ISTANBUL/LONDON (Reuters) – Turkish central bank head Murat Uysal has stuck to the rate-cutting script since President Tayyip Erdogan hired him to lift Turkey out of a recession and currency crisis. A year later with the COVID-19 pandemic now crushing the lira, some traders and analysts say they think Uysal will instead hike rates to […]
SINGAPORE – From Friday (Aug 7), stricter laws and stiffer penalties will take effect in a move to stem the rising trend of vice in the heartland of Singapore. To curb the setting up of brothels in residences, a home owner or tenant who rents or sub-lets the premises that are used as a brothel will […]
HANOI (REUTERS) – Vietnam is close to completing the conversion of a sports stadium into a 1,000-bed field hospital in its new coronavirus epicentre Danang, the health ministry said on Thursday (Aug 6), as it battles an outbreak that has spread to at least 11 locations. Aggressive contact-tracing, targeted testing and strict quarantining had helped […]
SINGAPORE – A man who went home intoxicated after a drinking session assaulted his 68-year-old father after shouting at him for no apparent reason. Yap Bei Xing, who is unemployed, punched Mr Yap Eng Huat’s left eye three times in their Woodlands flat, causing injuries such as a black eye. The 34-year-old Singaporean was sentenced […]
BANGALORE – The Indian government has banned more Chinese mobile applications this week. An initial ban of 59 apps in June came in response to border clashes between the two countries in May that resulted in the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said after the initial app ban […]
BEIJING (REUTERS) – China said on Thursday (Aug 6) it was firmly opposed to the US government’s action to block Chinese apps, and said the move went against market principles and had no factual basis. Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters at a daily briefing that China urged the United States to correct its […]
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s three biggest banks and two smaller banks are starting talks on building a common settlement infrastructure for small payments, with the aim of cutting interbank fees, they announced on Thursday. The government called last month for a review of bank transfer fees, unchanged for more than four decades, in a broader […]
SINGAPORE – The trio allegedly linked to the murder of four-year-old Megan Khung Yu Wai will be further remanded for one more week at the Central Police Division after a district judge allowed the prosecution’s application for the move on Thursday (Aug 6). The girl’s mother, Foo Li Ping, 24, and a man identified as […]
Plans are in the works to better support migrant workers’ mental health and allow them more freedom to leave their dormitories, as a recent spate of suicides and attempted suicides raises concerns about their mental well-being. The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) told The Straits Times yesterday that while it had not seen a spike in […]
MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippine economy plunged by much more than expected in the second quarter, falling into recession for the first time in 29 years, as economic activity was hammered by one of the world’s longest and strictest coronavirus lockdowns. The Southeast Asian nation’s economy shrank by 16.5% in April-June from the same period […]