RELEASE UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL OCTOBER 8, 2012 @ 1800

Olympic gold medal success celebrated with rowers awarded new Audi Q5s by BankLink together with Giltrap Group

Auckland, 8 October 2012: BankLink, principal partner of Rowing New Zealand, together with the Giltrap Group today presented Rowing New Zealands Olympic gold medallists with the keys to new Audi Q5s in recognition of their outstanding achievements at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Single sculler Mah Drysdale, coxless pair Eric Murray and Hamish Bond, and the heavyweight double scull duo including Joseph Sullivan each received the keys to their new cars at a private ceremony hosted at the Giltrap Audi Showroom on Great North Road in Auckland. Sullivans crewmate, Nathan Cohen, who was unable to attend, will be presented with his car at a later date.

Richard Reese, BankLink General Manager of Operations, said; BankLink is a long-time supporter of Rowing New Zealand and we wanted to recognise and celebrate the exceptional success of our Olympic gold medallists.

Watching our rowers compete in London clearly showed once again the effort and dedication of these athletes. We believe it is important to formally recognise and reward their achievements at a personal level and to hopefully provide an incentive for them to continue on to Rio 2016 and replicate their success.

BankLink, together with Giltrap Group, has gifted the gold medal winning rowers the use of the Audis for two years or, as an incentive to stay on in the sport until the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, for four years if they continue with rowing.

Sir Colin Giltrap, Executive Chairman of Giltrap Group Holdings Limited, added; The presentation of these Audi Q5s is an acknowledgement of the hard work and hours these rowers put into their sport every week. Our rowers have achieved some of New Zealands greatest sporting successes in recent years and were proud to be able to show our support of these amazing athletes in this way.

CEO of Rowing New Zealand, Simon Peterson, added; BankLink is an incredibly supportive and hands-on principle partner for Rowing New Zealand. Having a sponsor that not just provides funding to our programmes, but that goes the extra mile to support our athletes at a personal level is invaluable.

Our rowers spend a great deal of time on the road each day travelling to training sessions and events and being able to get there in the comfort, safety and style of an Audi Q5 is something that I know will be appreciated by all of our gold medallists.

Link:
Olympic gold medal success celebrated

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) - A commercial cargo ship rocketed into orbit Sunday in pursuit of the International Space Station, the first of a dozen supply runs under a mega-contract with NASA.

It was the second launch of a Dragon capsule to the orbiting lab by the California-based SpaceX company. The first was last spring.

This time was no test flight, however, and the spacecraft carried 1,000 pounds (453.6 kilograms) of key science experiments and other precious gear. There was also a personal touch: chocolate-vanilla swirl ice cream tucked in a freezer for the three station residents.

The company's unmanned Falcon rocket roared into the night sky right on time, putting SpaceX on track to reach the space station Wednesday. The complex was soaring southwest of Tasmania when the Falcon took flight.

Officials declared the launch a success.

In more good news, a piece of space junk was no longer threatening the station, and NASA could focus entirely on the delivery mission.

NASA is counting on private business to restock the space station, now that the shuttles have retired to museums. The space agency has a $1.6 billion contract with SpaceX for 12 resupply missions.

Especially exciting for NASA is the fact that the Dragon will return twice as much cargo as it took up, including a stockpile of astronauts' blood and urine samples. The samples - nearly 500 of them - have been stashed in freezers since Atlantis made the last shuttle flight in July 2011.

The Dragon will spend close to three weeks at the space station before being released and parachuting into the Pacific at the end of October. By then, the space station should be back up to a full crew of six.

None of the Russian, European or Japanese cargo ships can bring anything back; they're destroyed during re-entry. The Russian Soyuz crew capsules have limited room for anything besides people.

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Comm’l Space Cargo Ship SpaceX Dragon Capsule Launch A Success

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) - Thousands of people turned out in the rain Sunday morning for the 5th annual J.T. Walk and Beach Party and what a party it was.

The weather could be a little bit better, but I like it a little bit chilly, and if it werent for the rain, it would probably be just right in my opinion, walker David Jeffers told WAVY.com.

Peopled seemed to take the weather in stride and Governor Bob McDonnell showed up to kick off the walk. The focus was not the weather but the cause itself, ot walk for others who might not be able to do so themselves.

My friend Jenn said she had a group coming out here to do the walk and wanted me to come join and donate, and I figured it was for a good cause so why not? Jeffers said.

The walk was also personal for Casey Hartneck.

I know personally a lot of people affected by the disease, she said. I just want to be here in support.

Its even more personal for Bruce Thompson.

Whatever money we raise this year we put right back into the community this year and next year well start with zero, Thompson told WAVY.com.

But perhaps the highlight of this years walk was when the Childrens Hospital of the Kings Daughters received the keys to a new mobile pediatric intensive care unit funded by last years J.T. Walk and Beach Party.

Thus far weve raised $1.5 million and that will be the seed money for a fully accessible park for kids with disabilities and a special section dedicated to our wounded warriors, Thompson added.

Continued here:
J.T. Walk & Beach Party a success

PHOENIX, Oct. 8, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Unemployment continues to be a huge problem in the U.S. despite there being more than 3 million available jobs open and unfilled in America today. To help bridge the gap between education and employment, University of Phoenix is introducing a variety of new tools, services and resources aimed at helping students receive the education and skills required to help fill the roles that companies need most. The movement is anchored by the new Let's get to workSM national advertising and marketing campaign that launched on Sept. 23.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121003/LA85714LOGO)

"University of Phoenix is committed to serving the best interests of its students and giving them the tools and resources to not only graduate in their chosen course of study, but also help prepare them for and link them to jobs after graduation. We are going to do this by bringing the career planning conversation forward, starting with pre-enrollment conversations," said Dr. Bill Pepicello, president of University of Phoenix. "We are hoping to shift the conversation to the natural link between 'a quality education' and 'a fulfilling and challenging career.' We're excited that University of Phoenix is leading the effort."

The Let's get to workcampaign focuses on the link between a quality education and a fulfilling and challenging career. Tony Award-winning actress and singer Phylicia Rashad is the voice of the University in the new advertisements, which will engage consumers through multiple media channels including TV, radio, outdoor, online and social.

"For the new campaign, it became clear that the conversation around higher education needed to change, to focus on a critical issue to students and alumni, and that is jobs," said Arra Yerganian, chief marketing officer for University of Phoenix. "With more than 750,000 alumni and more than 300,000 students, plus nearly 30,000 faculty, the University feels it can leverage its scale to impact this important issue facing America."

The new campaign is just the beginning of how the University is helping to address the jobs problem. New enhancements to the student experience will roll out in the coming months, including programs to address the cost of higher education, as well as a proprietary user experience to help students align their current skills, interests and career aspirations with an appropriate University of Phoenix degree program and then with employers looking to hire the University's students and graduates. University of Phoenix is committed to serving the best interest of its students and is implementing several initiatives including:

To learn more about University of Phoenix's efforts to bridge the education and job gap, visit http://www.phoenix.edu.

About University of Phoenix University of Phoenix is constantly innovating to help students balance education and life in a rapidly changing world. Flexible schedules, challenging courses and interactive learning can help students pursue personal and career aspirations without putting their lives on hold. As the flagship university of Apollo Group, Inc. (APOL), University of Phoenix serves a diverse student population, offering associate, bachelor's, master's and doctoral degree programs from campuses and learning centers across the U.S. as well as online throughout the world. For more information, visit http://www.phoenix.edu.

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University of Phoenix Renews Commitment to Student Success with Focus on Connecting Higher Education and Employment

The chief executive of Reckitt Benckiser (LSE: RB.L - news) pledged millions of pounds of shares in the company to secure a personal loan more than two years ago without investors being told, it has emerged.

Rakesh Kapoor, who earned 736,000 last year, used shares currently worth 7.4m as collateral for a personal loan with Bank of America Merrill Lynch. More shares were added after the loan was taken out in June 2010, taking the total value of the shares to 8.7m at todays prices.

The position was only revealed to shareholders after the company consulted with the Financial Services Authority. Regulations make it clear the market must be informed if shares are used as collateral for loans.

The issue around shares and personal loans received huge publicity in 2008 when the entrepreneur David Ross was forced to step down from the boards of Carphone Warehouse and National Express over similar failings . The Tory party donor failed to make a timely disclosure of how 14.5m of shares in companies he was involved in were used as collateral for more than 100m of loans.

On Monday, Reckitt, which makes household products ranging from Dettol to Gaviscon and Vanish, said the situation had come to light after an internal review.

The company also disclosed that Freddy Caspers, a member of the companys executive committee, sold 200,000 shares in December 2008. The shares are worth 7.3m at todays prices.

Mr Caspars is in charge of Reckitts Latin American and Australasian business. As such he was a person discharging managerial responsibility (PDMR) and obliged to inform the market of all dealings in Reckitt shares.

The company declined to explain how the transaction was almost four years late being reported to the market.

In a statement it said: To ensure timely disclosure going forward for PDMRs the company has reviewed and updated its internal reporting process.

The issue will be particularly embarrassing for Reckitt as it has long been targeted over executive pay.

More:
Reckitt comes clean over millions of pounds of directors' share deals

Last updated on: October 8, 201215:38 IST

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How many calories do you burn by jogging for an hour, or swimming, or indulging in aerobics? Find out right here.

Your weight is determined by how many calories you consume per day, minus the calories you burn through activities. In order to lose weight, you either need to eat less calories or burn more of them through exercise and fitness. Imagine how much faster it would be to lose weight if you ate less calories and exercised at least thrice a week.

The number of calories that you burn in any activity or sport depends on your body weight and the intensity of your work out. Here we tried to give the values of calories burnt by various activities or sports per hour for an average adult weighing 70 kg.

If the person weighs more, the calories burnt are also more with the same duration of activity.

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A calorie chart for YOUR various activities

By Katie Arnold//High Performance Consultant

In March I wrote an article about incorporating certain types of dryland training to improve fitness and athleticism. After that article was posted, I received a lot of feedback and questions from both athletes and coaches. The most common of these questions was, What about yoga?

I dont know why I left yoga off the original list. As a swimmer in college, yoga was always part of my training, and even now I still do yoga 4-5 days per week. While the physical benefits of yoga have always attracted me to the practice, I have found that it is the mental benefits that I gain the most from.

It is no secret that swimming, and swimming fast, requires a number of different skills and attributes. Flexibility, core strength and focus are vital to optimal performance as a swimmer, and all three of these areas are addressed and improved through yoga.

Flexibility: The various postures and stretches practiced in yoga use a persons own body weight to strengthen and lengthen key muscle groups. Of note to swimmers is the added benefit of strengthening the muscles of the shoulders and back to counteract the common front-side imbalance seen in most swimmers. Additionally, many of the standing postures help improve ankle flexibility, which can be translated into improved kicking.

Core Strength: Most yoga postures require some sort of balance to achieve the desired position. This balance almost always comes from the core, and like swimming, yoga utilizes the entire core throughout the practice. The balance in the use of the front, side and back of the core helps with swimming connected through the body.

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The Benefits of Yoga for Swimmers

WITH yoga increasing in popularity over the last decade, clothing and accessories have enjoyed a retail boom. The Internet carries a myriad addresses where you can buy your outfits. Even Victoria's Secret (www.victoriassecret.com) has a good collection of trendy yoga tops and bottoms for women. Super model Christy Turlington started her clothing label Nuala, which is carried on various websites.

Independent, public-listed brand Lululemon is one of the most coveted labels at the moment. The brand du jour has been seen on the likes of Sandra Bullock, Michelle Obama, Hillary Duff, Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel. Lululemon was set up in 1998 and, today, it has stores across Canada, the US and Australia, and franchises all over the world. Even fashion houses such as Gucci have entered the fray with yoga mats and mat cases that have been seen carried by stars such as Jada Pinkett-Smith. Unfortunately, it is not sold locally.

In Singapore, most leading sports shops carry a line of yoga clothing as well as mats and bags. For more variety, it would be better to try the various yoga studios that carry a wide selection of brands. Colin Grant, CEO of the Pure Group, has confirmed that the company is on the verge of launching its very own line of yoga apparel. He says, "I have already seen the second round of samples. It will be a collection based on what our members like."

Apart from the clothes, the various yoga studios also carry yoga props and other accessories such as mats, straps, blocks and bolsters to help improve your practice. The Edge Singapore

This story appeared in The Edge Singapore on Aug 13, 2012.

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Riding the yoga trend

If you're stressed at work, a little yoga on your lunch break might just help.

A new study from the United Kingdom suggests yoga done at work can reduce stress levels and lower back pain.

The study involved 74 British government workers ages 25 to 64 who said they experienced stress and back pain that was somewhat bothersome. Participants were randomly assigned to practice either eight weeks of yoga, or no yoga.

People in the yoga group took part in a 50-minute yoga class once a week, either at lunchtime or after work. They could also practice yoga at home twice a week for 20 minutes using a DVD.

All participants completed questionnaires designed to assess back pain, stress levels and overall well-being.

At the beginning of the study, 10 people in the yoga group and eight in the control group said they had back pain. At the end of the study, just four participants in the yoga group reported back pain, compared to 13 in the control group.

In addition, participants in the yoga group had reported lower levels of stress and less sadness at the study's end, compared with those in the control group.

The findings agree with previous research showing that yoga can reduce stress levels and back pain.

The researchers, from the Bangor University in North Wales, noted that the majority of participants were women, so the findings may not apply to men. Also, the benefits in the yoga group may have been influenced by the placebo effect the idea that a treatment is beneficial simply because patients believe it will work.

Future studies should examine whether yoga at work can reduce the number of sick days workers take, the researchers said.

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Yoga at Work May Relieve Stress & Back Pain

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Fabulous Fitness: Getting Motivated To Be Healthy