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Women influence more than 85% of new car purchasesBut they make up less than 21% of the U.S manufacturing industry workforceGrace Lieblein worked as General Motors engineer for 34 years, is now company president in BrazilFewer women in senior management positions in 2010 than in 2005, according to Automotive News When Grace Lieblein started her career in a car assembly plant at the age of 18, she was a rare woman in a man’s world.Today, 34 years on, she is president and managing director of General Motors, Brazil, and trying to persuade more young women to reach the top in [...]

A solar flare on the surface of the sun, caused by the sudden release of energy from the magnetic field, 1974A report predicts that China will surpass the U.S. economy by 2030Despite a weaker economy, the U.S. will probably remain “first among equals,” the report saysThe report lists “Black Swans,” unpredictable events that might upend predictionsOne “Black Swan” event suggests U.S. disengagement could cause global anarchy In a new report, the U.S. National Intelligence Council predicts the winding down of “Pax Americana” and China’s ascent as the world’s top economy by 2030.That is, unless several “Black Swan” events skew their [...]

TEL AVIV There is a one in three chance that a future Greek government might decide to exit the euro zone, Standard and Poor’s EMEA ratings chief said on Monday. However, such a move would have extremely negative consequences and would likely deter other countries from following suit, he said. Moritz Kraemer, head of sovereign ratings at S&P for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), said Greece would not leave the euro zone under its current government and even if it did exit at some future date the euro zone was unlikely to break up. “While we acknowledge that [...]

NEW YORK/LITTLE ROCK Central bankers appear satisfied with the impact of their latest monetary stimulus, though there is some disagreement over how forcefully to continue purchasing bonds, remarks by two top policymakers on Monday showed. Boston Federal Reserve Bank President Eric Rosengren, one of the most vocal proponents of Fed asset purchases, said there was a “strong case” for the Fed to stay the course on accommodative policies next year and continue buying a total of $ 85 billion in bonds each month. In September, the Fed announced an open-ended bond buying scheme that began with $ 40 billion per [...]

BERLIN German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday that Greece’s creditors may look at writing down more of its debt but not before the current bailout program has run its course. Last Tuesday Euro zone finance ministers and the IMF approved a package of measures including interest rate reductions and an extension of repayment periods aimed at cutting Greece’s public debt to 124 percent of national output by 2020. Germany insists a writedown of Greek debt held by euro zone governments would be illegal, though Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has also recently signaled that some kind of debt ‘haircut’ for [...]

Ecobank Group chief executive officer Thierry Tanoh at the Africa CEO Forum in Geneva. Mariéme Jamme attended the first Africa CEO Forum in GenevaWorld Bank’s Makhtar Diop called for private sector bosses to show leadership”We are witnessing great progress in the continent and this needs to be highlighted,” says JammeJamme says business leaders need start working together to develop AfricaEditor’s note: Senegalese-Born Mariéme Jamme is an African technology blogger, coordinator of Apps4Africa and CEO of Spotone Global Solutions. Follow Marieme Jamme on Twitter: @mjamme Geneva, Switzerland — Sitting at the first Africa CEO Forum this week, in the heart of [...]

STOCKHOLM Talks between SAS and unions on wage cuts which the airline says are vital to its survival failed to yield an agreement as a Sunday deadline loomed, the company said. The Scandinavian airline, hit by competition from lower-price rivals, last week announced plans to cut some salaries by up to 17 percent and reduce headcount to about 9,000 from 15,000. It began talks on Thursday to persuade unions to accept pay cuts and new employment conditions which SAS says are necessary to secure fresh funding. Analysts doubt the measures will secure the independence of the airline which they say [...]

STORY HIGHLIGHTS Ren Ng is the Malaysian-born inventor of the Lytro camera Ng hopes the hand-held digital device will come to revolutionize how people take pictures Camera enables users to alter a picture’s focus and perspective after image has been captured — What do Steve Jobs, Hollywood film studios and Silicon Valley venture capitalists have in common? All have, at one stage or another, sought out Ren Ng — the Malaysian-born inventor of Lytro, a hand-held digital camera that aims to revolutionize photography and simplify the art of taking pictures. Lytro works by employing a micro-lens array to capture the [...]

TOKYO Struggling Japanese TV maker Sharp Corp warned it might not be able to survive on its own, as it almost doubled its full-year net loss forecast to $ 5.6 billion, and said it was considering alliances with other companies. In a statement, the company said it booked massive second-quarter losses and is seeing “serious negative operating cash flow.” “This raises serious doubts about (our ability) to continue as a going concern,” it said, adding it was taking steps, from pay cuts and asset sales to voluntary redundancies, to generate cash flow. Sharp has been in talks for months with [...]

SINGAPORE Amidst our growing love affair with the tablet, spare a thought for its increasingly shelfbound sibling: the e-reader. Take Taiwan’s E Ink Holdings Inc, which makes most of the monochrome displays for devices such as Amazon.com Inc’s Kindle and Barnes & Noble Inc’s Nook. After five years of heady growth during which shipments rose 100-fold, it got a jolt at the end of 2011 when monthly revenues dropped 91 percent in two months. “The bottom fell out of the market,” says E Ink Chief Marketing Officer Sriram Peruvemba. E-readers initially benefited from their reflective displays, which can be read [...]