Erin Michelle Joynt, Kansas Sunbather, Run Over On Florida Beach While Sunbathing

Erin Michelle Joynt was calmly sitting on the beach in Daytona Beach, Florida Sunday when a Beach Patrol pickup ran her over.

The 33-year old Wichita woman was sunbathing on her stomach when the patrol vehicle made contact with her around 10am, The Wichita Eagle reports.

21-year old Thomas Moderie, a part time seasonal lifeguard in the area, had been flagged down by a beachgoer complaining of broken glass on the shore and was driving to deal with the complaint when he ran over Joynt, the Associated Press reports.

Moderie told local authorities that he "just didn't see the woman." As a result of the incident, he will undergo standard drug testing.

Joynt is, amazingly, recovering at an unnamed Daytona Beach hospital.

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The 10 most popular Isas

This fund invests in quality, larger companies across the world's emerging markets. The managers insist on having good relationships with the companies they invest in and tend to hold shares for over five years.

M&G Recovery

Managed by Tom Dobell, David Williams and Michael Stiasny, value �6.7bn

This flagship M&G UK fund invests in companies where a new management team is making concerted efforts to turn the business around or where they believe share prices have fallen well below their true worth. The manager looks to hold around 100 stocks for between three and five years.

JOHCM UK Equity Income

Managed by James Lowen and Clive Beagles, value �816m

This UK equity portfolio picks high-yielding stocks based on long-term value. The portfolio is focused, with typically between 50 and 70 stocks. The managers are unconstrained and can invest across all market sectors.

First State Asia Pacific Leaders

Managed by Angus Tulloch and Alistair Thompson, value �5.3bn

This fund is run by experienced managers with strong track records, who draw on their unique experience of this region. Company meetings are at the core of this fund, allowing the managers to build a portfolio of around 100 quality stocks.

M&G Global Dividend

Managed by Stuart Rhodes, value �925m

This fund looks beyond the UK for income stocks. Mr Rhodes looks to areas such as the US where companies have a disciplined approach to consistently growing their dividends. The manager has a high degree of freedom to invest around the world and focuses on picking quality companies that have a history of paying good dividends.

Axa Framlington UK Select Opportunities

Managed by Nigel Thomas, value �2.5bn

This fund has an even spread across the market cap scale ? investing in large, mid and small-cap companies. The investment process is focused on the manager's stock-picking approach. He has been successfully running this fund for nearly 10 years.

Legal & General Dynamic Bond Trust

Managed by Richard Hodges, value �1.3bn

This fund takes a flexible approach to bond investing, seeking to generate income from a range of different bonds. The manager can switch between different types of bond, from gilts to high-yield, depending on market conditions.

JPM Natural Resources

Managed by Ian Henderson, value �2.8bn

This specialist fund invests in companies involved in energy resources, gold and precious metals, base metals and other commodity related sectors. The fund has a diversified portfolio of between 250 and 300 stocks. The fund will have 50pc invested in large companies, with the balance in medium-sized and small companies.

Data source: Financial Express

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German tourists hope to score a discount or reimbursement when complaining

Aug 01, 2011

The German magazine "Spiegel Online" interviewed tourism expert Karl Born. The topic: German tourists tend to use precious vacation time hunting for flaws in their vacation packages or accomodations. With the right evidence, they hope to score a discount or reimbursement.

Karl Born, born in 1943, has worked for the German airline Condor and the tourism giant TUI, where he sat on the executive board. He is an honorary professor in tourism management and business administration at the University of Applied Sciences in Saxony-Anhalt. He also writes a popular weekly tourism column called "bissige Bemerkungen", or "Biting Observations."

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Born, you once said in a presentation that 'complaints are as much a part of any holiday as the Eiffel Tower is a part of Paris and the Hofbr�uhaus beer hall a part of Munich.' The Germans are known for being frontrunners in global travel -- but are they also world champions at complaining?

Born: In other countries, the complaint culture is obviously not as extreme as in Germany -- especially when you see what Germans complain about. There is an enormous variety of complaints, ranging from the legitimate to the absurd. The Germans are behind a disproportionately high number of the ridiculous complaints.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: As the head of TUI have you experienced this personally?

Born: A hotel manager from Tenerife told me that tourists from other countries generally go about things a bit more elegantly. For instance, if they want to upgrade to a better room, the Italians will compliment the hotel staff and smile, while the Swiss often cite health problems as a reason for needing an upgrade. Germans, on the other hand, don't beat around the bush and simply say, 'If you don't change this, I'm going to sue you.'

SPIEGEL ONLINE: And who has the most success?

Born: Italy, ahead of Switzerland -- and the Germans' problems are addressed last, according to this colleague.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Perhaps the Germans know too much about their rights for their own good?

Born: Maybe. The worst part is the famous 'Frankfurt Table...'

SPIEGEL ONLINE: ... a table that lists the percentage that may be reimbursed for specified shortcomings in tourism and travel services.

Born: Exactly. Many Germans are convinced that this table is the law, when in fact it's only meant to serve as a guideline for the courts when they are presented with cases related to travel and tourism complaints. The German newspaper Bild prints the table every year and people then take this with them on holiday. Now tour guides are used to these people and know how to discourage them, because many incorrectly believe that they can just add up the individual values on the list. (eds. Note: There is a set limit to the percentage that can be reimbursed)

SPIEGEL ONLINE: That would make for some pretty large sums. Say the area of the hotel room is too small, there is a crack in the wall, the linen isn't changed once and my table in the dining room isn't clean. Based on that alone, I could add up a claim for a 50 percent reimbursement per day.

Born: Exactly. And if you've already managed to reach a 50 percent reimbursement, then the drive kicks in to push it to 100 percent. But those are the truly hardcore complainers -- less than one percent of travelers take it that far. And I actually feel sorry for those people because they ruin their own holiday constantly looking for flaws.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: But from the perspective of tour operators, it's a problem when notorious whiners are constantly reporting their negative travel experiences to their friends.

Born: It's one of the major topics of conversation when you're at a party. One person starts talking about his vacation with TUI, and then every person present has his own horror story to share. Only two topics have this domino effect -- holidays and car trouble.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Give us one tip: What should a complaint look like, if one wants to get at least a 10 percent reimbursement from TUI?

Born: There certainly has to be truth to the complaint. TUI is a difficult opponent because you're going up against experienced professionals. They have processed thousands of complaints, so it's relatively unlikely that a person can get a reimbursement for an invented complaint that lacks good evidence. But let's say, you had construction work making noise outside of your hotel window. Take a couple of photos and send them, along with signed testimonies of two other hotel guests who support your complaint. With a tactic like that, you'll likely get some money back. I don't know if it will get you a reimbursement of ten percent, though. The important thing is that you can back up the complaint with evidence.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: One customer won a case against TUI because he claimed that the adventure vacation he was promised had been too normal, and that his life had never been in danger. How can German travel law possibly support such a ruling?

Born: It's true that the man argued in court that his life had never been in danger -- but that's not why he got his money back. He won the case because a certain part of the travel package, which was meant to be especially adventurous and exciting, did not take place.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Are there any other complaints you will never forget?

Born: Once a tourist tried to pet a crocodile in West Africa. It snapped at him but fortunately didn't hurt him. The man claimed that he should have been explicitly warned against petting the crocodile and even went to court. It took the judge about five minutes to throw the case out, saying that it's common knowledge that you should not pet a crocodile. You don't need an expert to tell you that. Another person filed a complaint last year and received a 10 percent reimbursement as a courtesy. Later, he said he wanted 20 percent because prices had increased. In cases like that I really have to wonder if these people are just joking or if they are actually crazy.

Interview by Stephan Orth. The text originally appeared in the book "Sorry, Ihr Hotel ist abgebrannt," or "Sorry, Your Hotel Has Burned Down," co-authored by Orth and Antje Blinda, and published by Ullstein.

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Bhopal case: SC to hear for harsher charges against accused

A five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court will hear the Centre's plea for prosecuting Bhopal gas tragedy case accused on Wednesday, who have escaped with lighter punishment of two years jail term, under the stringent penal provision attracting maximum ten years of imprisonment.

The bench headed by the Chief Justice SH Kapadia will take up the curative petition seeking to recall the apex court''s 14-year-old judgment that had diluted the charges against the accused who were prosecuted just for the offence of being negligent.

The petition filed by CBI sought restoration of the stringent charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder instead of death caused due to negligence against the accused in world''s worst industrial disaster that left over 15,000 people dead and thousands maimed.

In order to expedite the hearing of the case, the bench, also comprising justices Altamas Kabir, RV Raveendran, B Sudershan Reddy and Aftab Alam will hear the case on day-to-day basis and after the criminal case it would hear the plea for enhancement of compensation from Rs 750 crore to Rs 7,700 crore for the victims.

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Leisure, hospitality jobs grow in region - Middletown Journal

By Eric Schwartzberg, Justin McClelland and Randy Tucker
Staff writers 2:08 PM Monday, August 1, 2011

One of the few bright spots in Ohio?s anemic jobs recovery has been employment in the state?s leisure and hospitality sector, which added 10,600 new jobs last month ? more than any other category.

Southwest Ohio is one of the brightest regions in the state for tourism.

State and local officials say much of the new hiring in the leisure and hospitality sector is the result of a steady rebound in tourism, which generated $38 billion in sales last year ? up 7 percent from 2009, the Ohio Department of Development?s Division of Tourism recently reported.

Over the past 12 months, the state?s rebounding tourism industry has helped create more than 25,000 leisure and hospitality jobs, or more than a third of 72,400 total private sector jobs added in the past year.

That was second only to educational and health services, which added more than 33,000 jobs over the past 12 months, according to the most recent figures from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

The greater Cincinnati region has benefited from a combination of factors that have kept Ohio travelers closer to home and attracted visitors from nearby states who might otherwise have traveled to more far away destinations, said Phil Smith, director of the Warren County Convention and Visitor?s Bureau.

Tourism provides 10,500 jobs in Warren County ? its number one employer ? every year and is close to a billion dollar industry, Smith said.

The Butler County Convention and Visitor?s Bureau does not track the number of jobs created by tourism, but statistics show that one out of 13 jobs is supported by the tourism industry, said director Mark Hecquet.

In neighboring Hamilton County, tourism accounts for 40,908 jobs as of 2009, the most recent figures available from the industry, according to Linda Antus, president of the Cincinnati USA Regional Tourism Network. That means tourism supports 1 in every 10 private sector jobs in the county.

?I don?t think you can argue, we offer a wonderful mix of attractions,? Smith said, citing Kings Island, three water parks, its historic towns, plentiful antiquing areas and the outlet mall as just a few of the county?s highlights. The area also benefits from being easily accessible and located near several major cities.

That means a steady flow of business for Kings Island, which employs 130 staffers on a year-round basis but 4,028 this year during its operating season, according to Don Helbig, the park?s spokesman.

Of those workers, 35 percent are from Hamilton County, 26 percent from Warren County, 18 percent from Butler County and 8 percent from Clermont County, Helbig said.

Located next door to Kings Island, Great Wolf Lodge employs 537 people from various communities, a trend that is consistent with previous years since the entertainment and hospitality destination opened in 2006, said Steve Shattuck, a spokesman for Great Wolf Resorts.

In 2009, tourism generated $3.8 billion in total economic impact to Hamilton County and generated $521 million in taxes, Antus said.

?People have been trying to cut staff and sizes and asking folks to do more with less, of course,? said Ed McMasters, spokesman for the Cincinnati USA Regional Tourism Network. ?But travel and tourism itself to the region itself has increased, so that has been as a result increasing the amount of folks that are involved in the industry.?

It is likely that economic impact information scheduled for release next spring will show an increase in those tourism jobs, Antus said.

?As we look at the state of the industry this year through June, we?re seeing a significant increase in our hospitality business over the prior year,? she said. ?That?s a direct result of the powerful tourism product, as well as the visitor and the business traveler?s desire to come to an accessible, value priced and very convenient location such as the Greater Cincinnati and northern Kentucky region.?

When it comes to the hospitality part of the tourism equation, year to date figures from Smith Travel Research show the industry recovering ?a bit more robustly? than the national hospitality rate, Antus said.

Travel to and within the state grew by about 4 percent from 2009 to about 179 million visitors last year. More than 80 percent of the trips were day trips, according to the tourism division, while the remainder were visitors who stayed overnight.

?High gas prices and the overall state of the economy have people reconsidering longer trips down to Florida or Myrtle Beach and looking at what?s in their own back yard,?? said Amir Eylon, the state?s director of tourism. ?Ohio has been well-positioned to take advantage of those market forces and now, I think, we?re poised to continue to build on that growth.??

?A vacation for Americans is almost a birthright they just won?t give up,? Smith said. ?People work way too hard to not decompress and take time for themselves once a year.?

Tourism?s reach extends far beyond seasonal ticket-takers and ride runners, Smith noted. ?A tourism job filters down just like any other job,? Smith said. ?We?ve heard lots of anecdotal evidence of visitors who came to Kings Island and shopped at Kroger?s or dined at a restaurant, then found the outlet mall and spent money there. It has a huge impact not just in tickets sold to the Beach Waterpark.?

So far, however, solid employment gains in leisure and hospitality haven?t offset continued job losses in other areas.

For the second month in a row, unemployment was up in Ohio. The unemployment rate rose from 8.5 percent in May to 9. 5 percent in June for Butler County; from 7.6 percent to 8.1 percent in Warren County; and from 8 percent to 9.1 percent in Hamilton County. The state figure rose from 8.6 percent to 8.8 percent during the same period.

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Warren Buffett squares up to his critics at Omaha meeting

David Brown, the chief executive of Greater Omaha Chamber, the city's main business organisation, says there are hundreds of millionaires in Omaha thanks to being early investors in Berkshire. Buffett's first investment fund, Buffett Associates, was founded in the city in 1956. The companies that make up Berkshire's empire, range from Borsheims, a jewellery store, to Dairy Queen, the US ice cream maker.

"Having someone as influential and trusted as Mr Buffett in Omaha really gives us credibility as a place to invest and do business," says Mr Brown.

In the 1960s, the company began by investing principally in shares, rather than buying whole companies, Berkshire has always enjoyed a loyal following among local shareholders. However, its shareholder register expanded significantly last year when a stock split was used to pay for the acquisition of Burlington Northern Santa Fe, America's second-largest railroad company. That saw enough new shares issued to admit Berkshire into the S&P 500 for the first time, bringing a new pool of investors.

For some of Berkshire's institutional shareholders the Sokol episode raises some more troubling questions. "It was certainly an unseemly event and not Buffett's greatest moment," says Michael Yoshikami, who runs Californian fund manager YCMNET Advisors and is a Berkshire shareholder. "While I don't think it's indicative of how they run their affairs, I suspect their governance will be tightened up."

Berkshire, which is named after a Massachusetts textile mill that Buffett bought in the early 1960s, eventually bought Lubrizol for $9bn in the middle of March. It was not until the end of that month that questions over the timing of Mr Sokol's share purchases ? which were made in the middle of December and early January ? were made public.

Those who have followed Mr Buffett for years say change at Berkshire was, of course, inevitable when he and Charlie Munger, his veteran business partner, were no longer in charge. Now some change will have to come while they're still at the helm, according to Alice Schroeder, author of a recent biography of the billionaire.

"Berkshire is going to have to change a lot," she says. "Buffett has a huge attention span and has been able to run the company without any real infrastructure. They must move to a more traditional corporate structure."

Although Mr Buffett has given no sign he intends to retire, the departure of Sokol has reignited the question of succession. Mr Buffett has said there are several internal candidates. His role is likely to be split between a chief investment officer to manage Berkshire's $144bn of investments and another to oversee its more than 70 subsidiaries.

Todd Coombs, a hedge fund manager whom Berkshire hired last year, is seen as a leading candidate for the former role, while Mr Sokol had been judged frontrunner for the latter.

"Neither Buffett nor Munger has any plans to retire so I can understand why they won't want to be more explicit on succession," explains Meyer Shields, who covers the company for stockbroking firm Stifel Nicolaus.

But perhaps the bigger question for Berkshire is how to continue to generate the returns that have drawn thousands to Omaha this weekend.

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Airport body scanners to nix naked image

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New software for screening travelers at U.S. airports will do away with naked images, addressing a major public concern, the Transportation Security Administration said Wednesday.

After complaints from travelers the TSA earlier this year began testing at four airports software for the full-body scanners that instead uses a generic body outline and highlights the area where any anomaly is detected, eliminating the actual image of the passenger.

TSA has increasingly relied on the full-body scanners after a Nigerian man allegedly tried to detonate a bomb hidden in his underwear aboard a transatlantic flight in December 2009. The bomb failed to fully explode but set off a rush to upgrade security to detect explosives underneath clothing.

Software upgrades to the 241 millimeter wave body-scanning machines, made by L-3 Communications, will be deployed over the next several months in the 40 airports where they are used, the TSA said.

"This software upgrade enables us to continue providing a high level of security through advanced imaging technology screening, while improving the passenger experience at checkpoints," said TSA Administrator John Pistole.

The agency said it also plans to test similar software later this year for the 247 backscatter scanners that are in 38 airports and made by OSI Systems Inc's Rapiscan Systems unit.

The agency has been scrambling to address complaints about the scanners and physical patdowns of young children and elderly travelers while still meeting the security needs for aviation, a prime target of al Qaeda militants.

Later this year, TSA plans to roll out a pilot program that will allow some frequent fliers at four hub U.S. airports to go through expedited screening, an attempt to shift more toward assessing the risk of the individual flier rather than a one-size fits all security model.

(Reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky, editing by Cynthia Osterman)

(This story has been corrected in paragraph 4 to clarify reference to millimeter wave machines)

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Spectre of stagflation reappears as the excesses of QE hit home

Oil prices have tumbled from recent highs, but crude remains well above $100 a barrel. Sharp rises in the price of food are also causing pain, and even civil unrest, in many emerging economies.

The Western world, by a very long way, has yet to recover from the economic fall-out sparked by the sub-prime debacle. With recovery still fragile in the US and across much of Europe, there are real fears that, unless commodity markets ease very significantly, higher fuel prices will feed into almost all other goods ? not only food, but also non-perishable manufactured products and services too. Such a scenario, combined with weak growth, could tip us into a confidence-sapping stagflationary spiral.

Last week, the Bank of England predicted UK CPI inflation could reach 5pc by the end of 2011 ? driven by further increases in household gas and electricity bills. Inflation will fall back to its 2pc target in two years' time, the Bank said, only if interest rates are raised five times, beginning in the third quarter of this year.

This is a troubling scenario, not least for the UK's debt-soaked consumers and mortgage-holders. Yet the reality could be even worse given price pressures in the pipeline. In April, after all, UK Input PPI inflation (the input prices of materials and fuels purchased by Britain's manufacturing industry) was up a staggering 17.6pc.

This clearly had a lot to do with commodity prices. But tight commodity markets are a reality. They cannot be wished away, whatever statistical tricks are pulled. Price pressures that we face are anyway much broader. The UK's core output price index, which excludes food & energy, rose 3.4pc in April, up from 3.1pc the month before. This is an incredibly high level ? given weak growth during the first quarter, weakness that continued, according to private sector surveys, into last month as well.

I'm not saying UK inflation is set to reach 20pc or even higher, as it did during the dark days of the mid-1970s. Back then, price pressures were compounded by hopelessly rigid labour markets, held to ransom by Neanderthal trade unionists who, as long as they were "all right, Jack" cared not a jot for the broader economy. Apart from one or two living relics, such aggressive wage-pumping tactics (one hopes) are largely behind us.

I see lots of reasons, though, why even the CPI, which seriously understates the true inflation we all experience, could reach 6pc or 7pc in the relatively near future ? high enough to seriously curtail investment and, therefore,
job growth, while baking-in potentially self-fulfilling expectations that inflation could go higher still.

Numerous "heavy-weight" economists, on reading this, will no doubt accuse me of being "mad" or an "inflation nutter". They said the same thing two years ago when they were all predicting deflation and I was insisting that price pressure ? and even stagflation ? was the true danger we faced.

Such "respected" economists will tell you that inflation will calm down because there is a lot of "slack" or "spare capacity" in the UK economy, as we recover from the deepest slump in generations. That means, we are told, that future increases in demand, originating from a grotesquely expanded base money supply, say, will feed into output and not prices.

If only that were so. Yes ? UK unemployment is relatively high but lots of our jobless are unskilled, institutionally
de-motivated and, tragically, for themselves and their country, unemployable. At the same time, while the credit crunch has closed down lots of firms, many of those that have survived have only done so because they sold off capital goods, permanently undermining productive capacity. These are just some of the reasons why the "spare capacity" argument for low future inflation is an intellectual conceit.

"Respected" economists might also argue that the emerging markets will save us from stagflation because they are now growing quickly, so keeping the global economy buoyant.

Having followed emerging markets rather closely for my entire adult life, I agree that they are fast-growing and that, save for occasional volatility, this is likely to continue. But are we engaging with them as much as we should? I don't think so. The West can't even bring itself to make the concessions needed to complete the trade liberalising "Doha round" ? which would allow us to seriously get involved in, and do business with, the world's most dynamic economies. So we are failing to benefit as we could from the growth that is taking place elsewhere, while being unable to avoid, of course, the implications of that growth on global commodity markets.

Today's high oil prices, unlike the OPEC-induced price shocks of the 1970s, reflect rising demand from the East far more than concerns about supply.

With the world's population due to expand from 6.5bn to 9bn in the next 20 years, and per capita energy-use spiralling ever upward, is there any doubt that commodity prices are locked in an upward-trending super-cycle? Speculative pressures mount, and then unwind. But the direction of travel is clear.

I'm not saying that Western policymakers have any easy options. I do feel, though, that we've made a bad situation worse. There was, perhaps, an argument for limited quantitative easing in the aftermath of the credit-crunch ? provided the newly created liquidity was used to "transition" and restructure our bloated, insolvent, banking system, with losses having been declared. That could have resulted in QE genuinely kick-starting lending, by restoring trust among various inter-bank market participants.

Rather than a one-off buffer, though, allowing us to purge and renew, QE has instead been used as a veil, allowing the grotesque banking cover-up to continue.

Losses are being imposed on Western savers in the form of current and future inflation with no compensating gains whatsoever in terms of bank restructuring or enhanced lending. Losses are being imposed on creditors to Western governments too.

The Western world has barely begun to feel the inflationary impact of QE. In my view it will quite soon. We face a serious bout of inflation ? nay stagflation. Enduring it will be made worse by the knowledge that it will be at least partly self-imposed.

? Liam Halligan is chief economist at Prosperity Capital Management

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German tourists hope to score a discount or reimbursement when complaining

Aug 01, 2011

The German magazine "Spiegel Online" interviewed tourism expert Karl Born. The topic: German tourists tend to use precious vacation time hunting for flaws in their vacation packages or accomodations. With the right evidence, they hope to score a discount or reimbursement.

Karl Born, born in 1943, has worked for the German airline Condor and the tourism giant TUI, where he sat on the executive board. He is an honorary professor in tourism management and business administration at the University of Applied Sciences in Saxony-Anhalt. He also writes a popular weekly tourism column called "bissige Bemerkungen", or "Biting Observations."

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Born, you once said in a presentation that 'complaints are as much a part of any holiday as the Eiffel Tower is a part of Paris and the Hofbr�uhaus beer hall a part of Munich.' The Germans are known for being frontrunners in global travel -- but are they also world champions at complaining?

Born: In other countries, the complaint culture is obviously not as extreme as in Germany -- especially when you see what Germans complain about. There is an enormous variety of complaints, ranging from the legitimate to the absurd. The Germans are behind a disproportionately high number of the ridiculous complaints.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: As the head of TUI have you experienced this personally?

Born: A hotel manager from Tenerife told me that tourists from other countries generally go about things a bit more elegantly. For instance, if they want to upgrade to a better room, the Italians will compliment the hotel staff and smile, while the Swiss often cite health problems as a reason for needing an upgrade. Germans, on the other hand, don't beat around the bush and simply say, 'If you don't change this, I'm going to sue you.'

SPIEGEL ONLINE: And who has the most success?

Born: Italy, ahead of Switzerland -- and the Germans' problems are addressed last, according to this colleague.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Perhaps the Germans know too much about their rights for their own good?

Born: Maybe. The worst part is the famous 'Frankfurt Table...'

SPIEGEL ONLINE: ... a table that lists the percentage that may be reimbursed for specified shortcomings in tourism and travel services.

Born: Exactly. Many Germans are convinced that this table is the law, when in fact it's only meant to serve as a guideline for the courts when they are presented with cases related to travel and tourism complaints. The German newspaper Bild prints the table every year and people then take this with them on holiday. Now tour guides are used to these people and know how to discourage them, because many incorrectly believe that they can just add up the individual values on the list. (eds. Note: There is a set limit to the percentage that can be reimbursed)

SPIEGEL ONLINE: That would make for some pretty large sums. Say the area of the hotel room is too small, there is a crack in the wall, the linen isn't changed once and my table in the dining room isn't clean. Based on that alone, I could add up a claim for a 50 percent reimbursement per day.

Born: Exactly. And if you've already managed to reach a 50 percent reimbursement, then the drive kicks in to push it to 100 percent. But those are the truly hardcore complainers -- less than one percent of travelers take it that far. And I actually feel sorry for those people because they ruin their own holiday constantly looking for flaws.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: But from the perspective of tour operators, it's a problem when notorious whiners are constantly reporting their negative travel experiences to their friends.

Born: It's one of the major topics of conversation when you're at a party. One person starts talking about his vacation with TUI, and then every person present has his own horror story to share. Only two topics have this domino effect -- holidays and car trouble.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Give us one tip: What should a complaint look like, if one wants to get at least a 10 percent reimbursement from TUI?

Born: There certainly has to be truth to the complaint. TUI is a difficult opponent because you're going up against experienced professionals. They have processed thousands of complaints, so it's relatively unlikely that a person can get a reimbursement for an invented complaint that lacks good evidence. But let's say, you had construction work making noise outside of your hotel window. Take a couple of photos and send them, along with signed testimonies of two other hotel guests who support your complaint. With a tactic like that, you'll likely get some money back. I don't know if it will get you a reimbursement of ten percent, though. The important thing is that you can back up the complaint with evidence.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: One customer won a case against TUI because he claimed that the adventure vacation he was promised had been too normal, and that his life had never been in danger. How can German travel law possibly support such a ruling?

Born: It's true that the man argued in court that his life had never been in danger -- but that's not why he got his money back. He won the case because a certain part of the travel package, which was meant to be especially adventurous and exciting, did not take place.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Are there any other complaints you will never forget?

Born: Once a tourist tried to pet a crocodile in West Africa. It snapped at him but fortunately didn't hurt him. The man claimed that he should have been explicitly warned against petting the crocodile and even went to court. It took the judge about five minutes to throw the case out, saying that it's common knowledge that you should not pet a crocodile. You don't need an expert to tell you that. Another person filed a complaint last year and received a 10 percent reimbursement as a courtesy. Later, he said he wanted 20 percent because prices had increased. In cases like that I really have to wonder if these people are just joking or if they are actually crazy.

Interview by Stephan Orth. The text originally appeared in the book "Sorry, Ihr Hotel ist abgebrannt," or "Sorry, Your Hotel Has Burned Down," co-authored by Orth and Antje Blinda, and published by Ullstein.

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AIG Share Sale Adds Pressure on Hancock to Revive Chartis

May 23, 2011, 10:05 AM EDT

By Noah Buhayar

(Updates shares in the seventh paragraph.)

May 23 (Bloomberg) -- American International Group Inc. is counting on Peter Hancock to make up for his lack of an insurance background with experience managing financial risk.

Chief Executive Officer Robert Benmosche chose Hancock, who spent 20 years at a predecessor to JPMorgan Chase & Co., to return AIG?s largest unit to profit as the insurer works to replace government bailout funds with private capital. New York- based AIG and the U.S. Treasury Department plan to sell 300 million shares tomorrow.

AIG needs to restore investors? confidence in the Chartis property-casualty unit after insufficient reserves forced the firm to take a $4.2 billion fourth-quarter charge. Hancock, 52, joined AIG in 2010 to help repay the government and unwind the derivatives business that brought the company to the brink of collapse in 2008. He got the largest bonus among AIG?s top managers and is seen as a potential CEO successor.

?It?s absolutely essential that Hancock reduce the number of surprises that come out of Chartis and make the business transparent enough so that investors trust it,? said Clark Troy, a senior analyst based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for Aite Group.

Benmosche, 66, is relying on Chartis to lead AIG?s rebound after the company plunged 36 percent this year through May 20 on the New York Stock Exchange on claims from the Japan earthquake and the reserve-building charge, which was disclosed in February. Chartis accounted for about half the company?s revenue last year and that share is poised to rise after Benmosche sold non-U.S. life insurance operations and a consumer lender.

45 Million Clients

Hancock lacks the experience of his predecessor, Kristian Moor, arranging deals with insurance buyers seeking protection against worker injuries, property damage and lawsuits. Chartis, with 40,000 employees, has more than 45 million clients, including multinational corporations and small businesses.

?There?s a lot of skepticism about whether or not someone from the outside can come in and run an insurance operation,? said Paul Newsome, an analyst at Sandler O?Neill & Partners LP, who has a ?buy? rating on AIG?s shares. AIG fell 73 cents, or 2.4 percent, to $30.07 in 9:39 a.m. New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

Hancock has a strong financial background for the job and the intelligence to learn what he needs to know about insurance, said Ernest Patrikis, a former AIG general counsel and now partner at White & Case LLP. Running Chartis involves managing both underwriting and investing risks. The unit has a $125.8 billion portfolio.

?Vote of Confidence?

?This is good for him to get a great feel for one of the two major operations of AIG,? said Patrikis. ?It?s a vote of confidence in him and it also suggests that Chartis needs some sharpening up.? Patrikis said Hancock is one of two internal frontrunners to be CEO along with Jay Wintrob, 54, who heads SunAmerica, AIG?s U.S. life insurance division.

Moor was named vice chairman of Chartis and will assist on ?business-development strategies and client matters,? AIG said March 31 when it announced that Hancock would run the unit. Hancock had joined AIG as executive vice president, finance, risk and investments.

Benmosche, who is battling cancer, should be able to stay in his role for 12 to 18 months, AIG said in February. The company reiterated that Chairman Steve Miller is available to fill in as interim CEO if Benmosche has to step aside ahead of schedule. AIG spokesman Mark Herr declined to comment and said Hancock was unavailable for an interview.

Hancock announced a deal in April to pay $1.65 billion to Warren Buffett?s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. to assume the risk of asbestos policies sold by AIG. Hancock said May 6 that he will bolster Chartis by focusing on the most attractive risks, even if it means sacrificing revenue.

Unattractive Risks

?We are moving away from any kind of top-line targeting,? Hancock said in a call with analysts. ?We think that leads you to do business at the margin, which is unattractive.?

Hancock spent 20 years at a predecessor to JPMorgan, where he established the bank?s derivatives group and served as chief financial officer. He stepped down as CFO in 2000 and later co- founded Integrated Finance Ltd. with Robert Merton, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, and Roberto Mendoza, a former vice chairman at New York-based JPMorgan. He joined AIG from Cleveland-based KeyCorp, where he was vice chairman responsible for national banking.

Hancock played ?an overarching role in starting the credit-risk-transfer market,? said Ed Grebeck, CEO of Stamford, Connecticut-based debt-consulting firm Tempus Advisors and an instructor at New York University, who has taught courses on derivatives. ?He was definitely an early proponent of credit- default swaps.?

Higher Bonus

Hancock got $4.32 million in 2010 incentive pay, 20 percent more than his target, AIG said in a filing in March. Moor?s payout was $1.71 million, or 10 percent below his target, after ?underachievement of certain financial metrics,? AIG said. Benmosche, Wintrob and CFO David Herzog got their full bonuses of $3.5 million, $1.16 million and $1.02 million respectively.

?AIG accomplished an unprecedented divestiture program,? selling 34 businesses, the insurer said in the filing disclosing Hancock?s 2010 bonus. He also helped negotiations with Treasury and Federal Reserve Bank of New York as the insurer structured a deal to repay its rescue.

AIG plans to sell 100 million shares tomorrow, and Treasury expects to sell 200 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The offering will reduce Treasury?s stake in the insurer to about 77 percent from 92 percent.

--Editors: Dan Kraut, William Ahearn

To contact the reporter on this story: Noah Buhayar in New York at nbuhayar@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Kraut at dkraut2@bloomberg.net

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JetBlue introduces new flight passes

JetBlue's new flight passes target business travelers in Boston and Southern California.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Flight passes are good for travel from Boston and Long Beach, California
  
• Passes offer unlimited travel to select cities between August and November
  
• The airline is targeting business travelers in its high-frequency flying markets

(CNN) -- JetBlue Airways is courting business travelers with three new flight passes announced Thursday.

The BluePass offers unlimited travel on flights between August 22 and November 22 from two airports, Boston's Logan International and Long Beach Airport near Los Angeles.

"We are the largest carrier in both Boston and Long Beach, and we have built a solid network of key destinations and high frequencies in these markets," Dennis Corrigan, JetBlue's vice president of sales and revenue management, said in a statement.

For $1,299, travelers can fly between Long Beach and nine markets in the West, Texas and Illinois. Two options are available originating in Boston; a $1,499 pass to 13 Northeast markets or a $1,999 pass for travel from Boston to 32 cities with nonstop service and 22 connecting cities.

Bookings must be made online starting August 15. Travelers may book any available seat up to 90 minutes before departure with no blackout dates.

The pass is a more targeted take on the airline's "all-you-can-jet" pass, an offer introduced in 2009 for unlimited flights for one month between all JetBlue destinations.

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Pabst Asked to Lower Alcohol Content in New Blast Drink

Calling the new Blast by Colt 45 beverage a drinking "binge-in-a-can," 16 state attorneys general called on Pabst Brewing Co. to cut the alcohol content in its malt beverage and change its marketing for the drink.

Blast is a malt beverage that comes in four fruit flavors -- strawberry lemonade, blueberry pomegranate, grape and raspberry watermelon. Pabst's marketing campaign features hip-hop/rap music star Snoop Dogg in edgy commercials aimed squarely at the 20-something set. The 23.5-ounce single-serving cans pack an alcohol concentration of 12% -- the equivalent of almost five cans of beer.

Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler penned the letter, which was signed by the other attorneys general and sent to Pabst. "At a time when we're fighting to prevent underage and binge drinking, we call upon Pabst to rethink the dangers posed by Blast, promoted by a popular hip-hop celebrity, as a 'binge-in-a-can' in sweet flavors and bright colors aimed at the youngest drinkers," Gansler said in a statement. "I hope our letter asking Pabst to take swift and responsible action will also be heeded by other companies who produce these unsafe 'supersized' alcopops."

The letter also compared Blast to alcoholic energy drinks that have been criticized over their marketing because they are packaged to look nearly identical to non-alcoholic energy drinks and consumers could unwittingly think they're safe to drink. The alcoholic energy drinks contain both booze and caffeine and the combination masks the effects of alcohol, creating a drunk-awake state. The alcoholic energy drinks are also sold in 23.5-ounce cans -- just like Blast -- and have between 6% and 12% alcohol offered in trendy flavors like watermelon.

Pabst refuted the letter's claims in a statement released by its public relations firm.

"Blast is only meant to be consumed by those above legal drinking age and does not contain caffeine," the company said in the recently released statement. "As with all Pabst products, our marketing efforts for Blast are focused on conveying the message of drinking responsibly. To that end, the alcohol content of Blast is clearly marked on its packaging, we are encouraging consumers to consider mixing Blast with other beverages or enjoy it over ice, and we are offering a special 7-ounce bottle for those who prefer a smaller quantity, among other important initiatives."

Gansler's letter said the level of alcohol in Blast is high enough that if someone drank the entire can, it would be considered binge drinking. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said binge drinkers account for more than half of the 79,000 annual alcohol-related deaths in the United States.

The letter was signed by attorneys general from Arizona, California, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, Washington and Guam, as well as the city attorney of San Francisco.

California's Marin Institute applauded the letter, which comes on the heels of a petition drive by the alcohol industry watchdog group to stop marketing to youth and to fire Snoop Dogg -- popular with the under-21 crowd -- as its spokesman.

"Unfortunately a number of flavored, malt beverage alcopops are supersized," Marin Institute Executive Director Bruce Lee Livingston said in a statement. "We are hopeful that other attorneys general join this action against Blast, and also include similar dangerous products like Four Loko, Joose and Tilt."

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Ohio's shocking new attraction: 'Old Sparky'

By Laura Bly, USA TODAY

An electric chair and other macabre artifacts, including a Ku Klux Klan hood and robe from the 1920s and a wooden cage used in the late 1800s to restrain mental institution patients, will be on display next month as part of a new, R-rated exhibit at the Ohio Historical Center in Columbus.

Admission to "Controversy: Pieces You Don't Normally See," opening April 1, will be restricted to visitors 18 and older and children accompanied by adults.

The exhibit's most famous object is an electric chair that executed 315 inmates. Last used in 1963, it was once the highlight of paid tours of the old Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus. The prison sold postcards of the electric chair and souvenir pictures of the condemned men until it discontinued tours around 1931, notes the Columbus Dispatch. New visitors, the paper adds, "will not be allowed to sit in or touch the chair or other items in the collection."

"We think this exhibit will capture the public attention and public interest," executive director Burt Logan told the Dispatch. "History has a good side, which we often remember, and another side that we don't often see. We are not taking a stand of any type with this collection. These items represent part of the history of Ohio. It's purely an educational issue."

Ohio isn't the only place to use "Old Sparky" as a tourist draw.

The capital punishment exhibit at the Texas Prison Museum in Huntsville highlights its own decommissioned electric chair, and the gift shop sells such prisoner-made items as leather handcuff cases and correctional officer key chains. And Washington, D.C.'s National Museum of Crime & Punishment has an "electric chair helmet. " Made of leather, sponge, and wire mesh, the museum reports it "was essentially the weapon that Massachusetts state prison executioners used to end the lives of 65 men and women between the years 1901 and 1947."

So, readers, would the chance to see an electric chair jump start your vacation plans?

Posted Mar 8 2011 11:52AM

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Chuka Umunna: Policymakers must hold firm on reform of rating agencies

Competition for lucrative business puts pressure on agency staff to downplay risk and to collude with issuers, particularly when rating elaborate packages of structured debt. Evidence from within agencies bears this out. A 2008 survey of finance professionals by the CFA Institute found that 11pc of respondents had witnessed agencies altering ratings under pressure or influence from outside parties.

Furthermore, in internal correspondence published by US Congressional investigations, agency staff joked that "[a deal] could be structured by cows and we would rate it" and discussed "adjusting", "spinning" and "massaging" ratings methodologies in order to preserve market share.

The fact that around 95pc of the ratings market is controlled by just three agencies (Moody's, S&P and Fitch) does little to promote alternative business models. Indeed, the FCIC report explicitly cites "a lack of market competition due to [agencies'] government-induced oligopoly" in connection with inaccurate risk analyses.

New regulations, in the form of the 2009-10 European reforms and the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act in the US, go some way to improving accountability and transparency. But what is clear from the investigations conducted into the ratings business is that more drastic change is needed.

Without reform of agencies' incentives, greater competition will simply fuel what the US Senate report calls a "race to the bottom" in standards. In November, the European Commission floated a number of options for change, including the creation of a European agency, support for investor-owned agencies, an independent clearing board to allocate ratings business, a network of small and medium-sized agencies and an obligation on institutional investors to obtain their own ratings before purchasing a product. These ideas deserve serious consideration.

As others have said, a publicly funded agency could go some way to mitigate the risks of the issuer-pays system, while in the US the case for a clearing board has already been approved by Senate amendment. Yet the response paper issued in January by the Treasury, the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority largely rejects these proposals, placing great confidence in the modest, pre-existing EU reforms and calling for a "more narrowly focused" approach to further reform. It asserts that there is "no hard evidence that conflicts of interest in the 'issuer-pays' model lead to ratings inflation", a position inconsistent with the de Larosi�re, US Senate and FCIC reports and above all the massive collapse of AAA-rated securities during the financial crisis.

It is also inconsistent with a recent Bank of England paper that not only argues that "apparent conflicts of interest" need to be addressed, but goes further; exploring options to eliminate them through structural reform of agencies. The paper says the challenges of moving towards an "investor-pays" model "may not be insurmountable", adding the small number of agencies that currently operate this model "seem to have been able to both attract a subscriber base, and to keep ratings information 'private' to subscribers".

In protest at the moves by the Commission, in particular the proposal to make them legally liable for flawed downgrades, the agencies have reportedly threatened a "ratings blackout" of certain countries' sovereign debt. Nonetheless, policymakers must hold firm in their determination to push through reform. The 1997 Asian crash and the 2001 Enron collapse both exposed flaws in the way the agencies operate, yet their power remained unchecked and their failings went unaddressed then. We are well aware what followed in 2008 ? we cannot afford a repeat of that mistake in 2011 and beyond.

? Chuka Umunna is the Member of Parliament for Streatham. He is a member of the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee

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U.S. Stocks Fall on Concern About Europe as Commodities Tumble

May 23, 2011, 9:58 AM EDT

By Rita Nazareth

May 23 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks fell, extending three weeks of losses on the Standard & Poor?s 500 Index, as commodities tumbled amid a stronger dollar and concern that Europe?s debt crisis is worsening.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. and Halliburton Co. dropped at least 2.5 percent as figures showed weaker manufacturing growth in China. Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. slid more than 1.3 percent, following a slump in European lenders, as Spain?s ruling party suffered its worst election defeat in 30 years and S&P warned it may downgrade Italy?s debt. Boeing Co. sank 1.9 percent as analysts predicted risk for further delay of its newest jumbo jets.

The S&P 500 retreated 1.4 percent to 1,314.92 at 9:33 a.m. in New York, signaling the benchmark gauge may add to losses following its longest weekly slump since August. The Dow Jones Industrial Average decreased 166.80 points, or 1.3 percent, to 12,345.24 today.

?There?s bad news out there,? said Paul Zemsky, the New York-based head of asset allocation for ING Investment Management, which oversees $550 billion. ?We?ve got doubts about European fiscal austerity and weaker economic data across the board. The thing that has driven the market higher -- earnings season -- just came to an end. People will be pulling money out of riskier assets.?

The S&P 500 climbed to an almost three-year high on the final trading day of April. It slumped 2.2 percent from then through May 20 as economic data began trailing economists? estimates and investors prepared for the Federal Reserve to complete its $600 billion bond-purchase program at the end of June. Still, the benchmark rallied 6 percent from the end of 2010 through May 20 amid government stimulus measures and higher-than-estimated earnings.

Chicago Fed Index

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago?s gauge of economic activity unexpectedly dropped below zero in April. The national index, which draws on 85 economic indicators, was minus 0.45 in April versus 0.32 in March. A reading below zero indicates below-trend-growth in the national economy and a sign of easing pressures on future inflation.

Global stocks slumped today as Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero?s Socialist party suffered its worst defeat in more than 30 years in local elections amid a backlash over austerity measures. Italy?s credit-rating outlook was revised to negative from stable by S&P on May 20. Data today showed China?s manufacturing may expand at a slower pace this month.

Dollar, Commodities

The euro tumbled to a record low against the Swiss franc and the U.S. dollar rallied, reducing the appeal of commodities as alternative investments.

Freeport, the largest publicly traded copper producer, declined 3.4 percent to $46.73. Halliburton, the second-biggest oilfield services provider, dropped 2.5 percent to $45.99. Caterpillar Inc., the world?s largest maker of construction equipment, lost 3.4 percent to $100.80.

Bank of America declined 1.4 percent to $11.42. Citigroup retreated 1.8 percent to $40.29.

Boeing dropped 1.9 percent to $76.08. The company?s plan to ship the first of its newest jumbo jets by mid-2011 as part of the ?Year of the 747? risks another delay that would add to the 18-month setback for the plane, two analysts said.

The 747-8 ?may miss its ?near midyear? delivery target by 6-8 weeks due to minor ?issues,?? Cai Von Rumohr, a Cowen & Co. analyst in Boston, wrote in a May 20 note to investors. JPMorgan Chase & Co.?s Joseph Nadol said the same day he also sees a possible delay for the plane.

--Editors: Joanna Ossinger, Jeff Sutherland

To contact the reporter on this story: Rita Nazareth in New York at rnazareth@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Baker at nbaker7@bloomberg.net

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