TOKYO / AP Mitsubishi Motors cheated on fuel-efficiency testing for almost every model it sold in Japan in the last 25 years, a report said on Wednesday, fuelling questions about the size of a scandal that has plunged the automaker into crisis. Citing unnamed company sources, Japan’s Asahi newspaper said dozens of models sold in Japan have been affected ...
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Indian RBI governor’s debt headache isn’t over yet
Mumbai / Bloomberg Investors who anticipated that India central bank Governor Raghuram Rajan would bring order to a bad debt-plagued banking system by now are being forced to ratchet back those expectations. Results from ICICI Bank Ltd. and Axis Bank Ltd. two weeks ago and comments from their top managers fuelled concerns that dud loans will continue to pile ...
Read More »Brazil’s Senate opens Rousseff impeachment vote session
BrasÃlia / AFP Brazil’s Senate on Wednesday launched a pivotal debate on the future of President Dilma Rousseff, who faces likely suspension and an impeachment trial that could end 13 years of leftist rule in Latin America’s biggest country. Even allies of Rousseff, 68, said she had no chance of surviving the vote, expected later in the day after ...
Read More »Families, friends split over Brazil political crisis
Rio De Janeiro / AP Like Brazil itself, Dayse Lima’s family is deeply split over the political firestorm threatening to force President Dilma Rousseff from power. Lima, a 54-year-old government worker and staunch Rousseff supporter, got so angry at her son Gustavo for bashing the president that she stopped speaking to him. Gustavo, a 27-year-old energy analyst who lived with ...
Read More »Duterte set for wild foreign policy ride
Manila / AFP After proposing a jet-ski mission to defend remote islands against China, daring the United States to sever ties and joking about burning Singapore’s flag, Rodrigo Duterte is set for a wild foreign policy ride as the next Philippine president. The firebrand politician stormed to victory in national elections this week using an incendiary brand of populism ...
Read More »India to seek tycoon Mallya’s extradition from Britain
New Delhi / AFP India will seek to extradite indebted tycoon Vijay Mallya, the country’s finance minister said on Wednesday, after Britain turned down its request to deport him. Arun Jaitley told parliament that Britain had refused to deport Mallya, who left India owing $1.34 billion, because he entered the country on a valid passport, even though it was ...
Read More »Son of Pakistan’s ex-PM home after 3-yr hostage ordeal
Juba / AFP The freed son of a former Pakistani premier reunited with his family in a shower of rose petals in Lahore on Wednesday, three years after he was kidnapped then taken to Afghanistan. Ali Haider Gilani, son of Yousaf Raza Gilani, was rescued during a counter-terror raid by US and Afghan forces in eastern Afghanistan Tuesday. Crowds ...
Read More »Buhari to Cameron: Return stolen assets
London / AFP Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said on Wednesday that he did not want an apology from Prime Minister David Cameron for calling his country “fantastically corruptâ€, but said Britain could return assets stolen by officials who fled to London. “I am not going to demand any apology from anybody. What I am demanding is the return of ...
Read More »Baghdad car bombs kill 86
Baghdad / AFP Three car bombs in Baghdad, including a huge blast at a market in a Shiite area, killed at least 86 people on Wednesday, the bloodiest day in the Iraqi capital this year. The attacks, the deadliest of which was claimed by the IS group, came with the government locked in a political crisis that some have ...
Read More »Obama visit will revitalise anti-nuclear push: Japan
Tokyo / AFP Barack Obama’s trip to Hiroshima this month is a chance for him to see how the city suffered after its atomic bombing, and to renew his push for global nuclear disarmament, local officials said on Wednesday. On May 27, Obama will become the first sitting US president to visit Hiroshima, the White House said on Tuesday, ...
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