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…
How coffee helped a Vietnamese war veteran raise his family
Vietnam is the world’s second-largest coffee producer – exporting an estimated US$3.5 billion of the commodity in 2018. They are second only to Brazilians, who exported US$5.2 billion worth of coffee in the same year.However, in 1986, the republic managed to grow only 300,000 60kg bags of coffee beans. In 2018, volumes had skyrocketed to over 30 million bags: a hundredfold increase.In comparison, Indonesia’s production only rose from 5.9 million bags in 1986 to just 10.2 million bags in 2018…
For Indonesia’s finance chief Sri Mulyani, what will a ‘bigger’ role in new Jokowi cabinet entail?
Indonesia’s no-nonsense, charismatic and popular finance chief Sri Mulyani Indrawati looks certain for a top spot in President Joko Widodo’s second-term cabinet. But less predictable is whether she will continue managing the books, or be put in charge of steering Indonesia’s US$1 trillion economy.Widodo earlier this month hinted at giving Sri Mulyani, who turns 57 today and is a mother of three, a “bigger responsibility” in his new team. Then, Ahmad Syafi’i Maarif, the former leader of the…
Japan protests as South Korea begins war games at disputed islands
South Korea Sunday began two days of war games to practise defending disputed islands off its east coast against an unlikely attack from Japan, further stoking tensions between the two neighbours.The annual drills come just days after Seoul terminated a military intelligence-sharing pact with Tokyo, with the countries at loggerheads over Japan’s use of forced labour during World War II.The two-day exercise was to involve warships and aircraft, the South Korean navy said in a text message…
Tributes paid to British dad who died in fight over noise at Phuket beach resort
Tributes have been paid to a British father who is said to have died protecting his family at a hotel in Thailand after a fellow guest reacted angrily to a noise complaint, barged into their room and attacked him.Amitpal Singh Bajaj, from Southall in west London, was reportedly beaten up by a man staying in the room next door at the five-star Centara Grand Beach Resort on Karon Beach in Phuket, according to his wife.Thai police reportedly said Bajaj had complained to a tourist in the next room,…
Kashmiri protesters defy restrictions, clash with Indian security forces
Security forces used tear gas against stone-throwing local residents in Indian-administered Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar on Friday, after a third straight week of protests in the restive Soura district despite the imposition of tight restrictions.Paramilitary police tried to enter Soura, which has emerged as a centre of the protests, as hundreds of locals staged a protest march against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to withdraw autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir on August 5…
Is Chinese support for Pacific nations shaping their stance on Indonesia’s West Papua?
Indonesia’s restive province of West Papua was gripped by violence this week as protesters clashed with police, leading Jakarta to cut internet access and send almost 1,000 additional officers to quell the unrest.The latest demonstrations were against racist abuse suffered by West Papuan students, but a separatist movement in the region has also been simmering since 1969.In recent years, Jakarta’s Pacific Island neighbours have become bolder in their disapproval of the government’s handling of…