Reuters

By Leika Kihara

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's weak consumption may heighten, rather than tame, already growing political pressure on the central bank to raise interest rates to slow the yen's declines blamed for hurting households via higher import costs.

Such pressure will likely prod Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda to keep dropping hawkish signals on the policy outlook, but with plenty of caveats to hedge against the chance consumption... (continue reading...)

PARIS (Reuters) - French police officers in Rouen 'neutralised' an armed individual who was intent on setting fire to the town's synagogue, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Friday.

The incident occurred early on Friday morning, Darmanin said in a post on social network X.

Regional French broadcaster France 3 said fire fighters were on the site.

Rouen mayor said in a post the Normandy town was 'battered and... (continue reading...)

DUBAI (Reuters) - The U.S. Central Command said on Friday that trucks carrying humanitarian assistance began moving ashore via a temporary pier in Gaza at 9 a.m. local time (0600 GMT).

No U.S. troops went ashore in Gaza, it added.

"This is an ongoing, multinational effort to deliver additional aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza via a maritime corridor that is entirely humanitarian in nature, and will involve aid commodities donated by... (continue reading...)

(Reuters) - GSK has raised 1.25 billion pounds ($1.52 billion) from selling its entire remaining stake in consumer healthcare firm Haleon, the British drugmaker said on Friday.

GSK sold around 385 million shares at 324 pence apiece, amounting to a 4.2% stake in Haleon. The company was formed in a merger of GSK and Pfizer's consumer healthcare businesses in 2019.

The sale was at a discount of about 2.5% to Haleon's last close of 332.4... (continue reading...)

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea fired a ballistic missile towards the sea off its east coast, South Korea's military said on Friday.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff did not immediately provide details of the projectile or its trajectory.

North Korea has launched a range of ballistic and cruise missiles as well as tactical rockets in recent months, describing them as part of a program to upgrade its defensive capabilities.