CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan opposition candidate Maria Corina Machado on Tuesday announced an alliance with political parties and civil society organizations that will help organize her campaign to challenge President Nicolas Maduro, and she called for an exact date for the elections. Machado is currently barred from holding public office …

KUALA LUMPUR: Eight more suspects linked to a Sabah-based drug ring allegedly led by a Datuk are still at large, according to police. Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay said that the eight suspects included four Filipinos and an Indonesian. Malaysians Haibil Kiraman, Sahairul Din Sabudin …

TOKYO: The Bank of Japan (BoJ) maintains its signature monetary easing measures, as speculation grows of a shift away from its ultra-loose stance. After a two-day policy meeting, board members decided to keep interest rates in negative territory that is a global anomaly which has driven down the yen against …

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – The number of people reported killed as Haiti faces a worsening conflict between heavily armed gangs increased by more than 110% last year to reach 4,789, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a report published on Tuesday. “I am appalled by the staggering and worsening level …

SYDNEY: Australia’s business conditions eased in the final month of last year while confidence remained at below average levels, reflecting the central bank’s policy tightening campaign to tackle elevated inflation. Business conditions, which measure sales, employment and profitability, slid two points to seven in December, a National Australia Bank Ltd …

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s parliament backed Sweden’s NATO membership bid on Tuesday, clearing a last major hurdle toward enlarging the Western bloc after 20 months of delays that frustrated some of Ankara’s allies and extracted some concessions. In May 2022, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan raised objections to requests by Sweden …

BEIJING: Xi Jinping’s crackdown on official corruption has ripped through a secretive missile force, the Communist Party elite, the national football team, and now risks hammering a finance industry already grappling with an economic slowdown. Since rising to power a decade ago, Xi has waged a constant campaign against deep-seated …

OTTAWA (Reuters) – The Canadian government will appeal a court ruling that Ottawa’s use of emergency powers in early 2022 to end anti-government protests was unreasonable, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Tuesday. A federal judge earlier on Tuesday said the Liberal government’s use of the Emergencies Act to clear …

WARSAW (Reuters) – Polish President Andrzej Duda on Tuesday pardoned two members of the former government and called for their immediate release from prison, in line with demands from the main opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party that lost power last month. Former interior minister Mariusz Kaminski and his deputy …

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Australian Open organisers were breathing a sigh of relief as Tuesday’s schedule concluded at the relatively ‘early’ time of just before 1.30am but scheduling issues were again on the agenda for the year’s first Grand Slam. Coco Gauff’s clash with Marta Kostyuk ran for over three hours …