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Reuters

  • Oil prices fall on slowing global economic growth outlook

    China’s August industrial profits dropped 8.8 percent from the same month last year, and January to August industry profits were down 1.9 percent.

    “The growth problem endures. Asia isn’t about to bounce,” said Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asia Economics Research at HSBC in Hong Kong on Monday in a note to clients.

    The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is likely to revise downwards its global economic growth outlook due to weakness in emerging markets.

    Brent crude futures were at $48.13 per barrel at 0133 EDT, down 47 cents. U.S. crude was 44 cents lower at $45.26 a barrel. Crude futures are now down more than 10 percent since the end of August.

    Monday’s price falls came despite an ongoing reduction in U.S. drilling, which has been on the decline for four straight weeks, a sign continued weak prices were causing oil and gas producers to reduce drilling plans.

    Yet analysts said U.S. oil output was holding up despite the lower drilling.

    “A rapid draw-down of the observed backlog of uncompleted wells could lead to higher production later this year and in 2016,” Goldman Sachs said.

    Analysts said U.S. output data would likely be the main driver this week for oil prices, especially as Chinese trading slows ahead of its seven-day National Day holiday that starts on Oct. 1.

    The U.S. Energy Information Administration is due to release its monthly petroleum supply report on Wednesday.

    “We expect there to be laser-focus on U.S. production figures … Signs that U.S. production rolled (fell) could provide a boost to both WTI and Brent flat prices,” Morgan Stanley said.

    Jefferies bank said that oversupply in oil markets had halved since the second quarter to around 1 million barrels per day, and that the falling prices since June 2014 were impacting production.

    “The price signal is working. U.S. production is past its inflection and declines are accelerating … (and) non-OPEC supply outside the U.S. is also beginning to show the effects of lower investment that arises from lower oil prices,” Jefferies said.

    On the demand side, Barclays said that India “remains one of the bright spots” with oil demand up 7 percent between January and August this year compared to the same period in 2014.

  • Attack on Afghan cricket match kills nine, wounds over 50

    The attack took place in southeastern Paktika province, on the border with Pakistan, the officials said.

    Authorities initially said the game being played at the time of the blast was soccer, but an interior ministry statement later said it was a cricket match.

    The attack probably targeted members of the local government watching the game, officials said.

    A similar bombing last year at a volleyball match killed at least 50 people in the same province.

    The Taliban denied responsibility for the latest attack. The militant Islamist group rarely claims attacks with a high number of civilian casualties.

    Since the withdrawal of most foreign troops from Afghanistan last year, Afghan security forces have been fighting the Taliban with limited support.

    The Taliban was ousted by a U.S.-led coalition in 2001 and has been waging an insurgency for over a decade.

  • Review – 'He Named Me Malala' film is a profile in courage

    She claps a hand to her mouth and giggles, while later a camera shot of her computer shows her perusing pictures of Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi, tennis pro Roger Federer and actor Brad Pitt.

    But the young Pakistani woman who on Friday opens a summit of world leaders at the United Nations otherwise comes across in “He Named Me Malala” as a formidable proponent of exactly what prompted the Taliban to try to kill her in her native Swat Valley: education for everyone, but particularly for girls.

    “I am those 66 million girls who are deprived of education,” she says in the film. “I’m not a lone voice, I’m many and our voices are our most powerful weapons. One child, one teacher, one book and one pen — they can change the world.”

    The 2012 attack on Yousafzai by a Taliban fighter who stopped her school bus and shot her left her with head injuries she was not expected to survive.

    The film shows intimate details of the long process of rehabilitation after she was airlifted to England for medical care, undergoing therapy that included learning how to catch a ball again and recovering her power of speech.

    She still has no hearing in her left ear and her motor control of the left side of her face is impaired, but the film shows she hasn’t lost a jot of the bravery that made her a target for the Taliban.

    Following a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, an interviewer asks if she had spoken to Obama about her concern that drone attacks “are fuelling terrorism”, to which she responds, “Yes, of course.”

    The film opens with a tale explaining that she is named for an Afghani heroine who rallied retreating Pashtun fighters to fight against British invaders at the 1880 Battle of Maiwand, and was killed during the fighting.

    Asked by Guggenheim if he knew that giving his only daughter that name would make her different from other women in Swat, her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, says: “You’re right.”

    The film is effective at teasing out the strong bond between father and daughter, and also shows some of the difficulties the family has had adjusting to life in Britain.

    Malala says she would give anything to see her home in Swat again, despite Taliban vows to kill her if she returns.

    “When I think of home I miss the dirty streets, I miss the river, I miss my friends. I just want to see that house just once,” she says.

    But for all that her life has been turned upside down, when asked if she has ever been angry about what happened, she says: “Never.”

    The film will be released in the United States on Oct 2.

  • 'Hotel Transylvania 2' breaks September record with $47.5 million debut

    Both had endured rough patches at ticket booths. Sandler, once among the most consistently commercial leading men in Hollywood, has suffered a series of flops like “Blended,” “That’s My Boy,” and “Jack and Jill” that have inspired questions about his bankability. And Sony, which had its inner workings laid bare in last year’s hack attack by North Korea, was subjected to a summer that saw films like “Aloha” and Sandler’s video game “Pixels” rejected by audiences. It has been on the upswing in recent weeks, fielding modest hits like “War Room” and “The Perfect Guy,” but this is the studio’s biggest opening since “22 Jump Street” debuted to $57 million in June of 2014.

    It also sets a new September record, passing the previous “Hotel Transylvania’s” $42.5 million start in 2012. The $80 million production got off to a strong start overseas, outpacing the first film’s results in parts of Latin America.

    “It’s on it’s way to being one of the most beloved franchises of all time,” said Rory Bruer, Sony Pictures president of worldwide distribution.

    “There are a lot of stories left to tell,” he added, saying that he hoped there would be a third installment.

    Domestically, it was a competitive weekend at the multiplexes. In addition to “Hotel Transylvania 2,” Universal expanded “Everest” from Imax and premium format screens to 3,006 locations, where the high altitude disaster film picked up $13.1 million. That figure is something of a disappointment given the A CinemaScore the film earned in limited release and the solid $7.2 million it generated in its inaugural weekend.

    With “Everest” appealing to men and “Hotel Transylvania 2” roping in families, Warner Bros. made a pitch to female ticket buyers with “The Intern.” The Nancy Meyers workplace comedy brought in a solid $18.2 million for a second place finish. Filmed for $40 million, it stars Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway. That opening puts it in line with previous Meyers’ releases such as “Something’s Gotta Give” ($16.1 million debut) and “The Holiday” ($12.8 million start). The director’s latest effort is just as likely to inspire real estate envy in the heavily female audience that turned out to see the impossibly chic world of “The Intern.”

    “Nancy Meyers really is a brand onto herself,” said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros. distribution executive vice president.” It’s not just the stories that attracts people. It’s the lifestyle, it’s the sets, it’s the clothes.”

    That left Eli Roth’s “Green Inferno” as the weekend’s only other wide release. The low budget horror film earned $3.5 million from 1,540 locations. The picture about a young woman who has a nasty encounter with Peruvian cannibals is part of a novel distribution experiment from Jason Blum.

    The horror producer’s company Blumhouse limited the number of locations where the picture screened and leaned heavily on digital marketing to keep costs low. The hope was to find a middle ground between straight to on-demand releases and wide, 3,000 screen debuts, but the model may need more tweaking. The company had hoped the film would debut to between $4 million and $5 million. It will try a similar experiment with two more upcoming releases, including “Delirium,” a supernatural thriller with Topher Grace and Patricia Clarkson. A third film has yet to be determined.

    Last weekend’s champ, “Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials,” slid to third place in its sophomore weekend, notching $14 million, and bringing the Fox’s film’s domestic total to $51.7 million. Among holdovers, Johnny Depp’s “Black Mass” fell less than 50% in its second weekend, adding $11.5 million to push the Warner Bros.’ film’s stateside haul to $42.6 million.

    Lionsgate’s “Sicario” continued to impress in its second week in theaters. A week after scoring the biggest per-screen average of the year, the drug war thriller moved from six to 59 theaters, cracking the box office top ten with $680,591. It goes wide next weekend.

    Bleecker Street’s “Pawn Sacrifice,” a look at troubled chess great Bobby Fischer (Tobey Maguire), broadened its theatrical footprint from 33 to 781 locations, earning $1.1 million. It has earned $1.3 million after two weeks.

    In the art house realm, Broad Green bowed housing crisis drama “99 Homes” in two New York theirs, where it earned $32,807, for a per-screen average of $16,403.

    The onslaught of new and expanding releases bolstered overall ticket sales. Receipts were up nearly 30% from the year-ago period when “The Equalizer” and the first “Maze Runner”

  • Pink Floyd's David Gilmour tops British album chart

    Gilmour, 69, last topped the chart just 10 months ago with Pink Floyd on “The Endless River,” but it has been nine years since he last made it to Number 1 on his own, with 2006’s “On An Island.”

    Lana Del Rey’s “Honeymoon” came in at two, with former chart-topper Jess Glynne’s “I Cry When I Laugh” up one place to three.

    In the singles chart, Canada’s Justin Beiber held on to top spot for a third non-consecutive week with “What do you Mean” while Jackson 5 sampling track “Sigala” by Easy Love stayed at two. R City featuring Adam Levine leaped 13 places to third with “Locked Away.”

  • Tottenham put four past Manchester City in comeback win

    Goals from Eric Dier, Toby Alderweireld, Harry Kane and Erik Lamela left City reeling after the visitors had dominated early on and taken a 25th-minute lead through record signing Kevin de Bruyne.

    Coming a week after a 2-1 home defeat by West Ham United that halted City’s 100 percent start to the season, their second-half collapse in sunny north London means they could lose top spot after Saturday’s later matches.

    Manchester United will go top if they beat Sunderland.

    There seemed no hint of what was to come when City broke quickly in the 25th minute through the marauding Yaya Toure who fed De Bruyne to slot past Hugo Lloris.

    If there was a hint of offside about that goal, Tottenham’s equaliser on the stroke of halftime was even more controversial.

    Clearly offside, Kyle Walker crossed low into to the area and although City keeper Willy Caballero saved well from Son Heung-min the ball was drilled back into the net by Dier.

    Tottenham went ahead five minutes after the break when Lamela’s free kick was headed in by Alderweireld.

    Eleven minutes later Kane broke his season-long goal famine for his club when he coolly clipped in a rebound after Christian Eriksen’s free kick struck the crossbar.

    The impressive Lamela completed the scoring when he showed great composure to fire past Caballero.

    Tottenham’s win, their third in a row in the Premier League, moved them into fifth place with 12 points from seven games, just three points behind City.

  • Jankovic beats Allertova in Guangzhou final

    The former world number one showed no mercy against the unseeded Allertova, reeling off the last 11 games in a row as she raced to a 6-2 6-0 victory in an hour and 10 minutes.

    Jankovic’s win gave the 30-year-old her 14th WTA career title and her first since she won on clay in Colombia in 2013, although she did win a lower tier event in China in August.

    “It’s amazing to win a title in China for the second time this year — obviously China is very special to me!” she told the crowd.

    Jankovic also heaped praise on Allertova, who was playing in her first WTA event final and had claimed the scalps of world number two Simona Halep and third seed Sara Errani in getting to the decider.

    “Denisa, you had such a great run here in Guangzhou, beating such great players,” Jankovic said. “And you played so well in the final — it was definitely closer than the result says.

    “You’ll have many more finals and many more titles in the future, so just keep going, just keep doing what you’re doing.”

    Allertova made a promising start to the final, recovering from a sloppy opening service game, but it was all one-way traffic after that.

    “It was an amazing time for me here,” Allertova said.

    “I’m so happy I could beat so many good players here and play my first final. Jelena was too good, but I’m happy with my week.”

  • Kanye West serious about White House run, says he has to grow up

    West, who is married to reality TV star Kim Kardashian, said he planned to run for the White House in 2020 at the end of a rambling speech at the MTV Video Music Awards show in Los Angeles last month.

    The declaration was largely seen as a joke, but asked whether he intended to go ahead, the “Jesus Walks” singer told Vanity Fair magazine “Oh, definitely.”

    Grammy-winning West, 38, said that after the initial, stunned reaction people were positive about the idea, despite his reputation for angry outbursts.

    “As soon as I said that, it was like, ‘Wait a second, we would really be into that, because actually if you think about it, he’s extremely thoughtful. Every time he’s ever gotten in trouble, he was really jumping in front of a bullet for someone else. He’s probably the most honest celebrity that we have.’ I didn’t approach that because I thought it would be fun,” West was quoted as telling the magazine.

    “I sit in clubs and I’m like, Wow, I’ve got five years before I go and run for office and I’ve got a lot of research to do, I’ve got a lot of growing up to do.”

    West, who has not said which political party he would represent, noted that his father has two masters degrees and that his late mother, a university English professor, had a Ph.D and worked for civil rights organizations.

    “It’s fun to be a rock star, and I’ll never not be one I guess, but there’ll be a point where I become my mother’s child,” he said.

    Supporters of West have already launched a political action committee called Ready for Kanye in the hope he will run as a Republican. So far the group has under 100 followers on Facebook and Twitter.

    West this week was ranked the world’s 7th highest-paid hip-hop act by Forbes magazine with an estimated $22 million in earnings from music, his fashion line, and product endorsements over the past year. Sean ‘P.Diddy’ Combs was top with an estimated $60 million.

  • Barca's Neymar admits talks with United

    The Brazilian hitman, part of Barca’s devastating attacking trio that hit 122 goals last season as the club won the treble, was linked to a move to United who needed a striker and went on to sign Anthony Martial.

    “There were talks but nothing came of them,” Neymar told ESPN Brazil. “There were rumours but I never received an offer.”

    The 23-year-old added his aim is to stay at the Catalan club.

    “I hope we have a dream season. I want to have consistency with my work along with my colleagues and continue to win titles,” he said.

    Barca aim to bounce back from their 4-1 La Liga defeat by Celta Vigo on Wednesday when they entertain Las Palmas on Saturday.

    They are in fifth place in the table, level with Atletico Madrid, on 12 points from five games, a point behind Real Madrid, Celta and Villarreal who are in a three-way tie for the top spot.

  • New iPhones hit stores, record sales expected in first weekend

    Analysts expect a record 12 million to 13 million phones to fly off the shelves in the first weekend, up from more than 10 million last year when the hugely successful iPhone 6’s launch was delayed in China, the world’s biggest smartphone market.

    Among the first to pick up the new iPhone 6s in a cold, rainy Sydney was a telepresence robot named Lucy, operated by marketing executive Lucy Kelly.

    “I obviously have my work and other things to attend to and can’t spend two days lining up so my boss at work suggested I take one of the robots down and use it to stand in my place,” she said via an iPad mounted on top of the wheeled robot.

    “I love new gadgets. The new camera is meant to be amazing.”

    Fans around the world have camped out for days prior to the release, and Apple has said pre-orders suggested sales were on pace to beat last year’s first-weekend performance.

    Sales of iPhones accounted for nearly two-thirds of Apple’s revenue in the latest quarter. First released in 2007, it is Apple’s best-selling device to date.

    “The stage is set for Apple to show year-over-year growth over the Herculean iPhone 6 sales,” FBR Capital Markets senior analyst Daniel Ives said.

    After a dramatic redesign last year, which included an enlarged screen and the addition of mobile payments, the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus boast more modest improvements.

    The phones, which are the same size as last year’s models, feature improved cameras and 3D touch, a display technology based on a “Taptic Engine” that responds according to how hard users press their screens.

    “The rumors are true – the battery capacity is down a bit, and we suspect the reduced battery size is to accommodate the Taptic Engine,” repair firm iFixit, which opened up an iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, said on its website. (bit.ly/1OxY5xs)

    Apple has said battery life is unchanged in the new phones.

    The new iPhones use chips made by Qualcomm Inc, Avago Technologies Ltd, Qorvo Inc’s TriQuint Semiconductor and RF Micro Devices, Toshiba Corp, Texas Instruments Inc and Skyworks Solutions Inc, among others.

    “Today is like Christmas for pocket film makers all around the world because the iPhone 6S Plus is like the newest, greatest toy we have to play with,” said Jason van Genderen, who makes movies on smart phones in Sydney.

    “I’ve never seen anything like it – it’s astounding. The camera craft has now come up to story telling craft.”

    Apple has said that just a fraction of its customers have upgraded to the iPhone 6, suggesting there is plenty of room to grow this year.

    Lackluster offerings this year from rival smartphone manufacturer Samsung Electronics Co Ltd also will help Apple stand out in the marketplace, analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy wrote in an email.

    “Over the long haul, the 6s will eclipse the 6 as Apple is even more competitive versus Samsung in emerging regions and is gaining share in traditional regions,” Moorhead said.

    “Samsung didn’t bring a whole lot of compelling features to consumers with their new lines of phones.”

    The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, which start at $199 and $299 with a two-year service provider contract, go on sale on Friday in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States.