Ethnic cleansing targeting Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar has not stopped despite growing condemnation from the international community, the Trump administration said Tuesday.
In November, the United States declared that violence against the Rohingya in Myanmar’s Rakhine state constituted ethnic cleansing, and the US later imposed sanctions. Ambassador Sam Brownback, the US envoy for global religious freedom, said that the violence was continuing.
After ‘frenzy of sexual violence…
Only one in five proposed senior financial staff members are women
Just one in five applications to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for ‘approved person’ status in the past two years have been for women, according to research by Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com.
Passengers suffer broken bones and head wounds after ‘bomb joke’ on Lion Air flight in Indonesia causes chaos
At least 10 passengers on a flight preparing to take off from Borneo island were injured, most of them with broken bones and head wounds, after panicked ensued when a man claimed there was a bomb on board, Indonesian police said Tuesday.
Passengers overheard the 26-year-old man, Frantinus Nirigi, telling a flight attendant there was a bomb on the Lion Air Boeing 737, which was to carry 189 passengers to Jakarta on Monday night, said West Kalimantan police spokesman Nanang Purnomo. An eventual…
As the Trump-Kim summit approaches, South Korean President Moon Jae-in is the man in the precarious middle
In the tug of war between the United States and North Korea over the tentative summit in Singapore, South Korean President Moon Jae-in is the man in the precarious middle, trying to broker a high-stakes meeting between two unconventional leaders.
Moon’s role as a mediator came into sharp focus in the past week, after US President Donald Trump cancelled the summit in a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Moon may join Trump and Kim in North Korean summit
As Kim sought to reopen…
Malaysia PM Mahathir Mohamad announces plan to scrap high-speed rail project with Singapore
Malaysia is dropping a plan for a high-speed rail link between its capital Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, and will talk with its southern neighbour about the agreement to build it, Malaysia’s prime minister said in an interview published on Monday.
Mahathir Mohamad, the 92-year-old who triumphed over scandal-plagued Najib Razak in a general election this month, has made it a priority to cut the national debt and pledged to review major projects agreed by the previous government.
“We…
More than 90 die in 2 weeks in Bangladesh drug war, sparking fears of Philippines-style extrajudicial killings
A crackdown on alleged drug dealers has left at least 91 people dead in less than two weeks in Bangladesh, sparking fears of a Philippines-style drug war marked by extrajudicial killings.
Most of the deaths have occurred in what the Bangladeshi news media have referred to as shoot-outs or gunfights, although the families of several people killed have said they were arrested by police and died in custody.
Is Bangladesh using Philippines’ playbook to hunt drug suspects?
Since the operation…
‘Hey Donald, I’m already in Singapore’: Hong Kong’s own Kim Jong-un impersonator turns heads
Surprised Singaporeans pursued North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Sunday before realising the portly man with slick black hair near the Marina Bay Sands hotel was an impersonator.
“It looked like the real Kim Jong-un, but later I realised it’s not the real one,” said Sagar Admuthe who was visiting from Mumbai, India, after several selfies with the doppleganger against a backdrop of the city’s bay. “When you see him, it’s very difficult to make out.”
The…
Vladimir Putin and Shinzo Abe discuss Kuril Islands and peace treaty
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met in Moscow on Saturday for talks that included resolving a dispute over four Pacific islands and eventually signing a peace treaty.
Abe has been pushing for a way forward in the dispute that centres on the four most southern of the Kuril Islands, which Japan calls the Northern Territories.
The Soviet Union took the islands in the closing days of second world war. The dispute has kept the two countries from…
Women at ‘daily risk’ of slapping, sexual abuse and harassment in Walmart’s Asian supplier factories, rights groups say
Women who work in Asian factories making clothes for the global retail giant Walmart are at “daily risk” of slapping, sexual abuse and other harassment, rights groups said on Friday.
Based on interviews with about 250 workers in 60 Walmart supplier factories in Bangladesh, Cambodia and Indonesia, a coalition of charities said women were “systematically exposed to violence” and faced retaliation if they reported the attacks.
The coalition has investigated the factories…
Myanmar’s finance minister has been ‘allowed to resign’ by president
Myanmar’s Finance Minister Kyaw Win has resigned, President Win Myint said on Friday, without giving a reason.
Kyaw Win was “allowed to resign”, the president said in a short statement posted on the presidency’s official Facebook page late on Friday.
This week the English-language news magazine Frontier cited the head of Myanmar’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) as saying that the commission was in the final stage of an investigation into corruption…