Chinese seek freedom, edge at US high schools

Link

China's elite tighten their belts as crackdown bites

China's big spenders are reining in overt shows of wealth, shelving shopping trips in Hong Kong and Macau gambling sprees in the face of the Communist Party's anti-corruption and frugality drive, analysts say.
Link

Diaoyu Islands: The Truth

 

 

CIA concedes it spied on U.S. Senate investigators, apologizes

The CIA conceded on Thursday that it had improperly monitored computers used by the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee in an investigation of interrogation tactics and secret prisons for terrorism suspects after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Central Intelligence Agency spokesman Dean Boyd said in a statement that the agency's inspector general had determined that "some CIA employees acted in a manner inconsistent" with an understanding between the agency and the Senate panel.
Link

CIA director John Brennan lied to you and to the Senate. Fire him.

Private apologies are not enough for a defender of torture, the architect of America’s drone program and the most talented liar in Washington. The nation’s top spy needs to go.
Link

Osaka police hide 81,000 crimes to clean up image

Osaka police have admitted they did not report more than 81,000 offences over a period of several years in a desperate bid to clean up the region's woeful reputation for street crime.
Link

Karting track to be built inside Turf Club

It’ll be first permanent CIK- certified facility here, able to hold international races

Japan Rejects UN Call to Take Responsibility for Wartime Sexual Slavery

Japan has rejected a call by the UN's human rights watchdog that it should accept full blame for pressing Asian women into wartime sexual slavery in military brothels, in what was clearly the largest case of human trafficking in the 20th century.
Link

UN watchdog urges Japan to accept blame for 'comfort women'

The United Nations has called on Japan to accept full blame for pressing women from Korea and other Asian nations into sexual slavery during World War II.
Link

U.N. panel tells Japan to compensate 'comfort women'

A United Nations human rights agency is calling on Japan to guarantee independent investigations of wartime sex slavery and provide a public apology and compensation to the women who were victims.
Link

China commerce minister chastises US after WTO victory

China's commerce minister hit out at the United States on Thursday, urging it not to be a "rule-breaker" after the World Trade Organization (WTO) handed Beijing initial victory in a trade dispute.
Link

Magnate allays fears of Iskandar building glut

This comes against a backdrop of roll-out of mammoth projects by big Chinese developers

Why complicate the COE system even more?

130 hp power limit for Cat A too complex to implement

US law still reigns supreme in global economy

Some bristle at BNP Paribas fine and Fatca but are helpless in face of worldwide use of greenback

Bruised and grumbling, foreign banks bend to U.S. rules

Financiers may grumble that the United States is acting like an imperial power in punishing foreign banks for dealings far beyond U.S. territory, but in the end they are more likely to bow to Washington than kick against its dollar muscle.

In an expletive-charged broadside, the executive was quoted as saying: "You ... Americans! Who are you to tell us, the rest of the world, that we're not going to deal with Iranians?"

Link

‘Bamboo ceiling’ hampering Asians in Australia

A “bamboo ceiling” exists in Australia for Asians entering positions of power in business, education and politics, the country’s race discrimination commissioner has suggested.

Part of Unit 731 War Crimes Museum, with evidence of human experimentation, to open next year

The research lab where biological warfare was tested during the second Sino-Japanese war is being cleared in Harbin, Heilongjiang province

Is Batu Pahat in Johor the next Iskandar?

Developing the area could signify the northward expansion of the Singapore-Johor megalopolis

10 Best Places to Eat in Malacca

Link

Snowden effect changes US-China dynamic on cybersecurity

The whistle-blower’s revelations of the extent of NSA spying gave Beijing a stronger hand in negotiations on the issue of cybersecurity

Don't text and drive

Unsold homes big drag on developers' coffers

Punishing fees seen incentivising some to reprice projects to move sales in near term

Virginia’s “comfort women” memorial reveals Asian tensions

In Virginia, US, a memorial dedicated to “comfort women” reveals that Asian Americans are not all quite so ready to forgive and forget.

An Open Letter to the Prime Minster

I had thought to keep quiet during this period of political transition while watching events unfold. But what is happening currently has perturbed me enough to want to do another commentary. I have cast it in the form of a direct letter to the PM, to convey a greater sense of urgency.

Link

For One Tiananmen-Era Student, a Very Different Path to Power

A few days after the crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests 25 years ago, the Chinese government filled the airwaves with a list of the 21 most wanted student leaders accused of stirring up an antigovernment rebellion. At the top of the list was a 20-year-old student at Peking University named Wang Dan, who set up an unofficial student union to mobilize his classmates to demand democracy.

Slump in China’s wine market forces shake-out, rethink

The sudden slowdown in wine sales to the mainland is forcing merchants to refine their sales strategies, attendees at last week’s Vinexpo trade show in Hong Kong said.

Documents show Japan complicit in WWII sex slavery

Activists said Monday they had a trove of documents proving the Japanese military was complicit in the wartime system of sex slavery, despite nationalist quibbles over responsibility.
Link

US network NBC 'cut Snowden remarks' on 9/11 and US spy agencies

Russia's state-backed broadcaster said NBC "neglected" to air "critical statements" Edward Snowden made about the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks during an exclusive interview.

Oliver Stone: 'America always wins'

Link

Luxury homes left empty in quiet market

Sector hardest-hit by property curbs; some sellers leasing out units instead

China Vanke says property sector’s ‘golden era’ over, demand outlook solid

The days of rapid growth in China’s real estate sector are over, but the government’s urbanisation drive will continue to drive demand for the next 15 years, the country’s biggest residential property developer China Vanke Co Ltd said.

大国崛起

The fashion cycle

Roads are the new runways for a tribe of chic cyclists, who have elevated the mode of transportation into a hipster lifestyle.

Doctor exposes China's medical corruption epidemic

Ordering an unnecessary pacemaker, urging a woman to be hospitalised for a sore throat -- a doctor's allegations of corruption spotlight troubles so endemic in China's healthcare system that patients frequently turn violent.
Link

Irascible general close to country’s royals

Just months before his retirement, Thai army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha yesterday took control of the country eight years after the previous military coup.

Fine Line Seen in U.S. Spying on Companies

The National Security Agency has never said what it was seeking when it invaded the computers of Petrobras, Brazil’s huge national oil company, but angry Brazilians have guesses: the company’s troves of data on Brazil’s offshore oil reserves, or perhaps its plans for allocating licenses for exploration to foreign companies.

With Spy Charges, U.S. Draws a Line That Few Others Recognize

For example, the United States spies regularly for economic advantage when the goal is to support trade talks; when the Clinton administration was locked in a high-stakes negotiation in the 1990s to reach an accord with Japan, it bugged the Japanese negotiator’s limousine. At the time, the chief beneficiaries would have been the Big Three auto companies and a smattering of parts suppliers. It is also widely believed to be using intelligence in support of trade negotiations underway with European and Asian trading partners. But in the view of a succession of Democratic and Republican administrations, that is fair game.

China warns US cyber charges could damage ties

The United States denies spying for commercial advantage, though documents released by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden said the NSA broke into the computers of Brazil's main state-owned oil company, Petrobras. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said if that was true, then the motive would be to gather economic information.
Link

Singapore billionaire Lim joins Asian owners

Singapore billionaire Peter Lim, the new owner of Valencia, has realised a long-held dream by buying a top European football club -- and will hope for better fortunes than some of his fellow Asian investors.
Link

Anton Casey goes for online makeover

Briton Anton Casey, who fled to Australia in January after being slammed for denigrating public transport commuters, has made headlines again - this time on purpose.

Meanwhile a spokesman for one website where an article entitled “Financial professional Anton Casey optimistic about Singapore Real Estate Market” was posted said it had been uploaded by a user unaffiliated with its staff. He added that the “unwanted article” was removed as it went against the site’s policy.

How a stand-off at sea led to mob violence in Vietnam

Link
Link

Singapore protesters attack immigration, jobs policies

Hundreds of Singaporeans rallied Thursday to denounce the government's immigration and labour policies amid a fresh wave of anti-foreigner sentiment in the city-state.
Link

China releases Japanese wartime documents

China has released previously confidential Japanese wartime documents, including some about comfort women forced to serve in military brothels during World War Two, state media reported.
Link

Archives reveal “comfort women” official actions of Japan

Forcing women into sex slavery and setting up “comfort stations” were official actions of the invading Japanese army during World War Two in Asian countries, newly publicized wartime archives reveal.

Japan's confidential wartime files about China revealed

China on Saturday published more than 110,000 confidential Japanese documents from wartime to expose Japan's history of invasion.

Fucking Perfect

 

 

Americans still don't trust the stock market

More than five years after the financial crisis, the average American is still wary of the stock market, according to a survey released Monday.
Link

Investigating Zhou Yongkang Family’s Wealth, China’s Leader Signals a Change

Link

CIA's 'harsh interrogations' exceeded legal authority

A classified U.S. Senate report found that the CIA's legal justification for the use of harsh interrogation techniques that critics say amount to torture was based on faulty legal reasoning, McClatchy news service reported on Thursday.
Link

Japan opposition fears Abe 'destabilizing' region

Japan's main opposition leader chided Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for conservative statements on war history and voiced fear he could be a "destabilizing" factor in East Asia.
Link

CIA misled on interrogation program, Senate report says

A report by the Senate Intelligence Committee concludes that the CIA misled the government and the public about aspects of its brutal interrogation program for years — concealing details about the severity of its methods, overstating the significance of plots and prisoners, and taking credit for critical pieces of intelligence that detainees had in fact surrendered before they were subjected to harsh techniques.
Link

Neville Maxwell interview: the full transcript

In his first interview after a Snowden-style disclosure of the contentious secret report on the 1962 China-India war, Neville Maxwell tells Debasish Roy Chowdhury of the South China Morning Post what the 50-year-old document means for the future of China-India relations.

Neville Maxwell discloses document revealing that India provoked China into 1962 border war

Journalist’s Snowden-like revelations about 1962 war boost China’s claims of ‘peaceful rise’

China seizes $14.5 billion assets from family, associates of ex-security chief - sources

Link

Legendary "Kin Kin Chilli Pan Mee" Opens in Singapore

Link

NSA infiltrates servers of China telecom giant Huawei

The U.S. National Security Agency has infiltrated servers in the headquarters of Chinese telecommunications and internet giant Huawei Technologies Co, obtaining sensitive information and monitoring the communications of top executives, the New York Times reported on Saturday.
Link

Russia won’t take an unreliable West at its word

The revival of East-West tension over Ukraine looks thoroughly geopolitical. But the context is bad economics. In the last century, Russia was damaged by flawed ideologies which originated in the West. And today it is damaged by Western economic policy.

‘No link’ between pilot’s politics and loss of Flight 370

Reports linking the pilot’s political affiliation to the plane’s disappearance were dismissed as wild, groundless allegations by the Malaysian opposition People’s Justice Party, of which the captain is a life member.

Police too soft on foreign workers in area: Shopkeepers

A group of shopkeepers in Little India who witnessed the violence unfold on Dec 8 told the Committee of Inquiry (COI) yesterday that the police have been too soft on foreign workers who congregate in the area.

Donnino Rossetti, Italian restaurant owner jailed for attacking cabby in Singapore

Shanghai men attracted to plump women

A survey by a matchmaking website has confirmed a long-held suspicion — that Shanghai men prefer chubby, well-rounded women compared to their brethren elsewhere in China.

Poorest doc jailed for big money transfers to lover

How China's official bank card is used to smuggle money

Growing numbers of Chinese are using the country's state-backed bankcards to illegally spirit billions of dollars abroad, a Reuters examination has found.
Link

10 Stunning Spas You Won’t Believe Exist in Singapore

Link

Japanese historians slam sex-slave apology review

A group of Japanese historians on Friday stood behind their government's 1993 apology over wartime sex slavery, slamming Tokyo's possible move to revise it as "unforgivable".
Link

The golden fields of Luoping

 

Link

The international law basis behind China’s claims

Many have called on China to base its claims in the South China Sea on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos). In fact, Unclos might not be the proper forum for China’s claims. Customary international law, which recognises historical claims of the kind China is putting forth, might be a more apt avenue.

Former NUS law don Tey Tsun Hang acquitted of corruption charges on appeal

Former National University of Singapore law professor Tey Tsun Hang, who was previously convicted in a sex-for-grades scandal, was on Friday morning acquitted of all his charges in Singapore’s High Court on appeal.
Link

UK, US spies 'stored millions of Yahoo webcam images'

US senators said British and US spy agencies showed a "breathtaking lack of respect" for privacy after reports they had intercepted and stored images from webcams used by millions of Yahoo users.
Link

Nanjing massacre memorial stirs strong emotions in China

The skulls, bones, and names of thousands of dead at the Nanjing massacre memorial stand as a stark demonstration of China and Japan's inability to move beyond history in their increasingly tense relationship.
Link

15 Incredible Malaysian Beaches for the perfect getaway

Link

White trash cyclist in Singapore

 

Link

5 Cheap and Good Places to Get Your Sushi Fix in Singapore

Link

Japan considers revision of comfort women apology

Japan is to consider revising its landmark apology for its wartime system of sex slavery, a top official said on Monday, in a move likely to draw fury in South Korea and beyond.

Sichuan mining tycoon’s fall from philanthropist to ‘triad boss’

Revelations about Sichuan mining magnate Liu Han’s alleged crimes have shaken those who knew him as a great philanthropist

Media’s heavy hints signal endgame in the pursuit of Zhou Yongkang

The Communist Party’s main mouthpiece has pointed the finger at party and law enforcement officials for protecting a Sichuan billionaire who allegedly ran a mafia-type gang.

Directive bans patients from making ‘cash gifts’ to hospital doctors

Some medics welcome move to end payment of ‘red packets’, but others contend practice will endure as long as health worker wages stay low

Singapore repatriation firms’ tactics under workers’ rights microscope

Bangladeshi claims he had knife held to his throat by ‘repatriation firm’ hired by Singapore employer trying to force him out to reclaim bond

Documents released by Snowden links NSA to spying on US law firm

The National Security Agency was involved in the surveillance of an American law firm while it represented a foreign government in trade disputes with the United States, according to a new report based on a top-secret document that had been obtained by former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden.

NSA Australia allies 'spied on US law firm' in Indonesia row

Australian spies tapped a US law firm representing Indonesia in a trade dispute with the US, new leaks say.
Link

Chinese army cracks down on housing, cars in anti-graft drive

Link

China sacks police chief of vice hub in prostitution scandal

The Chinese government on Friday sacked the police chief of the southern “sin city” of Dongguan following a candid report by the state broadcaster on the underground sex industry there, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

China state media slams Aston Martin over handling of sports car recall

China’s state media has slammed Aston Martin over a recall of its luxury cars involving parts produced in the country, saying the British firm is using the stereotype of low-quality ‘Made in China’ manufacturing to mask its own shortcomings.

Nanjing seeks Unesco listing for massacre documents

China has applied to Unesco for inclusion of documents related to the 1937 Nanjing Massacre in a move seen as a response to Japan’s request to add kamikaze pilots’ letters

Japan on backfoot in global PR war with China after Abe shrine visit

Japan risks losing a global PR battle with China after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to a controversial shrine for war dead and comments by other prominent figures on the wartime past helped Beijing try to paint Tokyo as the villain of Asia.
Link

US cracks down on luxury car re-exports to China

Criminal or civil actions have been filed in US states, but some contend it’s just a commercial dispute

War sex slavery unspeakably bad, says former Japanese PM Tomiichi Murayama

It’s time for Tokyo to resolve issue, Murayama says after meeting ‘comfort women’ in Seoul

Chinese state media slam Japan PM Abe’s ‘gangster logic’

A Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece on Tuesday criticised Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in unusually harsh terms, denouncing the leader for comparing the Asian rivals’ tensions to the British-German relationship before the First World War.

What type of cheater are you?

Whether a cheating spouse is forgiven may depend on the type of affair, with women more upset by emotional affairs, while men care more about physical ones, according to a survey by cheaters' website Victoria Milan.
Link

Can Jakarta be more sensitive?

“The diplomatic row between Indonesia and Singapore is unfortunate and could have been avoided if we had been a little more sensitive towards our neighbour.

許冠傑 - 浪子心聲

Briton Christopher Gordon Sang jailed two weeks for pushing cabby on the head

China criticizes Japan over comments doubting Nanjing massacre

China's Foreign Ministry has criticized remarks by a board member of Japan's state broadcaster who said a massacre carried out by Japanese troops in China's then-capital of Nanjing in 1937 did not happen.
Link

China furious at Japan NHK manager's Nanjing denial

China reacted furiously on Wednesday to the denial of the Nanjing massacre by a senior manager at Japan's national broadcaster, calling his remarks "a barefaced challenge to international justice".
Link

Japan unease over U.S. alliance adds fuel to Abe's security shift

Link

NHK manager’s Nanjing denial no problem, says Japan government

Countries in the world ignored the propaganda ... that Japan’s troops carried out a massacre in Nanjing. Why? There was no such thing. - Naoki Hyakuta

That's why Japan cannot and will not be forgiven.

Foreign education no guarantee of success in China job market

Record numbers of newly minted university graduates are returning to the mainland to a job market not overly impressed with all their efforts

China says no cover-ups using state secrecy as excuse

China has unveiled new rules telling officials not to cover up what should be publicly available information using the excuse it is a state secret, in what state media said was a move towards greater government transparency.

Chinese firms march to Beijing’s austerity beat

Airlines, high-end hotels and eateries cutting prices, catering to masses now

Japan upset by South Korean ‘comfort women’ comics at French show

Japan has expressed its “regret” at a South Korean exhibit at an international comic book festival in France featuring “comfort women” forced into wartime sex slavery in Japanese military brothels.