2026-02-11 05:52
SEOUL, Feb 11 (Reuters) - South Korea's Bithumb said on Wednesday that serious flaws had left the crypto exchange's internal system susceptible to potential sabotage and failed to prevent an erroneous transfer of more than $40 billion in assets last week. The country's second-largest virtual asset exchange said it accidentally gave away about 620,000 bitcoins to customers during a promotional event, instead of 620,000 won ($426), triggering a 17% slump in bitcoin's price. Sign up here. Bithumb CEO Lee Jae-won said the giveaway amounted to 15 times the exchange's holding of 42,000 bitcoins, largely because a lag of about 24 hours in processing transactions delayed updates to the balance of virtual assets. "We are acutely aware of the deficiency in internal system control," Lee told a parliament committee hearing on the incident that took place on Friday. The exchange's policy of checking the volume of currency to be transferred against its actual holdings had failed and the amount was also not earmarked in a separate account to ensure the safety of the transaction, Lee said. Most of the bitcoins have been retrieved by the exchange, but 1,786 had already been sold within minutes before the exchange froze the accounts of the customers that received them, regulators have said. The customers who sold them are legally required to return them, they said. Members of parliament expressed dismay at the failure of government and corporate oversight in the country's virtual assets market, which is one of the most active in the world by trading volume. Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) Governor Lee Chan-jin said he personally believed the virtual currency market should be subject to the same regulatory oversight as banks and other financial services institutions, but it was not possible under existing laws and regulations. ($1 = 1,455.4700 won) https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/south-korea-crypto-exchange-bithumb-says-system-flaws-led-40-billion-error-2026-02-11/
2026-02-11 05:40
MOSCOW, Feb 11 (Reuters) - An overnight drone attack sparked a fire on the territory of an industrial facility in Russia's southern region of Volgograd, the regional governor said on Wednesday. "Air defence units of the Russian Ministry of Defence are repelling a massive terrorist attack by unmanned aerial vehicles on energy and civilian infrastructure facilities in the Volgograd region," the governor, Andrei Bocharov, said on Telegram. Sign up here. The attack caused damage to an apartment in a residential building, drone debris also fell on the territory of a kindergarten, he said. There were no immediate reports of casualties. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/drone-attack-sparks-fire-plant-russias-volgograd-region-governor-says-2026-02-11/
2026-02-11 05:32
A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Tom Westbrook Earnings season and data are driving markets on Wednesday, and a rebound in the yen is gathering steam. Sign up here. TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) , opens new tab, Siemens Energy (ENR1n.DE) , opens new tab, Deutsche Boerse (DB1Gn.DE) , opens new tab, Heineken (HEIO.AS) , opens new tab, Schindler (SCHP.S) , opens new tab and EssilorLuxottica (ESLX.PA) , opens new tab are among the companies reporting in Europe. Delayed U.S. jobs data is also due on the heels of unexpectedly soft retail sales that have raised doubts about the health of consumers and the world's biggest economy. Decidedly weaker consumers could knock the wind out of recent gains for stocks like Walmart (WMT.O) , opens new tab that have surged in a rotation out of AI or AI-vulnerable companies. January's employment report is expected to show payrolls rose by 70,000, up from 50,000 in December, while the unemployment rate held steady at 4.4%. More importantly, perhaps, revisions for the year through last March could show the economy created hundreds of thousands fewer jobs than first thought. Treasuries had rallied and U.S. rate cut expectations were raised a little on Tuesday, after core retail sales figures came in just 0.1% higher for December, and October and November numbers were revised downward. In Asia, shares in chipmaker TSMC (2330.TW) , opens new tab rose through Taiwan's final trading day before the Lunar New Year break to carry the bourse to a record high and bring MSCI's Asia ex-Japan index (.MIAPJ0000PUS) , opens new tab 1.3% higher. Shares in Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA.AX) , opens new tab surged 7.8% after it reported market share gains and issued a bigger-than-expected dividend. Biotech giant CSL's (CSL.AX) , opens new tab share price dived to an eight-year low after it reported an 81% profit drop a day after it announced CEO Paul McKenzie's exit. In foreign exchange markets, the yen extended a surge and is now up more than 2.5% since Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's Liberal Democratic Party won a landslide victory at Sunday's election, suggesting some traders think she can turn around the currency's fortunes. Key developments that could influence markets on Wednesday: - U.S. payrolls data - Earnings at Schindler, Heineken, TotalEnergies, Siemens Energy, Deutsche Boerse and EssilorLuxottica https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/global-markets-view-europe-2026-02-11/
2026-02-11 04:06
Captain due to re-appear in Hong Kong court on May 5 Prosecution to call 18 witnesses Key charge involves criminal damage of submarine cables, pipeline HONG KONG, Feb 11 (Reuters) - The Chinese captain of a Hong Kong-registered cargo ship pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to a charge of criminal damage, following allegations that his vessel damaged undersea cables in the Baltic Sea. Wan Wenguo, 44, the captain of the container ship NewNew Polar Bear, is alleged to have damaged an underwater natural gas pipeline and submarine telecom cables between Finland and Estonia in October, 2023, according to a Hong Kong charge sheet reviewed by Reuters. Sign up here. The charge sheet stated that Wan had been "reckless" and "without lawful excuse damaged the property belonging to another". Finnish investigators said the container vessel had dragged its anchor to sever the Balticconnector gas pipeline. Finnish police later retrieved a broken anchor from the seabed near the pipeline, and technical examinations showed it belonged to the container vessel that was missing an anchor. A lawyer for Wan, Jerry Chung, earlier said 18 prosecution witnesses would be called to testify in the case that includes one charge of criminal damage, as well as two charges of failing to ensure the ship complied with safety requirements under the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea. Wan also pleaded not guilty to those two charges. The next hearing is on May 5. These witnesses include crew members, Hong Kong officials, and experts in maritime matters, Chung added. The Baltic Sea region has been on high alert for sabotage after a series of outages involving power cables, gas pipelines and telecom links since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. NATO has boosted its military presence with frigates, aircraft and naval drones. When asked about possible Russian involvement in the case, a prosecution lawyer told reporters that there had been no indication so far in court of such a claim. But Nordic and Baltic authorities have struggled to prove intent and convict anyone including Wan for the incidents. "There has been no response to the legal assistance request that Finland sent to Hong Kong," Finnish state prosecutor Ari-Pekka Koivisto told Reuters by email. "As far as I understand, Estonia's legal assistance request has also not been answered." The NewNew Polar Bear first severed three telecom cables; a Russian one linking St Petersburg to Russia's Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad; and two others connecting Estonia to Finland and Sweden on Oct. 7-8, 2023, before hitting the gas pipeline on its way to a port near St Petersburg, Russia. Estonian police have investigated the damage to Estonian telecom cables, while the owner of the Russian cable, state company Rostelecom, has said it won't seek compensation. Early on, China's foreign ministry promised , opens new tab both Finland and Estonia to assist with the investigations, while calling for an objective and fair probe. Ian Chan, a prosecution lawyer for Hong Kong's Marine Department that has regulatory oversight over the port city's maritime industry shipping registry, told reporters that he had not made contact with Finnish or Estonian authorities regarding the case. He noted, however, that Wan's ship, when it sailed from Russia to China, had been missing an anchor, and it had failed to report daily to its shipping company, as is required under maritime regulations. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinese-captain-baltic-sea-cable-case-pleads-not-guilty-criminal-damage-charge-2026-02-11/
2026-02-11 03:43
JAKARTA, Feb 11 (Reuters) - The Indonesian Attorney General's Office said it had arrested 11 people, including officials from the customs office, for alleged corruption aimed at avoiding mandatory domestic sales of crude palm oil and paying export taxes. The 11 people arrested included two lower-level officials at regional customs offices in Bali and Riau provinces, an official at the Industry Ministry and eight corporate executives, Anang Supriatna, spokesperson for the Attorney General's Office, said in a statement issued late on Monday. The executives and the companies they work for were not named in the statement. Sign up here. The suspects are alleged to have classified exports of crude palm oil as byproducts of crude palm oil between 2020 and 2024, with losses to the state estimated at between 10.6 trillion rupiah ($630 million) and 14.3 trillion rupiah ($850 million), Supriatna said in the statement. "This classification manipulation was carried out with the aim of avoiding the CPO export curb, so that commodities that are essentially CPO could be exported as if they were not CPO and be exempted or relieved from the obligations imposed by the government," Supriatna said. Indonesia has a Domestic Market Obligation for palm oil that requires exporters to sell a portion of their production to the local market as a prerequisite for obtaining export permits, to secure domestic cooking oil supply and stabilise prices. It also imposes export levies on palm oil products, with rates for crude palm oil being the highest while refined products incur lower rates. The three state officials were allegedly receiving kickbacks "to smooth the administrative and supervisory process of exports," Supriatna said without giving further details. The suspects were accused of violating an anti-corruption article in the country's Criminal Code, under which they could face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. ($1 = 16,790 rupiah) https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/indonesia-arrests-11-alleged-corruption-over-palm-oil-exports-2026-02-11/
2026-02-11 03:02
MUMBAI, Feb 11 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee slipped in late trading on Wednesday as dollar bids from foreign banks picked up, sparking modest pressure in a session that otherwise saw the rupee trade on a quiet note. The rupee closed at 90.70 per dollar, down 0.1% from its close in the previous session. Sign up here. Traders pointed to mixed corporate interest in the earlier half of the session, which kept the rupee on an even keel but dollar demand from overseas lenders, likely on behalf of custodial clients, weighed on the currency in afternoon trading. India's benchmark equity indexes, the BSE Sensex (.BSESN) , opens new tab and Nifty 50 (.NSEI) , opens new tab, were little changed on the day, while the MSCI's gauge of Asian shares outside Japan was up about 1%. Similar to local equities, the rupee was also a laggard in Asia, with peers rising between 0.1% and 0.5%, helped by a broadly weaker dollar. The dollar index was last at 96.5 and has declined about 1% so far this month. U.S. jobs data for January, delayed from last week, could be the next test for the dollar. The data is due later in the day. "Today’s jobs report is a pivotal event for the FX market. A materially weak print would likely pave the way for markets to price in a cut in April, and for DXY (dollar index) to test 96.0 in the coming days," analysts at ING said in a note. Nonfarm payrolls are expected to have risen by 70,000 in January, while the unemployment rate is seen holding steady at 4.4%, according to a Reuters poll. Money markets are currently pricing in a 40% chance of a U.S. rate cut in April. Local swap markets, though, are signalling that the Reserve Bank of India's rate-cut cycle has run its course. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/rupee-seen-supported-by-lower-us-yields-move-past-9050-seen-unlikely-2026-02-11/
