New Harry Potter movie bewitches box office

LOS ANGELES: The new Harry Potter movie enjoyed the biggest box office debut of the entire boy wizard series and the fifth largest ever, making 61 million dollars on its first day, estimates said Saturday.

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One” made 24 million dollars in midnight Thursday screenings, followed by 37 million for the rest of the day Friday, according to Box Office Mojo.

If confirmed, the Potter movie will have had the fifth best opening day ever, behind the last two “Twilight” movies, “The Dark Knight,” and “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” Entertainment Weekly reported online.

The Friday figure would also be the biggest opening the Potter franchise, beating “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” which made 58.2 million in its debut last year.

Entertainment Weekly forecast that “Deathly Hallows” could make up to 156 million dollars on its first weekend, although a more conservative estimate would put it at 130-140 million dollars.

“Which as Ron Weasley would say, is ‘bloody brilliant,’ its box office analyst commented.

In the new movie evil Lord Voldemort and his evil henchmen control huge swathes of the wizarding world and Harry is constantly in danger.

Harry, Hermione and Ron leave behind the safety of school and their families and set out alone to seek out horcruxes, items in which Voldemort has hidden pieces of his soul, so they can destroy them and ultimately bring him down.

Much of the film revolves around a road trip, as the trio travel around Britain to try to stay safe, and focuses on the close friendship between the main characters, in particular the budding romance between Hermione and Ron.

It ends on a cliffhanger, however, as the final resolution will not be known until Part Two, which is due out in July. That will cover a final, explosive battle between Potter and his allies and Voldemort’s dark forces.

Box offices estimates by the more widely used box office tracker, Exhibitor Relations, are due out on Sunday, while full weekend figures are published on Monday. — AFP

Spirited Khan gives Pakistan squash silver

Aamir Atlas Khan’s great run at the 16th Asian Games squash competition came to a halt in the final courtesy a brilliant performance by Malaysia’s Mohammad Azlan Iskander.

World No. 15 Iskander overpowered Khan, the nephew of former world champion Jansher Khan, 11-6, 11-7, 11-6. Iskander along with Malaysia’s top women’s player Nicol David gave their country a squash double at the Games. David, who has been world number one for a record 56 consecutive months, arrived in Guangzhou having won the Commonwealth Games title in New Delhi in October.

“Every point felt so long and I have to keep myself focused all time,” Iskander said.

Khan engaged Iskander in long rallies in all the three games, but felt he had not enough energy left in him to compete in the final after playing Ong in the semifinals.

“Azlan played well and responded by picking the balls from all corners of the court,” Khan said.

“But I feel good that after a long time we had won at least silver medal.”

Pakistan, which ruled the squash world through Jansher and Jehangir Khan until the late 1990s, last time won gold in the Asian Games through Zarak Jehan Khan in 1998.

However, Khan’s silver-medal-winning performance will do the game in the country a world of good.

Govt sets new record of borrowing

KARACHI: The government has geared up its efforts to borrow from both the State Bank and scheduled banks accumulating the domestic debt to record new peaks as it added over Rs800 billion in a year.

It looks that the government is in a fix as higher borrowing from the State Bank attracts stern warning from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) while borrowing from schedule banks catches the attention of State Bank.

The IMF restricts government borrowing from the Central Bank as it is inflationary while borrowing from scheduled banks is criticised by the SBP which is issuing cautions that borrowing leaves little room for private sector credit growth.

The serious shortage of revenue compelled the government to borrow from the banking system which resulted in a new record last year. The situation during the first four months of the current fiscal year looks more compelling for the government to borrow from all possible resources.

The government made drastic cut in the allocated funds for development programmes during the last fiscal year while the officially available indictors show that the situation is grimmer this year.

The latest report shows that the government has so far borrowed about Rs200 billion from the State Bank while it has collected Rs71 billion from the scheduled banks.

If government continues to borrow at this pace, another Rs1 trillion would be added into the domestic debt.

Economists believe that the government could hardly generate Rs1.7 trillion as revenue during this fiscal year primarily due to expected poor economic growth.

The domestic debt rose to Rs4.863 trillion by August 2010 while it was Rs4.050 trillion in August 2009.

In 12 months, Rs813 billion were added to domestic debt.

While the government is busy to raise its revenue and imposed flood surcharge, the heavy borrowing seems to have already set new records.

Last year the government set new record of borrowing from scheduled banks which attracted wide criticism by the SBP and independent economists and blamed the government for poor performance of the private sector.

The borrowing from the State Bank during the first four months was much higher than the same period of last year indicating that a new record has already been set. Last year, in the first four months the government borrowing from SBP was minus 17
billion while this year it has reached Rs200 billion.

However, borrowing from scheduled banks was lower. It was Rs71 billion in first four months while it was Rs131 billion during the same period of last year.The heavy borrowing accelerated the growth of broad money which is double than the last year.

The SBP reported the monetary growth was 2.74 per cent from July to Nov 5 against 1.48 per cent during the same period of last year.

The high monetary growth is an indication that inflation is on higher side and that the State Bank’s tight monetary policy is not working as it has been designed to work.

Ireland swallows bitter pill, asks EU for loan

DUBLIN: Debt-crippled Ireland formally applied Sunday for a massive EU-IMF loan to stem the flight of capital from its banks, joining Greece in a step unthinkable only a few years ago when Ireland was a booming Celtic Tiger and the economic envy of Europe.

European Union finance ministers quickly agreed in principle to the bailout, saying it “is warranted to safeguard financial stability in the EU and euro area.” But all sides said further weeks of negotiations loomed to define the fund’s terms, conditions and precise size.

Ireland’s crisis, set off by its foundering banks, drove up borrowing costs not only for Ireland but for other weak links in the eurozone such as Spain and Portugal. Ireland’s agreement takes some pressure off those countries, but they still may end up needing bailouts of their own.

The European Central Bank – which oversees monetary policy for the 16-nation eurozone and first raised alarm bells about a renewed cash crisis in Dublin banks. Sweden and Britain, not members of the euro currency, said they also were willing to provide bilateral loans to Ireland.

Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan spent much of Sunday talking to other eurozone financial chiefs about conditions they would place on the emergency aid package taking shape.

Lenihan said Ireland needed less than euro100 billion ($140 billion) to use as a credit line for its state-backed banks, which are losing deposits and struggling to borrow funds on open markets. He said the loan facility could last anywhere from three to nine years.

International Monetary Fund director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said his organization “stands ready to join this effort, including through a multiyear loan.” He said IMF experts already in Dublin would “hold swift discussions on an economic program with the Irish authorities, the European Commission, and the European Central Bank.”

Ireland has been brought to the brink of bankruptcy by its fateful 2008 decision to insure its banks against all losses – a bill that is swelling beyond euro50 billion ($69 billion) and driving Ireland’s deficit into uncharted territory.

The country had long resisted a bailout, but Lenihan said it was now painfully clear that Ireland needed “financial firepower” immediately to complement its own cutthroat plans for recovery.

This country of 4.5 million now faces at least four more years of deep budget cuts and tax hikes totaling at least euro15 billion ($20.5 billion) just to get its deficit – bloated this year to a European record of 32 percent of GDP – back to the eurozone’s limit of 3 percent by 2014.

The European Central Bank and other eurozone members had been pressing behind the scenes for Ireland – long struggling to come to grips with the true scale of its banking losses – to accept a bailout that would reassure investors the country won’t, and can’t, go bankrupt.

The economically struggling governments of Spain and Portugal, in particular, had criticized Ireland’s recent determination to keep going it alone. Ireland’s inability to stop its financial bleeding has fueled investor fears of wider eurozone defaults and driven up those countries’ borrowing costs on bond markets.

But even with Ireland seeking aid, financial analysts say Spain and Portugal remain on course for potential bailouts of their own. Spain is fighting Europe’s highest unemployment rate and Portugal is seen as doing too little to restructure an unusually uncompetitive economy.

Ireland’s move comes just six months after the EU and IMF organized a euro110 billion ($150 billion) bailout of Greece and declared a euro750 billion ($1.05 trillion) safety net for any other eurozone members facing the risk of imminent loan defaults. It demonstrates that creating the three-layered fund didn’t, by itself, reassure global investors that it would be safe, or smart, to keep lending to the eurozone’s weakest members.

Economists question whether the economies of Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Greece will grow sufficiently to build their tax bases and permit them to keep financing, never mind paying down, their debts. The euro, however, has shown some resiliency in the tumult so far, remaining relatively strong against the US dollar.

Lenihan said Ireland most needed a “contingency” fund from which Irish banks could borrow. He said the funds would “not necessarily” be used and emphasized that the government’s own operations are fully funded through mid-2011.

The rapid pace of Sunday’s humiliating Irish U-turn surprised many analysts, given how Lenihan and Ireland’s deeply unpopular prime minister, Brian Cowen, appeared in recent days to be in denial that Ireland needed a cent of foreign aid.

More than 30 banking experts from the IMF, ECB and European Commission began arriving in Dublin only on Thursday to begin poring over the books and projections of the government, treasury and banks, a mammoth task expected to take weeks.

Ireland’s precipitous fall has been tied to the fate of its overgrown banks, which received access to mountains of cheap money once Ireland joined the eurozone in 1999. The Dublin banks bet the bulk of their borrowed funds on rampant property markets in Ireland, Britain and the United States, a strategy that paid rich dividends until 2008, when investors began to see the Irish banking system as a house of cards.

When the most reckless speculator, Anglo Irish Bank, faced bankruptcy in September 2008, it and other Irish banks persuaded Lenihan and aides that they faced only short-term cash problems, not a terminal collapse of their loan books.

Lenihan announced that Ireland would insure all deposits — and, much more critically, the banks’ massive borrowing from overseas investors — against any default, an unprecedented move.

At the time, Lenihan billed his fateful decision as “the cheapest bailout in history” and claimed it wouldn’t cost the Irish taxpayer a penny. The presumption was that confidence would return and Ireland’s lending would resume its runaway trend.

But in the two years since, Lenihan has nationalized Anglo and two other small banks and taken major stakes in the country’s two dominant banks, Allied Irish and Bank of Ireland. The flight of foreign capital began accelerating again in the summer amid renewed doubts that the government understood the full scale of its losses.

Lenihan and the Irish Central Bank responded in September by estimating the final bill at euro45 billion to euro50 billion ($62 billion to $69 billion). Investors, initially relieved to have a figure, quietly resumed their withdrawal from Irish banks and bond markets in mid-October, driving up the borrowing costs for Portugal and Spain, which face their own deficit and debt crises.

Over the past two months Cowen and his 15-member Cabinet have been drafting a four-year austerity plan for Ireland that is expected to be unveiled later this week.

It seeks to close the gap between Ireland’s spending, currently running at euro50 billion, and depressed tax revenues of just euro31 billion. It proposes the toughest steps in the 2011 budget, when euro4.5 billion will be cut from spending and euro1.5 billion in new taxes imposed — steps that threaten to drive Ireland’s moribund economy into recession and civil unrest.

Both Cowen and Lenihan have stressed that Ireland’s 12.5 percent rate of tax on business profits — its most powerful lure for attracting and keeping 600 US companies with bases in Ireland — will not be touched no matter what happens.

France, Germany and other eurozone members have repeatedly criticized the rate as unfair and say it should be raised now given the depth of Ireland’s red ink.

However, IMF and EU leaders negotiating the bailout terms with Ireland have said they don’t intend to dictate any specific tax reforms to Ireland, only to ensure that targets for cutting spending and raising taxes overall are met. Ireland’s right to set its own tax rates also has been enshrined in a series of EU treaties, making any strong-arm tactics now unlikely.

Ireland’s 2011 budget, however, could yet be torpedoed by its own divided lawmakers.

The budget faces a difficult passage through parliament when it is unveiled Dec. 7. Cowen has an undependable three-vote majority that is expected to disappear by the spring as byelections, or special elections, are held to fill seats.

Cowen and his long-dominant Fianna Fail party are languishing at record lows in opinion polls. The latest survey published in the Sunday Business Post newspaper said Fianna Fail has just 17 percent support, whereas the two main opposition parties, Fine Gael and Labour, command 33 percent and 27 percent respectively. Those two parties are widely expected to form a center-left government after Cowen loses his majority, which would force an early election.

Reflecting the national mood, the Sunday Independent newspaper displayed the photos of Ireland’s 15 Cabinet ministers on its front page, expressed hope that the IMF would order the Irish political class to take huge cuts in positions, pay and benefits — and called for Fianna Fail’s destruction at the next election.

“Slaughter them after Christmas,” the Sunday Independent’s lead editorial urged. — AP

TSA chief: Screening should be minimally invasive

WASHINGTON: The head of the agency responsible for airport security, facing protests from travelers and pressure from the White House, appeared to give ground Sunday on his position that there would be no change in policies regarding invasive passenger screening procedures.

Transportation Security Administration head John Pistole said in a statement that the agency would work to make screening methods “as minimally invasive as possible,” although he gave no indication that screening changes were imminent.

The statement came just hours after Pistole, in a TV interview, said that while the full-body scans and pat-downs could be intrusive and uncomfortable, the high threat level required their use. “No, we’re not changing the policies,” he told CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Pistole said that, as in all nationwide security programs, “there is a continual process of refinement and adjustment to ensure that best practices are applied.”

Still, he pointed to the alleged attempt by a Nigerian with explosives in his underwear to try to bring down an Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight last Christmas. “We all wish we lived in a world where security procedures at airports weren’t necessary,” Pistole said, “but that just isn’t the case.”

In his earlier TV appearance, Pistole appeared to shrug off statements by President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that the agency would look for ways to alter screening techniques that some passengers say are invasions of privacy.

Obama said in Lisbon on Saturday that he had asked TSA officials whether there’s a less intrusive way to ensure travel safety. “I understand people’s frustrations,” he said, adding that he had told the TSA that “you have to constantly refine and measure whether what we’re doing is the only way to assure the American people’s safety.”

Clinton, appearing Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” said she thought “everyone, including our security experts, are looking for ways to diminish the impact on the traveling public” and that “striking the right balance is what this is about.”

She, for one, wouldn’t like to submit to a security pat-down.

“Not if I could avoid it. No. I mean, who would?” Clinton told CBS’ “Face the Nation” in an interview broadcast Sunday.

“Clearly it’s invasive, it’s not comfortable,” Pistole said of the scans and pat-downs during the TV interview. But, he added, “if we are to detect terrorists, who have again proven innovative and creative in their design and implementation of bombs that are going to blow up airplanes and kill people, then we have to do something that prevents that.”

Rep. John Mica, who is set to become Transportation Committee chairman when Republicans take over the House in January, differed with the approach.

“I don’t think the rollout was good and the application is even worse. This does need to be refined. But he’s saying it’s the only tool and I believe that’s wrong,” Mica, a longtime critic of the TSA, said separately on the CNN program.

With the peak traveling season nearing, air travelers are protesting new requirements at some US airports that they must pass through full-body scanners that produce a virtually naked image. The screener, who sits in a different location, does not see the face of the person being screened and does not know the traveler’s identity.

Those who refuse to go through the scanners are subject to thorough pat-downs that include agency officials touching the clothed genital areas of passengers.

Pistole was shown videos of people being patted down where the screeners touched the breasts of a woman, felt into the pants of another person and felt the crotch of a man. He said all three cases were proper and that the gloves of the screener who felt inside the pants were then tested for explosive trace residue.

Pistole added that very few people receive the pat-down. People who go through the new advanced imaging machines available at some 70 airports are usually not subject to pat-downs, he said.

Pistole said that while watch lists and other intelligence sources help the TSA pick out travelers who might pose greater risks, rules against profiling mean that some people who are less of a risk, such as the elderly or the disabled, must sometimes undergo pat-downs.

“I want to be sympathetic to each of the negative experiences. We’ve had extensive outreach to a number of different disability community groups, a number of different outreach efforts to try to say, how can we best work with those in your community to effect security while respecting your dignity and privacy,” he said.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., appearing on CBS, said Congress would hold hearings on the “very controversial” issue of how to strike the right balance. Asked how he would feel about submitting to a pat-down, Hoyer said: “I don’t think any of us feel that the discomfort and the delay is something that we like, but most people understand that we’ve got to keep airplanes safe.”— AP

Almost all flood-hit got help thru’ Watan cards, CM told

LAHORE: The Punjab government claims that distribution of Watan cards among the flood-affected people has almost been completed and 95 per cent calamity-stricken people have received the assistance through this transparent process.

The provision of free fertilizers and seeds to the farmers of flood-hit areas will be completed by Nov 30 as well.

The claims were made in a meeting held here on Sunday to review construction of model villages in the flood-hit areas, distribution of Watan cards and provision of free fertilizers and seeds to the affected farmers. The meeting, presided over by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, also reviewed provision of quilts, blankets and warm clothes to the flood-hit people.

Senator Parvaiz Rashid, MNA Afzal Khokhar, Arshad Leghari, MPA Khwaja Salman Rafiq, chief secretary, senior member, Board of Revenue, chairman, planning & development, secretaries of agriculture, housing, information, chief executive officer of Punjab Rural Support Programme and Punjab Disaster Management Authority director general were present.

The chief minister commended the role of elected representatives and administration in making arrangements and adopting a ‘transparent mechanism’ for the distribution of Watan cards among the flood-affected people.

He said provision of Watan Card to every calamity-stricken person had been ensured and Nov 30 was set as the deadline for the completion of this process. However, he said, this date should be extended by 15 days to address any complaints.

He said elected representatives should visit the affected areas and address any complaint regarding provision of Watan cards to deserving persons with the cooperation of concerned administration.

He said due to fast-changing weather, distribution of warm clothes, blankets and quilts among the affected people should be given top priority and the campaign for the collection of woolies should also be expedited.

He said the donations made to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund would also be spent on the construction of model villages, equipped with modern facilities. He said a comprehensive plan for the construction of model villages should be given final shape within next three days and contracts should be awarded in this regard.

CS Nasir Mehmood Khosa, BoR Senior Member Akhlaq Ahmad Tarrar, Agriculture Secretary Capt (retired) Arif Nadeem and PDMA DG Khalid Sherdil gave detailed briefings regarding distribution of Watan cards, free seeds and fertilizers as well as quilts and blankets in the flood-hit areas.

Agriculture secretary told the meeting the first phase of distribution of free seeds and fertilizers to the farmers was completed on November 16 while the second phase would conclude by Nov 30.

Mr Sherdil said 40,000 blankets and quilts had been distributed among the flood victims, while 10,000 quilts and blankets would be provided to the flood-hit areas of Muzaffargarh within next couple of days.

He said 1,372 centers had been set up in educational institutions and other places for the collection of warm clothes for the flood-hit people.

Construction work of 36 model villages had been started at different places while work on another 21 such dwellings would soon be initiated, he added. —Staff Reporter

CPLC to examine biodata of security guards

KARACHI: In the wake of a dissatisfactory performance of a special police cell formed to verify the details of private security guards in the city, authorities have decided to bring the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) in to evaluate the credentials of the private guards to be hired by various companies, it has emerged.

In March this year, the Karachi police had set up a cell to verify the personal details and monitor the performance of more than 50,000 security guards employed by about 200 private security companies across the city. However, the cell failed to meet the required task due to resource constraints as well as a lack of interest of those posted there.

Sources said that recent meetings between the police authorities and some key members of the association of the private security agencies led to a mutual understanding that the CPLC by using its database that contained the record of each FIR in Sindh would perform the verification of the private security guards’ credentials.

“The CPLC is maintaining a record of FIRs registered mainly in Sindh…the record would help scrutinising the personal details (whether the guard is booked in any criminal case) of the security guards employed with a number of private security companies,” said a source privy to the discussion at a recent meeting. “The police and the private security companies have agreed upon the decision.”

The decision to form the special cell was taken after the massive December 2009 robbery in an Allied Bank branch and similar heists involving private security guards. In what was being described as the biggest bank heist in the country, private security guards allegedly robbed the I.I. Chundrigar Road branch of the ABL of foreign currency worth Rs311.2 million in December 2009.

A new post, ‘Superintendent for private security agencies’, was created to run the cell, but since after its formation the cell, where a DSP and four inspectors were also posted, lacked the working strength and the required resources.

“The new cell was formed to coordinate with the security companies for the verifications of the credential of their guards,” said the source, adding: “For the last six months only the personal data of a few hundreds security guards had been verified while thousands of applications were still pending.”

Although the source conceded that the CPLC data would not be effective for those security guards who hailed from the other three provinces, still the CPLC would assist the authorities to verify the record of a large number of them.

The chairman of the All Pakistan Security Agencies Association, Mufasir Malik, confirmed that the verification process of the private guards was not at the required level.

However, he believed that the CPLC database would help a lot in the scrutiny.

“Before the existing system, we mostly relied on the data provided by candidates for getting jobs,” he said. “The new arrangement and the CPLC’s help in this regard would at least bring the police on board to check such data.

It would also help maintain a centralised database of all the security guards performing duties in the city.”

Big hydropower contract rules being relaxed

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided in principle to relax conditions for awarding contracts to international companies for big hydropower projects, by doing away with the international competitive bidding (ICB) required under the existing procurement rules.

A senior government official told Dawn that from investors’ point of view the procedure for taking up mega projects for investment on build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) basis involved a lot of time and money for evaluating data relating to a project, site visits and formation of joint venture companies. For this reason, renowned private investors are hardly interested in taking part in the ICB.

“They are not interested to invest time and money without having firm commitment for the business,” he said.

As a result, the share of hydropower in the overall electricity supply which was 70 per cent in the early 1980s has now declined to less than 30 per cent, putting heavy reliance on imported furnace oil costing over $10 billion per annum and resulting in unaffordable electricity tariff. The country can produce up to 40,000MW of electricity through simple run-of-the-river projects at about 8 cents per unit compared with 15-18 cents per unit of thermal power.

The official said that fresh guidelines had been prepared by an inter-ministerial committee for a fast-track induction of hydropower projects by attracting investment in this indigenous and cheaper source of power generation.

“The objective is to ensure quick award of projects as far as possible to attract world renowned companies in the hydropower business through BOOT where money from the government is involved and a private investor is ready to arrange financing and get return on the equity.”

The revised guidelines have been forwarded to the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet for consideration and approval, he said.

Under the guidelines, the government will invite early next year (January 2011) proposals for development of hydropower projects in all four provinces and Azad Kashmir on the BOOT basis. After completion of 25-50 years of operations, the projects would stand transferred to regional governments at a notional price of Re1.

For projects whose feasibility studies have been completed, the sponsors will enter into implementation, power purchase and water use agreements with the government and sell electricity at a tariff to be determined by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra).

The projects where feasibility studies are not available, the sponsors will conduct bankable studies under monitoring by a panel of experts and then enter into implementation, power purchase and water use agreement with respective governments provided these projects are linked to the national grid.

In both cases, Nepra will approve a two part tariff involving cost of geological conditions, the cost of civil works and resettlement cost that could be reopened for final approval in case of variation on ground realities.

Besides, the sponsors will also be entitled to a capacity purchase price comprising fixed payments like debt servicing, rate of return, insurance and fixed operation and maintenance expenditure and the energy purchase price comprising water use charges and variable operational and maintenance cost.

The power purchaser (the government or the central power purchasing agency) will bear the hydrological risk, meaning that in case the plant is there but water is not available, the project company will get the capacity payment price of the tariff based on assumed generated energy concept. However, the government will not guarantee the risk and cost of the feasibility study even if the study is approved by a panel of experts. The sponsors will have to ensure equity participation of 20-30 per cent for financing the project and arrange the remaining amount through debt for which the tariff adjustment will be allowed against US dollar, Japanese yen, pound sterling and euro. The sponsor will also be required to hold at least 20 per cent equity in the project for at least first six years of project commissioning.

The sponsor will be charged a processing fee of $10,000 by the government to consider the request and, if approved, will be charged at $1000 per MW as performance guarantee for issuance of letter of intent to go ahead with the project feasibility and agree to an implementation schedule including a request for tariff determination.

An additional $5000 per MW performance guarantee will also be charged before the issuance of letter of support (LOS) that would enable the sponsor to achieve financial close within 12 months.

The sponsors will be required to start construction activities within 72 months after the announcement of the financial close and start commercial operations in another 74 months. The government believes that about 12-24 months could be saved by avoiding international competitive bidding.