Governments worldwide should pass new laws to facilitate the sharing of information between themselves and the private sector in order to better combat financial crime, HSBC's top lawyer told a banking conference in Geneva on Monday. "Put simply, the way we do financial crime compliance is...

China plans to finance and build several outposts and other facilities to beef up Tajikistan's defense capabilities along its border with Afghanistan, the Tajik government said on Monday. The Central Asian nation's 1,345-km border with its southern neighbor is leaky and Dushanbe routinely...

Voting in a constitutional referendum in Azerbaijan began on Monday in a move which could increase presidents’ tenures from five to seven years. Among 23 proposed constitutional changes and six new articles are plans to also give the head of state the right to call early elections plus the...

Thailand is studying plans to toughen tax collection rules for internet and technology firms like Alphabet Inc's Google, the head of the Revenue Department told Reuters, as these companies' tax affairs come under greater scrutiny in Southeast Asia. The plans would also cover the mobile...

The Taliban blasted a NATO vehicle injuring five people, the Pentagon confirmed to Anadolu Agency on Sunday. "Four Romanian troops and an Afghan linguist, supporting the Resolute Support mission, suffered injuries when their vehicle hit an‎ improvised explosive device [IED] near Kandahar...

Reaching an agreement to stabilize global oil prices, including a possible deal to freeze output, is "non-critical" for Russia, its Energy Minister Alexander Novak was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying on Sunday. "For us, in principle, it's non-critical, but we believe that the...

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Sunday told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that if elected, the United States would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the campaign said, marking a potential dramatic shift in U.S. policy on the issue. During the meeting...

The United States on Sunday called Russia's action in Syria "barbarism" not counter-terrorism while Moscow's U.N. envoy said ending the war "is almost an impossible task now" as Syrian government forces, backed by Moscow, bombed the city of Aleppo. The United Nations Security Council met on...

The Arab League and Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Sunday condemned civilian bloodshed in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.  In statement, Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Abul-Gheit termed the ongoing airstrikes by Syrian regime and Russian warplanes in Aleppo as...

Warplanes bombed a strategic camp on the northern edge of Aleppo on Sunday as Syrian government and rebel forces battled for control of the city in a Russian-backed offensive that appears to have buried any hope for diplomacy. The United Nations Security Council will meet at 11 a.m. (1500...

Around 237,000 residents in central China are suffering drinking water shortages following a weeks-long “severe” drought that has damaged 123,000 hectares of crops in Hubei province. The state-run China Daily reported Sunday that the scarcity and damage came after Hubei received an average...

A strong magnitude 6.3 earthquake shook some southern Philippines provinces early Saturday, but no casualties or damage were reported. The director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) told local radio station dzBB no damage was expected since the epicenter of...

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has joined the parade of world leaders paying court to Cuba following the normalization of relations with the United States earlier this year -- marking the first time a Japanese premier had visited the Caribbean island nation. Abe flew to Havana from New York,...

Three people were shot dead and two were wounded during a shooting at a mall on Friday in northwest Washington state where authorities were searching for the gunman, several media outlets reported. Authorities initially said on social media that four people were killed in the shooting, that...

Petrobras is selling 90 percent of its shares in a natural gas pipeline network for $5.2 billion to NTS, a group led by Canadian asset management giant Brookfield, the Brazilian state-owned energy giant said Friday. The 2,048-kilometer (1,273-mile) long Nova Transportadora do Sudeste (NTS)...

The Taliban controls roughly one-tenth of Afghanistan, the U.S. said Friday, 15 years after it invaded the country to oust the extremist group. The group controls a small percentage of Afghanistan’s population “but they contest another 20 to 25 percent,” Army Gen. John Nicholson told...

The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan said on Friday that the Kabul government's peace deal with warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was an "encouraging" step that would bring a long-time belligerent into reconciliation with the government. Army General John Nicholson told reporters at the...

Goldman Sachs (GS.N) is cutting almost 30 percent of its 300 investment banking jobs in Asia outside Japan in response to a slowdown in activity in the region, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The Wall Street bank is reducing the number of bankers working on mergers and...

Three Thai policemen were killed and two wounded on Friday in a bomb and gun attack in the southern province of Yala where Muslim separatists have been waging a simmering insurgency against the state. The attack came just over a month after a series of bombs in three of Thailand's main...

“We have no permission for go out. Now we are prison [sic],” a 17-year-old Pakistani migrant texted, along with a sad emoji face, locked inside a refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos. Just under a hundred minors aged 12 to 17 find shelter in the rooms reserved for them. “We have beds,...