politics

Six individuals, including a former prime minister, charged with seeking to mount a coup, their lawyers say. Malian authorities have charged six prominent figures, including a former prime minister, with seeking to mount a coup in August last year, their lawyers said. The public prosecutor’s office in the capital Bamako said in a statement on Thursday that six people were under investigation for “plotting against the government, criminal association, insulting the head of state and complicity”. A group of lawyers defending the six said the individuals, who include Boubou Cisse, the last prime minister before the August move, had been charged with an “attempted coup”. “All of those charged are civilian figures with no established connection to anyone in the military,” they said. Five of the...

Ford had been expected to terminate its India business after struggling in the world’s fourth-biggest car market. Ford Motor Co. is reversing plans to cede most of its Indian operations to Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., deciding to pull out of a proposed joint venture and continue its standalone business in the country. The companies agreed to terminate the venture after reassessing in part due to the global coronavirus pandemic, they said Thursday. The decision ends a deal reached more than a year ago under which Ford was expected to fold its local operations, including two factories, into a JV that would be majority-controlled by Mahindra, a leading Indian manufacturer of sport utility vehicles. The future of Ford’s business in India is unclear as it has struggled for more than two decade...

Move follows Trump order barring US investments in Chinese companies allegedly tied to China’s military. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is starting the process of delisting securities of three Chinese telecommunications companies, China Telecom Corporation Limited, China Mobile Limited and China Unicom (Hong Kong) Limited, it said in a statement. The move comes after US President Donald Trump in November unveiled an executive order barring United States investments in Chinese companies that Washington says are owned or controlled by the Chinese military, which could affect some of China’s biggest companies. The November executive order sought to give teeth to a 1999 law mandating that the Department of Defense compile a list of Chinese military companies. The Pentagon, which only compl...

Investors will be assessing whether global economic recovery helped by vaccines will be impeded by a new virus strain. Asian shares edged up on Thursday and were set to end a tumultuous 2020 at record highs, while growing investor hopes for a global economic recovery caused the dollar to fall further against most main currencies. MSCI’s gauge of Asia-Pacific shares excluding Japan rose 0.1 percent to its latest peak, having explored new highs repeatedly late in the year. But year-end trading was typically thin with many investors on holiday. The index is set for a fourth-quarter gain of more than 19 percent, which would be its strongest three-month performance since 2009 and a yearly rise just shy of 20 percent, which would be its highest since 2017. “A lot of the rise in the second part o...

US will raise duties on European plane-making parts, some non-sparkling wines and cognac following EU measures in November. The Trump administration announced additional tariffs on some products from the EU as part of a long-running dispute over subsidies to aircraft makers Airbus SE and Boeing Co. In November, the EU instituted duties on some $4 billion in trade from the U.S. after gaining approval from the World Trade Organization. A year earlier, the U.S. had imposed tariffs — also authorized by the WTO — on about $7.5 billion in imports from the EU and U.K. including French wine and Scotch whisky. The U.S. Trade Representative’s office on Wednesday said it was amending some of its tariffs because the EU used a time period that affected “substantially more products than would have been ...

Beijing condemns the trip – the 13th this year – as a ‘provocatio’ and “show of force’. Two US warships sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait on Thursday in the second such mission this month, drawing a protest from Beijing. It happened almost two weeks after a Chinese aircraft carrier group used the same waterway. China, which claims democratically run Taiwan as its own, has been angered by stepped-up United States support for the island, including arms sales and its warships sailing through the Taiwan Strait. The US Navy said the guided-missile destroyers USS John S McCain and USS Curtis Wilbur had “conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit December 31 in accordance with international law”. “The ships’ transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the US commitment to a free and op...

The arrest of Khawaja Asif, who served as foreign minister in the government of former PM Nawaz Sharif, comes amid opposition-led protests. Pakistan’s anti-corruption body on Tuesday ordered the arrest of a key opposition leader on charges of having assets higher than his known sources of income, a spokesman said. The arrest of Khawaja Asif, who served as foreign minister in the government of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, comes days after the opposition asked Prime Minister Imran Khan to resign until January 31 or face prolonged protests in the capital Islamabad. Pakistani opposition parties have been holding rallies across the country to pressure Khan to resign over his alleged failure to improve the country’s economy. In a brief statement, Nawazish Ali, a spokesperson for the Natio...

North Korea’s Kim Jong Un will likely seek fresh impetus for driving growth at a ruling party congress in January after the pandemic added to the pain of sanctions that leave him with a smaller economy than the one he took over nine years ago. After closing its borders in response to Covid-19, North Korea’s gross domestic product likely shrank 8.5% in 2020, according to a projection by Fitch Solutions. That would be the biggest contraction in data back to 1990 and would leave the economy around 9% smaller than when Kim took power with a pledge to improve people’s living standards. The figures point to an accelerated need for Kim to come up with a new five year economic plan to survive the crisis and ensure he maintains a firm grip on power. On Tuesday, Kim examined preparations for the con...

Investors expect authorities to continue to make it easy for banks, businesses and people to borrow money and thus support their economies. Asian shares hit a record high on Wednesday as investors bet on a strong economic recovery next year, as there is little sign policymakers are winding back large stimulus efforts aimed at staving off coronavirus-fuelled downturns. MSCI’s gauge of Asia-Pacific shares excluding Japan rose 0.6 percent to hit a record high, led by gains in Chinese shares, bringing its gains so far this year to 18.2 percent. Japan’s Nikkei share average lost 0.58 percent on its last trading day of 2020 after jumping to a 30-year high on Tuesday. For the year, it was up 15.8 percent. “Investors stick to a bullish view overall and some are starting to bet further on rise in e...