Category Archives: Asia Pacific

‘Strange and unusual’ Philippines lottery win draws call for inquiry

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Prize worth £3.55m to be split between 433 winners who all chose multiples of nine for their numbers

A “strange and unusual” lottery draw in the Philippines that led to 433 people winning with a combination of numbers that were all multiples of nine has prompted suspicion and calls for an investigation.

A prize of 236m pesos (£3.55m) will be split between the winners, with each receiving about 545,000 pesos, subject to taxes, for picking the numbers 09, 45, 36, 27, 18 and 54 during the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) grand lotto draw on Saturday.

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Bernard Collaery likens his prosecution by Australia to a ‘Moscow show trial’

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Witness K’s lawyer gives first speech since case against him was dropped, argues for reform of the National Security Information Act

Bernard Collaery has likened his prosecution to a “Moscow show trial” and said the Coalition pursued him and former spy Witness K in an attempt to hide the “dirty linen” of its dealings in Timor-Leste.

In his first speech since the case against him was dropped, Collaery on Wednesday night gave an excoriating assessment of the protracted, secretive prosecution that he said caused immense turmoil for him, his family and friends, and his legal team.

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South Korea apologises after missile fired in response to North Korea test crashes

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Live-fire drill with the US supposed to be a show of strength, but ended in embarrassment and caused alarm among nearby residents

South Korea’s military has apologised after a missile it launched during a drill on Tuesday malfunctioned and crashed to the ground, causing alarm among nearby residents who thought they were under attack from North Korea, which had test launched a missile earlier in the day.

The live-fire drill, involving South Korea and the US, was supposed to be a show of strength by the allies, hours after the North sent an intermediate-range missile over northern Japan.

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New Zealand drowning in mānuka honey after a boom in beekeeping

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As demand for honey slows after the pandemic, stockpiles far exceed the amount usually sold in a year

New Zealand is drowning in honey after a boom in beekeeping collided with slowing international demand to create towering stockpiles.

Over the past five years, global desire for mānuka honey and demand for home-based honey remedies during the pandemic helped push up prices, creating a kind of honey gold rush on New Zealand farms.

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Outrage after Philippine journalist Percival Mabasa shot dead in Manila

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Media groups and activists describe assassination of radio star, known on air as Percy Lapid, as a blow to press freedom

A prominent Philippine journalist has been shot dead while driving in the country’s capital, Manila, according to police, prompting condemnation from media groups and activists, who described his assassination as a blow to press freedom.

Radio journalist Percival Mabasa, 63, was killed by two assailants at the gate of a residential compound in the Las Pinas area of Manila on Monday night, police said. He was shot twice in the head.

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Indonesia stadium tragedy: locked gates ‘contributed to crowd crush’

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Football authorities say flaw contributed to disaster in which 131 died after violence at the end of a match

Delays in unlocking stadium gates after violence broke out at the end of a football match contributed to a crowd crush in which at least 131 people died, Indonesia’s national football association has said.

The Football Association of Indonesia said it has permanently banned the chief executive and security coordinator of the host team for failing to secure the field or promptly issue a command to unlock the gates.

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Taiwan’s military recruitment pool shrinking due to low birthrate

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Number of new conscripts at lowest level in a decade as country tries to build defences amid threat of Chinese invasion

The declining birthrate in Taiwan could cause “major challenges” to the island’s military recruitment capabilities, at a time when Taiwan is building its defences to ward off potential Chinese invasion, its government has been told.

Like much of east Asia, Taiwan is facing a demographic crisis, with fewer people having children each year as the population ages. The issue has social and economic effects on countries but in Taiwan there is also concern over its impact on military personnel levels.

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Pakistan’s PM says rival Imran Khan is ‘biggest liar on earth’

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Exclusive: As economic turmoil continues, Shehbaz Sharif accuses predecessor of leaving the country in ruins

Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, has accused the former premier Imran Khan of being the “the biggest liar on the face of the earth” and injecting poison into society to “dangerously polarise the electorate” after he was toppled from power earlier this year.

Speaking in his first interview from Pakistan since he took over as prime minister in April, Sharif, 70, spoke unsparingly of the “damage” that Khan, the former cricket superstar who ruled Pakistan from 2018, had done to the country in both domestic and foreign affairs.

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North Korea fires missile over Japan prompting warnings for residents to shelter

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Launch is the first time the North has apparently sent a missile over Japanese territory since 2017

North Korea has launched a intermediate-range ballistic missile over northern Japan for the first time in five years, prompting the government to urge people to shelter from falling debris, in an apparent escalation of recent weapons tests by Kim Jong-un’s regime.

Japan’s government had activated its J-Alert system on Tuesday morning for residents in the northernmost main island of Hokkaido and the country’s north-eastern Aomori prefecture. Train services were temporarily halted in the region.

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‘Ordinary’ Chinese vase sells for almost €8m after ferocious bidding war

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Tianqiuping-style porcelain sells for nearly 4,000 times its estimated value after buyers are convinced it is a rare artefact

An “ordinary” Chinese vase put up for auction in France and valued at €2,000 (£1,745) has sold for almost €8m after a ferocious bidding war among buyers convinced it was a rare 18th-century artefact.

At the sale in Fontainebleau near Paris, auctioneers were astonished as the offers from about 30 mainly Chinese bidders kept on coming. When the hammer fell the vase had been sold for €7.7m – almost 4,000 times its estimated value. With the seller’s fees, the final purchase price was €9.12m.

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Indonesia football stadium disaster: police chief sacked as investigation launched

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Officers investigated after teargas fired and at least 125 people, including 32 children, killed in crush

An Indonesian police chief and nine elite officers were removed from their posts and 18 others were being investigated for responsibility in the firing of teargas inside a soccer stadium that led to a crush, killing at least 125 people, officials said.

Indonesian police are facing increasing pressure over their management of crowds during the Kanjuruhan stadium disaster.

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High-profile China #MeToo case settled in US out of court

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Liu Jingyao launched civil proceedings in 2019 against retail billionaire Liu Qiangdong

One of China’s biggest and most divisive #MeToo cases, which had been set to play out with extraordinary transparency because of its US location and was closely watched by millions inside China, has been settled out of court.

Liu Qiangdong, a 49-year-old online retail billionaire who also goes by Richard Liu and is known as China’s Jeff Bezos, had been accused of sexually assaulting a then 21-year-old Chinese graduate when she was studying at the University of Minnesota and he was visiting on a business trip. Liu has always denied the assault accusations, saying it was consensual.

In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support for rape and sexual abuse on 0808 802 9999 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

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125 dead after crowd crush at Indonesian football match

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Police and match organisers under scrutiny after officers fired teargas in response to rioting fans

At least 125 people have been killed and around 320 injured at a football match in Indonesia in one of the world’s worst ever sports stadium disasters.

Police used teargas in response to a pitch invasion by rioting fans, causing a crush among panicked spectators.

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North Korea fires ballistic missiles in fourth launch in a week after naval drills

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Launch follows joint military drills by South Korea, Japan and the US and visit by Kamala Harris

North Korea has fired two more ballistic missiles, South Korea’s military said, its fourth such launch this week as Seoul, Tokyo and Washington ramp up joint military drills.

The launch early on Saturday came after the navies of South Korea, the United States and Japan staged trilateral anti-submarine exercises on Friday for the first time in five years, and the US vice-president, Kamala Harris, made a visit to the region this week.

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BBC accused of endangering World Service Vietnamese staff

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Cost-cutting plan to move staff from London to Bangkok will put them at risk of abduction, reporters say

Journalists at the BBC World Service have said plans to move its Vietnamese service from London to Thailand pose a danger to press freedom.

Several reporters at the World Service raised concerns that the Vietnamese state had a history of abducting journalists from Thailand. They also suggested that BBC bosses failed to comprehend that just because both countries were in south-east Asia, it did not mean Vietnamese people were naturally at home in Thailand.

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Anger after Thai court rules 2014 coup leader can carry on as PM

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Threats of mass protests after former general Prayuth Chan-ocha judged not to have exceeded term limit

Thailand’s constitutional court has allowed the prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, to remain in his job after suspending him in August while it considered whether he had overstayed his term limit.

The court ruled Prayuth, a former army general who first came to power in a military coup in 2014, had not yet reached the limit of his term, even though prime ministers are barred from serving for more than eight years under Thailand’s constitution. The case had been brought by opposition MPs who argued Prayuth had violated the limit.

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Weather tracker: Typhoon Noru wreaks havoc across south-east Asia

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As Hurricane Ian hits the Americas, Noru has been ripping through the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand

Hurricane Ian has been in the headlines but it is not the only storm that has been causing havoc in the past week.

On Tuesday, Typhoon Noru struck south of the city of Da Nang in Vietnam, heading westwards to Thailand. Initially a tropical storm, Noru originated in the Philippine Sea on 23 September, propagating westwards while gathering moisture and strengthening.

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Australia-New Zealand refugee deal: UN blames mental health toll after just 36 people take up offer

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UN refugee agency says many refugees have been traumatised by years in Australian detention camps, hampering uptake of the offer

In nearly six months, just 36 people have taken up New Zealand’s offer to resettle refugees held in Australian detention camps such as Nauru, with UN’s refugee agency saying the brutality of Australia’s immigration regime is partly to blame.

In March 2022, Australia’s government accepted a longstanding offer from New Zealand to resettle up to 450 refugees from Australia’s regional processing centres over the next three years, at a rate of up to 150 per year. But after nearly six months, uptake has been slow – stymied by the dire mental health of prospective applicants.

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Thumbs down to ‘middle finger’ health campaign in New Zealand

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Hepatitis C awareness ads that feature smiling actors raising their middle fingers are deemed too offensive to be aired

A New Zealand health campaign designed to help curb hepatitis C has hit a stumbling block after one of its advertisements showing people raising the middle finger was deemed too offensive to air.

The associate health minister, Ayesha Verrall, launched the “Stick it to Hep C” campaign in July, to raise awareness over the virus, which kills roughly 200 New Zealanders a year.

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Could a digital twin of Tuvalu preserve the island nation before it’s lost to the collapsing climate?

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With rising seas expected to submerge the nation by 2100, official says ‘we should always be able to remember Tuvalu as it is, before it disappears’

When Tuvalu vanishes beneath rising seas, its diaspora still want somewhere to call home – and that could be a virtual version of the tiny Pacific nation.

Global heating is threatening to submerge Tuvalu by the end of the century, and its 12,000 inhabitants are considering the future.

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