Hong Kong luxury home sales heat up as China investors splash stocks profits
Hong Kong's stock market surge is turning up the heat in one of the world's most expensive property markets, as mainland China investors plough quick profits into million-dollar mansions in what analysts say may be a record year for home sales.
The Hong Kong stocks spree has sent the benchmark Hang Seng Index to seven-year highs as mainland investors snapped comparative bargains before pocketing gains.
With property prices in the city already more than double their 2008 level, brokers say luxury home sales are booming, despite the city's best efforts to stop the market overheating.
Centaline Property Agency expects the trend to swell new home sales to HK$240 billion (S$42 billion) this year, easily beating last year's existing record of HK$178 billion.
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'America's worst nightmare' deserves death, trial told, of Boston bomber
Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is "America's worst nightmare" and deserves to die for one of the bloodiest attacks on US soil since 9/11, his trial heard Tuesday.
The court was shown a never-before seen photograph of Tsarnaev, dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit flipping his middle finger at a surveillance camera in a cell before his first arraignment.
"This is Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, unconcerned, unrepentant and unchanged," said assistant US attorney Nadine Pellegrini in her opening statement at the penalty stage of his trial.
The former student was convicted earlier this month on all 30 counts related to the April 15, 2013 bombings, the murder of a police officer, a carjacking and a shoot out.
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UK speed trader arrested over role in 2010 US 'flash crash'
A high-frequency trader was arrested in the United Kingdom over charges he manipulated the futures market and played a role in sparking the May 2010 "flash crash", the US Justice Department (DOJ) said on Tuesday.
Navinder Singh Sarao, 37, of Hounslow, United Kingdom, was criminally charged on charges of wire fraud, commodities fraud and manipulation, said the DOJ.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission also filed parallel civil charges against Sarao on Tuesday, calling him a "very significant player in the market."
The case marks the first time US regulators have alleged that market manipulation played a role in the flash crash, in which the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 1,000 points before recovering somewhat toward the end of the day's trading.
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Football: Majestic Bayern crush Porto 6-1 to reach semis
Sensational Bayern Munich destroyed Porto 6-1 to charge into the Champions League semi-finals 7-4 on aggregate and stay on track for a treble in Pep Guardiola's 100th competitive game in charge on Tuesday.
The five-time European champions, who lost 3-1 in the first leg last week, showed no sign of nerves as they dismantled the hapless Portuguese with an impressive attacking display to book a fourth straight last four spot.
Reminiscent of Germany's 7-1 World Cup semi-final demolition of Brazil last year, Bayern scored three times in 13 minutes through Thiago Alcantara, Jerome Boateng and Robert Lewandowski, to wipe out their quarter-final, first leg deficit.
Two more goals before the break from Lewandowski and Thomas Mueller, who became Germany's record scorer in the competition with 27, and a late Xabi Alonso free-kick finished off Porto, who had Ivan Marcano sent off in the 87th for a second booking.
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Flawless 100-carat diamond sells for $30 million at New York auction
A "perfect" 100-carat diamond originally mined in South Africa sold for US$22.1 million (S$29.8 million) in New York on Tuesday in three minutes of bidding, Sotheby's said.
The auction house had valued the jewel, which weighs 100.20 carats, at US$19-25 million, calling it "the largest perfect diamond with a classic emerald cut ever to be offered at auction."
Discovered in the De Beers mines of South Africa then cut, polished and perfected for more than a year, it was the highlight in 370 lots at a Sotheby's jewellery auction.
The winning bidder took part by telephone but wanted to remain anonymous, Sotheby's said.
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