SEOUL, May 1: South Korean exports fell in April for the third time this year, hit by crisis-battered Europe and prompting the government to warn of a downgrade of its target for exports, the main engine of growth in Asia’s fourth-largest economy.
Exports shrank 4.7 percent in April from a year earlier, data from the Ministry of Knowledge Economy showed on Tuesday, a bigger drop than the 1.5 percent fall forecast in a Reuters survey and following a revised 1.4 percent decline in March.
The government’s projection for about 7 percent growth in exports for the whole of this year will now need to be lowered, a deputy minister told reporters, citing the euro zone crisis and a slowing Chinese economy.
Analysts said the depressed exports and separate data on Tuesday showing that inflation in April eased to a 21-month low, also short of forecasts, put pressure on South Korea’s policymakers to shift their focus further toward fostering growth and away from fighting consumer price rises.
South Korea’s economic growth has been lacklustre, at a 2.8 percent annual rate in the first quarter, while the central bank and private economists have lowered full-year forecasts as concerns mount over the uncertain global economic outlook.
TROUBLES IN EUROPE
‘We initially didn’t expect the EU fiscal crisis to deteriorate further and thought our exports to China would hold up even if economic growth there slows. But China’s exports are falling substantially,’ Deputy Minister Han Jin-hyun said.
‘Because of factors like the EU fiscal crisis, China and the base effect from (high exports to) Japan, we think (exports and the trade surplus) will be smaller than initially expected.’
The ministry has said overseas sales by the world’s seventh-largest exporter would increase to $595 billion this year from $555 billion in 2011, while the trade surplus would be $25 billion versus $31 billion last  year.
Exports to the European Union fell 16.7 percent in the first 20 days of April from a year earlier, more than eclipsing small rises in exports to China and the United States. Those three markets account for 44 percent of South Korea’s exports.
Inflation in April eased for a second consecutive month to 2.5 percent on a year-on-year basis, the slowest pace since July 2010, led by farm products, although some costs for travel and private education rose.
‘Although the economy didn’t weaken sharply, momentum remains weak, and so there is an increased possibility that the Bank of Korea will prioritise growth over inflation,’ said Lee Sang-jae, chief economist at Hyundai  Securities.
Still, he said the Bank of Korea, whose official rhetoric has until now put its policy priority on lowering inflation expectations, would likely adopt a wait-and-see stance for some time while assessing the global economy’s  performance.
Financial markets in Seoul were closed on Tuesday for Labour Day.
The Bank of Korea has left the policy interest rate, its 7-day repurchase agreement rate, steady at 3.25 percent for 10 consecutive months after raising it by a total of 125 basis points between July 2010 and June  2011.
Its next policy review is on May 10 and the market consensus is that the central bank will stay on hold at least for the remainder of the year.
(AGENCIES)

NEW DELHI, May 1: Telecom tribunal TDSAT has held that sports broadcaster Neo Sports is entitled to 7 per cent increase in subscription fee for its channels from ADAG group firm Reliance Big TV, which provides Direct-to-Home service.
“Petitioner (Neo Sports) is entitled to 7 per cent increase on the subscription fee on and from January 1, 2009,” said a TDSAT bench headed by its Chairman Justice S B Sinha.
The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) further said that BiG TV “must allow the Petitioner to audit its system within two weeks from date” for calculation of the average number of subscribers.
Big TV had subscribed to the sports broadcaster’s two channels – Neo Cricket and Neo Sports – for its DTH platform.
The TDSAT’s direction came over the plea of Neo Sports, which had entered into an agreement with the ADAG group firm in June 2008.
As per the terms and conditions, Reliance Big TV had to pay the bouquet rates (at 50 per cent of the one fixed by sectoral regulator Trai) for Non-CAS areas, which came to about Rs 19.37.
However, in December, 2008, Trai brought out new regulations and allowed broadcasters a hike of seven 7 per cent from January 2009.
Following that, the Neo Sports bouquet rate came to Rs 20.73. Later, based on the SMS records submitted by Big TV, Neo Sports raised invoices.
However, dispute arose over the payability of subscription fees as per the terms of their agreement. Neo also questioned the subscriber number given by Big TV.
Neo Sports had approached TDSAT on March 31, 2011 seeking directions to Big TV for paying Rs 6.2 crore along with 18 per cent interest. (PTI)

SINGAPORE, May 1: Oil was down in quiet Asian trade today on forecasts of a US stockpile gain as well as amplified worries over the eurozone after Spain announced that it had fallen into recession, analysts said.
New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in June, shed 15 cents to USD 104.72 per barrel and Brent North Sea crude for June delivery retreated 16 cents to USD 119.31.
Stock markets in China, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand are closed today for a public holiday.
Expectations of a build-up in US crude inventories coupled with heightened worries over the economic state of the eurozone weighed on crude prices, said Jason Hughes, head of premium client management for IG Markets Singapore.
“The estimates coming in that US stockpiles would have increased yet again and also the uncertainty that still remains over the eurozone and the Spanish officially entering recession for the second time since 2009” hit crude prices, he told.
An analyst poll forecast that US crude stockpiles would rise by 2.3 million barrels for the week ended April 27, representing another increase in inventories after a larger than expected spike recorded last week.
The stockpile gains indicate flagging energy demand in the world’s largest oil consumer, which is bearish for oil markets.
Meanwhile, Spain’s announcement late Monday that it had officially entered a recession after its economy contracted for the second straight quarter aggravated trader fears over the state of the troubled eurozone economy. (AGENCIES)

MELBOURNE, May 1: A new Australian study has found that obese women face discrimination when applying for jobs.
Researchers from Monash University undertook the study to analyse a series of resumes with a photo of the applicant. It was found that obese women were more likely to face discrimination when applying for a job and more likely to be paid less than their slimmer colleagues.
The university’s Kerry O’Brien was qouted by the report as saying that discrimination against obese candidates was strong in all job selection criteria, including starting salary and leadership potential.
“If they’re less likely to be in high-status jobs, it’s not because they’re lazy and stupid – which are some of the stereotypes – it’s because we actually put them there because we discriminate against them,” he said.
“We know that lower socio-economic status is associated with greater obesity, so really it’s becoming a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy with this discrimination,” he added.
It was also found that the more highly the participants rated their own physical attractiveness, the more likely they were to discriminate against obese candidates. The findings have been published in the International Journal of Obesity. (PTI)

WASHINGTON, May 1: Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney today rejected allegations of the Obama Campaign, saying he would have given the order to kill al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.
“Of course,” Romney told reporters when asked whether he would have ordered killing of the most dreaded terrorist of the world in Pakistan.
“Even Jimmy Carter would have given that order,” 65-year- old Romney said at a campaign event in New Hampshire campaign.
Former president Carter is criticised by Republicans as a weak leader during his White House tenure. He approved a failed military mission in 1980 to rescue US hostages in Iran. He also was a vocal opponent of the 2003 Iraq war.
Romney’s remarks after President Barack Obama’s campaign released an ad that notes that during his first presidential run, he said in an April 2007 interview that “it’s not worth moving heaven and earth, spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person.”
“I assume that people meant what they said when they said it. That’s been at least my practice. I said that I’d go after bin Laden if we had a clear shot at him, and I did. If there are others who have said one thing and now suggest they’d do something else, then I’d go ahead and let them explain it,” Obama said at a White House news conference.
Romney’s spokeswoman Andrea Saul alleged Obama was indulging in politics.
In a statement, she said Obama was using the anniversary of bin Laden’s death as “a cheap political ploy” that she said distorted Romney’s policies on fighting terrorism.
“While the Obama administration has naively stated that ‘the war on terror is over,’ Gov. Romney has always understood we need a comprehensive plan to deal with the myriad threats America faces,” Saul said. (PTI)

BAMAKO, May 1: Mali’s military junta said today it remained in control of key sites in and around the capital after an attempted counter-coup backed by foreigners, according to a message aired over state  television.
“Elements from abroad, supported by some obscure forces within the country, carried out these attacks. Some of them have been arrested,” a junta officer said in the television message.
Minutes earlier the junta issued a scrolling message over state television claiming it remained in control of the state broadcaster building, the airport, and a major military base in Kati, just outside the capital Bamako.
Fighting erupted late on Monday with presidential guard units loyal to ousted President Amadou Toumani Toure deploying throughout the capital.
A Reuters witness near the broadcaster’s main building said that gun and heavy weapons fire continued near the building into Tuesday morning. Another witness near the airport added gun fire was also continuing there.
A Reuters witness overnight saw a pro-junta military officer in the capital standing over two corpses in presidential guard uniforms, showing what he said were tribal tattoos proving they were from Burkina Faso.
Mutinous soldiers angered by the government’s handling of a rebellion by Tuaregs in the vast desert north toppled President Amadou Toumani Toure on March 22, forcing him to flee the country for neighbouring Senegal.
The coup, which pre-empted a planned April election meant to replace Toure, has drawn broad international criticism as a major setback for regional democracy. The northern rebels took advantage of the chaos to seize several northern towns, effectively taking control of two-third of the nation.
Mali’s ruling junta has named an interim government in a first step to restoring constitutional order since the coup, but it has balked at a plan by regional bloc ECOWAS to send more than 3,000 troops to help oversee a one-year  transition.
(AGENCIES)

GRAND JUNCTION, CO, May 1: A Colorado man wrongly convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the rape and murder of a woman found strangled with a dog leash was exonerated on the basis of new DNA evidence and set free yesterday after spending more than 16 years behind bars.
Robert “Rider” Dewey walked out of a courthouse in Grand Junction, Colorado, a free man after a judge yesterday found him innocent of the 1994 killing and said his exoneration marked a “historic day” for the state.
“Mr. Dewey spent 6,219 days of his life incarcerated for a crime he did not do,” Mesa County District Judge Brian Flynn said during the brief hearing. “This is a reminder to the entire system that it’s not perfect.”
Flynn said prosecutors had not committed misconduct, Dewey had been represented by good defense attorneys, and an impartial jury had heard the case but added: “Despite all these things, the system didn’t work.”
Prosecutors announced earlier on Monday they were seeking an arrest warrant for a new suspect in the 1994 killing who was identified by DNA testing and is already serving a life sentence for a similar 1989 murder.
Dewey was sentenced to life without parole for the rape and murder of 19-year-old Jacie Taylor in the western Colorado town of Palisade. Taylor’s partially clothed body was found in her bathtub in June 1994. She had been beaten, sexually assaulted and strangled with a dog  leash.
Dewey, wearing a blue dress shirt and slacks and long brown hair held in place by braids, left the courthouse with his attorneys and pen-pal girlfriend Angela Brandenberg, who had not met him in person until Monday’s  hearing.
His first act of freedom was to inhale deeply from a burning sprig of sage lit by Brandenburg, which he described as a Native American ritual.
“I get to step outside there, touch a tree, get a dog and kiss my girl,” he said on his release. A smiling Dewey also told reporters he was not angry about the injustice, asking, “What good would it do me?”
“They threw me into a dark hole with just a pinhole of light,” he said. “I had to stay positive.”
Dewey said his immediate plans were to take his mother, stepfather and Brandenberg to the best restaurant in Grand Junction, about 250 miles (400 km) west of Denver, and order a filet mignon.
The latest DNA testing ruled out Dewey as the source of blood found on a shirt that also bore blood stains from Taylor. The original DNA analysis had already excluded him as the source of semen recovered from the crime scene and of scrapings taken from under the victim’s fingernails.
New analysis showed those additional samples matched the DNA of Douglas Thames, who is serving a life sentence without parole for the 1989 rape and strangulation of Susan Doll, 39, of Fort Collins, according to court papers filed in the Dewey case.
‘I WISH YOU THE BEST’
In asking for the conviction to be set aside, Assistant District Attorney Rich Tuttle, who handled the original prosecution, told Dewey: “I deeply regret what the system did. I wish you the best and I mean that  sincerely.”
Dewey replied: “Thank you, sir.”
Mesa County District Attorney Peter Hautzinger said before the court hearing that he felt “deep regret” for Dewey’s conviction and told reporters his office was seeking an arrest warrant against Thames in connection with the Taylor slaying.
He explained that Thames was not arrested in the Doll case until after Dewey’s 1995 arrest in the Taylor murder, and Thames’ DNA information was not contained in a statewide database for inmates back then.
Dewey’s exoneration came on the same day that two men who spent nearly 30 years in prison for a brutal sexual assault and attempted murder were declared innocent in Texas after DNA evidence pointed to other men.
Post-conviction DNA testing has exonerated close to 290 people in the United States since 1989, according to the Innocence Project, which works to reverse wrongful  convictions.
In the Texas case, James Curtis Williams, 54, and Raymond Jackson, 67, had been sentenced to 99 years in prison for the November 1983 assault of a Canadian woman who identified them in a lineup as her attackers.
The woman had been abducted from a parking lot at gunpoint, repeatedly assaulted and then shot when she tried to flee and left for dead in a field.
Two other men who were connected to the crime through DNA testing have been charged with attempted capital murder, said Russell Wilson, supervisor of the Dallas County District Attorney’s conviction integrity unit. (AGENCIES)

UNDATED, May 1: A rash of incidents involving envelopes containing a suspicious white powder had police scrambling around New York City and forced the nation’s fourth-biggest bank, Wells Fargo & Co, to shut down five  branches.
In all six cases, the substance turned out to be “non- hazardous,” and in one case, the powder was identified as corn starch, a police spokesman said yesterday.
Four of the mailed envelopes contained an identical note, which included the language “Happy May Day,” the spokesman said.
The incident comes on the eve of a planned day of protests organized by the Occupy Wall Street movement and labor groups across the country. According to a website called maydaynyc.Org, demonstrations are planned in New York City against “the corporations who rule our city.”
Ed Needham, a member of Occupy Wall Street’s New York media team, said he had found no connection between the incident and his movement. “It doesn’t sound like something that we would do,” he said.
A spokesman for Wells Fargo said its branches would remain closed pending further investigation by the police. The branch locations include Third Avenue and 47th Street; Madison Avenue and 34th Street; and Broadway and 85th  Street.
Since it was launched eight months ago, Occupy Wall Street has targeted US financial policies it blames for the yawning income gap between rich and poor – between what they called the 1 per cent and the 99 per cent.
More than 500 protesters demonstrated at the bank’s annual shareholder meeting in San Francisco last week to express anger over foreclosures, executive compensation and corporate taxes.
Among other large banks, spokesmen for Bank of America Corp and JPMorgan Chase & Co said they had not closed any branches on Monday due to suspicious envelopes. A Citigroup spokesman had no immediate comment.
San Francisco-based Wells Fargo is the fourth-largest US bank by assets.
(AGENCIES)

LOS ANGELES, May 1: Two sailors killed in a mysterious crash at sea that reduced their vessel to ruins during a yacht race from California to Mexico died of blunt-force injuries, while a third crewman drowned, coroners reported yesterday.
The finding of blunt-force trauma in two of the deaths aboard the 37-foot sailboat Aegean was further indication the impact was a powerful one. A fourth sailor was still missing as investigators sought to determine if the yacht struck another vessel, presumably a larger ship, or a land  mass.
Race organisers said the Aegean disappeared from satellite tracking at about 1:30 a.M. On Saturday, and the US Coast Guard said bodies and debris from the yacht were found near the Coronado Islands off the northwestern coast of Mexico.
The fatal wreck follows an April 14 sailboat racing accident at the Farallon Islands off the coast of San Francisco, which killed five sailors and led the US Coast Guard to suspend racing in the Pacific Ocean off northern  California.
The San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office said in a statement that Aegean sailors Kevin Rudolph, 53, and William Johnson Jr., 57, died of blunt-force injuries while Joseph Stewart, 64, drowned. Rudolph and Johnson were from Southern California, and Stewart lived in Florida, the office said.
The men were participating in the 65-year-old Newport to Ensenada Race, in which vessels set off from Southern California and dock in Mexico’s Baja California.
US Coast Guard spokesman Henry Dunphy said on Monday that an investigation of the tragedy was continuing.
The Newport Ocean Sailing Association, the organizer of this past weekend’s race involving the Aegean and over 200 other boats, has said the Aegean appeared to have collided with a much larger vessel.
But Dunphy said that has not been conclusively determined. Investigators recovered pieces of the hull and personal belongings of the sailors, and they were interviewing captains of other boats that were in the area.
“At this point, we can’t really rule out anything, whether or not it was a vessel-on-vessel collision or a collision with something else,” Dunphy said.
Dunphy said, as a result of the latest fatal yacht accident, the Coast Guard could potentially suspend racing off the coast of Southern California.
“It could be an option going forward here. It’s yet to be determined if there will be a stand-down,” he said.
The sailor still missing is Theo Mavromatis, the owner of the Aegean, said Tom Cornelius, commodore of the Little Ships Fleet yacht club to which the Mavromatis  belonged.
(AGENCIES)

ISLAMABAD, May 1: Pakistan’s powerful army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has waded into a standoff between the government and judiciary, saying the country’s development and welfare depend on state institutions functioning within their constitutional limits.
The country’s Constitution has “clearly defined the responsibilities and functions of national institutions” and it is incumbent on them “to perform their duties within constitutional limits”, he said while delivering an address at an event marking the army’s Youm-e-Shahada (Day of Martyrs) yesterday.
In an apparent reference to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s conviction of contempt by the Supreme Court for refusing to act on orders to revive graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari, Kayani said the prime objective of the democratic system is to “ensure the welfare, happiness and increased dignity of the people and the establishment of a balanced society where every person can get justice equally”.
“This is the only way which can further strengthen Pakistan’s national security,” he said during the late night ceremony to honour soldiers killed in the line of duty and while fighting extremists.
The military, he said, believes in a “strong democratic system and its continuation”.
At the same time, Kayani touched on the national security situation and said Pakistan is “still in a state of war” despite unprecedented sacrifices made by the people and security forces in the campaign against terrorists and extremists.
The Pakistan Army, Frontier Corps, Pakistan Rangers and police had “achieved successes in many difficult areas while fighting against extremists and terrorists” while the people’s sacrifices and steadfastness had boosted the morale of the armed forces.
“I am hopeful that we will emerge from this stage victorious with the help and prayers of the nation. We will be successful when we have a strong belief in the ideology of Pakistan. Any doubt about this ideology would weaken the country,” Kayani told a gathering that included top Pakistani military officials and defence attaches from different countries.
The army chief also referred to the unilateral American raid in Abbottabad that killed Osama bin Laden and a cross- border NATO air strike that left 24 Pakistani soldiers dead in November last year and said: “some foreign elements had launched a campaign of mistrust” despite the sacrifices made by the Pakistani people and armed forces.
This campaign “pushed the entire nation into a psychological crisis and forced the nation to review relations with others”, he said.
“We think that others will have to keep in mind our sovereignty, pride and honour,” he added. (PTI)