Region

JAKARTA: Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Wednesday approved a law prescribing the death penalty as the maximum sentence for child rapists, after several brutal gang rapes sparked public outrage. Sexual violence is prevalent in Southeast Asia’s most populous country, but gang rape is unusual. Social media erupted in calls for harsher punishment following a case […]

PNOM PENH: Cambodia’s next election will be in July 2018, Prime Minister Hun Sen announced on Wednesday, as leaders of the opposition face legal charges they say are politically motivated to stop them challenging the veteran premier in the vote. Long before the Southeast Asian nation goes to the ballot box, political tension has risen. […]

HO CHI MINH CITY: US President Barack Obama chided Vietnam on political freedoms on Tuesday after critics of the communist-run government were prevented from meeting him in Hanoi, a discordant note on a trip otherwise steeped in words of amity between the former foes. Tens of thousands turned out to welcome Obama on the second […]

ANKARA: Turkey’s new prime minister vowed on Tuesday to work immediately on forging the stronger presidency wanted by the incumbent, Tayyip Erdogan, and announced a cabinet that signalled policy continuity but left little doubt as to who was in charge. Top members of the economic management team including Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek, favoured by […]

NEW DELHI: Prashant Kishor, the election campaign manager brought in by India’s opposition Congress party to reverse its declining fortunes, knew his real work would begin when the party hit rock bottom. It looks like that moment has come. The party run by the fabled Gandhi dynasty, which has led the world’s largest democracy for […]

CARACAS: Venezuela is sinking deeper into political and economic chaos, but the international response has been timid so far — and is unlikely to put much pressure on an unbending President Nicolas Maduro, analysts say. So far, the international community’s main plan of action for Venezuela has been to call for a “great national dialogue,” […]

YANGON: A landslide in Myanmar’s northern jade mining region has killed at least 12 people and many more are missing, officials said Tuesday, the latest deadly accident to hit the shadowy but lucrative industry. The bodies were recovered after a wall of unstable earth collapsed Monday night following heavy rain in the town of Hpakant […]

WIANG PA PAO: A 10-year-old Thai girl called out for her mother and father as a blaze swept through her school dormitory “until her voice was gone”, her mother said on Tuesday. The fire broke out late on Sunday as the girls, aged between five and 12, slept at a Christian school for children of […]

BRASILIA: Brazil’s interim President Michel Temer said on Tuesday he would seek a constitutional amendment to curb public spending as his government unveiled a raft of austerity measures to plug a record fiscal deficit and regain investors’ confidence. Temer, a centrist who took over from leftist President Dilma Rousseff two weeks ago after she was […]

MANILA: A Malaysian naval patrol detained three Philippine fishermen for encroaching in territorial waters in the disputed Spratlys this month, the Philippine military said on Tuesday, in what may be the first such incident involving Southeast Asian neighbours. Malaysia and the Philippines have overlapping exclusive economic zones in the disputed South China Sea, which is […]