About 100 people came down with food poisoning symptoms early Wednesday morning during a six-day cruise to Ho Chi Minh City and Redang Island. The Star Cruises ship SuperStar Virgo left Singapore on Sunday with about 1,700 passengers. The passengers who fell ill had lunch at the Grand Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City. The […]
Vietnam’s navy has conducted live-fire artillery drills off the country’s central coast following increased tensions with China over control in the South China Sea. The naval exercises began near an unoccupied island 40 kilometers from Vietnam’s central coast, in an escalation of tensions between Vietnam and China over disputed waters within the South China Sea. […]
Tensions in the South China Sea over territorial disputes are rising once again with China clashing with Vietnam and the Philippines recently. The disputes come as the United States and ASEAN try to help those with claims in the resource rich waters resolve their differences through dialogue and avoid the use of force or threats. […]
An independent watchdog organization, Freedom House, has named 17 countries and three territories as the world’s “most repressive societies.” Among those topping the list of the world’s worst human rights abusers are Burma, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Libya, North Korea, and Sudan. The annual report was launched in Geneva. The countries on the list are those […]
Seoul – A US man held six months in North Korea headed home Saturday with a departing US envoy, two news agencies reported. Jun Young Su departed Pyongyang on a plane with Robert King, the US special envoy on North Korean human rights, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency and Japan’s Kyodo News agency reported from […]
Asian students wear revealing outfits to school Are students dressing too sexily for school, and should schools enforce a dress code? Yet another student was spotted on campus in a less-than-modest outfit, which looked more suited for a night on the town than for school. Said a student at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, who took a […]
A US-based organization for survivors of the Khmer Rouge condemned the UN-backed war crimes tribunal on Thursday for preventing overseas Cambodians from taking part in the court’s controversial third case. Tribunal observers fear the court is trying to dismiss those cases in the face of stringent government opposition. The U.S.-based survivors group ASRIC says the […]
Thai police have arrested U.S. citizen Lerpong Wichaikhammat, 54, and charged him with defaming the revered monarchy for an alleged offense dating to a four-year-old post on his blog. Insulting the monarchy, known as “Lese Majeste”, is a serious crime in Thailand that is punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Rights groups and […]
