Author: admin@primenews

A major Chinese property company has suspended offshore debt payments, deepening turmoil in the beleaguered sector. Sino Ocean, which says it’s one of the nation’s top 20 real estate developers, said in a stock exchange filing Friday that it would temporarily stop making payments on US dollar-denominated bonds, and suspend trading of them, as it embarked on a wider debt restructuring. The company said it made the decision as it faces “mounting liquidity pressures” due to a sales slump across the wider industry since 2021, which has hampered its ability to repay its debts. So far this year, “the group has experienced a rapid decline…

French supermarket chain Carrefour has slapped price warnings on products ranging from Lindt chocolates to Lipton Ice Tea to pressure suppliers such as Nestlé, PepsiCo and Unilever to cut their prices. Carrefour is putting stickers on products that have shrunk in size but cost more even though raw materials prices have eased. It is trying to rally consumer support as retailers prepare to face the world’s biggest brands in negotiations due to start soon and end by October 15. “Obviously, the aim in stigmatizing these products is to be able to tell manufacturers to rethink their pricing policy,” Stefen Bompais, director of client communications…

Bill Maher said his show is returning to air — despite the WGA writer’s strike raging on. “Real Time is coming back, unfortunately, sans writers or writing,” Maher said on Instagram Wednesday. “It has been five months, and it is time to bring people back to work.” Maher’s show is an HBO original. HBO is owned by CNN’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery. Though there were hopes a deal between WGA and production studios could be reached after Labor Day, according to Maher, the strike that began in May is still in full swing. “The writers have important issues that I sympathize with,…

An Australian teacher who killed his wife so he could start a new life with a teenage student has been sentenced to an extra year in prison for a crime committed when the girl was 16 years old. Chris Dawson, 75, sat with his head in his hands as he awaited the sentence on Friday from a room inside Long Bay Correctional Complex, south of Sydney, where he is already serving a 24-year sentence for killing his wife, Lynnette. Lynette’s disappearance in the early 1980s became one of Australia’s most intriguing mysteries, confounding police for decades and inspiring a podcast that delved…

A 47-year-old woman has died after being tasered by police in New South Wales in the second deadly incident so far this year involving the weapon in Australia. NSW Police allege the woman threatened a member of the public and then police officers with an ax before “barricading herself” in an apartment just after midday local time Thursday. Specialist negotiators were called to the scene in Stockton, in the city of Newcastle, before officers entered the apartment some nine hours later, police said. Speaking on Friday, NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Peter McKenna said tactical police units shot the woman with a…

A spacecraft left behind by US astronauts on the lunar surface could be causing small tremors known as moonquakes, according to a new study. Researchers revealed the previously unknown form of seismic activity on the moon for the first time through an analysis of Apollo-era data using modern algorithms. Massive temperature swings that occur on the moon can cause human-made structures to expand and contract in a way that produces these vibrations, the report suggests. The lunar surface is an extreme environment, oscillating between minus 208 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 133 degrees Celsius) in the dark and 250 degrees Fahrenheit (121…

A rare meeting between Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un at a space launch center in the Russian Far East earlier this week has triggered alarm from countries from South Korea and Japan to Ukraine, the United States and its partners in Europe. But China, the biggest economic lifeline for both Moscow and Pyongyang whose border lies less than 200 miles (321 kilometers) from where the two leaders met, may have a different view. Rather than look to oppose or limit cooperation between Russia and North Korea, Beijing may see more benefits than risks for itself in this emerging…

The UK, France and Germany are to retain sanctions on Iran in an attempt to deter Tehran from selling drones and missiles to Russia. In 2015 Iran agreed to a nuclear deal and, under the terms, some sanctions were due be lifted next month. However, the European nations believe Iran breached the deal by enriching and storing uranium. Iran says their move is “illegal and provocative” and “clearly violated” the terms of the nuclear deal. When highly enriched, uranium can be used to make a nuclear weapon. The European powers announced that they would incorporate expiring UN sanctions into their…

The father, stepmother and uncle of Sara Sharif have been charged with the murder of the 10-year-old girl, Surrey Police has said. Urfan Sharif, 41, his partner Beinash Batool, 29, and Urfan’s brother, Faisal Malik, 28, all of Hammond Road, Woking, have been charged. They have also each been charged with causing or allowing the death of a child. Sara’s body was found at her home on 10 August. A post-mortem examination found she had sustained “multiple and extensive injuries”. The three adults left the UK for Pakistan on 9 August. They were arrested at Gatwick Airport on Wednesday evening…

Scientists in the UK and Belgium think they have figured out how brain cells die in Alzheimer’s disease. It has been a mystery and a source of scientific debate for decades. But the team, writing in the journal Science, connect the abnormal proteins that build up in the brain with “necroptosis” – a form of cellular suicide. The findings have been described as “cool” and “exciting”, as they give new ideas for treating the disease. Long-awaited clues It is the loss of brain cells, called neurons, that lead to the symptoms of Alzheimer’s, including memory loss. And if you look…