Tag Archives: Slovakia

Computers

Japan, South Korea continue to lead in fiber Internet

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The number of fiber Internet subscriptions rose 12.7 percent in the countries that make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Paris-based group said Thursday.

Just under 49 million fiber Internet connections existed across the 34 countries, according to the data. That represented about 15 percent of all fixed Internet lines, but in several nations the percentage of fiber connections is much higher.

Japan and South Korea lead the pack with fiber penetration of over 60 percent. Sweden, Estonia and Slovakia rounded out the top five with penetration in the 30 percent range. The other nations with above average fiber penetration were Norway, Iceland, Slovenia, Denmark, the Czech Republic and Portugal. Hungary was ranked just slightly below the average.

Penetration rates in the remaining countries, which included the U.S., U.K., France and Germany, were all under 10 percent.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

News, Politics, Government

Afghan escapes custody after shooting NATO soldier

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An Afghan soldier held on suspicion of killing a NATO soldier from Slovakia has escaped from prison on a heavily guarded military base with the help of a guard, officials said on Monday.

The escape will raise new questions about the capacity and professionalism of the Afghan army as the remaining 100,000 foreign troops in the country prepare to leave next year.

The soldier was arrested last Tuesday after opening fire on foreign troops. The Slovakian died and six other soldiers were wounded at a military base in the southern province of Kandahar.

“An Afghan army soldier who opened fire on Slovakian soldiers last week has run away from detention,” General Abdul Hameed, the top Afghan army commander in the south, told AFP.

The general said another soldier, who had guarded his prison cell, assisted his breakout and also absconded.

The pair managed to sneak off the base by pretending that the detainee was sick and needed to be taken to a military hospital, the general told AFP.

General Zahir Azimi, spokesman for the Afghan defence ministry, told reporters that the soldier escaped on Sunday.

“Unfortunately he ran away yesterday with the help of an officer who was guarding the prison. We have launched an investigation and we will release more details later,” he said.

The Taliban said the shooter, whom they named as Isanullah, had links to the Taliban and was helped by a fellow soldier to escape.

In 2012 around 60 NATO troops were killed in insider attacks in Afghanistan, breeding fierce mistrust and threatening to derail efforts to replace NATO combat troops with local forces next year.

The Taliban often claim that Afghan soldiers who kill their NATO allies are linked to the militant group.

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

Computers

EU teachers need more IT training, report says

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The latest European Union survey of ICT in schools has found that 20 percent of secondary students have never or almost never used a computer in school.

Speaking at the presentation of the survey on Friday, the E.U.’s Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes said there was a very real need for more IT skills training for teachers. “ICT skills and training must be available to all students and teachers, not just a lucky few,” she said.

Teacher training in ICTs is rarely compulsory, so most teachers are forced to use their spare time to improve ICT skills.

The survey, which takes place every five years, found that although computer numbers have doubled since 2006 — largely thanks to laptops, tablets and netbooks, which are replacing desktop computers in many schools — there are still vast differences between Scandinavian and Nordic countries (the best equipment) and countries such as Poland, Romania, Italy, Greece, Hungary and Slovakia.

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From: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2035766/eu-teachers-need-more-it-training-report-says.html#tk.rss_all

News, Politics, Government

How Austerity Is Failing in Eastern Europe In One Chart

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By Mark Adomanis, Contributor

When formerly communist countries joined the European Union in 2004 and 2007 there was a general sense of euphoria. After being artificially cut off  from Europe by the dead hand of state socialism, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Latvia, Estonia, and (my ancestral homeland of) Lithuania had regained their rightful place in the world and taken a very large step away from their troubled history of Russian and Soviet domination. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Science & Technology

Large disc shape UFO captured over Sydney, Australia On March 21, 2013.

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By ScottCWaring

Date of sighting: March 21, 2013
Location of sighting: Sydney, Australia

This eyewitness who is Lou who lives in Sydney and often has friends over to his place and they hunt UFO orbs together. He uses an infrared lens on an old Sony camcorder to record them. SCW

Eyewitness:

Thank you to watch my video. Anna was one of my visitors from Slovakia and captured on camera this slow flying UFO. Anna nearly missed out on this slowly flying disc shape object.

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at UFO Sightings Daily

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

CBRE Group, Inc. Acquires IMPACT-CORTI

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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CBRE Group, Inc. Acquires IMPACT-CORTI

Acquisition of Property Management Specialist Expands CBRE’s Capabilities in Central Europe

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)– CBRE Group, Inc. (NYS: CBG) , a leading global commercial real estate services and investment firms, today announced the acquisition of IMPACT-CORTI a.s., a firm specialising in property management in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

With six million sq ft (557,000 sq m) under management across 140 assets and current annual revenue of approximately $10 million, IMPACT-CORTI is the leading property manager in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The company is particularly known for its expertise in the office sector but also has a portfolio of residential and industrial assets under management. In addition, IMPACT-CORTI provides project management, investment, and leasing and consultancy expertise to its institutional and private-investor clients, such as Deka, Axa REIM, Pramerica and Hampshire Investments. In the Czech capital of Prague, IMPACT-CORTI manages notable buildings including The GEMINI Business Center, LIGHTHOUSE Waterfront Towers and the Burzovni Palac, the home of the Prague Stock Exchange.

IMPACT-CORTI’s team of 160 professionals will join CBRE‘s well-established Property and Asset Management practice in Europe. In response to client demand, CBRE has particularly focused on the growth of these services in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), underlined by its acquisition of Euro Mall Center Management, a CEE shopping centre management specialist, in mid-2011.

Michael Strong, Executive Chairman of Europe, Middle East and Africa, CBRE, said:

“Providing expert and integrated transactional and real estate management capabilities is becoming increasingly important to our regional and global client base. The acquisition of IMPACT-CORTI complements our existing property management offer and will allow us to further extend this important service across the region to meet growing demand.”

Andreas Ridder, Chairman, Central and Eastern Europe, CBRE, added:

“IMPACT-CORTI is renowned in the Czech Republic for its expert property management and project management practices. By adding their expertise and reach to our own growing capabilities, we are increasing the scope of the services we can provide to clients across the region.”

Jürg Zwahlen, Chairman of the Board, IMPACT-CORTI, commented:

“By joining CBRE, we are creating a huge opportunity for both our clients and our colleagues. As part of one of the most integrated and respected commercial real estate advisory companies in the world, we will be able to better …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

European Uranium Adopts Advance Notice Policy

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

European Uranium Adopts Advance Notice Policy

VANCOUVER, British Columbia–(BUSINESS WIRE)– European Uranium Resources Ltd. (EUU: TSX-V; EUUNF: OTCQX; TGPN: Frankfurt) has adopted a new policy that requires advance notice to European Uranium for nominations of directors other than by management, through a requisition for a meeting or by way of a shareholder proposal.

Among other things, the policy fixes a deadline by which holders of record of common shares of the Company must submit director nominations to the Company prior to any annual or special meeting of shareholders and sets forth the information that a shareholder must include in the notice to the Company for the notice to be in proper written form.

In the case of an annual meeting of shareholders, notice to the Company must be made not less than 30 nor more than 65 days prior to the date of the annual meeting, provided that in the event that the annual meeting is to be held on a date that is less than 50 days after the date on which the first public announcement of the date of the annual meeting was made, notice may be made not later than the close of business on the tenth day following such public announcement.

In the case of a special meeting of shareholders (which is not also an annual meeting), notice to the Company must be made not later than the close of business on the 15th day following the day on which the first public announcement of the date of the special meeting was made.

The new policy is intended to: (i) facilitate an orderly and efficient annual general or special meeting process; (ii) ensure that all shareholders receive adequate notice of the director nominations and sufficient information regarding all director nominees; and (iii) allow shareholders to register an informed vote after having been afforded reasonable time for appropriate deliberation.

The policy is effective immediately and will be placed before European Uranium‘s shareholders for approval at European Uranium‘s next annual general and special meeting of shareholders expected to be held in March 2014.

The full text of the policy is available under European Uranium‘s profile at www.sedar.com.

About European Uranium Resources Ltd.

European Uranium Resources Ltd. is a dedicated European uranium exploration and development company that has built a portfolio of outstanding projects in Slovakia, Sweden and Finland at all stages of the …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

News, Politics, Government

Ethnic Hungarians in Romania mark national day

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Thousands of ethnic Hungarians paraded in Romania on Friday to celebrate the Hungarian national holiday, and some expressed concern that their minority may not be allowed to retain the special privileges it enjoys.

Ethnic Hungarians, some in folk costumes, rode horses and carts and waved Hungarian flags, singing patriotic songs and shivering during traditional dances in rural mountain areas in Transylvania. They were whipped by winds with temperatures plunging to an icy -4 Celsius (25 Fahrenheit) as they celebrated the anniversary of the 1848 revolution against the Habsburg empire.

Romanian Hungarians, who make up about 6 percent of the population, enjoy special privileges such as the right to use their mother tongue in schools and in courts. But since an ethnic Hungarian party left the Romanian government last year after being a coalition partner for 15 years, some ethnic Hungarians fear their privileges could be lost.

“We call on them … to not take away our language, not to restrict the use of our language,” said Kelemen Hunor, leader of the ethnic Hungarian party. “We want Hungarian to be officially recognized in Transylvania,” the Hungarian-speaking region in central Romania.

Most of Romania‘s ethnic Hungarians live in eastern Transylvania, a rural area with vast potato crops and mineral water springs. The region was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until 1918, when Hungary lost a huge swatch of its territory to Romania, Slovakia and other states. The minority faced heavy restrictions under Romania‘s former communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu. For the past two decades, the region’s ethnic Hungarians have been campaigning for greater rights.

Hunor urged Romania‘s government to allow Hungarians to fly their flags, vowing to defend “our national symbols … because we will defend everything that a free person and a free nation deserves.” In February, tensions briefly rose after local officials hoisted a Hungarian flag on a municipal building. By law, only Romanian and European Union flags can be flown on government buildings.

Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta has since tried to calm concern about ethnic Hungarians not being allowed to use their symbols, saying he doesn’t object to them being hoisted from municipal buildings.

However, President Traian Basescu told The Associated Press last week that Romanian authorities are opposed to territorial autonomy for Szeklers, an ethnic Hungarian group in Transylvania.

Former Foreign Minister Adrian Cioroianu, a historian, told the AP on Thursday that the …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Is Bunzl the Ultimate Retirement Share?

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By Roland Head, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

LONDON — The last five years have been tough for those in retirement. Portfolio valuations have been hammered and annuity rates have plunged. There’s no sign of things improving anytime soon, either, as the eurozone and the U.K. economy look set to muddle through at best for some years to come.

A great way of protecting yourself from the downturn, however, is by building your retirement fund with shares of large, well-run companies that should grow their earnings steadily over the coming decades. Over time, such investments ought to result in rising dividends and inflation-beating capital growth.

In this series, I’m tracking down the U.K. large-caps that have the potential to beat the FTSE 100 over the long term and support a lower-risk income-generating retirement fund (you can see the companies I’ve covered so far on this page).

Today, I’m going to take a look at Bunzl  , the outsourcing and distribution company that supplies non-food consumables — essentials like cleaning supplies — to thousands of businesses around the world.

Bunzl vs. FTSE 100
Let’s start with a look at how Bunzl has performed against the FTSE 100 over the last 10 years:

Total Returns 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 10 yr trailing avg
Bunzl -14.1% 17.9% 9.8% 26.3% 17.2% 14.4%
FTSE 100 -28.3% 27.3% 12.6% -2.2% 10% 10.5%

Source: Morningstar. Total return includes both changes to the share price and reinvested dividends. These two ingredients combined are what make it possible for equity portfolios to regularly outperform cash and bonds over the long term.

Bunzl’s 10-year average trailing total return is nearly 50% higher than the FTSE 100 average, and suggests that the company has delivered steady outperformance over the last decade.

What’s the score?
To help me pinpoint suitable investments, I like to score companies on key financial metrics that highlight the characteristics I look for in a retirement share. Let’s see how Bunzl shapes up:

Item Value
Year founded 1854
Market cap £4.3bn
Net debt £748m
Dividend Yield 2.2%
5 year average financials
Operating margin 5.5%
Interest cover 7.9x
EPS growth 8.5%
Dividend growth 8.6%
Dividend cover 2.3%

Here’s how I’ve scored Bunzl on each of these criteria:

Criteria Comment Score
Longevity 150 years, including 56 years on the London Stock Exchange. 4/5
Performance vs. FTSE Above average, but sustainable. 4/5
Financial strength Strong cash generation and stable margins. 4/5
EPS growth Attractive earnings growth. 4/5
Dividend growth Very stable and reliable dividend growth. 5/5
Total: 21/25

Bunzl has its origins in a haberdashery business founded by Moritz Bunzl in Slovakia, back in 1854. Since then, it has evolved into a global company that keeps businesses supplied with all the non-food consumable products they need to service their operations, but do not sell or produce themselves. Typical examples are cleaning and washroom supplies, but Bunzl’s business is far more diverse than this and has grown steadily through both organic growth and acquisitions.

Although Bunzl isn’t cheap — it currently trades on a price to earnings ratio (P/E) of 21.9 and has a dividend yield of just 2.2% — it does have an excellent record of dividend growth that has seen the company’s dividend rise every year …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Automobiles

Report: Bentley SUV given green light by VW board

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By Chris Paukert

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Bentley EXP 9 concept SUV live at Geneva Motor Show unveiling in 2012

The “will they, won’t they” saga over Bentley’s SUV plans appears to finally be over. They will. That’s according to the German business newspaper Handelsblatt, which is reporting that the controversial SUV will be built after receiving the go-ahead from Volkswagen’s board.

Known internally as “Falcon,” the still-unnamed Bentley SUV will be based on the EXP 9 Concept that received wildly mixed reviews at its 2012 Geneva Motor Show unveiling. Since the EXP 9’s unveiling, there have been a steady stream of leaks and rumors suggesting that the bold-faced vehicle will get a redesign prior to going into production, but it remains unclear how different the final vehicle will look.

According to Automotive News, Bentley is itself stopping short of confirming the green-light report, though it does admit that the SUV‘s production outlook appears “very positive.” Production will likely take place in Slovakia at a plant owned by parent Volkswagen.

Seen as a key part of Bentley’s plan to expand its sales volumes, the SUV is expected to arrive within three years under V8 and possibly W12 power, just like the brand’s volume Continental GT range. Said to start at a cost of some 200,000 euros – over $270,000 US – the Bentley will stare down a suddenly crowded segment of luxury utility vehicles, taking on newcomers like the Maserati Levante and as-yet unnamed Lamborghini SUV along with segment stalwarts like the Land Rover Range Rover and Porsche Cayenne.

Bentley SUV given green light by VW board originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 05 Feb 2013 13:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog