French immigration minister Eric Besson pledged today to remove a camp where illegal migrants gather near the port of Calais to try crossing to Britain.

The "jungle", as the makeshift tent city is known locally, sprang up after France closed a large Red Cross centre at nearby Sangatte in 2002, under pressure from Britain which saw it as a magnet for clandestine migrants.

"The jungle will no longer exist," Mr Besson told local business leaders during a visit to Calais.

"To maintain and develop the jungle would be an obstacle to economic interests and employment," he said.

Mr Besson was due to make a speech later outlining specific measures. His visit to Calais comes two days after police and bulldozers swooped on the camp, arresting about 200 migrants and removing their tents made of plastic sheeting and bits of wood.

The raid angered human rights activists who said it made no sense to clear out the "jungle" as migrants would simply relocate elsewhere in the area, as they did after Sangatte was closed. France and Britain should be looking for more sustainable solutions, they said.

raimo1@hot.ee

Flowers 21,7%-Verkürzte Frist

Diese verkürzte Frist wird durch eine Sonderregelung des Bankenübernahmegesetzes ermöglicht, auf dessen Grundlage der Staat die HRE übernehmen will.

Der Staat strebt mit seinem Übernahmeangebot den Angaben zufolge den Erwerb aller Anteile an der HRE an. Sollten die Aktionäre in den kommenden zwei Wochen nun nicht auf das Übernahmeangebot eingehen, will der Bund die Bank verstaatlichen - dann aber zum gesetzlichen Mindestpreis von 1,26 Euro.

Fraglich ist insbesondere, ob der US-Finanzinvestor J.C. Flowers, der 21,7 Prozent an der Bank kontrolliert, sich auf das Angebot einlässt.

Mit der Verstaatlichung der HRE sollen bereits geleistete Staatshilfen von mehr als 100 Milliarden Euro abgesichert werden. Die HRE war im Zuge der Finanzkrise in große Schwierigkeiten geraten. Ein Kollaps der Bank würde nach Einschätzung der Regierung zu Erschütterungen im Finanzsystem und zu Schwierigkeiten ganzer Staaten führen.

GOOGLE

Der erfolgsverwöhnte Internet-Konzern Google hat der Wirtschaftskrise zum Jahresauftakt weiter getrotzt und seinen Gewinn kräftig gesteigert. Der Überschuss kletterte im ersten Quartal um neun Prozent auf 1,42 Milliarden Dollar (1,08 Mrd Euro).

Der Umsatz wuchs zum Vorjahr um sechs Prozent auf 5,51 Milliarden Dollar, wie Google am Donnerstag nach US-Börsenschluss im kalifornischen Mountain View mitteilte.

«Google hatte ein gutes Quartal angesichts der Schwere der Rezession», sagte Konzernchef Eric Schmidt. Mit den Zahlen übertraf der Suchmaschinen-Riese die Erwartungen der Analysten. Die Aktie legte in einer ersten Reaktion nachbörslich deutlich zu. Wesentliche Einnahmequelle Googles sind bezahlte Werbeanzeigen rund um die Internet-Suche. Der Konzern ist hier mit weitem Abstand Marktführer vor Yahoo! und Microsoft.

Starke Rückgänge im Baltikum

Dabei sank die Industrieproduktion in allen Staaten, für die Daten vorlagen. Die stärksten Rückgänge gab es in Estland (minus 30,2), Lettland (minus 24,2) und Spanien (minus 22 Prozent); auch in Deutschland gab es mit minus 20,6 Prozent einen massiven Einbruch.

Industrieproduktion in Europa

Am besten sah es noch in Griechenland (minus 4,9), den Niederlanden (minus 5,9) und Dänemark (minus 11,8 Prozent) aus. Erfasst wurde die gesamte Industrie ohne das Baugewerbe.

Gegenüber Januar verzeichneten die Statistiker einen saisonbereinigten Rückgang um 2,3 Prozent in der Eurozone und 1,9 Prozent in der gesamten EU. Von den erfassten Staaten verzeichneten 16 eine sinkende Industrieproduktion; nur in Portugal (plus 2,4 Prozent), Griechenland (plus 1,7) und Polen (plus 0,4) sah es gegenüber dem Vormonat besser aus.

Die höchsten Rückgänge gab es in Litauen (minus 4,1), Estland (minus 3,6), Italien (minus 3,5) und Deutschland (minus 3,2 Prozent).

WORLDCRISIS

The report praises efforts by some leaders, such as Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, to reject or reverse decisions aimed at making it harder for companies in foreign countries. President Barack Obama was also commended for ensuring that "Buy American" provisions in the United States' $789 billion stimulus package comply with international agreements.

But its shame list was longer. In the footwear sector alone, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, the European Union, Turkey and Ukraine have enacted or are considering measures designed to slow imports from China or Vietnam, the report showed.

Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, France, India, Russia, and the United States were cited for automotive tariffs, subsidies, credits, licenses or other changes deemed dangerous to trade.

Argentina, the 27-nation EU, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Russia, Turkey, the U.S. and Vietnam were listed for protective steel regulations.

It was Lamy's second report on protectionism this year. Future reports are expected every two months as the WTO steps up its monitoring of the crisis.

BAD BANKEN

Bundesfinanzminister Peer Steinbrück (SPD) will faule Wertpapiere von Geldinstituten in sogenannte Bad Banks auslagern und diese durch Steuergelder absichern. Er habe einen Plan zur Errichtung mehrerer Bad Banks vorgelegt, den Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel (CDU) bereits kenne, bestätigte Steinbrück der Frankfurter Allgemeinen Sonntagszeitung.

Nach Ostern werde die Bundesregierung sein Konzept beraten. Am 21. April werden mehrere Kabinettsmitglieder mit Vertretern des Sonderfonds für Finanzmarktstabilisierung (SoFFin) und der Bundesbank zusammenkommen, um die Auslagerung fauler Wertpapiere zu erörtern. Die Union zeigte sich zufrieden damit, dass in die Debatte um Bad Banks Bewegung gekommen ist.

Steinbrück machte erneut deutlich, dass er gegen eine gemeinsame Bad Bank für den gesamten Bankensektor ist. "Ich lehne definitiv eine zentrale Bad Bank ab." Stattdessen sollten sich die betroffenen Banken in einen guten und in einen schlechten Teil aufspalten. Hier will der Minister offenbar wiederum zwischen toxischen (vergifteten) und momentan illiquiden Papieren unterscheiden.

Switzerland Black list

The Neue Zuercher Zeitung (NZZ) quoted Swiss officials as saying they might block progress in cooperation with China, India and other emerging countries in protest against being placed on the OECD's "grey list".

On Wednesday Switzerland blocked a payment of 136,000 euros (180,000 dollars) to the OECD, a 30-member organisation of major industrialised countries.

Officials were now considering delaying their membership subscription of 10 million Swiss francs (8.65 million dollars) or blocking the 2011 reelection of OECD secretary general Angel Gurria, the paper reported.

The federal finance ministry could not be reached for comment.

But Interior Minister Pascal Couchepin told Sonntag, another Sunday paper, that it was not up to the OECD to act as a "restaurant guide" on the issue.

On April 2, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released a "grey list" of countries that "have committed to the internationally agreed tax standard, but have not yet substantially implemented" the measures.

Swiss politicians were furious to find their country on the list even though it had announced measures to relax its tax secrecy laws.

On Thursday Gurria said that the first contacts with Switzerland on tax issues had taken place in October 2008.

"The OECD acted in good faith and duly shared its information with the representatives of the countries concerned," he said in a letter to the president of the Swiss confederation.

Switzerland had so far "not signed a single agreement on the exchange of tax information in conformity with OECD standards", he added.

Switzerland Black list

The Neue Zuercher Zeitung (NZZ) quoted Swiss officials as saying they might block progress in cooperation with China, India and other emerging countries in protest against being placed on the OECD's "grey list".

On Wednesday Switzerland blocked a payment of 136,000 euros (180,000 dollars) to the OECD, a 30-member organisation of major industrialised countries.

Officials were now considering delaying their membership subscription of 10 million Swiss francs (8.65 million dollars) or blocking the 2011 reelection of OECD secretary general Angel Gurria, the paper reported.

The federal finance ministry could not be reached for comment.

But Interior Minister Pascal Couchepin told Sonntag, another Sunday paper, that it was not up to the OECD to act as a "restaurant guide" on the issue.

On April 2, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released a "grey list" of countries that "have committed to the internationally agreed tax standard, but have not yet substantially implemented" the measures.

Swiss politicians were furious to find their country on the list even though it had announced measures to relax its tax secrecy laws.

On Thursday Gurria said that the first contacts with Switzerland on tax issues had taken place in October 2008.

"The OECD acted in good faith and duly shared its information with the representatives of the countries concerned," he said in a letter to the president of the Swiss confederation.

Switzerland had so far "not signed a single agreement on the exchange of tax information in conformity with OECD standards", he added.

NOKIA INDIA

Gearing up to meet the challenges of next generation mobile services - 3G, the world's largest handset maker, Nokia, today announced a
slew of new services like music online and location based services to be made available on its new phones, to be launched shortly.

"We are moving away from just devices to devices plus services plus solutions. With the 3G mobile services set to make advent by the middle of next year, we feel that revenue from non-voice services is bound to increase significantly," Nokia India Ltd Vice-President and General Manager D Shivakumar told reporters here.

Asked whether Nokia is planning to acquire some of the content providers to enhance services, Shivakumar said "there is no plan for any acquisition but it will be done through a collaboration with the innovators."

He, however, said that there would be significant investment in ramping up the facilities but declined to give details.

In fact, Nokia called upon Indian mobile and web application developers to create innovative consumer applications exclusively for the upcoming handset N97.

PARIS CRISIS

Paris, the most-visited city in the world, is getting clobbered by a sharp downturn in global travel. International passenger arrivals at the city's two airports were down 8.1 percent year-on-year in February, and hotel occupancy rates dropped 10 percent. Even visits to the Eiffel Tower have fallen 7 percent from last year. (Overall, the US Commerce Dept. figures visits by Americans to Europe tumbled 7 percent last year.)

That's putting a big dent in the city's $13.2 billion-a-year hotel and restaurant business, which, along with other tourism-related activities, employs 12.1 percent of the city's population. "It's a catastrophe," says Bertrand LeCourt, president of l'Hôtellerie Familiale, a hotel owners' association.

Empty Rooms and Tables

It's not just sightseers who are staying away. Business travel held up relatively well during 2008, because many conventions and trade shows were planned well in advance. But now it's slumping, too. "February really scared us," said Gérard Cros, owner of the Sport Hotel, a 95-year-old establishment near the Bois de Vincennes that caters to business travelers. Occupancy at the hotel in February was down 10 percent from a year earlier, Cros says.

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Secret Florida bank

FORT LAUDERDALE - A wealthy accountant who is the first US citizen charged in a wide-ranging tax probe of Swiss banking giant UBS has been granted release from jail on a $US12 million bail.

Federal prosecutor Jeffrey Neiman said the unusually large amount was necessary because of the high risk that Steven Michael Rubinstein might flee the country. Rubinstein, 55, is also a citizen of South Africa and owns a condominium in Israel in addition to his main home in Boca Raton.

US Magistrate Barry Seltzer also ordered Rubinstein to a dusk-to-dawn home curfew, wear an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet and travel only within South Florida. He agreed to surrender keys to a 45-foot boat docked outside his home and gave up his US and South African passports.