World

Emperor Naruhito, who turns 62 today, is known for his compassionate and sociable personality, as well as his proficiency in English, as the first emperor to have studied outside Japan. Emperor Naruhito holds a news conference prior to his 61st birthday in February 2021 at the Akasaka Imperial Residence in Tokyo. | KYODO Born in 1960, the eldest son of Emperor Emeritus Akihito and Empress Emerita Michiko, the emperor made his first overseas trip to Australia in 1974. After he graduated from the Department of History in the Faculty of Letters of Gakushuin University, he traveled to the United Kingdom in 1983 and spent two years living in a dormitory and studying at Oxford University’s Merton College. He studied the history of transport on the River Thames, and his interest in issues assoc...

WASHINGTON: PayPal Holdings Inc on Thursday (Mar 17) expanded its services to allow Ukrainian citizens and refugees to receive payments from overseas, a move a senior Ukrainian official called a huge help as Russian forces continued to attack the country. PayPal Chief Executive Dan Schulman told Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov in a letter that Ukrainians would also be able to transfer funds from their PayPal accounts to eligible credit and debit cards. The company has waived its fees on such transactions through Jun 30. More than three million Ukrainians have fled the country since Russia launched its invasion on Feb 24, an action Russia has described as a "special military operation.". PayPal's move will allow refugees and Ukrainians to receive funds from friends and family memb...

Supporters await the arrival of presidential candidate Yoon Seok-youl of the main opposition People Power Party during during a presidential election campaign on Feb. 15, 2022, in Seoul, South Korea. Chung Sung-jun | Getty Images News | Getty Images A conservative victory for South Korea's upcoming presidential election could see the country adopt a rigid stance on North Korea and China, potentially igniting fresh tensions in the Asia-Pacific. Yoon Seok-youl of the conservative People Power Party and Lee Jae-myung of the ruling Democratic Party (DP) are the front-runners for the March 9 vote. A string of opinion polls conducted by Gallup Korea, a research company, show Yoon and Lee running neck and neck, indicating a tight race ahead. In one survey of 1,000 adults on Feb. 25, Lee's public...

Airlines are bracing for potentially lengthy blockages of key east-west flight corridors after the European Union and Moscow issued tit-for-tat airspace bans and Washington did not rule out similar action in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Industry officials expect the Biden administration will ban Russia from U.S. airspace. The White House said on Monday while barring Russian flights was not off the table, it had yet to make a decision. “There are a lot of flights that U.S. airlines fly over Russia to go to Asia and other parts of the world and we factor in a range of factors,” White House spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters. The issue has been the subject of intense U.S. government discussions in recent days. A European official, who asked not to be identified, said the EU...

Select’s editorial team works independently to review financial products and write articles we think our readers will find useful. We earn a commission from affiliate partners on many offers, but not all offers on Select are from affiliate partners. The Alaska Airlines Visa® Credit Card is a credit card offered by Alaska Airlines and Bank of America that gives consumers the opportunity to earn Alaska miles on their expenses as well as enjoy perks when traveling with the airline. While this is a relatively simple airline credit card, the beauty of the miles you earn lie in being able to book flights with Alaska's partner airlines which include: American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines, Emirates, Fiji Airways and more. And while the airline is largely centered around airports o...

South Koreans head to the polls Wednesday to elect a new leader, but it’s unclear if a fresh face in the presidential Blue House will be enough to help repair ties with Tokyo, which have tumbled to their lowest point in decades. The two front-runners in the race — former prosecutor Yoon Suk-yeol of the People Power Party and the ruling Democratic Party’s Lee Jae-myung, a former governor of Gyeonggi province — remain neck-and-neck in their bids to become South Korea’s next leader. But how will the South Korea-Japan relationship fare under a Yoon or Lee administration? Two neighbors divided South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s time in office, a single five-year term that ends in May, has seen ties between the two neighbors deteriorate over a number of thorny historical issues related to ...

SINGAPORE: From Monday (Mar 7), canteens and coffee shops in Singapore will have three new options for accommodating groups of up to five diners. Here is what you need to know about these new options for implementing vaccination-differentiated safe management measures (VDS): WHO CAN DINE IN? There is no change to rules on who can dine in. Dining in at coffee shops and canteens implementing the new VDS options will continue to be limited to those who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19; those who have recovered from COVID-19 in Singapore; children under the age of 12; and those who are medically ineligible for all vaccines under the national vaccination programme. WHAT’S NEW? Prior to the introduction of the new VDS options, coffee shops and canteens had to conduct vaccination...

NEW YORK : The euro retreated from its overnight gains on Thursday following the European Central Bank's announcement it will phase out its stimulus in the third quarter, while the dollar strengthened after a strong U.S. inflation report. The statement from the ECB, which left the door open to an interest rate hike before the end of 2022 as soaring inflation outweighs concerns about the fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, briefly sent the euro higher, before market sentiment turned negative. "The euro got a double whammy, from what is still a relatively dovish ECB - lower growth obviously - and with the higher inflation the market is really starting to price in a rate differential between the dollar and the euro," said Boris Schlossberg, managing director of FX strategy at BK Asse...

Getty Images Interest rates are almost undoubtedly going up this month, for the first time in three years. The Federal Reserve is expected to raise its benchmark interest rate by 0.25% next week to curb inflation, which is running at a 40-year high. Additional hikes are likely later this year. American households will feel that policy impact in many ways, both positive and negative, according to financial advisors. "The Fed raising rates touches pretty much every single corner of the economy," said Andy Baxley, a certified financial planner at The Planning Center in Chicago. 1. Loans Higher interest rates translate to costlier financing for borrowers. That's true for mortgages, student loans, auto loans, credit cards, margin loans on investment accounts and other types of debt. "The hig...

COLOMBO : Car spare parts dealers in Sri Lanka's main city of Colombo are receiving a steady stream of customers looking for what is fast becoming a prized commodity in the island nation - side mirrors for Suzuki's compact Wagon R. The scramble for the humble product highlights rising economic risks for the South Asian country as imports slump, foreign exchange reserves plummet and a potential sovereign default looms. Suzuki's boxy, five-seater vehicle is hugely popular in Sri Lanka, given its low running costs. With some 30,000 of the cars sold over the past four years in a nation that has relatively high road crash rates, replacement side mirrors are commonly sought in the spare parts shops scattered across the suburb of Nugegoda. "Everyone is looking for Wagon R parts," said Supun De...