Bangladesh told the United Nations (UN) Security Council on Thursday that it will no longer be able to take in refugees from Myanmar.Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque told a council meeting that the crisis over the repatriation of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya sheltering in his country had gone from "bad to worse" and urged the council to take "decisive" action.Around 740,000 Muslim Rohingya are living in camps in Bangladesh after they were driven out of Myanmar's

United States (US) Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday vowed to defend the Philippines against "armed attack" in the disputed South China Sea, in Washington's starkest warning yet against Chinese claims to most of the strategic waterway.Speaking in Manila after meeting with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Pompeo said Beijing's actions in waters also claimed by the Southeast Asian nation and other neighbours were a threat."China's island-building and mi

The United States (US) and North Korea on Friday put forward starkly different accounts over the breakdown of a high-stakes summit in Hanoi but offered guarded hope that they could meet again.After weeks of building expectations and with a signing ceremony ready to go, President Donald Trump abruptly ended his second-ever meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and declared a deadlock."Sometimes you have to walk and this was just one of those times," an unusually downbeat Trump

Vietnam’s proposed North-South High-Speed Railway (HSR) is expected to improve transport quality for nearly half of the country’s population.The country’s Ministry of Transportation presented a pre-feasibility study for the project to Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc earlier this month, and the report created with the support of a foreign consultancy team found that north-south transport routes currently benefit 49 percent of the nation and serve a population which accounts for 61 pe

A 40-year-old tycoon who has become the darling of Thai millennials thanks to his sharp social media messaging on Wednesday decried efforts to "kick out his legs", as his upstart pro-democracy party soars in profile ahead of next month's election.Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, the scion of a billionaire auto-parts maker, is the charismatic frontman of Future Forward, a new party targeting the urban youth vote with a staunchly anti-junta platform.He has disrupted the Thai politi

When Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League of Democracy (NLD) party won the general elections in 2015, a new wave of hope swept Myanmar. Previously under a military junta for almost 50 years from 1962 to 2011, Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi and her cohort represented the change the country so badly needed; a shift from military dictatorship to a functioning democracy.Throughout the election campaign, Suu Kyi and the NLD promised bold political reforms that would transform the country.

Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un meet Wednesday in Hanoi for the second date in an unlikely friendship that the United States (US) president hopes will push North Korea's reclusive leader closer to reaching a deal on his nuclear arsenal.Trump touched down late Tuesday on Air Force One after flying half way around the world from Washington, while Kim arrived earlier, following a two-and-a-half-day train journey from Pyongyang.On completing their marathon trips, the protagonists of internation

India is hoping that better connectivity will help boost trade ties with ASEAN and decrease its trade deficit with the 10-member bloc.ASEAN is India’s second largest trading partner after China and total bilateral trade between ASEAN and India reached US$81.3 billion last year – an increase of more than 28 times the US$2.9 billion recorded in 1993.Bilateral trade between the two parties was US$21 billion in 2005-06, and although it has increased nearly fourfold since then, the ASEAN-India Fre

Jovial North Korean leader Kim Jong-un grinned and waved as he walked the red carpet from a Vietnamese rail station Tuesday, as flag-waving children and white-uniformed honour guards greeted him after a marathon two-and-a-half-day rail journey across China.Wearing his trademark Mao-style black suit, Kim disembarked from his olive-green armoured train surrounded by a crush of security and aides as the guards presented arms.Emerging from the station, he was met by a military band and a swarm of

Murad Ebrahim's life as the Philippines' top Muslim rebel led him into fierce jungle combat and to meet with Osama bin Laden, but a very different challenge now awaits him: governing.Murad has been tapped to lead the majority-Catholic nation's brand-new territory in the restive south where Muslims have won new powers and an influx of cash in a push for peace.After decades as a rebel, Murad will need to become a bureaucrat and complete complex projects as chief minister of the b