Asian Legal Review

An Australian filmmaker who received a royal pardon from Cambodia will be deported on Saturday, immigration officials said, a day after he was released from a six-year sentence. James Ricketson, 69, was given jail time three weeks ago for “espionage and collecting harmful information that could affect national defence” by a Phnom Penh court. He was then issued a royal pardon on Friday, after strongman premier Hun Sen requested it from the Cambodian king. “We will…

Singapore hosted an array of concerts, after-parties and events for race aficionados and revellers alike during the Formula One weekend last week. But one controversial gathering almost stole the show from the annual sporting event. A sugar daddy convention, dubbed “The Fast Lane” and supported by Malaysian “sugar dating” app Sugarbook, was held during the five-day F1-themed Sky Grande Prix promotional event run by the Singapore Tourism Board at the Grand Hyatt hotel…

The way banks currently outsource some of their activities does not pose “significant concerns”, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has said.

ANALYSIS: A UK government proposal would expand ministers’ already considerable powers to intervene in mergers on national security grounds.

India has launched its first national register of sex offenders in a bid to stem crimes against women as the country reels from a series of high-profile rape cases.
The database will only be accessible by law enforcement agencies and not the public. According to a home ministry statement, 440,000 names have been registered, including those convicted of rape, gang rape, child sex crimes and sexual harassment. It will also provide their photos, addresses and fingerprints, without compromising…

Tax rulings granted by Luxembourg in favour of McDonald’s were not illegal state aid, the European Commission has concluded following an investigation.

Vietnam’s President Tran Dai Quang died on Friday at age 61 after a prolonged and serious illness, state media reported.
He passed away from a “serious illness despite devoted treatment by professors and doctors” both in Vietnam and abroad, the official Vietnam News Agency said.
In office as president since April 2016 after more than four decades at the powerful Ministry of Public Security, Tran had a reputation as a tough leader with little tolerance for dissent. Though he…

A 12-year-old girl was attacked by a shark in waters off Australia’s tropical northeast coast on Thursday, an ambulance official said, the second attack in the tourist region in as many days.
Rescuers were called to Cid Harbour at Whitsunday Island, near the Great Barrier Reef, on Thursday afternoon and found the girl with bad leg injuries, said Tracey Eastwick, the regional ambulance operations manager.
“The patient’s injuries today are again a shark attack bite to the…

A Thai appeal court has dropped royal insult charges against six people jailed for setting fire to portraits of Thai kings, it said, but they will still have to serve lengthy jail terms for damaging public property.
Thailand has tough lèse-majesté laws, with those found guilty of defaming, insulting or threatening members of the royal family facing up to 15 years in jail, but there have been no fresh prosecutions this year in what one rights lawyer said “appears to be a new…

The UK’s largest listed companies have been urged to go beyond “tick box compliance” when it comes to workforce diversity, before more demanding reporting requirements come into force next year.