‘Battlefield 1,’ ‘Sea of Thieves,’ PlayStation VR, ‘Destiny’ to be among Gamescom’s bigger names |
- ‘Battlefield 1,’ ‘Sea of Thieves,’ PlayStation VR, ‘Destiny’ to be among Gamescom’s bigger names
- Trump visits Milwaukee to address unrest over police shooting
- KL shares open lower in early trade
- Google releases Duo app for Android and iOS, rivalling Apple’s FaceTime (VIDEO)
- Three more towns in France to join burkini ban
- Asian stocks climb as yen steadies amid US fed rate comments
| ‘Battlefield 1,’ ‘Sea of Thieves,’ PlayStation VR, ‘Destiny’ to be among Gamescom’s bigger names Posted: 16 Aug 2016 06:40 PM PDT
'Battlefield 1,' 'Sea of Thieves,' PlayStation VR, 'Destiny' to be among Gamescom's bigger names
Battlefield 1, named after the World War I period in which it's set, will be livestreaming on Twitch in order to demonstrate its chaotic, building-crumbling multiplayer appeal. A public pre-release beta phase starts August 31 ahead of an October 21 launch. Techland, the publisher company behind zombie survival hits Dead Island and Dying Light, is expected to announce at least one big new game. October's card game Gwent, a spin-off from acclaimed 2015 action adventure The Witcher 3, enters the same space as Hearthstone and The Elder Scrolls: Legends and will be present and playable. Team action title Overwatch has proven to be one of 2016's defining multiplayer experiences, and it is showing off its gradually expanding roster of 20-plus characters through animated short films; a fifth, for robot enforcer Bastion, is to drop during Gamescom. Having focused on March 2017's Zelda: Breath of the Wind, Nintendo looks to be expanding its showfloor vision to include Pokémon Sun & Moon, Yo-Kai Watch 2, Dragon Quest VII and Mario Party: Star Rush, as speculation continues about next year's NX console release. Microsoft is bringing Gears of War 4, Halo Wars 2, ReCore and Sea of Thieves to GamesCom as part of its Xbox FanFest, with multiplayer pirate jaunt Sea of Thieves to benefit from several days of livestreaming via Twitch. Sci-fi action franchise Destiny has its 2016 expansion Rise of Iron due September 20 and fans should expect a closer look during Gamescom week, while Destiny: The Collection includes the original 2014 game and all four major updates released since. The expansion should be on display in PlayStation's section of the show floor, where Titanfall 2, Gran Turismo Sport, and a clutch of titles for PlayStation VR will also be in evidence, as well as Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Horizon Zero Dawn, Mafia III and others. For Ubisoft, the knights, samurais, and Vikings of ahistorical multiplayer action game For Honour will be available to try out, as will extreme sports game Steep and its own VR offerings Star Trek Bridge Crew and Eagle Flight, while December's Assassin's Creed film will also be promoted. — AFP-Relaxnews  |
| Trump visits Milwaukee to address unrest over police shooting Posted: 16 Aug 2016 06:36 PM PDT
Trump, who has been vocal in support of law enforcement during a spate of protests around the country over high-profile police shootings, told Fox News that he plans to address the unrest during a town hall meeting yesterday in the Wisconsin city. "It's law and order. We have to obey the laws or we don't have a country," said Trump. "We have a case where good people are out there trying to get people to sort of calm down and they're not calming down and we have our police who are doing a phenomenal job." Unrest broke out in the city on Saturday night after the death earlier in the day of Sylville Smith, 23. Authorities said Smith was stopped for acting suspiciously and then fled, and was shot by police because he was carrying an illegal handgun and refused orders to drop it. "But the gun was pointed at his (a police officer's) head supposedly ready to be fired. Who can have a problem with that? That's what the narrative is," Trump told Fox News. "Maybe it's not true. If it is true, people shouldn't be rioting." Trump held a roundtable discussion yesterday afternoon with Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke and Inspector Edward Bailey — but news media representatives were escorted out and not permitted to hear the discussions. Trump took a brief tour of the county's war memorial and posed for pictures with veterans. Clarke, who is black and who spoke last month at the Republican National Convention, has been blunt in his assessment of the unrest, writing in an opinion piece for The Hill, "it was a collapse of the social order where tribal behavior leads to reacting to circumstances instead of waiting for facts to emerge." Demonstrations on Saturday night turned violent, when cars and businesses were set ablaze and gunfire ripped through the area of protests. The city was calmer on Monday night after a curfew was put in place for teenagers, and community leaders called for peace. Police violence against African-Americans has set off intermittent, sometimes violent protests in the past two years, igniting a national debate over race and policing in the United States and giving rise to the Black Lives Matter movement. Trump frequently talks about the need to restore safety and order in the wake of such unrest. He will hold an event with veterans and law enforcement, appear at the town hall meeting sponsored by Fox News, and then hold a rally in the Milwaukee suburb of West Bend on Tuesday night. His presence in Milwaukee could prompt more demonstrations. Opponents of the New York real estate mogul frequently demonstrate inside and outside his campaign events. A rally in Chicago earlier this year was canceled after demonstrations grew violent. A Fox News representative would not elaborate on security for the event. Meanwhile, officials from the Office of Director of National Intelligence are expected to give Trump a wide-ranging briefing on national security issues this week, an adviser to Trump and a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. Presidential candidates are entitled to receive a briefing of classified information after they formally secure the nomination, which Trump did last month. Trump's Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, is also entitled to receive a briefing if she requests one. Democrats have been strongly critical of Trump's positions on foreign policy and national security, as well as of some of his freewheeling remarks. President Barack Obama has called Trump "unfit" for the presidency and earlier this month warned the Republican candidate that briefing information must be kept secret. — Reuters |
| KL shares open lower in early trade Posted: 16 Aug 2016 06:32 PM PDT
At 9.10am, the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 5.16 points lower at 1,694.73 against yesterday's close of 1,699.89 points. It opened 4.32 points easier at 1,695.57 at 9am. Losers outpaced gainers 130 to 121 while 217 counters were unchanged, 1,212 untraded and 19 others were suspended. Turnover stood at 201.89 million shares worth RM57.11 million. A dealer said the weaker US equity market dampened buying interest in the local market. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.5 per cent to 18,552.02, the S&P 500 equity index eased 0.6 per cent to 2,178.15 while the Nasdaq Composite retreated 0.5 per cent to 5,227.11. The FBM Emas Index gave up 27.02 points to 11,903.59, the FBMT 100 Index lost 28.35 points for 11,593.99 and the FBM Emas Shariah Index decreased 29.1 points to 12,563.46. The FBM 70 lost 8.12 points to 13,669.04 but the FBM Ace was 18.63 points higher at 5,604.85. Sector-wise, the Finance Index declined 32.77 to 14,544.52 and the Plantation Index gained 8.71 points to 7,746.16 while the Industrial Index erased 18.41 points to 3,199.06. Among heavyweights, TNB and IHH were flat at RM14.80 and RM6.68, respectively, Maybank lost two sen to RM8.03 and Public Bank was six sen lower at RM19.74. Of actives, Iris and Censof both added one sen to 22 sen, respectively, while TH Heavy Engineering and Vivocom were flat at 19.5 sen and 28.5 sen, respectively. ― Bernama |
| Google releases Duo app for Android and iOS, rivalling Apple’s FaceTime (VIDEO) Posted: 16 Aug 2016 06:28 PM PDT
Google releases Duo app for Android and iOS, rivalling Apple's FaceTime (VIDEO)
Google Duo is billed as a simple video-calling app that brings two callers face-to-face, using the front-facing cameras of their smartphones or tablets, over a cellular or Wi-Fi network. Unlike Apple's FaceTime, Google Duo is available to users of several operating systems — namely Android and iOS for the time being. Presented as the fastest and most easy-to-use Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) tool, Duo is lined up as a direct rival to FaceTime (for iOS) and even Skype (available for Android and iOS) for making video calls. Although relatively limited in functionality, the app does come with a new and amusing feature called "Knock Knock," which shows the person calling live onscreen before you even answer the call. Google Duo was released yesterday in the US and will roll out to other regions imminently. Duo will soon be followed by Allo, an intelligent instant messaging app expected to land with Android Nougat (7.0) this autumn. Google Duo and Allo are due to replace Hangouts, which, in the future, should be more geared towards business users. — AFP-Relaxnews |
| Three more towns in France to join burkini ban Posted: 16 Aug 2016 06:28 PM PDT
In the southwest, the mayor of the resort town of Leucate, Michel Py, was to sign a municipal decree later yesterday that would ban the burkini on public beaches, the town hall said. The decree, running until August 31, will bar access to public beaches to "any person who is not properly dressed, respectful of moral behaviour and secularism, hygiene and bathing safety." "The wearing of bathing clothes which are associated with these principles is also forbidden," according to the decree, seen by AFP. Leucate is located on the Mediterranean coast, 35 km from Perpignan. In the northern French department of Pas-de-Calais, the mayor of the Channel town of Oye-Plage said Tuesday he would also move to ban the burkini after seeing a woman wearing "a complete cape and gloves, covering her face and her eyes" as she headed to the beach on Sunday. In the nearby upmarket resort of Le Touquet, local mayor and MP Daniel Fasquelle said he would also implement a burkini ban in the coming days "to fight against religious proselytising." String of jihadist attacks "There are no burkinis in Le Touquet at the moment, but I don't want the town hall to be caught offguard if we are affected by this phenomenon," Fasquelle told AFP. France has been hit by a string of jihadist attacks over the last 19 months that have left the country on edge and fretting over home-grown religious extremism. Partly as a result, the burkini has become embroiled in a fierce debate about perceived religious symbols and their place in a strongly secular country. On July 14 Nice was the target of an attack claimed by the Islamic State group when a Tunisian ploughed a truck into crowds celebrating Bastille Day, killing 85. And on July 26, a priest was killed in his church in northwestern France by two attackers who had proclaimed their allegiance to IS. The following day, the Cote d'Azur city of Cannes banned the burkini and the nearby resort of Villeneuve-Loubet followed suit in early August. Beach brawl over burkinis The Corsican town of Sisco on Sunday became the third on the list after a brawl in a cove between locals and families and of North African origin left five people injured. A witness said the violence happened after tourists took pictures of women swimming in burkinis on the Mediterranean island. Investigators are still probing whether this was the case. The first ban on the burkini has been attributed to Mandelieu-la-Napoule, close to Cannes, where it was discreetly barred in July 2013. The text of the municipal decree has been used, typically word for word, in bans elsewhere. Cannes mayor David Lisnard said he had signed off on the burkini ban out of "respect for good customs and secularism," a founding principle of the French republic. But Villeneuve-Loubet mayor Lionnel Luca had a different argument, saying swimming "fully dressed... (was) unacceptable for hygienic reasons." The bans are opposed by some, who contend they are a populist ploy, violate human rights and likely to inflame tensions. The Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF) mounted an unsuccessful legal challenge to the ban in Cannes. It is now taking its case to the Council of State, the highest judicial authority in France for administrative matters. — AFP |
| Asian stocks climb as yen steadies amid US fed rate comments Posted: 16 Aug 2016 06:27 PM PDT
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.1 per cent to 139.69 as of 9:10am in Tokyo. Japan's Topix index climbed 0.3 per cent as the yen retreated against the dollar after briefly touching 99.54 yesterday. New York Fed President William Dudley said the central bank could potentially raise interest rates as soon as next month, warning investors that they are underestimating the likelihood of increases in borrowing costs. "Considering how much the yen has strengthened, Japanese shares are showing resilience," said Chihiro Ohta, a senior strategist with SMBC Nikko Securities Inc "However, there aren't any reasons to actively buy Japanese stocks right now." Asian equities have climbed 23 per cent from their February low through yesterday as lackluster data from the world's biggest economies fuelled speculation central banks will continue to support them with stimulus and loose monetary policy. While the odds the Fed will raise rates in December climbed to 51 per cent yesterday, from 45 per cent the previous day, traders are betting there's only a 22 per cent chance of tightening next month, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. Yen strength Investors also weighed the policy response from the Bank of Japan as the yen surpassed 100 per dollar for the second time this year. Strategists at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd and Morgan Stanley see the yen extending this year's 20 per cent gain versus the dollar, further confounding policy makers who are seeking to spur growth and inflation in the world's third-largest economy. As the currency surged yesterday, Japanese Vice Finance Minister Masatsugu Asakawa said he's watching with concern to see if there are speculative moves in the foreign-exchange market. The "Japanese economy is extremely weak," Perpetual's Sherwood said. "Helicopter money could be in play as Japanese policy makers run out of ammunition." South Korea's Kospi index was little changed. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 0.2 per cent. New Zealand's S&P/NZX 50 Index climbed 0.6 per cent. Markets in China and Hong Kong have yet to start trading. China retreat Futures on the FTSE China A50 Index added 0.3 per cent in most recent trading, while those on the Hang Seng Index rose 0.1 per cent. The Shanghai Composite Index slipped 0.5 per cent yesterday, after advancing above its 200-day moving average for the first time in a year as volume rebounded. While the gauge has climbed 17 per cent from its January low, it's still down 40 per cent from last year's peak. China's regulators took another step toward opening their financial markets yesterday, unveiling a second channel for foreign investors to buy the country's stocks while also lifting restrictions on asset flows. The trading link between Hong Kong and Shenzhen is expected to start in about four months. The long-delayed second link, which had been expected for more than a year, is part of China's efforts to internationalize its capital markets and increase its global influence to something more in line with the heft of the nation's economy. Barriers to foreigners wanting to trade the US$6.5 trillion of mainland equities were one of the reasons that MSCI Inc decided not to include the shares in its global benchmark indexes in June. Authorities in Beijing have also kept tight control over how much money leaves the country. Futures on the S&P 500 Index rose 0.1 per cent. The US equity benchmark index slipped 0.6 per cent yesterday. — Bloomberg |
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