VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Japan's government laid out a fresh plan on Friday to boost childcare over the coming three years to stem a relentless drop in the country's birth rate, a move that may lead to another big spending package and strain its already tattered finances.

Under the plan, the government will take steps such as expansion of child allowances to be given without income limits.

While the government has earmarked 6.1 trillion yen ($45.90 billion) for steps to arrest the declining number of children, a senior ruling party lawmaker was quoted by media as demanding an additional 8 trillion yen to fund the new measures.

"A boost to child allowances alone could cost 2-3 trillion yen. It sounds like the same old spending spree, which did not necessarily help turn around the birth rate," said Takahide Kiuchi, a former central bank board member and now an economist at Nomura Research Institute.

"The government may end up issuing extra bonds, arguing that education-oriented bonds help future generations."

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has repeatedly vowed to double childcare-related spending but has steered clear of elaborating on details, which he said will firm up in June when the government decides on a mid-year key policy roadmap.

Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said on Friday Japan must come up with a "permanent source of revenue" to fund childcare policies, but voiced caution over the idea of issuing extra debt.

Ranil Salgado, the International Monetary Fund's Japan mission chief, urged Tokyo to target such financial incentives towards low-income households.

"Everyone acknowledges childcare support is important given Japan's need to boost the growth rate. But we still believe those measures could be, or any support, should be targeted," he told an online briefing on Friday.

Japan is among the world's fastest ageing societies, with the number of newborns falling below 800,000 for the first time, having peaked at 2.09 million in 1973 during the second baby boom.

The declining trend has been blamed for intensifying labour shortages and pushing down Japan's long-term growth potential.

Some analysts see the latest plan as a sign Kishida is trying to shore up support and gearing up to call a snap election in coming months, to solidify his standing within the ruling party.

"Opposition parties also have no objection to boost childcare spending," said political analyst Atsuo Ito. "Both sides appear to join in a race to boost reckless spending." (Reuters)

A technical glitch at entry points into Singapore led to rare delays at one of the world's busiest airports on Friday, with snaking queues and disgruntled passengers for several hours as automated immigration lanes suffered problems.

The city-state's immigration authority said it had "resumed normalcy" at checkpoints by 4 p.m. local time (0800 GMT) and was investigating the cause of the disruption, after earlier reporting "system slowness" at selected checkpoints, including, Changi Airport and two land border crossings with Malaysia.

Changi, one of the busiest gateways in the world, had warned passengers to expect delays and authorities urged postponement of non-essential travel.

It handles nearly 150,000 passengers a day while about 300,000 people cross daily at the Woodlands and Tuas causeways linking Singapore with Malaysia.

Posts on social media since late morning showed long queues at the airport with lines at immigration counters out of the departure hall and past check-in counters. One traveller described it as "very chaotic".

Reuters journalists at the airport said the normal service had resumed by mid afternoon. (Reuters)

Malaysia's top court on Friday dismissed a bid by jailed former prime minister Najib Razak to review his corruption conviction over the multi-billion dollar scandal at state fund 1MDB, ending Najib's judicial efforts to challenge the guilty verdict.

Najib became the first Malaysian premier to be imprisoned after Malaysia's Federal Court upheld a guilty verdict and 12-year prison sentence handed down to him by a lower court.

Najib, 69, can no longer challenge the conviction in court, but he has applied for a royal pardon which if successful could see him released without serving the full 12-year term.

Federal Court Judge Vernon Ong said a five-member panel voted 4-1 to dismiss Najib's application to review the conviction.

There was no miscarriage of justice in the top court's decision last year, he said, adding that a review was granted only in "very limited and exceptional circumstances".

"In the final analysis, and having regard to all circumstances, we are constrained to say that the applicant (Najib) was the author of his own misfortunes," Ong said.

Najib's lawyer Shafee Abdullah said there was a possibility of another action in court due to the dissenting view of one judge.

"As a result of the minority judgement, there is an avenue that is open," Shafee told reporters. He declined to say what action his client would pursue.

U.S. and Malaysian investigators have said some $4.5 billion was stolen from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) - co-founded by Najib during his first year as prime minister in 2009 - and that more than $1 billion went to accounts linked to Najib.

Various recipients of the siphoned 1MDB funds used the money to buy luxury assets and real estate, a Picasso painting, a private jet, a superyacht, hotels, jewellery, and to finance the 2013 Hollywood film "The Wolf of Wall Street", investigators have said.

Najib suppressed Malaysian investigations of the wide-ranging 1MDB scandal during his leadership even as global probes continued, but was charged after he lost a general election in 2018.

The British-educated son of Malay nobility held the premiership from 2009 to 2018, when public anger over the graft scandal brought election defeat.

He was found guilty by a high court in 2020 of criminal breach of trust, abuse of power and money laundering for illegally receiving about $10 million from SRC International, a former unit of 1MDB. He lost all his appeals.

Najib faces three other trials related to graft at 1MDB and other government agencies.

The former premier has consistently pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him. (Reuters)

Nine Chinese aircraft crossed the Taiwan Strait's median line on Friday carrying out combat readiness patrols, Taiwan's defence ministry said, days after Beijing threatened retaliation if President Tsai Ing-wen meets U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

China, which claims democratically ruled Taiwan as its own territory despite the strong objections of the island's government, has been angered by what it sees as stepped up U.S. support for Taiwan.

Tsai arrived in the United States on Wednesday, stopping off on her way to Central America.

She is expected to meet McCarthy in Los Angeles on her way back to Taipei in April, and China on Wednesday threatened unspecified retaliation if that meeting were to go ahead.

Taiwan's defence ministry said the nine Chinese aircraft crossed at points in the north, centre and south of the strait's median line, which used to serve as an unofficial buffer between the two sides.

Taiwan's armed forces responded using its own aircraft and ships to monitor the situation using the principle of "not escalating conflicts or causing disputes", the ministry said.

"The communist military's deployment of forces deliberately created tension in the Taiwan Strait, not only undermining peace and stability, but also has a negative impact on regional security and economic development," it said in a statement.

The ministry condemned what it called "such irrational actions".

There was no immediate response from China.

Tsai, on her first U.S. stopover since 2019, told an event held by the Hudson Institute think tank in New York on Thursday that the blame for rising tensions lay with China, according to excerpts of her comments reported by her office.

"China deliberately raises tensions, but Taiwan always responds cautiously and calmly, so that the world can see that Taiwan is the responsible party in cross-Strait relations," she said.

'ALL PREPARATIONS'

A senior Taiwan official familiar with security planning told Reuters the Chinese aircraft had only "slightly" encroached across the median line, and that no unusual movements by Chinese ships had been stopped.

China staged war games around Taiwan last August following the visit to Taipei of then U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and has continued its military activities near Taiwan since though on a reduced scale.

The Taiwan official said China was unlikely to repeat such large exercises as it was in the middle of a "charm offensive" towards foreign political and business leaders, and an escalation of military tension would send "conflicting messages" to the world.

"Having said that, we have made all preparations in case China reacts irrationally," the source said. "The more the international community pays attention to Taiwan, the more upset they get."

Speaking to reporters in Taipei earlier on Friday, Premier Chen Chien-jen said Taiwan was a "democratic country" with the right to go out into the world.

"I hope that China will not find pretext to provoke," he said, when asked about Beijing's retaliation threat.

"China's authoritarian expansion will in fact cause unnecessary trouble, so we here again make this call, hoping that China can reduce its provocative actions."

China has never officially recognised the median line, which a U.S. general devised in 1954 at the height of Cold War hostility, although the People's Liberation Army had until very recently largely respected it. (Reuters)