The Inner House of the Court of Session in Scotland has handed down a significant judgment on the interpretation of the 2017 Electronic Communications Code (‘new Code’) which will be welcomed by telecoms operators, according to experts at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.
Firms must change tack to meet financial regulators’ expectations on supplier risk
Financial firms should review all of their supplier arrangements, not just those constituting major outsourcings, to ensure they meet UK regulators’ expectations on operational resilience.
Coronavirus: World Economic Forum cancels Singapore meeting, citing pandemic
The World Economic Forum has cancelled its 2021 annual meeting scheduled for Singapore in three months time, the Swiss-based organisation said on Monday.“Regretfully, the tragic circumstances unfolding across geographies, an uncertain travel outlook, differing speeds of vaccination roll-out and the uncertainty around new variants combine to make it impossible to realise a global meeting with business, government and civil society leaders from all over the world at the scale which was planned,”…
US ready to pull troops from Philippines ‘in months’ if no new VFA: expert
Some 400 American soldiers and defence contractors deployed in the southern Philippines could be pulled out within months if Washington and Manila do not sign a new Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) by then.So heard an international conference titled “The Philippines Hedging Between Alliance or Appeasement: Can the Biden Administration Tip the Balance?”The US was “ready to withdraw” the contingent of soldiers from the Mindanao island group, where they are involved in operations against Islamist…
UN General Assembly to consider call for arms embargo on Myanmar military junta
The UN General Assembly on Tuesday is set to consider a draft non-binding resolution calling for “an immediate suspension” of the transfer of weapons to the military junta of Myanmar, a UN official said on Sunday.Unlike Security Council resolutions, General Assembly resolutions are non-binding but carry strong political significance.If an approval by consensus cannot be reached, then the full General Assembly – 193 member states – will vote on the measure.Introduced by Liechtenstein, with…
Cyberattack in Asian countries hits subsidiary of French insurance giant Axa
A subsidiary of French insurance giant Axa has been hit by a ransomware attack affecting operations in several Asian countries, the company said on Sunday, confirming a Financial Times report.“Asia Assistance was recently the victim of a targeted ransomware attack which affected its IT operations in Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and the Philippines,” Axa Partners said in a statement.“Certain data processed by Inter Partners Asia (IPA) in Thailand has been accessed,” it added, saying it would …
Bodies found in India’s Ganges river are coronavirus victims, government confirms
Bodies of Covid-19 victims have been found dumped in some Indian rivers, a state government letter seen by Reuters says, in the first official acknowledgement of the alarming practice, which it said may stem from poverty and fear of the disease in remote areas.Images of corpses drifting down the Ganges river, which is considered holy in Hinduism, have shocked the country, reeling under the world’s worst surge in Covid-19 cases.Although media reports have linked the increase in the number of…
Thai taxi drivers turn to holy amulets to protect them from coronavirus
After muttering a prayer, Thai taxi driver Sopee Silpakit strings a chain of amulets around his neck then jumps behind the wheel – buoyed by the peace of mind the ritual gives him against Covid-19.The 65-year-old’s job driving a cab in Bangkok puts him in contact daily with the public, and his way of life is now plagued with worry, with the Thai capital the epicentre of a third wave.“I pray to these amulets every day: ‘Don’t let the virus come near me,’” he says. “I really do believe that they…
Coronavirus: Taiwan economy faces ‘double whammy’ as island tightens containment measures
Taiwan faces a potential “double whammy” as a surge of coronavirus cases and the reintroduction of containment measures threaten to derail the pace of growth in an economy that outperformed most of the world last year, economists said.While much of the globe was reeling from the impact of the pandemic, Taiwan reported just a trickle of daily cases brought in on international flights in 2020, allowing its economy to grow by 2.98 per cent.But a spike in infections this week has pushed the total…
Online Safety Bill published in the UK
A new legal framework for identifying and removing illegal and harmful content from the internet has been proposed by the UK government.