DUBAI &S212; Concern over the debts of Dubai&S217;s utility provider and losses at Nakheel, the builder of the emirate&S217;s palm-shaped housing development, affected markets Wednesday, drowning out assurances by top officials that Arab economies in the Gulf were sound.

The Dubai debt saga has shaken global investors since the emirate&S217;s Nov. 25 announcement that it wanted a standstill on $26 billion in debt owed by Dubai World as it restructured the government-owned company, which builds and operates everything from ports to luxury apartments.

Nakheel, the property developer owned by Dubai World, added to the already battered sentiment Wednesday after its financial statements showed liabilities increasing 7.2 percent to 73.3 billion dirhams, or $20 billion, in the first half of this year.

Nakheel said it had a first-half loss of 13.4 billion dirhams.

The Dubai stock index tumbled 5.9 percent to a 32-week low in midday trade, with construction and real estate companies all down by the daily limit.

The British bank Standard Chartered, which is one of Dubai World&S217;s creditors, said any losses that it suffered in Dubai were unlikely to be material.

Its shares have fallen 12 percent since Dubai World&S217;s announcement.

While Dubai has tried to separate its profitable companies from the debt restructuring, the exercise has led to credit downgrades for all government-linked companies amid investor fears that state aid would not be forthcoming if these companies ran into trouble.

Ratings agencies said such downgrades could lead to an accelerated payment clause for the $2 billion debt of Dubai&S217;s power and water provider, Dewa, though an official there dismissed the report as speculation.

Adding to confusion among investors, Dubai&S217;s finance chief said Tuesday that the emirate would need at least six months to restructure Dubai World.

According to a banker who is close to discussions between Dubai World and its creditors but not authorized to speak to the media, Dubai World had yet to show creditors a proposal.

Underscoring the grim mood, a group representing a minority of those who hold Nakheel bonds has written to Dubai World rejecting a standstill on payments, a person familiar with the matter, but not authorized to speak to the media, said Tuesday.

&S220;Investors, especially foreign institutions, want a strong statement from Dubai officials that they&S217;ve found a clear way to help these companies,&S221; said Samer al-Jaouni, general manager of Middle East Financial Brokerage. &S220;There&S217;s no reason to buy back into the market without having a clear picture on what&S217;s going on. Confidence has been lost.&S221;

Nakheel&S217;s Islamic bond maturing on Dec saving account payday loan. 14 fell three basis points to 47 cents on the dollar Wednesday, compared with 110 cents to the dollar just before Dubai World&S217;s announcement.

&S220;This does not really enhance Nakheel&S217;s ability to meet near-term obligations,&S221; said Roy Cherry, vice president research, real estate and construction at Shuaa Capital.

Dubai&S217;s government has said that its assets, including Emirates airlines, would not be involved in any sale aimed at plugging Dubai World&S217;s debt, though some assets belonging to Dubai World could be sold. Dubai World has already said assets from Istithmar World, including Barneys New York, a luxury retail chain; DP World, a profitable port operator; and the Jebel Ali economic zone, would not be part of the wider $26 billion debt restructuring program.

On Tuesday, it added its ship-building unit, Dubai Drydocks World, to the list of businesses not for sale.

Dubai&S217;s predicament stands in stark contrast to the boom years when it bought assets around the world, lured celebrities with luxury villas and exclusive hotels and courted the media with projects like the world&S217;s tallest building.

But while neighbors funded their economic growth with proceeds from soaring oil prices, Dubai borrowed heavily to transform itself into a trade and tourism hub for the region. Creditors apparently lent to Dubai companies on the understanding that they would be backed by the central government of the oil-exporting United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is a part.

President Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates sought to reassure markets again Wednesday, saying the country was determined to contain the effect of the global economic crisis on its &S220;solid&S221; economy.

The Saudi oil minister, Ali al-Naimi, echoed those remarks in a speech in Dubai, saying that the Gulf economies were strong despite anxieties over financial strains in the region.

In a sign of the struggles Dubai World could face to keep its prized assets, Istithmar World lost its W Hotel in New York in a foreclosure auction Tuesday. The hotel was sold for $2 million. Istithmar World bought the property for $282 million in 2006.

Company officials said the loss was unconnected to Dubai World&S217;s debt talks.

&S220;We are disappointed that the lender has chosen this route as we felt that real progress was being made in negotiations with the various lenders to restructure the debt&S221; of the hotel, a spokesman at Istithmar World said.

Reuters

Losses at Dubai World Unit Add to Jitters

WASHINGTON &<51; The Transportation Department imposed its first penalties for runway delays Tuesday, collecting $175,000 from three airlines for leaving 47 passengers of a regional jet stranded overnight in Rochester, Minn.

The agency said that Continental Airlines and its regional affiliate, ExpressJet Airlines, operating as Continental Express, had deceived passengers by promising, through a &S220;Customer First&S221; statement on Continental&S217;s Web site, to let passengers off planes within three hours when faced with an extended delay on the runway.

The two airlines argued that the promise was not enforceable by the government, but they agreed to pay $50,000 each in civil penalties.

A third airline, Mesaba, agreed to pay $75,000 because its employee told the Continental Express captain &<51; wrongly &<51; that the passengers could not be allowed into the terminal because the Transportation Security Administration was not present.

The Transportation Department said that Mesaba had shown &S220;indifference to the passengers&S221; that amounted to an unfair and deceptive practice. Mesaba also said it had not violated any law but agreed to pay the fine.

The flight, on Aug. 8, was supposed to go from Houston to Minneapolis but was diverted to Rochester because of bad weather. Continental Express does not serve Minneapolis, but asked Mesaba for help so the passengers could have access to the restrooms and vending machines.

A Mesaba ground agent, however, said the Transportation Security Administration forbade passengers from being in the terminal while it was closed. Later, however, the agency said that the passengers could have gotten off and reboarded if they stayed in the area inside the checkpoints, and that it had the ability to recall screeners in the middle of the night if necessary low fee pay day loans.

Instead, the passengers were kept on the plane from half past midnight until 6 in the morning, despite repeated efforts by the crew.

The secretary of transportation, Ray LaHood, said in a statement, &S220;I hope this sends a signal to the rest of the airline industry that we expect airlines to respect the rights of air travelers.

&S220;We will also use what we have learned form this investigation to strengthen protections for airline passengers subjected to long tarmac delays,&S221; Mr. LaHood said.

The department proposed a rule a year ago to require airlines to have a contingency plan for lengthy airport delays, and incorporate the plan into their contracts of carriage, which would make it easier for passengers to sue if the plans were violated. The department said that a final rule was expected by the end of the year.

The House of Representatives passed a passenger-rights bill earlier this year but it does not address runway delays, according to Kate Hanni, executive director of flyersrights.org, a consumer advocacy group. A Senate version, which does set limits on delays, is in the Commerce Committee and may reach the Senate floor early next year, she said.

&S220;I think it&S217;s awesome that the Department of Transportation has set down some punitive damages,&S221; Ms. Hanni said.

Airlines Pay For Stranding Passengers

LONDON (Reuters) – Cadbury Plc (CBRY.L) would prefer a merger with U.S. chocolate maker Hershey Co (HSY.N) rather than Kraft Foods Inc (KFT.N), the British company&&9;s chairman Roger Carr told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper.

However, he said both U.S. groups would fail if they cannot finance generous bids, the paper reported.

Hershey is considering launching a bid of at least &&6;17 billion for Cadbury as it seeks to trump a hostile &&6;16.5 billion offer by Kraft, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday.

"Clearly, whilst some potential offerors are more aligned with our business model than others, it is the value of the offer rather than the source of the offer that is our priority," Carr told the Sunday Telegraph.

Cadbury shares closed at 800 low fee payday loans.5 pence on Friday, valuing the company at about 11 billion pounds (&&6;16.5 billion). In recent notes, analysts have said Cadbury is worth about 850-900 pence a share.

"We&&9;re focused on delivering value to shareholders as a standalone pure-play confectioner," a Cadbury spokesman said on Sunday.

"We have always said that we would give proper consideration to any serious offer that delivers full value for the company. Unless and until we find ourselves in that situation we have nothing to comment upon." (Reporting by Julie Crust; editing by Jon Loades-Carter)

(&&6;1=.6645 Pound)

Cadbury prefers merger with Hershey over Kraft: report

Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong, back to camera, gives welcome address to APEC leaders, in Singapore, 14 Nov 2009Leaders of 21 Pacific Rim economies opened meetings in Singapore Saturday to discuss recovery from the global financial crisis and promotion of free trade.Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum leaders have stressed that the global recovery is still fragile, and more coordinated efforts are needed to overcome protectionism and maintain stable growth.U.S. President Barack Obama, on his first visit to Asia as president, arrives in Singapore from Japan within hours for the APEC meetings.Mr. Obama came under fire from some APEC leaders Saturday for allegedly backtracking on free trade.  Mexican President Filipe Calderon singled out Washington for "going in the opposite sense of free trade," while Russian President Dmitri Medvedev made the same point.Mr. Calderon mentioned increasing "buy American" clauses in U.S. legislation. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd spoke Saturday to propose a European Union-style model for cooperation, which he called the Asia-Pacific Community easy payday loans.U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said a high standard regional trade agreement under the Trans-Pacific partnership would be good for America.President Obama said Saturday the United States will engage members of the TPP, which consists of Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore.China's President Hu Jintao, speaking Friday at an Asia-Pacific meeting, said China is working hard to increase domestic demand, and he urged fellow Asian-Pacific leaders to work together to open up free trade.Mr. Hu said a major stimulus package and moderate adjustments to China's monetary policy are some of the other measures Beijing has taken. The meeting was also attended by around 800 of the world's business leaders.It was one of a series of gatherings leading up to Sunday's summit of APEC leaders.Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.

APEC Leaders Begin Meetings in Singapore

TOKYO &S212; Japan Airlines posted a $357 million loss in the latest quarter and said it was in fresh talks to suspend loan payments as the debt-ridden carrier awaited a formal go-ahead for a government-led bailout.

The airline&S217;s president, Haruka Nishimatsu, also said that it would be easier for JAL to remain within the OneWorld Alliance, seemingly giving its alliance partner American Airlines a lead over Delta in talks over a possible stake in the Japanese carrier.

Finances at JAL, which is the largest Asian carrier by revenue, have been battered by a falloff in passenger traffic in the wake of the global economic crisis. Massive pension obligations, an aging fleet and dozens of unprofitable routes have also weighed heavily on JAL&S217;s bottom line.

The carrier said Friday that its net loss sank to &<65;32.2 billion in the July-September quarter, compared to a &<65;40.1 billion profit a year earlier. Quarterly sales fell 26 percent to &<65;429 billion.

The Japanese government has said it stands by JAL and has instructed the carrier to apply for assistance from a state-backed corporate turnaround body, which could set the stage for a large injection of public funds.

The government-sponsored Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp. is studying whether the airline, which has already received three bailouts, will be able to restructure its $15 billion debt and stage a recovery.

Meanwhile, American and Delta Air Lines have shown an interest in acquiring a minority stake in the Japanese airline, which could bring a stronger foothold in Japan and access to JAL&S217;s routes in Asia.

The scramble to invest in JAL is part of a wider race by the world&S217;s biggest carriers to use alliances with global partners to expand their international reach payday loan lenders.

A tie-up with Delta would require that JAL defect to the SkyTeam alliance from OneWorld, a move that could result in financial penalties and require the Japanese and American governments to determine that the move does not violate antitrust laws.

&S220;Considering our past, continuing to stay as an American Airlines partner would make more sense,&S221; Mr. Nishimatsu told reporters in Tokyo.

&S220;Moving to a different aviation alliance would be costly&S221; and &S220;would take about two years,&S221; Mr. Nishimatsu said. &S220;We need to consider such factors.&S221;

In an effort to restructure its debt, JAL also said Friday it was seeking to suspend some loan payments through alternative dispute resolution, under which the carrier would negotiate with creditors through a third party.

The government has pledged to enlist a state bank to offer bridge loans to prevent the carrier from running short of cash and keep it airborne.

Japan is also considering legislation that would allow JAL to cut back on its pension obligations.

Shares in the airline fell 0.9 percent to &<65;106 in Tokyo ahead of the earnings announcement. JAL shares have lost half their value since the start of the year, despite a 10 percent gain in the Nikkei stock index during that time.

Japan Air Posts $357 Million Quarterly Loss

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Asian stocks rose for a fourth day on Wednesday as reports showed Chinese factory output jumped to a 19-month high in October, while the ailing U.S. dollar hovered near a 15-month low.

The Australian dollar slid briefly below US&&6;0.93 as other data showed new loans from Chinese banks were halved compared with September, leading dealers to take profits just before the currency could retest its October highs.

Nevertheless, other indications of China&&9;s economy were within expectations and gave no sign that the recovery that has led the global economy is petering out.

"China&&9;s recovery has extended into Q4 and this momentum looks set to continue into 2010," said Brian Jackson, strategist with Royal Bank of Canada in Hong Kong.

"Growth is still heavily reliant on policy stimulus, easy liquidity and government-directed investment, but we expect to see stronger external demand in the months ahead."

In the near term, further gains in equities may be getting more difficult as the year end approaches and some investors look to take profits from this year&&9;s strong rally. Asian and global stocks had gained about 4 percent in the last week alone.

U.S. markets also struggled to build on gains overnight, mostly closing slightly lower. (.N)

The MSCI index of Asia Pacific stocks outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) was up 0.4 percent on Wednesday, with the materials and consumer staples sectors outperforming, while Japan&&9;s Nikkei (.N225) rose 0.2 percent.

The Thomson Reuters index of regional shares ( no fax payday loans.TRXFLDAXPU) was down 0.15 percent.

Hong Kong&&9;s Hang Seng index (.HSI) rose 1.2 percent to within striking distance of its October high.

Shares of HSBC (0005.HK) (HSBA.L) were the top boost to the index, surging 4.7 percent after Europe&&9;s top lender said overnight it saw its first improvement in three years in U.S. consumer credit.

In currency markets, the U.S. dollar remained under pressure, though some analysts began to anticipate a corrective move higher as market participants begin to price in the fading effect of stimulus spending around the world.

"The USD correction, when it happens, is likely to be particularly vicious versus the Australian dollar (AUD), New Zealand dollar (NZD), Canadian dollar (CAD), South African rand (ZAR), and Brazilian real (BRL) given market positioning and valuations," Standard Chartered strategists said in a note.

The ICE Futures U.S. dollar index (.DXY), a measure of its value against six other major currencies, slipped 0.1 percent to its lowest since August 8.

The index is down 7.7 percent so far this year.

Oil edged above &&6;79 a barrel, after dipping a day earlier, as signs of robust economic growth in China offset mildly bearish U.S. industry data showing surprise increases in crude and distillate stockpiles.

(Editing by Kim Coghill)

Asia stocks up 4th day; China data supportive

WASHINGTON – Investment adviser Value Line Inc., its CEO and its former compliance chief have agreed to pay about $45 million to settle regulators' allegations the firm charged more than $24 million in bogus commissions on mutual fund trades.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced the settlement with Value Line, a firm that is well known in financial circles for its analytical publications and that also manages mutual funds. New York-based Value Line, chief executive Jean Buttner and former chief compliance officer David Henigson didn't admit or deny the SEC's charges in agreeing to the accord.

Value Line is paying a $10 million civil fine and about $24.2 million in restitution plus $9.5 million in interest. Buttner and Henigson are paying civil fines of $1 million and $250,000, respectively. The two also were barred from working for any brokerage firm or investment adviser or as officers or directors of any public company.

The SEC alleged that from 1986 to November 2004, Value Line channeled a portion of the mutual fund trades to its brokerage business, Value Line Securities Inc., in a so-called "commission recapture program."

Value Line arranged for unaffiliated brokers to execute the trades at a discounted commission rate of a penny or two per share. But rather than passing the discount on to the mutual funds, the SEC said, Value Line had the outside brokers bill the funds 0 cheap payday advance.048 cents per share and then "rebate" 0.028 cents to 0.038 cents a share to Value Line Securities.

Altogether, Value Line Securities received more than $24 million in phony brokerage commissions in this scheme while not performing any real brokerage services for the funds on those trades, according to the SEC. Value Line falsely advised the funds' independent directors and shareholders that Value Line Securities provided genuine brokerage services for the commissions it received, the agency said.

"Value Line misappropriated millions of dollars from the mutual funds they managed by artificially allocating fund trades and then charging the funds for phantom brokerage services," SEC Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami said. "Such blatant wrongdoing will not be tolerated."

Value Line said in a statement that the brokerage fees in question comprised less than 1.5 percent of its total revenue during the period. Management ended Value Line's associated brokerage practice in 2004, the statement said.

Value Line, execs paying $45M to settle with SEC

DETROIT &<51; General Motors said Friday that it would sell its Hummer brand, once a crucial part of its strategy to expand its lineup of sport utility vehicles, to a Chinese heavy equipment maker and a private investor.

The sale, to Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery, is another step in G.M.&S217;s rapid downsizing after emerging from a government-financed bankruptcy.

G.M.&S217;s talks with Sichuan Tengzhong were disclosed in June, and the agreement is still subject to regulatory approvals by the Chinese government. No terms were announced, but people with knowledge of the deal estimated the price at $150 million.

Shedding the Hummer brand was a welcome development for G.M., which was disappointed last week when a deal collapsed to sell its Saturn brand to the Penske Automotive Group.

&S220;This is one more enabler to General Motors getting down to its core brands and having a business that&S217;s better able to support the marketplace,&S221; a G.M. spokesman, John McDonald, said.

The automaker, which is 60 percent owned by the government, is now in the process of shutting down Saturn as well as Pontiac. G.M. is also trying to complete the sale of Saab to a Swedish company, and has agreed to sell a majority stake in its European brand, Opel.

Reducing the number of brands was among the conditions to which G.M. agreed in exchange for receiving $50 billion in loans from the government.

Once the brands are gone, G.M. will be left with four vehicle divisions &<51; Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC and Buick &<51; in the American market.

Hummer sales have dwindled in the last two years, as consumers shunned big, gas-guzzling S.U.V.&S217;s in favor of smaller, more fuel-efficient cars.

Sales of the brand peaked in 2006, when Hummer sold 71,000 vehicles in the United States. This year, through September, it has sold less than 9,000.

Sichaun Tengzhong plans to acquire Hummer through an investment entity in which it will hold an 80 percent stake, with 20 percent held by the Chinese entrepreneur Suolang Duoji payday loan companies.

Under terms of the agreement, G.M. will continue to make Hummers for the new owners for at least two years, at a Louisiana assembly plant. An additional Hummer model will be built at an Indiana plant operated by AM General, which sold the license for the brand to G.M. in 1999.

Sichuan Tengzhong will take over agreements with Hummer&S217;s 153 American dealers and 231 dealers in international markets.

The companies said in a statement that the current management team, including the chief executive, James Taylor, would remain. About 3,000 sales, manufacturing and corporate jobs will be preserved by the deal.

Mr. Taylor said in a statement that the new owners planned to offer alternative-fuel engines in Hummer&S217;s three models, as well as a diesel version to be sold outside North America.

&S220;Backed by a privately owned and well-capitalized company, we are going to be able to focus on providing customers with more efficient models that deliver Hummer&S217;s promise of authentic, purpose-built design and engineering,&S221; Mr. Taylor said.

The Michigan Economic Growth Authority recently approved a tax credit for Hummer valued at $20 million over 10 years as an incentive to base the brand in the state.

A representative of the new owners said Friday that they were &S220;evaluating locations in southeast Michigan for our U.S. headquarters and various locations in the U.S. for a long-term manufacturing base.&S221;

The Hummer deal is considered an important expansion for the Chinese auto industry outside of its home market. It also is the first foray into passenger cars by Sichuan Tengzhong.

G.M. Is to Sell Hummer To a Chinese Company

WASHINGTON (Reuters) &<51; Recent actions by credit card issuers prove that lawmakers should move up the date of new restrictions on interest rates and fees, Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, said Thursday.

Mr. Frank said that financial companies had taken advantage of a delay in putting the credit card changes in place by raising customers&S217; rates.

&S220;This is not the type of protection that should wait, and we should move forward,&S221; Mr. Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said Thursday during a hearing on credit card restructuring.

He said his committee would also take a more serious look at another credit card issue &<51; interchange fees.

Interchange fees are the fees that retailers like supermarkets and convenience stores pay to banks every time a customer uses a credit card.

Mr. Frank, along with another Democrat, Representative Carolyn B. Maloney of New York, have introduced legislation that would move up the date for the new credit card rules to Dec. 1, from Feb. 22, 2010.

The regulations were approved by Congress and signed into law this year by President Obama.

The rules will sharply restrict credit card issuers&S217; powers to raise interest rates on existing card balances, charge some types of fees, and burden cardholders with unreasonable penalties online cash advance lenders.

Legislation has also been introduced to give merchants greater access to negotiations with banks to establish interchange fees, but those bills are not close to becoming law.

Merchants contend the fees unfairly cut into their margins and drive up prices for consumers. Banks argue that the 50-year-old electronic payments system is efficient and based on a pricing system that benefits businesses and their customers.

The American Bankers Association told lawmakers that merchants paid a penny or two on each dollar of payment card transactions and that &S220;this is a very small price to pay for all of these benefits.&S221;

A recent study by the Merchants Payments Coalition &<51; which represents retailers like supermarkets and convenience stores &<51; said that rate was up to six times greater than fees in other countries.

Representative Jeb Hensarling, Republican of Texas, said Congress must be careful not to crack down too hard. He said the bill to increase the speed of credit card reforms and pending legislation to crack down on interchange fees could further restrict lending.

In House, a Bid to Hasten a Credit Card Law

One of the oldest names in computing is joining the race to sequence the genome for $1,000. On Tuesday, I.B.M. plans to give technical details of its effort to reach and surpass that goal, ultimately bringing the cost to as low as $100, making a personal genome cheaper than a ticket to a Broadway play.

The project places I.B.M. squarely in the middle of an international race to drive down the cost of gene sequencing to help move toward an era of personalized medicine. The hope is that tailored genomic medicine would offer significant improvements in diagnosis and treatment.

I.B.M. already has a wide range of scientific and commercial efforts in fields like manufacturing supercomputers designed specifically for modeling biological processes. The company&S217;s researchers and executives hope to use its expertise in semiconductor manufacturing, computing and material science to design an integrated sequencing machine that will offer advances both in accuracy and speed, and will lower the cost.

&S220;More and more of biology is becoming an information science, which is very much a business for I.B.M.,&S221; said Ajay Royyuru, senior manager for I.B.M.&S217;s computational biology center at its Thomas J. Watson Laboratory in Yorktown Heights, N.Y.

DNA sequencing began at academic research centers in the 1970s, and the original Human Genome Project successfully sequenced the first genome in 2001 and cost roughly $1 billion.

Since then, the field has accelerated. In the last four to five years, the cost of sequencing has been falling at a rate of tenfold annually, according to George M. Church, a Harvard geneticist. In a recent presentation in Los Angeles, Dr. Church said he expected the industry to stay on that curve, or some fraction of that improvement rate, for the foreseeable future.

At least 17 startup and existing companies are in the sequencing race, pursuing a range of third-generation technologies. Sequencing the human genome now costs $5,000 to $50,000, although Dr. Church emphasized that none of the efforts so far had been completely successful and no research group had yet sequenced the entire genome of a single individual.

The I.B.M. approach is based on what the company describes as a &S220;DNA transistor,&S221; which it hopes will be capable of reading individual nucleotides in a single strand of DNA as it is pulled through an atomic-size hole known as a nanopore. A complete system would consist of two fluid reservoirs separated by a silicon membrane containing an array of up to a million nanopores, making it possible to sequence vast quantities of DNA at once.

The company said the goal of the research was to build a machine that would have the capacity to sequence an individual genome of up to three billion bases, or nucleotides, &S220;in several hours.&S221; A system with this power and speed is essential if progress is to be made toward personalized medicine, I.B.M. researchers said.

At the heart of the I immediate payday loans online.B.M. system is a novel mechanism, something like nanoscale electric tweezers. This mechanism repeatedly pauses a strand of DNA, which is naturally negatively charged, as an electric field pulls the strand through a nanopore, an opening just three nanometers in diameter. A nanometer, one one-billionth of a meter, is approximately one eighty-thousandths the width of a human hair.

The I.B.M. researchers said they had successfully used a transmission electron microscope to drill a hole through a semiconductor device that was intended to &S220;ratchet&S221; the DNA strand through the opening and then stop for perhaps a millisecond to determine the order of four nucleotide bases &<51; adenine, guanine, cytosine or thymine &<51; that make up the DNA molecule. The I.B.M. team said that the project, which began in 2007, could now reliably pull DNA strands through nanopore holes but that sensing technology to control the rate of movement and to read the specific bases had yet to be demonstrated.

Despite the optimism of the I.B.M. researchers, an independent scientist noted that various approaches to nanopore-based sequencing had been tried for years, with only limited success.

&S220;DNA strands seem to have a mind of their own,&S221; said Elaine R. Mardis, co-director of the genome center at Washington University in St. Louis, noting that DNA often takes a number of formations other than a straight rod as it passes through a nanopore.

Dr. Mardis also said previous efforts to create uniform silicon-based nanopore sensors had been disappointing.

One of the crucial advances needed to improve the quality of DNA analysis is to be able to read longer sequences. Current technology is generally in the range of 30 to 800 nucleotides, while the goal is to be able to read sequences of as long as one million bases, according to Dr. Church, who spoke in July at a forum sponsored by Edge.org, a nonprofit online science forum.

Other approaches to faster, cheaper sequencing include a biological nanopore approach being pursued by Oxford Nanopore Technologies, a start-up based in England, and an electron microscopy-based system being designed by Halcyon Molecular, a low-profile Silicon Valley start-up that has developed a technique for stretching single strands of DNA laid out on a thin carbon film. The company may be able to image strands as long as one million base pairs, said Dr. Church, who is an adviser to the company, and to several others.

&S220;To bring about an era of personalized medicine, it isn&S217;t enough to know the DNA of an average person,&S221; said Gustavo Stolovitzky, an I.B.M. biophysicist, who is one of the researchers who conceived of the I.B.M. project. &S220;As a community, it became clear we need to make efforts to sequence in a way that is fast and cheap.&S221;

I.B.M. Joins Pursuit of $1,000 Personal Genome

WASHINGTON – The Securities and Exchange Commission has merged several offices and functions to create a division of risk, strategy and financial innovation.

The new division will be headed by Henry T.C. Hu, a professor of banking and finance law at the University of Texas, the agency announced Wednesday.

The division combines the SEC's Office of Economic Analysis, Office of Risk Assessment and other functions. It will assume those areas as well as strategic and long-term analysis, identification of new trends in financial markets, and risk to the financial system.

The move was the latest in a series of changes made by SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro, who took over in January and has revamped enforcement efforts following the agency's failure to discover the massive fraud scheme conducted for nearly two decades by Bernard Madoff payday loans.

The new division is the fifth at the SEC. The others are enforcement, trading and markets, investment management and corporation finance.

Also Wednesday, Schapiro and her British counterpart, Hector Sants, announced plans to look into common approaches for the U.S. and Britain to regulation of hedge funds and other financial market participants. They agreed to identify a common set of data that could be collected from hedge funds to help identify potential risks.

Sants is chief executive of Britain's Financial Services Authority. The two regulatory agencies have worked together on issues related to the financial crisis.

SEC creates new risk, strategy division

Chinese workers seen near tires at Chinese auto factory for buses in Beijing, 11 Sep 2009

The White House says the U.S. decision to impose additional duties on Chinese tire imports is intended to re-enforce fair trade rules, and not start a trade war.White House spokesman Robert Gibbs on Saturday rejected China's accusation that the U.S. move violates World Trade Organization rules.   Gibbs said the United States simply wants to enforce rules to create a trade system that is fair for everybody.   He spoke to reporters traveling with U.S. President Barack Obama to a health care event in the northern U.S. city of Minneapolis.  The White House announced Friday that President Barack Obama has decided to approve a three-year tariff aimed at restricting tire imports from China.  Chinese Minister of Commerce Chen Deming said Beijing strongly opposes what it calls a "protectionist" move.  He said China reserves the right to retaliate.The additional tariffs were requested by the U.S faxless payday loans. Steelworkers Union, which says that Chinese tire imports hurt the U.S. industry. The new tariffs will include an extra 35 percent duty on all car and light truck tires for the first year, to be followed by 30 percent the second year and 25 percent the third year.  An existing 4 percent duty is already in effect.  The powerful Steelworkers Union has argued that the rising imports of Chinese tires has resulted in the loss of thousands of American jobs.The tariff levels set by Mr. Obama are lower than the U.S. International Trade Commission recommended earlier this year, but media reports say they could still result in a significant drop in Chinese tire imports.Critics say the tariffs will hurt American consumers because they will increase prices and limit the choices available to buyers.

Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.

White House: U.S. Tariffs on Chinese Tire Imports Are Fair

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Monday ruled against American International Group in the giant insurer&&9;s legal battle with Starr International Co, affirming a July jury verdict that Starr did not breach a trust.

At issue in the case were two claims that AIG made against Starr International, which is run by former AIG Chief Executive Maurice "Hank" Greenberg.

AIG sought &&6;4.3 billion of damages to recover millions of its shares held by Starr and to get compensation for stock sold. AIG also claimed that Starr International breached an oral agreement that Starr&&9;s AIG shares would be used to fund an executive retirement scheme for generations of AIG employees.

In a 58-page written judgment, Judge Jed Rakoff in U.S. District Court in Manhattan underlined a jury&&9;s July 7 finding that prevented the bailed-out insurer&&9;s bid to collect &&6;4.3 billion in damages.

He also said, "The court finds that AIG has failed to prove SICO&&9;s liability on AIG&&9;s counterclaim for breach of an express trust."

A spokesman for AIG declined to comment on the judge&&9;s ruling bad credit cash loans.

AIG had sought to establish that there was the creation of an oral trust in 1970, entrusting Starr International to use a block of AIG shares acquired in a company restructuring for company retirement programs for AIG employees. It charged Starr with breach of that trust, and with a second claim of conversion related to sales of the stock for the company&&9;s own use.

The jury ruled on the two claims and the judge was left with a final decision on the breach of trust claim.

Rakoff wrote that "the law will not recognize such an oral trust unless the evidence of its creation is unequivocal ... this is a burden that AIG has not come close to shouldering."

The case is: American International Group v Starr International Company Inc 05-6283 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan)

(Reporting by Grant McCool)

U.S. judge rules against AIG in Starr case

WASHINGTON &<51; Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, no longer looks sleep-deprived.

He still works seven days a week, but earlier this month he took two days off &<51; for the first time in two years &<51; to attend his son&S217;s wedding. And he often gets home for dinner and even out to baseball games every few weeks.

As central bankers and economists from around the world gather on Thursday for the Fed&S217;s annual retreat in Jackson Hole, Wyo., most are likely to welcome Mr. Bernanke as a conquering hero. In Washington and on Wall Street, it would be a surprise if President Obama did not nominate Mr. Bernanke for a second term, even though he is a Republican and was appointed by President George W. Bush.

But the White House has remained silent. And despite Mr. Bernanke&S217;s credibility in financial circles, both he and the Fed as an institution have come under political fire from lawmakers in both parties over the handling of particular bailouts and the scope of the Fed&S217;s power.

He has been frustrated that many in Congress do not give the Fed what he believes is enough credit for what it has accomplished. Indeed, Mr. Bernanke has met privately with hundreds of lawmakers in recent months to explain the Fed&S217;s strategy.

Fellow economists, however, are heaping praise on Mr. Bernanke for his bold actions and steady hand in pulling the economy out of its worst crisis since the 1930s. Tossing out the Fed&S217;s standard playbook, Mr. Bernanke orchestrated a long list of colossal rescue programs: Wall Street bailouts, shotgun weddings, emergency loan programs, vast amounts of newly printed money and the lowest interest rates in American history.

Even one of his harshest critics now praises him.

&S220;He realized that the great recession could turn into the Great Depression 2.0, and he was very aggressive about taking the actions that needed to be taken,&S221; said Nouriel Roubini, chairman of Roubini Global Economics, who had long criticized Fed officials for ignoring the dangers of the housing bubble.

But Mr. Bernanke is hardly breathing easy. Unemployment is still at 9.4 percent, and the central bank&S217;s own forecasts assume that it will remain that high through the end of next year. Even if all goes according to plan, Fed officials said, Mr. Bernanke&S217;s current popularity could sink if the recovery proves slower than many people expect.

While the White House keeps mum about Mr. Bernanke&S217;s future, the leading Democratic candidates to replace him include Lawrence H. Summers, director of the National Economic Council; Janet L. Yellen, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco; Alan S. Blinder, a Princeton economist and former Fed vice chairman; and Roger Ferguson, another former Fed vice chairman.

Mr. Bernanke faces two major challenges. On the economic front, the Fed has to decide when and how it will reverse all its emergency measures and raise interest rates back to normal without either stalling the economy or igniting inflation.

On the political front, Mr. Bernanke is trying to defend the Fed&S217;s power and independence as the White House and Congress debate plans to overhaul the system of financial regulation.

Democrats like Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, contend that the Fed was too cozy with banks and Wall Street firms as the mortgage crisis was building. House Republicans, and some Democrats, complain that the Fed already has too much power.

&S220;Why does the Fed deserve more authority when institutionally it seemed to have failed to prevent the current crisis?&S221; asked Senator Dodd last month.

The political battle over President Obama&S217;s plan to overhaul financial regulation has put Mr. Bernanke in an awkward position.

Fed officials support the administration&S217;s proposals to put them in charge of systemic risk like the growth of reckless mortgage lending or the misuse of financial derivatives. But they chafe at the plan to shift the Fed&S217;s consumer-protection functions, which protect people from deceptive and unfair lending practices, to a new agency.

Mr. Bernanke has avoided publicly criticizing the White House&S217;s call for an independent consumer regulatory agency. While acknowledging that the Federal Reserve did nothing to stop mortgage practices during the housing bubble, Mr. Bernanke has argued that the Fed has since written tough new protections for both mortgage borrowers and credit card customers.

&S220;We think the Fed can play a constructive role in protecting consumers,&S221; he told the House Financial Services Committee last month.

Mr. Bernanke and other Fed officials now concede they failed to anticipate the full danger posed by the explosion of subprime mortgage lending. As recently as the spring of 2007, Mr. Bernanke still contended that the problems of the housing market were largely &S220;contained&S221; to subprime mortgages. When panic over mortgage-backed securities began spreading through the broader credit markets in late July 2007, Fed officials initially refused to cut interest rates.

By December 2007, Mr. Bernanke became increasingly convinced that the economy itself was in trouble but policy makers were unable to reach agreement and decided not to reduce interest rates.

At a meeting on Jan. 21, 2008, the Fed slashed the benchmark federal funds rate by 0.75 percent, to 3.5 percent, the biggest one-time reduction in decades. Nine days later, officials cut the rate again, down to 3 percent.

As the credit crisis deepened, Mr. Bernanke urged Fed officials to devise proposals that had never been tried before. They responded with a kaleidoscope of emergency loan programs to a wide array of industries.

&S220;He has had tremendous courage throughout this episode,&S221; said Frederic S. Mishkin, a professor at Columbia University&S217;s business school and a former Fed governor.

Amid the chaos, Fed and Treasury officials made numerous mistakes. Their original idea for the $700 billion to buy up bad mortgage assets held by banks has yet to get off the ground.

But economists say Mr. Bernanke&S217;s most important accomplishment was to create staggering amounts of money out of thin air.

All told, the Federal Reserve has expanded its balance sheet to $1.9 trillion today, from about $900 billion a year ago. Analysts now caution that Mr. Bernanke&S217;s job is only half complete. He will eventually have to reel all that money back. He has already laid out elements of the Fed&S217;s &S220;exit strategy,&S221; but Fed officials have been careful to say it is still too early to pull back any time soon.

Bernanke, a Hero to His Own, Can't Shake Critics

Wall Street opened modestly higher on Thursday as signs of continuing weakness in the job market sapped some of the momentum from big gains in overseas trading.

Financial shares led the way higher on Wall Street. At 10 a.m., the Dow was up 20 points, and the Standard &&8; Poor&S217;s 500-stock index and the Nasdaq were about 0.5 percent higher.

Futures trading had pointed to bigger gains before a report from the Labor Department showed that weekly unemployment claims had risen by 15,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted total of 576,000. The rise in jobless claims reflected layoffs in manufacturing, finance and trade companies.

Wall Street&S217;s early gains came after China&S217;s main stock market index staged its biggest one-day rally in five months, with a 4.5 percent rebound on Thursday that clawed back the previous session&S217;s steep loss.

Shares in most of the rest of Asia gained on relief that a two-week battering of the Chinese market had stopped &<51; at least for a day. The main indexes in Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan all gained at least 1.5 percent or more during the session, and indexes in Britain, Germany and France followed suit with gains of about 1 percent by early afternoon.

China&S217;s economy, and its often volatile stock market, has gained increasing power to affect investor confidence overseas. As the United States and Europe lurch toward recovery, many investors increasingly are looking to China to help lift the global economy and stoke financial markets.

China&S217;s economy is forecast to grow at least 8 percent this year. But fears that its comparatively muscular expansion could weaken amid tighter bank lending in the second half of 2009 briefly turned the country&S217;s main stock index into a bear market this week, clouding some of those hopes.

On Wednesday, the Shanghai composite index had closed down 4.3 percent, capping a string of sell-offs that has pushed the market down 20 percent in two weeks. Shares were bolstered Thursday by reports that the nation&S217;s stock regulator had approved new mutual funds this week to help underpin the market.

Investors have grown increasingly worried that an asset bubble may be forming in China, fueled by $586 billion in stimulus spending and an aggressive state-directed lending program that has led banks to hand out hundreds of billions of renminbi to businesses for infrastructure projects and other needs.

The mass of easy cash has helped China&S217;s economy expand at a 7.1 percent clip this year, and propelled a 90 percent rise in the Shanghai market. But some economists worry that the government&S217;s quick fix has been tilted too heavily toward investment, rather than consumption, setting the stage for unbalanced growth, a surge in bad loans and mounting government debt.

&S220;If you are worried about the pace of recovery, you are looking to see where growth is going to be,&S221; said Quincy Krosby, a market strategist at Prudential Financial.

&S220;To have a pullback is normal,&S221; she said. &S220;The question you have to worry about is, &S216;Is the Shanghai market a harbinger?&S217; &<60;&S221;

Economists say Chinese banks must now think about reining in aggressive lending. The central bank called last month for tighter supervision of loans, and China&S217;s Banking Regulatory Commission ordered banks to lift their reserve ratios for bad loans by January.

Investors around the world have also taken notice. Wall Street and indexes in London and Frankfurt are flat or have fallen since early August.

In many ways, Wednesday&S217;s sell-off on the Shanghai stock exchange represented a natural correction after the buildup that preceded it. &S220;I see this as long overdue, very much so. It&S217;s a healthy development,&S221; said Stephen Davies, chief executive of Javelin Wealth Management in Singapore.

Markets Weigh a Rise in Jobless Claims