Rights group: Cambodia internet gateway will hurt privacy
February 18, 2021 (Mainichi Japan)
In this Feb. 7, 2021 file photo, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen delivers a speech during a handover ceremony at Phnom Penh International Airport, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) Cambodia plans to set up a new national internet gateway that critics fear will increase online surveillance and censorship of the internet and infringe on rights to privacy and free expression. Like a number of Asian governments, Cambodia has been cracking down on online dissent. Long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen signed an order Wednesday to set up such an internet gateway. According to a copy of the measure seen Thursday, he said it would help with tax collecting, protect national security and ensure social order.
India’s help to countries with vaccines praiseworthy
18 Feb 2021 India has also given doses to Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. India’s gesture to offer COVID-19 vaccines to all United Nations peacekeepers – nearly 95,000 troops in 12 missions around the world – is noteworthy.
“Keeping in mind the UN peacekeepers who operate in such difficult circumstances, we would like to announce today a gift of 200,000 doses for them,” India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told a UN Security Council meeting on the coronavirus pandemic and conflict zones.
It’s just not the UN personnel who have been provided help to fortify their immunity against the virus. India has also given doses to Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives to help them get started with frontline workers as part of its Vaccine Friendship initiative.
Petrol duties have been raised for the first time in six years. (Photo: straitstimes.com)
Singapore (VNA) – Singaporean Deputy Prime Minister cum Minister
of Finance
Heng Swee Keat on February 16 announced the nation’s 107 billion SGD
(80.8 billion USD) budget plan in 2021 to provide
immediate help to sectors
under stress, and invest in the country’s long-term future.
The Singaporean government will spend 700 million SGD for wage subsidies under
the Jobs Support Scheme (JSS), which will be extended by up to six months to
help businesses that remain badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic to retain
workers, he said.
The subsidies - which range from 10 percent to 30 percent
Malaysia has secured a total of 66.7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, enough to cover its entire population, according to a handbook setting out the country’s vaccination programme launched on February 16.
Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin delivers a speech during the launch of the special
Kuala Lumpur (VNA) – Malaysian
Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin on February 17 launched the special terrestrial
Education TV channel DidikTV KPM, which can be viewed from 7am to midnight daily.
The setting up of the special channel was
an effort by the education ministry to increase access to quality education for five
million students nationwide, the state-run news agency Bernama said.
In his speech at the channel’s virtual
launch, Muhyiddin said the government is aware that education is one of the
sectors most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a difficult situation and