By Gopal Sharma KATHMANDU (Reuters) – A Nepali sherpa guide climbed Mount Everest for the 26th time on Sunday, hiking officials said, becoming the world’s second person to achieve the feat. Pasang Dawa Sherpa, 46, stood atop the 8,849-m (29,032-ft) peak, sharing the record number of summits with Kami Rita Sherpa, said Bigyan Koirala, a…
MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippines has placed navigational buoys within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) to assert sovereignty over the disputed Spratly islands in the South China Sea, a coast guard spokesperson said on Sunday. The step comes amid China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the South China Sea as Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr pursues…
By Adrian Portugal MANILA (Reuters) -A Philippine court on Friday acquitted of a drugs charge one of the fiercest critics of ex-President Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs”, a move welcomed by activists who called her incarceration a vindictive effort to harass and silence her. The court cleared former senator Leila de Lima, 63, of the…
By Asif Shahzad and Ariba Shahid ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -A Pakistani court ordered former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s release on bail for two weeks, his lawyer said on Friday, after his arrest in a land fraud case ignited deadly protests and a tussle with the military. Khan departed the court premises, headed towards his hometown Lahore,…
By Philip Blenkinsop BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Washington and the EU will pledge joint action to tackle concerns focused on China about non-market practices and coordinate their export controls on semiconductors and other goods at a meeting this month, a draft statement showed. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, European Commission Vice-President Margrethe Vestager and other…
By Chayut Setboonsarng BANGKOK (Reuters) – From the back of open-top trucks and cars, candidates of Thailand’s political parties drove through Bangkok on Saturday, as a months-long campaign that could usher in a new government for the first time in nearly a decade drew to a close. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha faces an uphill battle…
By Andrea Shalal NIIGATA, Japan (Reuters) -Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Saturday called a showdown over raising the U.S. debt ceiling “more difficult” than in the past but said she remained hopeful a solution could be found to avert a first ever U.S. default Yellen told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of a…
By Aditya Kalra and Aftab Ahmed NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s streaming platform JioCinema announced premium pricing of 999 Indian rupees ($12) a year, its first step to move away from a free content model to fight global rivals such as Netflix and Disney in the country. The move comes weeks after a…
TOKYO (Reuters) -The Group of Seven (G7) rich nations is set to agree on establishing a new programme to distribute vaccines to developing countries at next week’s summit of leaders, Japan’s Yomiuri newspaper said on Saturday. In addition to the G7, G20 nations such as India and international groups such as the World Health Organization…
By Andrea Shalal NIIGATA, Japan (Reuters) – British finance minister Jeremy Hunt said on Saturday it would be “absolutely devastating” if the United States failed to reach agreement to raise its debt ceiling and had its gross domestic product “knocked off track”. Hunt told reporters that Group of Seven (G7) finance chiefs in Japan had…
