FILED – 03 November 2019, Lebanon, Beirut: Protestors shout slogans and wave national flags during an anti-government protest in downtown Beirut. Demonstrators took the streets across Lebanon to protest against the government for the 18th consecutive day. Photo: Marwan Naamani/dpa[/caption Bloomberg Mohammed Safadi, a wealthy Lebanese businessman and former finance minister, has withdrawn his name as a candidate for prime ...
Read More »South Korea, Japan discuss extension of military pact
Bloomberg The defense chiefs of South Korea and Japan discussed a potential extension of their bilateral military intelligence-sharing pact at a meeting in Bangkok, but only at an “in principle†level, Yonhap reported. “We talked about it only at a theoretical level,†South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo was quoted by Yonhap as saying. He was speaking to reporters in ...
Read More »Rajapaksa wins Sri Lanka presidential polls
Bloomberg A family of strongmen who tilted Sri Lanka towards a deep reliance on China clinched victory in a tightly-fought presidential election, as voting showed the country remains divided down ethnic lines. Gotabaya Rajapaksa won 52.3% of the votes, while ruling alliance candidate Sajith Premadasa had 42% at the final count, according to the Election Commission of Sri Lanka. There ...
Read More »Water cannon fails to move HK protesters
Bloomberg Hong Kong police fired teargas and deployed a water cannon to try to clear a resistant band of protesters who occupied a university near the Tsim Sha Tsui district and blocked roads in the vicinity. Police launched round after round of teargas and repeatedly sprayed a blue-dyed liquid towards the demonstrators holed up at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Streets ...
Read More »Ukraine aid was tied to probe, says Morrison
Bloomberg A former top White House adviser told House impeachment investigators Ukrainians were advised that US military aid was being withheld until their president announced an investigation of a company that had hired ex-Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter. Tim Morrison, a former senior director of European and Russian affairs at the National Security Council, said Gordon Sondland, the ambassador ...
Read More »US consulate in Nuevo Laredo issues ‘warning’
Bloomberg The United States consulate in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, issued a safety warning and a curfew for its personnel following ongoing violence between Mexican authorities and criminal organisations. “US government personnel are subject to restrictions on their movements and an evening curfew until further notice,†according to the consulate’s official Twitter account. It didn’t specify the curfew hour. It said ...
Read More »Trump makes his best case for the re-election
If President Donald Trump hopes to bring economic conservatives back to his side, this was the case he needed to make. In a speech at the Economic Club of New York, he offered a strong defense of his record on both economic growth and job creation. His argument for his trade war, on the other hand, was compelling as rhetoric ...
Read More »Amazon returns kill environment
In December, American consumers will return more than 1 million packages to e-commerce retailers each day. It’s a flood of unwanted stuff that’s expected to peak on January 2, which UPS Inc. cheekily calls “National Returns Day.†For UPS and other shippers, that’s reason for plenty of post-holiday cheer. For everyone else, those tens of millions of packages are a ...
Read More »Line would be lucky to find a suitor, even Yahoo
Line Corp. would be lucky to have a suitor. Even if it bears the name Yahoo. The instant-messenger company has been marching toward irrelevance since its dual Tokyo and New York initial public offerings three years ago, with management failing to navigate any clear future for the company or its core product. They’ve shown zero interest in geographical expansion and ...
Read More »Spain’s split vote leaving compromise only option
If you are searching for an example of political hubris, look no further than what has happened in the last six months in Spain. At a general election last April, the left-wing Socialist Party and the centrist Ciudadanos registered strong electoral gains, which put them in a comfortable position to form a government together. Instead, party leaders Pablo Sanchez and ...
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