Posts Tagged ‘Usa News’

Veritas Capital New Business Deal With EIG

Veritas Capital New Business Deal With EIG:

Lockheed Martin Corp, the largest defense company in the world, has agreed to sell one of their consulting businesses $ 815 million, Veritas Capital, in accordance with the decision of June to deprive the unit to avoid a conflict of interest.

Veritas Capital, said in a statement today that it plans to expand its business enterprise integration group. EIG, which provides systems engineering and integration services, posted $ 626 million revenue in the 12 months ended June 30, and has about 1800 employees, Veritas Capital, said.

The agreement follows through on the Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed decision to sell or release the majority of EIG, to avoid conflicts between the military unit and the work of intelligence and consulting company’s role as a supplier of transmissions, such as satellites.

“Although this deal was expected by investors, we believe it is timely and sound assessment can be viewed as the impetus for Lockheed restructuring,” Robert Stallard, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets in New York, wrote in a note to clients. Stallard rates Lockheed stock to “sector perform.”

Lockheed advanced 27 cents to $ 70.82 at 9:57 am in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Shares fell 6.4 percent this year before today.

Sales of defense company’s second-largest in the last 10 years, after the divestiture IMS Corporation in 2001 for $ 825 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Arms procurement

Lockheed was invited to act with the approval of Congress, the law in 2009 tightening of rules on arms purchases in response to concerns of legislators that some contractors have been advising the Pentagon that the system purchased at the same time, bidding on contracts to supply equipment.

Veritas Capital, based in New York, describes itself on its Web site as an investor in companies that “provide outsourced services for government -. First of all, in the defense and aerospace, security and infrastructure”

President Robert McKeon founded the firm in 1992 from his post as chairman and founding partner of Wasserstein Perella Management Partners, the website reported.

EIG, based in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, was one of two pieces of information in the Lockheed-technology and services division targeted for disposal in June. Also on sale is Pacific Architects & Engineers, a provider of embassies and disaster services. The company is about 3 percent of sales, Lockheed said at the time. Lockheed revenue in 2009 was $ 45.2 billion.

Chief Executive Officer Bob Stevens said in an interview June Pacific Architects customers wanted one to take the construction, maintenance and security work abroad, and that is not consistent with the current strategy of Lockheed’s.

Kelly Elementary School Shooting In Carlsbad

Kelly Elementary School Shooting In Carlsbad:

There is news school shooting in California today. The shooter may have a teenager, as they say, opened fire at Kelly Elementary School early in the day on Friday. One arrow shot from three to five shots, and that the shooter is currently in custody.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the shooting took place just around noon Friday. Lieutenant Cain Carslbad Police Department described the incident. The shooter rode in his car outside the ground and started shooting wildly. The builder has taken upon himself to remove the shooter with his car to stop them from firing. Two students suffered minor injuries in the shooting.

School shootings are not new. However, compared with the majority, this time could be much worse. No word yet on why the shooter opened fire, but, of course, investigate the causes of today in Carlsbad. Only two wounded good here. Better yet would be nothing happening in the first place.

Asian Market End In Positive Territory On Wall Street Gains

Asian markets opened for trading over the last day of the trading session in positive territory for the week, picked up strong profits on Wall Street during the last session on optimism earnings. Better than expected earnings reports Microsoft (MSFT), after the markets closed on Wall Street and reliable economic data in Europe also raised the mood of the market. Higher commodity prices and oil prices led to gains between markets, even as traders await the results of stress tests banks in Europe later in the day.

In Japan, the benchmark Nikkei 225 index advanced 210.08 points, or 2.28%, to 9431, while the broader Topix index of all First Section issues to 15.81 points, or 1.92% percent, to 841.

On the economic front, a statement released by the Ministry of Finance showed that Japanese investors bought a net 1.305 trillion yen in foreign bonds and notes last week. The statement also indicated that Japanese residents also bought a net 49.2 billion yen in foreign stocks. During the same period, foreign investors sold a net 29.8 billion yen in Japanese stocks and bought a net 231.2 billion yen in Japanese bonds.

Real estate stocks led the gains on the market. Sumitomo Realty and Development rose 4,47%, Mitsubishi Estate rose 4,38%, Mitsui Fudosan was 4,01%, Tokyu Land Corp. rose 3.63% and Heiwa Real Estate added 0,49%.

Glass and ceramics sector also witnessed a smart gains during the session. Asahi Glass rose 6.05%, Tokai Carbon rose 4.34%, OAO “NGK Insulators added 0,81%, TOTO Ltd was 1,22% and Nippon Sheet Glass Company rose 2.90%.

Stocks related to maritime transport, as raised by optimism about the recovery and increase demand. Mitsui OSK Lines rose 5,39%, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha rose 3,20%, and Nippon Yusen was 2,16%.

Banking shares also ended in positive territory. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group was 1.53%, Financial Group, Mizuho rose 1.49% and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial rose 1.75%. Cavity Holdings managed to remain unchanged from the previous close.

In Australia, the benchmark S and P/ASX200 index rose 83.7 points, or 1.91%, to 4458 points, and All-bishops Index ended in 4475, representing growth of 80.30 points, or 1.83%.

On the economic front, a report published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that exports increased in value as of June quarter from the quarter of March, and prices of imports also increased during the same period. According to the report, the index of export prices increased by 16.1% quarter over quarter faster than the 3.8% growth in the previous quarter. Economists are looking for a 13.5% increase. Import prices, on the other hand, increased by 1,9% in the quarter June, after 0.3% growth in the preceding quarter. Economists forecast growth of 1%. Compared with the same period last year revenues from export prices rose 7.1% in June quarter, rebounding from 26,8% fall in the previous quarter. Import prices fell for a fourth consecutive quarter, down 5.2%.

Air India Express Plane Crash

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Air India Plane Crash

An Air India passenger plane has crashed while trying to land in Southern India, killing at least 158 people on board, in the worst air accident in India in a decade.

The Boing 737 crashed as it over shot the runway after landing in the southern Indian city of Mangalore early Saturday. Television images showed flames billowing from the aircraft.

Rescue workers and villagers close to the site pulled eight survivors from the wreckage. They included children. There were 166 people on board including six crew members on a flight from Dubai.

Air India official Anup Srivastasva says the crash was an accident. He says the main focus is on rescue operations, while Air India personnel are contacting relatives. Survivors told reporters they heard a loud explosion before the plane crashed.

The plane crash is the first major crash in India in a decade. Air India Express is the low budget arm of national carrier Air India.

Barack Obama Talks On Iran Sanctions

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Obama Talks On Iran Sanctions

Washington: US President Barack Obama sought Tuesday to reassure Jewish lawmakers of his support for Israel, detailing plans to boost Israeli security and his administration’s backing of sanctions on Iran.

The meeting with 37 Jewish members of Obama’s Democratic Party came amid skepticism among some US and Israeli Jews about the president’s support for Israel and after ties between Israel and its staunch ally were strained by plans for new Jewish settler homes in east Jerusalem.

Tuesday afternoon’s talks, the first Obama has called with Jewish lawmakers alone, addressed a fourth set of UN sanctions against Iran now under discussion and a “shared commitment” to peace and security in the Middle East, the White House said. The meeting lasted an hour and a half.

The United States earlier Tuesday introduced a draft resolution at the United Nations that would expand an arms embargo and measures against Iran’s banking sector, as well as ban the Islamic republic from sensitive overseas activities like uranium mining and developing ballistic missiles.

During the “wide-ranging and productive exchange,” the president and the legislators also discussed the Obama administration’s request to provide 205 million dollars to help Israel deploy an anti-missile defense system, the White House said.

The so-called Iron Dome is designed to intercept short-range rockets and artillery shells fired at Israel by the Islamist movement Hamas and Lebanon’s Shiite militia Hezbollah.

Among lawmakers present at the talks were influential senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein of California, and Joe Lieberman, an Independent from Connecticut.

White House Video Blog

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White House Video Blog Offers an Inside View

You didn’t see this on CNN or Fox News or NBC, President Obama awkwardly introducing Chile’s President, Sebastian Pinera, to the Netherlands’ prime minister, Jan Peter Balkenende,at the recent nuclear submit. “You know, Uh, you have met Jan?”

the president says tentatively as the other world leaders stand aside like shy kids at a dance.

Or this: Obama, playfully doing his best impression of Muhammad Ali, throwing mock punches into the midsection of a costumed Easter Bunny following the White House Easter Egg Roll.

You didn’t see it on the networks because the behind-the-scenes video was only available on “West Wing Week,” the Obama administration’s new video blog. The six- to seven-minute compilations, which appear each week on the White House’s Web site (http://www.whitehouse.gov)

and on such video-sharing sites as YouTube, offer what a narrator on each segment calls “your guide to everything that’s happening at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”

Well, not everything, of course. But “West Wing Week” is effectively the White House’s video vision of itself and its chief occupant, as it would like to be seen, unfiltered by journalists.

Organized chronologically, it’s a mishmash of this and that — the president inspecting factories and farms, talking with people in diners, meeting dignitaries in the Oval Office, making major policy speeches. The blog doesn’t break any news. It also doesn’t show the president as anything less than presidential in word and deed; each week’s video highlights Obama’s efforts to address another crisis or major policy issue, such as the government’s response to the Gulf Coast oil disaster or his initiative to reform the financial sector.

The videos, created by official White House videographer Arun S. Chaudhary, also provide a few things the White House press corps doesn’t get to see. As he fills out his census form in the Oval Office, for instance, Obama lists his age (48) and mutters that he’s “an old man.” Moments before a news conference, he and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton laugh over a photograph of press secretary Robert Gibbs. At another juncture, the camera sweeps into the White House kitchen, where chefs are busy preparing the executive mansion’s official Passover Seder. Another sequence captures the president warming up before throwing out the first pitch at Nationals Park on opening day.

Presidential administrations have always tried to harness new communications technologies to shape a favorable image, says Mordecai Lee, a professor of governmental affairs at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. Grover Cleveland was the first president to appear on moving film. Calvin Coolidge was the first to address the public directly via radio; Franklin Roosevelt redefined the use of the medium with his folksy “fireside chats.” Bill Clinton was the first commander in chief on the Internet, and George W. Bush used it extensively. During the 2008 campaign, social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, became standard tools.

“West Wing Week” is in the same tradition, Lee says: “I think this is all about bypassing the capital press corps.”

Some of the footage is too trivial for news organizations to covet, and some comes from widely documented public events, like speeches. But the package also includes moments that journalists would have loved to have had access to.

The White House’s media management practices have drawn quiet criticism from journalists in the past few weeks. Despite Obama’s campaign pledge to be open with the media, members of the White House Correspondents’ Association met with Gibbs recently to complain about limitations on their access. The group is mainly upset about the relatively few informal question-and-answer sessions Obama has held since taking office. Obama had 46 such encounters with the press during his first year, far fewer than Presidents George W. Bush (147) and Clinton (252) during their first years, according to Martha Joynt Kumar, a political science professor at Towson University. However, Obama gave many more media interviews (161) compared with Bush (50) and Clinton (53) in their first years. Kumar said Obama gave more formal news conferences in his first year (27) than Bush (19), but far fewer than Clinton (45).

News photographers have also been peeved by the White House’s practice of barring photojournalists from events and offering its own pictures as a substitute, said Caren Bohan, a Reuters reporter and correspondents’ association board member.

“We don’t object to anything they want to do to get their message out,” said Bohan. “If they want to use blogs, videos and other media to do that, that’s great. We just don’t want that to substitute for journalist access.”

The message-control issue flared again this week when the White House posted its own video interview with Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, bypassing reporters who have been seeking to interview her.

White House officials deny that they are attempting to end-run reporters. In fact, they say such initiatives as “West Wing Week” are evidence of greater candor. “These videos are just one part of the president’s effort to have the most transparent White House in history,” said Nick Shapiro, a spokesman, who added that “West Wing Week” “is yet another way for people to get a better sense of what’s happening at the White House and why.”

The White House wouldn’t make Chaudhary, the videographer, available for an interview. But in a statement issued through Shapiro, he said the videos are “written, produced and edited by me.” Chaudhary, a former film professor at New York University who extensively documented Obama’s presidential campaign, added: “As the official White House videographer it’s my job to document the president’s activities, in motion pictures, for history. Though not as extensive as the still picture record of the president’s routine, I found that every week I had a lot of interesting clips that couldn’t really stand on their own but did when collected together and shown in context of the president’s schedule. West Wing Week is essentially the vehicle for these moments. It’s almost as if our flickr site could talk.”