PROVEN RESULTS

One year is a long time, apparently.

Just last June, Uber was valued at $18.2 billion. Soon, it could be worth $70 billion - nearly quadruple its value last summer.

The company is looking to raise another $1 billion in funding, according to PrivCo, a data provider on privately-held companies. The new round will value the company between $60 billion and $70 billion.

Uber is already the most valuable privately-held company in the world. It surpassed Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi earlier this year.

As a reminder, a valuation is based on predictions about a company's potential -- so it doesn't mean Uber has $70 billion. It means investors think it's worth that much.

If and when Uber closes the new round of financing, it will be the company's eighth round of funding since launching five years ago. If it's valued at $70 billion, that would make the five-year-old startup worth more than both Ford (F) and GM (GM).

Uber operates in more than 300 cities in 63 countries. Last week, CEO Travis Kalanick said the company is still young - so don't expect it to go public anytime soon.

"Give us a few years," he said on stage at the Wall Street Journal's tech conference in Laguna Beach. "It's just a little early."

According to PrivCo, the new round will go to maintaining Uber's lead over Lyft in the U.S. and battling the competition abroad. That includes Blablacar in Europe, Ola Cabs in India, and Didi Kuaidi -- which recently formed a partnership with Lyft -- in China.

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The World Health Organization is warning that processed meat like salami can cause cancer.

Love your daily hot dog or bacon sandwich? You may want to rethink that.

The World Health Organization said Monday that eating processed meat such as sausages and ham causes cancer, while unprocessed red meat may also be carcinogenic.

The WHO's cancer research unit now classifies processed meat as "carcinogenic to humans" based on evidence from hundreds of studies.

The report outlined that simply eating 50 grams of processed meat each day can increase the risk of colorectal cancer by 18%. However, the authors say the risks are relatively small to begin with.

Most processed meat contains pork or beef, but may also contain poultry. The WHO placed such products in the same category as smoking and asbestos, based on its certainty of a link with cancer, but stressed that did not mean they were equally dangerous.

Unprocessed red meat such as steak and lamb shanks is classified as "probably carcinogenic."

The WHO said the finding was important for public health since processed meat is so widely consumed. However, it said red meat still has "nutritional value."

"These results are important in enabling governments and international regulatory agencies to conduct risk assessments, in order to balance the risks and benefits of eating red meat and processed meat and to provide the best possible dietary recommendations," said Christopher Wild, head of the WHO's cancer agency, in a statement.

According to estimates cited by the WHO, about 34,000 cancer deaths per year worldwide can be attributed to diets that are high in processed meat.

However, meat industry groups slammed the WHO report as biased and misleading.

"They tortured the data to ensure a specific outcome," said Betsy Booren, vice president of scientific affairs at the North American Meat Institute.

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Shares in Japan Post Holdings priced at the top of their expected range Monday, one of the final puzzle pieces in what should be the world's biggest IPO of 2015.

Japan Post said high demand allowed it to price the shares at 1,400 yen ($11.57) each. The offering is part of a complex stock market debut that will see the Japanese government also sell off the postal operator's insurance and banking subsidiaries.

The combined IPO is set to bring in roughly $12 billion. Japan Post alone raised 693 billion yen ($5.7 billion), more than First Data's (FDC) listing earlier this month.

Domestic investors will be able to buy 80% of the shares while the remaining 20% are earmarked for international investors.

The banking and insurance businesses also attracted strong demand, and were also priced at the top of their expected ranges.

Japan has been trying to privatize this behemoth for roughly a decade but extreme public resistance to the move had prevented the government going ahead.

The sale is part of a wider push by the Japanese government to privatize state-owned companies and get money pulsing through the sluggish economy. Japan has the highest level of government debt in the world.

Japan Post has a high profile among residents who would recognize the red delivery vans and motorcycles that are used across the nation for postal services.

But analysts have expressed skepticism about whether it will be able to grow. It is one of the biggest companies in the world, but has been falling down the Fortune Global 500 ranking.

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ISIS is one of the best-funded militant groups in the world, but it could run into serious problems for the long-term if it doesn't keep seizing more territory.

Much of ISIS' money comes from extortion and pillaging, essentially ripping off the people and institutions in conquered territory, and while the group's tactics might bring it windfalls of cash every time it moves into a new city, funding operations requires a constant flow of cash.

“Confiscation makes up a huge part of ISIS revenue”, said J.M. Berger, a Brookings Institution fellow who co-wrote the recent book "ISIS: The State of Terror”. “Confiscation is different from taxation because it's not sustainable. There's only so much you can confiscate before you need to conquer new territories with new wealth.”

ISIS has took over places like Palmyra, an ancient city in Syria that the group conquered in May, for artifacts it can sell on the black market. The militants also bring in money from robbing banks. This nets the group hundreds of millions of dollars, but it's all one-time hits.

"Pillage is a central contributor for ISIS's wealth, and its dependence on strip-mining its holdings for revenue and equipment could be its biggest structural weakness, as this approach will create diminishing returns if ISIS is held to roughly its current geographic limits," Berger said.

While ISIS aims to take over more territory in the Middle East to grow its so-called Islamic caliphate, which was established after the group took control of Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, in August 2014, the group is struggling to continue making significant gains as it fights government forces and rebel groups in Iraq and Syria.

Moreover, the Iraqi government has reportedly stopped paying the salaries of its employees who work in ISIS-controlled areas in an effort to prevent the militants from taking the money.

Furthermore, people are reportedly struggling to pay the taxes ISIS imposes on the residents of its territory. ISIS has reportedly raised the prices of everyday necessities like gas, water, and electricity, partly in an effort to drive people to become fighters for the group, whose salaries are higher than those of average citizens living under ISIS control.

This approach is a double-edged sword, as ISIS has seen some success with using money to lure in desperate people with few options, the group is struggling to meet some of the other financial obligations of a functioning government.

For example, ISIS has made promises to care for the poor in its caliphate, which it markets as an autonomous state, but the group largely hasn't been able to deliver.

In conclusion, ISIS will have to conquer more territories and more cities in order to keep a flowing income. If it fails to do so, its money will start to diminish as time goes by.  

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