I was enjoying a relatively early night on that Wednesday at my home in Colaba, when I was jolted awake by a loud bang and several smaller ones. Thinking it was just leftover festival fireworks and people having fun, I turned over, only to be roused by the unmistakable sound of automatic gunfire.

As any journalist would, I quickly left the flat where I lived and made my way carefully towards where the sound of the shots had been coming from. I didn’t know it at the time but this was Nariman House, a Jewish outreach centre where six occupants were killed by the attackers.

When I arrived, the streets were pretty much deserted and remembering my Reuters hostile environment training — that car bodies do not stop bullets — I crouched down behind the engine block of a builder’s truck and started to phone in copy to our bureaus in New Delhi and Mumbai and arousing the rest of the reporting team. At this stage I had no clue that simultaneous attacks on Victoria Terminus and Leopold Café were in progress until the guys in the bureaus tipped me off as local media picked up on the story.

So I took off and ran towards Leopold’s which is only a couple of kilometres from Nariman House. During that trip, aside from wondering what these attacks were all about, my most vivid memory was wondering just when one of the pack of feral dogs chasing me and barking madly would sink its teeth into my calves. Also, that I should beware of the roving police and army trucks who might just decide that someone running along empty streets in these kind of circumstances might be a potential target.

So sticking to back roads and cutting round towards the Gateway of India, it soon became obvious that something was going off at the Taj Mahal hotel itself and I was one of the first on the scene along with a Reuters photographer and a TV colleague from Times Now. At this stage there were few police and army soldiers around, who were still busy at the other attack locations. All the while, there was a great deal of automatic weapon and pistol fire coming from the hotel together with grenades and large explosions.

Once it was clear the Oberoi hotel was also being attacked, I ran to see what was going on but the bulk of the visible action was going on at the Taj so I returned in time to see the fire brigade evacuating people from the upper floors of the Taj heritage wing using long fire ladders while gunfire and explosions still rocked the building. It was an incredibly dangerous thing for the firemen to do and it’s obvious to me those guys saved a lot of lives that night.

I went round the back of the new wing of the Taj later that night to chat to the Sikh soldiers who had taken up station around the rear of the building. I remember one complaining about being dragged out of bed and agreeing with me that the attack would all be over soon, before dawn for sure. We were both very wrong.

As dawn arrived, it was clear that this was not going to be over any time soon, as security forces played cat and mouse with the attackers in the U-shaped Taj heritage wing of the hotel. Meantime, the siege at the Oberoi continued, as did the situation at Nariman House. At the Taj, I remember an unseasonal light rain falling and the sound of the stray bullets as they zipped overhead as all the journalists covering the event sheltered around the Gateway of India area.

India’s crack National Security Guard “Black Cat” commandos arrived to cheers from locals but still the siege dragged on until early Saturday when several bursts of firing ended the Taj siege, followed by explosions from stun grenades or as the Black Cats destroyed ordnance as they made the hotel safe.

And so this somewhat surreal event unfolded before our eyes and I’m sure in most parts of the world there is no way journalists would be allowed to be so close to the scene in the heart of a major city and financial centre. For most of the event, we were only 100 metres or so from the lobby and the smashed and blackened windows of the hotel.

On Friday, at least two journalists were wounded by grenade debris which hit the 100-metre long phalanx of camera crews and journalists.

A few reporters, including me, wore body armour but were often derided amid an air of bravado, until bullets and debris began flying and people were carted off to hospital.

It was hard not to think that prying reporters and cameras would have been kept back much further from the action if a hotel siege such as this had happened somewhere like Britain, rather than this teeming, chaotic, unforgettable city.

READ MORE: Mumbai attacker Ajmal Kasab executed

Surrounded by piles of quilts and blankets, she fretted over
what was to become of her in the twilight of her life.
  “I am afraid because people are leaving, and we are alone,”
she said, looking small and frail in a jacket decorated with
snowmen.

Otsu is well south of the widespread damage from the
earthquake, and the towns that were wiped off the map by the
monster tsunami that reached higher than 10 meters (33 feet) and
swallowed boats, homes, businesses and, rescuers believe, some
20,000 people. In all, more than 27,000 people are dead or
missing.

But Otsu is only 70 kilometers (42 miles) south of the
crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, whose reactors
have been leaking radiation since March 11, adding a nuclear
crisis that has drawn alarm from around the world.

The U.S. government has advised its citizens to stay at
least 80 kilometers away from the plant, whose radiation has
seeped into local milk and vegetables and, briefly, into Tokyo’s
water supply.

The Japanese government has evacuated people within 20
kilometers of the plant, and told people who live with 30
kilometers of the reactors to stay indoors as much as possible.
    A Geiger counter reading in Otsu on Sunday showed 0.9
microsieverts per hour. That was more than five times the level
of 0.16 microsieverts per hour in downtown Tokyo on Sunday,
although below levels that would cause concern.

A dose of 50 microsieverts is equivalent to receiving one
chest X-ray, according to Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety
Agency.

TEMPORARY HOUSING

Murata’s daughter Hisae complained that the government has
not reached out to help them.

“I want to go back home, but the situation is impossible,”
she said. “I applied to the government to get a temporary house,
but we need a certificate to say the house was destroyed. Now
all the temporary houses have been taken. We thought the
government would come to us, but we need to go to them.”
    Otsu Machi, as it is formally known, is a town of 5,200 that
is part of the city of Kitaibaraki at the northern end of
Ibaraki prefecture (state), on the border with Fukushima
prefecture. While away from the regions hardest hit by the
disaster, Otsu nonetheless suffered considerable damage from the
quake and tsunami. Some older houses collapsed, and broken
furniture littered some streets.
    On Sunday, people were out repairing damaged roofs and there
were lines of up to a kilometer for petrol. Some petrol stations
had put out signs saying “Sold Out.”
    A local McDonalds restaurant was closed at lunchtime.
    The port was in ruins. Dozens of fishing boats had been
tossed onshore and lay on their sides. Rows of wrecked cars
stood where they had been crushed into each other. Bent and
buckled bicycles lay scattered about. Shops along the
harborfront had shattered windows.
  A Japanese coast guard ship was offshore. Divers in scuba
gear dropped into the water from small dinghies.

More than 243,000 people have been living in evacuation
since the quake and tsunami catastrophe more than two weeks ago,
mostly in school gymnasiums that have been turned into
dormitories. Government officials estimate it could be months
before they can be moved to temporary housing.

At the school-turned-evacuation center in Otsu, the Muratas
and other evacuees watched a large flatscreen television that
had been donated. Details of a temporary bus service were
scratched onto a classroom blackboard.

The centre had housed up to 400 refugees immediately after
the quake, but the number has since dwindled to 43 as people
found shelter elsewhere. Most of those left are elderly, relying
on oil heaters for warmth at night and left to wonder, like Kou
Murata, where their home will be.
  (Writing by Terril Yue Jones; Editing by Bill Tarrant)
  
  

(Created by Bill Tarrant)

Much of the growth is set to come from low-cost netbook PCs, which Taiwan’s Acer expects to jump over 50 percent in 2010, Chairman J.T. Wang said, citing an improving global economy and a shift to selling smaller, more mobile PCs for the explosive growth.

Acer was the fastest-growing PC brand in the third quarter, shipping over 25 percent more units than it did a year ago and outperforming Hewlett-Packard <HPQ.N>, Lenovo <0992.HK> and Toshiba <6502.T>, according to industry tracker IDC.

“The idea is to reach $30 billion as soon as possible,” Wang told Reuters in his first public comments since Acer beat Dell <DELL.O> to become the No. 2 PC maker in the third quarter.

“When we look at the overall market, if the PC market starts to grow from next year and handhelds have the potential to become a $200 billion market, $30 billion is a humble target,” Wang, who’s been with the company for 28 years, said in an interview.

Wang joined Acer’s predecessor Multitech as a sales engineer in 1981, and took over as chairman in 2005 after the company’s founder Stan Shih retired.

“Acer’s seeing very strong growth, and is likely to outperform the market in the long run,” said Michael On, managing director of Beyond Asset Management with some $60 million under management but does not own Acer shares in its portfolio.

“But $30 billion sounds like a very ambitious target, and it’s probably a best-case scenario they’re predicting.”

Acer’s revenue is expected to increase to T$573 billion ($18 billion) this year, rising to T$821 billion ($25 billion) in 2012, according to 22 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Acer, Taiwan’s best known brand, has transformed itself from being a contract manufacturer of laptop PCs for global brands.

The company commanded about 14 percent of the global PC market in the third quarter, coming second only to HP’s over 20 percent share, according to IDC.

Acer expects to ship about 12 million low-cost netbook PCs this year, and is currently the biggest player in the field pioneered by crosstown rival Asustek <2357.TW> in 2007. About 26 million netbook PCs are expected to be sold this year, IDC said in June.

Acer shares have jumped about 94 percent so far this year, outperforming HP and Dell, which rose 32 and 48 percent, respectively.

HOLDING ONTO MARGINS

Wang said Acer would be able to maintain its gross profit margin of about 10 percent even as prices of components such as LCD panels DRAM memory chips climb as demand for technology products increases.

Such attention to margins would be important to avoid a scenario like Acer’s rapid rise in the 1990s, when the company gobbled up market share at any cost and then fell into several quarters of operating losses.

“If you look at the past, even when component prices were up or down, we were able to maintain our gross margins at about 10 percent,” Wang said. “I expect this to continue.”

Spot prices of both LCD panels and DRAM memory chips that are used in every PC have climbed in recent quarters on growing demand for flat-screen TVs and as chipmakers cut production to arrest rapidly falling prices.

“What’s different this time around is that they’re growing sales without compromising on margins, which is key,” said UBS analyst Edward Yen. “If margins were thinning, then that’d be a big problem, but they look comfortable now.”

Acer’s operating profit margin in July-Sept stood at about 2.8 percent, lower than peers such as Dell, which had a 5 percent operating margin in its fiscal second quarter.

In its pursuit for a larger market share in what Acer calls a multi-brand strategy, the firm has acquired brands such as Gateway and Packard Bell to raise its profile in markets such as the United States where it has a lower profile.

Wang said Microsoft’s <MSFT.O> launch of its Windows 7 operating system on Thursday is expected to help sales, as consumers look to upgrade computers running on Vista or the eight-year-old XP system.

“It’s positive,” Wang said. “Looking at Microsoft the past 10 years, they’ve made the operating system more complicated all the way. This time, they’ve made it simpler. It’s a totally opposite direction of their design philosophy.”

Wang said Microsoft was working on a new operating system targeted at corporate customers, but he declined to give details.

“The tides are turning and it’s time for most customers to consider switching to the new system (Windows 7),” Wang said. “I don’t know when the new corporate-focused system will be launched, but they’re looking at designing one now.”

Microsoft officials were not available for comment.

(Editing Anshuman Daga)

Acer also expects shipments of its low-cost netbook PCs to rise over 50 percent in 2010 from this year, Chairman J.T. Wang said, helped by an improving global economy and as more users migrate to the smaller form for more mobility.

“The idea is to reach $30 billion as soon as possible,” Wang told Reuters in an interview, in his first public comments since the company overtook Dell <DELL.O> as the world’s No. 2 PC maker.

“If the PC market starts to grow from next year and handhelds have the potential to become a $200 billion market, $30 billion is a humble target.”

Acer is expected to reach T$573 billion ($17.6 billion) this year, according to a poll of 22 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Microsoft’s <MSFT.O> launch of its Windows 7 operating system on Thursday is also expected to be a positive factor for sales, Wang said, as consumers look to upgrade computers running on the much-maligned Vista or the eight-year-old XP system.

“It’s positive,” Wang said. “Looking at Microsoft the past 10 years, they’ve made the operating system more complicated all the way. This time, they’ve made it simpler. It’s a totally opposite direction of their design philosophy.”

For a list of stories on the Windows 7 launch, please click on: [nN16351055]

Wang also said the company would be able to maintain its gross profit margin of about 10 percent even as prices of components such as LCD panels and DRAM memory chips climb on rising demand.

(Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)

((kelvin.soh@thomsonreuters.com; +886 2 2508 0815; Reuters Messaging: kelvin.soh.reuters.com@reuters.net))

((If you have a query or comment on this story, send an email to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com)) Keywords: ACER/

(C) Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution ofReuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expresslyprohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuterssphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group ofcompanies around the world.nSEW000167

Taiwan planned to buy more weapons from the United States to protect itself, although it did not want an arms race with China, Ma said, as the military balance tips in the mainland’s favor.

“(There are) more than 1,000 (missiles) and they haven’t changed that. The number continues to go up. That is certainly a great concern for the people here,” Ma told Reuters in an interview at the presidential office.

“If we are to negotiate a peace agreement with the mainland, certainly we expect them to do something about those missiles, either to remove them or dismantle them,” said Ma, who has eased tensions with China since taking office in May 2008.

Even as China’s military clout grows, Taiwan will still want to hold its own fort by ensuring it has adequate arms and hopes to buy more fighter jets, attack helicopters and submarines from the United States, U.S. and Taiwan officials said.

Ma, 59, who became chairman of the ruling Nationalist Party or Kuomintang (KMT) at the weekend, said he would not rule out meeting Chinese leaders such as his counterpart Hu Jintao.

“I won’t exclude that possibility, but there’s no timetable for that yet,” Ma said, when asked if he would meet Hu. “At the moment, we have our hands full with economic issues.”

MEETING CHINESE LEADERS

Analysts said the most appropriate time could be in 2012 or 2013, if Ma gets re-elected to a second four-year term and Hu is expected to step down.

“There is a lot of uncertainty as to when leaders on both sides can meet. I would say the best time is in 2012 if Ma gets re-elected,” said Lin Cheng-yi, research fellow at the Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies.

“It looks like cross-strait relations are the most important among all of Ma policies. The policy that affects Taiwan most is ties with China, and not domestic politics nor international diplomacy,” Lin said.

Communist China has claimed Taiwan since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949 and has vowed to bring the island under mainland rule, by force if necessary.

Despite political differences, commercial ties have flourished. China is Taiwan’s largest trading partner with two-way trade worth more than $130 billion, while Taiwanese businesses have poured over $100 billion into the mainland.

Taiwan’s economy, which was in recession earlier this year, has begun depending so much on China that some Taiwanese politicians and analysts worry the mainland could take over the island by economic means.

Ma said the island needed to diversify its exports to stay competitive and forecast 4 percent economic growth next year. He also said the island expected to sign a deal similar to a free trade agreement with China next year that would cut tariffs.

The president hopes more of the exports that go to China will be sold to the Chinese domestic market, instead of being re-exported to advanced economies such as the United States and Europe that have been harder hit by the steep global downturn.

“It’s not possible for us to change the economy based on exports, but we could diversify the export market, not focusing entirely on the United States or Europe,” Ma said.

“Actually the largest export destination is mainland China, but many of the goods with mainland China are reprocessed to be re-exported to the U.S. and Europe, so we will modify that policy so that mainland China is no longer treated only as a factory, but rather, as a market.”

(Additional reporting by Ralph Jennings and Lin Miao-jung; Graphics by Catherine Trevethan, Editing by Dean Yates and Paul Tait)

Taiwan government forecasts of 3.92 percent growth next year and a 4.04 percent contraction this year as the tech-reliant economy eases out of a recession due to the worst global downturn since the Great Depression.

“Judging from the pace of the recovery and judging from the forecasts of major businesses in Taiwan, those figures are reliable,” Ma told Reuters in an interview at the presidential office.

He also said more of Taiwan’s exports should be heading for China as their final destination.

“We could diversify the exports market, not focusing entirely on the United States or Europe,” Ma said.

“Actually the largest export destination is mainland China. We will modify that policy so that mainland China is no longer treated only as a factory, but rather as a market.

The global credit crisis caused a slump in Taiwan’s exports, which are the mainstay of its $390 billion tech-reliant economy.

China, including Hong Kong, and the United States are Taiwan’s top export destination, making up around 60 percent of the island’s total shipments, and electronics products contribute nearly half of the island’s total exports.

Taiwan investors have poured about $100 billion into fast-growing economic powerhouse China, lured there by a common language and lower labor costs, often to make goods that are later shipped to Europe and the United States.

Ma also added that Taiwan’s central bank was concerned with the inflows of hot money that has pushed the Taiwan dollar to one-year highs a few weeks ago.

“We are watching (hot money) very closely so that it will not cause inflation,” Ma said.

(Additional reporting by Lee Chyen Yee and Lin Miao-jung)