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SummarySummary Companies Japan, South Korea hold 1st bilateral finance meeting in 7 yearsTwo nations to resume regular finance dialogue, likely annualAsia policymakers to discuss safeguardsINCHEON, South Korea May 2 (Reuters) - Japan and South Korea held their first finance leaders' meeting in seven years on Tuesday and agreed to resume regular dialogue, as tensions in the region and slowing growth prod them to increase co-operation and mend strained relations. The resumption of bilateral financial discussions comes ahead of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's planned visit to South Korea next week for talks with President Yoon Suk Yeol. "Japan and South Korea are important neighbours that must cooperate to address various challenges surrounding the global economy, as well as the regional and international community," Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said at the meeting with his South Korean counterpart Choo Kyung-ho. Japan and South Korea will resume regular finance dialogue, likely to be held annually, at "an appropriate timing," Suzuki told reporters after the bilateral meeting. Choo is expected to visit Japan this year for another meeting with Suzuki, South Korea's finance ministry said.

SummarySummary Companies Japan, S.Korea must address geopolitical challenges - SuzukiS.Korea's Choo urges Japan to restore 'white list' statusResumption of dialogue underscores mending relationsINCHEON, South Korea May 2 (Reuters) - Japan and South Korea held their first bilateral finance leaders' meeting in seven years on Tuesday, a sign relations between the two are thawing amid shared challenges from geopolitical tensions and slowing economic growth. The resumption of bilateral financial talks comes ahead of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's planned visit to South Korea next week for talks with President Yoon Suk Yeol. "As for geo-political challenges, we're experiencing incidents like North Korea's nuclear missile development and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Regular annual dialogue between the two countries' finance ministers has been suspended since 2016 due to disputes over wartime history. Suzuki said he hoped Japan and South Korea can continue with bilateral financial dialogue and that doing so would contribute to improving relations between the two countries.

☆ Sudan military faction chiefs agree May 4-11 truce in princple -South Sudan
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Mohamed Noureldin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The credibility of the reported May 4-11 deal ceasefire deal between Sudanese army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and paramilitary Rapid Support forces (RSF) leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo was unclear, given the rampant violations that undermined previous agreements running from 24 to 72 hours. "The entire region could be affected," he said in an interview with a Japanese newspaper on Tuesday as an envoy from Sudan's army chief, who leads one of the warring sides, met Egyptian officials in Cairo. United Nations officials had said U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths aimed to visit Sudan on Tuesday but the timing was still to be confirmed. "The risk is that this is not just going to be a Sudan crisis, it's going to be a regional crisis," said Michael Dunford, the WFP's East Africa director. That has raised the spectre of a prolonged conflict that could draw in outside powers.

☆ China says Myanmar's sovereignty should be respected
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BEIJING, May 2 (Reuters) - China supports Myanmar in finding its own path to development and urges the international community to respect its sovereignty and help it achieve peace and reconciliation, China's foreign ministry said on Wednesday. "China supports Myanmar in exploring a development path with Myanmar characteristics that suits to its national conditions," Qin's ministry cited him as saying in the talks. The international community should respect Myanmar's sovereignty and play a constructive role in helping it achieve peace and reconciliation, he said. On economic development, Qin said China would accelerate investment linked to a China-Myanmar Economic Corridor and implement projects on agriculture, education and health care. China also supported Myanmar on improving its relations with its western neighbour, Bangladesh, the Chinese foreign minister said.

☆ Arab ministers discuss how to normalise ties with Syria
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Suleiman Al-Khalidi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

AMMAN, May 1 (Reuters) - A group of Arab foreign ministers held a landmark meeting with their Syrian counterpart in Jordan on Monday to discuss how to normalise ties with Syria as part of a political settlement of the country's more than decade-old conflict, officials said. Jordan has called on Syria to engage with Arab states jointly on a step-by-step roadmap to end the conflict, tackling the issues of refugees, detainees, drug smuggling and Iran-backed militias in Syria - all of which affect its neighbours. Amman has been fighting armed groups smuggling narcotics from Syria, including the highly-addictive amphetamine captagon. Arab states and those most impacted by the conflict are trying to reach consensus on whether to invite Assad to the Arab League summit on May 19 in Riyadh, to discuss the pace of normalising ties with Assad and on what terms Syria could be allowed back. Washington, which said it would not change its policy towards the Syrian government which it terms a "rogue" state, has urged Arab states to get something in return for engaging with Assad.

☆ A Sudanese woman's race to the border after giving birth
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Mahamat Ramadane | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/5] Sudanese refugees who have fled the violence in their country gather to receive food supplements from World Food Programme (WFP), near the border between Sudan and Chad, in Koufroun, Chad April 28, 2023. Residents and sources in the western Darfur region have reported looting, ethnic reprisal attacks and clashes between the army and the RSF which evolved from the janjaweed militias. "In our village, armed people came and burned and looted houses and we were forced to flee," said Adam. I cut the child's umbilical cord and we cleaned her up," Adam's sister Souraya Adam, 27, told Reuters. The wave of arrivals places an additional burden on Chad's meagre resources, which were already strained by hosting 400,000 refugees who fled earlier conflict in Sudan.

☆ Turkey closes airspace to Armenian airline without warning, Armenpress reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 29 (Reuters) - Turkey on Saturday closed its airspace to low-cost Armenian airline FlyOne Armenia without warning, the domestic Armenpress news agency cited the carrier's board chairman as saying. "For reasons incomprehensible to us and without any visible grounds, Turkish aviation authorities cancelled the permission previously granted to the FlyOne Armenia airline to operate flights to Europe through Turkish airspace," said Aram Ananyan, FlyOne's chairman. "Turkish aviation authorities implemented the cancellation without prior notification, putting our airline and our passengers in an uncomfortable situation." FlyOne Armenia, a subsidiary of Moldovan airline FlyOne, began operations in December 2021. In February 2023, Ananyan told Armenpress that the carrier had five Airbus aircraft and offered flights to 14 destinations in eight European and Middle Eastern nations.

☆ Japan PM Kishida to visit South Korea for summit with Yoon - sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Kevin Buckland | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

TOKYO, April 29 (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is expected to visit South Korea in coming weeks and meet with President Yoon Suk Yeol, officials said, reciprocating a Tokyo visit by the South Korean leader last month. Japan's Kyodo news agency said on Saturday the two will meet around May 7 or 8, citing multiple unnamed Japanese and South Korean diplomatic sources. Asked about reports of the bilateral summit, Kishida said in remarks broadcast by public network NHK that nothing concrete had been decided. The two sides agreed to revive shuttle diplomacy when Yoon met with Kishida in Tokyo in March, the first Japan visit by a South Korean president in 12 years. The last visit by a Japanese prime minister to South Korea was made by Shinzo Abe in 2018, according to NHK.

☆ Even one American in Iraq is too many, Iran leader tells Iraqi president
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/4] Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi attend a meeting, in Tehran, Iran April 29, 2023. Iran, which has strong ties with Iraq, opposes the U.S. military presence on its borders in Iraq and the Gulf, saying Western military intervention is the root of insecurity in the region. U.S. national security agencies are investigating after a leak of classified documents has suggested the United States spied on allies including Ukraine. "Even the presence of one American in Iraq is too much," Khamenei told Rashid, who was in Tehran with a delegation to boost ties between the two neighbours. The United States has some 2,500 troops in Iraq to help advise and assist local troops in combating Islamic State, which in 2014 seized territory in the country.

☆ "No one is left": Ukrainian mourns neighbours killed by Russian missile
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Sergiy Karazy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

UMAN, Ukraine, April 28 (Reuters) - Serhii Lubivskyi looked up with tears in his eyes at the empty space where his neighbours' flats stood before a Russian missile strike reduced them to rubble. "No one is left," Lubivskyi, 58, said on Friday in the central Ukrainian city of Uman. "My neighbours are gone, no one is left ... only the kitchens were left standing," he said, crying as he took a deep drag from a cigarette. Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians in its "special military operation" in Ukraine, but this is no consolation for Lubivskyi. "They don't care, the more people they kill, the more they want to kill, just because we don't want to work for them."

☆ Spain, Portugal swelter as April temperature records broken
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Mariano Valladolid | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] A field of grass is seen cracked by the drought during scorching summer temperatures in spring in Ronda, Spain April 27, 2023. REUTERS/Jon NazcaCORDOBA, Spain, April 28 (Reuters) - Mainland Spain and Portugal have broken temperature records for April, as the Iberian neighbours swelter in an early-season heatwave that has exacerbated a long drought in some regions. Spain's absolute April record remains the 40.2 C reached in 2013 on Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands. In neighbouring Portugal, the temperature in the central town of Mora reached 36.9 C, breaking the record of 36.0 C set in April 1945, its weather agency said. Temperatures started dropping on Friday in Portugal but the heatwave persisted in parts of Spain.

☆ 'Constant fear': war shakes Sudan despite truce pledges
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Khalid Abdelaziz | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

The fighting has also reawakened a two-decade-old conflict in the western Darfur region where scores have died this week. "We're in a constant state of fear for ourselves and our children." The army has been deploying jets or drones on RSF forces spread out in neighbourhoods across the capital. Sudan's army accused the RSF of firing at the plane, damaging its fuel system which was being repaired after the aircraft managed to land safely. Some had walked from Khartoum to South Sudan's border, a distance of over 400 km (250 miles), a spokesperson for the U.N. refugee agency said.

☆ Bids for 2027 Africa Cup of Nations offer path for comprise over 2025 hosts
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Mark Gleeson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

CAPE TOWN, April 27 (Reuters) - Algeria head a list of four bids to host the 2027 African Cup of Nations, which the Confederation of African Football announced on Thursday, but Morocco are a surprise omission suggesting a compromise over the 2025 edition has been struck. A statement said CAF had received bids from Algeria, Botswana, Egypt and a joint candidacy from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda for the 2027 tournament after the expiry of the deadline for declarations of interest. CAF have repeatedly delayed deciding who will replace Guinea as the 2025 hosts. Algeria and Morocco are the top two contenders for 2025 but choosing between the two neighbours has become a political dilemma for CAF, sources have told Reuters. The two North African neighbours have an adversarial relationship, with diplomatic ties suspended, and winning the rights to host the 2025 Cup of Nations would be a matter of national pride and a public relations triumph.

☆ Brentford deepen Chelsea's slump with 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( William Schomberg | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The loss left toothless Chelsea 11th in the Premier League table, stumbling towards possibly their worst campaign since the 1993/94 season - when they finished 14th under Glenn Hoddle - despite their new U.S. owners' huge outlay on players. The three points pushed Brentford up a spot to ninth in the league, eight points ahead of their big-spending west London neighbours for whom this season cannot finish quickly enough. Media reports said Chelsea were close to hiring former Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino as coach from next season. It doesn’t come in football because the Premier League moves so fast, it’s competitive," the former midfielder who is Chelsea's all-time top scorer, said. Brentford coach Thomas Frank was able to celebrate surpassing his side's points tally for all of last season - their first in the Premier League - with Wednesday's win.

☆ Myanmar's neighbours, some ASEAN members hold secretive talks on crisis - sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Devjyot Ghoshal | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

BANGKOK, April 26 (Reuters) - Government and think-tank representatives from Myanmar and its neighbours, including India and China, held talks in New Delhi on Tuesday as part of a secretive effort to de-escalate a bloody crisis in the army-run Southeast Asian nation, two sources said. One of the sources said participants were interested in bringing into the process Myanmar's shadow National Unity Government (NUG), an organisation affiliated with the resistance and declared "terrorists" by the junta. "The neighbouring countries' perspective needs to be taken into account," said the source, "For them, the foremost priority is the de-escalation of the violence." ASEAN has barred the junta from attending until they implement the plan, which has infuriated the generals. "This effort will not supplant ASEAN," the second source said of the ongoing talks, "This will only complement."

☆ India home minister challenges account of 2019 deadly attack on military convoy
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW DELHI, April 23 (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has nothing to hide concerning a deadly attack on a military convoy in Kashmir in 2019, India's home minister said. Malik informed Modi that the attack was a failure on the government's part but was asked to stay silent, he told local news outlet the Wire. Home Minister Amit Shah, speaking in a roundtable discussion on the India Today TV programme, said the credibility of the comments needed to be questioned. Kashmir is a Muslim-majority region at the heart of decades of hostility between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan. Reporting by Shivangi Acharya and Manoj Kumar; Editing by Edwina GibbsOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The army and the paramilitary RSF, which are waging a deadly power struggle across the country, had both issued statements saying they would uphold a three-day ceasefire from Friday for Islam's Eid al-Fitr holiday. The army has air power but the RSF is widely embedded in urban areas including around key facilities in central Khartoum. Burhan said the army was providing safe pathways but that some airports including in Khartoum and Darfur's largest city Nyala were still problematic. [1/5] People gather to get bread during clashes between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the army in Khartoum North, Sudan, April 22, 2023. The army on Friday accused the RSF of raiding the prison, which the paramilitary force denied.

☆ Sudan's RSF agrees to ceasefire for Eid, residents report gunfire
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) said it had agreed to a 72-hour truce from 6 a.m. (0400 GMT) on Friday but residents of Khartoum and its sister city Bahri reported gunfire as Sudanese troops deployed in the cities on foot. The RSF early on Friday announced a ceasefire after six days of fighting to coincide with the start of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr and to allow residents to reunite with their families. "The truce coincides with the blessed Eid al-Fitr ... to open humanitarian corridors to evacuate citizens and give them the opportunity to greet their families," the RSF said in a statement. Khartoum, the capital, was rocked by bombing and shelling before the ceasefire announcement and witnesses heard gunfire as the ceasefire, and morning Eid prayers, were due to begin. Residents said soldiers were deploying on foot into some neighbourhoods, apparently indicating that the army was preparing for more clashes.

☆ Explainer: Sudan's conflict and what worries neighbours, the U.S. and others
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

Five of Sudan's seven neighbours - Ethiopia, Chad, Central African Republic, Libya and South Sudan - have faced political upheaval or conflict themselves in recent years. Smoke rises from burning aircraft inside Khartoum Airport during clashes between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the army in Khartoum, Sudan April 17, 2023. SOUTH SUDAN - South Sudan, which seceded from Sudan in 2011 after a civil war lasting decades, exports its oil output of 170,000 barrels per day via a pipeline through its northern neighbour. Analysts say neither side in Sudan's conflict has an interest in disrupting those flows but South Sudan's government said this week fighting had already hampered logistics and transport links between the oilfields and Port Sudan. THE UNITED STATES AND THE WEST - The United States, like other Western powers, was happy to be rid of Bashir, who was charged with genocide and war crimes by the International Criminal Court over the Darfur conflict.

☆ Kashmir's traditional Ramadan drummers wake neighbours up for pre-dawn meals
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Fayaz Bukhari | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Devout Muslims fast from dawn to dusk during Ramadan, and usually eat a meal before the sun comes up. Jinded says his family has been playing the role of "Sahar Khans", named for the pre-dawn Ramadan meal called Sahri, for generations. Kashmir's Ramadan drummers are not paid, but as the month nears its end, people tend to become generous. "Ramadan drummers are an important part of our tradition," said Sheikh Ghulam Nabi, a tailor in Srinagar's old town. "They add to the festive atmosphere of the holy month."

☆ Israel cements ties to Turkmenistan on Iran's border
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Although the countries established diplomatic relations 30 years ago, there had only been a temporary Israeli mission in Ashgabat and predominantly Muslim Turkmenistan still has no embassy in Israel. "I came to open an Israeli embassy 17 kilometres from the border with Iran, and to hold a series of meetings with the president and other officials," Cohen tweeted on Thursday. In English remarks to Israeli reporters accompanying Cohen, his Turkmen counterpart, Rashid Meredov, described the embassy inauguration as "a very shining example of our friendship". Cohen, who also met Turkmen President Serdar Berdymukhamedov, called his visit "historic" and said Israel's ties with Central Asia's "energy superpower" were of strategic importance. "We intend to widen economic relations to include agriculture, water, technology and border defence," Cohen said in a video issued by Israel's Foreign Ministry.

[1/2] Smoke rises from burning aircraft inside Khartoum Airport during clashes between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the army in Khartoum, Sudan April 17, 2023. Gunfire was heard in Bahri and residents reported violent clashes west of Omdurman where they said the army had moved to block the arrival of RSF reinforcements. Some of the most intense fighting has been focussed around the compound housing the army HQ and the residence of Sudan's military ruler, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. The army controls access to Khartoum and appeared to be trying to cut off supply routes to RSF fighters, residents and witnesses said. More people have been leaving the capital with most able to pass but some stopped at checkpoints, according to residents and social media posts.

[1/2] A view shows the logo of Credit Suisse on a building near the Hallenstadion where Credit Suisse Annual General Meeting took place, two weeks after being bought by rival UBS in a government-brokered rescue, in Zurich, Switzerland, April 4, 2023. UBS and Credit Suisse declined to comment. What's more, UBS doesn't tend to lend to potential clients as Credit Suisse has often done, a move that can persuade some customers. "There are clearly parts of Credit Suisse that have had a bad culture," UBS Chairman Colm Kelleher told reporters on March 29. UBS ranked 14th advising on mergers globally last year, behind 11th placed Credit Suisse, according to data compiled by Dealogic.

[1/4] A load of corn is poured into a truck, at a grain storage facility in the village of Bilohiria, Khmelnytskyi region, Ukraine April 19, 2023. REUTERS/Gleb GaranichBILOHIRIA, Ukraine, April 19 (Reuters) - Volodymyr Bondaruk takes little comfort from Poland's decision to lift a ban on the transit of Ukrainian grain. His mixed dairy and arable farm in western Ukraine has already lost a Polish contract and he doubts it will ever be renewed. With uncertainty growing over the future of a Black Sea Grain Initiative that allows safe grain exports from three ports in southern Ukraine, Bondaruk said the outlook for exports appeared increasingly bleak. He called for European help for Ukrainian farmers seeking to export grain, saying that he, unlike "some in Europe", did not want subsidies, just an even playing field.

☆ International Investment Bank to relocate headquarters from Budapest back to Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 19 (Reuters) - Russia's International Investment Bank (IIB) will relocate its headquarters from Budapest back to Russia, according to a statement published on the bank's website on Wednesday. The decision was announced a week after the United States imposed sanctions on three top officials of IIB in Budapest: two Russians and a Hungarian. "IIB has exhausted the basis for further operations from its headquarters in Budapest and in the European Union," the IIB statement said. "The Bank has commenced a relocation of its operations and functions of its headquarters from Hungary to Russia." The Hungarian government took no measures against the bank, which moved its operations to Budapest in 2019.

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