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Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., and First Lady Louise Araneta-Marcos arrive at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, California, on November 14, 2023, as he arrives to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ week. The APEC Summit takes place through November 17. (Photo by Frederic J. Brown / AFP)
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 14, 2023 (AFP) – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Tuesday for Pacific Rim nations to be free to choose their own partners, a veiled criticism of China on the eve of a presidential summit. Blinken, addressing ministers from the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in San Francisco, quoted a 2020 statement of the group that called for an “open, dynamic, resilient and peaceful Asia-Pacific community.” “The United States believes […]
NEW DELHI, Nov 14, 2023 (AFP) – More than 2,000 people fleeing Myanmar have crossed into neighbouring northeastern India as an offensive against the military widens, Indian media reported Tuesday. The Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported more than 2,000 Myanmar citizens from western Chin state had crossed into India’s Mizoram state since Monday, with at least 17 people taken to hospital for their wounds. Almost 50,000 people have been displaced by fighting […]
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, Nov 14, 2023 (AFP) – Nearly 200 Rohingya refugees, including many women and children, landed in Indonesia’s westernmost province on Tuesday, a local official said, the largest contingent of the persecuted Myanmar minority to arrive in months. Thousands of the mostly Muslim Rohingya risk their lives each year on long and expensive sea journeys, often in flimsy boats, to try to reach Malaysia or Indonesia. The group of 196 landed Tuesday morning […]
SYDNEY, Australia, Nov 14, 2023 (AFP) – Days after Myanmar’s military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s government in February 2021, an Australian economist working with her received an anonymous email telling him the police were watching his room and that he should flee. Sean Turnell, an economics professor at Macquarie University, was detained soon after, as the military launched a sweeping and bloody crackdown on democracy protests and those who had worked with Suu Kyi’s […]
SEOUL, Nov 14, 2023 (AFP) – Nineteen South Koreans who were held captive in Myanmar have been rescued, Seoul’s foreign ministry said Tuesday, with a source from Myanmar’s main airport confirming the victims were flying home. South Korea has been working on its citizens’ release since being notified in early October that they had been detained by an unknown “illegal company” in Tachileik, which is situated in Myanmar’s Shan state near the border with Thailand. […]
By Danny KEMP WASHINGTON, Nov 13, 2023 (AFP) – Indonesian President Joko Widodo pressed US President Joe Biden during a visit to the White House on Monday to do more to end “atrocities” in Gaza and help bring about a ceasefire. The Israel-Hamas war overshadowed the talks, which had been meant to showcase an upgrade in ties between Indonesia and the United States ahead of Biden’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week. “Indonesia […]
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 14, 2023 (AFP) – President Joe Biden’s administration signaled Monday it would postpone a draft of an Asia trade pact that had been set to be unveiled at a summit in San Francisco, after facing domestic criticism. Biden, welcoming 20 other members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum to San Francisco where he will meet on the sidelines with Chinese President Xi Jinping, had been expected to announce substantial progress on […]
SYDNEY, Nov 13, 2023 (AFP) – A Malaysian former bodyguard convicted in the 2006 murder of a Mongolian translator has been released after eight years in Australian immigration detention, his lawyer said Monday. Sirul Azhar Umar fled Malaysia after being sentenced to hang for the gruesome slaying of Altantuya Shaariibuu, who worked as an interpreter on a $2 billion French submarine deal that was mired in allegations of corruption. Sirul has long insisted the killing […]
YANGON, Myanmar, Nov 13, 2023 (AFP) – A Myanmar ethnic armed group has launched attacks on security force outposts in the west of the country, local media reported Monday, as the junta struggles to beat back fighting in the north. Arakan Army (AA) fighters later seized border guard bases near Rathedaung in western Rakhine state, local media cited an AA spokesman as saying. The AA has for years fought a war for the autonomy of […]
By Sara HUSSEIN BANGKOK, Nov 10, 2023 (AFP) – An elusive echidna feared extinct after disappearing for six decades has been rediscovered in a remote part of Indonesia, on an expedition that also found a new kind of tree-dwelling shrimp. The Zaglossus attenboroughi, a kind of long-beaked echidna named for famed British naturalist David Attenborough, had last been seen in 1961. Echidnas are nocturnal and shy, making them difficult to find at the best of […]
