A billionaire Chinese hedge fund manager has been jailed for five-and-a-half years for market manipulation in one of the country’s highest-profile financial crimes prosecutions since a market rout in 2015. Xu Xiang, an investment guru who used to be compared with Carl Icahn, led a loose-knit group of hedge fund managers from the port city of Ningbo known as the “Limit-up Kamikaze Squad” because of their penchant for […]
BEIJING China expects a smoggy Lunar New Year in Beijing and its northern industrial heartland just two weeks after it was blanketed in toxic smog which caused traffic chaos, flight disruptions and port closures. Worsening pollution will engulf four northern Chinese provinces, including Hebei province which surrounds Beijing, in the run up to the Lunar New Year, from Monday through to Thursday, China’s National Environment Monitoring Center […]
By Tetsushi Kajimoto | TOKYO TOKYO Japanese companies believe that neither U.S. President Donald Trump nor Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe want to see the yen weaken significantly, a Reuters poll showed, a development they worry could spark an unwelcome political backlash. The Reuters Corporate Survey, conducted Jan. 4-17, also found that Japanese firms want Abe to push Trump hard on trade issues, while nearly a third […]
PayTM, the Alibaba-backed Indian smartphone payments platform, plans to enter the asset management market a month before it begins banking operations in the country. The group, which has attracted more than 170m users since it started seven years ago, told the FT that its aggressive strategy to disrupt traditional finance will soon extend to loans, wealth management and mutual fund products. The move could give PayTM an even […]
A ship capable of breaking through thick Arctic ice to deliver Russian liquefied natural gas to Asia is due to begin trials, marking an important step towards completion of a $27bn LNG project championed by president Vladimir Putin. The tanker is the first of a new class of icebreaking LNG carriers that will open an export route from Siberia to the Pacific — reducing Russia’s dependence on […]
By Carmel Crimmins and Pamela Barbaglia | DAVOS, Switzerland DAVOS, Switzerland U.S. bankers, buoyed by a resurgence in profits, are advising their counterparts in Europe to think positively about the new administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. But many Europeans still need convincing. At the annual gathering of the world’s political and business elites in the Swiss resort of Davos, U.S. financiers told investors and overseas’ rivals […]
MANILA Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is sending a cabinet-level delegation to Beijing this week to meet with China’s Vice Premier Wang Yang and other top Chinese officials to discuss investment deals and his country’s chairmanship of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) this year. The January 23-24 trip by Philippine officials includes Duterte’s finance, budget, economic, public works and transport secretaries, according to a […]
Submitted by Robert Parry via The Strategic Culture Foundation, Whenever The New York Times or some other mainstream news outlet holds itself out as a paragon of professional journalism – by wagging a finger at some pro-Trump “fake news” or some Internet “conspiracy theory” – I cringe at the self-delusion and hypocrisy. No one hates fake news and fact-free conspiracy theories more than I do, but the […]
SYDNEY Relatives of victims onboard missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 said on Sunday they plan to deliver personal letters to Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai while he visits Australia, urging him to resume the search for the missing jet. Liow held informal talks with Australian Transport Minister Darren Chester in the Western Australian capital of Perth on Sunday, Chester’s office said, five days after the two […]
By Brenda Goh and Muyu Xu | SHANGHAI/BEIJING SHANGHAI/BEIJING With 6 million Chinese tourists expected to travel abroad over the Lunar New Year break, China’s January 27 to February 2 holiday is crucial for Taiwan tour agency operator Li Chi-yueh, who relies on mainland visitors for a third of his revenue. But Li’s hopes are not high this year, after the number of mainland tourists plummeted 36 […]
Your daily guide to community and cultural activities across the Emirates for January 22, 2017, including performances, festivals, art exhibitions, film screenings, health and fitness events, talks, classes, workshops and family fun. newslide Abu Dhabi Fitness class Register now to take part in a tai chi workshop at Bodytree. Led by Grace Hwang, this beginner-to-intermediate level class teaches the slow-moving meditative exercise for relaxation, health and self-defence. […]
China’s ruling Communist party has closed the website of a prestigious economist as it launches a campaign against “nihilist” interpretations of former leader Mao Zedong that is stirring up ghosts of the Cultural Revolution. Chairman Mao’s legacy has became a battleground for “leftists” and “rightists” over the past year, fifty years after he launched the chaotic and violent Cultural Revolution. The rancorous debates come as current president […]
When it comes to the future of bitcoin, the “holy grail” has emerged as becoming the first to have a bitcoin ETF approved by the SEC. Over three years ago, in 2013, the company of the Winklevoss twins, Cameron and Tyler, Winklevoss Capital Management LLC, launched the first proposed bitcoin ETF, the Winklevoss Investment Trust, looking to trade on the HFT-dominated BATS exchange. The SEC is expected […]
As feminism has empowered women to become the best version of themselves, many Hollywood stars and other famous people have started to encourage their counterparts with different practices to achieve this goal. Recently, Gwyneth Paltrow’s website, Goop, started selling jade eggs for women’s vaginas. The website is created to be the ultimate beauty guide, according to the Goop editors, and Paltrow created her own online lifestyle magazine in […]
After years of excess supply the global aluminium market may be turning a corner, as China seeks to cut capacity and the incoming Donald Trump administration ratchets up trade threats against the world’s largest producer of the lightweight metal. A glut of aluminium in recent years has decimated the US aluminium industry, where smelters were forced to shut down as Chinese imports rose. Now, after tackling excess […]
Earlier this week, Blizzard teased the upcoming Year of the Rooster event for massively popular multiplayer shooter Overwatch, which will be in celebration of the Chinese New Year. Videos that were uploaded to announce the event revealed the Jan. 24 release date and a pair of event-specific legendary skins for Mei and D.Va. A leaked advertisement for Year of the Rooster, however, might have revealed the rest of […]
George Osborne, the former UK chancellor, is to join BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, as an adviser. BlackRock’s chairman and chief executive Larry Fink said the company wanted Mr Osborne’s “unique and valuable perspective on the issues affecting the world”, citing his work helping the UK and the G20 to recover from the financial crisis. “At the centre of our mission is helping people around the […]
Kabir Mulchandani is a hands-on developer. While he may not be laying bricks, the SKAI Holdings CEO forwent his air-conditioned office in Downtown Dubai for an often stinking hot construction site on the Palm Jumeirah for the two years that it took for his flagship $1.2 billion hotel to be built. It was only in November that he finally walked offsite when the Viceroy Dubai Palm Jumeirah […]
Billionaire investor George Soros spoke to Bloomberg TV in Davos, and said the euphoria among stock investors since the victory of President-elect Donald Trump will end as uncertainty takes over. In an interview that may have been even gloomier than his last address to Davos in January 2016, when he said he was short the market, predicted a Chinese hard landing, and said the Fed’s hike was […]
TAIPEI Taiwan aspires to create a “new era” of peace with China, which should set aside the baggage of history and have positive dialogue, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said in a letter to Pope Francis, adding military action cannot resolve problems. The issue of self-ruled and proudly democratic Taiwan has shot to the top of the international agenda since U.S. President-elect Donald Trump broke with decades of […]
BEIJING China asked foreign diplomats in Beijing to help “weave a cooperative network against corruption,” state media reported on Friday, as Beijing seeks greater international cooperation in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s four-year war on graft. Xi has vowed to fight deep-rooted graft at all levels of the ruling Communist Party until officials “dare not, cannot and don’t want to” be corrupt, warning that a failure to deal […]
Singaporean telecommunications provider StarHub has revealed that it attained speeds of 35.15Gbps during a trial of 5G network technology with Chinese technology giant Huawei earlier this month. The field trial was conducted using 2GHz at the e-band — which sits between the 60GHz and 90GHz frequencies — using three layers of e-band, as well as 64 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM). “To future proof our network, we have […]
Western Union agreed on Thursday to forfeit $586m after admitting that it violated US anti-money laundering laws by ignoring evidence that thousands of its agents were involved in sending illicit cash to criminals, including human traffickers in China and bookies in Costa Rica, the US Department of Justice announced. From 2004 to 2012, Western Union, a global money services business based in Englewood, Colorado, “processed hundreds of […]
The star player in America’s biggest sporting event risks being benched: guacamole. Every year before the Super Bowl, demand soars for the avocado-based dip that has become a staple for viewing parties for the National Football League championship game, which has emerged as the second-largest day for food consumption in the US after Thanksgiving. This year’s supply was threatened by a spike in avocado prices late last […]
