Asian Legal Review

Full planning permission for the Northern Irish section of a planned electricity interconnector between the north and the Republic of Ireland has been granted.

Barbados, Côte d’Ivoire, Jamaica, Malaysia, Panama and Tunisia have signed a multilateral instrument (MLI) to amend double tax treaties to bring into effect changes designed to prevent tax avoidance by multinational groups, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) has announced . These signatures bring the total number of signatories to date to 78.

As China continues its inexorable rise, global strategists are increasingly looking – anxiously – to India. Why?
Many are hoping that India, with its huge population and roaring gross domestic product (GDP) growth, is likely to become a competitor to its northern neighbour.
In geopolitical terms, the Indians are expected to stand up to Chinese expansion in the Indian Ocean (in the guise of the Belt and Road Initiative).
Indeed, this week the Association of South-east Asian Nations (…

At least 31 people are reported to have been killed in a blaze at a hospital in South Korea on Friday.
Video footage and pictures showed a helicopter flying above the building in Miryang, engulfed by heavy grey smoke and surrounded by multiple fire trucks.
The national news agency Yonhap reported the death toll at 31. Earlier, the national fire agency had said 15 people had been confirmed dead, 11 were in critical condition, and 40 more were injured.
“Two nurses said they had seen fire…

UN human rights experts called on the Philippines government on Thursday to allow independent news website Rappler to operate, voicing concern at rising rhetoric against voices critical of President Rodrigo Duterte.
The country’s Securities and Exchange Commission revoked Rappler’s licence on January 11 for ownership violations. Maria Ressa, chief of Rappler, met state investigators on Monday to answer what she called a suspicious complaint about a 2012 story.
“We are gravely…

US technology company Qualcomm has been fined more than €997 million by the European Commission over a breach of EU competition rules.

The United States has slapped new sanctions on Chinese and North Korean firms and individuals that it said support the Pyongyang regime of Kim Jong-un and his nuclear weapons programme. The move comes as the US seeks to choke the flow of goods and materials crucial to North Korea’s economy such as oil, electronics and metals, and pressure Kim to halt the development of nuclear weapons that threaten the region and potentially the US mainland. Following UN sanctions, US Treasury…

Financial firms should consider requiring customers to provide proof of identity from documentation containing “high security features or biometric data”, such as passports, to ensure that digital-only ‘on boarding’ processes comply with anti-money laundering rules, EU regulators have said.

Disturbing video footage of dogs being butchered and their hair burnt off with blowtorches at markets in Indonesia has prompted howls of protest from animal rights activists.
Campaigners from the Dog Meat-Free Indonesia group are urging authorities to shut down the country’s live animal markets, where they say thousands of dogs and cats are bludgeoned to death each week.
Video filmed by the activists at markets in Tomohon and Langowan cities on Sulawesi island shows a stomach-churning…

The US believes North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is not getting good information to handle the crisis over Pyongyang’s nuclear missile programme and the country is moving “ever closer” to putting Americans at risk of attack, according to CIA director Mike Pompeo.
Pompeo said on Tuesday that he believes Kim will not rest until he is able to threaten multiple nuclear attacks against the US at the same time.
He cast doubt on whether Kim is well-briefed enough on developments to…