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Chinese tourists flock to gambling hub Macau for Labour Day holiday

By Joyce Zhou MACAU (Reuters) -Hundreds of thousands of mainland Chinese visitors have descended on the world’s biggest gambling hub of Macau for the Labour Day holiday, packing tightly into its narrow cobblestone streets and placing bets in its glitzy casinos. The surge in visitors comes after China and its special administrative region Macau lifted …

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Analysis-Inflation, labour crunch prodding Japan’s smaller firms to raise pay

By Tetsushi Kajimoto and Kentaro Sugiyama TOKYO (Reuters) – Rising inflation and an intensifying labour crunch are prodding smaller local Japanese firms to follow their big counterparts in raising pay, a move that can generate broader wage hikes and encourage the central bank to phase out its massive stimulus. Wages have barely risen in Japan …

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Japan’s Astellas to buy Iveric Bio for $5.9 billion to expand eyesight treatments

By Rocky Swift TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan’s Astellas Pharma said on Monday it agreed to buy U.S. drugmaker Iveric Bio Inc for about $5.9 billion in its biggest acquisition, giving it access to a range of ophthalmology treatments. The deal marks the fifth major overseas acquisition by Astellas, Japan’s third biggest drugmaker by sales, since 2019 …

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Paraguay’s conservatives score big election win, defusing Taiwan fears

By Lucinda Elliott and Daniela Desantis ASUNCION (Reuters) -Paraguayan conservative economist Santiago Pena, 44, won the country’s presidential election on Sunday, tightening the ruling Colorado Party’s political grip in the country and defusing fears about the end of diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Pena, who has pledged to maintain Paraguay’s long-standing Taiwan relations, had 42.7% of …

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China factory activity unexpectedly shrinks in April

By Ellen Zhang and Ryan Woo BEIJING (Reuters) -China’s manufacturing activity unexpectedly shrank in April, official data showed on Sunday, raising pressure on policymakers seeking to boost an economy struggling for a post-COVID lift-off amid subdued global demand and persistent property weakness. The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) declined to 49.2 from 51.9 in …

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Uzbeks vote on allowing president to extend time in power

TASHKENT (Reuters) -Uzbekistan votes on constitutional amendments on Sunday that promise its citizens greater social protections in exchange for resetting President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s term count to zero, which could allow him to run for two more seven-year terms. Mirziyoyev, 65, has been praised at home and abroad as a liberal reformer for abandoning the previous …

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