One of the breakfast cereals Nestle will produce in Malaysia
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Two multinationals with strong ties to the Lake Geneva region, P&G and Nestlé, are investing heavily, the first in a major new product and sugarcane packaging, the other in new Asian markets, they announced 26 April.
P&G’s mother company in Ohio, USA, says it is about to launch a new product, and Ad Age, hyping the marketing push it will receive, writes, “Procter & Gamble Co. is preparing to launch what it describes as its biggest laundry innovation in more than a quarter century with Tide Pods: a line of highly concentrated liquid detergent tablets, backed by a massive $150 million marketing budget.”
The news site Cincinnati describes the new product as “a tablet of highly concentrated liquid Tide. Each tablet will contain three chambers of liquid detergent surrounded by a film designed to dissolve in any temperature water. The detergent in the tablets will be twice as concentrated as liquid Tide, P&G says.”
Expect to hear more about the product, lots more, says Ad Age.
Before it shows up in Europe, another P&G innovation will arrive. Ecouterre, an environmental products-watcher site, says the company has just come out with its first sugarcane-based packaging for hair care products. “Pantene, the brand of haircare products run by Proctor and Gamble, will be shipping its first plant-based plastic containers to stores in Western Europe this month. Sourced mainly from sugarcane, the new packaging is expected not only to slash P&G’s fossil-fuel consumption by 70 percent but also to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 170 percent, according to Len Sauers, the company’s vice president of sustainability.
Joint venture for breakfast foods will get 80% of raw materials locally, in Malaysia
A judge in Malaysia has ruled in favour of continuing the criminal case against opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who is accused of sodomizing a former aide, in 2008. Homosexual activity is illegal in Malaysia; he could face up to 20 years in prison. Ibrahim had argued that the prosecution’s case is politically motivated and has been compromised because the former aide, the key witness in the trial, has reportedly had a romantic relationship with a junior member of the prosecution team. The judge agrees that the two appear to have had such a relationship, but also agrees with the prosecution that the junior member of the team, now dismissed, had no access to sensitive documents or information.
Links to other sites: BBC, Bloomberg/Business Week, Daily Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia (ed. note: a daily not connected to the opposition leader)
A Malaysian court has sentenced two Muslim brothers, who admitted torching down a Protestant church, to five years in prison.
The firebombing threatened decades of religious harmony in the country with a Muslim majority.
Eleven churches, a Sikh temple, three mosques and two Muslim prayer rooms were assaulted before tensions abated.
Additional information: Associated Press
India, Algeria, China, Venezuela, Malaysia and Syria are the main customers for the Russian arms industry, which expects to see a 12 percent increase in international sales in 2010, to $9.5 billion. Vietnam also recently became a client, ordering submarines, aircraft and “other military hardware”, reports Russian news agency Ria Novosti. Russia’s main competitors are China, Germany and the US.
Sepang, Malaysia (GenevaLunch) – Red Bull dominated the Malaysian Grand Prix Sunday 4 April. Their two drivers started on the front row and ended first and second: the only change was that Sebastian Vettel passed Mark Webber on the way to the first bend and then stayed in front for the rest of the race.
Further back there was more action. Both Ferrari and McLaren-Mercedes made a mess of the qualifying stages and started almost at the back of the grid.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A US official in Geneva says that the United States “is very concerned” over the possibility of Iran becoming a member of the UN Human Rights Council. Iran is one of five countries presenting themselves for four seats. The vote will take place 13 May. The other countries vying for the Asia region seats are: Thailand, Qatar, Malaysia and the Maldives.
Iran would like the seat, says the official, “for legitimacy.” But the US is worried that the council, still struggling to leave behind the tattered reputation of its predecessor organization, the UN Human Rights Commission, will be weakened by the presence of a country with Iran’s poor record on human rights. The US was highly critical of Iran in February when it came up for its UPR (Universal Periodic Review). This is a regular assessment each country undergoes by others, of its human rights performance.
Fortunately, says the official, who asked not to be named, the other candidates are anxious to have council seats.
The US is not alone in arguing against admitting Iran.
One girl died and two other students are missing after the bridge they were playing on collapsed late Monday 26 October into a fast-flowing river in Perak state, northern Malaysia, local police confirmed. Between 30 and 50 children were playing on a recently built suspension bridge that connects two parts of a camp in Sekolah Kebangsaan Kuala Dipang, about 500km north of Kuala Lumpur, when the bridge collapsed and shook the children into the river. By early Tuesday police were still searching for two children. New Straits Times, New York Times
A woman who was sentenced in Malaysia to a fine and a caning for drinking beer in public has been sent home. Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno was sentenced by a sharia court to a caning which she asked to be conducted in public. She was scheduled to be detained prior to her caning, was picked up from her home by a religious affairs van Monday 24 August, then returned to her home inexplicably. Citing “instructions from higher powers”, the officials said “for now, the sentence cannot be carried out”, according to The Star. Some legal experts argue that the law says a person must be detained prior to being caned, but since she was not given a jail sentence, she should not be caned. BBC, CNN
A Singapore woman, married and a mother of two, was sentenced to a $1,400 fine and a caning for drinking beer at a hotel bar in Eastern Malaysia where she was visiting two years ago. Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, a part-time model, told the Sharia court that sentenced her Thursday, 20 August that she wanted the caning to be carried out in public. “Let’s be transparent about it” she was quoted as saying by CNN. The court ruled that she must be detained from 24 August for seven days in preparation for her caning.
Under Islamic law, the cane used cannot be thicker than a person’s little finger and the cane cannot be lifted so high that the upper arm uncovers the armpit. CNN, The Star
Malaysia (GenevaLunch) – Jenson Button won the second Grand Prix of the season to add to his victory in the first, but will only receive half the normal points as the race was halted by torrential rain during the 33rd lap.
A judge in Malaysia says she could not send the wrong man to his death, so she has dismissed drug trafficking charges against identical twins because it was not clear which one was the criminal. The charges carried the death penalty. BBC
