Asia

Myanmar’s Suu Kyi makes first visit to crisis-hit northern Rakhine

SITTWE, Myanmar (AFP) – Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi arrived on her first visit to conflict-battered northern Rakhine State on Thursday, an official said, an unannounced trip to an area that has seen most of its Rohingya Muslim population forced out by an army campaign. Suu Kyi, a nobel laureate who leads Myanmar’s pro-democracy party, has been hammered by the international community for failing to use her moral power to speak up in defence of the Rohingya. […]

India power plant explosion toll rises to 26

LUCKNOW, India (AFP) — The death toll from an explosion at a coal-fired power plant in northern India has risen to 26, the government said Thursday, as 10 more people died of their injuries. Several more victims are being treated for critical injuries sustained Wednesday when a boiler pipe burst at a plant run by India’s largest state-owned power utility in Uttar Pradesh state. A list prepared by the state government showed 26 people had died, though […]

China’s Xi sends rare message to North Korea’s Kim

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping has sent North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un a rare message, Pyongyang’s official news agency reported Thursday, in his first public communication with his wayward neighbour for more than a year. The note signalled a possible improvement in their strained relationships, which has soured over Pyongyang’s growing weapons ambitions even though Beijing is its longtime ally and economic benefactor. Xi’s message, dated Wednesday, was sent in response to congratulations […]

Myanmar’s Suu Kyi makes first visit to crisis-hit northern Rakhine

YANGON ,Myanmar (AFP) – Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi arrived on her first visit to conflict-battered northern Rakhine State on Thursday, an official said, an unannounced trip to an area that has seen most of its Rohingya Muslim population forced out by an army campaign. Suu Kyi, a nobel laureate who leads Myanmar’s pro-democracy party, has been hammered by the international community for failing to use her moral power to speak up in defence […]

Japan MPs re-elect Abe after election landslide

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan’s parliament on Wednesday formally re-elected Shinzo Abe as prime minister after his party’s crushing election victory, setting the 63-year-old on track to become the country’s longest-serving premier. MPs voted by a huge majority to re-install Abe, after his conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) swept to a two-thirds “super majority” on October 22. During the campaign Abe had stressed the need for strong leadership to deal with what he called Japan’s […]

South Korea will not develop nuclear weapons: president

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korea will not develop atomic weapons of its own, despite the threat from the nuclear-armed North, President Moon Jae-In declared Wednesday. “A push by North Korea to become a nuclear state cannot be accepted or tolerated,” Moon said in an address to parliament. “We also will not develop or own nuclear” arms. In recent months, Pyongyang has carried out its sixth nuclear test — its most powerful by far […]

Thailand revokes passports of exiled former PM Yingluck

BANGKOK, Thailand (Agence France Presse) — Thailand has revoked the passports of ousted premier Yingluck Shinawatra, who has yet to be seen in public since she slipped out of the country before the verdict in her negligence trial, officials said Tuesday. The former prime minister, whose elected government was toppled in a 2014 coup, has not been seen or heard from since she stunned the kingdom by failing to turn up for the Supreme Court […]

‘Not one piece of evidence’ Russia interfered in US elections: Lavrov

  MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russia’s foreign minister on Tuesday said there was no evidence the country had interfered in US elections, after a Washington probe accelerated with charges against three former aides to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. “We are accused of interfering not only in US elections but also in those of other countries without one piece of evidence,” Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Moscow. Russia has repeatedly denied any attempt to influence the […]

In China, disrespecting national anthem could mean three years in jail

BEIJING, China (AFP) – Disrespecting China’s national anthem could carry a prison sentence of up to three years under a new draft law amendment, state media reported Tuesday. China has been fine-tuning legislation on the proper way and place to sing its national anthem, recently tightening rules that already bar people from belting it out at parties, weddings and funerals. The country passed a National Anthem Law in September, which specified a much lesser jail term […]

China’s Xi meets Zuckerberg, Cook in Beijing

BEIJING, China (AFP) — Apple’s Tim Cook and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, state media said Tuesday, as the Communist Party pushes for a larger role in private firms. The meeting came days after Xi secured his position as China’s most powerful leader since Mao and as Facebook seeks to gain entry to the massive market. “As a beneficiary of and contributor to economic globalization, China’s development is the opportunity […]

9 bodies, 2 severed heads, found in Tokyo flat: reports

TOKYO, Japan (Agence France Presse) — Japanese police have found nine bodies, including two with their heads severed and dumped in a cool box, in a flat in the Tokyo suburbs, media reported on Tuesday. Police confirmed to AFP they had arrested 27-year-old Takahiro Shiraishi, who lives in the apartment in Zama, south of Tokyo. According to public broadcaster NHK, Shiraishi told police: “I killed them and did some work on the bodies in order […]

Chinese universities start ‘Xi Thought’ institutes

BEIJING, China (AFP) — Xi Jinping Thought will now be taught, researched and promoted in universities across China, ensuring that the leader’s eponymous philosophy is implanted into students’ hearts and minds. At least twenty  universities have established research institutes for Xi’s ideology, which was enshrined in the Communist Party’s constitution during its 19th national congress this month. The distinction places Xi on a par with Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. It means that his dogma — “Xi […]