Tag Archives: asia

An appeals court on Wednesday granted the Hong Kong government’s request to ban a popular protest song, overturning an earlier ruling and deepening concerns over the erosion of freedoms in the once-freewheeling global financial hub. “Glory to Hong Kong” was often sung by demonstrators during huge anti-government protests in 2019. The song was later mistakenly played as the city’s anthem …

U.S. and Philippine forces, backed by an Australian air force surveillance aircraft, unleashed a barrage of high-precision rockets, artillery fire and airstrikes Wednesday and sank a mock enemy ship as part of largescale war drills in and near the disputed South China Sea that have antagonized Beijing. Military officials and diplomats from several countries watched the display of firepower from …

Vietnam on Tuesday celebrated the 70th anniversary of the battle of Dien Bien Phu in which the French colonial army was defeated by Vietnamese troops, marking the end of the French occupation of Indochina. At Dien Bien Phu, Vietnamese troops led by General Vo Nguyen Giap, surprised French forces with heavy artillery fire at their mountainous garrison in northwestern Vietnam. …

In the jungles of southeastern Burma’s Dawna Hills, rebels from an armed ethnic group are fighting to hold back columns of reinforcements sent by the country’s ruling junta to try to reclaim Myawaddy, a critical trading outpost on the Thai border. What happens in the next few weeks in the scramble for Myawaddy and other strategic locations in Burma could …

U.S. Marines and their Filipino counterparts darted out of Black Hawk helicopters during combat drills Monday in the Philippines’ northernmost island town, along the strategic Bashi Channel off southern Taiwan. The show of allied battle readiness in Itbayat in Batanes province is part of annual military exercises that started last month, dubbed Balikatan, Tagalog for “shoulder-to-shoulder,” and involving more than …

A powerful ethnic minority armed group battling Burma’s army in the country’s west claimed Monday to have taken hundreds of government soldiers prisoner when it captured a major command post. The Arakan Army, the well-trained and well-armed military wing of the Rakhine ethnic minority movement, has been on the offensive against army outposts in the western state of Rakhine — …

For the first time, China has publicized what it claims is an unwritten 2016 agreement with the Philippines over access to South China Sea islands. The move threatens to further raise tensions in the disputed waterway, through which much of the world’s trade passes and which China claims virtually in its entirety. A statement from the Chinese Embassy in Manila …

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Georgia has been engulfed by huge protests triggered by a proposed law that critics see as a threat to media freedom and the country’s aspirations to join the European Union. Here is a look at the bill and the protests it has ignited: FORMER SOVIET REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA SEES RULING PARTY CAVE TO MASSIVE STREET PROTESTS …

Cambodia’s Supreme Court on Friday upheld the two-year prison sentence of a labor union leader who led a long-running strike against the country’s biggest casino. Chhim Sithar, president of the Labor Rights Supported Union of Khmer Employees of NagaWorld, had originally been convicted in May 2023 of incitement to commit a felony. She had been leading a strike that began …

A bus plunged into a rocky ravine in northern Pakistan on Friday after its driver lost control, killing at least 15 people and seriously injuring more than 20 others, police said. The bus was traveling to Hunza on the Karakoram Highway in Gilgit-Baltistan’s Diamer district when the accident occurred, senior police officer Fayaz Ahmed said. The mountainous highway connects Pakistan …