Gabriel García Márquez, Nobel Prize-Winning Author, Dies

The Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel García Márquez popularized magical realism in Latin American literature by writing fantastical novels that drew on the folk tales and ghost stories he had heard as a child on Colombia's poor, sun-baked Caribbean coast.

Mr. García Márquez, who died in his Mexico City home at age 87 on Thursday after being hospitalized for infections, was best known for his 1967 masterpiece, "One Hundred Years of Solitude," which recounted the travails of the abundant and obsessive Buendía clan.

Translated into dozens of languages and selling 30 million copies, the book is considered literature's exemplar of magical realism, generating countless imitations and inspiring a generation of writers in Latin America and beyond.

Though Mr. García Márquez didn't invent the technique, he became the leading exponent of the style, which balances dreamlike, fantastical vignettes with sharply focused realism, all of it solemnly delivered through an eccentric cast of whimsical characters.

Readers of his books have delighted in stories populated with tin-pot dictators, cows that invade a palace, women that levitate, self-obsessed characters that don't age and brokenhearted suitors.

The news triggered an outpouring of grief from Colombians, who venerate Mr. García Márquez and see his literature as reflecting the soul of their country. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos tweeted: "One-thousand years of solitude and sadness for the death of the greatest Colombian of all time!"

In a career spanning more than 60 years, Mr. García Márquez wrote some of the Spanish language's most revered books, many of which became best sellers in the U.S.

They included "Autumn of the Patriarch," about a Caribbean tyrant; "Chronicle of a Death Foretold," which painstakingly narrates a small-town murder; "Love in the Time of Cholera," about two lovers who wait half a century to reunite, and "The General in his Labyrinth," detailing independence hero Simón Bolívar's inglorious last days.

Mr. García Márquez was also an accomplished journalist, whose lyrical, deeply reported stories first caught the eye of readers in Colombia's chilly mountain capital, Bogotá, in the early 1950s.

He later became renowned not only for his profiles of presidents and despots but for the real-life close ties he cultivated with leaders ranging from Fidel Castro to Bill Clinton to François Mitterrand.

Mr. García Márquez found a certain thrill in hobnobbing with the powerful, noted his friends. "I still can't get used to the idea that my friends become presidents, nor have I yet overcome my susceptibility to being impressed by government palaces," he once wrote in an article, as recounted in Gerald Martin's 2009 biography, "Gabriel García Márquez: A Life."

Proudly leftist and anti-imperialist, he used his fame to try to lobby for Latin American unity and an end to U.S. meddling in the region.

Source: WSJ

The Global Fortune 500 Companies around the World

Microsoft's Nadella Envisions Cultural Shift Where Data Is King

You’ve likely heard of artificial intelligence. But in a new post on Microsoft’s company blog, CEO Satya Nadella envisions a revolutionary era of “ambient intelligence.”

This is a future in which “nearly all interactions and experiences between humans, humans and computers and between computers get digitized.”

Nadella points to car dashboards, light switches, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) systems and even sneakers as products that could one day “gain the capacity to listen to us, respond to us, understand us and act on our behalf.”

In order to achieve a system of ambient intelligence -- which may sound either intensely creepy or droolworthy, depending on your persuasion -- Nadella advocates the development of a “data culture.”

Related: 4 Ways the 'New' Microsoft Is Dramatically Different From the 'Old' Microsoft

If data is the fuel for creating an internet of things, in other words, information and insight should come from unexpected and diverse sources within a company -- across all departments and executive ranks, Nadella describes.

In his third public appearance since being named CEO, Nadella spoke to developers in San Francisco yesterday outlining this very philosophy, and unveiled new products for corporate clients that “manage web-linked devices and crunch the information they generate,” according toBloomberg.

Nadella also took the opportunity to note that Microsoft Office happens to serve as an ideal platform for data display and sharing.

Source: CEO.com

The Evolution of Corporate Real Estate in China and Globally

Alibaba to Launch MVNO Services in June

Last year MIIT, the Chinese ministry responsible for information technology, unveiled the policy for mobile virtual network operators and announced the first batch of qualified applicants which include JD.com and a subsidiary of Alibaba Group.

Alibaba Group has established Ali Communications (not official translation) to operate mobile communications services. The company announced today it has built a billing system and services will be released in the coming June.

Alibaba said their focus will be data services that will be available for the company’s existing services, Taobao, Alipay, Aliyun, etc. Mobile number pre-orders will open in May.

Alibaba has been approved to work with all the three Chinese telecom operators. The company claims their offerings will be much better than those by the three telcos. First, it will offer one-stop service, from buying mobile numbers, purchasing data plans to paying bills on Alibaba’s e-commerce marketplaces, Taobao and Tmall, while purchasing services from telecom operators, online or offline, isn’t still not that convenient in China. Second, data plan choices will be more user-friendly. Right now almost all data plans offered by Chinese telcos are bundled with all kinds of services, from voice, SMS, MMS to data, some of which users don’t need.

TechNode

This Camera Puts your phone's camara to Shame. Nikon Coolpix P600

The Good The Nikon Coolpix P600 packs a powerful lens, a nice vari-angle LCD, and a respectable set of shooting options and controls that should satisfy auto and manual users alike. Considering its zoom range, the camera is remarkably compact and light.

The Bad While the P600's shooting performance is decent, at times it can feel slow in use. It can be slow to autofocus as well, particularly when fully zoomed in. Also, the lens makes a lot of noise while moving it when recording movies. Enthusiasts might be disappointed by the lack of a hot shoe and raw support.

The Bottom Line The Nikon Coolpix P600 isn't the quickest camera, but that might be a small price to pay for having such a long lens on a relatively compact, lightweight camera.

If there's one thing the Nikon Coolpix P600 has going for it, it's wow factor. Well, at least for birders, stargazers, and anyone else who likes to shoot pictures and movies of distant subjects.

The P600's 60x zoom lens is pretty amazing given the camera's size and weight and price. It's not the only 60x zoom on the market, but unlike options from Panasonic and Samsung that start at an ultrawide-angle 20mm, Nikon's lens starts at 24mm. That means while those other cameras stop at 1,200mm, the P600 can be extended to 1,440mm. If that's not enough, you can use Nikon's new Dynamic Fine Zoom to digitally increase the focal length to 2880mm (and it actually works pretty well assuming you don't look too closely).

Keeping the lens steady and your subject framed up isn't easy, but to help with shake you do get optical image stabilization. And there's an electronic viewfinder so you don't have to hold the camera out in front of you when shooting if you don't want to. Still you'll want to have a tripod handy to get the sharpest possible shots.

As with most small-sensor point-and-shoots, pictures don't look great at full size, but, if you don't typically enlarge and crop in tight on things, this probably won't be much of an issue. It's only really disappointing if you want to take a closer look at something, such as bird, and you might lose a lot of the feather detail.

For however good the camera is with a lot of light, it's not a camera you'll want to use at higher ISOs. Things take a turn for the worse at ISO 800, but really it's above that when details really start to look smeary and colors desaturate. In low-light situations you'll want to take advantage of the camera's scene modes designed specifically for these conditions.

Video quality is generally very good as well as long as you have a lot of light. However, with low-contrast subjects the camera will struggle to focus when zooming all the way in. On the other hand you might not want to move the lens once you start recording anyway because of the amount of noise that's made when moving. Also, when you start a recording there's a delay of a couple seconds while the camera switches from photo to movie mode and starts recording.

The camera's high-speed burst will capture at 7 frames per second at full resolution for up to seven frames (though I clocked it at 8fps). Unfortunately, after you fire off those seven shots, you're left waiting about 30 seconds for them to save before you can shoot again. Other continuous-shooting options include a low-speed full-resolution burst capable of 1fps for up to 30 frames and 120fps and 60fps bursts that capture up to 60 shots at VGA and 1-megapixel resolution, respectively.

Shutter lag -- the time it takes from pressing the shutter release to capture without prefocusing -- is 0.3 second in good lighting, which is tolerable, but in our low-light test with less scene contrast, the shutter lag averaged 1.3 seconds. Once you start extending the lens, the camera takes even longer to focus. Once you get out to the 1,440mm position, it can be very slow to focus. This isn't unusual, just something to be aware of if you're going to shoot fast-moving subjects at the telephoto end of the lens.

   The lens is really the bulk of the weight, which makes the rest of the body feel lightweight and cheaply constructed.

 There's a small, but decent, electronic viewfinder (EVF) and a Vari-angle LCD for framing up your shots. The LCD flips out from the body and can be rotated up or down. There is a button to switch back and forth between the EVF and LCD, but you can also flip the LCD so it faces into the body to activate the viewfinder.

The camera's interface is easy enough to navigate that first-time users should have no trouble getting around. Navigation is a bit sluggish, though, with a slight delay with every button press. For those who like to actually take control away from the camera and change settings, this can be somewhat frustrating and it doesn't help that outside of the aforementioned function button, there are no buttons for direct control of ISO, white balance, metering, or AF area modes.

There's no accessory shoe for an add-on flash, limiting you to the onboard pop-up one. It doesn't automatically rise when needed, instead remaining off until you push a button on the left side of the camera. It's adequately powerful and there are flash exposure compensation settings available.

Lastly, the P600 has built-in Wi-Fi. You can use it to connect with Android and iOS devices for viewing and transferring photos and videos as well as remotely controlling the camera. Unfortunately, you only get control of the zoom and shutter release and you can't start and stop movie recordings. You can, however, set it to use your smartphone to geotag your photos, which is good since the camera doesn't have GPS.

Is Winter Coming? Hear More From Our All-Star Investor Panel At Disrupt NY.

VC money in the U.S is at its highest level since 2001, and valuations are soaring. The question on everyone’s mind is, are we in a bubble?

Besides our obsession with Game of Thrones, there’s a reason why our investor panel at Disrupt NY is titled “Is Winter Coming?” We’ve never seen as many billion-dollar exits and valuations, many of which have been funded by the investors we have on stage at Disrupt NY in May.

Our all-star panel of investors includes Shana Fisher (Highline Venture Partners), John Lilly(Greylock Partners), Alfred Lin (Sequoia Capital) and Bijan Sabet (Spark Capital).

New York-based Fisher has made a number of savvy bets early on hot new technologies and companies, including Pinterest (recently valued at $4 billion), Stripe (valued at $1.75 billion), Makerbot (acquired by Stratasys), Vine, FiftyThree, and Refinery29. She also recently joined A16Z as a board partner.

Sabet and Spark were the early backers of Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare and a number others; and have continued its strong of wins, including the most recent $2 billion exit of Oculus VR to Facebook.

Sequoia Capital partner, and former Zappos COO Lin is a rising star in the VC world, and has backed companies like Airbnb, which is rumored to be valued at $10 billion in its latest round of funding.

Lilly has only been a VC at Greylock for three years, and he’s already collected a number of tech’s biggest wins under his belt, including Dropbox (whose latest valuation is pegged at $10 billion), Instagram (sold to Facebook for $1 billion), and Tumblr (sold to Yahoo for $1.1 billion).

Beyond bubble talk, we’re going to hear about the changes in seed stage investing, the real story behind competition between VCs on deals, how to find the unicorns and more.Join us to hear the answers to these and other questions at Disrupt NY, which kicks off on May 3rd.

TechCrunch

   Bubbles are bubbles, and always end badly. Forget about new Paradigms and all that rubbish.

Timing the crash is more an anecdote. Fundamentals are always important, and high flying stars

with overpriced valuations are risky,volatile and subject to sharp maket corrections.

  Black swans come without advice.

Candy Crush Saga hits China with upcoming tie-in on Tencent’s WeChat

Fasten your seatbelts and get out your toothbrushes, because an avalanche of hard candy is about to hit China. The Wall Street Journal just reported that Candy Crush Saga, the mega-hit mobile game made by London-based King Digital Entertainment, will be integrated into Tencent’s wildly popular WeChat messaging app. Tencent tells Tech In Asia that the localized game will be released this summer. Candy Crush Saga is already available for download in China through the App Store and some domestic Android app stores, including Baidu’s. However, Chinese versions of Candy Crush don’t contain the social sharing features that helped the game go viral in international markets. For what it’s worth, the Candy Crush Saga in the Baidu App Store isn’t localized beyond a Chinese title, and touts the app’s integration with Facebook – not exactly something to brag about if you’re looking to win over Chinese consumers. Perhaps for this reason, the game hasn’t performed as highly in China as it has in other markets – the graph below from App Annie charts Candy Crush Saga’s performance in the Games category in the App Store, and shows that over the past 90 days, the game has remained far more popular in the US than in China. The mobile games industry might run on one-hit wonders, but with Candy Crush Saga, King scored a hit among hits. The match-three game generated an estimated US $1.54 billion for King in 2013, and accounted for over 70 percent of King’s revenue that year. It’s not clear what type of revenue sharing agreement Tencent has inked with King, or if such an agreement was made at all. But a figure that high ought to convince almost any social networking company that Candy Crush Saga will attract eyeballs, along with plenty of cash. Of course, the real winner here is King. In markets where messaging apps have high penetration rates among consumers, the companies that own these apps are in a unique position to push their own games onto their users. It’s no surprise that three out of the top ten highest grossing games in Taiwan’s App Store right now are affiliated with Line, and eight out of the top ten highest grossing games in South Korea are affiliated with Kakao. In China, WeChat has already gotten millions of Chinese addicted it’s popular Tian Tian casual game series. As a result, WeChat ought to be the perfect platform for King to export its special brand of sugar high. WeChat currently has over 355 million monthly active users, the majority of whom likely reside in China. Revenues from WeChat currently make up only a small percentage of Tencent’s overall revenues, but that looks set to change as games like Candy Crush Saga make their way onto app, and as merchants large and small sign up for it’s payment services.

Xiaomi looks to steal thunder from OnePlus with launch of mysterious new gadget on same day, April 23

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi today gave fans on Weibo a sneak peek at an upcoming new device. Some anticipate that it’s a tablet. Xiaomi’s promo image (above) shows the side profile of the gadget, which looks similar in shape to the Lenovo Yoga tablet. A date, April 23, is shown and the words in Chinese roughly translate to “Makes sense. Surprise.” We’ve been hearing rumors of a Xiaomi tablet since August, and Xiaomi did deliver a 5.5-inch version of its low-price Hongmi phone. An Android tablet seems like the logical next step. The mysterious device is set to launch on the same day as the OnePlus One, the new brand’s first ever phone. We doubt Xiaomi’s timing is unintentional as the OnePlus One phone is designed to compete with Xiaomi’s flagship phone, the Mi3. If not a Xiaomi tablet, some speculate Xiaomi could be coming out with a new smart wireless router.

Source: TECHINASIA

2015 Acura TLX: More than a new name

Acura's midsize TL sedan gets a name change, bringing its moniker in line with the ILX, RLX, MDX, and RDX. (Acura really likes its Xs.) Aside from the name change, there doesn't seem to a whole lot that's strictly new, but changes under the surface and a whole lot of tweaks add up to big changes for the 2015 Acura TLX.

For starters, the TL's 3.5-liter V-6 has been revised to now output 290 horsepower and 267 pound-feet of torque (10 more ponies than before and 13 more pound-feet) in the TLX and is now mated with a nine-speed automatic transmission that is controlled via a unique push-button Electronic Gear Selector in place of a traditional lever shifter. The 3.5-liter is also now the top-tier engine available for the TLX, bumping the old 305 horsepower 3.7-liter off of the options list.

Joining the the V-6 is the 2.4-liter in-line four-cylinder engine that we've seen previously under the hood of the ILX, TLX, and Honda Civic Si. In this incarnation, the engine outputs 206 horsepower and 182 pound-feet of torque. The engine is mated with an eight-speed dual clutch automatic transmission.

The four-banger is available only in a front-wheel drive configuration that utilizes the automaker's precision all-wheel steering (P-AWS) system. P-AWS allows the TLX's computers to independent adjust left and right rear-wheel toe angle, effectively steering the rear end of the vehicle to boost maneuverability and stability as needed.

The suspension, braking, and an alphabet soup of stability and traction control systems have been upgraded as well to work with the the new transmissions, P-AWS, and SH-AWD systems. Driver selectable modes -- Econ, Normal, Sport, and Sport+ -- give the person behind the wheel a bit of control over how the various vehicle systems perform.

Surrounding that powertrain is a chassis and body that Acura says is all new. Despite being 3.8 inches shorter overall from nose to tail, the TLX retains the same wheelbase as the previous model. Most importantly, the new car is about 145 pounds lighter and about 15 percent more aerodynamic than the outgoing TL.

Engine improvements, a lighter chassis, and fuel-saving tech (including anti-idling, a stop-start system that uses active engine mounts for smooth restarts) should net the TLX improved fuel economy. Acura estimates between 24 city and 35 highway mpg for the 2.4-liter and 21 city and 31 highway mpg for the V-6 SH-AWD.

Up front, the TLX features the automaker's "Jewel Eye" full LED headlamps that wowed us on the MDX. Throughout, the sedan gets access to Acura's full suite of passive and active safety technologies. There's forward collision warning and collision mitigation automatic braking, lane-departure warning and lane-keeping assist, adaptive cruise control, and blind-spot monitoring. Looks like all of the bases are covered there.

Dashboard tech is built around Acura/Honda's dual-screen infotainment system, which splits control between a 7-inch color touch screen, a slightly smaller nontouch display, and a bank of physical controls. Navigation, app integration (including Pandora and Aha connectivity), and the AcuraLink suite of connected services are all accessible via this system. Premium audio comes in the form of an optional 455-watt, 10-speaker Acura/ELS Studio system. HD Radio tuning, Bluetooth connectivity, and Siri Eyes Free control all make an appearance in the spec list as standard features.

Source: CNET

Floating nuclear plants could prove tsunami-proof

The most frightening part of a tsunami hitting a nuclear power plant is what comes after – radioactive leaks that contaminate the water around the plant are exceedingly difficult to contain. The clean up of the radioactive water around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan, which was struck by a tsunami in 2011, is expected to take decades. MIT researchers have come up with an alternative; they propose building floating nuclear plants, far enough offshore to simply ride out a tsunami and emerge unscathed.

The new design proposed by Jacopo Buongiorno, Associate Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT and his colleagues, calls for constructing sturdy floating platforms, similar to the ones that support offshore oil and gas rigs. Light-weight nuclear reactors could be built on top of these platforms in shipyards, and then towed to appropriate locations offshore. Mooring the platform to the seafloor, would, they say, ensure that the nuclear power plant remains unaffected by a tsunami's waves. A power transmission line could connect the plant to the electrical grid.

"Tsunamis and earthquakes are no longer a source of risk for the nuclear plant," explains Buongiorno. "Essentially the ocean shields the seismic waves and the tsunami waves in relatively deep water, say 100 meters (300 ft) deep, are not big, so they don't pose a hazard for the plant."

It also becomes easy to avoid the biggest issue that leads to radioactive contamination in a damaged nuclear plant, the overheating of the reactor cores that lead to a meltdown, something that would be impossible in the ocean, according to the team.

"It’s very close to the ocean, which is essentially an infinite heat sink, so it’s possible to do cooling passively, with no intervention," says Buongiorno. "The reactor containment itself is essentially underwater."

Designing the plant in such a way that the ocean water automatically cools the nuclear reactors would, the researchers claim, prevent any radioactive leaks and fuel rod meltdowns, since it is possible to remove heat indefinitely.

The whole concept has been around for a while. The floating nuclear power plant that Russian scientists have been working on for several years is expected to be operational by 2016, but their nuclear plant is being built on a barge close to the shore.

The unique advantage of the MIT team's design, lies in mooring the nuclear power plants 5 to 7 miles (8 - 11 km) into the ocean, thereby giving the power plants the ability to weather any tsunami. Another advantage the distance offers is that the people on land won't have to relocate, in the event of an accident or an emergency out in the ocean. "The biggest selling point is the enhanced safety," says Buongiorno.

Decommissioning such a power plant could just be a matter of towing it away at the end of the nuclear reactor's lifetime. Since there's no size limit, floating nuclear power plants could rival their land-based counterparts; they could range anywhere from 50-megawatt plants to 1,000-megawatt plants, according to the scientists.

Placing them a few miles offshore, out of sight of cities would enable them to supply power reliably without posing any risk or using up valuable land resources. "The ocean is inexpensive real estate," says Buongiorno.

The researchers will be presenting their work at the Small Modular Reactors Symposium, hosted by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, from April 15-17, at Washington, D.C.

Source: Gizmag

Global recovery will boost Chinese exports

The China Import and Export Fair, also known as the Canton Fair, has long been a platform for overseas buyers to find their trading partners in China. As the world economy slowly recovers, what kind of message do the buyers bring to Chinese exporters this time?

During this spring session of the Canton fair, more than 200,000 overseas buyers are expected. But a fair spokesman says the number of participants from European Union countries is likely to fall due to the fair’s clash with the Easter holidays.

"Since the beginning of this year, the economy is slowly recovering, but there is still a lot to be done," said Italian buyer Lisa Migliorini.

The European economy remains in a painful and slow recovery but North American buyers' demand for additional cooperation is growing. Some Chinese exporters have already felt a steady growth in orders from their major trading partners during the past few months.

"Our orders from European clients keep declining because there is very little growth for their economy. But it is a different situation for our U.S. and South American clients. Their orders in the first quarter are pretty good," said Gary Cheng, Sales Director at Kingsun Industries.

Recent years have seen fast economic growth for emerging economies like Brazil and South Africa and their demand for Chinese products continues to grow fast. More and more buyers from those countries come here to seek new opportunities.

Rising labor and raw material costs have created many challenges for Chinese manufacturers, but China still has advantages built over the past decades. Those exporters expect steady growth against the global recovery.

Source: CCTV

China FDI down in March

Foreign direct investment in China fell in March, the first drop in over a year. The decline reflects challenges for overseas investors in an increasingly sophisticated and complicated environment.

China attracted 12.24 billion U.S. dollars in FDI last month, down 1.47 percent compared with the same time last year. FDI volume for the first quarter of 2014 came in at 31.5 billion U.S dollars, up 5.5 percent from last year. More than half of the FDI went into China’s service sector, up more than 20 percent from a year earlier.

Meanwhile, FDI in the manufacturing sector dropped 11.7 percent. Most Asian countries’ investments in China maintained steady growth, but investments from Japan and the European Union dropped significantly.

"Growth in investment in China’s central and western regions have surpassed growth in the eastern region by a great margin. China is still a very important investment destination for the world. Global companies are positive on China’s investment environment. This has not changed. It’s normal to see a slight drop in March, partially due to the currency rate. But it will not affect the FDI growth for the entire year. We are confident on the steady growth of FDI this year," said Ministry of Commerce spokesman Shen Danyang.

Non-financial outbound investment totalled 19.9 billion U.S. dollars in the first quarter of 2014, down 16.5 percent year on year. Investment in the Hong Kong region, the ASEAN countries and the EU have decreased 46.9, 8.1 and 7 percent respectively. Investment in the U.S on the other hand, increased 105 percent.

The drop in China’s total trade volume has caused much concern for the growth prospects of its economy. But Shen says that China trade will likely to pick up after May.

He said: "With slow recovery in developed economies and weak emerging economies, we remain cautious on trade for the entire year. But we also see many positive factors. Even though we saw some very disappointing trade figures in the first quarter and that may extend to April, we are confident that we can reach our growth target for the entire year."

Shen adds that the Ministry of Commerce is doing market research to come up with new policies to ensure steady growth in trade.

Source: CCTV

"Made in Japan" label losing its lustre

For decades the label "Made in Japan" has stood for precision, hi-tech durable goods. That hard-earned reputation has taken a hit in recent years as a number of the giants of Japanese industry have been forced to recall and repair products that have proven to be safety hazards.

Toyota, Sony, Nikon, three of Japan’s proudest brands, are all making international headlines for the wrong reasons - apparent problems with their products.

"Put simply, Toyota’s conduct was shameful," said U.S. attorney General Eric Holder. Toyota’s contending with its second-largest recall ever due to faulty parts from steering to seats.

Sony’s warned that the batteries of some of its flagship VAIO computers could catch fire. And Nikon’s come under fire from China’s state broadcaster for issues with its lenses and allegedly poor after-sales service.

The companies have reacted quickly. Nikon issued an apology on its Chinese website and offered to repair or replace faulty cameras. But the bad publicity has taken a toll. Nikon shares are hovering at their lowest in more than two and a half years.

Shares in Takeda Pharmaceutical have also tanked after a U.S. jury ordered the firm to pay a record $6 billion in damages for allegedly concealing risks associated with its diabetes drug.

The incidents are a bad sign for Tokyo’s troubled stock market, and for Japan Inc’s reputation for quality.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is counting on Japan’s companies to support the next stage of the country’s recovery by boosting hiring and investment. But so far, they’ve proven reluctant.

Experts say while Japan’s manufacturers still churn out quality goods, they’re not always prepared to anticipate or react to local market developments.

"In the global market, Japanese companies must change the way they respond to consumers, in line with local culture and conditions," said Prof. Atsushi Osanai at Waseda University. "I think it’s necessary to increase local staff and make full use of local consulting firms in order to decrease risk.

"The worst thing that can happen in recalls is for companies to become overly bearish as products are temporarily removed from store shelves and consumers stop buying them. Any short-term losses will be covered by long-term revenue as long as they deliver information accurately and quickly."

For Japan’s next stage of growth to take off, it seems the mindset of its traditionally conservative companies will have to change in more ways than one, especially as the market shrinks at home.

Source: CCTV

China rejects US concern over RMB depreciation

China said Wednesday that it will continue reforms of its currency exchange rate mechanism. That came after the U.S. Treasury expressed concern with the Chinese yuan’s recent depreciation.

The yuan appreciated nearly 3 percent against the dollar in 2013 but its value has dropped almost 3 percent since the beginning of this year.

The U.S. Treasury said in a report Tuesday that it will keep a close eye on the yuan’s fluctuation, because it hasn’t appreciated enough since China let go of a fixed rate in 2010. But at the same time, though, the Treasury declined to label China a currency manipulator.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, said that it hopes the U.S. can see that China is properly handling the relevant issues.

Source: CCVT

China's 2014 social security budget released

The Finance Ministry has released its 2014 budget for the national social security fund and says the fund is expected to have a 508.6 billion yuan balance. The government subsidizes more than 820 billion yuan, mostly paid into basic pensions for retired company employees, and residents’ basic medical care.

The budget for the national social security fund expects 3.8 trillion yuan in income this year. That’s up 9% from 2013. Payouts are expected to be around 3.2 trillion yuan, up nearly 14 percent from last year. Government subsidies have played a major role in sustaining social security payments.

"Now as an ageing population becomes a major issue in China, and farmers are added to the social security system, pressure on government subsidies is getting heavier." Liu Shangxi, Deputy Director of Research Inst. for Fiscal Science of MOF said,

Experts say it would be harder and harder to carry on the operation of the social security fund without the government stepping in.

"Government has responsibilities to fill in the gap of basic social financing. But it has to consider government’s financial ability." Liu Shangxi said.

Basic pensions were paid without government subsidies in 2012. However, money became tight in 2013 and the fund would have had a 96 billion yuan deficit without government subsidies.

Source:  CCTV

Weibo disappoints with low IPO debut, but shares climb after cold start

After a downsized and undersubscribed share offering, Sina Weibo (NASDAQ:WB) planned to hit Wall Street at the lower end of its price range, starting at $17 per share. But when the Weibo IPO finally took off two and a half hours after trading began on Wall Street, Weibo’s shares debuted at a mere $16.27. The share price soon climbed up gradually, and now stands at $18.94 at the time of publishing (12:30pm Eastern time; 12:30am Friday Beijing time). Weibo – a spin-off from Chinese web giant Sina (NASDAQ:SINA) – sold only 16.8 million of its 20 million shares earlier today, leading to a relatively muted and conservative public debut in New York in which the Chinese social network raised $286 million – not the $400+ million that many expected. Weibo has 143.8 million monthly active users (March 2014), versus 241 million MAUs on Twitter (Q4 2013). Their relative valuation is very far apart, however. Weibo’s IPO debut today means that it’s valued at about $3.4 billion – but that’s in contrast to Twitter’s (NYSE:TWTR) current cap of $26.8 billion in early Thursday trading.

Source: TECHINASIA

U.S., Russia, EU Agree to Framework to De-Escalate Ukraine Tensions

      The Wall Street Journal reports,"the U.S., Russia and European Union agreed to a framework of steps to de-escalate tensions in Ukraine, including demobilizing militias, vacating seized Ukrainian government buildings, and establishing a political reform program, U.S. and Russian officials said Thursday.

The agreement was reached during more than six hours of talks in Geneva and marked the first tangible step to defuse the political and security crisis in Ukraine since Russia annexed the Crimean region last month, said U.S. and Russian officials.

"The Geneva meeting on the situation in Ukraine agreed on initial concrete steps to de-escalate tensions and restore security for all citizens," the participants in the talks said in a joint-statement. "All sides must refrain from any violence, intimidation or provocative actions."

The negotiations included U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, and acting Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsia.

The sides also agreed that monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe oversee the implementation of the agreed steps in Ukraine".

Dow Jones News Wires: Lloyds Banking Group announces results Tender Offer of Enhanced Capital Notes

China's State Council: first quarter economic activities steady

China’s State Council is satisfied with the first quarter’s GDP growth numbers but remains concerned about the agriculture sector.

The State Council meeting on Wednesday landed on a common consensus that the first quarter’s economic activities were steady.

The growth, jobs and prices data are within acceptable range. But going forward, the State Council sees agriculture as a critical sector that needs additional reforms, including more creative ways of funding agricultural projects and stronger support for food security.

China is expected to reduce the amount of cash that village commercial banks keep at the central bank to increase financial support for the agricultural development. Job creation would also be crucial for growth to secure social stability and sustainable growth in key industries.

Source:  CCTV

Street Insider News: JPMorgan upgraded NBG from Underweight to Hold

 JPMorgan upgraded NBG from Underweight to Hold

  Same stock different opinions.

  It happens more often than you can believe.

  This is an speculative investment. Expect high volatility,risk and reward.
 
   

Street Insider News: Deutsche Bank Downgraded NBG But Stock goes UP

Tech titans in China: not afraid of bugs, hackers

Cyber security has once again made headlines in recent days. In China, the world’s fastest-growing internet market, online companies are gearing up to protect themselves against cyber attacks and also to cash in. 

In the run-up to the Global Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing from May 5 to 6, the debate around cyber security in China is heating up yet again.

Buzz words like mobile finance, cloud computing and smart software are on the agenda, but trumping everything else will probably be discussions about how to protect one’s online business.

Perfect World, a China-based online games company and Nasdaq-listed, said at a press conference for the event it keeps innovating despite recent threats.

"We always keep a very rich, very deep pipeline. In China, we have about 10 new games coming up in the next few quarters. Internationally also, especially in the mobile area, we have at least 4 or 5 different games either launched or ready to be launched." Robert Xiao, CEO of Perfect Wrold said.

Xiao also said that neither bugs nor hackers can sour his game.

"Number 1, we engage in state-of-the-art technology, our product is designed not only to provide security but also to protect the product itself. So we have all kinds of networks or mobile network oriented technologies to number 1, protect intellectual property, and number 2, the privacy of the consumers." Robert Xiao said.

The number of internet users in China last year crossed the 600 million mark. China’s netizen population - the world’s largest - grew to 618 million in 2013, figures showed, growing by more than 53 million new internet users compared to 2012.

"With the rise in cyber attacks, Trojan horse viruses and zombie programs, internet security firms in China are spotting a huge business opportunity to gain new customers and push up their revenues."

Earlier this year, the Chinese government said it will beef up internet security and set up a new central working group led by President Xi Jinping.

It followed reports that the American government spied on the Chinese telecom Huawei, and disputes with the United States over cyber attacks and national security leaks erupted.

Source: CCTV

Xinhua In-Depth: No Hard Landing in the Chinese Economy

Official data show that China's GDP grew 7.4 percent year on year in the first quarter, 0.3 percentage point lower than the pace in the previous three months.

No sooner did Chinese statistical authorities release the figures than some merchants of doom pointed at the slowdown and whipped up a new round of gloom-mongering over the future of the world's second largest economy.

But their claims that China's economic impetus is fizzling out and that the Asian giant is headed for an economic hard-landing are baseless and misleading.

For starters, despite heavy downward pressure, China's growth pace in the first quarter still exceeds the 7.3-percent market estimation and belongs to the top echelon across the world.

Factoring in Beijing's strong-willed and game-changing endeavors in economic restructuring, the 7.4-percent rate remains within the reasonable range.

After all, it is natural for an economy to decelerate during structural adjustment, and the results of a better-structured economy and a more balanced growth pattern will make the downtick worthwhile.

As a matter of fact, an overwhelming majority of economic observers and pundits worldwide remain sanguine in China's economy. Their optimism is shrewd and well-founded.

China's efforts to boost domestic consumption have begun to pay off. As a manifestation of the increasingly large role of consumption spending, the household final consumption expenditure accounted for 64.9 percent of GDP in the first quarter.

In another sign of the great growth potential of the Chinese economy, official figures show that in the first three months traditional industries such as steel and cement were outpaced by high-tech industries, which constitute a pillar of future growth with mounting significance.

Meanwhile, with business activity picking up, China's endogenous power of economic growth has gradually recovered. Employment is also improving, and foreign trade is making a turn for the better as the recovery of European and U.S. economies takes root.

After more than three decades of rapid economic growth, the Chinese government and public have both realized that pursuing growth at all costs is not good at all.

What China really needs is not an economy expanding at a blistering pace but one that grows in a sustainable and healthy manner at a reasonable and steady speed. And China is getting just that.

So now is the time to bet on China, not to short it.

Source: Xinhua

Xinhua: China's economy slowing down, but stable with strong basis

China's latest economic data showed a signal of slowing down, but its long-term prospect is expected to be stable with strong financial circumstance and better quality labor force, an expert said.

China's economy expanded by 7.4 percent year on year in the first quarter, the lowest level since the third quarter of 2012, National Bureau of Statistics of China said Wednesday.

"China is not only one of the biggest economy in the world, but also becoming a mature economy, its growth model could last for many years and its financial market stability benefits from the owners structure." Daniel Gros, director of the Center for European Policy Studies (CEPS), told Xinhua.

While saying that the external risks such like U.S. tapering bond-purchase program to end "cheap money era", have caused many emerging economies shaky, Gros said: "Not like those emerging economies, Chinese market and economy would relatively stable as its saving rate is huge and money in the market owned mostly by domestic institution not foreign bodies."

"The Chinese capital control also guard the dangerous situation while the big difference between internal growth rate and external interstate rate," he added.

Meanwhile, the senior expert analyzed the driver forces for Chinese long-term economic growth, noting that better quality labor force, development of urbanization and improvement in technology and innovation could be key points for future growth.

He said: "The potential for economic growth depends not only, or even mainly, on the number of workers in the labor force, but on their quality. Investment in human capital plays a fundamental role as an engine of economic growth, with important spillovers beyond the pure economic sphere."

He pointed that the accumulation of human capital due to longer schooling, bringing better educated cohorts into the work force can be more important than their numbers.

Citing reports from Chinese Ministry of Education, there has been approximately 7 million new graduates entered the labor market in 2013. He noted that such data would correspond to a tertiary graduation rate of about 30 percent, given an annual cohort size of slightly above 20 million.

He also stressed the importance of implementation the urbanization for rising investment and economic growth.

"Urban growth is usually associated with overall income growth and is thus part of the growth strategy in many countries, including China." he said.

Besides considerations on improvements in the quality of life and work, in purely economic terms technological change matters enormously for the creation and distribution of wealth.

"At present advanced economies are still leaders in innovation, but this could change rapidly as the emerging economies catch up, especially in Asia. The trend towards increased R&D investment is accelerating in particular in China up to the point where it will soon provide a challenge to western supremacy." he said.

Xinhua Insight: China unveils new economic package

"China on Wednesday announced a string of financial and tax moves including cutting the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) for some rural financial institutions to provide more support for the rural economy and bolster job creation.

China will cut the RRR for county-level rural commercial banks and rural credit cooperative unions that meet certain standards, according to a statement that followed a cabinet meeting of the State Council. It did not specify the standards.

The RRR sets the minimum fraction of customer deposits that each bank must hold as reserves rather than lending, and is an important monetary tool used by central banks. Lowering the RRR is often aimed at boosting bank lending and economic growth".

This is another "loosening signal" from the government, which suggests it is probably more concerned about the economic outlook as the property sector slowed sharply in the first quarter, said Zhang Zhiwei, chief China economist with Japan's Nomura Securities.h China's gross domestic product (GDP) rose 7.4 percent year on year in the first quarter, slightly outpacing market estimates but marking the lowest quarterly growth rate since the third quarter of 2012, official data revealed on Wednesday.

Zhang predicts the government will cut the RRR for the whole banking sector in May or June.

The step to cut the RRR for rural financial institutions is a "targeted move" which can help reduce financing costs for the rural economy and boost market confidence, said Guan Youqing, an analyst with Minsheng Securities.

China will push forward reforms of rural financial institutions and increase the shares of private capital in those agencies. More efforts will be taken to enhance basic financial service coverage in remote rural areas and increase financing support for key sectors to modernize agriculture, noted the statement.

Officials attending Wednesday's cabinet meeting also decided to extend a preferential tax policy for the unemployed, new college graduates, the disabled and others to start their own businesses. The policy was effective from Jan. 1, 2011 to Dec. 31, 2013.

In addition, the meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang decided to provide tax incentives to companies employing those who have been out of work for more than one year.

This expanded the scope for business owners who can enjoy tax breaks, as the previous policy stipulated that those eligible for favorable tax treatment cannot be engaged in some industries including construction, entertainment, advertisement, realtor among others, said Bai Jingming, a researcher with China's Ministry of Finance.

The new announcement means that all business owners employing those who have been out of work for more than one year can enjoy favorable tax treatment, which is good news for both the unemployed and business owners, said Zhang Bin, a tax expert with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The latest tax incentives came about two weeks after the State Council announced that tax breaks for small and micro firms will be extended till the end of 2016. The cabinet decided in 2011 that any company with annual taxable income under 60,000 yuan (9,741 U.S. dollars) will have its business income tax halved during 2012-2015.

Source: Xinhua