Australia named world's happiest nation: OECD report

Australia has once again topped the world as the happiest industrialised nation, according to a report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released Tuesday.

The OECD Better Life Index compares the well-being of 34 developed and emerging countries based on eleven categories including housing, income, jobs, education, life satisfaction and work-life balance.

In an update launched Tuesday morning at OECD Week 2013 in Paris, the Better Life Index found that 84 percent of Australians are satisfied with their lives -- better than the OECD average of 80 percent.

Participants said they have more positive experiences, such as feelings of rest, pride in accomplishment and enjoyment, in an average day than negative ones.

Australians' happiness was even greater than that of Canada and Sweden, also known for high standards of living.

The survey also found that Australians are living longer, with life expectancy at almost 82 years -- two years higher than the average.

Employment levels are also stronger -- at 73 percent compared with an average of 66 percent for people aged 15 to 64.

Australia also performed well in the areas of civic engagement, with a strong sense of community and high levels of civic participation, and health, having achieved "remarkable progress" in reducing the number of smokers in the population.

Source: CCTV

T-Mobile US could raise almost $2 billion for spectrum purchases

T-Mobile US Inc announced on Monday a stock offering that could bring it almost $2 billion for spectrum purchases.

T-Mobile, the No. 4 U.S. mobile service provider, said it would sell 66.15 million common shares, or roughly 9 percent of its existing shares outstanding, and that it could use the proceeds to buy airwaves to bolster its network capacity for wireless data services.

Deutsche Telekom, which owns 74 percent of T-Mobile, said on Twitter that its stake would be cut to 67 percent after the sale, but that it was not selling its shares.

However, T-Mobile shares fell almost 3 percent in after-market trading after it announced the sale, which would bring in $1.96 billion, based on T-Mobile's Monday closing share price of $26.97, and includes an offer of 6.6 million extra shares for underwriters.

T-Mobile raised concerns among some investors over dilution of the value of its shares when it said on November 5 it could raise money for spectrum in an equity offer.

Chief Financial Officer Braxton Carter said in an interview that day that T-Mobile would be careful to avoid significant share dilution in an equity offering and that it could also opt to take advantage of low interest rates in a debt offering.

Source: Reuters

Philippine stocks drop with peso on typhoon

Philippine stocks dived amid concern the devastation from Super Typhoon Haiyan will weigh on economic growth.

The Philippine Stock Exchange Index slid 1.42 percent to 6264.64 on Monday, set for the steepest decline since Sept. 30. The peso also declined to a five-week low, weakening 0.4 percent to 43.377 per dollar.

Analysts say the economic impact of the year's most powerful cyclone may reach 14 billion US dollars, about 2 billion of which will be insured.

Source: CCTV

China auto sales increase 20% in Oct

China's car sales climbed 20 percent last month on a yearly basis, mainly due to a rebound in demand for Japanese cars.

Data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers shows wholesale deliveries of cars climbed to 1.6 million units in October, higher than the 1.5 million forecast.

Analysts say the perk in China's economy in the fourth quarter ushered the car-sales rebound. Japanese car producers such as Toyota and Honda saw a big sales spike as China's anti-Japan sentiment cooled down.

Source:CCTV

Offline retailers seek to maintain traditional ways

Not all retailers are enjoying China's Single's Day shopping bonanza. Some brick and mortar shops are protesting against online retailers, claiming it violates their business.

Nowadays everything can be purchased online. But should everything be purchased online?

At this year's Single's day shopping festival, some brick and mortar stores, or offline furniture stores in particular, are saying no.

"According to our association, we will not be responsible for delivering furniture to people who buy online. Online furniture retailers will not be allowed to have point of sale terminals in our association's brick and mortar stores. And finally, we are here to provide a unique in-store experience that cannot be replicated online," Che Jianxin, CEO of Red Star Mecalline, said.

This has resulted in online retail platform Tmall halting its online furniture sales model.
Mr. Che is firm in his belief that brick and mortar furniture stores are still in demand, while others believe online and offline are destined to co-exist.

"The offline furniture business is still viable for the long term, especially for high-end furniture. Normally we sell upscale furniture in brick and mortar stores and put our lower end products online. This has turned out to be a good way of doing our business," Che said.

"There should be more cooperation between offline and online shops as technology continues to advance," Ren Yuan, Contemporary China Research CTR at Fudan University, said.

Despite the quarrels, it's predicted by many that in the future ties between online and offline retailers will only grow stronger.

Source: CCTV

Investment to boost China's climate-smart growth

China has embarked on a climate-friendly growth path and increased finance will help boost the market, global climate change authorities said on Monday in Beijing.

China is expected to reveal long-term policies and raise social awareness on climate change, Mark Kenber, Climate Group CEO, said at the launch ceremony of the China Climate Finance Research Project.

The project is jointly set up by the Climate Group, China's National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation, and China Clean Development Mechanism Fund (CDMFUND).

"Investment in climate change is good business. China is already grasping the chance," Kenber said.

The project aims to help make the allocation of capital more efficient by providing updated research using innovative policy tools.

"On its climate-growth path, China has contributed a lot of efforts and capital on energy saving and the emission reduction sector," said Chen Huan, director with the CDMFUND, which is under the Ministry of Finance.

China has pledged in its 12th Five-Year Plan to cut energy consumption per unit of GDP by 16 percent while slashing carbon emissions by 17 percent by 2015.

The country's market in the climate sector is estimated to reach the trillion-yuan-level.

Chen said, "We expect to bridge the government's policy funds with financial institutions and enterprises to drive private capital flows into climate-smart sectors."

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Oct. 23 in Copenhagen of Denmark called on the international community to raise their ambitions to help with green growth. It will require innovation, investment and collaboration by all partners, he said.

"Achieving a clean energy transformation will need the combined efforts of governments, multilateral investment banks, private finance, civil society, the knowledge community and the private sector," Ban said.

Source: Xinhua

China's Shenzhen lures investors from sister city Houston

Though separated by some 13,400 kilometers and the Pacific Ocean, the port cities of China's Shenzhen and America's Houston share business ties forged when they became sister cities in 1989, a fact not lost on over 100 Houston business leaders at a recent forum held in Houston titled "Invest in Shenzhen, Build a Winning Future."

"We want to build and strengthen this friendship to benefit the people and companies of both cities and ensure international cooperation between Houston and Shenzhen," said Doreen Dai, chief representative of the North American Representative Office of Shenzhen.

Li Shi, deputy director-general of government agency Invest Shenzhen, described Shenzhen as a "wonder city" that has grown from a small fishing village of 30,000 to a vibrant metropolis of more than 10 million people and one of China's largest import/export cities.

"Shenzhen is diversified and has become the city of innovation in China," Li said. "The city of Houston has consistently seen innovation in its business environment. It's at the top of the innovative force in China."

Shenzhen, strategically located just north of Hong Kong, is working to promote more innovative technologies, participate in strategic industry, and become a leader in the financial sector, just as it has become a force in internet technologies. Last year, Shenzhen's GDP surpassed 200 billion U.S. dollars, Li said.

Just as Shenzhen has grown into one of China's major cities in the past 30 years, Houston has emerged as a world leader in energy, said Cao Derong, commercial counselor of China's Consulate-General in Houston.

"I think that both cities can create a new level of cooperation," Cao said.

Shao Ting, director of communication and marketing for Invest Shenzhen, said, "The relationship between Houston and Shenzhen is key to the diplomatic international relations between the two (giants)."

According to the Houston Shenzhen Sister City Association's brochure, Houston and Shenzhen have been exchanging cultural, education, and social and economic information since 1984, formalizing the Houston Shenzhen Sister Cities program five years later when a delegation from Shenzhen traveled to the States.

In 1994, a Houston delegation, including a high school football team, visited Shenzhen to participate in the Lychee Festival and provide an exhibition American football game. Since then, there have been several visits between city delegates, including mayors and business leaders.

Shao said Shenzhen, ranked second in Forbes magazine's 2012 list of innovative mainland cities, is home to many Fortune 500 companies.

In 2012, Shenzhen spent 3.81 percent of its GDP, or 49 billion yuan (about 8 billion dollars), on business development and has had more Patent Cooperation Treaty applications than any other Chinese cities for nine consecutive years.

Shenzhen is described as a melting pot of cultures, an eco-friendly environment and a city that has accelerated growth in six emerging industries, including biology, the internet, new energies, new materials, information technology and cultural and creative industries.

"I had the opportunity to visit Shenzhen a few years ago, and I was very impressed ... Mostly because there were so many similarities (with Houston), including the city's humble beginnings to becoming a dynamic, modern metropolis," said Houston Vice Mayor Ed Gonzales.

There were similar demographics between the two, he said, such as the young population of business professionals that are in evidence in both cities.

"Both have an established market that is ready for investment," he said.

During the forum, letters of investment cooperation were formally signed between Invest Shenzhen and two Houston firms, BioHouston, Inc., and OMP Enterprises.

Source: Xinhua

Japan: Games speech translation system to be upgraded

The communications ministry plans to beef up the capabilities of its multilingual speech translation system ahead of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

The system, dubbed VoiceTra, instantly translates voices input in Japanese, English, Chinese and other languages into other languages and reads them out. The technology can remove language barriers, according to communications minister Yoshitaka Shindo.It has already been practically applied to simple conversations with tourists in the form of a smartphone application.
The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry aims to enable the system to translate conversations related to medical care and disasters.

Source: NewsOnJapan

China's reforms at critical point, says scholar

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua, Chi Fulin, president of Haikou-based China Institute for Reform and Development, stressed important reform breakthroughs will bring the country sustainable growth in the next 10 to 20 years. Otherwise, increasing economic and social risks would become the biggest obstacle for the world's second largest economy.

"Reforms have become the key to release the future development prospects of China," he said

The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee started Saturday and ends Tuesday. The meeting will deliberate on a draft decision of the CPC Central Committee on "major issues concerning comprehensively deepening reforms."

"The economic reforms should focus on clarifying the relationship between the government and the market to stimulate market vitality," Chi said. "We should shift our pursuit from gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the past to fair and sustainable development."

Any delay could worsen current economic and social risks, warned the scholar.

He pointed out both economic and social reforms rely on the transformation of government functions, which should play an effective role in the market-oriented economy.

"The transformation should focus more on providing public services," Chi said.

Since the historic Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee launched the reform and opening-up drive in 1978, third plenary sessions have taken reform and opening up as their major agenda.

The biggest achievements of the country's reform over the past 35 years have been solutions to the needs of the country's huge population.

"Nowadays, people want better education, health care, jobs and good consumption and an improved environment," he said.

"People enjoy meat in their bowls, but they still complain when they put down their chopsticks. If the government fails to cope with their need of better public goods and services, the economic, social and governance transformations will all be undermined," Chi pointed out.

"The transformations must be in accordance with social needs," the scholar said. "China has a huge 'gold mine'. How can we dig out the gold? By reforms," the researcher affirmed.

Calls for reforms of the household registration system and land system have been widely echoed among the Chinese public.

According to Chi, the current system is a barrier to the country's further progress.

The "hukou" or household registration system is tied to one's place of residence and is used to obtain access to basic welfare and public services. The system prevents millions of migrant workers from gaining equal access to services in cities.

In the course of the country's industrialization and urbanization, some 260 million farmers have moved to cities to seek jobs. Their contracted farmland has been left to their parents, rented to others, or used by governments for construction.

Urbanization is regarded as an important force to expand domestic demand while the "hukou" reform should be an important step, said Chi.

Also, reform of the land system is a key issue in rural areas. Chi pointed out that the farmland contract system also needs reforming.

Furthermore, Chi underscored the urgency to tackle the vested interests of certain groups, who oppose further reforms.

Chi added that China's efforts to expand domestic demand and the urbanization of its population in the next five to 10 years will benefit the world.

"China's domestic demand will be a crucial force in re-balancing the global economy," Chi said. "China will play a more vital role in the sustainable growth of the world economy."

Source: Xinhua

Current account logs 2nd smallest surplus

Japanese finance officials say the country's current account surplus was the 2nd smallest on record for the April-September half-year period.

They say the surplus came to about 30.9 billion dollars. That's the 2nd lowest figure since 1985, when comparative figures became available.

The dip is largely due to a trade deficit of about 47.1 billion dollars, a record high for the half-year period.

The weaker yen pushed up the value of dollar-based crude oil and liquefied natural gas imports. Shipments of smartphones and clothing from China also rose.

Source: NewsOnJapan

To survive, to win, China needs reform

The current meeting of senior Chinese policy makers will define the shape of China in the 21st century, and possibly that of the world.

The third plenum of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), opened on Saturday and ends on Tuesday, with reform as the top priority.

No official word has seeped out yet, but reading between the lines of recent policy and statements reform will cover the socialist market economy, democracy, cultural development, social harmony and ecological matters. [ The reform and opening-up drives started by Deng Xiaoping in 1978 has saved the Chinese economy from the brink of collapse and put it on a track of fast growth, and China now is the second largest economy in the world.

Thirty five years ago when then Communist Party of China (CPC) shifted its focus from ideology to economy, the main battle was against the dogmatists of communism. Today, reformers face resistance from interest groups who have either benefited from reforms or non-reforming.

No reform is ever easy nor without cost. On the other hand, reform means survival and prosperity. The CPC has to make the right decisions and prove that it is both a responsible and farsighted party.

In July, when on a visit to central China's Hubei Province, President Xi Jinping talked the methodology of comprehensively intensifying reform.Reform, he said, is a balance between creativity and reality, between urgent breakthroughs and comprehensiveness, between a leadership and grassroots, between courage and care, between reform, development and stability.

There is one thing the CPC can rely on: A country of 1.3 billion people, China is not lacking in energy or appetite for change.

A simple example is the Singles Day shopping spree on Monday. Orders flooded Taobao.com, the country's biggest online shopping site, to the tune of 10 billion yuan (1.6 billion U.S. dollars) in the first six hours.

This is no concoction by the government or an age-old tradition, merely a combination of humor and business creativity with good execution. The reforms of 1978 began with some simple farmers in central China who just wanted to fill their stomachs. The Chinese still have the stomach today for even bigger changes and should be a bit more ambitious.

China's reform is part of a global process of modernization which started with the industrial revolution in the West, but the West is exactly that, West, and does not have every answer to every question in every country.

Source: Xinhua

Namie yakisoba 'best' B-class cuisine

Namie yakisoba, which was produced by Namie Yakisoba Taikoku, a group formed to revitalize the town of Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, won at the eighth B-1 Grand Prix, an event held in Toyokawa, Aichi Prefecture on Saturday and Sunday to promote local dishes known as B-class gourmet cuisine.

According to the event opera-tor, 64 groups participated, which was a record high, and about 580,000 people visited the event over two days.

Namie yakisoba is a dish featuring stir-fried thick noodles like udon and pork with a heavy sauce. The group ranked fourth at both the 2011 and 2012 events.

Source: NewsOnJapan

Lawmakers draft plan for casinos in Japan

Japanese lawmakers from across the political spectrum are working on a plan to legalize casinos in the country. They've come up with a basic proposal for licensing and supervising the venues.

The law currently permits betting on some professional sports such as horse, boat and bicycle races. But it bans gambling in casinos.

A group of lawmakers is preparing a bill to change this. They say income from casino-entertainment complexes would spur economic growth.

The group wants the government to designate special zones where casinos could operate if local authorities are in favor.

Source: NewsOnJapan

Alibaba's Jack Ma: Farewell to WeChat, Welcome to Laiwang

"In three days I’ll be closing down [my WeChat] account. Thank you to all my friends on WeChat for giving me so much happiness and inspiration. But now I have no choice but to nurse my own child, Laiwang. I know many people might say this child has no special characteristics, or was born at the wrong time, won’t grow up to be big, or even if he grows up to be big, he won’t have the prospects of his older brother WeChat: (We know, we’ve heard it all. We don’t expect this child to have the same future as WeChat, but we still expect this child to be even more ambitious, have character, and study hard. Today, there’s a gap between him and his brother, but he doesn’t want to surpass his brother, he just wants to realize his own future. We believe this world doesn’t need to have just one child… as we all know, the one-child policy caused us great trouble).

Dear friends, I too work very heard for my red envelope. I also need the help of two hundred brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles. I used to think that having one child – WeChat – was enough. Now I’ve realized that having two children can also be beautiful. That’s right, and our child likes to make friends, sometimes he can make groups of 500 friends at a time. He’s kind of like his Daddy in that way, ha ha ha.

Brothers and sisters, in the next three days, come to Laiwang and find me. Come have a look at my baby. Your care will help him understand the significance of support, and will especially help him build the confidence to challenge his successful older brother… On Laiwang, add your phone number and then you can add me".

WSJ:Apple Finds Surprising Growth Market in Japan

   According to a report from the Wall Street Journal,"in the past two years, Japan has emerged as Apple's fastest-growing region, far outpacing its home market and the booming economies of Greater China and the rest of Asia. Japan is also home to Apple's biggest profit margins, and the only one of Apple's five regions where operating profit grew in the past fiscal year".

"The iPhone has propelled Apple's success in Japan, supported by heavy marketing and rich subsidies from telephone companies. The iPhone's cachet taps Japan's fervor for brand-name goods, similar to how Japanese shoppers once flocked to Louis Vuitton bags and Burberry scarves.
Sales got another boost in late September when NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan's largest wireless carrier, began offering the iPhone for the first time to its 61.8 million customers. Even before that, the iPhone was Japan's best-sellingsmartphone, with a 37% market share in the six months ended Sept. 30, according to Tokyo's MM Research Institute".
                                           
"Apple's iPad also garnered more than 50% of Japan's tablet-computer market in the fiscal year ended March 2013, said MM Research.

As the last major Japanese operator to offer the iPhone, DoCoMo is aggressively discounting new models to lure users from competitors, while offering incentives to entice existing subscribers to switch from other phones".

Jeff Immelt: I think all of us are going to have a safety cushion, as these things get unwound(tapering of bond buying), just to be careful, because I think we are in kind of unprecedented territory.

Geoff Elliott:      What about the unwinding of stimulus.  What do you think of   the Fed has obviously been printing a lot of money effectively, and clearly with the twin of the gas boom and a low US dollar has really helped spark recovery.

Jeff Immelt:    We're in kind of an unprecedented territory in terms of the amount of leverage on the US balance sheet, so we've never kind of been where we are today, so whether that drives inflation or where it goes, I don't think anybody knows.  I think from a company standpoint, what it just means is that all of us are going to carry more cash.  In other words, I think all of us are going to have a safety cushion, as these things get unwound, just to be careful, because I think we are in kind of unprecedented territory.
    We clearly don't see inflation today.  The capital markets are clearly benign today around the deficit and things like that.  There are no Bond vigilantes, or other external factors that are going to change the game.  So that's what we watch. 

Source: theaustralian

Eike Batista's OSX Files for Bankruptcy Protection

   According to a report from the Wall Street Journal,"OSX Brasil SA the ship building company of troubled tycoon Eike Batista, filed for bankruptcy protection, the second such filing for a commodities empire that crumbled this year as losses piled up and investor confidence plummeted''.
"The move Monday at a Rio de Janeiro court follows a default and bankruptcy filing last month for Mr. Batista's flagship oil firm OGX Petroleo e Gas Participacoes SA.The firm went public in 2008 for $4.1 billion but failed to produce nearly any of the up to 10.8 billion barrels it claimed to have. Recently, OGX declared several of its once promising fields were actually duds".

"OSX had outstanding debts of around $2.2 billion as of June 30, including dollar- and local- currency denominated loans and bonds held by a mix of banks investors and government institutions, such as Brazil's National Bank for Economic and Social Development, or BNDES, and the Merchant Marine Fund.

But the bankruptcy only covers a portion of the debt, as some major assets were excluded from the filing, according to a company spokeswoman.

Three OSX oil platforms set up as separate corporate entities in the Netherlands aren't part of the process, the spokeswoman confirmed. The platforms act as collateral for some $1.4 billion in dollar denominated loans and bonds.

Eduardo Munhoz, a lawyer who is handling OGX and OSX dealings on Mr. Batista's behalf, said OSX has also provided an additional 2.2 billion reais in guarantees for two of the oil platforms.

Company subsidiaries are often excluded from bankruptcy if they are able to pay their debts, said Richard Levin, chair of the restructuring practice at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP. When subsidiaries are based in other countries, they also may not file for bankruptcy to protect them from potential actions by foreign regulators and suppliers", he added.

Grifols to Buy Novartis Blood-Screening Unit

  According to a report from the Wall Street Journal,"Grifols SA one of the world's top developers of plasma-based medicines, has thrived amid Spain's searing economic crisis by targeting sales abroad and making well-timed acquisitions".

"On Monday, it struck again, agreeing to pay €1.24 billion ($1.66 billion) to buy a diagnostic unit of Novartis AG  . Buying the Swiss company's blood-screening technology will expand Grifols's core business: getting plasma from 150 donor centers in the U.S. to plants in California, North Carolina and Barcelona, where the plasma is converted into an array of sophisticated medicines sold world-wide.

The company's blunt-spoken president and chief executive, Victor Grifols, has raised eyebrows with his criticism of Spain's government.

In an interview last week, he praised the regulatory climate in the U.S., where much of his business is based. "It's a pragmatic country. It's a country where the rules are complied with," said Mr. Grifols, the grandson of the company's founder.

The Spanish government's power to control prices has made business in the country difficult, Mr. Grifols said. "For us, the government comes along and lowers the price 10%, from one year to the next," he said. "And on top of that, since it's the monopolistic client, it doesn't pay you or it pays you in one or two years."

Grifols's best-selling product by volume is albumin, which is used in treating a range of patients, such as burn victims and people undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass surgery. IVIG, which can be used to treat illnesses including leukemia and autoimmune diseases, is the company's best-seller by revenue.

The company's net profit rose 35% for the first nine months of this year to €267 million, led by a strong performance in the U.S. and, to a lesser extent, growth in emerging markets.

he Spanish government banned paid plasma and blood donations in the 1980s, prompting Grifols to expand into the U.S. to get the raw material for plasma products. Grifols expanded its U.S. foothold with the 2011 acquisition of plasma-medicine maker Talecris Biotherapeutics Holdings Corp. for $3.4 billion.

More recently, Grifols has been acquiring small Spanish biotech companies that were strained by the country's economic crisis".

Social Media in China: Sina, Tencent to Report Results. New Entrant Alibaba's Laiwang

  According to a report from the Wall Street Journal,"Beijing-based Sina Corp.runs the country's most popular public microblogging service, the Twitter-like Sina Weibo, which for the past three years has served as the closest thing China has for a national forum. It is facing increasing pressure from Tencent Holdings Ltd.'s WeChat, a mobile app similar to WhatsApp and Line that allows users to post status updates, share photos and even strike up quick romantic encounters".

"When Sina reports its third-quarter financial results after the market closes on Tuesday in New York, investors will watch closely for indications that Weibo is losing eyeballs to WeChat. Last quarter, concerns about a potential decline in use were allayed when Sina executives reported that time spent on the Weibo mobile application went up 15% from the previous quarter, with daily active users growing 8.3% to 54 million".

But Sina faces another challenge, this time from the government. Beijing in recent months has put pressure on some widely followed Weibo users for the sake of—in the words of one official—"the purification of the online environment."

On the positive side, Sina could get a boost from an agreement it struck earlier this year with Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., which took a stake in Weibo and formed a partnership that the companies have said will generate $380 million in advertising revenue for Sina over the next three years. Even so, investors will be watching to see whether piping in new services, like games, will help it become more profitable.

"Sina is expected to post profit of 32 cents a share, up from 17 cents a share a year earlier", according to analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

"There is less anxiety over Tencent's WeChat, which as of August boasted 236 million monthly active users. Tencent will post third-quarter earnings on Wednesday in Hong Kong. Because of its less-public nature, WeChat has also skirted most of the attention of authorities, who worry more about Weibo's ability to make complaints about corruption or pollution go viral—though authorities still censor the service and use it to track dissidents. More encouraging, several new mobile games on WeChat have strong download figures, helping Tencent's case that it can eventually make money from virtual products and games fees through the app".

"But over the past two weeks Tencent's stock has fallen, in part because of concerns about competition from a new entrant into the messaging world: Alibaba. 

Alibaba is running a promotion through which it will pay for mobile data consumed by users on its applications. Alibaba founder Jack Ma issued a letter to the company's more than 20,000 employees saying they won't get bonuses if they don't add 100 friends on Laiwang. Alibaba is also running a new campaign that opens the profiles of more than 30,000 young female models who it says will chat with users".

Italy´s No 1 Bank, UniCredit profit falls 40 percent in Q3

Net profit at UniCredit , Italy's No.1 bank by assets, fell 40 percent in the third quarter to 204 million euros ($274 million), buoyed by the sale of insurance operations in Turkey.

Revenues fell 8.5 percent and fees also dropped in what CEO Federico Ghizzoni said in a statement was a "particularly challenging third quarter, not only due to seasonality".

The net profit, which compared with 335 million euros in the same quarter last year, was bang in line with an analyst consensus of 203 million euros, posted on the bank's website.

UniCredit said in a statement it had made a net capital gain of 181 million euros from the sale of Turkish insurance business Yapi Kredi.

The bank said that sale and "a very strong" contribution from its central and eastern European businesses had helped results, while its Italian commercial banking operations had posted a loss of 165 million euros in the quarter.

Highlighting the challenges it faces in its recession-hit home country, UniCredit said that out of 1.6 billion euros of loan loss provisions booked in the three months to September, 1.1 billion euros were in Italy.

However, Ghizzoni reiterated the bank had started to see "some initial encouraging signs of recovery" in the euro zone's third biggest economy.

Despite the weak operating trends, UniCredit - the first top Italian lender to publish third-quarter results this week - managed to strengthen its capital base.

Its Basel III-compliant capital ratio stood at 9.83 percent from 9.72 percent at the end of June.

Source:  Reuters

New phone apps give homeowners smart-home security

   According to a report from the Wall Street Journal,"home owners worried about security while they are at work or on vacation have a range of new smartphone apps to help them remotely monitor their property and to notify them if there is a problem".

"Home owners worried about security while they are at work or on vacation have a range of new smartphone apps to help them remotely monitor their property and to notify them if there is a problem".

In the United States in 2012 there were more than 2 million burglaries, or about one every 15 seconds, according to government crime figures.

Large established companies and startups are offering apps that connect remotely to monitoring systems to help consumers keep their homes and property secure.

Viper Connect, for iPhone and Android, is an app that monitors homes and cars. The company supplies a do-it-yourself security system with motion sensors and video cameras, which can be placed around the home, and watched remotely.

"Traditionally unless a home had already been wired for security and automation, it was difficult and expensive for people to get the advantage of home security," said James Turner, vice president of product development at Viper, which is owned by Directed Electronics, in Vista, California.

Most security systems will notify the homeowners, while others like AT&T Digital Life will call the police if there is a break-in.

Smartphone owners looking for a cheaper solution can turn to apps such as Presence, a free app that lets users turn an old iOS device into a security camera that can be viewed remotely.

"It's an emerging market and I think it will catch on rapidly in the next two to five years," Turner said about security apps.

Jeff Immelt : The Big Surprises of today,the Availabitily of Natural Gas and the Price of Solar.

Jeff Immelt:

"So if you sat back and said, what are the big surprises as we sit here today; the availability of natural gas and the price of solar.  Those are two things that nobody forecast that are going to have massive changes from a stand point of future energy policy and where it goes, and I just think, governments can be   they can provide some clarity, but picking winners and losers like we did with ethanol, and things like that, that in the end   Americans my age learned earning policy in Europe, because basically there's never been kind of, I would say, an energy philosophy in the US.  So if you wanted to see where the world was going, we would go to Europe and study what was going on there.  Today Europe looks perverted, weird.  
    You have these big renewable energy   you've got 50 gigawatts of solar in Germany, all being provided out of China, driving electricity costs up, not down.  You sit there and say, this doesn't look so much fun.  This doesn't look   so now there's   I think in some ways the world of energy is really thrown into flux".  

Geoff Elliott:      Isn't there a policy risk though, here, for GE as well though in that there's a lot of political pressure around electricity prices in part from what we were talking about before, the energy companies are taking the LNG price from the export markets.  Do you worry about that?

Jeff Immelt: Sure.  It's hard for us to influence that, and I think all we can do is provide a range of technical solutions in any country, but including Australia that says, here is a way to think about whether it's wind or gas, or other places.  Everybody's going to work energy efficiency.  I would say with electricity prices growing like they are in Australia right now, energy efficiency's going to be even more important than it's been in the past.   

Carterham e-Bikes and Motorcycles

Since 1957 Caterham Group has been known for its purpose-built sports cars, Formula One entries and overall motorsports shenanigans. This week at the International Motorcycle Exhibition (EICMA) in Milan, however, Caterham announced that it will be expanding its product offerings from four-wheeled machinery to that of the two-wheeled variety. Starting in 2014 Caterham Bikes will introduce three new products: the Brutus 750, the Classic E-Bike and the Carbon E-Bike.

The Brutus 750 motorcycle,Caterham’s utilitarian off-road bike is less about the pretty and more about pure off-road functionality. Brutus’ most obvious element, those big, fat, chunky 26 x 10 R14 tires are, according to Caterham, designed to give the bike flexibility as a on-road machine, off-road device or even a snowmobile.

Powering the Brutus throughout its various snowy, backwoods adventures will be a 4 valve, DOHC, 750cc single-cylinder liquid-cooled engine. Brutus’ automatic CVT gearbox is designed to give inexperienced riders an easier learning curve and more user friendly experience versus the traditional manual configuration. To keep the ride as polite as possible, Caterham has outfitted Brutus with up-side down 43mm Hydraulic telescopic forks up front and a single shock out back with compression and preload adjustments.

Classic e-Bike

With a wheelbase of 1.46 m (4.8 ft), height of 1.13 m (3.6 ft) and a total length of 2.15 m (7 ft) Brutus 750 weighs out at a hefty 235 kg (518 lb) ... so it's not exactly nimble. To pretty up Brutus' otherwise polarizing aesthetic Caterham chose to strategically splash yellow, white and British Racing Green colors about the bike's chassis. Unlike its hefty big brother, Caterham’s Classic e-bike draws design inspiration from the track-board racers of the 1920s. The e-bike is powered by a 36 V, 250 W, brushless motor mounted in the center with a torque sensor to manage power. A Panasonic 36 V, 12 Ah lithium battery provides the juice and Caterham has designed the bike so an optional second battery pack can be added if desired.

Carbon e-Bike

Last but not least of the bike trifecta is the Carbon e-bike. With an appearance that's neither retro nor utilitarian, Caterham says the Carbon’s design and material choices were inspired by the firm’s Formula One experience. This racing inspiration might explain the bike’s modular carbon-aluminum frame, oversized carbon girder forks, mono-shock rear suspension, lightweight aluminum rims, performance based braking system and carbon-fiber impregnated tires.

Source; Zigmag

Samsung's SAMI project is led by former Siri engineer from Apple

A software engineer formally involved in the development of the Siri voice assistant at Apple has joined Samsung’s new talking internet of things initiative.

Luc Julia, vice president of Samsung’s innovation lab and a former Siri engineer, presented the company’s multi-device data collation initiative, Samsung Architecture for Multimodal Interactions (SAMI), which aims to collect data from devices like fitness trackers and wearable computers and make that data available to other devices and services, including via voice in a very similar manner to Apple’s Siri.

Julia left Apple to join Samsung in 2012, after being part of the developer team responsible for Apple’s voice assistant Siri.

During a presentation in Menlo Park, California last week, Julia demonstrated how SAMI could collect data from a Fitbit fitness tracker, as well as an internet-connected weigh scale and provide a report on your overall activity – something that wasn’t previously possible with the information isolated within each device’s application.

In Siri-like fashion, Julia asked "SAMI, how am I doing?", with the app responding that he had reached his exercise goal for the day.

Forming part of the company’s push for enhanced software development, Samsung hopes that SAMI will be able to unite disparate connected devices, especially with the explosion of wearable devices. It is currently working with around 50 partners to develop and test SAMI, including Fitbit and the Pebble smartwatch, and has a $100m fund for the next three years to support companies developing relevant technology.

Source: Gizmag

China: Alibaba 11.11 Shopping Festival Breaks Record

     According to a report from the Wall Street Journal "the country's biggest online shopping day of the year—also the biggest in the world—just set another record".

"After only about half a day, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. said sales on its shopping sites had topped $3.1 billion—last year's total for the one-day 11.11 Shopping Festival.

By the end of Monday, the company had recorded 35.19 billion yuan ($5.78 billion) in transactions. Last year on Nov. 11, Chinese online shoppers spent more in 24 hours than the $2.5 billion that Americans spent online on Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.

The Alibaba Nov. 11 sale is a tradition that started in 2009, when 27 merchants on the company's Tmall site offered discounts to perk up sales during an otherwise period.

This year's jump in sales showed the rising power of the Chinese consumer and the increasing presence of e-commerce in a country where the brick-and-mortar retail infrastructure isn't as well-developed as it is in the U.S. It also shows the rising power of Chinese brands, with smartphone maker Xiaomi Inc. and electronics and appliances supplier Haier Electronics Group   Co.  among the top sellers.

In the opening three minutes, Xiaomi said it sold 110,000 of its new Mi 3 phone and another 110,000 of its Hongmi phone, totaling 178 million yuan in transactions. After half an hour, the company's Tmall store had 300 million yuan in transactions, it said.

But "the numbers aren't what we care about today. What we care about today is what is behind the numbers," Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma told reporters at the company's headquarters. "Behind the numbers we can see the power of the market." He said more competition and diversity in e-commerce would help strengthen what remains a burgeoning industry in China.

General Electric and Quirky Partnership. Innovation & Crowdsourcing.

Sometimes the key to creativity is a fresh perspective. That seems to have been General Electric’s motivation when it opened its patent vault to the crowdsourcing company Quirky in April. On Monday, the fruits of that partnership were apparent as the first four products under the joint Wink brand were unveiled.

The usual image of patents is a lock box of secrets that companies never want to loosen their iron grip on. However, though patents can be abused, their actual function is to encourage innovation. With this in mind, GE made thousands of its patents available to Quirky, a design shop specializing in creating consumer products through crowdsourcing.

The aim of the partnership is to produce a co-branded line called Wink: Instantly Connected, by combining Quirky’s crowdsourcing flexibility and creativity with GE’s marketing, manufacturing, and commercial expertise.

“We admire Quirky’s speed, collaboration and inventiveness and by opening up lab-proven technology and patents to everyday inventors we can help inspire new ideas and accelerate advanced manufacturing innovation,” says Beth Comstock, GE’s chief marketing officer.

The first Wink products concentrate on connecting consumer goods in what GE calls the “Industrial internet.” According to Kaufman, “Our future will be driven by access to things via our smartphones there is a ton of invention to be done in this area and no one owns this category.”

The Egg Minder is an oddity in our multifunction digital age. It does one thing, and that’s to mind your eggs. Invented by Rafael I Hwang, it has enough room to hold 14 eggs, and tracks their freshness in the fridge by monitoring when an egg is added or removed and thus how long it's been kept.

From the mind of Jake Zien, Pivot Power Genius is a bendy power strip that twists and bends to accommodate bulky adapters. It uses an app to independently control each outlet from a mobile device, allowing users to switch on or off two outlets either manually or by means of a timer.

The fourth Wink product was invented by Denny Fong and is called the Spotter. It’s a sensor pack that measures temperature, humidity, vibration, light or sound. Powered by two AA batteries, it can be programmed to send scheduled updates on the status of whatever room you've left it in, to your mobile device.

Source: Gizmag

US courts see rise in defendants blaming their brains for criminal acts

Criminal courts in the United States are facing a surge in the number of defendants arguing that their brains were to blame for their crimes and relying on questionable scans and other controversial, unprovenneuroscience, a legal expert who has advised the president has warned.

Nita Farahany, a professor of law who sits on Barack Obama's bioethics advisory panel, told a Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego that those on trial were mounting ever more sophisticated defences that drew on neurological evidence in an effort to show they were not fully responsible for murderous or other criminal actions.

Lawyers typically drew on brain scans and neuropsychological tests to reduce defendants' sentences, but in a substantial number of cases the evidence was used to try to clear defendants of all culpability. "What is novel is the use by criminal defendants to say, essentially, that my brain made me do it," Farahany said following an analysis of more than 1,500 judicial opinions from 2005 to 2012.

The rise of so-called neurolaw cases has caused serious concerns in the country where brain science first appeared in murder cases. The supreme court has begun a review of how such evidence can be used in criminal cases. But legal and scientific experts nevertheless foresee the trend spreading to other countries, including the UK, and Farahany said she was expanding her work abroad.

Source: theguardian

«Più industria e tecnologia, così Pirelli resterà protagonista»

Ha già immaginato come andrà. Tra quattro anni, quando per la Pirelli si aprirà la strada di un nuovo azionariato, e per lui quella delle 70 primavere, vorrebbe «vedere volare l’azienda, anche senza di me. Magari guardandola dalla barca a vela». Chissà se Marco Tronchetti Provera pensa davvero di cambiare timone e lasciare i panni del capitano d’impresa. «L’anagrafe dice questo. Poi vedremo» risponde sorridendo il presidente della Pirelli. Giovedì scorso Tronchetti ha riunito a Londra gli analisti finanziari per illustrare il tragitto che da qui al 2017 proietterà la Bicocca verso il futuro. Un percorso iniziato con il riassetto della filiera di controllo del gruppo, tutt’ora in corso, e lo scioglimento, la scorsa settimana, del patto di sindacato della Pirelli. Adesso è arrivata la parte industriale del programma. Che è un’accelerazione verso «margini e profittabilità», dove continua a essere privilegiata la produzione «alto di gamma» a tecnologia avanzata, che garantisce i rendimenti e i tassi di crescita più alti della media di mercato. E’ la ricetta già sperimentata negli anni della crisi, in cui la Bicocca ha stretto la cinghia per continuare a investire e crescere. Ora può allentarla un po’ e iniziare a capitalizzare il lavoro fatto. 

Corriere della Sera

Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways is in talks to buy jets from Airbus

Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways is in talks to buy jets from Airbus  even as it puts the finishing touches to a reported deal with rival Boeing , people familiar with the matter said.

Reuters reported last month Etihad was close to ordering Boeing jets including 25 to 30 777X mini-jumbos, the new 777 version which is expected to be launched at next week's air show, and a repeat order for about 30 787 Dreamliners.

"I have made no comment on that at all; that is Reuters speculating ... I think you should wait until we make an announcement," Etihad's chief executive James Hogan told Dubai-based Arabian Business magazine last week.

An announcement of Etihad's 777X order could pre-empt a widely expected blockbuster deal for 100 or more 777X jets from Emirates airline EMIRA.UL, which has said it may announce a large Boeing order when it hosts the November 17-21 air show.

Word of parallel talks between Etihad and Airbus came on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the airline's first commercial flight linking Abu Dhabi and Beirut on Nov 12, 2003.

Boeing and Airbus officials have set up camp in the Gulf as they look to solidify plane orders with Etihad and other fast-growing carriers including Emirates and Qatar Airways that are buying more planes to expand their global reach.

Taking advantage of deep pockets and a geographically strategic position between East and West, Gulf airlines are expanding rapidly and diverting long-haul traffic from airlines in Europe, the United States and parts of Asia.

Source: Reuters

Latin American*s key stocks Indexes

Brazilian stocks were little
changed on Monday as investors awaited the outcome of an
economic policy-setting meeting in top trade partner China,
while shares of shipbuilder OSX were suspended from trading
until its bankruptcy filing is made official.
    Mexico's IPC index snapped a five-session decline,
while Chile's bourse fell slightly.
    China's Communist Party leaders gathered over the weekend
for a landmark conclave, due to end on Tuesday, that will set
the economic agenda for the next decade. 
    China is Brazil's No. 1 trading partner and a top purchaser
of Latin American commodities exports such as iron-ore, soy,
copper and petroleum. Changes in the outlook for the world's
second-largest economy tend to move shares of raw materials
exporters such as Vale SA and state-run oil company
Petroleo Brasileiro SA, known as Petrobras. 
    "We could see some type of (market) catalyst if something
noteworthy comes out of the statement linked to reforms in the
financial system," said Gustavo Mendonca, an economist with Saga
Capital in Rio de Janeiro.
    Mendonca said trading volumes in the Bovespa should be
reduced due to the Veteran's Day holiday in the United States. 
    Brazil's benchmark Bovespa stock index hovered near
52,295 points, little changed from Friday's close.
    Shares of shipbuilder OSX Brasil SA were
suspended from trading on Monday after the company said on
Friday it will file for bankruptcy protection. 
    While its shareholders approved the bankruptcy protection
request, it has not yet been filed to a Rio de Janeiro court.
    Exchange operator BM&F Bovespa halted trading in the shares
pending the official filing, according to a statement Monday.

Latin America's key stock indexes at 1448 GMT:
     Stock indexes                   daily %   YTD %
                      Latest         change    change
 MSCI LatAm           3,254.09       0.74      -14.94
                                               
 Brazil Bovespa       52,295.79      0.09      -14.20
                                               
 Mexico IPC           39,932.06      0.17      -8.63
                                               
 Chile IPSA           3,819.37       -0.48     -11.21
                                               
 Chile IGPA           18,851.75      -0.4      -10.53
                                               
 Argentina MerVal     5,323.09       0.54      86.49
                                               
 Colombia IGBC        13,478.88      -1.78     -8.41
                                               
 Peru IGRA            15,943.62      0.16      -22.71
                                               
 Venezuela IBC        2,655,762.22   -0.53     463.33

 Source: Reuters

Analysts remain Bullish on European Stocks

"European stocks remain a buy ... Even though the fundamentals remain weak there is not much to stop them from rallying into year-end, including a supportive Fed which might well not start tapering until March next year," said Lex van Dam, hedge fund manager at Hampstead Capital.

Technical analysts were bullish on the Euro STOXX 50, trading just above its 20-day moving average, at 3,036.

Craig Erlam, analyst at Alpari, said this helped build a picture of the bullish trend for the index remaining intact, and targeted 3,106, the five-year high hit last week".

Source: Reuters