Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg mounted a broad defence of social media on Thursday, taking on growing concerns about his company’s contribution to everything from recruitment by terrorists to the spread of fake news. In a 5,700 word treatise posted on the social network, the 32-year-old founder also laid out ideas that could lead Facebook increasingly into new forms of social engineering, as it intervenes more directly to ensure […]
Friday 04.40 GMT Overview Market volatility dissipated in Asia trade on Friday as the dollar’s downward momentum eased and US Treasuries steadied, but equities in the region were led lower by heavyweights including Toshiba and Samsung. Hot topic Shares in Japan’s Toshiba dropped as much as 12.2 per cent, bringing the company’s market capitalisation nearly 25 per cent lower for the week with a cumulative loss of […]
Samsung’s heir apparent Lee Jae-yong has been arrested for bribery, embezzlement and perjury in connection with a massive corruption scandal, in a huge setback for South Korea’s largest conglomerate that could hinder its succession and restructuring plans. The 48-year-old de factor leader of Samsung is the highest-profile business figure engulfed by the influence-peddling scandal that is poised to topple President Park Geun-hye. The arrest of Samsung’s chief […]
Shaul Arieli, an Israeli expert on political geography who prepared maps for past negotiations with the Palestinians and is a member of Commanders for Israel’s Security, the group behind the billboard campaign, said “one state is impossible” for Israel. Demographically and economically, absorbing millions of comparatively poor Palestinians would destroy it, he said. Results of a survey of Israelis and Palestinians released on Thursday, put out jointly […]
Europe’s fish lovers are facing higher cod prices because of a prolonged fishing strike in Iceland and increased demand after the rising cost of salmon led shoppers to seek alternatives. Norwegian cod prices have risen almost 30 per cent from a year ago to €2 a kilogramme after a 45 per cent rise in salmon prices over the same period led consumers to look for cheaper substitutes. […]
Washington’s top diplomatic and military officials have set out their conditions for co-operation with Russia by calling on Moscow to fully comply with an international peace accord on Ukraine, in a reaffirmation of Obama era priorities. The comments from Rex Tillerson, secretary of state, and James Mattis, defence secretary, came amid accusations that other aides close to Donald Trump had improper communications with Russian officials, a scandal that […]
For a coking coal industry that enjoyed bumper profits last year off the back of a price rally that made it 2016’s best performing big commodity, Teck Resources’s chief executive summed up the industry’s uneasy reliance on policymakers in Beijing. “I think on Chinese policy, we could go around the table and everyone would have a different opinion on that one,” Don Lindsay told analysts after reporting […]
Why Zermatt? You have to have a heart of stone to look at the Matterhorn and not be bewitched by its jagged beauty. It’s not Switzerland’s highest mountain, but it’s certainly the most compelling. It was the notorious 1865 ascent of the Matterhorn that changed the fortunes of Zermatt, which had been a simple farming village at the time. The combination of extraordinary natural beauty, excellent skiing, […]
The number of American companies tapping Europe’s bond markets has fallen this year with rising relative borrowing costs on the continent weakening the case for cross-border debt. An extended rally in European credit has enticed US companies to borrow over €100bn of so-called “reverse Yankee” bonds over the past two years with corporate bond purchases from the European Central Bank driving down yields. But appetite is fading […]
2014 While regulators were developing rules for hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, they also appeared at a number of public meetings organized by WSPA to calm public fears about the controversial extraction technique. Before a gathering with farmers, officials with WSPA and the Department of Conservation coordinated their presentations. “My plan for tonight is to give a very brief talk on our views of the safety of fracking,” […]
The owner of the messaging app Snapchat has set its valuation as high as $22.2bn ahead of its initial public offering, less than the company had originally hoped for but still putting it on track to be one of the US’s largest tech flotations. A price range of $14 to $16 a share, revealed in an updated regulatory filing on Thursday, puts Snap’s valuation in a range […]
BEIJING The rate at which human cases of bird flu are being reported in China is declining, health authorities said on Thursday, vowing to stiffen controls on markets and transport of live poultry to battle the spread of the virus. Eight new human infections of the H7N9 avian flu were reported between Feb. 12 and Feb. 14, indicating the rate of new cases had clearly declined compared […]
KUALA LUMPUR Malaysian police on Thursday detained a third suspect in connection with the murder of Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, an officer said. “He was detained to facilitate investigations as he is the boyfriend of the second suspect,” Selangor state police chief Abu Samah Mat told Reuters. He was referring to a woman arrested earlier in the day. She […]
Last month Beijing’s ambassador in Pyongyang held a Chinese new year reception for more than 70 senior North Korean officials. According to Chinese news reports, the ambassador’s guests lauded “the blood alliance and friendship between both countries”. On Sunday, just three weeks later, Kim Jong Un would severely test the patience of his Chinese “friends” with a ballistic missile test. Then came the murder in Malaysia on […]
Record sales of non-performing loans are expected in Europe this year with a more urgent approach from policymakers driving increased activity, according to Deloitte. As much as €200bn of debt could be sold during 2017, almost double last year’s total of just over €100bn of sales, said the professional services group, which advises banks and investors on NPL transactions. Europe’s banking sector is weighed down by more […]
The Xen Project has requested feedback from the community in thrashing out new disclosure guidelines which may only reveal the most serious vulnerabilities affecting the hypervisor. The Xen Project is a group which brings together developers from the open-source community for the purpose of the Xen Project hypervisor, microkernel-based software which allows users to utilize vitualization technologies. As with any software, bugs and vulnerabilities will emerge during […]
February 16, 2017 by: Bryan Harris in Seoul and Jeevan Vasagar in Kuala Lumpur Police in Malaysia have arrested a second woman as they hunt for suspects over the murder of the brother of North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un. A 25-year-old woman holding an Indonesian passport was apprehended early on Thursday morning on the basis of identification from CCTV footage, the police said in a […]
Photo President Trump and Prim Minister Netanyahu entering the White House on Wednesday. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times President Trump came forward with a nonsensical statement on Wednesday as he dangerously backed away from the two-state solution, which has been central to America’s Mideast policy for more than 20 years and remains the only just answer to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “So, I’m looking at two-state and […]
Thursday 05.10 GMT Overview The dollar was on the back foot in afternoon Asia trading on Thursday as US Treasuries steadied and oil prices found their footing after dipping on news of growing US stockpiles. Hot topic The dollar index tracking the greenback against a basket of peers was off as much as 0.3 per cent, as a rally spurred by US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen’s […]
China ended a six-month streak disposing of its US Treasury holdings in December, adding to its position for the first time since last May as the country’s central bank seeks to manage capital flight. The country, which ceded its status as the world’s largest owner of haven Treasuries in October to Japan, added $9.1bn of US sovereign debt to its reserves in the final month of 2016, […]
The reflation trade is back, in earnest. On Wednesday, all-world stock indices traded at all-time highs for the first time since spring 2015. US 10-year bond yields rose back to 2.5 per cent. Bank stocks rallied, with Goldman Sachs at an all-time high for the first time in a decade. So did tech stocks — Apple is back at a record. All of this after a hawkish […]
Donald Trump responded to a growing crisis surrounding his White House on Wednesday by rekindling a public war with the US intelligence community, accusing it of mounting a dirty tricks campaign to undermine his presidency by leaking information about his administration’s ties to Russia. In an early-morning Twitter barrage the US president blamed the escalating crisis that forced this week’s departure of Michael Flynn, his national security […]
The chief executive of General Motors has flown to Germany as the US carmaker seeks to assuage concerns from local managers and unions about job losses amid talks to sell the carmaker’s ailing European business to French rival PSA Peugeot Citroën. Mary Barra and key lieutenant Dan Ammann arrived at Opel’s headquarters, GM’s subsidiary, on Tuesday morning, while PSA chief executive Carlos Tavares is pushing to meet […]
Kim Jong Un’s brother, who was killed in Malaysia on Monday, begged the North Korean leader to spare his life after escaping an earlier assassination attempt, the head of South Korean intelligence said on Wednesday. Kim Jong Nam wrote to the supreme leader in 2012 to ask him to spare his life and those of his family, Lee Byung-ho, director of the National Intelligence Service, told lawmakers […]
