The historic Raphael Hotel by the Country Club Plaza has been listed as one of the 500 best hotels in the world for the second consecutive year by readers of Travel + Leisure magazine.The 126-room hotel at 325 Ward Parkway also will be joining a new Marriott marketing program called the Autograph Collection in February. The Raphael will be among a small number of independent hotels in the program, which allows it to participate in the Marriott.com reservation service, Read more [...]

Update at 1355 hrs (IST) Global News / MarketsMore Chinese state-owned firms to be publicly listed BEIJING: The Shanghai municipal government will speed up the listing of state-owned enterprises to ensure greater transparency in the functioning of these entities, which together own assets worth about $191 billion. It is imperative to continue to press ahead with the work of helping qualified companies or their core businesses go public in the New Year, the head of the Organisation Department Read more [...]

Electric Dreams was a first-up winner at the corresponding New Year's Day meeting last season but her Randwick performance on Saturday holds much more significance.The speedy mare is targeting a first black-type success in the Listed Carrington Stakes (1100m) and trainer Joe Pride believes it is within reach for the daughter of Redoute's Choice."It's very important for her tomorrow," Pride said."Two other Listed races she has run in (June Stakes and Sheraco Stakes) she has run into some pretty Read more [...]

David Cameron asked that a majority of awards should go to those committed to serving their local communities. Photograph: Carl Court/AFP/Getty ImagesDavid Cameron has enlisted the New Year's honours for his "big society" campaign, instructing that awards should prioritise those committed to serving their local communities – though officials last night conceded that today's list contains the same proportion of local philanthropists as ever.The list includes Kathleen White, who has worked Read more [...]