Day: December 10, 2022

Tokyo —  Japan’s parliament Saturday enacted a law to restrict malicious donation solicitations by religious and other groups, which mainly targets the Unification Church, whose fundraising tactics and cozy ties with the governing party caused public outrage. The South Korean-based religious group’s decadeslong ties with Japan’s governing Liberal Democratic Party surfaced after the July assassination of former leader Shinzo Abe. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, whose support ratings tumbled, sought to calm public fury over his handling of the scandal and has replaced three Cabinet ministers — one over his church…

MANILA, Philippines —  Hundreds of people marched in the Philippine capital on Saturday protesting what they said was a rising number of extrajudicial killings and other injustices under the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The protesters, led by a Philippines-based rights group, gathered at a public square in Manila before marching toward the presidential palace to demand justice for victims. Police estimated around 800 protesters took part in the rally, which coincided with International Human Rights Day. Cristina Palabay of the rights group Karapatan said under the Marcos administration’s…

Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska —  Russia and China are “modernizing and expanding” their nuclear weapons arsenals, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin warned Friday, amid increasing tensions with Moscow over Ukraine and with Beijing over Taiwan. Speaking at the headquarters of U.S. Strategic Command, the military command in charge of America’s nuclear weapons arsenal, Austin said the United States is “on the verge of a new phase” where two major nuclear powers are “strategic competitors.” The U.S. defense secretary criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin for what he referred to as…

BANGKOK —  Rising despair and violence in Bangladesh’s teeming refugee camps are driving what the United Nations calls a “dramatic increase” in ethnic Rohingya risking perilous journeys across the Andaman Sea in search of better lives abroad, refugees and rights groups have told VOA. More than a million predominantly Muslim Rohingya now live in the camps after being driven from their homes in Buddhist-majority Myanmar by decades of persecution, including a 2017 campaign of murder, rape and arson by security forces that the U.N. called “a textbook example of ethnic…

HONG KONG —  A pro-democracy media tycoon was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison over two fraud charges linked to lease violations in Hong Kong on Saturday, the latest of a series of cases against prominent activists that critics say are aimed at snuffing out dissidents in the city. Jimmy Lai, who was arrested during a crackdown on the city’s pro-democracy movement following widespread protests in 2019 and under the National Security Law imposed by Beijing, was also fined $257,000. His media company, Next Digital, published the…