Asia

New ADB fund to expand Private sector operations in frontier markets

ADB Frontier will target small investments in companies with strong potential to generate growth, employment, and climate action, and to empower women and girls.

“ADB Frontier is a meaningful scaling up of ADB’s private sector operations in frontier market countries facing unique development challenges,” said ADB Director General for Private Sector Operations Suzanne Gaboury.

The international a-peel of Aussie television's top bananas

Which Australian icons would you say are the most internationally recognised? At the closing ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, the organisers wheeled out the likes of golfing great Greg Norman on top of a giant shark on wheels, and model Elle MacPherson. But between their floats, out came three teddy bears, one rat and two bananas on a staircase.

Bali statue of Hindu god Wisnu to be world's largest

Twenty-five years and around $100 million in the making, the enormous copper and brass sculpture is of the Hindu god Wisnu astride the mythical bird Garuda.

After years of planning, re-designs, cash shortages and stop-start construction, sculptor Nyoman Nuarta says the project should be finished next September.

And the final phase — the fitting of the sculpture's skin to the concrete and steel skeleton — is well underway.

The copper and brass claws of Garuda are finally gripping an enormous, purpose-built, concrete pedestal.

"It was like rape": Women in Japan tricked into pornography

Conmen promising fortune and fame trick young women into signing modelling contracts, then later threaten them if they do not do what they ask.

Kurumin Aroma, 27, was one of them.

She dreamt of one day becoming a TV star or a musician.

When she was approached on the streets of Tokyo by a man who offered to give her a start in modelling, she thought she would take a chance.

What does Donald Trump mean for Asia?

That's the big question facing Asia as President-elect Donald Trump gears up for the Oval Office.

"Trump's victory has amplified uncertainty across Asia. Many people are dismayed," says Jeff Kingston, director of Asian studies at Temple University in Japan.

From China and Japan to the smaller nations of southeast Asia, the region's leaders want to know whether Trump will make good on his campaign promises and potshots, which have the potential to shake up alliances, upend the geopolitical map and risk all-out conflict.

 

Japan

An early jump for US stocks following big gains overseas

Several stocks were moving on corporate news in early trading Wednesday.

Ralph Lauren jumped 13 percent after the company named a new CEO to replace the company's founder. The stock is still down sharply for the year.

Chesapeake Energy rose 3 percent after announcing that it would cut 15 percent of its workforce.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 227 points, or 1.4 percent, to 16,275 as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time.

Rowing thrown Commonwealth Games lifeline

Under a new proposal adopted by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) at its General Assembly here yesterday, host cities must in future include 16 core sports as part of the programme and then can choose as many as they want from a list of optional sports and disciplines as long as it does not exceed a further 500 athletes.

Rowing had been on the previous list of optional sports but has now been dropped, leading to Annamarie Phelps, the chairman of British Rowing, to launch a campaign to save it.

US stocks close mixed as China's currency stabilizes

 Major markets in Europe and Asia made gains, while the U.S. stock market finished with a slight loss.

Officials from China's central bank defended recent moves to loosen the government's grip on its currency, saying that the yuan will eventually rebound from its recent fall. There is "no basis for persistent and substantial devaluation," said a deputy central bank governor, Zhang Xiaohui. The yuan is close to "market levels" after two days of sharp drops, Zhang said.