Thousands of angry protesters took to the streets to tell India’s leader he was unwelcome in Kolkata on Saturday, in the latest rally against a citizenship law that critics say discriminates against Muslims.Widespread street demonstrations, and occasionally deadly clashes, have gripped the Hindu-majority nation since the law was approved by parliament last month.Police said nearly 30,000 protesters took to the streets of Kolkata to denounce Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit, with many…
How Singapore’s schools prime youth for success in Hong Kong and mainland China
Every time Josh Lim meets up with his friends from secondary school in Singapore, they never fail to ask about his work in China.“There’s always this buzz and excitement when we talk about what’s going on in China,” noted Lim, who heads his own Shanghai-based investment and advisory firm, IJK Capital Partners.“I guess our education has helped foster this affinity with China. They’re curious and it’s very easy for us to connect on the topic – more so than when I talk about the same things with…
Malaysia’s Najib Razak uses phrase from leaked tapes to mock officials over Azmin Ali sex video
Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak has taken to Facebook to “advise” authorities regarding the sex video, which allegedly implicated Economic Affairs Minister Azmin Ali.“Can I advise you something, those in authority? It is not difficult for the authorities to identify who are the individuals in the sex video. That is, if you truly want to,” he said in a Facebook post on Thursday.Najib said this sarcastically after several audio recordings were revealed by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption…
Australia charges Singapore man with importing childlike sex doll from China
A Singaporean man has been charged in Australia for importing a childlike sex doll.The 26-year-old, who is in Australia on a student visa, was arrested in Perth on Thursday after border officials intercepted a parcel at an air cargo depot on Christmas Eve.The parcel, shipped from China, was X-rayed and found to contain a silicone female childlike sex doll, said the Australian Border Force (ABF) in a news release. The man, who was not identified, was subsequently arrested and charged with…
US-Iran tensions: Soleimani’s death was decades in the making
The assassination by the United States of Iran’s Major-General Qassem Soleimani this week took two seemingly ideologically opposed countries to the brink of war.Yet it was not so long ago that the two countries were allies – democratic ones at that. Indeed, one strand of thought has it that it is America’s strategic mistakes in the history of the Middle East that have created the very problem it now faces.In the early 1950s, Iran was ruled by a democratically elected prime minister, Mohammad…
Mahathir, set a retirement date or we’ll do it for you: Anwar ally Rafizi on Malaysia’s power transition
A retirement date is likely to be imposed on Malaysia’s Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad if he does not commit to a timeline on handing power to Anwar Ibrahim by early next year, one of the drafters of the succession pact between the two former rivals has said.Rafizi Ramli, widely viewed as a key confidante of Anwar, told a conference in Singapore on Thursday that the ruling coalition’s top leaders would be forced to take such action as the Malaysian public would by then have lost patience with…
Going underground: the real-life Korean poverty behind Bong Joon-ho’s Golden Globe winner Parasite
The fictitious Seoul neighbourhood depicted in the hit South Korean film Parasite has plenty in common with the city’s real Changsin neighbourhood, where, just like in the movie, the narrow streets are lined with dilapidated commercial and residential buildings.Changsin is a world away from the ritz of Gangnam in the city’s south, and is one of the capital’s poorer areas.Parasite, which this week became the first South Korean movie to win a Golden Globe award for best foreign language film, is…
Singapore Airlines, Malaysia Airlines among carriers avoiding Iran airspace after missile attack
Airlines across Asia are diverting flights away from Iranian airspace after the US Federal Aviation Administration responded to Tehran’s missile attack on US-led forces in Iraq by banning American airlines from operating in the region.The Asian airlines now avoiding the airspace over Iran include Singapore Airlines, Malaysia Airlines and Singaporean low-cost carrier Scoot. Cathay Pacific said it had not flown over Iran and Iraq for “over a year” and AirAsia said it did not fly over the two…
India sets execution date for four men convicted of 2012 gang-rape of student in bus
A death warrant was issued on Tuesday for the four men convicted in the 2012 gang-rape and murder of a young woman on a New Delhi bus that galvanised protests across India and brought global attention to the country’s sexual violence epidemic.A New Delhi court scheduled the hangings for January 22 at 7am, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.The warrant has been anticipated since India’s Supreme Court rejected one of the men’s final review pleas last month. India’s president can still…
Soleimani killing: what is Malaysia’s aim in call for Muslim unity?
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad may have come out strongly in support of Iran following Washington’s assassination of one of its top military commanders, but analysts believe he will still be keen to avoid incurring the wrath of Tehran’s arch rival Saudi Arabia.Mahathir on Tuesday blasted the Trump administration’s targeted killing of General Qassem Soleimani as “immoral” and warned it could lead to an escalation in “what is called terrorism”.“We are no longer safe now. If anybody…