Asia News Stories
Curfew announced for under-18s in Australia’s Alice Springs after unrest
Alice Springs has announced an overnight curfew for all residents under the age of 18, after violent brawls in the remote central Australian town. Northern Territory Chief Minister Eva Lawler said an emergency would apply to the city centre and 58 additional police officers would be deployed to...
photo: Creative Commons / Jpueller
Chinese workers killed in suicide bomb blast as Pakistan grapples with attacks on Beijing’s interests
Five Chinese workers and their local driver were killed in a suicide bomb blast in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, authorities said, the latest in a string of terror attacks that the South Asian country’s military and government say aims to disrupt Islamabad’s close ties with Beijing. Senior police...
photo: AP
Democratic dawn in Cambodia’s autocratic darkness
We left Cambodia either during the Vietnam War or after the fall of the Khmer Rouge –a regime that killed over two million citizens between 1975 and 1979. The plight of the Khmer people continues as people live in fear of attacks for expressing views that don’t align with the Cambodian...
photo: AP / Heng Sinith
Tajik terror shadow falls over Russia
It has emerged that the four gunmen charged in the murder of at least 139 concert-goers at Moscow’s Crocus City Hall theater were all citizens of the small post-Soviet nation of Tajikistan in Central Asia. Does their nationality have anything to do with their alleged terrorism? Many Russians...
photo: AP / Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service via AP
Anies Baswedan challenges Indonesia presidential election, calls for rerun
Anies Baswedan, who lost February’s presidential election in Indonesia, has told a court the poll was unjust and fraught with interference, as he laid out his challenge to the outcome and called for a re-run. Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto emerged the as winner in the February 14 election with 60...
photo: AP / Achmad Ibrahim
Conflict, climate, corruption drive Southeast Asia people trafficking: UN
Conflict, climate and the demand for low-paid labour in countries such as Thailand and Malaysia, with corruption as a “major enabler”, are driving the growth of the people smuggling trade in Southeast Asia, according to a new report from the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Tens of...
photo: AP / Suzauddin Rubel
China’s maritime power cause for action and alarm
The People’s Liberation Army Navy is now, and has been for several years, larger than the US Navy with over 370 ships currently in commission. What’s more, in a few years, if it continues its current building rate, it will reach around 450 ships, making it larger than the US Navy and the Japanese...
photo: US Navy
Philippines summons Beijing envoy over South China Sea water cannon attack
The Philippines has summoned Beijing’s envoy after accusing the Chinese Coast Guard of wounding three of its soldiers during a water cannon attack in the disputed South China Sea. The Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs, in a statement on Monday, said Manila conveyed its “strong protest...
photo: AP / Joeal Calupitan
What Article 23 means for the future of Hong Kong
Lawmakers in Hong Kong passed new security legislation on March 19, 2024, handing authorities in the semi-autonomous city-state further power to clamp down on dissent. The law, under Article 23, has been decades in the making but was resisted for a long time by protesters who feared the...
photo: Creative Commons
Modi’s India plans its own democracy index, after global rankings downgrade
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has approached a major Indian think tank to develop a homegrown democracy ratings index that could help it counter recent downgrades in rankings issued by international groups that New Delhi fears could affect the country’s credit rating. The Observer...
photo: AP / Photo

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