SIN CHEW DAILY EDITORS DETAINED OVER JALUR GEMILANG ILLUSTRATION GAFFE, RELEASED ON BAIL HOURS LATER - KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

SIN CHEW DAILY EDITORS DETAINED OVER JALUR GEMILANG ILLUSTRATION GAFFE, RELEASED ON BAIL HOURS LATER - KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

@Jr_Paku Midin Channel

KUALA LUMPUR (April 17, 2025): The Chief Editor and Deputy Chief Sub-Editor of Sin Chew Daily were detained today to assist in investigations regarding the publication of an incomplete illustration of the Jalur Gemilang on the front page of the newspaper.

Confirming the matter, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Razarudin Husain said the two individuals were detained for further investigations.

“We detained them for questioning and brought them to the office to retrieve computers and other items related to the case for further investigation,” he said briefly when contacted.

Bernama, however, understands that they were released at 8.20pm.

Earlier today, the Chief Editor and Deputy Chief Sub-Editor had their statements recorded over a three-hour session at the Classified Criminal Investigation Unit office at the Royal Malaysia Police Headquarters in Bukit Aman.

The Chief Editor was reportedly responsible for approving the publication of the illustration, while the Deputy Chief Sub-Editor was the graphic designer behind the image.

Razarudin said so far, police have received 40 reports nationwide regarding the issue, and the case is being investigated under Section 3(1)(c) of the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act 1963 and Section 4(1)(b) of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984.

On Tuesday, the Chinese-language newspaper published the incomplete illustration of the Jalur Gemilang on its front page in conjunction with coverage of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Malaysia.

The incident drew criticism from various parties, including His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim, King of Malaysia, who said the newspaper’s management and editorial department must be more careful and thoroughly vet materials before publication.

Following the backlash, the newspaper issued an apology, stating that the mistake was a technical error and unintentional. 

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JAPAN COURT ORDERS 'MOONIES' CHURCH BE STRIPPED OF LEGAL RECOGNITION - TOKYO JAPAN

JAPAN COURT ORDERS 'MOONIES' CHURCH BE STRIPPED OF LEGAL RECOGNITION - TOKYO JAPAN

@Jr_Paku Midin Channel

TOKYO (March 26, 2025): A Japanese court ordered on Tuesday that a religious sect be stripped of official recognition, the government said, in the wake of the assassination of ex-premier Shinzo Abe.

A government spokesman told AFP that the Tokyo District Court “issued the dissolution order” for the Japanese chapter of the Unification Church, founded in South Korea and nicknamed the “Moonies” after its late founder, Sun Myung Moon.

The Church is accused of pressuring followers into making life-ruining donations, and blamed for child neglect among its members, although it has denied any wrongdoing.

Former prime minister Abe, Japan’s longest-serving leader, was shot dead on the campaign trail in 2022, allegedly by a man who resented the Unification Church.

The alleged assassin, Tetsuya Yamagami, was reportedly angry that his mother had donated around 100 million yen (US$1 million at the time) to the Church.

Investigations after Abe’s murder revealed close ties between the sect and many conservative ruling-party lawmakers, leading to the resignation of four ministers.

This prompted the government in 2023 to seek permission from the courts to have the group legally disbanded.

‘Caused such damage’

Tuesday’s court order, once enacted, will remove the Church’s tax-exempt status while branding the organisation a harmful entity, experts say.

However, the Church will still be able to continue religious practices, lawyer Katsuomi Abe said before Tuesday’s ruling.

“Its reputation will decline, and the number of followers will decrease”, said Abe, who represents former believers seeking compensation after making huge donations.

“I don’t think any other organisation has caused such damage” to Japanese society, he told AFP.

The amount donated by Japanese members over the decades has been estimated by some at hundreds of millions of US dollars or more.

Since 2023, nearly 200 people have demanded compensation of 5.7 billion yen ($38 million) in total.

The Unification Church — officially the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification — was founded in 1954.

It rose to global prominence in the 1970s and 80s, becoming famous for mass weddings often held in stadiums.

Japan has long been a financial hub, with the Church telling members they must atone for the wartime occupation of Korea and selling expensive items to obtain forgiveness from sins.

Yamagami, now in pre-trial detention, could face the death penalty if convicted over Abe’s killing.

Their uncle has described receiving calls for help from Yamagami when his mother left her children alone and without food to attend church.

Since Abe’s murder, the Church has pledged to prevent “excessive” member donations.

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TEMPLE BURNED, UNESCO VILLAGE EVACUATED AS SOUTH KOREA WILDFIRES SPREAD - UISEONG SOUTH KOREA

TEMPLE BURNED, UNESCO VILLAGE EVACUATED AS SOUTH KOREA WILDFIRES SPREAD - UISEONG SOUTH KOREA

@Jr_Paku Midin Channel

UISEONG (March 26): Residents of a Unesco-listed village were ordered to evacuate while a historic Buddhist temple was burned to the ground Tuesday as South Korea scrambled to contain worsening wildfires.

Blazes tearing across the country’s southeast have killed four people, with authorities transferring thousands of prisoners and residents as dry windy weather hampers efforts to contain more than a dozen different fires which broke out over the weekend.

The fires are collectively the third largest in South Korea’s history, with acting Interior and Safety Minister Ko Ki-dong saying 14,694 hectares (36,310 acres) had been affected early Tuesday.

“Strong winds, dry weather, and haze are hampering firefighting efforts,” Ko told a disaster and safety meeting.

The government has declared a state of emergency in four regions.

“The wind was so strong that I couldn’t stand still,” said evacuated Andong resident Kwon So-han.

“The fire came from the mountain and fell on my house. Nothing could be done,” the 79-year-old told AFP.

Authorities in Andong issued an emergency alert late Tuesday to residents of the historic Hahoe Folk Village — a Unesco-listed world heritage site popular with tourists — as the blaze drew closer.

“The Uiseong Angye wildfire is moving in the direction” of that area, the alert said. “Residents are requested to evacuate immediately.”

In Uiseong, AFP reporters saw the sky full of smoke and haze, with the Korea Forest Service saying that the containment rate for the fire in that area had decreased from 60 to 55 per cent on Tuesday.

Early in the morning, workers at the Gounsa Temple, which was more than a thousand years old, were attempting to move valuable artefacts and cover up Buddhist statues to protect them from possible damage.

“We used fire retardant blankets,” Joo Jung-wan, a Gyeongbuk Seobu Cultural Heritage Care Center worker told AFP, saying that a giant gilded Buddha statue was too large to move so had been carefully covered.

Hours later, an official at the Korea Heritage Service told AFP that the temple had been burnt down.

“It is very heartbreaking and painful to see the precious temples that are over a thousand years old being lost,” monk Deung-woon told AFP.

FAMILY GRAVE

More than 6,700 firefighters have been deployed to battle the wildfires, according to the Ministry of Interior and Safety, with nearly two-fifths of the personnel dispatched to Uiseong.

As the fires raged, a Ministry of Justice official told AFP around 3,500 inmates were being moved out of harm’s way from correctional facilities in North Gyeongsang province.

In Daegu and the North Gyeongsang region, “the air is extremely dry and strong winds are blowing, creating the risk that even a small spark could quickly spread into a large wildfire”, an official from the local meteorological administration said.

The fire in Uiseong was reportedly caused by a person who was tending to a family grave site and accidentally triggered the conflagration, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said during a cabinet meeting.

South Korea’s worst fire was an April 2000 blaze that scorched 23,913 hectares across the east coast.

Some types of extreme weather have a well-established link with climate change, such as heatwaves or heavy rainfall.

Other phenomena, such as forest fires, droughts, snowstorms and tropical storms can result from a combination of complex factors.

Neighbouring Japan was also experiencing wildfires over the weekend, with blazes in multiple areas.

Japan saw the country’s worst wildfire in more than half a century earlier this month. It engulfed about 2,900 hectares — around half the size of Manhattan –- and killed at least one person.

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INTELLIGENT MACHINES BOOST CHINA'S 'GREEN GREAD WALL' BUILDING EFFORTS - HOHHOT

INTELLIGENT MACHINES BOOST CHINA'S 'GREEN GREAD WALL' BUILDING EFFORTS - HOHHOT

@Jr_Paku Midin Channel

HOHHOT (March 18, 2025): This spring, the challenging task of afforestation at the edge of the Mu Us Desert in northern China takes on a futuristic feel, with drones soaring through the air, transporting seedlings across vast sand dunes, while intelligent planting machines carve through the sands, embedding saplings with precision.

“It only takes five seconds for these robots to plant a seedling in the desert,” said Gao Fei, as he remotely operated the two planting machines.

Gao, who works with the Jintaiming Technology Group based in northern China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, explained that these are the company’s second-generation intelligent tree-planting machines. They can completely automate the tree-planting process, from loosening the soil with an auger and inserting the sapling to watering its roots, covering it with soil, and compacting it.

“Four such machines, still in the trial phase, were deployed this year. The production line for the machines has yet to be fully launched,” Gao said, adding that the company holds independent intellectual property rights for the intelligent machines.

He went on to explain that the machines integrate advanced technologies such as spiral ground drilling, unmanned driving, and artificial intelligence to enable large-scale, round-the-clock tree planting without human intervention. The company is also investing in the development of other intelligent machines to accommodate different planting scenarios.

The desert lies near the irrigated lands of the Hetao section of the Yellow River, China’s second-longest river. Winding through Inner Mongolia with sweeping bends, the river stretches over 840 km in the region. In addition to the Mu Us Desert, its banks border the Ulan Buh and Kubuqi deserts.

Inner Mongolia has identified a total of about 15 million hectares of desertified land spread across areas governed by seven cities, which are the source and pathway of sandstorms that impact the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

To mitigate sandstorms, ensure food security, and protect the Yellow River — China’s mother river — afforestation in Inner Mongolia serves as a key battleground for the country’s ambitious Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program (TSFP), initiated in 1978 to combat desertification.

Yan Wei, director of the TSFP center in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia, said that in the afforestation program in Otog Banner, where the robots are used, this year’s target is to plant trees across 3,333 hectares of sandy land, with 60 percent of the work supported by various types of machinery.

There are 20 drones used for transporting seedlings in the program area, which improves the efficiency of transporting large amounts of the saplings in the complex terrain.

Meanwhile, the smart tree-planting machine is capable of performing ten times the amount of work that a human laborer can do in a day, while its cost is just 30 percent of the labor cost, Gao said.

He added that machine-planted salix mongolia, a drought-resistant willow tree species, demonstrated a higher survival rate compared to those planted manually. The company remains optimistic about the market potential for intelligent planting robots.

China’s expertise and experience in building windbreaks on deserts have earned global acclaim. By using grass grids made of wheat straw to stabilize the sand, vast numbers of people from all walks of life have been mobilized to plant trees, expanding the “green Great Wall.”

According to Ma Qiang, deputy director of the Inner Mongolia regional forestry and grassland administration, anti-desertification efforts must transcend administrative boundaries. He stressed that desertification prevention and control should be integrated with new energy initiatives, such as the development of wind and photovoltaic power projects in desert regions. 

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UNIVERSAL OF TOKYO TO OPEN NEW DEPARTMENT IN YEAR 2027; CLASSESS ALL IN ENGLISH - TOKYO JAPAN

UNIVERSAL OF TOKYO TO OPEN NEW DEPARTMENT IN YEAR 2027; CLASSESS ALL IN ENGLISH - TOKYO JAPAN

@Jr_Paku Midin Channel

TOKYO

The University of Tokyo will open its first new undergraduate department in about 70 years in September 2027, with all classes taught in English to empower students to take on complex global challenges.

The new combined five-year bachelor's and master's degree program will reserve half of its 100-student capacity for international enrollees, aiming to strengthen the global competitiveness of Japan's most prestigious university.

The department, "UTokyo College of Design," will adopt fall enrollment, the mainstream in Europe and the United States, offering topics that students can explore in line with their interests, such as climate change and biodiversity, regardless of field of study.

Teruo Fujii, the public university's president, said:, "We will create a new place of learning where students can realize their respective visions by fully utilizing the potential of the University of Tokyo."

All freshman students will reside in a university dormitory to promote cross-cultural exchange through daily interaction. The program comprises four years of bachelor's and one year of master's study.

The college is set to be headed by a foreign professor at the university, with teaching staff to include other instructors at the institution and top-class researchers from both Japan and abroad, it said.

The admission method is scheduled to be announced as early as July. The university, which will mark the 150th anniversary of its founding in 2027, is expected to forgo written examinations and instead assess applicants based on their documents and interviews.

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ASIAN MARKETS PLUNGE WITH JAPAN'S NIKKEI DIVING NEARLY 8% AFTER THE BIG MELTDOWN ON WALL ST - BANGKOK THAILAND

ASIAN MARKETS PLUNGE WITH JAPAN'S NIKKEI DIVING NEARLY 8% AFTER THE BIG MELTDOWN ON WALL ST - BANGKOK THAILAND

@Jr_Paku Midin Channel

BANGKOK (THAILAND) — Asian shares nosedived on Monday after the meltdown Friday on Wall Street over U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff hikes and the backlash from Beijing.

U.S. futures also signaled further weakness. The future for the S&P 500 lost 4.2% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 3.5%. The future for the Nasdaq lost 5.3%.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index lost nearly 8% shortly after the market opened. An hour later it was down 7.1% at 31,375.71.

South Korea’s Kospi lost 5.5% to 2,328.52, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 tumbled 6.3% to 7,184.70.

Oil prices sank further, with U.S. benchmark crude down 4%, or $2.50, at $59.49 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gave up $2.25 to $63.33 a barrel.

Currencies also saw big moves.

The U.S. dollar fell to 145.98 Japanese yen from 146.94 yen. The yen is often viewed as a safe haven in times of turmoil. The euro rose to $1.0967 from $1.0962.

On Friday, Wall Street’s worst crisis since COVID slammed into a higher gear. The S&P 500 plummeted 6% and the Dow plunged 5.5%. The Nasdaq composite dropped 5.8%.

The losses came after China matched President Donald Trump’s big raise in tariffs announced last week, upping the stakes in a trade war that could end with a recession that hurts everyone. Even a better-than-expected report on the U.S. job market, usually the economic highlight of each month, wasn’t enough to stop the slide.

So far there have been few, if any, winners in financial markets from the trade war. Stocks for all but 14 of the 500 companies within the S&P 500 index fell Friday.

China’s response to U.S. tariffs caused an immediate acceleration of losses in markets worldwide. The Commerce Ministry in Beijing said it would respond to the 34% tariffs imposed by the U.S. on imports from China with its own 34% tariff on imports of all U.S. products beginning April 10, among other measures.

The United States and China are the world’s two largest economies.

The central question looking ahead is: Will the trade war cause a global recession? If it does, stock prices may need to come down even more than they have already. The S&P 500 is down 17.4% from its record set in February.

Trump seemed unfazed. From Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Florida, he headed to his golf course a few miles away after writing on social media that “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO GET RICH.”

The Federal Reserve could cushion the blow of tariffs on the economy by cutting interest rates, which can encourage companies and households to borrow and spend. But the Fed may have less freedom to move than it would like.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Friday that tariffs could drive up expectations for inflation and lower rates could fuel still more price increases.

“Our obligation is to keep longer-term inflation expectations well anchored and to make certain that a one-time increase in the price level does not become an ongoing inflation problem,” Powell said.

Much will depend on how long Trump’s tariffs stick and what kind of retaliations other countries deliver. Some of Wall Street is holding onto hope that Trump will lower the tariffs after prying “wins” from other countries following negotiations.

Trump has said Americans may feel “some pain” because of tariffs, but he has also said the long-term goals, including getting more manufacturing jobs back to the United States, are worth it.

On Wall Street, stocks of companies that do lots of business in China fell to some of the sharpest losses.

DuPont dropped 12.7% after China said its regulators are launching an anti-trust investigation into DuPont China group, a subsidiary of the chemical giant. It’s one of several measures targeting American companies and in retaliation for the U.S. tariffs.

GE Healthcare got 12% of its revenue last year from the China region, and it fell 16%.

In the bond market, Treasury yields fell, but they pared their drops following Powell’s cautious statements about inflation. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.01% from 4.06% late Thursday and from roughly 4.80% early this year. It had gone below 3.90% in the morning.

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HIKERS TO BE CHARGED US$27 ON ALL TRAILS - MOUNT FUJI TOKYO JAPAN

HIKERS TO BE CHARGED US$27 ON ALL TRAILS - MOUNT FUJI TOKYO JAPAN

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TOKYO (March 18, 2025): Hikers attempting any of Mount Fuji’s four main trails will be charged an entry fee of 4,000 yen (US$27) from this summer, after local authorities passed a bill on Monday.

A record influx of foreign tourists to Japan has sparked alarm about overcrowding on the nation’s highest mountain, a once-peaceful pilgrimage site.

Last year, Yamanashi region — home to Mount Fuji — introduced a 2,000 yen (US$14) entry fee plus an optional donation for the active volcano’s most popular hiking route, the Yoshida Trail.

A cap on daily entries and online reservations were also brought in on that trail by officials concerned about safety and environmental damage on Fuji’s majestic slopes.

The Yoshida Trail fee will be doubled for this year’s July-September climbing season, while neighbouring Shizuoka region passed a bill on Monday to also charge 4,000 yen for its three trails, which were previously free.

Thanks in part to the new restrictions, the number of climbers who tackled Mount Fuji declined to 204,316 last year, from 221,322 in 2023, environment ministry data shows.

Although climber numbers continue to be eclipsed by pre-pandemic levels, “200,000 hikers is still huge”, Natsuko Sodeyama, a Shizuoka prefecture official, told AFP.

“There is no other mountain in Japan that attracts that many people in the span of just over two months. So some restrictions are necessary to ensure their safety.”

Mount Fuji is covered in snow for most of the year, but during the summer hiking season many trudge up its steep, rocky slopes through the night to see the sunrise.

The symmetrical mountain has been immortalised in countless artworks, including Hokusai’s “Great Wave”. It last erupted around 300 years ago.

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INDONESIA TO BRING HOME 561 MYANMAR SCAM CENTRE WORKERS - JAKARTA, INDONESIA

INDONESIA TO BRING HOME 561 MYANMAR SCAM CENTRE WORKERS - JAKARTA, INDONESIA

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JAKARTA (March 18, 2025): More than 500 Indonesians freed from online scam centres in Myanmar will be repatriated via Thailand in the coming days, a senior Indonesian official told AFP on Tuesday.

Cyberscam operations, which have thrived in Myanmar’s lawless border areas for several years, lure foreign workers with promises of high-paying jobs but hold them hostage and force them to commit online fraud.

Around 7,000 workers from at least two dozen countries have been freed in recent weeks, the majority of them Chinese, but many have been languishing in squalid temporary holding camps on the border between Myanmar and Thailand.

Four hundred Indonesian nationals will return home on Tuesday and “around 161” are to come back on Wednesday, Judha Nugraha, the director of citizen protection at Indonesia’s foreign ministry, told AFP.

They would come back on three flights from Bangkok after crossing into Thailand from Myanmar, he said.

Indonesian authorities already repatriated 140 nationals from Myanmar via Thailand last month.

Authorities in Myanmar, under pressure from ally China, have cracked down on the scam compounds.

Thousands of Indonesians have been enticed abroad in recent years to other Southeast Asian countries for better-paying jobs, only to end up in the hands of transnational scam operators.

Between 2020 and September last year, Jakarta repatriated more than 4,700 Indonesians entangled in online scam operations from countries including Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, according to foreign ministry data.

The United Nations estimates that as many as 120,000 people — many of them Chinese men — may be working in Myanmar scam centres against their will.

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