Sunday, 13 Jul 2025

Asia

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Europe shares buoyed by improved U.S.-China trade hopes

(Reuters) – European shares rose on Wednesday from the previous session’s more than one-month closing low on positive sentiment underpinned by easing fears over the path ahead for U.S.-China trade ties and strong results from some German firms. Resolute earnings from Siemens and Wirecard aided sentiment, while the White House said China has indicated it […]

U.S. crude stocks off 4 million barrels as imports fall

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. crude stocks fell surprisingly last week even as refineries cut output, as imports dropped, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. Crude inventories fell by 4 million barrels in the week to May 3, compared with analysts’ expectations for an increase of 1.2 million barrels. Net U.S. crude imports fell […]

North Korea says recent rocket drill was 'regular and self-defensive'

SEOUL (REUTERS) – Last week’s “strike drill” in which North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the launch of rockets and at least one short-range ballistic missile was “regular and self-defensive”, the North’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday (May 8), according to state media. “The recent drill conducted by our army is nothing more than […]

Malaysia's new government slow on reforms, rights groups say

KUALA LUMPUR (REUTERS) – Malaysia’s new government has failed to deliver on most of its human rights reform promises in its first year in power, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said on Wednesday (May 8). Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s coalition won a stunning election victory in May 2018, ending more than 60 years of […]

Acquitted of blasphemy and living in fear

Saima – not her real name- still hasn’t recovered from her four years in solitary confinement in a small Pakistani prison cell. “Even now I feel like I am in jail. You can see the scars on my legs from when I was chained.” Saima was sentenced to life imprisonment for having committed blasphemy, before […]

Taliban Attack Office of U.S.-Funded Aid Group in Afghanistan

An explosion outside the compound of an American-run contractor rocked Kabul on Wednesday, sending up a plume of black smoke amid the sounds of gunfire as the police battled attackers said to have detonated at least one suicide bomb. Both the Taliban and the Afghan Ministry of Interior said the attack had targeted Counterpart International, […]

World shares near five-week low before make-or-break trade talks

LONDON (Reuters) – World shares held near five-week lows on Wednesday as renewed trade tensions and fears for the global economy drove investors into the safety of bonds and the Japanese yen, with the latter rising to a six-week high against the dollar. European shares inched higher in an effort to shake off the gloom […]

A Trump Bump for Hong Kong’s Last Commercial Cantonese Opera Theater

HONG KONG — Three stories of billboards alongside the Sunbeam Theater in Hong Kong were filled with images of performers in heavily painted faces and ornate headdresses. But one, with an overly long red tie and a cloud of shiny yellow hair, was not like the others. You may have seen him before — on […]

Fund firm GAM excludes sacked fund manager from AGM

ZURICH (Reuters) – GAM Holding AG blocked the attendance of a sacked fund manager, whose suspension for suspected due diligence failings last year prompted a collapse in the Swiss-based fund manager’s share price, to its annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday. Tim Haywood said he had purchased shares in March or April and that GAM had […]