World

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC) expects top resort islands such as Langkawi, Pangkor, Redang, Tioman and Perhentian to achieve herd immunity by the end of August and be ready for reopening early next month. Tourism minister Nancy Shukri said that this would, however, also depend on a decision from the government and standard operating procedures being set. “The decision to reopen the tourism sector must be made after an in-depth study and with great care to prevent an outbreak which may cause the sector to be closed again. At the same time, MOTAC is updating and finalising the SOPs for the tourism sector," she said in a statement on Saturday (Aug 14). According to Nancy, she had a virtual session with 15 representatives from the tourism industry to...

Royal Dutch Shell plc said on Monday its subsidiary Sarawak Shell Berhad (SSB) has taken a final investment decision on the Timi gas development project offshore Malaysia, which will powered by solar and wind sources. The offshore wellhead project, developed with its partners Petronas Carigali and Brunei Energy Exploration, could see peak production of up to 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) and will move gas to the F23 production hub via an 80 kilometer-long pipeline, the company said in a release. The unmanned platform, about 200 km (124 miles) off the coast of Serawak, was a step towards Shell's commitment to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, Shell Upstream Director Wael Sawan said in the release. (Reporting by Ashitha Shivaprasad in Bengaluru, Editing by Louise Heav...

MUMBAI : India's trade with Afghanistan has dried up as borders and banks have closed since the Taliban took over the country, but industry officials said that the disruption was temporary and that it would be business as usual soon. New Delhi is one of the leading suppliers of essential commodities to Afghanistan, which exports mainly dry fruits to India. Shipments between the two countries were delayed or disrupted after Taliban insurgents started making military advances earlier this month, leading to the fall of the capital Kabul on Sunday, industry officials said. "There is a temporary glitch in trade as Afghanistan is witnessing a transition of power. But within a few days trade will restart," said Rahil Shaikh, managing director of Mumbai-based MEIR Commodities, which exports sug...

An ideological split between Chinese President Xi Jinping and the country’s business and cultural elite has come to the fore after a hardline commentary by a known Maoist supporter received official blessing in state media. The widely distributed commentary, laden with Cold War jargon, calls for a “profound transformation” to make China strong enough to fight against the United States, a process some have dubbed Cultural Revolution 2.0. Political commentators said the article resembled the way revolutionary leader Mao Zedong initiated the Cultural Revolution with his “big-character posters” in 1966. They also said President and Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping would gain more political and economic power with this transformation while businessmen and officials who had benefi...

SINGAPORE: Tightened COVID-19 pre-departure test requirements will apply to more travellers entering or transiting through Singapore from 11.59pm on Thursday (Sep 9). This includes Singapore citizens and permanent residents, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said in a press release on Sunday. All inbound travellers from Category II, III and IV countries or regions will need to produce a negative pre-departure COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test result taken within 48 hours before departure to Singapore. MOH said these travellers will still be subjected to an on-arrival PCR test, corresponding stay-home notice and testing regime as well as another test at the end of their stay-home notice period. Category I: Hong Kong, Macao, Mainland China and Taiwan Hong Kong, Macao, Mainland Ch...

The revolving door in Malaysian politics is worrisome. The country has had three prime ministers in three years. More troubling still is the return, in the last spin, of the old guard — the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) — in the person of Ismail Sabri Yaakob, sworn in as Malaysia’s ninth prime minister last weekend. UMNO lost power after six decades in office when a multibillion-dollar scandal ensnared its leading figures, including Prime Minister Najib Razak. The return of UMNO without the endorsement of voters is a cynical and disillusioning moment for Malaysia. Overturning the verdict of the voters in a democracy is always dangerous. UMNO was forced from office in 2018, after ruling Malaysia since the country won its independence in 1957. The party had virtually institut...

SYDNEY: Asian share markets were in a cautious mood on Thursday (Sep 2) as concerns grew over the Chinese economy after a run of soft data, while the risk of a sub par US payrolls report kept the dollar on the defensive. A raft of manufacturing surveys suggested supply bottlenecks were tightening again with eight of nine Asian countries reporting longer delivery times. "The spread of the Delta variant amid still-low vaccination rates in many ASEAN economies and China's zero-tolerance COVID-19 strategy has prompted governments to impose restrictions and order factory/port closures," warned analysts at Nomura. "Input shortages and low inventories will likely lead to production cuts and delayed shipments in Q3." The uncertainty kept Chinese blue chips flat, though speculation of more fisc...

MEXICO CITY: Hurricane Olaf is forecast to remain a hurricane while it moves along the southwestern coast of Mexico's Baja California Sur on Friday (Sep 10), although its maximum sustained winds have decreased to near 130 km/h, the US-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. Olaf's winds have died down from a maximum of 155 kph when it hit land near San Jose del Cabo at 10pm on Thursday night. The Miami-based NHC said the center of Olaf was located about 55km west-southwest of La Paz, Mexico, and was moving northwest at 17 km/h at 12pm GMT. Olaf is forecast to produce total rainfall of 5 to 10 inches, with maximums of 15 inches across parts of southern Baja California Sur on Friday, which may trigger "significant and life-threatening" flash flooding and mudslides. The NHC said that ...

A week after the Myanmar military seized power, a Twitter account that had lain dormant for nearly a decade flickered back into life. The Twitter user mocked anti-coup protesters, hundreds of whom have been killed in a crackdown by security forces since the Feb. 1 coup. After a police truck fired high-pressure water cannons on demonstrators in the capital city of Naypyidaw on Feb. 8, he made a trolling reference to the nation’s traditional April new year celebration: “Water festival come earlier for them lol.” A few weeks later, the user wrote “#fuckthereds,” making a dismissive reference to the political party of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Prize-winning civilian leader who had been overthrown and arrested in the coup. A review of an archived version of the account, which has since bee...

Masayoshi Son’s Vision Fund has poured billions into startups around the world, but so far made zero investments in his home country of Japan. SoftBank Group Corp. is now hiring an investment professional whose job would be to change that. SoftBank Investment Advisers, a unit that operates the Vision Fund, is looking to fill an investment vice president position in Tokyo, according to a job listing posted on LinkedIn. The new person will “research and recommend companies for SoftBank to invest in or acquire in Japan,” it said. A Vision Fund spokesman confirmed that the company is hiring for the role. Son, who frequently rails against the Japanese government’s cautious approach to ride-hailing and home-sharing, has shied away from big investments in domestic startups. SoftBank’s portfolio...