Asian Shares Mixed Ahead of Fed Meeting, US-China Talks

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30 January 2019, 14:55

An investor walks in front of private stock trading boards in November at a private stock market gallery in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Photo: Yam G-Jun / Associated Press

SINGAPORE — Asian markets were mixed on Wednesday as traders await the conclusion of a Federal Reserve policy meeting and U.S.-China talks.

Keeping Score

Thailand’s SET was up 0.1 percent trading at 1,625.60 Wednesday afternoon. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index retreated 0.5 percent to 20,556.54 while South Korea’s Kospi climbed 0.9 percent to 2,203.17. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained 0.1 percent to 27,564.19. The Shanghai Composite index dropped 0.2 percent to 2,589.70. Australia’s S&P ASX 200 added 0.2 percent to 5,886.70. Stocks were flat in Taiwan but rose in Thailand and Indonesia.

Wall Street

U.S. indexes reflected a mixed draw of corporate earnings on Tuesday. 3M, the maker of Post-it notes, industrial coatings and ceramics, posted upbeat fourth quarter results. Harley-Davidson reported a drop in sales. Apple announced better-than-expected earnings, and its shares surged 5.7 percent to USD$163.50 in after-hours trading. The S&P 500 index retreated 0.1 percent to 2,640.00 while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.2 percent at 24,579.96. The Nasdaq composite, which has many technology stocks, shed 0.8 percent to 7,028.29. The Russell 2000 index lost 0.1 percent to 1,471.45.

Fed Meeting

All eyes are on a Federal Open Market Committee meeting ending Wednesday. Although the Fed is expected to leave its short-term interest rate unchanged, the nuances of a press conference by Chairman Jerome Powell will be closely watched.

China-US Trade

American and Chinese officials will begin two days of trade talks in Washington. President Donald Trump will reportedly meet Chinese Vice Premier Liu He in an attempt to move negotiations forward. But the Justice Department’s charges against Chinese tech giant Huawei, its subsidiaries and a top company executive may be a hurdle. China has urged U.S. authorities to end what it called an “unreasonable crackdown” against Huawei, which has been accused of stealing technology and violating sanctions on Iran.

Analyst’s Take

“Asia’s markets are trading quietly sideways this morning, and we would expect that to be the theme of the day as the event-risk needle swings much higher from tonight in North America,” Jeffrey Halley of OANDA said in a market commentary.

Energy

Benchmark U.S. crude rose 5 cents to $53.36 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It gained $1.32 to settle at $53.31 per barrel on Tuesday. Brent crude, used to price international oils, picked up 13 cents to $61.33 per barrel. The contract added $1.39 to $61.20 per barrel in London.

Currencies

The dollar eased to 109.26 yen from 109.35 yen late Tuesday. The euro strengthened to $1.1442 from $1.1432.

Story: Annabelle Liang

Indonesia’s Merapi Volcano Unleashes River of Lava (Video)

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Associated Press

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30 January 2019, 13:36

Mount Merapi spews volcanic material as it erupts as seen Tuesday from Cangkringan, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Photo: Slamet Riyadi / Associated Press

YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia’s volatile Mount Merapi volcano has unleashed a river of lava that flowed 1,400 meters (4,590 feet) down its slopes.

Merapi, on the island of Java, has entered an “effusive eruption phase,” Kasbani, head of the Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center, said Wednesday.

Kasbani, who goes by a single name, said the volcanic material that spewed out late Tuesday was the volcano’s longest lava flow since it began erupting again in August.

He said the alert level of the volcano has not been raised but people should stay out of a 3-kilometer (1.8-mile) danger zone around the crater.

The 2,968-meter (9,737-foot) mountain, located near the ancient Indonesian city of Yogyakarta, is the most active of dozens of Indonesian volcanoes.

Its last major eruption in 2010 killed 347 people.

Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 260 million people, is prone to earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions because it straddles the Pacific “Ring of Fire.”

South Koreans Mourn Death of Former WWII Sex Slave

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Associated Press

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30 January 2019, 13:22

A statue of a girl representing thousands of Korean women enslaved for sex by Japan's imperial forces before and during World War II, is seen on Wednesday during a weekly rally near the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, South Korea. Photo: Lee Jin-man / Associated Press

SEOUL — Hundreds of South Koreans mourned the death of a former sex slave for the Japanese military during World War II during in a rally in Seoul Wednesday that demanded reparations from Tokyo over wartime atrocities.

Kim Bok-dong had been a vocal protest leader at the weekly rallies held every Wednesday in Seoul for nearly 30 years. She died on Monday following a battle with cancer. She was 92.

At a narrow street near where the Japanese Embassy used to be, protesters gathered around a bronze statue of a girl representing Korean sexual slavery victims and held a moment of silence for Kim. Many of them held signboards with Kim’s photos and words including, “We will never forget the life of Kim Bok-dong” and “Japanese government, apologize!”

Kim was one of the first victims to speak out and break decades of silence over Japan’s wartime sexual slavery that experts say forced thousands of Asian women into front-line brothels. She traveled around the world testifying about her experience, including at the United Nations World Conference on Human Rights in 1993 and at a U.N. Human Rights Council panel in 2016. Of the 239 Korean women who have come forward as victims, only 23 are still alive.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who visited Kim’s altar at a Seoul hospital in Tuesday, said in a statement that Kim devoted her life to “restoring human dignity” and that her campaigning gave South Koreans a “braveness to face the truth.”

According to Yoon Meehyang, who heads an activist group representing South Korean sexual slavery victims, Kim was dragged away from home at the age of 14 and forced to have sex with Japanese soldiers at military brothels in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore from 1940 to 1945. She came forward as a sexual slavery victim in 1992, a year after Kim Hak-sun became the first South Korean woman to identify herself as a former sex slave.

Kim’s death came at time when relations between South Korea and Japan have sunk to their lowest in years over Japan’s refusal to fully acknowledge the sufferings of the so-called “comfort women” during WWII and forced laborers during its colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 through 1945.

Moon’s government in November announced plans to dissolve a foundation founded by Japan to compensate South Korean sexual slavery victims, which if carried out would effectively kill a controversial 2015 agreement between the countries to settle a decades-long impasse over the issue.

Many in South Korea believed that Seoul’s previous conservative government settled for far too less in the deal, where Tokyo agreed to fund the foundation with 1 billion yen ($9 million), and that Japan still hasn’t acknowledged legal responsibility for atrocities during its colonial occupation of Korea.

Japan had said it didn’t consider the money it provided to the fund as compensation, insisting that all wartime compensation issues were settled in a 1965 treaty that restored diplomatic ties between the countries and was accompanied by more than $800 million in economic aid and loans from Tokyo to Seoul.

Japan blasted Seoul’s decision to walk back on the deal, with Foreign Minister Taro Kono saying Seoul was violating the “most basic rule to live in the international society.”

Story: Kim Tong-hyung

Former Factory Worker Named Future Forward Candidate

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Asaree Thaitrakulpanich, Staff Reporter

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30 January 2019, 13:19

Wanwipa Maison. Photo: Future Forward Party

BANGKOK — A former garment factory worker and labor organizer with a middle-school education became a progressive political party’s third party list candidate Wednesday.

Doubling maternity leave and welfare for new mothers are among social programs Wanwipa “Mod” Maison said she will push for if seated in the new House of Representatives as a member of the Future Forward Party.

“I’ve gone through a lot,” she said in an interview. “In textile factories, it’s mostly women working, and we always get exploited. There are workers who’ve stayed at the same pay for 20, 30 years and are still getting paid as day laborers who have to reach set production goals while working unpaid OT.”

The Uttaradit native said winning a seat would make her the first low-skilled laborer to serve in Parliament.

Women are front and center in the party’s policy prescriptions she is promoting.

She said the party would double maternity leave from 90 to 180 days, as well as the “baby bonus” from 600 baht per month to 1,200 baht, and keep it in place until children reach 6 instead of 3.

So is some economic populism as the party seeks to expand beyond progressive politics to win wider support.

“Why is it that the harder we work, the poorer we are?” she says. “I earned less than 15,000 baht a month. My life was stalled in the same place, even after working for 20 years.”

“I’ve fought for welfare rights for 20 years when I worked in textile factories. Every Labor Day I would present complaints to ask for change. But since then, nothing has happened,” she said in a phone interview Wednesday. “But those complaints were just papers. As an MP, I could make them law instead of having them go to waste.”

Wanwipa was secretary-general of the Triumph Labor Union and executive director of The Textile, Garment and Leather Workers Federation, but left those positions this month to work for the party full time.

“Workers will be an important voice base for the party,” she said.

Other policies include more money for senior citizens, increased funding of the universal healthcare program and support for youth entering the labor market.

Future Forward estimates the bill for its programs to come in at 650 billion baht, about 370 billion baht more than is currently allocated in the budget. The party says it can be paid for by reprioritizing state funding, downsizing the armed forces and increasing property taxes.

Wanwipa, 36, became the face for the party’s welfare policies at an event laying them out last month.

“The state must take care of us, not bail us out with aid. We need welfare rights, not aid that we have to endlessly fight for,” she said. “We need all-around care, not just a bit of cash during the New Year.”

All political parties planning to contest the March 24 election have until Feb. 8 to nominate their candidates. Future Forward’s first two list seats were reserved for party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit (who once sat on the board of The Matichon Group, the parent company of Khaosod English) and Thammasat University law professor Piyabutr Saengkanokkul.

Thailand Slips Further in Latest Corruption Index

By

Lobsang Dundup Sherpa Subirana, Deputy Editor

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30 January 2019, 12:13

BANGKOK — Thailand dropped three positions in the latest corruption index released Tuesday by a Berlin-based transparency watchdog.

Transparency International ranked Thailand 99th out of 180 countries in its annual index, which saw the kingdom fall two points to score 35. Zero represents complete corruption and 100 is complete transparency. The watchdog did not cite specific factors in Thailand’s decline.

However, Thailand’s ranking has wavered since the 2014 military coup that brought junta leader Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha to power, improving to 76 in 2015 and dropping as far as 102 the year after.

Ranked jointly with Thailand were Albania, Bahrain, Colombia, Tanzania and the Philippines.

Elsewhere in the region, the general trend showed mixed results, with Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam ranking lower and other ASEAN countries improving their standings. Among them was Singapore, which jumped three places to rank third alongside Finland, Switzerland and Sweden, just behind New Zealand and first-place Denmark.

Globally, it was a poor year overall for transparency, with more than two-thirds of nations ranking below 50, something the watchdog said is linked to rising authoritarianism worldwide.

“With many democratic institutions under threat across the globe – often by leaders with authoritarian or populist tendencies – we need to do more to strengthen checks and balances and protect citizens’ rights,” said Patricia Moreira, Transparency International’s managing director.

In the rest of the world, the most notable improvements were by Turkey and India, while emerging economies such as Mexico and Brazil both dropped. World powers such as Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States regressed, with the states falling out of the top 20 for the first time since 2011.

Transparency International classifies countries based on assessments of corruption in the public sector. The results are calculated using data from 13 external sources that are standardized to calculate the final index’s score.

Bangkok Schools Ordered Closed Due to Smog

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JINTAMAS SAKSORNCHAI

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30 January 2019, 12:02

Students wear masks at at Patai Udom Suksa School on Jan. 15 in Bangkok.

Update: The Education Ministry ordered all “affected” education institutions, private and public, closed through Friday in Bangkok, Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani, Nakhon Pathom, Samut Prakan and Samut Sakhon provinces. Students in some grades with exams this weekend may still have class.

BANGKOK — Students will be dismissed from all public schools at noon and classes canceled through Friday as air pollution continues unabated, the governor said Wednesday.

Classes at 437 public schools were canceled out of concern the heavy smog could impact student health, according to Gov. Aswin Kwanmuang. Officials said the pollution in the capital this morning exceeded acceptable levels in 39 areas, with the highest density near Rama II Road in Samut Sakhon at up to 145 micrograms per cubic meter.

State weather forecasters said the lack of wind and higher air pressure has aggravated the situation, which is likely to persist at current unhealthy levels until next Monday at the earliest.

Update: ‘I Don’t Know What to Do’ About Smog: Bangkok Governor

Aswin said the forecast led to the decision to close schools temporarily because “children might be harmed” by the pollution.

Officials said canceling classes at universities will be voluntary. Thammasat University and Suan Dusit Rajabhat University canceled classes tomorrow and Friday.

Public frustration continues to grow as officials have scrambled to address the surging pollution since last month without any concrete results. Among those efforts are spraying water into the air, washing streets and halting rail construction.

On Twitter, #UltrafineParticles was the No. 2 top-trending hashtag as of noon.

The government has come in for harsh criticism for ineffectively handling the problem.

Aswin today outlined additional measures unlikely to impress the public, including deploying 50 drones to spray water and installing more pollution detectors in public areas.

He said factory operating hours would be limited, but fell short of promising stricter law enforcement in favor of voluntary measures.

“We’ll ask for cooperation,” he said. “Everyone has to help each other.”

He also said City Hall is considering ways to designate certain areas subject to controls on traffic, construction and open-air burning.

Rail Construction Halted, Drivers Fined as Smog Persists

Bangkok Pollution Has Always Been Bad – So Have the Solutions: Experts

Final Day of King’s Coronation Declared National Holiday

By

Chayanit Itthipongmaetee, Staff Reporter

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30 January 2019, 11:51

BANGKOK — The final day of His Majesty the King’s three-day coronation ceremony will be observed as a national holiday.

The interim cabinet Monday declared that May 6 will be a national holiday, effectively resuming a holiday that had been celebrated on May 5 since King Bhumibol, the monarch’s father, ascended to the throne that day in 1950.

It had not been celebrated since his death in 2016.

Prime Minister Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha said the new date, which falls on a Monday, was declared so the ceremony could proceed uninterrupted past the weekend.

The coronation ceremony is scheduled for May 4 to May 6. The king will officially be crowned May 4. A royal procession and inauguration of the king’s official name and signature will be held May 5, including the re-establishment of royal family members’ ranks.

On May 6, the king will hold an audience for the public and foreign diplomats at the Grand Palace.

Thailand Adds Two New Holidays to the Year

Apple to Fix FaceTime Bug That Allows Eavesdropping

By

Associated Press

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30 January 2019, 11:28

Earns Apple — In this Oct. 30, 2018, file photo Apple's new MacBook Air computers are displayed during the company's showcase of new products in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Photo: Bebeto Matthews / AP

Apple has disabled a group-chat function in FaceTime after users said a software bug could let callers activate another person’s microphone remotely.

With the bug, a FaceTime user calling another iPhone, iPad or Mac computer could hear audio — even if the receiver did not accept the call. The bug is triggered when callers add themselves to the same call to launch a group chat. That makes FaceTime think the receiver had accepted the chat.

The bug, demonstrated through videos online, comes as an embarrassment for a company that is trying to distinguish itself by stressing its commitment to users’ privacy.

“This is a big hit to their brand,” said Dave Kennedy, CEO of Ohio-based security firm TrustedSec. “There’s been a long period of time people could have used that to eavesdrop. These things definitely should be caught prior to ever being released.”

There is no longer a danger from this particular bug as Apple disabled group chats, while regular, one-on-one FaceTime remains available.

NBC News and The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the family of a 14-year-old high school student in Tucson, Arizona, tried to inform Apple about the bug more than a week before it became widely known to the public. The boy, Grant Thompson, said he discovered it by accident while calling friends to play the game “Fortnite.”

It’s hard to know if anyone exploited the bug maliciously, said Erka Koivunen, chief information security officer for Finnish company F-Secure. He said it would have been hard to use the bug to spy on someone, as the phone would ring first — and it’s easy to identify who called.

Apple said Tuesday that a fix will come in a software update later this week. Apple declined to say when it learned about the problem. The company also wouldn’t say if it has logs that could show if anyone took advantage of the bug before it became publicly known this week.

Kennedy commended Apple’s quick response this week following reports of the bug by tech blogs. He predicted the reputational dent could soon be forgotten if it doesn’t become part of a pattern.

“All bugs are obvious in retrospect,” said Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “The truth is bugs are subtle, code is complicated and sometimes things get through.”

Galperin said Apple should develop a better process for fielding reports about potential security flaws. She said the 14-year-old’s discovery of the problem “just tells us a lot about reporting security bugs depends on knowing the right person.”

Apple had introduced the 32-person video conferencing feature in October for iPhones, iPads and Macs. Regular FaceTime calls aren’t affected unless the caller turns it into a group chat.

Word of the bug came as Apple reported that profit for the last three months of 2018 dipped slightly to $20 billion while revenue fell 5 percent from the prior year to $84 billion. Earlier this month, Apple said that demand for iPhones was waning and that its earnings for the final quarter of 2018 would be below its own forecasts — a rare downgrade from the company.

Story: Matt O’Brien and Carlo Piovano

Australian PM Asks Thailand to Free Detained Footballer

By

Associated Press

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29 January 2019, 18:02

Prison guards escort Bahraini football player Hakeem AlAraibi in December from a court in Bangkok. Photo: Gemunu Amarasinghe / Associated Press

BANGKOK — Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has urged Thailand to stop the extradition to Bahrain of a detained football player who has refugee status in Australia, his office said Tuesday.

In a letter to Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, Morrison emphasized that Hakeem al-Araibi’s case was an important matter to him personally, as well as to the Australian government and Australian people, his office said. The letter was reported earlier by The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.

Al-Araibi, 25, a former Bahraini national team player, says he fled his home country due to political repression. Bahrain wants him returned to serve a 10-year prison sentence he received in absentia in 2014 for vandalizing a police station, which he denies.

Human rights groups, football governing bodies and activists have pushed for Thailand to release Al-Araibi, who plays for the semi-professional football club Pascoe Vale FC in Melbourne. They believe he risks being tortured if he is sent back to Bahrain.

Morrison noted that al-Araibi has a permanent protection visa issued by Australia, that the government only issues such visas after a careful process, and that Australia considers him a refugee.

Al-Araibi was detained upon his arrival in Bangkok in November while on a holiday, and a court ruled in December he could be held for 60 days pending the completion of an extradition request by Bahrain.

Thailand said it received an official extradition request on Monday.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Busadee Santipitaks said Tuesday that the request has been forwarded to prosecutors for deliberation.

Thailand’s attorney general is expected to decide within a week whether to proceed with the extradition case, said Chatchom Akapin, director general of the international affairs department.

Chatchom said Thailand would not extradite al-Araibi “if the sought extradition is political.”

“If it is, then the request must be denied,” he said.

Prime Minister Prayuth said the situation was complicated.

“Thai officials have to follow the law in every aspect. However, Thailand has good relations with Bahrain and FIFA,” he said, referring to football’s world governing body. “How can we find a solution? I understand everyone’s concerns.”

Human Rights Watch’s Asia director, Brad Adams, said Thailand would make a “huge mistake” if it extradites al-Araibi because “global opinion and international law are clearly opposed to this rights-violating move.”

The Asian Football Confederation on Tuesday followed FIFA and the International Olympic Committee in asking for al-Araibi’s release.

The AFC, led by Sheikh Salman Bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa, a member of Bahrain’s royal family, had faced criticism for not calling for al-Araibi’s freedom.

Al-Araibi has said he suspects he is being sought by Bahrain in part because of critical comments he made about the AFC leader.

Al-Araibi said he was blindfolded and had his legs beaten while he was held in Bahrain in 2012. He said he believed he was targeted for arrest because of his Shiite faith and because his brother was politically active. Bahrain has a Shiite majority but is ruled by a Sunni monarchy, and has a reputation for harsh repression since its failed “Arab Spring” uprising in 2011.

Bahrain’s interior minister issued a statement Tuesday asserting that the country has a legitimate claim in asking for al-Araibi’s extradition and accusing critics of its justice system of interfering in the country’s internal affairs.

“Those raising unfounded doubts about the integrity and independence of the kingdom’s judicial system are not only interfering, but also attempting to influence the course of justice,” the statement said.

It said al-Araibi was convicted of participating in a “terrorism” case involving “an arson attack, possession of inflammable bombs and causing damage to public and private property.”

Story: Kaweewit Kaewjinda, Tassanee Vejpongsa

Nobel Laureate Talks to Khaosod About Inequality ‘Time Bomb’

By

Pravit Rojanaphruk, Senior Staff Writer

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29 January 2019, 17:32

Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus at lunch Tuesday with editors and reporters in Bangkok.

BANGKOK — Nobel Peace Laureate Muhammad Yunus wants to see more attention paid in newspapers to combating inequality.

Speaking during a Tuesday visit to The Matichon Group, which publishes Khaosod and Khaosod English, Yunus noted there were no such dedicated sections in Thailand or most of the world and stressed why it is important.

“Inequality is a ticking time bomb. Inequality is increasing,” said Yunus, who is known for founding the world-famous Grameen Bank and pioneering the concept of microcredit as well as microfinance. He jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 together Grameen Bank for their efforts through microcredit to create economic and social development from below,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee stated.

The 78-year-old man warned that social systems are collapsing as equality gaps widen.

“China produced more billionaires last year than the past 10 years combined,” Yunus said, adding that there are even billionaires in his native Bangladesh now.
“Ninety-eight percent of the world’s wealth today belongs to them. It’s a danger for the whole human race because we are destroying one another in 30 to 40 years,” Yunus said during the lunch meeting. “When you are in the bottom, you don’t get anything.”

The Nobel laureate asked why, after four decades of promoting micro credits, banking systems have not changed and the microcredit concept he popularized is still in the footnotes. Meanwhile, half the world’s population, about 4 billion people, lack access to credit. Yunus, who clearly enjoys talking as much as sampling Thai food, didn’t offer any answers of his own.

He’s also promoting so-called “social business” around the world as an alternative to the marketing trend of Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR programs.

His notion of social businesses differs from commercial and nonprofit organizations in that all profits go toward social objectives and seek to solve social problems.

“No personal gain is desired by its investors. A social business can address problems such as providing healthcare, housing and financial services for the poor, nutrition for malnourished children, providing safe drinking water, introducing renewable energy and much more in a business way,” according to information published by his center.

In Thailand, introducing such a concept has been a challenge, said Bordin Rassameethes, director of the Yunus Social Business Centre at Kasetsart University’s Business School, which was established in July 2016 to promote social business research.

Bordin said Thai corporations would rather engage in public relations through CSR projects. He added that some Thai cooperatives could be transformed into social businesses.

On a personal note, the septuagenarian who spends half his time traveling the world to spread his ideas, said there are two phases to life.

“There’s nothing called retirement. Phase One is to take care of family. Phase Two is to do things for the rest of the world. That’s where I am.”

Note: The last two paragraphs of this article have been removed at the instruction of Matichon Group management. Matichon Group is the parent company of Khaosod English, which was not responsible for the decision.

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