Asia

Flanked by more than 2,000 oarsmen rowing to a steady drumbeat, Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn travelled down Bangkok’s Chao Phraya river as part of a 52-barge flotilla on Thursday, marking the final event of his coronation. The flotilla comes seven months after the monarch was crowned in an elaborate three-day affair that involved sacred bathing […]

Hundreds of mourners attended a memorial service on Thursday for a Hong Kong student whose death led to some of the most violent clashes in six months of democracy protests. Alex Chow, 22, died last month from head injuries sustained during a fall inside a multi-storey carpark where police and protesters were clashing. Although the […]

An international panel of experts hired to advise Hong Kong on the police response to huge pro-democracy protests announced Wednesday they were quitting, saying the watchdog was not fit for purpose “in a society that values freedoms and rights”. The group’s damning conclusion is a blow to Hong Kong’s government, which has insisted its Independent […]

Forest fires that raged across Indonesia dented Southeast Asia’s biggest economy to the tune of some $5.2 billion, the World Bank said Wednesday, not including the health impacts from toxic haze that sent air quality plummeting. The fires are an annual problem but this year was the worst since 2015 due to dry weather, with […]

by Anup Sharma Protestors in northeast India set fire to tyres and cut down trees to block roads on Tuesday in a shutdown across the region hours after lawmakers approved the government’s new citizenship bill. The legislation, set to go before the upper house on Wednesday, will fast-track citizenship claims from refugees from three neighbouring […]

by Kyoko HASEGAWA It might be the most Japanese of political scandals: a furore over Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s guest list at a party to mark the annual cherry blossom season. As scandals go, it has plenty of juicy elements — alleged mafia guests, disappearing evidence, even gaffes by Abe, who appeared to lay blame […]

The skin of a critically endangered Sumatran tiger and four foetuses have been confiscated after the arrest of several suspected poachers, Indonesian police said. The suspects may have been planning to sell the skin to a foreign collector, while its bones were earlier sold, possibly for use in medicinal products popular in some parts of […]

European companies in China have been able to minimise the effect from the tariff war between Beijing and Washington, although some are considering relocating their businesses, the EU Chamber of Commerce said Monday. The world’s two biggest economies have been entangled in a lingering trade war for over a year, which has weighed on the […]

Olympic champion Joseph Schooling vowed to “fix” his physique after winning only one individual gold medal at the Southeast Asian Games, less than eight months before his title defence at Tokyo 2020. The 24-year-old Singaporean famously beat his idol, US legend Michael Phelps, at the Rio 2016 Olympics in the 100m butterfly final, but finds […]

China on Monday defended its vast network of re-education camps in Xinjiang and said it would continue “training” residents, following explosive government document leaks detailing surveillance and control of the region’s Uighur population. Rights groups estimate more than a million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities are held in the facilities, which reports describe as […]

REFILES to add picture, video tag Thousands rallied in support of Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar Saturday, on the eve of her departure for the UN’s top court to defend Myanmar against charges of genocide against Rohingya Muslims. The raucous rally in the capital Naypyidaw came as China’s foreign minister arrived for a visit […]

by Su Xinqi Among the sea of faces on Hong Kong’s streets on Sunday were more than one hundred people wearing quirky over-sized animal masks — a band of activists bringing popular protest internet memes to life. Hong Kong’s democracy movement is largely leaderless and organised online. LIHKG, a local Reddit-like web forum that serves […]

Qatar has postponed to next year the opening of Education City stadium, its second newly built venue for the 2022 football World Cup, FIFA said on Saturday. The venue was due to be inaugurated when it hosted the semi-final of the Club World Cup between Liverpool and an as yet undetermined side on December 18. […]

The loss of oxygen from the ocean due to climate change risks “dire effects” on sea life, fisheries and coastal communities, a global conservation body said Saturday. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said that around 700 sites had been identified globally with low oxygen levels — up from only 45 in […]

by Abhaya SRIVASTAVA / Jalees ANDRABI Indian police on Friday shot dead four gang-rape and murder suspects, prompting celebrations but also accusations that they were extrajudicial executions. The men, who had been in custody for a week over the latest rape case to shock India, were shot in the early hours during a re-enactment of […]