Asia

Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen urged Myanmar’s military ruler to allow a visit by a special envoy of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and support humanitarian aid access, an official said on Wednesday.Hun Sen as Asean chairman held a video call with military strongman Min Aung Hlaing and appealed to him to follow a five-point agreement to address the Myanmar conflict, Kao Kim Hourn, secretary of state at Cambodia’s foreign ministry, told reporters.The consensus, which Min…

Weak legal mechanisms to punish sex offenders who use digital means, like cameras, contributes to the repetition of familiar and troubling crimes.

A company owned by Philippine billionaire Manuel Villar’s family won two channels previously assigned to ABS-CBN Corp, a former media giant that had come under fire by President Rodrigo Duterte in the past.The National Telecommunications Commission said Advanced Media Broadcasting System, Inc now has the rights to use Channel 2, which is the analogue pair of digital Channel 16. Channel 2 was a primary news source for Filipinos in remote areas.Duterte had accused ABS-CBN of biased reporting and…

Thailand’s navy was helping Wednesday to clean up a spill of as much as 128 tons (160,000 litres) of crude oil that leaked from a pipeline in the Gulf of Thailand.The spill is near an industrial site but some of the oil could hit the area’s beaches by Friday if it’s not dispersed before then, said Attapol Charoenchansa, director general of the Pollution Control Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.The Star Petroleum Refining Public Company said the leak occurred at…

Air Self-Defence Force fighters scrambled to intercept foreign aircraft approaching Japanese airspace a record number of times between April and December last year, with the vast majority of the incidents involving Chinese warplanes testing Japan’s air defences around the islands of Okinawa.Japanese air units are operating under regulations that have been revised in recent years to raise the threshold for interception flights, a military analyst told the South China Morning Post, meaning that…

Singapore attracted S$11.8 billion (US$8.8 billion) in investment commitments last year, led by semiconductor manufacturers ramping up production to meet a global chip shortage and biotechnology firms chasing pandemic demand.Investments saw a 31 per cent drop from the previous year, according to data Wednesday from the Economic Development Board, which it said was expected after posting an “exceptional” S$17.2 billion (US$12.8 billion) in 2020 and beats the medium- to long-term target of S$8…

Supermarket shelves are bare and restaurants can’t serve meals, but Sri Lanka’s economic crisis is a bonanza for used car dealers, with vehicle shortages pushing prices higher than a house in a nice area.The island nation of 22 million is on the brink of bankruptcy, inflation is red hot and the government has barred a range of “non-essential” imports to save dollars needed to buy food, medicine and fuel.In the car market, this two-year ban has kept factory-fresh automobiles off local roads,…

When Muhammad Malik, 29, a Muslim bachelor from a Pakistani Punjabi family in Britain, went in search of his future wife, he chose to put up huge billboard ads on the streets of Birmingham and London.“Save me from an arranged marriage,” read the ad, alongside a picture of a reclining, smiling Malik and a link to his website findmalikawife.com.The adverts gained him publicity but also caught the attention of hundreds of women who got in touch following the stunt to register their interest.Muslim…

Two years after Japan locked down its borders to block the coronavirus, some 150,000 foreign students still aren’t able to enter the country, left in limbo by a policy that has disrupted lives and caused headaches for universities and businesses.The absence of the foreign students and researchers is being felt from big laboratories to small, private universities, highlighting the importance of overseas talent – and their tuition fees – as Japan grapples with a shrinking population.While the…

Australia has blocked China’s request to establish a panel at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to arbitrate a dispute on anti-dumping duties imposed on Chinese goods, further straining ties between the two sides.Canberra rejected Beijing’s appeal for the WTO to examine tariffs it levied on Chinese railway wheels, wind towers and stainless steel sinks between 2014 and 2019 during a meeting on Tuesday, a Geneva-based trade official said.China, however, will be able to make a second request…

In Singapore, regulators and financial institutions have in recent days come up with new ways to shield residents from phishing attacks.But the move came only after a series of high-level scams involving OCBC Bank users. In December alone, more than 450 of them fell prey to the attacks, amounting to at least S$8.5 million (US$6.33 million) in losses.John Paul Tan was one of them. His wife, with whom he shares a joint bank account, had received a “strange message” from a number purporting to be…

The Durand Line continues to bedevil Af-Pak relations. One doesn’t recognize it; the other ignores it when convenient.

Twitter said governments around the world made requests to remove content from a record number of user accounts between January and June last year, in data to be released by the social media company on Tuesday.The platform said governments made 43,387 legal demands for the removal of content from 196,878 accounts in the six-month period, according to data in its latest transparency report seen by Reuters.Twitter said this was the largest number of accounts ever targeted with government removal…

The official visit by Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to Riyadh signals the nations are seeking to thaw ties, long chilled by 1989 Blue Diamond affair.

The pandemic is complicating international aid to tsunami-hit Tonga, one of the world’s few COVID-free countries.

The widespread blackout highlights a series of interconnected and concerning problems relating to reliable energy supplies in the region

Not only did the Modi government refuse to admit that the pandemic had entered the community transmission stage in March 2020 but it also grossly under-reported COVID deaths.

Hong Kong's obsession with zero COVID is leading it down unproductive rabbit holes -- like hamster culling -- rather than finding long-term solutions.

Japan’s justice minister on Tuesday ordered the immigration agency to investigate violent workplace abuse allegedly suffered by a Vietnamese intern in a case that has heightened scrutiny of a state-sponsored training programme.A video appearing to show the man being punched, kicked and battered with a stick by his co-workers at a construction company sparked outrage after it was released by the 41-year-old’s labour union and went viral this month.The man, who came to Japan in 2019 under the…

The Russian-led CSTO military bloc has faced a critical test in the region.

Indian actress Shilpa Shetty has been formally cleared of obscenity charges dating from when Hollywood star Richard Gere publicly kissed her at an Aids awareness event 15 years ago.The incident triggered a local firestorm at the time, with radical Hindu groups burning effigies of both celebrities to protest the perceived insult to Indian values.A judge soon afterwards issued arrest warrants, with both accused of various counts of obscenity and indecency.Indian parents rush daughters’ weddings…

The recent eruption of the underwater volcano near Tonga was several hundred times stronger than the explosive force of the atomic bomb dropped over Hiroshima, US space agency Nasa said.“This is a preliminary estimate, but we think the amount of energy released by the eruption was equivalent to somewhere between 4 to 18 megatons of TNT,” Nasa scientist Jim Garvin said in a statement.“That number is based on how much was removed, how resistant the rock was, and how high the eruption cloud was…

Indonesia and Singapore on Tuesday signed three landmark agreements covering extradition, defence cooperation and airspace management, ending years of wrangling over issues that had coloured bilateral relations.Both sides agreed that Jakarta would now control the airspace above the Indonesian archipelago’s northernmost islands in the Natuna Sea, which borders the disputed South China Sea. Singapore had been administering the airspace above the Riau Islands since 1946 under the direction of the…

One year on from Myanmar's coup, things on the ground have moved on. It's time the international community does as well.

North Korea fired two suspected cruise missiles on Tuesday, Seoul said, its fifth weapons test this year as Pyongyang flexes its military muscles while ignoring US offers of talks.The last time North Korea tested this many weapons in a month was in 2019, after high-profile negotiations collapsed between leader Kim Jong-un and then-US president Donald Trump.This year Pyongyang has embarked on a fresh flurry of sanctions-busting tests, including hypersonic missiles, after Kim re-avowed his…

At least 19 people were killed in a clash at a nightclub in the town of Sorong in Indonesia’s West Papua province, police said on Tuesday, with most dying after the venue caught fire.One victim was stabbed and 18 more died in the blaze at the Double O nightclub, officials said.“The clash broke out (Monday) night at 11pm. It was a prolonged conflict from a clash on Saturday,” Sorong police chief Ary Nyoto Setiawan said in a statement.Children among 30 dead in Indonesia matchstick factory fireThe…

No sooner had Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas surprised fans with the news that they’d had a baby via surrogacy last week, than internet trolls were attacking the 39-year-old Indian actress for “outsourcing” childbirth.Some accused Chopra of “using” another person’s body to safeguard herself from the perils of pregnancy, while others questioned what kind of mother she was going to be, based solely on her and her American husband’s chosen route to parenthood.The vitriol the star couple faced…

Indonesia will hold its next general election on February 14, 2024, easing speculation that President Joko Widodo would seek to extend his second term in the world’s largest Muslim democracy.Parliament agreed with the government and the election committee on the date, Home Minister Tito Karnavian told the legislature late on Monday. Regional elections to vote for provincial governors and regency chiefs will be held on November 27 of the same year.While the constitution bars presidents from…

Singapore’s central bank said on Tuesday it was tightening its monetary policy settings, in an out-of-cycle move, as global supply constraints and brisk economic demand fan inflation risks.The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) manages monetary policy through exchange rate settings, rather than interest rates, letting the local dollar rise or fall against the currencies of its main trading partners within an undisclosed band.It adjusts its policy via three levers: the slope, midpoint and…

The opposition leader in Australia said on Tuesday its relationship with China will remain difficult even if his centre-left Labor Party wins power at elections for the first time in almost a decade.Anthony Albanese addressed the National Press Club in what is regarded as an unofficial launch of campaigning ahead of elections due by May.Prime Minister Scott Morrison will address the club next week.Albanese suggested Australia’s policy toward a more belligerent China would not divide the parties…