In our latest post on Spanish soccer, Mark Elkington in Madrid raises the prospect of out-of-sorts striker Fernando Torres missing out on the Euro 2012 finals as competition for places heats up.
Fierce competition for places in Spainâs frontline for Euro 2012 has increased the pressure on misfiring Chelsea striker Fernando Torres.
Some are even suggesting the hero of Spains triumph at Euro 2008 may not even make the squad for the tournament in Poland and Ukraine next year and have speculated coach Vicente del Bosque could pick strikers including Alvaro Negredo (pictured) and Fernando Llorente ahead of the former Liverpool man.
The world and continental champions thrashed Liechtenstein 6-0 on Tuesday to qualify for the finals, but Torres was left to watch from the stands as David Villa, SpainÂs all-time top scorer, and Negredo both netted doubles.
âThere were ten players who didnât play,â Del Bosque said when asked afterwards about the surprise decision to leave Torres out.
âHe is an important player but the people selected for the national team are those who do well for their clubs, not the other way round.â
Torres has scored 27 goals for Spain, including the winner in their 1-0 Euro 2008 final victory over Germany, but was short of match fitness after injury and contributed little to last yearâs victorious World Cup finals campaign.
The 27-year-old continued to struggle for form in the Premier League last season when a high-profile transfer from Liverpool to Chelsea failed to spark a change in fortunes and
he still has only one goal to his name at Stamford Bridge.
Over the last year he has only managed to find the net once for the national team, in a June friendly against the United States, and the competition to be Villaâs strike partner is
heating up.
BarcelonaÂs Villa took his tally to 49 in Logrono on Tuesday, while Sevillaâs Negredo bagged his third goal in two matches and his fifth in seven outings.
Athletic Bilbaoâs Llorente and Valenciaâs Roberto Soldado, who notched a hat-trick on the opening day of the La Liga season, are also pushing hard for a place.
Former Real Madrid youth team forward Negredo, played down the significance of Torresâs relegation to the stands.
âHe came down to the dressing room after the game and congratulated me,â Negredo told sports daily AS.
âIâm not going to enter into whether he was annoyed or anything, it was a great gesture to congratulate me for the goals.
âI would understand it if he was, because it isnât much fun to come and not play a single minute, but he is a great colleague and is one of the captains of the national team.â
PHOTO: Spainâs Alvaro Negredo celebrates after scoring his second goal against Liechtenstein during their Euro 2012 Group I qualifier at the Las Gaunas stadium in Logrono, northern Spain, September 6, 2011. .
A recent study by an environmental group, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, has identified the 11 most threatened sea turtle populations from around the world. And five of these so-called danger zones for sea turtles are in the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
The Olive Ridley and Hawksbill turtles, which nest on Indian shores, are an endangered species and there was a drive by environmentalists against the poaching and killing of these sea reptiles. The study also reveals that the turtles face other dangers.
âThe most significant threats across all of the threatened populations are fisheries bycatch, the accidental catch of sea turtles by fishermen targeting other species and direct harvest of turtles or their eggs for food or turtle shell material for commercial use, the report said.
This report may need to be taken seriously by Indiaâs environmental bodies. While some high visibility animal projects like those for tigers in India have gained some success, the same cannot be said of any drive to preserve or sustain marine life on Indiaâs coastlines. Poaching and killing of protected wildlife is known to be rampant on Indiaâs shores. And perhaps environmental officials canât do much along with the Coast Guard, given there may be bigger threats like smuggling and militant infiltration through the sea.
But something needs to be done and fast. In spite of repeated warnings by wildlife activists, reports like these expose Indiaâs position and lack of seriousness in tackling marine pollution, unchecked fishing and poaching, and protection of marine life.
A recent study by an environmental group, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, has identified the 11 most threatened sea turtle populations from around the world. And five of these so-called danger zones for sea turtles are in the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
The Olive Ridley and Hawksbill turtles, which nest on Indian shores, are an endangered species and there was a drive by environmentalists against the poaching and killing of these sea reptiles. The study also reveals that the turtles face other dangers.
âThe most significant threats across all of the threatened populations are fisheries bycatch, the accidental catch of sea turtles by fishermen targeting other species and direct harvest of turtles or their eggs for food or turtle shell material for commercial use, the report said.
This report may need to be taken seriously by Indiaâs environmental bodies. While some high visibility animal projects like those for tigers in India have gained some success, the same cannot be said of any drive to preserve or sustain marine life on Indiaâs coastlines. Poaching and killing of protected wildlife is known to be rampant on Indiaâs shores. And perhaps environmental officials canât do much along with the Coast Guard, given there may be bigger threats like smuggling and militant infiltration through the sea.
But something needs to be done and fast. In spite of repeated warnings by wildlife activists, reports like these expose Indiaâs position and lack of seriousness in tackling marine pollution, unchecked fishing and poaching, and protection of marine life.
* Reviewers rave about Siri, but otherwise no revolutionBy Michael Perry and Isabel ReynoldsSYDNEY/TOKYO, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Apple Inc’s iPhone
4S finally went on sale in stores around the globe on Friday,
with fans snapping up the final gadget unveiled during Steve
Jobs’ lifetime, many buying the phone as a tribute to the former
Apple boss.”I think a lot of people are going to buy the iPhone 4S
because it was the last iPhone Steve worked on,” said Wil
Batterham, 15, who with his school friend Tom Mosca were the
first to buy the new phone in Sydney’s Apple store.”People are saying it was named after him, like iPhone 4S,
for Steve,” said Batterham, clutching his new phone.Asked what will be the first function they use on the iPhone
4S, Mosca said he would ask the new iPhone’s voice-activated
“personal assistant” software: “Where’s Steve?”.CEO Tim Cook and his executive team hope the first device
launched without Apple’s former visionary leader at the helm
will safeguard their global market share lead.Samsung ,
Apple’s arch-rival with smartphones powered by
Google’s Android software, expects
to overtake Apple as the world’s biggest smartphone vendor in
terms of units sold in the third quarter .The iPhone 4S — introduced to the world just a
day before Jobs died — was dubbed a disappointment because it
fell short of being a revolution in design, but glowing reviews
centered around its “Siri” voice-activated software have since
helped it set a record pace in initial, online sales orders.Apple fans showed no disappointment in Sydney on Friday as
they purchased the phone, ahead of sales in Japan, Germany,
France, Britain and North America.Hundreds queued around the block of the Sydney Apple store,
many rugged up against the chilly morning, as Apple staff
chatted and clapped a countdown to the store opening. Apple’s 13
Australian stores were the first to open their doors at 8.00
a.m. local time (2100 GMT, Thursday) to sell the iPhone 4S.The vast majority of iPhone 4S buyers at the
Sydney store appeared to be
existing Apple customers, many having bought the
original iPhone and upgrades each time.Only one out of 10 people surveyed by Reuters was a new
Apple customer . That buyer was replacing his
HTC smartphone with the new iPhone 4S.”I have been waiting for the iPhone 5 for a long time.
But since Jobs died, I wanted to make sure I had a new iPhone
with some advantages over the old,” said Mark Du, referring to
his concern over future Apple gadgets without Jobs at the
helm.Apple said it did not release sales figures on launch day,
so gauging the initial sales may be difficult. Apple said it had
taken more than 1 million online orders in the first 24 hours
after its release, exceeding the 600,000 for the iPhone 4,
though that model was sold in fewer countries.Some analysts expect fourth-quarter iPhone shipments of as
much as 30 million or more, almost double from a year ago.Apple’s fifth-generation iPhone uses chips from Qualcomm Inc
, Toshiba and a host of smaller semiconductor
companies, according to repair firm iFixit, which cracked the
device open on Thursday.SPEECH RECOGNITION A WINNERAnalysts say Apple CEO Cook needs to move out from under his
former mentor’s enormous shadow soon, and avoid clinging to the
Jobs’ mystique to preserve its brand.Apple fans in Sydney made sure to remember
Jobs as part of the iPhone 4S
launch, with a small flower, candle and photo shrine
erected outside the glass-fronted
store.The iPhone — seen as the market’s gold standard
— is Apple’s highest-margin product and accounts for 40 percent
of its annual revenue. It is the world’s biggest selling
smartphone, for now maintaining a slim market-share lead over
Samsung’s Galaxy, at 18.4 versus 17.8 percent worldwide.In a sign of how tough the competition is, two doors along
from the Sydney Apple store, Samsung has been selling its new
Galaxy SII for only A$2 to its first 10 customers each day,
prompting Samsung fans to also camp out on the footpath.But analysts point to several factors in Apple’s favor: a
$199 price that matches up well with rival devices such as
Amazon.com Inc’s “Fire” tablet; availability promised
on more than 100 carriers by the end of 2011, far more than its
predecessors; and glowing reviews.Apple’s iconic smartphone comes with a faster processor and
a better and more light-sensitive camera, but little else to
separate it from its predecessor. But tech experts say the real
gems lie beneath the phone’s familiar sleek casing.Influential reviewers Walt Mossberg and David Pogue raved
about “Siri” — a voice-command activated assistant that
responds to spoken commands and questions in context, such as
queries about the weather or a friend’s phone number.”I’m buying it mainly for the voice activated Siri, its like
your own personal secretary,” said Shane Gray, 42, one of the
Sydney buyers.
* Shares underperform sector
(Adds comment, background, shares)MILAN, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Italian utility Enel
said on Thursday that its dividend policy remained unchanged,
though its full-year dividend could be affected by a one-off
energy tax introduced earlier this year.”The company confirms its policy of paying out 60 percent of
net operating profit,” a spokesman for the company told Reuters.Earlier Enel shares fell around 4 percent after the group’s
Chief Executive Fulvio Conti told Bloomberg in an interview that
because of the one-off tax its dividend was under review.In September Conti told Reuters that the new energy tax
introduced by the Italian government as part of austerity
measures could lead to a reduction in investments and dividend.Conti said the new tax would have an impact on full-year
profits but added the group would have to wait to see how the
new tax was actually applied.Enel, Europe’s most indebted utility, has said the new
energy tax could cost the company about 400 million euros a year
in terms of taxes between 2011 and 2013.”This is a big reminder that dividends in the sector are
under increasing pressure. Better switch to telcos if you want
to play the dividend theme,” a trader said.At 1030 GMT Enel shares were down 3.34 percent at 3.47 euros
while the European utilities index was down 1.38
percent.
By Christopher Swann
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
Economic fear has taken a heavier toll on U.S. oil company shares than on crude itself. Either there are bargains among the stocks of oil explorers, or commodity investors are too bullish. The difference of opinion ought to mean there’s room to make money.
True, crude speculators have not been totally impervious to worries over a global slowdown. Both the WTI and Brent benchmarks are sharply down from the peaks reached at the end of April. But compared with the start of the year, oil has fared relatively well. WTI is down just 10 percent and Brent is actually up close to 9 percent. Nor are futures markets bracing for any price plunge over the coming two years.
By contrast, investors in U.S. oil and gas exploration companies are taking the threat of a global slowdown far more seriously. The S&P exploration and production index is down by almost a fifth since the start of 2011. As a result, many of these companies now look cheap. These wildcatters are now typically trading at an enterprise value of around 4.8 times estimated 2012 EBITDA — well below the average of 5.8 that has held since 2005, according to energy investment bank Tudor Pickering.
The sector, which includes Apache, EOG, Devon Energy and Occidental Petroleum, is also trading on enterprise values that reflect a 20 percent discount to the market value of proven reserves, Tudor Pickering reckons.
Of course, the stocks only look like a steal if crude traders are right to be relatively sanguine about oil prices. Another 15 percent fall in crude, and they look less like bargains. Futures markets are pricing Brent at $100 in a year’s time. That doesn’t appear to allow for the demand weakness that could accompany future accidents for the global economy, for instance further jolts from Europe.
But investors might not need to make that call to profit from the arbitrage opportunity. Whatever happens to the oil price, the gap in the outlook between commodity and stock markets should narrow. A bet that oil explorers’ shares will rise relative to the price of the black stuff looks like a smart one.
