RIO DE JANEIRO - In a faded rehearsal hall in the gritty concrete sprawl of northern Rio de Janeiro, samba dancers and drummers fine-tune their rhythms for a grassroots carnival parade few tourists have heard of.

MANCHESTER - Arsenal and Manchester City take a break from their battle at the top of the Premier League to try and remain on course for a quadruple this weekend as Wigan and Salford seek monumental FA Cup shocks.

DHAKA - The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) led by Tarique Rahman is heading for a thumping win in the first elections held since a deadly 2024 uprising, Bangladeshi TV stations projected Friday.

Amid sluggish loan demand as the economy sags, pawn shop operator Easy Money has increased borrowing to prepare for business expansion this year.

The Export-Import (Exim) Bank of Thailand has prepared a 50-billion-baht working capital facility to support exporters amid global economic volatility.

Ratchaburi stormed to an easy 3-0 home victory over Indonesia's Persib Bandung in the AFC Champions League Two Round of 16 first leg match on Wednesday night.

The Pheu Thai Party has called on political parties, lawmakers, civil society groups and the public to work together to ensure that the people's will, expressed in Sunday's national referendum, leads to the drafting of a genuinely democratic constitution.

The government has pledged aggressive reforms after Thailand scored 33 out of 100 and ranked 116th in the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI).

The prices of computers and some IT products have skyrocketed as a result of rising rates for memory chips in the global market.

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has expressed confidence in Thailand's economic outlook following the recent general election, rejecting foreign media portrayals that labelled the country the "sick man" of Asia.