The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will target “industries that are at a greater risk of cartels forming” as part of a new campaign to crack down on anti-competitive behaviour.
Japan objects to South Korea mentioning wartime ‘comfort women’ at UN rights meeting
Japan formally complained on Monday after South Korea’s foreign minister raised the issue of wartime “comfort women” at the top UN rights body, while warning that it should not be allowed to harm bilateral relations at a critical time in East Asia.
“Comfort women” was Japan’s euphemism for Asian women – including Koreans, Chinese and Filipino – forced to work in its wartime brothels. Under a 2015 deal, Japan apologised to the women and provided a…
Two Singapore property agents plead guilty to illegal Airbnb rentals
Two Singaporean men pleaded guilty Tuesday to letting out flats on Airbnb without official permission, the first such case in the city state under new rules against short-term rentals.
Housing is a sensitive issue in rich but land-starved Singapore where more than 80 per cent of the population lives in government-subsidised flats.
Terence Tan En Wei, 35, and Yao Song Liang, 34, pleaded guilty in court to four charges of illegally renting out four flats in a luxury private block in central…
Minimum unit pricing: Scottish government sets 50p rate
The minimum price per unit of alcohol is to be set at 50 pence in Scotland, the Scottish government has confirmed. The recommended minimum rate, which still has to be ratified by the Scottish parliament, would apply from 1 May 2018.
Vietnam seizes heroin worth US$2.5 million in China border drug raid
Five men were arrested in Vietnam for allegedly attempting to smuggle US$2.5 million worth of heroin into China after police shot at their drug-packed vehicle as they tried to flee, local media reported Monday.
The men were caught in northern Cao Bang province on the border with China with nearly 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of heroin from Laos in their truck, state-run Thanh Nien newspaper reported.
Vietnam is a key trafficking hub for narcotics from the “Golden Triangle” covering…
Philippine officials meet Filipinos in Kuwait amid labour row
A delegation of Philippine labour officials were in Kuwait City on Sunday to assess the impact of a new ban on Filipinos working in the emirate, a source of much-needed remittances.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte earlier this month announced a departure ban for Filipinos planning to work in Kuwait, after the murder there of 29-year-old Joanna Demafelis.
Her body was found in a freezer and a Lebanese-Syrian couple suspected of her murder have been arrested in the Syrian capital, Damascus,…
Russia ‘hacked the Olympics’ and tried to make it look like North Korea did it, US officials claim
Russian military spies hacked several hundred computers used at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea, according to anonymous US intelligence officials.
They tried to make it appear as though the intrusion was by North Korea, the officials claim.
Officials in Pyeongchang acknowledged that the Games were hit by a cyberattack during the February 9 opening ceremony but refused to say whether Russia was responsible. That evening there were disruptions to the internet, broadcast systems and…
As Singapore’s population ages, can the Lion City continue to roar?
The Chinese believe that during Lunar New Year, rice jars should not be left empty, lest this should lead to barren and starving days ahead.
Singapore seems to be following this notion, at least in regards to its government coffers. The country’s Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat made it clear during the annual budget that he has no intention of allowing funds to run out any time soon.
On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, he gave advance notice that the goods and services tax (GST) will…
Japan to pay travel costs for nuclear attack ‘storytellers’
The Japanese government will fund from April the travel costs of storytellers, both within Japan and abroad, who will share the testimonies given by ageing victims of America’s nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The cities, devastated by the 1945 bombings in the final phase of the second world war, began training such storytellers 2012 and have dispatched them to other areas in Japan with recipient entities covering the costs.
To alleviate the financial burden, the Health, Labour…
Three bombs rock capital of Myanmar’s Rakhine state, one police officer injured
Three bombs exploded in different locations around Rakhine’s state capital Sittwe early on Saturday morning, including at the home of a high-ranking official, Myanmar police told AFP, adding that no deaths were reported.
It is the latest violence to hit Rakhine, which is festering with ethnic tensions and has been roiled by communal violence in the north against the Rohingya and insurgencies in other parts of the state.
Bombings in the state capital are rare however.
“Three bombs…