Asia

by Miwa SUZUKI As Pope Francis, the head of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, prepares to visit Japan, AFP looks at the religions the Japanese have followed for centuries. What’s the main religion? There is no state religion in Japan but the nation’s principal religions are Shinto and Buddhism. The two are closely intertwined — […]

by Catherine MARCIANO / Richard CARTER Pope Francis arrives in Japan on Saturday, where he is expected to deliver a robust anti-nuclear message of peace in the only country to have suffered an atomic bomb attack. The 82-year-old Argentine is fulfilling a long-cherished ambition to preach in Japan, where years ago he hoped to be […]

A Chinese defector involved in spying operations in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia has provided a trove of intelligence on China’s political interference operations to Australian officials, according to a media report Saturday. The Nine network newspapers said the defector, named as Wang “William” Liqiang, had given Australia’s counter-espionage agency the identities of China’s senior […]

The former CIA officer who may have devastated US intelligence collection in China by giving up its network of informants to Beijing agents was sentenced on Friday to 19 years in prison. Jerry Chun Shing Lee, a naturalized US citizen who worked for the Central Intelligence Agency from 1994 to 2007, was arrested in January […]

Hong Kong — Thursday, November 21, saw the youngest person in the months-long demonstrations in Hong Kong plead guilty to two counts of criminal damage which occurred last month, four months after the increasingly violent protests started in June. The boy reportedly sprayed obscene graffiti at an exit at Prince Edward MTR as well as […]

Several Indonesian ministries are banning pregnant, disabled, or LGBT job hunters in favour of what one called “normal” applicants, the Ombudsman said Friday, slammed as “arbitrary and hateful restrictions” by a rights group. The report comes as the world’s biggest Muslim majority country takes applications from millions of candidates who are applying for some 200,000 […]

by Laurent Thomet and Helen Roxburgh President Xi Jinping said Friday that China wants to reach an initial trade deal with the United States but is “not afraid” to fight back when necessary. It is rare for Xi to speak so directly about the trade war, and his comments come two days after US President […]

Sri Lanka’s divisive Rajapaksa clan consolidated their grip on power on Thursday as newly elected President Gotabaya Rajapaksa swore in his brother Mahinda as prime minister. The siblings are credited with destroying in brutal fashion ethnic Tamil separatists to end Sri Lanka’s civil war a decade ago when Mahinda was president and Gotabaya effectively ran […]

Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger warned Thursday that an armed conflict could break out between the United States and China if they fail to resolve their trade war. The sober remarks from Kissinger, who was instrumental in normalising diplomatic relations between Washington and Beijing, came at a conference in Beijing on the future […]

Singapore—Alex Yeung, a restaurant owner who held a gathering in October to discuss the situation back in his native Hong Kong, was repatriated and will not be permitted to return to Singapore without prior permission from the Controller of Immigration. In connection with Mr Yeung’s case, Philip Chan, the Singaporean businessman in whose establishment the […]

Pope Francis will visit one of Thailand’s famed gilded temples Thursday to meet the supreme Buddhist patriarch, on the first full day of his Asian tour aimed at promoting religious harmony. The 82-year-old pontiff is on his first visit to Buddhist majority Thailand, where he will spend four days before setting off to Japan. His […]

Hong Kong—The application of pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong to have his travel ban lifted in order for him to fly to London to receive a human rights award from both houses of Parliament of the United Kingdom has been denied. The judge noted Mr Wong’s risk of absconding and saying that he can remain in […]

A former employee of Britain’s consulate in Hong Kong said Wednesday that Chinese secret police tortured and interrogated him about London’s role in protests in the semi-autonomous city. Simon Cheng, a Hong Kong citizen, claimed he was shackled to a steel “tiger chair”, hung spread-eagled on a “steep X-Cross” and beaten while he was detained […]

by Shingo ITO Shinzo Abe entered the history books as Japan’s longest-serving premier on Wednesday, but many of his ambitious goals, including a constitutional revision to strengthen the military, appear far from reach. Wednesday marks Abe’s 2,887th day in office, topping the record previously set by Taro Katsura, a revered politician who served three times […]

A trending article on WeChat paints a different picture of the once well-loved Mark Zuckerberg in China. The article titled “China’s good son-in-law’ Zuckerberg suddenly stabbed his ‘father-in-law’ in the back” depicts a sense of betrayal felt by the Chinese people. This follows Zuckerberg’s recent stance on Chinese tech interventions and the growing tensions between […]