AT&T shares fall on disappointing results

NEW YORK (Reuters) – AT&T Inc posted revenue that missed estimates and it added fewer wireless subscribers than expected in its final quarter as exclusive U.S. provider for the Apple Inc iPhone,
Its shares fell 3 percent as some investors were also disappointed by the company's 2011 expectation for earnings per share growth in the mid-single-digit percentage range, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Christopher Larsen.
"The guidance was lower than what people were looking for," Larsen said, noting that investors were worried about how much customer growth AT&T had baked into the estimate.
AT&T said it added 400,000 net contract customers in the fourth quarter compared with the average expectation for almost 504,000 from eight analysts contacted by Reuters.
On the plus side, Larsen said AT&T's addition of 442,000 customers using tablet computers like Apple's iPad were much higher than he had expected. AT&T also cited sales of tablets based on Google Inc's popular Android software.
"That's one of the things they're doing," Larsen said. "They're not just about iPhones. They're selling a lot of other devices."
On Tuesday, AT&T's biggest rival Verizon Wireless reported 872,000 new contract customers. Verizon Wireless said on January 11 that it starts selling iPhone in February, ending AT&T's more than three years of exclusive rights to the popular device.
However, AT&T noted that it still activated 4.1 million iPhones in the quarter, despite widespread expectations that Verizon Wireless would start selling the device early in 2011.
AT&T, the No. 2 U.S. mobile operator on Thursday reported a profit of $1.09 billion, or 18 cents per share compared with a profit of $2.7 billion, or 46 cents per share in the same quarter the year before.
But excluding unusual items, AT&T earned 55 cents per share compared with the average analyst estimate for 54 cents a share according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Operating revenue rose 2.1 percent to $31.36 billion from $30.71 billion in the year-ago quarter. On average analysts were expecting revenue of $31.47 billion, according to a poll from Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
AT&T said it expects consolidated revenue to grow this year but did not give a specific target.
It said earnings per share growth would be boosted by improvements in both wireless and wireline profit margins.
It said capital spending for the year would be in the low-to-mid $19 billion range and wireless spending increases would be offset by lower wireline capital expenses.
AT&T shares fell to $27.79 in premarket trading after closing at $28.73 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Verizon Wireless is a venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc.
(Reporting by Sinead Carew; editing by Derek Caney, Dave Zimmerman)

Source:http://news.yahoo.com/

Swiss police: blast at Davos hotel, no injuries

DAVOS, Switzerland – A small blast shattered two windows but caused no injuries at a hotel used by top business and political leaders attending the World Economic Forum, Swiss police said Thursday.
The incident occurred on the day French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and former U.S. President Bill Clinton were due to take the stage at the annual gathering in the Swiss Alpine town of Davos.
Forum organizers said in a statement that the explosion was caused by a firework.
An anonymous posting on the website indymedia.ch claimed responsibility for the attack on the Posthotel Morosani, saying it was directed at Swiss government officials and senior executives of Swiss bank UBS staying at the hotel. Its authenticity couldn't immediately be confirmed.
The Swiss federal prosecutors office said in a statement that it is investigating the incident but provided no further information "for tactical reasons."
The explosion happened in a hotel storage room shortly after 9 a.m. local time (0800 GMT) Thursday, regional police spokesman Thomas Hobi told the AP. The hotel did not comment.
The anonymous claim of responsibility said "two pyrotechnical devices and sugar" were used to cause the blast.
The hotel is just over a mile (around 2 kilometers) from the main venue of the annual gathering in the Alpine ski resort.
There was little disruption to the hotel and its activities beyond an increased security presence at the hotel's entrance. Guests, journalists and others were filing through a security scanner that was installed before Thursday's incident.
A Forum-related lunch focusing on organized crime, called "Criminals Without Borders" went on as scheduled at the hotel at noon, with speakers including Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Robert Wainwright, the director of Europol, or European Police.
There is tight security at the World Economic Forum as left-wing groups plan to hold a protest this weekend against the annual meeting of political and business leaders and social activists.
Anonymous flyers circulated at a demonstration last week in the northeastern Swiss town of St. Gallen urged activists to "Smash (the) WEF."
The flyer says: "Let us fight together against the unbearable propaganda of capitalism."
Hobi said he expects Saturday's demonstration to be peaceful.
In previous years radical activists have stayed away from the chic ski resort and staged violent demonstrations elsewhere in Switzerland instead.

Source:http://news.yahoo.com/

Australia plans new tax, cuts to pay for floods

CANBERRA, Australia – Australia wants to tax those not affected by massive flooding and cut spending to pay the more than $5 billion bill it is anticipating after weeks of rain swamped the country's third-largest city and forced thousands from their homes.
With its tax proposal Thursday, the government hopes to avoid borrowing to pay for rebuilding after what could prove to the the country's costliest disaster — a decision some economists andbusiness leaders have called into question.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced that the temporary tax would apply to Australians on above-average incomes and would exclude those who were affected by the floods. The levy — 0.5 percent on incomes between $50,001 and $100,000, and a 1 percent on taxable incomes above that — is expected to raise $1.8 billion.
A vast inland sea of floodwaters continued creeping across southeastern Australia on Thursday, inundating farms and houses. Dozens of homes were swamped this week.
The flooding has claimed 35 lives, damaged or destroyed 30,000 homes and businesses and caused at least $3 billion in damage to crops and lost coal exports. Brisbane, the country's third-largest city and the capital of hard-hit Queensland state, was under water for days.
Initial estimates of the overall damage plus the cost of emergency grants to flood-affected communities for the federal government is $5.6 billion and likely to rise, Gillard said. The federal government is to pay 75 percent of the cost of rebuilding infrastructure such as roads and ports, while state and local governments will pay 25 percent.
The federal government plans to cut spending in other areas including clean energy industry incentives to make up the remainder of the bill for infrastructure.
"In time, it may prove to be the most expensive natural disaster our nation has ever seen," Gillard told the National Press Club.
She said the government expected the floods to shave half a percentage point from Australia's gross domestic product, which the government predicted in November would grow by 3.25 percent in the current fiscal year ending June 30.
The legislation is to be introduced to Parliament next month. The main opposition party opposes it, but the measure seems likely to pass because Gillard's Labor Party commands a majority in the House of Representatives with the support of independent and Green lawmakers.
Gillard, whose government has vowed to make Australia one of the first developed countries to return its annual budget to surplus two years after the global economic crisis, has dismissed the prospect of borrowing to pay for the flooding damage.
Some economists and business leaders say she should reconsider.
Warwick McKibbon, a central bank director, estimated the cost of reconstruction could be between $10 billion and $20 billion and said the government should keep the budget in deficit for longer to pay that.
"I don't think any great harm would have been done had the government simply allowed the deficit to be larger or the return to surplus be slightly delayed from a schedule that was drawn up well before this most extraordinary disaster," Saul Eslake, an economist with the Grattan Institute think tank, told AustralianBroadcasting Corp. radio.
Western Australia state Premier Colin Barnett, one of only two state leaders who is not a member of Gillard's party, said most Australians would happily pay an extra tax to rebuild Queensland, the worst-affected state in the east.
"I believe most Australians — most West Australians — are willing to contribute a little bit more to help Queensland get back to its feet," Barnett said. "So I think that is appropriate."

Source:http://news.yahoo.com/

Hyundai Motor's 4th-quarter net profit hits record

SEOUL, South Korea – Hyundai Motor's net profit jumped 48 percent in the fourth quarter to a record high as the automaker reaped gains from strong overseas sales.
Hyundai said Thursday that it earned 1.4 trillion won ($1.3 billion) in the three months ended Dec. 31 after recording 946 billion won in profit a year earlier.
Hyundai Motor Co. is South Korea's largest automaker and has become a major force in the global industry by expanding aggressively overseas with factories in China, India, Turkey, the United States, the Czech Republic and, from late last year, Russia. The company and South Korea's Kia Motors Corp. together form the world's fifth-largest automotive group.
Hyundai, the maker of the Elantra and Sonata sedans and the Tuscon SUV, said total sales during the quarter rose 3.1 percent to 9.94 trillion won from 9.65 trillion won a year earlier.
Company spokeswoman Song Meeyoung said that the net profit and sales figures were all-time quarterly highs.
Sales volume increased 5.1 percent to 943,791 vehicles in the fourth quarter and rose 16.3 percent to a record 3.61 million for 2010.
Global market share for all of last year, however, remained unchanged from 2009 at 5.2 percent, Song said.
Annual net profit in 2010 surged 78 percent to 5.27 trillion won, while sales hit 36.77 trillion won, a gain of 15.4 percent. Both figures were also record highs, according to Song.
Hyundai enjoyed strong profitability last year due to strength in its overseas factories and sales operations, which contribute to its net earnings.
The company did not break down its overseas earnings performance for the fourth quarter alone, but said that its operations in China, India, the United States, the Czech Republic and Turkey all contributed to earnings in 2010.
Among those operations, the most notable performer was the United States, where sales volume increased 53.9 percent from 2009 to 300,000 vehicles, while revenue rose 46.8 percent, according to presentation materials for investors.
Operations in China, the world's biggest auto market, were also strong, with sales volume rising 23.3 percent to 703,000 vehicles and revenue gaining 20.8 percent.
Sales during 2010 from overseas factories totaled 1.88 million vehicles, a gain of 25.9 percent from the year before, Hyundai said. Exports of vehicles made in South Korea increased 17.8 percent to 1.07 million.
Greg Kim, an auto analyst at Mirae Asset Securities in Seoul, said that Hyundai's overseas factory sales during the final three months of last year reached their highest quarterly level ever.
"All the overseas factories, they performed very well," he said.
Hyundai Motor's share price fell 0.8 percent to close at 196,000 won, though remains 13 percent higher so far this year. The company's stock price rose 43 percent in 2010.

Oil holds above $87 a barrel in Asia

BANGKOK – Oil prices held above $87 a barrel Thursday in Asia as traders weighed President Barack Obama's plans to boost the U.S. economy against the possibility that China, the world's biggest energy consumer, will soon raise interest rates to slow growth and contain inflation.
Benchmark crude for March delivery was down 21 cents at $87.10 a barrel at late afternoon Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.14 to settle at $87.33 a barrel on Wednesday.
It was the first significant move higher for oil in a week after prices tumbled on signs the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which produce about 40 percent of the world's crude, could raise production to bring down the price of oil.
Traders are now taking their cue from world stock markets, which moved higher on Obama's call in the State of the Union address to close corporate tax loopholes and lower business tax rates — moves that could stimulate the world's biggest economy and boost demand for fuel.
But the possibility China may raise interest rates or take other tightening measures before Lunar New Year holidays begin next week kept a lid on the oil price in Asian trading on Thursday.
"There is still a strong probability that China's central bank will raise interest rates or increase reserve requirements again to cool economic growth there," energy consultants Cameron Hanover said in a report.
Adding to the caution, the Energy Department said U.S. stockpiles of oil and gasoline rose more than expected last week.
Crude supplies expanded by 4.8 million barrels to 340.6 million barrels. Gasoline supplies rose by 2.4 million barrels to 230.1 million barrels, while demand in the past four weeks increased 1.1 percent. Supplies of distillate fuel, which includes diesel and heating oil, declined by 100,000 barrels to 165.7 million barrels.
In other Nymex trading in February contracts, heating oil was down 0.4 cent at $2.666 a gallon and gasoline fell 0.2 cent to $2.429 a gallon. Natural gas for March delivery slipped 2 cents to $4.48 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, Brent crude was up 1 cent at $97.92 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Wall St opens flat as data offsets Caterpillar

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks opened flat on Thursday as disappointing data on the labor market offset strong results from Dow component Caterpillar.
The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) was down 3.63 points, or 0.03 percent, at 11,981.81. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) fell 0.24 points, or 0.02 percent, at 1,296.39. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) was up 6.26 points, or 0.23 percent, at 2,745.76.

Source:http://news.yahoo.com/

Miss World 2010 Contestant - MISS BULGARIA WORLD 2010 - Romina Andonova's Photos & Profile/Biography

PERSONAL PARTICULARS

Birth Name:Romina Andonova
Birth Date: (age 21)
Birth Place: Sofia
Height: 5'9.5" (1.76m)
Eye Color:
Hair Color:
Language:Bulgarian & English
Title(s):
Major Competition(s):Miss World 2010

BIOGRAPHY:

Romina is studying Biology at University and would like to contribute to the saving of endangered species. She enjoys; Swimming, Jogging, Nature and Animals. Romina has a special talent for singing and has toured the country performing at concerts with her modern dance group. Personal Moto: ‘Appartengo a Dio’.

INTERVIEW

Favourite Music / Books ?
I have the habit of listening to different kinds of music. It has to correspond to my emotional status, that's why sometimes I prefer listening to ballads and soul music, sometimes its dance, rap, pop music. But I definitely prefer Trance and chill out. My favourite DJ is Armin van Buuren.
What is the proudest moment of your life or most memorable day?
I am proud of myself everytime when I make my dreams come true!
Describe yourself
I am outgoing, communicative and open minded. I am keen on making new friends, learning new things and experience life to full extent. I am good at dancing, design and singing.
Favourite food ?
I like all different kinds of nuts, fresh fruit and vegetables. I prefer Bulgarian national food.
Do you have any pets ?
Yes, I have two turtles (Pijo and Penda) and some goldfish.
Future ambitions ?
To study for a Masters Degree in Biology.
Special Talents ?
Singing.
Tell us a little something about your Country ?
Bulgaria is a small but picturesque country in south eastern Europe. It has a population of 8 million people. Bulgaria is famous for its beautiful nature, diverse landscapes and rich history. Bulgarian traditions, alphabet and language have been preserved since the first Bulgarian Empire. Nowdays Bulgaria is a modern country and a member of the European Union.

PHOTO GALLERY

Special thanks to Wikipedia & worldshowbiz.info & model.visages.net &www.beauty-queens.org

source: (Thank you and credits to
http://www.missworld.com/
http://ocean-blu.blogspot.com/
and all sources for the information and pictures)

Miss Bulgaria 2010 Romina Andonova









Courtesy of Miss Bulgaria


source: (Thank you and credits to
ilovebeauty56: http://www.pinoyexchange.com/
and all sources for the information and pictures)

Source:http://shinymeteor.blogspot.com/