World faces $11 trillion bill for climate change

PARIS • Climate change could directly cost the world economy US$7.9 trillion (S$10.8 trillion) by mid-century as increased drought, flooding and crop failures hamper growth and threaten infrastructure, new analysis showed yesterday.

The Economist Intelligence Unit's Climate Change Resilience Index measured the preparedness of the world's 82 largest economies and found that based on current trends, the fallout would shave off 3 per cent of the global economy by 2050.

Its analysis found Africa was most at-risk, with 4.7 per cent of its economy in the balance.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Journalist's murder: Malta arrests tycoon

VALLETTA • Malta police arrested one of the country's most prominent businessmen yesterday as part of an investigation into the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, two sources said.

Yorgen Fenech was detained as he tried to leave the Mediterranean island before dawn aboard his luxury yacht, sources said. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat confirmed the tycoon's arrest, but declined to say on what grounds he had been detained.

The arrest came a day after Mr Muscat offered to pardon a suspected middleman in the journalist's murder if he provided legally binding evidence of who was behind the killing.

REUTERS

US to give Vietnam second security ship

HANOI • The United States is giving Vietnam's coast guard a second cutter vessel, Defence Secretary Mark Esper said yesterday, vowing to maintain a routine military presence in the South China Sea.

The new security ship "represents another concrete symbol of our strengthening relationship", Dr Esper said at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam after a tour through South Korea, Thailand and the Philippines. Washington wants to counter Beijing's expanding influence in the region and the South China Sea is a source of major tension.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE