World

Sri Lanka's creditors face losing a third to half of their investment in the country's dollar bonds, after the government announced it would restructure $11 billion worth of debt, the first such financial shake-up in its modern history. Formal debt talks haven't started but analysts are already crunching the numbers to estimate what kind of haircuts could be inflicted on bondholders. Mired in economic crisis, Sri Lanka has halted all external debt payments and is prioritising its remaining hard currency reserves to buy food and fuel.. The country of 22 million has been hit by nationwide street protests and shortages of everything from power to medicines, and its dollar bonds trade at deeply distressed levels of around 40 cents in the dollar. With markets factoring in an International M...

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will visit five nations in Southeast Asia and Europe over the Golden Week holidays for talks with their leaders as he seeks to confirm cooperation with the countries in the face of Russia's war in Ukraine, the government said Thursday. During his eight-day trip from Friday, Kishida is expected to discuss the response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine with the leaders of Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Italy and Britain. He will also look to strengthen cooperation to advance a "Free and Open Indo-Pacific" as China continues its maritime expansion in the region. "We will confirm cooperation in responding to regional and global issues, including the situations in Ukraine, the East and South China seas, North Korea and Myanmar," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu ...

By far the biggest news in sumo this month has been a student at Japan’s most prestigious university entering the pro ranks. Hotaka Suyama became the first ever ōzumo rikishi to hail from the University of Tokyo when he took the new entrant examination on April 15 and joined Kise stable. While that particular school may have been unusual in this case, another collegiate wrestler joining the professional ranks is just part of a long-term change that has been taking place in Japan’s national sport over the past half century. In March 1972, there was a total of three wrestlers with a university background on the banzuke rankings, with two of them in the top-flight makuuchi. Ten years later, that number had grown to eight and three, respectively, and by 1992 it stood at 15 men in total, wit...

The first all-private team of astronauts ever launched to the International Space Station (ISS) arrived safely at the orbiting research platform on Saturday (Apr 9) to begin a week-long science mission hailed as a milestone in commercial spaceflight. The rendezvous came about 21 hours after the four-man team representing Houston-based startup company Axiom Space Inc lifted off on Friday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, riding atop a SpaceX-launched Falcon 9 rocket. The Crew Dragon capsule lofted to orbit by the rocket docked with the ISS at about 8.30am EDT (1230 GMT) on Saturday as the two space vehicles were flying roughly 250 miles (420km) above the central Atlantic Ocean, a live NASA webcast of the coupling showed. The final approach was delayed by a technical glitch that disrupted...

KATHMANDU: Nepal is putting a 21st-century spin on a tourism sector dominated by activities unchanged for generations as it looks to boost a vital part of an economy decimated by the COVID-19 pandemic and soaring import bills. As part of broader plans to lure more tourists to the home of eight of the world's 14 highest peaks, authorities are promoting bungee jumping, paragliding and sky diving on top of traditional trekking and climbing, said Taranath Adhikari, director general at the Department of Tourism. "We are adding new tourism infrastructure and investment in hotels is (also) rising," he told Reuters in the capital Kathmandu. The country has additionally called on its envoys to promote tourism, promised to ease visa rules and urged China to allow more people to visit despite COVI...

Japan is keeping a close eye on China’s behavior concerning Pacific island nations, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Saturday after meeting with his Tuvalu counterpart. The recent signing of a security agreement between China and the Solomon Islands has sparked regional concerns about Beijing’s outreach, as the agreement reportedly enables Chinese troops to be deployed to the Pacific nation. “We exchanged views on recent developments concerning China in the Pacific island region,” Kishida told reporters in Kumamoto Prefecture, without giving further details. “We are closely following what China does in the Pacific island region with interest,” he said. The United States has warned the Solomon Islands against any possible moves toward inviting a Chinese military presence while other na...

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s increasing authoritarianism have belatedly awakened much of the world to the failure of a geopolitical wager made by the United States and its allies a generation ago. Their necessary response to today’s grim new realities reflects the cost of losing that bet, and it will change everything from security alliances, military budgets and international trade to financial flows and environmental and energy policies. The bet Western countries made in the 1990s was that integrating Russia and China into the international community through trade and commerce would hasten domestic political, as well as economic, reforms. Nobody expected either country to turn into a capitalist democracy overnight. But it was...

SINGAPORE: A man was fined S$42,000 on Friday (Apr 8) for possessing more than 4,200 obscene videos and photos. Wong Ming Jun, also known as Andy Wong, 28, had pleaded guilty to three charges of possessing obscene materials, with another eight similar charges considered for sentencing. Wong was the author of an opinion piece in Nikkei Asia that criticised the Government's handling of KTV lounges amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The piece was published in July last year, at the height of the infections linked to KTV lounges around the country. It drew a point-by-point rebuttal from the Ministry of Home Affairs, which called it "full of inaccuracies". Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam questioned Wong's motive at the time, saying: "We are left to wonder if the criminal investigation ag...

In a world where business needs are evolving at a blistering pace, technology needs to keep up. And as workforces remain distributed while applications and systems become increasingly data-hungry, the toll on an organisation’s IT infrastructure can be punishing. Instead of focusing on strategic projects, companies end up spending resources on maintaining and upgrading enterprise storage systems. To empower businesses of various sizes, Hitachi Vantara offers a comprehensive line of VSP (virtual storage platform) models at multiple price points, speeds and scale. With advanced storage virtualisation capabilities, businesses can maximise the value from existing infrastructure without needing to implement costly and time-consuming replacements. “Being data-driven is the new competitive DNA o...

E. Jean Carroll visits 'Tell Me Everything' with John Fugelsang in the SiriusXM Studios on July 11, 2019 in New York. Lawyers for ex-President Donald Trump and the writer E. Jean Carroll have agreed to resume a process for exchanging evidence and taking witness testimony under oath for her lawsuit accusing Trump of defaming her after she said he raped her in the 1990s, a court filing revealed. The agreement sets the stage for the possible testing of a DNA sample from Trump. Carroll's lawyers want to compare his DNA to a stain containing male DNA that is on a dress that she has said she saved from the day of the alleged attack. Trump denies raping Carrol. There has been no court ruling so far on whether he will have to provide a DNA sample. But Thursday's court filing, which says both s...