Riyadh / AFP Saudi Arabia promised “urgent” action to resolve the plight of some 2,500 Indian workers stranded without money in the kingdom after a plunge in oil prices sparked construction layoffs. Labour Minister Mufarrej al-Haqbani issued orders to allow the Indian workers “to immediately transfer their kafala (sponsorship) and renew their residencies,” the Okaz daily reported on Wednesday. Haqbani’s ...

  Kathmandu/ AFP Nepal’s parliament elected former guerrilla and Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal as prime minister on Wednesday after his predecessor resigned following deadly unrest over a divisive new constitution. Dahal, better known by his nom de guerre Prachanda or “the fierce one”, led a decade-long Maoist insurgency before transforming the rebel movement into a political party after a 2006 ...

  Hong Kong / AFP HSBC said on Wednesday net profit plunged in April-June and that the bank was heading into “a period of heightened uncertainty” after Britain voted to leave the European Union. Profit after tax sank 40 percent on-year to $2.61 billion, the firm said in a statement, but assured it had weathered the Brexit storm “securely”. The firm ...