Separatist rebels in Indonesia’s far-east Papua province who killed a group of construction workers earlier this month have refused to surrender. The jungle camp killings of at least 16 labourers last week were a marked escalation in decades of mostly sporadic skirmishes between poorly armed and disorganised fighters and an Indonesian military long accused of gross human rights abuses against… Read more »
Due to recent government intervention within the healthcare system of India, many more medical needs, specifically those of mothers and children, are being tended to. Maternal and child health are both very significant in India because of the extremely high and continually rising birth rate. This specific mission is called Mission Indradhanush and was developed by J.P Nadda working to… Read more »
Marrakech, Morocco – Rodrigo Duterte‘s war on drugs will lead to a “killing field” if the Philippinespresident is allowed to continue his crackdown, the country’s Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has warned. While officials have put the death figure close to 5,000 since Duterte came to office in 2016, rights groups and opposition politicians say more than 20,000 people have been killed by police. “We… Read more »
Sri Lanka’s top court has ruled that the president’s dissolution of parliament last month was unconstitutional, as a political crisis continues to grip the nation. President Maithripala Sirisena dismissed his prime minister and replaced him with former leader Mahinda Rajapaksa in late October. When that decision was contested, he dissolved parliament. The ruling could see sacked PM Ranil Wickremesinghe return… Read more »
Japan’s Diet closed its final session of 2018 on December 10th. For Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, it may have been somewhat disappointing end to the year. Abe and the main ruling Liberal Democratic Party had to put off plans to proceed on a Constitutional amendment in the fall Diet session. But he has indicated that he has no intention of… Read more »
Recently there has been a problem with the illegal importation of coal from North Korea and people are trying to pass it off as Russian coal. This is illegal due to the sanctions put in place right now on North Korea. The unidentified people have been caught and fined for this illegal importation. The amount of coal they imported was… Read more »
SEOUL (REUTERS) – South Korean prosecutors have charged four people with illegally importing millions of dollars worth of North Korean coal in violation of international sanctions, by trying to disguise it as imports from Russia, a prosecutors’ office said on Monday (Dec 10). South Korea’s customs agency found in August that some firms had imported coal from North Korea in… Read more »
HONG KONG (BLOOMBERG) – After a slump in stocks, Asia’s main equity gauge has finally succumbed, entering a bear market overnight. The region’s equities have already lost more than US$4.9 trillion (S$6.77 trillion) in value this year, and Thursday isn’t looking pretty. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 2.1 per cent at 9.34am in Hong Kong, taking its slide from… Read more »
NEW DELHI (REUTERS) – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party officials are gathering on Thursday (Dec 13) for talks on a general election due by May, with their deliberations overshadowed by the party’s defeat at the polls in three heartland rural states. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said the gathering, to be chaired by the party’s president, Mr Amit… Read more »
A tsunami warning in New Caledonia – triggered by a powerful earthquake in the Pacific – has now been lifted. There have been no reports of injuries or damage in the French overseas territory, officials say. Earlier, residents had been urged to go to shelters, following the 7.5 magnitude quake close to New Caledonia. New Caledonia – with a population… Read more »