TOKYO: A 5.5-magnitude earthquake jolted Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido on Thursday (Feb 21) but there was no tsunami warning and no immediate reports of injuries or damage, authorities said. The quake struck at 9.22pm at a depth of 41 kilometres (25 miles), according to the US Geological Survey. The epicentre was around 55km (35 miles) southeast of the city of… Read more »
China’s religious persecution extends to all religions without discrimination. Not only are Jehovah’s Witnesses facing a severe crackdown in China, but the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is also supporting other countries’ similar crackdowns. As Bitter Winter reported earlier this month, a Russian court sentenced Danish citizen Dennis Christensen, a Jehovah’s Witness, to six years in prison for extremism. While international… Read more »
Four men were convicted Friday in the killing of a prominent adviser to Myanmar’s leadership who was shot in the head while holding his infant grandson at Yangon International Airport in 2017. The killing of the adviser, U Ko Ni, is widely believed to have been a political assassination. But the supposed mastermind has not been found, and what role, if any,… Read more »
SYDNEY, Australia — The Australian Parliament on Wednesday narrowly passed legislation that would let some asylum seekers being held on remote Pacific islands come to Australia for medical treatment, a blow to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who had strongly opposed the measure. Under Australia’s offshore detention policy, asylum seekers who try to reach the country by boat are barred from… Read more »
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan offered on Tuesday to investigate allegations by New Delhi that a Pakistan-based militant group was behind a deadly suicide attack on Indian troops in Kashmir, but he warned that his country would retaliate against any Indian military action. Mr. Khan’s comments were the first formal response by the Pakistani leader since the… Read more »
A fire that broke out at a building in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, has killed at least 69 people, fire officials said Thursday. Mahfuz Riben, an official of the Fire Service and Civil Defense in Dhaka, told The Associated Press that the death toll had risen to 69 and that many had been trapped in buildings. “Many of the… Read more »
The Trump administration has sent its two top negotiators to china to help negotiate an extension for a deadline extension with Chinese President Xi Jinping. There is a dispute regarding the current tariff war which is preventing several trades that include agricultural and tech products. U.S. tariffs on 200 billion dollars worth of imports from China are scheduled to rise… Read more »
Families across China are being torn apart by the cruel and sometimes brutal trade of kidnapped children. A businessman has come up with a special way to help victims of child trafficking at a time of year that’s usually marked for celebration. A liquor company executive has arranged for information on 1,000 missing children to be printed on the containers… Read more »
China has acknowledged that it has detained an employee of the major Japanese trading house Itochu over alleged illegal activities. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang told reporters on Friday that authorities are taking steps to penalize a Japanese citizen who is suspected of breaking Chinese law. But Geng did not specify what the person is accused of, only saying that… Read more »
The Japanese government has mapped out a bill to officially recognize the Ainu ethnic minority as an indigenous people of Japan. The bill, which was endorsed at a Cabinet meeting on Friday, legally stipulates for the first time that the Ainu are an indigenous people and calls for the creation of a society in which they can take pride in… Read more »