World

In China, fears of financial Iron Curtain as US tensions rise
29Aug By Desk TeamNo Comments
China, Market, Singapore, World

In China, fears of financial Iron Curtain as US tensions rise

SHANGHAI: A sharp escalation in tensions with the United States has stoked fears in China of a deepening financial war that could result in it being shut out of the global dollar system: A devastating prospect once considered far-fetched but now not impossible. Chinese officials and economists have in recent months been unusually public in discussing worst-case scenarios under which China is blocked from dollar settlements, or Washington freezes or confiscates a portion of China's huge US debt holdings. Those concerns have galvanised some in Beijing to revive calls to bolster the yuan's global clout as it looks to decrease reliance on the greenback. Some economists even float the idea of settling exports of China-made COVID-19 vaccines in yuan, and are looking to bypass dollar settl...
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Philippines reports 6,352 new COVID-19 cases, Southeast Asia’s biggest daily jump
29Aug By Desk TeamNo Comments
Asia, World

Philippines reports 6,352 new COVID-19 cases, Southeast Asia’s biggest daily jump

MANILA: The Philippines reported 6,352 new COVID-19 infections on Tuesday (Aug 4), marking the biggest daily jump in cases in Southeast Asia. Tuesday's figures represent the Philippines' fifth record rise in the past six days and takes the country's tally of cases to 112,593. COVID-19 deaths rose by 11 to 2,115. The Philippine capital and nearby provinces on Tuesday returned under strict lockdown for two weeks to arrest soaring cases since restrictions were relaxed in June. The government announced late on Sunday it was placing metro Manila and nearby provinces such as Laguna, Cavite, Rizal and Bulacan under so-called "Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine" until Aug 18. Philippine police deployed road blocks on Tuesday to enforce a tough new lockdown on about 28 million people in...
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US weekly jobless claims edge down to 1.19 million
29Aug By Desk TeamNo Comments
Market, World

US weekly jobless claims edge down to 1.19 million

WASHINGTON: The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell last week, but remained significantly high, suggesting the labour market was stalling as the country battles a resurgence in new COVID-19 cases that is threatening a budding economic recovery. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits totalled a seasonally adjusted 1.186 million for the week ended Aug 1, compared to 1.435 million in the prior week, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 1.415 million applications in the latest week. Coronavirus cases soared across the country last month, forcing authorities in some of the hard-hit areas in the West and South to either shut down businesses again or pause reopenings, sending workers back home again. Though infections ha...
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Vietnam condemns new Chinese military drills in South China Sea
28Aug By Desk TeamNo Comments
China, World

Vietnam condemns new Chinese military drills in South China Sea

HANOI: Vietnam on Wednesday (Aug 26) accused China of violating its sovereignty by conducting military drills in a disputed part of the South China Sea and said Beijing's actions were "complicating" negotiations on establishing a code of conduct in the region. China this week began six days of exercises in waters near the Paracel Islands, where Vietnam has competing claims, according to the Maritime Safety Administration of Hainan, an island off China's southern coast. It was the second set of drills in the area by Beijing in two months. "China's repeated military exercises in (the Paracel Islands) violate Vietnam's sovereignty, complicating negotiations for a Code of Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea between China and ASEAN," foreign ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said...
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Kuwait bans flights to 31 ‘high risk’ countries due to coronavirus
28Aug By Desk TeamNo Comments
World

Kuwait bans flights to 31 ‘high risk’ countries due to coronavirus

DUBAI: Kuwait has banned until further notice commercial flights to 31 countries it regards as high risk due to the spread of the coronavirus, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said on Saturday (Aug 1). The countries include India, Pakistan, Egypt, the Philippines, Lebanon and Sri Lanka, which all have large numbers of expatriates in Kuwait. The list also includes China, Iran, Brazil, Mexico, Italy and Iraq. The ban was announced the same day that Kuwait began a partial resumption of commercial flights. The authorities have said Kuwait International Airport would run at about 30 per cent capacity from Saturday, gradually increasing in coming months. The health ministry also advised against all non-essential travel at the present time, government spokesman Tariq al-Muzaram sa...
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Pakistan FM Qureshi faces criticism for slamming Saudi Arabia over Kashmir
28Aug By Mike TrudellNo Comments
World

Pakistan FM Qureshi faces criticism for slamming Saudi Arabia over Kashmir

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi is facing heat over his remarks against Saudi Arabia for refusing to interfere on Kashmir issue.The differences in their relations surfaced when Pakistan was made to pay back USD 1 billion to Saudi Arabia. This reflected the fact that Islamabad is gradually losing the support of other Muslim countries.Recently two Pakistani journalists -- Rauf Klasra and Amir Mateem -- held a discussion on the sudden policy shift of Saudi Arabia towards Pakistan."Sometimes Qureshi speaks emotionally. He gets carried away," Mateem said.“As Pakistan, which is in a financial crisis, is dependent on Saudi Arabia, Qureshi should have been cautious of making any statements”, he said, adding: "As we are very much dependent on Saudi Arabia, we should complain only t...
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Mitsubishi Motors hits all-time low as ASEAN sales dive raise recovery doubts
28Aug By Desk TeamNo Comments
Market, World

Mitsubishi Motors hits all-time low as ASEAN sales dive raise recovery doubts

Shares of Japan's Mitsubishi Motors Corp plunged more than 10per cent to an all-time low on Tuesday after the automaker posted dismal sales in its key Southeast Asian market and forecast a huge loss for this financial year. TOKYO: Japan's Mitsubishi Motors faced doubts about a quick recovery after posting dismal quarterly sales in its key Southeast Asia market partly due to the coronavirus outbreak, sending its shares down 12per cent to a record low on Tuesday. A day earlier, Mitsubishi Motors, a junior member of the auto alliance of Nissan Motor and Renault SA , reported that sales in Southeast Asian countries, which normally account for a quarter of its global sales, plunged nearly 70per cent to make up just 17per cent of total sales during April-June. The automaker has bet on gro...
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Thailand to improve police training to tackle human trafficking nationwide
28Aug By Desk TeamNo Comments
World

Thailand to improve police training to tackle human trafficking nationwide

BANGKOK: Thailand's top anti-trafficking cop has vowed to boost training for police nationwide to better respond to a rising number of cases of sexual exploitation and forced labour outside Bangkok. Police lieutenant general Jaruvat Vaisaya, director of the Anti-Human Trafficking Centre under the Royal Thai Police, said Thailand had a shortage of officers based outside the capital with expertise in investigating cases of human trafficking. "We have found an increase in cases in provincial areas where we couldn't send our staff (from Bangkok) in time," Jaruvat told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview ahead of World Day Against Trafficking in Persons on Jul 30. About three-quarters of 283 trafficking cases nationwide last year were investigated outside Bangkok – up from two...
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US core capital goods orders rise; recovery uneven as COVID-19 shifts spending
28Aug By Desk TeamNo Comments
World

US core capital goods orders rise; recovery uneven as COVID-19 shifts spending

WASHINGTON: New orders for key US-made capital goods increased in July, though the pace slowed from June's robust gain, suggesting the rebound in business investment would be gradual amid uncertainty about the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. The report from the Commerce Department on Wednesday showed an uneven recovery in investment as the coronavirus crisis shifts spending away from equipment used in the services industries such as restaurants and bars to purchases of goods like home electronics. "While orders are nearly back to their pre-pandemic levels, the slowing pace of gains suggests it will take a while for activity to fully recover," said Lydia Boussour, a senior US economist at Oxford Economics in New York. "We do not expect business investment to reach its pre-pandemic l...
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Japan economy shrinks historic 7.8% in second quarter
28Aug By Desk TeamNo Comments
Market, World

Japan economy shrinks historic 7.8% in second quarter

TOKYO: Japan's economy shrank 7.8 per cent in the April to June quarter, the worst contraction in the nation's modern history, as the coronavirus deepens the country's economic woes. The contraction from the previous quarter was slightly worse than expectations but is still significantly less severe than declines seen in many other industrial economies. Still, it is the biggest economic contraction for Japan since comparable data became available in 1980, beyond the brutal impact of the 2008 global financial crisis. And some analysts labelled it the worst fall since World War II, though a change in calculation methods in 1980 makes the comparison complicated. The official data compared with the market's expectation of a 7.6 per cent contraction, the median forecast of major economi...
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