Asia - Page 3

China’s foreign ministry denounced U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday for “prejudice and arrogance” for urging Beijing to reveal the true death toll of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, which turns 30 years old Tuesday.

The head of Sri Lanka’s State Intelligence Service (SIS) Sisira Mendis told that nation’s legislature on Wednesday that government intelligence and defense officials were aware of a jihadist plot to kill Christians on Easter Sunday, but no one did anything to prepare for it.

North Korea’s Foreign Affairs Ministry hurled a tirade of personal insults at National Security Adviser John Bolton in remarks published Monday, dismissing his complaints that Pyongyang had violated U.N. Security Council limits on weapons testing by asserting that those limits were “illegal.”

Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro announced on Thursday his regime would invest “immediately” into Chinese telecommunications giants Huawei and ZTE to bring a 4G wireless network to the country, which is suffering chronic shortages of food, medicine, electricity, and gasoline under his rule.

Indonesian police struggled to contain thousands-strong riots late Tuesday against the re-election of moderate President Joko Widodo over hard-line military general Prabowo Subianto. The unreast has killed six and injured hundreds since Islamic groups called for “constitutional jihad” against Widodo this weekend.

Leftist leaders in Cuba and Venezuela welcomed Chinese diplomats to their respective capitals this week to discuss support for their regimes amid ongoing economic crises.

Authorities continued imposing curfews Wednesday night in Sri Lanka after a wave of largely Sinhalese Buddhist led vandalism on Muslim businesses and mosques prompted a nationwide law enforcement effort to protect the nation’s Muslim minority.

Sri Lanka’s Home Affairs Minister Vajira Abeywardena revealed Sunday that the country had deported 200 Islamic clerics in the wake of the Easter Sunday jihadist attacks against Christians over concerns they had the potential to radicalize locals.

The annual admittance of more than 1.2 million legal immigrants is expected to drive the United States’ foreign-born population to unprecedented levels by 2060, Census Bureau data finds.

Sri Lankan security forces continued a massive operation during the weekend, focusing on perpetrators of the Easter Sunday church bombings and seizing large caches of explosives and equipment that could have been used in further suicide attacks.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to “declare war” on Canada in remarks Tuesday, claiming he would personally sail across the Pacific and dump tons of trash onto the nation if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not agree to take back the garbage it had imported to the island nation.

Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena announced Tuesday he would fire the heads of all security, police, and defense agencies in the country following the devastating jihadist attack on Easter Sunday that has now killed 359 people, mostly Christians.

Sri Lanka may be considering joining a growing number of governments in banning the burqa, an Islamic head covering that leaves no part of a woman’s body visible, local media reported Tuesday in the aftermath of the series of suspected jihadist bombings targeting Christians on Easter Sunday.

Members of Sri Lanka’s prime minister’s cabinet revealed Sunday that Indian authorities warned their intelligence officials in advance of Sunday’s deadly jihadist bombings targeting Christians, but that warning never made it to the prime minister’s office.

A group of 13 same-sex couples in Japan plans to file a lawsuit Thursday challenging their legal inability to marry, depriving them of the ability to inherit property from their partners, make meaningful medical decisions in cases of emergency, and other rights.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte condemned the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) as violent, hopeless, and insane during a speech Thursday, and urged members of the U.S.-designated terrorist organization to turn away from their “rotten ideology.”

Contents: South Korea vs Japan military ‘radar lock’ feud continues to escalate; Suspension of daily World View articles; Generational Dynamics development of generational theory

An earthquake registering a 6.4 magnitude has hit off the coast of Japan, according to emerging reports. 

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) published a report Tuesday accusing South East Asian nations of systematically failing to protect their populations’ religious rights, noting that “state officials” in Pakistan often shield criminals forcing Christian or Hindu women into a Muslim marriage.

China conducted a series of tightly coordinated raids on Sunday against the Early Rain Covenant Church in the city of Chengdu, arresting dozens of members including Pastor Wang Yi and his wife.

China’s state-run Global Times announced the arrest Sunday of ten individuals for participating in a protest urging the Communist Party to issue promised pensions to veterans of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in October.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte used the occasion of an award ceremony for “Child-friendly Municipalities and Cities” on Wednesday to call on his population to “kill bishops” for being “good for nothing.” On Friday, at a labor event, Duterte disparaged priests as being “90 percent gay.”

Contents: Pakistan fails to get agreement from IMF for a bailout; Pakistan’s link to the FATF financial blacklist; Pakistan turns to its ‘friends’ for aid

The household is the “most dangerous place” for women in the modern world due to the high rates of domestic violence, according to a new study by the United Nations.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte issued yet another tirade against the Catholic Church on Monday, accusing Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of illegal drug use and threatening to behead him for buying drugs.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte signed 29 deals with Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping on Tuesday during the latter’s visit to Manila that grant China greater access to Philippine territorial waters and bind the Philippines to China’s expansive Belt and Road infrastructure project.

A soldier who dramatically fled North Korea by crossing the heavily armed Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) into South Korea last year told Japanese media that he believes about 80 percent of young North Koreans are “indifferent” towards the regime and have “no loyalty” to Kim Jong-un, English-language reports revealed on Monday.

Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping received a frigid welcome in the Philippines on Tuesday as hundreds of protesters circled the Chinese embassy in Manila and others took to attacking Xi on social media for launching a colonization campaign in Philippine territories of the South China Sea.

A group of over 100 Chinese tourists swarmed Yagong Island, in the disputed Paracel Island chain of the South China Sea, this weekend for a “flag-raising ceremony” to assert China’s sovereignty over the region.

China’s state media outlets praised official Zhang Jun and its United Nations delegation on Monday for celebrating the country’s alleged human rights progress before the international forum, failing to mention Communist Party leader Xi Jinping’s expansion of political re-education camps and terror campaigns against religious minorities.

The secretary general of Interpol, Juergen Stock, discussed the disappearance of former agency president Meng Hongwei in depth on Thursday, insisting that the Chinese government’s arrest of him was a “sovereign” matter in which Interpol could not challenge or intervene.

Imelda Marcos, the 89-year-old widow of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos and a sitting member of the Philippines House of Representatives, was named in an arrest warrant on Friday when she failed to appear in court to face seven corruption charges.

The Chinese Communist Party regulatory body that controls the nation’s karaoke venues announced a ban on 6,000 songs this week, claiming the Chinese businesses were not paying the original artists for their work.

Cuba’s Miguel Díaz-Canel, who holds the title of “president” but remains subordinate to dictator Raúl Castro, received a hero’s welcome in North Korea on Sunday and Monday, enjoying a theater performance and street parade with dictator Kim Jong-un.

The government of Pakistan promised the radical Islamist Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party this weekend it would begin a legal process to prevent Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of four acquitted of blasphemy last week, from leaving the country, a move almost certainly ensuring her death at the hands of a violent mob.

President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, one of the world’s most populous Catholic countries, used the occasion of All Saints’ Day to tell Catholics to stop venerating “stupid saints” and instead put a photo of himself on their altars.