Sri Lanka’s anti-corruption body arrested ex-first lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa on Wednesday over allegations that her charity misused donations collected for a children’s hospital.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s government has revived long-dormant graft investigations involving members of the once-powerful Rajapaksa family, which dominated Sri Lankan politics for nearly two decades.

The 73-year-old wife of former president Mahinda was remanded in custody until Tuesday by a Colombo magistrate.

She was arrested earlier in the day by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of...

From Oct 12, Covid-19 vaccines will be included in two national vaccination schedules, the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Communicable Diseases Agency (CDA) said late on Wednesday.

The two bodies said those aged 60 years and above, medically vulnerable people aged six months and above and residents of aged care facilities should get the jabs.

Healthcare workers and those living or working with medically vulnerable people are also encouraged to get the vaccine to help protect those around them,...

Singapore’s air pollution worsened to the highest in the world as haze from Indonesia wildfires blankets the region days before the city state’s annual Formula One weekend.

Air quality levels in Singapore were in the “very unhealthy” range late on Wednesday, according to data from IQAir. Nearby Kuala Lumpur, which was earlier in the top spot, ranked as the second-most polluted city globally.

In the Malaysian state of Johor, about 140km northwest of Singapore, some 200 schools, kindergartens and nurseries...

Crypto bigwigs are in Singapore for one of the industry’s biggest conferences amid a Bitcoin rally.

About 25,000 people are expected at Marina Bay Sands for Token2049 over Oct. 7-8, including Hyperliquid Chief Executive Officer Jeff Yan, Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan and World Liberty Financial co-founder Eric Trump.

Bitcoin’s rally from US$58,000 (S$74,000) at the end of June to roughly US$85,000 has revived talk of another bull market although there is resistance at the US$87,000 level.

The industry has weathered...

Professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) from financial services have not fared well in re-employment after being retrenched. Overall, PMETs who return to work earning less see a median pay cut of around 25 per cent.

Over the last 14 quarters, financial services recorded the lowest six-month re-entry rate for retrenched resident PMETs most often, followed by wholesale trade, Acting Minister for Manpower Jasmin Lau said in Parliament on Tuesday (Oct 6).

About seven in 10 retrenched resident PMETs re-entered...