In his New Year message, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has urged citizens of the island nation to keep faith in its open economy even as others retreat from globalisation, warning that insularity and anti-establishment sentiment elsewhere in the world have fuelled “nativism, chauvinism and sectarian strife”.With a general election around the corner, Lee stressed that despite growing anxieties about the global economic slowdown, the Lion City remained better placed than other…
Typhoon Phanfone death toll in Philippines hits 50 and is expected to rise in New Year
The number of people killed by a powerful storm that pommelled the central Philippines over Christmas has risen to 50, authorities said Tuesday, making it the nation’s deadliest storm of 2019.Typhoon Phanfone’s destructive winds and heavy rains brought down flimsy homes and destroyed commercial buildings mainly in the central island of Visayas, affecting more than two million people.At least 80,000 remain in emergency shelters and might have to stay until the New Year, given the scale of…
Iran arrests 16 Malaysians after seizing ship ‘smuggling fuel’ in Strait of Hormuz
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have seized a ship suspected of fuel smuggling and arrested 16 Malaysian crew members, state media reported on Monday.The website of IRIB state television said the guards confiscated 1.3 million litres of “smuggled fuel” from the unnamed vessel 15 nautical miles from Abu Musa island.“The ship’s 16 crew who are of Malaysian nationality were arrested,” the Guards’ naval commander for the region, Brigadier General Ali Ozmayi, was quoted as saying.Abu Musa is one of…
Indonesia protests ‘violation of sovereignty’ by Chinese coastguard vessel
Indonesia said on Monday it had protested to Beijing over the presence of a Chinese coastguard vessel in its territorial waters near the disputed South China Sea, saying it marked a “violation of sovereignty”.The boat trespassed into Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone off the coast of the northern islands of Natuna, Indonesia’s foreign ministry said in a statement. It did not say when the incident occurred.“The foreign affairs ministry has summoned the Chinese ambassador in Jakarta and…
A ‘Christmas gift’: US vows to take action on any North Korea missile test
The United States would be very disappointed if North Korea tested a long-range or nuclear missile and would take appropriate action as a leading military and economic power, White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien said on Sunday.Washington has many “tools in its tool kit” to respond to any such test, O’Brien said in an interview with ABC’s This Week.“We’ll reserve judgment but the United States will take action as we do in these situations,” he said. “If Kim Jong-un takes that…
Death toll from Typhoon Phanfone in the Philippines rises to 41, with 12 still missing
The number of deaths from a powerful storm that hit the Philippines over Christmas has climbed to 41, authorities said on Sunday, with tens of thousands still in evacuation centres.Typhoon Phanfone made landfall on Christmas Eve, lashing several islands in the central Visayas, including popular tourist destinations, with destructive winds and heavy rain. It continued to batter the country on Christmas Day, causing floods and landslides, and left the country on Saturday. The extent of the damage…
Koala stops cyclists to ask for water as Australia’s heatwave and bush fires continue
A desperate koala suffering in 40 degree-heat in Australia approached a group of cyclists to drink from a water bottle, according to media reports, as thousands of koalas are feared to have died from the intense heat and bush fires gripping the country, with the fire danger increasing on Saturday as temperatures soared.The cyclists near Adelaide saw the koala in the middle of the road and when they stopped, the koala approached them, appearing to ask for water, Anna Heusler told local media on…
Why do Singapore, Tokyo and Kuala Lumpur work so hard?
A typical working day for Singaporean office worker Shamir Osman lasts about nine and a half hours, so packed full of meetings and calls that he sometimes does not even get a chance to eat.The 39-year-old public relations manager’s hectic schedule is far from unusual in the city state, where the average working week lasts just shy of 45 hours – the second longest in the Asia-Pacific, according to a study of 40 cities done by office access control systems provider Kisi.How to avoid burnout: five…
Piracy incidents along Straits of Malacca and Singapore surge in 2019
Piracy has surged this year along Southeast Asia’s Straits of Malacca and Singapore, one of the world’s busiest trade routes, according to a watch group that tracks maritime security.Incidents along the shipping route rose from eight last year to 30 this year, according to data from ReCAAP ISC, a piracy information group with 20 member nations, mostly in Asia.That’s the highest figure since 2015, when 104 incidents were recorded, according to the group’s data.ReCAAP, also known as Regional…
Malaysian court bans Chinese-education lobby group’s protest against ‘Islamisation’ of schools
A Malaysian court on Friday banned a planned weekend protest, organised by a powerful lobby group for the country’s Chinese-medium schools, that officials had warned could stir up ethnic strife in the multiracial country.Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad warned last weekend that the event by the Dong Jiao Zong group had the potential to cause “chaos” as it pitted Malaysia’s minority Chinese community against the Malay-Muslim majority.Dong Jiao Zong’s primary aim for the protest on Saturday at a…