Bloomberg Alphabet Inc’s Wing Aviation LLC is asking US regulators to allow it to expand drone operations as a way to make more efficient deliveries controlled from a central command post. Wing wants to control its drone flights at a “central hub” from which the remote pilots can oversee operations without being in the aircraft’s operating area, the Federal Aviation ...

Bloomberg Southeast Asian leaders will appoint an envoy to mediate talks between “all parties” in Myanmar, one of the most concrete moves yet to end months of violence since a February 1 coup that has seen the military regime kill hundreds of pro-democracy protesters. Coup leader Min Aung Hlaing agreed to the dialogue process at a special summit of the ...

Bloomberg The Philippines said it conducted maritime exercises in the South China Sea, a move that could escalate tensions in the disputed waters. The coast guard said it deployed eight ships along with the fisheries bureau, as they trained on navigation, small boat operations, maintenance and logistical operations in Scarborough Shoal and Pag-asa Island. The maritime exercises come days after ...

Bloomberg As India recorded more than 234,000 new Covid-19 infections last Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held an election rally in the West Bengal town of Asansol and tweeted: “I’ve never seen such huge crowds.” The second wave of the coronavirus has since grown into a tsunami. India is now the global coronavirus hotspot, setting records for the world’s highest ...

Bloomberg Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan resigned to trigger new parliamentary elections, following months of opposition protests and calls from top army officers to resign over defeat in last year’s war with neighboring Azerbaijan. The resignation of Pashinyan, 45, will begin the process of dissolving parliament ahead of elections announced for June 20. He earlier met with leaders of the ...

Bloomberg Citigroup Inc could fetch as much as $6 billion from the sale of retail banking assets in 13 markets across the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and the Middle East as the lender forges ahead with plans to fine-tune its global branch network, people familiar with the plan said. The sale process for Australia is the furthest along and the preliminary ...

Bloomberg ICICI Bank Ltd. posted a more than threefold rise in fourth-quarter profit, helped by strong earnings from its lending business even as it set aside a smaller pot of money to cushion the impact of more bad loans that could result from India’s deteriorating coronavirus situation. Net income at the nation’s second largest private lender stood at 44.03 billion ...

Bloomberg Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc is considering ways to reduce its real estate footprint in the Americas while preparing for a post-pandemic world in which many workers come to the office just a few days a week. The lender anticipates that roughly 25% of workers in the region will be fully remote after the pandemic and another 25% will ...

Bloomberg National Bank of Canada Chief Executive Officer Louis Vachon said the Bank of Canada (BoC) is being “prudent” in reducing government bond purchases and hinting it may raise interest rates earlier than expected. “We don’t know how this thing will evolve — we’re navigating in uncharted waters,” Vachon said in an interview after the bank’s annual meeting. “But by ...

Bloomberg The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) restricted American Express Banking Corp (Amex) and Diners Club International Ltd (Diners) from adding new local customers, citing non-compliance with data-storage rules. The order will take effect from May 1 and won’t impact existing customers, the RBI said in a statement. The firms are the first to be penalized under India’s data-storage rules ...