A senior Thai royal official has been sacked for "evil acts" including having an extramarital affair and forcing his alleged mistress to get an abortion, the palace said, the latest top aide to be axed under King Maha Vajiralongkorn.Vajiralongkorn, 65, took the throne one year ago following the death of his widely revered father King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who reigned for seven decades.He has yet to attain his father's widespread popularity but remains insulated from any criticism

Ministers from 11 Asia-Pacific countries agreed Saturday to press ahead with a major trade deal without the United States, as the world's largest economy seeks to go it alone under President Donald Trump's "America First" policy.Trump pulled his country from the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) at the start of the year, dismaying allies and casting into doubt an agreement heralded for tying lower tariffs to strong environmental and labour protections.He has been something o

The Kra Canal – also known historically as the Isthmus of Kra – is a proposed canal spanning 102 kilometres which would connect the Gulf of Thailand with the Andaman Sea. The construction of the canal would serve as an alternative to the current maritime trade route that passes through Singapore and the Straits of Malacca.The proposed construction of the Kra Canal that would save approximately 12,000 kilometres, or two to three days of sailing time for traders has recurred in recent times.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has said he stabbed a person to death as a teenager, in a defiant speech to promote his drug war ahead of a summit of world leaders in Manila.Speaking to the local Filipino community in the Vietnamese city of Danang on Thursday, Duterte also threatened to slap a UN rights rapporteur if he met her, and used obscene language to hit back at critics of his deadly drugs crackdown."When I was a teenager, I would go in and out of jail.

US President Donald Trump arrived in Vietnam Friday where he is expected to flesh out his "America First" vision for the future of world commerce, fresh from a visit to fellow superpower China which is pitching itself as the new architect of global free trade.Trump, who tweeted his arrival shortly after stepping off Air Force One at Danang airport, is likely to press his protectionist doctrine when he addresses CEOs ahead of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum at the

World leaders would be meeting in the Philippines from the 10th to the 14th of November for the 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and Related Meetings. One issue will definitely be on the agenda – the South China Sea dispute.ASEAN Summits have a dry, overused script when it comes to this maritime dispute.

The last time Aung San Suu Kyi visited Rakhine State in northern Myanmar was in 2015 during the country’s landmark general elections. Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party won by a landslide victory – ending military rule of the country and ushering in a new civilian government. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate was heralded as the leader who would turn around the struggling democracy.Her next visit was in early November this year.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte ordered troops to scrap plans of building a fishermen's shelter on a sandbar in the disputed South China Sea after Beijing complained, his defence chief said Wednesday.The military in August brought bamboo and palm roofing materials to one of three sandbars that emerged near one of their garrisons in the Spratlys archipelago in the contested sea, Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said."We tried to put some structures (on) one of the sandbars nea

Myanmar on Wednesday hit back at a UN Security Council statement critical of its handling of the Rohingya refugee crisis, saying it could "seriously harm" efforts to repatriate the Muslim minority from Bangladesh.On Monday the top UN body called on Myanmar to rein in military operations that have pushed more than 600,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh since late August, sparking a dire humanitarian crisis.

“A gun didn’t kill those people. Didn’t kill my friends. A gun stopped him… Not a cop gun. A civilian,” Robert Kunz, friend of several victims of the Sutherland Springs massacre in Texas, said to AFP.His statement was intended to protest the pro gun movement in the US which has responded meekly to the latest massacre.Back in Southeast Asia, gun-related violence and deaths are very much a scary reality.