World Markets Simplified

 

 

• AlphaRx International Holdings Limited Terminates Its Chief Scientist and Chief Medical Officer for Cause More...

• Marshall Edwards, Inc. (MSHL) Adds Former Genentech (RHHBY) Head of Medical Affairs Robert Mass as Chief Medical Officer More...

• Apricus Biosciences (APRI) Appoints Steve Martin as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer More...

• Soligenix Appoints Joseph Warusz as Vice President of Administration and Controller More...

• British Firm Sagentia to Add Jobs in Massachusetts More...

• Novo Nordisk A/S (NVO) Will Boost China Investments to Fend Off Sanofi (France) (SASY.PA), COO Says More...

• Sequenom Inc. (SQNM) Enters Into New $30.0 Million Credit Facility More...

• Healthpoint Acquires Regranex® Gel More...

• Global Pharm Holdings Group Completes Acquisitions for Two City-Level Pharmaceutical Distribution Companies More...

• INC Research, Inc. Expands Reach in Australia, New Zealand and India WithTrident Clinical Research Acquisition More...

• Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, Inc. Ditches $625 Million Diabetes Drug Pact with Diamyd Medical AB More...

• Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada (BMY) and Roche (RHHBY) Enter into a Clinical Collaboration Agreement to Conduct Combination Studies with YERVOY(TM) (ipilimumab) and Vemurafenib More...

• Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (TEVA) Eyes Deals in India, Gets US OK for Generic Aricept More...

• Luminex Corporation (LMNX) and Life Technologies (LIFE) Sign Agreement for Global Distribution of the Award-Winning MAGPIX® Multiplexing Instrument More...

• Goodwin Biotechnology, Inc. Announces a Collaboration With Alethia BioTherapeutics, Inc. More...

• PAREXEL International (PRXL) Issues Earnings Guidance in Conjunction with Investor Day More...

• South Carolina Prosecutor Suing GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Over Avandia More...

• GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Theravance, Inc. (THRX) Announce Results of Two Pivotal Phase III Studies for Relovair(TM) in COPD; Results Support Continuation of Development Program More...

• Aastrom Biosciences, Inc. (ASTM) Therapy Reaches Safety, Efficacy Goals More...

• Adeona Pharmaceuticals (AEN) Announces Positive Alzheimer's Subgroup Analysis that Supports Additional Clinical Study of Proprietary Zinc-Based Therapy More...

• Lpath, Inc.'s Anti-LPA Antibody, Lpathomab, Demonstrates Promising Data in Several Animal Models of Disease More...

• Seaside Therapeutics Initiates Pivotal Phase 3 Study of STX209 in Fragile X Syndrome More...

• Mylan Laboratories Inc. (MYL) Receives Approval for Generic Version of Effexor XR(R) Capsules More...

• NovaDel Pharma (NVD) Reports Opening of Duromist(TM) Original IND with FDA More...

• Vaccine May Help Treat Advanced Melanoma: M. D. Anderson Cancer Center More...

• Cholesterol Drugs Tied to Lower Prostate Cancer Risk, Duke University School of Medicine Study More...

• Development Could Double Flu Vaccine Supply: Vanderbilt University School of Medicine More...

• FDA: Treatment With Angiotensin Receptor Blockers for High Blood Pressure Does Not Increase Risk of Cancer More...

• Childhood ADHD Linked to Later Risk of Drug Abuse: Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry More...

1. Ending weeks of offline misery after high-profile hack attacks, Sony's PlayStation Store is back online. Sony's thanking everyone for "patience" and notes the Store has been topped up with a lot of content (there's even a handy list of the new gaming goodness). But the "welcome back" free offers, given to PSN users as an apology for the extended outage, isn't yet live--it's in final testing. Presumably so Sony doesn't expose itself with yet another security hole.

2. YouTube now lets you license your uploaded video under Creative Commons. Essentially this means you can choose to give permission for other folk to reuse, rework, adapt and republish your efforts--with attribution to you as an original source. It's important because it lets YouTube become a bigger channel for newly produced content, which helps keep it relevant and growing. YouTube's even pre-arranged some 10,000 clips from C-SPAN, Al-Jazeera, and more.

3. In a bill which music industry patrons hope will set a trend, Tennessee has a new law that makes it illegal to use someone else's login credentials to listen to music or watch streaming TV content from systems like Netflix or Rhapsody. The Web Entertainment Theft legislation, which seems draconian because it's valid even if you have permission, is directed at hackers who resell passwords in bulk, but sponsors acknowledge it applies to everyone--particularly college-goers.

4. Apple just updated its OS X to defeat a persistent and tricky malware attack called Mac Defender that may be the highest profile "hack" of Apple's OS yet--although strictly it needs user interaction to "infect" a machine. But within hours the illegal coders behind the attack adjusted their system to circumvent Apple's new security. Apple's now got a system for daily security updates, but it's a sign malware attackers are targeting the oft-overlooked Mac.

5. Shaq--yup, that Shaq--just announced his retirement from the NBA via Twitter. Specifically O'Neal used Tout, a social video sharing system to make it a truly 21st century retirement posting. No letter, no newspaper leak, no press conference, just a simple, honest self-published social networking status update.

( Source: Fast Company )

Daily Digest Stockinvestips

Hill International, the U.S. construction consulting firm, received a 4.7 million-real ($3 million) contract to expand a wind farm in Brazil.

Hill’s recently acquired Brazil unit Engineering SA will oversee the installation of 61 additional turbines at a New Energy Options Geracao de Energia project in the northern state of Rio Grande do Norte, Marlton, New Jersey-based Hill said in a statement yesterday. The expansion will cost a total of 592 million reais.

Global brands from Twitter to Amazon are buying up Colombian Internet addresses, as the country's .co domain attracts organizations unable to get their choice of .com address or who want a shorter name.

Colombia, which had only 28,000 registered Internet addresses before it opened up the .co domain a year ago, has just signed up its millionth customer.

"It's globally recognizable, it's short, and it's got an incredible technology behind it," says Juan Diego Calle, chief executive of .CO Internet, the registry operator for the .co top level domain.

He says the company mainly attracts small businesses which cannot get a .com address that suits them — some 90 million .com addresses have been registered.

But top brands are signing up too.

Twitter, for example, has bought t.co, Amazon has a.co, and U.S. online retailer Overstock is rebranding itself internationally as o.co.

Calle, a Colombian and a serial Internet entrepreneur, raised $5 million to start .CO Internet and beat rivals including VeriSign, which serves as the global registry for .com and .net, to win the government contract to operate the .co domain.

The Miami-based company took over the administration of .co in July 2010, and organizations or individuals can now simply buy a .co address for as little as $11.99 from Internet domain registrars such as Go Daddy.

Attractive single-character names such as t.co are not sold through registrars but through private negotations.

The highest price the company has disclosed for a name is $350,000 for the sale of o.co to Overstock, but Calle says growing awareness of the .co domain as well as increasing demand for short names for mobile applications is driving prices up.

"After Amazon and after a few of the other deals that we've done over the past few months, the price of one character is already north of $1.5 million," he told Reuters by telephone.

Other countries have also capitalised on their top-level Internet domains.

The Polynesian island of Tuvalu's .tv domain is used by many television organisations, while Montenegro's .me is increasingly popular for apps for smartphones like the Apple iPhone.

Country codes are administered by ICANN, the non-profit group that coordinates the Internet's naming system.

The codes were first established by the International Organisation for Standardisation in 1974, before the World Wide Web was invented.

Top-level domains are currently restricted but an impending liberalization will allow individuals or organizations to apply to register any TLDs they choose, for example .paris or .green.

Calle says he does not believe this will lower demand for .co addresses.

"We are very excited about the new TLDs coming out," he says. "People have become used to seeing .com, .co.uk, but when they see a new thing like .co they're not always comfortable with it. As new extensions are rolled out, and they're marketed, we're going to see more awareness at the consumer level."

( Source: Reuters )

Groupon Getaways with Expedia will launch in June with hotels in the US, expanding to airlines and car rentals, even cruises. Before the end of the year the service will roll out to Latin America, Europe and then Asia. It'll work a lot like Groupon — customers will have a limited time to buy a discount voucher, usually about half-off, for future travel. They'll be able to redeem the voucher within a certain redemption period, but the idea is that the period will be flexible, without blackout dates.

Together Groupon and Expedia will be able to reach a huge audience — 50 million people between Groupon and Expedia's members.

Who wins on the back end? The merchant will receive about half of what consumers spend, Expedia and Groupon sharing the rest. The companies didn't disclose any specific terms but Durchslag says Expedia isn't doing any deals that aren't accretive. This is certainly a crowded marketplace with the likes of Priceline,but Groupon and Expedia hope that the simple, straightforward approach will cut through the clutter.