he died in a roadside attack by his former allies, the houthi rebels, as he fled the capital sanaa. the 75—year—old ruled yemen for more than three decades. a dispute over the status of the irish border has delayed efforts by britain and the eu to move onto the second phase of the brexit negotiations. and this story is trending on bbc.com — the veteran indian actor, shashi kapoor, has died at the age of seventy—nine. mr kapoor, who was part of one of india's greatest acting families, appeared in more than 100 hindi—language films. that's all from me for now. stay with bbc news. and one other story from the uk: shoppers in eastern england have welcomed a new scheme designed to cut food waste by selling products beyond their best before date. now on bbc news all the latest business news live from singapore. the divorce proceedings within the

european union and britain breakdown in brussels. and from korean pop to australian marriage equality, twitter talks about the biggest trending moments in 2017. good morning asia, hello, world. thank you forjoining us for another exciting addition of asia business report. this morning will be watching the pound very closely in asian trade after brexit talks broke down in the final was hour of negotiations. the dispute over the status of the irish border has turned out to be a major sticking point. theresa may broke off talks after the main party in the northern

ireland, the dup, said it would not support a deal which gave significant concessions to the irish republic. earlier i spoke to the former state secretary of denmark if the deal could be salvaged. theresa may has violated the fundamental principle. before you negotiate, you should set to your home base. instead of doing so, she has struck a deal and then was overruled by political forces at home, in a humiliating way. that could haunt her to the rest of the negotiations. a second observation is that we now know that the eu and britain can strike a deal. that means that the

focus of negotiations this shift is to inside westminster parliament with the tory party and the dup. justin trudeau was scheduled to meet with president xijinping later today. and met with the premier of china yesterday but the two sides we re china yesterday but the two sides were not able to announce the start of formal trade talks as was expected. my colleague has been keeping an eye on the visit. what has happened 7 keeping an eye on the visit. what has happened? they delayed the start of the free trade agreement talks which had hints of that... they had been talking about it. there is some disappointed and there. the canadians say they seek a progressive trade agreement that will include issues such as labour reform finesse, the environment and gender issues. they were able to agree on three things, however, including an action plan on energy cooperation. it also included a memorandum of understanding about

food products and a canadian initiative. relations between the two are important. the canadians are seeking more bilateral relations elsewhere, trying to diversify away from the us because we know that the talks about revamping the nafta trade agreement have stalled. trade between the two is large. china is the second—largest trading partner with canada. they have bilateral trading over $70 billion. justin trudeau is fairly popular in china. a little trivia, in fact he is known in china as little potato because his name, trudeau, sounds at the mandarin word for potato. his father, who established diplomatic relations with china, is known as

potato. congratulations as well for winning an award as the best presenter at the asian television awards. turning out to disrupt a series. we are looking at how technology is changing the banking industry. in india, the government is pushing for a digitalfuture. a softwa re is pushing for a digitalfuture. a software start—up has come up with a way to make it easier for the businesses in india to accept many different forms of business. we wa nted different forms of business. we wanted to use mobile phones and small computers we build in house to get merchants across the country to accept digital currency. but as we evolve, we realise that was not where the opportunity was. mobil applications were changing everything. the founders of easy tap, we have all been entrepreneurs,

we have all come up through silicon valley and now we're back in india trying to do something. we also looked around and saw financial services was the big idea. this is a softwa re services was the big idea. this is a software pa rt services was the big idea. this is a software part art form that allows all payments to be handled through a single interface and application. —— softwa re single interface and application. —— software platform. we need to accept cards but here we have wallets. we have a new government system that allows us to tra nsfer government system that allows us to transfer money from place to place at the low—cost. you have biometric, you have cure codes. the complexity of digital payments in india is massive —— you have cure codes. they will use a mobile application

to verify who the person is and make sure the correct deal is happening. at the end they will accept any form of digital payment. in one project, a whole swathes of the indian community is becoming digitised. were taking software, digital payment and baking and bringing together at a scale and speed never seen before anywhere in the world. these projects will come in the course of the next few months, will affect many people. that scale is disruptive by sheer size. it has been a huge year for twitter. they will regularly in the

headlines thanks to donald trump. when it comes to the asia—pacific region, that hash tag #maga was not a popular. instead we saw miss universe again thrones and —— game of thrones take off. in india it was a tamilfilm and in of thrones take off. in india it was a tamil film and in australia it was issues around same—sex marriage equality. earlier i spoke to twitter asia—pacific and asked her what surprised about the findings for 2017. south korea was the most interesting top hash tag with 2017 mama. they are the annual k—pop

award is happening across three cities in asia. not only did it find resonance among the south koreans, we saw 42 million tweets around that hash tag globally. an instance of a trend from asia that went viral globally. did donald trump's tweets have any resonance here in asian, considering major issue such as north korea? there are many things going on in the world at the moment. but the number of hash tags tells you what is top of mind and what a tt ra cts you what is top of mind and what attracts millennial. k—pop and other things like elections have been top of mind this year. a lot of localised tweets have really made the trending popular around the asia—pacific region. the trending popular around the asia-pacific region. an interesting story to tell because what counts

for millennial is in the region is what happens around them. take this tamilfilm. a what happens around them. take this tamil film. a great story emerging that indian movie fans are diversifying their interest from bollywood to south indian cinema. a consistent trend we saw in 2017. who are some of the biggest personalities here in the asia—pacific region? i pale in comparison. i only have 360,000 followers. but who are the biggest characters? that is very impressive. i will tell you a few people beat you to it this year. indian and indonesian personalities trumped eve ryo ne indonesian personalities trumped everyone else in asia—pacific. by minister modi and presidentjokowi had the most followers. that was twitter asia—pacific. a

mixed finish on the markets. thank you so much for investing time with us. sport today is coming up next. the top stories this hour. saudi—led coalition air—strikes have resumed in yemen's capital, hours after houthi rebels killed the man who ruled the country for decades, ali abdullah saleh. britain and the european union have failed for now to reach agreement to move onto the second phase of brexit negotiations. the uk wastes seven million tons of food each year and now a major retailer is aiming to help in the battle to cut that waste by continuing to sell food beyond its best before date.

the east of england co—op has 125 stores and will now sell dried and tinned foods for 10p when they reach the date they are best eaten by. our business correspondent, emma simpson has been to one store in colchester. everything we eat has a shelf life, but would you be willing to buy food which is past its best? plenty of shoppers at this small convenience store did, once they found out the price. they‘ re 10p, for a whole bag of pistachios. oh, my life! 10p. right, yeah. i'll have them. yeah? got a deal? yeah. here's how it works... any tinned or dried goods passed the best before date end up in these boxes at a knock—down price, instead of going to waste. labels can be confusing. the use by date tells

you when a product is safe to eat. the best before label simply tells you when food is at its best. it's still safe to eat after the recommended date, and too much of it is ending up in the bin. it's reckoned households across the uk wasted 7.3 million tons of food last year. most of it could have been eaten, or, putting it another way, it's the equivalent of £13 billion worth of wasted food. to stop some of its store cupboard items going to landfill, this chain decided to do something new. we wanted to be brave about it, so we just checked the legality out, it was legal, so why not do it? do you think the big retailers should do it as well? i think everybody should do it. if i think it's a disgrace that we're wasting so much food. and most of us shoppers agree. there are a lot of people who can't afford a lot of expensive stuff, so i think it will really work.

i think it's a great idea by the co—op. a lot of the time if it's best before, you can have it, can't you, the next day or something? it doesn't matter. small—scale it is, but it's sure popular here. could this best before bargain box kick—start other retailers could this b to before bargain box g; iei iiligg iif‘ig iiii