Briefs | Upbeat economic, investment outlook for Japan

A quarterly survey by the Bank of Japan released Monday showed business sentiment rising to its strongest level in a decade, exceeding analysts’ expectations for the world’s third largest economy. The BOJ’s “tankan” index for large manufacturers rose to 22 from 17 in June and a forecast level of 15. It suggested that growing shortages of factory capacity could encourage manufacturers to invest more, helping to drive growth. “Capacity and staff shortages are the most pronounced since the early 1990s and the survey suggests that price pressures are strengthening,” Marcel Thieliant of Capital Economics said in a commentary.

Mystery of Flight 370 is ‘almost inconceivable’

A report on the almost three-year search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 said yesterday the continuing mystery over the fate of the plane and the 239 people on board is “almost inconceivable.” But the Australian Transport Safety Bureau’s final report on the search, which was abandoned in January, concedes that authorities are no closer to knowing the reasons for the plane’s disappearance, or its exact location. This is despite last year’s narrowing down of its most likely resting place to a 25,000-square kilometer patch of the southern Indian Ocean. The Boeing 777 carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew disappeared soon into its flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.

Duterte says he won’t cooperate in anti-graft body’s probe

The Philippine president says he will not cooperate in an investigation being done by a key anti-graft agency on his alleged undeclared wealth and warned he will personally bring one of its top officials to investigators for illegally disclosing confidential information about him. In an expletives-laden outburst, President Rodrigo Duterte warned in a speech late Saturday of a “stalemate,” as he collides with the Ombudsman, an independent state agency that investigates officials facing corruption allegations. The Ombudsman said Friday it will continue an investigation involving the president and cannot be intimidated by him.