Business

Hong Kong 'tutor king' Karson Oten Fan Karno, known to the city by the pseudonym of 'K. OTen', applied for bankruptcy following a failed appeal. He was sued by the tutorial schools Modern Education and King's Glory Education Centre for breach of contract and was sued for $8.87 million and $26 million respectively. Karno is a well-known but controversial English tutor who taught under Modern Education and King's Glory who claimed to have 9,000 students at the peak of his career. In his notes he used words which some parents considered coarse, a

US president Barack Obama has endorsed permitting a mosque to be built a few blocks away from the site where Al Qaeda terrorists intentionally crashed two planes into the World Trade Center towers in 2001, otherwise known as 'Ground Zero'. The site is located in New York City. Obama, who stated his endorsement at an annual dinner celebrating the Islamic holiday of Ramadan, said, "As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. That includes the right to bui

A global supply manager for Apple Inc. was arrested Friday in California and indicted for wire fraud and money laundering, after accepting over US$1 million in kickbacks. The manager, 37-year-old Paul Shin Devine, used a system of international bank accounts and a front organization in order to receive the payments, reported the San Jose Mercury News. Andrew Ang, of Singapore, was also named in the indictment. Ang is accused of receiving confidential data, as well as accepting a portion of the kickbacks paid to Devine. Devine, who lives in Su

Ali Akbar Salehi, chief of Iran's Atomic Energy Agency, announced Friday that Iran is scheduled to launch its first nuclear power plant in Bushehr. Russia said that it will start loading fuel into the reactor on August 21, 2010. Russia has assisted Iran in the construction of this reactor since the mid-1990s. The proposal to build this reactor was put forth 35 years ago by Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi, the former emperor of Iran. Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev, the current president of Russia, said that Iran and Russia are in active trade partner

A curfew has been imposed in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India and other nearby towns today to stop the march to Pampore by the Separatists. The march was organized to observe the death anniversary of Hurriyat leader Sheikh Abdul Aziz. The separatists asked people to close their businesses for the day and march to Pampore, where Aziz was buried. Aziz was killed during the 'Muzaffarabad chalo' by the soldiers on August 11, 2008. A senior police officer said, "Curfew is in place in old city areas of Srinagar, including uptown Maisuma and Batm

Businesses remained closed for a second day on Wednesday in the Pakistani financial capital of Karachi, to mourn Raza Haider, a leading politician of the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), assassinated on Monday. Nineteen people were killed on Tuesday in revenge killings, bringing the death toll to 49 over two days. Twenty-five shops and a number of vehicles including trucks and buses were burned in a series of arson attacks across the city. Haider was gunned down while attending a funeral near the centre of the city. An officer at the Nazimabad

Two police officers in Gwent, Wales have been taken off duty after they allegedly smashed the windows of an SUV. One officer supposedly struck a window with his baton, while the other jumped on the bonnet (hood) and kicked the windshield. The driver, 70-year old Robert Whatley, was stopped for not wearing his seatbelt September 9, 2009. A retired businessman from Usk, Whatley is a stroke victim and takes medication for his heart condition. He was driving away while he was being issued a fixed penalty notice. He thought that the police were

Halifax, a bank in the United Kingdom, has announced that house prices in the country rose 0.6% during the month of July 2010, according to a survey of house prices made by the mortgage provider. House prices fell 0.6% over the course of June 2010. Halifax economist Martin Ellis commented: "House prices increased by 0.6 percent in July, reversing the fall in June." He also stated: "Overall, there has been little change in prices during 2010 so far. The mixed pattern of monthly rises and falls over the first seven months of the year is consiste

According to new polls, US President Barack Obama's approval ratings have dropped across the board. According to a new USA Today/Gallup poll, Americans are losing faith in the president's plan in Afghanistan and Iraq, where wars have been going on for years and casualties have risen. 43% of those polled say that it was a mistake for Obama's predecessor George W. Bush to go to war after terrorists crashed planes into the World Trade Center buildings in New York on September 11, 2001. Barely a third of respondents favoured Obama's strategy in the

A United States House of Representatives ethics panel has charged Representative Maxine Waters (D-California) with violating unspecified ethics rules, making her the second Democrat in a week to be charged with ethical violations. Since 2008, the Office of Congressional Ethics has investigated Waters for requesting a meeting with former Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson. Although the meeting was supposed to be about minority-owned banks, the actual conversation focused on one bank, OneUnited. Water's husband, Sidney Williams, had been a

Chelsea Clinton, the only daughter of former US president William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton and current US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, wed long-time boyfriend and investment banker Marc Mezvinsky on Saturday evening. The ceremony occurred in Rhinebeck, New York amidst a flurry of secrecy and speculation surrounding the event. Not much was known about the wedding, and those involved in the event did not say anything to the media. An estimated 500 guests were at the ceremony, which took place at Astor Courts, a large Beaux Arts est

The US government announced yesterday that economic growth in the USA has slowed to 2.4% in the second quarter as the economy struggles with high unemployment and the aftermath of the worst recession since the 1930's. This slower rate compares with a newly revised number of 3.7% for Q1, and 5% in Q4 of last year. Economists had been expecting economic growth of 2.5% for Q2. For this year's second quarter, the Bureau of Economic Analysis' report on the economy carried more disappointing news. Consumer spending growth in the North American co