Hong Kong shares retreated on Monday morning, led by property issues after government measures to cool the property market, while China stocks edged higher as insurers and technology plays gained ground. The benchmark Hang Seng Index was down 0.36% at 23,521.09 by the midday trading break. The China Enterprises Index of top locally listed mainland
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Japan's justice minister resigned on Monday in a bid to avoid a row over a gaffe delaying the enactment of an extra budget, but hurdles remain for Prime Minister Naoto Kan as he struggles with a divided parliament. The 4.4 trln yen ($52.7 bln) extra budget will pass by mid-December at the latest, given the
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. Recent violent events and an increasing rate of social disobedience is tarnishing the reputation Cyprus has had as an easy going, calm society, a factor that multinationals often take into serious consideration when deciding where to set up their next operations or remove an existing base. Football hooliganism is on the rise, racist clashes
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. * Only 2.5% made donations of more than $500,000 Charitable giving by wealthy Americans dropped by more than a third between 2007 and 2009 as the worst U.S. recession in decades put pressure on the nonprofit sector, according to a new study. While almost all rich Americans — more than 98% — donated to
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. Bootcamp is hot, Pilates is not, according to a new survey forecasting fitness trends for 2011. In fact so precipitous was the fall of Pilates, once a fitness staple, that Dr. Walter Thompson, lead author of an annual poll conducted by the American College of Sports Medicine, is starting to call it a fad.
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. Many not making adequate provisions for the future Nearly two thirds of family firms intend to expand in the next 12 months and nearly all are confident they can compete effectively with their sector market leaders, but nearly half still don’t have a succession plan, according to a PwC survey of 1,600 family business
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Greece will not hold its regular monthly T-bill auctions in December due to a lack of investor interest in the holiday season, the Public Debt Management Agency (PDMA) said on Friday. "In line with its policy of monthly T-bill sales, the PDMA will proceed to its next auction in 2011," PDMA chief Petros Christodoulou told
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Bulgaria and Qatar have signed a confidentiality deal paving the way for talks on LNG deliveries from the Arab country, state gas company Bulgargaz said on Friday, as Sofia seeks to cut dependence on Russian gas. Qatar is the world's largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) producer. "There is a confidentiality agreement signed so that talks
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Alpha Bank, Greece's third-biggest lender, was seen reporting a 72% drop in nine-month net profit, as austerity and recession forced it to ramp up loan-loss provisions and curb lending, a Reuters poll found. Net profit was seen, on average, at 97.8 mln euros, with estimates in a wide 68.5-135.5 mln range. Alpha Bank has operations
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Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders agreed late on Thursday to step up contacts to try to overcome obstacles in the quest to reunite their island, divided for over three decades, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said. After talks with Greek Cypriot president Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu, Ban told reporters the two men
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