Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on Tuesday denied claims his government had ever engaged the tainted data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica, and instead accused his rival Mahathir Mohamad’s son as the person who had used the company’s controversial services before he crossed aisles to join the opposition.
Speculation about Cambridge Analytica’s involvement in Malaysia has been swirling since one of the company’s senior executives was secretly recorded by Britain…
New figures reveal loss of £236 million through authorised push payment frauds
Businesses and consumers lost £236 million last year through authorised push payment (APP) frauds, new data has shown.
Drug abuser in Singapore gets five years in jail and six strokes of the cane for drug offences and holding toddler hostage
By Faris Mokhtar
A drug abuser who kidnapped and held his girlfriend’s two-year-old son hostage for 17 hours in 2016 was sentenced to five years’ jail and six strokes of the cane on Tuesday (March 20).
Muhammad Iskandah Suhaimi, 40, was convicted of four charges last year for kidnapping the toddler, possessing and consuming methamphetamine, as well as for illegally possessing a knuckleduster.
The court heard that at about 4pm on September 27, 2016, just seconds after his girlfriend…
South Korean prosecutors seek arrest of former president Lee Myung-bak
South Korean prosecutors have requested an arrest warrant for ex-president Lee Myung-bak over allegations of bribery, embezzlement and other charges, officials said on Monday.
Lee, a conservative who governed from 2008 to 2013, is the latest South Korean leader to be entangled in scandals or other problems after leaving office.
Lee’s conservative successor, Park Geun-hye, was removed from office and jailed last year in a separate corruption scandal. Prosecutors last month demanded a 30-…
Why Malaysia wants to help Chinese couples have babies
By Khairie Hisyam Aliman
The Malaysian medical tourism industry’s revenue broke through the RM1 billion (US$255.4) mark for the first time in 2016. By 2020, the national target is to double that.
It may seem ambitious, but the Malaysian Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC) is confident of achieving that figure. The market in its sights? China.
After China scrapped its one-child policy in October 2015, the council estimates there are around 90 million couples in China looking to conceive a…
Support for Abe’s cabinet slips below 40 per cent amid cronyism scandal
The approval rating for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet has plunged below 40 per cent and fallen behind the disapproval rate, amid a deepening scandal linked to cronyism allegations levelled against Abe over a state-owned land sale, a Kyodo News poll showed Sunday.
The support rate stood at 38.7 per cent, down 9.4 percentage points from the previous survey conducted before the Finance Ministry admitted to document tampering linked to the cronyism allegations. A total of 66.1 per cent…
Asean leaders address Myanmar’s Rohingya crisis, but refuse to point finger at Aung San Suu Kyi
Australia and its Asean neighbours vowed to boost defence ties while stressing the importance of non-militarisation in the disputed South China Sea on Sunday at a summit where the “complex” Rohingya crisis took centre-stage.
Leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, at the three-day meeting in Sydney, also agreed to work more closely to tackle the growing menace of violent extremism and radicalisation. But while a final communique noted a resolve to “protect…
What key players want from Trump-Kim talks (and what they’ll get)
The March 9 announcement that the US president had agreed to hold a summit with North Korea’s leader, by South Korean officials speaking on the White House lawn, encapsulated the Trump administration’s chaotic, unorthodox approach to foreign policy. President Donald Trump has by turns threatened and lampooned Kim Jong-un, but always kept the door ajar for a future meeting. Despite his fluctuating rhetoric, that the deal maker-in-chief has opted for the high-stakes gambit of a one-to…
Vietnam’s former prime minister Phan Van Khai dies at 84
Phan Van Khai, an architect of Vietnam’s economic rise and the country’s first prime minister to visit the United States after the end of the war, died on Saturday. He was 84.
Khai died in his home district of Cu Chi on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City, the government said on its website.
Khai oversaw Vietnam’s fastest and most stable economic growth during his nine years in office from 1997 to 2006. He signed a bilateral trade agreement with the US in 2000 and oversaw…
HMRC stepping up scrutiny of sports and fitness sector
Sport and fitness clubs in the UK are coming under increasing scrutiny from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) for their compliance with National Minimum Wage (NMW) legislation and their treatment of workers more generally, an employment law expert has said.