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Tougher measures are needed to tackle the continuing problem of overloaded vehicles, Nguyen Van Huyen, director of the Directorate for Roads of Viet Nam (DRVN) tells Giao Thong (Transport) newspaper.
Ha Noi authorities have said they are determined to deal strictly with overloaded vehicles. But a week into this campaign, there is no discernible impact. Also, there does not seem to be a great reduction in the number of vehicles having their oversized containers cut. Can you comment on this?
Until now, Ha Noi has set up three check points and intensified random and surprise inspections on many routes. From April 15-22, as many as 197 vehicles were inspected and 111 violations detected. Of these, 27 vehicles had their oversized containers cut down on the spot and another 11 vehicles were ordered to have them cut.
More than 658 vehicles imported after Circular No. 32/2012/TT-BGTVT (which limits the sizes of containers of dump trucks, tank trucks, truck in traffic) was issued have also been told to reduce the size of their containers.
The rule does not apply to vehicles imported before the issuance of circular on October 1, 2012.
It is true that the figures show weaknesses in dealing with the problem of overloaded vehicles and oversized containers. So more drastic measures are needed in the future.
Several transport companies in Ha Noi have cut their containers as regulated, but are worried that others are not doing the same, putting them at a disadvantage. How would you respond?
In my opinion, this concern is not all that valid. There will be no relaxation in implementing the regulations on oversized containers. All firms will have to do it sooner or later. I can affirm that campaign against overloaded vehicles on roads will also be carried out till the problem is eliminated. So enterprises should not doubt the resolution of concerned agencies.
Those who spot the violations can inform relevant agencies via hotlines and immediate action will be taken.
Director of the Ha Noi Transport Department recently said that firms that do not have their oversized containers cut by June 30, will have their business licences revoked. How will localities implement this?
Localities have been required to implement the regulation for a long time, but there was no proposal on the revoking of business licenses. I think it is a good idea. Since they are authorized to do so, it becomes feasible for the transport department to revoke the licences.
Regarding agencies under the directorate for roads, if we find enough evidence of violations, we'll request localities to revoke business licences.
It's been a year since the campaign against overloaded vehicles was launched. How would you assess its results?
We can recognise positive changes. The number of violating vehicles has been reduced to 10 per cent from 50 per cent at the beginning. The remaining violations are mainly by trucks carrying soil, stone or ore, which travel within a particular locality.
In the near future, the Directorate for Roads of Viet Nam will co-ordinate with provinces and cities to eliminate over-sized containers.
The DRVN will propose that the Ministry of Transport issues stricter regulations on dealing with businesses receiving the overloaded goods, including the revoking of licences for half a month for the first violation and three months for the second violation. They will be forbidden to take part in a tender if they commit the violation for the third time. We have so far revoked the licences of four businesses. Enterprises supplying and receiving goods from overloaded vehicles will also be fined. — VNS


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Beverly Hills’ police chief says LA’s woke bail reform laws are freeing the criminals behind a spate of recent luxury store smash-and-grabs to loot other businesses.
Chief Mark Stainbrook was interviewed during a segment on Fox & Friends where he claimed the same criminals were being caught ‘over and over again’ despite increased security measures.
The spike in LA crime has largely been attributed to the recent rise in smash and grab crimes which has seen hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of goods stolen from luxury stores.
‘We’re catching the criminals and the problem is we’re catching them over and over again and they’re being released quickly without bail and they’re not staying in prison so we just take time to deal with the same people over and over again.’
LA is one of a number of liberal cities with the bail reform laws, which were brought in to stop people being held in jail for months or even years just because they couldn’t afford to pay their bail.
But critics of the reforms say they free criminals to reoffend, and often embolden them to carry out increasingly serious crimes, safe in the knowledge that they’ll likely avoid jail.
Beverly Hills police chief Mark Stainbrook spoke out on Tuesday about the rise in Los Angeles crime in the midst of the surge of smash and grab cases which he is attributed to California’s liberal policies
Stainbrook said that these crimes were contributed by a ‘confluence’ of factors such as the state policies that were put in place by liberal voters.
‘I think this is a confluence of about 10 years of laws and policymaking starting with Prop 47, then AB 109, and Prop 57 which essentially decriminalized many of the crimes in California,’ Stainbrook told the network.
The bill Prop 57, which was approved by 65 percent of California state voters, had been passed in 2016 and called for non-violent criminals to be considered for parole after serving their sentence for their primary offense.
He noted that that these laws and policies need to change to ensure that criminals remain off the streets.
According to recent statistics from the LAPD, the rate of robberies in Los Angeles have increased by 3.9 percent.
The spike in LA crime has largely been attributed to the recent rise in smash and grab crimes which has seen hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of goods stolen from luxury stores
Last week, 14 people were arrested in connection with 11 of smash and grab robberies that were ongoing in the past month
Last week, 14 people were arrested in connection with 11 of smash and grab robberies that have been ongoing in the past month.
During the period between November 18 and 28, retail shops such as Nordstrom, Lululemon and a CVS pharmacy had been raided of $338,000 worth of goods as well as $40,000 worth of property damage.
However, due to city’s zero-bail policies, the suspects were all released within hours of being handcuffed and are currently walking the streets while they wait for their cases to go to court.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti also pointed out that the grace period for criminals needed to end as COVID had prevented certain groups of criminals, such as burglars, to be placed in jail.
‘There are people who need to be behind bars,’ Garcetti told the Los Angeles Times.
‘We have opened up a lot of the city because we’re in a better place with COVID. We should be able to also open up our jails, and we should be able to have judges that put people behind those bars as well.’
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti also pointed out that the grace period for criminals needed to end as COVID had prevented certain groups of criminals, such as burglars, to be placed in jail
District Attorney George Gascon was also recently slammed Eric Siddall, vice president of the Association of Los Angeles Deputy District, for caring more about the rights of criminal suspects rather than the safety of LA citizens.
‘If you look at the 14 people arrested, they could have been charged, there could have been bail amounts set, but none of that was done because the district attorney refuses to take a leadership position on this issue, Siddall said.
Gascon, who has been backed by billionaire donor George Soros, has been slammed over his progressive policies such as allowing criminals to go free as they await their day in court.
Other major US cities have also seen a spike in store break-ins, including Chicago and its suburbs, where more than a dozen suspects attacked a Louis Vuitton store last month and stole more than $120,000 worth of high-end clothing and other merchandise.
Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon was slammed over his progressive views which saw criminals fun free as they awaited their day in court
Retailers lose about $65 billion each year to organized theft, the bulk stolen by professional thieves.
The National Retail Federation said a recent survey found stores are seeing an increase in organized thefts and perpetrators being more aggressive.
Among the latest of the brazen of robberies in LA was a pair or robbers who cornered a mother with her baby on the driveway of her mansion as she waited for its electronic gates to close on Sunday.
The Los Angeles Police Department, which shared footage of the crime on Twitter, is asking for help finding the suspects who robbed the mother in broad daylight.
The unidentified woman is seen in the video walking into her driveway with her infant in a stroller.
The two robbers walk past the home, then turn around and walk inside before the electronic gates could close.
They then back the woman against the wall of her property, take a diaper bag off her back and grab a cooler from inside her stroller before fleeing in a car parked outside.
‘Fearing for her and her child’s safety, the victim complied’ with the thieves demands that she hand over her belongings, the LAPD wrote in its Twitter post.’
LAPD footage revealed a hooded and masked man, believed to be in connection with the smash and grab robberies roaming around a Nordstrom’s on November 24
The suspect sprayed a security officer in the face and was said to be with five other suspects who had stolen $25,000 worth of handbags from the store
The attack came after, legendary music executive Clarence Avant’s wife of 54 years, Jacqueline Avant, was killed last Tuesday by a gunman in what police fear may have been a home invasion at their $7 million mansion in Beverly Hills.
Shocking photos obtained by DailyMail.com show the musician’s decimated sliding glass doors, though police pointedly declined to confirm that robbery was the suspected motive, saying all possibilities are under consideration.
Law enforcement sources told the LA Times that at least one burglar made it into the mansion before Jacqueline was killed.
Aariel Maynor, 29, a career criminal, was arrested on Wednesday for the murder.
On November 26, Black Friday, LA looters ransacked a Home Depot, taking a slew of tools such as crowbars, mallets and sledgehammers that LAPD officials say will likely be used in future heists. Thieves also busted into a Bottega Veneta store.
On November 22, about two dozen robbers smashed their way into an LA Nordstrom, making off with $5,000 worth of merchandise. A CVS pharmacy in the city was struck just an hour later, where looters stole $8,000 from a cash register. Police said that the 14 arrests made last week were in connection to these attacks.
Los Angeles police say at least 20 people used sledgehammers to break the glass at a Nordstrom on November 22 and ransack its shelves before fleeing. Fourteen suspects were arrested last week in connection to the brazen heist, but have since been released
Police released photos of at least two of the suspects wanted for robbing $20,000 worth of merchandise from an Apple Store in Santa Rosa
OAK BROOK, ILLINOIS: Surveillance footage from inside a Louis Vuitton store showed masked shoplifters, top right, pour into the store and grab handfuls of merchandise as customers ran away last month
Two days later, police in Palo Alto announced that two women had been arrested in connection with an attempt to steal items from the RealReal clothing boutique downtown.
At the time, cops detailed how 30 to 40 people arrived in some 20 cars and tried to break down the glass front door but it held. A security guard then reported the effort via a 911 call, which spurred the crowd to flee as police started to arrive.
The suspects were subsequently stopped in a car near the scene, where police said they found at least $15,000 in clothes from a second RealReal location that was burglarized in Larkspur earlier that night.
In another incident later that day, five more people pleaded not guilty to felony charges involving thefts – this time in San Francisco.
Nine people were initially charged in the string of attacks on San Francisco stores such Louis Vuitton, Burberry and Bloomingdale’s in the city’s downtown area and in Union Square – a posh shopping district popular with tourists that was teeming with holiday shoppers.
Aside from the organized crime rings, the growing problem has been attributed to police officers’ apparent reluctance to pursue such criminals in the current political climate, prosecutors’ failure to prioritize larceny and theft, and the decriminalization of low-level offenses in some jurisdictions.
Two weeks ago, the San Francisco Bay Area saw a relentless string of audacious ‘smash-and-grab’ robberies, including an incident involving a gaggle of hammer-wielding masked bandits who ransacked jewelry, sunglasses and clothing stores at the Southland Mall in the San Jose suburb of Hayward on November 21.
Legendary music executive Clarence Avant’s wife of 54 years, Jacqueline Avant, was killed last Tuesday by a gunman in what police fear may have been a home invasion at their $7 million mansion in Beverly Hills
Aariel Maynor, 29, a career criminal, was arrested on Wednesday for the murder
Shocking photos obtained by DailyMail.com show the musician’s decimated sliding glass doors, though police pointedly declined to confirm that robbery was the suspected motive, saying all possibilities are under consideration
That same evening, packs of thieves ransacked a sunglasses store and a Lululemon store in San Jose, stealing nearly $50,000 in merchandise – an incident also related to the recent arrests made by LAPD.
The day prior, on November 20, police said as many as 80 suspects, some wearing ski masks and carrying crowbars, targeted a Nordstrom in the San Francisco suburb of Walnut Creek, assaulting employees and stealing merchandise before fleeing in waiting cars, police and witnesses said.
Another incident, on November 19, saw roving bands of thieves brandishing hammers and crowbars hit a string of high-end retailers, including Louis Vuitton, Burberry and Bloomingdales, as well as a Walgreens pharmacy and several marijuana dispensaries, in the vicinity of Union Square in San Francisco, a high-end area popular with tourist that was crowded with holiday shoppers.
Similar strikes have been reported in other parts of the country as well, in fellow crime-ridden metropolises like Chicago and New York.
Both Los Angeles and San Francisco recently placed in the top 10 for the National Retail Federation’s list of cities most impacted by organized retail theft – with LA earning the dubious honor of the top spot. Southern California cities San Francisco and Sacramento each took the 8 and 9 spots, respectively.
The zero-bail strategy currently employed by Gascon’s office – a policy that was statewide until last year but kept in place within the LA County Superior Court system – was initially intended to reduce the city’s jail populations, as The City of Angels grappled with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
There were 7,542 robberies in Los Angeles this year through November 27, the LAPD’s most recent data indicate, which represents a 3.9 per cent increase from last year
However, Los Angeles police Chief Michel Moore said Monday that the effort is ill-founded.
‘There are individuals in communities that look at that as a lack of consequences, a lack of deterrence and open season in which to go and commit these types of crimes,’ LA’s top cop told KNX Radio on Monday.
‘The crisis during COVID, while well-intended, the impact it had on the criminal justice system was significant and severe that it’s developing another crisis in public safety. We have an offender base that commits and are willing to commit serious and violent crimes and we need to make sure the criminal justice system acts as a deterrent.’
Officials in San Jose and Santa Clara County slammed zero-bail last week when two suspects allegedly involved in a Halloween murder were freed to await trial outside of jail walls.
Another case in Los Angeles County resulted in a car-theft suspect being arrested 13 times over 12 weeks.
Others blame the voter-approved measure Proposition 47 -passed by California voters on November 5, 2014 – which reclassified felony thefts cases under $950 to misdemeanors.

domain: news


text: HC Home Network News: Even more then four months of the “brand name strength?? 2009 Chinese appliance customer electronics brand name effect activities”, lately ended in Beijing. Activities based on Gome Baidu full year 2009 sales as well as huge search data, launched the 2009 Chinese home devices, consumer electronics sector, the impact of each classification brand names, ingenious items and also outstanding market efficiency products. Tasks on-site (HC Family with map grid) “Brand power?? 2009 Chinese device consumer electronics brand name effect activities” is offered by the GOME and examination information to sustain Baidu, virtually home appliances, consumer electronic devices firms associated with large industry, brand name evaluation as well as promotion. Activities with the year to impressive consumer electronic devices brand name appliance data evaluation and also circulation, the whole culture the worth of the brand name interaction, transmission power of the brand. Baseding on records, information, goal and also impartial authority is the best highlight of this event. Gome is the biggest device as well as consumer electronics Market Chain ventures, directly handled even more compared to 1,300 shops, with greater than 3500 million card members, the annual traveler website traffic greater than 1 billion people, its annual sales information shops standard shows the existing market for home appliances and also customer electronic devices products as well as brand options and give-and-takes, tasks for this goal, unbiased, comprehensive data protection. Moreover, Baidu has greater than 300 million Net users individuals, billions of times daily to browse requests. Baidu information proving ground under the 2009 data residence appliances, consumer electronic devices, keyword search information, mirroring the Net customers on residence devices, customer electronics brand names tend worry. The combo of these 2 reliable information reflect our real residence devices, consumer electronics brand in the marketplace encourage and also the degree of public worry. Division of Operation Analysis Baidu Chuda Chen, general manager, claimed: the search behavior of Web customers show his demand for consumption, such as browsing the country the Usa, Google users browse for TV is the country the Usa, TV’s prospective consumers. In 2009, Baidu users for home appliances and also customer electronics browse greater than 10 million times daily, via the buildup and also analysis of large information precisely mirror the brand and also items connected to the potential customer demand. A tiny Sunlight, vice president of Gome, said Gome as the country’s biggest retail chain enterprises, connects excellent value to the combination of sales data. Gome’s sales last year, the fastest-growing classification of computers, and also the exact same period last year, home device sales, the typical growth rate of about 40 %, virtually 60 % of the computer system. On the customer choice technique, a small Sunlight believes that customers are currently much more and more focus Power The idea of environmental defense, while the moment intake and also pick items, pay unique focus to personal encounter, experience-based consumption will certainly end up being a fashion, the National United States is exploring the experience to lead customers intake of the brand-new sales model. Baseding on Gome’s 2009 complete year sales as well as Baidu search information, tasks, household electrical home appliances in China in 2009 issued a consumer electronics sector, TELEVISION type, residence devices and soft goods classification, Mobile, Computers, effect brand and also cutting-edge products, superior items market. Influential brand name of TELEVISION classification: TCL, Samsung, Hisense; ingenious products: TCL ultra-thin LED Google TELEVISION X10FDE, Changhong LED Net TELEVISION SL90; market superior products: Hisense LED47T18GP. Home devices and also soft goods groups prominent brand names: cherry blossoms, Midea, Oaks, Siemens, Meiling; cutting-edge products: Sakura water heating system SCH-16E93, The u.s.a’s drum cleaning device: Sens Series MD70-1205BF, Siemens refrigerators KK22F57TI, Bosch refrigerator KAD62S20TI, Samsung fridges RS21HZLFH, Samsung cleaning device WF9654SQR. 3C digital class effect brand: Nokia, Lenovo; innovative items: LG Mobile KF350, Samsung Cam ST550, Samsung notebook R480; market superior products: Samsung S5560. In order to “brand power” as the motif of the special program, from industry authorities, the China Consumer Association, business reps and also customer home appliances to consumer electronics ventures in China brand name building, item advancement, channel sales model and also future usage patterns in the exchange and also conversation. Vice head of state of China Corporate video of white people, insight for customers: electronic technology is changing each day, each day onward, everyday out of a number of technological innovations, this property development is endless. Therefore, consumers need to pay close interest to daily customer products is not a place. Xu Bing, dean of China’s home appliances Mentioning the future of health and wellness modern technology growth fad of house appliances is that: the future of the appliance could be much more smart, much more customized, a lot more sophisticated home devices could not only work, but looked very comfy, very practical used to satisfy the different requirements of customers.


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BlackBerry Tablet May Appear Next Week, Report Says
By Nancy Gohring
PCWorldSep 21, 2010 4:20 pm PDT
Research in Motion may introduce a tablet computer next week, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
Persistent rumors over the past few months have pointed to a BlackBerry tablet that would aim to compete with Apple’s popular iPad.
The Journal, citing unnamed “RIM insiders,” provides some details of what such a tablet might look like. The device will have a 7-inch touchscreen and one or two built-in cameras, the report says.
It will not connect directly to cellular networks; users will have to connect through their BlackBerry devices instead. But the tablet will come with a “broadband connection,” the Journal says, presumably Wi-Fi.
Apple’s iPad comes in two configurations: one with cellular and Wi-Fi, the other with just Wi-Fi.
Instead of the new BlackBerry 6 operating system, the tablet will run new software developed by QNX Software Systems, a company RIM purchased earlier this year, the Journal says.
RIM declined to comment on what it called “rumors and speculation.”
RIM lost its number-one position among smartphone makers in the U.S. to Android recently, according to research from Canalys. It has also struggled to keep up with cutting-edge competitors like Apple and Google. The recently released Torch, built on a new BlackBerry operating system, was meant to help BlackBerry regain its leadership position, but some reports say it hasn’t sold well.
Since Apple launched the iPad, many other hardware makers have been racing to release a competitive product. Apple sold more than 3 million iPads in the first three months it was on the market.
Nancy Gohring covers mobile phones and cloud computing for The IDG News Service. Follow Nancy on Twitter at @idgnancy. Nancy’s e-mail address is email@example.com.


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The latest lawsuit and sharpening rhetoric will fuel fears on Wall Street that Apple might drop Qualcomm's modem chips from the next iPhone, as relations between the two companies continue to deteriorate.
The report explains that Apple has already patented a technology that ensures each part of the phone's processor consumes minimum power, to essentially offer improved battery management.
The suit mainly focuses on the Snapdragon 800 and Snapdragon 820. Intel is well-positioned to become the main manufacturer of mobile chips for future iPhones if Apple and Qualcomm end up terminating their partnership.
The day began when Apple filed a counter-claim (pdf) at the US District Court for the Southern District of California.
Generally whenever Apple announces a new iPhone it also announces a new System-on-a-Chip, and this year was no different.
In other related news, WSJ earlier reported that Apple wont use Qualcomm components in its 2018 iPhone and iPad lineup.
In the amended filing on Wednesday, Apple wrote that Qualcomm asserts "weak patents that nibble at the edges of the smartphone platform and cover concepts that Apple simply does not use". While the technology was originally developed by Palm, Qualcomm purchased the company's patent portfolio in 2014.
The latter filed its patent breach case at the same time it submitted a complaint with the International Trade Commission asking to stop the import of Apple iPhones that have Intel Corp chips due to the alleged patent violations.
Apple chief executive Tim Cook has asked the company's suppliers not to pay Qualcomm any royalties until the two resolve their legal disputes.
The first complaint accused Apple of infringing USA patent numbers 8,683,362; 8,497,928; 7,844,037; and 9,203,940, relating to a range of technologies including those which allow multiple apps to run at once, camera focusing techniques and methods of responding to incoming calls and texts.
In better news for Apple, Piper Jaffray analyst Michael Olson says the iPhone X will lead to a longer "super cycle" and the company "may be increasingly well positioned to experience a strong multi-year iPhone trajectory". This would prevent the device from being sold on AT&T and T-Mobile. It means you will easily be able to get your hands on the iPhone X during the holiday shopping season.


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Boat dealer reports record sales from iboats-Generated online leads
Lewisville, Texas-based boat dealer DFW Boats reported in early April that it sold 20 boats in February as a direct result of leads from its website, www.dfwboats.com.
The company attributed this record month to its advertising agreement with iboats.com, signed in January, and said that March produced similar results.
This corresponds with what iboats.com reported was its highest traffic month.
There were over 1 million user sessions in February on the iboats network of sites and the average user stayed for 12 minutes and 15 seconds, according to the company. (See BIIOnline article iboats.com sets record in February.)
Record boat views
The boat dealer also recently hit another milestone, said iboats.com President and CEO Bruno Vassel III, on Thursday, 18 April.
On Monday, 15 April, the dealer's website received over 1,000 "boat views" defined as whenever a potential customer clicks on an individual boat that is listed within a dealer's website.
Part of their secret to success is that they had 90 boats listed on their website that day, whereas many dealers only post a handful, he explained.
iboats, inc, located in Salt Lake City, Utah is a privately-held company devoted to building the sales and profits of marine retailers. More information on iboats' dealer Web site packages, advertising opportunities and other services is available at www.iboats.com.
Bruno Vassel III


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WASHINGTON (CN) - The U.S. Postal Service cannot raise the cost of sending DVD mailers to competitive rates because Netflix and Gamefly are "captive" to the post office's services, the D.C. Circuit ruled.
Two years ago, the D.C. Circuit approved the Postal Commission's plan to end DVD-mailer discrimination - and Netflix's favored status at the U.S. Postal Service - by equalizing the postage for DVD flats and letters.
Netflix is the U.S. Postal Service's largest individual commercial mail client.
For years, the Postal Service sorted Netflix DVD mailers by hand, free of charge, while sending other companies' DVD mailers through automated processing machines.
GameFly, a video game rental service, challenged the post office's bias in court, claiming that automatic processing often damages DVDs, requiring GameFly to package their discs in heavier - and therefore more expensive - cardboard packaging.
GameFly paid 88 cents per rental to send DVDs as one-ounce, first-class flats, twice as much as it costs Netflix to mail a one-ounce, first-class letter.
The Postal Commission ended the post office's favoritism by equalizing the cost of first class letter and flat DVD rates, so any DVD mailer can use either first-class letter or flat.
While customers for Netflix's DVD-by-mail service have steadily declined since 2010 in favor of the company's streaming service, it remains highly profitable for the company - considerably more so than streaming, according to court records.
On Tuesday, the D.C. Circuit ruled against the Postal Service's efforts to raise the price of its DVD mailing services.
The appeals court ruled that the post office may not classify its round-trip DVD mailers as competitive products, rather than market-dominant products subject to a statutory price ceiling, which is the current classification.
While Netflix holds a near market monopoly in the DVD-by-mail market, its market power is irrelevant given its mandatory reliance on the post office's services, the court noted.
"It should be obvious that as long as the DVD-by-mail business is quite profitable, Netflix has no rational economic course but to pay the market-dominant piper," Judge Laurence Silberman wrote for a three-judge panel.
And while technological innovations may result in a further shift away from the use of mail in favor of streaming, "there was no evidence presented to establish at what point an increase in the price the service charged would cause Netflix and GameFly to look elsewhere for distribution."
Silberman said that Netflix and GameFly could not pass on any increase in postage price to consumers without losing them, which would put the Postal Service in "a position to extract more of the profit margin of its captive suppliers."
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The changes to protocols in cruising have come fast and furious in the past several weeks. Following the CDC’s retirement of its Covid program for cruise ships, the cruise lines have had more flexibility to implement their own protocols.
And they’ve certainly been taking advantage. All the major lines have announced an easing of vaccine protocols in most cases. In other words, if you’re unvaccinated then you are now allowed to sail once again.
Royal Caribbean joined the party about two weeks ago when it announced that passengers sailing from many ports, including those in California, Texas, and Louisiana would no longer have to be vaccinated to sail.
Notably absent from that list? Florida. This was due to country restrictions on many trips from Florida. According to Royal Caribbean’s website, the cruise line was “working with local governments in the Eastern Caribbean to align on vaccination requirements for more itineraries.”
Now, the cruise line has seemingly reached an agreement and announced a big change.
Starting September 5, unvaccinated passengers can now sail on almost any cruise from the United States, except for those that visit Bermuda or Canada.
The full list of where passengers can sail without the shot includes:
- Any cruise from a Florida home port.
- Any cruise on Oasis of the Seas from Cape Liberty.
- Any cruise from Los Angeles, California.
- Any cruise from Galveston, Texas.
- Any cruise from New Orleans, Louisiana.
- Any cruise from a European home port.
You can see all the details on Royal Caribbean’s website.
Testing Rules Also Eased Considerably
In addition to no longer requiring vaccines in many cases, Royal Caribbean has also loosened testing requirements.
First, vaccinated passengers — who already didn’t have to test on many short cruises — will no longer have to test before trips of less than 10 nights.
Unvaccinated passengers five years and older still have to test, and do so within three days of sailing.
However, Royal Caribbean now says those tests can be self-administered at-home tests as long as there is not a stop in Bermuda or Canada on the cruise:
“The test you take can be professionally administered by a health professional, such as a doctor or pharmacist, or you can use a home test kit. Home test kits for these sailings are not required to be administered under live video supervision.”
You can then show your negative result via just a picture on your phone or the cruise line says it accept the actual test itself.
In other words, if you do have to get a test before sailing from the U.S., it doesn’t have to be supervised. You can simply used a drugstore test, which are widely available.
That should make getting on a cruise ship even easier.


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GasanMamo Insurance joined other worldwide business companies to support the importance of breast awareness, education and research. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and this time the Insurance firm opted to collaborate with Toly products to support the victims of this disease.
GasanMamo purchased a makeup compact for each employee from Toly products following last year’s initiative, which resulted to be an instant success, that of launching a limited edition of blush compacts. These compacts were sold online, through selected outlets and beauty shops, and several companies bought and donated the limited-edition compacts to their employees.
This initiative forms part of the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility campaign themed “Spread the Love”, which was launched earlier this year with the sole scope to give something back to the community. Moreover, GasanMamo organised once more another dress down day for the employees and the funds collected by the staff were topped up by the management and donated to the Action for Breast Cancer Foundation. GasanMamo thoroughly supports the importance in the constant effort to communicate and increase awareness amongst Maltese men and women, while reducing the stigma of breast cancer through information and teaching campaigns on symptoms and available treatment.


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Global ID Group has announced the North American launch of HorizonScan, a Web-based information system that monitors food safety and integrity issues worldwide. HorizonScan gathers detailed reports on a daily basis from more than 70 national inspection agencies involving over 490 food commodities from 180 countries. The system offers customizable alerts on the latest incidents as well as searchable historical data going back over 15 years.
Developed by UK-based Fera Science, Ltd., HorizonScan gives food safety professionals global visibility into a wide range of incidents. Reports on contaminants such as mycotoxins, allergens, microbes, heavy metals, pesticides, veterinary drug residues, and dioxins, as well as food fraud and authenticity events are updated daily.
A hypothetical example might be a food manufacturer that is considering importing peanuts from China. A quick search in the HorizonScan database reveals there has been an upward trend in the incidence of aflatoxin contamination in Chinese peanuts during the past 3 years, including 108 documented incidents in the last 12 months alone. Armed with this knowledge the manufacturer could prepare an appropriate testing and risk management plan to control this issue. The manufacturer could also use HorizonScan’s Supplier Check function to research which suppliers have a history of reported issues.
As of July 2016, the HorizonScan online database contains over 63,000 incident records and includes 15 years of archival data. Subscribers to the service can search by commodity, type of incident, country of origin, date range, supplier, etc., and tap into a wealth of analytical data, statistics, trend line graphs and original incident reports. In addition, Fera food safety specialists provide an analytical priority/risk rating for each reported incident as well as alerts on emerging issues that could signal the beginning of new trends.
Global ID Group | GlobalHorizonScan.com


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Indian multinational conglomerate Tata Group’s holding company Tata Sons is reportedly planning to acquire a majority stake in Alibaba-backed online grocery seller BigBasket.
If the deal is approved, it will put Tata, a more than 150-year-old group with interests in everything from luxury cars to software, in direct competition with Amazon, Walmart’s Flipkart, and an upstart grocery service from Reliance Industries, backed by Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, as per the reports.
In the filing with the Competition Commission of India, Tata Digital, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons, has proposed to buy 64.3 percent of a company that runs business-to-business sales for BigBasket.
According to news reports, the group intends to buy out Chinese eCommerce giant Alibaba’s stake in BigBasket and gain ownership of more than 60 percent of the firm.
The proposal comes as eCommerce sales in India, especially for food and groceries, have exploded as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has prompted a move to online shopping. Rivals of BigBasket are expected to invest heavily in the e-grocery market.
Flipkart has revealed its plans to reach more Indian cities, while Reliance’s digital arm, which is likely to support its grocery service, has raised more than $20 billion in funding from investors including Facebook and Alphabet’s Google.
Tata Sons Private Limited is the holding company of Tata Group and holds the bulk of shareholding in the Tata group of companies including their landholdings across India, tea estates, and steel plants. Headquartered in Mumbai, It is a privately held conglomerate of approximately 100 companies that operate in a variety of industries, including chemicals, consumer goods, oil, manufacturing, information technology, materials, and services.
Related: Tesla may join forces with Tata Power for charging facilities in India: Sources


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The new sports destination will pay SportsLine.com Inc. (SPLN) $120 million to be an exclusive e-commerce partner. MVP.com also received an unspecified equity interest in the CBS SportsLine subsidiary.
MVP.com was created in partnership with Benchmark Capital, Freeman Spogli &
Co., Galyan’s Trading Company, retired John Elway, Michael Jordan and Wayne
Gretzky. SportsLine Founder and CEO Michael Levy will serve on the board of
directors of MVP.com, which includes Elway as the chairman, Jordan,
Gretzky, Benchmark partner David Beirne, Freeman Spogli partner Ron
Spogli and former Sears, Roebuck & Co. Senior Executive Vice President John
Costello, who has been appointed chief executive officer.
MVP.com will also receive $85 million in advertising, over a period of four
years from CBS Corp. in exchange for an
Scheduled to launch this January, MVP.com’s new shopping site will offer
expert advice and insight from the world’s future Hall-of-Famers in Elway,
Jordan and Gretzky, along with a huge selection of professional sports and
fitness equipment and apparel. The MVP.com advisory board will provide tips
on picking the right gear, improving performance, training, strategy and
other useful information.
Under the proposed terms of the agreement, MVP.com will acquire and assume
all responsibility for, and cost of operations of the co-branded stores
“We intend to put the same effort into this venture that we put into our
athletic careers, in hopes that it will result in great success and growth
for MVP.com,” Gretzky said. We are approaching MVP.com as a team effort,
and I very much look forward to working with John, Michael, and the rest of
the new company.”
SportsLine.com includes more than 400,000 pages of multimedia sports
information, entertainment and merchandise.
In September, SportsLine.com bought TennisDirect.com in a $770,000 stock
deal to offer consumers a line of about 10,000 tennis products in addition
to an extensive assortment of merchandise and memorabilia.


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September 12, 2007 —
Detex Corporation is pleased to announce Carl Dean, AHC, CDT of Callen & Cahill, LLC., has joined the Detex team as the National Training Manager for the Life Safety, Security Door Hardware and Integrated Door Security Systems product lines.
Carl, one of the best-known names and customer advocates in our industry, has more than a quarter of a century of broad industry experience. Carl’s focus will be training Detex customers, channel partners, and others on Life Safety Codes, Security Door Hardware, and electrified product applications.
“This is a great opportunity for our distribution network, and others, to take advantage of Carl’s wealth of knowledge; he is an outstanding training resource for Detex products, services, life safety codes and other industry matters”, says John Blodgett, President, Detex Corporation.
For more than a century, Detex has earned the trust of architects and owners who rely on Detex products for the safety and security of people and property. A USA company, Detex designs, manufactures, markets and ships products around the world from New Braunfels, Texas. Detex is known internationally for life safety and security door hardware, loss prevention and architectural hardware, integrated door security systems and guard tour verification.
For more information, visit www.detex.com or email email@example.com.


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For the well-heeled tourist, the thought of sweating it out at a roadside stall eating food off paper plates may not be a savoury one, but often, it is such simple fare that bring out the best of a country’s flavour.
Affectionately termed “comfort” food by K.F. Seetoh, founder of Makansutra, the ubiquitous street food differs from country to country, and this uniqueness has made such cuisine become an integral part of national identity and heritage.
“Many years ago, it was ‘desperate food’ — people had no choice but to bring their heritage and take it out to the street in exchange for money. From desperation it became a culture,” explained Seetoh during a media exchange at the recently concluded World Street Food Congress.
The inaugural event, aimed at promoting and recognising the cultural value of hawker fare, was held in Singapore from 31st May to 9th June 2013. Organised by Makansutra, it comprised The World Street Food Dialogue, a two-day conference featuring talks by famous culinary experts and The World Street Food Jamboree, a 10-day food carnival with more than 35 of the best street food stalls from all over the world. Makansutra is a Singapore-based organisation that seeks to promote food culture in Southeast Asia.
Intertwine of food and culture
Indeed, street food’s inseparable relationship with culture is evident with the inclusion of French cuisine in UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list back in 2010. Closer to home, the governments of Malaysia and Singapore have in recent years been embroiled in a war of words over the ownership of ‘local’ dishes such as laksa (rice vermicelli in spicy broth typically served with cockles, fishcake, hard-boiled egg and beansprouts) and nasi lemak (rice cooked in coconut milk accompanied by items such as kuning fish and thinly fried egg).
Just like how UNESCO World Heritage sites have special cultural significance, street food can be said to bear the authentic flavours of culture.
Driving home this point was Claus Meyer, co-founder of Copenhagen’s Noma, world’s best restaurant for three consecutive years, who pointed out the lack of street offerings in the region where he hails from is a case for concern.
“It is very sad that in Scandinavia we have almost no street food…the only real street food is the hot dog stall. It is run like a monopoly…they use the same sausages made by industrial kitchens,” lamented Meyer.
From improvised ingredients to hailed hits
Many of the street stalls featured at the Jamboree started out as a means of livelihood for their owners, and have a long history behind them. Some iconic street delicacies dished out over the 10 days included chuoi nuong (banana sticky rice) from Vietnam, bao luo fen (rice noodles) from the seaside town of San Ya in China, and roast pork sandwich from Denmark.
Niphone Ittimonchai, the owner of the Hoy Tod Chao Lay stall selling hoy tod (crispy oyster omelette), has operated along the busy streets of Bangkok for 40 years — long enough to see the unassuming city grow into the busy metropolitan of today.
Similarly, Sabina Bandera Gonzalez and her family have been delighting the taste buds of patrons to La Guerrerense, her humble food cart in Mexico, for 37 years with her seafood tostadas (corn tortilla).
While a street stall may not offer the same level of comfort as compared to a luxurious, air-conditioned restaurant, this does not mean the food is less palatable.
In fact, La Guerrerense is touted as one of the “101 best places to eat in the world” by CNN and has been given the thumbs-up by many renowned chefs and food critics.
Even for stalls who may not have garnered awards, partly due to the general lack of recognition for street food, their popularity among the locals back home bear testament to the food’s excellence.
“In Portland, you can get (an) amazing pasta dish that rivals some of the best Italian pasta in the city…I think (street food) is what people will eat, what people will like,” said Brett Burmeister, co-owner of Food Carts Portland.
Perhaps it is time tourists who truly wish to experience a country venture out of fine dining indulgence to sample the hidden gems on the street. After all, Noma’s Meyer stressed that the street class of food is the real deal.
“(Street food) is food without bullshit,” he said “It’s food without pretension, calculation, manipulation, branding and consideration.
“If restaurant food is a conversation, then street food is sex.”


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According to a survey by the National Retail Federation, more than 175 million people will celebrate Halloween this year ... and nearly 20 percent of those people plan to dress up their pets – up from 16 percent last year. The cost for all those pet outfits? $480 million. According to the survey, Millennials are most likely to put costumes on their pets.
Here are the most popular pet costumes:
- Pumpkin -- 11.2%
- Hot dog -- 7.4%
- Bumble bee -- 4.9%
- Devil -- 3.2%
- Cat -- 3.1%
- Dog -- 3.1%
- Lion -- 2.9%
- Star Wars character -- 2.8%
- Super hero -- 2.7%
- Ghost -- 2.5%
And for you more adventurous pet owners, here are some really creative looks for your pets...
Oh my gosh! Those are so good! I can't help wonder how much our pets actually enjoy sporting these um, creative looks though! 🤣
Share your pet costume here! Pics are Cute Pet Pics are ALWAYS WELCOME!


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French marque Citroen has released a teaser image of the China-bound DS X7 SUV set to be unveiled this month at Beijing Motor Show.
French marque Citroën has released a teaser image of the China-bound DS X7 SUV set to be unveiled this month at Beijing Motor Show.
Previewed last year by the Wild Rubis concept, Citroën is just about ready to introduce the DS X7 created specifically for the Chinese market. The SUV promises to "marry power and refinement" and will reportedly be available with a 1.6-liter 4-cylinder turbocharged engine offered with 200 bhp (149 kW) and 275 Nm (202 lb-ft) as well as in a 163 bhp (121 kW) and 240 Nm (177 lb-ft) configuration. There should also be a naturally-aspirated 1.8-liter rated at 139 bhp (103 kW) and 170 Nm (125 lb-ft).
Production of the DS X7 will be done in China by the Changan-PSA joint venture and the model will have a starting price of around 160,000 yuan (25,800 USD) which will go up to 200,000 yuan (32,200 USD) for the fully-loaded model. It will ride on the same platform used for the DS5 and DS 5LS which are both manufactured in China.
Also at the 2014 Beijing Motor Show, Citroën will unveil a hardcore DS 5LS R powered by a 300 bhp 1.6-liter four-cylinder turbo engine.


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NEWINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) announced that Newington-based PCX Aerostructures is this week’s “Murphy’s Monday Manufacturer.” PCX is a manufacturer and supplier of precision, flight-critical aerospace components and assemblies, such as airframes, engines, landing gear, and rotorheads for both helicopter and fixed wing aerospace platforms. PCX traces its history back to 1900, when the manufacturing company was founded out of a small machine shop in Hartford. Since then, PCX has grown into a globally-recognized manufacturer that serves customers in the power generation, and military and commercial aerospace industries. With the help of over 150 dedicated Connecticut-based employees, PCX has manufactured components found on various Airbus, Bell Helicopter, Boeing, Sikorsky, Gulfstream, Lockheed Martin, and Northrup Grumman aerostructures. In addition to their Newington headquarters, PCX operates facilities in New York and Texas.
Since 2011, employment at PCX’s Newington facility has grown by 16%, and the company’s overall revenues have increased by nearly 30%. The manufacturer expects to see their $102 million in annual revenue grow as they negotiate several new contract opportunities for the next generation of Boeing and Airbus aircraft. Additionally, PCX has represented Connecticut at the International Air Show since 2008.
Murphy said, “For 115 years, PCX has stayed relevant through changing markets thanks to its commitment to quality and innovation. PCX offers internships to engineering students at local community colleges and has hired a growing number of new employees – including multiple interns from CCSU. PCX has grown into a mainstay of Connecticut manufacturing and I’m proud to work hard on their behalf.”
Trevor Hartman, Vice President of Sales & Marketing at PCX Aerostructures, said, “Being located in Connecticut plays an important part of PCX’s strategy to win new work. The comprehensive machining capability within PCX is further enhanced by the aerospace supply chain available locally. We leverage the fact that virtually all processes required to manufacture our products can be sourced within this region.”
The manufacturing industry plays a crucial role throughout Connecticut communities, creating new jobs and accelerating our state’s economic recovery. Today, Connecticut’s 4,602 manufacturers account for 10.2% of the state’s jobs and 87% of the state’s total exports. In order to protect and grow manufacturing jobs in Connecticut, Murphy has introduced two pieces of legislation that aim to strengthen existing standards and prioritize the purchase of American-made goods, the 21st Century Buy American Act and the American Jobs Matter Act.


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“The year 2020 was like a tsunami,” said Senthil, a truck owner in Tamil Nadu’s Namakkal, one of India’s largest trucking hubs. His words summarise the industry’s bumpy ride in 2020 as the pandemic turned the sector upside down. However, as the industry bounced back in 4-5 months, the truckers had many takeaways from the crisis.
Typically, the truck industry is the first to be hit when there is a recession or any major disturbance in the economy. The pandemic that started in March was no exception and brought over 10 million trucks to a screeching halt — paralysing cargo movement completely.
As the pandemic spread, drivers fearful of getting infected, abandoned trucks on the highways and fled to their home towns. This left vehicle owners bleeding. While their trucks were parked for days without any business, they continued to pay their equated monthly instalments (EMIs).
As the Covid-19 restrictions were eased in phases, trucks were back on the highways. But, even eight months after the pandemic was declared, 10-15 per cent of the trucks were still idle, said P Sundarraj, MD, Subham Freight Carriers India Ltd based in Tiruchirapalli. The situation, however, has improved “considerably”, he added.
Anjani Mandal, CEO, Fortigo Logistics, said that in 2020 if there was a tornado that could hit all at the same time, it was the pandemic.
For most of the trucking industry, however, it had started from the beginning of the year itself. The industry had already been negatively impacted because of a combination of factors such as the slump in the auto industry, fall in demand of goods being transported, cyclones and heavy rain.
What did the trucking industry learn from the pandemic?
Sundarraj, who has been in the industry for nearly three decades, said: “We have not seen a situation like this before, but we managed to survive. In the future, it will be easy for us to handle a similar situation as we learnt a lot from the crisis.”
For example, he said, a contingency fund should be created to handle such a crisis. Loan liability of any business should not be more than 60 per cent of the total investment. Monthly repayment should not exceed 50 per cent of total earnings. More important, vehicles should be maintained well as a crisis could mean non-availability of spares and workshops.
Those in the business should not panic in a crisis, when drivers leave vehicles on the highways and employees are unable to reach warehouses that hold goods worth crores of rupees. However, maintaining a good relationship with spare part sellers, petrol bunk owners, local associations and ‘dhabas’ will help, for vehicles can be left under their custody during emergencies, he said.
Mandal of Fortigo Logistics said a key takeaway from 2020 was that those who survived the pandemic had already invested in digital technology, had a profitable business model and managed their collection cycles well.
The transport industry will move to the new-normal characterised by some consolidation; rationalised assets in terms of the number of trucks; rationalised pricing for customers; and exiting of several unorganised players that were over-leveraged and were barely surviving in pre-Covid-19 times too.
Ramesh Agarwal, Chairman, Agarwal Packers and Movers Ltd (APML), said during the pandemic only innovators could survive in the market, and APML and other organised companies would benefit from this change.
Overall, 2021 will be digital. Productivity, efficiency and digital technology deployment with a rationalised profit and cash-flow model are the only solutions for the industry as a whole.


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Manchester United Reportedly Signs $1 Billion Licensing Deal With Nike
Over the weekend the U.K.'s Daily Mirror reported that Manchester United would renew its licensing deal with Nike for £600 million ($1 billion) over 10 years. This would more than double the British soccer team's current deal with the athletic-apparel maker and would be the highest amount paid for an exclusive licensing agreement. Read on to find out more.
Manchester United and Nike are in the 12th year of a 13-year, £305 million ($507 million) guaranteed aggregate minimum exclusive sponsorship and licensing agreement that covers all retail, merchandising, apparel, and product licensing. The current £23.5 million ($39 million) a year deal ends at the end of the 2014/2015 Premier League season. Manchester United's deal has long since been passed in size by Real Madrid, Barcelona, Liverpool, and Arsenal. For reference, Arsenal's deal signed in January with Puma is for a reported five years and £150 million ($250 million), or £30 million ($50 million) a year.
Manchester United has been negotiating a new deal for the start of the 2015/2016 season. Assuming the Daily Mirror report is correct, the team would receive £60 million a year ($100 million) from Nike.
This adds to Manchester United's sizable sponsorship deals which will include the controversial $559 million, (£336 million) seven-year General Motors Chevy sponsorship that starts next year. General Motors believes it overpaid for the global exposure that Manchester United provides and last summer ousted Chief Marketing Officer Joel Ewanick as a result. The deal looks even worse after GM announced in December that it would stop selling Chevys in Europe after 2015. An image that appeared online over the weekend supposedly shows the team's 2014/2015 jersey with the Chevy logo, though its authenticity has not yet been confirmed.
Both deals show that sponsors are willing to pay huge amounts of money for the exposure that the most popular teams in the world provide. While I find the business of soccer fascinating, I wouldn't touch Manchester United's stock with a 10-foot pole. The Premier League is flooded with seemingly endless money from deep-pocketed owners, but financial results can vary significantly depending on the team's performance. Manchester United has a lot of debt, and is majority controlled by the Glazer family.
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The article Manchester United Reportedly Signs $1 Billion Licensing Deal With Nike originally appeared on Fool.com.Dan Dzombakcan be found on Twitter @DanDzombakor on his Facebook page,DanDzombak. Hehas no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends General Motors and Nike. The Motley Fool owns shares of Nike. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Copyright © 1995 - 2014 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.


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22 Feb The Steven Vandorol Saga all started with El Paso Sunrise and now continues this winter in El Paso Sunset…
IT’S BEEN A BAD NEWS – BUT NOW GOOD NEWS WINTER…
FIRST, THE BAD NEWS:
Most unfortunately, the First Special LIVE WINTER Sale/Signing Event previously scheduled for Saturday, January 29th, 2022, at Gardner’s Used Books & Comics, HAD TO BE CANCELLED due to my publisher’s inability to fulfill an after Christmas book order for both my Barnes & Noble regional BESTSELLERS El Paso Sunrise, a Novel, published in 2019, and the Continuation Novel, El Paso Sunset, launched and published worldwide on April 13th, 2021 — all due severe winter storm inclement weather in the Nashville printing facility area, that was compounded by Covid/Omicron issues and distribution problems due to Federal interstate Covid trucking restrictions!! But all that’s over…
NOW FOR THE GOOD NEWS:
By popular local Tulsa demand, and most fortunately, the First Special LIVE WINTER Sale/Signing Event was rescheduled for Saturday, February 26th, 2022, at Gardner’s Used Books & Comics,
4421 South Mingo Road, Tulsa, Oklahoma, starting at 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM closing, where El Paso Sunrise, a Novel, AND the Continuation Novel, El Paso Sunset, will BOTH again be available for author signing and sale!!!!
AND NOW FOR THE REALLY GOOD NEWS:
Due to continuing Tulsa interest in my two novels, the good folks at Gardner’s Used Books & Comics, have scheduled Sale/Signings for these two novels for the last Saturday of EACH MONTH of this year – March through December of this entire year, 2022!! See my website: www.LouisBodnar.com for details.
My readers and I would give a very special thank you to the owners and managers of Gardner’s Books & Comics for their courage to continue live book sale/signings, when no other book venues in Tulsa County would have them!
As my readers well know, The TEXAS Lone Star Literary Life Virtual Book Blog Tour, that started on Tuesday, June 22nd and ended July 4th, 2021 @: https://www.lonestarliterary.com for both my books was a tremendous success in Texas and in a regional five-state market area!! See the Tour Summary: https://www.lonestarliterary.com/content/el-paso-books-louis-bodnar
Just letting ALL my friends and readers know that my continuation novel, El Paso Sunset, released worldwide on April 13th, and El Paso Sunrise, a Novel, previously published in 2019, are BOTH STILL AVAILABLE RIGHT NOW just by visiting my website: www.LouisBodnar.com where you can learn about all my books, (and the prequel, Before the Sunrise, a Novel & the sequel, After the Sunset) and buy BOTH my new books for one special low price! All copies purchased will be signed and mailed, postage free!
TO ALL MY READERS, WE WISH A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!


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Dubai Holding has unveiled plans to build the world’s first temperature-controlled city, Mall of the World, located along Sheikh Zayed Road.
Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum launched the spectacular development, which will occupy a total area of 48 million square feet and will house the largest shopping mall in the world with an area of 8 million sq ft.
The mall will take the form of an extended retail street network, which developers say will be different to the typical shopping mall concept currently available in Dubai.
The project will comprise the largest indoor theme park in the world, which will be covered by a glass dome that will be open during the winter months
Additional districts within the project will include a wellness dedicated zone catering to medical tourists, a cultural celebration district as well as a wide range of hospitality options comprising 20,000 hotel rooms catering to all types of tourists.
Once completed, the city is projected to become a year-round destination, welcoming around 180 million visitors annually.
Tourists will be able to enjoy a week-long stay without the need to leave the city or use a car. The 7km long promenades connecting all facilities will be covered during the summer and open during the winter, ensuring pleasant temperatures throughout the year.
The project will see the addition of 100 hotels and serviced apartments building, as well as designated parking areas with a capacity to host up to 50,000 cars on the ground level.
Commenting on the new project, Sheikh Mohammed said, "The growth in family and retail tourism underpins the need to enhance Dubai’s tourism infrastructure as soon as possible.
“This project complements our plans to transform Dubai into a cultural, tourist and economic hub for the two billion people living in the region around us, and we are determined to achieve our vision."
Mohammed Abdullah Al Gergawi, chairman of Dubai Holding, said the project is the result of extensive research and studies of international regional tourists’ requirements and preferences.
The new project will incorporate Dubai Cultural District, which will be the hub for national and multinational cultural festivities and events in UAE.
The Celebration Walk, similar to the Ramblas Street in Barcelona, will connect the cultural district to the rest of the mall.
Another component of Mall of the World is the Wellness District, which will cover a total area of 3 million sq ft. dedicated to providing wellness and rejuvenation services.


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n VALIC marked up the investment to $108 per share as of May 2016, up from $98 in February this year
In a respite of sorts for e-commerce company Flipkart, American mutual fund Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company (VALIC) has marked up its shares by 10%.
According to a regulatory filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), VALIC marked up the investment to $108 per share as of May 2016, up from $98 in February this year. However, in February 2015, Valic had valued its shares at $119 apiece.
This is the second mark-up for Flipkart this quarter — following another mutual fund investor Fidelity Rutland Square Trust II, raising its valuation by 2.7% to $84.29 per share in May, from $82 per share in February.
However several of Flipkart’s other investors such as Morgan Stanley, T Rowe Price and Vanguard had reduced the e-tailer’s valuation over the last six-to-seven months. Both Fidelity and Valic had marked down the shares of Flipkart by about 32% and 17.5%, respectively, from last year’s levels in February this year.
In FY15, Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal together incurred losses of R5,000 crore, up five-fold over FY14 losses of R1,100 crore. Losses for FY16 are expected to be even higher. Flipkart has seen a couple of top-level exits in recent times with Mukesh Bansal, head of commerce, and Ankit Nagori, chief business officer, exiting the company.
Data received from app analytics firm, which did not wish be quoted indicated that while Amazon India was adding customers at the rate of a million a month in the first six months of 2016, Flipkart was losing them even faster. In the six months to June, Amazon attracted 6 million of what are called active users on its mobile app segment. According to Similarweb and Alexa data, Amazon India continued to be a leading desktop website as compared to other e-commerce players.
In its effort to take on Amazon Prime, Flipkart recently launched its very own content programme, called Content-2-Commerce and has partnered with several online content creators including The Viral Fever (TVF), Scoop Whoop, FilmFare – an English bi-weekly tabloid magazine, PING – a multi channel network on Google, among others.
E-retailers in India have been reporting losses in an attempt to attract buyers with large discounts. In the latest guidelines, however, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion has barred marketplaces (with foreign direct investment) from influencing the price of the merchandise.


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Go to Admin » Appearance » Widgets » and move Gabfire Widget: Social into that MastheadOverlay zone
This Saturday, Sept. 20, thousands of Vail Resorts, Inc. employees will gather to complete 13 trail, habitat or school restoration projects across the U.S. and in Jamaica to commemorate Vail Resorts’ newly launched EpicPromise, a new brand platform designed to engage resort guests and residents of the communities where it operates in one of the company’s core values, “Do good.”
EpicPromise will highlight this already strong commitment and expand it to engage the millions of guests the company hosts each year as stewards of the natural environment and local communities.
“The mission of our business is to provide experiences of a lifetime in the great outdoors,” said Rob Katz, chairman and CEO for Vail Resorts. “We have a special responsibility to preserve and protect the iconic landscapes which frame our mountain resorts, and help strengthen our local communities. We have implemented many sustainable practices at our company for years, and now we have the opportunity to inspire others to follow our lead. EpicPromise is how we will work together to create a more promising future for generations to come.”
Capitalizing on Vail Resorts’ Epic brand, EpicPromise will become an integrated part of the guest experience from its dedicated website, EpicPromise.com, to Ski and Ride School, to on-mountain educational signage. Through these actions, Vail Resorts hopes to inspire every guest to identify a personal sustainability commitment and take action.
“The launch of EpicPromise is just the first step as we look forward to implementing new programs and efforts in the coming months that build on our sustainability leadership,” said Beth Ganz, vice-president of public affairs and sustainability. “From our commitment to sustainable operations to inspiring our guests to make their own impact, we want to be a company known for taking action.”
For more information about EpicPromise and Vail Resorts commitment to sustainability, visit www.EpicPromise.com.


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THORChain’s native RUNE token has rallied 35% following the restart of Ethereum buying and selling on the protocol.
THORChain Rallies on Ethereum Restart
THORChain is again on Ethereum.
The protocol’s native RUNE token rallied 35% Thursday after buying and selling interoperability with the Ethereum community was re-enabled. While the rally has since cooled off, RUNE continues to be buying and selling up over 27%.
Users can as soon as once more commerce native Ethereum and ERC-20 tokens via THORChain. However, these wishing to offer liquidity for Ethereum pairs might want to watch for the treasury to rebalance swimming pools earlier than doing so.
Trading on the THORSwap change has greater than tripled following the restart, hitting $43 million, the highest every day quantity ever recorded. The protocol seems to be operating at full steam, with over $22 million in buying and selling quantity on the Binance USD pool, regardless of solely containing $15 million of liquidity.
THORChain is a liquidity protocol that facilitates cross-chain buying and selling between networks. Users can hook up with exchanges constructed on the protocol, equivalent to THORSwap, to instantly swap property like Bitcoin for tokens on different blockchains with out going via a centralized change.
THORChain halted buying and selling on the Ethereum community in July after a sequence of hacks price customers a mixed $13 million. The chain’s native RUNE token was hit arduous, falling greater than 82% from all-time highs. While the RUNE token has since recovered, it has been unable to retest the highs achieved in May.
Now that buying and selling has been re-enabled with the Ethereum community, THORChain is again at full operational capability. Users can now commerce property between all 5 supported blockchains: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Binance Chain, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash.
The THORChain staff have additionally introduced plans to combine extra chains sooner or later, permitting customers to change property equivalent to Dogecoin, Monero, and Dash via the protocol.
Disclaimer: At the time of penning this characteristic, the creator owned BTC, ETH, and a number of other different cryptocurrencies.
DeFi Exchange THORSwap Closes $3.75M Token Sale
THORSwap, the multi-chain liquidity platform on THORChain, has raised $3.75 million in a private token sale. THORSwap Closes Private Token Sale THORSwap, a decentralized exchange for swapping tokens across a…
What is Rarible: A DAO for NFTs
What was once dismissed as a silly and expensive sector, NFTs give creators access to global markets in a way that’s never been possible before, and it’s all thanks to blockchain.Those familiar…
THORChain Shakes Off Recent Attacks with 39% Rally
THORChain has suffered a wave of attacks over the last few weeks, but RUNE is showing signs of recovery. THORChain Makes Major Rally THORChain is soaring. The project’s RUNE token…


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The BBC has confirmed that there is indeed an iPlayer app on its way for the iPad, and along with it an Android app too.
In a blog post, Daniel Danker of the BBC said about recent rumours: "Having stuck our toe in the water last year with the iPad, this new native app is a significant improvement on the existing experience and it's great to be on the Android platform too.
"Our intention is to be on as many devices and platforms as possible."
As for the release date of both apps, Danker said: "We're just applying the finishing touches to the apps as we speak, and all things being well we plan to have Android and iPad apps in stores by the end of the week."
He also noted: "This is about getting the basics right, simple apps that makes best use of the portable touch-screen experience.
"We'll be looking to build in more features throughout the year."
When it comes to Android, it will only be users who have Android 2.2 that can use the app - as is the case viewing it through a browser on Android phones - which will be a disappointment to many.
There are reasons for this, though, as Danker explains: "For iPad it's straightforward, but for technical reasons we can't bring the app to every single Android device.
"To download and use the app you'll need a device that uses Android version 2.2 and has Adobe Flash 10.1 Player installed.
"Our Flash streams need a powerful mobile phone processor and a Wi-Fi connection to ensure a smooth viewing experience, which means that only newer, more powerful Android 2.2 devices connected via Wi-Fi can support the Flash 10.1 streaming experience."
So there you have it – iPad and Android 2.2 users will be able to watch the iPlayer in app form before the week is out.


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In a revolutionary move away from paper money, the Bank of England has announced the introduction of the UK’s new polymer £5 note. The new fiver will be issued from 13th September 2016 onwards, and will be printed on a flexible plastic material.
The new design will feature Sir Winston Churchill, and is expected to provide a much more robust form of legal tender. The polymer notes are cleaner, stronger and most importantly, harder to counterfeit than the classic paper money the UK has used until now. The more durable material is expected to last up to 2.5 times longer than paper notes.
What will the new £5 note look like?
The design of the new notes will not deviate hugely from the current look, and it will retain the same green-blue hues that we associate with the £5 note. The new material can withstand a longer period of time in circulation, and all the folding, scrunching up and washing machine cycles that involves.
The environmental impact of our money is also reduced through the introduction of the new notes. Polymer notes which last longer mean that fewer need to be printed, so less energy is used in manufacture and transport. Polymer notes will then be recycled once they reach the end of their life cycle.
A video released by the Bank of England gives a good idea of what we can expect from the new fiver: Furthermore, you can explore the note in 360 degrees.
If you’ve travelled to Australia, or more recently Canada, you will already have an idea of how ‘plastic money’ feels.
Security features of the new fiver
One major benefit of the move to polymer notes is the enhanced security features they can offer:
- The new fiver will have a transparent window featuring a portrait of the Queen. The border of this window changes from purple to green.
- A crown hologram will switch between a 3D appearance and a multi-coloured appearance when tilted.
- On the front of the note, Big Ben will appear in gold, whereas on the back it is silver.
- Tilting the new note will make the word ‘five’ transform into the word ‘pounds’.
- The text ‘Bank of England’ is printed in raised ink.
- Beneath the Queen’s portrait, there will be minute lettering that is only visible with a microscope.
- A further link to Churchill is provided by a green foil hologram of the maze at his birthplace, Blenheim Palace.
Bells & Whistles
In the switch to a more modern currency format, the new tender is designed with the needs of all consumers in mind. In order to aid people who are visually-impaired, when the polymer £10 and £20 are eventually introduced at a later date, they will feature tactile, raised dots. The new £5 note will be identifiable by the absence of the dots.
Can I still use the old paper £5 notes?
The current paper £5 notes will be steadily withdrawn from circulation once the new fiver has been issued in September. Paper £5 notes will still be legal tender until May 2017, and thereafter will have to be exchanged for polymer notes at the Bank of England.
Subsequently, the new £10 note, which will feature Jane Austen, will be introduced in Summer 2017, with the new £20 to follow by 2020.


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The next five years is likely to see a significant shift from product-led delivery of IT to services-based IT delivery, forcing many leading technology vendors to change the way they operate and market...
Hynix warning over smartphone sales slowdown indicates end of memory-chip price spike
Twitter claims Kaspersky's business model 'inherently conflicts with acceptable Twitter Ads business practice'
Commission concerned that Apple could 'turn off' Shazam referrals to rivals
Teradata Universe is the company's largest European event


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Time Out! If You Didn't Know PC Sales Were Horrible, Then You Haven't Been Paying Attention
IDC announced awful PC industry statistics yesterday, but they should not be a surprise.
Connect the dots,
La la la la
-- Pee Wee Herman
Yesterday afternoon, market research firm IDC dropped a bomb by announcing that first-quarter PC industry unit sales fell a whopping 13.9% year-over-year.
That's bad enough to mark the worst quarterly performance since IDC started tracking the industry in 1994.
This news was surprising!
Or was it?
Because when I look back at the industry since the release of Windows 8 in October of 2012, I see nothing but bad news and worse statistics.
So riddle me this -- can you name a single positive data point regarding PC industry sales in recent memory?
See any companies guide up because of PC demand?
Any retailers unable to keep computers in stock?
Is anyone selling a kidney for a Windows 8 PC?
And then look at the negative side.
I went on to point out the following:
Last week, PC industry bulls were hit with a major shock after NPD released some critical data regarding the reception to Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows 8 following its October 26 release.
According to NPD, US Windows Device Sales fell 21% year-over-year during the initial four-week sales period. Notebook sales dropped a whopping 24%, while desktops decreased by 9%.
And during this period, just 58% of Windows buyers opted for Windows 8. The last time around, Windows 7 accounted for 83% of sales.
And how did PC sales actually shake out in Q4 of 2012?
In Q3 of that year, the quarter preceding the Windows 7 release, PC sales rose 0.5%, according to Gartner. But in Q4, PC sales rocketed up 22%. A major factor in that improvement was the easy year-over-year comparison (Q4 of 2008 was disastrous for PCs), but still -- 22% unit growth isn't bad for a relatively mature market.
IDC said they were down 6.4%.-- versus up 15.2% in Q4 of 2009 when Windows 7 was released.
Gartner said they were down 4.9% -- versus up 22% for the Windows 7 release quarter.
And again, these were on very easy year-over-year comparisons. So not only was there a new operating system, but the growth hurdle was extraordinarily low.
But wait! There's more.
On March 18, 2013 our good friends at IDC told us that PC shipments were weak in February.
Take it from them:
"Based on our latest quarterly figures, global PC shipments were expected to decline by 7.7% in the first quarter as vendors and the supply chain work through the Windows 8 transition," said Loren Loverde, Program Vice President, Worldwide PC Trackers at IDC. "However, our February monthly data suggest that we could see a drop touching double-digits in the first quarter and a mid-single-digit decline in the second quarter before we see any recovery in the second half of the year. Even getting to positive growth in the second half of 2013 will take some attractive new PC designs and more competitive pricing relative to tablets and other products."
So yes, Q1 was disappointing, but no one should be surprised at that based on the enormous wealth of readily available information that indicated that PC sales were horrendous.So please folks, ignore the sensationalist headlines that imply that the drop in PC demand is some kind of shocker.
In fact, I may be going long Microsoft in the near future simply because people actually seem freaked out about this well-telegraphed "disaster."
Now, let's talk about why.
PCs are facing two big problems.
The first is the mobile device boom, which includes tablets like the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPad and Google (GOOG:NASDAQ) Android devices, as well as alt-notebook devices like Chromebooks.
(See: The PC Isn't Dead, It's Just Gone 'Ultramobile')
These devices are functional enough to handle most people's modern computing needs such as using Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) or watching movies on Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX).
These devices are also relatively cheap compared to decent laptops, and they're new. New is fun. New is sexy. New is worth talking about. new is worth spending money on.
And then there's the other elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about: "toasterization" (see: My Apple iMac Is Starting to Look Like a Toaster), which is my semi-nonsensical way of saying that PCs are now basically household appliances with zero sex appeal.
Twenty-five years ago, people who bought computers were specifically interested in the computers themselves. That audience was excited for every technological development in the industry and was pumped to upgrade.
But now PCs are mass market and function mostly as conduits to access what the general public really values (Facebook, Spotify, Twitter, Gmail, etc); they're the equivalent of basic household appliances.
Who needs a fancy computer these days? I'd say people doing graphic design, video editing, heavy gaming, stuff like that.
For everyone else, a computer just has to turn on and have a functioning Internet connection.
So why buy a new one?
Follow the markets all day every day with a FREE 14 day trial to Buzz & Banter. Over 30 professional traders share their ideas in real-time. Learn more.
Copyright 2011 Minyanville Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Daily Recap Newsletter


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VERNON, N.Y. — Friday the 13th turned out to be a very lucky day for an upstate New York man who bought a $5 scratch-off lottery ticket last month.
The ticket was worth $1 million to Hung Tran, who bought it Jan. 13 at a supermarket in Utica.
State lottery officials presented him with an oversized $1 million check on Tuesday at the racino in nearby Vernon.
The 59-year-old Vietnamese immigrant says he always stops at the same Hannaford supermarket after work to get a lottery ticket. He says he picked a game called 20X The Money because it was new.
Tran says he scratched off the ticket while still in the store and realized he had won.
He'll receive 20 annual checks of $33,000, after taxes. Tran says he plans on sending some of the money to family in Vietnam.—Copyright 2012 Associated Press


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The market went on a wild ride during the last week of January. The week began with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq jumping to new records. Stocks then tumbled on Wednesday, in a move that was likely fueled by profit taking, as investors and Wall Street try to digest the very public short squeezes at GameStop and elsewhere.
All three major U.S. indexes fell nearly 2% during regular trading Friday, with the benchmark index now close to where it began 2021. That said, the recent pullback is likely healthy for a market that had soared since early November on vaccine positivity and the hope for more coronavirus stimulus under the Biden administration.
The winter has been rough amid renewed coronavirus restrictions, with consumer spending down 0.2% in December. More broadly, U.S. GDP fell by 3.5% in 2020, and there is angst on the vaccine rollout front.
The market-based concerns should not be taken lightly and there is no guarantee that people are able to get back to their normal lives by the summer. Nonetheless, many signs point to positivity. First, the U.S. economy is projected to climb by over 4% in 2021 and U.S. households have been saving during the pandemic, which has created a ton of pent-up demand.
The Fed is also committed to keeping its interest rate near zero and the earnings outlook has continued to improve. In fact, while so much attention was devoted to GME, AMC, and other stocks, tech heavyweights and others posted blowout results.
There could certainly be more near-term selling as investors take profits. But it’s worth stressing that pullbacks and even corrections are healthy and necessary aspects of the market. And investors with long-term horizons shouldn’t necessarily try to time the market as it can prevent one from taking part in the biggest gains.
This brings us to today’s topic: blue chip technology stocks that posted strong earnings and are ready to grow even in the toughest economic conditions…
Netflix ( NFLX Quick Quote NFLX - Free Report)
At-home entertainment drove Netflix's world-beating 10-year run in the 2010s. This past year, streaming TV was one of the only games in town as movie theaters closed and people were forced to stay at home.
These conditions helped NFLX add a record 36.5 million paid subscribers in 2020, which blew away its average of about 23 million over the past five years. The company also ended the year to a standing ovation, after it added 8.5 million users in Q4—40% above its estimate—to close the year with 204 million subscribers.
NFLX shares soared after its Q4 release on Jan. 19 wowed Wall Street. Along with its impressive subscriber additions, which have historically driven the stock, the company projected it would post break-even free-cash-flow in 2021, instead of its last projection that called for burning as much as $1 billion.
Netflix had taken on a large amount of debt over the last several years in order to produce the content needed to thrive in an increasingly crowded space. And investors cheered the fact that NFLX said it thinks it no longer needs to “raise external financing for our day-to-day operations.”
Netflix has also proven it pays to be first, as it has continued to grow despite competition from Disney+ (
DIS Quick Quote DIS - Free Report) , Apple TV+ ( AAPL Quick Quote AAPL - Free Report) , HBO Max ( T Quick Quote T - Free Report) , and others. There is also room to grow as it expands its reach outside of the U.S. and more people disconnect from legacy media. And unlike Spotify ( SPOT Quick Quote SPOT - Free Report) vs. Apple Music, the industry is not a zero-sum game, since the streaming TV platforms offer, for the most part, vastly different content libraries.
Zacks estimates call for NFLX’s revenue to climb over 19% to hit nearly $30 billion in FY21 to help lift its adjusted earnings by 58%. The company’s bottom-line outlook has jumped since its report to see Netflix grab a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), alongside an “A” grade for Momentum. Elsewhere, 20 of 27 brokerage recommendations that Zacks has for NFLX come in at “Strong Buy,” with none below a “Hold.”
NFLX shares have jumped 55% in the past 12 months, but have cooled off recently, up just 13% in the last three months to lag the S&P 500. The stock has already given up a large chunk of its post-earnings gains to rest 10% off its recent records. Netflix is also trading at 7.8X forward sales. This marks a discount to its own highs and strong value compared to one of the only other pure-play streaming stocks, Roku’s (
ROKU Quick Quote ROKU - Free Report) 20.9X, as well as Microsoft’s 10.9X.
Microsoft ( MSFT Quick Quote MSFT - Free Report)
Speaking of Microsoft, it crushed our EPS estimates by 24% on Jan. 26 as it continues to flex its cloud muscles. MSFT’s Q2 FY21 revenue jumped 17% to blow by our 9% growth projection. The company’s commercial cloud revenue surged 34% to $16.7 billion, or 39% of total sales.
MSFT's ability to expand its cloud business alongside Amazon (
AMZN Quick Quote AMZN - Free Report) over the last several years has dramatically changed the historic tech firm’s outlook, as the world becomes overrun with data. “What we have witnessed over the past year is the dawn of a second wave of digital transformation sweeping every company and every industry,” CEO Satya Nadella said in prepared remarks.
Microsoft has never been more influential and diversified and cloud now plays a role across the entire company. This includes its Office offerings, its Xbox-heavy gaming unit, its remote work products that compete against Zoom (
ZM Quick Quote ZM - Free Report) , and elsewhere.
All three of its core businesses climbed by over 13% last quarter. And it closed Q2 with $132 billion in cash and equivalents. This will help it keep acquiring companies, paying dividends, and buying back shares. MSFT returned $10 billion to shareholders via repurchases and dividends last quarter, up 18% from the year-ago period.
MSFT also provided strong guidance, with its adjusted Q3 earnings projected to climb 25% on 17% stronger revenue. Zacks estimates call for its FY21 revenue to jump 14% and then another 10% in FY22, which follows three years of between 13% to 15% sales growth. And its bottom-line outlook appears even stronger.
Analysts have raced to up their estimates for MSFT since its report to land it at a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). And none of the 22 brokerage recommendations we have are below a “Buy.”
Despite its strong showing, the stock is trading around where it was before its release, after the market drop. But the stock has regained some lost momentum and its roughly 1% dividend yield is an added bonus for owning one of the world’s most valuable and influential companies that’s only getting bigger.
Apple ( AAPL Quick Quote AAPL - Free Report)
Suggesting Apple, like MSFT, seems all too easy. But that doesn’t make it any less valid given that the iPhone giant topped Q1 FY21 EPS by 20% and grew its sales by 21% to $111.4 billion—8% above our estimate. The ability for a high-end consumer products company to post this kind of growth during a global pandemic is part of the reason it’s the world’s most valuable company and
Apple’s latest, and first 5G-capable iPhone that launched in October, the iPhone 12, got off to a great start, with iPhone revenue up 17% in the period to account for 59% of total sales. The remote world also once again boosted iPad and Mac sales, up 42% and 23%, respectively. Meanwhile, its Apple Watch and AirPods-heavy wearables unit climbed 29%, while its Services division jumped 24%.
The company now boasts over 620 million paid subscriptions, up 140 million from last year, as it tries to keep generating more money from its growing device base. Apple is also working to design more of its chips in-house and it plans to introduce more privacy features on the iPhone as it calls out Facebook (
FB Quick Quote FB - Free Report) and others.
If investors aren’t impressed enough with its growth and continued opportunities in a world where people are glued to their smartphones and devices, it boasts $84 billion in net cash. And it will keep on buying back stock and paying dividends as it tries to reach “a net cash neutral position over time.”
Peeking ahead, AAPL’s Q2 sales are now projected to surge over 30% to help lift its adjusted earnings by 55%. This estimate would mark its strongest revenue growth since 2015. Apple’s post-release revisions have it at a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) right now.
AAPL has fallen since hitting new highs on Jan. 25. The stock is still up 70% in the last year to top the tech sector’s 40%. Yet, it’s now trading 10% below its recent records, and it trades not too far above the broader technology sector’s average at 33X forward earnings vs. 28X.
The Hottest Tech Mega-Trend of All Last year, it generated $24 billion in global revenues. By 2020, it's predicted to blast through the roof to $77.6 billion. Famed investor Mark Cuban says it will produce "the world's first trillionaires," but that should still leave plenty of money for regular investors who make the right trades early. See Zacks' 3 Best Stocks to Play This Trend >>


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François-Henri Pinault, a French billionaire whose family is behind the Kering group, is nearing a $7 billion deal to buy a majority stake in Los Angeles-based Creative Artists Agency (CAA).
That’s according to a Bloomberg report from Wednesday (August 30), which, citing people familiar with the matter, says that Pinault is looking to buy the majority stake in the talent agency held by private equity firm TPG Capital.
The news outlet first reported on the talks for a deal in July. But sources at the time said that talks for a majority stake in TPG-backed CAA ‘could still end without an agreement’.
TPG acquired a 35% stake in CAA in 2010 and subsequently increased its holding to 53% in 2014.
Most recently, citing sources, Bloomberg reported that Singapore government investment arm Temasek Holdings could also boost its stake in CAA by buying out the shares held by China’s CMC Capital.
Temasek secured a minority stake in CAA in September 2017 and has also previously invested in SoundCloud.
According to the report, the parties are anticipated to wrap up negotiations within the next couple of weeks, although the deal could still ‘fall apart’.
As noted by Bloombergthe projected $7 billion valuation of CAA marks an increase from the $5.5 billion assigned to the agency the previous year during its acquisition of rival agency ICM Partners.
The move by Pinault seeks to secure a share in one of Hollywood’s ‘most stable and powerful institutions,’ Bloomberg’s report said, even amid a ‘challenging time for media deals’ as the sector contends with the decline of pay TV, rising interest rates, and industry disruptions caused by writer and actor strikes.
Earlier in August, Deadline reported that CAA has implemented a round of layoffs affecting about 60 employees across the company’s various divisions.
The workforce adjustment is said to be a culmination of a months-long evaluation process that preceded the Writers Guild of America’s strike action on May 2.
However, Bloomberg said the Pinault family views CAA as a strategic means to ‘invest in the value of celebrities’, and may leverage their fame to enhance the company’s other businesses.
The Pinault family is the biggest shareholder in the Kering group, which owns luxury brands and fashion houses from Gucci, to Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Brioni, Boucheron, Pomellato, DoDo, Qeelin, as well as Kering Eyewear.
Kering parent company the Artemis Group was set up as the Pinault family’s investment vehicle in 1992 and counts assets such as Christie’s auction and publishing house Editions Tallandier.
It also owns a stake in sports brand Puma and has made investments in Deezer and ByteDance.
Meanwhile, CAA, founded by partners including Michael Ovitz and Ron Meyer in 1975, represents a range of talent in film, television, music, theatre, video games, sports, and digital content. It also represents some of the biggest global touring artists in the music industry.
With its headquarters situated in Los Angeles, CAA also holds a presence in New York, Nashville, London, Beijing, and Shanghai. The agency also maintains operational offices in various other global locations, including Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Geneva, Jacksonville, Las Vegas, Memphis, Miami, Munich, Orlando, Stockholm, and Toronto.
Music Business Worldwide


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McDonald’s in Singapore rolls out the Veggie burger, while Australia continues to wait
McDONALD’S in Singapore has listened to customers and launched this burger. For some reason, Australia has to keep waiting.
THEY SAY good things come to those who wait, yet here we are in 2016, still hanging out for a McDonald’s veggie burger in Australia.
But Macca’s in Singapore has finally listened to its humble community of vegetarians, and from today will have a meat-free burger across all restaurants.
The Veggie Crunch Burger consists of a deep-fried vegetable patty topped with sweet chilli sauce, lettuce and cucumber slices on a white sesame seed bun.
The meatless burger patty is made up of seven types of vegetables, including green peas, carrots, green beans, red bell peppers, potatoes, cucumbers and lettuce.
The patty itself is deep-fried in the same oil used to cook the chain’s apple pies, and does not come into contact with meat products.
While McDonald’s is trialling the veggie burger in five restaurants across the country, there is still no indication of when it will be available in every venue.
Last month, a spokesperson for McDonald’s said they had not committed to a permanent vegetarian burger item on their menu because the demand isn’t there.
“We have had a vegetarian burger on the menu before but unfortunately they don’t stay on the menu when demand falls away,” they said.
“We still offer our customers a vegetarian option with Create Your Taste where you can choose from a range of ingredients such as grilled halloumi, egg, guacamole and grilled pineapple.”
But while the demand wasn’t there five years ago when the veggie burgers were a part of the McDonald’s menu, the landscape has significantly changed.
Between 2012 and 2016, the number of Australian adults whose diet is all or almost all vegetarian has risen from 1.7 million people (or 9.7 per cent of the population) to almost 2.1 million (11.2 per cent), according to the latest findings from Roy Morgan Research.
While it is a nationwide trend, the shift towards vegetarianism has been most striking in New South Wales, where there has been a 30 per cent growth in this kind of diet.
In 2013, McDonald’s opened its first ever vegetarian-only restaurant in India to cater for the 80 per cent Hindu population who regard cows as sacred and don’t eat beef, and for Muslims who don’t consume pork.
Regular McDonald’s restaurants in India already have a menu that is 50 per cent vegetarian, including the McAloo Tikka, the Veg Maharaja Mac, the Veg McMuffin, the McVeggie and the McSpicy Paneer.
Prior to the veggie burger in Singapore, McDonald’s suggested diners looking for a meat-free alternative eat french fries and hashbrowns, or ask for a burger without the patty — aka, a salad roll.
The permanent menu item in Singapore, which isn’t vegan, is a result of calls from McDonald’s customers to evolve its food offerings, based on surveys by the fast food chain.


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Demand for Maritime UAVs to remain sky high into 2018
A new market research report released by Reportlinker indicates that the global unmanned aerial vehicles market is set to reach $8.35 billion by 2018.
The "Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Market (2013 - 2018)" report cited a compound annual growth rate of 3.3 per cent, with tactical UAVs (TUAVs) having already seen the highest activity.
However, it is stated that the highest business potential lies in the hands of high altitude long endurance (HALE), medium altitude long endurance (MALE) and...
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Cafe Coffee Day
News stories featuring Cafe Coffee Day:
May 22nd, 2013
“With the virtual store, we are taking online shopping to the next level by touching base with our customers and allowing them to shop from anywhere, anytime,” says the online fashion and lifestyle portal’s Nikhil Rungta.
Feed for stories featuring Cafe Coffee Day.
• Find a list of all the companies and other organisations that have been featured in NFC World in our directory.