A visitor and the logo of Honda Motor Co are reflected on a Honda car at the company’s headquarters in Tokyo January 30, 2009. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo Southeast Asian ride-hailing service Grab disclosed on Monday that Japan’s Honda Motor Co had invested ... More »
A CRRC worker walks past an unfinished metro train car in the company’s Kunming factory, Yunnan province, April 11, 2016. REUTERS/Brenda Goh Chinese trainmaker CRRC (601766.SS)(1766.HK) plans to build more factories abroad as part of its plan to double sales o... More »
Pro-democracy group ”Bersih” (Clean) chairwoman Maria Chin Abdullah (C) rallies supporters as they prepare to march towards Dataran Merdeka in Malaysia’s capital city of Kuala Lumpur August 29, 2015. REUTERS/Edgar Su The leader of Malaysian pro-democracy group... More »
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump looks towards the media as he arrives at a costume party at the home of hedge fund billionaire and campaign donor Robert Mercer in Head of the Harbor, New York, U.S., December 3, 2016. REUTERS/Mark Kauzlarich U.S. President-el... More »
Wearing a Peruvian shawl, U.S President Barack Obama poses for a family photo at the APEC Summit in Lima, Peru November 20, 2016. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque Pacific Rim leaders vowed on Sunday to fight protectionism and Chinese officials said more countries are lo... More »
People walk past an electronic board showing Japan’s Nikkei average outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, November 16, 2016. REUTERS/Toru Hanai Asian shares were on the defensive on Monday, undermined by fears that the strength in the U.S. dollar and rising U.S... More »
An aerial photo taken though a glass window of a Taiwanese military plane shows the view of Itu Aba, which the Taiwanese call Taiping, at the South China Sea, March 23, 2016. REUTERS/Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Handout via Reuters/File Photo Taiwan’s coastguar... More »
Formula One – F1 – Brazilian Grand Prix – Circuit of Interlagos, Sao Paulo, Brazil – 13/11/2016 – Bernie Ecclestone, Chief Executive of the Formula One Group, rides in an elevator during the race. REUTERS/Nacho Doce Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone has ca... More »
A navy personnel looks for survivors during a search and rescue operation after a boat carrying Indonesian migrant workers capsized off Batam on Wednesday, near Nongsa, Batam, Indonesia November 3, 2016. REUTERS/Edgar Su Indonesian police on Thursday detained ... More »
A man carrying an umbrella passes as storm clouds gather over Shell’s Pulau Bukom oil refinery in Singapore, December 17, 2014. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo During Singapore’s full moon festival last month, employer John Kong was focused more on cost-cutting th... More »
Formula One F1 – U.S. Grand Prix – Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas, U.S., 23/10/16. Third placed finisher Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo of Australia celebrates as actor Gerard Butler drinks Red Bull from Ricciardo’s racing shoe during the ceremony af... More »
Formula One F1 – U.S. Grand Prix – Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas, U.S., 23/10/16. Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton of Britain rubs his eyes following his victory as second placed finisher and teammate Nico Rosberg of Germany (L) and third placed Red Bull’s Da... More »
A Russian serviceman walks past the Buk-1M missile system at the Army-2015 international military forum in Kubinka, outside Moscow, Russia, June 16, 2015. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov A Russian firm has caused a stir after putting on sale a children’s bed in the sha... More »
Switzerland’s financial watchdog FINMA has sanctioned Falcon Private Bank Ltd after it “seriously breached” money-laundering regulations over its handling of funds linked to scandal-hit Malaysian state investment fund 1MDB, FINMA said on Tuesday. More »
Abu Dhabi investor Aabar is at this time not divesting Zurch-based Falcon Private Bank, the chief executive of the Swiss wealth manager said on Tuesday. More »
An empty reception area at Falcon Private Bank office in Singapore October 11, 2016. REUTERS/Edgar Su Abu Dhabi investment firm Aabar Investments [INPTVA.UL] said on Tuesday it was fully behind its Falcon Private Bank unit after it was sanctioned in relation t... More »
An empty reception area at Falcon Private Bank office in Singapore October 11, 2016. REUTERS/Edgar Su Singapore’s central bank on Tuesday shut down a second Swiss bank in the city-state and fined banks DBS and UBS in its biggest crackdown on alleged money-laun... More »
The Facebook logo and emoticons are seen on a coffee mug at the reception of its new office in Mumbai, India May 27, 2016. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade Facebook Inc launched a stripped down version of its popular Messenger app for emerging markets on Monday as it ... More »
Formula One – Singapore Grand Prix – Marina Bay, Singapore – 17/9/16 Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg of Germany in action during third practice. REUTERS/Edgar Su Formula One acquired an exotic addition to its list of wildlife hazards on Saturday after a large monitor l... More »
Formula One – Singapore Grand Prix – Marina Bay, Singapore – 17/9/16 Mercedes’ driver Nico Rosberg of Germany (L) celebrates pole position with Mercedes’ driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain after qualifying. REUTERS/Jeremy Lee Triple world champion Lewis Hamilton... More »
A worker sprays insecticide for mosquitos at a village in Bangkok, Thailand, January 13, 2016. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha Health and city officials in Thailand downplayed risks from rising infections from the mosquito-borne Zika virus, which is linked to seri... More »
A worker fumigates the area to control the spread of mosquitoes in Bangkok, Thailand, February 12, 2016. REUTERS/Jorge Silva – RTX26L9I Twenty-one new cases of locally-transmitted Zika virus have been confirmed in central Bangkok, including a pregnant woman wh... More »
A man injects heroin into his arm along a street in Man Sam, northern Shan state, Myanmar July 11, 2016. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun The Philippines has launched a bloody “war on drugs” that has killed at least 2,400 people in just two months, while neighboring Indon... More »
U.S. President Barack Obama watches as Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks at the opening ceremony of the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China September 4, 2016. REUTERS/Mark Schiefelbein/Pool The global economy is being threatened by rising protec... More »
Malaysia is bracing for more Zika cases, officials said on Sunday, after detecting the first locally infected patient, which could further stretch a health system struggling with dengue, another mosquito-borne virus that can be fatal. More »
A worker fogs the drains in the common areas of a public housing estate at an area where locally transmitted Zika cases were discovered in Singapore August 31, 2016. REUTERS/Edgar Su Singapore confirmed 26 more cases of locally transmitted Zika infections, the... More »
A 61-year-old man diagnosed with the first case of a locally transmitted Zika infection in Malaysia has died from heart disease complications, and not from the mosquito-borne virus, the health ministry said on Saturday. More »
Switzerland’s Falcon Private Bank has appointed ex-Credit Suisse executive Walter Berchtold as chief executive to replace Eduardo Leemann, the wealth manager said on Thursday, confirming what sources earlier told Reuters. More »
A contractor fogs a condominium garden in Singapore in an effort to kill mosquitoes, September 5, 2013. REUTERS/Tim Wimborne/File Photo Singapore has confirmed 41 cases of locally transmitted Zika virus, mostly among foreign construction workers, and said it e... More »
Singapore has confirmed its first case of a locally-transmitted Zika virus, which has been linked to microcephaly, a rare birth defect, in Brazil, the health ministry said. More »
BASRA, Iraq Iraq’s oil exports from its southern ports rose to 3.2 million barrels per day (bpd) on average in July, up from 3.175 million bpd in June, as the OPEC nation increased crude production, Iraqi oil officials said. Output at the Luhais field, operate... More »
VIENTIANE Southeast Asian nations overcame days of deadlock on Monday when the Philippines dropped a request for their joint statement to mention a landmark legal ruling on the South China Sea, officials said, after objections from Cambodia. Beijing publicly t... More »
SINGAPORE Singapore’s central bank said it will enhance controls against money laundering and take swift action against banks following damaging findings that financial institutions in the city-state handled money flows linked to Malaysian state fund 1MDB. “Th... More »
BEIJING Freedom of navigation patrols carried out by foreign navies in the South China Sea could end “in disaster”, a senior Chinese admiral has said, a warning to the United States after last week’s ruling against Beijing’s claims in the area. China has refus... More »
FARNBOROUGH, England Airbus (AIR.PA) bagged deals worth $20 billion to seize the initiative at a rain-soaked Farnborough Airshow on Tuesday, but industry executives said the mostly lackluster event confirmed a recent boom in aircraft orders was finally fizzlin... More »
BEIJING/MANILA China vowed to take all necessary measures to protect its sovereignty over the South China Sea and said it had the right to set up an air defence zone, after rejecting an international tribunal’s ruling denying its claims to the energy-rich wate... More »
KUALA LUMPUR Malaysia’s central bank surprised markets on Wednesday by cutting its key interest rate for the first time in seven years, saying the move would help the country remain on a “steady growth path”. Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) cut the overnight policy... More »
BEIJING European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said on Wednesday that the European Union does not take a stance on sovereignty in South China Sea. Speaking in Beijing, Mogherini said the EU called on all parties to respect legal decisions and u... More »
SINGAPORE Singapore’s central bank, which has ordered Swiss private bank BSI to close its local operations, said on Friday BSI’s appeal to a Swiss court against a decision by Switzerland’s financial watchdog has no bearing on regulatory action in Singapore. In... More »
KUNMING, China/VIENTIANE For the southwestern city of Kunming, China’s plan to extend a high-speed rail link 3,000 km (1,875 miles) south to Singapore is already a boon: pristine expressways, a gleaming station and something of a real estate boom, as young buy... More »
ULAANBAATAR U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday the United States would consider any Chinese establishment of an air defense zone over the South China Sea to be a “provocative and destabilizing act”. U.S. officials have expressed concern that an ... More »
SINGAPORE The United States stepped up pressure on China on Saturday to rein in its actions in the South China Sea, with top defense officials underlining Washington’s military superiority and vowing to remain the main guarantor of Asian security for decades t... More »
SINGAPORE The recent lifting of the U.S. arms embargo against Vietnam boosted trust between the former enemies, but significant weapons purchases are some way off, a senior Vietnamese military official said on Saturday. Deputy Defence Minister Nguyen Chi Vinh ... More »
TOKYO Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, speaking ahead of a visit to Beijing, said on Monday China was making the world “worried” with its military buildup and maritime expansion in the East and South China Seas. Ties between China and Japan, the world’... More »
BERN/GENEVA Banking watchdogs across Europe have begun checking whether lenders have ties to a massive document leak from Panama that showed how offshore companies are used to stash clients’ wealth. Switzerland’s financial watchdog FINMA said on Thursday that ... More »
KUALA LUMPUR Malaysian state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) on Sunday denied reports that it had provided funds to finance the 2013 Hollywood film The Wolf of Wall Street. The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that global investigators believe m... More »
YONAGUNI Japan on Monday switched on a radar station in the East China Sea, giving it a permanent intelligence gathering post close to Taiwan and a group of islands disputed by Japan and China, a move bound to rile Beijing. The new Self Defence Force base on t... More »
BEIJING/SHANGHAI The logistics arm of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N) has completed a funding round, China’s biggest e-commerce company said on Monday. Investors in the funding round of Cainiao include Singapore’s Temasek Holdings [TEM.UL] and GIC Pte Ltd [... More »
MANILA The Philippines is to lease from Japan five aircraft to help patrol the disputed South China Sea, President Benigno Aquino announced on Wednesday, as China expands its military presence in the region. The Philippine military, for decades preoccupied wit... More »
SYDNEY/WASHINGTON The United States is in talks to base long-range bombers in Australia, U.S. defense officials said, within striking distance of the disputed South China Sea, a move that could inflame tensions with China. The deployments could include B-1 bom... More »
MANILA The Philippines on Monday urged China to respect a forthcoming ruling by an arbitration court in The Hague on a territorial dispute in the South China Sea after Beijing accused Manila of “political provocation”. China claims almost the entire South Chin... More »
SINGAPORE Goldman Sachs’ (GS.N) senior investment banker and chairman of its Southeast Asia business Tim Leissner has left the bank, a spokesman said. Leissner helped arrange the sale of U.S. dollar bonds for Malaysian state investor 1Malaysia Development Bhd ... More »
The following timeline charts the origin and spread of the Zika virus from its discovery nearly 70 years ago: 1947 – Scientists researching yellow fever in Uganda’s Zika Forest identify the virus in a rhesus monkey 1948 – Virus recovered from Aedes africanus m... More »
Global health officials are racing to better understand the Zika virus behind a major outbreak that began in Brazil last year and has since spread to many countries in the Americas. The following are some questions and answers about the virus and current outbr... More »
TAIPEI Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou’s planned trip to the Taiwanese-held island of Itu Aba in the disputed South China Sea is “extremely unhelpful” and won’t do anything to resolve disputes over the waterway, a U.S. official said on Wednesday. Ma’s office ear... More »
KUALA LUMPUR Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) [PETR.UL] is planning to slash spending by as much as 50 billion ringgit ($11.41 billion) over the next four years, as a slump in oil prices to multi-year lows pinches profits of the Malaysian state firm. Petronas... More »
CLARK FIELD, Philippines Philippine President Benigno Aquino vowed on Monday to leave behind a stronger and a more capable armed forces to face maritime challenges in the South China Sea when he leaves office next year. Aquino, ineligible to run for re-electio... More »
SYDNEY Australia will not bow to Chinese pressure to halt surveillance flights over disputed islands in the South China Sea at the center of rival claims between China and some of its neighbors, Defense Minister Marise Payne said on Thursday. The Australian De... More »
SINGAPORE When “Bathing in the Shower” by the late Indonesian artist Hendra Gunawan went under the hammer at Sotheby’s autumn auction in Hong Kong in October this year, the oil painting of three female bathers was sold for HK$9.7 million ($1.3 million). That p... More »
KUALA LUMPUR From Turkey to the Philippines to Malaysia, it’s been an overseas trip for U.S. President Barack Obama that often veered off-script. By now, Obama was supposed to have showcased the long-promised benefits of his strategic shift toward Asia as he n... More »
Honda hit back at Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi after he accused their Spanish rider Marc Marquez of behaving like a ‘bodyguard’ to ensure compatriot Jorge Lorenzo won the MotoGP world championship in Valencia on Sunday. Lorenzo, Rossi’s team mate, had been the onl... More »
SYDNEY Activity in China’s colossal factory sector shrank in October as global demand stuttered, reinforcing the case for more stimulus and questioning whether the Federal Reserve can be confident enough to raise U.S. interest rates this year. A crop of indust... More »
KUALA LUMPUR Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and some leaders of the ruling party jointly demanded resolution of the 1MDB state fund scandal on Monday and condemned a crackdown on dissent, signaling a divide within the coalition. Mahathir has ... More »
The U.S. administration hopes to release the full text of a Pacific trade deal within the next 30 days, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said in an interview with CNN. The United States sealed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) with 11 trading partner... More »
ATLANTA A dozen Pacific nations closed in on a sweeping free-trade pact on Sunday in Atlanta but failed to finalize terms on the fifth day of round-the-clock talks, dashing hopes raised by an earlier breakthrough on protections for new biotech drugs. U.S. offi... More »
(This version of the story corrects number of troops in paragraph 1 to 1,000 from 10,000- headline altered to reflect change) PADAMARAN, Indonesia (Reuters) – Indonesia said on Friday it will send more than 1,000 troops to fight fires in southern Sumatra, as s... More »
KUALA LUMPUR Sixty-one bodies have been recovered from an overloaded wooden boat which sank off Malaysia carrying dozens of Indonesian illegal immigrants, maritime officials said on Saturday. The dead were mostly men, with one toddler on board, the maritime ag... More »
KUALA LUMPUR A Malaysian opposition party on Wednesday filed a civil suit against Prime Minister Najib Razak and indebted state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), saying they had violated electoral rules and a new election should be held. 1MDB, whose ad... More »
SYDNEY Barnacles encrusted on a piece of plane debris that washed up on the French island of Reunion might help unravel the mystery of missing Malaysia Airlines (MLYAF.PK) flight MH370 that disappeared last year with 239 passengers and crew on board. Malaysia ... More »
KUALA LUMPUR The head of world athletics vigorously defended the IAAF’s anti-doping record on Monday, as global sporting bodies called for a thorough probe of the latest allegations to plunge international sport into crisis. Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper an... More »
KUALA LUMPUR FIFA President Sepp Blatter was relieved of his International Olympic Committee ex officio membership on Monday, seven months before he will be replaced as the head of soccer’s governing body, IOC President Thomas Bach said on Monday. Blatter woul... More »
KUALA LUMPUR The head of world athletics said on Monday that any suggestion his organization had been negligent in drug testing of athletes was “laughable”. “There are allegations made, no evidence,” IAAF president Lamine Diack told Reuters in the Malaysian ca... More »
KUALA LUMPUR Olympic chiefs must pump more content to mobile devices, and extend the allure of the Games outside its 17-day window to stay relevant to young people, marketing guru Martin Sorrell said on Sunday. “You need to evolve to new consumption behaviors ... More »
KUALA LUMPUR Malaysian police raided the office of troubled state investment fund 1MDB on Wednesday, following a report that claimed investigators looking into the firm found nearly $700 million had been transferred to Prime Minister Najib Razak’s bank account... More »
SYDNEY Nick Kyrgios has accused Olympic great Dawn Fraser of being a “blatant racist” after she said tennis players should “go back to where their parents came from” if they did not set a better example to Australian youth. The former champion swimmer, after i... More »
WASHINGTON The discovery of scores of graves in people-smuggling camps in Malaysia is casting a shadow over President Barack Obama’s signature trade deal as U.S. lawmakers consider punishing trading partners that are soft on human trafficking. Just as Obam... More »
WANG KELIAN, Malaysia Malaysian authorities have found 139 graves, and signs of torture, in more than two dozen squalid human trafficking camps suspected to have been used by gangs smuggling migrants across the border with Thailand, the country’s police chief ... More »
KUALA LUMPUR Malaysia’s Khazanah Nasional [KHAZA.UL] said it had appointed Mohammad Faiz Azmi to oversee the restructuring of now delisted Malaysian Airline System Bhd into a new company that will be owned by the sovereign fund. Azmi will oversee the transfer ... More »
HONG KONG When the U.S. navy sent a littoral combat ship on its first patrol of the disputed Spratly islands in the South China Sea during the past week, it was watching the skies as well. The USS Fort Worth, one of the most modern ships in the U.S. navy, disp... More »
BANGKOK/JAKARTA Nearly 800 “boat people” were brought ashore in Indonesia on Friday but other vessels crammed with migrants were sent back to sea despite a U.N. call to quickly rescue thousands set adrift in Southeast Asian waters. Smugglers have abandoned shi... More »
MADRID Spain’s Defence Minister Pedro Morenes said on Tuesday that flight permission for Airbus (AIR.PA) A-400M planes currently in production in Spain has been temporarily withdrawn until the reasons for Saturday’s fatal crash were determined. “It’s obvious t... More »
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Lee Chong Wei’s slumping ranking because of a doping ban has left Malaysia in a quandary ahead of the badminton world championships in Jakarta in August. The Malaysians have two spots at the Aug. 10-16 tournament but former world numbe... More »
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – ASEAN host Malaysia is set to give in to pressure from some neighbors and address the sensitive issue of land reclamations in the South China Sea with a draft summit statement saying such action may undermine peace, security and stabil... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Nico Rosberg may not have lost the plot, as some suggested in the wake of his outburst against Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton at Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix, but he is feeling the heat. The German’s accusation that the world champion had ... More »
