Beijing / AFP Political concerns over the North Korean regime are stopping vital relief aid from reaching the victims of a major flood there, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said on Saturday. Nearly 70,000 people are estimated to have lost their homes in disastrous flooding in North Hamgyong province in August and September ...

  Madrid / AFP Spain turns the page on a 10-month political crisis on Saturday as lawmakers ready to vote the conservatives back in power, although at the head of a government with unprecedented opposition. Aided by divisions among his rivals, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is widely expected to win a crunch parliamentary confidence vote on Saturday evening which will see ...

  Yangon / AFP Allegations that Myanmar soldiers are killing, raping and torturing villagers in Rakhine, a restive region that is home to the persecuted Muslim Rohingya, must be independently investigated, rights groups said. Northern Rakhine has been under a military lockdown since an attack on border guards three weeks ago left nine policeman dead. The government has blamed the ...

  Bangkok / AFP Thousands of Thais streamed into the gates of Bangkok’s Grand Palace on Saturday as the public was granted its first chance to enter the throne hall where the body of late King Bhumibol Adulyadej is lying in state. Bhumibol, who died aged 88 two weeks ago, was adored by many of his subjects and seen as an ...

  Islamabad / AFP Pakistan’s prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday removed a key minister from his cabinet over a media leak that sparked a rift between his government and the powerful army, his office said. Pervez Rasheed, the information minister, was asked to step down over his alleged role as a source for the report, which said civilian officials ...

  Bloomberg British Airways is betting on a trans-Atlantic boost from the weaker pound to help offset the negative impacts of the U.K.’s Brexit vote. BA’s dollar bookings will be worth more following sterling’s near 20 percent decline against the US currency, while there’s scope for higher fares as US carriers rein in capacity, Willie Walsh, chief executive officer of ...

  Bloomberg Nakumatt Holdings Ltd., Kenya’s biggest retail chain, is in talks to sell as much as 25 percent of the business to reduce debt that more than tripled over the past five years as it expanded. The company, based in the capital, Nairobi, is in discussions with foreign and domestic investors that are expected to be concluded within weeks, ...

  Shanghai / AFP China’s three biggest airlines all reported surging net profits in the third quarter, statements showed, as the country’s economy stablises. Net profit for China Southern, Asia’s biggest airline by fleet size, leaped to 3.31 billion yuan ($425.1 million) in the three months to September, nearly three times the 1.18 billion yuan made in the same period ...

  Bloomberg United Parcel Service Inc.’s shares dropped after the package giant agreed to purchase freighter jets valued at $5.3 billion to continue its international expansion. Delivery of the 14 Boeing Co. 747-8 jumbos will begin next year, the Atlanta-based courier said in a statement. The planes will be used in international markets and allow the courier to bring smaller ...

  Bloomberg Southwest Airlines Co. fell the most in three months and pulled down other carriers after reporting that a key revenue measure may tumble this quarter, raising doubts about a possible recovery in pricing power. Revenue from each seat flown a mile will decline as much as 5 percent in the last three months of the year after dropping ...