SINGAPORE – Singaporeans born in 1949 or earlier who missed out on the Pioneer Generation Package but obtained citizenship by 1996 will qualify for the smaller Merdeka Generation Package to help them with their healthcare needs, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced on Saturday (Feb 2). This group as well as Singaporeans aged between 60 and […]
HONG KONG – Hong Kong police on Saturday (Feb 2) defused a World War I hand grenade that was found hidden in a pile of potatoes at a potato chip factory owned by popular Japanese snack maker Calbee. It was reported that a worker picked up the device that was covered in a thick coat […]
The fall of Chanda Kochhar, the iconic banking CEO and a poster woman for Indian industry, holds a cautionary tale for the entire business community, writes the BBC’s business correspondent Sameer Hashmi. India’s third-largest lender, ICICI Bank, on Wednesday found the former chief executive guilty of violating internal bank policies and professional misconduct. It was […]
JAKARTA (THE JAKARTA POST/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) – Having lost contact with their loved ones after natural disasters or for other reasons, senior citizens must try to feel at home sharing a room with over a dozen other people in nursing homes. They all seem to have the same dream: that one day they will reunite […]
Ruling party legislators approve extension of state of emergency on island nation, in a vote opposition says is illegal. Maldives’ parliament has approved the extension of a state of emergency by 30 days, in a vote the opposition condemned as “illegal”. The move on Tuesday comes amid continuing protests in the capital, Male, and widespread […]
Afghans deported and returned from Europe tell Al Jazeera how they are caught in the crossfire amid rising attacks. Nasir, a 26-year-old shopkeeper from the northern Kunduz province, left as a refugee for Europe in July 2015 – the year his father, a local police officer, was killed by unknown assailants. Last month, having returned to Afghanistan after being […]
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union will impose limits on steel coming into the bloc from Saturday following U.S. President Donald Trump’s imposition of metals tariffs, a filing in the European Union’s official journal said on Friday. All steel imports will now be subject to quotas until the end of June 2021, to counter the […]
BEIJING (REUTERS) – Former US military contractor Erik Prince had “no knowledge or involvement” in a preliminary memorandum signed by a Hong Kong-listed company to build a training base in China’s far western region of Xinjiang, his spokesman said on Friday (Feb 1). Xinjiang is a major part of China’s Belt and Road infrastructure network, […]
BANGKOK (REUTERS) – Thailand’s Pheu Thai Party, which was ousted from power by the military in a 2014 coup, on Thursday (Jan 31) picked a close ally of fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra as its main candidate for prime minister in elections set for March 24. Pheu Thai’s Sudarat Keyuraphan could face off against current military […]
HONG KONG — Officials in Hong Kong said on Friday that they had intercepted a shipment of nine tons of scales from pangolins, the largest seizure the city has ever made of products from one of the most frequently trafficked mammals in the world. A thousand elephant tusks were in the same shipment, officials said. […]