EJ King Bar group makes loss of €444,171 - The Irish Times says that the Co Galway-based EJ King Bar group, which owns a number of hotels and bars in Dublin and Galway, made a pre-tax loss of €444,171 on a turnover of €9.5lm in the year to the end of February 2004, according to accounts just filed. In the June 2004 issue of Iris Oifigiúil the group was listed as having made a €2.98m settlement with the Revenue arising out of a bogus non-resident account investigation. The EJ King Bar group is owned by Mr Terry Sweeney, of Salthill, Galway. Its businesses include the Schoolhouse Hotel in Dublin, the Westwood House hotel in Dangan, Galway, and Busker Brownes, Galway.
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Strong euro to hamper EU exporters in 2005 - After a year in which the US dollar fell 5% against the euro, the sharply weaker currency isn't expected to rebound soon - and that means it will likely keep eating into European exports, growth and jobs through next year, says the Irish Independent. The euro peaked at $1.3470 on December 7, after reaching a series of new highs against the dollar. Some forecasts see it heading past $1.40 in 2005 - unhappy news for exporters whose goods become more expensive against foreign competition, politicians who want to see more jobs and central bankers waiting for Europe's shaky recovery to take off. While the current slide, which has brought the dollar some 9% lower since September 1, appears to have taken a breather, traders and economists say it's not over yet.
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Deutsche Telekom eyes more job cuts - Deutsche Telekom is understood to want to shed up to another 10,000 jobs in 2006-2007 at T-Com, its fixed-line unit, as part of its ongoing drive to lower labour costs at the German telecommunications giant, writes the Financial Times. Further cuts have yet to be formally agreed, but would be in line with Deutsche Telekom's long-standing policy of seeking to lower labour costs, which currently total about €3.3 billion per quarter for its 250,000-strong staff, and which have been a key element of chief executive Kai-Uwe Ricke's efforts to improve the group's profitability. Deutsche Telekom has shed thousands of jobs in recent years, and in March reached a key deal with unions to cut wages for its 120,000 Germany-based employees in return for a pledge to limit job cuts in 2004 and 2005, and make no compulsory redundancies until 2008.
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Santy worm is coming to town - A worm using Google to identify websites that use a vulnerable type of bulletin board software has spread quickly, infecting up to 40,000 sites, reports Electricnews.Net. The worm, dubbed Santy, exploits a vulnerability in third-party web servers that use phpBB bulletin board software, a popular package used to create web forums, and has been propagating at a rapid pace, infecting some 38,000 sites in a matter of hours. This latest worm is quite unique, according to Kaspersky Lab. Santy creates a Google search request, which provides it with a list of sites running vulnerable versions of phpBB. It then sends a request containing a procedure which will trigger the vulnerability to these sites. Once the attacked server processes the request, Santy wriggles into the site and gains control.
