Aurelia Butler

TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan is considering relaxing controls on exports to South Korea as its president, Yoon Suk-yeol, seeks to improve ties amid a strained East Asian security environment, the Sankei newspaper reported on Saturday.Japan will decide whether to ease the curbs on shipping high-tech materials, which it imposed in 2019 over a dispute about Japan’s wartime forced labour of Korean workers, as the neighbours hold a series of talks aimed at solving the dispute, Sankei said, citing unidentified government sources.Japan’s foreign ministry and trade ministry officials were not immediately available for comment on the report when Reuters contacted them outside regular business hours. The issue of the export curbs would likely be resolved during consultations between South Korea and Japan on various issues including forced labour, South Korea’s foreign ministry said in a statement. “Given the growing need to promote cooperation among countries sharing universal values at a time when the importance of economic security is increasing, we hope that Japan will judge wisely,” the South Korean ministry said.Foreign ministers of the two countries met for talks in Tokyo this month. Their diplomatic officials are due to meet on Monday in the South Korean capital, Seoul, as they near a conclusion of a plan for the resolving their dispute, Jiji news reported on Friday.The East Asian neighbours, both important U.S. allies, share a bitter history dating to Japan’s colonisation of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945.Yoon, who became South Korea’s leader in May last year, has also made increasing cooperation with Japan a core goal despite the lingering disputes. More

Seven listed companies of the Adani conglomerate – controlled by one of the world’s richest men Gautam Adani – have lost a combined $48 billion in market value and U.S. bonds of Adani firms have fallen since Hindenburg on Tuesday flagged concerns about debt levels and the use of tax havens.”MSCI is closely monitoring publicly available information regarding the situation and the factors that may impact the eligibility of those relevant securities for the MSCI Global Investable Market Indexes,” it said in a statement. Adani Group did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment. It has dismissed the Hindenburg report as baseless and said it was considering whether to take legal action against the New York-based firm.India’s capital markets regulator was studying the Hindenburg report as it may help its own probe into offshore fund holdings of Adani Group, Reuters reported on Friday. Billionaire U.S. investor Bill Ackman on Thursday described the Hindenburg report “highly credible and extremely well researched”. More

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. prosecutors on Friday asked a Manhattan judge to impose tougher bail conditions on Sam Bankman-Fried, expressing concern that the founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange might tamper with witnesses or destroy evidence in his criminal case.Citing Bankman-Fried’s “recent attempts to contact prospective witnesses,” prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan to ban Bankman-Fried from communicating with current or former employees of FTX or his Alameda Research hedge fund, other than family, unless a lawyer is present.They also asked that Bankman-Fried not use Signal or other encrypted call and messaging applications, though he could still communicate through text messages, email and the phone.Bankman-Fried, 30, has been free on $250 million bond and required to live with his parents since pleading not guilty to looting billions of dollars from the now-bankrupt FTX.Lawyers for Bankman-Fried did not immediately respond to requests for comment.In Friday’s letter, prosecutors cited a Signal message on Jan. 15 from Bankman-Fried to “Witness-1,” the general counsel of the FTX U.S. affiliate. Bankman-Fried expressed interest in having a “constructive relationship” or “at least vet things with each other.”Prosecutors said this was “particularly concerning” because Bankman-Fried knew the general counsel had potentially damaging information, having participated just before FTX’s November collapse in communications in which Bankman-Fried discussed using Alameda funds to satisfy FTX customer withdrawals.”The defendant’s request to ‘vet things with each other’ is suggestive of an effort to influence Witness-1’s potential testimony, and the appeal for a ‘constructive relationship’ likewise implies that Witness-1 should align with the defendant,” prosecutors said.”Even if the defendant has not directly attempted to tamper with witnesses, (his) contact with witnesses may intimidate them” into not coming forward or testifying, prosecutors added.In seeking to keep Bankman-Fried off Signal, prosecutors said he had in 2021 directed that many Signal and Slack communications be autodeleted within 30 days.Prosecutors said former Alameda chief Caroline Ellison, who pleaded guilty in the case and is cooperating with them, told them Bankman-Fried had indicated it could be harder to build legal cases if information were not preserved. More

An economic slowdown, surging energy bill and suspension of most European Union funds Hungary is entitled to are pressuring state finances, while the central bank interest rates are the highest in the European Union.The ratings agency revised its outlook to “stable” from “negative” on expectations that Hungary’s economy will avoid a substantial economic downturn over the next two years and weather the indirect effects of the Russia-Ukraine war.S&P expects the Hungarian government, which has pledged to reduce the 2023 budget shortfall to 3.9% of gross domestic product, to gradually reduce fiscal deficits over the next few years.Last week, Fitch cut its outlook on Hungary’s long-term foreign currency issuer default rating to “negative” from “stable”. More

KINGSTON (Reuters) – World 100 and 200 metres record holder Usain Bolt said on Friday that it was a “stressful situation” trying to recover more than $12.7 million that has disappeared from his account with a Jamaican investment firm.The 36-year-old Bolt earlier this month was informed that his account balance at Kingston-based Stocks and Securities Ltd (SSL) had inexplicably dwindled to just $12,000, lawyer Linton Gordon told Reuters on Jan. 17.”It’s tough you know, but I think through the years I’ve competed it has helped me to understand and focus on what matters,” Bolt told reporters on Friday.He was speaking at the Gibson McCook Relays launch in Kingston where he was unveiled as the ambassador of the athletics meet, now in its 50th year.”I will leave the matter in my lawyer’s hands and focus on my family, try not to think too much about it because it’s a stressful situation,” the 11-time world champion added.SSL said in a Jan. 12 statement that it had become aware of fraudulent activity by a former employee and had referred the matter to law enforcement, adding it had taken steps to secure assets and strengthen protocols.The Jamaica Constabulary Force said its fraud and financial investigation teams were probing “alleged fraudulent activities at (SSL) which are said to have affected the accounts of Mr. Usain Bolt among other individuals.”Bolt’s account was intended to serve as a pension for the eight-time Olympic champion and for his parents, Gordon said.Bolt retired in 2017 after dominating global sprinting for a decade, reviving a sport plagued by doping scandals and becoming a household name like Brazilian soccer great Pele and American boxing champion Muhammad Ali. More