Category Archives: Asia Pacific

Mesut Özil row: China’s Arsenal fans burn shirts in anger at Xinjiang post

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Player, who has 4 million followers on Chinese microblog Weibo, is called a ‘dirty ant’ for attacking China

Chinese football fans have burned Arsenal football shirts and called on the club to fire star player Mesut Özil after he publicly criticised China’s treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang.

On Friday, Özil, who is usually quiet on social media, posted a message on his Instagram profile describing Uighurs in the far north-western region of China as “warriors who resist persecution”.

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US covertly expelled Chinese officials who drove on to military base – report

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The US government covertly moved to expel two officials from the Chinese embassy earlier this year after they drove onto a military base, the New York Times reported, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter.

The newspaper reported that one of the two officials is believed to be an intelligence officer operating under diplomatic cover.

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US-China trade deal ‘totally done’, Trump aide Lighthizer says

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The “phase one” US-China trade deal will nearly double US exports to China over the next two years and is “totally done” despite the need for translation and revisions to its text, US trade representative Robert Lighthizer said on Sunday.

Related: 'Amazing deal' or 'capitulation'? Why the US-China trade truce may not last

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The unanswered questions behind New Zealand’s volcano tragedy

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It’s the worst burns incident in New Zealand history, with more than a dozen fatalities and lives still hanging in the balance. Now questions are being asked about how and why it happened. Reporters Eleanor Ainge Roy and Stephen D’Antal discuss how the week unfolded, and the long road ahead to understanding this tragedy

To learn more about this story read Melissa Davey’s piece on the long road ahead for the injured survivors, and Eleanor Ainge Roy’s reporting on how the local Maori people feel about Whakaari.

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Hong Kong violence breaks out again in shopping centres

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Police make arrests and use pepper spray as flashmobs and vandalism break out

Hong Kong police used pepper spray and made arrests on Sunday as small groups of black-clad pro-democracy protesters targeted some of the city’s shopping centres, ending a rare lull in violence.

Flashmob protests and vandalism broke out in several locations. Riot police responded with pepper spray in at least two shopping centres as members of the public heckled them.

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Thousands join biggest protest in Bangkok since 2014 coup

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Thai anti-government rally held in response to ban on Future Forward opposition party

Thousands of people joined the biggest protest in Bangkok since a 2014 coup on Saturday, after Thai authorities moved to ban a party that has rallied opposition to the government of the former military ruler Prayuth Chan-ocha.

The demonstration, called a day earlier by the Future Forward party leader, Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, a 41-year-old billionaire, was reminiscent of the street protests that have roiled Bangkok over the past two decades of turbulent politics.

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North Korea claims successful ‘crucial test’ at long-range rocket site

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Pyongyang continues to pressurise Trump administration for concessions

North Korea has said it successfully performed another “crucial test” at its long-range rocket launch site that it claims will further strengthen its nuclear deterrent.

The test may have included technologies to improve intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) which could potentially reach the continental US.

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Five Hong Kong teenagers arrested over death of man during protests

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The three males and two females face charges over the killing of a 70-year-old who was hit with a brick during disturbances in November

Five Hong Kong teenagers have been arrested in connection with the death of a man hit on the head by a brick during clashes between pro- and anti-government protesters last month, police have said.

The three males and two females aged 15 to 18 were arrested on Friday on suspicion of murder, rioting and wounding and had been detained pending further investigation, police said in a statement.

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New Zealand volcano: 21-year-old Australian is first recovered victim to be named

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Krystal Browitt was on White Island with father and sister when eruption occurred

Krystal Browitt, the 21-year-old Melbourne woman missing since the White Island volcano eruption, has become the first victim to be identified by police from the six bodies recovered from the island on Friday.

Browitt was on the island with her sister Stephanie and her father Paul when the volcano erupted. Stephanie is in a coma in hospital with her mother, Marie, who stayed on board their cruise ship instead of taking the volcano trip, at her bedside. Paul Browitt is being treated for burns in hospital in Melbourne.

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‘Nothing short of miraculous’: the long road ahead for injured survivors of White Island

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Recovery won’t be easy for the Australians burned in the New Zealand volcano disaster, but some of the world’s best specialists are on hand to help

As families of the Australian survivors of the New Zealand volcano disaster wait anxiously on their loved ones’ prognosis, there will be a small comfort in knowing that some of the world’s best plastic surgeons and burns specialists will lead their care as they return home for treatment.

Specialist paramedics travelled to New Zealand as part of a medical evacuation team to accompany patients on their return, with 11 Australians flown to major burns units throughout the country including Concord hospital in Sydney and the Alfred hospital in Melbourne. More patients were expected to arrive on Friday evening.

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Around the world in a day, without leaving Shenzhen – a photo essay

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For Chinese tourists who cannot travel, the Window of the World theme park offers versions of 130 global attractions. Photojournalist Anthony Micallef took a whistlestop tour

More than 3 million visitors a year flock to the Window of the World theme park in the megacity of Shenzhen to see 130 copies of the world’s largest tourist sites gathered in a single place.

For Chinese tourists who may not be able to travel out of the country this is their only chance of seeing the New York skyline, the pyramids of Giza or the Taj Mahal – or smaller replicas of them, at least.

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‘I hate Isis’: uprooted survivors of Marawi siege long to return home

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Two years after their city on the Philippine island of Mindanao was liberated, tens of thousands of people driven from their homes remain in limbo

Thousands of survivors of an Islamic State siege in the Philippines are stuck in makeshift dwellings more than two years after their city was liberated, with many forced to drink contaminated water despite the presence of EU-funded aid agencies.

They were among an estimated 350,000 people driven from their homes when Islamist fighters seized control of the city of Marawi, on the island of Mindanao, in May 2017.

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New Zealand volcano eruption: dive teams search for two bodies off White Island – live

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Six bodies transferred to HMNZS Wellington by helicopter, as divers continue search for final two missing

The NZ defence force have released images of those who took part in the mission to recover the remaining bodies from White Island this morning.

We are expecting the New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, to hold a news conference in the next few minutes and will bring you that as soon as it begins.

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Traditional Thai massage gains Unesco heritage status

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Practice of nuad Thai, which has gained global recognition, is added to Unesco’s ‘intangible cultural heritage’ list

The body-folding, sharp-elbowed techniques of Thai massage have been added to Unesco’s prestigious heritage list.

Originating in India and practised in Thailand for centuries, the massage was popularised when a special school opened in the 1960s to train massage therapists from around the world.

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The Kingmaker review – exquisitely horrible portrait of Imelda Marcos

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The former first lady of the Philippines is revealed as a monstrous, loathsome, absurdly queenly figure in Lauren Greenfield’s superb documentary

Lauren Greenfield’s film about the Philippines’ former first lady Imelda Marcos reveals a grotesquely self-pitying, wholly unrepentant and very rich woman, who has clearly still kept her hands on a great deal of the American aid money that successive US presidents once gave the Philippines in return for suppressing communism and civil rights and showing hospitality to US naval power – cash that she and her husband, Ferdinand, looted from the public purse and salted away abroad.

Related: 'She's an unreliable narrator': Lauren Greenfield on her Imelda Marcos documentary

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New Zealand volcano: police plan body retrieval on Friday despite eruption risk

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Deputy commissioner says police have been facing increasing pressure from victims’ families to recover bodies from White Island

The New Zealand military will deploy to White Island at first light in an attempt to bring eight bodies home to their desperate families – despite a serious risk of the volcano erupting again.

Eight specialist military personnel will land on the island on Friday morning local time (Thursday evening UK) in an operation that is expected to last several hours, and involves multiple risk factors including the Island’s heightened seismic activity, the weather, and conditions on the ground.

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New Zealand volcano death toll rises to eight

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Two more people have died from injuries sustained during the eruption on White Island

Two more people have died from injuries sustained during the eruption of New Zealand’s White Island volcano, bringing the confirmed death toll from the disaster to eight.

Related: New Zealand surgeons working 'non-stop' to help volcano victims

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Earliest known cave art by modern humans found in Indonesia

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Pictures of human-like hunters and fleeing mammals dated to nearly 44,000 years old

Cave art depicting human-animal hybrid figures hunting warty pigs and dwarf buffaloes has been dated to nearly 44,000 years old, making it the earliest known cave art by our species.

The artwork in Indonesia is nearly twice as old as any previous hunting scene and provides unprecedented insights into the earliest storytelling and the emergence of modern human cognition.

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New Zealand surgeons working ‘non-stop’ to help volcano victims

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Country’s health authorities said to have ordered 1.2m sq cm of skin to treat burn injuries

Surgeons are working around the clock to help tourists who suffered horrendous burn injuries in the eruption of the New Zealand’s White Island volcano, health experts have said.

New Zealand health authorities have reportedly ordered 1.2 million sq cm of skin from the US in order to treat those injured: 27 of whom had burns to more than 30% of their body, with some having burns to 90-95% of their body. For context, experts say the palm of a hand is about 1.5% of the area of the body.

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China steps in as Zambia runs out of loan options

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Southern Africa’s third largest economy is a textbook example of the increasing debt facing a fast-growing continent

Zambia’s capital, Lusaka, was having a power cut, so the only light in the restaurant was from Fumba Chama’s mobile phone. The rapper, better known as PilAto, had just finished uploading a new track to Twitter. The bitter-sweet lyrics (in Bemba) of Yama Chinese describe the concerns of many Zambians: “They put on smart suits and fly to China to sell our country. The roads belong to China. The hotels are for the Chinese. The chicken farms are Chinese. Even the brickworks are Chinese.”

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