Malaysian police said overcrowding at an immigration detention centre in the northern state of Penang could have led to a riot which saw hundreds of Rohingya migrants escaping. Kedah police chief Wan Hassan Wan Ahmad said police were investigating further to pinpoint the cause of the incident at the Sungai Bakap temporary detention centre, which straddles the border between Penang and Kedah states. “The case is being investigated according to Sections 147 and 224 of the Penal Code,” he said on April 20. The sections refer to obstruction of a lawful arrest and rioting. Both sections provide for up to…
Author: Asia News Network
Indonesian Trade Minister Muhammad Lutfi has vowed to support and cooperate with the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) in an investigation into alleged corruption that involves a senior ministry official and is believed to have led to a scarcity of cooking oil and subsequent high prices on the local market. The AGO has named and detained four suspects in the case, including the Trade Ministry’s foreign trade director general, Indrasari Wisnu Wardhana, who had allegedly issued export permits illegally for several palm oil producers. “I have instructed my office to support the investigation because corruption and abuse of power have a…
The deadline for filing US federal income taxes is later than usual this year. Tax Day was pushed back to April 18 to avoid coinciding with the District of Columbia’s Emancipation Day holiday. However, Americans don’t just pay taxes one day out of the year. Taxes are a part of their everyday lives, whether they’re conscious of it or not. Many politicians prefer that Americans don’t notice how much they’re taxed. And, so, taxes are often buried in the cost of products or subtly taken from our paychecks. The largest and most recognised US tax is the personal income tax.…
The launch of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Global Centre for Traditional Medicine (GCTM) on April 19 in Jamnagar, India, marked the beginning of a bold new chapter for efforts in the Southeast Asia region and across the world to leverage the potential of traditional medicine (TRM) to advance Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 on ensuring health and wellbeing for all at all ages. Globally, around 80 per cent of people access TRM. A total of 170 WHO member states report the use of TRM and around 40 per cent of pharmaceuticals are originated from traditional natural products. Not only…
Laos recorded a trade surplus in the first three months of this year, despite the continuing depreciation of the kip and rising the cost of production and consumables. In January, the trade surplus was recorded at $41 million, rising to $48 million in February and $78.3 million in March, according to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. The total value of goods imported and exported in January reached $1.155 billion, of which exports were valued at $598 million and imports at $557 million. The total trade value in February was $989 million, including $519 million of exported goods and $471…
Members of the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA) sold over 36,962 autos last month, up 60 per cent on the month, according to a recent VAMA report. This was the first month of this year where auto sales of VAMA members had strong growth, after decreasing by 34 per cent in January and 26 per cent in February. Last month, passenger car sales surged 62 per cent on month to nearly 28,491, while 7,794 commercial vehicles found customers, up 63 per cent, and 677 special-use cars were sold, up 41 per cent, according to the report. Sales of domestically-assembled cars…
The finance ministry on April 19 denied it is hiding a public debt worth one trillion baht ($29.6 billion), saying this amount was used as advance payments for subsidy programmes under the Fiscal Disciplines Act. Fiscal Policy Office director Pornchai Theeravet dismissed an online report claiming that the government was hiding a debt liability of one trillion baht by not declaring the amount under the category of public debt in the state budget. He explained that the one-trillion-baht figure covered advance payments for the government’s many public subsidy programmes. He said these advance payments were not listed as a financial…
Vietnam’s real estate market is forecast to have a better year compared to 2021 and gradually return to the normal performance as before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the Vietnam Report JSC. The growth of this market in the near future is mainly thanks to companies’ restructuring of their operations and their recovery from the negative impacts of the pandemic, along with the support of stimulus packages. Under the government’s economic incentives, interest rates remain low and the disbursement of public investment is accelerated. Foreign direct investment (FDI) continues to flow into Vietnam and remittances stay stable – except for…
North Korea’s state propaganda outlet slammed President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol on Tuesday for keeping mum on Japan’s approval of school textbooks distorting history of its forceful acts against Korean people during the Japanese colonial period. Citing the Japanese government approving the use of high school history textbooks that distort the facts on wartime forced labor and sexual slavery of Korean people, the North said Yoon is siding with Japan in an article published on Uriminzokkiri. “What Japan did is so outrageous that people with Korean blood, or anyone who knows even a little about the horrendous past sins of Japan would…
The Thai Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Political Office Holders on Tuesday issued an arrest warrant for former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra after she failed to show up at 9:30am on Tuesday for the court’s reading of charges in a case filed by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC). On January 28, the NACC filed a lawsuit against Yingluck Shinawatra, two newspapers, and three others over alleged corruption in the Thailand 2020 Roadshow project. The lawsuit named Yingluck, former deputy PM Niwatthamrong Boonsongphaisan, former PM’s secretary-general Suranand Vejjajiva, Matichon Plc, Siam Sport Syndicate Plc, and Rawi Lothong, managing director of Siam…