Posted at 08:54 AM ET, 01/27/2012
Mitt’s priceless performance, Newt’s loony business
By Alexandra Petri

Courtesy of CNNFor so much of this campaign, Mitt Romney has served as an object lesson in the uncomfortable fact that there are some things money can’t buy. “I want to be rich and I want everyone to like me and think I’m fascinating,” your child says, and you shake your head and point at the television screen, where Mitt Romney is counting off his progeny (Sixteen grandchildren! Sixteen!) and offering Rick Perry a $10,000 bet. “That’s not how money works,” you say. “Just look at Mitt.”

But things were different in Jacksonville, Fla., on Thursday.

If the Mitt Romney who usually shows up at debates is Clark Kent, then the Mitt Romney who showed up on Thursday night, was — Clark Kent, but after some very astute debate coaching.

Romney did stagger once or twice as he spoke about his “blind trusts” and “trustees” and accounts in Switzerland. But would it be a Republican debate if it didn’t include at least one reference to Saul Alinsky (Gingrich, sneaking it in seconds before the buzzer sounded) and one heated debate about Swiss bank accounts and trustees that made the rest of us angrily gnaw our poorly assembled IKEA coffee tables and mutter about the 1 percent?

Newt, accustomed to coasting to the top of the class by reciting the same six words of the Declaration of Independence over and over again, seemed startled by this Romney 2.0. In general, Gingrich drifts through debates in a manner reminiscent of a blimp. In this case, it was a blimp with “Hindenburg” lettered on the side.

If he’s hoping to get elected on his ability to beat President Obama in a debate, he’d better start coming up with a better debate strategy. Critiquing the moderator has officially gotten old. When Gingrich tried his usual strategy of blaming the person asking the questions for suggesting that he stand behind things he’d said earlier, even Romney managed to call him out on it. “If this were really fair,” Newt implied, “I would just get to talk and you would listen respectfully as I informed you of the True Nature of Things.” It went over less well in Florida. Maybe he could refuse to attend any debates that aren’t Lincoln-Douglas?

Rick Santorum had a good evening, if any evening where Rick Santorum yells at you a lot can be considered a good evening. But he got his points across. And he’s apparently friends with the governor of Puerto Rico, which is – I guess – a plus? Possibly the reason Santorum’s night went so well was that his mother was in the audience, which is the recipe for either a terrible or a great debate, depending on your filial impulses. Maternal encouragement tended to help Hamlet and Oedipus but hamstrung Norman Bates.

I was almost warming to him, but then he explained that global warming was a hoax and I felt ice starting to form again.

Ron Paul managed to solidify his position as the class clown. He is possibly the only person in the field with a sense of humor that is neither mean nor nonexistent. Asked what he’d do if Castro called, Paul quipped, “I’d ask what he was calling about.” Would his wife be a good first lady? Well, sure, she’s done a pretty good job being married to him for 54 years (making it past the paper to the gold anniversary, no doubt to Paul’s relief), and she wrote the Ron Paul cookbook!

This question came from the wife-off. In this portion of the debate, Wolf Blitzer asked the candidates which of their wives would make the best first lady. Romney waxed fairly lyrical about Ann. Callista wasn’t even Newt’s first lady, so he gave a meandering answer about her capacity for art. Santorum, having a good night, noted that he loved his wife because she’d written a children’s storybook about politeness. Most people love their wives in spite of that, so I think he won that round. Callista has also written a storybook for children, but compared to the 895,000 books for All Ages by Newt, this somewhat pales, and Newt seemed to say so by his demeanor.

The wife question was followed by a question about who was closer to Ronald Reagan, leading me to fear that the follow-up would force the candidates to choose between Reagan and their wives, the Republican version of Sophie’s choice.

But it was a good night for Mitt. Even religion didn’t faze him. Would religion impact their decision-making as president, an audience member inquired. Ron Paul’s only God is the Constitution, so this was easy for him.

Newt said that he deferred in his decision-making to a power beyond mere humanity: Newt Gingrich.

Mitt said that he was going to spread the word of God to other nations, but not in a creepy, invading way, just through — other things.

Rick Santorum explained that he and God are as close as can be, and that if elected he will put God back into the White House, Christmas, Flag Day and everyone’s womb, where God belongs.

The Romney Attack Machine, after Monday night’s non-starter, had had a good two days in the shop and was revved up and ready to go. Meanwhile, Newt Gingrich’s usual debate performance had apparently signed off and gone to check on his moon colony.

And Romney needed this.

There are some things money can’t buy. But for everything else, there’s debate coaching.

By Alexandra Petri
 | 
08:54 AM ET, 01/27/2012

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The initiative if implemented will make government more transparent, improve efficiency and spark off innovation from the demand side for applications to be developed to better serve the citizenry.

Mr William Tevie, Director General of the National Information Technology Agency (NITA), announced this at a stakeholders meeting to sign a memorandum of Understanding between Government of Ghana and WWWF in Accra on Thursday.

He said in September 2010, Ghana made a commitment to join the open Government partnership, an initiative of the United State Government.

“This was a commitment by the Government of Ghana to work towards an open Government data initiative, which will make Government data available to the citizens for re-use,” he added.

Mr explained that providing Government data without developing an open data community that works towards making it meaningful and re-usable by the citizenry would not serve the interest of the state.

He noted that over the years the agency has been rolling out the e-government infrastructure and facilitating the roll-out of e-government application.

The aim of the project in rolling out the network is to ensure efficiency within government and improved services for citizens and business.

Mr Jose Alonso, Data Programme Manager, WWWF, said they were in the country to share their experience and expertise and to support government in the implementation process.

He noted that the initiative would increase transparency of governments; boost number of services to people, new business opportunities and jobs for application and service developers, new synergies between government, public administration, and civil society organizations.

“It will also increase citizen participation and inclusion through extended offers of services closer to them and new, innovative uses of data in a ways that owners of data would never have thought of,” he added.

He observed that for data to be useful, it should be complete, primary, timeliness, ease of physical and electronic access and machine readability.

Mr Alonso called for stakeholder support to fulfill Government’s commitment to the open government partnership.

Dr Nii Quaynor, Board Chairman of NITA, called for the development of a multi-sectorial ownership of the initiative to enhance transparency and accountability in government institutions.

Source: GNA

Peppa Pig – Grand Theatre

THERE’S something immediately loveable about Peppa Pig.

Maybe it’s the fact her televised adventures seem to hark back to a more innocent age or maybe it’s just the fact she affords dads another 15 minutes of dozing time on a Saturday morning.

Either way, plenty of parents had been dragged out of bed by excited little ones to catch the perky porcine’s return trip to the Grand Theatre.

This time, along with pals Zoe Zebra, Pedro Pony and brother George, the puppet version of Peppa was off on a treasure hunt – with a little help from bubbly human buddy Daisy.

Not that the plot is of real importance on these occasions.

It’s really just a framework on to which are pinned numerous upbeat and mildly silly song and dance routines and plenty of good old fashioned audience participation.

The puppets are perfect, the characterisation superb and the set, well, slightly wobbly – not in a bad way, but one which might have reminded mums and dads of the golden years of children’s TV.

The songs are ideal for the target audience, instantly memorable, plenty of actions and chance to shout along.

They’re catchy too, too much so in the case of Bing Bong Bingly Bongly Boo, which gives The Birdy Song and Macarena a run for their money in the ‘song that’ll get on your nerves’ stakes.

But that’s a small matter in the grand scheme, especially when considering a show which is such a treat, from beginning to end, for its young audience.

Peppa Pig, you’re a treasure. Come again soon.

Neelie Kroes, EU Commissioner responsible for the Digital Agenda, reiterated her demand that the technology be agreed upon by June in a speech at a meeting of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), according to a report by ZDNet.

Joomla is a free and open source content management system (CMS) for publishing content on the World Wide Web and intranets, and a model-view-controller (MVC) Web application framework that can also be used independently.

The decision to migrate MediPurposes Website to Joomla was done to further support the companys commitment to innovation-both for the development, manufacturing and distribution of its medical products, as well as its marketing.

A medical product company Website is a crucial hub in its marketing and communications, said MediPurpose Director of Marketing Derek Rudnak. A Joomla-based Website enables us to better enhance the user experience for our guests that seek information about our innovative products and services, as well as to embrace social media and other cutting-edge methods to reach them.

Additionally, we strive to provide resources that let medical device innovators and manufacturers learn from us, such as with our how-to guides, success stories and blogs.

Since its inception in 1999 as a startup in Singapore, the Internet and online marketing have been instrumental in the medical device companys success.

Rudnak said that MediPurpose founder and CEO Patrick Yi was cognizant of the tremendous potential of Internet and e-mail marketing opportunities that would let him initiate introductions to US medical product distributors from his Singapore office. Those efforts helped the unknown, fledgling company tap crucial US medical product distribution channels.

About MediPurpose

Founded in 1999, MediPurpose is a leading medical device company headquartered in Singapore, with offices in the United States and Europe.

Known for its popular babyLance(r) heel incision device, SurgiLance(r) safety lancet and MediPlus(tm) advanced wound care products, MediPurpose has leveraged its success in the medical device industry to become a master medical product distributor that provides unique solutions for both medical product manufacturers and distributors.

MediPurposes Medical Device Innovation division offers angel funding and developmental expertise for new medical device inventors and innovative medical product companies that seek entrance into new medical device markets.

For more information about MediPurposes medical products and solutions for inventors, innovators, manufacturers and distributors, please visit http://www.medipurpose.com.

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The following tips will give you some guidelines to make this upcoming event run more smoothly.

It is never a good idea to spring something new on a sibling. Nine months will seem like an eternity if you start your discussions too early in the pregnancy. Depending on the age of the child, a good rule of thumb is to start the discussion in the middle of the second trimester. If you have morning sickness, fatigue or there are changes in your childs daily routine, you may have to share earlier. Remember, there will be lots of question and one discussion wont do it.

If you are anxious about this pregnancy, be careful not to let it spill over into the discussions. It is not necessary to share all the details. Find a friend to share your nervousness with. Children should be allowed to be children and not have to take on adult anxieties.

Discuss this event with age-appropriate descriptions. You dont need to get into a detailed sexual discussion with a 6-year-old. My parents talked about how much they loved each other and how they hugged each other real close and a seed was planted in mommys tummy that grew into me. Maybe a little hokey, but it satisfied my curiosity. If your 2-year-old pats your tummy, tell her that this is the new baby and she is going to be a big sister. But remember, sometimes less is best. Too many details will go in one ear and out the other. Let your childs age and comfort level govern your discussions.

No matter what the age of your child, tell her how exciting it will be as a big sister or brother! Make this the big deal it is. You can even buy a shirt that says Im the Big Sister/Brother and give it to your older child as a gift from the new baby when you bring her home from the hospital.

If your child is old enough to understand, discuss how she will be able to help mommy and daddy with the new baby. Talk about helping you feed her, burp the baby, help at bath time, etc. Try to prepare her in a positive way, making her feel like she will play a big part in this wonderful event. If she is not interested, dont push it.

Get a few age-appropriate books from the library about new babies and read them together. You can also watch videos about becoming a Big Sister/Brother. Blues Clues has a video called Meet Blues Baby Brother that is a great tool to use when talking about a new baby. Also some hospitals and libraries offer sibling preparation classes.

If your child is older, let her sift through her old baby toys to give to the new baby. And talk about how she will be able to teach the new baby to hold the rattle, play with the keys, etc. Reminisce about when she was a baby. Make this event special.

If you have friends with new babies, make a visit. Let her see that its okay for a baby to cry, that you have to be gentle, new babies take lots of naps and she wont be able to play with the baby at first.

If you are going to be in the hospital overnight, make sure your child knows who will be staying with her. This is not the time to have a new baby sitter come and help you. If she is going to stay at grandmas or a friends house, do a dry run. There is nothing worse than being in the hospital and getting that dreaded phone call that your child wont stop crying and wants to come home.

Take your child to the store a few weeks before the delivery and let her buy a special gift to give to the baby when she comes home. Make sure she takes it with her if she is staying at grandmas or a friends for safe keeping. This will help her feel like she is a part and give her big girl responsibility!

If you are giving birth at home with your child there, introduce her to the midwife, doula, etc. a few times before the event. Ask them to talk with your child if she is older, show her an age appropriate book, etc. And above all, decide ahead of time if you want her in the room during the delivery. There is nothing more frightening to a child than hearing her mommy screaming in pain and being ushered out of the room. While it is a personal decision, remember it can be very frightening for a child to hear or see their mommy hurting and not comprehending that this will result in a wonderful miracle!

If you are going to move your child into a big girl bed before the baby arrives try, to make the move at least three months before the baby is born. You want to leave enough time for this new adjustment. There is nothing worse than having two children crying in the middle of the night!

If your child is going to a new preschool after the baby is born, let her start a few months before the big event if possible and get used to the change. Too many new changes can be difficult for the entire family.

It is not necessary to shower your older child with lots of gifts when the new baby arrives. One or two gifts from the baby, mommy and daddy for being a new Big Sister/Brother is plenty. Gifts dont replace mommy and daddys love and attention.

Try to plan a special time for you and your older child while the baby is napping. A video and hot chocolate with marshmallows will make her feel just as special as the new baby. Try to plan a special mommy-and-me activity at least once a week. Coloring together, making pudding, etc. will convey your feelings of love. And dont forget to ask daddy have his special time too. The laundry and dishes can wait. Letting your child know how important she is will make for an easier transition.

Start a new ritual with your older child. Something as simple as cuddling with them for 10 minutes before bed each night. Reading a special book in bed, something for just the two of you to share and show your love.

Dont be upset if your child is jealous and tells you to take that baby back. This is all very normal. Some children think this baby has arrived to replace them.

Take a picture of your child with her new baby sister/brother and tape it to the babys crib as well as putting it in a frame for the new Big Sister/Brother to display in her room.

If your child is in preschool, ask her teacher to make a big deal of this new event. Send a picture of the two siblings to school for show and tell and maybe even one of the babys toys.

Above all, dont feel guilty about not having the same amount of time to spend with your first child. As you adjust to having two children and working out a special time for your firstborn, you will see that quality versus quantity is what counts most. And dont forget to say lots of I Love Yous!

Blythe Lipman is the president of Baby Instructions. She is passionate about babies, toddlers and their parents. After working in the field for more than 25 years, she wrote her third award-winning book, HELP! MY BABY CAME WITHOUT INSTRUCTIONS which is available at www.babyinstructions.com, Amazon.com and all major bookstores.

You can hear Blythes weekly radio show on Wednesdays, 11 am EST at www.toginet.com. Blythe is available for in-home, video and telephone consultations. Become her fan on Facebook at Baby Instructions and follow on Twitter at BabyInstruction for a daily parenting tip.

That gets you to a $25 billion valuation pretty easily, and then with growth, thats where you get to $50 (billion) or $100 (billion) but you have to believe theyre going to keep growing and making money, said Steve Kaplan, a professor at the University of Chicagos Booth School of Business who studies private equity and venture capital. Its stunning to have that kind of operating profit so quickly.

For comparison, Kaplan noted Google went public in August 2004 with a valuation of around $24 billion after racking up, in the first half of that year, $300 million in operating income off $1.4 billion in revenue. Its now worth $188 billion.

Remember when Google went public, people didnt understand it, Kaplan said. They didnt get a particularly good valuation. People understand this one.

It may not be clear yet how prepared Mark Zuckerberg, the 27-year-old who launched Facebook from his Harvard dorm room eight years ago, is to answer to shareholders or run a public company on par in value with Oak Brook-based McDonalds Corp. His reputed prickliness real or embellished was ingrained in the pop culture consciousness in the film The Social Network, an Oscar nominee last year for best picture.

But theres a greater consensus concerning his company. Facebook lays claim to 800 million users around the world, and 500 million supposedly log on to the site daily. In this country alone, as of November, according to the analytics firm comScore, Facebook had 166 million unique visitors, each spending an average of 6.6 hours on the site over the course of the month, a 37 percent increase from a year earlier.

In the third quarter of 2011, comScore determined Facebook was responsible for 28 percent of all US online display ad impressions. Thats more than the sites of Yahoo (12 percent), Google (4 percent), Microsoft (4 percent) and AOL (3 percent) combined.

As in old-school media, the audience is the product, whats bought and sold. Rather than break it down simply into traditional categories such as age, sex, income, geography, Facebook can target socialgraphics, which takes other variables into account to better tailor the pitch.

Theyre going to know everything I read, see, think, do and go, said Francine Hardaway, chief executive of Stealthmode Partners, an Arizona incubator for startups, and a blogger for Fast Company. Theyre going to sell me exactly what I want. I used to get ads on Facebook for senior citizen singles dating sites because what they had about me was my age. Now theyve discovered that its not really dating I want, and Im getting a lot of business ads. Im getting a lot of the things I actually do, which is fascinating.

Even if youre just on there to (shadow) your daughters page, Facebook will see that too and maybe it will suggest a gift to buy her for her birthday. Or it will suggest a trip for me to take if it sees Ive been here and there. Google doesnt make that connection. Not yet.

Google has plenty of info on its users, too, and last week unveiled new privacy rules for later this year that will enable it better to track users as they flit from search to the Facebook-esque Google+ to mobile to YouTube and so on.

But Google isnt sticky, Hardaway said. Google+, I like it a lot because I have a lot of serious discussions and thats where a lot of serious discussions take place. But I dont stalk people on Google+. I do that on Facebook. I look for people I went to high school with and cousins I havent seen lately and check whats going on in their lives. As a result, I spend a lot more time on Facebook and theres more time to see the ads there. Most Google ads, I dont see.

Thats not all. Forbes earlier this month suggested that the sales of Facebook Credits since 2009 to transact business on the site makes it something of a central bank. And while its not clear exactly how much Facebooks 30 percent cut of sales of virtual goods and livestock from social games such as Zyngas FarmVille is worth, its no small digital potatoes.

Just a year ago, when Goldman Sachs and others invested $1.5 billion into Facebook, the company, Googles top online ad rival, was valued at approximately $50 billion.

Kaplan sees this on track to go in the books (or e-reader) as the best venture investment of all time. Californias Accel Partners invested $12.7 million in Facebook when the company carried a $100 million valuation in 2005, and, according to The Wall Street Journal, it could still reap a 1,000-times return.

That would blow away the 200-times return some venture capital investors got from Google and Benchmarks approximately 625-times return on its $80 million investment in eBay, Kaplan said. Other people have come before (Facebook), he said. But it has the strongest story.

Google, LinkedIn, eBay and others have demonstrated the power of the network. Once a site such as Facebook becomes the place to go, everyone has to be there. That becomes a huge obstacle for an upstart to unseat.

You not only have to build a better mousetrap, but you have to pull people away from the old one in order to get the network effect for a new one, Kaplan said. Facebook did that to MySpace. Its not clear anyone can do that to Facebook.

When retirees just getting the hang of email are signing up, even if only to access pictures of their grandchildren, you know theres a real bond with the site, and the site can profit from that.

Its a relationship, Hardaway said. Youre in a relationship.

philrosenthal@tribune.com

Twitter @phil_rosenthal

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Economy grew 2.8 percent in Q4, but outlook is hazy

WASHINGTON (AP) — The economy grew late last year at a pace that in normal times would suggest it’s healthy.

But the 2.8 percent annualized growth rate in the October-December quarter — the fastest pace since the spring of 2010 — isn’t being cheered by most economists or investors. That’s because growth would have to be much stronger to significantly reduce unemployment. And signs in the data point to slower growth ahead.

For all of last year, the economy grew just 1.7 percent. That was just more than half the growth in 2010. The outlook for 2012 is slightly better. The Federal Reserve estimates growth of roughly 2.5 percent for the year.

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Activists and bloggers fear Twitter censorship

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Bloggers and activists from China, the Middle East and Latin America said Friday that they were concerned that new Twitter policies could allow governments to censor messages and stifle free expression.

Thursday’s announcement that Twitter had refined its technology to censor messages on a country-by-country basis raised fears that the company’s commitment to free speech may be weakening. Twitter is trying to broaden its audience and make more money by expanding around the globe.

Twitter sees the censorship tool as a way to ensure individual messages, or tweets, remain available to as many people as possible while it navigates a gauntlet of various laws around the world.

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Private sector unions add members as jobs return

WASHINGTON (AP) — Union membership grew slightly last year, giving labor leaders hope that a period of steep decline has finally bottomed out.

The number of unionized workers increased by about 50,000 to nearly 14.8 million members in 2011, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. The increase comes after unions lost nearly 1.4 million members over the previous two years.

Still, unions’ share of the overall workforce fell, from 11.9 percent to 11.8 percent, as state and local governments trimmed thousands of jobs to address budget shortfalls. That’s the lowest percentage of union workers since the Great Depression in the 1930s.

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North America boosts Ford in 4Q

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — For Ford, there’s no place like home.

North America propped up the company in the fourth quarter as the European debt crisis and flooding in Thailand hurt profits elsewhere. Ford Motor Co.’s shares took a hit after the company missed Wall Street’s expectations but trimmed their losses once the company promised better — if still bumpy — results in 2012.

Ford reported $13.62 billion in net income. Investors shrugged off the result because most of that came from an accounting change. Without that, earnings totaled $1.1 billion, or 20 cents a share.

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Finance chiefs reassure CEOs over European crisis

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — Leading finance chiefs sought to reassure anxious global business leaders on Friday that Europe is on track to solve its crippling debt crisis before it drags other economies down. Europe’s top banker said investors, burned after trusting the region’s governments too much, now trust them too little.

The finance chiefs said the picture in Europe has changed over the past two months as the European Central Bank has loaned billions of euros to fragile banks, indebted countries have pushed through convincing reforms and EU leaders have come near to building a closer fiscal union that would make their common currency stronger.

Several also signaled Friday that Greece is close to clinching a crucial debt-reduction deal with private bondholders — a key element in Europe’s efforts to stem a two-year debt crisis that is causing ripples around the globe. The crisis is a central topic at the World Economic Forum, an annual gathering of government and business leaders at the Swiss ski resort of Davos.

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Justice unit to probe mortgage-backed securities

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal and state law enforcement officials announced Friday that they have launched a fraud-fighting unit, starting with 55 prosecutors and investigators, to root out wrongdoing in the market for residential mortgage-backed securities.

Attorney General Eric Holder told a news conference that the team will benefit from existing probes and disclosed that investigators have issued civil subpoenas to 11 financial institutions in recent days, with the prospect that “more will follow.” He said bringing full enforcement resources to bear will help expose abuses and hold violators accountable.

Residential mortgage-backed securities are the big investment packages of what turned out to be near-worthless mortgages that bankrupted many investors and contributed to the nation’s financial crisis.

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As US slows, P&G turns to developing markets

NEW YORK (AP) — Emerging markets are playing a bigger role in Procter & Gamble Co.’s growth, in another sign that U.S. companies are courting new customers overseas as American shoppers get tapped out.

The maker of Tide laundry detergent, Crest toothpaste and Pampers diapers said Friday that its market value grew 9 percent in developing countries over the latest quarter, but just 2 percent in North America and 0.5 percent in Western Europe. That news came as P&G reported a 49 percent drop in profit for the second fiscal quarter, hobbled by higher costs for materials and a big write-down on the value of two of its business units.

Developing markets like Africa and parts of Latin America and Asia now make up almost 37 percent of P&G’s sales, up from 27 percent five years ago. That growth was buoyed by recent expansions like toothpaste offerings in Nigeria and fabric softener in Indonesia. In the same period, the share of sales that P&G makes in the U.S. dropped to 37 percent from 43 percent.

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Altria 4Q profit falls 9 percent, CEO to retire

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Marlboro maker Altria Group Inc. said Friday that its fourth-quarter profit fell about 9 percent on lease, legal and restructuring charges even as higher prices and gains from its smokeless tobacco products helped bolster sales.

The owner of the nation’s biggest cigarette maker, Philip Morris USA, also announced that CEO Michael E. Szymanczyk will retire in May following the company’s annual shareholder meeting. Altria’s board has selected Martin J. Barrington to replace him as CEO and chairman. David R. Beran will serve as president and chief operating officer.

The company also disclosed that it has entered into an agreement with an affiliate of Fertin Pharma A/S to develop non-combustible nicotine-containing products. Several other tobacco companies have announced similar initiatives to seek cigarette alternatives as demand declines.

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Fitch downgrades 5 eurozone nations

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Fitch Ratings downgraded the debt of Italy, Spain and three other countries that use the euro on Friday, as European leaders work on several fronts to contain the continent’s government-debt crisis.

The lower government-debt ratings for Italy, Spain, Belgium, Cyprus and Slovenia could make it more expensive for these countries to borrow.

Fitch said its decision was based on the deteriorating economic outlook in Europe, a concern that Europe’s bailout fund is not large enough and a belief that European leaders are not acting quickly or boldly enough to prevent the debt crisis from worsening.

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By The Associated Press(equals)

The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 74 points, or 0.6 percent, at 12,660.46. The Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 2.10 points to 1,316.33. The Nasdaq composite edged up 11.27 to 2,816.55.

Benchmark oil fell 14 cents to finish at $99.56 per barrel after climbing as high as $100.63 per barrel earlier in the session. Brent crude rose 67 cents to end at $111.46 per barrel in London.

Natural gas prices rose 7 cents, or 2.8 percent, to finish at $2.68 per 1,000 cubic feet. Heating oil futures rose 2 cents to end at $3.07 per gallon. Gasoline futures rose 8 cents to end at $2.92 per gallon.

Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Mark Nottingham, chairman of the HTTPbis Working Group, announced support for SPDY in an overhaul of one of the networking foundations of the world wide web. That foundation is HTTP, the Hypertext Transfer Protocol, and Google hopes SPDY will open up some of its bottlenecks.

The HTTPbis group, part of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), has been sprucing up the 1999-era HTTP 1.1 for several years. But Nottingham said its now time to look to the future.

There seems to be broad agreement that the time is ripe to start work on a new version of HTTP in the IETF, and that it should happen in this Working Group, Nottingham said. When work refurbishing HTTP 1.1 began, there wasnt interest in a new version of HTTP, but SPDY and its adoption shows theres interest now, he said, proposing completion of a draft of HTTP 2.0 by May and finish the work by July 2013.

Speed boost

In Googles research, SPDY accelerates page-load times by 28 per cent to 43 per cent over a 2Mbps DSL line and 44 per cent to 55 per cent over a 4Mbps cable broadband connection.

Standardisation is often a drawn-out, painstaking affair, but it can pay off by making a particular technology easier to incorporate in a wide range of products. A neutral industry standard can be technically, politically and legally easier to embrace.

Tinkering with the basic workings of the web is a tricky business given the immense variety of browsers, servers and network gear in between. Google has made progress with SPDY, though, since unveiling SPDY in 2009 and then building it into its Chrome browser.

SPDY is a high-profile element of Googles make the web faster effort. Yesterday, the company also detailed proposed improvements to TCP, an even more fundamental internet technology. The Transmission Control Protocol governs how a huge amount of data is sent over the net despite problems such as network congestion or lost packets of data.

Google is in many ways perfectly positioned to rebuild the net. Its got the worlds most-trafficked websites and measurements that show that speed means profits. Its got the number three browser, Chrome, so it can experiment with technology that works hand-in-hand with its websites. And its got an army of research-minded engineers encouraged to think big.

Those assets dont always equate to success, though, when it comes to rewiring the web in particular given that Googles self-interest means that its ideas can raise competitors hackles. Microsoft and Mozilla, for example, while sharing Googles interest in making the web a better foundation for programming, are leery of Googles Dart programming language that competes with the incumbent JavaScript.

Mangalore, Jan 28: ‘Blooming Theresians’, a cultural evening for KG to std II was organized at St Sebastian Platinum Jubilee Hall, Bendur here on Friday January 27.

Fr Edward SJ, director of St Aloysius College of Education and headmaster of St Aloysius High School was the chief guest for the occasion. Stephen Mendes, managing director of Western Institute of Technology and promoter and partner of V4 media was the guest of honour. Sr Lillis BS, assistant superior general of the Sisters of the Little Flower of Bethany and vice-president of Bethany Educational Society, Bendur presided.

Speaking on the occasion, Fr Edward said that parents have chosen the right school to educate their children. Stephen said that he is content with the education given to his children in both academics and co-curricular activities. Sr Lillis urged the parents to spend quality time with the children. She reminded the parents that their children are their most precious treasure.

Sr Premitha, principal and Sr Anitha, vice-principal welcomed the gathering. The programme was compered by Adrina, Ren and Jonathan. The vote of thanks was proposed by Clita.