Hong Kong shares edged lower on Wednesday, but a mid-morning surge by mainland markets lent some support to Chinese companies listed in the territory, helping the Hang Seng Index finish off its intraday low. The Shanghai Composite Index was up 2.2% at 2,501.1 by midday, with A-share turnover almost equalling total turnover in each of
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Internet titans Google and Facebook trotted out a variety of new social networking features in back-to-back announcements on Tuesday, underscoring their intensifying competition for Web surfers. Google integrated its flagship search engine into its 3-month old social network — with membership now open to the Internet public — and expanded its "Hangouts" video-chat feature to
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English Premier League soccer champions Manchester United have put on hold a $1 billion flotation in Singapore due to market volatility, while retaining a goal of listing before the end of the year, a source close to the IPO told Reuters. United, currently top of the Premier League, had targeted a mid-October float. "They are
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The United States urged Turkey on Monday not to do anything to worsen its relationship with Israel, U.S. officials said on Monday, seeking to prevent relations between two U.S. allies from deteriorating further. One official offered no details but may have been alluding to the possibility of the Turkish navy escorting aid flotillas to the
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President Barack Obama laid out a $3.6 trln plan on Monday to cut U.S. budget deficits partly by raising taxes on the rich, but Republicans rejected it as a political stunt and made clear the proposal had little chance of becoming law. Vowing to veto any plan that relies solely on spending cuts to reduce
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NASA plans to spend $1.6 bln over the next two years bolstering industry efforts to develop space taxis, officials said on Monday. The U.S. space agency will be looking for complete systems — launchers, spaceships, mission operations and ground support — to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station by the middle of the decade.
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UBS AG Chief Executive Oswald Gruebel will seek a vote of confidence at a board meeting in Singapore for plans to slash the investment banking division that caused a $2.3 bln loss due to unauthorised trading, a Swiss newspaper reported on Tuesday. Citing unnamed sources, the Tages-Anzeiger reported that Gruebel wants to carry out the
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Australia's national broadcaster faced calls for a review of funding on Tuesday over a television comedy scene with a fictional Prime Minister Julia Gillard draped in a national flag after having sex on her office floor. Conservative opposition lawmakers said the Australian Broadcasting Corporation had overstepped good taste with a scene in which actors playing
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Twenty-two Americans ranging from a radio journalist to a sports trainer received no-strings-attached "genius" grants worth $500,000 each, a charitable foundation announced on Tuesday. Since the program was begun in 1981, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has provided grants to 850 "fellows," with the aim of providing scientists, scholars, artists, activists and
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Standard and Poor's cut its unsolicited ratings on Italy by one notch, warning of a deteriorating growth outlook and damaging political uncertainty, in a move that took markets by surprise and added to pressure on the debt-stressed euro zone. S&P's downgraded its unsolicited ratings on Italy to A/A-1 from A+/A-1+ and kept its outlook on
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