India's Modi unveils $1.3tn infrastructure plan 'for next 25 years'
NEW DELHI -- India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday launched an ambitious 100 trillion rupee ($1.3 trillion) plan for integrated infrastructure development aimed at creating employment for hundreds of thousands of people and strengthening the economy.
"With the resolve of a self-reliant India, the foundation of India for the next 25 years is being laid," Modi said, adding that the plan will promote next-generation infrastructure and improve transport connections.
The plan, called PM Gati Shakti,
Honda's new business jet design aims to fly N.Y. to L.A. nonstop
TOKYO -- Honda Motor's aircraft unit has unveiled a concept for a larger business jet that could fly from New York to Los Angeles without refueling.
The HondaJet 2600 would have a maximum range of 4,862 km, about 80% longer than the current HondaJet -- the bestselling small business jet for four straight years.
The announcement comes as demand for business flights makes only a slow recovery from the travel restrictions of the coronavirus pandemic.
Honda Aircraft, which unveiled a mock-
From Turkey to South Korea, strong dollar squeezes the energy-poor
TOKYO -- The interest-rate-driven strength of the dollar has battered currencies of energy-importing economies like Turkey, Brazil and South Korea, adding to the pressure from high crude oil prices.
The Turkish lira was down 8% against the greenback on Tuesday compared with the end of August. The South Korean won touched a 15-month low against the dollar. That day, Bank of Korea Gov. Lee Ju-yeol indicated that the central bank may intervene to prop up the national currency.
Weaker
Japan's Kishida holds 1st NSC to revise 8-year-old security strategy
TOKYO -- Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held his first National Security Council meeting Wednesday, in which he discussed reviewing the eight-year-old national security strategy to fit the challenges of today.
The core NSC members -- the prime minister, the chief cabinet secretary, foreign minister and defense minister -- were joined by Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki and Takayuki Kobayashi, minister in charge of economic security.
Kishida announced in his first policy speech to parliament on Oct. 8 that he will be revising the security strategy.
Indonesia turns to state coffers as China-led rail project's costs soar
JAKARTA -- When Indonesia awarded the contract for the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway to a Chinese consortium six years ago, the project was supposed to be completed by 2018 with no financial contributions or guarantees required from the Indonesian government.
But with construction years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo issued a decree Sept. 6 that lets the government put state funds into the project -- negating one of the biggest perks that had led Indonesia to choose the Chinese
Analysis: The man who knew too much of Xi's power plays is out
Katsuji Nakazawa is a Tokyo-based senior staff writer and editorial writer at Nikkei. He spent seven years in China as a correspondent and later as China bureau chief. He was the 2014 recipient of the Vaughn-Ueda International Journalist prize.
TOKYO -- China's weeklong holiday period that began Oct. 1 with National Day gave ordinary Chinese time to travel and relax. But this time of year also tends to be one of political earthquakes.
This year was no different. On Oct. 2,
States can no longer turn a blind eye to jailed human rights defenders
Mary Lawlor is the United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders. She is a djunct professor of business and human rights in the Centre for Social Innovation at Trinity College Dublin.
When Lodkham Thammavong attended a peaceful demonstration in Thailand about human rights abuses in her native Laos, she had no idea it would land her in prison. But soon after her return home to Laos, she was arrested and sentenced to 12 years in jail after an unfair trial.
She and her colleagues were forced to make false
China's housing price declines spread to more than half of provinces
BEIJING -- Housing prices have fallen in a majority of China's provinces for the first time in more than six years as the government tries to tame a real estate bubble, sending debt-laden local authorities rushing to put a floor under the declines.
Sixteen out of 31 provincial-level divisions, which include cities directly administered by the central government, logged price declines in August, the most since March 2015, official data shows.
As tax cuts aimed at stimulating the economy cut into revenue
U.S. hosts global talks on China, Russia cyber threats
WASHINGTON -- The U.S., Japan, and the European Union are among around 30 friendly nations that joined a two-day online conference starting Wednesday to discuss cybersecurity threats.
Hosted by the U.S. National Security Council, the meeting will not be attended by countries such as Russia and China as they are suspected of malicious digital activities. Ministers from countries such as the U.K., Australia, India, Brazil and South Korea participated in the talks.
The main topic of the conference
Key U.S. West Coast ports stay open 24/7 to unsnarl supply chain
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK -- The U.S. will keep major West Coast ports open around the clock to handle a long-running backlog of imports from China and elsewhere in Asia that is preventing many goods from reaching American store shelves, President Joe Biden said Wednesday.
"Today we have some good news," he said. "We're going to help speed up the delivery of goods all across America."
Biden also announced commitments from major companies and freight movers including Walmart, UPS and FedEx -