LONDON (Reuters) – Safe-haven currencies such as the Japanese yen rose against the dollar on Wednesday as caution prevailed on the first trading day of the new year, amid growing concern about the U.S. government shutdown and spluttering global growth. In a quiet start to 2019, most other major currencies were little changed, but the […]
China sees Taiwan as a breakaway province that will eventually be part of the country again, but many Taiwanese want a separate nation. The dispute with China has left relations frayed and a constant threat of a violent flare up that could drag the US into the fray. What is the history and source of […]
BANGKOK (THE NATION/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) – Thailand faces two major challenges in 2019 – conducting a general election and chairing the Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean). Mishandling either task would invite serious damage to both the country and the wider region. Junta chief General Prayut Chan-o-cha has made a bad start in tackling the […]
LONDON (Reuters) – A year after new EU rules forced banks and brokers to charge investors for equity research, the pressure on small brokerages to make ends meet is becoming intense and more look set to merge or even shut up shop in 2019. According to dozens of executives at major hedge funds, asset managers, […]
SINGAPORE – A 52-year-old man carrying a bladed weapon was arrested in Boon Lay Drive on Tuesday (Jan 1) after a stand-off with the police. The police said they responded to a call for assistance at Block 191 Boon Lay Drive at 5.18pm. The man was arrested for possession of an offensive weapon and suspected […]
JAKARTA (REUTERS) – Indonesian rescue teams were searching for victims of a series of landslides that killed at least 15 people on New Year’s Day, officials said, after a year of natural disasters killed thousands. At least 20 people were missing after landslides during heavy rain buried 30 houses in Sukabumi regency, West Java. “Loose […]
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Factory activity weakened across Asia in December as the Sino-U.S. trade war and a slowdown in Chinese demand hit production in most economies, strengthening the case for a pause in interest rate hikes in the region in 2019. A series of purchasing managers’ indexes for December released on Wednesday mostly showed […]
Taiwan is often hit by earthquakes, but over the weekend it was shaken by a political one. In a series of local elections, the ruling pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which came to power in 2016 in a landslide victory, lost more than half the cities and counties it held and is left with only […]
SINGAPORE – A man targeted three young boys including a toddler in separate incidents last year, assaulting one of them and using criminal force on the others. Wang Kanglong admitted in court that he had inflicted pain on a five-year-old boy by grabbing his left shoulder. He also tried to carry a three-year-old toddler and […]
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, INDIA (AFP) – Two women on Wednesday (Jan 2) entered one of Hinduism’s holiest shrines in south India becoming the first to go into Sabarimala temple since the Supreme Court ordered the end of a longstanding ban on women aged between 10 and 50, a state chief minister said. The temple in Kerala state […]