by Edward Hugh: Barcelona The Russian ruble strengthened the most in more than three months against the dollar yesterday (gaining 1.7 percent to 32.2247 per dollar at one point) as oil rebounded above $60 a barrel and OAO Sberbank reported better-than-expected earnings. Sberbank shares jumped 5.1 percent after first-quarter net income turned out to be above analyst estimates. But the rise was also helped by the fact that Russia’s central bank spent approximately $2 billion from reserves to try to stop the ruble from falling yesterday, taking central bank reserve spending over the two working days since they lowered interest rates half a percantage point on Friday to around $4 billion, according to reports in the newspaper Kommersant .

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Russia’s Contraction Eases But Knife-edge Risks Remain For 2010

IBM has described the SAP-based payroll/HR system it is implementing for Queensland Health as the most complicated it has ever seen in Australia. Queensland ICT Minister Robert Schwarten (Credit: Queensland government) “I do not have the letter with me, but IBM wrote to me today and said that it is the most complicated system that they have ever had to deal with in Australia,” Queensland ICT Minister Robert Schwarten told a Queensland budget estimates committee yesterday.

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Qld Health complexity tests IBM

ZDNet.com.au news editor Renai LeMay commentary The location of the launch of Stephen Conroy’s Digital Economy: Future Directions paper last night could not have been more appropriate, considering the report’s content. Those who’ve been to the Powerhouse Museum will know it holds such wonderfully modern examples of technology as steam trains and even a horse-drawn pump engine. Likewise, Conroy’s opus has done a fantastic job of curating well-known Australian technology success stories, without doing much at all to demonstrate how more such wonders of the world could be brought into being.

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Future direction trapped in halt state

Western Power is looking to install 10,500 smart meters as part of a four-year smart grid trial. (Power trip image by mugley , CC2.0 ) The utility has just started its search for a vendor and hopes to have a preferred tenderer by October in order to start installation early in 2010. Perth’s eastern corridor will receive 8500 of the meters while 2000 smart meters will be rolled out in Denmark and Walpole.

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Western Power flags smart meter roll-out

The Safe Harbour scheme, at the centre of the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) case against internet service provider iiNet, may be extended to Google and Yahoo. “The Australian Government will consider whether the scope of the safe harbour scheme should be expanded to include additional types of online service providers,” the Department of Broadband Communications and the Digital Economy’s Future Directions paper released yesterday. The scheme was introduced in 2004 under the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement and was designed to encourage ISPs and telcos to cooperate with copyright owners to deter infringement by reducing the potential liability of providers if they assist copyright owners’ efforts to prevent infringements via, for example, file-sharing

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Govt to explore Google ‘safe harbour’

(Bloomberg) — China’s foreign-exchange reserves, the world’s biggest, topped $2 trillion for the first time as overseas investors became more confident that the nation’s economy is recovering. The reserves rose a record $178 billion in the second quarter to $2.132 trillion, the People’s Bank of China said today on its Web site. That dwarfs a $7.7 billion gain in the previous three months.

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China’s Foreign-Exchange Reserves, already the world’s biggest, now Top $2 Trillion. All Fiat Money, very little Gold

RICS believes that the Government has treaded a line of fine balance to lead the economy to high GDP growth rate by investing in infrastructure sector, yet keeping the fiscal deficit within manageable limits which has already undergone a substantial deviation at 6.8% from 6.1% at the time of interim budget. In the backdrop of ambitious ‘housing for all’ and ‘Slum free India’ agenda, the rural and urban housing sectors have been given due importance, however largely through Government’s flagship

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RICS says Budget a fine balancing act aimed at a higher economic growth

The good Touchscreen navigation Good keyboard, if tiny keys Decent web browser The bad No 3.5mm headphone socket No memory card included Design Maybe it’s because we’ve just seen Bruno , or maybe we’re overestimating the fickle tastes of the youth market, but the standard colour scheme for the LG Xenon needs a coat of paint. Its black plastic chassis with silver trim may sound like the latest Prada phone , but in person the Xenon lacks that all-important visual lure. At launch Telstra will accompany this standard black model with an electric blue version that may appeal more to its target market: teenage texters

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Review: LG Xenon

Last week I was invited to make a presentation about participatory democracy in a seminar organized by the Association for the Development of Women Entrepreneurship (ADAF) in Romania. The goal of the seminar was to develop a network of active European citizens, which in my opinion was and is a challenging task. ADAF is part of a European project together with other women business organizations from Belgium, Spain, Italy, Slovenia and Croatia. I care for this association, so I have accepted Cornelia Rotaru’s invitation

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Attitudes Towards Citizenship in Romania

The CEO, board and lead adviser of the National Broadband Network (NBN) will be announced at the end of the month, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said last night. At the launch of a discussion paper on Australia’s digital future in Sydney on Tuesday night, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy told AAP that a chairperson, CEO, board members and lead adviser for the NBN would be announced at the end of July. Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull has publicly opposed the technology, accusing the government of pushing a network on to the public without knowing it would be profitable.

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NBN CEO, board, advisor, by end of July

Orange Labs hosted a fantastic women in tech event last week featuring speakers like: Rashmi Sinha – Co-founder and CEO of SlideShare Heather Harde – CEO of Techcrunch Silvia Console Battiana – Co-Founder and Member of Board of Directors of Auctionomics Beatrice Tarka – Co-founder and CEO of Mobissimo Sandy Jen – Co-founder and Engineering Chief of Meebo Here are the talks of all these women along with my major takeaways. Rashmi Sinha – Co-founder and CEO of Slide

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Top women tech entrepreneurs speak on their companies and their success

I have observed numerous changes in my life over the course of living it, and I can tell you that as you grow older, Caution will become your companion; when you’re young, you plainly throw him to the wind. As you get older, you wait for him to blow by, and then you reel him back in, why? Caution has only a few friends, but some adversaries: Haste and Waste; after several trips around the block with these two, Caution begins to look like a much better friend

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Financial Planning and Interest Only Mortgages. Interesting Info to Consider

And a new ‘protest variation’ Song of the Clyde is promised as local communities from Symington to Biggar, including Lamington and Coulter, join with environmental and angling interests to oppose a planning application to be submitted by quarry  business, Patersons of Greenoakhill Ltd.The issueThe company proposes to establish a wet working quarry, extracting sand and gravel from below the water table, at Overburns Farm along a stretch of the upper Clyde, long renowned as one of the best fishing

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No catch and release in Clyde River Action Group’s campaign against Lamington Quarry

US retail sales rise 0.5%, up 0.3% ex-autos; Higher gasoline sales inflate headline PPI rise 1.8%, core up 0.5% ; Fuel, auto price rises impact US business inventories fall 1.0% in May; slightly more than forecast UK Chancellor Darling: Banks must resume lending UK’s Mandelson: Recession ending; public spending to be constrained for next decade; no euro membership as long as Labour in charge ECB’s Mersch: Rates appropriate; cutting when rates already low questionable; uncert

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New York forex wrap-up; Dollar shows strength within ranges

Reading is really paying off for a local family participating in a summer program this year.TD Banknorth and TD Bank are sponsoring a summer reading program that encourages children to read and also teaches them the importance of saving money.The two banks, which have locations along the east coast from Florida to Maine, are contributing $10 to a new or existing savings account for each child who reads 10 books throughout the summer.The program runs through Sept. 30.Shamong resident Julianne Hun

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Update: TD Bank summer reading program pays off for families

From Reuters: Obama mulls rental option for some homeowners-sources Under one idea being discussed, delinquent homeowners would surrender ownership of their homes but would continue to live in the property for several years … Officials are also considering whether the government should make mortgage payments on behalf of borrowers who cannot keep up with their home loans And another surge in foreclosure activity is reported today by ForeclosureRadar: For the third consecutive month, foreclosure sales jumped significantly as lenders come off the moratorium

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As Foreclosure Activity Surges, Obama Considers Rental Option

Dawn McIntyre, founder and CEO of Boldly Beautiful® International, was recently featured on the television show, “America’s PremierExperts™”, airing on affiliates of CBS, FOX, NBC and ABC.   Calgary, Canada – July 14, 2009 – America’s PremierExperts™, the television show, was filmed in February in Los Angeles, California.   The television show, which is co-produced by JW Dicks, Esq

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Dawn McIntyre Of Boldly Beautiful® International, Featured On CBS, NBC, ABC and FOX

As Bulgaria morphs from a world ranked investment hotspot to the lifestyle choice of thousands, a new advice and assistance website service is launched at www.bulgariagateway.net An estimated 58,000 Britons now own property in Bulgaria and this number is continuing to grow. Recent research findings from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPRR) shows that some 350,000 people are planning to leave Britain over the next year and over half of UK homeseekers aged between 18 and 35 would co

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Bulgaria – from Investment Hotspot to Lifestyle Choice

Audit program guides, or APGs, are use to test an account balance or to test internal controls.

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Accounting Jobs & Money Management : How to Write an Audit Program

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a United Nations agency, has announced a grant of USD 23.9 million to create the Rural Microfinance and Livestock Support Program in Afghanistan. This is the first IFAD program in Afghanistan and will be implemented in the northern region. The microfinance portion of the program will tailor microfinance services to the rural population, especially farmers who lack access to microcredit.

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MICROCAPITAL STORY: International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Grants $23.9m to Afghanistan for Rural Microfinance and Livestock Support

Recent data suggest that job market conditions are not improving in the United States and other advanced economies. In the US, the unemployment rate, currently at 9.5%, is poised to rise above 10% by the fall. It should peak at 11% some time in 2010 and remain well above 10% for a long time.

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Mounting Job Losses Will Hurt Consumption, Housing, Banks’ Balance Sheets, Public Finances and Lead to Protectionist Pressures

Every town and city in the South has a story to tell, and in Decatur, Ala ., you can now download the stories to your iPod or MP3 player. Adding a different twist to typical shelf-bound brochures, the podcasts takes the self-guided walking tours to a new level. Or like Tami Reist, president of the Decatur-Morgan County Convention and Visitors Bureau says, it’s like having your own personal tour guide

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Have Shoes and iPod (or MP3), Will Travel: Decatur, Alabama’s Walking Tours Podcasts.

The Manufacturing and Trade Inventories and Sales report from the Census Bureau today showed more evidence of declining inventories. Click on graph for larger image in new window. The Census Bureau reported: Manufacturers’ and trade inventories, adjusted for seasonal variations but not for price changes, were estimated at an end-of-month level of $1,368.1 billion, down 1.0 percent (±0.1%) from April 2009 and down 8.0 percent (±0.4%) from May 2008.

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More Inventory Correction

One by one the emerging nations are losing faith in the dollar and looking to take advantage of the global recession by gaining economic influence.  In the process, the idea of a global currency is gaining support from a growing list of nations like Russia, China, India and Brazil. The idea is to create a new currency to replace the dollar as the global reserve currency, based on a basket of currencies from these nations.  Today these nations only make up 20-30% of the financial transacti

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The Future Global Currency Will Be Backed By Gold and Silver

  I can tell that I am grown up because I get up at 4AM, not go to bed at 4AM, and I no longer consider a $4.00 bottle of wine “pretty good stuff”. The French, known for their wine, celebrate Bastille Day today. It is called Fête Nationale (National Holiday) in France and commemorates the 1790 Fête de la Fédération, held on the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille: the Fête de la Fédération was seen as a symbol of the uprising of the modern French “nation,” and of the reconc

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Bastille Day; Mortgage volume forecasts dropping; Freddie, Wells, $8k tax credit news