Category Archives: Asia Pacific

Philippines president says ‘heads will roll’ after wanted mayor allegedly flees country

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Alice Guo, a mayor with alleged links to China, denies any wrongdoing amid human trafficking investigation sparked by raid on compound in her town

The controversy surrounding wanted Filipino mayor Alice Guo has taken another dramatic turn, with government officials alleging that she fled the Philippines in July.

Guo was mayor of the town of Bamban in Tarlac province and is at the centre of a mystery that began in March when officials raided a compound in the town and found about 1,000 workers, including victims of human trafficking, along with luxury villas, high-end cars, and expensive cognac.

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Japan broadcaster apologises after disputed Senkaku Islands called ‘Chinese territory’ on air

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Unscripted remarks about the Japanese-administered islands were made during during a Chinese-language programme on the public broadcaster NHK

Japan’s public broadcaster, NHK, has apologised after a member of staff referred to the disputed Senkaku Islands as “Chinese territory” during an internationally broadcast radio programme this week.

The presenter, a Chinese national in his 40s, made the unscripted remarks for about 20 seconds during a Chinese-language broadcast on Monday on the NHK World-Japan and Radio 2 channels, according to the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper.

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More than 200 unexploded second world war shells found near Solomon Islands school

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Police dug up and removed the rust-caked projectiles, which belonged to US troops during the second world war

Workers at a school in Solomon Islands discovered a buried stockpile of the second world war munitions as they “dug a hole for sewage”, police said.

More than 200 rust-caked projectiles – which once belonged to US troops – have been dug up and removed after they were found near a school staff member’s house, the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force said.

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Australia and Indonesia to deepen military ties after striking ‘historic’ security pact

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Anthony Albanese and Prabowo Subianto announce conclusion of treaty negotiations but reporters weren’t able to ask questions about new deal

Australia and Indonesia have struck a new security pact that will lead to more joint military exercises and visits, prompting human rights advocates to call for safeguards.

The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, told the Indonesian defence minister and president-elect, Prabowo Subianto, in Canberra on Tuesday that there was “no more important relationship than the one between our two great nations”.

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North Korean soldier crosses militarised border to defect to South – report

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South Korean military says it is investigating but can’t confirm the person’s ‘exact motivations and goals’

A North Korean has defected to South Korea by crossing the militarised border in the eastern part of the Korean peninsula, with Yonhap news agency reporting that the defector is a soldier.

Seoul’s military said on Tuesday it had picked up “one suspected North Korean individual on the eastern front and handed them over to the relevant authorities”. Yonhap news agency reported that the person was a staff sergeant.

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Nearly half of New Zealanders say government policies increasing racial tensions, poll finds

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1News Verian poll comes amid growing concern the coalition’s policy direction will wind back Māori rights

Nearly half of New Zealanders believe the government’s policies have increased racial tensions, new polling shows, as pressure mounts on the government over policy changes that many fear will undermine Māori rights.

The 1News Verian poll released on Monday found 46% of voters believed racial tensions have worsened as a result of the coalition’s policies, while 37% said there had been no difference and 10% thought tensions had reduced. Another 7% of respondents said they didn’t know or preferred not to comment.

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Owner of 7-Eleven stores receives buyout offer from Canadian rival

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Proposal to Tokyo-based Seven & i by ACT could become biggest foreign takeover of a Japanese firm

The owner of the global convenience store chain 7-Eleven has received an offer from a Canadian rival to buy the company, in what could be Japan’s biggest ever foreign takeover.

The Tokyo-based Seven & i revealed on Monday that it had received a bid from the Canadian convenience store multinational Alimentation Couche-Tard (ACT) to buy its stake in the company.

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Chinese and Philippine ships collide near disputed Sabina Shoal in South China Sea

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Philippines says two coast guard vessels damaged by China’s ‘unlawful manoeuvres’, while Beijing says it took ‘control measures’ after vessels illegally entered waters around shoal

Chinese and Philippine vessels collided on Monday during a confrontation near a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, the two countries said.

Both countries blamed each other for the incident near the Sabina Shoal.

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‘Monument to history’ battle between US and China over future of Mao’s secretary’s diary

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Beijing is believed to be behind court bid to secure account of life inside Communist HQ

In the early hours of 4 June 1989, Li Rui, a veteran of the Chinese Communist party (CCP), was standing on the balcony of his apartment on Chang’an Boulevard in central Beijing. He could see tanks rolling towards Tiananmen Square.

For weeks, up to a million protesters had been gathering peacefully in Beijing’s plaza, demanding political reform. But they failed. Instead, as Li observed from his unique vantage point, troops opened fire, killing an estimated several thousands of civilians. It was the worst massacre in recent Chinese history. “Soldiers firing randomly with their machine guns, sometimes shooting the ground and sometimes shooting toward the sky,” Li wrote in his diary. A “black weekend”.

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Chinese woman loses final appeal in her fight to freeze her eggs

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Beijing court rejects lawsuit brought by Xu Zaozao, who was seeking to widen access to fertility treatment in China

A Chinese woman who filed a groundbreaking lawsuit to win the right to freeze her eggs has lost her final appeal, exhausting the legal avenues in her fight to widen access to fertility treatment in China.

Beijing No 3 intermediate people’s court ruled that Xu Zaozao’s rights had not been violated when Beijing obstetrics and gynaecology hospital refused to freeze her eggs in 2018. Chinese regulations stipulate that assisted reproductive technology is only for married couples with fertility issues. Xu, now 36, said the doctor gave her some friendly advice instead: hurry up, get married and have children now.

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Paetongtarn Shinawatra becomes Thailand’s youngest prime minister

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Daughter of Thaksin Shinawatra approved as PM after frantic negotiations triggered by ousting of Srettha Thavisin

Paetongtarn Shinawatra, daughter of the billionaire former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, has become Thailand’s youngest prime minister, taking office just days after her predecessor was ousted by a shock court ruling.

Paetongtarn was approved as the new head of government in a parliamentary vote that came after 24 hours of frantic negotiations triggered by a court judgment ordering Srettha Thavisin to step down as prime minister.

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China adds new clean power equivalent to UK’s entire electricity output

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Data shows continued surge in wind and solar power amid hopes Chinese greenhouse gas emissions may have peaked

China added as much new clean energy generation in the first half of this year as the UK produced from all sources in the same period last year, data shows, as wind and solar power generation continued to surge in the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases.

Electricity generation from coal and gas dropped by 5% in China in July, year on year, according to an update from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) thinktank, basing its analysis on data released by the Chinese government on Thursday.

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Who will be Japan’s next PM? Ruling LDP set to begin ‘especially chaotic’ party election

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Two women and two MPs under the age of 50 are on potential list of candidates for next Liberal Democratic Party leaders

After a week in which Japan’s citizens braced themselves for a possible megaquake, the biggest seismic shift came from its political epicentre, as the prime minister, Fumio Kishida, announced his decision to step down next month.

His three years in office will end in late September when his ruling Liberal Democratic party [LDP] selects a new president, who is assured of being approved as Japan’s next prime minister in the LDP-controlled parliament.

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Former UK supreme court head quits media freedom role over work as judge in Hong Kong

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David Neuberger was part of court panel that dismissed appeal of Jimmy Lai and six other pro-democracy activists

David Neuberger, the former president of the UK’s supreme court, has resigned from his role as chair of a legal advisory board to an international media freedom coalition, citing the “concern expressed” over his role as a judge in Hong Kong.

Lord Neuberger said he had been considering his position as chair of the high-level panel of legal experts that advises the Media Freedom Coalition (MFC), an international NGO, for several months.

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Anti-whaling activist to stay in Greenland jail while extradition decided

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Paul Watson fighting efforts byJapan to have him stand trial there for 2010 confrontation with whalers

A Greenland court has ordered the anti-whaling activist Paul Watson to remain in custody until 5 September pending a decision on his possible extradition to Japan.

Watson, an American-Canadian who has been detained since his arrest in Nuuk in July, had appealed against the court’s decision, the statement on Thursday added.

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Kim Dotcom to be extradited from New Zealand to US

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Justice minister signs extradition order for Megaupload founder 12 years after FBI-ordered raid over filesharing site

Kim Dotcom, who is facing criminal charges relating to the defunct filesharing website Megaupload, is to be extradited to the US, the New Zealand justice minister says, which could end more than a decade of legal wrangling.

German-born Dotcom has New Zealand residency and has been fighting extradition to the US since 2012 after an FBI-ordered raid on his Auckland mansion. The high court in New Zealand first approved his extradition in 2017, with an appeal court reaffirming the finding the year after. In 2020, the country’s supreme court again affirmed the finding but opened the door for a fresh round of judicial review.

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Japan PM Fumio Kishida announces he will step down in September

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Kishida’s three-year term has been marked by scandal, rising living costs and record defence spending

Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has said he will not run for the presidency of his ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP) next month – a decision that will result in the appointment of a new leader of the world’s fourth-biggest economy.

Kishida, who has been battling low approval ratings and a damaging fundraising scandal, said he would step down as LDP leader in September, telling reporters on Wednesday that the party needed an “open contest to promote debate”.

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Thai court removes Srettha Thavisin as prime minister after less than a year

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Srettha becomes fourth Thai PM dismissed by court in 16 years, after appointing former lawyer who served jail time

Thailand’s constitutional court on Wednesday dismissed the prime minister, Srettha Thavisin, for appointing to his cabinet a former lawyer who served jail time, raising the spectre of more political upheaval and a reset of the governing alliance.

Srettha, a real-estate tycoon, becomes the fourth Thai prime minister in 16 years to be removed by verdicts of the same court, after it ruled he had violated the constitution by appointing a minister who did not meet ethical standards.

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BTS member Suga facing possible prison sentence or fine over drink-driving e-scooter incident

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Suga has apologised after he was found lying on the ground in the Yongsan district of Seoul following an apparent accident

Suga, a member of the K-pop supergroup BTS, faces a potential prison sentence or a hefty fine after a breathalyser test revealed he was over the blood-alcohol limit when he reportedly fell off his e-scooter in Seoul last week.

Suga, who along with other members of the band has taken a break from music to perform compulsory national service, was found lying on the ground in the Yongsan district of Seoul on 6 August after an apparent accident, South Korean media reported.

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Custody ruling in same-sex case hailed as LGBTQ+ milestone in China

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Woman wins visiting rights to see daughter, but not son, in first recognition that child can have two legal mothers

A woman fighting a landmark LGBTQ+ custody battle in China said she “still has faith for the future” after winning the right to make monthly visits to her daughter.

Last month, Didi, who is 42 and lives in Shanghai, travelled to Beijing to visit her seven-year-old daughter, who lives in the capital with Didi’s estranged wife and their other child. It was the first time Didi and her daughter had seen each other in four years.

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