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Egyptians vote for Mubarak successor in historic poll

Egyptians voted Wednesday in the country's first free presidential elections, with Islamists and secularists vying for power with competing visions of an Egypt liberated of ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak's iron grip.

Long queues of people, many in a festive mood, wound their way outside polling stations across the country throughout the day after polls opened at 8:00 am (0600 GMT).

"It's a beautiful day for Egypt," said Nehmedo Abdel Hadi, who was voting at the Omar Makram school in Cairo's Shubra neighbourhood.

"Now I feel this is my country and I have dignity," said the 46-year-old woman, who wears a full-face veil.

Across the city, in the leafy Mohandesseen neighbourhood, Rania, wearing gym clothes and a ponytail under her baseball cap, was at the front of the line.

"It's the first time in Egypt's history we choose our president," she said, preferring to keep her choice "a secret between me and my ballot box."

More than 50 million eligible voters have been called to choose one of 12 candidates wrestling to succeed ousted president Hosni Mubarak.

Voting over two days is taking place at 13,000 polling stations, with initial results expected on Sunday. Voting ends at 8:00 pm (1800 GMT) on both days.

A senior interior ministry official said police were on standby across the country and helping soldiers secure polling stations.

The election marks the final phase of a tumultuous transition overseen by the ruling military council after Mubarak's ouster in a popular uprising last year.

Pollsters say the large number of voters undecided between candidates reflecting radically different trends, and the novelty of a free presidential vote, make Wednesday's election almost impossible to call.

Turnout in the scorching heat appeared lower than in parliamentary and senate elections last winter, but many voters will cast their ballots later in the day and on Thursday.

In the port city of Suez, one voter in a queue said the landmark election showed that Egypt was moving away from its authoritarian past.

"No matter who people vote for, this vote expresses a rejection of the old regime and shows Egyptians are ready for a new chapter," said the voter Ahmed Kilani, a lawyer in his 50s.

Leading contenders include former foreign minister and Arab League chief Amr Mussa, who is seen as an experienced politician and diplomat but like Ahmed Shafiq, Mubarak's last prime minister, is accused of belonging to the old regime.

The powerful Muslim Brotherhood's candidate Mohammed Mursi faces competition from Abdel Moneim Abul Abul Fotouh, a former member of the Islamist movement who portrays himself as a consensus choice with a wide range of support.

Despite an official ban on campaigning during the voting, the candidates have continued giving interviews to shore up their support and denounce rivals.

Shafiq told AFP in an interview that the country would face "huge problems" if an Islamist won and that he was the only one who could stop the fundamentalists from spreading their influence.

Faruq Sultan, the head of the electoral commission, told a news conference that the commission had referred reports of violations to the public prosecutor.

The next president will inherit a struggling economy, deteriorating security and the challenge of uniting a nation divided by the uprising and its sometimes deadly aftermath, but his powers are yet to be defined by a new constitution.

Islamist candidates have promised an Islamic-based project that has prompted fears among secularists and Egypt's Coptic minority over personal freedoms and raised questions about the future of the country's lucrative tourism industry.

Shafiq and Mussa have vowed to maintain stability and restore law and order but their ties to the old regime sparked fears of renewed protests by those who will feel their revolution threatened.

The election caps a rollercoaster transition, marked by political upheaval and bloodshed, but which also witnessed democratic parliamentary elections that saw Islamist groups score a crushing victory.

The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), in power since Mubarak's ouster, has urged Egyptians to turn out en masse to the polls, while warning against any "violation."

The SCAF has vowed to hand power to civilian rule by the end of June, after a president is elected, but many fear its retreat will be just an illusion.

The army, with its vast and opaque economic power, wants to keep its budget a secret by remaining exempt from parliamentary scrutiny, maintain control of military-related legislation and secure immunity from prosecution.

Mubarak, 84 and ailing, may watch the election from a military hospital on the outskirts of Cairo as he awaits the verdict of his murder trial on June 2.

The former strongman is accused of involvement in the killing of some 850 protesters during the uprising and of corruption.

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Oil Trading In Africa ? Doing Business In The Lion Market ...

Wednesday, May 23rd, 2012 |

To say that oil is big business in Africa would be an understatement. It is in every sense what keeps the wheels of the continent?s economy turning as Africa?s crude oil production capacity, particularly in North Africa, Nigeria and Angola, fuels over 10% of the world?s petroleum needs.

However, what is often forgotten is that local demand for oil and oil related products continues to parallel Africa?s phenomenal rate of economic growth, itself on track to expand by as much as 40% by 2020.

Such predictions have in turn spawned a potential long-term investment boom in the downstream oil product supply business ? all the way from sea ports and tank farms through to pipelines and rail cars. It is all seen as vital to securing the fuel supplies essential to driving Africa?s continued economic growth.

Dynamic Economy
Of all the continents of the world Africa is arguably the one with the biggest capacity to surprise. Once raven by conflict, famine and disease it is now one of the most dynamic and fastest growing economies in the world, outpacing even East Asia and Japan and earning it the label ?Lion Market?.

To the casual visitor the most obvious evidence of this new-found prosperity are the Mercedes and BMW dealerships that jostle for position alongside up-market shopping malls and designer clothing stores in some cities. Meanwhile the airports bustle with wealthy holiday makers, businessmen and the new breed of African entrepreneurs.

Among them are the oil men. But not just the geologists, roustabouts and overalled engineers who are the bedrock of the industry. Increasingly they are the traders ? the dealers in crude oil, refined products, petrochemicals and gas ? whose uniform is a suit and tie and whose toolkit is a smartphone and a laptop.

And there is a change amongst the traders themselves as international oil majors like Shell, BP and Chevron sold up and exited the African downstream market to concentrate their efforts on the upstream exploration and production sectors. The void left behind has been quickly filled by a combination of experienced international oil traders and a new generation of independent traders and marketers; smart enough to spot an opportunity, agile enough to capitalize on it, they have built up exciting new trading businesses. And unlike the now departed oil majors, they are more willing to take greater risks for smaller margins.

But oil trading ? like trading in any commodity ? is a business that favors the brave, as David Bleasdale, executive director at specialist African oil industry consulting and training firm CITAC, explains. ?Above all else, trading in Africa is about managing risk. By turns traders avoid, embrace and value risk and seek to profit from its management. It?s almost like they have risk in their DNA,? he says.

?The most successful traders are those willing to invest in order to exploit risk structures. They do this by building efficient, best-in-class operations, by leveraging their detailed knowledge of market movements around the world and by keeping price risk to an absolute minimum.?

Today the trading companies working in the African downstream sector are a far cry from those of the early days. They are a highly professional, highly motivated group with companies ranging in size from big international firms with 1,000-strong trading teams through to independents with perhaps 10 or 20 people. It?s a business that tends to be dominated by strong personalities, many of whom have had to be prepared to take some really big risks along the way, but have also quickly learnt how not to repeat mistakes and to control their operations and risk.

Financing
Unquestionably the biggest challenge for trading firms is financing. Traders need money to do business. And the bigger the business the bigger the pockets needed to finance it. At today?s prices a cargo of crude might be worth on the open market upwards of 125 million US dollars.

But a combination of the Eurozone crisis and the new Basel III legislation has impacted trade and project financing significantly. While larger trading firms have access to their own funding from retained profits or a corporate parent company, smaller trading houses are competing for letters of credit. And all the while those lines of credit are becoming more and more expensive.

Those trading companies that can demonstrate they have the right systems, procedures and compliance measures in place are the ones most likely to get the funding they need. There is little or no room any more for companies run on spreadsheets. Financial institutions expect to see fully integrated trade/risk and back office solutions, together with the right security and policies to oversee their correct use.

?These days we recommend everyone in trading to have an integrated risk-management system,? says Bleasdale. ?But it?s not something to embark on lightly. It means total buy-in from the top down and it means proper user training and supervision.

?There are technology and implementation imperatives too. Those systems that are more flexible and quicker and easier to install are always to be preferred. So are those that impose the least demands on computing hardware, infrastructure and local support. And of course there?s the training overhead to consider as well. Any system must be easy to learn and then easy to use once learned.

?The real mission for traders is one of managing risk. It?s the old adage ? if you can?t measure it you can?t manage it. You?ve got to be able to identify risk, measure it and then do something about it.?

Hidden Costs
The product market in West Africa in particular ? where the bulk of trade is in refined products coming into the region from Europe ? points up another crucial requirement for the systems used by traders. With no real distribution infrastructure to speak of ? pipelines for example ? product is invariably offloaded from ships into harbor-side tank farms then transferred to road tankers for onward delivery to counterparties.

The potential for demurrage ? the extra cost of offloading delays tying up expensive transport ? and for contractual penalties against delivery delays, cannot be underestimated. It is for this reason that many traders are using their trade/risk management systems to also run their supply chains.

?These are the hidden costs of oil trading. And they are all part of the business of managing risk and exposure,? says Bleasdale. ?It?s easy to forget that a ship may have to sit outside of Lagos for three months at a cost of twenty thousand dollars a day. It?s all about managing and avoiding those issues with efficient supply planning, by ensuring an efficient port operation and by ensuring the counterparty you are dealing with is a strong and stable company.?

Some trade/risk management systems now include functionality for physical operations including storage, logistics, inventory management, transportation scheduling and demurrage management. Such facilities are key to minimizing and containing risk and maximizing profitability on trades.

Infrastructure
Another challenge facing users in Africa is the availability of broadband and the Internet, not to mention the reliability of the connections that do exist. While infrastructure is slowly expanding, estimates are that only five and a half percent of the population has access to an Internet connection, with the vast majority of those connections being in South and North Africa.

Mobile networks, in contrast, have grown massively in the last five years and the country is forecast to have around 735 million subscribers by the end of 2012 ? 65% of the total population ? according to the GSM Association. Uptake of mobile data services is increasing steadily too. For traders in certain parts of the country a mobile data connection may be the only option, or potentially the most reliable option.

To trade oil and petrochemicals in Africa it is also necessary to get to grips with unique and often complex trading conditions that are not encountered in any other part of the world. For example in Nigeria ? a country heavily dependent on gasoline for transportation, gasoline prices are subsidized by the government. This has created a thriving market for product shipped mainly from European ports of Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

Subsidies can skew market prices in neighboring countries reliant on more expensive locally-produced and refined products. This causes traders to work extra hard to juggle pricing against safety, distribution and economic risk in the supply chain. Some manage this by creating multiple trading companies and transferring cargos between them, creating still more layers of complexity in the management of price and risk.

Trade/Risk Management
Given the unique challenges of the African market some trade/risk management solutions ? more commonly known as Commodity Trade Risk Management (CTRM) solutions ? are more suited than others. Topping the list ? especially for the smaller independent traders and for some majors too ? are the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions.

Unlike their desktop software or client/server counterparts they require no upfront investment in computing hardware, infrastructure or support resources. Instead users access SaaS solutions through their regular Web browsers. It is the vendor company that provides all the back end computing and data from its own facilities, making it available to customers securely via the Cloud.

Such solutions are also quick to install, configure and deploy, typically going from contract signing to fully up and running within a few days. This is in stark contrast to the weeks and months required by other systems.

But one vendor in particular has earned something of a reputation in Africa for its deep understanding of the market and for the way it has created solutions finely attuned to the unique needs and challenges. That company is the London-based Aspect Enterprise Solutions and it has become the dominant CTRM player in Africa. Ghana and Nigeria alone account for some 16% of its customer base and it has users also in Angola, Republic Of Benin, Congo, Cameroon, Cote d?Ivoire, Kenya, Mali, Senegal and South Africa.

?African traders face a number of challenges unique to the continent, among them complex legislation and pricing structures together with the need to monitor exposure and value in real time throughout the trading day,? explains Yagnesh Savania, the company?s EMEA sales director.

The flexibility of Aspect?s product architecture and its Cloud delivery mechanism means the company can easily customize and localize to accommodate these and other specific needs, then roll out the results for all customers immediately with no significant impact on live trading. Cloud delivery means trading companies need no in-house IT resources.

?We believe we understand the African market better than any other CTRM vendor and that?s why we?re seeing the market polarizing around Aspect?s technology. It?s a massive vote of confidence from what is a key trading community,? adds Savania.

Recognition
Independent recognition of Aspect?s achievements in Africa has come from the influential CTRM research, analysis and consulting firm CommodityPoint. In a recent report the company said Aspect had achieved what it described as ??remarkable success, in West Africa in particular?.

?Aspect?s unique combination of products and platform appears to enable the company to enter markets and territories where there is little in terms of competition, and provide workable solutions and a reasonable cost and without significant investment in hardware and infrastructure. One product builds on the other easily and relatively seamlessly providing the company with stepwise up selling opportunities. In turn, this has allowed the company to grow faster than the market?, the CommodityPoint report concluded.

David Bleasdale at CITAC, while harboring some reservations about the SaaS software model in an environment of sparse Internet availability, is also enthusiastic. ?Aspect?s system is flexible and quick. It?s quick to learn and doesn?t require intensive training. It shows there is a way to get people off spreadsheets. Yes, Excel is easy too but it?s very difficult to audit and can be prone to unaudited errors.?

But perhaps the best testament of all is from the traders themselves.

Established in 2009, Ghana?s Sage Petroleum is the country?s largest licensed oil trading firm importing a range of products including crude oil, gasoil, LPG and fuel oil for local fuel products distribution companies. With plans for significant growth in the year ahead, Sage has developed a robust risk management strategy to provide both security and value for its clients and partner organizations.

CEO of Sage is Emmanuel Egyei-Mensah. ?We chose AspectCTRM to manage and support our activities. It gives us real-time insight into all aspects of our business including stocks, logistics, finance, profitability and risk exposure. Our philosophy is to actively identify risks, obtain information about the risks and manage them effectively. That is our culture, which runs through everything we do.

?From the outset it was apparent that Aspect has put real thought into engineering a system that?s right for the local market. We particularly like the way we can customize it ourselves to suit the way that we work, rather than having to fit in with someone else?s idea of how we should be doing things.?

His comments are echoed by Mohamed Julien Ndao who is responsible for business development and trading of refined products on the West Africa desk at Addax Energy SA.

?I like the way I can customize pages the way I want, so I don?t waste time with information I don?t need. Aspect is very user friendly. Plus I travel 50% of the time, so the mobile service is important to me and my clients. I?m able to see where the market is to make decisions all the time,? he says.

Casting an experienced and independent eye over the trading industry in Africa, CITAC?s David Bleasdale believes it is a business that has come on in leaps and bounds in recent years.

?There has certainly been a big improvement in professionalism and control throughout the trading community. Today we have reached a point where it is only the strong, really professional players that remain: the companies that work well and perform. That includes everyone from the big international oil traders through to the smaller indigenous players who are trying to grow,? he says.

?And there can be no doubt that properly executed trade and risk management systems have a vital role to play in the industry?s development going forward.?

www.citac.com
www.aspectenterprise.com

Related posts:

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2. Nigeria, Canada?s principal trading partner in Africa ? Envoy
3. Market women trained on good business practices
4. Kenya: Stock Market Resumes Trading After Shedding 30pc Last Year
5. Nigeria: Stock Market Gains N239 Billion in Five Trading Days

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A look at recent tech-industry earnings

Here is a summary of recent earnings and reports for selected technology companies and what they reveal about the state of spending and the overall economy:

April 6: Samsung Electronics Co. says it is expecting a record operating profit of $5.1 billion for the first quarter. It says the result would be a 97 percent rise from its operating profit a year earlier. Samsung estimated that its first quarter sales rose 21.6 percent from a year earlier. More details will come when Samsung releases its full quarterly results.

April 12: Google Inc. reports adjusted earnings and adjusted revenue that beat expectations. Google's revenue was helped by a 39 percent increase in "paid clicks," but the prices of its search-driven text ads continued to decline. CEO Larry Page called the first quarter "very strong," but acknowledged there's more work to do.

April 17: Yahoo Inc.'s first-quarter earnings show signs of modest progress under recently hired CEO Scott Thompson. Net income grew 28 percent from the same time last year and exceeded expectations. Revenue grew less than 1 percent, but represented a breakthrough because the company's revenue has been steadily falling for years.

IBM Corp. says first-quarter net income grew 7 percent, helped by strong profit margins in its services business and strong revenue growth across its software and services businesses. Revenue was flat overall because of declines in the hardware and financing segments, and revenue fell short of analysts' expectations. IBM increases its full-year guidance to at least $15 per share, above the $14.93 expected by analysts.

Intel Corp. says its net income in the first quarter fell 13 percent as spending on research and marketing rose while sales were flat.

April 18: EBay Inc. says its first-quarter net income grew 20 percent thanks to higher revenue from its PayPal business and brisk sales at its e-commerce websites. The results beat Wall Street's expectations.

Mobile phone chipmaker Qualcomm Inc. says its quarterly profit more than doubled as strong demand for smartphones boosted its sales; but it expects costs to increase as it makes more chips.

April 19: Microsoft Corp. fares better than analysts anticipated in its latest quarter, boosted by a surprising rise in sales of its Windows operating system for personal computers

Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. reports adjusted earnings and revenue that beat Wall Street's expectations. AMD's revenue forecast for the current quarter was at $1.59 billion to $1.68 billion, while analysts surveyed by FactSet were expecting $1.59 billion.

Nokia Corp. reports a huge net loss, one of the company's worst ever quarters, and blames tougher-than-expected competition. It has faced stiff competition from the likes of Apple Inc.'s iPhone and handset makers using Google Inc.'s popular Android software.

April 23: Netflix Inc. says it suffered its first quarterly loss in seven years, but the setback was far smaller than analysts expected. Netflix had rising licensing fees and a bill for an international expansion. Netflix predicted that it would make money during the current quarter. Still, Wall Street was worried about tougher competition. Skittish investors keyed on a second-quarter forecast that calls for a slowdown in subscriber growth during the spring and early summer.

Chipmaker Texas Instruments Inc. says first-quarter net income fell 60 percent from a year ago as revenue shrank. But the results still beat analysts' expectations.

Xerox Corp. says first-quarter net income fell 4 percent as the company spent more on building its services business, which now makes up more than half the company's revenue. The company says it's investing in new offerings and long-term contracts in order to increase growth. In the short term, that has hurt profitability.

April 24: Apple Inc. reported blowout iPhone sales ? 35 million in the latest quarter, almost twice as many as it sold a year ago and above analyst expectations. Net income nearly doubled to $11.6 billion, and revenue was up 59 percent at $39.2 billion. IPad sales came in below analyst expectations, at 11.8 million units. But that was still two and a half times as many as it sold in the same quarter a year ago.

April 25: Motorola Solutions Inc., which sells communications equipment to government and corporate customers, says first-quarter net income declined from a year ago, when the company recorded a large tax-related gain. Revenue grew thanks to strong demand from the company's government customers.

April 26: Amazon.com Inc. reports strong quarterly earnings and says its Kindle Fire tablet computer remains its best-selling item. However, its outlook for revenue growth was slower than expected.

Online games company Zynga Inc. reports adjusted earnings of 6 cents a share, a penny better than what Wall Street expected. Revenue grew 32 percent.

April 27: A surge in Galaxy smartphone sales fueled earnings at Samsung Electronics to a record high in the first quarter, usually a tough season for the global consumer-electronics industry. The South Korean company outshined handset rivals such as Nokia Corp. Strong demand for high-end smartphones, such as the Galaxy Note and the Galaxy S2 introduced last year, helped mask lower profit from memory chips, another Samsung flagship business.

May 1: Mobile phone maker Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. reports a slightly larger net loss in the first quarter as expenses grew more than revenue. Motorola says it still expects its acquisition by Google to close by the end of June. The deal still needs to be approved by authorities in China.

May 3: LinkedIn Corp. says its first-quarter net income more than doubled, and its revenue doubled from a year ago. Adjusted profit and revenue beat expectations. During the quarter, revenue grew across the company's divisions. The business-networking company also announces plans to buy presentation-sharing website SlideShare for $118.8 million.

May 9: Cisco Systems Inc. says its quarterly earnings surged 20 percent in the latest sign that a recently completed overhaul is paying off for the world's largest maker of computer-networking equipment. However, Cisco raised the specter of a sharp slowdown in technology spending, rattling investors already fretting about the economy's fragile condition. Cisco made a sobering forecast for the current quarter and traced it to skittish customers who are waiting longer to close deals and spending less money because of growing uncertainty about the economy, particularly in Europe and India.

May 14: Online deals company Groupon Inc. says it had a smaller net loss and sharply higher revenue in the first quarter, helped by increased demand from a growing customer base.

May 17: Salesforce.com Inc., which makes Web-based business software, says it had a net loss in the first quarter, but adjusted profit and revenue beat expectations. It raises its forecast for full-year results.

Tuesday: Dell Inc. reports disappointing first-quarter results and forecasts weak sales in the current quarter. The computer maker says sales to big businesses, consumers and the public sector decreased.

Wednesday: Hewlett-Packard Co. says it will cut 27,000 workers, or 8 percent of its work force, by October 2014. News of the cutbacks overshadowed the release of HP's latest quarterly results. The company's earnings and revenue were both better than analysts projected.

Coming up:

June 19: Adobe Systems Inc.

June 28: Research in Motion Ltd.

Not yet known: Oracle Corp. (June).

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The Yongsan International Business District by Studio Daniel ...

Project:?Dancing Towers- ?The Yongsan International Business District
Designed by?Studio Daniel Libeskind
Structural Engineer: ARUP
Mechanical / Electrical / Plumbing Engineer: ARUP
Landscape Architect: Martha Schwartz Partners
Lighting Designers: Focus Lighting?
Client:?Yongsan International,?Business District?
Building Area: 265 000 sqm?
Location:?Seoul,?South Korea?
Website:?daniel-libeskind.com
Dancing Towers?proposal shaped by the world renowned practiceStudio Daniel Libeskind, created as a part of The Yongsan International Business District.

From the Architects:

Dancing Towers, a project that is part of the new Yongsan International Business District?YIBD?development in Seoul, is a mixed used development that consists of three 41 story residential towers,( a total of 834 total residential units) with amenities, retail, parking and a connecting commercial podium base.

The design for the Dancing Towers is inspired by the traditional Korean Buddhist Dance known as Seung-Moo. The subtle rotation of the towers creates the illusion they are dancing, as inspired by the long sleeves of the Seung-Moo dancer?s traditional costumes, gracefully propelled by the dancer?s movements. The towers are engineered with a unique structure of a central concrete core and alternating cantilevered fin walls to support the floors that create column free buildings that allow the forms to ?dance? and twist while opening up panoramic views from the apartment interiors.

While creating an interrelated composition, the location of the three towers in the site and each tower?s rotations are oriented to create maximum light and views toward the water, the YIBD project, the city of Seoul and the mountains beyond for the residents.?

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Garden Decor Lebanon | Landscaping Design Ideas ? Garden ...

What could be the better view early in the morning rather than the gardens packed with beautiful flowers? Gardens are the beautiful places of relaxation. Over the years people have spend their greater amount of time in garden for relaxing. Although there are thousands of different decorations like Landscaping,Garden accessories, Garden designs, and Garden maintenance in that, the great challenge is to choose the right one according to user?s need and budget.

Garden decorations can help the style and improvement of your outlook, Encouraging nature is always a great idea in the gardening. If we need a little creative idea, garden can be more fun to work with. There is no matter what garden decorations are used, the outdoor area should be simple and be an addition to the living area.

Accessorizing is one of the most important habits of gardening.

This adds the scenic beauty of our gardens. If you plan your garden with classic theme, Garden decors need not be expensive. Often you do enjoying with your garden, remember that what was in today may also come back in future. So, it is advisable to maintain the standard garden pattern instead of changing. The reuse or recycle garden material can also be used some how to transform to a new look of garden decoration.

Some of the decorations that we can add to our gardens are; Lightning, bird houses, Ornaments, Signs, Furniture, Banners, Statues, Fountains and many more to make our garden much attractive.

Lightning is one of the attractive decorations to our garden.

The more attractive light we use the more beautiful the garden looks. Main advantage of lightning is once the lights are ON the insects keeps away from the plants.

When we place bird houses the garden looks much decorative, as a known fact birds add life to our garden.

A garden sign adds much style to our gardens. It creates a traditional feel when we use one made by wood.

Furniture, Banners, statues and Fountains are the additional decorations for our garden outlook and can start our day by sitting on a bench with enjoying a hot cup of tea in our gardens?These are only some of the additional garden decorations that we can added to our gardens. By adding some artistic planning we can make our garden more beautiful with friendly environment?

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Wallenda to be tethered to Niagara Falls tightrope

FILE- In this May 16, 2012 file photo, Nik Wallenda performs a walk on a tightrope in the rain during training for his walk over Niagara Falls in Niagara Falls, N.Y. Wallenda says Monday, May 21, that ABC is adamant about making him wear the safety device out of concern for viewers who tune in to the network's three-hour, prime-time special on June 15. (AP Photo/David Duprey, File)

FILE- In this May 16, 2012 file photo, Nik Wallenda performs a walk on a tightrope in the rain during training for his walk over Niagara Falls in Niagara Falls, N.Y. Wallenda says Monday, May 21, that ABC is adamant about making him wear the safety device out of concern for viewers who tune in to the network's three-hour, prime-time special on June 15. (AP Photo/David Duprey, File)

FILE- In this May 16, 2012 file photo, Nik Wallenda performs a walk on a tightrope in the rain during training for his walk over Niagara Falls in Niagara Falls, N.Y. Wallenda says Monday, May 21, that ABC is adamant about making him wear the safety device out of concern for viewers who tune in to the network's three-hour, prime-time special on June 15. (AP Photo/David Duprey, File)

FILE- In this May 16, 2012 file photo, Nik Wallenda performs a walk on a tightrope in the rain during training for his walk over Niagara Falls in Niagara Falls, N.Y. Wallenda says Monday, May 21, that ABC is adamant about making him wear the safety device out of concern for viewers who tune in to the network's three-hour, prime-time special on June 15. (AP Photo/David Duprey, File)

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (AP) ? Daredevil Nik Wallenda says he's not happy about it but he'll probably be tethered to the tightrope that he plans to walk over Niagara Falls next month.

Wallenda said Monday that ABC is adamant about making him wear the safety device out of consideration for viewers who tune in to the network's three-hour, prime-time special on June 15.

"It seems as though that's what I'm going to be doing," he told The Associated Press as he prepared to walk a practice wire outside the Seneca Niagara Casino, where a fire truck sprayed water and a jet boat motor served as a powerful fan to simulate the mist and wind that occurs as water rushes over Niagara Falls to the rocky gorge below.

"I'm upset. I'm not used to it," he said. "I've never worn a tether before so it's just something else I have to contend with when I'm out there."

Daredevils routinely used to make tightrope walks over the Niagara River gorge, downstream of the falls, until the practice was banned. Nik Wallenda's stunt will be the first attempted walk over the falls themselves.

ABC spokesman Jeffrey Schneider said the network has said all along that safety measures would be in place during the live broadcast.

"We've been saying from the start that we were going to try to have every safety measure in place to make it an exciting and thrilling walk, something that would be safe and comfortable for parents to watch with their kids," he said.

Wallenda has been practicing on a two-inch cable at the casino in front of crowds of onlookers since May 12. His final two practices were planned for Tuesday.

Wallenda is a seventh-generation member of the famous daredevil family the Great Wallendas. His great-grandfather, Karl, fell to his death in a tightrope walk in Puerto Rico at age 78.

Associated Press

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