Nigerians Report Online

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Kogi Women Professionals Lagos Branch Felicitate With Capt. Wada

Captain Idris Wada, the newly elected Governor of Kogi State.

Kogi Women Professionals Lagos Branch Felicitate With Capt. Wada

Taking a cue from President Goodluck Jonathan and the Secretariat of the ruling People's Democratic Party, (PDP), the Federation of Kogi Women Professionals, Lagos State Chapter on Friday congratulated the new governor-elect of Kogi State, Captain Idris Wada.

The women expressed their joy at the ushering in of what they described as a new wind of hope into their beloved state. According to them, prolonged rule by Audu has turned the state in an object of national ridicule and a failure. They confirmed the fact that Capt. Wada is the best candidate that the state could possibly get and were overjoyed that he even agreed to contest for the elections at the risk of having his sterling profile tainted on the altar of politics by calculated negative propaganda.

They assured the governor elect that the women and people of Kogi State are aware of his true intents and that he has their maximum support. Speaking on their behalf, in response to the barrage of negative publicity being directed towards the governor elect, their coordinator, Aladi Christiana Ameh, exhorted the governor elect saying: “we know that all they are saying is for politics; their own personal lust for power, and not for the people of Kogi State, we know that if Captain Idris were in their camp, they would go to any length to protect his image. We know that they are only lamenting that their candidate was just not good enough, we know all that. Let the governor elect know that we are not fooled!” The women professionals expressed their renewed hope in the PDP for being able to discover and field a candidate of Wada’s pedigree and stature in their beloved state, saying that at last, the party is waking up to the challenges of ‘The Politics of National Reconstruction’ and even went as far as attributing this new development to the wisdom of the party’s national leaders, especially President Goodluck Jonathan.

It will be recalled that against massive negative propaganda instituted by the ACN against his candidature, Idris Wada went ahead to achieve a landslide victory against his opponents at the polls, beating the next best candidate, Audu of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) by three votes to one! The victory made complete nonsense of the allegations of psychological problems, leveled against Wada by the ACN as a means of discrediting Wada. Commenting on the polls, the Lagos based Kogi women professionals attributed Wada’s victory to his state of the art grassroots campaign stratagem. They faulted the ACN, pointing out that if they had given their attention to convincing the poor people in the state’s rural areas that they can deliver, they might have gotten better results at the polls. Rather they concentrated on spoiling the image of their opponent on the national media, which unfortunately, didn’t have much bearing on the voting dynamics of the people of the state.

The women professionals made a strong appeal to the governor elect, to involve women in his cabinet, more than his predecessors. They also pleaded with him to continue in his campaign trend of empowering rural women especially in the areas of micro-credit empowerment for agriculture and small businesses, health and gender related issues which disfavor rural women, stressing that these rural women are the true mothers of the nation.

Releases displayed in Africa/Lagos time
14 Dec 2011
20:12	Maurel & Prom - Distribution des actions Maurel & Prom Nigeria aux actionnaires de Maurel & Prom et cotation de Maurel & Prom Nigeria sur le march? r?glement? de NYSE Euronext ? Paris
13:27	Conférence de lancement de l'Université Panafricaine
13:18	AUC Chairperson Launches Pan-African University and Commends Laureates of 2011 AU Kwame Nkrumah Awards
06:29	BADEA's Director General in Niger
05:40	African Union prepares to launch Pan African University

Gaddafi: The End Game

Doha, Qatar, 14 December 2011:

Premiering on 22 December 2011, State of Denial ends Al Jazeera English’s series on Libya, Gaddafi: The End Game. It starts screening just before Libya celebrates 60 years of independence on 24 December 2011.

Produced and directed by Anne Reevell (Moonbeam Films) and executive produced by South African Oscar, Emmy and BAFTA winner Jon Blair, State of Denial explains in forensic detail why the Libyan downfall was not straightforward and examines why, in spite of little public support and a massive international military assault, Gaddafi managed to hang on to power for as long as he did.

The documentary charts the disintegration of Gaddafi’s brutal regime through the accounts of the insiders, defectors and military advisers who helped bring it about. State of Denial includes for the first time on-the-record interviews with many senior figures of the revolution, including National Transitional Council leader, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, one of the first defectors; Abdel Hakim Belhaj, the Islamist revolutionary leader re-indicted by the US; and Brigadier General Abdel Salam al-Hasi, the head of the new Libyan army.

There are also frank interviews with Britain’s Libyan adviser to the Prime Minister, Brigadier General Robin Searby, who in a series of exclusive interviews reveals that getting Gaddafi “got personal.” In an interview in April, Searby said it was too early for hindsight. “But I firmly believe he (Gaddafi) will never go. The revolution, the Green Book, is his whole life. Unless he is bombed out, it is the people around him who will have to get rid of him.”

State of Denial reveals the way that the Libyans grouped Britain among these inner-circle defectors. The documentary describes the panic inside the regime after February’s protests in Benghazi were put down, revealing the desperate attempts to get messages from Tripoli to Downing Street. It chronicles the regime’s disbelief that the British had deserted them and reveals messages sent by a senior Libyan military aide, saying that it wasn’t their fault “a peaceful demonstration had been used as a tool to carry out an evil plot to create chaos.”

State of Denial reveals that Gaddafi never had the weapons of mass destruction he pledged to renounce when Tony Blair went to Tripoli in 2004 to bring the Libyan dictator in from the cold, but argues that the links forged between senior personnel in the British and Libyan military proved invaluable in the war against Gaddafi.

The documentary also explores the tensions within both the Gaddafi family and the rebel/NATO coalition.

One of Gaddafi’s sons tried to find out if he could get a visa for the UK, while Saif El Islam, Gaddafi’s Western-educated son, was advised to give up by those around him.

The rebels thought NATO’s relentless bombing of targets like Gadaffi’s Bab Al Aziziya compound was ”making him stronger,” so the relationship between the rebels and NATO was frequently tested by coalition fears of hitting civilian targets.

Reevell formed close links with Libya through regularly travelling and working there since 2005. During the conflict, she was in daily contact with a Tripoli-based insider and in June she travelled to Libya’s Western Mountains with a group of UK-based revolutionaries to chart the fall of Tripoli for the first two episodes of the series.

State of Denial screens on Al Jazeera English from Thursday, 22 December 2011 at the following times GMT: Thursday, 20h00; Friday, 12h00; Saturday, 01h00; Sunday, 06h00; Monday, 20h00; Tuesday, 12h00, Wednesday, 01h00; and Thursday 29 December 2011 at 06h00.

You can watch and embed the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SQGn67vugY.

For more information, visit http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/gaddafitheendgame/

Contact:

Kevin Kriedemann
+27 83 556 2346
kevin@kevinlikes.com
http://kevinlikes.com

TIME MAGAZINE ANNOUNCES TIME PERSON OF THE YEAR: THE PROTESTER

14 Dec 2011 18:00 Africa/Lagos

TIME MAGAZINE ANNOUNCES TIME PERSON OF THE YEAR: THE PROTESTER

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: Audio, hard copy requests, contact information and more available at: http://multivu.prnewswire.com/broadcast/52764/press.html

NEW YORK, December 14 /PRNewswire/ -- THIS IS A TIME MAGAZINE SPECIAL REPORT.

TIME MAGAZINE REVEALS THE 2011 TIME PERSON OF THE YEAR: THE PROTESTER

TIME EDITOR RICK STENGEL:

"In 2011, all over the world, from Egypt to Greece, Wall Street to Red Square, The Protester embodied the idea that individual action can bring collective change. Although it meant different things in different places, the idea of democracy was present in every gathering. Everywhere people said they'd had enough."

TIME SAYS THE CHOICE IS NOT NECESSARILY AN HONOR, BUT A RECOGNITION OF THE POWER OF THESE MOVEMENTS AND THE WANING INFLUENCE OF TRADITIONAL LEADERS.

"For upending governments and conventional wisdom, for combining old techniques with new technologies and for steering the planet on a more democratic though sometimes more dangerous path for the 21st century, The Protester is Time's 2011 Person of the Year."

READ THE TIME PERSON OF THE YEAR STORY ONLINE NOW AT TIME.COM OR BUY A COPY OF THE ISSUE ON NEWSSTANDS OR TABLET ON FRIDAY DECEMBER 16TH.

I'M PAUL JOHNSON.
Audio: http://multivu.prnewswire.com/broadcast/52764/press.html

Source: TIME MAGAZINE

AUDIO PROVIDED BY: TIME MAGAZINE

CONTACT: FOR STORY INFORMATION, PLEASE CALL: MultiVu Media Relations,1-800-653-5313, EXT. 3 OR EMAIL RADIO@MULTIVU.COM

Web site: http://www.time.com

Paramount Pictures Unveils New Logo in Celebration of the Studio's 100th Anniversary

Paramount Pictures Unveils New Logo in Celebration of the Studio's 100th Anniversary

New Logo Will Be Seen With "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol"

(PRNewsFoto/Paramount Pictures Corporation) HOLLYWOOD, CA UNITED STATES

HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Dec. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Paramount Pictures today unveiled a new company logo that commemorates the studio's 100th Anniversary in show business. The new logo can be seen on the new Tom Cruise starrer, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL. The movie will open in IMAX and on other premium large format screens on Friday, December 16th and in theatres everywhere on December 21st.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20111214/LA22803LOGO)

The studio's first logo, a symbol of a rugged, snow-covered peak from the Wasatch mountain range, was created in 1916. The 100th Anniversary logo was created by Devastudios, Inc.

Paramount will use the logo throughout its centennial year in 2012. Beginning in 2013, the wording about the 100th anniversary will be removed from the logo, with the rest of the design remaining in use.

About Paramount Pictures Corporation

Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment, is a unit of Viacom (NASDAQ: VIA, VIAB), a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands. Paramount controls a collection of some of the most powerful brands in filmed entertainment, including Paramount Pictures, Paramount Animation, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, Insurge Pictures, MTV Films, and Nickelodeon Movies. PPC operations also include Paramount Famous Productions, Paramount Home Media Distribution, Paramount Pictures International, Paramount Licensing Inc., and Paramount Studio Group.

About Paramount Pictures 100th Anniversary

The only major studio still located in Hollywood, Paramount Pictures celebrates its 100th year in show business in 2012. Adolph Zukor, Jesse L. Lasky and Cecil B. DeMille are credited as Paramount's principle founders, with Queen Elizabeth being the studio's first feature film in 1912. Through a century of excellence, Paramount has set the standard in cinema and continues to deliver the highest caliber of entertainment to audiences worldwide.

SOURCE Paramount Pictures Corporation

Top Topics

TIME MAGAZINE ANNOUNCES TIME PERSON OF THE YEAR: THE PROTESTER

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One in Five Conservatives Believe Mitt Romney Is Too Liberal

TD Economics: U.S. Economy Showing Growth, But Vulnerabilities Remain Abroad and at Home

Paramount Pictures Unveils New Logo in Celebration of the Studio's 100th Anniversary

AAA Projects 91.9 Million Americans Will Travel During Year-End Holidays, Up 1.4 Percent

Holiday Shopping

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

The Sex And Evil Spirits Movie Opens At The Genesis Cinemas This Weekend

British actor Marc Baylis and Alex Lopez in Changing Faces.

The first Nigerian movie on the transmission of evil spirits through sex, Changing Faces opens this Weekend December 16, at the Genesis Deluxe Cinemas in the Shoprite at The Palms on Victoria Island, Lagos.

Nollywood Stars Alex Lopez, Keppy Ekpenyong and others will be there to meet with their fans and give out postcards of their scenes in the movie.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Malaria Deaths Are Down

13 Dec 2011 10:55 Africa/Lagos

Malaria deaths are down but progress remains fragile

GENEVA, December 13, 2011/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- Malaria mortality rates have fallen by more than 25% globally since 2000, and by 33% in the WHO African Region, according to the World Malaria Report 2011, issued today by the World Health Organization. This progress is the result of a significant scaling-up of malaria prevention and control measures in the last decade, including the widespread use of bed nets, better diagnostics and a wider availability of effective medicines to treat malaria.

However, WHO warns that a projected shortfall in funding threatens the fragile gains and that the double challenge of emerging drug and insecticide resistance needs to be proactively addressed.

"We are making significant progress in battling a major public health problem. Coverage of at-risk populations with malaria prevention and control measures increased again in 2010, and resulted in a further decline in estimated malaria cases and deaths," says Dr Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General. "But there are worrisome signs that suggest progress might slow."

During the past decade, malaria incidence and mortality rates have been cut in all regions of the world, according to the World Malaria Report 2011. In 2010, there were an estimated 216 million cases of malaria in 106 endemic countries and territories in the world. An estimated 81% percent of these cases and 91% of deaths occurred in the WHO African Region. Globally, 86% of the victims were children under 5 years of age.

There were an estimated 655 000 malaria deaths in 2010, which is 36 000 lower than the year before.* While this 5% year-on-year decline represents significant progress, the mortality figures are still disconcertingly high for a disease that is entirely preventable and treatable.

"With malaria deaths in Africa having fallen significantly since 2000, the return on our investment to end malaria deaths has been greater than any I have experienced in the business world. But one child still dies every minute from malaria - and that is one child and one minute too many,” says Raymond G. Chambers, the UN Secretary General's Special Envoy for Malaria.

“The toll taken by the current economic crisis must not result in our gains being reversed, or progress slowed. With Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's charge for near zero deaths by end of 2015, turning back now is not an option,” Mr Chambers adds.

Steady progress in malaria control

Long-lasting insecticidal nets have been one of the least expensive and most effective weapons in the fight against malaria. According to the new report, the number of bed nets delivered to malaria-endemic countries in sub-Saharan Africa increased from 88.5 million in 2009 to 145 million in 2010. An estimated 50% of households in sub-Saharan Africa now have at least one bed net, and 96% of persons with access to a net use it.

There has also been further progress in rolling out diagnostic testing, which is crucially important to separate malaria from other febrile illnesses. The number of rapid diagnostic tests delivered by manufacturers climbed from 45 million in 2008 to 88 million in 2010, and the testing rate in the public sector in the WHO African Region rose from 20% in 2005 to 45% in 2010.

Worldwide, the volume of antimalarial medication delivered to the public sector has also increased. In 2010, 181 million courses of artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) were procured, up from 158 million in 2009, and just 11 million in 2005. ACTs are recommended as the first-line treatment for malaria caused by the most deadly malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum.

Projected shortfall in funding

Despite significant progress in 2010, the projected shortfall in malaria funding threatens the hard-earned gains of the last decade.

International funds for malaria control reached US$ 1.7 billion in 2010 and US$ 2 billion in 2011, but remained significantly below the US$ 5-6 billion that would be needed annually to achieve global malaria targets. According to projections in the report, despite increased support from the United Kingdom, malaria funding will slightly decrease in 2012 and 2013, and will likely drop further to an annual US$ 1.5 billion by 2015.

Triggered primarily by the reduction in available funding within the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, this decrease will considerably alter the malaria control landscape and threaten the sustainability of the multipronged approach to fight the disease, which relies heavily on investments in bed nets, indoor residual spraying, diagnostic testing, treatment, research and innovation.

"We need a fully-resourced Global Fund, new donors, and endemic countries to join forces and address the vast challenges that lie ahead. Millions of bed nets will need replacement in the coming years, and the goal of universal access to diagnostic testing and effective treatment must be realized," says Dr Robert Newman, Director of WHO's Global Malaria Programme. "We need to act with urgency and resolve to ensure that no-one dies from malaria for lack of a 5 dollar bed net, 1 dollar antimalarial drug and a 50 cent diagnostic test."

Emerging threats

Plasmodium falciparum resistance to artemisinins, which was confirmed on the Cambodia-Thailand border in 2009, has now also been identified at additional sites in Myanmar and Viet Nam. WHO has recommended that all countries ban the marketing of oral artemisinin-based monotherapies, which have been one of the major factors fostering the emergence and spread of resistance. Despite continued international pressure, 25 countries still allow the marketing of oral artemisinin-based monotherapies and 28 pharmaceutical companies continue to market these products (down from 39 in 2010).

The problem of mosquito resistance to insecticides also appears to be growing, although to date has not been linked to widespread failure of malaria vector control efforts. According to the World Malaria Report 2011, which includes data on insecticide resistance for the first time - 45 countries around the world have identified resistance to at least one of the four classes of insecticides used for malaria vector control; 27 of these are in sub-Saharan Africa. Resistance has been reported from all WHO Regions except the WHO European Region. India and malaria-endemic countries in sub-Saharan Africa are of greatest concern due to widespread reports of resistance - in some areas to all classes of insecticides - combined with a high malaria burden.

Current malaria control efforts are heavily reliant on a single class of insecticides, the pyrethroids, which are the most commonly used compounds for indoor residual spraying, and the only insecticide class recommended - and currently used - on long-lasting insecticidal nets. In response to this emerging threat, WHO is currently working with a broad group of stakeholders to develop a Global Plan for Insecticide Resistance Management in malaria vectors, which will be released in early 2012.

Notes to editors

The World Malaria Report 2011 is an annual publication from WHO. It summarizes information received from malaria-endemic countries and malaria control partners, and analyses prevention and control measures according to a comprehensive set of indicators. This year's report builds primarily on data received from countries for the year 2010. For the first time, the report contains individual profiles for 99 countries with ongoing malaria transmission.

* The total number of estimated malaria deaths presented in World Malaria Report 2011 (655 000 deaths) is substantially lower than the number presented in the World Malaria Report 2010 (781 000 deaths). This is partly because of an actual decrease in the number of malaria deaths (36 000), and partly because of a downward revision of child mortality estimates for all causes and diseases - for the past decade - by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation. This revision reduced malaria mortality estimates in the WHO African Region by approximately 11%.

The full report, including all annexes, is available at http://who.int/malaria/world_malaria_report_2011/en/index.html.

Source: World Health Organization (WHO)

Official launch of the Pan African University On Wednesday 14 December 2011

13 Dec 2011 05:04 Africa/Lagos

Official launch of the Pan African University On Wednesday 14 December 2011

ADDIS ABABA, December 13, 2011/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- Invitation to the journalists

Journalists are invited to attend the official launch of the Pan African University and a press conference at the African Union Commission on 14 December. The launch will be officiated by H.E Dr Jean Ping- Chairperson of the African Union Commission; H.E Mr Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo- Chairperson of the African Union and H.E Professor Jean Pierre Ezin- Commissioner of Human Resources, Science and Technology at the African Union Commission.

Events will commence at 10am and will conclude with a press conference and lunch at 13:30.

The Pan-African University (PAU) is being established in fulfillment of the Arusha Convention, by creating an exemplary but uniquely different and modern educational structure which focuses on integrative teaching and cutting-edge research, and is strategically conceptualised within the context of the diverse African cultural values, linguistic pluralism, and aspiration for the scientific and technological breakthroughs towards the continent's development.

The PAU is modeled on the creation of centers for excellence in the under listed thematic areas, with each geographical sub-region of Africa hosting a thematic component and serving as a coordinating hub for high quality centers developing similar programs on the continent.

The five thematic areas and the regional hubs of PAU are:

• Space sciences (Southern Africa, with a host institution yet to be identified)

• Water and Energy Sciences, including climate change (North Africa, with a host institution in Algeria)

• Basic Sciences, Technology and Innovation (Eastern Africa, with Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya, as the host institution)

• Life and Earth Sciences, including health and agriculture (Western Africa, with University of Ibadan, Nigeria, as the host institution)

• Governance, Humanities and Social Sciences (Central Africa, with University of Yaounde I, Cameroon as the host institution)

A press conference will take place from 13.10- 13.40 pm in the Conference Center of the AU, immediately after the official launch of the Pan African University.

Journalists are invited to cover the opening ceremony of the Launching of the Pan African University (PAU) at 10am, and participate at the Press Conference at 13:30.

For more information, visit the AU website: www.au.int

Source: African Union Commission (AUC)

Monday, December 12, 2011

How To Throw A Christmas Party

Throwing a perfect Christmas party is not as easy as it looks like, it involves a lot of planning and event management skills, here's how to manage a good Christmas party. Let the professionals teach you a few tricks of the trade.

Be the Life of the Party This Holiday Season -- and Any Time of Year -- With The Everyday Guide to Spirits and Cocktails: Tastes and Traditions

CHANTILLY, Va., Dec. 9, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Connoisseurs or novices, spirits lovers can now amaze and delight friends and family with an enhanced knowledge of and appreciation for great spirits and cocktails. The Everyday Guide to Spirits and Cocktails: Taste and Traditions, a dynamic series of video lectures available just in time for the holidays, is a fun and engaging educational experience that reveals everything people need to know to choose, mix, and serve spirits and cocktails just like a master mixologist.

To view the multimedia assets associated with this release, please click http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/be-the-life-of-the-party-this-holiday-season----and-any-time-of-year----with-the-everyday-guide-to-spirits-and-cocktails-tastes-and-traditions-135212493.html

Hosted by acclaimed expert and Certified Specialist of Spirits Jennifer Simonetti-Bryan and filmed entirely on location at Washington, DC's iconic Gibson Bar, this exciting course features six half-hour lectures that cover the history, production, varieties, and uses of popular spirits including vodka, rum, and whiskey. As Ms. Simonetti-Bryan demonstrates how to taste and compare the quality and complex notes of each spirit with the skill and confidence of a wine connoisseur, people will learn to maximize their experiences with spirits and discover their own personal taste preferences. They'll also get a host of recipes for delicious cocktails that illustrate each spirits' unique characteristics.

The Everyday Guide to Spirits and Cocktails: Taste and Traditions also includes two bonus lectures packed with insider tips, such as how to create the perfect home bar, how to make sure the figure-conscious can enjoy their favorite drinks, and how to craft seasonal cocktail recipes like Eggnog and Hot Buttered Rum. Available on DVD for $29.95 and as a digital video download for $27.95, this interactive learning experience makes an excellent—and affordable—gift both for the holidays and for any occasion.

"Everyone loves a delicious cocktail—never more so than during the party season," says Ms. Simonetti-Bryan. "But many people can't tell their gin from their vodka, or their sour from their daiquiri. The Everyday Guide to Spirits and Cocktails: Tastes and Traditions offers a solid grounding in understanding the origins of spirits, the intricacies of tasting, how to establish your personal preferences, and above all, how to mix that lip-smackingly good cocktail. It's a comprehensive guide to spirits and cocktails – with bite-size, half-hour lectures that can be enjoyed on your own time."

The Everyday Guide to Spirits and Cocktails: Tastes and Traditions is just one of more than 350 educational and inspiring courses for lifelong learners available from The Great Courses. To download or purchase this course as a holiday gift, please visit http://bit.ly/u5dnNt or http://www.thegreatcourses.com/cocktail-courses.

For further information on The Everyday Guide to Spirits and Cocktails: Tastes and Traditions or The Great Courses, please contact Victoria Harris or Gina Tunley at Punch Communications: +44 (0) 1858 411 600 or tgc@punchcomms.com

Notes to Editors

* The Everyday Guide to Spirits and Cocktails: Tastes and Traditions is available from www.thegreatcourses.com/cocktail-courses for $27.95 (digital video download) and $29.95 (DVD). Shipping and handling costs apply.

* Jennifer Simonetti-Bryan is a definitive authority on spirits in the United States and among a small number of people to have received the highest credentials in the spirits and wine industry. She has a Professional Certificate in Spirits from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust and is a Certified Specialist of Spirits from the Society of Wine Educators. Ms. Simonetti-Bryan is also one of only a few hundred people in the world to hold the Master of Wine title (M.W.) from The Institute of Masters of Wine in London, England—the highest and most difficult title to achieve in the industry. Winner of the Wiesbaden Tasting Trophy from the Institute of Masters of Wine, Ms. Simonetti-Bryan has trained thousands of professionals in the spirits and wine industry, has judged international spirits and wine competitions, and has hosted seminars with Food Network stars including Rachael Ray and Bobby Flay. She is a frequent guest on television programs, including Fox Business and Bloomberg TV, and has been featured in Fortune, Wine & Spirits Magazine, and Wine Enthusiast Magazine.

* The Great Courses is a highly popular series of university-level lectures crafted and delivered by top professors and experts. Designed to meet the demand for lifelong learning and to change the way people think about the world, The Great Courses currently offers more than 350 courses in a range of video and audio formats including DVD, CD, and digital downloads. Courses span more than 5,000 hours of content across ten subject categories: science and mathematics, history, fine arts and music, religion and theology, philosophy and intellectual history, literature and English language, business and economics, better living, professional, and high school. Since 1990, over 10 million courses have been sold around the world.

Related Links:The Everyday Guide to Spirits and Cocktails: Tastes and Traditionsthegreatcourses.com/spirits

SOURCE The Great Courses

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/12/09/4111611/be-the-life-of-the-party-this.html#ixzz1gJhTAb00

Releases displayed in Africa/Lagos time

12 Dec 2011

11:00 CrimsonLogic Awarded eJudiciary Project in Namibia

10:30 SMX Appoints Mr. V Hariharan as New Chief Executive Officer

08:31 Sunbelt Initative to Power Developing Nations

07:23 Boeing, Etihad Airways Announce Order for 10 787-9 Dreamliners

07:11 Food crisis / West Africa: Millions of people at risk of serious food crisis without early action, says Oxfam

06:01 KPMG Reports FY11 Revenues of US$22.7 Billion

06:01 Kuwait Petroleum Group Pumps Up Data Management and Keeps Pace With Aggressive Business Growth Using CommVault Simpana Software

06:01 IMF Executive Board Completes Second Review Under the Extended Credit Facility for Kenya and Approves Request for Augmentation of Access and US$143.67 Million Disbursement

05:57 Joint media advisory / Second African Union Conference of Ministers Responsible for Mineral Resources Development, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

05:53 Job / Communications Consultant / Investment climate advisory services of the World Bank Group

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Genevieve Nnaji Travels to America and Loses Major Role to Omotola

Genevieve Nnaji

Genevieve Nnaji's trip to the United States of America has made her to lose the lead role to Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde in a big budget Nollywood movie that Teco Benson is directing at the moment.

Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde

Genevieve had the role until she travelled to the U.S. and since the filmmaker did not want her to delay the production, he decided to replace her with Omotola who is already on location this Sunday in Lekki, Lagos.

"Genevieve is out of the production," said one of the actors on location.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Pina is An Awesome Journey of Life in Poetic Dance

PINA - Dance, dance, otherwise we are lost - International Trailer from neueroadmovies on Vimeo.

A sizeable crowd watched the African premiere of the awesome German documentary film Pina Saturday afternoon at the Silverbird Cinemas in the Silverbird Galleria on Victoria Island in Lagos. It was the special feature of the monthly documentary film screening series of iRep International Documentary Film Festival and the Goethe Institut in Nigeria.

The audience of both Nigerians and the international community of mainly Germans and other Europeans was captivated by the hyperbolic renditions and illustrations of the life work of Philippina "Pina" Bausch (27 July 1940 – 30 June 2009), whose untimely death whilst Wim Wenders was still planning the experimental documentary in 3D compelled him to cancel the film production until the other dancers of the famous Tanztheater Wuppertal prevailed on him to complete the film as a memorial tribute to Pina and what a great tribute it has become as the dancers reenacted the panoramic montage of the phenomenal oeuvre of her Tanztheater in four movements, titled Le sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring), Café Mueller (a café in the German town of Solingen, where Bausch grew up from when she began dancing at 14), Kontakthof, and Vollmond.

A gripping scene from Pina

Philippina "Pina" Bausch

The dancers gave testimonies of Pina’s philosophy of life as depicted in her largely expressionist dance on and off stage and how much she influenced them to equally express their innermost being through the choreography of different sequences of dances all looking like a narrative of the various experiences of the romance of human existence on earth. I saw the dancers as the illustrations of the flower children of Mother Nature in their pilgrimage in the world as they passed through different stages of existential evolution. I saw echoes of the art of Salvador Dali (May 11, 1904 – January 23, 1989) and the architecture of Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (May 18, 1883 – July 5, 1969), founder of the Bauhaus School that later birthed The Bauhaus Movement and the literature of Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924), Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980) and Albert Camus (1913-1960) as the dancers took their captive audience on a hypnotic and surrealistic journey of the diverse experiences of humankind in the universe.

Director Wim Wenders arrives at the "Pina" special screening during AFI FEST 2011 presented by Audi at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on November 5, 2011 in Hollywood, California.(November 4, 2011 - Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images North America)

Pina is definitely going to become a timeless classic in the history of modern documentary filmmaking and may end up as the magnum opus of Wim Wenders. Its accomplishment is an embodiment of the heart, soul and spirit of Wenders himself. To me, it is a phenomenal fusion of abstract art, literature and music in the choreography of modern dance. And it is an unforgettable journey of life in poetic dance.

~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima, author of Children of Heaven, Sleepless Night, Scarlet Tears of London, Bye, Bye Mugabe and In the House of Dogs.

Friday, December 9, 2011

New Nigerian Media Platform Seeks to Promote Public Interest Journalism

9 Dec 2011 16:18 Africa/Lagos

New Nigerian Media Platform Seeks to Promote Public Interest Journalism

PR Newswire

ABUJA, Nigeria, Dec. 9, 2011

ABUJA, Nigeria, Dec. 9, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Faced with ongoing challenges of self-censorship, poor quality information, and political agenda dominating the news industry in Nigeria, the founders of Nigeria Intel are proud to announce the launch of an exciting new platform that will seek to promote high quality, independent journalism in the public interest.

"There is clearly a high level of talent among Nigerian journalists, and a number of high quality publications, but what we are trying to accomplish is an alternative business model, whereby the advertising and editorial pressure during future election cycles will not impact the quality of the product," said Executive Editor Salisu Suleiman, who previously served a ten-year term as an Information Officer of the Federal Government of Nigeria. "The non-profit model for Nigeria Intel is based upon private donations, public non-governmental grants, and online advertising revenue that is 100% applied to our operation costs, staff, and freelance contributors - in other words, the more successful the platform becomes, the more content we will be able to commission from independent journalists, creating a multiplier effect that encourages the development of the profession."

Although the project may be in its infancy stages, there are lofty goals for collaboration with some of the country's leading thinkers, says Mohammed Salihu, Managing Editor of Nigeria Intel. "Our goal is to attract reform-minded journalists by offering a fresh perspective on the most crucial issues having an impact on Nigerian citizens," said Mr. Salihu. "When we talk about 'journalism in the public interest,' we want to go far beyond simple punditry to offer facts, details, and high quality credible news, which we view as the building blocks for transparency, democracy, and better accountability of governance."

Nigeria Intel, which can be found online at http://www.nigeriaintel.com, is a project of the Civic Media Institute of Nigeria, a small multinational organization founded in September 2011 to assist Nigerian journalists in accessing professional training opportunities, providing a platform for freelancers to publish investigative journalism, and contributing to the diversity of the media offering to Nigerian and international audiences.

SOURCE Civic Media Institute of Nigeria

CONTACT: CONTACT: James T. Kimer, +1-917-355-0717, james.kimer@nigeriaintel.com

Web Site: http://www.nigeriaintel.com

St. Rita Tomatoes As A Market Leader

St. Rita Tomatoes As A Market Leader

~ By Ingram Osigwe

It is a well known fact that tomato paste has become a major staple of Nigerian cuisine today. What originally arrived on the world scene from farms in Southern Italy and Malta in ancient Europe, Tomato paste was originally made by boiling tomato fruits, draining out the juice and spreading out the semi-liquid remnant on wooden slabs where it is left to reduce the water content and congeal into a thick red paste. In this form, known as pasata di pomodoro it is preserved with olive oil and is a great condiment for cooking Italian dishes.

With the advent of modern technology, heavy agriculture led to the production of tomatoes in vast quantities; thus the need for a means of preservation that will utilize the heavy production. Scientific research led to the invention of the pasteurization process. Thus tomatoes were industrially peeled, sliced and the seed removed. Then the flesh is boiled to reduce the water content, put in cans, sealed and heated to kill all living organisms within the can. In this manner, it is preserved and can last for as long as five years on the shelf.

A history of Nigerian cuisine reveals that Tomato paste arrived on the scene with the arrival of British colonialists and some slaves who returned from North and South America after the abolition of slave trade. These slaves brought with them such recipes as ‘Jollof Rice’ (originally a dish of the Jollof or Wollof people, a tribe in Senegal), as a result of interactions during the Trans-Atlantic slave journey through the west coasts of Africa, which usually culminated in a final roundup at the canary islands, off the west coast of Senegal, before the final journey in slave ships, to the Americas. With their arrival back from the long journeys over many years through the Diaspora, these returnee slaves, (most of whom were of the Yoruba Stock) brought with them such recipes as tomato stew and jollof rice.

Nigerians so embraced this new delicacy that it became a Nigerian staple; no longer to be taken away from Nigeria. In northern Nigeria it was adapted into stew for Shinkafa, in the South East; it is consumed as both Stew and Jolloff Rice. In the West, Tomato paste is so much in the diet that it is used for virtually every standard soup recipe, ranging from Ewedu and Efo-Oriro to Gbegiri and Okro soups, Tomato Stew made from Tomato paste, forms the base of all the soups. Today, Nigeria is among the highest ranking consumers of Tomato paste all over the world.

Most tomato paste consumed in the country originally came from Imports from Italy and Spain. But today, with the rise of the Chinese industrial supremacy, Nigerian importers have turned to China as a result of cheaper and more feasible trade offers. Most of the tomato paste is thus imported in drums and repackaged in Nigeria. This Situation led to a lot of malpractices as many so called manufacturers started adulterating the tomato paste with wheat custard and red colouring, leading to food poisoning and kidney diseases among Nigerians. Thanks to Dora Akunyili’s NAFDAC, many fakers were nabbed. But the fall out of the situation was a loss of faith on the part of Nigeria’s consuming public, on imported Tomato Paste. It was at this juncture that SYVAFRANK International Limited Arrived on the scene.

With high integrity and quality as it’s watchword, SYVAFRANK Nigeria Limited developed the St. Rita tomato brand and maintained its quality from day one till today, despite huge economic losses as a result of flooding of the market with cheaper but adulterated tomato paste. But now, St Rita tomato paste is a favourite of Consumers all over Nigeria. Housewives and Caterers from Calabar to Kano, Sokoto to Abeokuta, Lagos to Enugu, all savor with delight the rich taste of St Rita Tomato Paste. St Rita’s Tomatoes is barely 2 years in the Nigeria but the impact on the market attest much to the quality. St. Rita Tomato paste is made with pure Vine ripened Tomato fruits, processed through the most hygienic and best technological pasteurization processes to help bring out the flavor of family-favorite meals. Creating these superior tomato products takes skill, time, and experience, as well as state-of-the-art research and a passion for excellence. St. Rita has excellent taste and flavor of its own and adds a rich aroma and rich yummy taste to meals.

Today SyvaFrank International Limited the sole importers and marketers of St Rita tomatoes can make bold the claim that St Rita’s paste tomatoes is now a market leader in the country. According to the marketing Manager of SyvaFrank International Limited Mr. Sunday Anene, The Nigerian consumers are getting sophisticated about their choice of quality goods. St Rita has exceeded the expectation of what a good tomato should be. He reiterated the Company’s resolve to continue with this tradition of quality. The health benefits of Good Tomato paste cannot be over emphasized; Good Tomatoes like St RITA is NAFDAC approved and comes with 28 vitamins and minerals including Lycopene and carotenoids. Lycopene is an antioxidant which prevents some forms of cancer. Good tomato helps to reduce Sunburn, Consuming tomato paste may help protect you against flushing that occurs as a result of exposure to ultraviolet light.

As we enter the Yuletide season, Major distributors of St Rita Tomatoes can look forward to mouth watering incentives from the company.

Facebook Users Can Now Watch TV and Movies Via FreeCast.com App

9 Dec 2011 12:18 Africa/Lagos

Facebook Users Can Now Watch TV and Movies Via FreeCast.com App

FreeCast.com has developed a system to allow Facebook users to watch web-based television while continuing their social media activities

PR Newswire

ORLANDO, Fla., Dec. 9, 2011

ORLANDO, Fla., Dec. 9, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Facebook users now have the ability to watch myriad web-based television channels from directly within Facebook, thanks to a new service being rolled out by FreeCast.com today.

The new system will allow users to continue their social media activities while simultaneously enjoying their favorite TV/cable shows, movies, events, concerts and radio, at no cost.

FreeCast.com currently dominates the web as the leading provider of web-based television, offering an intuitive personal channel guide to consumers. The system is supported by an expansive video search engine, which locates and categorizes around 1.5 million new videos each day.

FreeCast.com's CEO, William Mobley, explains the benefits their system will bring to both the content providers and Facebook:

"Both the content providers and Facebook benefit from eyeballs being directed to their content, resulting in more time online and thus increased advertising revenue. There are also benefits to the mass aggregations of Facebook like-minded special interest groups including; college alumni, ethnic/country specific or ex-pat's, business, sports, and even politicians now able to distribute messages, video clips, promotional materials, etc. via instant Facebook alerts to their "Likes" and the "Share" methods, creating mass viral distribution to their followers from their own video channels," he says.

FreeCast.com's content originates from numerous sources around the world, such as TV and cable networks, movie channels, radio stations, YouTube, Vimeo - all major content distributors. With so much content available, users have the ability to get alerts when new content that may interest them becomes available.

As mentioned, the service is free to the end-user.

For more information on the FreeCast.com system, and to get your Facebook experience beefed-up with web television, visit: http://apps.facebook.com/freecasttv or http://www.freecast.com.

About FreeCast.com's William Mobley

Mobley's experience would suggest he knows at least a few things about the Internet television marketplace, having launched MegaChannels.com in 1999, which quickly grew to serving over 800,000+ streaming videos per day, while also partnering with several major studios' content when the average modem speed was 56k-128K, at a time when Yahoo was averaging 2M visitors per day, in comparison.

This press release was issued through 24-7PressRelease.com. For further information, visit http://www.24-7pressrelease.com.

SOURCE FreeCast.com

CONTACT: William Mobley, FreeCast.com, +1-407-374-1666, http://www.freecast.com, bmobley@freecast.com

Web Site: http://www.freecast.com

One Zimbabwean, Two Nigerian Companies and others Win AFRICA AWARDS For Entrepreneurship

Legatum, a private international investment group and Omidyar Network, a philanthropic investment firm, today announced that SECURICO has won the US $100,000 grand prize of the 2011 Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship. Other winners included five finalists, Nigeria’s Chocolate City Group and Pepperoni Foods, Expand Technologies of Mauritius, Unique Solutions of The Gambia and soleRebels of Ethiopia. Each won US $50,000.

The following are the details of the announcement.

9 Dec 2011 05:49 Africa/Lagos

AFRICA AWARDS For Entrepreneurship / Zimbabwe's SECURICO Wins $100,000 Grand Prize in 2011 AFRICA AWARDS For Entrepreneurship

Divine Ndhlukula, Founder and Managing Director, Securico, winner of the US $100,000 grand prize of the 2011 Africa.

Divine Ndhlukula, Founder and Managing Director, Securico. The firm, won the US $100,000 grand prize in the Africa Award.

LONDON, December 9, 2011/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- Legatum (http://www.legatum.com), a private international investment group and Omidyar Network, a philanthropic investment firm, today announced that SECURICO has won the US $100,000 grand prize of the 2011 Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship (http://www.AfricaAwards.com). Based in Harare, Zimbabwe, SECURICO provides guarding services and electronic security solutions, and is the first security company in Zimbabwe to be ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) certified. SECURICO has more than 3,400 employees, 900 of which are women, making it the largest employer of women in the private sector. The company exemplifies the vital role played by entrepreneurs in creating economic growth, prosperity, and realising opportunity in Africa.

Three woman-owned businesses out of seven winning companies represented from 3,300 entries competing for US $400,000 in Prizes.

Logo: http://www.africaawards.com/images/Legatum-Africa-Awards.gif

“It is such an honor for me to be recognized by the Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship and included in such a talented, dynamic group of entrepreneurs” said Divine Ndhlukula, Founder and Managing Director of SECURICO. “I hope that my story of creating SECURICO, and those of my fellow finalists, will help to inspire other African entrepreneurs to seek opportunity, embrace risk, and above all, believe in themselves.”

Photos: http://www.apo-mail.org/111209.jpg (Divine Ndhlukula, Founder and Managing Director, Securico, winner of the US $100,000 grand prize of the 2011 Africa)

Photos: http://www.apo-mail.org/111209b.jpg (Left, Divine Ndhlukula, Founder and Managing Director, Securico. The firm, won the US $100,000 grand prize in the Africa Award)

Photos: http://www.apo-mail.org/111209c.jpg (Sir. Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group with Divine Ndhlukula, Founder and Managing Director, Securico)

A record 3,300 companies from 48 African countries submitted entries to compete for the Grand Prize of US $100,000, and six additional prizes of US $50,000 each, including the new Coca-Cola Award for an Outstanding Woman Entrepreneur, granted to Victoria Seeds, an agribusiness based in Kampala, Uganda. The Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship recognises and rewards business leaders who embody the entrepreneurial spirit and qualities required to succeed in business and who are the inspirational role models for the next generation of African entrepreneurs.

Five further finalists were recognized and each awarded a prize of US $50,000:

• Chocolate City Group, Abuja, Nigeria

• Expand Technologies., Phoenix, Mauritius

• Pepperoni Foods, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

• Unique Solutions, Serrekunda, The Gambia

• soleRebels, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Philip Vassiliou, Managing Director of Legatum, commented, “Legatum firmly believes that entrepreneurship is the most effective mechanism for distributing scarce resources around an economy. Entrepreneurs have the ability to see an opportunity and build a business around it, and the profit these businesses generate is evidence that needs are being met in the optimal way.” He added “We are pleased to recognise all of our 2011 Award finalists for the vital contributions they have made in promoting prosperity across the continent.”

The ten finalists underscore the diversity of entrepreneurs in the competition, representing eight countries including Ethiopia, Gambia, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. The top ten, which includes three woman-owned businesses, work in a range of industries, from software to entertainment to agribusiness.

“The winners of the 2011 Africa Awards represent a diversity of backgrounds, industries, and geographies, but they also share a common determination in building and scaling a successful company," said Matt Bannick, Managing Partner of Omidyar Network. "We congratulate each of the winners, and welcome them to the Awards' growing network of business leaders who are fostering innovation, job creation, and positive social impact from within Africa."

To determine the winners, finalists gathered in Nairobi to present to a prominent jury of African business leaders and investors. The panel was chaired by Malik Fal, Managing Director of Endeavor. The jury also included some of Africa's most prominent entrepreneurs and investors, including Kamal Budhabhatti, CEO of Craft Silicon and Grand Prize Winner of the 2010 Africa Awards; James Manyika, Director of the McKinsey Global Institute; Ayisi Makatiani, the CEO of Fanisi Capital; and Tokunboh Ishmael, co-founder and Managing Director of Alitheia Capital. The winners were evaluated on profitability; return on investment and growth; long-term business strategy; leadership, culture and values; investment in employees; innovation to address market needs; and contribution to the community.

Distributed by the African Press Organization for Legatum.

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Joan Kiambati, africapractice

jkiambati@africapractice.com

Hamish Banks, Legatum

Hamish.banks@legatum.com

Kelly Mason, Omidyar Network

Kelly@omidyar.com

ABOUT LEGATUM

Legatum is a private investment group with a twenty-five year heritage of generating and allocating capital and ideas that can help people to lead more prosperous lives, and which applies its investor's expertise to a long standing involvement in the sustainable development of communities around the globe. For more information, please visit Legatum's website at http://www.legatum.com

ABOUT OMIDYAR NETWORK

Omidyar Network is a philanthropic investment firm dedicated to harnessing the power of markets to create opportunity for people to improve their lives. Established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam, the organization invests in and helps scale innovative organizations to catalyze economic and social change. To date, Omidyar Network has committed more than $450 million to for-profit companies and non-profit organizations that foster economic advancement and encourage individual participation across multiple investment areas, including microfinance, property rights, consumer internet, mobile and government transparency. To learn more, visit http://www.omidyar.com

Source: Legatum

Deloitte Predicts the Top 10 Technology Trends for 2012

2012 Tech Trends. Photo Credit: Deloitte.

8 Dec 2011 17:00 Africa/Lagos

Deloitte Predicts the Top 10 Technology Trends for 2012

Mobility, social, analytics, cloud and cyber represent five imminent technology forces for business innovation

PR Newswire

NEW YORK, Dec. 8, 2011

NEW YORK, Dec. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Deloitte today announced the research findings from its 3rd annual "Tech Trends 2012" report, which identifies and predicts the top 10 emerging and disruptive technologies that are expected to play a crucial role in how businesses are anticipated to operate globally in 2012 and beyond.

"As we head into 2012, many CIOs are evaluating the various aspects of IT, looking ahead to the new technologies that can help them drive business growth in the years ahead," said Mark White, principal and chief technology officer, Deloitte Consulting LLP and co-author of the report. "Mobility, social, analytics, cloud and cyber are technology forces each impacting business today. The intersection of these represents an opportunity for new business technology value and innovation."

Deloitte's "Tech Trends 2012" distinguished the technologies in two categories: "(Re)emerging Enablers" and "Disruptive Deployments." (Re)emerging Enablers are five technologies that many CIOs have spent time, thought and resources on in the past, but deserve another look this year. Disruptive Deployments are five additional technologies that showcase new business models and transformative ways to operate. The 10 predicted technologies identified for 2012 are:

(Re)Emerging Enablers:

* Geo-spatial Visualization: Within the world of visualization, geospatial takes advantage of an explosion of geographical, location-aware data. Sources feeding this growth include new semi-structured data from mobile devices, geo-tagging of existing enterprise structured data and tapping into new streams of location-aware unstructured data.

* Digital Identities: The digital expression of identity is growing more complex every day. Digital identities should be unique, verifiable, able to be federated and non-repudiable. As individuals take a more active hand in managing their own digital identities, organizations are attempting to create single digital identities that retain the appropriate context across the range of credentials that an individual carries. Digital persona protection is becoming a strong area of cyber focus.

* Data Goes to Work: Organizations are finding ways to turn the explosion in size, volume and complexity of data into insight and value. This is occurring across structured and unstructured content from internal and external sources. This is expected to complement but not replace long-standing information management programs and investments in data warehouses, business intelligence suites, reporting platforms and relational database experience.

* Measured Innovation: CIOs can help facilitate the discovery of the next wave of true disruption -- and continuously improve the business of IT and the business of the business. Measured innovation offers an approach to managing both disciplines by providing a pragmatic way to identify, evaluate and launch potential innovations with a focus on aligning opportunities to areas that can fuel disruption and create measurable, attributable value.

* Outside-in Architecture: Flexibility in operating and business models is proving more important. As a result, need to share is colliding with need to know and shifting solution architectures away from a siloed, enterprise-out design pattern and into an outside-in approach to delivering business through rapidly evolving ecosystems.

Disruptive Deployments:

* Social Business: The emergence of boomers as digital natives and the rise of social media in daily life have paved the way for social business in the enterprise. This is leading organizations to apply social technologies on social networks, amplified by social media, to fundamentally reshape how business gets done. Some of the initial successful use cases are consumer-centric, but business value is available -- and should be realized -- across the enterprise.

* Hyper-hybrid Cloud: Cloud-based and cloud-aware integration offerings are expected to continue to evolve, and many organizations face a hybrid reality with a mix of on-premise solutions and multiple cloud offerings.

The challenge becomes integration, identity management and data translation between the core and multitenant public cloud offerings, and offering lightweight orchestration for processes traversing enterprise and cloud assets.

* Enterprise Mobility Unleashed: Mobility is helping many organizations rethink their business models. Consumer-facing mobile applications are only the beginning. With the explosion of mobile use cases, organizations should make sure solutions are enterprise class – secure, reliable, maintainable and integrated to critical back-off systems and data.

* Gamification: Serious gaming simulations and game mechanics such as leaderboards, achievements and skill-based learning are becoming embedded in day-to-day business processes, driving adoption, performance and engagement.

* User Empowerment: User engagement remains a key doctrine for enterprise IT with consumerization setting expectations for solutions built from the user-down, not the system-up. Compounding the need, IT is becoming increasingly democratized, with empowered end-users able to directly source solutions from the cloud or app stores -- on a mobile device and increasingly on the desktop.

"The next 12 months will see several technologies including the cloud, big data and mobility continue to grow, while a topic like gamification is just starting to emerge at the enterprise level," said Bill Briggs, director, Deloitte Consulting LLP and co-author of the report. "It will be important for CIOs to help lead their organizations in these areas, as they can redefine the role that IT plays within an organization and place them in a position to positively disrupt their operating models, business models, or even their industries."

About Deloitte Tech Trends
For the past three years, Deloitte's annual "Tech Trends" report has identified the 10 trends anticipated to have an impact for CIOs in the coming year and beyond. The predications are based on insights from Deloitte's technology subject matter specialists, input from some of its largest clients and discussions with industry analysts and alliance members. To subscribe to receive a digital copy of this year's complete report, please visit www.deloitte.com/us/techtrends2012.

As used in this document, "Deloitte" means Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting.

Contacts:

Marykate Reese

Sam Johnston

Public Relations

Hill & Knowlton

Deloitte

+ 1 212 885 0499

+ 1 203 257 0452

sam.johnston@hillandknowlton.com

mareese@deloitte.com

SOURCE Deloitte

Web Site: http://www.deloitte.com/us/about

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