Global stock market turmoil: What's going on?
Stock markets around the world are falling, driven by fears coming out of the U.S.
Major indexes in New York, Tokyo and London have suffered steep losses. And a key gauge of investors' fear spiked to its highest level in more than two years.
Analysts are trying to figure out if it's a short-term correction for markets that had recently hit record highs or a sign of deeper concerns.
Here's what you need to know:
What's happening?
Markets in Asia and Europe are falling Tuesday. Japan's Nikkei plunged 4.7%, Hong Kong stocks plummeted 5% and London's FTSE 100 is down 3%.
Hong Kong activists have jail sentences overturned
Joshua Wong, Nathan Law and Alex Chow convicted over 2014 democracy protests
Joshua Wong, along with fellow protesters Nathan Law and Alex Chow, were given prison terms ranging from six to eight months in August on charges of “unlawful assembly” for staging a demonstration that sparked 11 weeks of sit ins in 2014 calling for greater democracy.
A five-judge panel at the court of final appeal said those sentences applied a new standard “retroactively” and overturned the prison terms. But speaking for the court, the chief justice, Geoffrey Ma, said “elements of disorder or violence must be deterred”, and “fully endorsed” harsher sentences for protests in the future.
Hong Kong’s government has taken an increasingly hard line on dissent in the past year, jailing protesters, banning activists from standing for election over their political views and successfully applying for popularly elected lawmakers to be disqualified.
Half of Iran wants to drop headscarf laws: government report
President Rouhani released a study showing how drastically public attitude towards mandatory Islamic dress has changed in the past decade. Nearly half of Iranians believe that wearing a hijab should be a private choice.
The government of Iran published a three-year old study on Sunday night illustrating growing public distaste for the obligatory hijab just days after police confirmed that dozens of women had been arrested as protests against mandatory Islamic head covering gained momentum.
The study compares data from 2006, 2007, 2010 and 2014 — and illustrates the staggering decline in support for the legal restrictions on women's clothing, one of the major changes pushed during the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
According to the Center for Strategic Studies, which operates as part of the Iranian president's office, in 2006, 34 percent of Iranians believed that the government should not be allowed to dictate what women wear.
Macron faces emboldened nationalists on tricky Corsica visit
2018-02-06
French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Corsica on Tuesday for the start of a delicate two-day visit rich in symbolism, just days after thousands of Corsican nationalists staged a rally demanding greater freedom for the island.
Macron’s visit coincides with the 20th anniversary of the assassination of France’s top official in Corsica, Prefect Claude Erignac, who was shot dead by a pro-independence militant on February 6, 1998.
The French president will attend a ceremony honouring the slain prefect, before holding highly sensitive talks with the leaders of the island’s regional administration.
Maldives president declares emergency, arrests judges
by Zaheena Rasheed
Security forces in the Maldives have arrested two Supreme Court judges and an opposition leader hours after President Abdulla Yameen declared a 15-day state of emergency in the island nation.
Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed and Judge Ali Hameed were arrested in the early hours of Tuesday, police said on Twitter, without specifying the charges against the pair.
Their detention comes amid a bitter row between the top court and the president over the release of several imprisoned opposition politicians.
“I REFUSED TO SECRETLY SPY” — AN IRANIAN-AMERICAN TURNED DOWN THE FBI AND WOUND UP WITH A PRISON SENTENCE
TO ALL APPEARANCES, Ahmad Sheikhzadeh led the life of a typical New York academic. A 62-year-old Columbia University Ph.D., he lived alone in a small West Village rental, practiced yoga, attended lectures with friends, and conducted research at New York University’s labyrinthine Bobst Library. On Fridays, he’d travel uptown to a building at the corner of 40th Street and Third Avenue to work at Iran’s Mission to the United Nations, stepping directly into one of the most dangerous flashpoints in global politics.
As Sheikhzadeh left his weekly briefing one day in March 2016, an FBI agent approached him. The agent did not immediately detain Sheikhzadeh, according to court filings; instead the investigator brought him to a hotel for questioning. Over the course of the night, the agent revealed that Sheikhzadeh was the subject of a sealed indictment in the Eastern District of New York.
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