AFP Asia Business

The flower fields of Nepal’s Gundu village glimmer yellow, orange and purple as women harvest blooms, a flourishing industry changing tough village lives by providing garlands for Hindu festivals.Nestled on the rim of Kathmandu Valley, Gundu is renowned for supplying the brightly-coloured globe amaranth and marigold flowers, with demand surging for this week’s Tihar celebrations, …

Nepali women’s flowering prosperity from garland industry Read More »

Hello Kitty, the cute, enigmatic character that adorns everything from handbags to rice cookers, turns 50 on Friday — and is still making millions for her Japanese creators.The simple design of the character — who is not a cat, but a little girl from London according to Sanrio, the company behind Kitty — has mileage …

‘CEO of supercute’: Hello Kitty turns 50 Read More »

A Malaysian court ruled Wednesday that jailed former prime minister Najib Razak will have to defend himself against charges of abuse of power and money laundering linked to the scandal-wracked 1MDB sovereign wealth fund.Presiding judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah said the prosecution successfully established that Najib had a case to answer for on four counts of …

Malaysian ex-PM Najib ordered to enter defence in latest 1MDB trial Read More »