Author: viking

Kazakhstan’s government is facing growing popular resentment against China, one of its major economic partners, as accounts emerge of Chinese-Kazakhs and Kazakh nationals being sent to “political re-education camps” in China’s Xinjiang region.
In a widely followed case, a Kazakh court on Wednesday allowed an illegal Chinese immigrant to stay in the country after she gave details about an indoctrination centre in Xinjiang where she had been employed. “In China, they…

Homes destroyed. Crops ruined. Livelihoods snuffed out. This week witnessed another trail of devastation caused by catastrophes in Southeast Asia, scenes that are depressingly familiar in the world’s most disaster-prone region. At least 16 people died and more than 500 hikers needed rescuing from the slopes of Indonesia’s Mount Rinjani after an earthquake struck on Sunday night – while more than 5,000 local residents on the island of Lombok were effectively left homeless…

The Bank of England’s monetary policy committee (MPC) has unanimously voted to increase the central bank interest rate (‘base rate’) to 0.75%, in what is only the second increase since the financial crisis of 2008.

The market for card-acquiring services is set to be scrutinised by a UK regulator after concerns were raised about the way fees are levied and the ease with which retailers can switch providers.

The effect that businesses controlling access to data has on competition in markets is to be scrutinised by a new panel that has been set up in the UK.

Clutching his elephant toy, Avyaan’s conversation is pretty much limited to a happy gurgle, but the nine-month-old might be about to go down in history for helping make breastfeeding in public more socially acceptable in prudish India.
Public breastfeeding carries a social stigma in much of the world – a situation that World Breastfeeding Week until August 7 hopes to change – but in highly conservative India it is particularly taboo.
The country’s hundreds of millions of…

All businesses regulated to provide payment services in the UK will be required to adhere to high-level standards that many other regulated financial services firms are already obliged to meet under new proposals outlined by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Thailand will lose more than half a million Chinese tourists in response to a deadly boating accident that killed nearly 50 people last month, a potential blow to the country’s vital tourism sector.
The Phoenix was carrying 105 people – mostly Chinese – when it sank on the way back from a popular snorkelling spot on July 5 off the southern resort island of Phuket.
It was among three vessels which ignored a bad weather warning against island day trips.
The boat’s captain…

US President Donald Trump has thanked North Korea’s leader for “sending home” the remains of dozens of presumed casualties from the Korean war.
“That you to Chairman Kim Jong-un for keeping your word & starting the process of sending home the remains of our great and beloved missing fallen! I am not at all surprised that you took this kind action. Also, thank you for your nice letter – l look forward to seeing you soon!,” Trump said in a tweet. Thank…

Fears that embankments could burst under fresh rains mounted on Wednesday in flooded southeastern Myanmar, where more than 130,000 people have been forced from their homes and a dozen people killed.
A vast area of farmland across four provinces lies under muddy water with rescue teams trying to reach villages by boat to provide food to those who are unable or refuse to leave their homes.
Above the town of Madauk in Bago region, floodwaters are only inches from the top of vulnerable embankments…