Colombo / AFP Sri Lanka’s cabinet approved the introduction of a capital gains tax for the first time in 14 years, as the island battles a revenue crisis that has forced an IMF bailout. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s tax plans come after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) this month released the first tranche of a $1.5 billion loan in ...

  Tokyo/ Bloomberg Toshiba Corp., the world’s biggest supplier of turbines used to produce electricity from the heat trapped underground, will expand its geothermal power business into operation and maintenance services as it aims to extend its lead in a global market dominated by a handful of competitors. “We are just doing turbines now but we want to take full ...

  Basel / AFP Hundreds of suitcases hang eerily from the ceiling, old publications depict colonial scenes of dark “savages” committing horrific acts of violence, and an anti-protestor gun blasts into life… with rounds of birdsong. A common theme — of angst at a world in political turmoil, beset by a migration crisis and dread of terrorism — unites many ...

  ST. PETERSBURG / AP EU Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker warned Russia on Thursday that the 28-nation bloc will only lift its sanctions if the Kremlin fully implements a Ukraine peace deal. “The next step is clear, full implementation of the agreement—no more, no less,” Juncker told Russia’s main economic forum in Saint Petersburg ahead of a meeting with President ...

  Seoul / AFP South Korea said on Thursday it would resume salvage operations on the Sewol ferry next week, but underlined the enormous challenges posed by raising the vessel that sank in 2014 with massive loss of life. The Sewol was carrying 476 people when it went down off the southwestern island of Jindo, leaving 304—mostly school children—dead in ...

  Seoul / AFP South Korea on Thursday kicked off a live-fire naval exercise near its disputed sea border with North Korea — a move likely to fan already elevated military tensions with Pyongyang. The three-day exercise in the Yellow Sea is aimed at practising responses to simulated incursions by North Korean vessels and aircraft, the South’s navy said in ...

  Beijing / AFP China criticised US President Barack Obama on Thursday for hosting the Dalai Lama at the White House, despite efforts to avoid irking Beijing by holding the meeting off-camera and out of the public eye. Obama carried out what has become a political rite in Washington, spiriting the exiled Tibetan religious leader into the White House through ...

  Manila / AFP Incoming Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte will resume stalled peace talks with communist rebels next month, negotiators said, a step towards ending one of Asia’s longest insurgencies that has killed tens of thousands of people. The long-running talks collapsed in 2013, but Duterte had made a campaign pledge to revive the negotiations aimed at bringing a swift ...

  Washington / AFP Senate Democrats claimed a small victory early Thursday, forcing the US upper house to consider legislation to help keep guns out of the hands of terrorism suspects. The move, which could break a years-long logjam on gun control, follows demands for action after the weekend massacre of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Florida. Democrats ...

  Bloomberg The Swiss National Bank kept interest rates unchanged, conserving ammunition ahead of a British vote on European Union membership that has the potential to complicate monetary policy-making the world over. The SNB, whose currency is sought by investors at times of crisis, held its deposit rate at minus 0.75 percent, as forecast by economists in a survey. Saying ...