Tokyo / AFP Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to postpone a sales tax hike a second time, judging that boosting the tariff could hurt the world’s third-largest economy, a newspaper said on Saturday. Abe has already informed senior government officials he plans delay the consumption tax hike, scheduled for next April; that would raise levy from eight to …

  Jakarta / WAM Bank Indonesia reported the country’s current account deficit narrowed to US$4.7 billion or 2.1 percent of its gross domestic products (GDP) in the first quarter of this year from US$5.1 billion or 2.4 percent of the GDP in the previous three months period. The central bank attributed the improvement in current account performance to growing surplus …

  Washington / AFP The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that it is considering new financial support for the Afghanistan government as the country’s economy continues to stumble. The IMF lauded the country’s gains under a just-concluded IMF-monitored program to close vulnerabilities with reforms in the government budget process and in the financial sector. “Despite difficult circumstances, the authorities implemented …

  KUALA LUMPUR / WAM The 4.2 per cent annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth recorded for the first quarter (1Q16) as announced by Bank Negara Malaysia exceeded the forecast of economists. It came in higher than the consensus estimate of 4.0 per cent, said Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd Chief Economist Dr Mohammed Afzanizam Abdul Rashid. He commented that the …

  Kolkata / Bloomberg UCO Bank, an Indian state-owned lender with 629 deliberate defaulters, reported the highest bad loan ratio among banks in the South Asian nation. Shares fell the most in three months. Provisions for soured debt at the Kolkata-based company more than doubled to about 23 billion rupees ($344 million) in the three months through March from a …

  Beirut / AFP Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah on Saturday blamed extremists for killing its top military commander in Syria and vowed to keep fighting to defend President Bashar Al Assad’s regime. The movement has deployed thousands of fighters in Syria where Mustafa Badreddine had led its intervention in support of Assad’s forces, which are also backed by Russia and …

  NEW DELHI / AP A court in India’s capital ruled Saturday that there’s enough evidence in a stalking and sexual harassment case for former UN climate chief Rajendra Pachauri to stand trial. Judge Shivani Chauhan announced that the next hearing in the case will be on July 11, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. Police filed charges against …

  New Delhi / AFP Gunmen shot dead two journalists in 24 hours in separate incidents in eastern India, police and local reports said on Saturday, the latest media killing in Asia’s deadliest country for reporters. Rajdeo Ranjan, the local bureau chief for Hindi-language daily Hindustan, was travelling on his motorcycle late Friday in Bihar state when a group of …

  Abuja / AFP Nigeria on Saturday hosted talks on Boko Haram with regional and Western powers, as the United Nations warned of the militants’ ties to the IS group and its threat to African security. Leaders from Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger were among the delegates, alongside French President Francois Hollande, and high-ranking diplomats from the United States, Britain …

  Rome / AFP There were hardly any Syrian migrants among the 800 people rescued off Sicily, contrary to earlier reports from Italy’s coastguard, the UN and the International Organization for Migration have confirmed. The coastguard had said that half of the 342 migrants they had picked up were Syrians, sparking concern that the flow of Syrians previously attempting to …