A rebound in Hong Kong and Shanghai shares helped lift most Asian stocks into positive territory on Wednesday, but concerns that Europe's debt crisis has hurt confidence in the global economy and is weighing on corporate earnings limited gains. The strength in Chinese shares also trimmed losses in Japan, but growth-sensitive Asian shares remained weak
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Every month college student Zahraa Ali joins the growing number of Iraqi women treating themselves to hair, health and beauty therapies that a few years ago were the stuff of daydreams. As Iraq's violence ebbs and Baghdad life stabilizes, hair salons, gyms and beauty centres are starting to flourish again in the capital, bringing back
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Nail varnish has become the top-selling fashion accessory, replacing lipstick as an affordable indulgence in austere times and leading to a boom in sales as consumers flock to buy bright-coloured bottles. Industry insiders predict nail colour will be the fastest-growing beauty business in the next few years, providing a small yet promising pocket of growth
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BlackBerry users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa were suffering a second day of problems on Tuesday, just hours after Research In Motion Ltd , maker of the devices, said it had fixed a huge outage. Network operators and users tweeted that email and BlackBerry Messenger services were not working from around 1100 GMT.
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– Judge says Tymoshenko exceeded powers in 2009 gas deal – EU has warned jailing ex-premier will damage relations (Updates with sentence, EU statement) A Ukrainian court on Tuesday sentenced former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko to seven years in prison for abuse of office in relation to a 2009 gas deal with Russia that she
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– Greece's lenders say loan tranche likely to be paid in Nov – ECB's Trichet warns of systemic risk from debt crisis – Expectation of bigger Greek debt write-down mounts Greece should receive a vital lifeline next month in order to avoid bankruptcy, its international lenders said on Tuesday, buying time in a debt crisis
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Cyprus, which is in dispute with Turkey over oil and natural gas drilling rights in the eastern Mediterranean, said on Tuesday it had high expectations of finding hydrocarbons in an area south of the island. Cyprus's U.S. partner, Texas-based Noble Energy , began drilling an offshore prospect three weeks ago bordering two significant gas discoveries
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The inflation rate dropped in September to 2.4%, after recording 2.9% in August 2011 and 3.5% in September 2010. The main reason was a decline compared with the year earlier in the heavily weighted category of food and non-alcoholic beverages. Prices in September 2011 declined by 0.3% compared with September 2010—a month in which prices
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The trade deficit based on provisional data from the Statistical Service widened in August to EUR 480.8 mln from EUR 416.9 mln in August 2010. Total imports/ arrivals were provisionally estimated at EUR 586.2 mln and total exports/dispatches at EUR 105.4 mln. Of the import total, EUR 358.6 mln constituted arrivals from other member states
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British landmark Big Ben is leaning to such an extent that the tilt can now be clocked with the naked eye, according to a report commissioned by London Underground and the Parliamentary Estates Department. The 96 metre (yards) high clock tower of the Houses of Parliament — known colloquially as Big Ben, the name of
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