What won't happen in 2014; No 'sorry' in diplomacy; After 75 years, Hollywood Park closes

1 What won't happen in 2014 (Linda Yueh on BBC) One of the best economic forecasters once told me, the most accurate forecasters tell you what is happening today. So, with great trepidation, I set out my 2014 predictions for the annual BBC Correspondents' Look Ahead programme.

What won't happen: Is that growth will go back to normal rates, incomes will rise strongly, and unemployed youth all find work. The process will be much more gradual. As the US is the dominant economic engine, growth globally has not picked up strongly. As such, firms find it hard to raise wages and job creation remains at a pace that is much slower than what it used to be. For countries around the world reliant on the US export market, it doesn't help their young unemployed who are experiencing joblessness in double digits across the world, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa but also in Europe. 

The real tragedy is if they are "scarred" in terms of employment prospects. A spell of unemployment can affect lifetime earnings. A gradual recovery with lingering unemployment could experience what economists call "hysteresis," which is where the unemployed find their skills become obsolete and cannot re-enter the workforce. 

Hot spot to watch: China. Will President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang deliver? Or will the expectations of comprehensive reforms backfire in that any disappointment becomes a trigger for protests amidst the background of slower growth? China is almost a perennial choice as a place to watch. 

The co-existence of economic reforms alongside lagging political change has long been a source of tension, particularly for the millions who have joined the new middle class and experienced the freedoms of the outside world. The new Chinese leaders in March will set out for the first time their main legislative agenda. My final prediction is that the global implications of a crisis in the world's second largest economy will be another Lehman.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25459737

2 No 'sorry' in diplomacy (N Janardhan in Khaleej Times) It’s just one word, made up of just five letters, easy to pronounce, quick to write and takes a nanosecond to utter. It’s something that all of us use at the drop of a hat; one that we also yearn for and expect others to offer, with or without little excuse, and with or without forgiveness. Why then is “sorry” such a difficult word in the interplay among nations?

The handcuffing, arrest and strip-search of an Indian diplomat accused of visa fraud in the US and the retaliatory measures effected by New Delhi on American consular staff again raises questions about diplomatic complexities. US Secretary of State John Kerry’s “regret” is, for example, a repeat of how Washington dealt with China in the 2001 stand-off after a mid-air collision rendered a Chinese pilot “lost” and an American spy plane with a 24-member crew stranded in Chinese territory. Such incidents make us realise that ‘regret’ and ‘sorry’ are as contrasting as heaven and earth in the politics among nations and in diplomatic parlance.

But there is an intrinsic similarity in the relationship that exists between countries and between individuals. In the struggle for sociological existence and power, what others think about us is as important as what we actually are. It is only in the tribute that others pay to our qualities – goodness, intelligence and power – that we actually become fully aware of them and believe them to be our superior qualities. Thus, it is important to ensure that the mental picture other people form about us in society at least represents the actual situation, if not better.

A country’s foreign policy is always the result of an estimate of the power relations as they exist at a certain moment of history and as they are likely to develop in the immediate and distant future. In this context, the Indo-US row is not just one between two foolhardy egocentrics. As the US’s influence over global affairs declines in comparison to its past, there is now a long list of contenders pitching for a multi-polar world – India being one of them. Its response (partly influenced by populism in election season) reinforces that in the current international relations scenario, the US just cannot have its way.
Like India, many countries are flexing their muscles, seeking recognition as “equal partners” and claiming their pound of flesh. However, in the mind game of realpolitik, the United States is still unwilling to utter a five-letter conciliatory word!

http://khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?xfile=data/opinion/2013/December/opinion_December41.xml&section=opinion

3 After 75 years, Hollywood Park closes (Straits Times) Hollywood Park, once America's most famous horse racing showplace with legendary moviemakers and film stars among its patrons, closed Sunday after 75 years with a final slate of 11 races. Film industy legends were among 600 shareholders who founded the track to attract the rich and famous, including Bing Crosby, Walt Disney, Al Jolson, Warner brothers studio's Jack Warner, MGM's Sam Goldwyn and noted producers Darryl Zanuck and Mervyn LeRoy.

But as cinematic generations changed, so too did the fortunes of US horse racing, with simulcast betting and more wagers being done through the Internet helping reduce live attendance at tracks.

http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/lifestyle/story/end-era-hollywood-park-closes-after-75-years-20131223

Obama sees 2014 as 'breakthrough' year for US economy; UK deficit at 24-year high; Blackberry quarterly loss at $4.4bn; Of diplomats and privileges

1 Obama sees 2014 as 'breakthrough' year for US economy(BBC) Citing stronger growth figures, US President Barack Obama says 2014 will be a 'breakthrough year' for the US economy. Economic growth in the US was revised upwards to its fastest pace since late 2011 on Friday. The Commerce Department said GDP grew at an annualised rate of 4.1% between July and September, up from an earlier 3.6% estimate.

In his last press conference of the year, the US President highlighted the improving data as promising for the year ahead. "We head into next year with an economy that's stronger than it was when we started the year [and] more Americans are finding work and experiencing the pride of a paycheck," he said. Much of the revision was due to stronger consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of the economy.

On Wednesday the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, announced it would start to slow its economic stimulus programme because of the improving economy - in particular the falling unemployment rate. The central bank said it planned to scale back - or "taper" - its $85bn a month bond buying programme by $10bn a month.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25461164

2 UK deficit at 24-year high (Katie Allen in The Guardian) There are warnings Britain's economic recovery was on shaky ground after official data showed the country's current account deficit with the rest of the world soared to its highest since 1989. Dealing a blow to chancellor George Osborne's push for a Britain that can "pay its way" in the world, the gap – Britain's trade deficit, plus the losses UK plc makes on its overseas ventures – ballooned to £21bn in the three months to September from a deficit of £6bn in the previous quarter.

As a percentage of GDP, the deficit was 5.1%, the biggest share for more than 20 years, the Office for National Statistics said. There was similarly downbeat news for the government's push to rebalance the economy from figures on what has been driving growth, and separate ONS data showed that public finances deteriorated last month.

There was some good news for Osborne on Friday when S&P affirmed the UK's AAA rating. But it said the outlook remained negative. The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), which has been campaigning for more government help for companies that want to export, described Friday's data as a "mixed bag". With the economy now 2% smaller than before the crisis, according to the ONS, the BCC welcomed progress on closing the gap on pre-recession times.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/dec/20/uk-trade-deficit-share-gdp-ons

3 Blackberry quarterly loss at $4.4bn (Charles Arthur in The Guardian) Blackberry's new chief executive John Chen signalled a new strategy focusing on providing secure email and device management to large businesses as the company plunged to a quarterly net loss of $4.4bn, on revenues down 56% to just $1.2bn. The huge loss, driven partly by enormous writedowns on existing inventory, is the largest in the company's history – but Chen insisted that the company is "very much alive" as he tries to shift it away from making handsets.

The company announced a five-year partnership with Taiwan's Foxconn, which already makes products for Apple and Microsoft, that will see it jointly develop and manufacture smartphones for the Canadian company, effectively taking over manufacturing operations and much of the risk of being left with unsold inventory. BlackBerry shipped just 1.9m handsets during the quarter, but customers bought a total of 4.3m handsets from outlets – of which 3.2m were the ageing BB7 model. Since its launch in January, only 4.6m BB10 handsets have been sold, making up less than half of total sales.

Chen, who only took over 45 days ago following a radical boardroom shakeup that ousted previous chief Thorsten Heins, acknowledged that the company has lost money on its handset business as part of the business's degradation over the past two years. Competition from Apple and Samsung has squeezed it from a commanding position in the consumer market back to its origins as a provider of secure email and communications for large "enterprise" businesses.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/20/blackberry-record-net-loss-foxconn-partnership

4 Of diplomacy and privileges (Neeta Lal in Khaleej Times) A full-fledged diplomatic row has broken out between India and the US over the arrest in New York City of Devyani Khobragade, a mid-ranking, young diplomat at the Indian mission in New York. The charge against Khobragade is of visa fraud. She is said to have misrepresented the work conditions of a woman on her household staff.

It’s to review the sundry “immunities” enjoyed by diplomats.  Many of these were not conceived of by the drafters of the Vienna Convention, and the treaty was not meant to extend to episodes like ill treating maids. It’s time such frills were rationalised as a lot of them are archaic entitlements harking back to an earlier era.

For instance, why do Indian diplomats need to be accompanied by a battery of servants to foreign postings when Westerners seem to get by perfectly without such help? As is well-known, this leads to all kinds of under-the-radar dealings. It is a common practice amongst Indian diplomats serving in foreign countries to pay less than what is shown on official documents. The claim is that the salary fixed by the US government is too high for Indian diplomats to afford. How can they, plead Indian diplomats, pay their domestic help $4,500 monthly (as stipulated by the US Wage Act) when their own remuneration hovers around that mark? Besides, they question, are the American diplomats bound by any minimum wage framework when they hire help in India?

The lesson for India’s Ministry of External Affairs is that it needs to carefully vet the type of people it is sending to be the country’s face to the world. In the last two years alone, two Indian consular officers to the US have been in the news on charges of fraud and mistreatment of employees. Khobragade’s name has already cropped up in relation to the controversial Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society scam, yet she was packed off to an important international posting.

All said and done, perhaps there’s been one happy fallout from the brouhaha after all. While the US has got an unambiguous message that it can’t bully any or everybody at whim, India also seems to have discovered its diplomatic spine against Uncle Sam, at last.

http://khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?xfile=data/opinion/2013/December/opinion_December39.xml&section=opinion

After the taper, the hard part; If fracking could shatter stagnation; World Cup and unpaid labour; In South Africa, abandoning kids to party on the beach

1 After the taper, the hard part (Linda Yueh on BBC) It was one of the most anticipated moves in monetary policy.  Yet the US Fed trimming its monetary stimulus - cutting its cash injections by $10bn to now inject $75bn per month - still managed to surprise. The hard part begins now. The cutback is of US Treasury purchases from $45bn to $40bn per month and mortgage-backed securities (MBS) from $40bn to $35bn. 

Once the cash injections end for the Fed, like they have in the UK, then their forward guidance maintains that rates will remain low for a long period of time until the economy recovers. The big question here is whether they will be believed by markets who determine the rate at which they will lend to the government over the longer term.

After all, there are those who anticipate the inflation will take off. If so, then they are unlikely to lend money at a low nominal interest rate since their real return is the difference between the nominal rate and inflation down the line. This will be the hard part - to convince markets to keep rates low in accordance with the central bank's base rate.

There are also implications for emerging economies. Money has left these economies since Mr Bernanke first mentioned tapering back in May. The cost of money certainly matters for these economies, some of which have become indebted to cheap foreign money. For the first time since the financial crisis, more emerging economies have been downgraded than promoted by the rating company Fitch last year, for instance.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25440720

2 If fracking could shatter stagnation (Robert Skidelsky in The Guardian) The developed world is slowly emerging from the Great Recession, but a question lingers: how fast and how far will the recovery go? One big source of pessimism has been the idea that we are running out of investment opportunities – and have been since before the 2008 crash. But is that true?

The last big surge of innovation was the internet revolution, whose products came onstream in the 1990s. After the dotcom collapse of the early 2000s, speculation in real estate and financial assets – enabled by cheap money – kept western economies going. The post-2008 slump merely exposed the unsoundness of the preceding boom; the mediocrity of the recovery, coolly considered, merely reflects the mediocrity of previous prospects. The risk now is that a debt-fuelled asset spike merely perpetuates the boom-bust cycle.

The question today is whether a new upsurge of investment will come to our rescue. Optimists point to the shale-energy revolution in the US. The McKinsey Global Institute has identified shale energy as a “game changer” for the world economy, estimating that it could boost America's GDP by as much as 4% ($690bn) a year and add 1.7m permanent jobs to the labour market by 2020.

I am in no position to judge either the quantitative impact of shale energy on the US economy – and, via growth there, on the rest of the world – or to comment on its geopolitical consequences or net effect on carbon emissions. But it does seem to me that contemporary apostles of secular stagnation like Summers and Paul Krugman at least ought to be taking the shale-energy revolution into account.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/economics-blog/2013/dec/18/fracking-shale-gas-stagnation

3 World Cup and unpaid labour (Pete Pattisson in The Guardian) If things had gone well, Ram Kumar Mahara would be working on a Qatari building site, earning around £120 a month helping the country to erect the infrastructure that will enable it to host the football World Cup in 2022. But things didn't go well.

First there was the pay. Ram Kumar says there wasn't any. Then there were the conditions – 12-hour shifts, a shortage of food and finally, after a complaint to the manager, summary removal from the labour camp. It was so distressing that the 27-year-old Nepali lost his hair. After weeks in legal limbo at the Nepali embassy in Doha, he finally made it home. The nightmare was over, but a new one was just beginning.

"I spent six months in Qatar but did not receive a single rupee," he said from a remote village in Nepal, where he has found piecemeal work threshing cattle fodder. "I was reluctant to come back home as I didn't earn any money ... When I got home my wife was weeping and even I did not feel good. I still feel very guilty. I have not done anything since I got back," he said. "I just sit at home looking after my children. I came here for 10 days of work ... but it does not pay much."

Ram Kumar was one of the Nepali workers who spoke to the Guardian for an investigation that exposed systematic exploitation of Nepalese migrant workers in Qatar's booming construction industry, including on a site directly linked to the 2022 World Cup. The investigation found high levels of fatalities (44 in eight weeks over the summer), terrible living conditions and labour practices that in effect enslaved the migrant workers, depriving them of pay, permits and freedom to move around.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/19/nepal-worker-exploitation-qatar-football-world-cup

4 In South Africa, abandoning kids to party on the beach (Nivashni Nair in Johannesburg Times) Holidaying parents use the Durban police as babysitters while they party on the beach during the festive season. "It is disturbing to find that parents deliberately abandon their children on our beaches so they can enjoy themselves in the belief we will find their children and take care of them," said KwaZulu-Natal police spokesman Colonel Jay Naicker. He said it was "heartbreaking" for police officers to deal with traumatised children who are sometimes abandoned for more than a day.

In the past Naicker attributed the high number of lost children to the large crowds at the city's beaches. But in recent years the police and eThekwini Municipality have warned irresponsible parents they would be charged for abandoning their children. "If any person is found to have abandoned their child deliberately, they will be charged for child abandonment in terms of the Child Care Act," Naicker.

In 2011 more than 3,000 children were separated from their parents, compared with only 100 last year. An identification armband was introduced a few years ago and issued to all children at the beachfront during the holidays. Last year more than 129,000 armbands were issued.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2013/12/20/children-abandoned-for-parties-on-the-beach

Outrage in India over diplomat's arrest in US; Jobless in UK at four-year low; Kim-dom of chaos

1 Outrage in India over diplomat’s arrest in US (Gardiner Harris in The New York Times) The way an Indian diplomat was treated by law enforcement officials in New York last week has touched off a furor in India, where politicians from across the political spectrum expressed outrage and the New Delhi police retaliated by removing security barriers that were meant to protect the American Embassy.

The diplomat, Devyani Khobragade, the deputy consul general in New York, was arrested and accused of submitting false documents to obtain a work visa for her housekeeper and paying the housekeeper far less than the minimum legal wage. Indian officials said that Ms. Khobragade was arrested and handcuffed on the street as she was leaving her daughter at school, and that she was kept in a holding cell with drug addicts before she was released on $250,000 bail.

By far the most troubling part for Indians are assertions that Ms. Khobragade, 39, was strip-searched after her arrest. Some Indian newspapers published reports claiming that she was subjected to repeated cavity searches. The Indian national security adviser, Shivshankar Menon, has called such treatment “despicable” and “barbaric.”

Indian officials, in addition to removing the maze of concrete security barriers surrounding the American Embassy compound, have demanded that the embassy provide details about all the Indians it employs, as well as the names and salaries of teachers at the American Embassy School; that the embassy commissary stop importing liquor; and that diplomatic identification cards for consular staff members and their families be returned. The State Department expressed concern on Tuesday about removal of the security barriers near the embassy.

It is not unusual in India for domestic staff to be paid poorly and be required to work more than 60 hours a week; they are sometimes treated abominably. Reports of maids being imprisoned or abused by their employers are frequent. But the idea of a middle-class woman being arrested and ordered to disrobe is seen as shocking. Airport security procedures in India provide separate lines for women, and any pat-down searches are performed behind curtains.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/18/world/asia/outrage-in-india-over-female-diplomats-arrest-in-new-york.html

2 UK jobless at four-year low (Graeme Wearden on BBC) Employment minister Esther McVey has said the economy is on the "right path", following the fall in the jobless rate to a four and a half-year low.

McVey said that today's unemployment data was a good sign: We can say today, we have hit a record high of the number of people in employment, with 30 million people in work.

She also tried to calm fears that the Bank of England might raise interest rates soon, pointing out that the 7% level set in its forward guidance is not a trigger for action (as governor Mark Carney reiterated last night).

3 Kim-dom of chaos (Mahir Ali in Khaleej Times) Despicable hormone is not an altogether unusual turn of phrase in the context of colourful official pronouncements from Pyongyang. What makes it remarkable is that it was part of a lurid description of North Korea’s second-most powerful man. And not just that: Jang Song-thaek also happened to be the supreme leader’s uncle. His fall from grace would have been intriguing even if it had not swiftly been followed by brutal retribution. As the official news agency KCNA put it, once a military tribunal gave its verdict, “the decision was immediately executed”. Unofficial reports suggest a machine-gun was used to carry out the sentence.

It is not unknown for members of North Korea’s ruling family to be sidelined. The nation’s founding father, Kim Il-sung, banished one his brothers to the countryside in the mid-1970s, and Jang himself appears to have been purged at least once and possibly twice in the past — he not only survived but was able to return to the hierarchy. A year or so before he died in December 2011, the present ruler’s father, Kim Jong-il, picked his sister, Kim Kyong-hui, and her husband — Jang — to groom his designated heir, Kim Jong-un, for the leadership. The latter’s turn at the top appears to have come rather sooner than anyone expected, which evidently made Jang the power behind the throne.

One of the primary problems with reflecting on developments in North Korea is that external knowledge about the secretive Kim-dom is strictly limited and based largely on hearsay. As a result, opinions about what exactly is going on and the possible consequences tends to be highly speculative. In the present instance, for example, analysts initially presumed that Jang’s fate would also reflect on his wife (now his widow), but it was indicated at the weekend that Kim Kyong-hui had been named as a member of the ruling Workers’ Party’s funeral committee. It is unclear whether the irony was intentional, but this is supposedly a prestigious position.

In its present state, North Korea cannot indefinitely endure — although predictions of its demise have proved premature in the past. How soon the House of Kim might crumble remains an open question. It may well remain superficially intact for decades to come, but there is also a distinct possibility that the end could come as suddenly as it did for Jang.

http://khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?xfile=data/opinion/2013/December/opinion_December30.xml&section=opinion

Fear of new recession in France; When the youth are jobless; Rallying against too much democracy; Holiday gifts for job seekers

1 Fear of new recession in France (Andrew Walker on BBC) The eurozone's recovery is continuing, a survey of businesses has suggested, but it has also revealed a widening divergence in economic performance between France and Germany. The latest purchasing managers' index (PMI) from Markit rose to 52.1 in December from 51.7 last month. A figure above 50 indicates expansion. The eurozone as a whole has started to grow again after a long recession. 

But Markit's Chris Williamson said the recovery was "lopsided". Germany's solid PMI reading of 52.2 underlines the country's central role in driving the improvement across the region. France was a very different story, with its PMI reading falling to a seven-month low of 47.The figure suggests an accelerating contraction, and point to a decline in economic activity for the current three-month period. 

If that is confirmed by data for gross domestic product, GDP, that would be the second consecutive quarter of falling production of goods and services in France. In other words, a recession as the term is often used. It would be the second in rapid succession. The economy of France contracted in the final quarter of last year and the first three months of 2013. It grew for just one quarter before going back into decline. If this really is another recession that France is in now, it would make it what some call a triple dip. The first phase was the recession at the height of the global financial crisis. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25402881

2 When the youth are jobless (Nadeem M Qureshi in Khaleej Times) Youth unemployment rates in the eurozone countries are at historic highs. In Greece 60 per cent of young people under 25 are unemployed. The corresponding number in Spain is 55 per cent and in Italy 40 per cent. If there were reliable statistics in Pakistan, they would tell an even sorrier story than the European numbers. Pakistan is a country of young people. Some 60 per cent of the population is under 25. Wherever I travel in the country I find young college graduates desperately seeking employment. 

Why do we have this problem? The answer is in two parts. The first has to do with general economic mismanagement and issues related to security. Economic mismanagement has resulted in severe power and gas shortages. As a consequence factories have shut down. Markets are forced to close after dark. Trade and commerce are down. The real economy is shrinking rather than growing. Insecurity — bomb blasts, targeted killings, kidnappings, extortion — has scared away investors old and new. This double whammy of a shrinking economy and declining net investment is creating spiralling unemployment among the young.

The second reason for the predicament that our young people face is related to the way college education is structured. Young people who graduate from secondary school expect — as entitlement not privilege — that they will continue to university. And that a university degree will be their ticket to a white-collar job. But the real world does not work like this. Not everyone can be a doctor or engineer or lawyer. Successful economies need a whole array of technical skills — auto mechanics, electricians, plumbers and the likes. But most young people and their parents look askance at these blue collar professions. They are thought to be demeaning and socially unacceptable.

http://khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?xfile=data/opinion/2013/December/opinion_December29.xml&section=opinion

3 Rallying against too much democracy (Thomas Fuller in The New York Times) In a world now accustomed to democratic upheavals, including the Arab Spring and the Saffron and Orange revolutions, the weeks of political upheaval in Thailand stand out for one main peculiarity. Protesters massing on the streets here are demanding less democracy, not more. The embattled prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, has proposed holding new elections as a solution to the turmoil. But that is exactly what the protesters do not want. 

“I am one of the people who will not allow this election to take place,” Suthep Thaugsuban, the main protest leader, told a group of business executives in Bangkok. Continued protests “might hurt businesses,” he said, “but just in the short term.” In today’s fractured Thailand, a majority wants more democracy, but a minority, including many rich and powerful people, are petrified by the thought of it.

That Thailand is being convulsed by an antidemocracy movement is somewhat surprising. The country was one of the earliest in Asia to adopt democracy, and both women and men were allowed to vote in local elections in 1897, more than two decades before the 19th Amendment in the US banned voting rights discrimination on the basis of sex. 

The antidemocracy protests, which have been some of the largest in Thai history, call into question the commonly held belief that a rising tide of wealth in a society will naturally be followed by greater demands for democracy. Thailand today is much richer than it was two decades ago, but it is also much more divided. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/17/world/asia/in-thailand-rallying-cry-is-against-too-much-democracy.html?hp&_r=0

4 Holiday gifts for job seekers (Kim Thompson in San Francisco Chronicle) The best gifts are thoughtfully chosen. One of the key elements in a career transition is the ability to research opportunities and stay current with market initiatives. The best way to stay informed is to stay connected with technologies as laptop and desktop computers; smartphones and tablet computers. Updated computer skills also are a necessity in today’s job market, and there are many classes designed to do just that that would make thoughtful gifts.

While job seekers need to do their research, they also need to get out and meet people by participating in professional associations or training programs. A professional association membership is a great way to encourage activity among those with the interests, and it helps a job seeker develop knowledge about the latest industry trends.

Training programs offer the opportunity to mingle with classmates while working toward a career goal, and the gift of education can be a great way to help someone move ahead in their career and build confidence as they develop new skills.  Technology and training can be big-ticket items, but those with a tighter budget still can give a supportive gift. Such things as personalized stationery for sending notes to keep in touch with networking contacts; networking or business cards; and portfolios, briefcases and good-quality totes add to the job-seekers professional image.

A career change is stressful, and one of the best ways to cope with a stressful situation is an exercise program, so consider the gift of a gym membership, which can provide the structure needed to start an exercise routine.

http://blog.sfgate.com/gettowork/2013/12/16/holiday-gifts-for-job-seekers/

China reaches the moon; English farmers fight subsidy cuts; Snooping on staff casts shadow on Ikea; Teens leave Facebook as adults march in

1 China reaches the moon (Louise Watt in San Francisco Chronicle) China's first moon rover has touched the lunar surface and left deep traces on its loose soil, state media reported Sunday, several hours after the country successfully carried out the world's first soft landing of a space probe on the moon in nearly four decades. The 140-kilogram "Jade Rabbit" rover separated from the much larger landing vehicle early Sunday, around seven hours after the unmanned Chang'e 3 space probe touched down on a fairly flat, Earth-facing part of the moon.

The six-wheeled rover will survey the moon's geological structure and surface and look for natural resources for three months, while the lander will carry out scientific explorations at the landing site for one year. The mission marks the next stage in an ambitious space program that aims to eventually put a Chinese astronaut on the moon. China's space program is an enormous source of pride for the country, the third to carry out a lunar soft landing — which does not damage the craft and the equipment it carries — after the US and the former Soviet Union. The last one was by the Soviet Union in 1976.

China's military-backed space program has made methodical progress in a relatively short time, although it lags far behind the US and Russia in technology and experience. China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003, becoming the third nation after Russia and the US to achieve manned space travel independently. In 2006, it sent its first probe to the moon. China plans to open a space station around 2020 and send an astronaut to the moon after that.

http://www.sfgate.com/business/energy/article/China-s-moon-rover-leaves-traces-on-lunar-soil-5063971.php

2 English farmers fight subsidy cuts (Roger Harrabin on BBC) Farmers' leaders have urged ministers not to bring in plans to cut subsidies by 15% and transfer cash to wildlife protection in England and Wales. The National Farmers Union (NFU) has written to every MP, saying the plan to share £3.5bn of farm grants would disadvantage British farmers. The NFU also warns MPs that going ahead with the move would risk rural votes. The government said the money would help to build on the "success" of its environmental and rural growth schemes.

Wildlife groups have used newspaper advertisements to urge the government to keep its countryside commitments. They also say votes are at stake as every household pays £400 a year to subsidise farmers - and people expect their money will be used to protect the environment, not just to shore up farmers’ budgets. In the summer, the EU set the framework for how the money should be spent with its scheme to "green" the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

In England and Wales ministers have indicated a wish to shift the maximum allowable - 15% - away from direct payments to farmers - which is mostly for owning farmland. The money will go towards protecting wildlife and stimulating the rural economy. The NFU letter to MPs says this is unfair to farmers in England and Wales because farmers elsewhere are being better protected. In Scotland the government has decided to shift 9.5% of subsidies away from direct payments.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25373266

3 Snooping on staff casts shadow on Ikea (Nicola Clark in The New York Times) A regional court in Versailles, near Paris, is now examining whether Ikea executives in France broke the law by ordering personal investigations over the course of a decade. A review of the court records indicates that Ikea’s investigations were conducted for various reasons, including the vetting of job applicants, efforts to build cases against employees accused of wrongdoing, and even attempts to undermine the arguments of consumers bringing complaints against the company.

The going rate charged by the private investigators was 80 to 180 euros, or $110 to $247, per inquiry, court documents show. Between 2002 and 2012, the finance department of Ikea France approved more than €475,000 in invoices from investigators. The case has caused public outrage in France, not only because of the company’s large consumer following in this country but because the spying cases occurred in a country that, in the digital age, has elevated privacy to a level nearly equal to the national trinity of Liberté, Égalité and Fraternité.

So far, there have been no accusations that such surveillance occurred in any of the other 42 countries in which Ikea operates, and it remains unclear why the French Ikea unit is purported to have engaged in it so extensively. Very little of the surveillance yielded information Ikea was able to use against the targets of the data sweeps. But court documents indicate that investigators suspect that Ikea may have occasionally used knowledge of personal information to quell workplace grievances or to prompt a resignation. 

“It is hard to conceive that this kind of thing happens in a democratic society like France,” said Sofiane Hakiki, a lawyer representing several unions that have filed civil complaints against Ikea in the affair. “This is not Soviet Russia.” 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/16/business/international/ikea-employee-spying-case-casts-spotlight-on-privacy-issues-in-france.html?ref=business&_r=0

4 Teens leave Facebook as adults march in (Georgie Stone in Sydney Morning Herald) The ''get my parents off Facebook'' and ''OMG my grandma has Facebook'' pages are a thing of the past as people over the age of 30 become the social networking site's largest user demographic.

In what is described as the ''Levi's Effect'', social media expert Michael McQueen said teenagers were abandoning Facebook for other social networks such as Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. ''Levi jeans were a cool, young brand - until parents started wearing them - and the same thing has happened with Facebook,'' Mr McQueen said. In 2012, Facebook was the primary social networking site for teenagers but this year Twitter has overtaken that position. Now, only 23 per cent of Australian teenagers consider Facebook as the most important social networking source.

''The older generation began signing up in 2010 and, originally, a lot of these users were parents who wanted to spy on their kids,'' he said. ''But now they are reconnecting with old school friends and people who live overseas and they have caught the Facebook bug.'' A survey conducted by Princess Cruises found 32 per cent of parents aged over 50 shared their travel stories and photos through Facebook and only 28 per cent still sent postcards.

When CFO David Ebersman said Facebook was seeing a slight decrease in usage by younger teens, roughly $18 billion was wiped off the company's market value. All experts agree that Facebook will need to find new ways to reinvent itself to encourage use across all age demographics.

http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/teens-abandon-facebook-as-adults-begin-to-log-on-20131214-2ze1l.html