International News

  NEW TAIPEI CITY / AP Commercial fishing boat owners in Taiwan, one of the world’s biggest seafood exporters, face strict rules and potential fines under a new law aimed at preventing overfishing and protecting migrant crewmembers who work far at sea with little oversight. The Distant Water Fisheries Act, which takes effect Jan. 15, 2017, comes amid growing pressure ...

  Birmingham / AFP Prime Minister Theresa May threw down the Brexit gauntlet to Brussels on Wednesday in a speech calling for “maximum freedom” in Europe’s single market despite a backlash against her hard line on immigration. May’s address to the Conservative party conference came as the pound plunged on currency markets and amid growing criticism of proposals to make ...

  Bloomberg Prime Minister Theresa May’s government has ruled out paying contributions to the European Union budget to allow British companies access to the single market, according to a senior aide to Brexit Secretary David Davis, who gave the most specific outline yet of the U.K.’s “red lines” in the coming negotiations to leave the EU. The government’s Brexit department, ...

  Ottawa / AFP Canadian regulators are failing to monitor the country’s nuclear power plants properly and such safety lapses are unacceptable, an official said Tuesday. Canada has four nuclear plants with a total of 19 reactors in Ontario and New Brunswick provinces. They provide about 17 percent of the nation’s electricity. Regulators have carried out inadequate and irregular inspections, ...

  Washington / AFP US online giant Amazon on Wednesday launched a new “Prime Reading” program for US members of its subscription program, allowing unlimited reading of a rotating selection of e-books. “Prime members can now enjoy unlimited reading from a rotating selection of books, magazines, comics and more — at no additional cost,” the online retail giant said in ...

  Bloomberg In a testament to the rising consumer potential of the world’s No. 6 emerging market, Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo has tapped for guidance the king of Chinese e-commerce: Jack Ma. Jokowi, as Indonesia’s leader is known, further intensified the buzz surrounding his country’s $2 billion e-commerce market with a stop at Jakarta’s sprawling Mangga Dua bazaar last month, ...

  Bloomberg Indian Oil Corp. is scaling up an expansion plan for its biggest refinery in northern India at a cost of 150 billion rupees ($2.3 billion), as it races to meet demand in one of the world’s fastest-growing crude consumers. India’s top refiner will expand its Panipat refinery to 25 million metric tons a year (500,000 barrels a day) ...

  Beijing / AFP China’s dependence on debt is growing at a “dangerous pace” and it must act to head off a brewing crisis, the IMF warned on Tuesday. The International Monetary Fund also said the country’s leaders should kick on with vital reforms or risk a painful correction in the world’s number two economy, adding that Beijing’s “unsustainably high” ...

  Seoul / AFP The chairman of South Korea’s Hanjin Group on Tuesday apologised for the “cargo chaos” caused by the collapse of its shipping unit, but insisted the company could, and should, be salvaged. Hanjin Shipping, the world’s seventh largest shipping company, is seeking bankruptcy protection at home and in the US after creditors rejected its latest plan to ...

  Tokyo/ AFP Business confidence among Japan’s largest manufacturers is at its lowest since Tokyo introduced measures to kick-start the struggling economy more than three years ago, a central bank survey showed in a report. The Bank of Japan’s closely watched Tankan report comes after data showing weak growth in the second quarter and as soft inflation and spending figures ...