How Turkey's business superwoman built empire in man's world

Istanbul Turkey  -- In Turkey, you can't go far without coming across the name Sabanci.
Sabanci Holding is the country's largest financial and industrial conglomerate. Also present in 17 other countries and covering financial, energy, cement and retail sectors the giant accounts for 12% of Istanbul Stock Exchange and employs 56,000 people.There is also a Sabanci University a Sabanci Foundation and a Sakip Sabanci Museum in Istanbul.And at the head of it all is one woman, Guler Sabanci, who has been chairwoman and managing director of the empire since 2004.Under Sabanci's
stewardship, the company has grown at an average of 12% a year in the past decade with plans to increase growth in the next 10 years.In 2011 Sabanci was ranked number two in the Financial Times Top 50 Women In World Business and in 2012 was number 93 on Forbes World's Most Powerful Women list.
Sabanci 58 is the third generation of her family -- and the first woman -- to run the company started by her grandfather Haci Omer as a textile business in Adana southern Turkey in the early 20th century.
Guler Sabanci joined the family business -- following her five uncles -- after graduating from university in 1978 in the new tire manufacturing company.The tire company was something new it was just coming up a new venture in the group said Sabanci. When I graduated I guess I wanted to have blue-ocean strategy.
She became the first female member of the Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen's Association an organization founded by her uncle.I was the first woman they made a big ceremony for me becoming a member she said.CNN met Sabanci at the Sakip Sabanci Museum in Istanbul, once the family's summer home named after her late uncle who donated his unique collections of Ottoman calligraphy and Turkish paintings.He lived here with his family in the last 25 years before it became a museum and he has donated his two collections said Sabanci.I am very pleased to say he himself had the joy of seeing it turn into a museum.
It was one of his (dreams) was ... to have a Picasso exhibition in this museum and I am pleased to say we were able to realize this dream. And it was a hit it was a great blockbuster it was the first ever Picasso show in Turkey.Other recent exhibitions have included Monet and Rembrandt.
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Philanthropy is important to Sabanci who has been president of Sabanci University since she set it up in 1996.The Haci Omer Sabanci Foundation of which she is president of the board of trustees has made more than US$1.5 billion in charitable contributions since 1974.
Being a good person and fair person is very important in life I think she said.And also life is meaningless if only you are only making money.She extends that approach to women's rights.
Not every woman has what I have, so if I could do something to help them that should also be my duty she said.for regrets.I go forward, I'm a doer.Guler Sabanci Sabanci insists there were no barriers for her as a woman within her family but that she faced discrimination from both within and outside the company as she was rising through the ranks in the 1980s.We are very fortunate now today.This is the century of us -- this is the century of women she said.Sabanci says she regularly has lunch with randomly chosen female employees to ensure they feel they are being treated equally.In 2011 Sabanci received the Clinton Global Citizen Award founded by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, for her work towards ending child marriages in Turkey through the NGO Girls Not Brides.I believe that it is girls human rights to go to school to be educated minimum until they are 18 she said.Afterwards you can call them adults they can make their own decisions.But until they are 18 it is everybody's responsibility their families the authorities us everybody is responsible.Also on Leading Women: 10 ways women can succeed at work in 2013
Sabanci has never married or had children of her own. She said she has too busy to think about settling down and has no regrets.Never never never.I don't have time for regrets. I go forward I'm a doer and I always have projects and dreams.

Gunfire triggers rapper Rick Ross crash, police say

Los Angeles -- "Teflon Don" rapper Rick Ross crashed his silver Rolls Royce into an apartment building after he heard gunfire along a Fort Lauderdale, Florida, street Monday morning, police said.

"The driver of the Rolls Royce attempted to drive away from the direction of the shots being fired and lost control of the vehicle, striking a nearby apartment building," Fort Lauderdale Police Detective DeAnna Garcia said.Ross and a female passenger were not hurt by the wreck or the gunshots, Garcia said."The suspects fled from the area prior to police arrival," she said.The incident, however, called attention to threats against the artist's life made in a street gang's videos and posted online in recent months."We're pulling up on you," a man who identified himself as a member of the Gangster Disciples warned in one of the videos. "Whatever city, whatever state, the pressure on."Several videos purporting to be from Gangster Disciple members in several states -- including Georgia, North Carolina and Florida -- appeared on YouTube late last year demanding that Ross pay a fee to them for his use of the Star of David, which they claim as a gang symbol, and a reference to one of their founders in his music and marketing."You got to cut the check," one video said. "Tell your boss man he got to get that check, or all you in trouble.""We need that cash right now," another said.Ross, 37, whose albums include "Teflon Don" in 2010 and "Deeper Than Rap" a year earlier, told south Florida radio station 99 Jamz last month that he was not intimidated by the threats."Ain't never no checks getting cut," he said. "I don't play those games. I consider that extortion."Is Nas hip-hop's finest MC?
Ross did cancel his North Carolina shows last month just days after a video appeared online threatening his life if he performed there.Never was it due to any threats," he told the radio station. Instead, he canceled because "the promoter wasn't really handling his business.Ross wanted to make certain that listeners understood he was not frightened. "Don't ever get it twisted, Ricky Ross is the boss," he said.The death threats are not the only challenge to Ross. A former drug lord and gang leader is suing in a Los Angeles court, accusing him of stealing his name and reputation.The reality is I want justice done," the original Ross wrote in an e-mail to CNN. "I know that he took his name and image from my life and believe he is unfairly profiting off my story.Ricky "Freeway" Ross was serving a prison sentence a decade ago when rapper William Roberts, who previously worked as a Florida correctional officer, adopted "Rick Ross" as his stage name, according to the lawsuit.his rapper and his labels clearly knew of my name and story, and have tried to suck out the lifeblood without license," the former drug lord said. "I have my own use for my intellectual property and did not need this confusion created."More recently, the rapper has been using the name "Ricky Rozay."The rapper and his record label have not responded to CNN's request for comment.
Despite the death threats and legal issues, his music is doing well. Ross is nominated for a best rap album Grammy for his latest release, "God Forgives, I Don't.

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Muslim Brotherhood asked for law giving arrest powers to military, says source

The Muslim Brotherhood is behind the Shura Council-approved law granting the Armed Forces judiciary powers to arrest and try civilians, a Brotherhood source said Monday.The source, who spoke on condition
of anonymity, said leaders from the Brotherhood's supreme guidance bureau called on Brotherhood-affiliated ministers to propose the draft law to the Cabinet. The law guarantees the deployment of the Armed Forces until after the parliamentary elections.At an emergency meeting at the group's headquarters in Moqattam, some Brotherhood members expressed reservations about the proposal, while others said this was the only solution to ongoing armed confrontations in the street, and to keeping Morsy in the president's office.The draft law allows Morsy to deploy the Armed Forces to quell riots and violence, the source said, adding that deployment can only happen by presidential decree.Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

Amitabh Bachchan on a kissing spree

 

cMumbai: Amitabh Bachchan, who had recently attended an award function in Mumbai, obliged many young actresses by kissing them on their cheeks.Host Ayushmann Khurrana had actually asked Big B to shake a
leg to his hit number ‘Jumma Chumma’ from ‘Hum’ and that was when the veteran told that he needs someone to enact the song with.Narrating what the kissing episode meant, Big B tweeted, “Abhishek in NewYork for shoot so I went up for his too .. Double trouble tonight ! they asked me to dance to `Jumma Chumma` .. I asked during `Jumma ..` who do I have to kiss .. And all the lovely ladies in the front row ran up the stage - guess who (sic).The 70 year old thespian, who is a doting grand-father to Aaradhya Bachchan, was in a mood to kiss his young female colleagues. Big B blushed while asking the audiences if there is still someone who cared to be kissed by him. And up went several hands in the air - and the list included Priyanka Chopra, Vidya Balan, Parineeti Chopra, Bipasha Basu, Farah Khan and Anushka Sharma.
“Vidya, Priyanka, Parineeti, Anushka, Farah, Bipasha ... and I gave them all a peck ... !!! Its been a generous day ! hahahah ! (sic).”
Image courtesy: Pinkvilla