Asia

A top North Korean negotiator left for Sweden on Thursday ahead of nuclear talks with the United States, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported. Kim Myong Gil departed Beijing on a flight to Stockholm with three other North Korean officials after arriving in the Chinese capital from Pyongyang earlier in the day, Yonhap added. “(We) […]

Sticking samurai swords, steak knives and even the sharpened handles of badminton racquets through their cheeks, devotees of Thailand’s vegetarian festival go all out during an annual event that is both gleeful and gory. Held on the tourist island of Phuket, the nine-day Taoist “Nine Emperor Gods” festival was in full swing Thursday after kicking […]

India’s 15-year-old women’s cricket sensation Shafali Verma had to get her hair cut like a boy so that she could get into the local academy to train, her father told AFP. Now India’s cricket establishment is relying on Verma, who made her Twenty20 debut for the national team against South Africa last month and will soon […]

An Indonesian MP brought his three wives to his inauguration at Parliament or House of Representatives in Jakarta, starting a frenzy on social media as well as in the local media. The MP was elected in East Java where his life as a polygamous husband was already well documented and did not have any negative impact on election chances. The […]

A total of 575 members of the Indonesian Parliament elected for the 2019-2024 period, were inaugurated yesterday October 1, 2019 and they wore expensive locally designed traditional clothes for the occasion. Fourteen of them were local artists, among them internationally renowned singers Mulan Jameela and Krisdayanti. One of the artists, Mulan Jameela wore a traditional but modified outfit from the Bugis, Makssaree tribe. She […]

by Jerome TAYLOR / Yan ZHAO Flash-mob rallies broke out in Hong Kong on Wednesday as anger mounted over police shooting a teenage protester who attacked officers in a dramatic escalation of the violent unrest that has engulfed the territory for months. A large crowd of demonstrators, including office workers in shirts and suits, mustered […]

Police in Indonesia uncovered a gruesome murder after they found a suicide note on a 42-year-old widower. The police said people alerted them to the scene where they found a man who apparently committed suicide. The man, Wayan Sutarsa was found by passerby’s who thought he was in a state of seizure. Since the man refused assistance, the passerby alerted […]

by Jerome TAYLOR / Yan ZHAO Strife-torn Hong Kong marked the 70th anniversary of communist China’s founding with defiant “Day of Grief” protests on Tuesday as pro-democracy activists ignored a police ban and took to the streets in multiple neighbourhoods. The international finance hub is on edge as protesters vow to overshadow Beijing’s festivities, stepping […]

Sri Lanka announced harsher penalties in a bid to protect wild elephants on Tuesday, as investigators probed whether seven jumbos found poisoned over the weekend were killed by villagers. Wildlife and Tourism Minister John Amaratunga said he will impose tougher sanctions on offenders to boost laws enacted three years ago but not yet implemented due to […]

Indonesia has been rocked by the gruesome murder of a man who was killed by a group of hitmen hired by his own mother to execute him because of his sexual orientation. The mother allegedly told the hitmen to kill her son because she believed her son was gay, but the local papers in Indonesia have […]

by Sean CHANG Communist China’s creation seven decades ago irrevocably changed Taiwan, but Beijing’s huge celebrations this week will be met with a collective shrug on an island where people increasingly see themselves as distinct from the mainland. After the People’s Republic of China was declared on 1 October 1949, its rival, the Republic of […]

by Jerome TAYLOR / Jasmine LEUNG Ripped-up paving stones lay scattered around the graffiti-scarred streets of Hong Kong  after one of the most violent days in a summer of rage, as protesters ready for fresh clashes on Tuesday’s 70th anniversary of communist China’s founding. The protest-wracked financial hub witnessed its fiercest political violence in weeks […]

Indonesia saw a series of demonstrations that has little to do with climate change or the noble struggle of Swedish student and climate activist Greta Thunberg. But the students in Jakarta and elsewhere in Indonesia left behind tons of plastic waste on the streets in the aftermath of their angry protests. They were protesting against […]

Justice and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly lambasted critics of the criminal code bill after a massive protest at Parliament this week. He questioned the media companies that are campaigning against the bills, which include a revision of the anti-corruption laws which critics say will reduce the influence of Indonesian graft-busters. He said there are […]

US aggression and an obsession with disarmament mean another summit between Washington and Pyongyang is looking doubtful, North Korea said on Friday, even as it praised US President Donald Trump as “bold” and “wise”. Washington has “done nothing for the implementing the joint statement” from the first US-North Korea summit held in Singapore last year, […]