Families in China's milk scandal denounce payout

By GILLIAN WONG, Associated Press Writer


BEIJING – Chinese families whose babies suffered painful kidney stones from drinking tainted infant formula said Tuesday that a planned payout by dairies is too low and their lawyers pledged to continue attempts to sue for more compensation.

The release of details of the 1.1 billion yuan ($160 million) compensation plan and the opening of trials for those blamed for the contamination signal that authorities hope to end what was widely seen as a national disgrace, highlighting widespread food safety problems and corporate and official malfeasance.

Contaminated milk powder has been blamed for the deaths of at least six children and the sickening of nearly 300,000 others.

On Wednesday, the chairwoman of Sanlu Group Co., the dairy at the center of the scandal, will be tried for making shoddy products, the latest in a string of court appearances for more than a dozen suspects on charges related to contaminating milk with melamine, an industrial chemical.

But the moves offered little consolation to some parents who feel the government breached their trust after their children died or were sickened from milk powder certified by authorities as safe.

"If they offered me compensation, I won't accept, because what do I need this money for since my son is gone," said Tian Xiaowei, an apple farmer and part-time truck driver, whose year-old child Tian Jin died in August, apparently from drinking melamine-tainted milk powder.

"These people are making profit by letting people die," Tian said in a telephone interview from his home in central Shaanxi province. "If the information was made public earlier, I would not have let my son drink Sanlu powder and he wouldn't have died."

Tian said, if possible, he would like to attend the trials himself. "I want to see what these people look like. I really hate them."

Tian could receive 200,000 yuan ($29,000) in compensation for the death of his child, according to details of the payout plan reported Tuesday by the China Daily, an official newspaper. It was not clear, however, if Tian would receive any money because authorities have yet to include his son's death in the official tally, even though tests on milk powder the boy was drinking showed high levels of melamine.

Children who suffered kidney stones would get 2,000 yuan ($290) while sicker children would be paid 30,000 yuan ($4,380), the paper said. The one-time cash payments total 900 million yuan ($131 million), while another 200 million yuan ($29 million) will go to a fund set up to cover bills for lingering health problems.

But parents who received copies of the agreement considered the offer of 2,000 yuan to be woefully inadequate, said Beijing attorney Xu Zhiyong, who is part of a legal team representing 63 families.

The amount represents about one half of the per capita annual income for rural residents.

"I advised them not to sign it for the time being, as we would demand trials of those 22 dairy companies," said Xu, whose attempts to sue the companies involved have so far been rejected by the courts. "The compensation is too low and no victims were involved in the decision-making process."

Wang Zhenping, a wheat farmer in Henan whose 14-month-old son suffered kidney stones and liver damage from tainted milk, said the compensation didn't even cover medical expenses.

"If they really want to compensate, then they should try to make the victims happy. If they can't, I'd rather that they did not compensate at all," Wang said.

The trial of Sanlu's chairwoman and general manager, Tian Wenhua, begins Wednesday. Seventeen others were in court over the past few days with at least four facing the death penalty, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

Verdicts will be announced on an unspecified "selected date," Xinhua said.


source : news.yahoo.com

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Israel mulls truce offer on Day 4 of Gaza assault

By IBRAHIM BARZAK and AMY TEIBEL


GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israel is considering suspending its Gaza offensive to give Hamas militants an opening to halt their rocket fire, but the threat of a ground offensive remains if the truce does not hold, an Israeli defense official said Tuesday.

Israel's defense minister is to raise the proposal during a meeting of Israel's security Cabinet on Wednesday, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. Israel TV's Channel 10 also reported such a proposal.

At the same time, the security Cabinet will also be asked to consider various plans for a ground invasion, the defense official said.

The public rhetoric from Israeli officials has indicated they expect the operation to continue, and a Hamas spokesman said any truce was conditional on the opening of Gaza's borders.

Earlier Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the current, aerial phase of the operation was just "the first of several" that have been approved, an Olmert spokesman said.

But after four days of airstrikes against the symbols of Hamas power, there are few targets left beyond buildings evacuated days ago. On Tuesday, the biggest bomb load yet struck an empty Hamas government complex, as well as security installations and the home of a top militant commander.

Three Palestinians were reported killed Tuesday, compared to dozens in previous days. Since the offensive began Saturday, 368 Palestinians have been killed. More than 1,700 have been hurt, according to Gaza health officials.

Palestinian militants, meanwhile, kept up their rocket assaults on Israeli border communities, despite relentless Israeli air attacks against Gaza's Hamas rulers and unwelcome word from Egypt that it would not bail them out by ending its own blockade of Gaza crossings.

The question hanging over the Israeli operation is how it can halt rocket fire. Israel has never found a military solution to the barrage of missiles militants have fired into southern Israel.

Beyond delivering Hamas a deep blow and protecting border communities, the assault's broader objectives remained cloudy. Israeli President Shimon Peres acknowledged the challenge, saying the operation was unavoidable but more difficult than many people anticipated.

"War against terrorists is harder in some aspects than fighting armies," Peres said.

The Israeli air onslaught against Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers began Saturday, shortly after a rocky, six-month truce expired. Most were members of Hamas security forces but the number included at least 64 civilians, according to U.N. figures. Among those killed were two sisters, aged 4 and 11, who perished in an airstrike on a rocket squad in northern Gaza on Tuesday.

During brief lulls between airstrikes, Gazans tentatively ventured into the streets to buy goods and collect belongings from homes they had abandoned after Israel's aerial onslaught began Saturday.

Rasha Khaldeh, 22, from the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah, said she dared go no further than down the block to look for food.

"We just don't know what they are going to shell next. It's not safe," Khaldeh said.

The campaign has brought a new reality to southern Israel, too, where one-tenth of the country's population of 7 million has suddenly found itself within rocket range. Militants have pressed on with their rocket and mortar assaults, killing three Israeli civilians and a soldier and bringing a widening circle of targets into their sights with an arsenal of more powerful weapons.

The military estimated that close to 700,000 Israelis are now within rocket range, with the battles shifting closer to Israel's heartland. Of the four Israelis killed since the operation began Saturday, all but one were in areas that had not suffered fatalities before. On Tuesday, a Bedouin Arab town became one of the new targets.

"It's very scary," said Yaacov Pardida, a 55-year-old resident of Ashdod, southern Israel's largest city, which was hit Monday. "I never imagined that this could happen, that they could reach us here."

By mid-afternoon, gunmen had launched about a dozen rockets and mortars, down from 80 a day earlier, the Israeli military said. But the number of firings have fluctuated sharply throughout the day, and that number could dramatically rise by day's end.

A Hamas spokesman, Mushir Masri, said Tuesday any end to Israeli airstrikes is not enough.

If Israel halts "the aggression and the blockade, then Hamas will study these suggestions," he said of the truce unexpectedly floated on Tuesday. It was unclear whether he was offering his opinion or speaking for Hamas.

In the 72 hours since the offensive began, militants have fired off more than 250 rockets and mortars all told, they added.

"Zionists, wait for more from the resistance," Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan wrote in a text message to reporters, referring to militants' armed struggle against Israel.

The offensive comes on top of an Israeli blockade of Gaza that has largely kept all but essential goods from entering the coastal territory since Hamas violently seized control June 2007 from forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

At the United Nations on Monday, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon demanded an immediate cease-fire and urged Mideast and world leaders to do more to help end the Israeli-Hamas conflict and promote political dialogue.

He also urged urged Arab foreign ministers, who are holding an emergency meeting in Cairo on Wednesday, "to act swiftly and decisively to bring an early end to this impasse."

Egypt, which has been blockading Gaza from its southern end, has come under pressure from the rest of the Arab world to reopen its border with the territory because of the Israeli campaign. Egypt has pried open the border to let in some of Gaza's wounded and to allow some humanitarian supplies to enter the territory. But it quickly sealed the border when Gazans tried to push through forcefully.

In a televised speech Tuesday, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak responded to critics, including the leader of the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, who have accused him of collaborating with Israel.

"We tell anybody who seeks political profits on the account of the Palestinian people: The Palestinian blood is not cheap," he said, describing such comments as "exploiting the blood of the Palestinians."

Mubarak said his country would not throw open the border crossing unless Abbas regains control of the border post. Mubarak has been rattled by the presence of a neighboring Islamic ministate in Gaza, fearing it would fuel more Islamic dissidence in Egypt.

The initial wave of airstrikes took Gaza by surprise, targeting militants and Hamas security forces at key installations, often located in the midst of tiny Gaza's densely populated towns and cities.

But the government buildings targeted later were empty, as Gazans became fearful of venturing out into the streets. For Ziad Koraz, whose nearby home was damaged in the attack on the government compound Tuesday, that violence gratuitously put Gaza civilians at risk.

"More than 17 missiles were directed at an empty government compound, without regard for civilians who lived nearby," Koraz said. "If someone committed a crime, they should go after him, not after an entire nation."

Israel has allowed a trickle of aid through its cargo crossings with Gaza despite the military campaign, agreeing to allow 100 trucks in on Tuesday, defense officials said. Jordan, the Red Cross and the World Health Organization were also preparing to send medical supplies.

Israel's navy on Tuesday turned back a boat of pro-Palestinian protesters who had hoped to enter Gaza to demonstrate against the Israeli blockade.

The Israeli side of the border area was declared a closed military zone on Monday, obscuring operations in the area. But with thousands of ground troops, backed by tanks and artillery, massed on the border, and the air force knocking off target after target, the big question looming over the operation was whether it would expand to include a land invasion.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the operation would "expand as needed ... to restore tranquility to (Israel's) south and deliver a blow to Hamas so the rocket fire and other operations against the citizens and soldiers of Israel stop."

During the six-month truce that expired Dec. 19, gunmen fired 360 rockets and mortars, the vast majority in the agreement's waning weeks, the military said. In the year before it took hold, more than 4,300 projectiles were fired, it added.

Over the years, militants have improved the aim and range of the rockets. On Monday, a missile crashed into a bus stop in Ashdod, a city of 200,000 that is 23 miles (37 kilometers) from Gaza and only 25 miles (40 kilometers) from Israel's Tel Aviv heartland.

source : news.yahoo.com

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Aging Nation Faces Growing Hearing Loss

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID

SAN FRANCISCO - An aging U.S. population faces a looming crisis in hearing loss, researchers said Saturday. Some research holds promise, but much is in the early stages.

By 2050, there could be as many as 50 million people in the United States with impaired hearing, Steven Greenberg of Silicon Speech in Santa Venetia, Calif., told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Hearing loss results in social and psychological isolation, "which makes their life hell," Greenberg said.

Thanks to loud music and a generally noisy environment, young people have a rate of impaired hearing 2 1/2 times that of their parents and grandparents, he said.

Stefan Heller of Stanford University said research in restoring damaged hearing cells "is very much at the beginning and it's still a long, long road."

Inner and outer hair cells in the ear pick up sound vibrations and send them to the brain. Damage to outer cells causes hearing impairment which can be helped by hearing aides, he said. Damage to the inner cells cannot be repaired and causes deafness.

Heller said ear stem cells have been isolated in laboratory work and grown into cells that resembled hair cells.

"They're not perfect," he said. When placed in the ear of chicken embryos, most of the cells died. A few survived and were implanted into the inner ear. The next step, he said, is to try the experiment in mice.

Gene therapy is being tested in an effort to produce more hair cells in the ear. The result so far has been a type of hybrid cells and researchers are unsure whether they can get these cells to survive.

Heller said scientists in Japan are experimenting with drugs that seem to help spur the growth of hearing cells in young mice. The results in older mice are far less promising.

There seems to be something not yet understood that prevents new cell development in the inner ear. This is an area where cancer is not known to occur, he said, and an indication that something prevents cell development.

---

On the net:

American Association for the Advancement of Science:

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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Aging Nation Faces Growing Hearing Loss

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID

SAN FRANCISCO - An aging U.S. population faces a looming crisis in hearing loss, researchers said Saturday. Some research holds promise, but much is in the early stages.

By 2050, there could be as many as 50 million people in the United States with impaired hearing, Steven Greenberg of Silicon Speech in Santa Venetia, Calif., told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Hearing loss results in social and psychological isolation, "which makes their life hell," Greenberg said.

Thanks to loud music and a generally noisy environment, young people have a rate of impaired hearing 2 1/2 times that of their parents and grandparents, he said.

Stefan Heller of Stanford University said research in restoring damaged hearing cells "is very much at the beginning and it's still a long, long road."

Inner and outer hair cells in the ear pick up sound vibrations and send them to the brain. Damage to outer cells causes hearing impairment which can be helped by hearing aides, he said. Damage to the inner cells cannot be repaired and causes deafness.

Heller said ear stem cells have been isolated in laboratory work and grown into cells that resembled hair cells.

"They're not perfect," he said. When placed in the ear of chicken embryos, most of the cells died. A few survived and were implanted into the inner ear. The next step, he said, is to try the experiment in mice.

Gene therapy is being tested in an effort to produce more hair cells in the ear. The result so far has been a type of hybrid cells and researchers are unsure whether they can get these cells to survive.

Heller said scientists in Japan are experimenting with drugs that seem to help spur the growth of hearing cells in young mice. The results in older mice are far less promising.

There seems to be something not yet understood that prevents new cell development in the inner ear. This is an area where cancer is not known to occur, he said, and an indication that something prevents cell development.

---

On the net:

American Association for the Advancement of Science:

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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Brain Affects Hearing

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

New Year’s Eve is marked by constant celebration and time spent with friends, but if you find yourself straining to hear, it’s your brain - not your ears - that could be to blame.

Scientists are now learning why and how age affects the brain's dimmer switch for controlling the level of input from your ears.

Researchers say if you have trouble understanding conversation in a noisy room, you're experiencing what's sometimes called the cocktail party problem.

It’s just one of the first signs of an age-related hearing loss; it affects one-third of adults ages 65 to 75.

Scientists want to slow down or reverse hearing loss, and are trying to discover why our hearing goes downhill with age.

Researchers say they’re still trying to determine what else besides the dimmer switch contributes the cocktail party problem.

"I think it's a significant player," said Robert Frisina of the University of Rochester in New York, who is studying it.

Scientists understand that the brain can receive signals from the ears, and also talk back to them. So, when there's too much noise, the dimmer-switch brain circuitry tells the ears to reduce their flow of signals to the brain.

Frisina said since background noise at a party tends to be lower-pitched than speech sounds, the dimmer switch probably can block out that distracting noise more than it does the speech.

In 2002, Frisina and colleagues published evidence that the dimmer switch effectiveness declines with age.

They noted the same trends occur in mice, which meant they could study those animals to get clues to what's going on in people.

Frisina hopes to use genetically altered mice to focus his studies on particular parts of the dimmer switch circuitry. There is some evidence that shortcomings in this wiring harm the inner ear as well, he said.

While it is not yet clear how big a role the dimmer switch plays in the cocktail party problem, Frisina's work "makes a good case that it's got to be one of the important factors," said Charles Liberman, who directs a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.


Source: redorbit.com

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3 Leaders Meeting of Asia for the World Economy

Fukuoka, FRIDAY - The leaders of Japan, China and South Korea will discuss cooperation which includes the transfer of currency, territorial issues, and the global financial crisis in the meeting will be held Saturday (13/12) in the city of Fukuoka, southern Japan. Financial issues expected to dominate the agenda of the trilateral conference.

"The problem of the international economy will be a top priority," said the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan Kazuo Kodama. Kodama explained, a number of other problems that will be discussed in the conference is the effort to strip North Korea's nuclear weapons program leave and establish a combined effort in responding to a number of natural disasters, such as earthquake, hurricane, and climate change.

Prime Minister of Japan Taro Aso will attend the bilateral negotiations with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak before receiving Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. The third leader of this country and trilateral negotiations scheduled to follow the meal and dinner statesman.

"Third country leaders will spend time during the 4 hours in order to discuss a number of issues widely," said Kodama. The three leaders of East Asian countries is often the Sea conference on the sidelines of the international meeting in the wider scale. However, this will be the first time the three leaders of a country to follow the conference independently.

South Korea hopes that bilateral meetings will be attended by the leaders of this country can produce agreements with neighboring countries is to open greater access to their forex reserves. Seoul worried that the crisis can terlilit forex reserves due to lunge financial crisis.

To buttress currency, won, in the midst of the global financial crisis, the South Korean government wants to widen the agreement "transfer of the currency" with Tokyo and Beijing to 30 billion U.S. dollars for each country.

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European Crisis Worries Preps

Paris, FRIDAY - atrocities that occurred during the six days in Greece feared spread to a number of other countries in the European region. Political observer from the University of Florence, Roberto d'Alimonte, Friday (12/12), fear the unrest will easily occur in other countries if there are appropriate triggered.

The crisis in Greek begins shooting of a teenager by the police. Action to worsen because of protests triggered strong opposition protest action on the right wing government.

Concerns that has been proven with similar protests at the offices of the Greek Embassy in Italy, France and Spain. "If there is a trigger that, there will be protests and riots exactly as in Greek. We can not ignore the phenomenon tiru-mimic. Now young people in the middle of Italy also worry and frustration will be the future. Greek intensifying the crisis conditions that exist, "said D'Alimonte.

Today, from Spain, Lopez Andreu, asserts, economic and political conditions Greek more serious compared with other countries in Europe.


"The crisis is not Greek may occur in Spain. Youth in Spain have more opportunities. Assistance to them is also more than any other country, either in the form of scholarships or financial assistance to families, "said Lopez who had examined the world's youth in Spain.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy to request the government will be careful about the emergence of protest movements or even rebellion issues related economic crisis and high conditions of community life. When talking with the assistants and their supporters, Sarkozy believes, the economic crisis could trigger protests. "See what happens only in Greek," he said.

Former French PM from the Socialist Party, Laurent Fabius, also gave a similar warning. "When experiencing depression terbelit economic and social problems, need only a small lighter to ignite the fire everywhere," he told Radio Europe 1.

Issues related protests have occurred in the Greek Embassy in the Greek city of Bordeaux, France. Two cars burned. Previously, the office of the Greek Embassy in Moscow, Russia, and Rome, Italy, also dilempari with molotov bombs.

Around 11 demonstrators were arrested in Spain when the collision occurred in Madrid and Barcelona. Protests with violence is led groups that also left sympathetic to the Greek.

As in Greece, students in France, Spain, Italy and the action so angry protests. The government has been less attention to the universities. In the last month thousands of Italian youths protest high levels of youth unemployment, which reached more than 23 percent.

France also has the same problems. Protests among students is not that strange in France. The politicians concerned about protests from students and students to the middle class will trigger widespread unrest and immigrant youth from middle class to the bottom.

Issues protests spread

In Greek, clash between police and young people still occur, especially in the city of Athens. Around 4,000 students back down the road to engage collide with and threw molotov bombs and dibalas with tear gas.

The more serious protests triggered exasperation and frustration against the government related corruption scandals and economic crisis.

"The government is unable to start the problem. The government squeezed between the desire to take a hard or soft action. If hard acts, it computed the military junta has returned, "said Athens resident, Yannis Kalaitzakis (49).

Widespread protests in Greece to protest over the economic crisis and difficulties daily. Protester began to spread the demand more jobs and increase the minimum wage. The observer believes, if the crisis is not immediately addressed, will appear on social issues that egregious.

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Prepare for UN Resolution suppress piracy

New York, THURSDAY - the United States, Thursday (11/12), distribute a draft resolution on piracy off the coast of Somalia. Resolution is intended to give the green light to pursue pirate even to the land of Somalia.

Diplomatic sources said the first high-level officials was held Thursday. If the negotiations run smoothly, the draft resolution is expected to officially become a future resolution on Tuesday.

If accepted, it will be a resolution of the four rules of the UN Security Council since June related to piracy off the coast of Somalia.


In the text of the resolution is mentioned, countries that have been involved in the fight against piracy off the coast of Somalia are allowed to do various actions necessary to the Somali coast, including areas the air. It aims to prevent them using the territory of Somalia to plan, facilitate, or piracy or armed piracy at sea.

Resolution also calls on countries and international organizations to develop mechanisms for international cooperation to act. This is necessary as a foothold with the various related aspects in the fight against piracy off the coast of Somalia.

Coordination center

The resolution also encourages the formation of a central coordination of the regional information related to piracy in Somalia. At least 17 ships currently
hostage the Somali pirate.

When giving a speech at a conference in Nairobi, some time ago, Ahmedou Ould Abdallah, the UN Special envoys to Somalia, proclaim the need for resolute action against the pirate and supporters and urged more international commitment to stabilize Somalia.

"The increasing piracy really outside estimates. This is threatening freedom and safety of world trade

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this is 72 Cars safest

Washington, first - Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) United States has set as 72 cars as the safest vehicle. Rating based on how the car is to protect the motorcycle rider during the accident, both from the front, side and rear. Then the car is equipped with anti-rollover technology called Electronic Stability Control (ESC).

"From all of that amount, for the 2009 style, the Ford Motor Co. and Volvo are on top as the safest car by placing each of 16 vehicles. In the vision behind Honda Motor Co. with 13 vehicles, "a spokesman IIHS, Tuesday (25/11).


There are some cars have received two awards this time (for vehicle output 2008) even three times (2007). According to the IIHS president, Adrian Lund, the assessment system'm not seen in terms of safety against pendara motorcycle. The team from the jury to evaluate the results of crash tests by placing the person (a doll) in front, side and rear. Equipped with ESC, the car must be seringan may not be until pedestrian, motorcycle rider and people who are in the car.

About the ESC, according to the IIHS has become estándar equipment on the cars and SUVs the size passenger car model of three-quarters of 2009. "Every year we continue the development of quality, fuel efficiency and safety," says Alan Mulally, Ford CEO.

This is the safest car-72

LARGE CARS
Honda Acura RL
Audi A6
Cadillac CTS
Ford Taurus
Ford Lincoln MKS
Mercury Sable
Toyota Avalon
Volvo S80

MIDSIZE CARS
Honda Acura TL
Honda Acura TSX
Audi A3
Audi A4
BMW 3-Series (4-door)
Ford Fusion (with optional ESC)
Honda Accord (4-door)
Mercedes C Class
Mercury Milan (with optional ESC)
Saab 9-3
Subaru Legacy
Volkswagen Jetta
Volkswagen Passat

MIDSIZE CONVERTIBLES
Saab 9-3
Volkswagen Eos
Volvo C70

SMALL CARS
Honda Civic (4-door with optional ESC, except Si)
Mitsubishi Lancer (with optional ESC)
Scion xB
Subaru Impreza (with optional ESC)
Toyota Corolla (with optional ESC)
Volkswagen Rabbit (4-door)

MINI CAR
Honda Fit (with optional ESC)

MINIVANS
Honda Odyssey
Hyundai Entourage
Kia Sedona

LARGE SUVs
Audi Q7
Buick Enclave
Chevrolet Traverse
GMC Acadia
Saturn Outlook


MIDSIZE SUVs
Honda Acura MDX
Honda Acura RDX
BMW X3
BMW X5
Ford Edge
Ford Flex
Ford Taurus X
Honda Pilot
Hyundai Santa Fe
Hyundai Veracruz
Infiniti EX35
Ford Lincoln MKX
Mercedes M Class
Nissan Murano
Saturn Vue
Subaru Tribeca
Toyota FJ Cruiser
Toyota Highlander
Volvo XC90

SMALL SUVs
Ford Escape
Honda CR-V
Honda Element
Mazda Tribute
Mercury Mariner
Mitsubishi Outlander
Nissan Rogue
Subaru Forester
Toyota RAV4
Volkswagen Tiguan

LARGE PICKUPS
Ford F-150
Honda Ridgeline
Toyota Tundra

SMALL PICKUP
Toyota Tacoma

SBT
souce : AP

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When the crisis and the Global Exchange fell

PLAYERS see the value of shares reduced the money in front of the eye. The share price was very high and then continue in a short time. Now, there are comprised shares cheaper instead of candy.

Optimism, which blooms in every corner of floor trading shares now difficult to find positive expectations in the labyrinth of stock. Put little hope that stock prices did not fall today or tomorrow is very difficult.


This is not a provocation. Sales at random (Its sellling) is a scenic day-to-day. Seems no more appropriate word choice to describe the situation of the market craze. Not only investors. Not a bit of a distraught management emiten extinguish the fire burning the stock market, including shares own company.

It seems as if only one word that was heard in the market ... selling ... selling ... selling ...! So, the more share price. Index stock prices continue Store. The number of shares to decline more than the price of the shares increased in price. If they had slightly increased with the scramble, a glance can be destroyed with no clear reasons juntrungannya.

The combined share price index (IHSG), for example, continues to reach the lowest point oppressive new every day. No exception Kompas100 Index, which is usually more than a respite with the index-stock index other. also the weakening of rupiah exchange rate.

Not only the Jakarta stock market exchange. The whole world also recorded a decline. In fact, many stock index falling more, bigger, instead of the index and stock prices in the Indonesian Stock Exchange.

The existence of the business cycle. After reaching a point , the cycle will move up. Is the U.S. stock market conditions have reached a point nadir to rise again? No one knows. Lament market conditions are not useful. Risk always adheres closely to the investment. How big is the potential loss of image due to the fall of the investor stock market, is also the risk that .

Strengthen domestic market

With the recession, sluggish business, and decrease the rate of economic growth that occurred in the United States, Europe and Japan, it is apparent that what happened in Indonesia. The three main export destination is a product of Indonesia. Demand for products from Indonesia can degenerate so that the company's manufacturing and producers of primary products (agricultural, mining, fisheries and plantations) to market its products difficulties. Indonesia's export income from there to shrink.

The issue becomes more complicated because the company must bear the additional burden of the weakening of the rupiah so that the rupiah to pay for debt and import raw materials to be inflated. Overwritten with the burden of interest rate bank loans. Moreover, now appear thrust and movement "does not want to know" from workers that the company raise the minimum wage. The lengkaplah complexity of the issue of the business world, including emiten.

In such conditions, the threat of termination of the working relationship between workers and companies more open. Unemployment stands, it means that the purchasing power of the community overall decline. A decline in purchasing power will be pressing demand products and services, the company that produced the complete decline in the business world.

Strengthening the domestic market in the sense that domestic demand is still high Indeed become the focus for the company to extend the endurance of his life.

However, the matter is not easy to reverse the palms. Market in the country that oppressed by the people's purchasing power, the possibility of future domestic market are also dumping of goods from abroad, also gape wide-width. This makes sense because the companies overseas are also trying to find other markets after the domestic market is oppressed.

Strengthening the domestic market there is no other way, except to maintain the purchasing power of the community remain high. One way that can be done is to accelerate the absorption of the central government budget and governance in the region. Because, there are now around Rp 90 trillion of funds for local governments to be put in the bank to enjoy the interest that banks also increased.

By the way, especially if the budget is used for the unemployed to encourage the development of infrastructure to absorb a lot of employment, other than a security valve for labor, also could be a fire penyulut economic growth continues on, create jobs, goods and demand remain. The Company continues to be in production, in the emiten including the stock exchange. Itukah some way out of this crisis. Of course complex. However, steps are simple without any implementation are also not produce results.

Banking, which still have large funds of the "unemployed" must also have a commitment to save the economy of this nation. Kucurkanlah funds to micro entrepreneurs, businessmen, entrepreneurs, small scale and without the intention of respite mengemplang that, in order to create business, employment and income for the community. they represent efforts to access funding, by reducing bureaucracy and requirements that are difficult to be fulfilled them.

The regulators, including the supervisor of capital markets and money markets, must improve the sharpness of their supervision of the behavior of the "players" who diawasinya. Improve the integrity of the market, enforcing the rules, regulations and make the prevention of bad behavior can not be to maintain investor confidence in the market. Without the efforts and simultaneously significantly to overcome the problem, clearly the direction of the economy, including the stock market as the window, prospective dismals also.

Collect the potential

What is most interesting is now done by? Executive property AH Marhendra states, consolidation is the absolute most things done. Collect all the potential to become energy scattered strong to stand upright in the middle of a storm crisis. Formula others, streamline management, cut the budget does not need to. However, on the other hand, spend large to very active in all lines of the market.

Marhendra believe there are many niche markets that have not yet tapped, is still large potential market that is hidden in the surrounding community, including in the various provinces. "Every day there is a marriage and child birth. No they may not need a house. Kan is not always good to sleep in the house beautiful spot, "said Marhendra, COO SpringHill. On the other hand, the property company's creative team must work hard designing a house that nice, solid, but at the same time affordable. This is the challenge companies properties, the company also in other areas of business,

Senior developer Ciputra states, he asks all staff members work in production and very efficient. Property development to meet the priority needs of consumers, not for show. Ciputra also always believed, in the current crisis as there is always a slit for the players entered the property. In all there are always opportunities crisis, there is always room for berimprovisasi and themselves. Senior developers, it will continue until the project is finished. The complete two more years, the crisis is expected by the community and purchasing power has been restored. At the time, the products are all consumers.

The same trick is done other developers, Puri Botanical Garden, Jakarta. CEO of this company, Sanusi Tanawi, stated, the company was lucky because not unduly affected by the storm of economic crisis the world is tremendous.

In general can be a problem of red yarn, does not disprove that there is a storm of the economic crisis took the world out. However, companies that have a reputation of not hopeless. They had opened a moments creativity and innovation. They exert all energy to compete in the very narrow space with the other business people. Interestingly, there is not a quiver, all believe the best strategy has won a narrow market niche. Interesting waiting who prepare the formula most telling. Who can afford the biggest meraup profit during the crisis. That would be able to do so is the company that connoisseurs.

Andi Suruji,Abun Sanda

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Starting from the education business

Many complained that to open a business opportunity is not there. This is a classic complaint that can not be with us again. Indeed, to start a business we can do with a variety of ways, one with the education that we have. Jerry Yang and David Filo, the founders of Yahoo start a business with education. They are students from Stanford University.Yahoo started from the back parking lots is now growing rapidly.Jerry Yang and David Filo started the business from small and simple.
Jerry Yang describes the discovery that Yahoo is "an accident" when he and Filo tesisnya complete. Filo and that this launch Yahoo when they sit in the universities, before they complete studies. They start doing business with the listing several web sites that they like and write some software that allows a website to get other web sites that will be placed on a web portal called. At the time established in 1994, named Terry's Guide To The World Wide Web. When they know that their sites visited by people from 90 countries, spontaneously say "Yahoo" and finally the words that are used to name their company. In 1999, Yahoo reach star status. Net income in quadruplicate fourth quarter of 57.6 million, while revenue jump from 91 million dollars into 201 million dollars. Now, Yahoo is the best portal in 2002

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Learning From Failure

Failure is a label that often we connect with an action that is not successful, and so applied, the label is to make people who said we could not afford. This is the spirit lower our people to become successful. At the time we are still small, the failure does not have meaning, because we do not have the concept of "failure". If we have the concept of failure, then we will not be able to speak, will not be able to write and will not be running. Due to speak, write and walk through failure that must be incalculable amount. Similarly in the business world can also emulate a failure in our infancy and we can learn from the failure.



Coca-Cola experienced a failure in the first year of sales. Sales made by Coca-Cola beverages in place in the front desk and spend 73.96 dollars to the campaign through banner ads and coupons. Failure to make the Coca-Cola to create awareness of other media, the mass media, which have more strength disbanding other media at that time and promote Coca-Cola with the atmosphere of merriment.

Matsushita accounted for the first time is a plug adapter. This adapter has indeed proposal to previous employers, but do not get a response. To create this product, along with four Matsushita i take four months. Once the product is so, it appeared that no one would buy this product.

In 1993, Compaq, which at the time as the sale of the PC market leaders, through cutting the price to rival Dell. The result Dell Computer suffer losses 65 million dollars in the first six months, which caused almost bankrupt. Dell to learn from failure. He tried to find other ways to sell computers. Dell eventually make a very fundamental change in business process re-engineering that is called. in the business introduce the E-Commerce. In 1999, Dell can sell 1.7 million dollars per day through the site E-Commerce. Dell shares rose 2,000 percent in two years. Dell is able to competer with world-class companies such as IBM, Compaq, HP, and Bell-NEC. Even the market share and profits continue to increase and eventually become the largest PC seller in the world.

When I started the business with friends, I experienced repeated failure of the back. I started with the failure of a book salesman, salesmen telex by phone, and car salesmen pengkilap materials. Primagama that only get 2 students in this campaign has been doing quite frequently. CV. Wijaya, the company that serves the car care services, which eventually die. Similarly start a business center computer education "IMKI", only 3 students and AMIKOM trusted by only 6 students. I'm with friends to try to learn from failure, and then make corrections and fix to achieve success

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Top Computer Magazine

Since 1976, Dr. Dobb’s has led the computers press in covering practical technology. Unlike many magazines and web sites that focus exclusively on a single platform, language, or even a single development tool, Dr. Dobb’s has 30 years of experience covering all languages, platforms, and tools. Our authors, like our readers, are professional software developers and architects who want to explore new tecnologies, argue over programming style, share tricks of the trade, and build world-class systems worldwide.

source : www. ddj.comjavascript:void(0)

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STRATEGY AND MARKETING SALES individuals INDIRECT

Individuals Sales Program

Sales of individuals (personal Selling) is the communication of personal charge of trying to inform consumers about a product and inveigle to buy these products. Sales of individuals is a form of communication that is more appropriate, because the sales the company to ensure individuals in communicating with direct contact with prospective customers that special.


Goals from sales of various individuals is dependent on the role of communication in the integrated long-term prospective consumers find cover, to provide information to potential consumers, coax prospective customers to buy and maintain customer satisfaction through service after sales. To achieve these objectives1.3. Individuals Sales Program

Sales of individuals (personal Selling) is the communication of personal charge of trying to inform consumers about a product and inveigle to buy these products. Sales of individuals is a form of communication that is more appropriate, because the sales the company to ensure individuals in communicating with direct contact with prospective customers that special.
Goals from sales of various individuals is dependent on the role of communication in the integrated long-term prospective consumers find cover, to provide information to potential consumers, coax prospective customers to buy and maintain customer satisfaction through service after sales. To achieve these objectives trade not only skilled in selling, but also must understand the technical characteristics of the product. not only skilled in selling, but also must understand the technical characteristics of the product.
Most companies use trade and many companies entrust their important role as the holder of the mixture of marketing. Trade cluster is very effective to achieve a certain target marketing. Entry based on a survey of the Frontier is a Top Brand in the insurance sector by relying on Java trade approximately 22 thousand people to Bumiputera insurance products are easy to obtain. Nevertheless, they need high cost. Management should give careful thought to plan and develop sources of sales personnel.
Pattern cluster wiraniaga requires decisions about targets, strategy, structure, size and benefits, shown in Figure 1:20. Targets include trade search of new buyers, sales and communication services, information collection, and allocation. goals sales will determine the type of trade that needed to be recruited. Skills trade find new buyers with different skills trade to serve consumers who are already there. Bumiputera raise the sales target in the trade around 32%, or approximately Rp. 4.5 trillion from the goals in 2006 around Rp.3, 4 to 7 trillion with the regional office, the 46 branches of sharia in almost all major cities in Indonesia, the vision and skills to understand trade compliant products for the branch is very necessary.
Strategies are cluster trade mixture of problems and approach the most effective sales (single sales, sales teams and so forth). trade strategy is to the right customer at the right time with the right way. After the type of sales approach is determined, then the company can choose trade directly or by contract.

Trade truss structure is a choice between the settings / organization by region, product, customer or a mix of these options, and determine the size and shape appropriate areas. Strategy cluster trade have impact on the structure of cluster trade. The structure of the region is used when a company sells a line of products in the industry with the end-user customers in many locations. While the structure of the product or market, if the company sells many products on many types of customers.
The size of cluster trade include estimates of the burden of work and the number of working hours and therefore the required number of trade. Trade cluster size is a function of the type used trade, the desired sales targets and interests of individuals in the sales programs that integrated marketing communications. Trade importance of the size of the cluster because the company must balance the cost of which was issued in the sales and income generated.
Trade cluster benefits also include the determination of the level of payment and payment components, such as salaries, commissions, bonuses, allowances and fees. Trade to attract high quality, the company must develop an attractive benefits package.


Source: Philip Kotler and Kevin Keller, Marketing Management, 2006

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