1. Citi - $32.1bn
2. Merrill Lynch - $19.3bn
3. UBS - $13.7bn
4. Morgan Stanley - $10.6bn
5. Credit Agricole (Calyon) - $3.7bn
6. Barclays Bank - $3.3bn
7. Deutsche Bank - $3.2bn
8. Bank of America - $3bn
9. JPMorgan - $3bn
10. Bear Stearns - $2.8bn
11. Royal Bank of Scotland - $2.5bn
12. Credit Suisse - $2bn
13. Goldman Sachs - $1.7bn
14. Lehman Brothers - $1.5bn
15. WestLB - $519m

Dec 13th 2007 | PARIS
From The Economist print edition

What a reduction in abstraction says about the new France

Of all the novelties of France under President Nicolas Sarkozy, one of the more arresting is the decline of the abstract noun. In the past, no French leader would make a speech without liberal doses of destiny and history. In one speech Mr Sarkozy's predecessor, Jacques Chirac, squeezed 13 abstract nouns — unity, liberty, humanity and more — into a single sentence. He was almost outdone by his prime minister (and part-time poet), Dominique de Villepin, who came up with the declaration: “Globalisation is not an ideal, it cannot be our destiny.”

The contrast with the wordcraft of Mr Sarkozy is instructive. In his first big foreign-policy speech, he managed in 18 pages to utter neither the word glory nor the word grandeur. Unlike his British counterparts, who favour verbless sentences, Mr Sarkozy is a verbaholic. According to a linguistic analysis of his campaign speeches by Damon Mayaffre, of the University of Nice, one of Mr Sarkozy's most frequent words is I, usually followed by the verb want.

What does this say about France? One answer is that the country has a hyperactive president, constantly on the go, who expects the French to be so too. “Work more to earn more” was his slogan, and his use of verbs matches the message. This is a man who likes to jog, where previous presidents preferred a dignified stroll. Indeed, his predilection prompted Libération, a left-leaning newspaper, to ask, “Is jogging right-wing?” It even moved a philosopher, Alain Finkielkraut, to implore the president to take up the promenade—a “spiritual experience”—and to give up jogging, which is mere “body management”.

Another explanation is that Mr Sarkozy is challenging the French tradition of conceptualism. Intellectuals, long cherished by the establishment, get short shrift now. “It's an old national habit: France is a country that thinks,” said Christine Lagarde, the finance minister, in a speech on the value of work, before adding: “Enough thinking now! Let's roll up our sleeves.” This week, Mr Sarkozy sneered at French philosophers during the visit of Libya's Muammar Qaddafi to Paris, accusing them of sipping coffee in Left Bank cafés while others got things done. As for France's famously rigid school curriculum, he has little fondness for it. Too much time is spent, he has declared, “on doctrine, theory and abstraction”, and not enough on practical applications. How long will it be before he has a go at the national motto, a veritable wealth of abstraction: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity?

30位老師衝擊試場爭學生
2007年7月12日

江蘇泰州兩所重點學校為爭學生發生衝突，30多名老師衝入試場撕毀學生的試卷，警員到場控制場面。

揚子晚報報道，10日上午，數百名來自各地的初中畢業生，來到姜堰中學參加該校自主招生考試。因擔心已經成為本校高一新生的生源出現流失，當天上午，興化中學的30多名老師，在拿著介紹信討要說法無果的情況下，衝進姜堰中學考場，撕毀學生試卷，想阻止考試的進行，場面一度失控。

姜堰中學姓錢的老師表示，按往年慣例，該校每年到這個時候，都要進行一次「自主招生」，目的是補充統招新生的不足。他說，今年該校高一年級已經通過統招等方式錄取了1000名新生，但由於下學期該校高一年級共設24個班，按每班60人計算，尚欠400名新生。當天，按計劃，該校對數百名來自不同地方的初中畢業生，進行統一考試。

錢老師回憶，當天上午8點多，兩位興化中學的老師首先進入他們學校，10點多，興化中學又來了30多名老師，他們一齊向考場走去。走進考場，他們撕毀了一些同學的試卷，與本校老師發生了衝突。不久，姜堰市公安局城東派出所的民警接報後趕到了現場。當天中午12點多，興化中學的老師才陸續離開姜堰中學。

興化中學校長辦公室的一位高老師說，按道理，中考早就過去，各學校高一新生的錄取工作也已經結束。姜堰中學此時招生，明顯違規，姜堰中學還接受已被錄取為興化中學高一新生的學生的考試報名，此行為有可能把興化中學已經成型的招生計劃打亂。

高老師說，當天上午，他們老師一行去姜堰中學，就是向該校討說法的。最後，在警方的協調下，姜堰中學同意不錄取已經被興化中學錄取的新生，他們老師這才回來。

US tops 'congestion charge debt'
BBC news

US diplomatic staff in London have run up unpaid congestion charge fees of £271,000 in the past six months, new figures have revealed.

Transport for London (TfL) said embassy staff, the subject of a bitter tirade from London mayor Ken Livingstone, have jumped high up the debt table.

The US embassy has said it does not intend to pay the fees, instead claiming diplomatic privilege.

The figures were released under the Freedom of Information Act.

The mayor said US staff should pay the congestion charge as UK staff pay road tolls in the US.

The new figures show that many millions of pounds are owed in total by several of London's 160 embassies since the introduction.

The US embassy is number one on the list for fees not paid in the past six months.

And the figures show that the Angolan embassy owes more than half a million pounds in unpaid congestion charge fees since the scheme was introduced in February 2003.

'This is not a tax'

A spokesman for TfL said: "We are continuing to seek payment for any outstanding debts from embassies refusing to pay.

"Last month the United Arab Emirates embassy accepted the principle and have joined the many other embassies who have agreed this is a legitimate charge.

"This is not a tax, it's a charge for a service and gives no privileges to any VIPs, so we do not see why diplomats should be exempt.

He said embassies were immune from clamping and bailiff action under the Vienna Convention, but TfL would continue to press for payment for money owing.

By Christopher Elliott
The New York Times
April 25, 2006

The airlines have come up with a new answer to an old question: How many passengers can be squeezed into economy class?

A lot more, it turns out, especially if an idea still in the early stage should catch on: standing-room-only "seats."

Airbus has been quietly pitching the standing-room-only option to Asian carriers, though none have agreed to it yet. Passengers in the standing section would be propped against a padded backboard, held in place with a harness, according to experts who have seen a proposal.

But even short of that option, carriers have been slipping another row or two of seats into coach by exploiting stronger, lighter materials developed by seat manufacturers that allow for slimmer seatbacks. The thinner seats theoretically could be used to give passengers more legroom but, in practice, the airlines have been keeping the amount of space between rows the same, to accommodate additional rows.

The result is an additional 6 seats on a typical Boeing 737, for a total of 156, and as many as 12 new seats on a Boeing 757, for a total of 200.

That such things are even being considered is a result of several factors. High fuel costs, for example, are making it difficult for carriers to turn a profit. The new seat technology alone, when used to add more places for passengers, can add millions in additional annual revenue. The new designs also reduce a seat's weight by up to 15 pounds, helping to hold down fuel consumption. A typical seat in economy class now weighs 74 to 82 pounds.

"There is clearly pressure on carriers to make the total passenger count as efficient as possible," said Howard Guy, a director for Design Q, a seating design consultant in England. "After all, the fewer seats that are put on board, the more expensive the seat price becomes. It's basic math."

Even as the airlines are slimming the seatbacks in coach, they are installing seats as thick and heavy as ever in first and business class — and going to great lengths to promote them. That is because each passenger in such a seat can generate several times the revenue of a coach traveler.

At the front of the cabin, the emphasis is on comfort and amenities like sophisticated entertainment systems. Some of the new seats even feature in-seat electronic massagers. And, of course, the airlines have installed lie-flat seats for their premium passengers on international routes.

Seating specialists say that all the publicity airlines devote to their premium seats diverts attention from what is happening in the back of the plane. In the main cabin, they say, manufacturers are under intense pressure to create more efficient seats.

"We make the seats thinner," said Alexander Pozzi, the director for research and development at Weber Aircraft, a seat manufacturer in Gainesville, Tex. "The airlines keep pitching them closer and closer together. We just try to make them as comfortable as we can."

There is one bit of good news in the thinner seats for coach class: They offer slightly more room between the armrests because the electronics are being moved to the seatbacks.

One of the first to use the thinner seats in coach was American Airlines, which refitted its economy-class section seven years ago with an early version made by the German manufacturer Recaro.

"Those seats were indeed thinner than the ones they replaced, allowing more knee and legroom," Tim Smith, a spokesman for American, said. American actually removed two rows in coach, adding about two inches of legroom, when it installed the new seats. It promoted the change with a campaign called "More Room Throughout Coach."

But two years later, to cut costs, American slid the seats closer together and ended its "More Room" program without fanfare. When the changes were completed last year, American said its "density modification program" had added five more seats to the economy-class section of its MD-80 narrow-body aircraft and brought the total seat count to 120 in the back of the plane. A document on an internal American Airlines Web site, which was briefly accessible to the public last week, estimated that the program would generate an additional $60 million a year for its MD-80 fleet.

United Airlines has also used the earlier-generation thin seats. But it held open the possibility that once its current seat stock needs to be replaced, it might try to squeeze in more seats. "We're always looking at options," Brandon Borrman, a spokesman, said.

Airlines can only do so much with their existing fleets to save space. The real opportunities, say seat manufacturers and design experts, are with the new generation of aircraft that are coming soon.

"People hear about these new planes, and they have bowling alleys and barber shops," Michael B. Baughan, the president and chief operating officer of B/E Aerospace, a manufacturer of aircraft cabin interiors in Wellington, Fla., said with a bit of exaggeration. "But that's not how planes are delivered. On a real airline, with real routes, you have to be economically viable."

Perhaps the most extraordinary example of a new jet that could accommodate features unheard of previously is the Airbus A380. There is so much available room on the superjumbo that Virgin Atlantic Airways is even considering placing a beauty salon in its premium-class section. (No final decision has been made, according to the company.) The first A380 is scheduled to be delivered later this year.

With a typical configuration, the A380 will accommodate about 500 passengers. But with standing-room-only seats, the same plane could conceivably fit in 853 passengers, the maximum it would be permitted to carry.

"To call it a seat would be misleading," said Volker Mellert, a physics professor at Oldenburg University in Germany, who has done research on airline seat comfort and has seen the design. If such a configuration were ever installed on an aircraft, he said, it would only be used on short-haul flights like an island-hopping route in Japan.

While an Airbus spokeswoman, Mary Anne Greczyn, played down the idea that Airbus was trying to sell an aircraft that accommodated 853 passengers, the company would not specifically comment on the upright-seating proposal.

There is no legal barrier to installing standing-room seats on an American airliner. The Federal Aviation Administration does not mandate that a passenger be in a sitting position for takeoffs and landings; only that the passenger be secured. Seating must comply only with the agency's rules on the width of aisles and the ability to evacuate quickly in an emergency.

The Air Transport Association, the trade association for the airline industry in the United States, does not have any seat-comfort standards. Nor does it issue any recommendations to its members regarding seating configurations.

The two Asian airlines seen as the most likely to buy a large plane for short-haul flights, All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines, are lukewarm about the Airbus plan.

"Airbus had talked with us about an 800-seat configuration for domestic flights," said Rob Henderson, a spokesman for All Nippon Airways. "It does not fit with our present plans going forward."

A spokesman for Japan Airlines, Geoffrey Tudor, said Airbus had presented its ideas for using the A380 on short-haul flights, but added, "We have no interest in increasing seat capacity to this level."

Boeing is under similar pressure to squeeze more seats onto its newest aircraft, the midsize Boeing 787. Some airlines are planning to space the seats just 30 inches apart from front to back, or about one inch less than the current average.

And rather than installing eight seats across the two aisles, which would afford passengers additional elbow room, more than half of Boeing's airline customers have opted for a nine-abreast configuration in the main cabin, said Blake Emery, a marketing director at Boeing. Even so, he said, "It will still be as comfortable as any economy-class section today."

Indeed, it is possible to have it both ways: more comfortable seats that are also more compact. For example, the latest economy-class seat from B/E Aerospace, called the ICON, allows the seat bottom to move forward when the seat is reclined, so that it does not steal legroom from the passenger behind it. It also incorporates better ergonomic designs now typically found in the business-class cabin.

But the ICON and similar seats can cost up to three times more than the $1,200 that a standard coach seat costs. That may make them unaffordable to all but a few international airlines that would use the seats on long-haul routes, the experts said.

Some frequent fliers, asked about the slimmer seats, said they feared that the result would be tighter quarters. Some expressed concerns about sharing a cabin with even more passengers and increasing the risk of contracting a communicable disease.

Others were worried about even more passengers sharing the already-tight overhead bin space.

"It seems like every year there is less room for my long legs," said Bud Johnson, who is a frequent traveler for a military contractor in Scottsdale, Ariz. "I'm afraid that's going to continue."

Springfield, Ill. Callers to a state road-construction information line Thursday might have been surprised to hear, "We love nasty talk as much as you do."

The Illinois Department of Transportation intended newly installed signs along the Dan Ryan Expressway, which will undergo major reconstruction starting later this month, to instruct motorists to call a toll-free number for information on alternate routes.

Instead, the initial number posted directed callers wanting "exciting live talk" to another toll-free number, which begins, "Hey there, sexy guy. Welcome to an exciting new way to go live, one on one, with hot, horny girls waiting right now to talk to you."

Three of six informational signs were planted Thursday along the 11-mile stretch of roadway that will be rebuilt during the next two years, IDOT spokesman Matt Vanover said. An IDOT worker commuting to work Thursday morning recognized the incorrect number and alerted officials, he said.

"We apologize to anyone who may have called that number and did not get the information that they were looking for," Vanover said.

Workers were correcting the number on the signs Thursday afternoon, Vanover said. The Bureau of Operations is responsible for the signs, but Vanover would not comment further. He said the agency would investigate the mistake but he would not speculate on whether anyone would be disciplined.

After two years of rebuilding exit ramps and retaining walls, the $600 million Dan Ryan project proceeds to reconstruction of 43-year-old traffic lanes in about 10 days, spokesman Mike Claffey said. Four express lanes in each direction will be closed this year. Next year, those lanes will reopen while the three remaining lanes going each way are rebuilt.

The signs alert motorists to the coming work on the nation's fourth-busiest expressway and urges them to find a detour with help from the toll-free number.

But the first one posted prompted callers to dial another number, where they were invited to engage in "hot amateur talk and voice personals" for 99 cents a minute, or "live, one-on-one" chat with a "nasty girl" for $2.99 a minute.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Huang Chih-fang Thursday expressed his support for the president's analogy comparing Taiwan-Nauru relations to those between the two homosexual characters in the Oscar-winning movie "Brokeback Mountain, " in the wake of criticism that the analogy was inappropriate. [...]

While addressing a state banquet held for visiting Nauruan President Ludwig Scotty Wednesday, President Chen Shui-bian said Taiwan and Nauru, like the two leading characters in "Brokeback Mountain," cherish their friendship despite the twists and turns in bilateral ties over the past 30 years.

According to Chen, this proves that enduring care and unselfish trust are the most precious assets between the two countries.

Opposition lawmakers, however, do not agree with the comparison.

Kuomintang (KMT) Legislator Liu Sheng-liang said it might have constituted a breach of international etiquette for the president to liken the country's relations with a diplomatic ally to a homosexual relationship.

Expressing a similar opinion, Lee Ching-hua, another KMT legislator, noted that the movie actually comes with a tragic ending.

A woman in Spain is celebrating the end of an eight-year battle to be taken off the country's death register after officials insisted she died in 1992.

Maria Antonia Calvo, 43, from Malaga said that, despite presenting herself to a judge, the Civil Registry of Barcelona refused to amend its records.

The court's decision to "declare her alive" paves the way for her to marry.

Ms Calvo alleges her brother registered her as dead over an inheritance dispute and said she is planning legal action.

She said her father died without leaving a will. Under Spanish law, any inheritance goes to the next in line but they must have siblings' permission to use it.

Ms Calvo told the BBC she believes her brother registered her as dead 14 years ago so that he could gain free access to the inheritance.

Legal battle

She was made aware of the situation eight years ago when she received a court summons from Barcelona to verify her status, she added.

She immediately presented herself to a judge to prove that she was alive but the civil registry in Barcelona would not change the paperwork.

Lawyers refused to represent her saying there was no precedent.

Ms Calvo said the situation would probably still not have been resolved if the media had not taken an interest in her case.

She said her fiance Antonio Guzman had urged her to speak to the press after he learned of her situation.

"When he asked me to marry him, I said: 'I love you a lot but I can't marry you, I can't because I'm dead'," she said.

"When I showed him my birth certificate with the stamp across it which officially showed I was dead he couldn't believe it, and it was thanks to him that I launched a cry for help to the media."

"Being dead" made life difficult, according to Ms Calvo.

"I still paid tax and rent so in that case there was no problem being dead.

"Other than that I wasn't able to get married, I wouldn't have been able to draw a pension and my younger son, who is four, was an orphan because his mother was dead," she said.

Ms Calvo said the worst part of the situation was living with the fear that the authorities could take her two children from her.

She is now legally "alive" and is planning to marry Mr Guzman in Spring.

It was the breakup that shocked legions of fans. She was the image of perfection dressed in Pepto-Bismol pink, with a dozen movie credits under her Size 2 belt, several best-selling advice books and a line of accessories that bore her name.
He was her dashing playmate in short shorts, with a washboard stomach, a killer smile and a pampered life of tennis, surfing and roller skating.
Now, after a heart-wrenching, two-year separation — for the record, it was her idea — Ken and Barbie are headed for a romantic reunion, according to their handlers. Ken's new attraction? A makeover, set to be unveiled today at a news conference in Manhattan, that finds him sporting a more rugged jaw line, wearing cargo pants and listening to Norah Jones.

A stinking, solidified lump of gunk from the gut of a sperm whale could make an Australian family up to $1 million richer.
The 14.75kg block of rare whale excreta, expelled orally, was found by the family on a beach near Streaky Bay on South Australia's west coast.They were baffled by the substance before inquiries revealed it to be ambergris - a wax-like substance originating from the intestine of a sperm whale, and greatly prized for its use in perfume.
Marine ecology consultant Ken Jury, who is representing the family, said ambergris was worth $US20-$US65 a gram ($27-$87). Mr Jury said ambergris was belched from a sperm whale as a foul-smelling substance.
"It's actually belched out by the animal, would you believe, and those few across the world that have witnessed that or heard it say it's quite remarkable," Mr Jury told ABC radio.

"When a whale does that, particularly a big sperm whale, apparently the sound of it travels for miles across the water."Mr Jury said the finding was rare. "When the whale throws this out, it's discarded material that it can't digest and includes all sorts of things like hundreds of squid beaks and goodness knows what," he said. "The substance is actually lighter than water and so it floats around the ocean.

"If you were to pick it up immediately after the whale discarded it, you would immediately put it back because it is so foul.
"However, over a period of floating around the ocean for 10 years, the sun and the salt water cleanses this amazing stuff. After 10 years, it's considered clean and all you are getting then is the wonderful musty, very sweet perfume which I have got to say is ultra-smooth.
"You can trace it back to 1000 BC. The Egyptians used it, the Chinese did - they not only used it as perfumes but they used to eat it and they used to give it as gifts. It was literally worth more than gold."
Ambergris has been used as a fixative for fine perfumes, for medicinal purposes and also as an aphrodisiac. It also has been used to enhance the flavours of food and wine, and for herbal and homeopathic remedies.

The remote Pacific island state of Nauru had its sole plane seized today, virtually cutting off the island’s residents from the outside world. The tiny island, whose people were once among the richest per capita in the world, had failed to make payments on the aircraft since 2002... The 7,500 residents of Nauru, a 21 square kilometre coral atoll, were once among the world’s wealthiest due to the export of phosphates, mostly from bird droppings. But the reserves are almost exhausted and with earlier wealth squandered through corruption and mismanagement, the country is virtually bankrupt.

Children should be protected from “terrifying” Santa Claus, and shielded from “alarming” pantomimes, according to a government website for teachers.

The website, which was taken down yesterday by embarrassed officials, also said that staff organising school Christmas parties should take care not to arrange competitive games with winners and losers to avoid upsetting the children and make them feel they had “underperformed”.

Parents’ groups yesterday condemned the advice which they said threatened to destroy the magic of Christmas.

The advice on the website, www.teachernet.gov.uk, said: “For very young children, Father Christmas can be terrifying, and if you are planning a visit from Santa, you’ll need to make sure that fearful children are near an exit.

“Trips to the pantomime can cause alarm, so the same planning applies.

“Younger children in particular have a wide range of fears, many of which seem completely irrational to adults.

“Many children dislike the dark or crowded rooms, so be sensitive to this if you are planning atmospheric lighting.”

The site also had a link to a list of games that could be included in school parties, devised by the “progressive” youth movement, the Woodcraft Folk. The advice said: “Sometimes parties and organised games just reinforce differences and inequalities.

“The last thing you want is for children to get anxious or upset because they feel they have underperformed, or not been successful.

“If you do have games with winners, make sure that all children are given an opportunity to succeed where possible.”

Margaret Morrissey, of the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations, said: said: “It is so sad that we have become so politically correct that we are trying to remove the magic of Christmas.”

Removing the advice yesterday, the Government denied that it represented official policy. A spokesman for the Department of Education said: “We fully support the traditional British Christmas.

“This is not Government policy and was not produced by the department.

“We have now withdrawn it as it does not reflect our views.”