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BANGKOK, July 16, 2024 (AFP) – Six people believed to be Vietnamese and Vietnamese-Americans were found dead in a hotel room in central Bangkok on Tuesday, a senior police officer said “Hotel staff found their bodies in a room around 5:00 pm (1000 GMT) today,” the officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity. He denied initial reports that the six had been killed in a shooting, saying the investigation was currently focused on a “link […]
HANOI, July 14, 2024 (AFP) – A landslide triggered by heavy rains buried and killed at least 11 people who were travelling in a van in northern Vietnam, the country’s disaster management authority said on Saturday. Northern Vietnam has entered its rainy season, with heavy downpours and flooding making travel along mountain roads treacherous. The landslide hit the 16-seater van around 4:00 am local time (2100 GMT) as it drove through Bac Me district in […]
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – An oil spill off Singapore has spread to beaches in southern Malaysia, a government official said Friday, with clean-up operations underway. Around 25 people were involved in the clean-up of two beaches spanning one kilometre (0.6 miles) in southern Johor state, local government official Ling Tian Soon told AFP. “Work began today and we hope to complete the task tomorrow. From our observation, marine life or fishermen activities have not been […]
By Matthew WALSH BEIJING, June 19, 2024 (AFP) – Ramming boats, building militarised islands and threatening perceived trespassers — China is escalating confrontations with the Philippines in a bid to push it out of the South China Sea, analysts say. One of the most perilous flashpoints between the two nations is a submerged reef called the Second Thomas Shoal, where in 1999 the Philippine navy intentionally marooned a decrepit World War II ship to assert […]
BANGKOK, June 18, 2024 (AFP) – Thai prosecutors on Tuesday formally indicted influential former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra under the kingdom’s strict royal insult laws over comments he made nearly a decade ago. The case against the 74-year-old billionaire, twice elected premier and ousted in a 2006 military coup, is one of four before the courts that could unleash fresh political instability in the coup-prone kingdom. Thaksin, the patriarch of the Pheu Thai party that […]
MANILA, May 18, 2024 (AFP) – The Philippines will “vigorously defend what is ours”, President Ferdinand Marcos said on Saturday, as Manila’s maritime row with Beijing over the South China Sea escalates. Marcos told a Philippine Military Academy graduation ceremony that the Southeast Asian country faced “a blatant disregard of internationally accepted principles”. His remarks follow a series of incidents involving Philippine and Chinese vessels near disputed reefs in the South China Sea that have […]
JAKARTA, May 15, 2024 (AFP) – A volcano in eastern Indonesia spewed ash five kilometres (3.1 miles) into the sky on Wednesday in one of its largest eruptions this year. No damage or casualties were immediately reported but images showed a tower of ash soaring into the sky above Mount Ibu, located on the remote island of Halmahera in North Maluku province. The huge grey and black ash column was “seen in thick intensity and […]
By Martin ABBUGAO SINGAPORE, May 15, 2024 (AFP) – Singapore on Wednesday swore in Lawrence Wong as its new prime minister Wednesday, replacing Lee Hsien Loong following two decades in office, with the new leader warning that the trade-dependent city-state faced a riskier, more conflict-ridden world. Wong, formerly deputy prime minister, became only the second person outside of the Lee family to helm the affluent nation as he was inaugurated at the Istana government office […]
Indonesia, May 1, 2024 (AFP) – Eruptions at a remote Indonesian volcano forced more than half a dozen airports to close with ash spreading as far as Malaysia, officials said Wednesday, while authorities rushed to evacuate thousands due to tsunami fears. Mount Ruang erupted three times on Tuesday, spewing lava and ash more than five kilometres (three miles) into the sky and forcing authorities to issue evacuation orders for 12,000 locals. A rescue ship and […]
MANILA, April 28, 2024 (AFP) – South and Southeast Asia braced for more extreme heat on Sunday as authorities across the region issued health warnings and residents fled to parks and air-conditioned malls for relief. A wave of exceptionally hot weather has blasted the region over the past week, sending the mercury as high as 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) and forcing thousands of schools to tell students to stay home. The Philippines […]
HANOI, April 26, 2024 (AFP) – The head of Vietnam’s National Assembly has resigned, the ruling Communist Party said Friday, one of the most senior leaders to fall in a sweeping anti-corruption purge. Vuong Dinh Hue asked to step down because of “violations and shortcomings”, the party said in a statement on its website. Thousands of people, including top officials and senior business leaders, have been caught up in the Southeast Asian country’s “blazing furnace” […]
