Liberty Shoes strengthens its position in India

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Liberty Shoes Ltd, Indias leading footwear company with its continous effort to provide Fashion and Comfort to its discerning customers has cemented a strong hold amongst its competitors. The footwear major, in the first six month of this financial year has added 50 additional stores and aims to add the same number of stores by March 2014. At present Liberty boasts of having 422 stores in more than 120 cities and towns and its each store features around 500 exciting and stylish designs for men, women and children.

Liberty has recently re-vamped the entire range of collection and are considered as the popular selling products. Liberty Fortune has been upgraded to meet the fashion conscious men who aspire to achive more in life. The DIVA collection has been designed for to create a combination that gives a feeling of freedom and fun with its daring blend of vibrant colors. Senorita Strings has been upgraded to go along perfectly with casual skirts, traditional wear and denims to brighten up any occasion. Gliders with it innovative technology is the best option for Kids as well as men who look for fashion and comfort at the same time. Force 10 Bolt which competes with international brands has been upgraded for the young enthusiasts on the jogging track to give an added push to their movement.

With the growing popularity of Liberty, the number of pairs sold by the company has increased by 68% in the past one year. The companys sales for the first 6 months has also reached at an all-time high of Rs 216 Crore as against Rs 153 Crores achieved in the corresponding period. Libertys sales in the second quarter increased by 46% and stood at Rs 108 Crore as compared to Rs 74 Crore in the corresponding Quarter ended Sep 30th 2012. The company has also seen growth in its export which has increased substantially by 17%.

Elaborating about Libertys growing popularity amongst its customers, The Corporate Spokesperson said, It is our constant endeavour to provide fahionable and comfortable footwear to all our customers. Our product range is in line with the changing fashion trends which makes Liberty the most preferred choice as compared to any other footwear brand in the country. We are witnessing 15-20 pc growth year-on-year. We have successfully increased our presence in the Indian footwear market and by next year we will open 100 more such stores which will offer better shopping experience for our customers who rely on quality products only.

Libertys growth has been mainly due to the fact that it caters to the need of the fashion-driven and quality- conscious customers. The continous effort in providing new fashionable range and improvising on the product quality has made Liberty the prefered brand amongst todays youth.

Brand endorsement by Bollywood celebrity Hrithik Roshan has given further fillip. Hrithiks Fortune Signature Collection launched by Liberty recently has been specially designed for the people who want to look exclusive and unique. The new Fortune Signature Collection has been crafted with genuine leather for the special occasions of your life.

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Liberty Shoes strengthens its position in India

Liberty Mutual enters Mexico with acquisition of Primero Fianzas

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By Chris Reidy/Globe Staff/November 13, 2013

Liberty Mutual Insurance, a Boston-based property and casualty insurer, said Wednesday that it has acquired the Mexican surety company Primero Fianzas from Grupo Valores Operativos Monterrey, a private investor group.

The acquisition enables Liberty Mutual Surety, a Liberty Mutual business, to expand its extensive international presence by entering Mexicos $600 million surety market, the company said in a press release.

Financial details of the transaction are not being disclosed, and the acquisition is subject to approval by Mexican regulators.

Primero Fianzas is the fourth largest surety writer in Mexico based on 2012 market share and ranks first in the Mexican credit surety segment, the release said.

We believe Primero Fianzas provides an attractive platform for investing in and expanding our global surety and insurance capabilities in the growing Mexican market, Chris Peirce, president of Liberty Mutual Global Specialty, said in a statement. Primero has strong market presence and a record of profitable growth. Its excellent agent and customer relationships complement Liberty Mutual Suretys significant underwriting capacity and global expertise and further solidify our leading North American surety presence.

As of Dec. 31, Liberty Mutual Insurance had $120.1 billion in consolidated assets, $101.5 billion in consolidated liabilities, and $36.9 billion in annual consolidated revenue. The company offers insurance products and services in such segments as personal automobile, home owners, workers compensation, property, commercial automobile, general liability, global specialty, group disability, reinsurance, and surety. The company employs more than 50,000 people in 900 offices around the world.

Copyright 2013 Globe Newspaper Company.

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Liberty Mutual enters Mexico with acquisition of Primero Fianzas

Stansted: Airport secures Atlantic Airways link with Faroe Islands for summer 2014

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Magni Arge, chief executive of Atlantic Airways, which is to operate flights between Stansted Airport and the Faroe Islands next summer.

Thursday, November 14, 2013 6:00 AM

Faroese flag carrier Atlantic Airways is to launch a twice-weekly summer schedule from Stansted to the Faroe Islands next summer.

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Atlantic, which celebrated its 25th birthday earlier this year, will operate the flights on Mondays and Thursdays, from June 5 until August 25, with return fares booked online starting at around 239, including taxes, charges and booking fee.

Flights depart Stansted at 1005 on Monday, arriving in the Faroe Islands at 1230 and at 1220 , arrving 1440, on Thursdays. Return flights depart at 0700 Monday and 0915 Thursday, and arrive at Stansted at 0920 and 1135 respectively.

Atlantic Airways and tourist body, Visit Faroe Islands, have been working to add to the portfolio of UK operators offering the Faroe Islands, with Regent Holidays, Taber Holidays and Inntravel all now selling breaks in the islands, dubbed the worlds favourite unspoilt island destination by experts at National Geographic Traveler Magazine.

The new operators join Sunvil Discovery, which has offered holidays in the Faroe Islands for a

number of years.

Events on the islands next summer include the G! Festival, the islands own outdoor music extravaganza, in July, and the Summer Music Festival, in August.

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Stansted: Airport secures Atlantic Airways link with Faroe Islands for summer 2014

Health care workers honored for their in-home service to patients

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DECATUR Joe Skelley understands the importance of his job as service coordinator for the DMH Home Health Care Services.

You see them (patients and their families) in some happy times and some sad times, he said. Sometimes youre the only one they get to see every day.

To some, it may not seem like a very rewarding job, but spiritually and emotionally it is, Skelley said. It makes you feel blessed for the things that you have, especially with the folks that you meet and the things they are going through.

In appreciation of their employees, the DMH Home Health Care Services will be celebrating Home Healthcare, Hospice and Palliative Care Month during November. The national observance was created to honor home healthcare caregivers who deal first-hand with the good and the bad days that the patients and their families face in times of illness.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout the month, nurses, therapists, counselors and equipment personnel employed through the service will be treated to special refreshments and an ice cream social. The team will also be treated to a Thanksgiving meal later in the month.

Patients arent staying in the hospital very long, said Julie Malone, a registered wound care nurse. So we are going into the homes to take care of them.

Home health caregivers provide assistance in various ways. Patients receive specialized care such as medical assistance, counseling and therapy.

We get to develop a relationship not only with the patient but with the family, said Michelle Johnson, Home Health Services Administrative Director. It is a privilege and an honor to care for these people. We always want to live up to that level of trust, Johnson said.

Many home health workers say they find their job fulfilling in ways they had not expected. For instance, although hospice is known for the care given at the end of life, employees appreciate the relationships they build with patients and families.

What you are doing for the family, you are leading them through the most difficult times in their lives, said Hospice and Palliative Care Manager, Karen Hood. It is very rewarding.

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Health care workers honored for their in-home service to patients

Washington health care site misquoted some applicants by $100 per month

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OLYMPIA, Wash.

About 8,000 people who applied for subsidized health care through the Washington health benefit exchange during October were quoted the wrong premiums.

The website is one of 16 sites run by states that set up their own health care exchange as part of the Affordable Health Care Act. People in the remaining states can log onto the federal website.

Due to the system error on the Washington site, people needed to pay on average $100 more per month in premiums than originally quoted.

However, no payments have been accepted yet. Many will pay their first bill in December.

Michael Marchand, the director of communications for the state health care exchange, said that the state was filing certain information as monthly, when the federal system was reading it as annually.

We had two different file formats talking, between what we do here at the state and what was done at the federal government level, Marchand said.

The error was more likely to affect middle-income applicants who qualify for some subsidies. Those who make less than $33,000 for a family of four would qualify for free, expanded Medicaid and would not have encountered this problem.

It could have happened for a variety of reasons. Were not really sure about that. What I think was impressive on our end was that we identified it, Marchand said.

The ability to identify and resolve the issue within 24 hours is in part due to the fact that Washington has been successful in enrolling more people than most states. Only California and New York have enrolled more people through their health care exchanges.

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Washington health care site misquoted some applicants by $100 per month

Health care enrollment through federal website: just 27,000

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By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Laurie Kellman

Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Putting a statistic on disappointment, the Obama administration revealed Wednesday that fewer than 27,000 people signed up for private health insurance last month in the 36 states relying on a problem-filled federal website.

States running their own enrollment systems did better, signing up more than 79,000, for a total enrollment of over 106,000.

Still, that was barely one-fifth of the nearly 500,000 people administration officials had projected would sign up the first month of Obama's signature program, a numerical rebuke to the administration's ability to deliver on its promise. The 106,185 people who made it all the way through to selecting a plan represent just 1.5 percent of the 7 million people the administration hopes to enroll by next year.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said things will get better, and quickly. "There is no doubt the level of interest is strong," she said.

The administration said an additional 1 million or so applicants have been found eligible for government-subsidized private coverage in new state-level insurance markets, and about half are within sight of having their plans lined up for the start of next year. An additional 396,000 have been found eligible for Medicaid, the safety-net program that is shaping up as the health care law's early success story.

The numbers landed amid a political storm on Capitol Hill. Democrats who had hoped to run for re-election next year on the success of the health care law are increasingly worried.

It's not only the website woes, but a wave of cancellation notices hitting constituents whose individual health insurance policies don't measure up to the law's requirements. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has scheduled an all-Democrats meeting Thursday with White House health care officials.

The administration has staked its credibility on turning the website around by the end of this month. From the president on down, officials have said that HealthCare.gov will be running smoothly for the vast majority of users by Nov. 30.

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Health care enrollment through federal website: just 27,000

Health care money woes more common in U.S. than other high-income nations

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Americans are significantly more likely to skip health care due to cost considerations and struggle paying their medical bills than citizens in other high-income nations, a new report finds.

The nonprofit health care research group, the Commonwealth Fund, looked at more than 20,000 adults from 11 high-income countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States.

The subjects were surveyed about their experiences with their country's health care system, focusing on access to care and how much it costs.

Researchers found because of costs, 37 percent of U.S. adults went without recommended medical care, did not see a doctor when ill or failed to fill a prescription. For comparison, 4 percent of British responders and 6 percent of Swedish ones reported they skipped medical care due to finances.

Uninsured U.S. adults were most likely to struggle with health care costs, but the report found even those who were covered year-round were still more likely to not get medical care due costs, struggle with bills or pay more out-of-pocket than insured adults in other countries.

"The U.S. spends more on health care than any other country, but what we get for these significant resources falls short in terms of access to care, affordability, and quality," Commonwealth Fund president Dr. David Blumenthal, said in a statement.

Twenty-three percent of Americans said they had major problems paying medical bills or couldn't pay them at all, while the country with the next highest rate, France, had 13 percent of adults reporting similar financial problems. Following those nations were the U.K., Sweden and Norway, with 6 percent or fewer citizens reporting problems.

Out-of-pocket medical costs were also looked at. More than 40 percent of American adults said they spent $1,000 or more of their own cash on medical care in the past year, by far the highest rate of any country surveyed.

A similar 40-percent rate was observed for high out-of-pocket costs when looking only at insured American adults.

Overall, the U.S. outspent other high-income countries for health care to the tune of about $8,500 a person per person, followed by Norway at about $5,670 and Switzerland with around $5,640 health care dollars.

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Health care money woes more common in U.S. than other high-income nations

Federal health care enrollments fall far below targets in October – Thu, 14 Nov 2013 PST

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Lisa Mascaro Noam N. Levey And Michael A. Memoli

WASHINGTON Newly released figures show enrollments for coverage under President Barack Obamas health care plan fell far below official projections, underscoring the damage inflicted by the botched rollout and further endangering the administrations support among restive Democrats on CapitolHill.

Just 106,185 Americans successfully enrolled in health coverage in October. The administration had hoped to get half a million people signed up in the Affordable Care Acts firstmonth.

To head off a revolt among lawmakers, White House officials said Wednesday they would have a plan soon perhaps by today to help millions of Americans whose

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WASHINGTON Newly released figures show enrollments for coverage under President Barack Obamas health care plan fell far below official projections, underscoring the damage inflicted by the botched rollout and further endangering the administrations support among restive Democrats on CapitolHill.

Just 106,185 Americans successfully enrolled in health coverage in October. The administration had hoped to get half a million people signed up in the Affordable Care Acts firstmonth.

To head off a revolt among lawmakers, White House officials said Wednesday they would have a plan soon perhaps by today to help millions of Americans whose current health plans are being canceled because they dont meet the lawsstandards.

Administration officials also sought to reassure doubters that the online marketplaces created by the law would be viable, emphasizing strong consumer interest in shopping for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, also known asObamacare.

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Federal health care enrollments fall far below targets in October - Thu, 14 Nov 2013 PST

Bill Clinton says Obama should honor health care pledge

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FILE - In this Oct. 30, 2013 file photo, former President Bill Clinton speaks in Charlottesville, Va. (Steve Helber, AP Photo File)

WASHINGTON Adding pressure to fix the administration's problem-plagued health care program, former President Bill Clinton said President Barack Obama should accept changes to his health care law if that's what it takes to fulfill his promise that Americans who like their health insurance can keep it.

"Even if it takes a change to the law, the president should honor the commitment the federal government made to those people and let them keep what they've got," Clinton said in an interview posted Tuesday by Ozy.com, a media startup backed by Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple founder Steve Jobs.

The Daily Dose prescribes an enriched mix of news, features, consumer issues and in-depth followups to The Denver Post's coverage of medicine and health care.

The former president, a Democrat who has helped Obama promote the 3-year-old health law, becomes the latest in Obama's party to urge the president to live up to a promise he made repeatedly, declaring that the if Americans liked their health care coverage, they would be able to keep it under the new law.

Republicans seized on Clinton's remarks. House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio said the comments "signify a growing recognition that Americans were misled when they were promised that they could keep their coverage under President Obama's health care law."

While Clinton generally praised the health care law, Boehner called it "a train wreck that needs to go."

Meanwhile, software problems with the federal online health insurance exchange, especially in handling high volumes, are proving so stubborn that the system is unlikely to work fully by the end of the month as the White House has promised, an official with knowledge of the project told The Washington Post.

The exchange is balking when more than 20,000 to 30,000 people attempt to use it at the same time about half its intended capacity, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose internal information. And the main contractor who built the site, CGI Federal, has been able to fix only about six of every 10 defects.

Government workers and technical contractors racing to repair the website have concluded, the official said, that the only way for large numbers of Americans to enroll in the health care plans soon is by using other means so that the online system isn't overburdened.

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Bill Clinton says Obama should honor health care pledge

Mount Sinai's Novel Gene Therapy Works to Reverse Heart Failure

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New York, NY (PRWEB) November 13, 2013

Researchers at the Cardiovascular Research Center at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have successfully tested a powerful gene therapy, delivered directly into the heart, to reverse heart failure in large animal models.

The new research study findings, published in November 13 issue of Science Translational Medicine, is the final study phase before human clinical trials can begin testing SUMO-1 gene therapy. SUMO-1 is a gene that is missing in action in heart failure patients.

SUMO-1 gene therapy may be one of the first treatments that can actually shrink enlarged hearts and significantly improve a damaged hearts life-sustaining function, says the studys senior investigator Roger J. Hajjar, MD, Director of the Cardiovascular Research Center at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the Arthur & Janet C. Ross Professor of Medicine at Mount Sinai. We are very eager to test this gene therapy in our patients suffering from severe heart failure.

Heart failure remains a leading cause of hospitalization in the elderly. It accounts for about 300,000 deaths each year in the United States. Heart failure occurs when a persons heart is too weak to properly pump and circulate blood throughout their body.

Dr. Hajjar is already on a path toward approval from the Food and Drug Administration to test the novel SUMO-1 gene therapy in heart failure patients. When it begins, the clinical trial will be the second gene therapy treatment designed to reverse heart failure launched by Dr. Hajjar and his Cardiovascular Research Center at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

The first trial, named CUPID, is in its final phases of testing SERCA2 gene therapy. Phase 1 and phase 2a trial results were positive, demonstrating substantial improvement in clinical events.

In that trial, a gene known as SERCA2 is delivered via an inert virus a modified virus without infectious particles. SERCA2 is a gene that produces an enzyme critical to the proper pumping of calcium out of cells. In heart failure, SERCA2 is dysfunctional, forcing the heart to work harder and in the process, to grow larger.

The virus carrying SERCA2 is delivered through the coronary arteries into the heart during a cardiac catheterization procedure. Studies show only a one-time gene therapy dose is needed to restore healthy SERCA2a gene production of its beneficial enzyme.

But previous research by Mount Sinai discovered SERCA2 is not the only enzyme that is missing in action in heart failure. A study published in Nature in 2011 by Dr. Hajjar and his research group showed that the SUMO-1 gene is also decreased in failing human hearts. But SUMO-1 regulates SERCA2as activity, suggesting that it can enhance the function of SERCA2a without altering its levels. A follow-up study in a mouse model of heart failure demonstrated that SUMO-1 gene therapy substantially improved cardiac function.

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Mount Sinai's Novel Gene Therapy Works to Reverse Heart Failure

Novel gene therapy works to reverse heart failure

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Nov. 13, 2013 Researchers at the Cardiovascular Research Center at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have successfully tested a powerful gene therapy, delivered directly into the heart, to reverse heart failure in large animal models.

The new research study findings, published in November 13 issue of Science Translational Medicine, is the final study phase before human clinical trials can begin testing SUMO-1 gene therapy. SUMO-1 is a gene that is "missing in action" in heart failure patients.

"SUMO-1 gene therapy may be one of the first treatments that can actually shrink enlarged hearts and significantly improve a damaged heart's life-sustaining function," says the study's senior investigator Roger J. Hajjar, MD, Director of the Cardiovascular Research Center at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the Arthur & Janet C. Ross Professor of Medicine at Mount Sinai. "We are very eager to test this gene therapy in our patients suffering from severe heart failure."

Heart failure remains a leading cause of hospitalization in the elderly. It accounts for about 300,000 deaths each year in the United States. Heart failure occurs when a person's heart is too weak to properly pump and circulate blood throughout their body.

Dr. Hajjar is already on a path toward approval from the Food and Drug Administration to test the novel SUMO-1 gene therapy in heart failure patients. When it begins, the clinical trial will be the second gene therapy treatment designed to reverse heart failure launched by Dr. Hajjar and his Cardiovascular Research Center at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

The first trial, named CUPID, is in its final phases of testing SERCA2 gene therapy. Phase 1 and phase 2a trial results were positive, demonstrating substantial improvement in clinical events.

In that trial, a gene known as SERCA2 is delivered via an inert virus -- a modified virus without infectious particles. SERCA2 is a gene that produces an enzyme critical to the proper pumping of calcium out of cells. In heart failure, SERCA2 is dysfunctional, forcing the heart to work harder and in the process, to grow larger.

The virus carrying SERCA2 is delivered through the coronary arteries into the heart during a cardiac catheterization procedure. Studies show only a one-time gene therapy dose is needed to restore healthy SERCA2a gene production of its beneficial enzyme. But previous research by Mount Sinai discovered SERCA2 is not the only enzyme that is missing in action in heart failure. A study published in Nature in 2011 by Dr. Hajjar and his research group showed that the SUMO-1 gene is also decreased in failing human hearts. But SUMO-1 regulates SERCA2a's activity, suggesting that it can enhance the function of SERCA2a without altering its levels. A follow-up study in a mouse model of heart failure demonstrated that SUMO-1 gene therapy substantially improved cardiac function.

This new study tested delivery of SUMO-1 gene therapy alone, SERCA2 gene therapy alone, and a combination of SUMO-1 and SERCA2.

In large animal models of heart failure, the researchers found that gene therapy delivery of high dose SUMO-1 alone, as well as SUMO-1 and SERCA2 together, result in stronger heart contractions, better blood flow, and reduced heart volumes, compared to just SERCA2 gene therapy alone.

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Novel gene therapy works to reverse heart failure