Category: Uncategorized

Cambodia woke to another chapter of rule by strongman Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday, a day after his Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) declared victory in a general election that rights groups said was neither free nor fair.
The White House said it would consider steps, including an expansion of visa restrictions placed on some Cambodian government members, in response to “flawed elections” in which there was no significant challenger to Hun Sen.
CPP spokesman Sok Eysan said…

Efforts were underway Monday to rescue hundreds of climbers stranded on Mount Rinjani on Indonesia’s Lombok Island, a day after a powerful 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck the popular tourist destination.
Helicopters and rescue teams on foot have been deployed to scour the slopes of Mount Rinjani, which is criss-crossed with hiking routes popular with tourists.
“The latest information from the team in the field is that today all the families stuck on Mount Rinjani will be evacuated…

The Bank of Japan won’t shock global markets this week, no matter what rabid speculation you read in the financial pages. To understand why, let’s play a game of back to the future. Our first stop is 1994, when Yasuo Matsushita became the 27th BOJ governor. Matsushita, who died July 20 at 92, was at ground zero of the same “deflationary mindset” that the incumbent governor Haruhiko Kuroda is still struggling to defeat. Matsushita arrived four years after the 1980s…

Just three years ago, Vietnam was still a cipher in the global financial system. The Southeast Asian nation had only ten US$1 billion listed companies, while daily trading volume on the stock market came in at around US$100 million.
That picture, however, is vastly different today. It is not quite Wall Street, but the country’s financial centre, Ho Chi Minh, is fast heating up.
Last year, the country’s benchmark Vietnam Index soared to a 10-year high with a 47 per cent gain –…

When the leaders of Australia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands this month signed off on a deal to link the three countries via an undersea internet cable, Canberra positioned itself as a thoughtful neighbour, eager to help developing nations in its own backyard. “We spend billions of dollars a year on foreign aid and this is a very practical way of investing in the future economic growth of our neighbours in the Pacific,” said Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull,…

At long last, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has signed into law new autonomous powers for his country’s restive and poverty stricken Muslim-majority south, which observers hope will defuse one of Asia’s long-running conflicts, stem extremism and kick-start a vital economic revival.
Thursday’s signing of the Bangsamoro Organic Law is the culmination of a drawn-out process that had appeared on the verge of collapse on multiple occasions, including in the immediate…

Employers do not owe their employees a duty of care in the way they defend claims that they are vicariously liable for actions of those employees, the UK Supreme Court has ruled.

The UK’s proposed post-Brexit customs arrangements with the EU have been rejected by Michel Barnier, the EU27’s chief Brexit negotiator.

Businesses based in Singapore are being encouraged to participate in a new data protection certification scheme being piloted in the country.

North Korean officials are frustrated about the delay of an official declaration ending the Korean war, and China will need to join peace talks to stabilise the denuclearisation process, according to a son of a former South Korean president. Kim Hong-gul, chairman of the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation and son of the late Kim Dae-jung – who introduced South Korea’s “sunshine policy”, designed to soften Pyongyang’s attitude towards Seoul…