Sconty empire

Hong Kong businessman and socialite David Tang dies at 63   Share     Tweet HONG KONG (AP) — David Tang, the flamboyant and outspoken socialite and entrepreneur who founded the Shanghai Tang fashion brand, has died. He was 63. The Financial Times newspaper, for which he wrote a popular tongue-in-cheek advice column, reported Tang's death in a story Wednesday. Tang had fought a long battle with cancer and died Tuesday night at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London with his wife Lucy at his bedside, the newspaper said. "David Tang was a remarkable man of many talents whose charm, erudition and wit were ever present," the article quoted the newspaper's editor, Lionel Barber, as saying. "He will be sorely missed." The Hong Kong-born, British-educated Tang was a businessman who operated private clubs and restaurants and held exclusive distribution rights to Cuban cigars in Asia. Tang was knighted in 2008 for his charitable work in bot...

Sour grapes: Robbers empty Paris cellar of vintage wines AP News | Posted: Aug 30, 2017 11:08 AM   Share     Tweet PARIS (AP) — A Paris wine collector returned from holiday this week to a nasty surprise, finding a hole in his cellar and emptiness where his valuable collection of vintage wines had been. Paris police said Wednesday some 250 to 300 bottles, worth up to 1,000 euros ($1,200) each, were stolen from the cellar in the 6th arrondissement of Paris sometime between July 28 and Monday, while the owner was vacationing. The robbers apparently broke through the wall of the basement cellar from the "Catacombs" network of tunnels under Paris. That they located the cellar so accurately from underground leads police to suspect the theft was carefully planned. Police said the owner is still putting together an exhaustive list of the missing wines. The total loss could amount to as much as 250,000 euros ($300,000). Police said two other cel...

1-5 Good Things Happening in the World 1. The  Flynn Effect . Humans appear to be gaining about 3 points of IQ per decade and nobody is exactly sure why (though there are working hypotheses). Regardless of whatever you think of IQ measures, we’re getting better and better at it globally. 1 2. Life expectancy is growing both  globally  and within  United States  to all time high. 3. Cancer death rates are  down 20%  in the last two decades and steadily decreasing. 4. Globally people have been getting significantly healthier and more prosperous  over the past 200 years  in a pretty consistent manner (despite occasional setbacks). 5. The world has  globally become less violent over years , decades, centuries, and millennia, and a person in the Western World today is probably least likely to be a victim of violence of any kind compared to any society in history. (Yes, there are lots of anecdotal cases where it has gotten worse,...

Houston reels as Storm Harvey moves on to Louisiana 3 hours ago   From the section US & Canada Share this with Facebook   Share this with Twitter   Share this with Messenger   Share this with Email   Share Medi Tropical Storm Harvey has made landfall again in the US state of Louisiana after hovering in the Gulf of Mexico. Low-lying New Orleans, devastated by 2005's Hurricane Katrina, is bracing to receive up to 10in (25cm) of rain in 36 hours, with flash floods a major risk. The storm, which earlier achieved hurricane status, has dumped record rainfall in the region. Large parts of the Texas city of Houston are underwater, and more than 20 people are reported dead. Thousands of people there have fled their homes in search of emergency shelter amid severe flooding. Houston, America's fourth most populous city, has implemented a night-time curfew to prevent looting from abandoned homes as authorities an...