Nigeria Boko Haram spokesman arrested, victims buried (Reuters)

ABUJA (Reuters) ? Nigeria's secret service arrested the purported spokesman for Islamist militant sect Boko Haram Wednesday, a group that has claimed responsibility for a string of deadly bombings and gun attacks, a secret service source told Reuters.

A swat team stormed the dwelling of the man known as 'Abu Qaqa' in the northern city of Kaduna in the early hours of the morning and found him hiding under his bed, said the highly-placed source, who asked not to be named.

The past three months have seen a surge in violence by Boko Haram, a movement loosely modeled on Afghanistan's Taliban which says it is fighting to install sharia law across Nigeria.

The arrest of a senior Boko Haram figure would be a coup for the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan which has been criticized for failing to curb the sect's violent activities in the mainly Muslim north.

The reported arrest came two weeks after the prime suspect in a Christmas Day bombing on a church on the edge of Abuja escaped from police custody, prompting Jonathan to sack his police chief.

"We are still talking to him. Since 'Abu Qaqa' is a pseudonym for the Boko Haram spokesman, we want to be sure of who we have with us. But we have been on his trail for months now. He's been changing locations and contacts," the State Security Services (SSS) source said.

"He is fairly educated. He is from the Ibiza ethnic group, from Kogi state in north central Nigeria," the SSS official added.

A spokeswoman for the SSS said she had no information on the incident. The police spokesman also declined to confirm it.

A man calling himself Abu Qaqa often appeared in local media after bomb and gun attacks to claim them for the group and justify the choice of target.

For a long time Abu Qaqa was the closest thing the sect had to a public face, before its purported leader Abubakar Shekau posted a video of himself last month on YouTube.

VICTIMS BURIED

Abu Qaqa said Boko Haram carried out the Christmas Day bomb attack that killed 37 people.

He also claimed responsibility for a coordinated series of gun and bomb attacks two weeks ago in the second city of Kano that killed 186 in the group's deadliest strike to date.

Nigeria conducted a mass burial Wednesday of 17 of the victims from the bomb attack on St Theresa church in Madalla, a satellite town of Abuja. The other 20 had already been buried.

Bishops in golden robes conducted a somber service for the Christmas bomb victims, while pall bearers in red polo shirts carried the 17 caskets.

There was a heavy security presence at the service and officials set up metal detectors at the doors to guard against a possible repeat attack by the sect on mourners, as happened on January 6 in the northeastern town of Mubi, in Adamawa state.

"We shall overcome. We shall see the end of these evil people," President Jonathan said in a statement read out by Reverend Bala Msheila.

The targeting of Christians raised fears Boko Haram was trying to ignite a sectarian war. Abu Qaqa said the attacks were in revenge for an attack on Muslims in Nigeria's volatile, religiously mixed middle belt during a Muslim holiday in November.

"We pray that those in charge of our security and safety will have the wisdom to know how best to tackle the problem on our hands and the courage to do what needs to be done," Abuja's Catholic Archbishop John Onayeikan said.

Attacks by Boko Haram continue, but in recent weeks it has renewed its focus on security targets. The Kano attack mostly hit police stations.

(Writing and additional reporting by Tim Cocks in Lagos; Editing by Rosalind Russell and Andrew Heavens)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120201/wl_nm/us_nigeria_boko_haram

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A look at eurozone unemployment rates (AP)

Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, estimates that unemployment across the 17-nation eurozone rose by the end of 2011 to 10.4 percent, a joint record high since the euro launched in 1999.

Here's how the countries compare:

Spain 22.9 percent

Greece 19.2 percent

Ireland 14.5 percent

Portugal 13.6 percent

Slovakia 13.4 percent

Estonia 11.3 percent

France 9.9 percent

Cyprus 9.3 percent

Italy 8.9 percent

Slovenia 8.2 percent

Finland 7.6 percent

Belgium 7.2 percent

Malta 6.5 percent

Germany 5.5 percent

Luxembourg 5.2 percent

Netherlands 4.9 percent

Austria 4.1 percent

___

Source: Eurostat

On the Web: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_PUBLIC/3-31012012-AP/EN/3-31012012-AP-EN.PDF

(This version corrects Cyprus figure to 9.3 percent.)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120131/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_europe_economy_glance

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Ochocinco demure in long-awaited Super spotlight

New England Patriots wide receiver Chad Ochocinco makes his way to answer questions during Media Day for NFL football's Super Bowl XLVI Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

New England Patriots wide receiver Chad Ochocinco makes his way to answer questions during Media Day for NFL football's Super Bowl XLVI Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

New England Patriots wide receiver Chad Ochocinco answers a question during Media Day for NFL football's Super Bowl XLVI Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

New England Patriots wide receiver Chad Ochocinco answers a question during Media Day for NFL football's Super Bowl XLVI Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

(AP) ? Chad Ochocinco was the last Patriot to walk across the field and wade into the pack of reporters and photographers waiting near the sideline. He felt no need to rush the moment he'd longed for nearly his whole life.

This was his Super Bowl media day.

Ochocinco finally got to be on the receiving end of questions Tuesday at Lucas Oil Stadium for an annual event that he attended several times as a microphone-toting correspondent for his social media Ochocinco News Network.

Now, the microphones were aimed at him.

"Aw, man, I've dreamed of it," Ochocinco said, wearing his blue No. 85 jersey, blue Super Bowl cap and irrepressible smile. "I've been playing this game a long time ? started out at 4 years old. And this is what you dream of, to come to this stage and enjoy it. So that's what I'm going to do."

And he's doing it the New England way.

Instead of driving the conversation by talking about himself, Ochocinco was along for the ride. He didn't seem to mind that he didn't get one of the 14 podiums set up on the field for coach Bill Belichick and players.

Instead, he stood at the 13-yard line between podiums reserved for tight end Aaron Hernandez and receiver Matthew Slater, his soft tone often drowned out by his teammates' speaker-amplified comments.

Didn't matter.

"This is my podium," Ochocinco said, referring to his small section of artificial turf encircled by reporters and photographers. "If I was up there, you couldn't get to me. You couldn't smell the cologne I have on now."

During the nearly hour-long session, Ochocinco provided hardly a whiff of his old look-at-me ways. After 10 years of commanding the spotlight and losing games in Cincinnati, the social media mogul had to pull off one of his most difficult changes.

Ochocinco had to use the words "I'' and "me" much more sparingly in order to co-exist with Belichick in New England. He had to learn, he says, throwing in an obscenity, to shut up.

There was no remorse in his tone on Tuesday. He knew when the Patriots traded for him that his self-promoting ways would have to end. If he lapsed back into look-at-me, he'd be looking at the end of his stay in New England.

So, he did away with his lists of cornerbacks who couldn't cover him, his touchdown skits and victory guarantees. Ochocinco, who legally changed his name from Johnson to get more attention, would have to drop the "diva" from his job description.

"I could have talked," he said, 'but then I'd be sitting at home today.

"I think I've had a great career in general. The year wasn't what I expected, what everyone else expected. But I did everything I was supposed to do ? work, stay quiet. I don't know if being on this stage is a reward, but there's nothing else I can do. I'm part of a team and I've done everything asked of me."

Especially the "stay quiet" part, which went against his nature.

He repeatedly bumped egos in Cincinnati with coach Marvin Lewis, who referred to him once as "Ocho Psycho." Ochocinco miffed teammates with his attention-gathering antics ? and his sloppy pass routes ? and got under the skin of opponents by sending them Pepto-Bismol and other gifts. The league repeatedly fined him for his on-field celebrations and refusal to follow its uniform code.

He set Bengals receiving records, but made the playoffs only twice in 10 years and went 0-2. He tried to get out of town, but ownership made him stay. He started planning for his next career, getting involved in social media, including his OCNN venture.

During the NFL lockout last summer, he rode a 1,500-pound bull for 1.5 seconds, tried out for Kansas City's MLS team and took a 160 mph spin around the Atlanta Motor Speedway with Jeff Burton.

He felt revived when the Bengals traded him to the Patriots in July, but quickly realized his career was taking an abrupt turn. He became a small piece in a high-powered passing game, catching only 15 passes all season for 275 yards and one uncelebrated touchdown.

"I know the season hasn't gone the way he wanted to," said Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew, filling in for Ochocinco on his OCNN crew this week. "The way they do things up there, I think he's kind of understood that and gone along with it. I'm happy for the guy."

Ochocinco sounded upbeat about all of it. Asked if it was bittersweet for him to get to the title game as a reserve receiver without a podium, he smiled.

"It's not bittersweet," he said. "It's the Super Bowl."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-01-31-FBN-Super-Bowl-Ochocinco's-Moment/id-86887625b9b24d80bfb45ad23ae4b6f2

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MicroOLED viewfinder delivers 5.4 megapixels in 0.61-inch monochrome display

Photographers who've spent years looking through the window of a high-end optical viewfinder may never find an electronic version that fully satisfies them. But this new MicroOLED EVF may get us closer than ever to an acceptable digital replacement for the TTL OVF, which will never find a home in modern-day compacts and mirrorless ILCs. Developed with military and medical-industry heads-up displays and digital camera viewfinders in mind, the new microdispay is able to deliver a 5.4 megapixel (2560 x 2048) monochrome image, or 1.3 megapixels in full 16-million color -- all in a 0.61-inch diagonal panel. The display boasts a top contrast ratio of 100,000:1, 96-percent uniformity and 0.2 watts of power consumption. There's no word yet on when the new tech will start popping up in enterprise devices and digital cameras, or how much of a premium it'll carry for electronics manufacturers, but it looks like we're closer than ever to having an excellent electronic alternative to the optical viewfinder. Jump past the break for the full PR from MicroOLED.

Continue reading MicroOLED viewfinder delivers 5.4 megapixels in 0.61-inch monochrome display

MicroOLED viewfinder delivers 5.4 megapixels in 0.61-inch monochrome display originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Jan 2012 07:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/N6RIWoIwYFE/

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U.S. healthcare reform: insurance companies shouldn't manage our ...

Healthcare shouldn?t be managed under a system that attempts to maximize profits for insurance companies and their CEOs and stock holders. The U.S. healthcare system is becoming impossible under the current fee for service system, which is due to insurance companies managing our healthcare decisions with profit as their bottom line.

Dylan Ratigan:

[W]e don?t have a health care system, we have a treatment sales system. The more tests and treatments a doctor can sell, the more money he or she can make in fees ? that means there?s a financial incentive to order an extra MRI or perform a surgery that may or may not be completely necessary.

This system is commonly called the ?fee for service? model for medical practice. That, in turn, is married to an employer-based health insurance monopoly ? the combination drives up costs for all of us. (Perhaps that?s why we spend more money than any other country worldwide on health care, but come in at #37 in quality of care.)

To discuss the issues with our model ?fee for service? healthcare, Dylan was joined by former DNC chair Dr. Howard Dean ? he has called ?fee for service? the single biggest barrier to controlling health care costs in America. Also in this segment is Charlie Kolb, president of the Committee for Economic Development, which represents a wide variety of major corporations in this country.

Watch:


?

via: leftish?(from the video above):

In the United States, an MRI scan is $1009.00

In Britain it?s $187.00.

In the?United States, bypass surgery costs over $59,000, in Britain just shy of $14,000.

Why do we pay so much, more than any other country in the world, and have relatively so little to show for it?

We outspend the rest of the world but in a country like France, which spends half as much as we do, the people live longer, they have lower infant mortality rates and they don?t have the obesity problems that we have.

~ Charlie Kolb, President of the Committee for Economic Development

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2 bloggers like this post.

Source: http://underthemountainbunker.com/2012/01/28/u-s-healthcare-reform-insurance-companies-shouldnt-manage-our-healthcare/

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China paper says punish Philippines over US ties (AP)

BEIJING ? An official Chinese newspaper says Beijing must punish the Philippines economically for proposing closer military ties with Washington.

The nationalist tabloid Global Times, published by the Communist Party's People's Daily, said Sunday that China must pressure Manila to abandon cooperation with the U.S.

China and the Philippines, along with other nations, are locked in a territorial dispute in the South China Sea, and Beijing sees the U.S. as an unwelcome interloper in that dispute.

U.S. and Philippine officials agreed last week to increase cooperation in various areas including maritime security and defense. The Philippines said it is considering more joint military exercises and a greater presence by American troops.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_re_as/as_china_philippines

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Making better electronic memory

ScienceDaily (Jan. 27, 2012) ? A rare combination of electric and magnetic properties in a now readily producible material could improve electronic memory devices.

An electric field can displace the cloud of electrons surrounding each atom of a solid. In an effect known as polarization, the cloud centers move away slightly from the positively charged nuclei, which radically changes the optical properties of the solid. Materials that can maintain this polarization, even when the external electric field is removed, are known as ferroelectrics and they could provide a novel route to higher-density memory devices.

"The function of ferroelectric materials is much expanded if they are also magnetic, and if there is a strong coupling between polarization and magnetization," explains Yasujiro Taguchi from the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute in Wako. Taguchi and his colleagues from RIKEN, and several other Japanese research institutes, recently demonstrated experimentally that the material strontium barium manganite ((Sr,Ba)MnO3) has this rare combination of properties1.

Previous experimental studies on (Sr,Ba)MnO3 did not identify any signs of the ferroelectricity promised by theoretical simulations. The problem was an insufficient ratio of barium to strontium atoms: conventional crystal growth techniques had produced material with only a maximum ratio of 1:4. Taguchi and his colleagues therefore developed a new two-stage growth technique that enabled them to increase the barium content to 50%. By comparing the properties of crystals with different levels of barium content, they identified a transition to a ferroelectric state at a content ratio of between 40 and 45%.

Strontium barium manganite has a so-called perovskite crystal arrangement, which is characterized by a repeating cubic structure (Fig. 1). Manganese atoms are located at the center of the crystal and oxygen atoms are situated in the middle of each of the six sides. Either a strontium or a barium atom sits on each corner of the cube. The spin, or rotation, of an electron in the manganese ions makes the crystal magnetic. Ferroelectricity arises because the manganese ions are displaced slightly from the center of the cube. "Therefore the manganese ions are responsible for both polarization and magnetism and thus a strong coupling between the two emerges," explains Taguchi.

Materials that are both ferroelectric and have magnetic properties are called multiferroics. The multiferroic materials identified so far have either strong coupling between electricity and magnetism but small polarization, or large polarization with weak coupling. "We have now discovered a multiferroic material that has both [strong coupling and large polarization]," says Taguchi. "These properties are necessary requirements if multiferroic materials are to be applied to devices. One possible example is low-power-consumption memory devices."

The corresponding author for this highlight is based at the Exploratory Materials Team, RIKEN Advanced Science Institute

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Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120127135441.htm

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Reuters Magazine: Wheatley: What's going right (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? With the British economy flat on its back, the Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) factory in Birmingham, the second largest city in England, is doing something unusual: hiring. The company is doing well. With exports to China and other big emerging economies rising strongly, Britain's largest automotive manufacturer recently said it would hire another thousand workers and build a new engine plant, creating a further 750 fifty jobs.

The Jaguar plant, which manufactured Spitfire fighter aircraft and Lancaster bombers during World War II, is an amalgam of state-of-the-art robots and old-fashioned craftsmen intent on their work. Electric carts laden with parts buzz across the factory floor, passing beneath big screens that flash the number of cars completed that shift. It takes 48 hours to process the top-of-the-line XJ model. As sedans roll off the assembly line, each customer's specifications are given a final check, and the cars are driven away to be shipped everywhere from Australia and Azerbaijan to the United States and China. The company, bought by India's Tata Motors from Ford Motor in 2008, exports 75 percent of its output. Britain and the United States remain JLR's biggest markets, but China has sped into the third spot and now accounts for 14 percent of the company's sales, which reached 232,704 vehicles last year.

That the luxury tastes of newly rich Chinese are generating employment in the birthplace of the industrial revolution is a powerful expression of Asia's rising clout and a reminder that the West's protracted debt crisis has not sucked all life out of the global economy. JLR's sales to China have risen by more than 750 percent in the past five years. "Nearly everybody's cutting back because of the recession, but China is still an expanding market," said Jim Kearns, an experienced assembly-line worker at JLR's Castle Bromwich plant in Birmingham. "They've got their heads screwed on over there."

Europe's debt malaise is prompting talk of a lost decade for the economy, like Japan in the 1990s. In the United States, deadlocked debt reduction talks, high unemployment, and long-stagnant incomes are sapping confidence. But many less affluent countries, though not immune to the West's woes, have displayed remarkable resilience. While advanced economies are likely to expand just 1.6 percent this year, emerging and developing countries should notch up growth of 6.4 percent, according to the International Monetary Fund. For the past five years, developing countries have contributed as much as 65 percent of world growth and 70 percent of the growth in global imports, the World Bank estimates. Nor is this growth purely a function of final demand in the West. South-South trade - for instance between China and India or Brazil and Africa - now makes up 45 percent of developing country imports, up from about 23 percent in the early 1990s.

The BRIC countries are in the vanguard of this reordering of the world economy. Brazil, Russia, India, and China accounted for just 8.5 percent of global GDP at market exchange rates in the period between 2000 and 2004, according to the IMF. Between 2005 and 2009 that share rose to 13.1 percent, and by 2015 it will have overtaken that of the euro zone to reach 20.7 percent, just shy of the United States at 21.1 percent. "We're in the early days of the rise of the BRICs," said Jim O'Neill, the Goldman Sachs economist who coined the concept a decade ago. Trade tells a similar story. Over the past two decades, the share of world exports among the BRIC countries has nearly tripled, while their share of global imports has nearly doubled. At the same time, the gulf in productivity between industrial and developing economies - what economists call the "convergence gap" - remains very large. Hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of dire poverty thanks to the 10 percent annual growth China has enjoyed since the late 1970s, but an estimated 300 million Chinese still do not have access to clean water. Measured at purchasing power parity, annual income per head in China is just 16 percent of that in the United States. In India, the figure is just 7 percent. It's this catch-up potential that has businesses salivating.

"I'm still optimistic. We will continue to see hyper growth in these markets," said Yang Yuanqing, the chairman of Lenovo, the world's number two personal computer maker. In China, for example, many people in the biggest cities already own a computer, Yang said, but the penetration rate in smaller cities and townships remains very low. His confidence is broadly shared by the man in the street in China even if there is resentment towards officials suspected of having acquired their wealth through connections or corruption. Zhu Lijun, a postgraduate student in Beijing, said he was satisfied with his standard of living. "As a college student, I feel optimistic about my future," Zhu said. "What matters is not whether other people get wealthy faster than me, but the way they get wealthy."

Economic growth in China is slowing but incomes are still rising fast; the government is committed to boosting household consumption's share of the economy so that growth relies less on investment and exports. HSBC reckons 40 percent of China's urban households now fall into the middle-class category, with annual income of 60,000 yuan to 500,000 yuan ($9,450 to $78,600). Five years ago, the proportion was just 10 percent. "This group has both the capacity and the desire to buy branded products and more expensive consumer durables as well as spend money on travel and culture," said HSBC's chief China economist, Qu Hongbin. That's good news not only for Jaguar Land Rover, Lenovo, and the thousands of other companies currently flogging their wares in China, it also bodes well for other companies, and entire countries, that would like to feed China's voracious demand for components, energy, and minerals.

Australia owes much of its long economic expansion to sound policy-making, but credit is due as well to China's hunger for iron ore, coal, and other natural resources. China accounted for 27 percent of Australia's exports in the first nine months of 2011, up from just 5 percent in 2000. Because the price of natural resources has soared while the cost of manufactured goods has fallen, a shipload of iron ore from Australia in 2010 could buy about 22,000 flat-screen television sets, 10 times more than just five years earlier.

The commodity boom is also helping Africa. Excluding countries with fewer than 10 million people, six of the 10 fastest growing economies in the world between 2001 and 2010 were in Africa. Between 2010 and 2015, seven of the top 10 countries, the IMF reckons, will be African. One of them will be Zambia, the continent's largest producer of copper. The $13 billion economy has grown at more than 6 percent annually over the last five years, and the benefits are slowly starting to trickle down. Kemmy Chaande, a reserved, soft-spoken man in his forties, has received a 3.2 billion kwacha ($625,000) government loan to expand his roofing sheet plant in Kabwe, about 140 kilometers north of the capital, Lusaka. With the government planning to spend more on construction in 2012, Chaande is eyeing a bigger market and hopes gradually to increase his workforce to 150 from 28 today. "The future looks very bright," he said. "It is companies like this one which employ people, and if we can be supported then even poverty levels will come down." Foreign direct investment, especially from China, has also been a powerful driver of Africa's growth, contributing an additional one half of a percentage point or more to GDP growth, according to Aaron Weisbrod and John Whalley of the University of Western Ontario. In the case of Zambia, which drew more Chinese investment relative to the size of its economy than any other country the researchers studied, the extra growth came to 1.9 percentage points in the years 2003 to 2009.

Research by IMF economists corroborates the notion that the BRICs are acting as a locomotive for poorer nations such as Zambia. Issouf Samake and Yongzheng Yang estimate that a 1 percentage point increase in BRIC demand and productivity leads to a cumulative 0.7 percentage point increase in low-income countries' output over three years. And that has translated, they argue, into a surprising economic resilience in the face of the worst recession for developed nations since World War II.

Not everyone in Zambia is prospering, of course. "It's just hand to mouth," said Gertrude Tembo, a 38-year-old mother of five who sells vegetables on the streets of Lusaka. "I've been selling on this street for the past 10 years and I am still here the way I started." What is enthusing Africa optimists, though, is that governance is generally improving too. The number of conflicts has fallen and power is increasingly changing hands peacefully through the ballot box, as it did in Zambia in September. "Since the new government has introduced pro-poor policies, such as the decision to reduce taxes for thousands of workers, a lot of people should feel the benefit of Zambia's positive economic growth," said Gervas Malibata, a rural development worker.

The picture is roughly the same in Peru. A commodity boom fueled by demand from Asia has laid the foundations for a surge in domestic consumption. Per capita income more than doubled from $2,000 in 2000 to $5,000 in 2010 and it is set to reach $6,700 in 2015, the IMF says. Peru has come a long way from the hyper-inflation and violence of leftist Shining Path insurgents that scarred the 1990s. "There are job opportunities now and, above all, there is stability," said Magra Trujillo, a 50-year-old nurse outside a middle-class shopping mall in Lima, the capital. "I know there will be opportunities for my children and grandchildren." Many poor Peruvians who propelled the leftist former army officer Ollanta Humala to victory in elections last June are still waiting for growth to trickle down from the construction, shopping, and real estate bonanza under way in Lima. Still, optimism prevails. "It's an incredible turnaround from 10 years ago, and lots of Peruvians are moving back home," said Javier Ugarte, a restaurant owner who was visiting his native Lima from San Diego. "The American dream actually seems to be more real in Peru now."

This rosy picture of demand from China and other emerging powerhouses extending across the globe invites an obvious question: How long can these countries' strong demand last? Maria Pinelli, global vice chair of strategic growth markets at consultants Ernst & Young, expects that the global middle class - people with daily per capita incomes between $10 and $100, expressed at purchasing power parity - will expand from around 2 billion now to 5 billion by 2030. Annual spending in this group will leap to $56 trillion from $21 trillion, offering juicy opportunities to multinational companies if they can outrace fast-moving local rivals on their home turf. "Speed to market will be absolutely essential because people in those countries are too entrepreneurial to let an opportunity pass. They'll figure it out before the multinationals do," she said. "That's a fundamental change."

Not everyone is so optimistic. Dani Rodrik, a professor of international political economy at Harvard University, is skeptical of assumptions that developing countries will maintain very high growth rates as they catch up with the West. Widespread convergence is a relatively recent phenomenon, he argues. "It would be nice if governments simply had to stabilize, liberalize and open up and markets would do the rest," Rodrik wrote in a paper. "Alas, that is not how sustained convergence was achieved in the past." Continued rapid expansion will require the kind of policies that advanced economies harnessed on the way to becoming rich, such as keeping currencies undervalued, controlling the financial sector, and favoring selected industries - in short, the Chinese recipe for growth. A Western backlash against the Beijing model, sparked perhaps by austerity fatigue, is a real risk. For now, though, people inside and outside China are making the most of the country's economic rise.

"In China there are plenty of opportunities for everyone to increase their standard of living," said David Zhang, who was born into a farming family and is now chief financial officer of a company listed in Hong Kong. "The Chinese will have cars and luxuries they haven't dared to dream about for centuries," said Zhang, who owns two BMWs.

Back in Birmingham, taxi driver Mohammed Iktias said the news that JLR's profits were up and the firm was taking on more workers had put a smile on his face. "When I heard that, it made me genuinely feel happy. It was good news for a change," Iktias said. "It didn't bring a tear to my eye, but it was close."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/bs_nm/us_davos_reutersmagazine_wheatley

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Why is investment income taxed less than wages? (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Why do Mitt Romney and other wealthy investors pay lower taxes on the income they make from investments than they would if they earned their millions from wages? Because Congress, through the tax code, has long treated investment more favorably than labor, seeing it as an engine for economic growth that benefits everyone.

President Barack Obama and the Occupy Wall Street movement are challenging that value system, raising volatile election year issues of equity and fairness.

The U.S. has long had a progressive income tax, in which people who make more money pay taxes at a higher rate than those who make less. But for almost as long, the U.S. has taxed capital gains ? the profit from selling an investment ? at a lower rate than wages.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_go_ot/us_taxing_investments

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Most useful automotive web sites integrate social media ...

acura

A modified Acura

Many of the most useful automotive websites share a common thread?they consistently integrate access to social media platforms throughout their pages, according to the J.D.?Power and Associates 2012 Manufacturer Website Evaluation Study(SM)?(MWES)?Wave 1 released today.

The semiannual study, now in its 13th year, measures the usefulness of automotive manufacturer websites during the new-vehicle shopping process by examining four key measures: speed, appearance, navigation and information/content.

Wide variation in use of social media

All automotive brand websites provide users with the ability to access various social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, to connect with the brand?s social media presence or share information about a brand or model under consideration.

However, there is wide variation among websites in the pervasiveness of social media access?for example, whether it?s available from only the site?s home page, or from a variety of pages.

Most useful use social media throughout site

The study finds websites that are the most useful tend to provide users with social media access from a variety of pages, including the home page, model pages, configurator tool and photo gallery. Brands that do not perform well in usefulness tend to have limited social media availability throughout their sites, such as access only from the home page and model pages.

?The widespread usage of social media has created an expectation of constant availability,? said?Arianne Walker, senior director of media and marketing solutions at J.D. Power and Associates.

?By integrating links to social media platforms throughout several site features, automotive brand websites enhance convenience for users and also increase the possibility that website users will promote the brand within their social networks.?

Overall satisfaction with the usefulness of automotive brand websites has decreased significantly to an average of 772 on a 1,000-point scale in Wave 1 of the 2012 study from 784 in Wave 2 of the 2011 study, which was released in?August 2011. Much of this decline is due to decreased satisfaction with navigation and information/content. These declines may be attributable to the challenges that automotive brand websites are facing in designing sites that are usable on both tablets and desktop computers.

Sites need to accomodate tablets

While only 20 percent of new-vehicle shoppers say they own a tablet, among those who do, 47 percent say they have used their tablet to access automotive information. Tablet ownership is expected to increase during the next several years, which makes it particularly important for brand websites to be able to accommodate both tablets and desktop computers without sacrificing usability on either type of device.

?As automotive brand websites attempt to accommodate the dimensions, resolution and layout best suited for tablet use, some have changed their design in ways that inhibit usage on desktop computers,? said Walker. ?For example, pages that require scrolling to view all of the content on a particular page may be preferred by tablet users, but they are quite frustrating for desktop computer users, who are used to clicking to access content directly, rather than finding it on the page by scrolling.?

In addition to differing levels of tolerance for scrolling, following are two key differences in navigation conventions between tablets and desktop computers:

  • For tablet devices, big button links are preferable to text links, while text links work well for website navigation on desktop computers.
  • Users of tablet devices often utilize finger swiping to access website content, while desktop computer users click and drag their mouse cursors. Effective websites should allow for navigation both ways.

Acura?s website ranks highest with a score of 808 on a 1,000-point scale, and performs particularly well in the navigation and speed measures. Rounding out the five highest-performing automotive websites are Honda (806), Hyundai (803) and Infiniti and?Lincoln, in a tie (802 each).

The 2012 Manufacturer Website Evaluation Study?Wave 1 is based on evaluations from more than 9,400 new-vehicle shoppers who indicate they will be in the market for a new vehicle within the next 24 months. The study was fielded inNovember 2011.

Manufacturer Website Ranking
(Based on a 1,000-point scale)
Acura 808
Honda 806
Hyundai 803
Infiniti 802
Lincoln 802
Kia 796
Jeep 792
Lexus 790
Porsche 787
Toyota 787
MINI 785
Buick 784
Mazda 784
Cadillac 783
Subaru 776
Volkswagen 775
Nissan 774
Suzuki 774
Audi 773
Industry Average 772
Mitsubishi 771
BMW 770
Mercedes-Benz 768
Ford 763
Land Rover 763
GMC 762
Jaguar 760
Volvo 759
smart 756
Chrysler 755
Dodge 752
Ram 752
Chevrolet 750
Fiat 729
SAAB 721
Scion 691

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Southeast Venture Conference, February 29 ? March 1, 2012 at the Ritz Carlton in Tysons Corner, VA ? Where Smart Money Meets Smart People.
www.seventure.org

? 2012, TechJournal South. All rights reserved.

Tags: Acura, Audi, automotive web sites, BMW, Buick, Cadillac, Chevy, Deep, Dodge, facebook, Ford, GMC, Honda, Hyundai, Infiniti, J.D. Power, Jaquar, Jeep, Kia, LandRover, Lexus, Lincoln, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Porsche, Ram, SAAB, SCion, Suzuki, tablets, Toyota, twitter, YouTube

Source: http://www.techjournalsouth.com/2012/01/most-useful-automotive-web-sites-integrate-social-media/

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