YANGON: Journalists in Myanmar staged a protest yesterday to denounce new threats to press freedom and demand the release of a fellow reporter -- the first to be jailed since junta rule ended.
About 150 journalists and activists marched through Yangon chanting slogans including “No threat to press freedom” and waving placards which read: “Right to information is the life of democracy.”
The protest was led by the Myanmar Journalist Network in response to a three-month prison sentence given last month to a local journalist arrested during an investigation in the eastern state of Kayah.
JAKARTA: Australia last month turned a boat carrying asylum-seekers back to Indonesia, the first time Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s government has implemented a new immigration policy and further straining ties between the neighbours.
The 47 asylum-seekers were found on Indonesia’s southern-most point, Rote Island in East Nusa Tenggara province, on Dec 19 where their boat had run aground after being intercepted and turned back by the Australian navy, Indonesia’s Antara news agency quoted police as saying.
TAIPEI: Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou is set to visit Africa and Latin America this month to shore up ties with three countries, following the recent setback of losing long-time ally Gambia.
Ma is scheduled to leave for Africa on January 23 to visit Sao Tome and Principe, and Burkina Faso -- two of the only three African countries that now officially recognise Taipei after Gambia cut off ties in November. He will also travel to Honduras to attend the inauguration of Juan Orlando Hernandez scheduled for January 27 during the eight-day trip, according to the presidential office.
BANGKOK: Thailand’s anti-graft panel said yesterday it would press charges against hundreds of politicians, mostly from the party of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, over a failed attempt to amend the constitution.
The ruling adds to the political uncertainty in the kingdom, where the main opposition party is boycotting February elections called by Yingluck in an attempt to end anti-government protests.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission, whose mandate includes investigating abuse of power, cleared 73 politicians, including Yingluck, of wrongdoing in connection with a bid to make the senate fully elected. Agencies
