05/03/2025

WEDNESDAY | MAR 5, 2025

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Worker rights, housing crisis among topics at China event

involving” its squadron of FA-50s, which have previously been used in exercises over the South China Sea. The Philippines has a dozen of the jets purchased from South Korea in the last decade. “We are hopeful that we will still be able to recover the aircraft and crew. We are still very optimistic that they are safe.” The air force said it was “conducting search operations, using all available resources” to locate the missing jet and crew. – AFP NAIROBI: More than 60 Kenyans rescued from Myanmar’s cyberscam compounds are trapped at the border with Thailand and are in “dire” conditions. The 64 Kenyans are among those freed but “they have yet to cross the border to Thailand for repatriation to their home countries”, said Kenya’s State Department for Diaspora Affairs. “This is because Thai authorities have not reopened the border crossing since Feb 12 when the first wave of 260 foreigners, including 23 Kenyans, were handed over to the Royal Thai Army,” it said. As a result, the freed workers were left to wait in makeshift camps at the Myanmar Thailand border in “dire” conditions, with a lack of access to medical facilities, clean water and electricity, the statement said. The Kenyan authorities said they were also exploring alternative routes to bring their citizens home. Last week, about 600 Chinese nationals were sent home from Myanmar to their country via Thailand. The United Nations estimates that up to 120,000 people, many of them Chinese, could be working in Myanmar’s many scam compounds. – AFP Pakistani, Afghan forces clash at border crossing KABUL: Pakistani and Afghan security forces clashed on Monday at the recently shuttered main border crossing between the two countries, killing at least one combatant and injuring several, officials said. A 10-day-old closure of the Torkham border point has stranded thousands of trucks filled with essential goods. The Afghan Interior Ministry said on Monday the latest firing took place overnight and that one Afghan soldier had been killed and two injured. Two Pakistani security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said members of the Pakistani security forces had been wounded. Pakistan’s Foreign Office did not respond to a request for comment. The neighbouring countries have a strained relationship, with Pakistan saying several attacks that have occurred there have been launched from Afghan soil – a charge Afghanistan denies. Pakistani military aircraft carried out strikes that killed dozens in Afghan territory in December. Afghan Interior Ministry spokesperson Abdul Mateen Qaniee said the clashes this week had been resolved but did not comment on whether the border crossing would now reopen. It has been shut since Feb 21. The latest closure, which chamber of commerce officials said was sparked by a dispute over the construction of a border outpost, has left 5,000 trucks stranded and traders alarmed at rising losses. – Reuters Rescued Kenyans trapped at Thai border

BEIJING: Worker rights, a housing crisis and marital disputes were among issues up for discussion among China’s leaders yesterday. The ruling Communist Party will use Beijing’s largest political event of the year known as the “Two Sessions” to rubber-stamp a raft of pre-approved legislation, with little expectation of any meaningful opposition as voting is tightly controlled. But the 5,000 national delegates can take advantage of the occasion in the capital to garner support for pet projects that may make it into law in the future. China is grappling with a slowing economy and a rapidly changing labour force, as young people struggle to find jobs while a vast cohort of older workers approaches retirement. Gan Huatian, a representative of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) from southwestern Sichuan province, said he would propose a law penalising employers engaging in “academic discrimination” against graduates from lower ranking universities, according to a news agency. Li Dongsheng, a deputy to the National People’s Congress (NPC), wants to see lower social security contributions for “flexible” workers – a precarious group that has grown with booming delivery services, China News Service reported. China last year hiked its retirement age for the first time in decades. The threshold is due to rise gradually over the next 15 years from 60 to 63 for men, and from 50 to 55 for blue-collar women. NPC representative Feng Tao, of eastern Shandong province, told the Workers’ Daily newspaper that he wanted longer annual leave for those with more than 30 years experience. China has struggled to escape a years-long slump in its property sector, a once key driver of growth weighed down by huge debts that have led some developers into default. Beijing has already rolled out a range of measures to help people buy city homes more easily, to ensure that buyers end up with o Delegates also keen to get support for pet projects

President Xi Jinping attends the opening session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. – REUTERSPIC

properties they have bought in advance. But at least one delegate is addressing it head-on. CPPCC member Zhai Meiqing, an executive at a Hong Kong real estate conglomerate, told a national financial news outlet she would push for a “trade-in” system. That would see local governments pay residents subsidies to swap their old homes for new ones. On marriage woes, China’s divorce rate has risen in recent decades and marriages have been on the decline, falling by a fifth in 2024, according to official data. For the fifth straight year, CPPCC member Jiang Shengnan plans to speak out against China’s mandatory “cooling-off period” for divorces. The rule, which came into effect in 2021,

The long-running Maoist insurgency is now believed to have fewer than 2,000 guerilla fighters. In an earlier statement, the Philippine Air Force (PAF) said the missing jet had lost contact with other fighters in the group “minutes before reaching its target area”. The fighters flew out of Mactan-Benito Ebuen Air Base, which shares a runway with the airport in Cebu, the second largest city in the Philippines. Castillo said it was the “first major incident CP of introducing blackchin tilapia into Thailand by importing the species from Ghana in 2010, said a statement from the council. The group demanded US$73 million in compensation, it added. Charoen Pokphand is one of Thailand’s largest conglomerates. Its founders, the Chearavanont brothers, are Thailand’s second richest family, according to Forbes in 2024. The company has faced increasing scrutiny over monopolistic practices, particularly after its merger with Tesco in 2020. – AFP requires couples who file for divorce to wait 30 days before they can confirm their separation. Jiang, a screenwriter from eastern Zhejiang province, told the Southern Weekly newspaper that the law especially puts women at greater risk of domestic violence. Shi Bingqi, a delegate from northern Hebei province, is eyeing a cap on the amount the groom’s family pays brides before the wedding. Shi told the state-run China National Radio that rural areas, where the practice is more common, should not allow “sky-high” prices that can be up to twice what the average local person earns in a year. The CPCC is also mulling a proposal that would lower the marriage age – currently 22 for men and 20 for women – to 18, according to state-run nationalist tabloid the Global Times . – AFP

Philippine fighter jet goes missing MANILA: A Philippines FA-50 fighter jet and its two-man crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in southern Mindanao. squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in Mindanao’s Bukidnon province. Thai court accepts invasive fish class-action suit BANGKOK: A court here yesterday accepted a class-action lawsuit filed by hundreds of fishermen seeking US$73 million (RM326 million) in damages from an agribusiness giant over invasive blackchin tilapia, said a representative of the Thai lawyers’ council. authorities are concerned about the threat it poses to the Thai fish-farming industry. A Thai court agreed to hear the case against Charoen Pokphand (CP) yesterday, according to a member of the Lawyers Council of Thailand. “A civil court accepted the case filed by fishing professionals in Samut Songkhram who have been affected by tilapia,” said Somchai Armeen, a senior environmental lawyer at the council. The alien species, native to west Africa, has been found in 19 provinces in Thailand, damaging ecosystems in rivers, swamps and canals. Last year, the government declared its eradication a national priority. In addition to the ecological impact, The lawsuit, filed six months ago on behalf of more than 1,400 fishing professionals, accuses

Lt-Col Francisco Garello of the 4th Infantry Division said air support had been called in overnight during a firefight with the New People’s Army in a mountainous area. “There was a firefight between the 403rd Infantry Brigade and they made a request for air support, so the air force supported the encounter,” said Garello.

Air force spokesperson Col Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops”. Philippine Army spokesman Col Louie Dema-ala said the missing jet was part of a