China is to launch a government-owned transport platform that will incorporate ride-hailing and flight services, according to state media.
Thai Men Arrested with Nearly 1 Million Amphetamine Pills from Laos

Police in Nong Khai Province, Thailand, arrested two men for smuggling almost a million amphetamine pills from Laos via the Mekong River on Sunday.
OMUSUBI Anniversary Celebrations – Brand New Stores in Taikoo Place and Lan Kwai Fong Incorporating Sustainability with the Authentic Taste of Japan – Recommendation of Omusubi and Soup Pairing Limited-time Triple Offers at Taikoo Place: Receive a Free Cotton Handbag for Any Purchase of $50 Or More

Mr. Muneo Nishida, the founder of the brand, said, “In the short term, we will continue to expand the local business; and with the relaxation of border control, we are diligently working towards opening stores overseas.”
Our new store in Taikoo Place is the first OMUSUBI store to offer a seating area for customers to enjoy the delicious soup and Omusubi. Mr. Kashiwa Sato, brand creative director, has been overseeing the design of the brand. In accordance with our principle of environmental protection and sustainability, the store design uses white cloth, brass and white wood as primary materials, and it is in line with the brand’s overall consistency.
In celebration of the first anniversary of OMUSUBI and the opening of our new stores, OMUSUBI is pleased to introduce time-limited menu items, including: Japanese Clear Clam Soup, Scallop with Red Snow Crab Paste Omusubi and Slightly-grilled Spicy Hokkaido Mentaiko Omusubi (coming soon in February). The menu features altogether over 20 flavors of Omusubi and 3 Japanese soups made from natural Japanese ingredients. Finally, OMUSUBI offers a series of promotions to celebrate the anniversary and to thank customers, starting with a limited-time Triple Offer at Taikoo Place. This includes: a free Cotton Handbag giveaway (valued at $90 and conditions apply) and special discounts for set menus with soup; the next batch of promotions will arrive after the Lunar New Year, with more exciting time-limited surprises!
Limited Offer to Highlight the Beauty of Ingredients
Japanese Clear Clam Soup
- The clear soup uses many kinds of kombu, including Ma-kombu from southern Hokkaido and Rishiri-kombu from Rebun Island in Hokkaido. Both umami and flavour profile layers are enhanced by adding shiitake mushroom and sea salt for taste, as well as full bites of clam meat and chopped fresh spring onions.
- The ingredients include different kinds of kombu with different characteristics: Ma-kombu is thick and sweet, and the broth it brews is more clear-coloured, making it suitable for premium cooking; whereas the Rishiri-kombu, also a premium product, adds an elegant aroma and brightness to the broth.
Scallop with Red Snow Crab Paste Omusubi
- Made with Yesso scallops carefully selected from Aomori Prefecture and mixed with shredded red snow crab meat and crab paste. The rich aroma and creamy mouthfeel combine to create the ultimate luxurious enjoyment.
Slightly-grilled Hokkaido Mentaiko Omusubi (To be launched in Feb)
- We choose pollock roes produced in Hokkaido as filling. These are of premium quality, and customers can feel individual roes when they bite into the mentaiko.
- The mentaiko are preserved instantly at local facilities to lock in the umami-rich flavor. From its full size, the mentaiko is cut down to large chunks containing the roes. After flame grilling, its surface has a charcoal-grilled aroma while the interior is kept fresh and soft just like sashimi, and customers can enjoy this unsurpassed, superior deliciousness.
- The mentaiko are gone through prolonged low temperature heating procedures for bacteria killing purpose, so adults and kids alike can enjoy it with no worries.
Showcasing the Art of “Omusubi + Japanese Soup”
In Japanese families, Omusubi and soup go hand in hand. OMUSUBI presents premium Omusubi and Japanese soups to you and begins a journey of authentic taste of Japan with the art of best mixing and matching food here.
Omusubi and Japanese Soup Combo #1
Soup: Japanese Clear Clam Soup
Omusubi: Premium Kishu Pickled Plum Omusubi / Slightly-grilled Spicy Mentaiko Omusubi
About this combo: Let the delicate and fresh sweetness in the Japanese Clear Clam Soup meet the refreshing and appetizing Premium Kishu Pickled Plum Omusubi for a traditional Japanese meal with minimal calorie intake. You can also pair this with the Slightly-grilled Spicy Mentaiko Omusubi, of which the texture of slightly spicy roes is best balanced by the clear broth. Another way of making your meal more fun is to make the traditional dish “tea with rice” (chazuke). It’s simple and easy to make this surprisingly enjoyable Omusubi and soup with a twist! (Try this: Enjoy the clam flesh and discard the shells, then mix in an Omusubi of a milder flavor, such as pickled plum, mentaiko or salmon, to create a hot soup rice.)
Omusubi and Japanese Soup Pairing #2
Soup: Kyoto-style Beancurd Skin Soymilk Soup (Yuzu Flavor)
Omusubi: Kinpira Renkon Omusubi / Spicy Beef Tongue in Green Pepper Miso Omusubi
About this combo: The Kyoto-style Beancurd Skin Soymilk Soup (Yuzu Flavor) is a vegetarian Japanese soup, so we recommend pairing it with the Kinpira Renkon Omusubi for a full vegetarian package. You can find beancurd, soy milk and kombu as soft soup stuff bringing contrast to the bright and crunchy renkon (lotus roots) and carrots in the Omusubi. If you would like to wake the taste buds up, why not give the Spicy Beef Tongue in Green Pepper Miso Omusubi a try as another pairing with the soup? The mild and spicy flavors come together to make quite the impact of taste.
Omusubi and Japanese Soup Pairing #3
Soup: Kurobuta Pork and Vegetables Miso Soup
Omusubi: Scallop with Red Snow Crab Paste Omusubi / Slightly-grilled Spicy Mentaiko Omusubi
About this combo: The Kurobuta Pork and Vegetables Miso Soup (made with Japanese Roppaku Kurobuta pork) and the Scallop with Red Snow Crab Paste Omusubi both make use of high quality, premium ingredients from Japan, and you can tell this from their rich and layered mouthfeels. Building on this, you can enjoy the Slightly-grilled Spicy Mentaiko Omusubi, the spicy flavour of which enhances the depth of white miso in the soup and brings a new level of umami.
1st Wave Promotion: Taikoo Place Store Exclusive Triple Offers
To celebrate the opening of the new Taikoo Place store, OMUSUBI has specially prepared time-limited triple offers to share our happiness with our customers!
Offer 1: Purchase one soup item at a discounted price of $30 (Choose 1 out of 3, worth $48) upon the purchase of any Omusubi after 11am.
Offer 2: Gifted with a beverage of your choice (worth $17 or above), plus purchasing one soup item at a discounted price of $30 (Choose 1 out of 3, worth $48) upon the purchase of any bento.
Offer 3: Gifted with a Japanese-styled cotton handbag with brand logo designed by Mr. Kashiwa Sato, the renowned creative director in Japan (worth $90) upon purchase of $50 or above. Each customer is limited to 1 gift, gift while stocks last.
Promotion period: Now until 20 January 2023
2nd Wave Promotion: Details to be announced in due course – stay tuned.
Brand Philosophy
1. Safe and assuring
OMUSUBI upholds the principle of being kind to people, so we only purchase Japanese rice from farmers whom we really know in person. By carefully selecting rice of the highest quality with minimal use of pesticides and well-managed cultivation and production, we adopt safe and assuring rice to make the Omusubi taste better.
2. Environmental Conservation
The rice used to make Omusubi is a blessing from nature, so OMUSUBI also values the environmentally friendly principle during the production process. Besides using greener materials in product packaging and store design, the farmers we are working with take more environmentally friendly measures in the process of rice cultivation, such as stopping the use of plastic-coated controlled release fertilizers and reducing the production of methane gas.
3. Japanese Tradition
Japanese rice is the star of the Japanese dishes. So, the rice selected by OMUSUBI is striking in terms of shine, aroma, sweetness, and aftertaste. The fillings, as the best companion to rice to make Omusubi, are often inspired by traditional Japanese cuisine and are made with in-season ingredients to bring out the authentic taste. With the soup stock made of fresh Japanese ingredients, our soup is turned into a healthy dish with a rich taste and natural seasoning, making it an appetizing and satisfying choice for customers.
Mr. Kashiwa Sato, Creative Director
OMUSUBI was established with the concept of safe and assuring, environmental conservation, and Japanese tradition. We were able to bring in a strong partner who shared our vision – Mr. Kashiwa Sato, the leading creative director in Japan, who oversaw the branding and creative direction of the well-known UNIQLO.
Sushi from Japan is world-famous, but not many know about Omusubi. We decided to name the new brand OMUSUBI to express the strong will to inherit the food culture of Omusubi that was built by our predecessors and to spread it to the world. Our logo consists of a red triangle icon and the word OMUSUBI in a triangular logotype. Besides symbolizing the enthusiasm of Hyakunousha and its founder, Mr. Muneo Nishida, the red brand colour also expresses “the blessing of nature from the sun”, and the warm heart that “Omusubi should be kind to people and kind to the earth”. Also, the wordings of O・MU・SUBI in a triangular logotype are a fun way for people to remember the brand name.
Implement the Concept of Sustainability
From ingredients, packaging, to the construction materials of our stores, OMUSUBI keeps sustainability in mind, and we expect our customers to contribute to environmental protection while enjoying the delicious food. We are proud to offer 100% selected Japanese rice that is pesticide-reduced, and environmentally friendly. We also use paper for a part of package to replace plastic. The package of our green tea, jasmine tea and coffee uses aluminium which is easily recyclable. The package of our juice is made of 100% recycled plastic, except for the cap. In addition, organic cotton and brass are the main materials for the decoration of our stores. The use of plastic is reduced compared to our existing shops of the same size.
Taikoo Place Store (New)
Address: Shop E, 1/F, Devon House, Taikoo Place, 979 King’s Road, Quarry Bay
Opening hours:
Monday to Friday: 07:30-20:00
Saturday: 07:30-14:30
Sunday and public holidays: Closed
Lan Kwai Fong Store (Soft Launch from January 12, 2023)
Address: Shop B2, UG/F, Century Square, 1-13 D’Aguilar Street, Central, Hong Kong
Hashtag: #omusubistore #omusubihk #omusubi
https://www.facebook.com/omusubi.store
https://www.instagram.com/omusubi.store/
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
OMUSUBI
About Hyakunousha International Limited (“Hyakunousha”)
Founded in Hong Kong in 2010 by Mr. Muneo Nishida, Hyakunousha was born out of a desire to reverse a decline in Japan’s agricultural production and create the agriculture of the next hundred years. Since launching hana-musubi’s first store in Hong Kong in 2011, the company now has over 110 stores in Hong Kong, and a central food factory that houses its offices and Hyakunousha Academy (education centre) and employs over 700 people. Having successfully established the Japanese Omusubi culture in Hong Kong, the company launched the OMUSUBI brand in 2022 to take the Omusubi culture and authentic taste of Japan to the world. Dedicated to delivering high-quality products to its customers, Hyakunousha maintains stringent control over its production processes and agricultural practices.
MSIG Renews Commitment to Food Aid Foundation
MSIG Matches Public Donations to Food Aid Foundation to Assist Flood-Impacted B40 Families
MSIG Malaysia and Food Aid Foundation renews their partnership for a second year through the Pledge A Difference initiative to help flood-affected communities.
KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA – Media OutReach – 19 January 2023 – MSIG Insurance (Malaysia) Bhd “(MSIG Malaysia)”, has renewed its partnership with Food Aid Foundation (FAF) through its ‘Pledge A Difference’ initiative. The initiative, now in its second year, aims to help flood-affected families and communities through MSIG and the public’s donations.
A total of RM50,000 was raised through the initiative. This was comprised of a RM30,000 donation from MSIG and a combined contribution of RM20,000 from public donations, which were matched ringgit-to-ringgit by MSIG.
Commenting on the ‘Pledge A Difference’ initiative, MSIG Chief Executive Officer Mr. Chua Seck Guan said, “We are delighted to renew our commitment and partnership with Food Aid Foundation following the success of the last year’s ‘Pledge A Difference’ campaign that set out to help B40 communities who were affected by the pandemic and floods. We have all seen the severe floods that have impacted many areas over the past few months and as such hope that the contributions of both MSIG and the public can help provide for families in need.”
He continued, “Over the past year we have seen first-hand the amazing work that Food Aid Foundation has done and its positive impact on the communities that the organisation reached out to. As a result, we were keen to extend our commitment for another year. It only takes RM115 to provide a food and hygiene pack for one family, so we hope that the donations raised from this year’s initiative will go towards helping over 435 families in need.”
Food Aid Foundation Chief Executive Officer Dr. Dalphine Ong said, “We are pleased to be working again with MSIG Malaysia to help vulnerable communities and families. Last year’s contribution made a real difference in the lives of some underprivileged families who were hit first by the pandemic and then the floods, and we believe that this year’s contribution will have an equally positive impact. We encourage everyone to visit our website and learn more about our work at www.foodaidfoundation.org.”
The ‘Pledge A Difference’ initiative is one of many Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes that MSIG carried out over the past few years. These programmes are carefully planned and considered to ensure that they are in line with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. MSIG makes annual monetary contributions and donations in-kind to various non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that focus on community welfare, medical care and other causes. The insurer also actively champions environmental causes through mangrove tree planting activities across the nation.
Hashtag: #MSIG
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About MSIG Insurance (Malaysia) Bhd
MSIG Insurance (Malaysia) Bhd (“MSIG Malaysia”) is a subsidiary of Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company, Limited and a member of MS&AD Insurance Group Holding, Inc. (MS&AD), one of the top ten** general insurers in the world.
With over 100 years of general insurance experience and a nationwide network of 20 branches in Malaysia, MSIG Malaysia is one of the leading general insurers in Fire, Engineering and Motor classes and No.1* in Marine Cargo, offering an extensive range of products and services for personal and business needs.
MSIG Malaysia’s expertise is well recognised through its receipt of many prestigious awards. These have included the 2020 Reader’s Digest Quality Service Award – Silver winner in the Car Insurance category. MSIG was recognized for having one of the highest levels of quality service, which reflects the effort that the company has put in to satisfy consumer’s demand for high service standards. The company was also awarded the 2018 “Outstanding Property and Casualty Insurer in Malaysia” award in the InsuranceAsia News Awards for Excellence.
MSIG Malaysia was commended for leading the market with strong financial growth, investment in product innovation, enhanced digital capabilities in business and claims management systems and strong customer service proposition. Its commitment to customer service excellence through its efforts in enhancing the customer experience and industry leadership in Enterprise Risk Management also earned MSIG Malaysia the “General Insurance Company of the Year” at the Asia Insurance Industry Awards in 2015.
For more information on MSIG Malaysia, visit www.msig.com.my or facebook.com/MSIGmy.
*As of Sept 2022
**Fortune Global 500, 2021
About Food Aid Foundation (FAF)
Food Aid Foundation (FAF) is the first non-profit organization in Malaysia that rescues perishable and non-perishable surplus food. Established in 2013, our mission is to reduce food wastage and alleviate hunger and malnourishment in Malaysia.
FAF collects and distributes the excess or surplus food from wholesale and supermarkets daily and distribute to underprivileged beneficiaries consisting of welfare and charitable homes, shelters, poor families, destitute, other NGOs, refugee communities and soup kitchens.
While making efforts in preventing edible food from going to waste [official statistics published by SWCorp Malaysia that edible food being sent to landfill stands at 3,000 tones daily], FAF also addresses the issues of malnourishment and lack of nutritious food among the poor, especially children and elderly from the B40 communities. To do these, FAF partners with community organizations including NGOs and B40 residential areas through the following initiatives:
- Nutritious food for charities where nutritious food supplies are channelled to charity and people in need.
- Savings for charities especially on food and grocery bills for charity organization and poor families so that their living expenses can be redirected to education, medical, rehabilitation, utilities, and other expenses.
- CSR for corporate donors to engage with the local communities and increase positive social impact, i.e., hunger alleviation, access to nutritious meals.
- Protecting the environment by ensuring good food to be donated than going to the landfill and reduce the negative impact of food waste on the environment.
Triangle Energy hails new farm-in partner New Zealand Oil & Gas
Hashtag: #TriangleEnergy
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
Suvo Strategic Minerals completes acquisition of Muchea Silica Sand Project
Hashtag: #SuvoStrategicMinerals
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
NTT deploys intra-mart’s capabilities in Hong Kong, launches new digital transformation solution
New solution integrates intra-mart’s high-performance workflow management platform which has been used by more than 8,900 companies and 200 partners in Japan and across Asia Pacific
HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 19 January 2023 – NTT Ltd., a leading global IT infrastructure and services company, today launched in Hong Kong a new digital transformation (DX) solution with consultancy services based on the successful business process platform (BPM) intra-mart; owned by NTT DATA. Offering full-stack technology capabilities and consultancy services, NTT aims to help businesses achieve continuity within their rapidly growing IT estate. This includes identification of bottlenecks, implementation of best practice, continuous performance monitoring and optimization.
Digital transformation helps enterprises stay operational and resilient. Despite an ever-expanding portfolio of applications, organizations continue to rely on manual processes, fragmented enterprise data and siloed applications to manage their daily operations.
NTT addresses these challenges by providing one common platform for process orchestration and data management, which allows businesses to connect their systems, people, and processes together. A key benefit of the platform is its flexibility to digitalize, automate and re-engineer business processes and system architecture with relative ease, efficiency, and cost benefits.
”We are pleased with the response that intra-mart has received in other markets, with 8900 companies and 200 partners using the platform in Japan and the APAC region. With its highly flexible model, intra-mart has been adapted to various industries, from insurance and financial services to manufacturing and retail,” said Luis Ohri, Corporate Senior Vice President & Head of Global Business, NTT DATA INTRAMART.
“For businesses to stay competitive, their digital transformation can be made more effective through business process reengineering. For Hong Kong enterprises, particularly the financial sectors who are facing increasingly stringent requirements on corporate governance, digital technologies can streamline business process management and empower the enterprises with data analytic, resulting in enhanced visibility and cost-efficiency.” said Adam Kwan, Associate Director, Smart City Solutions, NTT Ltd. “NTT DATA and NTT Ltd.’s merger earlier this year will enhance our service capabilities to empower clients with technologically sound tools and systems, so that they can stay focused on their business growth and compete more effectively.”
Following the launch in Hong Kong, there are plans for the platform to be rolled out in Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam, and across the remaining APAC markets in the coming months.
For more information, connect with our experts here.
Hashtag: #NTT
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
NTT Ltd.
As part of NTT DATA, a USD 30 billion IT services provider, NTT Ltd. is a leading IT infrastructure and services company serving 65% of the Fortune Global 500 and more than 75% of the Fortune Global 100. We lay the foundation for organisations’ edge-to-cloud networking ecosystem, simplify the complexity of their workloads across multicloud environments, and innovate at the edge of their IT environments where networks, cloud and applications converge. We offer tailored infrastructure and ensure consistent best practices in design and operations across all of our secure, scalable and customizable data centers. On the journey towards a software-defined future, we support organisations with our platform-delivered infrastructure services. We enable a connected future.
Visit us at services.global.ntt
NTT DATA INTRAMART CORPORATION and intra-mart
NTT DATA INTRAMART CORPORATION is mainly engaged in the development and sales of the commercial framework product “intra-mart” for building web systems. intra-mart is the Digital Process Automation Platform that reviews all operations in a company into optimal processes and realises end-to-end digitization and automation of entire operations by linking with new digital technologies such as RPA and AI, as well as a diverse set of development components. Since 1998, the original system development framework, business component group, and application series planned and developed by our company have been introduced to more than 8,900 companies as of the end of March 2022. Also, we are building systems, consulting, training, and operational support with more than 200 partners.