to look at. i mean him

i really tink so

i look at his picts and i can’t bear to force myself to continue looking *shudder*

he’s around, dinner

too bad, he’s not

i want to go home!!

but on leave tml and tons to clear : (

* They say that marriage makes a man dizzy, and it’s true. As soon as I got a wife, I lost my balance at the bank.

* Men want 3 qualities in wives: Economist in kitchen, artist in home & devil in bed. But they get artist in kitchen, devil in home & economist in Bed.

* Q: Why do women live longer than men?
A: Shopping never causes heart attacks, but paying the bill does!

* Before marriage: Roses are red, sky is blue. U r beautiful, I luv u.
After marriage: Roses are dead, I’m blue. U r my headache, one day I’ll kill u.

* Getting married is very much like going to a restaurant with friends. You order what you want, and then when you see what the other person has, you wish you had ordered that.

* Man: Is there any way for long life?
Dr: Get married.
Man: Will it help?
Dr: No, but the thought of long life will never come.

* Why do couples hold hands during their wedding?
It’s a formality just like two boxers shaking hands before the fight begins!

* Wife: Darling today is our anniversary, what should we do?
Husband: Let us stand in silence for 2 minutes.

Russian energy giant Gazprom, the world’s biggest gas firm, said on Monday that net profit plunged 49.8 percent in the first half of 2009 compared to the figure 12 months earlier owing to higher expenses.

Half-year profits fell to 305.8 billion rubles (10.6 billion dollars), compared to 609.4 billion rubles (21 billion dollars) in the first six months of 2008, the company said in a statement.

Operating expenses and financial charges rose sharply as the cost of purchased gas soared 105 percent, reflecting an increase in prices for gas from Central Asia.

“The increase in the cost of purchased gas was mainly caused by the increase in prices for gas from Central Asia and increase in gas trading activities on the European market,” it explained.

The company, which ships 65 percent of its exports to Europe, was also hard hit by a drop in European demand amid the economic downturn as states turned to stocks held in reservoirs in the former Soviet Union.

But Gazprom head Alexei Miller last month said European demand for gas had grown in recent months to exceed pre-crisis levels.

The company, which has its roots in the Soviet Union’s Gas Industry Ministry, now has 17 percent of the global gas market and 60 percent of the Russian market. The state retains a controlling stake of 50 percent.

It said that net sales in the first half fell by 6.6 percent to 1.6 trillion rubles (56.6 billion dollars).

Sales of gas to Europe and other states had increased by 6.0 percent as higher prices across the world compensated for drastic falls in export volumes, it added.

Gazprom said its debt for the six months to July had increased 31 percent to 1.3 trillion rubles (48 billion dollars) from 1 trillion rubles (34.5 billion dollars) at the end of last year.

for prawn mee soup now…drool~!

DBS Group Holdings Ltd (DBS SP): Southeast Asia’s biggest bank, posted a bigger-than-estimated increase in 3rd-quarter profit as a rebound in the economy boosted loans and fee income. Net income climbed to S$563m ($403.3m) from S$379m a year earlier, the Singapore-based bank said in a statement today. That beat the S$438m median estimate of 5 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Sembcorp Marine Ltd (SMM SP): The world’s 2nd-biggest oil-rig maker, is buying an offshore drilling rig from Seadrill Ltd., the company said today in a statement. Sembcorp’s subsidiary PPL Shipyard has exercised its right to acquire the West Elara, a jack-up drilling rig that operates in shallow waters, for $10.8m, the company said in a statement to the Singapore stock exchange.

Sembcorp Industries Ltd (SCI SP):Owner of the world’s 2nd-biggest oil-rig maker, said 3rd-quarter profit gained 2.2% on increased production of offshore structures at its marine unit. Net income rose to S$148.1m ($106m), or 8.26 Singapore cents a share, in the 3 months to Sept. 30, from S$144.9m, or 8.08 cents, a year earlier, the company said today in a statement. Sales gained 3 percent to S$2.58bn.

City Developments Ltd (CIT SP): Singapore’s 2nd-biggest developer, added 1.7% to S$10.02. Millennium & Copthorne Hotels Plc (MLC LN), the operator of more than 120 properties worldwide, has received “unsolicited” offers for a number of its hotels and may sell some of them when prices improve, Chief Executive Officer Richard Hartman said yesterday. City Developments owns 52% of the hotel operator.

CapitaLand Ltd (CAPL SP): Said its China businesses are benefiting from the nation’s improved consumer sentiment, the Business Times said, citing company executives. The occupancy rate at the company’s serviced-residence properties has rebounded to around 85%to 90%, compared with 1st-half occupancy of 65% to 70%, the Singapore-based newspaper said, citing Ascott Group Senior Vice-President Gerald Yong. He added the 4th quarter
should be “very positive,” the report said.

sandals felt quite comfy but NOT all the models. i only find one model tat supports my arch well and feels comfy…i’m going to cycle in them

of me on mon morn, thus the email to update on his sun?

religion! i actualli forgot abt tis. can’t sense it but i haf this nagging feeling something is not rite.

pity though

’s freakish

so warm and humid this morn…argh

tml, ya, partly mine but no, i dun ever wana go thru the pain of organising for big day liao

which involved hello kitty in the latter…even in my dreams, i rem karen like hk stuff and i was getting something for her….hahaha….hilarious

first dream was of MTB explaining himself to me

2nd dream featured uncle and lotsa butterflies and hello kitty

both were funny and happy dreams. i could sense how immersely happy i was in both dreams

someone said he used to write thick pages of love letters

wow, i m impressed !

State-controlled Royal Bank of Scotland on Friday reported a net loss of 1.8 billion pounds (2.0 billion euros, 3.0 billion dollars) during the third quarter.

The announcement comes at the end of a week in which Britain’s government increased its stake in RBS to 84 percent in the wake of the financial crisis.

British Airways on Friday said the company’s net loss more than quadrupled during its first half, forcing the carrier to slash an extra 1,200 jobs in an “essential” cost reduction programme.

BA posted a loss after tax of 217 million pounds (242 million euros, 361 million dollars) during the six months to September 30 compared with a loss of 49 million pounds during the equivalent period in 2008.

“Aviation remains in recession,” BA chief executive Willie Walsh said in comments accompanying news of the company’s deep loss.

“With (BA) revenue likely to be one billion pounds lower this year, we can’t stand still and further cost reduction is essential,” he warned.

British Airways said it would cut an extra 1,200 jobs, taking the total planned reduction to 4,900 by 2010.

Most of the new losses would be outside Britain and follows a high response from staff agreeing to work part-time or take voluntary redundancy to help secure the airline’s future.

BA also announced Friday that group revenues dropped nearly 14 percent to 4.1 billion pounds in the first half.

Some commercial airlines across the world are suffering badly from the massive global economic slump that has slashed demand for air travel and sparked a major cash squeeze for the sector.

However Irish low-cost airline Ryanair on Monday said its net profit had shot up 80 percent to 387 million euros (570.8 million dollars) in April-September compared with the same period a year earlier.

On Thursday, Italian flag carrier Alitalia reported its first operating profit since its takeover by an alliance of Italian business interests last January.

Meanwhile in a bid to improve its fortunes and claw back ground lost to British rival Virgin, BA in late September launched an all-business class service from London to New York.

Previous attempts at all-business class services from airlines such as Maxjet and Silverjet failed in the run-up to the worst downturn since the 1930s.

To further help reduce overheads, British Airways earlier this year decided to scrap all free meals apart from breakfast on its short-haul flights.

BA suffered an annual loss of 375 million pounds in its 2008-09 financial year, which it blamed on high fuel costs.

Law enforcement officials in New York announced charges against 14 people in a widening probe into the largest ever alleged hedge-fund insider trading scheme on Wall Street.

US Attorney Preet Bharara and New York’s assistant FBI director Joseph Demarest said the accused took part in insider trading schemes that “generated more than 20 million dollars in illegal profits.”

They included hedge fund managers and trading firm executives, lawyers and corporate insiders, the prosecutor and FBI officer said in a statement.

Of the 14, eight were arrested early Thursday, while a ninth was being sought, and later released on bail. Five other defendants had already been charged and have pleaded guilty in federal court in New York to insider trading crimes.

The FBI sweep was linked to the ongoing probe into alleged insider trading by Raj Rajaratnam, the billionaire Sri Lankan founder of the hedge fund Galleon Management LP.

Galleon was shut down last month and Rajaratnam and five others were arrested in what prosecutors called “the largest hedge fund insider trading case in history.”

Twenty people have now been charged in the insider trading probe.

Bharara said the arrests of Rajaratnam and the five others had been a “wake-up call for Wall Street” and that Thursday’s announcement meant “the alarm bells have only grown louder.

“Over the last three weeks, we have charged 20 defendants with more than 40 million dollars worth of alleged insider trading,” he said.

The central figure among those charged Thursday was Zvi Goffer, who worked for Galleon and set up the hedge fund Incremental Capital.

Goffer is alleged to have played a key role in the ring in which he “paid sources for inside information” about companies, including news of mergers and acquisitions, then made deals on the stock market, according to the criminal complaint filed in a federal court in Manhattan.

Others charged Thursday with insider trading include current and former employees at Galleon, Ropes and Gray law firm, and Incremental Capital.

The criminal complaint said evidence had been gathered using telephone wiretaps and informants. It also said Goffer issued participants in the alleged ring with prepaid cell phones meant to make detection of the scheme harder.

Rajaratnam faces up to 20 years in prison for allegedly using insider information from heavyweight companies including Google, IBM, Hilton and Moody’s.

Rajaratnam’s fund was estimated to be worth 3.7 billion dollars when it was shut down.

Demarest, the FBI deputy head for New York, described insider trading as “betting on a game when you already know the outcome.”

He warned would-be Wall Street cheats that the FBI net was closing.

“If you traffic in inside information, there’s always a chance the person you conspire with is working for us. If you talk on the phone, we may be listening,” he said.

The eight arrested Thursday were released on bail, six of them for half a million dollars and the others for 100,000 dollars and 250,000 dollars.

My fav train door to work

Lee Bai’s Poem (Chinese Version) Chuang qian ming yue guang Yi shi di shang shuang Ju tou wang ming yue Di tou shi gu xiang (English Version) The moon light is pouring down on my bedside Like white frost spreading on the ground I look ! up the bright round moon in the sky And lower my head thinking of my dear hometown (Singlish (Phua Chu Kang) Version) Bedfront Moon Bright Bright Think Is Floor White White Lift Head See Moon Moon Bow Head Miss Home Home… (Ah-Beng Version) Bedfront Orr Pi Sai (pick nose) Think Think Go Pang Sai Pick Up Tai Gor Tai (handphone) Bullshit While Lau Sai (Latest Reservist Army Version) Bedfront Lau Bark Sai (tears drop) Thinking About Exercise(reservist mobilization) Drop Dead Look Into The Sk (run until no breathe) Tong Kor Sia Lang Zai? (my suffering nobody knows) (Osama version) No friend at my side Think think Bush will fight Lift head but where to hide? This time don’t know when will die ? (Bush version) Can’t sleep since that night Think think where he hide ? Bomb bomb friends will say I pai No choice ask them go fly kite

can’t access my inbox again

sigh, after i d/l , installed windows live msger….i hate windows live msger

as irritating as he and me and our love/hate rship is, he is a safe bet to me

there is no danger of a breakup and mi accum bad karma again coz he is not the one and i m not the one.

why him den?

coz i feel v safe in the knowledge tat no feelings will be hurt by me

the reasoning may sound abit warped but i’m being candid here

wat’s the worst tat can happen?

he finds his one and i move on or vice versa which happens first

i like being in ctrl and being able to see the end clearly

a line from one of grasshopper’s song

i always love this line

how true

wat a love/hate/hate/love rship

Britain is to force state-rescued banks RBS and Lloyds Banking Group to sell assets in a massive shake-up of the banking sector but will support them with 30 billion pounds, the government said on Tuesday.

The government expects new banks to be born as a result of the break-ups which are the result of pressure from EU competition authorities.

The parts being separated from the parent groups add up to about 10 percent of Britain’s troubled retail banking market.

In return for more state aid, Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) will have to cut bonuses paid to top staff and increase lending to recession-struck businesses and individuals.

Lloyds announced that it would launch a record 13.5-billion-pound rights issue. This represents the biggest-ever sale in Britain of new shares to existing shareholders.

Tuesday’s announcement meanwhile comes one week after the European Commission approved the state aid in plans to break up and sell Britain’s nationalised bank Northern Rock.

“Today will be the day that we see the beginning of the greatest changes in UK high street banking ever,” said senior trader Manoj Ladwa at ETX Capital.

“The creation of three new banks, dramatic divestments from both Lloyds and in particularly RBS, mammoth fund raising for both banks including the British taxpayer dipping into their pocket.”

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the shake-up would create competition and place the two banks on a more solid footing.

“I believe at the end of the day the banks will be paying money to the British public and not the other way round,” Brown said.

Despite pumping 30 billion pounds (33 billion euros, 49 billion dollars) into the two banks, Tuesday’s move means that the taxpayer’s exposure has been cut by more than 300 billion pounds, finance minister Alistair Darling added.

This is largely because of Lloyds’ decision not to participate in the toxic asset protection scheme.

“To promote greater competition in UK banking, and meet EU state aid rules, the banks will… be required to make divestments of significant parts of their businesses over the next four years,” the Treasury said in a statement.

Britain’s biggest retailer, supermarket giant Tesco and Richard Branson’s Virgin Group are rumoured to be interested in expanding their own banking services.

“We are going to see at least three new banks operating on the British high street in the next four years and that is very good news for the British taxpayer, the British consumer,” Treasury Minister Paul Myners told the BBC.

Under the plans, the state will pump 25.5 billion pounds into Royal Bank of Scotland, which in turn will place 282 billion pounds of high-risk debts into the government’s toxic asset insurance scheme — lower than originally planned.

As a result of the move, the state’s economic interest in RBS will climb to 84 percent. In addition, RBS will have access to a contingency fund of eight billion pounds.

In trading here, RBS shares plunged 8.52 percent to 35.36 pence on the FTSE 100 index of leading companies, which was down 2.20 percent.

Lloyds stock rose briefly as the group also said that a record rights issue would allow it to avoid the state’s toxic asset insurance plan — but it will pay a 2.5-billion-pound break fee.

The government said it would take part and maintain its 43-percent stake in Lloyds.

Royal Bank of Scotland will sell its RBS-branded branches in England and Wales, and NatWest branches in Scotland, as well as its Churchill and Direct Line insurance division and parts of its investment banking arm.

Ahead of Tuesday’s announcement, RBS had revealed on Monday that it would axe about 3,700 jobs across its British retail operations.

Lloyds Banking Group added on Tuesday that it would offload Lloyds branches in Scotland, its Cheltenham & Gloucester branches, and the Intelligent Finance online unit.

“UK consumers will in theory enjoy increased choice and lower pricing, while rivals such as HSBC will be glad to see their rivals paying for their mistakes,” said analyst Keith Bowman at Hargreaves Lansdown stockbrokers.

The Treasury has reached agreement “in principle” with EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes over the restructuring.

Regulatory authorities are concerned that such state-backed banks have an unfair advantage over other institutions which weathered the global financial storm without government aid, such as Barclays and HSBC.

Happy faces at finishing point…little sweat…hehe

yawning bug hitting me…i should b pretty well rested tdy

tons to do, need my ‘pick me up’ peppermint tea

totally craving for it now since my meeting when everyone was toking abt tis

we catered botak jones for townhall…yummy!

i tink i should do this

at ppl wearing event apparel till evening

i did tat after cycle singapore tis yr

tdy i didn’t get to bathe till after tkd

我怕我会上瘾, 我怕我会习惯, 我怕有一天我会失去你

是我永远的避风港

　　郭静 – 在树上唱歌

　　作词：姚若龙 作曲：陈小霞

　　你说的每个笑话我都笑了
　　是你变幽默还是我变快乐
　　好久不见你说我大不相同
　　偷偷告诉你 我的心去整型了
　　不想对每件事都那么严格
　　弄得全世界好像只剩挫折
　　爱一朵花不猜它能开多久
　　放宽了心情 把什么都变美了
　　想要光着脚丫 在树上唱歌
　　好多事物全被缩小了
　　心里不想放的就去了 算了
　　让太阳把脸庞给晒得红彤彤
　　想要吹着口哨 在树上唱歌
　　要像开往远方的火车
　　可以那么轻快地穿过山洞
　　大树上还很空 你要不要陪我
　　
你说的每个笑话我都笑了
　　是你变幽默还是我变快乐
　　好久不见你说我大不相同
　　偷偷告诉你 我的心去整型了
　　不想对每件事都那么严格
　　弄得全世界好像只剩挫折
　　爱一朵花不猜它能开多久
　　放宽了心情 把什么都变美了
　　想要光着脚丫 在树上唱歌
　　好多事物全被缩小了
　　心里不想放的就去了 算了
　　让太阳把脸庞给晒得红彤彤
　　想要吹着口哨 在树上唱歌
　　要像开往远方的火车
　　可以那么轻快地穿过山洞
　　大树上还很空 你要不要陪我

　　想要光着脚丫 在树上唱歌
　　好多事物全被缩小了
　　心里不想放的就去了 算了
　　让太阳把脸庞给晒得红彤彤
　　想要吹着口哨 在树上唱歌
　　要像开往远方的火车
　　可以那么轻快地穿过山洞
　　大树上还很空 你要不要陪我

<下一个天亮>
词:姚若龙 曲:陈小霞

　　用起伏的背影 挡住哭泣的心
　　有些故事 不必说给 每个人听
　　许多眼睛 看的太浅太近
　　错过我没被看见 那个自己
　　用简单的言语 解开超载的心
　　有些情绪 是该说给 懂的人听
　　你的热泪 比我激动怜惜
　　我发誓要更努力 更有勇气
　　
等下一个天亮 去上次牵手赏花那?散步好吗
　　有些积雪会自己融化
　　你的肩膀是我豁达的天堂
　　
等下一个天亮 把偷拍我看海的照片送我好吗
　　我喜欢我飞舞的头发
　　和飘著雨还是眺望的眼光
　　用简单的言语 解开超载的心
　　有些情绪 是该说给 懂的人听
　　你的热泪 比我激动怜惜
　　我发誓要更努力 更有勇气
　　
等下一个天亮 去上次牵手赏花那?散步好吗
　　有些积雪会自己融化
　　你的肩膀是我豁达的天堂
　　
等下一个天亮 把偷拍我看海的照片送我好吗
　　我喜欢我飞舞的头发
　　和飘著雨还是眺望的眼光
　　时间可以磨去我的棱角
　　有些坚持却永远磨不掉
　　请容许我 小小的骄傲
　　因为有你这样的依靠
　　
等下一个天亮 去上次牵手赏花那?散步好吗
　　有些积雪会自己融化
　　你的肩膀是我豁达的天堂
　　等下一个天亮 把偷拍我看海的照片送我好吗
　　我喜欢我飞舞的头发
　　和飘著雨还是眺望的眼光

kicking in, i’ll taking this on

does product support, sales mgr and relationship mgr sound familiar?

lol, same structure, also US firm but different level of professionalism. i swear by the blue box!

really eye opening to see substandard RM

Wisdom:

When I Was Married 25 Years, I Took A Look At My Wife One Day And Said,
“Honey, 25 Years Ago We Had A Cheap Apartment, A Cheap Car, Slept On A Sofa Bed And Watched A 10-Inch Black And White Tv, But I Got To Sleep Every Night With A Hot 25-Year-Old Blond.”

“Now We Have A $2M Home, A $245,000.00 Car, Nice Big Bed And 50″ Plasma Screen Tv, But I’M Sleeping With A 50-Year-Old Woman. It Seems To Me That You Are Not Holding Up Your Side Of Things.”

My Wife Is A Very Reasonable Woman. She Told Me To Go Out & Find A Hot 25-Year-Old Blonde, And She Would Make Sure That I Would Once Again Be Living In A Cheap Apartment, Driving A Cheap Car, Sleeping On A Sofa Bed And Watching A 10-Inch Black And White Tv!!

Ironies of life

Men:

1. All men are extremely busy.
2. Although they are so busy, they still have time for women.
3. Although they have time for women, they don’t really care for them.
4. Although they don’t really care for them, they always have one around.
5. Although they always have one around them, they always try their luck with others.

Women:

1. The most important thing for a woman is financial security.
2. Although this is so important, they still go out and buy expensive clothes and stuff.
3. Although they always buy expensive clothes, they never have something to wear.
4. Although they never have something to wear, they always dress beautifully.
5. Although they always dress beautifully, their clothes are always just “an old rag”.
6. Although their clothes are always “just an old rag”, they still expect you to compliment them.
7. Although they expect you to compliment them, when you do, they don’t believe you.

yrs old tdy

wasted too much time and good energy on a piece of shit this yr

out of 365 days, i tink i can spare a couple for charity

i m a small piece in the giant jigsaw of humanity but it would not be complete without me

supposedly the best swiss pralines ever, i shall have a try later : )

swiss bank collection, swiss gold…wow!

http://www.goldkenn.com/en/collections/gold

in roaming mood this wk, shall wander to more places tis sat…maybe becoz i have been hibernating at home for past few sats

so many places in mind to visit

i was chided as being backward for not knowing abt androids, shame on me!

tiyan gave me a crash course on android tdy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Android

not putting enough coz my nose keeps peeling…argh

though i feel the BB cream is quite oily liao compared to juz powder

as the SPF is 45, not using any other sunblock

for wkends, i may use my fav aramis skin optimising cream with face of australia, my fav sunblock

with the ozone hole over their heads, i’m sure they have added incentive to make a decent sunblock tat works

Reminiscence about the good old days is a sure sign of old age

was talking to fellow old car owner abt jump starts and what not

nutri info on everyday food & what to eat pre and post training

impt to eat 15 mins after training to replenish glycogen stored in liver and muscle so recovery is quick. also need to quickly replace fluids

ppl who dun eat after exercise are nuts

i’m making a list of easy to make and ideal pre and post training food

The world’s tiger population is declining fast despite efforts to save them, and new strategies are urgently needed to keep the species from dying out, international wildlife experts said Tuesday.

“We are assembled here to save tigers that are at the verge of extinction,” Nepal’s secretary of forest and soil conservation, Yuvaraj Bhusal, told a conference of tiger experts from 20 countries, including the 13 where wild tigers are still found.

An estimated 3,500 to 4,000 tigers now roam the world’s forests, down from the more than 100,000 estimated at the beginning of the 20th century. All the remaining tigers are in Asia.

Participants at the conference, which also includes the World Bank, the World Wildlife Fund and other groups, plan to discuss strategies for tiger conservation, as well as challenges such as poaching, the trade of tiger parts and conflicts between tigers and local populations.

“Despite our efforts in the last three decades, tigers still face threats of survival. The primary threat is from poaching and habitat loss,” Nepal’s prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal told the conference.

He said extreme poverty has also challenged efforts.

“Global and regional solidarity and corrective measures are more necessary now than ever to face these challenges,” the prime minister said.

Bhusal, the forest secretary, said participants hope to make high-level policy makers in their countries more aware of the animal’s possible extinction.

The 13 countries where wild tigers are still found include Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.

The conference continues through Friday.

The euro hit fresh 14-month highs against the dollar on Monday on signs that China may increase its holdings of the European currency, dealers said.

The shared European unit soared to 1.5064 dollars in Asian trade, hitting its strongest level since August 11, 2008, before falling back. It stood at 1.5035 dollars later in London, up from 1.5007 dollars late Friday in New York.

Against the Japanese currency on Monday, the dollar dipped to 91.76 yen from 92.07 yen late on Friday.

Traders cited an opinion piece by a Chinese central bank official in China’s Financial News newspaper, arguing that Beijing should boost its holdings of euros and yen, as a factor behind the currency moves.

“The Financial News, a paper linked to China’s central bank, printed a report from a Chinese researcher stating that China should increase its holdings of both euros and yen,” said Forex.com analyst Brian Dolan.

“This report helped push the euro/dollar through fresh 14-month highs,” he said.

“Inevitably, the report from China was eventually denied as a statement was released stating that the views in the report were the ‘fully personal’ views of the researcher.”

China has invested a large part of its vast reserves in dollar assets, such as safe low-yielding US Treasury bonds, but Beijing has tried to diversify its investments to improve returns amid the global financial crisis.

European Central Bank (ECB) governing board member Christian Noyer declined to comment on the euro’s strength at a seminar in Singapore, easing market worries that eurozone officials may step up efforts to talk down the currency.

The dollar has been weighed down recently by speculation that the United States may be slower than some other major economies to raise interest rates. Investors generally prefer the currencies of countries offering higher yields.

“Investors are sceptical whether it will be realistic (for the US Federal Reserve) to end its zero interest rate policy amid current economic conditions,” said Chuo Mitsui Trust Bank strategist Yosuke Hosokawa.

“The dollar will continue to be on the weak trend,” he said.

The Fed has kept its key rate in a range of zero to 0.25 percent since last December to help the US economy recover from its worst recession in decades.

The ECB has meanwhile frozen its key rate at a record low 1.0 percent since May in a bid to encourage lending by eurozone banks as recovery takes hold.

In London on Monday, the euro was changing hands at 1.5035 dollars against 1.5007 dollars late on Friday, at 137.95 yen (138.16), 0.9207 pounds (0.9201) and 1.5132 Swiss francs (1.5138).

The dollar stood at 91.76 yen (92.07) and 1.0065 Swiss francs (1.0090).

The pound was at 1.6329 dollars (1.6310).

On the London Bullion Market, the price of gold fell to 1,055.95 dollars an ounce from 1,061.75 dollars an ounce late on Friday.

finally, the real Zhang Ziyi in town not Wong Li-Lin filming fake SHG scenes at Philip Street

Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi is in Singapore to open Omega’s first watch boutique in the city—state, at the ION Orchard shopping mall.

During a media conference with the company’s president, Stephen Urquhart, she revealed a secret to potential suitors hoping to win her heart.

“I say next time, you prepare a ring and a watch with diamonds. Then I will say yes, definitely,” Zhang said.

She declined to say if she is currently working on another movie project, but said she will be returning to China to fulfil a busy schedule.

The international actress is the Omega’s newest spokesperson, and she said that the partnership was fated as the first watch she ever bought was an Omega.

“I spent pretty much all the money I had earned then. I still haven’t worn that watch till now. I can’t bear to as I’m scared I’ll lose it,” Zhang said.

“I did not get a discount at the time. But I asked my boss, and he said that I can get a discount now,” she quipped.

Honda Motor said Tuesday its latest quarterly earnings plunged by more than half due to weak demand, but Japan’s number two automaker upgraded its outlook for the rest of the year.

Honda posted a net profit of 54.0 billion yen (587 million dollars) for the three months through September, down 56.2 percent from a year earlier.

Revenue dropped by 27.2 percent on the year to 2.06 trillion yen, hit by weak car sales and a stronger yen, according to a company statement. Operating profit plunged 56.0 percent to 65.5 billion yen.

The group said it had sold 838,000 automobiles worldwide in the quarter, marking a decrease of 10.4 percent from the same period of last year.

But the outlook is brightening: Honda anticipates a net profit of 155 billion yen for the year to March 2010, compared with a previous projection of 55 billion yen. That would represent a 13.1 percent year-on-year increase.

Japanese carmakers have taken a heavy blow from the global economic downturn, which has caused worldwide sales to plunge.

Honda was the only one of Japan’s top three automakers to post a profit for the last financial year to March, outperforming Toyota and Nissan which suffered heavy losses.

P-ay
A-nd
P-ay

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) said Tuesday ERP rates at three gantries will go up from November 2.

It will cost a dollar to pass through the gantry along Ayer Rajah Expressway between 8am and 8.30am, an increment of 50 cents.

ERP rate for the Eastbound ECP gantry at Marina South and the one on the slip road from Ophir Road will go up by a dollar to S$3.00 between 6.30pm and 7pm.

The rates for the other gantries will remain unchanged.

LTA said the next ERP review will take place in November for the December school holidays.

Pilots of a Northwest Airlines jetliner that overshot its destination by 150 miles last week told U.S. investigators they became distracted during an extended discussion of crew scheduling that included their use of personal laptops, officials said on Monday.

“The pilots said there was a concentrated period of discussion where they did not monitor the airplane or calls from said after interviewing the pair on Sunday.

“Both said they lost track of time,” the safety board said in a report on its investigation, which included disclosures about the nature of the conversation and the use of laptop computers.

The two veteran commercial pilots said they were not fatigued during the evening flight on October 21 from San Diego to Minneapolis, countering speculation they may have fallen asleep.

Air controllers and airline dispatchers sought to contact Flight 188, an Airbus A320 with 144 passengers, for more than an hour with the plane at 37,000 feet.

Neither pilot was aware of the plane’s wayward state until a flight attendant asked them about their scheduled arrival time, the NTSB said.

The captain looked at his flight display data, realized the mistake and then contacted controllers for permission to turn around. The plane landed without incident in Minneapolis.

Delta Air Lines, which owns Northwest, said in a statement the use of laptops or “engaging in activity unrelated to” flying the aircraft violates company policy.

The airline has suspended the pilots pending the outcome of government and internal investigations. They could be fired, Delta said.

The pilots said they were discussing new monthly crew schedules, which were put in place as a result of Northwest’s merger with Delta in 2008.

Investigators are also reviewing information from the plane’s flight data recorder.

Smart Kichi!

************ ********* ********* ****

A Punjabi lawyer working abroad wrote to his wife…

DEAR Sunita Darling,

I can’t send you my salary this month because the global market crises has
affected my company’s performance, so I am sending 100 kisses. You are my
sweetheart, please adjust.
Your loving husband,

JITA SINGH

His wife replied…

TINKU KE PAPPA ,

Thanks for the 100 kisses,
Below is the list of expenses I paid with the Kisses…:

1. The Milk man agreed on 2 kisses for one month’s milk.
2. The electricity man agreed not to disconnect only after 7 kisses.
3. Your landlord Balkar Singh comes every day to take 2 or 3 kisses instead
of the monthly rent.
4. Supermarket owner Jaswant Singh did not accept kisses only, so I gave
him other items, I hope you understand..
5. Miscellaneous expenses 40 kisses.

Please don’t worry about me, I still have a balance of 35 kisses and I hope
I can survive the month using this balance…Shall I plan the same for the
next month?

Your Sweet Heart,

Kichi

when?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahasthamaprapta

cushion with mountain motif, my kao shan

hangs…irritating

testing jpg file format posting

Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, his spokeswoman said Sunday. The 61-year-old Lloyd Webber’s condition is in its early stages, a statement from his publicists said. “Andrew is now undergoing treatment and expects to be fully back at work before the end of the year,” the statement said.

Lloyd Webber recently announced plans for a sequel to his phenomenally successful musical “Phantom of the Opera.” Called “Love Never Dies,” it is scheduled to open in London in March and follow on Broadway in November. Rehearsals begin in the new year.

At a media event for the new musical earlier this month, Lloyd Webber said that while the story picks up where “Phantom” left off, he doesn’t regard it as a sequel _ “it’s a standalone piece.”

But Lloyd Webber said he was inspired to write the musical because “there’s unfinished business.”

In “Love Never Dies,” the Phantom leaves Paris for Coney Island at the turn of the century, which Lloyd Webber said was like Las Vegas “and then triple it.”

Producers say the original “Phantom” _ a fixture of the London and New York stages _ has been seen by more than 100 million people around the world. In September, it became the longest-running show in Broadway history, brushing aside Lloyd Webber’s “Cats.”

Lloyd Webber’s other musical hits have included “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” and “Evita.” He owns several theaters in London’s famous West End.

According to his Web site, Lloyd Webber has won seven Tony Awards, three Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe and an Oscar. In 2006, he was awarded the Kennedy Center Honor.

Lloyd Webber was knighted in 1992 and named to Britain’s House of Lords in 1997.

Swedish appliance maker Electrolux announced on Monday better-than-expected third quarter results but said it would also close two US factories in a continued cost-cutting drive.

Electrolux, which on Friday announced the closure of a Spanish plant with the loss of 450 jobs, said it would shutter two washing machine factories in Iowa which employ 950.

It said it earned in the three months to September a net profit of 1.63 billion kronor (160 million euros, 240 million dollars), up 92 percent from a year earlier on the back of low raw material costs and previous cost-cutting measures.

Analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast third quarter net profit at 782 million kronor.

“Almost everything went our way this quarter. (A) cyclical trough in commodity prices and maintained prices have been decisive for our earnings improvement. Other contributing factors are a better product mix and significant cost reductions,” said the company, ranked as the world’s second largest home appliance manufacturer.

At the same time, it cautioned that “demand continues to be weak, although the rate of decline has slowed down.”

Electrolux, after carrying out several reorganisations in recent years in a bid to cut costs, announced the elimination of 3,000 jobs in December in response to the global economic slowdown.

kate spade, i like

i m tempted by the metallic coach…haha

1. Coach bag: http://kl-coachforsale.blogspot.com

2. coach coin purse and wrislet http://wrislet.blogspot.com

3 kate spade http://katespadeiscool.blogspot.com

4. for other item like facial mask www.jinglimok.blogspot.com

my cycle singapore team….woo hoo !!

target : total team time under 8 hrs

yes, me

exit strategy executed

yes, dear, it brightened up my day indeed…and it continues to do so whenever i see it

balloons

roses are red, violets are blue

i have a pretty rose, looking at me

don’t come crawling back as u always do

<we always end up quarrel over nothing.. I guess it will be another cold war and the choice is urs.. i m tire of this kind of meaningless cold war..>

idiot ! talk about being manipulative

in personal inbox

took me a long time to clear the cyber clutter

QQ requested for oatmeal porridge, she loves eating oatmeal porridge

and she’s eating it with bananas

she’s also a huge yoghurt and veg fan

going to clear unread to below 50 from 1000 now

Medtronic Inc : The world’s largest maker of heart-rhythm devices
Lowe’s Cos : The second largest US home-improvement chain will team with Woolworths Ltd to enter Australia’s A$24b hardware market, betting on an economy where home-building approvals rose by the most in four years.
Staples Inc : The world’s largest retailer of office supplies said second quarter earnings fell 38 percent as companies bought fewer desks and chairs and profit margin narrowed.

from wing wah, hk is so nice~!!

OMG! i love tis even better den the instant almond drink

i need to stock up on this

The Malaysian government and various state funds own almost 70 percent of Sime, the country’’s largest company, and Prime Minsister Naji Razak has said he wants companies with close links to the government to become more efficient.
There has been speculation that Sime could list its plantation division, but the company said last month that it had
no immediate plans for an IPO for the business
Sime recently announced it was to team up with a Chinese
company to enter the palm oil refining business in China, a major
market for Malaysian exports.
It also has other interests and when Najib visited China recently, he agreed a construction deal with Sime in China.
“Najib is serious about Sime Darby and wants it to expand
into China, but we have not been briefed or even told about the
selling of Sime Darby’’s stake to a Chinese company,” a second government official told Reuters.
Sime has a water treatment plant, a port and property
development plans in Weifang in Shandong province, a 10 percent
share of the BMW car market in China and opened new branches for
its industrial products inXinjiang province, according to
Malaysian brokerage HwangDBS.

Sembcorp Marine Ltd. (SMM SP): The world’s second-biggest builder of oil rigs

TPV Technology Ltd. (TPV SP): The world’s biggest contract maker of computer monitors

Silverlake Axis Ltd. (SILV SP): The Singapore-based provider of software solutions for the banking industry

Star Cruises Ltd. (STRC SP): Asia’s biggest cruise operator

is it weird or what

i made a booking tat wasn’t paid yet way back in june. since i did not receive an itinerary, i had clean forgot abt this booking

i got an email to say the itinerary has changed. i got a huge shock coz i had no idea the booking was still valid and i certainly didn’t plan around a booking tat’s not confirmed

i quickly log in to the itinerary to check coz i was so worried tat somehow payment was made without my knowledge

there is only one option to accept the itinerary change. WTF !!

i cannot reply to that email coz it’s sent from noreply@jetstar-sc.com

Since you made your booking, we have changed our flight schedule. Please be advised that your flight details have changed.

Please check the itinerary below for your new flight time. Please click the link below to be directed to our website. Once there follow the prompts to accept the change.

We look forward to seeing you onboard Jetstar.

Please do not reply to this email.

Regards,
Jetstar Customer Service

their contact us page features a local number tat doesn’t go to VR but juz an engaged tone

there is no email anywhere on the site tat i can send my questions to

and the light grey font on white background is so hard to read

ARGH!! i m so pissed

i m reminded of the chinese expression 读你读我

yes, i m still trying to read him sometimes

it’s like i’m so sure i’m reading him correctly and i juz wana verify my hunches

there’s no pattern nor trend

when things go well for a few days/wks in a row, it feels like tis rship/frenship can go on forever

den something drastic will happen and things get blown out of proportion and i get thrown off my rocker altogether

to wrap books…lalalalalalala

juz got QQ’s books. not a lot of textbooks tat she can use from YY’s hand me downs so lotsa book wrapping to be done again

and ironing of her pleated skirts and blouses

i need a jb/msia run to complete the shopping list. got some more stuff to pick up eg. sch bag, art file

Were the pilots distracted? Catching up on their sleep? Federal investigators struggled to determine what the crew members of a Northwest Airlines jetliner were doing at 37,000 feet as they sped 150 miles past their Minneapolis destination and military jets readied to chase them. Unfortunately, the cockpit voice recorder may not tell the tale.

A report released late Friday said the pilots passed breathalyzer tests and were apologetic after Wednesday night’s amazing odyssey. Authorities said the pilots told them they had been having a heated discussion about airline policy. But aviation safety experts and other pilots were frankly skeptical they could have become so consumed with shoptalk that they forgot to land an airplane carrying 144 passengers.

The most likely possibility, they said, is that the pilots simply fell asleep somewhere along their route from San Diego.

“It certainly is a plausible explanation,” said Bill Voss, president of the Flight Safety Foundation in Alexandria, Va.

One of the two pilots, first officer Richard I. Cole, said that wasn’t the case. He also said an argument wasn’t to blame.

“All I’m saying is we were not asleep; we were not having a fight; there was nothing serious going on in the cockpit that would threaten the people in the back at all,” he told The Associated Press in an interview at his home in Salem, Ore.

He declined to discuss what exactly happened but did insist “it was not a serious event, from a safety issue.”

“I can’t go into it, but it was innocuous.”

New recorders retain as much as two hours of cockpit conversation and other noise, but the older model aboard Northwest’s Flight 188 includes just the last 30 minutes — only the very end of Wednesday night’s flight after the pilots realized their error over Wisconsin and were heading back to Minneapolis.

They had flown through the night with no response as air traffic controllers in two states and pilots of other planes over a wide swath of the mid-continent tried to get their attention by radio, data message and cell phone. On the ground, concerned officials alerted National Guard jets to go after the airliner from two locations, though none of the military planes got off the runway.

With worries about terrorists still high, even after contact was re-established, air traffic controllers asked the crew to prove who they were by executing turns.

“Controllers have a heightened sense of vigilance when we’re not able to talk to an aircraft. That’s the reality post-9/11,” said Doug Church, a spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

A report released by airport police Friday identified Cole, of Salem Ore., and the flight’s captain, Timothy B. Cheney, of Gig Harbor, Wash. The report said the men were “cooperative, apologetic and appreciative” and volunteered to take preliminary breath tests that were zero for alcohol use. The report also said the lead flight attendant told police she was unaware of any incident during the flight.

The pilots, both temporarily suspended, are to be interviewed by NTSB investigators next week. The airline, acquired last year by Delta Air Lines, is also investigating. Messages left at both men’s homes were not immediately returned.

The FAA said Friday letters had been sent informing the pilots they are being investigated by the agency and it is possible their pilot’s licenses could be suspended or revoked.

Investigators don’t know whether the pilots may have fallen asleep, but National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Keith Holloway said Friday that fatigue and cockpit distraction will be looked into. The plane’s flight recorders were brought to the board’s Washington headquarters.

Voss, the Flight Safety Foundation president, said a special concern was that the many safety checks built into the aviation system to prevent incidents like this one — or to correct them quickly — apparently were ineffective until the very end. Not only couldn’t air traffic controllers and other pilots raise the Northwest pilots for an hour, but the airline’s dispatcher should have been trying to reach them as well. The three flight attendants onboard should have questioned why there were no preparations for landing being made. Brightly lit cockpit displays should have warned the pilots it was time to land. Despite cloudy conditions, the lights of Minneapolis should have clued them in that they’d reached their destination, aviation experts said.

“It’s probably something you would say never would happen if this hadn’t just happened,” Voss said.

The pilots were finally alerted to their situation when a flight attendant called on an intercom from the cabin. Two pilots flying in the vicinity were also finally able to raise the Northwest pilots using a Denver traffic control radio frequency instead of the local Minneapolis frequency.

On the ground, police and FBI agents prepared for the worst.

“When the aircraft taxied to the gate I was able to see the two white males in the seats of the flight crew, both were wearing uniforms consistent with Delta flight crew,” said a police report, signed by an Officer Starch. “When the aircraft had stopped, the male seated in the pilot seat turned, looked at me and gave me two thumbs up and shook his head indicating all was OK.”

Air traffic controllers in Denver had been in contact with the pilots as they flew over the Rockies, FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said. But as the plane got closer to Minneapolis, she said, “the Denver center tried to contact the flight but couldn’t get anyone.”

Denver controllers notified their counterparts in Minneapolis, who also tried to reach the crew without success, Brown said.

Officials suspect Flight 188’s radio might still have been tuned to a frequency used by Denver controllers even though the plane had flown beyond their reach, said Church, the spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Union. Controllers worked throughout the incident with the pilots of other planes, asking them to try to raise Flight 188 using the Denver frequency, he said

Passenger Lonnie Heidtke said he didn’t notice anything unusual before the landing except that the plane was late.

The flight attendants “did say there was a delay and we’d have to orbit or something to that effect before we got back. They really didn’t say we overflew Minneapolis. … They implied it was just a business-as-usual delay,” said Heidtke, a consultant with a supercomputer consulting company based in Bloomington, Minn.

Once on the ground, the plane was met by police and FBI agents. Passengers retrieving their luggage from overhead bins were asked by flight attendants sit down, Heidtke said. An airport police officer and a couple other people came on board and stood at the cockpit door, talking to the pilots, he said.

“I did jokingly call my wife and say, ‘This is the first time I’ve seen the police meet the plane. Maybe they’re going to arrest the pilots for being so late.’ Maybe I was right,” Heidtke said.

Delta said Friday it plans to give flight vouchers worth a few hundred dollars to each of the passengers.

The cascade of bank failures this year surpassed 100 on Friday, the most in nearly two decades. And the trouble in the banking system from bad loans and the recession goes even deeper than the number suggests.

Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of other banks remain open even though they are as weak as many that have been shuttered. Regulators are seizing banks slowly and selectively — partly to avoid inciting panic and partly because buyers for bad banks are hard to find.

Going slow buys time. An economic recovery could save some banks that would otherwise go under. But if the recovery is slow and smaller banks’ finances get even worse, it could wind up costing even more.

The bank failures, 106 in all, are the most in any year since 181 collapsed in 1992, at the end of the savings-and-loan crisis. On Friday, regulators took over three small Florida banks — Partners Bank and Hillcrest Bank Florida, both of Naples, and Flagship National Bank in Bradenton — along with American United Bank of Lawrenceville, Ga., Bank of Elmwood in Racine, Wis., Riverview Community Bank in Otsego, Minn., and First Dupage Bank in Westmont, Ill.

When a bank fails, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. swoops in, usually on a Friday afternoon. It tries to sell off the bank’s assets to buyers and cover its liabilities, primarily customer deposits. It taps the insurance fund to cover the rest.

Bank failures have cost the FDIC’s fund that insures deposits an estimated $25 billion this year and are expected to cost $100 billion through 2013. To replenish the fund, the agency wants banks to pay in advance $45 billion in premiums that would have been due over the next three years.

The FDIC won’t say how deep a hole its deposit insurance fund is in. It can tap a credit line from the Treasury of up to a half-trillion dollars to cover the gap.

The list of banks in trouble is getting longer. At the end of June, the FDIC had flagged 416 as being at risk of failure, up from 305 at the end of March and 252 at the beginning of the year.

Yet the pace of actual bank failures appears to be slowing. The FDIC seized 24 banks in July, 11 in September and 11 in October.

If any bank poses an immediate danger to customers or the broader financial system, regulators close it immediately, bank supervisors said. The issue is murkier for troubled banks that might qualify to close but whose closings might still be postponed or even prevented.

The FDIC’s first priority, spokesman Andrew Gray said, is to maintain public confidence in the banking system. “As evidenced by the stability of insured deposits throughout last year, this mission has been a success,” he said.

He said public confidence isn’t reason enough to delay a bank closing, because legally the decision to close rests with whoever chartered the bank — a state or federal agency.

But more than a dozen experts, including current and former regulators, bankers and lawyers, say the FDIC’s mission to maintain public confidence in the banking system contributes to the go-slow approach.

“The FDIC was set up to create confidence and prevent bank runs,” says Mark Williams, a former bank examiner for the Federal Reserve. Being too aggressive about bank closings “can be counter to the mission.”

Sarah Bloom Raskin, Maryland’s top banking regulator, said: “Technically it’s the states who decide, but in reality it’s the FDIC calling you to say” when the bank will be closed.

Last fall, the financial turmoil was rooted in bad bets that the nation’s biggest banks, like Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp., had made on complicated, high-risk mortgage investments.

Smaller banks have been undone by something more conventional — real estate, construction and industrial loans that have soured as the recession has deepened. Defaults are up as developers abandon failing projects and landlords can’t meet their loan payments.

Small- and mid-sized banks hold lots of those loans and have been hurt more than big ones by the sinking commercial real estate market, especially in states like California, Georgia and Illinois. As defaults rise, these banks must set aside more money to cover losses.

For the banks, this means mounting losses and shrinking reserves.

In a healthy economy, Williams said, the Fed and the FDIC would be inclined to close such weak banks. But these days, those agencies and other regulators prefer to hold off, hoping an economic recovery will eventually restore the health of some of the banks.

But the recovery is expected to be slow. Americans remain hesitant to spend money because of job losses, flat wages, tight credit and high debt. Their cutbacks have triggered tens of thousands of business failures.

Abandoned retail space in downtowns and suburban malls means no rental income for property owners. As landlords default on real estate loans, they weaken the banks that hold the loans.

The situation now is especially grave in Southern California, Georgia and Illinois, which have some of the highest home foreclosure rates. Twenty banks have closed in Georgia alone.

Individual bank depositors aren’t at risk when a bank fails. Their money is guaranteed up to $250,000 by the government. Ever conscious of maintaining public confidence, agency officials hammer this point in public statements.

When weak banks are allowed to stay open, their growing losses potentially can drain the FDIC’s deposit insurance fund faster, says Bert Ely, an independent banking consultant.

Federal agencies aren’t the only ones with an interest in slowing the pace of bank closings. State regulators with closer ties to local communities want to avoid the ripple effects when a town loses its main source of consumer and business credit, Williams said.

But finding buyers for wobbly banks has been tough.

FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair acknowledged as much in testimony this month before a Senate panel. The FDIC has been offering to share buyers’ losses on the assets being transferred, she said.

“In the past several months investor interest has been low,” she said in prepared testimony.

In an effort to find more potential buyers, the FDIC has relaxed the rules for private-equity firms to buy banks. In the past, regulators had feared such a move would allow investors to protect themselves from the cost of bank failures, escaping serious consequences while drawing down the FDIC’s fund.

An early success of the new strategy was a deal announced this month to sell assets from Corus Bank of Chicago to a group of private investors. But there still aren’t enough buyers to absorb quickly all the assets held by at-risk banks.

That’s because there are so many weak and failing banks on the market — and so few others strong enough to buy them. That’s one reason it’s hard to know how many more banks could be closed in coming months, said Daniel Alpert, Managing Partner of the New York investment bank Westwood Capital LLC.

“How many banks will survive?” Alpert asked. “Loans are still deteriorating, but there are glimmers of hope in the economy. Ultimately, it’s all about employment.”

Russia’s Gazprom dominates gas markets in Europe and swathes of Asia, but it now wants to grab 10 percent of the US market within a decade, its top US manager said.

The world’s largest natural gas company wants to replicate some of its success in Western Europe, where it meets 25 percent of gas demand, John Hattenberger, the President of Gazprom Marketing & Trading USA, told AFP Thursday.

“Our target here has been to start off strong… then build up to three BCF (billion cubic feet) a day in five years,” he said, pointing to production targets that could double by 2019 to 10 percent of the market.

The firm, which is frequently accused of being a proxy for Moscow’s geopolitical ambitions, is currently hammering out a raft of deals that would increase its so-far modest US trading, Hattenberger said.

He rejected allegations of political motivation, pointing to business opportunities in the United States, the world’s largest energy market.

“I think people who don’t know too much about Gazprom may have some preconceived notions about Russians,” he said adding the firm was looking to secure market share through contract swaps with firms trading in the United States.

“We are looking for companies who have big US gas positions and who are looking to get bigger in Europe, so we will sell up gas in Europe and they will sell us gas in the United States.”

Since Gazprom began US operations at the beginning of this month, a deal has already been announced with French utilities giant EDF for swaps equal to 60 million cubic feet per day.

The new deals “tend to be in the order of that size, or slightly bigger,” Hattenberger said.

There is little doubt Gazprom has the resources to reach its US trading targets, particularly if Russia’s massive arctic Shtokman field comes online in 2014 as planed.

But according to Fadel Gheit, a senior oil and gas analyst at Oppenheimer & Co, Gazprom and other foreign majors may be entering the US market for reasons beyond market share.

Gazprom’s real goal, he said, could be acquiring cutting edge technology that can exploit the difficult-to-access but potentially massive reserves of gas from shale rock.

“The United States has far more advanced shale gas drilling technology. It is basically in the hands of the smaller producers, not the Exxons, not the BPs and not Shell.

“These companies are paying very hefty entry fees to gain a window into the technology. Gazprom I don’t believe is interested in production itself, they are interested in production technology. It’s pay to learn.”

And Gazprom may face commercial challenges to US trade, even with its resource clout.

With China’s economy growing apace and European energy prices still high, those markets remain more attractive.

Although Gazprom has a 20-year plan to bring liquefied natural gas to the United States from Russia’s enormous Sakhalin-2 field, the firm has preferred to cash in on higher Asian demand and higher European prices.

Still, energy analysts expect regional price differences to ease as the market becomes more global and as regional powerhouses like Gazprom and Chinese firms move into new markets.

One boon for Gazprom’s US business may come from an unlikely source — the federal government. Congress is considering new regulation governing carbon emissions.

“It is all good,” Hattenberger said of the proposals, arguing emissions curbs could propel gas use as a cleaner alternative to coal and oil.

“We are still very bullish on US demand,” he said.

JPMorgan Cazenove’s joint venture owners are keen to decide whether J.P. Morgan should buy out its UK investment banking partner before bonuses are set for staff around the turn of the year, industry sources said.

A decision on a buyout or carrying on the JV should be made before bonuses are set by early January, according to the sources. Uncertainty about a deal and future structure of the company could see rivals attempt to poach staff.

Talks were delayed by recent changes at the helm of JP Morgan’s investment bank, the sources said.

It named Jes Staley as chief executive of the unit in a surprise shake-up on Sept. 29, which saw the departure of Bill Winters, its London-based co-CEO of investment banking. [ID:nN29127846]. Winters had always been keen on taking full control of the JV, one person said.

A deal has not yet been agreed and talks continue, Cazenove said. It declined further comment. JP Morgan declined comment.

JP Morgan owns 50 percent of the joint venture and Cazenove Group owns the rest under a deal struck five years ago. Both JP Morgan and Cazenove have the right to trigger a full takeover by the U.S. bank in February, under put and call options.

Price is likely to be the key issue, however, and there is limited transparency on the value of the venture.

It was valued at about 700 million pounds when JP Morgan bought its half in 2004.

Cazenove shares trade on an internal market, but only during narrow windows twice a year. They last traded at about 260 pence in March, up from 240p at the start of the year but down from 350p at the end of 2007.

Bank share prices have surged since March and the DJ Stoxx European Bank Index has rallied 90 percent.

One person, who owns shares in the company, said a deal at 500 pence per share “seemed reasonable”. This person was not involved in the discussions.

At that price Cazenove Group would be valued at just under 1 billion pounds and the joint venture at double that.

Just under half of Cazenove’s shares are owned by current staff, about 9 percent is owned by institutions and the rest are owned by former partners. There were 188.2 million ordinary shares in issue, according to its 2008 annual report.

David Mayhew, the chairman who joined Cazenove in 1969, owned 3.6 million ordinary shares, Finance Director Michael Power owned 1.9 million shares and Alan Carruthers, head of equities, owned 1 million, the report showed. Former directors Charles Bishop owned 1.8 million shares and John Paynter owned 2.1 million, previous reports showed.

JPMorgan Cazenove made a pretax profit of 134.5 million pounds in 2008, down 15 percent from the year before.

It has benefited this year from a rebound in financial markets and active equity and bond issuance, and it advised on bumper cashcalls by HSBC and Xstrata .

JPMorgan Cazenove is broker to 37 FTSE 100 companies and 93 FTSE 250 clients, well ahead of its nearest rivals UBS and Bank of America Merrill Lynch .

Microsoft on Friday capped off a week in which it released Windows 7 and snagged a deal with Twitter with quarterly earnings that easily beat the expectations of Wall Street analysts.

The Redmond, Washington-based software giant said net profit fell 18 percent in the first quarter of its fiscal year to 3.57 billion dollars, or 40 cents per share, from 4.37 billion dollars, or 48 cents per share, a year ago.

Revenue declined 14 percent in the quarter which ended on September 30 to 12.92 billion dollars.

It was the third quarter in a row of sliding revenue for the company founded by Bill Gates, but it surpassed analysts’ forecasts of 12.37 billion dollars.

Microsoft said its first quarter results would have been even better if it had not deferred 1.47 billion dollars in revenue related to Windows 7 pre-sales and an upgrade option program.

Taking this adjustment into account, earnings were 52 cents per share — far better than the 32 cents expected by analysts.

Microsoft shares soared 9.40 percent to 29.09 dollars in early trading in New York.

“We are very pleased with our performance this quarter and particularly by the strong consumer demand for Windows,” Microsoft chief financial officer Chris Liddell said in a statement.

“We also maintained our cost discipline, which allowed us to drive strong earnings performance despite continued tough overall economic conditions.”

Microsoft has been battered by weak worldwide demand for personal computers and is hoping to get a boost from the release Thursday of its much-heralded next-generation operating system Windows 7.

In a clear indication of the importance of the Windows 7 release, Microsoft said revenue from its Windows division fell to 2.62 billion dollars in the first quarter from 4.28 billion dollars a year ago.

Revenue was up slightly in the server division at 3.43 billion dollars from 3.42 billion dollars a year ago.

Business division revenue fell to 4.40 billion dollars from 4.95 billion dollars a year ago.

Revenue from entertainment and devices, which includes Microsoft’s XBox 360 game console and Zune MP3 music player, was flat at 1.89 billion dollars.

Revenue from online services, where Microsoft is battling Google and other Web giants, fell to 490 million dollars from 520 million dollars a year ago.

Microsoft did manage to get a jump on Google this week by reaching a deal to integrate Twitter messages into its new Internet search engine Bing.

Microsoft unveiled its real-time Twitter search feature at a Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco and said it also planned to incorporate status updates from social network Facebook into Bing.

Within hours of the announcement by Microsoft, search leader Google said it too had reached an agreement with the popular microblogging service to include Twitter updates in search results.

Bing already includes a Twitter search feature while Google said its product will be ready “in the coming months.”

An explosion at a fuel storage site sent earthquake-force shock waves across Puerto Rico’s capital Friday and set more than a dozen tanks on fire, sending up a tower of inky smoke that forced airliners to alter flight paths.

Seemingly miraculously, no one was reported killed by the blast at Caribbean Petroleum Corp. in the suburb of Bayamon. The cause was unknown.

The explosion at 12:30 a.m. was the equivalent of a 2.8 magnitude earthquake, according to the Puerto Rico Seismic Network. It shook people out of bed across metropolitan San Juan and shattered windows across the bay in colonial Old San Juan, one of many neighborhoods where onlookers gaped at the thick smoke boiling north toward the Atlantic Ocean.

Gov. Luis Fortuno declared a state of emergency for five municipalities, including San Juan and Bayamon, to receive federal funds for affected areas. Up to 1,500 people were evacuated from one neighborhood because of concerns over smoke contamination, he said.

Fifteen of the site’s 40 fuel tanks caught fire, but several tanks were no longer burning by Friday night, Fortuno said.

He said Puerto Rico still has a 24-day supply of fuel and assured residents six of the U.S. island’s seven fuel lines were operating.

The fire was contained, chief firefighter Pedro Vazquez said, and firefighters were spraying the rest of the fuel tanks at the facility with cold water and foam to reduce the risk of further blasts.

Fortuno said at least four people sought help for respiratory problems. Several drivers were hurt when the explosion shattered glass in their cars and two people suffered minor injuries at the U.S. Army’s Fort Buchanan, adjacent to the fuel storage site, which supplies Gulf gas stations across the island.

Gulf spokeswoman Frances Rios said all five workers who were inside the plant managed to escape without injury after realizing what was happening.

“They were able to get out of the place quickly,” said Rios, who is based in San Juan. She said the company’s facilities had been well maintained and it woudl be impossible to determine the cause of the blast before the fire was extinguished.

Marcial Orlando Felix, the top local official for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said a special team from the mainland would investigate the blast but would have to wait until the fire was out to enter the site.

Police and FBI agents were investigating graffiti found after the blast in a highway tunnel in the capital with the message: “Boom, fire, RIP, Gulf.”

“Everything is very preliminary at this point but obviously we’re looking into the graffiti and it’s a concern,” Figueroa Sancha said.

The tanks at Caribbean Petroleum hold about 10 percent of the gasoline consumed in the U.S. Caribbean territory, Consumer Affairs Secretary Luis Rivera Marin said. He said there was no risk of shortages, but the government ordered gasoline prices frozen anyway after some service stations raised prices.

The flames, which could be seen from miles away, intensified in the hours following the explosion and police chief Jose Figueroa Sancha said it would likely take several days to put out the fire.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration diverted plane traffic because of the smoke.

At a nearby top-security prison, armed guards stood watch as the first of the 2,400 inmates were loaded onto buses for prisons elsewhere on the island.

Experts from the Environmental Protection Agency were traveling to Puerto Rico to help monitor the capital’s air quality. In the meantime, environmental authorities urged people living near the plant to keep their windows shut.

i love polar bears

The United States on Thursday announced plans to designate more than 200,000 square miles in Alaska as critical habitat for polar bears, a key step towards increasing protection for the threatened species.

“Proposing critical habitat for this iconic species is one step in the right direction to help this species stave off extinction, recognizing that the greatest threat to the polar bear is the melting of Arctic sea ice caused by climate change,” Interior Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks Tom Strickland said in a statement announcing the move.

The habitat would cover 200,541 square miles (519,399 square kilometeters) and include barrier islands along Alaskas coast, sea ice habitat, land and rivers near the coast where the bears make their dens.

The United States listed the polar bear as a threatened species in May last year, saying climate change has caused a drastic loss of Arctic sea-ice, which is essential for the survival of the bears.

But although the Endangered Species Act calls for a critical habitat to be designated at the same time as a species is declared threatened, wildlife officials under the previous administration of president George W. Bush held off on naming the habitat area.

The Bush administration also pushed forward with the sale of offshore exploration leases in parts of Alaska where polar bears dwell, insisting that developing oil activities in Alaska would not harm the bears.

By contrast, Strickland said the administration of President Barack Obama “is fully committed to the protection and recovery of the polar bear.”

But the designated critical habitat for the bears would include “areas where oil and gas exploration activities are known to occur,” according to the Fish and Wildlife Services, the branch of the Department of the Interior in charge of nature conservancy.

Nokia, the world’s biggest mobile phone maker, took on the iconic iPhone on Thursday by suing US rival Apple for infringing 10 Nokia patents on mobile phone technology.

“The patents cover wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption and are infringed by all Apple iPhone models shipped since the iPhone was introduced in 2007,” Nokia said in a statement.

Nokia said it had filed the complaint against Apple on Thursday with the Federal District Court in Delaware in the United States.

“By refusing to agree appropriate terms for Nokia’s intellectual property, Apple is attempting to get a free ride on the back of Nokia’s innovation,” Ilkka Rahnasto, deputy head of Nokia’s legal department, said in the statement.

The company stressed that it had spent 40 billion euros (60 billion dollars) in research and development over the past two decades.

“The ten patents in suit relate to technologies fundamental to making devices which are compatible with one or more of the GSM, UMTS (3G WCDMA) and wireless LAN standards,” Nokia said.

Nokia earlier this month posted its first quarterly loss in a decade amid falling sales. Analysts said the poor results were partly due to the growing popularity of Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s Blackberry over Nokia models.

The Manpower Ministry (MOM) has ordered the contractor at the centre of Wednesday’s manhole explosion, Ohin Construction, to stop work on unused sewage pipes at Jalan Tauge and at the accident site at MacPherson Road.

Six Thai nationals, aged 27 to 50, were working on abandoned pumping mains in the sewers when the explosion occurred. Two of the injured are in intensive care and four are in the burns ward at Singapore General Hospital.

Following the explosion, a busy stretch of MacPherson Road was closed to traffic. The manhole was backfilled with cement compound on Wednesday night. No flammable gases were detected on—site, and this allowed MacPherson Road to be reopened to traffic on Thursday morning.

MOM is investigating to determine the source of the flammable gas and ignition. It has also instructed the contractor to review its risk assessment and safe work procedures involving confined space work.

“Work can only resume when MOM is assured that Ohin Construction can carry out such work safely,” said the deputy commissioner for Workplace Safety and Health Suresh Navaratnam.

Concerned, the Workplace Safety and Health Council sent out an email bulletin yesterday to industry stakeholders to remind them of safety measures.

These include checking and monitoring air quality for the presence of hazardous gases and the provision of adequate ventilation during work. An effective emergency response plan should also be established before the start of such work.

“The accident has underscored that such work … can be potentially catastrophic if not managed well, as a single incident can hurt many workers who may not be able to evacuate fast enough from a small and confined area,” said WSH Council chairman Lee Tzu Yang.

An official says a Malaysian woman has given premature birth to a boy on a domestic flight, minutes before it landed in Kuala Lumpur.

Liew Siaw Hsia gave birth on budget carrier AirAsia’s flight from Penang to Kuching on Wednesday.

AirAsia spokesman Nazatul Mokhtar said Friday that the flight was diverted to nearby Kuala Lumpur for an emergency landing when Liew started labor pains.

A doctor on the flight helped the 31-year-old deliver while the plane was still 2,000 feet (600 meters) in the air in its final approach to land.

Nazatul says both the mother and baby are healthy and will get lifetime of free flights. He says Liew was 27 weeks pregnant, 11 weeks short of the full term.

London’s Heathrow Airport has been voted the worst airport in the world for the second year running in a poll of 14,500 frequent fliers while Singapore’s Changi was again ranked as the best.

The survey participants, all member of airport lounge programme Priority Pass, rated Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport as the world’s second worst with Los Angeles International Airport coming third despite a recent $1 billion overhaul.

“A result that suggests anyone wanting a romantic break in Paris should avoid the Heathrow-Charles de Gaulle route if they don’t want to kill the mood,” said a statement from Priority Pass.

“Sadly, Heathrow remains firmly entrenched as the airport the world loves to hate,” added Jonathan French, head of brand for Priority Pass.

Also coming in the bottom five in the online poll were Frankfurt International and Miami International airports.

One of the few major countries whose travellers did not put Heathrow at or near the bottom of the list was the United States. U.S. fliers rated Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta and New York JFK as the worst.

At the other end of the scale, the poll conducted in September among fliers from 160 countries found that Singapore Changi topped the list of the world’s best airports followed by Hong Kong Chek Lap Kok.

This was the second consecutive year that these airports have come in the top two slots.

The favourite airport in Europe was Amsterdam Schiphol.

The respondents to the survey were all frequent travellers who have taken on average 17 flights in the past 12 months.

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn resigned from his position on the Yahoo! board, saying the US Internet giant no longer needed an “activist” director like him.

“I don’t believe that it is necessary at this time to have an activist on the board of Yahoo! and currently, my attention is focused on other matters,” Icahn, one of the company’s largest shareholders, wrote in a resignation letter to the board, a copy of which was provided by his office on Friday.

“As a result, I do not presently have the time that is necessary to devote to the business and affairs of Yahoo! required if a board member is to fulfill his fiduciary duties to the shareholders,” he added.

A spokeswoman for the investor, Susan Gordon, said in a statement that Icahn “indicated that there are a number of other companies on which he is currently focused.”

Icahn — a financier who has developed a reputation as a corporate raider — on Monday offered a six-billion-dollar loan to ailing lending giant CIT Group.

In late August Icahn sold 12.7 million shares in Yahoo!, cutting his stake in the company a month after it formed an Internet search partnership with software giant Microsoft.

Last November, following the decision of Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang to step down as head of the Internet firm, Icahn increased his stake in Yahoo! to 5.4 percent, up from the 5.0 percent he owned previously.

Icahn and Yang were involved in a very public dispute last year when Yang rejected a 47-billion-dollar takeover bid by Microsoft for the company he founded with a Stanford University classmate in 1995.

Icahn headed a shareholder revolt to oust Yahoo! leaders for bungling the Microsoft deal.

Yahoo! last year avoided an ugly show-down with Icahn, whose campaign to overthrow the board was ended by a truce that assured him three seats.

“Icahn was there to drive the sale to Microsoft,” said analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group in Silicon Valley.

“Microsoft doesn’t really want to buy Yahoo! and Yahoo! isn’t interested in being acquired. So, what’s he going to do? He probably figures his time is better spent elsewhere.”

Icahn’s sale of Yahoo! stock came a month after the company agreed to a Web search and advertising partnership with Microsoft.

“Carl has been an important member of the board and has helped us through some significant transitions,” Yahoo! said Friday in a release.

“We are all grateful for his active role shaping the future of Yahoo! and wish him well in all of his endeavors.”

In his resignation letter he also praised Yahoo!’s new chief executive Carol Bartz, who took over after Yang’s departure.

“Carol is doing a great job and I believe the Microsoft transaction will provide great long term benefits, the potential of which many still do not understand.”

childbirth is more of yielding, opening and softening.

What talking them? Opening of pelvis? Softening of what? Yielding to labour pains?

increased lung capacity for enhanced breathing.

Increased lung capacity is good !

About Prenatal Yoga

To keep in shape for labour, many expecting mums take on activities that focus on building strength and control.

This inadvertently makes labor more difficult as childbirth is more of yielding, opening and softening.

Therefore, prenatal yoga, a blend of postures, meditation and breathing from the Hatha and Kundalini traditions,

may be a more beneficial form of workout as compared to conventional forms of exercise.

Although some asanas have to be modified during pregnancy, the essence of prenatal yoga is perfectly suited to this period of expanded self-awareness.

What it does

This is a gentle and safe workout for mums-to-be in their second trimester.

Advantages include strengthened physical, emotional and mental preparation for childbirth, increased flexibility and muscle tone,

heightened mental focus and endurance, increased mindfulness for pregnancy, birth and parenthood, diminished stress, and increased lung capacity for enhanced breathing.

Many women who practice Yoga report their childbirth to be shorter, easier and a richer experience for themselves and their newborn child.

This class offers an environment where expecting mums can interact and offer support for one another.

u r a waste of time and u r wasting my time

siao!

 

in my imaginary conversation with a lost & found fren, the conversation went ’so how haf u been?’ to which i will answer ‘i got to know a weird person’

serious, this conversation has played itself out many times in my head

and the person keeps getting weirder

he sends emails to prompt a response to which he replies ‘thot u boh chap mi’  stop playing games!

i’m still lying low online….u don’t see me

 

incidentally, this was what i deduced from reading the results of the various personality types.  but the first time i took the MBTI quiz, i got a different result.  ENTP – The “Originator” though my F was a close 47% to T at 53%.

looks like the scales have tilted.

 

You are lucky because you are good at a variety of different things.

In general you are successful at things you are interested in, however you do have a tendency to get bored easily and sometimes don’t follow things through to completion. You should avoid jobs involving detailed, routine tasks and focus of careers where you have the freedom and flexibility to be creative and interact with other people. You have natural leadership skills without the need to always be in charge. This coupled with your creativity and energy allows you to inspire others and make them willing to work with you.

Some of your personality traits include:

* Project-oriented
* Bright and capable
* Warmly, genuinely interested in people; great people skills
* Extremely intuitive and perceptive about people
* Able to relate to people on their own level
* Service-oriented; likely to put the needs of others above your own
* Future-oriented
* Dislike performing routine tasks
* Need approval and appreciation from others
* Cooperative and friendly
* Creative and energetic
* Well-developed verbal and written communication skills
* Natural leaders, but do not like to control people
* Resist being controlled by others
* Can work logically and rationally – use your intuition to understand the goal and work backwards towards it
* Usually able to grasp difficult concepts and theories

Some of your suggested careers are:

* Consultant
* Psychologist
* Entrepreneur
* Actor
* Teacher
* Counselor
* Politician / Diplomat
* Writer / Journalist
* Television Reporter
* Computer Programmer, Systems Analyst, or Computer Specialist
* Scientist
* Engineer

About the LEGO Group
The name “LEGO” is an abbreviation of the two Danish words “leg godt” meaning “play well.” The LEGO Group, with its headquarter in Billund, Denmark, was founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Christiansen. It has come a long way over the past 70 years – from a small carpenter’s workshop to a modern, global enterprise that is now, in terms of sales, the world’s sixth largest manufacturer of toys.

cannot be taken for granted and

needs to be built on equal terms

we are not on equal footing

so we cannot be friends, even juz friends

i can’t

don’t tell me what u have done, are doing

u may not be conscious, as andie puts it

but i am

i haf decided to go into hiding from u, indefinitely

till i am unaffected

till den, u don’t see me