High school students join France worker protests - Los Angeles Times

Riot police surround a woman during a student demonstration in Lyon. French oil workers defied the government's demand Monday to get back to work and end scattered fuel shortages, stepping up their fight against President Nicolas Sarkozy's plan to raise the retirement age to 62. (Laurent Cipriani, Associated Press / October 19, 2010)

Camille Maupas, a 14-year-old high school student, stood in the middle of a major intersection in the center of Paris, took a deep breath, smiled and sat down.

So did about 150 fellow students, who spontaneously decided to block the intersection at Rue de Rivoli and Rue du Renard, causing a traffic jam near City Hall on Monday, to protest against a government plan to raise the retirement age.

With no pension at stake, the students are a worrisome wild card in the eyes of the government, and a recent addition to an intensifying protest movement against President Nicolas Sarkozy's promise to help reduce the state deficit by forcing workers to legally retire at 62, instead of 60.

Students have blocked entrances to their schools with large objects, and on Monday some youths clashed with riot police and burned cars. The violence was blamed on youths who are not part of the student protest.

As authorities prepared for another national strike Tuesday, a larger swath of the population was already feeling the effect of nearly a week of continuous strikes by workers, especially in the energy sector, who were joined early Monday by truck drivers who blocked major roads around France, driving at a snail's pace in "escargot operations."

Despite government assurances, fears of gasoline shortages pushed drivers to fill up their tanks, causing more than 1,000 of France's 12,500 gas stations to temporarily run dry.

"The most serious concern is fuel," said Richard Laisne, 58, a Paris taxi driver. "Because if there's a fuel problem, there's no work for me." He said he filled up his tank Sunday.

Government leaders continue to assure the public that there was no reason to fear a shortage, and Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Sunday, "I won't let our country be blocked."

A spokesman for the Energy Ministry said trucks were on their way to restock gas stations that ran out of fuel.

Flight cancellations and delays are expected Tuesday as airport and public transport workers plan to strike. The government again advised airlines to reduce the number of flights they have planned to Paris and to arrive with their fuel tanks as full as possible, despite insisting there was no risk of fuel shortages at France's major airports.

With striking workers blocking roads, trains, gasoline depots and refineries, there could be a long delay before hard-hit gas stations are able to function normally.

A crisis unit was created Monday by the Interior Ministry, and key gasoline depots and pipelines have been unblocked by authorities, who said they did not use force. Days after certain depots were opened, others were blocked by new protesters Monday. Workers at all of France's 12 oil refineries are on strike too.

The Senate is expected to pass the retirement overhaul bill by Thursday or Friday, but protesters say they will continue striking.

"It's a political success. Everyone is involved," said Josiane Jousset, 62, of the strikes. "The government got a good slap in the face."

Media coverage of the student protests showed images of burned cars, shattered storefront windows and glass walls at bus stations in various towns across France, and were reminiscent of 2005 riots in the country's low-income suburbs.

In the center of Paris, participants said their intentions were peaceful.

"We are pacifists. We just want to be heard," said Hugo Behar, 16.

Though the Sarkozy government contends that the French need to work longer in order to finance future pensions, Hugo said the reform would mean fewer jobs for younger people, because aging employees wouldn't be able to leave their posts open for the next generation. "I don't want to be out of work at 30," he said.

"We aren't doing this to get out of class. … We hope to prevent the vote" in favor of pension overhaul, said Camille, the 14-year-old student.

Lauter is a special correspondent.

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Sales and Profit Surge for Apple, but Its Margins Slip - New York Times

It was not enough, however, to sustain Wall Street’s exuberance for the consumer electronics company that has seemed to do everything right in analysts’ eyes. The company’s shares fell about 6 percent in after-hours trading on Monday after the company announced its results.

Apple said that it sold 14.1 million iPhones in the quarter, ended Sept. 25, an increase of 91 percent from a year earlier. Consumers bought 4.2 million iPads, the tablet computer it introduced in April. Mac sales totaled 3.9 million, up 27 percent.

But buried among quarterly results that any company would be more than happy to emulate was a decline in gross profit margins. Investors disliked the small blemish, sending Apple’s shares down.

“There’s a lot of hype built up into Apple’s earnings,” said Shannon Cross, the managing director of Cross Research. She added, “Everything must go down at some point, I suppose. Clearly, there was pressure on the iPhone gross margins and the iPad.”

Apple’s success has helped to propel its shares up over the last year, to close on Monday in regular trading at $318, a high.

Otherwise, analysts remained enthusiastic about Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif. Indeed, it was a quarter that highlighted the company’s dominance in consumer electronics. The company said net income for the quarter rose 70 percent, to $4.31 billion, or $4.64 a share, from $2.53 billion, or $2.77 a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 67 percent, to $20.34 billion, from $12.21 billion.

On average, analysts had expected Apple to report net income of $4.06 a share on revenue of $18.86 billion.

Apple’s profit margins are the envy of the consumer electronics industry. The problem was that the company’s newest products ware not as profitable as its computers and iPod music players. Strong sales of lower-margin products — the iPad among them — caused the decline, according to Apple executives.

The company said gross margins fell to 36.9 percent, from 41.8 percent in the quarter a year ago. Apple predicted that its margins would slump a bit more, to 36 percent, in the current quarter. Executives repeatedly played down the importance in a conference call with analysts by saying that they were happy with where they were.

The iPod was the only product in Apple’s lineup that showed a decline, with 9.1 million sold, down 11 percent.

Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, made a rare appearance on the regular quarterly conference call. He said he made an exception in honor of the company’s record quarter.

But he used the occasion to attack Apple’s rivals, including Google, whose Android software powers a growing number of mobile phones. Sales of mobile phones using the Android operating system surpassed those for the iPhone in the United States in the third quarter.

Just as a variety of Windows-based PCs held Apple computers to a tiny market share for decades, a variety of Android phones may one day make iPhones a bit player, some analysts have said. Mr. Jobs waved off suggestions that Google’s strategy would win, casting its approach as fragmented because of the variations of Android that he said are used by different phone carriers.

“With iPhone, every handset works the same,” Mr. Jobs said. He added, “We think Android is very fragmented and more fragmented every day.”

Mr. Jobs also criticized several companies that planned to challenge the iPad. He said that their plans to sell a device with a seven-inch screen would create a poor customer experience compared with the iPad, which has a 10-inch screen. The touch screen will be so small, Mr. Jobs said, that users will be unable to easily use their fingers to reach apps on the device.

Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s chief financial officer, said that a surprising number of businesses and schools had also been buying Apple’s products. IPhones provided the biggest piece of Apple’s revenue, with $8.8 billion in sales, followed by notebook computers with $3.2 billion. IPads and related accessories accounted for $2.9 billion.

International sales accounted for 57 percent of all revenue in the quarter.

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Sales and Profit Surge for Apple, but Its Margins Slip - New York Times

It was not enough, however, to sustain Wall Street’s exuberance for the consumer electronics company that has seemed to do everything right in analysts’ eyes. The company’s shares fell about 6 percent in after-hours trading on Monday after the company announced its results.

Apple said that it sold 14.1 million iPhones in the quarter, ended Sept. 25, an increase of 91 percent from a year earlier. Consumers bought 4.2 million iPads, the tablet computer it introduced in April. Mac sales totaled 3.9 million, up 27 percent.

But buried among quarterly results that any company would be more than happy to emulate was a decline in gross profit margins. Investors disliked the small blemish, sending Apple’s shares down.

“There’s a lot of hype built up into Apple’s earnings,” said Shannon Cross, the managing director of Cross Research. She added, “Everything must go down at some point, I suppose. Clearly, there was pressure on the iPhone gross margins and the iPad.”

Apple’s success has helped to propel its shares up over the last year, to close on Monday in regular trading at $318, a high.

Otherwise, analysts remained enthusiastic about Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif. Indeed, it was a quarter that highlighted the company’s dominance in consumer electronics. The company said net income for the quarter rose 70 percent, to $4.31 billion, or $4.64 a share, from $2.53 billion, or $2.77 a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 67 percent, to $20.34 billion, from $12.21 billion.

On average, analysts had expected Apple to report net income of $4.06 a share on revenue of $18.86 billion.

Apple’s profit margins are the envy of the consumer electronics industry. The problem was that the company’s newest products ware not as profitable as its computers and iPod music players. Strong sales of lower-margin products — the iPad among them — caused the decline, according to Apple executives.

The company said gross margins fell to 36.9 percent, from 41.8 percent in the quarter a year ago. Apple predicted that its margins would slump a bit more, to 36 percent, in the current quarter. Executives repeatedly played down the importance in a conference call with analysts by saying that they were happy with where they were.

The iPod was the only product in Apple’s lineup that showed a decline, with 9.1 million sold, down 11 percent.

Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, made a rare appearance on the regular quarterly conference call. He said he made an exception in honor of the company’s record quarter.

But he used the occasion to attack Apple’s rivals, including Google, whose Android software powers a growing number of mobile phones. Sales of mobile phones using the Android operating system surpassed those for the iPhone in the United States in the third quarter.

Just as a variety of Windows-based PCs held Apple computers to a tiny market share for decades, a variety of Android phones may one day make iPhones a bit player, some analysts have said. Mr. Jobs waved off suggestions that Google’s strategy would win, casting its approach as fragmented because of the variations of Android that he said are used by different phone carriers.

“With iPhone, every handset works the same,” Mr. Jobs said. He added, “We think Android is very fragmented and more fragmented every day.”

Mr. Jobs also criticized several companies that planned to challenge the iPad. He said that their plans to sell a device with a seven-inch screen would create a poor customer experience compared with the iPad, which has a 10-inch screen. The touch screen will be so small, Mr. Jobs said, that users will be unable to easily use their fingers to reach apps on the device.

Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s chief financial officer, said that a surprising number of businesses and schools had also been buying Apple’s products. IPhones provided the biggest piece of Apple’s revenue, with $8.8 billion in sales, followed by notebook computers with $3.2 billion. IPads and related accessories accounted for $2.9 billion.

International sales accounted for 57 percent of all revenue in the quarter.

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