Myanmar Junta Threatened by U.S. With Possible UN Arms Embargo

By Bill Varner

Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. will seek United Nations sanctions against Myanmar, possibly including an arms embargo, unless the nation's military regime ends its crackdown against protesters and releases political prisoners, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said.

Khalilzad made the threat after UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his envoy to Myanmar said they've opened the way for talks between the junta and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

``A window of opportunity has opened, and it is vital that the government of Myanmar responds positively,'' Ban told the UN Security Council today, before envoy Ibrahim Gambari reported on his trip this week to the Southeast Asian nation. Ban said he urged Suu Kyi and military leader General Than Shwe to meet ``as soon as possible.''

International condemnation of Myanmar's military regime has intensified since it deployed soldiers on Sept. 26 to crush the protests. Security forces clubbed and shot at demonstrators, raided monasteries and arrested Buddhist monks. At least 30 people were killed and 1,400 others arrested, according to the Australian government.

UN envoy Gambari met with Suu Kyi, then with Shwe, and then with Suu Kyi again. He returned to New York yesterday and briefed Ban on the talks.

Than Shwe subsequently said he was willing to meet with Suu Kyi if she stops calling for international sanctions against Myanmar and urging the population to confront the junta.

Gambari told the Security Council he was ``cautiously encouraged'' by the junta's willingness to meet with Suu Kyi, provided certain conditions were met. ``The sooner such a meeting can take place, the better, as it is a first and necessary step to overcome the high level of mistrust between them,'' Gambari said.

Suu Kyi

Suu Kyi, 62, has spent almost 12 years in detention since the junta rejected the results of parliamentary elections in 1990 won by her National League for Democracy.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner will consider Than Shwe's offer ``in a positive light,'' Agence France-Presse cited NLD spokesman Nyan Win as saying from the former capital, Yangon.

Khalilzad told the Security Council that while the potential for talks between Shwe and Suu Kyi was encouraging, the conditions set by the junta were ``unrealistic.''

The U.S. demands that the junta end the crackdown on protesters, lift curfews, remove troops from around monasteries and release all political prisoners, Khalilzad said.

The top U.S. envoy to Myanmar met earlier today with Deputy Foreign Minister Maung Myint in the capital, Naypitaw, the U.S. mission to the UN said. Shari Villarosa, the acting ambassador to Myanmar, received word yesterday that the junta wanted to hold the talks.

`Meaningful Dialogue'

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters in Washington that Villarosa would deliver the message that the regime ``needs to start meaningful dialogue with all the democratic opposition groups'' and ``stop the violent crackdown.''

Ban called the government's use of force ``abhorrent and unacceptable'' and said all political prisoners should be immediately released.

It was ``too early to measure the impact of Mr. Gambari's visit, or to label it a success or a failure,'' Ban said.

The UN has demanded the military regime reveal how many people were killed last week during the crackdown on the biggest anti-government protests in almost 20 years.

Gambari said it ``remains unclear'' how responsive the Myanmar leadership will be to messages from the U.S. and UN.

British Ambassador John Sawers said he would ask the Security Council to adopt a formal statement demanding an end to use of force against protesters and release of Suu Kyi and other detainees, and urging movement toward ``national reconciliation.''

Source : TheBloomberg

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Google Stock Approaches $600 as Web Ad Spending Soars

By Ari Levy

Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc. shares may surpass $600 for the first time as investors bet the world's most popular Internet search engine will capture more sales from companies shifting advertising spending to the Web.

Google, which began trading at $85 in 2004, has the sixth- highest stock price in the U.S. and has surged 27 percent this year. The shares rose $1.84 to $584.39 at 4 p.m. New York time on the Nasdaq Stock Market and earlier reached $596.81.

The search engine has taken users from Yahoo! Inc. and Microsoft Corp., pushing sales growth to at least 70 percent in each of the past three years. Google plans to lure more Web surfers and advertisers through the YouTube video site, bought last year, and has introduced software to sell mobile ads.

``Google is still dominating,'' Piper Jaffray & Co. Web analysts including Gene Munster said in an Oct. 1 report.

Munster, in Minneapolis, rates the stock ``outperform'' and estimates it will reach $660 within a year as Google parlays its lead in search into other areas of online advertising next year.

The Web advertising market in the U.S. will grow 29 percent this year to $21.7 billion and then more than double by 2011, according to EMarketer Inc. Ads linked to search results will account for about 40 percent of that, the New York-based researcher estimates.

The company bolstered its search engine in May by adding links to YouTube videos, images, book excerpts and news. Microsoft and Yahoo have followed in the past week with their own upgrades. Google also is counting on its $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick Inc., its largest, to gain sales in the display ad market. The deal still requires regulatory approval.

Google's Gains

Google's share of the Internet search market increased to 56.5 percent in August from 55.2 percent the previous month, according to Reston, Virginia-based researcher ComScore Inc. Yahoo fell to 23.3 percent and Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft dropped to 11.3 percent from 12.3 percent.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. had the two highest priced stocks in the U.S., with the Class A shares trading at $119,799. The others above $600 are Seaboard Corp., a pork processor and cargo shipper, CME Group Inc., operator of the world's biggest futures market, and Washington Post Co.

In its 2004 IPO, the biggest ever for an Internet company, Google dodged U.S. investment banks and sold shares directly to investors. The so-called Dutch auction allowed smaller firms to bid for shares, giving the bigger ones less control over the sale.

Sharing the Wealth

Google's advance has made billionaires out of co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who started the company as Stanford University graduate students in 1998. Page, 34, and Brin, 34, each have shares valued at more than $18 billion. Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt owns over $5 billion in stock.

The company has a stock market value of more than $180 billion, the third largest among U.S. technology companies, behind software maker Microsoft and Cisco Systems Inc., the biggest maker of computer networking equipment.

While 33 of 36 analysts tracked by Bloomberg recommend buying the shares, the price forecasts suggest more skepticism. Of the 28 analysts with estimates, 20 have predictions below $625 for the next 12 months.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ari Levy in San Francisco at alevy5@bloomberg.net

Source : Bloombreg

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