Asian Legal Review

Bodies of Covid-19 victims have been found dumped in some Indian rivers, a state government letter seen by Reuters says, in the first official acknowledgement of the alarming practice, which it said may stem from poverty and fear of the disease in remote areas.Images of corpses drifting down the Ganges river, which is considered holy in Hinduism, have shocked the country, reeling under the world’s worst surge in Covid-19 cases.Although media reports have linked the increase in the number of…

After muttering a prayer, Thai taxi driver Sopee Silpakit strings a chain of amulets around his neck then jumps behind the wheel – buoyed by the peace of mind the ritual gives him against Covid-19.The 65-year-old’s job driving a cab in Bangkok puts him in contact daily with the public, and his way of life is now plagued with worry, with the Thai capital the epicentre of a third wave.“I pray to these amulets every day: ‘Don’t let the virus come near me,’” he says. “I really do believe that they…

Taiwan faces a potential “double whammy” as a surge of coronavirus cases and the reintroduction of containment measures threaten to derail the pace of growth in an economy that outperformed most of the world last year, economists said.While much of the globe was reeling from the impact of the pandemic, Taiwan reported just a trickle of daily cases brought in on international flights in 2020, allowing its economy to grow by 2.98 per cent.But a spike in infections this week has pushed the total…

A new legal framework for identifying and removing illegal and harmful content from the internet has been proposed by the UK government.

Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha promised a United Nations special envoy on Friday that he will not force back people fleeing violence in neighbouring Myanmar, where the military ousted a democratically elected government in February.UN Special Envoy on Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener told Prayuth in a meeting in Bangkok that she hopes Thailand will help find ways to work with Myanmar’s military to ease the crisis, the prime minister’s office said in a statement.People across Myanmar…

Disclosing information in the wrong box on a tax return but explaining in the ‘white space’ on the return what had been done did not amount to an inaccuracy in the return, the UK Supreme Court has said.

As the UK hospitality sector reopens after lockdown, employers will need to consider what impact new ways of working will have on the mental health of the workforce.

The state’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic will be scrutinised in a full and independent public inquiry that will commence in spring 2022, prime minister Boris Johnson has confirmed.

To analysts on South Asia, China’s warning to Bangladesh earlier this week against joining the four-member Quad alliance was surprising because Dhaka could hardly be considered a consequential player in Indo-Pacific security.Kanwal Sibal, who served for 36 years in India’s foreign service, said Bangladesh had no worthwhile navy and would not be able to contribute to maritime security. He had not heard of any talk that Bangladesh had been invited to join the Quad, he said.The Quad, comprising…

Singapore confirmed 24 locally-transmitted Covid-19 cases on Thursday, the largest daily jump since July last year, with infections linked to a cluster at Changi Airport ballooning to 46.Four of the 24 cases could not be traced, health authorities said. This brings the seven-day moving average of unlinked cases in the country to 2.14 – the highest since the quarantine-free air travel bubble with Hong Kong was announced on April 27. Hong Kong’s stands at 0.14.Under the arrangement, the travel…