Tag: Asia News

Tom Andrews, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, insisted that current conditions there were “anything but conducive” for the return of Rohingya refugees. Death trap He stressed that the very generals who had launched “genocidal” attacks against the Rohingya, causing hundreds of thousands to flee the country, were now in power and “attacking civilian… Read More

Latest news reports said the death toll is at least 275. More than 1,000 people were hospitalised but close to 800 of those involved in the crash have reportedly been discharged. According to reports, railway officials and India’s minister in charge of the vast network, said on Sunday that a signal fault was the likely cause, which led to a… Read More

“I want to make the most of my time, even in prison, and this training should help me find a job later,” said Denny, 31, who has just over two years left of a five-year prison sentence. “Of course, I knew how to make a coffee before, but here I am learning about different flavours, smells and aromas, and about… Read More

“Key peace and security issues, such as the situation on the Korean Peninsula, must be an area for cooperation,” she cautioned in a briefing to the 15-member Council on recent developments. “Diplomacy – not isolation – is the only way forward.” During the Council’s emergency debate on the issue, members expressed divergent views, with many agreeing that diplomacy can forge… Read More

A Thai Navy launch travels at high speed down the muddy brown waters of the Mekong River close to the border town of Chiang Saen in the north of Thailand. To the right is Laos, where huge construction projects funded by foreign investment are rising out of the lush undergrowth along the riverbank and ahead to the left are the… Read More

Some 1.6 million people in Rakhine, Chin, Magway, Sagaing, and Kachin states are in dire need of assistance after Mocha’s 250 kilometre per hour wind gusts destroyed homes, farmland and livestock. Speaking from hard-hit Rakhine State capital Sittwe, UN Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative in Myanmar, Titon Mitra, said that time was of the essence as food reserves were being “completely wiped out”,… Read More

The cuts will reduce the value of rations provided to Rohingya refugees to $8 per month, or 27 cents per day. At the beginning of the year, refugees were receiving a ration of $12 per person per month, which was just enough to meet daily needs, but on 1 March, that was cut to $10 – due to lack of… Read More

In its new Monitor on the World of Work report, ILO shows that while in high-income countries, only 8.2 per cent of people willing to work are jobless, that number rises to over 21 per cent in low-income countries – or one in every five people. Low-income countries in debt distress are worst affected, with more than one in four… Read More

Jovica Stanišić and Franko Simatović were convicted by the court – part of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) which took over from the ICTY – in 2021, for their roles training death squads accused of ethnic cleansing during the conflict that saw the breakup of the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. The two were originally sentenced… Read More

“It is vital that the recent diplomatic moves are matched with real action,” said Geir Pedersen, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Syria, briefing the Security Council on recent political and humanitarian developments. A range of diplomatic initiatives have quickened the pace towards finding solutions on, among other things, continuing a direct dialogue with the Government of Syria, including such… Read More