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North Korea said Thursday it conducted its first flight test of a new cruise missile, as it expands its military capabilities in the face of deepening tensions with the United States and neighbours. The report in state media came a day after South Korea's military said it detected the North firing several cruise missiles into waters off its western coast. The South's Joint Chiefs of Staff did not provide more specific assessments, including the number of missiles fired or their flight characteristics.

Canada's federal commission of inquiry into foreign interference is looking to examine alleged meddling by India in the country's last two general elections, Canada-based CTV News reported. The commission, in a statement on Wednesday, said it has asked the federal government to produce documentation related to these allegations. The commission's terms of reference, published last year, direct it to assess possible interference by China, Russia, and other foreign states or non-state actors in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections, the CTV News reported. The statement signals the commission's intention to probe any role India might have played in influencing the two ballots, as per CTV News. The commission's initial hearings, to begin Monday, will look at the challenges and limitations of disclosing classified national security information and intelligence to the public. According to CTV News, an interim report from the commission is due on May 3, with a final report expected by the end of the year.

Tech Mahindra reported a 60.6% year-on-year fall in its net profit for the quarter ended December at Rs 510 crore. The country's fifth largest software services firm cited its business rationalisation measures as well as continuing macroeconomic headwinds impacting its clients across business segments for missing profit estimates.

Newme, on Wednesday told ET that it has raised $5.4 million (Rs 45 crore) in a seed funding round led by Fireside Ventures. The Bengaluru-based startup, which currently sells its own brand of clothing across both online and offline outlets was founded in 2022. It had in the past raised an undisclosed round of funding from investors such as Aum Ventures, 2am VC and All In Capital, all of whom have participated in the current round.

BEIJING (Reuters) — China on Wednesday said it is widening the uses for commercial property lending by banks in its latest effort to ease a liquidity crunch facing troubled real estate firms.

A major nuclear plant that Britain’s government hopes will generate affordable, low-carbon energy could cost up to 46 billion pounds, or $59 billion, and the completion date could be delayed to after 2029

Switzerland’s financial markets authority is getting a new chief executive as the country looks at ways to strengthen banking regulations following the crisis at Credit Suisse

Germany’s train drivers have brought rail traffic to a standstill again when they began a six-day strike to push their demands in a rancorous dispute with the country’s main railway operator over working hours and pay

After Turkey ratified Sweden’s bid to join NATO on Monday, Hungary became the last member of the military alliance not to have issued its approval

China, the world's biggest exporter, says it is deeply concerned about tensions in the Red Sea that have upended global trade by forcing many shippers to avoid the Suez Canal

Lawmakers on the European Parliament’s environment committee are backing a proposal to relax rules on genetically modified plants produced using so-called new genomic techniques

Official figures obtained by The Associated Press show that Cyprus has made headway in weaning itself off Russian cash and business as it tries to clean up its image

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees says that he’s worried that the war in Ukraine has been forgotten as the country prepares to mark two years since Russia’s full-scale invasion

Startup India began on 16 January 2016, and by 2018, claimed itself as a huge success for having reached an arbitrary mark of 10,000 firms registered under it. But then, that was a public-relations byte. Eight years on, the jury is still out.

Canada may not be in a recession right now, but it is likely to enter one very soon and that will prompt the Bank of Canada to cut interest rates, economists at Desjardins Group say.

Inflation is the great evil of an economy, according to the Bank of Canada. It is so important to get our inflation rate to two per cent that it will use the tool of raising interest rates significantly to get there. Yes, it may cost hundreds of thousands of people their jobs, but it will be worth it. Yes, it may cost Canadians billions of extra dollars on their mortgages, but it will be worth it. Inflation is just that insidious, so it must be tamed even if it comes at tremendous costs to large swaths of the population.

On April 15-16, Blockchain Life 2024 is going to prove its status as one of the main crypto events of the year bringing together over 8,000 crypto enthusiasts and thousands of international companies in the globally recognized crypto capital of Dubai.

Amit Shah on Wednesday said the Centre's decision to confer Bharat Ratna on former Bihar chief minister Karpoori Thakur was an honour to crores of poor people belonging to the Backward and Dalit communities. Shah said that on January 22, Prime Minister Modi accomplished 'Ramkaaj' in Ayodhya and on January 23, he did 'Garibkaaj', referring to conferring the country's highest honour to the late socialist leader from Bihar. Addressing the birth centenary celebration of Karpoori Thakur, affectionately called as 'Jan Nayak', he said the Modi government has revised the OBC list, given rights to the states to prepare their own OBC list, provided reservation to OBCs in IITs and IIMs, as well as in allotment of petrol pumps. «Prime Minister Narendra Modiji ended the wait of 500 years on January 22 by consecrating Ram temple, and the very next day, on January 23, he accomplished a good deed for the poor by deciding to give Bharat Ratna to Karpoori Thakurji,» Shah said. Thakur worked for the promotion of Hindi in administration and academics, and the Modi government has been promoting local languages under the New Education Policy, the home minister added. BJP president JP Nadda said Karpoori Thakur's journey — from a financially challenged family to his relentless struggle for social justice, culminating in his role as the chief minister of Bihar — deserves greater acknowledgement.

Investing.com — Oil prices settled higher Wednesday, as sentiment was boosted by a much larger than expected decline in U.S. weekly crude stockpiles and hopes that fresh stimulus measures to boost China's economy will shore up the oil demand outlook.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Biden administration is delaying a decision on a Louisiana liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project that would be the country's largest but which has raised the ire of environmentalists, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman and his Israeli-born wife, Neri Oxman, spent $25 million for an equity stake of around 4.9% in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), the Israeli bourse said on Wednesday.