BUSINESS

Asian markets rose Friday after falling for much of the week, with below-forecast US data injecting some fresh life into hopes the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates this year.

The US and Chinese defence chiefs were in Singapore on Friday for a major security forum where they are set to hold rare direct talks, with Taiwan and other flashpoint disputes expected to dominate the three-day event.

Nora Cortinas, one of the so-called "Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo" rights group fighting for answers on the fate of people disappeared under Argentina's military dictatorship, has died aged 94, fellow activists announced Thursday.

Donald Trump once boasted "When you're a star, they let you do it. Despite the sounds and the fury of four years of tweeting, he got some things done -- Republicans boast that the economy was better back then, and he at least started the border wall he had pledged to build.

Harbour Capital Partners, founded in 2016 by Daniel Wachtel, is an investment advisory firm that is committed to helping businesses, especially smaller ones, access investment capital that is crucial for their success.

Oil giant Saudi Aramco said on Thursday it plans to sell 1.545 billion shares worth more than $10 billion in one of the biggest such offerings in recent years.

Mexico's outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is a veteran leftist and self-proclaimed anti-corruption fighter who remains widely popular after nearly six years in office.

French pharmacists began their first walkout in 10 years on Thursday, closing up shop over drug shortages, low regulated prices, pharmacy closures and fears medications could be sold online.

A French village preserved as a reminder of Nazi cruelty since Waffen-SS troops murdered 643 people there in 1944 is in danger of decay, sparking efforts to preserve the site.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and nearly two dozen Democrats called on the Justice Department Thursday to investigate the oil and gas industry over allegations of price-fixing.

Social media giant Meta says its bid to thwart coordinated disinformation campaigns created through ever-improving generative AI is working, despite widespread concerns.

Africa's economy has shown resilience overall despite global conditions but growth needs to be in double digits to truly tackle poverty on the continent, the African Development Bank (AfDB) said on Thursday.

NATO foreign ministers gathered in Prague on Thursday in the face of growing calls for leading allies to lift restrictions stopping Kyiv from using Western weapons to strike inside Russia.

On the face of it, the villain from "Shrek", British singer turned TV presenter Cilla Black, and national service have nothing in common.

Google will invest $2 billion in Malaysia to house the firm's first data centre in the country, the government said Thursday, making it the latest tech titan to pump cash into the region in search of growth opportunities.

More than 300 politicians, health experts and celebrities on Thursday called for US pharmaceutical giant Gilead to allow cheap, generic versions of a promising new HIV drug to be produced so it can reach people in developing countries most affected by the deadly disease.

Shares of American Airlines dove Wednesday after it lowered its profit outlook, citing weaker demand and a troubled booking system upgrade.

At a Tehran cafe, Hamid waves his mobile around hoping to latch onto a faint signal and thus bypass Iran's stringent ban on the latest models of iPhone.

Boeing is expected to deliver on Thursday a "comprehensive action plan" required by US air safety regulators after a near-catastrophic incident in January.

Asian markets fell Thursday, with traders tracking losses on Wall Street fuelled by concerns over rising Treasury yields and fading hopes for US interest rate cuts.

Ballot counting was under way Thursday after South Africans queued long into the night to vote in a watershed election that could spell the end of the ANC's 30-year-old unchallenged majority.

Australia's government said Thursday its cyber security office was "engaging" with US-based Ticketmaster after a hacking group claimed to have accessed the details of 560 million global customers.

The British parliament dissolved on Thursday ahead of a July 4 general election, which looks set to bring Labour to power after 14 years of Conservative rule.

Campaigning to be Mexico's next president approached a climax Wednesday with two women leading the race for the first time in the violence-plagued Latin American nation.

Major League Baseball formally adopted statistics from the racially segregated Negro Leagues into its official history on Wednesday, rewriting the record books at a stroke in a landmark move which confronts the sport's racist past.

While the noted increase did not even reach 1%, it still created an immediate effect on mortgage demand, which had already started strengthening over several weeks.

Around 200 Georgian NGOs on Wednesday vowed to defy a "foreign influence" law that has caused deep divisions in the Caucasus country, triggering mass protests and international condemnation.

A new volcanic eruption began on Wednesday on the Reykjanes peninsula in southwestern Iceland, the country's meteorological office said, shortly after authorities evacuated the nearby town of Grindavik.

A billionaire with interests in football clubs, media outlets, supermarkets and now the potential new owner of Britain's Royal Mail, Czech Daniel Kretinsky retains a stubbornly low profile internationally.