Category Archives: ASIA
Chinese raids hit North Korean defectors’ ‘Underground Railroad’
A decade after leaving her family behind to flee North Korea, the defector was overwhelmed with excitement when she spoke to her 22-year-old son on the phone for the first time in May after he too escaped into China. While speaking to him again on the phone days later, however, she listened in horror as the safe house where her son and four other North Korean escapees were hiding was raided by Chinese authorities.
“I heard voices, someone saying ‘shut up’ in Chinese,” said the woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect her son’s safety. “Then the line was cut off, and I heard later he was caught.”
Bruised Hong Kong’s Lam caves to pressure on extradition bill
With an escalating U.S. trade war, a faltering economy and tensions in the South China Sea vexing her bosses in Beijing, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam appeared in no mood to compromise on a planned extradition law at recent meetings, according to foreign envoys and business people who met with her. Some of the people at those meetings in recent weeks pointed to media reports that even Hong Kong’s usually reticent judges were worried about the proposed law which threatened to send people for trial in mainland China for the first time.
But Lam bluntly dismissed concerns about a Chinese justice system that is widely criticized for forced confessions, arbitrary detentions and one-sided trials, saying judges were not supposed to speak.
Hong Kong riot situation protests
Tens of thousands of people surrounded Hong Kong government complex in opposition to a proposed extradition law that would allow criminal suspects to be sent to mainland China for trial.
Hong Kong police fired rubber-coated bullets, water cannon, and canisters of tear gas at goggle-wearing demonstrators, who threw plastic bottles and set up metal barricades with umbrellas to protect from pepper spray.
Hong Kong protesters stage chaotic scenes
Chaotic scenes erupted in Hong Kong early on Wednesday as thousands of demonstrators stormed a key road next to government offices to protest against a proposed extradition bill that would allow people to be sent to mainland China for trial.
Television pictures showed thousands of protesters rallying in and around Lung Wo Road, an important east-west artery near the offices of Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, as hundreds of riot police warned them to stop advancing.
North Korean leader’s slain half-brother was a CIA informant: Wall Street Journal
Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un who was killed in Malaysia in 2017, had been an informant for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
The Journal cited an unnamed “person knowledgeable about the matter” for the report, and said many details of Kim Jong Nam’s relationship with the CIA remained unclear.
Hong Kong protests: Chinese state media blames ‘foreign forces’
“Foreign forces” are seeking to “to hurt China by trying to create havoc in Hong Kong”, Chinese state media said after mass protests in the territory.
On Sunday, hundreds of thousands of people rallied against a proposed law critics fear could let China target political opponents in Hong Kong.
Clashes later erupted between hundreds of demonstrators and police.
U.S. shared nuclear power info with Saudi Arabia after Khashoggi killed
The Trump administration granted two authorizations to U.S. companies to share sensitive nuclear power information with Saudi Arabia shortly after the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October, a U.S. senator who saw the approvals said on Tuesday.
The timing of the approvals is likely to heap pressure on the administration of President Donald Trump from lawmakers who have become increasingly critical of U.S. support for Saudi Arabia since Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October.
Five dead in alleged Israeli attack in Syria
Syrian media reported on Sunday night that the T-4 airbase in Homs had come under fire from “hostile missiles”.
The official Syrian news agency SANA reported that the country’s air defense systems operated against a number of missiles that were fired at the base.
Israel and Syria exchange fire amid soaring regional tensions
20 civilians killed a soldier and several injured in Quneitra province after an Israeli air attack, says Syrian state media.
Israel has carried out a rocket attack in Syria’s Golan Heights region, according to Syrian state news and the Israeli military.
Trump backs North Korea’s scathing criticism of sleepy Joe Biden
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday publicly endorsed North Korea’s scathing personal attack on former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, dismissing criticism that he was siding with a foreign dictator over a fellow American. “Well, Kim Jong Un made a statement that Joe Biden is a low IQ individual. He probably is, based on his record. I think I agree with him on that,” Trump told a news conference in Tokyo.
Trump’s comments on the world stage reinforced a tweet that he sent on Saturday with a similar message and drew renewed criticism of the president back home.
Trump arrives in Japan not bothered by North Korea ‘firing off small weapons’ : Sleepy Joe is also Swampman
U.S. President Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, landed in Japan on Saturday on a largely ceremonial visit meant to showcase strong ties with Tokyo even as trade tensions loom.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will treat Trump to an imperial banquet and front row seats at a sumo tournament during the trip, which lasts through Tuesday.
Arab countries, Egypt will not allow Sudan to hand power to civilians
There are at least a dozen reasons, some fictitious, why Sudan’s ruling Transitional Military Council (TMC) appears reluctant to give up power, but protest groups are becoming increasingly aware that the two major Gulf states Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and Egypt have a vested interest in ensuring the army remains in power. With the scheduled visit of the Deputy President, Mohammed Hamdan, of the Military Council to Saudi Arabia yesterday, press reports have surfaced about the Gulf’s intervention to derail the agreement struck between the TMC and the protest groups led by Declaration of Freedom and Change Forces (DFCF).
India class fire kills at least 19 students
At least 19 students have died in a fire at a school in India, officials said.
Students were seen jumping and falling from the building in the western city of Surat as black smoke billowed from windows.
India’s Modi decimates opposition in election
Coalition led by the Hindu nationalist BJP set to win nearly 350 of 542 seats as the opposition stands decimated.
Counting of votes is under way in India after its marathon seven-phase general elections concluded on May 19, with early leads indicating the return of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a second term.
India elections 2019: Modi has sleepless night as results come in
Indians will finally find out on Thursday who won the general election after a long and bitter campaign.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stormed to power in 2014, campaigned hard to retain his commanding majority.
