IGIHE

Tag: InternationalNews

  • Facebook Faces Massive Stock Lockup Expiration

    {{The day Facebook (FB) investors have been dreading since the company went public is here.}}

    Wednesday is when 777 million more shares of the No. 1 social-networking company are unlocked and available for sale. The bulk of rank-and-file employees who put their financial lives on hold hoping to sell and lock in gains finally get their chance.

    These will be added to the 1.3 billion shares of Facebook stock trading, of its 2.2 billion shares outstanding, that already are giving Wall Street a case of indigestion.

    “For employees, there’s a lot of wealth tied up in this company,” says Daniel Bradley, professor of finance at the University of South Florida. “Employees might be worth a lot on paper, but there’s not much in the bank account.”

    This looming opportunity for employees to sell has been unnerving Facebook investors since the company went public May 18. Lockup period expirations are customary with initial public offerings.

    Employees, officers and early investors are typically required to wait several months before they can sell, preventing an avalanche of selling pressure to beat down a fledgling stock.

    Even with lockups in place, additional selling pressure often hurts stocks. Stocks usually fall 2% after an IPO lockup is lifted, says Jay Ritter, professor of finance at the University of Florida.

    But this is potentially even more significant for Facebook because of the:

    • {{Poor track record of past lockups.}} This latest unlock of shares is the third since the company went public. After the first lockup expired in mid-August, shares fell 6% to set a new all-time low at the time of $19.87. When the lockup expired the second time in late October, shares fell again, by 3% that time.

    • {{Massive size.}} This latest lockup releases far more shares than the two previous combined and is the biggest one scheduled for the stock. “Given the size, just from a pure economic standpoint, it should matter,” Bradley says.

    •{{ Sentiment.}} Investors have already been sour on Facebook stock, and the additional supply doesn’t inspire reason to buy. Shares are down nearly 50% from their IPO price at Tuesday’s close of $19.86.

    Despite the fears, though, the lockup is hardly a secret and large investors seem to be willing to buy Facebook at the $18.50 a share range, giving the stock some downward support, says Francis Gaskins of IPODesktop Premium.

    Facebook’s reaction will hinge on whether more or fewer employees than expected sell. Shares of online review site Yelp actually rose more than 20% in late August after a lockup because selling was smaller than anticipated, Bradley says.

    The same could happen at Facebook, while it’s unlikely, Bradley says. “To a certain extent, (the reaction) is based on market anticipation,” he says.

  • World War II Bomb Removed From Airport in Japan

    {{A Japanese military squad has safely removed a 250-kilogram (550 pound) World War II bomb found two weeks ago near the runway of a major airport in northern Japan.}}

    The team defused the rusty bomb Wednesday and then transported it away from Sendai Airport. More than 30 flights were canceled while they worked.

    Sendai Airport was heavily damaged by last year’s tsunami and the bomb was uncovered in construction related to its restoration.

    The airport was immediately closed, but troops piled hundreds of sandbags around the bomb so that flights could resume the next day.

    The airport was closed again Wednesday morning as the bomb was removed.

    The United States heavily bombed Japanese cities during World War II, and finding unexploded bombs is not unusual, even 67 years after Japan’s surrender.

  • Australia Solar Eclipse Delights Thousands

    {{Tens of thousands of tourists and astronomers gathered in northern Australia to glimpse a rare total solar eclipse.}}

    The eclipse, which occurs when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun, plunged parts of Queensland into darkness for just over two minutes.

    Estimates suggest the event, early on Wednesday, was viewed live by millions.

    A partial eclipse was expected in other parts of the region, including New Zealand and eastern Indonesia.

    The next total solar eclipse will not take place until March 2015.

    Onlookers gathered at vantage points, in boats and on hot air balloons to witness the rare phenomenon.

    There had been fears that cloudy weather would obscure the eclipse but the clouds parted just as it began, drawing cheers from the crowd as the full spectacle came into view.

    “Immediately before, I was thinking, ‘Are we gonna see this?’ And we just had a fantastic display – it was just beautiful,” said Terry Cuttle, from the Astronomical Association of Queensland.

    “And right after it finished, the clouds came back again. It really adds to the drama of it.”

    “It’s really cool. I’ve never seen anything like this before,” one young spectator at Palm Cove said.

    Temperatures dropped as the shadow of the moon blocked the sun, and animals reacted to the eclipse with confusion.

    “Wow, insects and birds gone quiet,” one tourist, Geoff Scott, tweeted.

    Scientists were set to use footage from underwater cameras at the Great Barrier Reef to investigate creatures’ reactions to the eclipse.

    Australian tour operators welcomed the surge in holiday-makers, with reports of some hotels being booked up more than three years in advance.

    State officials estimate that over 50,000 extra people visited Queensland to experience the phenomenon.

  • FBI Prepares Timeline for Gen. Patreus Probe

    {{In US, the CIA Director General David Petraeus and his alleged mistress Paula Broadwell took steps to conceal some of their online messages during their affair, the Associated Press reports, citing law enforcement officials.}}

    Petraeus and Broadwell would leave messages in the drafts folder of a shared Gmail account, according to a law enforcement official.

    This trick allowed them to see each others’ messages without creating an easily traceable email trail.

    “Petraeus and Broadwell apparently used a trick, known to terrorists and teenagers alike, to conceal their email traffic, one of the law enforcement officials said.

    Rather than transmitting emails to the other’s inbox, they composed at least some messages and instead of transmitting them, left them in a draft folder or in an electronic “dropbox,” the official said.

    Then the other person could log onto the same account and read the draft emails there.

    This avoids creating an email trail that is easier to trace.”

    The Washington Post reports that this tactic has been used by al-Qaeda terrorists as far back as 2005.

    The Post notes that using draft mode rather than hitting “send” on an email leaves less of an electronic trail.

    When messages are actually sent, ” both accounts record the transmission as well as such metadata as the IP addresses on either end, something the two seemed to be seeking to avoid,” the Post notes.

    Between 20,000 and 30,000 pages of emails between Petraeus and Broadwell sent from 2010 to 2012 are currently under investigation.

  • 20 States Want to Secede From The USA

    {{More than 100,000 Americans have petitioned the White House to allow their states to secede from the US, after President Barack Obama’s re-election.}}

    The appeals were filed on the White House’s We the People website.

    Most of the 20 states with petitions voted for Republican Mitt Romney.

    The US constitution contains no provisions for states to secede from the union. By Monday night the White House had not responded.

    In total, more than 20 petitions have been filed. One for Texas has reached the 25,000-signature threshold at which the White House promises a response.

    The last time states officially seceded, the US Civil War followed.

    Most of the petitions merely quote the opening line of America’s Declaration of Independence from Britain, in which America’s founders stated their right to “dissolve the political bands” and form a new nation.

    Currently, the most popular petition is from Texas, which voted for Mr Romney by some 15 percentage points more than it did for the Democratic incumbent.

    The text complains of “blatant abuses” of Americans’ rights.

    It cites the Transportation Security Administration, whose staff have been accused of intrusive screening at airports.

  • N. Korea Tests Long-Range Missiles

    {{North Korea has conducted motor tests to improve its long-range missiles after a failed launch in April, a U.S. think tank said Monday after reviewing new satellite images.}}

    Since the embarrassing flop in April, the communist regime appears to have carried out at least two tests of large motors needed for rockets and worked on a launch platform, the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University said.

    The institute examined commercial images of the Sohae satellite launch station between April and September and found that 34 fuel tanks had been moved and vegetation appeared to be burned, next to a flame trench stained with an orange residue.

    Such fuel tests would boost development of engines for the Unha-3, the rocket which North Korea unsuccessfully launched in April, or what seemed to be a new, longer-range missile displayed at a military parade the same month.

    Some analysts believe that a North Korean rocket, if successfully developed, could eventually reach the range to hit the United States.

    Nick Hansen, an expert on imagery analysis, said that North Korea may step up action after elections in both the United States and South Korea, the regime’s two primary foes.

    “In the aftermath of the U.S. and South Korean presidential elections, Pyongyang may embark on a new round of activities in the first half of 2013, including rocket and nuclear tests that will contribute to further development of its nuclear deterrent,” he wrote on the institute’s blog, 38 North.

    South Korea’s defense minister, Kim Kwan-Jin, said last week that North Korea had completed preparations for another nuclear test and long-range missile launches.

    However, 38 North in September reported a work stoppage at a new launch pad for intercontinental missiles — possibly due to rain — that could set the project back by up to two years.

    North Korea defiantly went ahead with the rocket launch in April, saying it was trying to put a satellite in orbit, but it disintegrated just two to three minutes after blast-off.

    The test put a halt to the latest international effort to engage the isolated state, with the United States calling off plans to deliver badly needed food assistance.

  • Mossad Tried to Kill Saddam With Exploding Book

    {{The Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, which has a long history of using techniques like exploding phones and assassins in wigs to take out Israel’s enemies, tried and failed to kill Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein with a book bomb in the 1970s, according to documentary that airs in Israel Monday night.}}

    But the film “Sealed Lips” says that the notoriously paranoid Hussein refused to open the package containing the book himself, and instead had another Iraqi official open it.

    The official was killed. Brigadier-General Tzuri Sagi, the mastermind of the alleged operation, told filmmakers the device was prepared by an Israeli bombmaker identified only as “Natan.”

    The movie, which details the career of Yitzhak Yofi, head of the Mossad from 1974 to 1982, reveals that Mossad also used a letter-bomb in a failed hit on Nazi Alois Brunner, Adolf Eichmann’s right-hand man in the extermination of Jews.

    Brunner had been living in Syria for decades. He is reported to have died of natural causes in 1996.

    The alleged attempt on Saddam Hussein’s life had previously been unreported, though two subsequent alleged Mossad assassination attempts in 1992 and 1999 have been mentioned in the media.

    In the early 1970s Israel was believed to have been assisting the Iraqi Kurdish separatist guerillas via the Shah of Iran’s special forces.

    Iraq and Iran fought a bloody war from 1980 to 1989.

    In 1991, during the first Gulf War, Saddam Hussein bombed Tel Aviv and Israel’s main seaport Haifa with Scud missiles.

    The Mossad has a rich history of targeted assassinations, mainly against Palestinian faction leaders.

    In the 1970s, Israeli agents killed a member of Black September, which was responsible for the 1972 Olympics massacre, by detonating his telephone.

    Most recently, a hit squad made up of dozens of men and women traveling on fake passports and wearing disguises that included wigs and tennis outfits were believed to have assassinated Hamas leader Mahmoud al Mabhouh in his Dubai hotel room in 2010.

  • Australia PM Gillard Orders Child Abuse Probe

    {{Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has announced a national inquiry into institutional responses to the sexual abuse of children.}}

    The move followed pressure from lawmakers amid police claims the Roman Catholic Church had concealed evidence of paedophile priests.

    The inquiry will look at religious groups, NGOs and state-care providers as well as government agencies.

    Ms Gillard said a Royal Commission was the best way to investigate the claims.

    Late last week, the state of New South Wales announced an inquiry after a top policeman, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, accused the church of trying to silence investigations into allegations of abuse.

    Chief Inspector Fox, who had investigated several cases of sexual assault over 35 years, had called for a Royal Commission in an open letter.

    “I can testify from my own experience that the church covers up, silences victims, hinders police investigations, alerts offenders, destroys evidence and moves priests to protect the good name of the church,” he wrote.

    A separate parliamentary inquiry into church sex abuse began last month in Victoria.

  • Iran Tests New Air Defense System

    {{Iran’s state TV says the military will test a new air defense system modeled after the U.S. Hawk system.}}

    Monday’s report says the surface-to-air system has been named “Mersad,” or Ambush.

    The report says it’s capable of locking a flying object at a distance of 80 kilometers (50 miles) and can hit it from 45 kilometers (30 miles) away, using Iranian-made missile Shahin, or Hawk.

    The TV says Mersad will be tested during the military exercises that started last weekend.

    Billed as “massive,” the week-long drill is also to include Iranian jet fighters, drones and about 8,000 troops and will cover nearly the entire eastern half of Iran.

    The drill is meant to upgrade Iranian capabilities amid escalating tensions with the West over Tehran’s suspect nuclear program.

  • China Increases Development on Disputed Island

    {{China is to ramp up development on a disputed South China Sea island, a local government chief has said, in a move likely to stoke a growing territorial row with its neighbours.}}

    The development of roads, water supply and drainage systems will be stepped-up in the new “capital” city of Sansha on Yongxing, one of the islands that make up the disputed Paracel chain, Luo Baoming, Communist Party secretary of southern Hainan Province told state television on Saturday.

    Luo also said steps will also be taken to enforce China’s “legal rights” in the region, which includes other island chains which are the subject of competing claims by Asian countries.

    Beijing enraged Vietnam and caused concern in Washington when it announced the establishment of a new city and military garrison at Sansha in July.

    The island, under the control of Hainan Province, will have administrative control over a region that encompasses not only the Paracels, but Macclesfield Bank, a largely sunken atoll to the east, and the Spratly Islands to the south.

    The sovereignty of each remains a matter of dispute.

    “To safeguard our legal rights in the South China Sea, we are now coordinating between the relevant departments in order to set a more unified, and efficient law enforcing body,” Luo said.

    Domestic media reported in August that work had begun on sewage disposal and waste collection facilities for the island’s roughly 1,000 residents.

    Beijing claims most of the South China Sea, which is home to vital shipping lanes and substantial proven and estimated oil and gas deposits.

    Taiwan and ASEAN members the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia all have rival claims on areas of the sea, while the United States is also watching China’s increased assertiveness closely.

    The announcement in July that Sansha would be established led to a formal protest being lodged by Vietnam, which said it violates international law.

    The Philippines, which is involved in a dispute over the Spratly Islands, summoned the Chinese ambassador to lodge a complaint against the garrison announcement.