Thailand’s constitutional court on Thursday said it would hear a case to dissolve the party which proposed a princess for prime minister, an ill-fated candidacy which threatens to sink the election strategy of the powerful Shinawatra clan. The Thai Raksa Chart party nominated Princess Ubolratana for premier last Friday, a bombshell move bringing Thai royalty […]
Officials in the Philippines released pioneering journalist Maria Ressa from jail Thursday, after her arrest Wednesday on questionable charges of cyber-libel the latest in escalating steps taken by the country’s government to attempt to silence her and her news website, Rappler. Long a target of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, she has earned praise and support […]
Japan says it has caught North Korea repeatedly evading international sanctions at sea, warning the incidents may “just be the tip of the iceberg” of suspected illegal ship-to-ship transfers. It comes just weeks before US President Donald Trump is due to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at their second summit in Vietnam. Trump has […]
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthiser and US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are in Beijing this week as Chinese and American negotiators try to hammer out a trade deal to ease a trade war and avert an increase in US tariffs on Chinese goods scheduled for March 2. The governments of the world’s two largest economies […]
The Trump administration’s top two negotiators in trade talks with China will meet on Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping, but there has been no decision to extend a March 1 US deadline for a deal, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Thursday. “The vibe in Beijing is good,” Kudlow told Fox News […]
At first glance, things are looking good on the Korean peninsula: US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un are planning their second face-to-face meeting, which is slated to happen in Vietnam sometime in February. South Korean President Moon Jae-in has called it an opportunity that “will never come again.” After all, it’s […]
The United States aims to “get as far down the road as we can” ahead of a summit with North Korea in Vietnam this month, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday. President Donald Trump announced last week he would hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi […]
During his State of the Union address, President Trump announced that his second summit with Kim Jong un will occur on February 27 and 28 in Vietnam. But as the recently released Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community has noted, “North Korea is unlikely to give up all of its nuclear weapons and […]
Last year, a China Airlines pilot flew 63 hours over a 12-day stretch that allowed him to rest for only two of those days. The long hours combined with the time-zone changes left him feeling so sick that he couldn’t make it to his next shift, according to a Chinese-language story by Taiwan news website […]
A Myanmar court Friday sentenced two people to death for the murder of a Muslim lawyer and Aung San Suu Kyi advisor, after a drawn-out trial backlit by allegations of impunity with a main suspect still at large. Ko Ni, whose work and faith made him a target of hate speech online by Buddhist nationalists, […]
Roger Ng, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc banker caught up in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) fraud scandal, will be allowed to return to the United States to face criminal charges against him there, a Malaysian court ruled on Friday. Ng has been detained in Kuala Lumpur since November 1, shortly after the US […]
Junta chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha’s grip on power was tossed into doubt by the political cameo of a princess, but a week later his ambitions to rebrand as a civilian leader appear back on track, a survivorfor nowof Thailand’s treacherous politics. Princess Ubolratana’s candidacy for premier for a party aligned with billionaire ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, appeared […]
Vuong Duy Bao surveys his ancestral palace, a vestige of Vietnam’s marginalised Hmong ethnic minority that he says was taken from his family by local officials. The wooden structure is laden with historic markers: opium flowers carved into pillars in a nod to the region’s once-booming trade, and an iron fence made with metal imported […]
In the dead of night in a Hanoi cemetery, Nguyen Van Thang’s casket is unearthed; his bones carefully cleaned, wrapped in silk and then reburied, so he can finally segue into the next life. The ceremony is one of Vietnam’s most sacred death rituals, an ancient custom usually carried out before the Tet lunar new […]
A court in Vietnam has jailed a man for 14 years for attempting to overthrow the state, in cahoots with a group based in the United States, the Ministry of Public Security said on Wednesday. Phan Van Binh, 47, was accused by the court of working for a California-based group called the Provisional National government […]
Representatives from 13 countries across Asia and the Pacific gathered in Bangkok, Thailand, from 29 to 31 October to develop road maps to implement and expand pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and HIV self-testing in the region. In discussions on building capacity for the rollout of PrEP and HIV testing innovations in Asia and the Pacific, policy-makers, […]
The health ministry said today it will focus on eliminating mother-to-child transmission of Hepatitis B, after Malaysia became the first country in the Western Pacific to eradicate such transmissions in HIV and syphilis. Health minister Dzulkefly Ahmad said a few states will begin pilot programmes of targeted screening for Hepatitis B among pregnant mothers, after […]
China has confirmed the first human case of H7N4 bird flu, prompting Hong Kong to issue a health warning for those travelling to the mainland during the busy Lunar New Year holiday. The strain was identified in a 68-year-old woman from the eastern province of Jiangsu who was admitted to hospital after falling ill on […]
Asian shares were broadly lower on Friday, tracking a weak Wall Street session as traders awaited the conclusion of US-China talks in Beijing. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 retreated 1.1 percent to 20,900.63 and the Kospi in South Korea tumbled 1.4 percent to 2,195.07. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gave up 1.8 percent to 27,926.20. The Shanghai […]
Finding the right broker can be a tough for any trader. WikiFX, a platform for choosing brokers, went live in Shanghai with its International Platform on 13th February SHANGHAI, Feb 15, 2019 – (ACN Newswire) – Themed “WikiFX Attracts Global Attention with Data and Wisdom”, the forex industry’s grand summit kicked off in Shanghai, with […]
TOKYO, Feb 15, 2019 – (JCN Newswire) – NTT DOCOMO, INC. announced today that it has taken a stake in Lovegraph Inc., a startup company that dispatches professional photographers to virtually anywhere in Japan to skillfully capture special moments in the lives of customers. The investment was made through NTT DOCOMO Ventures, Inc., a wholly […]
Vietnamese airlines will be able to fly to the United States and codeshare with American carriers after the US Federal Aviation Administration declared the Southeast Asian country complies with international safety standards. The US aviation safety agency said in a statement late on Thursday that it was awarding Vietnam a “Category 1″ rating, two weeks […]
Last year, Vietnam’s e-commerce went through its most exciting year yet, starting with big funding news across the board and ending with Google and Temasek’s optimistic prediction of a 43 per cent growth from now till 2025. This positive growth seems very likely to continue into 2019 along with that would be some interesting market […]
Australia’s centre-left Labour party has warned would-be migrants considering the boat journey from Indonesia they will be forcibly returned if it wins May’s election, embracing hardline policies of the current government. As right and left fight in Europe and the United States brawl over Mediterranean rescues and border walls, Australia’s bickering political factions head to […]
Samsung Electronics is pouring resources into its telecom network equipment business, aiming to capitalise on the security fears hobbling China’s Huawei, according to company officials and other industry executives. Those efforts include moving high-performing managers and numerous employees to the network division from its handset unit, two Samsung sources said. Potential customers are taking notice […]
“So Long My Son”, a decades-spanning Chinese saga that opens in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution, was born of a need to re-assess a generation that had no time for introspection as it built modern China, its director Wang Xiaoshuai said. Four years in the making, Wang’s three-hour epic, which premieres at the Berlin […]
At first glance, things are looking good on the Korean peninsula: US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un are planning their second face-to-face meeting, which is slated to happen in Vietnam sometime in February. South Korean President Moon Jae-in has called it an opportunity that “will never come again.” After all, it’s […]
Malaysian Internet users downloaded 84 million content files of films and TV shows using peer-to-peer file sharing network BitTorrent last year, Communications and Multimedia minister Gobind Singh Deo revealed today. He said this comes as the local industry reported in 2016 that such illegal downloads had cost it RM1.05 billion in loss of revenue and […]
Datuk Seri Najib Razak posted today a photograph of himself in a mortarboard and robes at his 1974 graduation ceremony at the University of Nottingham, amid doubts about his qualifications. The former prime minister said he was posing with his mother, Tun Rahah, and his younger brother Johari. “At that time, I looked cool because […]
Malaysia has no plans to follow the footsteps of Thailand in enacting a lese majeste law to protect its Malay rulers. Minister in the prime minister’s Department Liew Vui Keong said the country had adequate laws to protect the position of the King, known as Yang di-Pertuan Agong, and other Malay rulers. However, he did […]
Valentine’s Day wasn’t getting much love in the world’s biggest Muslim majority nation on Thursday (February 14) as Indonesian authorities urged amorous couples to call it quits and carried out raids to quash any wayward gift-giving. About 100 students in the second-biggest city, Surabaya, demonstrated against the chocolates-and-flowers celebration, saying it promoted Western decadence and […]
Fourteen students with HIV have been expelled from a public elementary school in Indonesia following demands from parents of other students, the school’s headmaster and a local group that assists HIV-infected children said Thursday. Karwi, headmaster of the Purwotomo Public Elementary School in the town of Solo in Central Java Province, said the students have […]
Indonesia’s national flag carrier Garuda has slashed ticket prices by 20 per cent, the company said on Wednesday (February 13), following Indonesian president Joko Widodo’s request that airlines offer lower-cost fares. The move applies to all of Garuda’s routes as well as those of its low-cost subsidiaries Citilink Indonesia, Sriwijaja Air and NAM Air. “This […]
The Facebook account of a user claiming to be the American conman at the heart of a massive HIV data leak was removed early Thursday (14 February) morning by the social media giant for violating user policies. Yahoo News Singapore understands that the removal of the account was not related to a government request but […]
He rented out his one-bedroom Geylang flat to three prostitutes and demanded sexual services from two of them. However, he wilfully avoided informing the women that he carried the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The 52-year-old former police officer had also threatened to create trouble for one of the prostitutes if she did not provide her […]
The Ministry of Health (MOH) has pushed back against the dramatic accusations made by Mikhy Farerra Brochez, the American man wanted by authorities for leaking the confidential information of 14,2000 HIV patients in Singapore. Yesterday, the man broke his silence on social media, categorically denying everything that the Singapore government accused him of. Brochez went […]
Opponents of Thailand’s exiled former leader Thaksin Shinawatra are rushing to disband a party made up of his allies, a tactic that in the past led to deadly street clashes. The Constitutional Court on Thursday (February 14) accepted a case calling for the party, Thai Raksa Chart, to be dissolved for hostility towards the constitutional […]
As Pinit Ngarmpring, he was a CEO and sports promoter, well known in the world of Thai soccer. Now, under her preferred new name of Pauline Ngarmpring, she’s pursuing a bid to become the country’s first transgender prime minister. The 52-year-old is one of three candidates put forward by a political party for the post […]
Thailand and the United States hosted the opening ceremony for the annual Cobra Gold military exercise, the biggest activity of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region with 29 nations taking part as participants or observers. There are three major components of the exercise, which ends on 22 February: military field training, humanitarian assistance and disaster […]
Sabah health authorities said only three local measles cases have been detected following a deadly outbreak in the Philippines, assuring the public there was no cause for concern. Sabah Health and Public Well-being minister Datuk Stephen Wong said the cases reported as of February 9 all involved unvaccinated children between one and six years old, […]
President Rodrigo Duterte hasn’t been shy in attacking renowned journalist Maria Ressa and her website, Rappler. But it was still a startling escalation when government agents and lawyers from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) arrested her Wednesday on cyber libel charges that Amnesty International has called “brazenly trumped-up.” The dubious nature of the charges […]
Officials in the Philippines released pioneering journalist Maria Ressa from jail Thursday, after her arrest Wednesday on questionable charges of cyber-libel the latest in escalating steps taken by the country’s government to attempt to silence her and her news website, Rappler. Long a target of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, she has earned praise and support […]
Japan says it has caught North Korea repeatedly evading international sanctions at sea, warning the incidents may “just be the tip of the iceberg” of suspected illegal ship-to-ship transfers. It comes just weeks before US President Donald Trump is due to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at their second summit in Vietnam. Trump has […]
A talented young woman breaks free from an overly protective parent, explores her sexuality and forges her own, promising path in the world. So far so conventional. But in “37 Seconds” Japanese director Hikari chose to tackle a topic that, she said, audiences in her country were reluctant to embrace. Her protagonist, played by amateur […]
Japan’s government introduced a bill Friday to recognise the country’s ethnic Ainu minority as an “indigenous” people for the first time, after decades of discrimination against the group. The Ainu peoplemany of whom live in northern Hokkaidohave long suffered the effects of a policy of forced assimilation, and while discrimination has receded gradually, income and […]
The United States aims to “get as far down the road as we can” ahead of a summit with North Korea in Vietnam this month, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday. President Donald Trump announced last week he would hold a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi […]
Japan says it has caught North Korea repeatedly evading international sanctions at sea, warning the incidents may “just be the tip of the iceberg” of suspected illegal ship-to-ship transfers. It comes just weeks before US President Donald Trump is due to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at their second summit in Vietnam. Trump has […]
A major South Korean TV station was forced to apologise after airing a performance by a well-known rapper in which he appeared to endorse secretly-filmed pornography, as the country battles a growing epidemic of so-called spycam videos. The show by San E, who performed at the Pyeongchang Olympics last year, sparked outrage when the words […]
Hong Kong customs seized a record 40 kilogram (88 pounds) of rhino horns worth around HK$8 million ($1 million) from Johannesburg en route to Vietnam, the latest bust for authorities trying to tackle the rising volume of endangered species trafficked through the Chinese territory. The seizure came less than one month after customs busted a […]
The customs of China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region seized some 40 kilogram of suspected rhino horns on Thursday at Hong Kong International Airport, a record haul of rhino horns seized from arriving air passengers. The rhino horns, with an estimated market value of about 8 million HK dollars (about 1.01 million US dollars), were […]
Hong Kong’s port, which once vied with rival Singapore for global dominance, has slipped out of the world’s top five busiest shipping container terminals for the first time, new data has revealed. The bustling southern Chinese financial hub owes its very existence to its ideal location as a port, a cornerstone of the remarkable growth […]
Taiwan independence advocate and a minister of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan ( PERCENT) Kao Chun-ming died Thursday at the age of 90, according to PERCENT general secretary Lyim Hong-tiong. A native of Tainan, Kao remained a vocal supporter of human rights activists during Taiwan’s martial law period and the cause of Taiwan Independence until […]
A Taiwanese-American has been selected for a tour of duty at a United States government agency, as part of a programme that recruits innovators to help tackle technology challenges within the government. Under the Presidential Innovation Fellows (PIF) initiative, Patrick Lin will be working at the US Department of Transportation on its Intelligent Transportation Portfolio […]
Last year, a China Airlines pilot flew 63 hours over a 12-day stretch that allowed him to rest for only two of those days. The long hours combined with the time-zone changes left him feeling so sick that he couldn’t make it to his next shift, according to a Chinese-language story by Taiwan news website […]
The HCM City government’s decision to stop licensing new multistorey apartment building projects in Districts 1 and 3 until 2020 could result in a monopoly among the few investors in projects currently under construction, paving the way for them to raise the prices of apartments, according to the HCM City Real Estate Association (HoREA). HCM […]
Each bank has a different interest rate plan, how beneficial it depends on the payment solution of the borrower. To meet customers’ demand for instalment house purchase, banks have massively launched home loan products with preferential interest rates. However, choosing an ideal borrowing option is not simple. Home loan borrowers always want to buy house […]
The average price of cashew has inched up on the global market this year, but the Vietnamese processing industry continues to face challenges. According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Export-Import Department, an estimated 35,000 tonnes of the nut were exported last month for $286 million, an increase of 3 per cent in volume […]
