BANGKOK A United States aircraft carrier strike group has begun patrols in the South China Sea amid growing tension with China over control of the disputed waterway and concerns it could become a flashpoint under the new U.S. administration. China’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday warned Washington against challenging its sovereignty in the South China Sea. The U.S. navy said the force, including Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl […]
China has banned coal imports from North Korea until the end of 2017, the Ministry of Commerce said on Saturday, after a week in which Pyongyang tested an intermediate-range ballistic missile and carried out an assassination in Malaysia. Kim Jong Nam the brother of North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un, was killed by two female assailants in the Kuala Lumpur airport on Monday. He had been living […]
Emerging market equity funds attracted the most money from investors in six months, as resilience in commodity prices and signs of improvement across the world’s major economies sharpened investors’ appetite. The EM funds secured $2.7bn this week, with exchange traded funds pulling in $1.8bn of the total, according to data from EPFR. Interest in EM equities was mirrored by bond investors, who handed EM debt funds $1.3bn. […]
By Michelle Price / ReutersHONG KONG — Hong Kong is beefing up its anti-money laundering and corporate disclosure laws in a move that some financial crime specialists say could lead to the exodus of billions of dollars in assets from the territory as people seek to avoid increased scrutiny. The Chinese territory’s government has been rattled by last year’s Panama Papers scandal, which showed that Hong Kong […]
A remarkable 250 million-year-old “terrible-headed lizard” fossil found in China shows an embryo inside the mother — clear evidence for live birth. Head of The University of Queensland’s School of Earth and Environmental Sciences and co-author Professor Jonathan Aitchison said the fossil unexpectedly provided the first evidence for live birth in an animal group previously thought to exclusively lay eggs. “Live birth is well known in mammals, […]
By Emily Chow and Liz Lee | KUALA LUMPUR KUALA LUMPUR Malaysian police said on Saturday they had arrested a North Korean man in connection with the murder of the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as a diplomatic spat over his body escalated. Kim Jong Nam died this week after being assaulted at Kuala Lumpur International Airport with what was thought to be […]
In an isolated area of Ecuador’s Amazon, the face of Lenín Moreno, the anointed successor of fiery leftist President Rafael Correa in Sunday’s presidential election, is plastered on billboards proclaiming “the future is unstoppable”. That future worries Mercedes Cabrera, a peasant leader in the village of Santiago de Panantza. She says she was snatched from her bed by state security forces and branded a terrorist after a policeman […]
SHANGHAI China will suspend all imports of coal from North Korea starting Feb. 19, the country’s commerce ministry said in a notice posted on its website on Saturday, as part of its efforts to implement United Nations sanctions against the country. The Ministry of Commerce said in a short statement that the ban would be effective until Dec. 31. The ministry did not say why all shipments […]
BEIJING China has told Japan that “negative” moves by Tokyo on major issues are preventing an improvement in bilateral ties, but there are now opportunities to improve China-Japan relations. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida during a meeting in Germany that both countries should make efforts to bring bilateral ties back onto the right track. “There are now both opportunities and challenges […]
Current economic conditions around the world provide a good foundation for growth. But unprecedented levels of market uncertainty mean that organizations have to be ready to change strategy faster than ever before. Growth around the world In the US, President Donald Trump has inherited an economy with strong fundamentals: low inflation, and the lowest unemployment rate since 2007. He has promised a pro-business economic agenda with lower […]
BEIJING A blast at a refinery in China’s northern city of Songyuan killed three maintenance workers, the municipal government of Songyuan said. A tank exploded at the Songyuan Petroleum and Chemical Corp’s gasoline hydrotreating unit on Friday morning, the government said in statement on its website. It was not immediately known if the unit with 400,000 tonnes capacity was shut after the accident. (Reporting by Meng Meng […]
The Australian government has announced the signing of a treaty-level Science, Research, and Innovation Cooperation Agreement with the New Zealand government. As part of the agreement, Australia and New Zealand will work together to tackle chronic disease, advance general health care, and improve the accuracy and availability of GPS signals, said recently appointed Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Senator Arthur Sinodinos. “This is the first treaty […]
There was predictable consternation in Beijing and among foreign policy experts in Washington. They fretted that Mr. Trump was recklessly undoing the landmark China diplomacy of Richard M. Nixon and Mao Zedong — fears that were misplaced, it turned out. Continue reading the main story Last week, Mr. Trump telephoned President Xi Jinping and promised to abide by “one China,” having discovered that Mr. Xi was not […]
Friday 04.40 GMT Overview Market volatility dissipated in Asia trade on Friday as the dollar’s downward momentum eased and US Treasuries steadied, but equities in the region were led lower by heavyweights including Toshiba and Samsung. Hot topic Shares in Japan’s Toshiba dropped as much as 12.2 per cent, bringing the company’s market capitalisation nearly 25 per cent lower for the week with a cumulative loss of […]
SHANGHAI A court in Shanghai jailed a man for eight years on Friday after he set off an explosive device last year at the city’s Pudong International Airport, injuring at least three travellers and delaying flights. In a brief statement, the court said that Zhou Xingbo set off the device because his “life was not smooth” and so he took extreme measures to “vent his spleen”, injuring […]
SHANGHAI China’s Juneyao Airlines (603885.SS) has finalised a $1.32 billion order for five Boeing (BA.N) 787-9 dreamliners, part of a plan for new routes to North America, Europe and Australia over the next four years. The order represents the airline’s first Boeing order and its first for widebody aircraft, the companies said in a statement issued late on Thursday. Juneyao said last month was planning on five […]
For a coking coal industry that enjoyed bumper profits last year off the back of a price rally that made it 2016’s best performing big commodity, Teck Resources’s chief executive summed up the industry’s uneasy reliance on policymakers in Beijing. “I think on Chinese policy, we could go around the table and everyone would have a different opinion on that one,” Don Lindsay told analysts after reporting […]
The Premier League’s most high-profile referee Mark Clattenburg is quitting to take up a position in Saudi Arabia, the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) said on Thursday. “The PGMOL would like to wish Mark Clattenburg well as he prepares for his move to the Saudi Arabian Football Federation,” it said in a statement. British media reported that Clattenburg will replace Howard Webb, another former Premier League […]
Ten years ago Vladimir Putin angrily declared that the post-cold war order was a sham. Standing before the western military and diplomatic establishment at the Munich Security Conference, the Russian president accused the US of plunging the world into chaos by warmongering, meddling in other countries’ affairs and disregarding international law. For many, it marked the moment that Mr Putin became an adversary. Now, as foreign policy […]
It is not just equities that are rebounding this month. The dollar is up almost 2 per cent against a basket of its peers as it resumes an upward path that most in the foreign exchange market believe is the natural consequence of the economic policies Donald Trump has vowed to deliver. Given the US president has suggested he prefers a weaker dollar, its fresh strength has […]
BEIJING The rate at which human cases of bird flu are being reported in China is declining, health authorities said on Thursday, vowing to stiffen controls on markets and transport of live poultry to battle the spread of the virus. Eight new human infections of the H7N9 avian flu were reported between Feb. 12 and Feb. 14, indicating the rate of new cases had clearly declined compared […]
Last month Beijing’s ambassador in Pyongyang held a Chinese new year reception for more than 70 senior North Korean officials. According to Chinese news reports, the ambassador’s guests lauded “the blood alliance and friendship between both countries”. On Sunday, just three weeks later, Kim Jong Un would severely test the patience of his Chinese “friends” with a ballistic missile test. Then came the murder in Malaysia on […]
Mr. Trump’s position on a two-state solution discarded a policy that has underpinned America’s role in Middle East peacemaking since the Clinton administration and raised a host of thorny questions. Continue reading the main story The Palestinians are highly unlikely to accept anything short of a sovereign state, and a single Israeli state encompassing the Palestinians would either leave them as second-class citizens or would no longer […]
China ended a six-month streak disposing of its US Treasury holdings in December, adding to its position for the first time since last May as the country’s central bank seeks to manage capital flight. The country, which ceded its status as the world’s largest owner of haven Treasuries in October to Japan, added $9.1bn of US sovereign debt to its reserves in the final month of 2016, […]
