World leaders gathered in Japan Friday for one of the most high-stakes and fractious Group of Twenty (G20) meetings in years, with a bruising United States (US)-China trade war, geopolitical tensions, and climate change on the agenda.The two-day summit in the city of Osaka will be dominated by trade issues, with all eyes on whether US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping can reach a truce in a dispute that has been hugely damaging for the world economy.But world leaders wil

When Sam Sok took a $6-a-day job as a construction labourer in Sihanoukville she knew it could be dangerous, but the deaths of 28 workers in a building collapse – with her nephew among the missing – has laid bare the risks many like her face to earn a living. She left her eight-year-old son with neighbours more than 100 kilometres (62 miles away), one of thousands pushed by poverty seeking to cash in on the once sleepy seaside town's Chinese-funded construction boom. Th

Indonesian police beat protesters during last month's deadly rioting in Jakarta, Amnesty International said, as it called for an independent probe into "grave human rights violations", including the killing of demonstrators.In May, peaceful protests against president Joko Widodo's re-election victory in the world's third-biggest democracy erupted into street battles between police and rioters in central Jakarta. At least nine demonstrators were killed and hun

YouTube advertisers should stop posting on channels that feature "toxic" anti-state content, a Vietnamese official said Tuesday at a meeting with major brands including Yamaha and Grab. The communist country has tightened its grip on online dissent as critics turn to social media to air grievances about the one-party state. A controversial cybersecurity law passed last year calls for global tech giants such as Google and Facebook to scrub "toxic" content

Following the conclusion of the 34th ASEAN Summit last weekend in Bangkok, Thailand, it came as no surprise that the bloc was heavily criticised for suggesting Rohingya refugees will repatriate back to Myanmar within two years. More than 740,000 Rohingya have fled to refugee camps in Bangladesh since a 2017 army crackdown on the stateless minority.

The United States (US)-China trade war and the stalled negotiations for trade pacts and maritime guidelines were among the main issues at last week’s 34th ASEAN Summit in Bangkok, highlighting the region’s concerns over growing geopolitical and trade tensions.Global trade is facing uncertainties after the US and China embarked on a see-saw of tariffs last year, with Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte calling for the two economic superpowers to “resolve their differences before the situation s

Iran and the United States (US), locked in a tense standoff after the US withdrew from a nuclear deal, traded barbs Sunday the day before the US tightens sanctions against the Islamic republic.Both sides say they want to avoid going to war, but tensions have spiralled as a series of incidents, including attacks on tankers and the shooting down of a US drone by Iran in the Gulf, raised fears of an unintended slide towards conflict.On Sunday, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif sa

With Southeast Asia awash in rubbish, from plastic-choked whales to trash-clogged canals, its leaders are planning to push through a deal to fight maritime debris at a regional meeting this weekend. Just five Asian countries – China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand – dump more than half of the eight million tonnes of plastic waste that end up in oceans every year, according to a 2017 Ocean Conservancy report.The region has come under fire for not doing enough to tack

Southeast Asian leaders are eager to sign a sweeping China-led trade pact by the end of this year, Thailand's prime minister said Friday, with further talks expected at a Bangkok summit on the world's biggest commercial deal.Beijing is seeking to shape the rules of free trade across the Asia-Pacific, as America retreats from multilateral deals under United States (US) President Donald Trump.The China-crafted Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) includes all 10 economie

Malaysia's prime minister on Friday vowed to help Rohingya Muslims seeking refuge in Malaysia, reiterating the call for Southeast Asian leaders to "stop the oppression" of the stateless minority group expelled from Myanmar. Last year Mahathir Mohamad castigated Myanmar civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' (ASEAN) meet in Singapore for defending the military's crackdown on the Rohingya. His direct condemn