India retail opening cheers big local firms, disappoints others (Reuters)

MUMBAI (Reuters) ? India's move to open its supermarket sector to foreign investors brought relief to its capital-starved local chains but failed to impress small-shop owners who dominate retail in the country, despite rules intended to safeguard small operators.

New Delhi approved its biggest reform in years by allowing global supermarket giants such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Tesco to enter India with a 51 percent stake in the hope it would attract capital to build much-needed supply chains and improve efficiency to alleviate food-driven inflation.

"This is an extremely important step for domestic retailers as this will get in much-needed capital, apart from domain knowledge," said Thomas Varghese, chief executive of Aditya Birla Retail.

Chain stores account for just 6 percent of a $500 billion retail market dominated by street stalls and corner shops.

Many Indian chains are cash-strapped and loss-making, struggling to build scale given high costs, poor supply chains and scarce real estate and have been eyeing equity investments and joint venture partnerships with global firms to build scale.

Vijay Karwal, head of consumer, retail and healthcare for Asia at Royal Bank of Scotland based in Hong Kong expects more than $5 billion in foreign investment into the Indian retail sector over the next five to seven years.

Given the relative lack of modern retail infrastructure in India, and particularly in the enabling back-end infrastructure ... the vast majority of investment this change is expected to trigger would be greenfield investment into new retail sites and infrastructure," he said.

Shares in Indian retailers Pantaloon Retail, Shoppers Stop, Trent jumped -- bucking a fall in the wider stock market -- on expectations that they will form tie-ups with foreign players, and not just compete with them.

Debashish Mukherjee, partner and vice-president at consultancy firm AT Kearney, expects joint ventures and investments in local players from overseas operators over the next six months.

"The set of transactions which will happen fast is foreign players who are in existing joint ventures with Indian firms, the increase or decrease in stake, will happen quickly," he said. "The second are a set of deals that are waiting to happen and have been just waiting for the announcement."

SMALL SHOPS UNHAPPY

To appease opponents, the government said foreign stores will only be permitted in cities of more than 1 million -- of which India has more than 50 -- and individual states can decide whether to allow global players on to their patch.

It also insists that foreign retailers source almost a third of their produce from small industries, invest at least $100 million in India and spend half of that on infrastructure such as cold storage and warehouses.

Many small shop owners fear for their livelihoods.

"It will affect my business as families prefer going to air-conditioned stores with fancy packaged goods these days," said Vinod Jain, a 27-year-old small grocery shop owner in the Lower Parel neighborhood of central Mumbai.

A trade group representing so-called "kirana" shop owners is planning protests.

"The move to let the foreign retailers in will most certainly lead to job losses," said Praveen Khandelwal, general secretary of the Confederation of All India Traders.

"They should have worked on some kind of protectionist mechanism for smaller traders before coming out with this policy," he said.

Foreign retailers who welcomed the Indian government's move to open the sector also view the entry conditions with caution.

"Some of the conditions look quite stringent. The investment in particular -- it's all quite big money. We'd need to know the details, and how that would be accounted for," said an official with a major global retailer who did not wish to be identified.

(Additional reporting by Sumedha Deo in Mumbai, Saeed Azhar in Singapore and Mark Potter in London, Editing by Tony Munroe)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/india/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111125/india_nm/india607327

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The nation's weather (AP)

The Eastern US remains quiet on Friday, while rain and snow persists in the West and showers and thunderstorms move into the Southern Plains. A ridge of high pressure continues building over the Mississippi River Valley to the Eastern Seaboard. This will allow for a warming trend to persist, as the ridge pushes moisture away and creates sunny skies. Expect highs to vary in the 50s and 60s across most of the Northeast and Ohio River Valley, about 5 to 10 degrees warmer than seasonable.

In the West, a low pressure system and associated cold front that brought rain and light snow to the Sierras will take an eastward turn over the Southern Rockies. In the afternoon and evening hours, this system will reach into the Southern Plains, triggering scattered showers and thunderstorms. Some of these storms may turn severe over Oklahoma and northern Texas, which will be capable of producing periods of heavy rain, damaging winds, and possibly some hail.

To the north, a trough of low pressure advances eastward from the Pacific Northwest, bringing heavy snow to the Intermountain West and Northern Rockies. Expect snow showers to slowly diminish for the Pacific Northwest, while Idaho and Montana will see 8 to 12 inches of snow. Strong winds will also accompany the system with gusts from 30 to 45 mph, up to 60 mph at highest mountain peaks. Thus, winter weather and high wind advisories have been issued across the region. Please take caution on the roads and traveling over high mountain passes. Temperatures in the Lower 48 states Thursday ranged from a morning low of 5 degrees at Clayton Lake, Maine, to a high of 81 degrees at Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/weather/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111125/ap_on_re_us/us_weatherpage_weather

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Obama promotes shops on "Small Business Saturday" (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? President Barack Obama, eager to spur growth and hiring, took his daughters on an early Christmas shopping trip on Saturday in Washington as the U.S. retail sector got its vital holiday season underway.

Promoting "Small Business Saturday", the second annual event to help Main Street merchants in a tough U.S. economy, Obama visited a local bookstore with Malia, 13, and Sasha, 10, in the diverse, upscale Du Pont Circle area of downtown Washington.

"This is Small Business Saturday so we're out here supporting small businesses," said Obama, standing next to Malia who was hugging an armful of books to her chest.

To help merchants at the start of the most important shopping season of the year, Obama signed a message of support on Wednesday that noted small businesses "are the backbone of our economy and the cornerstones of our nation's promise."

On Saturday, when five-year-old Alexander Lee Mussehl stepped up to the president to say hello, the president told him he was getting an early start on Christmas shopping.

Alexander's grandmother Susan Lee, who brought him to the well-known Kramer's bookstore, got to shake Obama's hand.

"I wish I would've said something wonderful, told him to chin up, that he's doing a wonderful job," she told reporters. "It appears from the polls that there aren't many of us who think so. I wish I could have pulled myself together and told him."

Obama's approval ratings have been dented by unemployment stuck at 9 percent, and his hopes for re-election next year hinge on getting more people back to work and lifting the country's fragile recovery.

The Obamas bought eight books, including "Diary of a Wimpy Kid Cabin Fever" by Jeff Kinney; "Descent into Chaos" by Ahmed Rashid; "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" by Brian Selznick, and the Pulitzer-Prize winning "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz.

(Reporting by Alina Selyukh, editing by Philip Barbara)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111126/pl_nm/us_obama_business

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Colleges defend humanities amid tight budgets (AP)

HARTFORD, Conn. ? Like many humanities advocates, Abbey Drane was disheartened but not surprised when Florida's governor recently said its tax dollars should bolster science and high-tech studies, not "educate more people who can't get jobs in anthropology."

Drane, a 21-year-old anthropology major at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, has spent years defending her choice to pursue that liberal arts field.

And now, as states tighten their allocations to public universities, many administrators say they're feeling pressure to defend the worth of humanities, too, and shield the genre from budget cuts. One university president has gone as far as donating $100,000 of her own money to offer humanities scholarships at her school.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott's comments last month cut to the heart of the quandary: whether emphasizing science, math and medical fields gives students the best career prospects and a high-tech payback to society, and whether humanities fields are viewed as more of an indulgence than a necessity amid tight budget times.

"You can definitely feel the emphasis on campus, even just based on where the newest buildings go, that there is a drive toward the sciences, engineering and (the) business school," said Drane, a senior from Plymouth, Mass. "I'm constantly asked what job opportunities I'll have in anthropology or what I'm going to do with my degree, and I tell people that it's giving me a skill set and critical thinking you can apply to anything."

Humanities studies peaked in U.S. colleges in the 1960s and started dwindling in the 1970s as more students pursued business and technology and related fields. Today, more than 20 percent of each year's bachelor's degrees are granted in business; in humanities, it's about 8 percent.

Liberal arts colleges, too, have declined. A study published in 2009 by Inside Higher Ed said that of 212 liberal arts colleges identified in 1990, only 137 were still operating by 2009.

At Amherst College in western Massachusetts, a healthy endowment makes closing the doors a remote possibility at best. But its president, Carolyn "Biddy" Martin, experienced the same concerns about the humanities in her previous job as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and was tapped this year to serve on a commission for the American Academy of Arts & Sciences to review the issue.

Martin said many universities struggle with declining enrollment in those fields, making the classes an easy budget target if their worth is not defended.

"There are more and more people in higher education ? and I hope political leaders ? who are understanding that an over-leaning emphasis on the sciences to the expense of the humanities is not a good thing for the country," she said.

Therein lays the debate for many, though, including Gov. Scott in Florida, who is unapologetic about his push to direct tax dollars toward rapidly growing science, technology, engineering and math fields, known collectively as STEM.

And since state governments control nearly two-thirds of all higher education funding, according to the National Governors Association, their embrace or disregard for humanities can affect the study paths of hundreds of thousands of students.

The governors' organization published recommendations for states this year on how to align their higher education priorities with their labor markets and economic development, citing Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio and Washington for "bold, comprehensive strategies" in those efforts.

It did not advise state governments to move money from humanities, but said it's "often challenging" to get the universities to participate in economic development, partly because of "their emphasis on broad liberal arts education."

Advocates say STEM fields also provide tangible returns for states, universities and businesses through patent royalties, new products and the prestige of achieving scientific breakthroughs ? paybacks far less evident among, say, new intellectual insights by scholars of Geoffrey Chaucer's literature, devotees of Frederic Chopin's nocturnes or adherents to Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialist views.

"People feel like there are no real careers open for people studying in the liberal arts and I don't think that's true at all," said John Beck, 20, a senior from Newton, Mass., who's majoring in philosophy at the University of Connecticut.

His father and two grandparents are doctors, and his mother and brother are both pharmaceutical scientists. He is double majoring in economics and plans to attend law school, a decision that eased his parents' concerns about his philosophy studies because they see a legal career as a tangible way to support himself.

He sees it as a good use of his philosophy degree, too, though he says he would have been perfectly content to pursue teaching, public service or other fields to which many other philosophy majors gravitate.

To Susan Herbst, students shouldn't have to choose between picking a field they love and one that offers them the best shot at a job. She believes humanities does both, and feels so strongly about it that she and her husband donated $100,000 this year to provide scholarships limited to students in those fields.

"The humanities are where people learn about ethics and values and critical thinking," said Herbst, the president of the University of Connecticut. "The truth is that for all of these students going into the STEM fields or other social sciences or business, if they didn't have the humanities, they don't know why they're doing what they do. The humanities really teach us how we're supposed to live and why what we do matters."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/fossils/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111126/ap_on_re_us/us_defending_humanities

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Dyslexic adults have more trouble if background noise levels are high

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Dyslexia affects up to 17.5% of the population, but its cause remains somewhat unknown. A report published in the Nov. 23 issue of the online journal PLoS ONE supports the hypothesis that the symptoms of dyslexia, including difficulties in reading, are at least partly due to difficulty excluding excess background information like noise.

In the study of 37 undergraduate students, the researchers, led by Rachel Beattie of the University of Southern California, found that the poor readers performed significantly worse than the control group only when there were high levels of background noise.

The two groups performed comparably at the prescribed task when there was no background noise and when the stimulus set size was varied, either a large or a small set size.

According to Dr. Beattie, "these findings support a relatively new theory, namely that dyslexic individuals do not completely filter out irrelevant information when attending to letters and sounds. This external noise exclusion deficit could lead to the creation of inaccurate representations of words and phonemes and ultimately, to the characteristic reading and phonological awareness impairments observed in dyslexia."

###

Beattie RL, Lu Z-L, Manis FR (2011) Dyslexic Adults Can Learn from Repeated Stimulus Presentation but Have Difficulties in Excluding External Noise.PLoS ONE6(11): e27893. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0027893

Public Library of Science: http://www.plos.org

Thanks to Public Library of Science for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/115460/Dyslexic_adults_have_more_trouble_if_background_noise_levels_are_high

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Ex-Olympus CEO meets Tokyo prosecutors on scandal (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) ? Former Olympus CEO Michael Woodford met on Thursday with Tokyo prosecutors, who are investigating an accounting scandal at the once venerable camera maker, a day before attending a board meeting for a showdown with the directors who fired him.

Woodford was also expected to meet police and officials at Japan's securities watchdog.

"I feel fine. It's a beautiful morning here in Tokyo and I'm looking forward to meeting the Tokyo prosecutors' staff," Woodford, who returned to Tokyo on Wednesday for the first time since he was fired, told reporters.

Olympus Corp, which at first denied any wrongdoing, admitted this month it used M&A payments to help hide losses on securities investments for two decades, blaming former president and chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, former vice president Hisashi Mori and internal auditor Hideo Yamada.

But where the money trail leads is a mystery, fanning speculation of links between "yakuza" gangsters and the murky payments Olympus made for its acquisitions. Shadowy ties between crime syndicates and Japanese firms have existed for decades.

Tokyo prosecutors, police and the securities watchdog are conducting a rare joint probe of the scandal.

Kyodo news agency said prosecutors had questioned Mori and internal auditor Yamada on a voluntary basis and would also quiz Kikukawa.

Shares in the 92-year-old camera and endoscope maker, which lost more than 80 percent of their value at one point, jumped in morning trade despite the scandal.

"There is no basis for the stock to be up at this level ... In two weeks the company will announce its revised results," said Masayoshi Okamoto, head of dealing, Jujiya Securities.

"What's going on in the market right now is just traders playing with fire until the company's announcement."

Olympus fired Woodford on October 14, asserting he did not understand Japanese culture or the firm's management style.

His return to Tokyo caps a remarkable turnaround for the 51-year-old Briton, who after being fired by the Olympus board was told his driver would no longer be available and that he should vacate his apartment. Someone Woodford trusted suggested he leave Japan immediately for his own safety, which he did.

Woodford, who said he was axed for questioning the M&A deals, fled to England and has campaigned for the firm to come clean. Big foreign shareholders have called for his return to run Olympus, which Woodford has said he was willing to do.

Woodford says Tokyo police, who have mobilised an organized crime unit to join the investigation, have a big role in uncovering the truth. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and Britain's Serious Fraud Office are also investigating.

CLEAN SWEEP FOR MANAGEMENT?

"The metropolitan police to me is the one that probably has the capability to investigate this in the right way," a relaxed Woodford told reporters on Wednesday after a low-key return to Tokyo for the first time since his sacking.

Woodford, like Kikukawa, who quit on October 26, and Mori, who was fired, is still an Olympus director since only shareholders can dismiss directors. Woodford had refused to come back to Japan because of safety concerns but says he is now confident police will protect him.

Speculation of organized crime links has swirled around the scandal. The firm said on Monday a third-party panel it set up to investigate the matter had found no evidence that organized crime syndicates, or "yakuza" gangsters, were involved in the M&A payments.

The payments included a massive $687 million advisory fee paid mostly to an obscure Cayman Islands firm.

The panel is due to report its findings in early December.

Woodford, who acknowledges he can be "loud-mouthed" and "strong-headed," has called for a thorough investigation of the transactions and for a clean-out of top management.

But echoing calls by major foreign shareholders, Woodford said Olympus shares should not be delisted, in part to help ensure full disclosure of information.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange has placed Olympus on a watch list as a prelude to possible delisting. If the firm fails to meet a December 14 deadline for filing its financial statements for the six months to September, it will be automatically delisted.

The bourse could delist the firm even if it meets the deadline, depending on the scale of past financial misstatements or if proof emerges that it knowingly dealt with "yakuza" gangsters. That would effectively cut it off from capital markets and put it under pressure to sell off core businesses.

A major governance advocacy group have also called for it not to be delisted. Olympus has said it would meet the December 14 deadline for filing its statements.

Its shares have more than doubled from a low hit on November 11 but are still down around 60 percent since October 14 when the scandal broke.

(Additional reporting by Rie Ishiguro; Writing by Linda Sieg; Editing by Dean Yates)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111124/bs_nm/us_olympus

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Crew member dies on set of "G.I. Joe 2" (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? A crew member has died on the set of the movie "G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation" in an "unusual accident," the studio said on Wednesday.

The studio did not provide details on the death of crew member Mike Huber, which according to media reports occurred on Tuesday in New Orleans.

"Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with the Huber family at this time," Paramount Pictures spokeswoman Virginia Lam said in a statement.

"The safety of our cast and crew is our top priority and the studio is fully cooperating with all investigating agencies as they examine the circumstances surrounding this unusual accident," she said.

Celebrity website TMZ reported Huber was tearing down a movie set on Tuesday when he died.

The film "G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation" is scheduled to be released next year.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111124/film_nm/us_gijoe

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Faye Dunaway vacates rent-stabilized New York apartment (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? She didn't go easily, but Faye Dunaway has agreed to vacate her rent-stabilized apartment on the Upper East Side following an eviction action by her landlord, court documents showed.

The 70-year-old actress signed court papers on November 15 agreeing to clear out of the one-bedroom apartment at 314 East 78th Street for which she paid a monthly rent of $1,048. She had lived in the apartment since 1994.

The property's landlord, Henry Moses of 7 of 8 Realty Co., filed an eviction in August saying Dunaway was not entitled to live in the apartment since it was not her primary residence, as required by rent-stabilization laws.

Dunaway, best known for her roles in "Bonnie and Clyde," "Network," for which she won an Oscar, and "Chinatown," seemed to have flip-flopped about whether to fight the action.

She initially offered to give up the apartment after the lawsuit was filed in August, but a day later her attorney at the time said she would fight it.

Dunaway had argued that the landlord wanted her out because she had requested that he paint the apartment.

The six-page stipulation required Dunaway to move out November 21. Craig Charie, the attorney for the landlord, said Dunaway had returned possession of the apartment to his client.

The actress could not be reached for comment. Her attorney, Steven Ginsberg, was not available for comment.

(Reporting by Leigh Jones; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Cynthia Johnston)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111123/people_nm/us_dunaway

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