TOKYO: Toshiba’s CEO resigned yesterday as a buyout offer from a private equity fund stirs turmoil inside the storied Japanese company, with reports suggesting two other funds are considering bids. Nobuaki Kurumatani’s resignation is the latest development in years of upheaval at the firm, which only won back its spot on the first section of the Tokyo stock exchange earlier this year after restructuring.

BAGHDAD: Faced with sharp price rises, a decline in the buying power of the dinar and rising unemployment, Iraqis enter the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan with a feeling of dread. “After a whole day of fasting, we have to eat something,” even if the price of a kilo of tomatoes has more than doubled, said Umm Hussein, a single mother of five who has no salary.

LONDON: Bitcoin hit a record high above $62,000 yesterday as the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase prepares to launch shares on Wall Street. Bitcoin reached $62,377, a huge gain of 114 percent since the start of the year. 

NEW YORK: Microsoft is to acquire artificial intelligence and cloud computing company Nuance for $19.7 billion, bolstering its healthcare presence with a leader in voice recognition technology. 

KUWAIT: Health Minister Sheikh Dr Basel Al-Sabah lamented that the number of coronavirus infections and fatalities in Kuwait still high. 

CHENGDU: Blockchain is being used to boost trade through the China-Europe train routes, which have contributed significantly to lowering logistics costs and served as a lifeline stabilizing global trade amid the pandemic. 

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka secured a $500 million loan from China yesterday in a desperate bid to shore up its foreign exchange reserves as the local currency hit a record low. 

WASHINGTON: Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said he was more worried about the risk of a large-scale cyberattack than another financial crisis like that of 2008. The risks of a 2008-like crisis with a need for government bailouts of banks were “very, very low,” the head of the US central bank said during an interview aired Sunday on CBS’s “60 minutes”.

LONDON: Britons yesterday toasted a significant easing of coronavirus restrictions, with early morning pints – and much-needed haircuts – as the country took a tentative step towards the resumption of normal life.