On December 16, 2009, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted in Release Nos. 33-9089, 34-61175 amendments to its regulations in connection with proxy solicitations and other reports filed with the SEC. By these amendments, the SEC intends to improve the disclosure public companies provide investors regarding compensation and corporate governance. The additional disclosures include information about the relationship of a company's overall compensation policies to risk, director and nominee qualifications, company leadership structure and the potential conflicts of interests of compensation consultants. In addition, the amendments add a new Form 8-K disclosure item for real-time reporting of shareholder voting results.

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