June 6th, 2006:

Study finds long-term costs of attacks can reverberate into financial spheres
PAUL WALDIE

From Tuesday’s Globe and Mail

Kidnappings have a more damaging financial impact on companies than other forms of terrorist attacks, a recent study found.

The study, co-written by a Canadian finance professor, examined 75 terrorist attacks of all types between 1995 and 2002 on publicly traded companies. The study found that the share prices of the affected companies fell on average by 0.83 per cent immediately after the attack. That translated into an average loss in market value of $401-million (U.S.) for each affected company. read more

(Published by The Guardian Newspaper Nigeria, on Friday June 02, 2006)

PRESIDENT Olusegun Obasanjo has appointed Mr. Ken Saro Wiwa Jnr. as his special adviser on peace, conflict resolution and reconciliation.

The appointment, which according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) has since been conveyed to the son of the renowned environmentalist and *Ogoni rights crusader, the late Ken Saro Wiwa, took effect from yesterday.

An authoritative source at the presidency confirmed in Abuja that Obasanjo had directed the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Ufot Ekaette, to issue Saro Wiwa Jnr. his letter of appointment.
 
Meanwhile, the next Ministerial breakfast meeting with the President will hold on June 9, at the Aso Rock Villa at 7.30a.m., the source further said. read more

Tuesday 6 June 2006
 
There are many reasons to express doubts about the move by Arcelor, the Luxembourg-based steel group, to buy Severstal of Russia in order to sidestep the hostile bid by Mittal Steel. One is the way the Arcelor board is presenting the takeover as a done deal, which only an absolute majority of all shareholders will be able to reject. A second is the opportunity for yet another oligarch’s fortune to leave Russia, with Alexei Mordashov picking up nearly one-third of Arcelor in return for his 90 percent of Severstal. read more

Jim Rogers, George Soros’ former right-hand man, reckons the boom could last another 16 years

Nils Pratley
Tuesday June 6, 2006

It was in 1999 – when the investment world was still bewitched by the supposed “new economy” – that Jim Rogers, the former right-hand man to George Soros, coined the phrase, “The next big thing is things.”

Buy the old economy, he said – everything from gold to oil to wheat. While you’re at it, sell the US dollar, he added, arguing that it was a currency in decline. read more