ASHKHABAD, Turkmenistan, Nov. 24--Construction of a new pipeline to carry natural gas from Turkmenistan to Europe via Russia could begin ahead of schedule in the first half of 2008, the resource-rich nation’s president said Friday.
President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov spoke after talks with the prime minister of Russia, which is vying with Western nations for Turkmen gas and struggling to maintain dominance over energy exports from Central Asia, AP reported.
Russia scored a victory in May when it reached agreement for a pipeline to carry Turkmen gas westward across Kazakhstan and Russia, skirting the Caspian Sea. The European Union and United States want a pipeline built under the Caspian, bypassing Russia.
Russian Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov said that agreement had been reached to sign a formal deal with Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan on the new gas pipeline soon, and to begin construction swiftly after it is concluded.
When the initial agreement was reached, however, the presidents ordered their governments to sign a more specific deal, and it was unclear why that has not yet happened. At the time, Russian President Vladimir Putin said construction would begin in mid-2008.
“Turkmenistan has opportunities now, and we will probably start earlier,“ Berdymukhamedov said Friday.
Putin said in May that the new pipeline may carry at least 20 billion cubic meters of gas annually by 2012, while Russian Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko told reporters that it could eventually carry 30 billion cubic meters a year.
Zubkov and Berdymukhamedov said work to modernize a Soviet-era pipeline from Turkmenistan to Russia via Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan would also begin soon.
Meanwhile, head of Gazprom energy giant Alexei Miller was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying on Friday that Turkmenistan is seeking a hike of at least 30 percent in the price of gas sold to Russia.
“During our meetings, our partners in Turkmenistan raised the issue of increasing the price of gas by at least 30 percent starting in 2008,“ Miller added during a visit to Turkmenistan with Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov.
Russia buys some 50 billion cubic meters of Turkmenistan gas at a price of 100 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters, less than half the price for which Russia sells to the EU.

Food prices in Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau and Senegal shot up steeply in 2007.

DAKAR, Senegal, Nov. 24--Recent violent unrest over soaring food prices in several West African nations points to new signs of trouble on a continent where nearly half the people live on a dollar a day, experts warn.
After Mauritania and Morocco, Senegal this week was the latest country hit by violent protests.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization chief Jacques Diouf last month warned of a “risk of social and political troubles in Third World nations in the months or years to come,“ due to the global rise in cereal prices.
“Soaring international prices have obviously had much more impact in the countries that depend a lot on imports for their (food) needs,“ the UN World Food Program (WFP) spokeswoman for West Africa Stephanie Savariaud told AFP.
The mounting demand for bio-fuels and escalating prices of fossil fuels mean farmers cultivate less food in preference of fast cash-spinning biofuel crops. And the internationally rising oil prices are reflected in imported food costs.
“The growing demand for bio-fuels and the high prices of fossil fuel have a dramatic impact on millions of people,“ said Savariaud. “Food prices in Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau and Senegal shot up steeply in 2007,“ she said, citing countries that depend heavily on imported staples.
In the vast and arid Mauritania, where national cereal output is less than 30 percent of needs, the price of imported flour shot up nearly 100 percent--from $200 per ton last year to $360 in September, according to WFP.
Shops there were vandalized and torched earlier this month to protest spiraling food prices, leaving one person dead and 17 wounded. In Morocco, some 50 people were injured during September food protests.
Escalating food prices have affected almost every nation on the continent, but so far without sparking the kind of violent outbreaks witnessed in West Africa, home to the greatest number of the world’s most poverty-stricken countries.
Chances of controlling the high food bills are not easy in the short term, warned FAO chief of Global Information and Early Warning System, Henri Josserand. “It is something that cannot be changed quickly,“ he said.
“Prospects are not good for countries that strongly rely on imports because in the short-to-medium term, we forecast that food prices will remain extremely firm, at least in the next 10 years,“ Josserand said.

TOKYO, Nov. 24--Japanese financial institutions lost as much as 230 billion yen (US$2.1 billion; 1.4 billion euros) due to investments based on risky US housing loans in the half of fiscal 2007, according to a government estimate published by Japanese newspapers Friday.
The losses accounted for about 17 percent of their combined 1.3 trillion yen (US$11.9 billion; 8.0 billion euros) in securitized holdings that included the so-called subprime loans, according to the Nikkei, one of the newspapers reporting the Financial Services Agency estimate, AP reported.
The FSA said in its Thursday report that the US subprime problems have so far had a limited impact on Japanese financial institutions. But the losses could expand because of the resulting market turmoil, which has been ongoing since last month, the Nikkei said. Agency officials were not available for comment Friday, a national holiday.
The damage estimate from the problems in the US mortgage market is the first by a Japanese financial authority. It is based on a FSA survey of 576 Japanese financial institutions, including the nation’s top 10 major banking groups, the Yomiuri newspaper said.
Most of the damage came from the major Japanese banks, according to the report.
Japan’s leading six banking groups are expected to face at least 300 billion yen (US$2.75 billion; 1.85 billion euros) in combined losses on their investments involving assets based on risky loans in the US housing market, the Nikkei said.

GENEVA, Nov. 24--The World Trade Organization has postponed until January 11 the deadline for the European Union to overturn a ban on genetically modified products, trade sources said on Friday. The WTO first ruled September last year that the ban breaks global trade rules, following complaints from the United States, Canada and Argentina, AFP reported.
The EU was given until last Wednesday (November 21) to bring its policies into line with the ruling, but this was extended with the agreement of all parties, trade sources said.
In the longest ever ruling by the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body, six EU countries--Germany, Austria, Belgium, France, Italy and Luxembourg--were deemed to have illegally banned nine GM products, mainly maize and soya.
Meanwhile, a key WTO official warned on Friday that Taiwan’s decision to block the appointment of a Chinese judge to the World Trade Organization’s top court risks causing an institutional crisis, Taiwan on Monday objected to the proposed appointment of Chinese lawyer Zhang Yeujiao to the WTO’s seven-member Appellate Body, which issues rulings in key trade disputes, citing the possibility of bias.
“I’m extremely concerned that if the situation persists much longer we will have a crisis in this organization,“ the chairman of the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body Bruce Gosper told journalists.
Taiwan’s objection meant that Monday’s meeting of the DSB was indefinitely postponed, leaving pending complaints on US agricultural subsidies and Chinese intellectual property restrictions in limbo.
Speaking after an informal meeting of the DSB, Gosper said that all of the 151 members of the WTO, except Taiwan, shared his concerns. “They see this issue as an extremely serious challenge to a system that is really the cornerstone of this organization,“ he said. “The selection of appellate body members is important, but we cannot allow a situation where the system is not able to operate in a manner that was intended,“ he added.
Taiwan said in a statement on Monday that it had “deep concerns on the question of impartiality and qualification of one of the recommended candidates.“

ROME, Nov. 24--Cyclone Sidr has inflicted “enormous losses“ on the agriculture, livestock and fisheries sectors in southern Bangladesh, requiring “large-scale“ aid, the UN food agency said Friday.
The cyclone wiped out more than 92,000 hectares (230,000 acres) of crops, while more than half a million hectares were partially damaged, the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization said in a communiquŽ, AFP reported.
A total of more than 350,000 cattle, buffalo, sheep and goats as well as poultry are estimated to have been lost, the FAO said.
Shrimp aquaculture in the affected Bagerhat region was also devastated, the agency added.
“Support is urgently needed to help restore agricultural and fisheries production activities as well as livestock assets for animal traction in the affected communities,“ said Anne M. Bauer, the head of the FAO’s emergency operations division.
“Quick intervention to improve food availability and self-reliance in cyclone-devastated districts will reduce the need for protracted, and more costly, life-saving assistance,“ she added.
The FAO has received three million dollars (two million euros) in emergency funds so far, the communiquŽ said.
Nearly five million people have been affected by the cyclone, half of whom need immediate livelihood and life-saving relief, the UN humanitarian affairs office in Geneva said Friday.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has already granted $15 million in aid and called on international donors to continue their generosity.
The World Bank has pledged up to $250 million for food imports, medical supplies and cash grants, while Britain has pledged more than five million dollars and the United States around 3.5 million dollars.

BRUSSELS, Belgium, Nov. 24--European Union nations clinched a deal to fund an ambitious satellite navigation project to rival the US Global Positioning System using unspent cash from the EU budget, a presidency spokesman said.
The Portuguese spokesman said budget ministers agreed to finance a 2.4 billion euro ($3.55 billion) shortfall in start-up costs of the Galileo system by redeploying unspent money for farm subsidies and competitiveness projects. “We have an agreement. All the money was taken out of unspent funds, mostly for agriculture,“ he said, AFP reported.
An EU diplomat said Germany, the biggest net contributor to the 27-nation bloc’s coffers, voted against the agreement but was outvoted.
The presidency spokesman confirmed the decision was not unanimous but declined to comment on who had voted against it.
The deal came after the European Commission proposed redividing the tenders for Galileo in a bid to meet German demands that no one aerospace firm should dominate the project.
The EU executive warned it would have to drop the prestige industrial project if there was no agreement among member states on public funding by the end of this year.

With just over four weeks to go until Christmas, US shoppers are expected to be more cautious with their spending this year than usual.

NEW YORK, Nov. 24--Strikes by entertainment workers, fears of a looming recession and warnings about toxic toys lining store shelves are all threatening to put a damper on the holiday season in the United States.
With just over four weeks to go until Christmas, US shoppers are expected to be more cautious with their spending this year than usual. Consumer confidence is hovering around a two-year low amid a slump in the housing market, AFP reported.
But as one of the busiest shopping periods of the year kicked off Friday, a day after the Thanksgiving Day national holiday, shoppers in New York seemed in upbeat mood, forming long lines in department stores in search of bargains.
Up to 133 million shoppers were expected to hit US stores over the long weekend, with the National Retail Federation projecting a four percent rise in holiday spending. Ernst & Young forecast growth at 4.5 percent.
“So far, consumers have done an amazing job of ignoring high oil prices, not to mention falling home prices,“ Standard and Poor’s chief economist David Wyss said ahead of the holiday sales season. “But with gasoline back to more than three dollars per gallon and the winter heating season approaching, will consumers finally flinch?“ he said, as oil prices threatened to strike 100 dollars.
In New York, a strike by Broadway stagehands has meant disappointment for thousands of overseas and US visitors, while also hitting businesses in Manhattan that rely on theatergoers, such as restaurants and bars.
The strike, called after contract negotiations with theater producers collapsed, enters its third week Saturday with no end in sight. Authorities have estimated the stoppage is costing the city millions of dollars a day.
At the same time, a strike by television and Hollywood writers has already pulled late-night comedy shows off the screen and postponed new productions.