Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff defended the idea of a bill to make broadband universalization legally binding in the country. But Rousseff, who is seeking reelection next month, rejected putting broadband in the "public regime" via a decree, as demanded by a group of consumer protection entities and civil society organizations gathered under the banner Banda Larga é um Direito Seu! (broadband is your right!), to avoid "legal challenges."
Updated 5 Years ago

Apple learned early on that it doesn't always pay to be a pioneer. While it largely created the modern personal computer, the company lost out (at least for a few decades) to Microsoft and its hardware partners. Ever since then, Apple has made a killing by waltzing into markets established by others and quickly taking over, leaving behind a trail of losers. Remember Creative Labs or Diamond Multimedia in the pre-iPod days? Or Nokia, RIM and Palm before the iPhone came along?
Updated 5 Years ago

Brazilian banks including Itau Unibanco Holding SA (ITUB4) and Banco Bradesco SA (BBDC4)will probably balk at using most of the 70 billion reais ($30 billion) the government made available to boost lending and stimulate the economy. “We are extending as much credit as we can, but there are situations in which there is no demand, and we’ve heard that consumers and companies are being cautious,” Domingos Figueiredo de Abreu, Bradesco’s executive vice president, said in a phone interview from the firm’s Osasco headquarters.
Updated 5 Years ago

Twitter Inc. (TWTR) is tapping debt markets for the first time, with plans to raise as much as $1.5 billion to invest in acquisitions and expansion. The San Francisco-based microblogging company is selling the convertible bonds in two $650 million pieces, one maturing in five years and one coming due in seven years, according to a regulatory filing yesterday. The offering size may rise to $1.5 billion if the banks involved exercise an overallotment option.
Updated 5 Years ago

Nevada casinos, the state’s largest industry, took in $11.2 billion in the year that ended in July. Now lawmakers must decide whether to wager as much as $1.3 billion on a project that could help wean the state from its reliance on slot machines and ROULETTE WHEELS. Lawmakers began meeting in a special session yesterday to consider tax write-offs for Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA) to build the world’s largest lithium-ion battery plant near Reno. The incentives may be worth $700 million to $1.3 billion over 20 years -- depending on how much the electric-car maker spends on the so-called gigafactory, according to state documents.
Updated 5 Years ago

Matthew Weaver told the BBC that he had been dared to spend a year based out of a campervan parked on one of the company's lots. He added that while he believed he was the first to do so, several others later followed his lead.
Updated 5 Years ago

The country's official consumer price index (CPI) figure is its main inflation gauge and the August figure compares with a rise of 2.3% in July. Lower prices for pork, a Chinese staple, contributed to the monthly CPI reading, state news agency Xinhua said. But the drop in inflation would likely prove short-lived, said analysts.
Updated 5 Years ago

Ukraine’s state-controlled gas transit company says Poland cut off reverse flows to Ukraine, alleging that a quarter of Russian gas imports to Poland went missing. Gazprom said it continues to supply the same amount of gas as previously. Uktransgaz CEO Igor Prokopiv accused Russia of reducing supplies to "disrupt reverse deliveries"from Poland.
Updated 5 Years ago

EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht wants to see oil and natural gas exports from the US to Europe included in the forthcoming transatlantic trade deal which will create the world’s largest free trade zone. Europe wants US oil and gas to help offset its dependence on Russian energy. About 30 percent of Europe’s total gas requirement comes from Russia, approximately half of that is vulnerable should Ukraine cut supplies, as happened in 2006 and 2009.
Updated 5 Years ago

Chinua Achebe, notwithstanding that he never won the Nobel Prize for literature, remains, for me, the most significant African writer of the 20th century. The power of his pen sprang not so much from his mastery of traditional folklore or for his simple prose always dipped generously in the fragrance of Ibo proverbs, but more from the visionary essence of his prose and poetry. Achebe was much more than a writer who loved to manufacture beautiful cadences of words. He was an engaged social critic who constantly summoned his creative muse to help decrypt the puzzle that is his country, Nigeria. And in doing that, Achebe facilitated in no small measure an insightful crystallization and comprehension of the real challenges that confronts Nigeria. This visionary and problem framing attribute of Achebe was most compellingly demonstrated about 30 years ago when he penned his evergreen masterpiece, titled: The Trouble with Nigeria.
Updated 5 Years ago