Sydney extravaganza kicks off global New Year’s Eve parties

Australia rang in the new year on Sunday with a spectacular display of rainbow-coloured fireworks cascading from Sydney Harbour Bridge.
About 1.5 million people packed the city’s foreshore to watch the pyrotechnics light up the sky above the historic bridge and the iconic opera house, the first major celebrations worldwide after New Zealand. “This is a fabulous way to see out 2017 – the year that four out of five Sydneysiders said a resounding ‘Yes’ to marriage…

Probe into deadly fire at southern Philippines shopping centre focuses on possible safety lapses

A government investigator probing the blaze that led to the deaths of 37 people at a southern Philippines shopping centre said there are signs of fire safety lapses that may have contributed to the tragedy.
The December 23 blaze in Davao City broke out at a furniture and fabric store on the third floor of a shopping centre, the New City Commercial Centre (NCCC), and then engulfed the offices of US firm Research Now SSI on the fourth floor in choking smoke.
The only person among the 38 killed in…

North Korea celebrates year of ‘self-defence’ successes, but ties with US lowest since Korean war

In the first month of Donald Trump’s presidency, an American scholar quietly met North Korean officials and relayed the message that the new administration in Washington appreciated an extended halt in the North’s nuclear and missile tests.
But the North Koreans responded by saying the nearly four-month period of quiet wasn’t a sign of conciliation and supreme leader Kim Jong-un would order tests whenever he wanted. As if to emphasise the point, two days later Pyongyang…

Former Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra ‘spotted’ shopping in London mall

A grainy photo that has gone viral on social media shows fugitive former Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra shopping in London, according to Thailand’s NewTV, which first ran the image.
If it is Yingluck, then it would be the first sighting of the former leader since she fled Thailand in August right before the verdict hearing in her corruption trial.
According to the Bangkok Post, the photo was enough to prompt the Thai government to investigate.
There have been reports over the…

Asia in 3 minutes: help on the way for Hong Kong’s elderly and a gruesome discovery in Japan

Cambodians come to Hong Kong to meet the increasing demand for helpers
Cambodia on Wednesday sent its first batch of maids to work in Hong Kong, which is scrambling to meet growing demand for domestic helpers after a series of abuse scandals. Hong Kong is home to more than 300,000 foreign maids, mostly from the Philippines and Indonesia. But high-profile cases of abuse and forced labour have made headlines in recent years and threatened to stem the tide of migrant helpers. Hong Kong has turned…

Oil, bribes, politicians: what happened to ‘clean’ Singapore?

Singapore’s state-backed corporate heavyweights – collectively known as “Singapore Inc” – will face tough questions in 2018 on their commitment to the Lion City’s vaunted anti-corruption ethos, observers say, as a shocked public comes to grips with a graft scandal that has engulfed oil rig builder Keppel Corp. One political observer went as far as to describe 2017 as “annus horribilis” for the city state’s corporate sector. That sentiment…

A third of US supports military action against North Korea

One third of US citizens support military action in North Korea and 40 per cent want to see Japan and South Korea armed with nuclear missiles, a new survey has revealed.
The poll of US and Japanese citizens was conducted by Japanese think tank Genron NPO and the University of Maryland, and shows a substantial proportion of the US is prepared to go to war.
However, the peacemakers are just about winning out in America, with 44.2 per cent of US citizens saying they are opposed to military action…

UN rights investigator who was barred from Myanmar wants China and Russia to condemn Rohingya crackdown

The United Nations’ independent investigator into human rights in Myanmar has called for international pressure on China and Russia to try to get them to oppose human rights abuses in Myanmar.
UN special rapporteur Yanghee Lee, who was last week barred by the Myanmar government from visiting the country, singled out China and Russia because they had failed to back some moves in the UN aimed at trying to halt the Myanmar military’s crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim community in…

Japan, Oman seek to ensure maritime order amid China's naval assertiveness

Japan and Oman have vowed to work together to challenge what Japanese officials are calling “China’s growing naval assertiveness” in the Asia-Pacific region.
The countries made the agreement on Wednesday as Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono and his Omani counterpart, Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, met in the capital of the Middle East country.
During the talks, Kono said Japan intended to pursue a “free and open Indo-Pacific” region, encompassing Asia, the Middle…

First Cambodian helpers arrive in Hong Kong as demand rises and abuse scandals threaten to create shortage

Cambodia on Wednesday sent its first batch of maids to work in Hong Kong, which is scrambling to meet growing demand for domestic helpers after a series of abuse scandals. Hong Kong is home to more than 300,000 foreign maids, mostly from the Philippines and Indonesia. But high-profile cases of abuse and forced labour have made headlines in recent years and threatened to stem the tide of migrant helpers. Hong Kong has turned to Cambodia, one of Asia’s poorest countries where the…