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By Tsuyoshi Inajima, Yuji Okada and Emi Urabe

Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) — Japan’s government, seeking to bailout Tokyo Electric Power Co. after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, met representatives from about 100 financial companies as it prepares to raise as much as 2 trillion yen ($26 billion) of loans, five people involved in the meeting said.

The government-run Nuclear Damage Liability Facilitation Fund hosted its biggest meeting yet with banks on obtaining a syndicated loan, which will be guaranteed by the government, with a borrowing period of less than one year, according to presentation materials obtained by Bloomberg News.

The loan size and timing of bids weren’t announced at the meeting, the people said, declining to be identified because the information isn’t public. Banks wishing to bid will need to register with the fund by around March 14, the presentation material says.

The fund can use as much as 5 trillion yen of special bonds, some of which have been already issued by the government, to help the utility known as Tepco pay compensation to those affected by the Fukushima nuclear disaster that forced about 160,000 people to be evacuated almost 1 year ago.

The fund has a loan guarantee line of as much as 2 trillion yen to obtain shares in Tepco or lend to the operator of the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi station. The special bonds, which can be immediately redeemed, may be only used for compensation payments.

Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd. is the arranger for the syndicated loan, according to the material.

Tepco yesterday received extra aid of 689.4 billion yen from the government and is seeking a larger bailout as it sits on the edge of bankruptcy. Japan’s trade and industry minister, Yukio Edano Replica Watches, told Tepco President Toshio Nishizawa the government won’t approve the broader package unless it gets “sufficient” voting rights.

–Editors: Peter Langan, Aaron Sheldrick

To contact the reporters on this story: Tsuyoshi Inajima in Tokyo at tinajima@bloomberg.net; Yuji Okada in Tokyo at yokada6@bloomberg.net; Emi Urabe 占部絵美 in Tokyo at eurabe@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Amit Prakash at aprakash1@bloomberg.net

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Picture: Christina Aguilera Christmas tree shopping with Jordan Bratman in Beverly Hills. Los Angeles Herve Leger, California ….

CHICAGO — A small but growing number of teens and even younger children who think they were born the wrong sex are getting support from parents and from doctors who give them sex-changing treatments, according to reports in the medical journal Pediatrics.

It’s an issue that raises ethical questions Replica watches, and some experts urge caution in treating children with puberty-blocking drugs and hormones.

An 8-year-old second-grader in Los Angeles is a typical patient. Born a girl, the child announced at 18 months, “I a boy” and has stuck with that belief. The family was shocked but now refers to the child as a boy and is watching for the first signs of puberty to begin treatment, his mother told The Associated Press.

Pediatricians need to know these kids exist and deserve treatment, said Dr. Norman Spack, author of one of three reports published Monday and director of one of the nation’s first gender identity medical clinics, at Children’s Hospital Boston.

“If you open the doors, these are the kids who come. They’re out there. They’re in your practices,” Spack said in an interview.

Switching gender roles and occasionally pretending to be the opposite sex is common in young children. But these kids are different. They feel certain they were born with the wrong bodies.

Some are labeled with “gender identity disorder,” a psychiatric diagnosis. But Spack is among doctors who think that’s a misnomer. Emerging research suggests they may have brain differences more similar to the opposite sex.

Spack said by some estimates, 1 in 10,000 children have the condition.

Offering sex-changing treatment to kids younger than 18 raises ethical concerns, and their parents’ motives need to be closely examined, said Dr. Margaret Moon, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ bioethics committee. She was not involved in any of the reports.

Some kids may get a psychiatric diagnosis when they are just hugely uncomfortable with narrowly defined gender roles; or some may be gay and are coerced into treatment by parents more comfortable with a sex change than having a homosexual child, said Moon, who teaches at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics.

It’s harmful “to have an irreversible treatment too early,” Moon said.

Doctors who provide the treatment say withholding it would be more harmful.

These children sometimes resort to self-mutilation to try to change their anatomy; the other two journal reports note that some face verbal and physical abuse and are prone to stress, depression and suicide attempts. Spack said those problems typically disappear in kids who’ve had treatment and are allowed to live as the opposite sex.

Guidelines from the Endocrine Society endorse transgender hormone treatment but say it should not be given before puberty begins. At that point, the guidelines recommend puberty-blocking drugs until age 16, then lifelong sex-changing hormones with monitoring for potential health risks. Mental health professionals should be involved in the process, the guidelines say. The group’s members are doctors who treat hormonal conditions.

Those guidelines, along with YouTube videos by sex-changing teens and other media attention, have helped raise awareness about treatment and led more families to seek help, Spack said.

His report details a fourfold increase in patients at the Boston hospital. His Gender Management Service clinic, which opened at the hospital in 2007, averages about 19 patients each year, compared with about four per year treated for gender issues at the hospital in the late 1990s.

The report details 97 girls and boys treated between 1998 and 2010; the youngest was 4 years old. Kids that young and their families get psychological counselling and are monitored until the first signs of puberty emerge, usually around age 11 or 12. Then children are given puberty-blocking drugs, in monthly $1,000 injections or implants imbedded in the arm.

In another Pediatrics report, a Texas doctor says he’s also provided sex-changing treatment to an increasing number of children; so has a clinic at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles where the 8-year-old is a patient.

The drugs used by the clinics are approved for delaying puberty in kids who start maturing too soon. The drugs’ effects are reversible, and Spack said they’ve caused no complications in his patients. The idea is to give these children time to mature emotionally and make sure they want to proceed with a permanent sex change. Only 1 of the 97 opted out of permanent treatment, Spack said.

Kids will more easily pass as the opposite gender, and require less drastic treatment later, if drug treatment starts early, Spack said. For example, boys switching to girls will develop breasts and girls transitioning to boys will be flat-chested if puberty is blocked and sex-hormones started soon enough, Spack said.

Sex hormones, especially in high doses when used long-term, can have serious side effects, including blood clots and cancer. Spack said he uses low, safer doses but that patients should be monitored.

Gender-reassignment surgery, which may include removing or creating penises, is only done by a handful of U.S. doctors, on patients at least 18 years old, Spack said. His clinic has worked with local surgeons who’ve done breast removal surgery on girls at age 16, but that surgery can be relatively minor, or avoided, if puberty is halted in time, he said.

The mother of the Los Angeles 8-year-old says he’s eager to begin treatment.

When the child was told he could get shots to block breast development, “he was so excited,” the mother said.

He also knows he’ll eventually be taking testosterone shots for life but surgery right now is uncertain.

The child attends a public school where classmates don’t know he is biologically a girl. For that reason, his mother requested anonymity.

She said she explained about having a girl’s anatomy but he rejected that, refused to wear dresses, and has insisted on using a boy’s name since preschool.

The mother first thought it was a phase, then that her child might be a lesbian, and sought a therapist’s help to confirm her suspicion. That’s when she first heard the term “gender identity disorder” and learned it’s often not something kids outgrow.

Accepting his identity has been difficult for both parents, the woman said. Private schools refused to enrol him as a boy, and the family’s pediatrician refused to go along with their request to treat him like a boy. They found a physician who would, Dr. Jo Olson, medical director of a transgender clinic at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

Olson said the journal reports should help persuade more doctors to offer these kids sex-changing treatment or refer them to specialists who will.

“It would be so nice to move this out of the world of mental health, and into the medical world,” Olson said.

A CHINESE couple who ran a Sydney printing company have been fined more than $23,000 after they sacked a worker three months after she miscarried.

Jiongqui Ye was demoted and mistreated after she told the Wongta directors that she was pregnant.
She then lost the baby and was fired a few days before Christmas.

Justice Dennis Cowdroy today said the 36-year-old had suffered "abusive action" because of her gender and pregnancy.

"The nature and extent of the conduct leading to the breaches represent a gross violation," he told the Federal Court.

"Ms Ye’s announcement of her pregnancy was the catalyst."

Ms Ye, a former Chinese national, started working at the Riverwood business in February 2006.

In July 2009, the clerical worker told one of her bosses that she was pregnant, planned to work until Christmas and would then take some of her sick leave.

Xio Yu Zhang allegedly replied that she would not be paid wages and that her previous position might not be available upon her return.

On August 12, Ms Ye suffered a miscarriage and took five days of sick leave. When she returned to work, her role had been filled and she was assigned to packing duties.

"Many employees resign when they fall pregnant and then stay at home in bed," Ms Zhang’s husband, Gin Guo Wang, allegedly told her when she asked him to explain her demotion.

On September 22 Replica Watches, Ms Ye was given a warning letter, which she refused to sign.

She talked to the Fair Work Info Line and returned to work, telling her director that she believed that she was being underpaid and had not been fairly treated.

"Ms Zhang became aggressive, and screamed at Ms Ye and told Ms Ye that she would not be returning to her office duties, Justice Cowdroy said.

A few weeks before Christmas, Ms Ye received a letter advising her that her last day of employment would be December 22.

Justice Cowdroy fined Ms Zhang and Mr Wang $11,880 each. The directors have also agreed to pay Ms Ye $2,207.42 in compensation.

Fair Work Ombudsman Nicholas Wilson welcomed the decision.

"Demoting and creating an unpleasant work environment for an employee because they are pregnant is a blatant breach of workplace law and must be discouraged," he said in a statement.

By William Selway

Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) — John F. Kennedy was the scion of a business fortune. Billionaire Ross Perot’s success spurred his candidacy. Democrat John Kerry’s wife’s fortune dogged his.

Mitt Romney, the Republican former executive of buyout firm Bain Capital LLC, is among a line of well-heeled contenders for the White House, and the release of his tax return yesterday was part of an election-year ritual: a peek into their finances and the taxes that they pay. Romney made $21.6 million in 2010 — some $59,000 a day, weekends included, in 2010, and paid $3 million in taxes, an effective rate of 13.9 percent.

His wealth and tax rate, less than half the top marginal rate on wage incomes, stand out against even his wealthy competitors, reflecting the fortune made in finance and the lower tax rate given to income from capital gains.

“He’s got an awful lot of money,” said Roberton Williams, an analyst with the non-partisan Tax Policy Center in Washington. “It puts him not just in the top 1 percent, or the top tenth of one percent — he’s way, way up there.”

Republican rival Newt Gingrich, whose $3.14 million income included speaking fees, paid 32 percent of that in taxes. President Barack Obama, moonlighting as a best-selling author, paid 26 percent of his $1.7 million income as taxes in 2010.

‘Much Less Tax’

“What’s clearly the case is people with a lot of investment income pay much less tax on that income than people who make that income from working,” Williams said. “That’s the way our system is set up.”

Romney’s wealth has figured prominently in a Republican presidential contest at a time when the U.S. economy is still struggling to replace the jobs that were lost in a recession that was fueled by Wall Street’s credit crisis.

Gingrich has questioned whether Romney’s fortune was made at the expense of workers at the companies he acquired, an issue raised by a film Gingrich supporters released before the South Carolina primary. In Congress, Romney’s returns reignited a debate on the tax treatment of so-called carried interest, which provides a relative handful of investment executives with preferential tax rates.

Romney said he anticipated that his income would draw Democratic attacks and said there was no need to apologize.

“Oh, I’m sure people will talk about it,” Romney said during a debate in Tampa, Florida, on Jan. 23. “You’ll see my income, how much taxes I’ve paid, how much I’ve paid to charity. You’ll see how complicated taxes can be.”

He added: “I pay all the taxes that are legally required and not a dollar more. I don’t think you want someone as the candidate for president who pays more taxes than he owes.”

Lengthy Return

The length of Romney’s tax return argues the case for a simpler tax code, said David Logan, an economist with the Tax Foundation, which advocates for a simpler tax system with lower rates. The joint filing by Romney and his wife, Ann, runs 203 pages. That’s more than four times as long as Gingrich’s return. Obama’s is 59 pages.

“If there’s anything that can illustrate the complexity of the tax code, it is the number of pages that got released for his return only,” said Logan. “This complexity can absolutely benefit high-income earners with preferential rates. It absolutely, positively affects low-income earners too.”

Romney also directed his wealth to charity, giving $2.98 million in 2010, including $1.5 million to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the Mormon church. Gingrich donated $81,133, including $9,540 to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Obama gave $245,075, with the most, $131,075, going to the Fisher House Foundation, which provides housing for military families receiving medical care.

Wealthy Candidates

Romney’s wealth, with a net worth estimated by his campaign of between $190 million and $250 million, would make him among the richest U.S. presidents if he were to win the office. Forbes magazine, which compiles such a ranking, put him at No. 4, behind land-rich founders George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and Herbert Hoover, who made his money in mining.

Such wealth in a candidate isn’t unprecedented. Ross Perot, founder of Electronic Data Systems Corp., had an estimated wealth of $2.4 billion in 1993, a year after he initiated an independent candidacy for the presidency driven by concern about the effect of global trade on employment.

In 2004 Rolex replica watches, Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards, the attorney-turned-senator Replica Cartier watches, disclosed that he paid $22,741 in taxes on $433,546 in income the prior year, a rate of 5.2 percent that was kept low by investment income.

Rich Spouses

Senator John Kerry faced questions about the wealth of his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, the heir to a $500 million fortune, when he ran for president in 2004 and she resisted initial requests to release her tax returns. Once she released them, it showed she paid $628,401 on income of $5 million, a rate of about 12.5 percent. In 2008, Cindy McCain, the wife of Republican presidential nominee John McCain and chairwoman of a beer distributor, reported paying $1.1 million in federal taxes on income of $4.2 million the year before.

Franklin Roosevelt, who was president during the Great Depression and railed against organized money, hailed from a wealthy family. John F. Kennedy’s father, Joseph Kennedy, made a fortune in business before his son went on to win the presidency in 1960.

U.S. voters have no natural aversion to wealthy candidates, said Barbara Perry, a fellow at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. She said it can be less of an obstacle for Democrats, though, because their party since the 1930s has been defined by using the power of government to help the needy.

Wealth a Challenge

His wealth may prove a challenge to Romney, she said, given the toll that the Wall Street credit crisis of 2008 took on the economy.

“How does that play in these difficult economic times when his particular source of wealth — the finance industry — is the very cause of the economic difficulty?” Perry said.

During their Jan. 23 debate, Romney used his tax bracket to turn the tables on Gingrich, who has advocated eliminating levies on capital gains altogether. Romney, whose tax return lists a $12.6 million capital gain, said his rival’s plan would cut his taxes even more.

“Under that plan, I’d have paid no taxes in the last two years,” he said.

–With assistance from Steven Sloan in Washington. Editors: Jodi Schneider, Robin Meszoly

To contact the reporter on this story: William Selway in Washington at wselway@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jodi Schneider in Washington at Jschneider50@bloomberg.net

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By Henry Meyer and Scott Rose

(Updates with comments from Medvedev in second, third paragraphs.)

Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) — Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said he would remain in politics even if Prime Minister Vladimir Putin loses a March 4 vote to return to the Kremlin and isn’t able to fulfill a pledge to make Medvedev his premier.

“I don’t know what will happen in May — there are a whole number of possibilities,” Medvedev said today in a meeting with students in Moscow. “But I can say this with absolute certainty: I won’t leave politics.”

Medvedev said he chose not to seek a second term as president because Putin had a better chance of being elected. “I’ll remind you that I’m just 46 years old. That’s not such a serious age to prevent me from further political battles Replica Tag heuer watches,” Medvedev said, adding that he may eventually run for president again.

Putin in September announced plans to return to the presidency after four years as prime minister, swapping jobs with protégé Medvedev. The Russian premier, 59 Replica Omega watches, has faced the biggest protests since taking over from Boris Yeltsin as president on Dec. 31, 1999, with demonstrators taking to the streets of Moscow and other cities over alleged fraud at parliamentary elections last month.

Medvedev said some of the protestors who rallied in the Russian capital may have wanted him to run for a second term.

–Editors: Andrew Langley, Alan Crosby

To contact the reporters on this story: Henry Meyer in Moscow at hmeyer4@bloomberg.net; Scott Rose in Moscow at rrose10@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net

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oil painting

Picture: David Guetta performing live during the Y100 Jingle Ball at the Bank Atlantic Center Sunrise Mannerism oil paintings, Florida ….

By Benjamin Haas

Dec. 29 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Interior Department is seeking comment on how it should issue right-of-way leases for competing solar and wind projects on government land.

The department wants to establish a competitive bidding process that would bring “fair market value for the use of public land,” it said in a statement today. The government is considering bidding procedures within zones designated for wind and solar projects Prom High Low Dresses, including how companies would qualify and what financial arrangements would apply. A 60-day comment period ends Feb. 27.

These zones may be beneficial to birds, the American Bird Conservancy said in a statement today. “American Bird Conservancy is developing a map of the areas where wind energy would be most risky to birds,” said Kelly Fuller, the organization’s wind-campaign coordinator.

The Department’s Bureau of Land Management oversees 245 million acres (992 Jeans,000 sq. kilometers) across the U.S, according to the report. It plans to have 10,000 megawatts of wind, solar and geothermal projects approved by 2015.

–Editors: Jasmina Kelemen, Charles Siler

To contact the reporter on this story: Benjamin Haas in New York at bhaas7@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Susan Warren at susanwarren@bloomberg.net

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By Zahra Hankir Bandage Dresses

Jan. 10 (Bloomberg) — Qatar’s benchmark stock index dropped the most in more than five months as a dividend plan announced by Qatar National Bank SAQ disappointed investors.

Qatar National, the Gulf country’s biggest bank by assets, slumped the most in more than two years. Commercial Bank of Qatar QSC, the nation’s second-biggest lender, decreased 1.4 percent. Qatar’s QE Index slumped 2.1 percent, the most since Aug. 7, to 8,629.25 at the 1 p.m. close in Doha. The Bloomberg GCC 200 Index rose 0.1 percent.

“Apparently the dividend disappointed some investors, which tells you how high expectations are in Qatar with regard to dividend payouts, which have been historically very high,” said Ahmed Talhaoui, the Abu Dhabi-based head of investment and asset management at Royal Capital PJSC. The results were otherwise “strong,” he said.

Qatar National yesterday said it would distribute a 40 percent cash dividend and bonus shares of 10 percent. Its full- year profit rose 32 percent to 7.5 billion riyals ($2 billion) as loans and advances increased, beating the mean 7.37 billion- riyal estimate of eight analysts, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The shares tumbled 5.2 percent, the most since December 2009, to 145 riyals.

Qatar’s economy may expand 19 percent in 2011, making it the fastest-growing economy in the world, the Washington-based International Monetary Fund said in an October report. Local banks are benefiting from a pickup in lending as the Persian Gulf country, host to soccer’s 2022 World Cup, invests in infrastructure and industrial projects.

Commercial Bank of Qatar, which may report results on Jan. 23 Culotte, fell the most since Nov. 21 to 83.6 riyals.

Oman’s MSM 30 Index declined 0.3 percent, while Kuwait’s gauge advanced 0.5 percent. Dubai’s DFM General Index gained 0.4 percent and Abu Dhabi’s ADX General Index increased less than 0.1 percent. Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index rose 0.5 percent. Bahrain’s BB All Share Index fell less than 0.1 percent.

–Editors: Daliah Merzaban, Shanthy Nambiar

To contact the reporter on this story: Zahra Hankir in Dubai at zhankir@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Maedler at cmaedler@bloomberg.net

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