PublishDate  
6/26/2015
Malaysian billionare Francis Yeoh gives struggling Rome opera $1.5 million

Malaysian tycoon and performing arts lover Tan Sri Francis Yeoh has given Rome's struggling opera house €1 million (S$1.5 million), the opera said Thursday. Yeoh, chief of the huge YTL conglomerate, was quoted by the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma as saying he hoped the gift would help the instituti...

6/26/2015
Sentul moves up

A mere 13 years ago, YTL Land & Development Bhd (YTL Land) kickstarted a multi-billion ringgit urban renewal project in Kuala Lumpur’s Sentul district, with its historic pre-war shophouses, temples, churches, public housing and the old Malayan Railway train depot.

YTL Land dem...

6/23/2015
Bend it like rebel yogi Tara Stiles

As she curved her body backwards, her face full of concentration, the first light of the morning sun illuminated a shadow of her fit and slender physique. The chatter of monkeys and chirping of birds, which echoed in the lush greenery of the upsca...

6/20/2015
Majestic Malaysia sets out its splendour, from Kuala Lumpur to its luxury private islands

It’s a 12.5 hour flight to KL (as it is very commonly known) and you certainly appreciate a comfy billet when you arrive after whizzing from the far flung airport on a rail link.Fortunately for me, the central Hotel Majestic was just that.It...

6/19/2015
Renewable Energy Association announces industry award winners at 2015 British Renewable Energy Award

The Renewable Energy Association (REA) has announced the award winners at the tenth annual British Renewable Energy Awards, held at The Savoy in central London. GENeco by YTL's Wessex Water was awarded the 2015 British Renewable Energy Award in re...

6/18/2015
Walkers spoilt for choice

THE downpour that started earlier in the morning failed to dampen the spirits of Ipoh Starwalk 2015 participants. After the walk, many made their way to check out the attractive offers at the sponsor booths beside Stadium Indera Mulia in Ipoh. Com...

6/15/2015
Downpour fails to put a damper on walk

NEVERMIND that they were getting drenched, the 15,000 participants of Ipoh Starwalk 2015 that congregated at Stadium Indera Mulia were determined to complete the 7km walk despite a downpour.

6/13/2015
Heaven awaits at Pangkor Laut Resort

Yes, a god, a football god, deigned to appear before us mere mortals who happened to be at YTL’s Pangkor Laut Resort one recent weekend. Eric Cantona, the former Manchester United player (and eternal legend), appeared from the heavens in a h...

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6/26/2015
The Bad Behavior of Visionary Leaders

As I was reading Ashlee Vance’s “Elon Musk: Tesla, Space X and the Quest for a Fantastic Future,” I was alternately awed and disheartened, almost exactly the same ambivalence I felt after reading Walter Isaacson’s “St...

6/17/2015
Defining and redefining ‘Malay’

WHO or what is a Malay? Every now and then, and especially now when Arabisation is creeping in, the answer to that question could vary and provocatively stir up debate. Just like last week, when it was said at a forum in Petaling Jaya, which discussed Melayu dan makna-maknanya (Malay and its mean...

6/17/2015
Facing economic trials ahead

WHEN I started working in the early 1980s, developed economies were responsible for 75 per cent of world economic growth. Today, as I approach retirement age, they contribute less than half.

6/15/2015
Pope calls for cut in carbon emissions

Pope Francis will call for a “drastic reduction” in carbon emissions and lash out against “economic powers” that are opposing efforts to combat climate change, according to an early draft of his forthcoming encyclical on th...

6/15/2015
The Magna Carta, 800 years on

Magna Carta was not the first charter to be granted by an English king. A century earlier, Henry I, by issuing a Coronation Charter, had indicated that he would be more respectful of the nobles’ privileges than was his predecessor. But Henry...

6/14/2015
Fernandes hits out at Malaysian politicians in a series of well-received tweets

Tan Sri Tony Fernandes (pic) has hit out at politicians for not putting the interests of the people first. In a series of tweets, the AirAsia Group chief executive officer pondered if the country would ever have a political party which would put the people as priority.

6/12/2015
Indonesia removes luxury tax for most goods

Indonesia is exempting most goods from a luxury tax in a bid to boost household consumption and revive faltering economic growth, the finance minister said on Thursday.

6/12/2015
M'sian varsities fail to be among Asia's top 100

Despite the gains Malaysia made in the 2015 QS University Rankings: Asia, local varsities failed yet again to be included in Times Higher Education’s (THE) 2015 ranking of Asian universities that was released yesterday.

6/10/2015
Tech leaders shake up luxury industry

The clearest indicator of the changes to the luxury industry in the digital age comes from the largest deal struck in the sector so far this year, the tie-up between the Richemont-owned ecommerce platform Net-a-Porter and Italy’s Yoox.

...

6/10/2015
Hotels Offer Luxury Shopping Inside Your Rooms

Luxury hotels are increasingly partnering with high-end retailers to give guests insider shopping experiences and perks. Many of these collaborations are at properties in New York. The Mark Hotel on Manhattan’s Upper East Side has teamed wit...

6/10/2015
Australia widens probe into illegal home buying by foreigners, including Chinese

Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey has widened a probe into the illegal buying of residential property by foreigners, with almost 200 sales being investigated for breaching investment rules

6/10/2015
Edward Hadas: Central banks can save the world

Something has been fundamentally wrong with monetary policy. The central banks’ weakness is especially glaring when set against the ability of most parts of the economy to get over their serious problems. For example air and water pollution,...

6/10/2015
Michelle Obama Talks About Race and Success, and Makes It Personal

She looked around and saw herself three decades ago, young and uncertain, from a part of town where success is a struggle, not a birthright. She knew what they had been through, what it was like to take the long way home to avoid gangs, what it wa...

6/10/2015
Beware of ‘exponential reversal’

More investment money is seeking shelter in export-oriented companies, many of whose share prices have marched to multi-year peaks, if not historical highs, as the ringgit weakens further against the US dollar. But mind your risks, warned some analysts and fund managers, who believe some share pr...

6/9/2015
The liquidity timebomb - monetary policies have created a dangerous paradox

A paradox has emerged in the financial markets of the advanced economies since the 2008 global financial crisis. Unconventional monetary policies have created a massive overhang of liquidity. But a series of recent shocks suggests that macro liqui...

6/9/2015
HSBC to Shed 50,000 Jobs in Overhaul of Global Business

Like other global institutions, HSBC, Europe’s largest bank, has been under severe pressure since the 2008 financial crisis to cut costs, meet stringent new regulatory demands and satisfy restless shareholders.

6/9/2015
The $6.5 Trillion China Rally That’s Making Stock-Market History

It’s enough money to buy Apple Inc. eight times over, or circle the Earth 250 times with $100 bills. The figure, $6.5 trillion, sums up the value created in just 12 months of trading on Chinese stock exchanges -- and why some see a rally tha...

6/9/2015
BRICs Hit a Wall

Fourteen years ago, Goldman Sachs presented a thesis that quickly gained traction among investors and policy makers: Brazil, Russia, India and China, the bank claimed, would increasingly drive global growth, filling a void left by the West. Today,...

6/9/2015
Greece makes new offer as PM Alexis Tsipras warns of eurozone collapse

Cash-strapped Greece submitted a new reform plan to its EU-IMF creditors Tuesday as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras warned the lack of a deal would lead to the collapse of the eurozone. The radical leftist Greek government is on the verge of default...

6/6/2015
Is the bubble in this property market set to pop?

Taiwan's long-bubbly property prices appear headed for a correction, but it doesn't look like bargain hunters will fill the breach.

6/6/2015
How Jho Low used US$260 million of 1MDB’s cash to buy UBG in 2010

The Edge weekly in its latest edition published a series of emails detailing how 1Malaysia Development Bhd’s (1MDB) funds were planned to be use to take over UBG Bhd, which was then listed on Bursa Malaysia. 

The magazine reported that On Dec 1, 2009, Casey Tang, an executive...

6/4/2015
BHP Billiton warns global commodity supply glut to persist

BHP Billiton , the world's biggest mining company, warned on Wednesday that a global oversupply of commodities that is putting pressure on prices is likely to be be prolonged.

6/4/2015
Najib tells Perkasa to tone it down

"Sit down, discuss and talk over at a big makan like this. God will lead you if we give and take, love and care for each other and accept our differences," he said in his speech at the launch of the Christians for Peace and Harmony in Malaysia Movement (CPHM) Tuesday night.

6/4/2015
Thanks 1MDB, now tell us if the RM15.4 billion is in cash or ‘units’

Retaliating against allegations of RM27 billion “missing” cash, 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) yesterday provided a summary and two infographics detailing how its RM42 billion of debt as at end-March 2014 is accounted for, including how RM15.4 billion or over one-third (37%) of the ...

6/4/2015
Bank Negara acts on 1MDB

Finally!

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) has started a “formal enquiry” on whether 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) and its officers had breached central bank rules and regulations.

6/3/2015
Planting Seeds in Baltimore

As the saying goes: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Unfortunately, not everyone made it to the finish line: Of the 80 who won the lottery that day in 2008, only 29 stuck it out or made it from si...

6/3/2015
Yves Saint Laurent ad featuring 'unhealthily' thin model banned in UK

The UK's advertising watchdog has banned an ad for fashion brand Yves Saint Laurent featuring a model who it said was "unhealthily underweight."