US President Donald Trump is expected to attend the final day of the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament in Tokyo in late May and may be granted the honour of awarding the Emperor’s Cup to the victorious wrestler. The White House has requested front-row box seats at the Ryogoku Sumo Stadium on May 26, the final day of the two-week tournament, and the Japan Sumo Association is making preparations for the visit. Those preparations will include ensuring security for the president and his party while…
Debt fears, delays and land disputes: how China’s belt and road plan for Indonesia got off track
On a sunny Tuesday two weeks ago, at least a dozen security officers were milling around Cipinang Melayu, where Indonesia’s China-funded high-speed rail will pass through, watchful of intruders. The site under the Jakarta-Cikampek tollway, one section of the rail link connecting Indonesia’s capital to the West Java city of Bandung, was blocked by zinc hoarding. It was not possible to see what was going on inside but government officials have said that two years after the project began, work is…
Meet the ethnic Chinese candidates who could sway the Indonesian election
After Christian “Chris” John retired from professional boxing, he has devoted himself to helping Indonesia’s youth and promoting sports as his way to demonstrate his love for his country.Last year, the 39-year-old Chinese Indonesian, a former World Boxing Association featherweight champion, joined the National Democrat Party (NasDem) – headed by Indonesian media mogul Surya Paloh – and is now one of its parliamentary candidates running in Central Java province.He hopes to be elected as one of…
Indonesians in Hong Kong cast their votes ahead of country’s elections as consulate general vows to stamp out fraud
Hundreds of Indonesians turned up at polling stations in Hong Kong on Sunday to take part in the 2019 presidential and parliamentary elections, as the country’s consulate general in the city vowed to stamp out fraudulent votes.On Wednesday, millions of Indonesians will elect their president, as well as 711 parliament members in a general election, after what has been an often heated campaign.Indonesian President Joko Widodo of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, who is seeking re…
Does Singapore’s kampung spirit hold key to living with dementia?
Advanced dementia has left Lim Jeok Moey unable to leave home without a wheelchair for the past year.But last month at the Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park, the 90-year-old managed to clock a distance of nearly half a kilometre on her own two feet. “This was probably the longest she has walked since she was diagnosed with dementia,” her son, Justin Foo, said, adding that the cheering crowd spurred his mother on. “I was emotional as she held my hands and walked to the finishing line.”Lim and Foo were…
Doan Thi Huong, Vietnamese woman linked to Kim Jong-nam murder, to be freed on May 3
The Vietnamese woman who plea-bargained and got 40 months in jail instead of the death penalty over the killing of the estranged half-brother of North Korea leader Kim Jong-un, will be freed on May 3, her lawyer said on Saturday.The lawyer, Naran Singh, said the Malaysia prisons department has confirmed Doan Thi Huong, 30, will be released on that day from the women’s prison in Kajang, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.Kim Jong-nam was killed at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on February 13,…
Bomb blast in Pakistani market leaves at least 16 people dead
A bomb hidden among bags of potatoes at a Pakistani market killed at least 16 people, half of them ethnic Hazaras, officials said, in an attack apparently aimed at minority Shiite Muslims.At least 30 people were wounded in the blast in the southwestern city of Quetta, capital of Baluchistan province, officials said.The attack came after a lull of at least a year in attacks against Hazaras, though there have been isolated shootings. The blast took place at Hazar Ganji, a fruit and vegetable…
Indonesia election: in Prabowo versus Widodo, it’s Islamic statehood versus tolerance
When Indonesians head to the polls next Wednesday for what is expected to be the world’s biggest direct presidential election, 70 per cent of its 193 million registered voters are expected to cast their ballots in a single day.Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country, wears its hard-fought democracy with ease. I witnessed this during each of its previous three presidential elections – in 2004, 2009 and 2014 – and again in recent weeks as I journeyed across rural and urban Java – the…
Geoffrey Rush wins defamation case against Daily Telegraph over reports of inappropriate sexual conduct towards actress
Academy Award-winner Geoffrey Rush won a defamation case on Thursday against an Australian newspaper over reports that he behaved in an inappropriate sexual way to an actress.A front-page story in 2017 claimed that the Sydney Theatre Company received a complaint that Rush had inappropriately touched a female co-star during a staging of King Lear.A judge in Sydney ruled on Thursday that the Daily Telegraph had produced a “recklessly irresponsible piece of sensationalist journalism” and awarded…
Indonesia election: Prabowo Subianto rallies supporters in Joko Widodo’s heartland Solo, claiming he is on ‘holy mission to save the country’
The sun beat down on the city of Solo in Central Java on Wednesday but it did little to prevent thousands of supporters of Prabowo Subianto pouring into Sriwedari Stadium.The former general is seeking to unseat Indonesian President Joko Widodo at next week’s election. One of his supporters, Titiek Handayani, 34, left home with her two young children early in the morning, travelling by bus from Sragen 30km away.“It is important for us to come here,” she said. “I want to see Prabowo and listen to…