International Headlines and Stories

The year 2010 will she, socially, as difficult as the year 2009? After the leaders of the metallurgical Swedish Akers, it was the turn of those of Pier Import of being selected by employees angry. They are fifty, working in 25 stores pending closure, to have forced two of their leaders, the CEO Sonia Ben Behe and CEO Gerard Démaret to spend the night Monday in their office.

The group's employees placed in bankruptcy protection since September, and reiterated recently by the group atmospheres, hope to obtain supra-legal benefits greater than those granted after the works council on Monday.For while 20 stores were saved by the recovery, the closure of 25 other lead 140 redundancies.

A strain devoid of aggression "

"The night [passed to company headquarters in Villepinte] went very well. They are still retains, in a friendly atmosphere, "said Fabrice Ménard, union CGT (majority) pay day loans . In turn, the CEO said last night that the constraint exercised by the employees was "devoid of aggression," and that the situation was "not annoying".

Employees require a half months of salary per year of seniority. Management, however, limits his proposal to a month for five years seniority."The supra-legal claims are being negotiated, nobody will be cheated of his rights, had assured the CEO Monday, pending a meeting Wednesday with Claude Ben Behe, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Förfina, principal shareholder of Pier Import. The Industry Minister Christian Estrosi said Tuesday morning on LCI it was the duty of government to "ensure" that a "way forward" is found for each employee, but said he can not be "real negotiations when there is violence."

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A small defect of throttle and it's a catastrophe for PSA. The group just defeated the recall of nearly 100,000 cars. "PSA will preventively a recall on these vehicles, the versions that could have the same defect pedal," said a spokesman for the firm. This concern of Peugeot 107 and Citroen C1 produced between February 2005 and August 2009 in the Kolin plant in the Czech Republic, that is to say "10% of the park from C1 and 107 stock, less than 100,000 cars" in Europe, added the spokesman.

Around 220,000 Peugeot and Citroën released each year of the plant, operational since February 2005 but "only a portion of production is concerned because according to the versions, gasoline or diesel, this is not the same type of elements" that is used, he said.Both urban French car manufacturer are assembled on the assembly lines of Toyota, which produces Kolin his little Aygo. This model is one of eight that the Japanese manufacturer decided to recall in Europe for a lack of accelerator pedal.

But virtually all components of the three models are the same, which explains why PSA is also forced to recall cars. In this context, the French manufacturer will "study in the coming days and weeks with the procedures for Toyota this season" reminder, "added the spokesman.

"The limits of the Toyota"

On paper, PSA and Toyota are equal partners in their joint venture TPCA (Toyota Peugeot Citroën Automobile) which manages the site of Kolin.But in reality, it is indeed a Toyota, the Japanese are in charge of designing and manufacturing vehicles free business cards .

For CGT Peugeot Sochaux (Doubs), the recall of vehicles demonstrates "the limits of the Toyota, denouncing a kind of production with" the minimum time to study and design of facilities, personnel and wages " and "no talk of outsourcing to the death."

The crisis facing Toyota is the task of oil and other manufacturers. Before PSA, the U.S. Ford has suspended production as a precaution for some commercial vehicles in China using the same faulty accelerator pedal as Toyota. This measure concerns, however, less than 2,000 vehicles. Besides the joint venture with PSA, Toyota owns with another Japanese, Subaru.Their factory is located in Indiana, the United States.

Toyota is forced to recall millions of cars around the world for lack of accelerator pedal detected in the United States, Canada, China and Europe. Nothing the United States, 2.3 million vehicles have been recalled over 270,000 points of Canada and 75,000 in China.

In Europe, the number of affected vehicles could reach 1.8 million. Eight models are concerned: AYGO, iQ, Yaris, Auris, Corolla Verso, Avensis and RAV4. The number of cars each country concerned should be seen "running next week," said the spokesman for Toyota.

The Japanese giant's chairman, Akio Toyoda, apologized Saturday for this one problem.World leading manufacturer since 2008, Toyota had already experienced a technical problem that forced him to recall cars in the United States due to a defect in the carpet can also block the accelerator

lefigaro.fr: Pay rates are eroding each year. Life insurance will she lose her place of savings product preferred French?

François Longin: This term is preferred savings often used but it is not really the case for at least two reasons. The first is financial. The product units accounts sitting on the CAC 40 have suffered from the crisis. As for funds in euro, eroding their earnings. 5%, it rose to 4.5% or 3.8% for some. But with returns that remain between 3% to 4%, life insurance remains more attractive than money market products whose performance flirts with 1%.The second reason is related to the reform of inheritance tax since 2007 has lost a little interest in life insurance.

Life insurance is it still a good product transmission?

The tax rules for the transmission of money invested in life insurance have not changed, but the reform of inheritance taken by the Government to facilitate such donations, has lost its interest in life insurance. Particularly as regards the succession between spouses. However, holders of life insurance can now pay up to 150,000 euros to each of their children, not inheritance. This allows for example a couple with two children to give each of them 300,000 euros for free.Beyond 150,000 euros, the transmission is taxed at 20%.

What issues should I consider before choosing a contract of life insurance?

Before choosing an insurance-life, we must address three key points. The profitability, risk and liquidity funds. Profitability, in other words, the compensation offered by the contract is important. It will depend on the type of support. Either you invest in a fund in euros, based on government bonds and the yield will be between 3.5% and 4.80%. Whether you choose the fund units of account, also called multichannel, whose performance is more important because you take more risks by investing in shares or funds to emerging markets. It's more risky, but the year after, people who have invested in French shares have gained 20%.

It must then linger on the liquidity of funds.The money is not actually blocked, but it is more or less detrimental to withdraw money before age 8.

Finally, we must be vigilant about fees: entry fees, which disappear on the Internet, and management fees that range between 0.6% and 1% under the contracts.

At what age is it interesting to take out life insurance?

The tax treatment of life changes during the life of the insured. Over the insured later withdrew the money invested is more interesting. Insurers therefore recommend to take a contract as soon as practicable, to date, and this even if the person is simply placing a small capital without making further payments in the first place.When young, you can also take more risk and choose unit-linked contracts account for more attractive returns.

Can we rely on contracts offered on internet?

They are good products in the sense that it has internet access to the same fund as the insurance contracts traded in the "real world", with more direct access to place orders. Other service not found with traditional life assurance: all orders have a written record, the process is to me more reliably than through an intermediary. The sites of online brokerage also offers advice and simulations. Opting for a contract on the internet, however, implies that one has some experience of financial investments.

Wall Street should open in a tone slightly negative on Friday. However, publication of results in the fourth quarter of giant Intel on Thursday night after-hours trading was better than expected. But the JP Morgan Chase established the doubt. The day before the U.S. markets have closed up slightly, despite the disappointing statistics across the Atlantic. The sectors of health and technology have supported the trend.

Earlier Friday morning, Asian stock markets closed broadly in the green. Tokyo The Nikkei ended the session up 0.68% at 10,982.10 points. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong, however, ended down 0.3% to 21,654.16 points as investors still worried about a possible tightening of Chinese monetary policy.

The Dow Jones, S & P 500 and Nasdaq retrograde by 0.2%, 0.3% and 0.16%.Shortly before they were further back but the index of industrial activity in the New York area has accelerated sharply in January, according to the Empire State index released Monday, to 15.9 points, much higher than the waiting analysts.

The President's speech yesterday, Obama did not surprise the markets. As announced by the spokesperson of the White House, a proposed tax of fifty largest banks will be presented to Congress in the coming weeks. According to the Financial Times, the U.S. Treasury would press other countries to also adopt a tax on banks.

New wave of statistical significance

Even today, the news on the economic front should shake the markets.The consumer prices in the United States rose by 0.1% in December, bringing inflation over the whole of 2009 to 2.7%, according to figures released Friday by the Labor Department. In the short term, the inflation risk sembre low.

Industrial production in the United States rose in December by 0.6%, as expected by analysts, according to official figures published Friday, but this increase was primarily allowed by having an unusually cold boosted the energy sector.

Intel and JP Morgan Chase surprised

Intel (-1.27% to 21.21 U.S. dollars) Thursday confirmed the resumption of its activities, with net income nearly tenfold in the fourth quarter of 2009, which allowed him to limit to 17% decline in annual net profit, to 4.369 billion dollars. This exceeds the expectations formulated earlier by analysts.Conversely, Microsoft (0.71% to 31.18 dollars), IBM (+0.28% to 132.68 dollars) and Cisco (+0.16% to 24.99 dollars).

Boosted by a return to growth in the fourth quarter, PC sales grew by 5.2% in 2009, according to a study by analyst firm Gartner published yesterday. Acer dethroned Dell (-2.38% to 14.35 U.S. dollars) in second place worldwide.

This Friday, JP Morgan Chase (-1.70% to 43.93 dollars) has announced having doubled its net profit in 2009 to 11.7 billion dollars. Per share, net income reached 74 cents per share in the fourth quarter, against 62 held by analysts. In the fourth quarter alone, the bank has increased by more than four net profit to 3.3 billion dollars. The bank's CEO, Jamie Dimon, welcomed the news that the bank in late 2009 enjoyed a "very strong capital ratios Tier 1 of 11.1%.But the cost of risk (failure to pay on credit) remains "high". The bank especially in its accounts last quarter to 7.3 billion dollars in reserves to cover these risks.Morgan Stanley lost 2.60% to 30.39 dollars, Goldman Sachs 1.25% to 166.42 dollars, and Bank of America 1.96% to 16.49 dollars.

Citigroup (-1.71% to 3.46 dollars) would be decided by the Financial Times, to cap the bonus at $ 100,000.

Market research firm NPD has revealed sales of video game consoles in the United States for year-end 2009 total, the three major manufacturers have passed 40 million consoles in 2009, including 20 million for the Wii Nintendo, 10 million for the Xbox 360 and 10 million for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) by Sony, thanks to an aggressive policy of lower prices.

In addition, Verizon Communications (-1.19% to 30.85 dollars) will host a conference on its wireless subsidiary, which is partly owned by Vodafone (-1.78% to 22.10 dollars).

Oil retreats, dollar strengthens

Side materials, oil slipped below the 79 dollars a barrel and connects its fifth session lower after the report of the International Atomic Energy: global consumption of oil should rebound by 1.7% in 2010 fully supported by demand from emerging countries and Asia, after falling 1.5% in 2009.

The dollar is strengthening against the euro, which is penalized by the situation in Greece after the publication of inflation. One euro is worth 1.4395 dollars.

"The Awards of the Asia-Pacific mixed

"Wall Street falls into the red

After closure of Wall Street without trend Monday, European stock markets are heading into the red Tuesday. In Paris the CAC 40 yielded 1.06% at 4000.05 points, in London, the FTSE-100 lost 0.71% to 5498.71 points and in Frankfurt the Dax concedes 1.61% to 5943 points.

The Central Bank of China has announced two measures to try to curb the overheating of the economy: raising the reserve requirement ratio for banks and rising interest rates on treasury bills to one year.

On Tuesday, the Bank of France issued at 8:30 its monthly business survey for the month of December: the gross domestic product (GDP) of France is expected to grow 0.5% in the fourth quarter of 2009.For the full year 2009, the government expects a drop in GDP of 2.25%.

Fifteen minutes later, the Budget Ministry said the budget deficit of the French state has widened to a record 143.3 billion euros on 30 November, against 66.6 billion a year earlier, and is expected throughout 2009 slightly below 140 billion.

Yesterday after the close of U.S. markets, the g aught aluminum Alcoa has announced a return to the red in the fourth quarter with a net loss of $ 277 million, widening its losses to $ 1.151 billion in 2009.In the series of American publications yesterday, Electronic Arts announced that it raised its forecast for losses in 2009-2010.

In an interview with Le Figaro, Christine Lagarde, economy minister, justified the measure "exceptional" tax on the bonus, resulting in a bill for the banks of around 360 million euros.

Across the Atlantic trade for November will be highlighted at 14h30.

As for currencies, the euro begun to rise again against the dollar Tuesday after the rebound of the single European currency yesterday. The euro gained 0.09% to 1.4526 dollar. The oil in turn is sharply down. The barrel of Brent North Sea crude for February delivery lost 1.70% to 70.67 dollars per barrel "Texas Light Crude (WTI) traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange for the same maturity, nibbles 1 53% at 81.61 dollars.

The detailed values to follow.

The crisis is "British banking sector is not that unhappy. With benefit of growing discontent of the English against their traditional banks, Richard Branson, the exuberant creator of the Virgin empire, announced Friday the acquisition of a small regional bank in England, the Church House Trust, with plans to launch Virgin Bank before the end of the year. The acquisition received Friday, the blessing of Constable UK financial sector, the FSA.

The target of Virgin is very modest compared to industry giants. The takeover of the bank based in Yeovil, Somerset, costing only 12.3 million pounds (13.7 million euros).But mostly it allows the financial arm of Virgin to obtain a license for retail banking in Britain, which he was still lacking.

Virgin Money, which claims 2.5 million customers in the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States and South Africa, offers services of credit and savings accounts on the Internet, through partnerships with institutions like Royal Bank of Scotland and Bank of America. Virgin Money has justified the choice of Church House Trust explaining that the bank had a very solid, with twice as many deposits (50 million pounds) in its coffers than loans (25 million pounds).

"The financial crisis has tarnished the reputations of several British banks, and Virgin Money will offer a different and better approach to the bank, said Friday Jayne-Anne Gadhia, boss of Virgin Money.

Bank charges challenged

With its excellent public image in areas as diverse as aviation, telephony and mobile Internet, the Virgin Group has a good card to play against the giants jostled both by the financial crisis and by repeated attacks from consumer associations and the policeman of the competition (Office of Fair Trading, OFT). These groups challenge bank charges consistently very high, including penalties for overdrafts.

Richard Branson tried to come into force on the market for retail banking two years ago, making an offer to buy Northern Rock, which had virtually collapsed in 2007, but after several months of hesitation, the government had decided to nationalize.

Despite this setback, Branson still keeps an eye on the Newcastle bank, which was one of the five biggest players for mortgages in Britain, and with healthy activities should soon be sold by the government. In agreement with the European competition, the British state should also require banks it has saved, RBS and Lloyds Banking Group, to divest a significant portion of their branch networks to new entrants in the sector. Opportunities for which are already in the running Virgin Money, the Spanish bank Santander, National Australia Bank and the giant British supermarket Tesco.

Warren Buffet has spoken. The American billionaire was strongly opposed to the will of Kraft Foods to issue 370 million shares to acquire Cadbury. Holding 9.4% stake in Kraft Foods, he says leading shareholder of U.S. food group. In a statement, holding the "Oracle of Omaha 'believes that this offer is a" blank check "for Kraft, which could, if necessary, modify its bid, thus harming shareholders. "What we are sure is that the current price of Kraft shares to $ 27 is a" money "too expensive for an acquisition," said the statement.

Kraft has announced its final bid for Cadbury by 19 January. "If we conclude that the offer does not destroy value for Kraft shareholders, we will vote" yes ".For now, we believe that no shareholder should do (vote "yes"), so it is not clear why he voted "he concludes.

At the opening on Wall Street Tuesday, Kraft Foods was up 2.99% to 28.25 euros. The Dow Jones lost 0.31% to 10,551.61 points.

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The number of new listings weekly unemployment has never been this low since mid-2008 the United States. During the week ended December 26, 432,000 cases were filed, against 452,000 the previous week, according to figures released Thursday in Washington.

This new statistic goes against the expectations of analysts. The consensus of economists polled by Reuters had expected an upward effect on new registrations to 460,000.

The downward trend observed since the spring is thus confirmed, after two weeks of increases observed in early December.

Fight against the invasion of generics has become the creed of Sanofi-Aventis. The pharmaceutical group multiplies acquisitions for several months to cope with the loss of patents on some of its drugs by 2014. Latest news dated from Voices? A stake of 19.9% in the Danish biotech company Zealand Pharma for 100 million euros. The interest of the maneuver is to get his hands on the ZP10, a treatment against diabetes and obesity currently in phase three clinical trials, the last before the placing on the market. It also aims to strengthen an existing partnership with the company valued at between 400 and 500 million euros. In exchange, the news caused investors to react moderately. The title takes Sanofi 1.68% to 56.33 euros.

The ZP10, is baptized by AVE0010 Sanofi, should be launched on the market in 2012.Sanofi wants to be the successor of Lantus insulin his star, who in 2008 has already generated 2.4 billion euros in sales and has raised a number of sales of laboratory medicine in the first nine months of 2009. The pharmaceutical group is already preparing the loss of patent for this drug in Europe and the United States in 2014. So in addition to the ZP10, Sanofi is testing a new version of Lantus. If it successfully passes the test, he could receive a patent until 2025.

Being on all fronts

Since the beginning of the year, Sanofi is trying every means to expand its portfolio. In addition to equity from Zealand Pharma, the group also focuses its activity in atrial fibrillation, a heart disorder.

On Monday, Sanofi announced the acquisition of Chattem, a leading drug sold without prescription in the United States, for 1.9 billion dollars.An operation that should allow him to become the No. 5 global counter medications. A segment very promising since it generated 86.6 billion dollars worldwide in 2008 with 20 billion in the United States. On this market alone, it was the fifth acquisition made by Sanofi-Aventis between 2008 and 2009, after the Australian Symbion, the Argentine Gramon, the French specialist food supplements and beauty products Kernpharm the Netherlands last month.

Other operations were performed in the generic (Medley, Kendrick, Zentiva), ophthalmology (Fovea), vaccine (Shantha) or in animal health with the purchase for 2.8 billion euros of the 50 % of its U.S. partner in the Merck Merial Veterinary Laboratory. Recently, market rumors evoked recovery of German Ratiopharm fourth generic manufacturer in the world, boosted as the stock market.

In total, Chris Viehbacher, head of Sanofi-Aventis since December 2008, launched 31 acquisitions and partnerships in 2009. And the movement should continue in 2010.

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Beijing celebrates this anniversary fanfare since late November. An exhibition devoted to the achievements of Macao since the handover was opened December 11 in Beijing by Chinese President Hu Jintao. "Macau has grown tremendously during the last decade," he told the Chinese press. Development supported by the central government of China, he said.

Macau and China signed in 2003 a trade agreement (the CSIO), strengthened several times since. This agreement facilitates the access of goods and services macanas to mainland China. The trade has more than tripled between 1999 and 2008, reaching $ 2.91 billion last year.According to a report released December 16 by the Ministry of Commerce of China, mainland China was the third largest investor in Macao in late September, after the United States and the European Union, a non-financial direct investment of 623 million dollars.

Jubilation in the city of Macau, just after the handover ceremony. Photo credits: AFP