Ban on demanding Facebook passwords among new 2013 state laws

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Employers in California and Illinois will be prohibited from demanding access to workers' password-protected social networking accounts and teachers in Oregon will be required to report suspected student bullies thanks to new laws taking effect in 2013.
In all, more than 400 measures were enacted at the state level during 2012 and will become law in the new year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).
Some of the statutes, which deal with everything from consumer protection to gun control and healthcare, take effect at the stroke of midnight. Others will not kick in until later in the year.
The raft of measures includes a new abortion restriction in New Hampshire, public-employee pension reform in California and Alabama, same-sex marriage in Maryland, and a requirement that private insurers in Alaska cover autism in kids and young adults, NCSL said.
In New Hampshire, a rarely used form of late-term abortion will become illegal except to save the life of the mother - and even then only if two doctors from separate hospitals certify the procedure is medically necessary.
John Lynch, the state's outgoing Democratic governor, had vetoed the measure, saying it would threaten the lives of women in rural areas. But the state's Republican-controlled legislature later overrode him.
In California and Illinois, laws that take effect at 12:01 a.m. local time will make it illegal for bosses to request social networking passwords or non-public online account information from their employees or job applicants.
Michigan's Republican Governor Rick Snyder signed a similar measure into law earlier this month that took effect immediately. The Michigan law also penalizes educational institutions for dismissing or failing to admit a student who does not provide passwords and other account information used to access private internet and email accounts, including social networks like Facebook and Twitter.
But workers and job seekers in all three states will still need to be careful what they post online: Employers may continue to use publicly available social networking information. So inappropriate pictures, tweets and other social media indiscretions can still come back to haunt them.
Gun violence - in places where it's all too common, such as Chicago, and in places where it's unexpected, such as Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut - was big news in 2012. But only a handful of new state firearms laws are set to take effect in 2013.
In Michigan, the definition of a "pistol" under the law will now include any firearm less than 26 inches in length. The new definition encompasses some rifles with folding stocks and will make the weapons subject to the same restrictions as pistols.
In Illinois, certain guns currently regulated by state law, including paintball guns, will be excluded from the definition of a firearm and participants in military re-enactments will be exempt from some weapons laws.
Another big story in 2012 was the effort by lawmakers in a number of cash-strapped states to put their public employee pension funds on a sounder financial footing.
In California and Alabama, reforms designed to begin to address the unfunded liabilities of those retirement systems will take effect in 2013.
Among the other new laws on the books in 2013:
* In California, prison workers and peace officers will now be prohibited from having sex with inmates and prisoners in transport.
* In Illinois, sex offenders will be prohibited from distributing candy on Halloween, or playing Santa or the Easter Bunny.
* In Oregon, employers won't be allowed to advertise a job vacancy if they won't consider applicants who are currently out of work.
* In Kentucky, residents will be prohibited from releasing feral or wild hogs back into the wild and Illinois will ban the possession and sale of shark fins.
* And in Florida, the term "motor vehicle" will no longer apply to the specialized all-terrain vehicles with over-sized tires known as "swamp buggies" that are popular in some parts of the state.

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Asia stocks rise as Alcoa sees stronger demand

BANGKOK (AP) — Asian stock markets rose Wednesday after the fourth-quarter earnings season got off to a positive start in the U.S. with aluminum giant Alcoa forecasting higher demand for 2013.
Demand for aluminum has been hurt by the weak global economy, but Alcoa predicted a 7 percent increase in demand this year, slightly better than the 6 percent increase in 2012. Because Alcoa makes aluminum for so many key industries, investors study its results for clues about the health and direction of the overall economy.
"Regional markets are mostly firmer after the Alcoa result set the tone early in Asia," said Stan Shamu of IG Markets in Melbourne in a market commentary. "Alcoa's results are generally considered a bellwether for the global economy and the fact that the aluminum giant forecasts higher demand in 2013 appeased investors."
Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 0.4 percent to 23,196.73 after a downturn in the prior session, with sentiment helped by gains in mainland Chinese shares.
"Stability in China is helping. We are taking a lot of cues from China-Asia," said Jackson Wong, vice president of Tanrich Securities in Hong Kong.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index opened lower on a strengthening yen but reversed course as the currency slipped against the dollar. The benchmark in Tokyo gained 0.6 percent to 10,574.53. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 0.4 percent to 4,709.10. South Korea's Kopsi was 0.3 percent lower at 1,992.13. Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and the Philippines rose. Indonesia and Malaysia fell.
Analysts at Capital Economics said in a market commentary that "2013 has begun with more optimism about prospects for the global economy."
Among individual stocks, shares of Australian company Alumina Ltd., a joint venture partner of Alcoa, jumped 4.6 percent. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. rose 4.8 percent in Tokyo. Hong Kong-listed China Railway Group rose 3 percent.
European stock markets fell Tuesday on a report showing unemployment in the 17 countries that use the euro hit 11.8 percent in December, a record high and up from 11.7 percent the previous month.
Major indexes surged last week after U.S. lawmakers passed a bill to avoid a combination of government spending cuts and tax increases that have come to be known as the fiscal cliff. The deal, however, remains incomplete, and trading has been cautious since then. Politicians will face another deadline in two months to agree on more spending cuts.
U.S. stocks closed lower Tuesday, before Alcoa's earnings report was released. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 0.4 percent to 13,328.85. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 0.3 percent to 1,457.15. The Nasdaq composite index shed 0.2 percent to 3,091.81.
Benchmark crude for February delivery was down 15 cents to $93.01 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 4 cents to close at $93.15 per barrel on the Nymex on Tuesday.
In currencies, the euro fell to $1.3074 from $1.3084 Tuesday in New York. The dollar rose to 87.41 yen from 87.19 yen.

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Brent slips, below $112 as investors eye China data, cbank meetings

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Brent futures slipped below $112 per barrel on Wednesday as investors awaited Chinese trade data, U.S. corporate earnings and the outcome of a European Central Bank policy meeting to glean insights into the health of the world's biggest economies.
China, the world's biggest energy consumer, will release its December trade figures on Thursday and fourth-quarter economic growth numbers on January 18, while the ECB and Bank of England will begin their policy meetings later in the day.
Investor caution preceding the events also kept a lid on Asian stock gains. For the oil markets, inventory data showing a jump in U.S. crude stockpiles added to the pressure.
Front-month Brent futures shed 17 cents to $111.77 per barrel at 0400 GMT, after adding 54 cents on Tuesday. U.S. crude was trading down 12 cents at $93.03 per barrel.
"What we're seeing in the oil markets is the cautious sentiment playing up ahead of some key economic events this week," said Ker Chung Yang, senior investment analyst at Phillips Futures Pte in Singapore.
"Trading at the start of the year is typically steady and I expect prices to remain range bound in the first quarter."
U.S. crude futures slid while Brent rose in the previous session when the annual rebalancing of the S&P GSCI commodity index kicked in, prompting index funds to adjust their portfolios accordingly.
The rebalancing, announced in early November, will increase the index's holdings of Brent and reduce holdings of WTI as the output of Brent-related grades wanes and U.S. crude output surges. The passive index rolls its holdings between the fifth and ninth trading days of the month.
ECONOMIC HEALTH
U.S. corporate profits are expected to be higher than the third quarter's lacklustre results, but analysts' estimates are down sharply from where they were in October.
"Oil markets are watching the U.S. fourth-quarter earnings; from a general market point of view, a good start to the Q4 earnings season will set a bullish tone in the market," said Natalie Rampono, senior commodity strategist at ANZ.
The Bank of England and ECB policymakers will begin two-day meetings on Wednesday and investors will be looking for hints that the ECB may lower interest rates in 2013 to pull the regional economy out of recession.
China's data also remains in focus. Reuters polls predicted that the trade numbers may show marginal improvement in the economy, although weak U.S. and European demand may weigh on exports. Economic growth may have accelerated, ending seven quarters of weaker expansion.
"Global economic growth is expected to ramp up this year... this should bode well for oil demand," Deutsche Bank analysts wrote in their outlook for the year released on Tuesday.
"We forecast oil prices will pick up in the 2H 2013 in line with accelerating economic growth."
The bank expects Brent to average $115 per barrel and U.S. crude to average $100 per barrel in the second half of 2013.
HIGH U.S. PRODUCTION
Weighing on prices, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Tuesday that the country's crude oil production will rise by the biggest margin on record in 2013, and is set to soar by a quarter over two years.
The rapid increase underscores how improvements in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technology -- commonly referred to as 'fracking' -- have transformed the energy market in the last five years, allowing producers to tap shale oil from tight rock formations.
Adding to the pressure, the American Petroleum Institute (API) said crude stocks rose 2.4 million barrels last week, beating analysts' expectations of a 1.5 million barrel increase.
The increase was largely due to a 1.2 million barrel per day jump in crude imports, API said.

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Global shares buoyed by Alcoa earnings, dollar gains on yen

LONDON (Reuters) - World shares staged a modest recovery from two days of losses on Wednesday after aluminum giant Alcoa opened the U.S. earnings season with an optimistic outlook for world demand.
However, with European and British central banks due to hold policy meetings on Thursday, the same day Spain will test demand for its debt and China releases its latest trade data, investors were in a cautious mood.
Alcoa, the largest aluminum producer in the United States, rose 1.3 percent in after-hours trade after it reported a fourth-quarter profit in line with Wall Street expectations and revenues that beat forecasts.
The results lifted Asian stock markets and pushed Europe's FTSE Eurofirst 300 index <.fteu3> up around 0.2 percent in early trade, leaving the MSCI world equity index <.miwd00000pus> up 0.1 percent. London's FTSE 100 <.ftse>, Paris's CAC-40 <.fchi> and Frankfurt's DAX <.gdaxi> were flat to 0.2 percent higher.
U.S. stock futures were up 0.15 percent, suggesting a firmer start on Wall Street. <.l><.eu><.n>
Corporate profits are expected to be higher than the third quarter's lackluster results, but analysts' estimates are down sharply from where they were in October.
"Expectations are quite low going into the earnings season as we saw a lot of downward guidance in the past few months. There is potential for an upside surprise to come through," said Robert Parkes, equity strategist at HSBC Securities.
SOVEREIGN DEBT TEST
In European fixed income markets German Bund prices dipped slightly as investors prepared for the government's auction of 5 billion euros' worth of new five-year bonds following successful debt sales in Austria, the Netherlands and Ireland on Tuesday.
Investors were also looking ahead to Spanish and Italian bond auctions on Thursday for the new year's first test of market appetite for peripheral euro zone debt.
The Spanish auction could also provide clues on the timing of a much anticipated request by Madrid for fresh financial aid from the ECB. [ID:nL5E9C46KK]
The dollar meanwhile climbed against the yen, moving back towards a 2-1/2 year high hit last week, on expectations of a much bolder monetary easing from the Bank of Japan at its next meeting later this month.
The U.S. currency was up 0.7 percent at 87.61 yen, above a near one-week low of 86.82 hit earlier in Tokyo.
"No one is going to want to be short yen going into the BOJ meeting," said Derek Halpenny, European head of FX research at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi.
Sources familiar with the BOJ's thinking told Reuters the central bank was likely to adopt a 2 percent inflation target at the meeting, double its current goal, and issue a statement with the government pledging to pursue bold monetary easing steps.
The BOJ will also consider easing monetary policy again this month, probably through a further increase in its 101 trillion yen ($1.2 trillion) asset buying and lending programme, the sources said.
The euro held steady against the dollar at $1.3080, with most analysts forecasting the European Central Bank will keep interest rates on hold on Thursday, though some believe rates will be cut later this year.
CHINA DEMAND EYED
Brent crude oil slipped around 0.3 percent to below $112 per barrel as the market awaited the latest trade data from China, the world's biggest energy consumer, due on Thursday.
"What we're seeing in the oil markets is the cautious sentiment playing up ahead of some key economic events this week," said Ker Chung Yang, senior investment analyst at Phillips Futures in Singapore.
However, iron ore jumped to its highest since October 2011, stretching a rally that has lifted prices by more than a third since December as China replenished stockpiles and as supply in the spot market remained limited.
Iron ore, a raw material used to make steel, has now risen 83 percent since falling to below $87 in September.

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Alabama's Saban shoots down talk of move to NFL

MIAMI (Reuters) - University of Alabama head coach Nick Saban, showered with acclaim after a fourth national title, said on Tuesday he has no desire to return to the National Football League and that the college game is where he belongs.
Saban's Crimson Tide won their second successive national title on Monday and third in four years with a 42-14 hammering of Notre Dame.
The win confirms the 61-year-old as the most successful active coach in college football -- he captured his maiden title with Louisiana State University in the 2003 season.
Then came an unhappy two seasons with the NFL's Miami Dolphins that ended in 2006, but despite his well documented disappointment there has remained speculation that Saban could be tempted back into the pro game.
With five NFL teams currently having vacancies for a head coach that speculation, not surprisingly, re-emerged following Alabama's second consecutive championship.
"How many times do you think I've been asked to put it to rest? And I've put it to rest, and you continue to ask it. So I'm going to say it today, that you know, I think somewhere along the line you've got to choose," he said.
"You learn a lot from the experiences of what you've done in the past," added Saban, before reflecting on the two seasons he spent in Miami after being tempted out of the college game by then Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga.
"I came to the Miami Dolphins, what eight years ago for the best owner, the best person that I've ever had the opportunity to work for? And in the two years that I was here, had a very, very difficult time thinking that I could impact the organization in the way that I wanted to or the way that I was able to in college," he said before highlighting some of the reasons he prefers working with student athletes.
"It was very difficult for me, because there's a lot of parity in the NFL, there's a lot of rules in the NFL. People say you can draft the players that you want to draft; you can draft a player that's there when you pick. It might not be the player you need, it might not be the player you want.
"You've got salary cap issues. We had them here (in Miami) You've got to have a quarterback. We had a chance to get one here; sort of messed it up," he said, referring to the missed opportunity to sign Drew Brees, later a Super Bowl winner with New Orleans.
Saban enjoys a huge amount of personal control over the entire football program at Alabama and clearly did not enjoy the more devolved power structure in the NFL.
"I didn't feel like I could impact the team the same way that I can as a college coach in terms of affecting people's lives personally, helping them develop careers by graduating from school, off the field, by helping develop them as football players, and there's a lot of self gratification in all that, all right," said Saban.
"I kind of learned through that (Dolphins) experience that maybe this (college) is where I belong, and I'm really happy and at peace with all that. So no matter how many times I say that, y'all don't believe it, so I don't even know why I keep talking about it."

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Donald to make Malaysian Open debut in March

(Reuters) - World number two Luke Donald will make his debut at the Malaysian Open this year, organizers said on Tuesday.
The tournament, co-sanctioned by the Asian and European tours, is to be held at the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club from March 21-24.
"Donald's presence, like many other top players we have had in the past, will not only draw the crowd but also strengthen Malaysia's standing on the global golfing map," said Megat Zaharuddin Megat Mohamad Nor, chairman of sponsors Maybank, in a statement.
Rory McIlroy, Louis Oosthuizen, Martin Kaymer and Charl Schwartzel are among the leading golfers who have played in previous editions of the tournament which this year will have an increased prize fund of $2.75 million, up $250,000 on 2012.

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Norwegian kicker dreams of NFL after viral video

Aside from his ability to boot the ball through the uprights from almost kind of angle or distance, Havard Rugland is a complete stranger to the American version of football.
And yet the 28-year-old Norwegian, without having played a single game at any level of the sport, is suddenly pursuing a shot at making it to the NFL. And it's all because of a YouTube video.
Sound incredible? Well, so are some of the kicks and tricks Rugland can pull off with his powerful left leg.
That's why the video he put together for some friends has turned him into an Internet sensation, with 2 million views and counting. And that's why the same video turned into an inadvertent auditioning tape — earning him a tryout last month with the New York Jets.
At a time when people are increasingly taking to social media to showcase their talent, Rugland might be on the verge of going from viral-video-of-the-week to pro athlete.
"I never would have thought it would come to this," he said during a recent phone interview from his home in southern Norway. "I put the film up mostly for friends and family. But as it turns out, there were a lot more people who liked it. It's overwhelming."
Must be, for someone whose only previous experience with football was the European soccer version, and who has only a sketchy familiarity with the rules of the American game. Living in Aalgaard, a town with less than 10,000 people, he started kicking for fun about a year ago after his local soccer club shut down and he needed another outlet.
Having seen other online videos of people doing tricks with Frisbees and basketballs, he figured he'd make one with footballs to showcase his booming leg. He posted it online in mid-September, and three months later he was auditioning for the Jets.
So what is it about his four-minute video — "Kickalicious" — that has people so impressed? Well, the footage of him kicking field goals from 60 yards and soccer-style volleys through the uprights is the least of it.
His more spectacular repertoire includes kicking the ball into a basketball hoop — nothing but net — and into the arms of people in moving cars, floating down a lake in a boat, or atop a hill. For his grand finale, he casually punts one football into the air, then kicks a second ball off a tee so it hits the first one in midair.
"I'm probably the most satisfied with the last kick, which is the one I've received the most compliments about," Rugland said. "I needed eight tries before I pulled it off."
He insists there was no trickery with the actual filming — done with two brothers and a friend — but said he needed several attempts to pull off some of the other kicks as well. When local media picked up his story, a Norwegian broadcaster reviewed the video to make sure it was real, silencing some skeptics who believed it must have been doctored.
And unlike so many other posted videos, interest in Rugland's kicks only grew.
While it was racking up hits in the hundreds of thousands, Rugland received an email from Scott Cohen, assistant general manager of the Jets, who was interested in giving him a workout.
Rugland wondered if he was being scammed.
"When I received that, obviously I was excited, but I had to check out the name and email address to make sure it was genuine, and not some friend who was pulling a prank," he said.
It was real. The Jets were genuinely interested — on the condition that Rugland spend some time with a kicking coach first to hone his skills. So the week after Thanksgiving, the Norwegian traveled to California to spend a few weeks with Michael Husted — a former NFL kicker who now runs a training camp in San Diego and had reached out to Rugland after seeing his video on a Facebook page.
Husted said he's often approached by soccer players interested in trying their hand — or foot, rather — at kicking field goals, hoping to become the next Sebastian Janikowski. But he had seen enough of Rugland in the video to know he was special.
"He's definitely the most impressive nonfootball kicker that I've worked with," Husted said by phone. "When he hits it, it's going to go. He hits it just as high, just as far as a lot of the NFL kickers, if not further."
In fact, Husted sees a lot of similarities between Rugland and Janikowski, the Oakland Raiders kicker from Poland. They're both left-footed, more than 6 feet tall and have the same kind of leg strength.
Rugland's video shows him hitting field goals from 60 yards with ease. The NFL record — shared by Janikowski and three others — is 63 yards.
Rugland thinks he could hit one from "well beyond" 60, and Husted said that's very possible.
"Heck, if he's in Denver he can probably hit it from 65," Husted said.
The Jets liked what they saw enough to invite Rugland back for a second audition in March.
Meantime, he wants to spend more time with Husted to refine his technique and consistency, and he's looking for a sponsor to help pay for another stay in San Diego since he would need to take an unpaid leave of absence from his job as a youth counselor for the local child protective services.
Training on his own isn't so easy these days, given the winter climate in Norway.
"It's hard to get better when you're practicing in the snow," he said.
Husted has put him in touch with an agent, Jill McBride Baxter, who is trying to get him back in the U.S.
"It's not easy," said the Los Angeles-based McBride Baxter, whose other NFL clients include Jets punter Robert Malone and Miami Dolphins wide receiver Marlon Moore. "He's got a life in Norway. He works with youth. He's got a job. He's got a dog."
He also still has a lot to work on. Power is one thing, but getting timing and technique right is equally important. Before working with Husted, Rugland had never kicked with a snap and hold.
And, of course, it remains to be seen whether Rugland can perform as well in a game situation. Some current NFL players, who had watched his video online, weren't so sure.
"It's a cool video," Arizona Cardinals kicker Jay Feely said, "but I don't know if it necessarily translates to kicking field goals consistently in a timed, pressurized environment."
New York Giants punter Steve Weatherford agreed.
"I think he's talented, but there's a different dynamic when you have a video camera and 1,000 chances versus when there's 80,000 people screaming at you (at a game) and you only have one shot," Weatherford said. "You can't teach that skill."
Rugland, though, said he thinks his Scandinavian nerves can handle the pressure.
"It's hard to say before you've experienced it," he said. "But I imagine it will be a bit like a penalty kick in soccer. I was under a lot pressure during the (Jets) tryout, and a lot of people would freeze up at something like that because there's a lot of people watching you. But that went well, so I think I have good chances of handling it."
The Jets may not be Rugland's only hope of making the NFL. Husted said the Raiders, Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles have also contacted him for scouting reports. He said the "ideal situation" for the Norwegian may be to get picked up on the practice squad by one team and spend a year honing his skills — the same route taken by Australian punter Darren Bennett in the 1990s.
Bennett was an Australian Rules football player who was given a workout by the San Diego Chargers during his honeymoon in California, and ended up becoming one of the top punters in the NFL.
Rugland thinks he can make a similar journey.
"If you have the quality that's required, you'll get the chance," he said. "I probably have to prove a bit more than others, and impress people a bit more. Those I'm competing against have played in the NFL for several years, or at least played in high school and college. But I believe in it myself, that if everything goes perfectly then it is a realistic chance. Although it's still a long way to go."
And if things don't work out with the NFL. Rugland's YouTube video may at least turn into a different kind of film.

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NHL owners to vote on contract Wednesday

NEW YORK (AP) — NHL owners will vote Wednesday on the tentative labor agreement reached with the players' union.
If a majority approves, as expected, the NHL will move one step closer toward the official end of the long lockout that began Sept. 16.
As of Tuesday afternoon, a memorandum of understanding of the deal hadn't been completed, so the union has yet to schedule a vote for its more than 700 members. A majority of players also must approve the deal for hockey to return to the ice.
"We continue to document the agreement," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told The Associated Press in an email Tuesday.
If there are no snags, ratification could be finished by Saturday and training camps can open Sunday if approval is reached on both sides. A 48-game regular season would then be expected to begin on Jan. 19.
"(We) don't need a signed document to complete ratification process," Daly wrote, "but we do need a signed agreement to open camps. The goal is to get that done by Saturday so that we can open camps on Sunday."
The NHL has yet to release a new schedule. The regular season was supposed to begin on Oct. 11.
The deal was reached Sunday on the 113th day of the lockout and seemingly saved the season that was delayed for three months and cut nearly in half. It took a 16-hour final bargaining session in a New York hotel for the agreement to finally be completed at about 5 a.m.
The lockout led to the cancellation of at least 480 games. That brings the total of lost regular-season games to a minimum 2,178 during three lockouts under Commissioner Gary Bettman.
The damage is significant. Perhaps $1 billion in revenue could be lost this season, given about 40 percent of the regular-season schedule won't be played. Players will also lose a large part of their salaries, not to mention time lost in their careers.
Hockey's first labor dispute was an 11-day strike in 1992 that led to the postponement of 30 games. Bettman became the commissioner in February 1993. He presided over a 103-day lockout in 1994-95 that ended with a deal on Jan. 11, then a 301-day lockout in 2004-05 that made the NHL the only major North American professional sports league to lose an entire season. The NHL obtained a salary cap in the agreement that followed that dispute and now wanted more gains.
The NHL's revenue of $3.3 billion last season lagged well behind the NFL ($9 billion), Major League Baseball ($7.5 billion) and the NBA ($5 billion), and the deal will lower the hockey players' percentage from 57 to 50 — owners originally had proposed 46 percent.
This was the third lockout among the major U.S. sports in a period of just more than a year. A four-month NFL lockout ended in July 2011 with the loss of only one exhibition game, and an NBA lockout caused each team's schedule to be cut from 82 games to 66 last season.

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Burundi coffee earnings fall 63 pct in December

BUJUMBURA (Reuters) - Burundi's earnings from coffee exports fell 63 percent in December from the previous month due to lower volumes sold, the country's industry regulator said on Monday.
"Low quantities of coffee were exported in December as most buyers in western countries were off for the holidays," said regulator ARFIC in its monthly report.
Earnings dropped to $2.1 million from $5.7 million in November, as the amount of coffee sold tumbled to 896,547 kg from 1,671,638 kg in the previous month.
ARFIC expects the central African nation to earn a total of$61.4 million from coffee exports during the 2012/2013 (April-March) crop year, slightly up from $61.2 million earned in the 2011/2012 season.
Projected high output from the world's top producers like Brazil, Vietnam and Colombia could lower coffee prices in global markets, ARFIC said.
Coffee is the country's top hard currency earner and the sector employs some 800,000 smallholder farmers in a population of eight million.

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Analysis: Fiscal crisis seen hurting tech earnings

Warning to investors: major U.S. technology companies could miss estimates for fourth-quarter earnings as "fiscal cliff" worries likely led some corporate clients to tighten their belts last month and refrain from spending all of their 2012 IT budgets.
Tech companies usually enjoy a spike in orders in December as corporations use money left over in their budgets to buy goods on their wish lists - information technology products that are nice to have, rather than essential.
But the so-called year-end budget flush was not as deep in 2012 as in typical years, according to tech analysts and other experts citing conversations with corporate technology buyers and sales sources. They said companies held back on IT purchases in December in part because of Washington's protracted negotiations to avoid the fiscal cliff, which is a package of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts that could have pushed the already soft U.S. economy into recession.
It took until late on January 1 for House Republican lawmakers led by John Boehner to agree to a bill to avert the cliff, which President Barack Obama signed into law the next day.
"CIOs and CFOs were not making investments," said Andrew Bartels, an analyst with Forrester Research who advises corporate technology buyers. "If Boehner and Obama had been able to strike a deal by around December 15, we would have had end-of-quarter investments."
Analysts say they expect tech spending to remain subdued through at least the first quarter, as businesses wait to see if Congress can resolve another looming fiscal fight, this time over the debt ceiling and federal spending cuts.
Wall Street has already significantly lowered expectations for the tech sector, which has been underperforming the overall market.
The Street now expects tech companies in the S&P 500 to report a 1.0 percent drop in fourth-quarter earnings, against an average 2.8 percent rise for companies in the full S&P 500. Three months ago, analysts were expecting tech sector earnings to rise 9.4 percent in the fourth quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
First-quarter tech profit growth estimates have also been lowered to 2.6 percent, from 9 percent three months ago, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Greg Harrison, a corporate earnings research analyst with Thomson Reuters, said he expects analysts will cut their predictions further after tech companies report fourth-quarter results.
Intel Corp will report its quarterly earnings on January 17, the first of a group of big tech companies reliant on enterprise spending. Intel will be followed by IBM, Microsoft Corp and EMC Corp later in January. Cisco Systems Inc, Dell Inc and Hewlett-Packard Co close their quarterly books in about a month.
Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott, which manages about $54 billion, said he generally expects fourth-quarter tech results to disappoint, but has yet to determine by how much.
He expects the sluggish performance to continue into the first quarter, then improve in the second half of the year, assuming Democrats and Republicans reach a deal on the debt ceiling and spending cuts.
"So far we only have one piece," he said of the fiscal cliff deal.
USE IT OR LOSE IT
Even if Washington politicians eventually resolve their differences over fiscal issues, that is not expected to fully restore losses already caused to tech spending, experts said.
Technology projects that were axed at the end of last year will not likely be resumed any time soon because annual tech budgets are allocated on a "use it or lose it" basis, according to experts who advise companies on technology investments.
"These budgets are based on how the business is doing at the time. All of these are postponable decisions," said Howard Anderson, a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and frequent adviser to chief investment officers at Fortune 500 companies.
Analysts said that makers of hardware, from computers to networking gear, likely missed out on the year-end budget flush because businesses can postpone upgrades for years by buying new software that is compatible with older equipment.
They said they expect some companies to have postponed the purchase of new PCs in the fourth quarter, which could hit the results of Windows and Office maker Microsoft, along with PC makers Dell and HP, as well as chipmakers Intel and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
Nucleus Research analyst Rebecca Wettemann said some businesses likely delayed buying new PCs to avoid having to upgrade to Windows 8, which was introduced late last year.
"A new operating system causes huge disruptions for businesses," she said. "Who wants to take that on in the face of all the other uncertainty?"
Microsoft, Dell, HP and Intel declined to comment. AMD did not return requests for comment.
Beyond concerns about the U.S. economy, corporate IT buyers are also worried about the potential for further weakness in Europe and Asia.
Last Thursday, Forrester cut its closely watched forecast for 2013 global IT sales, citing the fiscal cliff debacle as one reason. Forrester now expects global IT sales to rise 3.3 percent to $2.2 trillion this year, down from its previous forecast for 4.3 percent growth.
VIRTUAL STORAGE
Analysts say the weak economy may boost adoption of recently introduced data storage technologies that allow companies to put more data on the equipment they already own, reducing the need for them to buy more hardware.
Some companies have already paid for that technology, but have yet to implement it because staff are not yet comfortable using it, said analyst Cindy Shaw of investment research firm Discern.
Shaw said that executives at those companies are likely to tell their IT staff to implement that technology to get full use out of existing equipment before they can buy more.
Storage equipment makers NetApp Inc and EMC, along with hard drive makers Western Digital Corp and Seagate Technology are likely to suffer the most from more use of the new technologies, which include storage virtualization. NetApp and Western Digital declined to comment. EMC and Seagate could not be reached for comment.
Defenders of the tech industry say the fallout from the fiscal cliff is already factored into share prices. The S&P 500 Information Technology Index has climbed 1.6 percent over the past month, below the 4.0 percent increase in the broader S&P 500 Index.
Some technology companies appear poised to outperform the pack.
Oracle Corp said on December 18 that it expects software sales growth to stay strong in 2013 despite fears about the fiscal crisis [ID:nL1E8NIEZM]. The company's earnings beat Wall Street forecasts in its most recent quarter as strong software sales offset a sharp drop in hardware revenue.
Analysts said that IBM, whose quarter ended December 31, may have fared better than other big technology companies, because it is has a large amount of recurring revenue from its services and software divisions.
"Oracle and IBM both have super strong sales teams that can bring home what they need to year after year," said Kim Forrest, senior analyst of Fort Pitt Capital.
IBM and Oracle could not be reached for comment.

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