An Indonesian YouTube personality said on Tuesday he had been sued by national airline Garuda over a social media post about a handwritten business-class menu.Rius Vernandes, a popular vlogger, posted an Instagram video showing the menu written on a piece of notebook paper on Saturday with the caption: “The menu is still being printed, sir.”The post went viral and prompted Indonesian social media users to mock the airline. Rius said he has received a summons from the police in connection with…
Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohamad confirms US$240 million seizure from Chinese pipelines firm
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad confirmed on Monday his government’s seizure of US$240 million from a state-linked Chinese firm appointed to build two now-stalled pipelines worth more than US$2.3 billion, saying the government was “entitled to get back the money” as the project had been cancelled.“I don’t see why the Chinese would be unhappy about it, we are not taking back money for work they have done, only work they have not done,” Mahathir told reporters, adding that before its…
Philippines’ top senator attacks Iceland over abortion after call for UN investigation into drugs war
The Philippines’ highest-ranking lawmaker said on Monday that a UN resolution to probe the country’s bloody war on drugs should be ignored, and its chief backer Iceland investigated instead for human rights abuses in allowing abortion.“They have more unborn babies that they have aborted or killed. There are more killings in abortion than the drug pushers who are fighting the police,” Senate President Vicente Sotto told ANC news channel.The Nordic nation lacks moral grounds to lecture the…
Dozens dead in Nepal after monsoon rains lead to floods, landslides
Flooding and landslides triggered by heavy rainfall have killed at least 45 people in Nepal in the past few days, with more deaths reported across the Himalayan border in India, officials said on Sunday.At least 31 others are missing in Nepal, either swept by swollen rivers or buried by mudslides since delayed monsoon rains began pounding the region Friday, Nepal’s National Emergency Operation Centre said.The Centre said nine key motorways remained blocked by floods and mudslides and attempts…
Ambitious plan to power Singapore with world’s biggest solar farm … 4,000km away in Australia
The desert outside Tennant Creek, deep in the Northern Territory, is not the most obvious place to build and transmit Singapore’s future electricity supply.Though few in the southern states are yet to take notice, a group of Australian developers are betting that will change.If they are right, it could have far-reaching consequences for Australia’s energy industry and what the country sells to the world.Known as Sun Cable, it is promised to be the world’s largest solar farm. If developed as…
Dutch tourist killed in Malaysia’s Mulu National Park cave floods
Flash floods killed a Dutch tourist in a popular cave located in the rugged Mulu National Park on Malaysia’s Borneo island, an official said on Saturday, as a search continues for a missing guide.Local fire and rescue chief Law Poh Kiong identified the dead man as 66-year-old Peter Hans Hovenkamp from Utrecht in the central Netherlands.“He died due to drowning following flash floods in the caves. His body was found in a river inside the cave and was taken to the Miri public hospital for a…
All smiles as Indonesian President Joko Widodo and defeated rival Prabowo Subianto embrace and make up on public MRT ride in Jakarta
Indonesia’s president Joko Widodo and his defeated election rival met on Saturday for the first time since the divisive April poll, as they rode together on a recently opened subway in the capital, signalling a calming of political tensions in the world’s third-largest democracy.In a choreographed spectacle, Widodo and former special forces general Prabowo Subianto met and embraced at a gleaming new subway station in Jakarta and sat together chatting on a short train trip.Subianto had refused…
Indonesia grants clemency to Canadian teacher Neil Bantleman convicted of child sex abuse
Indonesia has granted clemency to a Canadian teacher convicted of sexually abusing students, an official said on Friday, in a case that critics say was riddled with irregularities and threw a spotlight on the Southeast Asian country’s justice system.Neil Bantleman and Indonesian teaching assistant Ferdinand Tjiong were convicted in 2014 on charges of abusing kindergarten students at the Jakarta Intercultural School, where the children of many expatriates, diplomats and wealthy Indonesians are…
Anti-China protests in the Philippines mark third anniversary of Manila’s South China Sea legal victory
Dozens of protesters on Friday staged a rally in front of the Chinese consulate in Manila as the Philippines marked the third anniversary of its arbitral victory over China at The Hague, which rejected Beijing’s historical claims to resources in the South China Sea.They condemned President Rodrigo Duterte’s actions since the legal win as “unconstitutional” and called for his impeachment, while urging China to “get out” of the disputed waterway,While presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo on…
Philippines warns of ‘consequences’ after UN rights council orders report on Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war
The United Nations Human Rights Council on Thursday narrowly approved a resolution mandating a “comprehensive” international review of the drug war in the Philippines, which watchdogs say has claimed more than 20,000 lives.The resolution had faced strong resistance from President Rodrigo Duterte’s government, which counters that the toll has been exaggerated – its own estimates say 5,300 have died – and that the crackdown enjoys widespread popular support in the Southeast Asian nation.Duterte’s…