World

WHY DO PEOPLE BELIEVE IN THEM? Spiritual groups with cult-like tendencies have existed throughout Indonesia for hundreds of years, said anthropologist Kamaruzzaman Bustamam-Ahmad from Banda Aceh’s Ar-Raniry University. “This issue has been around for a long time in the archipelago, even before the arrival of the Dutch (in the 16th century). “Nowadays, people want to define what it is, and the problem is that it is common although it is against our rationality,” Mr Bustamam-Ahmad told CNA. The situation is especially complex given that Indonesia has hundreds of ethnicities, and most of them have their own indigenous beliefs, Mr Bustamam-Ahmad said. In addition, Indonesia also recognises major religions that originally came from abroad, such as Islam and Christianity. These religions we...

As nations worldwide rush to support Ukrainians fleeing their war-torn country, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced Wednesday that Japan is planning to accept Ukrainian refugees at an early date. The government will initially accept those who have fled Ukraine and have relatives or acquaintances in Japan, Kishida said. Kishida said he made the pledge during a phone conversation with his Polish counterpart, Mateusz Morawiecki. Thousands of Ukrainians have fled their home country via neighboring Poland. The prime minister’s announcement followed remarks from the justice minister that Japan is considering creating a framework that would allow displaced Ukrainians to come and settle in the country. Around 660,000 refugees had fled Ukraine to neighboring countries in the six days since R...

:China knocked out two-time defending champions Japan 4-3 in a penalty shootout on Thursday to set up a final showdown with South Korea in the Women's Asian Cup. Wang Shanshan scored the winning spotkick after firing in a late equaliser in extra-time to earn Shui Qingxia's side a 2-2 draw with the champions and take the game in Pune into a shootout. South Korea advanced to the final of the tournament for the first time after handing the Philippines a 2-0 defeat. China, who claimed the title eight times between 1986 and 2006, will play in the final for the first time since 2008 after twice coming back from a goal down on Thursday. Riko Ueki finished off a fine team move when she deftly headed in Hinata Miyazawa's cross to put the Japanese in front in the 26th minute. Wu Chengshu's clos...

SYDNEY: Asian share markets mostly eased on Monday (Feb 7) after stunningly strong US jobs data soothed concerns about the global economy but also added to the risk of an aggressive tightening by the Federal Reserve. Geopolitics also remained a worry as the White House warned Russia could invade Ukraine any day and French President Emmanuel Macron prepared for a trip to Moscow. The cautious mood saw MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dip 0.1 per cent in early trade. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.9 per cent and South Korea 0.8 per cent. Chinese markets returned from the Lunar New Year break with a bounce, with the blue-chip CSI300 and Shanghai Composite both up about 2 per cent in morning trade, catching up with last week's gains in world equities. The Hang Seng, which re...

SINGAPORE: Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan called on Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday (Feb 16) as they reaffirmed the "warm and longstanding ties" between the two nations. During the meeting, Dr Balakrishnan also said that Singapore remained "deeply concerned" about the situation in Myanmar, according to a press statement by Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). Dr Balakrishnan is in Cambodia for the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Retreat - the first in a series of meetings that Cambodia will be hosting as chair of ASEAN in 2022. During his meeting with Mr Hun Sen, Dr Balakrishnan congratulated him on Cambodia’s "successful management" of the COVID-19 pandemic in the past two years and reaffirmed Singapore’s support for Cambodia’s ASEAN chairmanship, MFA...

NEW DELHI : Softbank Group-backed Ola Electric plans to build a battery cell manufacturing plant in India with a capacity of up to 50 gigawatt hours (GWh), a source told Reuters, as part of its broader electrification push. Ola will need 40Gwh of battery capacity to meet its annual target to produce 10 million electric scooters and the remainder will be for electric cars, which it plans to manufacture in the future, said the person who has knowledge of the plans. The initial plan is to set up 1Gwh of battery capacity by 2023 and expand it to 20GWh over the next 3-4 years, said another source aware of the plans, adding that this alone will need an investment of up to $1 billion. Ola, which currently imports battery cells from South Korea, also plans to invest in companies with advanced c...

SINGAPORE: A former financial consultant with OCBC Singapore was sentenced to 30 months' jail on Monday (Feb 21) for cheating five of his clients of S$170,000 in fake time deposits. In sentencing Hoi Wei Kit, 34, the judge said Hoi had betrayed the trust placed in him by bank customers and abused the access given to him to the customers' banking information by virtue of his job. The judge said what was worse was that Hoi had “carefully targeted vulnerable victims” who were not technologically savvy. Hoi pleaded guilty last month to seven charges of cheating, acquiring benefits of criminal conduct and giving false information to a public servant. Another 13 charges were considered in sentencing. He was a financial consultant at OCBC from October 2015 to April 2018, selling insurance and...

NEW YORK :Investors around the world lost their appetite for risk on Wednesday, with stocks selling off and the U.S. dollar gaining some ground as Ukraine declared a state of emergency amid intensifying fears of a full-scale Russian invasion. Trading in many asset classes has been volatile since Russian President Vladimir Putin's dispatch of troops earlier this week into parts of Ukraine. This triggered sanctions from Western countries and threats of more if Moscow advances further. Oil futures, which were whipsawed during the day, settled well below their session highs and U.S. Treasury yields, while staying above Tuesday's close, were also volatile. Ukraine declared a state of emergency and told its citizens to flee Russia, while Moscow began evacuating its Kyiv embassy. The Russian-b...

Mark Cuban doesn't typically invest in businesses without a track record of success – but the billionaire entrepreneur and start-up investor may have recently broken his own rule. And for a side hustle, to boot. The company, called Diaper Dust, appeared on Friday's episode of ABC's "Shark Tank." Its CEO, Regina Crisci, created a deodorizing powder – a mix of activated charcoal and sodium bicarbonate – to sprinkle onto dirty diapers before throwing them in the trash. She launched her side hustle in December 2020, manufacturing the product in her North Carolina backyard and selling it online while maintaining her full-time job as a travel nurse. The product's ease-of-use had clear appeal: Parents simply sprinkle the dust onto a soiled diaper before rolling it up and disposing it. But Cris...

PeopleImages | E+ | Getty Images Identify the retirement account for you One big reason why people often do not save money toward retirement is that their employer does not provide a retirement savings plan, Royal said. But that shouldn't necessarily stand in the way of you starting to invest for your retirement years, he said. Individual retirement accounts will still let you set aside pretax or post-tax funds and invest the money so it can grow. A traditional IRA allows you to contribute pretax money, which will lower your taxable income now. However, you will have to pay levies on the withdrawals you make in retirement later on. A Roth IRA, on the other hand, lets you contribute earnings that have already been taxed, therefore paving the way for tax-free withdrawals in retirement. An...