SEOUL -- Shares in South Korea's Kakao Pay more than doubled on Seoul's stock market in their trading debut on Wednesday, rising as much as 156% from their initial public offering price on investor enthusiasm for the fintech company's growth potential.

Kakao Pay raised 1.5 trillion won ($1.3 billion) in its IPO last week, offering 17 million new shares. It plans to spend part of the proceeds on launching services such as mobile stock trading and nonlife insurance

TOKYO -- Japan Airlines on Tuesday forecast a net loss of 146 billion yen ($1.28 billion) for the fiscal year ending March 2022, as it struggles to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

JAL had refrained making a forecast for the current fiscal year until now, amid lingering uncertainties related to COVID-19. The company is now expected to have operating losses for a second consecutive fiscal year. The airline forecasts 766 billion yen in consolidated sales for the current

HO CHI MINH CITY/LONDON -- Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, Vietnam's richest woman, is making waves on two continents after an Oxford University college announced plans to rename itself after her following a donation of 155 million pounds ($211 million) from Thao's holding company.

The postgraduate-focused Linacre College will become Thao College after the first check from Sovico clears, the institution said Monday. So who is the tycoon replacing the 16th-century English doctor immortalized on school

TOKYO -- Japan will consider resuming issuance of long-term visas to foreign business travelers as coronavirus cases decline and other countries make progress on vaccinating their populations, Nikkei has learned.

The move would be part of a broader relaxation of travel curbs that will also include shorter quarantine periods for vaccinated visitors. These measures could be announced this week and are expected to be implemented as soon as early next week.

To qualify for a shorter quarantine, travelers must have received vaccines greenlighted for use in Japan: those from Pfizer,

MEXICO CITY/TAIPEI -- With the Beijing Olympics and a twice-a-decade Communist Party congress coming up in 2022, China is accelerating efforts to sever Taiwan's diplomatic ties with nations in Central America and the Caribbean.

"Honduras will immediately open diplomatic and commercial connections with mainland China" -- or so promises Xiomara Castro, the presidential candidate from the leading opposition Liberty and Refoundation Party, or Libre, in the country's Nov. 28 election. Honduras has maintained diplomatic ties

SINGAPORE/TOKYO -- Southeast Asia's financial markets are attracting an influx of investor funds as the region commences a long-awaited economic reopening.

The Malaysian ringgit surged to the 4.13-per-dollar range on Friday, strengthening to a level not seen since Sept. 10. In mid-October, the Indonesian rupiah approached 14,000 per dollar, touching an eight-month high.

The resilience displayed by Southeast Asian currencies contrasts with other emerging-economy currencies, such

ISTANBUL -- In January, Ugandan media showed a large convoy of armored personnel carriers driving through downtown Kampala, the capital, days before the general election. Turkish defense analysts identified the vehicles as made in Turkey.

Was the move intended to maintain security or intimidate the opposition with a show of force?

The government never said it was the latter, but President Yoweri Museveni, in power since 1986, won the election.

Today, it is Turkish drones that are in hot demand around Africa. Fresh from

SYDNEY -- New Zealand has indicated that it may cooperate with the AUKUS defense agreement between Australia, the U.K. and the U.S., a move that would be a change in the country's relatively friendly policy toward China.

Annette King, New Zealand's top diplomat to Australia, said Wellington is open to collaborating on quantum computing, artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies -- one of the areas covered by the pact.

New Zealand, however, will not be involved in the development

Tom Riley is head of global thematic strategies at AXA Investment Managers.

The eyes of the world are on Glasgow this week for the 26th U.N. Climate Change Conference of the Parties, known as COP26. Expectations are high, with the U.K. looking to sign the world up to net-zero targets by the middle of the century and keep global warming at no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius.

But among these grand goals is another, often overlooked, objective to mobilize