SHANGHAI U.S. short-term rental giant Airbnb Inc will triple its China staff this year as it targets the country’s millennial consumers, its chief executive said on Wednesday, even as the Silicon Valley firm faces competition from local rivals. Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky said China was a key market for the firm to achieve its global ambitions. He was talking at an event in Shanghai to […]
Alibaba has kicked off its grand plan for global trade without frontiers, signing a bilateral deal designed to ease the passage of goods shipped by smaller businesses between China and Malaysia. The pact, established as a public-private partnership in Malaysia’s digital free trade zone, is focused on infrastructure, including a fulfilment centre and co-operating on electronic payments and financing. Daniel Zhang, chief executive of the Chinese ecommerce […]
SEOUL Former South Korean President Park Geun-hye left prosecutors’ offices early on Wednesday after being questioned in an investigation into a corruption scandal that brought an early end to her political career. Park did not respond to reporters’ questions as she emerged from the building after nearly 22 hours and got into a waiting car to be driven to her private home in the capital, Seoul. Prosecutors […]
SEOUL A North Korean missile launch failed on Wednesday, with the rocket exploding within seconds, the U.S. military said, the latest in a series of North Korean weapons tests to rattle its neighbours and raise tension in the region. South Korea said the apparent test launch of one missile by nuclear-capable North Korea, from the city of Wonsan on its east coast, had failed. South Korea’s defence […]
By Yawen Chen and Ryan Woo | BEIJING BEIJING Business sentiment at Asia’s top companies rose to its highest in almost two years in the first quarter of 2017, buoyed by positive economic signs from the United States and China that underpinned improved global demand, a Thomson Reuters/INSEAD survey showed. The Thomson Reuters/INSEAD Asian Business Sentiment Index .TRIABS RACSI, representing the six-month outlook of 96 firms, rebounded […]
Wednesday 02:35 GMT Overview Asian equities sank in the wake of the S&P 500’s biggest fall in more than five months as investors fretted that US President Donald Trump’s pro-growth policies could take longer than expected to come to fruition. Hot topic The S&P 500 closed down 1.2 per cent on Tuesday, dragged lower by financial stocks. It was the first time since October 11 that the […]
The net worth of U.S. President Donald Trump has slipped, dropping by $1 billion according to Forbes’ latest list of the richest people in 2017. Released on Monday, March 20, Forbes’ new world’s billionaires list estimates that Trump’s net worth has dropped from $4.5 billion in 2016 to $3.5 billion this year. This $1 billion decline also translates to a considerable drop down the list, as Trump […]
By Stephanie Nebehay | GENEVA GENEVA North Korea has nothing to fear from any U.S. move to broaden sanctions aimed at cutting it off from the global financial system and will pursue “acceleration” of its nuclear and missile programmes, a Pyongyang envoy told Reuters on Tuesday. This includes developing a “pre-emptive first strike capability” and an inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM), said Choe Myong Nam, deputy ambassador at […]
Tuesday 18:30 GMT What you need to know ● Sell off in financials drives S&P 500 down 1 per cent● Euro climbs to $1.08 and dollar index slips below 100● 10-year Treasury yield at lowest since start of month● Oil prices come under renewed pressure● Gold heads for fifth daily rise in a row——————- Overview A sharp and sudden sell-off for US financial stocks helped put the […]
MANILA The Philippines plans to file a strong protest against China after it announced preparatory work for an environmental monitoring station on a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, a Cabinet minister said on Tuesday. China five years ago started blockading the Scarborough Shoal, a rocky outcrop within the Philippines’ 200 mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ), and the United States has warned Beijing against carrying out […]
The paper dispensers have reduced waste by 70 percent since they were brought to Temple of Heaven over the weekend, according to the firm behind the device A years-long crime spree by Chinese toilet paper thieves may have reached the end of its roll after park officials in southern Beijing installed facial recognition technology to flush out bathroom bandits. Park managers at the Temple of Heaven, an […]
MOSCOW Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Tuesday he had not heard about a potential visit to Russia by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, news agency Interfax reported. On Monday sources told Reuters Tillerson planned to skip a meeting with NATO foreign ministers in April in order to stay home for a visit by China’s president and go to Russia. “I don’t know anything […]
Chinese networking giant Huawei will be constructing and opening a datacentre in New Zealand within two years as well as expanding its research centre in Wellington and opening another one in Christchurch, it has been reported. According to a report by Stuff NZ, Huawei will be spending around NZ$400 million over the next five years in an effort to source products and services in addition to opening […]
By Arshad Mohammed and John Walcott | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson plans to skip a meeting with NATO foreign ministers next month in order to stay home for a visit by China’s president and will go to Russia later in April, U.S. officials said on Monday, disclosing an itinerary that allies may see as giving Moscow priority over them. Tillerson intends to miss […]
The UAE has pledged US$15 million (Dh55m) to a historic alliance to protect cultural heritage sites threatened by war and extremism. The Emirates was among the world donors that pledged more than $75m during a conference at the Louvre Museum in Paris, attended by Sheikh Saif bin Zayed, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, French president Francois Hollande and other officials. The conference established the International […]
Big Chinese cities have launched a new round of lending curbs and purchase restrictions in an effort to cool overheated property markets, as official media warn that some have veered towards a bubble. Sky-high prices in cities including Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen are stoking anger, even among relatively well-off professionals. Meanwhile, controlling financial risk has emerged as the dominant economic policy theme for 2017. At the conclusion of the […]
Samsung, whose booth at this year’s Mobile World Congress is shown here, is unveiling a new personal assistant ‘Bixby’ that will challenge rivals including Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa Samsung announced Monday that a voice-powered digital assistant named “Bixby” will debut with a flagship Galaxy S8 smartphone set to be unveiled by the South Korean consumer electronics giant. Bixby enters a crowded field of digital assistants powered […]
The release of the Panama Papers exposed an elaborate kickback scheme whose tentacles spread from the Caribbean island of Aruba to warehouses in Doral to the offshore banking haven of Panama City, according to a lawsuit filed in Miami federal court. The scam was allegedly hatched by Egbert Koolman, an employee of Aruba’s state-owned telecommunications provider, Setar. Koolman’s job was to buy phones from suppliers around the […]
By Matt Spetalnick and David Brunnstrom | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The Trump administration is considering sweeping sanctions aimed at cutting North Korea off from the global financial system as part of a broad review of measures to counter Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile threat, a senior U.S. official said on Monday. The sanctions would be part of a multi-pronged approach of increased economic and diplomatic pressure – especially on […]
Rivlin speaks in Jerusalem at the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. (photo credit:AVI HAYUN) In Hanoi and Beijing, they’re talking about Israel’s public broadcasting crisis, or more accurately why the crisis should not be a pretext for holding new elections. Reporters traveling in Vietnam with President Reuven Rivlin and in China with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were more inclined to report on […]
The upcoming Samsung Galaxy S8 ripped through the AnTuTu benchmark, achieving a spectacular score no other smartphone has hit so far. Up until now, Apple’s iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus had been the top performers on the AnTuTu benchmark, scoring 172,001 and 181,316, respectively. On the Android front, the OnePlus 3T ruled the game, boasting a 162,423 score. Samsung Galaxy S8 AnTuTu Benchmark It now looks like […]
NEW YORK // A chilly climate isn’t keeping Norway from basking in the glow of being named the world’s happiest country. It surged from fourth place in last year’s UN assessment all the way to the top spot, according to the World Happiness Report 2017 released on Monday. Other top countries on the list included Nordic neighbours Denmark and Iceland, as well as nearby Switzerland. “All of […]
NEW YORK Billionaire philanthropist David Rockefeller, former head of Chase Manhattan Corp and patriarch of one of the most famous and influential American families, died on Monday, a family spokesman said. He was 101. Rockefeller, who reportedly gave away nearly $2 billion in his lifetime, died in his sleep of congestive heart failure at his home in Pocantico Hills, New York, spokesman Fraser Seitel said in a […]
The captions may be brief but the portraits are both striking and revelatory. One photograph is that of an imam in Lanzhou, Gansu province, known for his laughter. Another is that of an imam from Quanzhou, Fujian province, whose child has surpassed his father’s warrior-like skills, embodying the wisdom of the dragon while striking a pose like a tiger. They form part of a new exhibition at […]
