Japan adopts negative interest rate in surprise move
In a surprise move, the Bank of Japan has introduced a negative interest rate.
The benchmark rate of -0.1% means that commercial banks will be charged by the central bank for some deposits.
It hopes this will be a disincentive to banks to save and prompt them to lend in another attempt to counter the continuing economic slump in the world's third-largest economy.
The eurozone also has negative interest rates, but this is a first for Japan.
It is a move that has been on the cards for Japan's stagnating economy for well over 10 years.
The decision to go negative came after a narrow 5-4 vote at the Bank of Japan's first meeting of the year on Friday.
"The BOJ will cut interest rates further into negative territory if judged as necessary," the Bank of Japan said, adding it would continue as long as needed to achieve an inflation target of 2%.
Some analysts have cast doubt over how effective the rate cut will be.
Sri Lanka's missing thousands: one woman's six-year fight to find her husband
When journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda went missing, police told wife Sandhya ‘getting abducted was fashionable’ and he would soon return. More than 90 court appearances and a change in government later, she is still searching
Sandhya Eknaligoda has had a date at court in Homogoma, Sri Lanka, every month for the past six years.
The 52-year-old counts the number of appearances at more than 90 and they are aimed at securing one thing – finding her husband.
Journalist and cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda disappeared without a trace on 24 January 2010 after a mysterious telephone call led him to an equally mysterious meeting.
Since then not a word has been heard from Prageeth, who was 50 when he disappeared, not even from third parties. He worked for website Lankae News.
The Eknaligoda case is one among tens of thousands of missing persons cases that the new government of Maithripala Sirisena has pledged to resolve. A presidential commission has already recorded more than 20,000 such cases, including more than 5,000 security services members.
China charges Canadian with espionage, activists with overthrow plot
Beijing's crackdown on human rights activists has continued with the indictment of a Canadian pastor. Three pro-democracy advocates were sent to prison.
Canadian pastor Kevin Garratt was charged with espionage and stealing state secrets by the Chinese government late on Thursday. The move to indict Garratt comes after he was held for 18 months without charge.
According to the Xinhua state news agency, a probe into the Canadian's activities in China "found evidence that implicates Garratt in accepting tasks from Canadian espionage agencies to gather intelligence in China." If found guilty of stealing state secrets, the sentence can be anywhere from 10 years in jail to execution.
The Pentecostal pastor and his family first arrived in China in 1984. Since 2008, they have lived in Dandong, near the border with North Korea, where they held church services and organized charity drivers for North Korean orphanages and elderly care facilities. Garratt's wife, Julia, was also arrested in August 2014 but was later released on bail.
Alleged rape in Berlin: Russian TV uses fake video to accuse migrants
One of Russia’s leading television channels has used a fake video to prop up its allegations that migrants had kidnapped and raped a German girl in Berlin earlier this month, a story German police have said is unfounded.
A Russian news site, which targets an audience it describes as “The Soviets of Germany”, first reported on this alleged crime. According to the article, a young German-Russian woman was kidnapped for over 30 hours by three men “of Arab origin” on January 11, in Berlin’s Marzahn neighbourhood.
However, while police have confirmed the woman did indeed disappear for several hours that day, they say she gave “conflicting statements” and that following an investigation, they had ruled out kidnapping and rape.
This announcement has angered many on the far-right in Germany, especially as the news came amid ongoing investigations into the sexual attack cases in Cologne and other German cities, some of which police say were perpetrated by migrants.
The one-way ticket to ISIS central
Updated 0608 GMT (1408 HKT) January 29, 2016
It's a pretty normal bus -- windows slightly cracked, dust, the occasional button missing on the dashboard. But when its passengers say they take it knowing they could be on a one-way ticket to death, they aren't exaggerating.
From the dark and dank underpass that is Charles Helou bus station in central Beirut, leaves the bus to Raqqa. It has done so for years, but now that Raqqa is the capital of ISIS' self-declared caliphate, the bus crosses the most dangerous border in the world. And people do pay to get on it.
In a 24-hour journey, it travels from Beirut, across the border to regime-held Damascus. Then it heads to Palmyra, held by ISIS, before moving north toward Raqqa.
UN health chief: Zika virus is 'spreading explosively'
The World Heath Organization estimates that there could up to 4 million cases of the mosquito-borne virus over the next year in the Americas.
GENEVA — The Zika virus is "spreading explosively" in the Americas, which could see up to 4 million cases over the next year, international health officials said Thursday, announcing a special meeting next week to decide if they should declare an international health emergency.
The warning from the World Health Organization came amid a call to arms by officials on both sides of the Atlantic over the mosquito-borne virus, which has been linked to a spike in a rare birth defect in Brazil.
Brazil's president – noting there is no medical defense against the infection – called for a crusade against the mosquitoes spreading it.
"As long as we don't have a vaccine against Zika virus, the war must be focused on exterminating the mosquito's breeding areas," said President Dilma Rousseff.
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