International

Malaysian Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong today launched scathing remarks against the European Union (EU), in a tit-for-tat battle against the EU ban of Malaysian palm oil products used in biodiesel. The Malaysian minister said Malaysia should ban butter from the EU, and the EU should also stop exporting the […]

  The yearly Democracy Index was released yesterday by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). Singapore’s rating dipped from 6.38 for 2016 to 6.32 for 2017. This reflects a worldwide dip in scores, particularly in Asia. On a scale of 1 to 10, the average score around the globe for 2017 went down from 2016’s score of […]

Steven Pressman, Colorado State University; Greg Wright, University of California, Merced, and Stephanie L. Canizales, University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences Editor’s note: President Donald Trump, in his first State of the Union address, took credit for a growing economy, urged Congress to invest more in infrastructure and defense […]

On Friday, January 26, which also happens to be Australia Day, a kangaroo suddenly jumped from the bush and knocked a cyclist over, causing the cyclist to fall from her bike. The website news.com.au posted a video of the surprise collision, which happened at a quiet road in Queensland. The cyclist, only identified as “Rebecca,” […]

Galician fast fashion retailer Zara is selling an Indian lungi-style skirt for £69.99 British pounds or approximately S$129. The garment, which is described as a “check mini skirt”, bears a striking resemblance to the sarong typically worn by men in India, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Thailand and Myanmar among other nations. Unlike […]

A frozen chunk weighing 10 to 12 kilograms fell on the village of Fazlipur Badli in Haraya, one of India’s northern states last week. The chunk, which understandably surprised villagers, is believed to be composed of frozen human excrement that fell from an airplane flying over the area. Some of the people from the village […]

The National Council of Churches in India (NCCI) has come out in favour of repealing Section 377 and welcomed the decision of the Supreme Court to refer Section 377 to a larger constitutional bench. The Council which represents about 14 million people, has published an open letter arguing homosexuality should be decriminalised. In its statement NCCI […]

The Republic of Singapore is well known locally and internationally for its strict laws on the use and sale of drugs. The possession or consumption of marijuana or cannabis can lead to a maximum 10-year jail term and/or up to $20,000 in fines while those found guilty of trafficking, importing or exporting more than 500 grams […]

Jaruwat Kiatiwongse, Bangkok University and Rosalia Sciortino, Mahidol University As the celebration for last year’s 50th anniversary of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) wanes, ASEAN now face the tasks to realise the ambitious vision of an integrated socio-cultural, economic and political community. Education is one of the sectors identified as having a pivotal […]

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the Philippines, today, January 15, 2018, revoked the registration of Rappler, a popular online news organization, due to alleged violations in nationality restrictions on control and ownership of mass media organizations. While many netizens see this as an attack on press freedom, others believe that Rappler deserves the […]

Former US Army recruit Jeremy Milbern, 25, recently held a funeral for his pet fishes, Tiffany and Tori. Twitter posts about the funeral delighted netizens and quickly went viral. Milbern dressed up in a black suit for the occasion, and even lit candles to honor the recently departed fish. He had held the “ceremony” to […]

The Founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, said that his company is introducing sweeping changes to to the kinds of posts, videos and photos that its more than two billion members will see. The social media company would be tweaking the algorithm governing which content shows up in user’s newsfeeds, drastically reducing the amount of content from brands […]

Ellen Wiles, University of Stirling It was a bright autumn morning, and I had just dropped off my two children at nursery and was scrolling through Twitter, when I spotted a video of another mother’s two children. The youngest was a one-year-old boy, the same age as my own youngest; the other, his nine-year-old sister, […]

Sanmay Ved was browsing through domain names in late September of 2015 when he stumbled upon the unexpected opportunity to purchase “google.com.” Ved, then a previous Google employee and researcher, then purchased the domain name, expecting it to be a fluke, and for the transaction to fail to go through. However, his credit card was […]

Indian superstar Rajinikanth has finally announced that he will step into politics, after years of speculation. The 67-year-old, who has acted in over 150 movies and is one of the highest paid actors in Asia, said in Chennai yesterday that he will “form my own political party” and contest all 234 seats at the next Indian state assembly […]