Asia News fra SCMP

Singapore police said on Tuesday an aircraft linked to an investigation into a multibillion scandal at Malaysian state fund 1MDB was in the city state but Malaysia had not made a formal request for its return. Singapore authorities had not previously confirmed that the US$35-million private jet, which Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has said he is trying to repossess, was there. Aviation services firm Jet Aviation said on Monday a jet, which the US Department of Justice alleges was... […]

The Philippine president said on Tuesday that China’s claim to airspace above newly built islands and surrounding waters in the disputed South China Sea “is wrong” and that Beijing’s demands that others leave those areas could become a “flashpoint” for conflict. President Rodrigo Duterte’s remarks in a speech to an audience that included the American ambassador and other foreign guests were a rare public criticism of China, which he has refused to... […]

An Australian cross-bench senator has invoked the term “the final solution” in an inflammatory speech calling for a plebiscite asking voters whether they want to end all immigration by Muslims and non-English-speaking people “from the third world”. Fraser Anning, formerly of the far-right Pauline Hanson One Nation party, and now a member of the Katter’s Australia party, used his maiden speech in the Senate to call for “a plebiscite to allow the Australian... […]

People in South Korea and Taiwan unveiled monuments and staged protests on Tuesday to mark Japan’s wartime use of “comfort women”, a euphemism for girls and women forced to work in Japan’s wartime brothels. In South Korea, a new monument was unveiled as part of its first Memorial Day for Japanese Forces’ Comfort Women Victims, which threatens to exacerbate a sensitive diplomatic issue with Japan. “My hope is that this issue will not lead to a diplomatic... […]

Malaysia’s new government will change an official tourism logo featuring an orangutan wearing sunglasses after it sparked a storm of mockery, a minister said Tuesday. The “Visit Malaysia 2020” logo has an image of the orangutan with its arm around a proboscis monkey, a picture of a turtle – also sporting shades – and multi-coloured, uneven lettering. It was released in January as part of a campaign to attract more tourists to the tropical Southeast Asian country... […]

A Chinese man under a deportation order has filed a damages suit against the Japanese government, claiming he was harassed by officials at the immigration facility in southwestern Japan where he has been placed. Lin Qi, 33, is seeking 1.1 million yen (US$9,900) in compensation after having his food and shoes brought together in a box and being yelled at by facility staff. He filed the lawsuit on June 28 with the Nagasaki District Court. “Other foreigners are also being harassed a lot,... […]

Two Malaysian women convicted for attempting to have lesbian sex will be fined and caned, a prosecutor said on Tuesday, in a rare case against gay people in the Muslim-majority country. Islamic enforcement officers in the conservative northeastern state of Terengganu found the two Muslim women attempting to engage in sexual acts in a car during a patrol in April, according to prosecutor Muhamad Khasmizan Abdullah. The women were charged under the Islamic sharia law known as musahaqah –... […]

Indonesian prosecutors have demanded an 18-month prison term for a woman who was charged with blasphemy after she complained about the volume of a mosque’s loudspeakers. The ethnic Chinese defendant, Meiliana, 44, was arrested on May 18, about two years after her case triggered a riot in Tanjung Balai, a port town in North Sumatra province. A spokesman at the local prosecutor’s office, Sumanggar Siagian, said Tuesday the sentencing demand for Meiliana was made at the District Court... […]

South Korea will ban driving recalled BMWs that haven’t received safety checks following dozens of fires the German carmaker has blamed on a faulty exhaust gas component. South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said Tuesday the ban taking effect Wednesday affects about 20,000 vehicles. Drivers cannot use the cars except for taking them to safety checks. While violating the ban is punishable by up to a year in prison, the ministry said the focus will be on... […]

The city’s leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has called on Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte to urge immigration authorities to hasten their search for records that may support a Hong Kong man’s appeal against his 40-year jail sentence. Tang Lung-wai, 47, has been languishing behind bars in the Philippines for 18 years. He entered the country as a tourist in June 2000 to meet a friend, but was arrested the next month for a drug offence. It took 11 years for his case to make it... […]