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Myanmar’s Suu Kyi meets China counterpart as FM debut

Yangon / AFP Myanmar foreign minister Aung San Suu Kyi met her Chinese counterpart in Naypyidaw on Tuesday, an official said, as relations with Beijing take centre stage in the first diplomatic foray of her newly installed pro-democracy government. The Southeast Asian nation sees its giant neighbour—and largest trading partner—as its biggest foreign policy preoccupation with border wars and controversial ...

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Zuma faces impeachment move

Cape Town / AFP South African President Jacob Zuma faced an impeachment attempt in parliament on Tuesday after the country’s top court ruled that he had violated the constitution over spending on his private residence. Zuma will almost certainly survive the impeachment vote, which requires a two-thirds majority, as his ruling African National Congress holds an overwhelming number of seats. ...

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Ukraine pilot’s 22-year jail term begins in Russia

Moscow / AFP Nadiya Savchenko’s 22-year sentence formally began on Tuesday with the Ukrainian pilot to be sent to prison camp in the next 10 days unless Kiev secures a swap deal with Moscow. The 34-year-old military pilot was convicted on March 22 over the killing of two Russian journalists in east Ukraine, a charge she denies. “The court did ...

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India’s chance at a new beginning with democratic Myanmar

Even as democracy continues to flounder in neighboring Thailand, Myanmar registered a monumental event last week, when it swore in its first democratically elected civilian president in over five decades. To be sure, this isn’t the end of the struggle for democracy in Myanmar. The country’s laws still reserve key subjects of governance – including home, defense, and border affairs ...

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Old people power the on-demand economy

Much ink and many pixels have been spilled over the past few years about the rise of the gig economy, sharing economy, on-demand economy, 1099 economy, freelancer economy or whatever you prefer to call it. Some of the claims about its growth have been overstated, and I’ve written several columns trying to debunk them, or at least put them in ...

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Europe’s central banks begin boosting QE price transparency

Bloomberg France is planning to join the Netherlands in taking steps toward greater transparency in the European Central Bank’s (ECB’s) 80 billion euros-a-month ($91 billion) quantitative-easing (QE) programme, according to a person with direct knowledge of the plans. In the first disclosure of its kind in 13 months of QE, the Dutch Central Bank has listed price and demand figures ...

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China bank regulator says lenders should tighten overseas risk control

Shanghai / Reuters China’s banking regulator said on Tuesday that lenders should tighten risk controls in their overseas branches, after some of the country’s top banks have come under foreign scrutiny for alleged compliance failings. Banks should clarify the responsibilities of staff in overseas branches, strengthen judgment of risk and make sure adequate checks are made on clients, the China ...

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With eye on economy, BOJ’s Kuroda says ready to ease more

Tokyo / Reuters Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda stressed on Tuesday his readiness to expand monetary policy still further, saying that market moves would be key factors the central bank would examine in deciding when and how it might next expand stimulus. Kuroda maintained his optimism that Japan’s economy was recovering moderately, despite last week’s ‘tankan’ survey that showed ...

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