Malaysia to charge women with airport murder of North Korean
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Two women – an Indonesian and a Vietnamese – will be charged on Wednesday with murder over the killing in Malaysia of the estranged half-brother of North Korea’s leader, Malaysia’s attorney general said.
Thai palace fires ‘extremely evil’ official
BANGKOK (Reuters) – A top official in Thailand’s palace has been fired for “extremely evil” misconduct and political interests which threatened national security, the government said on Tuesday.
Xi’s ‘core’ Party position cemented in China’s ideological education
BEIJING (Reuters) – China cemented President Xi Jinping’s position as the “core” of the Communist Party on Monday, making it part of ideological teaching in colleges and universities as Beijing tightens its hold on education.
Senior North Korea envoy visits Beijing after China coal ban: Kyodo
SEOUL (Reuters) – A senior North Korean diplomat arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for talks in the first such high-level visit since June last year, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported, after China halted coal imports from the impoverished nation under U.N…
China holds mass police rally in Xinjiang as hundreds sent to anti-terror ‘frontline’
BEIJING (Reuters) – More than 10,000 armed police in China’s western Xinjiang region staged a mass rally in the capital Urumqi, state media said, as authorities rolled out a rapid-response air patrol system to quell unrest that the government blames on…
China reacts with anger, threats after South Korean missile defense decision
BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese state media have reacted with anger and boycott threats after the board of an affiliate of South Korea’s Lotte Group approved a land swap with the government that allows authorities to deploy a U.S. missile defense system.
Malaysia says North Korean firms linked to arms trade being deactivated
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysia’s authorities were aware that two North Korea-linked companies operated an arms business in the country and both were being struck from the Company Registry, the police chief said on Tuesday.
China considering offering financial incentives for second child: China Daily
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China is considering introducing birth rewards and subsidies to encourage people to have a second child, after surveys showed that economic constraints were making many reluctant to expand families, the state-owned China Daily news…
In new year message, China’s Panchen Lama praises religious policy
BEIJING (Reuters) – A youth named by China as the second-highest figure in Tibetan Buddhism, but reviled as a fake by many Tibetans, has praised the Communist Party’s religious policies in Tibet in a lunar new year message, saying they made him feel “v…
Stateless Rohingya refugees sucked into booming Bangladesh drug trade
LEDA, Bangladesh (Reuters) – Rohingya Muslim refugee Ali Hasan is desperately looking for a bride for his 14-year-old son, jailed last year in Bangladesh for carrying the popular drug ya ba. He hopes the girl’s family would pay the $620 needed for Moha…
