BMW to sell luxury cars for less online

<p><div><h1><img alt="The BMW i3 concept car at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show in January." src="http://cmsimg.detnews.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=C3&Date=20120729&Category=AUTO0104&ArtNo=207290302&Ref=AR&MaxW=640&Border=0&BMW-sell-luxury-cars-less-online" /></h1></div><div id="article-bodytext"><div id="ody-mainphoto"><div></div><h6>The BMW i3 concept car at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show in January. (John T. Greilick / Detroit News)</h6></div><div><div id="artpagination"><div><div><div><p>BMW will sell cars over the Web for the first time as the world's largest maker of luxury vehicles seeks an inexpensive way to reach more buyers to recoup spending on its electric models.</p><p>A direct online sales platform for BMW's new I sub-brand will be unique in an industry where, outside of small-scale experiments, competitors leave Internet orders for cars to dealers. BMW's range of strategies for the models, including a roaming sales force backing a limited showroom network, reflects the challenge carmakers face as low-emission vehicles trickle into dealerships to sluggish demand after years of development.</p><p>"There is considerable risk in BMW's approach of promoting the I brand so prominently," said Stefan Bratzel, director of the Center of Automotive Management at the University of Applied Science in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany. "There is the image risk, if they don't succeed as quickly as expected, and then there's the main risk of costs, which can only be countered with high deliveries."</p><p>BMW opened the I models' first showroom Tuesday in London, although only prototype cars and informational materials will be displayed at first because the vehicles themselves won't go on sale before next year. BMW is spending about $3 billion developing the i3 battery-powered city car and i8 plug-in hybrid supercar, according to an estimate by Frost & Sullivan. Industry sales of electric cars last year, at 43,000 vehicles, were only 57 percent of the 75,000 deliveries predicted by Sarwant Singh, a London-based automotive partner at the consulting company.</p><h3>Starting prices posted</h3><p>The four-seat i3, scheduled to reach the market in late 2013, will be priced at about 40,000 euros ($48,500), Bratzel estimated. That compares with a 23,850-euro starting price ($29,388) in Germany for the 1-Series, the cheapest BMW-brand car. The i8, targeted for sale in 2014, will cost more than 100,000 euros ($123,221), according to Ian Robertson, BMW's sales chief.</p><p>Details of how I-model buyers, the website and dealerships will interact are "still in the planning process" and will be communicated later, Linda Croissant, a spokeswoman at Munich- based BMW, said last week. Sales will be focused on the world's major urban areas, she said.</p><p>The online sales option is aimed at a generation of drivers used to making daily purchases over the Internet, and will be an extension of the car configuration that most automakers offer customers to view models with desired options such as interior colors, seat materials and roof styles.</p><h3>Test drives not an option</h3><p>The Internet platform may take a while to catch on because "many customers will still want to go somewhere to look at and drive the vehicle before buying," said Ian Fletcher, an auto analyst in London at research company IHS Global Insight.</p><p>"With new technologies, there may be even greater skepticism about buying a car over the Internet, as in many cases you'll have to win the confidence of customers that it works and there is support for them," Fletcher said in an email.</p><p>The setup may help BMW reduce expenses: Internet sales require less than half the cost of distributing through a dealership, according to Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer of the Center Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany. That allows online car prices to be 5 percent to 7 percent less than showroom tags.</p><p>Still, BMW sees standard dealerships as "the backbone of what we are doing in the interface with the customer" for the I models, Robertson said in June at a press presentation at the sub-brand's Park Lane showroom in London.</p><h3>Dealer selection criteria</h3><p>Outlets will be restricted to dealers with high BMW-brand sales volume who have floor space as well as capacity to work with I models' powering technology and carbon-fiber body material, Robertson said. The carmaker has chosen 45 of its approximately 200 dealers in Germany to sell the i3 and i8, a ratio that will probably be similar elsewhere, he said.</p><p>Dealers will be designated as agents for the I models, which provides an "advantage" by keeping the vehicles on the carmaker's books, the association of BMW distributors in Germany said in an email.</p><p>Electric vehicles' disadvantages versus conventional cars include costly battery packs, limited ranges and the time needed to recharge. Consumer reception to models like the Nissan Motor Co.'s Leaf and General Motors Co.'s Chevrolet Volt has been tepid.</p><p>"Currently available electric cars have a limited market success because they are a big compromise," said Arndt Ellinghorst, a London-based analyst at Credit Suisse AG. "Customers are not willing to compromise and spend a lot of money."</p><h3>Carbon fiber bodies lighter</h3><p>BMW Chief Executive Officer Norbert Reithofer started Project I at the end of 2007 as tighter emissions regulations threatened the viability of sporty sedans. BMW chose to create all-new vehicles that use expensive carbon fiber for a lighter body to make up for the weight of the battery system.</p><p>The approach contrasts with a decision by Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz Cars division to convert existing models, such as the van-like B-Class or two-seat Smart, to electric power.</p><p>To make its electric vehicles more attractive, Stuttgart, Germany-based Daimler's Smart brand offers to lease the battery separately from the car. The automaker has a target of selling more than 10,000 of the models next year, with a starting price of 18,910 euros plus monthly battery rental at 65 euros.</p><p>The I models' new technology poses risks for BMW, "but they have no choice if they want to keep their premium and image as an innovation leader," Ellinghorst said.</p><p>The i3 and i8 will probably be among BMW's lowest-selling models through 2024, alongside the existing Z4 roadster, according to IHS estimates. In 2014, the first full year of production, BMW will probably deliver 31,380 i3s, compared with 564,760 of the best-selling 3-Series model and 18,101 Z4s, a study by the research company shows.</p><p>BMW's stance is that the models should produce earnings from the start, sales chief Robertson said.</p><p>"We clearly, as a company, go into any product launch with the view of making profit, which is no different with the I brand," Robertson said. "This is a car line just as every other car line, and we intend to make profit from Day 1."</p></div></div></div></div></div></div><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 13px; text-align: left;"><br /><br /><br /></span></p>

BMW to sell luxury cars for less online

The BMW i3 concept car at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show in January. (John T. Greilick / Detroit News) BMW will sell cars over the Web for the f...

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True guilt is guilt at the obligation one owes to oneself to be oneself. False guilt is guilt felt at not being what other people feel one ought to be or assume that one is. Moderate feelings of guilt are beneficial because they encourage the individual to do the right thing

<p>The Scottish psychologist R.D. Laing once said: True guilt is guilt at the obligation one owes to oneself to be oneself. False guilt is guilt felt at not being what other people feel one ought to be or assume that one is. Moderate feelings of guilt are beneficial because they encourage the individual to do the right thing. If nobody felt guilty about anything it would likely lead to a fearful world and it could even threaten the survival of the human species. There is also a more negative form of guilt which is excessive and harmful. This refers to a situation where the individual carries a sense of guilt around with them most of the time. The reasons for why the individual may become a victim of excessive guilt include: They have a poor self image. It can be a sign of mental health difficulties. Some people fall into negative thinking and this tends to include guilt. The individual has been a victim of physical or sexual abuse. Unhealthy relationships can leave people with feelings of guilt. Excessive stress. Alcohol or drug abuse.</p>

True guilt is guilt at the obligation one owes to oneself to be oneself. False guilt is guilt felt at not being what other people feel one ought to be or assume that one is. Moderate feelings of guilt are beneficial because they encourage the individual to do the right thing

The Scottish psychologist R.D. Laing once said: True guilt is guilt at the obligation one owes to oneself to be oneself. False guilt is gui...

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A million Britons live with the hell of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

<p>Nadine Stewart was convinced she was going to die. Just ten minutes after setting off for a pop concert with her sister, she felt a tingling sensation in her arms and pain in her chest.</p><p>‘I knew I was having a heart attack,’ says Nadine, 41, a customer services adviser from Morecambe, Lancashire. ‘I begged my sister to take me to A&E: I ran in and screamed that I was having a heart attack.</p><p>‘They put me on a monitor and my heart was fine — what I had suffered was a panic attack. I have no idea to this day what caused it, but it terrified the life out of me.’ </p><div><img alt="Nadine Stewart has to do everything nine times or fears her husband will die" height="565" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/07/25/article-2178978-13FDCCA8000005DC-228_634x565.jpg" width="634" /><p>Nadine Stewart has to do everything nine times or fears her husband will die</p></div><p>But worse was to come. ‘Afterwards, I developed a fear that if I didn’t do something nine times, something terrible would happen to me, my husband Paul or a member of my family.’ says Nadine. </p><p>‘If I made a drink I had to stir it nine times. If I locked the door I had to check it nine times and if I used a cloth to wipe a surface I’d have to wipe it nine times. I don’t know why it was nine. I realised I was being utterly irrational. But every time I tried to curb it — such as only stirring my drink three times — I’d begin to panic.'</p><div> ‘If I didn’t do these things nine times, I’d imagine Paul and me veering off the motorway in our car and see his injured face in the aftermath.’</div><p>Nadine had Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), recognised by the World Health Organisation as one of the top ten most disabling disorders in terms of its effect on quality of life. </p><p>Last month both the British actress Emily Blunt and the MP Charles Walker revealed they suffered from it, with Walker admitting he had to do everything in multiples of four — and felt the need to wash his hands hundreds of times a day. </p><div> Who knew?<br />Surveys estimate that fewer than<br />10 per cent of those suffering OCD are currently receiving treatment.</div><p>They are not alone. Around a million people in the UK are thought to be undergoing treatment for OCD, the majority of them women. Women are twice as likely as men to develop anxiety disorders such as OCD — and high-achieving perfectionists are particularly at risk. </p><p>‘There are two parts to OCD, the obsession and the compulsion,’ explains Joel Rose, of charity OCD Action. ‘The obsession is a thought that pops into your head, about harm coming to someone you love or you causing harm to someone.'</p><p>‘Everyone has these thoughts but most of us ignore them and get on with our lives. Someone with OCD will develop a compulsive ritual as a reaction to them. It can be continually washing their hands or something invisible like repeating the same phrase over and over in their heads.'</p><p>‘The time spent on these compulsions lengthens with time. A severe OCD sufferer might spend six or seven hours a day washing their hands in the hope nothing terrible happens to their children.’</p><p>The cause of the condition is not known, though a stressful event in someone’s life may trigger an underlying problem. </p><p>Nadine has never pinpointed the root of her troubles — though they began in the year she started a new job, moved house and got engaged. ‘I had no reason to feel anxious,’ she said, ‘though I suppose there was a lot of change.</p><p>‘I became scared of choking to death so I stopped eating and lost three stone in less than three months. I couldn’t leave the house without Paul, and even then it would take me three hours to pluck up the courage.’</p><p>Someone who can empathise with Nadine is Jeni Scott, 31, who’s had OCD for three years. <br />It began when her father had a heart attack and her mother was diagnosed with cancer, soon after Jeni left university. </p><p>‘I became obsessed with doing things in order,’ says Jeni, a tutor from Newport, Wales. ‘I started making lists but it had everything on it such as “get up, have shower, make a cup of tea” and if I didn’t stick to it I would punish myself by denying myself a treat.</p><div><img alt="Actress Emily Blunt, star of Five Year Engagement, has revealed she suffers from OCD" height="1060" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/07/25/article-2178978-139B6B4A000005DC-908_306x1060.jpg" width="306" /><p>Actress Emily Blunt, star of Five Year Engagement, has revealed she suffers from OCD</p></div><p>‘I developed a phobia of being in the rain in the wrong clothes and had to take a backpack with spare bra, pants, coat, shoes and umbrella everywhere with me. I’d carry antibacterial gel in my bag and use it every ten minutes. I’ve still no idea why I did it, I just found it helped me.’ </p><p>Aisha Faisal, from Reading, Berkshire, also suffers from OCD — and it’s getting worse. ‘I developed it in my teens when my mother fell ill and I had to clean the house,’ the 26-year-old says. ‘Now I’m obsessed with everything being super-clean. I wash my hands 14 or 15 times a day, I shower for an hour at a time and wash the shower head and bath thoroughly before I step in. </p><p>‘If someone touches me, I cringe. My neighbour touched my scarf to tell me it was pretty and I had to have a shower and put all my clothes in the wash.’ Aisha, who has three children under four, admits her obsession extended to giving birth. </p><p>‘Each time I had Caesarean sections — the thought of having a natural birth makes me feel physically sick.’ She made the surgeons assure her everything had been scrubbed thoroughly before each operation. Understandably, her OCD worries the rest of her family. ‘My husband Ali finds it very hard to see me like this. I won’t let him touch me when he comes in from work: he has to shower and put on clean clothes before he can hug me.'</p><p>‘With three young children, being clean is impossible and I bathe them twice a day in the winter and sometimes four times a day in the summer if they’re hot and sticky.’</p><p>As a result of her obsession her own hands are red raw and she suffers from eczema. ‘I have been to the GP but it’s very difficult to treat. I know I must do something soon, because my eldest daughter, who is four, is picking up on my behaviour and I feel very guilty about that.'</p><p>‘The other day she came in from the garden and said she was dirty so needed to get out of her clothes and I washed her and cleaned her thoroughly. My husband can’t believe our electricity bill because the washing machine is on constantly.’</p><p>While Aisha is still in the grip of OCD, Jeni and Nadine have overcome the condition. According to the NHS, the two recognised forms of treatment are Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), which helped Jeni, and anti-depressants. </p><p>But Nadine used another therapy called The Linden Method — a two-day workshop costs £995 — when she reached her lowest point early last year.</p><p>‘I was unable to work, leave the house or answer the phone,’ she says. ‘My vision became blurry, my hands would spasm and I’d get pains like rheumatism. I began to think: “What’s the point in living?” yet I was too scared to kill myself.’</p><p>The Linden Method — which has also helped OCD sufferers Jemma and Jodie Kidd — works by convincing the sufferer’s sub-conscious that they are safe. </p><p>‘I’m a different person,’ says Nadine. ‘I can leave the house, I’m applying for jobs, taking up hobbies and it’s transformed my relationship with Paul. </p><p>‘He says it’s like having a wife in a wheelchair who can walk again. Except I feel I can not only walk, I can fly.’</p><p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left;"><br /><br /><br /></span></p>

A million Britons live with the hell of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Nadine Stewart was convinced she was going to die. Just ten minutes after setting off for a pop concert with her sister, she felt a tingling...

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Hungarian prosecutors have taken into custody the Nazi-era war crimes suspect Ladislaus Csizsik-Csatary, 97, who reportedly helped organizing the 1944 deportation of 15,700 Jews to Auschwitz.

<p>He worked as a police commander in a Slovakian ghetto, at the helm of a brutal regime in the city of Kosice, where 140 people were allegedly driven to suicide to escape his torture in 1941-45.</p><p>Csizsik-Csatary fled to Canada under a new identity after being sentenced to death in absentia in 1948. He spent almost half a century in Canada, selling works of art. But his true identity was revealed in 1997 and he went on the run again, where he managed to evade capture for fifteen more years.</p><p>In April 2012, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, a human rights organization, listed Csizsik-Csatary as the most wanted war crimes suspect.</p><p>He was eventually tracked down by journalists from the British tabloid ‘The Sun’, who collaborated their efforts with the Wiesenthal Centre. Csizsik-Csatary opened the door in his socks and underpants. Once asked if he could justify his past, he stammered, ‘No, no. Go away’, and slammed the door in the face of the correspondents. </p><p>The tabloid raised publicity of the case on Sunday, passing the information on to the city’s prosecution office. The following day saw Jewish students staging protests outside Csizsik-Csatary’s apartment block, demanding his detention. The suspect is currently under house arrest, and his passport was confiscated.</p><p>"It was important for us to cooperate so that it gets wide media coverage, more than we can ever achieve," Efraim Zuroff, the head of the Wiesenthal Centre, told AFP. He added that he had hoped “the coverage would increase the pressure on the courts and public opinion in Hungary, as well as the world at large."</p><p>However, French Nazi-hunter Serge Klarsfeld doubts any legal action will be taken “with this conservative government” in Hungary. He added that the only reason Csizsik-Csatary would be at the top of the list is because so few Nazi war criminals remain.   </p><p>"In my opinion he did not have major responsibilities, he must have been a stooge," Klarsfeld told AFP, "Thirty years ago, he would have been 3,500th on the list."</p><div><img alt="AFP Photo/Attila Kisbenedek" src="http://www.rt.com/files/news/hungary-nazi-war-criminal-arrest-452/ladislaus-csizsik-csatary-998.jpg" /><br />AFP Photo/Attila Kisbenedek</div><div><img alt="AFP Photo/Attila Kisbenedek" src="http://www.rt.com/files/news/hungary-nazi-war-criminal-arrest-452/afp-kisbenedek-833.jpg" /><br />AFP Photo/Attila Kisbenedek</div><div><img alt="Activists and sympathizers of the European Union of Jewish Students stand with their hands taped to each other′s in front of Laszlo Csatary′s hideaway building, only few kilometers from his home in Budapest on July 16, 2012 (AFP Photo/Attila Kisbenedek)" src="http://www.rt.com/files/news/hungary-nazi-war-criminal-arrest-452/afp-kisbenedek.jpg" /><br />Activists and sympathizers of the European Union of Jewish Students stand with their hands taped to each other's in front of Laszlo Csatary's hideaway building, only few kilometers from his home in Budapest on July 16, 2012 (AFP Photo/Attila Kisbenedek)</div><div><img alt="Photo taken on July 16, 2012 shows the balcony of Dr Csatary L., alias Ladislaus Csizsik-Csatary, on the last floor of a Budapest building. (AFP Photo/Attila Kisbenedek)" src="http://www.rt.com/files/news/hungary-nazi-war-criminal-arrest-452/july-shows-balcony-csatary.jpg" /><br />Photo taken on July 16, 2012 shows the balcony of Dr Csatary L., alias Ladislaus Csizsik-Csatary, on the last floor of a Budapest building. (AFP Photo/Attila Kisbenedek)</div><div><img alt="Participants of a demonstration called by the European Union of Jewish Students try to open the door of Laszlo Csatary′s hideaway building, only a few kilometers from his home in Budapest on July 16, 2012 (AFP Photo/Attila Kisbenedek)" src="http://www.rt.com/files/news/hungary-nazi-war-criminal-arrest-452/called-union-jewish-students.jpg" /><br />Participants of a demonstration called by the European Union of Jewish Students try to open the door of Laszlo Csatary's hideaway building, only a few kilometers from his home in Budapest on July 16, 2012 (AFP Photo/Attila Kisbenedek)</div>

Hungarian prosecutors have taken into custody the Nazi-era war crimes suspect Ladislaus Csizsik-Csatary, 97, who reportedly helped organizing the 1944 deportation of 15,700 Jews to Auschwitz.

He worked as a police commander in a Slovakian ghetto, at the helm of a brutal regime in the city of Kosice, where 140 people were allegedly...

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HANGING OUT WITH FRIENDS TODAY

<div id=":ul" class="ii gt adP adO" style="font-size: 13px; margin: 5px 15px 0px 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; position: relative; z-index: 2; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-color: #ffffff;"><div id=":uk"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><br /><div><div style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td style="margin: 0px; font-family: arial, sans-serif; padding: 0cm;" valign="top"><div style="text-align: center; background-color: #f5f5f5; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"> </div><div style="text-align: center; background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><strong><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Grabbing a cup of coffee</span></strong></div><table style="width: 100%;" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td style="margin: 0px; padding: 1.5pt; width: 839px;" width="100%"><table style="width: 100%;" border="0" cellspacing="3" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td style="margin: 0px; padding: 0.75pt; width: 831px;" width="99%" valign="top"><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Description: Description: CF576CE06B56479DB8C5A48E42CA3BA9@HomeLT" height="287" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=3b30568af3&view=att&th=13896e30557b3bf5&attid=0.1&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1" width="479" /></div><div style="text-align: center;">  </div><div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Dining out at your favourite restaurant</span></strong></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Description: Description: 6903A9CEDEC24FE2BF0AD08A8938A39D@HomeLT" height="360" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=3b30568af3&view=att&th=13896e30557b3bf5&attid=0.2&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1" width="480" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Spending some time at the museum</span></strong></div><div style="text-align: center;">  <img alt="Description: Description: 810C23D4F768471C975BAA3637C7E2F9@HomeLT" height="473" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=3b30568af3&view=att&th=13896e30557b3bf5&attid=0.3&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1" width="480" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Meeting at a popular fast food centre</span></strong> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Description: Description: 654B37223ED04EBEB25DD4F27DB38B76@HomeLT" height="600" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=3b30568af3&view=att&th=13896e30557b3bf5&attid=0.4&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1" width="450" />   </div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Relaxing at the beach</span></strong></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Description: Description: 3662D65E36084FE3B1DFB412B2301360@HomeLT" height="318" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=3b30568af3&view=att&th=13896e30557b3bf5&attid=0.5&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1" width="480" />   </div><div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Going to a game</span></strong></div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Description: Description: 86E35EEDDDD8402D90B4DE9C978CB4BF@HomeLT" height="263" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=3b30568af3&view=att&th=13896e30557b3bf5&attid=0.6&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1" width="479" /> </div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;">   <strong><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Going out on a date</span></strong></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Description: Description: E2E7E88F4CF34955A4CAA39B6C207ED2@HomeLT" height="360" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=3b30568af3&view=att&th=13896e30557b3bf5&attid=0.7&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1" width="480" />   </div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Taking a drive around town</span></strong></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Description: Description: A68911474C964512942A7E70D8E5B158@HomeLT" height="600" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=3b30568af3&view=att&th=13896e30557b3bf5&attid=0.8&disp=emb&zw&atsh=1" width="449" /></div></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr><tr><td style="margin: 0px; padding: 1.5pt; width: 839px;" width="100%"><table style="width: 100%;" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td style="margin: 0px; padding: 0cm; width: 835px;" width="100%"> </td><td style="margin: 0px; padding: 0cm;" valign="bottom"> </td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center; background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><strong><span style="color: red; font-size: 24pt;">I am thankful I belong to another generation  !!!!</span></strong></div><div style="text-align: center; background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"> </div><div style="text-align: center; background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;" lang="EN">“It’s become appallingly clear that our Technology has surpassed our Humanity” -- </span><strong>Albert Einstein</strong></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div></div></div></div></div>

HANGING OUT WITH FRIENDS TODAY

  Grabbing a cup of coffee    Dining out at your favourite restaurant   Spending some time at the museum      Meeting at a popular fast food...

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Tattoos are permanent reminders of temporary feelings

<div></div><div id="article-wrapper"><div id="main-content-picture"><img alt="Tattoo" height="276" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/7/13/1342183532373/Tattoo-008.jpg" width="460" /><div>'It's wisest to pick someone whom you cannot break up with or divorce.' Photograph: Gary Powell/Getty Images</div></div><div id="article-body-blocks"><p>Tattoos are permanent reminders of temporary feelings – at least if you believe the report in Thursday's Daily Mail, which looked at "embarrassing" <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2172158/What-inking-The-embarrassing-matching-tattoos-brand-couples-life.html">matching couple tattoos</a> – designs that complement or complete each other across two, romantically involved bodies.</p><p>Yet there are millions of people who feel no embarrassment about the tattoos they share with their friends, lovers and even exes. Moreover, as with most perceived "new trends" in tattooing, this practice is one with a history far older than the current generation; it's a phenomenon that provides both an insight into human beings' fundamental relationships with their own bodies and the bodies and lives of those close to them.</p><p> </p><p>Tattoos have been used as markers of association for probably as long as human beings have walked the earth, to mark tribal affiliations, regimental membership in the military, membership of fraternal orders such as the masons or US college Greek letter groups, and to signify gang membership.</p><p>The most common of these types of affiliative tattoos, though, is marking an attachment to a loved one. There's an old adage in tattooed circles that suggests getting your lover's name tattooed on you is a sure kiss of death for that relationship, and it's an old gag too: Norman Rockwell's famous 1944 Saturday Evening Post cover painting, <a href="http://www.needlesandsins.com/2009/12/the-story-behind-rockwells-the-tattooist.html">The Tattooist</a>, shows a salty sailor in the tattooist's chair, having yet another name added to an arm already full of the crossed-out names of past paramours. Even earlier, a cartoon in Punch from 1916 <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22672/22672-h/22672-h.htm">shows</a> a "fickle young thing" – a well-turned-out young woman, as it happens – revisiting her tattooist to seek an amendment to the ornamental crest tattoo on her arm as she has, euphemistically, "exchanged into another regiment".</p><p> </p><p>None of this seems to have affected the long-standing popularity of having names or symbols tattooed to commemorate couples' love and bond. Magazines in the 1920s reported the latest fad for newlyweds was getting matching <a href="http://bit.ly/OB869M">tattooed wedding rings</a>; preserved tattooed skins in the Wellcome Collection from the late 19th century <a href="http://bit.ly/NsxIEB">feature names and portraits of lovers</a>; studies of tattoos in the American navy in the 18th century reveal a large percentage of seamen of the period <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/986875">bore tattoos of the names of women</a>; even Christian pilgrims in the 16th century were recorded to have <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Who-Are-You-Indentification-Surveillance/dp/1890951722">borne the names of their wives</a> on their skins, as tokens or identificatory marks; and records attest to romantic tattooing even in ancient Rome – St Basil the Great (329-380) is said to have condemned the tattooing of a lover's name that he observed on someone's hand. While I'd certainly never advocate getting a permanent mark of your relationship too hastily, it does seem that the instinct to inscribe a permanent token transcends the ages. Caveat amator.</p><p> </p><p>Single tattoos that span multiple bodies appear to be a more recent phenomenon, however. In 1977, New York-based tattoo artist <a href="http://www.spiderwebbusa.com/art/">Spider Webb</a> undertook what was probably the first conceptual art project to use tattooing, in a piece called <a href="http://www.spiderwebbusa.com/books/x/">X-1000</a>, in which he tattooed single, small Xs on to 999 individuals, and, as a culmination, one large X on the final, 1,000th skin, conceived as one contiguous work. This tattoo, potentially spanning thousands of miles at any one time, was, Webb said, "the largest tattoo ever done at any point in history". In 2000, as the culmination to a performance art project begun in 1998 designed to highlight the horrific lives and plights of the homeless and hungry in Mexico City, Santiago Sierra produced his piece <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/sierra-160-cm-line-tattooed-on-4-people-el-gallo-arte-contemporaneo-salamanca-spain-t11852">160cm Line Tattooed on Four People</a>, a single black line tattooed across the backs of prostitutes in exchange for wraps of heroin, as a symbol of their desperation, interdependence, and utter powerlessness. Sierra would later remark: "You could make this tattooed line a kilometre long, using thousands and thousands of willing people." In 2003, author Shelley Jackson famously <a href="http://ineradicablestain.com/skin.html">published</a> her short story Skin on the bodies of 2095, one tattooed word per person. These tattoos bring together strangers in common cause.</p><p> </p><p>My favourite set of matching tattoos, though, are probably the ongoing collection of work worn by <a href="http://meditationsinatrament.com/2008/08/06/caleb-and-jordan-kilby/">twins</a> Caleb and Jordan Kilby, tattooed with matching work by influential and extraordinarily talented New York-based artist Thomas Hooper. If you must get matching tattoos with someone, it's wisest to pick someone whom you cannot break up with or divorce, and to get the work carried out by a tattoo artist who will produce a piece of work that will stand the test of time on its own terms.</p></div></div>

Tattoos are permanent reminders of temporary feelings

'It's wisest to pick someone whom you cannot break up with or divorce.' Photograph: Gary Powell/Getty Images Tattoos are permane...

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Latvian company creates leather bound Ferrari

<div id="storyimg"><br /><img alt="Motors News" height="344" src="http://www.joe.ie/uploads/story/26830/26830-xlarge.jpg" width="608" /></div><div id="story-bc"></div><div id="sub"><div id="subcol1"><div id="storyinfo"><div id="storydate"></div></div><div id="storycontent0"><div id="story-part-0"><p>We're familiar with seeing tight leather on smoking hot women, and weird old men, but it's a first for us seeing a leather bound Ferrari F430.</p><p>There seems to be a lot of fuss over this leather bound Ferrari F430 in the UK with both The Sun and The Daily Mail reporting about it recently.</p><p>However, this isn’t a new car by any means as US motoring blog Jalopnikreported on the F430 way back in August last year. It’s a pretty cool, albeit manky, car so we thought we’d show you anyway.</p><p>It’s the work of a Latvian custom car company called Dartz who hit the headlines in 2009 when they created a $1.5 million ruby red SUV with whale foreskin-covered seats. Yes, foreskin…</p><p>Anyway, some high roller with more cash then sense decided it would be a great idea to cover his €170,000 Ferrari in dark leather.</p><p>The owner of Dartz, Leonard Yankelovich, said: "One of our very rich customers from the Cote d'Azur wanted a leather exterior and knew we could deliver.</p><p>"It took three of my staff 16 working days to apply the leather and finish. He was more than happy when he picked it up."</p><p>He won’t be too happy when he scratches it though.</p><p><img alt="" height="225" src="http://www.joe.ie/uploads/story/26830/leather2.jpg" width="400" /></p><p>Is this the most expensive way to ruin a Ferrari?</p></div></div></div></div>

Latvian company creates leather bound Ferrari

We're familiar with seeing tight leather on smoking hot women, and weird old men, but it's a first for us seeing a leather bound Fer...

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The best insights in my report didn’t emerge in my office, during conference calls, or at meetings. They somehow appeared in the bathroom.

<p>Not too long ago, as I was putting the final touches on a client presentation, I stumbled across a surprising observation. The best insights in my report didn’t emerge in my office, during conference calls, or at meetings. They somehow appeared in the bathroom.</p><p>Research on the nature of creativity suggests my experience isn’t all that unique. Often, the most effective way of solving a difficult problem is simply walking away. The moment we allow ourselves to disengage from the individual pieces of a puzzle is the moment a solution appears. It’s why Albert Einstein regularly went sailing and why Charles Darwin planned his day around a countryside stroll. Thomas Edison simply napped.</p><p>In many ways, problem solvers are like artists. Taking a few steps back provides painters with a fresh perspective on their subject, lending them a new angle for approaching their work. Problem solving follows a similar recipe, but it’s not always the physical distance that we need. It’s psychological distance; mental space for new insights to bloom.</p><p>In a world where finding solutions makes up the crux of a typical workday, we are all artists. Cognitive artists. And to deliver our best work, we need revitalizing breaks. Distancing ourselves from our work grants us a broader view, activating a global perspective that precedes breakthrough.</p><p>So, why the bathroom?</p><p>If you’re like most office employees, access to sailboats, the countryside and a relaxing couch is in short supply. A walk to the bathroom is one of the few opportunities you have for disengaging, letting go of trivial details and refocusing on the bigger picture--even Steve Jobs recognized the bathroom's potential, insisting that Pixar only build two in its studios, to provide employees with maximum enforced mixing. Neurologically, it is during these moments away from your desk the right hemisphere of your brain comes to life, making you more appreciative of the forest and less sensitive to the trees.</p><p>While most of us give little thought to our workplace bathroom, there’s good reason to believe it can have an impact on the quality of the work we produce -- especially in organizations that rely on creativity and problem solving to stand out. Over the past decade, studies have shown that both our thoughts and behaviors are heavily influenced by our surroundings, in ways we often fail to recognize.</p><p>A few examples:</p><ul><li>The sound of classical music makes consumers spend more money</li><li>The smell of cookies makes shoppers more likely to help a stranger</li><li>The sight of red hurts intellectual performance but improves physical performance</li></ul><p>Psychological findings like these are now commonplace, pointing to one irrefutable fact: Our environment shapes our thinking in powerful ways.</p><p>Which brings up some intriguing questions: How can we make the most of our time away from our desks? Is there a way of designing bathrooms to make them more inspiring? And what can organizations do to maximize the insights its employees get out of each bathroom visit?</p><p>Recent research on the science of creativity provides some helpful suggestions.</p><p>Rethink Muzak</p><p>One of the ways we become more creative is by exposing our minds to a broad variety of stimuli. The wider the selection of information you mentally digest--whether it be foreign movies, experimental novels or exotic travel--the more remote associations you’ll have in your arsenal. Or, in laymen’s terms, the more creative you’ll be.</p><p>Hearing unusual music primes us to think different--inspiring ideas, emotions and experiences that increase the associations active in our brain.</p><p>Surprise The Senses</p><p> Another creativity nugget: We tend to find more insightful solutions to a problem when we're in a good mood. One method experimentally proven for improving people’s moods is enjoyable scents. Positive scents don’t just make us feel better--they lead us to set higher goals for ourselves and experience a greater sense of self-efficacy.</p><p>Now, if you’re like most people, the restroom isn’t the first place that comes to mind when you think of positive scents, and partly that’s because of how hard custodians work to mask negative smells, leaving most bathrooms feeling like an assault on the senses. But in our case, that’s a good thing. It means the bar for surprising people with positive scents is that much more accessible. A few opportunities for enhancing the scent of a workplace bathroom: unusual soaps, exotic candles, and the hallway outside a bathroom, boosting people’s mood before and after a visit.</p><p>Encourage Mental Stimulation</p><p>Part of what makes bathroom visits a boon to creativity is that they represent one of the few times during the workday when our physiological attention is directed inward, mimicking the psychological experience of insight. But it’s not just inward attention that’s needed--it’s inward attention in the context of fresh ideas.</p><p>Think about the last time you saw graffiti in the bathroom. Chances are, not only did you read it, you probably thought about the person who wrote it, perhaps wondering what (the hell) was going through their mind. We can’t help but think about the things we see, but we can choose what we look at. Providing a diet of mentally stimulating material in workplace bathrooms can be done in a number of ways: posting unusual artwork, leaving out thought provoking magazines or using digital picture frames to keep the imagery fresh. The key is for the material to be stimulating and indirectly related to work you do.</p><p>Once upon a time, going to the bathroom was a distraction. Something that kept us from work; an unfortunate bodily shortcoming that compromised efficiency. But that world doesn’t exist anymore. Today, our economy is powered by an engine of insight. Creativity in the workplace isn’t a “nice to have”—it’s what keeps companies in business. Which is why it’s ironic that most office bathrooms offer a bleak and unwelcoming environment. One that discourages insight and implicitly chides us to get back to our desks.</p><p>There’s just one problem. Creativity doesn’t work that way.</p><p>And if the science has taught us anything about the creative process it’s this: Finding unexpected solutions often requires an unexpected approach. Why not start in the bathroom? </p>

The best insights in my report didn’t emerge in my office, during conference calls, or at meetings. They somehow appeared in the bathroom.

Not too long ago, as I was putting the final touches on a client presentation, I stumbled across a surprising observation. The best insights...

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Mobile operator O2 hit by nationwide network failure that left users unable to make calls or text

<p>The O2 mobile phone network crashed tonight leaving thousands of customers across the country cut off. Users were left stranded, unable to make or receive calls or send texts, as the firm - which has 23 million customers in the UK - said it did not know when the problem would be fixed. Some customers also had no internet access. O2, Britain's second-largest mobile phone operator, admitted it was unclear exactly how many people had been affected. It said ‘thousands’ may be experiencing problems. The problems began this afternoon for some mobile users, the network said. O2 are urging customers to check their Twitter and Facebook feeds for updates - but the company’s webpage which displays live information about network coverage crashed. A spokeswoman said the problem was not 'location-specific'. ‘The problem is an issue within part of our core network that is preventing some mobile phones from successfully connecting,' she said. ‘The problem is not location-specific. All possible resources across our and our suppliers’ engineering teams are being deployed to restore service as soon as possible.’ Thousands of angry customers took to Twitter to complain. BBC television presenter Huw Edwards (@huwbbc), tweeted: ‘6 hours of non-service and counting, simply not good enough, O2.’ One Twitter user, Kelly Jones (@kelly-92), tweeted: ‘Having a phone that hardly works usually is annoying, but this whole no signal on o2 all afternoon is beyond irritating.’</p>

Mobile operator O2 hit by nationwide network failure that left users unable to make calls or text

The O2 mobile phone network crashed tonight leaving thousands of customers across the country cut off. Users were left stranded, unable to ...

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The richest woman in the world, according to a respected business magazine, is not Oprah Winfrey, Queen Elizabeth II or L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt.

<div class="story-body" style="color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 16px; width: 464px; font-size: 13px; background-color: #ffffff;"><p id="story_continues_1">It's a relatively unknown Australian mining magnate. So who exactly is Gina Rinehart?</p><p>Asked once to sum up her concept of beauty, Gina Rinehart did not point to the pearls that so often adorn her neck.</p><p>Nor did she rhapsodise about the ochre landscape of her beloved Pilbara, a beautiful, if unforgiving, expanse of land in the northwest corner of Australia.</p><p>Instead, she spoke of the unlovely commodity that has made her family rich, and the giant holes in the ground from where it came. "Beauty is an iron mine," she famously remarked.</p><p>When her father, Lang Hancock, discovered one of the world's biggest reserves in the early 1950s, the export of iron ore was banned in Australia because it was deemed such a scarce and finite resource.</p><div>Continue reading the main story<h2>Gina Rinehart</h2><ul><li>Georgina Hancock born in Perth in 1954, studied in Sydney</li><li>Father Lang Hancock made huge iron ore discovery in Western Australia before her birth</li><li>Married lawyer Frank Rinehart in 1983</li><li>After father's death in 1992, Gina became executive of the company</li><li>Widowed with four children</li></ul><ul><li>Rinehart 'world's richest woman'</li></ul></div><p id="story_continues_2">Tens of thousands of iron ore shipments later, royalty payments from that Pilbara mining field in Western Australia continue to swell her coffers.</p><p>The Hancocks were not the sole beneficiaries. The multi-billionaire fervently believes that her father's discovery also made Australia prosperous, which partly drives her recent quest for influence, gratitude and respect.</p><p>It is partly borne of a lifelong sense of grievance - that Australia's traditional east coast elites have not recognised her family's contribution to the country's development, nor the local media.</p><p>With an estimated net personal wealth of $A29 billion ($US29.3bn, £18.79bn), Rinehart has in recent years gone from being Australia's richest woman to Asia's richest woman to arguably the world's.</p><p>Australian business magazine BRW has named her the world's wealthiest woman, and Citigroup has also predicted that the 58-year-old businesswoman will soon top the global rich list, with more than $100bn (£64.8bn) of assets to her name.</p><div><div id="emp-18187364-48372"><img alt="" height="252" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/60461000/jpg/_60461775_jex_1415699_de43-1.jpg" width="448" /></div><p>Gina Rinehart is said to make nearly A$600 (£393) a second</p></div><p>The royalty stream from that initial discovery - the "rivers of the gold," as it has been called - still contributes to her wealth, but it pales alongside the value attached to her mining interests in Western Australia and Queensland.</p><div>Continue reading the main story<h2>“Start Quote</h2><blockquote><p>Whatever I do, the house of Hancock comes first”</p></blockquote></div><p id="story_continues_3">She hates being called a mining heiress because she considers herself a self-made businesswoman who turned her company around after her father's death in 1992.</p><p>From a worldwide perspective, her spiralling wealth illustrates the shift in economic activity from the west to the east. From an Australian one, she embodies the shift from the east to the west. Once it was media moguls like the late Kerry Packer who topped the Australian rich lists. Now it is minerals magnates who are profiting from the country's China-fuelled resources boom.</p><p>Rinehart has set out to become both a magnate and a mogul, which is why she is the subject of so much attention and controversy.</p><p>Along with her mining interests, she now owns a share of Channel Ten, one of the three major commercial television networks, and has also become the single biggest shareholder in Australia's second largest newspaper group, Fairfax Media, although she reduced the size of that stake last week.</p><p>The group publishes three of the country's most venerable mastheads - the Sydney Morning Herald, the Melbourne Age and the Australian Financial Review, and the suspicion among many Fairfax journalists is that she will attempt to turn them into mouthpieces for her right-wing views.</p><p>The dark joke is that the Sydney Morning Herald might become the Sydney Mining Herald. However, she has not been able to gain seats on the board because of a dispute about her refusal so far to accept the group's declaration of editorial independence.</p><div><img alt="Gina and father Lang Hancock" height="261" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/61221000/jpg/_61221489_gina_lang_464getty.jpg" width="464" />Her father Lang Hancock was a huge influence on her</div><p>Her mining company, Hancock Prospecting, is essentially her life. She has few outside interests. She does not go in for the normal blandishments of wealth, like art, racehorses or a private plane.</p><p>She is renowned for her 24/7 work regime, and a tunnel-visioned determination. Her personal feuds are the stuff of legend and her long list of adversaries has included her father, his business partner, her first husband, her Filipino mother-in-law, Rose Porteous, and now three of her children.</p><div><img alt="Gina Rinehart" height="171" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/61221000/jpg/_61221635_rinehart_afp.jpg" width="304" />Rinehart spoke at an anti-tax rally in Perth in 2010</div><p>Famously litigious, many of her battles have ended up in court. "Whatever I do, the house of Hancock comes first," she once told a reporter. "Nothing will stand in the way of that."</p><p>Like her rambunctious father Lang, who railed against the scourge of "Canberra-ism," and "eco-nuts" in the environmental movement, her political views are a blend of conservatism and libertarianism.</p><p>An early heroine was Britain's Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher, whom she met over lunch in 1977. Afterwards, the young Gina took much more care to dress in a business-like fashion, got a new hairdresser and started to wear more make-up.</p><p>Another intellectual hero was the free-market economist Milton Friedman. One of the reasons she cited for raising her children in the US, aside from her marriage to the Harvard-educated Frank Rinehart, was the hope that they might be taught by Friedman.</p><p>She is also a climate change sceptic, and close to the British Viscount, Christopher Monckton. On a visit to Perth last July, during which he delivered the Lang Hancock Memorial Lecture, Monckton spoke of Australia's need for an equivalent of Fox News, which could be funded by the "super-rich".</p><div>Continue reading the main story<h2>Other rich women</h2><ul><li>Christy Walton - widow of John, son of the founder of Wal-Mart, Sam Walton</li><li>Liliane Bettencourt - daughter of L'Oreal founder Eugene Scheueller</li><li>Johanna Quandt - third wife of German executive who rescued BMW</li><li>Oprah Winfrey - television host and media mogul, one of the world's richest self-made women</li><li>Birgit Rausing - art historian from Sweden inherited packaging firm Tetra Laval after death of husband</li><li>Rosalia Mera - after dropping out of school to make dresses before her teens, the Spaniard co-founded retail company Inditex, which owns Zara</li></ul></div><p id="story_continues_4">Rinehart was not present at the private meeting, but few doubted the identity of the "super-rich" person whom Monckton had in mind. When a video of his remarks was posted online, it heightened speculation that she was pursuing some kind of Foxification strategy in Australia.</p><p>I have also been told by one of her associates that she met Rupert Murdoch earlier this year, partly to discuss Fox News.</p><p>Given that the newspapers published by Rupert Murdoch's Australian arm, News Ltd, boast a 70% share of Australian readership, and that Fairfax has the remaining 30%, the widespread fear is of a conservative duopoly, and an end to editorial pluralism.</p><p>Rinehart's $A165m (£107m) stake in Channel Ten has already lost more than half its value and Fairfax, which last week announced 1900 job cuts, is not seen as a particularly attractive investment. Like her father, who started two newspapers, the profit motive is not a major consideration. Her investment, it is thought, is about political influence.</p><p>Besides, the amount of money involved is for her comparatively small. As an associate recently explained to me, she is adopting the same approach that the super-rich use when purchasing luxury yachts or private planes, which is not to invest more than 10% of their wealth.</p><p>In her ongoing drive for influence, the debate two years ago over the Labor government's plans to hit the mining sector with a super profits tax was a major milestone.</p><p>Unusually for a woman who has preferred to exert a behind-the-scenes influence, Rinehart led the chant of "axe the tax" at a protest rally in 2010 aimed at the then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.</p><p>Her billionaire activism lent itself to easy caricature. A reporter from the Fairfax-owned WA Today joked that it was possible to hear her gold bracelet jangling "a note-perfect version of 'Money, Money, Money' as she pumped her fist". Within weeks, however, Rudd had been ousted, and his successor, Julia Gillard, immediately announced a climbdown over the mining tax.</p><div><img alt="Gina Rinehart and the Queen" height="261" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/61221000/jpg/_61221490_rinehart2_afp.jpg" width="464" />Rinehart met the Queen when the British monarch visited Perth</div><p>Just as Rinehart wants influence and gratitude, she is also determined to maintain rigid control of her company. Presently, she is locked in a highly-publicised legal battle with three of her four children over a family trust set up by Lang Hancock for his grandchildren.</p><p>The trust, which owns a share of her company, was due to settle its assets last September, when Lang's youngest grandchild, Ginia, turned 25. But Rinehart allegedly tried to push back the date that her children could become trustees until 2068.</p><p>Determined to retain sole control, she warned her children they faced ruin if they refused to bend to her will. "Sign up or be bankrupt tomorrow," she threatened in an email. "The clock is ticking. There is one hour to bankruptcy and financial ruin."</p><p>Her three eldest children described the manoeuvre as "deceptive, manipulative, hopelessly conflicted and disgraceful". It is not so much about greed. Rinehart offered her three estranged children big payments to go along with her plan. It is more about control.</p><p>Commentators expect the same aggressive approach with her media strategy. After all, Australia's richest ever person is used to getting her own way.</p><div></div></div><div style="color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 16px; font-size: 13px; background-color: #ffffff;"></div>

The richest woman in the world, according to a respected business magazine, is not Oprah Winfrey, Queen Elizabeth II or L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt.

It's a relatively unknown Australian mining magnate. So who exactly is Gina Rinehart? Asked once to sum up her concept of beauty, Gina R...

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Bankers face the prospect of jail as Serious Fraud Office launches criminal probe into interest-rate fixing at Barclays

<h1><img alt="Hearing: Former chief executive Bob Diamond left Barclays over the matter, before appearing before MPs this week" height="423" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/07/06/article-2169736-13ED0B9C000005DC-630_233x423.jpg" width="233" /></h1><div><p>Hearing: Former chief executive Bob Diamond left Barclays over the matter, before appearing before MPs this week</p></div><p>A criminal investigation has been launched into alleged rigging of the Libor rate within the banking industry, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) confirmed today.</p><p>SFO director David Green QC formally accepted the Libor issue for investigation after Barclays was fined by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) last week for manipulating the key interbank lending rate which affects mortgages and loans.</p><p>The claims ultimately led to the resignation of Barclays boss Bob Diamond and have become the focal point of a fierce political debate over ethics in the banking sector.</p><p>The investigation could ultimately lead to criminal prosecutions and bankers facing charges in court.</p><p>The SFO's update came after it revealed earlier this week that it had been working closely with the FSA during its investigation and would consider the potential for criminal prosecutions.</p><p>The Government department, which is responsible for investigating and prosecuting serious and complex fraud, said on Monday the issues surrounding Libor were "complex" and that assessing the evidence would take time.</p><div><img alt="Under fire: Barclays former chairman Marcus Agius (right) with former CEO Bob Diamond (centre), and former chief executive John Varley (left)" height="372" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/07/06/article-2169736-0B121048000005DC-543_468x372.jpg" width="468" /><p>Under fire: Barclays former chairman Marcus Agius (right) with former CEO Bob Diamond (centre), and former chief executive John Varley (left)</p></div><p>As the SFO prepares its investigation, Labour leader Ed Miliband continued to push for an independent inquiry into the banking scandal despite MPs rejecting the demands.</p><p>The Labour leader said that while the party would cooperate with a parliamentary investigation, its remit was too "narrow" and a judge-led probe was still needed.</p><p>Mr Miliband also defended the conduct of Ed Balls after the shadow chancellor engaged in a bitter war of words with his opposite number George Osborne in the Commons.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left;"> </p><div class="relatedItemsTopBorder" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; min-height: 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left;"> </div><p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left;"><br /><br /><br /></span></p>

Bankers face the prospect of jail as Serious Fraud Office launches criminal probe into interest-rate fixing at Barclays

Hearing: Former chief executive Bob Diamond left Barclays over the matter, before appearing before MPs this week A criminal investigation ha...

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Diabetes drug makes brain cells grow

<p>The widely used diabetes drug metformin comes with a rather unexpected and alluring side effect: it encourages the growth of new neurons in the brain. The study reported in the July 6th issue of Cell Stem Cell, a Cell Press publication, also finds that those neural effects of the drug also make mice smarter. See Also: Health & Medicine Brain Tumor Stem Cells Nervous System Mind & Brain Brain Injury Intelligence Neuroscience Strange Science Reference Neural development Stem cell treatments Diabetes mellitus type 2 Embryonic stem cell The discovery is an important step toward therapies that aim to repair the brain not by introducing new stem cells but rather by spurring those that are already present into action, says the study's lead author Freda Miller of the University of Toronto-affiliated Hospital for Sick Children. The fact that it's a drug that is so widely used and so safe makes the news all that much better. Earlier work by Miller's team highlighted a pathway known as aPKC-CBP for its essential role in telling neural stem cells where and when to differentiate into mature neurons. As it happened, others had found before them that the same pathway is important for the metabolic effects of the drug metformin, but in liver cells. "We put two and two together," Miller says. If metformin activates the CBP pathway in the liver, they thought, maybe it could also do that in neural stem cells of the brain to encourage brain repair. The new evidence lends support to that promising idea in both mouse brains and human cells. Mice taking metformin not only showed an increase in the birth of new neurons, but they were also better able to learn the location of a hidden platform in a standard maze test of spatial learning. While it remains to be seen whether the very popular diabetes drug might already be serving as a brain booster for those who are now taking it, there are already some early hints that it may have cognitive benefits for people with Alzheimer's disease. It had been thought those improvements were the result of better diabetes control, Miller says, but it now appears that metformin may improve Alzheimer's symptoms by enhancing brain repair. Miller says they now hope to test whether metformin might help repair the brains of those who have suffered brain injury due to trauma or radiation therapies for cancer.</p>

Diabetes drug makes brain cells grow

The widely used diabetes drug metformin comes with a rather unexpected and alluring side effect: it encourages the growth of new neurons in ...

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Barclays boss Bob Diamond resigns

<p>Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond has resigned with immediate effect. The move comes less than a week after the bank was fined a record amount for trying to manipulate inter-bank lending rates. Mr Diamond said he was stepping down because the external pressure on the bank risked "damaging the franchise". Chairman Marcus Agius, who said on Monday he was stepping down, will take over the running of Barclays until a replacement is found. "I am deeply disappointed that the impression created by the events announced last week about what Barclays and its people stand for could not be further from the truth," Mr Diamond said in a statement. He will still appear before MPs on the Treasury Committee to answer questions about the Libor affair on Wednesday. "I look forward to fulfilling my obligation to contribute to the Treasury Committee's enquiries related to the settlements that Barclays announced last week without my leadership in question," Mr Diamond said. Last week, regulators in the US and UK fined Barclays £290m ($450m) for attempting to rig Libor and Euribor, the interest rates at which banks lend to each other, which underpin trillions of pounds worth of financial transactions. Staff did this over a number of years, trying to raise them for profit and then, during the financial crisis, lowering them to hide the level to which Barclays was under financial stress. Prime Minister David Cameron has described the rigging of Libor rates as "a scandal". The Serious Fraud Office is also considering whether to bring criminal charges.</p>

Barclays boss Bob Diamond resigns

Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond has resigned with immediate effect. The move comes less than a week after the bank was fined a record ...

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Beware of missed call to check SIM cloning

<p>Next time if you get a missed call starting with +92; #90 or #09, don't show the courtesy of calling back because chances are it would lead to your SIM card being cloned. The telecom service providers are now issuing alerts to subscribers —particularly about the series mentioned above as the moment one press the call button after dialing the above number, someone at the other end will get your phone and SIM card cloned. According to reports, more than one lakh subscribers have fallen prey to this new telecom terror attack as the frequency of such calls continues to grow. Intelligence agencies have reportedly confirmed to the service providers particularly in UP West telecom division that such a racket is not only under way but the menace is growing fast. "We are sure there must be some more similar combinations that the miscreants are using to clone the handsets and all the information stored in them," an intelligence officer told TOI. General Manager (GM) BSNL, RV Verma, said the department had already issued alerts to all the broadband subscribers and now alert SMSes were being issued to other subscribers as well. As per Rakshit Tandon, an IT expert who also teaches at the police academy (UP), the crooks can use other combination of numbers as well while making a call. "It is better not to respond to calls received from unusual calling numbers," says Tandon. "At the same time one should avoid storing specifics of their bank account, ATM/ Credit/Debit card numbers and passwords in their phone memory because if one falls a prey to such crooks then the moment your cell phone or sim are cloned, the data will be available to the crooks who can withdraw amount from your bank accounts as well," warns Punit Misra; an IT expert who also owns a consultancy in Lucknow. The menace that threatens to steal the subscriber's information stored in the phone or external memory (sim, memory & data cards) has a very scary side as well. Once cloned, the culprits can well use the cloned copy to make calls to any number they wish to. This exposes the subscribers to the threat of their connection being used for terror calls. Though it will be established during the course of investigations that the cellphone has been cloned and misused elsewhere, it is sure to land the subscriber under quite some pressure till the time the fact about his or her phone being cloned and misused is established, intelligence sources said. "It usually starts with a miss call from a number starting with + 92. The moment the subscriber calls back on the miss call, his or her cell phone is cloned. In case the subscribers takes the call before it is dropped as a miss call then the caller on the other end poses as a call center executive checking the connectivity and call flow of the particular service provider. The caller then asks the subscriber to press # 09 or # 90 call back on his number to establish that the connectivity to the subscriber was seamless," says a victim who reported the matter to the BSNL office at Moradabad last week. "The moment I redialed the caller number, my account balance lost a sum of money. Thereafter, in the three days that followed every time I got my cell phone recharged, the balance would be reduced to single digits within the next few minutes," she told the BSNL officials.</p>

Beware of missed call to check SIM cloning

Next time if you get a missed call starting with +92; #90 or #09, don't show the courtesy of calling back because chances are it would l...

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France brings in breathalyser law

<p>New motoring laws have come into force in France making it compulsory for drivers to carry breathalyser kits in their vehicles. As of July 1, motorists and motorcyclists will face an on-the-spot fine unless they travel with two single-use devices as part of a government drive to reduce the number of drink-drive related deaths. The new regulations, which excludes mopeds, will be fully enforced and include foreigner drivers from November 1 following a four-month grace period. Anyone failing to produce a breathalyser after that date will receive an 11 euro fine. French police have warned they will be carrying out random checks on drivers crossing into France via ferries and through the Channel Tunnel to enforce the new rules. Retailers in the UK have reported a massive rise in breathalyser sales as British drivers travelling across the Channel ensure they do not fall foul of the new legislation. Car accessory retailer Halfords said it is selling one kit every minute of the day and has rushed extra stock into stores to cope with the unprecedented demand. Six out of 10 Britons travelling to France are not aware they have to carry two NF approved breathalysers at all times, according to the company. The French government hopes to save around 500 lives a year by introducing the new laws, which will encourage drivers who suspect they may be over the limit to test themselves with the kits. The French drink-driving limit is 50mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood - substantially less than the UK limit of 80mg.</p>

France brings in breathalyser law

New motoring laws have come into force in France making it compulsory for drivers to carry breathalyser kits in their vehicles. As of July 1...

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The number of Britons arrested overseas is on the rise, official figures have shown.

<p> The Foreign Office (FO) handled 6,015 arrest cases involving British nationals abroad between April 2011 and March 2012. This was 6% more than in the previous 12 months and included a 2% rise in drug arrests. The figures, which include holidaymakers and Britons resident overseas, showed the highest number of arrests and detentions was in Spain (1,909) followed by the USA (1,305). Spanish arrests rose 9% in 2011/12, while the United States was up 3%. The most arrests of Britons for drugs was in the US (147), followed by Spain (141). The highest percentage of arrests for drugs in 2011/12 was in Peru where there were only 17 arrests in total, although 15 were for drugs. The FO said anecdotal evidence from embassies and consulates overseas suggested many incidents were alcohol-fuelled, particularly in popular holiday destinations such as the Canary Islands, mainland Spain, the Balearics (which include Majorca and Ibiza), Malta and Cyprus. Consular Affairs Minister Jeremy Browne said: "It is important that people understand that taking risks abroad can land them on the wrong side of the law. "The punishments can be very severe, with tougher prison conditions than in the UK. While we will work hard to try and ensure the safety of British nationals abroad, we cannot interfere in another country's legal system. "We find that many people are shocked to discover that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office cannot get them out of jail. We always provide consular support to British nationals in difficulty overseas. However, having a British passport does not make you immune to foreign laws and will not get you special treatment in prison."</p>

The number of Britons arrested overseas is on the rise, official figures have shown.

 The Foreign Office (FO) handled 6,015 arrest cases involving British nationals abroad between April 2011 and March 2012. This was 6% more t...

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