Japan school operator in fraud probe

OSAKA • Osaka officials yesterday launched an on-site investigation into allegations of fraud involving private school operator Moritomo Gakuen's construction costs for a new elementary school, reported The Japan Times.

The investigation took place at Moritomo Gakuen's headquarters with its chief Yasunori Kagoike present as prefectural officials looked into whether he committed fraud by submitting three different cost estimates to three different entities for the new elementary school he wanted to build in Toyonaka.

Cow slaughter: Gujarat raises penalties

AHMEDABAD (India) • Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat yesterday increased the punishment for cow slaughter from seven years to life imprisonment, as Hindu hardliners push for tougher protections for the holy animal.

Under the stiffened penalties passed by Gujarat's state assembly, anyone caught transporting cows for slaughter could also face up to 10 years in jail.

Cows are considered sacred in Hindu-majority India, and their slaughter is illegal in most states.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Indonesia ends tax amnesty

JAKARTA • Indonesia closed its tax amnesty yesterday having recouped only a fraction of the tens of billions of dollars the government projected would be returned to the country.

While the amnesty programme exceeded expectations in unearthing 4,766 trillion rupiah (S$500 billion) of undeclared assets - more than the annual gross domestic product of countries such as the Philippines - only about 146 trillion rupiah of the 1,000 trillion rupiah the government had sought in repatriations were brought back to Indonesia.

BLOOMBERG