China: Nanjing Massacre memorials to be held

A series of memorials will be held on Thursday and Friday in the city of Nanjing to mark the 76th anniversary of a massacre that claimed the lives of 300,000 Chinese civilians and disarmed soldiers.

Nanjing witnessed mass murder, genocide and war rape following the Japanese capture of the city in December 13, 1937, during World War II.

Memorial events will include a candlelight vigil, a prayer assembly for peace, as well as press conferences and seminars, according to Zhu Chengshan, curator of the Nanjing Massacre Hall.

As part of this year's event, a report on protection of survivors' oral histories of the atrocity will be presented and a Sino-U.S. collaborative project on oral history studies will be announced, Zhu announced.

"This is about expressing sorrow for those perished, and more importantly reminding people to remember history and to cherish peace," he said.

Meanwhile, two survivors, 82-year-old Wang Jin and 89-year-old Cen Honggui, will leave for Japan to attend Nanjing Massacre testimony gatherings on invitation from Japanese non-governmental organizations.

Held every year since August, 1994, this activity has seen a total of 47 Chinese survivors join gatherings across Japan.

"Survivors have told how cruel the Japanese invaders were in their personal experience, revealing the truth for most Japanese and delivering powerful rebuke to a handful of Japanese right wingers who were wantonly denying the atrocity," according to Zhu.

The testimony activity will help promote peaceful interaction between China and Japan based on the consensus of the history, he added.

Japan and S.Korea conduct drills in China's ADIZ

Japan and South Korea have conducted a joint search and rescue drill in a sea area where Japan's air defense identification zone overlaps China's. Aircraft from both sides took part in the drill but without informing Chinese authorities.

A South Korean military officer said the drill was carried out southeast of South Korea's Jeju Island on Thursday. 4 ships and several aircraft from Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force and South Korea's Navy took part.Tokyo is demanding China revoke the zone as it covers airspace over Japan's Senkaku Islands. Japan controls the islands in the East China Sea but China and Taiwan claim them.

Source: NHK

South Korea slams Japan's video claim on disputed islets

South Korea has condemned Japan for publishing a video in 10 languages challenging its sovereignty over a tiny group of islets at the heart of a territorial dispute, demanding Tokyo remove it.

The film, published Wednesday by the Japanese foreign ministry on its own website and on YouTube, insists the islets in the Sea of Japan (East Sea), called Dokdo by Seoul and Takeshima by Tokyo, are its own.The 90-second clip is subtitled and dubbed in 10 languages including English, Korean, Chinese, French, Spanish and Arabic -- described Seoul's de facto control over the islets as "illegal".
"We gravely protest the publication of the video... and strongly demand that Japan remove these videos immediately," Seoul's foreign ministry said in a statement released late Wednesday.
"We will never tolerate Japan's attempt to violate our territorial sovereignty and will respond resolutely," it said.
The Japanese foreign ministry website also published a multi-language leaflet to accompany the video, arguing that Japan's connection to the islets stretches back more than 200 years.

Source: NewsOnJapan

Abe's Cabinet OKs 5.47 tril. yen extra budget for stimulus steps

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet approved Thursday a 5.47 trillion yen ($53.2 billion) supplementary budget for fiscal 2013 to fund economic stimulus measures designed to minimize the potential negative impact of a sales tax hike next April.

The stimulus package mapped out last week, centering on prompting new infrastructure investment ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and post-quake reconstruction work, will be intensively implemented in early fiscal 2014.The extra budget will bring the central government's expenditures in the general account budget for this fiscal year to 98.08 trillion yen, the fourth highest amount ever, underscoring how dependent the Japanese economy has been on massive government spending.

Source: NewsOnJapan

Ruling bloc OKs FY 2014 tax reform plan, burdening households

Japan's ruling parties on Thursday adopted tax reform policies for fiscal 2014, seeking higher taxes on households despite a planned consumption tax hike next year while giving preferential treatment to companies to accelerate the nascent economic recovery.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner New Komeito decided to provide tax breaks for the corporate sector to strengthen the "Abenomics" policy mix, entailing steps to boost private-sector investment.The ruling camp has also decided to increase taxes on company workers and car owners in an effort to restore Japan's fiscal health, the worst among developed nations, highlighting the difficulty of achieving a balance between economic revitalization and fiscal consolidation.

Source: NewsOnJapan

Japan may ease limit on hiring temporary workers

Japan's labor officials have proposed easing restrictions on hiring temporary workers to make it easier for companies to hire them.

The proposal was presented on Thursday at the labor ministry's council, comprising of representatives from labor and management.

Currently, companies are only allowed to maintain a particular position for a maximum period of 3 years if it is filled by a temporary worker. Hiring workers dispatched by staffing companies is considered to be only a temporary measure.

Under the proposal, companies will be allowed to replace temporary workers reaching their 3-year limit with new temporary workers after they hear opinions from those representing employees, such as a labor union.

Source: NewsOnJapan

Thai caretaker PM calls meeting to resolve political crisis

Thai caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on Thursday invited all political parties and sectors of the society to meet on Sunday to seek solutions to the political deadlock.

The government has decided to solicit opinions from representatives of political parties, businessmen, civil servants, educational institutions, legal experts and academics, Yingluck said in a televised speech.

The permanent secretary for the Prime Minister's Office, Tongthong Chantharangsu, will be in charge of organizing the meeting, she added.

The People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), an alliance of various anti-government groups, would not joint the meeting, PDRC spokesman Akanat Promphan said.

Yingluck's proposal would not provide the answer protesters need to hear, Akanat said, adding what they need is a reform to be carried out before a general election.

The country's coming general election is scheduled on Feb. 2, 2014.

A group of anti-government protesters on Thursday continued to besiege the Government House compound.

They removed barbed wires inside the compound and required the police deployed there to leave.

After the police rejected the request, protesters cut off the power supply to the Government House.

It is reported that between Nov. 30 and Dec. 11, clashes between the opposing sides injured 291 protesters and killed five.

Source: Xinhua

1.18 billion yen stolen via online transfers in Japan in Jan.-Nov.

The amount of money stolen from online bank accounts in Japan in January-November totaled some 1,184 million yen, the National Police Agency said Thursday.

The amount is nearly four times the full-year record high of about 308 million yen marked in 2011.

The cumulative number of illegal money transfers in January-November stood at 1,125, up some 6.8-fold from 165 for the whole of 2011.

Source: NewsOnJapan

JR Hokkaido admits manipulating track data at accident site

Hokkaido Railway Co. said Thursday that inspection data for the tracks involved in a train derailment in September had been falsified.

The accident has led to revelations of sloppy management at the company, including leaving problems on some rail tracks unresolved for almost a year and other data falsifications.

Source: NewsOnJapan

Jetstar rejigs Japan services

Jetstar has decided to ditch flights on the underperforming route between the Gold Coast and Japan's third biggest city of Osaka in favour of a new service from Melbourne to Tokyo.

The rejig of its international network comes just two days after Qantas' budget offshoot decided to further reduce flights to the Northern Territory and close its aircraft base in Darwin, blaming intense competition from foreign airlines.Jetstar's head of Australasian operations, David Hall, said the Gold Coast-Osaka route had not been performing to expectations, and the decision to cut the service was ''part of our response to the current state of the Australian aviation market and a realignment'' of the airline's international network.
The thrice-weekly service to Osaka will cease on May 8 next year.
Jetstar will maintain flights between the Gold Coast and Tokyo, which had stronger demand than the Osaka route.

Source: NewsOnJapan

Japan to continue toll discounts for Tokyo Bay Aqua Line

Japan's transport ministry is set to extend toll discounts for the Tokyo Bay Aqua Line expressway, which were initially scheduled to expire in March 2014, because of the program's economy-boosting effects, informed sources said Thursday.

The toll for standard-size vehicles will be kept at 800 yen, compared with the original level of 3,000 yen.Costs to cover revenue losses from the discount program will continue to be shouldered by the state and the Chiba prefectural government. The Aqua Line, a combination of an undersea tunnel and a bridge, links Kisarazu, Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, and Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, south of the Japanese capital.

Source:  NewsOnJapan

Syria rebels storm gov't workers' residential area

Syrian rebels have reportedly stormed a residential area for government employees in Adra, near the capital of Damascus. More than 60 people are feared dead, and over a hundred were kidnapped. Earlier, our correspondent Alaa Ebrahim in Damascus told us that government troops had begun operations to retake the residential compound. 

Source: CCTV

Marriott hotel reaches new heights in Japan's tallest skyscraper

Marriott Hotels is getting set to open Japan's highest hotel suite in the country's soon-to-be tallest skyscraper.

The Osaka Marriott Miyako Hotel will feature 360 guest rooms from the 38th floor to 55th floor in the new 300-meter Abeno Harukas skyscraper complex, which opens March 7 in the city's Abeno Ward.The most luxurious suite comprising 162 square meters is located on the 55th floor, some 263 meters above the ground, and will cost 350,000 yen ($3,410) per night. It is estimated to be higher than the current record holder at the Yokohama Royal Park Hotel in Yokohama Landmark Tower.

Source: NewsOnJapan

S. Korea holds policy rate at 2.5%

South Korea's central bank keeps its policy rate at 2.5 percent on Thursday, as expected.

The central bank governor Kim Choong-soo and other policy board members unanimously decided to hold the rate steady, for a seventh straight month.

The Bank of Korea is watching out for risks from tapering of U.S stimulus, and uncertainties over the U.S fiscal situation.

The governor says the domestic economy is gradually recovering, price pressures remain low but may rise mildly going forward. Many analysts expect the rate to stay until late 2014.

Source:CCTV

Central Economic Work Conference ongoing through Friday-media reports

According to several media sources, the meeting will conclude on Friday, lasting four days, which is the longest in history.

According to previous CPC Political Bureau meeting, the tone for economic work in 2014 will be maintaining stabiliy while seeking growth. Meanwhile, the top policy maker is also holding a meeting on the urbanization which is expected to set the tone for urbanization in the future. It’s the first time China has held a SEPARATE high level meeting during the Central Economic Work Conference on a particular subject.

Source:CCTV

Sugar intake should be cut to just five teaspoons a day to reduce tooth decay

Sugar intake should be cut to just five teaspoons a day to reduce tooth decay, British scientists warned on Tuesday while presenting a study of the effects of sugar on our oral health. 

Since 1990, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has recommended that intake of "free sugars" should be less than 10 percent of total energy intake. Free sugars are sugars that are added to foods by the manufacturer, cook, or consumer; plus those naturally present in honey, syrups, fruit juices and fruit concentrates. 

The Newcastle University study, published today in the Journal of Dental Research recognizes the benefit of this threshold, by showing that when less than 10 percent of total calories in the diet is made up of free sugars there are much lower levels of tooth decay. 

The research findings suggest that halving this threshold for sugars to less than 5 percent of calories, around five teaspoons a day, would bring further benefits, minimizing the risk of dental cavities throughout life. 

"In the past, judgments on recommended levels of free sugars intake were made based on levels associated with an average of three or fewer decayed teeth in 12-year-olds," Professor Paula Moynihan said. 

"Part of the problem is that sugary foods and drinks are now staples in many people's diet in industrialized countries, whereas once they were an occasional treat for a birthday or Christmas. We need to reverse this trend," she added.

Source: Xinhua

Vitamin D may help fight multiple sclerosis

Vitamin D may help fight multiple sclerosis (MS) by preventing damage-causing immune cells from entering the brain, U.S. researchers said Monday. 

The findings, published online in the U.S. journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may help better explain why the so-called "sunshine vitamin" may prevent or ease symptoms of the neurodegenerative disease. 

The quest to understand the role of the nutrient began with the observation that MS is more prevalent in regions of the world farthest from the equator where there is less sunshine, the main natural source of vitamin D. 

MS is believed to be an autoimmune disorder, caused when the immune system wrongly attacks a person's own cells: the fatty protein called myelin that surrounds nerve cells and helps them send electrical signals that control movement, speech and other functions. Destruction of myelin leads to debilitating symptoms such as blurred vision, weakness and numbness. 

"With this research, we learned vitamin D might be working not by altering the function of damaging immune cells but by preventing their journey into the brain," said study leader Anne Gocke, an assistant professor of neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, in a statement. "If we are right, and we can exploit Mother Nature's natural protective mechanism, an approach like this could be as effective as and safer than existing drugs that treat MS." 

In a person with MS, immune system cells known as T cells in the body's lymph nodes are used to seek and destroy myelin in the brain. 

For their study, Gocke and her colleagues simultaneously gave mice the rodent form of MS and a high dose of vitamin D and found that the mice showed no symptoms of the disease. 

They also found a large number of T cells in the bloodstream of the mice, but very few in their brains and spinal cords. 

"Vitamin D doesn't seem to cause global immunosuppression," Gocke said. "What's interesting is that the T cells are primed, but they are being kept away from the places in the body where they can do the most damage." 

Gocke added vitamin D may slow a process of making a sticky substance that allows the T cells to grab onto blood vessel walls, which allows the T cells to remain in circulation and keeps them from migrating to the brain. 

Once vitamin D is withdrawn, MS-like flare-ups in mice can occur very quickly, the researchers said. 

"Vitamin D may be a very safe therapy," said Peter Calabresi, a professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins University and a co-author of the study. "But we still have to be careful with it. It's not just a vitamin. It's actually a hormone." 

A clinical trial testing vitamin D supplements in multiple sclerosis patients is underway at Johns Hopkins University, the researchers said. 
Source: Xinhua

China's rich set eyes on agri-business

China’s business tycoons are eyeing the modern agricultural sector as an alternative investment. Many of them told CCTV at the network’s Financial Forum, that there is still huge potential untapped in the country’s rural economy.

Kiwi fruit is the next big investment target for IT giant Lenovo.

The company has newly favoured the agricultural sector, due to opportunities that may emerge from land reforms recently laid out by the third plenary session.

Chairman of the board Liu Chuanzhi said the timing now is ripe for brand building.

"Traditional agricultural sector was a saturated market with very low profit margin. After the third plenum meeting, there was an evident signal on land reforms where rural land right is allowed to transfer. This gives us the chance to build a brand that reflects high-quality and safe products. This will lay corner stones for high profit margin." said Liu.

Minsheng Bank, China’s first commercial bank held by private equities, is setting its eyes on deep ocean fish. But its ultimate goal is to expand financial services to the countryside.

Experts say the biggest challenges faced by China’s agricultural sector is the lack of funding. The industry is currently in the transition of integrating into a modern production system, and more capital would be needed to boost growth.

Source: CCTV

China: New discount e-shopping offerings, pushing sales before year end

China’s e-shopping fever heats up again. Online retailers are offering a new round of discounts today, known as the "Double twelve's day" sales. This comes just a month after the November 11th Single’s day shopping festival.

Online stores such as Taobao, T-mall, Yihaodian and Jingdong, are all launching massive discounts to firm up their annual sales before the end of the year.

Retail sales growth is projected to stand at around 13% in China for 2013. Some analysts though, expect retail revenue growth to remain weak for the coming months and gradually pick up in 2014.

Source:CCTV

Shibuya revelers face New Year's curbs

Tokyo police say they will restrict public access around the main intersection outside Shibuya Station between 10 p.m. Dec. 31 and 2 a.m. Jan. 1 to prevent a crush of New Year's revelers forming for the countdown, a recurrent problem in recent years.

The Metropolitan Police Department imposed a similar restriction in June on people gathering at the intersection after watching the Asian qualifier for the FIFA soccer World Cup.

The police said Wednesday they are stepping up their guard for New Year's and will send several hundred riot police officers.

Source: Japan Times

Israel's Fischer picked to be next Fed vice chair: source

 Stanley Fischer, who led the Bank of Israel for eight years until he stepped down in June, has been asked to be the Federal Reserve's next vice chair once Janet Yellen takes over as chief of the U.S. central bank, a source familiar with the issue said on Wednesday.

Fischer, 70, is widely respected as one of the world's top monetary economists. He is seen as a pragmatic policymaker and has praised the Fed's extraordinary steps to boost the U.S. economy. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he once taught current Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Mario Draghi, the European Central Bank president.

Yellen, the Fed's vice chair, is expected to win approval from the U.S. Senate next week to take the reins from Bernanke, whose term ends in January.

Fischer, who was born in Zambia and has Israeli and U.S. dual citizenship, would also need Senate approval if he accepts the offer from the White House. "He's been offered the job" said the source, who declined to be named.

Source: Reuters

The Euro Zone promises increased aid to Ukraine if it signs trade and cooperation pact. Putin threatens economic sanctions if EU deal happens

Thousands of anti-government protesters gathered in central Kiev, rebuilding barricades torn down by police, on Thursday as the European Union held out a promise of increased aid for Ukraine if it signed a trade and cooperation pact.

Ukraine's first deputy prime minister Serhiy Arbuzov flew to Brussels with a high-level delegation seeking billions of euros of aid from the EU in return for signing the agreement, which Kiev suddenly backed away from last month.

Ukraine's Prime Minister Mykola Azarov was quoted as saying on Wednesday he had asked the EU for 20 billion euros ($27 billion) in aid to offset the cost of signing the EU deal.

A sudden decision by President Viktor Yanukovich on November 21 to walk away from a trade-and-political agreement with the EU and revive trade with Ukraine's old Soviet master has brought hundreds of thousands on to the streets in a chain of weekend rallies, each one larger than the one before it.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, concerned protests could yet induce Yanukovich to seal the trade agreement with the EU to Moscow's detriment, painted a picture of a secure future for Ukraine in a Russian-led alliance.

"Our integration project is based on equal rights and real economic interests," said Putin, referring to a customs union with Belarus and Kazakhstan which he plans to develop into a political and trading bloc to be known as the Eurasian Union.

"I'm sure achieving Eurasian integration will only increase interest (in it) from our other neighbors, including from our Ukrainian partners ... I hope that all political sides can successfully reach an agreement in the interests of the Ukrainian people," he said in a state-of-the-nation address.

A decision to sign the EU deal after all would be likely to infuriate Moscow.

Putin had threatened to respond to such a deal with economic sanctions against Ukraine, which has huge debts and unpaid gas bills outstanding with Moscow. Ukraine's ultimate decision could be decisive to Putin's Eurasian Union plan.

Battalions of riot police withdrew on Wednesday from a protest camp in central Kiev after moving against demonstrators in the early hours in an angry confrontation.

But more people were streaming into the snowbound capital for the weekend to boost the 10,000 or so crammed onto Independence Square, focal point of the unrest. About 70,000 extra people from three areas of western Ukraine alone were heading for the capital, citizens' protest groups said.

After his talks with Arbuzov, Fuele said that, if Ukraine gave a clear commitment to sign the deal, the EU would prepare a roadmap for implementing the accord.

If Ukraine signed, the EU was ready to help it by topping up IMF loans and stepping up financial aid, Fuele said.

EU aid to Ukraine would only get "bigger and bigger" if it signed the agreement, he said without giving figures.

Arbuzov was joined in Brussels by the ministers of finance, economy and revenue and duties, and the central bank head.

At stake is the future of a country of 46 million people, torn between popular hope of joining the European mainstream and the demands of Russia, which controls the flow of cheapnatural gas needed to stave off bankruptcy.

After Yanukovich met Putin on December 6, Azarov said the two sides had agreed a strategic partnership.

Some believe that Yanukovich may sign a series of agreements - almost certainly bringing cheaper gas for Ukraine and possibly credits - in Moscow on December 17.

The crisis has added to the financial hardship of a country on the brink of bankruptcy. The cost of insuring Ukraine's debt against default has hit four-year highs.

It now costs more than $1 million a year for five years to insure $10 million in Ukrainian debt over that term, reflecting high default risk.

The most Brussels has so far offered is 610 million euros in macro-economic assistance.
Source: Reuters

Anglo American says turnaround ‘basic’ but will take time

"Anglo American told investors on Thursday that its turnaround was "basic" but would take years, with no big sell-off of assets in the short term and headwinds continuing into 2014 as the company overhauls the performance of key mines.

Expectations have been high for Mark Cutifani, the Australian former boss of bullion miner Anglo Gold who took the helm at Anglo American earlier this year. In July, he branded the group's performance to date as "unacceptably poor".

But he stopped short of dramatic announcements on Thursday, a day of presentations intended to flesh out the group's strategy - warning that even the "half a dozen" assets earmarked for potential sale would be improved before a decision is made.

"It is basic stuff, it can be delivered," Cutifani said of the company's blueprint to boost performance, a mostly operational plan which it says will see benefits flowing through largely in 2015 and 2016.

Analysts and investors have long speculated on the future of Anglo assets, including its troubled Anglo American Platinum unit and a majority stake in diamond miner De Beers.

"Longer term, or even medium to longer term, all options remain on the table," Cutifani said ahead of presentations to investors. "We have a bit of work to do and then we can decide whether these assets fit into the portfolio... what we won't do is go out there and sell assets for the sake of selling them."

Cutifani said Anglo's key target of hitting a return on capital employed (ROCE)- a measure of the value a company gets out of its assets - of more than 15 percent by 2016 was calculated without including asset sales.

Instead, the necessary lift of at least $3.5 billion to operating profit would come from operational improvements.

Anglo, the smallest of the leading diversified miners, has long lagged behind its peers. In the past two years alone it has been hit by labour troubles in South Africa, operational hiccups at copper mines and multibillion-dollar cost overruns in Brazil.

Some analysts had expected a change to targets for the troubled Brazilian iron ore project, Minas Rio, but Anglo confirmed both the cost - $8.8 billion - and the target of putting the first ore on ships at the end of next year.

Cutifani said progress at Minas Rio meant the group was "playing hard to get" in talks with potential partners, though it remained open to selling a minority stake in the operation.

Anglo also outlined changes at its key Sishen mine, the heart of Kumba Iron Ore where it said new mining plans would help it return to production capacity by 2016.

In its pipeline of projects, where Anglo has vowed to make cuts, the miner said it was reviewing its Quellaveco copper project in Peru, which had been due to come before the board for approval this year. That is delayed until 2015".

Source: Mineweb

Deal to quell U.S. budget wars sails through House vote

"A breakthrough budget deal that avoids a government shutdown in January and blunts automatic spending cuts easily won passage in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday, setting the stage for nearly two years of fiscal peace in Congress.

The 332-94 bipartisan vote sends the measure to the Senate, which is expected to pass it next week despite the objections of conservative political groups that complain it violates a core goal of cutting government spending.

The modest deal ends three years of partisan warfare in Congress over federal spending and taxes that fueled a 16-day government shutdown in October and twice brought the United States to the brink of default, rattling financial markets.

It was a victory for Republican House Speaker John Boehner, who has been continually stung by rebukes from the conservative, Tea Party wing of his caucus on fiscal issues. This time, however, he demonstrated that he could smoothly steer a budget compromise through the deeply divided chamber and that Republicans were capable of avoiding the brinkmanship that has marked the past three years.

"Is it perfect, does it go far enough? No, not at all," Boehner said of the budget deal during a day-long House debate.

"It's going to take a lot more work to get our arms around our debt and our deficit but this budget is a positive, positive step in that direction," he added.

The pact approved on Thursday does nothing to stem the worrisome growth of the $17 trillion federal debt, but it locks in spending levels for two fiscal years, eliminating the threat of another federal shutdown until October 1, 2015.

By allowing a $63 billion increase in spending on federal agencies and discretionary programs over two years in exchange for other budget savings, it reduces the harmful effects of the across-the board sequester cuts that have hit every government program from medical research to military weapons development".

Source: Reuters

North Korea says Jang Song Thaek, uncle of leader Kim Jong Un, executed

said on Friday Jang Song Thaek, the uncle of leader Kim Jong Un and previously considered the second most powerful man in the secretive state, has been executed after a special military tribunal found him guilty of treason.

"The accused Jang brought together undesirable forces and formed a faction as the boss of a modern day factional group for a long time and thus committed such hideous crime as attempting to overthrow the state," the North's official KCNA news agency said.

The official Rodong Sinmun newspaper on Friday carried a photograph of Jang in handcuffs and being held by uniformed guards as he stood trial.

Earlier this week North Korea stripped Jang of all posts and expelled him from the ruling Workers' Party, accusing him of criminal acts including mismanagement of the state financial system, womanizing and alcohol abuse.

"From long ago, Jang had a dirty political ambition. He dared not raise his head when Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il were alive," KCNA said, referring to leader Kim's grandfather and father, who were previous rulers of the dynastic state.

"He began revealing his true colors, thinking that it was just the time for him to realize his wild ambition in the period of historic turn when the generation of the revolution was replaced."

Source: Reuters

New airport terminal puts Shenzhen on the global architecture map

After a build time of only three years and a budget of US$1 billion, the new Terminal 3 Building at Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport, designed by Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas, makes a dramatic architectural statement. This is the first airport project for the Rome-based architects and one intended to launch them into the frontline of high-design transport terminals.

The building runs 1.5 km (5,000 ft) in length, covering an internal area of half a million square meters (5.4 million sq ft). But its most striking achievement may be its unusual form, which the architects liken to a "manta ray," and its textured "double" skin.

As the home to the country’s fourth largest airport, and one that requires a visa for entry by foreign visitors, Shenzhen seems an unlikely site for such an eye-catching building. However, the project wears the sculptural design with the confidence of a major international hub, a sign of the city's growing prominence within China, but also of the country's continuing penchant for large-scale, high-profile architecture commissions.

The new Terminal 3 at Shenzhen is indeed a grand project for the region. It extends the airport's capacity to 45 million passengers per year and creates the largest single public building to date in an area that is not exactly on the radar of most popular tourist destinations. It boasts a three-level concourse, and roof spans of 80 m (262 ft), all of which are wrapped in a double-layer skin of brilliant white perforated by "honeycomb-shaped" (hexagonal) metal and glass panels.

These allow natural light to filter through, an unusual condition for a large airport terminal and one that creates a dappled light effect inside. As the concourse has three levels, with some full-height voids, natural light reaches from the top to the bottom floors.

he interior is as gleaming and futuristic as the 300,000 sq m (3.2 million sq ft)-façade. White conical support columns rise to the roof on a "cathedral-like" scale. Adding to its textural quality, the ceiling also curves and undulates rather dramatically inside. It’s a direct challenge to the usual airport weariness, and gives the impression of being surrounded by an immaculate webbing.

The architects used the honeycomb motif not just in the ceiling but throughout the building, in the retail "boxes," and in 3D imprints in the walls of the public spaces. So the patterning is ever-present and the great volumes are not left hollow, but will be animated continually by light and shadow, as well as by the thrum of human activity.

The vast interiors, the architects say, emphasize the theme of "fluidity … the idea of movement and the idea of pause." This means that, in addition to designing a visually stimulating environment, they focused on the practicalities of processing times, walking distances, ease of orientation and crowding. But these necessities aside, it's easy to see an edgy sci-fi film being set in and around the sleek, organic elements.

Source: Gizmag, Studio Fuksas.

World's largest ship floated for the first time,Shell's Prelude Floating Liquefied natural gas facility

A hull longer than the Empire State Building is tall has been floated out of dry dock in Geoje, South Korea. Measuring 488 m (1,601 ft) long and 74 m (243 ft) wide, the hull belongs to Shell's Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility, which upon completion will be the largest floating facility ever built.
Intended to allow production of natural gas, the processing of it into liquefied natural gas (LNG) and finally the transfer directly to transport ships, all while at sea, the Prelude will weigh more than 600,000 tonnes (661,400 tons) fully loaded and is expected to produce around 3.6 million tonnes (3.9 million tons) of LNG per year. Its total storage capacity is over 430 million liters (114 million US gal), or equivalent to around 175 Olympic swimming pools.

The Prelude FLNG will operate in a remote basin around 475 km (295 miles) northeast of Broome, Western Australia for around 25 years. The area's cyclone season runs from late November to April, but the Prelude is designed to remain onsite all year-round in all weather conditions.

It has been designed to withstand a category 5 cyclone and will be secured in place by one of the largest mooring systems in the world. This consists of a 93-m (305-ft) high turret, (which is large enough to house the Arc de Triomphe) that runs through the Prelude and is anchored to the seabed by four groups of mooring lines.

The mooring system allows the facility to turn slowly in the wind so as to absorb the impact of strong weather while remaining moored over the gas field. Additionally, two of the three 6,700-hp thrusters at the rear of the Prelude are able to operate at the same time to turn the facility out of the wind and allow LNG carriers to pull safely alongside for loading.

The floating behemoth is expected to be completed and producing natural gas by 2017. However, it may soon be overshadowed by something even larger. "We are designing a larger facility," Bruce Steenson, Shell's general manager of integrated gas programmes and innovation told Reuters last week. "That will be the next car off the rails."

Source: Gizmag

Gold & silver imports dive 80% in November in India

Gold and silver imports slumped 80.55% to $1.05 billion in November in India, following several measures by the government to curb inbound shipments of the precious metal. Imports of gold and silver in November 2012 were at $5.4 billion.

Between April to November 2013, gold and silver imports have declined 23.78% to $25.5 billion from $33.5 billion in the same period last year. However, the Indian government is not content with the decline.

India's Finance Minister P Chidambaram said India could neither finance a current account deficit to the order of $88 billion as it did in 2012-13, nor could it afford to pay for the import of gold to the order of $50 billion or more.

Providing a solution, the chief of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council C Rangarajan noted that India could tolerate $30 billion worth of gold imports and not the high imports brought in last year. A major reason for India's high current account deficit (CAD) in the last fiscal was the high imports of gold. 

Both the government officials were speaking at the Economic Conclave in the Capital on December 12, wherein Chidambaram said the government would stick to the path of fiscal consolidation and endeavour to narrow the deficit to 3% of gross domestic product by 2016-17.

Incidentally, the country's CAD shrunk to $5.2 billion, which is 1.2% of gross domestic product, for the quarter ended September 2013. The slide was so dramatic that it prompted the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to release the numbers a month earlier than scheduled.

The RBI governor Raghuram Rajan, also present at the conclave, said that some part of the reduction in CAD was the results of the suppression of gold imports. He noted that this was necessary in the short run, but was not desirable over the medium term.

Interestingly, though a major fall in CAD has been due to the massive fall in gold imports, it has also meant that the demand for dollars to buy gold has gone down dramatically across the country. This has been one of the main reasons for the rupee increasing in value from around 69 to a dollar end August to around 61 to a dollar at present.

Observing that India could not afford a high CAD, which touched $88 billion in 2012-13, Chidambaram said the country should avoid importing gold and other raw materials that were available at home. He was referring to the import of coal and questioned the need especially with the country boasting of coal in abundance.

Rangarajan added that as financial assets become more attractive and inflation comes down, the demand for gold would naturally subside. The government has been trying to ensure that investments in other financial assets supersede the buying of gold.

The government's measures appear to be working. Total merchandise imports last month also declined, helping to narrow the trade deficit to $9.21 billion, the second lowest level this financial year. It was at $6.76 billion in September.

The overall trade deficit from April to November slid by almost $30 billion. The trade deficit stood at $99.9 billion during the first eight months of this financial year as compared to $129.2 billion in the same period last year. Though India's government gets tough, the precious metal continues to lure, especially now given its current drop in price.

Source: Mineweb

Smarty Ring offers connectivity without lifting a finger

Like the idea of technology that wraps around a body part, displays the time and connects to your smartphone? No, we aren't talking about a smartwatch, but the "Smarty Ring" which may offer an even more subtle way to stay connected.

Joining the likes of the Ring Clock, the Genius wireless ring mouse and the NFC Ring in the functional fingerwear department, the Smarty Ring connects to iOS or Android devices (provided they are Bluetooth 4.0 enabled), allowing for call notifications, text and e-mail alerts, along with real time updates from Facebook, Twitter, Google Hangout and Skype.

A 13 mm (0.5 in) wide and 4 mm (0.16 in) thick stainless steel body forms the band of the ring, which is waterproof and comes in sizes ranging from 15.7 mm (0.62 in) to 23.8 mm (0.94 in) in diameter. Buttons on the outer side of the ring can be used to accept or reject incoming calls, control music playback and trigger the connected phone's camera.

It is powered by a 22 mAh battery, which the company says will afford it a 24 hour battery life. To recharge, the Smarty Ring comes accompanied by a wireless charging dock with space for two rings and a smartphone.

The ring is customized through a smartphone application, which allows users to keep an eye on five different time zones, adjust the brightness of the LED display, adjust the volume of the ring's beeper, and assign buttons for speed dial. It could also prove useful in preventing theft and lost devices, alerting users when their phone is more than 30 m (98 ft) away from them – even when the phone is in silent mode.

At the time of writing, the Smarty Ring has surpassed its funding goal of US$40,000 on Indiegogo, amassing over $120,000 with the campaign drawing to a close at midnight on December 11, 2013. The company is offering the Smarty Ring for a $175 pledge with shipping estimated for April 2014.

Source: Gizmag

U.S. Retail Sales Rose 0.7% in November

''Retail sales rose 0.7% in November from a month earlier, the sharpest increase since June, the Commerce Department said Thursday. The gain reflected a surge in auto sales to a six-year high, though a wide range of retailers reported rising sales. Commerce also revised upward October's retail sales increase to 0.6% from 0.4%.

November retail sales were up 4.7% from the same period a year earlier.

The healthy jump in November sales signals a strong start to the crucial holiday shopping season, which accounts for a substantial share of retailers' earnings. The retail gains, along with other data showing rising confidence and accelerating job growth, offer hope that American consumers—who account for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic output—could be finding a more solid footing.

The pickup could give Federal Reserve officials more confidence to start reducing their $85 billion-a-month bond-buying program, which is designed to hold down interest rates and spur economic growth. Fed officials have said they expect to start reducing the purchases in the "coming months." They meet next Tuesday and Wednesday.

Hopes for a pickup in the recovery still could be dashed, as they have been so many times since the economy exited recession more than four years ago. Recent data haven't been uniformly positive. Retail sales during the Thanksgiving weekend actually fell from a year earlier, according to early reports from the sector's trade group.

Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at consultancy MFR Inc., cautioned that the recent pickup in consumer spending might just reflect some purchases that were delayed over the summer, when spending growth slowed. "We think this represents more of a correction of some past underperformance than the start of a fundamental, sustained acceleration," he said''.

From: WSJ

Kik Hits 100M Users, Adding New Ones At A Rate Of 200K Per Day

"The messaging wars are in full swing, and Waterloo-based Kik is still seeing tremendous positive growth despite trailing its rival WhatsApp in terms of total userbase size. The company revealed today that it has just passed 100 million registered users, having added 70 million of those since this time last year. The startup also launched Cards, its HTML5-based in-app content sharing system this time last year, and engagement on those apps-within-an-app has been promising, too, according to Kik founder and CEO Ted Livingston".

“For us, growth gets a really big bump over Thanksgiving, which is a combination of new devices and people being in a new social sphere and sharing their passion for Kik,” he explained, pointing to factors that have helped them reach this milestone. “It’s hard to know what exactly is prompting growth. I wouldn’t say there’s anyone coming to Kik just for Cards and not for the messaging platform, but what it does do is provide a way for people to look at it and say ‘Look at all the fun things I can do with Kik that I can’t do with any other messaging apps.”

As for Cards, they’ve seen around 145 million installs on peoples’ devices, and over 85 percent of those come from shares, meaning that people are installing Cards because they’ve received them from friends and found them interesting. One Card, called Costume Party, managed to reach 1 million users in just 22 hours, so you start to see how this could become a platform for message-based networking in the same way that Facebook evolved over time as a development target.

Cards are a strong component of Kik’s continued success, but there are still a lot of challenges on the horizon. For instance, Twitter appears to be doing more with Direct Messages on its platform, and now allows people to send photos using it. It seems like it could be only a matter of time before they make their own cards available via their private messaging network, too, which would end up being remarkably similar to Kik’s Cards. Kik’s implementation is much more like full-fledged apps, however, and Livingston says the most surprising thing about it has been that people often note how seamless the Cards are, and how they feel like native experiences, instead of web apps.

WhatsApp has 350 million monthly users, as of October, so Kik still has a long way to go to catch up. But with Cards, it’s investing heavily in its platform play, and that appears to be paying dividends.

Source: techcrunch

Top 600 cities with one fifth of world population projected to generate 60% of GDP by 2025

Top 600 cities with one fifth of world population projected to generate 60% of GDP by 2025

"The global urban population is growing by 65 million annually.  More than half of the world’s population is already living in cities, and these cities generate more than 80 percent of global GDP.   It is expected that urbanization will continue to be one of the biggest drivers of global economic growth.  The productivity improvement from urbanization has already delivered substantial economic growth and helped radically reduce poverty in countries such as China and Brazil.

The McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) in a report Urban world: Mapping the economic power of cities, has projected the growth of urbanization demographically and economically over the next 15 years.   The report is based on a number of assumptions that together represent a possible future scenaio and relies on MGI's Cityscope database of more than 2,000 cities that coalesces MGI regional research on cities. Together, the 2000 cities of the MGI Cityscope are projected to contribute 75 percent of global GDP growth to 2025. 

MGI projects that 600 urban agglomerations, representing a fifth of the world’s population, will generate 60 percent of global GDP in 2025.

In this report MGI projects one scenario of how cities will evolve demographically and economically over the next 15 years.  There are some surprising conclusions that may change government and companies strategies in how they investment in markets in the future.

Regional distribution

Top cities in 2025 by: 

              pop                  gdp         gdp_growth

1. Tokyo             New York     Shanghai
2. Mumbai        Tokyo            Beijing
3. Shanghai     Shanghai     New York
4. Beijing          London        Tianjin
5. Delhi             Beijing         Chongqing
6. Kolkata         Los Angeles Shenzhen
7. Dhaka           Paris            Guangzhou
8. Sao Paulo   Chicago        Nanjing
9. Mexico City  Rhein-Ruhr  Hangzhou
10. New York     Shenzhen     Chengdu

 By 2025, 136 new cities are projeted to enter the top 600, all of them from the developing world.   100 of them are projected to come from from China alone. India is projected to contribute 13 new cities in the top 600 by 2025 and eight will come from Latin America.

In 2025 according to MGI's projection

• 2.0 billion people will live in these 600 cities - 25% of the global population
• They will generate $64 trillion of GDP, 60% of global GDP
• They will support 735 million households with average per capita GDP of $32,000, of which 235 million households in developing cities will have income above $20,000 per annum".

Source:

GEOFF ZEISS,Between the poles

Instagram Is The Apple Of Apps, Fast Following With Finesse?

"Instagram didn’t invent photo sharing, video sharing, or the photo messaging it launched today . With 150 million users, it doesn’t have to be first. It just wants to be the best, making new experiences accessible to as many people as possible, but with style. You might say Instagram steals these ideas, but that would put it good company. It’s what people say about Apple.

Instagram was never really original. From the days when it was Burbn, it’s been a mashup of other apps with an extra coat of gloss.

Back then it was Foursquare meets Hipstamatic. Checkins and photo filters. It dropped most of the Foursquare part, and added a Twitter-style unfiltered feed. Twitter felt real-time, and Instagram did too, but by showing images in-line, it was more visually appealing.

Eventually Instagram was acquired by Facebook and incorporated its new parent company’s photo tagging system. It would then jump on the video bandwagon where SocialCam had come and gone, and Vine was just taking off. Instagram jacked Vine’s tap-and-hold-to-record-multiple-clips interface, but polished it with filters and cover images.

And today, Instagram’s launch event was practically an homage to other apps. Instagram Direct, its new private messaging feature, is all about communication through photos and videos, like Snapchat. Except with Instagram, you can filter and refine your media before you send it.

Its messaging permission system is a hybrid of Twitter’s DMs where you can get messages from people you follow, and Facebook’s Other Inbox that collects messages from people you might not know. This gives you the best of both worlds, where you’re protected from spam but don’t have to get an explicit two-way friendship confirmation and won’t miss messages from new people you meet.

The look of Instagram Direct seems lifted straight from competitors. When you add recipients, you tap little bubbles next to their name just like Snapchat, and a counter appears along a bar at the bottom. The comparison screenshots above show how similar they look. And when friends like your Instagram Directs, their little heart bubbles appear in a row beneath the photo like on Path.

The thing is, most of Instagram’s 150 million monthly and 75 million daily users have never used Snapchat, which has “over 30 million users”, or Path, which has around 20 million registered users. People sometimes say “it doesn’t matter until Facebook/Google/Apple does it” about copying features, and in the photo world, you might be able to add Instagram to that list.

Founders of Instagram’s competitors might feel flattered today, but they should probably be worried too. Because this “follow with finesse” strategy worked wonders for Apple. There were gangly, awkward music players before, but the iPod made listening elegant. PC laptops were clunky and ugly, and the MacBook made them sleek and modern…for a price. Confusing PDAs and tablets were bested by the friendly iPad. Each time, Apple disrupted an industry by bringing rough, niche, but functional ideas to a mainstream audience that values form.

Next we might see Apple take what others have done with TVs or watches and make them feel like a more natural extension of ourselves.

How does Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom feel about being called a cunning copycat? We asked him after today’s event about the inspiration for Instagram Direct, to which he replied, “It’s not a fast follow. It felt like the wrong thing to not have that in there. The two things we wanted to work on were messaging and video. By laying the groundwork we’re making sure interesting community stuff can happen. We’re focused on creating new behaviors vs. copying. I don’t wake up thinking what can I replace, I end up thinking what new behaviors can I create.”

That doesn’t mean it will succeed like Apple. Messaging is a crowded market, and Instagram is a very late-comer. All its design flourishes can sometimes weigh it down, making it seem slower than raw but nimble competitors. It will take time to see how the visual communication market on mobile shakes out.

And Instagram has time. Thanks to Facebook’s resources, even if monetization is slow to start up as CEO Kevin Systrom said today, it has all the money for development and expansion that it needs. Instagram can afford to play the long game, and it stands to get some fresh legs.

As Systrom noted, there are 4 billion feature phones in the world and just 1 billion smartphones, but the shift is happening. The developing world will deliver a landslide of new photographers. When they arrive, Instagram doesn’t care who it’s compared to, as long as it works and feels like the camera of your dreams".