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LONDON -- Last month, USA TODAY wrote about the unlikely scenario that would see the United Kingdom's Queen Elizabeth take a cue from Pope Benedict XVI and resign her office due to health reasons.

No way, was the consensus from experts, and even from the queen herself -- based on past statements reflecting her attitudes to public service and the moral necessity to keep on keeping on. It's not starting the job that's difficult, it's seeing it through, another British female leader -- Margaret Thatcher -- is fond of remarking, a saying of her grocer father's. As far as anyone can tell, the queen wants to see it through.

And on Monday, she proved that when she walked out unassisted of King Edward VII Hospital in London after receiving treatment for a suspected case of gastroenteritis.

The well-being of Britain's official head of state is no trifling matter, of course, but the doting British press weren't given that much to go on in terms of reporting the queen's ailment, which forced her first hospitalization in 10 years. However, the subtext from the various non-announcements was clear, and it chimes with the queen's preferred operating mode: No reason for alarm, nothing to see here, move along now. Above all, there must be NO fuss. There certainly won't be any resigning.

Still, on Monday, as the queen spent her second day recovering at King Edward VII Hospital in London, the British bulldog spirit was once again in evidence. Buckingham Palace wasn't saying much. She's being assessed but is in good health. It's just a precautionary measure. She's in "good spirits." That kind of thing.

So what was a royal press to do? The Sun tabloid newspaper -- under the headline "Her Majesty the Queasy" -- focused on the queen's health record: Wisdom tooth removed in 1982, stitches in hand after a bite from her corgi in 1993, bloodshot eye in 2006, etc. The Daily Mirror noted that sometimes we just forget that she is 86, after all. The Daily Telegraph mused that even a highly devoted monarch needs to sometimes just let go and admit she's ill and get the necessary care.

Such was the dearth of available information that a great deal of column inches was given over to a discussion of two police officers who were standing guard outside King Edward VII's Hospital on Sunday evening. The two officers are known as "Big Tone" and "Little Tone," because -- you guessed it -- at 7 feet 2 inches Anthony Wallyn towers over his 5-foot-6 partner Tony Thich. "Big Tone," Sky News reported, gets 100 to 500 requests for a photo every day. Further, The Guardian is holding a "caption competition" where readers can speculate on what "these two amusingly paired officers" could be saying.

Copyright 2013 USATODAY.com

More here:
Mum's the word on Queen Elizabeth's condition

By Joe McDonald, The Associated Press

BEIJING, China - Premier Wen Jiabao on Tuesday pledged to transform China into a consumer-driven economy but gave no indication what Beijing will do about big state companies that reformers warn could handicap future growth.

Wen, speaking to China's ceremonial legislature, confirmed a 7.5 per cent growth target in an annual economic plan. That is below the double-digit rates of the past decade but in line with Communist Party plans for a rebalancing of the world's second-largest economy away from reliance on trade and investment to drive growth.

Wen steps down next week after 10 years as China's top economic official but the goals he announced are part of a long-range plan incoming leaders under the newly installed party general secretary, Xi Jinping, are expected to adhere to.

"We should energetically change the growth model and speed up structural adjustment of industry," said Wen. "We should enhance people's ability to consume."

Promoting consumer spending would both support more self-sustaining growth and boost living standards for ordinary Chinese, who have been treated until now as a source of labour while an elite reaped most of the benefits of explosive growth.

The government is pressing companies to raise wages and pledged in January to narrow China's huge gap between the elite and its poor majority. But consumer spending is growing more slowly than authorities want, which has forced Beijing to rely on government -financed investment to support its recovery from an economic slowdown.

Wen gave no details of how Beijing will promote consumption but also promised efforts to clean up China's battered environment and promote energy conservation. Both goals have high-level party support but will hurt corporate profits, possibly generating resistance from business leaders and their allies in the party.

Wen promised to give market forces a bigger role in the state-dominated economy but gave no indication how Beijing will deal with giant state companies that control most of China's industries and are shielded from foreign and private sector competition.

The premier repeated government pledges to give private companies a "level playing field" and "equal access to factors of production" a reference to bank loans and other resources. Despite such promises in the past, most lending still goes to state companies, which also receive low-cost access to energy and land.

Read more from the original source:
China's premier promises more consumer-driven growth; no word on fate of big state companies

LAS VEGAS, NV--(Marketwire - Mar 5, 2013) - Oriens Travel & Hotel Management Corp. ( PINKSHEETS : OTHM ), the Next Generation International Hotel Brand Operator, operating its Hotel PURE brand, announced today that the company will further enhance acceptance of its Online Booking System by developing a plug-in allowing its FROL System (Friendly Reservations Online)to run over sites using CMS (Content Management System); such as Word Press, which is based on PHP and MySQL.

"With over 50 properties under management, we can clearly see the power of our reservation system," stated Ken Chua, President of Oriens. "Our FROL system however, is intended to be used by any hotelier seeking an economical yet powerful and proven alternative to current search engines."

Back in 2011, the Extranet, or 'Backend' of the FROL system received a complete facelift leaving the latest version of Orien's booking engine with a similar look and feel to Expedia.com, Travelocity.com and Orbitz.com.This redesign helped to greatly reduce the hotelier's learning curve.However, management is now focused on further strengthening its competitive advantage while significantly increasing its FROL's acceptance amongst hoteliers by making the system simple to integrate into those more popular website platforms.

Chua continued, "The numbers are simple.Word Press for example, is used by nearly 15% of the 'top 1 million' websites ranked by Alexa.It is also the 'go to' platform for at least one-fifth of all new sites under development and has been downloaded more than 50 million times.The 'Word Press' community alone is massive and it is not the only widely used CMS platform."

People close to the company anticipate that Oriens' new plug-in will greatly simplify the hotel booking process.Perhaps to such an extent where upstart hoteliers will seek Oriens' FROL plug-ins as a matter of common practice when developing a new hotel property, transitioning a home into a Bed & Breakfast or simply revamping an old property with new and effective technology.

Ken Chua concluded, "Developing hospitality plug-ins for CMS platforms, based on our search engine technology, should significantly broaden our reach without the over weighted cost of advertising, marketing and promotion. This application should add considerable value to our bottom line."

About Oriens Travel & Hotel Management Corp. (www.orienscorp.com) ( PINKSHEETS : OTHM ) engages in the operation of hotels and resorts primarily in the United States and Central America under the Hotel PURE brand. The company also operates Friendly Reservations Online, a proprietary and sophisticated online booking system designed to execute reservations capture through Hotel PURE consumer facing websites, as well as individual hotel websites operated by Oriens on behalf of hotels branded under the Hotel PURE brand. Oriens is based in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Safe Harbor Statements in this news release that are not historical facts, including statements about plans and expectations regarding products and opportunities, demand and acceptance of new or existing products, capital resources and future financial results are forward-looking. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties which may cause the Company's actual results in future periods to differ materially from those expressed. These uncertainties and risks include changing consumer preferences, lack of success of new products, loss of the Company's customers, competition and other factors discussed from time to time in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The rest is here:
Oriens' New Plug-In to Advance Global Acceptance of Online Booking Engine

An announcement that people will again be allowed to carry small pocketknives and other items aboard passenger planes that were banned after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks drew mixed reactions from fliers, airlines and labor.

The head of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration Administrator on Tuesday said the agency will next month begin permitting knives with retractable blades shorter than 2.36 inches and narrower than 1/2 inch, as well as golf clubs, hockey sticks and certain types of baseball bats.

An industry group representing the nation's major airlines praised the change, but a union representing flight attendants said the change raises safety concerns.

"We believe this is excellent news," said Perry Flint, spokesman for the International Air Transport Association, in an e-mail. "The TSA decision will bring the U.S. into alignment with global standards on the carriage of these items."

Fliers questioned why the change didn't include more items that seem less dangerous than a small knife.

"To a passenger it seems random," frequent flier Laura La Gassa told the Houston Chronicle via Twitter. "I want to be able to keep my shoes on and carry a full-sized bottle of sunscreen."

Houston resident Andrew J. Ferraro, a former spokesman for United Airlines, said via Twitter that "OK'ing the knives kind of surprises me." As for the other items, Ferraro said he believes "it's about time."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Word that passengers can bring small knives on jets seems "random" to some

Published: Friday, March 1, 2013, 8:42p.m. Updated 17 hours ago

Some of you might remember comedian Johnny Carson's trademark response when a guest on The Tonight Show told him something surprising: I did not know that! That's how I reacted to the following tidbits of verbal information that came as news to me.

Full-court Press: I've always been fuzzy on the distinction between repress and suppress. Is the Syrian government, for instance, suppressing a rebellion or repressing it?

Suppressing it. Repress means to keep something under control in order to maintain or regulate order. Suppress denotes a more vigorous curtailment, to fight actively against an opposing force. IDNKT!

Spouting Off: I've always assumed that a waterspout was simply a tornado that occurred over the ocean. In fact, as the American Heritage Guide to Contemporary Usage and Style points out, Most waterspouts arise under weather conditions different from those spawning tornadoes (generally with the formation of a large cumulus cloud over the ocean, rather than from a large thunderstorm.) IDNKT!

Affirmative Action: The use of affirmative and negative arose among military aviators because the one-syllable words yes and no were sometimes misheard because of radio static. IDNKT!

Hue Knew?: The correct spelling of the phrase meaning an uproar is hue and cry, not hew and cry. Hue, of course, means a gradation of color, but an unrelated and now archaic hue meant outcry. IDNKT!

Homin-ization: Ad hominem, which means to the person in Latin, originally denoted an argument that appealed to the human emotions of the person being addressed; the hominem was the person listening to the argument. So a speech designed to elicit human sympathy made an ad hominem appeal.

But in recent decades, ad hominem has come to denote the criticism of an opponent's personal character, as in, He delivered an ad hominem attack on his rival. Now the hominem is the person being criticized, not the person listening. IDNKT!

Coy Polloi: My mom always referred to the upper crust in my hometown as the hoi polloi, so I guess I can be excused for not realizing that hoi polloi actually means just the opposite: the masses, the general population. Of course, now that my hometown has been taken over by wealthy people, they've become the hoi polloi (general population) after all. So I guess I did know that!

Excerpt from:
The Word Guy: Welcome to the Know-Nothing Party!