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|By Business Wire||
|February 25, 2013 12:01 AM EST||
MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS – Intel Corporation today announced a range of new products, ecosystem and enabling efforts that will further accelerate the company’s presence in mobile and help usher in new devices and richer experiences with Intel Inside®.
The announcements include a new dual-core Atom™ SoC ("Clover Trail+") platform for smartphones and Android* tablets, and the company’s first global, multimode-multiband LTE solution that will ship in the first half of this year. Other disclosures included “Bay Trail” momentum, mobile device enabling efforts, and continued smartphone momentum in emerging markets with the Intel® Atom™ Z2420 processor-based platform.
“Today’s announcements build on Intel’s growing device portfolio across a range of mobile market segments,” said Hermann Eul, Intel vice president and co-general manager of the Mobile and Communications Group. “In less than a year's time we have worked closely with our customers to bring Intel-based smartphones to market in more than 20 countries around the world, and have also delivered an industry-leading low-power Atom™ SoC tablet solution running Windows* 8, and shipping with leading OEM customers today. Looking forward, we will build upon this foundation and work closely with our ecosystem partners, across operating systems, to deliver the best mobile products and experiences for consumers with Intel Inside.”
New, Efficient Atom™ SoC Platform
Intel’s new Atom™ processor platform ("Clover Trail+") and smartphone reference design delivers industry-leading performance with low-power and long battery life that rivals today’s most popular Android* phones. The product brings Intel’s classic product strengths, including high performance that lets you enjoy smooth Web browsing, vibrant, glitch-free, full HD movies, and an Android* applications experience that launches fast and runs great.
The platform’s 32nm dual core Intel® Atom™ Processors -- Z2580, Z2560, Z2520 -- are available in speeds up to 2.0 GHz, 1.6 GHz and 1.2GHz, respectively. The processor also features support for Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology, supporting four simultaneous application threads and further enhancing the overall efficiency of the Atom cores.
The integrated platform also includes an Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator engine with a graphics core supporting up to 533MHz with boost mode, and delivering up to three times the graphics performance1 for rich 3-D visuals, lifelike gaming and smooth, full 1080P hardware-accelerated video encode and decode at 30fps.
“Our second-generation product delivers double the compute performance and up to three times the graphics capabilities1, all while maintaining competitive low power,” Eul said. “As we transition to 22nm Atom SoCs later this year, we will take full advantage of the broad spectrum of capabilities enabled by our design, architecture, 22nm tri-gate transistor technology, and leading-edge manufacturing to further accelerate our position.”
The new Atom platform also brings advanced imaging capabilities, including support for two cameras, with a primary camera sensor up to 16 megapixels. The imaging system also enables panorama capture, a 15 frame-per-second burst mode for 8 megapixel photos, real-time facial detection and recognition, and mobile HDR image capture with de-ghosting for clearer pictures in flight.
The platform is also equipped with Intel® Identity Protection Technology (Intel IPT), helping to enable strong, two-factor authentication for protecting cloud services such as remote banking, e-commerce, online gaming and social networking from unauthorized access. Since Intel IPT is embedded at chip-level, unlike hardware or phone-based tokens, it can enable more secure, yet user-friendly cloud access protection. Intel is working with partners including Feitian*, Garanti Bank*, MasterCard*, McAfee*, SecureKey* Technologies Inc., Symantec*, Vasco Data Security International* Inc. and Visa* Inc. to incorporate this technology into their services.
With WUXGA display support of 1900x1200, the platform will also enable larger-screen Android* tablet designs. It also includes support for Android* 4.2 (Jelly Bean), Intel Wireless Display Technology, HSPA+ at 42Mbps with the Intel® XMM 6360 slim modem solution, and the new industry-standard UltraVioletTM Common File Format.
Customers announcing support for "Clover Trail+" platform for phones and tablets include ASUS*, Lenovo*, and ZTE*.
Debuting at CES last month, the Lenovo* IdeaPhone K900* is based on the Intel® Atom™ processor Z2580 and delivers rich video, graphics and Web content at fantastic speeds. The IdeaPhone is 6.9mm thin and also features the world’s first 5.5-inch full high-definition 400+ PPI screen for increased clarity of text and images. The K900 will be the first product to market based on the Atom processor Z2580. Lenovo plans to introduce the smartphone in the second quarter of 2013 in China, followed soon by select international markets.
Building on the Atom processor platform ("Clover Trail+"), Intel also highlighted its forthcoming 22nm smartphone Atom™ SoC ("Merrifield"). The product is based on Intel’s leading-edge 22nm process and an entirely new Atom microarchitecture that will help enable increased smartphone performance, power efficiency and battery life.
Long-Term Evolution (4G LTE)
Intel’s strategy is to deliver a leading low-power, global modem solution that works across multiple bands, modes, regions and devices.
The Intel XMM 7160 is one of the world’s smallest2 and lowest-power multimode-multiband LTE solutions (LTE / DC-HSPA+ / EDGE), supporting multiple devices including smartphones, tablets and Ultrabooks™. The 7160 global modem supports 15 LTE bands simultaneously, more than any other in-market solution. It also includes a highly configurable RF architecture running real time algorithms for envelope tracking and antenna tuning that enables cost-efficient multiband configurations, extended battery life, and global roaming in a single SKU.
“The 7160 is a well-timed and highly competitive 4G LTE solution that we expect will meet the growing needs of the emerging global 4G market,” Eul said. “Independent analysts have shown our solution to be world class and I’m confident that our offerings will lead Intel into new multi-comm solutions. With LTE connections projected to double over the next 12 months to more than 120 million connections, we believe our solution will give developers and service providers a single competitive offering while delivering to consumers the best global 4G experience. Building on this, Intel will also accelerate the delivery of new advanced features to be timed with future advanced 4G network deployments.”
Intel is currently shipping its single mode 4G LTE data solution and will begin multimode shipments later in the first half of this year. The company is also optimizing its LTE solutions concurrently with its SoC roadmap to ensure the delivery of leading-edge low-power combined solutions to the marketplace.
Intel® Atom™ Platform Z2420
As Intel expands its geographic presence, the company sees tremendous opportunity in delivering rich Intel-based mobile experiences to consumers across emerging markets.
As part of its strategy to take advantage of the fast growing market for value smartphones in emerging markets, which some analysts expect to reach 500 million units by 2015, Intel highlighted continuing momentum with the Intel Atom Processor Z2420 platform (formerly "Lexington"). Since it was first announced at CES, Acer* (Thailand, Malaysia), Lava* (India) and Safaricom* (Kenya) have all announced new handsets.
Etisalat Misr*, a leading telco operator based in Egypt and a subsidiary of Etisalat group UAE, in collaboration with Intel today announced plans for the Etisalat E-20 Smartphone with Intel Inside®. Set to debut in Egypt in April, the Intel-based handset will be the first in the Middle East and North Africa region, and the second introduction in Africa to-date, building on the recent launch of Safaricom* in Kenya.
Demonstrating the flexibility of the Atom SoC platform to accommodate a range of device and market segment needs, ASUS* later today will announce a new Android* tablet based on the Intel® Atom™ Processor Z2420.
Tablets with Intel Inside®
Building on the device momentum and industry-leading power-efficiency of the award-winning Atom processor Z2760, Intel’s first quad-core Atom SoC ("Bay Trail"), will be the most powerful Atom processor to-date -- doubling the computing performance of Intel’s current- generation tablet offering and providing the ecosystem with a strong technology foundation and feature set from which to innovate. The "Bay Trail" platform, scheduled to be available for holiday 2013, is already up and running on Windows* and Android* and will help enable new experiences in designs as thin as 8mm that have all-day battery life and weeks of standby.
Intel is currently working with Compal*, ECS*, Pegatron*, Quanta* and Wistron* to accelerate "Bay Trail" tablets to the market. Intel is also extending its work with leading OEM partners globally, building on the strong foundation of Intel Atom processor Z2760-based tablet designs in market from Acer*, ASUS*, Dell*, Fujitsu*, HP*, Lenovo*, LG Electronics and Samsung*.
Enabling Mobile Devices with Intel Inside®
Intel today announced an expansion of its ecosystem enabling efforts to deliver new device and market innovations across a range of Windows*- and Android*-based mobile devices.
Intel platform and enabling programs have been the foundation of OEM and ODM innovation for decades. The new program will focus on accelerating time to market for leading-edge mobile devices based on Intel® architecture with top OEMs and ODMs. The program will focus first on tablets, followed by phones, providing pre-qualified solutions with simplified building blocks to scale designs quickly for mature and emerging markets. The Atom Processor Z2760 and the company’s forthcoming 22nm Atom SoC, codenamed "Bay Trail," will be the starting foundation for the effort.
Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) is a world leader in computing innovation. The company designs and builds the essential technologies that serve as the foundation for the world’s computing devices. Additional information about Intel is available at newsroom.intel.com and blogs.intel.com.
Intel, Atom, Core and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries.
*Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
1 Compared to the Intel Atom Processor Z2460 platform; Graphics clock will vary based on SKU: Z2580, Z2560, Z2520. 2 Compared with competitive solutions shipping in market today.
"We have seen the evolution of WebRTC right from the starting point to what it has become today, that people are using in real applications," noted Dr. Natasha Tamaskar, Vice President and Head of Cloud and Mobile Strategy and Ecosystem at GENBAND, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at WebRTC Summit, held June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City.
Jul. 7, 2015 10:15 PM EDT Reads: 1,133
[slides] Policy in Hybrid Cloud By @DerekCollison | @CloudExpo #API #DevOps #Containers #Microservices
Enterprises are turning to the hybrid cloud to drive greater scalability and cost-effectiveness. But enterprises should beware as the definition of “policy” varies wildly. Some say it’s the ability to control the resources apps’ use or where the apps run. Others view policy as governing the permissions and delivering security. Policy is all of that and more. In his session at 16th Cloud Expo, Derek Collison, founder and CEO of Apcera, explained what policy is, he showed how policy should be arch...
Jul. 7, 2015 09:30 PM EDT Reads: 1,109
Silicon Valley @WebRTCSummit Speaking Opportunities | @ThingsExpo #IoT #M2M #WebRTC #InternetOfThings
The 3rd International WebRTC Summit, to be held Nov. 4–6, 2014, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, announces that its Call for Papers is now open. Topics include all aspects of improving IT delivery by eliminating waste through automated business models leveraging cloud technologies. WebRTC Summit is co-located with 15th International Cloud Expo, 6th International Big Data Expo, 3rd International DevOps Summit and 2nd Internet of @ThingsExpo. WebRTC (Web-based Real-Time Com...
Jul. 7, 2015 08:00 PM EDT Reads: 875
[slides] From Industry to Society By @JMondanaro | @ThingsExpo @MetraTech @Ericsson #IoT #M2M #InternetOfThings
It is one thing to build single industrial IoT applications, but what will it take to build the Smart Cities and truly society-changing applications of the future? The technology won’t be the problem, it will be the number of parties that need to work together and be aligned in their motivation to succeed. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Jason Mondanaro, Director, Product Management at Metanga, discussed how you can plan to cooperate, partner, and form lasting all-star teams to change the world...
Jul. 7, 2015 07:00 PM EDT Reads: 2,617
[slides] IoT Middleware for a Faster Time to Market By @robomq | @ThingsExpo #IoT #M2M #InternetOfThings
Internet of Things (IoT) will be a hybrid ecosystem of diverse devices and sensors collaborating with operational and enterprise systems to create the next big application. In their session at @ThingsExpo, Bramh Gupta, founder and CEO of robomq.io, and Fred Yatzeck, principal architect leading product development at robomq.io, discussed how choosing the right middleware and integration strategy from the get-go will enable IoT solution developers to adapt and grow with the industry, while at th...
Jul. 7, 2015 07:00 PM EDT Reads: 2,657
[video] Infrastructure as a Toolbox By @SoftLayer at @CloudExpo New York | #IoT #API #Containers #Microservices
Countless business models have spawned from the IaaS industry. Resell Web hosting, blogs, public cloud, and on and on. With the overwhelming amount of tools available to us, it's sometimes easy to overlook that many of them are just new skins of resources we've had for a long time. In his General Session at 16th Cloud Expo, Phil Jackson, Lead Technology Evangelist at SoftLayer, broke down what we've got to work with and discuss the benefits and pitfalls to discover how we can best use them to d...
Jul. 7, 2015 06:30 PM EDT Reads: 2,456
SYS-CON Events announced today that Harbinger Systems will exhibit at SYS-CON's 17th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on November 3–5, 2015, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Harbinger Systems is a global company providing software technology services. Since 1990, Harbinger has developed a strong customer base worldwide. Its customers include software product companies ranging from hi-tech start-ups in Silicon Valley to leading product companies in the US a...
Jul. 7, 2015 05:45 PM EDT Reads: 2,504
The 4th International Internet of @ThingsExpo, co-located with the 17th International Cloud Expo - to be held November 3-5, 2015, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA - announces that its Call for Papers is open. The Internet of Things (IoT) is the biggest idea since the creation of the Worldwide Web more than
Jul. 7, 2015 05:00 PM EDT Reads: 2,308
The time is ripe for high speed resilient software defined storage solutions with unlimited scalability. ISS has been working with the leading open source projects and developed a commercial high performance solution that is able to grow forever without performance limitations. In his session at Cloud Expo, Alex Gorbachev, President of Intelligent Systems Services Inc., shared foundation principles of Ceph architecture, as well as the design to deliver this storage to traditional SAN storage co...
Jul. 7, 2015 05:00 PM EDT Reads: 2,498
Announcing @ProfitBricksUSA to Exhibit at @CloudExpo Silicon Valley | #IoT #API #DevOps #Microservices
SYS-CON Events announced today that ProfitBricks, the provider of painless cloud infrastructure, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 17th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on November 3–5, 2015, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. ProfitBricks is the IaaS provider that offers a painless cloud experience for all IT users, with no learning curve. ProfitBricks boasts flexible cloud servers and networking, an integrated Data Center Designer tool for visual control over the...
Jul. 7, 2015 05:00 PM EDT Reads: 2,280
[video] Logging and Monitoring with @Sematext Founder @OtisG | @DevOpsSummit #DevOps #Logging #Monitoring
"We got started as search consultants. On the services side of the business we have help organizations save time and save money when they hit issues that everyone more or less hits when their data grows," noted Otis Gospodnetić, Founder of Sematext, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at @DevOpsSummit, held June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City.
Jul. 7, 2015 04:45 PM EDT Reads: 1,742
"CenturyLink brings a full suite of services to the table and that enables us to be an IT service provider," explained Jeff Katzen, Director of the Cloud Practice at CenturyLink, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 16th Cloud Expo, held June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City.
Jul. 7, 2015 04:15 PM EDT Reads: 805
17th Cloud Expo, taking place Nov 3-5, 2015, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading industry players in the world. Cloud computing is now being embraced by a majority of enterprises of all sizes. Yesterday's debate about public vs. private has transformed into the reality of hybrid cloud: a recent survey shows that 74% of enterprises have a hybrid cloud strategy. Meanwhile, 94% of enterprises ar...
Jul. 7, 2015 04:00 PM EDT Reads: 1,977
One of the hottest areas in cloud right now is DRaaS and related offerings. In his session at 16th Cloud Expo, Dale Levesque, Disaster Recovery Product Manager with Windstream's Cloud and Data Center Marketing team, will discuss the benefits of the cloud model, which far outweigh the traditional approach, and how enterprises need to ensure that their needs are properly being met.
Jul. 7, 2015 03:45 PM EDT Reads: 2,423
In the midst of the widespread popularity and adoption of cloud computing, it seems like everything is being offered “as a Service” these days: Infrastructure? Check. Platform? You bet. Software? Absolutely. Toaster? It’s only a matter of time. With service providers positioning vastly differing offerings under a generic “cloud” umbrella, it’s all too easy to get confused about what’s actually being offered. In his session at 16th Cloud Expo, Kevin Hazard, Director of Digital Content for SoftL...
Jul. 7, 2015 03:45 PM EDT Reads: 2,713
DevOps is about increasing efficiency, but nothing is more inefficient than building the same application twice. However, this is a routine occurrence with enterprise applications that need both a rich desktop web interface and strong mobile support. With recent technological advances from Isomorphic Software and others, it is now feasible to create a rich desktop and tuned mobile experience with a single codebase, without compromising performance or usability.
Jul. 7, 2015 03:45 PM EDT Reads: 1,451
WebRTC converts the entire network into a ubiquitous communications cloud thereby connecting anytime, anywhere through any point. In his session at WebRTC Summit,, Mark Castleman, EIR at Bell Labs and Head of Future X Labs, will discuss how the transformational nature of communications is achieved through the democratizing force of WebRTC. WebRTC is doing for voice what HTML did for web content.
Jul. 7, 2015 03:30 PM EDT Reads: 1,845
Discussions about cloud computing are evolving into discussions about enterprise IT in general. As enterprises increasingly migrate toward their own unique clouds, new issues such as the use of containers and microservices emerge to keep things interesting. In this Power Panel at 16th Cloud Expo, moderated by Conference Chair Roger Strukhoff, panelists addressed the state of cloud computing today, and what enterprise IT professionals need to know about how the latest topics and trends affect t...
Jul. 7, 2015 03:30 PM EDT Reads: 1,994
Malicious agents are moving faster than the speed of business. Even more worrisome, most companies are relying on legacy approaches to security that are no longer capable of meeting current threats. In the modern cloud, threat diversity is rapidly expanding, necessitating more sophisticated security protocols than those used in the past or in desktop environments. Yet companies are falling for cloud security myths that were truths at one time but have evolved out of existence.
Jul. 7, 2015 03:30 PM EDT Reads: 2,482
[slides] The Secure Path to Value in the Cloud By @Windstream | @CloudExpo #IoT #API #Containers #Microservices
Even as cloud and managed services grow increasingly central to business strategy and performance, challenges remain. The biggest sticking point for companies seeking to capitalize on the cloud is data security. Keeping data safe is an issue in any computing environment, and it has been a focus since the earliest days of the cloud revolution. Understandably so: a lot can go wrong when you allow valuable information to live outside the firewall. Recent revelations about government snooping, along...
Jul. 7, 2015 03:00 PM EDT Reads: 2,397


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Universities add blockchain to course list
Simply sign up to the Business education myFT Digest -- delivered directly to your inbox.
The market for recruiting blockchain engineers has been described as “red hot”. But where can aspiring software coders find training about the intricacies of this technology? There has been a surprising dearth of courses available in this nascent but fast-growing field. Yet the signs are that this is starting to change.
Blockchain is a technology that powers cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, the value of which soared to more than $2,500 recently, up almost fivefold in the past year. Blockchains allow encrypted data on anything, from money to medical records, to be shared between many companies, people and institutions. This protects data from fraud while instantly updating all parties concerned.
Experts say the demand for expertise is coming from all sectors — from financial services to retail — and it is far outstripping supply. “It is a hot market at the moment because most of the large corporates want to be able to say they have a blockchain team,” says Michael Mainelli, who runs blockchain training courses for senior executives and boards at his consultancy Z/Yen.
Having initially kept away from bitcoin, fearing the risks of fraud and criminality, big companies now see huge potential in the underlying technology to improve the efficiency of everything from tracking food products to processing financial transactions.
The best blockchain engineers can command a salary above $250,000, according to Jerry Cuomo, IBM’s vice-president of blockchain technologies.
“It is on the high side of what a really talented consultant or software engineer can earn,” Mr Cuomo adds. “Demand is exceeding supply, so we are seeing shortages. It is up there with the cloud and artificial intelligence as a really hot area.”
Mr Mainelli adds that few established universities offer blockchain courses, reflecting the developing nature of the field, which combines shared database systems with cryptography. “This technology is not that complicated,” he says. “If you are a coder who knows about cryptography then it is pretty simple.”
This year the University of Edinburgh plans to become one of the first big European universities to launch a blockchain course. Aggelos Kiayias, chair in cyber security and privacy and director of the blockchain technology laboratory at the university, says: “Blockchain technology is a recent development and there is always a bit of a lag as academia catches up.”
He adds that as well as learning the skills needed to build a blockchain, also called a distributed ledger, there are other benefits in studying the technology. “You can learn an incredible amount about cyber security just by studying the blockchain.”
US universities have been quicker to join the bandwagon. Stanford University launched a bitcoin and cryptocurrencies course two years ago. A similar course is offered by the University of California, Berkeley, and another is in the works at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. There are also scores of internet tutorials, many of them available for free as massive open online courses. Coursera, an education-focused tech company, has joined with Princeton University to offer an 11-week cryptocurrency technologies course.
A group of experienced cryptocurrency executives founded the Blockchain University three years ago in California, offering an eight-week course to students who paid a $100 deposit that is refundable on completing the course.
At the other end of the spectrum is B9lab, a fee-charging institution based in London and Hamburg offering a 40-hour course in blockchain for technical executives and analysts that is spread over nine weeks and costs €2,350.
Underlining how swiftly the technology is becoming mainstream, data requested by the FT from LinkedIn, the career-related social networking platform, showed there over 1,000 blockchain-related job adverts on the site in early June, more than treble the level of a year ago.
The number of blockchain ads on LinkedIn is growing at more than 40 per cent a quarter. Almost 10,000 people on the site list blockchain as a skill, half of them in the technology industry and a quarter in the financial services sector.
LinkedIn does not include blockchain among its official list of skills, but so many users cite it that the website is considering adding it to the ones it tracks.
The majority of the people listing blockchain as a skill on the site are based in the US, followed by the UK, France, India, Germany and the Netherlands. Almost a quarter of them also list bitcoin as a skill, while 16 per cent cite one of their skills as Python, a programming language, and 9 per cent say they are skilled in cryptocurrencies.
Josh Graff, UK country manager at LinkedIn, says: “Professionals in related areas such as cryptography and machine learning may want to look at the roles available and the skills they need to develop, as there is certainly a growing demand within the technology, finance and insurance industries for blockchain expertise.”

domain: news


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Rosie Huntington-Whiteley would like to be either a physiologist or an interior designer if she wasn't a model.
Supermodel Rosie Huntington-Whiteley will front the spring campaign for the luxury jeans brand Paige Denim, owned by designer Paige Adams Geller, for its new collection which will launch in January 2015.
Mexican Sergio Perez has hit back at Williams and Brazilian Felipe Massa after they accused him of dangerous driving in Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix.
Comedian Katt Williams was involved in a car accident earlier this week.
Prince William was spotted boarding a flight in economy class at Memphis airport recently.
Grammy award-winning rapper Pharrell Williams has surprised fans by announcing he will release a new digital book online.
Valtteri Bottas confirmed his and the revived Williams team's resurgence by claiming fourth place on the grid ahead of both Ferraris for Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix.
Singer Robbie Williams has been granted the Freedom of Stoke-on-Trent, a symbolic title to recognise civic contributions. He says it's surreal to get the "huge honour".
Serena Williams won her third Italian Open title, crushing local favourite Sara Errani 6-3 6-0 in Rome on Sunday.
Venus Williams , the seven times former Grand Slam champion, won the WTA Dubai Oopen on Saturday to silence some of the doubters who said she could never make a significant come-back at the age of 33.
Atlanta-based Sionic Mobile, an mCommerce company providing mobile gifting, payments and rewards, today announced that William Mills, CEO of William Mills Agency, has joined its advisory board of directors.


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Mothercare has released its half-year results on Thursday morning. The report warns that trading conditions may remain “volatile” for the remainder of the financial year.
Following the announcement, shares in the group (LON:MTC) slid over 5.5%.
The group announced its pre-tax loss of £6.2 million in the six months to 6 October. In the same period last year, the figure was recorded as £2.6 million.
Additionally, the results reveal that net debt is at £21.5 million. Meanwhile, worldwide sales were recorded at £566.1 million, which remains 9.8% below the levels of this time last year.
In the report, Mothercare stated that international business does show signs of recovery.
Moreover, the group remains on track to deliver at least £19 million of cost savings, sticking to its strategic transformation plan.
Despite this, the group has blamed the continuation of difficult trading conditions for its weak results. Indeed, UK like-for-like sales dropped by 11% which, according to the group, reflects the wider market uncertainty. Likewise, negative brand coverage concerning the group’s refinancing has also driven decline.
CEO of Mothercare, Mark Newton-Jones, commented on the results:
“Over this period, we have continued our relentless focus to transform Mothercare into a business that has a sustainable and relevant future for its global customer base.”
“We have completed the capital restructuring of the business, the UK store closure programme is well underway and due for completion earlier than planned, we are making our sourcing operations more efficient and our cost-saving initiatives are well on schedule.”
“This momentum has allowed us to focus on revising the overall structure of the Group, something which will help drive a greater focus on becoming a stronger global brand, with improved product design, marketing and distribution of Mothercare products around the world. At the same time, in the UK, the team will be singularly focused on managing trading and operations, as a typical franchisee would, with the objective of bringing the UK business back to profitability.”
“Our International business is showing signs of recovery after a difficult few years and some core markets, including Russia, China and Indonesia, have moved into growth. The UK retail environment, however, remains very challenging and given the ongoing uncertainty with consumer confidence, alongside the short-term impacts of our operational changes and restructuring programme, we expect performance in the remainder of our financial year to remain volatile.”
“Thereafter we are confident that our strategy will ultimately reinvigorate the business and restore Mothercare as a leading global specialist for parents and young children.”
At 14:20 GMT today, shares in Mothercare plc (LON:MTC) dropped by 5.58%.


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Remember NoonSwoon? It’s a free matchmaking app which focuses on linking you up love interests whom you have mutual friends in common with. Only available in Thailand right now, they have crossed 25,000 downloads and see 1,000 new users every day. Furthermore, yesterday, co-founder Peter Panas shared that they are now the second top grossing lifestyle app on the Thai App Store.
Their current revenue model, which has only been rolled out for a brief week, is to provide premium services to their users. A quick search revealed that their top in-app purchases are:
- 100 credits package at US$7.99.
- 10 credits package at US$0.99.
- 1000 credits package at US$49.99.
Other co-founder Kavin “Mickey” Asavanant said that credits can be used to “like” someone, which indicates interest from your end, and find out who the mutual friends are. I find that by knowing who your mutual friends are, you are able to rid the possibility that your date might be a serial killer. Conversation might even go like this: “Hey, do you know about her?” “Yeah, she’s a psycho.”
In all seriousness, when will they make their way out of Thailand? Peter added that they have launched an Android version earlier this month and are looking to enter Singapore soon. Through an email interview, he also stated that they are aiming to be the top dating company in Southeast Asia to help millions of singles find love.
Note: NoonSwoon hit #2 but its rank fluctuated up and down for a while. At time of writing, it stands within top 10 of all top grossing lifestyle apps in Thailand.


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Ready for proto-typing
Qualcomm has released its Connected Car Reference Platform so that the car industry to build prototypes for the next-generation connected car.
Core i7 6700 TDP is 65W, down from 84W with Haswell
The Intel Business PC platform will get a serious update in the form of a new Skylake-S based processor.
Now a confirmed launch title
Might do a Mac version, however
Resumes like standby, consumes like Hibernate
Might be looking at it with a new AppleTV-like box
Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge
Might be the first Xbox portable offering
Nintendo pulled out


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The delegation was organized by Overseas Chinese Affairs of Guangdong Province and consisted of 50 members of 43 overseas Chinese media units from 28 countries and regions around the world.
From August 13th to 19th GPHL’s subsidiary Baiyunshan launched a family expired drug take-back program in Guangzhou.
Boxed Ciningji developed by Wanglaoji is a new effort that aims to further improve Ciningji’s broad range of products, help alleviate poverty through consumption.
Li Chuyuan, chairman of the group, put forward the "Trendy TCM" strategy which encourages the adoption of advanced technology and up-to-date marketing strategies.
Before the Spring Festival a team led by GPHL chairman Li Chuyuan visited and extended their regards to TCM experts with the title of ‘Great Master of Chinese Medicine’ as well as retired GPHL leaders
Once again, GPHL’s brand Ciningji served as one a supporter in this event. GPHL’s subsidiary Jingxiutang has become the only medicinal supporter for this event for two consecutive years.
The year, 2020, marks the 420th anniversary of the establishment of Guangzhou Baiyunshan Chenliji Pharmaceutical Factory Co., Ltd. (Chenliji) as well as its parent company, GPHL.
Chenliji Medicine Factory is the world's longest-lived medicine factory, a national intangible cultural heritage and the first Chenliji store since the founding of this time-honored brand.
On September 21st, the 5th National Alzheimer's Disease Prevention Summit was held in Guangzhou with the purpose of raising public concern about cardiovascular diseases, cerebrovascular diseases.


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Local young mind in running.
Stuart Maitland, who has created the mHealthful medical app, has been shortlisted by global direct selling company Amway UK in their search to find Britain's Top Real Role Model.
The campaign, now in its third year, aims to uncover the nation's real role models, awarding PS5,000 to the winner to help start up their own business.
Stuart, along with five other shortlisted nominees will now face the judging panel comprised of young entrepreneur and star of Made in Chelsea, Francis Boulle, fashion designer Patrick Grant, last year's Britain's Top Real Role Model winner Jill Carter and Amway UK representative Sheryl Franklin-Worth.
The winner will be announced early next month.


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News - Porsche - Taycan
Porsche getting Taycan-ready in Australia
Experience of plug-in hybrids in Oz helps Porsche smooth way for all-electric Taycan
13 Dec 2019
PORSCHE Cars Australia (PCA) is taking everything it has implemented and learnt from introducing and expanding its plug-in hybrid range “up a notch” in readiness for the arrival of its all-electric Taycan four-door coupe in the fourth quarter of next year.
Guided by standards set by Porsche headquarters in Zuffenhausen – where the Taycan is built – and applying knowledge of the Australian market, the project to prepare for Taycan and other full-electric models including the second-generation Macan medium SUV that will be unveiled in 2021 is well underway.
But a lot of detail work remains to be done over the next 10 months or so in the run-up to what is not only Porsche’s first full-electric series production model, but the rare introduction of a new nameplate to the 71-year-old brand.
A non-equity partnership with a fast-charging network infrastructure operator to facilitate long-distance journeys will be announced in the New Year – likely around the same time as Australian Taycan pricing and specifications are revealed – but in the meantime, PCA is ensuring its dealership network has sufficient charging capacity and high-voltage training in place.
One of the key considerations at a dealership level is the ability of local electricity infrastructure to cope with the installation and use of rapid chargers powerful enough for what is the first production car capable of accepting up to 270kW of DC charge at 800 volts.
Depending on the size of dealership, on-site rapid charging may be offered to customers, but charging of vehicles prior to delivery while in for service or even in the showroom is also being studied.
Although expected to be a rare occurrence, the ability to swap out an entire battery pack also a requirement.
Speaking with GoAuto at the Cayenne Coupe launch in Canberra this week, PCA head of public relations Chris Jordan said the company has “worked with every Porsche Centre to look at their electricity infrastructure and what’s required”.
“Our dealers have charging available in the public car park, the service area, they’ve thought about charging cars in the showroom area; there’s more work to do but at least it’s a start.”
Asked whether PCA was putting in extra hard yards now to future-proof itself for the inevitable proliferation of full-electric and electrified models, Mr Jordan said the company philosophy was “measure twice, cut once”.
“We are doing it to the usual Porsche standard… there are more EVs coming but we just ask to be judged by what we do more than what we say.”
Mr Jordan added that chargers are also being rolled out at Wilson Parking facilities in metropolitan centres and destination chargers are being installed in key regional locations, such as the St Andrews Beach Brewery on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula.
Free for Porsche customers to use, access to these Porsche-branded 11kW AC units for drivers of other vehicles is at the discretion of the location owner.
The Taycan-readiness project is led by PCA head of product Ingo Appel, who joined the company in 2006 when it was still getting used to having an SUV in the line-up with the Cayenne and selling around 1200 cars a year.
He has since worked across many areas of the business as it entered new segments with the Panamera limousine in 2009 and Macan in 2014 that contributed to sales breaking the 4000-unit barrier in 2015 and peaking at 4484 in 2017, placing him well to oversee the shift toward electrification that will impact almost all departments of PCA.
Mr Appel told GoAuto that PCA “has a bit of flexibility for market adaptation” when it came to preparing for Taycan, but that there were “certain global requirements for dealerships to get Taycan-ready”.
“Whatever we do we need to be considering the Australian market,” added Mr Jordan.
“Almost nothing we do is an absolute carbon copy (of Germany) but at the same time consistency is important too.”
Mr Appel said he expected between 80 and 90 per cent of Taycan customers to primarily charge their vehicle at home, based on experience with owners of existing Porsche plug-in hybrids, the first of which was the facelifted first-generation Panamera that launched in 2014.
Acknowledging that Porsche customers are of a demographic that tends to have a private garage or other off-street parking arrangement at home, Mr Appel said the difference would be fitment of higher-powered AC home chargers and that PCA was already used to the process of assessing, preparing and facilitating home charging for its customers.
However, unlike plug-in hybrids that can continue on petrol power once the battery pack is exhausted, PCA recognises that it must cater to Taycan owners who venture further afield.
“More focus comes on charging infrastructure as well, where customers are going to charge when they travel,” said Mr Appel.
“That’s where highway charging is definitely the focus and destination charging as well.”
Mr Appel said the process was challenging and detailed, while Mr Jordan added that it had so far been free of major obstacles.
“Everything really just needs to go up a notch from plug-in hybrid to battery electric vehicles,” said Mr Jordan.
“We’ve been selling plug-in hybrids for some time, so that was the first step in this direction.”
“Even if it’s just a thought process, it’s good that it’s already there (with plug-in hybrids) and not starting from scratch.”
The plug-in hybrid version of Porsche’s second-generation Panamera was introduced to Australia in 2017, while the Cayenne followed suit in 2018 and this year added the Turbo S E-Hybrid as flagship petrol-electric performance SUV, available on both conventional and just-launched coupe body styles.
“It’s an exciting time (and) aside from an EV we don’t add another nameplate very often,” said Mr Jordan.
“That in itself is quite a big deal for us, let alone the fact it is the first-ever electric Porsche sportscar.”
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Southland residents will take to the road, skies and sea in numbers not seen since 2002, the biggest Fourth of July travel weekend on record, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California’s travel forecast. Just over three million Southern California residents are expected to take an Independence Day vacation – a 1.3 percent increase over the 2015 Independence Day.
Eighty percent of Southern California travelers, or 2.41 million, are expected to drive to their holiday destinations – an increase of one percent from last year’s 2.39 million car travelers. Another 375,000 are expected to go by air – an increase of three percent from 2015’s 364,000 air travelers.
Statewide, more than 4.9 million are expected to travel over the Independence Day holiday, a 1.3 percent increase from last year, with 3.9 million going by car (up one percent from 2015) and 605,000 going by air (up three percent).
Nationally, Fourth of July travel is expected to increase by 1.3 percent to 42.9 million from last year’s 42.3 million.
“Lower gas prices have put some more disposable income in travelers’ budgets and have also lowered average airfares, encouraging more trips this holiday season and throughout the summer,” said Filomena Andre, the Auto Club’s vice president for travel products and services. “We’re also seeing more travelers willing to spend a little extra on credit with a growth in consumer confidence.”
According to a survey of AAA Travel agents, the top five destinations for Southern Californians this holiday are:
1) San Diego
2) Las Vegas
3) San Francisco
4) Santa Barbara
Gas prices are now on the rise towards $3 a gallon in Southern California, but for most of the year they have been well below $3 a gallon and are currently about 60 cents lower on average than at this time in 2015 and $1.20 lower than the 2014 July Fourth holiday.
With the recent spate of extremely high temperatures locally, the Auto Club is urging those taking a road trip to check their vehicles or get them checked by a reliable mechanic before departure. The Auto Club expects to rescue 66,000 Southland motorists over this holiday – about 18 percent of the 370,000 rescues AAA will perform nationwide. Flat or blown-out tires and dead batteries are the top causes of breakdowns in extreme heat. Road trippers should also bring plenty of fluids along to stay hydrated in the event of a roadside emergency.
Auto Club members can download the AAA Mobile app, visit AAA.com or call 1-800-AAA-HELP to request roadside assistance. AAA Mobile and AAA.com also provide information on the nearest AAA-Approved repair facilities.
The Independence Day holiday forecast was conducted by IHS Global Insight on behalf of AAA. Historical travel data is provided by DK Shifflet, the world’s most comprehensive consumer travel measurement provider.


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Customers love their food. But the CFO says there's little appetite for a stock split.» Read More
Google just scored its first network deal with NBC to sell advertising time. What’s does it mean for the future of both new and established media?
Stocks skidded Tuesday as worries about the housing and financial sectors came back with a vengeance. Lehman plunged 45 percent, dragging the S&P to its worst percentage decline since early 2007.
It looks like a win-win-win: content creators get a new forum for their business, sponsors get to entertain their consumers, slipping in some positive associations with their brand, while Google gets to expand it's Ad Sense content network's reach and importance.
Yahoo and Google's advertising partnership announced in June is a big deal, in fact the promise that it would increase Yahoo revenues was one reason used in defending against Microsoft's proposed takeover.
The Dow got a little bump at the opening bell but fell off the cliff into a triple-digit decline after pending-home sales dropped more than expected. Adding to the uncertainty in the market, Lehman Brothers fell to its lowest level in a decade amid market buzz that the brokerage is going to be unable to raise the capital it needs.
The Dow got a little bump at the opening bell but pared its gains after pending-home sales came fell more than expected. There had been little conviction in buying Tuesday as enthusiasm waned over the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and worries about the economy returned to the markets.
Following are the day’s biggest winners and losers. Find out why shares of Citigroup and Disney popped while United Airlines and U.S. Steel dropped.
Despite Monday’s monster rally, the market may remain vulnerable, technically.
The Dow and S&P soared on Monday as investors bet Washington's Freddie and Fannie bailout will stabilize the housing market and ease the credit crisis.
Both the bulls and the bears can claim to be happy so far today. We have had a rally, and no less than TWO attempts to sell into it. Stocks are holding modest gains so far.
Following are the week’s biggest winners and losers. Find out why shares of Home Depot and Prudential popped while Google and Alcoa dropped.
For the week ending Friday, September 5, 2008, the U.S. markets ended in negative territory for the week after weak employment data and declines in auto and retail sales pointed to weaker consumer spending and a greater economic slowdown. The unemployment rate jumped to a 5-year high, soaring to 6.1%. On Thursday, the three major Indices fell back into bear market territory by dropping 20% from their market peaks set last fall. Both the Dow & Nasdaq Composite had their worst daily closes since July 26, with drops of more than 340 points for the Dow and 75 points for the Nasdaq.
Both companies are in the red today thanks to the JP Morgan report out this morning suggesting weakness in display advertising because of the general economic malaise gripping so many companies during this non-recession recession.
Does the world really need another Web browser? Google thinks so.
The latest photon torpedo has been fired in the battle to dominate the Internet.
Stocks finished lower Tuesday as weakness in technology stocks sucked the air out the earlier rally inspired by oil's drop and the dollar's surge.
Stocks came charging out of the gate, inspired by oil's drop and the dollar's surge, but weakness in technology stocks sucked the air out of the rally.
After spending the first half of the year as a bear, Noah Blackstein finds himself overcome by optimism -- and for stock-picking purposes, it's about technology.
Stocks kicked off September with a rally, inspired by the more than $7 drop in oil prices and a surge in the dollar.
Never mind that chrome is typically the stuff that gets dented on older car bumpers, Google thinks Chrome will be the answer to Microsoft's browser dominance on the net.


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Samsung claims to have sold three million units since the smartphone Galaxy Note II or smart mobile phone was introduced in late September. Giant technology, from South Korean said sales of Galaxy Note II, which are sold in 100 countries, is rising faster [...]
Google has finally released Google Now app for Apple devices, the iPhone and iPad.
Quoted from Techradar, Tuesday (30/4), as a whole, Google Now in the both iOS device that is very similar, and no different with the launch for Android.
For those who [...]
Kim Jong Il reportedly often inject himself with the blood of virgin teens to slow down the aging process.
The younger human blood has long been believed to be a drug life. One of the people who know to believe it was the late North Korean leader Kim [...]
Right now who do not know Instagram, a photo sharing application. If you include people who have an account Intagram, here’s how to play smart application.
Not a photographic aesthetic interest to many people but that enshrined [...]
Yahoo ranked third under Hotmail.
Based on data released by comScore (a website traffic monitoring agency world) in October 2012, which is a Gmail email service owned by internet giant Google, is expressed as the number one email service in the world.
Research In Motion (RIM) has finally officially announced the event dates for BlackBerry 10.
Quoted from IntoMobile, Tuesday (11/13), January 30, 2013 will be a historic day for the latest platform’s launch.
In this event, the Canadian manufacturer [...]
This product is a breakthrough which brings the Go Green campaign. What are these phones? Read short reviews below.
Samsung Blue Earth
Blue Earth phone is a touchscreen mobile phone made by Samsung’s first solar-powered, which first appeared [...]
Have you ever imagined playing your favorite PC games with an XBOX controller? If so, your dream might come true with the release of some updates from XBOX. As confirmed by XBOX official website, now it is possible to use an XBOX controller on our PC [...]
If the basic applications like wallpaper request access to the GPS data, then it is suspicious.
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Detailed smartphone from Nexus 4 owned by Google and produced by LG leaked by British mobile phone retailer websites, Carphone Warehouse’s.
At Carphone Warehouse’s website it is mentioned clearly that they offer LG Nexus 4 with a contract [...]
Fujitsu, Japan’s IT development company today announced the newest technology in the field of health is to know the pulse of a person through face image as reported by Cnet.com (18/03).
This technology uses a camera that has been embedded in a [...]


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If you thought you had any chance of picking up one of Nvidia's upcoming RTX 3080 Ti graphics cards at a fair price, good for you. That's some serious optimism. The pragmatic side of you may wish to acknowledge that the 3080 Ti is likely to sell out immediately, and may not even make it to digital store shelves at all. Pre-buys of the card have allegedly already reached as high as $3,500, making the prospect of reasonable gamers affording one almost non existent, even if stock can be found.
Redditor FaisalKhatib spotted one retailer in the United Arab Emirates which sold a few MSI RTX 3080 Ti Suprim X graphics cards ahead of release at that ridiculous price. That's over $1,000 more than the already ridiculous price that some retailers have been quoting pre-release.
What's extra nuts about this is that the card hasn't even been officially announced yet. Nvidia hasn't said a thing about the 3080 Ti, and yes it's not only been leaked, the card is in retailers and presumably some buyers have already picked up some of these cards and are gaming with them right now. Drivers won't be well optimized though, which might make the experience pretty lacklustre.
The official price of the 3080 Ti is expected to be around $1,300, which is a lot, but it's effectively a slightly cut back RTX 3090, so not too surprising. The fact that its over 2.5x that in the wild is sad, but unsurprising considering the terrible climate for GPU buying at the moment.


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What the ... Chinese New Year already?
Container lines appear to have been caught unawares by the most predictable cargo surge in history. Again.
January 23 will be Lunar New Year’s day, a time that has been celebrated ever since the year 14 BC. The following 12 months will be known as the Year of the Dragon, one of the most auspicious dates on the calendar.
People born under the legendary dragon’s watch, like your humble author, are possessed of qualities superior to the average mortal.
But more to the point is that Chinese New Year is not a surprise sprung on an unsuspecting world every year. It happens every January, or early February, just like it has happened every year for the last 2,026 years.
Admittedly the container shipping industry is slow and resistant to change, but two millenniums should have been enough time to scribble “Chinese New Year” in the annual operations calendar.
Alas, it seems the pre-Lunar New Year rush to get cargo from China to the international markets has indeed come as a complete surprise to the industry.
Here's what happens. Every year mainland factories work flat out to complete orders before the entire country shuts down for two to three weeks, and forwarders book cargo space accordingly.
However, cargo owners are reporting having to pay extra, on top of a previously agreed freight rate, to guarantee their shipments are carried on the pre-booked line. We have read of reports of cargo being loaded in Hong Kong then offloaded in transshipment ports such as Singapore to make way for “premium” cargo. Forwarders are advising shippers to add seven days to their Asia-Europe shipments.
This all smacks of Chinese New Year 2010 when the lines slashed capacity, rolled booked cargo all over Asia and aggressively hiked rates as shippers clamoured for space. It led to huge delays in shipments and disruptions along the supply chain, not to mention boosting carrier profits.
It appears to be déjà vu all over again. The container lines late last year began merging services and idling capacity as demand dropped off and new vessels flooded into service. By limiting the capacity, when the regular-as-clockwork (we can’t stress this enough) cargo surge before Chinese New Year started last week it turns out there was not enough container space available on the major trades.
China factory orders have been dismal for months and there wasn’t much of a peak season. It shouldn’t have required a Harvard economics degree to predict that the need to replenish inventory would lead to an increase in containerised export goods arriving at China’s ports.
Much of the cargo will have been pre-booked, anyway, so there would have been a reliable indication of demand. You don’t arrive to pick up the baseball team in a six-seater bus.
We understand that container lines need to merge services, form alliances, lay up capacity, delay newbuildings, and limit the master’s beard trimming allowance, etc, in order to improve profitability.
But surely capacity allocations should have been made to cater to the predictable surge in business that always comes before an event that has been around longer than Christmas.


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MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican retailer Soriana will focus on consolidating locally for the next few years but does not rule out acquisitions or expanding into the United States to reach out to the booming Hispanic market there.
Soriana (SORIANAB.MX), Mexico’s No. 2 retailer, sees earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) up 17 percent this year, Chief Executive Ricardo Martin Bringas told Reuters Latin American Investment Summit on Thursday.
“We feel there is a bigger opportunity in North America,” he said. “We would seek to enter different market niches. The eye would be on the Hispanic market, although there is an interesting Anglo market that we could enter with different formats.”
Martin Bringas said any expansion into the U.S. market would likely happen after 2010.
Same-store sales in Mexico -- which measure revenue at stores open for more than a year and are a key performance indicator for retailers -- could rise 3.5 percent this year while total sales are seen up 15 percent in 2007, he added.
Soriana stands a distant second place from leader Wal-Mart de Mexico WALMEXV.MX, which has nearly 900 stores across the country, but it has a stronghold in the northern states where its rival has a weaker presence.
Soriana does not rule out acquisitions in the future to help it reach its goal of 400 stores by 2010, Martin Bringas said. The retailer ended last year with 234 stores.
The company plans to launch a new store format, Mercado Soriana Super, by the end of the year, with an eye on building in small cities with populations ranging from 30,000 to 50,000 in a bid to access a niche that Walmex is unlikely to enter.
Soriana reiterated its intention to offer banking services but a decision on whether it applies for a banking license or enter a joint venture with an existing financial institution will not be made until April, Martin Bringas said.
Retail-run banks have become attractive to investors in Mexico since Elektra (ELEKTRA.MX), which sells everything from stereos to fridges, launched Banco Azteca in 2002.
Walmex is launching its own in-store banks later this year.
Soriana shares ended down 1.7 percent at 32.57 pesos on Thursday.


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|Policy makers should pay more attention to tax incentives that help stimulate consumption, experts said.— Photo misa
HA NOI (VNS) — Policy makers should pay more attention to tax incentives that help stimulate consumption, experts said.
Associate professor and Dr Le Huy Duc from National Economics University said that since early last year, the Government of Viet Nam offered tax exemptions, tax deductions or extended payment times for enterprises as a relief during the economic slowdown.
However, such incentives were not as effective as expected, Duc said, adding that during past time, most of tax policies focused on supply-side effects through measures stimulating investment and production.
Although many experts recommended to support demand side through reducing value added tax or special consumption tax, such recommendations had yet to be implemented, he said.
In the Whitebook 2014 of Trade, Investment Issues and Recommendations launched last November, the European Chamber of Commerce in Viet Nam (Eurocham) also urged to remove import tax in the Free Trade Agreement that Viet Nam and EU are negotiating.
According to Eurocham, high import tax and special consumption tax [the tax imposed on various imported products like tobacco, beer and wine, cars, private planes and boats to limited import ] caused the surge of smuggling or making fake products and consequently, the State failed to collect proper taxes, reported Thoi bao Ngan hang ( Banking Times).
For example, if Viet Nam's Government removed tax burdens and reformed tax rate for imported wines and alcohols through imposing tax rate based on alcoholic concentration, it would curb smuggling and better control tax payment from legal trade activities.
Dr Nguyen Minh Ngoc from National Economics University said that if tax policies were used as a tool to support enterprises, it was necessary to make them facilitate the innovation in enterprises.
"During economic slowdown, consumers tighten their belt and enterprises must be sensitive to offer products/services that meet consumers' changed paying capacity," she said.
However, Vietnamese enterprises remained passive in innovating, Ngoc said, adding that to adapt to changed business environment, many of them preferred low-price strategy to differentiation strategy [ which focuses on making their products different from others].
To achieve sustainable growth, enterprises had to improve quality of their products and services as well as create their differences, Ngoc said.
"Government needs to have policies that directly reduce tax imposed on products such as value added tax," she said, noting that the move would help enterprises escape from the circle of low-price competitive strategy. — VNS


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Leading global hospitality company Hilton has plans to more than double its size in the next five years with the opening of Legend Hotel Lagos Airport, Curio Collection by Hilton. This is Hilton’s first hotel in Lagos and its second in Nigeria, with an additional seven hotels in its development pipeline for the country. Other hotel chains such as Marriot, Radisson and Hyatt Hotels have also revealed their Africa expansion plans.
The new hotel located at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos is Hilton’s first Curio Collection by Hilton hotel in Africa. Curio Collection by Hilton is an upper upscale, global portfolio of more than 60 one-of-a-kind hotels and resorts handpicked for their unique character.
The stylish hotel, adjacent to the airport’s private jet terminal has an exclusive immigrations and customs desk in the hotel for private jet passengers.
“We continue to innovate in Africa with new brands and products, and we are pleased to introduce our Curio Collection brand here with the opening of Legend Hotel Lagos Airport,” Hilton’s President and CEO, Chris Nassetta said ahead of the Africa Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF) holding in Nairobi from 2 – 4 October, 2018. “As the continent continues to undergo rapid urbanization, with the UN forecasting that the world’s 10 fastest-growing cities will all be in Africa by 2035, this hotel is a part of our strategy to connect guests to key cities and airport locations across the region.”
Hilton is seeing strong demand for its brands across the continent and expects to open eight hotels in total across Africa this year, three of which will fly under the Hilton Garden Inn flag. This brand appeals to the rising tide of middle class travelers into and across Africa and the company expects to open at least 16 Hilton Garden Inn hotels in the coming five years, including brand entries in Kampala, Ghana, Malawi, eSwatini (formerly Swaziland) and many other strategic locations across sub-Saharan Africa.
Last year, Hilton launched the Hilton Africa Growth Initiative, which will support the conversion of existing hotels to Hilton brands with an investment of $50 million over five years. During that period, Hilton expects to secure 100 conversion opportunities with some 15-20,000 rooms added to its portfolio to meet the growing need for quality branded hotels across the continent.
Just days ago, Marriot International announced its Africa expansion plans which will consolidate its presence in major African countries such as South Africa and Kenya, and also see it enter Mozambique. The new expansion plan, as well as recent ones have been made possible by a growing trend of hotel conversions. This is becoming commonplace as large hotel chains seek to avoid long periods of development and construction delays associated with building a new hotel. This has made it easier for global hotel chains to expand in Africa.
Prof. Chekitan Dev in a 2015 paper titled Hotel Brand Conversions: What Works and What Doesn’t noted that two factors seemed to drive the financial results for converted hotels which he analysed. The first is the relative strength of the brand and the fit between the brand and the property.
Radisson Hospitality is also investing in ten new hotels across the continent. “We are thrilled to be announcing 10 new hotel deals in just nine months, which equates to a new signing every month,” said Andrew McLachlan, senior vice president for development in sub-Saharan Africa at Radisson.
McLachan said the deals will include a luxury hotel in Nigeria, an upscale lifestyle hotel in Ivory Coast and a Radisson Blu in Morocco.
“So far this year, we will be adding 1,300 plus rooms to our portfolio in Africa and plan to continue this accelerated growth through further expansion in key markets across this flourishing continent,” McLachlan said in a statement.
Big international hotel groups, including Radisson and Kempinski, are estimated to have about a third of the available room capacity on the continent, giving global operators an opportunity to strike conversion deals with local owners as they increase their investments in Africa, a continent with some of the world’s fastest rising middle class, whose spending estimates put at $2.1 trillion by 2025. More so, Africa’s tourism grew at 8 percent in 2017, more than any other region in the world. Who wouldn’t want to invest in Africa’s hospitality sector?


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IRVINE, Calif. — CoreLogic Credco has integrated its Three-Bureau PreQual credit report and score solution on eLEND Solutions, an automotive technology company specializing in online and in-store credit and finance solutions, the company announced.
Executives said the integration gives CoreLogic Credco customers who use eLEND instant, single-source access to a consumer’s credit report and FICO score from all three national credit bureaus — all with a soft inquiry.
“We are excited to make our new Three-Bureau PreQual solution seamlessly available to all of the auto dealers currently using eLEND,” said Colby Park, senior leader, Automotive Credit Solutions for CoreLogic. “We have found that dealers like the solution because it allows them to effectively manage their credit reporting costs while efficiently prequalifying prospective car buyers earlier in the process.”
“We’re dedicated to providing tools that help auto dealers sell cars faster to improve their profitability and the consumer experience,” said Pete MacInnis, CEO at eLEND Solutions. “Adding access to soft inquiry credit pulls through Three-Bureau PreQual will help set our auto dealer network up for future success by increasing speed and transparency within the sales cycle. Quickly providing access to additional insights into consumers’ credit standing, without impacting their credit score, will benefit consumers and auto salespeople alike.”


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Reports say the South African government could be facing a court case to lift the ban on the sale of cigarettes.
On Friday the Fair-Trade Independent Tobacco Association (FITA) reportedly said it was pursuing a legal route to have the ban on the sale of cigarettes lifted.
The organisation said it had received numerous queries, submissions and messages of support, seeking to establish what their next steps are going to be in relation to the ban.
Sinenhlanhla Mnguni, the organisation’s chairperson, said in a statement that they have been consulting with their legal teams and “have come to the decision to approach the courts for the appropriate relief vis-à-vis the ban on the sale of cigarettes”.
“The uncertainty around the current restrictions and whether or not the lockdown period would be extended beyond the current end date left us with little choice but to take such a drastic step. We tried long and hard to engage with government on this issue but our pleas rather, unfortunately, fell on deaf ears,” Mnguni said.
He said they requested that government allow the distribution and sale of cigarettes at retail stores, spaza shops and filling stations. These are all places where citizens are currently permitted to purchase, what has been classified as, essential goods.
“This would give the economy a much-needed boost and avoid a situation where our citizens, out of desperation, contravene the regulations of the lockdown en masse,” Mnguni’s statement read.
Mnguni says the “simple truth” was that the current regulations would hurt the industry and “cannot be endured for much longer by the various role players along the tobacco industry value chain without severe consequences for all”.
“We are also seeing the illicit trade flourish whilst the legitimate tobacco industry is prevented from participating.”
“The long and short of this is that the regulations have not stopped people from buying cigarettes during the lockdown period. People are sourcing cigarettes and other goods from underground markets to the detriment of the fiscus,” he said.


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All non-resident digital service providers are now required to pay value added tax (VAT) and income tax at rates of 14,5 percent and 5 percent respectively, according to latest information from the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra).
Specifically, VAT is at 14,5 percent of the invoiced amounts, while income tax is 5 percent of the gross receipts.
Zimra head of corporate communications Francis Chimhanda said the tax is applicable to all non-resident digital service providers.
“The tax is applicable to all non-resident suppliers of digital services to Zimbabwe as follows: Every person who provides services as a satellite broadcasting service or provides or delivers goods and services as an electronic commerce operator which receives revenues in excess of five hundred thousand United States dollars (US$500 000) in any year of assessment from the provision or delivery of such goods or services to persons resident in Zimbabwe, shall pay tax on such revenues charged and levied at 5 percent of the gross receipts,” he said.
“The supply of radio and television services from outside Zimbabwe to an address in Zimbabwe or of electronic services by an electronic commerce operator domiciled outside Zimbabwe to a person resident in Zimbabwe shall be deemed to be a supply made in Zimbabwe and subject to VAT at 14,5 percent.”
Zimbabwe seems to be making significant headway in efforts to tax non-resident digital service providers after US over-the-top content platform Netflix announced to subscribers recently that it would be adding VAT to its packages.
“Starting March 5, 2021, a value-added tax (VAT) will be included in your Netflix price. Your monthly price including tax will be US$8,99,” said Netflix in a notice to subscribers.
Netflix’s plans range from US$8,99 to US$13,99 a month.
This is the second big non-resident digital entity to pay Zimbabwean tax after Facebook said it would be charging Zimbabwean advertisers VAT last August.
The plan to tax non-resident digital service providers was announced in the 2019 National Budget by Finance Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube, and is line with trends across the globe.
In the United States, the sales tax laws were last year updated to include digital goods and services, with 28 states taxing digital products.
And currently the Australian Government is pushing through a law that will compel companies such as Facebook and Google to pay for news content from Australian news outlets or face compulsory arbitration.-ebusinessweekly.co.zw


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Bluebird Composting turns food waste into soil booster
FULTON — Rana Bains is used to people calling him a hippie.
For two years, the owner of Bluebird Composting has built his company by persuading businesses in Fulton and Columbia to let him cart away barrels of their food scraps to compost. He talks with farmers and gardeners and often encounters skepticism when he describes benefits of using compost instead of fertilizers they are accustomed to.
But Bains is no quitter. In the two years since the business opened, Bains has gone from only selling compost at the Fulton and Columbia farmers markets to supplying stores in Columbia, Kansas City, Jefferson City, St. Louis and Springfield.
Knowing your audience is the key, he said.
"I say, 'Just think for a second. Trash in; trash out. If you're putting chemicals in your fertilizers, that's what your plant is going to eat, and that is what it's going to give you,' " he said.
Bains takes pride in making what he calls a healthier and more environmentally-friendly alternative to fertilizers that have become common in American gardening and farming.
He has not yet tapped into commercial crops, such as the soybeans grown in Fulton. For now he is focused on selling to farmers with large vegetable gardens and folks looking to see better results in their own vegetable or flower patches.
Making compost is a labor-intensive process, but Bains is there every step of the way during the five months it takes the food scraps he picks up to become the compost he sells to farmers and gardeners.
The process demands attention and time. When the food scraps arrive at the farm three times a week, Bains heaps them into a pile near the front of the farm. The 300 chickens on the farm wander freely, pecking through the piles and adding their own litter to the mix.
Bains mixes the pile several times a day with his tractor to make sure the bacteria and fungi have oxygen. A few times a month, he takes the newest pile and puts it on plastic pipes on the ground that blow air into the heap in 10- to 15-minute intervals.
He has what looks like a large meat thermometer that he sticks into the middle of the composting heap to check the temperature. The compost is so hot you can see steam coming off it. It sometimes gets hot enough to burn Bains' hands. He wants it to be between 130 and 160 degrees while it is composting, hot enough to kill pathogens such as e-coli and salmonella. When the compost is curing, it should not reach temperatures above 100 degrees, he said.
"This whole thing is about closing the loop, and I really believe in that," he said. "That's my main mission."
For Bains, this means understanding how the different pieces of the puzzle connect. Using food trash from local businesses means less of it ends up rotting and producing methane gas in landfills. The chickens that roam freely on his farm produce waste that also ends up in the compost blend.
Bains' way of making compost is not the cheapest or the fastest, but it keeps in line with his mission of producing a product with as little negative environmental impact as possible.
Bains' knack for agriculture comes from his upbringing on a farm in India. His family grew sugar cane, wheat, mustard and had dairy cows. His background inspired him to come to the United States about a decade ago to study dairy farming at California Polytechnic State University. He wasn't happy with the dairy system he studied, so he changed course and studied business at the University of Missouri. When he graduated, he tried his hand working the stock market, but he did not enjoy that, either.
"I kept thinking I was missing something," he said. "You don't want to do something you have to force out of yourself in the morning."
He read Michael Pollan's book "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and was inspired to go to Vermont, where he took a six-month course in sustainable agriculture. During his studies, Bains was amazed to see his teachers use nothing but compost to grow plants in sandy soil. From there, he knew he wanted to bring compost farming to Mid-Missouri.
If you want to see what plants look like when the gardener uses nothing but compost, you need only look at the neat rows of robust vegetables growing in the garden at the Bluebird Composting farm.
Farm manager Chelsea Bunetic oversees the garden, which includes garlic, watermelon, tomatoes and lettuce, among other things, that they sell alongside eggs and compost at the Fulton and Columbia farmers markets. She does not use any fertilizer apart from the compost made right there on the farm.
Bunetic has worked in sustainable agriculture for several years and said her work has helped her understand why compost offers more benefits than other soil additives.
"It's a temporary fix," she said of chemical fertilizers. "There are lots of different things your plants need. These chemical fertilizers are just a shot of each of those things. They give you a boost in yield one time, but at the same time it's taxing your soil."
Compost, she said, is the opposite. The bacteria and fungi inoculate the soil, meaning the compost improves the quality of the dirt over a stretch of time, instead of only giving it a one-time bump and then tapering off.
Bains said chemical fertilizers, weed killers and pesticides have become so ingrained in American farming and gardening that he will not accept grass clippings from landscape companies to use in his compost. Although grass clippings would make a great addition, Bains said they have almost invariably been sprayed with herbicides and pesticides so strong that not even the composting process could break them down.
Instead, Bains delivers blue bins to businesses to collect food scraps from restaurants, Fulton State Hospital, schools and even a barbershop. In Columbia, his delivery driver makes stops at Stephens College, the Shakespeare's Pizza on West Broadway, Ingredient and Blue Ridge Elementary School. To offset the cost of collecting the food scraps, Bains charges businesses a small fee for each bin Bluebird picks up.
Beth Lavoie works on the sustainability committee at Fresh Ideas, a Columbia-based food service company that provides dining services to schools in Missouri including Stephens College and Tolton Catholic High School. Last summer, she heard a plug for Bluebird Composting on KBIA-FM. Fresh Ideas had already started working with a St. Louis composting company for its locations there but had not yet found a place in Mid-Missouri that could help continue its push for sustainability here.
"It's great because they're local," Lavoie said. "We went out and toured the facility and spoke to Rana. It was really interesting to learn about."
Even though Fresh Ideas pays Bluebird Composting a small fee to take away the food scraps, Lavoie said it fit in with the company's mission. Fresh Ideas staff members started saving food waste from Westminster College and William Woods University, its Fulton locations, and sending them to Bluebird Composting.
In February, the company expanded the program to include Stephens College. Bains said he collects up to 4,000 pounds of food from Stephens a month.
On a smaller scale, Bains encourages his customers at the farmers markets to donate their food scraps to Bluebird Composting in exchange for a 10 percent discount on anything they buy in the store.
Bluebird Composting is a far cry from the small operation it was when Bains founded it just two years ago. He chuckles now when he describes his first year, when he only produced about 200 cubic yards of compost — he now makes more than that each month.
You can find Bluebird Compost at Westlake ACE Hardware, Clovers Natural Market and several nurseries in Columbia. Bains is even gearing up to supply Columbia's Schnucks with produce from his garden.
He gives presentations at schools and visits Master Gardener meetings with the hope of getting people excited about using compost. Bains said it's not just about the compost but about promoting a healthier environment and lifestyles. "It's improving your soil, you're eating better and staying healthier," he said.
This article was published in the June 14, 2014 edition of the Columbia Daily Tribune with the headline "Closing the loop: Rana Bains, owner of Bluebird Composting, has made it his mission to recycle food waste and create an Earth-friendly alternative to chemical fertilizer."


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In Kraków and Poland’s Malopolska region, a unique idea can go a long way thanks to creative minds and local government and business support.
This particular region is very rich in talent, and we experience it constantly with the new influx of people from local universities.
Innovative technology is ever increasingly useful to our modern lives – and it can help in important situations too.
Start-up Kontakt.io is one of 49,000 businesses in Poland’s Malopolska region. It began in 2013 with an original concept, a tracker-card connected to smartphones to help the blind. Today it’s a thriving company and its young team has since developed the ‘card beacon’, which tracks people and products and is currently in 100 countries.
Szymon Niemczura, CEO, kontakt.io: “This innovation, it led to many other solutions, like for example in a hospital where you don’t have a GSM signal. With this card, you can actually – in real time – locate every single doctor and every single nurse in a hospital.
“This particular region is very rich in talent, and we experience it constantly with the new influx of people from local universities.”
Company intern Angelika Owczarek is studying Applied Computer Science at AGH University of Science and Technology. She believes that hands-on experience is crucial to development.
Angelika Owczarek: “We have access to the newest technology, to the newest equipment, we can practice on it and thanks to this practice, later we are able to go to the real work to do real projects.”
Each year over one-third of 180,000 students graduating from 31 universities in the region benefit from government strategies to help new graduates.
Dr Stanislaw Sorys, Deputy Marshal of Malopolska: “The local government is trying to support them at every stage by creating a technical infrastructure. After they finish their education we help them by providing facilities for innovative projects.”
With its various centres for innovation and business support, Kraków is a prime location for start-ups. It’s a place where new graduates and young entrepreneurs can develop their projects.
Daleen Hassan, euronews: “The Polish start-up scene is booming, with more than 60 companies in the Krakow Technology Park from ICT (information and communications technology), multimedia and video gaming sectors. The different types of facilities provided to these SMEs and start-ups have produced a business environment rich in creativity and innovation.”
The Technology Park is taking part in an annual, regional event. Held in the end of October, the Innovation Festival was co-founded by companies, research institutions and universities. Workshops and networking opportunities give guidance to new businesses entering the market, as its CEO explains.
Wojciech Przybylski, CEO Krakow Technology Park: “We have the Innovation Festival in Malopolska to support people with their possible business and technology ideas and to find and meet people who will help you to turn this idea into a real business. So if we want to have a high quality of innovation and innovative businesses in Europe, we really need to work on the quantity of people who are thinking about them and who are developing them.”


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The firm, which owns and operates the largest power station in the UK, is now offering a business-to-business service to lease clean cars, provide EV charging infrastructure and software and supply renewable electricity to power the chargers.
It will also help companies work out what vehicles and systems they should buy, analyse different charging methods to minimise fleet downtime and help improve efficiency through better use of data.
SES Water has become the first customer of the new service – it has invested in 16 new charging points and has swapped 10 of its 120-vehicle fleet of diesel vans with electric alternatives.
Drax expects the move will allow SES Water to save 43 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year.
Jonathan Kini, Drax Retail CEO, said: “We know from supplying energy to our customers that no two businesses are alike, so a ‘one size fits all’ approach won’t deliver what they all need.
“Instead, we are working with customers like SES Water as an energy partner, to offer each of them a solution tailored to their specific needs. Giving them the optimal EV package will result in lower carbon emissions and costs, helping them to grow better businesses.”


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Cops have busted two New Jersey residents for allegedly running a $1.5 million Yankee baseball cap counterfeiting ring in the Bombers’ own Bronx back yard.
Cops went to the SoGo House Inc. warehouse in Mott Haven July 30 with a warrant to seize a logo embroidery sewing machine that had been reported stolen.
But, while inspecting the premises, officers Joe Fucito and Paul Mulqueen not only found the embroidery machine but hundreds of red, yellow and gray Yankee logo caps in various stages of completion – hats that had not been authorized by Major League Baseball.
“It’s an industrial-size machine stitching Yankee logos with blank ones ready to go,” Fucito said. “We knew they were not real so we asked to see the owners’ licensing permit.”
Allegedly unable to produce a permit, warehouse owners Sung Sil Park, 49, and Sung Joh, 45, were arrested on the spot. The two were charged with multiple trademark counterfeiting counts.
In addition to confiscating 400 large cardboard boxes with phony Major League Baseball caps, the officers also confiscated embroidery disks featuring logos of every Major League Baseball and National Football League team, several fashion designer labels, as well as logos of the New York police and fire departments.
The Yankee name was the only logo cops found sewn on the confiscated gear.
Cops have not yet determined if any of the merchandise made at the warehouse had been sold.
But neighborhood eyewitnesses told police they saw 18-wheeler trucks making frequent stops there for pickups and deliveries.
Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson called the case a big win for legitimate sports and fashion businesses.
Licensing industry experts estimate that the Bronx counterfeit operation cost Major League Baseball more than $5 million in lost sales.


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New research has revealed the company that each European country most wants to invest in, with Tesla coming out on top with a whopping 71% of the highest search traffic dedicated to the automotive and clean energy company.
The research conducted by Finnish casino review site Bonusetu.com analyzed Google Trend results for each European country to determine the most-Googled stock for each country.
The data shows that Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) is the most-Googled stock in 28 European countries and claims the top spot on 71% of the search traffic.
Of the 28 countries Tesla is the most popular in, Sweden, Netherlands, Denmark, and Finland make up almost half of all Tesla searches with Sweden coming out on top, producing 17% of all Tesla searches.
Coming in second place as the most searched for stock in Europe is AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc (NYSE: AMC), which is the most searched for stock in five countries.
Of the countries in which AMC appears as the most-searched stock, the UK and Germany show a keen interest. The UK contributed 74% of AMC stock searches, and Germany accounted for 17%.
Germany and the UK are ranked fourth and fifth on the list of the biggest global economies. They also account for two of the four European countries that comprise the top 10 global economies. (Falling behind Japan, China, and the United States.)
Third place goes to Nio Inc (NYSE:NIO), the Chinese multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Shanghai has gained popularity over the past few years and is the most searched for stock in four European countries.
Nio is the most searched for stock in Romania, Slovakia, Serbia, and Andorra. With Romania contributing 64% of all Nio’s top searches. More countries may soon follow their example as Nio recently hit a December 12th production milestone of 300,000 EVs.
Virgin Galactic, EPAM Systems, Icelandair, and GameStop were all the top searched for stock in only one country.
GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME) was the leading stock searched for in Austria. GameStop reached “meme-stock” status in January 2021 when a Reddit page called “wallstreetbets” gained exposure and encouraged social investing in inflating GameStop’s share price.
Icelands most popular stock is Icelandair Group hf. (ICE: ICEAIR). Icelandair is Iceland’s leading airline. The airline generated its highest-ever passenger revenues exceeding $487 million in Q3 of 2022.
EPAM Systems Inc (NYSE: EPAM) is the most Googled stock in Belarus. EPAM is headquartered in Belarus and was the first Belarusian company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc (NYSE: SPCE) is the most searched for stock in Montenegro.
Commenting on the findings, a spokesperson from Bonusetu.com said: “We’re living in a time where information and education about the stock market is more accessible than ever. Not just on a national scale but a global one. People don’t have to look much further than their phones to learn the top lessons of Wall Street.
It’s interesting to see how even though the share price of Tesla has dropped considerably, it can still dominate the search results of 28 European countries and maintain the interest in so many countries..
As more people look to generate wealth online, the popularity of retail investing will only increase.”


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'First Friday' event at Clemson Farmer's Market July 1
Get your Independence Day weekend off to a great start at the Clemson Farmers Market on July 1. The market is open rain or shine from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Patrick Square Village Green, 578 Issaqueena Trail, Clemson. Over 30 vendors will offer fresh, locally grown produce, fresh-picked blackberries, blueberries and peaches, local honey, farm-fresh eggs, goats milk products, fresh-baked breads and goodies, beef, pork and chicken, granola, kimchee, boiled peanuts, handmade candles, natural bath and body products, and handmade arts and crafts.
Here's what's happening at the market:
3 p.m. to 6 p.m.: Market opens
Vendor demonstrations and product sampling
Free market shopping bags compliments of AgSouth Farm Credit
Giant inflatable for the kids provided by Patrick Square
3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Music at the Market at The Village Green Pavilion. Bring a chair, relax and enjoy the upbeat sounds of Larry Williams and Friends.
Clemson Farmers Market partners are the city of Clemson, Patrick Square and the Clemson Area Chamber of Commerce.
Market sponsors are AgSouth Farm Credit, Baptist Easley Hospital, Clemson Area Transit (CAT), Clemson Downs, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute — Clemson (OLLI), and Rick Erwin's — Clemson.
For more information, visit http://www.clemsonfarmersmarket.org./


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Published on May 18th, 2015 | by The GC Team0
EU report highlights UK’s poor product recall record
While the EU as a whole has seen a rise in the number of dangerous product reports, the UK has fallen out of the top five case reporting countries, according to newly published figures by the European Commission.
The 2014 Rapid Alert System report for dangerous non-food products ‘Keeping European Consumers Safe’ again showed a rise in the number of products stopped before entering, or removed because they were deemed dangerous for EU consumers.
The statistical report revealed that 2,435 products were either stopped or removed during 2014 – of which 2,155 were deemed serious risk notifications – yet the UK has dropped out of the top five countries for case reporting, with numbers falling 30% since 2012, while Spain, Germany and the Netherlands have all increased their notifications in the past two years.
The Approved Cables Initiative voiced its concern on the findings and said: “The figures raise the question as to why UK notifications have dropped. It could be due to smaller numbers of sub-standard products entering the UK market. We think this unrealistic, however, as with an overall European rise it suggests it is more likely that there is uneven market surveillance in the EU and, in particular, low levels in the UK.”
The 2014 statistics from the Rapex Annual Report also showed:
- Electrical appliances and equipment were the third most common product categories notified
- Electric shock was the fourth most common type of risk notified
- The majority of dangerous products notified in the system came from outside the EU. China (including Hong Kong) was indicated as a country of origin for 64% of notified products.
The ACI said it also noted that, of the larger EU countries, the UK has the lowest percentage of compulsory recall measures, preferring to use voluntary measures for more than 80% of cases reported. “We would ask why the UK uses predominately informal measures rather than legal measures for recalls compared to other European countries and has the effectiveness of this approach been assessed,” the organisation said.
Electrical Safety First today responded to the Government’s Review of the UK’s System for the Recall of Unsafe Products and highlighted the need for a more robust system of recalls and urgent action to increase consumer understanding of risk.
“With the limited success of recalls (currently at only 10-20% effectiveness) and with well over 200 electrical items recalled in the last four years, it is clear the current system for product recalls needs improvement”, said Phil Buckle, Director General of Electrical Safety First. “And when you realise that this means millions of recalled electrical items are still in people’s homes, you start to recognise the scale of the problem.”
Last year ESF published a report, Consumer Voices on Product Recall, which investigated the public perception of recalls, issues with the current system and how recalls and product registration could be improved. The report showed that consumers were wary of registering products as they were concerned their information could be used for marketing rather than safety purposes.
“We have been raising awareness of the safety issues presented by dangerous recalled electrical goods for some time now”, said Buckle. “So we were delighted that the Government instigated the Review and we hope it will lead to some much-needed improvements. Without an effective and properly resourced recall system, consumers are being put at risk and business brands and reputations can be badly affected.”