By Tim Cocks and Aaron Ross | KINSHASA KINSHASA Gunfire could be heard in several districts of Kinshasa early on Tuesday as demonstrators demanded that President Joseph Kabila step down after his mandate expired at midnight, and measures to curb dissent fanned fears of more violence. Reuters witnesses in various parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital city heard repeated gunshots, and one saw youths burning […]
SYDNEY Investigators searching for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have recommended extending the search by an additional 25,000 sq km (9,650 sq miles), the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said on Tuesday. The current 120,000 sq km (46,330 sq miles) search area in the Indian Ocean is due to be exhausted by January, with no sign of the missing jet. Flight MH370 disappeared in March 2014 with […]
19 December 2016 The real estate markets of the two main emirates of the UAE exhibited differing trends over the course of November 2016. While the pleasant weather and cool breeze apparently had a galvanizing effect on the Dubai realty market, things seemed to be cooling down in neighbouring Abu Dhabi. Bayut.com noticed an upward movement of both rents and prices of apartments in Dubai, but apartments […]
By Michael Shields and Arnd Wiegmann | ZURICH ZURICH Three people were wounded in a shooting near an Islamic centre in central Zurich on Monday, police said. Swiss media said a suspect was on the run after the incident near the main train station in Switzerland’s financial capital. It was not immediately clear whether the Islamic centre or any of the other businesses registered buildings nearby, were […]
December 19, 2016 by: Guy Chazan in Berlin and Ralph Atkins in Zürich A truck ploughed into a crowded Christmas market in the German capital Berlin on Monday evening, killing nine people and injuring up to 50 others, in what police described as a deliberate attack. The incident occurred near the fashionable Kurfürstendamm, close to the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church, one of Berlin’s most iconic landmarks. German […]
ANKARA The Russian ambassador to Ankara was shot dead in an attack at an art gallery in the Turkish capital on Monday by a gunman shouting “Don’t forget Aleppo”. A Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman confirmed the death of envoy Andrei Karlov, which marked one of the most serious spillovers of the Syria conflict into Turkey. Russia is a close ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and its […]
A last-ditch attempt by Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the struggling Italian bank, to raise up to €5bn in capital was thrown into doubt after the country’s private bank rescue fund expressed “strong reservations” over the terms of a bridge loan that is key to the deal. On Monday, MPS said in a statement that it was “in contact” with Quaestio Capital Management — which manages the […]
The key economic releases this week are durable goods and GDP on Thursday. Chair Yellen’s speech on the labor market on Monday afternoon is also likely to garner considerable attention. While the calendar gets quieter in the weeks ahead over the holiday season, there are a few notable macro events to keep traders occupied. This week, the Bank of Japan and Riksbank deliver their latest policy verdicts, […]
By Angus McDowall and Ellen Francis | BEIRUT BEIRUT Thousands were evacuated from the last rebel-held enclave of the city of Aleppo on Monday after a deal was reached to allow people to leave two besieged pro-government villages in nearby Idlib province. Convoys of buses from eastern Aleppo reached rebel-held areas of countryside to the west of the city in cold winter weather, according to a U.N. […]
Better known for its electronic music and street art, Berlin is now also home to an emerging graphic-novel scene in a country that has traditionally treated illustrated stories as children’s literature. Rarely seen in bookstores just a few years ago, German-produced graphic novels now have dedicated shelves, as home-grown artists and foreigners find inspiration in the city. “It was when I moved here that I felt a […]
Photo Buses evacuated residents from Fua and Kfarya, Shiite villages near the Syrian city of Aleppo, on Monday. Credit Agence France-Presse — Getty Images BEIRUT, Lebanon — After days of delays and sporadic violence, the evacuation of civilians and fighters from besieged communities in Syria has resumed, with convoys taking people out of Aleppo and two nearby Shiite villages, Syrian state television and opposition conflict monitors reported […]
If you are an emerging market investor, things at least look a little rosier than they did 12 months ago. Then sentiment was souring thanks to doubts about China’s economy, a slumping oil price and plenty of political upheaval. There is, of course, much to concern the EM universe going into 2017, notably a rising dollar, the prospect of higher interest rates in the US and president-elect […]
Pakistani cinemas resumed screenings of Bollywood movies Monday, after a self-imposed three-month ban on Indian films cut revenue in half, said Zoraiz Lashari, chairman of the All Pakistan Film Exhibitors Association. The organization suspended Bollywood screenings in September after the Indian Motion Picture Producers’ Association said it would cease working with Pakistani actors, musicians and technicians. Both decisions came in the wake of heightened tensions between India […]
BEIJING Concentrations of airborne pollutants in a major northern Chinese city exceeded a World Health Organisation (WHO) guideline by 100 times on Monday as north China battled with poor air quality for the third straight day. In Shijiazhuang, capital of northern Hebei province, levels of PM 2.5, fine particulate matter, soared to 1,000 micrograms per cubic meter, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported on Monday. That compares with […]
TOKYO Asian shares slipped to four-week lows on Monday as the prospect of higher U.S. interest rates and a strong dollar stemming from the incoming Trump Administration’s purported policies of cutting taxes and spending heavily threatened to suck capital out of emerging markets. European shares are seen having better luck, following recent gains in shares of banks, resource companies and some automakers. Spread-betters see a rise of […]
Christmas is a time that centres around family, friends, fun and an abundance of food. Nearly every restaurant across the country is offering at least one celebratory meal this weekend in honour of the festive tradition, so there is no shortage of options. While there are plenty of good options from established venues, why not treat yourself to something new – and try a Christmas feast at […]
Soaring price growth in China’s top cities has slowed almost to a standstill, as government measures to cool the overheated property market take hold. Price growth of newly built homes in China’s “first tier” cities of Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Guangzhou slowed to 0.1 per cent in November compared with the previous month, the National Statistics Bureau said on Monday — well below month-on-month growth of 3-4 […]
Cloud accounting software firm Reckon has recently expanded its product scope, offering up finance for Australian small to medium business in a bid to remove red tape and give SMEs cashflow within hours. According to Reckon COO Dan Rabie, the move into the small business lending market was almost a natural progression. “We’ve been selling accounting software to small businesses for many, many years and a lot […]
Jayant Bhandari warns “there are clear signs that in a very convoluted way, possession of gold for investment purposes will be made illegal” as he discusses India’s attempts to create a cashless society (and consequences of it) and why precious metals and geographical diversification are the most viable options investors around the world, not just India, should be taking. “The situation is getting worse by the day… […]
On a clear afternoon on September 28, 2008, Elon Musk was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Years earlier he had sunk most of his internet fortune into a commercial space company – SpaceX – and was now vying for a lucrative deal with NASA to resupply the International Space Station. There was only one problem: the last three attempts to send a rocket into space […]
Senior American officials and top commanders in the Middle East say the brutal urban fight for Mosul is succeeding — however slowly — but is proving to be tougher than expected. These officials predict that the battle to oust the Islamic State from Iraq’s second-largest city could last two to four more months. Continue reading the main story Brett H. McGurk, President Obama’s envoy to the international […]
In his characteristic third-person style, One River Asset Management’s Chief Investment Officer Eric Peters takes on all-comers in his latest letter to investors; lamenting the rapidity of losses, juxtaposing Michelle Obama’s “hopeless” America with the US equity markets’ near-record “hope”, and denouncing the scourge of risk managers everywhere – central bankers… Hope all goes well… “No one has real risk on,” said the CIO, dizzy. “We’ve all […]
While an overseas buying spree by Chinese companies has grabbed headlines, more mundane activity such as trade finance and corporate cash management are a much bigger strain on China’s foreign exchange reserves, analysis of official data shows. The dominance of bank lending and portfolio investment as a source of Chinese capital outflows casts doubt on whether Beijing’s recent clampdown on big-ticket foreign deals by the likes of Dalian […]
By Norihiko Shirouzu and Natalie Thomas | BEIJING BEIJING Authorities in Tianjin grounded dozens of flights and closed most highways on Sunday after severe smog blanketed the city, one of more than more than 40 in China’s northeast to issue pollution warnings in the past 48 hours. Air quality index (AQI) readings at some monitoring stations in Tianjin, a port and industrial city southeast of Beijing, peaked […]
