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MACAU (AP) ? A Chinese fighter's victory at a Macau showdown brings the world's top casino market a step closer to challenging Las Vegas for dominance of another Sin City staple: big-time boxing matches.
Macau, which long ago eclipsed Vegas as the world's top gambling city, is now looking to add to its allure by holding the kind of boxing bouts that Las Vegas is known for.
The tiny Chinese enclave near Hong Kong is hosting a series of high-profile bouts this year featuring a pair of Asian stars: Chinese two-time Olympic gold medalist Zou Shiming and Philippine fighter Manny Pacquiao.
Zou made his professional debut in April, winning the "Fists of Gold" match at Macau's Venetian resort. He returned for a second installment of the series on Saturday night, defeating his Mexican opponent in a unanimous decision at the Cotai Arena.
Zou's rise has helped boost boxing's popularity among fans in China, where the sport was banned until the mid-1980s. Chinese fans, mostly subdued for the six preliminary "undercard" fights, rose to their feet for the main event, calling out "Jia you!" ? Chinese for "Let's go!" ? and stomping their feet as Zou fought a six-round flyweight match with Jesus Ortega.
Now all eyes are on the "Clash in Cotai" in November, featuring Pacquiao for the main event and Zou on the undercard. Organizers say it'll be the biggest professional boxing match ever held in China. It'll also be the first outside of the U.S. since 2006 for the Filipino superstar, who has lost his two last bouts.
Boxing's emergence in Macau is another reminder of how the global gambling industry's center of gravity has shifted to the East thanks to rising incomes in China. The former Portuguese colony, now a semiautonomous region of China, overtook the Las Vegas Strip in 2006 as the world's most lucrative gambling market. Last year it raked in $38 billion in gambling revenue, six times more than the Strip. But authorities want Macau to be known for more than gambling and see big events as a way to turn the city, which has a lingering reputation for seediness and corruption, into a broader tourist destination.
Zou's celebrated trainer, Los Angeles-based Freddie Roach, left no doubt about how the focus has changed in the boxing world.
"I think I've got a new home," he said at a press conference last week, referring to the Venetian, the flagship casino resort of billionaire Sheldon Adelson's Macau casino arm, Sands China Ltd. "Macau has become the capital of the boxing world."
For promoter Top Rank, it's a chance to get a head start on bringing the sport to the huge, untapped market in China. Boxing was banned under Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong for being too violent and too Western. It wasn't until 1986 that the ban was lifted.
The sport is nowhere near as popular in China as soccer or basketball, but Top Rank boss Bob Arum sees a vast potential market of new fans. Key to his plan is Zou, who became a celebrity in China after winning a gold medal in the Beijing Olympics and another at the London Olympics.
Zou "has energized people who follow sports in China," said Arum. "The number of people who watched his last fight in China was quite remarkable, anywhere between 100 million to 200 million homes based on the surveys we've had done. That's outstanding. Most countries don't even have that many people."
Top Rank put on a Vegas-style production for the Macau fights, complete with spotlights, scantily-clad "ring girls" and announcer Michael Buffer, best known for his catchphrase, "Let's get ready to rumble!" Arum said production costs for a Macau show amount to $500,000, about the same as for bouts in Vegas.
Arum said he envisions Top Rank, which organizes 60 boxing shows a year, eventually holding four to six a year in Macau. Las Vegas, in comparison, is hosting a dozen pro bouts this year.
For Arum, the big prize in bringing boxing to China is the potential for pay per view profits that would dwarf those in the U.S.
Zou's fights were carried on state broadcaster CCTV. Arum had hoped to offer the Pacquiao fight on pay per view but he said lining up a deal with potential partners has been harder than expected. China's broadcasting industry is dominated by state-run broadcasters while premium cable and satellite channels have little role to play.
One idea had been to offer the November fight for $5 in China on smartphones. That's a fraction of the $50-$60 typically charged to see a live bout on cable in the U.S but the sheer numbers of potential viewers in a country with more than 1 billion people would make up the difference.
"We were hoping to do pay per view in China but we are not anywhere near ready to do it yet. That's something for next year and the year after," he said.
"Once we get that going, it could be a monster," said Arum.
Even if Chinese pay per view doesn't take off, Macau will still remain a viable boxing venue because for non-American fighters it will represent a bigger purse. They won't have to pay U.S. taxes of about 40 percent on their earnings.
That would be a substantial incentive for someone such as Pacquiao, who would only be subject to lower tax rates in the Philippines or Macau on the $25-$30 million that Arum said he's expected to earn from the November fight.
The biggest upside from the fight nights, however, may be for the casino. It benefits directly from more visitors, which will help raise gambling revenue. The Pacquiao fight will be an especially good chance to reel in the high-rolling mainland Chinese VIP gamblers that have supercharged Macau's casino industry.
It also gives casinos another way to circumvent the advertising and promotional restrictions that come with mainland China's ban on casinos.
"The boxing in Macau without doubt helps promote Sands China or the Venetian brand in China," said Aaron Fischer, head of gaming research at brokerage CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets. "Marketing of casinos is illegal in China and hence gaming companies will have to indirectly promote the integrated resort by marketing the non-gaming facilities like the hotel, conventions or by marketing the various events like boxing matches."
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Top Rank: http://www.toprank.com/
Follow Kelvin Chan at twitter.com/chanman
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/macau-aims-another-vegas-staple-boxing-070336646.html
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US small businesses ? which employ 60 million Americans, or about half of the workforce ? are particularly at risk from extreme weather and climate change and must take steps to adapt, according to a report from Small Business Majority (SBM) and the American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC).
Climate Change Preparedness and the Small Business Sector says the retail, tourism, landscape architecture, agriculture, roofing, and small-scale manufacturing sectors are more vulnerable to the financial implications of climate change than their larger corporate counterpart.
The report finds:
According to the?National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2011 and 2012 were the two most extreme years on record for destructive weather events, which caused a total of more than $170 billion in damages, much of that to businesses.
The majority of small businesses operate out of a single physical location. According to the US Small Business Administration, up to 90 percent of small businesses get the majority of their business from within two miles of their front doors. This makes small businesses more vulnerable to loss compared to larger companies that have backup resources at alternate facilities or branch locations.
As a result, small businesses will be more heavily impacted by technological or telecommunications failures, the absence of employees, power failures, supply chain interruptions, and rising insurance costs. Direct damage from extreme weather events such as flooding, sea level rise, storm surge, and drought will impact small businesses more severely than a larger business with more financial and human capital, the report says.
According to a June poll by Small Business Majority, one-third of small business owners report they have been personally affected by extreme weather, and 57 percent believe extreme weather events are an urgent problem.
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By Matt Scuffham
LONDON (Reuters) - The Financial Ombudsman Service is starting to see a decline in the number of complaints it receives about mis-sold loan insurance but levels remain very high, Chief Financial Ombudsman Natalie Ceeney said.
Britain's biggest banks are expected to this week set aside hundreds of millions of pounds more to compensate customers mis-sold the insurance but Ceeney's comments will raise their hopes that the worst is behind them.
The industry has already set aside more than 14 billion pounds to compensate customers mis-sold payment protection policies (PPI), which were meant to protect borrowers in the event of sickness or unemployment but were often sold to those who would have been ineligible to claim.
Ceeney said the ombudsman, which steps in where customers and their banks can't reach an agreement, is now receiving 2,000 new cases every working day compared with 3,000 at its peak six months ago.
"I think somewhat inevitably the people who care most about complaining and trying to get compensation do so first. In any complaints cycle the numbers rise and you subsequently see them fall. I suspect we're on the downward curve," Ceeney told Reuters in an interview on Monday.
Ceeney cautioned it was difficult to predict future trends.
"Will it fall to 1,000 in six months? I just don't know. The interesting thing about PPI is none of us know where it's going to go," she said.
Despite the ombudsman working with banks to improve their complaints handling procedures, Ceeney said 78 percent of cases were being resolved in the customer's favour.
"We should be seeing uphold rates at 20 to 25 percent because banks should know what they're doing now. These are now so well trodden. When customers do complain it should be handled properly," she said.
Barclays is expected to add to the 2.6 billion pounds it has set aside for PPI costs, when it becomes the first UK bank to report results on Tuesday. Lloyds, which has set aside 6.8 billon pounds already, the most of any bank, is also expected to increase its provision on Thursday.
Lloyds ended a contract with Deloitte in June after problems were uncovered in the way a call centre operated by the business services firm handled customer complaints about PPI.
"Too many of the banks have not taken enough care on PPI complaint handling. Most of the big banks have outsourced it. The problem if you outsource is that you have to pay huge amounts of care to make sure your outsourcers are working to the right standards," Ceeney said.
According to figures from Britain's financial regulator, 50 million PPI policies were sold and only around 15 percent of people who had the policies have claimed for compensation.
Ceeney also said the ombudsman had seen a sharp rise in complaints about payday lenders although the numbers remained relatively low, which she blamed in part on the stigma felt by those who had used payday lenders.
(Reporting by Matt Scuffham; Editing by Rhys Jones and David Evans)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fos-reveals-decline-insurance-cases-170831707.html
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Oil has washed up on a resort island in Thailand as a result of an oil spill.
BANGKOK, July 29 (UPI) -- Oil from a leaking pipeline has washed up on a resort island in Thailand, a Thai lawmaker says.
The spill occurred early Saturday when the pipeline operated by PTT Global Chemistry, a subsidiary of Thai state-owned oil and gas PTT Public Co. Ltd., sprung a leak about 12 miles off the coast of mainland Rayong province, The Nation newspaper reports.
About 13,000 gallons of oil leaked into the sea, the company said. By Sunday night, the oil slick had reached the western side of Samet Island, covering about 2,000 feet of beachfront, China's state-run Xinhua News Agency reports.
But Satit Pituthecha, a Democrat member of Parliament for Rayong, said Monday the amount of spilled oil was greater than the 13,000 gallons PTTGC had reported and accused the company of "hiding the truth," Xinhua reports.
Pituthecha said the spill had caused severe damage to Rayong's environment and that it would take at least six months for its tourism sector to recover.
Thailand's National News Bureau reported Monday at least 70 percent of the oil spilled off Rayong coast has been cleaned.
PTTGC admitted it had underestimated the scope of the spill.
"As the highest ranking executive at PTTGC, I admit to being guilty in causing damage to the environment and will pay for the damage," the Bangkok Post reported the company's chief executive, Anon Sirisaengtaksin, said at a press conference Monday.
"We underestimated the problem, and we thought we could control the oil spill, but it sneaked out of the contained area," Anon said.
He said the company expects the area to be cleaned up and restored by Thursday.
Greenpeace called on the Thai government Monday to review its energy policy and to put an end to oil exploration and drilling in the Gulf of Thailand.
Thailand imports more than 60 percent of its total petroleum needs and nearly 85 percent of its crude oil consumption, the U.S. Energy Information Administration says.
The government plans to construct an oil pipeline and storage facilities between the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand to facilitate transportation of crude oil imports from the Middle East to Southeast Asia.
In 2009, PTTEP Australasia, a PTT subsidiary, was involved in an oil spill considered one of Australia's worst oil disasters, in the Montara oil field in the Timor Sea off the northern coast of Western Australia.
PTTEP Australasia Chief Executive Ken Fitzpatrick, in announcing last month that oil production had begun from the Montara field, said that since the spill, the company "has transformed safety processes and environmental systems" which were validated by five independent reviews commissioned by the Australian government.
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CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP) ? The average U.S. price of a gallon of gasoline has jumped eight cents over the past two weeks.
The Lundberg Survey of fuel prices released Sunday says the price of a gallon of regular is $3.67. Midgrade costs an average of $3.85 a gallon, and premium is $3.99.
Diesel was up four cents at $3.93 gallon.
Of the cities surveyed in the Lower 48 states, Charleston, S.C., has the nation's lowest average price for gas at $3.34. Chicago has the highest at $4.10.
In California, the lowest average price was $3.83 in Sacramento. The highest was in Los Angeles at $4.04. The average statewide for a gallon of regular was $3.97, an increase of two cents.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-gas-prices-8-cents-over-past-2-175059720.html
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Get excited about the 2012 Ford Mustang. With fewer than 35,000 miles on the odometer, this compact vehicle proves that good things DO come in small packages! Ford made sure to keep road-handling and sportiness at the top of it's priority list. It features an automatic transmission, rear-wheel drive, and a refined 6 cylinder engine. Ford infused the interior with top shelf amenities, such as: 1-touch window functionality, a tachometer, variably intermittent wipers, power door mirrors, power windows, cruise control, and air conditioning. Audio features include a CD player with MP3 capability, and 4 speakers, providing excellent sound throughout the cabin. Ford ensures the safety and security of its passengers with equipment such as: dual front impact airbags with occupant sensing airbag, front SIDE impact airbags, traction control, brake assist, ignition disabling, and 4 wheel disc brakes with ABS. Electronic stability control ensures solid grip atop the road surface, no matter how challenging the driving conditions. Our experienced sales staff is eager to share its knowledge and enthusiasm with you. We'd be happy to answer any questions that you may have. Stop by our dealership or give us a call for more information.
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