Armenia halts ratification of Turkey peace deal

(Reuters) - Armenia on Thursday suspended ratification of peace accords with Turkey, setting back to square one U.S.-backed efforts to bury a century of hostility between the neighbors.

Christian Armenia and Muslim Turkey signed accords in October last year to establish diplomatic relations and open their land border, trying to overcome the legacy of the World War One mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks.

But the process was already deadlocked before Thursday's decision, with each side accusing the other of trying to re-write the texts and setting new conditions.

Neither parliament has approved the deal, which would bring huge economic gains for poor, landlocked Armenia, burnish Turkey's credentials as an EU candidate and boost its clout in the strategic South Caucasus.

Analysts said the Armenian decision, two days before the 95th anniversary of the killings, was not the end of the road, but an attempt to increase pressure on Turkey.

Armenia was angered by Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan saying that ratification would depend on Armenia reaching terms with Azerbaijan, Turkey's close ally and energy trading partner, over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

"We have decided ... not to exit the process for the time being, but rather, to suspend the procedure of ratifying the protocols. We believe this to be in the best interests of our nation," Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan said.

He said in an address to the nation that Armenia would keep its signature to the accords "because we desire peace".

"... We shall consider moving forward when we are convinced that there is a proper environment in Turkey and there is a leadership in Ankara ready to re-engage in the normalization process".

Erdogan said in Ankara Turkey remained committed to the process. "We have frequently expressed our commitment to the protocols in word and in spirit and our goal to fulfill them".

But he gave no sign that he would withdraw the condition that Armenia and Azerbaijan reach a deal on Nagorno-Karabakh, something that has evaded mediators for more than 15 years.

"We have expressed clearly, to all parties concerned, our intention to achieve comprehensive peace in the region".

U.S. Ambassador to Turkey James Jeffrey said Washington hoped the process would continue but added it was up to Ankara and Yerevan to end their differences.

OBAMA STATEMENT

Analysts noted the wording of the Armenian decision was a suspension, not a withdrawal.

"This was a lot weaker than feared," said Yerevan-based U.S. analyst Richard Giragosian. "This is a political tactic rather than a shift in strategic policy".

Both governments face opposition at home, and in Armenia's case from its huge diaspora, many of whom trace their roots to the World War One killings and deportations.

Armenian opponents say the accords betray Armenian efforts to have the massacres internationally recognized as genocide.

Turkish critics say the deal is a betrayal of fellow Turkic-speaking Azerbaijan, an oil and gas exporter and one of the West's key hopes for gas for the planned Nabucco pipeline.

Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with Azerbaijan during the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, when ethnic Armenians backed by Armenia threw off Azeri rule with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Azerbaijan says the frontier must stay shut until ethnic Armenian forces pull back, and has lashed out at Washington for backing the thaw.

Armenia's decision came as the country of 3.2 million approaches the April 24th anniversary of the killings, when tens of thousands lay flowers at a hilltop monument in the capital.

U.S. President Barack Obama will issue a statement to mark the anniversary of the massacres, a defining element of Armenian national identity and a thorn in the side of modern Turkey.

Muslim Turkey accepts many Christian Armenians died in partisan fighting beginning in 1915 but denies that up to 1.5 million were killed and that it amounted to genocide -- a term used by some Western historians and foreign parliaments.

Armenians are again pressing Obama to fulfill a campaign pledge to label the killings as genocide, something he appears unlikely to do for fear of alienating NATO-member Turkey.

Additional reporting by Ibon Villelabeitia and Tulay Karadeniz in Ankara and Ayla Jean Yackley in Istanbul; Writing by Matt Robinson and Ibon Villelabeitia; editing by Alison Williams

Reuters

Dozens hurt after cruise ship lists

By the CNN Wire Staff

(CNN) -- Sixty passengers on a Carnival cruise ship have been treated for minor injuries after the ship listed suddenly to avoid an object in the water, a Carnival spokeswoman said.

The ship listed 12 degrees to the right to avoid hitting a large, adrift buoy at approximately 12:55 p.m. CT Wednesday,Carnival spokeswoman Jennifer de la Cruz told CNN.

The submerged buoy, 200 miles off the Louisiana coast, did not show up on the ship's radar, Coast Guard spokesman Petty Officer Richard Brahm said.

The ship, Carnival Ecstasy, was carrying approximately 2,340 passengers and 900 crew, de la Cruz said.

It was on the final leg of a five-day cruise that left Galveston, Texas, on Saturday, April 17, with stops in Cozumel and Progreso, Mexico.

De la Cruz said the ship docked in Galveston as scheduled Thursday morning.

Injured passengers were treated in the ship's infirmary and some minor damage to merchandise and unsecured objects was reported, she said.

CNN

Emaar records Q1 net profit of Dh 760 million

(WAM)

Emaar Properties, a global property developer with a significant presence in key markets worldwide, announced today first quarter 2010 revenue of AED 2,886 million.

Underpinned by the robust performance of the company’s hospitality and shopping mall subsidiaries during a period when the company opened the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa.

First quarter revenue was an impressive 87 per cent higher than the first-quarter 2009 revenue of AED 1,540 million (US$ 419 million). Net operating profits for the first quarter of the year reached AED 760 million (US$ 207 million), 152 per cent higher than the first-quarter 2009 net operating profit of AED 302 million (US$ 82 million).

The highlight of the first quarter was the opening of Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building at 828 metres (2,716.5 ft).

Mr Mohamed Alabbar, Chairman, Emaar Properties, said the first quarter results of the company highlight the success of its strategy to focus on project delivery and business segmentation. ‘If Burj Khalifa put Dubai and Emaar Properties in the global spotlight and added to our track record in project delivery, the performance of Emaar’s business segments highlighted our role as an integrated property developer adding long-term value to our stakeholders’.

He added: ‘Dubai has proved its resilience in the face of global economic challenges through a series of long-term growth strategies implemented under the leadership of His Highness Shaikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President & Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. This has translated into increasing investor confidence, which is also being reflected in the property market. As well, Burj Khalifa has energised the domestic economy, attracting several thousand visitors in the first three months of opening’.

Mr Alabbar said that Emaar’s growth strategy for 2010 is to focus on the larger Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (MENASA) region, which is home to more than 30 per cent of the world’s population, of which some 800 million people are below the age of 25. ‘Our strategy is to develop integrated lifestyle communities in these markets that meet the growing demand for affordable luxury.’

Emaar made rapid progress in its various projects in different stages of completion during the first quarter of 2010, especially the residential and commercial developments in Downtown Dubai. Boulevard Plaza and Marina Plaza are nearing completion, and work on other residential towers is progressing.

Emaar Hospitality Group recorded strong occupancy levels at all five Address hotels in Dubai in the first quarter of 2010, and Emaar Malls Group hosted more than five million visitors during the month-long Dubai Shopping Festival at its flagship mall, The Dubai Mall. Weekly visitor footfall during the festival month was up an average 30 per cent as compared to the prior month.

Emaar Retail, the entertainment and retail business of Emaar, opened the region’s first KidZania , the award-winning edutainment concept promoting the physical and intellectual growth of children through professional role-plays. Along with Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo, Dubai Ice Rink, SEGA Republic and the 22-screen Reel Cinemas, Emaar Retail strengthened its leisure portfolio in The Dubai Mall in the first quarter of 2010.

Emaar also underscored its strategy of focusing on its core competency of value creation and transferred its education portfolio in Dubai to Dubai-based premium education provider Innoventure Educational Investments LLC (Innoventures).

Further strengthening its healthcare portfolio, the healthcare subsidiary Emaar Healthcare Group opened a new clinic in The Meadows, complementing the Dubai Mall Medical Centre, the region’s largest out-patient medical facility, which opened in 2009.

Among international milestones in the first quarter of the year are the on-schedule progress on projects in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, India, Turkey, Syria and Pakistan. In India, the company’s joint venture Emaar-MGF is on course with its planned initial public offering of AED 2,790 million (INR 35,000 million; US$ 761 million).

Mr Alabbar said: ‘India is one of our key markets in our global expansion strategy, and we are today one of the largest foreign direct investors in the country’s real estate sector. We have a large land reserve in India of approximately 11,340 acres across 26 cities – 96 per cent of which is fully paid for, and we have total development plans for about 437 million sq ft, of which nearly 335 million sq ft is proposed to be residential projects.’

Key construction contracts have been awarded in Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia that will drive Emaar’s integrated community developments in these countries. ‘Several of these projects will be handed over this year, including homes in Egypt; and commercial offices in Syria at The Eighth Gate development. This year, we will continue to focus on our competencies for world-class project delivery, as proved by the launch of Burj Khalifa,’ said Mr Alabbar.

Khaleej Times

Ayton fights for 2010 campaign place

By Stuart Alexander

Campaign 2010 for Britain’s Olympic sailing squad, with an embarrassment of riches in some classes, much work to be done in others, has been fraught with difficulty during the flights ban.

Even without three golds and silver man Ben Ainslie, and with double gold medallist Sarah Dempsey (formerly Ayton) learning a new trade, Britain’s most successful medal machine is still the most feared internationally.

Nearly a full squad has assembled in Hyeres, near Toulon, for the first of four World Cup regattas in Europe this weekend. The culmination will be at the 2012 Olympic venue of Weymouth in August, with The Netherlands and Germany in between.

Olympic manager Stephen Park is uncharacteristically relaxed, saying only that this is an opportunity for some to test new equipment, others to build confidence, and yet more to establish reputations. “But we still want to be a force to be reckoned with,” he says.

Many eyes will be on Dempsey as, with crew Saskia Clark, she sets out on the path to a third consecutive Olympic gold, this time in the 470 dinghy.

But the overall dream is to win a medal in each of the 10 sailing events, a target made more difficult as other nations, especially the United States, Holland, France, and, to a more limited extent, Brazil learn all they can from the UK blueprint.

There is also a new blueprint being prepared by the sport’s world governing body, the International Sailing Federation, to improve the way in which sailing is presented at the Olympic Games.

Under the chairmanship of Phil Jones, a Brit who has headed Yachting Australia, its Olympic Commission is expected to present a paper at next month’s mid-year conference in Hungary an outline of how the World Cup regattas – there is also one in Miami – can be expanded to take in Australasia, Asia, and South America to meet IOC aims.

These include opportunities to qualify for a place at the Games closer to home instead of, as now, 70 per cent of the places for 2012 being decided at the World Championship of Sailing at Perth, West Australia, in December 2011.

Jones will also look at the balance between those championships, the world cup series, individual class world championships and, less influentially, the world rankings.

ISAF executive secretary Jerome Pels knows that he has to carry his membership of national authorities with him, but, although he see no immediate threat to sailing’s place in the Olympic Games, he says: “We had better figure out how to be a successful Olympic sport. We cannot afford to be complacent”.

By that he means taking a closer look at how the public can be involved in a ticketed event. When the London Olympic organising committee recently first put ticket opportunities online there were about one million expressions of interest. About 10 per cent. were for sailing.

Jones will be setting out plans for the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, but some of his core ideas are likely to be trialled either from next year or 2012.

The Independent

Belgian government collapses, economy at risk

By Antonia van de Velde

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme's government collapsed on Thursday after the Flemish liberal party pulled out of his five-month-old coalition, causing a crisis that could damage its fragile economy.

Leterme, 49, tendered his government's resignation to King Albert after an emergency cabinet meeting, but the monarch did not immediately decide whether to accept it.

"The king and the prime minister jointly underlined that, in the current circumstances, a political crisis would be inopportune and would seriously damage both the economic and social well-being of the citizens and the role of Belgium in Europe," the palace said in a written statement.

Without the backing of the center-right Open VLD, the remaining four parties in government still had 76 of the 150 seats in the lower house of parliament but the coalition would have found it hard to govern with such a slim majority.

Open VLD said it had lost faith in the government, which groups parties from center-left to center-right, because it had failed to resolve a dispute between French- and Dutch-speaking parties over electoral boundaries around the capital, Brussels.

"We have not agreed on a negotiated solution and therefore Open VLD no longer has confidence in the government," said Alexander De Croo, the party's chairman.

Economists have expressed concern that political paralysis in the linguistically-divided country of 10.6 million people as it recovers from the global economic crisis would harm the prospects of reducing Belgium's budget deficit.

The government forecasts the deficit will be 4.8 percent of gross domestic product in 2010, and Belgian debt is expected to exceed 100 percent of GDP this year.

The premium investors demanded for holding Belgian debt increased on Thursday. The spread between 10-year Belgian bonds and German bunds had widened to 49 basis points from 43 at Wednesday's close, although this was in line with a widening trend for other euro zone sovereign bonds.

BACK ON THE RADAR SCREEN

"Until now we may say that Belgium was off the radar screen of the financial markets, but this political crisis could bring Belgium back on to the radar screen of those shorting debt markets, speculators or otherwise," said Etienne de Callatay, economist at Bank Degroof in Brussels, referring to the practice of trying to profit from a decline in an asset's value.

Leterme became prime minister for a second time last November when Herman Van Rompuy left the post to become president of the European Union.

Even at the start of his second term, political and economic analysts said they were worried it could prove as unstable as his first nine months in power in 2008, when Belgium lurched from one crisis to another.

Leterme's nine-month struggle to form his first government fueled concerns in the media at the time that Belgium could break apart and raised the risk premium investors demanded to hold government bonds.

Belgium, home to European Union institutions and the NATO military alliance, will not want to let domestic problems drag on because on July 1 it takes over the six-month EU presidency, an organizational role held by each member state in turn.

Additional reporting by Luke Baker and Ben Deighton, writing by Philip Blenkinsop, editing by Timothy Heritage

Reuters Canada

Facebook's bid to rule the web as it goes social

By Maggie Shiels 

Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley

Facebook set out its stall to unseat Google and be at the heart of the web experience as it becomes more social.

The world's largest social network unveiled a series of products at its developer conference F8 aimed at helping the company achieve that goal.

These tools will make it easier for users to take their friends with them as they browse the web.

"We are building toward a web where the default is social," said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder.

"If you look back a few years ago and even as recently as today, in most cases the web isn't designed to use your friends. They don't assume you have a real identity but we are seeing that seep in more and more.

"We want to be one of the things that empowers that and right now most users are using Facebook and we hope we can be a good force in driving that forward," Mr Zuckerberg told the BBC during a news conference.

He added that the "web was at a turning point" and that the way forward was to have friends, or what Mr Zuckerberg called "your social graph", to guide you online.

"One of the points Mr Zuckerberg was making was that the web has become a lot less anonymous and Facebook is definitely positioning itself as wanting to be the owner of that information," said Maya Baratz of the Huffington Post.

Personalisation

At the F8 conference in San Francisco, Mr Zuckerberg unveiled a number of products aimed at putting users and their friends at the "centre of the web".

The most significant was an open graph protocol to let publishers tag their content by type along with a "Like" button that partner sites put on their webpage. This allows users to indicate what they like on a website, be it from photographs to news items and from clothes to music.

That information will then be stored by Facebook the way it already stores connections between people. At the same time any website will be able to take those individual preferences and use them to tailor a more "personalised online experience" for the user and their friends.

Facebook said this means its members will see a web that caters to their individual tastes.

Crucially all this can only happen when users are logged into Facebook and "makes it easy to make any page (on the internet) a Facebook page," said Bret Taylor, Facebook's director of platform.

Business opportunity

Mr Zuckerberg described the features he presented at the conference as "the most transformative thing we've ever done for the web".

Justin Smith, founder of InsideFacebook.com said there are a lot of business upsides to this product.

"When someone "likes" your page, that is a valuable action because it means you will be able to publish updates directly to them in the future which could be used for a variety of purposes like promoting traffic to your website or advertising anything you want".

Some of the early adoptees of the "Like" button include CNN, the movie site IMDb.com, ESPN and Levi's.

Levi's will integrate the "Like" function on its e-commerce site as well as build a "friend" store where consumers logged into Facebook will be able to see a list of their friend's favourite products and shop online with them.

"We're creating a new shopping experience that will change the way people shop online," said Jodi Bricker, vice president of digital at Levi's.

'Audacious and a bit scary'

So what does this mean for Google, the world's most powerful internet company with billions of users who access the web using hyperlinks?

"People are discovering information not just through links to web pages but also from the people and the things they care about," Mr Zuckerberg told a conference hall of around 1,500 developers.

Om Malik, founder and editor of the technology blog GigaOM.com told BBC news "even a blind man can see this is a Facebook versus Google battle and in many ways if the web is going to be more social then that plays to Facebook's strengths".

Damon Cortesi, founder of social media company UntitledStartup, agreed.

"Facebook has won the internet," he told technology blog ZDnet.com

"Facebook has always been social, but in terms of dominating the web over Google they have made strides today".

But Mr Malik sounded a note of caution.

"The whole idea to socialise the whole web is fairly impressive, audacious and a bit scary. I am very scared about the privacy issues around this initiative. They haven't really been very clear as to how consumers will have more control over the things they do on the web".

The issue of privacy has been something of a thorn in Facebook's side. It has suffered backlashes in the past over moves to change users privacy settings.

"Nothing we have released changes any of the privacy protections we have," said Elliot Schrage, the company's vice president of public policy and communications.

"We're providing new opportunities for people to have a social experience if they want it".

BBC News