The Fiji Times

ISMC’s India chip plan stalls after Tower-Intel deal in setback to Modi

By Munsif Vengattil, Aditya Kalra and Jane Lanhee Lee NEW DELHI/OAKLAND, California (Reuters) – A planned $3 billion semiconductor facility in India by chip consortium ISMC that counted Israeli chipmaker Tower as a tech partner has been stalled due to the company’s ongoing takeover by Intel, three sources said, dashing India’s chip making plans. A...

Chinese agent or private eye? Ex-NY cop’s ‘Fox Hunt’ trial kicks off

By Luc Cohen NEW YORK (Reuters) – A former New York City police sergeant charged with acting as an illegal Chinese agent for allegedly intimidating a U.S.-based fugitive from China went on trial on Wednesday and argued he did not know that country’s government was behind a private surveillance job he took. Federal prosecutors in...

Walmart is raising wages for pharmacists, opticians in healthcare push

By Siddharth Cavale BENTONVILLE, Ark. (Reuters) – Walmart is raising wages for thousands of U.S. pharmacists and opticians, the retailer said on Wednesday, part of its broader plan to expand primary care services across the country. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based chain said about 3,700 pharmacists would get a bump in pay starting on Wednesday, bringing their...

Senegal president promises fair election as tensions simmer

DAKAR (Reuters) – Senegal’s President Macky Sall on Wednesday said his government would ensure peaceful, free and transparent elections next year following weeks of fresh opposition unrest over fears he might run for a third term and sideline a key rival. Sporadic violent protests have broken out across Senegal since opposition leader Ousmane Sonko was...

White House announces new military aid package for Ukraine

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House on Wednesday announced the latest in a series of aid packages for Ukraine that includes up to $300 million worth of air defense systems, ammunition and other defense equipment. The security assistance package represents the 39th drawdown of equipment from the Department of Defense inventories, the Pentagon said. The...

North Korea satellite plunges in sea in ‘rushed’ failure, more launches expected

By Hyonhee Shin and Chang-Ran Kim SEOUL/TOKYO (Reuters) – A North Korean satellite launch on Wednesday ended in failure, sending the booster and payload plunging into the sea, North Korean state media said, and the South’s military said it had recovered parts of the launch vehicle. The new “Chollima-1” satellite launch rocket failed because of...

Scientists expand search for signs of intelligent alien life

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scientists have expanded the search for technologically advanced extraterrestrial civilizations by monitoring a star-dense region toward the core of our galaxy for a type of signal that could be produced by potential intelligent aliens that until now has been ignored. Efforts to detect alien technological signatures previously have focused...

Indonesia, Malaysia freeze trade talks with EU over palm oil

(Reuters) – Indonesia and Malaysia will delay trade talks with the European Union (EU) while they seek fairer treatment for small palm oil producers, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister Fadillah Yusof said the EU’s recently adopted law banning the import of products that come from land cleared of forests was...

New Zealand working to update surrogacy laws to make process easier

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – The New Zealand government will update the country’s surrogacy law to make the process easier and less discriminatory, New Zealand’s Justice Minister Kiri Allan said late on Tuesday. “Surrogacy has become an established method of forming a family for people unable to carry a child themselves. However, the laws that apply to...

Despite world-beating growth, India’s lack of jobs threatens its young

MUMBAI (Reuters) – On a hot summer afternoon, 23-year old Nizamudin Abdul Rahim Khan is playing cricket on a muddy, unpaved road in the Rafiq Nagar slum in India’s financial capital, Mumbai. Here, there is scant evidence of India’s fast-growing economy. Bordering what was once Asia’s largest garbage dumping ground, Rafiq Nagar and surrounding areas...

Australia’s Indigenous recognition bill passes first hurdle

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Legislation to hold a referendum to recognise Australia’s Indigenous people in the constitution cleared its first parliamentary hurdle on Wednesday as it was passed in the House of Representatives. Australians will be asked to vote in a referendum, likely to be held between October and December, on whether they support altering the...

Bangladesh to ratify ship recycling convention in June

DHAKA (Reuters) – Bangladesh is set to ratify an international convention in early June on recycling ships aimed at increasing safety and environmental standards, a senior official told Reuters. “We expect the first week of June for the official declaration,” said Mamunur Rashid, a deputy secretary with the Ministry of Industries, who said Bangladesh is...

State Farm stops new home insurance sales in California as wildfire risks grow

(Reuters) – State Farm said it would stop selling new insurance policies to homeowners in California, exacerbating troubles for thousands in the wildfire-prone state, who are already feeling the heat with coverage getting costlier or harder to come by. State Farm General Insurance Company – State Farm’s provider of homeowners insurance in California – said...

US agency says 8.3 million homes, businesses lack access to high-speed broadband

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -More than 8.3 million U.S. homes and businesses lack access to high-speed broadband internet, the Federal Communications Commission said Tuesday in unveiling its revised national broadband access map. The FCC said it has increased its estimates of homes and businesses without access by nearly 330,000 locations. The data is crucial for funding decisions....

House swaps and dog walks: Travelers find cheaper alternatives to lodging

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Lillian Smith has spent about eight of the last 12 months traveling around the world, hitting France, Morocco, Japan and South Korea. Her cost for lodgings in that time? About one night in a hotel, along with the time she spent walking dogs, watering plants and changing litter boxes. “I have...

Central African Republic plans referendum on scrapping presidential term limits

BANGUI (Reuters) -Central African Republic’s President Faustin-Archange Touadera said on Tuesday he would hold a referendum in July on his intention to change the constitution and remove term limits. Touadera’s allies proposed the change in May last year, arguing that presidential term limits were uncommon in many neighbouring countries. Critics and opposition parties held protests...

Private astronaut crew, including first Arab woman in orbit, heads for splashdown

(Reuters) – An all-private astronaut team of two Americans and two Saudis, including the first Arab woman ever sent into orbit, headed for splashdown off Florida’s coast on Tuesday, capping an eight-day research mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The SpaceX Crew Dragon vessel carrying the foursome, undocked from the ISS late on Tuesday...

EU imposes sanctions on 7 Moldovans, cites destabilising actions

CHISINAU/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union on Tuesday imposed sanctions on seven people from Moldova for actions it said destabilised and undermined the territorial integrity of the small impoverished country and neighbouring Ukraine. The 27-nation bloc announced the punitive measures two days before more than 40 European leaders meet in Chisinau in a show of...

Colombia Cano Limon-Covenas oil pipeline bombed

BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia’s Cano Limon-Covenas pipeline was bombed by unknown actors, operator Cenit said in a statement on Tuesday, prolonging the suspension of pumping crude between oil fields in the country’s northeast and the Caribbean coast, where the oil is exported. The attack occurred in a rural part of the Saravena municipality, located in...

Brazil’s Congress votes to limit recognition of Indigenous lands

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s lower house of Congress approved on Tuesday the main text of a bill to limit the recognition of new Indigenous reservations, in a setback for environmentalists and human rights advocates after intense pressure from the farm lobby. The legislation would restrict the demarcation of new Indigenous reservations only to land that...

US urged not to use bomb-grade uranium in nuclear power experiment

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former U.S. State Department and nuclear regulatory officials on Tuesday urged the U.S. Energy Department to reconsider a plan to use bomb-grade uranium in a nuclear power experiment, saying that its use could encourage such tests in other countries. The Energy Department and two companies aim to share costs on the Molten...

Evacuation order issued in Novia Scotia, Canada, after new wildfire -CBC News

(Reuters) – Canadian emergency officials issued a mandatory evacuation order for parts of Bedford, Nova Scotia, after authorities noted a new wildfire and the potential for an ammonia leak in the area, CBC News reported on Tuesday. This comes after the declaration late Sunday of a state of local emergency for the eastern city of...

EU doubles firefighting fleet in preparation for climate change impacts

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The EU said on Tuesday it is doubling its aerial firefighting fleet for the summer of 2023, citing challenges such as increasing forest fires due to the climate crisis. “The last few years have seen our greatest challenges so far”, Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic said, adding that in the last...

Spain’s PLD Space plans first rocket launch test on May 31

MADRID (Reuters) – Spanish company PLD Space said it plans its first test of a suborbital reusable rocket on Wednesday, as it seeks to put small satellites into space and capture a slice of a potential trillion-dollar market. If successful, the launch from a military aerospace research centre in Huelva, in southern Spain, will be...

Ukrainian minister urges Britain, Germany to send Eurofighter jets

BERLIN (Reuters) – Ukraine’s Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov wants Germany and Britain to send his country Eurofighter Typhoon jets to combat Russian air attacks, he said in an interview published on Tuesday by the Funke media group. Ukraine has been campaigning for its Western allies to provide it with fighter jets, in particular the U.S.-built...

Italy ends search for dead after Feb. 26 migrant shipwreck

ROME (Reuters) – Italian authorities on Tuesday said they were ending the search for bodies after a deadly shipwreck on Feb. 26 off the southern town of Cutro that claimed at least 94 lives. The wooden migrant boat had set off from Western Turkey with around 180 people aboard, but smashed apart in stormy weather...

China declines U.S. request for a meeting between defense chiefs

(Reuters) – China has declined a request from the United States for a meeting between their defense chiefs at an annual security forum in Singapore this weekend, media reported on Monday, a new sign of strain between the powers. “Overnight, the PRC informed the U.S. that they have declined our early May invitation for Secretary...

Reactions to new Ugandan anti-LGBTQ law

(Reuters) – Uganda has implemented one of the world’s toughest anti-LGBTQ laws, drawing widespread Western condemnation and outraging activists at home. Below is some reaction: CLARE BYARUGABA, UGANDAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST “The Ugandan President has today Legalised State Sponsored Homophobia and Transphobia. It’s a very dark and sad day … We shall continue to fight this...

Spooked by crime, Ecuadoreans train to carry guns for self-defense

By Alexandra Valencia QUITO (Reuters) – Spurred by rising violent crime and increased gang activity, a growing number of Ecuadoreans are learning to use guns in the hope of protecting themselves from crime, four firearm instructors and their pupils said. Dozens of people are training at the country’s few shooting ranges, after conservative President Guillermo...

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Argentina eases access to ‘morning after pill’, broadening reproductive rights