HONG KONG: Chinese regulators announced on Friday (Dec 22) a wide range of rules aimed at curbing spending and rewards that encourage video games, dealing a blow to the world’s biggest games market, which returned to growth this year. The new rules, which will effectively set spending limits for onlineContinue Reading
HONG KONG: Chinese regulators announced on Friday (Dec 22) a wide range of rules aimed at curbing spending and rewards that encourage video games, dealing a blow to the world’s biggest games market, which returned to growth this year. The new rules will effectively set spending limits for online games.Continue Reading
However, the warmer weather may fluctuate due to interspersing cold air, CCTV said, advising the public need heed forecasts and dress accordingly. Eastern province Shandong’s observatory warned on Friday of temperatures as low as -20 degrees Celsius in some mountainous areas in the province’s northwest. This week, China’s north includingContinue Reading
But Gagandeep Singh, joint director at Haryana’s Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), told Reuters on Thursday (Dec 21) that he was thoroughly going through Yashpal’s complaint, had taken the views of various sides, and was close to finishing his probe. “The whole complaint was quite comprehensive and exhaustive,” he said.Continue Reading
According to the Johor Immigration Department, there are a total of 236 immigration entry and exit counters at the Sultan Iskandar Building, comprising 100 motorcycle counters, 60 car counters, 36 bus counters and 40 autogate counters.
At the Sultan Abu Bakar Complex, there are 162 entry and exit counters – 50 motorcycle counters, 48 car counters, 52 bus counters and 12 autogate counters.
Singapore’s Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said on Tuesday that travellers should expect very heavy traffic at both the Woodlands and Tuas checkpoints over the upcoming Christmas and New Year’s Day long weekends.
Travellers should factor in a longer wait for immigration clearance when planning their trips, ICA said in an advisory on Tuesday, adding that those clearing immigration by car might have to wait up to three hours.
It said that crossings at both checkpoints have surged, and security measures have also been stepped up in view of the situation in the Middle East.
HONG KONG: A Hong Kong court on Friday (Dec 22) rejected a bid by the legal team for pro-democracy tycoon Jimmy Lai to have a sedition charge against him dropped, in a closely watched national security trial. Lai, 76, the founder of the now-shuttered pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, was chargedContinue Reading
TOKYO: Japanese Industry Minister Ken Saito said on Friday (Dec 22) that US-Japanese ties were “stronger than ever”, although he declined to comment directly on growing scrutiny in the United States of a proposed deal for Nippon Steel to buy US Steel. Speaking at a regularly scheduled press conference, SaitoContinue Reading
VIENNA: A reactor at North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear complex appears for the first time to be using atomic fuel, the UN nuclear watchdog said late on Thursday (Dec 21), which would mean the country has a new potential source of plutonium for its nuclear weapons. North Korea has for yearsContinue Reading
It’s likely that if the prime minister does depart, key programmes such as defence and semiconductor spending will be taken up by a successor. But don’t underestimate Kishida’s ability to get things done: Abe, too, dreamed of doubling the defense budget but couldn’t get it passed.
Kishida has made it a key policy, even if he hasn’t figured out how to pay for it. Conversely, party unity forced Kishida to retreat from more left-leaning economic policies touted before he took office. A prolonged decline of the Abe faction might endanger that.
The scandal could even affect monetary policy. Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda wouldn’t discuss the impact when asked Tuesday (Dec 19). But analysts are already speculating that a sidelining of the Abe faction, which supports easy money, would make it easier for the BOJ to end negative rates. Alternately, Kishida (or a successor) might wish to avoid any more turmoil; that might have been the message his economy minister was sent to deliver when Yoshitaka Shindo, unusually, attended Tuesday’s central bank meeting.
Further out, the ruling coalition makeup and even the party itself could be under threat. Calls to eliminate factions entirely will likely grow. The LDP’s long-standing partnership with junior coalition partner Komeito has been in rough waters for some time, and this could end it; as Harris writes, the “predictable stability that characterised Japanese politics since 2012 is in all likelihood over”.
Japan has largely avoided the trend of populism that has consumed many countries over the past decade. But if it starts to lose seats, the LDP might be forced to make friends with some less mainstream parties – opening the door for more fringe figures.
There’s also a danger that, as has happened elsewhere, this affair could exacerbate public disillusionment with the system itself and spill over into something much less palatable – a concern made worse by the lack of a convincing mainstream opposition that could step in to take over from the LDP.
One way or another, we’re witnessing a moment with the potential to redefine Japanese politics in profound and unexpected ways. This time it’s worth paying attention.
The building is located in a cluster of prime commercial and high-rise residential properties around the iconic Petronas Twin Towers in downtown Kuala Lumpur and estimated to have been built at the cost of US$580 million.
Financial executives close to the situation noted that the asset-declaration order in late May came together with the freezing of at least a dozen Daim-related business accounts.
The accounts remain frozen and all payments made for the running of his financial enterprises, including the payrolls, require MACC approval, the executives noted.
The MACC has been sketchy with information on the Renong-UEM deal.
Shortly after the probe began in late May, the MACC released a statement that the agency was gathering information into the “alleged embezzlement of state funds amounting to an estimated RM2.3 billion”.
The agency added that it had frozen bank accounts with funds amounting to RM39 million belonging to an unidentified former senior minister and two businessmen, who were also not identified.
Government officials and anti-graft investigators directly involved in the probe told CNA that the alleged embezzlement of state funds was a direct reference to the RM2.3-billion-ringgit Renong-UEM deal.
The three unnamed personalities are believed to refer to Mr Daim, who served as finance minister between 1984 and 1991; Mr Halim Saad, his long-time business protégé who at the time was a controlling shareholder of both Renong and UEM through a complex web of cross-holdings; and Mr Abdul Rashid Manaf, a prominent Kuala Lumpur-based lawyer who handled all of UMNO’s corporate affairs.
The MACC’s move to revisit a transaction that happened over 26 years ago has stirred widespread speculation that the ongoing investigation has a strong political dimension and is steeped in the country’s troubled and messy politics, particularly over how current premier Anwar Ibrahim was unceremoniously sacked and jailed in September 1998 after falling out with then-premier Dr Mahathir.
Mr Anwar, who replaced Mr Daim as finance minister in 1991 and had risen to become deputy premier, was hugely critical of the Renong-UEM deal at the time, which caused a meltdown in the Malaysian stock market.
Many analysts believe that the Renong-UEM deal was a critical flashpoint in the straining of ties between Dr Mahathir and his deputy.
With a business career that stretches back to the late 1960s, Mr Daim, a lawyer by training, is widely regarded in Malaysia’s business and political circles as one of the country’s richest personalities.