Every Wednesday you will find links and top-line summaries to current events around the globe.
Obama Signs Health Care Overhaul Bill, With a Flourish [New York Times]
- With the strokes of 20 pens, President Obama signed his landmark health care overhaul, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — the most expansive social legislation enacted in decades — into law on Tuesday, saying it enshrines “the core principle that everybody should have some basic security when it comes to their health care”
- Despite the president’s signature, the legislative work on the bill is not over, nor is the partisan tussle over it. Republicans on Tuesday renewed their vow to repeal the measure, albeit with a fresh slogan, “repeal and replace,” in a nod to the political difficulties of campaigning to overturn a measure that includes popular new benefits, like allowing young people to stay on their parents’ plans until age 26
- Tuesday’s signing ceremony was the beginning of what will be an intense sales pitch by the White House and leading Democrats to convince Americans of the benefits of the health bill. As soon as it was over, Mr. Obama went into campaign mode, traveling to the Interior Department — the federal building with the biggest auditorium the White House could find — to address a crowd of more than 500 cheering doctors, nurses, patients and federal employees
Google to phase out China search partnerships [Reuters]
- Two day after shutting its Chinese portal over censorship, Google Inc said it plans to phase out deals to provide filtered search services to other online or mobile firms in China. It has already been shunned by at least one of those partner firms and was attacked by a state newspaper after pulling the plug on its mainland Chinese language portal Google.cn. It now reroutes searches to an unfiltered Hong Kong site
- While Google is the world’s top search engine, it held only an estimated 30 percent share of China’s search market in 2009, compared with home-grown rival Baidu Inc’s 60%. Google said it is not providing direct access to censored searches, but will fulfill existing contracts with other firms
- Google has already been taken off the popular tom.com portal, owned by Li Ka-shing, a Hong Kong billionaire who is one of the richest men in the world and has good ties to Beijing, according to Bloomberg. Google’s move has angered the government, and on Wednesday an official Communist Party newspaper accused it of colluding with U.S. spies, in China’s latest blast at the company
‘Good fat’ cuts heart risk by a fifth, study shows [BBC]
- Replacing saturated fats with healthier options can cut the risk of heart disease by a fifth, a US study says. The Harvard Medical School reports adds weight to the growing evidence about polyunsaturated fats, found in some fish and vegetable oils
- The team analysed the findings from eight previous studies, covering more than 13,000 people, in their research. Experts said cutting down on saturated fats, found in butter and meat, was just one part of a healthy diet.
It is recommended that adults get no more than 11% of their energy from saturated fats
- This is because the fats raise the levels of bad cholesterol that block the arteries to the heart. In comparison, polyunsaturated fats have the opposite effect by increasing the levels of good cholesterol. The Harvard analysis suggested that for every 5% increase in polyunsaturated fat consumption there was a 10% fall in heart disease
Japan’s Dai-ichi to Raise Nearly $11 Billion in I.P.O. [New York Times]
- Dai-ichi Mutual Life on Tuesday announced its planned initial public offering would raise just under $11 billion dollars, making it the seventh-largest new listing ever despite investor nervousness around the globe. Dai-ichi, which is poised to start trading in Tokyo on April 1, announced Tuesday that it had priced the 7.2 million shares it is selling at ¥140,000 each, making for a total of about ¥1 trillion
- the I.P.O. will be the second-biggest in the world since Visa debuted two years ago, and the largest in Japan after that of the cell phone company NTT DoCoMo, which went public in 1998. And although the Dai-ichi listing will raise only about half what the record I.P.O. of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China achieved in October 2006, it will nevertheless easily rank among the world’s top ten I.P.O.s
- Dai-ichi’s move to the stock market is aimed at allowing it to expand beyond Japan, whose aging population and anemic economic growth make it a tough market for life insurers — and many other businesses — to operate in
European court rules Google’s ad model is legal [Reuters]
- Europe’s highest court ruled Google Inc did not infringe trademark law by selling keywords to trigger ads after Louis Vuitton and others said the practice undermined their brands. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) said on Tuesday advertisers were free to buy keywords identical to trademarks of rivals as long as consumers were not confused on the provenance of goods and services by the way ads were displayed online
- The court said that in cases where ads could confuse consumers, brand owners should invoke their rights against the advertisers concerned, not against Google — unless Google failed to act on a complaint or actively manipulated keywords. The ruling validates the AdWords paid-search business at the core of Google’s $23 billion online advertising operations, and gives brand owners a way to prevent wrongful use of their trademarks
- Google used to block advertisers from buying others’ brand names as keywords but changed its policy in North America in 2004 and four years later extended that to Britain and Ireland. It says it will honor valid complaints from brand owners and prevent their rivals from using a trademarked keyword in their ad text
Greece woes push euro to 10-month low [Reuters]
- The euro sank to a 10-month low against the dollar and a lifetime trough versus the Swiss franc on Wednesday as speculation Greece may have a difficult time securing debt aid highlighted instability in the euro zone. Global shares slipped as traders were cautious about taking on big positions ahead of a European Union summit which begins on Thursday
- EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn on Wednesday said the union must decide on a way to help debt-laden Greece this week, or run the risk of causing a “serious disruption” for the euro. His comments came after Germany on Tuesday signaled for the first time that it may accept European financial aid for Greece as a last resort, but only if the IMF is involved and euro zone partners accept tougher budget discipline rules
- At the same time, France had rejected a possible role for the International Monetary Fund, arguing instead for euro zone members to help Athens. Analysts said the euro may be vulnerable to more losses even if the two-day summit results in an assistance package for Greece, as the prospect of any IMF role in such aid may be seen as acknowledgment of weakness in the euro system
Deutsche, Moore Capital in UK insider trading probe [Reuters]
- One of the biggest insider trading cases to hit London in years cast a shadow on Tuesday on European banks Deutsche Bank AG and BNP Paribas SA, as well as U.S. hedge fund Moore Capital. A trader at the London arm of New York-based Moore, along with employees of Deutsche and investment bank Exane, partly owned by BNP Paribas, were among a group of six people arrested by British authorities
- A spokesman for Moore, a $14 billion hedge fund led by secretive U.S.-born billionaire Louis Moore Bacon, said the firm is cooperating with the probe by the Financial Services Authority. Bacon founded Moore in 1986. Dramatizing the scope of the operation, the FSA said a squad of 143 officers raided 16 residential and business addresses in London on Tuesday, arresting the six men and seizing documents and computers
- The FSA declined to divulge any further details about the operation, the largest against insider trading to date. In September 2008, the FSA fined Steven Harrison, a former hedge fund manager at Moore’s London group, for market abuse, agreeing he would not work as a trader or fund manager for 12 months
Nobel Prize-winning scientist Sir James Black dies [BBC]
- Nobel Prize-winning scientist Sir James Black has died at the age of 85, it has been announced. Sir James was considered one of the great Scottish scientists of the 20th Century and is credited with having invented beta-blocker drugs in 1962
- In 1988 he won the Nobel Prize for medicine and was given the UK’s highest honour, the Order of Merit, in 2000. Sir James died on Monday morning after a long illness.
- Beta-blockers now play an essential role in the treatment of angina and heart attacks. The Scottish scientist also went on to invent the first effective non-surgical treatment for stomach ulcers
- For Consumers, Clarity on Health Care Changes [New York Times]
- Russia, China push Iran to change nuclear stance [Reuters]
- Somali pirates move towards India [BBC]
- Broke? Buy a few warships, France tells Greece [Reuters]
- Rio trial ends, verdict could take some time [Reuters]
- Somali Backlash May Be Militants’ Worst Foe [New York Times]
- Time Warner leads bids of up to $1.5 billion for MGM [Reuters]
Photograph by Doug Mills/The New York Times
Mr. Biden introduced Mr. Obama, lauding the president’s “perseverance” and “clarity of purpose.” But in a remark that he clearly did not intend to be heard, Mr. Biden used a vulgarity in his private congratulations to the president that, while not audible inside the room, was picked up by a broadcast microphone and spread quickly across the Internet.
“Mr. President, this is a big [expletive] deal,” Mr. Biden whispered, inserting an adjective not used in polite conversation. Later, the White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, sent out a message over Twitter: “And yes, Mr. Vice President, you’re right.” (Photograph by Doug Mills/The New York Times)
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