“Armenians and their supporters gathered on the streets of Hollywood today to commemorate the 92nd anniversary of one of the first acts of genocide in the 20th century. ‘We are recalling the attack on the night of April 24, 1915, when, in Istanbul, the leaders of the Armenian community were executed,’ Haig Hovsepian, community relations director for Armenian National Committee of America Western Region, said this afternoon. Hovsepian described the act as the beginning of years of violence against the Armenian community by Turks. An estimated 1.2 million were killed between 1915 and 1918, the last days of the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Turkey maintains that the deaths were not sanctioned by the government and disputes that a genocide took place. Even though the violence took place early in the past century, its commemoration has continued to be laden with political overtones. Los Angeles police estimated that the crowd along Fairfax Avenue at about 1,000 protesters, but Hovsepian said he thought it was double or triple that number this afternoon and growing as the demonstration neared the Turkish Consulate in Hollywood. Thousands also marched earlier in the day. The demonstrations were peaceful with no arrests or traffic disruption, said LAPD spokeswoman Officer Karen Smith.”

“Congressional hearings provide a deep insight into the inner spirit of our elected representatives – and sometimes the insight is not pretty. On April 17, we witnessed Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-California) unleashing his anger onto members of the European Parliament’s House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Human Rights. The members were invited guests and witnesses at the hearing. The subcommittee had issued a report in January, 2007 that was sharply critical of the Bush administration’s extraordinary rendition program in which persons from all over the world were detained by either the CIA or local police, then flown by CIA jet to other countries where they were imprisoned… the European Parliament committee said that terrorist acts must be handled lawfully by both European countries and by the United States. The report said: ‘After 11 September 2001, the so-called war on terror – in its excesses – has produced a serious and dangerous erosion of human rights and fundamental freedoms. The extraordinary rendition program undercuts the exact liberties we are defending, the rule of law, the right for a fair and speedy trial and the right to know the evidence on which one is held and prosecuted’ … Congressman Rohrabacher attacked the two British and one Italian members of the European Parliament who testified before the committee… Rohrabacher said if European countries did not cooperate with the United States and go along with whatever the Bush administration wanted, they were condemning their countrymen to terrorists by not using extralegal methods to imprison terrorist suspects. When citizens attending the hearing, including members of Codepink Women for Peace and Veterans for Peace, heard Rohrabacher’s statement, they collectively groaned. Then, much to the shock and disbelief of everyone in the hearing room, Rohrabacher said to those who had expressed displeasure at his statements: ‘I hope it’s your family members that die when terrorists strike’.”

“Google has bought online video-conferencing software company, Marratech, the latest in a barrage of software application announcements by the online giant. Google announced the acquisition on its blog, saying the Sweden-based Marratech will be great for Google’s own workplace because Googlers ‘thrive on casual interactions and spontaneous collaboration.’ Video-conferencing is a logical next move for Google, given its dive into online video recently with the acquisition of YouTube. It’s just the latest front in its battle against Microsoft, which has its own web conferencing software Live Meeting. Cisco, meanwhile, just acquired another major player in the industry, WebEx, for $3.2 billion. The difference, of course, is that Google paid pennies relative to what Cisco paid. As a consumer oriented company, Google can presumably distribute the software easily and perhaps even for free. Marratech, founded in 1998, raised at least the equivalent of $10 million. Investors include Slottbacken Venture Capital, the investment unit of Telia Sonera, the Sixth Swedish National Pension Fund, Emano, Hagstromer, and Qviberg.”

Might be a good idea to put off that European vacation (as it will cost you a small fortune) and cruise around California instead. According to Bloomberg:

The dollar is poised to decline to a record low against the euro and extend its drop versus the pound on speculation U.S. economic growth is slowing, dimming the value of the currency. The U.S. currency fell yesterday as investors bet the Federal Reserve will cut borrowing costs as inflation slows, while the European Central Bank and Bank of England will keep raising rates. The dollar also fell against the yen as investors reduced holdings in higher-yielding assets funded by loans in Japan, unwinding what are known as carry trades. “The euro is obviously testing its historical highs,” said Axel Merk, head of Merk Investments LLC in Palo Alto, California. “We are going to breach those in the near future”.

“Actuate Corp., a provider of business intelligence, performance management and reporting applications, said Wednesday its flagship product is now available with German-language support. South San Francisco-based Actuate said German-speaking countries are a key market for performance management in general and software specifically. The company said its German version offers the same functionality as the English version, including performance maps and briefing books.”

“Oracle Corp. sued its archrival SAP on Thursday, alleging that its German competitor secretly and illegally obtained proprietary materials from the Redwood City giant’s customer support Web site The legal action highlights what has become an increasingly bitter rivalry between the two makers of business software. Oracle accused SAP of using its customers’ log-in information to obtain more than 10,000 unauthorized downloads of software and supporter materials related to hundreds of programs. ‘This case is about corporate theft on a grand scale, committed by the largest German software company,’ the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco said. SAP is the world’s No. 1 seller of business applications known as enterprise resource planning software, which companies use to perform such tasks as keeping track of financial transactions and monitoring inventory. Oracle, the world’s No. 1 seller of database systems, has been trying to expand into that market, mainly by buying other players, including onetime Bay Area technology firms such as PeopleSoft and Siebel Systems.”

“Virgin America Inc. won approval to begin flying, pending changes to its ownership plan. The Burlingame-based startup airline, owned in part by British billionaire Richard Branson, must replace chief executive officer Fred Reid and make other changes to its corporate structure as a condition of final approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Virgin America first sought a license to fly in December 2005, when it raised more than $177 million in startup capital. But federal regulators expressed concerns over whether the airline met U.S. ownership standards, citing Branson’s involvement… Virgin America said it plans to offer low-cost domestic air service like Southwest Airlines Co. and JetBlue Airways Corp. Its first route will be between San Francisco and New York City with other routes to follow”

“Google has acquired Swedish non-profit company Gapminder that produces visually attractive graphics to display facts, figures, and statistics in presentations.”

Governor Schwarzenegger has issued this statement praising Prime Minister Tony Blair for the introduction of legislation in Great Britain to reduce greenhouse gases. California and the United Kingdom signed an agreement- some might even call it a treaty- to cooperate in the fight against global warming. The Governor credited Blair with being the inspiration behind California’s Global Warming Solutions act:

I would like to congratulate Prime Minister Tony Blair for taking this historic step to do in Great Britain at the national level what California is doing at the state level. The Prime Minister has been an inspiration to California as we have taken our own historic steps to fight greenhouse gases with the Global Warming Solutions Act. His leadership has shown us that we can protect the environment without harming the economy. Great Britain has already successfully reduced its greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels while at the same time growing their economy by 38 percent.

California’s economy stands to greatly benefit from the wave of new businesses and jobs created by the emerging technologies and different approaches to fighting climate change. By harnessing market forces, we will reduce carbon emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020. And by 2050, we will reduce emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels.

California is proudly partnering with Great Britain to fight climate change and I look forward to advancing our efforts and linking our regional trading schemes so we can create a global carbon market.

Last July, Prime Minister Blair and I took the unprecedented step of signing an agreement between California and the United Kingdom to create an international partnership to fight against global warming. Our agreement includes efforts to evaluate and implement market-based mechanisms to spur innovation, deepen our understanding of the economics of climate change, collaborate on technology research and enhance linkages between our scientific communities.

“The 21st anniversary of the sister city designation between San Jose, California, and Dublin, Ireland, began today with San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed hosting a celebratory kick-off welcome breakfast for the Dublin Lord Mayor Vincent Jackson and members of the San Jose and Dublin Sister City Delegations… ‘San Jose’s sister city connection with Dublin is a powerful model for others to follow. Over its 21-year existence, both San Jose and Dublin have benefited from sharing civic, business and economic development best practices. At the same time, we have built a two-way cross-cultural exchange that has paved the way for strong friendships and long-term, productive relationships,’ said Reed… ‘The sister city mission is about working to build cooperation at the municipal level, promote cultural understanding and stimulate economic development. To this last point, we want to help both Irish and U.S. companies grow and sustain positions in the global marketplace by strengthening relationships and continually building our business networks that will benefit companies on both continents,’ said Shane Patrick Connolly, president of the San Jose & Dublin Sister City Program. According to Paul Krutko, chief development officer, City of San Jose, there are more than 35 Silicon Valley companies with an Irish presence, including Adobe, Cadence Design Systems, Cisco Systems, eBay, Flextronics, IBM, Quantum and Xilinx. “

“Los Angeles-based True Religion Apparel Inc. is establishing its first foreign office in London to further its European growth, according to a report in Los Angeles Business. Kelly Furano, director of international sales, will be relocating from Los Angeles to London to work with distributors and retailers to build the True Religion brand in Europe, the company said… “As the True Religion brand continues to evolve into a global lifestyle collection, the time is right to place a greater focus on growing internationally, and this can only happen by placing our own team on the ground in Europe to support the wholesale growth and possible rollout of retail stores,” said Michael Buckley, True Religion president.”

“The San Francisco Business Times reports that Software company FrontRange Solutions Inc. will buy German software maker Enteo Software Inc. Dublin-based FrontRange didn’t say what it will pay in the deal. Enteo is based in Filderstadt, Germany. FrontRange used to be called GoldMine Software Corp. Michael McCloskey is its CEO. Stephan Glathe is CEO of Enteo.”

“The European Union’s consumer chief is taking aim at Apple Inc.’s popular iPod, saying it’s wrong to bundle it with its iTunes software. Meglena Kuneva comments about Cupertino-based Apple came in the German weekly magazine Focus. ‘Do you think it’s fine that a CD plays in all CD players but that an iTunes song only plays in an iPod? I don’t. Something has to change,’ Kuneva said.”

Napatech announced the investment of USD 7.5 million from existing investors Ferd Venture and Northzone Ventures. Napatech develops, produces and markets programmable and intelligent Ethernet adapters. Both investors are located in Nordic countries- Ferd Ventures is based in Oslo, Norway and and Northzone is based in Copenhagen, Denmark.

“The Chevron Company is interested in participating in the Burgas – Alexandropoulos petrol pipeline. This became clear after the yesterday meeting between Rumen Ovcharov, Minister of Economy and Energy, and the company’s Vice President John McDonald, the press office of the Ministry of Economy and Energy announced. During his working visit in the USA Minister Ovcharov had a series of meetings with government bodies, non-government and financial organizations in the capital of California, Sacramento and the Silicon Valley. The chance for a bilateral memorandum between the Commission for Energy of California State and the Bulgarian Ministry of Economy and Energy had been discussed at a meeting with James Boyd, Energy Commissioner… In Cisco headquarters Minister Ovcharov met Robert Loyd, Senior Vice President for North America, Hilton Romanski, Investment Director, Laura Ipsen, Vice President Government Affairs. They made the Bulgarian minister aquainted with their plans the company to set up a fund, which would finance small and medium companies in the IT sector in Central and Eastern Europe.”

“The Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings will open the 2007-08 National Hockey League regular season with contests at The O2 in London, the first time the NHL has played a regular season game in Europe, the teams said Thursday. The O2, formerly known as the Millennium Dome, is owned by Los Angeles-based Anschutz Entertainment Group, which also owns the Kings.>

“Oracle Corp. said today it has signed a $3.3 billion deal to buy Hyperion Solutions Corp. in a move that underscores CEO Larry Ellison’s aggressive bid to dominate the business software industry. Hyperion is a key player in the roughly $10 billion market for business intelligence software that companies use to get detailed reports on how a business is doing and to forecast how it would perform in the near future. The company is also known for software used for managing a company’s finances. Oracle, which has bought more than two dozen companies over the past two years, made clear that buying the company was a competitive move meant to undercut a major rival, SAP of Germany.” Both companies are headquartered in the Bay area: Oracle in Redwood Shoresand Hyperion in Sunnyvale.

“Computer Sciences Corp. has signed a business process outsourcing contract with UKvisas worth about $275 million, the company said Wednesday. UKvisas is a joint UK Home Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office directorate that operates as the overseas arm of the United Kingdom’s integrated border management. CSC said the agreement, which has a five-year base period and two one-year options, will be worth about $275 million if all options are exercised…El Segundo-based CSC is a global information technology services company.”

The U.K. based law firm Clifford Chance is pulling out of California. According to San Francisco Business Times, the company, “wasn’t able to recruit lawyers from other firms. Legal recruiters said Clifford Chance’s difficulty may have stemmed from its pay structure. Clifford Chance, like many other British-based firms, uses a lockstep compensation system tied to seniority. That contrasts with the U.S. custom of paying partners based, at least in part, on the amount of business they generate for the firm. Over the years a number of Clifford Chance lawyers defected to other firms. Clifford Chance closed all its California locations except for Silicon Valley in 2004″. The company will still support California clients but its U.S. operations will be based in New York and Washington D.C.

Walt Disney Co. plans to add two new ocean liners to its cruise business, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal. “The ships are scheduled to launch in 2011 and 2012 and will more than double the passenger capacity for Disney Cruise Line. Burbank’s Disney said it signed a letter of intent with Paperburg, Germany-based Meyer Werft shipyard to negotiate a contract to build the 122,000-ton new cruise liners. Each ship will have 1,250 staterooms.”