KUALA LUMPUR / Bloomberg Malaysia’s ringgit slumped by the most in eight months after Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Dennis Lockhart said a US interest-rate increase in June was “a real option.” The comments sparked a surge in the greenback, with the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rising from the lowest level in a year. Brent crude hovered around ...

  Jakarta / AFP Indonesia’s growth rate was slower than forecast in the first quarter of 2016, official data showed on Wednesday, in a blow to President Joko Widodo’s efforts to boost Southeast Asia’s top economy. The G20 economy grew 4.92 percent year-on-year from January to March, the official statistics agency said. This was slightly below economists’ forecasts and compared ...

  Beijing / The Diplomat The People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) is in the process of upgrading a number of older classes of surface warships with new anti-ship missiles, missile defense systems, and cannons capable of firing precision-guided ammunition, Popular Science reports. Based on photographic evidence, it appears that the 6,100-ton Type 051B Luhai-class destroyer Shenzhen, commissioned in 1998, is ...