HSBC to pay $1.9 billion U.S. fine in money-laundering case

(Reuters) - HSBC Holdings Plc agreed to pay a record $1.92 billion in fines to U.S. authorities for allowing itself to be used to launder a river of drug money flowing out of Mexico and other banking lapses.

Mexico's Sinaloa cartel and Colombia's Norte del Valle cartel between them laundered $881 million through HSBC and a Mexican unit, the U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday.

In a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department, the bank acknowledged it failed to maintain an effective program against money laundering and failed to conduct basic due diligence on some of its account holders.

Under the agreement, which was reported by Reuters last week, the bank agreed to take steps to fix the problems, forfeit $1.256 billion, and retain a compliance monitor. The bank also agreed to pay $665 million in civil penalties to regulators including to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve, and the Treasury Department.

"We accept responsibility for our past mistakes. We have said we are profoundly sorry for them, and we do so again. The HSBC of today is a fundamentally different organization from the one that made those mistakes," HSBC Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver said.

THE PLACE TO LAUNDER MONEY

HSBC's money-laundering lapses in Mexico and elsewhere were cited in an extensive Senate report earlier this year, but the documents filed in court on Tuesday provided new details.

Despite the known risks of doing business in Mexico, the bank put the country in its lowest risk category, which excluded $670 billion in transactions from the monitoring systems, according to the documents.

Bank officials repeatedly ignored internal warnings that HSBC's monitoring systems were inadequate, the Justice Department said. In 2008, for example, the CEO of HSBC Mexico was told that Mexican law enforcement had a recording of a Mexican drug lord saying that HSBC Mexico was the place to launder money.

Mexican traffickers used boxes specifically designed to the dimensions of an HSBC Mexico teller's window to deposit cash on a daily basis.

The agreement also described a vastly understaffed compliance department. At times, only one to four employees were responsible for reviewing alerts identifying suspicious wire transactions. When HSBC processed bulk cash, a business it calls Banknotes, only one or two compliance officials oversaw transactions for 500 to 600 customers, the Justice Department said.

Compliance was "woefully inadequate," Loretta Lynch, the U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn, said at a press conference.

SANCTIONS VIOLATIONS

In documents filed in federal court in Brooklyn, the Justice Department also charged the bank with violating sanctions laws by doing business with customers in Iran, Libya, Sudan, Burma and Cuba.

HSBC separately reached a settlement with British watchdog the Financial Services Authority.

"The HSBC settlement sends a powerful wakeup call to multinational banks about the consequences of disregarding their anti-money laundering obligations," said Senator Carl Levin, who led the Senate inquiry.

U.S. and European banks have now agreed to settlements with U.S. regulators totaling some $5 billion in recent years on charges they violated U.S. sanctions and failed to police potentially illicit transactions.

No bank or bank executives have been indicted. Instead, prosecutors have used deferred prosecutions, under which criminal charges against a firm are set aside if it agrees to conditions such as paying fines and changing its behavior.

"In trying to reach a result that's fair and just and powerful, you also have to look at the collateral consequences," DOJ criminal chief Lanny Breuer said at the Brooklyn press conference.

The settlement is the third time in a decade that HSBC has been penalized for lax controls and ordered by U.S. authorities to improve its monitoring of suspicious transactions. Previous directives by regulators to improve oversight came in 2003 and in 2010.

Last month, HSBC told investors it had set aside $1.5 billion to cover fines or penalties stemming from the inquiry and warned that costs could be significantly higher.

Analyst Jim Antos of Mizuho Securities said that while the fine was huge in cash terms, the settlement costs were "trivial" in terms of the company's book value.

HSBC shares closed up 0.56 percent at 644.8 pence in London.

ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING CONTROLS

HSBC said it had increased spending on anti-money laundering systems by around nine times between 2009 and 2011, exited business relationships and clawed back bonuses for senior executives. As evidence of its determination to change, it cited the hiring last January of Stuart Levey, a former top U.S. Treasury Department official, as chief legal officer.

Under a five-year agreement with the Justice Department, HSBC agreed to have an independent monitor evaluate its progress in improving its compliance.

It also said that as part of the overhaul of its controls, it has launched a global review of its "Know Your Customer" files, which will cost an estimated $700 million over five years. The files are designed to ensure that banks do not unwittingly act as conduits for criminal funds.

HSBC's settlement comes a day after rival British bank Standard Chartered Plc agreed to a $327 million settlement with U.S. law enforcement agencies for sanctions violations, a pact that follows a $340 million settlement the bank reached with the New York bank regulator in August.

Such settlements have become commonplace. In what had been the largest settlement until this week, ING Bank NV in June agreed to pay $619 million to settle U.S. government allegations that it violated sanctions against countries including Cuba and Iran.

In the United States, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co, Wachovia Corp and Citigroup Inc have been cited for anti-money laundering lapses or sanctions violations.

HSBC's failings date to 2003, when the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and New York state regulators ordered it to better monitor suspicious money flows. In 2010, a consent order from the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) ordered HSBC to review suspicious transactions. At the time, the OCC called HSBC's compliance program "ineffective."

In 2008, the federal prosecutor in Wheeling, West Virginia, began investigating allegations that a local doctor used the bank to launder money from Medicare fraud.

Ultimately, the prosecutor's office came to believe the case was "the tip of the iceberg" in terms of suspicious transactions conducted through HSBC, according to documents reviewed by Reuters and reported earlier this year.

(Additional reporting by Lawrence White and Michael Flaherty in Hong Kong, Steve Slater in London, Jessica Dye in Brooklyn; Editing by Peter Graff, John Wallace and Alden Bentley)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hsbc-announce-1-8-billion-settlement-u-money-054334042--sector.html

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Indiana Jones 'crystal skull' may be hoax

An archaeologist in Belize has filed a lawsuit against the makers of the film "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," alleging that the movie profits off references to an artifact illegally stolen from the country.

But the item in question, a real-life crystal skull, may not be a Belizean artifact carved by the ancient Maya people at all, but rather a hoax perpetrated by a self-styled 20th-century adventurer.

The story starts in the 1930s, when explorer Frederick A. Mitchell-Hedges claims to have found the skull somewhere in Central America. Or maybe it starts in the 1920s: That's when Mitchell-Hedges' daughter, Anna, now deceased, recalled finding the skull in the ancient Maya city of Lubaant?n in Belize, though the exact date varied with the telling of the story.

The skull is smaller than the life-size ones seen in the Indiana Jones film (which are also, spoiler alert, alien in origin). It stands about 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) high, 7 inches tall (17.8 cm) and 5 inches (12.7 cm) wide. The skull is made of beautifully clear polished quartz, with a lower jaw that detaches.

Since it surfaced, the skull has been the subject of many legends. It's said to get its glassy sheen from the efforts of five generations of ancient polishers. It's also been attributed magical powers, from the ability to repel witchcraft to the ability to kill on command. [ Full Coverage: The Myth of the Mayan Apocalypse ]

Some have contested the truth of the Mitchell-Hedges tale, however: Smithsonian anthropologist Jane MacLaren Walsh has examined the Mitchell-Hedges skull and finds that it was carved with high-speed, diamond-coated tools from the 20th century.

"The Mitchell-Hedges crystal skull is not ancient; not even very old. It was probably made in Europe in the 20th century, and was not polished for five generations. It is not powerful, not scary and not at all what it purports to be," Walsh wrote in 2010 in Archaeology, the magazine of the Archaeological Institute of America.

Walsh's investigations of Frederick and Anna Mitchell-Hedges' claims about the skull's discovery also turned up many inconsistencies, she reported. It was likely bought from an antiquities dealer in London in 1943, Walsh wrote.

The Maya did leave other amazing artistry behind, including a carved limestone monkey skull and elaborate painted murals.

The lawsuit of the crystal skull
The new lawsuit, however, takes the Mitchell-Hedges' claims as truth and argues that by removing this alleged artifact from Belize, Frederick and Anna broke the country's laws. Archaeologist Jaime Awe, the director of the Institute of Archaeology of Belize, filed the lawsuit on behalf of his country.

"The primary goal of the litigation is to: (a) preserve and return the artifact to the people of Belize; (b) to enforce the nation's rights to the artifact and the profits derived therefrom; and (c) to make known to the global community that while a relatively small, yet vibrant and growing nation, Belize will take whatever action necessary to preserve, and prevent the exploitation of its culture and cultural artifacts/landmarks," Awe's lawyer Adam Tracy wrote in an email to LiveScience.

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"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" name-checks the skull, with Indy talking about how he and fellow archaeologist Harold Oxley were obsessed with the find. [ 10 Modern Tools for Indiana Jones ]

"As the epicenter of Mayan culture, combined with the fact that the known crystal skulls were pilfered from the country, Belize is of the position that the physical artifacts, together with the nomenclature tied thereto, are properties of the people of the Belize," Tracy said.

As such, Awe is suing Paramount Pictures, Lucasfilms and Lucasfilms' new owner Disney for illegally profiting from the skull's likeness. He is also suing the Mitchell-Hedges family for the return of the skull, which is now in possession of Anna's widower, William Homann, in Indiana.

Many mystical skulls
The Mitchell-Hedges' skull is not the only mystical skull out there. There's a Mitchell-Hedges lookalike in the British Museum in London. (Walsh suspects that the Mitchell-Hedges' skull was a copy of the British Museum version). The Musee du Quai Branly in Paris holds another large skull, and a third is in the catalog at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. That Smithsonian skull is approximately life-size at 15 inches (38 cm) tall.

Unfortunately for believers in the Central American occult, not a single one of these skulls has been found to be authentic. The British Museum skull was likely made in the 1800s, according to the museum, based on tool marks left behind from the carving. Likewise, tests carried out on the Paris skull in 2007 and 2008 found it to be a late-1800s forgery. The Smithsonian skull, which happens to be the artifact that got anthropologist Jane MacLaren Walsh interested in investigating crystal skulls, was also carved with modern jewel-cutting equipment. [ 9 Famous Art Forgers ]

To test the authenticity of the Mitchell-Hedges' skull, Walsh used high-powered microscopy, ultraviolet light, computerized tomography (CT) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). A real artifact from Central America, created before the arrival of Christopher Columbus would have been carved by stone implements and abrasive sand, Walsh wrote. These tools leave marks that look rough under the microscope. But the Mitchell-Hedges' skull revealed microscopic cut marks that were unmistakably smooth and straight, the telltale signature of a metal tool augmented by diamond.?

It remains to be seen whether the skull's veracity will play a role in the Indiana Jones lawsuit.

"The government of Belize does not believe the skull is fake," Tracy told LiveScience. "As such, I do not foresee any further testing of the artifact."

Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas or LiveScience @livescience. We're also on Facebook and Google+.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/50161954/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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Trusted Organic Products for Hair Care - Ayushveda

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Rating: 5.0/5 (2 votes cast)

Hair is the most important part to describe our looks and personality. A healthy and beautiful hair always adds charm and confidence in day to day life. When it comes to think about hair care products the first consideration goes to natural and safe composition. Harsh chemicals in the products leave the scalp and hair with a long-lasting damage.

So it is better to go with the natural way to protect and enhance the beauty given by God in form of hair. A range of organic products are available in the market which are proven with a great result and satisfying customer. These products are totally trustworthy and free from any paraben.

The whole hair care solution like, hair oil, shampoo, colours, conditioners, cleansers, styling aids and masque can be found easily among the organic products come from trusted brands. Here are some well-known organic products that nourish your hair without damaging.

Most Faithful Organic Product by Reliable Brands

Organic Shampoo from Dr. Alkaitis

Dr. Alkaitis is a very renowned name in the field of organic products. Herbal shampoo from the house of Dr. Alkaitis has a perfect result especially on the dry hair due to its perfect blend of vitamins and essential oils. Most of celebrities and renowned personalities have been talking about the very brand with an adequate performance.

Organic Products for Hair Care

The product is totally based on organic gel of Aloe Vera and Coconut oil that gives a perfect shine and healthy volume to the problem hair. The shampoo is stuffed with herbs like, Jojoba, Aztec marigold, Oat buds, Garden Sage, Rosemary and others to provide a natural treatment for hair and scalp.

Amino acid cleansing base provides cleansing and toning to the scalp. The shampoo has confirmed a best shiny and nourished hair without applying conditioners.

Organic Scalp Treatment cream from RMS Beauty

Raw Coconut Cream from the house of RMS is voted as best scalp treatment cream. It is a certified product for its organic ingredients inside and huge number of satisfied customers approves a cent percent positive upshot after usage.

Products for Hair Care

This product is enriched with unrefined virgin coconut oil which acclaims a paraben free assembling.?The product is mostly used for its anti-fungal and anti-bacterial possessions to prevent the scalp from fungal or bacterial infections.

Coconut oil is also known for its anti-microbial and anti-oxidants features. So the usage of product helps to prevent scalp from disorders and the nutrients and enzymes of raw coconut oil help to cleanse the scalp properly.

?Also Read

Home Remedies for Hair Care
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Hair Care: Treatments for Dry, Dull and Falling Hairs
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5 Essential Curly Hair Care Tips

Organic Hair oil from Moroccan Oil

Argan oil from the house of Moroccan Oil is enriched with Omega-9 and fatty acids. The product is famous for its non-greasy formula that gives extra nourishing moisturizer to the dry and frizzy hair. This product is suitable for every types of hair. Argan oil with vitamin E helps to prevent dryness, dullness and split-ends.

Trusted Organic Products

The Moroccan Argan oil also protects hair damaging by UV rays and sun damage. It is best treated hair oil for adding moisture and nourishment to the hair and leaves hair with shine and detangled bounce. The rare Argan formula is also suitable for coloured hair and helps the colour from fading.

Organic Hair Masque from Aveda

Dry Remedy Moisturizing Treatment Masque from Aveda is a revolutionary organic product. Enhanced with buriti oil and macadamia nuts oil, the masque recovers dry hair and frizzy hair after immediate application.

Hair Care Products

Combination of pomegranate, jojoba oil and palm made conditioner helps to moisturize the scalp so deep and gives shine and smoothness to dry hair. The product contains organic, ylang ylang, vanilla and palmarose for the fragrance. The intense moisture formula of the product works properly on brittle and dehydrated hair.

Organic Hair Conditioner from John Masters

Citrus & Neroli Detangler from the house of John Masters is a radical invention among conditioners. The formula is suitable for leave-in conditioner as well as normal washing up method. Stuffed with 18 natural ingredients, the product works effectively to detangle the stiff hair.

Organic Hair Conditioner from John Masters

Combination of soy protein, wheat amino acid and borage oil adds shine and strength to hair with smooth texture. The light weight formula also contains grapefruit and neroli which are useful for treating of dry scalp.?These are some celebrated products for hair care which are augmented with goodness of nature.

Each and every ingredient inside the products is certified and the varieties of products also promise a positive result without damaging the natural beauty of hair and scalp. Every query regarding hair care can be answered by using these organic products with exact solution.

Trusted Organic Products for Hair Care, 5.0 out of 5 based on 2 ratings

Source: https://www.ayushveda.com/magazine/trusted-organic-products-for-hair-care/

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Single European patent: Karim hails major boost for inventors and ...

Strasbourg, 11 December 2012

New inventions will soon be easier and cheaper to protect from copying thanks to proposals for a European Patent which was finally approved by MEPs in Strasbourg today (Tuesday).

The vote follows an astonishing 30 years of wrangling over detail, but was welcomed by Sajjad Karim, the lead ECR MEP negotiating the package. He called it ?a major advance for the intellectual-property rights of inventors, scientists and others at the cutting edge of technology and innovation?.

He said: ?It has been a long time coming, but this package of measures should offer reassurance to our brightest and best. It will now be simpler for them to ensure they see the fruits of their work instead of having their ideas exploited by others.?

The package approved today will allow 25 out of the 27 EU countries to go ahead with a single patent under a so-called ?enhanced co-operation? procedure.

Currently, it is estimated that the cost of registering a patent to cover the whole of the USA is ten times less than one to cover only half of the EU.

Mr Karim said: ?European-wide patent looked as though it might be one of those great ideas that never got off the ground. But thankfully we have been able to secure a breakthrough and achieve some broad agreement to see the plan progress.

?Small and large businesses will benefit from being able to protect their innovations across much of Europe. That is the encouragement we need for our innovators and entrepreneurs ? the people we will rely on to lift Europe?s economy out of the doldrums.

?The current fragmented regime has been a major handicap to our competitiveness.?

Mr Karim, ECR spokesman on legal affairs in the European Parliament, was critical of a move by UKIP MEPs to oppose the deal despite never having raised concerns in committee.

He said: ?Their spurious charge was that the move meant a loss of sovereignty and even potential damage the UK?s legal services sector. Nothing could be further from the truth.

?In fact the deal secured strengthens the UK?s role in the legal framework. Rather than eroding sovereignty, the measures guarantee that UK businesses will not have to litigate all across Europe but under a single court system which uses English as one of its main languages.

?Because of that we were able to secure the location in Britain of one of the key divisions of the unitary court system and that will provide important jobs for the UK?s widely-respected legal-services profession and associated services.

?I?d call it a win-win deal, but sadly UKIP are so full of their own bluster they can?t see what?s best for Britain.?

Note to editors:

The new EU patent will simplify and streamline Europe?s patent law framework. Rather than requiring businesses to validate, renew and defend their patents under the legal system of each member state to which they wish the patent to apply, the new system will deliver unitary patents applicable across Europe which are granted under a single system. Litigation will also be simplified under the new plans, as patent holders will only be subject to the unitary patent court?s jurisdiction and will not be subject to court proceedings in multiple jurisdictions with potentially divergent outcomes, as is the case today. These two advances will allow a significant reduction in costs for patent applicants and holders.

The new plans also cater specifically for SMEs, in particular in relation to fees charged under the granting scheme. These will take specific account of the circumstances of SMEs, further facilitating their access to the unitary patent.

As well as reducing costs, the EU patent will help to complete the single market. The present system leads to fragmentation, as companies choose for reasons of cost and legal certainty to narrow the scope of their patents to only a few member states. Under the new system the advantage of unitary application and litigation will encourage companies to enter new markets which will be covered under the extended protection, fostering growth and new commercial opportunities.

For further information contact:

John Furbisher
Tel:+33 388 17 3935 (Strasbourg)
Mobile: +32 498 984760
Email: john.furbisher@europarl.europa.eu


? BACK

Source: http://ecrgroup.eu/?p=7730

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Broadway faces potential holiday labor headache

Cleaners, porters and matrons of theater union SEIU Local 32BJ demonstrate outside the Broadway League's office on Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012, in New York. The union representing hundreds of Broadway theater cleaners, porters, elevator operators and bathroom attendants voted Wednesday to authorize its leaders to call a strike if a new contract isn't approved by the end of the month, (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

Cleaners, porters and matrons of theater union SEIU Local 32BJ demonstrate outside the Broadway League's office on Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012, in New York. The union representing hundreds of Broadway theater cleaners, porters, elevator operators and bathroom attendants voted Wednesday to authorize its leaders to call a strike if a new contract isn't approved by the end of the month, (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

Stilt actors perform a skit during a protest of theater workers from union SEIU Local 32BJ, outside the Broadway League's office, before a vote authorizing a strike on Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012, in New York. The union representing hundreds of Broadway theater cleaners, porters, elevator operators and bathroom attendants voted Wednesday to authorize its leaders to call a strike if a new contract isn't approved by the end of the month, (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

(AP) ? The union representing hundreds of Broadway theater cleaners, porters, elevator operators and bathroom attendants voted Wednesday to authorize its leaders to call a strike if a new contract isn't approved by the end of the month, potentially throwing a wrench into a busy holiday season.

Members of the 250-person 32BJ union voted during a noisy rally on the street outside the Times Square offices of the Broadway League, which represents producers and theater owners.

Any strike would affect workers at 32 of Broadway's 40 theaters where the 32BJ has a contract, meaning all the Shubert, Nederlander and Jujamcyn-owned theaters, as well as the Circle in the Square Theatre. The eight other Broadway theaters have different arrangements.

The 32BJ contract expires Dec. 30, and workers are seeking pay increases and better health care benefits. The next bargaining session is scheduled for Friday and another is set for Dec. 18.

Jessica Vargas, a cleaner at the Lunt-Fontaine Theatre and a member of the union's bargaining committee, said that her fellow workers make about $17 an hour and that she hopes to get a $1.50 per hour increase. Other cleaners in the city, she noted, make about about $25 an hour.

"We want to be equal with all cleaners all across New York City. We get paid the lowest on Broadway," Vargas said. If there is a strike, she said, "it's going to be tough on Broadway. It's going to be rough on the city. If we go on strike, the city goes on strike."

Many of the people who do Broadway's most unglamorous work ? hauling equipment, running the elevators, tidying bathrooms and sweeping the theaters ? must work for as much as 10 weeks before their health coverage kicks in. The union wants that coverage to start when employees begin work, among other demands.

"We need health coverage for every week that a worker works," said Shirley Aldenol, vice president of the union. "We're here to fight to make sure that our theater cleaners get treated fairly and with respect."

The League, in a conciliatory statement, said it has had several days of "productive negotiations" with the union and looks forward to reaching "a mutually beneficial agreement."

This being Broadway, there was a little razzle-dazzle amid the car honks and whistles at the rally. Three stilt walkers from the Bread and Puppet Theater troupe towered above the crowd; two women dressed as cleaners in white smocks and feather dusters tried to tidy up the street while being berated by a man on stilts with a top hat, a fake mustache and a cigar.

The last major strike on Broadway was in late 2007, when a 19-day walkout dimmed the lights at more than two dozen shows and cost producers and the city millions of dollars in lost revenue.

Many speakers at the rally pointed out that the health of Broadway is good, with shows yielding a record $1.14 billion in grosses last season, and total attendance reaching 12.3 million.

"What attracts people? Well, it's a great experience that they have. That is because of our actors, it's because of our musicians and of course it's because of the people behind the scenes ? our cleaners, our porters, our elevator operators, our matrons," said New York City Council member Dan Garodnick.

The 32BJ, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union, has more than 120,000 members, concentrated in the Northeast. It represents janitors, property maintenance workers, doormen, security officers, window cleaners and food service workers.

___

Online:

Union: http://www.seiu32bj.org

Broadway League: http://www.broadwayleague.com/

___

Follow Mark Kennedy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-12-12-Theater-Broadway%20Labor/id-2b5e42cf14fd48139e5d4e8be024e4d2

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ASCAP to Distribute More Than $1.8 Million in - Music Industry ...

ASCAP to Distribute More Than $1.8 Million in Plus Cash Awards to reward writers whose works have a unique prestige value

ASCAPNEW YORK, N.Y. /Music Industry Newswire/ ? More than $1.8 million in cash awards for 2012-2013 will be distributed to songwriter and composer members of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) by the Society?s ASCAP Plus Awards Panels, it was announced today by ASCAP President & Chairman Paul Williams. The purpose of these special awards, which have been given each year since 1960, is to reward writers whose works have a unique prestige value for which adequate compensation would not otherwise be received, and to compensate those writers whose works are performed substantially in media not surveyed by ASCAP. Close to 3,100 songwriter and composer members of ASCAP will receive Plus Awards in their January 2013 distribution.

?For more than 50 years, the ASCAP Plus Awards has consistently provided deserving music creators with something meaningful and tangible in the form of recognition and money. Our goal is that these awards not only serve as an additional revenue stream, but also as an inspiration to those just starting out to persevere in advancing their music careers,? said Williams. ?We are greatly indebted to each of our hard-working panelists for giving their time and effort to this important endeavor.?

Composer and clarinetist Derek Bermel, a recipient of multiple ASCAP Plus Awards commented: ?It?s a tremendous honor to be recognized with an ASCAP Plus Award, and it helps pay the rent! The importance of this essential program can?t be overstated.?

Folk singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier added: ?I am deeply grateful for the ASCAP Plus Awards I?ve received over the years. The money appears in January, right when I am wondering how I?m going to pay my credit card bills after the music business Christmas lull, and it has saved the day over and over again. For a road dog like me, who travels constantly juggling tour dates, writing, recording and self management, the annual Award helps keep the show on the road.?

The members of the ASCAP Plus Awards Panel are: Leotis Clyburn, former EMI Publishing Executive and music industry consultant; Andrew Cyr, GRAMMY Award-nominated conductor of the Metropolis Ensemble; Peter Filichia, New York-based theater critic for the (Newark) Star-Ledger and New Jersey?s News 12 television station; Fernanda Garcia, Public Relations Director/Promotions for Entertainment Editor for El Especial; Joel Goodman, renowned Oscar-nominated and Emmy Award-winning composer; David Hajdu, professional music critic for The New Republic and professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism; Janeiro Matos, Bachata, salsa, merengue and Reggaeton DJ for Mega 97.9 FM in New York; Emily Mueller, production assistant for GRAMMY Award-winning producer Nathan Chapman and A&R assistant on projects for Laura Bell Bundy and The McClymonts; Chris Oglesby, seasoned publishing vet and founder of Oglesby Writer Management; Cheryl Pawelski, GRAMMY Award-nominated Vice President of A&R for Rhino Records and owner of Omnivore Recordings; Ryan Shore, GRAMMY Award-nominated composer for film, television, records and games; Steve Smith, Opera and Classical Music Editor for Time Out New York; Adonis Sutherlin, Associate Director of A&R for RCA Records; Tera Uhlinger, producer, composer and owner of Revelry Management.

Recipients of ASCAP Plus Awards are determined by reviewing the recent activity generated by each applicant?s catalog in the context of all other applicants? activity. There are three divisions of the program, which include Pop (cabaret, children?s, country, electronica, folk, Hawaiian, hip-hop/rap, jazz, Latin, musical theatre, pop, R&B/soul, religious and rock); Film/TV Score (written specifically for the audio/visual spectrum); and Concert/Classical Music (symphonic, chamber, instrumental, choral, vocal, electroacoustic, opera, liturgical and educational).

For more information about the ASCAP Plus Awards program, please visit www.ascap.com/ascapplus.

About ASCAP
The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) is a professional membership organization of songwriters, composers and music publishers of every kind of music. ASCAP?s mission is to license and promote the music of its members and foreign affiliates, obtain fair compensation for the public performance of their works and to distribute the royalties that it collects based upon those performances. ASCAP members write the world?s best-loved music and ASCAP has pioneered the efficient licensing of that music to hundreds of thousands of enterprises who use it to add value to their business ? from bars, restaurants and retail, to radio, TV and cable, to Internet, mobile services and more. The ASCAP license offers an efficient solution for businesses to legally perform ASCAP music while respecting the right of songwriters and composers to be paid fairly. With 450,000 members representing more than 8.5 million copyrighted works, ASCAP is the worldwide leader in performance royalties, service and advocacy for songwriters and composers, and the only American performing rights organization (PRO) owned and governed by its writer and publisher members. www.ascap.com

About Christopher Laird Simmons

Christopher Simmons has been writing about music since 1984 when he sold his first feature to Polyphony (now Electronic Musician) magazine. He has composed music for two TV cable shows, is a member of ASCAP and PRSA, and is the managing editor for Music Industry Newswire(TM), as well as the CEO of Neotrope(R) Entertainment. His 80s music can be found on iTunes, Amazon, and CDBaby, among others. He played in several electronica bands in the '80s, and currently tries to find time to play with his studio gear. He is also an award winning graphic designer, photographer, author of one book "Fractopia," and has created digital art for numerous national magazines. ? Christopher Laird Simmons. More at: ChristopherSimmons.com .

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Source: http://musicindustrynewswire.com/ascap-to-distribute-more-than-1-8-million-in-plus-cash-awards-to-reward-writers-whose-works-have-a-unique-prestige-value/

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Rocket Readings: Sales Training Article: Future of Selling

Sales Training Article: Future of Selling:?

By Geoffrey James, Inc. - Sales Source
Over the past two years I've been working on a set of special reports about the future of the sales profession. My co-author on this project is one of the most respected "thought leaders" in the field, Howard Stevens. Those special reports are currently available for free on the Chally Website.
sales trainingSince the future of selling is fairly important aspect of the business world, I thought it might be useful to provide a quick summary of some of the ideas that Howard and I developed in the reports:
1. The Web will make salespeople MORE important.
Conventional wisdom says that the ability of customer to research products and buy them online should make salespeople less important. It turns out that the opposite is the case, and companies are hiring more salespeople than ever.
However, customers expect much more of the salespeople who contact and work with them. Customers now expect salespeople to have a expert's view of the customer's business, act as a manager of some crucial part of the customer's business, and be effective at protecting the customer's interests within the vendor organization.
2. Sales jobs will become further differentiated and specialized.
Conventional wisdom says that the best sales professionals are hard-driving mavericks who can drum up business, develop opportunities, and close deals like crazy. However, according to Chally's research, there is no "one size fits all" salesperson any longer.
While some sales jobs may demand the stereotypical "go-getter" behavior, other jobs favor employees with less showy strengths, like strong analytical skills, the ability to empathize with customer problems, or a deep understanding of complex business issues.
3. Universities and colleges will offer more courses on selling.
Conventional wisdom is that top sales professionals don't need anything other than a high school diploma (if that) in order to sell. However, because selling is becoming more specialized, U.S. firms alone are spend $7.1 billion on sales training every year.
Given the demand, colleges are now ramping up dozens of sales-oriented business classes, many of which are producing exceptional graduates who "ramp up" 50% faster than the average candidate, and are 35% less likely to leave their employer.
4. Selling will be less of an art and more of a science.
Conventional wisdom says that sales is an art (aka "black magic") that's only measured by your financial results at the end of the quarter or fiscal year. However, sales-oriented technologies have now made it possible to use science to increase sales performance.
For example, using psychological assessment tests, it's now possible to create an accurate map of a salesperson's individual skills, competencies, motivational drivers, work habits and potential for developing new skills. Such metrics make selling (and forecasting sales) more predictable and therefore more manageable.
I could go on, but that's enough to start.
If I were to summarize what I've learned from this project, it's that selling is now going through a revolution that's as significant to the business world as the revolution in marketing was in the 1960s and the revolution in computers was in the 1980s.

Need some help with your sales performance? Take a look at the sales training workshops available to you and improve sales performance.
Read more sales training articles?from CustomerCentric Selling? - The Sales Training Company.

Source: http://rocketbuilders.blogspot.com/2012/12/sales-training-article-future-of-selling.html

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Wi-Lan sues RIM for Bluetooth patent infringement

(Reuters) - Patent licensing company Wi-Lan Inc said it has filed a lawsuit against BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd for infringing a patent that relates to Bluetooth technology.

Ottawa-based Wi-Lan said it filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida against the BlackBerry maker.

Wi-Lan, which has licensed its intellectual property to more than 255 companies worldwide, alleged that RIM infringed its U.S. Patent No. 6,260,168 related to Bluetooth technologies.

Wi-Lan has launched a string of patent lawsuits, including one last week against Apple Inc, HTC Corp and Sierra Wireless Inc's U.S. unit over LTE mobile technology.

In its filing, Wi-Lan alleges that RIM's PlayBook tablet and a wide range of its smartphones, including the Bold, Torch, Pearl and Storm, utilize technology that infringes on its patent.

"RIM will vigorously defend itself against patent infringement," a spokeswoman for RIM said.

Wi-Lan is seeking an unspecified amount in damages and preliminary and permanent injunctions to block RIM from infringing its patent.

Wi-Lan also said on Tuesday that the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) affirmed a lower court's dismissal of a patent infringement lawsuit in March against LG Electronics Inc.

The company accused LG of infringing a patent for V-chip technology, which lets parents block television content they consider inappropriate.

"Wi-Lan is surprised and disappointed by this decision. Wi-Lan is reviewing its options with counsel," the company said.

Shares of Wi-Lan were down 6 percent at C$4.53 in late-afternoon trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Shounak Dasgupta, Euan Rocha and Sandhya Vijayan; Editing by Maureen Bavdek, Maju Samuel)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wi-lan-sues-rim-bluetooth-patent-infringement-120754223--finance.html

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