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International
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
BUSINESS Motorola eyes ‘aggressive’ moves in smartphones Agence France-Presse
AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
Yellen become 1st woman to chair Federal Reserves Agence France-Presse
WASHINGTON - The US Senate on Monday confirmed Janet Yellen as the new leader of the Federal Reserve, marking the first time a woman has headed the world’s most powerful central bank. President Barack Obama’s nominee earned bipartisan support in the bitterly divided chamber, but the 56-26 vote was still among the closest in the 100-year history of the institution. Several senators who supported Yellen, currently Fed vice-chair, arrived too late for the vote. Yellen, 67, will replace current Chairman Ben Bernanke, who steps down on January 31 after eight years in the job, during which the pair dealt with the country’s worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Bernanke’s successor’s main task will be ensuring the US economy does not slip backwards at a time when other countries
are beset by weakness. Especially crucial will be further pushing down the American jobless rate, which fell to 7.0 percent in November, still significantly higher than Bernanke, Yellen and other Fed policymakers have deemed satisfactory. Obama cheered the Senate approval, saying Yellen would serve the central bank and the country well. “The American people will have a fierce champion who understands that the ultimate goal of economic and financial policymaking is to improve the lives, jobs and standard of living of American workers and their families,” he said in a statement.
“As one of our nation’s most respected economists and a leading voice at the Fed for more than a decade -- and vice chair for the past three years -- Janet helped pull our economy out of recession and put us on the path of steady growth.” Yellen has built a strong reputation as an academic economist, and as a veteran policymaker at the Fed she is not expected to veer far from the policies set by Bernanke. Married to economics Nobel Prize winner George Akerlof, she has a longterm interest in the impact of joblessness on the economy, and has helped keep Fed policy focused on bringing down unemployment.
LAS VEGAS - Motorola is pushing all the buttons to regain prominence in the smartphone market, including aggressive pricing, chief executive Dennis Woodside says. Woodside, in an interview Monday with AFP on the sidelines of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, said the Google-owned unit is seeking to gain ground against rivals including Apple and Google. “Consumer tastes change, and we actually think that there’s a huge undercurrent of consumers who are saying, ‘I don’t want to pay as much for my phone ... that’s actually a great opportunity,” he said. Motorola is far behind the market leaders now but is “tapping into the next five billion consumers who can’t afford a $600 dollar phone,” he added. Since being acquired by Google, Motorola has introduced the Moto X, the flagship device aimed at the US market, and the Moto G, a less expensive phone geared to cost-conscious consumers worldwide. “There will be different phones at different price points but we’re going to be very aggressive there,” Woodside said. “When we priced Moto X at $399 in the US as a promotion, we sold tens of thousands of units in a matter of eight minutes.” The Moto X was originally introduced at $599 unlocked, without a contract, while the Moto G was priced at $179 in the US. Motorola, once among the leaders in the mobile phone market, has been struggling in recent years as makers like Apple and Samsung grab most of the market share and profits. Surveys indicate it is not among the global leaders in smartphones and has only around seven percent of the US market. While some analyst see Motorola cutting prices due to weak sales, Woodside said the company makes a profit “Costs are really important in the business and we’ll always be focused on costs, but right now the priority is growing the top line,” he said. “This is a business where scale matters and what’s been really important for us to start putting products out there that we’re excited about and get consumers excited about. That’s what we’ve done with Moto X and Moto G,” he added. “We’ve got more on the way and we’re focusing on growing that base, the bottom line will take care of itself, once we get to the scale that we need to be.” He said that younger consumers appear to like to use Moto Maker, which allows for a custom design and color of the smartphone: 80 percent of those customers are under 35, he said. Woodside declined to provide specific sales figures but maintained that since launching the Moto X and Moto G “we are seeing our best days ever for smartphones.”
International
Domestic helper tried for possesing meth
Bali News
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
5
Antara
DENPASAR - On Monday, the Denpasar district court in the Bali province, tried a domestic helper charged for possessing 0.36 grams of crystal methamphetamine (sabu-sabu). “The defendant is charged for unlawful possession of Class I narcotic,” Public Prosecutor I Gusti Nyoman Widana stated. Widana reported that the police arrested the defendant with meth placed in a used cigarette pack at the Tantular Street, in Denpasar, on
December 11 last year. The defendant admitted that he bought the contraband from his friend, who is still at large. The defendant confessed that he left the meth in a ditch in front of the Bros Hospital, in Denpasar, fearing that the police will arrest him.
Bona a handicraft center
IBP
GIANYAR - Apart from being famous for the Cak Dance, Bona village also became the center of palm leaf handicrafts. It offered diverse kinds of products such as bags, hats, slippers, souvenirs and worship supplies. Consumers could order various customized product. “According to our ancestors, the palm-leaf handicrafts have become the source of livelihood of the people of this village,” said Sira. Sira said the tourism development in Bali was very influential to the palm-leaf craftsmen. Local communities made different products at their home and then were submitted to collectors who had a shop in the main street of the village. “This type of handicraft is widely looked for by many store owners in Ubud, Denpasar and Kuta,” he added. Aside from palm-leaf handicrafts, Bona village also has a beautiful weaving cloth that has emerged since 1980s. The cloth is available in various designs and regularly exhibited at the Art Center Denpasar in conjunction with the implementation of the Bali Arts Festival.
Bade IBP
IBP/File Photo
Apart from being famous for the Cak Dance, Bona village also became the center of palm leaf handicrafts.
Ngaben or cremation ceremony is arguably the most documented Balinese ceremony among hundreds of Balinese religious ceremonies. And of course the prima ballerina of Balinese cremation is the cremation tower or well known as Bade or Wadah. Bade or wadah is a tower which is used to carry the body of the deceased to the cremation ground. Bade or Wadah is a pagodalike structure with multi-tiered roof, constructed by a group of special craftsmen known as sangging with specific material such as bamboo, paper mace and cotton. The size, proportion and the structure of the bade is strictly
governed by the ancient rules of bade construction. The height of the Bade could reach up to 25 meters and the weight around 10 ton. It is required a few hundreds of man to carry it. Bade shows the social status of the deceased in the community, it is shown by the number of the tier of the bade roofs. The number of the roof of the bade is always odd (3, 5, 9, and 11). A commoner or sudra is forbidden to use bade in his cremation. The gentry usually use 3 up to 9-roof bade depend of his or her social status; higher social status means higher and more elaborate bade. The 11roof bade is reserved especially for a king. The Bade represents the an-
IBP/File Photo
cient Balinese cosmogony the Bedawang Nala (The world turtle) as its base, surrounded by the two dragons, Naga Basuki and Ananta boga as the symbol of safety and perpetual foods. Above them on the backside of the Bade is a big, grotesque mask of Bhoma with its outstretched wings symbol of the lofty forest and mountains. At the very top is the receding size of the multi tiers of roof, symbol of the heaven. The turtle and the dragons live in the lower world named Bhur, and the above is the world of man called Bwah, symbolized with the Bhoma. At the top is the world of heaven, Swah and it is symbolized by the tiers of roof at the Bade itself.