Asia News fra SCMP

China is making plans to evacuate its citizens from India, with chartered flights taking place from early next month as the country grapples with a rise in Covid-19 infections from migrant labourers returning to their hometowns.The Chinese embassy in New Delhi posted a statement on its website and WeChat messaging account on Monday, telling citizens to sign up for the flights by Wednesday, May 27.The notice, in Mandarin, said students, tourists and temporary business visitors “who have…

Singapore unveiled a new S$33 billion (US$23.25 billion) stimulus package on Tuesday with a specific focus on saving jobs amid the coronavirus pandemic.This is its fourth set of financial measures this year for businesses and households whose livelihoods have been affected by border closures globally and a partial lockdown in the city state.Singapore seeks to save jobs with US$23.2 billion fourth stimulus budgetIt means the government’s total fiscal injection will be a staggering S$92.9 billion…

An executive who was paid almost US$18,000 a month by LafargeHolcim to do nothing failed in his suit to force the cement maker to fire him with a payout worth US$2.3 million. Timing was his undoing.When his employer Lafarge SA in 2015 announced a staff buyout programme as part of its merger with Holcim, Antoine Zenone hoped he could get a golden handshake. But the company told him he wasn’t eligible and French judges have said “non” three times in a row.The Paris appeal court ruled that Zenone…

As Indonesia’s most populous province weighed tough movement restrictions to curb the coronavirus outbreak, it turned to a loosely knit volunteer group of data scientists and health experts.The Kawal Covid-19 (Guard against Covid-19) group organised a data model presented to the provincial governor that showed there could be 70,000 deaths by July in West Java if no restrictions were imposed compared with only 20,000 if it took tough action. Accordingly, West Java province locked down.“They were…

Tens of thousands of impoverished foreign labourers have been left stranded and ostracised in one of the world’s most densely packed cities as the tourist paradise of the Maldives battles the novel coronavirus.The turquoise waters and pristine beaches that draw honeymoon couples from around the world have been empty for weeks since a government order to close all resorts. That has left an army of migrant workers jobless.Like Singapore, which recorded a large number of coronavirus cases among…

Singapore on Tuesday unveiled a staggering S$33 billion (US$23.2 billion) worth of fresh stimulus measures to bring the total injections this year to nearly S$100 billion, with the government stressing it will go all out to save as many jobs as possible as the coronavirus-battered economy heads into a tailspin.Economists and market watchers had expected the fourth round of measures to have amounted to no more than S$10 billion, and had viewed today’s announcement as an extension to the over S…

Samsung Group heir Lee Jae-yong was questioned on Tuesday by prosecutors about a controversial 2015 merger and alleged accounting fraud that they said may have helped him advance his succession-planning agenda at the country’s top conglomerate.The questioning brings fresh legal trouble for Lee who is already facing court trial over a charge of bribery aimed at winning support to succeed ailing group patriarch Lee Kun-hee, and which involved former South Korean President Park Geun-hye…

A decade after billions of dollars were wired to Swiss banks, the country is holding its first trial into whether a local banker failed to stop a US$700 million transfer into an account controlled by fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, the alleged mastermind behind Malaysia’s 1MDB scandal.The compliance officer, who can only be identified as A, was an employee of Coutts & Co, where Low had an account.A, 52, was the designated money laundering reporting officer for Coutts, according to the…

Early one October morning in 1969, Singapore police officers found the body of a man dumped in a storm drain. He had been stabbed to death, police said, in what became one of the country’s most notorious gang killings.After more than 50 years on the run, one of the men wanted for the murder, Tan Tong Meng, died of a heart attack in Denmark last month, according to former police detectives, online tributes and media reports.Tan was 72, and also known as Roland Tan, or by his aliases – “Mr Big”…

A researcher leading Thailand’s push to manufacture a coronavirus vaccine says its aim is to make it cost-effective and accessible to Southeast Asia, and play a part in preventing a supply shortage globally.Thailand’s government announced last week its plans to have a vaccine ready for deployment next year after researchers at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University successfully conducted trials on mice.“We don’t aim for making money. It’s not a money issue but an accessibility one,” said Kiat…