Serious violations of labour laws were taking place at the iPhone manufacturing facility in India where a workers’ protest on Saturday turned violent and caused US$7 million worth of damage, a report by the Karnataka state government has found. Exploitative practices such as underpayment of wages, irregular hours and poor working conditions were common at the Wistron Corporation assembling and manufacturing unit in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, as detailed by its Department of…
Woman gang-raped by soldiers wins legal battle in Myanmar
After being gang-raped by soldiers, steely-eyed Thein Nu went up against Myanmar’s powerful military in a months-long fight for justice – a fight that paid off with a rare legal victory.Her three rapists were jailed for 20 years with hard labour, a sentence she hopes will give other survivors the courage to speak up and challenge the military’s impunity.Lodging a legal complaint pitted the 36-year-old mother of four against Myanmar’s most powerful institution, whose soldiers have long been…
BI insurance: FCA and courts pre-empt claims and Supreme Court ruling
Experts in resolving insurance disputes have welcomed steps taken by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and courts in England and Wales to pre-empt a potential wave of claims from businesses seeking pay-out of business interruption insurance (BII) policies in light of the impact of Covid-19.
Mocking of Suntory’s mixed-race Japanese-Korean models and actresses by DHL cosmetics CEO outrages internet
Social media users in South Korea have reacted furiously to remarks attributed to the CEO of one of Japan’s leading cosmetics companies, calling for a boycott of DHC Corp. And the campaign appears to be attracting both attention and support in Japan. In a comment reported on the Tokyo-based company’s website, DHC CEO Yoshiaki Yoshida criticised Suntory, another Japanese company that is a rival to DHC in the health supplements sector. “For some reason, the models hired to appear in Suntory…
Vietnam refutes US move to label it a currency manipulator
Vietnam’s central bank on Thursday refuted the US Treasury’s move to designate the Southeast Asian nation a currency manipulator, saying it does not use its exchange rates “to create an unfair competitive advantage in international trade”.In a statement on its website, the the State Bank of Vietnam said Vietnam’s “exchange rate management in recent years is within its general framework of monetary policy and aims to achieve the consistent goal of controlling inflation, stabilising macroeconomy”…
The EU’s Data Governance Act just part of data sharing puzzle
The proposed new EU Data Governance Act (DGA) is a positive step towards to enabling data-driven innovation.
Japan charges man with murder over Kyoto Animation arson attack
Japanese prosecutors on Wednesday charged a man with murder over the 2019 arson attack on Kyoto Animation that killed 36 people in the country’s deadliest violent crime in decades.Shinji Aoba, 42, was detained in the aftermath of the July attack, but has been hospitalised since then with severe burns sustained in the incident.There were no immediate details on the full extent of the charges against Aoba, who was only formally placed under arrest in May.The Kyoto prosecutor’s office did not…
Singapore human rights lawyer M Ravi charged with defaming law minister K Shanmugam
Singapore human rights lawyer M Ravi was charged on Wednesday with criminally defaming Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam in a Facebook post last month.Ravi had claimed in the November 6 post that fellow lawyer Eugene Thuraisingam, who briefly employed Ravi when he was suspended from practising law in 2015, had said Shanmugam “wields influence over Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon”.He further alleged that Thuraisingam had also said Shanmugam “calls the shot and controls (sic) Sundaresh…
Tax issues for UK holding companies
This guide considers the tax implications of using a UK holding company to hold shares in other UK or overseas companies. The general principle is that a UK resident company is subject to UK corporation tax on its worldwide profits and gains. The main rate of UK corporation tax is currently 20% and is due to be reduced further to 19% from April 2017 and then to 17% from April 2020.
New Zealand willing to arbitrate in Australia-China dispute: Nanaia Mahuta
New Zealand’s new foreign minister said on Tuesday the country would be willing to help negotiate a truce between neighbouring Australia and regional heavyweight China, who are caught in an escalating trade and diplomatic spat.Nanaia Mahuta, 50, said hosting the high profile Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit next year presented an opportunity for New Zealand to bring both parties to the table.“Do I believe that there might an opportunity for New Zealand to create a different…