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Scholars are finding it harder to predict what is next for Malaysian politics. The once familiar script for political change, employed since 1998 when Anwar Ibrahim was ousted from the ruling regime – institutional failure, corruption, cronyism, abuse of the judiciary – got stood on its head when the man claimed by the opposition to be responsible for the many wrongs in Malaysia’s politics, Mahathir Mohammed, became head of the oppositional alliance, the Pakatan Harapan (PH…

Vandals attacked a Muslim-owned restaurant in Sri Lanka on Sunday in an alleged “hate crime”, police said, as tensions were high across the island following a week of violent riots.
The restaurant in Anamaduwa – 130km (81 miles) north of the capital Colombo – was hit despite police being on high alert after a spate of anti-Muslim attacks.
The government declared a state of emergency last week as 11 mosques were torched and 200 Muslim-owned businesses destroyed in riots…

A Indonesian man has been mauled to death by a Sumatran tiger in a remote village, authorities said Sunday, the second deadly attack this year.
Yusri Effendi, 34, was found with fatal wounds to his neck by workmates and local villagers in Riau province on Sumatra island on Saturday evening, the local conservation agency said.
The victim was working on a building to lure the edible-nest swiftlet in Tanjung Simpang village when the tiger began lurking around the construction site.
Several hours…

Rapidly shrinking towns and cities across Japan are experiencing a population explosion, but not of humans – of wild boars.
Across the country, wild boars are moving in as Japan’s ageing population either dies or moves out. The boars come for the untended rice paddies and stay for the abandoned shelters.
“Thirty years ago, crows were the biggest problem around here,” said Hideo Numata, 67, a farmer in Hiraizumi, which has a human population 7,803. “But now we have…

Just how much clout does the Hong Kong-based billionaire Robert Kuok have in the eyes of his fellow Malaysian Chinese after being away from home for more than four decades?
The Barisan Nasional, Malaysia’s ruling coalition, could be poised to find that out the hard way after one of its stalwarts launched a blistering verbal attack against the 94-year-old with a general election just around the corner.
Observers are warning the coalition’s already weak support from the minority…

The Law Commission is seeking views on why the “little-known and little used” commonhold model of home ownership has not become a popular alternative to residential leasehold.

The High Court in Singapore has further clarified when it will be willing to set aside an adjudicator’s decision for being a breach of natural justice, as opposed to a simple error of law.

Norwegian and US authorities have helped the Philippines capture a man they say exploited children by having them join sex videos which he then showed to paying foreign clients online, officials said on Friday.
National Bureau of Investigation Director Dante Gierran said law enforcers from Norway and the US joined Filipino authorities in a raid on Thursday that led to the arrest of the suspect, Anselmo Ico Jnr, and the rescue of five minor – his alleged victims – in a poor village…

The UK’s new Retail Sector Council can give the country’s retailers a stronger voice before government on the challenges posed by Brexit, according to a lawyer who specialises in retail work.

An ultra-nationalist Myanmar monk was released from prison on Friday after serving time for inciting unrest in an anti-Rohingya protest in 2016, a rare punishment handed to one of the country’s hardline Buddhist clergymen.
Parmaukkha, who was handed a three-month jail term, has helped peddle a fiery brand of Buddhist nationalism and Islamophobia in Myanmar, a country accused of waging an ethnic cleansing campaign against Rohingya Muslims. The monk was arrested in November over a rally he…