Hong Kong occupiers are losing the high ground

Michael Chugani says the conduct of some Occupy protesters in Mong Kok is a good indication of why support for the movement is waning

Scientists in Yunnan unlock secrets of ‘magical’ microbe-killing plant

Pleasant-tasting relative of Sichuan pepper, long known to tribal doctors, shows promise as a safe, effective killer of dangerous microbes

Australia MPs Want Fines for Illegal Home Buying as Prices Soar

Bloomberg

Is Harvard unfair to Asian-Americans?

For reasons both legal and moral, the onus is on the schools to make their admission criteria more transparent - not to use them as fig leaves for excluding some students simply because they happen to be Asian.

How China's shadowy agency is working to absorb Taiwan

Reuters

China, Russia and the Sinatra doctrine

For centuries, European navies roamed the world’s seas - to explore, to trade, to establish empires and to wage war.

Police probe political funding of mining magnate Clive Palmer

Australian police are investigating allegations about the misuse of A$12 million ($10.5 million) in Chinese funds during the 2013 political campaign of mining magnate Clive Palmer, The Australian newspaper reported on Monday.
Reuters

Market players welcome LTA regulation of third-party taxi apps

Singapore’s Land Transport Authority (LTA) on Friday introduced a basic regulatory framework for third-party taxi-booking apps, in the latest move by a government to regulate such services that observers said have disrupted the taxi industry globally.

Philippines banning Hong Kong journalists is petty and vindictive

The Philippines has tried hard to end its diplomatic row with Hong Kong after the 2010 hostage killings in Manila. But by banning nine Hong Kong journalists from entering the country to cover next year’s Apec summit, it will only rekindle resentment and likely retaliation from Hong Kong. It is an appalling and unwise move.

Top 5 hotel buffets in Singapore

SoShiok

WWII Celebration Plans by Putin and Xi to Score Points

Russia-China agreement to jointly observe war's 70th anniversary in 2015 aims to warn Japan against historical revision and could create difficulties for US-Japan alliance.

Don’t give Japan a free pass on its shameful past

Like “Holocaust fatigue”, many people thought the “comfort women” issue was ancient history, cynically dug up by Beijing to beat Japan whenever it wanted. That may be so. But just because you distrust China doesn’t mean Japan should get a free pass on rewriting its shameful past.

Rule of law in China? Still a long way to go

President Xi Jinping has announced a far- reaching plan to bolster the rule of law in China, but his efforts could be compromised by the tacit proclamation that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) remains above the law.

White trash James George Palin road rage won't be tolerated

A district judge made it clear that road hooliganism must never be tolerated, in condemning the conduct of a motorcyclist, James George Palin who traumatised a couple in a road rage case.

Top 10 beach destinations for your year-end holiday

Link

The sweet life of expats in China won’t last

And we would long for bygone days when there was an A-yi who arranged your underwear drawer and a man who came in twice a week to water your plants.

US using fake mobile phone towers on planes to gather data

Devices nicknamed ‘dirtboxes’ can collect information from tens of thousands of mobile phones in a single flight

Specialty coffee for the corporate crowd

Coffee purveyor The New Black aims to change high-quality coffee-drinking habits in the CBD in a spectacular way.

‘Haunted’ flats a tough sell in Asia’s priciest real estate market

Unnatural deaths in Hong Kong can result in rental discounts of 10-20% and can be more than double that for sinister killings

US Is Fighting the Wrong Cyberwar Against China

The Diplomat

Paying in coins? There are legal limits

Link

A little old lady who quilts: Lee Suet-Fern

LInk

Grisly murders of 2 women spark backlash against wealthy expat bankers in Hong Kong

The murder of two young Indonesian women in Hong Kong, allegedly by a British expatriate, has sparked a backlash against wealthy Western bankers accused of treating the financial hub as their own personal playground.

Singapore students pay for help to apply to top universities

Consultants prepare them to gain an edge in tough admissions process

10 Hidden Bars in Singapore So Secret You Won't Believe They Exist

Link

Power-less SGX halts markets for hours

Frustrated traders stared at blank screens for at least three hours on Wednesday afternoon as a power outage shut down the Singapore Exchange’s (SGX) securities and derivatives trading systems, one of the biggest market disruptions in recent years.

Museum even more disturbing than Yasukuni Shrine

While international attention has been focused on visits to Yasukuni Shrine by Japanese leaders, the museum is really more worrying. It draws attention to the lack of recognition in Japan of the Japanese role in World War II.

Black Listed Shops at Sim Lim Square

1. Mobile Air at 01-41
2. Mobile22 at 01-42
3. Mobile Apps at 01-50
4. Cyber Maestro at 02-77
5. Gadget Terminal at 02-80
6. Camera Talk at 02-91
7. Mobile Planet at 01-41

Haruki Murakami says Japan ignoring WWII, Fukushima role

Japanese writer Haruki Murakami has chided his country for shirking responsibility for its World War II aggression and the Fukushima nuclear disaster in an interview published Monday.
Link

US defender of Japan’s past makes dubious claims about bullying

Ikuyo Toyota says Japanese kids in California are being bullied because of history, but neither she nor any of the alleged victims can be found

Time for South Korea to face up to ugly obsession with plastic surgery

Backlash hits booming market as complaints of dodgy doctors and botched procedures double

Abu Dhabi changing its oil concession strategy

Western firms risk being left out as emirate looks to Asia for new industry partners

Analysts abandon China’s Renren on failed growth

Renren Inc was touted the Facebook Inc of China when it debuted in New York in 2011. Today, it’s looking more like online flameout Myspace.

New taxi app takes disruption up a level

Singapore on Wednesday said hello to Hailo, a London-based taxi-booking app, and at least the fifth such third-party platform (after GrabTaxi, Easy Taxi, MoobiTaxi and UberTAXI) to hit the roads here in the last two years - a move observers say should further unnerve “traditional” taxi companies that continue to dismiss disruptive technologies.

UN rebukes Israel over Jerusalem settlements

BBC

Bar Association slams Occupy Central for flouting injunctions to clear streets

Protesters criticised by Bar for flouting court orders, as doctors sign petition to end sit-ins

Occupy leaders refuse to reveal who donated HK$1.3m that co-founder passed to HKU

Occupy Central last night declined to reveal the source of HK$1.3 million in donations that movement co-founder Reverend Chu Yiu-ming passed on to fellow organiser Benny Tai Yiu-ting.

AIIB: Yet another symbol of the changing balance of global power

The birth of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People last Friday is yet another reminder that the global balance of economic and political power is shifting. The United States is still a superpower but US-inspired regional institutions can no longer expect to have the field to themselves.

US used Nazis as Cold War spies

BBC Link

Woman Destroys Taoist Prayer Items At HDB Void Deck

Singapore inks deal to establish regional bank for infrastructure development

Link

China, 21 other countries initiate new Asian bank

Link

US pressured on 3 Nations to stay out of AIIB

Link

Taxis vs Uber saga

This is one perfect example of people’s resistance to change.

How the elite ‘fox hunt’ police taskforce scours the world for fugitives who have fled overseas

Mainland media reveal details of how a clutch of suspects, including allegedly corrupt officials and businessmen, fled before being brought to justice.

Ex-justice secretary Wong part of expert team who trained students for crunch talks

Australia poised to seize assets of corrupt Chinese

Link

Occupy protests leave Hong Kong directionless, divided and further from its democracy goal than ever

Michael Chugani says the Occupy protests have changed Hong Kong forever, but greater democracy is further away than ever

'External forces' involved in Hong Kong protests

Link

China set to introduce major legal reforms

China is set to unveil key legal reforms this week that will try to limit the influence local officials have on court cases, a move being closely watched by company executives who hope it will make the legal system more impartial.

Australia set to help China seize assets of corrupt Chinese officials

Australian police have agreed to assist China in the extradition and seizure of assets of corrupt Chinese officials who have fled with hundreds of millions of dollars in illicit funds, the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported on Monday.

Presumed Guilty in China’s War on Corruption, Targets Suffer Abuses

Catherine Lim launch of latest book

Link

Shake-up ahead for car loans?

CITIBANK is upending the traditional vehicle financing model here by pre-qualifying customers for car loans - thus bypassing the motor industry, which could lose millions of dollars in finance commissions if this practice is eventually adopted by other banks.

Hong Kong’s Basic Law and political reform

Hong Kong has a Constitution which currently sets out the extent and limits of Beijing’s authority over the selection of the territory’s Chief Executive

The day China entered the nuclear age

Fifty years ago, the world woke up to news the nation - then at odds with Moscow and Washington - had detonated its own atomic bomb

Why Singapore graduates aren't getting the right jobs

A university degree may no longer be the golden ticket to an ideal job in Singapore amid a growing pool of degree holders and fast-changing economy.
CNBC

U.S. slaughter of Iraqi prisoners

U.S. army massacre at Rumaila
Link

Japan Rebuffed Over U.N. Report on Wartime Brothels

The Japanese government has asked for the partial retraction of a nearly two-decade-old United Nations report on women forced to work in Japanese military brothels, but the report’s author has refused the request, a Japanese government spokesman said on Thursday.

Corruption probe puts heat on Agile Property

Detention of chairman not the first time firm is placed in the spotlight, having been involved in sexual assault and corruption cases previously

Driving to the Terminal 1 Car Park

U.S. reviews Waldorf Astoria sale to Chinese firm

Reuters

Confederation of Trade Unions received grants from US-based NGO according to files sent to media

Signs that US is behind the protest in Hong Kong

NSA may have undercover agents in Chinese companies

New revelations from documents leaked by US National Security Agency whistle-blower Edward Snowden, which suggested the NSA may have undercover agents in mainland companies, have prompted criticism from Beijing.

US is biggest hacker, Chinese military expert says

Snowden’s latest revelations and government statistics show America is the real world police, Zhang Junshe claims

Not all smiles for some retirees in Chiang Mai

Foreigners who do not plan ahead could end up abandoned and alone, infirm and destitute

Seiji Yoshida’s lies about “comfort women” exploited by Japan’s right

Seiji Yoshida’s fabrications about kidnapping Korean ‘comfort women’ have been an excuse to keep denying the darkest aspects of nation’s past

New documentary on Edward Snowden covers NSA whistleblower’s Hong Kong revelations

Premier of a documentary about NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden offers an intimate portrait of man prepared to risk losing his freedom in order to expose government surveillance

Triads See Underworld Business Hurt by Hong Kong Protests

As thousands of pro-democracy protesters thronged Hong Kong’s major retail and business districts, blocking roads and forcing shops to close, it wasn’t just legal establishments feeling the pain.

Bloomberg Link

You Could Make $50,000 Selling Your Luxury Bag Online

Two years ago, Marie Green, a San Diego fashion stylist, was running out of closet space. She was spending $12,000 to $20,000 a year on high-end clothing, handbags, and shoes -- but couldn’t wear it all. Then she discovered the RealReal, an online reseller of luxury clothing and accessories.

Link

China's high-end car dealers go online in search of second-hand income

A government campaign in China against the high pricing of luxury cars is hitting the profit margins of auto dealers, prompting them to supplement income through the online trading of second-hand vehicles.

Reuters

China’s Plan for Regional Development Bank Runs Into U.S. Opposition

For almost a year, China has been pitching an idea to its neighbors in Asia: a big, internationally funded bank that would offer quick financing for badly needed transportation, telecommunications and energy projects in underdeveloped countries across the region.
Link

Hong Kong's 'silent majority' critical of protests

Link

Why personal secretaries to Chinese leaders are so prone to graft

The job of personal secretary to a senior leader offers ample opportunity to advance in the system and use great influence for corrupt gain

Biography of Emperor Hirohito a whitewash: US historian Herbert Bix

Herbert Bix, the respected US historian and author of Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, has launched a withering criticism of the Imperial Household Agency for attempting to whitewash the emperor’s responsibility for the Second World War.

Hirohito a string-puller, not puppet

Last month, I received a startling e-mail from an employee at one of Japan’s largest newspapers, about a development I’d long awaited.

Precious stones and metals dealers to report cash transactions above S$20,000

A cash transaction reporting regime for precious stones and metals dealers (PSMDs) will be implemented in Singapore from Oct 15.

Court denies woman permission to divorce before completing mandatory 3-year period of marriage

Judge rules that she has insufficient grounds to do so before 3-year mark

Hwa Chong student calls sex-ed booklet by Christian group "bigoted”

Link

Umbrella Generation: Hong Kong's despairing youth split with old guard

Hong Kong's unprecedented student-led democracy rallies have highlighted a stark divide between a disenfranchised younger generation who say they have little to lose, and an older guard who favour pragmatism over protest.
Link

The umbrella revolution won’t give Hong Kong democracy. Protesters should stop calling for it.

This is about inequality, not politics, so democracy can't fix the problem.
Link

Man accused of sexually harassing protester vows to sue Occupy leaders and Apple Daily

A restaurant owner accused of sexually harassing a young female protester may try to sue the organisers of Occupy Central.

Patten aides ‘offered UK passport to Jimmy Lai’

Is Jimmy Lai Britain's MI6 agent?

US Now Admits it is Funding Hong Kong "Occupy Central"

Just as the US admitted shortly after the so-called "Arab Spring" began spreading chaos across the Middle East that it had fully funded, trained, and equipped both mob leaders and heavily armed terrorists years in advance, it is now admitted that the US State Department through a myriad of organizations and NGOs is behind the so-called "Occupy Central" protests in Hong Kong.

US wants to recolonize Hong Kong.

Link

China ‘unlikely’ to give in to HK protesters: Shanmugam

Foreign Affairs Minister K Shanmugam also pointed out the anti-China bias in Western media reports, and urged the people of Hong Kong to consider the implications of a change from the Basic Law.

Evil US Government behind Hong Kong Protests

Previous cables show links between United States agencies and the Hong Kong protest movement

Link

Shoppers’ paradise on Hainan Island gives Hong Kong a run for its money

Massive mall on Hainan is drawing away from city mainlanders keen to snap up luxury goods at duty-free prices while enjoying beach holiday

British White Trash James George Palin

James George Palin punched and shattered the window of a Volkswagen, in a road rage incident on Nov 16 2013, was sentenced to three weeks’ jail yesterday. But Briton James George Palin, 33, is appealing against the sentence and is out on $15,000 bail.

Graft crackdown has paralysed China’s energy industry

Battle against corruption has hit the workings of the state energy sector to such an extent that decisions are becoming torturously slow

Chinese internet regulator sacked and expelled from party over graft

Gao Jianyun was official in high-level taskforce chaired by President Xi Jinping

China's CITIC wins interim injunction in Mineralogy dispute

Link

Clive Palmer's Mineralogy bid to curtail CITIC rights halted by court

But Justice James Edelman said it was a grave concern that Mineralogy had issued notices to CITIC just days after giving an undertaking not to do so. “The spirit of those undertakings were not abided by,” he said.
Link

China's anti-graft drive puts the squeeze on Macau junkets

Macau's casino junket operators are feeling the squeeze as China's anti-corruption drive has blown a hole in the world's biggest gambling hub. Some are shifting players elsewhere, like the Philippines and Vietnam; others are quitting the business.
Link

Luck running out for Singapore's two casinos?

Singapore's two casinos have encountered slowing growth lately, partly due to a more tepid economic outlook. But the root of the sector's problem remains the Government's heavy hand in the industry.

Have Singapore’s casinos lost their mojo?

Singapore's casinos opened their doors in 2010 with great expectations for the market's potential growth, but some analysts believe the party may be over.
Link

The 14 Most Breathtaking Places To Visit In China

Link

The tale of Alibaba and GSK a sign of China’s rise on world stage

Alibaba’s successful IPO and GSK’s record fine for bribery highlight China’s new global clout

PLA reshuffle strengthens Xi Jinping’s hand in corruption fight

Two key ‘princelings’ are set for promotion as president targets corruption and aims to turn world’s largest army into a battle-ready force

China’s VAT reform to impact developers in cooling market

Property and construction sectors likely to see introduction of 11pc value added tax next July, forcing them to overhaul business practices

Defiant Singaporeans watch banned political documentary in Malaysia

To Singapore, With Love Hundreds of defiant Singaporeans protesting censorship gathered in Malaysia to see a documentary banned by regulators in their home country as a threat to national security.