Global

GLOBAL - The real estate market is offering great rewards to those who get the timing right, but pension funds tempted to make large allocations to the sector have been warned the market may not yet have bottomed out.

INCLUDING: US - Pioneer appoints US head of portfolio management; US - CalPERS appoints board member; US - CalPERS appoints board member

GLOBAL - Aviva has revealed plans to combine its asset management businesses to create a globally integrated group to be known as Aviva Investors.

GLOBAL - Pension funds' focus on alpha could have caused a 50% increase in active manager fees in five years, according to Watson Wyatt.

GLOBAL - Russell is to launch global style equity indexes in April, reflecting key growth and value segments of the Russell Global Index.

EUROPE - Credit Suisse has appointed Michael Rüdiger as chief executive officer of Credit Suisse in Germany, Austria, Luxembourg and Central Europe.

GLOBAL - Incisive Media is pleased to announce the winners of the Global Pensions Awards 2008 .

INCLUDING - UK - Burke joins Hewitt; ASIA - Asia Pacific appointments; US - Feckner re-elected CalPERS president; AUSTRALIA - Future fund positive returns; CANADA - Caisse de depot results; UK - NAPF welcomes risk sharing consultation

Kemal Ahmed and Joseph Mariathasan explain why the typical benchmarked approach to investing in emerging markets equities does not allow investors access to the full emerging markets story

CZECH REPUBLIC - The Czech government has provisionally approved sweeping changes to the country's pension system, designed to curb massive potential future deficits and reform the economy.