When a scrap metal dealer from U.S. Midwest bought a golden ornament at a junk market, it never crossed his mind that he was the owner of a $20 million Faberge egg hailing from the court of imperial Russia. In a mystery fit for the tumultuous history of Russia’s ostentatious elite, the 8-cm (3-inch) golden egg was spirited out of St Petersburg after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution […]
Finland’s Nokia, currently embroiled in an Indian Supreme Court tax case, said on Friday it has received a new 300 million euro sales tax bill from Tamil Nadu, a claim it considered “absurd”. According to the company, authorities in the southern state had alleged that handsets from Nokia’s Chennai plant were not exported but instead sold in India. Products exported from India are exempt from tax. “Nokia […]
Investors seeking a hedge against a waning U.S. economic recovery and escalating conflict in Ukraine made twice as much money buying gold-mining shares rather than the metal the companies produce. The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF climbed 25 percent this year, more than double the 12 percent advance for the SPDR Gold Trust, the biggest exchange-traded product backed by bullion. This is the first quarter the company […]
Wall Street leaders including Lloyd Blankfein and James Gorman, who have courted business in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, are facing a dilemma as tensions over Ukraine escalate. Their scheduled attendance at Putin’s annual investor showcase in St. Petersburg in May is in doubt as sanctions imposed by the U.S. in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea — and retaliatory moves by Putin — threaten the ties between Russia’s […]
|Blaise Robinson| Reuters| Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Ex Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange February 3, 2014. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid A Reuters’ poll of economists shows non-farm payrolls are expected to have grown by 185,000 last month, snapping back from December’s three-year low. “Following the surprisingly weak figure for December, investors’ expectations are quite low this time, so […]
After a year of waiting, the man running what could be the biggest-ever technology IPO finally lost patience with Hong Kong. Joe Tsai, the Alibaba Group Holding executive in charge of plans for the highly anticipated deal, only abandoned hope of a Hong Kong listing in the last few weeks, according to people familiar with the matter. The company’s shareholding structure, giving senior managers sway over board […]
Google Inc has settled a landmark copyright lawsuit in which Viacom Inc accused the Internet search company of posting its programs on the YouTube video service without permission. The settlement ends seven years of litigation that drew wide attention from Hollywood, the music industry and Internet companies, and which tested the reach of a federal law designed to thwart piracy while letting people find entertainment online. “This […]
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation sued 16 of the world’s largest banks on Friday, accusing them of colluding to suppress interest rates. The lawsuit, filed in the federal district court in New York, was the latest to accuse financial institutions of conspiring to manipulate Libor, or the London Interbank Offered Rate. The FDIC said the defendants’ conduct caused substantial losses to 38 banks that the U.S. regulator […]
Oman’s central bank has told commercial lenders to avoid conflicts of interest when appointing board members and senior management, in a fresh effort to improve corporate governance in the Gulf sultanate. The move coincides with a wide-ranging government crackdown on corruption, which has seen several company managers jailed and fined for bribery-related offences. “It is observed that some of the proposals, received of late, for approval of […]
Zack Shahin, a U.S. citizen imprisoned in a Dubai prison cell since March 2008 , declared a hunger strike to protest his continued imprisonment in Dubai and the U.S. government’s unwillingness to publicly intervene for his freedom. In an open-letter addressed to U.S. President Barack Obama, Zack Shahin wrote: “I ask you to use all of your effort to strenuously object to my continued confinement, and given […]
Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) helped American customers hide as much as $10 billion in assets from the Internal Revenue Service, more than double the amount previously known, according to a U.S. Senate committee. A report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations criticized the Zurich-based bank for failing to discipline any senior executives in the face of widespread tax evasion fostered by 1,800 Credit Suisse employees […]
|By Kalyani Shankar| With the arrival of the AAP party chief Arvind Kejriwal in the national scene, after he quit his post as Delhi chief minister, the ensuing Lok Sabha elections seem to be interesting with one more player added to the confusing poll scene. The AAP is planning to contest more than 350 of the 542 seats. Don’t think Kejrwal is acting impulsively. He has taken […]
HSBC will announce staff bonuses totaling just under 2.4 billion pounds ($4 billion) globally for 2013 and is expected to report a significant rise in pretax profit, Sky News reported on its website on Saturday without citing its sources. Referring to an unnamed source close to the bank, Sky also said Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver will receive a 1.8 million pound bonus as part of an overall […]
Technology will cause disruption and create opportunity at an accelerating pace, placing unprecedented pressure on ‘society’, China will move towards a half-way house of democracy, USA will become the Disunited States of America while India will be burdened with 150 billion people below the poverty line by 2050, according to the conclusions of a think-tank. The report is produced by Tangent Link, investment analysts and fund managers with a focus […]
The Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler will once again seek to set rules that make sure broadband providers do not discriminate or block any content on the Internet, a senior FCC official said on Wednesday. The FCC will not appeal a U.S. court decision last month that rejected a previous version of these rules because of the way the FCC had classified broadband providers, the official […]
Abu Dhabi’s new financial free zone has hired a former executive from neighbouring Dubai’s financial centre to spearhead its growth. Jan Bladen will be executive adviser and programme leader at Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), a full-service financial zone which the wealthy emirate is building on an island near its downtown area, the ADGM said in a statement on Tuesday. From 2005 until late last year, Bladen […]
Iran’s largest private bank is suing the British government for almost $4 billion in damages after the Supreme Court quashed sanctions imposed against it over alleged links to Tehran’s nuclear program. Bank Mellat wants compensation for the “significant pecuniary loss” and substantial reputational damage it sustained as a result of sanctions imposed in 2009, according to a claim filed in London’s High Court and seen by Reuters […]
A court in Oman sentenced two ex-government officials on Sunday to three years in jail for abuse of office, local media reported, one of a series of trials that began last year to curb corruption in the Gulf Arab state. Oman’s Sultan Qaboos has been pursuing an anti-graft campaign to defuse public discontent. Corruption was one of the reasons for mass protests in several Omani cities in […]
Bank of America Corp. and HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) agreed to settle lawsuits brought over property insurance that borrowers were forced to accept, lawyers for the homeowners said at a federal court hearing in Miami. The lawyers told U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno today about the settlements without disclosing more details. The deals follow an earlier $300 million agreement with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and a $110 […]
Arvind-Kejriwal who pledged to root out corruption after steering to power in Delhi, was a man in a hurry and set a scorching pace to try to fulfil his anti-graft legislative agenda but his tumultous journey as Chief Minister ended in seven weeks. As the controversy over the Jan-Lokpal-Bill deepened with Lt Governor Najeeb advising the Delhi-Assembly Speaker against allowing its tabling and Congress and BJP opposing […]
|By Upendra Prasad| When Congress leaders had forced unwilling Kejriwal to form his government in Delhi, he said the Congress will have to repent its decision to allow him to become CM. It is clear now what he meant by saying it. In an unprecedented move, he has ordered institution of a case against present and former Petroleum Ministers as also Mukesh Ambani to manipulate and hike […]
President Barack Obama was sued by Senator Rand Paul over U.S. electronic surveillance he claims is illegal, adding to challenges that may land post-Sept. 11 government data collection in the U.S. Supreme Court. The Kentucky Republican announced today that he had filed his complaint in Washington federal court. Paul was joined as co-plaintiff by FreedomWorks Inc., a Tea Party-backed group. The filing couldn’t be immediately confirmed in […]
Fox News – The Mercedes-Benz S-Class sedan has already put the world on notice, from its standard stance on opulence in the S550 to the impeccably impressive S63 AMG super sedan. Now, the sedan gets a sleeker, sportier companion: the 2015 S-Class Coupe. A striking profile marks the S-Class Coupe apart from the teeming hordes of four-doored coupe wannabes. This is a true coupe, and it wears its proportions like a larger-than-life sports […]
Nokia said on Wednesday it plans to challenge a Delhi High Court ruling that is blocking the transfer to Microsoft of assets related to its mobile phone business. One such asset – a plant in Chennai – is among Nokia’s biggest phone-making factories. Local authorities seized it last year in a tax dispute, blocking its transfer to Microsoft which bought Nokia’s mobile phone business. Nokia agreed in […]
