Month: January 2018

A measles outbreak is feared to have killed about 100 malnourished people in Indonesia’s Papua, an official said on Sunday, highlighting a health crisis in the country’s easternmost province.
A total of 69 toddlers have died in the remote Asmat region, said Papua military spokesman Muhammad Aidi, while reports on the ground suggest 27 people have died in an equally remote and mountainous district named Oksibil. “We have received reports from villagers that the outbreak is…

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said Pakistani authorities closed the Islamabad bureau of its Pashto-language Radio Mashaal on Friday after Pakistan’s intelligence agency accused it of airing programmes “against the interest of Pakistan”.
Pakistan’s spy agency, known by the acronym ISI, also accused the US- funded broadcaster of operating “in line with [a] hostile intelligence agency’s agenda”, without naming the agency, according to the RFE/RL site….

In a different era, the tempestuous weather that gripped Singapore and Malaysia this month would have been the perfect metaphor of the bilateral relationship between the two neighbours. For decades after the end of their acrimonious post-independence union in 1965, the former British colonies publicly bickered over everything; the ownership of a railway station, water supplies, rocky outcrops in the sea, airspace and even the provenance of a shared cuisine they both call their own. The…

Even for a president famed for turning the air blue, it was a colourful way to conduct a press conference. “You are not only throwing toilet paper – you are throwing s*** at us,” snarled Rodrigo Duterte at hapless Rappler journalist Pia Ranada as he brandished a copy of the news site’s latest exposé, railing against what he labelled “fake news”.
It wasn’t hard to grasp why the Filipino president was so angry. Just a day earlier, on January 15,…

Employment rights stipulated in law in Singapore could be extended to all employees in the city state under potential reforms being consulted on by the government.

The recent change of ownership at Irish football league club Dundalk FC could mark the start of a new investment strategy in European football, an expert has said.

Almost two-thirds of the UK’s gender pay gap cannot be explained by reference to male and female workers’ age, working patterns or occupation, official statisticians have said.

Malaysian sultan channels Fred Flintstone with new car
Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar of Johor, one of Malaysia’s most powerful and wealthiest state rulers, was given a life-size replica of Fred Flintstone’s car from the classic cartoon. The car, which has an engine so he will not have to power it with his regal feet, was a belated birthday gift from a fellow high-ranking royal. The iconic vehicle from The Flintstones, the sultan’s favourite cartoon, is an accurate likeness of…

ANALYSIS: The removal of the reference to ‘promptness’ from the judicial review rules in Northern Ireland may seem subtle, but the change will have a real impact on decision-making in boardrooms across the region.

India successfully test-fired a long-range nuclear-capable missile on Thursday from an island in the Bay of Bengal.
The test, the fifth of the Agni-V intercontinental ballistic missile, was made from a mobile launcher, and “further strengthens our credible deterrence,” the defence Ministry said in a statement.
India has been developing its nuclear and missile systems in recent years amid increasing strategic competition with China. The test was “a major boost to country’…