Long after midnight, with the temperature well above 20C and humidity high, I gave up attempting to sleep and checked what the night sky might offer in compensation. With the moon yet to rise, the village was in darkness, swathed in a murky blanket of haze that all but obscured the mountains to the east. Looking up, a few stars were just visible above the beech trees – whose leaves moved silkily together in the warm wind as though breathing, the only other sounds those of the stream and a few distant sheep. Facebook Twitter Pinterest A crescent moon rises over the Cambrian Mountains. Photograph: John Gilbey A brilliant, unmistakable point of light, Venus rose over the Cambrian mountains just before three o’clock, fading in and out of view as it was obscured by the lines of cloud that hung above the horizon. Half an hour later the planet was joined by the moon, a thin waning crescent against a morning sky now tinged with … [Read more...]

Vast amounts of federal money coming into the Northern Territory have not translated into an improvement of Indigenous disadvantage, Mick Gooda has said at the royal commission. Gooda, one of the two royal commissioners leading the inquiry into the protection and detention of children in the NT, made the comments during questioning of a federal bureaucrat. It follows testimony last week that the majority of NT intervention funding had been “squandered”. NT intervention a 'debacle' and second attempt should be made, commission told Read more “On one hand we’re being told communities and organisations can’t afford a worker but then on the other hand we’ve got a massive amount of money coming in here, and it’s fairly easy to say, for no visible significant improvement,” Gooda said. Andrew Tongue, the associate secretary of Indigenous affairs at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, said there had been … [Read more...]

June 26 The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.- Billionaire activist investor Daniel Loeb's Third Point LLC hedge fund has taken its largest-ever initial bet on a public company, with a $3.5 billion stake in Nestle SA piling pressure on the world's largest packaged-foods company to find ways to accelerate growth. on.wsj.com/2scxMEa - Takata Corp filed for bankruptcy protection in Japan and the U.S. and said it would sell most of its operations to a rival, capping the steep decline of an 84-year-old Japanese company nearly nine years after it began a global recall of rupture-prone automotive air bags. on.wsj.com/2scjvrr - Facebook Inc is talking to Hollywood studios and agencies about producing TV-quality shows with an eye toward launching original programming by late summer, people familiar with the matter said. … [Read more...]

It’s easy for an English-speaking, white politician to legislate a language test for Australian citizenship that even someone born in Australia would find hard to pass. The biggest impact would be on migrants or refugees – my mother, for example. Khal Bibi Hekmat never had the opportunity to go school in Afghanistan. I can’t imagine how she would fair on this new language test. My mother applied for her Australian citizenship three years ago. She had arrived here as a refugee from Afghanistan in 2009, along with my siblings. (I came nine years earlier by boat and could sponsor them). She applied as soon as the four years waiting period was up, at the same time as my three siblings. They passed the citizenship but my mother, whose English was almost non-existent despite attending many English classes, failed. Her age – she is 57 – together with never having had the opportunity to go to school in Afghanistan, the trauma of losing so many loved ones in the … [Read more...]

MEXICO CITY Tropical Storm Dora, located off the western coast of Mexico in the Pacific Ocean, is strengthening quickly and is expected to become a hurricane on Monday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Sunday.Maximum sustained winds were about 70 miles per hour (110 km per hour), with higher gusts. Dora was strengthening quickly and was forecast to become a hurricane on Monday, the NHC said in its latest advisory late on Sunday night.The NHC warned of possible heavy rains along the southwestern coast of Mexico but added that the center of the storm was expected to move parallel to the coast of Mexico but remain offshore. It said no coastal watches or warnings were in effect. Dora was moving toward the west-northwest at around 14 mph (22 kph), and this general motion was expected to continue over the next 48 hours. It was expected to produce rain accumulations of 1 to 3 inches (2.5 to 7.6 cm), with … [Read more...]

* SSEC 0.6 pct, CSI300 1.0 pct, HSI 0.4 pct* Blue-chip index at record high since 2016* MSCI to raise weighting of China A-sharesSHANGHAI, June 26 China stocks rose on Monday morning, led by the blue-chip index advancing to a record high since 2016, after the MSCI chief said the index provider could raise its weighting of China A-shares.The Shanghai SE 50 Index, an index tracking the 50 most representative blue-chips in the Shanghai Stock Exchange, moved up 0.5 percent to an 18-month high. The index has gained 11.2 percent in 2017, versus a gain of 2.4 percent in the benchmark SSEC.The CSI300 index rose 1.0 percent, to 3,658.73 points at the end of the morning session, while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.6 percent, to 3,178.15 points. U.S. index provider MSCI Inc Chief Executive Henry Fernandez said that in the future the MSCI Emerging Markets Index could raise its weighting of China A-shares, potentially adding 195 mid-sized stocks, Shanghai … [Read more...]

(Updates strength, position, adds details, paragraphs 1-2, 6)MEXICO CITY, June 25 Tropical Storm Dora, located off the western coast of Mexico in the Pacific Ocean, is strengthening quickly and is expected to become a hurricane on Monday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Sunday.Maximum sustained winds were about 70 miles per hour (110 km per hour), with higher gusts. Dora was strengthening quickly and was forecast to become a hurricane on Monday, the NHC said in its latest advisory late on Sunday night. The NHC warned of possible heavy rains along the southwestern coast of Mexico but added that the center of the storm was expected to move parallel to the coast of Mexico but remain offshore. It said no coastal watches or warnings were in effect. Dora was moving toward the west-northwest at around 14 mph (22 kph), and this general motion was expected to continue over the next 48 hours.It was expected to … [Read more...]

(Changes sourcing; adds Canadian government statement)June 26 China and Canada have signed an agreement vowing not to conduct state-sponsored cyberattacks against each other aimed at stealing trade secrets or other confidential business information.The agreement was reached during talks between Canada's national security and intelligence adviser, Daniel Jean, and senior communist party official Wang Yongqing, a statement dated June 22 on the Canadian government's website showed. "This is something that three or four years ago (Beijing) would not even have entertained in the conversation," an unnamed Canadian government official told the Globe and Mail, which first reported the agreement.The new agreement only covers economic cyber-espionage, which includes hacking corporate secrets and proprietary technology, but does not deal with state-sponsored cyber spying for intelligence gathering. "The two sides agreed that … [Read more...]

The Lloyds Bank Business in Britain reports confidence index rose to 24 per cent and has doubled since the days after the Brexit vote.The overall confidence index tracks expected profits, sales and orders over the next six months.The report surveyed the views of 1,500 UK companies in May and found that 18 per cent are expecting to record higher profits.Tim Hinton of Lloyds Banking Group said: “Although challenges remain in recruiting both skilled and unskilled labour, businesses are anticipating higher sales, increased profits and staffing levels to rise.“However, the outlook remains mixed at best."According to the survey, four out of six business sectors reported higher levels of confidence since January. Thu, February 16, 2017 … [Read more...]

U.S. mortgage lenders are bracing for rockier times as consumers demand for home loans slows and competition in the mortgage industry intensifies, Fannie Mae's latest quarterly survey released on Monday showed.Some lenders are worried about a squeeze on their profit margin, but the number of them has fallen since the fourth quarter of 2016, according to the 184 mortgage executives who responded to the survey.In a response to a tougher climate, more lenders said they plan to relax their lending standards, which could attract more borrowers, survey data showed. “Expectations to ease credit standards climbed to survey highpoints in the second quarter as more lenders reported slowing mortgage demand and increasing concerns about competition from other lenders,” Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae's chief economist at Washington-based mortgage finance agency, said in a statement. The margin on the share of lenders who saw a … [Read more...]

June 26 (Gracenote) - Standings from the WTA Tour singles Points 1 (1) Angelique Kerber(Germany) 6965 2 (2) Simona Halep(Romania) 6850 3 (3) Karolina Pliskova(Czech Republic) 6386 4 (4) Serena Williams(U.S.) 4810 5 (5) Elina Svitolina(Ukraine) 4765 6 (8) Caroline Wozniacki(Denmark) 4345 7 (7) Johanna Konta(Britain) 4325 8 (9) Svetlana Kuznetsova(Russia) 4310 9 (6) Dominika Cibulkova(Slovakia) 4010 10 (10) Agnieszka Radwanska(Poland) 3985 11 (11) Venus Williams(U.S.) 3941 12 (16) Petra Kvitova(Czech Republic) 3135 13 (12) Kristina Mladenovic(France) 3095 14 (13) Jelena Ostapenko(Latvia) 3080 15 (14) Garbine Muguruza Blanco(Spain) 3060 16 (15) Elena Vesnina(Russia) 2777 17 (17) Anastasia … [Read more...]

Donald Trump has not hosted an iftar dinner during Ramadan, breaking a nearly 20-year tradition. Despite events held by previous administrations from across the political divide, this year’s Ramadan – which began on 26 May – passed nearly unobserved by the White House. It was marked only by a statement published late on Saturday afternoon, coinciding with the end of the holy month. The first White House iftar dinner is said to have been hosted by President Thomas Jefferson, who hosted a Tunisian ambassador during the Islamic month of fasting in 1805. Refugee admissions nearly halved as supreme court mulls Trump travel ban Read more Hillary Clinton resurrected the event when she was First Lady in February 1996, hosting about 150 people for a reception for Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month. The sunset dinner, attended by legislators, diplomats and leaders within the US Muslim community, went onto become an annual tradition from 1999, … [Read more...]

BEIJING The new U.S. ambassador to China has said that stopping the threat posed by North Korea will be a top priority, along with resolving the U.S.-China trade imbalance, according to a video message to the Chinese people released on Monday.Terry Branstad, a former Iowa governor, has been described by Beijing as an "old friend" of China. Branstad was confirmed on May 24 as President Donald Trump's new ambassador to China but his arrival date has yet to be announced."Resolving the bilateral trade imbalance, stopping the North Korea threat, and expanding people-to-people ties will be my top priorities," Branstad said in the video message, which was released on a popular Chinese video-streaming platform.Trump has placed high hopes on China and its president, Xi Jinping, exerting greater influence on North Korea, although he said last week Chinese efforts to rein in the reclusive North's nuclear and missile programmes had failed. China's foreign ministry … [Read more...]

By Winni Zhou and Engen Tham | SHANGHAI SHANGHAI Three Australians went on trial in China on Monday along with a dozen other Crown Resorts Ltd (CWN.AX) employees and former employees accused of gambling crimes, following a lengthy probe into how the firm lured Chinese high-rollers to its casinos.The 19 defendants were formally charged earlier this month, having been first detained late last year, and the trial at Baoshan District Court in the north of Shanghai is expected to reach a fairly swift conclusion.Melbourne-based Crown is 49 percent owned by billionaire James Packer, and the most senior employee on trial is its Australia-based head of international VIP gambling Jason O'Connor. Three of the accused, believed to have been junior staff, had been released on bail.Family members were ushered into the courthouse as they arrived with lawyers in a convoy of cars on Monday morning, and some wore masks. Journalists were barred from … [Read more...]

Image copyright SWNS Image caption Ian Paterson was described as a "monster" by one of his victims Patients taking out private health insurance expect to get the best treatment, but what happens if things go wrong? While the NHS has paid out millions to the patients of disgraced breast surgeon Ian Paterson, his private patients are still seeking compensation. Why?Paterson was jailed for 15 years last month after being convicted of intentionally wounding his patients. His trial heard he exaggerated or invented the risk of cancer in order to persuade people to go under the knife.While the case centred on nine women and one man, there were in fact hundreds of other victims, many of whom were treated privately by Paterson at Spire Healthcare, in the West Midlands.One such patient is Patricia Welch, who underwent a … [Read more...]

By Sue-Lin Wong | MAO COUNTY, China MAO COUNTY, China Frustration grew on Monday among family members of victims of a landslide that buried a mountain village in southwestern China, with some complaining about a lack of information and asking why they had not been moved from an area prone to land slips.At least 93 people remain missing, along with 10 confirmed dead, after a landslide crashed down on the village of Xinmo, in mountainous Sichuan province, as dawn broke on Saturday.The government has sent some 3,000 rescuers, along with equipment, to the area and has promised to do all it can to look for survivors while restricting access for safety reasons.The government of Mao county, where the village is located, posted on Monday drone video footage of the disaster zone, showing a dozen or so mechanical diggers shifting through a vast landscape of rubble, and promising to release updated information in a timely manner.About 100 family members, unhappy with what they … [Read more...]

SHANGHAI Tradeweb, a fixed-income trading platform, will connect with China Foreign Exchange Trading System (CFETS) to be the main interface for offshore investors trading in China's bond market through the country's upcoming "Bond Connect" scheme, the company said on Monday.Talks between Tradeweb and the Hong Kong exchange were exclusively reported by Reuters last August. Tradeweb, majority-owned by Thomson Reuters, the parent company of Reuters News, matches buyers and sellers of fixed income products across more than 22 international OTC bond markets. In a statement, Tradeweb said that eligible overseas institutional investors from its network of more than 2,000 clients would be able to trade directly with liquidity providers in the CFETS market through Tradeweb's platform. Investors trading through Tradeweb will be able to use global custodians to settle through a nominee holding arrangement provided by the Hong … [Read more...]

The head of the Australian Council of Trade Unions has called on Australia’s unionists to begin campaigning hard on the issue of inequality, warning workplace rules must be repaired to reverse the damage to workers caused by three decades of neoliberalism. Sally McManus, secretary of the ACTU, issued the rallying cry on Monday during her opening address to a three-day union conference in Sydney. She said “one group of people” had far too much power in Australia – pointing out the richest 1% owned more wealth than the poorest 70% – and old protections for wage workers had been so whittled down that the minimum wage no longer kept people out of poverty. Sally McManus has guts. Who cares if the Liberals moan about her? | Alex McKinnon Read more She said unions must recapture their role as economic “disrupters” with serious power, with secure bargaining positions at the tops of supply chains and “across … [Read more...]

On May 31st Kenya celebrated the inauguration of the first phase of the new high-speed rail link from Mombasa to Nairobi. Now Kenyans can travel between the two largest cities quickly and cheaply. Accelerated movement of cargo and people will mean more trade, more income generation, and therefore, more jobs, and that’s good for our youthful nation. Much less widely reported were results of studies by Dr Joseph Ogutu and colleagues at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), which reveal that Kenya’s wildlife numbers are plummeting. Some of our most treasured animals, such as hirola, rhinos, cheetah, lions, and giraffe, are being pushed to the brink of extinction. Nearly every region and habitat in the country is in trouble, except Laikipia county. But even here, hard-earned conservation gains of past decades are in danger of being wiped out in a single year. The county is reeling under the combined impact of drought and an unprecedented wave of violence in … [Read more...]

Russian drug smuggler Roman Kalashnikov, who is due to be executed by firing squad, has managed to earn a wage from his fanciful delicacies by cooking for his fellow inmates.Kalashnikov was arrested in Indonesia after he was caught smuggling almost three kilos of cannabis in toothpaste tubes during a trip to Bali. Fri, June 17, 2016 This is a very interesting job, even though it takes a lot of time Caged prisoner, Roman Kalashnikov Indonesian officials humiliated the drug mule in a press conference announcing his sentence, which was later uploaded onto Youtube.Budi Harjanto, an Indonesian customs border official, said the Russian's … [Read more...]