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To: regli who wrote (59168)	4/22/2006 8:42:46 PM
From: shades	Respond to of 110194

Bud Fox gets Busted (for those that remember Borg Jerri Ryan - this kills bud fox chance at a senate seat probably) (he has to pay - he is big star - what chance do the rest of us losers have - HAHA) heraldsun.news.com.au Hookers, porn and the star By ADAM HARVEY in NEW YORK 23apr06 HOLLYWOOD star Charlie Sheen threatened to kill his wife, actress Denise Richards, after she refused to allow him overnight access to their children because of his addiction to pornography and prostitutes, according to court documents. Ms Richards, 35, ripped into Sheen, 40, in an application for a restraining order filed yesterday with a Los Angeles Court. Sheen strongly denied the allegations. She claimed that the star of Platoon and Wall Street regularly loses hundreds of thousands of dollars in gambling binges and is fuelled by paranoia and a cocktail of anti-depressants. Richards' extraordinary statement detailed many incidents where Sheen shoved and threatened her, and says she hired a security guard to protect their daughter Sam during Sheen's court-authorised visits. During one visit, according to Richards, Sheen pulled down a framed wedding photograph, sawed it in half, and scrawled "the dumbest day of my life" across it. Richards says she discovered her husband continues to visit prostitutes and was a member of pornographic internet sites that "promoted very young girls, who looked underage to me with pigtails, braces". (he is finished - how is he not in jail yet??) Richards claims that she also discovered that Sheen "belonged to several sex search type sites" on which he "looked for women to have sex with". Richards claims Sheen threatened to kill her when she refused to let their children to stay overnight with him. Richards says that Sheen is too strung out to tape his top-rating television show before a live audience. "The smallest thing would set him off," claims Richards. In a statement, Sheen said: "I deeply regret her response to my request for the court to decide what's best for our children has taken the form of baseless allegations that I deny."

To: regli who wrote (59168)	4/22/2006 8:48:31 PM
From: shades	Respond to of 110194

French Fin Min Asks IMF To Extend Surveillance To Oil . WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--French Finance Minister Thierry Breton said Saturday he had asked the head of the International Monetary Fund, Rodrigo Rato, to extend the body's surveillance to the world's oil market. Breton said though the IMF's main role is to look at countries' macroeconomic indicators, it should also pay attention to the oil market given its growing importance for the global economy. The minister earlier Saturday attended a meeting of the IMF's policy-steering committee in Washington. "I formally asked the Fund to also exert its surveillance on the functioning of the oil market," Breton said, adding he had asked Rato to present a report on oil at the next IMF meeting in Singapore in September. The International Monetary and Financial Committee on Saturday decided to ask Rato for a report providing more information on oil demand, supply and reserves, said U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, chairman of the committee. Breton spoke a day after finance ministers and central bank governors from the world's richest countries warned that high oil prices posed a serious threat to the world economy's growth. Oil prices climbed to a new record Friday, rising $1.48 to settle at $75.17 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Breton also said he would seek "dialogue" with oil companies operating in France to ensure that high oil prices don't lead to a surge in gasoline prices at the pump. Last year, oil companies in France agreed to raise their investment spending and smooth out price hikes at the retail level after meeting with Breton. In return, the government didn't hike taxes as it had threatened to do. -By Luca Di Leo, Dow Jones Newswires; +39 06 6782543; luca.dileo@dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires April 22, 2006 17:32 ET (21:32 GMT) Copyright (c) 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.- - 05 32 PM EDT 04-22-06

To: regli who wrote (59168)	4/22/2006 9:00:26 PM
From: shades	Respond to of 110194

Norway Oil Min Sees Gas Exports To Europe Up 40% In 2 Yrs . By Spencer Swartz and Grainne McCarthy OF DOW JONES NEWSWIRES DOHA (Dow Jones)--Norway, one of Europe's biggest natural gas providers, is set to increase supplies to its gas-export dependent European neighbors by about 40% within two years, Norway's oil minister said Saturday. "We will be raising our exports to Europe from about 85 billion cubic meters (annually) to about 120 (billion cubic meters) within two years," Norwegian Oil Minister Odd Roger Enoksen told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview during the 10th International Energy Forum here. The development comes as European policymakers once again fret about the reliability of Russian gas exports. Russian giant state-owned gas company OAO Gazprom (GSPBEX.RS) cut off supplies to Ukraine and Moldova in January over pricing disputes, sending shivers across European markets and governments. Then Gazprom Chief Executive Alexei Miller told European ambassadors last week that Europe shouldn't try to limit the company's access to European markets. If it did so, the company would redirect its exports elsewhere. The statement raised concern in Europe about the reliability of Russian supplies and prompted criticism that the company is less a commercial business than a tool for the Kremlin to exercise political influence Enoksen said production from two of Norway's biggest gas projects, Snohvit and Ormen Lange, would drive the increased exports, which will involve liquefied natural gas and gas shipped via pipelines. Gas from the Ormen Lange project in particular will be sent via pipeline to the U.K. and account for 15% to 20% of its daily gas demand, Enoksen said. Norway is the world's third largest oil exporter, after Saudi Arabia and Russia, and is a key supplier of natural gas to Europe. State-controlled Statoil ASA (STL.OS) is building Europe's first export facility for liquefied natural gas to handle flows from the Snoehvit, Albatross and Askeland offshore fields in the Arctic. Norway hopes the Barents will become a key offshore oil and natural gas province, maintaining Norwegian production and providing crucial supplies for Europe. Turing to the Middle East, Enoksen said there were no additional plans by Norwegian companies to build more aluminum smelters in the area, a region where many smelters and petrochemical facilities are being built to capitalize on the area's cheap and abundant natural gas supplies. The Middle East has two of the world's two biggest gas holders in Iran, which has the globe's second biggest gas reserves, and Qatar. The region's supplies will be used as both a feedstock and as a fuel source for power generation. Norway's state-run Norsk Hydro ASA (NHY) and Qatar Petroleum announced plans in March to build one of the world's biggest aluminum plants in Qatar. -Grainne McCarthy and Spencer Swartz, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 207 842 9357; grainne.mccarthy@dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires April 22, 2006 13:40 ET (17:40 GMT)

To: regli who wrote (59168)	4/22/2006 9:09:14 PM
From: shades	Respond to of 110194

China is selling the family jewels too cheaply. today.reuters.co.uk More Chinese banks seen listing at home Sat Apr 22, 2006 11:15 AM BST Printer Friendly \| Email Article \| RSS (Page 1 of 2) BOAO, China (Reuters) - Chinese banks will increasingly opt to list shares at home as China's financial markets mature, a senior banking regulator said on Saturday. Bank of China, the country's second-largest bank, is set to raise $8 billion next month in an initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong that bankers say could reignite a debate over whether it is right for China's big lenders to list overseas. Broaching the controversy, Jiang Dingzhi, vice-chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, told political and business leaders that banks would continue to raise money overseas but would also issue shares on domestic stock markets. "Some banks have chosen to go public overseas. This was their own decision, based on their circumstances. But I believe that, as China's financial markets develop, more and more banks will raise funds at home," he said at the Boao forum, an annual gathering on Hainan island off China's south coast. A nationalist backlash unfurled after China Construction Bank (0939.HK: Quote, Profile, Research) sold $9.2 billion worth of shares in Hong Kong last October in a record offering for a mainland company. Like Construction Bank, Bank of China (BOC.UL: Quote, Profile, Research) has sold strategic stakes in itself to foreign investors. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC.UL: Quote, Profile, Research), the country's largest, is doing the same ahead of a listing due later this year. Critics, pointing to a leap in Construction Bank's share price since its flotation, say China is selling the family jewels too cheaply. They want the banks floated on China's domestic markets, which are clamouring for good-quality names, especially as a fortune in taxpayers' money has been used to write off the banks' bad loans and shore up their balance sheets. Jiang said the presence of foreign banks was helping Chinese lenders become more efficient. "The entry of foreign strategic investors into China has played a big role in promoting China's banking reform and it has already been proven that their presence has been helpful." China needed foreign banks not for their capital, but for their advice on improving everything from corporate governance to lending standards, he said. But foreign investors speaking alongside Jiang vented frustration over the limits on their involvement in China's still fragile but potentially lucrative financial sector. Foreign investors may own no more than 25 percent of a Chinese bank, while a number of proposed tie-ups between foreign securities firms and domestic brokerages have been put on ice. Kevan Watts, chairman of Merrill Lynch International Inc., said foreign financial institutions could provide the expertise China needs to raise standards at its banks. "Please let the foreign banks in more and earlier and faster so we can help with the process," he said.