KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's coalition government plans to splash out 252 billion ringgit (HK$629.63 billion) next year with cash handouts, affordable housing and income-tax cuts, seeking to shore up support as elections loom. The 2013 budget targets lower-income workers with a one percentage point tax cut for individuals earning up to 50,000 ringgit a year. Some 4.3 million poor households will get 500 ringgit each, while poor singles will receive 250 ringgit each - costing the government 3 billion ringgit. Prime Minister Najib Razak said the budget would ensure economic growth of 4.5 to 5.5 per cent. AP
BANGKOK - Thailand's interior minister and leader of the ruling party resigned from cabinet amid a spiralling graft probe scandal. Yongyuth Wichaidit said he would quit his ministerial position, but retain his role as a member of parliament and as head of the Puea Thai party, allied with ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Yongyuth, 70, was found guilty of unlawfully endorsing the sale of monastic land to a developer when he ran the Interior Ministry in 2000. He denies wrongdoing. But the Puea Thai party said he had decided to fall on his sword to take the heat off the government. AFP
TOKYO - The US Treasury said it imposed sanctions on Japan's biggest yakuza gang for its involvement in weapons, drug trafficking, prostitution, fraud and money laundering. The Tokyo-based Sumiyoshi-kai was targeted under an executive order, the Treasury said. Also sanctioned were the group's leader Shigeo Nishiguchi and his deputy Hareaki Fukuda. US President Barack Obama identified the yakuza syndicates as transnational criminal organisations in July 2011 and the Treasury has already imposed sanctions on the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's largest gang. Bloomberg