1 New York Times on China losing its manufacturing edge. Today, Taphandles employs 33 people at its headquarters in Seattle and about 450 at the Chinese factory that produces the beer-marketing products it sells to breweries. But its owner, Paul Fichter, who founded the company in 1999 and anticipates $11 million in revenue this year, expects that ratio to change. Mr. Fichter, 40, just signed a lease on a 41,800-square-foot factory in Washington and began manufacturing some of his products there last month. A Boston Consulting Group analysis released last week found that manufacturing outsourced to China has begun to return to the United States as the economic advantages have started to shift. The analysis predicts that, with Chinese wages rising at 15 to 20 percent a year and with the continued appreciation of the renminbi against the dollar, the gap between the labor costs in Chinese coastal provinces and in America’s lower-cost states will shrink to less than 40 percent by around 2015 — and could lead to the creation of two million to three million jobs in the United States.
2 Guardian on Google closing gap with Facebook. Google defied the global economic slowdown last night by posting a 26% rise in net profits for the last quarter. The internet search engine company also claimed to be making strides in its battle with Facebook, announcing that more than 40 million users have joined Google+, its social network. It still has some way to go to catch Facebook's 800 million users.
3 New York Times reporting that the next boom in mobile devices is the car. Cars, one of the great mobile devices to begin with, are about to get connected to the Internet like never before. It will change not just how we drive, but the economics of the car business. “Five percent of cars are connected today,” said Glenn Lurie, president of AT&T’s Emerging Devices business. He was speaking of new vehicles, not all cars on the road. “Three to five years from now, 100 percent will be connected. You’ll see diagnostics, calls when the airbag goes off, real-time traffic reports, entertainment in the back seat.”
4 New York Times, writing about its own staff reduction plans. In the midst of a deteriorating advertising climate, The New York Times plans to eliminate up to 20 newsroom positions and seek additional savings in the business units, the company said Thursday. The reductions, described by the New York Times Company as a rebalancing, were announced to employees on Thursday morning. The Times will also seek to cut costs on the business side by eliminating positions that are vacant and by offering a limited number of buyouts. The cuts come at a time when media companies are feeling the pressure of a stagnating economy. Over the summer, the Times Company had anticipated a roughly 4 percent decrease in advertising revenue in the third quarter, in line with the second quarter. The company now expects to report a roughly 8 percent decline. Notably, online ad revenue is expected to drop about 2 to 3 percent, after rising 2.6 percent in the second quarter.
5 Khaleej Times reporting that Tamil Tigers are still active in Europe. When Tamil Tigers were routed on the battlefield two years ago, the Sri Lankan government believed it had crushed the 25-year rebellion for a separate Tamil homeland. But evidence surfacing in a courthouse in the Netherlands shows that the cause of Tamil independence is still alive in Europe, and an assessment from counterterrorism authorities says supporters of the defeated rebels remain engaged in extortion, human trafficking and other crimes to raise money for their brethren in Sri Lanka.
6 Johannesburg Times on Irish austerity costing judges their wigs. Hundreds of Ireland's judges have abandoned their wigs after the Irish Courts Service ended the rule requiring them to wear the British-style headgear. The move is designed to save the taxpayer money in debt-struck Ireland. Until now, each new judge has received a London-made, white-dyed horsehair wig that costs the state about $3,000 each. Ireland is voting Oct. 27 on a constitutional amendment that would give the government new power to cut judges' salaries. Irish judges have worn wigs since the mid-17th century and kept the policy after Ireland won independence from Britain in 1922.
7 Khaleej Times story, ‘Indian wives fast, luxuriously, for husbands’. On Saturday, Kanika Syal will wake up before dawn to begin a fast at sunrise and not eat or drink until she sees the moon at night – all in the hope her husband will have a long life. Karva Chauth is a centuries-old tradition observed annually in north India, where women dress up and fast for the day to pray for their spouse’s good health and success. “Since a very long time ago, we have been looking at our mothers celebrate,” says the 25-year-old Syal, who is making her Karva Chauth debut as a newlywed. “It is our turn now.” But it’s different for the teacher-turned-homemaker, who, as a member of India’s rapidly growing middle class, will be doing a lot more than her mother ever did for the festival. Syal will indulge in a 5,000 rupee ($102) diamond facial and body spa treatment to make sure she looks her best. Also on the must-have list for the urban elite are botox, laser-hair reduction and chemical peel treatments at spas and beauty parlours offering Karva Chauth packages.
8 Khaleej Times on Amazon’s struggle for survival . Charles Darwin would appreciate the irony of Yasuní National Park in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Yasuní, home to one of the highest concentrations of biodiversity in the world, is itself engaged in what Darwin called “the struggle for existence. A proposed drilling project in Yasuní’s Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini oilfields would tap into a reservoir estimated to be worth more than $10 billion – and permanently destroy this global treasure. Darwin, who developed his theory of evolution in Ecuador’s famous Galapagos Islands, recognised the importance of the relationships between species. He observed that no species – including humans – can exist in isolation from other living things. Yet in Yasuní, a tragic tradeoff between man and his environment looms.
9 Interntional Herald Tribune story, ‘Cruising for a crash in China’. China may be able to teach the world another lesson about what happens when speculative money learns that its favoured markets are panning out. In 2007 the US sub prime bubble collapsed into a still-smouldering heap when borrowers and speculators realised that real estate was topping out. In China, speculative investments do not promise an exact repeat of the sub-prime crisis, but the two have quite a few elements in common. Another possibility is that exports in China get hit by events in Europe or US.
10 The Economic Time on HDFC Asset Management Company, India’s top fund house being investigated for alleged front-running, the illegal practice of buying or selling of shares by employees of a mutual fund to generate profits for themselves before executing orders of clients.
11 Business Line story, ‘Environmentalists call for toilets on Everest’. Many groups bring expedition toilet cans, but a Sherpa says porters were more often left with little choice but the nearest snowdrift.
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