Category Archives: Asia Pacific

Indonesia: LGBT community faces backlash after Reynhard Sinaga’s rape conviction

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Rights groups voice concern as mayor in Sinaga’s home city instructs police to carry out raids to uncover ‘LGBT behaviour’

The mayor in the home city of an Indonesian man described as Britain’s “most prolific rapist” has ordered raids to uncover members of the LGBT community, prompting fears of a growing homophobic backlash across the country.

The mayor of Depok, a city south of Jakarta, asked residents to report any signs of LGBT activity which he characterised as “deviant behaviour”. Mohammad Idris also called on several agencies to improve efforts to prevent the “spread of LGBT” in order to “strengthen families and … protect the children” and instructed police to carry out raids to uncover “LGBT behaviour”.

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At least six dead after huge sinkhole in China swallows bus and pedestrians

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Footage on state TV shows the vehicle disappearing inside the sinkhole in the city of Xining as people run away

An enormous sinkhole has swallowed a bus and pedestrians in China, killing six people and leaving 10 missing.

Footage on state media showed people at a bus stop running from the collapsing road, as the bus – jutting into the air – sank.

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Taal volcano: thousands flee as ash and lightning fill the sky

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Thousands of people have fled the area surrounding Taal volcano in the Philippines, which has been erupting since Sunday. It has ejected ash up to 15km into the sky and has generated bursts of lightning within its ash cloud

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Drones show Philippines town cloaked in ash from Taal volcano – video

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Drone footage published on social media shows thick ashfall from the Taal volcano covering buildings, roads and trees in Batangas province in the Philippines. Clouds of ash were blown more than 62 miles (100km) north of the volcano, reaching Manila and forcing the main international airport to close. More than 500 flights were cancelled

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Lightning and ash: timelapse footage shows Taal volcano eruption – video

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A video captured from a nearby home in Tagaytay City shows volcanic lightning and a thick ash column erupting from the Taal volcano in the Philippines. 

Flights have been suspended and thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate as the volcano spewed ash 1,000 metres into the sky, prompting a warning from the Philippines of an 'explosive eruption'. 

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Lava gushes from Taal volcano in Philippines – in pictures

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Red-hot lava gushed out of the Taal volcano in the Philippines after a sudden eruption of ash and steam forced villagers to flee en masse and shut down offices and schools. Clouds of ash blew more than 60 miles north, reaching the capital, Manila, and forcing the shutdown of the country’s main airport. There have been no reports of casualties or major damage from the eruption that began on Sunday

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New Zealand schools to teach students about climate crisis, activism and ‘eco anxiety’

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Changes to the curriculum will put the country at the forefront of climate crisis education worldwide

Every school in New Zealand will this year have access to materials about the climate crisis written by the country’s leading science agencies – including tools for students to plan their own activism, and to process their feelings of “eco-anxiety” over global heating.

The curriculum will put New Zealand at the forefront of climate change education worldwide; governments in neighbouring Australia and the United Kingdom have both faced criticism for lack of cohesive teaching on the climate crisis. The New Zealand scheme, which will be offered to all schools that teach 11 to 15 year-old students, will not be compulsory, the government said.

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Head of Human Rights Watch denied entry to Hong Kong

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Kenneth Roth was due to launch the organisation’s latest report in the Chinese-controlled city

The global head of Human Rights Watch says he has been denied entry to Hong Kong, where he was scheduled to launch the organisation’s latest world report this week.

Kenneth Roth, the group’s executive director, said that on Sunday he was blocked at Hong Kong airport from entering for the first time, having entered freely in the past.

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Taal volcano in Philippines emits giant plume of smoke and ash – video

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Flights have been suspended and thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate as the volcano spewed ash up to nine miles into the sky, prompting a warning from the Philippines of an ‘explosive eruption’

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‘I quit life as a BBC journalist to live as a jade carver in China’

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Andrew Shaw, 63, on how he switched to a new career and life in another continent

Name: Andrew Shaw
Age: 63
Occupation: Jade carver and author, China
Income: £48,000

I took early retirement from my job as a BBC reporter 13 years ago to travel to China to pursue my dream to learn to carve jade. At one time I loved reporting live from major events such as 9/11. It was as if I was witnessing history rather than covering the news. But the death of my mother made me rethink my life.

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Pacific nations need much more than Scott Morrison’s thanks to survive

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Governments from across the Pacific have offered support for bushfire relief but are in a tight spot with Australia over the climate crisis

When Scott Morrison thanked governments of the world for their assistance with Australia’s bushfire crisis, he particularly singled out “the loving response from our Pacific family”.

Across the Pacific region – a collection of developing and least developed nations that are themselves almost uniquely at risk from climate-induced catastrophes – the response to the Australian bushfires has been immediate and generous, but it also reveals something of the problematic fraternity that Australia has with the rest of the region.

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‘I’m the last censor in the western world’: New Zealand’s David Shanks tackles the c-word

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The word is loaded with connotations of state suppression but NZ’s chief censor takes a different view

When David Shanks presents himself at international conferences, his peers recoil slightly.

“I’d introduce myself as, ‘Hi, I’m David from New Zealand. New Zealand’s chief censor,’” he says. “And basically these people would take an involuntary step backwards, almost, on many occasions.”

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Hong Kong: nearly a third of adults report PTSD symptoms – study

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Research also finds heavy use of social media to follow socio-political events appears to increase risk on mental health

Nearly one in three adults in Hong Kong reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder during months of often violent social unrest in the city, according to a study published in the Lancet medical journal on Friday.

Related: Portraits of Hong Kong's masked protesters – in pictures

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Grass growing around Mount Everest as global heating intensifies

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Impact of increase in shrubs and grasses not yet known but scientists say it could increase flooding in the region

Shrubs and grasses are springing up around Mount Everest and across the Himalayas, one of the most rapidly heating regions of the planet.

Related: 1.9 billion people at risk from mountain water shortages, study shows

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China’s Sars-like illness worries health experts

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China’s viral pneumonia outbreak may have jumped species barrier, raising fears of pandemic

The finding that the outbreak of viral pneumonia in China that has struck 59 people may be caused by a coronavirus, the family of viruses behind Sars, which spread to 37 countries in 2003, causing global panic and killing more than 750 people, means that health authorities will be watching closely.

China says the illness is not Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome), nor Mers (Middle East respiratory syndrome), both of which are caused by coronaviruses, and so far it appears milder than both. Unlike Sars, it does not appear to spread easily between humans and unlike Mers, which has a mortality rate of about 35%, nobody has died.

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Carlos Ghosn issued travel ban in Lebanon after Interpol warrant

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Japan hits back at former Nissan boss after fugitive attacks its controversial justice system

Japan has hit back at Carlos Ghosn after the former Nissan boss’s criticisms of the country’s justice system after his dramatic escape to Lebanon, as Beirut prosecutors issued a travel ban for the fugitive.

Masako Mori, Japan’s justice minister, on Thursday accused Ghosn of making “abstract, unclear or baseless assertions” about the Japanese criminal justice system, and said his flight was unjustified.

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Man accused of killing 19 in Japanese care home pleads not guilty

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Satoshi Uematsu’s lawyers claim he had a psychiatric disorder at time of 2016 attack

A man accused of killing 19 residents at a care home in Japan for people with disabilities has pleaded not guilty, with his lawyers claiming that he was suffering from a psychiatric disorder at the time of the attack.

Satoshi Uematsu, a former employee of the Tsukui Yamayuri En (Tsukui Lily Garden) facility in Sagamihara, south-west of Tokyo, did not deny carrying out the attack in 2016, in which residents were targeted as they slept. Twenty-four other people were injured, most of them seriously.

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The ‘ex-closeted gay jihadist’ bringing meditation to Jakarta

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Once a campus fundamentalist who hid his sexuality, today Bagia Arif Saputra helps others find harmony in Indonesia’s capital

When Bagia Arif Saputra was growing up in a university town near Jakarta, becoming a jihadist seemed a natural choice for young men like him, who were steeped in the teachings of Islamic fundamentalism. Less easy was reconciling this identity with his sexuality.

“I was living a double life,” says Saputra. “I would go to the campus mosque, try to focus on my prayers … and find myself checking out a guy and thinking, ‘Nice ass’. And then immediately, ‘Astaghfirullah [God forgive me]!’ So then I would have to redo my prayers. It was a vicious cycle.”

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White Island volcano eruption: 13 victims still in hospital a month on

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Four remain in critical condition while two people still missing after 17 killed in New Zealand disaster

More than a dozen people remain in New Zealand hospitals with life-threatening injuries a month on from the fatal eruption of Whakaari White Island.

Seventeen people have been confirmed dead following the 9 December 2018 disaster, with a further two people missing presumed dead.

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