Carlos Ghosn: I'm the victim of a Nissan plot

Details

Hong Kong (CNN Business) Carlos Ghosn is claiming a plot against him by Nissan executives caused his spectacular downfall. In his first media interview since his stunning arrest more than two months ago, Ghosn told Japanese news organization Nikkei that he had "no doubt" that the allegations against him are the result of "plot and treason" by Nissan (NSANF) executives who opposed his plan to deepen the automaker's integration with its French partner Renault (RNLSY). One of the most prominent figures in the global auto industry, Ghosn has been detained by Japanese prosecutors since November 19.

During the Nikkei interview, he reiterated his denial of charges of financial misconduct, which have cost him his top roles at Nissan, Renault and Mitsubishi Motors — the three companies he brought together to form the world's biggest carmaking alliance. The 64-year-old business leader's fall from grace has raised questions about the future of the alliance, which makes one in nine cars sold worldwide and employs more than 450,000 people. In the interview published Wednesday, Ghosn rejected suggestions that he ran Nissan for nearly two decades as a "dictatorship." "People translated strong leadership to dictator, to distort reality" and for the "purpose of getting rid of me," he told Nikkei.

Nissan said in November that it began cooperating with Japanese prosecutors after a whistleblower helped it uncover serious financial misconduct by Ghosn. In the interview, Ghosn acknowledged for the first time that "there was a plan" to integrate the three carmakers more closely and that this had been discussed with Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa. Ghosn said his plan was to give Nissan, Renault and Mitsubishi "autonomy under one holding company." Analysts have repeatedly speculated that Nissan executives were uncomfortable about the possibility of Renault and Ghosn seeking full control of the Japanese company. Nissan, which sells more vehicles than Renault, has only a 15% non-voting stake in the French company. Renault holds more than 40% of Nissan. Responding to the interview, a Nissan spokesman said that "the sole cause of this chain of events is the misconduct led by Ghosn."

'Distortion of reality'

Japanese prosecutors have indicted him on allegations he understated his income at Nissan by about $80 million between 2010 and 2018, and abused his position by improperly using the company to help sort out personal investment losses during the global financial crisis. Ghosn told Nikkei that the arrangements had been approved by the relevant executives within Nissan and weren't inappropriate. Nissan and Mitsubishi have separately alleged that Ghosn improperly received €7.8 million ($8.9 million) in compensation and other payments from a joint venture between the two carmakers. Ghosn said the venture was established for "synergy and not for payment" and that claims of improper payments were a "distortion of reality."

This week decisive for Lebanese government's formation - Hariri

Details

BEIRUT (Reuters) - This week will be decisive in efforts to form a new government in Lebanon, prime minister-designate Saad al-Hariri said on Tuesday, adding he was "cautiously optimistic". Rival parties have been negotiating to form a coalition government since a national election in May, fuelling concerns that a crisis is looming for the country's heavily indebted, stagnant economy. "Matters are positive and will become clear within two days... This week is decisive, positively or negatively," Hariri was cited as saying in a statement from his office. On Saturday, the leader of Lebanon's powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah movement said "extraordinary efforts" were being made to form the government, but that two obstacles remained. They are how to include a group of six Sunni lawmakers in the cabinet, and the distribution of government portfolios among the different political parties. Credit ratings agency Moody's last week downgraded Lebanon's sovereign debt, citing the uncertain movement toward forming a government, and Lebanese bonds have suffered in recent weeks. Lebanon is one of the world's most indebted countries and its finance minister has said it is already in an economic crisis that has started to turn into a financial one, and hopes will not become a monetary one. (Reporting By Angus McDowall; editing by John Stonestreet)

Lebanese man finds hand of Providence in mystical experience

Details

By Hannah Brockhaus Beirut, Lebanon (CNA).- Raymond Nader had spent years searching for the meaning of life, when during a moment of prayer in an old Lebanese hermitage, he says a mystical experience of light left his arm miraculously marked with a burn in the shape of the hand of St. Charbel. Since that moment, on Nov. 10, 1994, the handprint on his upper left arm has faded and reappeared multiple times, Nader told CNA. Dr. Nabil Hokayem, a Beirut plastic surgeon, examined the mark on Nader’s arm three times: first in 1994, soon after its appearance, and subsequently in the spring of 1995 and the summer of 1996. He told CNA that in his professional opinion, the mark is a third-degree burn, in the shape of what appeared “like five fingers, as if someone is holding [Nader] from behind.”

A third-degree burn is severe, and destroys both the upper and lower layers of skin, possibly also affecting underlying tissues. But Hokayem said the burn on Nader’s upper left arm did not go through the stages of healing typical of a severe burn. “I have seen and treated hundreds of burned people; I tell you, I have never seen such a thing,” he said. “I was really astonished.” The doctor said the first time he saw the burn, he wanted to treat and bandage it as usual, but Nader declined, saying it did not bother him. Besides the lack of pain, the doctor explained it was unusual that the burn did not leave a scar, but instead would just slowly fade until it had “healed totally.” Nader said he has continued to have supernatural visions since that first experience in the hermitage nearly 25 years ago, sometimes also seeing a vision of the Lebanese monk and hermit, St. Charbel, “in a halo of light.” He says that each of those times, the fading handprint has turned the dark red of a burn, and again oozed blood and water, as it did when it first appeared. After years of trying to find his purpose through science, this experience “deeply changed everything in my life,” the engineer told CNA, noting that he thinks St. Charbel, who lived as a hermit in the hills of Lebanon for 26 years, “has only one message. He’s pointing to Jesus Christ, pointing to God.”

Read more ...

Lebanese Central Bank to Reinstate Subsidized Housing Loans

Details

By Dana Khraiche - bloomberg.com -- Lebanon’s Central Bank will reinstate subsidized housing loans, ending an almost year-long freeze of the program, the state-run National News Agency reported late Friday. The new housing package will be $200 million for housing loans of as much as $300 million, the agency said, citing a circular from the Association of Banks in Lebanon after its meeting with the central bank. The central bank also will offer a stimulus package for the production sector valued at $500 million for loans of up to $400 million. The central bank froze subsidized housing loans at the beginning of last year, eroding a real estate market that was already reeling from slow demand caused by regional tensions and local political stalemate.

Lebanon’s economy has slowed since the crisis in neighboring Syria began in 2011, leading to a shut down of vital trade routes and an influx of some 1.5 million refugees. The country is also coming to a reckoning with years of fiscal overreach with public debt, estimated at over 160 percent of gross domestic product this year, is projected to rise to near 180 percent by 2023, according to the International Monetary Fund. The central bank has for years carried the burden of stimulating the economy by offering stimulus packages for various sectors given the lack of functioning governments.

Facebook to integrate WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger together

Details

Facebook is planning to merge WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger, bringing together more than 2.6 billion users so that they can communicate over the three platforms, the New York Times reports. The effort will require the social media giant to rewrite the basic software of the three apps so that they are interoperable. The plan, which is in its early stages, would take thousands of Facebook employees about a year to complete. Messages would incorporate end-to-end encryption, ensuring that only the users participating in such conversations would see them.

Cross-platform messaging may also lead the way for businesses on one platform to message potential customers on another. And it might make it easier for Facebook to share data across the three platforms, to help its targeted advertising efforts. But bigger still: it makes Facebook's suite of apps a much tighter, interwoven collection of services. That could make the key parts of Facebook's empire more difficult to break up and spin off, if governments and regulators decide that is necessary.

Shared data: Mr Zuckerberg is reportedly pushing the integration plan to make its trinity of services more useful and increase the amount of time people spend on them. By effectively joining all its users into one massive group Facebook could compete more effectively with Google's messaging services and Apple's iMessage, suggested Makena Kelly on tech news site The Verge. "We want to build the best messaging experiences we can; and people want messaging to be fast, simple, reliable and private," said Facebook in a statement. "We're working on making more of our messaging products end-to-end encrypted and considering ways to make it easier to reach friends and family across networks," it added.

GOOGLE GIVES WIKIMEDIA MILLIONS—PLUS MACHINE LEARNING TOOLS

Details

GOOGLE IS POURING an additional $3.1 million into Wikipedia, bringing its total contribution to the free encyclopedia over the past decade to more than $7.5 million, the company announced at the World Economic Forum Tuesday. A little over a third of those funds will go toward sustaining current efforts at the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that runs Wikipedia, and the remaining $2 million will focus on long-term viability through the organization’s endowment. Google will also begin allowing Wikipedia editors to use several of its machine learning tools for free, the tech giant said. What's more, Wikimedia and Google will soon broaden Project Tiger, a joint initiative they launched in 2017 to increase the number of Wikipedia articles written in underrepresented languages in India, and to include 10 new languages in a handful of countries and regions. It will now be called GLOW, Growing Local Language Content on Wikipedia. It’s certainly positive that Google is investing more in Wikipedia, one of the most popular and generally trustworthy online resources in the world. But the decision isn’t altruistic: Supporting Wikipedia is also a shrewd business decision that will likely benefit Google for years to come. Like other tech companies, including Amazon, Apple, and Facebook, Google already uses Wikipedia content in a number of its own products. When you search Google for “Paris,” a “knowledge panel” of information about the city will appear, some of which is sourced from Wikipedia. The company also has used Wikipedia articles to train machine learning algorithms, as well as fight misinformation on YouTube.

Read more ...