Police in Vietnam said on Wednesday they had arrested three executives of a publishing house that released a book on Ho Chi Minh, the revered founder of the country’s Communist Party.
The author of Stories with Thanh – A New Account of Light, former telecoms executive Nguyen Thanh Nam, was arrested on anti-state charges in early July, along with an influencer who promoted the book on his social media channels.
The book, which has been recalled by its publisher under pressure from authorities,…
Thai police arrest boxing camp manager for trafficking underage boys for sex
Thai police said on Wednesday they had arrested the manager of a boxing camp for trafficking underage boys for sex, and were searching for a Norwegian also believed to have been involved.
Police raided the day camp in Rayong province, southeast of Bangkok, on Tuesday and took 12 children into protection, the Central Investigation Bureau said in a statement.
The 28-year-old manager has admitted charges of trafficking minors under the age of 18 for sexual exploitation and soliciting sexual…
Singapore ministers to donate Bloomberg defamation damages to charity
Singapore’s Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam and Manpower Minister Tan See Leng said on Tuesday they would donate to charity the damages awarded to them in their defamation suit against Bloomberg.
In separate social media posts published on Tuesday night, hours after the High Court delivered its judgment, the ministers reiterated that the lawsuit was about protecting their integrity and reputations, as well as the standing of their ministerial offices.
Earlier on Tuesday, the High…
Commercial Court clarifies test for restricting document access under transparency pilot
The Commercial Court of England and Wales has given guidance on what factors courts should consider when deciding whether to make a filing modification order (FMO) under a new document access pilot.
Indonesia’s free meals scheme cut leaves kitchen operators in limbo
Thousands of Indonesian free meals kitchens complained on Tuesday they had been left in the lurch by the government’s move to scale down President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship free meals programme to save money.
Jakarta is considering a potential budget cut of more than US$2 billion with reductions in the number of beneficiaries and kitchen operators.
There are currently nearly 28,000 kitchens and the National Nutrition Agency (NNA) plans to temporarily halt the addition of 13,000 new…
Why a Chinese academic claim over Batanes has unsettled the Philippines
A university symposium in Guangzhou has placed the Philippines’ northernmost province of Batanes at the centre of a new argument over history, geography and sovereignty, after scholars at the event claimed the islands belonged to Taiwan and, on that basis, fell under overall Chinese sovereignty.
The claim, made at a June 30 symposium hosted by Jinan University in Guangzhou, has been rejected by Philippine historians and officials, who dispute the scholars’ reading of geography, dynastic…
How Philippines is reshaping South China Sea defence, 10 years after Hague ruling
A decade after a tribunal in The Hague ruled on July 12, 2016, that Beijing’s sweeping South China Sea claims had no legal basis, Philippine officials and analysts say Manila remains heavily outmatched at sea but has begun turning its landmark legal victory into a more credible form of deterrence.
The Philippines brought the case in 2013 under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos), challenging Beijing’s nine-dash line and other claims.
The tribunal ruled that China’s…
Competition Commission turns spotlight on South Africa’s franchise sector
Businesses operating across South Africa’s franchise sector should review their franchise models, agreements and commercial practices ahead of a significant Competition Commission market inquiry, experts have said.
Aung San Suu Kyi will be looked after, Myanmar envoy tells Asean
Foreign ministers from Asean were told on Sunday by their Myanmar counterpart that detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi is in good health and would be looked after, ASEAN’s special envoy to Myanmar said.
Maria Theresa Lazaro, the Philippine foreign minister, has been seeking access to Suu Kyi, 81, who has been detained since her elected government was ousted in a 2021 military coup.
“My recollection of the statement of the Myanmar foreign minister on Aung San Suu Kyi is that she’s in good…
Wombs for hire: the painful price of Asia’s baby trade
As the car bounces along a rural Thai road, a baby just a few months old watches the emerald green countryside rush by from Nicha’s* lap, oblivious to the countdown that has already begun.
Soon the child will be handed over to her father to be raised in China by grandparents whose own hopes of a larger family were curtailed by decades of state population control.
Nicha may never see the baby she gave birth to again, but she knows that is the painful price of commercial surrogacy.
This is her…