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Thursday, October 22, 2015

Microsoft earnings up

Microsoft earnings up: "The Redmond, Wash-based software pioneer reported adjusted earnings per share of 67 cents against revenue of $21.66 billion, which missed Wall Street estimates of 58 cents and $20.9 billion, according to analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. EPS in the first quarter of 2014 was 54 cents, while earnings were $23.2 billion."



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Saturday, October 10, 2015

Revealed: how ‘big tobacco’ used EU rules to win health delay | Business | The Guardian

Revealed: how ‘big tobacco’ used EU rules to win health delay | Business | The Guardian: "The world’s largest tobacco companies were instrumental in promoting Europe-wide, pro-business regulations that they used to delay health initiatives.

Analysis carried out by the University of Bath’s Tobacco Control Research Group (TCRG) has found that the companies played a key role in pushing the European commission’s Better Regulation agenda, which places business interests at the heart of policy drafting. They then used the new laws to block and delay a series of major health reforms, including UK introduction of plain packaging.

Under the terms of the Better Regulation agenda, which internal tobacco industry documents reveal was enthusiastically supported by British American Tobacco, European governments, including the UK, must conduct public consultations and impact assessments when introducing laws that affect business. The tobacco companies took advantage of these laws, using third parties and fake grassroots campaigns to swamp the consultations on anti-smoking initiatives such as the introduction of plain packaging. In addition, they were highly selective in what they submitted. All failed to include evidence – disclosed as a result of historic legal action – that they knew branded packaging was crucial to the marketing of their products, something they consistently denied in public."



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Friday, October 09, 2015

‘Don't give up the fight,’ Meryl Streep tells women | Life and style | The Guardian

‘Don't give up the fight,’ Meryl Streep tells women | Life and style | The Guardian: "If Emmeline Pankhurst were alive today her message to women would be simple: “Don’t give up the fight. It’s not over,” Meryl Streep said last night.

The actor, who plays Pankhurst in the film Suffragette, told a packed audience at the star-studded opening night of London’s first Women in the World event, that while women had come far since getting the vote, there was still plenty of work to do.

“We are coming up from the bottom, but it’s that upper echelon that we haven’t broken through,” she said, urging the audience to remember that “women’s issues are men’s problems”.

Suffragette’s director, Sarah Gavron, revealed that finding funding for the film was a challenge, adding that it was also difficult to find actors to fill the male roles. “We had trouble persuading men to be in it. Agents were calling us saying the male parts just aren’t big enough,” she said to laughter and cheers."



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