Japanese companies unveiled a string of gloomy results today as major exporters continue to take a battering from the global recession.
Hitachi confirmed it had suffered the worst loss ever for a Japanese manufacturer and warned of another difficult year ahead.
The firm, which makes consumer electronics and industrial equipment, said net losses had mounted to ¥787.3bn (£5.3bn) in the year through to 31 March from a ¥58.1bn loss a year earlier.
Hitachi said it expected losses to come to ¥270bn this year amid a sharp drop in demand for electronic gadgets, chips and cars incorporating its products.
In January it responded to the fall in sales by announcing plans to shed 7,000 jobs, or almost 2% of its global workforce.
"The global economy is not expected to see a fully fledged recovery until 2010 at the earliest," the company said.
"The global economic outlook is being shaped by concerns about the US and other industrialised nations slipping into negative economic growth, and about slowing economic growth in emerging economies and the yen's appreciation."
Hitachi's results are the biggest ever loss in Japan's manufacturing sector and the second largest in the country's corporate history after Nippon Telegraph and Telephone's ¥834.6bn loss in 2002.
There was more gloomy news today from NEC, which swung from a ¥22.7bn profit in 2007 to a loss of ¥297bn for the year that ended in March. The electronics maker said sales had fallen 8.7% to ¥4.2tn.
"The rapid economic decline and subsequent decrease in demand during the second half, particularly in the electron device business, resulted in sales declines throughout all business segments," it said in a statement.
The firm hopes its restructuring plan, which includes the loss of more than 20,000 jobs, will help it achieve a ¥10bn net profit this year.
Sony downbeat too
Sony is expected to announce its first net loss for 14 years on Thursday, in a blow to chief executive Sir Howard Stringer's efforts to revive the company's fortunes. The firm is expected to record a net loss of ¥150bn compared with a ¥369.4bn profit a year earlier after suffering a projected 13% drop in annual sales.
A week after Toyota announced its first net losses for almost 60 years, Japan's third-biggest carmaker, Nissan, said it had posted its first loss since it was rescued from near bankruptcy a decade ago by chief executive Carlos Ghosn.
The firm reported an operating loss of ¥137.9bn after a ¥790.8bn profit last year.
Ghosn warned of more volatility in the global car market, but he said recent measures to ease the effects of the recession were having an impact.
"We are beginning to see some signs of improved access to credit, the impact of government stimulus packages and a gradual return in consumer confidence," he told reporters. "The crisis is ongoing and market conditions are still volatile."
The losses were slightly lower than Nissan had projected, and although revenue plunged 22% last year, the fall was not as bad as expected. The firm said it hoped to reduce its losses over the coming year to ¥170bn.
"We are preparing ourselves to be back in profit, in the worst case, by 2010," said Ghosn, who is also chief executive of Renault.
Nissan, which is 44% owned by Renault, blamed its predicament on a triple whammy of the US financial crisis, the global recession and the strength of the yen, which eats into profits from vehicles sold overseas. It has announced 20,000 job cuts this year, including 1,200 at its plant in Sunderland.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Obama's key climate bill hit by $45m PR campaign
America's oil, gas and coal industry has increased its lobbying budget by 50%, with key players spending $44.5m in the first three months of this year in an intense effort to cut off support for Barack Obama's plan to build a clean energy economy.
The spoiler campaign runs to hundreds of millions of dollars and involves industry front groups, lobbying firms, television, print and radio advertising, and donations to pivotal members of Congress. Its intention is to water down or kill off plans by the Democratic leadership to pass "cap and trade" legislation this year, which would place limits on greenhouse gas emissions.
A defeat for the bill would have global consequences. The international community is depending on America, as the world's biggest per capita polluter, to set out a firm plan for getting off dirty fuels in the months before crucial UN negotiations in Copenhagen in December.
Without such action, the chances of getting a deal that scientists say is vital to limiting dangerous climate change are much reduced.
Those high stakes have intensified the fight for control over America's energy future. "There are an awful lot of people who have an awful lot to gain and lose and they have been acting accordingly," said Evan Tracey, founder of the Campaign Media Analysis Group (CMAG), who has tracked the proliferation of climate change ads.
But it is an unequal contest. Liberal and environmental organisations, as well as the major corporations that support climate change legislation, say they are being vastly outspent by fossil fuel interests.
"These guys are spending a billion dollars this year convincing Americans that they are clean, green, cuddly and warm," said Bob Perkowitz, founder of the eco- America PR firm. Perkowitz is to brief the White House yesterday on a new environmental messaging strategy. "The enviros are getting their message out, but they are being outspent by 10 to one." he said.On advertising, the ratio is about three to one. The oil and coal industry spent $76.1m on ads from 1 January to 27 April, according to CMAG data seen by the Guardian. Environmental groups, led by Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection, the Environmental Defence Fund and the Sierra Club, spent $28.6m on ads in the same period, Tracey said.
Despite its global significance, the fate of the draft "cap and trade" bill now lies in the hands of just a dozen Democrats, who have yet to back Obama's energy transformation. The Democratic leadership cannot take their support for granted. Seven of those pivotal Democrats received campaign donations in excess of $100,000 from the oil and gas industry, coal producers, and electricity firms during last year's elections, according to an analysis provided to the Guardian by the Centre for Responsive Politics. Another two received more than $90,000 last year.
Environmentalists say those Democrats, who hold the balance of power on the committee, pose a far greater threat to the chances of passing climate change legislation than a full vote in the House of Representatives. "If they can get that bill through the subcommittee what is going to emerge is a piece of legislation," said Tony Kreindler of the Environmental Defence Fund. "So this is ground zero for the vote."
The spoiler campaign runs to hundreds of millions of dollars and involves industry front groups, lobbying firms, television, print and radio advertising, and donations to pivotal members of Congress. Its intention is to water down or kill off plans by the Democratic leadership to pass "cap and trade" legislation this year, which would place limits on greenhouse gas emissions.
A defeat for the bill would have global consequences. The international community is depending on America, as the world's biggest per capita polluter, to set out a firm plan for getting off dirty fuels in the months before crucial UN negotiations in Copenhagen in December.
Without such action, the chances of getting a deal that scientists say is vital to limiting dangerous climate change are much reduced.
Those high stakes have intensified the fight for control over America's energy future. "There are an awful lot of people who have an awful lot to gain and lose and they have been acting accordingly," said Evan Tracey, founder of the Campaign Media Analysis Group (CMAG), who has tracked the proliferation of climate change ads.
But it is an unequal contest. Liberal and environmental organisations, as well as the major corporations that support climate change legislation, say they are being vastly outspent by fossil fuel interests.
"These guys are spending a billion dollars this year convincing Americans that they are clean, green, cuddly and warm," said Bob Perkowitz, founder of the eco- America PR firm. Perkowitz is to brief the White House yesterday on a new environmental messaging strategy. "The enviros are getting their message out, but they are being outspent by 10 to one." he said.On advertising, the ratio is about three to one. The oil and coal industry spent $76.1m on ads from 1 January to 27 April, according to CMAG data seen by the Guardian. Environmental groups, led by Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection, the Environmental Defence Fund and the Sierra Club, spent $28.6m on ads in the same period, Tracey said.
Despite its global significance, the fate of the draft "cap and trade" bill now lies in the hands of just a dozen Democrats, who have yet to back Obama's energy transformation. The Democratic leadership cannot take their support for granted. Seven of those pivotal Democrats received campaign donations in excess of $100,000 from the oil and gas industry, coal producers, and electricity firms during last year's elections, according to an analysis provided to the Guardian by the Centre for Responsive Politics. Another two received more than $90,000 last year.
Environmentalists say those Democrats, who hold the balance of power on the committee, pose a far greater threat to the chances of passing climate change legislation than a full vote in the House of Representatives. "If they can get that bill through the subcommittee what is going to emerge is a piece of legislation," said Tony Kreindler of the Environmental Defence Fund. "So this is ground zero for the vote."
David Cameron tells Tory MPs: write cheque or face sack
whirlwind swept through Westminster todayas the main political parties ordered their MPs to pay back excessive expenses and promised to end the worst abuses of the system immediately.
On a dramatic day when the parties finally responded to the anger in the country it was David Cameron, the Tory leader, who moved most quickly, directing eight shadow cabinet members, including his closest political allies, to write cheques to refund the taxpayer for improper claims or face the sack.
Last night, in a series of television interviews, Gordon Brown said Commons officials would meet again tomorrow to work on plans for an independent figure to lead a team tasked with going through the past four years' of receipts for every MP before ruling on whether the claim was legitimate. But the Tories contested any suggestion that an agreement had been reached last night.
The communities secretary, Hazel Blears, also appeared on television brandishing a cheque she said she intended to send to the Inland Revenue, saying she planned to pay back the £13,332 made by avoiding capital gains tax when she sold one of her homes.
In a press conference today Cameron said he was shocked by revelations that party grandees, playing to the worst Conservative stereotype, had been claiming for chandeliers, moats, horse manure and the cleaning of swimming pools. The Tory leader ordered backbenchers, including some of the most senior figures in his party, to follow any payback instructions from a newly established party panel or face expulsion.
After addressing an emergency meeting of his parliamentary party, he said: "People are right to be angry that some MPs have taken public money to pay for things few could afford. You've been let down.
"Politicians have done things that are unethical and wrong. I don't care if they were within the rules – they were wrong. I can announce people from my shadow cabinet are now writing out cheques."
Labour, one step behind Cameron for most of the day, convened a meeting of the cross-party members allowances committee to start the process of agreeing which claims could be repaid if they had been granted "outwith the rules at the time".
Harriet Harman, the leader of the Commons, called for an end to flipping, whereby MPs switch the identity of their second home to maximise their claims. She also called on the committee to impose an immediate moratorium on claims for furniture, fixtures and fittings pending the outcome of the independent review being conducted by Sir Christopher Kelly, the chairman of the committee on standards in public life.
In a move that went further than Cameron, Harman also proposed a cap on the amount of mortgage tax relief MPs could claim on their second home.
Later in the day, Nick Brown, the chief whip, began meeting Labour MPs identified as making excessive claims and ordered them to consider refunding the taxpayer. Among those agreeing to reimburse the taxpayer was Margaret Moran, the Luton South MP, who had repeatedly switched her second home to maximise her claims and then filed expenses of £22,000 to cover the cost of removing dry rot from her partner's home in Southampton.
Blears, who originally denied claims that she flipped her homes, made her decision to pay money back after meeting Gordon Brown. Last night Blears wrote to the Inland Revenue setting out how she was willing to pay capital gains tax on the £45,000 profit she made in August 2004 for the sale of her one-bed flat in south London.
The Labour MP Harry Cohen also agreed to pay back claims he had made on his caravan in Essex.
Harman said it was right to address the issue on a cross-party basis, and denied she had been outmanoeuvred by Cameron, saying: "We don't have to see this in terms of a party political competition."
In a further development, the Liberal Democrats, previously unscathed from the revelations, disclosed that more than 10 of their MPs have been accused of wrongdoing. Sir Menzies Campbell, a former party leader, hired a leading interior designer to refurbish his small flat in central London at taxpayers' expense, spending nearly £10,000 on scatter cushions, a king-sized bed and a flat-screen television.
Nick Clegg, the party leader, also agreed to repay an £82 mobile phone bill on calls made to his family. He had also claimed £160 a month on gardening fees at his constituency home, but said he would not be paying this sum back.
In the most dramatic clean-up, Cameron confronted eight shadow cabinet members and told them they would be sacked if they did not agree to pay back questionable claims. He told his frontbench: "A Conservative government needs to be careful, not casual, with public money. That principle of thrift should apply to Conservative MPs as well.
"From now on, I want them to claim what is reasonable to do their job, not the maximum they can get away with."
Cameron promised to return the only maintenance claim he had made in his eight years as an MP: £680 for removing wisteria, and other repairs at his constituency home.
The shadow ministers making repayments was headed by shadow children's secretary, Michael Gove, who will return £7,000 paid for furniture, and the shadow leader of the house, Alan Duncan, who is to pay back almost £5,000 claimed for gardening. Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley will repay £2,600 for home improvements and the chairman of the party's policy review, Oliver Letwin, £2,000 to repair a leaking pipe under his tennis court. All future Tory claims are to go on a website as soon as they are made.
On a dramatic day when the parties finally responded to the anger in the country it was David Cameron, the Tory leader, who moved most quickly, directing eight shadow cabinet members, including his closest political allies, to write cheques to refund the taxpayer for improper claims or face the sack.
Last night, in a series of television interviews, Gordon Brown said Commons officials would meet again tomorrow to work on plans for an independent figure to lead a team tasked with going through the past four years' of receipts for every MP before ruling on whether the claim was legitimate. But the Tories contested any suggestion that an agreement had been reached last night.
The communities secretary, Hazel Blears, also appeared on television brandishing a cheque she said she intended to send to the Inland Revenue, saying she planned to pay back the £13,332 made by avoiding capital gains tax when she sold one of her homes.
In a press conference today Cameron said he was shocked by revelations that party grandees, playing to the worst Conservative stereotype, had been claiming for chandeliers, moats, horse manure and the cleaning of swimming pools. The Tory leader ordered backbenchers, including some of the most senior figures in his party, to follow any payback instructions from a newly established party panel or face expulsion.
After addressing an emergency meeting of his parliamentary party, he said: "People are right to be angry that some MPs have taken public money to pay for things few could afford. You've been let down.
"Politicians have done things that are unethical and wrong. I don't care if they were within the rules – they were wrong. I can announce people from my shadow cabinet are now writing out cheques."
Labour, one step behind Cameron for most of the day, convened a meeting of the cross-party members allowances committee to start the process of agreeing which claims could be repaid if they had been granted "outwith the rules at the time".
Harriet Harman, the leader of the Commons, called for an end to flipping, whereby MPs switch the identity of their second home to maximise their claims. She also called on the committee to impose an immediate moratorium on claims for furniture, fixtures and fittings pending the outcome of the independent review being conducted by Sir Christopher Kelly, the chairman of the committee on standards in public life.
In a move that went further than Cameron, Harman also proposed a cap on the amount of mortgage tax relief MPs could claim on their second home.
Later in the day, Nick Brown, the chief whip, began meeting Labour MPs identified as making excessive claims and ordered them to consider refunding the taxpayer. Among those agreeing to reimburse the taxpayer was Margaret Moran, the Luton South MP, who had repeatedly switched her second home to maximise her claims and then filed expenses of £22,000 to cover the cost of removing dry rot from her partner's home in Southampton.
Blears, who originally denied claims that she flipped her homes, made her decision to pay money back after meeting Gordon Brown. Last night Blears wrote to the Inland Revenue setting out how she was willing to pay capital gains tax on the £45,000 profit she made in August 2004 for the sale of her one-bed flat in south London.
The Labour MP Harry Cohen also agreed to pay back claims he had made on his caravan in Essex.
Harman said it was right to address the issue on a cross-party basis, and denied she had been outmanoeuvred by Cameron, saying: "We don't have to see this in terms of a party political competition."
In a further development, the Liberal Democrats, previously unscathed from the revelations, disclosed that more than 10 of their MPs have been accused of wrongdoing. Sir Menzies Campbell, a former party leader, hired a leading interior designer to refurbish his small flat in central London at taxpayers' expense, spending nearly £10,000 on scatter cushions, a king-sized bed and a flat-screen television.
Nick Clegg, the party leader, also agreed to repay an £82 mobile phone bill on calls made to his family. He had also claimed £160 a month on gardening fees at his constituency home, but said he would not be paying this sum back.
In the most dramatic clean-up, Cameron confronted eight shadow cabinet members and told them they would be sacked if they did not agree to pay back questionable claims. He told his frontbench: "A Conservative government needs to be careful, not casual, with public money. That principle of thrift should apply to Conservative MPs as well.
"From now on, I want them to claim what is reasonable to do their job, not the maximum they can get away with."
Cameron promised to return the only maintenance claim he had made in his eight years as an MP: £680 for removing wisteria, and other repairs at his constituency home.
The shadow ministers making repayments was headed by shadow children's secretary, Michael Gove, who will return £7,000 paid for furniture, and the shadow leader of the house, Alan Duncan, who is to pay back almost £5,000 claimed for gardening. Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley will repay £2,600 for home improvements and the chairman of the party's policy review, Oliver Letwin, £2,000 to repair a leaking pipe under his tennis court. All future Tory claims are to go on a website as soon as they are made.
Gabriel shares Polar Music Prize
Singer Peter Gabriel and Venezuelan composer Jose Antonio Abreu have won this year's Polar Music Prize.
The pair will each receive one million kroner (£84,000) from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.
They will both be presented with their awards by King Carl XVI Gustaf at a gala ceremony at the Stockholm Concert Hall on 31 August.
The Polar Music Prize is Sweden's biggest music award which is split between pop and classical musicians.
The prize committee praised the former Genesis singer for his "ground-breaking, outward-looking and boundary-busting artistry".
It added the star had "not only had a significant influence on the development of popular music - he has redefined the very concept
Abreu, who founded a network offering music classes and workshops to young people, was praised for his work which "shows us what is possible when music is made the common ground and thereby part of people's everyday lives".
The Polar Music Prize was founded by Stig Anderson, the manager of Swedish pop group ABBA, in 1989.
Last year's award was shared by British rock group Pink Floyd and US soprano Renee Fleming.
Other artists to be awarded the prize include Sir Paul McCartney, Dizzy Gillespie, Sir Elton John, Joni Mitchell, Bruce Springsteen, Ravi Shankar and Led Zeppelin.
The pair will each receive one million kroner (£84,000) from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.
They will both be presented with their awards by King Carl XVI Gustaf at a gala ceremony at the Stockholm Concert Hall on 31 August.
The Polar Music Prize is Sweden's biggest music award which is split between pop and classical musicians.
The prize committee praised the former Genesis singer for his "ground-breaking, outward-looking and boundary-busting artistry".
It added the star had "not only had a significant influence on the development of popular music - he has redefined the very concept
Abreu, who founded a network offering music classes and workshops to young people, was praised for his work which "shows us what is possible when music is made the common ground and thereby part of people's everyday lives".
The Polar Music Prize was founded by Stig Anderson, the manager of Swedish pop group ABBA, in 1989.
Last year's award was shared by British rock group Pink Floyd and US soprano Renee Fleming.
Other artists to be awarded the prize include Sir Paul McCartney, Dizzy Gillespie, Sir Elton John, Joni Mitchell, Bruce Springsteen, Ravi Shankar and Led Zeppelin.
Pakistan raids Taleban stronghold
Pakistan's army says it has dropped troops by helicopter to tackle a Taleban stronghold as part of a broadening offensive in the north-west.
The troops were landed in the sparsely populated Peochar valley in Swat.
A BBC correspondent says Peochar is one of the bases of Swat Taleban chief Maulana Fazlullah.
Hundreds of thousands have fled the fighting and Human Rights Watch has urged the army and Taleban to avoid civilian casualties.
One resident in the main town of Mingora in Swat described the situation there as dire.
The man, who did not want to be identified, told the BBC that food supplies were running out, and electricity and gas had been cut off.
"Thousands of people are still trapped in Mingora, but the town is like a ghost city as no one dares to come out in the streets."
Mountain retreat
Up to 15,000 troops have now been deployed in the Swat valley and neighbouring areas to take on up to 5,000 militants.
An army spokesman confirmed to the BBC that troops airlifted by army helicopters had landed in Peochar but refused to reveal any more operational details.
The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says the area has camps both for combat training of militants and for training suicide bombers.
He says Maulana Fazlullah is normally based in his native village of Imamdheri in Matta but retreats to Peochar when under army pressure and is reported to be there now.
Our correspondent says there are also reports of the army blocking exit routes out of Peochar and if the area has been adequately cordoned off, the battle there may be fierce.
The BBC Urdu service managed to reach a civilian in Mingora by telephone and was told of "intermittent gunfire".
The man, who wanted to remain anonymous, said: "Thousands of people are still trapped in Mingora, but the town is like a ghost city as no-one dares come out on the streets.
Everybody wants to leave with no gas and food stocks running very low but the strict curfew by the government has given us no choice but to stay put."
Human Rights Watch has meanwhile urged the army and Taleban to do all they can to avoid civilian casualties in Swat.
Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said: "Beheadings and use of human shields by Taleban forces are not a blank cheque for the Pakistani army.
"Winning the war, but also the peace, in Swat can only be achieved by minimising civilian suffering."
Human Rights Watch said it had reports of the Taleban mining parts of the Swat valley and preventing people leaving Mingora.
The UN has expressed fears for the 360,000 Pakistanis who have fled and has said it will deliver emergency humanitarian aid.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said: "This is a huge and rapidly unfolding emergency which is going to require considerable resources beyond those that currently exist in the region."
Pakistan's military says it has killed hundreds of militants so far.
Pakistan's government signed a peace agreement with the Swat Taleban in February, allowing Sharia law there, a move sharply criticised by Washington.
The militants then moved out into neighbouring districts, causing further alarm.
The troops were landed in the sparsely populated Peochar valley in Swat.
A BBC correspondent says Peochar is one of the bases of Swat Taleban chief Maulana Fazlullah.
Hundreds of thousands have fled the fighting and Human Rights Watch has urged the army and Taleban to avoid civilian casualties.
One resident in the main town of Mingora in Swat described the situation there as dire.
The man, who did not want to be identified, told the BBC that food supplies were running out, and electricity and gas had been cut off.
"Thousands of people are still trapped in Mingora, but the town is like a ghost city as no one dares to come out in the streets."
Mountain retreat
Up to 15,000 troops have now been deployed in the Swat valley and neighbouring areas to take on up to 5,000 militants.
An army spokesman confirmed to the BBC that troops airlifted by army helicopters had landed in Peochar but refused to reveal any more operational details.
The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says the area has camps both for combat training of militants and for training suicide bombers.
He says Maulana Fazlullah is normally based in his native village of Imamdheri in Matta but retreats to Peochar when under army pressure and is reported to be there now.
Our correspondent says there are also reports of the army blocking exit routes out of Peochar and if the area has been adequately cordoned off, the battle there may be fierce.
The BBC Urdu service managed to reach a civilian in Mingora by telephone and was told of "intermittent gunfire".
The man, who wanted to remain anonymous, said: "Thousands of people are still trapped in Mingora, but the town is like a ghost city as no-one dares come out on the streets.
Everybody wants to leave with no gas and food stocks running very low but the strict curfew by the government has given us no choice but to stay put."
Human Rights Watch has meanwhile urged the army and Taleban to do all they can to avoid civilian casualties in Swat.
Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said: "Beheadings and use of human shields by Taleban forces are not a blank cheque for the Pakistani army.
"Winning the war, but also the peace, in Swat can only be achieved by minimising civilian suffering."
Human Rights Watch said it had reports of the Taleban mining parts of the Swat valley and preventing people leaving Mingora.
The UN has expressed fears for the 360,000 Pakistanis who have fled and has said it will deliver emergency humanitarian aid.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said: "This is a huge and rapidly unfolding emergency which is going to require considerable resources beyond those that currently exist in the region."
Pakistan's military says it has killed hundreds of militants so far.
Pakistan's government signed a peace agreement with the Swat Taleban in February, allowing Sharia law there, a move sharply criticised by Washington.
The militants then moved out into neighbouring districts, causing further alarm.
Blue diamond fetches record price
A rare blue diamond has sold for a record 10.5 million Swiss francs ($9.5m; £6.2m) at auction in Geneva.
It weighs 7.03 carats, is smaller than a penny piece, and is one of only a handful of blue diamonds in existence.
The anonymous phone bidder has yet to name the gem, mounted on a platinum ring, auctioneers Sotheby's said.
The diamond was found in Cullinan mine in South Africa last year, and its clarity was graded as flawless - the highest designation.
Auctioneer David Bennett said: "It is a new world record price for a blue diamond."
It had a pre-sale catalogue estimate of 6.8 million to 10 million francs, excluding commission.
'Beyond beautiful'
The hammer price excluding commission was 9.3 million francs.
The scarcity of the gems is in part down to the fact so few places in the world mine for blue diamonds.
Mr Bennett said: "For people who are looking to buy something that nobody else has, or somebody who wants something that is beyond beautiful, a blue diamond is going to be very difficult to find, so when they appear on the market, you have to have a go."
The stones get their colour when the chemical boron is present during formation.
In May 2008 a 3.73 carat diamond was sold by Sotheby's at auction for nearly $5m (£3.4m) setting the world record price per carat for any gemstone at auction.
It weighs 7.03 carats, is smaller than a penny piece, and is one of only a handful of blue diamonds in existence.
The anonymous phone bidder has yet to name the gem, mounted on a platinum ring, auctioneers Sotheby's said.
The diamond was found in Cullinan mine in South Africa last year, and its clarity was graded as flawless - the highest designation.
Auctioneer David Bennett said: "It is a new world record price for a blue diamond."
It had a pre-sale catalogue estimate of 6.8 million to 10 million francs, excluding commission.
'Beyond beautiful'
The hammer price excluding commission was 9.3 million francs.
The scarcity of the gems is in part down to the fact so few places in the world mine for blue diamonds.
Mr Bennett said: "For people who are looking to buy something that nobody else has, or somebody who wants something that is beyond beautiful, a blue diamond is going to be very difficult to find, so when they appear on the market, you have to have a go."
The stones get their colour when the chemical boron is present during formation.
In May 2008 a 3.73 carat diamond was sold by Sotheby's at auction for nearly $5m (£3.4m) setting the world record price per carat for any gemstone at auction.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Sri Lankan troops poised for big breakthrough
The Sri Lankan military is hopeful of neutralising the military capabilities of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam inside the new safety zone (NSZ) in the next 48 hours and paving the way for the release of civilians being held hostage, even as the United Nations characterised the heavy casualties inside the zone in the last two days as a ‘blood bath’ in which over 100 children are believed to have died.
“On the basis of reports from the military commanders I can say that the troops are poised for a major breakthrough in the next 48 hours. The LTTE would soon lose its wherewithal to offer organised resistance and the troops expect to repeat a feat like on April 20 when the military succeeded in breaching the three-kilometre Tiger earth wall-cum-band and facilitated the escape of 1.16 lakh civilians from the LTTE clutches,” Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa told Doordarshan in an interview here on Monday.
The Defence Secretary denied reports of shelling on the NSZ by the military and dismissed them as propaganda by the LTTE to coincide with Monday’s U.N. Security Council meeting. He charged the Tigers with indiscriminate firing at a group of 1,000 fleeing civilians.
The military said 250 of them were either killed or injured in LTTE firing and released purported transcripts of intercepted communication among the Tigers forcibly stopping civilians. It said the LTTE suffered heavy casualties as the troops pushed deeper into the NSZ.
Military spokesperson of the LTTE Rasiah Ilanthriyan was among those killed. On Sunday, it was announced that the second in command in the Sea Tigers wing died in fighting. Sri Lanka Government doctor V. Shanmugarajah, who works at a makeshift hospital in the war zone, said 393 people were either brought to the hospital for burial or had died at the facility on Sunday, while another 37 bodies were brought in on Monday morning. More than 1,300 injured came to the hospital, he said.
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“On the basis of reports from the military commanders I can say that the troops are poised for a major breakthrough in the next 48 hours. The LTTE would soon lose its wherewithal to offer organised resistance and the troops expect to repeat a feat like on April 20 when the military succeeded in breaching the three-kilometre Tiger earth wall-cum-band and facilitated the escape of 1.16 lakh civilians from the LTTE clutches,” Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa told Doordarshan in an interview here on Monday.
The Defence Secretary denied reports of shelling on the NSZ by the military and dismissed them as propaganda by the LTTE to coincide with Monday’s U.N. Security Council meeting. He charged the Tigers with indiscriminate firing at a group of 1,000 fleeing civilians.
The military said 250 of them were either killed or injured in LTTE firing and released purported transcripts of intercepted communication among the Tigers forcibly stopping civilians. It said the LTTE suffered heavy casualties as the troops pushed deeper into the NSZ.
Military spokesperson of the LTTE Rasiah Ilanthriyan was among those killed. On Sunday, it was announced that the second in command in the Sea Tigers wing died in fighting. Sri Lanka Government doctor V. Shanmugarajah, who works at a makeshift hospital in the war zone, said 393 people were either brought to the hospital for burial or had died at the facility on Sunday, while another 37 bodies were brought in on Monday morning. More than 1,300 injured came to the hospital, he said.
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