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Pakistani Discord

Rahul — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 18:27:02 +0000

American officials say that Pakistan’s pledge to fight Al Qaeda and Taliban militants in the restive tribal areas is being weakened by disagreements in the Pakistani military and security forces over what their priority should...

Fed to further cut interest rate

Rahul — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 05:48:39 +0000

The Federal Reserve is likely to cut interest rates by a quarter-point to 4.5 per cent when policy meeting concludes. But the debate among Fed policymakers will be more finely balanced than is suggested by the odds in the futures market - in which a rate cut is seen as a virtual certainty.

Of the two risks to growth identified in September - an intensifying housing slump that spills over into consumer spending and an economy-wide credit crunch - the latter has not materialised and looks unlikely to.
When the Federal Reserve System buys government securities, it puts money into circulation. With more money around, interest rates tend to drop, and more money is borrowed and spent. When the Fed sells government securities, it in effect takes money out of circulation, causing interest rates to rise and making borrowing more difficult.

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Facebook to "use" users.

Rahul — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 05:37:26 +0000

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and chief executive of the superhot social network, today announced what the company calls ’social ads.’ This will effectively turn its users into spokespersons for Facebook’s advertisers.
Facebook is a social networking website that allows people to communicate with their friends and exchange information. Launched on February 4, 2004, Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, a former member of the Harvard class of 2006 and former Ardsley High School student. Initially the membership was restricted to students of Harvard College. It was subsequently expanded to other Boston area schools (Boston College, Boston University, Harvard, Northeastern University, Tufts University), Rochester, Stanford, NYU, Northwestern, and all Ivy League schools within two months. Many individual universities were added in rapid succession over the next year. Eventually, people with a university (e.g .edu, .ac.uk, etc.) email address from institutions across the globe were eligible to join. Networks were then initiated for high schools and some large companies. Since September 11, 2006, it has been made available to users with any email address, if they are within a certain age range. Users can select to join one or more participating networks, such as a high school, place of employment, or geographic region.
The ads expand what has been one of the most powerful features of Facebook, the news feed, where members see a list of what their friends are doing - photos from their parties, new friends, favorite bands and so on.
Facebook now will give advertisers the ability to create their own profile pages on its system that will let users identify themselves as fans of a product. Each user’s news feed will contain items like ‘Bobby Smith is now a fan of Toyota Prius.’
Facebook will offer all of those features to advertisers free. What it will charge for, however, is appending an advertisement to these news items. Toyota could buy the right to put a photo and a short message under every news-feed post that links to the Prius.
‘Nothing influences a person more than the recommendation of a trusted friend,’ said Mr. Zuckerberg.

Mr. Zuckerberg said Facebook had had 50 million users in the last month. And 25 million users visit Facebook each day. The company displays 65 billion pages on which advertisements can be displayed each month.

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Samsung Scandal.

Rahul — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 05:27:12 +0000

A corruption scandal at the Samsung Group, the South Korean conglomerate, widened Tuesday as prosecutors opened a formal investigation into charges that its chairman masterminded a broad scheme of bribery and illegal transactions.

The Samsung Group is South Korea’s largest conglomerate (chaebol) and a global multinational corporation leading several major industries in the world, composed of numerous businesses, including Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest electronics company, Samsung Heavy Industries, one of the world’s biggest shipbuilders and Samsung Engineering & Construction, one of the major construction contractors worldwide. These three businesses form the core of Samsung Group and reflect its name; the meaning of the Korean word ‘Samsung’ is “tristar” or “three stars.” Samsung Group has a corporate responsibility for South Korea, forming a vital core part of the South Korean economy accounting to more than 20% of the nation’s total exports. The company has a powerful influence on the country’s economic development, politics, media and culture. Samsung Group is South Korea’s largest company & exporter, the 5th largest transnational corporation in the world and is helmed by chairman Lee Kun-Hee, the third son of the founder Lee Byung-chul.
Prosecutors are investigating three major accusations of criminal behavior: the creation of a slush fund; the bribery of prosecutors and government officials; and an effort by the chairman, Lee Kun Hee, and his aide to illegally help his son take over control of Samsung.
‘We are ready to unveil the truth through a stern, fair and thorough probe,’ said Kim Kyong Soo, a prosecution spokesman.
the group is facing a potent whistle-blower: Kim Yong Chul, its former chief lawyer, who said he was personally involved in bribing and fabricating court evidence on behalf of Mr. Lee and Samsung.
Samsung denied all of Mr. Kim’s allegations Tuesday, saying that he was turning against Samsung out of ‘personal grudges.’
‘Samsung instructed me to commit crimes,’ he said at the news conference. ‘A basic responsibility for all Samsung executives is to do illegal lobbying, buying people with money.’

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Dell to claim larger share in Date Storage.

Rahul — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 05:08:47 +0000

Dell is to acquire EqualLogic for $1.4 billion in a move to claim a larger share of the data storage market.
Michael S. Dell, who returned to Dell as chief executive in January, said the acquisition would help Dell simplify corporate storage for companies as they grappled with more data than ever before.
‘Storage is the fastest part of Dell’s business,’ Michael Dell said in an interview. ‘There’s an explosion in the amount of data being consumed.’
Mr. Dell said data storage today accounted for about $2.4 billion of Dell’s revenue of about $57 billion, but that figure, he said, is growing rapidly.

The privately held EqualLogic, based in Nashua, N.H., is the leading provider of the Internet-based storage technology known as iSCSI. It aims to make it easier for businesses to store data by using existing networks rather than installing a costly new dedicated fiber optics network.
Mr. Dell said iSCSI technology represented the fastest-growing segment of the overall storage industry.
In a research note yesterday after the announcement, analysts at Goldman Sachs said: ‘The die is cast. Dell is now beginning to build an independent presence in storage.’
Mr. Dell said the company would continue to grow through acquisitions and industry partnerships as well as by expansion of existing business. ‘We told you we were going to make some changes this year,’ he said.

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Suit dropped against Walmart.

Rahul — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 04:47:55 +0000

Julie Roehm, former advertising executive for Wal-Mart Stores has decided to drop her breach-of-contract lawsuit against the retailer, saying that the lawsuit had become financially draining and more complex than she had expected.
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is an American public corporation, currently one of the world’s largest corporations (by revenues) according to the 2007 Fortune 500.[2] It was founded by Sam Walton in 1962, incorporated on October 31, 1969, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972. It is the largest private employer in the world and world’s fourth largest utility or commercial employer.

‘I just decided not to pursue it,’ Julie Roehm, said yesterday by telephone. She would not elaborate beyond a prepared statement that her lawsuit had gone beyond her effort to recover $1.5 million in severance pay.
A Wal-Mart spokeswoman, Mona Williams, said yesterday that the company would drop its countersuit against Ms. Roehm.
Wal-Mart stated in its countersuit that Ms. Roehm and a subordinate, Sean Womack, had an extramarital affair and showed favoritism toward an advertising agency that was lobbying for Wal-Mart’s account.

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GPhone next in line?

Rahul — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 04:40:00 +0000

Google is hoping to take over the iPhone.
Google, which wants to be as central to the coming wireless Web as it is to today’s PC-dominated Internet, announced on Monday that it was leading a broad industry effort to develop new software technologies aimed at turning cellphones into powerful mobile computers.
BBC and The Wall Street Journal reported that Google wanted “Google search and Google applications on mobile, and it is working hard every day to deliver that.” Print and online media outlets soon began reporting rumors in January 2007 that Google was developing a Google-branded headset. More speculation followed reporting that as Google was defining technical specifications, they were showing prototypes to cellphone manufacturers and network operators. As many as 30 prototype gPhones are reported to be operating “in the wild”. This rumored mobile phone project eventually became known as the “Google phone” or “gPhone” by popular news media publications.

‘We’re human beings and we communicate, and that’s what the Internet social network phenomenon is all about,’ said Robert Pepper, a former policy chief at the Federal Communications Commission. ‘The Internet is going mobile, and it’s not just top down, its one-to-one and many-to-many all at the same time, and that’s what the Google guys get.’
But while Google’s much-anticipated plan has encouraged talk of a Google Phone, the company said that for now it had no plans to build phones. Instead, it has signed up powerful partners to develop and market the phones, including handset makers like Motorola and Samsung, carriers like T-Mobile, Sprint and China Mobile and semiconductor companies like Qualcomm and Intel.
The group, the Open Handset Alliance, expects to start selling the Google-powered phones in the second half of next year.
However, the strength of Google’s brand with consumers, as well as the open-source strategy that will make the phone software freely available and customizable, make it difficult to discount Google’s potential impact.

The idea is that just as spreadsheets, word processors, video games and other software tools turned the personal computer into an everyday appliance, the emergence of new mobile applications can spur wider adoption of so-called smartphones. More use of the Web, whether on PCs or on phones, benefits Google because its advertising systems have such broad reach.
Software developers ‘will build applications that do amazing things on the Internet and on mobile phones as well,’ Eric E. Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, said at a news conference.

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GM posts $39 Billion charge.

Rahul — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 04:00:05 +0000

General Motors is to take a $39 billion noncash charge in the third quarter to remove net deferred tax assets from its books. General Motors Corporation, also known as GM, an American multinational corporation, is the world’s largest auto company by production volume for the first 9 months of 2007, and by sales volume for 76 consecutive years. [4] Founded in 1908, in Flint, Michigan, GM employs approximately 284,000 people around the world. With global headquarters at the Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan, USA, GM manufactures its cars and trucks in 33 countries.

G.M. said the charge, which affects the automaker’s businesses in the United States, Germany and Canada, would have no impact on operations and would not interfere with efforts to restructure.
‘What this says right now is that, at least according to an accounting interpretation, the outlook for earnings in their U.S. business has diminished from where it was,’ said John Casesa, an industry analyst with the Casesa Shapiro Group.
Last week, GMAC Financial Services, the company’s financing arm, said it had lost $1.6 billion in the third quarter, mainly because of a deep loss on its mortgage business. G.M. owns 49 percent of GMAC, after selling a controlling interest to Cerberus Capital Management last year.
GM’s auto sales have been weakening. Analysts and auto company executives expect industry sales this year to be about 16 million vehicles, the weakest since 1998. Lately, executives have been forecasting that sales next year could fall below 16 million vehicles.
Moreover, the mortgage industry crisis is not showing signs of ending, meaning G.M.A.C.’s results are likely to be affected into 2008.

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Gold Bullion hits high.

Rahul — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 19:00:33 +0000

A declining dollar and high oil prices prompted investors and speculators to buy gold heavily on Tuesday, with the metal hitting a 28-year high and trading about $30 below its record peak. Spot gold hit a high of $821.30 an ounce, its best level since January 1980 when it set a lifetime high of $850.

High prices sparked sales of gold scrap from Indonesia and Thailand to Singapore, a key centre for bullion trading in Southeast Asia. Physical buyers remained nervous in India, the world’s top gold consumer, ahead of a key festival this week - Diwali.

“It’s still largely a dollar story, but there is clearly more than that. Gold has just got momentum,” Stephen Briggs, economist at SG Corporate and Investment Banking, said.
“When oil goes up, it benefits gold, but when oil goes down, it doesn’t damage the metal. All the evidence is that jewelry demand is now very much on the defensive, but that’s irrelevant if there are enough investors who think gold should go up.”
A weaker dollar makes gold cheaper for other currency holders and often lifts bullion demand. The metal is also generally seen as a hedge against oil-led inflation.
Oil jumped more than a dollar, rebounding to above $95 per barrel, as traders bet that falling U.S. inventories and the approaching winter could help restart oil’s rally.

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XM and Sirius to merge.

Rahul — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 18:45:25 +0000

A merger between satellite radio providers XM Satellite Radio and Sirius seems imminent by the end of the year. XM Satellite Radio Holdings is one of two satellite radio (SDARS) services in the United States and Canada, along with Sirius Satellite Radio. XM provides pay-for-service radio, analogous to cable television. Its service includes 73 different music channels, 39 news, sports, talk and entertainment channels, 21 regional traffic and weather channels and 23 play-by-play sports channels. Sirius was officially launched on July 1, 2002 and currently provides 69 streams (channels) of music and 65 streams of sports, news and entertainment to listeners. Music streams on Sirius carry a wide variety of genres, broadcasting 24 hours daily, commercial-free.
Momentum appears to be building that both the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission are to go along with the deal.

Dec. 5 looks like a possible deadline for the approval, as it would constitute 180 days since a second request to companies for information. Approval of the deal would require changing of a rule that prohibits one company from owning the entire satellite radio spectrum.
The FCC on Tuesday sent letters to XM and Sirius asking for information regarding concessions should the deal get approval. The FCC was seeking information on distribution contracts, programming and other information.

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