Asian Legal Review

India’s top hunter on Friday led a shoot-to-kill pursuit of an elephant whose murderous rampage through villages has left 15 people dead.
The government has turned to sharpshooter Nawab Shafat Ali Khan ahead of World Elephant Day on Saturday to hunt the animal who crushed four victims in the eastern state of Bihar in March before crossing into neighbouring Jharkhand and killing 11 more.
Jharkhand’s chief forest and wildlife conservator L.R. Singh said the decision to kill the animal…

Indonesian police on Friday arrested an alleged recruiter and fundraiser for pro-Islamic State (IS) militants locked in a bloody battle for control of the southern Philippine city of Marawi.
Nearly 700 people, 120 soldiers among them, have been killed in the conflict after an alliance of militant groups launched an audacious assault to capture the Philippine city on May 23.
Philippine military and police have yet to regain control of all of Marawi, a city of about 200,000 people, amid ferocious…

North Korea is projected by the end of 2020 to have 25 to 50 nuclear weapons, and possibly as many as 60, according to a US think tank’s report on Pyongyang’s nuclear capabilities. David Albright, founder and president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington-based security think tank, said on Tuesday the “worst case” estimate of 60 nuclear weapons would involve the operation of the Experimental Light Water Reactor, a type of thermal-…

The planned £11.7 billion acquisition of Sky plc by 21st Century Fox is now expected to close in the first half of next year, according to Fox chief executive James Murdoch.

Japan’s army will give thousands of helicopter parts to keep Philippine military choppers airborne, helping Tokyo gain clout with Manila in a contest with China to secure influence over the strategic South China Sea nation, four sources said.
Military diplomacy is a new means for Japan to confound China’s bid for control in the bitterly contested South China Sea as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seeks a regional military role amid a retreat from decades of state pacifism.
The pact could…

The co-leader of New Zealand’s Green Party resigned Wednesday, three weeks after confessing she committed welfare fraud as a struggling young mother more than 20 years ago.
Metiria Turei said the scrutiny on her family following her disclosure had become unbearable and she worried she was hindering her party’s chances six weeks ahead of an election.
Polls indicate support for the Green Party has dropped significantly since Turei’s confession and the appointment last week of…

The European Commission has found that Santander’s proposed acquisition of Banco Popular will not raise competition concerns, allowing a resolution scheme proposed by the Single Resolution Board (SRB) to go ahead.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday announced “dead-or-alive” bounties worth US$40,000 each for policemen he accused of helping an accused narco-politician, and said he preferred they be killed.
The call for police officers to kill their colleagues is the latest inflammatory comment by Duterte in his controversial drug war, which has claimed thousands of lives, and comes shortly after a meeting with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
Duterte made the offer during a…

The South African-based Vodacom Group has finalised its acquisition of a 35% stake in Kenya’s biggest telecoms firm, Safaricom.

Australia will hold a voluntary postal vote on whether to legalise gay marriage if parliament rejects plans for a plebiscite on the contentious issue, the prime minister said yesterday.
Parliament’s upper house, the Senate, last November rebuffed plans for a national plebiscite involving 15 million people, with the Labor opposition, Greens and cross-bench MPs arguing it would be expensive and create division.
Several gay senators made impassioned pleas against the plan at the time, saying…