Alibaba pushes into social networking with Weibo investment

By Sayantani Ghosh and Sruthi Ramakrishnan

(Reuters) - Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba Group acquired an 18 percent stake in web portal Sina Corp's microblogging service Weibo in its first big move into selling advertising on China's highly competitive social networks.

Sina's U.S.-listed shares surged 21 percent to $60.81 in early trading, before easing back to $56.90.

The $586 million deal, which values Weibo at over $3 billion, will provide more advertising revenue to Weibo as Sina tries to monetize the service and increase its lead over rival Tencent Holdings' social messaging product, WeChat.

The deal, seen by analysts as generously priced, should drive more web traffic to Alibaba's Taobao Marketplace, China's largest e-commerce website with a consumer focus.

Alibaba is tipped to go public within the next year.

Weibo, China's version of Twitter, has grown at a fast clip since its launch in 2009 and has gained from the blockage of Twitter by the Chinese government.

More than 500 million Chinese use Weibo to opine on everything from Korean soap operas to China's latest political intrigue.

"(The stake purchase) is as an endorsement from Alibaba ... of the value of Sina's Weibo platform," Morningstar analyst Dan Su said.

"This indicates the tremendous value of the data that is present on the Weibo platform that can be mined for a lot of activities, such as ecommerce."

Unlisted Alibaba, controlled by charismatic Chinese internet entrepreneur Jack Ma, also runs Alibaba.com, the country's largest business-to-business commerce platform, and Alipay, a PayPal-like online payment platform.

Ma, one of China's best known corporate leaders, reckoned to be worth $3.4 billion by Forbes late last year, built his e-commerce empire from scratch.

He plans to step down as CEO on May 10 and become executive chairman. Alibaba is likely to go public in a listing in Hong Kong that could value the company at about $100 billion, according to industry sources.

Alibaba has kept mum about its IPO plans, but its listing will likely be a windfall for Yahoo Inc, which owns nearly a quarter of the company.

GENEROUS FOR SINA

Some analysts, who had valued Weibo between $600 million and $2.5 billion, said the deal offered by Alibaba was generous.

"We believe this deal is very positive for Sina. It instantly gives pricing to Sina Weibo with a valuation of $3.26 billion; the per share base could be $48," T.H. Capital Research analyst Tian Hou said.

"Sina's resource consolidation with Alibaba Group, which has a huge dominant position in China's e-commerce, can escalate Weibo's development," she said.

Sina, which makes most of its revenue from online advertising both on its website and Weibo, has had investors worried as the growth rate of Chinese online advertising slows. Its shares have slipped 15 percent in the last 12 months.

Maxim Group analyst Echo He said the Alibaba deal would help Sina in the longer term, but giving Sina cash would not solve its problems and its valuation would still depend on its own profitability.

This is not the first time Sina has tied up with a major Chinese company to seek new streams of revenue.

Sina allied with Baidu Inc last year, integrating Baidu search in its mobile website, while Baidu said its cloud initiative would come with the Weibo app preinstalled.

The analysts said Sina could potentially team up with many other companies, while Morningstar's Su said the deal ruled out any near-term plans for another such major alliance.

Sina has also granted Alibaba the option to increase its stake in Weibo to 30 percent within a stipulated time, which it did not specify.

The alliance is expected to generate about $380 million in advertising and social commerce services revenue for Weibo over the next three years, Sina said in a statement.

(Additional reporting by Supantha Mukherjee; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sina-says-alibaba-buys-18-percent-stake-weibo-121859682.html

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Lawmakers Propose Raising State's Legal Smoking Age To 21 - NY1

Updated?04/28/2013 05:28 PM

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City and state lawmakers are joining forces in an attempt to make buying tobacco as hard as buying alcohol.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, a mayoral candidate, joined state Senator Diane Savino and Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal in City Hall on Sunday to announce legislation that would raise the minimum age to buy tobacco products to 21 statewide, from 18.

They say 90 percent of people buying cigarettes for minors are between the ages of 18 and 20.

The state Health Department also says 88 percent of adult smokers today began smoking before the of 19.

"By raising the minimum age to legally purchase tobacco products in New York City from 18 to 21, the same age it is to start drinking, we could potentially reduce the smoking rate among 18- to 20-year-olds by 55 percent and reduce the smoking rate among 14- to 17-year-olds by two-thirds," Quinn said.

The move comes on the heels of similar legislation that was introduced in the city last week.

A council hearing on the city legislation is scheduled for Thursday.

Source: http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/181183/lawmakers-propose-raising-state-s-legal-smoking-age-to-21

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Solution For Scott County Emergency Communications Issues - UPDA

Shortly after the January 17, 2013?fire at Del's Eatery in Eldridge, Iowa, Scott County Communications realized they had issues sending out mass alerts.

But Riverdale, Iowa's new system could completely solve those problems, according to Second Assistant Fire Chief, Mike Kleinsmith.

"With the Del's fire, they were wanting all the departments they could get to come out with water and instead of paging, they sent out a text message. The text messaging didn't go through to everybody and some people didn't get them for several hours."

And by several hours,?Kleinsmith means some got the text message at 7:15 p.m., two hours after crews had been cleared to leave scene.

The Riverdale Fire Department has been using a system called "I Am Responding" for three years. It's an online company that's is monitored 24-7.

Unlike Scott County, it does not tax the system that already delivers a high volume of alerts.

When the station gets a dispatch call, the system automatically sends out an alert text, page, and email with information.

The system reports how many people are responding to the calls.

"It also allows us to know if we don't have enough, if we need to call for mutual aid sooner than what we normally would."

"It all takes about six seconds. The call comes in and the message has been sent."

Crews immediately start responding.

At the fire department, the screen shows them who is on scene, who is on the way and if more firefighters are needed.

"It's really helped, I believe, to be more effective in our responses."

In the case of the Del's fire, the alert system may have gotten more first responders on scene with water tankers.

"Time is crucial. the quicker we can get out the better."

UPDATE: KWQC spoke with Brian Hitchcock, the Scott Emergency Communications Center Director after this story was released.

Hitchcock says problems that occurred the day of the Dell's fire have already been resolved.

He says there still can be issues with internet?delivered calls, like the I AM Responding system, and that?radio pages are more reliable.

?

Source: http://www.kwqc.com/story/22052638/improvements-in-scott-county-emergency-communications

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U.S. existing homes sales show surprise drop | Mortgages & Real ...

Sales of previously owned U.S. homes unexpectedly dropped in March, showing uneven progress in the industry.

Purchases of previously owned houses, tabulated when a contract closes, fell 0.6% to a 4.92 million annual rate last month, figures from the National Association of Realtors showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 75 economists surveyed by Bloomberg projected sales would increase to a 5 million rate. Prices climbed, reflecting more demand for higher-priced houses.

Historically low mortgage rates, rising property values and employment gains have helped mend the U.S. housing market, a source of strength for the world?s largest economy a boost. At the same time, a drop in the inventory of cheaper properties for sale compared with last year may be restraining the pace of progress in the industry.

?Housing will remain a positive for the economy, but there should be some slowing in the next few months,? David Sloan, a New York-based senior economist at 4Cast Inc., said before the report. ?The slowing is temporary. There is a shortage of supply. The housing market will revive.?

Stocks fell after the report, with the Standard & Poor?s 500 Index declining 0.2% to 1,552.78 at 10:03 a.m. in New York.

Sales estimates in the Bloomberg survey ranged from 4.9 million to 5.2 million. The prior month?s pace was revised to 4.95 million from a previously reported 4.98 million.

Existing-home purchases, counted when contracts close, are recovering from a 13-year low of 4.11 million in 2008. Annual sales peaked at 7.08 million in 2005. A total of 4.66 million previously-owned houses were sold in 2012.

Year Ago

Compared with a year earlier, purchases increased 7.2% in March on an unadjusted basis, today?s report showed.

The median price of an existing home rose 11.8%, the most since November 2005, to $184,300 last month from $164,800 in March 2012.

The number of previously owned homes on the market rose to 1.93 million in March from 1.9 million a month earlier, according to Monday?s report. At the current sales pace, it would take 4.7 months to sell those houses compared with 4.6 months at the end of February. The group has said supply in the six-months range is ?normal.?

The inventory of unsold homes was 2.32 million a year earlier.

The supply of homes is ?plentiful on the upper end of prices. There?s very little inventory on the lower end,? Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said in a news conference today as the figures were released.

Borrowing Costs

Real-estate activity is being stoked by cheaper borrowing costs and an improving labor market. The average rate for a 30- year fixed mortgage fell to 3.41% in the week ended April 18, the third consecutive drop, according to Freddie Mac. The rate declined to a record low of 3.31% in November.

Higher home prices have also boosted household wealth. Property values rose 10.2% in the 12 months through February, the biggest gain in almost seven years, according to Irvine, California-based CoreLogic Inc.

Builders are responding by stepping up construction, providing a boost for the expansion. They broke ground on new homes in March at the fastest pace in almost five years, the Commerce Department said April 16.

Contacts in most districts of the Federal Reserve system said ?residential and commercial real estate improved markedly? with rising property values and demand for home loans that was ?steady to slightly up,? according to its Beige Book business survey, which covers the period from late February to early April.

Furniture Sales

The strength in housing is spilling over into other parts of the economy such as manufacturing.

?We?re encouraged by the sustained improvement in housing sales, new home construction, rising housing prices, reduced inventories, historically low mortgage rates, and the best housing affordability in years, all of which combined to create a positive environment for our company and our industry,? Paul Toms, chief executive officer at Martinsville, Virginia-based furniture maker Hooker Furniture Corp., said on an April 15 earnings call.

Bloomberg.com

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?

Source: http://business.financialpost.com/2013/04/22/surprise-drop-in-u-s-existing-homes-sales-show-uneven-progress-in-recovery/

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China rushes relief after Sichuan quake kills 186

Una anciana duerme protegida por un covertor pl?stico en una carretera de Lushan, el domingo 21 de abril de 2013. Un sismo sacudi? el fin de semana la zona de Sichuan y provoc? la muerte de por lo menos 186 personas. (AP Foto/Ng Han Guan)

Una anciana duerme protegida por un covertor pl?stico en una carretera de Lushan, el domingo 21 de abril de 2013. Un sismo sacudi? el fin de semana la zona de Sichuan y provoc? la muerte de por lo menos 186 personas. (AP Foto/Ng Han Guan)

An elderly woman eats a meal near rubbish piled up at a center for evacuees in the county seat of Lushan in southwestern China's Sichuan province, Sunday, April 21, 2013. Rescuers and relief teams struggled to rush supplies into the rural hills of China's Sichuan province Sunday after the earthquake prompted frightened survivors to spend a night in cars, tents and makeshift shelters. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

A woman looks over at her destroyed house in Gucheng village in Longmen county of southwestern China's Sichuan province, Sunday, April 21, 2013. Rescuers and relief teams struggled to rush supplies into the rural hills of China's Sichuan province Sunday after an earthquake prompted frightened survivors to spend a night in cars, tents and makeshift shelters. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Chinese paramilitary policemen stand watch while rescuers operate backhoes to clear a damaged road due to a landslide triggered by a strong quake in Baosheng township of Lushan county in southwest China's Sichuan province Sunday April 21, 2013. Saturday's earthquake in Sichuan province killed over 200 people, China's Xinhua News Agency said. (AP Photo) CHINA OUT

A woman eats instant noodles at a shelter near her damaged home in Longmen township in Lushan county in southwest China's Sichuan province Sunday, April 21, 2013. Saturday's earthquake in Sichuan province killed over 200 people, China's Xinhua News Agency said. (AP Photo) CHINA OUT

LUSHAN, China (AP) ? Sitting near chunks of concrete, bricks and a ripped orange sofa, Luo Shiqiang told how his grandfather was just returning from feeding chickens when their house collapsed and crushed him to death in a powerful earthquake in southwestern China.

"We lost everything in such a short time," the 20-year-old college student said. His cousin was injured in the collapse, but other family members were spared because they were working in the fields in hard-hit Longmen village in Lushan county.

Saturday's earthquake in Sichuan province killed at least 186 people, injured more than 11,000 and left nearly two dozen missing, mostly in the rural communities around Ya'an city, along the same seismic fault where a devastating quake to the north killed more than 90,000 people in Sichuan and neighboring areas five years ago in one of China's worst natural disasters.

The Lushan and Baoxing counties hardest-hit on Saturday had escaped the worst of the damage in the 2008 quake, and residents there said they benefited little from the rebuilding efforts, with no reinforcements or new evacuation procedures introduced in their remote communities.

Luo said he wished more had been done to make his community's buildings quake-resistant. "Maybe the country's leaders really wanted to help us, but when it comes to the lower levels the officials don't carry it out," he said.

Relief teams flew in helicopters and dynamited through landslides Sunday to reach some of the most isolated communities, where rescuers in orange overalls led sniffer dogs through piles of brick, concrete and wood debris to search for survivors.

Many residents complained that although emergency teams were quick to carry away bodies and search for survivors, they had so far done little to distribute aid. "No water, no shelter," read a hand-written sign held up by children beside a road in Longmen.

"I was working in the field when I heard the explosions of the earthquake, and I turned around and saw my house simply flatten in front of me," said Fu Qiuyue, a 70-year-old rapeseed farmer in Longmen.

Fu sat with her husband, Ren Dehua, in a makeshift shelter of logs and a plastic sheet on a patch of grass near where a helicopter had parked to reach their community of terraced grain and vegetable fields. She said the collapse of the house had crushed eight pigs to death. "It was the scariest sound I have ever heard," she said.

The quake ? measured by China's earthquake administration at magnitude 7.0 and by the U.S. Geological Survey at 6.6 ? struck shortly after 8 a.m. on Saturday. Tens of thousands of people moved into tents or cars, unable to return home or too afraid to go back as aftershocks continued to jolt the region.

The quake killed at least 186 people, left 21 missing and injured 11,393, the official Xinhua News Agency quoted the provincial emergency command center as saying.

As in most natural disasters, the government mobilized thousands of soldiers and others, sending excavators and other heavy machinery as well as tents, blankets and other emergency supplies. Two soldiers died after their vehicle slid off a road and rolled down a cliff, state media reported.

The Chinese Red Cross said it had deployed relief teams with food, water, medicine and rescue equipment to the disaster areas.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the United Nations stood ready "to provide assistance and to mobilize any international support that may be needed," according to a statement released by the U.N. spokesperson.

In his condolence message, Ban said he "is deeply saddened by the loss of life, injuries and destruction" caused by the earthquake and aftershocks that struck Sichuan province.

Lushan, where the quake struck, lies where the fertile Sichuan plain meets foothills that eventually rise to the Tibetan plateau and sits atop the Longmenshan fault, where the 2008 quake struck.

The seat of Lushan county has been turned into a large refugee camp, with tents set up on open spaces, and volunteers doling out noodles and boxed meals to survivors from stalls and the backs of vans.

A large van with a convertible side served as a mobile bank with an ATM, military medical trucks provided X-rays for people with minor injuries, and military doctors administered basic first aid, applying iodine solution to cuts and examining bruises.

Patients with minor ailments were lying in tents in the yard of the hospital, which was wrecked by the quake, with the most severely injured patients sent to the provincial capital. With a limited water supply and buildings inaccessible, sanitation is a problem for the survivors.

One of the patients receiving care in the hospital's yard was the son of odd-job laborer Zhou Lin, 22. The baby boy was born a day before the quake struck. Zhou said he was relieved that his newborn son and wife were safe and healthy but was worried about his 60-year-old father and other relatives who have been unreachable in Baoxing.

"I can't get through on the phone, so I don't know what's going on there and they don't know if we are all right," he said.

Every so often, an aftershock struck, shaking windows of buildings and sending murmurs through the crowds.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-21-China-Earthquake/id-bd7ba84c0d10421081acf3ac0e709132

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Freezing nerves knocks pain out cold

Apr. 14, 2013 ? Using a tiny ball of ice, a minimally invasive interventional radiology treatment called cryoneurolysis safely short circuits chronic pain caused by nerve damage, according to data being presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology's 38th Annual Scientific Meeting in New Orleans.

"Cryoneurolysis could have big implications for the millions of people who suffer from neuralgia, which can be unbearable and is very difficult to treat," said William Moore, M.D., medical director of radiology at Stony Brook University School of Medicine in Stony Brook, N.Y. "Cryoneurolysis offers these patients an innovative treatment option that provides significant lasting pain relief and allows them to take a lower dose of pain medication -- or even skip drugs altogether," added Moore, an interventional thoracic radiologist at Stony Brook.

More than 15 million Americans and Europeans suffer from neuralgia, in which nerves are damaged by diabetes, surgery or traumatic injury, Moore noted. Sufferers often rely on pain medications, which have side effects and may not provide enough relief. Cryoneurolysis uses a small probe that is cooled to minus 10 to minus 16 degrees Celsius, creating a freezer burn along the outer layer of the nerve. This interrupts the pain signal to the brain and blunts or eliminates the pain while allowing the damaged nerves to grow over time, explained Moore.

In the study, 20 patients received cryoneurolysis treatment for a variety of neuralgia syndromes and were evaluated using a visual pain scale questionnaire immediately after treatment during one-week, one-month and three-month follow-ups after the initial procedure. Prior to treatment, patients' pain plummeted from an average of 8 out of 10 on the pain scale to 2.4 one week after treatment. Pain relief was sustained for about two months after the procedure. Pain increased to an average of 4 out of 10 on the scale after six months due to nerve regeneration, Moore said. He recommends repeat cryoneurolysis treatments as needed per patient, however, some patients will receive up to a year of pain relief from a single treatment, he said.

In the treatment, an interventional radiologist makes a nick in the skin near the source of pain and inserts a small probe about the size of an IV needle that is used to draw blood. Under imaging guidance, the probe is advanced through the skin to the affected nerves. Cooled with pressurized gas, the probe creates ice crystals along the edge of the nerves. "The effect is equivalent to removing the insulation from a wire, decreasing the rate of conductivity of the nerve. Fewer pain signals means less pain, and the nerve remains intact," he explained. Additional comparative studies are needed, said Moore.

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/mFU8mhuQZ8I/130414121144.htm

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China's economic growth slows in first quarter

BEIJING (AP) ? China's economic growth slowed unexpectedly in the first three months of the year, fueling concern about the strength of its shaky recovery.

The world's second-largest economy grew by 7.7 percent over a year earlier, down from the previous quarter's 7.9 percent, the government reported Monday. That fell short of many private sector forecasts that growth would accelerate slightly to 8 percent.

A recovery still is under way but is "really very soft ? very slow and gradual," said Societe Generale economist Wei Yao.

Analysts have warned that China's recovery from its deepest slump since the 2008 global crisis is weak and is being supported by bank lending and government-led investment, while growth in consumer spending is subdued.

The unexpected growth setback could add to challenges for Communist Party leaders who took power over the past six months. They are trying to avoid job losses while they pursue more self-sustaining growth based on domestic consumption instead of exports and investment.

Last year's slowdown was largely due to Beijing's efforts to cool inflation and steer double-digit growth to a more sustainable level following a quick, stimulus-fueled rebound from the global crisis. Beijing responded with further stimulus efforts including looser credit but analysts say Chinese leaders are unlikely to repeat that strategy, which led to a sharp rise in debt.

The latest quarterly growth was above Beijing's official target of 7.5 percent for the year. That is well above forecasts in the low single digits for Western economies and Japan but far from China's blistering growth of the past decade.

A slowdown in Chinese growth and demand for goods ranging from iron ore to factory technology and consumer goods could send out ripples in the global economy.

Recent economic data in China has given mixed signals, raising questions about whether a full-fledged recovery was gaining traction.

Inflation fell in March, indicating consumer demand might not be as strong as Beijing hoped. Import growth accelerated, suggesting companies and consumers were buying more, but some analysts said those figures might be distorted and unreliable.

Also in March, growth in factory output weakened to 8.9 percent, down 1 percentage point from the first two months of the year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

That was the lowest growth since August 2012, when fears of an abrupt "hard landing" of plunging growth were strong. Beijing responded by boosting lending and government spending.

Chinese leaders are unlikely to repeat that strategy after a 60 percent surge in credit in the first quarter produced a lackluster response, said IHS Global Insight analysts Xianfang Ren and Alistair Thornton in a report.

"We have lost confidence in a robust recovery," they said.

The rise in credit prompted ratings agency Fitch to cut its rating on China's long-term local currency sovereign debt last week, warning of potential financial risks.

Fitch said China's total credit, including informal lending among private entrepreneurs, may have risen to the equivalent of 198 percent of gross domestic product in 2012 from 125 percent in 2008.

Forecasters who expected growth to accelerate might have been misled by inaccurate trade data due to companies falsely reporting higher exports as a way to evade capital controls and bring money into China, said Moody's Analytics economist Alaistair Chan.

Despite the surge in lending, Monday's data showed a slowdown in investment growth that is driving the latest recovery.

First-quarter growth in spending on factories, real estate and other fixed assets declined to 20.9 percent from the 21.1 percent rate for the first two months of the year.

That shows the economy suffers from structural problems including excess production capacity in some industries that makes more investment unprofitable, said Yao.

"Given all this credit injected into the system, the future should look better," said Yao. "Nevertheless, the level of efficiency in the economy has declined. The same amount of money will no longer produce the same amount of growth."

In a positive sign, growth in retail sales edged up to 12.6 percent in March from 12.3 percent for the first two months of the year.

Recent increases in required minimum wages and an improved housing market should help to boost household spending, said Moody's Analytics economist Fred Gibson in a report.

Still, he cautioned, consumer confidence could be hurt if China's export weakness persists.

Also Monday, the World Bank trimmed its growth forecast for China this year by 0.1 percentage point to a still-robust 8.3 percent.

___

National Bureau of Statistics (in Chinese): www.stats.gov.cn

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chinas-economic-growth-slows-first-quarter-021541443--finance.html

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