Whale meat in Japan has been sold at auction for sky-high prices following the first commercial hunt since a ban was lifted. Meat cut-offs from two minkes sold for up to 15,000 yen ($140; £110). Japan left the International Whaling Commission (IWC) on 30 June to resume hunting and argues it can be done sustainably. […]
Malaysia’s former Prime Minister Najib Razak has gone on trial for his role in a financial scandal that has sent shockwaves around the world. He faces seven charges in the first of several criminal cases accusing him of pocketing $681m (£522m) from the sovereign wealth fund 1MDB. Mr Najib pleaded not guilty to all the […]
LONDON (Reuters) – The euro was stuck near two-week lows on Thursday and the dollar drifted away from recent highs as sliding government bond yields pressured both currencies. The global bond rally has accelerated this week on expectations of more monetary easing from central banks, although the impact on foreign exchange markets has been limited, […]
JAKARTA – Now that Mr Joko Widodo’s resounding win at Indonesia’s presidential polls in April is official, all eyes are on who he will pick to fill his Cabinet and how bold he will be with his choices. Mr Joko, known popularly as Jokowi, has promised to reform government so that his ambitious infrastructure and […]
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Argentina, fresh from striking a free-trade deal with the European Union, is now discussing another possible deal with the United States, President Mauricio Macri said on Thursday. The center-right president, speaking at an industry event, said that Argentina and Latin American neighbor Brazil were talking about the free-trade deal with the […]
Hong Kong is at the centre of a diplomatic row between the UK and China. The UK has shown support for pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, a former colony. It says the “one country, two systems” approach – giving Hong Kong citizens different rights and laws to those on the Chinese mainland – must continue. […]
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (NYTIMES) – Under pressure from the United States and a global watchdog group, Pakistan is prosecuting the founder of the Islamist terrorist group that carried out the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks on charges of terrorism financing, along with several of his close aides. Officials said 23 cases had been registered against the man, […]
An Indian woman has been reunited with her husband, who had been missing for three years, after she spotted him on the TikTok app. Police said that the man had fled in 2016 and since then had been in a relationship with a transgender woman. A relative of the wife had first spotted him in […]
When Australian student Alek Sigley went missing in North Korea last week, Canberra turned to a country more than 15,000km (9,320 miles) away for help. The Scandinavian nation of Sweden has a long history of acting as diplomatic intermediary in the isolated dictatorship – a so-called “protecting power” for several Western nations. On Thursday, it […]
SINGAPORE – Days after he was arrested for murdering his pregnant wife and four-year-old daughter, a former property agent told a hospital psychiatrist that he had “no regrets”. His only regret, said Teo Ghim Heng, was that he had to take the life of his innocent young daughter. He also insisted that he would die, […]