The announcement follow a review of smartphone manufacturing operations that Nokia announced last September and aim to increase the company’s competitiveness in the diverse global mobile device market.

Nokia said that the device assembly from the named three factories are planned to be transferred to Nokia factories in Asia, where the majority of component suppliers are based.

“With the planned changes, our factories at Komarom, Reynosa and Salo will continue to play an important role serving our smartphone customers. They give us a unique ability to both provide customization and be more responsive to customer needs,” said Niklas Savander, Nokia executive vice president, Markets.

“Shifting device assembly to Asia is targeted at improving our time to market. By working more closely with our suppliers, we believe that we will be able to introduce innovations into the market more quickly and ultimately be more competitive,” said Savander. “We recognize the planned changes are difficult for our employees and we are committed to supporting our personnel and their
local communities during the transition.”

Since the manufacturing and the amount of work carried out at the sites in Komarom, Reynosa and Salo are expected to decrease substantially, the changes are anticipated to impact approximately 4,000 employees in total.

Personnel reductions are planned to be phased through the end of 2012. Nokia release said that it will offer a comprehensive locally-tailored support program, including financial support and assistance with local re-employment.

BP said that the decision follows 2011 review of BP’s LPG portfolio. The review decided that BP is not the natural owner long term of the LPG bottles and tank filling business. BP said that there is greater opportunities for other companies wanting to invest allowing BP to continue to focus its refining and marketing businesses where it has leading market positions it can sustain and grow in the long-term.

BP will not be looking at selling its autogas business in Europe and move it into the Fuels Value Chains, and maintain LPG wholesale outlets to support its refinery operations.

Commenting on the divestment, Tufan Erginbilgic, chief operating officer, Refining and Marketing said “BP intends to remain a key player in the European LPG autogas sector and through the Fuels Value Chains we will have a strategic fit with our forecourt fuels offer. We will also maintain LPG wholesale outlets where they support our refineries.”

The LPG bottles and tank filling activities will continue to be managed as a global business until sold. BP intends to sell the businesses as going concerns and expects significant market interest.

BP expects to complete any deal by the end of 2013, subject to regulatory and other approvals.

This successful industrial scale-up project containing Solvay’s innovative specialty polymers and SolviCore’s membrane electrode assemblies brings PEM Fuel Cell technology to a new threshold. The Fuel Cell also increases SolVin’s brine electrolysis’ energy efficiency.

Fuel Cells convert the chemical energy from hydrogen into clean electricity through an electrochemical reaction with oxygen. The PEM Fuel Cell consists of a large number of membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) made out of Solvay’s specialty polymer Aquivion PFSA membrane and ionomer and Umicore’s elyst catalyst. The MEAs were manufactured by SolviCore, a 50-50 joint venture of Solvay and Umicore, in its plant in Hanau, Germany. Dutch companies NedStack and MTSA have built the fuel cell using SolviCore’s assemblies.

Fuel Cells are increasingly considered an important clean power generation technology for a wide variety of applications such as busses, cars, ships, trucks, fork lifts, cogeneration and electricity generation devices. Hydrogen-powered fuel cells produce only electricity and water.

This technological leap was realized in cooperation with WaterstofNet, the coordinator of the Project Hydrogen Region Flanders – South Netherlands. This project aims at developing knowhow and projects about hydrogen applications in the region with a clear focus on sustainable hydrogen and early market applications, such as maritime, logistical and interurban applications, with maximum use of European technology.

The Project Hydrogen Region, with a total budget of EUR 14 million, was approved by the Interreg IV Program and is financed by the EU, the Flemish government, the Dutch government and the industry. Hydrogen Region financed Solvay’s project budget of over EUR 5 million by EUR 1.5 million. The 1 MW PEM Fuel Cell is the first milestone in the Project Hydrogen Region Flanders – South Netherlands and it is also used by WaterstofNet for research and test programs to endorse implementation of Fuel Cell technology in the region.

SolVin is a joint venture of Solvay (75%) and BASF (25%). It is a leader on the Vinyls (PVC) market in Europe and on the PVDC market worldwide.

COMCO cited receiving information regarding potential unlawful agreements among banks. Specifically, collusion between derivative traders might have influenced the reference rates LIBOR und TIBOR.

The release says that market conditions regarding derivative products based on these reference rates might have been manipulated too.

EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said “China now must comply by removing these export restrictions swiftly and furthermore, I expect China to bring its overall export regime – including for rare earths – in line with WTO rules.”

The EU Panel, along with US and Mexico had charged that the export duties and quotas imposed by China on various raw materials like various forms of: bauxite, coke, fluorspar, magnesium, manganese, silicon carbide, silicon metal, yellow phosphorus and zinc, are protectionist measures in breach of WTO rules and that China failed to justify them. WTO in particular upheld the finding that China has committed unconditionally in its Accession Protocol to the WTO not to levy export duties and that this commitment cannot be reduced by reverting to the general exceptions of the GATT.

As per EU panel narration, China applies export restrictions on key raw materials, some of which cannot be sourced outside China. Export restrictions create serious disadvantages for foreign producers by artificially increasing China’s export prices and driving up world prices. EU also contends that such restrictions artificially lower China’s domestic prices for the raw materials due to significant increases in domestic supply. This gives China’s domestic downstream industry significant competitive advantages and puts pressure on foreign producers to move their operations and technologies to China.

The restrictions increased manufacturing costs of European industry such as the chemical, steel and non-ferrous metal industries. This drove up the costs of downstream clients, ranging from producers of beverage cans, CDs, electronics, automotives, ceramics, refrigerators, batteries and medicines and many more.

The EU, US and Mexico are now expected to request doption of the reports by the WTO Dispute Settlement Body within 30 days. China will then have to bring its measures in compliance with the rulings within a reasonable period of time.

Facebook filed its intention to float with the Securities and Exchange Commission after the US stock markets closed. The IPO may be valued at as much as $100 billion in the sale, two people with knowledge of the matter said last week. At that level, the company would trade at 26.9 times 2011 sales, compared with about 5 times for search-engine operator Google, whose market value has jumped eight-fold since its IPO. However, the company has not assigned a overall value for the company in the filing.

Facebook said it will apply to have its shares listed with the symbol “FB,” which leads to speculation that it will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, since Nasdaq uses four-letter stock symbols.

Facebook’s billionaire chairman Mark Zuckerberg, 27, made $1.5 million in compensation last year, including more than $700,000 in salary and bonus. Zuckerberg, who is also the company’s biggest single shareholder with a 28 percent stake, could be worth $28 billion if Facebook is valued at $100 billion, as some media reports project. The latest issue of the Forbes 400 put his net worth at $17.5 billion, which already made him the 14th-wealthiest American. The Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg received more than $30 million in compensation, almost all of it in stock, according to estimates provided in the filing.

Other significant shareholders listed in the filing include venture capitalists James Breyer and Peter Thiel, Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and the investment firms Accel Partners and DST Global Limited.

Facebook, just eight years old and started by Harvard University students, now has 845 million users and made a profit of $1 billion last year.

The figures by the Dammam-based Arab Petroleum Investment Corporation (APICORP), an affiliate of the 10-nation Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries, showed Saudi Arabia remained the dominant energy investor in the region, with an estimated $141 billion during 2012-2016, the UAE daily (Emirates Business) reported Wednesday. “The current macroeconomic indicators and market trends have not invalidated our September review of MENA energy investment, which is mainly project-based,”

APICORP’s senior consultant Ali Aissaoui said in a new review of Arab energy investment requirements sent to Emirates 24/7. The study showed capital requirements remained at around $525 billion, adding that even if still 15% to 20% lower than potential, it is the highest since the onset of the downturn caused by the 2008 global financial crisis. It showed Saudi Arabia tops the ranking with $141 billion and that investment has mostly been generated by the state-owned Saudi Aramco and SABIC as domestic private investors have continued to struggle to attract capital. “Taking over from Iran, the UAE has become a distant second with nearly $76 billion worth of investment,” Aissaoui said. According to the report, tighter international sanctions, and the retreat of foreign companies, have ended up taking a toll on Iran’s energy investment, which now stands at $58 billion. (QNA)

Kate Everett-Allen from the Int’l research section of the company says that the second half of the year saw the pace of growth slow considerably. “The luxury housing market is now seeing the pace of price growth slip for the second time since the 2008/09 global financial crisis. In this latest cycle annual price growth peaked at 11.5% in Q2 2010 but has since slowed each quarter. Post the Lehman collapse European and North American cities were largely responsible for the index’s slump. Since late 2010 it has been the Asian cities which have dampened price inflation. In Q2 2010 prices in Asia Pacific were rising at an average rate of 23.6% each year, the comparable figure now stands at –1%,” she said.

Anti-inflationary price cooling measures implemented by Asian governments, combined with worries that the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis will affect the global economy, have created a more cautionary climate.

The report shows that “old-world” cities of London, New York and Moscow are outperforming the overall index. London and Moscow have ranked highly for several quarters but Manhattan’s recovery is gathering momentum. Foreign demand for New York’s luxury homes is not only strengthening, but is also starting to diversify with Chinese nationals increasingly evident, particularly in the $1-$3m sector.

Despite cooling price growth in the second half of 2011, the world’s prime markets continue to outperform their mainstream housing markets, providing some justification for their safe-haven reputations. The flight of capital towards the world’s luxury neighbourhoods increased in 2011 as geo-political events in the Middle East and North Africa took hold and the tumultuous global economy weakened the viability of a number of alternative asset classes.

The report forecasts that the price growth in 2012 will continue to be underpinned by this flight of capital from troubled world regions. This, combined with a desire amongst wealthy investors to target property and other real assets over financial products, will reaffirm prime property’s safe-haven qualities in 2012.

The market for portioned coffee solutions continues to grow, with over 15 million appliances sold in 2011 – an increase of more than 20% on the previous year. Philips provides a full portfolio of coffee solutions that is tailored to the needs of the markets where it operates. This includes drip filter, portioned solutions and fully automatic espresso solutions. Through the Philips, Saeco and Gaggia brands, Philips is one of the world’s largest coffee appliance manufacturers. Sara Lee operates under several brands in the coffee category globally, including Douwe Egberts, Maison du Café, Café Pilão, Marcilla and Senseo. Sara Lee and Philips have been working together on Senseo since 2001, with Sara Lee’s Douwe Egberts brand producing the coffee pods and Philips designing and manufacturing the single-serve machines.

Philips and Sara Lee first launched Senseo in the Netherlands in 2001. It has since launched in Belgium, France, Germany and Austria (2002); Denmark and Norway (2003); the UK (2004); Hungary (2006); Spain (2009) and Brazil (2010). Over 33 million Philips Senseo coffee machines have been sold. Over 35 billion Sara Lee coffee pods have been sold, offering consumers across the world 35 enticing coffee varieties. A Senseo system can be found in more than half (60%) of households in the Netherlands, and over a quarter of homes in France (27%) and Germany (25%).

The first Series 40 phone was the Nokia 7110 developed in 1999. Since then this family of phones has evolved to such an extent that they are considered ‘Smartphone Lite’ thanks to the innovations of the new Nokia Asha range.

Series 40 phones now blur the line between feature phones and smartphones. With recent innovations including Nokia Maps for Series 40, Nokia Browser and Web Apps, Nokia Money and Nokia Life Tools, millions of consumers have enjoyed easy and affordable access to the Internet and information for the first time, with locally relevant apps and content.