Almost two million people in northeast India were left facing statelessness on Saturday after the state of Assam published a citizenship list aimed at weeding out “foreign infiltrators”, in a process the central government wants to replicate nationwide.A total of 31.1 million people were included in a final National Register of Citizens (NRC), but 1.9 million were deemed ineligible, according to a statement from the Assam government. Most of those excluded were expected to be Muslim.Abandoned…
Why Asean holds the edge in a digital future: it’s the youth factor
Today, Malaysia celebrates its 62nd anniversary of independence, led by the country’s 94-year-old but digitally savvy Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. Singapore also celebrated its 54th National Day earlier this month, with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong speaking about how to prepare the city state for climate change. And, in marking the 74th anniversary of its independence, Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo announced an ambitious plan to move the capital from Jakarta to Borneo. Travelling…
How Singapore students above the age of 21 can sue their parents for educational costs
By Tessa Oh Last month, a Singapore judge ordered a father to pay part of his 22-year-old son’s education overseas. The ruling has cast the spotlight on a little-known law that allows people above the age of 21 to sue their parents for education-related expenses. What happened in the case? A Family Court judge ordered the father to pay 60 per cent of his son’s study expenses in Canada. The young man’s parents divorced when he was eight years old. The father, a businessman, has remarried and…
Chinese migrants in East Timor long for home but say Dili is better for earning a living
Walking through Timor Plaza, the largest shopping centre in East Timor, it’s hard to ignore the number of Chinese-owned stores – a sign of the steady increase in mainland migrants who started to arrive after China became the first country to officially recognise East Timor’s independence in 2002.One of the store owners is Ma Liyu, 54, originally from Ningde city in China’s Fujian province. She sells tea leaves and mobile phone accessories, with items in the store costing anywhere between US$13…
Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong was ‘wrongfully’ released from prison, Supreme Court rules
South Korea’s highest court on Thursday rejected a lower court decision that released the heir to the country’s top business conglomerate from prison last year, a decision that could send him back to jail.The Supreme Court dismissed as “wrongful” an appeal court decision that gave vice-chairman Jay Y. Lee, otherwise known as Lee Jae-yong, of Samsung Electronics a suspended jail sentence and released him from prison.“The court rejects the original verdict and returns the case to an appeal court …
Tokyo, Singapore among world’s safest cities but Hong Kong slides down rankings
Tokyo, Singapore and Osaka have once again been named the world’s safest cities by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) in its third set of rankings based on urban safety and resilience.Hong Kong, on the other hand, dropped to 20th after ranking 11th in 2015 and ninth in 2017.Other Asian cities ranked even lower included Beijing (31), Kuala Lumpur (35) and Jakarta (53).In the Safe Cities Index 2019, released on Thursday, 60 cities from five continents were assessed on four factors: digital,…
1MDB scandal: prosecution will show Najib Razak ‘acted as one’ with Jho Low to loot state fund
Malaysian prosecutors will seek to prove Najib Razak “acted as one” with fugitive financier Jho Low in their alleged roles in 1MDB, as the former prime minister’s biggest trial linked to the troubled state fund began on Wednesday.“In truth, Jho Low was the accused’s mirror image,” prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram said in his opening statement in the Kuala Lumpur court. “The prosecution will establish facts which will give rise to an irresistible inference that Jho Low and the accused acted as one at…
Hong Kong property investors snub Singapore in favour of cheaper options elsewhere
Singapore’s housing market isn’t turning out to be the beneficiary many may have thought from Hong Kong’s increasingly fraught protests. Instead, investors are looking to cheaper property markets like Malaysia, Thailand and Taiwan.“People here tend to think there are only two cities in the world – Hong Kong and Singapore,” said Alan Cheong, a Singapore-based executive director of research and consultancy at Savills. “They think if people flee Hong Kong, they’ll all automatically come to…
Donald Trump says first lady Melania has ‘gotten to know Kim Jong-un’ even though they’ve never met
Melania Trump has never met Kim Jong-un, or even spoken to him, but US President Donald Trump said on Monday that his wife has “gotten to know” the North Korean leader and, like him, believes in the reclusive country’s potential.Trump, who has met Kim three times since last year as he tries to persuade him to give up the North Korean nuclear weapons programme, told a news conference at the G7 summit in France that he had come to know Kim “extremely well” and suggested his wife had too.“The…
Vietnam shuns Huawei as it seeks to build Southeast Asia’s first 5G network
Vietnam is intent on being the first Asean nation to provide a 5G network – without China’s tech powerhouse Huawei.Viettel Group, Vietnam’s largest mobile carrier owned by the defence ministry, will deploy Ericsson AB’s equipment in Hanoi and Nokia Oyj’s technology in Ho Chi Minh City, said Viettel chief executive officer Le Dang Dung. It will use 5G chipsets from Qualcomm and another US company. The carrier, which uses Ericsson and Nokia for its 4G network, is also developing its own equipment…