Category: Uncategorized

Some rights groups may have become “unwitting tools” of drug lords in the Philippines to undermine the president, his spokesman said on Monday, a statement that Human Rights Watch said was “shameful” and risked provoking violence.
Rights groups have denounced President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs in which thousands of people have been killed, either by police or by shadowy, unidentified gunmen.
Duterte, who says he must be tough to protect the people from…

Malaysia’s government on Monday proposed new legislation to outlaw fake news with a 10-year jail term for offenders, a move slammed by critics as a draconian bid to crack down on dissent ahead of a general election.
Prime Minister Najib Razak has been dogged by a multibillion-dollar corruption scandal involving an indebted state fund, and rights activists fear the new law could be used to criminalise reports on government misconduct and critical opinions.
A general election must be held…

“Here in Ilocos, there’s nothing more important than ensuring your children receive a good education.”
Giving children a better future has become a lifelong vocation for Joy Fernandez, a 35-year-old elementary teacher from Laoag in Ilocos Norte, the Philippines.
When she’s not teaching during school hours, the lively educator is either tutoring kids or coaching them for mathematics competitions. The rest of her spare time is dedicated to taking care of her four children…

Thailand’s military government is crushing the spirit of Bangkok’s nightlife amid an intensifying crackdown that is forcing many bars and clubs to close early or indefinitely. With an election tentatively set for February 2019, the campaign appears to be a last-ditch attempt by the embattled government to impose social order and salvage its legacy.
Since the army swept to power in a bloodless coup in 2014, it has intermittently enforced curfews and arcane regulations to rein in the…

More than 200 people living near a Tokyo base of the main successor to the Aum Shinrikyo cult took to the streets on Saturday demanding the group disbands, with the execution of its guru and a number of former disciples seemingly imminent.
The residents marched around the Adachi Ward compound owned by Aleph, led by Adachi Mayor Yayoi Kondo who held a banner saying, “Absolutely against Aum.”
The demonstration was planned to coincide with the recent 23rd anniversary of the 1995 sarin…

Young orangutan Utu clings to one of his rescuers after he is freed from the wooden box that has been his home for five years.
The tiny primate, covered in fuzzy auburn hair, is one of three Bornean orangutans saved in Indonesia over the past two weeks.
Environmentalists and local officials rescued Utu and another youngster, Joy, from tiny cages where they were kept as house pets in West Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. A third orangutan named Tomang was moved from a village in the same…

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has set out its intention to take a more aggressive approach to enforcement, while developing closer links between its supervisory and enforcement functions.

Brexit negotiators have reached agreement on “a large part” of the arrangements that will govern the UK’s “orderly withdrawal” from the EU, both sides have announced.

Multi-employer ‘master trust’ pension schemes now have sufficient detail to prepare for the new authorisation and supervision regime following the latest publication by the government, an expert has said.

Residents startled awake by loud noise and smoke signalled for help with lit mobile phones and crawled onto cranes from their balconies to escape a fire early on Friday at a large condominium complex in southern Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City. At least 13 people were killed and 28 injured, with police saying it was unclear whether anyone was missing.
State media quoted the city’s police and fire service as saying police rescued more than 100 people while more than 1,000 escaped the fire…