Money market freeze stirs rate cut speculation

Reuters September 30, 2008
By Eric Burroughs
TOKYO (Reuters) – Central banks and regulators scrambled on Tuesday to relieve the strain on financial markets frazzled by another hefty blow to confidence, this time from the rejection by U.S. lawmakers of a $700 billion rescue plan.
Global central banks more than doubled the amount of dollar funding to $620 [...]

Snow is the surprising forecast for Mars

Phoenix Mars Mission website

NASA’s Phoenix lander discovers ice crystals in clouds about two miles above the planet. ‘Nothing like this has ever been seen on Mars,’ says one scientist.
By John Johnson Jr., Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 30, 2008

The latest forecast on on Mars calls for morning fog and swift-moving clouds — along with light [...]

Wall Street’s slow demise

By Ron Chernow
Published: September 29, 2008
With breathtaking speed, the world of large Wall Street investment banks has vanished. Fabled firms, some more than a century old, have been merged out of existence (Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch), gone bankrupt (Lehman Brothers), or sought asylum as commercial bank holding companies (Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley). Why on [...]

New York Film Festival pushes boundaries of reality

Brian Milligan and Liam McMahon in Steve McQueen’s “Hunger,” which focuses on imprisoned IRA members. ( Blast! Films/IFC Films/Film Society of Lincoln Center)
By A. O. Scott
Published: September 29, 2008
NEW YORK: When a movie’s engagement with reality is at once impossible to miss and difficult to define, we frequently say it’s like a documentary. The comparison, [...]

Bailout vote eyed as two European Banks rescued

U.S. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) (C) and House Minority Whip Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) (L) speak to the media during a Saturday session on Capitol Hill in Washington September 27, 2008.

Sun Sep 28, 2008 6:10pm EDT
By Richard Cowan and Patrick Rucker
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. lawmakers geared up to vote on Monday on creating [...]

“Eagle Eye” soars to top of box office

Sunday, September 28, 2008
By Bob Tourtellotte
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Thriller “Eagle Eye” soared to the top of North American box offices, taking in $29 million in its first weekend in theaters on the wings of rising star Shia LaBeouf, according to studio estimates on Sunday.
The strong opening for “Eagle Eye,” about two people in a [...]

China’s spacewalk astronauts return as Heroes

Spacewalker Zhai Zhigang was the first to emerge and was helped to a nearby folding chair, where he was greeted with flowers and applause and said he was “proud of his motherland.”
Sunday, September 28, 2008
By Emma Graham-Harrison
BEIJING (Reuters) – Three Chinese astronauts landed safely back on earth on Sunday after a 68-hour voyage and space [...]

Bangkok Named Best Leisure Destination

The Thai capital of Bangkok has been named ‘Best Leisure Destination’ in the Asia-Pacific region by readers of Business Traveller Asia Pacific magazine, the Thai foreign ministry announced.
The ministry said it was informed by the Thai consulate in Hong Kong that the magazine had presented awards to tourism organisations, hotels and airlines which were [...]

HKC (HOLDINGS) Selected as Constituent Stock of Hang Seng Family of Indexes

HKC (Holdings) Limited (“HKC (HOLDINGS)” or “the Group”) (HKEx: 190) has been selected as a constituent stock in the Hang Seng Composite Index, Hang Seng Mainland Composite Index, Hang Seng Composite Industry Index – Properties & Construction, Hang Seng Freefloat Composite Index and Hang Seng Mainland Freefloat Index, effective from 15 October, 2008.
Mr. Eric Oei, [...]

Tioman Island

About 56km off the coast of Pahang lies Tioman Island, an alluring holiday paradise in the South China Sea. Acclaimed as one of the best island getaways in the world, Tioman was the location of the Hollywood musical, ‘South Pacific’ in 1959.
According to legend, this island is the final resting place of a mythical dragon [...]