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MANILA, Oct 2, 2023 (AFP) – The United States and the Philippines launched annual joint naval war games on Monday, days after the latest diplomatic row between Manila and Beijing over the disputed South China Sea. More than a thousand sailors from the two allies are taking part in the annual “Samasama” (Tagalog for Together) anti-submarine, surface and electronic warfare drills off Manila and the south of Luzon, the main island of the Philippines. China’s […]
JAKARTA, Oct 2, 2023 (AFP) – Indonesia launched Southeast Asia’s first high-speed railway on Monday, a delayed, multibillion-dollar project backed by China that President Joko Widodo hailed as “a symbol of our modernisation”. With a top speed of 350 kilometres (220 miles) per hour, the bullet train “Whoosh” can get between the capital Jakarta and Bandung in 45 minutes. The 140 km journey would previously have taken about three hours by train. “The Jakarta-Bandung high-speed […]
By Andrew MCKIRDY HANGZHOU, China, Sept 30, 2023 (AFP) Philippines pole vaulter EJ Obiena cruised to gold in an Asian Games record on Saturday — and then said he missed not having record-breaker Armand Duplantis to compete against. Obiena has been one of Swedish world record-holder Duplantis’s closest rivals this year, finishing second behind him at last month’s world championships in Budapest. And no one could come close to Obiena in Hangzhou as he took […]
(UN GENEVA, Switzerland) The UN Human Rights Office spokesperson, Jeremy Laurence, has voiced deep concerns regarding the arrest, detention, and sentencing of environmental human rights defenders in Vietnam. Laurence stressed that these concerns encompass both the charges they face and the fairness of their trials. During a recent press briefing, Laurence said, “Yesterday, Hoang Thi Minh Hong became the fifth of six environmental human rights defenders arrested from 2021 to 2023 to be sentenced. She […]
MANILA, Sept 30, 2023 (AFP) – A cat wearing a black-and-yellow security vest strolls nonchalantly past security guards lined outside a Philippine office building waiting to receive instructions for their shift. Conan, a six-month-old stray, joined the security team of the Worldwide Corporate Center in the capital Manila several months ago. He is one of the lucky moggies unofficially adopted by security guards across the city, where thousands of cats live on the street. While […]
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 30, 2023 (AFP) – Hundreds of forest fires in Indonesia have caused haze to reach areas of Malaysia where it has worsened air quality, Kuala Lumpur’s top environment official has said. Outbreaks of smog-belching forest fires in 2019 caused Malaysia to say it would pressure Indonesia to combat the annual problem, which is often caused by blazes lit to clear agricultural land. Malaysia’s Department of Environment director-general Wan Abdul Latiff Wan […]
By Faith Brown and Cecil Morella MANILA, Sept 29, 2023 (AFP) – The Philippine Coast Guard vowed Friday to “do whatever it takes” to remove any more floating barriers installed by China at a disputed reef in the South China Sea. The remarks came after an aerial inspection of Scarborough Shoal on Thursday confirmed a 300 metre (328-yard) barrier that ignited the latest diplomatic row between Beijing and Manila had been taken away. AFP journalists […]
HANOI, Sept 29, 2023 (AFP) – Vietnam’s economy grew 5.3 percent on-year in the third quarter, official data showed Friday, though experts warned it was on course to miss an ambitious year-end target. Loan interest rate reductions, an extension of tax payments and increased public investment had a positive impact, the General Statistics Office (GSO) said. But analysts warn it will be an uphill battle for the clothing, shoes and electronics manufacturing hub to reach […]
BANGKOK, Thailand, Sept 26, 2023 (AFP) – Myanmar’s military escalated its use of mass killings, air and artillery strikes in the past year as it struggles to crush resistance to its coup, the UN’s rights office said on Tuesday. The military’s ousting of Aung San Suu Kyi’s government in 2021 sparked a huge backlash and it is now battling opponents across swaths of the country. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights […]
BEIJING, Sept 26, 2023 (AFP) – Beijing warned Manila on Tuesday not to “stir up trouble” after the Philippine Coast Guard said it removed a floating barrier at a disputed reef that was allegedly deployed by China to block Filipino fishermen from the area. Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea has long been a source of tension between the countries. China seized the ring of reefs from the Philippines in 2012 and has since […]
