All posts published in August 2016
OSLO Some fish may cope with the changing chemistry of the oceans linked to global warming by permanently setting their body defenses to night-time levels, the time of day when they find sea water least hospitable, a study said on Monday. Man-made carbon dioxi... More »
NEW YORK “Cats”, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hit musical based on poet T.S. Eliot’s “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats”, has returned to Broadway after 16 years. The revival show, starring singer Leona Lewis, had its official opening on Sunday at the Neil... More »
LONDON A new “Harry Potter” play that opened to swooning reviews and delighted gasps from the audience marks the end of the journey for the beloved boy wizard, his creator J.K. Rowling said at the play’s premiere in London on Saturday. Billed as the eighth ins... More »
BEIRUT A Russian military helicopter carrying five people was shot down in the north of Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province on Monday, the Russian defence ministry said. Russian air forces are supporting President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s five-year-old civil w... More »
BEIRUT Syrian rebel fighters have launched a major assault on government-held southwestern parts of Aleppo to try to reopen supply lines after the army and its allies tightened their siege of opposition-held parts of the city last week. The rebels are trying t... More »
ATHENS At least 80 skeletons lie in a mass grave in an ancient Greek cemetery, their wrists clamped by iron shackles. They are the victims, say archaeologists, of a mass execution. But who they were, how they got there and why they appear to have been buried w... More »
BANGKOK The mother of a leading activist against the military junta in Thailand was charged on Monday with insulting the country’s monarchy in a one-word Facebook post. Patnaree Chankij was brought to a military court in Bangkok after the country’s attorney ge... More »
JAKARTA Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Monday urged citizens to take part in the country’s new tax amnesty and pledged his government will “go all out” to keep the law behind it from potentially getting blocked in court. In line with low payment rates in ... More »
JERUSALEM Israel’s tax authority, looking to crack down on unreported capital, said on Monday it has received a list from French authorities of more than 8,000 Israeli customers that held bank accounts at the Swiss arm of HSBC. HSBC early last year acknowledge... More »
BEIJING China on Monday called for Britain to proceed with a nuclear power plant project partly invested in by a Chinese firm, saying the project had firm support from London, after Britain’s new government said it would review it again. The plan by France’s E... More »
KABUL The Taliban claimed responsibility for a truck bomb attack on a military and logistics services compound, mainly used by foreigners, in Kabul early on Monday after a powerful explosion was heard all around the city. However, casualties appear to have bee... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said on Sunday that Russian intelligence services hacked into Democratic National Committee computers and she questioned Republican rival Donald Trump’s overtures to Russian President Vladimir P... More »
MOSCOW Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday that U.S. accusations that Moscow was behind a hack of Democratic National Committee computers were insulting and unworthy, the Interfax news agency reported. The ministry also said that Washington had not made t... More »
LONDON/SYDNEY British manufacturers slammed on the brakes last month after the Brexit vote and growth eased in the euro zone, surveys indicated, with factories in China, Japan and elsewhere in Asia offering only crumbs of comfort. A U.S. version due later Mond... More »
LONDON The Bank of England looks ready to cut interest rates for the first time since 2009 on Thursday, seeking to stop Britain’s vote to leave the European Union from kicking the country into recession. It may even go a step further and pump billions of pound... More »
TOKYO Voters in the Japanese capital elected their first woman governor on Sunday, after two predecessors stepped down over scandals that clouded the city’s preparations to host the 2020 summer Olympic Games. Yuriko Koike, Japan’s first female defence minister... More »
MANILA When the image of Jennelyn Olaires weeping as she cradled the body of her slain husband went viral in the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte called it melodramatic. There’s not much Duterte hasn’t said when it comes to his war on drugs, his only rea... More »
(This story filed on July 31, 2016 corrects final paragraph to take out reference to China’s Ministry of Finance. A request for comment had not been made at that time) By Michelle Price HONG KONG British and Chinese securities watchdogs are discussing an agree... More »
LONDON GlaxoSmithKline and Google parent Alphabet’s life sciences unit are creating a new company focused on fighting diseases by targeting electrical signals in the body, jump-starting a novel field of medicine called bioelectronics. Verily Life Sciences – kn... More »
NUSA DUA, Indonesia The Federal Reserve should be cautious on interest rate increases due to lingering risks to the U.S. economy, one of its most influential policymakers said on Monday, appearing to signal the chance of a hike by the end of the year was fadin... More »
LONDON Oil fell on Monday morning, reversing earlier gains, as increases in OPEC production and U.S. oil rig additions continued to weigh on the market. Brent crude was down $0.44 at $43.09 a barrel at 0854 GMT (4:54 a.m. ET) from the previous settlement, afte... More »
ANKARA Iran’s Oil Minister says the oil market is oversupplied but predicts balance between demand and supply will be restored, Iranian state television reported on Monday. “The oil market is oversupplied now but there are expectations that there will be balan... More »
BASRA, Iraq Iraq’s oil exports from its southern ports rose to 3.2 million barrels per day (bpd) on average in July, up from 3.175 million bpd in June, as the OPEC nation increased crude production, Iraqi oil officials said. Output at the Luhais field, operate... More »
BEIJING Didi Chuxing will buy Uber’s China business, the Chinese ride-hailing company said on its official microblog on Monday. Uber will continue to operate independently in China, and Uber’s global business will receive a 5.89 percent stake in Didi as part o... More »
LONDON The dollar crawled up on Monday after recording its poorest weekly performance in three months, while the yen edged lower after a more than 3 percent surge on a much less aggressive than expected easing package from the Bank of Japan. The greenback shed... More »
LONDON Aug 1 – Manufacturing growth across the euro zone eased in July, a survey showed on Monday, and signs of a sharper slowdown outside powerhouse Germany may add to calls for the European Central Bank to loosen policy again. Markit’s Purchasing Managers’ I... More »
SHANGHAI China stocks fell to a near one-month closing low on Monday as investor sentiment was hit by regulators’ crackdown on speculation as well as a fresh wave of initial public offerings (IPOs). The blue-chip CSI300 index .CSI300 fell 0.8 percent to 3,176.... More »
BEIJING Activity in China’s manufacturing sector eased unexpectedly in July as orders cooled and flooding disrupted business, an official survey showed, adding to fears the economy will slow in coming months unless the government steps up a huge spending spree... More »
SPRINGFIELD, New Jersey American Jimmy Walker broke through for his first major title with a one-shot win over Jason Day in the PGA Championship after playing 36 grueling holes at water-logged Baltusrol on Sunday. The 37-year-old Texan calmly canned a three-fo... More »
SPRINGFIELD, New Jersey Jimmy Walker said winning the PGA Championship on Sunday for his first career major was a matter of trust, both in himself and in his game. The 37-year-old Texan showed he had what it takes by holding up over 36 holes over the sopping w... More »
SPRINGFIELD, New Jersey The pressure of contending in majors certainly agrees with South African Branden Grace, even if he has yet to close the deal. With a tie for fourth at the PGA Championship on Sunday, Grace recorded his fourth top-five finish in golf’s b... More »
SPRINGFIELD, New Jersey Jason Day had another near miss at a major championship, but not before he gave a major scare to eventual winner Jimmy Walker on the 72nd hole of the Australian’s defense of the PGA Championship. Trailing by three shots, the world numbe... More »
NEW YORK Donald Trump rejected criticism from the father of a soldier killed in Iraq who said the Republican presidential nominee had “sacrificed nothing and no one” and questioned whether the mother was allowed to speak during the couple’s appearance at the D... More »
CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton accused Donald Trump on Sunday of scapegoating the parents of a Muslim soldier killed in Iraq, after the Republican nominee took issue with remarks the soldier’s father made at the ... More »
