Whenever you are going on a trip to a major city like London, you need to book your car hire london in advance.
Normally we use the services of our well known local travel agent , and use his network to book our car hire in advance. And needless to say, the cost of such bookings will be very high because it involves many intermediaries who all need to be paid their commission.
If you are smart enough, you can use the internet to your advantage. You can hire the services of established and efficient independent service providers like www.easycar.com, who have an extensive network across US and Europe.
By going through such professional service providers, we will be able to do our airport car hire or any other local car hire at low cost and also well in advance. Their website is very user friendly, and it helps you with a range of options for any given travel plan, wherein you specify the origin point and also the destination point and the duration.
And with many of the European countries inter connected by excellent highways, it will make lot of sense to go on a car trip from one country to another nearby country. All these can be checked out and finalized through www.easycar.com. So for your next trip to any major European or US city, just check out with www.easycar.com and then proceed. All the best.

The most awaited Stress-Test accounting may require most of the top 25 banks to raise additional capital in the coming months. At least 19 of the US top banks are expected to raise new capital or conserve profits or do both, after accounting for items held off their balance sheets.

Yesterday, the US Federal Reserve released the methods used in stress tests on 19 of the US largest banks, which incorporated a new accounting proposal that would bring around 900 billion dollars into lenders’ books.

The stronger banks, very few in number, might go for reduced dividends, while the weaker ones might be forced to skip dividend and also raise new share capital.

Most of the stress-test related data is expected to be released on a selective basis over the coming weeks.

Apple computers has reported a 15% growth in profits for the first quarter of 2009, on the back of doubling of sales of its ipods. The sales grew by 9% due to stupendous growth of ipods,which more than offset the drop in Machintosh computers.

The company is expected to fare badly in the coming quarters because of the continuing downturn in US and Europe, which are its key markets. Ipod may continue to grow at a decent pace for the next few quarters, which might help to reduce the damage to a great extent.

Only a good recovery in the US economy will bring better times for all the computer companies.

Ever since the new US government came to power three months back, there has been a sea change in Pakistan.

Pakistan has now officially acceded control of a major part of its territory to the terrorist organization Taleban. This has totally irked the US administration, which is currently helpless. Now US understands that the key reason for the loss over 4000 of their soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, is the Taleban terrorists nurtured by the Pakistani Army elements.

It is only a question of another few months before Taleban takes full control of Pakistani administration. That could be a real disaster because Pakistan is a nuclear weapon state and Taleban might be forced to use it against the US and their allies.

Unless US acts fast and swift in the coming weeks, it might have to brace for a very tough time in 2009 and 2010. Taleban has been openly accusing US of strong arm tactics against the Muslim world, and has vowed to take the fight right into the heartland of US cities , through meticulously planned terrorist attacks.

Also on the other hand, there are long term foes of US like Iran and North Korea who have already developed nuclear capabilities which are also posing big trouble for US and Europe.  So in the coming months, we can see lot of serious problems for US in handling these rouge nations.

The chief Financial Officer of the troubled US Mortgage giant Freddie Mac, David Kellermann was found dead at his home. Police say that this could be a case of suicide. He worked with Freddie Mac for over sixteen years and took charge as CFO only seven months back.

He has been under tremendous work pressure, because in the year 2008, the company reported a massive 50 billion dollar loss, and has sought another 31 billion US government aid in order to survive the current mortgage crisis.

Police are investigating the matter further. This could be an added problem for the US mortgage giant because it already lost Chief Executive Officer recently.

There is a silver lining in the Indian economy in the month of March 2009. While all the key sectors are languishing, the telecom sector is continue to record all time high monthly addition at nearly 16 million new users. This growth is primarily due to the ongoing general elections which would have forced all the political parties to buy more mobile phones for all their key party workers.

Mobile phone instrument and talk time charges in India are the lowest in the world, and this has indeed become the easiest way to keep in touch with anybody across the country now. And all the political parties are totally utilizing this facility in their election campaigning process.

Even after this hectic growth, the telecom penetration in India is less than 20% which leaves a explosive growth potential for the industry for some more time to come.

Experts tracking the industry say that the increasing competition in the mobile phone industry in the recent past has further cut down the end price for the customer. And every major mobile phone maker in the world, be it Nokia or Sony Ericcson or Motorola, have an aggressive marketing plan for India, through competitive pricing. In India only you can get a color mobile phone instrument for as low as 50 US dollars.

Few years back, Mobile phones used to cost anything upwards of 400 dollars and nothing less. Also, the talk time used to cost nearly a dollar per minute few years back. But for one dollar spend, you can now talk for over 25 minutes across the country.

With the costs crashing to affordable levels, more and more people are lapping up mobile phones. This industry alone has the capability to keep India out of recession in 2009 and 2010.  With more government support likely in the coming years to increase the telecom penetration, we can only expect better growth rates.

The speech of the Iranian President Ahmedinajed, wherein he said that Jewish elements were sent from US and Europe to establish a totally racist government in occupied Palestine, has resulted in the entire Western diplomats walking out of the UN Racism conference.

But, the Iranian President has been given a rousing welcome back at home, after his sensational speech at the UN racism conference. The Iranian public seems to have loved the racial comments by their leader, which is expected to widen the gap between Iran and the western world. This may be a set back to the initiatives of the new US President, Barack Obama, to restore good relations with all countries of the world.

The American Banking system looks to be slowly limping back from the disastrous 2008, if you go by the results of Citi Group last week, and the Bank of America results declared today.

Bank of America has reported a tripling of net profit in the first quarter of 2009, on the back of increased home refinancing and trading. But the bank has warned that it is likely to face a tough time in the rest of the year due to increasing defaults by the customers on repayments.

It is already seeing lot of defaults from individual customers due to increasing unemployment and also due to weak economic conditions.

Thus, the profit of 44 cents a share in the first quarter may not be sustained in the remaining part of the year. Seasoned analysts are worried about quality of bank earnings for the next few quarters, because accounting adjustments also will impact the bank profits in the long run.

The share price has crashed by 8% today, in spite of good results. The share price drop is attributed to the negative view given by the management on loan defaults by lot of customers.

The Citi Group results declared last week also has lot of accounting adjustments which are questionable, and thus cannot be taken at face value.

The Indian Space scientists are proving their growing power year after year to the world. Last year they put over eight satellites in one pay load vehicle, with three foreign satellites getting launched as per schedule. So far, only a handful of countries have the kind of technology required for this kind of a massive single shot launch.  This is also expected to help Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to make lots of money in commercial launches in future.

Few months back, India again was in the limelight, for sending its rocket to Moon and it started getting wonderful images from the high tech camera on a regular basis. The ISRO has said that manned mission to Moon is likely in another two years time. US and Russia could better listen.

And now, India has put it’s own SPY satellite into orbit successfully. The launch happened today morning at 6.45 am Indian time.  ISRO has clarified that the satellite with help India to monitor key movements, including terror camps, in doubting neighboring countries, on a continuous basis.

Yes, the satellite will provide feedback to the security establishment on a 24 X 7 basis. This is indeed a massive power equation enhancement for India, because it will help in utilizing the military resources optimally. The fight against terrorism could be more successful for India with the help of this wonderful SPY satellite. The Satellite is capable of performing in all weather conditions.

Sri Lanka has been ravaged in the last ten years due to the massive uprising of the rebellion forces like Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, LTTE. Just few years back, over 50% of the Sri Lankan area was under the control of LTTE because they were able to procure latest arms and ammunitions from the illegal channels.
But in the last few years US and Europe have tightened the rules on arms sales, which has made it difficult for LTTE in procuring more arms.

Also the developed world was able to cripple the illegal fund channels which resulted in curtailment of fund flow for LTTE. Also the Sri Lanka army was able to get a key member of LTTE along with good number of followers to get out of LTTE and join the Sri Lankan Army side.
And in the meanwhile, Sri Lanka started amassing large quantity of latest arms and ammunitions that gave them the confidence to go for a direct confrontation with LTTE. And in the last six months , the Sri Lankan Army has already killed several thousand cadres of LTTE and captured back over 40% of the Sri Lankan Territory, so far under the control of LTTE.
Now LTTE is restricted to just 5% of the area and might be eliminated anytime in the next few months. But whether this might result in peace returning back to Sri Lanka or not, is still not guaranteed. Because the Sri Lankan government might be encouraged to go for a massive suppression of the Tamil population to vent out their anger accumulated over the last ten years.
But that might lead to creation of another rebellion group like LTTE or even might encourage LTTE to regroup into a stronger force to take on the Sri Lankan army once again.
There could be tacit support from India for the peace discussions between LTTE and other major Tamil groups in Sri Lanka, and the Sri Lankan government. This is needed to find a long term amicable and peaceful solution to the Tamil issue.