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MANILA, Dec 14, 2023 (AFP) – The Philippines deported 180 Chinese nationals on Thursday after they were detained in a raid on a suspected sex-trafficking and online scam operation in the capital Manila, officials said. Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Filipino nationals were among the nearly 600 people found inside a compound during the operation in October. Sex toys, a massage parlour, karaoke rooms and a restaurant were found in the building operated by a business […]
YANGON, Myanmar, Dec 13, 2023 (AFP) – Myanmar junta authorities have arrested two journalists in night raids, their outlet said on Wednesday, as the military cracks down on independent media. Since toppling Aung San Suu Kyi’s government in 2021, the military has waged a sweeping and bloody campaign against dissent, and at least 170 journalists have since been arrested, according to the United Nations. Local outlet Dawei Watch said two of its employees were arrested […]
By Alice PHILIPSON HANOI, Dec 12, 2023 (AFP) – China and Vietnam pledged on Tuesday to deepen ties during President Xi Jinping’s first visit in six years, as Beijing seeks to counter growing US influence with the communist nation. Xi met the leader of Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party, Nguyen Phu Trong, on the first day of his trip, after Hanoi upgraded diplomatic ties with Washington when US President Joe Biden visited in September. Biden’s visit […]
MANILA, Dec 12, 2023 (AFP) – The Philippines has so far endured fewer storms in 2023 than in any of the past 25 years and now faces potentially the worst drought in decades, officials said Tuesday. The tropical archipelago nation — which is ranked among the most vulnerable countries to the impacts of climate change — is usually affected by around 20 major storms a year. So far this year, only 10 have made landfall […]
MANILA, Dec 11, 2023 (AFP) – The Philippines said it had summoned China’s envoy on Monday and flagged the possibility of expelling him following the most tense confrontations between the countries’ vessels in years at flashpoint reefs in the disputed South China Sea. Videos released by the Philippine Coast Guard showed Chinese ships blasting water cannon at Philippine boats during two separate resupply missions to fishermen at Scarborough Shoal and a tiny garrison at Second […]
JAKARTA, Dec 11, 2023 (AFP) – Chinese-owned short video app TikTok on Monday announced a $1.5 billion investment in GoTo group in a deal that would allow it to restart its online shop in Indonesia, the companies said in a statement. Under the deal, TikTok Shop will be merged into GoTo’s Tokopedia, and TikTok will have a controlling stake in that entity. “TikTok has committed to invest over US$1.5 billion in the enlarged entity over […]
MANILA, Dec 10, 2023 (AFP) – Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos said Sunday the country was “undeterred” after confrontations between Chinese and Philippine vessels. “We remain undeterred,” Marcos said in a statement on Facebook and X platforms. “The aggression and provocations perpetrated by the China Coast Guard and their Chinese Maritime Militia against our vessels and personnel over the weekend have only further steeled our determination to defend and protect our nation’s sovereignty, sovereign rights, and […]
WASHINGTON, Dec 11, 2023 (AFP) – The United States called Sunday for Beijing to halt its “dangerous and destabilizing” actions in the disputed South China Sea, after a Philippine boat and Chinese Coast Guard ship collided near a contested reef. Both countries traded blame after the incident earlier Sunday, the latest such confrontation in the contested sea. The collision happened during a Philippine resupply mission to a tiny garrison on Second Thomas Shoal in the […]
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, Dec 10, 2023 (AFP) – Nearly 200 Rohingya refugees, mostly women and children, were stranded on a beach in western Indonesia Sunday after local authorities said they would not accept the new arrivals, AFP witnessed. The refugees arrived by boat at 3:00 am local time (2000 GMT Saturday), the latest in what has been the largest influx of the persecuted Myanmar minority since 2015. The mostly Muslim Rohingya were the target of […]
By Faith Brown SOUTH CHINA SEA, Dec 10, 2023 (AFP) – A convoy of civilian boats planning to deliver provisions to Filipino fishermen and troops in the disputed South China Sea aborted the trip on Sunday after “constant shadowing” by Chinese vessels, the organiser said. The “Christmas convoy”, which departed the Philippines’ western island of Palawan in the early hours of Sunday, was being led by dozens of volunteers on two boats carrying food, water […]
