Asia

by Jenny Vaughan, with Tran Thi Minh Ha in Nghe An Young, aspirational and poor Vietnamese are risking their lives to travel to Europe, taking on large debts to join well-worn trafficking routes in the hope of a better future thousands of miles from their rural homes. The dangers of illegal crossings into Europe were […]

Indonesian domestic helper Susi Nur Handayani, 27, was sentenced to four months of jail time on Friday (Oct 25) for stealing a passport  that belongs to a fellow resident in a  maids’ shelter and attempted to present herself as the passport holder. Susi wanted to leave Singapore and go home to Indonesia. She pleaded guilty to […]

by Béatrice ROMAN-AMAT with Jing Xuan TENG in Beijing The European Parliament awarded the Sakharov Prize for human rights on Thursday to Uighur intellectual Ilham Tohti, sentenced to life imprisonment in China for “separatism”, parliamentary sources told AFP. The outspoken former professor of economics at a Beijing university was sentenced in 2014 by Chinese courts […]

Iranian state television has aired an interview with an Instagrammer famous for drastically altering her appearance through plastic surgery to look like a zombie and arrested for alleged “blasphemy”. The social media celebrity known as Sahar Tabar was arrested on the orders of Tehran’s Islamic guidance court on October 5 after “numerous requests from the […]

Assistant Professor Tan Yong Chin, who teaches a course on online marketing at the City University in Hong Kong (CUHK), earned the ire and hatred of his students that led to the scandalous vandalism act committed in his office and a controversy that involves the application of political ideas in educational activities. Words, such as […]

In the speech made by President Joko (Jokowi) Widodo at the inauguration, there was no mention of corruption eradication in his inaugural address for the 2019-2024 mandate. Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Deputy Chairman Saut Situmorang had his own views. According to him, Jokowi’s speech should not be interpreted as pessimistic when it comes to eradicating corruption, […]

Thousands protested against police across Bangladesh on Monday, a day after at least four people died when officers fired on a crowd in one of the country’s deadliest religious riots to date. Some 20,000 Muslims called for the execution of a young Hindu man on Bhola island Sunday for writing Facebook messages that allegedly defamed […]

A decision to impose a 100 percent tax on bills at restaurants that serve shisha has ignited criticism on social media in Saudi Arabia, where the water pipes are a popular pastime. The furore has also been fuelled by confusion over how the tax is applied. In the meantime, some restaurants have stopped offering shisha, […]

At least four people were killed and nearly 50 injured Sunday after police fired on thousands of Bangladeshi Muslims protesting a Facebook post by a Hindu who allegedly defamed the Prophet Mohammed, officials said. Mob attacks over Facebook posts perceived to be blasphemous have emerged as a major headache for security forces in Bangladesh, where […]

China on Sunday said it aims to become a “great power” in the online world and took a swipe at Washington on trade, kicking off its annual conference promoting the Communist Party’s controlled and censored version of the internet. US-China rivalry is increasingly playing out in the digital sphere, as Beijing pursues dominance in next-generation […]

by Yan ZHAO / Xinqi SU Large crowds of Hong Kongers defied a police ban and held an illegal march on Sunday, their numbers swollen by anger over the recent stabbing and beating of two pro-democracy protesters. Authorities had forbidden the march in Tsim Sha Tsui, a densely packed shopping district filled with luxury boutiques […]

While millions have taken to the streets of Hong Kong, a Norwegian politician -Guri Melby, a member of Norway’s parliament for the liberal party — has nominated the “people of Hong Kong” for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize, a risky move that is expected to draw ire from China’s political hierarchy. In an interview published by […]

A man who inadvertently triggered Hong Kong’s huge protests after he murdered his girlfriend in Taiwan has agreed to return to the island to face justice, a clergyman who has visited him in prison said on Friday. Chan Tong-kai, 20, is wanted in Taiwan for the murder of his pregnant girlfriend during a holiday the […]

by Patrick Lee A scene in the film “Abominable” featuring a map with Beijing’s disputed South China Sea claims sparked a growing regional backlash Friday, with Malaysia cutting the segment just days after Vietnam pulled the movie entirely. The animated film about a Chinese teenager helping a yeti return to his home shows a chart […]

by Dene-Hern Chen The charismatic frontman of Thailand’s anti-military parliamentary bloc appeared in court Friday accused of breaching election rules by holding media shares, a case which could see him barred from politics and jailed for up to 10 years. Billionaire, 40, has rattled the kingdom’s arch-royalist establishment since seizing the political limelight with his […]