Asian Legal Review

Thailand’s Songkran festival, marking the traditional New Year, is just weeks away but celebrations in Chiang Mai may be muted as the northern city confronts its worst ever smog crisis.Widespread open burning and “man-made” forest fires for agricultural purposes along Thailand’s western and northern borders and in the neighbouring countries of Myanmar and Laos have left the city and other nearby provinces blanketed in a dim orange haze.On Tuesday afternoon, Chiang Mai’s air quality index…

The UK government has confirmed increases to the national living and national minimum wages, which take effect on 1 April 2019.

Seoul began a unilateral effort to excavate Korean war remains along the border on Monday as silence from Pyongyang stymied a previously agreed joint operation with the North.The joint excavation along the demilitarised zone of remains from the 1950-53 conflict was part of a military agreement signed at a Pyongyang summit in September between the South’s President Moon Jae-in and the North’s leader Kim Jong-un.Under the deal – aimed at defusing military tensions – around 100 personnel from the…

A Vietnamese woman accused of assassinating the North Korean leader’s half-brother was sentenced to three years and four months in jail after accepting a lesser charge on Monday and will likely be freed in May, her lawyer said.“In the first week of May, she will go home,” lawyer Hisyam Teh Poh Teik told reporters in the Shah Alam High Court, outside Kuala Lumpur.Doan Thi Huong, originally charged with murder, had pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of causing injury, and the judge sentenced her…

Indonesian presidential candidates clashed over the nation’s low defence budget and foreign policy with the world’s third-largest democracy set to go to polls in less than three weeks.Prabowo Subianto, who’s challenging incumbent Joko Widodo in a rematch of the 2014 elections, said he would significantly boost defence spending to better prepare the nation’s armed forces against any external threats.Widodo, known as Jokowi, pitched for bolstering the technical capability of the forces, saying…

Thanks to shared histories and cultural connections, travellers from Hong Kong, mainland China and Taiwan are getting a taste for the Malaysian state of Penang.That’s good news for Heritage on a Plate, which offers tours of Georgetown aimed at satisfying appetites for both history and food.Manned by Penangite Danny Mahes and American Jeremy Bernozzi, the tour operator takes guests to some of the best street food outlets in Penang, while explaining the area’s history and culture.“I think many of…

When Cheah Cheng Hye left his hometown of Penang in northern Malaysia in 1974 for a higher paying job with The Standard newspaper in Hong Kong, his plan was to stay a few years until he saved enough money to buy his family a house.Unable to afford a flight, Cheah – 20 at the time – travelled to Hong Kong on a cargo ship. These days he is the proud owner of a BMW with a special licence plate that reads “Penang”. He is also the founder of one of Asia’s largest independent asset management firms,…

Thailand’s Election Commission said on Friday computer software was partly to blame for inconsistent and delayed vote totals from last Sunday’s general election.During early reporting of the election results, its tabulation software had trouble handling data entered simultaneously from several points and sometimes displayed incorrect numbers, the commission said in a statement as it faced accusations about a lack of transparency.Several political activists said they were starting a petition to…

The head of the UK’s Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has confirmed that the body has the power to require financial services firms to make reasonable adjustments for consumers with disabilities or to stop discriminating against people with other ‘protected characteristics’ where it considers they have not been treated fairly, and has already done so on occasion.

A UK charity’s decision to close in light of a “substantial pension deficit” should prompt other employers that participate in the local government pension scheme (LGPS) to plan ahead to manage likely increases in their liabilities, a public sector pensions expert has said.