By Mitch Lipka

Fri May 18, 2012 5:30am EDT

(Reuters) – Sonia Bovio, tired but unable to sleep after her long journey from Phoenix to London last week, settled into her hotel room and was fiddling around on her laptop. One inadvertent click later, a file downloaded and she realized she had made a big mistake.

“It was terrifying,” said the 43-year-old senior vice president with communications firm Brodeur Partners. “I had a pit in my stomach. My biggest concern was that I didn’t want to be presenting to a roomful of executives and have something pop up on my screen.”

About the same time that was happening, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) – run in part by the FBI – was issuing a warning to Americans traveling abroad about getting duped into downloading malware while connecting to the Internet at their hotels. Malware can allow someone to take control of your computer, record passwords and personal information or disable the machine altogether.

The warning was specifically directed at “government, private industry, and academic personnel,” suggesting this threat was more about what is on their machines and less about bank accounts and personal identities. Travelers, the FBI said, are allowing malware to infect their computers by clicking on pop-up windows that appear while they are getting on the hotel Internet connection. The pop-ups appear to be part of what looks like a routine software update.

It’s very easy for someone trying to dupe you to make a pop-up appear to be from a legitimate source, said Robert Siciliano, a consultant for the computer security firm McAfee Inc, a division of Intel

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NASHVILLE, Tenn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Gaylord Entertainment Company (NYSE: GET) announced today that the
Colorado State Economic Development Commission has awarded the Gaylord
Aurora project a state sales tax incentive pursuant to the state’s
Regional Tourism Act enacted in 2009. The incentive award provides for
an annual rebate of 65.8 percent of the state sales tax generated by the
project for the first 30 years of its operation. As a result, the
project would receive 65.8 percent of the state’s 2.9 percent sales tax,
equaling 1.91 percent of project revenues annually over its first 30
years of operation. This award is subject to the EDC and Gaylord working
together over the next 120 days to refine the parameters of the project.

“We remain enthusiastic about the potential for our
proposed Aurora development, and are confident that a Gaylord property
in the Denver market would represent a substantial boost to the local
economy and tourism industry.”

The City of Aurora and Gaylord had applied for a 95 percent sales tax
rebate as part of the State EDC’s competitive process to select two
projects for the Regional Tourism Act incentive award.

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VO Financial has developed the solution with a Debt Reduction Deed Replacement Program

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NASHVILLE, Tenn., May 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ – VO Financial, the leading provider of financial and consultation services for timeshare consumers, has developed a unique solution for timeshare owners who are stuck in a financial nightmare due to lies, misrepresentations, and/or predatory lending practices.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120518/PH10304LOGO )

“The Debt Reduction Deed Replacement Program has shown over time to be a proven service where VO Financial consultants will work closely with clients assisting them towards the goal of eliminating existing timeshare obligations along with the facilitation of a new timeshare ownership that is affordable and debt-free,” says Kevin Ulrich, Esq. – General Counsel for VO Financial Corporation.

As Section 1414 of the Federal Dodd-Frank Act permits, timeshare mortgages, as opposed to residential personal mortgages, are specifically permitted to utilize the non-judicial foreclose process i.e. a deed in lieu of foreclosure in addition to other state specific legislation permitting the same (FL Code Ch. 721, F.S.).  A deficiency judgment will not be entered against the person after receiving a deed in lieu so as to eliminate all obligations associated with the timeshare and the accompanying debt.

VO Financial is the largest timeshare consulting firm in the country and the pioneer of providing

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By Chris Michaud

NEW YORK |
Wed May 16, 2012 10:02am EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Workers whose jobs require them to interact with people in foreign countries say that English is the dominant language of business, according to a new poll.

More than one quarter of employees in 26 countries around the world told an Ipsos poll that their jobs involve dealing with people in other countries. And of those, two-thirds said that English is the language they use most often.

Workers in India, Singapore and Saudi Arabia were the most likely to say their jobs involved interacting with people in other countries, with 59 percent, 55 percent and 50 percent saying so, respectively.

But only nine percent in Japan and 13 percent in Russia said their work required communication outside the country.

“The most revealing aspect of this survey is how English has emerged as the default language for business around the world,” said Darrell Bricker, CEO of Ipsos Global Public Affairs which conducted the poll for Reuters.

The survey of 16,344 employed adults in 26 countries showed that 67 percent, or just over two-thirds, of workers who deal with people beyond their borders said English was the language used most often, with Spanish a very distant second at five percent.

Nearly as many, 61 percent, said the language used for such interactions was different from their native one.

Bricker said the findings suggest “that all those in the English-speaking world who suggested that our children should learn Mandarin or Japanese to have successful careers were beaten to the punch by the Chinese, in particular,

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LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–North Carolina-based ACN, the world’s largest direct selling
telecommunications and essential services company, will host a training
event for 18,000 people this weekend in Downtown Los Angeles. Geared to
the company’s Independent Business Owners (IBOs), the three day event,
which begins May 18, requires more than 9,000 total hotel room nights
and is expected to have an economic impact of $12 million citywide.

“Los Angeles is a leader in
cutting-edge technology, and having ACN select us as host city for this
very high-profile convention speaks volumes about our city and its
capabilities.”

“We’re extremely pleased to welcome ACN and its contingent of IBOs to
Los Angeles,” said Michael Krouse, senior vice president of the Los
Angeles Tourism Convention Board. “Los Angeles is a leader in
cutting-edge technology, and having ACN select us as host city for this
very high-profile convention speaks volumes about our city and its
capabilities.”

ACN, which has been featured twice on Donald Trump’s hit realty series The
Celebrity Apprentice, appeals to home-based businesses and
entrepreneurs with its essential

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