ASEAN IN FOCUS

Philippine president defends massive operation to arrest celebrity pastor

By Neil Jerome Morales MANILA (Reuters) – Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr defended on Tuesday the deployment of 2,000 police officers at the weekend to arrest an influential pastor accused of sex trafficking who is a longtime friend of the country’s former president. Police think Apollo Quiboloy, a self-proclaimed “owner of the universe” and “appointed son of god”, is hiding in a bunker at the sprawling compound owned by his church, the Kingdom of Jesus […]

Mudslide in Thailand’s Phuket kills 13, including 2 Russians, official says

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thirteen people including a Russian couple died in a mudslide on the Thai resort island of Phuket, the authorities said Sunday, after calling off a search for missing persons. Heavy rains last week set off the mudslides near the Big Buddha, a popular tourist destination in the south of the country, said Phuket Governor Sophon Suwannarat. Besides the Russians, nine of the dead were migrant workers from Myanmar and the other two […]

China, Philippines clash in South China Sea despite efforts to rebuild trust

MANILA/BEIJING (Reuters) – The Philippines and China clashed in disputed waters of the South China Sea on Sunday over what Manila said was a resupply mission for fishermen, the latest in a series of sea and air confrontations in the strategic waterway. The incident overshadows efforts by both nations to rebuild trust and better manage disputes after months of confrontations, including a violent clash in June where a Filipino sailor lost a finger. The Philippines […]

Philippines urges China to halt ‘provocative’ actions after flare incidents

MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippines called on Beijing on Saturday to “immediately cease all provocative and dangerous actions” after accusing it of “unjustifiably” deploying flares from China-occupied Subi Reef on Aug. 22 while a Manila aircraft was conducting patrols. The same aircraft also “faced harassment” from a Chinese jet fighter while it was conducting a surveillance flight near Scarborough Shoal on Aug. 19, the Philippines’ South China Sea Task Force said in a statement. “Such […]

Thailand says mpox case recorded in traveller from Africa

BANGKOK (Reuters) -Thailand has detected an mpox case in a European man who arrived from Africa last week and is awaiting test results to determine the strain, a disease control official said on Wednesday. Thai authorities were treating the case as if it were the Clade 1 form of mpox, as the person, a 66-year-old European man with residency in Thailand had arrived on Aug. 14 from an African country where it was spreading, Thongchai […]

Philippines says recent mpox case is mild Clade 2 variant

MANILA (Reuters) -The Philippines’ health minister said on Wednesday a recently detected mpox case in the Southeast Asian nation is of the mild Clade 2 variant and not the newer variant that has spread rapidly in Africa. “The mpox we found was the original variety and probably it could have been circulating in our community,” Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa told ANC news channel. The Southeast Asian nation on Monday announced its first mpox case this […]

Philippines detects new mpox case, first since December 2023

MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippines has detected a new case of the mpox virus in the country, the first since December last year, its health department said on Monday, adding it was awaiting test results before being able to determine the strain. The patient was a 33-year-old Filipino male who had no travel history outside the Philippines, the Department of Health (DOH) said. “We are awaiting sequencing results and will update once available,” its spokesperson […]

Philippines, China trade blame after vessels collide in the South China Sea

BEIJING/MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippines and China accused each other on Monday of ramming vessels and performing dangerous manoeuvres in the South China Sea, the latest flare-up after the two nations had agreed to try to ease tensions and manage disagreements at sea. China’s Coast Guard said in a statement a Philippine vessel which had ignored its repeated warnings “deliberately collided” with a Chinese vessel in an “unprofessional and dangerous” manner in the disputed waterway […]

Thailand ex-PM Thaksin gets royal pardon, lawyer says

BANGKOK (Reuters) -Thailand’s billionaire former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra received a royal pardon shortening his parole by two weeks, his lawyer said on Saturday, a day after his daughter was elected premier by parliament. Thaksin has been at the heart of a two-decade power struggle between the Shinawatra family and its allies on the one hand, and, on the other, a nexus of royalists, generals and old-money families that have long wielded influence over Thai […]

Thai king endorses Paetongtarn Shinawatra as prime minister

  BANGKOK (Reuters) -Paetongtarn Shinawatra was endorsed as prime minister by Thailand’s king on Sunday, two days after parliament elected her, paving the way for her to form a cabinet in the coming weeks. Paetongtarn, 37, becomes Thailand’s youngest prime minister just days after ally Srettha Thavisin was dismissed as premier by the Constitutional Court, a judiciary central to Thailand’s two decades of intermittent political turmoil. Daughter of divisive former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Paetongtarn […]

Explainer: Why Thailand’s judges are front and centre in its tumultuous politics

BANGKOK (Reuters) -Thailand’s Constitutional Court will on Wednesday rule on the fate of Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, a week after it dissolved 2023 election winner Move Forward, underlining the judiciary’s central role in the country’s long-running battle for power. The two cases have heightened political uncertainty and raised concerns about potential upheaval in Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy, which has seen two decades of intermittent turmoil, with multiple parties disbanded and governments toppled by court rulings […]

Judgment day for Thai PM Srettha as court rules on dismissal case

By Chayut Setboonsarng and Panarat Thepgumpanat BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand’s Constitutional Court will on Wednesday decide the fate of Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, in a ruling that could see him dismissed after less than a year in office and plunge the country into deeper political uncertainty. Srettha, a real estate tycoon with no background in politics, is the subject of a complaint from ex-senators appointed by the former military government, who say he violated the […]