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This Week in Asia
Hin Leong founder Lim Oon Kuin arrives for sentencing at the Singapore State Courts on November 18, 2024. Photo: Reuters

Southeast Asia

Hin Leong founder OK Lim has Singapore jail term cut to 13½ years on appeal

Once considered a ‘legend in Singapore’s oil industry’, Lim was convicted of cheating HSBC and abetting forgery in 2024.

Muslims in Japan were falsely blamed for illegal buildings. Then came the fires

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Duterte allies use Iran war threat to attack Philippines’ US ties

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East Asia

Japanese court upholds order to dissolve Unification Church over donations

The order will take immediate effect, with the group losing its religious corporation tax status and liquidation procedures to begin.

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Security personnel stand guard outside the Unification Church headquarters in Tokyo on Wednesday. Photo: Kyodo
Security personnel stand guard outside the Unification Church headquarters in Tokyo on Wednesday. Photo: Kyodo

People

Villagers’ ‘swift action’ stops runaway train in Malaysia’s Sabah

The train had suffered a brake failure during a morning commute in southwest Sabah, prompting calls from officials for a full investigation.

People

In Japan, a yakuza’s mansion is now for sale. Here’s why

Set to be sold off due to a court order, the house was the target of a drive-by shooting and an arson attack in recent years.

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Southeast Asia

Thousands of passengers ‘stuck’ in Indonesia’s Bali after war grounds planes

With foreigners at risk of overstaying their visas, the Bali immigration office has introduced a free same-day emergency stay permit.

Passengers await news of their flights at Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport amid disruptions from Israeli-US strikes on Iran on Monday. Photo: AFP
Passengers await news of their flights at Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport amid disruptions from Israeli-US strikes on Iran on Monday. Photo: AFP

Lifestyle & Culture

‘Social morals are dying’: Japan’s under-20s are getting high like never before

The relaxed attitude towards ‘fashionable’ drugs has been cited as one reason for more young Japanese arrested for cannabis offences.

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Lifestyle & Culture

‘Too high a cost’: why some Singaporeans are forgoing parenthood

As the city state battles a record low fertility rate, analysts say deeper anxieties and rising opportunity costs continue to shape decisions.

Politics

‘Nothing to them’: Indonesia’s US-Iran peace broker bid faces long odds

Indonesia’s president offered to fly to Tehran in person, but critics say joining Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ cost Jakarta its neutrality.

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Young Indonesians hold signs as they take part in a protest against Israel outside the US embassy in Jakarta last month. Photo: Reuters

Australasia

Australia’s best-paid jobs are twice as likely to go to men as to women

Industries that pay the most, such as mining and construction, tend to have the largest gender wage gaps, according to a report.

Pedestrians cross a street in Melbourne’s central business district. Photo: AFP
Pedestrians cross a street in Melbourne’s central business district. Photo: AFP

People

Allies of Philippines’ Duterte step up online attacks as drug war trial looms

The efforts have focused on undermining the ICC itself, targeting victims and witnesses and normalising mockery of the dead.

People

She married 2 men at once in Thailand – and her mother is fine with it

The two Austrian grooms each paid a 1 million baht dowry, then celebrated by leaping into a pond.

Lifestyle & Culture

Malaysian student charged with desecrating Koran in viral video

The viral post showing a man stepping on the Koran and mocking the Prophet Mohammed has triggered 82 police reports and a national outcry.

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A pupil learns to read Arabic during a Koran memorisation lesson. Photo: EPA

Politics

India’s 100GW nuclear push was missing one thing. Canada just provided it

India needs to triple its uranium supply to meet its nuclear targets. Canada, with mines already in the pipeline, is well placed to deliver.

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An Indian man cycles along a dirt road next to the Norora Atomic Power Station in India’s Uttar Pradesh state. Photo: AFP
An Indian man cycles along a dirt road next to the Norora Atomic Power Station in India’s Uttar Pradesh state. Photo: AFP

Lifestyle & Culture

How the Unification Church is facing fallout in Japan from Shinzo Abe’s murder

Critics have called the group a ‘money-making business’, with many people having lost huge sums of money from its ‘spiritual sales’.

Politics

‘Deliberate signal’: Philippines elevates officer amid South China Sea tensions

Analysts say Marcos is doubling down on the country’s ‘transparency initiative’ while engaging Beijing diplomatically behind closed doors.

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Politics

Build fast, grow rich: To Lam’s blueprint for a rising Vietnam

Vietnam’s Communist Party chief is staking his legacy on 10 per cent growth, domestic megaprojects and an overseas charm offensive.

Illustration: Huy Truong
Illustration: Huy Truong

Economics

Philippines’ AI reckoning puts millions of jobs on the line

The US$30 billion outsourcing sector is fighting to adapt, leaving millions of workers with a stark choice: upskill or be left behind.

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Economics

India’s trade blitz seeks to keep afloat a sinking global order

‘Jolted out of its slumber’ by US tariffs, New Delhi is aggressively diversifying trade alliances to act as a bridge in a polarised world.

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Politics

‘Critical point’: can Thailand election pave way for national reset?

With the economy struggling and corruption rife, Thai voters will look to the February 8 election as a chance to turn the country around.

Thailand’s prime minister and Bhumjaithai Party leader Anutin Charnvirakul (second from right) greets people at a market during an election campaign at Chinatown in Bangkok on January 20. Photo: AFP
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Highlights from
THIS WEEK IN ASIA

Health & Environment

Muslims in Japan were falsely blamed for illegal buildings. Then came the fires

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The aftermath of a fire on Saturday at Ebetsu Masjid, a mosque in the city of Ebetsu, central Hokkaido, Japan. Photo: Facebook/Kamran Khan

People

In Japan, a yakuza’s mansion is now for sale. Here’s why

videocam
Japanese police inspectors raiding the Osaka office of the Yamaguchi-gumi crime group in 1997. Photo: AFP

Politics

Duterte allies use Iran war threat to attack Philippines’ US ties

videocam
A naval base in Cagayan province, the Philippines. The Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement, or EDCA, allows US forces rotational access to selected Philippine military bases. Photo: EPA-EFE

Lifestyle & Culture

‘Social morals are dying’: Japan’s under-20s are getting high like never before

videocam
People take part in a march in Tokyo in 2023 calling for the legalisation of cannabis. Photo: AFP

People

Villagers’ ‘swift action’ stops runaway train in Malaysia’s Sabah

Quick-thinking villagers in Malaysia’s Sabah state sacrificed a vital motorised rail trolley to force the runaway train to stop. The train had suffered a brake failure. Photo: handout
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MULTIMEDIA
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