October 20, 2011 at 10:48am
Russians see room for moonbase in lunar lava caves
Researchers have long suspected the moon’s volcanic past left an underground network of lava tubes as its legacy, and 2008 images from Japan’s Kaguya spacecraft showed a possible way down — a mysterious, meters-deep hole breaching the surface.”This new discovery that the moon may be a rather porous body could significantly alter our approach to founding lunar bases,” veteran spaceman Sergei Krikalyov, who heads Russia’s Star City cosmonaut training center outside Moscow, said at a forum on the future of manned spaceflight.”If it turns out that the moon has a number of caves that can provide some protection from radiation and meteor showers, it could be an even more interesting destination than previously thought,” he said.A slide-show image showing bunker-like inflatable tents dotting the lunar landscape helped forum participants imagine the lunar bases.”There wouldn’t be any need to dig the lunar soil and build walls and ceilings,” said Krikalyov.”It would be enough to use an inflatable module with a hard outer shell to — roughly speaking — seal the caves.”The first such lunar colonies could be built by 2030, estimated Boris Kryuchkov, the deputy science head at the training center.As the world’s space agencies debate where to fly beyond low-Earth orbit, including deep space missions to asteroids and Mars, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) head of human spaceflight programs said the moon also looked attractive.”In ESA, there is still a very strong focus on the moon. It could be a natural first to go there,” Martin Zell told Reuters.
October 18, 2011 at 10:02am
AGCO CEO says would buy Fiat’s CNH if for sale-paper
In December, Agco’s CEO said he had talked to Marchionne
about buying CNH but failed to persuade the Italian executive to
sell out.In July, he told Reuters he was convinced that any takeover
of CNH was “not doable”.Fiat Industrial owns 89 percent of CNH, the owner of the
Case and New Holland brands of farm and earthmoving equipment.Agco, whose brands also include Massey Ferguson, is investing
in two factories in China and sees Africa as a growth region in
the medium term, Richenhagen said.Agco’s chief said he believed 2011 would be the farm
equipment maker’s best ever year with 9 percent growth compared
with 2010. Agco will likely surpass the $10 billion threshold
for sales, Richenhagen said.
October 14, 2011 at 5:02pm
India’s NALCO finalises 270,000 T alumina export deal
NALCO, whose tenders serve as a global benchmark, last month
finalised a long-term contract for 300,000 tonnes of alumina
exports for deliveries in 2012 to a European buyer at about 16
percent of the LME aluminium price on an FOB
basis.
October 13, 2011 at 2:16pm
ECB policymakers see growth risk, at odds on inflation
ECB Governing Council member Erkki Liikanen stressed, however, that the euro zone’s central bank was in no way pre-committed to cutting rates when it meets in November.Last week, the ECB opted to keep rates on hold at 1.5 percent despite some of the bank’s policymakers calling for a cut amid signs the euro area economy is deteriorating further and as Greek default fears weigh on the markets.Euro zone inflation jumped to 3.0 percent last month. Several ECB policymakers have said they expect it to ease below the bank’s target level of just under 2 percent next year — a view echoed by Jozef Makuch, Slovakia’s central bank chief.”I expect inflation to drop below 2 percent next year,” Makuch said. “Negative gross domestic product can’t be ruled out if downside risks materialize.”The ECB said in its October monthly bulletin, released on Thursday, that downside risks relate especially to financial market turmoil. It also saw energy prices, protectionism and global imbalances as downside threats to growth.Makuch’s views on the economic outlook echoed comments from Austrian central bank chief Ewald Nowotny, who said earlier this week the euro zone economy risks a protracted period of weakness while inflation is not a worry.But Liikanen said risks to stable prices are still balanced.”Risks for inflation …. are on balance,” Liikanen, who is also governor of Finland’s central bank, said in Helsinki. Asked about a possible ECB rate cut, he added: “We have no pre-commitment, we’ll discuss that in November, next time.”INFLATIONJose Manuel Gonzalez-Paramo, another ECB policymaker, said central banks must be unwavering in their determination to keep inflation at bay.”The role of a central bank under any circumstances, and in crisis times in particular, is to inflexibly pursue its main objective, which in the ECB’s case is price stability, and to perform as a key anchor of stability,” he said.Berenberg bank economist Christian Schulz said that despite the hawkish comments on inflation from some ECB policymakers, he expected the bank to cut rates by 25 basis points in December or January, and by the same amount in March.The ECB’s hawkish policymakers are often more vocal than those who take a more dovish view of inflation, and the hawks may feel a need to assert their opinions ahead of a change in leadership at the bank next month, when Italian Mario Draghi will replace Jean-Claude Trichet as ECB president.“‘Balanced’ is quite a hawkish view at the moment,” Berenberg’s Schulz said of Liikanen’s comments. “As always you have the hawks and some pragmatists. I think at the moment the pragmatists are clearly in the majority.”Liikanen said Europe’s banks must become stronger.”It is very important that they have better capital ratios, more capital (put in) by the investors. And if that is not possible, then states must also be ready,” he said. “We must be ready so that if there are banks which are not solvent, they will be restructured.”Europe’s debt crisis has deteriorated in recent weeks as uncertainty over Greece’s future has increased. On Wednesday European Commission’s President Jose Manuel Barroso called for decisive actions to limit the damage the debt crisis is inflicting on the economy.”We can avoid a situation which deteriorates. The key issues are really to implement decisions taken,” Liikanen said, welcoming the announcement by Slovakia — which has held up approval for strengthening the euro zone’s rescue fund — of a deal to vote it through.Slovakia’s opposition leader said on Wednesday his party and the outgoing government coalition had agreed to ratify the EFSF rescue fund by Friday.
October 11, 2011 at 10:44pm
Police seize weapons from Brad Pitt film
Gajdos added that the weapons were completely harmless and had already been used on a shoot in London.World War Z, a big-budget horror film directed by Marc Forster and slated for release in 2012, recently shifted filming to Hungary from Britain.”We had a police permit to bring these guns into the country,” Gajdos told MTI, adding that the production had contracted arms experts to establish whether the guns complied with Hungarian laws.But the guns were seized before experts could inspect them.Adam Goodman, the producer of the film, was not immediately available for comment.Janos Hajdu, the chief of the Hungarian Anti-Terrorism Center on Monday said the agency seized a large stockpile of weapons, which arrived from England on a chartered plane. He could not confirm whether the weapons were intended for the World War Z shoot.The National Bureau for Investigation, which took over the case, said in an emailed reply to Reuters questions that it was conducting an investigation for abuse of arms and ammunition, but would not release any further details.The weapons included hand guns, machine guns, high-precision sniper rifles, hand grenades and a large quantity of high-caliber ammunition, according to photos and a video released by the Anti-Terrorism center.According to the video, some weapons could be re-converted to use live ammunition by removing a single screw.Hajdu said the firearms had not been properly disabled and could not be allowed into the country less than two weeks before a national holiday commemorating the 1956 uprising, MTI reported.
