Ukraine admits withholding gas from Europe

Ukraine has been withholding some Russian natural gas exports meant for customers in Europe, where several countries have reported falls in gas supplies amid a severe cold weather snap, according to an official with Ukraine's state-owned energy firm Naftogaz, who said on condition of anonymity : "We have in fact allowed the withholding of gas in excess of the contract during the past day."

Around 80 percent of Gazprom's exports to Europe pass through a pipeline network located on Ukrainian territory. Temperatures in some parts of the country have plunged to lower than minus 30 C (minus 22 F), placing the country's energy systems under enormous strain. Tensions between Russia and Ukraine have persisted over a new gas pricing deal signed by the two sides on January 4 that resulted in the near-doubling of the price Ukraine pays for natural gas.

European countries including Italy, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Croatia, Slovakia, Romania have recently reported drops in supplies of gas shipped to them by Gazprom. Bosnia said Monday its supplies had been curtailed by one-fourth for the past five days. Gazprom's travails were compounded Sunday when explosions on a section of pipeline in southern Russia halted gas supplies to Georgia.

"Cute Overload"

news.com :

It's no secret that we at News.com Extra love animals. So when a site called Cute Overload got sent our way, we were instant fans. CuteOverload.com, in all its pastel and fuzzy glory, is so sugary sweet that it will melt the heart of even the most cynical readers ...

Congrats to Cute Overload, which was just nominated for four Bloggie awards, including Best American Weblog, Best Topical Weblog, Best New Weblog and Weblog of the Year. Share the site with your co-workers. Just don't blame us when the office becomes a chorus of "oohs" and "aahs".

- Well, so what? In the midst of entries on declining oil fields, bursting housing bubble, and mass layoffs, *this* particular cynical, contrarian geek and peakoiler can link to a cute photo blog, too, can he not? So cute, lol.

- Update : okay, so one colleague wants to puke, another wants to shoot these fellas. My fingers are deciding between 7-BFG or 5-Rocket Launcher. Okay, so we're doing fine, cynical-geek-attitude-wise, lol.

(2006-01-26 14:27:42 SGT) [Musings] Permalink Comments [1]

DaimlerChrysler to chop 6000 administrative jobs, trim management by 20%

channelnewsasia.com :

German-US auto giant DaimlerChrysler said it planned to axe up to 6,000 general and administrative jobs over the next three years. The cuts, which represented about one fifth of the car maker's general and administrative (G and A) workforce, would be implemented worldwide and were aimed at helping cut costs by 1.5 billion euros (1.8 billion dollars) each year in future, DaimlerChrysler said.

The announcement came after a report in the Wall Street Journal Europe which had said that DaimlerChrysler was planning to trim its management ranks by about 20%. The newspaper had said that the prestigious Mercedes division would take the brunt of the cuts. The aim of the management shake-out was believed to be a signal from the group's new chief executive Dieter Zetsche that sacrifices were being demanded not only from the grass-roots workforce but from white-collar staff as well. Zetsche, who took the driving seat at DaimlerChrysler on January 1, recently announced plans to eliminate 8,500 jobs at Mercedes plants across Germany.

business-times.asia1.com.sg :

DaimlerChrysler will cut its bloated management by up to a fifth over the next three years, chopping around 6,000 jobs as a way to boost efficiency, the world's fifth-biggest carmaker said yesterday. It is the second car company to announce big cost cutting in as many days. On Monday, Ford Motor Co announced a long-awaited revitalisation plan which includes idling 14 facilities and cutting 30,000 jobs.

Premium division Mercedes Car Group, normally the group's cash cow but which struggled last year, is already in the process of cutting 8,500 mostly manufacturing jobs as a way to boost margins.

Panic selling hits another German property fund

business-times.asia1.com.sg :

The snowballing crisis in the German open-ended property fund sector appears to have claimed another victim, with SEB Immobilien-Investment saying that one of its funds had also seen heavy withdrawals last week. The SEB Immoinvest fund had seen withdrawals of 100 million euros (S$199 million) on Friday alone. The withdrawals meant that the liquidity of the 5.5-billion-euro fund had been cut to just one billion euros.

Germany's open-ended funds have nearly 89 billion euros of assets under management. Fears of a sector-wide crisis were first sparked last month when Deutsche Bank unit DB Real Estate took the unprecedented step of freezing one of its open-ended property funds. And last week, a Munich-based manager, KanAm, decided to freeze two of its funds - US-Grundinvest Fonds and Grundinvest Fonds.

The news persuaded the Bundesbank to intervene and warn against panic-selling in the sector. And even the government is alarmed, saying that it is mulling changes in the law in order to better protect investors in the future.