LONDON, December 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Consumers are refusing to let the current economic climate deny them a sunny winter break and are being more creative about how they sustain the demands of pre-Christmas spending.

It seems online second hand retail is enabling some consumers to ride out the storm and not have to make too many sacrifices to their lifestyle in the process.

London business development manager Jeremy Fielding (30) has just booked his holiday break to Sardinia funded by selling his entire bookshelf and CD collection on Play.com and offloading some of his daughter's old toys on eBay.

LONDON, December 9 /PRNewswire/ --

Since the accession to the European Union (EU) in 2004, nearly US$2.5 billion dollars (estimated until 2009, including investments in Romania and Bulgaria after joining the EU in 2007) have been invested on the EU-accession states' eastern external borders.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081117/FSLOGO)

The latest Frost Sullivan analysis on Border Security Market Assessment - EU-Accession States (http://www.aerospace.frost.com), estimates that the market revenues will grow from US$777.8 million in 2008 to US$1,245.9 million in 2017, at an expected CAGR of 4.8 per cent.

HELSINKI, December 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Comptel Corporation (OMX Helsinki: CTL1V), the leading vendor of dynamic Operations Support Software (OSS), today announced that it has won the OSS Vendor of the Year award in the Telecom Asia Readers' Choice Awards. Telecom Asia organised this awards program to recognise technology innovations and industry contributions of the top telecom vendors operating in Asia Pacific.

Nominations for the eleventh annual Telecom Asia Readers' Choice Awards were made by 78 analysts, consultants and high-level industry executives. Telecom Asia's editorial team then selected finalists for each of the categories, and opened the voting to its online subscriber base of service providers across Asia.

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany, SYDNEY, Australia and ATLANTA, December 9 /PRNewswire/ --

- Marketscope Analyzes the State of Sales Force Automation for the Consumer Goods Industry

CAS AG, the leading global provider of demand side management solutions for the consumer products industry, today announced it has received a Strong Positive rating in Gartner's MarketScope for Sales Force Automation in the Consumer Goods Industry. CAS was one of 13 vendors evaluated in the report and received the highest possible rating.

INNSBRUCK, Austria and LONDON, December 9 /PRNewswire/ -- With growing numbers of skiers / boarders, a changing climate and more independent travellers, the new and unique http://www.ineedsnow.com snow search allows users to match the best and latest snow conditions to their preferred airport or location.

Please find us a resort that is snow-sure near Salzburg, we have already booked flights.

It was from endless enquiries like the above, that the ineedsnow snow resort search was conceived.

The user selects a criteria and a location and gets an intuitive list of resorts based on an airport location and their requirements.

2 steps to snow:

1. Choose When: - need snow next week, next month, next year?

2. Choose Where: - choose your airport

DALLAS, December 9 /PRNewswire/ --

Texert Inc., a leading provider ofenterprise risk management (ERM) solutions today announced that it has been selected by BT to provide its customers with a key component for its risk management consultancy offering.

As part of the contract, BT has chosen Texert's J-Port(R) product which provides a governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) solution. This allows BT to offer a sophisticated approach to aggregated operational risk through its integrated structure, enabling the capture, assessment, and reporting of risk and compliance data.

LONDON, December 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Micro Focus, the multinational software and information technology business, today raised its dividend by 25 per cent in the first half after reporting revenue growth of 24 per cent and margins of 43 per cent.

In an interview on cantos.com, Stephen Kelly, CEO, said current trading remained strong and that the full year guidance was unchanged.

He also discusses the enhanced relationship with Micro Focus and cloud computing, the proposed acquisition of Liant and the execution of the organic growth strategy.

Addressing the company's outlook, Nick Bray, CFO, said:

BEERSE, Belgium, December 9 /PRNewswire/ --

- Preliminary Phase II Re-treatment Results and two new Analyses From Phase III VISTA Presented at ASH Annual Meeting

Janssen-Cilag today announced preliminary results from a prospective, international, multicenter, open-label, phase II study showing re-treatment with VELCADE(R) (bortezomib) is an effective and well-tolerated treatment option for patients with relapsed multiple myeloma (MM) who had previously responded to VELCADE-based treatment. The patient response after re-treatment was similar when VELCADE was used alone or in combination with dexamethasone. These data were presented in San Francisco, CA at the 50th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting Exposition.

PETERHEAD, Scotland, December 9 /PRNewswire/ -- After receiving several reports from angry customers about their insurer's cancellation charges, (some in excess of GBP140), http://www.noclaimsdiscount.co.uk researched some of the major insurers to find out what these charges were based on and why consumers were seemingly unaware of them prior to purchasing the policy -- in particular, the administration fee for cancelling your policy. The charges themselves proved concerning, though not as much the lack of clarity.

Elephant.co.uk has a cancellation administration fee of GBP47.50 - but this was only found out after some considerable digging.

LONDON, December 9 /PRNewswire/ --

- GSMA Encourages Industry to Experience the Mobile Future in Barcelona

The GSMA, the global trade body for the mobile industry, today announced that it is bringing together executives of the world's largest and most influential mobile operators, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies and media and entertainment organizations at the 2009 GSMA Mobile World Congress to be held February 16-19, 2009 in Barcelona. CEOs from companies including ATT, Microsoft Corp., MySpace, Nokia, NTT DOCOMO, Telefonica, Telenor, Verizon Communications and Vodafone will address head-on the challenges presented by the global economic slowdown and will outline strategies for sustaining growth.