The post said the Zaha Hadid-designed buildings brought bad luck to tenants
A blog operator must pay $29,000 to a real estate developer for “defamation”, a Chinese court has ruled after alleging a building complex had bad energy.
Published on the WeChat social network in November, the text said an office complex in Beijing brought bad luck to its business tenants because it does not respect feng shui principles.
Continue reading...North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is interested in meeting Donald Trump again only if the US comes to talks with the right attitude, state media said on Saturday, after the US president floated the idea.
Related: The art of the no deal: how Trump and Kim misread each other | Julian Borger
Continue reading...Authorities warn considerable damage to poorly built structures possible in Sulawesi from 6.8-magnitude quake
A strong 6.8-magnitude earthquake has rocked eastern Indonesia, reportedly killing one person and triggering a brief tsunami warning that sent panicked residents fleeing to higher ground.
The quake struck at a relatively shallow depth of 17 kilometres off the east coast of Sulawesi island, the US Geological Survey said. A 7.5-magnitude quake and tsunami struck near the city of Palu on the other side of the island last year, killing more than 4,300 people.
Continue reading...Mixed picture shows rebound in country’s exports, creating $32bn trade surplus in March
Chinese imports slumped in March, driven by a slowdown in US trade amid the tense standoff between Washington and Beijing, raising renewed questions over the strength of the Chinese economy.
Imports fell by 7.6% in March compared with a year earlier, worse than City economists’ forecasts for the volume of goods bought from abroad to grow by 0.2%.
Continue reading...US president said he ‘enjoys the summits’ with chairman Kim Jong-un and is hopeful for progress on sanctions and human rights
Donald Trump has said he is considering a potential third nuclear summit with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un.
“We will be discussing that and potential meetings, further meetings with North Korea and Kim Jong-un,” Trump said in the Oval Office at the start of talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
Continue reading...One clinic has treated at least 500 men in past two years with penile disfigurement and dysfunction from injections gone wrong
Doctors in Papua New Guinea have warned of a “nationwide problem” of men injecting foreign substances, including coconut oil and silicone, into their penises in an attempt to make them bigger.
A doctor at the Port Moresby General Hospital said that over the last two years his clinic has treated at least 500 men with penile disfigurement and dysfunction as a result of injections.
Continue reading...Communist Youth League students to ‘spread civilisation’ in countryside and ‘promote technology’
China is planning to send millions of youth “volunteers” back to villages, raising fears of a return to the methods of Chairman Mao’s brutal Cultural Revolution of 50 years ago.
The Communist Youth League (CYL) has promised to despatch more than 10 million students to “rural zones” by 2022 in order to “increase their skills, spread civilisation and promote science and technology”, according to a Communist party document.
Continue reading...Prosecutors trying to force confession out of former Nissan chairman, says defence team
Carlos Ghosn’s lawyers have condemned his latest arrest as “inhuman”, claiming it has interrupted his treatment for chronic kidney failure and that prosecutors were attempting to force a confession out of the former Nissan chairman.
According to Reuters, Ghosn’s defence team said in documents prepared after he was arrested for a fourth time last week that Japanese prosecutors were attempting to frustrate their preparations for his trial – a date for which has yet to be set – and trying to force him to confess.
Continue reading...Historic decision sparks celebrations in Seoul following decades of campaigning
A court in South Korea has ruled that the country’s decades-old ban on abortion must be lifted, in a historic decision that sparked celebrations in Seoul.
Thursday’s decision by the constitutional court marks a major victory for pro-choice campaigners, 66 years after the country banned abortions in all but a few cases.
Continue reading...Homo luzonensis fossils found in Luzon island cave, dating back up to 67,00 years
A new species of ancient human, thought to have been under 4ft tall and adapted to climbing trees, has been discovered in the Philippines, providing a twist in the story of human evolution.
The specimen, named Homo luzonensis, was excavated from Callao cave on Luzon island in the northern Philippines and has been dated to 50,000-67,000 years ago – when our own ancestors and the Neanderthals were spreading across Europe and into Asia.
Continue reading...Photographer Zhang Kechun travelled across China to document how urbanisation is reshaping the country’s natural landscapes. The often dreamlike images of his series Between the Mountains and Water depict tiny figures dwarfed by the immense scale of China’s economic development
Continue reading...Parts of Okuma are open for business once again, but only a few hundred former residents have moved home
A town next to the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant partially reopened on Wednesday, eight years after a triple meltdown forced tens of thousands of people in the area to flee.
About 40% of Okuma, which sits immediately west of the plant, was declared safe for residents to make a permanent return after decontamination efforts significantly reduced radiation levels.
Continue reading...Total number of gatherings in Auckland reduced from 84 to 26 in wake of mosque shootings
More than 50 Anzac events and parades have been cut in New Zealand’s largest city at the request of police, as the country’s terror risk remains high in the wake of the deadly Christchurch mosque attacks.
Police have asked Auckland Returned Serviceman’s Associations (RSA) to “consolidate” their events, with the total number reduced from 84 last year to 26 this year, allowing officers to better protect large crowds in attendance.
Continue reading...In video message ex-chairman says he is innocent and talks of fears for company’s future
Carlos Ghosn has accused Nissan executives of conspiring to have him arrested over unfounded fears about his plans for the Japanese carmaker, and saying he had been unfairly portrayed as a “dictator” by “backstabbing” former colleagues.
In a video recorded shortly before he was rearrested in Tokyo last week, the former Nissan chairman said he looked forward to a fair trial – a date for which has yet to be set – and he feared for Nissan’s future.
Continue reading...Tanwarin Sukkhapisit, an accomplished film director, has triumphed over stigma to enter politics as an equal
Thailand is no stranger to political instability, but Sunday’s election, the country’s first in eight years, proved to be a new frontier in chaos. Ineptitude and inaccurate results led to widespread confusion and accusations of cheating, two opposing parties claimed victory and as the days go by, Thailand is no closer to knowing who will form a government.
Yet in amongst the clamour, it was easy to miss small but significant outcomes of the poll. When the elected politicians eventually gather in parliament, Tanwarin Sukkhapisit will be among them as Thailand’s first transgender MP.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Agency stops staff secondments after unions raise ethical and safety implications
The government’s official health and safety organisation has said it will stop planned staff secondments to Brunei after unions raised concerns about the ethical and safety implications following the kingdom’s decision to punish gay sex by stoning to death.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which was seeking a team of three people to go to Brunei to help the country’s equivalent agency with regulatory work, said all links with the country would be “paused” pending a review.
Continue reading...Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa opened meeting with a speech outlining allegations against his former mentor
Nissan shareholders have voted to eject Carlos Ghosn from the board, as the detained former chairman fights multiple financial misconduct charges that have landed him in custody.
The extraordinary shareholders’ meeting at a Tokyo hotel was the first such gathering since the stunning arrest of the 65-year-old auto sector titan on 19 November.
Continue reading...The news that the sultan of Brunei has made gay sex and adultery into offences punishable by stoning to death has met with silence from Theresa May and only whimpers of dismay from ministers. The Foreign Office, in the same tone that marked its attitude to Hitler during Neville Chamberlain’s premiership, says threatening to remove Brunei from the Commonwealth is not the “best way” to encourage Brunei to uphold its human rights obligations. Really?
Your report (Dorchester hotel loses bookings over Brunei move, 6 April) says the sultan pays the UK for 2,000 British troops to remain in Brunei. Since the agreement does not expire until 2020, what better way of making him feel a little insecure than for Britain to break it and withdraw our troops at once – and to hell with the Foreign Office’s bland mouthings.
Nicholas de Jongh
London
Draconian new laws have spread unease rather than outright panic in a population that is used to finding ways around legislation
A day after it became legally possible to be stoned to death for having gay sex in Brunei, 21-year-old Zain* got a bitter taste of the new reality.
Walking down the street in skinny jeans and high-heeled boots, a flamboyant anomaly in the conservative sultanate, the university student became a target.
Continue reading...Protests outside Dorchester hotel in London after Brunei regime passes ‘death by stoning’ law for gay sex
The RAF and Royal Navy are under pressure to cut links with the sultan of Brunei amid a global backlash against his country’s decision to introduce death by stoning as punishment for homosexuality.
The calls came after crowds protesting against the country’s new draconian penal code surged through barriers outside the Brunei-owned Dorchester Hotel yesterday afternoon, forcing the police to stand in front of its doors.
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