Volcano death toll climbs to 44

 articles.cnn.com
 Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano belched a steady stream of gas and ash Thursday, unleashing a pair of powerful eruptions into the morning sky, as disaster officials announced five more people had died.

The hot clouds hovered over Central Java, rising up to 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) and then drifting to the south toward Kali Gendol, Kali Kuning, Kali Boyong, Kali Krasak, Kali Bedok, according to the Indonesian Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Disaster Agency.
www.forbes.com
The plume from Merapi has gone on almost unabated since midday Wednesday, the agency said.

Mount Merapi's lava and ash have killed at least 44 people and injured dozens more since it began erupting on October 26. Nearly 75,000 people have been evacuated, according to Indonesia's National Disaster Management Board.
www.allvoices.com
Jakarta, Indonesia (CNN)

Facebook (mobile domination)

  Facebook has set out a strategy it hopes will make it as dominant in mobiles as it is in social networks.
www.bbc.co.uk
At the heart of its plans is making the mobile phone a more social experience and offering shopping discounts.

The company announced the opportunity for businesses to offer deals to users via their phone.

Facebook also revealed plans for a single sign-on that lets users log in to other phone applications with their Facebook name and password.

Third party developers are also being offered the chance to add a social layer to their applications, the company said at an event at its Palo Alto offices.
www.myoffshorecompanies.com
The bid to combine "mobile, social, local" comes as the number of phones proliferate throughout the world.

More than 200 million people are now using Facebook across various mobile platforms, with the company claiming that this is bigger than the iPhone or Android user base.

A year ago, the social networking giant had 65 million mobile users.

Mobile users are also twice as active on Facebook as people who are logging on via personal computers.
techsling.com
"There is obviously a lot of change in the mobile space and also a revolution happening in the social space," said Mark Zuckerberg, cofounder of Facebook.
www.knowyourcell.com

Dalai Lama Effect

edition.cnn.com
 Countries whose top leadership meet with the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, lose on average 8.1 percent in exports to China in the two years following the meeting, according to a recent study.

Called the "Dalai Lama Effect," the study by the University of Gottingen in Germany found the negative impact on exports began when President Hu Jintao took office in 2002.

The study is the first empirical analysis demonstrating the economic consequence of such meetings. Machinery and transportation equipment exports suffered the most consistent negative impact, following meetings with the 14th Dalai Lama, according to study authors Andreas Fuchs and Nils-Hendrik Klann.
www.voxeu.org
"We wanted to find out the impact of the rising role of China in the world ... to find out what we should expect of China's role in the world in the coming years," researcher Fuchs told CNN. "It is clear that politics has played a huge role in China's commercial relationships."
Beijing, China (CNN)
www.marginalrevolution.com