Briefs | Philippines: Police admit abuses but resume anti-drug ‘visits’

The Philippine police chief says his force will resume visits to the homes of drug suspects to encourage them to reform, despite his acknowledgment that corrupt police have abused the program. National Police Director-General Ronald dela Rosa said yesterday that there will be stricter safeguards on the visits and he pledged that the president’s overall anti-drug crackdown will be “less bloody.” Dela Rosa said 352 police have been removed from their posts, nearly half of them for drug-related offenses and 329 others were being investigated in a program to cleanse the force of misfits. President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the national police to desist from involvement in his crackdown on illegal drugs twice last year due to reported abuses by law enforcers. He later allowed them back in drug raids.

Japan: No demand for digital currency

Cash is still king in Japan, and that means that the central bank doesn’t see a need to mint a digital currency for now, according to the head of the FinTech Center at the Bank of Japan. “We aren’t at the stage of considering issuing a digital currency because there is no demand,” said Yuko Kawai, the head of the BOJ division. That love of cash is clear from the amount of notes and coins sloshing around in Japan – more than any other major economy. The value of physical currency in circulation was equivalent to 20 percent of Japan’s economy in 2016, the highest among major nations, according to a report by the Bank for International Settlements last year.

India: Palestinian official says Modi to visit West Bank

A top Palestinian official says India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi will make what is described as a historic visit to the West Bank next month. Majdi Khaldi, an adviser to President Mahmoud Abbas told the Voice of Palestine yesterday that the visit will take place on Feb. 10, with Modi coming to Ramallah. He says it’s the first time an Indian prime minister will visit the Palestinian territories. Modi’s visit would come just weeks after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was warmly welcomed during a six-day trip to India. Khaldi says “this is the first Indian PM to visit the Palestinian territories and it is going to be historical.”