Southeast Asia
Malaysia’s minimum wage to go up to 1,700 ringgit from Feb 1
The Malaysian government has agreed to increase the minimum wage rate from RM1,500 currently to RM1,700, with effect from February 1, 2025, said Anwar Ibrahim
Gunmen kill 7 in southwest Pakistan
Gunmen killed seven workers in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan late on Saturday, police said.
Vietnam jails journalist for seven years on 'propaganda' charge
A Vietnam court Tuesday sentenced a journalist who wrote about issues including corruption, land rights and the environment to seven years in jail, his sister said, the latest government critic to be put behind bars.
Malaysia charges ex-PM Muhyiddin with sedition over alleged remarks on royalty, lawyer says
Malaysia has charged opposition leader and former Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin with sedition for allegedly insulting the country's former king, his lawyer said on Tuesday
PRESIDENTIAL POLLS / Lanka’s Rajapaksa scion enters race
Sri Lanka’s ruling party nominated a scion of the controversial Rajapaksa family yesterday to challenge the incumbent president in next month’s polls, the first since the country’s unprecedented economic meltdown.
Oli takes oath as Nepal’s fifth PM in five years
Veteran communist politician K P Sharma Oli was sworn in as Nepal’s prime minister yesterday, the fifth in five years, hoping to ensure political stability in the impoverished Himalayan nation that badly needs to woo investors and create jobs.
KP Sharma Oli Nepal’s new PM
Nepal’s president appointed Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli as prime minister for a fourth time yesterday, after his communist party forged a coalition government with the centre-left Nepali Congress.
Eleven dead in Vietnam after landslide buries van
A landslide triggered by heavy rains buried and killed at least 11 people who were travelling in a van in northern Vietnam, the country's disaster management authority said on Saturday
Nine soldiers killed in Pakistan
Nine soldiers were killed in a restive western region of Pakistan on Thursday after a suicide bomber rammed his motorbike into their military convoy and detonated, army and officials said.
Suspects back in court over Singapore's swoop on major money laundering ring
Ten foreigners accused of involvement in a major money laundering operation in Singapore were set to appear in court on Wednesday, some facing new charges as the city-state seek to widen its net in one of its most high-profile crime cases
Myanmar expels top E Timor diplomat
Myanmar’s junta yesterday ordered the expulsion of East Timor’s top diplomat in the country over a meeting his government held with a banned shadow administration.
Myanmar plans to curb rice exports
Myanmar is planning to temporarily restrict rice exports to control rising domestic prices, an official of its rice industry body said yesterday, joining India, the world’s biggest shipper of the staple amid tightening world supplies.
Myanmar plans to curb rice exports to control domestic prices
"We will temporarily limit rice exports for about 45 days from the end of this month," says a senior member of the Myanmar Rice Federation
New Thai PM sworn in
Thailand’s new prime minister vowed to bring four years of change to the kingdom as he took office yesterday.
Thailand's Thaksin moved to hospital after exile return
Thailand's former premier Thaksin Shinawatra was moved from prison to a police hospital on Wednesday, officials said, a day after he was jailed on his return from 15 years in exile
Thaksin Shinawatra: Thailand's divisive former PM
He was ousted in a coup 17 years ago and spent the last 15 of them in self-imposed exile, but Thailand's billionaire former premier Thaksin Shinawatra still casts a remarkable shadow over the kingdom's politics
Ex-PM Thaksin returns to Thailand after 15 years in exile
Thailand's divisive ex-leader Thaksin Shinawatra returned to the kingdom Tuesday, after 15 years in exile and hours before parliament votes for a new prime minister
2 Christians arrested in Pakistan
Police in Pakistan have arrested two Christians accused of blasphemy, a spokesperson said yesterday, two days after a Muslim mob burnt churches and houses in the minority’s settlement, saying the two men had desecrated the holy Quran.