Spain’s Fernando Torres is a legitimate threat to win the 2013 Ballon d’Or award

May 9, 2013 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Sports

If Chelsea wins the 2013 Europa League against Benfica later this month, count on Spain national team coach Vicente del Bosque to put his trust back in Fernando Torres and call him up ahead of the Confederations Cup in Brazil. And if La Furia Roja imposes itself once again by lifting the title, Torres could suddenly turn into a genuine contender for the 2013 FIFA Ballon d’Or.

For the everyday football fan, this may sound as a big joke indeed, just another one of those memes that has the struggling striker as a favorite topic on the internet. Fernando Torres may look unrecognizable in his Zorro mask right now, but there is something familiar about No. 9’s performances of late.

Spain’s Fernando Torres is a legitimate threat to win the 2013 Ballon dOr award ,

The statistics do not lie. 21 goals in a season is a handsome return for any striker. The confidence seems to have returned, the goals are becoming more frequent and he is impacting games like never before at Chelsea. And with Torres finally showing his true colors in the blues of Chelsea, many expect the Spaniard to be a vital cog in Spain’s quest to defend the World Cup in 2014.

There is no doubt that football is considered to be the most popular sport played and watched worldwide. And like football, another game that has become a favorite the world over is poker. Poker, like football has also seen the rise of several top players from Spain and it also has its own version of the World Cup. The World Series of Poker is the event where the top poker players around the world compete to gain the title as the best.

But for fans who wish to play poker right away, online poker sites such as partypoker.es, provides access to enjoy your favorite game. Online poker has enjoyed an interest of sorts lately with sites like partypoker providing poker enthusiast a venue to play their favorite game even at the comforts of their own home. One notable Spanish online player is Juan Barros, who is also known as vietcong01 in the online poker circuit. He has won more than his fair share of big tournaments in his career, proving that Spain also produces champions in various sports disciplines.

Fernando Torres has bounced back well from his bitter disappointment of starting the 2012 Champions League final on the bench. When everyone mocked his alarming wastefulness in front of goal, he went on to scoop the Golden Boot at Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine.

In the same manner that he shocked the public to win the European Championship Golden Boot last summer, he could surprise both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in the race for the 2013 FIFA Ballon d’Or award. A Ballon d’Or triumph for Torres in Zurich next year would add another point to Spanish football, and it would bring an odd pause, if not an end, to the fierce domination of Messi and Ronaldo in top award contests.

Wealthy Mid East Family Firms Driving Growth for Western Banks

May 9, 2013 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Business

Middle Eastern family fortunes will be the driving force for the growth of one of the world’s largest banks.

Citigroup Inc, which first started managing family firms in 2010, is growing its private bank business, with wealthy Middle Eastern families a key focus of its expansion. The bank’s family office unit manages over $250 billion in assets, and its clients include over a third of the world’s billionaires.

Wealthy Mid East Family Firms Driving Growth for Western Banks,

There was an estimated $1.2 trillion under management overall for single-family offices in 2011. Another $777 billion is in multi-family funds as of December 2012. Some of the world’s oldest family businesses are in the Middle East, such as the Al-Futtaim Group in Dubai and the Olayan Group in Saudi Arabia. Naturally, international banking powerhouses such as Citi, Barclays and HSBC are racing to get in on the action, offering products and bank account products tailored to the high end of the market. For example, HSBC’s Business Select account offers a range of features to attract wealthy individuals to set up with them such as preferential foreign exchange rates, availability in numerous major foreign currencies. etc. You can read more about this particular account on the HSBC website.

According to Anthony Habis, a managing director at their institutional clients group business who now heads the family office coverage in the Middle East, family firms are becoming more progressive and more institutional. The largest Middle Eastern families are now setting up offices in Geneva, London and New York. Their expectations have changed as well, away from aggressive growth and toward wealth preservation and capital protection. In this uncertain currency environment, families are looking toward real estate as a safe vehicle, according to James Holder, head of family office for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Currently, they are looking at the United States and Britain for investment potential, as well as Madrid and the rest of Spain.

The company is also adding staff to its family office business, hiring several personnel and naming new heads of offices covering German speaking Europe, Nordic and Italian operations. You can read more about this trend in this Reuters article.

Volatile markets and unpredictable economy make for fluctuating metal prices

September 27, 2012 by admin | No Comments | Filed in Markets

One of the hardest things for an economists and market specialists is to predict future market trends. Obviously, if anyone could do it at the drop of a hat, then there would be no dearth of billionaires who became rich riding on the back of the stock market. Yet, there is a certain sense of predictability in general trends and often current economic situation and future possible policy decisions more or less allow people to at least forecast the trends, if not accurate figures.

Volatile markets and unpredictable economy make for fluctuating metal prices, MarketsHowever, in the case of metal prices, it’s becoming a more and more difficult task.

The general movement of metal prices, especially those of copper and gold generally give an indication of the direction in which the economy is headed as a whole. But with contrasting signals coming out each day, the markets seem to be highly fluctuating in their trends.

While copper and platinum are on a slight uptrend, silver and palladium fell. Oil prices, which generally govern and influence the price of metals, was actually at one of its lowest points in the last two months and yet, there were many metals that actually rose.

Aluminium prices are in the same boat — a highly volatile trend. It seems that only gold exhibited a steady trend — being on a steady down trend for the last few months, and hitting a low in the recent weeks, bouncing back up.

With world economies barely back on track and many others still struggling to get things in order, it might be a while before we actually see predictability and stability when it concerns metal prices.

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Apple shares continue to go up and for the first time exceeded $ 700

September 23, 2012 by Rebecca | No Comments | Filed in Business

The actions of the U.S. computer group Apple, boosted by record sales that are promised for the new iPhone 5 , has exceeded briefly during the session on Tuesday for the first time in its history, the psychological barrier of $ 700 on the NYSE York.

Apple shares continue to go up and for the first time exceeded $ 700, iphone 5 Apple shares

Shares of the company on the block have come this morning to $ 701.44 before retreating slightly.

Shares of Apple beat record after record for weeks, drawing on all the expectations about the new version of its flagship product. The iPhone 5 will be in stores in the first nine countries beginning Friday. At Spain will arrive on September 28.

Since last weekend, it is possible to order the device and Apple announced on Monday have been a record of more than two million orders in the first 24 hours , two times more than for the previous model, the iPhone 4S.

Experts have predicted that the iPhone 5 will be the biggest launch of a technological product this season, with that in the early days sold 10 million copies and, until the end of December, 50 million.

Apple shares are so expensive that inclusion in the index of 30 large U.S. companies Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) deform what he said during his last remodeling a spokesman for the organization that manages this index.

The DJIA is calculated based on the price of a share of each group that composes and, unlike other global indices.

Last August, Apple became the most valuable company in history, when its shares reached $ 662.50. The computer group then broke the record for the highest market capitalization of all time in the U.S., surpassing the previous record achieved in 1999 by another software giant Microsoft.

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Gallina Blanca celebrates its 75th birthday

September 18, 2012 by Rebecca | No Comments | Filed in Business

Gallina Blanca turns 75 years . The company launched in 1937 its first bouillon cubes, later known as Avecrem, has grown in that time and is now present in over 50 countries and 70% of Spanish households.

Throughout all these years, Gallina Blanca has accompanied different generations and trying to innovate to create solutions that help consumers gain in flavor, variety, imagination and time, in order to “make good food in cuisine that is enjoyed every day. ”

Gallina Blanca celebrates its 75th birthday, Gallina Blanca Star Group Gallina Blanca Avecrem

Company Gallina Blanca Star Group, a multinational food by 75% owned by the Spanish Agrolimen and 25% by the Italian Findim, revenues of 650 million euros in 2011.

“Even the Italian actress Sofia Loren moved to Barcelona to promote the brand and participate in ‘The Flying Dutchman’, a radio contest that was broadcasted in the program ‘Cavalcade weekend,’” tells the story of the company.

International since 1979, Gallina Blanca covers a wide range of culinary products, from traditional broth (now presented in carton packaging) to ambient dishes.

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Poll: 44% of French believe that Sarkozy would do better than Holland

September 18, 2012 by Rebecca | No Comments | Filed in Politics

Forty-four percent of French believe that Nicolas Sarkozy , had he been elected, would lead a better policy than François Hollande , 26% considered it to be “worse”, according to a Harris Interactive poll for LCP Louis on Monday. The work of François Hollande as head of state is it “better”, “worse” or neither one nor the other, “that would have done if Nicolas Sarkozy was elected “That is the question asked in this survey.

Poll: 44% of French believe that Sarkozy would do better than Holland, Sarkozy holland french president

44% answered “worse”, just over a quarter (26%) “best”, and nearly a third (30%), “neither better nor worse.” However, those respondents who voted for the Socialist candidate, overwhelmingly (90%), do not regret their choice, 10% being the opposite view. Poll conducted online September 13 to 14 with a sample of 1,098 people representative of the French population aged 18 years and over (quota method).

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‘Alonso is the best driver in the past 20 years’

September 17, 2012 by Rebecca | No Comments | Filed in Sports

The former sports director of the Renault Formula 1 team boss Flavio Briatore, Renault’s former athletic director, said the Spanish Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) ”is the best driver in the last 20 years,” in an interview with the satellite channel “Sky Sport 24 “.

Alonso is the best driver in the past 20 years, Renault Formula 1 Fernando Alonso alonso

“He is superior to (Michael) Schumacher, but we are talking about very high levels and the differences are minimal, but make very few mistakes Fernando, even under pressure, and his view of the race is spectacular, “said Briatore, Alonso who agreed with his Renault stage.

According to Briatore, “sometimes the team can make mistakes in strategy and he gets to recover, but when he is ahead, winning races at 90 percent, although the car is not as competitive. He lives and breathes racing use only “.

On the current Formula 1 World, the former director of Renault considered that it is not true that Red Bull is low hours and titrated to Lotus and Sauber, “proof that money does not make a difference.”On the Mclaren explained that “if you can be strong again take many points to Alonso.”

“Ferrari has to improve the car and Alonso must win at least one Grand Prix without Mclaren comes second. Score many many points, but if you do not come first or second you are left with the crumbs, “he added.

On the suspension for the French Grand Prix Romain Grosjean(Lotus) after the accident in Belgium, in which he was involved Alonso, Briatore approved the decision of the International Automobile Federation (FIA). “(Grosjean) used the car as his own, must begin to respect the work of the people because it causes many accidents,” he said.

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Instagram reaches 100 million users

September 17, 2012 by Rebecca | No Comments | Filed in Finances, Technology

The mobile application of photography, which until a few months ago was only present in iOS, has managed to reach 100 million users.Instagram reaches 100 million users, Zuckerberg ios Instagram facebook android

“Our mission with Instagram is that we want to help them grow to hundreds of millions of users,” this is what Mark Zuckerberg said at TechCrunch Disrupt conference . In addition, the CEO of Facebook, which owns the social network of photography for a few months, has clarified that they have no plans to integrate the service into their infrastructure .

Facebook paid about 1,000 million for Instagram. The reason for this exorbitant price has been the photographs. One of the reasons why the social network Mark Zuckerberg has been so successful is because of sharing images and encourage publication of snapshots taken with digital cameras, a technology that dramatically expanded in recent years.

But after another technology that has come has expanded similarly, and is currently growing: smartphones . Cameras in smartphones have improved and now can take quality pictures with some models. If Facebook took another pull, Instagram is now taking advantage of it.

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Afghan Taliban wants to kill Prince Harry

September 12, 2012 by Rebecca | No Comments | Filed in World

The Afghan Taliban said Monday that they are determined to kill Prince Harry, helicopter pilot fighting in the British army in Afghanistan to return for a second military mission. “We will do our best to kill Prince Harry and other members of the British forces based in Helmand, province of southern Afghanistan, considered one of the strongholds of the Taliban insurgency, said Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the insurgents. 

Afghan Taliban wants to kill Prince Harry, Prince Harry Captain Wales Afghan Taliban

“We are not trying to kidnap him, but kill him,” he said in a telephone interview, adding that the Taliban had established a “very important plan” to attack the third in the sequence the British throne. A four-month temporary assignmentPrince Harry, 27, known as Captain Wales, arrived last week at Camp Bastion in Helmand province for a temporary assignment for four months as driver Apache helicopter, according to the British Army. This mission is the second in the country for Prince Harry, but the first released by the British authorities. His previous mission in Afghanistan, which began in December 2007, had been carefully kept secret until it was shortened after ten weeks for safety reasons, in March 2008, after the disclosure by the media’s presence. The UK, along with 9,500 soldiers, the second largest contributor to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in Afghanistan after the United States. The country, which has lost 425 men since the conflict began in 2001, intends to withdraw its troops by the end of 2014.

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Biggest thing to expect this season in F1!

September 12, 2012 by Rebecca | No Comments | Filed in Sports

Jean-Eric Vergne is better. Author of a spectacular exit track Sunday in Monza (Italy), the Torro Rosso driver became a scare. “I bruised muscles a little, smiled the French driver. It’s not much, but it hurts a little. “The 22 year old young man is now preparing for the Grand Prix at Singapore (September 23) where he hopes to garner points at the start of the last lap of his first season in Formula 1.

Biggest thing to expect this season in F1!, Jean Eric Grand Prix formula 1

You counted eight points after thirteen GP Is that your target early this season? Jean-Eric Vergne answered “I did not really set targets. I arrived in Formula 1 just waiting to see what would happen. This is a good season, I learned a lot and I take a lot of pleasure. But it’ll take a few years to be at the top of the plateau.

Are you optimistic for the last six Grand Prix? The team is not at the level of performance we expected at the beginning of the championship . I do not think you can expect much more this season even if’m still 110% in every race. We are already working on the next car that I hope we will be able to gain more points with.

Who do you think will win the title this season? Championship is so tight and there are still many races to go so it is very difficult to make a guess. Anything can still happen. But I hope it will be a driver of Red Bull.

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