Asia - Page 7

A 71-year-old Australian nun was arrested in the Philippines on Tuesday for “engaging in political activities,” another indication that Rodrigo Duterte’s administration is cracking down on political dissidents.

The first school for transgender people has opened in Lahore, Pakistan, in another surprising step for LGBT rights in the strictly Islamic country.

American President Donald Trump expressed optimism about a planned meeting with North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-un to occur in May or early June, telling reporters on Thursday, “I think it will be terrific.”

Intelligence analysts have discovered a new strand of North Korean malware that could be used in a cyber attack against the United States.

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un mentioned “the prospect of the DPRK-U.S. dialogue” during a high-level meeting of the communist Korean Workers’ Party on Monday, state-controlled media reported over a month after South Korean officials announced that President Donald Trump had accepted an invitation to meet Kim in person.

Chinese authorities have temporarily suspended four popular news apps from the country’s Android store in an attempt to tighten control over the spread of news and information.

Indian-administered Kashmir is facing widespread unrest involving violent clashes between student protesters and Indian police, the beheading of a man by Pakistan-linked terrorists, and deadly gunfights pitting security forces against militants, all of which ultimately prompted authorities to impose travel restrictions.

A hardline Islamist group filed a blasphemy complaint in Indonesia on Wednesday against politician Sukmawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of modern Indonesia’s founding president Sukarno and the sister of ruling PDI party leader and former president Megawati Sukarnoputri.

A Christian family of four in southwestern Pakistan were murdered by Islamic State militants on Monday in the latest attack on the persecuted religious minority.

North Korea has apologized to the South over an apparent lack of media access during a concert by South Korean musicians “K-Pop” musicians in Pyongyang.

Beijing and Hanoi vowed to work out their differences over China’s claim to nearly the entire South China Sea, including territory within the maritime borders of Vietnam, in a meeting of high-level officials this week.

The government of the largest city in Pakistan failed to disburse the monthly salaries of more than 7,000 predominantly low-wage Christian employees in time for the Easter Sunday celebration on April 1.

A group of angry Chinese tourists held a “patriotic” protest after their cruise ship was delayed by bad weather, The South China Morning Post reports.

Beijing recently declared the Doklam border region, home to a standoff between regional rivals India and China last year, an undisputed “Chinese territory,” once again provoking tensions with New Delhi.

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has agreed to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in on April 27 in Panmunjom, a village on the border of both nations that belongs to neither.

After a respite following the announcement that President Donald Trump had accepted an invitation to meet with dictator Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s state media have returned with gusto to their usual invective against the United States, railing in columns published Tuesday against the “world [sic] biggest arms seller.”

A Filipino senator is facing sedition charges for a speech criticizing the country’s strongman, President Rodrigo Duterte.

Posters opposing Chinese President Xi Jinping reportedly began appearing this month in Western universities following China’s repeal of term limits that could have checked Xi’s power.

North Korea’s state media outlets do not appear to have softened their tone towards the United States despite reports Tuesday that dictator Kim Jong-un would be open to discussing denuclearization with the Trump administration.

China’s communist leader Xi Jinping looked back fondly upon his last five years of rule and urged the few politicians in China not a part of the Communist Party to “enhance confidence in the path, theory, system, and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics” at an event Sunday.

The Chinese government newspaper Global Times announced a “national campaign to clean up the online environment” in an article on Friday outlining new restrictions on the content of internet advertising.

At least four Uighur reporters working for Radio Free Asia (RFA), a U.S.-funded outlet, revealed this week that dozens of relatives living in western Xinjiang, China, have faced government persecution because of their reporting.

Chinese state media reported Monday that a new round of “discipline” inspections began this weekend, seeking to stamp out graft, inappropriate behavior or any threat to Xi Jinping’s totalitarian rule within the Chinese Communist Party (CPC).

China’s Communist Party (CPC) proposed removing term limits on the office of the presidency Sunday, a move that will make it easier for Communist Party general secretary, Central Military Commission chairman, and President Xi Jinping to keep one of those titles indefinitely.

The Chinese Party-State has been hard at work constructing a network of propaganda outposts — called Confucius Institutes or Confucius Classrooms – on the campuses of universities, colleges, and secondary schools around the world.

China’s state-run People’s Daily published a defense of expansive maritime military plans on Tuesday grounded in the need to protect the One Belt, One Road (OBOR) program, which uses infrastructure to grant Beijing a foothold in nearly every region of the world.

In an extremely rare display of effusive praise, North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted dictator Kim Jong-un on Tuesday lauding South Korea’s treatment of a Pyongyang delegation to the Winter Olympics as “very impressive” and expressing gratitude that

China is reportedly moving missile defense batteries and troops closer to its border with North Korea, a potential sign that Beijing anticipates either a large refugee wave north or a military disturbance triggered by the belligerence of communist dictator Kim Jong-un.

In the third paragraph of the Washington Post story that broke President Trump’s alleged comments about certain “shithole” countries, we learn that the president said “he would be open to more immigrants from Asian countries because he felt they help the United States economically.”

South Korea’s special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs is scheduled to meet Chinese nuclear envoy Kong Xuanyou on Friday to discuss de-escalating tensions with North Korea.

In a Spanish-language opinion piece in one of the nation’s largest newspapers, Chinese Ambassador to Argentina Yang Wanming urged Latin American nations to increase trade ties to China, promoting Beijing’s “One Belt One Road” project and warning the Communist Party will begin a “greater push” to conquer trade in the hemisphere.

The Chinese state Global Times newspaper published an opinion piece Wednesday sharply deviating from its typical belligerence against the United States, warning that “China is not ready” for competition with the U.S. and that Beijing “must learn from the U.S.” how to grow its economy.

China’s state newspaper the Global Times reported Wednesday that Communist Party officials in some municipalities have banned members from “celebrating” Christmas in yet another way to fight an alleged “cultural invasion” of China by the West.

Chinese embassy minister Li Kexin warned Taiwanese officials on Friday that Beijing would use “military force” if the island nation welcomed U.S. Navy ships to its ports, claiming any U.S. presence in Taiwan would violate China’s Anti-Secession Law.

The Chinese Communist Youth League has co-opted a popular hologram pop singer as its “youth ambassador,” noting that fictional holographic pop stars are “pure as lilies” and easier to manage than people, who “make their own decisions” and may choose at any moment to contradict the Chinese government.

Hundreds of monkeys took to the streets of a Thai city when fireworks caused them to flee from the temple where they live.