Malaysia had pushed through fresh pacts to revive two stalled China-backed projects worth billions to ensure the two countries went into this week’s Belt and Road Forum in “renewed spirits”, Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said on Sunday.In an interview with the Post, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s top diplomat dismissed talk that the government had only grudgingly given the green light for resumption of the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project and the Bandar Malaysia township.Malaysia’s…
Japan PM Shinzo Abe stays away from Yasukuni war shrine, offers tree instead
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent a ritual offering Sunday to Yasukuni Shrine, regarded as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism by its Asian neighbours.The offering for war dead was made on the occasion of a three-day Spring Festival through Tuesday at the Shinto shrine in Tokyo.But Abe, who has a strong conservative support base, will leave for an overseas trip on Monday and he has no plans to visit the shrine during the festival amid improving Japan-China ties that have been frayed over…
Checkmate Manila: pawns, paws and a grand chess game in the Philippine capital
It’s a sunny Saturday afternoon in Manila’s Rizal Park and 62-year-old Johnny Siong is crooning his heart out to Whitney Houston’s Saving All My Love For You. He’s doing it partly for amusement and partly to psyche me out – we’re three games in to our four-game, winner-take-all chess tournament and what began as a quiet mano a mano match has attracted an eager crowd of spectators. Young and old, big and small, they are all craning their necks to see if the local legend can defeat the fast…
The noodle museum dedicated to Korea’s soul food – and its Chinese creator
A huge statue of a Chinese chef hurrying with a delivery container in hand has drawn tourists to a grey-and-red brick building in South Korea’s oldest Chinatown in the port city of Incheon.Welcome to Jjajangmyeon Museum, an unusual facility dedicated to the country’s popular noodles served with brown sauce and its inventor, a Chinese immigrant.The renovated two-storey building with green window panes used to house the once-popular Gonghhuachun Chinese restaurant, the birthplace of the…
Indonesia election: why Prabowo Subianto is maintaining victory despite a likely win for Jokowi
As hundreds of supporters amassed outside his home on Friday, presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto railed against the “lying pollsters” whose quick counts showed incumbent leader Joko Widodo, better known as Jokowi, would win a second term.His team’s count, Prabowo continued, based on a sample of votes from 320,000 – more than one-third – of polling stations nationwide showed that he and his running mate Sandiaga Uno had won 62 per cent of the popular vote. It was his third declaration of…
North Korea’s ‘new guided weapon’ designed for ground combat, not a ballistic missile, says South’s military
The “new tactical guided weapon” that North Korea said it test-fired this week is believed to be a guided weapon for ground combat, not a ballistic missile that would have constituted a breach of sanctions, a South Korean official said on Friday. On Thursday, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said leader Kim Jong-un oversaw the test-firing of a new “tactical guided weapon”, touting its development as an “event of very weighty significance” in strengthening its military…
Mahathir, K-pop stars BTS and India’s LGBT ‘beacons of hope’: Asia’s most influential make Time 100 annual list
Time Magazine named an award-winning Asian actress, Malaysia’s resurgent political “warhorse” and K-pop megastars among this year’s 100 most influential people.Now in its 16th year, the Time 100 Most Influential People 2019 list categorises listees as a pioneer, artist, leader, icon or a titan, and is based on both readers’ votes and editors picks. And despite there being a strong Asia presence on this year’s list, some say there are a few notable absentees.Chinese President Xi Jinping, New…
HMRC encourages businesses to prepare for new off-payroll working rules
UK tax authority HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has published a list of actions to help large and medium-sized businesses in the private sector prepare for changes to the off-payroll working rules from 6 April 2020.
Gender pay gap: focus should be on long-term improvements
ANALYSIS: UK businesses need to focus their efforts on producing sustained improvements to the gender pay gap (GPG) over the long term, rather than placing too much emphasis on annual figures.
Pakistan gunmen kidnap and kill 14 bus passengers bound for coastal town home to China’s belt and road port
Unidentified gunmen killed 14 people in southwestern Pakistan after pulling them from several passenger buses, sifting through their identity cards and kidnapping them, a Pakistani official said on Thursday.No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack on the passengers who were travelling on a coastal highway from the financial hub of Karachi towards Gwadar, the Arabian Sea port town where China is building a deep water port.Southwestern Baluchistan province has long been plagued by…