Asian Legal Review

Singaporean Amos Yee on Thursday was released from a United States prison on parole.
Yee, now 27, was serving time at Danville Correctional Center in Illinois after being sentenced in 2021 to six years’ jail by a US court for possession of child pornography and grooming.
According to a victim’s information network, Yee had been released on November 7 and immediately taken back into custody.
He was then released again on November 20.
Yee has been registered as a sex offender, according to checks…

A passenger bus in Cambodia crashed off a bridge into a river on Thursday, killing at least 13 passengers and injuring two dozen others, police said.
The bus was travelling from Siem Reap, home to the country’s fabled Angkor Wat temple complex, to the capital Phnom Penh, when it crashed in the predawn hours in the central province of Kampong Thom, the deputy police chief for the area, Siv Sovanna, said.
All those on the bus were Cambodian nationals, he said.
A preliminary investigation suggested…

Kim Sung-ho, 38, an office worker, said he is increasingly open to the idea of raising the retirement age in South Korea.
“A few years ago, I opposed extending the retirement age,” he said. “But now, living costs and housing prices are getting higher. I worry more about my own future. I think I will need a stable source of income until I get older. Extending retirement age isn’t about the older generation any more. It’s about preparing for the future for my generation too.”
Similarly, An…

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong has voiced hope that China and Japan can de-escalate tensions, following a row sparked by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments on the Taiwan Strait.
At the Bloomberg New Economy Forum on Wednesday, Wong said Singapore and fellow Southeast Asian states supported Tokyo stepping into a bigger role in the region, including on the security front, for greater stability.
Takaichi earlier this month said Japan could deploy its military in the event…

Mauritania has become the latest African country to join a growing trend of enforcing local content regulations for mining and energy extraction, increasing pressure on international investors.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s recent remarks suggesting that Japan could intervene militarily in the Taiwan Strait under the pretext of a “survival-threatening situation” represent a strategic pivot away from Japan’s post-war pacifist ethos.
These statements, explicitly condemned by Beijing as “blatant interference in China’s internal affairs”, transcend mere diplomatic indiscretion. They reflect a calculated alignment with containment strategies aimed at curtailing China’s…

The Irish government’s draft Finance Bill 2025 aims to underscore Ireland’s attractiveness as a place for foreign direct investment, and to enhance aspects of the Irish tax system that can offer attractive benefits for multinationals doing business in Ireland.

Singapore’s jailing of an Australian man who rushed at Ariana Grande at a film premiere has struck a raw nerve among locals, whose near-unanimous applause for the punishment reflects deep frustration with behaviour seen as attention-seeking and disruptive to the city state’s hard-won image for safety.
The nine-day term – which the judge increased from an initial proposal of seven days – was also the first time serial stage invader Johnson Wen has faced custodial consequences, after similar…

Thailand’s Supreme Court ordered jailed former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Monday to pay back taxes over the sale of his telecoms firm, the judiciary said, with reports putting the sum due at around half a billion dollars.
In 2006, Thaksin was dogged by corruption allegations and mired in controversy over the tax-free sale of shares in his company, Shin Corporation.
Later that year he was ousted as prime minister in a coup and then went into exile for more than a decade.
The 76-year-old…

Businesses in England and Wales do not automatically owe a debt to others they are in contract with even where they are responsible for the other party failing to meet a pre-condition of sale upon which their duty to pay that debt is triggered, the UK Supreme Court has confirmed.