Month: May 2021

Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha promised a United Nations special envoy on Friday that he will not force back people fleeing violence in neighbouring Myanmar, where the military ousted a democratically elected government in February.UN Special Envoy on Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener told Prayuth in a meeting in Bangkok that she hopes Thailand will help find ways to work with Myanmar’s military to ease the crisis, the prime minister’s office said in a statement.People across Myanmar…

Disclosing information in the wrong box on a tax return but explaining in the ‘white space’ on the return what had been done did not amount to an inaccuracy in the return, the UK Supreme Court has said.

As the UK hospitality sector reopens after lockdown, employers will need to consider what impact new ways of working will have on the mental health of the workforce.

The state’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic will be scrutinised in a full and independent public inquiry that will commence in spring 2022, prime minister Boris Johnson has confirmed.

To analysts on South Asia, China’s warning to Bangladesh earlier this week against joining the four-member Quad alliance was surprising because Dhaka could hardly be considered a consequential player in Indo-Pacific security.Kanwal Sibal, who served for 36 years in India’s foreign service, said Bangladesh had no worthwhile navy and would not be able to contribute to maritime security. He had not heard of any talk that Bangladesh had been invited to join the Quad, he said.The Quad, comprising…

Singapore confirmed 24 locally-transmitted Covid-19 cases on Thursday, the largest daily jump since July last year, with infections linked to a cluster at Changi Airport ballooning to 46.Four of the 24 cases could not be traced, health authorities said. This brings the seven-day moving average of unlinked cases in the country to 2.14 – the highest since the quarantine-free air travel bubble with Hong Kong was announced on April 27. Hong Kong’s stands at 0.14.Under the arrangement, the travel…

Newlywed Nguyen Phuong Anh had been dreaming of starting a family in a virus-free Vietnam until she was jolted back to reality last week. One of her tenants, a medical student living a few floors beneath Anh, was told to isolate after visiting a public cancer hospital where a Covid-19 cluster was discovered. For Anh, a 26-year-old cashier in Hanoi, it was too close for comfort. “My husband and I had not made any contact with her, so we packed our stuff and went to stay at my grandma’s place…

A mysterious protester embarrassed International Olympic Committee officials on Wednesday when he managed to gatecrash an official online press conference to display an anti-Tokyo Olympics banner while uttering “f*** the Olympics”.A man going by the name of David O’Brien and claiming to be from Yahoo was last up during question time at an IOC online press conference, which followed Wednesday’s board meeting. However, instead of asking a question, he held up a black banner with “X” signs and the…

‘Self-driving’ vehicles fitted with Automated Lane Keeping System (ALKS) could be permitted on the roads later this year, in the wake of a government consultation on the safe use of the technology.

FBI agents searched the sprawling site of a Hindu temple on Tuesday as a lawsuit filed in federal court alleged workers from marginalised communities in India were lured to the US and forced to work long hours for just a few dollars per day to help build the temple.The lawsuit accuses the leaders of the Hindu organisation known as Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, or BAPS, of human trafficking and wage law violations.An FBI spokesperson confirmed that agents were at the…