BEIJING (REUTERS) – China’s television regulator has banned “entertainment-driven” historical dramas, it said in a notice on Thursday (Aug 1), the latest clampdown on media in a sensitive year for the ruling Communist Party. The regulator said the ban also applied to so-called idol dramas, which are centred around a celebrity, and it instead called […]
NEW DELHI (DPA) – A 3-year-old girl was allegedly raped and beheaded after she was kidnapped from a railway platform in India’s eastern state of Jharkhand, police said Thursday (Aug 1). Three men – two believed to have sexually assaulted and killed the girl and a third who is the mother’s partner – were arrested […]
SEOUL (AFP) – North Korea on Thursday (Aug 1) released heavily pixellated images of its latest weapons test, describing it as a new guided rocket launcher and fuelling concerns that it could be used to target a key US military base in South Korea. Pictures carried by the North’s state television showed leader Kim Jong […]
India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has expelled one of its lawmakers after a car crash in which a woman who had accused him of rape was injured. The BJP acted amid outrage over the time taken to expel Kuldeep Sengar, who is in jail awaiting trial and denies the rape accusation. In the crash […]
SINGAPORE – Thoughtless remarks and careless words that go viral instantaneously can easily undo racial harmony and disrupt the multicultural society in Singapore, said Second Minister for Home Affairs Josephine Teo on Thursday (Aug 1). Highlighting a recent incident where the police were falsely alleged to have targeted Malays during their enforcement checks at MRT […]
SINGAPORE – Six neighbourhood police posts (NPPs) reopened on Thursday noon (Aug 1) to offer automated services, after being closed for about a year, the police said in a Facebook post. These are the Kampong Glam, Ayer Rajah, Chong Pang, Marine Parade, Tampines East and Choa Chu Kang neighbourhood police posts. The redesigned NPPs have […]
PHNOM PENH (REUTERS) – US embassy officials in Cambodia can leave if they do not like it there, a Cambodian government spokesman said on Thursday (Aug 1), following criticism by US diplomats that the Southeast Asian nation’s 2018 election was deeply flawed. Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CCP) won all 125 parliamentary […]
LONDON, (Reuters) – The Bank of England cut its growth forecasts on Thursday in the face of increased Brexit worries and a slowing global economy, but gave no indication it was considering lowering interest rates like other central banks. A day after the U.S. Federal Reserve reduced interest rates for the first time since the […]
TAIPEI (BLOOMBERG) – A Chinese warship collided with a Taiwanese freighter on Wednesday evening (July 31), damaging the bulk carrier, Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration said. The collision occurred around 20 nautical miles south-east of Taiwan-controlled Kinmen island off China’s south-east coast, according to a statement from the coast guard. No injuries were reported. The statement […]
TOKYO – Call it co-working, Japan style. People on the go will soon be able to find a quiet place to sit down and tap away on a laptop, thanks to phonebooth-sized offices that will be popping up at train stations, airports and skyscraper lobbies. An enclosure of just 1.2 sq m, the soundproof Telecube […]