International News

  NEW DELHI / AP Indian police arrested 70 people and are questioning hundreds more after uncovering a massive scam to cheat thousands of Americans out of millions of dollars by posing as US tax authorities and demanding unpaid taxes, a police officer said on Thursday. According to police in Mumbai, the yearlong scam involved running fake call centers which ...

  Hanoi / AFP Vietnam and Iran pledged on Thursday to boost future trade to $2 billion, as Tehran seeks to jump-start its sputtering economy after crippling international sanctions were lifted this year. Iran’s moderate President Hassan Rouhani, in Vietnam on a three-country swing through Southeast Asia, has come under fire from conservative critics who say the nuclear deal signed ...

  Tokyo / AFP Shares in Japanese IT giant Fujitsu soared on Thursday on news it is considering merging its struggling personal computer division with China’s Lenovo, the world’s biggest PC maker. A deal would mark the latest move by a Japanese firm to hive off struggling divisions to repair their finances, with Toshiba and Sony among a string of ...

  Jakarta / AFP Indonesia hailed a tax amnesty as a major success after it raised more than $7 billion in its first few months, but criticism is mounting that the controversial scheme lets the super-rich off the hook. Authorities began the flagship policy with much fanfare in July, asking Indonesians to declare their hidden wealth in exchange for paying ...

  Seoul / AP Samsung said on Thursday it was buying a prominent US artificial intelligence (AI) start-up founded by the creators of Siri — the voice-based digital assistant used on the iPhones of arch-rival Apple. The South Korean giant said the acquisition of California-based Viv Labs would bolster voice-based services across the full range of its electronics products that ...

  Singapore / AFP Britain’s shock decision to leave the European Union will not be as damaging to developing Asia’s economies as feared, the World Bank said Wednesday as it increased its growth forecast for the region this year. Countries in the Mekong region led by Myanmar are projected to expand at the fastest pace in the next three years, ...

Tokyo / AFP Sompo Holdings said on Wednesday it would buy Bermuda-based Endurance Specialty Holdings for $6.3 billion, becoming the latest Japanese firm to make an overseas acquisition as it faces slowing growth at home. The all-cash deal for New York-listed Endurance, which has a strong presence in the lucrative US market, is expected to be completed by the end ...

  Geneva / AFP Switzerland said on Wednesday it had widened its probe into Malaysia’s scandal-tainted state investment fund, 1MDB, with transactions worth $800 million under scrutiny and evidence pointing to fraud through “a Ponzi scheme”. The Swiss attorney general opened an investigation into the troubled 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) in August 2015 following allegations that some of the money ...

  Seoul / AFP Samsung’s drug-manufacturing unit plans to raise as much as $2.0 billion in November with what looks set to be South Korea’s third-largest initial public offering (IPO). Samsung Biologics, a contract manufacturer of biotech drugs for global pharmaceutical firms, had announced the IPO plan back in April — with parent Samsung Group seeking new growth engines as ...

  New Delhi / AFP On a scorching rooftop in a smart neighbourhood in the Indian capital, 40 Delhiites with an eye for a bargain peer over auction tables creaking with used, broken and half-eaten items, the front line of a thriving second-hand economy. The auctioneer’s voice rises to a frenzied pitch as the numbers soar higher, each item wielded ...