World

While Japan and China mark the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic ties this year, military tensions between the two countries are rising at a time when both are becoming more economically interdependent. Such a situation is making it difficult for the two nations to manage bilateral relations comprehensively, making their future uncertain. The main factor behind the increasing military tensions between them is Beijing’s military expansion that has been ongoing for more than three decades. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which has had a monopoly on power in the country for more than 70 years, has invested a huge amount of money since the 1990s in the massive overhaul of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), expanding its activities to the East China Sea, the South China...

Credit Suisse bank, still reeling from losing billions of dollars last year, faced a fresh challenge Sunday amid allegations from an international investigation that it had handled dirty money for decades. A cross-border media investigation claims Switzerland's second-largest bank had held tens of billions of dollars of ill-gotten funds, based on a massive data leak by an insider. Credit Suisse rejected the "allegations and insinuations" in a statement the same day, saying that many of the issues raised were historical — some dating back as far as the 1940s. The investigation, coordinated by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), unites 47 different media outlets worldwide including France's Le Monde and The Guardian in the U.K. This latest project, dubbed "Swiss...

SHANGHAI: China's central bank kept some of its policy rates unchanged in a liquidity operation on Tuesday (Mar 15), dashing expectations for a cut, although investors believe policymakers may resume monetary easing soon to prop up the cooling economy. The surprise decision comes a day before the US Federal Reserve is expected to deliver its first interest rate hike in three years and analysts say Beijing may want to avoid widening policy divergence for the time being. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) said it would keep the rate on 200 billion yuan (US$31.44 billion) worth of one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) loans to some financial institutions unchanged at 2.85 per cent from the previous operation. The operation resulted in a net injection of 100 billion yuan in fresh funds...

WASHINGTON: The Biden administration has formally determined that violence committed against the Rohingya minority by Myanmar's military amounts to genocide and crimes against humanity, US officials told Reuters, a move that advocates say should bolster efforts to hold the junta that now runs Myanmar accountable. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will announce the decision on Monday (Mar 21) at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, US officials said, which currently features an exhibit on the plight of the Rohingya. It comes nearly 14 months after he took office and pledged to conduct a new review of the violence. Myanmar's armed forces launched a military operation in 2017 that forced at least 730,000 of the mainly Muslim Rohingya from their homes and into neighbouring Banglad...

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his Cambodian counterpart, Hun Sen, urged Russia on Sunday to immediately end the war in Ukraine and withdraw its forces from the country, condemning the aggression as "a grave breach of the United Nations Charter." In a joint statement issued after their meeting in Phnom Penh, the leaders also called for the immediate cessation of violence in coup-hit Myanmar and demanded that the junta release ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other detainees and restore the democratic political system. Kishida and Hun Sen "recognized that this aggression jeopardizes the foundation of international order which does not accept any unilateral change of the internationally recognized borders by force," according to the statement, although it did not single out Ru...

A customer picks up a package of Impossible Burger plant based meat during the Impossible Foods Inc. grocery store product launch at Gelson's Markets in Los Angeles, California, U.S., on Friday, Sept. 20, 2019. Impossible Foods is suing Motif FoodWorks for patent infringement, claiming that the start-up's beef alternative that uses heme technology that too closely imitates its own version. Both companies are privately owned, although Impossible is much larger, with a valuation of $9.5 billion. Impossible's beef and pork substitutes use soy leghemoglobin, which is produced from genetically modified yeast, to imitate the taste and aroma of real meat. Along with Beyond Meat, Impossible has helped rejuvenate the market for vegetarian burgers. Several other companies have jumped on the trend...

Select’s editorial team works independently to review financial products and write articles we think our readers will find useful. We earn a commission from affiliate partners on many offers, but not all offers on Select are from affiliate partners. Filing your tax return can be one of the most stressful tasks on your to-do list this time of year. A 2019 survey from TaxSlayer® found exactly that, with 61% of the respondents saying they felt stressed out during tax season. While tax time can certainly be anxiety-inducing, waiting until the last minute causes additional worrying you can avoid. With a month to go until the April 18 tax deadline, if you haven't already prepared your paperwork now's the time. In doing so, keep in mind of the below commonly made tax mistakes. 2022 makes for an ...

HERAT: In the middle of a bazaar in western Afghanistan, Arezo Akrimi took out her smartphone and, after a few taps of the screen, changed some cryptocurrency for a bundle of hard cash. Arezo, 19, is one of a hundred students in Herat who have been receiving around US$200 a month in cryptocurrency since last September thanks to the American non-governmental organisation Code to Inspire. This sum, which she converts at a bureau de change into afghanis, is crucial for her rent and to help feed her family of six. Since the Taliban returned last August, Afghanistan's economy has virtually collapsed, and the country is in the grip of a crisis caused by the seizure of billions of dollars of assets held abroad. But digital currencies and their decentralised architecture, impervious to interna...

HONG KONG : Vissel Kobe reached the group phase of the Asian Champions League on Tuesday when Brazilian striker Lincoln scored five minutes into extra time to earn the Japanese hosts a dramatic 4-3 playoff win over Melbourne Victory. Substitute Lincoln pounced on Yuya Osako's ball across the face of goal to take the J-League side into the next round where they will face Hong Kong's Kitchee, Shanghai Port from China and Thai side Chiangrai United in Group J. Kobe looked to be heading out of the competition when Nick D'Agostino scored his second of the game in the 71st minute. Andres Iniesta had opened the scoring with six minutes on the clock but D'Agostino bundled the ball over the line at a corner in the 12th minute to restore parity. The 24-year-old then finished off a rapid-fire bre...

SINGAPORE: You may have noticed recently that your grocery bills have gone up. Singapore's core inflation rate, which measures the average change in prices for things like food, electricity and gas, rose 2.4 per cent year-on-year in January – the highest increase in more than nine years. For food alone, the inflation rate that month was 2.6 per cent. But inflation figures only tell part of the story – how much exactly have the prices of your everyday groceries gone up? To find out, CNA compared the current prices of some essential goods from several supermarkets with that of a year ago. Avid bakers and egg lovers might have felt the pinch more than most – for fresh produce, eggs saw the biggest price increase. Checks by CNA showed that the price of a pack of 30 Pasar fresh eggs was S$...