FRANKFURT: Rapid wage growth in the euro zone could keep inflation elevated longer and the European Central Bank should hold interest rates at or near record highs through next year to extinguish price pressures, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday. The ECB broke a streak of ten straight rate …

Biscuits, cash gift, new clothes, great food and break from school are the usual joys of celebrating a festival, but to M. Desshnaa, 12, Deepavali means being able to celebrate with both her maternal and paternal grandparents. “They live in Johor Baru and Kuala Lumpur, so I do not see …

HSINCHU/LONGTAN, Taiwan (Reuters) – Wearing rain ponchos and holding photos of their ancestral temples near Hsinchu, Taiwan’s semiconductor capital, 40 residents braved lashing winds in early October to protest plans to take their rural land for cutting-edge chip production. Two weeks later, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC), the world’s …

The head of a hospital in China has been detained as part of an investigation into whether it worked with gangs to give kidnapped youngsters new identities, China Central Television reported. Officials in Xiangyang, Hubei province, said earlier they were looking into a social media user’s claim that the head …

SEREMBAN: Four policemen have claimed trial at the Sessions Court here to charges of soliciting and accepting a bribe from a mother whose sons had been arrested for allegedly possessing syabu. Muhammad Ruzaini Firdaus Ismail, Muhammad Syahar Sansuddin@ Samsudin, both 34; as well as Mohamad Ikhwan Shafiq Mohammad and Muhammad …

WASHINGTON: Big tech companies, including Facebook-owner Meta and Google, said on Nov 7 they would team up in a new programme to fight online child sexual abuse or exploitation. Child victims of abuse online are a hot-button issue for regulators and tech companies are eager to show they are taking …

HONG KONG: Economic policy shift in China and the investment opportunities it is creating are drivers for long-term bets in the country by global asset managers, top executives said on Wednesday. “China is the world’s second-largest capital market” after the U.S., the head of BlackRock’s global client business, Mark Wiedman, …

George Town enclave full of folk seeking Deepavali goodies THE Festival of Lights signifies good triumphing over evil and for those celebrating Deepavali, it also means time at home with family and a chance to indulge in sumptuous food and wear new outfits. In Malaysia, most states have a “Little …

SYDNEY: More than 10 million Australians were cut off from Internet and phone services on Nov 8 after unexplained outages struck one of the country’s largest communications companies. Optus said it was scrambling to pinpoint and fix the outages, which crashed electronic payment systems and disrupted phone lines for emergency …

KUALA LUMPUR: The redelineation of electoral boundaries has already begun in Sarawak, the Dewan Rakyat was told. Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Ramkarpal Singh said the exercise would be carried out in Sabah in 2025, and peninsular states in 2026. “The process will involve …