SEOUL, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Using a plastic bowl, Ha In-sik bailed water out of his lower ground apartment in the low-income housing district of Sillim in southwestern Seoul on Wednesday, where flooding caused by torrential rain forced his family to sleep at a nearby park.

The 50-year-old man, along with his wife and daughter had collected home appliances, furniture, books and even cutlery, and put them outside to see what was salvageable.

The scene bore uncomfortable similarities with the sewage-flooded semi-basement flat depicted in the 2020 Oscar-winning South Korean film "Parasite," that was a tale of growing social disparity in Asia's fourth-largest economy.

LIMA, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, is seeing a surge in clients due to rising inflation and a historically strong dollar that has depressed emerging market currencies, an executive told Reuters on Wednesday, without disclosing numbers.

"Now that we are seeing inflation ramping up worldwide, we are seeing that more and more people are seeking cryptocurrency, like bitcoin, as a way to protect themselves from inflation," said Maximiliano Hinz, who heads Binance in Latin America, during an interview in Lima.

Hinz pointed to the example of Argentina, where annual inflation is at 90%. The country has grown into one of the company's top markets, he said, together with Brazil and Mexico.

HONG KONG, Aug 10 (Reuters) - China's Lenovo Group (0992.HK) recorded its smallest revenue growth in nine quarters as the world's biggest PC maker saw sales of the devices ease after a pandemic-fuelled boom, and it was also hit by COVID-19 lockdowns at home.

The results vindicate Lenovo's strategy of emphasising development of its non-personal computer (PC) businesses such as smartphones, servers and information technology services, which together now make up more than a third of its sales.

Lenovo's total revenue during the April-June quarter was $16.96 billion, up 0.2% from the same quarter a year ago though it was in line with an average Refinitiv estimate of $16.87 billion drawn from seven analysts. That was the smallest increase since the March 2020 quarter.

TORONTO, Aug 10 (Reuters) - The first stop on Serena Williams' farewell tour came to a quick end as she fell 6-2 6-4 to Belinda Bencic in second-round action at the Canadian Open on Wednesday a day after announcing her forthcoming retirement from tennis.

Williams arrived on the court to a standing ovation and had the full support of the capacity crowd throughout the 77-minute match but was unable to conjure up the old magic that helped her lift three titles in Canada.

"It's been a pretty interesting 24 hours ... I'm terrible at goodbyes. But, goodbye Toronto," an emotional Williams told the crowd.

LAS VEGAS, Aug 10 (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris received frequent applause during an address at the United Steelworkers convention on Wednesday, promoting the administration's infrastructure investment and promising support for labor unions.

The 3,500 union members and retirees at this year's convention were less politically divided, unlike in the past, where supporters of then-President Donald Trump were visible, as well as those who supported Democrats.

"America has a job to do," Harris told the packed conference center at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, stressing the administration's focus on expanding jobs and the middle class.

KUDAMADUWELLA, Sri Lanka, Aug 10 (Reuters) - As anarchy gripped the Sri Lankan city of Colombo in May, Meenu Mekala and Nirosh Ravindra gambled their family's life savings on a two-week, 4,700-km voyage aboard a rusting trawler with their two young sons. The decision ended in ruin.

Meenu, a Buddhist, and Nirosh, a Christian, met and fell in love as migrant labourers in Dubai, despite opposition from their families. They married in 2005 in Nirosh's home village of Kudamaduwella, two hours' drive north of Colombo.

They are among hundreds of Sri Lankans who have attempted to escape an unprecedented economic meltdown by boarding fishing boats bound for Australia.

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Gautam Adani, the world’s fourth-richest man, is using his $220 bln empire to amass critical energy and infrastructure assets. Financial profligacy broke many of his Indian rivals. Opacity is a bigger concern for the billionaire becoming too big to fail, says Una Galani.

Aug 10 (Reuters) - Demand for tickets to witness tennis great Serena Williams in action at the U.S. Open spiked in the 24 hours following her announcement that she would retire after the hardcourt major in New York, ticket retailer StubHub told Reuters.

"We typically see demand spike on StubHub when a player announces their retirement, and this is especially the case when it's Serena Williams, arguably one of the greatest players to set foot on the tennis court," spokesman Adam Budelli said.

"Over the last 24 hours, we've seen eight times more sales on StubHub for the U.S. Open than the daily average, but the great news for fans is that the average price paid for a ticket has stayed steady, signaling that there is plenty of inventory for people who want to watch this historic moment in sports in-person."

Bot and spam accounts on Twitter have become a central issue in the legal fight over whether Musk, who is Tesla's (TSLA.O) chief executive, must complete his $44 billion acquisition of the social media company.

Musk said last month he was terminating the deal because Twitter has withheld information about these accounts. Twitter sued Musk to complete the deal, and has said the issue has no bearing on the agreement with Musk.

(Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice has demanded more court oversight of Celsius Networks' plans to make employee severance payments and to sell bitcoins during the cryptocurrency lender's bankruptcy.

The U.S. Trustee, DOJ's bankruptcy watchdog, filed an objection on Wednesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan opposing Celsius' proposed severance payments of $409,000 to 19 employees, following a separate objection Tuesday to the company's bitcoin mining proposal. In both objections, the DOJ called on the bankruptcy court to require more transparency from Celsius about its assets and plans to pay back creditors before allowing it to move forward.

The DOJ said it may ask for a court-appointed examiner to ensure that Celsius is providing creditors with accurate information in the bankruptcy case, according to its filings.

NEW YORK, Aug 10 (Reuters) - SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T) is set to post a gain of $34.1 billion by reducing its stake in Alibaba Group Holding (9988.HK) from 23.7% to 14.6%. read more

But the Japanese conglomerate will not sell its shares directly in the market. It is using a complex security called "prepaid forward contracts," which is a derivative largely used by investors.

Here's how these contracts work:

NEW YORK, Aug 10 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Walt Disney (DIS.N) has pulled a rabbit out of its hat when it comes to streaming. The Mouse House on Wednesday reported that it now has as many subscribers to its video services – Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ – as Netflix (NFLX.O), totaling 221 million customers. Additionally, Disney rolled out its pricing strategy for its forthcoming ad model for Disney+. Starting Dec. 8, the $205 billion company run by Bob Chapek will offer a service with ads at $7.99 per month. It is hiking the ad-free price by $3 monthly.

Chapek also lowered the company’s forecast for the service, emphasizing a renewed focus on margins. Though Disney will charge less than Netflix, which costs about $15 a month in North America, it has more to lose with a price war. That may be one reason why it’s jumping the gun, releasing a strategy ahead of Netflix revealing its own ad-supported tier. Still, Netflix can probably lower its prices, too. And with widening...

SEOUL, Aug 11 (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared victory in the battle against the novel coronavirus, ordering a lifting of maximum anti-epidemic measures imposed in May, state media said on Thursday.

North Korea has not revealed how many confirmed infections of the virus it has found, but since July 29 it has reported no new suspected cases with what international aid organisations say are limited testing capabilities.

While lifting the maximum anti-pandemic measures, Kim said that North Korea must maintain a "steel-strong anti-epidemic barrier and intensifying the anti-epidemic work until the end of the global health crisis," according to a report by state news agency KCNA.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Brazilian woman Sabine Coll Boghici, 48, was arrested on Wednesday on allegations she was part of a bizarre scheme to defraud her 82-year-old mother, Genevieve Boghici, the wife of the late art collector Jean Boghici, out of money, artwork and jewelry totaling some 724 million reais ($142.42 million).

Her arrest has exposed a disturbing web of fraud that police say lasted years and involved alleged psychics to swindle artwork by some of Brazil's most emblematic painters. Four other people were also arrested and two others, Diana Rosa Aparecida Stanesco Vuletic and Slavko Vuletic, are on the run.

The scam began in 2020 when Genevieve was approached by a supposed psychic with prophecies of her daughter's imminent death.

FREETOWN, Aug 10 (Reuters) - At least two police officers and one civilian died after a day of anti-government protests in Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, staff at the city's main mortuary said on Wednesday.

Sierra Leone's government previously said there had been deaths, but did not say how many, as protesters threw rocks and burned tyres in the streets out of frustration at worsening economic hardship and other issues.

The West African country, which has been struggling with rising inflation and a fuel crisis, imposed a nationwide curfew from 3 p.m. local time (1500 GMT) in a bid to stem the violence.

SAN JOSE, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Costa Rica is readying a plan to regularize the status of some 200,000 migrants, largely from the Central American country's northern neighbor Nicaragua, authorities told Reuters on Wednesday.

The plan aims to formally include the migrants in the jobs market and healthcare system, Costa Rica's migration head Marlen Luna told Reuters.

Costa Rican officials are still studying how to implement the plan, which will require a final nod from President Rodrigo Chaves.

CIJARA, Spain, Aug 10 (Reuters) - A flock of sheep shelter from the midday sun under the gothic arches of a medieval bridge flooded in 1956 to create the Cijara reservoir in central Spain, but now fully exposed as the reservoir is 84% empty after a severe drought.

In Andalusia, one of Europe's hottest and driest regions, paddle-boats and waterslides lie abandoned on the cracked bed of Vinuela reservoir, remnants of a rental business gone with the water, now at a critical level of 13%.

A nearby restaurant fears a similar fate.

WASHINGTON, Aug 10 (Reuters) - U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Wednesday the House of Representatives would pass the Inflation Reduction Act on Friday.

In a letter to Democratic colleagues, Pelosi called the $430 billion climate, tax and healthcare bill approved by the Senate over the weekend "life-changing legislation."

WASHINGTON, Aug 10 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Communications Commission rejected SpaceX's Starlink and LTD Broadband's applications for more than $2 billion in internet service subsidies, the FCC said on Wednesday.

In December 2020, the FCC tentatively awarded $9.2 billion to over 300 bidders to deploy high-speed broadband from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. LTD Broadband won $1.32 billion and SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet network won $885.5 million in the 2020 auction.

SpaceX, which is run by billionaire Elon Musk, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

SHANGHAI/HONG KONG, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Global fund managers holding U.S.-listed Chinese stocks are steadily shifting towards their Hong Kong-traded peers, even as they remain hopeful Beijing and Washington will eventually resolve an audit dispute to keep Chinese firms on American exchanges.

The pace of migration will likely accelerate, as more Chinese firms listed in New York are expected to follow technology giant Alibaba's (9988.HK), intent to launch so-called primary listings in Hong Kong, potentially boosting liquidity there to smooth the transition. read more

KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF (KWEB), a New York-listed fund focused on Chinese tech plays, started swapping American Deposit Receipts (ADRs) into Hong Kong shares in December, when U.S. securities regulators finalised rules to prohibit trading of Chinese companies not compliant with U.S. audit rules.

KAMPALA, August 10 (Reuters) - Ugandan IT student Andrew Njuki spent years hunched over English-language textbooks, often grappling with material that would have been easier to grasp in his mother tongue Luganda.

As of May, the 27-year-old has been able to copy-paste his online teaching materials into Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google translation service and read them directly in Uganda's official language Luganda, spoken by millions across the east African country but not taught in schools.

"To understand something better you need to first understand it in your mother tongue," said Njuki, who also finds the service handy for surfing the internet and social media.