AFP Indonesia’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate on Thursday in a bid to boost sagging growth, given space to act thanks to the Fed’s decision not to raise the cost of borrowing. Bank Indonesia slashed the rate by 25 basis points to five percent, as expected. The bank shifted to using the current, more short-term focused benchmark ...

  AFP India may have just spent billions of dollars on hi-tech French fighter jets, but experts say it needs to do a lot more if it is going to face up to an increasingly assertive China. The world’s top defence importer has signed several big-ticket deals as part of a $100-billion upgrade since Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi ...

  AFP Japan’s exports tumbled and the country logged a surprise trade deficit in August, data showed, reviving concerns about the economy just before the Bank of Japan wraps up a closely watched meeting. Shipments overseas fell 9.6 percent from a year earlier as a strong yen clouds the country’s trade picture. That left a trade deficit of 18.7 billion ...

  AFP China has removed an almost 13-year-old ban on some US beef products, its quality inspection regulator said Thursday. A ban on imports of “American bone-in beef and boneless beef for cattle under 30 months” has been lifted effective immediately, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said, according to a document posted on its official website. ...

  Charlotte / AFP A second night of race-related clashes in Charlotte, North Carolina has left one protester on life support, with the renewed violence prompting the governor to declare a state of emergency. Several hundred people taunted riot police late on Wednesday amid clashes in the city center, a second night of unrest ignited by the fatal police shooting ...

  Mumbai / AFP India’s navy was put on high alert on Thursday in the city of Mumbai, an official said, after reports that four men dressed in black and carrying weapons were seen near a base. Security has been strengthened at several naval facilities along the coast in and around India’s financial capital, while officials investigate the reports. “The navy ...

  Manila / AFP Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday invited the United Nations’ chief and international human rights experts to investigate allegations of widespread extrajudicial killings, but insisted they also face him in a public debate. The acid-tongued Duterte had earlier used vulgar language to dismiss criticism from the two organisations and the United States of his bloody war on ...

  Kabul / AFP Afghanistan on Thursday signed a peace agreement with notorious warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, paving the way for him to make a political comeback despite a history of war crimes and after years in hiding. Hekmatyar, who heads the now largely dormant Hezb-i-Islami militant group, is the latest in a series of controversial figures that Kabul has sought to ...

  Rosetta / AFP Dozens of migrants were feared dead on Thursday after their overloaded fishing boat capsized off Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, as authorities arrested four suspected traffickers following the tragedy that killed at least 42 people. The latest in a string of disasters to hit those undertaking the perilous sea crossing to Europe saw hundreds of mainly African migrants thrown ...

  Singapore / AFP Global airlines are expected to post record profits of almost $40 billion this year, the head of industry body IATA said on Thursday, but he warned the sector faced threats from terrorism, a sharp rise in oil prices and protectionism. Alexandre de Juniac, who took the reins at the International Air Transport Association on September 1, ...