18 Oct 2013
Royal welcome for Malala
London (CNN) -- Pakistani girls' education campaigner Malala Yousafzai, who has found international fame since being shot by Taliban militants last year, met with another icon Friday: Britain's Queen Elizabeth II.
The Queen and her husband, Prince Philip, invited the young activist to a reception at Buckingham Palace, where they met and chatted for a short time.
Malala, who was accompanied by her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, presented the Queen with a copy of her newly published memoir, titled "I am Malala."
"It's nice to meet you and it's a great honor coming here, and I wanted to present you my book," Malala said.
Queen Elizabeth responded, "That's very kind of you. Thank you very much indeed."
Malala said she hoped the two could work together to make sure all children receive an education, not just in Pakistan, but in the United Kingdom, too.
"I hope that we will all work together for the education of every child, and especially in this country as well, because I have heard about many children that cannot go to school," she said. "So I hope that we will continue our work on youth empowerment."
In his inimitable fashion, the Queen's husband, Prince Philip, made a joke about children and education when meeting Malala at the palace.
"It's one thing about children going to school," he said, "they go to school because their parents don't want them in the house."
In an interview with CNN last week, Malala joked that she was going "because it's the order of the Queen, it's the command."
Malala has been based in Britain since she was rushed there for major surgery after the Taliban shot her in the head in her native Pakistan because of her efforts to promote girls' education.
It's been a busy few days for the 16-year-old.
Last Friday, as the world marked the International Day of the Girl, she met U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama at the White House.
Undaunted by the occasion, she challenged the President over U.S. drone strikes in her homeland, saying that they risk "fueling terrorism" and that U.S. efforts would be better focused on promoting education, according to a statement she released. The U.S. government has said strikes by the unmanned aircraft are a necessary part of the fight against militant groups, including the Taliban.
A day earlier, Malala won the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, awarded by the European Parliament.
Parliament President Martin Schulz called her a "brave advocate for education" who "reminds us of our duty toward children and especially girls."
Malala's memoir, which recounts her experiences after she was shot and her determination not to be intimidated by extremists, was released October 8.
There had been speculation that she might also be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last Friday, but it went instead to the world's chemical weapons watchdog.
Why Malala's bravery inspires us
Malala's activism started after the Taliban banned girls from schools in Pakistan's Swat Valley in 2009. She anonymously blogged for the BBC in opposition to that order and became an open advocate for girls' education.
In 2011, Malala told CNN, "I have the right of education. I have the right to play. I have the right to sing. I have the right to talk."
A year later, at age 15, she was riding the bus home from school when a Taliban gunman climbed aboard and shot her in the head. She nearly died.
Since then, Malala has recovered and continued advocating for girls' education, despite ongoing death threats from the Taliban.
17 Oct 2013
Google's Sergey Brin: the man behind the test-tube burger
If Sergey Brin didn't exist, it might be beyond the wit of anyone to invent him. He turns 40 on the 21st of this month, and can now add his role as the funder of the new €250,000 (£216,000) "test-tube burger" to a host of other wild science-fiction ideas that are turning into fact - including investing in asteroid mining, personal genome analysis and electric cars.
And that's before you mention his role as the billionaire co-founder (with university friend Larry Page) of internet search giant Google, where he's also helped make the phone software Android one of the planet's most-used operating systems in just five years.
The triumvirate that runs Google - chief executive Page, executive chairman Eric Schmidt, and Brin - divides its roles quite clearly. Schmidt is the smooth diplomat, as familiar with Davos and No10 Downing Street as the "Googleplex" in California. Page, who turned 40 in March, is the hard-edged businessman. Brin, meanwhile, drives the "moonshots" – the projects that sound outlandish until they happen. Thus Brin has made self-driving cars a reality in a number of American states, and introduced the idea that wearing glasses that are always connected to a computer – "Google Glass" – isn't necessarily a sign of utter geekiness. (It has a little way to go on this, though, and Brin's comments in February that using asmartphone is "emasculating" – while the Google Glass on his face made him look vaguely like a lost space pirate – wasn't his finest hour.)
His excursions into new territories haven't been without personal cost. In September 2008, he revealed that his genome sequencing indicated he had a "markedly higher" risk of developing Parkinson's Disease. (He has been funding research to find a cure, so far putting in $132m.)
What next? Brin has shown interest in power generation, particularly renewables; in 2010 Google invested in an offshore wind-power development in the US. He's also an investor in Tesla Motors, the US electric car startup. So perhaps he will next turn up in some utterly unexpected little startup developing something using zero-point energy(a wrinkle of quantum mechanics).
Where does his spiralling imagination come from? His parents – father a maths professor, mother a researcher at the US space agency Nasa – are the obvious answer. They emigrated from Russia when Brin was six; his father claims they faced anti-Semitism, and Brin has ever since been keenly alert, and opposed, to government oppression in all its forms. He and Page met at Stanford University, where Page was working on the question of indexing and ranking the web, while Brin thought about how to make the best use of data. The collaboration produced a web phenomenon that now straddles the world.
Brin is a freewheeling type, quite literally. Ken Auletta describes in his book "Googled" how he would often turn up for meetings with powerful visiting executives slightly late, out of breath and wearing rollerblades. In his memoir "I'm Feeling Lucky", Doug Edwards, one of Google's earliest employees, describes Page as having "awkward moves and self-conscious grins" while Brin is "more fluid, athletic, acrobatic. Bouncy, even".
For someone whose mind usually races ahead of everyone else's, performing a sort of mental parkour, it's fitting that Brin should prefer wheels to shoes. The only question is whether the rest of the world can keep up with his vision
Economic slowdown: Indian executives hit by job fears start shunning bank loans
Indian executives are increasingly shying away from taking bank loans on account of economic slowdown and fear arising from uncertainty over jobs, a survey by industry body Assocham said.
"In the wake of economic slowdown, while industrial growth and services are getting impacted, job uncertainty among the young spenders is working as a big dampener when it comes to taking bank loans," the survey said.
Individual borrowers are adopting an extremely conservative approach when it comes to taking bank loans against fixed deposits or shares and bonds.
According to the banking data, loans against fixed deposits have declined by 1.6 per cent in the current fiscal as against a growth of 20 per cent between August 2012 and August 2013.
Besides, people are also avoiding taking loans against credit cards as the interest rates charged on outstanding payments are prohibitively high. Those who have already taken loans are now more cautious and resorting to timely payments of their dues to avoid penalties.
"There is a feeling that credit card outstanding payments result in debt traps for the card-holders," the survey said.
A similar trend has been witnessed in individuals or entities seekingbank loans in return for mortgaging shares and bonds.
The amount deployed so far in the current fiscal under this head has shown a decline of 6.6 per cent, as against a growth of 8.8 per cent in the previous year, the survey said.
The reason cited for the cautious approach being adopted by borrowers as well as banks is the prevailing volatility in the share market.
"They (banks) perceive as risk great volatility in share prices, particularly if the share price of the mortgaged security has seen a sharp decline. The issue of Mark-to-Market risks act as hindrance," the survey said.
Besides, high interest rates offered by banks is also one of the main reasons for the trend, since deposit rates have been recently revised upwards in the wake of tight liquidity position.
Moreover, banks are also unwilling to lend to large corporates which are facing the liquidity problems arising from drying up of the corporate deposit (CDs) markets, according to the survey.
"Banks, bitten by a large increase in their NPAs (non-performing assets), are not too willing to lend to big corporates for meeting their working capital needs and want the companies to use the CD market, which, unfortunately, has gone dry," the survey said.
Google's Q3 beats expectations as ad volume grows, stock flirts $1,000 level
Google Inc's quarterly results beat Wall Street's expectations as the Internet search giant expanded its mobile and overseas businesses while keeping ad-rate declines in check, sending its shares to a record high.
The market reaction put Google's stock within striking distance of $1,000, following what analysts said was a strong, but not spectacular quarter.
Shares of the world's No 1 Internet search engine jumped 8 percent to $959.65 in after-hours trading on Thursday, after it reported a 23 percent rise in revenue from its Internet business, excluding fees paid to partners, of $10.8 billion in the third quarter.
"Expectations going into earnings were a little muted," said Needham & Co analyst Kerry Rice. "They did what they needed to do to impress investors."
Google's business, like rivals Facebook Inc and Yahoo Inc, has come under pressure as more consumers access its online services on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, where advertising rates are lower than on PCs.
The average cost-per-click - the price that marketers pay Google when consumers click on their ads - decreased 8 percent during the third quarter, deepening the 6 percent price erosion that Google experienced in the second quarter.
But the total amount of paid clicks increased 26 percent year-on-year during the three months ended September 30, the highest rate of growth in one year.
"That's the key story, their ad volume growth is outpacing the decline in cost-per-clicks," said JMP Securities analyst Ronald Josey.
Roughly 40 percent of the traffic to YouTube, the Google-owned video website, now occurs on mobile devices, Google Chief Executive Larry Page said on Thursday. Two years ago, only 6 percent of YouTube's traffic occurred on mobile devices.
"Google's done a good job of being in the right place in mobile as it grows, and being able to monetize that," said Rice.
He also pointed to Google's 28 percent revenue growth outside of the U.S. and Britain as further signs of Google's strength.
Google's results offered a sharp contrast to online rival Yahoo Inc, which reported a slight dip in quarterly revenue on Tuesday and lowered its financial outlook.
NO MORE ANALYST CALLS FOR PAGE
On Thursday, co-founder and CEO Page told analysts he will no longer be joining the company's quarterly earnings conference calls on a regular basis.
"I know you all would love to have me on, but you're also depending on me to ruthlessly prioritize my time for the benefit of the business," Page said, without providing further explanation for the change.
Page, who with Sergey Brin conceived of what is today the world's most-used Internet search engine, is not known for assiduously courting Wall Street investors. And this year, Page revealed that his vocal cords are partially paralyzed as the result of a rare medical condition.
Needham & Co's Rice said he did not expect Page to be any less involved in running the company, noting that Amazon.com Inc's CEO Jeff Bezos does not participate in the quarterly earnings calls.
Google executives also provided few details on the recently-launched MotoX smartphone, the flagship device within Google's Motorola mobile phone business.
Operating losses at Motorola were $248 million during the third quarter, compared to a loss of $192 million in the third quarter of 2012.
Google's consolidated business earned $2.97 billion, or $8.75 per share in the three months ended September 30, compared to $2.18 billion, or $6.53 per share, last year.
Excluding certain items, Google said it earned $10.74 per share, compared to the $10.34 that analysts were expecting, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Consolidated revenue of $14.89 billion compared with the $14.79 billion average analyst estimate.
China's Q3 GDP growth fastest this year at 7.8%, but outlook murky
China's economy grew 7.8 per cent in the third quarter, its fastest pace this year and in line with expectations, as firmer foreign and domestic demand lifted factory production and retail sales.
Yet any optimism from the government figures released on Friday could fade quickly as global demand remains volatile, which was underlined by a surprise fall in exports in September. Efforts at home to engineer slower but more sustainable growth will also weigh on the economy in coming quarters, analysts say.
"The Q3 GDP figure is in line with market expectations but the uncertainty is whether the current recovery is sustainable," said Shen Jianguang, chief China economist with Mizuho Securities in Hong Kong.
"We think the recovery in the third quarter was mainly driven by the strong momentum of the property market."
After three decades of blistering expansion fuelled by exports and investment, Beijing is trying to shift the economic mix so that activity is geared much more to consumption. That means a slowdown from the double-digit growth of previous years.
Analysts polled by Reuters had expected the world's second-largest economy to grow 7.8 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, picking up from 7.5 percent in the second quarter and compared with 7.7 percent in the first. The latest expansion was the strongest since 7.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012.
The data showed that the economy grew 2.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from the previous quarter.
The GDP readings keep China on track to achieve the government's 2013 growth target of 7.5 percent, stronger than other major economies but still the worst performance for the country in 23 years. Growth in the first nine months of the year was 7.7 percent, the data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.
"We have confidence in fulfilling the targets set out for economic and social development in 2013," Premier Li Keqiang said this month.
In other figures released on Friday, factory output in September rose 10.2 percent from a year earlier, slightly above expectations of 10.1 percent and slowing down from August's annual pace of 10.4 percent.
Retail sales rose 13.3 percent from a year earlier, slightly below expectations for an increase of 13.5 percent.
Fixed asset investment, a crucial growth driver, rose in the first nine months of 2013 by 20.2 percent compared with a year earlier. Analysts had expected a rise of 20.3 percent.
Real estate investment increased 19.7 percent in the first nine months of the year compared with a year earlier, picking up slightly from 19.3 percent in the first eight months.
The fragility of China's economic revival was underscored last week when data showed September's exports fell 0.3 percent from a year earlier, in stark contrast to expectations for a 6 percent rise.
Weaker demand in southeast Asia had driven the surprise drop in exports, as fears of possible U.S. monetary policy tightening led investors to retreat from emerging markets, bruising consumer confidence and demand for Chinese goods.
With China's economic pick-up so shaky, most economists believe Chinese authorities are likely to stand still on monetary policy in the next year-and-a-half. But at the same time, few believe Beijing would dramatically loosen policy to aid growth, barring a sharp downturn.
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