Exclusive: Huawei partner offered embargoed HP gear to Iran

(Reuters) - A major Iranian partner of Huawei Technologies offered to sell at least 1.3 million euros worth of embargoed Hewlett-Packard computer equipment to Iran's largest mobile-phone operator in late 2010, documents show.

China's Huawei, the world's second largest telecommunications equipment maker, says neither it nor its partner, a private company registered in Hong Kong, ultimately provided the HP products to the telecom, Mobile Telecommunication Co of Iran, known as MCI. Nevertheless, the incident provides new evidence of how Chinese companies have been willing to help Iran evade trade sanctions.

The proposed deal also raises new questions about Shenzhen-based Huawei, which recently was criticized by the U.S. House Intelligence Committee for failing to "provide evidence to support its claims that it complies with all international sanctions or U.S. export laws."

At least 13 pages of the proposal to MCI, which involved expanding its subscriber billing system, were marked "Huawei confidential" and carried the company's logo, according to documents seen by Reuters. In a statement to Reuters, Huawei called it a "bidding document" and said one of its "major local partners," Skycom Tech Co Ltd, had submitted it to MCI.

The statement went on to say, "Huawei's business in Iran is in full compliance with all applicable laws and regulations including those of the U.N., U.S. and E.U. This commitment has been carried out and followed strictly by our company. Further, we also require our partners to follow the same commitment and strictly abide by the relevant laws and regulations."

In October, Reuters reported that another Iranian partner of Huawei last year tried to sell embargoed American antenna equipment to Iran's second largest mobile operator, MTN Irancell, in a deal the buyer ultimately rejected. The U.S. antenna manufacturer, CommScope Inc, has an agreement with Huawei in which the Chinese firm can use its products in Huawei systems, according to a CommScope spokesman. He added that his company strives to comply fully with all U.S. laws and sanctions.

Huawei has a similar partnership with HP. In a statement, the Palo Alto, Calif., company said, "HP has an extensive control system in place to ensure our partners and resellers comply with all legal and regulatory requirements involving system security, global trade and customer privacy and the company's relationship with Huawei is no different."

The statement added, "HP's distribution contract terms prohibit the sale of HP products into Iran and require compliance with U.S. and other applicable export laws."

Washington has banned the export of computer equipment to Iran for years. The sanctions are designed to deter Iran from developing nuclear weapons; Iran says its nuclear program is aimed purely at producing domestic energy.

CLOSE LINKS

Huawei and its Iranian partner, Skycom, appear to have very close ties.

An Iranian job recruitment site called Irantalent.com describes Skycom as "a leading telecom solution provider" and goes on to list details that are identical to the way Huawei describes itself on its U.S. website: employee-owned, selling "solutions" used by "45 of the world's top 50 telecom operators" and serving "one-third of the world's population."

On LinkedIn.com, several telecom workers list having worked at "Huawei-skycom" on their resumes. A former Skycom employee said the two companies shared the same headquarters in China. And an Iranian telecom manager who has visited Skycom's office in Tehran said, "Everybody carries Huawei badges."

A Hong Kong accountant whose firm is listed in Skycom registration records as its corporate secretary said Friday he would check with the company to see if anyone would answer questions. Reuters did not hear back.

The proposal to MCI, dated October 2010, would have doubled the capacity of MCI's billing system for prepaid customers. The proposal noted that MCI was "growing fast" and that its current system, provided by Huawei, had "exceeded the system capacity" to handle 20 million prepaid subscribers.

"In order to keep serving (MCI) with high quality, we provide this expansion proposal to support 40M subscribers," the proposal states on a page marked "HUAWEI Confidential."

The proposal makes clear that HP computer servers were an integral part of the "Hardware Installation Design" of the expansion project. Tables listing equipment for MCI facilities at a new site in Tehran and in the city of Shiraz repeatedly reference HP servers under the heading, "Minicomputer Model."

The documents seen by Reuters also include a portion of an equipment price list that carries Huawei's logo and are stamped "SKYCOM IRAN OFFICE." The pages list prices for HP servers, disk arrays and switches, including those that already are "existing" and others that need to be added. The total proposed project price came to 19.9 million euros, including a "one time special discount."

The proposed new HP equipment, which totaled 1.3 million euros, included one server, 20 disk arrays, 22 switches and software. The existing HP equipment included 22 servers, 8 disk arrays and 13 switches, with accompanying prices.

Asked who had provided the existing HP equipment to MCI, Vic Guyang, a Huawei spokesman, said it wasn't Huawei. "We would like to add that the existing hardware equipment belongs to the customer. Huawei does not have information on, or the authority to check the source of the customer's equipment."

Officials with MCI did not respond to requests for comment.

In a series of stories this year, Reuters has documented how China has become a backdoor for Iran to obtain embargoed U.S. computer equipment. In March and April, Reuters reported that China's ZTE Corp, a Huawei competitor, had sold or agreed to sell millions of dollars worth of U.S. computer gear, including HP equipment, to Telecommunication Co of Iran, the country's largest telecommunications firm, and a unit of the consortium that controls TCI.

The articles sparked investigations by the U.S. Commerce Department, the Justice Department and some of the U.S. tech companies. ZTE says it is cooperating with the federal probes.

TCI is the parent company of MCI.

(Additional reporting by Grace Li and Chyen Yee Lee in Hong Kong and Marcus George in Dubai; Edited by Simon Robinson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-huawei-partner-offered-embargoed-hp-gear-iran-230633426--finance.html

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In your town: What's going on in your community

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Source: http://www.app.com/article/20121230/NJNEWS/312300031/1070/NEWS02&source=rss

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Accounting for Non-Profit Organizations

Do you wonder if there?s any difference between non-profit accounting and for-profit bookkeeping? There are similarities, of course, but there is a distinct difference between these two forms. Read on to find out all about accounting or non-profit organizations.

Accounting for Non-Profit Organizations
A non-profit organization?s primary goal is not making profits. It does, however, need to generate enough income to allow it to operate and successfully manage its expenses. All the transactions a non-profit organization makes goes through careful tracking for different purposes, such as tax filing, cash flow management, third party auditing, and ensuring financial stability.

Accounting is a process that includes recording monetary and economic activities. It is a process that helps manage a company or entity?s records by interpreting, summarizing, and analysing data. Accountants involved with non-profit organizations often use their skills for the benefit of many.

Non-profit organizations have a set of accounting rules that generally do not apply to other businesses. They, of course, answer to the government just like any other business, but they also are directly under the supervision of granting agencies, boards of directors, and other governing bodies. Other businesses usually do not.

Most non-profits get their funds from multiple sources, which include any of the following: investment income, fundraisers, multiple grants, memberships, and financial contributions. They also take in-kind contributions like hours of work or expertise. Keeping track of all these can be hard work, requiring large amounts of paperwork in addition to annual government reporting and basic accounting.

Do you wonder what method non-profit accounting agencies use to keep track of all those records? To accurately keep track of corresponding grant periods, non-profit accountants use the accrual accounting method. This method allows them to accrue expenses against each source of funds, pay them off the following month, and charge each expense in the month it accrued.

At NFP Partners, we make sure to enhance your non-profit organisation?s financial management experience. With our experience and understanding of accounting, we will help you meet each challenge and increase your capacity to deliver valuable results. Call us today so we can help you.

Source: http://www.nfppartners.com/accounting-for-non-profit-organizations/

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Your Nostalgic Refreshment - ArticlesWide.com - iaginmo's posterous

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Traveling back to the 1930's, when home refrigerators were rare and today's electronic kitchen gadgets didn't exist. Ice was sold to homes and businesses in blocks of ... HOME :: Shopping and Product Reviews :: Electronics ...

Source: http://www.articleswide.com/article/12167-Your_Nostalgic_Refreshment.html

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Source: http://iaginmo.posterous.com/your-nostalgic-refreshment-articleswidecom

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Tigers making comeback in Asia

Camera trap images reveal tiger numbers rebounding across Asia, especially in southwestern India, where young tigers are leaving protected reserves due to population pressure, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society.

The WCS attributes the rise in different tiger groups to better law enforcement and protection of additional habitat. For example, a notorious poaching ring was busted in Thailand last year, and the gang leaders have been given prison sentences of up to five years ? the most severe punishments for wildlife poaching in Thailand's history, the conservation group said in a statement.

Tiger numbers have been rising steadily in Thailand's Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary since 2007, with a record 50-plus tigers counted last year, the WCS said. The sanctuary is part of the country's Western Forest Complex. This core spans 7,000 square miles (18,000 square kilometers) and is home to an estimated 125 to 175 tigers.

In India's mountainous landscape of Nagarahole and Bandipur national parks, tigers have reached saturation levels, with more than 600 individuals caught on camera trap photos in the past decade. Young tigers are leaving the parks along protected corridors and entering a landscape with a population of a million people, the group said. [In Images: Tigers Rebound in Asia]

Conservationists also worked with government officials in Russia to create additional protected areas for tigers. The country declared a new corridor, called the Central Ussuri Wildlife Refuge, on Oct. 18. The refuge links the Sikhote-Alin tiger population in Russia ? the main group of endangered Amur tigers? with tiger habitat in China's Heilongjiang Province in the Wandashan Mountains. The refuge ensures that tigers can move across the border between Russia and China in this region.

An estimated 3,200 tigers are living in the wild, with only 2,500 breeding adult pairs, according to TRAFFIC, a monitoring group funded by the World Wildlife Fund and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Tigers have lost 93 percent of their historical range, which once sprawled across Asia from Turkey to Russia and south to Bali, according to the group.

"Tigers are clearly fighting for their very existence, but it's important to know that there is hope. Victories like these give us the resolve to continue to battle for these magnificent big cats," Cristi?n Samper, WCS president, said in a statement.

Reach Becky Oskin at boskin@techmedianetwork.com. Follow her on Twitter @beckyoskin. Follow OurAmazingPlanet on Twitter?@OAPlanet. We're also on?Facebook?and Google+.

Copyright 2012 OurAmazingPlanet, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tigers-making-comeback-asia-144611814.html

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China requires real names for internet and phone sign-ups, handovers for illegal posts

It's no secret that China keeps a tight lid on internet freedoms, and it's not about to lighten up today. The government has passed regulations requiring that locals use their real names whenever they sign up for internet- and phone-based services (not just the access itself); while those were already common practices, there's now the real threat of punishment behind them. Anyone who clears those hurdles also has to be more mindful of what they write. If a page or post is deemed "illegal information," service hosts now have to delete its public presence, archive it and pass the content along to authorities. The state unsurprisingly argues that those who already stay on the sunny side of the law have nothing to fear from the new measures (where have we heard that before?), but the reassurances won't be much help to privacy advocates or those challenging corruption.

Filed under: Internet

Comments

Source: Bloomberg, Reuters

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/28/china-clears-rules-requiring-real-names-for-internet-sign-ups/

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House to return to session Sunday evening (The Arizona Republic)

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Production Control Manager ? All jobs (page 1)

Kawneer North America is the leading manufacturer of architectural aluminum building products and systems for the commercial construction industry. Providing single-source responsibility, our comprehensive product portfolio includes entrances, framing systems, windows and curtain wall systems. Kawneer products are used on a myriad of high- mid- and low-rise buildings such as stadiums and sports facilities, office buildings, schools and universities, retail construction and healthcare.

In 2010, Traco, a premier manufacturer of windows was acquired by Alcoa and is now a division of Kawneer. Traco continues to provide customers with innovative, high performing windows, which are ideal for both renovation and new construction.

Facing the challenges of today's complex business environment, Kawneer balances experience with change and ongoing improvement. We are committed to responding to the industry's needs in every way possible - through rigorous testing, meticulous engineering and product design, focus on sustainability and dedicated partnership. As we renew and re-engineer our capabilities, our commitment to quality, reliability and innovation has remained constant since 1906 when our architect founder invented the first metal molding for storefronts.

Kawneer North America is based in Norcross, Georgia, and operates strategically located manufacturing facilities and fabricating service centers throughout the United States and Canada. Our company is part of Alcoa's global Building and Construction Systems (BCS) business.

The Production Control Manager will be based in Cranberry Township, PA and will report to the Plant Manager. The Production Control Manager will be responsible for the following:

? Provide leadership and coordinate strategic business initiatives required to drive process improvement throughout the manufacturing operations in pursuit of operational excellence.
? Apply knowledge and skills in EHS to drive disciplined systems in support of an injury free work culture.?
? Provide overall leadership and strategic direction to the Fabrication and Assembly department managers and subsequent department supporting staff.
? Apply knowledge in quality systems and ABS to drive disciplined systems, robust processes, and focused standardization of best practices; in conjunction manage a cohesive set of key performance metrics that provide objective insights into the health and effectiveness of business operating systems.?
? The manager will focus on productivity, order fulfillment, schedule adherence, process control and inventory management to ensure customer satisfaction, product quality and the smooth flow of material within the operation.
? Conduct deep dives to identify the root cause of manufacturing issues and bring them to successful resolution.?
? Engage the workforce in problem solving initiatives and ensure the discipline execution of manufacturing processes and procedures.?
? People Development: Build a high performance support team by actively managing the hiring, on-boarding and development strategy. Utilize a strategy that enhances a diversity of cultures, thoughts and perspectives through the quality team. Manage the development of all quality talent with a focus on individual development and succession opportunities with Alcoa Inc.
? Develop a structure to identify and deploy best practices for the core process areas (saw, fabrication and assembly).

Source: http://www.miscojobs.com/jobs/job_597773.htm

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New turmoil hits Egypt's tourism

CAIRO (AP) ? At Egypt's Pyramids, the desperation of vendors to sell can be a little frightening for some tourists.

Young men descend on any car with foreigners in it blocks before it reaches the more than 4,500 year-old Wonder of the World. They bang on car doors and hoods, some waving the sticks and whips they use for driving camels, demanding the tourists come to their shop or ride their camel or just give money.

In the southern city of Aswan, tour operator Ashraf Ibrahim was recently taking a group to a historic mosque when a mob of angry horse carriage drivers trapped them inside, trying to force them to take rides. The drivers told Ibrahim to steer business their way in the future or else they'd burn his tourist buses, he said.

Egypt's touts have always been aggressive ? but they're more desperate than ever after nearly two years of devastation in the tourism industry, a pillar of the economy.

December, traditionally the start of Egypt's peak season, has brought new pain. Many foreigners stayed away because of the televised scenes of protests and clashes on the streets of Cairo in the battle over a controversial constitution.

Arrivals this month were down 40 percent from November, according to airport officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

Tourism workers have little hope that things will get better now that the constitution came into effect this week after a nationwide referendum. The power struggle between Islamist President Mohammed Morsi and the opposition threatens to erupt at any time into more unrest in the streets.

More long term, many in the industry worry ruling Islamists will start making changes like banning alcohol or swimsuits on beaches that they fear will drive tourists away.

"Nobody can plan anything because one day you find that everything might be OK and another that everything is lost. You can't even take a right decision or plan for the next month," said Magda Fawzi, head of Sabena Management.

She's thinking of shutting down her company, which runs two hotels in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh and four luxury cruise boats on the Nile between the ancient cities of Luxor and Aswan. In one hotel, only 10 of 300 rooms are booked, and only one of her ships is operating, she said. She has already downsized from 850 employees before the revolution to 500.

"I don't think there will be any stability with this kind of constitution. People will not accept it," she said.

Tourism, one of Egypt's biggest foreign currency earners, was gutted by the turmoil of last year's 18-day uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Scared off by the upheaval, the number of tourists fell to 9.8 million in 2011 from 14.7 million the year before, and revenues plunged 30 percent to $8.8 billion.

This year, the industry struggled back. By the end of September, 8.1 million tourists had come, injecting $10 billion into the economy. The number for the full year is likely to surpass 2011 but is still considerably down from 2010.

For the public, it has meant a drying up of income, given that tourism provided direct or indirect employment to one in eight Egyptians in 2010, according to government figures.

Poverty swelled at the country's fastest rate in Luxor province, highly dependent on visitors to its monumental temples and the tombs of King Tutankamun and other pharaohs. In 2011, 39 percent of its population lived on less than $1 a day, compared to 18 percent in 2009, according to government figures.

For the government, the fall in tourism and foreign investment since the revolution has worsened a debt crisis and forced talks with the International Monetary Fund over a $4.8 billion loan.

Morsi has promised to expand tourism, but hotel owners and tour operators say he has yet to make clear any plans.

Their biggest fear is new violence causing shocks like December's. Ibrahim, of the Eagle Travels tourism company, said that because of this month's protests, two German operators he works with cancelled tours. They weren't even heading to Cairo, but to the Red Sea, Luxor and Aswan, far from the unrest.

But some in the industry fear that, with the constitution's provisions strengthening implementation of Shariah, Islamists will ban alcohol or restrict dress on Egypt's beaches, which rival antiquities sites as draws for tourism. Officials from the Muslim Brotherhood, from which Morsi hails, are vague about any plans.

Ultraconservative Salafis, who are key allies of Morsi, have been more direct.

Nader Bakkar, spokesman for the Salafi Nour Party, told a conference of tour guides in Aswan earlier this month that tourists should not be allowed to buy alcohol but could bring it with them and drink it in their rooms. Tourists should also be encouraged to wear conservative dress, he said.

"We welcome all tourists but we tell them ... there are traditions and beliefs in the country, so respect them," he said. "Most tourists will have no problem if you tell them" to bring their own alcohol.

One Salafi sheik earlier this year said the Pyramids and Sphinx should be demolished as anti-Islamic ? like Afghanistan's then-Taliban rulers destroyed monumental Buddha statues in 2001. Bakkar dismissed the comments as the opinion of one cleric.

But tour guide Gladys Haddad sees the Salafis' attitude as a threat, saying the constitution should have said more to protect Egypt's pharaonic heritage. "We are talking about a civilization that they do not acknowledge. They see it as idolatrous."

"Why would a tourist come to a resort if he can't drink?" said Fawzi, of Sabena Management. "People are coming for tours and monuments, and to relax on the boats. If they feel that restriction, why should they come?"

Nahla Mofied of Escapade Travels said the Islamists might restrict what tourists can "wear and do" but, given its importance to the economy, "they may not destroy tourism fully."

Complicating attempts to draw tourists back is the lawlessness gripping Egypt the past two years. With police supervision low, tourist touts increasingly assault guides and even tourists to demand business. In September, 150 tour guides held a protest against attacks by vendors.

"We have struggled with this problem since before the revolution, but now the situation is completely out of control," Ibrahim said.

At the Giza Pyramids, police seem indifferent to the touts. Camel-riding police even join in, pushing tourists to take rides.

Gomaa al-Gabri, an antiquities employee, was infuriated at the sight, shouting, "You sons of dogs" and a slew of other insults at a policeman trying to get money off a tourist.

"They're trying to take away my income," said the father of 11. "In Mubarak's time we wouldn't dare talk to them like this. Now I can hit him with a shoe on his head and he can't speak."

For some tourists at the Pyramids, the chaos is part of the experience.

"I just love it," British tourist Brian Wilson said. "You can't blame people wanting to make money."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/turmoil-hits-egypts-tourism-175701229.html

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Video: Dog reunited with 7-year-old owner

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NRA chief: 'If it's crazy to call for armed security in school..call me crazy' (Reuters)

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Ask Slashdot: How Would You Build a Microsatellite?

Yeah, you can have omnidirectional antenna coverage for both uplink and downlink.... This is the preferred method if you can close your link and data budgets because it makes the system vastly simpler and inherently fail safe.... A secondary directional downlink may be reasonable if you have very high data requirements (e.g. streaming video or ultra high definition imagery)

Most commercial and military satellites have a low-bandwidth omnidirectional uplink and downlink for control. USAF satellites used to have (and may still have) almost a complete separation between the "bus" and "payload" sides, with the "bus" side on omni antennas. At the ground end, the USAF had big steerable dishes at about six tracking stations around the world. The spacecraft was piloted through those. Command and control of most USAF satellites were run from the Blue Cube in Sunnyvale until that operation was moved to Falcon and Vandenberg AFBs.

Once the spacecraft was in the desired orbit and oriented, directional antennas were used by the payload to communicate with the payload user's control center. With directional antennas, smaller ground-side dishes could be used. The big steerable dishes were a scarce resource needed for multiple satellites, so tying them up for payload data like imagery was avoided.

Back in the early 1980s, one of the amateur radio satellites was incorrectly commanded to transmit on its own control receive frequency. This blocked the receiver from receiving further commands. To recover the satellite, the Stanford Dish [wikipedia.org] was used. That 46 meter steerable radio telescope had, left over from old USAF work, a 3MW transmitter. The combination of a huge dish and a high powered transmitter allowed focusing enough power on the satellite to get through to the receiver and tell the satellite to change its transmit frequency. It took two tries (the first time the codes sent were wrong) but on the second try it worked.

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/Sc8VAdp2KEA/story01.htm

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Britain's energy market is not working in the public interest - Flint

20 December 2012

Caroline Flint MP, Labour?s Shadow Energy and Climate Change Secretary, commenting on the publication of the Energy and Climate Change select committee?s Consumer Engagement with Energy Markets report and consumer group Which??s The Imbalance of Power report, said:?

?Britain?s energy market is not working in the public interest. For too long energy companies have been able to get away with ripping people off.?

?The time has come for a complete overhaul of our energy market. Labour would abolish the regulator Ofgem and create a tough new watchdog with powers to force energy companies to pass on price cuts and clamp down on abuses by the energy giants.??

?Families struggling to heat their homes this winter need a One Nation Labour government to break the dominance of the energy giants, simplify tariffs and protect vulnerable customers from being ripped off.?

?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LabourPartyNews/~3/DcRoWiuMd5Y/britains-energy-market-is-not-working-in-the-public-interest,2012-12-20

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