NEW DELHI (REUTERS) – India’s main opposition Congress party says it is struggling to find enough helicopters to ferry its leaders ahead of a general election, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party of hogging resources. Chartered aircraft are a critical part of elections in India, a massive country of 1.3 billion people where national […]
NEW DELHI (REUTERS) – India’s navy will open a third air base in the far-off Andaman and Nicobar islands on Thursday (Jan 24) to beef up surveillance of Chinese ships and submarines entering the Indian Ocean through the nearby Malacca Straits, military officials and experts said. New Delhi has grown concerned over the presence of […]
SINGAPORE – Fifty-one people were arrested in a nine-day multi-agency operation in Geylang from Jan 13 to 21. In a statement on Wednesday (Jan 23), the police said that 31 men and 20 women aged between 19 and 69 were arrested for various offences during the operation. The operation was led by Bedok Police Division […]
MANILA (PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) – It is no secret that the lowering of the minimum age of criminal responsibility in the Philippines – from 15 to 9 years old – was one of the core promises of the Duterte presidential campaign. Just how central is it to the administration’s approach to governance? Mere […]
TOKYO (Reuters) – For years, Japan’s retail currency investors were known as “Mrs Watanabes”, a reference to the metaphorical housewife who invests family savings mostly in foreign exchange. Now, a younger generation of women is looking at a wider asset range in which to park investments. Like their elders, Japan’s “Kinyu-joshi” or “finance girls”, who […]
SINGAPORE – A United Overseas Bank (UOB) relationship manager abused his illiterate client’s trust and misappropriated more than $200,000 from the man after convincing him to sign various forms. Yap Bin Chun, who worked for the bank from 2009 to 2013, met Mr Ng Hock Seng, 68, in 2010. The court heard that Mr Ng, […]
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Investors should focus on “limiting losses rather than chasing large gains” in the Year of the Pig, which will be a roller-coaster year for Hong Kong’s stock market, according to brokerage CLSA. The Year of the Pig, which symbolizes hard work and affection, will be upset by “small quarrels and pesky […]
Taiwanese rescue teams are trying to retrieve the body of a hiker who became famous on social media for taking selfies on top of mountain peaks dressed in a bikini. Gigi Wu – dubbed the “Bikini Climber” by fans – used a satellite phone on Saturday to tell friends she had fallen down a ravine […]
TOKYO (Reuters) – The Bank of Japan cut its inflation forecasts on Wednesday and warned of rising risks to the economy from faltering global demand, further pushing back policymakers’ years-long efforts to foster durable growth. As widely expected, the BOJ retained its ultra-easy monetary settings at its policy review, leaving Japan some way off from […]
The wedding of Japan’s Princess Mako appears to be back on, 11 months after the Imperial Household Agency put the occasion on hold due to an unseemly row within her fiancé’s family over money. Kei Komuro is expected to release a statement in the coming days to confirm all financial disagreements between his relatives have […]