Blogger argued he had ‘merely shared’ an article without changing content or adding comments
The Singapore high court has ordered a blogger to pay S$133,000 (US$98,825) in damages in a defamation case to the prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong.
Lee sued Leong Sze Hian, a financial adviser, after he shared on Facebook an online news article .
Continue reading...Charge of $3,100 will have to be paid if a returnee leaves again within six months, instead of the previous three months
New Zealanders overseas have reacted with despair to news that the government has doubled the time returning citizens are required to stay to avoid paying a $3,100 quarantine fee.
The changes, announced on Wednesday, mean people coming home from overseas will need to stay six months, rather than the previous three, to be exempt from the fee – a move the government has said will help make the managed isolation system “more financially sustainable”.
Continue reading...Taipei’s success shows lives might have been saved had the UK government acted differently
Along central Taipei’s busy Yongkang Street crowds spill out of restaurants and bars every evening, mingling with people queueing outside popular eateries for a tiny table to cram around with groups of friends. Children out way past their bedtime run amok over the play equipment in a nearby park, shrieking and laughing as their parents chat nearby.
In London, it would be unthinkable. In the Taiwanese capital, it is just another spring evening.
Continue reading...Two tankers flying the flag of the remote Pacific archipelago are alleged to have been involved in subterfuge shipping of Iranian oil
Two tankers flying the flag of the Cook Islands have been scrubbed from the islands’ shipping registry after allegations the vessels were sanctions-busting, transporting Iranian crude oil while concealing their movements.
US sanctions on Iran’s oil and gas sector have, somewhat improbably, caught up the tiny Cooks archipelago on the other side of the world.
Continue reading...The Chinese threat to invade Taiwan is serious and more imminent than many understand, the US admiral chosen to lead the Pentagon’s Indo-Pacific region has warned.
China considers recovering control over Taiwan its “No 1 priority”, Adm John Aquilino, nominated to become commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, told the Senate armed services committee on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Attack at office that makes decisions on land use comes after officials gave 270 acres to a developer, prompting the relocation of farmers
Four people were killed when a man detonated a homemade bomb in a village government office in southern China, authorities said, in a rare act of violent social protest.
A 59-year-old man suspected of being responsible for the explosive device was also killed in the explosion, local police said on their official Weibo account, adding that five people were wounded in the blast.
Continue reading...Young women quickly come to realise that our world is a very different place from that of our male friends
Creatures that are hunted need survival strategies. I watched a video clip of a cat seeing off a black bear. Despite the ridiculous size difference, the cat flies at the bear – all ferocity and flashing claws. Small animals turn fear into rage, and sometimes – only sometimes – rage saves them.
These thoughts come to me in the quiet garden of my Wellington home. Sexual assaults have increased in this city by 50% over the past five years. In the news, I read about an appalling killing in London. Women protesting, holding vigils and being beaten by the police as “activists”.
Continue reading...Philippines defence chief says vessels at Whitsun reef are manned by militias rather than fishermen, and accuses Beijing of ‘provocation’
The Philippines’ defence chief has demanded more than 200 Chinese vessels he said were manned by militias leave a South China Sea reef claimed by Manila, saying their presence was a “provocative action of militarising the area.”
“We call on the Chinese to stop this incursion and immediately recall these boats violating our maritime rights and encroaching into our sovereign territory,” defence secretary Delfin Lorenzana said in a statement on Sunday, adding without elaborating that the Philippines would uphold its sovereign rights.
Continue reading...Cases of coronavirus reached record highs on the weekend, as more than 120 hospital staff in Port Moresby hospital test positive
Papua New Guinea has reported a record number of Covid-19 cases over the weekend as doctors warn that the hospital system is in the brink of being overwhelmed and more people could die outside emergency rooms.
The news came as a photograph of a woman who died outside the Port Moresby General Hospital went viral on social media causing outrage with fears the woman’s death was due to hospital being overwhelmed due to Covid-19.
Continue reading...Military says Majan Sahidjuan, a mastermind in several kidnappings by Abu Sayyaf, died after a gun battle
Philippine troops have killed a leader of the Abu Sayyaf kidnap-for-ransom group and rescued four Indonesian hostages held since last year, the military said on Sunday.
Majan Sahidjuan, alias Apo Mike, was severely wounded in a gunbattle with the marines on Saturday night in Languyan town in southern Tawi-Tawi province, and later died, said lieutenant general Corleto Vinluan Jr.
Continue reading...Tree-viewing parties are banned as many coronavirus restrictions remain
Japan will emerge from 10 weeks of coronavirus restrictions on Sunday, just in time for the peak of the annual cherry blossom viewing season.
In normal years, the appearance of the delicate pink flowers is the cue for friends to spread out picnic blankets and lose their inhibitions in a ritual that often involves copious quantities of food and drink, and a nodding recognition of the floral spectacular. But the lifting of the state of emergency, announced earlier this month by the prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, will not be celebrated beneath the sakura.
Continue reading...Pro-Beijing politicians accuse newly built M+ Museum of breaching the sweeping national security law
After successfully muzzling Hong Kong’s democracy protests and opposition, Beijing’s loyalists have warned art institutions about their collections as they seek to impose mainland-style orthodoxy on culture and purge the city of dissent.
Newly built on Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour, M+ Museum aims to rival western contemporary heavyweights like London’s Tate Modern and New York’s MoMA.
Continue reading...Overseas spectators will not be permitted to attend this summer’s rearranged Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo. An announcement was made after a meeting of the International Olympic Committee, International Paralympic Committee, Tokyo metropolitan government, the Tokyo 2020 organising committee and the government of Japan on Saturday.
The decision, which was not unexpected, is due to continuing uncertainty amid the Covid-19 pandemic, with international travel restricted and variant coronavirus strains emerging. Japan is unlikely to be open to foreign tourists by the summer and it was felt some clarification over this matter should be given now.
Continue reading...Plans to reopen to vaccinated tourists include short quarantine in popular holiday spots like Phuket and Koh Samui
Thailand’s Phuket island used to vibrate with life. Before the pandemic, March was part of peak season and the resort’s long white beaches were packed with tourists from Europe, Australia, North America and China. At night, backpackers would flock to beach-front bars and on the hills stretching inland wealthy tourists would eat at five-star restaurants.
Today, Phuket is a ghost town. The shockwaves of Covid-19 have reduced daily visitor numbers from up to 50,000 down to just hundreds. But there is hope that plans to bring tourists back could change the fortunes of the beach town, and the country.
Continue reading...Papua New Guinea has seen coronavirus cases skyrocket, with fears it could push the health system to breaking point
When Papua New Guinea recorded its first Covid case in March 2020, the country held its breath.
There were acute fears about its on the country’s already overwhelmed and under-resourced health system, which has roughly 500 doctors to serve a population of around nine million, and was already struggling to deal with outbreaks of measles, drug-resistant tuberculosis and polio.
Continue reading...Openings of summits are often dull affairs, but the tense exchanges in Alaska hint at turbulent times ahead
In a protracted, unplanned public spat in Anchorage late on Thursday, China and America’s top diplomats traded barbs for over an hour in front of astonished journalists.
The openings to diplomatic summits are usually dull and carefully choreographed, a showcase for the world’s cameras before the doors close and the real talks begin.
Continue reading...With prices soaring, many fear they will never be able to buy. Others will try anything as the crisis threatens to define a generation
On finding herself shut out of the property market, Nicole Thorburn looked for a side door.
At 29, Thorburn had been living with her parents for seven years to save for a deposit on her first home in Thames, a small town on the Coromandel Peninsula south-east of Auckland – but the pandemic has sent already buoyant prices skyrocketing.
Continue reading...Deaths would bring the total to 220 since 1 February coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi
Myanmar security forces opened fire on demonstrators against a military coup in the central town of Aungban on Friday, killing eight people, according to a local news outlet.
Seven people were killed in the town and one wounded person died after being taken to hospital in the nearby town of Kalaw, the Myanmar Now news portal said, citing Aungban’s funerary service.
Continue reading...Antony Blinken criticises China over Hong Kong and Xinjiang while his counterpart says US can no longer ‘speak to China from a position of strength’
The United States and China have publicly clashed during their first face-to-face high-level talks since Joe Biden took office, with one senior Chinese official urging the US to address “deep-seated” issues such as racism, and accusing his American counterparts of “condescension”.
Any hopes that the meeting, in Anchorage, would reset bilateral ties after years of tensions over trade, human rights and cybersecurity during Donald Trump’s presidency evaporated when the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, opened their meeting with China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi and the state councillor Wang Yi.
Continue reading...The value of British cultural capital in China makes the souring of relations all the more painful
When it is fully open later this year, the Londoner Macao hotel will be a kitsch recreation of tourist Britain, with a facade modelled on the Houses of Parliament, actors in bearskin hats performing the changing of the guard, and an English fried breakfast served at a restaurant called Churchill’s Table.
The new casino resort in China is one of the more tacky examples of the country’s fondness for British culture. Alongside the US and the Gulf, China is a crucial overseas market for English Premier League football broadcast rights. Britain’s heritage attractions, private schools and designer brands are immensely popular with China’s elite. The UK is also a favoured destination for higher education: numbers of Chinese students at UK universities soared by 56% from 2015 to 2019.
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