World

AUSTIN, Texas: US companies including Lyft, American Airlines and Silicon Laboratories voiced their displeasure on Friday at new Texas laws on abortion, handguns, and voting limitations, a fresh sign of increased efforts by some firms to signal their commitment to social responsibility. Lyft and Uber said they will cover all legal fees for the ride-hail companies' drivers sued under a law that puts in place a near-total ban on abortion. Lyft will also donate US$1 million to women's health provider Planned Parenthood, chief executive Logan Green said on Twitter. "This is an attack on women's access to healthcare and on their right to choose," Green said of the new Texas law. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi tweeted in response to Green's announcement that his company would cover drivers' lega...

WASHINGTON :BitMEX, one of the world's largest virtual currency derivatives exchanges, has agreed to pay up to US$100 million to settle U.S. charges of unlawfully accepting customer funds to trade cryptocurrencies when it was not registered to do so as well as failure to conduct customer due diligence. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) unit of the U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday alleged that for six years, BitMEX sold cryptocurrency derivatives to U.S. customers without properly registering with U.S. authorities. U.S. authorities on Tuesday said BitMEX also failed to implement and maintain proper compliance programs to identify customers and prevent money laundering. The exchange also failed to report suspicious...

NEW DELHI : India on Tuesday launched a new incentive scheme - compliant with World Trade Organization rules - to boost exports that will enable exporters to get a refund of taxes paid to the federal and state governments, its trade minister said. The government plans to spend 194.4 billion rupees (US$2.61 billion) offering incentives to exporters under the scheme that would be effective from January 2021, a trade ministry official told reporters. India has set a target of US$400 billion in merchandise exports for the current fiscal year ending in March 2022, compared to US$291.2 billion in the previous fiscal year. (US$1 = 74.3500 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Aftab Ahmed; Writing by Manoj Kumar; Editing by Catherine Evans)

TOKYO: Japan's economy rebounded more than expected in the second quarter after slumping in the first three months of this year, data showed - a sign consumption and capital expenditure were recovering from the coronavirus pandemic's initial hit. But many analysts expect growth to remain modest in the current quarter as state of emergency curbs re-imposed to combat a spike in infections weigh on household spending. The world's third-largest economy grew an annualised 1.3 per cent in April-June after a revised 3.7 per cent slump in the first quarter, preliminary gross domestic product (GDP) data showed on Monday (Aug 16), beating a median market forecast for a 0.7 per cent gain. Still, the rebound was much weaker than that of other advanced economies including the United States, which ma...

MELBOURNE: Oil prices were little changed on Wednesday following overnight losses from a stronger dollar and demand concerns, with a slow production restart in the US Gulf of Mexico providing some support. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 11 cents, or 0.2 per cent, to US$68.46 a barrel at 0429 GMT, after sliding 1.4 per cent on Tuesday following the Labor Day holiday. Brent crude futures fell 2 cents to US$71.67 a barrel after falling 0.7 per cent on Tuesday. "The market is ... weighing up the impact of ongoing delays to the resumption of operations in the Gulf of Mexico," ANZ Research analysts said in a note. Producers in the US Gulf of Mexico are still struggling to restart operations nine days after Hurricane Ida swept through the region with powerful winds and dr...

HONG KONG/BEIJING : Central China Group, a mid-sized property conglomerate based in Henan province, said its operations are back to normal and it is confident of repaying all its debt, a month after it sought support from the government to prevent a cash crunch. Central China's CEO confirmed on Friday it had written to the provincial government in early August asking for help. But he would not confirm the authenticity of a letter widely circulated on social media in which the company had purportedly said it was facing liquidity issues that could potentially cause it to default on its debts. Many Chinese developers are facing financial stress after policymakers rolled out more credit-tightening measures this year to curb debt levels in the sector and cool rising home prices. But Central ...

SINGAPORE: A 46-year-old former deputy group director with the Land Transport Authority (LTA) pleaded guilty on Thursday (Aug 26) to seven charges of taking S$1.24 million in bribes in the form of loans to advance the business interests of contractors and subcontractors. Henry Foo Yung Thye - who appeared in court on Thursday wearing a white polo T-shirt - was previously a deputy group director overseeing the construction of the Thomson-East Coast and Cross Island lines for the LTA. Twenty-nine other charges were taken into consideration for his sentencing. The prosecution noted the accused had received a total of S$1.24 million in corrupt gratification. Of this amount, Foo repaid S$83,750, leaving a balance of S$1,156,250. Court documents showed that the Corrupt Practices Investigatio...

Ronney Ng, who sells souvenirs in Singapore’s Chinatown, can hardly wait for the country to reopen its borders now that 80% of its population has been inoculated against COVID-19 — one of the world’s best vaccination rates. “Our business depends almost entirely on tourists — it is very tough for us if they are not visiting Singapore,” said Ng, who added that he can no longer afford three meals a day. The regional travel hub, with about 5.7 million residents, is among the first countries to reopen in the region, albeit slowly. Masks are still mandatory in almost all public settings, group sizes are limited and a contact-tracing app is required. Starting next week, Singapore will allow quarantine-free entry by vaccinated visitors from just two countries: Germany and Brunei. Although such...

MANILA : The Philippines' trade deficit remained above US$3 billion for a fourth consecutive month in July, as imports rose faster than exports, government data on Thursday showed. The trade gap in July was US$3.3 billion, as imports jumped 24per cent to US$9.71 billion, while exports grew 12.7per cent to US$6.42 billion. (Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales and Enrico Dela Cruz; Editing by Ed Davies)

AMSTERDAM: Prosus NV doubled down on its investment in India on Tuesday with a US$4.7 billion deal for payments platform BillDesk, making it one of the biggest players in the country's fast-growing fintech sector. Prosus, Europe's answer to SoftBank and its Vision Fund, said BillDesk will complement its own PayU business, which operates in India, Latin America and Europe. India has been a major focus for Netherlands-based Prosus but the BillDesk deal is its biggest investment there to date. "This is really a transformative transaction for PayU and its position as one of the leading payment and fintech providers in India and actually in the world," Prosus CEO Bob van Dijk said on a media call. Prosus shares were up 5.1 per cent at €73.96 by 1448 GMT. Prosus, which was spun out of Naspe...