Reuters

By Melanie Burton and Scott Murdoch

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - BHP Group's options for its pursuit of rival miner Anglo American include sweetening its $42.7 billion buyout offer, making a hostile bid or walking away for now as it approaches a May 22 deadline to lodge a binding offer.

As BHP weighs its next move, CEO Mike Henry and his team have been making the case for the mega-deal on the sidelines of an investor conference in Miami and... (continue reading...)

TOKYO (Reuters) - Mizuho Financial Group reported a big jump in fourth-quarter profit on Wednesday that beat expectations, helped by its overseas business and demand for loans at home, and it forecast higher profit in the current financial year.

For the January-March fourth quarter, Mizuho reported a group net profit of 36.7 billion yen ($235 million), compared with 12.3 billion yen in the same period a year earlier.

The results also... (continue reading...)

By Rishika Sadam

HYDERABAD (Reuters) - New Zealand's food safety regulator on Wednesday said it is investigating possible contamination in spice products of top Indian brands MDH and Everest after they faced scrutiny in other countries.

The United States and Australia have been looking into contamination after Hong Kong last month suspended sales of three spice blends of MDH and one of Everest, saying they contained high levels of a... (continue reading...)

By Xinghui Kok

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore's Lawrence Wong, who becomes on Wednesday the wealthy city-state's first new prime minister in 20 years, took to Tiktok in the years before to engage with citizens, singing, playing guitar and posting on issues such as mental health.

Behind that affable online personality is a man colleagues say is an able technocrat who embodies a generational shift in leadership yet exemplifies continuity... (continue reading...)

By Yimou Lee

TAIPEI (Reuters) - China's military has sailed and flown closer to Taiwan in recent weeks than it has before, and staged mock attacks on foreign vessels ahead of the inauguration of the island's next president on Monday, according to Taiwanese government reports.

Taiwan will inaugurate its new president, Lai Ching-te, as Beijing ramps up military and political pressure to assert its sovereignty over democratically governed... (continue reading...)