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https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/08/travel/worlds-most-powerful-passports-for-2025/index.html Who’s the itty-bitty city-state with the global passport the world thinks is great? There’s new year cheer for Singapore as it reclaims its place at the top of a quarterly ranking of the world’s most powerful passports. Holders of this desirable red travel document enjoy visa-free access to 195 out of 227 destinations worldwide, according to the Henley Passport Index, more than citizens of any other place on the planet. Japan is second in the ranking, with an open door to 193 destinations, having secured the silver medal by regaining visa-free access to neighboring China for the first time since the Covid-19 lockdowns. The EU member states of France, Germany, Italy and Spain are at No. 3, along with Finland and South Korea, with access to 192 destinations with no prior visa needed. The fourth position in the rankings is a testament to the power of the European Union’s border-free Schengen area, which guarantees free movement to more than 425 million EU citizens. It’s held by seven EU countries, each with visa-free access to 191 destinations: Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. Squeaking into fifth place are five countries — Belgium, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland and the United Kingdom — all of which have visa-free access to 190 destinations. The mobility gap Now in its 20th year, the index, created by London-based global citizenship and residence advisory firm Henley & Partners, tracks global freedoms in 227 countries and territories around the world, using exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA). At the opposite end of the ranking, at No. 106, Afghanistan remains locked in bottom place, with visa-free access to just 26 destinations, two fewer than a year ago. Syria is at No. 105 (with 27 destinations) and Iraq is at No. 104 (with 31 destinations). This means that the gap between the travel freedoms enjoyed by the citizens at the top and bottom of the ranking has never been wider. “The very notion of citizenship and its birthright lottery needs a fundamental rethink as temperatures rise, natural disasters become more frequent and severe, displacing communities and rendering their environments uninhabitable,” said Christian H. Kaelin, chair of Henley and Partners, in a press release. “Simultaneously, political instability and armed conflicts in various regions force countless people to flee their homes in search of safety and refuge.” Climbers and fallers The rest of the top 10 is dominated by European countries, with a few exceptions. Australia and Greece are tied at No. 6, while Malta, Poland and Canada are at No. 7. Eighth place is shared by Czechia and Hungary, the United States and Estonia are at No. 9, and No. 10 is held by Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia and the United Arab Emirates. The UAE is one of the index’s biggest success stories in global mobility, having secured access to an additional 72 destinations since 2015, allowing it to climb 32 places to 10th spot with visa-free access to 185 destinations. China is also a big climber, having jumped up the list from 94th place in 2015 to No. 60 in 2025. Only 22 of the world’s 199 passports have fallen down the ranking in the past decade and some surprising names are at the top of the list. Venezuela is at No. 1, followed by the United States as the second-highest faller. It’s dropped seven places from No. 2 to No. 9. The South Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu is at No. 4, followed by the British passport at No. 5 — a former No. 1. Canada is No. 5 on the losers list, having dropped three places in the ranking in the last decade. Henley & Partners’ list is one of several indexes created by financial firms to rank global passports according to the access they provide to their citizens. Arton Capital’s Passport Index takes into consideration the passports of 193 United Nations member countries and six territories — Taiwan, Macao, Hong Kong, Kosovo, the Palestinian territories and the Vatican. Territories annexed to other countries are excluded. It’s also updated in real-time throughout the year, but its data is gathered by close monitoring of individual governments’ portals. Arton’s Global Passport Power Rank 2025 puts the United Arab Emirates in the top spot, with a visa-free/visa-on-arrival score of 180. Second place is held by Spain, with a score of 179. The most powerful passports for 2025 1. Singapore (195 destinations) 2. Japan (193) 3. France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Finland, South Korea (192) 4. Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway (191) 5. Belgium, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland, United Kingdom (190) 6. Greece, Australia (189) 7. Canada, Poland, Malta (188) 8. Hungary, Czechia (187) 9. Estonia, United States (186) 10. Lithuania, Latvia, Slovenia, United Arab Emirates (185)

McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski recently sent a letter to employees around the world saying the company will roll out cost-cutting programs, launch a massive restructuring, eliminate some jobs and lay off staff.

In a world where browsing social media, getting info on the net first hand is king, and binging videos on your rest days are a must, well... Youtube is down if that's even considered breaking news. It's as SERIOUS as the MRT breaking down. Brings your life almost to a halt (for some/many/most). If you're not seeing videos on the MCF blog, don't panic. It's not us. It's Youtube. So to summarize.. Youtube is down. Don't panic. Some reports are of blank screen, some showing internal errors. https://heavy.com/tech/2018/10/youtube-down/

Japan's Honda Motor on Monday recalled more than two million vehicles worldwide over an airbag defect that could pose a fire risk. Honda said the recall covers about 2,033,000 vehicles which were produced between August 2000 and December 2005, including over one million in North America and 668,000 in Japan. Subject to the recall are a total of 13 types of vehicles including popular Fit and Accord models. Front passenger airbag inflators could have been assembled with an improperly manufactured propellant component, Japan's third largest automaker said. That could cause the container of the inflator to rupture in the event of a crash, posing a fire risk or injuring passengers, it added. The same inflator problem has also caused top automaker Toyota to recall millions of vehicles globally. Toyota has earlier said it acted as it received a complaint from a Japanese customer who said his passenger seat was burned from the defect. Honda said the company had received no complaint or reports of injuries on its own. Source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/honda-recalls-2m-vehicles/1194544.html

German auto giant Volkswagen AG on Thursday said it is recalling 2.6 million cars worldwide due to various technical problems affecting different models of its various brands. The problems ranged from faulty lighting, leaky engine fuel lines and possible malfunction when synthetic oil is used in its gearbox, a spokesman said. The recall is one of the biggest in the company’s history. It includes 800,000 of its compact Tiguan sports utility vehicles (SUV), which could be affected by faulty fuses that can trip lighting circuits. Volkswagen also said it is recalling its two-litre Amarok pickup truck because of leaky engine fuel lines, which affects 239,000 vehicles. VW issued a separate recall in China for around 640,000 vehicles that were locally produced or imported between January 2009 and June 2013. The recall comes after the country’s quality watchdog identified a problem with the DO200 gearbox, which may suffer electronic malfunction when synthetic oil is used. Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/money/story/volkswagen-recalls-26-million-cars-worldwide-due-technical-problems-201311

Guys, please take note of this news if you are considering buying 2nd hand BMW vehicles. March 26, 2012, 3:50 pm BMW Recalls Nearly 1.3 Million Vehicles Worldwide for Battery-Cable Flaw BMW of North America 2010 BMW 550i, one of the models affected by the recall announced Monday.4:10 p.m. | Updated BMW announced Monday that it would recall about 1.3 million 5 Series and 6 Series vehicles worldwide to fix a potential hazard involving a faulty battery-cable connection in the cars

http://www.watercar.com/html/watercar_python.html More flood means more biz for them!

Engine: 1.6GDi with 6AT/6MT

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/W...ory_635907.html TOKYO - HONDA is recalling nearly 700,000 Fit, Freed and City compact cars around the world for a defective spring part that may cause the engine to stall. No accidents have been reported related to the problem, but at least 72 complaints were filed in Japan, and 29 abroad, Honda Motor Co. spokesman Tomohiro Okada said on Thursday. Recalled are 167,000 vehicles in Japan, 156,000 in China, and 233,000 in the rest of Asia, Tokyo-based Honda said. About 122,000 cars are being recalled in North America. The spring was placed improperly in a small box inside the engine, so that, in some cases, the problem could cause the engine to stall, Mr Okada said. -- AP

TOKYO (AP)

Those of you looking to buy a 2011 BMW 5-Series may have to wait longer than expected. The sedan has already been a hit for the automaker, who now reports that they are sold out of the model. Fear not, 5er fans. The result is that the newest customers will have to wait an additional, but not agonizingly-long, three or four months for delivery. The popular car is expected to make up as much as 17 percent of BMW sales in the United States. Though the car shares 70 percent of its parts and technology with the decidedly more expensive 7-Series, the 5-Series costs $25,600 less than the company's flagship model. The new 5-Series has a starting retail price in the States of $44,550. We wonder if some dealerships will try to add a premium on top of this cost, because of the early sell-out. The 2011 BMW 5-Series went on sale in Europe this past March, with American sales beginning this week. Source: bloomberg

Posted: 10 February 2010 1113 hrs TOKYO - Japanese automaker Honda on Wednesday has recalled 437,763 vehicles worldwide, mostly in North America, to fix defective airbags. "Honda has decided to expand a recall related to a defect in the driver

got this from the following link: link Worldwide GPS may die in 2010, say US gov Track this topic Print story Post comment Can the fanbois live without it? By Rik Myslewski in San Francisco

Expect more Ah-neh FT here get chop off .... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7733575.stm

Source: http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080926/tts-...in-972e412.html HONG KONG (AFP) - - Banking giant HSBC is to cut 1,100 jobs worldwide because of the volatile global financial environment, a spokesman said Friday. The cuts will be made in the global banking and market division, with around half of those losing their jobs in HSBC's British operations, Hong Kong-based spokesman Gareth Hewett said. "The steps we have taken today are in the light of the current global business and economic environment and our cautious outlook for 2009," he said in a statement. "Markets continue to be challenging and difficult but our strategy leaves us well positioned for the next wave of global growth, when it comes." Around 100 jobs will go in Hong Kong. The jobs would be cut in both front and back office operations, Hewett said. The statement said that global pre-tax profits for the division were 2.7 billion dollars in the first half of 2008, down 35 percent over the first half of 2007 but 37 percent higher than in the second half of 2007. HSBC employs around 330,000 people worldwide. The global banking and market division includes investment banking, treasury and trading operations. The market reacted positively to the news of job cuts. Hong Kong-traded shares of HSBC were up 0.5 percent at 2:30 pm (0630 GMT) against a falling overall market. Global markets have been in the doldrums for the past year over worries about access to credit, stemming from the dire state of the US housing market and unwise lending. The situation has worsened in the past two weeks as major financial institutions have required government-backed rescue packages, and investment banking giant Lehman Brothers was forced into bankruptcy. HSBC was one of the first banks to warn of the problems among products linked to the high-risk US mortgage sector. The British-based bank's US division has suffered diminishing profits as a result of the credit crisis. Last week, the bank said it had scrapped a six billion dollar deal to buy a major South Korean bank after the financial crisis cut asset values worldwide. HSBC said in it had terminated the deal to buy a 51 percent stake in Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) from US buyout fund Lone Star, "taking into account all relevant factors including current asset values in world financial markets."

It had been 10 yrs since Toyota launched it 1st hybrids till recently to reach 1 million hybrids vehicles. Will you consider a hybrid in future? From http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/news/07/0607.html Tokyo

http://www.channel4.co.uk/apps26/4car/jsp/...lnk=211&id=5636 30/5/2003 Mazda has issued a worldwide recall to fix defective fog lamps, which have faulty wiring and could catch fire. More than 174,000 vehicles are affected worldwide, including 78,500 in Japan, though no accidents resulting from this problem have been reported. Cars affected are Mazda 6 models built between March 2002 and May 2003, MX-5 roadsters built between December 1997 and February 2003 (also known as the Miata or Eunos), and the MPV, built between May 1999 and February 2003. The 6 is also being investigated for a potentially faulty brake oil-tank sensor, which could fail to illuminate the low-oil warning light. Owners are advised to contact Mazda Customer Services for more information.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/cor...ew/8917/1/.html