Asian Legal Review

The Philippines raised the alert at its restive Mayon volcano by one notch early on Sunday, citing signs of rising magma that could lead to hazardous eruptions.
Residents were evacuated from two villages near the volcano, a tourist attraction in Albay province because of its near-perfect cone shape, following a “phreatic or steam-driven eruption” on Saturday, and there was a further eruption on Sunday.
Saturday’s eruption unleashed ash, rocks and sulphuric odour, and was…

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Latvian counterpart Maris Kucinski agreed on Saturday to cooperate in adding pressure on North Korea to give up its pursuit of nuclear and missile capabilities.
The two leaders also affirmed in their meeting in the Latvian capital Riga the need to promote economic ties by taking advantage of Latvia’s position as a logistics centre in the Baltic region, Japanese officials said.
As Abe called for a tough approach to Kim Jong-un’s government,…

A Singapore court on Saturday charged three men suspected of involvement in large-scale oil theft at Shell’s biggest refinery, days after bringing charges against 11 under an extensive probe by authorities in the city state.
The Singapore subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell first contacted the city state’s authorities in August 2017 about theft at its Pulau Bukom industrial site, just south of the country’s main island.
Police have seized millions of dollars in cash and a small…

Authorities on Friday put a Taiwanese man and related companies on the island’s blacklist for allegedly selling oil to North Korea in violation of UN sanctions on Pyongyang.
Chen Shih-hsien is suspected of chartering a Hong Kong-registered tanker that allegedly transferred 600 tonnes of oil to a North Korean vessel in mid-October in a ship-to-ship transfer banned by the UN Security Council.
South Korean authorities then seized the tanker Lighthouse Winmore in November, setting off an…

Wiltshire Council has granted retrospective planning permission to a 22 hectare solar farm which, once complete, will “make a significant and highly valued contribution towards Wiltshire’s renewable energy targets”.

Planned investment in new European ‘supercomputers’ will help support advancements in personalised medicine, combat the effects of climate change and support the digitisation of industry, the European Commission has said.

Technology relied upon by HR and finance teams within UK government departments is to be consolidated as part of a new drive towards ‘shared services’, the Cabinet Office has announced.

Reuters journalists charged with colonial-era secrets law in Myanmar
Two Reuters journalists were charged in Myanmar this week with violating a colonial-era secrecy law, and now face 14 years’ jail if found guilty. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were arrested on December 12 after police accused them of acquiring “important secret papers” from two officers who had worked in Rakhine state, where Myanmar forces are blamed for rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims – a conflict…

An outbreak of highly pathogenic bird flu was confirmed on Thursday at a poultry farm in western Japan’s Kagawa Prefecture, according to the prefectural government, making it the first bird flu case affecting livestock in Japan this season.
The Kagawa prefectural government plans to cull around 91,000 chickens at a farm in the city of Sanuki, after genetic tests showed that they had become infected. The farm notified the prefectural government of a suspected bird flu case on Wednesday,…

Bali’s Mount Agung erupted again on Thursday, sending thick ash and smoke up to 2.5km (1.5 miles) into the sky, according to Indonesian authorities. The danger zone around the volcano remains at a radius of 6km (3.7 miles) from the crater, according to Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for Indonesia’s Disaster Mitigation Agency. The zone was reduced from a radius of 10km (6.2 miles) last week. Nugroho said the volcano still shows a high intensity of volcanic activity, despite…