The Philippines banned two US senators and threatened to introduce visa restrictions for Americans entering the country, the president's spokesman said Friday, if Washington pushes ahead with sanctions against Filipino officials involved in jailing a leading opposition leader.Senators Richard Durbin and Patrick Leahy were banned from entering the country after introducing a provision in the 2020 US budget that would prevent officials involved in the incarceration of Senator Leila de Lima

While Malaysia’s male politicians continue to squabble over power, all the women seem to be left with are breadcrumbs.Recently, the World Economic Forum (WEF) released its 2020 Global Gender Gap Report. While it was unsurprising that Nordic countries like Iceland, Norway, Finland, and Sweden were the top performers, some ASEAN countries like the Philippines – which managed to secure the 16th spot out of 153 countries – didn’t do too shabby either.

An official from Aung San Suu Kyi's political party was killed in Rakhine state after planning a show of support for the leader's defence of Myanmar against genocide allegations at The Hague, a spokesman said Thursday.The National League for Democracy's (NLD) Ye Thein, party chairman in Buthidaung township, had been held for weeks by the Arakan Army, insurgents fighting for more autonomy for ethnic Rakhine Buddhists.The rebels said he was killed in military attacks on Christmas

A Thai court on Wednesday said it would rule on a complaint to dissolve an upstart opposition party over alleged plots to overthrow the constitutional monarchy, a decision that could test the stability of the new government.The accusations against the Future Forward Party link its upside-down triangle logo to the supposed symbol of the Illuminati, which many conspiracy theorists - without offering serious evidence - claim is a secret society pursuing world domination.On 21 January, judges of

A series of explosions rocked a southern Philippine city known for Islamic State-linked violence on Sunday night, wounding at least 17 people including soldiers, a military official said.A hand grenade was thrown into a military truck patrolling Cotabato City in the restive southern island of Mindanao, with eight soldiers and four civilians sustaining injuries from the bomb's shrapnel.It was quickly followed by an improvised explosive device (IED) blast in the nearby to

Three small explosions went off in a southern Rakhine town in Myanmar Thursday just before civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi landed there in a rare visit to the conflict-ridden state, a local official said.The blasts happened in the normally quiet town of Manaung on an island off Myanmar's western coast where Suu Kyi was due to open a solar power plant."There were three explosions, but no casualties," Win Myint, spokesperson for Rakhine's regional government, told the media

Malaysian ex-leader Najib Razak swore in a packed mosque Friday he did not order the killing of a Mongolian woman linked to a major defence deal, rejecting an allegation from his ex-bodyguard.Altantuya Shaariibuu was shot dead and her body blown up with military-grade plastic explosives in 2006.Her death was linked to a scandal which allegedly saw kickbacks doled out during a 2002 deal to purchase French submarines, on which Altantuya worked as a translator.This week, a government bodyguard c

The masterminds of the Philippines' worst political massacre were found guilty Thursday of murder a decade after they led the killings of 58 people, rare convictions of powerful figures in a country notorious for its culture of impunity.However, with dozens of other accused gunmen acquitted, and 80 suspects never having been caught, relatives of the victims as well as rights groups gave a mixed response to the verdicts.Leaders of the powerful Ampatuan family dynasty orchestrated the 23 N

The president of sanctions-hit Iran called Thursday for Muslim countries to cooperate in fighting United States (US) "economic terrorism" at the opening of a summit aimed at tackling the Islamic world's woes.Hundreds of delegates are attending the gathering in Malaysia - including heads of state and religious leaders - but the meeting has been snubbed by Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest shrines.The summit has also been criticised for undermining the Organisation of Is

The Thai army has expressed "regret" after troops shot dead three Muslim men foraging in the jungle this week and promised a probe, a rare admission of wrongdoing by the military in Thailand's insurgency-scarred south.On Monday security forces killed three men aged 24-27 in a jungle in Narathiwat province, believing them to be Muslim militants. The commander of the southern army region - which oversees the three southernmost provinces - apologised for the "mistake