World

JLL urges hotels, retailers to cut costs, seek backups
28Aug By desk teamNo Comments
Business, World

JLL urges hotels, retailers to cut costs, seek backups

JLL urges hotels, retailers to cut costs, seek backups Skyscrapers fill the Bangkok skyline. JLL Thailand says hotels and retail should brace for at least a two-year recovery period. (Photo by Somchai Poomlard) The hotel and retail sectors should prepare for stringent cost-cutting and find alternative income sources for as long as there is no coronavirus vaccine, as it will take two years for businesses to resume as usual, according to property consultant JLL Thailand. JLL managing director Suphin Mechuchep said the hotel sector has borne the brunt of the impact of the outbreak because it is reliant on the tourism industry, particularly inbound arrivals. "Covid-19 has created an extreme negative impact on the hotel business, which worsened in the second quarter as occupancy dipped to a...
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AFC life ban for Lao goalkeeper for fixing Hong Kong match
27Aug By desk teamNo Comments
World

AFC life ban for Lao goalkeeper for fixing Hong Kong match

AFC life ban for Lao goalkeeper for fixing Hong Kong match Action from the friendly between Hong Kong and Laos at Mong Kok Stadium on Oct 5, 2017. Three Laos players have been banned for life over the 4-0 loss. (South China Morning Post photo) The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has banned Lao national team goalkeeper Thipphonexay Inthavongsa for life following an investigation into match-fixing. Thipphonexay was found guilty of "conspiring to manipulate the result of an international match between the Hong Kong and Laos national teams on October 5, 2017", the AFC said. He becomes the third Lao international to be banned in relation to the side's 4-0 loss to Hong Kong at Mong Kok Stadium. His teammates Khampheng Sayavutthi and Lembo Saysana were banned for life in February. As wit...
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Australian leader says US-China war no longer inconceivable
27Aug By desk teamNo Comments
World

Australian leader says US-China war no longer inconceivable

CANBERRA, Australia - Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Wednesday his government held a less dramatic view of U.S.-China strategic tensions than a predecessor who warned of a potential “hot war” before U.S. presidential elections in November. Former prime minister and China scholar Kevin Rudd wrote in the Foreign Affairs journal this week that the risk of armed conflict between the United States and China in the next three months was “especially high.” Morrison said his administration had expressed similar views in a defence policy update last month when he announced 270 billion Australian dollars ($190 billion) in new warfare capability spending, including longer-range missiles. “Our defence update expresses it differently and certainly not as dramatically as Kevin,” Mo
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Prayut applauds ‘crucial’ new Bangkok motorway
27Aug By desk teamNo Comments
Business, World

Prayut applauds ‘crucial’ new Bangkok motorway

Prayut applauds 'crucial' new Bangkok motorway Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha presides over the opening ceremony of a new motorway from Bangkok to Ban Chang and from Pattaya to Map Ta Phut in Rayong on Monday. It is hoped the route will serve to expand trade and investment, boost transport and logistics and benefit tourism. (Government House photo) A new motorway from Bangkok to Chon Buri and Rayong provinces was opened by the prime minister on Monday. "The route is Thailand's first-ever inter-city motorway connecting land, water and air transportation systems," said Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha. "The route also connects tourist sites, industrial estates and agricultural areas in the eastern region." Gen Prayut said the motorway would be "crucial" to the country's export sector since it lea...
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Curfew in parts of Kashmir ahead of revocation anniversary
27Aug By desk teamNo Comments
World

Curfew in parts of Kashmir ahead of revocation anniversary

SRINAGAR, India - Authorities imposed a curfew in many parts of Indian-controlled Kashmir on Tuesday, a day ahead of the first anniversary of India’s decision to revoke the disputed region’s semi-autonomy. Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, a civil administrator, said the security lockdown was imposed in the region’s main city of Srinagar because of information about protests planned by anti-India groups to mark Aug. 5 as “Black Day.” Police and paramilitary soldiers drove through neighbourhoods and went to people’s homes, warning them to stay indoors. Government forces, carrying assault rifles and wearing riot gear, erected steel barricades and laid razor wire across roads, bridges and intersections. They patrolled largely deserted streets in Srinagar and restricted civilian movement. Scores of y
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Remains dug from Japan mass grave suggest epidemic in 1800s
27Aug By desk teamNo Comments
World

Remains dug from Japan mass grave suggest epidemic in 1800s

TOKYO - Archaeologists have dug up the remains of more than 1,500 people, many of them believed to have died in an epidemic, who were buried in a 19th century mass grave that is being excavated for a city development project in Osaka in western Japan. Officials at the Osaka City Cultural Properties Association studying the remains said Wednesday that they believe they are of young people who died in the late 1800s. The Umeda Grave, one of seven historical burial sites in Japan’s bustling merchant city of Osaka, was unearthed as part of a redevelopment project near a main train station. The more than 1,500 remains were found during excavations that began in September 2019, following an earlier 2016-2017 study that dug up hundreds of similar remains at adjacent locations, according to Yoji
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Joshua Wong, other HK activists charged
26Aug By desk teamNo Comments
World

Joshua Wong, other HK activists charged

Joshua Wong, other HK activists charged Pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong registers as a candidate for the upcoming Legislative Council election in Hong Kong on July 20. (Reuters photo) HONG KONG: Two dozen people in Hong Kong, including pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong, have been charged with participating in an illegal assembly at a vigil on June 4 commemorating the crackdown on protesters in and around Beijing's Tiananmen square in 1989. It was the first time the vigil had been banned in semi-autonomous Hong Kong, with police citing coronavirus restrictions on group gatherings in refusing permission for it to take place. Still, tens of thousands lit candles across the city in what was largely a peaceful event, bar a brief skirmish with riot police in one neighbourhood. The annive...
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3 years on, Rohingya refugee repatriation to Myanmar still uncertain
26Aug By desk teamNo Comments
World

3 years on, Rohingya refugee repatriation to Myanmar still uncertain

3 years on, Rohingya refugee repatriation to Myanmar still uncertain A Rohingya woman climbs up a hill as she goes back to her makeshift home in Jamtoli refugee camp, near Ukhia on Sunday. (AFP photo) The plight of Rohingya refugees living in squalid camps in Bangladesh continues as efforts to repatriate them to Myanmar have virtually stalled, with the world's attention focused on the coronavirus pandemic. Three years ago on Tuesday, tens of thousands of people from the Muslim minority started fleeing their homes in the western state of Rakhine to escape a military crackdown on insurgents. In the span of a few months, the Cox's Bazar district near Bangladesh's border with Myanmar became the world's largest refugee settlement with more than 1 million refugees. Since August 2017, over 7...
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Anti-government activist nabbed in Rayong
26Aug By desk teamNo Comments
Politics, World

Anti-government activist nabbed in Rayong

Activist Panupong 'Mike Rayong' holds a sign reading '1,000-rai sea reclamation. What will Rayong people get?' ahead of the arrival of Prime Minister Chan-o-cha for a mobile cabinet meeting in the eastern province on Monday. (Photo by Pattarapong​ chatpattarasill​) An anti-government activist was arrested in Rayong province while waiting to greet Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha who led a mobile cabinet meeting in the province on Monday. Police took Panupong “Mike Rayong” Jadnok of the Free Youth’s Eastern chapter at 100 Sao Market in Ban Phe, Muang district, before the prime minister arrived in the area. He was caught holding a poster reading: “1,000-rai reclamation. What will Rayong people get?” Mr Panupong was on an arrest warrant issued in connection with the Free Youth protest at
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US rescinds global ‘do not travel’ coronavirus warning
26Aug By desk teamNo Comments
World

US rescinds global ‘do not travel’ coronavirus warning

NEW YORK - The Trump administration on Thursday rescinded its warnings to Americans against all international travel because of the coronavirus pandemic, saying conditions no longer warrant a blanket worldwide alert. The State Department lifted its level-four health advisory for the entire world in order to return to country-specific warnings. That move came shortly after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revised its COVID-19 travel advisory information. The CDC lifted “do not travel” warnings for about 20 locations but advised staying away from the vast majority of the world. “With health and safety conditions improving in some countries and potentially deteriorating in others, the department is returning to our previous system of country-specific levels of travel advice in
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