Mozambique highway collision kills 14

MAPUTO, Mozambique (AP) ? Police in Mozambique say 14 people died when a tire burst on a speeding minibus, causing the driver to lose control and collide with an oncoming vehicle.

Radio Mozambique cited police as saying 11 people were also injured in the accident on Friday. It happened 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the capital, Maputo.

Police say all of those killed were on the minibus that had been going too fast, and that the driver was among the injured. Some passengers in the other vehicle, also a minibus, had minor injuries.

Traffic on some highways in Mozambique is heavy at this time of year as people working in South African mines return home for the Christmas season. Many South African tourists also visit Mozambique over the holiday period.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mozambique-highway-collision-kills-14-093538667.html

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Few report sex assaults at military academies - Army News | News ...

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2012/12/ap-few-report-sex-assaults-academies-12...

By Lolita C. Baldor - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Dec 21, 2012 18:43:59 EST

WASHINGTON ? New details in a Pentagon report show that military academy students report just a fraction of the sexual assaults they say occurred in the past school year, signaling a continued reluctance by victims to seek criminal investigations.

As reported earlier this week, the report shows that reported sexual assaults at the nation's three military academies jumped by 23 percent overall this year. But officials say that at least some of the increase is the result of ongoing efforts to encourage military members and students to report unwelcome sexual contact.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in a memo released Friday that he's concerned there hasn't been greater progress in preventing sexual assault and harassment at the academies. He has asked officials to beef up prevention programs.

According to an anonymous survey of academy students, more than 50 percent of women and 10 percent of men said they experienced sexual harassment during the last school year. At the same time, a bit more than 12 percent of women and 2 percent of men enrolled in the three military academies said they experienced "unwanted sexual contact."

Those percentages are largely the same as previous years, but they indicate that far more students experience either sexual harassment or assault than the 80 who reported it in the past year. There were 65 reported sexual assaults in the 2010-2011 academic year, and 41 the previous year.

Of the 80 reported assaults, 42 victims provided information to law enforcement or their commands for an investigation, while 38 accessed medical care and other services but declined to seek an investigation.

According to Maj. Gen. Gary Patton, director of the sexual assault prevention and response office, sexual assault "continues to be a persistent problem" at the academies. But he noted that based on the survey, as much as 84 percent of the crimes go unreported.

That number is a concern, he said, and noted that sexual assaults are a problem in society more broadly. Still, he said, the military must be held to a higher standard.

Of the cases investigated this year, just eight people have been sent to court martial. Five cases have been completed and four were convicted of at least one charge. Three cases are continuing. In some cases the person being investigated was not a member of the military and thus did not fall under the jurisdiction of the department.

The documents also show that cadets and midshipmen are three times as likely to be victims of assault as active-duty troops.

Navy officials expressed concerns that the data suggests there is the perception among some Naval Academy students that a culture persists that discourages the reporting of these crimes.

"I am disappointed that we have apparently not instilled in each and every midshipman the sense that being loyal to one another means first being loyal to the service and to the uniform," said Navy Secretary Ray Mabus.

Mabus said he has asked Navy leaders to take steps to "deglamorize the use of alcohol" and foster a command climate that is more conducive to the reporting of sex crimes.

Protect Our Defenders, an advocacy group for military personnel who have been sexually assaulted, said the report shows a continuing need for changes in the command structure and the culture of the military.

"Victims are afraid to come forward because of the retaliation they face, including victim-blaming, isolation and bad performance reviews, to being kicked out with errant medical discharge like personality disorders," said the group's president, Nancy Parrish. "It's a shameful blight on our nation."

Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, co-chairman of the Military Sexual Assault Prevention Caucus, said that while the statistics are troubling, "the increased rate of reporting is in response to efforts combating this issue, both by leadership at the Defense Department, and by Congress." Those efforts, he said, will continue.

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Source: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2012/12/ap-few-report-sex-assaults-academies-122112/

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    Police probe why man fatally shot 3 in rural Pa.

    Local law enforcement block off road along Rt. 22 near the Canoe Creek State Park, Pa. while investigating a shooting on Friday, Dec. 21, 2012. The suspect fired at troopers responding to Friday morning's shootings in Frankstown Township, about 70 miles west of Harrisburg. The fleeing gunman then crashed head-on into a trooper's car and got out of his truck and shot again at police, who returned fire and killed him. Blair County District Rich Consiglio says the gunman killed two men and one woman. (AP Photo/Altoona Mirror, J.D. Cavrich)

    Local law enforcement block off road along Rt. 22 near the Canoe Creek State Park, Pa. while investigating a shooting on Friday, Dec. 21, 2012. The suspect fired at troopers responding to Friday morning's shootings in Frankstown Township, about 70 miles west of Harrisburg. The fleeing gunman then crashed head-on into a trooper's car and got out of his truck and shot again at police, who returned fire and killed him. Blair County District Rich Consiglio says the gunman killed two men and one woman. (AP Photo/Altoona Mirror, J.D. Cavrich)

    Emergency responders block Juniata Valley Road on Friday, Dec. 21, 2012 in Geeseytown, Pa. A man fatally shot a woman decorating for a children's Christmas party at a tiny church hall and killed two men elsewhere in the rural central Pennsylvania township Friday before he was fatally shot in a gunfight with state troopers. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

    Pennsylvania State police Lt. George Bivens, right, talks during a news conference at the Geeseytown Fire Company about shootings along a nearby rural road that left four people dead and three Pennsylvania State troopers injured on Friday, Dec. 21, 2012 in Geeseytown, Pa. Pennsylvania state trooper Jeff Pettuci is at left. A man fatally shot a woman decorating for a children's Christmas party at a tiny church hall and killed two men elsewhere in the rural central Pennsylvania township Friday before he was fatally shot in a gunfight with state troopers. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

    Pennsylvania state trooper Jeff Pettuci talks during a news conference at the Geeseytown Fire Company about shootings along a nearby rural road that left four people dead and three Pennsylvania State troopers injured on Friday, Dec. 21, 2012, in Geeseytown, Pa. Pennsylvania State police Lieutenant George Bivens, is at right, and Capt. Maynard Gray is at left. A man fatally shot a woman decorating for a children's Christmas party at a tiny church hall and killed two men elsewhere in the rural central Pennsylvania township before he was fatally shot in a gunfight with state troopers. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

    (AP) ? Authorities in central Pennsylvania are trying to determine why a man fatally shot three people along a rural road before being killed in a gunfight with police.

    Police were still trying to piece together a timeline in the arduous investigation of the Friday shootings that began in Frankstown Township and spanned five crime scenes within a 1.5-mile radius.

    A woman decorating a church hall for a children's Christmas party was among those killed. Three state troopers were injured.

    Authorities haven't released a motive for the shootings.

    "It's going to take us some time to put this all together ... and know exactly what occurred," said Lt. Col. George Bivens, a deputy state police commissioner.

    Police did not release the names of the victims or the shooter, though they did say the man lived in Blair County, where all the shootings occurred. Clergy planned a prayer vigil Saturday for the victims, which included the woman at the Juniata Valley Gospel Church.

    The gunman and the victims weren't related, though the victims may have been, at least distantly, Blair County District Attorney Rich Consiglio said.

    Troopers were responding to a 911 call of a shooting in the township at about 9 a.m. Friday when they heard calls reporting at least one other shooting elsewhere, state police said.

    The three troopers, in patrol cars, were injured in a pursuit that began after the gunman, driving a pickup truck, fired at them, police said. One trooper injured a wrist and then was hit in the chest but was saved by body armor.

    A second trooper was injured by glass fragments in his eye and bullet fragments that hit him in the forehead, Bivens said.

    The gunman was killed during a final exchange of gunfire after ramming his truck head-on into another police cruiser, authorities said. It was after that crash that the trooper shot in the wrist also was hit in the chest.

    The third trooper suffered minor injuries from the head-on crash, Bivens said. More than one weapon was seized from the truck, Bivens added, but he declined to offer more specifics.

    "I think we have three very fortunate state police members tonight," Bivens said Friday. "We are very thankful for the fact that they survived this attack. Someone was watching over them."

    Besides the woman, one man was shot at a home and the other man was shot at a crash site where the gunman had used his truck to strike another vehicle, Bivens said.

    But relatives of the victims said they were told the woman at the church was the first person shot, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported. The gunman then shot two men in the driveway of a home after a confrontation at a stop sign, one of the men's cousins, Marie Brenneman, told the newspaper.

    "This person went to their driveway with a pistol, pointed at them and started shooting," Brenneman said.

    She said both men were the shooter's neighbors in the tiny village of Geeseytown, about 70 miles west of Harrisburg, the state capital.

    "They were uneasy around him," she said.

    The woman at the church had cooked food the day before for the funeral of the church's longtime pastor, said the Rev. James McCaulley, his brother. The church still was reeling from the death of the Rev. David McCaulley when the woman returned to decorate its hall, and bullets ripped through a window, he said.

    The gunman then entered and shot one of two women before he left, the Rev. James McCaulley said.

    Police identified the five crime scenes as the church; a home and ground around the home; a crash site where another victim was killed; the point in the road where the gunman opened fire on the troopers; and where the final encounter occurred after the truck collided with the police cruiser.

    Bivens said investigators don't know if the victims were picked at random.

    McCaulley, who is the pastor of another church about 50 miles from the site of Friday's carnage, said his older brother began leading the Frankstown church in 1954.

    "He preached his last sermon at the church in October before he fell ill," McCaulley said.

    The church, which lists about 150 members in an online ad posted this month seeking an associate pastor, is close-knit, and the woman killed Friday was among its more active members, McCaulley said. She had made food for him to take home Thursday since his wife had died this year, he said.

    "The only thing I can say good at this time is that (the gunman) didn't do this 24 hours earlier when there was a big crowd in the church hall," McCaulley said. "We're devastated."

    Associated Press

    Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-12-22-Rural%20Road%20Shooting/id-36100eaa1da549c3b810eb96d914c54b

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    Himalayan dam-building threatens endemic species

    The Himalayas, the world's highest mountain range, may soon hold another record: it could become home to the greatest density of dams in the world. More than a thousand are either already operating, under construction or being planned in northern India, Nepal and Bhutan. Besides providing clean energy, they could improve flood control and access to drinking water. But they will also pose a serious threat to indigenous species.

    Hydroelectricity supplies about one-fifth of India's power, but even so nearly 300 million of the country's inhabitants have no access to electricity. More dams could help plug the energy shortfall: India's hydropower potential is estimated to be four times its current production of 39 gigawatts.

    Maharaj Pandit at the University of Delhi, India, and R Edward Grumbine at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Kunming, have now studied the impact 292 of the planned Himalayan dams will have. They used satellite imagery and published data on Himalayan species richness to estimate how each dam's location would affect forest cover and biodiversity.

    Extinctions loom

    "We project that about 1700 square kilometres of forests would be submerged or damaged by dams and related activities", says Pandit. He and Grumbine predict that such deforestation will result in the likely extinction of 22 flowering plants and 7 vertebrate species by 2025. This number would rise to 1505 flowering plants and 274 vertebrates by 2100 if construction work continues.

    Another recent study suggests the dams will be bad news for many of the Himalayas' 300 species of fish. Jay Bhatt and colleagues at the University of Delhi studied distribution of fish species in 16 Himalayan rivers, and found that those richest in biodiversity, with the greatest number of endemic species, were also those where dams will be concentrated.

    "Dozens of dam projects are already caught up in litigation due to faulty environmental impact assessments, displacement of people, inadequate compensation, destruction of traditional water and livelihood sources, and loss of biodiversity," says Himanshu Thakkar, coordinator of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers & People, an informal group of organisations and individuals interested in the impact of dam-building. The combined effect of several hundred new dams would be gargantuan, he adds.

    Journal references: Pandit and Grumbine study: Conservation Biology, doi.org/j3z; Bhatt study: PLoS One, doi.org/j3x

    If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

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    Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/26d66dde/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Carticle0Cdn230A330Ehimalayan0Edambuilding0Ethreatens0Eendemic0Especies0Bhtml0Dcmpid0FRSS0QNSNS0Q20A120EGLOBAL0Qonline0Enews/story01.htm

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    US consumer spending rose 0.4 percent in November

    In this Friday, Nov. 23, 2012 photo, a cashier hands a customer his change and receipt during a transaction at a Sears store, in Henderson, Nev. Consumers spent and earned more in November, reflecting a rebound from the disruptions caused by Superstorm Sandy. The Commerce Department says, Friday, Dec. 21, 2012, consumer spending rose 0.4 percent compared with October. Personal income jumped 0.6 percent, the biggest gain in 11 months. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

    In this Friday, Nov. 23, 2012 photo, a cashier hands a customer his change and receipt during a transaction at a Sears store, in Henderson, Nev. Consumers spent and earned more in November, reflecting a rebound from the disruptions caused by Superstorm Sandy. The Commerce Department says, Friday, Dec. 21, 2012, consumer spending rose 0.4 percent compared with October. Personal income jumped 0.6 percent, the biggest gain in 11 months. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

    (AP) ? Consumers spent and earned more in November, reflecting a rebound from the disruptions caused by Superstorm Sandy.

    The Commerce Department said Friday that consumer spending rose 0.4 percent compared with October. Personal income jumped 0.6 percent, the biggest gain in 11 months.

    Economists noted that the spending and income growth in November was a healthy sign for the economy, especially in the midst of anxiety and uncertainty from the stalemate in Washington over the fiscal cliff.

    Wages and salaries rose $41 billion in November. Sandy had reduced wages at an annual rate of $18 billion in October. Spending had fallen 0.1 percent in October compared with September.

    With income rising faster than spending, the saving rate rose to 3.6 percent of income in November. That was up from 3.4 percent in October.

    Concerns have been rising that income growth has been too weak to support sustained increases in spending, especially when Americans are worried about possible tax increases in the new year from the "fiscal cliff." That's the name for automatic tax increases and spending cuts due to take effect in January unless Congress and the Obama administration reach a budget deal before the new year.

    Consumer spending is closely watched because it accounts for about 70 percent of economic activity.

    A separate government report Friday showed that orders to U.S. factories for nondurable goods rose a solid 0.7 percent in November. And a key category that tracks business investment spending gained sharply for a second straight month.

    "Despite concerns about the fiscal cliff, businesses appear to have boosted spending at year-end," said Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets.

    He said his forecast that the economy would grow at an annual rate of 1.5 percent in the October-December quarter might need to be revised higher.

    Paul Ashworth, senior economist at Capital Economics, said that based on Friday's reports, he's revising up his estimate of growth for this quarter to an annual rate between 1.5 percent and 2 percent.

    On Thursday, the government said the economy grew at an annual rate of 3.1 percent in the July-September quarter, more than twice the 1.3 percent growth rate from April through June. Part of the improvement came from a 1.6 percent increase in consumer spending, slightly better than in the spring.

    But analysts think economic growth has slowed in the October-December quarter to an annual rate below 2 percent. Uncertainty about whether or how the fiscal cliff will be resolved has led some businesses to delay or reduce hiring and investment in major equipment.

    Many economists expect no improvement in the January-March quarter. The latest forecast from a panel of 48 economists with the National Association for Business Economics is that the economy will expand at an annual rate of 1.8 percent in the first quarter of 2013. Growth at that pace is considered too weak to significantly lower the unemployment rate, now at 7.7 percent.

    But economists say growth could strengthen in 2013 if Congress and the administration resolve their budget debate in a way that doesn't too drastically raise taxes or cut government spending.

    The Federal Reserve ended a policy meeting last week by deciding to extend its current level of $85 billion in monthly bond purchases indefinitely to try to keep long-term interest rates low.

    The Fed also for the first time tied any increase in a key short-term interest rate to a substantially improved job market. It said it planned to keep banks' overnight lending rates at a record low near zero until unemployment has fallen below 6.5 percent ? as long as the outlook for inflation remains tame.

    Associated Press

    Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-12-21-US-Consumer-Spending/id-44f2f1e952284819a23d238325bbf282

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    Bells toll for Newtown massacre victims

    NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) ? The chiming of bells reverberated throughout Newtown on Friday, commemorating one week since the crackle of gunfire in a schoolhouse killed 20 children and six adults in a massacre that has shaken the community ? and the nation ? to its core.

    Gov. Dannel P. Malloy gathered with other officials in rain and wind on the steps of the Edmond Town Hall as the bell rang 26 times in memory of each life lost at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The gunman also killed his mother before the massacre, and himself afterward.

    Officials didn't make any formal remark, and similar commemorations took place throughout the country.

    Though the massacre does not rank as the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history ? that happened at Virginia Tech ? the tender age of the victims and the absence of any apparent motive has struck at Americans' hearts and minds. The gunman used a military-style assault rifle loaded with ammunition intended to inflict maximum damage, officials have said.

    The White House said President Barack Obama privately observed the moment of silence.

    Just a week after the attack on the first grade students and members of the school's staff, gun control has taken a front burner in Congress, where previous mass shootings produced only minimal legislative reaction. Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday that the Obama administration would push to tighten gun laws.

    The National Rifle Association, at its first public event since the shootings, called Friday for armed police officers to be posted in American school to stop the next killer "waiting in the wings."

    Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the nation's largest gun-rights lobby with 4.3 million members, said at the Washington news conference that, "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."

    He blamed video games, movies and music videos for exposing children to a violent culture.

    Though security was tight, the briefing was interrupted twice by people holding up signs that blamed the NRA for killing children. The protesters were taken from the room.

    Newtown schools superintendent Janet Robinson told The Associated Press on Friday that consolidating the first grade classes at Sandy Hook Elementary School is part of the process of preparing for the students' return Jan. 3 to a refurbished middle school in Monroe. She said most of the classes will remain intact, except the first grade where 20 students were killed. She said one of the three classes has a single remaining student.

    Traffic stopped in the streets outside the town hall in Newtown early Friday as bells rang out to honor the dead.

    Malloy, taking deep breaths with his hands folded in front of him, was joined by the Newtown superintendent of schools, lawmakers and other officials as bells rang out at the nearby Trinity Episcopal Church.

    Firefighters bowed their heads around a memorial filled with teddy bears, other stuffed animals and a New York Giants pillow. Some hugged and onlookers shook their hands afterward.

    "When I heard the 26 bells ring it just melted my soul," said Kerrie Glassman, of Sandy Hook, who said she knew seven of the victims. "It's just overwhelming. You just can't believe this happened in our town."

    Among those who gathered in Newtown was a group of 13 survivors of the 2005 school shooting on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota. The group drove nearly 1,500 miles to support and comfort the families and survivors. They brought gifts intended to bring a message of resilience and hope, including a plaque that survivors of the 1999 Columbine shooting gave to them after their experience.

    "This is just something we had to do," said Ashley Lejeunesse, 23, who was also in the Red Lake classroom.

    The chiming of bells reverberated throughout the nation, and there were observances around the world.

    In Washington, religious leaders from a broad range of faiths gathered at Washington National Cathedral to call for their congregations to lobby Congress to enact gun control and mental health reforms to address pervasive gun violence. In a garden beside the National Cathedral, they paused to listen as a funeral bell tolled.

    In New York City, bells at the historic Trinity Church near the World Trade Center tolled 28 times. In Massachusetts, bells in churches around the state, including Boston's historic Old North Church, rang in honor of those killed in the attack. A moment of silence was observed throughout Colorado, and bells rang out in Denver.

    In the west African nation of Liberia, 20 children from a school sponsored by the Newtown Rotary Club gathered at the U.S. Embassy to give their condolences. Each child from the Caroline Miller School in Monrovia placed a flower on a poster bearing the name of a victim of the shooting.

    When the bells tolled to honor the victims of last week's shooting rampage, they did so 26 times, for each child and staff member killed.

    There is rarely a mention by residents of the first person police said Adam Lanza killed that morning: his mother, Nancy, who was shot in the head four times while she lay in bed.

    A private funeral was held Thursday in New Hampshire for Nancy Lanza, according to the police chief in Kingston, N.H., where her funeral was held. About 25 family members attended.

    The Newtown area weathered more funerals Friday, with five planned.

    A standing room-only crowd filled the St. Stephen Roman Catholic Church in Trumbull for the funeral of Mary Sherlach. The school psychologist who rushed toward the gunman during the shooting was remembered as a caring professional, a fan of the Miami Dolphins and a woman who ultimately put the lives of others ahead of her own.

    Investigators have said that Nancy Lanza, a gun enthusiast, visited shooting ranges several times and that her son also visited an area range.

    Authorities say Adam Lanza shot his mother at their home and then took her car and some of her guns to the school, where he broke in and opened fire. A Connecticut official said Nancy Lanza was shot four times in the head with a .22-caliber rifle.

    Adam Lanza was wearing all black, with an olive-drab utility vest, during the school attack. Investigators have found no letters or diaries that could explain the rampage.

    Friends and acquaintances have described him as intelligent, but odd and quiet.

    Friends said he would stare down at the floor and not speak when she brought him into a local pizzeria. They knew that he'd switched schools more than once and that she'd tried home schooling him. But while she occasionally expressed concern about his future during evenings at the bar, she never complained.

    ___

    Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Michael Melia, John Christoffersen, Eileen Connelly, Susan Haigh and David Klepper in Newtown.

    Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bells-toll-victims-one-week-shooting-143254939.html

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    e-Commerce Overtakes the High Street | OnTop Media Blog

    2012 was the year that the inevitable happened. No, not the apocalypse: internet retail finally overtook the high street. In a shift that has long been predicted, increasing numbers of people have left behind traditional bricks & mortar shops in favour of shopping online, with a recent survey revealing it is more popular here in the UK than in any other major country in the world.

    So what is it that we love about internet shopping? Convenience and price are the main factors when deciding between trawling the high street and shopping from the comfort of the sofa ? and when everything you need is all in one place, available to buy with just a few clicks of a button and delivered straight to your door, it?s no wonder that online shopping has won over the masses. But while the internet provides an informative and convenient platform for buying, retailers still face the challenge brought about by customers inability to appreciate the tactile qualities of the items they are considering purchasing.

    There is a way of overcoming this issue, though. Multi-channel operations are the key to keeping customers happy, and cater exactly for the type of shopper who prefers to physically see a product before buying online. 55% of respondents to Ofcom?s survey reported that they still visit shops to review potential purchases in person, then browse online for the best price. This provides customers with the opportunity to ensure the quality of the product before finding the optimum offer online, and retailers don?t lose out in the process ? after all, a sale is a sale, regardless of whether it is carried out in a shop or on the internet.

    The popularity of online shopping has been significantly helped along by mobile technology. Mobile web means that it is even easier to access the internet, and users can browse the web wherever they are, making it perfect for the busy lives of today?s on-the-go consumers. Almost half (44%) of people have made purchases from a smartphone, tablet or other mobile device in the last six months, and this figure is set to continue to rise well into 2013 as features like responsive design and mobile-specific content come to the fore of web development.

    Unsurprisingly, the festive period saw a massive surge in e-commerce with the majority of Christmas shopping carried out online. 54% of people revealed that they?d completed all of their present-buying on the internet, with 40% opting to brave the chaos of the high street in search of gifts. The new heights reached by online retail in 2012 look to be a continuing trend as more and more consumers realise the benefits of internet shopping. Convenience aside, online retail provides consumers with discounts that?aren?t?available in the shops, the ability to browse multiple retailers and the chance to find the best value for money.

    Many online shoppers, however, stated that price is irrelevant in relation to the service. Over half of UK consumers remain loyal to their favourite websites despite lower costs elsewhere, with 57% of internet shoppers preferring to shop from a handful of websites rather than scouring the web for the best price. Why is this? Customer experience is the most vital element in retail: if a customer has a positive experience with excellent service, they are more likely to return to that retailer for future purchases. A negative experience, on the other hand, drives customers away from that business ? even if it is offering the best prices. Customer experience is still more important than price, so it is fundamental to the success of any online retailer that the service they provide is top quality. Good customer service instils trust in consumers, which in turn encourages loyalty to that business.

    Source: http://www.ontop.co.uk/blog/ecommerce/e-commerce-overtakes-the-high-street/

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    You Can Now Buy Ads On Facebook Using - Business Insider

    Getty Images / Justin Sullivan

    Google CEO Larry Page and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg are going head to head.

    ?

    Facebook just allowed search retargeting firm Chango into its ad exchange, which means that advertisers can now use Chango's trove of search data -- including info it's collected from Google users -- to target Facebook users with ads.

    It's a significant move for Facebook. Previously, advertisers could target Facebook users with their own data collected from "cookies," the little pieces of software that web sites drop onto your browser as you surf the web. That data tells advertisers what you're interested in -- cars, volleyball, whatever -- but it often doesn't indicate what you're shopping for.

    Search data, however, does. Anyone searching for "Prada shoes" is likely interested in buying some. This is called shopping "intent" data.

    Until now, Facebook has had very little ability to serve ads based on intent. Mostly, its ads are based on demographic data from your profile. Who you are, not what you're buying, so to speak.

    Chango has 300 million "search profiles" it's collected from the various publishers it has worked with. And yes, a lot of that data comes from Google searches. (As a technical matter, it's not actually data that Google has given to Chango, rather it's data from Google searches that Chango has collected itself by dropping cookies on users' browsers.)

    Given that the Facebook Exchange (FBX) already boasts higher than average returns for advertisers using it, adding search data to the mix seems like a significant challenge to Google's dominance of the area. As AdExchanger's Zach Rodgers puts it:

    The move is notable in that it represents an incursion by Facebook on the ?intent currency? of Google (Bing and Yahoo too), after a period of failed efforts by the search giant to capture Facebook?s social graph data to enhance its own core search functionality and advertising.

    Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/chango-deal-with-facebook-uses-google-data-2012-12

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