Category: Uncategorized

Debuting on mobile and MacOS, the latest FarmVille franchise title empowers players to bring their own unique farm to life with endearing characters, lovable animals and unique gameplay features

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 5 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) — Today, Zynga Inc. (Nasdaq: ZNGA), a global leader in interactive entertainment, announced the worldwide launch of FarmVille 3, the exciting new edition of its iconic FarmVille franchise. The agriculture-simulation social game is now officially available to download on iOS and Android devices worldwide, as well as on the Mac M1.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: 
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211104005004/en/ Twelve years – and over 700 million downloads – after the original FarmVille was introduced to the world in 2009, FarmVille 3 is bringing to life a new beautifully crafted world filled with a rich cast of fully animated characters and interactive animals.

Returning to the franchise is the beloved guide Marie, who will welcome back the FarmVille community and greet new players as they build their homesteads and complete challenges. She will be joined by a fresh cast of farmhands with diverse backgrounds and skills who will assist players with new elements in the game, including new customizable farms and animal husbandry.

As players escape into this new world, they can adopt, nurture and raise baby animals from more than 150 breeds – and be rewarded with farm goods, like wool and butter, for their parenting efforts.

“FarmVille 3 immerses players in a visually stunning new FarmVille experience infused with the sense of adventure, social connection and farming spirit that hundreds of millions of fans have come to love,” said Bernard Kim, President of Publishing at Zynga. “We warmly invite a new generation of players to meet the delightful new FarmVille characters and lovable animals who thrive in a gorgeous countryside filled with heart and humor.”

Click to watch

New Game Features

• Variety of animals – Collect, breed and nurture more than 150 breeds of animals, ranging from the mainstay chickens and cows to the exotic tigers and fluffy alpacas
• Diverse farmhands – Meet 30 characters with handy skills – such as baking, fishing, lumberjacking and crafting – that will assist you on your farm-building journey
• A living, breathing world – Control weather patterns with dynamic in-game mechanics to speed up your crop growth, catch more fish or earn more coins
• Customize everything – Dress your farmhands in seasonal outfits such as a pumpkin costume for Halloween or add a personal touch to your farm, animal house or vehicle by picking from a plethora of themed design options such as modern or Victorian decor
• Neighborly social gameplay features – Form your own “co-op” to exchange goods with other players and cooperate to win events and unique decorations

Starting today, players who download the game within the next two weeks will receive a special starter kit with interactive features to help customize their farms, such as decorative elements and the ‘Early Bird’ profile picture.

FarmVille 3 is the latest addition to the FarmVille series, which includes FarmVille 2: Country Escape and FarmVille 2: Tropic Escape.

To view the supporting still and video assets for FarmVille 3, please click here.

FarmVille 3 is available now for iOS, Android and Mac M1 as a free download.

For more information visit:
www.FarmVille3.com
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter


http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=41492

Well Positioned to Capture Significant and Growing Leisure Travel Demand with Enhanced End-to-End Offerings and an Increasingly Diversified Portfolio

Reaffirms Expanded Asset Sale Commitment to Generate an Additional $2 Billion of Proceeds by End of 2024; Fully Completes Existing Commitment

CHICAGO, Nov 3 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) — Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE: H) today announced that Hyatt has completed the previously announced acquisition of Apple Leisure Group® (ALG), a leading luxury resort-management services, travel and hospitality group, from affiliates of each of KKR and KSL Capital Partners, LLC.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: 
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211102005724/en/
Hyatt is doubling its global resorts footprint through the addition of ALG’s AMR™ Collection brand portfolio, which comprises approximately 100 hotels and resorts operating in 10 countries, as well as a pipeline of 24 executed deals in the Americas and Europe. As a result, Hyatt now offers one of the largest collections of luxury all-inclusive resorts in the world, including new destinations for Hyatt such as Acapulco, Curaçao, the Canary Islands, Menorca and St. Martin. Through this acquisition, Hyatt has added properties in 11 new European markets and expanded its European brand footprint by 60%, strengthening Hyatt’s growth potential in a critical region for global leisure travel demand.
 In addition, Hyatt is offering even more options and experiences for its high-end guest and customer base and enhancing the end-to-end leisure travel experience through:

• Unlimited Vacation Club® by AMR™ Collection, an exclusive membership club whose members enjoy preferred rates and other benefits at participating AMR™ Collection properties
• ALG Vacations®, one of the largest packaged vacation providers and leisure travel distribution platforms in North America serving the United States, Mexico and the Caribbean
• Amstar, a leading destination services management company
• Trisept Solutions®, a unique leisure travel technology platform

Hyatt is determining ways in which the World of Hyatt® loyalty program and ALG’s Unlimited Vacation Club® can bring added value and unique loyalty benefits to their respective member bases. Hyatt plans to integrate the AMR™ Collection into World of Hyatt in 2022 so that members can earn and redeem World of Hyatt points at more than 100 AMR™ Collection hotels and resorts.

“Hyatt’s acquisition of ALG represents a brand-defining moment in our more than 60-year history and builds on our legacy as a hospitality leader,” said Mark Hoplamazian, president and chief executive officer, Hyatt. “Hyatt and ALG have highly complementary brand portfolios and share a deep commitment to colleague and guest experiences focused on care. Having first entered the fast-growing luxury all-inclusive space in 2013, we are ideally positioned to capture the significant and rising demand for leisure travel and extend the world-class hospitality we provide to a wide range of new travelers. We are excited to welcome the ALG team to the Hyatt family, and look forward to working together to achieve new levels of growth and value creation for all stakeholders – including our shareholders, owners, customers, guests, members and colleagues.”

“Today marks the beginning of ALG’s next chapter, in which we will continue to build on the strong loyalty and reputation we have established through our luxury travel brands and services, now as part of Hyatt,” said Alejandro Reynal, chief executive officer and president, Apple Leisure Group. “We strongly believe we can achieve more together and are excited by the opportunities ahead for our expanded family, including our ALG team members, who are excited to join a larger global organization. With Hyatt’s added expertise, we expect to accelerate our expansion as we welcome more travelers and turn vacation dreams into life-long memories.”

ALG’s business will continue to be led by Alejandro Reynal and the current ALG leadership team. ALG will operate as a distinct business unit within Hyatt. Mr. Reynal has joined Hyatt’s executive leadership team and reports to Mr. Hoplamazian.

In September of 2021, Hyatt fulfilled its asset disposition commitment announced in 2019 of $1.5 billion resulting in a total of more than $3 billion of proceeds realized since its asset-disposition strategy was launched in 2017, at a combined multiple of over 17x EBITDA. Hyatt also reaffirms its commitment to generate an additional $2 billion in proceeds from asset dispositions by the end of 2024.

Advisors
In connection with the transaction, BDT & Company, LLC and J.P. Morgan served as financial advisors to Hyatt, and Latham & Watkins LLP acted as its legal advisor. PJT Partners served as financial advisor to ALG, and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP acted as its legal advisor. Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. served as financial advisors to KKR and KSL Capital Partners.

The term “Hyatt” is used in this release for convenience to refer to Hyatt Hotels Corporation and/or one or more of its affiliates.

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=41472

DuitNow QR Programme by Payments Network Malaysia Sdn Bhd (PayNet) in collaboration with TNG Digital (TNGD)
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 1 (Bernama) — As part of its ongoing commitment to build an inclusive, accessible, and efficient payments and financial eco-systems for Malaysia, Payments Network Malaysia Sdn Bhd (PayNet) in collaboration with TNG Digital (TNGD) has expanded the interoperable national QR standard to Langkawi through its DuitNow QR Programme.

From 25 October till 12 December 2021, the DuitNow QR Programme will provide cash incentive to the first 2,000 merchants in Langkawi who successfully register for the Touch ‘n Go eWallet DuitNow QR to enable them to access seamless payment collection for their operations.

The programme aims to support businesses impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly in the tourism sector. To support the government’s travel bubble initiative, the DuitNow QR Programme will focus on merchants in Langkawi with hopes to kick start their business through the acceptance and acceleration of digital payment instruments.

Khairuan Abdul Rahman, Director of Retail Payment Services of PayNet said “As the national payments operator, PayNet is fully committed to support our country’s shift towards a cashless future in an inclusive manner. DuitNow QR offers interoperability and standardised QR payments, so that customers can make QR payments via any of the 32 banks and eWallets at over 900,000 touch points across the country. Our collaboration with TNG Digital will enable merchants to join our fast-growing ecosystem which will hopefully accelerate their recovery from the pandemic and revive the economy in Langkawi.”

Meanwhile, Ignatius Ong, Chief Executive Officer of TNG Digital said, “The pandemic has accelerated the adoption and usage of digital payments as consumers’ daily habits, consumption patterns and ways of thinking have changed. This collaboration with PayNet allows us to extend this seamless, fast, convenient, and safe platform with DuitNow QR for both merchants and consumers in Langkawi. We hope this endeavour will help revitalise the merchants as well as the economy on the island.”

An integrated, comprehensive solution for business, TNGD simplifies the merchant onboarding process with its merchant dashboard within the Touch ‘n Go eWallet app. Dedicated to managing and tracking sales transactions, the merchant dashboard provides merchants with the convenience and tools to manage their business at their fingertips. The benefit for merchants is that they would only need to maintain one acquirer account to accept QR transactions. This simplifies their operations especially for small businesses as they would only need to refer to one statement to view all QR-code transactions.

With nearly 90,000 visitors recorded since the Langkawi travel bubble commenced as of mid-October, the expansion of DuitNow QR to Langkawi is expected to benefit merchants as tourist arrivals increases. Apart from addressing hygiene concerns in handling cash, merchants no longer need to display multiple QR codes at payment counters. Customers can scan with their bank mobile app or eWallet of choice to pay via a single DuitNow QR code.

For more information and updates, visit www.touchngo.com.my and log on to https://www.facebook.com/touchngoewallet/. The Touch ‘n Go eWallet is available for download on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store respectively.

About Payments Network Malaysia Sdn Bhd (PayNet)
PayNet is Malaysia’s premier payments network and central infrastructure for financial markets. We innovate, build, and operate world-class payment systems and financial market infrastructures that safely, reliably, and efficiently enable the functioning and development of Malaysia’s financial system as well as the economy as a whole. Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) is PayNet’s single largest shareholder, with eleven Malaysian’s Banks as joint shareholders.

About DuitNow QR
DuitNow QR is Malaysia’s National QR Standard established by PayNet under Bank Negara Malaysia’s Interoperable Credit Transfer Framework which allows interoperability between all participating Banks and eWallets. For more information, please visit www.paynet.my
 
About TNG Digital Sdn Bhd
TNG Digital Sdn Bhd (“TNGD”) founded by Touch ‘n Go Sdn Bhd and Ant Group (“Ant”), parent company of Alipay, China’s largest digital payments platform. Established in 2017, TNGD is the owner and operator of Touch ‘n Go eWallet, Malaysia’s number one eWallet company, with over 16 million registered users. Combining Touch ‘n Go’s strong domestic brand, dominance in toll, transit and parking use cases and nationwide user base, together with Ant’s deep domain expertise and leading the development of open platforms for technology-driven inclusive financial services, the Touch ‘n Go eWallet provides financial services and payments services to both retail users and small to mid-sized businesses, across physical and online infrastructure. For more information, please visit www.touchngo.com.my   

Source: Payments Network Malaysia Sdn Bhd (PayNet)

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=41431

Parents of MCKL Alumni Applauds MCKL for Excellent Track Record and Children’s Success

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 1 (Bernama) — Recently Methodist College Kuala Lumpur (MCKL) celebrated 245 Cambridge A Level (CAL) student who achieved various awards for the Cambridge International June 2021 Examination Series, continuing its excellent track record of 100% average passing rate for 8 consecutive years from 2014 to 2021 along with 125 and counting Outstanding Cambridge Learners Award recipients since 2013.

MCKL’s curriculum sets a global standard for education, with programmes that stretch, challenge, and inspire students. MCKL’s CAL students are equipped with knowledge, key competencies, and skills, ready to embark on a successful university journey locally and abroad.
 
Take CAL student Lye Jian Wen and Lye Jian Yi for instance. Jian Wen is currently studying Bachelor of Computing, National University of Singapore while Jian Yi who is an ASEAN undergraduate scholar is studying Bachelor of Science Computer Science at Singapore Management University.
 
Their father Mr Lye Kah Hou said, “MCKL provided a highly conducive environment that can bring out the best in students – it was competitive but in a friendly manner, and always encouraging.  True to its ethos of being an Institution of Excellence for Life. The lecturers did more than teach, they mentored my sons to make sure they coped well with studies and college life. I was impressed at how well the lecturers knew my sons’ strengths and weaknesses while giving suggestions for improvement”

Another CAL Alumni, Sri Ram Vengada and his brothers also shared similar success. Sri Ram is pursuing Masters in Aeronautics & Astronautics Engineering, at the University of Southampton while his brother Lakshman is pursuing Bachelor of Actuarial Science, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK while the youngest, Bharath Vengada is pursuing Masters in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Southampton.

Their parents Vengada Ramanujam (Father) and Meera Badmanaban (Mother) said, “Our sons chose the Cambridge International A Level as this is a highly reputable course which is internationally recognised. It would give them a solid foundation to build upon for their university applications. Our eldest son, Sri Ram, did very well in his A-levels and formed lasting friendships during his time in MCKL. Our second son, Lakshman, also performed very well and as parents we felt that there was a caring environment in MCKL where the teachers personally knew the students and were able to guide them to their chosen university and career paths. This led us to also enrol my youngest son there.”

For over 38 years, Methodist College Kuala Lumpur (MCKL) has been providing quality higher education in the best of Methodist tradition. MCKL will be launching its first branch campus – MCKL College (Penang, Pykett Campus) this year. Follow MCKL official Facebook and Instagram page for more updates. For details, visit mckl.edu.my or call 03-2274 1851.
 
About Methodist College Kuala Lumpur
Visit: https://mckl.edu.my/about-mckl/our-story/

Source: Methodist College Kuala Lumpur

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Name:Daniel Gregory
PR & Communications
Tel: +60122950336
Email: daniel.ig@mckl.edu.my

–BERNAMA

NINGBO, China, Nov 2 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) — The opening ceremony of the 2021 Ningbo (Yuyao) Yangming Culture Week, sponsored by the CPC Ningbo Municipal Committee and Ningbo Municipal People’s Government and hosted by the Publicity Department of the CPC Ningbo Municipal Committee, Ningbo Academy of Social Sciences (Social Science Federation), CPC Yuyao Municipal Committee and Yuyao Municipal People’s Government, was held in Yuyao, Ningbo, with the official release of a global creative call on the 550th anniversary of Wang Yangming’s birth on October 31, 2021.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: 
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211030005010/en/

Wang Yangming, alias Shouren and courtesy name Bo’an, was a native of Yuyao County, Zhejiang Province (now Yuyao City, Ningbo) in Ming Dynasty. He was a distinguished philosopher, politician, military strategist, and educator in ancient China. Later generations referred to him as “the first-rate figure of the Ming Dynasty who represents the essence of morality, meritorious service, and advocacy.” Therefore, he was hailed as an “immortal person”. The Yangming School of Mind that he founded, with “intuition to conscience” and “oneness of knowledge and action” at its core, has exerted a profound influence on the history of China and even East Asian philosophy.

As Wang Yangming’s birthplace, growing place, and lecture place, “Yuyao, hometown of Yangming and the sacred place of heart learning,” Ningbo Yuyao has always adapted to the duty of revitalizing and preserving traditional culture. Our mission will be to promote Yangming culture in the new era by restoring relics, promoting activities, and conducting ideological research and cultural inheritance so as to ensure that Yangming culture augments social development and that Yangming thought shines brighter.

During the 550th anniversary of Wang Yangming’s birth in 2022, Ningbo Yuyao will hold a grand commemorative event in order to further inherit and promote Yangming culture, and it is now seeking “ideas for activities to commemorate the 550th anniversary of Wang Yangming’s birth” from all over the world.

We welcome your ideas via email (yangmingguli@126.com) or letter (received by Yuyao Social Science Federation, No. 19, Chengxia Road, Lizhou Street, Yuyao City, Zhejiang Province), and we look forward to working with you on making traditional culture shine in a fresh way.

View source version on businesswire.com: 
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211030005010/en/

Contact

Lou Xin
Email: yangmingguli@126.com

Source: Ningbo Municipal People’s Government

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=41455