BEIJING A Chinese general is being investigated for suspected bribery, the defence ministry said on Thursday, a man connected to the jailed former domestic security chief and one of the most senior incumbent military officials to be targeted for graft. Military prosecutors had already opened a case into Wang Jianping, a deputy chief of the joint staff department under the powerful Central Military Commission, ministry spokesman Yang […]
Shares in Toshiba fell 17 per cent to ¥257 on Thursday, taking the total loss of equity value to more than 40 per cent since the Japanese company announced that it was facing a multibillion-dollar writedown at its US nuclear division Westinghouse. As investors continued to digest Tuesday’s warning, shares in some of Japan’s biggest banks slid after the electronics-to-nuclear conglomerate raised the prospect of losses on their […]
On the other were Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Trump, firing back at what they deemed a hypocritical betrayal of America’s closest friend in the Middle East. Continue reading the main story If Mr. Obama and Mr. Kerry were playing for history, Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Trump were playing for time. The departing administration intended for the speech to lay out a path to peace that they had […]
ISTANBUL Prominent Turkish journalist Ahmet Sik on Thursday said he was being detained by authorities over a Twitter statement he made while an opposition lawmaker who spoke to him said the reporter was being accused of terrorist propaganda. At least 81 journalists are imprisoned in Turkey, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), with more than 130 media outlets shut since a failed coup […]
SHANGHAI China’s environment ministry on Thursday warned northern regions to get ready for emergency action to tackle another bout of heavy smog expected over the New Year. Large parts of the north were hit by hazardous smog in mid-December, and authorities ordered hundreds of factories to close and restricted motorists to cut emissions. “Unfavorable weather” was expected to bring more smog to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, as well […]
Saudi Arabia has announced a timeline for implementation of a tax on harmful products including soft drinks and cigarettes, and said it has completely ruled out income tax contrary to previous reports, according to an official document. The Fiscal Balance Program 2020 report, published by the Saudi government last week, said the kingdom would impose a 50 percent tax on soft drinks and a 100 percent tax […]
MANILA Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened corrupt government officials with the prospect of being thrown out of a helicopter mid-air, warning he has done it himself before and had no qualms about doing it again. The fiery-tempered former prosecutor said he once hurled a Chinese man suspected of rape and murder out of a helicopter. “If you are corrupt, I will fetch you using a helicopter […]
This year has been tough-going in more ways than one and, by most accounts, Singapore’s economy is expected to be heading for rougher seas in 2017. According to a survey by the Singapore Business Federation, 63 percent of local companies said the economic climate worsened in 2016 and 48 percent believed the downward spiral would continue in the new year. The Monetary Authority of Singapore also warned […]
BEIJING Attackers drove a car into a government building in China’s unruly far western region of Xinjiang on Wednesday and set off an explosive device killing one person, while all four of the attackers were shot dead, the regional government said. Hundreds of people have been killed in recent years in resource-rich Xinjiang, on the borders of central Asia, in violence between the Muslim Uighur people who […]
ABU DHABI // Five hundred taxis at Dubai airport will soon be equipped with free WiFi. Telecoms firm du has signed an agreement with Dubai Taxi Corporation of the Roads and Transport Authority to provide passengers with free internet and smart screens in the airport cab fleet. “Our cooperation with du to provide internet and smart screens across our Dubai Airport fleet embodies the Smart Dubai strategy […]
For France, 2016 ends as it began, with the nation under a state of emergency following terrorist outrages and in anticipation of more to come. The warnings of French leaders of potential further attacks have come gloomily true. Even last month, as the French centre-right party Les Républicains was choosing the Thatcherite Francois Fillon as its candidate in the presidential elections, ISIL was attempting to inflict further […]
Two years ago, James Garstang, a brewer at the Kernel Brewery, one of London’s most popular microbreweries, was approached by a friend about an opportunity abroad. “He said: ‘If you are interested in some karma and curry, then I have a potential job for you,’” Mr Garstang recalls. Less than a month later, the Londoner was living and working in Gwalior, a midsized city in India five […]
Israel is clearly now on a path toward absorbing the West Bank’s 2.8 million Palestinians. There are already 1.7 million Arabs living in Israel, so putting these two Arab populations together would constitute a significant minority with a higher birthrate than that of Israeli Jews — who number 6.3 million — posing a demographic and democratic challenge. Continue reading the main story I greatly sympathize with Israel’s […]
TAIPEI Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen will pass through the United States when she visits Latin America next month, the foreign ministry said Thursday, a move bound to infuriate China which had urged the United States to block a transit stopover. China is deeply suspicious of Tsai, who it thinks wants to push for the formal independence of Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing regards as a renegade […]
On December 31, 2016, a “leap second” will be added to the world’s clocks at 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). This corresponds to 6:59:59 pm Eastern Standard Time, when the extra second will be inserted at the U.S. Naval Observatory’s Master Clock Facility in Washington, DC. (via WSJ)
TOKYO The president of Dentsu Inc, Japan’s largest advertising agency, will step down over the “death by overwork” of a young employee, a suicide which has prompted official probes and fresh hand-wringing over Japan’s overtime culture. Matsuri Takahashi, a promising graduate of Japan’s top university, leapt to her death in December 2015, leaving behind a trail of grievances over relentless days. She clocked 105 hours of overtime […]
Chinese technology giant Tencent, along with Beijing-based mapping company NavInfo and Singapore state-owned investment firm GIC, announced this week the trio intended to jointly take up a 10 percent share of mapping company Here, with current owners Audi, BMW, and Daimler reducing their indirect holding by the same amount. As well as the share purchase, the companies announced the creation of a 50/50 joint venture between Here […]
By Nobuhiro Kubo | TOKYO TOKYO Japan’s defence minister visited a controversial shrine to Japan’s war dead on Thursday, just after accompanying Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on a historic visit to Pearl Harbor, where Japan’s attack brought the United States into World War Two. Television footage showed a smiling Tomomi Inada in a black jacket and skirt arriving at Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, which honours Japanese who lost […]
KINSHASA A court in Democratic Republic of Congo sentenced a political opposition leader to five years in prison on Wednesday, a human rights advocate said, a judgment that risks imperiling multi-party talks meant to organise a presidential election next year. The court found Franck Diongo, president of the opposition MLP party, guilty of illegally detaining three soldiers during violent protests last week in the capital Kinshasa that […]
If there is one thing that unites Middle Eastern leaders these days, it is concern over what Donald Trump might do in 2017. A true political outsider, Trump will arrive in the White House next month with no track record and no political markers that might give an indication. The list of policy problems is certainly long, yet his list of policy ideas, as mooted during his […]
Some of the biggest law firms on Wall Street are scrambling to shore up their defences against cyber attacks, in the wake of a raid by Chinese hackers which led to millions of dollars of profits from insider trading. Preet Bharara, US attorney for the southern district of New York, this week charged three individuals who he said infiltrated law firms over a period of about 18 […]
The way the Huskies’ schedule shapes up after Maryland, the Terrapins might be last in line with a serious chance to prevent a shattering of the record that even Auriemma did not believe to be achievable after Connecticut lost three players to the top three selections in last spring’s W.N.B.A. draft. Continue reading the main story But here they are, 11-0 through a formidable schedule that included […]
LONDON European Union voters in France, Germany, Italy and Greece think their countries are heading in the wrong direction but there is not yet any Europe-wide inclination to follow Britain towards exiting the bloc, according to a poll published on Thursday. Britain’s shock June 23 Brexit vote, which was praised at the time by then U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump as a “miracle”, has raised questions about […]
By Richard Cowan | PALM BEACH, Fla. PALM BEACH, Fla. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday said telecommunications group Sprint Corp (S.N) and a U.S. satellite company OneWeb will be bringing 8,000 jobs to the United States, celebrating the moves as a result of optimism associated with his election. It was unclear how the 8,000 jobs are related to a $50 billion investment announced in December by […]
