Thursday, July 9, 2015

Six In The Morning Thursday July 9



China shares continue to trade erratically



  • 1 hour ago
  •  
  • From the sectionBusiness

Mainland Chinese shares were trading erratically on Thursday as regulators continued trying to calm the markets.
The Shanghai Composite index was up as much as 1.4% in mid-morning trade after falling 3.6% earlier.
A move to ban big investors from selling stocks may have helped to support the market, analysts said.
Meanwhile, the state-run news agency Xinhua said police were investigating "vicious short-selling" on the country's stock market.
Xinhua said authorities would "crack down" on operations that had broken the laws and regulations related to trading.
By mid afternoon, the benchmark Shanghai index was up 1.3% at 3,552.8 points.

Relieving pressure

China's market regulator has introduced a string of new rules in the past week to try and relieve pressure on Chinese shares - which have lost more than 30% of their value since mid-June.




Syrian refugees: four million people forced to flee as crisis deepens

Largest exodus from a single conflict in a generation places humanitarian system under increasing financial strain
The conflict in Syria has now driven more than four million people – a sixth of the population – to seek sanctuary in neighbouring countries, making it the largest refugee crisis for almost a quarter of a century, according to the UN.
On Thursday the UN refugee agency, UNCHR, said the total number of Syrian refugees in TurkeyLebanonIraqJordanEgypt and other parts of north Africa stood at 4,013,000 people.
With at least 7.6 milion people forced from their homes within Syria, almost half the country’s people are either refugees or internally displaced. The conflict, now in its fifth year, has killed more than 220,000 people.

Kawasaki disease: an unknown illness with no definitive medical diagnosis and no known cause - but it may all be in the wind


Kawasaki disease, an illness that can lead to heart disease in children, was first noted in 1871, but its cause is still unknown. Now, explains a former sufferer, scientists believe the answer may be blowing in Asia’s sand-laden winds

 
 

A child’s death from scarlet fever wouldn’t have raised any eyebrows during the devastating epidemics that swept Europe and North America in the 1800s. But Samuel Gee, a highly regarded doctor in England, found something very strange while cutting open the corpse of a seven-year-old boy in London in 1870. Gee’s post-mortem examination findings, preserved in a single paragraph written in 1871, recorded signs of damage called aneurysms in the coronary arteries running across the surface of the boy’s heart. In the affected regions, the main vessels that supply blood to the heart had expanded like balloons because of weakened vessel walls.
A child’s death from scarlet fever wouldn’t have raised any eyebrows during the devastating epidemics that swept Europe and North America in the 1800s. But Samuel Gee, a highly regarded doctor in England, found something very strange while cutting open the corpse of a seven-year-old boy in London in 1870. Gee’s post-mortem examination findings, preserved in a single paragraph written in 1871, recorded signs of damage called aneurysms in the coronary arteries running across the surface of the boy’s heart. In the affected regions, the main vessels that supply blood to the heart had expanded like balloons because of weakened vessel walls.

South Carolina backs bill to remove Confederate flag



The South Carolina legislature passed a bill early Thursday to remove the Confederate battle flag from the state capitol grounds after an emotional 13-hour debate over the controversial banner.

The flag, which dates back to the 1861-65 American Civil War, is a symbol of slavery and racism for many and Southern heritage for others.
The bill, already approved by the Senate, passed a third and final vote in the House of Representatives in the early hours of the morning by a margin of 94-20, and now goes to Governor Nikki Haley to be signed into law later in the day.
Haley has said she will sign it.
The bill was passed after three days of intense debate in both chambers with tempers fraying in the House late Wednesday. The final vote was secured almost exactly three weeks after nine black worshippers were gunned down on June 17during Bible study at a church with an historically black congregation in Charleston.

Islamic State propaganda: what the West doesn't understand

July 9, 2015 - 3:23PM

Middle East Correspondent


While brutality is the most prominent narrative in the West, utopianism is by far the most important narrative for Islamic State's propagandists. 
Beirut: Behind the ultra-violent execution videos that have become the Islamic State's disturbing trademark is a carefully calibrated set of messages aimed not at terrorising but at recruiting people to "an alternative way of living".
In the last two months the terrorist group has begun publishing photographs depicting shops on the street and corner ice cream parlours along with descriptions of economic prosperity in areas under its control, Charlie Winter, a senior researcher at the UK-based counter-extremism think-tank Quilliam told Fairfax Media.

It is a narrative the US-led coalition against the Islamic State group has not come close to countering, Mr Winter argues in a new report examining the group's first year of propaganda.

Little to celebrate on South Sudan's fourth anniversary

Four years after independence from Sudan, raging war and economic woes plague world's newest country.


 | War & ConflictSouth SudanAfrica

We meet Nyaluit Chuol by chance at a health centre run by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) at the rebel-held Maiwut county in the oil-rich but troubled Upper Nile state.
We were looking for rebel fighters injured at various frontline positions. The Sudan People Liberation Movement In Opposition (SPLM–IO) led by former vice president Riek Machar has waged a war on the government since December 2013. They say they want reforms, compensation for those whose lives have been turned upside down, power-sharing and most controversially perhaps, that President Salva Kiir steps down.
Nyaluit is barely into her 20s, the left side of her face is badly bruised and swollen. A bandage covers a gushing exit wound from a bullet.
She is lucky to be alive after being stabbed and shot multiple times then left for dead in another state called Jonglei.






No comments:

Translate