TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran voiced defiance on Saturday in the face of Western condemnation over a new nuclear fuel plant, with a senior official saying the facility would soon be operational and make the “enemies blind.”U.S. President Barack Obama demanded on Friday that Iran come clean about its nuclear program or risk “sanctions that bite” after the disclosure of the new uranium enrichment plant under construction southwest of Tehran.On Saturday, Obama said the discovery of the facility showed a “disturbing pattern” of evasion by Tehran which added urgency to its planned talks with world powers in Geneva on Thursday.The West…
Business
Iran defiant in nuclear row ahead of Geneva talks
Business
Personal debt levels `holding back economic recovery`
Economic growth is being held back by the numbers of people repaying debt rather than spending money, according to Bank of England Governor Mervyn King.Mr. King said that although there are signs that the UK economy is growing once again, companies and individuals are focusing on repaying debt rather than spending money on goods or services, restricting the amount of money flowing through the economy. The news comes shortly after the announcement that annual inflation (CPI) had fallen from 1.8% in July to 1.6% in August.A debt expert for Think Money said: “From a borrower`s perspective, it`s encouraging to see…
Facebook
Brand Lift: Facebook’s Answer To The Brand Advertising Conundrum
There are two primary types of online advertising: direct sales marketing and branded ad campaigns. Direct sales models like online affiliate marketing or email marketing have already been proven. However large brands have only begun spending billions of dollars online, because there have been very few ways to monitor the effectiveness of campaigns. Let’s say that you set up a Facebook application which millions of users interacted with. How do you then measure the ROI of that program once it’s complete? Given that large companies spend hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars on advertising everywhere, it’s difficult to…
Facebook
Facebook Announcing New Advertising Product Tomorrow? (Updated)
Tomorrow afternoon Facebook will make a special announcement at Ad Week NYC and they’ve been promoting the announcement heavily via the Facebook Marketing solutions page. Apparently the live stream will be posted on the page and while no details have been provided regarding the announcement, it sounds as though a new advertising product will be launched or upgrades to the existing ones will be rolled out.
Last week I posted screenshots of the new Facebook ad manager which was being tested out with some advertisers so perhaps the company will be announcing the new service for everybody. Or perhaps we’ll…
Facebook
Facebook Announces 300 Million Milestone And Cash Flow Positive
Facebook has announced today that the company has reached 300 million users and that they are cash flow positive. This is huge news for the company who was previously on track to surpass 300 million by the end of the year. Just a month and a half ago the company surpassed 250 million users which means that they are still gaining over 5 million new users a week. Also included in the announcement was that Facebook is now officially cash flow positive, something previously expected to take place in 2010.
That Facebook is able to continue this growth and build…
Business
CFE denies cancellation of 900MW La Parota hydro project – Mexico
Mexican state power company CFE has postponed, not cancelled, construction of the 900MW La Parota hydroelectric dam in Guerrero state, the company said. The decision to delay the plant’s construction was based primarily on the country’s sufficient generation margin, the difference between capacity and peak demand. CFE made the announcement to media outlets to counter an article published by local paper El Universal that said the company was cancelling the project entirely. “It is not cancelled. It is delayed,” a CFE spokesperson told BNamericas, adding that the company’s position remains in line with the federal program for energy works and…
Business
U.S. tire duties fuel trade tension with China
BEIJING (Reuters) – A U.S. decision to impose special duties on Chinese tires could open the door to a host of trade complaints against Chinese products, creating tensions as Western nations seek Beijing’s support at a G20 meeting. China responded swiftly to U.S. President Barack Obama’s announcement Friday of safeguard duties on tire imports from China, saying on Monday it would request World Trade Organization consultations with the U.S. over the duties. It also announced its own anti-dumping investigations of chicken products from the United States, a trade worth $800 million a year, as well as U.S. automotive exports.…
Business
EMC hires top Intel executive: Report
EMC Corp has hired Patrick Gelsinger, head of Intel’s core chip business, to run its storage-products operations and some smaller software units, the Wall Street Journal said. The paper said the appointment is effective immediately and EMC is expected to make the announcement on Monday. EMC also promoted Howard Elias and he will now head the company’s services division, the Journal reported. Both EMC and Intel were unavailable for comment outside regular business hours.
Business
Bharti, MTN reach pact on $24-bn deal
Bharti Airtel Ltd (BHARTIARTL.BO : 414.65 -7.2), India’s biggest mobile-phone company, and South Africa’s MTN Group Ltd have reached a $24-billion preliminary agreement to buy each other’s shares, the first step in a planned merger, three people familiar with the matter said. Bharti sweetened its bid to buy 49% of MTN by increasing the cash portion of its $14-billion offer, the people said, asking not to be identified before an announcement later this month. MTN, Africa’s biggest wireless company, and its shareholders are poised to acquire 33% of Bharti for about $10 billion, they said. In a note issued late…
Business
Tata Motors invites FDs from public to raise Rs 1,500 cr
NEW DELHI: Within less than a year, the country’s largest auto maker, Tata Motors, has come to the public for the second time to raise about Rs Some common investment rulesIndia’s ten biggest wealth creatorsCo FDs good bet for low-income investors 1,500 crore via fixed deposit schemes, offering up to 9.88 per cent annual interest for a three-year deposit. In a public announcement, the firm today said on a minimum fixed deposit of Rs 20,000 for two and three years, it would offer 8 per cent and 8.75 per cent interest respectively under the quarterly income plan. Under another scheme…
Hack
CableCard card tuners on the way
We were momentarily excited when we heard that CableCARD compatible tuners will be available for purchase by the end of the year. A card like this would allow you to hook up your digital cable to your computer and record programs natively. This has been possible for a long time with analog cable and PVR software such as MythTV. Up to this point, recording digital cable has required a dedicated cable box and workarounds to allow the computer to change channels.
Wait a minute though, the announcement was made by Microsoft? Indeed. Microsoft has been making a big push…
Facebook
This Week In Facebook News: August 30, 2009
For the past couple weeks we’ve been doing a recap of Facebook’s weekly news stories and have been receiving great feedback. As such, it’s now going to be a regular part of this blog. This past week was another big week for Facebook with the announcement of new privacy policies that will have a significant impact on platform applications. There were a number of other big announcements this week, all of which are included in our weekly roundup!
Facebook Announces New Privacy Policies
On Thursday morning, Facebook announced that they would be rolling out new privacy improvements in response to…
