Author: AFP

SINGAPORE: The founder of a failed Singapore oil trading company was sentenced Monday to nearly 18 years in jail for cheating banking giant HSBC out of millions of dollars in one of the country’s most serious cases of fraud. Lim Oon Kuin, 82, better known as O.K. Lim, was convicted

MANILA: Filipinos cleared fallen trees and repaired damaged houses on Monday after the sixth major storm to batter the Philippines in a month smashed flimsy buildings, knocked out power and claimed at least eight lives. The national weather service had warned of a “potentially catastrophic” impact from Man-yi, which was

MANILA: A super typhoon sweeping towards the Philippines on Saturday was intensifying and could have a “potentially catastrophic” impact, the state weather forecaster warned, with millions of people at risk from storm surges. More than 650,000 people have fled their homes ahead of Super Typhoon Man-yi, which is expected to

PARIS: News outlets have begun quitting X, formerly Twitter, once a favourite of global media but now accused of enabling the spread of disinformation under its owner, president-elect Donald Trump ally Elon Musk. Citing a “harsh and extreme” climate, Sweden’s newspaper of reference, the left-liberal Dagens Nyheter (DN), on Friday

BAKU: Former US vice president Al Gore told AFP Friday it was “absurd” for petrostates such as Azerbaijan to host UN climate talks, saying the selection process should be overhauled. Mukhtar Babayev, a former oil executive who now serves as Azerbaijan’s ecology minister, is chairing the COP29 talks in Baku

WELLINGTON: Indigenous Maori lawmakers disrupted New Zealand’s parliament with a stirring “haka” dance, voicing opposition to a race relations bill that has ignited protests across the country. A contentious bid to reinterpret a centuries-old treaty between New Zealand’s Maori and European settlers was set to be debated in parliament on

HAVANA: Two powerful earthquakes rocked southern Cuba in quick succession on Sunday, US geologists said, just days after the island was struck by a hurricane that knocked out power nationwide. The quakes cracked walls and damaged homes, but did not appear to have caused any deaths, according to preliminary reports.

MOSCOW: Russia and Ukraine both launched record drone attacks on each other overnight, despite a phone call reported by the Washington Post from US president-elect Donald Trump urging Russian President Vladimir Putin not to escalate the conflict. Trump’s election to the White House has the potential to upend the almost

BEIJING: Chinese police have cracked down on an internet craze that saw thousands of cyclists throng a highway under cover of night to gorge on dumplings in a nearby city. University students sparked the trend weeks ago when they posted on social media about an evening ride from the central