IN BRIEF

Luxury goods buck economic slowdown

PARIS: Fuelled by surging demand in China, luxury goods makers are bucking the global economic slowdown and reaping huge profits on sales of high-end handbags, expensive jewellery and posh perfumes. Results for the first-half of 2012 released this week showed major brands, including world leaders LVMH, PPR and Luxottica with rising profits driven by growing sales in emerging markets. The results beat analyst expectations and allayed fears that the cooling down of China's economy would dampen luxury sales. .

Def Con hackers reach for digital wallets

LAS VEGAS: Hackers at a notorious Def Con gathering have come up with ways to reach into digital wallets. Smartphones at the heart of modern lifestyles are becoming top targets for cyber attacks, according to security specialists and hackers who flocked to Las Vegas this week for back-to-back Def Con and Black Hat conferences. "We are entering a post-PC (personal computer) exploitation world," said researcher Stephen Ridley of Xipiter, where his team uncovered that the same types of attacks that plague desktop computers can be turned on mobile gadgets. He said attention is shifting to the always-on, personal data rich devices in people's pockets.

Germans believe 'better without euro'

BERLIN: The majority of Germans think their country would be better off without the euro, a poll suggested yesterday, as the economy minister reiterated doubts over whether Greece can stay in the single currency. The Emnid poll for the Bild am Sonntag mass circulation weekly showed 51 per cent of Germans believed Europe's top economy would be better outside the 17-country eurozone. Twenty-nine per cent said it would be worse off.

Aviva approached for sale of US unit-paper

LONDON: Aviva, Britain's second largest insurance group, has received a number of unsolicited approaches from financial and private equity buyers for a US unit estimated to be worth some 1 billion pounds, the Sunday Telegraph reported. The paper said Pat Regan, Chief Financial Officer, has spent been in Des Moines, Iowa, where the business is headquartered, to prepare the business for sale. Earlier this year it sold half its stake in Delta Lloyd for 318 million pounds.Prudential Plc and Manulife are among potential buyers for Aviva's Malaysian business in a $500 million deal. Agencies