WASHINGTON – The Greek debt crisis sent a shudder through global financial markets and served as a dramatic reminder of how vulnerable the world economy remains to the threat of a fast-spreading financial panic.

To many, market developments this week served as a spooky reminder of the fall of 2008 and the panic that spread worldwide after Lehman Brothers collapsed with disastrous consequences in September 2008.

"If people get scared that Greece could default, they are going to be scared that Portugal will default and then other countries. Once people panic, they panic about everything," said David Wyss, chief economist at Standard and Poor's in New York. "We saw that in the wake of the Lehman Brothers failure."

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 140 points in late afternoon trading Thursday, following overseas gains in Britain, Germany and France.

Those market gains, which followed big losses earlier in the week, came as European and Germany officials sought to assure investors that they were working quickly to approve a bailout for Greece with European Union monetary affairs commission Olli Rehn, saying he was confident that talks on a bailout package of support from European countries and the International Monetary Fund would be wrapped up in a few days.

Underscoring the need for quick solutions, the White House released a statement late Wednesday that President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel had discussed the "importance of resolute action by Greece and timely support from the IMF and Europe to address Greece's economic difficulties."

In Asia, while there are not yet significant concerns about the creditworthiness of the region's governments, big economies like China and Japan still have much at stake. Europe is an important export market for Asia, and China and Japan are among the biggest investors in the debt issued by the United States and European countries with holdings worth billions of dollars.

Some lenders in the region, meanwhile, are already fretting that Europe's problems will chill the financial system, making it harder for banks to borrow the short and long-term money that helps fund their own lending to businesses and consumers.

There are also concerns the turmoil in Europe could convince China to delay any appreciation of its currency — widely viewed as undervalued — aggravating tensions with the U.S. and other trading partners. A key meeting on this issue is scheduled for May 24-25 when Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will meet with their counterparts for talks in Beijing.

Economists noted that the debt problems hitting Greece and other European countries often occur after a financial crisis. That is because governments borrow heavily to prop up their banking systems, which sends their own debt burdens soaring.

In the current crisis, the United States has seen its publicly held debt jump from 36 percent of the total economy in 2007 to 64 percent this year credit reports free. That's the highest level since 1951, when the country was still paying off the debt run up to fight World War II.

Debt levels of all developing countries are rising to levels not seen over the past 60 years, the IMF said in an economic survey released last week.

"The Greek problem highlights a broader problem across the globe," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics. "Governments used their resources to end the financial panic and the Great Recession, but now they have to figure out how to pay for it."

While the United States and Japan, the world's two biggest economies, also have heavy debt loads, they enjoy advantages in financing that debt that Greece does not have.

More than 90 percent of Japan's debt is funded domestically, putting the country at low risk for capital flight and servicing that debt remains manageable because of low interest rates.

But Fitch Ratings did warn last week that Japan's credit rating could worsen if Tokyo does not rein in snowballing debt, which reached 201 percent of gross domestic product in 2009. Deflation, slow growth and dwindling household savings could eventually undermine Japan's ability to fund itself.

The rest of Asia is on sounder financial footing, especially considering its rapid growth. The region underwent a "profound deleveraging" in the 1990s following its own financial crisis, mandated by the IMF's strict bailout conditions, said Glen Maguire, chief Asia economist at Societe Generale.

China's government reports its debt at about 20 percent of GDP. But Tom Orlik, an analyst in Beijing for Stone & McCarthy Research Associates, says the figure is far higher than official numbers suggest.

Add in local government debt and nonperforming loans in the government-owned banks, and the level tops 50 percent of GDP, he said.

"The number is higher than the government acknowledges, and that is well known, but it is still not a very alarming number," Orlik said.

While Asia appears strong enough to avoid the debt problems engulfing Greece and Europe, it hasn't been immune to the anxiety the turmoil has produced with Asian equity markets being hammered this week, in line with deep share declines in Europe and the U.S.

Signaling what may lie ahead, the chief executive of ANZ Banking Group Ltd., an Australian lender with operations across Asia, warned Thursday that the sovereign debt crisis in Europe could make it harder for banks to access credit.

"I am still quite worried about the global economy," Smith told reporters. "Europe is a mess."

____

Hosaka reported from Tokyo. AP Business Writer Joe McDonald in Beijing and AP Writer Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia contributed to this report.

Greek's debt troubles raise contagion worries

TOKYO – Renewed worries about Greece's debt problems spread to Asia Wednesday, sending stock markets broadly lower following sharp declines in the U.S. and Europe.

Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average led the region-wide retreat with a 2.5 percent fall to 10,935.99. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index shed 1.9 percent to 20,853.83, while South Korea's Kospi lost 1.5 percent to 1,723.76. All other major Asian benchmarks were down more than 1 percent and oil slid below $83 a barrel.

Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 1.9 percent to 10,991.99 in its worst loss in almost three months.

Concerns about Europe intensified when Standard & Poor's downgraded Greece's debt to junk status and hit Portugal with a two-notch rating cut.

Investors have been on edge for months about Greece's fiscal crisis even as they've sent stocks higher on signs of an improving U.S. economy. Greece has already acknowledged it can't pay debts due shortly and has asked for a bailout from European neighbors and the International Monetary Fund cheap payday advance. Markets have also been worried that Portugal could be the next weak European economy to require help.

In Tokyo, the jitters overshadowed earnings reports showing solid recovery among Japanese companies.

Shares of Softbank Corp., the only mobile carrier in Japan to offer the iPhone, fell 2.8 percent even after doubling net profit last fiscal year. Sharp was down 2.3 percent. The electronics maker said Tuesday it rebounded to profits last year and expects net profit to surge 11-fold this fiscal year through March 2011.

Oil prices dropped for a second straight day on Tuesday amid the global stock sell-off. Benchmark crude for May delivery fell $1.76 to settle at $82.44 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In currencies, the dollar rose to 93.20 yen from 93.07 yen late Tuesday. The euro was trading at $1.3197 from $1.3155.

Asian stock markets tumble amid Greece debt woes

Stock futures were lower Tuesday as Greek debt problems and China’s economy again have investors concerned about potential economic growth.

Domestically, investors will be looking for cues from the Federal Reserve, which begins a two-day, rate-setting meeting. Congress’s debate about overhauling financial regulations is also adding some volatility to the market.

European shares fell as concerns resurfaced that Greece might not have access to a bailout package in time to make a new round of payments that are due on May 19. The dollar rose against the euro as investors worry that debt problems in Greece and some of the 15 other countries that use the currency will upend an economic rebound on the continent.

Most Asian markets fell as Chinese regulators are again preparing to try and cool down the country’s robust economic growth. The government has been trying to slow the real estate market there to avoid speculative bubbles.

In the United States, investors will be closely watching the Fed over the next two days for any signs of when it might raise interest rates low fee pay day loans.

Ahead of the opening bell, Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 30 points, or 0.3 percent, to 11,121. Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index futures and the Nasdaq 100 index futures were down 0.4 percent.

Two economic reports due out later in the morning could also affect trading. Investors will get reports on home prices and consumer confidence.

Economists polled by Thomson Reuters predict the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index for February rose 1.2 percent.

A recovery in prices and sales is considered necessary to helping revive the economy.

A separate report due out on consumer confidence is expected to show consumers are gaining more confidence in the economy. The Conference Board’s index likely rose to 53.5 this month from 52.5 in March.

Stock Futures Fall Amid Worries Over Greece

NEW ORLEANS – A federal agency that oversees offshore oil drilling was so concerned about deaths and injuries it had documented that it was moving to impose new safety rules even before this week's oil rig explosion off the Louisiana coast, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.

A Minerals and Management Service review published last year found 41 deaths and 302 injuries out of 1,443 accidents, the majority caused by human error and operational and maintenance problems. The new rules focus on preventing human error, a safety area that hadn't received as much attention in the past.

The accidents and the explosion have again brought criticisms of the industry and opponents of President Barack Obama's plan for more offshore drilling say the collapse should be taken as a warning to slow the fervor to drill.

As officials continued to search for what caused the blast, crews were making progress cleaning up oil from the explosion Tuesday, and trying to contain what spilled and prevent any threat to the coast's fragile ecosystem. The Coast Guard was also using an airplane, a helicopter and a Coast Guard cutter to continue looking for 11 missing workers even as hopes diminished that they survived.

Officials did receive good news Friday when Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry said no oil appeared to be leaking from a well head at the ocean floor, nor was any leaking at the water's surface. But she said crews were closely monitoring the rig for any more crude that might spill out.

At midday Friday, at least half a dozen boats were visible with booms extended in loops, trapping a thin oil sheen that extended about 7 miles north of where the rig sank.

From the air, there was no sign the oil was affecting animal life in the area.

Strong winds were blowing generally from the south as a cold front approached from Texas. The passage of the front late Friday or Saturday was expected to shift winds to the north, which could push the sheen away from the coast.

BP PLC, which leased the rig and took the lead in the cleanup, said it has activated an extensive oil spill response, including using remotely operated vehicles to assess the well and 32 vessels to mop up the spill.

BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward said the company will do "everything in our power to contain this oil spill and resolve the situation as rapidly, safely and effectively as possible."

Weather forecasts indicate the spill was likely to stay well away from shore at least through the weekend, but if winds change it could come ashore faster, said Doug Helton of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's office of response and restoration.

Environmentalists said the explosion was a reminder the industry was dangerous.

"I would hope it would serve as another wake-up call on this issue that there is no such thing as safe oil drilling," said Sara Wan, a California Coastal Commission who opposes offshore drilling. "Once that oil starts leaking in the ocean, that damage is irreversible. You just look at what happened with Exxon-Valdez — they're still feeling the affects of it. There's no real way to clean it up."

Despite the explosion, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the president had no plans to give up his effort to expand offshore drilling. Gibbs said Obama continues to believe that the United States needs a comprehensive solution to its energy problems — including expanded domestic production of oil and natural gas short term personal loans.

The president still believes increasing domestic oil production can be done safely, securely and without harming the environment, Gibbs said.

"I don't honestly think it opens up a whole new series of questions, because, you know, in all honesty I doubt this is the first accident that has happened and I doubt it will be the last," Gibbs said.

Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson called for a congressional investigation of safety practices at offshore oil rigs. Nelson, a Democrat who has led opposition to offshore drilling, said he asked the U.S. Interior Department to investigate and provide a comprehensive report on all U.S. drilling accidents over at least the last decade.

"The tragedy off the coast of Louisiana shows we need to be asking a lot more tough questions of big oil," Nelson said. "I think we need to look back over 10 years or so to see if the record denies the industry's claims about safety and technology."

The Coast Guard, which was leading the investigation, had not given up the search early Friday for those missing from the rig.

Lt. Cmdr. Cheri Ben-Iesau said a Coast Guard cutter would remain on the scene Friday after searching overnight, and a helicopter would take advantage of clear weather to make three more search flights.

"We use a scientific program to make a best-guess estimate on survivability," Ben-Iesau said. "And then the Coast Guard searches a little longer than that. Because there's always the unknown."

Carolyn Kemp of Monterey, La., said her grandson, Roy Wyatt Kemp, 27, would have been on the drilling platform when it exploded.

"They're assuming all those men who were on the platform are dead," Kemp said. "That's the last we've heard."

Most of the crew — 111 members — were ashore, including 17 taken to hospitals. Four were in critical condition. Four others made it off safely were still on a boat operating one of several underwater robots being used to assess whether the flow of oil could be shut off at a control valve on the sea floor, said Guy Cantwell, spokesman for rig owner Transocean Ltd.

Ed Overton, a Louisiana State University environmental sciences professor, said the sheen's distance from shore means the impact on wildlife is likely not widespread, although some seabirds that dive for food could become coated with oil.

The problem, Overton said, would be if thicker globs of oil reach coastal areas such as the Chandeleur islands, home to hatcheries for pelicans and other birds.

A turn in winds and currents might send oil toward fragile coastal wetlands — nurseries for fish and shrimp and habitat for birds.

To prevent that, the Marine Spill Response Corp., an energy industry cleanup consortium, brought seven skimmer boats to suck oily water from the surface, four planes that can scatter chemicals to disperse oil, and 500,000 feet — 94.6 miles — of containment boom, a floating barrier with a skirt that drapes down under the water and corrals the oil.

___

Schwartz reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers Holbrook Mohr from Jackson, Miss., Mike Kunzelman, Cain Burdeau and Alan Sayre in Louisiana, Chris Kahn in New York, Jason Dearen in San Francisco and Sofia Mannos of AP Television News contributed to this report.

Oil drilling accidents prompted new safety rules

NEW ORLEANS – An oil platform that burned for more than day after a massive explosion sank into the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

Crews searched by air and water for 11 workers still missing from the Deepwater Horizon, though one relative said family members have been told it's unlikely anyone survived Tuesday night's blast.

Supply vessels had been shooting water into the rig try to control the flames enough to keep it afloat, but couldn't, Coast Guard Petty Officer Katherine McNamara said.

Rescue crews have covered the 1,940-square-mile search area by air 12 times and by boat five times. The boats searched all night, hoping the missing workers might have been able to get to a covered lifeboat with supplies.

Carolyn Kemp of Monterey, La., said her grandson, Roy Wyatt Kemp, 27, was among the missing. She said he would have been on the drilling platform when it exploded.

"They're assuming all those men who were on the platform are dead," Kemp said. "That's the last we've heard."

Other relatives waited anxiously for hourly updates. Family members of one missing worker, Shane Roshto of Amite, Miss., filed a lawsuit in New Orleans on Thursday accusing the rig's owner of negligence. The suit said he was thrown overboard by the explosion and is feared dead, though it did not indicate how family members knew that was what happened free insurance quotes.

The suit names Transocean Ltd., which owns the rig, and oil giant BP, which contracted it. A Transocean spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment and BP wouldn't discuss the suit.

The family of Dewey Revette, a 48-year-old from southeast Mississippi, said he was also among the missing. He worked as a driller on the rig and had been with the company for 29 years.

"We're all just sitting around waiting for the phone to ring and hoping for good news. And praying about it," said Revette's 23-year-old daughter, Andrea Cochran.

Transocean Ltd. spokesman Guy Cantwell said 111 workers who made it off the Deepwater Horizon safely after Tuesday night's blast were ashore Thursday, and four others were still on a boat that operates an underwater robot. A robot will eventually be used to stop the flow of oil or gas to the rig, cutting off the fire. He said officials have not decided when that will happen.

Burning oil rig sinks into Gulf; 11 still missing

SETTLEMENT: Charles Schwab said it will pay $200 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that claimed investors were misled about the safety of mortgage-backed securities. The deal must be approved by a federal court.

TOXIC ASSETS: The securities the YieldPlus bond fund held rapidly lost value in 2008 as the mortgage market melted down, causing the fund to deflate instant credit report.

ONGOING PROBES: Schwab reached the deal with investors, but the SEC and FINRA are still investigating the fund's collapse.

Summary Box: Schwab settles fund suit for $200M

ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD is a nonprofit group that thinks big. Since 2007, it has sold inexpensive but rugged laptop computers to the governments of less-developed countries. The goal is to equip each of the two billion children in the developing world with his or her own computer.

It’s been slow going. About 1.6 million of the group’s laptops have been distributed to date, said Matt Keller, vice president for global advocacy at the O.L.P.C. Foundation, based in Cambridge, Mass. Today, the largest concentrations are in Uruguay, at around 400,000, and Peru, at 280,000, followed by Rwanda (110,000) and Haiti and Mongolia (15,000 each).

In 2006, the O.L.P.C. Web site pitched its laptop as a technology that “could revolutionize how we educate the world’s children.” Today, the “R” word is gone. Now the site speaks in more muted language of “developing an essential resource — educated, empowered children.”

“The biggest obstacle to our spreading the dream is cost,” Mr. Keller said.

Ninety percent of the machines have been paid for by the recipient countries’ governments, whose resources are extremely limited. I asked Mr. Keller if project leaders had reconsidered the “per child” part of the program. “One Laptop Per Classroom” certainly doesn’t have the same ring, to be sure, but it would better diffuse the benefits in the short term, helping a greater share of those almost two billion children who have not been reached.

He said that such a change was out of the question.

“One-on-one, child-to-laptop — the interactive nature of that experience is the heart of what we do,” he said.

When a child owns a laptop, he added, the school day is effectively extended from a few hours to 12 to 14 hours — however long the child is awake, and wherever he or she happens to be.

Some Microsoft researchers in India have investigated how to give those same children better use of PCs that are already in place, even though one machine is shared by many. In one project, Microsoft’s programmers developed software that added multiple cursors on the screen, each controlled by a separate mouse. Software written for the paradigm allows students to compete or collaborate on multiple-choice questions. It was well received in schools, and Microsoft turned it into a free product called MultiPoint.

“We jokingly call it ‘One Mouse Per Child,’ ” said Kentaro Toyama, who led the project while he spent five years in the Technology for Emerging Markets group at Microsoft Research India.

Mr. Toyama, who received a computer-science doctorate at Yale, left Microsoft last December and is now a research fellow at the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley. He has been giving talks at American universities about the “technological utopianism” that he sees in initiatives like One Laptop Per Child, Intel’s Classmate PC, and even MultiPoint. He says such initiatives rest upon a myth that “technology is the bottleneck in developing countries best payday advance.”

Lots of other things are bottlenecks, too, he says — including institutional limitations, economics, the basic service infrastructure and politics. Nor is technology synonymous with education.

“Initially, we had the idea that PCs could make up for teacher absenteeism or poor training,” he said. “But studies of PCs in schools are mixed, at best. Most show that a good school with good teachers can do positive things with PCs, but that PCs don’t fix bad schools.”

Describing technological utopianism, he said, “What it comes down to is this: Everybody is looking for a shortcut.”

Mr. Keller said of Mr. Toyama’s remarks: “There is no silver bullet, he’s right.” But Mr. Keller argued that literacy skills and access to information were prerequisites for economic and political growth and that “technology can help foster these things.”

Among the infrastructure problems that the Microsoft research team saw in rural India was unreliable electrical power. It spurred another Microsoft research project that provided farmers in one district with cellphones that supplied the same information via text messaging that the farmers had obtained from PC centers.

Many O.L.P.C. laptops are equipped with solar panels that can recharge the machine in three hours, providing four to six hours of use. Mr. Keller said a new model would be introduced early next year that would demand much less power. The new machines will have cranks and charge quickly: a minute of cranking will yield 10 minutes of use.

MR. KELLER has some moving stories to tell about his visits to villages that have received laptops — and about the natural facility with computers of children everywhere.

“I’ve been in Rwanda where the laptop was introduced into an environment where previously there had been no electronic devices,” he said, “and within three to four days you have 10-year-old girls and 8-year-old boys who are using the laptop as efficiently and effectively and creatively as I can.”

He is now lobbying to secure funding from the United States government to provide an Internet-connected laptop for every child in Afghanistan. At a cost of $250 a laptop, the project would cost about $750 million.

In Kabul, Mr. Keller said, Afghanistan’s education minister told him that the project “would allow girls to study and connect within the safety of their own homes.”

It’s an almost irresistible vision. But a skeptic would point to the lessons of history and say that technology never works in isolation.

Randall Stross is an author based in Silicon Valley and a professor of business at San Jose State University. E-mail: stross@nytimes.com.

Digital Domain: Two Billion Laptops? It May Not Be Enough

NEW YORK – Stock futures are falling slightly, but are off their lows after Bank of America and General Electric provided fresh signs that the economy is getting stronger.

Both Bank of America and General Electric reported better-than-expected profits and say they are seeing signs of an improving economy.

The Commerce Department says construction of homes rose to 626,000 units in March. Applications for building permits, which are a sign of future growth, rose to 685,000.

Economists expected construction would rise to 610,000 units, while applications would climb to 630,000 faxless payday advance.

Dow Jones industrial average futures are down 13, or 0.1 percent, at 11,083. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures are down 2.90, or 0.2 percent, at 1,205.60, while Nasdaq 100 index futures are down 4.75, or 0.2 percent, at 2,030.00.

Stock futures dip, point to lower opening

MADRID (Reuters) – The EU will have to set up a mechanism to help out member states in financing difficulties without giving members an excuse to relax fiscal discipline, Jean-Claude Juncker said on Thursday.

On the eve of a Madrid meeting of European finance ministers on Friday and Saturday, the chairman of the Eurogroup said the 30 billion euro (&&6;41 billion) aid loan to Greece was drawn up to fill a gap in European procedure. He stressed the need for standard measures to be established in the future.

"We have resorted to these loans (for Greece) because there was no other solution within the European Treaty. For the future we will have to install a European mechanism without allowing some member states to relax and not balance their books," Juncker was quoted as saying in an interview with Spanish newspaper Expansion.

"Nor is a change in the Treaty ruled out," he added.

However little is expected to emerge for the two-day marathon meetings in Madrid. Following the loan agreement last weekend, the Madrid meeting is now expected to just "take stock" of the situation rather than seek fresh solutions, according to a source.

After an initial, positive reaction to the announcement of the safety net, markets have begun to worry about legal issues surrounding it and ambiguity over the precise way the mechanism would be activated, if Greece asks for aid.

COMPETITIVENESS

Juncker argued there was a need to keep tabs on the real economy, not just government spending and debt levels.

"Greece has lost between 20 and 25 percent of its competitiveness versus Germany in the last few years," he explained freecreditscore. Thus European partners had decided to discuss the topic in more depth.

"In each meeting we will examine the competitiveness of each member state," he said, adding that Spain will be one of the first countries to be examined.

The chairman of the Eurogroup, who has up to now dismissed comparisons between Greece and other euro members such as Spain or Portugal, said that structural reforms should be considered as well as plans to reduce the public deficit.

"Other ministers can advise Spain and other countries on which measures to apply, on the basis of their experience."

Juncker described the Greek aid program as "credible" adding that Greek authorities were aware of how serious their situation is.

The Greek cabinet is expected to discuss on Thursday an overhaul of its pension system, one of the elements which particularly concerned Germany public opinion when the emergency loan was agreed for Athens.

"Greece has (now) a duty of solidarity toward other euro members in meeting its plans" he said

"It is of the utmost importance for the European Union that Germany and France follow similar lines on intervention. It seems wrong though that these two countries will consider any agreement among them as mandatory (for the union)" he said.

(Reporting by Elisabeth O&&9;Leary and Tiziana Barghini; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)

EU needs long-term fix for fiscal trouble: Juncker

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The global space business grew to &&6;261.6 billion in 2009, expanding 7 percent from 2008 and 40 percent over the past five years at a time when other industries were slammed by recession, according to a report released Monday by the nonprofit Space Foundation.

The industry continued expanding in early 2010, reflecting greater demand for a wide range of space-related products and services -- including low-cost GPS hardware embedded in cars and phones, communications services, and control of a growing number of unmanned aerial vehicles.

Recent increases in space spending by the U.S. government and its use of more commercial services bodes well for the industry at large, according to the report, which was released at the annual National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs.

"As the second half century of the space age gets under way, the future of global space activities looks as diverse as it does bright," the report said. "This generation of space activity will solidify the role of commercial space while expanding the global reach of the industry."

The companies in the Space Foundation Index shared in the general stock market recovery in 2009, returning by mid-March 2010 to their levels of June 2005. The Index tracks the stock market performance of companies that derive a large amount of revenue from space-related assets and activities.

Companies in the index include Alliant Techsystems Inc (ATK.N), Boeing Co (BA.N), Computer Sciences Corp (CSC.N), GenCorp Inc (GY.N), Harris Corp (HRS.N), Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N), Loral Space & Communications Inc (LORL.O), Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N), Raytheon Co (RTN.N), Comtech Telecommunications Corp (CMTL.O), EchoStar Corp (SATS.O), Iridium Communications Inc (IRDM.O) British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY.L), and Sirius XM Radio Inc (SIRI.O).

The report pointed to a growing role for the private sector through increased public-private partnerships, greater reliance on commercial services, and continued space technology spin-offs into non-space industries.

Research on board the International Space Station (ISS), and increasing government space activity around the world were two burgeoning sectors with near-term commercial potential pay day advance.

USING SPACE TO FIND CHEAP GAS ON EARTH

"The variety and number of activities will likely grow, as space products and services are integrated deeply into consumer electronics and daily necessities," the report said.

Consumers were already using space-enabled services to find the nearest -- and cheapest -- gas station, or pre-order lunch from a nearby restaurant, and more such applications were likely to emerge in coming years.

Growing use of unmanned vehicles, which rely on space-enabled communications and positioning links, would also offer new opportunities for the space industry, it said.

Commercial satellite services increased 8 percent to &&6;90.58 billion in 2009, representing about 35 percent of the global space economy; while global government spending on space increased 16 percent in 2009 to &&6;86.17 billion, accounting for 33 percent of the space economy, according to the report.

U.S. government space spending increased 11 percent to &&6;64.42 billion in 2009, boosted in part by &&6;1.23 billion in stimulus spending directed toward space activities.

The report included for the first time data on government space budgets for the European Union, Argentina, Chile, Spain, Nigeria and South Africa, reflecting the continued growth of the space economy outside of the United States.

Spending on space infrastructure, including launch services, spacecraft manufacturing and ground equipment totaled &&6;83.63 billion in 2009, or about 32 percent of the overall market.

Launch rates increased 42 percent from 2005 to 2009, with Russia leading with 37 percent of the 78 launches reported, followed by 31 percent for the United States, 9 percent for Europe, 8 percent for China and 5 percent for a consortium that comprises U.S., Russian, Ukrainian and Norwegian interests.

Japan, India, North Korea and South Korea each had less than 4 percent of the launches, the report said.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal-Esa. editing by Maureen Bavdek)

Global space business grew 7 percent to $262 billion in 2009

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Pre-emption of state laws against predatory lending was not a major cause of the financial crisis, according to testimony on Thursday by current and former federal bank regulators.

A congressional commission charged with investigating the roots of the crisis clashed with the bank regulators on Thursday. Read more about what Robert Rubin and Chuck Prince said at the hearings.

"You tied the hands of the states and then you sat on your hands," said Phil Angelides, the chair of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.

Not so, said John Dugan, head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. "The weak lending standards [of the states] were not the result of pre-emption."

As the housing bubble inflated early in the last decade, the OCC fought efforts by states to enforce predatory lending laws, insisting that nationally chartered banks should be subject to national laws, not 50 separate state standards.

"There is a great value in being able to have a common set of standards that apply regardless of the state in which you operate," Dugan said.

John Hawke, Dugan's predecessor at the OCC, said in his testimony that pre-emption was a constitutional doctrine that arose from the 19th century.

"If one reads the criticisms of the OCC with respect to pre-emption, one would think we invented the doctrine in recent years solely as a means to curry favor with national banks," Hawke said. "The reality is quite different."

In his testimony, Dugan said national banks and their subsidiaries originated just 12% to 14% of all subprime mortgages between 2005 and 2007 personal loan for poor credit. The non-prime loans originated by the banks have also performed better, with a 22% delinquency rate, vs. 25% for non-banks.

These "are hard facts that belie the argument that national banks' federal pre-emption caused the mortgage crisis," Dugan said.

His solution is that the government establish minimum underwriting standards for mortgages that apply everywhere.

"If we would have had these [standards] 10 years ago, I believe the financial crisis would have been much less severe," Dugan said.

Members of the 10-person commission, made up of six Democrats and four Republicans, asked Dugan and Hawke whether the federal regulations in place before the crisis were enough. Hawke and Dugan, for the most part, said that they were, with a few notable exceptions.

"The stated-income mortgages, the low-doc mortgage area, was a place something where we just lost our way," Dugan said. "It's something that not only was wrong in and of itself, but it was an invitation to fraud."

Financial regulatory reform legislation making its way through Congress puts in place a strong federal agency to write rules to protect consumers, something Dugan supports.

The OCC regulates the 1,565 national banks, including giants like Citigroup Inc. Citi executives were on the hot seat in earlier sessions trying to account for why Citi needed a $45 billion bailout as well as a $306 billion guarantee for loans backed by residential mortgage securities.

Pre-emption of state laws not to blame: regulators

BEIJING (AFP) – US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner held talks in Beijing on economic ties amid signs China may be ready to act on calls for a more flexible yuan.

The last-minute visit on Thursday came just days before Chinese President Hu Jintao heads to Washington for an international summit on nuclear security -- suggesting the two countries are getting their relationship back on track.

The United States and China&&9;s other key trading partners have been piling pressure on Beijing to allow the yuan to appreciate, saying it is undervalued and gives the Asian nation an unfair advantage by making its exports cheaper.

Geithner -- who started the day in Hong Kong -- met in Beijing with Vice Premier Wang Qishan, the cabinet official in charge of economic and financial issues.

"The two sides exchanged views on US-China economic relations, the global economic situation and issues relating to the upcoming economic track dialogue of the second US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, to be held in Beijing in late May," the US Treasury Department said in a statement.

The department later confirmed Geithner left Beijing after the 75-minute meeting and was expected back in Washington Friday.

Wang also heads the Chinese side for the Strategic and Economic Dialogue with the US.

Neither US nor Chinese officials would comment on the agenda for the talks.

The Chinese currency has been effectively pegged at 6.8 to the dollar since mid-2008, and US lawmakers have been pushing the US Treasury to label China a "currency manipulator" -- a move that would open the door to sanctions.

Democratic and Republican lawmakers accuse China of deliberately undervaluing the yuan, leading to a flood of inexpensive goods and contributing to a trade deficit that soared to nearly 227 billion dollars in 2009.

But the US Treasury at the weekend announced the delay of a report which had been expected in mid-April that could have slapped China with the "manipulator" tag, with Geithner saying there were better ways to advance US interests.

Analysts have said Beijing appears ready to shift its position -- and Geithner&&9;s impromptu trip could be further evidence of efforts to reach a compromise on the thorny issue cheap pay day loans.

"China definitely needs to make a change and avoid becoming a common enemy of the entire world," Chen Xingdong, an economist at BNP Paribas in Beijing, told AFP.

"I don&&9;t think it will give in too much, but it will do as much as it can afford."

Researchers at Citigroup said they expect an appreciation of the yuan in the second quarter -- meaning before end-June -- calling a widening of the narrow daily trading band "likely".

Last month, central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said that Beijing&&9;s currency policy was temporary and would be withdrawn "sooner or later" along with other anti-crisis measures.

Then this week, Ba Shusong, an economist working for the cabinet&&9;s think tank, said a widening of the band was a policy possibility, adding the timing of a shift depended on the pace of economic recovery in China and the US.

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu added that Beijing would continue to adapt its exchange rate regime in a "proactive and gradual manner" but rejected the idea that it was to blame for any Sino-US trade imbalance.

Geithner said Tuesday the decision to revalue the yuan was "China&&9;s choice".

But he told India&&9;s NDTV network he was "confident that China will decide it is in their interest to resume the move to a more flexible exchange rate that they began some years ago and suspended in the midst of the financial crisis".

Hu is due to visit Washington on April 12-13 -- just days before the US Treasury report was to have been issued -- prompting speculation that a deal was reached to ensure a smooth visit.

Hu and President Barack Obama will meet on the sidelines of the summit, probably on Monday, the White House said.

Those discussions are likely to touch on a host of issues dogging Sino-US ties -- including Taiwan, Tibet, Internet freedom and the value of the yuan.

US treasury chief holds economic talks in China

ATHENS (AFP) – Greece got no quarter from financial markets Wednesday as its borrowing costs soared and the euro sank further with investors doubting an EU-IMF deal to help Athens sort out its debts.

For the second time this week the return on Greek 10-year bonds -- a key sovereign debt instrument -- jumped above seven percent, beyond what Greece can sustain in its ongoing effort to raise billions of euros by next month. Analysis: Greek crisis coming to a head

In afternoon trade, the yield on the benchmark Greek 10-year bond was 7.096 percent, up from 6.976 percent late Tuesday but off a record high of 7.176 percent seen around midday. Bond yields usually only change incrementally.

The euro tumbled meanwhile as IMF experts began an advisory mission to help Athens enact painful budget cuts that have already sparked two general strikes while a key union warned of further action this month.

In late morning London deals, the euro slid to 1.3387 dollars from 1.3397 dollars in New York late on Tuesday.

Prime Minister George Papandreou at a cabinet meeting spurred his ministers to work harder "to implement the great changes as fast as possible," a statement from his office said.

But the union representing nearly 400,000 Greek civil servants called for strike action "between April 20 and 30" against the austerity cuts.

"Employees, pensioners and the unemployed are shouldering ... the cost of a crisis which ... capital created and is speculating on," the Adedy union said.

The deteriorating climate has also spooked Greek banks, with Bank of Greece governor George Provopoulos telling the finance ministry the country&&9;s four main lenders had applied to join a state support scheme.

National Bank, Eurobank, Alpha Bank and Piraeus Bank asked for guarantees worth 15 billion euros (20 billion dollars) under a 28-billion-euro support scheme put in place by the previous conservative administration in late 2008, semi-state agency ANA said.

A finance ministry official said the government had already decided to extend the bank support scheme by six months.

"The whole Greek economy and the banking system are under pressure so one needs to have the assurance of additional guarantees," a finance ministry source said.

The IMF mission was requested by Greece as it battles huge budget deficits and a debt mountain of nearly 300 billion euros (402 billion dollars) free credit report and score.

Athens has set itself an enormous task of slashing its budget deficit by four percentage points this year in the midst of a deepening recession.

The long-awaited EU-IMF backup loan mechanism was meant to help the country reduce its borrowing costs has so far not worked amid doubts over the exact details and contradictory reports about where Greece stood on the accord.

Analysts on Wednesday also faulted a decision by Athens to go public with plans for a US roadshow after recent bond issues met dwindling demand in Europe.

"To me, this sends the wrong signal," said Erik Nielsen, Goldman Sachs chief European economist.

He said emerging market investors had already voiced "significant concern" about Greece&&9;s debt sustainability and are generally smaller-scale investors than traditional buyers of government bonds.

"If confirmed, going for this segment of the market is a worrying sign ... Clearly some of this needs to be corrected if we are to avoid some potentially very troublesome days."

At Commerzbank, analysts said that "it has become less likely over the past few days that Greece will be able to to solve its problems on its own.

"It is becoming increasingly clear that the projected bond issue in the United States would not reduce the borrowing costs for Athens."

There is also concern that Greece&&9;s crisis measures are based on estimates that are rapidly being outpaced by the country&&9;s deepening recession.

The finance ministry has already been forced to revise its estimate on the economy&&9;s shrinkage in 2009 from 1.2 percent to 2.0 percent.

On April 22, the European Union is expected to announce that Greece&&9;s public deficit in 2009 will be higher than the 12.7 percent of gross domestic product announced by the government, local reports said.

The reports said Eurostat could put the deficit as high as 14.3 percent, mainly on the strength of huge debts owed by state hospitals.

The entire Greek state health system has debts of over six billion euros according to the government, much of it to contractors and suppliers.

Greece desperately needs tens of billions of dollars of loans at an affordable rate to be able to repay maturing debt in coming weeks and months.

Greece in loan cost spiral amid debt fears

AMMAN (AFP) – International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said on Sunday that Jordan needs to strike a balance between its education system and market needs in order to boost the economy.

"The problem is the inadequacy between the education system and the needs of the private sector," Strauss-Kahn told reporters in Amman at a joint news conference with Central Bank Governor Umayya Tukan.

"The paradox is that the level of education in Jordan is rather high, very high I could say, and at the same time you have a very high level of youth and unemployment."

He said one reason for this is that "the skills your people acquire at university are not the ones which are needed at the private sector."

According to the IMF, unemployment is 12.7 percent in the country of around six million people, 70 percent of whom under 30, but other estimates put unemployment at 25 percent.

Strauss-Kahn said that the private sector in Jordan was "weak" and must play a greater role in the economy in order to bolster "growth in the future."

He also expected the kingdom&&9;s economy to grow by four percent this year but said "this is not enough."

"But I still see a rather strong possibility for the Jordan economy to do well in the coming years," said Strauss-Kahn, who held talks with King Abdullah II, Prime Minister Samir Rifai and Finance Minister Mohammad Abu Hammur business card templates.

Turning to the local currency, Strauss-Kahn said Jordan should continue to peg the dinar on the US dollar.

Last month, Standard and Poor&&9;s downgraded its long-term local currency ratings for Jordan to BBB- from BBB, citing rising government debt and weaker fiscal flexibility.

Strauss-Kahn also said the global economy was still recovering from the financial crisis.

"The recovery is coming sooner than expected. I am not saying that the crisis is over, but we are certainly beginning to recover. We are not out of the woods and we have to be cautious," he said.

Strauss-Kahn, who arrived in Jordan on Saturday, also met students from eight universities from the Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan.

They discussed "ways to address policy challenges facing the economies of the region and its youth," the IMF said in a statement.

The meeting was part of the IMF Middle East Youth Dialogue initiative "to engage with the youth of the region to get their perspectives on their economic future and to motivate their thinking at an early stage on policy measures that will be needed to secure sustainable economic growth in the region," it added.

IMF chief urges Jordan to balance education, market needs

SEATTLE – Now that the iPad is in the hands of early adopters, the hard work for Apple Inc. begins.

Eager customers intent on being among the first owners of this new class of gadgetry stood in long lines across the country Saturday. They seemed willing to buy first — and discover uses for the iPad later.

In some ways, it was reminiscent of the lines and hoopla surrounding the 2007 launch of the first iPhone. The difference: People knew then that the iPhone would replace their existing cell phone, an appliance that has become a must-have for everyone from uber-geeks to stay-at-home moms.

With the iPad, which fits somewhere between phone and computer, Apple must convince people who already have smart phones, laptops, e-book readers, set-top boxes and home broadband connections that they need another device that serves many of the same purposes.

Many of the earliest iPad buyers say they will have a better idea of what they'll use it for only after they've had it for a while.

That didn't stop them from imagining, though.

Beth Goza has had iPhones and other smart phones, along with a MacBook Air laptop, yet she believes the iPad has a place in her digital lineup. She likened it to a professional tennis player owning different sneakers for grass, clay and concrete courts.

"At the end of the day, you can get by with one or the other," she said outside an Apple store in Seattle's University Village mall.

But she clearly doesn't want to just "get by." She's already dreaming up specific uses for her iPad, such as knitting applications to help her keep track of her place in a complicated pattern.

Danita Shneidman, a woman in her 60s, wanted one to look at photos and videos of her first grandchild, born this week in Boston.

And then there's Ray Majewski, who went to an Apple store in Freehold, N.J., with his 10-year-old daughter, Julia. The iPad is partly as a reward for her straight A's in school, and partly a present for himself.

"I like the electronic books, and my daughter is really getting into them as well," Majewski said. "I was thinking of getting a Kindle (e-book reader) but then said to myself, 'Why not get an iPad because I can get so much more from that than just reading books?'"

The iPad is essentially a much larger version of Apple's popular iPhone, without the calling capabilities. Just a half-inch thick, the device has a touch screen that measures 9.7 inches on the diagonal — nearly three times the iPhone's. Also like the iPhone, it has no physical keyboard.

For now, Apple is selling iPads that only connect to the Internet using Wi-Fi. Those models start at $499. Versions that also have a cellular data connection will be available by the end of the month. They will cost $130 more, with the most expensive at $829.

In Apple stores in Seattle and on New York's Fifth Avenue, the atmosphere was festive, with employees cheering and clapping as customers entered and left. Some analysts predicted the gadget would sell out on Saturday. Although there didn't seem to be problems with supply at Apple stores, two Best Buy stores in the Washington, D.C., area didn't have iPads in stock for sale when they opened.

People could also "pre-order" iPads online to arrive Saturday. Prasad Thammineni did just that, but had to chase the UPS guy down the block from his office in Cambridge, Mass low interest payday loans., to get his iPad.

After playing with it for a few hours, his impressions were mostly positive. Typing on the on-screen keyboard wasn't as comfortable as using a laptop with a regular keyboard, and Thammineni said he found himself using several fingers but not touch-typing normally. Still, he said, it was much easier to use than a Kindle keyboard.

But the weight of the device might keep him from typing on the go. Thammineni said that after about two minutes of holding up the device with one hand and typing with the other, it got too heavy, even at a mere 1.5 pounds.

Once the initial iPad excitement settles, Apple may have to work harder to persuade a broader swath of people to buy one. Many companies have tried to sell tablet computers before, but none has caught on with mainstream consumers. And while early adopters who pre-ordered an iPad in recent weeks have gushed about all the ways they hope to use it, skeptics point to all the ways the iPad comes up short.

They argue the on-screen keyboard is hard to use and complain that it lacks a camera and ports for media storage cards and USB devices such as printers. They also bemoan the fact that the iPad can't play Flash video, which means many Web sites with embedded video clips will look broken to Web surfers using Apple's Safari browser. And the iPad can't run more than one program at a time, which even fans hope will change one day soon.

College student Brett Meulmester stood in line at an Apple store in Arlington, Va., to try one out without buying one yet because of cost.

Lower prices could push wider adoption, but when Apple slashed prices for the iPhone just months after its release, early buyers were irate. Tom Quinn, of Sea Girt, N.J., wasn't worried about paying a premium for being one of the first to have an iPad.

"When that happened with the iPhone, they gave out $100 credit," he said. "If the same thing happens with the iPad, I'm sure they'll do something similar."

For others, cost was clearly not an issue — nor convenience, it seemed. Siggi Manz, a software developer who lives near Frankfurt, Germany, was spending just 20 hours in New York to snag one. Manz, who already carries Apple's MacBook Pro and iPhone, said the iPad would be ideal for note-taking.

"Opening a laptop is sometimes impersonal because the monitor is between us, and the iPhone is too little to really honestly type," Manz said.

James Stuart trekked to Seattle from Canada, where the iPad won't be on sale for another month — too long, in his mind.

"It's like a gorgeous woman — you just want to touch it," he said.

In San Francisco, tattoo artist Max Ackermann is convinced the iPad will "define a giant change in how we perceive computers in general."

Yet Ackermann admits he has no clue exactly how, saying, "It's definitely in its baby years."

___

Associated Press Writer Bruce Shipkowski in Freehold, N.J., AP Business Writer Marcy Gordon in Arlington, Va., and photographers Diane Bondareff in New York, Jacquelyn Martin in Washington and Paul Sakuma in San Francisco contributed to this story.

Apple fans eagerly touch and swipe first iPads