Thailand will hold a general election in November 2018, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said on Tuesday, the most precise date he has given yet for the vote since taking power in a 2014 military coup.
Immediately after his 2014 putsch Prayuth promised to return power to civilians within 18 months. But that date has repeatedly slipped, and even after the vote critics say there will be limits on democracy.
“In November 2018 there will be an election. Is it clear?” the often gruff…
Poodle closes runway, disrupts 14 flights at Tokyo’s Haneda airport
A dog checked as cargo by a passenger on a Japan Airlines flight from Tokyo’s Haneda airport Monday morning escaped before being loaded onto the plane, causing a runway to be shut temporarily and disrupting a total of 14 flights.
The large poodle had been placed in a special basket but when JAL staff tried to load it onto the flight bound for Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, it escaped and ran off towards the runways at around 8:50am, according to the transport ministry.
The commotion caused one…
Rohingya children among 12 dead, scores missing after overloaded boat capsizes
At least 12 people died and scores were missing Monday after a boat packed with Rohingya refugees – many of them children – capsized, the latest tragedy to strike those fleeing violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
Coastguard and border guard officials said the boat was overloaded with about 100 people when it sank late Sunday in the mouth of the Naf river that separates Myanmar from Bangladesh.
Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) official Abdul Jalil said 12 bodies had been…
Philippines starts extradition process for alleged New York attack plotter
A Filipino suspect in a thwarted extremist plot targeting New York’s subway and Times Square will face legal proceedings seeking his extradition to the United States, the Philippine justice secretary said on Sunday.
Russell Salic and two others have been charged with involvement in the plan to carry out the attacks in the name of Islamic State during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in 2016.
Salic was arrested in the Philippines in April 2017 and the US requested his extradition,…
Move over Aussies, the Chinese are coming. And Indonesia can’t get enough of them
When Elsye Deliana first moved to Bali to work as a tour guide, she noticed visitors to the Indonesian island tended to hail from Hong Kong, Taiwan and other parts of Asia. But starting around 2010, the number of visitors from mainland China eclipsed those from Taiwan for the first time. From there they grew rapidly, doubling in four years and then doubling again two years after that.
Now the owner of her own agency – PT Star Cemerlang Wisata – Deliana says Chinese tourists are the…
US$5.2 billion first phase of China-Thailand railway project facing further delays, reports say
The US$5.2 billion first phase of a Sino-Thai high-speed railway project could be delayed until the new year due to problems with environmental approval in Bangkok.
Construction had been expected to start next month, but that is now unlikely to happen as Thailand’s environmental authorities have yet to give the project the green light, China’s CCTV reported on Friday, citing Thai media.
Experts need to evaluate potential areas of concern, and construction will not be allowed to…
FCA: less than half of defined benefit pension transfer advice is suitable
Individuals seeking to transfer their pension savings out of a defined benefit (DB) pension scheme are receiving suitable advice in fewer than half of cases, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has found.
New report urges firms to tackle financial security ‘gender gap’
Financial firms must seize the opportunity to better engage female consumers, who are facing a financial security “gender gap” as a result of workplace inequalities and underinvestment, experts have said.
European Commission publishes ‘far-reaching’ plans for single VAT system
Plans to simplify and modernise EU VAT laws will dramatically decrease cross-border fraud while cutting compliance costs for businesses, the European Commission has said.
UN slams Myanmar for lack of access to Rakhine state after convoy witnessed ‘unimaginable’ suffering
The lack of humanitarian access granted by Myanmar’s government to Rakhine state, where over half a million Rohingya Muslims have fled violence, was “unacceptable”, the UN said on Friday.
“The access we have in northern Rakhine state is unacceptable,” Mark Lowcock, head of the UN humanitarian office, told reporters in Geneva.
A small UN team visited the crisis-wracked region in majority Buddhist Myanmar in recent days and described witnessing “unimaginable…