Author: viking

Nearly 200 nations have struck hard-fought agreements at a UN biodiversity summit, but the outcome was accompanied by disappointment over missed opportunities to address humanity’s destructive toll on nature.
Delegates cheered on Friday as crucial texts were approved in overtime but the celebrations were tempered by acrimonious debates and regret over limited progress on some of the most contentious issues.
The Cop17 summit in Armenia sought to revive a landmark commitment to halt and reverse…

Malaysia’s Melaka state began its election campaign on Saturday after 79 candidates were cleared to contest a poll testing whether Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s governing partners can turn an opportunistic alliance with his Islamist opponents into a platform for national power.
The coastal state south of Kuala Lumpur heads to the polls on November 14, handing the United Malays National Organisation (Umno) and the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) another opening to deepen cooperation after…

Draft new regulations and guidance clarifying what businesses must do when selling, renewing and ending UK consumer subscriptions from next year have been published, against a backdrop of active enforcement by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

The UK government’s long-awaited revision of its national policy statement (NPS) for new ports in England provides updated policy support for port expansion and its associated economic growth, experts have said.

Investors who store and trade cryptoassets on the Binance platform should take their own action, urgently, to recover assets that have been stolen, an expert in forensic accounting has said.

Transnational drug syndicates in the Philippines continue to thrive despite decades of crackdowns targeting street-level dealers, with analysts warning that regional suppliers, financiers and trafficking networks have largely eluded enforcement efforts.
Former drug officials and security analysts say the country’s drug trade remains closely connected to a wider regional supply chain, with criminal groups relying on local partners, maritime routes and established distribution networks to move…

Indonesia is looking beyond Singapore for petrol supplies as it seeks to reduce its dependence on a single source, but analysts say diversifying imports will do little to address the country’s fuel production shortfall without faster refinery modernisation and investment in alternative fuels.
Indonesia has long sourced petroleum products from Singapore, including RON 90 petrol, which has a minimum octane rating of 90 and is marketed domestically as Pertalite. Singapore’s geographic proximity,…

Developers in the residential sector in England can benefit from UK government plans to give local leaders more control over how tax revenues raised in their area are spent, an expert in residential development has said.

Thailand’s government said on Thursday it had revoked the citizenship of a prominent head rabbi who was a naturalised Thai, as the country tightens enforcement of its immigration laws.
Rabbi Yosef Chaim Kantor’s Thai citizenship was stripped over his repeated use of his US passport after naturalisation in 2013, according to an interior ministry statement.
The order was signed by Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who is also interior minister.
Thai law prohibits naturalised citizens from…

Singapore’s decision to send its top diplomat to Indonesia on a surprise visit, following days of terse exchanges over a regional haze, underscores a bid to defuse growing tensions and seek a direct channel to President Prabowo Subianto.
Analysts say Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan’s trip reflected his country’s preference for measured diplomacy amid rising nationalistic rhetoric in Indonesia, with the city state also mindful of containing any “negative fallout” as Jakarta grapples with…