesday. Some excited passengers snapped pictures of themselves smiling and waving in front of the twin-engine jet before lifting off, then quickly posting them as profile pictures on Facebook and Twitter.
Just 21 minutes after takeoff from a Jakarta airfield, however, the Russian pilot and co-pilot asked for permission to drop from 10,000 feet to 6,000 feet (3,000 meters to 1,800 meters), said Daryatmo, chief of the national search and rescue agency free business cards.
They gave no explanation, disappearing from the radar immediately afterward.
It was not clear why the crew asked to shift course, especially since they were so close to the 7,000-foot (2,200-meter) volcano, or whether they got an OK, Daryatmo said.
Communication tapes will be reviewed as part of the investigation. It’s unlikely they will be released to the public any time soon.
The plane, with a relatively low price tag of around $35 million, seats from 70 to 98 people and has an operating range of around 2,800 miles (4,500 kilometers).
It is seen as a potential challenger to similar-sized aircraft from Canada’s Bombardier Inc. and Brazil’s Embraer SA.
Future buyers will scrutinize the crash investigation for signs of flaws in the aircraft, said Tom Ballantyne, a Sydney-based aviation expert.
“If it’s a technical fault … then obviously that will be very serious for them,” he said. “But if it’s pilot error or the fault of air traffic control, it won’t be quite so bad because they’ll be able to say, ‘Well, it’s not the airplane.’”
The Superjet made its inaugural commercial flight in April last year.
Fitch Ratings agency said in a statement Thursday that it expects the crash to “negatively affect” Sukhoi orders for the short term.
“The accident represents a further setback to the ambitious Russian civilian aerospace industry,” it said, adding that the success of the Superjet “is especially important as it is the first of many new commercial aircraft to be launched.”
“Instead, it has suffered from a three-year development delay, poor initial market reception and minor operational difficulties” since its entry into commercial service, the agency said.
All but 10 of the 45 people on board the plane Wednesday were potential buyers and journalists, said Sunaryo from PT Trimarga Rekatama, the company that helped organize the event.
The others were Russians, all from Sukhoi companies, an American consultant with a local airline and a Frenchman with aircraft engine-maker Snecma.
India deferred a plan to clamp down on tax avoidance by a year after the proposals stoked concern that foreign investment will decline and hurt growth in Asia
WASHINGTON • Negotiations aimed at regulating repair of rental vehicles with defects have bogged down, dimming hopes of passing legislation that has become the focus of a nationwide Internet campaign.
Clayton-based Enterprise Holdings Inc., a key player in the talks, is being accused by consumer advocates of seeking loopholes that would let companies rent and sell cars under recall for safety reasons without getting them fixed.
The advocacy group Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety contended in a letter to Enterprise last week that provisions the companies want “would radically weaken consumer protections.”
Enterprise paints a different picture. The company says it has joined with all major rental firms — except Hertz Corp. — in supporting legislation that would, for the first time, give the government authority over rental company policies for recalled autos.
Hertz has embraced a compromise with consumer advocates that is stricter than what corporate rivals, such as Enterprise, will accept.
Enterprise contends that the legislation it wants is “pretty similar” to a version drafted by consumer groups and — with limited exceptions — would prohibit renting or selling recalled vehicles.
In a statement, the company said it is seeking “a responsible and practical approach that reinforces the policies and practices that rental car companies already use to ensure that our customers rent cars that are safe to drive.”
Until earlier this year, privately held Enterprise, which owns the National and Alamo rental companies, had insisted that any legislation was unnecessary.
But in February, Enterprise relented after becoming the target of an Internet protest pressing the company to support a regulatory bill in Congress. As of this week, more than 160,000 people had signed the Enterprise Rent-a-Car petition at Change.org.
The online protest was organized by Carol Houck, the mother of two California sisters who died in a fiery crash eight years ago while driving a vehicle rented from Enterprise. A jury awarded the Houck family $15 million two years ago after testimony that the vehicle, a PT Cruiser, had a power steering fluid leak that had gone unrepaired.
Last year, manufacturers and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration together recalled 15.5 million vehicles for various reasons.
Typically, manufacturers cover the cost of repairs to recalled cars. The measures currently under consideration wouldn’t change that. But while the government has authority over how auto manufacturers and dealers handle recalls, the safety agency lacks power to dictate what rental companies must do with recalled vehicles.
Often, recalled vehicles can be found in rental fleets. Hertz, for instance, has grounded more than 100,000 of its vehicles over the past three years after recalls that ranged from serious safety concerns to minor problems.
Richard Broome, the company’s senior vice president for corporate affairs, said Hertz was reluctant at first to endorse national legislation but decided that it would be in the best interest of his company and the industry in general to join consumer advocates in a compromise.
“We were very happy to be on board,” he said. “We think consumers should know they aren’t driving a car that has been recalled or, if it has, that it has been repaired.”
Pamela Gilbert, chief negotiator for the consumer groups, said that the likely next step is fighting out the issue in Congress. She expects a Senate hearing to be held soon. But given limited successes this election year in the polarized Congress, the lack of compromise diminishes the prospect of rental companies getting regulated any time soon.
Gilbert, a former executive director of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, said she is most disturbed at a proposal from Enterprise and its allies that would allow unrepaired, recalled vehicles to be rented if consumers were notified of the defect. She described that provision as a significant change from recall systems for any products.
“The point is to get a remedy, a replacement or a repair,” she said.
Gilbert said consumer groups also object to a rental companies’ proposal that would allow unrepaired vehicles to be sold by rental companies on a wholesale basis. “If recalled cars don’t get fixed by the rental companies, they probably don’t get fixed,” she said.
Enterprise defends those provisions. The company says that it would rent a recalled vehicle “to avoid turning away customers who show up at their locations when their desired vehicle is subject to a recall which the manufacturer deems appropriate for disclosure rather than grounding.” A company spokeswoman used the example of a defective seat belt chime, in which the seat belts themselves and warning lights still worked. In such cases, she wrote, “a disclosure served the same purpose as the chime itself.”
With regard to automobile sales, Enterprise says that unlike all other dealers in used cars, rental companies would be unfairly singled out if forced to repair recalled vehicles sold on a wholesale basis.
Meanwhile, Houck said she had hoped to see the legislation named after her daughters, Raechel, 24, and Jacqueline, 20, who died in the 2004 accident, but thinks that is unlikely given the flagging negotiations. She said she has not heard from Enterprise even though the company said in its February statement that “we hope for the opportunity to work with” her.
“All we want is for them to fix recalled cars and not rent them. It’s so simple,” she said.
Oracle Corp. has accused Google Inc. of patent and copyright infringement. Much of the dispute is over Google’s Android, the mobile operating system that now powers more than 300 million smartphones and tablet computers.
Here are key developments in that case:
Jan. 27, 2010: Oracle closes deal to buy Sun Microsystems and gets the Java computer programming language and related technology that is central to the lawsuit.
Aug. 12: Oracle sues Google in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Oracle says Google’s Android system for mobile phones infringes on its patented Java technology.
Sept. 12, 2011: The CEOs of both companies are ordered to attend a court-supervised attempt to settle a lawsuit. They attend sessions on Sept. 19 and 21 with no settlement reached.
March 27, 2012: In a joint statement, the two companies indicate they are far apart of key matters. Oracle is seeking hundreds of millions in damages, while Google believes it won’t have to pay more than a few million dollars.
April 16: Trial begins, with the copyright issues central to the first phase Faxless payday loans. In opening statements, Oracle says Google’s top executives have long known that they stole a key piece of technology to build Android.
April 17: Google’s opening statements frame the case as Oracle’s response to its own failure to build mobile software. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison admits under questioning by Google that Oracle wanted to compete with Android before deciding instead to sue Google. Google CEO Larry Page also takes the stand, sporting a suit and tie that is a departure from his usual casual attire.
April 18: Page returns to the witness stand. The taciturn Page often looked uncomfortable, as he deflected questions about his role. He frequently said he couldn’t remember seeing some of the internal Google documents that Oracle is using to build its case.
Monday: Lawyers make closing arguments on the copyright issues. Judge sends case to jury for deliberations.
Retail sales in the U.S. probably rose in March and housing demand stabilized, bolstering the world
Ontario is taking aim at
Russia
A cruise ship with 1,000 people on board that had drifted for 24 hours after being disabled by a fire was headed toward Malaysia following repairs and was expected to reach shore Sunday, the ship’s company said.
The Azamara Quest, which had embarked on a 17-day Southeast Asian cruise, was left drifting in southern Philippine waters after a fire broke out Friday night. The flames engulfed one of the ship’s engine rooms but were quickly extinguished, the ship’s operator said. Five crew members suffered smoke inhalation, including one who was seriously injured and needed hospital care.
The ship informed the Philippine coast guard late Saturday that its power and propulsion had been restored and that it was moving slowly toward Sandakan, Malaysia, its next destination after it left Manila on Thursday, spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Algier Ricafrente said.
Azamara Club Cruises, the ship’s operator, said in a statement Sunday that the ship was sailing at a top speed of only 6 knots (11 kilometers or 6.9 miles per hour) and was expected to reach Sandakan at 10 p.m. (1400 GMT).
“Unfortunately, the ship has not been able to restore power to the air conditioning compressors. While this is a very difficult undertaking, the onboard team is diligently working to resolve this issue. The guest sentiment onboard continues to be calm and upbeat,” the statement said.
It said company president Larry Pimentel would meet personally with the passengers and crew in Sandakan.
The company said the rest of the cruise would be canceled. It said it would fully refund the passengers and provide each guest with a future cruise certificate for the amount paid for the aborted voyage.
It was the latest in a series of accidents hitting luxury cruise liners since January, when the Costa Concordia capsized off the coast of Italy, killing 32 people.
The Azamara Quest is carrying 590 passengers and 411 crew members. Operator Azamara Club Cruises is part of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.
More than one third, or 201, of the passengers on board are American, and nearly a third, or 119, of the crew are Filipinos, according to lists of passenger and crew nationalities provided by the ship captain to the coast guard.
The passengers are from 25 countries and include 98 from Britain, 89 from Australia, 45 from Canada, 39 from Germany, 32 from Austria, 16 from Belgium, 14 from New Zealand and 14 from Switzerland.
The other crew members include 58 Indians and 50 Indonesians cash advance.
The vessel had left Hong Kong on Monday. The ship made a port call in Manila and left for Sandakan on Thursday. It was scheduled to make several stops in Indonesia before arriving in Singapore on April 12.
But instead, the stricken ship drifted Saturday in the Sulu Sea about 130 kilometers (70 nautical miles) south of the Philippines’ Tubbataha Reef, Ricafrente said. The area lies between the Philippines and the island of Borneo, which is divided between Malaysia and Indonesia.
A woman from Kailua-Kuna, Hawaii, who said she is one of the passengers, posted an entry on Azamara’s Facebook page after Internet service was restored on the ship, praising the crew’s handling of the situation.
“No A/C yet but everyone is fine,” she wrote. “Cannot say enough about this Captain and the crew. They have been absolutely wonderful keeping us updated constantly with the good or the bad. … Sorry that we cannot finish our cruise, but we will back ASAP.”
She said the crew worked with very little rest “to keep us all in good spirits, well fed and comfortable.”
There was a jar where passengers could place donations to help the injured crewman who was in serious condition, she said.
Ricafrente said that no distress call was received and that there would be an investigation.
A Philippine coast guard vessel approached the Azamara Quest, but the ship’s captain sent an email to the coast guard saying that it needed no assistance and that everything was “under control.”
Engineers on Saturday morning restored electricity in the ship to re-establish air conditioning, running water, plumbing, refrigeration and food preparation, the company said.
The ship’s senior physician, Oliver Gilles, said the crew member who was in serious condition had suffered “prolonged heat and smoke exposure.”
A month after 32 people died when the Costa Concordia ran aground and capsized off the western coast of Italy, a fire on the Costra Allegra left that ship without power and adrift in waters known to be prowled by pirates in the Indian Ocean for three days.
Both Costa ships are part of Costa Crociere, SpA, a subsidiary of Carnival Corp., the world’s largest cruise operator.