A UCLA chemistry professor and the University of California are facing criminal charges in connection with a laboratory fire that killed a worker Sheharbano "Sheri" Sangji three years ago. Sangji, 23, was transferring a highly-flammable chemical from one container to another when her syringe broke, exposing the chemical to the air. It erupted in flames, igniting her sweater and giving her burns so severe that she died 18 days later. Both UCLA safety inspectors and Cal-OSHA investigators found serious safety flaws in the laboratory — the most obvious flaw was that Sangji should have been trained to wear a lab coat at all times.

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office believes that these violations rise to the level of criminal behavior. It has charged Patrick Harran and the UC regents with three counts each of willfully violating occupational health and safety standards, according to the Los Angeles Times. Harran could face 4 1/2 years in prison under these charges. UCLA could face $1.5 million in fines. It has already paid out $31,875 because Cal-OSHA found that Sangji had not been trained properly.

Two months before the fire, UCLA safety inspectors found serious flaws in the same laboratory where Sangji died. It found that employees were not wearing lab coats and flammable liquids were stored improperly — and those deficiencies hadn't been corrected at the time of her death, the Times reported. But the UCLA vice chancellor for legal affairs said that the circumstances of Sangji's death shouldn't rise to the level of criminality.

"This isn't justice," Kevin Reed told the Times. "What happened in December 2008 was a tragedy, an unfathomable tragedy. It was not a crime."Sangji's sister Naveen Sangji has been critical of both the UCLA and Cal-OSHA investigations. She told the Times that she hopes the criminal case goes to trial so her family will have the chance to speak out about the circumstances leading to her sister's death.

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The National Stock Exchange's Nifty continued to move in a range led by gains in banks, metals and oil & gas space. According to analysts, the short-term trend is positive and traders are advised not to go short in the first week as the benchmarks might move higher.

"Total OI with which we are starting January series is fairly light and reduction of exposure of FII's in index instruments is key reason for it. Action in put options for the New Year is quite scattered with epicenter at 4500 while in calls 4900 to 5200 strikes have been fairly active with maximum built-up in 5000 strike. We advise not to go shorting for the first week of this series and there is high probability of pull back till or beyond 4900 levels," said Angel Broking report.

At 1:10 pm; the Nifty was at 4682.70, up 36.45 points or 0.78 per cent. The broader index touched a high of 4690.45 and low of 4657.35 in trade so far. The Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex was at 15660.72, up 116.79 points or 0.75 per cent. The 30-share index touched intraday low of 15575.08 and high of 15694.05.

"The markets are approaching to major hurdle area 4750/4820 but the short term trend is still strong and no signs of reversal pattern on intraday charts. As the broader trend is down it will attract selling pressure around major levels," said Kotak Securities report.

BSE Midcap Index was up 0.45 per cent and BSE Smallcap Index moved 0.38 per cent higher. Amongst the sectoral indices, BSE Bankex was up 0.99 per cent, BSE Metal Index gained 0.85 per cent, BSE Oil&gas Index advanced 0.76 per cent and BSE IT Index moved 0.73 per cent higher.

Sesa Goa (3.94%), Reliance Communications (3.52%), Cairn India (2.99%), Tata Motors (2.32%) and Siemens (1.97%) were amongst the major Nifty gainers.

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Asian stock markets were mostly lower Thursday amid new signs of pressure on Europe's banking system and a downturn on Wall Street. Benchmark oil lingered above $99 per barrel while the dollar rose against the euro but fell against the yen. Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 0.7 percent to 8,367.73. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was 0.9 percent lower at 18,349.90. Australia's S&P ASX 200 fell 0.6 percent to 4,064.20. Benchmarks in India and Indonesia were also lower.

But South Korea's Kospi reversed earlier losses and gained 0.1 percent to 1,827.17. Benchmarks in Singapore and Taiwan also rose after a lower opening. Shares in mainland China and Malaysia were also higher. Overall, stock markets were quieter than normal as many traders go on vacation the week between Christmas and New Year's.

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Loma Linda University Medical Center (LLUMC) has received a $24,000 grant from Verizon for a telemedicine pilot program—the Inland Model for Perinatal Advancement through Collaboration and Telecommunication, or IMPACT.

IMPACT is a plan designed to optimize pregnancy outcomes for mothers and babies in the Inland Empire by linking patients and doctors in more rural areas with LLUMC specialists via telemedicine.

Headed by LLUMC’s Medical Director of Maternal/Fetal Medicine, Bryan Oshiro, M.D., the 12-month pilot program will begin in 2012. Patients and caregivers from St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley will be connected to LLUMC with the goal of expanding the program to other hospitals in the region over the next five years.

“Prenatal care is essential, and IMPACT will make it possible for women to receive the specialized care they may need, usually in their own community,” said Dr. Oshiro. “The limited resources available to patients and providers in the region make it imperative that a streamlined, accessible network of perinatal services be developed. Loma Linda University Medical Center is so thankful for the opportunity Verizon has given us to jump-start this telemedicine program.”

LLUMC is the only multidisciplinary, hospital-based maternal-fetal medicine clinic and the only hospital offering full scope medical and surgical services for critical newborns in the region. In addition to the grant, Verizon will be providing the interactive video cameras necessary to facilitate IMPACT.

“IMPACT is a great example of utilizing cutting edge technology to care for mothers and their babies - that is why Verizon is proud to partner with LLUMC,” said Verizon Director of External Affairs Michael Page.

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Dubai: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Pakistan's central bank, has recently warned that the banks in the country are facing deteriorating credit quality despite a strong trend of banks investing heavily in government debt.

According to the SBP's recent Financial Stability Review (FSR) of Pakistan, the credit risk-weighted assets (CRWA) of banks grew by two per cent or Rs65 billion during the first half of this year and credit risk remains very high despite banks' growing investments in government debt instruments, which are mainly called the safest investment in the banking industry.

The SBP said the falling CRWA to total assets over the last few years was not an indicator of lower credit risk; rather it simply suggested a strong flight to quality amid high non-performing loans (NPLs).
The report said that to prevent a further increase in the NPLs, the banks tried to limit their bad loans by tightening their credit standards, significantly restricting their lending to riskier sectors such as small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and retail consumers. In addition, banks also liberally increased their investments in government debt.

Government debt
Independent analysts and rating agencies say the banks' excessive exposure to government debt makes them vulnerable to the weak operating environment and high concentration of assets. In a recent report Moody's said the outlook for Pakistan's banking system remains negative. The rating agency said the outlook reflects two key drivers such as the weak operating environment and the likelihood of banks increasing their already high exposures to the Pakistan government. "While the weak operating environment faces further downside risks, increases in the banks' exposures to the sovereign make the sector's solvency increasingly vulnerable to sovereign credit risk," said Christos Theofilou, Analyst, Financial Institutions Group at Moody's.

Analysts view the rush of banks to take exposure to government debt as a structural limitation of the banking sector. Pakistan has a projected budget deficit equivalent to 5.4 per cent of GDP in fiscal year 2012, Moody's believes that the banking sector will further increase its already significant exposure to the government and public sector, which the rating agency estimates at 31 per cent of total assets or 350 per cent of Tier 1 capital, as of end-2010.

The SBP report said that Pakistan's banking system remains resilient against major foreseeable shocks, however the central bank acknowledged that the adverse economic outlook and structural deficiencies in the economy are taking their toll on the debt repayment capacity of the borrowers, and the deterioration in economic indicators, as measured by a faltering GDP growth has led to a surge in NPLs. NPLs of the banking sector increased from 14.7 per cent to 15.3 per cent, or Rs31.4 billion, in the first half of this year over the same period last year.

Revival
"The fact that NPLs continue to build up underscores the intractable nature of heightened credit risk," the SBP report said. Moody's said factors such as a revival in short-term economic growth, lower interest rates and de-risking of the banks' loan book could stabilise asset-quality metrics. The NPLs for the year are expected to peak at around 16 per cent of total lending this year, from 15.3 per cent at end-June 2011, and then remain at these elevated levels throughout 2012. Analysts said as a counterbalance to the system's structural challenges, the banks benefit from sound funding profiles and low-cost current and savings account deposits, which amounted to 67 per cent of total deposits or 56 per cent of total liabilities at end-June 2011.

"Banks' reliance on market and/or foreign funding also remains minimal. However, we believe that related vulnerabilities will persist, namely the short contractual maturities of customer deposits that create asset-liability mismatches and high government-deposit concentrations," said Theofilou.

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KARACHI: Malaysia Airlines has informed the local authorities of its decision to suspend its two weekly services to Karachi from January 12, 2012, to stem losses in an effort to return to profitability.

“The decision is much regretted as Malaysia Airlines has served Karachi for over 22 years,” said a communication sent by the airline to the local authorities. In an attempt to cut losses, Malaysia Airlines as part of its ‘route rationalisation exercise’ plans to withdraw from eight loss-making routes beginning January next year.

The routes are Kuala Lumpur-Surabaya, Kuala Lumpur-Dubai, Kuala Lumpur-Karachi-Dubai, Kuala Lumpur-Dubai-Damman, Langkawi-Penang-Singapore, Kuala Lumpur-Johannesburg, Kuala Lumpur-Cape Town-Buenos Aires and Kuala Lumpur to Rome.

According to Malaysia Airlines Group Chief Executive Officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, the eight routes account for almost 12 percent of passenger capacity and the withdrawal would improve loads, increase yields and have a profit impact of RM220 to RM302 million next year.

The route rationalisation is expected to have minimal impact on Malaysia’s position as a top tourist destination in Asia as they would work with code share partners. The airline expects to return to these markets after the company’s financial status is stabilised.

In a written statement, Malaysia Airlines said it regrets any inconvenience caused to its passengers and assured customers that it will honor all forward bookings ticketed to date on the affected routes. Malaysia Airlines claims the impact on its Cargo division will be minimal as the carrier continues to maintain its key cargo destinations in Australia, Europe, UK, Middle East, South Africa and the US.

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Hundreds of euro-zone lenders took out €489.19 billion ($640 billion) in low-interest loans from the European Central Bank on Wednesday, as the currency area extended a massive financial lifeline to its struggling banking industry.

The unexpectedly heavy demand from 523 banks for the three-year loans highlighted the severity of Europe's financial crisis, while also stirring some hopes that the action could help defuse it, or at least prevent it from getting worse.

Investors didn't seem convinced that the loans would drastically improve banks' prospects. After rallying when the ECB announced plans for the program earlier this month, the Euro Stoxx Bank Index fell 1.5% on Wednesday. In a mildly bearish sign about prospects for the euro debt crisis, yields on Italian and Spanish bonds inched higher.

The ECB's loan program—the first in which it has offered three-year loans—appears to be the central bank's main weapon, at least for now, in combating Europe's crisis. The ECB has resisted pressure from politicians and market participants to aggressively buy euro-zone government bonds, arguing such a move is outside its purview. But if the central bank eases fears about the Continent's banks, that would go a long way toward relieving anxiety about many countries' overall financial health.

Through the loans, the ECB is trying to address a crucial weakness in the euro zone's financial system. Nervous institutional investors have essentially stopped lending to banks, fearful of their heavy holdings of government bonds and other assets that appear at growing risk of default.

If the dry spell persists into 2012, it could become a major problem. European banks have more than €700 billion of their own debt maturing next year, including more than €200 billion in the first three months, regulators and analysts say.

ECB officials feared that without intervention, many banks would cut lending to small businesses and households, strangling Europe's weak economy. "It's much better to have this funding locked in rather than praying the market reopens," said John Raymond, an analyst with CreditSights in London. "I don't think you can say it's a game-changer…but it sort of slows down the vicious circle."

Under the three-year loan offer on Wednesday, banks could borrow as much as they wanted at the low rate as long as they had the necessary collateral. Another batch of three-year loans will be available Feb. 29.

Politicians including French President Nicolas Sarkozy have floated the idea that banks will use the new ECB cash to buy government bonds in financially shaky countries, where lackluster demand has pushed their borrowing costs to unsustainable levels. But bankers and analysts doubt that will happen on a large scale, given the perceived riskiness of such bonds. Banks are free to use the loans for whatever they choose.

U.S. officials have urged European leaders to move more aggressively to prevent the crisis from hurting the U.S. economy. The U.S. officials view the ECB loans and other steps by euro-zone leaders as constructive but are pushing for further action to reduce Italy and Spain's borrowing costs.

The 523 banks that borrowed Wednesday range from giants like Italy's Intesa Sanpaolo SpA, one of the few banks to confirm its participation, to tiny lenders. The ECB didn't disclose which banks borrowed under the new program. It's possible that banks from outside the euro zone also pounced on the opportunity to secure cheap ECB financing. Any bank with a legal subsidiary in the euro zone is eligible to borrow from the ECB facility.

"It appears that a very large majority of the large financial institutions" in Europe participated, said Laurence Mutkin, head of European interest-rate strategy at Morgan Stanley.

The ECB's loan program isn't without risks. Some experts and regulators worry banks are becoming more addicted to central bank aid, making it harder for them to eventually stand on their own. At the same time, the program could push banks in countries like Spain and Italy to grow more entangled with their governments—a phenomenon that fueled today's crisis.

While the banks on Wednesday borrowed €489.19 billion, much of that was simply replacing other outstanding ECB loans coming due. Analysts estimated Wednesday's loans injected about €190 billion of new liquidity into the banking system.

Nick Matthews, an economist at the Royal Bank of Scotland, said European banks face about €230 billion of debt maturing in the first quarter of 2012 alone. "This operation is not going to cover all the maturities," he said.

Traditionally, banks satisfied much of their day-to-day financing needs by issuing unsecured bonds to institutional investors around the world. But the market for such debt largely evaporated in July, when Europe's crisis intensified. Regulators and bankers increasingly worry that funding markets could remain shut well into the new year.

The ECB's loans are attractive largely because of their price. The central bank will charge an interest rate that is the average of its benchmark rate over the three-year life of the loans. That rate is currently 1%. It's likely to remain well below what most banks would have to pay to borrow from market sources. Indeed, the cheap financing is leading some European banks to take steps that further entwine them with their governments.

In Spain Tuesday, the government sold €5.6 billion of bonds in an auction that saw interest rates dive to 1.7% from 5.1% a month earlier. Analysts say the surging demand most likely stemmed from small and midsize Spanish banks buying the bonds in order to use them as collateral for this week's ECB loans.

Such a trade could prove lucrative for the banks, given the gap between the interest rates the Spanish bonds generate and the amount the banks are paying to borrow from the ECB. But it also means Spanish banks are more vulnerable to their government's financial woes.

In Italy, 14 banks this week issued €38.4 billion of government-guaranteed bonds eligible to serve as collateral with the ECB, according to a document released on Wednesday by Italy's stock exchange. Those banks have been battered amid worries about their excessive holdings of Italian government debt.

"The bank-sovereign nexus still has not been successfully broken and if anything is being reinforced," said Mr. Matthews, the RBS economist.

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The biggest US money market funds have cut their lending to European banks to another record low while increasing their holdings of US government debt to levels reminiscent of those seen during the financial crisis. The 10 largest funds trimmed their short-term lending to European banks by 4 per cent on a US dollar basis between the end of November and the end of October, according to new data from Fitch Ratings.

That takes money market funds’ European bank exposure to a fresh low of about a third of their total assets of $645bn, down from 34.9 per cent at the end of October. At the same time, the funds have upped their holdings of US Treasuries and agency debt to 18.7 per cent of total assets of $645bn.

That is the highest amount since the first-half of 2009, when the holdings reached about 20 per cent of total assets. They were 19.8 per cent in late 2008. “To put so much money in Treasuries and agency securities in such a low interest rate environment illustrates how risk-adverse money market funds are at the moment,” said Robert Grossman, head of macro credit research at Fitch. The funds, key lubricants of the global financial system, predominantly lend to banks using certificates of deposit, commercial paper and repurchase, or ‘repo’ agreements. But trends in the types of loans being made to European banks also indicate increased reluctance to lend to the region.

While total exposure to the eurozone has been falling, the funds have also been increasing their use of secured lending to the region’s financials in another sign of risk aversion. At the end of November, so-called repos accounted for 27 per cent of total European exposure, up from 17 per cent at the end of August and just 10 per cent back in late-2008. European banks need US dollar lending from the funds to help finance their vast portfolios of dollar-denominated assets.

Some French banks have already indicated that they might seek to sell dollar-funded assets amid financing pressure while central banks have offered to step in to fill the dollar funding gap. Lending to French banks fell 63 per cent between October and November. Total exposure declined to $12.9bn, or 2 per cent of total assets, down from 15.1 per cent of assets back in May. “These shifts in exposure serve as a reminder of the potential volatility of short-term wholesale funding,” said Fitch’s Martin Hansen. “Banks have to access new sources of dollar funding or deleverage their dollar-based lending and financial activities.”

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Saab Automobile is dead. The company, which started selling cars 61 years ago, declared itself bankrupt on Monday, setting the stage for a forced liquidation of the storied, but troubled Swedish car maker. GM's objection ended a deal with China's Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co. that the U.S. auto maker said would hurt GM's business in China.

Saab Chairman Victor Muller halted production in April and raced to come up with funding. But, one by one, his rescue plans fizzled, as potential investors were either blocked or walked away. Poor cash-flow and diminishing scale led to a €201.5 million ($263 million) loss in the first half of this year.

A Swedish court on Monday approved the bankruptcy filing, clearing the way for a sale of the company's assets to pay its creditors and 3,400 workers.The filing was triggered after former owner General Motors Co., which licensed it key technology, objected to deals with potential Chinese investors.

Saab has been functioning since September under court protection. Mr. Muller said on Monday that there have been expressions of interest in a possible acquisition of the company. However, there is probably little interest in purchasing Saab intact, said Martin Skold, an assistant professor at the Stockholm School of Economics who has been studying the automotive industry.

"The most likely scenario is that existing auto makers, probably from China, will purchase selected parts of Saab's technological assets," Mr. Skold said. Saab was vulnerable because of its weak access to credit, small size and dependence on others for key technology, he said.

The car maker began life as a unit of Svenska Aeroplan Aktie Bologet, which was formed ahead of World War II in 1937 to build planes for the Swedish Air Force. The company branched into car manufacturing as the war ended, and the first Saab car hit the road in 1950. It developed a reputation for streamlined styling as well as innovation. It had factory-fitted safety belts as early as 1958 and introduced crash crumple zones and self-repairing bumpers.

Saab is most famous for introducing turbo-charged engines across its lineup in the late 1970s and 1980s under then-Chief Executive Sten Wennlo. Using exhaust fumes to drive a compressor that injected more air into the cylinders, Saab enhanced the output of its small engines at a fraction of the cost of designing new ones. The Saab 900 turbo, launched in 1979, became the company's biggest hit with sales of nearly a million units

The bankruptcy filing came after struggles under a succession of owners. It last prospered with the Saab 900 in the early 1980s. But by 1989, when a global economic downturn, cut sales soon after it boosted production, the company lost 2 billion Swedish kronor. Short of funds, it sold a 50% stake for $600 million in 1990 to GM, which invested another $100 million before buying the rest of the car business for $125 million in 2000.

GM, which long struggled to win younger and wealthier customers, acquired the brand to appeal to U.S. car buyers that preferred European autos and hoped to revitalize the brand in part by sharing technology from its German Opel unit. With its quirky design cues and unusual heritage,  Saab won a following, particularly in the U.S. Northeast, but failed to produce the gains that GM had expected.

Facing stiff competition from Volkswagen AG and its Audi unit, BMW AG and Swedish rival Volvo, Saab never hit GM's 150,000 annual sales target. Sales peaked at nearly 133,000 in 2006 before falling to 93,000 in 2008 when GM put Saab up for sale.

After GM entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. to prevent its own collapse, Saab sought protection from its creditors in Sweden. GM took a $824-million loss on its Saab investment in 2009.

The filing came after GM this weekend said none of the recently proposed ownership changes was meaningfully different from what it had already rejected. Saab's existing models are based on technology licensed from GM, a big player in the Chinese auto market.

Two years ago, GM was prepared to liquidate the company, but it changed its mind under pressure from workers to keep the business alive and agreed to sell the business to the Netherlands-based Spyker Cars NV for $74 million.

Spyker promised to make the company profitable by 2012. But the 2010 sale to Spyker—a boutique sports-car maker that soon renamed itself Swedish Automobile NV—left it a minnow swimming undercapitalized in a global business. A later $400 million loan from the European Investment Bank also proved a double-edged sword: While it provided Saab with needed liquidity at first, the car maker was restricted to using it only for developing new technology and cars.

By the time Saab could no longer pay its suppliers this spring, it lacked the financial leverage to secure additional credit, said IHS Automotive analyst Ian Fletcher. Saab ran out of cash in less than a year. A series of proposed investments during the summer filed to materialize.

Jan-Ake Jonsson, Saab's CEO since 2005, resigned in May 2011. Earlier, suppliers withheld component deliveries forcing a halt to production in April and requiring the car maker to seek protection from its creditors for a second time.According to the bankruptcy filing, Saab has assets worth some 3 billion Swedish kronor ($433 million) that could be sold to repay creditors including Sweden's National Debt Office, which guaranteed the €217 million EIB loan. Swedish supplier organization FKG estimates that Saab Automobile owes its 76 Swedish suppliers between 800 million kronor and 1.2 billion kronor in unpaid bills.

"This is the end for Saab," FKG Chief Executive Fredrik Sidahl said. "Perhaps a new small business will emerge in its wake, but this is the end for the car factory."Johnny Kjellsson, who worked at Saab for 27 years, said on Monday, "it feels doleful. Your thoughts go out to all of those who have small children and home mortgages."

Swedish Automobile said it expected to realize no value from its shares and would write off its entire investment in Saab. Its stock plunged in Amsterdam trading on Monday, finishing down 62% to eight euro cents.

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ANZ and National Australia Bank have warned customers not to expect payments to be processed through Christmas, in the latest inconvenience a week after a high-profile outage and a security flaw limited services.
ANZ, in a note to customers, said payments between the bank and other financial institutions won’t be processed from Saturday, December 24, to Tuesday, December 27. The bank said the delay was due to the long weekend.

The bank further warned that any payments made after 6pm on Friday, December 23, may not be processed until the following Thursday. Calls to ANZ for comment were unanswered. National Australia Bank issued a similar advisory to customers. “Funds transfers and bill payments submitted after the published cut-off times on Friday 23 December 2011 to a non-linked NAB account or to an account at another financial institution in Australia will be processed on Wednesday, December 28, 2011.”Similarly, any transfers and bill payments submitted after Friday, December 30, to an account at another financial institution would not be processed until Tuesday January 3, 2012. Commonwealth Bank and Westpac were not available for comment on any planned outages over the holiday.

Last week, CommBank customers were prevented from accessing their funds through ATMs, EFTPOS and online accounts, after a network issue crippled the bank’s services for hours. The same week, ANZ was forced to disable parts of its online account services after a security flaw was discovered that exposed customers' personal banking details through electronic statements. All of Australia’s major banks’ are in the process of upgrading ageing data processing infrastructure. The fragility of the older systems, along with growing complexity have created a string of outages and disruptions in recent years. “We will be working on fixing the issue as a priority and hope to have the eStatement functionality back up in within the next few weeks,” ANZ said last week.

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