The future of loss-making Malaysia Airlines hinges on whether its state-controlled owner agrees to the firm’s strategy of remaining a full-service airline while at the same time trying to claw back market share from fast-growing low-cost carriers, chief executive Izham Ismail says.Izham on Sunday said the plan to turn around the struggling business would be submitted next month to sovereign wealth fund and sole shareholder Khazanah Nasional Berhad, and would require the approval of its chairman…
Heroin-filled coffins? Death of ‘American Gangster’ Frank Lucas recalls tall tales of Thai drug smuggling
The recent death of ageing Harlem gangster Frank “Superfly” Lucas, who embellished his otherwise colourful life with a litany of lies, revives the story of the so-called Cadaver Connection.Despite being portrayed as fact in the 2008 film American Gangster, starring Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington, this tale of a plot to smuggle heroin out of Thailand in the coffins of US servicemen who had died in the Vietnam war never actually happened.It was based on Lucas’ own fanciful recollections,…
Brunei LGBT laws: move over George Clooney, why Asian activists are better off without ‘Western saviours’
Following Brunei’s implementation of strict sharia or Islamic laws that prescribe death by stoning and whipping for offences such as gay sex and adultery recently, condemnations have poured in thick and fast from many quarters around the world, including American celebrities George Clooney and Ellen DeGeneres.Last week, the University of Oxford announced that Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah had returned his honorary law degree after being told that the university was reviewing the award given…
Aceh independence call triggers fears of renewed conflict in Indonesia’s restive province
For 29 years between 1976 and 2005, Indonesia’s province of Aceh waged an armed insurgency against Jakarta rule, a conflict which claimed more than 15,000 lives.Following a concerted push by the Indonesian government, combined with the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami that killed 170,000 people, the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) laid down its arms under the 2005 Helsinki peace accord. Unrest could be stirred anew, however, by GAM’s former leader’s call for a referendum on Acehnese independence…
Malaysia’s big durian dreams as it seeks to expand exports to China
Malaysia is all geared to satisfy China’s craving for a pungent, football-sized thorny fruit.That’s because China’s General Administration of Customs has approved imports of frozen whole durian fruit starting May 30 following an agreement signed in August, according to Sim Tze Tzin, Malaysia’s deputy minister for agriculture and agro-based industry.“The durian market in China is so big but we’ve only managed to export a little durian pulp and frozen paste to China,” Sim said in a Facebook post…
Narendra Modi names Nirmala Sitharaman as India’s finance minister, aide Amit Shah gets home ministry
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday named his trusted aide Amit Shah to the key home affairs ministry as part of a major cabinet shake-up for his second term in office.Nirmala Sitharaman moved from defence to become finance minister in a second shock, while career diplomat S. Jaishankar became foreign minister.Hardline Hindu nationalist Shah was the president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who masterminded Modi’s second straight landslide victory in the country’s national…
Islamic State-linked militants kill Dutch wildlife photographer in Philippines
A Dutch wildlife photographer taken hostage by militants linked to Islamic State has been killed in the southern Philippines.Elwold Horn, 59, from Holland, was shot by his captors after a firefight broke out on Friday between government security forces and militants belonging to the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group on the island of Sulu.Six militants were killed, twelve wounded in the fighting when troops from the 32nd Infantry Battalion raided the militants’ hideout in the village of Pansul, Patikul…
HMRC wins ‘unallowable purpose’ case
A UK company had an ‘unallowable purpose’ in issuing a promissory note and therefore could not deduct the interest payable to a US group company, the First-tier Tribunal in the UK has decided in a case concerning a company in the Oxford Instruments group.
Off payroll working tax changes ‘should be delayed’
Changes due to apply in the UK from April 2020 which will make businesses liable for determining the tax status of contractors who work through personal service companies (PSCs) should be delayed, according to a tax expert.
Malaysia arrests three Islamic State terror suspects
Malaysia’s counterterrorism officers this month arrested three Islamic State terror suspects, including a Malaysian national who rejects the country’s government and believes Muslims who take part in democratic elections are infidels, police said on Thursday.The suspects – from Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangladesh – were detained in a swoop operation conducted between May 17 and 30, said Police Inspector-General Abdul Hamid Bador.The Malaysian suspect, a 42-year-old contractor, was arrested at…