Om Mani Padme Hum
- wong chee tat :)
Monday, December 23, 2013
Perennial-Led Group buys Singapore tower for $970mil
Perennial-Led Group buys Singapore tower for $970mil
Monday, 23 December 2013
Monday, 23 December 2013
© 2013 - The Edge Singapore
- wong chee tat :)
SingPost hopes to become regional e-commerce giant
SingPost hopes to become regional e-commerce giant
Thursday, 19 December 2013
Thursday, 19 December 2013
© 2013 - The Edge Singapore
- wong chee tst :)
Almost half of childhood stroke cases caused by head injuries
Almost half of childhood stroke cases caused by head injuries
By Hu Jielan and Shahidah Adriana
POSTED: 20 Dec 2013 17:37
Teenagers, children and even foetuses can suffer from stroke. KK Women's and Children's Hospital sees less than 20 cases of the condition each year, and almost half of them are caused by head injuries.
SINGAPORE: Teenagers, children and even foetuses can suffer from stroke.
Cases of childhood stroke in Singapore are rare.
KK Women's and Children's Hospital sees less than 20 cases of the condition each year.
Almost half of them are caused by head injuries.
Dr Christelle Chow from Department of Paediatrics’ Neurology Service at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital said: "The problems that children can face after they develop a stroke can be difficulty in moving around, in their activities of daily living, and keeping up with their peers in school."
The hospital said three out of 100,000 children in Singapore may suffer from stroke.
Inflammation or blockage of the arteries that supply blood to the brain could also be the cause of childhood stroke.
Mr Ng's son suffered from stroke when he was 14.
Mr Ng thought he was having normal headaches in school, but his son lost control of the left side of his body.
He was rushed to the hospital, where they diagnosed him with childhood stroke.
Mr Ng saw significant improvement in his son's condition after two years of intensive treatment.
Mr Ng said: "If any normal person looks at him, he looks normal and he is doing everything that he is doing, yes. The only thing he has to be very careful with, is he is still on a certain medicine to thin his blood, to control the blood."
- CNA/gn
- wong chee tat :)
By Hu Jielan and Shahidah Adriana
POSTED: 20 Dec 2013 17:37
Teenagers, children and even foetuses can suffer from stroke. KK Women's and Children's Hospital sees less than 20 cases of the condition each year, and almost half of them are caused by head injuries.
SINGAPORE: Teenagers, children and even foetuses can suffer from stroke.
Cases of childhood stroke in Singapore are rare.
KK Women's and Children's Hospital sees less than 20 cases of the condition each year.
Almost half of them are caused by head injuries.
Dr Christelle Chow from Department of Paediatrics’ Neurology Service at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital said: "The problems that children can face after they develop a stroke can be difficulty in moving around, in their activities of daily living, and keeping up with their peers in school."
The hospital said three out of 100,000 children in Singapore may suffer from stroke.
Inflammation or blockage of the arteries that supply blood to the brain could also be the cause of childhood stroke.
Mr Ng's son suffered from stroke when he was 14.
Mr Ng thought he was having normal headaches in school, but his son lost control of the left side of his body.
He was rushed to the hospital, where they diagnosed him with childhood stroke.
Mr Ng saw significant improvement in his son's condition after two years of intensive treatment.
Mr Ng said: "If any normal person looks at him, he looks normal and he is doing everything that he is doing, yes. The only thing he has to be very careful with, is he is still on a certain medicine to thin his blood, to control the blood."
- CNA/gn
- wong chee tat :)
Swiss banks sign up to reveal hidden accounts as US deadline looms
Swiss banks sign up to reveal hidden accounts as US deadline looms
POSTED: 22 Dec 2013 14:38
Swiss banks are scrambling ahead of a December 31 deadline to decide whether to join a US programme aimed at zooming in on lenders that helped Americans dodge taxes.
GENEVA: Swiss banks are scrambling ahead of a December 31 deadline to decide whether to join a US programme aimed at zooming in on lenders that helped Americans dodge taxes.
Around 40 of Switzerland's some 300 banks have already said publicly they will take part in a US programme set up to allow Swiss financial institutions to avoid US prosecution in exchange for coming clean and possibly paying steep fines.
"What are the others going to do? That is the very big question," Swiss business lawyer Douglas Hornung told AFP.
Washington alleges that Swiss banks have helped US citizens hide billions of dollars in assets from tax authorities, in a row that has soured relations between the two in recent years.
The two countries reached a deal in August aimed at ending the dispute, piercing a significant hole in the tradition of secrecy upon which the Swiss banking industry was built.
The banks have until the end of the year to decide whether to fess up to potential wrong-doing and hand over their files to US authorities, and thereby shield themselves from legal action, or take their chances outside the programme.
Picking the wrong option could saddle a bank with crippling fines, fees or a US indictment.
Banks that opened undeclared accounts for US clients -- especially the ones that actively wooed such clients -- definitely should join the programme, experts say.
Washington in 2009 fined Switzerland's biggest bank, UBS, $780 million for complicity in tax evasion.
"If one of the 10 to 15 banks the US Department of Justice already has in its files does not show up..., you can be sure there will be a BOOM in January," Hornung said.
Earlier this year, Switzerland's one-time oldest bank Wegelin & Co. discovered the price of not coming clean to US authorities when given the chance. Founded in 1741, the bank was pushed out of business after being slapped with a $74-million fine for helping wealthy clients avoid at least $20 million in taxes.
Fourteen banks, including Switzerland's second-biggest bank, Credit Suisse, are already officially under US investigation and will have no chance to skirt legal action.
The other banks can however opt in to the programme by determining which of the three remaining categories they belong in.
Most so far are signing up for category two and thereby acknowledging they may well have had US clients with undeclared accounts.
"More banks have said they will go for category two than would be expected," said Walter Boss, a tax lawyer with Poledna Boss Kurer AG in Zurich.
"Category three, reserved for banks that aim to prove their innocence, "won't be crowded, it looks like," he said.
Especially surprising perhaps is that a large majority of the publicly backed cantonal banks have opted for category two. These banks which are regionally based and have long insisted they never went after US clients.
Small banks could be forced out of business
All the banks rushing to the confession booth have not necessarily committed any misdeeds though, experts say.
A number of banks insist they have only had a few US clients and have never done anything to encourage tax evasion, but have chosen to initially join category two for fear that a single tax-dodging American, even unbeknownst to them, could land them in legal qualms.
"I think the fears in Switzerland are too big when it comes to the United States," said Peter Viktor Kunz, a business law professor at Bern University.
"I really hope that common sense prevails in the end," he said.
Switzerland's third-largest bank, Reiffeisen, and private bank Vontobel have for instance said they will opt for category three or four, reserved for local banks with no US clients at all, which should show some of the smaller banks with few US clients that the self-flagellating is unnecessary, Kunz said.
Banks in category two will face penalties equivalent to between 20 and 50 per cent of the value of undeclared accounts, depending on when they were opened, not to mention towering legal and translation fees.
"Many of the smaller banks simply will not be able to afford this," Hornung said, cautioning that a number of banks might go belly-up.
He urged banks that had done nothing wrong to opt out of the programme altogether, insisting that Washington was not interested in hunting down the minnows in the pond.
Regardless of how many banks decide to sign up by the December 31 deadline, observers warned that the programme was unlikely to provide much immediate relief to a Swiss banking sector desperate to shake off the uncertainty that has been dogging it throughout the dispute with Washington.
Confusion over how the US programme will be implemented means "the uncertainty is still there for many," Kunz said, adding: "So no happy new year for them."
- AFP/fa
- wong chee tat :)
POSTED: 22 Dec 2013 14:38
Swiss banks are scrambling ahead of a December 31 deadline to decide whether to join a US programme aimed at zooming in on lenders that helped Americans dodge taxes.
GENEVA: Swiss banks are scrambling ahead of a December 31 deadline to decide whether to join a US programme aimed at zooming in on lenders that helped Americans dodge taxes.
Around 40 of Switzerland's some 300 banks have already said publicly they will take part in a US programme set up to allow Swiss financial institutions to avoid US prosecution in exchange for coming clean and possibly paying steep fines.
"What are the others going to do? That is the very big question," Swiss business lawyer Douglas Hornung told AFP.
Washington alleges that Swiss banks have helped US citizens hide billions of dollars in assets from tax authorities, in a row that has soured relations between the two in recent years.
The two countries reached a deal in August aimed at ending the dispute, piercing a significant hole in the tradition of secrecy upon which the Swiss banking industry was built.
The banks have until the end of the year to decide whether to fess up to potential wrong-doing and hand over their files to US authorities, and thereby shield themselves from legal action, or take their chances outside the programme.
Picking the wrong option could saddle a bank with crippling fines, fees or a US indictment.
Banks that opened undeclared accounts for US clients -- especially the ones that actively wooed such clients -- definitely should join the programme, experts say.
Washington in 2009 fined Switzerland's biggest bank, UBS, $780 million for complicity in tax evasion.
"If one of the 10 to 15 banks the US Department of Justice already has in its files does not show up..., you can be sure there will be a BOOM in January," Hornung said.
Earlier this year, Switzerland's one-time oldest bank Wegelin & Co. discovered the price of not coming clean to US authorities when given the chance. Founded in 1741, the bank was pushed out of business after being slapped with a $74-million fine for helping wealthy clients avoid at least $20 million in taxes.
Fourteen banks, including Switzerland's second-biggest bank, Credit Suisse, are already officially under US investigation and will have no chance to skirt legal action.
The other banks can however opt in to the programme by determining which of the three remaining categories they belong in.
Most so far are signing up for category two and thereby acknowledging they may well have had US clients with undeclared accounts.
"More banks have said they will go for category two than would be expected," said Walter Boss, a tax lawyer with Poledna Boss Kurer AG in Zurich.
"Category three, reserved for banks that aim to prove their innocence, "won't be crowded, it looks like," he said.
Especially surprising perhaps is that a large majority of the publicly backed cantonal banks have opted for category two. These banks which are regionally based and have long insisted they never went after US clients.
Small banks could be forced out of business
All the banks rushing to the confession booth have not necessarily committed any misdeeds though, experts say.
A number of banks insist they have only had a few US clients and have never done anything to encourage tax evasion, but have chosen to initially join category two for fear that a single tax-dodging American, even unbeknownst to them, could land them in legal qualms.
"I think the fears in Switzerland are too big when it comes to the United States," said Peter Viktor Kunz, a business law professor at Bern University.
"I really hope that common sense prevails in the end," he said.
Switzerland's third-largest bank, Reiffeisen, and private bank Vontobel have for instance said they will opt for category three or four, reserved for local banks with no US clients at all, which should show some of the smaller banks with few US clients that the self-flagellating is unnecessary, Kunz said.
Banks in category two will face penalties equivalent to between 20 and 50 per cent of the value of undeclared accounts, depending on when they were opened, not to mention towering legal and translation fees.
"Many of the smaller banks simply will not be able to afford this," Hornung said, cautioning that a number of banks might go belly-up.
He urged banks that had done nothing wrong to opt out of the programme altogether, insisting that Washington was not interested in hunting down the minnows in the pond.
Regardless of how many banks decide to sign up by the December 31 deadline, observers warned that the programme was unlikely to provide much immediate relief to a Swiss banking sector desperate to shake off the uncertainty that has been dogging it throughout the dispute with Washington.
Confusion over how the US programme will be implemented means "the uncertainty is still there for many," Kunz said, adding: "So no happy new year for them."
- AFP/fa
- wong chee tat :)
China interbank rates surge again despite cash injection
China interbank rates surge again despite cash injection
POSTED: 23 Dec 2013 18:08
China's interbank interest rates surged again on Monday despite hefty cash injections last week by the central bank, suggesting money market stress remains as authorities maintain a prudent stance.
BEIJING: China's interbank interest rates surged again on Monday despite hefty cash injections last week by the central bank, suggesting money market stress remains as authorities maintain a prudent stance.
The seven-day repurchase-agreement rate -- a benchmark for interbank borrowing costs -- rose to 9.8 per cent, the highest since it hit 11.62 per cent on June 20 at the peak of China's summer cash crunch that unnerved global markets, according to Dow Jones Newswires.
"The spike in interbank rate indicates that the lack of market confidence has worsened the liquidity crunch," Wendy Chen, a Shanghai-based economist at Nomura Securities, told AFP.
The rates, which serve as funding costs for pricing and investment, have been trending higher recently as the People's Bank of China (PBoC) had refrained from injecting further liquidity through a routine open market operation for two weeks.
In a gesture to calm the market, the PBoC announced Friday that it had injected more than 300 billion yuan ($49.4 billion) into the financial system over a three-day period via the so-called short-term liquidity operations (SLOs).
"Currently the banking system has excess reserves of over 1.5 trillion yuan, a relatively high level compared with the same periods in history," it said on its verified account on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo.
The announcement followed a similar statement on Thursday that the bank had "appropriately injected" an unspecified amount of cash into the market through SLOs.
The interbank market responded with brief signs of improving funding conditions earlier Monday. The repo rate began the day's trading at 5.57 per cent, down from Friday's 8.2 per cent, before rebounding.
"More credit and further measures from the PBoC are probably required, to let the market regain its confidence, before the rate can become stabilised," Chen said.
Chinese shares edged up Monday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index ending up 0.24 per cent at 2,089.71. But analysts warned that the gains will soon evaporate without fresh funds flowing into the stock market.
The state-run Securities Times newspaper on Monday quoted analysts as saying that the central bank intended to signal to the market its "neutral but slightly tight" policy stance by keeping suspended its routine, more aggressive liquidity-releasing tools and appeasing the market only with SLOs.
The SLOs are discreet, targeted exercises confined to a select group of 12 banks that are deemed crucial to the overall stability of China's financial system. They are a new tool the PBoC introduced in January.
- AFP/nd
- wong chee tat :)
POSTED: 23 Dec 2013 18:08
China's interbank interest rates surged again on Monday despite hefty cash injections last week by the central bank, suggesting money market stress remains as authorities maintain a prudent stance.
BEIJING: China's interbank interest rates surged again on Monday despite hefty cash injections last week by the central bank, suggesting money market stress remains as authorities maintain a prudent stance.
The seven-day repurchase-agreement rate -- a benchmark for interbank borrowing costs -- rose to 9.8 per cent, the highest since it hit 11.62 per cent on June 20 at the peak of China's summer cash crunch that unnerved global markets, according to Dow Jones Newswires.
"The spike in interbank rate indicates that the lack of market confidence has worsened the liquidity crunch," Wendy Chen, a Shanghai-based economist at Nomura Securities, told AFP.
The rates, which serve as funding costs for pricing and investment, have been trending higher recently as the People's Bank of China (PBoC) had refrained from injecting further liquidity through a routine open market operation for two weeks.
In a gesture to calm the market, the PBoC announced Friday that it had injected more than 300 billion yuan ($49.4 billion) into the financial system over a three-day period via the so-called short-term liquidity operations (SLOs).
"Currently the banking system has excess reserves of over 1.5 trillion yuan, a relatively high level compared with the same periods in history," it said on its verified account on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo.
The announcement followed a similar statement on Thursday that the bank had "appropriately injected" an unspecified amount of cash into the market through SLOs.
The interbank market responded with brief signs of improving funding conditions earlier Monday. The repo rate began the day's trading at 5.57 per cent, down from Friday's 8.2 per cent, before rebounding.
"More credit and further measures from the PBoC are probably required, to let the market regain its confidence, before the rate can become stabilised," Chen said.
Chinese shares edged up Monday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index ending up 0.24 per cent at 2,089.71. But analysts warned that the gains will soon evaporate without fresh funds flowing into the stock market.
The state-run Securities Times newspaper on Monday quoted analysts as saying that the central bank intended to signal to the market its "neutral but slightly tight" policy stance by keeping suspended its routine, more aggressive liquidity-releasing tools and appeasing the market only with SLOs.
The SLOs are discreet, targeted exercises confined to a select group of 12 banks that are deemed crucial to the overall stability of China's financial system. They are a new tool the PBoC introduced in January.
- AFP/nd
- wong chee tat :)
Thanks!
Dear readers,
Thank you for reading and supporting this blog. Please continue to visit this humble blog often!
Thanks Nuffnang for your help! =)
- wong chee tat :)
Thank you for reading and supporting this blog. Please continue to visit this humble blog often!
Thanks Nuffnang for your help! =)
- wong chee tat :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)