Australia’s concerns over internment camps in China’s far west, where rights groups say up to a million people are being held without charge, will be raised this week when the country’s foreign minister visits Beijing.
Marise Payne said on Tuesday she will register “serious concerns” over the huge facilities in Xinjiang, where activists say hundreds of thousands of Uygurs and other mainly Muslim minorities are detained in political re-education camps. The visit is…
Budget 2018: Compliance and enforcement
ANALYSIS: There were thankfully few measures in the UK’s Budget extending the powers of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), but plenty targeting avoidance and ‘unfair outcomes’.
Indonesian flight grounded after passengers revolt over sacks of stinky durian in cargo hold
An Indonesian flight was grounded for an hour on Monday after passengers kicked up a stink about what was in the hold – dozens of sacks of durian, arguably the world’s smelliest fruit. Footage of the incident, uploaded to Facebook by a passenger named Amir Zidane, shows travellers milling around on the tarmac as aircrew unload the offending cargo, whose smell has been likened to rotten onions, turpentine and dirty gym socks. In the series of videos, which have since gone viral, a…
Thousands of Sri Lankans take to streets in support of new government led by former strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa
Thousands of Sri Lankans marched on Monday in support of a new government led by the country’s former strongman, highlighting the political polarisation in the Indian Ocean island nation.
The rally near parliament comes amid a constitutional crisis sparked by President Maithripala Sirisena’s move to oust prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, replace him with ex-leader Mahinda Rajapaksa and suspend parliament.
Wickremesinghe has refused to vacate his official residence, insisting he…
Supreme Court rejects time bar in passenger death at sea case
ANALYSIS: The Supreme Court has issued an important judgment on the interaction between the 1974 Athens Convention on carriage of passengers by sea and time bar provisions in Scottish domestic law.
Malaysia’s anti-corruption drive spreads to Borneo as Sabah’s former chief minister Musa Aman hit with 35 charges
The former chief minister of Sabah has become the latest high-ranking figure from Malaysia’s former ruling coalition, the Barisan Nasional, to face corruption charges, in a sign the new government is expanding its anti-graft drive beyond the peninsula.
Musa Aman was on Monday charged with 35 counts of corruption for allegedly accepting bribes worth US$63 million in connection with timber concessions.
These dealings allegedly took place in Hong Kong and Singapore between 2004 – a…
Asia Bibi’s husband seeks asylum outside Pakistan, fearing violent reprisals after death sentence for blasphemy overturned
The husband of a Pakistani Christian woman at the centre of a divisive blasphemy case has pleaded for international help to leave the country, saying he feared for his family’s safety.
The request by Asia Bibi’s husband Ashiq Masih came a day after he criticised a government deal with hardline Islamists that left her in legal limbo, and called on authorities to protect her.
Bibi – who had been on death row since 2010 on blasphemy charges – was acquitted by the Supreme…
Indonesian investigators have retrieved data from Lion Air jet’s black box after crash that killed 189 people
Investigators succeeded in retrieving hours of data from a crashed Lion Air jet’s flight recorder as Indonesian authorities on Sunday extended the search at sea for victims and debris.
National Transportation Safety Committee deputy chairman Haryo Satmiko told a news conference that 69 hours of flight data was downloaded from the recorder including its fatal flight.
The Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet crashed just minutes after take-off from Jakarta on October 29, killing all 189 people on board in…
Vietnam could give tech companies one year to obey new cybersecurity law
Vietnam may give internet companies like Google and Facebook one year to comply with a controversial cybersecurity law, according to a draft decree that outlines how the draconian rule could be implemented.
The cybersecurity bill, which observers say mimic China’s repressive web control tools, is set to come into effect in January despite drawing sharp criticism from the US, the EU and internet freedom advocates. The bill would require tech companies to store data in the country, and…
Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi faces rare test of legitimacy as party contests by-election
Myanmar voters cast their ballots in a small but key by-election on Saturday, a rare local test of support for embattled leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s party more than halfway through her time in office.
Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy (NLD) swept to power in 2015 in a landslide victory ending decades of military rule.
But her tenure has been marred by a failure to speak up for Rohingya Muslims driven out of the country by the army and stumbling peace talks with insurgent groups…