Tuesday 02.00 GMT Overview Stocks were putting in a mixed performance in Asia, while currencies fluctuated as markets braced for the impact of a speech by UK Prime Minister Theresa May laying out her administration’s Brexit blueprint. Hot topic The Japanese yen rallied as some traders initially sought havens, strengthening as much as 0.3 per cent before swinging back to be 0.1 per cent weaker at ¥114.26 […]
Kabul // An Afghan businessman died on Monday from injuries suffered in the Kandahar bomb attack that killed five Emiratis. Hashim Karzai, cousin of former president Hamid Karzai, died in hospital in India, where he had been sent for treatment after slipping into a coma, his brother Haji Karzai told The National. He was injured when explosives placed under a sofa went off as the Kandahar governor […]
FM EXPO Saudi 2017 and Saudi Clean Expo running until 17 January at the Jeddah Centre for Forum & Events Jeddah, 16 January 2017 FM EXPO Saudi 2017 and Saudi Clean Expo opened its doors to thousands of visitors as industry professionals turned out in force to learn more about this growing industry. With the support of Advanced Facilities Management, the headline sponsor of FM EXPO Saudi […]
By Nigel Stephenson | LONDON LONDON Investors sold sterling and stocks on Monday, seeking shelter in gold and the Japanese yen as uncertainty over Britain’s departure from the European Union and the policies of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump curbed appetite for risky assets. U.S. markets were closed for the Martin Luther King Day holiday, crimping market activity and potentially exacerbating price moves. The dollar .DXY rose, except […]
He was the president who took out Osama bin Laden but was blindsided by Isis; who made Asia his priority but saw his trade deal for the region stymied; who built bridges with once sworn enemies in Cuba and Iran but who sparred with allies in Israel and Saudi Arabia. The mixed and sometimes messy foreign policy legacy of Barack Obama includes a climate change agreement and […]
Source: United Nations University Hong Kong and Singapore in 2015 produced the highest volume of e-waste in the region, generating 21.7kg and 19.95kg, respectively, per capita. At 19.13kg per capita, Taiwan rounded up the top three e-waste producers, while China more than doubled its production between 2010 and 2015–at 107 percent–to 6.7 million tonnes. Across East and Southeast Asia, the average e-waste generation per capita was 10kg […]
LONDON British luxury brand Burberry (BRBY.L) said on Monday its incoming chief executive Marco Gobbetti will initially join the company on Jan. 27 as executive chairman, Asia Pacific and Middle East, before joining the board and taking the top job on July 5. Italian Gobbetti, the former boss of French brand Celine, was named as Christopher Bailey’s successor as CEO last July. Bailey will take on the […]
The pound has fallen below the $1.20 mark for the first time since the October “flash crash”, ahead of a speech on Tuesday when UK prime minister Theresa May is expected to signal that Britain will fully break out of the EU’s common market after Brexit. The UK currency fell as much as 1.6 per cent to a low of $1.1986 against the dollar in early Asian […]
Seldom have such small chips carried such a heavy load. China’s fledgling semiconductor industry, after a messy birth, now finds itself in the crosshairs of conflicting political goals in Beijing and Washington. Chips are a key plank of China’s industrial plans, attracting a massive $150bn government subsidy. This reflects national angst over reliance on overseas markets — it spends more on importing semiconductors than oil — and […]
Monday 02.10 GMT Overview Asian markets were mostly lower despite bank-led gains for Wall Street on Friday but the spotlight was on the British pound as it tumbled to a four-month low amid heightened expectations of a “hard Brexit”. Hot topic Sterling was down 1.3 per cent at $1.2027 after falling as low as $1.1986 in early Asian trading, ahead of a speech on Tuesday in which […]
DAVOS, Switzerland – The global economy is in better shape than it’s been in years. Stock markets are booming, oil prices are on the rise again and the risks of a rapid economic slowdown in China, a major source of concern a year ago, have eased. And yet, as political leaders, CEOs and top bankers make their annual trek up the Swiss Alps to the World Economic […]
By Hader Glang ZAMBOANGA CITY, the Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has insisted that no one could stop him from declaring martial law to preserve the nation if the situation in the Philippines becomes “virulent”. SunStar Philippines reported Sunday that Duterte said he was not eager about such a measure but was obligated to protect the Filipino people. “It’s my duty and I tell you now, if I […]
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Gul Bibi, an Afghan grandmother well into her eighties, never expected to become a fighter. But now she is one of more than a hundred women in Afghanistan’s northern Jawzjan province who have taken up arms against Islamist militants. Nearly all of the women have lost a husband, son or brother to the Taliban or the newly active Islamic State in the […]
Yazan Mohamad Al Nasser appointed CFO bringing more than 30 years of financial experience Experience in property and retail will benefit DIFC with expansion of the district underway 14 January 2017 Dubai, UAE – Yazan Mohamad Al Nasser has been appointed as the new Chief Financial Officer for the Dubai International Financial Centre Authority, the body overseeing the leading financial centre in the Middle East, Africa and […]
China and Vietnam have promised to settle their differences regarding territorial claims in the South China Sea and to safeguard peace in the region, the two countries said in a joint communique. Then statement came after Vietnamese Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Saturday. The communique, released by China’s Xinhua news agency after the talks, described the […]
‘Contemporary art is not a decoration, it is a statement. It is a wonderful seismograph of our societies and realities.” These words were part of the opening speech given last week by founder Lorenzo Rudolf at the seventh edition of Art Stage Singapore in the South-east Asian island city. Rudolf, from Switzerland, has made it his mission to champion those sentiments since 1991, when he took over […]
A border tax in the US could upend the export-based economic model that has brought prosperity to millions of people in Asia, say analysts, as the region wakes up to reforms proposed by Republicans in Congress. Although most attention is still focused on whether president-elect Donald Trump will slap tariffs on China or target companies that move production offshore, proposals for a US tax regime that penalises […]
One response was violence. Where violence was ineffective or unacceptable, other forms of resistance had to suffice. Schools integrated spasmodically, often kicking and screaming in court. Workplaces often didn’t. Many white homeowners and landlords refused to sell or rent to families of color. In 1973 in New York, President Richard Nixon’s Department of Justice sued Donald Trump and his father for refusing to rent to black people. […]
By David Brunnstrom and Matt Spetalnick | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The incoming U.S. administration’s tough talk against China has set the stage for showdowns on everything from security to trade and cyberspace, but contradictory signals are sowing uncertainty over how far President-elect Donald Trump is prepared to go in confronting Beijing. Highlighting the contested South China Sea as a potential flashpoint, Trump’s Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson […]
Qatar is regaining its appetite for deals. In the past two months alone, the world’s richest country per capita invested in Turkey’s biggest poultry producer, Russian oil giant Rosneft PJSC, and U.K. gas company National Grid Plc. The investments have been made through the Qatar Investment Authority, created in 2005 to handle the country’s windfall from liquefied natural gas sales, of which it is the world’s biggest exporter. […]
“We open a new hotel every 36 hours,” Sébastien Bazin remarks, after outlining the impressive portfolio of French hospitality chain AccorHotels, with 4,100 hotels spread across 95 countries and employing 240,000 people. The significant sum includes properties gained through the recent acquisition of FRHI, a hotel management company formerly owned by Qatar Investment Authority, billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s private investment arm Kingdom Holding and Oxford […]
Rex Tillerson, the former Exxon chief, didn’t get where he is by being nice to China. When Beijing tried to force his company to abandon a gas exploration project in the waters off Vietnam in 2008, ExxonMobil showed it the finger. BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and several others caved to Chinese pressure. ExxonMobil is still there, drilling on a Vietnamese license in waters also claimed by China. Is […]
ANKARA Two Chinese nationals of Uighur origin were arrested on Friday for suspected links to the mass shooting in an Istanbul night club on New Year’s Eve, state-run Anadolu agency said. Two suspects, Omar Asim and Abuliezi Abuduhamiti, who are Chinese citizens, were remanded in custody on charges of being members of an armed terrorist organisation, and aiding in 39 counts of murder. Turkish authorities last week […]
The United States Mint has unveiled a $100 gold coin featuring an African-American woman as the face of Lady Liberty for the first time in the history of U.S. currency. The 24-karat gold coin, which marks the Mint’s 225th anniversary, was debuted on Thursday in the Department of the Treasury’s Cash Room in Washington, D.C. It is the first in a series of gold coins featuring Lady […]
