SCMP Asian News

Analysts said the Indonesian president’s whistle-stop tour was ‘straight out of the non-aligned leaders’ playbook’, as Jakarta works to maintain its delicate US-China balancing act.

The anti-party hopping bill to curb defections by MPs was approved with a two-thirds majority in parliament.

Najib used the Indonesian president’s trip to Beijing to take aim at critics who had accused him of ‘selling the country’ when he made similar overtures during his leadership.

Casino proposal comes amid Thailand’s broader move toward a more-liberal legal landscape. Last month, it became the first country in Asia to decriminalise cannabis and first in Southeast Asia to move toward legalising same-sex unions.

Michel, 49, indicted last year along with fugitive financier Jho Low, is accused of illegally lobbying the Trump administration to drop an investigation tied to the 1MDB global bribery scandal and remove a Chinese dissident from the US.

The US-led partnership known as Chip 4 includes South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, and is seen by Beijing as Washington’s plot to exclude China from semiconductor supply chains.

Kim’s speech to war veterans on the 69th anniversary of the end of the 1950-53 Korean war was apparently meant to boost internal unity in the impoverished country suffering pandemic-related economic difficulties.

Philippine Ambassador to Washington Jose Manuel Romualdez said Manila could face possible sanctions under a US federal law called the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act if the helicopter deal went through.

Analysts say that despite keeping a low profile, the ETIM, which is aligned with al-Qaeda, is a ‘ticking time bomb for China’.

Tanner Fox, 21, and Jose Lopez, 23, were arrested over the apparently targeted shooting of businessman Ripudaman Singh Malik in the Vancouver area.

China and South Korea signed a free-trade agreement that went into effect in 2015, but discussions over the second phase to further open their service sectors had stalled until a meeting earlier this month.

Given the continuing international freeze on Afghanistan’s economic assets and meagre financial support from erstwhile donors, an increase in the production and sale of illegal drugs is likely. A Taliban boost for the opium trade, combined with its support to terrorist organisations like al-Qaeda, can exacerbate the challenge of narco-terrorism.

South Korea’s “Kill Chain” calls for pre-emptive strikes against the North’s missiles and possibly its senior leadership if an imminent attack is detected – but it’s a strategy some experts say may lead to regional instability.

Amnesty International called the hanging ‘a callous attack on the right to life’, and urged Japan to introduce an immediate moratorium on executions.

Fumio Kishida said Japan will provide support to ‘further reinforce Indonesian maritime security’, a day after Joko Widodo met Xi Jinping in China.

A short-term visit pass issued when Gotabaya Rajapaksa arrived in the city state earlier this month has been extended for 14 days, sources said.

Thailand has seen an explosion of cannabis-infused products like toothpaste, tea, soaps and snacks since the government legalised the plant last month.

Yoon Suk-yeol has had to defend a proposal to assume greater control over law enforcement after it prompted police protests his interior minister compared to a ‘military coup’.

The quake badly damaged a hospital and other buildings in the northern Abra province and sent strong tremors through the capital Manila.

Days after Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh shared photos from the shoot on social media, complaints were filed accusing him of insulting women’s modesty.