Thousands of Rohingya have crossed into Bangladesh since Myanmar announced a military build-up in Rakhine state earlier this month, community leaders said Wednesday.Rakhine in northern Myanmar has been gripped by violence since October, when militants attacked police posts.That sparked a bloody military crackdown that the UN believes may amount to ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya, a mainly Muslim minority living in Buddhist Myanmar.On August 12 authorities in Myanmar said hundreds of troops h

The United States expressed "deep concern" Wednesday over the state of Cambodia's democracy after the government there ordered out an American NGO and pursued a crackdown on independent media.Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has run the Southeast Asian monarchy's administration for three decades, faces a general election next year and is accused of maneuvering to silence any criticism.On Wednesday, the government ordered foreign staff from the National Democratic Institute -- a

The Philippines' largest Muslim rebel group said Wednesday it had lost 10 fighters in battles to stop a "growing force" of radical militants who support the Islamic State group.The Moro Islamic Liberation Front is seeking to prevent the militants from gaining a foothold in an area of Mindanao island that the MILF calls its own, senior rebel leader Mohagher Iqbal told AFP.Iqbal said 50 or so militants had pledged allegiance to IS and had ties to gunmen waging a deadly three-mont

Cambodia on Wednesday closed a prominent American NGO and ordered its foreign staff to leave the country, the latest salvo by Prime Minister Hun Sen against perceived critics before a general election next year.The order comes a day after the strongman premier threatened the Cambodia Daily, one of the country's few remaining critical newspapers, with closure over an alleged unpaid tax bill of $6.3 million, calling them "thieves".In a statement on Wednesday, the Ministry of Fore

The commander of the US Navy's Seventh Fleet will be relieved of his duty following a deadly collision between a destroyer and a merchant vessel, the latest in a spate of similar accidents, a defense official said Tuesday. The decision to remove Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin from the post in Japan comes as the Navy is undertaking a fleet-wide global investigation in the wake of the incident Monday involving the USS John S.

As the world reacted with empathy and sorrow in light of the recent accident between USS John S. McCain and Liberian oil tanker, Alnic MC that left 10 sailors missing, there were faint signs of diplomatic arm-flexing between Malaysia and Singapore. Both claimed that the accident happened on their respective territorial waters and both claimed to be leading the search and rescue (SAR) operations.

A British BBC journalist appeared in a Thai court on Wednesday for the start of a criminal defamation trial brought by a lawyer who featured in an investigation about foreigners being scammed of their retirement homes.Jonathan Head, the BBC's Southeast Asia correspondent, faces up to five years in jail at the private prosecution on the popular tourist island of Phuket.Rights groups have said the case exposes how Thailand's broad defamation and computer crime laws scupper investigati

Clobbered by coups and courts, Thailand's Shinawatra political dynasty is bracing for another withering blow in its decade-long power struggle with the kingdom's establishment as judges decide whether to convict the clan's ex-premier Yingluck.The Supreme Court will on Friday rule if Yingluck is guilty of criminal negligence over a rice subsidy that showered cash on her family's rural political heartland, but was riddled with graft and led to billions of dollars of losses.I