World

Singapore’s desire to shift to renewable sources of energy is running up against its geographic limitations. It hasn’t got enough space for large solar installations, there are no major rivers for hydropower and what little breeze the tropical city-state gets isn’t sufficient to push a wind turbine. That’s forced the Southeast Asian financial and transport hub to rely on imports in its plans to transition away from fossil fuels. It’s a common strategy for small places — Hong Kong, Monaco and Bahrain are in a similar position — but it’s dependent on nearby countries being willing to export carbon-free power. For Singapore, its plan to bring in enough clean energy from overseas to meet 30% of its needs by 2035 has already hit a snag. Neighboring Malaysia banned renewable electricity sales ...

Olympic sponsor Airbnb has hundreds of listings in Xinjiang and Tibet, two regions where China stands accused of widespread human rights abuses and forced cultural assimilation, new research reveals. Beijing is hosting the Winter Games amid international alarm over rights violations against minority groups, particularly its mostly Muslim Uyghur population. Airbnb is one of the Olympics’ biggest backers with a reported $500 million sponsorship deal running until 2028. The online platform’s steady growth in China is partly driven by around 700 accommodation listings in the troubled far west, according to data compiled by the London-based nonprofit Free Tibet that was exclusively obtained and verified by AFP. They include about 380 listings in the northwestern Xinjiang region, where Beiji...

BENGALURU: Thailand's central bank will wait for at least a year before raising interest rates from record lows to support the tourism-dependent economy hit hard by coronavirus-related travel restrictions, a Reuters poll found. Economic growth in the Southeast Asian nation is yet to return to pre-pandemic levels and the recovery continues to be fragile due to an outbreak of the Omicron coronavirus variant that crippled the crucial tourism industry. Although inflation breached the Bank of Thailand's (BOT) target range of 1-3per cent in January, it was expected to fall back within that range in the coming months, giving the central bank the space to maintain an accommodative stance as long as necessary to revive growth. That comes despite multi-decade highs for inflation in many countries...

NEW DELHI :OPEC's share of Indian oil imports fell in 2021 to the lowest in more than a decade despite a 4per cent rebound in annual crude purchases by the world's third biggest oil importer, data obtained from industry sources showed. Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), mainly from the Middle East and Africa, saw their share of the pie in India shrinking to 70per cent in 2021, from a peak of 87per cent in 2008, a Reuters analysis of the data from 2007 to 2021 showed. India's crude imports rebounded 3.9per cent to 4.2 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2021, the data showed, but remained below pre-pandemic levels in 2019. Imports are expected to rise further this year as fuel demand is recovering, with the government resisting lockdowns despite surging...

HONG KONG : Hong Kong's market regulator has fined a Citigroup subsidiary HK$348.25 million ($45 million) for misconduct in its cash equities business and is launching disciplinary proceedings against some former senior managers at the bank. The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) said on Friday that some of Citigroup Global Markets Asia Limited's (CGMAL) trading desks had issued inaccurate "indications of interest" in stocks to generate client inquiries and had also made misrepresentations to customers when executing some trades. The SFC said senior CGMAL managers had attended a roundtable with the watchdog in 2014 during which it drew attention to common deficiencies found in the market, and that it had also issued a circular in 2018 providing further guidance. Despite both these ...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is moving to ban stock trading on Capitol Hill, after having consistently opposed such a measure, Punchbowl News reports, as cited by Axios . This adds unprecedented momentum to an issue that also has bipartisan support on the Senate side. Dow futures rose nearly 250 points, or nearly 0.7%, on Wednesday. S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures pointed to even stronger gains at the open, one day after all three stock benchmarks mounted a solid rally. The Nasdaq 's second positive session in the past three was helping the index move closer to getting out of correction territory. (CNBC) Earnings are once again the story on Wall Street, with Dow stock Disney scheduled to come out with quarterly results after the bell Wednesday. Peloton (PTON) gave up earlier premarke...

HONG KONG :China Evergrande Group said on Wednesday it aims to have a preliminary restructuring proposal in place within six months as the debt-laden developer scrambles to reassure creditors spooked by defaults since its finances began to unravel last year. The long-awaited communication came against the backdrop of Beijing tightening control over the property developer, while taking measures to stabilise China's crisis-hit property sector. But some bondholders said they were disappointed by the 25-minute call with creditors, which included prepared answers to questions, saying it lacked insight on Evergrande's plans. "(I had) no expectation prior to the call and no expectation after the call... frankly speaking, I believe the final decision making is led by the government, the company...

CANCAHUANI, Peru: On a cold day in January, a group of angry indigenous communities in Peru's copper-rich Andes was driving a hard bargain with the government and Chinese mining firm MMG Ltd around a makeshift negotiating table on a covered soccer pitch. The argument was over trucking contracts and was backed by a threat to block a vital access road to the huge Las Bambas mine - which produces 2per cent of global copper - stopping the ore making its way to the coast and to markets around the world. The 10 communities wanted Las Bambas to give them contracts to operate 28 haulage trucks. The company was offering half that many and playing hardball itself in the negotiations, witnessed by a Reuters reporter, in the small Andean town of Cancahuani. The leader of the community group, the Ch...

TOKYO: Oil prices jumped on Monday (Jan 24) as geopolitical tensions in Eastern Europe and the Middle East heightened concerns about an already tight supply outlook, while OPEC and its allies continued to struggle to raise their output. Brent crude futures rose 87 cents, or 1 per cent, to US$88.76 a barrel by 0100 GMT, reversing a 0.6 per cent loss on Friday. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures gained 86 cents, or 1 per cent, to US$86.00 a barrel, having fallen 0.5 per cent on Friday. Both crude benchmarks rose for a fifth week in a row last week, gaining around 2 per cent to hit their highest since October 2014. Prices are up more than 10 per cent so far this year already on the concerns over tightening supplies. "Investors remained bullish due to geopolitical risk between ...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s Election Commission (EC) has announced that polling day for the Johor state election will be on Mar 12, with nominations to take place on Feb 26. At a media conference after chairing a special meeting on the Johor state election on Wednesday (Feb 9), EC chairman Abdul Ghani Salleh said early voting would take place on Mar 8. “According to the updated voters’ register, there are 2,597,742 voters for the Johor state election,” he added. Johor’s state assembly, which has 56 seats, was dissolved by Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar on Jan 22. The sultan gave his consent for the dissolution after meeting with Chief Minister Hasni Mohammad. Prior to the dissolution, Mr Hasni justified that his state government needed a fresh mandate as it only held a slim majority following t...