The crashing of yet another meteorite on Indonesia’s Sumatra Island has reverberated through social media and put an alien space rock in the spotlight once again, but this time for its “magical” healing power rather than its purported monetary value.Local residents in the area where the meteorite fell last week in Lampung, the southernmost province of Sumatra, apparently found the still-hot stone, placed it in a tub of water, then took bottles of the water home to drink or pour over their…
UK CMA issues guidance on balancing sustainability and competition law
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has told companies that collaboration for the achievement of sustainability goals can be justified provided businesses take care not to infringe competition law.
India tells Sri Lanka to honour pact after Colombo port deal called off
India on Tuesday said it expected Sri Lanka to honour its agreement to allow it to operate a major port terminal following Colombo’s decision to pull out of the deal.The East terminal of Colombo port will be 100 per cent owned and operated by the state-owned Sri Lanka Port Authority (SLPA), minutes of a cabinet meeting released on Tuesday said.Sri Lanka had previously said the port would be 49 per cent operated by India and Japan, with SLPA retaining the majority stake.India and Japan would…
Myanmar aerobics instructor dances to Indonesian protest anthem as military coup unfolds
It was an aerobics routine with a difference – a front-row seat to a coup in progress. A video of a Burmese woman doing a dance workout outside Myanmar’s parliament building while armoured vehicles mass in the background has gone viral, garnering more than 10 million views on social media, with users pointing out her seeming obliviousness to the military activity.But even as the video racked up views on Twitter and Facebook, it was Indonesian internet users who highlighted the significance of…
Data strategies are needed to enhance building safety
Businesses involved in the planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance of buildings should develop their own data strategies, and help shape one for the buildings themselves, in a drive to improve building safety.
North Korean diplomat who defected to South worries about family back home
A senior North Korean diplomat who was acting ambassador to Kuwait told his daughter they were going to defect to the South while pretending to drive her to school, Ryu Hyun-woo told media on Monday.“Come with Mom and Dad to find freedom,” Ryu recalled telling his daughter, in an interview with CNN.The teenager was “shocked” at the sudden suggestion that would change their lives, but responded “okay”, he said – and he took them instead to the South Korean embassy.Lingerie, secret tunnels and…
In the Philippines, ‘Diliman Commune’ a renewed symbol of resistance 50 years on
In 1971, a sprawling university campus north of Manila became the site of a student-led uprising as public anger over surging oil prices reached its peak.On February 1, the students and some teaching staff came out in sympathy with striking transport workers, boycotting classes and barricading themselves inside the University of the Philippines’ (UP) Diliman campus for eight days against soldiers firing tear gas and a professor who shot and killed a student.The uprising, which came to be known…
Singapore to launch five measures to boost e-commerce
Singapore’s government will launch five measures to build up Singapore as a global and regional e-commerce hub, according to trade and industry minister Chan Chun Sing.
Indian farmers who stormed New Delhi’s Red Fort caused ‘insult’ to country, says Modi
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said protesters that stormed New Delhi’s Red Fort had caused “insult” to the country, his first public comments on a months-long farmers’ agitation that turned violent this week.Tens of thousands of farmers have camped on the outskirts of India’s capital for more than two months, protesting against new agricultural laws they say benefit private buyers at the expense of growers.A tractor parade on Tuesday’s Republic Day turned violent when some…
Vietnam re-elects Nguyen Phu Trong as Communist Party chief for third time after secretive Congress
Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong was re-elected on Sunday – a victory that makes him the country’s most powerful leader in decades – but his win was overshadowed by a serious coronavirus outbreak in the country.Trong, a 76-year-old pro-China conservative who is rumoured to be in poor health, was given the nod after a week of closed-door talks at the twice-a-decade Communist Party Congress. It will be his third term in office – a feat unprecedented in Vietnam’s modern era…