Asian Legal Review

A United Nations agency is rallying policymakers, non-government organisations and academics to support its ethics guidelines on artificial intelligence (AI) at a time when the technology is rapidly changing the world.
Unesco, the 194-member UN heritage agency that produced the world’s first – and so far only – global AI ethics standards four years ago, hosted a forum in Bangkok this week to drive the adoption of its recommendations. However, there is a long way to go before the recommendations…

Businesses operating in the UK could be required by law to “develop, disclose and implement a transition plan that is aligned with trajectories to meet net zero by 2050”, according to plans under consideration by the UK government.

Malaysia’s Islamist party has decried a “racist” statement by one of its leaders, who has been widely criticised for including a picture of the country’s first ethnic Chinese three-star general in a social media post warning of the political rise of the nation’s largest minority group.
Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) grass roots leader Zaharudin Muhammad sparked outrage over a post on his Facebook page on Tuesday, in which he wrote a hypothetical news story of Malaysia welcoming its first…

The brutal murder of a 20-year-old university student in her dormitory has renewed scrutiny on safety lapses in Cyberjaya, a township hailed in the 1990s as Malaysia’s Silicon Valley but now notorious for crime.
Maniishapriet Kaur Akhara, a University of Cyberjaya undergraduate, was found dead on Tuesday due to blunt force trauma to the head, Sepang district police said on Thursday.
“Investigation at the scene found no signs of forced entry into the victim’s residence. Further examination of the…

The UK government has announced a 10-year strategy that underlines its commitment to transforming the UK into a clean energy superpower, an expert has said.

South Korea is set to appoint a train driver as the first blue-collar worker to lead its employment and labour ministry, as critics have expressed concerns about the role being entangled by influence peddling from politicians and labour unions.
Kim Young-hoon, 57, was in his driver’s seat operating a train between Busan and Gimcheon, southeast of Seoul, when the news broke of President Lee Jae-myung’s cabinet selections on Monday.
With his phone turned off, Kim said he had not learned about the…

Malaysia’s armed forces made a historic move when it promoted Johnny Lim Eng Seng to lieutenant general on Monday. Lim is the first ethnic Chinese serviceman to reach the rank of a three-star senior officer.
It was a significant promotion in the country’s Malay-dominated military, which has long struggled to attract interest from among the ethnic Chinese and ethnic Indian minorities to enlist as soldiers.
Lim, who hails from Melaka state in the peninsula’s south, has been with the armed forces…

Guidance provided by the UK Supreme Court on the relevance of post-sale confusion is significant and helpful for brand owners involved in trade mark disputes, an expert has said.

The Philippines could suffer a setback in its efforts to counter Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea if the United States shifts its attention from the Indo-Pacific to the Middle East, observers have warned.
Iran on Tuesday retaliated against US strikes on its nuclear facilities by launching at least six missiles at an American base in Qatar, but Doha said the attack had been thwarted. The spectre of a closure of vital shipping artery the Hormuz Strait, meanwhile, also looms over the…

Three Singaporean men have been arrested in a Malaysian drug bust of US$1.7 million worth of cocaine-laced vape liquid destined for sale overseas, in a case spotlighting Kuala Lumpur’s emerging role as a hub for a new generation of narcotics delivered through e-cigarettes.
On Monday, Malaysia’s federal narcotics department announced the seizure of nearly 5,000 cartridges of the cocaine-laced liquid from a vehicle parked at a hotel in Ampang, an upscale suburb east of the capital, Kuala…