Author: Reuters

SoftBank-backed Grab targets $2 billion more in funding this year

SINGAPORE: Grab aims to raise another $2 billion this year as it ramps up expansion, its chief executive said, just weeks after announcing over $4.5 billion of funding in what has become Southeast Asia’s largest round of private financing. “We expect to raise $6.5 billion of total capital this year,”

In Japan, talking to someone called key in suicide reduction

TOKYO: All the phones at a Japanese suicide hot line started ringing at 8pm on a Friday night, exactly when it opened, filling a narrow room off a Tokyo back street with the voices of those trying to help. “Is it trouble at work, or something at home?” asked Machiko

Homeless man in Los Angeles arrested over bike-riding slasher attacks

LOS ANGELES: Los Angeles police arrested a 19-year-old homeless man on Wednesday on suspicion he is the “slasher” who has cut the faces of at least nine people, seemingly at random, as he rode through the city on a bicycle, police said. Police said the man was detained on suspicion

New Zealanders set to turn in guns

CHRISTCHURCH: The pre-dawn quiet of New Zealand’s South Island is shattered by the crack of a bullet from Noel Womersley’s Finnish Tikka T3 rifle, followed by the shot thudding into the skull of a cow he is targeting, one of three. For 14 years Womersley has worked at “home kill,”

Facebook, Twitter sucked into India-Pakistan information war

ISLAMABAD / NEW DELHI: Pakistani social media campaigner Hanzala Tayyab leads about 300 ultra-nationalist cyber warriors fighting an internet war with arch-foe India, in a battle that is increasingly sucking in global tech giants such as Twitter and Facebook. Tayyab, 24, spends his days on Facebook and encrypted WhatsApp chatrooms

Australian shoppers splurge in boost to retailers, economy

SYDNEY: Australian retailers enjoyed their best sales in February since late-2017 in a boon to economic growth in the first quarter, signalling surprising resilience in household consumption and sending the local dollar higher. Retail sales climbed 0.8 percent in February, figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed yesterday,

UK headed for slump as Brexit fears hit services

LONDON: Britain’s economy looks likely to shrink over the coming months, after Brexit worries caused the dominant services sector to contract for the first time in nearly three years, a survey showed yesterday. The IHS Markit/CIPS Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), a survey of services ranging from giant banks to high-street

Erdogan loses hold over Turkish capital

ANKARA: Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan suffered a severe setback as his ruling AK Party lost control of the capital Ankara for the first time in a local election and he appeared to concede defeat in the country’s largest city, Istanbul. Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics since coming to power 16

Japan’s business confidence hits two-year low as trade war stings

TOKYO: Japan’s business mood slumped to a two-year low in the March quarter, a central bank survey showed, underscoring concerns that Sino-US trade tensions and softening global demand were taking a toll on the export-reliant economy. The gloom was most pronounced among big manufacturers, where sentiment soured at the fastest

Japan’s business confidence hits two-year low as trade war stings

TOKYO: Japan’s business mood slumped to a two-year low in the March quarter, a central bank survey showed, underscoring concerns that Sino-US trade tensions and softening global demand were taking a toll on the export-reliant economy. The gloom was most pronounced among big manufacturers, where sentiment soured at the fastest