A court in Vietnam’s Da Nang city has wrapped up a three-day trial of 24 defendants accused of faking documents to bring in South Korean “experts” and “investors.” The 24, including 18 company directors, were sentenced to between nine months of probation and 10 years in prison, according to the Public Security News website. The scheme was masterminded by Lee Kwan Young, the vice chairman of the Central Korean Association and director of Eyelux Co. Ltd., who allegedly persuaded 26 companies to issue documents allowing 92 South Korean nationals to…
Day: February 16, 2023
Cyclone in New Zealand Leaves 7 Dead, Trail of Chaos
wellington, new zealand — Recovery efforts continued in hard-hit areas of New Zealand on Friday after Cyclone Gabrielle caused chaos, leaving at least seven people dead and displacing 10,000 people in the country’s most damaging storm in decades. Gabrielle, which hit New Zealand on Sunday before making its way down the east coast of the North Island, cut off entire towns, washed away farms, bridges and livestock, and inundated homes, stranding people on rooftops. The death toll was at seven after a second volunteer firefighter, Craig Stevens, died in a…
UNESCO Accused of Complicity in China’s Treatment of Uyghur Heritage
WASHINGTON — A report released by Washington-based Uyghur Human Rights Project accuses UNESCO of sanitizing the persecution of Uyghurs and destruction of their cultural heritage in China. UNESCO, which stands for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, “continues to acknowledge China as a protector of Uyghur, Kazakh and Kyrgyz heritage in the Uyghur region,” says the report co-authored by Rachel Harris and Aziz Isa Elkun. In doing so, they write, the agency violates its own standards by failing to acknowledge Beijing’s actions toward Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in…
Biden seeks ‘common global norms’ for aerial objects
U.S. President Joe Biden said Thursday he would seek new “common global norms” for launching and maintaining unmanned aerial objects, following a two-week period in which U.S. forces shot down three such objects and an alleged Chinese spy balloon. Speaking at the White House, Biden also said there was no evidence any of the three latest objects shot down in U.S. airspace were from China, but that the event “underscores the importance of maintaining open lines of communication” with Beijing. Chinese defense officials reportedly rejected phone calls from their U.S.…
Truss to call for tough sanctions against China if it escalates Taiwan tensions
Britain and the rest of the G7 should urgently agree a tough package of sanctions to impose on China if it escalates military tensions with Taiwan, Liz Truss will argue, as she uses her first public overseas speech to pile pressure on Rishi Sunak. Speaking in Tokyo on Friday, the former prime minister will urge her successor to be more hawkish in standing up to Beijing, warning coordinated action is needed to block “the rise of a totalitarian China” given “the free world is in danger”. Truss is expected to…
Holding out against China in a row over reefs
There are numerous claims and counter-claims to the islands, reefs and waters of the South China Sea. China’s is only the most expansive. The Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan and Malaysia all have their own overlapping claims to smaller bits of the sea. And most of those claims are also not supported by international law. BBC
Vietnamese former fortune teller and ex-con suddenly ordained a Catholic priest
A Vietnamese fortune-teller and ex-convict linked to a corruption scandal who recently became a Catholic priest has been suspended for allegedly falsifying documents needed for his ordination in the Philippines, a statement from the bishop of his diocese said. Ho Hu Hoa has been banned from “performing sacraments and rituals within the Vinh Diocese,” said the dispatch from Bishop Anphong Nguyen Huu Long to all priests in the central-northern diocese. Hoa’s sudden and mysterious rise to the priesthood has gotten widespread attention in Vietnam. He had been a feng shui…
Four Laotian trafficking victims freed from Myanmar casino faced regular beatings
Reluctant to leave his home in Laos, the young man only agreed to travel abroad after being promised good pay for a simple three-month job. Six months and countless beatings later, the 14-year-old and three other trafficking victims from Laos’s Luang Namtha province were freed from the Kaiso Casino in Myanmar’s Myawaddy town this week and sent across the border to Thailand, where they were eventually deported home and reunited with their loved ones. “I went to Myanmar in August last year because my employer told me that I would…
Australia news live: Albanese says he has confidence in Philip Lowe, Perrottet backs ban on gay conversion practices
From 48m ago Perrottet backs ban on gay conversion practices Tamsin Rose New South Wales is a step closer to banning so-called gay conversion therapy after the premier, Dominic Perrottet, said he would support legislation to end the damaging practices. He said: There is no room for any harmful practices in NSW, particularly if they affect our young and vulnerable. When the parliament returns, my government will provide in principle support for legislation that brings an end to any harmful practices. This is a complex matter and in working through…
UN rapporteurs concerned that Chinese activist arrested in Vietnam will be sent back
The Vietnamese government has failed to respond to a request by three U.N. special rapporteurs as to the whereabouts of a Chinese human rights defender arrested by Vietnamese police. They are concerned that Dong Guangping will face persecution if sent back to China. Vietnamese police in Hanoi arrested Dong, 65, in August 2022, though the official reason for his detention is unknown. At the time, Dong was seeking political asylum status in a third country. Dong, a former police officer from Henan province, was criminally prosecuted in China three times…