The New Honda Accord/Acura TSX Debuts at Geneva

The revised Honda Accord sedan and Tourer models will make their debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March. Both cars receive a host of changes with the styling, emissions, ride and handling all enhanced for 2011.

Summary of Changes:
• Revised exterior styling
• Detail changes to interior finishes
• Improvements to emissions and economy on all engines
• 138 g/km 2.2 i-DTEC introduced
• Ride and handling improvements for all models
• Auto High-Beam Support System and Active Cornering Lights debut on Accord
• 180 PS Type S model now available across Europe with bespoke interior and exterior styling

Exterior Design
Both the sedan and Tourer have benefitted from small but noticeable changes to the head lights and bumpers to complement the changes under the skin. The head lights have been given a cleaner, crisper appearance with the previously amber indicators now in a clear finish. On top grade cars the lights are now bi-xenon and feature Active Cornering Lights to improve night time visibility. The grille has been subtly remodelled with the two central spars finished in the same chrome material as the outer grille, for a sportier look. The cooling duct and fog light recesses on all models have been re-profiled with the taper of these areas given a more aggressive line, giving the car a more planted appearance.

The rear of the sedan model has been subtly enhanced with the rear lights having a light red finish for the reversing light and indicators to match that of the fog light, giving a balance to the rear styling. The exclusive styling of the sedan is rounded off with a light chrome garnish above the rear licence plate on most models and a dark chrome finish on Type S grade cars. The new exterior design cues are finished off with three new colours consisting of Alabaster Silver, Graphite Lustre and Celestial Blue Pearl added to the line up.

Interior Design
The exterior styling changes have been complemented by a number of subtle changes to the interior with most grades having new seat materials and door linings, changing the ambience of the cabin. Type S models have exclusive half leather, seats in a dark grey finish and a black head lining to further distinguish the top grade. The metal-look finish interior trim that covers the hand brake, gear lever surround, steering wheel garnish, door inlays, with a red background and sweeps up across the centre of the dash is now in a darker hue, to complement the new interior fabrics. The footwells of the majority of models are now illuminated blue if the headlights are on and red on Type S models.

Fuel Economy and Emission Improvements
The refined 2.2 litre 150 PS i-DTEC diesel engine has had internal frictional losses reduced to improve fuel economy and emissions. The result of these changes is an 9 g/km drop in CO2 emissions for the sedan with the 6-speed manual transmission and an 11 g/km reduction for the automatic variant. These internal changes have been combined with a host of underbody aerodynamic aids, including a larger front air dam, underfloor and a rear subframe cover Honda's engineers have also put effort into reducing the frictional losses in the wheels and tyres with low friction wheel bearings and reduced rolling resistance tyres. Accords equipped with Automatic transmission have also benefitted from minimised frictional losses in the gearbox and optimised ratios to improve economy and emissions.

Quieter Cabin
The already impressive NVH performance of the current Accord has been further improved with the adoption of higher density foam in the under bonnet and dashboard areas. The underfloor noise insulation has also been revised and teamed with additional sound deadening shields on the DPF and exhaust manifold cover of the diesel engine. The suite of noise reductions techniques is completed with a small 0.9 mm increase in the thickness of the rear window glass, improving the rear passenger experience.

Chassis
Engineers from Japan worked with their counterparts in Germany and the UK to further refine the dampers of the Accord Tourer and sedan for the vast range of road conditions found in Europe. Detailed refinement of the dual mode dampers has given improvement in both high speed stability for highway driving and a significant improvement in ride quality, even over poor road surfaces.

Active Cornering Lights
One of the most visible changes to the top of the range Accords is the addition of Active Cornering Lights, which provide enhanced illumination when the vehicle is turning. Additional lights units have been subtly integrated into the existing lights units, casting all of their light to the side of the vehicle to help the driver in low visibility conditions. The light unit on the relevant side will be illuminated when the driver activates the indicators in that direction or turns the steering wheel more than 90 degrees. When the vehicle is in reverse, both lights will be activated to give a good view to either side of the driver.

High-Beam Support System
Another new lighting technology for Honda is the High Beam Support system, which is fitted on vehicles with the bi-xenon headlights. This system is controlled by a CMOS camera fitted to the windscreen in the area of the driver rear view mirror. The camera detects oncoming headlights or the taillights of a vehicle in front and automatically dips the headlights onto their normal setting if they are on high-beam. This allows the driver to fully concentrate on the road conditions, without having to manually control the high-beam setting.

The new Accord goes on sale across Europe from April this year.

Source;
http://www.hondanews.eu/en/news/index.pmode/modul,detail,0,1690-DEFAULT,21,text,1/index.pmode

Yamenis are also on the track of Tunisian - Demanding President's Quit

A large crowd of Yemenis people are protesting in the capital Sanaa, demanding went out of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is in still enjoying power from the last 30 years.

The protesters were gathered around the capital, including Sanaa University’s student, they chanted slogans against the government and they made example to the defeat of the Tunisian president. The protestors comprise upon students, civil society groups were protested against corruption allegation and poor economic policies.

Poverty in young Yemenis generation is growing rapidly and annoyance with a lack of political liberty. The country is also faces many security issues, in south a pro-independence campaign is being continued and in north there is a disturbance between Shia and Houthi insurgents.  

Tawakul Karman one of rights supporter has been arrested by the Yemeni authorities, accusing to provocateur the anti-government demonstrations. Her arrest raise more protests in Sanaa. After her releasing, she told to the media there was a rebellion taking place in her country followed by Tunisia's ostensible Jasmine.

President Saleh, became leader of North Yemen in 1978, and has governed the Republic of Yemen since the north and south amalgamated in 1990. He was last time re-elected in 2006.

Yemenis are upset on parliament's decision to give relaxation over the constitutions on presidential term limits. The opposition’s concerns have enhanced that President Saleh is trying to nominate himself as president for life time.

Germany stopes its annual payment to the Global Fund accusing Corruption

Germany has stopped its annual disbursement of about 200m Euro to the Global Fund against Aids, TB and Malaria, because of corruption allegations.

Germany has annual budget of more than $20bn and is the third-major supporter to the UN donation fund. It has been accused that the fund’s monitors are meager in few countries and probably a huge amount of dollars have been drained off. However the fund acknowledges there has been minor corruption but says it is on small level.  It says the misusing of corruption had been revealed through its own investigation team and that where corruption was found it was treated forcefully.

Germany has been fully connected about the development of our inspector general as well as the instant and solid measured the Global Fund has taken to eradicate exploitation”

The Global Fund is the only one main largest source of income to curb the worst dangerous diseases. The charges of corruption have been pointed out by the AP (The Associated Press) news agency.

German Development Minister Dirk Niebel said that charges of corruption should be studied by detailed inquiry and I take the allegation very seriously. We expect that Global fund would evaluate the facts very urgently. He said.

Whenever the matter of corruption would not be solved completely we will not pay any payment to the fund.

A ministry spokesman said it should be highlighted about US$ 34 million of funds have been vanished away because of fake documentation and inappropriate accounting and deception.  

Jon Liden GF spokesman said Germany was answering to ambiguous media reports. He said any inquiry Germany may have would be responded by the fund during talks next week in Bonn.

NATO will not leave Afghanistan after the transition of 2014

A senior NATO official said that in 2014 on taking over security responsibility by Afghan’s troops, NATO and its allied forces will not leave Afghanistan. 

This clarification has been made by the Mark Sedwill NATO Senior Civilian Representative in Afghanistan at joint press conference with Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb after the two held a meeting here in Helsinki.

He said the conversion in 2014 will not be the last part of NATO's action in Afghanistan, but the starting of a new segment of the operation.

To support the progress of Afghan armed forces as well as Afghanistan's social development program, a continuing association between Afghanistan and the international community would be required after the conversion of NATO forces in 2014. He added, we are staying in Afghanistan as long as we are required and the transition in 2014 does not take as left out from Afghanistan.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen NATO Secretary General declared last November that NATO would begin shifting authorities to Afghan’s forces from the beginning of 2011 and the transition would be accomplished by the end of 2014.

China has rejected the claims about J-20 stealth fighter as Imitate Technology

China has rejected the claim that stealth fighter J-20 is based upon stolen technology. Chinese defense official and military experts persisted that country J-20 stealth fighter jet which was test flown earlier this month is the result of country’s itself own struggles. US Defense Secretary Robert Gates was on the official tour to China, when the flown test of J-20 stealth fighter jet was carried out at Chengdu, Sichuan Province.

Chinese Ministry of National told the daily that it was not the first time when the western media has blamed to prove Chinese military technologies as imitated or stolen. We can’t consider giving remarks on such types of rumors.

The remarks came after when an Indian based American citizen, a former B-2 stealth bomber engineer, was punished by a US federal judge to 32 years of detention for exposing military secrets to China. He was offender of assisting China designing its stealth cruise missile. Also a Croatian admiral accused that China built up the technology for its J-20 jet from F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter.

Chinese Test Pilot Xu Yongling said that the J-20 has a superior supersonic cruise quality and commanding air mobility that is technological penetrates for our country. As compared to the J-7 and J-8, J-20 is the excellent development of China’s innovation, and is much developed than stealth jet of US Air Force's F-22 Raptor and Russia's Sukhoi T-50.

Xu said it would have not been possible for China to collect technology from US F-117, whose stealth technology is considered as “obsolete” even it was reportedly shot down and due to very complicated production process it is impossible to copy that technology from its parts.

Wang Yanan, an associate editor in chief at Aerospace information journal, said that the F-117 could barely have motivated the growth of the J-20, due to the different designs between the two generations of fighters.

Old Honda Truck Rendering

I was submitted this picture of an old rendering of what a Honda Truck could look like, looks like a 3 door style, with a first gen Acura MDX front. Cool find, thanks goes out to Greg Morgan....

Japanese Stocks Advance, Led by Honda, on Earnings Confidence

By Anna Kitanaka
Jan. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Japanese stocks rose for the first time in three days, led by automakers, after Nomura Holdings Inc. raised its rating on Honda Motor Co. to “buy,” and after General Electric Co. of the U.S. beat earnings estimates.

Honda climbed 3.8 percent. Elpida Memory Inc., the world’s third-largest maker of computer-memory chips, jumped 5.1 percent after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its investment rating. Yaskawa Electric Corp., a maker of electronic controls, leapt 4.5 percent after the company swung to profit. Tokyo Tomin Bank Ltd., a regional lender based in Japan’s capital, tumbled 6.1 percent, leading a decline by banks.

“There are strong expectations that earnings will improve,” said Koichi Kurose, chief strategist in Tokyo at Resona Bank Ltd., which manages about $57 billion in assets. “As we’re seeing increasing earnings abroad, Japanese exporter shares are rising.”

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average increased 0.7 percent to 10,345.11 at the close in Tokyo. The broader Topix index also gained 0.7 percent to 917.18, after earlier falling as much as 0.1 percent. About three shares rose for each that fell on the Topix.

The Topix has gained 2 percent this year, driving the average price of shares in the index to 15.8 times estimated earnings on average, close to the highest level since August.

General Electric
The gauge sank 1 percent in 2010 as the yen rose to its strongest annual average level against the dollar since currencies became freely traded in 1971, dimming the outlook for export earnings. Confidence in a global recovery was also damped by Europe’s debt crisis, China’s steps to curb inflation and concern U.S. growth will weaken.

In the U.S., the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index increased 0.2 percent in New York on Jan. 21 after General Electric, the world’s biggest maker of jet engines, medical-imaging equipment and power turbines, reported fourth-quarter earnings from continuing operations of 36 cents a share, exceeding the average estimate from analysts of 32 cents. General Electric Co. is considered a proxy for world growth.

Automakers as a group were the biggest boost to the Topix among the index’s 33 industry groups.

Honda Leads Gains
Honda, Japan’s second-largest automaker, gained 3.8 percent to 3,400 yen, the biggest contributor to the Nikkei 225’s advance. The company was raised to “buy” from “neutral” by Nomura analyst Masataka Kunugimoto, who estimated the shares may reach 4,300 yen within the next 12 months. Honda’s U.S. sales are looking favorable, and earnings may increase, Kunugimoto wrote in a Jan. 21 report.

Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s largest carmaker, gained 1.3 percent to 3,415 yen. Nissan Motor Co., the third-biggest automaker in Japan, climbed 0.7 percent to 830 yen.

“Earnings in the U.S. are improving,” said Kazuhiro Takahashi, a general manager at Tokyo-based Daiwa Securities Capital Markets Co. In Japan, “there are expectations that domestic companies will also post good results.”

Elpida rose 5.1 percent to 1,134 yen. Goldman Sachs increased its investment rating to “buy” from “neutral” and boosted its share-price estimate to 1,350 yen from 950 yen.

Yaskawa Electric Corp., a Japanese machinery maker, jumped 4.5 percent to 867 yen. The company turned to a nine-month net income of 4.32 billion yen from a year-earlier loss on a 41 percent surge in sales.

Banks Decline
Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., the maker of Subaru-brand cars, advanced 1.3 percent to 690 yen. The company’s operating profit for the fiscal year to March 31 will likely triple to about 80 billion yen, the Nikkei newspaper reported. That compares with the company’s earlier forecast of 70 billion yen, Nikkei said.

The Topix Banks Index fell 0.4 percent today, the biggest decline among the Topix’s industry groups.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Japan’s biggest bank, dropped 0.5 percent to 441 yen. Mizuho Financial Group Inc., the No. 3, declined 1.2 percent to 164 yen.

Tokyo Tomin Bank tumbled 6.1 percent to 1,168 yen. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut its investment rating on the stock to “underweight” from “neutral.”

The Topix bank index rose 2.7 percent this year through Jan. 21, double the broader Topix index’s 1.3 percent gain in the same period. The bank sub-group’s relative-strength index, a measure of price momentum, was at 71.27 on Jan. 19, above the 70 threshold that some traders use as an indicator to sell.

“Bank shares have been on a steady climb, so now people are cautious about the price and want to capture their earnings,” said Hideyuki Ishiguro, assistant manager at the investment strategy department at Okasan Securities Co. in Tokyo.

-- With assistance from Kotaro Tsunetomi. Editors: Sam Waite, John McCluskey.

Source;
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-01-24/japanese-stocks-advance-led-by-honda-on-earnings-confidence.html