Plan Would Create '.xxx' Web Porn Domain

The Internet's key oversight agency has revived a proposal it earlier rejected to create an online red-light district, after adding stronger provisions to prohibit child pornography and require labeling of Web sites with sexually explicit materials.

The use of the proposed ".xxx" domain name would remain voluntary, but any porn sites that choose to use it instead of the more popular ".com" would be subject to the new terms issued late Friday by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

The idea of a separate ".xxx" domain has generated significant opposition from conservative groups and even some pornography Web sites.

But ICANN officials said they initially rejected the proposal in May not because of the opposition but because of concerns that the agency might be put in a difficult position of having to enforce all of the world's laws governing pornography. They noted that various nations' speech-related laws sometimes conflict with one another.

The new proposal does not directly address any potential conflicts in laws, but it calls for the company backing it, ICM Registry Inc. of Jupiter, Fla., to hire independent organizations to monitor porn sites' compliance with the new rules.

ICANN, the agency in Marina del Rey, Calif., designated by the U.S. government to oversee domain name policies, opened the proposal to public comment but did not indicate when it would rule.

If approved, ICM would be required to help develop mechanisms for promoting child safety and preventing child pornography, "including practices that appeal to pedophiles or suggest the presence of child pornography on the site."

Porn sites would have to participate in a self-descriptive labeling system, likely one from the Internet Content Rating Association. Under it, Web sites add tags based on such criteria as the presence of nudity and whether it is in an artistic or educational context, such as for sites on breast feeding. Relatively few sites now participate, although major Web browsers have mechanisms for reading the tags.

ICM also would have to develop automated tools to check for compliance and give users ways to report violations.

ICM believes the domain would help the $12 billion online porn industry clean up its act, as those using it must abide by rules designed to bar such trickery as spamming and malicious scripts.

Anti-porn advocates, however, countered that sites would be free to keep their current ".com" address, in effect making porn more easily accessible by creating yet another channel to house it.

Many porn sites also objected, fearing that an ".xxx' domain would pave the way for governments or even private industry to filter speech that is protected in the United States by the First Amendment. [via]

Iran oil exports may dwindle with politics

OPEC member Iran is in danger of slipping down the table of oil exporters and leaving a hole in global supply as output stagnates because of a lack of investment blamed on U.S. sanctions and political interference.

OPEC's second largest producer could lose up to 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) of exports per year as it fails to invest enough to compensate for steep decline rates from oilfields and meet rising domestic demand, analysts say.

A report by academic Roger Stern at U.S. John Hopkins University last week predicted Iran's exports could dwindle to almost nothing by 2015 if it did not change its energy policies.

Iran is the world's fourth largest exporter, shipping around 2.4 million bpd to international markets of its 3.9 million bpd output.

"The short story is that every aspect of the oil infrastructure has been starved - drilling, refineries, distribution, even the gas stations in Iran," Stern told Reuters in a telephone interview on Thursday.

Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh told Iranian student news agency ISNA in September that Iran's annual output decline from producing fields was as much as 500,000 bpd.

Analysts have more conservative estimates of between 350,000 to 400,000 bpd per year.

U.S. sanctions since 1995 on involvement in Iran's oil sector have limited the technology available to maintain output from oilfields.

Iran also intends to produce the gas it needs for reinjection into oilfields to maintain well pressure.

As older fields decline, Iran needs to bring new projects on line to compensate, requiring billions of dollars of investment.

U.N. sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program will further curtail already limited foreign investment, even though the sanctions are not related to the oil industry.

A deal for Japan's INPEX Holdings Inc to develop the country's giant Azadegan oilfield collapsed in October.

INPEX claimed Iran's delay in clearing land mines from the war with Iraq and rising costs stopped the deal, but some analysts said the company also had an eye on the potential for the nuclear dispute to escalate.

Output from Azadegan was expected to reach 260,000 bpd by early 2012 and would have been key in arresting decline. Iran has since awarded the field's development to a local company, although analysts say it needs foreign expertise and investment.

Investment terms

Aside from sanctions and politics, deal terms have frustrated foreign investors.

Iran forbids foreign ownership of oil resources, instead offering investors buy back contracts which repay international oil firms with a share of output from new projects for a short period. Companies have complained the returns have failed to cover rising project costs.

While output declines, domestic demand is rising by five percent per year, or around 80,000 bpd in 2007. That means even the most conservative decline estimates imply Iran must increase output by 430,000 bpd this year just to stand still.

"It is clear that in the near future demand is going to rise substantially, and so Iran will require more crude domestically," said Paris-based International Energy Agency supply analyst David Fyfe.

"That will certainly play a role in capping Iranian exports."

IEA forecasts were less pessimistic than Stern's, but still see output declining from 2008 onwards.

Subsidies

Iran subsidizes oil products and sells some of the cheapest gasoline in the world, encouraging more of its citizens to take to the roads and providing no incentive for fuel efficiency.

Iran's seven million cars consume around 420,000 bpd of gasoline, around the same amount as Britain with 35 million cars, Deutsche Bank said in a recent report.

Instead of stemming demand, the government has commissioned refinery expansion projects that will reduce oil imports from 2009 but require more of the country's crude.

Iran has to spend billions of dollars to import 40 percent of the gasoline its vehicles consume every day.

Access to Affordable Health Insurance and Tax Reform Top Small-Business Agenda

The National Federation of Independent Business, Georgia’s leading small-business advocacy group, today announced increasing access to affordable health insurance and enacting tax reform headline its 2007 agenda in Atlanta. NFIB surveys its membership on key issues before charting a course on their behalf. In the most recent survey, only 48 percent of NFIB/Georgia member respondents said they provide health-insurance coverage for full-time employees.

“The health-care picture for Georgia’s small-business owners and their employees is bleaker than we thought,” NFIB/Georgia State Director David Raynor said. “We’ve known our members across the country have been struggling to find reasonable health insurance for themselves and their employees, but were startled by our survey results in Georgia. NFIB will aggressively pursue commonsense solutions to help small business remain competitive with big business and unions and to ensure free enterprise continues to flourish in Georgia.”

Raynor said NFIB will be looking closely at various solutions over the course of session. Not surprisingly, Georgia entrepreneurs prefer market-based options, noting NFIB/Georgia is planning a more comprehensive health-care survey as solutions are proposed. Raynor said NFIB members in recent years have favored solutions like consumer-based initiatives that emphasize more personal responsibility, as well as ensuring markets are as competitive as possible.

In other survey results, 95 percent said the state should not mandate every employer to provide health-insurance coverage to full-time employees, while 91 percent said Georgia should not require employers to pay into a state system to cover their uninsured workers.

In addition, 66 percent said the Legislature should enact a tax-system overhaul whereby a higher single-rate tax on the sale of goods and services at the retail level would be levied in exchange for the repeal of the state income tax on individuals and corporations; 17 percent differed, while another 17 percent were undecided. Raynor said the results show small business supports this type of reform, but noted the significant percentage of undecided responses shows small business would like more information and debate before reforms are adopted. NFIB members overwhelmingly continue to support repeal of Georgia’s harmful inventory tax.

Of note, NFIB will be working with agency department heads and other officials to ensure provisions of Gov. Perdue’s recent executive order establishing regulatory flexibility for small business are followed. Georgia’s session is scheduled to begin Monday, Jan. 8.

NFIB is the nation’s leading small-business advocacy association, with offices in Washington, D.C. and all 50 state capitals. Founded in 1943 as a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, NFIB gives small- and independent-business owners a voice in shaping the public policy issues that affect their business. NFIB’s powerful network of grassroots activists send their views directly to state and federal lawmakers through our unique member-only ballot, thus playing a critical role in supporting America’s free enterprise system. NFIB’s mission is to promote and protect the right of our members to own, operate and grow their businesses. More information about NFIB is available online at www.NFIB.com/newsroom .

Oil prices slip further

Oil prices slipped Friday, extending a sharp decline in the new year as unseasonably warm weather in parts of the United States appears to be curbing winter demand for fuel.

Light, sweet crude for February delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange dropped 14 cents to $55.45 a barrel in electronic trading by midday in Europe.

The contract on Thursday fell $2.73, or 4.7 percent, to settle at $55.59 a barrel -- the lowest settlement price since June 15, 2005. The drop followed a 4.5 percent decline Wednesday.

Ministers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries are waiting to see whether the lower price trend continues before taking any further action, the chairman of Libya's oil company said Friday. "We are concerned - of course," Shokri Ghanem told Dow Jones Newswires from Tripoli. "We need to see if this trend continues as it has only been for two days so far."

Oliver Stevens at IG Markets said the price could rise again if it steadies near the current level.

"Should the $55 per barrel support level be broken oil may well trade well down only to find support at the $50 level," he said. "The big negative factor driving the oil market is really the warm winter weather in the U.S. Northeast," said Victor Shum, an analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore. "The U.S. inventory report has also fueled the selling in oil, and it is continuing this morning."

U.S. crude inventories declined last week by 1.3 million barrels to 319.7 million barrels compared with the previous week, the Energy Information Administration reported Thursday. Analysts on average had expected crude stocks to rise by 930,000 barrels, according to a survey by Dow Jones Newswires.

However, distillate inventories, which include diesel fuel and heating oil, increased by 2 million barrels to 135.6 million barrels as warm winter weather hurt demand. Distillate stocks were expected to increase by an average of 1.15 million barrels.

Weather has become an increasingly important factor in the price of oil in recent years. A warm winter and a mild hurricane season last year have combined with a forecast for warmer-than-normal temperatures this winter to put downward pressure on oil prices.

February Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange rose 14 cents to $55.25 a barrel on Friday.

In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures rose 0.22 cent to $1.5453 a gallon while natural gas prices gained 5.3 cents to $6.215 per 1,000 cubic feet.

British minister criticizes airlines in Europe, U.S. over carbon emissions

British Environment Minister Ian Pearson criticized airlines in Europe and the United States for not taking climate change seriously, local media reported on Friday.

Pearson described Irish carrier Ryanair, one of Europe's largest low-fare carriers, as "the irresponsible face of capitalism" and its chief executive as "completely off the wall".

He warned that British Airways was "only just about playing ball" in the fight to reduce carbon emissions.

The minister also said that the attitude of several American airlines was a "disgrace". Some U.S. airlines, he said "just seem to be saying they don't want anything to do with the trading scheme, and that they will take the EU to court if transatlantic flights are included. It is completely irresponsible."

But Michael O'Leary, chief executive of Ryanair, said the minister's "green sky" idea was "just another tax".

"It is clear that Minister Pearson has not a clue what he's talking about", Michael O'Leary said.

"The recent Stern Report confirmed that the airline industry accounts for just 1.6 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions," O'Leary said. "Airlines are neither the cause nor the solution to climate change." The Ryanair boss said that Pearson has nothing to say about road transport, which accounts for 18 percent, or the power generation industry, which accounts for over 25 percent, of CO2 emissions.

"Mr Pearson is a minister of a Government which has, like Scrooge, this Christmas doubled the air passenger tax on tickets, grabbing another 1 billion pounds in taxes without doing anything whatsoever to invest this money in the environment," O'Leary said.

Source: Xinhua

Jakarta Chamber of Commerce helps SMEs extend trade to Iran

he Jakarta Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin DKI) plans to boost the development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by facilitating the export of their products to the Middle East.

The commodities -- comprising garments, leather and embroidered goods -- will be exported to Iran, Kadin DKI chairman Sofjan S. Pane said Wednesday.

"Our country will also have a good opportunity to market our products to other Middle Eastern countries, since Iran has simplified the procedures for free trade," he said.

He said that Kadin DKI was working in cooperation with Kadin offices in West Java and Banten, where many of the entrepreneurs resided.

According to Sofjan, a meeting with the Tehran Chamber of Commerce and Industry is scheduled for next month.

In order to facilitate the small and medium businesses, Kadin DKI has formulated programs to modify the funding and transaction system, as well as the management of the products.

"We help to ensure that all of the transactions will be safe for the enterprises and for the banks that provide the funding," Sofjan said.

He acknowledged that the growth of small and medium enterprises would contribute to the city's economic growth.

The Jakarta administration has targeted economic growth of 6.6 percent in 2007, a rise by 0.8 percent from last year.

Small and medium enterprises have encountered problems in marketing their products due to the low domestic purchasing power, besides having to compete with foreign products marketed in the country.

"Our local products actually have great potential in the international market because of their high quality," he said. [via]

Zimbabwe SMEs seek to boost productivity

Zimbabwe's Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) sector is set to adopt a strategic approach aimed at promoting import substitution and increasing productivity through utilization of the available resources countrywide, the Herald newspaper reported Friday.

Minister of Small to Medium Enterprises Sithembiso Nyoni said the ministry will encourage small to medium-scale entrepreneurs to tap into and explore the resources in their own areas so as to increase resource utilization, enhance productivity and spur economic development, said the report.

Nyoni added that her ministry would vigorously seek to find more international partners in order to increase exports and generate foreign currency for the country.

Zimbabwe's SMEs sector is estimated to have about 2 million players that employ more than 70 percent of the population.

Source: Xinhua