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World governments will rush in and legislate the Internet unless the computing and online service industries step up their efforts to self-regulate matters of consumer protection, two former aides to US President Bill Clinton said here this week.
"The next two to three years will be crucial in determining whether the Internet remains a free medium or whether it becomes an area where governments cannot resist regulating," said Ira Magaziner, a former Clinton advisor who helped shape the US administration's current policies for the digital age.
Magaziner was speaking on Monday at an annual forum sponsored by the Internet Content Coalition. He stepped down from his White House job in December after three years with the administration to become a business consultant.
The issue of who controls the Internet is a vital one for businesses and consumers, said Christine Varney, another former White House advisor who has also served as a US Federal Trade Commissioner. National laws governing taxation, import and encryption can stifle the growth of the Internet economy, she said.
Varney now heads up the law firm Hogan and Hartson and represents Netscape Communications in the ongoing US Department of Justice vs Microsoft antitrust trial. She was another speaker at the forum.
Consumers need assurance that personal information they submit on the Web isn't going to be used for unscrupulous purposes, and they need to protect children from potentially harmful Net content, Varney said.
Ironically, the success of the online retail business over the recent Christmas and New Year holidays may quicken the move to legislate the Internet, Varney said.
"I can guarantee you that every American who bought something over Christmas and had never bought something on the Web before is going to get spammed," Varney said. Meanwhile, other users may have fallen victim to online fraud, she said.
Many of those users will write to their government representatives, who may then feel compelled to write legislation to protect their constituents, she said "If you walk away from the problem, you can be sure the government will impose the solution on you," Varney warned industry executives.
The fairest and most effective way to protect consumers is to empower them to make their own decisions about what type of Internet content enters their home and what happens to personal information they submit online, Magaziner said.
To protect personal information, third-party organisations must come up with a code of conduct and then provide certificates to Web sites that adhere to those codes, Magaziner said. Those Web sites could then display a symbol signifying to customers that they meet certain standards. Truste in the US is an example of such a service available today.
To protect minors from obscene content, Internet service providers (ISPs) could offer multi-tiered service offerings so that users could choose to exclude, for example, sex and violence from content entering their home. ISPs could use filtering software and other means to do this, Magaziner said.
Empowering individual users rather than imposing laws at a national level also helps the Internet become a seamless, global network, he said. "Implementing consumer protection internationally is difficult because each country has a different sense of what consumer protection amounts to," Magaziner said.
But while third-party consumer protection initiatives like those proposed by Magaziner are already under way in the US, Japan and elsewhere in the world, industry must move faster if it is to avoid government regulation, Varney said.
"I think you're going to see a lot of activity this year in (US) Congress," she said. US legislation to protect financial and medical information on the Internet is likely to be passed this year, she predicted. Meanwhile, the FTC is moving quickly to define more general consumer privacy laws, she said.
More harmful are attempts to regulate so-called "obscene" online content, Varney and Magaziner said. The Child Online Protection Act, which was passed by US Congress last year and is currently being reviewed by a US court, is too broad and inhibits free speech, Magaziner and Varney agreed.


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A company from the US has announced the production of the first human cell-cultured breast milk, which they claim is far more nutritious than current formula options. BIOMILQ, a new company based in North Carolina, believe they have finally cracked the intensely difficult problem of human breast milk synthesis outside the breast, which has previously been too complex to replicate.
“Human milk is tremendously complex in both composition and structure which has made it impossible to replicate outside of the lactating parent,” says BIOMILQ Technical Advisor Dr Jennifer Smilowitz, in a statement.
However, using human mammary cells to generate the milk enables the production of an abundance of beneficial macronutrients that are not present in formula options – and, according to BIOMILQ, is a production process far better for the environment than alternatives.
“Our latest work demonstrates that much of the complexity of milk can be achieved by replicating the intricate relationship between the cells that produce it and the conditions they experience inside the body during lactation.” said Co-Founder Dr Leila Strickland.
While the milk is created using human cells, it isn’t exactly the same. BIOMILQ closely matches the macronutrients within normal breastmilk, containing important human milk oligosaccharides and other active ingredients not found in formula.
However, breast milk is a unique cocktail of nutrients, antibodies and proteins that the mother produces throughout lactation, and it differs between each individual. No matter how hard they try, formula and lab-grown milk will likely never replicate this. The company are open about this fact, and state their milk is a brilliant alternative to people who are unable to breastfeed as opposed to being a replacement.
The milk may also carry benefits that breast milk doesn’t necessarily have, including a complete lack of environmental toxins or prescription medication that may be present in normal breast milk.
Confident in their new process, the team are now turning their attention to the strict regulations the milk must pass before it enters supermarket shelves, alongside scaling their production to meet the inevitable huge demand the product would have if safety and efficacy are verified. It should also be noted that the announcement comes from the company itself, and no study of the process or product has been released at this time.
Following a wave of innovation in the area, the 2020s may truly be the decade of cultured nutrition. Lab-grown meat has been thrust into the media, with new products and large-scale factories making the cruelty-free and more eco-friendly alternatives a real possibility for the near future. Whether the public will accept them remains a debated issue, but it won’t be long before cultured food items will be in stores across the globe.
[H/T: Interesting Engineering]

domain: news


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Roofing firms move up list of specialty contractors
Two Pittsburgh-area roofing contractors grew their businesses significantly in the past year, and leaders in both companies credit diversified services and changes in marketing as keys to their success.
CentiMark Corp., a Canonsburg-based specialty roofing and flooring contractor, grew sales by 20 percent and increased its backlog by 34 percent in the last year, adding 500 employees and offices in Calgary, Alberta; Edmonton, Alberta; and Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Those numbers were enough to vault CentiMark to the No. 1 ranking on the Pittsburgh Business Times’ list of largest Pittsburgh-area specialty contractors.
President and COO Tim Dunlap said the company has changed its marketing techniques, overhauling the company’s website and targeting current clients through monthly newsletters and Twitter, but much of the company’s success stems from its ability to convert one-time buyers into consistent customers.
“We focus on our customers and gain repeat business,” Dunlap said. “We are constantly offering new products/services ranging from customer-specific online roof management tools to prismatic skylights or other daylighting solutions to save energy costs through a roof.”
Dunlap also said the company’s flooring division, QuestMark Flooring, was experiencing explosive growth. John P. Scanlon, executive vice president of QuestMark Flooring, said the division has doubled in size in the last two years and, this year, its sales are on pace to exceed 2011 by 45 percent.
Both men cited the division’s DiamondQuest product, the company’s polished concrete flooring offering, as a source of the company’s success.
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Nestle buys Pfizer's baby food business for £7.36bn as it fights for dominance in fast-growing emerging markets
Nestle is set to buy Pfizer’s infant nutrition business for $11.85billion (£7.36billion) as it fights for dominance in baby food sales in the fast-growing emerging markets.
The Swiss food group beat French rival Danone to buy U.S. drugmaker Pfizer’s baby food unit.
It was already seen as likely to win the battle due to its deep pockets. It has cash to spare after it sold its stake in eyecare group Alcon to Novartis and refrained from announcing a new share buyback programme.
Large price tag: Pfizer sold its infant nutrition business to Nestle for £7.36 billion
The price escalated sharply last week from bids around $10billion after Danone was reported to have raised its offer on Friday.
Analysts believe the price paid is high, but the Pfizer unit makes 85 per cent of its sales in emerging markets, an area Nestle is looking to expand into.
‘The price tag is high, however Nestle is securing a high growth/margin business with high exposure in the emerging markets,’ said Vontobel analyst Jean-Philippe Bertschy. ‘China will become the number three market for Nestle overall.’
The Pfizer unit is a high-growth business built on its top SMA Gold brand. Around 60 per cent of its sales are in Asia, 30 per cent in Europe – largely in Britain, and ten per cent in Latin America.
It ranks number five globally in the infant milk formula market – the world’s fastest-growing packaged food category – after Nestle, Mead Johnson, Danone and Abbott Laboratories, with a quarter of sales in the buoyant Chinese market.
The $6billion Chinese market is key as it is set to double to $12billion by 2016 having grown at more than 20 per cent a year over the last five years to feed 16million new births a year. Mead leads the Chinese market with a 16 per cent share followed by Danone with 14 per cent, Pfizer is fifth with an 8 per cent share, while Nestle has just 4 per cent.
‘Pfizer Nutrition is an excellent strategic fit and this acquisition underlines our commitment to be the world's leading nutrition, health and wellness company,’ Chief Executive Paul Bulcke said today.
The acquisition, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close in mid-2013.
Nestle, which expects emerging markets to account for half of sales by 2020 from 41 per cent last year, has been an active player in recent emerging markets merger activity, taking stakes in two Chinese food companies.
‘The deal makes strategic sense, it really was Nestle's deal to lose as it very much wanted to add to its Asian business and boost growth and margins,’ said Kepler analyst Jon Cox.
‘The price being paid seems quite high, by my calculations it's at 22 times core earnings, almost as high as Danone's infamous 2007 acquisition of Numico.’
Danone paid 12.3 billion euros in 2007 for Dutch food group Numico, at the time Europe's largest baby food producer, paying a similar multiple, a price many analysts said was too high.
Pfizer put its infant nutrition and animal health businesses up for sale last July as it looks to focus on its core pharmaceuticals business.
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BALTIMORE (AP) — A former postal service employee has pleaded guilty to stealing cash and gift cards from the mail.
Dorothy Jean Gibson, 56, of Windsor Mill entered the plea in U.S. Court in Baltimore on Friday. She faces a maximum of five years in prison at sentencing Jan. 11.
According to a plea agreement, Gibson was a mail processing clerk at the Linthicum incoming mail facility. After receiving complaints from customers about gift cards not being delivered, postal inspectors videotaped Gibson at her machine.
Prosecutors say Gibson was seen opening greeting cards, stealing gift cards and putting the mail in her purse.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)


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Posted Thu Oct 23, 2014 at 08:09 AM PDT by Brian Hoss
This is a cross-buy title.
It's been two years since 'The Unfinshed Swan' debut on the PS3 as part of an indie movement that saw unconventional and cerebral games be sold on AAA consoles. 'The Unfinished Swan' is coming to PS4 and Vita on October 28th. The game is price at $14.99, but is a cross-buy title. Anyone who already owns the game on the PS3 will now own a version for the PS4 and Vita.
The PS4 version will arrive in 1080p, but otherwise will still be the same white space kingdom that Giant Sparrow crafted for the PS3.
Source: PlayStation Blog
The latest news on all things 4K Ultra HD, blu-ray and Gear.


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A special ZA Confidential Investigation has uncovered allegations of insider trading around the arrival of one of the globe’s premier food brands in South Africa.
A complaint against Taste Holdings, which last year won the franchise for Domino’s pizza in South Africa, was lodged this week with the Financial Services Board (FSB) by a group of rival bidders, who believe they were cheated out of the pizza prize. The investigation may go wider, as Domino’s executives were also aware of the discussions during the period of the suspected insider trading, and Domino’s is also named in the complaint.
Domino’s is a highly successful food brand, and the South African business could be worth billions of rand.
At the heart of the complaint is an allegation of an unusual leap in shares traded in Taste Holdings just before news was made public that it had secured a deal with the American Domino’s Pizza Corporation.
The rival bidders have been engaged in legal action against Taste Holdings and Domino’s since they received the shock news that their own offer to secure the SA and regional franchise for the pizza brand had been rejected – even though they say they had paid a deposit to the American fast food chain, and had a verbal agreement with them. The court action centres on an attempt to halt the rollout by taste of Domino’s stores in South Africa, with Domino’s being sued for breach of contract. There is also an attempt to secure accurate information on the timing of each stage of Taste’s deal with Domino’s, as well as to have sight of Taste’s share register.
Taste executives, including CEO Carlo Gonzaga, are believed to have signed their agreement to bring the brand to SA with Domino’s at the US company’s global HQ in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the week of March the 13th last year – although the exact time and date of the sealing of the deal has yet to been disclosed.
If, as the unsuccessful bidders claim, the deal was signed around the time there were large trades in Taste Holdings’ shares, then there are serious questions over whether these share transactions amounted to insider trading.
The South African team which is taking on Taste Holdings and Domino’s operate as Mauritius-based International Foodservice Concepts (IFSC). They include Rutger-Jan van Spaandonk, who is the head of the Core Group, which is the official SA and Nigerian importer of Apple technology products. The team also includes Keith Warren, who is the former local head of the Yum Group, which holds the KFC franchise.
Said van Spaandonk, after he was contacted for comment by ZA Confidential: “We have gone to court already to seek full details of the share dealings, but have been thwarted at every turn.
“Meanwhile, we have obtained an incomplete copy of the Master Franchise Agreement Term Sheet between Taste Holdings and Domino’s – which fails to include the crucial section with the date that this was signed.
“We are left with no choice but to ask the Financial Services Board to investigate this matter.”
In a related development, he said he is still investigating how Taste Holdings managed to speedily tie up its deal with Domino’s just as he was concluding his own negotiations, as he is convinced that the information and data required should have taken months to collate.
“I have every right to raise these issues as a citizen and as a shareholder of Taste Holdings,” he said.
The letter to the FSB says that IFSC “have come across information that gives the strong impression that insider trading may have taken place in relation to certain Taste Holdings shares.
“Further, it appears that very sensitive and material information may have been disclosed by individuals for the unfair benefit of themselves or others.”
The letter asserts that on 13th of March last year, in the same week that the agreement on Taste’s Domino’s deal was being signed, “a total of 800,000 shares in Taste Holdings were traded, which was the second largest volume traded in the period between 1 January and 8 September 2014.
“The day with the largest volume traded was 10 April 2014 when Taste Holdings formally announced the conclusion of the Master Franchise Agreement with Domino’s Pizza publicly via a press announcement and a SENS release.
“We trust you will agree that a single occurrence of a volume of 800,000 shares traded is a highly improbable statistical event…..
“Given that acquiring the Domino’s Pizza Master Franchisee had such a material impact on the fortunes of Taste Holdings upon formal announcement as evidenced by the volume of shares traded (1.65m on 10 April 2014) and appreciation in market capitalisation (R130m based on 9 April 2014 closing of R3.60 and intra-day high of R4.25 on 10 April 2014) the suspicion arose that insiders that had access to information about the conclusion of this term sheet may have used it to their own advantage (or given it to others) in anticipation of a favourable move in the share price upon the official announcement of the conclusion of the actual Master Franchise Agreement.”
It is also alleged that Taste Directors offloaded shares between the 30th of June and July the 10th, and that this “in actual fact coincided with material dates in our legal dispute.”
IFSC is still involved in court proceedings to secure information about the exact timing of Taste’s signing of the Master Franchise Agreement Term Sheet with Domino’s. However, as van Spaandonk has complained, the document which has been handed over has a missing section – which is believed to contain signatures and a crucial date.
ZA Confidential has seen a number of court documents and the letter which IFSC has sent to the FSB. The Court action is continuing.
Taste Holdings bosses held an analyst presentation today in Johannesburg on their annual financial results.
Gonzaga told ZA Confidential that he was not yet aware of the letter to the FSB.
And he was dismissive of efforts by IFSC to halt Taste Holding’s rollout of Domino’s outlets in SA.
He said there is “no way they will get an interdict” and Taste would not have gone ahead with its Domino’s rollout if it was worried this could be halted.
He said that IFSC has admitted that it did not have a franchise agreement with Domino’s and “it is all rubbish.”
He said he was expecting a court judgement on the matter “quite soon.”
He later expressed frustration to ZA Confidential that the matter had been raised in a public forum, and offered to tell his side of the story.
Watch this space.
The Taste Holdings results were presented at the JSE, and afterwards there was ample wine on offer to guests. There were samples of Domino’s pizza, which were delicious when hot, but less so when they had cooled down. The other food was not of a standard one would have expected to receive from a company which is in the food business.
ZA Confidential is a subscription newsletter. For subscription details, to invite us to events with edible food and drinkable wine, or any other communication, please contact: email@example.com
Follow us on twitter: @zaconfidential @dievinein @clasfras1


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Rutland businesses urged to compete in BT and Cabinet Office search for small companies with big tech ideas
Press releases • Feb 07, 2018 15:00 GMT
BT has launched a competition for small and medium businesses in partnership with the Cabinet Office and TechHub to find the latest innovations to boost digital public services, defence and retail.
Press releases • Jul 05, 2017 17:04 BST
More than 10,000 benefit from UK’s most successful broadband programme.
Press releases • Nov 07, 2016 10:00 GMT
BT has given a massive £4 million boost to the Rutland economy in the past year, according to an independent study published today.
Press releases • May 03, 2016 14:07 BST
Expansion plans could be in the pipeline for a Rutland business, which sells fine foods throughout the UK – thanks to the arrival of superfast fibre broadband.
Press releases • Apr 11, 2016 16:52 BST
Work is underway to make high-speed fibre broadband available to around 900 homes and businesses across four Rutland villages, it was announced today.


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Inside Amazon’s biggest office in the world
There’s never an opportunity not to work at the global e-commerce company’s new Hyderabad campus, where even the elevators have whiteboards to scribble ideas
HYDERABAD : "It’s Still Day 1." Jeff Bezos’ famous words, painted on a white wall, greet the 6,000-odd Amazon employees every day as they swipe their IDs to enter the e-commerce company’s biggest office in Hyderabad’s financial district, Gachibowli. The words are a constant reminder of the billionaire’s core ideas of a successful startup: be obsessed with the customer, focus on results over process, quickly make high-quality decisions and embrace outside trends early on.


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Connected objects : how digital technology promises to humanize in 2019
SURVEY-Delivery robots, smarter assistants, more immersive images, more efficient equipment. This is what our daily life will look like.
The year 2018 was marked by the democratization of personal assistants, such as Google Home or Alexa, and by the declination of artificial intelligence in a quantity of audio equipment and cameras. While these major movements will continue in 2019, they should also affect other aspects of our daily lives.
● Autonomous objects
Among the main high-tech novelties expected next year are autonomous delivery robots, such as the one used day and night by the restaurant Dominos Pizza in Hamburg. Maximilian von Lachner / VISUM / Visum images / StudioX
This is one of the main trends identified by Gartner for 2019: the multiplication of robots, automobiles or drones capable of executing missions usually entrusted to humans. We already knew robot vacuum cleaners, window cleaners or lawnmowers. In recent months, delivery robots have become a reality in the United States: these small wheeled chests, equipped with GPS, cameras and anti-collision radars, sneak on sidewalks to transport packages, arousing the curiosity or concern of passers-by. By the way, some cities, such as San Francisco, have decided to


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How to make sure your next used car is not flood damaged
The videos and pictures keep pouring in from Texas, showing incredibly high waters and massive devastation.
The floodwaters from Harvey are finally receding. But what's left is hundreds of thousands of cars completely flooded out, from top to bottom and Carfax says about half of those cars could soon be up for sale nationwide.
“In the coming weeks, and certainly the months and years to follow, these flooded cars from Hurricane Harvey and going to make their way back onto the market,” said Chris Basso of Carfax.
Basso says there are steps you should take to avoid getting ripped off - if you're on the market for a used car.
“You want to consult the experts when you're talking about avoiding flood-damaged cars,” Basso said.
Experts like Eliot Silverman - who FOX 32 found as a top-rated mechanic on consumers' checkbook. He opened this shop in Lakeview more than 30 years ago.
Silverman says flood damage can cause serious issues for any car.
“Electrical problems - the water, the mud gets into the connectors,” Silverman said.
But he says you can't really know if there's a problem unless you go underneath. Silverman says he looks for mud in hidden nooks - ones that can't easily be washed out or cleaned.
“When you see the mud you realize, that car has been in a flood,” he said.
He also says rust can show up in unexpected spots.
Silverman stressed to FOX 32 that just because a car looks great doesn't mean it's safe.
So get a reputable mechanic to check out any used car before you buy to avoid getting hosed.
You can find more telltale signs of flood damage at carfax.com/flood.


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Chinese construction equipment manufacturer Changsha Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science & Technology Development Co Ltd (Zoomlion) has announced the acquisition of Italy's Compagnia Italiana Forme Acciaio (Cifa) for € 271 million (US$ 421.9 million).
Ashtead Group has reported strong results for its US and UK rental businesses and confirmed the sales of its specialist equipment division, Ashtead Technology, to a management buy-out team backed by private equity firm Phoenix Equity Partners.
June saw confidence in the European construction sector fall into negative territory for the first time in the year-and-a-half history of the CE Barometer. Although respondents to the survey were still positive on the future outlook, other measures of confidence were at new lows.
CNH has announced a +5% across the board surcharge for all its products in reaction to sharp rises in its steel and energy costs. The supplement applies to Case and New Holland Construction machines, as well as to attachments.
UK Manufacturer Niftylift has recently acquired full product certification and permission to use status, for its entire range of machines in Russia. In addition the company has begun supplying its range of self propelled platforms to a Hungarian rental company.
Lewis Equipment, the Grand Prairie, Texas-based hoist and tower crane specialist, now has 250 GJJ hoists in its US fleet and is expanding its links with the Chinese manufacturer through sales in New Zealand and Australia.
US scaffold and aerial platform manufacturer, Bil-Jax, has formed a 'Go Green' Committee. The committee's role is to investigate and implement initiatives which will reduce the environmental impact of the company's manufacturing practices and day-to-day operations.
Dutch rental company Workx acquired in May the companies Van der Linden Rentall and Dekker Rent, which operate four depots in the provinces of Brabant and Gelderland in The Netherlands. The acquisitions raise the number of Workx's depots to 55 and advance its expansion in the rental of building materials and wharf construction.


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Here’s a challenge: outside of a Bitcoin-related play, try to find a more interesting and prepotent stock on the OTC than Tongji Healthcare Group Inc (OTCMKTS:TONJ).
We dare you. Take your time. We’re in no rush.
Despite its current name, this stock actually represents a company named “Clubhouse Media Group” following a merger in the fall. TONJ is slated for an official name and ticker change ahead, which should help given the fact that Clubhouse Media Group has already been covered by the New York Times, The Atlantic, Business Insider, Cosmo, Seventeen, and Forbes, among others. It’s an “earned media” goldmine. Why? Because it’s a really interesting story.
First off, the global social media ad spend is expected to jump 20% in 2020 to reach an estimated $84 billion. According to Zenith’s data, social media advertising will account for 13% of total global ad spend and rank as the third-largest advertising channel, behind TV and paid search.
Social media ad spending surpassed print media ad spend last year for the first time ever, according to Zenith. That trend is almost universally expected to continue and even accelerate over coming years.
And TONJ is sitting at the dead center of this trend, with very little pure-play competition, and a tremendous amount of traction already in place.
Tongji Healthcare Group Inc (OTCMKTS:TONJ) – aka Clubhouse Media Group – is a social media influencer company with an established network of four social media content creation houses – “Clubhouse BH”, “Clubhouse Europe”, and two “Not a Content House” locations.
The company has already amassed a social media influencer following rapidly racing past 100 million followers across its entire stable of influencers, which will enable it to drive forward expectations and results that include both brand establishment and external brand marketing contracts, suggesting a relatively quick route to strong topline growth data.
TONJ has enormous traction already in place, ready to be monetized, which could represent a sweet spot moment in the evolution of this story for prospective market participants.
“We believe The Clubhouse has significant proprietary value that can be tapped in service of either deals with outside brands or the popularization and expansion of our own in-house branding projects,” commented Amir Ben-Yohanan, Tongji’s CEO.
The Big Idea
Tongji Healthcare Group Inc (OTCMKTS:TONJ) isn’t just a collection of top influencers with an enormous network of followers. It’s an engine for building influencers. The Clubhouse model means that new talent can be integrated into the mansions to learn from the best, gain traction in apprentice fashion through association, and grow their own brands by standing on the shoulders of giants.
This isn’t a golden egg. It’s the goose. That’s the real point of a share of TONJ stock at this point. A share of that goose.
The narrative contains a lot of very promising dynamics bound to lead to some strong catalysts ahead. TONJ is a story pregnant with future revelations about core metrics and brand relationships. There’s nothing better that concrete metrics and brand associations for an OTC stock.
With over a hundred million followers – and lord knows how many big global household brands already under contract for social media marketing – the Clubhouse name is, itself, likely to become more and more well known.
And we would expect news of those branding relationships to become increasingly public over the very near term, which could provide a tailwind to the stock as it continues to build a foundation of credibility to support its inherently exciting model.
COMPENSATION DISCLOSURE: Section 17(b) of the 1933 Act requires publishers to disclose who paid them, the amount, and the type of payment. In order to be in full compliance with the Securities Act of 1933, Section 17(b): Tiger Global Management Partners LLC has compensated a third party to produce and present weekly content for various companies for the publication. For more information, please click here. In addition, this article is part of JournalTranscript.com Networks. JournalTranscript and network websites have not been compensated for distribution of this content. Read the JournalTranscript.com Networks Disclaimer.


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MINNEAPOLIS -- Room & Board, the Minneapolis-based furniture company focused on American craftsmanship and sustainability, is among the Top Scorers on the National Wildlife Federation and Sustainable Furniture Council 2019 Wood Furniture Scorecard.
Developed in 2018, the Wood Furniture Scorecard measures how sustainable a company is when it comes to its wood supply, evaluating a company’s use of recycled and reclaimed wood and how companies source virgin wood.
The scorecard examined 100 companies based on two major categories: responsibility on wood sourcing practices and performance, taking into account corporate policies, goals and practices; and the importance of forest health in purchasing decisions. Room & Board, along with 21 other North American companies, placed in the Top Scorers category.
By 2025 Room & Board plans to source more than 50 percent of wood from certified sustainable U.S. sources or reclaimed sources.
Reporting on this goal annually, they work with manufacturing partners on an ongoing basis to increase the amount of wood from certified recycled and reclaimed sources.
Room & Board and its manufacturers seek out local wood and purchase timber from certified sustainable sources including Forest Stewardship Council, Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification, Appalachian Hardwood Manufacturers Inc. and Sustainable Forestry Initiative.
They also collaborate with their manufacturing partners to avoid illegally harvested or traded lumber, helping uphold conservation values and proper forest management.
The company’s recent partnership with the USDA Forest Service to pilot a program in the city of Baltimore, Maryland, is aimed at improving American communities environmentally, socially and economically. As part of the Urban Wood Project, Room & Board works with non-profits to reclaim old-growth timber from abandoned row homes and turn it into modern, sustainable furniture and decor sold at their store locations nationwide and online.
To date, Room & Board has salvaged more than 60 row homes (the equivalent of five miles of lumber that would have otherwise found its way to a landfill) and helped create 30 jobs for those under-served in Baltimore. See www.roomandboard.com.
Have something to say? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.


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The Molson Coors lager brand is aiming to get fans talking about the game, which sees Aston Villa take on Manchester United, on the social networking site by using the hash tag #CCF10 and submitting their comments to @thecarlingcup.
The sponsor will track the levels of activity across the social media platform as well as the topics supporters are discussing around the game via a new Tweet-o-Meter, which the brewer has created in partnership with us here at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, part of the University College London.
Carling brand director, Martin Coyle, says: “Our ambition is always to give fans a bigger voice and get them involved with the competition every step of the way – the great thing about digital activity is that it gives everyone the opportunity to have their say in what should be a superb occasion.
“With all the activity we’ve got lined up on Sunday we genuinely believe that this is the first ever digital cup final. It should be a cracking game and if our activity can add a little more to the overall experience then it’ll be a great way to celebrate 50 years of the competition.”
Your be able to view the results via our customised Tweet-o-Meter over the weekend on Sky Sports and online, we will put a link up as soon as its ready.
In the meantime our city Tweet-o-Meter continues to ‘mine’ the cities for social trends…


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Jessica Cox, one of the Motivational Speakers at the CIMA Business Leaders Summit held in Colombo this month, took time off her busy schedule to shop at the Glitz showroom at Hyde Park Corner.
A world famous motivational speaker, Cox was born without arms but has achieved a number of incredible feats including being a pilot, holding a driving license, being a certified scuba diver, holding a Bachelors Degree in Psychology and a black belt in Taekwondo.
Cox is pictured here with A.L.M. Akeel, Marketing Manager, Glitz; A.S. Mohomed Ali, Duty Manager, Glitz and Riyaz Haniffa, Marketing Executive, Glitz following her shopping spree.
Glitz, the fashion destination offers a variety of styles that exude glamour and sophistication. Offering world-renowned brands, the store has become synonymous with the latest fashion trends – enticing shoppers to seek out the latest trends in clothing and designer names.


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- Carney Sees Brexit Consumer Slowdown Ahead After 2016 Strength
Consumers, the backbone of U.K. economic resilience after the Brexit vote, face fresh headwinds in 2017 that are likely to curb growth, according to Mark Carney.
Bank of England policy makers will be monitoring developments closely as the impact of the weakening pound feeds through to prices, the governor said in London on Monday. Data on Tuesday will probably show inflation accelerated in December to the fastest since 2014.
While the BOE upgraded its 2017 forecast late last year and may do so again in February, it still sees a loss of momentum because of Brexit. The outlook heavily depends on Britain’s new deal with the European Union, and Prime Minister Theresa May may provide some details of her strategy in a speech on Tuesday.
“Recently, there have been signs of continued solid consumer momentum domestically and a stronger growth outlook globally,” Carney said. However, he warned consumption-led growth “tends to be both slower and less durable” as it eventually overtakes earnings, leaving demand more sensitive to household employment and income changes.
Reiterating the Monetary Policy Committee’s neutral stance, Carney said interest rates can go up as well as down, and that there are limits to the extent to which inflation above the BOE’s 2 percent target can be tolerated. The response of households to faster inflation as the U.K. negotiates its divorce from the EU will be key, he said.
“How household spending evolves, and the inter-temporal trade-off that households strike, will be important considerations over the next year,” Carney said.
In her speech, May could signal her willingness to quit the EU’s single market for goods and services to regain control of Britain’s borders and laws. Carney spoke after the pound had slipped below $1.20 for the first time in more than three months in response to reports of her plans.
Carney dodged a question on whether he saw the pound depreciating further, saying the U.K. currency “can go up and down.”
In a speech that largely focused on the theory behind policy makers’ trade-off between supporting growth and keeping inflation stable, Carney said there was not a simple rule that could guide their decisions.
Supply shocks like the Brexit decision imply lower growth and higher inflation due to sterling’s slide boosting import prices, Carney said. Because monetary policy primarily affects demand, bringing inflation to target too quickly risks a greater loss of output and jobs. That was why the BOE was right to loosen policy in August, he said.
The U.K. has faced a series of supply shocks since the financial crisis and has faced this trade-off before. By contrast, the U.S. and the euro area have seldom faced the same tension between output and inflation, he said.


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LONDON — Celebrity chef and entrepreneur Antonio Carluccio has died. He was 80.
His death was announced on Carluccio’s website, Twitter and by his agent on Wednesday. The cause was not immediately revealed.
Carluccio, who was born and raised in Italy, had restaurants in England, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates bearing his name. His many Carluccio’s restaurants helped popularize inexpensive Italian food.
He also appeared in several television shows and wrote 22 cookbooks.
The restaurant chain said in a statement: “Antonio built Carluccio’s from one restaurant to the fantastic brand it is today. It isn’t just Antonio’s name above our doors, but his heart and soul lives and breathes throughout our restaurants.”
Carluccio was honoured by both the Italian and British governments for his work.


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Want to Trade in Your Samsung Note 7? Here are your options.
[Image Courtesy of Ariel Gonzalez/YouTube]
UPDATE: Samsung has completely halted production of Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones. Samsung said that they "taking our customer's safety as our highest priority, [so] we have decided to halt sales and production of the Galaxy Note 7," according to the Associated Press. No word yet from Samsung on how this decision will affect recalls, returns or replacements. Continue to our original story below:
After weeks of spontaneously-combusting Note 7 phones, cell phone providers offered disgruntled owners replacement phones.
All seemed well until the replacements started exploding.
Now, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon and other carriers have stopped issuing replacement phones entirely. Samsung also encouraged all global retailers to stop sales and exchanges before again going silent about the issue.
So owners can't power up their devices. What are they supposed to do?
Try another Samsung
The Galaxy S7 Edge still has the Note's water resistance, good camera and wireless charging. It's known for the crisp display of the Note. Given that it's slightly cheaper than the Note, you should even get some cash back on the exchange.
Get a different brand entirely
According to CPSC, major retailers must give buyers an option to exchange - non-Samsung brands included. Most major carriers are offering iPhone 7S and even iPhone 7 Plus (which will be available come November) to Note 7 owners. While switching from Android to Apple seems sacrilege to most Android users, at least iPhones haven't exploded yet. Apple even has a free Android to iPhone app to help switching over devices.
Try something completely new
There's always the Google Pixel, a brand new phone which debuted last week. The phone will hit markets Oct. 20, and the phone runs the latest version of Android. This trade could be particularly beneficial to Verizon users. The Pixel and Pixel Xl are exclusive to Verizon.
Hold Out Hope?
Plenty of people shelled out serious cash for the Note 7 when it debuted. We can't blame those who can't give up on their investments just yet. For those not willing to give up their (potentially hazardous) phone, turn it off and leave it off. Maybe Samsung will one day be able to tell you what happened and how to fix the problem.
Whatever you decide, we just ask that you don’t power up your Note 7s on an airplane ever again.
Principal director of Civil and Commercial Space Systems at Draper Pete Paceley told us that August is 'looking pretty good' for Artemis I mission.


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Halloween isn’t even here yet but the hunt is on for Christmas toys.
After the Tickle Me Elmo craze of 1996, parents are already buying what they think will be this year’s toy sensation.
That’s drying up stocks of Tyco Toys’ Sing & Snore Ernie, Microsoft’s Actimates Barney, Star Wars figures and virtual pets. Fueling some of this rush are “hot” toy picks from magazines and trade publications.
That was especially true for Sing & Snore Ernie, which sings ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” before it fades off to sleep and begins snoring. After Family Fun magazine last week picked Ernie as one of its top toys for 1997, sales shot higher, and are now running at about 10 times what they were in early October.


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Samsung is really doing some pretty awesome things with their phablet line. Previously, we’ve shared more details about the Samsung Galaxy Note 2’s Smart Rotation function. Today, let’s take a look at one of its other cool feature — Multi Windows.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 2’s Multi Window feature takes advantage of the unit’s generous screen size and allows users to run two apps side-by-side simultaneously, turning the device into a multitasker’s dream. In case you wanted to maximize the feature and are wondering which of your apps are supported by it, the guys at the XDA Developers forumshave started compiling a nifty little list. Started by a user named “Lennyuk,” the list is broken down into three categories — Samsung apps, Google apps and third-party apps.
Here’s the list of apps that have been tested so far:
- S Note
- Video Player
- Google Maps
- Google Talk
- Official Twitter app
- Polaris Viewer
Lennyuk also suggests that you use the Samsung stock keyboard when you activate the Multi Window feature, otherwise you may end up blocking the bottom of the screen.
Android Authority reports that the feature was not initially available to international users of the device but Samsung has now quickly taken steps to address this by pushing out a firmware update. And it’s a good thing too because those without the fueature would be missing out on one of the best reasons to own a Samsung Galaxy Note 2.
Have you tried the Samsung Galaxy Note 2’s Multi Windows feature? Have you discovered any other apps that work well with it? Add to the list by letting your fellow Tapscapers know in the comments below!


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Welcome back. Do you work in an industry that has been affected by the UK’s departure from the EU single market and customs union? If so, how is the change hurting — or even benefiting — you and your business? Please keep your feedback coming to [email protected].
When the new EU-UK trade arrangements came into effect on January 1 there were, inevitably, a flurry of news reports about the difficulties being faced by businesses, particularly those involved in agrifood and smaller operators that shipped consignments by the pallet load, rather than entire containers.
There was always a question of the extent to which these woes were “teething problems” and how much were systemic and structural issues caused by imposing rest-of-world trading processes on the fast-moving, flexible trade that had grown up under the EU single market.
As we approach the end of month four, Brexit Briefing’s inbox is still filling up with stories of continuing frustration, and not just with agribusinesses.
The Office for Budget Responsibility, the independent fiscal watchdog, has estimated that exports and imports “will be around 15 per cent lower in the long run”, which roughly matches last month’s ONS trade data for imports.
What is concerning some industries is the lack of progress that is being made, particularly on clearing plants and animal products through EU customs, and so-called “groupage” where small businesses sent individual pallets to fill a container.
The reduction of imports and exports ‘in the long run’ because of Brexit, according to the OBR
Take the fast-growing pet food industry that the FT wrote about recently and saw trade volumes with the EU fall one-third in February, according to the Pet Food Manufacturers’ Association.
For example, companies like Natures Menu in Norfolk, who Brexit Briefing spoke to this week, say they have €120,000 worth of stock stranded waiting clearances for more than 60 days and counting, and an additional €300,000 stuck in its Norfolk warehouse.
These are not inconsiderable numbers for a company that was doing nearly 10 per cent of its £50m turnover in Europe last year, and reckons it will be lucky to do one-third of that in 2021, even in an absolute best-case scenario.
The frustrations are all about the incredibly complex paperwork, but also rules, such as requirements for tests of enterobacteriaceae, which non-EU countries have to meet to a standard that EU single market companies do not.
A recent Natures Menu consignment spent 30 days in Gothenburg before being eventually returned, and when it did come back, the reason given was simply “label mismatch”. Another load was returned because the company had written “salmon” instead of “fish” on one of the forms. Even the best prepared companies are finding how easy it is to make mistakes.
To ordinary businesses like Natures Menu a lot of this smacks of blatant EU protectionism, not least since some of their products are actually manufactured in the EU and none of the UK’s standards have actually changed. But of course, the law has.
Whatever the reasons, says James Langan, the managing director of Natures Menu, unless they are resolved these barriers will inevitably have implications for the company as it loses its EU income stream and questions whether it should devote expensive human resources to the task of trying to slay (often unsuccessfully) the EU’s bureaucratic dragon.
Where there are workarounds to be found, they are costly. Peter Kersh, the managing director of World Feeds Ltd, a small business near Doncaster, Yorkshire, that featured in our original report, said there has been “no change really”, with groupage still the big issue.
He recently managed to get a small shipment through to Italy as a test, using a dedicated vehicle rather than groupage, but this cost more than £1000 against typically £300 before Brexit, which he says is “not tenable in the long term”.
It is not just food-related industries that are suffering. Maxwell-Scott, a Yorkshire-based luxury leather goods retailer with a factory in Italy, estimates that it has missing stock amounting to £50,000 and a loss of sales of £100,000 per month because of shipping woes.
The workload on its customer service team has increased 60-70 per cent, with Germany a particular problem thanks to its strict customs and VAT system which the company says has led to a 90 per cent fall in revenue on its German Amazon platform worth £10,000-£20,000 a month.
Maxwell-Scott has spent a lot of time battling its main carrier, UPS, which seems to have been overwhelmed at times, with parcel searches that usually take 8-10 working days unresolved after more than five weeks, the company says. Again, Maxwell-Scott argues that these costs are crimping its ability to invest in new lines and products.
And the effects cut both ways. Alexander Kirchfeld, chief executive of SEA Vertrieb, a Germany-based audio equipment distributor that sources a fifth of its products from UK manufacturers, says it is facing six-week delays on goods from the UK.
The company is still waiting on more than £7,000 worth of products that have been stuck in German customs since mid-February. “It’s a complete mess,” Kirchfeld told my colleague Oliver Barnes, again citing a miserable customer service experience with UPS. “The combination of Brexit and the pandemic seems to have created total chaos for customs and no one really knows what’s going on.”
Elizabeth Carnahan, founder of Gracefruit, a UK cosmetic ingredients supplier, which generates about a third of its revenue from the German market, tells a similar story, with 20 out of the 75 parcels Gracefruit has sent to Germany with UPS since the new year still stuck.
She too is finding a workaround, this time shipping via the Czech Republic, but she estimates sending goods via a more circuitous route will cost her business tens of thousands of pounds in the long run.
UPS is not alone in struggling with deliveries and says that it is taking “swift measures” to try and address Brexit issues and is “working with German customs officials to help customers comply with the new rules and latest documentation needs, created by Brexit”. But many businesses are starting to wonder if these costs and delays are now baked into the future.
Whether they have to be, remains an open question. When the UK starts to introduce its own border controls next year, these frictions will cause more pain and may incentivise governments on both sides of the Channel to take steps to address the issues.
That the EU-UK deal can evolve for the better is also the aim of a new cross-party group of MPs and industry leaders that have set up an independent commission to try and ferret out fixes, the most immediately obvious being a deeper UK-EU veterinary deal, bilateral youth mobility schemes and technology to smooth border flows.
But this will require political tempers to cool, on both sides. It is true Boris Johnson’s government has opted for a sovereignty-first Brexit, but equally the EU side is not above maximising the economic costs of that approach or using its leverage to orientate supply chains and investment inside the single market, whether for electric vehicles or financial services.
The difficulty is that the longer these approaches persist, the deeper the negative cycle of action and reaction becomes, creating permanent scarring and a constantly adversarial culture. It remains to be seen what dynamic emerges from the management of the Trade and Co-operation Agreement’s various committees, but on current showing business may have to wait a while before pragmatism takes hold.
Brexit in numbers
One key measure of the impact from Brexit will be investment flows on either side of the Channel, and the extent to which UK business shift investment into the EU to access the single market and EU business invest in the UK to smooth access to the UK market.
Research by the LSE suggests that since Brexit, UK companies have invested more heavily in Europe than they would have done had the UK voted to remain in the EU, estimating additional investments by UK companies in the EU at about £21.2bn by March 2019.
The assumption is that much of this is at the expense of investment in the UK, as UK companies look to find ways to continue to operate in the EU, either setting up branch offices or warehousing inside the single market.
The LSE date only runs to the first quarter of 2019, but Professor Thomas Sampson who co-authored the research, says that much of the anecdotal evidence from companies (like those noted above), suggests we can expect the trend to continue.
It is also noteworthy, Sampson adds, that the additional post-Brexit FDI by UK companies into the EU between the 2016 referendum and March 2019 related to services investment. Given that the goods exports have been hard hit by the post January 1 2021 trading rules, you might expect to see those businesses also investing in the EU to preserve access to the market.
Predicting flows the other way, EU businesses investing in the UK, is less certain. Those companies will face the inverse of the choices confronting UK businesses, either sucking up import costs and frictions, exit the UK market altogether, or invest in UK facilities to retain access to the market.
Sampson makes no firm forecasts here, but observes that given the UK’s smaller market size there is “less incentive to set up in the UK than vice versa” — which is what is indicated by the research in the paper.
A quick heads up for BB readers about an exciting new addition to the FT newsletters line up. The daily Brussels Briefing is being reborn as “Europe Express”, in light of the fact that the UK’s relations with Europe must now extend far beyond Brussels. You’ll get the best of our top-flight Brussels bureau intel and insights, but there will also be daily dispatches from Berlin, Paris, Rome, Athens and other capitals. Sign up for the newsletter here and send thoughts, scoops and comments to [email protected].
And, finally, three Brexit stories you may have missed this week.
Boris Johnson called some of the Northern Ireland protocol’s requirements “absurd” and “ludicrous” this week. But even as Britain’s prime minister talks up “further steps” to mitigate unilaterally the effects of his post-Brexit deal with the EU on Northern Ireland, the UK government machine is “throwing the kitchen sink” at making it work.
Northern Ireland’s economy minister is pushing the UK government to ease the strains of post-Brexit rules that threaten the competitiveness of the region’s aerospace industry by forcing companies to pay tariffs on raw materials imported from Great Britain.
UK companies making non-branded drugs have already started to withdraw medicines from the Northern Ireland market because they cannot afford to meet the costs of new post-Brexit red tape, according to industry leaders.


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New Zealand government bonds gained at the time of closing Friday after electronic card retail sales data for October came weaker than market expectations. In addition, Investors from the start of this week built large short positions but are likely covering some of those shorts today.
At the time of closing, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves inversely to its price, fell 1/2 basis point to 2.95 percent, the yield on the 20-year note also slid 1/2 basis point to 3.48 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year ended 1-1/2 basis points lower at 2.06 percent.
People spent more eating out in October 2017, with the hospitality industry up USD15 million, Stats NZ said today. This helped nudge retail card spending up 0.3 percent in the month, when adjusted for seasonal effects. That was lower than the market expectations of 0.6 percent increase and unchanged from September’s growth of 0.3 percent. However, spending rose in four of the six industries. The largest movement was in the hospitality industry, up $15 million (1.5 percent). The hospitality industry dominated the rise in retail card spending in October. Fuel spending dipped 0.8 percent in October (seasonally adjusted), although petrol prices rose at the end of October.
In the United States, Treasuries saw a mixed performance overnight as modest buying in the short-end was contrasted by downward pressure further out the curve. Overall, the big news of the day was the Senate version of proposed tax reform, highlighted by a delay in the corporate tax rate cut to 20 percent (from 35 percent) until 2019.
Meanwhile, the NZX 50 index closed 0.58 percent lower at 7,974.43, while at 05:00GMT, the FxWirePro's Hourly NZD Strength Index remained neutral at -65.74 (a reading above +75 indicates a bullish trend, while that below -75 a bearish trend). For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex
FxWirePro launches Absolute Return Managed Program. For more details, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/invest


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New dates announced: the 18th edition of Automechanika Dubai will now take place from 7 – 9 June 2021 at the Dubai World Trade Centre.
Highly anticipated Automechanika Dubai has been cancelled for 2020, a webinar is available and we’re looking forward to the event which will take place in 2021.
The ideal one-stop platform for professionals and businesses in the automotive aftermarket and service industry, Automechanika continues to grow – just like the industry it supports.
Now firmly established as the largest event of its kind in the Middle East and Africa, Automechanika attracts nearly 33,000 visitors, plus more than 1,900 exhibitors.
These visitors come to expand their networks, explore opportunities and seal deals. Automechanika is above all a thriving marketplace, where significant business is done. For example, more than 8,000 business meetings took place during the last edition.
Automechanika is also a platform that supports knowledge sharing and networking. Attendees come to hear updates on the latest solutions, evaluate market trends and share expertise.
Key features in this respect include the popular interactive panel discussions, where high-profile experts and stakeholders debate the latest industry trends, innovations and changing dynamics. The 2020 show also features the Automechanika Academy, the Innovation Zone, plus practical elements such as training workshops for garage professionals.
There is also a series of side events, including AfriConnections, a specialist area that connects buyers and suppliers with the growing and lucrative African automotive market.


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The Huffington Post rebrands as “HuffPost” with a new logo and website
JJ Eastwood talks growth plans and the future of digital audience measurement
The Grill Team's Emma Freedman joins the Seven Days podcast team to talk about this week's media headlines.
HuffPost Australia’s commercial team will be led by Ashleigh Thomas
Huffington Post global CEO Jared Grusd talks marketing, content creation, publishers and platforms
Herald Sun's 25 years, biggest SVOD ad spenders, HuffPost, WAtoday, Aussie Bake Off, ABC TV's The Beautiful Lie
HuffPost Australia CEO Chris Janz: "The aim is to be profitable within three years"
Local CEO Chris Janz on HuffPost's Australian launch, Foxtel CEO Richard Freudenstein on company's future
Julie Bishop, dude food + Sanity Money – HuffPost Australia launches ahead of schedule
Nine’s ratings snapshot: Australian Open Day 9
Seven covering major cycling + 3 forms of cricket this weekend
New monthly: That’s Life! brand continues to thrive 25 years after launch
News Corp and Australia Post join forces to boost literacy levels
Oscars: Netflix is the hottest new Hollywood studio
The Bouchets bail: ARN loses second Sydney breakfast radio EP


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Emneth catering firm delivers Easter treats for those struggling amid coronavirus pandemic
- Credit: Archant
A catering and cake company in Emneth has cooked and delivered Easter lunches for those struggling in isolation during the coronavirus pandemic.
Sweet Things Savoury prepared an Easter Sunday lunch full of traditional favourites, including a chocolate tart for dessert and a hot cross bun in the evening.
Since opening last month, owner Ginny Skeels and her team have been cooking and delivering up to 40 meals a day for people in and around Wisbech to help those who cannot cook for themselves, need a treat or just a change of menu.
Ginny said: “We had intended to launch this service in May. However, events rather overtook us, and it seemed there were a lot of local people who needed our help sooner rather than later.
“We wanted to do something extra special for Easter, so we created a special Easter Sunday set menu of roast pork with all the trimmings, a salted honey fudge and chocolate tart for dessert and a hot cross bun for teatime.”
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Customers have already taken to social media to share their thoughts on the Easter lunch. One said they “just had the most beautiful meal”, while another wrote they were “too full to eat the pudding, so will save that for later!”
With a wealth of experience in baking, Ginny is stepping into the catering industry and an eye to benefit those in the community she is serving.
- 1 Friends pay tribute to ‘great young lad’ who drowned at Bawsey Pits
- 2 Updates as emergency services rush to major crash blocking B1101
- 3 Man, aged in his 40s, dies after suspected drug-fuelled B1101 crash
- 4 Serious crash blocks main road into Fen town
- 5 Home next to disused railway bridge gets the go-ahead
- 6 Man in his 20 dies at West Norfolk park
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- 8 On hottest day of the year hospital 'put me in a store room for over two hours'
- 9 Fifty jobs up for grabs as Deliveroo announces early move into Wisbech
- 10 Man jailed for sexual relationship with schoolgirl
Ginny’s home delivery service has acted as a lifeline for those most in need, and with pubs, cafes and restaurants across Fenland forced to close, providing a taste of joy may never have been more important.
She said: “Our delivery service means we can now deliver home-cooked, delicious meals to anyone who has an appetite but not the energy or desire to cook for themselves, delivered every lunchtime seven days a week, ready to eat then and there with no preparation or cooking required.
“Everything we make is made from scratch with love and it was a menu we really enjoyed cooking.”
Sweet Things Savoury delivers within an eight-mile radius of Wisbech.
For more information on the service or to request a menu, call Ginny on 01945 474594, email email@example.com or visit their Facebook page at Sweet Things Savoury.
What are you doing to help others during the coronavirus pandemic? Let us know - email Daniel.Mason@archant.co.uk.


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Under CEO Vas Narasimhan, Novartis has slimmed down what was a sprawling conglomerate spanning prescription and generic drugs, eye care and consumer healthcare. The drugmaker sold its stake in a consumer health joint venture with GlaxoSmithKline in 2018 and, a year later, spun off its eye care unit Alcon as a independent company.
Tuesday’s announcement of a strategic review for Sandoz, meanwhile, follows a failed bid by Novartis to sell about 300 of its products to India’s Aurobindo Pharma, a deal that was terminated after U.S. regulators refused to sign off.
“The review will explore all options, ranging from retaining the business to separation, in order to determine how to best maximize value for our shareholders,” Novartis said in a statement.
In a conference call, Narasimhan said the company would provide an update on progress “at the latest by the end of next year.” READ MORE
Decades ago, the founder-led biotech was rare and considered the tougher path to follow. Now there is a trend of founder-led biotechs that have risen in prominence in recent years, going from startup to well known with lightning speed. Scientists-turned C-suite occupants know their technology inside out. They’ve got credibility both at the bench working with their research teams and in the boardrooms selling their future products.
Pfizer’s revenue could reach $101.3 billion in 2022, with major contributions coming from the company’s BioNTech-partnered COVID vaccine and an antiviral therapeutic that has shown stellar clinical data, SVB Leerink analyst Geoffrey Porges projected in a Monday note to clients.
In a survey commissioned by GlaxoSmithKline’s consumer health division of 2,000 working people in the U.S., almost 70% admitted to clocking in while sick, often because they couldn’t afford to lose a day’s pay. Black and Latina women were 10% more likely than white women to shun taking sick time for fear of fallout from their boss, according to the company’s 2021 Temperature Check Report.


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As the vice president of marketing and communications of Five Guys, Molly Catalano, MBA ’08, oversees the company’s marketing, branding, public relations, and customer service efforts. But it’s the culture and relationship building, especially in the franchise business model, that Catalano treasures most.
Catalano, will be sharing her experiences in the restaurant industry at our virtual Brown & Brown Speaker Series on Wednesday, November 18 at 4 p.m. Register today! http://ow.ly/SNx850BuEgg
For Molly Catalano, MBA ’08, it was the right place at the right time. As the vice president of marketing and communications of Five Guys, she has a plethora of responsibilities including overseeing the company’s internal communications, marketing, branding, social media, public relations, graph...


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Miami, Florida (PRWEB) December 29, 2012
Search volume for "Photo Booth Rental" is expected to increase by 5-7% according to Google Trends, a tool that Google has developed to show keyword search demand. Search demand can correlate to actual product demand and awareness, and because Peekaboo Photo Booth is a national photo booth rental company serving over 16 major markets this type of forecasting has never been more important.
Photo booth rental started to become more popular in 2006, however, the industry has exploded since then. In fact, this business continues to experience year-over-year growth as photo booths become a social norm at weddings, mitzvahs, sweet sixteen parties, and nearly any other special event you can imagine.
Though many new competitors have entered the photo booth rental market, Peekaboo Photo Booth has been there since the beginning. "Great parties are made better with Photo Booths," states Andrew Birr of Peekaboo Photo Booth. "Especially because of new photo booth companies entering the market, it makes a lot of sense to go with an established provider. Why worry about photo booth problems at your event?” he continues.
“Peekaboo Photo Booth has the ability to do over 500 events monthly, we are excited at the 2013 season forecast and ready to help host your event,” explains Andrew.
Not only do they handle a significant amount of weddings, but they handle a large amount of events from parades and corporate parties to small private celebrity parties. Peekaboo offers a wide variety of costume’s, online file sharing, scrapbooks, and instant printouts at the event.
About Peekaboo Photo Booth
With more than five years of experience, Peekaboo Photo Booth (http://www.peekaboophotobooth.com) has completed thousands of successful events. The company offers classy, cabana-style booths that are easy to set up and simple to use. Based in Miami, Florida., Peekaboo Photo Booth is a privately-owned firm that offers services nationwide. In addition to operating in the Miami area, the company also has a presence in the following metropolitan areas: Detroit, Tampa, Orlando, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Phoenix, Houston, Dallas, Chicago, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Boston, Atlanta, Seattle and New York. Peekaboo Photo Booth is a Photo Booth Rental Business and celebrates a nationwide footprint servicing both private and corporate events.


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Hands Off My Bike!
In San Francisco, up to three bikes are stolen each hour – egad! This thievery has led to citizen innovation, including a map that visualizes where bikes are reported stolen and “bait bike” stickers that trick thieves into thinking a GPS chip is installed to allow police to immediately start tracking the stolen bike.
- Bike theft map pinpoints problem hotspots (Examiner) 06/10/2014
- San Francisco Police Use GPS To Catch Bike Thieves (KCBS) 06/10/2014
- Fighting S.F.’s mobile bicycle chop shops (Examiner) 06/08/2014
- Unclaimed bikes could be required to be used for youth repair program (Examiner) 02/24/2014
- S.F: As bike thefts rise, registration program gears up (Chronicle) 02/17/2014
- SF bike registry launching as police ramp up anti-theft efforts (Examiner) 02/13/2014
- San Francisco expected to set goal of reducing bike thefts by 50 percent in 5 years (Examiner) 09/20/2013
- S.F. bike registry taking shape in effort to curb bike thefts (Examiner) 07/19/2013
- As bicycling rises in popularity, so does theft (Chronicle) 07/19/2013
- San Francisco lawmaker wants to curb rampant bike thefts (Examiner) 01/31/2013


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Can regulatory systems come to terms with Facebook’s stablecoin?
Tue 16 Feb 2021
Facebook’s ambition to create a transferable global digital coin between users on the social media giant’s messaging platforms WhatsApp and Messenger has been controversial from the outset. Perhaps not surprisingly, the backlash from regulators around the world was substantial from day one. The world’s leading economies were less than enthusiastic of the possibility of a cryptocurrency – a global stablecoin – issued by a social media giant, rivalling their sovereign currencies and disrupting the established monetary policies, monetary sovereignty, and financial stability both locally and globally.
The concerns outlined by international and government heads included: privacy, money laundering and financial terrorism, consumer protection, data security, network stability, competition, and taxation. The lawmakers had to have a united international regulatory response to Libra – now Diem – to prevent arbitrage opportunities. They had to establish how to regulate the currency, manage the Reserve backing the currency, and how the global financial infrastructure would be affected. To monitor payment chain information and exchange listings of the coin, its wallets, validators and providers, the regulators also required full access to the Association’s system.
The latest revisions to the proposed system
Registered in Geneva in May 2019, the Libra Association has persisted in its efforts to bring the stablecoin project to life and has tweaked its design several times to meet regulatory concerns. After many months of government hearings and investigations, Libra rebranded to Diem Association in December 2020 and published the latest version of its white paper on its payment system design. The regulatory concerns deserving specific attention, have been addressed in four fundamental changes:
- Offering single currency stablecoins in addition to the multi-currency coin. This decision addresses the regulators’ view that a multi-currency coin would interfere with monetary sovereignty and monetary policy, should the network reach significant scale.
Each coin will be supported by “a reserve of cash or cash-equivalents and very short-term government securities denominated in that currency and issued by the home country of that currency”. The Association will start with single stablecoins on the USD, EUR, and GBP and expand over time. The organisation would continue to work with financial regulators worldwide to expand the collection of single currency coins offered.
As central banks develop their own digital currencies (CBDC), Libra would like to integrate these into its network directly, removing the need for a Reserve and reducing credit and custody risk. This addresses the regulators’ competition concerns that the planned digital payment system could unfairly lock out competitors.
Under this change, the original multi-currency Libra coin will be a digital composite of some of the single currency Libra coins available on its network. The implementation of a smart contract would aggregate the single currency coins using fixed nominal weights. Oversight and control of the composed currency basket and their respective weights could be done by a group of regulators or an international organisation under the guidance of the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, FINMA, as the main regulator of the Association. Libra could act as a settlement coin in cross-border transactions and countries that do not have a single currency coin.
- Enhancing the safety of the Libra payment system with a robust compliance framework. To help support and uphold operating standards for network participants, the Association established a Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) function. The FIU incorporates current lawmakers’ feedback and continues to develop its framework for financial compliance with existing standards for Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT), sanctions compliance, and the prevention of illicit activities.
Initially, the network will only be accessible to Designated Dealers and Regulated Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs). When all relevant compliance frameworks have been finalized and approved by regulators other VASPs and other individuals and entities (Unhosted Wallets) seeking to transact or provide services through the Libra network would be included, subject to balance and transaction limits.
- Forgoing the future transition to a permissionless system while maintaining its key economic properties. This is in response to the regulators’ concerns that unknown network participants might take control of the system and remove key compliance provisions. In a permissionless blockchain, the developer effectively relinquishes control of the purposes and means of personal data processing. The regulators fear this will undermine data and network security as well as consumer protection. In the private/permissioned network, the administrator determines the purposes and means of personal data processing on the blockchain. The Association will try to replicate some of the permissionless system’s economic benefits combined with the governance and due diligence inherent in a permissioned system.
- Building strong protections into the design of the Libra Reserve. This change responds to the regulators’ concerns about the impact of extreme situations or stressed scenarios. The assets held in the Reserve will have short-term maturities, and its amount will be equal to the face value of each Libra coin in circulation. At least 80% will be government securities with up to three months’ remaining maturity and credit ratings of A+ (S&P) and A1 (Moody’s), or higher. The outstanding 20% will be held in cash, with overnight sweeps into money market funds that invest in government securities with up to one year’s remaining maturity and the same risk and liquidity profiles. According to A regulatory and financial stability perspective on global stablecoins issued by the European Central Bank (ECB), the currency reserve for the euro stablecoin could become the leading money market fund in Europe and be systemically important. Thus, if the Association is to operate in the European market, it should be subject to the current regulations for money market funds or a new set of rules that address the specific requirements of stablecoins.
Since losses cannot be wholly excluded and, following supervisors’ advice, a capital buffer whose size is to be determined by a regulatory capital framework will additionally support the Reserve.
The Reserve will be transparent and regularly audited by independent auditors, while the audit results will be publicly available. Furthermore, the Association will publish on its website “on a daily basis the then-current composition of the Reserve and the then-current market value of the assets”.
The modifications above represent a change of direction in the Association’s original vision; a clear sign of a willingness and readiness to comply with regulators’ requirements. Recent high profile hires also showcase an intent to please the regulators: Stuart Levey as CEO, former Chief Legal Officer of HSBC and Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence during the Bush and Obama Administrations, and Steve Bunnell as Chief Legal Officer, former General Counsel of the US Department of Homeland Security, and a former Chief of the Criminal Division of the US Attorney’s Office for DC.
In April 2020 the Association formally applied for a payment system licensing with FINMA, potentially heralding the launch of the first single currency stablecoin, which would be backed one-for-one by the USD. It is unclear whether and when a licence will be granted and if FINMA would impose further amendments to the payment system. Plus as much as the Diem Association tries to distance itself from Facebook, we can’t overlook the fact that Novi Financial, Inc., the company which built and will operate the Diem wallet, belongs to Facebook. The social media company’s poor track record on data privacy remains an ongoing concern for regulators.
The white paper Stablecoins: risks, potential and regulation, which was published by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in November 2020, argues that while global stablecoins offer great potential, the benefits may be achieved more effectively in many cases with Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and other initiatives such as fast payment systems. And while the Central Banks do not have to issue fiat currency-based stablecoins – a strictly political decision – they are also obviously uncomfortable with the idea that a private company with three billion users can do so. Hence, we already have the digital yuan, while the digital euro and digital yen are in the pipeline.
The obvious need for a more efficient and financially inclusive payment system, combined with the already existing technology for its support, makes the arrival of a fiat-backed global stablecoin and the development of a regulatory framework to host it inevitable. While there is still a long way to go, the system is finally awake, and the process of establishing proper legislation has commenced.
As the regulatory framework progresses, further analysis on the consequences of global stablecoins on the economic and business environment will be vital as we prepare for a new digital currency era.
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Kroger looks to open in Austin Landing
A new Kroger store could be coming to Austin Landing, according to Miami Township documents.
Officials submitted a plan to Miami Township zoning commission for the construction of a 99,000-square-foot Kroger and a fuel station in Austin Landing, a 142-acre mixed-use development in Miami Township that sits on the line between Montgomery and Warren counties.
The new grocery store, which would feature a drive-thru pharmacy, would be located to the east of the 125-room Hilton Garden Inn scheduled to open in early 2013.
The township zoning commission on Tuesday, Feb. 21 will review the final development plan. If the zoning commission recommends the plan, the Miami Township Board of Trustees on Feb. 28 will vote on the project.
Rachael Betzler, public relations manager for Kroger’s Dayton area stores, said the company can’t comment on the proposed store until the deal is finalized, which she projects will be next month.
“It’s a project we’re very interested in,” Betzler said.
The addition of the grocery store would make Austin Landing more of a destination, according to Chris Snyder, assistant planning director for Miami Township.
“People will be coming to Austin Landing not just to work but to shop there,” Snyder said.
He said the commission has been working with Kroger for the past several months to ensure the architectural appearance of the store matches the overall architecture and design of Austin Landing.
“We’re trying to kind of reduce that traditional suburban box architecture and make it more pedestrian oriented,” Snyder said.
The new store store would come on the heels of other Kroger expansions in the Dayton region.
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A computer outage affecting registers forced Starbucks to give away free drinks Friday before closing stores early.
In the aftermath of Comcast's decision to walk away from buying Time Warner Cable, some winners and losers are emerging.
Technology startups and New York authorities will get each other's input on dealing with regulations under an initiative the state attorney general and New York City's chief lawyer announced Friday.
In the age of the smart phone, how smart are the mobile shoppers who use these almost ubiquitous devices? A study from South Korea published in the International Journal of Mobile Communications hopes to answer that questi ...
Indian software giant Infosys Technologies saw its shares dip nearly seven percent Friday after it reported a single digit rise in yearly revenues and also missed quarterly profit estimates.
Mark April 23, 2015 as the day the Nasdaq market finally left the dot-com crash, and billions of dollars lost to the first technology bubble, behind.
Apple has won an appeal in China over patent rights to voice recognition software such as the iPhone's "Siri", with a court overruling an earlier decision that had gone against the US technology giant.
Google paid its billionaire Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt nearly $109 million last year while the company's stock slumped.


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MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA, Premier social marketplace for buying and selling gently loved children's fashion, announces its $1.8 million in seed funding.
Totspot, the premier social marketplace for buying and selling gently loved children's fashion, announces its $1.8 million in seed funding led by GGV Capital. Currently available as a free app for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, Totspot gives families a way to cash in their kids' closets and stay on budget while keeping little ones toddler-trendy and fashion-forward. The new financing allows the Company to quickly scale its online presence and support the launch of an Android app, which is expected in Q4 2014.
Launched less than a year ago by entrepreneurs Vijay Ramani and Vikrant Ramteke, Totspot is already used by a national mom-to-mom community, with 65 percent being return shoppers. GGV Capital led the round and Hans Tung, an expert in mobile commerce, will be a Board Observer. Other investors include 500 Startups, Jerry Yang (AME Cloud Ventures), and QueensBridge Venture Partners.
'At GGV, we are betting big on mobile companies especially those that combine commerce and community,' said Hans Tung, managing partner, GGV Capital. 'We know moms are a highly engaged and loyal community from past experiences. We are excited to work with inspired entrepreneurs such as Vijay and Vikrant to build a marketplace for mobile moms. This is a marketplace which is expected to triple by 2018, reaching $131 billion in the U.S. alone, and we can see global potential from here onward.'
Totspot solves the age-old challenge every parent faces when outfitting their growing soccer stars and fashionistas - kids grow, clothes don't. The free app has an intuitive interface designed to be simple and fast. Community members create a user profile and then shop fashions by keyword, size or style. Sellers simply take a picture of an item, upload it along with a brief description and the Totspot platform transforms it into a snappy, Pinterest-like post. Sellers can bundle items by size, style or category. When items sell, Totspot deposits 80 percent of the transaction into the seller's account and keeps a 20 percent commission. To complete the sale, Totspot sends a prepaid addressed label to the seller to simplify shipping and delivery to the buyer.
'Totspot's simple and intuitive mobile marketplace is helping moms keep their kids stylish and on-trend while staying smart about spending and leveraging the latest technology to save time and streamline shopping,' said Vijay Ramani, Co-founder and CEO of Totspot. 'With this round of funding, Totspot has the financial resources to launch next gen platforms and online channels to be everywhere a mom needs to be, whether multitasking at the office or on the sidelines.'
Totspot was founded in 2014 and is the premier social marketplace for buying and selling gently loved children's fashion. Totspot solves the age-old challenge every parent faces when outfitting their growing soccer stars and fashionistas - kids grow, clothes don't. The free app and intuitive interface supports fast and easy mom-to-mom mobile retailing giving families a simple way to cash in their kids' closets and keep little ones toddler-trendy and fashion-forward. For more information download app or visit us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram
About GGV Capital
GGV Capital is a $2.2 billion multi-stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley (Menlo Park, CA) and Shanghai, China. Founded in 2000, the firm leverages a unique operating model - one team investing across the U.S. and China, the two largest economies in the world. GGV portfolio companies include Alibaba Group, athenahealth, AAC Technologies, BlueKai, Buddy Media, Chukong Technologies, Citrus Lane, Domo, Endeca, Flipboard, GrabTaxi, HotelTonight, Houzz, Meilishuo, Nimble Storage, Pandora Media, Percolate, Qunar, SoundCloud, Square, SuccessFactors, Tujia, UCWeb, Wish, Youku-Tudou, YY, Zendesk, and 21Vianet. For more information, visit www.ggvc.com
and follow GGV Capital on Twitter: @GGVCapital and WeChat: GGVCapital.
(c)2011-2020 by Massinvestor, Inc. For contact info, please check out our about


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Smell, it is often argued, is the most sensitive and powerful of the five senses, and the one most tied to memory and emotion.
Smell, it is often argued, is the most sensitive and powerful of the five senses, and the one most tied to memory and emotion. According to some studies, it affects 75% of our daily emotions and can influence mood, well-being and pleasure. Smell can also create lasting connections between a brand and its customers. In fact, the perfume industry has been built around this connection. Fragrances are developed to evoke a range of emotions—from desire to vitality and relaxation. After all, who hasn’t been drawn into a café by the smell of freshly brewed coffee? Car designers are increasingly competing to deliver the perfect car scent in each market. Ford Motor Company says that smell is a crucial aspect of delivering high quality vehicles to customers. “Smell is one of the most important factors when people buy a new car,” says Andy Pan, an engineer who leads Ford’s Asia Pacific odour laboratory. “We test everything that goes into our vehicles to ensure they look, feel and smell just right. It’s all part of delivering the best customer experience to drivers and passengers.” Ford says that, since 2008, it has been expanding its Asia Pacific odour laboratory in Nanjing, China.
Today, the team consists of 18 ‘super smellers’, who conduct about 300 odour tests each year on materials and components that go into its Asia Pacific vehicles, including in India. No smoking Every year Ford runs an application process to select its team of super smellers in China from across departments within the company and they are asked to judge material samples in 16 jars. “You can’t smoke or have allergies and sinus issues,” says Mike Feng, a Ford smell tester for four years. “Wearing perfume, leather jackets or nail polish is also not allowed, and you shouldn’t use strongly scented shampoo to ensure your senses aren’t compromised.”
Different markets Scents don’t smell the same to everyone, so Ford has odour labs in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific to make sure its vehicles appeal to customers all over the world. “Leather is a challenging material as markets respond differently to it,” says Pan. Ford claims that everything used in its vehicles—seat fabric, plastics or carpet—is odour tested, i.e. materials should have an odour that is perceptible, but not disturbing. If anything is deemed too smelly, Ford works with the supplier to remedy the issue or explore other options.
To test how a car will smell when it’s mass manufactured, Ford says it tests material samples using simple domestic tools: glass jars and ovens. The material samples are scaled to their relative size in the vehicle and put into the jars, which are heated in an oven to three temperatures: 80, 40, and 23 degrees Celsius. Testers add water to the 40- and 23-degree jars to create humidity. “The materials used in our cars need to smell the same in any condition, even on a very hot day,” says Pan.


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Online content supplier for the casino industry Play’n GO announced it renewed its license in Sweden. The company unveiled Wednesday that it was able to acquire a Swedish business-to-business (B2B) license, allowing it to continue to provide its content to audiences in the country.
Besides enabling Play’n GO to continue to deliver content in Sweden, the license strengthens the company’s presence in the European iGaming sector. This license is particularly important for Play’n GO considering that Sweden is the country where the company was founded.
As a result, customers in the country will be able to enjoy Play’n GO’s latest hit Legion Gold, its most popular online slot game called Book of Dead, as well as other titles within its continuously growing portfolio of content.
Sweden Remains an Important Market for the Company
Magnus Olsson, Play’n GO’s chief commercial officer (CMO), explained that Sweden is a home market for the country. He pointed out that although the company has a growing global presence, it still remains committed to offering its leading content to customers in Sweden. “It’s extra special for us to receive one of the first licenses from the regulator Spelinspektionen,” added Olsson.
“We would like to thank Spelinspektionen for the swift granting of our license so early in the process, allowing us to continue leading from the front in supplying the safest, most entertaining casino experience for players in our home market of Sweden.“
Magnus Olsson, chief commercial officer for Play’n GO
The company’s chief commercial officer thanked the gambling regulator in the country, Spelinspektionen, for allowing Play’n GO to continue to provide its popular games that deliver safe and engaging entertainment to Swiss customers.
Olsson noted that the company is excited to continue to bring safe gaming experiences for customers as it has done in the last two decades. Finally, the CMO pointed out that Play’n GO’s content helps Swedish operators with player retention and delivers exciting experiences.
“Of course, we will continue to supply the most exciting and safe casino gaming experience to Swedish players, as we have done for nearly 20 years,“
The renewed license reaffirms Play’n GO’s commitment to offering its content to the European market. At the same time, it comes during a busy period for the company, as it recently expanded its presence in the US as well, by securing a license in Connecticut. That marked the fourth US license secured by the Swedish-founded iGaming operator. Previously, Play’n GO acquired licenses for strategic markets such as Michigan, New Jersey, as well as West Virginia.


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Volkswagen Group Sales India Pvt. Ltd on Tuesday said it will launch refreshed variants of its Polo and Vento cars by the end of September to boost sales of the hatchback and sedan in India.
The revised versions of the Polo hatchback and the Vento sedan will have features like black headlamps, new design alloy wheels, leather wrapped steering wheel, RCD 310 music system with USB connectivity, multifunction steering wheel, and Bluetooth device. The cars will be priced lower than the original versions.
"We are repositioning the two models, and there are some minor product changes based on market feedback," Arvind Saxena, the newly-appointed managing director of Volkswagen Passenger Cars said according to The Hindu.
The company said it will also offer better financial benefits to the customers in an aim to push sales impacted by the economic slowdown and present fuel prices. The company had reported about a 38 percent decline in sales for the month of August when a total of 4,410 units were sold, compared to 6,091 units that were sold out in the same period the previous year.
"We are working towards a 3 per cent plus share by the end of the calendar. The market has not been at its best, and the passenger car industry, too, saw a drop of 15 per cent during the period," said Saxena further adding, "We plan to increase dealerships from 109 to 150 dealerships by the year-end.''
The new gasoline-powered Vento will be priced at ₹729,000-874,000 and the top new variants of the Polo will be priced between ₹489,000 and ₹584,000 in Delhi. The highline variant of Vento petrol has come down by 20,000 and the highline Polo by 40,000. The fully loaded Highline Polo is now priced at ₹694,000 while the Vento Highline costs ₹989,000 ex-showroom, Delhi.
The revised models of Volkswagen is expected to bring high competition to best-selling diesel cars like Maruti Swift (₹676,000), Hyundai i20 (₹744,000) and Hyundai Verna (₹1.05 million).