Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/269923831?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Business : Improving Customer Communication through Outsourcing
Financial institutions are addressing new challenges as they navigate their way through new regulatory compliance issues as well as somewhat volatile market conditions. In response, many industry organizations have turned their focus to pursuing initiatives that will provide a continual stream of organizational benefits resulting from improved operational excellence and innovation, and at the same time emphasizing a customer-centric approach. One strategy many financial institutions have found effective in improving internal efficiencies is to adopt business process outsourcing (BPO) solutions, including print/mail fulfillment.
By outsourcing these non-core functions, a financial institution is no longer bound to managing and conducting a capital-intensive process that is outside the strategic focus of its business. As well as being a cost-effective option, outsourcing frees organizational resources that can be more profitably applied to innovation and achieving your organization's primary business objectives.
It is critically important to closely evaluate your vendor partner's capabilities to ensure they can meet client communication needs in the areas of agility, flexibility and control. With regular statements and related correspondence being an indispensable communication vehicle between a financial institution and its customers, employing "agile billing"-the ability to maintain flexibility and control of documents while enjoying the cost benefits of outsourcing physical printing and fulfillment-is simply good business.
Insourcing content
When outsourcing customer communications functions, it is necessary to ensure that the benefits do not come at the expense of a strong, customer-centric communications strategy. The key issue to consider is the potential risk of losing the control, speed to market and relevance of documents and messages, especially with the seemingly exponential increase in communication channels over recent years. With a slowly recovering economy and changing consumer habits, building trust and loyalty with customers has never been more important.
Retaining the ability to access and control your organization's data and documents to create effective communications is crucial, because every customer contact presents the opportunity to improve the customer experience, tap new markets and differentiate from the competition. And no one is more knowledgeable about your organization's offerings, your communication strategies and the most impactful messaging for your customers than your own employees. That is why a collaborative approach-what we refer to as "outsourcing with control"-is an excellent approach to take when outsourcing customer communications.
A collaborative outsourcing strategy combines your internal resources-your customer-facing staff-with those of a knowledgeable and reliable external vendor-partner to design, deliver and maintain meaningful personalized customer communications. By drawing upon the energy, ideas and capabilities of both of these spheres, the organization can maintain the flexibility and autonomy to complete interactive, point-of-need, personalized documents to best serve customers while controlling accuracy and costs through centralized production and fulfillment.
Deploying a communications management platform that is easily configurable will reduce the time frame for migration of legacy documents and minimize the risk of brand inconsistency during the transition. An intuitive and easy to use platform also shortens the learning curve for employees and improves the rate of adoption to minimize disruptions during the transition. And, significantly, regulatory compliance can be ensured with the automated ability to include or exclude specific content based on effective dates to support changing regulations. Having the operational dexterity to make simple changes on individual customer communications-and the scalability needed to meet the dynamic requirements of your business-enables rapid adaptation to market and regulatory conditions as they occur.
Meeting customers on their terms
While traditional print mail, including regular statements and correspondence, along with the customer service call center, remain viable and important channels of communication, new media channels now offer many additional ways to convey information and interact with consumers, including mobile devices and tablets, as well as social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. Multichannel communications enable a financial institution to reach customers at their convenience, any time of day or night and through the medium they choose. Whether the recipient prefers paper (mail), electronic (e-mail, Internet), mobile devices, or a combination of these channels, being able to meet delivery preferences is essential for enhancing the customer experience.
Putting all of these pieces together to design a collaborative, multichannel communications program raises several important considerations that must be addressed to ensure the program's success among employees and customers. Key considerations include:
Obtaining quality data. Customer information is often created and stored in legacy and siloed front and back office applications, systems and workflows. Gathering and consolidating useful data about customers can be a challenge. Be sure your communications solution can tap into and merge data from these various sources without the need to reconfigure your internal archives and data warehouses.
Integrating all delivery channels. Once you've identified and collected the data required for your program, next is to ensure the ability to coordinate and integrate it across a range of media output channels. For instance, will the next statement for each customer be personalized based on their interests and their preferences? Will it be delivered in their preferred channel? Does it take advantage of feedback obtained through a channel like e-mail? This is a critical aspect of a successful multichannel framework.
Efficiently managing multiple channels. Managing the process, users and roles, interfaces and update methods of a variety of communications channels can be overwhelming. User roles and permissions should be honored anywhere in the framework. Additionally, the ability to manage content-independent of the documents and channels that receive them-is crucial. Be sure your solution has these management capabilities or your organization may find the process and content complexities unmanageable.
Designing for multiple channels. A critical factor for successful multichannel communications is creating flexible content that automatically changes to match the requirements of the delivery channel. Without this kind of flexibility, designing for multiple channels can become a painful and complex process.
Strengthening customer relationships
Particularly in periods of change and uncertainty, meaningful communications can serve as links to strengthen the bonds between a financial institution and its customers. Personalized communications help to build trust and customer loyalty. It's important to recognize this and to consider effective customer communications as a crucial part of your business. With the increasing use of internet-based communications and the proliferation of smartphones and tablet devices, customers now expect financial institutions to reach them via the channels they prefer. Implementing a well-considered customer communications strategy can help you forge stronger relationships with customers by delivering important information to them accurately and more quickly.
By deploying your internal resources and taking a collaborative approach to outsourcing customer communications, your organization can ensure that it maintains control of the responsiveness and relevance of its documents and customer messages while getting them to each customer in the most effective way. Implementing a well-planned and collaborative customer communications strategy with the right vendor partner will ensure that every communication will not only be cost-effective, but will also take advantage of the opportunity to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Michael Watts is COO for GMC Software Technology, a provider of customer communications and output management solutions.
Source: http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=182516
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Falcons a little closer to getting new stadium
ATLANTA (AP) ? After about two years of discussions, the Atlanta Falcons are a step closer to getting a new downtown stadium.
The state agency that owns the 20-year-old Georgia Dome on Monday approved the framework for a deal with the Falcons to build a roughly $1 billion stadium with a retractable roof. There are still several key steps ahead, including exactly how much the government will have to contribute and where it will be built.
The deal calls for the Falcons to pay about 70 percent of the total cost, and the government will pay for the rest with a hotel tax. The Fulton County Commission and the city of Atlanta still must approve using the revenue from the tax to build the new stadium. Mayor Kasim Reed has thrown his support behind the deal.
Under the proposal, the Falcons will run the facility and the Georgia World Congress Center Authority, a state agency, will own it. The Falcons will agree not to relocate and pay $2.5 million in rent annually. The franchise gets to keep revenue generated from parking and operations.
The new stadium expects to have a seating capacity of between 66,000 and 72,000 and be completed in 2017. The proposal also calls for demolishing the Georgia Dome, which is also owned by the authority.
The Georgia Dome hosted artistic gymnastics and basketball during the 1996 Olympic Games as well as NCAA basketball tournament games, soccer matches and rock concerts. The 1994 and 2000 Super Bowls were played there, and it will host the NCAA Final Four in April.
Rich McKay, CEO of the Atlanta Falcons, said the franchise would explore plans to relocate within Atlanta or the metro area if the deal is not approved by local leaders.
"We would probably go back and look at a solution that involves an outdoor stadium somewhere else. That would not be our desire, and we don't anticipate that," McKay said, "We've really put our eggs in this basket."
According to NFL.com, the Georgia Dome is the 10th-oldest out of the league's 32 stadiums.
"I think this stadium should be iconic unto itself, and should put Atlanta in a position where we can attract any event that we desire to attract," McKay said.
Frank Poe, executive director of the authority, said the agency has no contingency plan if city and county officials assail the proposal.
Officials also need to decide whether the new stadium would be built on property north of the Georgia Dome, or on a lot south of the 71,250-seat arena. Poe said land costs, potential traffic congestion and the projected impacts on nearby neighborhoods will likely factor into that decision.
Falcons coach Mike Smith and his players have paid little attention to the stadium negotiations. The team is 11-2 and already has clinched a playoff spot by winning the NFC South.
"I don't concern myself with the stadium," Smith said. "I know that's something that's way down the timeline."
Offensive tackle Tyson Clabo chuckled when asked about it.
"Let me tell you a little secret about this new stadium," the 31-year-old Clabo said. "I'm going to be long gone by the time we play there."
William Perry, of Georgia Common Cause, a nonprofit, non-partisan citizen advocacy group, said the public has not been given enough opportunity to weigh in.
"It just seems like there needs to be more dialogue about what the public wants in this whole deal," Perry said. "It just gives the appearance that this thing is sailing through like a rubber stamp."
His organization has not taken a position on the proposal.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/falcons-little-closer-getting-stadium-014720567--nfl.html
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Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Americans' 'fiscal cliff' fix? Cut government spending ? but not Medicare.
A new Monitor/TIPP poll finds Americans favor cutting government spending to solve the fiscal cliff, but few want to cut entitlements such as Medicare, which make up most of the budget.
President Obama gestures as he speaks to workers about the economy and his views on the fiscal cliff during a visit to Daimler Detroit Diesel in Redford, Mich., on Monday.
Paul Sancya/AP
EnlargeAs politicians bargain over how to deal with the nation's "fiscal cliff," a new poll hints at why the talks are so difficult: The American public is wary of both broad tax hikes and spending cuts to entitlement programs such as Medicare, which account for about two-thirds of all federal spending.
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In fact, "cutting Medicare spending" ranked last with the public among a dozen specific fiscal proposals, in the Christian Science Monitor/TIPP poll, conducted over the past week.
At the same time, Americans are concerned about the size of budget deficits and about the rising national debt. The poll results also suggest some openness to a possible bargain between Republican and Democratic leaders, which would would involve both spending cuts and new tax revenue.
Specifically, the public appears open to raising taxes on wealthier?households. But in asking for a top choice for reducing the federal debt problem, the poll found 65 percent preferred "cutting general government spending." Some 16 percent said that "increasing taxes" was their top choice. And only 12 percent chose a third option, "reforming entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security," suggesting that building public support on that front could require both time and bipartisan statesmanship.
"Consensus building is very important," says Raghavan Mayur, president of TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence, which conducted the TIPP poll for the Monitor and Investors Business Daily. "Americans are not in any mood for cutting entitlements, whether it is Social Security or Medicare."
The phrase "fiscal cliff" refers to some $600 billion in spending cuts and tax hikes that are currently scheduled to take effect at the start of 2013, unless Congress takes action. It's a problem of lawmakers' own making. Unable to reach a fiscal deal in 2011, the two parties in Congress gave themselves an incentive to come to an agreement by setting a deadline when automatic spending cuts would kick in alongside the expiration of the Bush tax cuts.?
Economists have warned that going over this cliff could send the country back into recession early next year, slowing the economy and pushing unemployment up as the tax hikes hit home. But avoiding any tax hikes or spending cuts would cause the public debt to keep growing, which could harm economic growth.
With the fiscal cliff increasingly making news headlines, the Monitor/TIPP poll sought to test what policy options the public preferred.
A majority described their current federal tax burden as "about right," and a similar majority (55 percent) supported the the general idea of extending current tax rates for all Americans, rather than letting them expire.
The poll also took the nation's pulse on 12 specific fiscal policy options, including some spending cuts and tax hikes. Only one of them, raising taxes on high-earning households, garnered majority support ? a poll result hinting at the politically tortuous choices facing elected officials.
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Biologists engineer algae to make complex anti-cancer 'designer' drug
Dec. 10, 2012 ? Biologists at UC San Diego have succeeded in genetically engineering algae to produce a complex and expensive human therapeutic drug used to treat cancer.
Their achievement, detailed in a paper in this week's early online issue of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, opens the door for making these and other "designer" proteins in larger quantities and much more cheaply than can now be made from mammalian cells.
"Because we can make the exact same drug in algae, we have the opportunity to drive down the price down dramatically," said Stephen Mayfield, a professor of biology at UC San Diego and director of the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology or SD-CAB, a consortium of research institutions that is also working to develop new biofuels from algae.
Their method could even be used to make novel complex designer drugs that can't be produced in any other systems--drugs that could be used to treat cancer or other human diseases in new ways.
"You can't make these drugs in bacteria, because bacteria are incapable of folding these proteins into these complex, three-dimensional shapes," said Mayfield. "And you can't make these proteins in mammalian cells because the toxin would kill them."
The advance is the culmination of seven years of work in Mayfield's laboratory to demonstrate that Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a green alga used widely in biology laboratories as a genetic model organism can produce a wide range of human therapeutic proteins in greater quantity and more cheaply than bacteria or mammalian cells.
Mayfield and his colleagues achieved their first breakthrough five years ago when they demonstrated they could produce a mammalian serum amyloid protein in algae. The following year, they succeeded in getting algae to produce a human antibody protein. In 2010, they demonstrated that more complex proteins -- human therapeutic drugs, such as human vascular endothelial growth factor, or VEGF, used to treat patients suffering from pulmonary emphysema -- could be produced in algae.
Then in May of this year, Mayfield's group working with another team headed by Joseph Vinetz from UC San Diego's School of Medicine, engineered algae to produce an even more complex protein -- a new kind of vaccine that, preliminary experiments suggest, could protect billions of people from malaria, one of the world's most prevalent and debilitating diseases.
"What the development of the malarial vaccine showed us was that algae could produce proteins that were really complex structures, containing lots of disulfide bonds that would still fold into the correct three-dimensional structures," said Mayfield. "Antibodies were the first sophisticated proteins we made. But the malarial vaccine is complex, with disulfide bonds that are pretty unusual. So once we made that, we were convinced we could make just about anything in algae."
In their latest development, the scientists genetically engineered algae to produce a complex, three-dimensional protein with two "domains" -- one of which contains an antibody, which can home in on and attach to a cancer cell and another domain that contains a toxin that kills the bound cancer cells. Such "fusion proteins" are presently created by pharmaceutical companies in a complex, two-step process by first developing the antibody domain in a Chinese hamster, or CHO, cell. The antibody is purified, then chemically attached to a toxin outside of the cell. Then the final protein is re-purified.
"We have a two-fold advantage over that process," said Mayfield. "First, we make this as a single protein with the antibody and toxin domains fused together in a single gene, so we only have to purify it one time. And second, because we make this in algae rather than CHO cells, we get an enormous cost advantage on the production of the protein."
The fusion protein the researchers in his laboratory produced from algae is identical to one that is under development by pharmaceutical companies with a proposed cost of more than $100,000. This same protein could be produced in algae for a fraction of that price, they report in their paper. And the UCSD researchers -- Miller Tran, Christina Van, Dan Barrera and Jack Bui, at the UC San Diego Medical School -- confirmed that the compound worked like the more expensive treatment: it homed in on cancer cells and inhibited the development of tumors in laboratory mice.
Mayfield said such a fusion protein could not have been produced in a mammalian CHO cell, because the toxin would have killed it. But because the protein was produced in the algae's chloroplasts -- the part of algal and plant cells where photosynthesis takes place -- it did not kill the algae.
"The protein was sequestered inside the chloroplast," Mayfield said. "And the chloroplast has different proteins from the rest of the cell, and these are not affected by the toxin. If the protein we made were to leak out of the chloroplast, it would have killed the cell. So it's amazing to think that not one molecule leaked out of the chloroplasts. There are literally thousands of copies of that protein inside the chloroplasts and not one of them leaked out."
Mayfield said producing this particular fusion protein was fairly straightforward because it involved fusing two domains -- one to recognize and bind to cancer cells and another to kill them. But in the future, he suspects this same method could be used to engineer algae to produce more complex proteins with multiple domains.
"Can we string together four or five domains and produce a designer protein in algae with multiple functions that doesn't exist in nature? I think we can?" he added. "Suppose I want to couple a receptor protein with a series of activator proteins so that I could stimulate bone production or the production of neurons? At some point you can start thinking about medicine the same way we think about assembling a computer, combining different modules with specific purposes. We can produce a protein that has one domain that targets the kind of cell you want to impact, and another domain that specifies what you want the cell to do."
The research project was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and The Skaggs Family Foundation.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - San Diego. The original article was written by Kim McDonald.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Miller Tran, Christina Van, Daniel J. Barrera, P?r L. Pettersson, Carlos D. Peinado, Jack Bui, and Stephen P. Mayfield. PNAS Plus: Production of unique immunotoxin cancer therapeutics in algal chloroplasts. PNAS, 2012 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1214638110
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
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Monday, December 10, 2012
Egyptian army takes over security ahead of vote
Soldiers stand guard by an armored vehicle in front of the Presidential Palace in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Dec. 10, 2012. The Egyptian military on Monday assumed joint responsibility with the police for security and protecting state institutions until the results of a Dec. 15 constitutional referendum are announced. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
Soldiers stand guard by an armored vehicle in front of the Presidential Palace in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Dec. 10, 2012. The Egyptian military on Monday assumed joint responsibility with the police for security and protecting state institutions until the results of a Dec. 15 constitutional referendum are announced. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
Egyptian army soldiers stand guard as protesters stand on top of cement blocks near the presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Dec. 9, 2012. Egypt's liberal opposition called for more protests Sunday, seeking to keep up the momentum of its street campaign after the president made a partial concession overnight but refused its main demand he rescind a draft constitution going to a referendum on Dec. 15. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Soldiers stand guard on top a tank in front of the presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Dec. 9, 2012. Egypt's liberal opposition called for more protests Sunday, seeking to keep up the momentum of its street campaign after the president made a partial concession overnight but refused its main demand he rescind a draft constitution going to a referendum on Dec. 15. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
A man writes a message using sand in the street near Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Dec. 10, 2012. The sign reads "down with the supreme leader's rule." (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
Young girls pose for a photograph by a wall painted with graffiti showing President Mohammed Morsi, left, and a split portrait of former Defense Minister, Hussain Tantawi, center, and former President Hosni Mobarak, right, in front of the Presidential Palace in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, Dec. 10, 2012. The Egyptian military on Monday assumed joint responsibility with the police for security and protecting state institutions until the results of a Dec. 15 constitutional referendum are announced. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
CAIRO (AP) ? The Egyptian military on Monday assumed joint responsibility with the police for security and protecting state institutions until the results of a Dec. 15 constitutional referendum are announced.
The army took up the task in line with a decree issued Sunday by President Mohammed Morsi. The Islamist leader on Monday also suspended a series of tax hikes announced the previous day on alcohol, cigarettes and other items.
The presidential edict orders the military and police to jointly maintain security in the run-up to Saturday's vote on the disputed charter, which was hurriedly approved last month by a panel dominated by the president's Islamist allies despite a boycott of the committee's liberal, secular and Christian members.
The decree also grants the military the right to arrest civilians, but presidential spokesman Yasser Ali said it was nowhere near a declaration of martial law.
"It is merely a measure to extend legal cover for the armed forces while they are used to maintain security," Ali told The Associated Press.
There were no signs of a beefed up military presence outside the presidential palace, the site of fierce street clashes last week, or elsewhere in the capital on Monday.
Still, Morsi's decision to lean on the military to safeguard the vote is widely seen as evidence of just how jittery the government is about the referendum on the draft constitution, which has been at the heart of days of dueling protests by the opposition and Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood backers. The two sides clashed in Cairo last week, leaving at least six people dead and hundreds wounded in the worst violence of the crisis.
Both the opposition and Morsi's supporters have called for mass rallies on Tuesday.
The opposition has rejected the referendum, but has yet to call for a boycott or instead a "no" vote at the polls.
"A decision on whether we call for a boycott of the referendum or campaign for a 'no' vote remains under discussion," Hossam Moanis, a spokesman for the National Salvation Front grouping opposition parties and groups told the AP on Monday. "For now, we reject the referendum as part of our rejection of the draft constitution."
The military last week sent out several tanks and armored vehicles in the vicinity of the presidential palace in Cairo following protests there by tens of thousands of Morsi's critics. It was the first high-profile deployment by the military since it handed power in June to Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president.
Morsi on Saturday rescinded decrees issued Nov. 22 granting him near absolute powers and placing him above any oversight, including by the courts. He has, however, insisted that the referendum will go ahead on schedule.
Judges have gone on strike to protest Morsi's perceived "assault" on the judiciary and have said they would not oversee the Dec. 15 vote as is customary for judges in Egypt. Judges of the nation's administrative courts announced Monday they were conditionally lifting their boycott of the vote, but they said their supervision of the process was conditional on bringing an end to the siege of the Supreme Constitutional Court by Morsi's supporters.
In exchange for their supervision, they also demanded assurances that authorities would crack down on vote canvassing outside polling stations and offer life insurance policies to the judges.
Morsi's deputy, Mahmoud Mekki, has said the vote could be staggered over several days if there were not enough judges to oversee the referendum.
The court was widely expected to dissolve the panel that drafted the constitution in a session scheduled for Dec. 2. The siege of the Nile-side building in Cairo's Maadi district began Dec. 1.
In a surprise move, Morsi on Monday rescinded a series of decrees issued the previous day to raise taxes on a wide range of items and services, including alcohol, cigarettes, mobile phones, services offered by hotels and bank loans.
The state-owned daily Al-Ahram said the Sunday decrees to raise taxes were issued by Morsi. On Monday, the official MENA news agency carried a statement from Morsi's office saying the president has decided to "suspend" the tax increases.
"The president does accept that citizens shoulder any additional burdens except by choice," the statement said. Morsi, it added, has ordered a public debate on the increases to gauge popular reaction.
"The people will always have the loudest voice and final decision," it added.
It was not immediately clear why Morsi changed his mind about the tax hikes in a matter of hours, but the about-face appeared to have more to do with inexperience rather than a bid by the president to appear sympathetic with the majority of Egyptians who struggle daily to make end meet as the economy's woes deepen. A popular backlash against tax hikes could hurt the chances of the Morsi-backed draft constitution being ratified in the referendum.
Egypt and the IMF last month have reached an initial agreement for a $4.8 billion loan to revive the country's ailing economy. The deal, agreed after nearly three weeks of negotiations in Cairo, will support the government's economic program for 22 months, the IMF said in a statement.
Egyptian authorities said at the time that it intended to raise revenues through tax reform, using the resources generated from new taxes to boost social spending and investment in new infrastructure.
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Sunday, December 9, 2012
Lavrov: Russia, US, Brahimi hold new Syria talks
MOSCOW (AP) ? Russian and U.S. diplomats are meeting Sunday with U.N. peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi for more talks on the civil war in Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, adding that the Americans were wrong to see Moscow as softening its position.
Russia agreed to take part in the talks in Geneva, he said, on the condition there would be no demand for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down.
"We are not conducting any negotiations on the fate of Assad," Lavrov said Sunday. "All attempts to portray things differently are unscrupulous, even for diplomats of those countries which are known to try to distort the facts in their favor."
Lavrov met last week with Brahimi and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Dublin. Afterward, Clinton said the United States and Russia were committed to trying again to get both sides in the Syrian conflict to talk about a political transition. Clinton stressed that the U.S. would continue to insist that Assad's departure be a key part of that transition.
Russia and the United States have argued bitterly over how to address the conflict, which began with peaceful protests against Assad in March 2011 and escalated into a civil war. The U.S. has criticized Russia for shielding its closest ally in the Middle East, while Moscow has accused Washington of encouraging the rebels and being intent on regime change.
Russia's foreign minister said Sunday that after he agreed to a U.S. proposal to have his and Clinton's deputies "brainstorm" on Syria, the Americans began to suggest that Russia was softening its position.
"No such thing," Lavrov said. "We have not changed our position."
Germany weighed in Sunday on the future of Assad's regime, with Federal Intelligence Service chief Gerhard Schindler saying it would not survive, although it was impossible to say how long it would hang on.
"Signs are increasing that the regime in Damascus is in its final phase," he was quoted as telling the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
____
Geir Moulson contributed from Berlin.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lavrov-russia-us-brahimi-hold-syria-talks-110041804.html
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