Bank of Queensland (BoQ) has announced its results for the first half of the 2017 financial year, reporting a 6 percent year-on-year drop in statutory net profit after tax to AU$161 million. Interim cash earnings after tax for the six-month period came in at AU$175 million, down 2 percent on the prior corresponding period. For the six months to February 28, 2017, BoQ reported AU$252 million in […]
Engineer Atsushi Shimizu, founder and CEO of the Japanese venture company Challenergy, stands next to his bladeless wind turbine in Tokyo Most people look for a place to hide when a typhoon is on the horizon, but Atsushi Shimizu hopes that the fury of nature may one day help resource-poor Japan tackle its energy woes. As thousands of Australians seek shelter from a “monster” cyclone battering the […]
InterAksyon.comThe online news portal of TV5 MANILA, Philippines — Senator Leila de Lima has filed a bill that seeks to impose stiff penalties on government officials who commit perjury or make others do so. De Lima is detained in Camp Crame after being charged with drug trading by the Department of Justice mainly on the testimony of convicts at the National Bilibid Prison who linked her to […]
TOKYO Asian shares edged up to near their highest in two years on Thursday, while the dollar benefited from waning expectations that the European Central Bank was poised to end its easy policy. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was 0.2 percent higher in early trade, pushing against its loftiest levels since June 2015. Japan’s Nikkei stock index .N225 was down 0.2 percent, while […]
Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com, The general public truly lives in two separate worlds. We have the world of the mainstream media, popular culture and political rhetoric; a world which constantly and desperately seeks to twist or destroy any legitimate measure of reality, leading people into a frenzied fog. Then, we have the world of concrete facts; an ugly, brutal world that upsets many people […]
The White House has not abandoned hope that Congress could make another effort to pass healthcare legislation that Trump administration officials believe would ease resistance to enacting tax reform. President Donald Trump signalled last week that he would switch focus after Republican leaders in the House cancelled a vote to replace the Obamacare law because of disagreements inside their party. But the White House is making another […]
BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber driving a truck filled with explosives attacked a police checkpoint in southern Baghdad on Wednesday night, killing at least 15 people and wounding 45 others, Iraqi officials said. Three police officers were among the dead and several were wounded, but most of the victims were civilians, officials said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Islamic State has carried […]
Oman is most likely to face a “forced currency devaluation” in coming years due weak oil prices and low financial buffers, according to a new report. In its report issued on Wednesday, BMI Research, a Fitch Group Company, said that the “probability of such a move is rising.” Oman’s crude oil price have declined to $45.9 per barrel driven by weakness in global energy markets since early-2017, […]
By Isabel Coles and John Davison | MOSUL MOSUL Iraqi special forces and police fought Islamic State militants to edge closer to the al-Nuri mosque in western Mosul on Wednesday, tightening their control around the landmark site and in Baghdad a suicide truck bomb killed at least 17 people. The close-quarters fighting is focussed on the Old City surrounding the mosque, where Islamic State leader Abu Bakr […]
FUNCHAL When the island of Madeira on Wednesday renamed its airport in honor of its hometown hero Cristiano Ronaldo, all eyes were expected to be on the four-time world player of the year who is adored not only for his soccer skills but also his model looks. But grabbing attention instead was a bronze bust of the player with a toothy grin and bulging eyes that instantly […]
By Mark Hosenball and Yeganeh Torbati | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON A U.S. State Department employee with access to sensitive diplomatic information was accused of failing to report her contacts with Chinese foreign intelligence agents who provided her with gifts in exchange for economic information, federal prosecutors said on Wednesday. A State Department spokeswoman had no immediate comment on the charges of obstruction of justice and making false statements […]
The wait for Washington’s new Republican political establishment to take on the regulations that hold the country’s media, internet and communications industries in delicate balance is over. Both chambers of Congress have lined up over the past week to slash the power of regulators to limit the freedom of the country’s cable and telecoms giants. The opening shot came on Tuesday, as the House of Representatives voted […]
Hedge fund managers may be criticised for their recent returns but they have consistently displayed a razor sharp sense of timing when it comes to picking when to sell their own businesses. When Och-Ziff, the New York-based hedge fund founded by the former Goldman Sachs trader Daniel Och, decided to sell equity to the public markets it did so near the top of the market in late […]
29 March 2017 Under the patronage of H.E. Sheikh Al Fadhil Bin Mohammed Al Harthy, Secretary General of the Council of Ministers, the first edition of Smart Cities Summit was launched on Tuesday at Oman Convention and Exhibition Center in the presence of a number of excellences, high officials and diplomats. The summit was attended by delegations from Dubai, Qatar, The Republic of Korea, KSA, USA, Belgium, […]
In what was the clearest sign to date that the Fed is targeting the stock market bubble with its rate hikes (recall two weeks ago Goldman caused a stir when it suggested that the Fed had made a policy error by being overly dovish with its rate hike, which instead of tightening financial conditions, had the effect of a 25bps rate cut), today not one but two […]
If you’re like me, you’ve been building presentations for years. You probably started out making standard (4:3) size decks. These days, there is increasing demand for widescreen (16:9) decks. Different projects and clients demand different size decks. Sometimes it’s easy to mess up on a widescreen project, and build a deck in the standard size, the way you’ve been accustomed to doing it since the days of […]
By Maria Tsvetkova and Maria Vasilyeva | MOSCOW MOSCOW Russian high school student Roman Shingarkin had some explaining to do when he got home after becoming one of the faces of anti-Kremlin protests at the weekend. His father is a former member of parliament who supports President Vladimir Putin. At the height of a protest in Moscow on Sunday against what organisers said was official corruption, 17-year-old […]
In a country that is becoming increasingly modern and globalised, there is a renewed focus on what it means to be Emirati and what can be done to preserve local heritage. This weekend, the courtyard of Al Ain Palace will be transformed into a traditional market, with food stalls and demonstrations of traditional medicine practices, such as hijama and tajbeer splinting, for the campaign “My Heritage, My […]
Samsung launched its new Galaxy S8 smartphone with a bombastic event in New York, promising a “new beginning” for mobile handset design as well as for the Korean company amid a series of corporate crises. The Galaxy S8’s signature feature is a new “infinity display” which wraps around the edges of the device to give a larger screen in a smaller body. Claiming the biggest design breakthrough […]
When Charles Li was asked last week about the recent wild gyrations of some stocks in Hong Kong, the head of the Hong Kong Exchange compared the market to a city that is reasonably well-run but has “a few dark alleys and little corners”. “We all need to relax,” he added. “This is a great market. You don’t want the regulator to solve all your problems.” Investors […]
By Francesco Guarascio | BRUSSELS BRUSSELS The European Parliament said in a draft position paper on Wednesday that Brexit can be revoked. The draft, seen by Reuters on the day that Article 50 on Britain’s leaving the European Union was invoked also said there should be transitional arrangements to smooth the divorce but no more than three years. London-based EU agencies, the European Banking Authority and the […]
It may lack the pen of the resurrected Galaxy Note 7, but the narrower screen of the Galaxy S8 is far from its only mode of input. The S8 marks the debut of Bixby, Samsung’s voice agent designed to compete head on with Alexa, Cortana, Siri and Google Assistant, the last of which is also supported by the S8. I’ve written before about how these voice agents […]
By Elizabeth Piper | LONDON LONDON After nine months of preparation, bitter public argument and a battle with parliament, British Prime Minister Theresa May is launching talks with the European Union armed with a plan she hopes will secure a better divorce deal than many expect. But what is it? Although May has published a policy document outlining a 12-point approach to the talks that will reshape […]
Good morning. Here’s our morning roundup of all the media news you need to know. Want to get this briefing in your inbox every morning? Subscribe here. Donald Trump is temporary ratings gold, which is either evidence of renewed civic engagement or merely the decline of Western civilization. Variety reports that Fox News “finished far and above its competition in the ratings for the first quarter of […]
