Prime Minister Boris Johnson locked horns Wednesday with his rivals in a fiery launch to an unpredictable early general election aimed at breaking Britain's protracted Brexit deadlock.Johnson's sparring with the main opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn came a day after MPs backed the premier's call for Britain's third election in four years.The December 12 poll was decided just a few hours after Brussels extended this week's Brexit deadline to give London mor

Ten people, including several teenagers, were killed in Indonesia’s post-election riots, the human rights commission said Tuesday, as it accused police of beating up protesters.In its final report on the May riots, the agency Komnas HAM said four victims were underage and most had been shot in the capital Jakarta and demonstrations in Kalimantan, Indonesia’s section of Borneo island.Indonesia’s rights commission called on police to find the perpetrators, who it suspected were “actors trained,

Vietnam’s decision to ban the animated film Abominable earlier this month is just the latest in a string of pushbacks against China’s infamous nine-dash line.Vietnam’s censors were forced to apologise after the Hollywood film, which was jointly produced by a Chinese studio, was screened across Vietnam’s cinemas for a week despite a scene which showed the disputed nine-dash line – China’s depiction of its territorial delineation in the South China Sea.China claims nearly 80 percent of the reso

Malaysia's mammoth palm oil sector faces a new threat after Indian traders were asked to halt purchases amid a diplomatic row over Kashmir, piling further pressure on the industry as Europe also plans cutbacks.The Southeast Asian nation is the second-biggest producer after Indonesia of the oil, used in everything from food to cosmetics, in a sector long vilified by environmentalists who blame it for fuelling deforestation.With Western companies reducing use of the commodity as green grou

A global rights group cast doubt Friday on Bangladesh's claims that thousands of Rohingya refugees are ready to move to a new island site that critics say is prone to natural disasters.Dhaka has long wanted to move 100,000 people to the silt islet of Bhashan Char to relieve overcrowded mainland camps where almost a million Rohingya have lived since fleeing a brutal military crackdown in Myanmar in 2017.Bangladeshi officials have said that between 6,000 to 7,000 Rohingya have already expr

Muslims in the conflict-blistered Thai south on Friday marked with prayers the 15th anniversary of the deaths of scores of protesters who suffocated in army trucks – an incident that galvanised an insurgency and remains an emblem of state impunity.Known across Thailand's "deep south" as the "Tak Bai massacre", the 25 October, 2004 incident remains one of the deadliest days in the rebellion by Malay-Muslims against rule by the Thai state, which colonised the provinces

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday proposed settling the Brexit crisis through an early election on December 12 that could help Britain finally find a way out of the European Union.The Conservative leaders' offer comes with his party leading opinion surveys and the opposition split over whether to back a snap poll or to seek a new EU membership referendum that could undo the one triggering Brexit in 2016.It also suggests that Johnson has all but given up on his repeated pledge t

Indonesian President Joko Widodo Wednesday named his election arch-rival – a former general accused of abuses – as defence minister, a move which dismayed human rights activists.Widodo unveiled his new cabinet at an informal presentation, with more than three dozen new ministers in eye-catching batik shirts sitting in front of the imposing neoclassical columns of the Merdeka Palace.Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, beat Prabowo Subianto in April elections to secure another term as president

Paralysed by seething protesters and intransigent bosses in Beijing, Hong Kong's government lacks the power and experience to end the unprecedented political crisis in the city, analysts say.The semi-autonomous international hub has been riven by increasingly violent protests for more than four months, with demonstrators demanding greater democracy and police accountability as violence spirals on all sides.Yet so far, all the major steps taken by Beijing-backed city leader Carrie Lam hav

Thousands of Rohingya living in Bangladesh refugee camps have agreed to move to an island in the Bay of Bengal, officials said Sunday, despite fears the site is prone to flooding.Dhaka has long wanted to move 100,000 refugees to the muddy silt islet, saying it would take pressure off the overcrowded border camps where almost a million Rohingya live.Some 740,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar in August 2017 in the face of a military crackdown, joining 200,000 refugees already in makeshift tent settleme