news blog from Maria

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UPDATE 1-Ross-backed Assured Guaranty restates results

Oct 18 (Reuters) - Billionaire Wilbur Ross-backed Assured Guaranty Ltd said it was restating its net profit for 2011 quarters and the last two years to fix errors in the elimination of certain transactions related to financial guaranty variable interest entities.The Bermuda-based bond insurer said the estimated impact of the restatement on net income was a decrease of $11.2 million for 2009, $55.2 million for 2010, and an increase of $30.3 million for the first two quarters of 2011.The adjustments ... will have no impact on cumulative operating income over the affected periods or on operating shareholders' equity or adjusted book value as of June 30," Chief Financial Officer Robert Bailenson said.The restatements will reduce consolidated shareholders' equity by $36.1 million, which is less than 1 percent, Bailenson said.On Monday, Assured sued Credit Suisse Group AG for allegedly misleading it about the quality of mortgage loans underlying securities it insured, exposing it to hundreds of millions of dollars in potential claims.Shares of Assured closed at $11.88 on Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.

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Durban target is to get Kyoto deal within five years

Previous climate change conferences in Copenhagen in 2009 and Cancun in 2010 ended without a plan for a new global deal, and time has run out to get a binding treaty in place when the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol expires at the end of 2012."Everybody needs to have signed up by 2015," Artur Runge-Metzger told Reuters on Friday in an interview. Ratification would take several years more after that.Pending a new global deal, there would be a transition period in which the Kyotol mechanisms would still apply and the EU would carry on leading efforts to cut emissions, he said.So far the world is failing to reduce carbon emissions sufficiently to contain global warming within the limit of 2 degrees Celsius that scientists say is necessary to avoid the worst effects of climate change.Runge-Metzger said the task would only get harder as carbon emissions need to be cut by 80 to 95 percent by 2050, compared with the collective commitment by developed countries for a 5.2 percent reduction from 1990 levels under the first phase of Kyoto.Pledges on the table from Cancun totaled a roughly 60 percent reduction, which would translate into capping global warming at 3 to 4.5 degrees, Runge-Metzger said.At the start of this week, the EU declared its openness to agreeing a second Kyoto commitment period after the first ends, but said it must have guarantees that other carbon emitters would also join in at some point.Only developed nations signed the original pact in 1997. The United States never ratified it, and developing countries have become major emitters, with China overtaking the United States to become the world's biggest producer of carbon.Runge-Metzger said it was crucial to avoid a "Catch 22" situation, in which China said it would only sign when the United States did and vice versa."They will have to go through the gate together," he said.DEEP DIVISIONMonday's environment council also sought to address the issue of Kyoto allowances to produce greenhouse gases, known as Assigned Amount Units (AAUs), but after hours of debate it came up with only vague wording.The issue is divisive because countries holding on to large amounts of spare allowances could sell them to nations with shortfalls.Monday's conclusions said only that the surplus of AAUs could affect "the environmental integrity" of the Kyoto Protocol if the issue is not addressed appropriately.Runge-Metzger said the European Union would have to undergo intensive debate on AAUs between now and Durban to resolve divisions within it on how much of the surplus could be carried beyond 2012."This is an issue that's under negotiation and that has to be resolved. What we have on the table are a few words on how we can address this issue," he said.Runge-Metzger was speaking on the sidelines of a round-table in Brussels to find common ground between the EU and the African Union.Poorer nations are eager for the developed world to agree to deep cuts to emissions and to financial aid to help developing nations adapt to climate change.

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UPDATE 1-AIA growth jumps in Q3 as insurance demand rises

* Shares up 24 pct since IPO, beating big boardHONG KONG, Oct 14 (Reuters) - AIA Group Ltd , Asia's No.3 insurer, said growth accelerated in the third quarter, with its value of new business rising 53 percent as strong performance in markets such as Malaysia helped boost earnings.The insurer's value of new business (VONB) rose 53 percent to $245 million in the three months ending August, it said in a filing to the Hong Kong bourse. VONB, a key indicator that measures profitability of new business, rose 32 percent in its fiscal first half."It is an impressive set of numbers," said Stanley Tsai, an analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in Hong Kong. "While part of it is because of a lower base in Q3 last year, continued repricing and a move away from lower margin products are all helping to boost earnings."Underlying group VONB margins rose 4.5 percentage points to 36 percent from a year ago, but remained largely flat from the first half, the insurer said. It also said its number of agents had increased, but did not give further details.With its relatively young population and high savings rate, Asia has increasingly become the next battleground for insurance companies such as AIA and rivals Prudential and China's Ping An .AIA is the Asian life insurance unit spun off by American International Group Inc , which still owns about a third of the company. It raised more than $20 billion in a Hong Kong offering last year."Rising affluence is profoundly important in extending the scope for long term savings and, with accelerating health care costs further increasing demand for medical protection across the region, consumers are seeking greater security and stability which will also benefit AIA," it said in the statement.AIA shares have risen about 24 percent since its IPO in October last year, versus a 19 percent decline in the benchmark Hang Seng index .

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Wall St protesters target homes of top executives

Protesters began marching through Manhattan's upscale Upper East Side on a "Billionaire's Tour" to take their grievances to the homes of global media mogul Rupert Murdoch, JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon and other wealthy bankers.Goldman Sachs boss Lloyd Blankfein canceled a talk at New York's Barnard College, and though the company -- which received and repaid a big federal bailout during the financial crisis -- said a scheduling conflict would keep him away, students from nearby Columbia University were planning to protest his appearance, according the university newspaper.A city police contingent followed more than 450 protesters as they chanted "Banks got bailed out, we got sold out" and "Hey you billionaires, pay your fair share."Mustafa Ibrahim, 23, an engineer, was marching in the "Billionaire's Tour" while visiting New York from Cairo, where he said he was arrested during a popular uprising earlier this year which toppled Egyptian autocrat Hosni Mubarak"It's pretty much the same thing as Egypt," he said. "The protests are international in raising awareness because we all have the same issues with the rich."But his friend Bethany Gayda, 23, a student from Pittsburgh, expressed some doubt about the anti-Wall Street protests: "I am not sure how this will help. Change comes from voting, not standing around with a sign."The movement will build further on Thursday as college students plan solidarity protests on at least 56 campuses around the United States and rallies against economic inequality pop up elsewhere on Saturday around the United States and elsewhere in the world.BILLIONAIRE'S TOURHundreds of people have camped in a park near Wall Street since September 17, sparking the other rallies against what participants see as corporate greed. More than 700 people have been arrested during marches in New York where some police used pepper spray.Police arrested 129 protesters earlier on Tuesday in Boston after the group expanded its camp."Civil disobedience will not be tolerated," Boston Mayor Thomas Menino told the local Fox News channel.In Washington, six people were arrested during a protest involving about 100 people in a U.S. Senate office building on Tuesday, police and participants said.Also on the "Billionaire's Tour" in New York were the homes of David Koch, co-founder of energy firm Koch Industries, and hedge fund manager John Paulson."Join us on a walking tour of the homes of some of the bank and corporate executives that don't pay taxes, cut jobs, engaged in mortgage fraud, tanked our economy ... all while giving themselves record-setting bonuses," said NYC Communities for Change, one of several groups organizing the protest.It said protesters are marching from house to house "demanding accountability for Wall Street crimes and an extension of the Millionaire's Tax," a New York state tax that is due to expire at the end of the year.Protesters object to corporate chiefs' huge pay packages, the billions of dollars in bank bailouts during the financial crisis, and loopholes companies use to avoid paying what the average worker sees as a fair share in federal taxes.Average chief executive remuneration in the United States is 142 times that of employees, according to Thomson Reuters ASSET4 data. British chief executives pull in 69 times more than their workforces while egalitarian Sweden has an average differential of only 34 times."Don't look at the Arab spring, look here because things are going to boil over," said protester Charles Evans, 62, as he marched on the tour.CELEBRITY SUPPORTOn Wednesday the Service Employees International Union will march on New York's financial district for good jobs.Celebrities such as rapper Kanye West, actress Susan Sarandon, filmmaker Michael Moore, hip hop mogul Russell Simmons, actor Tim Robbins and rights activist Al Sharpton have all visited the Occupy Wall Street camp, and on Tuesday former Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer, who is vying to become the Republican presidential candidate, was due to drop in.In a statement, Roemer expressed his support for protesters, but Republican presidential candidate rival Herman Cain has described the protests as "anti-American.After Vice President Joe Biden, a Democrat, last week likened the growth of the protest movement to the grass-roots Tea Party, the conservative group on Tuesday sought to distance itself from the protesters.The Tea Party Patriots said in a statement that its supporters were "not lawbreakers, they don't hate the police, they don't even litter."