STOCKS NEWS EUROPE-CS overweight UK stocks, cuts Japan

Credit Suisse raises UK equities to 5 percent overweight, citing better economic and earnings momentum than global peers.

The broker says in a note that it keeps continental European equities holding at 13 percent overweight as the region “has the best economic momentum of any region and less aggregate leverage than the U.S., the UK and Japan, while concerns over the euro and fiscal tightenting are overstated.”

It downgrades Japanese equities to benchmark, saying the Japanese equity market “typically underperforms four months after lead indicators peak,” though it increase its overweight on Asia excluding Japan to 25 percent from 20 percent.

“We believe the next two years will be about balance sheet concerns — and private sector, banks, government and central bank balance sheets all look in much better shape in the developed world,” Credit Suisse analysts say.

Reuters Messaging rm://dominic.lau.reuters.com@reuters.net

O3b Networks and Telecom Cook Islands Sign Long Term Agreement on Bandwidth Provision for Internet Connectivity

The Cook Islands connect its citizens to broadband
JERSEY, Channel Islands & RAROTONGA, Cook Islands–(Business Wire)–
O3b Networks Ltd. (O3b) has signed a long term agreement with Telecom Cook
Islands for the provision of 155megabits of bandwidth for Internet Connectivity
to web users on the islands. The bandwidth will be supplied over O3b`s Medium
Earth Orbit satellite constellation that is currently under construction.

The agreement will mark a significant step change for Internet connectivity to
the Cook Islands, its permanent population of approximately 15.000 citizens, as
well as its up to 100.000 annual visitors. Covered by a single O3b satellite
beam, supplying a coverage diameter of over 600km on the ground, the technical
broadband coverage on the Cook Islands will become 100%, practically overnight.

Far greater access to information will provide equal opportunities for all
citizens and incentivise islanders to adapt to a more web-centric landscape,
spanning from educational and medical to commercial services. The new broadband
network scenario is expected to also have a highly beneficial impact on the
local economy, connecting its citizens and entrepreneurs on a par with their
peers and business partners elsewhere in the world.

Cook Islands Prime Minister Jim Marurai welcomed the new arrangement with O3b,
encouraged by the promise of enhanced broadband speed and internet access.
“Government is receptive to and supportive of improving access to such broadband
advancements, particularly as they stand to lift the ability of Cook Islanders
to do business, and offer advantages for the social sectors of health and
education,” said Marurai, who is also the Minister responsible for
Telecommunications and Information Technology”

“We are delighted to announce that Telecom Cook Islands today signed a contract
reserving capacity on the O3b satellite service, dubbed “fibre in the sky”. This
new facility will radically improve broadband service in the Cook Islands with
the potential to stimulate the economy and benefit all Cook Islanders. This is a
historic occasion and a cause for celebration because it represents a major
advance in the way the Cook Islands will communicate with the rest of the world.
It will open up all sorts of opportunities to the residents and businesses of
the country. The service is due to be operational in mid 2012,” said Jules
Maher, CEO of Telecom Cook Islands.

John Finney, EVP Global Sales and Marketing, O3b Networks said “At O3b Networks
we are very pleased that Telecom Cook Islands has decided to enter the agreement
with us and to become our first customer in the region. The capabilities of our
satellite services will provide a variety of new as well as equal opportunities
to the Islands` citizens”

Enhanced Internet connectivity is an essential tool to improve the
communications opportunities for all citizens, independently of their specific
locations. The impact of a newly established broadband communications network is
of particularly high importance in those regions of the world, which today are
poorly served by communications networks and infrastructures.

O3b Networks` satellite based broadband coverage solution, heralds a new era of
substantially improved Internet connectivity to areas of the world that suffer
from the lack of network infrastructure. O3b`s pioneering solution will allow
network operators to provide services quickly and at comparatively much lower
infrastructure investment levels in order to establish the required network
infrastructure for the delivery of broadband services.

About O3b Networks Ltd.

O3b Networks, headquartered in St. John, Jersey is building a new
satellite-based, fibre-quality Internet backbone for telecommunications- and
Internet service providers, operating between the latitudes of 45° north/south.
O3b`s next generation satellite network will reach over 3 billion consumers,
businesses and organizations in more than 150 countries across Asia, Africa,
Latin America and the Middle East. O3b`s groundbreaking concept is endorsed by
investments from SES, Google Inc., Liberty Global Inc., HSBC Principal
Investments, Northbridge Venture Partners and Allen & Company.

www.o3bnetworks.com

About Telecom Cook Islands

Telecom Cook Islands Ltd is the largest provider of fixed phone, mobile and
broadband services to the Cook Islands. We offer products for the home and
individual users as well as corporate solutions to corporate clients (PABX,
dedicated lines), international (long distance) calling services, calling cards,
pay phones, credit card calling services.

www.telecom.co.ck//index.php

O3b Networks, Ltd.
Harald Melzer, +352 691 886 886
Director Global PR
harald.melzer@o3bnetworks.com

Copyright Business Wire 2010

Nikkei rises over 1 pct, boosted by tech shares

June 14 (Reuters) – Japan’s Nikkei average rose 1.2 percent on Monday, powering towards a key resistance level as tech shares such as Advantest Corp (6857.T) rose in the wake of gains by Wall Street peers as U.S. consumer sentiment improved.

Stocks | Global Markets | Financials

But lingering worries about the euro zone’s debt problems may make it hard for the benchmark to push above 9,900, the level of its 25-day moving average and a crucial resistance point, analysts said.

The benchmark Nikkei .N225 gained 116.98 points to 9,822.23, while the broader Topix rose 1 percent to 875.44.

Bonding hormone-based nasal spray helps men recognise emotions

London, May 15 (ANI): A nasal spray made of the hormone vasopressin can help boost men’s ability to recognise the emotions of both happy and angry, say scientists.

However, the spray doesn’t improve males’ ability to detect emotions of the neutral, reports New Scientist.

Just like “cuddle chemical” oxytocin improves bonding, vasopressin too drives less cosy aspects of social behaviour, such as aggression.

In their study, Adam Guastella at the University of Sydney in Australia compared the ability of 24 men given the spray to recognise neutral, angry and happy faces with peers given a placebo spray.

The study has been published in Biological Psychiatry.

“There may be an application in people with inadequate recognition of social cues,” Guastella says. (ANI)

Embattled Indonesian MP joins World Bank

Indonesia’s finance minister has resigned amid a political crisis to take up a senior role with the World Bank.

Sri Mulyani Indrawatti was a key reformer taking on vested interests and has been locked in a long and brutal power struggle against some of Indonesia’s richest and most powerful men.

She has been reforming Indonesia’s economy and the notoriously corrupt tax office, but her political enemies have focused on her role in a bank bailout during the global financial crisis.

They claim the bank was not important enough and the money went to wealthy depositors connected to the president and she has just been subjected to two days of questioning by investigators.

World Bank president Robert Zoellick welcomed her decision to become his managing director, saying Sri Mulyani had “earned the respect of her peers across the world”.

Watching R-rated movies linked to early alcohol use

Washington, April 26 (ANI): A new study has suggested that middle-schoolers who are forbidden to watch R-rated movies are less likely to start drinking than peers whose parents are more lenient about such films.

In a study of nearly 3,600 New England middle school students, researchers found that among kids who said their parents never allowed them to watch R movies, few took up drinking over the next couple years.

Of that group, 3 percent said they had started drinking when questioned 13 to 26 months after the initial survey.

That compared with 19 percent of their peers who”d said their parents “sometimes” let them see R-rated films, and one-quarter of students who”d said their parents allowed such movies “all the time.”

The researchers say the findings underscore the importance of parents paying close attention to their children”s media exposure.

“We think this is a very important aspect of parenting, and one that is often overlooked,” said Dr. James D. Sargent, a professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth Medical School in Hanover, New Hampshire.

The new study has been reported in the May issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. (ANI)

Rooney bags Professional Footballers’ Association’s Player of the Year award

London, Apr 26 (ANI): England’s ace striker Wayne Rooney has been voted player of the year by his peers in the Professional Footballers’ Association.

Rooney, who has scored 34 goals this season, beat off competition from Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas, Chelsea striker Didier Drogba and Manchester City forward Carlos Tévez.

“It’s a great feeling to win because it”s voted for by the players. It’s a great honour and I’m really proud,” Rooney, 24, said.

Aston Villa’s James Milner won the young player of the year award.

Rooney has improved his game tremendously at Old Trafford this season after the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez.

The 24 year-old was anxious to pay credit to Ferguson’s role in his development and backed the Scot to continue in charge at Old Trafford for many seasons to come, The Telegraph reports.

“Sir Alex has really brought me on as a player since I joined United. His hunger passes through to the players. It’s great to see that he’s pushing 70 and hasn’t changed a bit. I’m sure he’ll be here for a long time yet,” he said. (ANI)

Teachers sue paper over Facebook photos

Two teachers are taking legal action against a southern Queensland newspaper for publishing photographs of them taken from the social networking site Facebook.

The Warwick Daily News published an article last month with photos showing the teachers posing in schoolgirl uniforms.

Solicitor Rebecca Jancauskas says the story vilified the teachers.

“The global publication of this story has caused our clients incredible distress and has damaged their personal and professional reputations immeasurably,” she said.

“They’re now a laughing stock in their local community, their students and their peers view them very differently and their professional lives hang in the balance while Education Queensland decide the outcome of their investigation.”

Ms Jancauskas says the case will have wider ramifications for social media sites.

“I think it raises interesting issues that need to be determined, whether it be by a court or by a government, which is do user generated sites such as Facebook have the legal status of a modern day diary or personal correspondence?” she said.

BA, Iberia seal long-awaited merger deal

MADRID, April 8 (Reuters) – British Airways (BAY.L) and Spanish carrier Iberia (IBLA.MC) signed a merger agreement on Thursday, sealing a long-awaited deal to create Europe’s second largest airline by passenger kilometres.

Industrials

The deal, which creates a group with a combined market value of around $7.8 billion, ends the British flag carrier’s long pursuit of Iberia, and will allow it to emulate rivals Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) and Air France (AIRF.PA) who have successfully acquired smaller peers.

“The terms and conditions of the merger agreement are in accordance with the memorandum of understanding signed by both airlines in November,” the companies said in a joint statement.

BA shareholders will have 55 percent of the combined firm, to be headquartered in London, while Iberia shareholders are to get 45 percent.

The two loss-making airlines hope to fly the merged entity with 408 aircraft and 200 destinations by the end of the year.

(Reporting by Tracy Rucinski and Rhys Jones; Editing by Elisabeth O’Leary)

Slow mind means more creativity

London, March 31 (ANI): A slow brain can nurture more creative ideas, a new American research has suggested.

Rex Jung at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and his team discovered that creativity is associated with low levels of the chemical N-acetylaspartate, found in neurons, and seems to promote neural health and metabolism.

But neurons constitute the brain”s grey matter – the tissue long thought to be linked with thinking power, rather than creativity. Consequently, Jung is now focusing his creativity studies on white matter, which largely comprises the fatty myelin sheaths that wrap around neurons. Less myelin signifies the white matter has a lower “integrity” and transmits information more slowly.

Numerous recent studies have suggested that white matter of high integrity in the cortex, which is linked to higher mental function, means increased intelligence.

However, when Jung analysed the connection between white matter and creativity, he came across something very different.

For the study, Jung selected 72 volunteers and used diffusion tensor imaging, which measures the direction in which water diffuses through white matter – an indication of its integrity.

The subjects” capacity for divergent thinking – a factor in creativity that includes coming up with new ideas – had already been tested.

Jung saw that the most creative people had lower white-matter integrity in a region connecting the prefrontal cortex to a deeper structure called the thalamus, compared with their less creative peers.

Jung believes slower communication between some areas may actually make people more creative.

“This might allow for the linkage of more disparate ideas, more novelty, and more creativity,” New Scientist quoted Jung, as saying.

According to Jung, creativity and intelligence can still go hand in hand. Each appears to be controlled by white matter in a different region. Thus, theoretically, there”s no reason why someone might not have high integrity in the cortex, producing intelligence, but low integrity between the cortex and deeper brain regions, leading to creative thinking.

He said: “They appear to function relatively independently.”

The study has appeared in the open access journal PLoS ONE. (ANI)

Teens’ music taste determined by conformity with peers: Study

London, March 29 (ANI): A new study has linked teenagers’ music choices to the horror of failing to conform with their peers.

Gregory Berns, Chair of Neuroeconomics at Emory Univerity in the US, conducted the research on teenagers listening to songs on social networking sites such as MySpace.

“We wanted to know, for example with Amazon.com, when you see a four or five-star rating of something, does that make you like it more?” TimesOnline quoted Dr Berns as saying.

Boffins found the adolescents were more likely to change their music preference after realising the tracks were popular with other people of their age.

Dr Berns added: “We can’t deny the fact we care a lot about what people think. A lot of people think we are individuals and in democratic societies we have freedom of choice. Actually, we’re slaves to what other people think.”

The findings have been published in the journal NeuroImage. (ANI)

Supportive parents can stop teenagers from becoming materialistic

Washington, March 25 (ANI): Supportive parents can help teenagers from becoming materialistic, a new study claims.

University of Arizona marketing researcher Lan Nguyen Chaplin claims that adolescents of this age have been characterized as the most materialistic generation in history.

He insists parents have a very important role to play.

Chaplin said: “Instead of just looking at how parents and peers encourage materialism in teenagers, we also examine how they decrease materialism. We view parents and peers as important sources of emotional support and psychological well-being, which ultimately affects teenagers” level of materialism.

“We find that supportive parents and peers boost adolescents” self-esteem, which decreases their need to embrace material goods as a way to develop positive self-perceptions.”

Chaplin and co-author Deborah Roedder John of the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management, studied 12- to 18-year-olds and found that it is possible for parents to reduce their adolescents” drive for material goods.

They found that teenagers who have supportive and accepting parents and peers in their lives are less materialistic. Parents and peers can provide the support and acceptance that teens crave, which reduces their need to focus on expensive material goods as a substitute for self-worth.

Chaplin explained: “Parents and peers play a very important role in teenagers” lives. They provide the much needed emotional support and contribute greatly to teenagers” feelings of self-worth. When teens feel better about themselves, they are less likely to feel the need to use material possessions to boost their self-esteem and achieve happiness.”

The paper titled, “Interpersonal Influences on Adolescent Materialism: A New Look at the Role of Parents and Peers,” will soon be published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology. (ANI)

Therapy via teleconference just as effective as face-to-face sessions

Washington, March 24 (ANI): A new research has suggested that obtaining therapy via teleconference is just as effective as face-to-face sessions.

“Previous studies have shown that phobia therapy via teleconferencing was just as efficient as face to face contact. We wanted to see if the process could also be used for post-traumatic stress treatment,” said Stephane Guay, a psychiatry professor at the Université de Montreal.

Until recently, telemedicine was limited to doctors using the technology to communicate with peers who would weigh-in on x-rays results or supervise a surgery.

With teletherapy, patients could theoretically consult experts from the other side of the globe.

As part of this study, 17 post-traumatic stress victims from the Outaouais region underwent 16 to 25 sessions via teleconference with Montreal therapists. A control group consisted of patients receiving face-to-face therapy.

The teletherapy participants, however, still needed to visit a hospital equipped with the necessary equipment and supervised by medical personnel.

“It would be ethically indefensible for them to stay home. Post-traumatic stress therapies require that a patient relive certain traumatic events and should they become uncomfortable it is mandatory that someone be there to intervene,” Guay said.

The teletherapy group and the control group equally benefited from their therapy.

“The same number of patients in both groups saw a significant decrease in their post-traumatic stress, depression and anxiety symptoms,” said Guay.

Patients were later evaluated and none were affected by distance to their therapist and none expressed discomfort about the technological aspects of the procedure.

“In fact, comments were more in favor of tele-therapy. It seems patients appreciate a certain distance from their therapist,” Guay said. (ANI)

Alexander McQueen to get fashion honour posthumously

London, March 19 (ANI): Late designer Alexander McQueen will be posthumously honoured by the fashion world.

The couturier will be feted by his peers at the Council of Fashion Designers of America with the special board of directors honour at the annual gala, in New York on June 7, reports the Daily Express.

Mcqueen was found dead from an apparent suicide at his London home in February. (ANI)

Oz women under constant pressure to be ‘yummy mummies’

Melbourne, Sept 16 (ANI): The hype created by celebrity yummy mummies like Angelina Jolie and Jessica Alba has put women under pressure to lose weight quickly after giving birth, reveals a new Australian study.

The study conducted by Deakin University showed that more than one in four women are “usually or always dissatisfied” with their post-baby body.

Researcher Lucia Bongiorno said that the hype created by celebrity yummy mummies has also contributed to an unrealistic ideal.

“People are obsessed with celebrity babies and celebrity pregnancies,” the Courier Mail quoted her as saying.

“Babies have become a must-have sort of item,” she added.

Although the study involving 346 mothers of infants aged 1-12 months compare themselves with their peers with babies and child-free friends, they felt the most pressure to lose post-baby weight from the media.

Moreover, some fathers also pressured their partners not to gain too much weight while pregnant and to lose it quickly after giving birth.

Bongiorno said while mums compared themselves most to peers, their peers were also likely to be influenced by the same media images.

“Both mothers and their peers with new babies, when confronted by media pictures of celebrity mothers such as Bec Hewitt, are saying ‘I’ve got to look like that’,” she said.

“But celebrity mothers typically have nannies and personal trainers … the average mother doesn’t. So such an expectation is unfair on themselves,” she added.

The study will be presented at the Australian Psychological Society conference in Darwin. (ANI)

Low birth weight linked to decreased bone mineral density in adulthood

Washington, Aug 25 (ANI): In a new study, Finnish researchers have found that adults born with very low birth weight have lower bone mineral density.

Led by Dr. Petteri Hovi, from the National Institute for Health and Welfare Helsinki, Finland, the researchers evaluated skeletal health in 144 adults (ages ranging from 18 to 27 years) who were born preterm with very low birth weight.

The researchers found that, as adults, the individuals had significantly lower bone mineral density than do their term-born peers.

They suggest that this finding translates into increased risk for osteoporosis in adulthood for these individuals.

The study has been published in the open-access medical journal, PLoS Medicine. (ANI)

Fatness can lead to ‘brain shrinkage’

London, Aug 24 (ANI): A new study from University of California in Los Angeles suggests that piling on the pounds can shrink brains of older people, making them more vulnerable to cognitive problems.

According to Paul Thompson, brains of elderly obese people looked 16 years older than the brains of leaner peers.

The research involving 94 people in their 70s showed that people with higher body mass indexes had smaller brains on average, with the frontal and temporal lobes – important for planning and memory, respectively – particularly affected.

While no one knows whether these people are more likely to develop dementia, a smaller brain is indicative of destructive processes that can develop into dementia.

The team also found that the brains of the 51 overweight people were 6 per cent smaller than those of their normal-weight counterparts, on average, and those of the 14 obese people were 8 per cent smaller.

“The brains of overweight people looked eight years older than the brains of those who were lean, and 16 years older in obese people,” New Scientist quoted Thompson as saying.

Thompson suggests that as increased body fat ups the chances of having clogged arteries, which can reduce blood and oxygen flow to brain cells, the resulting reduction in metabolism could cause brain cell death and the shrinking seen.

He said that exercise protects the very brain regions that had shrunk.

“The most strenuous kind of exercise can save about the same amount of brain tissue that is lost in the obese,” he said.

The findings appear in journal Human Brain Mapping. (ANI)

US student claims he is the creator of Obama-Joker image

Washington, Aug.19 (ANI): The creator of an iconic anti-Obama image is no angry conservative frustrated at corporate bailouts and healthcare reform, but a student from the president’s hometown who favoured an even more liberal presidential candidate.

The work depicting Barack Obama as Batman’s archenemy the Joker, which appeared on street posters, T-shirts and bumper stickers across the country this summer, was fashioned on a lark by a bored Palestinian-American on break from university.

Firas Alkhateeb, 20, is far from one of the red-faced protesters who have shouted down Democratic politicians at constituent meetings, nor is he a smug young conservative standing against his Obama-enthralled peers.

Alkhateeb told the Los Angeles Times that he did not vote in November, but had he, he would have cast a ballot for Dennis Kucinich, one of the most liberal politicians in America.

He made the image of Obama in black, white, green and red face paint this winter from a cover portrait of an October issue of Time magazine, following a tutorial on how to “Jokerise” images.

Alkhateeb said he intended no political statement. But a still anonymous Obama critic downloaded his image, removed the magazine cover banner, appended the caption “socialism”, then hung posters across Los Angeles this summer. (ANI)

Aids awareness campaign for BPO staff in Kolkata

Kolkata, July 16 (ANI): In an attempt to create awareness of deadly HIV/AIDS in the IT and BPO sectors, the Kolkata-based Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) are conducting special programmes.

The ICC has joined hands with the West Bengal State AIDS Prevention and Control Society (WBSAP and CS) to conduct this programme, named ‘Project on Mainstreaming AIDS Awareness’.

It would focus on the youth employed in the IT and BPO sectors. The outsourcing units will be selected and experts would enlighten the employees about AIDS prevention measures.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) is also a facilitator of this time-bound ‘Project on Mainstreaming AIDS Awareness’.

“We will bring in experts who train the employees selectively and then they become trainees. They will further train their peers and colleagues in their own company.

Secondly, we will also encourage them to conduct some mass awareness programmes, campaigns and training,” said Syed Mohammad Afsar, national project coordinator, ILO.

Senior office bearers of the ICC mentioned that this programme would help in controlling HIV and sexually transmitted diseases among young men and women.

This programme was formally launched here on Wednesday.

Reportedly, there are at least 4000 registered cases of AIDS in West Bengal. (ANI)

Don’t marry the toy boy if you want lifelong union

Sydney, July 12 (ANI): Want to have a lifelong marital union? Well, then don’t marry a man who is nine or more years older than you or is two or more years younger than you are, revealed some of Australia’s top demographers.

In fact, they have suggested that the secret to a lasting marriage is to marry a man who is about your own age, or if your parents are still together, marry a man whose parents are also still together.

Rebecca Kippen and Bruce Chapman, from the Australian National University, and Peng Yu, from the Department of Families, Housing Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, have traced the marital fortunes of 2482 Australian couples over six years to see what factors lead to compatibility, and what to divorce and separation.

They have advised that one should exchange vows with someone more or less like you.

However, surprisingly, similar education levels, attitudes to religion, and country of birth are not important when it comes to lasting matrimony.

In fact, age is the biggest factor in deciding if a couple stays together or not.

Marriages in which the husband was nine or more years older than the wife, or two or more years younger, had a separation rate of 17 per cent compared to about 10 per cent for their more age-compatible peers.

“Age captures a range of things about being in the same place in life, at the same time,” News.com.au quoted Kippen as saying.

In addition, couples in which the husband’s parents had divorced, but the wife’s parents had not, were almost 90 per cent more likely to separate than pairs where both sets of parents were together.

It also helps if the husband is over 25 when one gets married, and if neither partner has children before getting married, because it is also important to have a similar attitude to wanting children or another child.

The data was drawn from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia, survey with an initial sample of 7682 households.

The findings will be presented at the HILDA conference in Melbourne next week. (ANI)