TOKYO (REUTERS) – Japan’s defence ministry said on Sunday (Sept 12) that a submarine believed to be from China was spotted in waters near its southern islands, as maritime tensions persist in the Pacific. Japan’s navy on Friday morning identified a submerged vessel sailing north-west just outside territorial waters near Amami Oshima island, part of […]
BEIJING (AFP) – From rural poverty to real estate billions, the fortunes of Xu Jiayin tracked China’s runaway growth for much of the past two decades – but now he is battling to save his Evergrande conglomerate from a quagmire of debt. The 62-year-old – also known as Hui Ka Yan in Cantonese – was […]
BEIJING (AFP) – With YouTube videos “debunking” allegations of human rights abuses and diatribes on Western “conspiracies” against China, an unlikely set of foreigners are loudly defending Beijing from its international critics. They are teachers and business owners from Britain and Colombia, a collage of YouTubers garnering fame for their video takedowns of what they […]
SINGAPORE – The Jurong Fishery Port cluster started small, with seven Covid-19 cases on July 16, but even then, the huge potential impact was not lost on the authorities. The port served about 100 merchants who spent long hours handling heavy loads of wet fish and interacting with the 3,000 or so daily customers, making […]
SINGAPORE- Some low-income families can expect to benefit from a community initiative at the foot of a Housing Board block, with part of a bomb shelter being repurposed into a minimart for them in the Bukit Batok area. The minimart, which also doubles up as one-stop integrated community service centre, was launched on Saturday (Sept […]
BEIJING (CHINA DAILY/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) – Gamers in China are exploiting loopholes in the latest regulation that limits the number of hours minors spend playing online games, reports say. Following an amendment to the Law on the Protection of Minors, the National Press and Publication Administration recently issued a notice saying online game companies should […]
NANFANGAO, TAIWAN (REUTERS) – Taiwan downgraded Typhoon Chanthu to a medium typhoon on Saturday (Sept 11), saying that while it would bring heavy rain and gusting winds to most of the island, it was unlikely to make direct landfall. Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau said the storm, which was at one point categorised a super typhoon, […]
JAKARTA (REUTERS) – Indonesia has ended a deal with Norway on cooperation to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation, due to lack of payment, the foreign ministry said in a statement. Last year, Norway announced a US$56 million (S$75.1 million) contribution to Indonesia, based on its 2016-2017 results on curbing deforestation under a United Nations-backed forest-conservation […]
BEIJING (BLOOMBERG) – Desmond Shum said he hadn’t heard a peep from his ex-wife, Whitney Duan, since she failed to show up at the unveiling of her luxurious Bulgari hotel in Beijing in 2017. For four long years, Shum didn’t know where she was, or if she was even alive. She’d built a fortune cutting […]
SINGAPORE – It was supposed to be a day where he focused on the exam paper in front of him, but Ustaz Mustazah Bahari found it hard to concentrate on Sept 12, 2001. Some time after he started on his exam in a hall at the National University of Malaysia that morning, the headline of […]