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04.04.19 4 NEWS GLOBAL Hotel Alliance (GHA), the world's largest alliance of independ- ent hotel brands and operator of the award-winning, multi-brand loyalty programme, Discovery, announced on Wednesday that Corinthia Ho- tels are making a strategic investment in the alli- ance. e move comes following similar in- vestments made by Minor Hotel Group and Pan Pacific Ho- tels Group in No- vember 2018. Corinthia joins Omni Hotels, Kempinski Ho- tels, Minor Hotel Group, Pan Pacific Hotels Group, and technology giant Ora- cle in the GHA sharehold- ing. Simon Naudi, Corinthia's CEO, will join the GHA board. Corinthia has been one of GHA's member brands since 2014. Founded in 1962 in Malta by the Pisani family, Corinthia now comprises nine luxu- ry hotels in Europe and Africa, including its flagship Corinthia London. e Corinthia Meydan Beach Dubai is set to open in 2020, while the Corinthia Brussels, Corinthia Bucha- rest and Corinthia Moscow are scheduled to be finished 2021. "Corinthia has been a successful mem- ber of the alliance for the past five years; now as a shareholder, their growing stature and reputation as an independ- ent luxury hotel brand will bring signif- icant value to the alliance, enabling us to make further investments into our growing loyalty and marketing plat- form, Discovery, which is now shared by more than 30 member brands and 14 million customers," GHA CEO Chris Hartley said. Simon Naudi, CEO of Corinthia, add- ed that Corinthia hotels have benefited significantly from the global reach the alliance brought it as a member brand. "Now, as we prepare for a period of rapid growth into new markets, we see this investment as a way to support our brand and hotels in a more efficient way, while enabling us to influence the alliance's future direction. GHA is the ideal collaborative platform for luxury brands, such as ours, wishing to deep- en their global customer base, while re- taining their independent brand identi- ty," Naudi said. Founded in 2004 with the goal of help- ing independent, upscale and luxury hotel brands to compete with the global majors while retaining their individuali- ty, this year GHA celebrates its 15th an- niversary, most recently annoucing the addition of Capella Hotel Group as its latest member brand. Corinthia Hotels takes shareholding in Global Hotel Alliance Five independent hotel groups, together with oracle, now make up the alliance's shareholders CEO Simon Naudi The Corinthia Hotel in Budapest AN international team of scien- tists from Malta, Austria, and Italy, has demonstrated a new kind of telecommunications link that cannot be broken into. e team used entangle- ment, a property of quantum mechanics that Einstein called "spooky action at a distance," specialised devices developed at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and Melita's interna- tional network. ey entangled two particles of light (photons), keeping one in Malta and sending the other to Sicily. ese photons can then create the same secret number in two places without having been sent from one place to another. is secret number can then be used to share information safely. e findings of this research, which have been published by the prestigious journal Proceed- ings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, represent an important step forward in cybersecurity and pave the way for quantum communications to be used routinely in Malta and internationally. is new technology can keep information safe using the laws of the universe itself and is ut- terly unbreakable. In their experiment, the team showed how the Melita tele- communications link between Malta and Sicily can be used to share entanglement between the two countries. is was the longest distance over which entanglement has been shared through a telecom- munications network outside of a laboratory environment. is project received funding from the University of Malta Research, Innovation and De- velopment Trust (RIDT). Unbreakable data security a step closer following first quantum link between Malta and Sicily Entangling two islands. Two entangled photons are created from one. Whilst one of the photons remains in Malta, the other is sent to Sicily. These photons can be used to create a secret code, which can allow to send messages in absolute secrecy

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