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The district hospital at Mchinji in Malawi was built nearly 20 years ago to serve a population of 275,000. It is a modern complex that, from the outside, would not look out of place in any British city. The trouble is that it's drowning under a sea of patients.
Mchinji lies in the far west of Malawi where the Zambian and Mozambican borders meet. The sick swarm over the borders and swell the hospital's catchment area to more than 600,000. With a population of 13 million, Malawi has the lowest number of doctors per person in the world; a 17-bed children's ward will typically treat at any one time 185 kids suffering, and often dying, from malaria, pneumonia or anaemia.
The sick children are accompanied by a parent - or, just as likely, a guardian, because Aids has sunk its claws into the people who farm this fertile land. Consequently, life expectancy has reduced from 45 in 1990 to 37 in 2005. Virtually every adult you meet looks after at least one Aids orphan, more likely several.
But Mchinji District Hospital has no beds for those accompanying the sick, let alone cooking or washing facilities. So opposite the hospital, gathered on scrubby grass, are hundreds of women and children at the mercy of the elements. Some are pregnant, waiting to go into labour.
Yet here at Mchinji, contrary to perception, all is not lost. Three weeks ago, work started on a brick shelter to protect parents, guardians and expectant mothers from the sheeting rain and scorching sun. Progress has been rapid: the foundations have been laid and the structure is rising out of the ground. Work should finish soon. What's remarkable is that the shelter has been paid for by nuts - fair-trade groundnuts, grown in Malawi and sold to British shoppers.
The story is repeated across this southern African nation: infrastructure improvements and better life chances are being paid for by fair trade: new homes, water pumps and pipes, electricity, repaired bridges and bursaries to secondary school for orphans. Fair trade is, in a sense, the purest form of aid and the British public knows it. Government surveys show that people believe it is more effective than giving to charity. Growers are paid a guaranteed payment above world market price for their goods and smallholders form democratic associations that receive a premium to invest in improving communities.
This does not mean fair trade is a soft touch. 'Abuse the windfall and lose the Fairtrade mark' is no idle threat - accreditors constantly monitor projects. Smallholders in Cameroon have been thrown out of the scheme in the recent past; there is no stronger incentive to keep on the straight and narrow. Contrast this with traditional donor aid, up to 40 per cent of which is frittered away by consultants, while much of the rest is tied to murky procurement conditions that stipulate developing countries must import goods from the donor country.
Although it is a fledgling concept in Malawi, a growing number of smallholders have formed themselves into associations to sell tea, sugar, cotton and nuts to processors who can't get enough of Fairtrade products as the sector booms.
Next month the Fairtrade Foundation, which is the accreditation wing of the movement, will reveal that UK consumers annually spend more than £450m on fair-trade goods. In 16 years, fair trade has become one of the fastest-growing retail sectors. Brands such as CafeDirect and Divine chocolate have become household names. The latest launch is Liberation Nuts.
The leaders of the movement are now intent on a rapid acceleration, taking the sector beyond the billion-pound mark in short order - and they are going to concentrate on the least-developed countries, such as Malawi. In fact, the signs are that the Fairtrade Foundation movement will use Malawi as a pilot.
But to do this requires small and strategic investments in capacity-building, quality management systems and accreditation monitors. Processors and retailers complain that it takes a long time to be approved to supply Fairtrade products. The Fairtrade Foundation and retailers are lobbying the Department for International Development to come up with small amounts of extra cash to help kick-start change in poor countries. Since 2003, Dfid has granted just £2.1m to the Fairtrade Foundation and its international parent body.
What can be achieved is clear: when the foundation was given £250,000 from the department five years ago, it was able to increase its range of products from 100 or so to several thousand.
What started as a fringe movement championed by unions, church groups and the Co-op chain has been adopted by some of Britain's major retailers - Sainsbury's, Marks & Spencer and Waitrose. Sainsbury's and M&S have made giant strides in the past two years: Sainsbury's own-label tea is Fairtrade and the supermarket has committed to ensuring its price will stay in line with rivals' own-brand tea. All its bananas are Fairtrade and it is moving all its sugar the same way.
Last year, M&S purchased around a third of the world's Fairtrade cotton and sold more than 3.2 million garments made from it; all its jams and conserves use Fairtrade sugar. Waitrose has a similarly impressive story to tell.
The question that worries fair-trade leaders as the economy enters increasingly choppy waters is: will the supermarkets be able to invest in supply chains to ensure ambitious expansion plans can be achieved? It is a concern quickly allayed by the bosses of Sainsbury's, M&S and Waitrose, who insist there is no going back on their commitment.
For the people of Lujeri, in the shadow of Mount Mulanje, Malawi's highest peak, such talk is music to their ears. Here 6,000 smallholder farmers are poised to receive $800,000 (£404,000) once they get Fairtrade accreditation, which should come within months. The money is desperately needed: the women farmers say they go without food to ensure their children go to school, and that poverty creates the conditions for prostitution and Aids to spread. Money will go towards new medical facilities and bursaries for secondary schools.
If Malawi can scale up and take advantage of the fair-trade boom, it will be a remarkable turnaround. Until 2004, commodities were sold to the government, but liberalisation brought a catastrophic drop in prices. Smallholders were left exposed to duplicitous middlemen who conned growers by fixing weighing scales and altering the size of bags so they did not have to pay farmers what they were entitled to.
But by banding together - the motto of the National Smallholder Farmers' Association of Malawi is 'The future belongs to the organised' - farmers can achieve better prices, and benefit from training and quality management systems to ensure products meet standards.
It is a route out of poverty built on equity and entrepreneurialism. It is also a route that, now more than ever, needs to be backed by the British government.
Under President Bingu wa Mutharika, Malawi has stabilised its economy, although it is one of the world's poorest nations. Most people live on less than 50p a day. Rampant inflation, now 7.4 per cent, has been tamed and interest rates are roughly 25 per cent. The economy is dominated by agriculture, although uranium finds, now being exploited, will add significantly to GDP. Severe drought in 2004 led to hunger.
Malawi is split between three main tribes. Fears are growing that elections in 2009 could see a repeat of the chaos in Kenya. Despite opposition claims of corruption, most believe Mutharika's record of economic competence should see him win.


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Lurpak row: ASDA says £6 butter with security tag is not UK-wide policy or related to cost of living crisis
ASDA has said it does not have a UK-wide policy to put security tags on butter in relation to the cost of living crisis.
The supermarket giant responded after a journalist shared an image on social media, showing a pack of Lurpak in one of its stores, costing £6, with a tag on.
This comes after the price of butter has increased by more than 33 per cent according to the Telegraph, who cite figures from Trolley.co.uk. In the UK overall, inflation has soared to more than nine per cent, putting huge pressures on people and businesses to make ends meet.
Supermarkets usually reserve security tags for either expensive items, or products which get stolen/go missing.
In the tweet, the social media user said: “Britain in 2022… Lurpak butter is at £6 a tub in ASDA and even has a security tag on it. Mental!”
In response, Asda confirmed to City AM that this isn’t a store wide policy, it has not seen any evidence of increased thefts of this product and that it doesn’t believe the tags are related to the cost of living crisis.
Asda also said butter had been at about £6 for around a year, and it was not related to the recent national economic woes.
Another Twitter user shared a a now deleted image of butter at Iceland for more than £9.
They said, according to the Telegraph: “Stop the world I want to get off @Lurpak @IcelandFoods come on lads this is a joke @Conservatives this is all your fault were [sic] all going to be eating dry toast stop taking off us and sort this mess out people are starving while your m8 are getting richer :exploding_head: #CostOfLivingCrisis”
According to Huff Post, The Co-Op is the cheapest to buy your butter, at £3.50 for 500g. Asda is one not far behind, with 750g pack of Lurpak, at £6, while at Sainsbury’s it’s £7.25 and Tesco it’s £8,98.

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Smithfield Foods settles pork price-fixing lawsuit for $42 million
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Smithfield Foods will pay restaurants and caterers $42 million to settle a lawsuit that accused the giant meat producer of conspiring to inflate pork prices.
Smithfield didn’t admit any wrongdoing but the deal will likely only add to concerns about how the lack of competition in the industry affects meat prices.
The meat industry argues that supply and demand, not anticompetitive behavior, determine prices, but the industry’s practices have been questioned by the White House, Congress and trade groups.
The restaurant companies that sued said the major meat processors shared confidential information to help them coordinate efforts to limit the supply of hogs and inflate prices.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.


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Fire has razed down no fewer than 44 shops at the popular Farm Centre GSM market in Kano metropolis on Friday. Eyewitness and one of the shop owners told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kano yesterday that the incident happened around 5:30p.m. when most of the traders had closed for business.
According to the witness, the fire which destroyed phones and other valuables worth millions of Naira, was said to have been caused by a spark from a converter supplying power to some of the shops. The source said though no life was lost, no fewer than 44 shops were destroyed by the inferno.
When contacted, the Director of the state Fire Service, Alhaji Mustapha Rulwan, confirmed the incident. He said a total of 44 wooden shops were razed by the inferno.


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Trump tweets criticism of USPS-Amazon package delivery agreement
Washington Postal Scene by Bill McAllister
For years, top officials at the United States Postal Service have been hoping for some presidential interest in their agency’s financial plight.
On the morning of Dec. 29, President Donald Trump gave the Postal Service far more attention than it ever desired.
“Why is the United States Post Office, which is losing many billions of dollars a year, while charging Amazon and others so little to deliver their packages, making Amazon richer and the Post Office dumber and poorer?” the president asked in an 5:04 a.m. tweet from his Mar-a-Lago estate.
“Should be charging MUCH MORE!” Trump added.
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The Postal Service said nothing in response, hoping that others in the mail industry would respond. Amazon also was silent.
The Trump tweet, said several mail industry officials, was way off the mark.
“President Trump was off base Friday when he implied that Amazon has a sweetheart deal with the U.S. Postal Service,” said Dead Tree Edition, a blog that follows the postal and printing industries.
“While containing no outright falsehoods, Trump’s tweet is a mix of truth and debatable claims.”
The Washington Post reported that Amazon had told Fortune magazine in July that the Postal Regulatory Commission “has consistently found that Amazon’s contracts with USPS are profitable.”
The Postal Service’s agreement to handle Amazon’s packages at a deeply discounted price is a strategy the Postal Service developed years ago in an effort to save itself from its pronounced losses of first-class mail volume.
Packages have been one of the agency’s most successful product lines, growing at double-digit rates while letter volume continues to drop.
Amazon’s business has been so important to the Postal Service that it has hired hundreds of new employees to deliver the Seattle retailer’s goods on Sundays.
Trump, several media outlets noted, holds a serious grudge against Amazon’s chief executive, Jeff Bezos, the country’s richest executive. Bezos personally owns The Washington Post, which the president has repeatedly described as a purveyor of what he calls “fake news.”
Bloomberg News said “the Postal Service’s losses have little to do with Amazon and more to do with its large health care obligations and the dwindling use of first class mail.”
Trump is assuming Amazon would continue to use the Postal Service for packages, but Bloomberg noted that Amazon “had been setting up its own shipping operations in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world to minimize costs.”
Michael Plunkett, president of the Association for Postal Commerce, urged the president to remain interested postal issues.
“PostCom appreciates that the President is interested in the performance of the Postal Service,” he told Linn’s.
“… We hope this is an indication that further action on appointing and approving Postal Governors is forthcoming,” he said.
“As to prices,” Plunkett said, “USPS should have flexibility to negotiate with its customers, especially in the competitive products space where Amazon operates.
“But a fully staffed and qualified Board of Governors and Postal Regulatory Commission are essential to ensuring such deals result in net benefits to USPS and the public.
“If the President really wants to make a difference, he should appoint a full slate of Governors and [Postal Regulatory] Commissioners post haste.”
Stephen Kearney, executive director of the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers, noted the Postal Regulatory Commission is charged with ensuring “that all USPS competitive package services cover their costs and make a sufficient contribution” to the Postal Service’s overhead costs.
“As long as the PRC does its job correctly, USPS packages are profitable and their growth is good for all mailers, including nonprofits,” Kearney said.
The Washington Post said the Trump tweet is “just the latest in a series of digs” the president has made against Amazon.
Details of the USPS-Amazon contract are secret, as are all similar postal contracts with large mailers.
Some USPS critics have attacked the agreement, contending that it does not cover all of the Postal Service’s costs.
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Experts are warning that except urgent steps are taken by the government through the relevant regulatory agencies, the unrestricted sale and indiscriminate use of locally-made insecticides in Lagos State may lead to widespread cases of cancer, kidney infection, and other ailments among residents. ANGELA ONWUZOO reports
The sale of locally made insecticides has become a common sight in Lagos State, the nation’s biggest commercial city, despite having dangerous effects on the health of those constantly exposed to them.
These insecticides, some of which have no labels on them, are mostly sold in the evening at various bus stops in the state, usually to residents who are returning from their work and business places.
The sellers claim that the locally made insecticides are effective in killing insects, mosquitoes and rodents better than well-established brands of insecticides.
They also claim that the locally made insecticides are more affordable compared to other more known brands of insecticides.
It is, however, worrisome that the indiscriminate indoor use of these insecticides is now a common practice by many households in the state, even though they have serious attendant negative health consequences.
Findings by PUNCH HealthWise showed that most of these locally made insecticides have no NAFDAC registration number and their production details are unknown, yet they are supposed to be regulated products.
PUNCH HealthWise findings also revealed that most of the producers of these locally made insecticides do not have the basic knowledge of the health dangers associated with the use of chemicals.
Physicians are now warning that the nation may be sitting on a keg of gunpowder that would explode and cause serious destruction by allowing this illegal business to continue unchecked, noting that it could lead to a sudden surge in kidney diseases and cancer cases.
According to the physicians, most of the locally made insecticides are derivatives of pyrethroid and pyretherin chemicals and other chemical components.
They stressed that these chemicals, when inappropriately mixed, particularly in high concentration, are capable of damaging vital organs of the body, including the brain and the respiratory system.
Some of the users of the locally made insecticides in an interview with PUNCH HeathWise, claimed that the preparations are effective and affordable. They also noted that they are unaware of any known health risks associated with their usage.
I mix it with kerosene to make it stronger
A 65-year-old trader, Mrs. Rosemary Ajayi, told our correspondent that she has been using locally made insecticides for over five years now to kill mosquitoes, cockroaches and other insects in her house because they are very affordable.
The Edo State indigene said, “I normally use them to kill mosquitoes and cockroaches in my house. I live in a waterlogged area and so, mosquitoes are always a problem here. Before I use the insecticide, I mix it with kerosene to make it stronger.
“Sometimes, when a rat enters my room, I also use the insecticide to kill it. But for it to be able to kill a rat, I have to mix it with Sniper (another popular insecticide). There are, however, some very strong ones that can kill a rat, even without adding Sniper to them.
“The problem with those ones from my experience is that during the spraying, they will almost want to choke you.
“Again, if you apply them in the morning and go for your business, by the time you return home in the evening, the odour is still there.”
The grandmother continued, “I am not aware of any health risk associated with the use of these insecticides. The only challenge I have using them is that during spraying, they bring out water from my eyes and make me have catarrh but after sometime, it will stop.
“But why I like using them in killing mosquitoes, cockroaches and other insects in my house is because they are very cheap. With N150, you can buy the one in a small plastic container that can last for a few days.
“The ones in big containers that will last for weeks are sold between N300 and N500. But with N500, you cannot buy any insecticide manufactured by any of these big companies. You can see that the locally made ones are very affordable and economical.
“Again, they are not scarce. You have them everywhere in different colours. Some have labels while others do not. But whether they have labels or not, they still work. However, I am always careful where I keep them in the house so that my grandchildren will not play with them.”
Another user, Mrs. Sherifat Arowolo from Oyo State, says she sees nothing wrong with the use of locally made insecticides since they are working, affordable and readily available.
“For me, I see nothing wrong with them. If they are risky, why has the government not arrested those producing them? I am not the only one using them. If you come to my compound, everybody is using them because they are working.
All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH.


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The lucky winner of Manningham Council’s #buylocalmanningham campaign is Shanen Ma from Doncaster. Shanen snapped a photo of his son Callum at Tantra Indian Restaurant in Doncaster East and shared it on Instagram. The photo was selected from a number of high quality photos and reflects the diversity of Manningham businesses.
A special thanks to the businesses who supported the #buylocalmanningham campaign by sharing posts on social media and displaying promotional postcards and posters in their shop windows. Thank you to everyone who entered the competition. We encourage you to continue to support Manningham’s businesses by buying locally!


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Sales at Canadian retailers fell by more than they were expected to in September, another sign that consumers are keeping their wallets closed wherever possible in the face of high prices.
Statistics Canada reported Tuesday that retailers rang up $61.1 billion in sales during the month. That was a decling of 0.5 per cent from the previous month’s level.
Economists had been expecting the figure to shrink from the previous month’s level, but the numbers came in even lower than the 0.4 per cent decline that was anticipated.
Three quarters of all types of retailers saw sales shrink, led by gasoline stations (down 2.4 per cent) and food and beverage stores (down 1.3 per cent.)
“Much of the decline was due to prices, with volumes only down 0.1 per cent,” Desjardins economist Tiago Figueiredo noted.
It wasn’t just physical stores that felt the pinch during the month, as online shopping — which has seen exploded in popularity in recent years — also declined.
E-commerce sales declined by 5.4 per cent during the month, to $3.4 billion.
September’s decline means for the third quarter as a whole, retail sales shrank by 1 per cent. That’s the first quarterly contraction since mid-2020, when the pandemic began.
While September’s numbers are undeniably weak, the early data for October looks very strong, with sales on track to increase by 1.5 per cent.
“Canadians tightened their belts in September but then opened their wallets in a big way in October,” Figueiredo noted.
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Details have emerged for a 1.1-million-square-foot mixed-use development first proposed near Los Angeles State Historic Park, or the Cornfield, five years ago.
The Department of City Planning published a notice this week detailing the project, which is being called the Buena Vista Project, according to Urbanize.
The project is a joint venture between Lincoln Property Company’s LPC West and S&R Partners.
It’s slated for an eight-acre property between the northwest side of the park and Broadway. The structures would include entrances on Broadway.
The structures are planned at each end of the property, which is connected by a narrow strip of green space with a walkway.
The southern section, or South Parcel, would be developed first. It is planned with 631 residential units, 15,800 square feet of restaurant space and 10,000 square feet of retail space, as well as 56,400 square feet of open space.
The southern development is planned as one long structure with various elevations, including 26-story and 22-story towers.
The northern section would include 355 residential units and 8,000 square feet of restaurant space, and 5,000 square feet of retail space.
Like the southern section, the northern development has varying elevations. The tallest section would be a 15-story building. A three-story retail section would rise from the elevation at Broadway.
The project is the largest within the Cornfield Arroyo Seco Specific Plan area. The city adopted that plan in 2013 to encourage development.
The park itself was created in 2001, but it took 16 years to open to the public.
[Urbanize] — Dennis Lynch


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Microsoft has rushed to clear up Steve-Ballmer-created confusion over Windows 8, after the CEO seemingly announced that the new OS is coming in 2012 on Monday, Tech Radar reports. Excitement spread like virtual wildfire as tech sites the world over got hold of this juicy tidbit from Ballmer……Read More
Podcast Series: Innovations in Education
Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.
Windows phone 7 revealed: What you need to know
Microsoft officially unveiled its new mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7, at a press event in New York City, reports ReadWriteWeb. CEO Steve Ballmer described the new line of Windows Phones as “different” and more modern, in both design and principles. With Windows Phone 7, the focus is on how “real people want to use their phones,” he said. Besides being different, a key point Microsoft needs to drive home if wanting to compete in a crowded mobile landscape, there was also a big focus on personalization. “We also wanted these to be wonderfully mine, or yours, or yours, or the next person. Here’s my phone, the way I’ve made it wonderfully mine,” explained Ballmer. “My photos, my email, my start screen, my activities, my world… and of course, my avatar.”
The Software : Microsoft Corporate VP Joe Belifore described the phone’s final software as an operating system that helps you get things done. “We wanted to figure out how to build a phone that simplifies the basics,” he said…


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New Hydrogen Cars 2020. The bmw ix5 is coming to select markets in 2022, and the u.s. 1,003 km, new hydrogen autonomy record;
As hydrogen cars have been a relatively new concept to the public they are starting at a fairly high price. 4 5 best hydrogen cars. A full hydrogen tank will last.
Kia Will Debut Its First Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle By 2020, Automotive News Reports, Citing A Conversation With Lee Ki.
Like electric cars, hydrogen powered fuel cell electric vehicles (fcevs) are are classed as ultra low emission vehicles (ulevs) since the only substance to come out of the. Though hydrogen powered commercial vehicles have been increasing in popularity for some time, 2021 saw a large increase in hydrogen powered passenger car sales. The geometric parameters of the mirai 2020 are 4975 x 1885 x 1470 mm with a wheelbase of 2920 mm.
A Full Hydrogen Tank Will Last.
After pledging to make almost all new cars and vans zero emission vehicles by 2040, in february 2020. By the end of 2019, only 7,500 hydrogen cars had been sold around the world. Sales of the hydrogen fuel cell cars never were particularly high in the u.s., reminding us of a pilot project at best.
If You Live In California And Have Easy Access To Hydrogen Stations, The Nexo Should Be On Your Shopping List.
It has some heavyweight backing, with toyota for instance. The future of motoring is going to be diesel and petrol free, at least according to the eu and the uk government. The likes of honda, bmw, mercedes and audi have all confirmed that they are working on fuel cell cars, with new models expected to come along in the next coupe of years.
The Mirai (Meaning Future In Japanese) Is A Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle Developed By Toyota.
Well, hydrogen has long been touted as the future for passenger cars. Hydrogen has long been touted as the future for passenger cars. We predict that by 2020 we will see a massive drop in price as the need for fuel cell cars grows.
Hydrogen Is Sold In Kilograms Rather Than Volume (Litres Or Gallons), And Current Prices Are Around £10 To £15 Per Kg.
In this video, we will show you the top s. 2021 mirai is a complete reboot. By the time of 2020, the hyundai is planning to launch 31 multiple, electric or energy mobile designs.


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DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse (NYSE: DBI), a leading branded footwear and accessories retailer, today announced a new shoe donation campaign made possible by DSW’s 26 million VIP loyalty members.
The campaign celebrates DSW’s robust community donating a staggering 1 million pairs of shoes in the past year. Contributions from customers and DSW have also enabled 100,000 pairs of new shoes to be distributed to kids in need nationwide this summer, just in time for back to school.
Former New York Giants player and fashion industry favorite Victor Cruz kicked off the campaign on May 9 at BronxWorks in New York City by hosting the first of eight shoe donation ceremonies for kids with DSW Gives’ philanthropic partner Soles4Souls. During the afterschool ceremony, Cruz surprised over 100 kids with new shoes from DSW, encouraging them to express themselves by customizing their new shoes. The kids also laced up their new kicks and received a once in a lifetime opportunity to throw a football with one of the NFL’s most coveted players.
“I was excited to join DSW in distributing the first round of shoes to kids because style and giving back are such huge parts of my life,” said Cruz. “It’s amazing what kids can accomplish with something as simple as a pair of shoes – it makes them feel like they can run faster, jump higher, and sparks their sense of style and confidence.”
“With his deep ties to fashion and charity, Victor Cruz was the perfect choice to kick off our shoe donation campaign with kids who will benefit from our community’s generosity,” said DSW CMO Amy Stevenson. “We’re excited to celebrate our customers enabling thousands of kids across the U.S. to receive a new pair of shoes to help them conquer the new school year.”
Launched last year, DSW Gives is a philanthropic platform for the DSW community with partners including Soles4Souls and Be Strong. Next up, DSW Gives and Soles4Souls will bring the campaign on the road between June – September 2019, donating the remaining shoes to kids in cities including: Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Nashville, Riverside (CA), Portland (OR), Richmond (VA), and New Jersey. Additionally, this summer, DSW Gives and Soles4Souls are hosting their first-ever service trip where customers will be able to directly take part in the distribution of shoes to a community. The first one will take place in the Dominican Republic in August, with many more to follow.
“We’re honored that DSW Gives and Soles4Souls kicked off their shoe donation summer campaign at our Classic Community Center here in the Bronx,” said Eileen Torres, BronxWorks Executive Director. “Providing a new pair of shoes and the opportunity to meet a local NFL star inspires a world of possibilities for our children and we’re extremely grateful.”
To donate and learn more about DSW Gives, visit www.dsw.com/philanthropy.


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New Delhi: For 20 years, Google’s non-game Android apps have been written in Java and now Google aims to change that with a new language that will focus on speed and responsiveness.
The new language, as part of the Dart on Android project, dubbed Sky, is an open source experiment to change the traditional way of app development for the Google operating system.
A report on Ars Technica notes that the language focuses on being fast and responsive and the Dart team wants to develop apps that offer up to 12FPS, which, however, isn’t possible to display on the present-day standard 60Hz smartphone screens.
The new language, dubbed Sky, is an open source experiment to change the traditional way of app development for the Google operating system.
The Dart team, which introduced the project at the Dart Developer Summit, says Sky is “Jank-free by design” with APIs that don’t block the main UI thread, meaning that even if the app slows down, the UI will still be fast and responsive.
Other than creating speedy Android apps sans Java, Google’s in-house Web development language will also focus on deep integration with the Web. Sky’s demo app works a little like websites and majority of the app is served over HTTP, allowing for continuous development where everyone always runs the newest version and everything is Internet aware.
The Sky Framework makes it easy for developers to add action bars, touch effects, navigation panels and other details as one would expect in an Android app.
Although still in its experimental stage, Sky could possibly change the way Android development is done in future.


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Startups embrace brewpub model
In spite of its inherent challenges, the brewpub model has found favour with several of Australia’s most recent brewing startups.
Brouhaha Brewery in Maleny on the Sunshine Coast is a 160-capacity venue opened recently by a group that includes brewer Matt Jancauskus, formerly of the UK’s Beavertown Brewery.
“We crunched the numbers and from my experience it takes a couple of years to build a brand and a following – it’s really hard to just hit the ground running,” he told Australian Brews News.
“Everything we did here was built around the idea that the venue would support the brewery for the first couple of years. We can build a name and find some routes to market and look at a production brewery once we’re up and established and refined.”
Opened last November, Bad Shepherd Brewery sells 70 per cent of its beer over the bar at its Melbourne bar and restaurant, co-founder Dereck Hales told Australian Brews News.
“I can see that almost flipping on its head, being 30/70 in about 18 months. And I think that’s what we thought was logical. If you’re going to invest in a brewpub, you need to ensure your brewpub is successful before you look at wholesale,” he said.
“You should have your house in order, otherwise you can be doing great in wholesale but your overheads, your carrying costs are probably three to four times what they would be in a wholesale environment, so you need the revenue to cover that.”
Hales said he and wife Diti both enjoy the hospitality aspect of the brewpub model, which enables them to get direct feedback from their customers.
“We know our regulars, we chat, we’re here every day because we love it. You have to have a thick skin sometimes, because that feedback can sometimes be harsh, but it can also be empowering.
“And the beauty of being able to control your quality is just awesome. We pull those kegs off and it’s straight in the cooler and then on tap,” he said.
Hales said a brewpub also gives a brewery “strength of brand” that simply wholesaling cannot.
“If they can touch, feel, see the actual people behind it or the location where it’s made then there’s a stronger connection with that brand, which I’d argue leads to more sales because you feel an affiliation and you want to be involved,” he said.
Guy Greenstone, co-founder of Melbourne’s new 250-capacity Stomping Ground Brewery, points to one of Australian brewing’s biggest success stories as evidence of a brewpub’s brand benefits.
“If you look at what Little Creatures did with their Fremantle venue, and then their other venues as well, it does seem to permeate the brand even in off-premise sales,” he told Australian Brews News.
More recently, Canberra’s Bentspoke Brewery has announced it will build a 50-hectolitre production brewery after achieving annual volume of 300,000 litres in sales over the bar at its Braddon brewpub.
“I think if you start off as a wholesale brewery, you’re really not connecting much with your customers. You’ve got to do a lot of events,” co-founder Richard Watkins said.
“That’s certainly another advantage of being in a brewpub. You really get an understanding of who your customers actually are and what they want.”
What Bentspoke’s customers want turned out to be a six per cent IPA, which is now set for packaged release.
“It’s our biggest selling beer. We never would have launched with a beer like that, but now that we know that’s what our customers want, it’s one of the two beers we’re going to start with,” he said.
Analysis: Dude, where’s my brewpub?


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LG Electronics will take the wraps off its strategic new smartphone at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2019, a mobile exhibition which will kick off at the end of February.
It is in two years that the company introduces its new smartphone model at the MWC. It unveiled the G6 strategic phone at MWC 2017.
LG Electronics said in an invitation letter sent to global media outlets on Jan. 23 that it would launch its strategic smartphone at the Centre de Convencions Internacional de Barcelona (CCIB) in Barcelona, Spain on Feb. 24 (local time). The company plans to maximize the impact of its marketing efforts by unveiling its new products before the opening of the MWC 2019, which is nicknamed the “Mobile World Cup.”
A 10-second teaser video sent by LG Electronics hints at a user interface (UI) that allows a consumer to use an LG smartphone without touching its screen. In the video, hand gestures reveal hidden characters and move a paper on a surface. The message "Good-bye Touch" appears with a hand gesture and the next hand gesture displays the date and place.
Smartphone industry watchers say that the product to be released on the day will be the G8 ThinQ, a sequel to the G7 ThinQ. Industry analysts and foreign news sources say that the G8 ThinQ features a smaller "water drop" notch display than that of its predecessor and three camera lenses on the front and two on the back. You can take a three-dimensional picture with the smartphone as if to use a 360-degree camera. It also has an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display. LG Electronics will introduce a smartphone to support 5G mobile telecommunication services while unpacking the product. Both strategic products are expected to go on sale in Korea in March.
Industry watchers are speculating whether LG Electronics will introduce its foldable phone in the MWC 2019. The company has not yet decided whether the foldable phone will be a dual-screen phone or a foldable phone that can be folded and unfolded. The company is expected to launch the foldable phone in the second half of this year.
"It is easy to develop a new product with a new-concept trial one, but it requires more advanced technology to mass-produce it," a smartphone industry observer said. “In particular, smartphone makers have to develop and produce small foldable OLED displays that can endure the harsh use of being folded and unfolded many times."


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The pallet truck market is often seen as niche. Yet they're used in more settings than people often imagine. Useful for every business – whether large or small – they add value and help businesses go from strength to strength.
Particularly important in the digital age where orders are turned around quickly, pallet trucks have become imperative for businesses all over the world to keep up with demand and stay ahead of competitors.
Midland Pallet Trucks, UK provider of pallet trucks and other warehousing equipment to a range of sectors, has welcomed the news that the global pallet market is set to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 4.90% between 2016 and 2020.
Phil Chesworth, Managing Director at Midland Pallet Trucks, said, "Pallet trucks, although often seen as an addition to a business, are actually imperative to its success. One of the main driving forces behind constant streams of orders, new products and efficient shipping, robust pallet trucks give businesses the edge in this ever-competitive market."
The report, undertaken by ReportsnReports, has stated the reason for this incredible growth is due to the increase in manufacturing output. The revival of the manufacturing sector and projected economic expansion worldwide will boost demand in the materials transport segment over the coming years.
Phil, added, "It's extremely promising that the manufacturing industry is predicted to grow. The country needs a boost after all the doom and gloom of late. Therefore businesses should take this on board and look to a prosperous future."
The global pallet market analyst also highlighted another reason for the predicted market growth; vertical integration by companies. There's high demand for lumber used for manufacturing pallets in the construction and furniture industries, yet sawmills are unable to meet the growing demand. This results in a shortage of lumber in the market, and as a result, pallet manufacturers find it difficult to complete their orders. This has caused the supply of raw materials to pallet manufacturers to be significantly affected. Some pallet manufacturers are vertically integrating and investing in logging and sawmills, which enables them to offer high-quality pallets at affordable prices.


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San Diego’s TVC Capital said this week it has invested $8 million in Celigo, a Bay Area provider of software that integrates cloud-based applications into a single secure platform.
The funding marks the first time San Mateo-based Celigo has raised institutional capital raise since it was founded in 2006. Steven Hamerslag, managing partner of TVC Capital, will join Celigo’s board of directors.
TVC Capital has more than $235 million under management. It is focused on investments in business software startups. Its portfolio includes Accordent Technologies, Levels Beyond (Reach Engine), Del Mar Datatrac, Limeade, LiquidPlanner and others.
For Celigo, the financing will be used for sales and product development. Its easy-to-use integration platform brings together common business software such as NetSuite, Salesforce, Google Apps and Microsoft Office 365.
Customers include Trulia, Alton Lane, Splunk, Lucky Brand, Louisville Slugger, Nautilus and IdeaPaint, among others.
“Coming off record revenue and customer growth in 2015, Celigo is at an inflection point in its history,” said Chief Executive Jan Arendtsz. “The funding provides us the opportunity to take our unique model of pre-built integrations backed by a modern platform as a service solution to companies of all sizes.”


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Butler President James Danko, a former entrepreneur, encouraged students to follow their passions and to lead a life of unlimited possibilities during his keynote address for the College of Business’ (COB) “Entrepreneur’s Passion and Wisdom Program” on Oct. 28.
Nearly 400 Real Business Experience (RBE) and Freshman Business Experience (FBE) students listened attentively to President Danko as he shared the fundamentals of entrepreneurial creativity and innovation, risk taking, perseverance, and the need for continuous action.
Danko came to Butler from Villanova University, where he served as the dean of the School of Business for six years. Before working in academia, he spent nearly 20 years as an entrepreneur, starting his first company — Exercare Corporation — at the age of 19 in Cleveland, Ohio. What started as a surgical supply company in 1973 grew to include home and corporate fitness equipment, exercise rehabilitation and orthopedic products by the time Danko sold the company in 1990.
“The lessons President Danko shared with the students reinforce the experiential learning process that we facilitate in the RBE course,” stated Richard Halstead, RBE coordinator.
This semester, 28 student teams have created new business ideas and launched the start-up of their businesses to prove their concepts. Some of the businesses include: Dawg Bytes, a company that teaches computer skills to senior citizens in retirement communities; BU Entertainment, a company focused on finding, managing and promoting Butler talent; and EnviroNuts, a company that sells Soap Nuts – a green laundry detergent alternative from India.
RBE lead instructor and event coordinator Denise E. Williams, assistant professor of marketing and management , shared, “As a new faculty member committed to teaching and research in entrepreneurship and organizational behavior, I was encouraged to learn of the background of our new president. When he expressed his interest to speak to students about his experience, I was honored to create a venue where as many students could gain exposure to his message as possible.”
The event also included the RBE Business Marketplace, where the 28 businesses networked, exchanged ideas, sold products to each other, gained competitive information and sought collaboration opportunities between businesses. The new RBE website (http://blogs.butler.edu/rbe/) and new library guide on “Entrepreneurship and Innovation” were also launched.
Sophomore business major Ally Crain attended the event as part of her RBE class.
“President Danko gave a great presentation and it was really interesting to learn about his experience with entrepreneurship, especially since he began when he was our age,” said Crain.“His stories were truly inspiring and it was beneficial for the RBE groups to hear his speech because it directly related to what we are going through now in class.”
Williams said that was exactly what she hoped students would take away from the presentation.
“The COB’s goal with this event was to create a platform to empower and inform RBE students by presenting the entrepreneurial experiences of President Danko,” said Williams. “It created an exciting way to spotlight RBE students and businesses as well as present RBE faculty and mentors as small business development resources.”
President Danko’s entire speech can be found at http://youtu.be/lzF7BUwYmB8.
The RBE businesses are featured at http://www.butler.edu/cob/
The Real Business Experience (RBE) is an experiential education course designed to expose sophomore students to both content and process of small business development and internal capacity building through a comprehensive approach to learning. The curricula integrates lecture, readings, exercises, case studies, targeted to establish a strong foundation and practical application in team building, critical thinking, innovation, problem solving, decision making, risk taking, change management, resilience, and self efficacy.
Media Contact: Lexie Beach


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Exporters in the Philippines have maintained a strong foot hold in the highly competitive Christmas decorations industry, due mainly to their focus on exclusive and innovative handcrafted products.
The creative use of natural and indigenous materials is also a key factor that distinguishes suppliers from their competitors in mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Overseas shipments of Christmas decorations from the Philippines remain stable, growing at a modest 1 to 3 percent annually over the past few years. The industry is slowly recovering from the significant decline in export revenue in 2001 and the Asian financial crisis, when overall shipment value dropped by more than 30 percent.
Since then, companies have increased efforts to attract new buyers and remain competitive, upgrading designs through more elaborate handcrafting techniques and material innovation. Most are also providing value added services, with an emphasis on flexible order quantities and prompt delivery.
Despite the challenges of rising production costs and a volatile currency, overseas demand is expected to strengthen steadily over the next few years.
The following are some of the key trends we see in the Philippines’ Christmas decorations industry:
• Exports in the line are expected to rise moderately in 2008, with increased demand coming mainly from Europe.
• Companies will continue to release mostly midrange to high-end designs, highlighting unique craftsmanship and ornate details.
• For 2008, suppliers are focusing product development on functional tabletop ornaments, a line that is expected to be in high demand. Makers will also launch styles with modern color schemes and motifs.
• Most companies will increase export prices by more than 10 percent in the first half of 2008 as raw material and operating costs continue to escalate.
The above is extracted from the Executive Summary of China Sourcing Report: Philippines - Christmas Decorations
To learn more about this report, visit: http://www.chinasourcingreports.com/csr/philippines-christmas-decorations
More Useful Links:
Global Sources Online: Verified suppliers for quality buyers.
Download Global Sources e-Magazines (free): For industry-specific news, product information & verified suppliers contact details.


text: Dutch dairy companies will invest more than 700 million euros (910 million U.S. dollars) in processing plants in the Netherlands in the next two years, a study carried out by the Dutch Dairy Association (NZO) showed Thursday. \"The dairy industry is an important economic sector. It guarantees billions in revenue and tens of thousands of jobs,\" said Minister of Economic Affairs Sharon Dijksma, who received the report Thursday. According to NZO, most of the money is invested in factories for baby food and cheese, but innovation centers will also be built. It is expected that these investments will create at least 1,000 new jobs. The Dutch dairy sector accounts for 44,000 jobs. The total production value of dairy farming and the dairy industry is estimated at 4.3 billion euros and 6.4 billion euros respectively. The study showed that the dairy sector has become bigger than before the economic crisis, mainly due to exports. The export value of dairy products is growing by an average of 7 percent per year. In 2012, the total export of goods such as cheese, butter, milk and milk powder was estimated at 5.9 billion euros. According to NZO, the Dutch dairy industry will benefit from the growing demand for dairy products in the world. Exports to countries such as China, Russia and Nigeria have increased between 2000 and 2012 by an average of 11 to 17 percent per year. In addition, the willingness to make major investments is related to the imminent abolition of the European milk quotas in 2015, giving many dairy farmers scope to increase milk production.


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Acura launched this video commercial starring Jerry Seinfeld during the Super Bowl as he offers his wealth and career connections to be first in line to own the new Acura NSX.
7 For All Mankind released a series of videos directed by James Franco. To get the internet buzzing about the videos and encourage user engagement, the brand also launched a sweepstakes with the opportunity to win a $1,500 shopping spree. Giant Media was brought on board to create mass awareness for the videos while encouraging sweepstakes entries.
Dollar Shave Club released an epic video in effort to encourage brand uplift and increase club subscribers. DSC turned to Giant Media to generate major awareness for the brand and drive online users to the Dollar Shave Club webpage where they are able to sign up for DSC's service.
After a few busy months, our highly anticipated First Friday event returns!
Friends, clients, and team members joined in on the fun by attending the Hawaiian themed event; complete with tacos, DJ, bar, and Aloha atmosphere.
The first Friday of every month is always a big event in Venice. During the summer nights especially, food trucks line the streets of Abbot Kinney and businesses open their doors late into the evening to the many passers-by.
The fun continued into the early hours of the morning as people tore up the dance floor and caught up by the bonfire pit on our beautiful open-air patio.
It’s safe to say that everyone had a great time and if you didn’t get to join in on the fun, no worries. Winter is coming. Come join us next month!
A couple weekends ago, Giant Media by Adknowledge sponsored the Detroit softball team by organizing a Golf Outing last Friday with the goal of sending the team to the 2014 Softball World Series.
The golf outing is an annual event that fundraises money to subsidize the cost of travel, lodging, etc. allowing the players to participate in the World Series. The mood throughout the outing was very light and playful.
There were many shenanigans throughout the day. One of the teams even did their best Happy Gilmore-style tee off on one hole.
Overall, the event was a great success. Clients, agencies, and Giant Media team members alike had a great time participating in the fun, catching up, and raising money for a great cause.
Everyone is already looking forward to the Outing next year. GO TEAM DETROIT!!
Giant Media is pleased to announce that we’ve been acquired by Adknowledge, the largest private owned online advertising marketplace. What began five years ago out of a small brick building on 7th St. in Santa Monica grew in size and profit on “the coolest block in town”, Abbot Kinney Blvd, and now joins force with a leader in digital optimization.
From the beginning we’ve seen online video as a rapidly growing market. Today, video is an essential component in establishing brand identity on a ever-changing, expanding online landscape. Our devoted team here at Giant Media has worked very hard to elevate video distribution beyond the currently established formats. We thrive on the challenge, the change, and the opportunities that reach before us now.
The combination of Adknowledge and Giant Media reenforces the abilities of two highly complementary companies; each is recognized as a leader in the rapidly developing digital marketing world. Founded in 2004, Adknowledge helps leading advertisers maximize their online value, at scale, across a multitude of channels, approaches, and formats.
Our work here over the past five years has been driven by the passion, efficiency, and humility from every Giant Media team member, and we aspire to sustain the same ethos with Adknowledge as we begin to scale globally. To date, Giant Media holds offices in New York, Detroit, in addition to our Venice, CA, headquarters.
As we now shift our focus to the future of online video, we are thrilled to be a part of the Adknowledge family. In the meanwhile, we look forward to welcoming our new team members in typical Giant Media fashion - with a cold beer and fresh tacos on our rooftop deck by the sea.


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US consumer borrowing in January rises US$17.8 billion
WASHINGTON -- Americans stepped up borrowing in January to buy more cars and attend school.
Consumer borrowing rose by US$17.8 billion in January, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday. That followed similar gains in December and November.
The gains for those three months were the largest in a decade and helped consumer borrowing climb to a seasonally adjusted US$2.5 trillion. That nearly matches the pre-recession borrowing level.
The January increase was driven by US$20.7 billion increase in category that mostly measures demand for auto and student loans. It was the biggest increase for that category since November 2001. Borrowing on credit cards fell US$2.9 billion in January after four months of gains.
Many economists believe the rise in borrowing is a sign that consumers are feeling more confident about the economy. But consumers are also borrowing more at a time when their wages have not kept pace with inflation.
The outlook for hiring has improved, which could boost consumer spending in coming months.
In January, companies added 243,000 net jobs and the unemployment rate fell to 8.3 percent, the lowest in three years. The economy has added an average of 200,000 net jobs per month from November through January.
Economists are predicting another strong employment month in February, forecasting the addition of 210,000 net jobs. The government reports later Friday on February job growth.
|Copyright © 1999 – 2017 The China Post.|
|Back to Story


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Excluding hotels, Cambridge has outpaced Oxford by 50 per cent in attracting investment across every sector of commercial property.
Data analysed from 2017 to date highlights that total investment in Cambridge was more than £815m versus Oxford’s £536m.
Datscha, the proptech platform which shows ultimate ownership of commercial properties, revealed the data in their transactions module which indicates deals worth more than £3m each – those deemed of economic significance to the market. Datscha has further been able to corroborate its research by uncovering portfolio deals matched with latest Land Registry data – using the period from January 2017 to July 2019.
Office market props up Cambridge investment
The research reveals that Cambridge surpasses Oxford in most asset classes of commercial property (including industrial, retail, specialist property) with the office market taking the largest investment volume – accounting for more than £300m worth of investment during this time. Oxford, however, outpaces its rival city in the hotel sector with £282minvestment over this period, more than twice as much than in Cambridge. Some retail properties are still very much in demand in Cambridge with around 17% of total investment volumes in the city. This includes the sale of a Sainsbury’s supermarket for more than £45m and the Next store (with 9 years left on the lease) on St Andrews Street for almost £22m.
University investment challenge: Cambridge leads
Datscha further analysed investment by both cities’ respective universities back into local commercial property, which revealed Cambridge University spent £53m versus Oxford’s £22m.
Lesley Males, Datscha’s Head of Research, commented: “It’s no secret the success of Cambridge’s science parks and tech industries have buoyed up total investment thanks to the office sector, yet the city has still punched above its weight in almost all areas of commercial property, over Oxford. Recent infrastructure upgrades make commuting to London and surrounding towns more appealing.
Males further commented:
Another dynamic of Cambridge’s healthy commercial property demand has been UK domestic investment, accounting for three quarters of investors versus Oxford’s 50 per local interest.


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A quartet of entrepreneurs is discovering the importance of a fraternal bond when it comes to virtual reality.
Faraz Malek, Kirill Moisyeyev, Kevin Sloan and Greg Zoub were all apart of the same fraternity at the University of Toronto, Beta Theta Pi, and they learned the basic principles of the entrepreneurial spirit. They applied them to their first venture together, DiVRge — a virtual reality playground.
Situated snugly in the commercial strip along Yonge Street, just north of Blythwood Road, the new activity centre has 18 booths for kids and the young-at-heart to explore the fully immersive world of VR gaming.
They opened in October, but already they’re experiencing return customers who first came for a birthday party. They also do corporate parties as well, co-founder Malek said, while seated in the party room near the back.
But the real beauty is how the quartet have been able to pull together their business plan from its inception in March to the opening in October.
And midtown played a huge factor in their decision.
“The hardest part of this business was finding the right property,” Malek said. “We started out looking downtown because we were thinking young professionals.”
Take a trip to midtown, however, and you’ll see both the young professional and the families with avid gamers tapping into the latest trends regarding games and HTC Vive headgear.
It’s not all about games
They’re no strangers to midtown. Sloan’s parents own a shoe store at Yonge and Lawrence and even Malek himself played baseball in North Toronto.
When asked if they were gamers, there’s a sheepish grin. Malek is more of a traditional sports game fan, naturally, while Sloan is the real deal.
It’s not necessarily about the gaming, however, as Malek, whose undergrad is computer science, looks to educate students and visitors about virtual reality technology.
“We branded ourselves as a playground for a reason. We’re more than booths. We’re going to bring in a roto chair. We want to learn about different experiences. We want to develop our VR,” he shared, enthusiasm in every syllable stressed.
“We can do a cost-effective program where you would bring your class in for an hour, and we can teach them about the technology, what it takes to develop.”
Most importantly, they want to do this at a price point where everyone can enjoy it.
And that’s a game that has very high replay value.


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How New Govt Can Uplift Small Manufacturers
To help small manufactures to tackle the issue of lack of funds, NMCC (National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council) is planning to urge new government to create public fund for MSMEs.
Indian manufacturing Industry is considered as the backbone of the economy of the country and the contribution of the industry to the GDP is around 16 per cent. With the planning commission aiming to revamp the manufacturing output, NMCC forecasts that the number will go up to 25 per cent by 2025. Anil Khaitan, Chairman, Industry Affairs Committee, PHD Chamber, in a seminar on “Enhancing the Indian Manufacturing Competitiveness” elucidates, “In 2013, the productive spending in India has declined to 8 per cent from 9.4 per cent in 2009. The government has only spent Rs 110 per person on productive spending vis-a-vis Rs 1,900 per person on unproductive spending.”
What New Government Can Do?
Amid all debates on the present scenario of Indian Manufacturing Industry, one cannot ignore the fact that SME contributes 45 per cent to India’s manufacturing output. Ajay Shankar, Member Secretary, NMCC, says, “The NMCC will propose to the new government to set up public funded equity funds to extend and release financial assistance to industry in its mid and smaller segments, since such industries suffer for credit from public and financial institutions.”
The present labour and factory laws also barred the small scale manufacturers to grow effortlessly. But with the council’s recommendation to reduce Labour and Factory Laws from 44 to just 3, the new government is likely to address their safety and security concerns of labourers.
Shankar emphasises that the new labour laws should facilitate foreign investors to park their surpluses in India with an atmosphere of putting up manufacturing facilities in which the role of government is bare minimum.
Moreover, to safeguard SMEs from hindrances related to unfavourable government policies, the new government should increase their focus on the small scale reservation and SME friendly policies.
Khaitan, who is also the national executive of Micro and Small Industries Cell (BJP), says, “There are some factors that deprived small manufacturers to concentrate on their business and lack of proper infrastructure is one of the crucial factor. The failure of the government to provide the infrastructure holds back the MSME sector to grow. So it is very crucial for SMEs to adopt innovative manufacturing culture and increase their spend on R&D.”
Therefore, the council also expressed their concerns over the lack of proper ecosystem for SMEs to put up factory and employ significant number of workers. Therefore, the NMCC demanded the new government to create a sound ecosystem that can be apt for manufacturers to flourish their businesses.


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EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) -- A group of RI lawmakers is proposing to tax sugar-sweetened drinks.
The lawmakers suggest taxing $1.28 per gallon of sugar sweetened beverage, or 1 cent per ounce. That tax would apply to sodas, sports drinks and energy drinks.
The goal is to curb obesity rates in Rhode island, the group said. 25.5 percent of adults in Rhode Island are obese, according to the Center for Disease Control .
The restaurant and retail industries are opposing the proposal, saying it will hurt their business. The Center For Consumer Freedom is also opposing the tax, pointing out studies that demonstrate soda is not a unique contributor to obesity.
Copyright WPRI 12
Police say a 52-year-old Revere woman has died after being struck and dragged about a half-mile by an MBTA bus.
A man charged with kidnapping, robbing and killing one woman and assaulting three others pleaded not guilty Wednesday and was ordered held at a state psychiatric facility without bail.
Warwick's school committee delays a difficult decision for the second time in less than a year, deciding to hire a six figure consultant instead of closing schools.
Target 12: The financial situation has deteriorated at Rhode Island Hospital's nonprofit owner.
Davies Career & Technical High School in Lincoln has a new CVS Mock Pharmacy Training Center.


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The U.S. government will not renew a tax credit for installing home and commercial charging equipment.
The tax credit for chargers ends on December 31, although proponents press Congress to renew it in January. “The timing of this couldn’t be more unfortunate,” Genevieve Cullen, vice president of the Electric Drive Transportation Association, was quoted as saying by USA Today, as the discontinuation of tax credit comes while more electric cars are on the way to be launched.
The credit allows taxpayers to deduct 30 percent of the cost of chargers installed in their garages, up to a maximum of $1,000. The tax break for commercial units is up to $30,000. In 2010, the tax credit was 50 percent as part of the government’s stimulus package. The credit was seen as an incentive for adoption of electric vehicles, as the government seeks to cut carbon dioxide emissions and use of foreign oil. The discontinuation of tax breaks for chargers does not affect the $7,500 tax credit for buying new electric vehicles.
According to GM, loss of the tax credit will have a minimal impact on Volt sales, because about 40% of buyers recharge from their home 110-volt sockets, rather than a special 220-volt charger. Nissan declined to comment on the matter.


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It’s my goldfishes birthday, I’ve broken my leg and we’re trying for a baby are amongst some of the oddest excuses being used by Brits to get out of a night out according to a new survey. Half of Brits (50%) admit to ditching their friends ahead of a night out in favour of a takeaway and a box set. If FOMO (fear of missing out) was 2015. JOMO (joy of missing out) is 2016.
More than one in ten (12%) admit to lying to get out of plans at least once a fortnight, with almost a third (30%) making up excuses more than once a month, according to the study commissioned by on-demand restaurant delivery service, Deliveroo.
Top ten most extreme and weirdest excuses to get out of a night out include:
1. My hamster is ill
2. It’s my goldfish’s birthday
3. I’m stuck on the roof of my house
4. We’re trying for a baby
5. Falls and injuries / broken arm or leg
6. I've been arrested
7. Couldn't find my hair spray
8. Abducted by aliens
9. Said I had found out I was pregnant... when I wasn't
10. Was part of a hostage situation
Following the research Deliveroo is partnering with restaurants across the UK to create pre-selected bundles, offering customers a selection of best-selling food at a great price. These restaurants include: Jamie’s Italian, Prezzo, Chicken Shop & Dirty Burger, Yo! Sushi, Carluccio’s, Bill’s, Côte, Gourmet Burger Kitchen, MEATliquor, Zizzi and ASK Italian. Simply search on Deliveroo for 'Any Excuse for a Bundle' for the great offers.
The average time to back out of plans as 3.25 hours before an event, with a sneaky 13% of us even laying ground work for the eventual excuse the day before.
It's not just older generations who are shunning a big night out; 72% of 18-24 year olds admit they prefer a quiet evening at home over a night on the tiles.
But are we proud of our anti-social habits? Apparently not. Almost a fifth of us (17%) have pretended to have gone out, when we actually stayed at home.
And the main reason that we accept invitations to events we have no intention of attending… not hurting people’s feelings, according to nearly half (43%) of those questioned.
Spending money, bumping into people we don’t want to see and travelling to and from the venue are cited as the worst things about going out.
Film, food and booze all top the list of the ingredients for the nation’s perfect night in - and when it comes to company, 15% of us would prefer to spend it alone, whilst a more sociable 52% would opt to chill out with their other half over anyone else.
Dan Warne from Deliveroo said: "We’ve discovered that people all over the country are bailing on their social plans at the last minute, instead opting for a quiet night at home, in front of the TV. And the excuses we’re coming up with are pretty starling!
“To celebrate the JOMO, we’re partnering with online video streaming service Wuaki.tv offering everyone who orders a Deliveroo meal on a Thursday a free movie to pair with their favourite food.
“So rather than ditching their friends at the last second, we’re encouraging people to get their friends together for the perfect night in with all of the things they love best: awesome food, a nice bottle of wine and a movie!”
Top ten most popular excuses to get out of a night out:
2. Other plans
3. I can’t make it anymore
4. I don’t want to go
5. I have to look after my pet
6. I have to work late
7. I have to get up early the next day
8. Family emergency
9. I’ve had an argument with my other half
10. No excuse – I just don’t turn up


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Going public has not been as much fun for boutique server maker Rackable Systems as the idea must have sounded like a few years back. Today, the company announced that it had slashed 15 per cent of its 350-strong workforce to get costs back in line with falling sales. Those Sales that are falling thanks in large part to the …
Rackable is dead, but I bet Sun will buy them
Sun has made so many failed HW purchases over the years I bet Ponytail is begging them to sell out to Sun's cash that Pony has no idea what to do with.
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Today Square Enix showed off a number of interesting titles at their conference, some known and some unknown. One title that they did formally announce was a new take on the Final Fantasy formula in the form of Final Fantasy Origin: Stranger of Paradise. Stepping into territory that no other Final Fantasy has tread before this title will be a Hack and Slash game and is being developed with the team behind the popular game series Nioh as well as Koei Tecmo.
In today's conference, Square Enix showed off a trailer of characters making their way through a cursed tower. The gameplay shows a fast paces hack and slack. The trailer finished by showed Garland sitting on a dark throne and the characters calling themselves the Warriors of Light. Final Fantasy Origin: Stranger of Paradise will directly link to the very first Final Fantasy game as a prequel of sorts. The characters we see in the trailer are Jack, Ash, and Jed. They're trying to do all they can to defeat Chaos and show that they are the Warriors of Light from the prophecy, but they aren't too sure if it's them or not.
Knowing that Garland is defeated at the hands of the Warriors of Light from the original Final Fantasy game chances are this trio will be met with an unfortunate fate as they storm the Chaos Shrine.
The game will play similarly to Jedi: Fallen Order in that players can expect tough combat, but the game will still be accessible to players. Final Fantasy Origin: Stranger of Paradise will be coming to all major consoles. Later on this Summer there will be a demo that will allow fans to familiarize themselves with the gameplay, while also providing the development team an opportunity to hear from the community what works and what doesn't work in this new system.
Word began to stir about Final Fantasy Origin: Stranger of Paradise a few months ago but at the time it was little more than hearsay. Getting closer and closer to E3 the rumor mill began churning as different pieces of news came out including what games it would be like, that it's a game developed between those who created Nioh as well as the team that worked on the PS4 fighting game Dissidia NT.
At this time there is no set release date for Final Fantasy Origin but we should be hearing news about the alpha before too long. The Demo will be released later today for PlayStation 5 and will be available to play through to June 24th.
If you want to check out more of TechRaptor's E3 2021 and related summer event coverage, click here.


text: 6 minutes ago One of the funniest moments of E3 2018 came when Todd Howard announced during the Bethesda showcase that Skyrim was launching on yet another platform: Alexa. It had a trailer and everything, and pretty much everyone applauded the developer’s willingness to poke fun at themselves with something so ridiculous. Well, it turns out the joke is on us. Skyrim: Very Special Edition is available now, and apparently it’s actually a pretty great experience. We’re big fans of developers being willing to have a bit of fun at their own expense. Skyrim launched back in 2011 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and, since then, it’s been ported in one form or another to just about every platform imaginable. Back at E3 2017, Bethesda announced that the game was also coming to the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation VR, causing even more good-natured rumbling about what platform could possibly come next. Then, at this year’s E3 showcase, Todd Howard revealed Skyrim: Very Special Edition, a version of the game that runs on Alexa courtesy of voice commands. The trailer, which everyone assumed was a joke, even had a great performance from Keegan-Michael Key, of Key & Peele fame….


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Epic Games’ co-op survival building game, Fortnite, is set to get its own PUBG-style battle royale mode called Fortnite Battle Royale, later this month.
Currently in paid early access, you can’t say that Epic Games isn’t delivering bang for the game’s buck. With updates and new features coming left, right, and centre, the latest update is set to bring a pretty familiar game mode to the action-building game.
Fortnite Battle Royale is a brand new PvP mode coming to Fortnite on September 26. This game mode will come to Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC/Mac and will see 100 players being dropped into a giant map where their combat and building skills will be put to the test. Unfortunately no chicken dinners are being offered.
It’s definitely an interesting move considering how Fortnite is primarily a co-operative wave based shooter / building game, however with PUBG taking its sweet time to come to consoles, this may be a legitimate way for players to get a similar experience, plus there’s the added edge of being able to build your own base to hide in which could be filled with traps.
Check out the new mode as well as a few words from Epic Games Worldwide Creative Lead, Donald Mustard:
Fortnite is available in paid early access and this week the game’s Standard and Deluxe Founder’s Packs are discounted by 25%. This offer will last through to September 18. Current owners of the game can play play Battle Royale in the special Public Test which is set to run from now until launch.


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Perfect World International: ‘Chill of Luneska’ Expansion Announced
Perfect World Entertainment Inc., a leading publisher and operator of free-to-play massively multiplayer online games, is proud to announce Chill of Luneska, the latest content update enriching the experience in Perfect World International: New Horizons. Launching on August 19, 2014, Chill of Luneska will have players journey forth into Luneska – a powerful empire that dominates the beautiful frozen lands to the east.
Chill of Luneska will build on the guild-based PvP modes by adding the “Territory Resource War” weekly events aimed to continue to deliver opportunities for players to interact with each other in Perfect World International: New Horizons. Guilds will no longer only fight for the rights of ownership of the land, but will be able to continuously battle for its resources and riches.
Also included in the Chill of Luneska update are new quest lines for high-level players to complete, new events for all players to participate in, and new systems designed to streamline Perfect World International: New Horizons player experience.
For more info, visit www.arcgames.com/en/games/pwi/news/detail/6006863-chill-of-luneska%2C-coming-soon%21
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Analysis Instead Of Flowers For Mother’s Day, Fin Offers Its Virtual Assistant As The Right Gift Fin, the subscription-based digital assitant, is opening up its voice-activated recommendation and purchasing services to non-subscribers as co-founder Sam Lessin aims to prove it can understand "actual language" better than Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant.
Analysis Google I/O: Centrality Of Artificial Intelligence, Local Marketing, And (Yes) Optimism Draw Lines With Amazon, Facebook Google's emphasis on local business for its Assistant, Maps and forthcoming Lens products has the search giant further postioning itself as the "anti-Amazon," UM's Joshua Lowcock explains.
Analysis Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai: Google ‘Shopping Actions’ Increases Amount Of Purchases By 30 Percent "The Google Assistant can now help you with over 1 million actions, including new things like reminding you to buy bread when you get to the store or sending money to friends or if you want to get a ride share home," says Pichai. "For a concept we unveiled at I/O less than 2 years ago, this is great progress."
Analysis How Paragon Honda Used Google Assistant To Update ‘Outmoded’ Dealership Visits "We expect the use of voice to continue to grow and that experiences like this one will complement other options that we or Paragon provide the customer," says Guy Schueller, Google's Industry Director, Automotive.


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And right now, e-cigarette makers have a tremendous amount of latitude in the U.S. to market those products as they choose, even on television, where traditional cigarette ads have been banned since 1971.
That's because the Food and Drug Administration has not yet determined if e-cigarettes, which deliver nicotine to the lungs through a battery-generated vapor, rather than via tobacco smoke, should be considered tobacco products — with all the regulation that designation entails. The agency is expected to make its determination as early as this month.
In the meantime, "the marketing that you're seeing in these cigarettes now, it's the wild west," Stanton Glantz, director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California San Francisco, tells NPR's Melissa Block on All Things Considered. "They're they're using celebrities, movies, television — it's just like getting into a time machine."
Perhaps some readers will remember those heady, hazy days, when TV was filled with ads touting cigarettes' health benefits, as the center of a refreshing set break for John Wayne — even as part of a wholesome breakfast:
Not surprisingly, today's e-cigarette ads look a lot slicker than their midcentury tobacco cousins. Actors Stephen Dorff and Jenny McCarthy crank up the sex appeal in their advertisements for Blu eCigs, owned by Lorillard, which manufactures Kent and Newport tobacco cigarettes. At the bar, McCarthy says, "I can whip out my Blu, and not worry about scaring that special someone away."
And FIN electronic cigarette's national television spot goes for a stylish smash-up of vintage and modern, complete with a retro-looking diner waitress.
Andries Verleur, co-founder of VMR Products, which makes V2 Cigs, told Bloomberg News that the industry does expect the FDA will eventually clamp down on e-cigarette advertising.
As Mitchell Zeller, director of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Tobacco Products, told Shots, the jury's still out on the health effects of e-cigarettes. But, for now, as NJoy King put it in their TV ad that ran during the Superbowl in January, "the most amazing thing about this cigarette is, it isn't one."
At least, not yet.
You can hear more about the e-cigarette industry in Melissa Block's story on NPR's All Things Considered Monday.


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The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) board of directors recently approved a list of changes to modify the Margin Protection Program for Dairy (MPP-Dairy) safety net for dairy producers passed in the 2014 Farm Bill. The changes approved by the NMPF board include adjustments to the feed coefficients and milk and feed prices used in the MPP-Dairy formula.
In addition to the formula, NMPF approved adjustments to premium rates, a move to a monthly MPP-Dairy calculation, more flexible sign-up options, and better complementarity between the Livestock Gross Margin program for dairy and MPP-Dairy.
All of the proposed NMPF changes are important to how MPP-Dairy operates. For example, increasing the feed coefficients back to the levels originally developed by NMPF back in 2009 would have lowered the May to June 2016 MPP-Dairy margin by nearly $1 and resulted in much larger payments to dairy farmers.
Examination of the prices for feed and milk used in the MPP-Dairy formula could prove equally important. The current MPP-Dairy formula uses the prices received by producers for corn and alfalfa as reported at the national level by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). The range across states of alfalfa prices in the recent NASS report shows a low of $79 per ton in Nebraska and a high of $220 per ton in Kentucky. The U.S. average alfalfa price for January 2017 was $128 per ton. Many dairy producers suggest the price they pay for quality alfalfa is much higher than the reported U.S. average price.
USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) also reports market prices for alfalfa for many states. While NASS reports Nebraska alfalfa at $79 per ton, AMS shows recent Nebraska premium large square alfalfa at $155 per ton. The differences reported in alfalfa prices by different USDA agencies implies that additional study is needed to determine what price best reflects dairy-quality alfalfa.
For example, if a $50 per ton higher alfalfa price was used in the MPP-Dairy formula, the MPP-Dairy margin would decline by about 75 cents per cwt. This kind of change would have a marked effect on the MPP-Dairy safety net. Similar discussion could also occur with corn and milk prices used in the formula.With the development process for the next farm bill underway, it is time to carefully evaluate the current MPP-Dairy margin calculation and determine possible changes that can better reflect the margin experienced by dairy farmers and create a stronger safety net.
To comment, email your remarks to email@example.com.


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The Town of Apple Valley has started two loan programs meant to help businesses hurt by COVID-19.
The Microenterprise Assistance Program is designed for businesses with one to five employees, according to a statement on the town’s website.
It offers grants up to $30,000 for backpay of rent and utilities, cash for payroll, purchase of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and for services that will increase or change business practices such as website development or converting to outdoor business activities.
Applications are available now and will be processed starting March 9.
The second program, the Small Business Assistance Program, is for businesses that employ up to 50 people. It’s offering up to $50,000 for capital purchases similar to those covered by the Microenterprise program, with applications to be processed on a first-come, first-served basis.
“Our small businesses and entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of our local economy and when they succeed, our community succeeds,” said Mayor Curt Emick in the statement. “As a small business owner, I’m pleased the town can offer additional capital to help our small business community rebuild and rebound in 2021.”
Personal income will be the primary criterion for eligibility in the Microenterprise program. For the Small Business program, financial loss due to COVID-19 will be a major factor in determining the size of the loan.
To be eligible for either program a business must have been in existence for at least one year, according to the statement.


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The move reflects GE's overall drive to shift more of its top executives -- including Vice Chairman John Rice, who this year relocated to Hong Kong -- closer to fast-growing Asian markets.
Anne LeGrand, vice president and general manager at GE Healthcare Global X-Ray, is relocating to Beijing from Waukesha, Wisconsin, along with several executives, including the chief financial officer and chief marketing officer, LeGrand said at a briefing in the Chinese capital on Monday.
Those moves will be complete by the end of August, and other staff will be added in the future, LeGrand said.
"I am keeping a globally distributed executive team," she said, with basic radiology and fluoroscopy to be based in Beijing, the bone mineral density business in Wisconsin, and mammography in Buc, outside Paris, France.
GE Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt, who serves as a top adviser to the Obama administration on job creation, told reporters earlier this month that given the nation's lingering high unemployment, big U.S. companies will be held "accountable" by the public for where they hire people. But with the company expecting to generate 60 percent of its sales outside the United States this year, GE plans to continue adding jobs overseas, he said.
When the company reported better-than-expected profit growth on Friday, Immelt noted that orders in China had risen 32 percent in the second quarter, and in India by an even more dramatic 91 percent. Both nations outperformed the company's overall 24 percent rise in orders.
FOCUS ON PRODUCT DESIGN
GE Healthcare plans to develop at least 20 new products in coming years, mostly in primary care, and will include ultrasound, patient monitoring and anesthesia machines, LeGrand said. These products will be developed for the China market, but have the potential to be exported to emerging markets.
Digital X-ray products that GE developed in China have already been sold in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, LeGrand said.
"GE is continuing to expand its global footprint," she said. "As the company is going more global, it's important to be closer to our markets."
While the company has focused on the high end of the market, it is expanding to meet demand for primary care as well, Duan said.
In that vein, GE is building what it calls a customer innovation center in Chengdu, central China, one of six such centers in China that Immelt announced in Beijing late last year.
The Chengdu facility will be GE's lead R&D center for X-ray technology in China and has hired 65 engineers to work there, Duan said.
The number of employees at the Chengdu center will more than double within a year, she said.
GE Healthcare has been developing medical devices and other products for the Chinese market for more than 30 years, according to the company.
(Reporting by Terril Yue Jones, additional reporting by Scott Malone in Boston; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Matthew Lewis)


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|In mid-2018, Masan Resources acquired H.C.Starck GmBH’s 49 per cent stake in the joint venture. This is the strategic step of Masan Resources to become an integrated tungsten chemical champion|
September 19 was a historic day for both SK Group and Masan Group. Both corporate groups signed an agreement to enter into a strategic partnership, spearheaded by SK’s $470 million investment into Masan. This deal will significantly increase SK’s presence in the Southeast Asian region. SK sees Vietnam, the region’s fastest-growing economy, as a strategic base. They also view Masan as an ideal strategic partner to accelerate their regional objectives while also benefiting from Masan’s promising growth story as the largest foreign, strategic shareholder.
Looking briefly at the history of both corporate groups shows many common traits shared by these leading businesses of their respective countries.
|Masan Group and South Korea Group forged a strategic partnership: SK to invest about $470 million to become Masan Group’s largest strategic shareholder|
Who is SK Group?
SK Group is one of the largest corporate groups in South Korea, with businesses across the energy, chemicals, telecommunications, semiconductors, logistics, and service sectors. The group operates globally, in over 40 countries, and had a combined revenue of $141 billion at the end of the year 2017.
Within South Korea, they are easily recognisable for their many gas stations, which bear the group’s signature red-orange colour scheme. SK is also known for running the country’s largest telecommunications operator, SK Telecom, with over 40 million customers or approximately 70 per cent of South Korean population. SK Hynix, another affiliate, is the world’s second-largest memory chip maker after Samsung Electronics. SK Group is comprised of 95 subsidiaries and affiliates and employs over 80,000 people.
SK’s presence in Vietnam traces back to 2003, when it established Vietnam’s first CDMA wireless network under the brand name “S-Phone”. In 2018, SK won the bid to build an ethylene plant and other utility facilities, a $2.7 billion contract, in the Long Son Petrochemical Complex located in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau.
SK and Masan both utilise M&A as a strategic growth tool
SK and Masan are leading businesses in South Korea and Vietnam, respectively. Both have the same strategic vision, which focuses on a few, but scalable businesses with high growth potential. SK are leaders in the energy, chemicals, telecommunications, semiconductors, logistics, and services sectors. Meanwhile, Masan is the leader in Vietnam’s packaged food and beverages, animal protein (3F and branded meat), tungsten chemicals, and, through its associate company Techcombank, financial services markets.
Like Masan, SK deployed strategic mergers and acquisitions (M&A) for growth, which boosted SK’s market cap four-fold within only eight years. Some of SK’s most notable transformational deals include acquiring Korea Oil and turning it into one of the largest oil companies in South Korea.
In 1994, SK Group forayed into telecom through the privatisation of state-owned Korea Mobile Telecommunications Corp. In 1997, the company renamed the unit SK Telecom and it is now South Korea’s largest telecom company.
SK Hynix was previously known as Hyundai Electronics, until SK Telecom became its major shareholder in 2012 and renamed it SK Hynix. The chip firm then grew to become the world’s second-largest memory chip maker.
In Vietnam, Masan is also no stranger to M&A, and employs it as a strategic tactic to achieve explosive and sustainable growth while turning around many businesses.
In 2011, Masan Consumer entered the instant coffee market via the acquisition of Vinacafé Bien Hoa, Vietnam’s largest instant coffee maker. Vinacafé Bien Hoa’s revenue grew to VND3.2 trillion ($141.6 million) in financial year 2017 from VND1.6 trillion ($70.8 million) in 2011, with gross margins nearly doubling over the same period.
For its tungsten chemicals business, Masan transformed Nui Phao from a greenfield project into the world’s largest single supplier of tungsten chemicals (APT, BTO, YTO) on the ex-China market, following the establishment of Masan Resources.
Recently, Masan Resources acquired H.C. Starck’s stake in Nui Phao for a consideration of $29 million. Through this deal, Masan Resources now fully owns one of the world’s most advanced midstream tungsten chemicals processors. The company is actively looking for opportunities to go further downstream in the tungsten value chain, a $11 billion market opportunity.
In 2015, Masan consolidated and transformed Proconco and ANCO, Vietnam’s leading feed producers, by applying a FMCG approach to an agricultural business under the Masan Nutri-Science banner.
Proconco and ANCO provided Masan Nutri-Science entry into the meat value chain. In no time, with the acquired synergies, Masan Nutri-Science became a key player in Vietnam’s feed market with a 35-per-cent market share in pig feed alone. At the same time, Masan Nutri-Science built the industry’s first power brand “Bio-zeem” – a proprietary enzyme which boosts feed conversion ratio for pigs.
Masan’s high-tech pig farm in the central province of Nghe An is now operational, and will provide pork to a new meat processing complex under construction in the northern province of Ha Nam. The company is expected to enter fresh branded meat by end of 2018, a $10 billion market opportunity.
Both Masan and SK utilise M&A to achieve vertical integration, which helps secure the groups’ raw material sources and technology to create end-consumer products.
From what it seems, there are ways that SK and Masan’s businesses can complement each other, including animal protein (SK now owns a 27-per-cent stake in China’s third-largest beef-producing and processing company), memory chips and chemicals (the chip business requires tungsten as a material), and even entirely new opportunities which both groups can jointly pursue.
Many parts of SK’s growth story resemble steps taken by Masan. Both are leading businesses in their home countries, South Korea and Vietnam, and both have mastered the art of M&A to win big in their businesses in such a short time. With the $470 million investment from SK, Masan Group now has a strategic war chest which it can use to drive innovations and strengthen its balance sheet for future growth.


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Oregon unemployment drops to 8.8 percent
Oregon’s unemployment rate continues to inch downward.
The 8.8 percent rate in January fell from the 9 percent rate posted in December. The December rate was actually 0.1 percent higher than economists had reported last month after an adjustment.
The rate remains above the national 8.3 percent level posted in January.
All told, the state gained 5,400 jobs in January, the Oregon Employment Department reported Tuesday. That’s the largest monthly increase since 6,900 jobs were added in January 2011.
The manufacturing sector picked up 1,700 jobs last month, the trade, transportation and utilities sector earned 1,300 and the educational and health services ranks increased by 1,200 workers.
No major industry lost more than 500 jobs in January.
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| Jun 11, 2010
It's a jungle out there in the grocery aisles, a thicket of products claiming healthy this and nutritious that. Never before have food packages displayed so many health claims in the U.S., according to a recent commentary in the Journal of the American...
| May 17, 2010
For decades, people have been ignoring advice to eat less salt — in large part because it's hard to avoid. Processed and restaurant foods are simply loaded with sodium.
Now, under growing pressure from doctors, consumers, states, advocacy groups...
| May 21, 2010
| 6:17 PM
There was the assault on trans-fats. A new law requiring calorie counts on menus. A county in California that banned toys in too-fatty kids' meals. And now there's a war on sodium.
It's no wonder the food industry is hurrying to outrun the increasingly...
| May 27, 2010
| 6:40 AM
Sunday Gospel Brunch
10:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
House of Blues
329 N. Dearborn
Buy 3 Gospel Brunch tickets, get the 4th ticket FREE! Tickets available at the House of Blues box office at 312-923-4639 or online at our website. Mention the code word,...
| Mar 23, 2011
| 12:16 PM
Here are the top deals to be found at Chicago Jewel-Osco grocery stores for the week of March 24, with coupon matchups. I don't list every item from the Wednesday grocery ad, only those that are close to their low prices or those that have a good coupon...
| Mar 30, 2011
| 3:37 AM
Here are the top deals to be found at Chicago Jewel-Osco grocery stores for the week of March 31, with coupon matchups. I don't list every item from the Wednesday grocery ad, only those that are close to their low prices or those that have a good coupon...
| Oct 28, 2010
| 5:39 PM
Hopping seeks district apology
Bruce Hopping, a local activist and founder of the Kalos Kagathos Foundation, a nonprofit that aims to educate youth to respect and preserve the body, mind and environment, solicited an apology from the Laguna Beach Unified...
| Nov 14, 2010
| 4:48 AM
UPDATE: Don't throw away your Sunday paper. On p. 9 of the Tribune there's a coupon for $10 off a turkey with a separate $20 purchase. It's good for Jennie-O, Farm Fresh, Perdue or Butterball, fresh or frozen. They point out that a 16 lb. frozen Jennie-...
| Nov 21, 2010
| 1:33 PM
Social shopping is the new trend in Internet commerce these days.
Websites have sprouted up, promising great discounts if a certain number of people sign up to buy. Groupon and LivingSocial are some of the most prominent, but a small Maryland startup...
| Nov 28, 2010
Settled on the sofa watching the usual rubbish on TV, I notice that predictable, uncontrollable, nightly craving. At first, I sit there, fighting it. But the longer I fight, the worse it gets. After 20 minutes, I can't concentrate on anything, I feel...
| Jan 1, 2011
| 8:47 AM
Here are the best deals from the Jan. 2, 2011 Sunday newspaper ads. In this weekly write-up, I go through the coupons, grocery ads, drugstore deals and other noteworthy offers in the Sunday Chicago Tribune. If I've missed anything, I'd love to hear what...