Big asteroid flying by, no threat to Earth

Wed Dec 12, 2012 6:09pm EST

(Reuters) - A large asteroid that flies in nearly the same orbit as Earth will make a close pass by the planet, but there's no chance of an impact - at least for hundreds of years, astronomers said on Wednesday.

The asteroid, named Toutatis, flies by Earth every four years. During its closest approach on Wednesday, the celestial rock will pass about 4.3 million miles (7 million km) from Earth, which is about 18 times farther away than the moon.

"There is no danger of a collision with Earth," NASA astronomer Lance Benner said in a statement.

The 0.6-mile (4.3-km) long asteroid circles the sun in an orbit that is very closely aligned with Earth's, making it a potentially hazardous object for the future.

The asteroid was first spotted in 1934 and its orbit was confirmed in 1989. In 2004, Toutatis passed by Earth just four times farther away than the moon, much closer than this week's encounter.

Astronomers are using radar and optical telescopes to get a better fix on the asteroid's location, its unusual spin and the flight path in hopes of refining estimates on where it will travel in the future.

"We already know that Toutatis will not hit Earth for hundreds of years," Benner said. "These new observations will allow us to predict the asteroid's trajectory even farther into the future."

(Reporting by Irene Klotz in Phoenix; Editing by Jane Sutton and Eric Beech)

Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/scienceNews/~3/n9E5t-i4riU/us-space-asteroid-idUSBRE8BB1TB20121212

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Will Albany's New Coalition Pass Cuomo's Campaign Finance ...

money-bagGovernor Andrew Cuomo has made enacting campaign finance reform part of his ?litmus test? for judging the new coalition in the New York State Senate. Based on their recent statements, it seems he may only get half of the reforms he wanted from the new merger the Independent Democratic Conference and the State Senate Republicans.

In his State of the State address last January, Mr. Cuomo called for a two-pronged approach to campaign finance reform; limiting contributions and establishing a system for publicly-financed campaigns. Progressive good government groups have echoed the need for these two elements of campaign finance reform.

In the new IDC/GOP coalition, leadership duties in the Senate are shared between State Senator Jef Klein, the IDC?s head, and the Senate?s Republican leader Dean Skelos. Though his breakaway group?s alliance with the Republicans blocked Democrats from controlling the Senate chamber, Mr. Klein has vowed the IDC will be committed to advancing key components of the Democratic agenda, such as a minimum wage hike and reform of stop-and-frisk. He also told the Associated Press the IDC will be committed to ?serious campaign finance reform,? though he has not detailed what exactly that might entail.

With their conservative upstate constituency, New York?s Republicans have never been enthusiastic about overhauling campaign finance laws. In an interview with Capital Tonight?s Liz Benjamin last week, the IDC?s leader, State Senator Jeffrey Klein, expressed his own skepticism New Yorkers would back public financing and suggested the issue be left ?to voters.

?This is an important issue, if you?re gonna ask some people, you know, in upstate New York or other areas of upstate that we?re actually gonna use tax dollars to fund our elections, let?s see how they feel about that,? Mr. Klein said.

Mr. Skelos is not likely to accept all of the policy priorities of more liberal senators like Mr. Klein. Based on Mr. Klein?s comments, it seems public financing of campaigns could be an area where the IDC and their new Republican partners find some room for compromise. In the same Capital Tonight interview, Mr. Klein?s fellow IDC member, State Senator Diane Savino, said she supports public matching money for campaigns, but she suggested lawmakers can ?start with? bringing down contribution limits first.

?There are some people who like myself believe that it can?t be real campaign finance reform if it doesn?t have public matching money. You know, There are other people who think that we can take baby steps, we can start with reducing the contribution limits, that they?re too high in New York State, that the amount of money that can be contributed to a state party is ridiculously high,? Ms. Savino said. ?There?s a lot of room and I think what we should do is, let?s put it all out there, let?s find out what the people of the state want.?

Mr. Cuomo has taken substantial heat from progressives over the perception he could have done more to block the new coalition and establish a Democratic State Senate majority. In an appearance on Fred Dicker?s radio show yesterday, the governor disputed this criticism by saying it is his job to ?pass progressive legislation? rather than involving himself in the ?internal dynamics of the Legislature.? Though he defended not doing more to block the coalition, Mr. Cuomo promised to ?make my voice heard? if the Senate does not pass the items on his agenda. Thus far, in the early days of the new coalition Mr. Cuomo said he was encouraged by what he described as ?an increased decibel level around the progressive elements of the agenda? he was unable to pass last year; ?stop and frisk reform, a minimum wage increase and campaign finance reform.

?Now, if anything, you hear more energy, more discussion and more commitment. Everybody now, everyone is fighting for the same agenda items I was trying to pass last year?Minimum wage, stop-and-frisk, campaign finance, everyone is saying that they?re going to support that,? Mr. Cuomo told Mr. Dicker.

With the IDC members seemingly leaning toward enacting contribution limits without establishing public financing, it remains to be seen whether this will be enough to placate Mr. Cuomo.

Source: http://politicker.com/2012/12/will-albanys-new-coalition-pass-cuomos-campaign-finance-litmus-test/

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What's Worse: Long-Term or Short-Term Debt?

What?s Worse: Long-Term or Short-Term Debt?

Payday loans are marketed as short term loans, cash advances or instant cash. These loans are meant to bridge the between one paycheck and the next. In reality, if the borrower takes out one payday loan, he or she will most likely take out another, many borrowers take out a least nine payday loans a year with interest rates of over 400%.

?

Actually, no state has authorized this high cost loan. As a matter of fact, six states, (Arkansas, Arizona, New Hampshire, Ohio and Oregon) including the District of Columbia has tried to regulate the payday lender or stop them altogether.

?

Most states have no regulations, protections or restrictions, and the consumers financial problems continue to worsen, as a result of using these payday loans.? These short term loans have a two week turn around and an annual compounded interest of 400%. A cycle of debt occurs and daily necessities like groceries and child care are neglected.

?

Most people are financially stressed today. To make ends meet is a challenge to the regular worker or the retiree. Many have no savings and it appears that the cost of daily life is more than they can handle successfully. When there is an unexpected emergency, many consumers look to a payday loan for the few hundred dollars that they need. Also, many of these cash strapped people have no credit or poor credit and are unable to secure a traditional loan from a bank or a credit union. The payday loan is quick and easy, but the three digit interest rate only increases the financial woes of the consumer do not improve them.

?

Who are payday loan lenders really reaching out to?

Many payday lender storefronts are located in low income neighborhoods and obtain millions in profit from the poverty stricken, needy and cash strapped consumers who live close by. This loan is designed to trap the borrower into roll over after rollover, due to the short duration of the loan and the high interest rate that they cannot afford to repay in the two week time. The borrower does not have enough money left over from his next paycheck to pay off the loan. The initial balance of the loan is left untouched and more interest is compounded and added to the total. ?In this way, the payday lender is able to take millions of dollars from the poor every year.

?

The states have tried to regulate payday lenders by capping interest at 36% and fees at $30 per $100 borrowed. The borrower still traps him or herself by repeat borrowing or by taking out another payday loan to pay off the first payday loan. These? poor? consumers are uneducated about credit and credit management and do not read or understand the consequences of the risky loan that they are signing up for. Educating the consumer about the costs and risks of these loans, would help to elevate some of the problems connected with these loans. If the consumer were able to understand ?the costs, he or she would know exactly how much would be needed for the repayment. The consumer needs to know how much he or she can afford to spend for this instant cash and is this loan cost in their budget. The responsibility of the debt rests on the borrowers shoulders.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 11th, 2012 at 12:17 pm and is filed under Debt. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Source: http://blog.ebusinessdebtrelief.com/debt/whats-worse-long-term-or-short-term-debt

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PFT: Tags suggests Saints also targeted Peyton

Brett FavreAP

Most of former Commissioner Paul Tagliabue?s 22-page ruling focuses on the question of whether and to what extent players should be subject to suspension for pay-for-performance/bounty programs that are administered by coaches.

But free-agent defensive end Anthony Hargrove?s seven-game suspension ultimately was fueled by allegations that Hargrove lied to investigators in March 2010, when the NFL first started to sniff around the Saints regarding the possibility that a bounty existed on former Vikings quarterback Brett Favre during the 2010 NFC title game.

So how did Hargrove beat the rap?

For starters, Tagliabue compared the suspension of Hargrove for obstruction of justice, to the $50,000 fine imposed two years ago on Favre himself for lying to the league in connection with the investigation regarding whether he sent inappropriate cell-phone photos to a former Jets employee.

?Although not entirely comparable to the present matter, this illustrates the NFL?s practice of fining, not suspending players, for serious violations of this type,? Tagliabue explains in his official ruling.? ?There is no evidence of a record of past suspensions based purely on obstructing a League investigation.? In my forty years of association with the NFL, I am aware of many instances of denials in disciplinary proceedings that proved to be false, but I cannot recall any suspension for such fabrication.?

That?s a very polite way of saying that, in Tagliabue?s opinion, Commissioner Roger Goodell went way too far in suspending Hargrove.

Tagliabue also points to the fact that coaches told Hargrove to lie, and that ?it is clear that Hargrove was under tremendous pressure to follow the chain of command in order to keep his job.?? It makes sense, even though Goodell had disregarded the reality that Hargrove was simply saying what he had to say in order to remain employed by the Saints.

Finally, Tagliabue relied on the ambiguity regarding the specific questions Hargrove was asked by invesitgators.? Denying the existence of a pay-for-performance program is different from denying the existence of a bounty on Brett Favre.? ?If Hargrove denied only the existence of the alleged bounty on Favre,? Tagliabue writes, ?[Hargrove] is no more guilty of conduct detrimental than the numerous Saints? defensive team members from the 2009-2010 season who have provided sworn statements or testimony to the same effect and who have not been suspended or otherwise disciplined.?

All things considered, it was the right decision.? And it makes the league office look wrong for so zealously pursuing a guy who was doing what he need to do and who may not have even been lying at all ? especially since, as Tagliabue noted, no action like this had ever been taken in 40 years of NFL history.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/12/11/tagliabues-ruling-suggests-saints-were-targeting-peyton-manning-too/related/

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New leaks suggest Microsoft Office for iOS could launch soon

The rumors about Microsoft (MSFT) developing an Office Mobile application for the iPhone and the iPad are starting to bear fruit. Via MacRumors, French blog Mac4Ever has posted some leaked documents from Microsoft?s French support site that include references to ?Excel for iPad,? ?PowerPoint for iPad,? and ?Office Mobile for iPhone.? The Verge reported last month that Microsoft was working on an Office Mobile application for both iOS and Android that would launch in early 2013. There?s some added urgency for Microsoft to make its Office suite available on more mobile platforms since Google (GOOG) has recently started moving into its enterprise territory with its Google Apps productivity software.

Get more from BGR.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/leaks-suggest-microsoft-office-ios-could-launch-soon-205159852.html

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Biologists engineer algae to make complex anti-cancer 'designer' drug

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Biologists at UC San Diego have succeeded in genetically engineering algae to produce a complex and expensive human therapeutic drug used to treat cancer.

Their achievement, detailed in a paper in this week's early online issue of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, opens the door for making these and other "designer" proteins in larger quantities and much more cheaply than can now be made from mammalian cells.

"Because we can make the exact same drug in algae, we have the opportunity to drive down the price down dramatically," said Stephen Mayfield, a professor of biology at UC San Diego and director of the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology or SD-CAB, a consortium of research institutions that is also working to develop new biofuels from algae. Their method could even be used to make novel complex designer drugs that can't be produced in any other systems--drugs that could be used to treat cancer or other human diseases in new ways.

"You can't make these drugs in bacteria, because bacteria are incapable of folding these proteins into these complex, three-dimensional shapes," said Mayfield. "And you can't make these proteins in mammalian cells because the toxin would kill them."

The advance is the culmination of seven years of work in Mayfield's laboratory to demonstrate that Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a green alga used widely in biology laboratories as a genetic model organism, can produce a wide range of human therapeutic proteins in greater quantity and more cheaply than bacteria or mammalian cells.

Mayfield and his colleagues achieved their first breakthrough five years ago when they demonstrated they could produce a mammalian serum amyloid protein in algae. The following year, they succeeded in getting algae to produce a human antibody protein. In 2010, they demonstrated that more complex proteins?human therapeutic drugs, such as human vascular endothelial growth factor, or VEGF, used to treat patients suffering from pulmonary emphysema?could be produced in algae. (http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/03-08TherapeuticProteins.asp)

Then in May of this year, Mayfield's group working with another team headed by Joseph Vinetz from UC San Diego's School of Medicine, engineered algae to produce an even more complex protein?a new kind of vaccine that, preliminary experiments suggest, could protect billions of people from malaria, one of the world's most prevalent and debilitating diseases. (http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressreleases/uc_san_diego_biologists_produce_potential_malarial_vaccine_from_algae/)

"What the development of the malarial vaccine showed us was that algae could produce proteins that were really complex structures, containing lots of disulfide bonds that would still fold into the correct three-dimensional structures," said Mayfield. "Antibodies were the first sophisticated proteins we made. But the malarial vaccine is complex, with disulfide bonds that are pretty unusual. So once we made that, we were convinced we could make just about anything in algae."

In their latest development, the scientists genetically engineered algae to produce a complex, three-dimensional protein with two "domains"?one of which contains an antibody, which can home in on and attach to a cancer cell and another domain that contains a toxin that kills the bound cancer cells. Such "fusion proteins" are presently created by pharmaceutical companies in a complex, two-step process by first developing the antibody domain in a Chinese hamster, or CHO, cell. The antibody is purified, then chemically attached to a toxin outside of the cell. Then the final protein is repurified.

"We have a two-fold advantage over that process," said Mayfield. "First, we make this as a single protein with the antibody and toxin domains fused together in a single gene, so we only have to purify it one time. And second, because we make this in algae rather than CHO cells, we get an enormous cost advantage on the production of the protein."

The fusion protein the researchers in his laboratory produced from algae is identical to one that is under development by pharmaceutical companies with a proposed cost of more than $100,000. This same protein could be produced in algae for a fraction of that price, they report in their paper. And the UCSD researchers?Miller Tran, Christina Van, Dan Barrera and Jack Bui at the UC San Diego Medical School?confirmed that the compound worked like the more expensive treatment: it homed in on cancer cells and inhibited the development of tumors in laboratory mice.

Mayfield said such a fusion protein could not have been produced in a mammalian CHO cell, because the toxin would have killed it. But because the protein was produced in the algae's chloroplasts?the part of algal and plant cells where photosynthesis takes place?it did not kill the algae.

"The protein was sequestered inside the chloroplast," Mayfield said. "And the chloroplast has different proteins from the rest of the cell, and these are not affected by the toxin. If the protein we made were to leak out of the chloroplast, it would have killed the cell. So it's amazing to think that not one molecule leaked out of the chloroplasts. There are literally thousands of copies of that protein inside the chloroplasts and not one of them leaked out."

Mayfield said producing this particular fusion protein was fairly straightforward because it involved fusing two domains?one to recognize and bind to cancer cells and another to kill them. But in the future, he suspects this same method could be used to engineer algae to produce more complex proteins with multiple domains.

"Can we string together four or five domains and produce a designer protein in algae with multiple functions that doesn't exist in nature? I think we can?" he added. "Suppose I want to couple a receptor protein with a series of activator proteins so that I could stimulate bone production or the production of neurons? At some point you can start thinking about medicine the same way we think about assembling a computer, combining different modules with specific purposes. We can produce a protein that has one domain that targets the kind of cell you want to impact, and another domain that specifies what you want the cell to do."

###

University of California - San Diego: http://www.ucsd.edu

Thanks to University of California - San Diego for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/125856/Biologists_engineer_algae_to_make_complex_anti_cancer__designer__drug

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NREL teams to analyze solar pricing trends and benchmark 'soft' costs for PV systems

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 11-Dec-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: David Glickson
david.glickson@nrel.gov
303-275-4097
DOE/National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Downward pricing for solar projected to continue; soft costs made up 40-50 percent of residential and commercial PV prices in 2010

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE)'s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL) jointly released two reports examining solar photovoltaic (PV) pricing in the U.S.

The first report, Photovoltaic (PV) Pricing Trends: Historical, Recent, and Near-Term Projections,PDF examines progress in PV price reductions to help DOE and other PV stakeholders manage the transition to a market-driven PV industry and to provide clarity surrounding the wide variety of potentially conflicting data available about PV system prices. By examining progress in PV price reductions, the report will also help DOE track progress toward the SunShot goals of reducing the installed cost of solar energy systems by roughly 75 percent between 2010 and 2020. The joint report indicates that PV system prices in the U.S. have been falling rapidly during the past decade, and are likely to continue their downward trend through 2012 and into 2013.

"There is often confusion when interpreting estimates of PV system prices," NREL Solar Technology Financial Analyst David Feldman said. "This report helps to clarify this confusion by bringing together data from a number of different sources and clearly distinguishing among past, current and near-term projected estimates."

The report indicates that while data sources, assumptions, and methods differ substantially between the bottom-up analysis and the reported price analysis, the results support the validity of both analyses and provide a consistent perspective on system pricing.

The report draws on several ongoing NREL research activities, including detailed component level benchmarking of recent PV system prices, based on NREL's detailed bottom-up engineering model of PV system costs, and NREL's ongoing tracking of near-term projections of system- and component-level pricing from various analysts and manufacturers. The report also summarizes findings on historical price trends from LBL's Tracking the Sun VPDF report.

The second report, Benchmarking Non-Hardware Balance of System (Soft) Costs for U.S. Photovoltaic Systems Using a Data-Driven Analysis from PV Installer Survey ResultsPDF, presents results from the first DOE- sponsored data collection and analysis of non-hardware balance-of-system costs often referred to as "business process" or "soft" costs. The report concludes that in 2010, while total soft costs constituted roughly 40-50 percent of a typical PV system's price, the four categories of soft cost benchmarked in the report accounted for 23 percent of residential PV system prices, 17 percent of small commercial system prices, and 5 percent of large commercial system prices. The four categories studied were customer acquisition; permitting, inspection, and interconnection; installation labor; and labor associated with arranging third-party financing.

"These soft costs present significant opportunities for further cost reductions and labor-productivity gains," NREL Solar Technology Markets and Policy Analyst Kristen Ardani said. "Benchmarking and tracking these costs will help with the development of policies and practices aimed at reducing cost inefficiencies."

Both reports were produced as part of an ongoing collaborative research effort between the two labs focused on solar technology soft cost and system-level cost analysis and modeling. This research is supported by funding from the DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

###

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world's most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. For more, visit http://www.lbl.gov.

NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for DOE by The Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.

Visit NREL online at www.nrel.gov

For further information contact NREL Public Relations at 303-275-4090.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 11-Dec-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: David Glickson
david.glickson@nrel.gov
303-275-4097
DOE/National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Downward pricing for solar projected to continue; soft costs made up 40-50 percent of residential and commercial PV prices in 2010

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE)'s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL) jointly released two reports examining solar photovoltaic (PV) pricing in the U.S.

The first report, Photovoltaic (PV) Pricing Trends: Historical, Recent, and Near-Term Projections,PDF examines progress in PV price reductions to help DOE and other PV stakeholders manage the transition to a market-driven PV industry and to provide clarity surrounding the wide variety of potentially conflicting data available about PV system prices. By examining progress in PV price reductions, the report will also help DOE track progress toward the SunShot goals of reducing the installed cost of solar energy systems by roughly 75 percent between 2010 and 2020. The joint report indicates that PV system prices in the U.S. have been falling rapidly during the past decade, and are likely to continue their downward trend through 2012 and into 2013.

"There is often confusion when interpreting estimates of PV system prices," NREL Solar Technology Financial Analyst David Feldman said. "This report helps to clarify this confusion by bringing together data from a number of different sources and clearly distinguishing among past, current and near-term projected estimates."

The report indicates that while data sources, assumptions, and methods differ substantially between the bottom-up analysis and the reported price analysis, the results support the validity of both analyses and provide a consistent perspective on system pricing.

The report draws on several ongoing NREL research activities, including detailed component level benchmarking of recent PV system prices, based on NREL's detailed bottom-up engineering model of PV system costs, and NREL's ongoing tracking of near-term projections of system- and component-level pricing from various analysts and manufacturers. The report also summarizes findings on historical price trends from LBL's Tracking the Sun VPDF report.

The second report, Benchmarking Non-Hardware Balance of System (Soft) Costs for U.S. Photovoltaic Systems Using a Data-Driven Analysis from PV Installer Survey ResultsPDF, presents results from the first DOE- sponsored data collection and analysis of non-hardware balance-of-system costs often referred to as "business process" or "soft" costs. The report concludes that in 2010, while total soft costs constituted roughly 40-50 percent of a typical PV system's price, the four categories of soft cost benchmarked in the report accounted for 23 percent of residential PV system prices, 17 percent of small commercial system prices, and 5 percent of large commercial system prices. The four categories studied were customer acquisition; permitting, inspection, and interconnection; installation labor; and labor associated with arranging third-party financing.

"These soft costs present significant opportunities for further cost reductions and labor-productivity gains," NREL Solar Technology Markets and Policy Analyst Kristen Ardani said. "Benchmarking and tracking these costs will help with the development of policies and practices aimed at reducing cost inefficiencies."

Both reports were produced as part of an ongoing collaborative research effort between the two labs focused on solar technology soft cost and system-level cost analysis and modeling. This research is supported by funding from the DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

###

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world's most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. For more, visit http://www.lbl.gov.

NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for DOE by The Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.

Visit NREL online at www.nrel.gov

For further information contact NREL Public Relations at 303-275-4090.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-12/drel-ntt121112.php

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TEXT-S&P summary: Genting Bhd.

Dec 11 -

===============================================================================

Summary analysis -- Genting Bhd. ---------------------------------- 11-Dec-2012

===============================================================================

CREDIT RATING: BBB+/Stable/-- Country: Malaysia

Primary SIC: Hotels and motels

Mult. CUSIP6: 372452

===============================================================================

Credit Rating History:

Local currency Foreign currency

16-May-2011 BBB+/-- BBB+/--

19-Dec-2007 BBB/-- BBB/--

===============================================================================

Rationale

The rating on Genting Bhd., a Malaysia-based gaming and leisure group,

reflects the group's solid market position, strong cash flows, and "modest"

financial risk profile. The risks arising from overseas expansion, earnings

concentration in the gaming business, and exposure to evolving regulations

partly offsets these strengths.

We view Genting's business risk profile as "satisfactory." The group has a

solid market position in gaming and has improved its geographic diversity over

the past few years. These factors have strengthened Genting's brand awareness,

and boosted other established brands such as "Resorts World," "Maxims,"

"Crockfords," and "Awana." The Genting group is the second largest gaming

company in the world, after Las Vegas Sands Corp. (BB+/Positive/--).

In our view, strong cash flow generation from Genting's gaming business

supports the rating, despite the group's earnings concentration in this

segment. Genting's gross margin remains the highest among its peers, at more

than 45% over the past two years, thanks to the favorable gaming tax regime in

Singapore. Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) in Singapore, which currently

contributes more than 45% of Genting's group EBITDA, is one of the largest

gaming properties in the world in terms of EBITDA generation, even though

growth in Singapore's gaming market has slowed materially since two integrated

resorts (Marina Bay Sands and RWS itself) opened in early 2010. The group's

Malaysian gaming operation, Resorts World Genting, recorded higher revenue

year-on-year for the first nine months of 2012 mainly due to an overall

increase in volume of business.

The Genting group's financial performance in the first nine months of 2012 was

below our expectations. Revenue declined (on a year-on-year basis) in most

business segments, particularly the Singapore gaming operations, which were

exposed to economic volatility and competitive pressures in the region, given

their reliance on international customers. We believe uncertain regulatory

policies could constrain gaming market growth in Singapore, and anticipate

that net gaming revenue in full-year 2012 will decline by about 5%. Our

preliminary expectation for 2013 is that net gaming revenue will grow by

0%-5%.

Our assessment of Genting's financial risk profile reflects our view of the

group's conservative financial management and record of controlling leverage

while expanding capacity. The group has solid financial strength, due to its

strong liquidity and profitability at its leisure and gaming operations. In

our base case, we expect Genting's financial performance to remain

satisfactory in 2013 supported by more stable gaming industry conditions in

the region despite uncertainties in the global economy. We expect revenue to

grow by 3%-5% a year in 2013-2015. We anticipate that the group's ratio of

gross debt to EBITDA will stay at or below 3.0x in the same period (the ratio

was 2.9x on a rolling 12-month basis in the third quarter of 2012, including

perpetual securities as debt) and be significantly stronger after netting off

surplus cash over the next two years. However, the ratio could deteriorate

depending on the group's appetite for growth in the gaming sector.

The rating incorporates our view that Genting could make large-scale

investments, through Genting Singapore PLC (GENS; not rated). GENS raised

Singapore dollar (S$) 2.3 billion via perpetual subordinated capital

securities (PerpS) in March and April 2012. PerpS are subordinated, deferrable

securities with no fixed maturity date. In accordance with our criteria on

hybrids, we assign minimal equity credit to PerpS, treating them entirely as

debt when calculating credit ratios. However, we acknowledge that PerpS have

certain equity-like characteristics when interpreting the company's metrics

and assessing its financial risk profile.

Liquidity

We assess Genting's liquidity as "strong," as defined in our criteria. We

expect the company's sources of liquidity to exceed its uses by at least 1.5x

over the next 12 months, and by more than 1.0x over the next 24 months. Our

liquidity assessment incorporates the following expectations and assumptions:

-- The group's sources of liquidity include unrestricted cash balances of

about Malaysian ringgit (MYR) 18.34 billion and available-for-sale financial

assets of about MYR3.06 billion as of Sept. 30, 2012, and funds from

operations of more than MYR6.0 billion.

-- Uses of liquidity include capital expenditure, working-capital

requirements, debt repayments, and dividend payouts. As of Sept. 30, 2012, the

group has MYR2.10 billion in short-term borrowings.

-- Net sources will remain positive and the group will remain in

compliance with its financial covenants even if EBITDA declines by 30%.

-- Genting has established and supportive banking relationships.

Refinancing risk is manageable, with debt maturities fairly well spread.

GENS' receivables are stabilizing. In our opinion, any significant increase in

GENS' receivables adds to the group's credit risk. Receivables increased in

2011 mainly due to credit provided to direct high-rollers to RWS. Such risk

could heighten if advances to direct players increase to secure a bigger share

of the "VIP" business.

Outlook

The stable outlook reflects our expectation that Genting will continue to

generate strong operating cash flows, and that its free operating cash flows

will remain positive. The outlook also incorporates our expectation that

Genting will take a prudent approach to further expansion while maintaining

strong liquidity.

Execution risk, particularly risk associated with gaming expansion, will limit

rating upside for the next few years. Beyond that, we could raise the rating

if Genting materially improves its financial performance such that its ratio

of total debt to EBITDA is at or lower than 1.5x on a sustained basis. We

could also raise the rating if the group further diversifies its revenue

sources.

We could lower the rating if Genting's cash flows materially weaken, or the

company engages in aggressive debt-funded acquisitions or expansion projects

such that its ratio of total debt to EBITDA stays above 2.5x (after

considering surplus cash) on a lasting basis, and its strong liquidity

position materially diminishes.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/text-p-summary-genting-bhd-111644448--sector.html

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Ghana opposition to challenge presidential poll result

ACCRA (Reuters) - Ghana's main opposition party said on Tuesday it would challenge in court the result of last week's election, which gave victory to incumbent president John Dramani Mahama with 50.7 percent of the vote.

New Patriotic Party leader Nana Akufo-Addo, who lost to Mahama in the poll, said electoral workers had tampered with the result of the December 7 vote - which was widely seen as a test for democracy in one of Africa's most stable nations.

"We are taking our matter to the place where the constitution says we should take our matter," Akufo-Addo told thousands of supporters in the same field in the capital Accra where Mahama held his victory party the previous day.

"We are going to put ourselves in the hands of the judges of the Supreme Court and they will decide the fate of this election."

The United States and regional leaders have issued statements congratulating Mahama on his victory and praising the conduct of the election, which observers said was free and fair despite some logistical glitches.

President Mahama, who took over from former leader John Atta Mills after his death in July, said he was not worried by the NPP's legal challenge and was confident supporters of the rival political camps would remain calm.

"Ghana's democracy is solid, and there are constitutional institutions to deal with situations like this," he told Reuters in an interview at his residence in Accra.

Mahama, during his vistory speech on Monday, urged his defeated rivals to drop any grievances and join him "as partners" in making Ghana better.

The gold, oil and cocoa-producing nation has managed more than 30 years of democratic transfers of power, making it an anomaly in West Africa's so-called "coup belt".

But a contested election in 2008, in which Akufo-Addo lost by less than 1 percent, pushed the country to the brink of chaos, with disputes over results driving hundreds of people into the streets with clubs and machetes.

(Reporting by Kwasi Kpodo; Writing by Bate Felix; Editing by Joe Bavier and Andrew Roche)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ghana-opposition-challenge-presidential-poll-result-182033325.html

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