Transparency International says judges in many countries are happy to take a bribe in return for dismissing a case or influencing a verdict in a court case.

BERLIN, Dec. 7--The poor are targeted for bribes whether in developed or developing countries and the police and judiciary are so tainted by corruption that it undermines the fight against the problem, an anti-graft group said on Thursday.
Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer 2007 shows that poor people are frequently asked to pay bribes to gain access to services such as healthcare and education, AFP reported.
“For low-income households this might mean choosing between medical treatment for a child or the next meal,“ Transparency International Chair Huguette Labelle said at a news conference in Berlin to launch the report.
“And if people assume they have to bribe, they will become more likely to do so.“
Unlike Transparency’s annual ranking of countries based on expert perceptions of corruption, the Barometer looks at people’s experiences.
More than 63,000 people in 60 countries were polled.
One in four who came into contact with the police were asked to pay a bribe and one in every six reported actually handing over money.
Judges in many countries are happy to take a bribe in return for dismissing a case or influencing a verdict in a court case, Transparency found.
“This means the crucial structures to fight the problem are being undermined,“ Labelle said.
The study found that the countries with the highest level of petty bribery, with at least 30 percent of respondents reporting paying bribes, were Albania, Cambodia, Cameroon, Macedonia, Kosovo, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Romania and Senegal.
Africa is the region that experiences the most demands for bribes with more than 40 percent of respondents saying they had been asked to pay one.
She suggested areas governments could address to improve their fight against corruption.
“This year’s global corruption barometer has made it clear that people do not see enough commitment when they look to their governments and leaders,“ said Labelle.
“Governments bear the greatest responsibility for following through on commitments to fight corruption. Bribery hurts people and they are disgruntled by the corruption they see plaguing key public institutions and services,“ the TI chief added.

A United Nations security personnel stands next to a globe at the venue of the UN Climate Change Conference in Nusa Dua, on Bali Island, Indonesia, Dec. 7.

BALI, Indonesia, Dec. 7--The United States and Saudi Arabia are the world’s worst “climate sinners,“ environmental groups said Friday, citing their high and mounting greenhouse gas emissions and inadequate government policies to combat global warming.
Australia was ranked third, but with a caveat: If its decision to sign the Kyoto Protocol is followed up with action, it would quickly fall down the ladder, AP wrote.
“The international community is still failing to comply with their responsibilities regarding climate protection,“ said Matthias Duwe of the Climate Action Network-Europe, which released the data Friday at the UN conference in Bali.
“They have not set themselves firmly on the path of limiting global warming.“
Delegates from nearly 190 nations are attending the Dec. 3-14 gathering, charged with launching negotiations that will eventually lead to an international accord to succeed the Kyoto pact, which expires in 2012.
The 175-nation accord requires 36 industrial nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a key source of global warming, by an average 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.
Without action, scientists warn of catastrophic droughts and floods, collapsing ice sheets and vanishing coastlines.
Environmentalists on Friday released their annual index ranking 56 industrialized and emerging countries, which together account for more than 90 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. The calculations, performed by the group Germanwatch, took into account pollution levels and trends, as well as overall climate policy.
Surprisingly China--which some experts believe has already surpassed the United States as the world’s top emitter of climate-changing gases--was recognized for improvements made over the last two years, most notably to enhance energy efficiency and promote renewable energy.
Artur Runge-Metzger, a senior European Commission delegate, said that China had been showing signs of moving to clean up their climate credentials over the past year.
“They have clearly said that climate change is something they care very much about,“ he told reporters.
It went from being the 14th worst offender to the 17th one year ago.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, was the biggest “climate sinner“ for the second year in a row, largely because the kingdom’s policies generally block attempts to reduce greenhouse gases.

SINGAPORE, Dec. 7--Oil prices stayed above $90 in Asia trade Friday as traders began to digest the sharp drawdown in US crude stocks and OPEC’s decision to leave its output quotas unchanged, dealers said.
In early morning trade, New York’s main contract light sweet crude for January delivery gained 11 cents to $90.34 a barrel from $90.23 in late US trades Thursday, AFP said.
Brent North Sea crude for January delivery was 21 cents higher at $90.39.
Oil prices had initially fallen after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decided to keep its daily production quotas at 27.25 million barrels following a meeting Wednesday in Abu Dhabi.
There was also muted reaction to a bigger-than-expected drop of 8.0 million barrels in US crude reserves but traders have now started to focus on the two issues, said dealers.
“The decision by OPEC not to increase supply together with those lower stock numbers out of the US do suggest $88 is a bit cheap,“ said Katie Dean, a Melbourne-based senior economist with Australia’s ANZ Bank.
“It took the market a little while to come to that...what we are seeing is largely technical buying,“ she said.
New York prices were trading near $88 after OPEC made known its decision.
Prices will likely hold above $90 since supplies are expected to stay tight and peak demand for heating fuel in the United States is about to kick in, she said.
“There is not a lot of supply coming so that will continue to hold the market relatively firmly,“ said Dean.
“We think that $90 is about right for how the market is placed at the moment,“ she said.
The United States, the world’s biggest energy user, has called on OPEC to pump more crude to cool oil prices that surged to record high levels near $100 a barrel last month.

An AlItalia plane is parked at Rome's Fiumicino international airport, Italy, July 18.

ROME, Dec. 7--Three bidders, including Air France KLM, have made offers for the troubled Italian carrier Alitalia.
The Franco-Dutch airline will face competition from Italian airline Air One and a consortium led by Italian lawyer Antonio Baldassarre.
Alitalia initially identified six possible bidders for the government’s 49 percent stake which ministers want to sell, BBC reported.
High costs, tough competition and frequent strikes have plunged Alitalia into a precarious financial position.
Alitalia’s board plans to announce a preferred bidder within the next few days, with a view to concluding a deal before Christmas.
“The point is to have an industrial plan that can turn around and strengthen the company,“ Italian President Romano Prodi said on Wednesday.
Previous efforts to sell off the airline have foundered on concerns about its financial position and conditions attached to the sale.
Experts said investors had been put off in the past by a lack of clarity about the firm’s finances and obligations regarding future service levels.
The airline has cut back on services in recent months and its chairman Maurizio Prato recently described the firm as “comatose“.
Ministers will be encouraged by Air France KLM’s interest although disappointed that German airline Lufthansa decided not to make a bid.
“This major step in European consolidation would not only be beneficial for passengers but would also meet the requirements for the group’s economic and financial stability,“ Air France KLM said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Boeing Co. will decide on a plan to replace its popular 737 aircraft by 2012 at the latest, a spokeswoman told The Associated Press.
Last year, the company started seriously considering a successor for the 737, for which Boeing has won more than 6,000 orders since its 1967 debut.
Sandy Anger, a Boeing spokeswoman, said Thursday that the company ’must ensure it has the right set of breakthrough technologies in engines, aerodynamics, materials and other systems’ to top the 737’s efficiency.

NEW YORK, Dec. 7--The new head of the International Monetary Fund plans to cut up to 15 percent of the organization’s staff in an attempt to stabilize the fund’s finances as demand for its loans drops, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
New IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said in an interview with the Journal that he planned to cut 300 to 400 jobs out of the IMF’s total staff of more than 2,600. Layoffs would likely be necessary, he told the paper, Reuter said.
Strauss-Kahn said the fund was facing a deficit of $400 million a year by 2010 if loan demand failed to pick up, but estimated the job cuts could reduce that deficit by about a quarter.
The report said the cuts were part of an effort by Strauss-Kahn to win US and European backing for the Washington-based institution to sell its gold and invest the proceeds.
“All this is possible only if...I have the commitment by different governments“ to boost IMF income, the paper quoted Strauss-Kahn as saying.
The IMF chief, who started his post in November, said the IMF also has an important role in assuring that sovereign wealth funds act in a market-friendly fashion.
He said the IMF was putting together a “best practices“ code to guide such funds and it would be in their best interests to follow such rules to avoid being shut out of Western markets. Strauss-Kahn, also told the Journal that he believed the euro was “probably on the strong side“ while the US dollar, which is losing value, was moving in the right direction.
He said China should let its currency appreciate but added that would not be enough to restore balance to the world economy.
The IMF chief said China also needed to boost domestic consumption and diminish economic inequality at home, adding he would press that argument with Chinese leaders when he meets them in February.

TOKYO, Dec. 7--Japan said Friday that its economy grew by much less than previously thought in the third quarter of 2007 amid a housing slump and slower investment by firms in new factories and equipment.
The downward revision reinforced market expectations that another rise in Japan’s super-low interest rates is unlikely any time soon, analysts was quoted by AFP as saying.
Japan’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew at an annualized pace of 1.5 percent in the three months to September, down from an initial estimate of a 2.6 percent expansion, the Cabinet Office said.
Compared with the previous quarter, GDP grew by 0.4 percent, against a previous estimate of 0.6 percent, it said.
Analysts said Japan should continue its slow recovery from a slump stretching back over a decade, although at a more moderate pace than previously thought.
The world’s second-largest economy has seen a rebound after shrinking by a revised 0.5 percent in the second quarter, with brisk exports to the rest of Asia helping to return growth to positive territory.
But with the US subprime loan crisis casting a shadow over prospects for the global economy, Japan’s exports are at risk of being hit by a slowdown in growth in its major trading partners, analysts said.
“Japan will experience some pressure from a slowdown in advanced economies even with benefits from recent solid economic expansion in China and other emerging economies,“ predicted Morgan Stanley economist Takehiro Sato.
Companies already appear to be growing cautious about the outlook given the increasingly chilly global economic environment.
Growth in corporate capital investment in new plants and machinery was revised down to 1.1 percent quarter-on-quarter for the three months to September from 1.7 percent previously.
“Companies don’t appear to have very optimistic views on the outlook for the economy,“ said BNP Paribas economist Yoshimasa Maruyama.