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Russian retailer, Magnit, has posted a FY 2009 net profit of $275 million under IFRS.
The bottom line is up by 46.4% from the FY 2008 net profit of $187.2 million, with FY EBITDA also rising by 26.8% year on year to $509.5 million, on the back of net sales increasing by 0.12% to $5.35 million.
The net result was significantly higher in rouble terms with the net profit jumping by 86.9% year on year to 8.7 billion roubles, EBITDA up by 61.9% to 16.16 billion roubles and net sales increasing by 27.8% to 169.9 billion roubles.
The company mostly attributed the results to an increase in selling space as well as to a 4% increase of like-for-like sales, while the 0.12% revenue growth in dollar terms was caused by significant change of US$ exchange rate.
Sergey Galitsky, the Company’s CEO, was upbeat on the results saying they reflected increasing efficiency together with expansion which are Magnit’s priorities.
President Trump may (finally) be going to Puerto Rico on Tuesday, but that’s merely a layover on his journey “straight to Hell,” per Lin-Manuel Miranda.
This, a day after Carmen Yulín Cruz classified her city’s post-Hurricane Maria situation as a true “life or death” scenario and pleaded for help. Timing was never Trump’s thing — nor empathy, it appears.
And below is some other Maria-related stuff Miranda posted today. The stage and screen star has been directing followers to donate directly to the Hispanic Federation since the hurricane devastated his beloved Puerto Rico.
Put what you got to a greater purpose.
Just as the financial markets were beginning to crash in October 2008, Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal announced he would build the world's tallest tower, but then failed to move forward on the project. Today at a press conference in Riyadh, Alwaleed restarted activity on the skyscraper. He signed a $1.2 bi...
"This project will provide sustainable profits to Kingdom Holding shareholders," Alwaleed said in a statement. Kingdom Holding, Alwaleed's Saudi-listed investment vehicle, has several partners in the project, including the Bin Laden Group and several Saudi businessmen.
A rendering of the planned Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Kingdom Tower is to become the centerpiece of a 17.4 million square foot (5.3 mln sq meters) development overlooking the Red Sea north of Jeddah called Kingdom City. Alwaleed created an entity called Jeddah Economic Company in 2009 to develop Kingdom City.
Kingdom Tower will host a Four Seasons hotel, Four Seasons-serviced apartments, office space, luxury condominiums and an observatory that Alwaleed says will be higher than the world's current highest observation deck.
Alwaleed was involved in building another Kingdom Tower in Riyadh, where his Kingdom Holding Co. offices are headquartered. Kingdom Tower Riyadh is a striking building that also contains a Four Seasons Hotel, office space and an observatory.
Alwaleed has a net worth estimated by Forbes at $19.6 billion. He is a co-owner with Bill Gates of the Four Seasons Hotel management company. Alwaleed, a diversified global investor, owns stakes through Kingdom Holding in Citigroup, News Corp., Apple and the Fairmont hotel management company, among other investments.
Not every athlete spends four years solidly training for the Olympics. Here’s our pick of the competitors who are keeping the amateur spirit alive in sport by going back to their day jobs.
From eerie fairytale inspired routines to over the top outfits and makeup, TIME presents the best pictures of the glamorous yet misunderstood sport of synchronized swimming at the 2012 London Olympics.
Led by freestylers Camille Muffat and Yannick Agnel, French swimmers turn the (notorious) national character trait for individualism into a recipe for victory making all of France proud.
The Allahabad high court on Thursday deferred its hearing till November 18 on a PIL seeking CBI probe into the communal violence in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh which have claimed 44 lives so far.
A Division Bench comprising chief justice Shiva Kirti Singh and justice Vikram Nath passed the order saying that the court would like to put on hold its hearing on the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) till the probe by the judicial commission set up by the state government is completed.
The commission comprising a retired judge of the high court has been asked to submit its report to the Uttar Pradesh government within two months.
The court has also asked the state's home secretary and the director general of police to file their counter affidavits when hearing on the matter resumes on November 18.
However, no affidavit has been sought from chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and senior cabinet minister Azam Khan who have been named as respondent parties in the petition.
The PIL has been filed by one Ravendra Rajoriya, who has blamed "police inaction" and "partisan attitude of the state government" for the riots.
Saving in the U.S. has been on a 20-year decline. This dismal trend cannot go on forever, and may reverse soon. People are going to start saving again. This momentous change will create winners in some sectors of the economy and losers in others. The saving rate--the percentage of aftertax personal income not going int...
The inertia that dragged down the saving rate has been considerable. Some figure that the government will provide their future income needs. Many consumers feel they deserve to spend, and, like Scarlett O'Hara, will think about the financial consequences "tomorrow." Others believe that houses appreciate forever and do ...
There's still a lot of denial going on. Optimists argue the saving rate really is much higher than the official number; hence, no problem exists. For sure, like most economic statistics, this one is contrived. It doesn't include capital gains. But should it? To the extent that capital gains come from greater fools buyi...
Where does that leave us? Near term, I expect the saving rate may dip further, into negative territory. But forces are at work that will reverse the decline. Look for the tide to turn before longand for the saving rate to commence a steady rise, something like a percentage point yearly for a decade.
The postwar babies desperately need to build retirement kitties. They have the ability to save, since they're now in their peak career earning years. They will get a financial boost when their offspring leave home and they no longer have tuition payments to make--or smashed-up cars to replace, if their kids are like mi...
The younger generation has a saving incentive, as well. Few young people expect meaningful Social Security retirement benefits, and Washington's talk of less generous checks should spread saving zeal all along the age spectrum. Another factor that will ultimately push the saving rate up: A rising share of national inco...
The shift from the long-running borrowing-and-spending binge to a saving spree will probably require a nasty shock to consumer incomes and finances. After all, most don't quit as winners, but play till they lose. The next recession with big layoffs might be the trigger. Another terrorist attack on U.S. soil might frigh...
A falling saving rate means that for two decades consumer spending has grown 0.6% per year faster than aftertax income. This is so long that few businesses benefiting are aware of it. Credit card issuers will be when they're transformed from growth companies to laggards. Ditto banks and other financial institutions foc...
Purveyors of big-ticket discretionary goods and services also will suffer as spending is restrained. Doubly so in the mild, good deflation I foresee as consumers wait for still lower prices. Deflationary expectations already have affected vehicle sales wherever larger rebates are needed to move the metal. Late Christma...
Saving-spree winners include financial service providers other than lenders: brokerage firms, mutual fund advisers, individual account managers, financial and estate planners, trust companies and life insurers.
More saving and subdued consumer spending will depress interest rates, boosting holders of Treasury and other high-quality bonds. The havoc wreaked by American consumers on foreign exporters will help the buck, which I believe has bottomed anyway. That will aid dollar-denominated assets. Such a world will be very diffe...
IT’S the outcome the world wants to avoid, but we are already halfway there. All but one of the main trackers of global surface temperature are now passing more than 1 °C of warming relative to the second half of the 19th century, according to an exclusive analysis done for New Scientist.
We could also be seeing the end of the much-discussed slowdown in surface warming since 1998, meaning this is just the start of a period of rapid warming. “There’s a good chance the hiatus is over,” says Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.
Last year was the hottest since records began, but only just. With an El Niño now under way – meaning warm surface waters in the Pacific are releasing heat into the atmosphere – and predicted to intensify, it looks as if the global average surface temperature could jump by around 0.1 °C in just one year. “2015 is shapi...
The UN negotiations on climate change aim to limit warming to 2 °C above pre-industrial temperatures. There is, however, no agreement on how to define pre-industrial temperature, says Ed Hawkins of the University of Reading, UK.
Because some global temperature records only begin in 1880, the period 1880 to 1899 is the easiest “pre-industrial” baseline for measuring warming. It is somewhat misleading, though, because the 1880s were particularly cold after the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano. The period 1850 to 1899 is a better baseline, says H...
What’s more, there are several long-term records of global annual average surface temperatures. All differ slightly because they use slightly different data sets and have their own ways of adjusting for relocations of weather stations and changes in instrumentation over time.
Kevin Cowtan of the University of York, UK, created and still maintains one such record, called “Cowtan & Way version 2.0”. It is based on another record, maintained by the UK Met Office, called HadCRUT4. Cowtan’s version differs because it compensates for missing data from areas with few weather stations, like the Arc...
The various records also show temperature changes relative to different baselines. For instance, NASA’s GISTEMP record shows warming relative to the 1951 to 1980 average.
At the request of New Scientist, Cowtan adjusted his and other measures to show annual warming relative to the same time frame: the 1850 to 1899 period. All but one set of adjusted figures show that we will have already passed 1 °C before the next round of UN talks on a global climate treaty get under way in December (...
And if climate talks do not lead to drastic action, we could pass the 2 °C mark around the middle of the century. The planet may continue to warm fast in the coming years, at a rate more like those from 1984 to 1998, when it warmed at 0.26 °C per decade.
From 1998 to 2012, the rate slowed to about 0.04 °C per decade, according to the last International Panel on Climate Change report. This was due to a combination of factors: a less active sun, higher levels of cooling aerosols from volcanoes and Asian factories, and increased heat uptake by the oceans.
One reason the oceans took up more heat was because of a phenomenon known as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. The surface of the northern Pacific tends to flip between being extra cold and extra hot every two or three decades. It was in a cold, negative phase but now appears to have switched to a positive one, Trenbert...
So temperatures might briefly drop next year after the current El Niño ends, he says, but the average warming rate over the next decade or so could be closer to the 0.2 °C per decade predicted for the business-as-usual pathway we are on.
We are also on the cusp of another ominous milestone: the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is starting to edge past 400 parts per million. And with global emissions of greenhouse gases rising ever faster, there’s no end in sight to the grim trend.
I just read the stories in Chattanoogan and the Times Free Press on city Council’s non-vote on Riverfront Nights Administrative Selection. From reading the Times Free Press Story, I see that all entities have done a poor job. Discussion should have been tabled until all parties represented could be witness to their pri...
An incident that happened a while ago does come to mind though. When discussion was underway for replacement of an industrial waterfront with one conducive to an interactive city, this is what happened. Several hundred people came to be a part. We were divided into groups of 12 to 15 or so around round tables to brains...
Another story I heard was on local talk radio. A man attending the Indianapolis 500 asked a food vendor why he no longer came to Riverbend. The vendor replied he could not afford fees that required food sale costs to be outrageous. So somewhere in the middle of this is a balance. The big dog that wants to rule the rive...
TOUGH-TALKING LAWYER: Did Rains' combative rhetoric create all-or-nothing situation?
From the start of the BALCO steroids scandal, Michael Rains, Barry Bonds' aggressive defense lawyer, took a tough line.
Bonds never used steroids, Rains declared, and the former Giants star never lied to the grand jury about his drug use.
As federal agents investigated Bonds for perjury, Rains mocked the effort: The government had no evidence, he told reporters, and prosecutors would suffer a humiliating defeat if the case went to trial.
For a time, it appeared that Rains' tough talk had caused the U.S. attorney's office in San Francisco to back away from prosecuting baseball's reigning home run king. But Thursday's five-count indictment, charging Bonds with repeatedly lying under oath to the grand jury that was investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co...
Now, some legal experts say the combative Rains' confrontational style may have locked Bonds into an all-or-nothing courtroom battle, with the risk of a 30-month federal prison sentence if he is convicted at trial.
The wiser course, these experts said, might be to negotiate with the government in hopes of striking a lenient plea bargain calling for little or no jail time.
For a defense lawyer, talking tough to the government can be "a two-edged sword," said Patrick Mullin, a New York criminal defense specialist. "It can backfire. It can just harden the stance of the prosecutor" and make a plea bargain impossible, he said.
For his part, Rains seems to have little interest in a negotiated settlement - short of a dismissal of the charges and an apology to Bonds, as he said in an interview Friday.
"This is a case I view as needing to be fought in the courtroom," he said. "So now is the time to fight it out."
In a fiery statement Thursday night after Bonds' indictment became public, the lawyer accused the BALCO investigators of unspecified ethical misconduct and said the Justice Department "doesn't know if waterboarding is torture and can't tell the difference between prosecution and persecution."
Rains, from Pleasant Hill, is a former police officer who often represents police officers accused of misconduct. He won fame for his successful defense of an Oakland policeman accused of brutality in the so-called Riders case.
He became Bonds' lawyer in 2003, shortly before the slugger testified before the BALCO grand jury. Bonds hired him on the recommendation of a bodyguard who once worked as a South San Francisco police officer, people who know the men say.
Up until now, little of Rains' work on behalf of Bonds has been in the courtroom. Instead, he has made frequent appearances at press conferences and on sports talk radio, deriding the BALCO probe in an apparent attempt to dissuade the government from indicting Bonds.
He has said that the BALCO investigation was a cover for the real case, which he called "The United States vs. Barry Bonds," complaining that his client was wrongly targeted.
Once, on the steps of the federal courthouse in San Francisco, he declared the BALCO grand jury didn't have "enough evidence to indict a ham sandwich, let alone Barry Bonds." And he accused then-U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan of leading a "witch hunt" against the Giants star.
For a time, it appeared that Rains' aggressive stance had made Ryan think twice about pursuing Bonds. In July 2006, when the term of the BALCO grand jury was about to expire, some BALCO investigators and prosecutors wanted to indict Bonds for perjury. Instead, Ryan transferred the probe to a new grand jury and decided ...
Ryan's successor, Acting U.S. Attorney Scott Schools, made the decision to indict Bonds. It was announced on the day President Bush nominated former U.S. Attorney Joseph Russoniello to be Schools' permanent replacement.
Rains says he tried to persuade Schools to drop the Bonds probe, writing him three letters complaining of what the defense lawyer claims was unethical conduct by BALCO investigators and prosecutors. Schools proceeded with the indictment anyway. Rains hasn't made the letters public.
Now that Bonds has been indicted, Rains might want to tamp down his attacks on the BALCO prosecution team and explore a plea bargain, some experts said, because Bonds may well be found guilty by a jury.
"Rains is going to have to moderate his adversarial posture toward the U.S. attorney's office," said Peter Keane, a law professor at Golden Gate University. "That's been the strategy so far, but there is a great risk of going forward to trial given the evidence."
Keane said the government's claim that it has positive steroid tests for Bonds is telling, and he also thought Bonds, given his bristly nature, might not make an effective witness if he took the stand.
But the underlying issue is that if convicted Bonds might be sentenced to 30 months in a federal prison, while a plea bargain would bring a far lighter sentence - without the grinding stress of a trial. Other celebrity clients accused of perjury - vice presidential aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby and home style maven Martha...
"Any defense lawyer at this point should be exploring a plea bargain," he said. "You can go ahead and posture all you want, but often it's in the best interests of your client to make a settlement if you can."
So far, at least, Rains appear to be set on exonerating Bonds at trial.
"What we want to know is whether the government and media will spend as much time repairing Barry's reputation as they have destroying it after he is proven innocent by a fair and impartial jury," Rains said.
Enhancing personal expression and style, Dell has unveiled five bold and contemporary Special Art Edition designs for the Dell Studio 15 and 17 laptops, created exclusively by urban artist Mike Ming. The designs include ‘Red Swirl’, ‘Seaweed’, ‘Sunburst’, ‘Bunch O Surfers’, and ‘Sea Sky’. These laptops combine sleek de...
When the Going gets Tough..
THE SHOW "Gordon Ramsay: Cookalong Live"
THE DEAL Viewers watch Fox star Gordon Ramsay cursing and screaming at restaurant workers on "Hell's Kitchen" and "Kitchen Nightmares," and now they can put themselves under his direction in this show.
Ramsay has hosted live-TV cook-along shows in England, and he's bringing the concept to American prime time tonight, guiding American viewers through step-by-step instructions to prepare a three-course meal. And it's not some froufrou meal you'd only find at $40-an-entree restaurant.
The menu is simple, and even if you mess it up, Ramsay can't reach through the TV and verbally assault you, as he does in his other Fox series.
WHAT'S COOKING The meal Ramsay intends to cook serves four and includes an angel-hair pasta with shrimp, chile peppers and tomatoes appetizer; steak Diane with sauteed potatoes and peas for the main course and quick tiramisu for dessert.
RAMSAY SAYS "Chefs cook live each and every day," Ramsay said. "So it's a chance to remove the intimidation, keep it fun. 'Staying in' is the new 'going out,' in terms of keeping it inspirational and making sure we could not just guide but give insight." He said starting with raw ingredients and making a full meal in 6...
A BIG QUESTION Of course, the show may only work as a participatory event for viewers who have a TV in their kitchen. "You sound like my mom," Ramsay said, when confronted by this question. "That's what she said to me: 'How do you expect me to cook along with no TV in the kitchen?' Good question. So you leave the livin...
No kidding. Merriam-Webster defines tolerance thusly: “willingness to accept feelings, habits, or beliefs that are different from your own.” For many years, that was the definition used by progressives in their demands — a live-and-let-live environment, one in which people of all backgrounds, beliefs, and cultures coul...
Universities are struggling to balance the free exchange of ideas with students’ growing desire to be shielded from offensive views, a philosophical divide at the heart of recent protests that have roiled campuses around the country.
From Missouri to Yale to Wesleyan to the University of California, public and private schools have become embroiled in controversies that have some faculty concerned about the stifling of free speech, and many students upset that their appeals to rid campuses of intolerance and racial insensitivity are being given shor...
Last month, Wesleyan University’s student government voted to consider slashing funds for the student paper after it published an opinion piece criticizing the Black Lives Matter movement.
In an interview, Mr. Roth said disagreements, no matter how upsetting, were part of the collegiate learning process.
“There has always been a challenge on college campuses to figure out how to make space for views that maybe sit outside the mainstream or outside of the campus mainstream, while also preserving the ability to continue the conversation the next day,” he said.
Those of us who want to support on some level the protesters’ pain bristle at their disregard for the First Amendment and freedom of the press and willingness to listen to others.
The “safe space” built at Mizzou means dissenting voices are decried as “racist,” “offensive” or “hurtful.” Students face diversity reeducation, pending expulsion.
Speech on my campus has become limited, not just on the quad. Grad students refuse to dissent from the opinions of liberal professors lest they lose their position, for example.
This is not an Orwellian dystopian novel – this is the climate of the University of Missouri, and it’s the reality that I, and my fellow students, face every day.
To paraphrase an old Monty Python routine, come and see the violence inherent in campus progressivism. Academia no longer values an open and robust exchange of ideas, a pursuit of truth, and adherence to actual tolerance. Actual commitment to learning would have prompted scrutiny of extraordinary claims and discussion ...
Instead, campuses have become overrun by proto-fascists who want submission to groupthink and are not afraid to call out for “some muscle” to enforce it. In most of these cases, the proto-fascists can find muscle in one form or another to shut down dissent and impose their narrow-minded demands for power. University ad...

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