• Injured pair return;Hockey

Olympic Games will come to London in 2012, presenting the city to a huge new audience of potential visitors. Mr Atkins smiles: "As a Londoner, I think it's great for the capital. Professionally, I am cautious about the Olympic effect." What will be the problem? "Simply, I fear that half the city will be closed down."
So that means traffic jams - something as typical of the capital, perhaps, as all those world-famous monuments.
(c) Times Newspapers Ltd, 2008
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Overseas news

Artist sues his bank over investments that lost a fortune

Paul Larter

513 字

2008 年 3 月 22 日

The Times

T

54

‚ń文

(c) 2008 Times Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved
He was that most uncommon of artists: achieving fame, influence and fabulous wealth in his own lifetime. Ken Done's breezy paintings of Sydney Harbour sold Australia to the world in the Eighties as it celebrated its bicentenary. His feel for business as well as the brush, translating colourful canvas to tea-towel and pencil sharpener, created a fortune of tens of millions of dollars.
But the colour of his money has faded and he blames the grey men in suits at one of AustraliaÆs biggest banks. Done is suing his accountant, accountancy firm and the Commonwealth Bank for A$53 million (pounds 24 million), claiming that bad financial advice has cost him three quarters of his fortune.
The 67-year-old artist says that he believed his money was in safe hands with experienced managers at leading institutions, including Australia's second-biggest bank, and Deutsche Bank, who were buying blue-chip shares in a soaring stock market.
Done, a painter of blunt brushstrokes and dashing colours, says that he specified only 20 per cent of his money was to be invested in speculative ventures. Had his wishes been followed between 2001 and 2005, he and his wife, Judith, would have had a trust fund worth A$61.5 million.
Instead of his money being invested in household names and companies with histories of healthy returns, it was whittled away on risky loans and stakes in little-known firms that failed, he says. These included stakes in two soccer teams, a beauty spa and a Maltese biotechnology company.
It was only in April 2005, when he received an alarming call from a director of a company he had unwittingly invested in, that he began to investigate his affairs. To his dismay he found that many of the shares were worthless and various unauthorised loans to individuals could not be recovered. Done also complains that he was misled by false accounting entries in monthly performance statements and paid almost A$2 million in fees.
He still owns various properties, including an exclusive home beside the harbour that features in his most recognisable works, but the once overflowing pot has been drained to just A$8 million.
The Commonwealth Bank disputes the claims, saying that it did provide some advice but did not make the investment decisions. They were made by the accountancy firm and the accountant, it said.
Done left school at 14 to study art and made his fortune by licensing his nave and cheerful works for use on merchandise including clothing and homewares. He reached the height of his appeal in the 1980s when he captured the zeitgeist of brash optimism, cashing in on tourist appeal of his images of Australian landmarks and beach culture.
Done's signature depiction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, stylised in the 2000 Olympic Games logo, became so widely reproduced that some regarded it as a symbol of Australia itself. But critical praise has largely eluded him.
(c) Times Newspapers Ltd, 2008
文件 T000000020080322e43m0004v

Features

The new world order;Mark Atherton's ISA Insight;Emerging Markets;Investmen t

Mark Atherton

1,184 字

2008 年 3 月 22 日

The Times

T

Money 18

‚ń文

(c) 2008 Times Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved
CHINA'S hosting of the Olympic Games in Beijing this year is another sign that emerging nations are taking an increasingly prominent place on the world stage.
On the economic front, the so-called Bric nations - Brazil, Russia, India and China - are forging ahead and funds investing in emerging markets have beaten all their rivals over three and five years. The global emerging markets sector has produced an average return of 235 per cent over five years and 93 per cent over three. Its nearest rival, Asia Pacific excluding Japan, has returned 155 per cent and 65 per cent respectively and many of the best funds in this sector were those focusing on an emerging market, such as Gartmore China and Neptune China.
Brian Dennehy, of Dennehy Weller & Co, the independent financial adviser, says that emerging markets have become a force to be reckoned with in the past couple of years. "For much of the 1990s they shot up and down," he says, "but the net result was that they went sideways. They have now broken out of that sideways trading range and have put the markets of the developed world in the shade."
Looking to the future, it is not hard to see why investors are getting so excited about emerging markets. They contain 80 per cent of the world's population and create half of the world's gross domestic product (GDP), yet they represent only 11 per cent of the combined value of the world's stock markets, so the potential for growth is massive.
Mr Dennehy adds: "By 2050 the Bric nations will dominate the globe. The four Bric economies will all be among the world's half-dozen biggest, along with the US and Japan, and China will have overtaken the US to become the most powerful economy on Earth. But while there is greater awareness of the opportunities presented by emerging markets, investors still have pretty limited exposure to the sector."
Robin Geffen, managing director of Neptune Investment Management, agrees that most people have underestimated the significance of emerging markets. That is not a charge that could be levelled at his company, which has funds investing in each of the four Bric areas.
Mr Geffen says: "Each of the Bric nations is enjoying strong economic growth, with China leading the way at nearly 10 per cent a year. It is also benefiting from huge spending on domestic infrastructure and has a fast-growing middle class.
"India also has a large middle class, which is fuelling a boom in domestic spending. And after years of skimping on infrastructure, India is now spending heavily on this. Russia has prospered on the back of a huge rise in oil and gas prices, which is now feeding through to domestic spending. Wages have increased by 20 per cent, net of inflation, for several years running. Brazil, meanwhile, is reaping the rewards of a boom in agriculture and soft commodities and has a huge trading link with China. Like the other Bric nations it also benefits from a fast-growing middle class."
However, there are clouds in the sky. One of the brakes on Brazil's growth is the patchy education system, which means that there are significant levels of illiteracy. India is still predominantly a rural economy, so while cities are modernising at a rapid rate, the countryside is in danger of being left behind. The same sort of urban-rural split is a potential source of friction in China, where the income gap between town and country is growing into a chasm.
There are still uncertainties over whether China will develop into a Western style liberal democracy or remain a confusing blend of state- controlled communism and capitalism, and there are similar doubts over the degree to which Russia will shed its authoritarian style of government.
There is also growing scepticism about whether the Chinese and Indian economies are sufficiently strong to achieve genuine "decoupling" from the US, that is, to be able to avoid being dragged down if the US goes into recession. Ash Kumar, of Morningstar, the fund research group, says: "How can India and China combined fill the void created by a weak US consumer if the latter consumed $9.5 trillion of goods and services last year while the former bought only $1.65 trillion?" He adds that after holding up well last year, the Chinese and Indian stock markets have now begun to reflect these concerns.
Both Mr Geffen and Mr Dennehy recognise these concerns but still maintain that investors should have a chunk of their money in emerging markets. Mr Geffen says: "These are the economic giants of the future. People will look back in 20 years' time and say, 'Why didn't I have some money in Russia or China?'" Mr Dennehy adds: "People need to rethink their exposure to emerging markets. Traditionally, advisers have said that you should not have more than 5 per cent of your portfolio in the sector. But emerging markets already make up 11 per cent of the world stock market index. If anything, people should be overweight in emerging markets because that is where the fastest growth is likely to be. In the past, investors used to ask whether they could afford to put money in emerging markets. In the future, the message is that they can't afford not to."
CHART-SMART
AS THE chart shows, investors who restrict themselves solely to the UK are missing out on a lot of potential growth in the more exotic regions of the world.
Over a ten-year timescale funds investing in emerging markets have produced almost exactly treble the return of funds focusing on the UK.
For the first half of the ten years they lagged behind UK funds, but from the autumn of 2004 they started to pull ahead and have continued to widen the gap ever since. The only time the gap narrowed, briefly, was during the global market shake-up in the summer of 2006.
EXPERTS' PICKS
Brian Dennehy, of Dennehy Weller & Co, likes Templeton Emerging Markets investment trust and the AXA Framlington Emerging Markets fund: "The Templeton trust is the oldest emerging markets fund and has a fine track record. Mark Mobius, the manager, is still the undisputed champion of the sector with his unrivalled experience.
"The AXA Framlington fund has also performed very well. William Calvert, the manager, is not well known but is talented. He focuses on finding value while seeking to minimise his exposure to risk."
Tim Cockerill, of Rowan & Co, the IFA, is also a fan of the AXA Framlington fund. "It has performed very well under the stewardship of William Calvert, who has skilfully avoided many of the worst-performing areas this year."
His other pick is First State Global Emerging Market Leaders. "It is managed by the experienced Angus Tulloch on a conservative basis with an emphasis on the quality of stocks bought," he says.
(c) Times Newspapers Ltd, 2008
文件 T000000020080322e43m0007l

Home news

Faiths competing for most visibility at Olympic venue

Ashling O'Connor Olympics Correspondent

230 字

2008 年 3 月 22 日

The Times

T

15

‚ń文

(c) 2008 Times Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved
A battle of faith is looming in East London in the run-up to the Olympic Games in 2012 as Christianity and Islam vie to become the most visible religion around the 500-acre park where the Games will be staged.
Muslim leaders have begun a charm offensive over plans for a 12,000-capacity "super-mosque" on the edge of the Olympic Park.
Trustees of the Abbey Mills Mosque conducted tours of the 18-acre site in West Ham last week, a prelude to a summer exhibition of plans for the Pounds 75million mosque. It will be four times the size of Britain's largest cathedral. The proposal, which includes a 500-place Islamic school, has met with resistance from Christians whose plans for an Pounds 80 million "mega church" in neighbouring Hackney were rejected last month.
The Kingsway International Christian Centre, which claims to be the fastest growing church in western Europe, wanted to build a church capable of holding 8,000 people - or five times Westminster Abbey - after it was evicted from the Olympic site.
Opposition focuses on Abbey Mills' links to Tablighi Jamaat, an Islamic sect described by British security officials as a recruiting ground for terrorists. Abbey Mills denies that Tablighi Jamaat has radical links.
(c) Times Newspapers Ltd, 2008
文件 T000000020080322e43m0005w

Overseas news

Wanted lists and a news blackout as crackdown builds;Tibet

Jane Macartney

461 字

2008 年 3 月 22 日

The Times

T

51

‚ń文

(c) 2008 Times Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved
The crackdown on ethnic violence in Tibet intensified yesterday, with Chinese troops and paramilitary police deployed across Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, to arrest rioters who burnt shops and businesses of Han Chinese.
Officials issued a new wanted list and imposed a news blackout. They also said that security forces had opened fire on a demonstration in neighbouring Sichuan province, injuring four people. The Number Five wanted list was issued late yesterday on Lhasa Television, which showed more grainy photographs taken from video footage and stills of those taking part in what Beijing has dubbed the "March 14 Incident". A total of 29 people are wanted in connection with the violence.
A teenage boy, listed as fourth on the list, has already turned himself in and has told reporters he deeply regretted his actions and had not understood their consequences, state media said. Most Wanted Three on the list had been caught, but no details of his identity were available.
Officials of the Tibet Autonomous Region have imposed a news blackout, authorising only the state Xinhua news agency, China Central Television and Phoenix television to operate in Lhasa. Local media must follow central government orders.
State-run Tibet Television continued to show footage of last week's riots, including scenes of maroon-robed monks throwing rocks at police, protesters kicking in shop fronts and plumes of black smoke from burnt cars. Newsreaders echoed the central government's insistence that the violence was orchestrated by the "Dalai clique".
Across Lhasa, people were being required to denounce the Dalai Lama. From government officials to children, all had to stand in public and attack their exiled god-king.
Tibet Television showed a teenage girl taking part in a patriotic education session. She said: "We should distinguish right from wrong and protect national unity. We must expose the ugly face of the Dalai clique."
China's response to the rioting has triggered international criticism and some calls to boycott the Olympic Games opening ceremony in Beijing in August.
Tibetans disputed the government report that four people were wounded and none killed when police opened fire to disperse anti-Chinese riots in a deeply heavily Tibetan community in southwestern Sichuan province. One ethnic Tibetan resident of Aba prefecture, where rioting began on Sunday, said he believed several died when police fired on protesters attacking officials and state buildings.
Walking arm-in-arm with the Dalai Lama at his headquarters in Dharmsala, northern India, Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, lent her support yesterday to the Tibetan cause, calling China's crackdown "a challenge to the conscience of the world". She called for an international investigation.
(c) Times Newspapers Ltd, 2008
文件 T000000020080322e43m0004y

Sport

Youthful Daley takes plunge on big stage;Swimming;European Championships

Craig Lord Eindhoven

668 字

2008 年 3 月 22 日

The Times

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89

‚ń文

(c) 2008 Times Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved
* Briton aims to cause a stir in the diving pool
* Staying up late is thrill for 13-year-old
* British Eurosport, 5.15pm Tom Daley, 13 years and 10 months to the day and the youngest member of the Great Britain team for the Olympic Games this summer, peered down at the diving pool with intense interest here yesterday. His focus was on Dimitri Sautin, one of the greats of diving, who is aiming for his sixteenth European Championships medal since 1991.
The Russian, 34, had won three of those before Daley was born and was world and Olympic champion before the teenager from Plymouth had learnt to swim, let alone leap from the ten-metre platform. Daley was only 8 when he attended the national championships, by which time Sautin had retired from the platform - after winning Olympic gold in 1996 and bronze in 2000 - to concentrate on the springboard. Known as "The Man", Sautin provided a masterclass for Daley to soak up: the three-metre springboard crown brought his eleventh European gold medal and made him the oldest champion in the sport's history.
At the other end of the spectrum, Daley's youth may be causing a stir back home, but his presence at his first big multisport championship, alongside world record-holders in the race pool, is barely registering a ripple. Fu Mingxia, of China, was 12 when she won her first world title, her victory prompting a rule change that restricts Olympic and world competition to athletes who are 14 in the year of the event. She was Olympic champion at 14, while Nils Skoglund, of Sweden, remains the youngest medal-winner in Olympic history since claiming the silver in the plain high diving at the 1920 Games in Antwerp, aged 14 years and 11 days.
Daley will be 14 years and 79 days when the Games open in Beijing. He will compete with his diving partner, Blake Aldridge, in the ten-metre platform synchronised tomorrow and a day later he will hop off the tenmetre board in the solo event as the youngest male diver for more than 20 years at the event. When he talks of getting to stay up late because the swimming events dictate an 8.45pm start in one of his finals, the thrill shows in his face. "It's my first senior European Championships and the first time I have competed alongside a major swimming meet. I'm enjoying the late starts," Daley said. "They shouldn't matter as long as you're in the right mindset."
Among those keeping Daley up past his bedtime are the pre-selected Britain Olympians, David Davies (1,500metres freestyle) and Kirsty Balfour (200metres breaststroke), who yesterday reached their finals, to be staged today. Balfour, the defending European champion, said Daley's age was hardly relevant. "It's brilliant that he's there," she said. "He's done the performance to get on the team, so he deserves it. That's what it's all about."
Coached by Andy Banks in Plymouth, Daley, 1.37m (4ft 6in) and 34kg (about 5st 5lb), qualified for the Olympic Games at a World Cup event in Beijing in January. "It's been hard coming back from Beijing and then back into training," Daley said. "We came from such a high and then had to refocus on this competition. But I've been working hard in training and am now focused on my performance this weekend. Getting the bronze medal in the ten-metre synchro (in Beijing) with Blake was amazing and I think we can get a good result over here, too."
Alain Bernard, of France, broke the men's 100metres freestyle world record at the European Championships yesterday. Bernard recorded a time of 47.60sec to beat the mark set by Pieter van den Hoogenband, of the Netherlands, at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
(c) Times Newspapers Ltd, 2008
文件 T000000020080322e43m0002u

Features

Why I don't back a Beijing boycott;Comment;Opinion

Colin Moynihan

929 字

2008 年 3 月 22 日

The Times

T

23

‚ń文

(c) 2008 Times Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved
* It didn't work in 1980. It won't work now
In the unseasonable cold of the spring of 1980, there was an impromptu meeting of oarsmen at the back of the Boat House in Hammersmith. We were there to debate the Amateur Rowing Association's decision to boycott the Moscow Olympics in protest at the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. We were annoyed that, under pressure from Margaret Thatcher's Government, it had adopted such a stance without consulting us. As a result of this gathering we got together with other athletes and a handful of us, including Seb Coe and Duncan Goodhew, worked to ensure that our voices were heard.
We finally persuaded some of the governing bodies to change their minds and support the British Olympic Association's decision to send a team. It was not easy: I was called into the Foreign Office to be carpeted by Douglas Hurd; we received a daily postbag of diatribes; and a senior Tory party official told me that any aspirations of a political career might as well be forgotten if I set foot in Moscow.
In 1980 and in 1984 at Los Angeles, the Cold War was played out on the Olympic stage - but to little effect. The Soviet Union was not persuaded to change its policies. Despite many countries boycotting the Games, it would be another nine years before the last Russian troops retreated from Afghanistan.
The case at the time was clear to my team-mates and me. Despite the horrors of the Soviet invasion, it was wrong for the Government to ask sportsmen and women to make the sole sacrifice. Trade continued between the Soviet Union and the West; diplomatic relations stayed intact; cultural exchanges were unaffected; and anyone could walk down Piccadilly and buy a ticket on Aeroflot and spend their summer holiday in Leningrad. Only the athletes were being targeted and only the athletes would suffer.
Between now and August, calls for a boycott of the Games in Beijing will echo around the world to show revulsion at China's support of the Sudanese regime, its disregard for human rights, and its occupation of Tibet. But the heart of the issue is whether the cause of human rights is best served by isolating China or by critical engagement.
As Chairman of the British Olympic Association I will listen carefully to the arguments of those who favour a boycott. Holding the Games in China without any improvement in the situation is, they say, against the spirit of the Olympic ideals; it cheapens the Olympic movement and proves that money trumps morality. With no boycott, these voices conclude, the Chinese will be rewarded with a propaganda coup at the expense of the Olympic movement and fundamental human values.
But there is a counter-argument. I would argue that the high media profile of the Olympics will ensure that the spotlight of international attention shines brightly on Beijing and this spotlight, in time, will bring dividends; that sport and the Olympics are a force for good in themselves; that engagement is preferable to isolation; that humiliating China is unlikely to achieve anything and would ultimately prove counterproductive.
By raising awareness of the situation in China, the Games are already exerting pressure for change. It is precisely because the Chinese have invested so much in the hosting of the