RCMP seek witnesses in serious Kelowna assault

Kelowna RCMP are seeking witnesses after the discovery of a seriously injured man early Monday.

On March 2, just after 2:45 a.m., members of the Kelowna RCMP responded to a report of an assault in the 200 block of Lawrence Avenue.

When officers arrived, they found a man suffering from serious injuries sustained during an attack.

Twitter Shares Surge 9% As Activist Elliott Management Buys Stake, Pressures CEO Jack Dorsey

Shares of Twitter surged nearly 9% Monday on reports activist hedge fund Elliott Management has acquired a $1-billion stake, or around 4%, of the social media giant and is pushing for change at the company, including the possible replacement of founder Jack Dorsey as CEO.

BOJ's Kuroda warns that hit to economy from virus could be big

TOKYO, March 4 (Reuters) – Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Wednesday the central bank must be mindful of the risk that the damage to the economy from the coronavirus outbreak could be quite big.

Japan’s economy had been expected to recover in January-March, but the spread of the epidemic has hurt exports and consumption through a decline in Chinese tourists, Kuroda told parliament.

“We will carefully watch economic and market developments, and take appropriate action,” he said. (Reporting by Leika Kihara and Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Kim Coghill)

OrganiGram CFO De Luca to be chief strategy officer, board member West to be CFO

OrganiGram Holdings Inc. OGI, -5.75%OGI, -0.44% said Wednesday it named current Chief Financial Officer Paolo De Luca as its chief strategy officer, while current board member Derrick West will join the company as CFO, effective immediately. De Luca has been CFO since December 2017. West was most recently a member of the investment committee, and from December 2017 to February 2020, was chair of the audit committee. The Canada-based cannabis company’s stock, which was indicated down a little over 1% in premarket trading, has lost 17.1% over the past three months, while the ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF MJ, -3.38% has shed 18.6% and the S&P 500 SPX, -2.81% has slipped 3.5%.

Banks’ merger to come into effect from Apr 1, says Sitharaman

The mergers are aimed at creating global sized banks in India.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said the exercise of consolidation of 10 public sector banks (PSBs) into four is on course and the merger will come into effect from April 1, 2020.

The Union Cabinet, she said, has given a go-ahead for the merger proposal and the government has been in regular touch with these banks.

There will be no regulatory issues, she said.

“The banks’ merger is on course and decisions have already been taken by the respective bank boards,” she told reporters here.

The mergers are aimed at creating global sized banks in India.

In the biggest consolidation exercise in the banking space, the government in August 2019 had announced four major mergers of public sector banks, bringing down their total number to 12 from 27 in 2017, a move aimed at making state-owned lenders global sized banks.

United Bank of India and Oriental Bank of Commerce will be merged with Punjab National Bank; Syndicate Bank will be merged with Canara Bank; Allahabad Bank will be amalgamated with Indian Bank; and Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank will be consolidated with Union Bank of India.

Last year, Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank were merged with Bank of Baroda. Prior to this, the government had merged five associate banks of SBI and Bharatiya Mahila Bank with the State Bank of India.

New yoga program helps those living with brain injuries in Nova Scotia

Looking at Cameron Stephen today, there are no visible signs that seven years ago he nearly died.

“The doctors did an MRI on me and it was like a snowstorm,” said Stephen.

“They said I’d be lucky to move my head left or right, I was probably going to be blind, paralyzed and not be able to feed myself.”

Dialog Semiconductor warns of coronavirus hit

Dialog Semiconductor PLC said Wednesday that its fourth-quarter net profit for 2019 fell as revenue ticked lower, and warned that the coronavirus would hurt its business in the first quarter of this year.

The Frankfurt-listed chip maker said net profit for the quarter was $44.8 million down from $57.9 million a year earlier.

Operating profit fell to $53.7 million from $77.1 million during the same period the previous year.

Revenue for the quarter was $380.6 million down from $430.7 million, but in line with the company’s guidance. This was mainly due to lower revenue from Dialog’s licensed main PMIC products, the company said.

The company said it expects its revenue for the first quarter of 2020 to be between $220 million and $250 million, down from $295 million the year prior, and its underlying gross margin to grow slightly year-on-year. The guidance reflects the disruption caused by the coronavirus outbreak on its customers’ contract manufacturers and on demand in China, the company said.

For 2020, and assuming that supply chains and contract manufacturers return to normal by the second quarter of the year following the disruption from the epidemic, Dialog sees its revenue declining by a mid-teen percentage, it said.

Warren on coronavirus: We should have acted weeks ago

San Francisco (CNN Business)Google is canceling its biggest event of the year because of concerns about the coronavirus.

The 2020 edition of Google I/O, an annual developer conference originally scheduled for May 12-14 at Google’s Mountainview headquarters, will no longer take place, the company confirmed on Tuesday.
“Due to concerns around the coronavirus (COVID-19), and in accordance with health guidance from the CDC, WHO, and other health authorities, we have decided to cancel the physical Google I/O event,” a company spokesperson told CNN Business. Google is currently weighing other options to engage with its developer audience.

People who have already purchased tickets for the conference will receive a full refund by March 13 and will not have to re-register to buy a ticket for I/O 2021, Google (GOOGL) said on the conference website.
The annual developer event is the latest in a rapidly growing list of tech events that have been shelved because of the coronavirus, which has killed more than 3,100 people around the world, including nine in the United States.

Facebook canceled two conferences in recent weeks, including its big annual event, F8, weeks after the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona was also canceled. Companies like Microsoft (MSFT) and Apple (AAPL) have said the virus could result in a hit to their sales.