Commission led by former UN chief calls on Myanmar to end Rohingya restrictions or risk extremist dangers

Myanmar must scrap restrictions on movement and citizenship for its Rohingya minority if it wants to avoid fuelling extremism and bring peace to Rakhine state, a commission led by former UN chief Kofi Annan said Thursday.
Rights groups hailed the report as a milestone for the persecuted Rohingya community because the government of Aung San Suu Kyi has previously vowed to abide by its findings.
The western state, one of the country’s poorest, has long been a sectarian tinderbox and mainly…

Chinese firms dodge sanctions to trade with North Korea, says security analyst

Asian security analyst Dr John Park speaks quickly, his rapid dialogue conveying the urgency of his subject. He was in Hong Kong this month to discuss the North Korean nuclear crisis. It was a pressing issue when he planned his trip a couple of months ago. Two days before he arrived, it became even more critical – North Korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile that experts said would be capable of reaching the west coast of the United States. It has since said it is…

Philippine police conducting door-to-door drug testing, despite objections of human rights groups

Philippine police were knocking on doors in one of Manila’s poorest neighbourhoods on Wednesday to encourage people to take on-the-spot drug tests, a campaign condemned by rights groups as harassment that could endanger lives.
Carrying drug testing kits, police officers accompanied by community officials were seen by Reuters going to houses asking residents if they were willing to submit urine samples.
Payatas, one of the most populated subdistricts, or barangays, in the capital’s…

US imposes new sanctions on Chinese and Russian companies to cut off North Korea support

The US announced a set of secondary sanctions against 16 Chinese and Russian entities as part of its efforts to cut off trade with North Korea and starve the country’s military of the cash it needs to develop nuclear weapons. The move opened a new rift with China, which blasted the US for its “long-arm jurisdiction” and demanded that Washington “immediately correct its mistake”. The US government’s action also expanded the scope of sanctions to include oil…

US Navy collisions pose growing threat to Chinese maritime activities, experts warn

After the Pentagon ordered a full-scale investigation into the latest in a string of accidents involving US warships, Chinese analysts have warned that China should be alert to the potential risk to its own naval and commercial fleets. “The US Navy has been flexing its muscles all around the world, and has even intruded into our waters in the South China Sea,” Beijing-based naval expert Li Jie said. “This could pose a danger to maritime encounters between our two…

China-India border dispute spills over into Australian university

An IT lecturer at the University of Sydney has apologised for using an out-of-date map that showed a region of Tibet as being Indian territory.
The image upset some Chinese students after it was used by Khimji Vaghjiani during a course titled “Professional Practice in IT”.
The mistake was spotted by The Australian Red Scarf, a WeChat group run by Chinese international students, which ran an article about it last week.
China blames India for latest skirmish in disputed border region…