Analysis-Remaining Western firms face tricky Russian exits

By Alexander Marrow (Reuters) – After months of negotiations, Finland’s Nokian Tyres was on the cusp late last year of finalising a 400-million-euro ($440.32 million) sale of its Russian business. Then Moscow changed the rules again. The government in December demanded that companies leaving Russia sell their operations for at least half price and claimed…

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New North Korean space rocket features engine from ICBMs, analysts say

By Josh Smith SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea’s latest space launcher appears to be a new design and most likely uses engines developed for the nuclear-armed country’s intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), analysts said on Thursday. The rocket, dubbed the Chollima-1, failed during its first launch attempt on Wednesday. It lifted off successfully but its second…

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US Defense Secretary Austin says China’s meeting snub unfortunate

By Tim Kelly TOKYO (Reuters) -U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Thursday it was “unfortunate” his Chinese counterpart had declined to meet him at an upcoming security forum because they needed to communicate to stop dangerous encounters between military aircraft. On Tuesday, the U.S. said a Chinese fighter jet carried out an “unnecessarily aggressive”…

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Modi’s chip making plan flounders as firms struggle to find tech partners

By Munsif Vengattil, Aditya Kalra and Jane Lanhee Lee NEW DELHI/OAKLAND, California (Reuters) -Big companies including a Foxconn joint venture that bid for India’s $10 billion semiconductor incentives are struggling due to the lack of a technology partner, a major setback for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s chipmaking ambitions. A planned $3 billion semiconductor facility in…

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US House votes to suspend debt ceiling and avoid default

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A majority of the U.S. House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to approve a bipartisan bill to suspend the government’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling, just five days before the deadline to avoid a crippling default. Voting continued on the legislation, which must also be approved by the Democratic-majority Senate before President Joe…

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