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July 15 (Reuters) – Leading Turkish conglomerate Koc Holding (KCHOL.IS) targets an increase of 18 percent in its turnover and 20 percent in its operating profit this year, Dunya newspaper reported the group’s CEO Turgay Durak as saying.
Durak was quoted as telling a group magazine that the group would continue to focus on energy, automotive, consumer durables and financial sectors and would invest 2.2 billion lira ($1.42 billion) this year. ($1=1.545 Turkish Lira) (Editing by Hans Peters)
July 9 (Reuters) – Thailand’s MCOT PCL MCOT.BK:
* Aims for record net profit this year as it raised advertising fees early this year and advertising demand was increasing, President Tanawat Wansom told reporters
* Sees second-quarter net profit higher than the 348 million baht it earned in the first quarter
* Will invest at least 500 million baht ($15.4 million) this year for equipment maintenance and network expansion. ($1=32.41 Baht)
June 25 (Reuters) – True Move, a subsidiary of Thailand’s True Corp TRUE.BK, plans to invest 25 billion-30 billion baht ($772-$926 million) in a 3.9G network in the first two years after if it gets a licence, its chief executive said.
The budget excluded licensing fees and the company has enough funds to finance the investment in the initial stage, Chief Executive Supachai Chearavanont told reporters on the sidelines of a public hearing on 3.9 generation mobile services.
“We have cash of about 10 billion baht this year and we also set aside a budget on a network of about 7-8 billion baht a year,” Supachai said on Friday.
The True group might consider several options to raise funds for network expansion in the subsequent stage and options included seeking a partner, he said.
The telecoms regulator plans to issue licences in September for 3.9G mobile services, bypassing 3G services, which have never got off the ground in Thailand because auctions for licences have been repeatedly delayed over the past five years.
Unlisted True Move operates Thailand’s third largest mobile phone network and aims for one third of new mobile subscribers this year. True group competes with market leader Advanced Info Service (ADVA.BK) and the number two, Total Access Communication DTAC.BK (TACC.SI).
At 0845 GMT, True Corp shares were down 1.3 percent at 3.12 baht, while the main Thai index .SETI was 0.07 percent lower. ($1=32.40 Baht) (Reporting by Pisit Changplayngam; Writing by Khettiya Jittapong; Editing by robert Birsel)
Washington, May 19 (ANI): A new study has suggested that people who become focused on how to achieve a goal may have a harder time achieving their aims than people who think abstractly about why they want to do something.
“Imagine a person who has a goal to save money. The person forms a plan to save money by purchasing fewer clothing items at the mall,” said authors Julia Belyavsky Bayuk (University of Delaware), Chris Janiszewski, and Robyn LeBoeuf (both University of Florida).
“We investigate how this plan influences the person”s response to other money-saving opportunities. For example, would the person be more likely to order a cheaper meal at a restaurant, avoid making an impulse purchase, or combine errands to save money on gas?”
The authors found that when people focus on concrete aspects of how they want to achieve goals, they become more closed-minded and less likely to take advantage of opportunities that fall outside their plans.
And, in contrast, people who focus on the why are more likely to consider out-of-plan opportunities to achieve their goals.
The authors conducted four experiments to examine consumer behavior when it came to the goal of saving money. In one study, people were asked to list a specific plan to save money, whereas others were not asked to plan. Then some people were asked to focus on why they wanted to save money. Subsequently, all participants were given the opportunity to buy candy.
Consumers who were thinking concretely and formed a specific plan were less able to avoid the candy purchase then those who had not formed a plan. However, among the abstract thinkers, those who had formed a plan were better able to avoid the candy purchase.
“Planning is more effective when people think abstractly, keep an open mind, and remind themselves of why they want to achieve a goal,” the authors said.
“This strategy is especially effective when the plan turns out to be infeasible (cheaper restaurant is too far away, gym is closed today for a holiday) or when other goal-directed activities become available (walk instead of taking a cab, eat a healthier meal),” they added,
The study has been published in the Journal of Consumer Research. (ANI)
London, May 16 (ANI): After winning Double, Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti has set his sights on a Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup Treble next year.
Ancelotti said that he can fulfill owner Roman Abramovich’s ambition of winning Champion League without adding players to his squad.
“We wanted to win the Champions League this year. It didn’t happen but we will try next season. This team has the quality to win the Champions League without change. We have to be happy with these trophies. It’s right to have a celebration because we had a fantastic season,” News of the World quoted Ancelotti, as saying.
“For me it’s right to have a holiday but I want to think about next season. We know Chelsea have never won the Champions League and it’s one of our aims for next season. And we want to win the Premier League and the FA Cup again.
“We will start next season having won the Double. I think that will put more attention on us, but this is normal. We are proud to have this attention,” Ancelotti said.
Skipper John Terry celebrated the unique achievement in the club’s history and put Ancelotti on the same level as ‘Special One’ Jose Mourinho.
“Jose is always going to be a massive part of this football club. But other managers have come here in the last three or four years and not really lived up to expectations.
“Now Carlo has come in and in his first season he has achieved something that no other manager or group of players have ever managed at Chelsea. So Jose will never be forgotten – but nor will Carlo and this group of players,” Terry said. (ANI)
Three men who admitted funding the separatist Sri Lankan group the Tamil Tigers have walked free from the Melbourne Supreme Court.
The trio had pleaded guilty to providing more than $1 million to the Tamil Tigers (LTTE), and one of them to providing electronic devices.
Australian terrorism charges against the men were dropped last year but then they were charged under the United Nations Act for providing funds to a proscribed terrorist organisation.
When the sentences were announced, the three men in the dock quietly smiled in relief and accepted congratulations from a big group of the Melbourne Tamil community who attended to support the trio.
Aruran Vinayagamoorthy, 35, not only pleaded guilty to providing funds to the Tamil Tigers but to the more serious charge of providing electronic devices to the group, one of which ended up in a land mine.
He was sentenced to two years in jail but was released on a good behaviour bond for four years.
Sivarajah Yathavan, 39, and Arumugam Rajeevan, 44, were sentenced to one year in prison and released for good behaviour for three years.
Justice Coghlan spent almost an hour sentencing the men and took many factors into account.
Ultimately, he decided that the men could not have been ignorant of the LTTE’s international reputation, but that the men were not necessarily motivated by a desire to fund a terrorist organisation.
“I am prepared to accept as a general proposition that you were each motivated by a desire to assist the Tamil community in Sri Lanka,” he said.
“I would not go so far as saying that your aims were entirely humanitarian, but I do accept that they were not purposely to assist terrorist activity.
“It is true to say that it’s not possible to identify with any particularity, apart from some relatively small individual transaction, what the funds were made available for, but it may have been open for the LTTE to apply funds as they wished.”
Charges came during ceasefire
Justice Coghlan made the point that the relevant periods of time during which the men were charged was a time of ceasefire in Sri Lanka and the LTTE was acting as a de facto government in the north of Sri Lanka.
He was also careful to point out that no tsunami relief money was alleged to have been misused.
“It should be noted that it never was part of the prosecution case that any funds forwarded to Sri Lanka for tsunami relief would be the subject of anything to do with these counts,” he said.
Justice Coghlan said that until Australian terrorism charges were dropped against the three men last year, they had to live with the suspicion created by those charges.
Outside court, Rajeevan was the only one of the three men to speak.
“Tamils in Sri Lanka cannot expect justice from the Sri Lankan government but today we have received justice from the Australian justice system, and we thank the Australian justice system and we will obey that wholeheartedly,” he said.
Defence lawyer Rob Stary went further in his comments about the case.
“Mr Rajeevan was arrested at gun point face down, denied access to his lawyer and then told he was un-arrested,” he said.
“[The judge] in those circumstances said there’s a great unfairness being perpetrated against [him].
“The rule of law means the rule of law must be dispensed and applied evenly across every suspect or accused person. There are no separate rules for terrorism suspects.”
Mr Stary has called for an inquiry into why the Federal Government became involved in the matter.
“This was a conventional civil war [in Sri Lanka], that’s what it was. Why the Australian Government was acting at the behest of the Sri Lankan government, no-one will ever know,” he said.
“There needs to be an inquiry in relation to the manner in which these cases are initiated.
“We accused [Sri Lankan] General Sarath Fonseca, the person who was central to the prosecution case during the proceedings, of being a war criminal. There was lots of evidence that he’d engaged in acts of atrocity against innocent civilian populations – the bombing of orphanages, schools and the like.
“He is now a discredited war criminal in his own country, his own president describes him as a war criminal, yet he was the person that the Australian Government chose as their central prosecution witness in this case, a choice that absolutely beggars belief.”
(Corrects sale price to $65-$70 per tonne, not $65-$75/tonne)
Energy
JAKARTA, March 29 (Reuters) – Indonesian coal miner PT Indo Tambangraya Megah Tbk (ITMG.JK) said on Monday it has kept its 2010 sales target at 23 million tonnes, despite a mine closure, and aims for a coal sale price of $65-$70 per tonne. (Reporting by Fitri Wulandari, Editing by Sara Webb)
JAKARTA, March 29 (Reuters) – Indonesian coal miner PT Indo Tambangraya Megah Tbk (ITMG.JK) said on Monday it has kept its 2010 sales target at 23 million tonnes, despite a mine closure, and aims for a coal sale price of $65-$75 per tonne. (Reporting by Fitri Wulandari, Editing by Sara Webb)
The Sunshine Coast Environment Council says it is sceptical about the aims of Premier Anna Bligh’s Growth Management Summit.
The summit will be held in Brisbane next week.
Council spokeswoman Narelle McCarthy says she is concerned the Premier is using the summit to justify the Queensland Government’s pro-growth agenda and the fast-tracking of major developments in the region.
“The summit is a reaction to the community’s discontent with the pro-growth agenda and at the moment that’s the way the Premier is addressing this issue as continuing with the pro-growth, rather than looking at the real imperatives of stabilising the population,” she said.
London, Mar. 20 (ANI): After a humiliating Champions League defeat, Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti has challenged his players to win the double to ease his pain.
The Italian admits he slept for just two hours on Tuesday night after losing to Jose Mourinho”s Inter Milan.
“Everybody at the club is very disappointed to be out of the Champions League and now we have to shift our objectives. Now we have changed our aims and the chance to do the Double is a good motivation for everyone,” The Sun quoted Ancelotti, as saying.
“I”ve been told only six clubs have won the League and FA Cup Double in 140 years in England. It will not be easy but if we win our last 11 games we can achieve that. Our destiny is in our own hands,” he added.
Ancelotti reckons that his team is ready to perform at Blackburn following a training-ground pep talk from owner Roman Abramovich.
“The owner came to the training ground to speak with me and the players. What he said was a private issue but I can tell you that he came to support us and his presence was good,” he said.
“We are two points behind Manchester United at the top of the League with a game in hand and we are through to the FA Cup semi-finals.”
“Now we have 52 days of the season remaining and I have stressed to the players that we have to do our best for every one of them,” he added.
“We are still involved in two important competitions and it is important to have a good reaction after such a big disappointment, starting with the game at Blackburn.” (ANI)
The Northern Grampians Shire Council says the Federal Government’s policy to provide kindergarten access for four year olds may mean three year olds are denied services.
The policy, to be introduced by 2013, aims to ensure all four year olds have access to 15 hours of kindergarten programs per week.
The council provides services in Stawell and St Arnaud and Mayor Kevin Erwin says its kinders do not have the capacity for both age groups
“Certainly it will affect quite a few people, particularly in country areas, I think, in regards to the three year old kinders because they were fairly strongly taken up by parents, and we’ll try to accommodate as many as we can I suppose with the resources we have,” he said.
Council has approached the Victorian Government to provide extra resources to increase its services.
London, July 10 (ANI): What may be seen as a severe blow to Al-Qaeda, one of its ally, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) has decided to severe its ties with Osama bin Laden saying that the “indiscriminate bombings” and the “targeting of civilians” was not in accordance to its objectives.
This is the first such instance when an ally of Al-Qaeda has parted ways with it due to its policy of ‘indiscriminate violence.’
The LIFG, which once aimed to topple Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, criticised Al-Qaeda for carrying out attacks on innocent civilians and said that such violent activities did not achieve the “aims of the group in removing oppression.”
Officials believe that the LIFG’s back out is a great blow to Al-Qaeda which is facing a massive surge by the US led allied forces in Afghanistan at the moment.
“LIFG figures had ‘graduated to become major players’ in al-Qaeda and the group’s withdrawal amounted to a ‘moral blow’ to the network,” The Telegraph quoted an official, as saying.
A statement issued by the LIFG claimed that the group had no link with Al-Qaeda in the past.
“The decision to join bin Laden’s network had been invalid, and the LIFG had no link to the Al-Qaeda organisation in the past and has none now and we demand that those parties remove the name of the Fighting Group from those lists,” the statement said.
During the 1990′s the LIFG’s leaders were forced out of Libya. They then escaped to Afghanistan and started coming closer to different extremists groups based there such as Al-Qaeda. (ANI)
New Delhi, July 7 (ANI): The Government provided Rs 1.05 crore to 35 families, which lost one of their kin in the aftermath of the communal violence in August and September 2008 in Kandhmal district of Orissa.
“The Central Scheme of Assistance To Victims Of Terrorist And Communal Violence, which came into effect from April 1, 2008, aims at providing assistance to the Next of Kin (NoK) of victims of terrorist (including militancy and insurgency) and communal violence. Under the Scheme, an amount of Rs. 3 lakh is given to the NoK of the deceased victims,” a home ministry spokesperson said.
The Central scheme aims at providing assistance to the next of kin of victims of terrorist, including militancy and insurgency, and communal violence. (ANI)
New Delhi, July 5(ANI): The Centre has approved a revised scheme for recruitment of constables in Central Para Military Forces. The new scheme aims at making the process of recruitment more objective and maximizing the use of technology in recruitment.
The application form will now be designed centrally in the OMR sheet so that it can be scrutinized promptly through computer. The Physical Efficiency Test will now be only qualifying in nature and will not carry any marks. The written test will consist of OMR – based objective type multiple-choice questions. The Question papers will be set centrally. Interview will be discontinued. A website will be opened along with a help line and a complaint line, giving telephone numbers and SMS-based assistance.
No officer against whom departmental proceedings for major penalty is pending will be associated with the recruitment process. Similarly, an officer against whom charges of bungling in previous recruitment have been proved will not be associated with the recruitment process for the next five years. No officer belonging to the state in which the recruitment is being done will be a member of any recruitment board for that state. The biometric methods will be used at all stages of recruitment.
Constabulary forms the major component of Central Police Forces. In 2008, about 18000 vacancies of constables were filled in various Central Police Forces. (ANI)
Lahore, June 27 (ANI): While the International Cricket Council (ICC) has made it clear that it would not revoke its decision of hosting any 2011 World Cup matches in Pakistan, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is still hoping that it would force the apex cricketing agency to change its verdict.
After the ICC’s confirmation of not hosting any of the 14 matches awarded to Pakistan earlier, the PCB chairman, Ijaz Butt, said he was still hopeful that the council would allow Pakistan to host its share of matches at neutral venues.
“I still feel there is a scope for the PCB to work out a solution of these issues, which is acceptable to everyone. We will continue to explore various options,” The Daily Times quoted Butt, as saying.
Butt said had the other three host nations India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh supported the PCB during the ICC meeting, the PCB would have surely succeeded in its aims.
“I thought we had made significant progress till last week but no support from the Asian countries meant that Pakistan may not be able to physically host these games at venues of its choice. But all is not lost as we are still optimistic and will continue to pursue this matter in the interest of the PCB and Pakistan cricket,” he added.
Butt said that the option of neutral venues would be discussed again at a meeting of the ICC’s central organising committee (COC).
Earlier, the ICC had rejected the PCB’s proposal to stage its share of 2011 World Cup matches at neutral venues such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The ICC said that the 14 matches, which were allotted to Pakistan earlier, would now be shared between the other three host nations. (ANI)
Washington, June 19 (ANI): As Pakistan looks to open new fronts against the Taliban and other extremists, and particularly against the Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan, some vital questions, which have emerged from the Swat offensive, have remained unanswered.
With the Pakistan Army preparing to launch a fresh offensive in South Waziristan, it still remains unclear, as to for how long the troops would be asked to stay in the valley to maintain peace and order there.
The longer they stay in the region, the extra burden they would put on themselves in terms of civilian administration, analysts believe.
According to Moeed Yusuf, a security analyst at Boston University, the Pakistan Army could get bogged down if it is saddled with holding territories regained in Swat and Buner.
“The question that remains to be seen is how much they (army) are going to hold and how much are they going to be asked to do in terms of civilian administration,” The Christian Science Monitor quoted Yusuf, as saying.
Yusuf raised apprehensions saying that the army’s capability could suffer if asked to do more in civilian administration.
“The more they are asked to do in civilian administration, it puts pressure on the military, from doing much more,” he said.
This could adversely affect the government’s goals that it had set-up for South Waziristan, the report said.
Moreover, a military offensive in the tribal region and the Taliban’s home would be much more different and difficult than the one in Swat.
With tougher terrains and more deep rooted insurgents, it is uncertain whether the military would be able to succeed in its aims in the region, the report added.
It is also been speculated that the Pakistan Army, instead of crushing Mehsud’s network in the region, would instead redirect the Taliban towards Afghanistan.
“An ideal endgame for the Pakistan military may be to push enough back on Baitullah Mehsud that he continues to focus on his support base in South Waziristan and he turns westward into Afghanistan as his primal area,” the report quoted Seth Jones, an analyst at the RAND Corp, as saying.
Jones said there were two valid reasons why army would try to push the Taliban towards Afghanistan.
“First, there are elements within the military that support the Taliban fight in Afghanistan. Second, past fighting in the mountainous tribal belt, including most recently in Bajaur, has proved extremely tough,” he said. (ANI)
Pune, April 29 (ANI): Several visually-impaired girl students in Pune are being given training in basic physio-therapy and massaging techniques to enable them become self-reliant in life.
These enterprising girls despite their visual impairedness are being provided opportunities to become professionals in life.
The training is part of a four-year vocational training programme conducted at The Pune School and Home for the Blind aims to enable women self-reliant.
Sandhya Nagarajan, Training Co-ordinator of the course said that the girls are being trained in all the aspects of the body massage and related intricacies.
“These girls have been trained in how to approach the plank, how to drape the clients, how to make them sleep and make them sit. Besides being trained in these small things, they have been trained in how to massage and which massage for which body part,” said Sandhya Nagarajan, Co-ordinator (Training), Pune School and Home for the Blind.
The school is partly funded by the state government and the innovative course for the visually-impaired girls mooted by it is a step towards their empowerment.
Meanwhile, students are delighted to have got an opportunity to get such a training to become self-reliant in life.
“This is my first year in the vocational training centre and I’m fortunate that I have got admission here and I feel very fortunate,” said Mehafaz, a visually impaired student in massage therapy, Pune School and Home for the Blind.
A batch of 150 girls is being trained in body massaging techniques at present.
The first batch of the course will pass out just prior to the May Day and most of them have already got many job offers.
Lady clients, having already availed the healing touch of these girls during their in-house training sessions, also have also appreciated and come forth on an encouraging note to take their services periodically. By Shivaji (ANI)
State-run telecom service provider MTNL intends to launch its third generation (3G) services in Mumbai next month as it targets a user base of 1,00,000 for the third generation mobile service by the year end.
The company has already embarked Rs 200 crore for building optic fiber networks in Delhi and Mumbai for providing fiber-to-the-home, or FTTH services.
The company had recently launched its 3G services `Jadoo’ in central and some of parts of South Delhi. The company plans to expand its 3G services to the remaining parts of Delhi in the next two-three months.
MTNL aims to spend Rs 1724 crore in the year through March 2010 to expand its mobile services business in India and to increase its broadband capacity.
MTNL, which operates only in two metropolitan cities, posted a net profit of Rs 507 crore on revenue of Rs 4729 crore for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2008.
Dubai, Apr 7 (ANI): The prevailing financial crisis has not deterred the emirate of Dubai to launch a new low cost airline, called Flydubai.
The new airline aims at offering an easy and affordable way to travel in the Middle East region, starting with two next-generation Boeing 737-800 aircraft, with 189 economy seats each.
Flydubai Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktum, speaking to reporters on Monday, said that the airline would start flights next June to Beirut and Amman. Flydubai
Flydubai will be based at Terminal 2 of Dubai International Airport and has already appointed over 60 captains, 18 first officers and 80-cabin crew.
The airline has simplified the check-in process by issuing boarding passes, instead of paper or e-tickets, which means passengers are checked-in once their booking is paid for.
Passengers will be ale to book online at flydubai.com at no charge or through the flydubai call centre. The fare includes all taxes and a 10 kg hand baggage allowance.
CEO Ghaith Al Ghaith has said that Flydubai as a true low cost airline, has look very hard at ways to make its operations more efficient and added: “If we find a cost that can be eliminated, we will – with savings passed onto our customers.” (ANI)
Johannesburg, Mar.29 (ANI): The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has claimed that censorship was used to prevent Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, from visiting the country to attend a Nobel laureates’ peace conference.
“It has now been admitted by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel that the purpose [of cancelling the peace conference] was to censor and prevent South Africans from hearing what would have been said,” news24.com quoted Noma Rangana, the chairperson of the SA Chapter of MISA, as saying.
“It is rare for a democratic government to publicly invoke censorship though this… Imposing this ban on the Dalai Lama propagates transparency as one of its major aims,” she added.
“In censoring the Dalai Lama, the government has also censored the country’s media by preventing newspapers, and the electronic media from reporting and publishing the speech of the Dalai Lama. The spurious excuses given by the government for barring the Dalai Lama confirm that the government has caved in under pressure from the Chinese, a humiliating posture given SA’s staunch fight against colonialism,” Rangana said.
The Dalai Lama was refused a visa to attend a soccer-related peace conference to have been held in Johannesburg from Friday. (ANI)
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