Turkey's military chiefs resign

ANKARA, Turkey — The chiefs of staff of Turkey's military stepped down Friday as tensions dramatically increased over the arrest of dozens of officers accused of plotting to overthrow the Islamic-rooted government.

The resignation of so many top commanders for the first time ever in Turkey signals a deep rift with the government, which has been confident in confronting a military that once held sway over Turkish political life. The arrests of high-ranking military officers would once have been unimaginable.

The resignations of Turkey's top general, Isik Kosaner, along with the country's navy, army and air force commanders, came hours after a court charged 22 suspects, including several generals and officers, with carrying out an Internet campaign to undermine the government. The commanders asked to be retired, the state-run Anatolia news agency said.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Gen. Necdet Ozel, the commander of the gendarme forces – the highest-ranking commander who remained in office. Ozel was widely expected to become the next head of the military and Kosaner's resignation might speed up the process.

Transportation Minister Binali Yildirim said "the state would continue to function," in the first reaction by the government.

However, CNN Turk also quoted the prime minister's office as saying the generals were not resigning but going into retirement. State-run Anatolian news agency reported Gen Kosaner as resigning "as he saw it as necessary".

The Turkish lira weakened sharply on the news to 1.6964 against the dollar from an interbank close of 1.6805 today.

The supreme military council is due to hold a major meeting next week to discuss key appointments and president Abdullah Gul and Mr Erdogan met Gen Kosaner today to discuss the matter.

Friction between the government and military has been fuelled by an ongoing trial targeting dozens of senior military officers accused of plotting to overthrow the government.

The "sledgehammer" case, arising from an alleged coup plan presented at an army seminar in 2003, is one of several setting Turkey's secularist establishment against Mr Erdogan's ruling AK party, which critics suspect of having a secret Islamist agenda.

The AK party denies this.

Turkey Posts Record Trade Gap at $10.2 Billion

Turkey’s trade deficit widened to the biggest on record in June, signalling that central bank efforts to rein in a surge in imports aren’t working.

The deficit was $10.2 billion in the month, up from $5.6 billion a year earlier, the statistics office in Ankara said on its website today. The figure exceeded last month’s then-record deficit of $10.1 billion and the median estimate of $9.5 billion from eight analysts in a Bloomberg survey.

Central bank Governor Erdem Basci said yesterday that the limits on bank lending he has imposed this year will help narrow the imbalance between imports and exports that’s threatening Turkey’s financial stability. The current-account balance, the widest measure of trade in goods and services, will improve in the last quarter of the year, he said.

“A new record trade deficit is not what we wanted at all,” Levent Durusoy, chief economist at Yatirim Finansman Securities in Istanbul, said in a telephone interview. “The measures taken so far will take some more time to work and for the impact of the shift in the exchange rate to be seen.”

Basci has held the benchmark one-week repo lending rate unchanged at a historic low of 6.25 percent since January, helping to weaken the lira about 8 percent against the dollar this year, the most of 25 emerging market currencies tracked by Bloomberg. The currency is no longer overvalued, Basci said yesterday.

Over the past few days, Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan, who is in overall control of economic policy for the government, also has invited Turkish and foreign analysts to talks. "He said they were in listening mode," said one investor who met Mr. Babacan. At the same time, the economy minister gave nothing away on whether the government will tighten fiscal policy when it eventually publishes a new economic program, probably in September, the investor said.

Mr. Babacan had been vocal before Turkey's June 12 elections in reassuring markets that reducing the current-account deficit would be the new government's top priority. That led investors to assume the government would come forward with a program of fiscal tightening once the election campaign was over and that the central bank too was likely to begin a tighter monetary policy.

Since the election, however, Mr. Babacan has been silent and the government appears to have opted for a wait-and-see approach to what happens in the global economy. With the U.S. in particular on the brink of important decisions on its debt ceiling, a fresh global downturn could take the heat out of Turkey's economy without any need for raising interest rates, analysts said.

"I guess the impetus both in terms of fiscal and monetary policy when so much domestically and globally in terms of the economic outlook is so unclear is to buy more time, to get a few more data inputs," said Tim Ash, emerging-markets economist at Royal Bank of Scotland, in a research note Thursday. "Is the global economy set to stay in stall mode, and is the Turkish economy slowing down under its own steam? The jury seems to be out on both cases."

In the meantime, however, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and a new economy minister, former Trade Minister Zafer Caglayan, have said repeatedly that there was no cause for concern over the current-account deficit, triggering market nervousness.

Turkey's current-account deficit is a chronic weakness for the economy, primarily because the country's manufacturing sector—the key engine for export growth—relies on large quantities of imported raw materials and semi-finished products in order to produce. According to the statistic institute's breakdown of June trade figures Friday, 71% of the $10.2 billion deficit was attributable to intermediary goods, 15.7% to capital goods and 12. 8% to consumption goods.

Frozen Norwegian IPO market seen thawing in 2010

OSLO, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Despite a 10-month stock market bull run, Norwegian initial public offering (IPO) activity is seen as low in early 2010, but the Oslo bourse says several firms could weigh in later this year after a two-year drought.


Only a few minor Norwegian IPOs have been made since mid-2008, when the financial crisis put paid to a capital raising boom centred on the energy and oil services sectors.

Oslo's oil-heavy main index plunged 55 percent in 2008, but has been a top performer after growth returned to key economies last year and raw material prices regained momentum.



The main index has more than doubled from a March 2009 low and is back at the level it was before Lehman Brothers collapsed

Source:in.reuters.com/

Nationwide 4G/LTE rollout for Teliasonera in Norway and Sweden

During 2010, TeliaSonera expects to offer its customers 4G coverage in the 25 largest municipalities in Sweden alongside the four largest municipalities in Norway, including Oslo. Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) has been selected as the sole supplier of the common core network as well as providing LTE radio access.

The Nordic region has had a tradition of being at the forefront of telecommunications development. With TeliaSonera's 4G/LTE, this region is again in the lead. TeliaSonera now offers the consumers a next generation broadband network with wireless access to interactive and capacity-demanding services such as real-time web, online gaming, social media collaboration and video conferencing.

Lars Klasson, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Business Area Mobility Services at TeliaSonera, says: "We have chosen Ericsson to deliver TeliaSonera's 4G core network and further radio network rollout in Sweden and Norway based on their high quality technology and competitive offer. Our customers are the first in the world to use commercial 4G services. The use of mobile broadband in the Nordic is exploding and we offer 4G to meet the demand for high speed and capacity" Mikael Backstrom, President Ericsson Nordic and Baltics, says: "As we move into next generation mobile networks with increased data traffic, securing network quality will be vital. We have delivered our latest solutions and gained TeliaSonera's confidence in our ability to provide leading technology and services. We will work just as hard to secure a smooth rollout and support TeliaSonera in introducing new consumer services." Supplied by Ericsson, TeliaSonera recently launched the world's first and largest LTE service in Stockholm. Ericsson has signed commercial LTE contracts with four major operators to date, including Verizon Wireless and MetroPCS in the US, NTT DoCoMo in Japan and TeliaSonera in Sweden.

LTE, the next generation of mobile communication technology, enables the fast transfer of huge amounts of data in an efficient and cost-effective way, optimizing the use of the frequency spectrum. With increased speed and decreased latency, consumers can enjoy whatever service is available online (real-time web, online gaming, social media collaboration and video conferencing) effortlessly and while on the move. LTE will meet the demands of new and enhanced internet applications of the future.

Ericsson continues to pioneer wireless technology and is leading the development of LTE. Together with NTT DoCoMo, Ericsson initiated LTE standardization at the international standardization body 3GPP in 2004, and has made the largest amount of approved contributions to the group. Ericsson also expects to hold 25 percent of all essential patents for LTE, making it the largest patent holder in the industry.(C) 2010 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)

For full details on (ERICY) ERICY. (ERICY) has Short Term PowerRatings at TradingMarkets. Details on (ERICY) Short Term PowerRatings is available at This Link.

For full details on LM Ericsson Telephone Company (ERIC) ERIC. LM Ericsson Telephone Company (ERIC) has Short Term PowerRatings at TradingMarkets. Details on LM Ericsson Telephone Company (ERIC) Short Term PowerRatings is available at This Link.

Source:tradingmarkets.com/

Norway - Foreign Minister Støre underlines importance of a new WTO Agreement

Concluding the Doha Round must be given top priority,” said Minister of Foreign Affairs Jonas Gahr Støre in Norway’s main statement at the WTO Ministerial Conference in Geneva today. The objective of the Conference is to review the status of the existing multilateral framework for international trade, and to discuss the global economic situation. A large number of countries, including Tanzania, which spoke on behalf of the least developed countries, advocated the conclusion of the Doha Round, as did Norway. Prior to the Conference, a group of 110 developing countries had agreed on the importance of a rapid conclusion of the Doha Round on the basis of the draft agreement of 2008. 

“I made it clear that Norway is prepared to go the last mile, provided we can find satisfactory solutions for Norwegian agriculture. And I am confident that we will do so,” said Mr Støre. In his statement, Mr Støre also emphasised the importance of bringing the next generation of issues onto the WTO agenda, once the Doha Round has been concluded. “It is important that workers’ rights are included in the WTO discussions, and that coherence between what is done in the WTO and what is done at the ILO is ensured. Climate change issues also need to be dealt with. But this will not be possible before the Doha Round has been successfully concluded,” Mr Støre added. Minister of Agriculture and Food Lars Peder Brekk also took part in the Ministerial Conference, and in addition the Norwegian delegation included members of the Storting and representatives of civil society Source: isria.com/