Shayonara sReport

1.
The last Paris Motor Show was marked by tear gas and workers' violent protests against job cuts. Now, the mood is different and industry bosses are back doing what they prefer: Showing off the latest luxury models, supercars and hybrid motors.

Among the most anticipated cars at this week's event -- one of the biggest dates in the car enthusiast's diary -- will be a plug-in hybrid Lamborghini, Ferrari 458 Speciale, Mercedes AMG GT, and a five-door MINI.

Manufacturers will unveil around 100 new models and designs, three times more than at the last show two years ago.

Europe, while still fragile, has shaken off the financial crisis and the auto industry has seen a 6% boost in car sales so far this year, to 8.3 million. It's the largest increase since the crisis began in 2007.

Recovery faces hurdles

European sales were badly damaged by the recession, as people who already owned a vehicle put off buying a new one to cut their spending.

New car registrations plummeted throughout Europe, with its most troubled economies facing the biggest drops: Registrations declined 80% in Greece, 57% in Spain and 53% in Portugal.

But as sales have picked up, geopolitical pressures have put the industry under renewed strain. The West's trade war with Russia has had a significant knock-on effect, and sales are expected to slow in the year's final months.

Before the Ukraine crisis, Russia was tracking to become Europe's largest car market, expected to surpass the UK and Germany by 2016.

Instead, analysts expect that sales this year will decline between 8% and 12% this year. Latest monthly figures, from the Association of European Businesses, show sales in Russia plummeted 25.8% in August compared to last year.

Efficiency first

While recent gains have lent an upbeat atmosphere to this year's show, long-terms trends make for miserable reading. Car sales in Europe are nearly one fifth below the peak of late 2000s, and manufacturers are being forced to look for new growth areas.

More efficient, hybrid and electric cars are seen as central to growth and a "technology race" is underway between European brands, according to Felix Kuhnert, PWC's head of European automotive industry division. New, "greener" hybrid models are expected to be among the show's most coveted creations. Lamborghini is unveiling its first ever plug-in hybrid supercar,  which boasts a V10 engine and three electric motors.

Japanese luxury brand Infiniti will reveal plans for its flagship sedan, the hybrid Infiniti Q80. Jaguar will premier its XE, the most fuel-efficient of its stable to date. And Porsche is bringing a new plug-in hybrid version of its premium SUV Cayenne.

European manufacturers are plunging money into research and development initiatives towards alternative drivetrains, lightweight construction, and other efficiency technologies, as they bid to attract new customers, Kuhner said.

According to Kuhnert, the "old and inefficient" cars clogging up Europe's highways will be replaced "as soon as the economic outlook in each country becomes more positive."

Focus on Asia

Industry focus has also turned to Asia, as the middle classes boom and spending power increases. China is proving an attractive market for car manufacturers, despite concerns around the introduction of quotas and restrictions on new car registrations to combat pollution.

The numbers are impressive: BMW sales in pushing the group's sales in the period to 1 million.But the growth in Asia will not be driven by China alone. Sales in Indonesia and Thailand are increasing with Indonesia's new car sales doubling between 2007 and 2012 and staying strong since.Many car makers have also moved parts of their production to Asia, in a bid to cut costs by producing where they sell its. the liner souce.

2.

India's third-largest steelmaker, JSW Steel Ltd, is in talks to buy embattled West African iron ore miner London Mining, showing Indian firms' growing appetite to secure raw materials abroad, sources familiar with the matter said.

London Mining was one of several junior miners set up in West Africa during the boom years on the back of rising demand for iron ore, hoping to turn the region into a new producing frontier to compete with Australia and Brazil. Instead, they have battled infrastructure woes, high costs and low prices.

The debt-burdened miner, whose shares have dropped 96 percent so far this year, warned last week it did not have enough cash to operate its only mine and was in talks about a potential strategic investment - though that would involve significant equity dilution.

It declined to comment on Monday. A JSW spokesman did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

"Talks (with London Mining) have been going on for many months. JSW people have visited them also," said one of the sources, who declined to be named as the talks are not public.

The source said London Mining would come "cheap" for JSW, thanks to its shrunken market valuation of roughly $10 million - though debt swells its enterprise value to over $290 million, according to Thomson Reuters data.

The source added a deal would be aimed at helping JSW meet its own demand for iron ore.

Action against illegal mining in India has led to a sharp fall in domestic iron ore output, forcing JSW to import heavily. It plans to ship in 10 million tonnes of iron ore in this fiscal year ending March 31.

News of the talks, confirming a weekend report in Britain's Sunday Times newspaper, sent shares in AIM-listed London Mining up almost 18 percent in early trading on Monday.

At 0850 GMT, the stock was up 8.9 percent at 4.92 pence. African Minerals, a rival producer in the region, saw its shares rise 8.2 percent.

BUYING ABROAD

JSW, controlled by billionaire Sajjan Jindal, has been eyeing up supply of raw materials and even steelmaking capacity outside India, securing mining assets in Chile, Mozambique and the United States. It is also close to buying some steel mills owned by Italy's Lucchini and considering buying the privately owned Ilva steel plant, also in Italy.

In a similar push abroad, Jindal Steel and Power, controlled by Sajjan’s brother Naveen Jindal, has already bought coal mines in South Africa, Mozambique and Australia. It has also been looking for iron ore mines in Africa, its executives have said.

Analysts and sources familiar with the matter cautioned, however, that even if it was successful in its bid, Jindal would need to tackle many of the issues that have troubled London Mining and its peers, not least costs.

"Their operating cost is still too high against the current iron ore price. It's not a bad asset, but having so much debt when the iron ore price is so low, and when you're not generating free cash flow, just doesn't work," said analyst Carole Ferguson at SP Angel in London.

West African miners are higher-cost producers at roughly $75-85 per tonne delivered to China, compared with big three Brazil's Vale, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, with costs of about $45-55.

BHP said on Monday that it aims to cut its iron ore production costs by more than 25 percent and squeeze more tonnes from its mines.

3.

The annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, which drew 2 million Muslims from around the world, has been epidemic-free, Saudi Arabia’s acting health minister has said.

Oil-rich Saudi Arabia, home to Islam’s holiest sites, engaged thousands of health workers to make sure pilgrims were protected from two deadly viruses, Ebola and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (Mers-CoV).

As pilgrims performed the final rituals of the hajj and began returning home, Adel Fakieh said: “I am pleased to announce the hajj was free of all epidemic diseases.”

Among its preventive measures, Fakieh’s ministry set up a “command and control” centre to direct the hajj health operation, and required every pilgrim to complete a health screening questionnaire.

Passengers were monitored by thermal cameras that detect high body temperature, and 15 isolation rooms were set up to hold any suspicious cases at the airport in the city of Jeddah.

Fakieh said 170 people were considered as possibly having Mers but all proved to be negative.

Saudi Arabia is the country hardest hit by Mers, which has killed 322 people in the kingdom since it first appeared in September 2012.

The health ministry on Sunday reported two more Mers deaths, one in the capital Riyadh and another in Taif, 50 miles (80km) east of Mecca.

Ebola has killed more than 3,000 people in west Africa.

Saudi Arabia did not allow pilgrims to come from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, which have been hardest hit by the illness.

4.

Funded with $27 million of FIFA money, the movie "United Passions" is acquiring almost mythical status in football circles.

Mythical in the sense that the film, which was shown at the Zurich Film Festival on Sunday, has not been seen by many, and its relationship to documentary truth about FIFA's troubled recent history is loose.

In industry circles, "United Passions" would easily be defined as a box office flop — even with star power from Gerard Depardieu, Sam Neill and Tim Roth.

But even in a World Cup year, a film telling the governing body's historical story is a tough sell when it carries the toxic tag "The FIFA Movie."

Suspicion it is a vanity project with script approval for President Sepp Blatter, portrayed by Academy Award-nominated Roth, is fueled by on-screen lines like one spoken in 1998, soon after his first election in what was widely reported as a ballot bought by some of his supporters.

"The slightest breach of ethics will be severely punished," Roth-as-Blatter tells FIFA marketing executives.

The one-off screening in FIFA's home city on Sunday was introduced by a festival staffer with thanks to FIFA for making this Swiss premiere happen.

It was watched by about 120 people in a 500-capacity theater at the Arena multiplex. At a top price of 22 Swiss francs ($22.70) per ticket, including the one bought by The Associated Press, the take would be about 2,400 Swiss francs ($2,480).

That should boost the international box office takings to between $150,000 and $200,000, according to figures supplied by film industry data analyst Rentrak.

Switzerland became only the seventh country to screen "United Passions" since its world premiere at Cannes in May, according to Rentrak, which monitors screenings and earnings in 70 countries.

Depardieu and Blatter attended the Cannes launch. But it was only in Ukraine, which had a June 5 release, that the film could be seen before the 2014 World Cup kicked off in Brazil on June 12.

Host nation distributors passed on it, even with a starring role for Neill as Joao Havelange, the most powerful Brazilian in FIFA's 110-year history. He resigned last year as honorary president to avoid sanctions for taking million-dollar kickbacks from World Cup deals.

France also passed on the French production, albeit in English, which stars one of its most celebrated actors in Depardieu playing Jules Rimet, who founded the World Cup. In France, it went straight to DVD in July.

Russia was the main market with box office earnings topping 5.7 million rubles ($144,000), according to Rentrak. The 2018 World Cup host had 162 screens showing "United Passions" on its July 3 release. As word of mouth spread, 73 screens showed it the second week. It then closed.

A two-week run in Portugal reaped 5,300 euros ($6,650); three weeks in Serbia brought in 254,000 dinar ($2,700); box office returns for releases in Slovenia and Hungary were not available to Rentrak.

The clear pattern of failure for "United Passions" does not mean it is the travesty FIFA critics hoped for. It is dull rather than offensive.

FIFA did, however, encourage skeptics by handling the project like a guilty secret.

Some members of Blatter's executive committee — with clean reputations and no reason to fear the story — said they had no idea FIFA's money was spent this way.

Only in June did FIFA finance director Markus Kattner confirm that FIFA paid 90 percent of the film's budget using cash approved in a vaguely worded 2009 financial report entry.

FIFA had wanted to fund a movie for its centenary in 2004, and revived the plan when French producers approached.

"FIFA then agreed to contribute," the governing body said in June, "considering this to be a unique opportunity to raise awareness of the breadth of FIFA's work to develop football globally."

Yet when Depardieu visited FIFA in October 2012 and at the Ballon d'Or gala the following January, the film project was not mentioned in news releases.

Blatter was also evasive. In an August 2013 interview with the AP, he dismissed a question about who might play him in a movie as if the thought never occurred to him. Roth was due in Zurich days later for filming.

The film is no classic, for sure. There are too many men in meetings, and not enough action — football on the field or scandal in the board room — to sustain interest.

On film industry website IMDB, 700 users have graded the movie at 3.2 out of 10.

The script is a clunker, too. Within minutes, references to the beautiful game and football being more important than life or death are spoken in a scene set in 1904, decades before Pele and Bill Shankly coined what are now tired cliches.

Unintentional comedy can also be enjoyed by viewers with basic knowledge of FIFA politics.

The film introduces Blatter in 1975, when he worked for a Swiss watch brand.

"I'm taking up football. No more watches," says the fictional Blatter, who in reality has yet to explain what he did with his $26,000 watch presented by the Brazilian federation to football officials at the World Cup.

FIFA's ethics committee wants them back to sell for a Brazilian charity.

The film strives for a dramatic climax with Blatter's 2002 re-election in Seoul, South Korea. It was a time of stunning upheaval at FIFA, though the conflict is hardly hinted at.

Any tension on screen deflates in an extended slow-motion shot of a dark-suited Roth walking into the election room, in apparent homage to his celebrated "Reservoir Dogs" role as a good cop working undercover in a criminal gang. 

Perhaps this is among the ironic touches "United Passions" director and co-writer Frederic Auburtin has said he inserted.

The film points to Havelange as the cause of corruption while Blatter is the hard worker recruiting Coca-Cola as a sponsor, left alone to fend off a hostile press and, as one aide says, "betrayed" by his colleagues.

Another curiosity of the Seoul section is Blatter not having an identified election opponent.

African football leader Issa Hayatou —routed in that 2002 ballot, now No. 2 to Blatter as FIFA senior vice president — is airbrushed from the plot. 

So are Jack Warner, Mohamed bin Hammam, Ricardo Teixeira, Nicolas Leoz and the rest of FIFA's executive committee on Blatter's 16-years-and-counting presidential watch.

Detailing Hayatou's opposition would jar with a major "United Passions" theme, that of Blatter as visionary supporter of African and women's football.

It is unfortunate timing that the film landed in Zurich the same week as a discrimination lawsuit filed in Canada — and supported by the past two FIFA Women's World Player of the Year winners, Abby Wambach and Nadine Angerer — over FIFA approving the 2015 Women's World Cup to be played on artificial turf.

The movie ends with Roth-as-Blatter crassly imposed on actual footage of Nelson Mandela lifting the World Cup trophy at FIFA headquarters in 2004 when South Africa was chosen as 2010 host.

FIFA is unlikely to see much return on its $27 million investment, though the loss is cushioned by having $1.5 billion in the bank. Still, that $27 million represents FIFA's entire 2013 spending on its Goal development program, which targets projects in poorer member federations.

The money could also pay, several times over, to have natural grass surfaces put in six Canadian stadiums for the world's best female players.

5.

The fight against the Islamic State group (ISIS) will be difficult and could last decades due to decisions made by President Barack Obama, former Pentagon chief Leon Panetta has said.

"I think we're looking at kind of a 30-year war" that could extend to threats in Libya, Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen.  Panetta, a respected policymaker who served under Obama, blamed the challenges on decisions the president made over the past three years.

Among those decisions, he cited Obama's failure to push the Iraqi government hard enough to allow a residual US force to stay in the country after troops withdrew in 2011, saying that created a security "vacuum.

The former defense secretary also pointed to Obama's rejection of advice in 2012 from Panetta and then-secretary of state Hillary Clinton to begin arming Syrian rebels fighting against President Bashar al-Assad.

"I do think we would be in a better position to kind of know whether or not there is some moderate element in the rebel forces that are confronting Assad," Panetta said.

And Panetta said Obama lost credibility when he warned Assad not to use chemical weapons against his own people and then failed to act when the Syrian leader crossed that "red line" last year.

Panetta says Obama now has an opportunity to "repair the damage" by showing leadership after having "lost his way" in the fight against the radical group that has seized chunks of territory in Iraq and Syria.

The former Pentagon chief was speaking ahead of the release of his new book, "Worthy Fights: A Memoir of Leadership in War and Peace," set for Tuesday by Penguin Press.

USA Today said that Panetta is explicitly critical Obama in his book, writing that his "most conspicuous weakness" was "a frustrating reticence to engage his opponents and rally support for his cause."

The president too often "relies on the logic of a law professor rather than the passion of a leader," the former defense chief added, saying that approach means Obama "avoids the battle, complains and misses opportunities."

At times, Obama "gets so discouraged by the process" that he sometimes stops fighting, Panetta told USA Today.

Even before its publication, White House and State Department.

"I'm finding that former administration officials, as soon as they leave write books, which I think is inappropriate," Vice President Joe Biden told students at Harvard University on Friday. "At least give the guy a chance to get out of office."

Obama would change course during his last two years in office and recover from his mistakes."My hope is that the president, recognizing that we are at a kind of critical point in his administration, will take the bit in his teeth and will say, 'We have got to solve these problems,'" Panetta said.The "jury is still out" on Obama, he told the paper. The president now has to consider his legacy.

"We are at a point where I think the jury is still out," Panetta said in the interview. "For the first four years, and the time I spent there, I thought he was a strong leader on security issues. ... But these last two years I think he kind of lost his way. You know, it's been a mixed message, a little ambivalence in trying to approach these issues and try to clarify what the role of this country is all about.

"He may have found himself again with regards to this ISIS crisis. I hope that's the case. And if he's willing to roll up his sleeves and engage with Congress in taking on some of these other issues, as I said I think he can establish a very strong legacy as president. I think these next 2 1/2 years will tell us an awful lot about what history has to say about the Obama administration."