Asia

Sri Lanka’s election commission on Monday agreed to let the brother of former strongman Mahinda Rajapakse stand in the country’s presidential election, despite a string of corruption cases against him. Gotabhaya Rajapakse is frontrunner in the campaign for the November 16 election, even though his bid is widely seen as a front to get Mahinda, […]

by Jerome TAYLOR / Pak YIU Hong Kong’s government may censor the internet in a bid to contain months of increasingly violent pro-democracy protests, a cabinet member said Monday, after an emergency-law ban on demonstrators wearing face masks failed to quell the unrest. The warning came as the international financial hub remained partly paralysed from three […]

by Jerome TAYLOR The majority of Hong Kong’s subway stations remained closed Sunday as the city braced for more protests with pro-democracy activists vowing to hit the streets and opposition lawmakers trying to overturn a face mask ban. Thousands of protesters staged unsanctioned marches and flashmob protests at multiple locations on Saturday, a day after […]

Many high-profile names, among them women artists, are now in the Indonesian Parliament or DPR which also has another first – a woman as chairperson. This is not the only first in Puan Maharani’s appointment. She is also the daughter of former President Megawati Sukarnoputri and the appointment further consolidates her family’s grip on Indonesian politics. With this appointment, […]

A French drug smuggler who briefly faced execution in Indonesia will be transferred to a high-security prison island, dubbed the nation’s “Alcatraz”, following a second escape bid, a corrections official said Friday. Felix Dorfin, 35, was handed a capital sentence after his arrest last year at the airport in Lombok, a holiday island next to […]

Malaysia’s prime minister said Friday Hong Kong’s embattled leader should resign over the city’s increasingly violent pro-democracy protests and warned China would take “harsh action” to end the demonstrations. Hong Kong has been rocked by unprecedented protests for nearly four months, with millions taking to the streets angered by what they see as Beijing’s authoritarian […]

by Jerome TAYLOR / Jasmine LEUNG Hong Kong’s leader announced a ban Friday on protesters wearing face masks, invoking colonial-era emergency powers, in a bid to quell months of violent anti-government unrest. Chief executive Carrie Lam said she had made the order under the Emergency Regulations Ordinances, a sweeping law that grants her the ability to […]

A top North Korean negotiator left for Sweden on Thursday ahead of nuclear talks with the United States, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported. Kim Myong Gil departed Beijing on a flight to Stockholm with three other North Korean officials after arriving in the Chinese capital from Pyongyang earlier in the day, Yonhap added. “(We) […]

Sticking samurai swords, steak knives and even the sharpened handles of badminton racquets through their cheeks, devotees of Thailand’s vegetarian festival go all out during an annual event that is both gleeful and gory. Held on the tourist island of Phuket, the nine-day Taoist “Nine Emperor Gods” festival was in full swing Thursday after kicking […]

India’s 15-year-old women’s cricket sensation Shafali Verma had to get her hair cut like a boy so that she could get into the local academy to train, her father told AFP. Now India’s cricket establishment is relying on Verma, who made her Twenty20 debut for the national team against South Africa last month and will soon […]

An Indonesian MP brought his three wives to his inauguration at Parliament or House of Representatives in Jakarta, starting a frenzy on social media as well as in the local media. The MP was elected in East Java where his life as a polygamous husband was already well documented and did not have any negative impact on election chances. The […]

A total of 575 members of the Indonesian Parliament elected for the 2019-2024 period, were inaugurated yesterday October 1, 2019 and they wore expensive locally designed traditional clothes for the occasion. Fourteen of them were local artists, among them internationally renowned singers Mulan Jameela and Krisdayanti. One of the artists, Mulan Jameela wore a traditional but modified outfit from the Bugis, Makssaree tribe. She […]

by Jerome TAYLOR / Yan ZHAO Flash-mob rallies broke out in Hong Kong on Wednesday as anger mounted over police shooting a teenage protester who attacked officers in a dramatic escalation of the violent unrest that has engulfed the territory for months. A large crowd of demonstrators, including office workers in shirts and suits, mustered […]

Police in Indonesia uncovered a gruesome murder after they found a suicide note on a 42-year-old widower. The police said people alerted them to the scene where they found a man who apparently committed suicide. The man, Wayan Sutarsa was found by passerby’s who thought he was in a state of seizure. Since the man refused assistance, the passerby alerted […]

by Jerome TAYLOR / Yan ZHAO Strife-torn Hong Kong marked the 70th anniversary of communist China’s founding with defiant “Day of Grief” protests on Tuesday as pro-democracy activists ignored a police ban and took to the streets in multiple neighbourhoods. The international finance hub is on edge as protesters vow to overshadow Beijing’s festivities, stepping […]