Category Archives: Asia Pacific

‘They belong to Waramungu’: New Zealand museum agrees to return items to Indigenous Australians

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Warumungu people in Northern Territory negotiate return of four objects collected by anthropologist Baldwin Spencer in the early 1900s

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Four objects from the Warumungu people will be returned from a New Zealand museum to country in the Northern Territory.

Two hooked boomerangs (wartilykirri), an adze (palya/kupija) and an axe (ngurrulumuru) were collected by well-known anthropologist Baldwin Spencer and telegraph operator James Field.

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Turtle concern: Australian businessman denies threatening to sell Conflict Islands to China

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Ian Gowrie-Smith says he was frustrated the Australian government did not respond to urgent funding request for turtle conservation

The owner of 21 tropical islands off the coast of Papua New Guinea says he never threatened to sell them to China and his main aim is to save the turtles that nest there.

Ian Gowrie-Smith, an Australian businessman and investor, bought the Conflict Islands, which lie less than 1,000km from the Australian coast, almost two decades ago.

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Typhoon Talas lashes Japan, setting off landslides with more rains to come

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At least two people killed and 120,000 households without power as authorities urge caution for more landslides and flooding

A typhoon lashed central Japan on Saturday with torrential rain and fierce winds, killing two and leaving tens of thousands of households without power, the Kyodo news agency reported.

Shizuoka city, south-west of Tokyo, was hit especially hard, seeing a record 417mm (16.42 inches) of precipitation since the rain started on Thursday, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said.

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China says US sending ‘dangerous signals’ on Taiwan

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Comments from Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi come after meeting with US secretary of state Antony Blinken on sidelines of UN general assembly

China has accused the United States of sending “very wrong, dangerous signals” on Taiwan after the US secretary of state told his Chinese counterpart on Friday that the maintenance of peace and stability over Taiwan was vitally important.

Taiwan was the focus of the 90-minute, “direct and honest” talks between the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, on the margins of the UN general assembly in New York, a US official told reporters.

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South Korea president criticised over gaffes at Queen’s funeral and UN

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Yoon Suk-yeol accused of discourtesy in London and of swearing after chat to Joe Biden

South Korea’s president has been accused of causing a “diplomatic disaster” after his first major international trip, to the Queen’s funeral and the UN general assembly, was marred by alleged discourtesy and an expletive directed at members of the US congress.

Yoon Suk-yeol, a conservative who was already battling low approval ratings only months after taking office, drew criticism from across the South Korean political spectrum after he failed to attend the Queen’s lying in state despite traveling to London.

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Weather tracker: storms batter Alaska, Caribbean and Japan

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Hurricane causes blackout across Puerto Rico while typhoon forces 8m to flee homes in Japan

It has been very active across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in recent days with more than five storms officially named.

Hurricane Fiona in the Caribbean was the first storm of the tropical Atlantic season to strengthen into a major hurricane. Fiona made landfall on Sunday across south-western Puerto Rico, where it dumped 762mm (30in) of rain with sustained gusts of 115mph.

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China sentences man who attacked women at restaurant to 24 years

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Assault by Chen Jizhi and his friends on 10 June has sparked a national debate over gender-based violence

The main perpetrator of an assault against a group of women at a barbecue restaurant in China has been sentenced to 24 years in prison, after the case sparked a national debate over gender-based violence.

Chen Jizhi started hitting the women after they rejected his “harassment” in the early hours of 10 June in the city of Tangshan in Hebei province, east of Beijing, the court said in a statement.

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Japan to reopen to tourists after more than two years of Covid border restrictions

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PM says relaxation will take effect from 11 October as Hong Kong scraps hotel quarantine measures for visitors

Japan has announced it will lift tough Covid restrictions on foreign tourists, reopening the borders after two and a half years.

The prime minister, Fumio Kishida, said on Thursday that the pandemic had interrupted the free flow of people, goods and capital that had helped the nation flourish.

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Myanmar model who criticised junta stuck in limbo after being denied entry to Thailand

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Han Lay appealed for help on social media after being stopped at Bangkok airport, saying Myanmar police there want to speak to her

A Myanmar model who has spoken out against the military junta that seized power last year says she has sought help from the UN’s refugee agency after she was denied entry to Thailand.

Han Lay, who was stopped at Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok this week, asked for help in a Facebook post on Thursday night, saying Myanmar police were at the airport and trying to speak with her.

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China ready for ‘fight’ over international action on Xinjiang human rights abuses

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Threat comes as UN member states meet in Geneva amid pressure to take action on a damning report on abuse of Uyghurs

A Chinese envoy to the United Nations has warned western nations and allies that Beijing is ready for a “fight” amid growing pressure for global action against China over its human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

The threat follows the release of a report by the UN office of the high commissioner for human rights which found the government was likely committing crimes against humanity with its abuses of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang.

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Calls for stalking law overhaul in South Korea as woman’s murder shocks nation

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Stabbing triggers accusations that authorities are failing to take violence against women seriously

The murder of a South Korean woman who had been stalked by her alleged killer for years has sparked outrage and demands for changes in the law to better protect women.

The woman’s murder in a bathroom at the subway station where she worked earlier this month has shocked South Korea, coming a day before her alleged attacker, named by police as 31-year-old Jeon Joo-hwan, had been due to be sentenced for stalking her.

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China’s former justice minister faces life in prison amid purge of security officials

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Fu Zhenghua, who had led several high-profile investigations into corruption, was accused of accepting bribes

Former Chinese justice minister Fu Zhenghua, who had headed several high-profile investigations into corruption, has been jailed for life for accepting bribes, state media says, as a purge of officials intensified ahead of a key Communist party congress.

Fu, 67, was handed a suspended death sentence that will be commuted to life imprisonment after two years, with no possibility of parole, according to state media on Thursday.

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Water found in asteroid dust may offer clues to origins of life on Earth

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Discovery offers new support for the theory that life may have been seeded from outer space

Specks of dust that a Japanese space probe retrieved from an asteroid about 186 million miles (300m kilometres) from Earth have revealed a surprising component: a drop of water.

The discovery offers new support for the theory that life on Earth may have been seeded from outer space.

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Patience with Putin may be ebbing among friendlier countries

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Turkey, India and China respond cooly to news of planned referendums in Ukrainian regions occupied by Russia

Signs that some countries willing to tolerate Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are losing patience have emerged as Turkey, India and China responded cooly to the announcement that four Ukrainian regions occupied by Russia were planning referendums on joining the Russian Federation.

Turkey, which has been at the centre of mediation between the west and Russia, issued a sharp rebuke, saying in a statement that it was concerned by attempts to stage unilateral referendums.

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Hong Kong journalist allowed to travel to UK after court grants bail

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Ronson Chan was arrested in September as part of an ongoing crackdown on dissent and free expression in the city

The head of Hong Kong’s journalists’ association will be allowed to travel to the UK for an Oxford fellowship after a court granted him bail and declined to place restrictions on his movement over a charge of obstructing police officers.

Ronson Chan was arrested on 7 September while he was covering a residence meeting at a Hong Kong housing estate. Police allege he refused to provide ID and behaved in an “uncooperative” way despite multiple warnings, and he was charged this week. Chan has claimed innocence, saying he was within his rights to ask police for identification before he produced his.

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Chinese police detain ‘godfather of film industry’ over abuse claims

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Du Yingzhe, a well-known tutor at a prestigious teaching academy, accused of abusing at least 19 students

Chinese police have detained a man over the alleged abuse of at least 19 former students at a prestigious tutoring academy, after a viral article outlined one of the country’s most shocking #MeToo cases in years.

Du Yingzhe, 40, was a well-known tutor at Shadow Road, which assists high school students to get into the country’s best art and film schools. On Monday Du was accused by a former student of harassing, grooming and raping students, including some who were underage and a 17-year-old girl who fell pregnant.

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Cambodia court rejects genocide appeal of last surviving Khmer Rouge leader

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Judge upholds conviction of Khieu Samphan, 91, in what is likely to be UN-backed court’s last judgment

Cambodia’s UN-backed tribunal for the Khmer Rouge has upheld a genocide conviction against the regime’s last surviving leader, more than 40 years after Pol Pot’s brutal communist regime fell.

The tribunal, known as the extraordinary chambers in the courts of Cambodia (ECCC), rejected an appeal by Khieu Samphan, 91, in what was expected to be the final judgment by the court. Khieu Samphan, who was a former head of state, was found guilty in 2018 of crimes against humanity, and grave breaches of the Geneva conventions, and of the genocide of ethnic minority Vietnamese.

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‘Fat Leonard’, fugitive contractor in US navy’s worst corruption scandal, arrested in Venezuela

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Malaysian defence contractor fled before sentencing in US over bribery scheme that lasted more than a decade and involved dozens of US navy officers

A Malaysian defence contractor nicknamed “Fat Leonard” who orchestrated one of the largest bribery scandals in US military history has been arrested in Venezuela after fleeing before his sentencing, authorities say.

The international manhunt for Leonard Glenn Francis ended with his arrest by Venezuelan authorities on Tuesday morning at the Caracas airport as he was about to board an airplane for another country, the US Marshals Service said on Wednesday.

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China’s Lipstick King reappears, months after Tiananmen ‘tank cake’ row

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Celebrity livestreamer Li Jiaqi returns to screen after nearly four months of silence following a broadcast showcasing a tank-shaped dessert

China’s leading shopping livestreamer, Li Jiaqi, has returned to online commerce platforms almost four months after his feed was suddenly cut, which viewers suspected was linked to the errant appearance of a tank-shaped cake.

Li, also known as the Lipstick King for his ability to move huge amounts of product on his sales channels, briefly appeared on Alibaba Group’s Taobao marketplace on Tuesday evening.

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Shinzo Abe: man sets himself alight in protest at state funeral for killed Japan PM

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Protester sustains widespread burns as Japan wrestles with legacy of leader whose death revealed scale of politicians’ links to Unification church

A man has set himself alight near the Japanese prime minister’s office, apparently in protest against next week’s state funeral for the country’s former prime minister, Shinzo Abe.

The man, who has not been named, was initially unconscious and sustained burns over his entire body after the incident in Tokyo on Wednesday morning, less than a week before the controversial send-off for Abe, who was shot dead in July.

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