SINGAPORE: On Wednesday ( Feb 7 ), Certificate of Entitlement ( COE ) premiums closed largely lower in the most recent bidding exercise. Prices for Category A vehicles, or those with power no higher than 130 bhp, closed at S$ 79, 000, along from S$ 81, 589 in the previousContinue Reading
At a time of fresh social unrest in the nation, Pakistanis will go to the polls on Thursday to choose their new congress and prime minister.
Imran Khan, a well-liked former leader of the nation, has received three independent sentences to long prison terms in subsequent weeks. The timing of this week’s poll is meant to convey that the defense wants to remove him from politics through legal means.
In the run-up to the ballot, the military, which has had direct and indirect control over Pakistan’s politicians for seven decades, seems determined to resume the political sphere for two different parties.
These include the Pakistan People’s Party, led by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the murdered former prime minister, and the three-time ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
Which group is likely to win the election now that Khan is imprisoned and unable to run, and what difficulties does the new state face?
Former cricket player Khan led the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf ( PTI ) party to victory in the 2018 elections. However, he lost the military’s aid and was removed from office in April 2022 after a vote of no confidence in the National Assembly.
His group, the PTI, has remained incredibly well-liked ever since. In late 2022, it won by-elections to complete seating in the National Assembly that had been vacant after a large number of PTI legislators resigned to oppose his resignation.
Khan was given a five-year suspension from elections last year after being found guilty of corruption-related offenses. He claims that the accusations were motivated by politics. The sentences that were handed down this year followed ( it is unclear if they will be served concurrently ):
Khan is prohibited from running for office, and the defense offers no assistance, making it extremely unlikely that PTI will be able to win enough seats to retake energy.
By prohibiting the party from using the game wicket symbol to identify its individuals, the electoral commission made matters even more challenging. Many people in a nation with lower education levels rely on these symbols when casting their votes.
Otherwise, the committee has given PTI candidates specific symbols. The PTI’s supporters may become confused as a result, and they will need to know which images have been given to which applicants in their particular electorates.
The PTI administration is urging its followers to vote in the elections, and Khan has the support of the youth, so the party’s candidates may still be able to win seats in both the national and provincial assemblies. However, their chances of forming a state are all but nonexistent.
Sharif, who is now 74 years old, is regarded as the front-runner to become prime minister a third time.
Sharif owes the military government led by General Muhammad Zia la Haq in the 1980s for his first foray into politicians. But since the 1990s, his interactions with the army have alternated between friendly and hostile.
In fact, when Sharif was found guilty of fraud in 2017, he accused former government and spy chiefs of planning his downfall. He was eventually barred from taking part in Pakistani elections for the rest of his life.
He has now returned from a self-imposed exile in order to launch another social return. When he returned to Pakistan late last year, the courts swiftly overturned his corruption views, opening the door for him to run in the vote. His relationship with the army was once again in a” polite” period.
Since then, Sharif has coined the phrase” Pakistan ko Nawaz do,” which has the dual meanings of” Given to Pakistan” and” Be Generous in Pakistan.”
Bhutto, who is only 35 years older, comes from a political dynasty that laid the foundation for his ascent to energy. He has established himself as the foreign minister in the coalition government that ousted Khan and is positioned in Pakistan as a representative of new thinking ( nai soch ).
Both candidates have been holding demonstrations all over the nation, but it is still unclear whether either will be able to get the country’s election. PPP’s support primarily comes from Sindh in the far south-east, while PML- N is powerful in Punjab to the east.
Pakistan therefore appears to be moving toward a coalition government, which will need to deal with some issues the nation is currently facing.
The most important task for the new administration will be to stop further financial collapse and enhance the standard of living for regular people.
Pakistan’s GDP has decreased from 5.8 % in 2021 to roughly 0.3 % in that year. The International Monetary Fund’s demands for more reasonable financial planning and the elimination of irrational grants, as well as the disastrous storms in 2022, the increase in oil prices after Russia invaded Ukraine, and other factors have all contributed to the rise in inflation. Rates went up from 8.9 % in 2021 to a staggering 29.7 % in December 2023.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s poverty rate has increased to almost 40 %, more than five percentage points higher than in the fiscal year 2022.
Pakistan’s foreign policy will also need to be reviewed by the novel administration. Khan’s claims that the US was interfering in Pakistani politicians damaged relations with Washington, and his less-than-enthusiastic approach to Chinese purchase jobs strained ties with Beijing.
Yet the Gulf nations, which had historically had cordial relations with Pakistan, started to reevaluate their Southern Asian tactics, with a definite bend toward India.
A fresh strategy for Afghanistan will also need to be developed by the fresh administration. Despite the joy that some people, especially Khan, experienced upon the Taliban’s return to power, Islamabad’S relations with Kabul have been hampered by the new regimes ‘ reluctance to handle the increase in attacks from the Pakistani Taliban ( often referred to as Tehrik- e Taliban Pakistan, or TTP ) and other organizations.
The growing pessimism among Pakistanis regarding the legitimacy of the political process, however, may present the most significant concern for the new authorities.
Khan’s demise has drawn attention to the military’s ever-present need to control the government. And this has led to ordinary citizens openly criticizing the military, a phenomenon unheard of before. A small minority of people in private gatherings are even questioning the legitimacy of the idea of Pakistan.
To establish its legality in such conditions, the new government will need to put in a lot of effort. If that was n’t done, Pakistan would experience yet another round of unrest.
Samina Yasmeen is the chairman of the University of Western Australia’s Center for Muslim States and Societies.
Under a Creative Commons license, this article is republished from The Conversation. Read the article in its entirety.
shabby graphicsAccording to a recent report, Tibetans may be monitored using Xana apps designed to stop scam.
According to a study by Tibet studies teams, the app has access to personal information and can track user texts and internet browser histories.
Additionally, they claimed that some Tibetans were being compelled to download the app.
Privileges organizations claim that new restrictions in Tibet have tightened the screws on a region of China that is already heavily regulated.
In recent years, especially during the pandemic, officials have increased position surveillance and repression.
Particularly socially sensitive areas like Tibet and Xinjiang have come under scrutiny. Beijing has long been wary of” secessionism” in these regions, but under the leadership of Xi Jinping, crackdowns have intensified to emphasize nationalist unity.
The contentious National Anti-Federal Center software, which was released in 2021, is the focus of the new document from research network Turquoise Roof and rights organization Tibet Watch.
The report claimed that the application “aligns with considerable surveillance practices” and could support the Chinese government’s efforts to control Tibetans even though it did not offer any proof that it was constantly targeting them.
The National Anti-Federal Centre has been marketed as a fraud prevention software that you identify potential fraudulent writings and calls while enabling users to quickly review scams and get assistance from authorities. In recent years, China has been dealing with a flood of web and mobile schemes.
According to Turquoise Roof, a forensic examination of the game revealed that some of its features could be used for surveillance.
The app has access to contact logs, online browser histories, and the ability to track incoming text messages. Additionally, it can take pictures that will enable it to collect sensory information about consumers and their surroundings as well as user inputs like passwords.
According to the review, its face recognition identification element could also be used for extensive data harvesting to improve tracking and monitoring of Tibetans.
One method is to make Tibetans download the app. One migrant told Tibet Watch last year that while returning home from school, he was stopped at a police station and instructed to download the app to his cellphone.
Shortly after the app’s build, when it was installed on an estimated 200 million devices, concerns about required files surfaced.
According to the Financial Times, some local government organizations made it a requirement for employees, while another required them to download the app in order to enroll their kids in school or obtain identification cards.
Users who claimed to have been contacted by the officers after the application discovered they had visited Bloomberg and other international financial news websites were also mentioned in the newspaper.
Separately, Turquoise Roof learned that Chinese authorities were compiling a sizable collection of Tibetans who were thought to threaten stability from authorities procurement notices. Oracle, a US company, provided software for the collection.
They claimed that it was “reasonable to hypothesize” that this collection may contain any data gathered by the anti-fraud app.
The report urged the Chinese government to increase protection safeguards and look into allegations of software download coercion.
Additionally, it urged foreign businesses and governments to take precautions against funding China’s extensive security programs.
Since 1950, when Beijing sent troops to reaffirm its promises to independence over the area, it has had a firm hold on Tibet.
According to protesters, China restricts Tibetans ‘ ability to travel by regulating their documents and keeping a close eye on their interactions with the outside world.
Tibetans have been detained for their information on the well-known messaging service WeChat in a number of situations, and accounts and keywords that were deemed to be politically sensitive have also been suspended or scrubbed, according to Tibet Watch.
In addition to Tibet, China is renowned for using widespread security methods to subdue the Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
JAKARTA: On Wednesday ( Feb7 ), a rebel group in Indonesia’s Papua announced that it would free New Zealand pilot Philip Mehrtens, who had been held hostage in the far-off eastern part of the country for the previous year. It was not known when Mehrtens may be made available. TerianusContinue Reading
SINGAPORE: On Wednesday ( Feb.7 ), the mother of a two-year-old girl who was killed by her father and whose body was burned in the pot andnbsp pleaded guilty to charges of mistreating her children and distorting the course of justice.
This entails slapping them, hitting them with a belt and strap, and feeding her elder son and the now-deceased child chilli padi as punishment.
She is accused of deliberately leaving out the woman who was killed and lying to a Child Protection Service agent that she had six babies when she actually had seven.
The 35-year-old person even mistreated her kids by abandoning them in the apartment without adequate food, water, or adult control.
Five times when event employees went to the apartment, they discovered the kids unattended, with the oldest son, who was 10 at the time, missing school and taking care of his younger siblings.
They occasionally went without food and liquid and were hungry and thirsty.
According to gag orders defending her surviving children, the offender never been identified. She has been on remand since September 2019 and was immediately accused of murdering her husband, but the accusation was later dropped.
Her father received a 21-and-a-half-year prison sentence and 18 wood stroke for killing his daughter in September. The judge stressed that the defendant’s first title Umaisyah needed to be published so that people could remember her by it during the High Court hearing, half lifting the gag order.
Umaisyah was placed in foster care between the ages of three and four times before being returned to her relatives nearly two years after. Her parents had numerous kids from various marriages.
Up until March 2014, when her drug-using parents violently slapped her and caused a traumatic brain injury that resulted in concussive mental seizures, she was being abused by her relatives.
She was unable to be saved despite her father’s best efforts to revive her. The families ultimately decided against taking her to the doctor or calling for assistance because they were worried about being arrested.
They burned Umaisyah’s figure in a metal pot, put the bowl in the cardboard box, and covered it with cling wrap  before stowing it under the kitchen stove in their apartment to conceal their tracks.
The dish remained there for more than five times as Umaisyah’s parents gave officers a variety of justifications and lies to avoid being found out about her passing.
Umaisyah’s uncle kept attempting to open the pot because he was wondering about it at different points. When Umaisyah’s mom was incarcerated, he finally did so.
He showed his daughter’s friends what was in the pot, and they reported it to the police.
Authorities found the boy’s body, which was reduced to charred remains, smaller bones, and a soft tooth after being burned beyond recognition.
PUBLISHED: 14: 19 on February 7, 2024.
LOP BURI: On Wednesday, the Department of National Parks, Wildlife, and Plant Conservation joined local authorities in an effort to control industrial lemurs by taming, euthanizing them.
At the historic Phra Prang Sam Yot sanctuary in the Muang district on Wednesday, the office, Lop Buri city, and the provincial cattle development workplace signed a memorandum of understanding on marsupial control.
The church from the 13th century is home to an excessively large marsupial population that terrorizes tourists and raids nearby areas.
The macaques were troublemakers, according to division director-general Athapol Charoenshunsa, and the intended engagement was intended to protect people.
Macaques may be trained in cages to respond. The monkeys may be sterilized, taken to a monkey center in the tambon Pho Kao Ton, and then let out into their natural habitats.
” Property growth and agricultural expansion are causing the marsupial inhabitants to soar while the area available to them to shrink.” The availability of natural food and water is even declining as a result of the warm weather.
Conflict between people and chimps is therefore getting worse, according to Mr. Athapol.
According to him, there were 5, 709 chimps counted in Lop Buri last season, including 2, 206 in the city.
Japan: After rumors of an occasion she had with a married physician surfaced, the Ukraine-born Miss Japan show winner gave up her throne.
After some right-wingers questioned the name being given to a naturalized Chinese citizen, Karolina Shiino’s candidacy in January sparked debate.
When weekly newspaper Shukan Bunshun reported on her extramarital connection, which is forbidden for beauty pageant contestants who are held to squeaky-clean moral standards, a scandal over her personal life next broke out.
Chinese entertainment figures who have matters, use drugs, or engage in various scandals frequently experience rejection from both their fans and employers.
The Miss Japan Association announced on Monday that it had granted Shiino’s request to return the throne for “personal reasons,” and it also stated that there would n’t be a miss Japan in 2024.
On the same day that her administration agency claimed she had confirmed the matter, Shiino said she wanted to “deeply apologize” to those involved, including the boy’s family.
” I could n’t speak the truth at first because of the chaos and fear… The 26-year-old posted on Instagram,” I apologise to those who supported and believed in me.”
The model, who immigrated to Japan around the age of five, wrote,” I take the situation seriously and have given up the Miss Japan Grand Prix name.”
Shiino’s firm claimed in a statement released on Monday that she had started dating the person under the mistaken belief that he was divorced but had since remarried.
According to its site, Miss Japan, which was first held in 1950, is recognized for” Asian- type beauty” that includes “inner charm, elegance in appearance, and beauty of actions.”
People quickly voiced their opinions on social media after Shiino’s candidacy garnered attention online.
Why is she Miss Japan, regardless of whether she is Jewish or Ukrainian?” I ca n’t accept her character.” On X, previously Online, one user wrote.
On her Instagram post, Shiino received help from other writers.
You possess a Chinese nature. I do n’t believe that such ( a ) personal, private matter should be a cause for you to resign, but this is Japan,” the reply reads, receiving almost 350 likes.
KUALA LUMPUR: Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak, who was imprisoned, is thinking about submitting a new petition for full pardon, according to his attorney on Wednesday ( Feb 7 ). This is less than one week after the special panel decided to reduce his sentence to half.
Najib had previously requested clemency after being found guilty in a case connected to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad , ( 1MDB) scandal and given the death penalty of 12 years in prison.
But last week, the pardons table, which is presided over by the king of Malaysia, decided to lighten his word.
Shafee Abdullah, Najib’s attorney, stated that a new plea was being taken into account because his customer had not been given an impartial trial. Najib has constantly refuted wrong.
The attorney also voiced concerns about the pardons procedure overseen by Al-Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah, who abdicated his five-year throne on January 30 not long after imposing the word lowering for Najib.
Shafee remarked,” I do n’t believe the pardons board operated in accordance with how the constitution requires it to.”
SINGAPORE: The CPF monthly interest payments will remain the same, according to Manpower Minister Tan See Leng on Wednesday ( Feb 7 ).
He was responding to a question about whether the CPF Board had looked into how monthly interest payments are calculated from Member of Parliament Louis Chua ( WP-Sengkang ).
According to Mr. Tan, all members now profit from the game’s higher interest rates, even though changes may result in significantly increased interest payments for those making CPF transactions.
Now, CPF withdrawals and deductions made in a single month do not accrue interest from that month; only contributions made to the fund earn interest in the following month.
Mr. Chua questioned whether the table would take CPF achievements made throughout the month into account when calculating the monthly interest payment.
Additionally, he inquired about the pro-rating of the monthly interest payment to the number of times a sum is held in the balances prior to departure.
Mr. Chua explained in the House that the Singapore government’s Treasury bills and banks ‘ fixed deposits have been offering competitive interest rates, above the 2.5 percent minimum interest rate on CPF Ordinary Account ( OA ) savings.
However, due to the method used to calculate the CPF monthly interest payment, members who invest in such investments run the risk of losing up to two months ‘ worth of potential interest payments, according to him.
Mr. Tan retorted that it is important to consider the CPF system’s features that do not apply to banks deposits when calculating the latest method of computing regular interest payments.
He emphasized that despite a protracted low interest rate environment over the past 20 years, the government has continued to pay the Special, Medisave, and Retirement Accounts ( SMRA ) 2.5 percent minimum interest and 4 % floor rate.
He continued by saying that the CPF system offers 1 % additional interest to all members on the initial S$ 60, 000 of combined balances. On the first S$ 30, 000 of combined CPF balances, members 55 and older receive an additional 1 % in interest.
Additionally, he stated that consumers frequently lose any potential interest earned if they early withdraw money from banks ‘ set deposits.
The minister stated that while altering the computation method may result in slightly higher CPF interest payments, the features I’ve just outlined now offer our members significantly higher interest rates and a greater increase in their savings.
The Arch of Reunification, a statue that represented hope for peace with the South, has been destroyed by North Korea. The monument was destroyed not long after Kim Jong UN, the head of the regime, referred to it as an “eyesore” in a statement.
In the same conversation, Kim called for a change to the North Korean law to represent South Korea’s position as his nations ‘ “principal enemy” and declared that the two Koreas, which have been divided since August 1945, could no longer be peacefully united.
Two Korean women were depicted in the Arch of Reunification, which was unveiled in 2001, wearing traditional attire known as hanbok ( “Korean clothes” ) in South Korea and chosn- ot (‘KOREAN clothes ‘ ) in North Korea. Together, the women displayed a picture of the united Korean peninsula, which at the time accurately reflected the North Korean administration’s desire to bring the two nations back together.
This is not the first time that North Korea has destroyed images of Asian assistance, speech, and unity. A joint contact office with South Korea was destroyed near the border city of Kaesong in June 2020, and images of it was captured and made public by North Korea. To facilitate communication between the two nations, the website was opened.
The Inter-Korean line, a network of more than 40 phone lines that connect North and South Korea, was severed by North Korea the following month, in August 2021, as retaliation for military training carried out jointly by South and the US. Kim did, nevertheless, restart the alerts two months later and urged Seoul to intensify relations-building work.
The destruction of the Arch of Reunification is a sign of North Korea’s resolve to portray reconciliation as being impractical. However, despite the monument’s real erasure, the fact that it is depicted on five established postage stamps helps to preserve the structure and what it stood for.
Postage stamps serve as small carriers of advertising messages in addition to serving as items that show how much mail has been paid. They have previously been referred to as “ambassadors” expressing standard opinions and “windows of the state” showing how the government wants to be perceived by both its own citizens and those outside of it.
Revisions to formal party narratives in the majority of authoritarian states call for the modification and erasure of symbols connected to the earlier narrative. The removal of Joseph Stalin’s brand from numerous places and monuments after his death in 1953 is the most egregious instance of this.
This was a component of the late 1950s de-Stalonization action, which destroyed Stalin’s” cult of personality.” Stalin had enhanced his reputation as a leader and sparked commitment by using art and popular culture.
Similar to this, the official North Korean postage stamp library eliminated five postcards that showed the Arch of Reunification from its ads. Seal directories offer details on the date, creator, size, and color of the stamps as well as their design. It’s crucial to have this knowledge when gathering and analyzing them.
The exact date that the postcards were taken out is unknown. However, according to Wayback Machine, a online library of the World Wide Web, the web changed on January 19, right around the time Kim gave his speech and the monument was reportedly demolished. The website no longer makes any physical or textual recommendations to the stamps.
Around this time, NK News furthermore reported that North Korea was removing outdated information from propaganda websites, suggesting a revision of the formal tale.
There is a history behind this. Listings that run counter to novel state narratives have recently been removed from North Korea’s official stamp catalogs.
For instance, North Korea released a set of five stamps in 1960 honoring Pyongyang’s reconstruction following the Korean War ( 1950–1953 ). Mao Zedong Square and Stalin Street, two of the place names depicted on the stamps, were afterwards renamed” Triumph Arc Square” and” Victory Street.”
However, because the original names were on the postcards that were issued in 1960, their physical representations in later published mark catalogs were excluded.
Nearly a year after its debut, in May 2002, The Arch of Reunification was initially depicted on an North Korean mail mark. However, the monument has just been featured on two stamps, one from 2015 and two more from 2016 and 2021, both.
North Korea is attempting to remove all traces of the Arch of Reunification’s image. However for North Korea, however, these passports are in the personal series of foreign stamp collectors.
At the time of the stamps ‘ issuance, Korea Stamp Corporation ( North Korea’s state-run postal authority ) offices in China and Russia were open to the public. On websites like eBay, it is still simple to purchase these postcards from stamp dealers.
Because it does n’t have complete control over how its state narrative is presented and could be changed, North Korea will never be able to completely eradicate these depictions of the unification dream.
David Hall is a University of Central Lancashire PhD candidate in Asian reports.
Under a Creative Commons license, this article is republished from The Conversation. read the article in its entirety.
