Pacific Horizon - Top of the Pops! - Pacific Horizon (PHI) has benefitted strongly as both the Asia ex Japan region and technology stocks, to which PHI has a significant exposure, have rallied. This has seen it move up the competitor peer-group rankings so that it is first and second, in terms of NAV total return, over one and three years respectively. PHI’s manager, Ewan Markson-Brown, believes that the rising wealth of the middle class in Asia is likely to...

By Jim Mackney Nearly forty years have passed since The Shining was first released in 1980. It was Stanley Kubrick’s only proper foray into horror but it can be said that many of his films, A Clockwork Orange for example, have heavily flirted with the genre. This Halloween the film is being rereleased in glorious 4K! Is it worth the admission price, after nearly forty years? The honest answer to this lies somewhere in the unhelpful, no mans land of...

By Michael McNulty Joachim Trier’s latest cinematic instalment, Thelma, is a veritable melting pot of genres.  Part coming of age romance, supernatural mystery-thriller and straight family drama.  This is a dizzyingly tense, low-key film and a subtlety poignant observation on sexuality and repressed desire that wraps itself around you and squeezes. The young, attractive Thelma (Eili Harboe) has moved to Oslo for university.  Away from home for the first time, she is tentatively taking her first steps into a world...

With its jaws open wide, this Grizzly bear is just waiting for a leaping salmon to jump right in for a fish supper. Taken by British snapper Nick Dale, the picture was highly commended in the Wonders of Wildlife photographic competition. 1st prize zebras at dawn by Malcolm Blackburn. Nick, from London, who became a professional photographer in 2013, said: "The annual salmon migration is practically an all-you-can-eat buffet for bears in Alaska. "The journey upstream sometimes covers hundreds of...

Humans were creating astonishing cave paintings in the Caribbean thousands of years before the arrival of Christopher Columbus, reveals new research. The study sheds new light on etchings found on the walls of dozens of cave systems on Mona Island, off modern day Puerto Rico. It is the Caribbean region’s largest concentration of indigenous pre-Columbian rock art. Some of the paintings are in very narrow spaces deep in the caves - only accessible by crawling. Humans were creating astonishing cave...

The first solar eclipse recorded more than 3,000 years ago in the Bible has been pinpointed by British scientists to today, October 30 1207 BC. And the timing could now mean historians can date within 12 months the reign of Egyptian pharaohs, including Ramesses the Great and his son Merneptah. The solar eclipse, mentioned in the Old Testament book of Joshua, tells how Joshua led the people of Israel into Canaan, now modern day Israel and Palestine and has puzzled...

A patch of daffodil appear to be in a muddle - after blooming just as winter begins. Susanne Turner, 58, was shocked when the perennials which usually signal the start of the spring decided to come out in a flowerbed beside her house. And despite the bizarre blossoming, the amateur horticulturalist Susanne still has no idea how they flowered in October. Susanne Turner with her daffodils that have flowered in October. The former bank employee said she planted about 30...

Conservative Party secretaries, researchers and aides have compiled a list of 36 Tory MPs' inappropriate sexual behaviour and unwanted advances. As senior Conservative figures have been furiously briefing to downplay sexual allegations against Tory MPs, furious Westminster workers have been compiling proof that 11% of all the party's MPs have been abusing their positions to harass female and male employees. Female Westminster workers have been circulating a dirty dossier which now comprises inappropriate behaviour by 36 sitting Tory MPs including...

At a young age it is often hard to save as you need to consider a number of things such as your rent, food, a night out with friends and unexpected expenses, let alone additional funds that you can’t touch for another 40 or so years. So when should really start saving for your retirement? Well, most money experts say that you should start putting money aside for this as soon as you begin earning, so around your 20s. You...