TimeLine Layout

October, 2016

  • 11 October

    Park urges preparations for mass North defections

      Seoul / AFP South Korean President Park Geun-Hye on Tuesday told her government to prepare for large-scale defections from North Korea, just days after direct appealing to its citizens to flee their country. A recent spate of high-profile North Korean defections have provided a propaganda windfall for Seoul, which has spun them into a narrative of a Pyongyang leadership in ...

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  • 11 October

    Pak bans leading journalist from leaving country

      Islamabad / AFP Pakistan’s government has imposed a travel ban on a leading journalist after he sparked an uproar by reporting that civilian officials had clashed with the military over its covert support for militants. Cyril Almeida, an assistant editor at Dawn, the country’s oldest and most prestigious English daily, announced early on Tuesday he had been placed on the ...

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  • 11 October

    Jailed Chinese activist wins top rights prize

      Geneva / AFP A jailed scholar defending China’s mostly-Muslim Uighur minority was awarded a leading honour for human rights on Tuesday, a move swiftly condemned by Beijing. Ilham Tohti, who was handed a life sentence in 2014, won the Martin Ennals award for his outspoken criticism of Beijing’s policies towards Uighurs. “Ilham Tohti has worked for two decades to foster ...

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  • 11 October

    Rapid transit key in fight against climate change

      Paris / AFP Big cities worldwide have expanded faster than their rapid transit systems, leading to higher levels of pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and commuter misery, a report released Tuesday showed. “Low-density, car-oriented development — known as ‘sprawl’ — has been the predominant urban form for cities in the past century,” said Michael Marks, a researcher at the non-profit, New ...

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  • 11 October

    Gulf up on oil price, Egypt falls on Saudi crude product halt

      DUBAI / Reuters Most major bourses in the Gulf rose on Tuesday as oil prices held near one-year highs, while Egypt retreated after news that Saudi Arabia had suspended oil product supplies to the country this month. Riyadh’s stock index gained 1.5 percent, trimming its loss over the last four weeks to 8.4 percent. All 14 listed petrochemical producers ...

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  • 11 October

    Samsung shares slump while London hits highs

      London / AFP Shares in Samsung Electronics tumbled Tuesday after the company junked its Note 7 smartphone, while the anaemic pound helped push Britain’s stock market to a record high. The weak pound, flailing in the wake of Britain’s June vote to quit the European Union, helped push London’s FTSE 100 index of top blue-chip companies to 7,129.83 points, ...

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  • 11 October

    UK risks losing billions in EU investment funding over Brexit

      Bloomberg Britain risks losing access to the European Union’s development bank when it leaves the bloc, adding to the economic harm caused by Brexit, according to Werner Hoyer, the bank’s president. The European Investment Bank lent Britain a record 7.8 billion euros ($8.7 billion) in 2015, part of a U.K. loan book of almost 50 billion euros. Projects funded ...

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  • 11 October

    Driverless cars rolled out on British streets

      Milton Keynes / AFP Driverless vehicles carrying passengers took to Britain’s streets for the first time on Tuesday in a landmark trial which could pave the way for their introduction across the country. The compact two-seater cars trundled along a pedestrianised zone in Milton Keynes, north of London, in a trial by Transport Systems Catapult (TSC) which plans to ...

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  • 11 October

    Dutch freeze court action against Pokemon Go makers

      The Hague / AFP Dutch authorities said on Tuesday they have suspended plans to sue the US makers of Pokemon Go after the company deleted its virtual pets from a protected beach in The Hague. The so-called Pokestops and Pokegyms, which attract Pokemon and allow players to buy accessories to capture, treat and train the virtual monsters, “have been ...

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  • 11 October

    German investor cheer could hit growth buffers

      Frankfurt / AFP Sentiment among investors in Germany sharply improved this month from its post-Brexit doldrums, data showed on Tuesday, but analysts warned against overconfidence. The ZEW economic institute’s headline investor confidence index hit 6.2 points in October, an increase of 5.7 points over September and beating the 4.0 points analysts surveyed by Factset had predicted. Sentiment had hovered ...

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