PALO ALTO, U.S. -- Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio announced a plan to sell up to $2 billion worth of new equity in the U.S. on Wednesday, leading to the sharpest dip in the price of its New York-listed shares since a fatal crash involving the company's self-driving system was reported in August.

Nio plans to sell new American depositary shares through an at-the-market offering, a prospectus filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Criselda Yabes is a journalist based in the Philippines. She is author of "The Battle of Marawi," her 10th book, which was published last year.

Philippine economic planners are aiming to reach a 25-year goal they call " ambisyon ," a Filipino portmanteau combining ambition and vision. The plan is that by the year 2040, the country's middle class will dominate, per capita income will have risen by 200% and just about every family will be living

TOKYO -- Sanae Takaichi, a 60-year-old former Japanese internal affairs minister, on Wednesday declared her candidacy to lead the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Takaichi is seeking to represent the conservative wing of the party that has dominated postwar Japanese politics. She has reportedly been backed former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was in power for more than seven years between 2012 and 2020.

HONG KONG -- China Evergrande Group, the world's most indebted property developer, saw its credit rating cut for the second time in as many days on Wednesday as concerns mount that its liquidity crisis will lead to debt default.

Fitch Ratings cut its score for the developer to CC, just two notches above default. The move came just a day after Moody's Investors Service slashed its rating for the company by three notches to Ca, which implies it is "likely in or very near default." S

SINGAPORE -- Ant Group has invested in a Singaporean startup that works with thousands of restaurants in Southeast Asia, a strategic move that paves the way for the Chinese fintech giant to expand beyond e-payments in the region.

Ant Group intends to use its technology to help restaurants recover from the pandemic, an executive said in explaining a move that will also help Ant further penetrate the region as China's digital economy matures.

According to Ant's announcement and DealStreetAsia's database, the Alipay operator in August invested

ATHENS, Greece -- The Syrian refugee crisis of 2015 stretched the European Union close to the breaking point. Now a potential new wave from Afghanistan is creating similar ructions in the 27-nation bloc.

The United Nations is warning that up to 500,000 Afghans may be forced to flee their homeland by the end of the year. Braced for this, the EU is stressing that it is better prepared than six years ago, when a record 1.3 million people applied

HONG KONG -- Hong Kong police on Wednesday arrested four leading members of the group that organizes the city's annual commemoration of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown for defying demands to provide membership and financial records.

Police are investigating the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China for suspected collusion with foreign forces, one of four crimes established under the national security law imposed on the city by Beijing last year.

On Tuesday, Alliance board members handed a notice to police refusing the demand for personal

SINGAPORE -- Singapore on Wednesday opened a new travel corridor that allows people who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus to enter the country without undergoing quarantine, a move the government sees as a crucial to its economic recovery.

But the long-awaited scheme has been overshadowed by the rising number of domestic COVID-19 cases. Even though more than 80% of the city-state's residents have been vaccinated, new daily cases on Tuesday reached their highest level in a year, prompting the government to urge

NEW YORK -- U.S. payment company PayPal Holdings on Wednesday announced that it will acquire the Japanese "buy now, pay later" provider Paidy for about 300 billion yen ($2.7 billion).

PayPal aims to strengthen its business in Japan by adding new services to its key cross-border e-commerce payments. The full-fledged entry of a major overseas company is expected to intensify competition in Japan's payments sector.

PayPal will make the acquisition in cash. The transaction