South Korea indicts ex-Samsung Elec executive for alleged data leak to China
SEOUL: South Korean prosecutors said they indicted a former Samsung Electronics executive on Monday (Jun 12) on suspicions of stealing the company’s technology to build a chip factory in China. The defendant, who also formerly worked at SK Hynix as a vice president, is accused of illegally acquiring Samsung dataContinue Reading
Biparjoy: India state on alert over ‘extremely severe’ cyclone
Getty ImagesThe western Indian state of Gujarat is on high alert as an extremely severe cyclone is due to hit parts of it on Thursday.
Biparjoy – a cyclone over the Arabian Sea – is predicted to move towards the state’s coastline in the next two days.
Heavy rains and high tides have been forecast in several coastal districts in the state.
People have been told to avoid visiting beaches and fishermen have been asked to not go out into the sea.
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Monday that the cyclonic storm was likely to move northwards until 14 June and then move “north-northeastwards and cross Saurashtra and Kutch and adjoining Pakistan coasts between Mandvi (Gujarat) and Karachi (Pakistan) by noon of 15 June”.
It added that the storm could have a “maximum sustained wind speed of 125 to 135kmph (77 to 84 mph)” and could go up to 150kmph.
Biparjoy – which means disaster or calamity in Bengali language – has intensified into an “extremely severe cyclonic storm” – the second highest category used by the IMD to classify tropical storms.
Until Saturday, the cyclone was expected to avoid Gujarat and move towards Pakistan’s coastline.
However, India’s weather department has now issued warnings to local authorities in Gujarat and has asked them to make preparations to evacuate people if needed.
People in coastal areas have been asked to stay indoors on the day the cyclone is likely to make landfall.
The Gujarat government has deployed national and state disaster response teams in areas likely to be affected by the cyclone.
The cyclone is expected to bring rains to a few other states along India’s western and southern coast as well. The IMD has forecasted heavy rains in some regions in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Goa states in the coming days.
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Video recording questions accuracy of minutes of iTV shareholders’ meeting
Defunct media company iTV is back in the spotlight after a video recording of discussions during the annual shareholders’ meeting contradicted the official minutes.
The video was recorded by an iTV shareholder and parts of it shown by TV Channel 3 late on Sunday night. The shareholders’ meeting was shown on both online and onsite platforms.
It drew an immediate and strong public reaction.
Controversy swirls around reported attempts to revive iTV to block Move Forward Party (MFP) leader Pita Limjaroenrat’s bid to become prime minister, and relates to his alleged holding of shares in a media company.
MFP MP-elect Wiroj Lakkhanaadisorn said he would step up his request that the delisted broadcaster clarify the matter.
“The minutes of the iTV shareholders’ annual meeting in 2023 do not match the video recording of the meeting shown by (Channel 3’s) Khao Sam Miti television programme,’’ he said.
Mr Wiroj said on his Facebook on Sunday night, “ A main issue was a question raised by one shareholder ‘Does iTV perform media tasks?’, and Kim Siritaweechai, chairman of ITV who chaired the meeting online, answered clearly that ‘As of now the firm does not do anything. It has to wait for the legal case to end’.”
“But the minutes of the annual shareholders’ meeting, signed by Mr Kim, state that ‘Currently, (iTV) still operates in accordance with the company’s objectives, and submitted financial statements and corporate income tax as normal’,” Mr Wiroj said.
Mr Wiroj cast doubt on the accuracy of the official minutes of the iTV shareholders’ meeting.
“iTV must clarify to society why the minutes of its annual shareholders’ meeting did not match the answer given by the chairman during the meeting.
“Who ordered the minutes to be written like this? Who is the mastermind,” the MP-elect asked.
Society must raise questions whether this amounts to falsifying the minutes of the shareholders’ meeting to politically persecute another person, so they face a criminal charge, and how other committee members will be held accountable for such action, Mr Wiroj wrote.
“iTV must urgently clear up lingering doubts. It cannot remain quiet. Doing so could be a violation of Section 216 of the Public Limited Company Act. This offence carries a penalty of up to 5 years in prison and/or fine up to one million baht,’’ he said.
MFP deputy spokesman Karoonpon Tiensuwan tweeted on Monday, thanking well-intentioned people for exposing “old power cliques’’ and their efforts to use all means to remain in power and serve the interests of themselves and those around them.
“It’s time for the truth, to hunt down and dig up all information and reveal those who pull the strings,’’ Mr Karoonpon said.
On Monday, Mr Kim, president and executive director of Intouch Holdings Plc, ordered iTV committee members to launch a fact-finding investigation into the minutes of the shareholders’ meeting.
Last week, Mr Pita said he had already transferred the 42,000 shares in iTV he inherited from his father to relatives, to pre-empt any attempt to revive the company and use it as political ammunition.
The leader of the election-winning MPF was confident there was nothing to disqualify him from serving as an MP or becoming prime minister at the head of a coalition government.
In a Facebook post on June 6, Mr Pita said he had recently transferred the iTV shares held in the estate of his late father who died in 2006, to his relatives to ensure he could be the next prime minister amid attempts to block him from taking office.
He said that in its 2018-19 financial statement, iTV was defined as a holding company, but in the two following financial statements, it was labelled a TV organisation.
iTV stopped broadcasting in 2007 and its licence was taken over by Thai PBS. It was delisted from the Stock Exchange of Thailand in 2014. It has not had any income from media activity for several years, other than small sums from a subsidiary that rented out broadcasting equipment. Its business registration remained active only because litigation over its concession fees was not yet concluded.
Mr Pita noted, however, that at an iTV shareholders’ meeting on April 26, one shareholder asked if it was a media organisation. “Was the question politically motivated?” the Move Forward leader wrote on Facebook.
The constitution prohibits a shareholder of a media organisation from running in a general election. Mr Pita’s 42,000 iTV shares recently led to complaints challenging his eligibility to be an MP at the 2019 general election, to approve his party’s candidates and to lead the next government.
The largest current shareholder of iTV is Intouch Holdings Plc. The major shareholder of Intouch is Gulf Energy Development Plc. Gulf CEO Sarath Ratanavadi is the country’s fourth richest person with a net worth of US$11.1 billion, according to the reputable Forbes Magazine.
Nareuwat Noppakhun, the head of the accounting department at Intouch, prepared and submitted the financial statements of iTV to the Department of Business Development between 2015 and 2022, Isara News Agency reported.
On June 9, the Election Commission threw out all complaints related to media share ownership against the MFP leader, but would instead investigate whether Mr Pita applied to be a list-MP candidate despite knowing he might not have been eligible to run for a House seat. That would be a violation of Section 42(3) and Section 151 of the organic law on the election of MPs.
Kim Siritaweechai, chairman of ITV, left, answers a shareholder’s question about whether whether the company still performs as a media outlet, at the annual shareholders’ meeting on April 26. Mr Kim was heard in the video saying it did not. (Capture from Channel 3 Khao Sam Miti programme)
Channel 3’s Khao Sam Miti news programme posts a clip of iTV shareholders’ meeting on its Facebook page late on Sunday night.
Mayon: Thousands evacuated as Philippine volcano oozes lava
EPAAround 13,000 people have been evacuated in north-east Philippines as the country’s most famous volcano, Mayon, continued to ooze lava.
Riding lorries and buffalo-drawn carriages, people living within the “permanent danger zone” or six-kilometre radius fled to shelters.
Known for its “perfect” conical shape, Mayon started spewing lava last week.
But evacuations only began over the weekend as volcanic activity intensified, setting of alerts.
More people could be evacuated if Mayon’s unrest intensifies in the coming days, said Teresito Bacolcol, the country’s chief volcanologist.
It is currently under the third highest warning in a five-tier system that forecasts the threat of a hazardous or explosive eruption. It is technically erupting, albeit at a slow pace, with lava oozing from the crater, scientists say.
Located in a farming peninsula called Bicol, Mayon is among the country’s most active volcanoes. It has grown restive in recent weeks with more frequent earthquakes and rocks falling from its crater.
“There’s the danger of a fast-moving current of volcanic gases and rocks from the crater,” Bacolcol told local media. “It will be difficult to outrun those currents.”
An eruption in 1814 killed 1,200 people and buried an entire town. But the perimeter was declared off limits, resulting in fewer casualties after recent eruptions in 2013 and 2018.
As Mayon glowed a fiery red, tourists have also begun to camp out in hilltops to witness the volcanic spectacle. Mayon, which Guinness describes as the world’s “most conical” volcano, is a tourist favourite. Local officials have designated viewing points where thrill-seekers can marvel at its glowing crater.
“Last night, Mayon again put on a show as lava flowed from its crater,” Eugene Escobar, a disaster response official in the region, said on Monday in a TV interview.
Philip Balselle, a French tourist, told ABS-CBN News that he felt lucky that his Philippine holiday this year coincided with Mayon acting up. He joined about a dozen tourists at a lookout point in a nearby town.
“It’s the first time in my life that I’m seeing Mayon, and there’s volcanic activity,” said Filipino tourist Joseph Palasigue from the capital Manila, which is around half a day’s drive away.
Mayon’s beauty is part of Filipino folklore pop culture. It’s name is derived from the local word for beautiful lady, daragang mayon.
A Filipina beauty queen, Catriona Gray, won the 2018 Miss Universe competition wearing a gown that is inspired by lava flowing down Mayon’s slopes. Her mother hails from Albay province, where the volcano is located.
Mayon is among the Philippines’ 24 active volcanoes. In recent days, two others – Taal and Kanlaon – have also been put under close watch for signs of unrest.
While recent eruptions have not directly resulted in many deaths, powerful typhoons in the past have triggered volcanic mudflows that proved fatal.
In 2006, Typhoon Durian washed volcanic debris from Mayon’s slopes, burying villages and killing about 200 people. At least 10 people were killed in volcanic mudslides from Super Typhoon Goni in 2020.
Over the weekend, a powerful typhoon from the Pacific missed the Mayon area.
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British man detained climbing South Korean skyscraper
SEOUL: A British man attempted to scale the world’s fifth tallest building without ropes on Monday until South Korean authorities forced him to abandon his climb more than halfway up the 123-storey Lotte World Tower in Seoul. The 24-year-old man, wearing shorts, made his way up the landmark skyscraper forContinue Reading
Interactive indoor theme park KidZania to return to Singapore in 2024
SINGAPORE: KidZania will return to Singapore in the first quarter of 2024, said theme park developer Sim Leisure Group (SLG) on Monday (Jun 12). The theme park, an indoor family attraction that allows children to role-play different jobs, first opened in Singapore in April 2016 on Sentosa Island but closed permanentlyContinue Reading
Indonesia-led ASEAN sea drills will take harder aim at China
Indonesia, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ current revolving chair (ASEAN), is set to stage the first-ever joint military drills among just Southeast Asian bloc’s navies, crucially at a time of escalating US-China tensions.
According to Indonesian military chief Yudo Margono, the drills will be held in “the North Natuna Sea,” a resource-rich area off the coast of Indonesia’s Natuna islands.
Jakarta expressly renamed the area as the “North Natuna Sea”, similar to the Philippines’ designation of its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the South China Sea as the “West Philippine Sea”, in order to challenge Beijing’s claims of “traditional rights” in the waters. The islands have been a long-time site of illegal Chinese fishing more recently fortified by a Chinese Coast Guard ship presence.
Back in 2020, Indonesian armed forces deployed at least six warships and four jet fighters to the area in order to protect the country’s claimed sovereign rights.
During a rare high-profile visit to the Natuna Islands, Indonesian President Joko Widodo took an uncompromising position by categorically rejecting any Chinese claims in the resource-rich waters, which overlap with the tip of Beijing’s expansive “nine-dash line” claims in the South China Sea.
Indonesian military spokesperson Julius Widjojono made it clear that the planned ASEAN joint exercises are in response to the “high risk of disaster in Asia, especially Southeast Asia.”
In recent months, Manila has accused China’s coast guard of engaging in “aggressive tactics” and “dangerous maneuvers” in Philippine waters, just as Chinese armed forces challenged American reconnaissance activities in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.
As the regional body’s chairman this year, Jakarta seems intent on reversing the growing marginalization of ASEAN in shaping crises in its own backyard.
Enmeshing superpowers
To be clear, ASEAN nations are no strangers to joint military drills. Over the past decade, Southeast Asian nations have conducted such activities with all major powers.
Back in 2019, for instance, ASEAN navies conducted a five-day-long ASEAN-US Maritime Exercise (AUMX), which began at Thailand’s Sattahip naval base in Chonburi province in the Gulf of Thailand and extended all the way to Cape Cà Mau in southern Vietnam in the South China Sea.
Pre-drills, meanwhile, were held in Brunei and Singapore, underscoring the depth and sophistication of the joint exercises. As many as 1,260 personnel, eight warships, and four aircraft took part in AUMX, with Indonesia and Malaysia serving as observers.
Back then, the Pentagon deployed the USS Wayne E Meyer guided-missile destroyer,USS Montgomery littoral combat ship, P-8 Poseidon aircraft and multiple MH-60 helicopters for the joint drills with ASEAN nations.
Meanwhile, Southeast Asian nations also deployed their own main warships, namely the RSS Tenacious frigate (Singapore), the HTMS Krabi (Thailand), KDB Ramon Alcaraz (Philippines), the KDB Darulaman offshore patrol vessel (Brunei) and UMS Kyan Sittha frigate (Myanmar).
By that time, ASEAN nations had already conducted three naval drills with China. The most high-profile was the inaugural ASEAN-China Maritime Exercise drills in the southern Chinese city of Zhanjiang a year earlier in 2018.
Vice Admiral Shen Jinlong, commander of the (PLA) Navy, characterized the exercises as the country’s vision of “building a maritime community with a shared future” with ASEAN nations.
Meanwhile, ASEAN states also participated in Joint Maritime Drill in Qingdao, China to commemorate the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) 70th founding anniversary. China also conducted naval drills in Singapore’s waters in the same year.
But regional maritime tensions have only escalated over the succeeding years. In late 2019, a number of key ASEAN states began to toughen their stance against China in contested waters.
First came an unprecedented warning by Vietnamese deputy foreign minister Le Hoai Trung, who openly threatened potential “arbitration and litigation measures” against China amid festering disputes in the South China Sea.
A month later, Malaysia took observers by surprise when it submitted a claim for an extended continental shelf to the United Nations, directly challenging China’s (and Vietnam’s) expansive claims in the southern portions of the South China Sea basin.
In response to China’s criticisms, then-Malaysian foreign minister Saifuddin Abdullah dismissed Beijing’s claims as “ridiculous” and went so far as to threaten international arbitration to assert his country’s claim, similar to the Philippines successful move at an arbitral tribunal at The Hague in 2016.
Within weeks of Malaysia’s moves, Indonesia found itself at loggerheads with China over the Natuna Islands.
Amid a growing Chinese paramilitary presence in the North Natuna Sea area, the Indonesian Foreign Ministry openly accused China of a “violation of [its] sovereignty” and directly rejected the latter’s claim to “traditional fishing rights” in the area as having “no legal basis” in modern international law including UNCLOS.
It didn’t take long before Indonesian President Widodo, earlier accused of being too soft on China, made a historic visit to the Natuna area, where he declared: “We have a district here, a regent, and a governor here. There are no more debates. De facto, de jure, Natuna is Indonesia.”
The Indonesian military also bolstered its position in the Natuna area to counter any potential contingencies.
Rising Resistance
Although more assertive on an individual basis, ASEAN nations failed to present a collective response. In fairness, Indonesia repeatedly tried to steer regional states towards greater unity on the maritime disputes.
In 2015, the de facto ASEAN leader proposed joint patrols to send a clear message that no single nation should “build up strength or threaten anyone” in the area.
Eager to maintain stable ties with Beijing back then, however, Indonesia didn’t rule out joint patrols with China. But two years later, during the inaugural Australia-ASEAN Summit in Sydney, Widodo proposed a variation on the same theme, except this time he called for joint patrols by non-claimant regional states excluding China.
In 2021, the Indonesian Maritime Security Agency, known as Bakamla, proposed an ASEAN Coast Guard forum as a “great opportunity for ASEAN coast guards and maritime law enforcement agencies to talk and cooperate with each other.”
Earlier this year, Widodo once again emphasized the need for “ASEAN unity” in order to address regional crises. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr highlighted rising maritime tensions and underscored the “necessity to resolve all sovereignty and jurisdictional issues pertaining to the South China Sea by peaceful means without resort to force.”
In response, ASEAN leaders welcomed “develop[ing] guidelines for accelerating the early conclusion of an effective and substantive” Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea during the summit in Indonesia last month.
The Indonesian-led ASEAN drills later this year are thus seen as part of ongoing efforts to arrest escalating tensions in the region as well as reinforce the regional body’s “centrality” in shaping its own backyard.
“We will hold joint military drills in the North Natuna Sea,” Indonesian military chief Yudo Margono said after a meeting of Southeast Asian defense chiefs in Bali this month.
The top Indonesian general made it clear that the ASEAN naval drills, scheduled for September, won’t include combat operations but emphasized the need for strengthening “ASEAN centrality.”
Follow Richard Javad Heydarian on Twitter at @Richeydarian
âWe donât know what will happen tomorrowâ: One Malaysian familyâs journey to the Special Olympics World Games
MELAKA: Malaysia will send a contingent of 16 athletes with intellectual disabilities to compete in six sporting events at the upcoming Special Olympics World Games.
Among them is 15-year-old Agnes Tiong, who will be representing her country in table tennis.
She is the youngest athlete in the Malaysian contingent, and has multiple disabilities including hearing impairment and learning difficulties, her mother, Ms Chua Hong Bing told CNA.
Agnes also has a rare disorder which means her body does not produce white blood cells, so she relies on daily injections.
“Compared to other children, she is more vulnerable to infection and gets sick easily. It can be said that the hospital is her second home,” said Ms Chua.
Ms Chua has to keep a close watch on Agnes at all times, as the teen has difficulty expressing herself when she feels unwell.
West has made it easy for China in Latin America
It has long been the case that almost everything that happens in the Latin American region has something to do with China.
This relationship began with commodity trading, when China became the world’s main buyer after putting its economy on steroids to protect it from the effects of the global financial crisis in 2008.
China soon managed to turn the tables by flooding Latin American countries with its exports of consumer goods, and more recently also of intermediate products such as machinery, electronic components, and many others, by competing directly with the United States and, above all, with a Europe that for decades had benefited from its global export power.
When most Latin American countries began to accumulate trade deficits with the Asian giant, China began to develop a second level of economic influence – direct investment.
Despite China’s competitiveness in the manufacturing sector, it has not been these companies that have started to produce in Latin America but rather the electricity sector, as well as the search for control of natural resources.
Beyond direct investment, China’s share of infrastructure construction in the region has been financed by loans from its big development banks, which have only increased Latin American debt, this time with China. In fact, in some cases the accumulation of debt has been so rapid that it has ended up in the need to restructure it, as the case of Ecuador shows.
Diplomatic advances
Having reached a much broader level of economic relations, we should not be surprised that China has also been able to advance its diplomatic relations with much of the region. Indeed, in recent years, of the Latin American countries that still had diplomatic relations with Taiwan, several have turned to Beijing, with Panama as a prominent case because of its strategic importance derived from the Panama Canal, and, more recently, Honduras.
The uncertainties about the future of diplomatic relations with Taiwan of the few remaining countries are enormous, as reflected in the evolution of the recent elections in Paraguay.
But it’s not just Taiwan. Political trends in the region are undoubtedly being influenced by China, as evidenced by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s election campaign in Brazil and his foreign policy. More generally, the winds of left-wing populism are getting stronger, with a view to an alternative model of development in which the state plays a greater role.
While China’s influence may seem unstoppable on its own, the reality is that both the US and the European Union have made it very easy. Both economic blocs have not taken seriously enough the importance of reaching trade and investment agreements with Latin America and have been losing influence in the region.
In the case of the US, the financial crisis undoubtedly left a dent in the average citizen’s appreciation of the benefits of international trade. In the EU, the lack of an agreement with Mercosur after more than 20 years of negotiations is paradigmatic of the difficulties that an economic area, rather than a sovereign one, has in a world where international trade rules are broken and member countries are not willing to make the necessary concessions to move forward.
Beyond trade agreements, it seems difficult to think how the EU can maintain an influence commensurate with its economic size – which, incidentally, is also shrinking in relative terms – with an institutional framework so complicated that it opens us up to the status quo.
It is easy to blame China for Western powers’ loss of influence in the Latin American region, but the reality is that Beijing has only taken advantage of the opportunity the West has carelessly abandoned.
Looking ahead, the question is whether the West’s change of strategy toward China, which advocates reducing the risks inherent in its critical dependence on the Asian giant for some key sectors, such as the energy transition, could also have consequences for the West’s strategy toward Latin America, a region with very important ties historically and culturally, but also with abundant critical raw materials for the energy transition.
Alicia Garcia-Herrero is chief economist for Asia-Pacific at Natixis and senior research fellow at Bruegel. Follow her on Twitter @Aligarciaherrer.
Applications for Singapore Presidential Election open on Jun 13
ELD said that prospective candidates are encouraged to use the digital services for candidates at its website to prepare the application form for the CoE. The form must be printed and submitted to ELD with all the supporting documents no later than the fifth day after the Writ of Election is issued.
The ELD public counter is now located at Novena Rise, after it moved in 2021 from its Prinsep Link location.
The PEC issues the CoE no later than the eve of Nomination Day and applicants will be notified of the application outcome.
ELD said that the upcoming Presidential Election may be held at any time from Jun 13, and if it has not been held by the expiration of the term of the incumbent President, it should be held shortly after. President Halimah Yacob’s current term ends on Sep 13.
“We are unable to comment further on the timing of the upcoming Presidential Election, as this is a matter for the Prime Minister to decide,” ELD said in a response to the media.
In the last PE in 2017, the applications for CoE were opened on Jun 1 and the Writ of Election was issued on Aug 28. Nomination Day was Sep 13, 2017.
Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam is the only person who has announced his intention to run for the presidency, but observers have suggested that Harvey Norman Ossia’s founder George Goh could be a contender.