Big Asian electronics makers, automakers, computer and phone companies and even pornographers will be out in force in Las Vegas next week, seeking to define their role as new technologies blur the lines between industries, and allow for media on the go. Full article here.

“Every TV set, set-top box, cell phone will have an Internet connection,” said Tim Bajarin, an industry analyst at Creative Strategies Inc. in Campbell, California. “If every device is connected to the Internet, it requires a different way of thinking about how to create products and how consumers use products.”

Personal computer and storage makers such as Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Seagate Technology will seek to show how they can connect the living room to every other room of a networked home.

Curiously, Apple Computer Inc., the consumer electronics industry’s biggest pacesetter, will have a minimal presence in Las Vegas. Apple, whose iPod music player changed the way people listen to music and now watch videos, holds its own conference the following week in San Francisco

MONTREAL — An acronym at last. After two-weeks of talks - rocky at times as U.S. disengaged and delegates worked to overcome objections from Russia in the final marathon session - delegates to the U.N. climate change talks have come up with the MAP for a two-track climate discussion process.

Environment ministers agreed on Saturday to a road map to extend the Kyoto Protocol climate pact beyond 2012. Ministers also agreed to launch new, open-ended world talks on ways to fight global warming, overcoming objections by the U.S. A huge sigh of relief swept through the vast conference hall Saturday after a 20-hour session that left delegates exhausted and a little emotional, Reuters Alister Doyle and David Fogarty report. “We are delighted,” said Margaret Beckett, Environment Secretary for Britain, currently holding the rotating EU Presidency. “It’s the fruit of a year’s work for us.”

Canadian conference president, Environment Minister Stephane Dion declared the steps take here have drawn: “a map for the future, the Montreal Action Plan, the MAP,” Ireland Online reported.

Dec. 9, filed by Emily Church, editor Reuters.com

MONTREAL — The U.S. stood alone in resisting new international talks on ways to combat climate change. “The current text is unacceptable,” chief U.S. negotiator Harlan Watson told Reuters of a Canadian proposal to launch of a new dialogue. “We are talking to see what might be acceptable.”

Even without a deal on the Canadian proposal, Kyoto countries are hoping to announce an agreement in Montreal to launch negotiations from May 2006 about a second phase of the protocol. Russian objections were holding up a deal.

Earlier Friday, the American delegates were not in sight as Bill Clinton told representatives from some 190 countries that “there is no longer any serious doubt that climate change is real, accelerating and caused by human activity” and that the Bush administration was “flat wrong” to reject the Kyoto accord

The former president’s arrival ended any hope the American delegation may have had for a lower U.S. profile on the last day of talks. The U.S. climate negotiator walked out earlier this morning as the marathon session turned toward future commitments to talk on climate policy, declaring a “duck is a duck.” The remark prompted the National Environmental Trust to buy around 150 ducks - all they could find in Montreal - to hand out to delegates. Nations are poised to agree to begin work on extending the Kyoto Protocol past 2012 without the U.S.

“I don’t know if it will have an impact, but I like what he said,” said Grant McVicar, a member of the Canadian delegation, after listening to Clinton. The former president galvanzied proponents of the fledgling market in greenhouse gas emissions by underlining the economic benefits of green policy. “The carbon market is going to take off as long as we don’t walk away from it,” he said.

Urging delegates to work on green projects back home, Clinton said, “If we can’t get to targets, let’s all pretend we have a job and have to do something.” The former president cited the opportunity to rebuild New Orleans as America’s “first green city.”

REUTERS/Chris Wattie. Dec. 9

Clinton met with Paul Martin (pictured right), the election campaigning Canadian Prime Minister, who this week called on the U.S. to heed the “global conscience” on climate policy. The Canadian Press, citing sources, said a U.S. official demanded a meeting Canadian ambassador Frank McKenna to complain. Martin struck a softer tone on Friday, telling reporters “we’ve got to pull up our socks. We’ve got a lot to do… It’s not a case of saying ‘we’re better than you’.” Martin has come under some flack in Canada for the remark, as Canadian emissions are on the rise.

Martin said multilateralism is required to address bird flu and climate change and he wished “very much” that the U.S. would participate.

Industrialized and developing nations were close to a breakthrough on Friday to begin work on extending the Kyoto Protocol past 2012, although environmentalists said they were losing hope that the U.S. would sign a separate agreement for all nations, not just Kyoto members. U.S. head delegate Paula Dobriansky denied Clinton’s presence would be a problem for Washington. “Public events…such as the one involving President Clinton are useful opportunities to hear a wide range of views on global climate change,” she said.

Observers parsing the U.S. strategy at the climate change talks in Montreal huddled through the halls of the Palais de Congres in Montreal. Environmentalists said U.S. negotiator Harlan Watson left the marathon late-night talks, declaring a “duck is a duck” as delegates turned to a draft on a “dialogue on long-term cooperative action to address climate change.” Officials from the U.S. delegation weren’t immediately available for comment Friday morning. “I don’t know the extent to which the Americans will go,” said Bill Hare, a climate specialist with Greenpeace. “My sense is that the countries will move ahead.” Speculation has bubbled throughout the two-week conference that the U.S. will seek to block the attempt to launch discussions on climate policy. It could also let the open-ended language to agree to “engage in a dialogue” stand. The U.S.is opposed to mandatory caps on emissions. The U.S. “tactics are more symbolic,” said Catherine Pearce of Friends of the Earth International. “They are just trying to scupper these talks.”

Despite a walk-out overnight by the U.S. delegation, ministers remained close to a deal on Friday on future action to curb greenhouse gas emissions, environmentalists told reporters. Talks wrapped at 4:30 a.m. Friday. “We’re nearly there with a high-level agreement by all parties,” said Jennifer Morgan, director for the WWF Climate Change program. The agreement — should it take shape later in the day as proposed - should signal that the carbon market will continue to grow, she said. The first phase of the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

REUTERS/Christinne MuschiStavros Dimas, European Commissioner of the Environment, holds up a chart showing U.S. emissions as compared to EU emissions on Dec. 8.

MONTREAL — Delegates said ministers from more than 90 nations were close to agreeing on a negotiating plan — without a firm timetable – to extend Kyoto beyond 2012. The pact now obliges about 40 rich nations to cut emissions from burning fossil fuels. “Under the (Kyoto) Protocol, the European Union and the G-77 have agreed on procedures to negotiate developed countries’ undertakings in post-2012,” French Environment Minister Nelly Olin said. The Group of 77 represents developing countries. “It will be formally agreed tomorrow,” Australian Environment Minister Ian Campbell told Reuters.

Traders and bankers struggling through the rain for another roller-coaster day on the markets must have wished they were at the beach.

M&A tends to be subdued anyway in August but has turned deathly quiet amid the market tumult that worsened in recent days. The concern is whether those deals already inked will be renegotiated or could get cancelled altogether. That’s not a happy thought for an M&A banker whose bonus relies on deal flow.

U.S. deals worth $15.2 billion got done in the first eight days of August, the lightest amount for that same period since 2003, according to Thomson Financial data.

But there are still some optimists.

“It could very well be that this is a cooling off,” said Anthony Sabino, Attorney for Sabino & Sabino, New York and Professor of Law and Business at St. John’s University, NY.

“It’s almost the M&A market deciding to take a summer vacation… After Labor day, who knows, it may pick up again. But it will be a smarter market. My thought would be if I’m a wheeler dealer — I’m going to hold back with my money and my company and I’ll wait for the fall. That’s the time where better deals, more sensible deals will be made.”

Maurice “Hank Greenberg, head of insurance broker C.V. Starr and former chief executive of American International Group Inc.  <AIG.N>, the world’s largest insurer, also said he is sangine.

 ”This has become a global issue,” Greenberg told Reuters. “The European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve have both injected huge liquidity into the market. The trick is to ride this out and not get spooked. It’s happened many times before.”
   

It could be the cold or a nod to the northern sense of humor, but demonstrations here are low-key. A march last Saturday drew thousands through the downtown; inside the cavernous Palais des Congres de Montreal, there have been a couple of mild run-ins with authorities reported. Activists with Energy Action said members have had anti-Bush buttons confiscated by security, although some buttons have passed muster and remain scattered about the conference halls. The National Environmental Trust handed out whoopie cushions that declared “Emissions Accomplished” aside a cartoon of President Bush and Texas. Self-described conservative Amy Ridenour blogs that a U.N. official temporarily blocked a National Center member from handing out materials and emission credits printed on toilet paper. In the end, she relates, “the seized materials were returned and distribution resumed”.

Nia Robinson, an American with the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative, said she was barred from re-entering an event with the U.S. delegation after doling out “Climate Change Survival Packs,” which included a face mask and cans of Spam. A security officer was concerned the can of spam could be used as a weapon, the group said.