World

HONG KONG: China's property market, a key pillar of the world's second-largest economy, has weakened sharply in the past year as a result of a government clampdown on excessive borrowings by developers, and a COVID-19-induced economic slowdown. So far this year, more than 100 cities have taken steps to boost home purchase demand via cuts in mortgage rates, smaller down payments, and subsidies. However, the outlook remains bleak as the government enforces strict COVID-19 curbs in dozens of cities, weighing on consumer confidence. China's property market problems are likely to worsen this year, with no growth in home prices seen for the full year, according to the latest Reuters poll. Analysts said the national housing inventory is at a high level, particularly in tier-three and four citi...

KATHMANDU: A small passenger plane with 22 people on board went missing in cloudy weather in Nepal on Sunday (May 29) and authorities suspended a search in difficult terrain as night fell. "The search operation has been suspended for today because of the darkness," police spokesperson Bishnu Kumar KC told Reuters. "We could not make any progress. The search will resume early tomorrow." Officials said bad weather and mountainous terrain had hampered their efforts to locate the plane, a De Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otter operated by privately owned Tara Air. The plane took off in the morning for a 20-minute flight but lost contact with the control tower five minutes before it was due to land, government officials said. The plane departed from the tourist town of Pokhara, 125km west...

P said Wednesday morning that U.S. companies added a much weaker-than-expected 247,000 jobs in April, as employers continue to struggle to find workers to fill open positions. The P data has not been the greatest indicator of the government's monthly payrolls number, which comes Friday. (CNBC) * Weekly mortgage demand rose for first time since early March, but it won't last (CNBC) The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield on Wednesday ticked higher but traded below the prior session's push above 3% for a high back to December 2018. The Fed's May meeting ends at 2 p.m. ET and Chairman Jerome Powell holds his typical post-meeting news conference 30 minutes later. (CNBC) Respondents to the May CNBC Fed Survey expect the central bank to hike rates by 50 basis points again next month. The market ex...

NEW DELHI: Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has alleged its top executives faced threats of "physical violence" and coercion during questioning by India's financial crime fighting agency, according to a court filing seen by Reuters. Officials from the Enforcement Directorate warned the company's former India managing director, Manu Kumar Jain, current Chief Financial Officer Sameer BS Rao, and their families of "dire consequences" if they did not submit statements as desired by the agency, Xiaomi's filing dated May 4 stated. The Enforcement Directorate did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Xiaomi has been under investigation since February and last week the Indian agency seized US$725 million lying in the company's India bank accounts, saying it made illegal remittances a...

An appeals court on Thursday unanimously rejected a bid by former President Donald Trump and two of his adult children to avoid being compelled to answer questions under oath by investigators for New York Attorney General Letitia James as part of her civil investigation of Trump Organization business practices. The decision was the latest legal loss for Trump in his efforts to limit the probe by James, who is focused on allegations that the Trump Organization illegally manipulated the stated valuations of different real estate assets for financial gain. In addition to Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr., and his daughter Ivanka Trump must comply with subpoenas issued by James seeking their testimony, according to the four-page order by a panel of four judges in the Appellate Division of the ...

BEIJING: New bank lending in China tumbled in April from the previous month as the COVID-19 pandemic jolted the economy and weakened credit demand, central bank data showed on Friday (May 13), after it pledged to step up support to ward off a sharper slowdown. Chinese banks extended 645.4 billion yuan (US$95.14 billion) in new yuan loans in April, down about 80 per cent from March and falling short of analyst expectations, according to the People's Bank of China data. Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted new yuan loans would fall to 1.52 trillion yuan in April from 3.13 trillion yuan the previous month and against 1.47 trillion yuan a year earlier. "Lending was much weaker than expected last month as lockdowns weighed on credit demand. This should nudge the PBOC to announce further ...

BEIJING : Plunging demand for soyoil in China is expected to cut consumption of the oilseed in the world's biggest user as lockdowns to prevent the spread of COVID have shuttered restaurants and canteens, according to traders and analysts. China is the world's top consumer of edible oils, with millions of restaurants guzzling about half of the country's roughly 17 million tonnes of soyoil, made from crushing soybeans, consumed each year to fry food. But a two-month lockdown in Shanghai, China's largest and wealthiest city, and anti-COVID-19 movement curbs in several other major cities have cut soyoil consumption, which will carry over to demand for soybeans. Demand for all edible oils in the 2021/22 marketing year beginning last September is set to drop 8.45 per cent from a year ago to ...

KYIV: Russian forces were conducting an all-out assault on Tuesday (May 24) to encircle Ukrainian troops in twin cities straddling a river in eastern Ukraine, a battle which could determine the success or failure of Moscow's main campaign in the east. Exactly three months after President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian forces into Ukraine, authorities in its second-largest city Kharkiv re-opened the underground metro, where thousands of civilians had sheltered for months under relentless bombardment. The move was evidence of Ukraine's biggest military success in recent weeks: Pushing Russian forces largely out of artillery range of Kharkiv, as they did from the capital Kyiv in March. But the decisive battles of the war's latest phase are still raging further south, where Moscow is attemp...

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan authorities imposed a nationwide curfew and deployed the army on Monday (May 9) after dozens of people were hospitalised when government supporters armed with sticks and clubs attacked protestors, AFP reporters said. The US ambassador to Sri Lanka condemned "the violence against peaceful protestors today, and call on the government to conduct a full investigation, including the arrest & prosecution of anyone who incited violence". Sri Lankans have suffered months of blackouts and dire shortages of food, fuel and medicines in the island's worst economic crisis since independence, sparking weeks of overwhelmingly peaceful anti-government protests. But on Monday the biggest clashes since the start of the crisis erupted in Colombo when supporters of the family of Preside...

SINGAPORE: A driver was fined S$5,000 on Wednesday (Jun 1) for smuggling two reticulated pythons into Singapore through Tuas Checkpoint. The two pythons were euthanised after they were found to have severe, chronic and irreversible health conditions. Pulenthiran Palaniappan, 51, was sentenced after pleading guilty to one count of importing a protected species without a permit. Two more charges of failing to take reasonable steps to ensure the pythons were not transported in a safe manner were considered for sentencing. The reptiles were seized on Apr 7 by Immigration and Checkpoints Authority officers who inspected a Malaysia-registered container truck driven by Palaniappan. They were found hidden in cloth bundles in a Styrofoam box concealed in an overhead compartment above the drive...