Search Results for: Germany

BY LEE ADENDOORF

NETWORKED clothing that can show you where it is at all times, talking to mirrors and shelves on the shop floor, is no longer the stuff of science fiction, but a reality developing rapidly in stores around the globe.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD, KARRYN MILLER, GARRY PIERRE-PIERRE, KEITH NUTHALL

FOR niche spirits, obscure can be good – and so products made in countries not renowned for their spirits production can gather export market cache. Latin America and the Caribbean are regions where effort by buyers can pay dividends.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

RETAIL – WINNERS AND LOSERS

WINNERS

H&M

The Sweden-based brand expanded across the world this year, planning to open 220 new stores, mostly in western Europe and the US. Hennes & Mauritz’ (H&M) third quarter sales of SEK26.89bn (US$4bn) showed a sharp 14% increase on the previous quarter.…

Lee Adendorff

The pension age for Italy’s aging professorial body could be lowered to 65 years under reforms currently being discussed in the Italian parliament, in an attempt to address what the education minister Mariastella Gelmini has described as an urgent need for ‘generational turnover’.…

By Lawrence J. Speer

Shrinking state budgets and financial shortfalls linked to the global recession are forcing universities to devise new means of raising revenue, notably through increased interaction with the private sector, according to participants at an international conference at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD).…

BY EMMA JACKSON

CONSUMERS barely notice the tiny band of code printed on their soft drink can or prescription bottle, but behind the scenes the coding and marking industry thrives on making those seemingly insignificant lines of print more readable, efficient and better integrated with high technology.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A NEW global survey involving the International Bar Association (IBA) has revealed widespread concern amongst lawyers that their profession is compromised by corruption. Working with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD), the IBA showed that nearly half of all respondents stated corruption was an issue in their own legal profession; more than 70% said so in the former Soviet Union, Africa, Latin America, the Baltic States and eastern Europe.…

BY MARK ROWE

SELLING a second-hand car to a customer has always required reassurance that the vehicle remains in fine shape. Selling a new car is always easier if a dealer can ensure long-life and durability. In future, such assurances will be eased by the introduction of longer-lasting, robust components based on nanomaterials.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

IT may come as a surprise that given the acres of newsprint and terabytes of data devoted to cybercrime over the past decade that the European Union (EU) still lacks a dedicated and centralised centre for fighting Internet crime.…

BY Alan Osborn

The European Commission has brought Internet researchers in central Asia into the international research community through aid of a ?$5 million (US$6.74 million) grant to the central Asia research and education network (CAREN) (SPELLING CORRECT). Brussels says the funding will upgrade the ancient ‘silk road’ carrying goods from Europe via central Asia to China into "a 21st century high-speed internet highway for research and education."…