Singapore – Page 15 – The Singapore Post

Tourists scarce as travel bubbles fail to inflate

31May

By Desk TeamNo Comments

Tourists scarce as travel bubbles fail to inflate

Australia and New Zealand hope to see two-way travel improve after slow start The mountain resort of Queenstown in New Zealand has been hoping to benefit from the country's travel bubble with Australia. (AFP Photo) WELLINGTON: Quarantine-free travel bubbles were hailed as a "godsend" for tourism earlier this year, but cancellations and suspensions have deflated hopes they will herald a return to pre-pandemic normality. Perhaps the world's most high-profile bubble opened between Australia and New Zealand on April 19, leading to emotional scenes as families split when borders closed almost 400 days earlier were reunited. Since then, New Zealand has ordered partial shutdowns on four occasions due to virus scares in Australian states, the most serious of which forced Melbourne into a snap ...

Myanmar counts cost of coup, 100 days on

30May

By Desk TeamNo Comments

China, Conflict, Opinion, Politics, Singapore, World

Myanmar counts cost of coup, 100 days on

Myanmar counts cost of coup, 100 days on The last 100 days has seen Myanmar plunge into chaos as the army struggles to control widespread opposition to its rule. YANGON: One hundred days after the military seized power in Myanmar, the nun who pleaded for protesters on her knees in the street says the coup has cast a pall of fear and depression over the country. The image of Sister Ann Rose Nu Tawng kneeling in the dust, arms spread, begging police not to shoot "the children" went viral in March as an uprising swelled in Myanmar. Today, the 45-year-old nun works in a clinic in Myanmar's northernmost Kachin state, tending to patients injured by security forces, sickened from stress, and even those who try to kill themselves. "With the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic and brutal act...

30May

By Desk TeamNo Comments

Asia, China, Conflict, Opinion, Politics, Singapore, World

UN is failing the Uighurs in China

UN is failing the Uighurs in China In file photo dated October 1 last year, Ethnic Uighur demonstrators take part in a protest against China, in Istanbul. REUTERS/Murad Sezer Of the 11 million Uighur Muslims living in China's northwestern region of Xinjiang, up to two million of them, including ethnic Uzbeks and Kazakhs have been detained inside camps, while those remaining on the outside facing a crackdown for a number of years. Human rights organizations and many foreign governments have described the many human rights abuses inflicted on the Uighur people as genocide. A recent report by a US think tank -- New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy -- claimed the Chinese government has violated the 1948 United Nations Convention for the Punishment and Prevention of the Crime of Genoc...

General: China’s Africa outreach poses threat from Atlantic

30May

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Asia, China, Conflict, Opinion, Politics, Singapore, World

General: China’s Africa outreach poses threat from Atlantic

WASHINGTON - The top U.S general for Africa is warning that a growing threat from China may come not just from the waters of the Pacific but from the Atlantic as well. U.S. Gen. Stephen Townsend, in an interview with The Associated Press, said Beijing is looking to establish a large navy port capable of hosting submarines or aircraft carriers on Africa’s western coast. Townsend said China has approached countries stretching from Mauritania to south of Namibia, intent on establishing a naval facility. If realized, that prospect would enable China to base warships in its expanding Navy in the Atlantic as well as Pacific oceans. “They’re looking for a place where they can rearm and repair warships. That becomes militarily useful in conflict,” said Townsend, who heads U.S. Africa Command. “T

Netflix series criticized online in China over Taiwan flag

29May

By Desk TeamNo Comments

China, Singapore, World

Netflix series criticized online in China over Taiwan flag

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese nationalism on the internet has a new target: The popular Thai drama “Girl from Nowhere“ distributed by Netflix. Comments online Wednesday complained the series’ Facebook page showed the flags of Taiwan, the island democracy claimed by the ruling Communist Party as part of its territory, and of Hong Kong, where the party is trying to crush pro-democracy activism. “Girl from Nowhere” joins a growing list of foreign retailers, airlines, hotels and other brands that have been attacked online in China over Taiwan, Xinjiang, Tibet, human rights and other politically charged issues. Some comments complained the flags show support for “splitting China,” or promoting formal independence for self-ruled Taiwan. The flags, with those of Singapore and other markets, appeared

Virus strain behind deadly India outbreak detected in 44 Nations

29May

By Desk TeamNo Comments

Asia, Singapore, World

Virus strain behind deadly India outbreak detected in 44 Nations

Virus strain behind deadly India outbreak detected in 44 Nations Colorized scanning electron micrograph of a cell (blue) heavily infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus particles (red), isolated from a patient sample. Image captured at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Maryland, USA. (Image: NIAID) NEW YORK: The more infectious coronavirus driving a catastrophic Covid-19 epidemic in India was detected in 44 countries, according to the World Health Organization, which urged more studies to understand its severity and propensity to cause reinfections. The strain, identified in October, spawned three versions -- B.1.617.1, B.1.617.2 and B.1.617.3 -- amid an unprecedented spike in Covid-19 cases that made the South Asian country the site of world’s worst coronavirus crisi

26May

By Desk TeamNo Comments

Singapore, World

Expats fear jabs are not for them

Expats fear jabs are not for them As Covid cases and the death toll in Thailand steeply climbs, Dr Opas Kankawinpong, head of the Disease Control Department, on Thursday came out to pacify fears of the foreign community in Thailand -- at last. "Anyone living in Thailand, be they Thai or foreign, will be able to get the vaccine if they want it," he said. The statement nevertheless has done little to calm the expat community -- of about three million -- of fears they would be sidelined in the government's rush to administer limited supplies to a frenzied citizenry whose Covid-free bubble has now been truly burst. The government's message about how the authority will provide the foreign community much needed Covid vaccinations has been mixed. Only two days prior, the Ministry of Public H...

Singapore broker up 544% in a year eyes China for more gains

26May

By Desk TeamNo Comments

Business, Singapore, World

Singapore broker up 544% in a year eyes China for more gains

Singapore broker up 544% in a year eyes China for more gains Lightning strikes during a thunderstorm over Shanghai on May 14, 2021. (AFP photo) iFast Corp, an online brokerage that’s been Singapore’s best-performing stock over the past year, is betting on China and a retail-trading frenzy to help it grow assets by more than fivefold by 2028. Although the firm’s Chinese operations are loss-making, Chief Executive Officer Lim Chung Chun said the nation is poised to become the wealth-management platform’s fastest-growing market and is key to the group’s goal of reaching S$100 billion (2.4 trillion baht) of assets under administration by 2028. Investors have bought into that vision, with iFast shares soaring more than 500% in the past 12 months -- beating all members of the FTSE ST All-Shar

26May

By Desk TeamNo Comments

Asia, Business, Singapore, World

Big Pharma, Big Heart

Recognised as a “HR Asia’s Best Companies to Work for 2020” by HR Asia, biopharmaceutical company Takeda Thailand has garnered a respected reputation for its company culture and management style, complemented with Takeda’s global standing as one of the top 10 biopharmaceutical companies in the world. Keen to find out more about how this 240-year-old pharma company transformed from a traditional Japanese and Chinese medicine merchant to a global biopharmaceutical leader, I spoke to Peter Streibl, General Manager of Takeda Thailand, to speak about the company’s management style and philosophy, its contribution to the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic and more. How did Takeda get started and how has it changed? Takeda is a company that was founded over two centuries ago in Japan, and we

25May

By Desk TeamNo Comments

China, Conflict, Singapore, World

Myanmar: From diplomacy to force

Myanmar: From diplomacy to force Ahead of the special Asean Summit in Jakarta last Saturday, a woman prepares a placard out of crossed-out portraits of Myanmar's junta chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing during a protest against the military coup. (Photo: Reuters) At its recent "special" summit in Jakarta on Myanmar's crisis, Asean reached its diplomatic maximum by coming up with a "five-point consensus" that will likely prove too little and too slow. Constrained by consensus and its non-interference principle where any of its 10 members has a virtual veto, Asean's overdue response to Myanmar's fast-escalating violence on the ground is likely to prove ineffective. As Asean's diplomacy faces limitations, more of Myanmar's outcomes are likely to be decided by the use of force in an intens...

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