Category Archives: Asia Pacific

Fishermen saved by ‘Help’ message on same tiny island where ‘SOS’ saved three others

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Three rescued in the Pacific after making message in the sand with palm fronds, just as another group had done four years prior

Three fishermen stranded on a remote Pacific atoll for more than a week were rescued after spelling out the word “Help” in the sand using giant palm fronds.

A crew from the US Coast Guard cutter Oliver Henry plucked the men, in their 40s, from Pikelot atoll, part of the Federated States of Micronesia, to safety on Tuesday after their message was spotted from the air.

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£52,000 golden teacup stolen from Tokyo department store

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Takashimaya to increase security after theft of 24-carat gold teaware from unlocked display box

A golden teacup worth more than 10m yen (£52,100) has been stolen from a department store in Tokyo after being showcased in an unlocked box.

The teacup, made of pure 24-carat gold, went missing from an outlet of the Takashimaya chain, where an array of gold items for sale were being displayed as part of an event.

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Vietnamese property tycoon sentenced to death in $27bn fraud case

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Truong My Lan found guilty of embezzling from Saigon Commercial Bank in case that was part of wider crackdown

A prominent property tycoon has been sentenced to death for her role in Vietnam’s biggest-ever fraud case.

Truong My Lan, the chair of the developer Van Thinh Phat, was found guilty of embezzlement, bribery and violations of banking rules on Thursday, in a case that has shocked the country. A total of $12.5bn (£10bn) was embezzled, the equivalent of almost 3% of Vietnamese gross domestic product, but prosecutors said on Thursday the total damages caused by the scam now amounted to $27bn.

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Pioneering Hawaiian-born sumo champion Akebono dies aged 54

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Tributes paid to wrestler, who was born Chad Rowan and became the sport’s first non-Japanese grand champion in 1993

Tributes have been paid in Japan to Akebono, the first foreign wrestler to reach the pinnacle of the sport of sumo, who has died aged 54.

The wrestler, who was born Chad Rowan in Hawaii, is regarded as a pioneer after he broke down cultural barriers in the centuries-old sport to become the first non-Japanese yokozuna grand champion in 1993.

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South Korea PM offers to resign after heavy defeat in parliamentary elections

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PM Han Duk-soo said the government ‘humbly accepted’ the election result, which severely dents the political power of the president

Senior ruling party politicians in South Korea have offered to resign to take responsibility for its heavy defeat in Wednesday’s national assembly elections – a result that has severely weakened the country’s conservative president, Yoon Suk Yeol.

The prime minister, Han Duk-soo, tendered his resignation on Thursday as the scale of the drubbing meted out to the conservative People Power party (PPP) became apparent, according to the Yonhap news agency.

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US and Japan announce new military agreements aimed at countering China

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Tokyo and Washington have struck 70 pacts on defence cooperation during Japanese PM’s White House state visit

Joe Biden and Fumio Kishida, the Japanese prime minister, have announced a new era of military cooperation during the pomp and pageantry of a White House state visit aimed at countering China.

The US president said the two nations’ forces will cooperate on a joint command structure and, along with Australia, develop a new air missile defence network.

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China and Taiwan are destined for ‘reunification’, Xi tells former president

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Chinese leader using meeting with Ma Ying-jeou to promote peaceful ‘reunion’ as only alternative to annexation, say analysts

Xi Jinping has met the former Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou, in what analysts said was an attempt to promote peaceful unification as the only alternative to military annexation of Taiwan.

Ma, who was leading a student delegation to China, met Xi in Beijing at the Great Hall of the People, a venue typically reserved for foreign leaders meeting with senior Chinese officials. Xi used the meeting to emphasise his belief that Taiwan and China were destined for what he terms “reunification”.

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Ratings agency downgrades China debt outlook over economic uncertainty

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Fitch cut to negative comes as country moves away from reliance on growth from property sector

Fitch has downgraded the outlook on China’s debt as it warned of increased risks to the economy while the country moves away from its reliance on growth from the property sector.

On Wednesday the US-based agency said it had revised China’s sovereign credit rating from stable to negative, saying this reflected the “increasing risks to China’s public finance outlook” as the country “contends with more uncertain economic prospects”.

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Blow to New Zealand media as two main news outlets announce programme closures and job cuts

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More than 350 jobs to go after Warner Bros. Discovery closes all its Newshub news operations and TVNZ cuts programs and bulletins

New Zealand’s news media has been dealt a major blow after two of its primary news outlets announced programme closures and hundreds of job losses between them on the same day, leaving the country with just one state-owned news television service and many senior journalists out of work.

On Wednesday morning, Warner Bros. Discovery confirmed it would close all its Newshub news operations, including the news website, the morning television show and the 6pm television bulletin, resulting in roughly 300 job losses.

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Cherry blossoms, steak and Paul Simon: the Bidens put on a show for Japan’s PM

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Fumio and Yuko Kishida honoured with state dinner to recognise ‘flourishing’ relationship between US and Japan, says Jill Biden

Dry-aged rib eye steak, cherry blossoms and Paul Simon playing a selection of his songs will be the centerpieces of a state dinner the White House is hosting for Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, and his wife, Yuko. More than 200 guests are expected to attend.

A lavish state dinner is a tool of US diplomacy, and a high honour that is used sparingly and only to America’s closest allies. In the case of Japan, Joe Biden has chosen to celebrate an ally that he sees as a cornerstone of his policy toward the Indo-Pacific region.

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Micronesia president says US beefing up military capabilities in the Pacific country

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Wesley Simina says the US is ‘well advanced’ in plans for $400m airport upgrade in Yap, amid rising tensions with China in the region

The US is considering military projects across the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) as it pushes ahead with plans for a $400m airport upgrade in the country to boost defence capabilities in the Pacific, President Wesley Simina said.

The region is of growing strategic importance to the US amid a battle for influence with China.

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New footage shows Australian couple beginning hike moments before Taiwan earthquake

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Search continues for couple who have not been seen for six days after they began their hike on the mountainous Shakadang trail before the 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck

Rescue efforts are still under way in Taiwan’s Taroko national park to find two missing Australian nationals, who have not been seen for six days after a massive earthquake hit the island.

The couple, identified by local government officials as Neo Siew Choo and Sim Hwee Kok, went missing after the 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck the island at 7.58am on Wednesday.

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Three boys to face trial over child’s murder in case that shocks China

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Suspects, all under 14 at time, are accused of bullying classmate over long period before killing him in Hebei last month

China will put three boys on trial for allegedly murdering another child, a provincial prosecutor has said, in a case that has shocked the country and sparked public debate over the treatment of juvenile offenders.

The three suspects, all aged under 14 at the time of the murder, are accused of bullying a 13-year-old middle-school classmate surnamed Wang over a long period before killing him last month in Hebei.

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‘I will not dance’: Olaf Scholz joins TikTok with a promise

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German chancellor follows in the footsteps of Joe Biden and other leaders on social media platform

The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has opened a TikTok account, promising he will not be seen dancing on the social media platform popular with young people.

The newest official government channel “increases the information offer to citizens, who increasingly inform themselves and discuss politics on TikTok”, Scholz’s spokesperson, Steffen Hebestreit, said in a statement.

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TSMC to make state-of-the-art chips in US after multibillion subsidy pledge

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World’s most valuable chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor to set up third facility in Arizona using funding from Biden policy

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is to build its most advanced chips in Arizona after receiving a pledge of as much as $11.6bn in US government subsidy as part of Joe Biden’s efforts to attract computer chip production.

TSMC, the world’s most valuable chipmaker, says it aims to start producing the two-nanometre chips at a new factory in Phoenix, Arizona, by 2028.

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New Zealand tightens visa rules after migration hits ‘unsustainable’ levels

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Net migration to New Zealand hit a near record high in 2023 after a new temporary work visa was introduced after the pandemic

New Zealand will tighten its visa rules for some migrants as the coalition government moves to overhaul the immigration system it says has led to “unsustainable” levels of migration.

Last year, annual net migration to New Zealand hit a near record high of more than 173,000 non-New Zealand citizens in the year to December, Stats NZ reported.

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World Bank’s funding of ‘hog hotel’ factory farms under fire over climate effect

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Environmental and animal welfare groups call on lender to phase out support for ‘industrial’ livestock operations

The private sector arm of the World Bank is facing claims that it contributes to global heating and the undermining of animal welfare by providing financial support for factory farming, including the building of pig farming tower blocks in China.

A coalition of environmental and animal welfare groups is calling on the World Bank to phase out financial support for large-scale “industrial” livestock operations. More than $1.6bn was provided for industrial farming projects between 2017 and 2023, according to an analysis by campaigners.

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Dysfunction and division darken the WTO’s 30-year dream of free trade

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As the organisation’s anniversary nears, borders around the world are closing again

When trade ministers gathered in the Moroccan city of Marrakech 30 years ago this month to sign the agreement creating the World Trade Organization (WTO), the mood was celebratory. The Berlin Wall had come down only recently, communism had collapsed, and there was optimistic talk of how the body would prise open new markets and act as the arbiter when disputes broke out between countries.

The atmosphere today is much darker than it was in April 1994. Any enthusiasm for groundbreaking trade liberalisation deals disappeared decades ago and has been replaced by covert – and often overt – protectionism.

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Taiwan earthquake: over 600 people remain stranded days after disaster

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‘I kept praying and praying’, says rescued woman as search for four people missing from hiking trail set to resume following Wednesday’s quake

Rescuers in Taiwan planned to bring in heavy equipment on Saturday to try to recover two bodies buried on a hiking trail, while more than 600 people remained stranded in various locations, three days after the island’s strongest earthquake in 25 years.

Four people remain missing on the same Shakadang Trail in Taroko national park, famed for its rugged mountainous terrain. Search and recovery work was set to resume after being called off on Friday afternoon because of aftershocks.

At least 12 people were killed by the magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck on Wednesday morning off Taiwan’s east coast, and 10 others were still missing.

More than 600 people – including about 450 at a hotel in the Taroko park – remained stranded, cut off by rockslides and other damage in different areas. However, many were known to be safe as rescuers deployed helicopters, drones and smaller teams with dogs to reach them.

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Taiwan earthquake: shock and grief take hold in Hualien

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Residents of tourist city near epicentre of 7.2-magnitude Taiwan earthquake face destruction and despair

Lying in his bed, Liao Xiu Bo wondered if he was about to die. As a powerful earthquake rocked the ground beneath him, he tried to escape his house. “Am I going to be crushed?” he asked himself, before gathering the courage to run down the stairs, which swayed beneath his feet.

Outside, he could see that the wall surrounding his house had collapsed, its bricks littered across the road. “That’s when I realised how extreme the earthquake was.”

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