Tag: Region Asias

In a bid to counter the impact of U.S. sanctions, Iran and Cuba announced their commitment to enhancing relations during a joint statement in Tehran. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Cuban counterpart Miguel Diaz-Canel emphasized the need for cooperation to counter the economic challenges posed by the sanctions imposed on both nations by the United States. Raisi highlighted the potential…

SINGAPORE – A co-founder of Cake DeFi, which operates a Singapore-based online platform that offers access to decentralised finance services and products, has filed for the company to be wound up. A winding up notice in The Straits Times on Dec 7 showed that the company’s co-founder and chief technology officer Chua U-Zyn, represented by law firm Rajah & Tann Singapore,…

A former Ukrainian MP regarded by Kyiv as a traitor has been shot dead in a park in suburban Moscow, in an attack attributed to Ukraine’s SBU security service. Illia Kyva was a pro-Russian member of Ukraine’s parliament before Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, but fled to Russia a month before the start of the war and frequently…

Japanese car maker Nissan is investigating a cyberattack that targeted its systems in Australia and New Zealand, which may have let hackers access personal information. Details of the attack have not been published but the company informed customers of its Nissan Oceania division of a potential data breach, warning them that there is a risk of scams in the upcoming days….

LONDON: The Bank of England on Wednesday said its multiple interest-rate hikes aimed at cooling high inflation would prolong a cost-of-living crisis but stressed UK retail banks could contain the fallout. The BoE’s Financial Policy Committee (FPC) said in a report that almost five million UK homeowners would see mortgage repayments soar over the next three years. Retail banks tend…

  WASHINGTON – The US government concluded that short-seller Hindenburg Research’s allegations of corporate fraud against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani weren’t relevant before extending his conglomerate as much as US$553 million (S740 million) for a container terminal in Sri Lanka, a senior US official said. Allegations in a scathing report by US-based Hindenburg Research, which erased around US$100 billion from…

Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence team issued a warning earlier today about the Russian state-sponsored actor APT28 (aka “Fancybear” or “Strontium”) actively exploiting the CVE-2023-23397 Outlook flaw to hijack Microsoft Exchange accounts and steal sensitive information. The targeted entities include government, energy, transportation, and other key organizations in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. The tech giant also highlighted the…

HAGUE: A group of human rights organisations took the Dutch government to court on Monday, arguing its supply of parts for F-35 fighters contributes to violations of international law in Gaza. The case concerns US-owned F-35 parts stored at a warehouse in the Netherlands and then shipped to several partners, including Israel, via existing export agreements. Oxfam Novib, one of…

  SINGAPORE – GIC has bought two logistic facilities developed by Japanese real estate developer Daiwa House Industry for an undisclosed amount. The assets in Takatsuki city of Greater Osaka and Tosu city of Greater Fukuoka were completed in 2023 and 2021, said the Singapore sovereign wealth fund on Dec 4. “Both properties have modern building specifications that cater to…

WASHINGTON: US inspectors announced fines against China-based firms Thursday, as part of a broader effort to hold US-listed Chinese companies up to American auditing standards amid simmering geopolitical tensions. These included PwC affiliates in Hong Kong and China, alongside a Chinese audit company. The $7.9 million in penalties unveiled by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) represent some of the…

  SINGAPORE – Venture Corporation said on Nov 30 that its board of directors has established a share buyback plan to purchase up to 10 million ordinary shares of the company. This plan was authorised by the board on Nov 29, following the approval of Venture’s shareholders of the share purchase mandate at the annual general meeting on April 27,…

WASHINGTON: The US on Wednesday said it imposed a new round of sanctions on a group of 20 people and firms allegedly involved in a financial facilitation network for the benefit of the Iranian military. The Treasury Department sanctions impact firms and people spanning Hong Kong to the United Arab Emirates. Included in the sanctions package are employees, brokers and…

BRUSSELS: Alexander Pumpyansky, the son of Russian tycoon Dmitry Pumpyansky, won an appeal against sanctions the European Union introduced over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the bloc’s court said on Wednesday. In the ruling, the court said the EU council had admitted that from March 9, 2022 – two weeks after the invasion of Ukraine and six months before the first set…

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has sanctioned the Sinbad cryptocurrency mixing service for its use as a money-laundering tool by the North Korean Lazarus hacking group. A cryptocurrency mixer is a server that allows people to deposit crypto, which is mixed among many different wallet addresses to help prevent it from being accurately traced. The mixing service takes a…

HELSINKI: Finland will close its entire border with Russia to travellers for the next two weeks in a bid to halt the unusually large flow of asylum seekers to the Nordic nation, which the government and its allies say is an orchestrated move by Moscow. Finland last week shut all but one of its border posts to travellers from Russia,…

The aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower and its carrier strike group transited the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday and entered the Persian Gulf, after arriving in the waters of the Middle East earlier this month amid heightened tensions in the region stemming from the conflict between Israel and Hamas. The carrier, which departed Norfolk, Virginia, in October for a scheduled…