World important news by Steven

Earlier in the year, IHG signed a management deal with China’s Poly Real Estate Group Co Ltd to cooperate on developing and managing hotels in China.IHG has said that one in four of the hotel rooms it opens over the next five years will be in China, highlighting the market’s importance to the company. The firm has 154 hotels in China with about 140 more in the pipeline.

If you’re well-educated and affluent does that make you invulnerable to fraud? Hardly. If you’re willing to make high-risk investments to get high-return, there’s not only a target on your back, but experts say your personality types makes you susceptible to be taken. “Most of us think of ourselves as invulnerable,” says Shoshana Lucich, executive director of the recently opened Stanford University-based Research Center on the Prevention of Financial Fraud. A really good con artist has the ability to get buy-in even from people who believe they know better. “If it sounds too good to be true, you’re probably dealing with an amateur,” Lucich says. The Bernie Madoff case is an extreme example, but an example nonetheless, of how even well-heeled people can shift their focus to the dollar signs and away from due diligence. Another is  the case of Raffaello Follieri, actress Anne Hathaway’s former boyfriend, who was convicted of ripping off a collection of wealthy victims, including investor Ron Burkle. The institute, sponsored by the Stanford Center on Longevity and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s Investor Education Foundation, is collecting information and encouraging the study of a variety of frauds, including investor fraud. An estimated $1.7 billion was lost to fraud in the U.S. in 2010. The institute is hosting a fraud summit in Washington, D.C. next month. Lucich says fraud is a difficult area to get a handle on since a majority of victims deny being taken, largely out of shame and disbelief. Doug Shadel, state director of AARP in Washington state and a fraud profiling expert associated with the center, has spent years interviewing both those who’ve been ripped off and those who’ve committed the crimes. He says people are victimized when their emotions overwhelm their ability or interest to dig deeper. “There are so many smart people who fall for this,” Shadel says. “Intelligence alone is not enough.” He tells the story of a tenured college professor who was taken for about $900,000 in a scam that led him to believe he was investing in new Hollywood movies. Shadel says when he asked the professor why he fell for the con, he explained that throughout his career he had dealt with trustworthy people and he didn’t see a reason to doubt what was presented to him. A good con man can get a victim so wrapped up in the idea he’s selling that warning signs will be ignored. Shadel offers these insights into people most likely to be taken. They are: more likely to be male and college educated, when it comes to investment fraud more open to meeting people. more likely to accept a free lunch or dinner. more likely to claim a free gift or enter a contest. more likely to take risks to get rewards. People also become more vulnerable as they get older, he says. The stakes are higher now, Shadel says, because most of us are now responsible (through 401(k)s and the like) for investing our own money to provide for retirement. “Everyone is an investor, which  means everyone is exposed to this now,” Shadel says. “It’s open season. They don’t know how many sharks are out there.”

“My mother was an extraordinary woman whose life touched so many, most of whom we will never know,” Taylor’s son Michael Wilding, told the starry assemblage.”Our whole family is extremely proud of her accomplishments, and know what a unique and special experience it was to have her in our lives,” said Wilding, Taylor’s son with actor Michael Wilding,”Today it was especially meaningful for us to be with so many good friends to celebrate her spirit, which will be with us forever,” he added.Kate Burton, Taylor’s step-daughter from her two marriages to Richard Burton, was also on hand.Taylor died in March of congestive heart failure and was buried the following day in a small private funeral service.Sunday, speakers recalled Taylor’s legendary beauty, as well as her humor. Mike Nichols, who directed Taylor in one of her two Oscar-winning performances, appeared in a video tribute.Others focused on the actress’s post-Hollywood career, both as a businesswoman with a successful fragrance line, and as a ferociously determined advocate for AIDS, which claimed the life of her friend, actor Rock Hudson.Until her death, Taylor headed up The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. Several AIDS activists were also on hand as clips of Taylor’s lobbying efforts were screened.Some of Taylor’s vast collection of jewelry, gowns and art are to be auctioned in New York in December.

“We have pretty huge potential for growth here (in Russia), and it is pretty obvious that without entrepreneurship skills and education it’s not achievable. That’s why we support it,” Mikhail Pakhomov, director of government affairs at Cisco in Russia, told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference to launch the initiative.”This is a partnership between the U.S. and Russia,” Charles North, Mission Director at USAID, in Russia, told Reuters. “My expectation is that you’ll have more citizens with skills … to access not just the internet but applications that help them communicate with each other (and) also interact with government.”

“We have pretty huge potential for growth here (in Russia), and it is pretty obvious that without entrepreneurship skills and education it’s not achievable. That’s why we support it,” Mikhail Pakhomov, director of government affairs at Cisco in Russia, told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference to launch the initiative.”This is a partnership between the U.S. and Russia,” Charles North, Mission Director at USAID, in Russia, told Reuters. “My expectation is that you’ll have more citizens with skills … to access not just the internet but applications that help them communicate with each other (and) also interact with government.”

Oct 13 (Reuters) - Agricultural equipment maker Lindsay Corp posted a lower quarterly profit hurt by a 27 percent rise in operating costs.For the fourth quarter, net income was $5.9 million, or 46 cents a share, compared with $6.0 million, or 48 cents a share a year ago.Revenue rose 33 percent to $116.1 million.Analysts, on average, had expected earnings of 61 cents a share, before special items, on revenue of $108.5 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.Shares of the Omaha, Nebraska-based company closed at $60.27 on Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange.