Ocili News

Mars agrees to buy gum maker Wrigley for about $23B with financing help from Warren Buffett CHICAGO (AP) — The Oracle of Omaha is betting that the country’s candy jar is recession-proof. With financing from Warren Buffett, candy maker Mars Inc. on Monday said it is buying confectioner Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. for an estimated $23 billion in cash. The deal would marry brands that sweet-toothed Americans have munched on for decades: Mars owns Snickers and M&Ms; Wrigley’s gum brands include Juicy Fruit, Orbit, Extra and Big Red. Continue reading »

Tags: Buffet, Mars, trade, Wrigley, Yahoo News

Parisians have been ordered to get rid of rats in their homes and businesses or face prosecution under an official campaign to fight a plague of rodents.

Less than a year after the animated cartoon Ratatouille turned Rémy the French rat into a loveable culinary hero, the city’s residents have been ordered to eradicate his real-life counterparts. They are also being asked to denounce insalubrious neighbours responsible for the infestation. Continue reading »

Tags: control, disease, France, Paris, pest, plague, rats, TimesOnline

Americans don’t like to lose wars—which makes sense, since we have so little practice with it. Of course, a lot depends on how you define just what a war is. There are shooting wars—the kind that test our mettle and our patriotism and our resourcefulness and our courage—and those are the kind at which we excel. But other struggles test those qualities too. What else was the Great Depression or the space race or the construction of the railroads or the eradication of polio but a massive, often frightening challenge that we decided as a culture we ought to rise up and face? If we indulge in a bit of chest-thumping and flag-waving when the job is done, well, we earned it. Continue reading »

Tags: climate, deterioration, Global Warming, Time.com, USA

Parachutes have come a long way in the last few decades. They’re easier to steer and a great deal less likely to go wrong. So it takes a certain amount of nerve to plunge 2,000ft relying on a “chute designed more than 500 years ago. Continue reading »

Tags: Daily Mail, discovery, Geneva, Leonardo da Vinci, parachute, Swiss, Switzerland

Interpol warn of Beijing terror attacks as China agrees to meet Dalai Lama

China yesterday attempted to stop more international protests before the Beijing Olympics by announcing it would meet aides of the Dalai Lama. But campaigners for democracy in Tibet have warned that concrete progress has to follow, or the dramatic announcement amounts to little more than a cynical PR gesture by the government.

The move marks a change in tactics on the part of Beijing, which has stepped up its vilification of the Buddhist spiritual leader since anti-government protests hit Tibet and rippled across China during the last few weeks. Continue reading »

Tags: Beijing, China, Daily Mail, Dalai Lama, Interpol, Olympics, terrorism