Asian Insider, March 17: Malaysia under movement control, Taiwan scrambles jets, again, deepfake videos in India’s elections, two bombs in Yala province

Asian Insider brings you insights into a fast-changing region from our network of correspondents.

Hi,

In today's bulletin:

Malaysia under movement control, Taiwan scrambles jets again, an extradited bank robbery suspect is in court in Singapore, deepfake tech used in India's state election, and more.

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MALAYSIA UNDER MOVEMENT CONTROL, TWO DEATHS REPORTED

Malaysia Bureau Chief Shannon Teoh in Kuala Lumpur reports that with the number of coronavirus cases rising to 673 and the country's first two deaths from the coronavirus, Malaysia ordered a nationwide restriction of movement which takes effect on Wednesday until the end of the month. The move closes all non-essential businesses and prohibits Malaysians from leaving or foreigners from entering the country. It gave the country's 30 million people just 24 hours to prepare, and also affects around 415,000 daily commuters who work or study in Singapore.

For the many Malaysian commuters who work in Singapore, housing is now an issue and companies in Singapore rushed to settle staff in hotels around the city. The Singapore government said it is looking into providing financial support for companies that need to urgently house workers affected by Malaysia's move. It said it will also work with hotel and dormitory providers to provide lower cost rentals.

Given the heavy trade across the causeway and concerns in Singapore about food supply, Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong assured Singaporeans that the flow of goods and food supplies would continue.

Indonesia Correspondent Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja reports on worries about how Indonesia could be the next hotspot if the coronavirus hits the country's poor.

Hong Kong ramped-up measures by announcing it would quarantine all visitors to preserve the success of its containment efforts.

And finally, India has expanded a travel ban on passengers flying in from the United Kingdom, Turkey and the whole of Europe, announcing that even Indian passport holders would be denied entry from these locations until the end of March.

Read also:

Trump's 'Chinese Virus' tweet adds fuel to fire with Beijing

South Korea dials up coronavirus testing with hospital 'phone booths'

New Zealand takes foreigners into custody for not self-isolating

USE OF DEEPFAKE TECH IN DELHI ELECTION CAMPAIGN VIDEOS RAISES CONCERN

In a country where even crudely edited videos have led to several deaths, India Correspondent Debarshi Dasgupta reports that the emergence of two pro-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) videos that were made using deepfake techniques have raised concerns. During the recent Delhi state election, the IT Cell of the Delhi BJP unit partnered with Indian communications firm The Ideaz Factory to create "positive campaigns" using deepfakes to reach different language speakers.

Marking the debut of deepfakes in election campaigning in India, the two fake videos in question were made in English and the regional Haryanvi dialect using an original one that features BJP leader Manoj Tiwari making remarks in Hindi, the most spoken language in the country. He speaks on recent amendments to the country's citizenship law in the original version. In the fake ones, however, he is seen questioning some claims made by rival Aam Aadmi Party. The payoff was this: the Haryanvi video allowed him to convincingly approach the target audience even when the candidate didn't speak the language of the voter.

See also: ​WhatsApp sets up India service to combat fake news ahead of polls

Must Read: India debates linking social media accounts to government IDs

TAIWAN SCRAMBLES JETS AGAIN TO WARN OFF CHINESE AIR FORCE

As tensions mount across the strait, Taiwan scrambled its air force once again after Chinese jets approached Taiwan's south west coast during nighttime exercises, close to Taiwan's Air Defence Identification Zone.

Monday night's confrontation strains already poor ties between Beijing and the island after the two accused each other of spreading fake news about the coronavirus outbreak and China blocked Taiwan's access to the World Health Organisation.

China has been flying what it calls "island encirclement" drills on and off since 2016 when Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen first took office. Beijing believes Ms Tsai, who won re-election in January, is an independence supporter.

East Asia Editor Goh Sui Noi writes: Coronavirus, cross-strait ties and lost opportunity

And: Time to rethink basis for cross-strait engagement

Must read: Seek ways to lower cross-strait tension

STANCHART BANK ROBBERY SUSPECT EXTRADITED TO SINGAPORE

The suspect in the 2016 Standard Chartered Bank robbery has been extradited to Singapore and will be charged with robbery and money laundering on Tuesday.

Canadian David James Roach allegedly robbed the bank's Holland Village branch of S$30,000 on July 7, 2016, by walking into the bank and slipping the teller a note with his demands, claiming that he had a weapon.

Roach then fled to Thailand, where he was arrested on July 9, and later sentenced to 14 months' jail for violating money laundering and other Thai Customs laws.

He was deported from Thailand in January 2018, but was detained in London, at Singapore's request, while en route to Canada.

See also: London judge rejects StanChart robber's bid to stop extradition to Singapore

And: Holland Village bank robbery: Suspect was in Bangkok within six hours of crime

IN OTHER NEWS

TWO BOMBS EXPLODE OUTSIDE GOVT OFFICE IN YALA, WOUNDING 18: Two bombs exploded in front of a government office in Thailand's insurgency-hit southern Yala province on Tuesday, wounding 18 people.

The explosions took place in front of the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre, a Thai government body that oversees the administration of the three mostly Malay-Muslim majority provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, where an insurgency since 2004 has killed some 7,000 people.

MALAYSIA RECOVERS S$459 MILLION OF 1MDB FRAUD MONEY: Malaysia has recovered 1.4 billion ringgit (S$459 million) of funds allegedly stolen from state fund 1MDB and identified another 6.9 billion ringgit for recovery, the prime minister's office said on Tuesday (March 17).

The US Department of Justice, which says more than S$6.4 billion was looted from 1MDB in a multi-country fraud, returned nearly S$284 million to Malaysia in May.

A second transfer of about S$340 million was delayed last month.

CHINESE ROCKET FAILS ON MAIDEN LAUNCH: A new Chinese medium-lift rocket, part of a family of launch vehicles meant to support most of China's launch missions in future, failed on its debut flight, the official news agency Xinhua reported.

The Long March 7A, a variant of the Long March 7, blasted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre, in the southern island province of Hainan, on Monday (March 16) morning.

But it later suffered a malfunction, the cause of which was being investigated, Xinhua said.

That's it for today, thanks for reading and see you tomorrow.

Tom

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