Verbal warnings, strongly worded statements and freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs) – all seem to have fallen on deaf ears as Beijing continues its pursuit of militarising islands in the disputed South China Sea.Last week during Asia’s premier defence summit, the Shangri-La Dialogue, United States (US) Secretary of Defense, James Mattis called out China for their assertive actions.

Two Reuters journalists jailed while reporting on the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar are set to appeal the decision Monday, after spending more than a year behind bars despite global outcry over their convictions.Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were arrested in December 2017 and later sentenced to seven year prison terms for what prosecutors said was the possession of classified material on security operations.Reuters disputed the charge and said the two were set up after probing the massacre o

The Rohingya crisis receives most of the global media’s attention currently due to the scale and magnitude of the humanitarian crisis that is unfolding there and rightly so. However, there is another deadly ongoing conflict in Myanmar. This conflict is between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the government of Myanmar and has often been dubbed “the forgotten war” for that very reason.

Myanmar's military announced Friday it would suspend "all military movements" in the troubled northern and eastern regions for four months, an unprecedented step that observers say could coax ethnic rebel groups into the country's fractious peace process.Conflicts have been festering in the border areas since independence from Britain 70 years ago, with various armed groups fighting for autonomy, identity, resources and territory.Tens of thousands of people living within t

Local Thai media reported last week on the Central Islamic Council of Thailand’s (CICOT) decision to pass a new regulation banning children under the age of 17 from marriage. This is the first time the council issued a ban on child marriage nationwide.

The region’s most populous country, Indonesia, could be close to ending child marriages soon. On Thursday, Indonesia’s Constitutional Court ruled that the 16 years old minimum age requirement for women to marry is unconstitutional and that the government needs to change the minimum age for brides. The petition to the high court was filed by three child bride survivors with the backing of a coalition of campaigners and organisations against child marriage.

It has been just over 100 days since the Battle of Marawi, the military siege that lasted five months, from May to October last year. The Manila Times reported in October that over 47 civilians and around 970 militant terrorists were killed. Conflict between the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the coalition of Islamic State (IS) militants resulted in destruction of the city as a result of firefights, bombings and air strikes.

A recent rally celebrating the decision by the new government of Malaysia not to ratify the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) marked the coming together of two major political parties in the nation’s political landscape – the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) and the Malaysian Islamic Party (Parti Islam Se-Malaysia or PAS).There is an underlying political aspiration to this move of penyatuan ummah – or the unification of the Mus

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Recent reports have revealed that Indonesia is hoping to attract 3.5 million Chinese tourists to visit various tourist destinations in the country next year. Tourism Minister Arief Yahya expressed optimism that the target of 3.5 million Chinese tourist arrivals for 2019 would be achieved after the ministry designated Singapore as a hub for the Indonesian tourism market."Our weakness is that we do not have many direct flights.