International news with relevance to Thai and regional readers
Spikes jut from the beaches of Taiwan’s Kinmen island, military checkpoints serve as traffic roundabouts and bunkers double up as tourist cafes — reminders everywhere of the conflict decades earlier with Chinese communist forces. Kinmen, which lies 200 kilometres (120 miles) from Taiwan island but only seven kilometres from the Chinese mainland, was a battlefield
Taiwan issued a national emergency alert on Tuesday as China launched a satellite, days before the self-ruled island holds a crucial presidential election that has heightened security worries. The alert came hours after election front-runner Lai Ching-te, Taiwan’s current vice president, accused Beijing of using “all means” to influence this weekend’s poll, which will set
Taiwan’s voters go to the polls on January 13 to elect a new president. Their choices are frontrunner Lai Ching-te from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, major opposition Kuomintang candidate Hou Yu-ih, and Taiwan People’s Party leader Ko Wen-je. Here is a look at three of their supporters: . – Hsu Yu-chia, 20 – University student
Tens of thousands of people gathered in southern Taiwan for “Super Sunday” rallies by three presidential candidates making a final weekend push before a crucial January 13 election. The poll is being closely watched from Beijing to Washington, with the winner set to determine the future of the democratic island’s relations with an increasingly aggressive
The death toll from Japan’s New Year’s Day earthquake jumped to 161 on Monday as snow complicated relief efforts with more than 2,000 people still cut off and many others lacking power or in crowded emergency shelters. Authorities said 103 people were still missing after the 7.5-magnitude quake that toppled buildings, sparked a major fire and
A Myanmar rebel alliance group has gained control of a key town along the country’s volatile northern border with China after weeks of fierce fighting with junta troops, it said in a statement late on Friday. The “Three Brotherhood Alliance”, as the group is known, said it took over Laukkai town after the military’s regional
Washington, United States – US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Saturday accepted responsibility for failing to disclose a recent hospitalization, following reports that even top White House officials and President Joe Biden were in the dark that he was ill and unable to carry out his duties. The Pentagon waited until Friday evening to announce that
The Thai Embassy in Tokyo has introduced Thai-styled clothing colours to Japanese netizens, claiming that they bring good fortune. The Embassy’s X account states in Japanese that, in Thailand, each day of the week has a specific colour. People who choose to wear clothes according to the colour of the day are believed to be
A video, showing a woman believed to be Thai, filling her car’s tank with benzene 95 at a gas station, has gone viral in Malaysia. The car bore Surat Thani license plates and the gas station is reported to be in Rawang, in Malaysia’s Selangor state. The clip, posted on the X account of “MALAYSIA
Seoul, South Korea – South Korean opposition party leader Lee Jae-myung, who was stabbed in the neck, is recovering well but still needs close monitoring to avoid complications, a Seoul National University Hospital doctor said Thursday. Lee was surrounded by journalists in the southern port city of Busan on Tuesday when a man pretending to be a
Japanese investigators on Wednesday probed a near-catastrophic collision at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport of a coast guard plane and a passenger jet that killed five people, with almost 400 others narrowly escaping a raging inferno. All but one of the six people on the smaller aircraft were killed, but all 379 Japan Airlines passengers and crew
The flight between the northern city of Sapporo and Tokyo’s Haneda airport is Japan’s busiest air route, and one of the most frequent services anywhere in the world. Japan Airlines (JAL) operates 16 round-trip flights a day. But when JAL516 followed that route to Haneda on Tuesday, what unfolded was a runway collision that is baffling aviation experts and a smooth
