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During the snow-free season, they found the peat circles emitted 1.2 grams/m2 of N2O, which is just as much as tropical forests release in a year. The team reckons that a lack of plants decreases competition for the mineral nitrogen. This allows nitrate to accumulate in the soil which is then metabolised by bacteria to produce N2O.

Although this means N2O remains a small contributor to the greenhouse effect, compared with methane and carbon dioxide, the gas persists unaltered in the atmosphere for over 110 years, compared with around 10 years for methane – which is also periodically released by the tundra.

Unfortunately, global warming may promote churning, and expand bare areas. Since the flow of the gas from the peat circles is so high, even a small increase in bare surfaces would cause significant changes in N2O emissions, says Repo.

"We are finding two smaller species of plankton. This difference in size is big enough to cause a problem for the breeding populations of birds and whales as they will be forced to eat smaller species that has less energy content."
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"From an Arctic perspective it's not only about an increase in temperature, it's a complete change in the ecosystem - salinity, ice melt, flow, currents - all of these together will have an impact."

The Royal Navy’s HMS Vanguard and the French Navy’s Le Triomphant are both nuclear powered and were carrying nuke missiles.

The number of boats passing through the narrow channel in January was 1,313 compared to 1,690 in January 2007, down 22 percent, the unnamed official said.

Revenues in the same month were down 19.5 percent from 414.2 million dollars in 2009 to 332.4 million in 2008.

China’s banks lent a record 1.62 trillion yuan in January as part of a government drive to stimulate the world’s third- largest economy, while M2, the broadest measure of money supply, climbed 18.8 percent from a year earlier. The Shanghai Composite has surged 29 percent since the start of 2009, compared with a 10 percent decline in the MSCI World Index.

“Part of the liquidity flowing into the stock market could be from companies using borrowed funds to invest in the stock market instead of working requirements,” said Li.

He arrived at the 660 billion yuan figure by subtracting M1, which includes cash and demand deposits, from M2. The brokerage was voted the best in the country for research by the national pension fund, China’s largest investor.

The airport handled 210,000 tonnes of cargo, down from 295,000 tonnes the same month last year, the authority said.

The slide in last month's cargo volume follows a 28.2 percent plunge in December, which at the time was an airport record. Total air traffic movements in January fell 2 percent to 24,245, down from 24,752 in the same period last year.

Zudem bekommt das Institut aus dem Bankenrettungsfonds Soffin bis zu 4 Mrd. Euro Garantien für die Emission von Anleihen. Mehrere Banken haben bislang Garantiezusagen erhalten, die es den Instituten ermöglichen, zu günstigeren Konditionen Anleihen herauszugeben, wie jetzt auch die Aareal Bank.
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Neu ist, dass ein Geldinstitut die Hilfen in Anspruch nimmt, ohne akute Probleme zu haben. 2008 verdiente Aareal vor Steuern 117 Mio. Euro. Selbst im besonders schlechten vierten Quartal erzielte sie noch einen Gewinn von 11 Mio. Euro. Damit hat die Bank in jedem Quartal seit Ausbruch der Krise Mitte 2007 schwarze Zahlen geschrieben. Dass das Institut dennoch auf staatliche Hilfe zurückgreift, zeigt, wie dramatisch die Situation auf dem Kapitalmarkt ist.

Der Immobilienfinanzierer hat die Staatshilfe beantragt, um gegenüber Wettbewerbern mit entsprechenden Hilfen konkurrenzfähig zu bleiben.

Borse Dubai has been trying find funding to make repayment of the loan due at the end of this month, but bankers close to the deal have told Reuters it was falling short of the target in the midst of a global squeeze on credit.

The cost of buying insurance against Irish government bonds rose to record highs on Friday, having almost tripled in a week. Debt-market investors now rank Ireland as the most troubled economy in Europe.
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Pledges made by Ireland to support its banking sector amount to 220% of the country’s annual economic output. The total loans held in Irish banks are more than 11 times the size of the economy.
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One possible solution would see Germany buy billions of euros of Irish government debt through a fund set up by the European Central Bank.

The government raised 584 billion won ($415 million) at today’s sale, less than the 800 billion won targeted, after investors offered to buy 604 billion won, the finance ministry said on its Web site. The securities were sold at an average yield of 5.2 percent, higher than the 5.1 percent the market expected, said Kim Do Sung, a futures trader with PB Futures Co. in Seoul.
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In a Jan. 19 auction, the Korean government sold 426 billion won of similar-maturity debt, failing to raise a planned 800 billion won.

Unsold inventory fell 6 percent to 11,679 units last month from 12,427 units in December. The figure represented a 9.2 percent increase versus a year earlier. Developers added 1,760 new units to the market, 24 percent fewer than in January last year, the 17th consecutive month of declines, the Tokyo-based institute said in a report released through the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism

The plan is said to have been hatched at the headquarters of the major oil companies overseas after a meeting of their top executives, worried by the great fall in oil prices from its peak of $147 a barrel in July 2008, to $35 a barrel as at Friday. The great fall in oil prices has left the oil companies with far more lower incomes than in the recent past. Shell recorded its first quarterly loss in a decade of $2.8 billion. BP Plc had its first loss, in seven years, of $3.3 billion. France's Total SA had a quarterly loss of 794 million Euros. Also Exxon Mobil net income has tumbled.

Some analysts, in the oil sector expressed dismay at the plans by Shell and other unidentified oil companies to halt recruitments and slash workforce. The oil companies reaped huge profits when oil prices where at their peak last year.

She said they have agreed to voluntary retire from service in order to inject new blood into the management of the troubled market, whose woes have worsened with the global economic meltdown.
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Market capitalisation which determines the equities value in the market had dropped by 137.7 per cent from all time high of N12.6 trillion in mid March 2008 to N5.286 trillion as at last Friday.

Primary crude processing decreased 2.8% against January 2008 to 19.3 million tons and declined 0.3% against December 2008.

Natural gas production in January declined 4% against December.

Moskaus rüdes Auftreten im Georgienkrieg im Sommer hat die Europäer vor ein Dilemma gestellt: Sie konnten dem Aggressor nur mit gedämpftem Selbstbewusstsein entgegentreten, da dieser zugleich Europas Hauptlieferant für Erdgas ist. Darauf, wie es sich anfühlen könnte, wenn Russland den Hahn einmal zudreht, lieferte dann Anfang des Jahres die erneute Auflage des russisch-ukrainischen Gasstreits einen Vorgeschmack.

Sowohl im Georgienkrieg als auch beim Gasstreit wurde gern darauf verwiesen, dass Russlands Erpressungspotenzial begrenzt sei: Schließlich beruhe die Abhängigkeit auf Gegenseitigkeit, weil Russland auf Europa als Gaskunde ebenso angewiesen sei wie Europa auf Russland als Verkäufer. Bislang trifft dieser Einwand zu.

Umso größer muss das Unbehagen der Europäer sein, wenn Russland nun mit der Wirtschaftsgroßmacht China seine Kundenbasis erheblich ausweitet und Pipelines nach Fernost baut. Zwar geht es bei dem am Dienstag geschlossenen Energie-Kreditabkommen zunächst nur um Öl, Gas kann aber leicht folgen. Mit Staaten wie Libyen und dem Iran kooperiert Russland ohnehin längst.

The decline was its largest month to month drop since records began seven years ago.

"The horrendous industrial production data in January have left no doubt that the economy has come to a screeching halt," said Ivan Tchakarov, chief Russia economist for Nomura, the investment bank. "This indicates that the combined effect of the credit squeeze in the banking sector and falling global and domestic demand has filtered through to the real economy."
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Igor Yurgens, an adviser to Mr Medvedev, said the government was mapping out scenarios for growth to fall from 6.3 per cent in 2008 to anywhere between zero and minus 10 per cent this year depending on whether the oil price falls further, whether international credit markets reopen and on how sharply the global recession hits China.
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Economists linked the sharp fall in January output to the virtual paralysis of the financial system as the government sped up a rouble devaluation that created a lucrative one-way bet for anyone to change roubles for dollars, rather than lend them to the real economy.

Bankers say non-payments spiralled during the devaluation and rouble liquidity dried up. The banking system is still frozen with most second and third tier borrowers unable to find funds. However, the rouble appears to have stabilised, at least temporarily, and authorities are hoping the banks will begin lending again.

Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, who oversees the oil and gas sector, said the move could help the Organisation of Petroleum Producing Countries (OPEC) stabilise oil prices.
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Russia produces around 9.7 million bpd, or 485 million tonnes of oil, per year. Purchases of 16 million tonnes of oil per year into the reserve would represent over 3 percent of Russia's annual oil production.

Nun hat die Finanzkrise die Ära der günstigen Kredite beendet: Die Ostwährungen sacken ab. Ende September musste man für 100 polnische Zloty noch 46 Franken bezahlen, heute sind es 30 Franken. Das heisst: Immer mehr Kreditnehmer kriegen Probleme mit den Zinsen und bei der Abzahlung.
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Nun ist dieses System ins Wanken gekommen.
So haben der ungarische Forint und der polnische Zloty in den letzten Wochen gegenüber dem Franken über ein Drittel an Wert verloren. Wegen der Abwertungen der Landeswährungen haben sich die Schulden gegenüber der Schweiz um mehr als einen Drittel gesteigert. Viele der osteuropäischen Länder haben ernste Zahlungsschwierigkeiten und stehen quasi vor dem Staatsbankrott.

Was bedeutet das für die Schweiz?
Es ist anzunehmen, dass ein beträchtlicher Teil der insgesamt 200 Milliarden Dollar Osteuropa-Kredite in Schweizer Franken ausgestellt wurden. Gemäss einem Bericht der Bank für Internationalen Zahlungsausgleich sind weltweit Franken-Kredite im Gegenwert von rund 675 Milliarden Dollar im Umlauf – davon wurden etwa 150 Milliarden direkt von der Schweiz, 80 Milliarden von Grossbritannien sowie rund 430 Milliarden Dollar über Offshore-Finanzzentren vergeben. Wieviele dieser Kredite faul sind, ist nicht bekannt. Doch schon wenn die Ausfallrate 20 Prozent beträgt, würden die Banken viel Geld verlieren.
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Nun müssen die möglichen Verluste durch diese Kredite auf den Tisch; vor allem müssen alle möglichen osteuropäischen Risiken lückenlos offengelegt werden. Zusammen mit den Kreditausfällen von UBS und Credit Suisse könnte der gesamte Abschreibungsbedarf für die Schweiz die Grössenordnung des Schweizer Bruttosozialprodukt übersteigen.

Banif, which is described in its prospectus as “low risk,” produced a yield of 1.37 percent last year, down from 5.87 percent in 2007, according to the fourth-quarter report, while assets under management fell 4.2 percent in January, according to data published by Inverco, the Spanish asset management association.

Sir Ian Wood, chairman of Wood Group, also predicted that failure to act now could undermine the UK economy's overall recovery when the upturn comes, and could cost the Treasury around $1 trillion (£700 billion) in lost tax revenue.

The regulator will signal that it is prepared to stretch out payment periods for companies to restore pension schemes. This would reduce the size of annual contributions for companies that are cash-strapped and at risk of failure due to the burden of retirement costs.

Heavyweights, Hammerson are Land Securites fell 9% and 8.5% respectively, while second liners Brixton and Segro dropped 28% and 18%.

There was no specific news flow driving prices lower, just a feeling that those developers who have not raised fresh equity might struggle to do so in the wake of the rights issues from Hammerson (£584m) and British Land (£740m) and the £750m call being readied by Land Securities.

In terms of assets, the largest bank - RBS - is significantly larger than UK GDP. The next two banks; Barclays and HSBC, are almost as large as GDP. Moreover, the fourth bank - HBOS - is about to merge with the fifth largest bank - Lloyds. When the merger is complete, that bank too will be almost as large as UK GDP. In short, the UK's four largest financial institutions are each as large as the UK economy.

So what are Manhattan office buildings worth today? Since no substantial transactions have taken place in recent months, no one knows for sure. But some real estate specialists are willing to hazard estimates.

Robert Von Ancken, the senior appraiser for Grubb & Ellis in New York, estimated that prime Midtown buildings were now worth $425 a square foot, on average, while lesser buildings had a value of $350 a square foot, down from $500 to $600 a square foot two years ago. Mr. Von Ancken said he could not estimate how far values in Lower Manhattan had declined until more was known about the prospects for the financial services companies that occupy so much downtown space.

The latest monthly Treasury International Capital (Tic) data show that foreign purchases of US securities grew to $74bn in December, up from $61.3bn the month before. Inflows for purchases of long-term securities were $34.8bn, compared with outflows of $25.6bn in November.

December marked a rebound for sales of long-term Treasury debt, which saw foreigners buy $15bn after selling off $25.8bn the month before. Corporate debt was also in greater demand, as purchases reached $41bn after months of selling.
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Meanwhile, foreign investors spurned debt from companies backed by government agencies. Sales of debt issued by agency-backed companies such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac totalled $37.5bn in December. “A lot of things are being guaranteed by the government and the yield differential is considerable,” said Joshua Shapiro, chief US economist at MFR, referring to the flight from agency debt to corporate bonds.