World

The logo of Sanofi is seen at the company's research and production centre in Vitry-sur-Seine, France, August 6, 2019. French drugmaker Sanofi and its British partner GlaxoSmithKline are seeking regulatory approval for their Covid-19 vaccine to be used as a booster, as well as a standalone two-dose shot, after several setbacks. The companies said on Wednesday they intended to submit data to regulators from a late-stage trial of the vaccine, and another testing it as a booster, with full results for both studies expected to be published "later this year." Sanofi is hoping for a comeback after falling behind in the race for Covid-19 shots, while GSK, the world's biggest vaccine maker by sales, has not developed its own candidate and is instead supplying its adjuvant technology to develope...

BEIJING : China's state planner has told some iron ore traders to release excessive inventory and reduce stocks to reasonable levels, following a joint investigation with the market regulator in Qingdao, one of the country's biggest iron ore ports. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in a statement on Thursday that it and the State Administration of Market Regulation (SAMR) have learned of changes of iron ore inventory in Qingdao Port and retrieved a list of companies with rapid growth in their stockpiles. The authorities held a symposium and requested some iron ore trading firms to provide their recent inventory information, when they bought and sold the products, and other details including quantity and price. They also urged the traders to help verify if there ...

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note dropped more than 10 basis points to around 1.73%. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond fell 7 basis points to roughly 2.15%. Yields move inversely to prices and 1 basis point is equal to 0.01%. Treasury yields slumped on Friday as investors continued to buy safe-haven assets amid Russia-Ukraine conflict. The decline in yields came even after a strong jobs report. Nonfarm payrolls for January grew by 678,000 and the unemployment rate was 3.8%, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. That compared to estimates of 440,000 for payrolls and 3.9% for the jobless rate. Meanwhile, wages barely rose for the month, up just 1 cent an hour or 0.03%, compared to estimates for a 0.5% gain. The year-over-year increase was 5...

SINGAPORE: Underage and proxy gambling will be an offence, while more people will be prohibited from gambling under tighter safeguards proposed in a Bill introduced in Parliament on Monday (Feb 14). The Gambling Control Bill proposes to increase penalties for unlawful gambling both physically and online, and impose stiffer penalties for repeat offenders who facilitate or operate unlawful gambling services. The wide-ranging draft law will also define and exempt social gambling, and introduce licensing for key gambling products as well as class licensing regimes for lower-risk gambling products like online games with gambling elements. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said in a press release on Monday that the Bill will help gambling regulations keep pace with the evolving landscape, as...

Taiwan is nervous that Beijing may take advantage of a distracted West to ramp up pressure on the island amid the crisis in Ukraine, but there have been no unusual maneuvers by Chinese forces in recent days, officials in Taipei say. The government, always on alert to what they view as Chinese provocations, last month set up a Ukraine working group under the National Security Council. China views Taiwan as its own territory and has stepped up military activity near the self-governing island during the past two years. President Tsai Ing-wen told a meeting of the working group on Wednesday that Taiwan must increase its surveillance and alertness on military activities in the region and tackle foreign misinformation, though she did not directly mention China. Although Taiwan’s government sa...

Valuations of Asian equities touched a 23-month low at the end of February, as geopolitical uncertainty surrounding Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the prospect of policy tightening by the U.S. Federal Reserve this year weighed on stock markets. The cheaper valuations, however, cushion regional stock prices amid a turmoil in global equity markets, analysts said. The MSCI Asia-Pacific index's forward 12-month P/E ratio stood at 13.12 at end-February, the lowest since the onset of the pandemic, against the MSCI World index's P/E of 16.49, Refinitiv data showed. Graphic: MSCI Asia-Pacific and World index's PE: https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/akpezxowdvr/MSCIper cent20Asia-Pacificper cent20andper cent20Worldper cent20index'sper cent20PE.jpg "That (low valuations) provides some s...

SINGAPORE: A flight attendant was sentenced on Monday (Mar 7) to five weeks' jail for molesting a female colleague during a flight from Singapore to the Philippines in 2019. The 50-year-old man was convicted in January of outraging the modesty of a flight stewardess. He slapped her buttock on May 3, 2019, when walking past her on the plane and when she was attending to a passenger. Details of the airline and names of involved parties were redacted from court documents, and a gag order is in place to protect the identity of the victim. During the trial, the accused denied touching or slapping the victim's buttock, claiming to have only "tapped" the victim's "right side of the pelvic" when he saw that she was leaning against the seat, and that her buttocks were "protruding" into the aisle...

On Saturday afternoon, the prime minister gave a speech at a programme to commemorate the “Malaysian Family Aspirations Tour”, an event for government agencies to engage and resolve issues at the state level across the country. The event on Saturday was the first time the programme was held outside of Kuala Lumpur. GOVERNMENT HAS HELPED JOHOREANS IMPACTED BY COVID-19, FLOODS In his speech, Mr Ismail Sabri outlined several initiatives which the federal government has put in place for Johoreans. He stressed that the federal government’s efforts to implement the land and air vaccinated travel lane (VTL) scheme with Singapore was to reunite family members who had been separated as a result of border closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The VTL was also implemented to boost Johor’s econo...

Russian airlines were barred from flying through more countries in Europe, shutting off carriers such as Aeroflot from the shortest routes heading west. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovenia prohibited Russian planes from landing or overflying their airspace on Saturday. They joined Poland, Bulgaria, Moldova, the Czech Republic and the U.K., which had already issued similar declarations in the wake of Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine. Together with a no-fly zone in and around the area of conflict, Saturday’s moves wall off Russian carriers, forcing them to head north toward Finland or south as far as Turkey to get to countries such as France or the Netherlands. Russia retaliated, cutting off its airspace to Romanian, Polish, Czech and Bulgarian operators, adding to the list of ai...

PHNOM PENH: The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will continue to take a “principled position” with regards to the situation in Myanmar, said Singapore Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan on Thursday (Feb 17). However, member states are determined not to allow the issue to "hijack" the ASEAN agenda, he added. Speaking to reporters during a virtual media doorstop, Dr Balakrishnan said whilst ASEAN will not interfere, it will not give legitimacy to the actions which the military have taken and are inflicting on the people of Myanmar. He noted that there will be “administrative wrinkles” such as how the regional bloc will interpret international agreements that ASEAN is party to, who gets to sign on behalf of Myanmar, and whether Myanmar will be able to enjoy the ben...