SINGAPORE – Global statistics show that about 10 per cent of the population has dyslexia of varying degrees. It is estimated that about 2,700 pre-schoolers in Singapore require support for dyslexia-related challenges every year. Pre-school educators usually narrow their focus to coaching children with dyslexia in reading and writing skills, and tend to overlook other […]

KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia will aim to avoid imposing countrywide and state-wide movement curbs going forward, to reduce their big impact on economic activities, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said on Wednesday (March 17). The authorities will instead impose the movement control order (MCO) only to localities with high Covid-19 infections, he said in a speech […]

TOKYO — A Japanese court on Wednesday ruled that the country’s failure to recognize same-sex marriages was unconstitutional, a landmark decision that could be an important step toward legalizing the unions across the nation. The ruling, handed down by a district court in the northern city of Sapporo, came in a civil suit against the […]

SINGAPORE- A housewife, unhappy at seeing fingerprints on her kitchen windows, forced her domestic helper to hit her own mouth with a meat pounder about 50 times. Mun Sau Yeng, 41, was sentenced on Tuesday (March 16) to 15 months’ jail. The court heard that Mun ordered her Indonesian helper Yuni Dwi Lestari, now 26, […]

SEOUL — The United States punished 24 Chinese officials on Wednesday for undermining Hong Kong’s democratic freedoms, acting days before the first scheduled meeting of senior Chinese and American diplomats since President Biden took office. In diplomatic terms, the timing of the action was pointed and clearly intentional, continuing a testy start to relations between […]

NEW DELHI (BLOOMBERG) – Top Indian government officials are debating whether to set a goal to zero out its greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century, an ambitious target that would require overhauling its coal-dependent economy. Officials close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi are working with senior bureaucrats and foreign advisers to consider ways to meet the […]

SINGAPORE – While working for a weight-loss firm and a skincare company, a woman invented beauty packages – which the two businesses did not offer – and cheated 24 victims of more than $630,000. Of the total amount cheated, the victims handed at least $269,992.82 to Ong Siok Yong, and the remainder to the two […]

DHAKA (REUTERS) – Three coronavirus patients died in a hospital fire in the Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, on Wednesday (March 17), officials said. The patients, who were using ventilators in the hospital’s intensive-care unit, died after the fire triggered an evacuation, said Nazmul Haque, director of the hospital. It was not immediately clear what caused the […]

BEIJING (CHINA DAILY/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) – No wonder the World Health Organisation has strongly criticised the controls on Covid-19 vaccine exports and the raw materials for their manufacture, as such controls will have a devastating impact on the supply of these essential vaccines worldwide. The European Union’s extension of its controls over exports of Covid-19 […]

TAIPEI (REUTERS) – Taiwan’s newly-appointed defence minister said on Wednesday (March 17) it has strengthened deployments in the disputed South China Sea and that the United States has approved the export of sensitive technology to equip Taiwan’s new submarine fleet. China, which sees Taiwan as a breakaway province to be reunified, has increased its military […]