A boat fishes for sharks off the beach at Boucan Canot on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion, September 27, 2011.

ORLANDO, Florida | Thu Aug 9, 2012 11:27am EDT

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Survivors of shark attacks - now trying to save the animals that took their limbs and, in some cases, nearly their lives - want U.S. restaurant-goers to know they may be eating a threatened species in their shark fin soup.

Out of 32 samples taken across the country of the Chinese delicacy with identifiable shark DNA, 26 bowls, or 81 percent, contained fins from sharks listed as endangered, vulnerable or near threatened, according to a report released on Thursday by the Pew Environment Group.

The study was based on tests of the soup in 14 U.S. cities, and shark attack survivors collected the soup samples.

The survivors hope the study will help convince the public that the ultimate price of shark fin soup is more than the typical $100 listed on menus.

Nearly one-third of shark species are in danger of extinction, and up to 73 million sharks are killed each year for their fins, Pew said.

President Barack Obama signed a law last year to tighten a ban on the practice of removing sharks' fins and throwing the fish back into the ocean to die. Fins also can come from legal, regulated fishing.

"What better voice is there than ours?" said Mike Coots, 32, of Kauai, Hawaii, a surfer whose right leg was ripped off by a tiger shark in 1997.

The survivors group has lobbied Congress to close loopholes in the shark fin ban. It also works through the United Nations to encourage the establishment of shark sanctuaries around the world.

Their efforts began after Debbie Salamone, a competitive ballroom dancer, had her Achilles tendon severed by a shark off Florida's coast in 2004.

The shark encounter eventually lead her to refocus her life's work on protecting the animals from extinction and recruiting other shark attack survivors around the globe to help with her mission.

"Most of us have forgiven," said Salamone, 46, who is now a Pew spokeswoman. "If you care about the ocean, you need to care about sharks."

SECRET SOUP SAMPLES

For the shark fin soup study, shark attack survivors fanned out to a total of 51 restaurants in New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Houston, Las Vegas, Denver, Seattle, San Francisco, the Washington, D.C., area, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando in Florida, and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Krishna Thompson, 46, whose leg was stripped to bone by a shark during a 2001 wedding anniversary trip to the Bahamas and later amputated, said he collected soup samples from six or seven different restaurants in New York.

"I would always take the soup to go," Thompson said.

Once outside the restaurants, Thompson said he would label the soup containers for submission to DNA testers at Stony Brook University.

"Hating sharks helps no one," said Thompson, who nearly died from blood loss and organ shutdown after his shark attack.

The most egregious soup sample, from a restaurant in Boston, contained the endangered scalloped hammerhead shark, according to the report.

DNA from sharks listed as vulnerable was found in seven soup samples from Orlando, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Albuquerque.

Another 18 soup samples contained shark considered near threatened, according to the findings.

The remaining samples contained shark meat that could not be specifically identified due to the quality of the DNA or the lack of useable DNA. In three cases, the only identifiable meat came from chicken or other fish, according to the report.

John Breall, a San Francisco lawyer who represents Asian-American restaurateurs, importers and civic leaders, is fighting a new California ban on the possession or sale of fins, which he calls "anti-Chinese." Breall told Reuters he was surprised by the Pew group's findings.

"There are major shark fisheries on the east and west coasts, sustainable fisheries, and these supply the vast majority of shark meat and shark fins," Breall said.

Breall said most of the shark from the sustainable fisheries is spiny dogfish, which "are reproducing at a huge rate." The Pew study lists spiny dogfish as vulnerable.

(Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Vicki Allen)

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TOKYO | Thu Aug 9, 2012 2:42am EDT

TOKYO Aug 9 (Reuters) - Olympus Corp reported a 60 percent fall in quarterly operating profit and a deterioration in a key barometer of its ability to meet financial obligations, adding pressure on the scandal-hit Japanese company to enter into a capital deal.

For the April-to-June quarter, operating profit was 2.12 billion yen ($27.05 million), the company said on Thursday. Shareholders' equity fell to 2.2 percent of total assets.

The drop in the shareholders' equity ratio from 4.6 percent in March further pushes Olympus away from the 20 percent level widely regarded by analysts as indicative of corporate financial stability.

The 93-year-old manufacturer of cameras and medical equipment, has been in talks with several Japanese companies including FujiFilm Holdings on a capital tie-up as it tries to mend its severely depleted balance sheet hit by a massive accounting scandal last year.

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1 of 2. A view of the Hewlett Packard headquarters in Palo Alto, California November 23, 2009.

BOSTON/NEW YORK | Wed Aug 8, 2012 8:03pm EDT

BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hewlett Packard Co warned of a mammoth quarterly loss after writing down $8 billion on the value of its services business, most of which it acquired four years ago with its $14 billion purchase of EDS.

The world's largest computer maker also plans to replace its head of services, a vast but sluggish division that new CEO Meg Whitman wants to reshape into a stronger competitor to the likes of IBM.

Whitman, the former eBay CEO who took up the computing giant's helm in 2011 to some skepticism about her technology and hardware credentials, is trying to turn around the company. HP's stock has lost more than half its value in the two years since CEO Mark Hurd unexpectedly resigned amid a scandal over his relationship with a female marketing contractor.

In a sign that Whitman's efforts to trim costs and bolster the company's prospects were succeeding, HP on Wednesday raised its quarterly outlook for profit, after excluding one-time items such as the goodwill writedown. It did not provide reasons.

HP's stock rose 2.4 percent to end at $19.41 after the increase in the company's outlook relieved investors, who had been expecting another bad quarter with global IT spending on the wane.

"Everybody was expecting them to miss the quarter. Now they said they are going to beat their forecast. That's why the stock is up," said Shaw Wu, an analyst with Sterne Agee.

But analysts cautioned that it is premature to say that HP's darkest days have passed, especially because the company did not explain why it raised its outlook for profit, excluding items.

"There are a lot of unanswered questions," said Stifel Nicolaus analyst Aaron Rakers. "It is hard for me to get too terribly positive on it."

HP said it decided to take the $8 billion non-cash charge in its fiscal third quarter ended July 31 following a review prompted by declines in its stock price, changing market conditions and the services division's financial performance.

"When indicators of potential impairment are identified, companies are required to conduct a review of the carrying amounts of goodwill and other long-lived assets to determine if an impairment exists," HP said in a statement.

Analysts said that charge confirmed what has long been widely known by investors: HP paid too much for EDS, one of the pioneers of the outsourcing of technology services.

The deal was unpopular on Wall Street from the day it was announced in May 2008 as critics questioned whether then-CEO Hurd was paying too dearly for a slow-growing company.

"Is this a huge write-off? Yes," said Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry. "Management is undoing the things that Hurd did - overpaying for something that is not right."

The company is scheduled to release quarterly earnings on August 22 after the closing bell.

HP also said that it had moved faster than it previously anticipated with plans announced in May to reduce 27,000 jobs, or 8 percent of its workforce. Because of this, it raised its estimate of a third-quarter pre-tax restructuring charge to as much as $1.7 billion from its previous estimate of $1 billion.

As a consequence of the impairment charge and the restructuring charge, HP said it expected to post a third-quarter loss of $4.31 to $4.49 per share.

MISSING INGREDIENT: REVENUE GROWTH

HP, which employs more than 300,000 people globally, posted a 31 percent drop in second-quarter profit and a 3 percent decline in revenue.

Analysts said the company's long-term success depends on efforts to rejuvenate its products, such as developing goods that can compete with the likes of Apple Inc's iPads and phones that run on Google Inc's Android operating system.

"Write-offs don't do it," said Fred Hickey, editor of The High-Tech Strategist newsletter. "You need revenue growth."

Wall Street analysts expect HP's sales to fall 3.4 percent to $123 billion in its current fiscal year, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company did not comment on its revenue outlook in its release on Wednesday.

Wu, the analyst with Sterne Agee, said it will be tough to get sales growing at a healthy clip, noting that about 30 percent of revenue comes from HP's ailing PC division and at least 20 percent from its sluggish printer business.

"They've got at least 50 percent of their company that's still under pressure. Restructuring doesn't help that out," Wu said. "They still have a lot to do."

HP said it now expects third-quarter earnings, excluding one-time items, of about $1.00 per share, compared with analysts' average estimate of 97 cents.

The company had previously forecast earnings of 94 cents to 97 cents per share.

Whitman, a Silicon Valley veteran who waged an unsuccessful bid for governor of California in 2010, has said she plans to use some of savings from the restructuring to develop new products, especially in printing and PCs.

HP said that it was replacing the head of its services business, John Visentin, who was named to the post a year ago by Leo Apotheker, Whitman's predecessor as CEO. Visentin, a former IBM executive, could not be reached for comment.

Senior Vice President Mike Nefkens was named Visentin's acting replacement. Nefkens is general manager of HP enterprise services in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

(Reporting By Nicola Leske in New York and Jim Finkle in Boston; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, John Wallace and Jan Paschal)

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1 of 3. Song Ho-Jun poses with his satellite during an interview with Reuters at his house in Seoul July 10, 2012.

SEOUL | Wed Jul 25, 2012 11:42pm EDT

SEOUL (Reuters) - Years of rummaging through back-alley electronics stores will pay off later this year for a South Korean artist when he fulfills his dream of launching a homemade, basement-built satellite into space.

"Making a satellite is no more difficult than making a cellphone," said Song Hojun, 34, who said he built the $500 OpenSat to show people they could achieve their dreams.

"I believe that not just a satellite, but anything can be made with the help of the Internet and social platforms. I chose a satellite to show that symbolically."

There's a long history of do-it-yourself satellites being launched by universities and scientific groups around the world, as well as amateur radio clubs, but Song said his is the first truly personal satellite designed and financed by an individual.

An engineering student at university, Song regularly incorporated technology into his art pieces. In a work called Apple he used light bulbs that would "ripen" -- change color from green to red when people take photos of it with flashes.

After working as an intern at a private satellite company, he came up with the idea for his "Open Satellite Initiative," which in turn led him to contact space professionals from Slovenia to Paris.

"I'm just an individual, not someone working for big universities, corporations or armies, so they open up to me and easily give out information," said Song.

The bespectacled Song spent nearly six years combing through academic papers, shopping online at sites that specialize in components that can be used for space projects, and rummaging through electronic stores hidden in the back alleys of Seoul.

He ran a small electronics business to support himself, but the bulk of his funds came from his parents.

The cubical OpenSat weighs 1 kg (2.2 lbs) and measures 10 cubic centimeters. It will transmit information about the working status of its battery, the temperature and rotation speed of the satellite's solar panel.

Radio operators will be able to communicate with the satellite. If all goes well, it will repeat a message in Morse code using its LED lights at a set time and location.

The components cost only 500,000 won ($440). But the cost for launching it hit 120 million won after Song signed a contract with NovaNano, a French technology company, which acted as a broker to arrange the launch, including submitting paperwork and finding a rocket.

The satellite will be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in December with another satellite.

Song has been invited to talk at international universities and organizations including MIT Media Lab and CalArts, both in the United States, and the Royal College of Art in London.

"The reason why technology or science is talked about is not because it is an absolute truth, but rather because it generates interesting stories," he said. ($1 = 1146.9500 Korean won)

(Reporting by Eunhye Shin, editing by Elaine Lies and Patricia Reaney)

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Aug 02 - Fitch Ratings has downgraded by one notch the ratings of Spanish integrated utilities Iberdrola, S.A., Endesa, S.A., Gas Natural SDG, S.A. and also that of Enel, S.p.A., which has sizeable exposure to Spain through its ownership of Endesa, and their related entities. All ratings are also maintained on Rating Watch Negative (RWN). A full list of rating actions is provided below. Fitch will shortly publish a separate rating action on EDP- Energias de Portugal and its Spanish business Hidroelectrica del Cantabrico.

The rating actions follow Fitch's review of the Spanish utility sector that is suffering from persisting weak fundamentals, a more hostile and uncertain regulatory framework, signs of political intervention and a stressed financial environment caused by the combined effect of pressure on sovereign debt and on the domestic banking sector. All these factors, in Fitch's view, contribute to an increased overall business risk profile for the sector, which also translates into weakened earnings visibility and a possible further deterioration of companies' financial profiles. Critically, utility ratings typically permit higher leverage for a given rating category as recognition of the greater level of predictability of utility cash flows. The erosion of this predictability, as much as the direct financial impact, therefore has a negative impact on the rating calculus. As a result Fitch's view of the companies affected by this rating action is no longer commensurate with an 'A-' rating level, where they were previously placed.

The increasing signs of political interference are partially driven by the government's struggle to eliminate the tariff deficit ahead of its scheduled termination from 2013. The actions implemented so far in order to offset the generation of additional tariff deficits and to repay the outstanding tariff deficit have only been partially sufficient to address the issue. Regulatory changes introduced in April 2012 had only a relatively limited direct financial significance for the companies affected. However, today's rating actions also reflect the uncertainty related to potential further measures that the government is likely to announce shortly and which Fitch anticipates to have a more severe effect on companies' credit profiles. Ongoing delays in the formal announcement of such measures add to the climate of uncertainty.

The rating actions also capture the further delay in the securitisation process of past tariff deficits as the environment of a spiralling public deficit unbalance and domestic banking sector crisis seriously challenges any efforts to reduce the tariff deficit stock. These delays have led the agency to focus on leverage calculations that include the tariff deficit as part of the debt component. Fitch has incorporated no further securitisations in the rating horizon. Given this conservative approach, even the potential for a partial or full write-off of past deficits - still viewed as highly unlikely - would have a neutral financial impact in view of Fitch's calculation of leverage, albeit represent a further step change in the predictability of the regulatory framework more generally. Based on our currently revised projections, which also incorporate some headroom for further adverse regulatory findings in the autumn, the issuers' financial profiles would allow ratings to remain at their new level absent any additional challenges.

The RWN has been maintained given the prolonged opacity on the type of additional measures that may be taken in order to solve the tariff deficit and also reflects the tail risk that a fundamental challenge to the tariff deficit system arises which may exceed even these conservative projections. Once the measures are announced, Fitch will analyse their implications for each issuer to resolve the RWNs, in conjunction with possible adjustments that companies may make to their strategies.

Fitch placed all Spanish utilities on RWN on 3 April 2012 following the announcement of the first set of measures. Enagas (A-/Negative) and Red Electrica (A-/Negative) were also placed on RWN at that time but following Spain's subsequent downgrade by three notches to 'BBB' with a Negative Outlook their ratings are constrained at two notches above the sovereign given their primarily domestic business profile. Fitch does not expect that the new measures will affect the current ratings of Enagas and Red Electrica.

WHAT COULD TRIGGER A RATING ACTION?

All issuers remain on RWN. As a result, Fitch's sensitivities do not currently anticipate developments with a material likelihood, individually or collectively, of leading to a rating upgrade. Future developments that may nonetheless potentially lead to a positive rating action include:

POSITIVE:

- Limited impact of the future regulatory measures and FFO net leverage below 3.5x on a sustained basis and interest coverage above 5.0x in the case of Iberdrola and Enel, both benefiting from a good degree of geographical diversification. For Gas Natural somewhat stronger ratio levels would be required due to its higher exposure to the domestic market.

Future developments that may, individually or collectively, lead to negative pressure on the issuers' ratings include:

NEGATIVE:

- Significant impact of the new regulatory measures leading to a FFO net leverage above 4.5x on a sustained basis and interest coverage below 4.0x in the case of Iberdrola and Enel. For Gas Natural somewhat tighter ratio levels are applicable given its higher exposure to Spain.

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