Above And Beyond Promotion

Posts Tagged ‘Press’

BY IN-SOO NAM

DAEGU, South Korea—Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Chairman Warren Buffett said Monday his investment vehicle is seeking further acquisitions following a $9 billion purchase of Lubrizol Corp. last week.

“We’re looking at a number of big businesses in Korea, the U.S., the U.K. We hope to find good companies wherever they may be. Basically, it’s the bigger, the better,” he said at a press conference.

The billionaire investor flew Sunday night into the manufacturing city of Daegu, about 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul, to attend a ground-breaking ceremony on Monday for a factory run by a Korean unit of Iscar Metalworking Cos, …

By YUKA HAYASHI And ANDREW MONAHAN

TOKYO—Japanese officials continued their battle to control dangerous reactor overheating in the nation’s worst nuclear accident that followed Friday’s earthquake, as they resorted to an unprecedented attempt to cool the reactor with seawater.

Top government officials assured the nation Saturday evening that an explosion that took place at one of the reactors at the Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power plant earlier in the day merely knocked down the walls of its external concrete building, and that the reactor and the containment structure surrounding it remained intact.

Smoke rose Saturday following an explosion at a nuclear power plant in Japan’s Fukushima prefecture. Video courtesy of Reuters

“The latest explosion wasn’t of a kind that would come with a significant leakage of radiation,” Yukio Edano, the chief cabinet secretary, said at a news conference. “It’s our expectation that we can bring this nuclear-power plant under control, using this unprecedented step of filling the containment structure with seawater.” Boric acid will also be added to the salt water to fight a possible elevation in nuclear reaction, Mr. Edano said.

The building housing the stricken reactor collapsed Saturday afternoon with smoke billowing out, and officials responded by expanding the evacuation perimeter to a 12-mile radius and saying they were preparing to stockpile iodine supplies “just in case.”

Soon after the explosion, the radiation level outside the reactor became elevated to 1,015 microsievert—the equivalent of being exposed to the maximum allowable level for a full year in a single day. The level has since come down sharply. The explosion was caused by hydrogen leaking inside the containment structure from the reactor experiencing high vapor pressure, Mr. Edano said.

Three people waiting at a nearby high school campus at the time of the explosion were confirmed to have been exposed to radiation, NHK, the national broadcaster, reported. The exposure, it said, hasn’t affected their physical conditions. Some 90 people also at the site then—all to be evacuated from the proximity to the troubled power plant—may also have been exposed, it said.

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NTV Japan/APTN/Associated Press

Smoke rose Saturday from the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, in an image from broadcaster NTV Japan.

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Earlier in the day, Tokyo Electric took emergency measures to avert a meltdown of a stricken nuclear-power plant hit by massive tsunami that followed Friday’s earthquake in the northeast region of Tohoku. Those steps appeared to be bringing down the dangerous pressures that had built up in the container, a Tokyo Electric spokesman said. But he and the government officials wouldn’t discuss in detail the progress they have made in lowering the temperature inside the reactor.

The plant is located 150 miles away from Tokyo.

Previously, the utility had said there was a risk of a meltdown in the core after the quake cut off power to pumps providing cooling water. That, in turn, could lead to heating of the core, the risk of a meltdown, and the release of radiation.

Nuclear Plants in the Zone

Three nuclear plants are close to the quake’s epicenter off the east coast of Honshu.

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A portion of the reactor’s fuel rods, which create heat through a nuclear reaction, had become exposed due to tsunami-related cooling-system failure, a Tokyo Electric spokesman said.

“The size of tsunami caused by the latest earthquake far exceeded what we had previously assumed,” Prime Minister Naoto Kan said at a news conference Saturday evening. “We’ve had a backup system designed to kick in when a nuclear-power plant failed, but this time, there has been a problem with that system.”

Loss of cooling water resulted in a near meltdown of the Three Mile Island reactor in Pennsylvania in 1979, the worst nuclear incident in U.S. history.

If coolant isn’t restored, the result could be what is known as a meltdown—extreme heat can melt through the reactor vessel and result in a radioactive release. Reactors have containment domes to catch any release. But there is always the chance that an earthquake could create cracks or other breaches in that containment system.

The Japanese government on Friday declared an emergency at the plant and ordered the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents in the area. Officials steadily increased the evacuation perimeter Saturday, extending it to 12 miles Saturday evening. More than 100,000 people will be affected by the step.

An earthquake measuring magnitude-8.9 struck Japan’s northeastern region of Tohoku Friday, accompanied by massive tsunami waves that have killed at least 1,000 people, NHK reported. The quake touched off tsunami warnings as far away as Hawaii and the U.S. pacific coast.

 

Explosion Heard at Nuclear Power Plant in Japan

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Smoke rose Saturday following an explosion at a nuclear power plant in Japan’s Fukushima prefecture. Video courtesy of Reuters

At Fukushima Daiichi, the three reactors that were operating when the earthquake struck shut down as they were designed to do, but pressure built up inside them due to malfunctioning of their cooling system.

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Zuma Press

An aerial view of the Japanese nuclear power plant Fukushima Daiichi, Japan

On Saturday, Tokyo Electric said another nuclear-power plant nearby, Fukushima Daini, was experiencing rises of pressure inside its four reactors. A state of emergency was called and precautionary evacuations ordered. The government has ordered the utility to release “potentially radioactive vapor” from the reactors, but hasn’t confirmed any elevated radiation around the plant.

An earthquake measuring 8.9 on the Richter struck Tokyo Bay, Japan Friday killing and injuring hundreds. The quake touched off tsunami warnings as far away as Hawaii and the U.S. pacific coast.

 

Asia Today: Japan Damage Mounts; Radioactive Fears

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Japan’s strongest earthquake on record has killed hundreds and raised fears about radioactive leaks from damaged nuclear power reactors. WSJ’s Jake Lee and Mariko Sanchanta, deputy Tokyo bureau chief, discuss.

 

Asia Today: Massive Earthquake Strikes Japan

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A devastating 8.9-magnitude earthquake has struck Northern Japan. What are the implications for a country already coping with slow economic growth and political instability? WSJ’s Jake Lee and Mariko Sanchanta, deputy Tokyo bureau chief, discuss.

Japan Quake’s Effects

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See a map of post-earthquake events in Japan, Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast.

Shaky Ground: Regional Big Ones

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Colliding plates under earth’s surface make Asia Pacific one of the most tectonically active region on earth.

Disastrous Quakes in Japan’s Past

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Associated Press

See a historical gallery of past earthquakes in Japan.

The World’s Biggest Quakes

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Associated Press

A photographer looked over wreckage as smoke rose in the background from burning oil storage tanks at Valdez, Alaska, March 29, 1964.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said it is ready to provide assistance if requested. All other Japanese power companies operating nuclear-power plants said their facilities are operating normally.

Nuclear problems are particularly troubling in Japan, which has 56 nuclear reactors, providing about 20% of the nation’s electricity. Eleven reactors shut down as a result of the earthquake, as well as dozens of conventional fossil-fired or hydroelectric plants, leaving millions of people without electricity.

To cope with a severe power shortage expected to result from reactor shutdowns, Tokyo Electric on Saturday asked industrial customers to close or reduce their operations to save electricity and ensure supplies to households, a spokesman said.

When nuclear plants lose grid power, emergency on-site generation is supposed to furnish backup power. But some diesel generators at the Fukushima Daiichi plant failed a short time later due to the damage from the tsunami that followed the earthquake. That forced the plant to resort to batteries to furnish electricity to critical instrumentation and controls for at least one of the reactors, experts said.

Reactors at the plant use a special cooling system, called the Reactor Core Isolation Cooling system, to take waste heat and run some critical systems. But experts said even that system and batteries wouldn’t be able to furnish as much power as was needed, putting pressure on plant officials to quickly find additional sources of electricity.

Experts said that Tokyo Electric has improved its processes and communications since a July 2007 earthquake heavily damaged the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, one of the world’s largest. The entire plant was shut down for 21 months following that quake, and some reactors still aren’t back in operation.

Tokyo Electric was criticized after the 2007 quake for secrecy concerning how it was responding to problems at the Kashiwazaki plant and for rejecting inspection and assistance offers from the IAEA, which is intended to create confidence in the way an emergency is handled.

The Kashiwazaki plant suffered from seismic activity, in the 2007 quake, that exceeded the level for which it was designed, calling into question seismic assumptions made by regulators and the plant operator. There was a radioactive release when water sloshed out of spent-fuel-cooling pools and spilled into the Sea of Japan.

—Rebecca Smith, Mari Iwata and Takashi Nakamichi contributed to this article.

Write to Yuka Hayashi at yuka.hayashi@wsj.com and Andrew Monahan at andrew.monahan@dowjones.net

By CHARLES LEVINSON

in Benghazi, Libya,

MARGARET COKER and SAM DAGHER in Tripoli, and TAHANI KARRAR-LEWSLEY in Dubai

WSJ’s Jerry Seib and Neil Lipschutz report with a stalemate looming in Libya between Gadhafi-backed forces and rebels, the U.S. and its allies still have a No-Fly Zone on the table to potentially force a peaceful governmental transition.

Forces loyal to Col. Moammar Gadhafi continue to press attacks in some areas under rebel control, changing the balance of the conflict with rebels and raising the stakes for the Obama administration and its allies that are trying to oust the embattled leader.

As the U.S., the European Union and other governments look into options for intervention, including imposing a no-fly zone over Libya as well a wider economic sanctions, a high-ranking member of the Libyan military landed in Cairo on Wednesday and embassy staff told Egyptian officials that he was carrying a message from Col. Gadhafi, the Associated Press reported.

An Egyptian army official said that Maj. Gen Abdul-Rahman bin Ali al-Saiid al-Zawi, the head of Libya’s logistics and supply authority, was asking to meet Egypt’s military rulers.

There have been no public contacts between the Libyan regime and Egypt’s ruling generals since the Libyan uprising broke out on Feb. 15, and there have been no known government-related flights during that time, the AP said.

After a string of successes over the past weeks, Libya’s rebel movement appears to have hit a wall against loyalists of Col. Gadhafi. Pro-regime forces halted their drive on Tripoli with a heavy barrage of rockets in the east and threatened to recapture some towns where key oil facilities are located.

There is a virtual curfew at nighttime in Tripoli when most streets become deserted amid reports of a continued standoff between Col. Gadhafi’s forces and rebels not only in Zawiya to the west but also in several towns and villages south of the capital like Yafran and Zintan in an area known as the Western Mountain.

There is also growing evidence that Col. Gadhafi is supplying fresh arms to many tribes in the west who have pledged to defend his regime in return for unspecified concessions.

A Tripoli resident who hails from Bani Walid southeast of Tripoli said he and his brother received calls from a leader in their tribe of Warfala, one of the largest in Libya, to collect weapons.

The resident said his brother received on Tuesday two AK 47s that he brought back to Tripoli.

There are reports of continued shelling by that pro-Gadhafi forces about 12 miles west of the oil port of Ras Lanuf, an indication that they were much closer to the city than previously known, the AP said.

As his forces escalate the offensive, Col. Gadhafi’s maintained a defiant tone, saying in a Turkish television interview that Libyans would fight back if Western nations imposed a no-fly zone to prevent his regime from using its air force to bomb government opponents staging a rebellion.

He said imposing the restrictions would prove the West’s real intention was to seize his country’s oil wealth.

“Such a situation would be useful,” Gadhafi said. “The Libyan people would understand their real aims to take Libya under their control, to take their freedoms and to take their oil and all Libyan people will take up arms and fight.”

Libya’s central bank governor Farhat Bengdara, who has been outside Libya since Feb. 22, said Wednesday that he is still dealing with “external issues” on behalf of the central bank. In that capacity, he said he has been in touch with the U.S. Treasury, the European Union and other institutions in a bid to soften any freeze on the central bank’s assets.

Regional Upheaval

Track events day by day.

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Uprising in the Middle East

See photos from protests from Algeria to Yemen.

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Mideast Mosaic

A look at the economic and political status of selected countries facing unrest in North Africa and the Middle East.

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“I took the decision to travel to Istanbul to contact the European Union, IMF, World Bank and U.S. Treasury and to try to do my best to stop the sanctions that would freeze the central bank’s money,” Mr. Bengdara said in telephone interview. He said Libya’s revenues have fallen dramatically because of the country’s inability to export oil. If payments to the central bank for oil shipments are frozen, it will cause further difficulties, Mr. Bengdara added.

“We are trying our best to make the case that any sanctions should not affect the Libyan population, it should not make it difficult for people to import food,” Mr. Bengdara said.

The European Union is expected to announce measures on Friday to widen the scope of its sanctions on Libya that are almost certain to include a freeze of assets held in Europe by the Libyan central bank and the country’s sovereign-wealth fund. The freeze would be broadened beyond the top Libyan officials already subject to EU sanctions.

Col. Gadhafi’s gains come as the Pentagon planning swung into high gear on a range of humanitarian and military options to curb the fighting in Libya, reflecting growing concern about deteriorating living conditions for refugees and Col. Gadhafi’s use of air power against rebel forces.

The U.S. has said it wants Col. Gadhafi to leave now and for the Libyan people to sort out what comes next.

President Barack Obama’s most senior advisers were meeting Wednesday to outline what steps are realistic and possible to pressure Col. Gadhafi to halt the violence and give up power, the AP reported.

Britain and France are pushing for the U.N. to create a no-fly zone over Libya, and while the U.S. may be persuaded to sign on, such a move is unlikely to win the backing of veto-wielding Security Council members Russia and China, which traditionally object to such steps as infringements on national sovereignty.

Rebels in Libya said they have had contacts with an array of foreign governments, and sent envoys to several European cities seeking support. An Italian diplomatic delegation was in Benghazi on Tuesday meeting with rebel leaders, the first official public visit by Western diplomats since the establishment of the provisional rebel government.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague, has begun to gather information with a view to opening a formal investigation into possible crimes against humanity by Libya’s leadership.

—Erkan Oz contributed to this article.

Write to Charles Levinson at charles.levinson@wsj.com and Margaret Coker at margaret.coker@wsj.com

If you are new to the business, or if you already have a watch company established bands, is free promotion is a necessity. Besides being a great way to budget your spending is a real strengthening of the revenue. The biggest cost may be created that the company is advertising. Why? Because the costs of advertising in printed publications are very strong, so the spread, a growing number of entrepreneurs looking for another way in which the word about your business.  The most popular and common, to generate free promotion watchbands of business through the use of a press release. This report is one page newsletter news organizations sites that distributed magazines, journals and newspapers. If your company already has a bracelet store, is essentially on the website or by mail based, the use of press releases to spread the word about your business effectively in a positive light. Most people take the publication to read stories. The ads are place holders to use the publications to generate additional revenue. Entrepreneurs to run ads in the hope that readers will account for the publication of his business and customer pays. But the best way to advertise is a true story, want to read people. This moment is more credible than any paid advertising and may lead to new customers faster.  accepted for a press release must include the name, address and telephone number of the person the news. Press releases should be on a page or less information and limited end with a profile of a short section of society. New owes its catchy without sounds like an advertisement for a patent and can take photos if possible. For example, if your company has a new band to watch in action or who have recently launched a new line, a press release would be ideally designed.
Each company watchbands should include a web presence is to open up their activities in a world of potential customers. The Internet is a virtual mall where customers stop in the world. A clock quality bands, the web page color photos, a professional design company history and ordering information to have. Most companies prefer a secure payment system, the customer can use a credit card. For customers that no credit cards, a printable order form should be made available to enable buyers to pay are sent.
As a final thought to receive free promotion of your watch business, you should search engines, link exchange and article marketing. Here are some of the most popular ways to generate web traffic and additional revenue for each company.

Promoting Relationships With the Public

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426

Summary:
Public Relations or “PR” is one of the most important factors in how you are perceived by the public at large. It is the relationship between your business and your customers, past customers, community and potential customers.

Keywords:
promoting, relationships, customer, customer service, public

Article Body:
Public Relations or “PR” is one of the most important factors in how you are perceived by the public at large. It is the relationship between your business and your customers, past customers, community and potential customers.

There are two ways of obtaining PR. One way is through press releases, in which you share news about events or accomplishments within your company or organization. This form of PR gives you full control over how your company looks to the public. Your public, is anyone who has an interest of one type or another in your business such as your employees, customers, suppliers, competition and the press. How you are percieved by the public has a huge impact on the future of your business.

When issuing a press release make sure that the information provided is of interest to the readers or viewers of that particular publication. The heading of the press release should grab the readers attention and prompt them to continue reading. Make sure you are targeting publications which would be interested in your information. You wont have much success submitting a press release about christmas ornaments to a publication which targets outdoor life.

Testimonials and case histories are useful when overcoming objections, building credibility, and demonstrating customer satisfaction with your company and products. Generally, testimonials do not make up the bulk of a press release. Although it helps to add in a positive quote from a satisfied customer, make sure the comment is in direct relation to the focus of your press release.

Good PR from satisfied customers can bring you a whopping customer base, yet at the same time one shred of negative PR from an unhappy customer can cause your business considerable damage. When in a one-on-one meeting your customer should do most of the talking. Your customers are worth listening to and their feedback is valuable information! Take the time to listen to their questions and comments as it will help you to understand their needs and make sure they are satisfied with your service. If you are doing most of the talking, chances are, your customers are going to feel pressured or turned off and you run the risk of losing a sale as well as a customer.

Building a relationship with the public is an important aspect of promoting your business and building a solid customer base. Staying in touch with your customers will not only improve your customer relations, but will keep your name foremost in the minds of your customers and prospects and keep them coming back.