Heineken, Europe’s biggest beer maker, made a profit the first half of this year, but no where near what they were hoping for.
Their net profit was 694 million euros (U.S.$999.38 million). That’s a drop compared to the first half of last year, when they netted 700 million euros.
They still made a big profit this year, but it shocked Heineken’s own analysts because they were expecting to make much more money.
“I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.”-Steve Jobs
Co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, has been fighting cancer, and now he has resigned. No confirmation if it’s due to his health.
Tim Cook has already been picked to replace Jobs, and the board of Apple is rushing to get Cook into the CEO position.
The Science Daily reporting that Portuguese scientists discovered that oil from coriander, aka cilantro, makes a good anti-biotic.
“The results indicate that coriander oil damages the membrane surrounding the bacterial cell. This disrupts the barrier between the cell and its environment and inhibits essential processes including respiration, which ultimately leads to death of the bacterial cell.”-Fernanda Domingues.
Researchers confirmed that coriander/cilantro oil can affect 12 types of bacterial strains, and some were killed by solutions containing 1.6% or less coriander oil. The oil comes from the seeds of the plant. Not only could it be used as an anti-biotic, but it might be used to preserve food.
Rebel officials offered a million dollar reward for the capture of Muammar Muhammad al-Gaddafi.
Rebels are also offering amnesty to any government supporter who kill or capture him.
Pakistan has given the U.S. embassy 40 days to remove 250 U.S. officials.
Pakistan says the U.S. officials are involved in high-level espionage and anti-state activities.
U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, Cameron Munter, cut short his vacation to deal with the situation. The situation has gotten worse in Pakistan, because the United States has greatly increased the number of drone attacks. Pakistani officials, and independent observers, say the majority of people killed in the U.S. drone attacks are civilians. In some cases the target of the attack is totally missed, and dozens of bystanders are killed. U.S. officials have dismissed independent investigations that show that several hundreds of children have been killed.
The United States, Europe and other countries are pushing for the United Nations to unfreeze billions in Libyan assets. This is on top of what the U.S. is unfreezing.
A Libyan rebel official admitted in a press conference they needed the money “…for supplies…to pay salaries.”
From the beginning the African Union has been oppossed to the NATO action in Libya. Libya is a member of the African Union, and the AU wasn’t even consulted by the the United States and Europe, before the United Nations was tricked into approving military action against Libya.
South Africa, one of the most powerful members of the AU says it will vote no on unfreezing Libyan assets.
Reports that the Bab al-Azizia military compound in Tripoli, is under intense attack by government forces.
The fighting has been going on for hours. Initially rebels found hidden tunnels under the compound. Government forces were hiding inside and began attacking the rebels.
Then in the early hours of the next morning government forces appeared on the streets of Tripoli, heading towards Bab al-Azizia. Witnesses say government forces surrounded the compound, the rebels having to fight government forces from inside, and outside the compound.
Libyan government forces let at least 35 reporters go free. They were hold up in the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli.
It happened after Mahmud Nacua, the Libyan charge d’affairs at the Libyan embassy in London, urged the government forces to let the journalists go free.
CNN’s Mathew Chance said the government gunmen “…literally cast away their weapons and said they were sorry to us.”
South Korean news agency Yonhap, says their ambassador’s residence in Tripoli, was attacked by about 30 people. They stole “television sets and other gadgets”, but no-one was hurt during.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, is urging peace talks between rebel and government forces. Medvedev says Russia will consider establishing formal relations with the rebels if they can unite the country.
“I personally believe that the very fact that children from all over the world read and enjoy Doraemon is a testament to the fact that children are children no matter where they are.”–Masako Fujimoto
Fujiko F. Fujio, creator of the cartoon character Doraemon, died in 1996, but his creation lives on.
On September 3, a museum on the outskirts of Tokyo will open. It will have 50,000 Doraemon items, only 150 will be on permanent display.
Doraemon has been translated into more than 30 languages, and still enjoys popularity in many countries.