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TOKYO, Dec 15, 2023 (AFP) – Leaders from Southeast Asia and Japan will hold talks this weekend on boosting security ties with an eye on China, as well as Tokyo’s contentious efforts on energy cooperation. Beijing claims almost the entire South China Sea, a vital trade corridor, and its increasingly aggressive behaviour in areas also claimed by Southeast Asian nations has stoked regional tensions. Close US ally Japan, which also has competing territorial claims with […]
By Holmes CHAN HONG KONG, Dec 14, 2023 (AFP) – Hong Kong police on Thursday offered HK$1 million bounties for information leading to the capture of five overseas activists accused of national security crimes, adding they would be pursued “till the end”. All five are living abroad after Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on the financial hub in 2020 to quash dissent after massive pro-democracy protests. Thursday’s bounties were the second batch […]
SEOUL, Dec 14, 2023 (AFP) – South Korea’s military said Thursday it scrambled fighter jets as two Chinese and four Russian military planes entered its air defence zone, an area wider than the country’s airspace. The Chinese and Russian planes entered and exited the Korea Air Defence Identification Zone (KADIZ) in the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, from 11:53 am (0253 GMT) to 12:10 pm, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. […]
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 […]
TOKYO, Dec 14, 2023 (AFP) – Three Japanese government ministers tendered their resignations on Thursday over a major corruption scandal in the ruling party, media reports said. The scandal surrounds allegations of kickbacks of 500 million yen ($3.4 million) within the Liberal Democratic Party, which has governed the world’s third-largest economy almost uninterrupted for decades. Those resigning were Economy and Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, Internal Affairs Minister Junji Suzuki and Agriculture Minister Ichiro Miyashita, the […]
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 […]
By Kyoko HASEGAWA TOKYO, Dec 13, 2023 (AFP) – Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was expected to announce the sacking of four ministers on Wednesday over a major party financing scandal, media reports said. Those to be axed include Kishida’s right-hand man, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, and Yasutoshi Nishimura, the minister of economy, industry and trade, the reports said. Others are internal affairs minister Junji Suzuki and agriculture minister Ichiro Miyashita, plus five deputy […]
By Kyoko HASEGAWA FUKUSHIMA, Japan, Dec 12, 2023 (AFP) – Three Japanese ex-soldiers were found guilty Tuesday but given only suspended jail sentences for sexually assaulting a female colleague who won praise but also online hate for going public with her accusations. Rina Gonoi, 24, broke the mould by speaking out publicly last year about her ordeal in 2021 in a country where the #MeToo movement failed to gain much ground and where many sexual […]
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 […]
SEOUL, Dec 11, 2023 (AFP) – A US F-16 fighter jet crashed Monday in South Korea during a routine training exercise after experiencing “an in-flight emergency”, the US military said, adding the pilot had been rescued. The incident involving an F-16 Fighting Falcon assigned to the 8th Fighter Wing happened early Monday over the Yellow Sea, the US Air Force said in a statement. “The pilot ejected the aircraft. The pilot has been recovered by […]
