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Originally published: December 30, 2011 10:53 PM
Updated: December 31, 2011 2:20 AM

By The Associated Press
 WILL LESTER (Associated Press)

Quick ReadUS seals deal on $3.48 billion sale of missiles, technology to UAE, a close ally in Mideast

(AP) — The United States has reached a deal to sell $3.48 billion worth of missiles and related technology to the United Arab Emirates, a close Mideast ally, as part of a massive buildup of defense technology among friendly Mideast nations near Iran.

Pentagon spokesman George Little announced the Christmas Day sale on Friday night.

He noted that the U.S. and U.A.E. have a strong defense…

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Earlier this year, the Delaware Lottery set a new record for combined gaming profits, contributing $287 million to the state’s General Fund, a 4 percent increase over the previous fiscal year. Of the 43 states with lotteries, 26 saw revenue grow in traditional games in the last fiscal year, with total sales up 3 percent to $56 billion, according to Rockville, Md.-based lottery research firm La Fleur’s.

In 2010, Americans spent more than $4 billion to gamble online, up from $2.4 billion in 2003, according to the American Gaming Association.

The online sales opportunity for states came after the Justice Department said a 40-year-old federal law that prohibits wagering over telecommunication systems that cross state or national borders doesn’t bar states from using the Internet and outside processors to sell lottery tickets to their adult residents.

The ruling came in a memo responding to requests for clarification of the statute from New York and Illinois.

There is a chance the ruling also may permit states to sell each other’s lottery tickets online, said Joseph Kelly, a professor of business law at Buffalo State College in New York and consultant for the gambling industry.

“It could be very important for the states,” he said.

Kirk agreed that it is crucial for Delaware to be part of whatever system evolves.

“If we don’t get into the mix, we’re going to get left behind,” he said, adding that Delaware may even emerge as a leader.

“One thing Delaware has going for it is its size, which makes it very agile,” Kirk said. “I think we showed that when we got the sports lottery up and running in a short period of time. … Delaware has shown we can accomplish these types of things.”

New York plans a new computer system allowing adult residents to buy tickets online and then pick them up at a retail location. Other tickets will be “virtual,” delivered over the Internet to computers or mobile phones, the letter said.

The District of Columbia is rolling out a program that would allow users to play poker or slot-like games at Internet “hot spots” operated by D.C. Lottery around the city. Last week, Nevada’s gaming commission agreed to allow online poker in the state, which includes Las Vegas.

Internet sales could attract 300,000-500,000 new customers “who philosophically support the lottery but blow right past” ticket outlets at convenience stores, Jones said. That may create “hundreds of millions of dollars” in revenue, he said.

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White-collar workers go to Taobao to pass burden onto ghost writers

BEIJING – Want to impress your boss by presenting a year-end work report?

You can now buy one with a click of a mouse.

With the new year just around the corner, ghost writers are getting a bowl full of requests to write work reports for white-collar employees.

Take the case of Solwa, which is the name that an owner of an online ghost-writing business goes by on taobao.com, the largest online-shopping website in China. Solwa, who declined to give his real name, said the demand for writing work reports has been strong since the start of December.

Wang Zhenshan, another ghost writer, said he receives from six to seven report orders on average each day.

A search for “writing year-end work reports” on taobao yielded more than 602 results.

Solwa’s shop charges from 50 yuan to 90 yuan (from $8 to $14) for writing 1,000 words, the final amount depending on the difficulty of the work. Reports that require professional knowledge cost more.

Those who make purchases on taobao can rate the products and services they receive, and their aggregated opinions can be seen by others on the site. In the past month, Solwa received 187 responses in total, all of them rating the service as “good”.

One buyer said: “They (the ghost writers) did a much better job than I could have.”

Besides work reports, some Internet users are seeking ideas for the plays they are sometimes asked to write to entertain their colleagues at year-end parties.

A search on taobao for “writing a play for an annual work party” generated more than 500 results.

Zheng Xiaojuan, a 25-year-old woman working at Bank of China, said she has racked her brains to come up with a short drama that can be performed at her department’s New Year’s party.

She said she hopes she can find someone to provide her with a scenario.

Zheng’s friend told her that she could buy one on taobao. The only trouble is that she was asked to produce a work having to do with her department.

“I don’t think that they could do very well at that, since they don’t know what we go through every day,” Zheng said. “As for the work reports, I have doubts about them too. How could they write them without having the experiences?”

Solwa said his company declines to produce certain reports.

“We do not write reports about professional work that we don’t know anything about,” he said.

And there are other concerns. Buyers of the reports are often asked to provide information about their work to make the results more credible, a practice that has given rise to fears that personal information or corporate secrets will be leaked.

“For me, it’s not right to get a summary report in this way,” said Tang Hongxin, an attorney at Yingke Law Firm in Beijing.

“If some people really don’t want to write these reports, it’s better for them to have written agreements with the writers providing this service, stipulating that the information provided can only be used for the purposes of the writing. That would let the buyer sue the service provider if any personal information were used for something else.”

China Daily

(China Daily 12/31/2011 page4)

BY STU WOO

Online shopping flourished in the U.S. this holiday season, as Internet retailers such as Amazon.com Inc. reported blockbuster sales and drew more dollars from their brick-and-mortar counterparts.

Web sales between Nov. 1 and Dec. 26 totaled $35.3 billion, up 15% compared with a similar period a year earlier, according to data from research-firm comScore Inc. That greatly outpaced overall U.S. retail sales, which grew 3.8%, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers.

There was no sign shopping activity lost any steam as the season progressed. Sales rose 16% to $2.8 billion during the week ended Dec. 25, comscore said.

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