Myanmar’s junta has charged a former central bank deputy governor with corruption, state media reported Wednesday, the latest figure close to Aung San Suu Kyi’s ousted government to be prosecuted by the military. Trained in the United States and Britain, Bo Bo Nge was appointed in 2017 as liberalisation swept the Southeast Asian nation after the former junta relaxed its grip on power. He was detained shortly after the coup last year as the military rounded […]
Asia
South Korea’s Yoon calls on North to trade nukes for aid
by Sunghee Hwang Agence France Presse South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol called on the North to give up its nuclear weapons in exchange for massive economic aid at his swearing-in Tuesday, describing Pyongyang’s missiles as a threat to regional and global security. Yoon, 61, who started work in an underground bunker with a security briefing on North Korea, took office at a time of high tensions on the peninsula, with Pyongyang conducting a record […]
South Korea to swear in conservative new president
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korea will swear in hawkish new president Yoon Suk-yeol on Tuesday in a ceremony overshadowed by a recent slew of weapons tests by its nuclear-armed neighbour. Yoon, 61, takes office at a time of high tensions on the Korean peninsula, with an increasingly belligerent North Korea conducting a record 15 weapons tests since January, including two launches last week. His conservative administration looks set to usher in a […]
Downtown Beijing goes quiet as zero-Covid policy smothers capital
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Millions of people in Beijing stayed home on Monday as China’s capital tries to fend off a Covid-19 outbreak with creeping restrictions on movement. Beijing residents fear they may soon find themselves in the grip of the same draconian measures that have trapped most of Shanghai’s 25 million people at home for several weeks. Officials there have said the eastern powerhouse city is winning its battle against China’s worst outbreak […]
Putin vows ‘as in 1945, victory will be ours’
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday vowed that “as in 1945, victory will be ours” as he congratulated former Soviet nations on the 77th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat in World War II. “Today, our soldiers, as their ancestors, are fighting side by side to liberate their native land from the Nazi filth with the confidence that, as in 1945, victory will be ours,” said Putin, who sent Russian troops into Ukraine in February. “Today, […]
North Korea fires submarine-launched missile after US nuclear warning
SEOUL, North Korea (AFP) — North Korea fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile Saturday, Seoul said, its second missile launch in three days after the United States warned Pyongyang could be preparing for a nuclear test. North Korea has dramatically ramped up its sanctions-busting missile launches this year, conducting 15 weapons tests including firing an intercontinental ballistic missile at full range for the first time since 2017. The Saturday launch comes two days before South […]
Mystery liver disease kills three children in Indonesia
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Three children in Indonesia have died from a mysterious liver disease, the country’s health ministry said, raising to at least four the global death toll of a fatal ailment puzzling doctors from the US to Asia. This severe strain of acute hepatitis has been identified in nearly 230 children in 20 countries, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, raising concerns of the disease’s “unknown origin”. The symptoms afflicting the children […]
India, Pakistan must brace for even worse heatwaves
by Marlowe HOOD Agence France Presse The devastating heatwave that gripped India and Pakistan over the last two months is unprecedented, but worse — perhaps far worse — is on the horizon as climate change continues apace, top climate scientists told AFP. Even without additional global warming South Asia is, statistically speaking, ripe for a “big one” in the same way that California is said to be overdue for a major earthquake, according to […]
China stages second-largest air incursion into Taiwan defence zone this year
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — China sent 18 warplanes including fighters and bombers into Taiwan’s air defence zone on Friday, the island’s government said, in the second-largest one-day incursion this year. Taiwan lives under the constant threat of invasion by Beijing, which sees the self-ruled democratic island as part of its territory to be retaken one day, by force if necessary. The final quarter of 2021 saw a spike in incursions by China into Taiwan’s […]
Fears mount for China’s economy as leaders dig in on zero-Covid
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Mass testing of China’s vast population could bring fresh misery to the economy, experts warned Friday, after Beijing vowed to regain control of the narrative around a zero-Covid policy that has strangled growth and fanned anger across the country. Leaders have taken a hardline approach to stamping out virus outbreaks, locking down Shanghai — the country’s economic dynamo and biggest city — and slowly restricting movement in Beijing over dozens of […]
World needs food system ‘transformation’ to tackle climate: expert
by Kelly MACNAMARA Food is fundamental to the efforts to tackle climate change, according to a scientist who has spent decades tracing the interactions between global warming and what we eat. Cynthia Rosenzweig, head of the Climate Impacts Group at NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, was Thursday awarded the prestigious World Food Prize for her research. That includes stark warnings about the potential effect climate change will have on food. Her comments to AFP […]
Will Hong Kong reopen for business under new leader Lee?
by Holmes Chan and Su Xinqi © Agence France-Presse HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Hong Kong’s next leader John Lee is inheriting a once vibrant Asian business hub mired in its third year of pandemic isolation but he may prioritize security over an economic reboot, business leaders and observers say. Lee, a former security chief, is expected to be confirmed Hong Kong’s next chief executive on Sunday by a committee of 1,463 elites after running […]





