[Graphic News] Conor McGregor tops 2020 sporting rich list: Forbes

　Mixed martial arts superstar Conor McGregor was the sporting world’s highest-paid athlete in 2020, raking in around $180 million with earnings boosted by commercial ventures, a Forbes report showed. 　The 32-year-old Irishman only fought once in 2020, earning around $22 million from his victory over Donald Cerrone in January. 　The bulk of the former plumber’s pay - an estimated $158 million - came via his successful business activities, which included the sale of his Proper Twel

WorldJune 18, 2021

'Practical work' summit for Biden, Putin: No punches or hugs

GENEVA (AP) -- US President Joe Biden and Russia's Vladimir Putin exchanged cordial words and plotted modest steps on arms control and diplomacy but emerged from their much-anticipated Swiss summit Wednesday largely where they started -- with deep differences on human rights, cyberattacks, election interference and more. The two leaders reached an important, but hardly relationship-changing agreement to return their chief diplomats to Moscow and Washington after they were called home as the rel

World NewsJune 17, 2021

[Graphic News] Samsung ranks 2nd in Q1 chip sales: report

　Samsung Electronics was the world’s second-largest semiconductor vendor in the first quarter of the year, a report showed, after posting double-digit year-on-year sales growth. 　The South Korean tech juggernaut logged $17.07 billion in chip sales in the January-March period, up 15 percent from a year earlier, according to the latest McClean Report released by market researcher IC Insights. 　Samsung, the world’s largest memory chip supplier, racked up $16.15 billion in integr

World BusinessJune 17, 2021

France to end mandatory outdoor masks and Covid curfew

PARIS (AFP) - France on Wednesday said it was ending the obligation to wear masks outside and would bring forwards by 10 days the lifting of a nighttime curfew, as Covid infections fall and the country‘s vaccine drive picks up. 　Prime Minister Jean Castex said the requirement for people to wear masks outdoors would be lifted from Thursday, with some exceptions, while an unpopular Covid curfew will be scrapped on June 20. 　The 11:00 pm curfew will be lifted 10 days earlier than initially

World NewsJune 16, 2021

[Graphic News] Taiwan ranked top place for expats to live

　Taiwan, Mexico and Costa Rica have been ranked as the top spots to live and work abroad in 2021, based on their cost of living, ease of settling in and overall quality of life. 　The US was ranked only 34th out of 59 places, largely because of how expats viewed quality of life in America, according to a new survey published. 　Taiwan topped the charts for the third year in a row in the survey of 12,420 expats conducted by InterNations, a Munich-based expat network with about 4 million memb

WorldJune 16, 2021

Covid-hit domestic workers lost far more jobs than others: ILO

GENEVA (AFP) -- The pandemic has taken a harsh toll on domestic workers who have lost far more jobs than others despite a decade-old international pact guaranteeing their rights, the UN said Tuesday. In a fresh report, the International Labour Organization warned that working conditions for many of the world‘s 75.6 million domestic workers had not improved since the adoption in 2011 of a convention entitling them to the same protections as other workers. And the situation has been made

World NewsJune 15, 2021

Fossil fuels maintain grip on market: report

PARIS (AFP) -- Fossil fuels have held their share of the energy mix over the past decade, a report published Tuesday found, despite a drop in the cost of electricity from renewable wind and solar. Coal, oil and gas -- fossil fuels which are the main cause of global warming, accounted for 80.2 percent of final energy consumption in 2019, according to a report by the REN21 think tank. That compared with 80.3 percent in 2009. That doesn‘t mean renewables didn’t increase: they rose b

World NewsJune 15, 2021

Biden to urge G-7 leaders to call out, compete with China

The United States plans to push democratic allies on Saturday to publicly call out China for forced labor practices as the Group of Seven leaders gather at a summit where they will also unveil an infrastructure plan meant to compete with Beijing's efforts in the developing world. The provocative proposal is part of President Joe Biden's escalating campaign to get fellow democratic leaders to present a more unified front to compete economically with China in the century ahead, according to two s

World NewsJune 12, 2021

Coronavirus puts brakes on global plastics production

Global plastics production declined slightly in 2020 as a result of the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, only the third time since World War II that output has fallen, an industry body said Thursday. Previously, only as a result of the oil crisis in 1973 and during the financial crisis in 2008 had plastics production fallen since the start of the 20th century. But last year, worldwide output slipped to 367 million tonnes from 368 million in 2019, a decline of 0.3 percent, the h

World NewsJune 10, 2021

Myanmar military plane crash kills 12, including senior monk

A well-known senior Buddhist monk was among at least 12 people who died when a plane belonging to Myanmar's military crashed Thursday in the country's central Mandalay region, state media reported. Army-run Myawaddy TV said a boy was one of two survivors on the flight from the capital, Naypyitaw, to Pyin Oo Lwin, also known as Maymyo. The other person taken to a hospital was reported to be a member of the military, but several other unconfirmed reports said he later died. The plane was carryin

World NewsJune 10, 2021

[Graphic News] South Korea now world‘s 5th best place to be during pandemic

　South Korea rose one spot to rank as the fifth best place to be during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Bloomberg’s COVID Resilience Ranking. 　New Zealand regained the top position it held for five consecutive months until April, with COVID-19 all but wiped out in the island nation, allowing its people the freedoms of pre-COVID-19 life - except for international travel. 　The COVID Resilience Ranking uses a wide range of data to capture where the pandemic is being handled most eff

WorldJune 8, 2021

China vents anger at US Senators' visit to Taiwan

BEIJING (AFP) -- China expressed fury over US Senators visiting Taiwan to donate coronavirus vaccines, saying it could embolden "separatist forces" on the island. Beijing sees democratic, self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory which is to be seized one day, by force if necessary, and rages at any diplomatic attempts to recognise it as an independent nation. A delegation of three US lawmakers made a stopover on Sunday in Taipei, where they announced Washington would donate 750,000

World NewsJune 7, 2021

Some Shanghai malls, residential complexes demand to see COVID vaccination proof

SHANGHAI (Reuters) -- A few malls and residentialcomplexes in Shanghai have started asking visitors to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination, with one shopping centre's temporarydecision to bar entry sparking a backlash on social media. A video showing a local resident arguing with securityguards about the legitimacy of barring unvaccinated people atthe entrance of the Pacific Life Plaza in Shanghai has beenshared tens of hundreds of times on China's Twitter-like Weibo. Several vendors told Reute

World NewsJune 7, 2021

Israel arrests Jerusalem activist as reporter recovers

Israeli police arrested a Palestinian protest leader in the contested Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem on Sunday, a day after forcefully detaining a prominent Al Jazeera journalist covering the campaign by Jewish settlers to evict dozens of Palestinian families from the area. The arrest Sunday of Muna al-Kurd, confirmed by phone by her father, Nabil, was the latest move by Israeli police to quell several days of tension in one of the most sensitive neighborhoods in Jerusalem. It came

World NewsJune 6, 2021

Pope voices sorrow over Canadian deaths, doesn't apologize

Pope Francis on Sunday expressed sorrow over the discovery in Canada of the remains of 215 Indigenous students of church-run boarding schools but didn't offer the apology sought by the Canadian prime minister. Francis, in remarks to faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square, called on political and church authorities to work to shed light on what he called "this sad affair" and to foster healing. Two days earlier, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was deeply disappointed that th

World NewsJune 6, 2021

UK urges commitment to vaccinate the world by end of 2022

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will use the Group of Seven wealthy democracies' summit next week to urge world leaders to commit to vaccinating the global population by the end of 2022. Johnson is expected to stress the importance of a global vaccination drive when he meets with fellow world leaders on Friday in Cornwall, on the coast of southwestern England, for the first face-to-face G-7 summit since the pandemic hit.  "The world is looking to us to rise to the greatest cha

World NewsJune 6, 2021

[Graphic News] AmCham Survey flags potential expatriate exodus from Hong Kong

　More than 40 percent of the members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong plan to or are considering leaving the financial hub, with most citing discomfort with a sweeping national security law as one reason, a survey showed May 12. 　The legislation imposed by Beijing in 2020, which punishes secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison, has further strained relations between the United States and China. 　The AmCham survey, to whic

WorldJune 2, 2021

[Graphic News] China’s population growth slows

　China’s population growth slowed, with the nation becoming older and more urbanized, reshaping the economy’s demographic landscape. 　There were 1.412 billion people in China last year, the National Bureau of Statistics in Beijing said in its once-a-decade census report. In 2017, the government forecast a population of 1.42 billion by 2020, peaking at 1.45 billion in 2030. The annual average growth of 0.53 percent in the past decade was the slowest since 1953. 　China’s po

WorldMay 27, 2021

Moderna says its COVID-19 shot works in kids as young as 12

(AP) -- Moderna said Tuesday its COVID-19 vaccine strongly protects kids as young as 12, a step that could put the shot on track to become the second option for that age group in the US. With global vaccine supplies still tight, much of the world is struggling to vaccinate adults in the quest to end the pandemic. But earlier this month, the US and Canada authorized another vaccine -- the shot made by Pfizer and BioNTech -- to be used starting at age 12. Moderna aims to be next in li

World NewsMay 25, 2021

[Graphic News] 19% of retail goes online amid lockdowns: UN

　Online sales accounted for nearly a fifth of all retail turnover last year as lockdowns to combat the spread of the coronavirus pandemic fueled a boom in e-commerce, a United Nations study showed. 　Online sales accounted for 19 percent of all retail sales in 2020, up from 16 percent a year earlier, according to estimates from the UN Conference on Trade and Development based on national statistics offices in major economies. 　South Korea reported the highest figure at 25.9 percent, up from

World BusinessMay 21, 2021