Toyota tests cars that communicate

TOYOTA Motor Cop. is testing car safety systems that allow vehicles to communicate with each other and with the roads they are on in a just completed facility in Japan the size of three baseball stadiums.

The cars at the Intelligent Transport System site receive information from sensors and transmitters installed on the streets to minimise the risk of accidents in situations such as missing a red traffic light, cars advancing from blind spots and pedestrians crossing the street. The system also tests cars that transmit such information to each other.

In a test drive for reporters Monday, the presence of a pedestrian triggered a beeping sound in the car and a picture of a person popped up on a screen in front of the driver. A picture of an arrow popped up to indicate an approaching car at an intersection. An electronic female voice said, "It's a red light," if the driver was about to ignore a red light.

The 3.5 hectare test site looks much like the artificial roads at driving schools, except bigger, and is in a corner of the Japanese automaker's technology center near Mount Fuji in Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan.

Toyota officials said the smart-car technology it is developing will be tested on some Japanese roads starting in 2014. Similar tests are planned for the US, although details were not decided. Such technology is expected to be effective because half of car accidents happen at intersections, according to Toyota.

Managing Officer Moritaka Yoshida said Toyota sees preventing collisions, watching out for pedestrians and helping the driving of the elderly as key to ensuring safety in the cars of the future.

"We offer the world's top-level technology," he told reporters.

All automakers are working on pre-crash safety technology to add value to their cars, especially for developed markets such as the US, Europe and Japan. But the strongest sales growth is coming from emerging markets which are eventually expected to show more interest in safety technology.

Toyota's Japanese rival Nissan Motor Co. recently showed cars that were smart enough to stop on their own, park themselves and swerve away from pedestrians who suddenly jumped into the vehicle's path.

Toyota also showed a new feature that helps the driver brake harder to prevent bumping into the vehicle in front. Toyota officials said drivers often fail to push hard on their brakes in such situations because they get into a panic.

Toyota said the technology will be available "soon," without giving a date, and hinted it will be offered for Lexus luxury models. Luxury models already offer similar safety features such as automatic braking. Technology involving precise sensors remains expensive, sometimes costing as much as a cheaper Toyota car.

Toyota has also developed sonar sensors that help drivers avoid crashing in parking lots. One system even knows when the driver pushes on the gas pedal by mistake instead of the brakes, and will stop automatically.

Rear-end collisions make up 34 per cent of car accidents in Japan, comprising the biggest category, followed by head-on collisions at 27 per cent.

Cars that stop and go on their own, avoiding accidents, are not pure science fiction, experts say.

Alberto Broggi, professor at the University of Parma and an expert on intelligent transportation systems, said the idea of the accident-free cars is "very hot," and probably within reach on some roads within several years.

"I'm sure we will arrive to such a technology even if I don't know when exactly," he said.

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US stocks rise on China trade data

US stocks have opened with modest gains after last week's slump, lifted by encouraging China trade data that signalled renewed momentum in the economy and solid earnings from a key US homebuilder.

In the first five minutes of trade on Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 13.82 points, or 0.11 per cent, at 12,829.21.

The broad-market S&P 500 advanced 3.26 points, or 0.24 per cent, to 1,383.11.

The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite rose 12.94 points, or 0.45 per cent, to 2,917.81.

"The support for stocks comes as China reported stronger than expected exports and US homebuilder DR Horton Inc posted better-than-expected earnings," Charles Schwab & Co analyst said.

China's export growth accelerated in October for the second straight month, the government said on Saturday, adding to evidence the world's second-largest economy is bouncing back from a slowdown.

There were no major economic data scheduled for release and the bond market was closed in observance of Veterans Day.

On Friday, US stocks eked out small gains, capping a week of solid losses amid fears about the nation's looming "fiscal cliff", automatic spending cuts and expiring tax breaks that will come at year-end unless avoided.

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Two charged over NSW child sex assaults

A CATHOLIC brother and a former Catholic teacher have been charged in NSW over alleged assaults on children dating back to the 1980s.

Sex Crimes Squad detectives investigating allegations of abuse on an eight-year-old girl in 1985 and two 13-year-old boys in 1987 made the arrests on Monday evening and later charged the pair.

Police allege some of the incidents took place at a Catholic college and a Catholic primary school in Sydney's west.

The Catholic brother, whose charges relate to the two boys, has been refused bail and will appear at Wyong Local Court on Tuesday.

The 59-year-old was arrested at a property at The Entrance on the Central Coast.

He was charged with committing an indecent act on a child under 16 and under authority, along with five counts of indecent assault on a child under 16 and under authority.

The former teacher, a 58-year-old man arrested at a Blacktown property, was charged with offences relating to a 13-year-old boy and an eight-year-old girl.

The charges are sexual assault on a child under 16, indecent assault on a child under 16, committing an indecent act on a child under 16 and indecent assault on a child under 16 and under authority.

He has been granted strict conditional bail and will appear at Blacktown Local Court on December 13.

Police said their inquiries are continuing.

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China to reveal new leaders on Thursday

CHINA'S Communist Party will on Thursday unveil the new set of top leaders who will take over the reins of the country for the next decade, one day after their week-long congress ends, the party says.

The widely expected timing was confirmed by staff organising press coverage of the Communist Party congress under way in Beijing, which is held every five years to shuffle the top leadership of the party.

Chinese President Hu Jintao, who has been in power 10 years, is widely expected to hand over the reins of the ruling party to his vice-president, Xi Jinping, a tradition that takes place a day after the close of the congress.

The leadership - arrived at via back-room political horse-trading among party factions - is revealed to the nation by marching out in a line before cameras at Beijing's Great Hall of the People.

Party staff told AFP the new Politburo Standing Committee - the top-level body now consisting of nine members that rules China - would "meet the press" on Thursday. The party had thus far not officially confirmed the timing.

Xi is widely expected to march out in first position on the committee, indicating he is the new party leader, and will then formally be named the country's president next March by the rubber-stamp parliament.

Xi's fellow Standing Committee member, Vice-Premier Li Keqiang, is also strongly expected to move up in the committee's pecking order and be put on track to be named premier in March, replacing incumbent Wen Jiabao.

They would take over at a challenging time when China's powerhouse economy is suffering a rare slowdown and amid growing demands for change from the country's vocal netizens.

If things go according to tradition, Xi and Li would be expected to be in office for 10 years. However, the Standing Committee is typically tweaked each five years with a shuffling of lower-ranking members.

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Italian prosecutor charges S&P, Fitch

AN Italian prosecutor has filed charges of market manipulation against Standard & Poor's and Fitch ratings agencies over downgrades of Italy's credit rating that helped fuel the euro debt crisis.

Following a two-year investigation, prosecutor Michele Ruggiero requested charges against seven people at two of the world's top three ratings agencies.

Five of the accused worked at S&P's, while the other two worked at Fitch at the time.

The agencies "intentionally provided financial markets with biased and distorted information", the prosecutor's office said in a statement on Monday.

It is a landmark case since rating agencies came under concentrated attack, particularly from governments as the eurozone crises intensified.

Those charged are accused of setting out to "destabilise Italy's image, prestige and credit confidence on the financial markets, alter the value of Italian bonds by depreciating them (and) weaken the euro", the statement said.

Among those charged are Deven Sharma, the head of S&P's from 2007 to 2011, and the operational director for Fitch, David Riley.

The charges have to be confirmed by a judge for any trial to go ahead - a process that could take months under the Italian judicial system.

The ratings agencies have co-operated with the inquiry but insist their economic evaluations were independent and based on objective factors.

"These claims are entirely baseless and without any merit as our role is to publish independent opinions about creditworthiness according to our public and transparent methodologies," S&P's said in a statement.

"We will continue to perform our role without fear or favour," it said.

The probe began in 2010 after an Italian consumer group lodged a complaint over a sovereign downgrade by Moody's, the other top world rating agency, which has since been cleared by investigators and is no longer part of the case.

Investigators have since focused on more recent rating actions, particularly last year, when market turmoil pushed Italy to the brink of bankruptcy.

The case is being seen as one of the first of its kind on sovereign ratings.

Standard & Poor's earlier this month lost a landmark case in Australia in the first trial of its kind over top-flight ratings given to financial products that collapsed in the build-up to the 2008 global economic crisis.

Dozens of cases have been brought around the world against rating agencies - which were widely criticised for overly optimistic assessments of financial products that turned out to be toxic - but few trials have gone ahead.

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Emirates' first-half profit up 104%

DUBAI'S Emirates airline says it posted a 104 per cent surge in net profits in the first six months of the current financial year thanks to rising passenger numbers.

"In the first half of the 2012-13 fiscal year, Emirates net profit is 1.7 billion dirhams ($A448 million), up 104 per cent from 836 million dirhams," the carrier said in a statement.

The announcement came hours after an engine problem forced an Emirates A380 superjumbo to turn back to Sydney shortly after taking off.

The government-owned airline said it had carried 18.7 million passengers since April 1, up 15.4 per cent compared with the same period last year.

Its volume of cargo was up by more than 16 per cent, the airline said, pointing out that it was a "significant growth against the market trend".

Emirates posted revenues of 35.42 billion dirhams, up 17.3 per cent from the corresponding period last year.

The group as a whole, which includes Dnata travel services, generated revenues amounting to 38.245 billion dirhams, with net profits hitting 2.1 billion dirhams.

"The Emirates Group half-year performance is the result of hard work and our drive to stay on course and continue to grow despite the precarious marketplace," said chairman and chief executive Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum.

"We have continued to invest in the infrastructure of both Emirates and Dnata and it continues to pay off."

Meanwhile, the pilot of the Dubai-bound Emirates plane carrying 380 passengers decided to turn back shortly after take-off on Sunday night due to an engine problem as passengers reported a bright orange flash and loud bang.

An Emirates spokesman told AFP the decision was a "precaution" and "there were no flames or smoke".

Emirates is the largest single customer of Airbus' A380 and Boeing's 777 widebody aircraft.

Considered the world's fastest growing carrier, it has a fleet of 183 aircraft serving 126 destinations in 74 countries.

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Russian growth slows to 2.9%

RUSSIA'S growth slowed to 2.9 per cent in the third quarter this year, the statistics office says, in a sign its economic activity is being hit by the global economic crisis.

The Russian economy, hugely reliant on oil and gas exports, enjoyed relatively buoyant growth of 4.9 per cent and four per cent respectively in the first two quarters this year.

Growth in the third quarter last year was five per cent. The figure of 2.9 per cent growth for the third quarter 2012 from the same period last year is a preliminary assessment that may be revised later.

The assessment "indicates that the pace of economic activity has moderated," said Ivan Tchakarov, chief economist at Renaissance Capital in Moscow, in a note to clients.

"The slowdown was driven, on the demand side, by softening consumer spending and, on the supply side, by weaker manufacturing activity and a poor agricultural harvest."

He forecast that the economy will endure a "soft patch" until the first quarter of next year due to the poor global economic environment but then see brisker growth from the second quarter.

Julia Tsepliaeva of BNP Paribas said in a note to clients that although the high oil price was favourable for Russia, its economic slowdown is likely to continue.

"In the long run, Russia's ability to maintain economic growth rates of 3-5 per cent will depend on its willingness to promote structural reforms and suppress corruption," she said.

Russia, which is able to run a relatively stable budget, has so far avoided the economic troubles that have befallen the euro zone and is chiefly concerned that the woes of a key trading partner will impact its economy.

"The government is clearly intent on pursuing a stable domestic policy, using budget spending to keep the economy growing at approximately 3.5 per cent annually," said economists at state-owned Sberbank who forecast 3.8 per cent growth for 2012.

Yet many commentators are worried that the failure of President Vladimir Putin to embrace wholehearted reform and wean the economy off its petrodollar dependence could consign Russia to years of mediocre growth in the future.

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