Here Comes Starbucks

US Ambassador Nicholas Taubman confirmed the rumors about the imminent opening of Starbucks cafes in Bucharest.

Starbucks is currently one of the world's largest coffee shop networks, with over 12,000 locations worldwide. In Bucharest, the first two locations will most probably be placed in two malls - Vitan Mall and Plaza Romania.
Starbucks will function as a franchise, being brought to Romania by the Greek company Marianopoulos, also operating franchises for Marks&Spencer, Sephora and The Body Shop.

In November 2006, Starbucks held 7100 locations worldwide, out of which 5668 in the USA. Other 5500 locations are operated as franchises. The company goal is to reach 20,000 locations during the following years, China being considered as one of the most attractive targets.

I'm Gonna Live Forever

Women will continue to outlive men in the European Union over the next 40 years as female life expectancy across the bloc tops 80 years in 2050, figures released on Tuesday showed.

But the report from EU statistics office Eurostat, released to mark International Women's Day on Thursday, said the gap between the life expectancy of men and women "is expected to narrow each year in almost all member states".

In 2005, women died on average between the ages of 75 in Romania and 83 in Spain, while men lived on average to 75. This will increase to a life expectancy for women of between 84 in Romania and 90 in France in 2050, Eurostat said.

It said the difference between men and women in 2005 was around six years.

"The highest differences were in Lithuania and Latvia of 12 years and the lowest were in Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden and Malta of four years," it said.

"In 2050, life expectancy is expected to increase for both men and women ... with differences narrowing between males and females, ranging from three years in Denmark and Malta to eight years in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia."

Women made up 59 percent of citizens aged 65 years or over in 2005, but that is expected to fall to 55 percent in 2050.

The survey -- carried out in the fields of demography, education and employment -- also showed that Ireland and France topped the fertility charts.

Greece and the Czech Republic had the lowest fertility rates, Eurostat figures for the end of 2005 showed.

The unemployment rate for women in January of this year came to 8.5 percent compared to 6.7 percent for men, the report said. It was higher for women in all states of the 27-country EU except Britain, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania.

Just over 30 percent of women who had a job in the second half of 2006 worked part-time, compared to just under 8 percent of men. Nearly 15 percent of women across the EU were employed on a temporary basis, the report said.

Romania, Estonia and Lithuania had the lowest shares of female temporary workers, while Spain, Poland and Finland topped that table.

Source