Sydney promised an unprecedented fireworks spectacular to kick off global new year celebrations Tuesday, the first in a wave of pyrotechnics to usher in 2014 from Hong Kong to world record-chasing Dubai.
Oil prices edged lower in quiet Christmas Eve trade in Asia Tuesday as dealers engaged in profit-taking, with a lack of leads to spur fresh market movement, analysts said.
Singaporean businessman Peter Lim has made a bid to take over financially stricken La Liga side Valencia and wipe out its debts, the club's president Amadeo Salvo announced on Sunday.
Japan and Southeast Asian countries are in talks over expanding currency swap arrangements to help cushion their economies in financial emergencies, an official said Thursday, ahead of a Japan-ASEAN summit next week.
A street mural that was whitewashed by authorities because it highlighted Malaysia's crime problem has gone viral, with versions popping up across the country and earning their creator comparisons to UK graffiti artist Banksy.
Singapore called Tuesday for greater efforts to improve sanitation in developing countries as it celebrated the inaugural UN World Toilet Day, an initiative by the cleanliness-obsessed island republic.
Singapore on Tuesday charged a local man with hacking a council website and posting a symbol associated with international hacker group Anonymous, amid concerns about new Internet laws in the city-state.
A rash of website hackings in the Asia-Pacific has exposed weak cyber defences which must be improved to help the region deal with more sophisticated and sinister threats, particularly from criminal organisations, analysts said.
Taiwan signed a free trade deal with Singapore on Thursday, its first with a Southeast Asian country, as the diplomatically isolated island steps up efforts to join regional economic blocs.
With deals from London to Singapore, China is seeking a greater role for its yuan currency in global markets to challenge the hegemony of the almighty dollar.
India's newest planned airline, a joint venture of the Tata Group and Singapore Airlines, expects to win swift regulatory clearance and be able to start flying by mid-next year.
Most Asia-Pacific leaders, themselves blooded in political trench warfare, sympathise with US President Barack Obama's unwillingness to desert his Washington fox-hole.
Fires on Indonesia's Sumatra, which have cloaked Singapore in record-breaking smog, are raging on palm oil plantations owned by Indonesian, Malaysian and Singaporean companies.
