Asia

Taiwan’s China-sceptic ruling party opts for moderate new leader

by Amber WANG Agence France Presse TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — Taiwan’s ruling party elected a new chairman on Sunday, choosing a moderate to replace the post vacated by President Tsai Ing-wen after a recent electoral mauling, in a vote closely watched by China and the United States. Tsai and her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won a 2016 landslide poll, sweeping away a government that had built much closer ties to China over the previous decade. […]

Record $3.1 million paid in New Year’s tuna auction at Japan’s new market

by Karyn NISHIMURA-POUPEE Agence France-Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A Japanese sushi entrepreneur paid a record $3.1 million for a giant tuna Saturday as Tokyo’s new fish market, which replaced the world-famous Tsukiji late last year, held its first pre-dawn New Year’s auction. Bidding stopped at a whopping 333.6 million yen for the enormous 278-kilogram (612-pound) fish — an endangered species — that was caught off Japan’s northern coast. Self-styled “Tuna King” Kiyoshi Kimura paid […]

Arrested driver in Tokyo admitted planning to set New Year crowd ablaze

by Tyra’nell Pille-Lu EBC Japan Correspondent TOKYO, Japan (Eagle News) — Nine injured on New Year’s day as a car drives over a crowd in Tokyo disrupting the usual January first Japanese tradition. One of the injured is a 19-year-old university student currently residing in Tokyo who is still unconscious at this time due to a critical head injury. Kazuhiro Kusakabe, the driver of the mini car admitted his attempts during an investigation on Friday, […]

Rakhine rebels attack police stations in pre-dawn raids: Myanmar army

YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Ethnic Rakhine rebels carried out pre-dawn attacks on four police stations near the Bangladesh border, Myanmar’s army said Friday, with the militants claiming to have taken 14 “prisoners of war” as operations ramped up. The western state has seen a surge in violence in recent weeks between the rebels from the Arakan Army (AA) and security forces, displacing thousands. It has added a new dimension to the violence in a state […]

Tourists hunker down as Storm Pabuk hurtles towards Thailand

by Lillian SUWANRUMPHA Agence France-Presse SURAT THANI, Thailand (AFP) — Tourists marooned on Thai islands hunkered down Friday as Tropical Storm Pabukcarved its way towards the kingdom, forcing airports and ferries to close and bringing downpours and massive sea swells. Boats were recalled to shore across the Gulf of Thailand, while two key airports — Koh Samui and Nakhon Si Thammarat — were shut until Saturday, leaving tourists who remain on islands now cut off from the […]

Ghosn set for court hearing in Japan over detention

by Miwa SUZUKI Agence France-Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn is likely to appear in a Japanese court next Tuesday to hear the reasons for his detention, after his lawyers deployed a little-used article of the Constitution. The shock move was the latest in a series of unexpected twists in a case that has gripped Japan and the business world since the once-revered auto tycoon was arrested on his private jet […]

China’s population shrinks despite two-child policy: experts

by Poornima WEERASEKARA Agence France Presse BEIJING, China (AFP) — China’s population shrank last year for the first time in 70 years, experts said, warning of a “demographic crisis” that puts pressure on the country’s slowing economy. The world’s most populous nation of some 1.4 billion for decades limited most families to one child in an attempt to keep population growth sustainable. But since 2016 it has allowed couples to have two children in response […]

Saudi prosecutor seeks death sentences as Khashoggi murder trial opens

by Anuj Chopra with Natacha Yazbeck in Dubai Agence France Presse RIYADH, Saudi (AFP) — Saudi Arabia’s attorney general sought the death penalty for five of 11 defendants charged with the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as their high-profile trial opened in Riyadh on Thursday. The prosecution also said it was awaiting a response to two formal letters requesting evidence from Turkey, where Khashoggi was murdered inside the Saudi Istanbul consulate on October 2 in […]

Power broker Nancy Pelosi: once and current US House speaker

by Michael Mathes Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Twelve years ago, Nancy Pelosi made history as the first woman elected speaker of the US House of Representatives. On Thursday, the tough-as-nails Democrat once again became America’s most powerful elected woman in a comeback for the political history books. Keeping Donald Trump in check will be among her top challenges as she presides over the House through the 2020 elections, when her party […]

Death toll rises to 37 in Russian apartment block blast

MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — The number of confirmed dead from a New Year’s Eve gas explosion that caused a Russian apartment block to partially collapse has risen to 37, officials said Thursday, with four people still missing. Six children were among the dead, the emergency situations ministry said in a statement, while six people had been rescued from the rubble of the building in the Ural mountains city of Magnitogorsk. The explosion tore through the […]

Tourists flee Thai islands as Tropical Storm Pabuk looms

BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — Tens of thousands of tourists have fled the Thai resort islands of Koh Phangan and Koh Tao in a mass exodus ahead of Tropical Storm Pabuk which is set to bring heavy rains, wind and seven meter (22 foot) waves, officials said Thursday. The islands, hugely popular with tourists especially during the peak of December and New Year season, have emptied out since Wednesday as tourists packed onto ferries bound for […]

Rescuers pull more bodies from rubble of Russian gas explosion

by Michael MAINVILLE Agence France-Presse MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Rescuers hunted for survivors Wednesday in the rubble of a Russian apartment building wrecked by a New Year’s Eve gas explosion, but found only bodies as the number of confirmed dead rose to 28, four of them children. The revised toll left 13 people still missing following the explosion, which destroyed 35 apartments in the Ural mountains city of Magnitogorsk. Braving temperatures as low as minus […]