| Chain-store thefts costly for police
As shoplifting drains an estimated $30 billion annually from America's retail industry, thefts at big chain retailers are tying up man-hours for some local police departments. While those retailers provide jobs, convenience and tax dollars, police in Richland and Montgomery townships say they generate a lot of work for them. That includes encounters with crooks with long rap sheets, sometimes armed, and crews of criminals that conspire to steal hundreds if not thousands of dollars of merchandise. The Federal Bureau of Investigation said big box stores, such as Wal-Mart and Kohl's, aren't necessarily targeted more by thieves than smaller retailers. But, they have a wide array of very desirable items to steal and are certainly desirable targets, said Read Hayes, director of the Loss Prevention Council, a Gainesville, Fla.-based group that studies theft in the retail industry.
Armed police in Dubai malls
Dubai has put armed plainclothes police in its shopping malls in a bid to deter robberies, Gulf News reported. Armed men got away with $13.6m in diamonds in a daring smash-and-grab robbery in Dubai's Wafi City mall last week. Police hope to cover all the city's malls by the end of the year. .
Burj Tower now tallest structure in Middle East, Europe
Under development since the past three years to reach an unspecified height, Dubai's 'Burj Dubai' Tower is now the tallest structure in the Middle East and Europe and at 110 levels it shares the honour of having the largest number of floors, alongside Sears Tower in Chicago. The 380-metre high tower is also the world's ninth tallest building. Burj Dubai is only one metre shorter than the Empire State Building - the second tallest in the US and is on its course to become the world's tallest building. It is the centerpiece of the US$ 20-billion Downtown Burj Dubai, a mixed-use project in the heart of Dubai featuring residences, commercial space, hospitality projects and several retail outlets including The Dubai Mall, the world's largest shopping and entertainment destination. To date, 2,67,426 cubic metres of reinforced concrete and 49,684 tonnes of reinforcing steel have been used in the construction of Burj Dubai.
Playground of the rich and richer
The day I arrive in Malibu, locals are fretting over the high fire risk brought on by the warm, dry Santa Ana winds. Still half-frozen from single-digit temperatures in Chicago, I struggle to summon sympathy but fail. Instead, I spend the next three days exulting in the dry warmth and suppressing pangs of guilt over my unprincipled fondness for the weather. (A month after my visit, a Santa Ana-fueled wildfire destroyed five homes along Malibu Road, causing some $60 million in damage.)
It helps, when visiting Malibu, to be gifted in the art of guilt-suppression, or, at the very least, comfortable with the practice of reality-avoidance. This is, after all, a 27-mile stretch of almost unbearably beautiful and ecologically delicate coastline, lined with unspeakably expensive mansions, dotted with shopping malls hawking $80 T-shirts, populated by unreasonably wealthy people with little or no taste and less wealthy people with more taste but less power.
Rakuten says plans to buy additional TBS shares
TOKYO, April 19 (Reuters) - Japan's Rakuten Inc. (4755.Q: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Thursday it planned to buy more shares in Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc. (9401.T: Quote, Profile, Research) to push through its long-running merger proposal, but the plan could trigger the broadcaster to implement a planned takeover defence measure. Negotiations between the two companies on a possible alliance have dragged on for more than a year since Rakuten's failed takeover bid for TBS in 2005. Rakuten, Japan's biggest online shopping mall operator, told TBS in a statement it aimed to hold more than 20 percent of the broadcaster's shares, which could make TBS a Rakuten affiliate. TBS in February said it would introduce a "poison pill" measure to block hostile takeovers, which would enable it to issue equity warrants if a bidder tried to take a stake of 20 percent or more.
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