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HANOI, Vietnam (AFP) — Vietnam’s economy slowed in the first half of 2016, official figures showed Wednesday, with a severe regional drought and a spate of fish deaths adding to losses caused by turmoil in global markets. GDP growth dropped to 5.52 percent in the first six months compared to 6.32 percent in the same period last year. The country grew at its fastest pace for five years in 2015 thanks to strong exports and […]
SINGAPORE, Singapore (AFP) — A Singaporean man behind a defunct website that published made-up articles stirring hatred against foreigners in the city-state was jailed for eight months Tuesday for sedition. State prosecutors had pushed for a strong deterrent sentence on Yang Kaiheng, owner of The Real Singapore (TRS) website, saying the articles on which the charges were based were “designed to provoke hatred against foreigners in Singapore”. Yang, 27, had earlier claimed trial but later […]
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AFP) — Eight people were injured after a hand grenade was thrown at a restaurant in Malaysia’s central Selangor state, police said Tuesday, citing business rivalry rather than terrorism as the likely motive. Abdul Rahim Jaafar, state deputy police chief, told AFP that the attack on the Movida restaurant in busy Puchong district was probably the result of a business conflict or revenge. “Eight people were injured in the hand grenade attack […]
SINGAPORE, Singapore (AFP) — A Singapore Airlines plane caught fire Monday while making an emergency landing at Changi Airport after turning back from a flight to Milan following an engine oil warning message, the carrier said. No one was injured aboard the Boeing 777-300ER, but one passenger described those moments as a “so-close to death” experience. SIA said in a statement the plane was en route from Singapore to Milan when an engine oil warning […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Jakarta banned Friday any Indonesian-flagged vessels from sailing to the Philippines, the transport ministry said, after yet another violent kidnapping in the strife-torn waters between the two nations. The ruling was issued after the government confirmed seven Indonesian sailors were kidnapped at gunpoint earlier this week, and were being held hostage by an unknown group. It’s the third time this year Indonesian sailors have been abducted in the Sulu sea, a […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Seven Indonesian sailors have been kidnapped at sea in the southern Philippines, the government in Jakarta said Friday, the latest in a spree of abductions by armed gangs in the strife-torn region. The crew were towing a coal barge in the Sulu sea on Monday when their tugboat was hijacked by armed groups, Indonesian foreign minister Retno Marsudi said. Seven sailors were taken hostage in two separate attacks on the vessel […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Indonesian President Joko Widodo was Thursday set to visit remote islands close to waters where Chinese and Indonesian vessels have repeatedly clashed, as tensions mount between the nations in the South China Sea. Widodo aims to assert Indonesia’s sovereignty over the Natuna Islands in the northwestern fringe of the archipelago during the trip and is accompanied by a high-level delegation including the foreign minister and armed forces chief, the government said. […]
(REUTERS) China will offer its first regular civilian cruises to the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea by 2020, state media said on Wednesday, a move likely to irk other claimants to the disputed waters. China’s activities in the contested area, such as building artificial islands, airfields and other military facilities, have fueled tension in Southeast Asia, although it says most of the construction is for civilian purposes. The island province of Hainan […]
(Reuters) — Indonesia’s foreign minister on Wednesday (June 22) rejected China’s stance that the two Asian nations have overlapping claims in the South China Sea after skirmishes between Indonesian navy ships and Chinese vessels. Early this week China’s foreign ministry said the two nations did not have any territorial disputes but there were some overlapping claims on “maritime rights and interests”. “For Indonesia, we have no overlapping claims of any form with China in […]
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AFP) — Malaysian police have rescued 29 Filipinas who had been trafficked into work in bars, the Philippine embassy in Kuala Lumpur said on Wednesday. The women were rescued from two bars in the town of Bintulu in the Malaysian state of Sarawak on June 9 after the embassy brought reports of trafficked women to Malaysian police, a statement by the embassy said. Also arrested during the raid were three Filipinos who served […]
by Cecil Morella INFANTA, Philippines (AFP) — Jonathan Almandrez was chased away from the rich fishing grounds of a South China Sea lagoon by a Chinese patrol — something he hopes will stop happening if the Philippines wins an international legal case against Beijing. The incident at Scarborough Shoal, a necklace of reefs and rocks that Filipino fishermen say hosts some of the world’s most abundant marine life, is part of a long-running territorial row […]
(Reuters) Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has told the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights that the government will avoid using the term “Rohingya” to describe a persecuted Muslim minority in the country’s northwest, an official told Reuters on Monday. Members of the 1.1 million group, who identify themselves by the term “Rohingya” and live in apartheid-like conditions, are seen by many Myanmar Buddhists as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The term is […]
