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Pakistan Observer |
Plan to check objectionable material on Internet on cards
Pakistan Observer The Senate on Thursday adopted recommendations presented by the Standing Committee on Finance on the Finance Bill 2017-18. In their recommendations, the Senators have suggested the government to enhance the salaries and pensions of government … Dar assures Senate of changes in Finance Bill 2017The News International |
June 09, 2017 at 06:20AM
from
Vanguard |
TUC lauds Ugwuanyi’s giant strides in governance
Vanguard Workers of Enugu State under the auspices of Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), yesterday passed a vote of confidence in Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State for his administration’s giant strides in just two years in office. Rising from a one … |
June 09, 2017 at 06:14AM
from
Griffin Connolly at RollCall: “Facebook users now have the option to pin “constituent badges” to their profiles, letting friends — and members of Congress — know which district they live in. And users can now search for articles, links, and posts that other residents in their districts engage with most frequently.
“When we think about civic engagement, we think about building communities of people,” said Erin Egan, Facebook’s vice president of U.S. public policy. “And this is about making sure that people engage with government.”
The new features can also help identify the issues that voters care about most. That could be a valuable tool for lawmakers — and their opponents — during election season.
“I’ve always been fascinated by how the internet helps citizens have a voice like never before,” Samidh Chakrabarti, Facebook’s head of civic engagement, told reporters and congressional staffers at the unveiling Wednesday. “But at the same time, it makes it more complicated for decision-makers to actually make sense of it all.”
Facebook’s new technology can help, he said.
The constituent badge unlocks a number of possibilities for lawmakers looking to engage voters more directly.
They can now choose to make their posts available exclusively to voters in their district, which Facebook calls “district targeting.” In the past, policymakers could only post publicly from their pages….
The badge tool also enables lawmakers to host virtual town halls with an exclusive audience of their own constituents via the Facebook Live streaming medium and to tailor their messages to a narrower band of local media sources and citizens.
One unintended consequence of these more private Facebook Live sessions is that reporters who don’t live in a lawmaker’s district may not be able to view it. Facebook users can only provide one address, and that determines their constituent badge. …
A number of tech-savvy lawmakers have led the charge in leveraging new social media features and platforms to promote their image and policies.
In March, two Texas House members, Democrat Beto O’Rourke and Republican Will Hurd, struck out on a multiday “bipartisan road trip” from the Lone Star State back to Washington, using Facebook Live and the livestreaming app Periscope to update viewers and answer questions on policy.
Democrat Rick Nolan and Republican Jason Lewis copied that approach in April when the two Minnesota congressmen traveled back to their home state.
Louisiana Republican Rep. Garret Graves, who spoke at the Facebook unveiling on Wednesday, has gone full bore with his use of Facebook Live, hosting town halls every Friday around lunchtime and periodically on evenings throughout the week….(More)”
Full Post: Facebook Features Connect Lawmakers With Constituents
June 09, 2017 at 06:11AM
from Stefaan Verhulst
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Brief
The News International ABAD has requested FPCCI to take up the matter of Fixed Tax Regime (FTR) with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and the Ministry of Finance for the revision of FTR on developers and builders announced in the Budget 2017-18 and “we fully support … |
June 07, 2017 at 06:20AM
from
The News International |
CNG price to go up Rs3/kg if proposed with holding tax not reversed
The News International ISLAMABAD: CNG Association has informed the Senate Standing Committee on Finance that CNG price would go up by Rs3/kg if the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) did not reverse its proposed amendment to increase withholding tax on all incidental … |
June 07, 2017 at 06:20AM
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Olean General plans full-asset merger with Bradford Regional
Buffalo Business First The two hospitals have operated as sister sites under the Upper Allegheny Health System umbrella since 2009. Subscribe to get the full story. Already a subscriber? Sign in. Subscribe to get the full story. Already a subscriber? Sign in. SPECIAL OFFER … |
June 06, 2017 at 06:15AM
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The Daily Freeman |
Proposed Orange County bank merger OK’d by S&L members
The Daily Freeman TOWN OF WALLKILL, N.Y.>> The proposed acquisition of Hometown Bank of the Hudson Valley by the Wallkill Valley Federal Savings and Loan Association has moved forward with 95 percent of the association’s members approving the merger in a proxy … |
June 06, 2017 at 06:15AM
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Shareholders Slam Alon USA Over Proposed $675M Merger
Law360 (subscription) Law360, New York (June 5, 2017, 6:21 PM EDT) — An Alon USA Energy shareholder launched a putative class action Friday objecting to the company’s $675 million proposed merger with Delek US Holdings, saying the revenue projections in the proxy … |
June 06, 2017 at 06:15AM
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Goldman Sachs has downgraded Australia’s APA Group (APA.AU) and Spark Infrastructure Group (SKI.AU) to neutral from buy.
The cut was a little more bitter for pipeline operator APA as the broker also removed the stock from its conviction list. Here’s why Goldman Sachs cut its rating:
Following recent strong performance, we downgrade APA to Neutral and remove it from our CL-Buy List. We still believe APA Group is a quality company with a strong integrated gas pipeline network and solid business
model; however, we no longer see material upside over 12 months. Our DCF-based PT is unchanged at A$10.00/sh. APA now trades on a forward DPS yield of 4.6%, vs. Australian peers at 4.9% (or 5.2%, excluding AGL).
APA shares were last trading at AUD9.52. The stock is up 11% this year.
Spark Infrastructure was also cut to neutral following its 14% advance this year. Here’s why Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock:
Following strong recent share price performance, we downgrade SKI to Neutral (from Buy), with only a small increase in our DCF-based TP to A$2.55/sh from A$2.50/sh (on a review of capex). We believe Spark has an enviable asset portfolio of high quality network assets (with a strong skew to electricity distribution assets). SKI now trades on a forward distribution yield of 5.8%, vs. Australian peers at 4.9% (or 5.2%, excluding AGL).
Spark Infrastructure last traded at AUD2.71 a share.
June 06, 2017 at 06:14AM
from Robert Guy
The spat between Qatar and its Middle East neighbors adds another flash point to an increasingly messy geopolitical landscape and could complicate China’s ambitions to create a new Silk Road.
The South China Morning Post has a story that says Beijing’s ability to manage relationships in the region, which is its biggest source of oil, just got a whole lot more difficult:
The nations are involved in Xi Jinping’s ambitious “Belt and Road Initiative”, which stretches across 65 countries and encompasses Asia, Africa and Europe.
The Arab peninsula is the top source of oil for China, the world’s biggest oil importer. Global prices rose in early trading on Monday.
Pang Zhongying, a senior fellow at the Ocean University of China in Qingdao, Shandong province, said the spat among the Middle East nations would make it more complicated to manage ties with the region.
“China has a huge economic interest in the Middle East,” he said. “With the belt and road and other initiatives it is using to expand geopolitical influence in the region, China may need to think about adjusting its “non-interference” diplomatic motto.”
Zhu Bin, an analyst at Southwest Securities, said: “These countries’ cutting of their diplomatic relationships with Qatar marks the beginning of a new round of chaos, even conflicts and war, in the Middle East.”
China’s mountain of debt continues to be the number one concern for investors, but Bloomberg has a good story arguing that the $17 trillion debt pile isn’t as scary as it looks. Here’s a taste:
There’s been no shortage of bad news when it comes to China’s massive debt pile, from turbulence in the corporate bond market to last month’s sovereign rating downgrade by Moody’s Investors Service.
But look beyond the negative headlines, and one encouraging fact stands out: China’s biggest companies are healthier than they’ve been in years.
Thanks to a combination of economic stimulus and state-owned enterprise reform, debt-to-equity ratios at China’s largest non-financial firms have dropped to the lowest levels since 2010. Gauges of profitability and interest payment capacity are the strongest in at least five years, while free cash flows have never been bigger.
The improvements could help ease fears of a looming financial crisis in the world’s second-largest economy, even though smaller Chinese companies have made less progress so far. Deutsche Asset Management, which oversees about $800 billion, says stronger balance sheets support a bullish outlook for China’s stock market after the Shanghai Composite Index trailed all of its Asian peers this year.
Tech is hot and its seems Asia’s sovereign wealth funds just can’t get enough. The South China Morning Post has an interesting interview with Tan Sri Azman Moktar, who heads Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional, on why the fund is investing more in tech (it was an early investor in Alibaba):
“Some years back, we had made a very good investment in a brick-and-mortar retail company, Parkson – we had 10 per cent in this [department store operator] and we made fantastic returns,” Azman says.
“Then suddenly, the returns dropped off the cliff. I asked my people what was happening. Turns out, we were getting killed by this company we had never head of at the time called Alibaba. People were going online [to shop] and everything moved so fast.”
In 2008, Khazanah Nasional sold off its Parkson Retail Group Stake and later invested over US$400 million (HK$3.11 billion) in Alibaba in 2012 and 2013, ahead of the Chinese company’s initial public offering in 2015.
Through Alibaba, we made a billion dollars for the Malaysian people, and Alibaba was our first tech investment,” Azman says.
“We’ve since re-channelled some of that money to over 20 tech investments around the world as well as in Southeast Asia, such as in Singapore gaming company Garena.”
June 06, 2017 at 06:14AM
from Robert Guy
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by Geoffrey Grider THE CONTEXT OF 2 THESSALONIANS 2, TAKEN AS IT IS WRITTEN, IS THE PRETRIBULATION RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH WHICH LEADS TO THE ANTICHRIST COMING TO POWER. “And now ye know what…
June 04, 2017 at 06:20AM
from IWB
Motley Fool |
3 History-Making Stocks
Motley Fool There are few companies that do something unique, embedding themselves in the history books for all of time. As you’ll see below, this can be a positive or a negative. We asked three of our contributors to each discuss a history-making stock. Here’s … |
June 04, 2017 at 06:13AM
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Today’s Guest: Bill Holter Website: Jim Sinclair’s MineSet http://ift.tt/U0vf7s
June 04, 2017 at 06:20AM
from IWB
Motley Fool |
3 Stocks That Feel Like Microsoft in 1986
Motley Fool There are few stocks that have created fortunes as staggering as Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). Had you bought just 50 shares of the computer software and console gaming giant shortly after its IPO in 1986 — let’s say at $28 per share (keep in mind the … |
June 04, 2017 at 06:13AM
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Has the time finally come to test the EU’s bail-in law? By Don Quijones, Spain & Mexico, editor at WOLF STREET. The shares of Spain’s sixth biggest bank, Banco Popular, plunged 36% this week…
June 04, 2017 at 06:20AM
from IWB
Witnesses have said that armed officers are understood to be at the scene after a white van mounted the pavement before driving into people. The Metropolitan Police say they are dealing with an incident…
June 04, 2017 at 06:20AM
from IWB
The symbolic resistance against Trump’s climate agenda took another step on Friday evening, when New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio signed an executive order reaffirming the city’s commitment to the Paris climate change…
June 04, 2017 at 06:20AM
from IWB
