(RAPAPORT)  Economic Times, AHMEDABAD: Until recently, the Surat diamond industry was faced with a problem of increasing rough diamond prices and shrinking workforce. Now, with the demand for polished diamonds in the global market having slumped, the industry is caught in a different crisis situation: While there are no takers for polished diamonds, the rough diamonds supplied to the ...

(RAPAPORT)  Xinhua, BRUSSELS: China led the trade boom between Asian countries and the European Union (EU) over the past seven years, the EU's statistics bureau Eurostat announced Monday, four days ahead of an Asia-Europe summit in Beijing. Between years 2000 and 2007, EU's trade with the 16 Asian countries taking part in the regular dialogue mechanism with it, or the Asia-Europe Meet...

(RAPAPORT)  Agence France-Presse, LONDON: Botswana's former President Festus Mogae was named the winner of a $5 million prize for good governance in Africa, winning praise for putting his country's mineral wealth to good use. Announcing the Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership in London's City Hall, former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan also praised Mogae's efforts i...

RAPAPORT...  The Diamond Manufacturers & Importers Association of America (DMIA) is pleased to invite all members of the diamond and jewelry industry to attend an important legal program on Memos, Consignments, Accounts Receivable, Security Agreements, UCC’s and Bankruptcy to be held on Monday, October 27th beginning promptly at 4:00 p.m.   The program will take place in the Grand Ba...

(RAPAPORT)  BBC, MUMBAI: "India will not be affected by the global credit crunch, the economy here is stable and sound." Those words, parroted so often during the past few months by Indian politicians and financial officials, may now ring a little hollow. The truth of the matter is, India has been affected by the liquidity crunch - though arguably not as badly as other parts of the...

RAPAPORT...  Retail chain Mervyn's has decided to close after exhausting its options under bankruptcy protection. The retailer filed for bankruptcy in July. Mervyn's has been operating for nearly six decades across the southwestern United States, mostly in California. The company will conduct a "going out of business" sale during Christmas season. "We are disappointed with this o...

RAPAPORT...  The International Gemological Institute (IGI) offers potential value-add for retailers through its LaserscribeSM process and Registration and Recovery Service, which affords customer base protection against loss or theft of fine jewelry. IGI invented the United States patented process known as Laserscribe, in which a laser inscribes a diamond identification number (DIN), ...

RAPAPORT...  Rockwell Diamonds Inc. appointed Desmond Morgan as its new chief financial officer (CFO.) Morgan replaces Dominique de la Roche, who resigned from the role and will leave the company. Morgan is a chartered accountant with an Honours Degree in Accounting Sciences from the University of South Africa.  He completed his articles at PriceWaterhouse, and subsequently worked fo...

(RAPAPORT)  The Hindu: Want to buy a diamond for your loved ones? Well, you don’t need to visit a jewellery shop. Just by a click of the mouse, you can buy certified quality diamond at fair price.Caratlane.com has just launched the first portal to sell online certified and high quality diamonds. Promoted by Mithun Sacheti, owner of well-known jewellery retailer Jaipur Gems, and Sriniv...

(RAPAPORT)  New Media Age: After 10 years, Amazon.co.uk is still sitting at the top of the e-tail tree. But is it doing enough by simply following successful business models from the U.S., especially with Tesco hard on its heels? Since opening its virtual doors on October 15, 1998, Amazon.co.uk has evolved from an online bookseller into an online department store, selling everything f...

RAPAPORT...  Retailer Star Jewellers of Hatton Garden in London launched a competition leading up to Christmas 2008, providing the public with the chance to win a 1 carat, brilliant cut diamond. Contestants must guess the number of diamonds contained within the glass Star vessel, which is on display in the store at 70 Hatton Garden. A photo of the vessel is on the company website at ...

RAPAPORT... The Panama Diamond Exchange (PDE) will officially launch on Friday October 24, 2008, the exchange announced Sunday. The event will be attended by high ranking Panamanian governmental ministers and global industry leaders including Avi Paz, president of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB;) Gaetano Cavalieri, president of The World Jewellery Confederation (CIBJO;) Eli Izha...

RAPAPORT... Portuguese conglomerate Escom said it expects to produce 180,000 carats of diamonds a month at its joint venture mining project in Angola by July 2010. Helder Bataglia, Escom's chairman, told Reuters, the Camatchia-Camagico mine was currently in a testing phase and produced only 204,000 in 2007. He noted though that the Camatchia-Camagico kimberlite is one of the largest in the wor...

RAPAPORT... ALROSA will resume its supply of rough diamonds to Armenia after a three year break, Itar-Tass reported. The diamond mining giant signed a contract with Diamond Company of Armenia (DCA) to resume the regular delivery of rough diamonds for cutting, Itar-Tass said citing DCA president Gagik Abramyan. “Russian diamonds will be brought to us for cutting for the first time in three year...

RAPAPORT...  INTERPOL reported the arrest of two  suspected members of the so-called Pink Panther gang of jewel thieves in Monaco after one suspect was taken to a hospital following a car crash. Dusko Poznan, 30, from Bosnia-Herzegovina, and an unnamed 27-year-old Serbian were arrested after local police recognized their photos from INTERPOL. The agency currently links Poznan in conne...

RAPAPORT...  Five women entrepreneurs were recognized for achievement during the second annual Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards held in Deauville, France. None of the women selected this round were jewelers. The women were selected based upon entrepreneurial creativity, sustainability, and social impact of their start-up projects. From an applicant pool of 400, one winner from each r...

(RAPAPORT)  Associated Press, MUNICH: The Millionaire Fair, a trade show offering luxury goods for the ultra-rich from jewelry to helicopters, opened to the public Friday with few in attendance amid a global financial meltdown. Fair director Klaas Obma said, however, that he didn't think the crisis would keep rich shoppers from buying high-priced wares. "I think it's quite the oppo...

RAPAPORT... The most recent government sale of gemstones in Myanmar fetched about $175 million during a two-week auction, which ended October 16. The amount was up about 46 percent from the country's auctions held in June and March, and up 17 percent from fourth-quarter auction in 2007. Myanmar generally holds three auctions per year. An organizer of the gems emporium, speaking on co...

(RAPAPORT)  Deutsche Presse-Agentur, MADRID: Spain's economic crisis has spurred the demand for precious stones, especially large diamonds, gemologist Adolfo de Basilio said Friday. "The price of diamonds and gold is going up, probably because people are worried about the fluctuations of the stock market and prefer to invest in tangible goods," said de Basilio, who heads a new Gemolog...

RAPAPORT...  One year ago this month, gold broke past $800oz. and for the following five months it proceeded to climb towards a new record of $1,032oz. by March. But now with a broad-based commodities sell-off underway, it will be interesting to see whether or not gold can even maintain year-to-year comparative gains as 2008 comes to a close. On the week, gold is down 6.9 percent as of 1...