South Korean parent and teacher groups protested on Monday (Aug 1) against a plan to bring forward school enrolment by one year to age five, saying such young kids were intellectually unprepared and the change would increase difficulty in finding childcare. The Education Ministry said last week it would lower the age in stages, beginning as early as...
A small city in southern Brazil has found a way to attract more homeless people to one of its shelters on chilly winter nights: They now also take in people's pets. Canoas -- a city with an estimated population of 348,000 in the state of Rio Grande do Sul -- came to the realization that many...
More monkeypox cases are expected to surface here in the weeks ahead as more than 18,000 cases have been reported in 78 countries, with the majority in Europe. Singapore saw its first monkeypox case on July 6 and now has six local and five imported cases. None of them is linked, but contact tracing is ongoing. The...
A young woman in eastern China who was the target of online abuse hired lawyers and said she plans to take legal action against the cyberbullies who called her a "nightclub girl". They criticised her for her pink hair after she shared a celebratory post that included her bedridden grandfather. Zheng Linghua, a 23-year-old university graduate...
Indonesia has agreed to lift a freeze on sending its migrant workers to Malaysia effective Aug 1, after the neighbours ironed out concerns surrounding workers' rights, according to statements from both countries on Thursday (July 28). The entry of migrant workers will help Malaysia - the world's second-largest palm oil producer and a key link in the...
As Europe braces for energy shortages from Russian gas cuts, Japan's own energy crisis a decade ago offers survival lessons to households and businesses - such as dimming the lights and taking the stairs. EU energy ministers on Tuesday (July 29) approved a proposal for member countries to cut gas use voluntarily by 15 per cent from August...
A wedding is an important affair, and it looks like this couple is dead serious about their big day. Last Saturday (July 23), a man surnamed Huang and his wife surnamed Zhuo, donned traditional garb for their Chinese wedding ceremony at Nirvana Memorial Garden, a columbarium located in Choa Chu Kang. Why did they pick this unusual venue for...
Police in China’s eastern city of Nanjing have detained a woman authorities say honoured Japanese war criminals at a Buddhist temple, as news of the tributes sparked public outrage and disciplinary action against officials. Wu Aping, 31, a medical school graduate, confessed to having been deeply troubled by accounts of the brutal Japanese invasion, and came...
A dispute over a colonial-era land deal, involving territories in the furthest corners of Malaysia and the Philippines, is back in the spotlight after the heirs of a defunct Philippine sultanate attempted to seize assets belonging to Malaysia’s national petroleum company Petronas worth some US$15 billion (S$22.8 billion). The heirs sought legal recourse in a French...
The Taliban is reaching out to Muslim-majority nations far from Afghanistan, like Malaysia and Indonesia, to create the perception that an increasing number of countries are interested in engaging with the regime to “strengthen their case for international recognition”, say analysts. On Sunday (July 24), the Taliban’s acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi met Malaysia’s special...
