ATLANTA, October 2 /PRNewswire/ --

Global Payments Inc. (NYSE: GPN) today announced results for its fiscal first quarter ended August 31, 2008. For the first quarter, revenues grew 30 percent to US$405.8 million compared to US$311.0 million in the prior year. Excluding a prior period restructuring charge relating to a facility closure, diluted earnings per share grew 31 percent to US$0.71 compared to US$0.54 in the prior year quarter.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20010221/ATW031LOGO )

In accordance with GAAP, the prior year quarter included a restructuring charge (see attached reconciliation schedule). For the three months ended August 31, 2007, GAAP diluted earnings per share was US$0.53.

OAK PARK, Michigan, October 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Azure Dynamics Corporation (TSX: AZD, LSE: ADC & OTCQX: AZDDF) - ("Azure" or the "Company"), a leading developer of hybrid electric and electric powertrains for commercial vehicles has granted 172,367 and 66,667 Deferred Share Units ("DSUs") to Director, James J. Padilla and Dennis A. Sharp as of September 30, 2008.

PARIS, October 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Valeo announced today that it has created a joint venture with the Anand Group for the production of lighting systems in India. The new company, called Valeo Lighting Systems India Private Limited, will be majority-owned by Valeo.

Located in Chennai, the joint venture will develop, produce and sell Valeo Lighting Systems products, including headlamps, rear lamps and fog lamps, for automakers serving the fast-growing Indian market.

BRUSSELS, October 2 /PRNewswire/ --

European Industry Leaders Look to Closer Collaboration Between Business And Schools

There was an idea first proposed in 1916 — that plants with rapid reproductive cycles evolve faster - and a team of Yale scientists writing in Science say they have confirmed it using 2008 computing power.

Long involved with the Tree of Life Web Project, which is attempting to reconstruct the “tree” representing the genealogical relationships of all species on Earth, Michael Donoghue, the G. Evelyn Hutchinson Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and Curator of Botany at Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History, has spearheaded the study of flowering plant evolution. In animals, the variation in rate of molecular evolution has been ascribed to differences in generation time, metabolic rate, DNA repair, and body size; in plants, the differences have been more difficult to determine.

Bacteria are everywhere and can survive in almost anything. Finding out exactly how bacteria respond and adapt to stresses and dangers will further our understanding of the basic survival mechanisms of some of the most resilient, hardy organisms on Earth.

Toward that goal, a bacteria cell's 'crisis command center' has been observed for the first time swinging into action to protect the cell from external stress and danger, according to new research out today.

It's like Team America: World Police, except there are no animatronic puppets or Alec Baldwin impressions.

The crisis command center in certain bacteria cells is a large molecule, dubbed a 'stressosome' by the scientists behind today's research.

LONDON and TBILISI, Georgia, October 2 /PRNewswire/ --

- With Photo

- Court rejects Megafon appeal, upholding fines by Georgian authorities for unlicensed operations in South Ossetia

On Thursday, the Administrative Panel of the Tbilisi City Court rejected an appeal filed by the Russian telecom company Megafon, upholding fines imposed against the company by the Georgian National Communications Commission (GNCC) for unlicensed use of the radio frequency spectrum to provide cell phone coverage within the country's sovereign territory.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081002/NY36579 )

LONDON, October 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Nokia's announcement to stop the development and marketing of Intellisync has shaken up the enterprise mobility market, and has left many companies looking for alternative solutions.

With DME - Excitor's mobility and device management solution, Excitor can offer an immediate help to Intellisync customers - and is ready to speak to any business needing advice or support.

Excitor can also initiate relationships with Intellisync partners which may now be left without a secure mobile device management solution in their product portfolio.

For Nokia customers requiring an immediate alternative, Excitor is able to migrate Intellisync licenses to DME licenses by the end of the year.

LONDON, October 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Commenting on the figures out today from the Department of the Environment, which showed that between 2005 and 2006, the number of households classified as fuel poor jumped by one million to 3.5 million, Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of Unite said:

"When the Government's own report acknowledges that millions more households have been pushed into fuel poverty as a direct result of increases in consumer energy prices, then it is time to stop talking to these companies about lagging the lofts and start making them do their duty by those in desperate need.

LONDON, October 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Emailvision, the European market and technology leader in on-demand software for e-mail marketing automation, today announced that Nick Gold has joined the group as Head of Sales for the UK.