2. BRUSSELS: European Union President Herman Van Rompuy played
down on Thursday his comment that the future of the 27-nation union was
at stake because of debt problems experienced by some countries, such as
Ireland .
Van Rompuy said in a prepared speech that his statement this week that the
EU was "in a survival crisis" had referred to the situation from April and
May when Greece's ballooning budget deficit brought the euro zone to the
brink of a crisis.
He said his remark did not point to the current debt problems of Ireland.
Since the Greek crisis, the euro zone had set up an emergency aid
mechanism to help euro zone members.
3. He stressed that he was confident the euro zone would overcome its
current problems and that he had never questioned the ability of the
euro zone to survive.
He said the euro zone's economic situation was generally sound,
although divergences, such as between Germany and Greece ,
needed to be corrected.
"We are in a survival crisis," he told the European Policy Centre.
"We all have to work together in order to survive with the euro zone
because if we don't survive with the euro zone, we will not survive
with the European Union."
4. For 18 minutes on April 8, a Chinese state-owned telecommunications firm
rerouted email traffic to and from websites of the US Senate, the
Department of Defense, along with "many others" including NASA and
Department of Commerce, said the US- China Economic and Security
Review Commission's annual report.
Some 15 percent of the Internet's entire traffic was routed through the
Chinese servers during this brief period, said the report.
The efforts of Chinese individuals and organizations to penetrate US
networks "appear to be more sophisticated than techniques used in the
past," cautioned commission vice chair Carolyn Bartholomew.
"The massive scale and the extensive intelligence and reconnaissance
components of recent high profile, China-based computer exploitations
suggest that there continues to be some level of state support for these
activities," Bartholomew said.
.
5. NEW DELHI: Computer maker HP India today launched its new
interactive digital device 'DreamScreen', priced at Rs19,999.
The touch-based device will offer content through the Internet like
education, video chat, e-mail, movies and news.
"The device is designed to offer features and content to each
member of the family. Users can browse internet, get the latest news
and play games, providing a PC-like experience," HP India vice
president and general manager (Personal Systems Group) Sunil Dutt
told reporters here.
The product will be available in the market from November 25
through 700 outlets across 60 cities
6. General Motors Co's swift journey from dying company to
blockbuster IPO is a remarkable story by any measure.
Yet President Barack Obama and his Democrats have received little
political credit for it, even though White House "car czars"
engineered the transformation as they shepherded the automaker
through a goverment-sponsored bankruptcy.
A desire to limit further political damage well ahead of the 2012
presidential election could influence the Obama administration's exit
strategies for remaining taxpayer investments in GM , Chrysler
Holdings , American International Group and smaller banks.
7. Obama trumpeted GM's journey as a "success story" and said taxpayers
were on track to recover more from the automaker than the $30 billion his
administration spent on the restructuring. That does not count the nearly
$20 billion spent during the Bush administration in 2008 to bail out GM.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the administration was hopeful
the government could be fully out of its GM investment by mid- to late
2012.
8. Apple Inc is bringing its mobile advertising network to European markets,
on the heels of its early success in the United States.
The company launch the iAd network in the United Kingdom and France
in December, and in Germany in January.
Apple launched the network in the United States in July. It competes with a
host of rivals, including Google Inc , in the small but fast-growing mobile
advertising market.
Apple said iAd would launch in Europe with ads from L'Oreal, Renault,
Louis Vuitton , LG Display, Anheuser-Busch InBev and others. The service
places ads within apps on mobile device such as the iPhone.
Apple said it had signed up more than half of the top 25 leading U.S.
national advertisers.
