Reuters exclusively reported that China’s securities regulator has ordered some brokerages to inspect their bond trading activities as authorities seek to rein in frenzied buying of Chinese government bonds. The brokerages, all of which are domestic, have been told to conduct compliance checks on all parts of their bond trading operations.
News
Swansea sex attacker who ‘prowled’ city for victims jailed
A sex attacker who “prowled” a city centre trying to rape women has been jailed.
Swansea Crown Court heard Leo Payne, 20, from, Bonymaen, Swansea, attacked two women in the city in the early hours of 23 June.
The 20-year-old was also seen exposing himself and performing a sex act in public, before hitting a man with a wine bottle.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted rape, sexual assault by penetration, exposure, and unlawful wounding.
Warning: distressing content
Payne was given a 16-year sentence, of which 11 years and three months will be served in prison.
Carina Hughes, prosecuting, said Payne assaulted the first woman in the middle of the road on Strand, Swansea.
The court heard the victim fought back, and the attack stopped when two taxi marshals chased him away while his trousers were down.
Less than an hour later he sexually assaulted a second woman on Orchard Street after lying to her that he had a knife.
The victim shouted for help and the attack was halted when members of the public stepped in.
Later Payne was seen with his trousers down and performing a sex act on Walter Road.
The court also heard Payne hit a man multiple times with a wine bottle, when he intervened as Payne followed another woman.
Ms Hughes read victim impact statements by both women in which they spoke of their fear of walking alone since the assaults.
Hashim Salmman, defending, said Payne’s young age, lack of previous convictions and guilty pleas should be taken into account when sentencing.
Judge Paul Thomas KC said Payne’s attacks were chillingly frightening.
“You targeted a number of lone and therefore vulnerable women right in the heart of Swansea city centre,” he said.
“You were intent on sexually assaulting any lone woman who crossed your path that night.
“Then you continued to prowl the city, continuing to expose yourself and masturbating.”
Judge Thomas said had the public not intervened Payne would have succeeded in raping both women.
He was jailed and put on the sex offenders register for life.
After sentencing, CPS Cymru-Wales’ deputy chief Crown prosecutor, Iwan Jenkins, said Payne “prowled the city centre carrying out a campaign of terrifying sexual attacks and violent offences”.
- If you’ve been affected by the issues in this story, help and support is available via BBC Action Line
Business
China tells some brokerages to conduct compliance checks on bond trading
Business & Finance
09 August 2024, 10:57 pm 1 minute
Market Impact
A wobbly Chinese economy, long hobbled by a protracted property crisis, has sent investors scurrying away from the volatile stock market while banks have also continued to cut deposit rates. That’s sent investors – from large banks and insurers to mutual funds to rural financial institutions – pouring into the bond market.
Article Tags
Topics of Interest: Business & Finance
Type: Reuters Best
Sectors: Business & Finance
Regions: Asia
Countries: China
Win Types: Exclusivity
Story Types: Exclusive / Scoop
Media Types: Text
Customer Impact: Significant National Story
News
Lottery results LIVE: National Lottery Set For Life draw tonight, September 23, 2024
THE National Lottery Set For Life numbers are in and it’s time to find out if you’ve won the top prize of £10,000 every month for 30 years.
Could tonight’s jackpot see you start ticking off that bucket list every month or building your own start-up as a budding entrepreneur?
You can find out by checking your ticket against tonight’s numbers below.
Good luck!
Tonight’s National Lottery Set For Life numbers are: 12, 18, 30, 35, 43 and the Life Ball is 06.
The first National Lottery draw was held on November 19 1994 when seven winners shared a jackpot of £5,874,778.
The largest amount ever to be won by a single ticket holder was £42million, won in 1996.
Gareth Bull, a 49-year-old builder, won £41million in November, 2020 and ended up knocking down his bungalow to make way for a luxury manor house with a pool.
- £1.308 billion (Powerball) on January 13 2016 in the US, for which three winning tickets were sold, remains history’s biggest lottery prize
- £1.267 billion (Mega Million) a winner from South Carolina took their time to come forward to claim their prize in March 2019 not long before the April deadline
- £633.76 million (Powerball draw) from a winner from Wisconsin
- £625.76 million (Powerball) Mavis L. Wanczyk of Chicopee, Massachusetts claimed the jackpot in August 2017
- £575.53 million (Powerball) A lucky pair of winners scooped the jackpot in Iowa and New York in October 2018
Sue Davies, 64, bought a lottery ticket to celebrate ending five months of shielding during the pandemic — and won £500,000.
Sandra Devine, 36, accidentally won £300k – she intended to buy her usual £100 National Lottery Scratchcard, but came home with a much bigger prize.
The biggest jackpot ever to be up for grabs was £66million in January last year, which was won by two lucky ticket holders.
Another winner, Karl managed to bag £11million aged just 23 in 1996.
The odds of winning the lottery are estimated to be about one in 14million – BUT you’ve got to be in it to win it.
Business
Arm aims to capture 50% of PC market in five years, CEO says
Technology
03 June 2024, 8:32 pm 1 minute
Reuters exclusively reported that Arm Holdings aims to gain more than 50% of the Windows PC market in five years as Microsoft and its hardware partners prepare to launch a new batch of computers based on the British chip designer’s technology.
Market Impact
Demand for use of Arm’s technology in personal computers got a boost after Microsoft unveiled ambitious plans last month to launch a new breed of PCs with artificial intelligence features to compete with Alphabet and Apple.
Article Tags
Topics of Interest: Technology
Type: Reuters Best
Sectors: Technology
Regions: Europe
Win Types: Exclusivity
Story Types: Exclusive / Scoop
Media Types: Text
Customer Impact: Significant National Story
News
Russian Ambush Fails Against American Armored Beast
A recent video circulating on social media shows a Russian attack on a Ukrainian M2A2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle.
Footage from Pokrovsk
Analysts pointed out that the Russians employed Kornet anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs), which are known for their effectiveness even against heavily armored units.
The footage, recorded near Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine — a current focal point of Russian military operations — illustrates a critical moment in the ongoing conflict. On September 23, the British Ministry of Defence reported that Russian forces are approximately five miles from the city, though their advance has slowed in recent weeks.
Kornet missiles can engage targets at distances of up to 5.5 kilometers or 8 kilometers (3.42 miles or 4.97 miles), depending on the version, according to WP.
Despite being hit, the video shows Ukrainian soldiers successfully evacuating the M2A2 Bradley, a testament to its protective capabilities. Had they been in a less armored vehicle, their chances of survival would have been significantly lower.
Business
Lebanon endures bloodiest day in decades
The calls and texts came seemingly at random, on landlines and mobile phones across southern Lebanon and parts of Beirut. They left their recipients, ground down by almost a year of conflict, with little doubt about what to expect.
“Hizbollah is forcing the Israeli army to act against its terrorist infrastructure in your villages,” a voice in slightly accented Arabic said to the thousands of people contacted on Monday. “Residents of this area must leave your homes now . . . because we do not wish to harm you.”
The warnings from Israel had echoes of those it gave to Palestinians in Gaza ahead of new offensives, and within hours Lebanon too felt the brunt of Israel’s heaviest bombardment of the country in decades.
Israel’s military struck hundreds of targets stretching across southern and eastern Lebanon, killing 356 people and injuring more than 1,200, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
No day had been as bloody in Lebanon since Israeli tanks rolled over its border in 2006, triggering a 34-day war with Hizbollah.
As the air strikes rolled through Monday, panic spread through swaths of Lebanon.
The country had been gripped by angst since Iran-backed Hizbollah launched rockets at Israel the day after Hamas’s deadly assault on southern Israel last October. For many, a land war felt all but inevitable.
“It’s massacre upon massacre upon massacre,” said Abboudi, an emergency responder in Nabatiyeh, southern Lebanon, who spent the day dodging air strikes and transporting victims to nearby hospitals.
Monday’s violence hit a country still haunted by its civil war, which saw various sectarian militias brutalise one another and their respective communities from 1975 to 1990.
When it ended, Beirut was in ruins, as was its social fabric, the ravages of war visible in every neighbourhood.
The country has been shaken by bouts of violence and instability since, not least the devastating 2006 war with Israel, and the 2020 Beirut port blast, which killed more than 200 people, injured thousands more and levelled parts of the city.
Praised for their resilience, Lebanese citizens often wonder how much more they and their small country can take.
Lebanon’s health ministry on Monday said women, children and medics were among the dead. Footage on social media showed them bloodied and broken, being pulled from rubble.
Tens of thousands of people fled north in a chaotic exodus, packed tightly into cars that jammed the main highway all the way to Beirut, as plumes of smoke rose behind them.
WhatsApp groups sprang up with offers of housing for the displaced, while schools were converted into emergency shelters.
“We have no idea where to go and my children are hungry,” Abu Ali Ahmad desperately asked a police man in Beirut, after arriving in a pick-up truck with his wife and four children.
Others were frantically heading to supermarkets to stock up on canned goods and fuel, running errands they thought they wouldn’t be able to once the war “really” began.
University student Abir Hammoud said she had been “paralysed with fear” waiting for her mother to pick her up after classes were cancelled.
With traffic across the city at a standstill, she found comfort by donating blood. “I don’t know what else to do,” Hammoud said.
Monday was the culmination of a devastating week for both Lebanon and Hizbollah, its most powerful political and military force.
Mass detonations ripped through the militant group’s communications devices, killing 37 people, followed by an air strike that wiped out two senior commanders, more than a dozen elite officers and scores more civilians on Friday.
It was a stinging blow to Hizbollah that undermined its credibility in the eyes of its members and support base. Some in Beirut speculated that Monday’s warnings to residents were designed to further weaken their spirits.
With around 110,000 people already displaced along Lebanon’s southern border, it was not clear how many people would be affected by Israel’s warnings. But there were still several thousand people living within 5km of the border, according to government data.
Israel has accused Hizbollah of transforming entire communities in the south into military zones, hiding rocket launchers and other infrastructure in residential communities from which it draws support.
The Israeli warnings left open the possibility that some residents could be living in or near targeted structures, without knowing that they are at risk.
That uncertainty was the final straw for many fleeing north on Monday.
“I stayed as long as I could, I really did,” said Nelly Abboud, who packed her car with her three kids and left Nabatiyeh to stay with relatives in Beirut. “But I couldn’t take it any more — I don’t want to die, I don’t want my kids to die.”
As she drove north, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the Lebanese people to “get out of harm’s way now”. “Once our operation is finished, you can come back safely to your homes,” he said.
“How can we believe anything they say?” asked Abboud. “My parents stayed behind . . . because they know Israel wants to make them leave and seize their land. We know this has been the Israeli strategy since day one.”
Data visualisation by Steven Bernard
News
Harrods investigating current staff involvement in Fayed allegations
Harrods is investigating whether any current staff members were involved in the allegations against the store’s former owner, Mohamed Al Fayed.
The late Egyptian tycoon has been accused of rape and sexual assault by multiple women who worked at the iconic London store.
The department store is in direct communication with the Metropolitan Police and has opened an internal review to determine whether the billionaire’s colleagues played any part in the attacks.
Harrods has also said “there is an ongoing internal review” that includes “looking at whether any current staff were involved in any of the allegations either directly or indirectly.”
More than 100 women, including many of the Al Fayed’s former employees, have accused him of raping and sexually assaulting them before he died last year at the age of 94.
Victims have also accused Harrods staff of helping Al Fayed “cherry pick” young women and facilitating his sexual abuse. Their lawyers added there was a “machinery” surrounding the businessman that enabled him avoid facing justice for the attacks.
One victim claimed that a senior Harrods manager who still works at the store failed to investigate a complaint she made accusing Al Fayed of sexually assaulting her in 2008.
Sources within Harrods have said the business has accepted vicarious liability for the conduct of Mr Al Fayed for the purpose of settling claims of alleged victims brought to its attention since 2023, reaching settlements with the vast majority.
Harrods added on Monday that its “settlement process was designed in consultation with independent external counsel and experts in personal injury litigation.
“All claims settled to date and moving forwards will be based on the guidance of these external individuals to ensure swift and impartial outcomes for the victims.”
The Knightsbridge store described Al Fayed as an “individual who was intent on abusing his power” after the allegations were revealed in a BBC documentary last week.
Bruce Drummond, a barrister representing a group of victims, accused the department store of knowing “for years about the systematic abuse that took place” there and called on its long-serving managing director, Michael Ward, to clarify “what he knew and when”.
Mr Ward, 68, who was paid £2.1m last year, was appointed by Al Fayed in 2005, before Qatar purchased Harrods through its Qatar Investment Authority in 2010 for £1.5 billion.
Harrods said that Ward would not be involved in its settlement scheme for Al Fayed’s victims after it agreed to compensate them.
Mr Drummond said: “Michael Ward should be clear on what he knew when and should have nothing to do with liaising with victims today.
“It’s a complete conflict of interest for Harrods to say they have an internal process in place to deal with this scandal. They have known for years about the systematic abuse that took place and only chose to half-heartedly act when they knew the accusations were going to be made public.
“Harrods cannot be marking their own homework. They are trying to whitewash this whole process. If they are serious about righting the wrongs of the past they should provide the survivors with independent counsel.”
Harrods said: “As part of our due diligence there is an ongoing internal review, supported by external counsel, including looking at whether any current staff were involved in any of the allegations either directly or indirectly.
“In addition, the Harrods board has established a non-executive committee of the board to further consider the issues arising from the allegations. Harrods is also in direct communication with the Metropolitan Police to ensure we are offering our assistance with any of their relevant inquiries.”
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