Focus on the big picture

BEIJING: A top US official will meet a delegation from North Korea Thursday for talks on Pyongyangs nuclear programme, in the first substantive contact between the two nations since leade...

SINGAPORE: Socio-political website TR Emeritus (TRE) said it has received a letter from the lawyer of Mr Lee Hsien Yang, asking it to remove an allegedly defamatory comment posted by one ...

CHICAGO: Retired NBA superstar Michael Jordan announced on Wednesday that he has filed a lawsuit in China against a Chinese sportswear and shoe manufacturer over unauthorized use of his n...

SAN FRANCISCO: Sonys slick PlayStation Vita handheld videogame gadget hit major markets around the world on Wednesday as the Japanese entertainment titan bucked a trend towards play on sm...

SYDNEY: Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Thursday called a ballot on the leadership of the ruling Labor party, bringing to a head an ugly row with predecessor Kevin Rudd.

Pinhole cameras are getting smaller and are used to spy on women.-TNP

Japanese netizens criticized her for advocating Korea's sovereignty over Dokdo. -Korea Herald/ANN

If she loses, Gillard said she would retire to the backbench. -AFP

Cheaper phones are the key for Nokia and Microsoft in their battle to win a larger share of the market. -Reuters

Japan's ancient sport of sumo rang up debts of almost $63 million in 2011 after a match-fixing scandal which triggered a television black-out and a government warning. -Reuters

'IN' WAS not the first-choice name for the secondary school publication of The Straits Times, which claimed a coveted world award earlier this week. It was originally named INK, until st...

POLICE have arrested five men and two women for suspected loan-sharking activities over three days. The seven suspects, aged between 20 and 44, were all arrested between Wednesday and Fr...

THE founder of gay website Fridae.com has been charged with drug possession. Stuart Koe, 38, was charged in court on Wednesday with possessing 0.01g of Ice.

THE two Integrated Resorts (IRs) ceased their shuttle bus services to both downtown and heartland areas on Friday. At Resorts World Sentosa (RWS), the bus services ran as usual on Friday...

WUHAN (Hubei province) - SINGAPORE companies which come to China's less-developed interior will have first mover advantage and reap greater profits, but the key is to have staying power ...

(NEW YORK) Universal Entertainment Corp climbed the most in six months in Tokyo trading after the Japanese pachinko machine maker pledged legal action against Wynn Resorts Ltd over the fo...

(WASHINGTON) The owner of the Wynn Macau casino accused Japanese gambling tycoon Kazuo Okada on Tuesday of paying off Philippine regulators in his bid to build a rival gaming resort in Ma...

(MUMBAI) Norway's Telenor will sever ties with its Indian partner and transfer its Indian telecom operations to a new entity after a top court cancelled its licences because of a multibil...

(LONDON) British lenders paid out a record £441 million (S$869 million) in compensation for insurance mis-selling in December, taking payouts for 2011 to £1.9 billion and rais...

(WASHINGTON) For every US presidential candidate, there's now at least one US$1 million donor. Millionaire and billionaire executives have unlocked their personal bank vaults to write sev...

SINGAPORE - Socio-political website TR Emeritus (TRE) said that it has received a letter from the lawyer of Mr Lee Hsien Yang, asking it to remove an allegedly defamatory comment posted ...

A stoppage-time goal from André Ayew gave Marseille a 1-0 win over Internazionale in the first leg of their Champions League last- 16 tie at the Stade Vélodrome. Ayew broke the deadlock ...

BASEL - Valentin Stocker scored four minutes from time to give Basel a famous 1-0 victory over Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich in the first leg of their Champions League clash at St Jako...

MANCHESTER - There was merriment as well as a little achievement. A surge of three goals in the last quarter of an hour swept Manchester City into the last 16 of the Europa League, where...

Banks led stocks lower yesterday as the S&P 500 stalled near a 10-month-high after signs of weak European business activity rekindled concerns about a recession abroad. United States ban...

As Southeast Asian countries lined up against China in the South China Sea sign pacts with extra-territorial powers like Russia and India to redress the strategic balance, Beijing can onl...

India is resisting pressure from the United States and Israel to stop buying oil from Iran, despite Delhi signing on to various United Nations sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program...

Whether there is any substance in allegations about a plot to kill the pope cannot be established, but China's name has been dragged into the conspiracy whirlpool. That's a leap of imagin...

As Iran and Azerbaijan trade barbs over allegations of assassination plots, many worry that these and other incidents mean the countries in the South Caucasus region - American-backed Geo...

As the "Friends of Syria" coalition lays an international path for ending a conflict that has claimed more than 6,000 lives, debate is raging over whether the United States should arm Syr...

SINGAPORE, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Singapore shares mayfall on Thursday, following losses on Wall Street overnight asweak data on European business activity fanned concerns of arecession in th...

Singapore Airlines' freighter arm said Wednesday it had reduced capacity by 20 percent due to weakness in global demand and high fuel prices.

Singapore Airlines and its passengers will wave goodbye to the Boeing 747 'jumbo jet' on April 6, it has announced.

SINGAPORE, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Singapore shares maydrift lower on Wednesday, following weak starts in Tokyo andSeoul, with the surge in oil prices likely to weigh on transportstocks such a...

Singapore's prime minister has demanded an apology from a political website for a post his lawyer said alleged nepotism in the appointment of the premier's wife as head of a state-linked ...

The Alibaba Group offers up to $2.5 billion to take its Hong Kong-listed B2B trading platform private, four years after the company went public.

We talk to Michel Tosto, director and head of equities and fixed income for Viet Capital Securities, about his outlook for Vietnam.

Submissions for KNOC's bond are due this week. Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motors and Hyundai Capital are also eyeing dollar bonds.

Meanwhile Olam International taps the Singapore dollar market via a S$275 million perpetual.

Swire Pacific, Sun Hung Kai Properties and DBS rush to issue as Greek rescue package buoys credit markets.

While sympathetic to concerns over swaps-based ETFs, Kelvin Blacklock of Eastspring says fear of complexity is more to blame and explains why synthetics can sometimes work better than cas...

More hedge funds are managing less than $20 million as the billion-dollar club shrinks, says data provider Eurekahedge.

The firm may apply for up to Rmb300 million to provide an A-share strategy in a QIF structure out of Dublin. It also plans to apply for a type-1 licence in Hong Kong, where it is eager to...

The social security fund selects eFront to provide automated support for its alternative investments, with its domestic PE portfolio tipped to become increasingly important in 2012.

The firm creates a unit based on a basket of developed and EM currencies and commodities as a systematic hedging tool to safeguard against currency and inflation risks.

Nepal Minister for Local Development Top Bahadur Rayamajhi has claimed that the peace process and constitution drafting process would be concluded within the deadline. Saying that the gov...

A government probe committee discovered anomalies in international call management at the two state-owned telecom companies, Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd (BTCL) and Teletalk,...

A second bailout plan by the European Union and other concerned parties to deal with Greece's debts has finally been sealed by eurozone finance ministers. Greece, which is suffering from ...

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on Wednesday said China should handle the issue of North Korean defectors in accordance with international humanitarian norms, raising pressure on Bei...

The Thai court verdict yesterday validating the government's emergency decrees restores confidence but the government's success in preventing future flood disasters will depend on the qua...

China could face an economic crisis unless it implements deep reforms, including scaling back its state-owned enterprises and making them operate more like commercial firms, a report says...

Asian companies are tapping bond markets at a record pace, worried that the euro-zone crisis may deepen and make it impossible for them to secure funds later in the year, say bankers who ...

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Thursday called for a leadership vote within her ruling Labor Party, a day after bitter rival Kevin Rudd resigned as foreign minister, extending...

Greece braced for further anti-austerity protests while the country's parliament was debating legal changes that would clear the way for a debt restructuring.greece0222

A Nespresso exec on traveling in Bali, New York taxis and beating jet lag (hint: it involves coffee).OB-RW825_rwarri_A_20120220001023.jpg

Steffen Seibert, spokesman for Angela Merkel, insisted that Berlin saw no need to increase the size of the €500bn European Stability Mechanism

The two plans show that there is strong support for reforms to the bafflingly complicated US tax system but division about how much revenue the system should raise

China, opening a significant gap with Russia, has yet to decide whether to attend an international ‘Friends of Syria’ gathering in Tunis

Restrictions on US banks could hit sovereign debt market at key moment in recovery, say UK and Japanese finance ministers

Australian prime minister calls leadership vote after Rudd resigns and says she cannot win election

Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd resigned Wednesday, his office said, amid speculation he might mount a leadership challenge to Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

A series of blasts last week in Thailand that set off accusations between Iran and Israel involved bombs disguised as radio sets, police said Wednesday.

Hundreds of Indonesian police officers charged into a prison in Bali on Wednesday to subdue rioting inmates who had set a building on fire and thrown stones at firefighters.

Demonstrators burned tires and threw rocks outside a NATO military base in Kabul on Wednesday, as protests continued for a second day after troops burned copies of the Quran.

One year on, reminders of the massive earthquake that ripped through Christchurch, New Zealand, are never too far away, from the broken buildings to frequent aftershocks that rattle the c...

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard calls a ballot for the leadership of the Labor Party on Monday to end a tussle with Kevin Rudd.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai urges Afghans "not to resort to violence" after protests over the burning of the Koran at a US airbase near Kabul.

Former Philippine President Gloria Arroyo pleads not guilty to electoral fraud before a court in Manila.

US and North Korean officials are meeting in Beijing for the first talks on Pyongyang's nuclear programme since the death of Kim Jong-il.

The Commonwealth calls for early elections in the Maldives to help solve the crisis caused by President Mohamed Nasheed's resignation.

Afghan protesters threw rocks near an American military base in Kabul on Wednesday.A day after NATO officials apologized for the burning of Korans, American Embassy officials were on lock...

Despite official quotas, nearly 4 in 10 births in Hong Kong last year were to mainland parents.Parents go to Hong Kong for better medical care and lifelong residency benefits for their ch...

Kevin Rudd at a parliamentary dinner last November.Mr. Rudd resigned on Wednesday amid speculation that he was seeking to topple Prime Minister Julia Gillard and regain the country’s lead...

Rajni, a severely malnourished 2-year-old girl, is weighed by health workers at the Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre, Shivpuri district, Madhya Pradesh, Feb. 1, 2012.India's progress on ...

India celebrates Ash Wednesday.