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The implementation of the 2022 Building Safety Act (BSA) reached an important milestone on 28 June 2022, when changes to the limitation periods for claims brought under the 1972 Defective Premises Act (DPA) came into force.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who wrapped up the last leg of her regional tour in Malaysia, said the new Labor government is ‘listening’ to the concerns of its neighbours.

At noon on Thursday, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jnr will take his presidential oath on the steps of the Philippines’ former legislature, where his late father-president was once confronted by student activists with a black paper-mache coffin and a crocodile. His inauguration as the nation’s 17th president will be “very solemn and simple”, event organisers said. “We will not stray from tradition,” Marcos Jnr said. Historian Ambeth Ocampo surmised that the venue – the National Museum of Fine Arts building which used to house the Philippine Congress until Marcos Snr shut it down in 1972 – was chosen for its “optics”. Its American colonial-style period columns mimic the backdrop for the inauguration of US presidents who take their oath on the steps of the Capitol. Whoever picked the venue did not know Philippine history, said Ocampo, a former head of the National Historical Commission, on Sunday. First, Ocampo said, all three presidents who took their oaths there – Manuel Quezon, Jose Laurel and Manuel Roxas – not only failed to finish their term, two of them – Quezon and Roxas – died while in office. Second, “that is where the First Quarter Storm began”, said Ocampo, referring to the series of increasingly violent student protests following the 1969 election, in which Marcos Snr was accused of having cheated to win a second term. What does a Marcos Jnr presidency mean for Asean and democracy in the region? Playwright Bonifacio Ilagan, 70, intends to spend inauguration day protesting Marcos Jnr’s assumption to the presidency, in the same way he protested against his father 52 years ago when Marcos Snr delivered his State of the Nation Address on January 26, 1970, in the same building. He said on Monday: “I don’t know if Marcos Jnr realises that the venue was a historic site for student unrest and radicalisation.” Ilagan, who was jailed and tortured during Marcos Snr’s dictatorship, is the convenor of The Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law (CARMMA). Authorities have branded Ilagan and his…

Jokowi is likely to address immediate issues like food prices that could weigh on his legacy when he leaves office in 2024.

Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn urged military rulers not to hold deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi who has been put in solitary confinement, he says she plays a ‘critical role in your country’s return to normalcy’.

Many top tier tennis personalities go beyond sports people, with the brand value of their names offering lucrative alternative income streams as well as a potential source of income after their sporting careers are over.

There is a desperate need for clean water – cholera outbreaks in the aftermath are of particular and serious concern – after at least 1,000 people were killed, 2,000 injured and 10,000 homes destroyed in the devastating earthquake.

The Indonesian president will meet the leaders of Ukraine and Russia during next week’s peace-building mission to the warring countries.

China’s exports to India grew to US$27.1 billion in the first quarter of 2022, but India is concerned by its ballooning trade deficit with its neighbour amid strained ties two years after the deadly Galwan Valley clash.

The vessel, which went down during a second world war battle with Japan, was located 6,895m below sea level off the Philippines.