World

:Two-time defending champions Japan brushed aside Myanmar 5-0 in their opening game at the Women's Asian Cup in Pune on Friday while joint-favourites Australia thrashed Indonesia 18-0. Chelsea striker Sam Kerr scored five times and Emily van Egmond hit four in Mumbai as Tony Gustavsson's side showed no mercy to an inexperienced Indonesia side marking the country's first qualification for the finals since 1989. Kerr also became Australia's all-time leading scorer with her career 54th goal, breaking the previous record held by former men's international Tim Cahill. Ellie Carpenter, Kyah Simon and Hayley Raso claimed braces while Caitlin Foord, Mary Fowler and Aivi Luik were also on the scoresheet as the 2018 runners-up made an uncompromising start to life in Group B. The Matildas moved t...

SYDNEY: Asian share markets slipped on Monday (Jan 24) as investors braced for a Federal Reserve meeting at which it is expected to confirm it will soon start draining the massive lake of liquidity that has supercharged growth stocks in recent years. Adding to the caution were concerns about a possible Russian attack on Ukraine with the US State Department pulling out family members of its embassy staff in Kyiv. The New York Times reported President Joe Biden was considering sending thousands of US troops to NATO allies in Europe along with warships and aircraft. That might be one reason EUROSTOXX 50 futures slipped 0.5per cent, while FTSE futures fell 0.4 per cent. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.8per cent and Japan's Nikkei 0.6 per cent. Chinese blu...

WASHINGTON: The US government warned companies on Wednesday (Jan 26) to be extremely wary of doing business in Myanmar, citing the risks of being linked to a military government involved in lawlessness and human rights abuse. Those involved with businesses controlled by the military regime "run the risk of engaging in conduct that may expose them to significant reputational, financial, and legal risks," including breaking sanctions and money-laundering laws, according to a statement from six cabinet-level departments. Investors and traders were warned specifically to avoid state-owned enterprises, the gems and precious metals sector, real estate and construction projects, and the arms business. "These entities and sectors have been identified as primary industries providing economic res...

MELBOURNE: Martina Navratilova said Australian Open organisers were cowardly to prevent fans from wearing shirts bearing messages of support for Chinese doubles player Peng Shuai at the Grand Slam event. After video emerged of security officials and police instructing fans on Saturday (Jan 22) to remove shirts with the slogan, "Where is Peng Shuai?" on them, Tennis Australia (TA) defended its stance by saying the tournament does not allow political statements. TA's position dismayed 18-times Grand Slam winner Navratilova, who said the national governing body was giving in to China and placing sponsorship money ahead of human rights concerns. "I find it really, really cowardly," she said on the US-based Tennis Channel. "I think they are wrong on this. This is not a political statement, t...

Entering the third year of the pandemic, China’s unbending approach to COVID-19 has left the world’s second-largest economy all but shut off from international travel — with fewer than 500 inbound flights scheduled this week, compared with about 10,000 this time two years ago. Capacity cuts are intensifying as China tries to snuff out virus flare-ups with aggressive lockdowns. Since mid-December, airlines have eliminated almost 1,000 flights that would have arrived in the country between now and Feb. 1, the start of the Lunar New Year — typically the busiest time for travel anywhere on the planet. Despite the difficulty every country faces in containing the omicron strain, China is persisting with attempts to keep the virus out. Authorities have blocked dozens of air services to and fro...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen's meeting with Myanmar's junta chief on Friday and their joint statement issued afterward may cause friction among Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states ahead of the group's first meeting of foreign ministers this year, some officials said Saturday. In a joint statement with the prime minister of Cambodia, this year's ASEAN chair, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing said he had extended a ceasefire with all armed ethnic minority groups in Myanmar through the end of this year. The ceasefire was originally set to expire at the end of February. The junta chief also said that he will assure a special ASEAN envoy to Myanmar that he can meet with all parties involved in the country's political turmoil, including the armed ethnic minority groups. ...

Before Jack Ma got into trouble with Beijing for his free-wheeling ways, there was Wang Jianlin. Once China’s richest man, the founder of commercial real estate giant Dalian Wanda Group Co. was forced to unload trophy assets by the government after an acquisition spree that hit an estimated $16 billion in 2016 alone. The sales turned out to be a blessing in disguise now that China’s property market has slumped. Wanda was besieged in 2017 when Beijing cracked down on companies’ global shopping sprees, suspicious that spending overseas was a way to take money out of China. Painful as it must have been, Wang sold hotels, including luxury residential projects in London, to Guangzhou R&F Properties Co. and his tourism and theme park holdings to Sunac China Holdings, a deal that bought him $9....

BEIJING: China wants to use the Beijing Winter Olympics to showcase its green credentials but there are concerns over the environmental cost of a Games relying on artificial snow in one of the driest places in the country. It is difficult to independently verify Beijing's claims around the Games, which begin on Feb 4, and environmentalists told AFP they fear a backlash from authorities if they analyse Beijing's green targets. This is what we know: WHAT IS CHINA PROMISING? China has pledged to power the Games using only wind, hydro and solar energy - despite relying on coal to power nearly two-thirds of its economy. The city of Zhangjiakou, one of the three Olympic hubs, has installed wind farms spanning hundreds of acres that can produce 14 million kilowatts of electricity - similar t...

"The health infrastructure in Mumbai is so robust that we are prepared for the worst, but we hope for the best," Iqbal Singh Chahal, commissioner of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, told CNBC's " Street Signs Asia ." India faced a critical shortage of oxygen last year during the second Covid wave between February and May. In June, the state of Maharashtra — where Mumbai is located — directed local oxygen producers to ramp up production and storage capacities to tackle future waves of infection. India's financial hub Mumbai has a robust health-care infrastructure that can withstand a growing number of Covid cases, the city's governing civic body told CNBC on Thursday. India is preparing for a third wave of Covid infections as cases rise again. Government data showed that daily re...

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