Author: viking

The UAE’s financial sector is well positioned to withstand the economic and market impact of the Middle East conflict, experts have said, endorsing views expressed by industry figures in interviews with a newspaper.

The energy crisis caused by the Iran war could push food prices up by as much as 50 per cent in Malaysia, trade associations have warned, as soaring fuel costs threaten to wipe out already narrow margins for roadside stalls and restaurants feeding the country’s outsize appetite for eating out.
Malaysia’s government coffers have already taken a hit due to fallout from the conflict, with local fuel subsidy costs estimated to spike by more than fourfold to about 3.2 billion ringgit (US$795 million)…

Myanmar cleared the way on Monday for coup-leading General Min Aung Hlaing to become president and maintain his rule in civilian garb, with lawmakers nominating him as a vice-presidential candidate and the junta replacing him as military commander.
Min Aung Hlaing has ruled Myanmar since 2021 when he ordered a coup toppling the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi – detaining the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, dissolving her party and triggering civil war.
After five years of hardline rule, he…

Mongolia’s ruling party selected a new candidate for prime minister on Sunday after the last head of government, Zandanshatar Gombojav, resigned after only nine months on the job.
Uchral Nyam-Osor, the current party chairman who is serving as speaker of the Parliament, was nominated at a meeting of the Mongolian People’s Party, according to state news agency Montsame. Uchral first joined the party in 2009, and is seen as a compromise candidate amid different party factions.
Zandanshatar’s…

No fast-food chain has ever meant quite what Jollibee means to Filipinos.
Forget McDonald’s and KFC, Jollibee – with its sweet spaghetti and crispy Chickenjoy – is something else entirely: a cultural anchor for a diaspora scattered across every continent on Earth.
With more than a million Filipinos leaving the Philippines every year in search of greener pastures abroad, the chain has followed them almost everywhere they have gone, building a brand that taps into deep emotions by offering a taste…

Singapore has seized over 830kg (1,800 lbs) of Asian pangolin scales hidden in a shipment bound for Cambodia, authorities said on Saturday, calling it the largest haul of its kind discovered in the city state.
Falsely declared as “dried fish skin”, the scales – estimated to be from more than 2,200 pangolins – were found in 30 bags on December 29 after officials intercepted an inbound truck carrying sea cargo, Singapore’s National Parks Board said in a statement.
The announcement came as…

Indonesia on Saturday began implementing a new government regulation approved earlier this month that bans children younger than 16 from access to digital platforms that could expose them to pornography, cyberbullying, online scams and addiction.
With the move, Indonesia became the first country in Southeast Asia to ban children from having accounts on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox. It follows measures that Australia took last year in a world-first social…

There are limitations to EU member state governments relying on national security grounds to block components from certain suppliers being used in national telecoms networks, according to a legal adviser at the EU’s highest court.

Publication of new homes and buildings standards for England is welcome in supporting efforts to decarbonise UK real estate, according to an expert – but she said the “long overdue” finalisation of the standards, and the time it will take to implement them, put the UK’s climate commitments at risk.

People with a disability cannot access most e-commerce platforms in the Netherlands because they are not “digitally accessible”, the Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) has said.