YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Four Malaysian navy ships began searching the seas for stranded boat people Thursday in the first official rescue operation since desperate migrants started washing onto Southeast Asia's shores, and a formerly reluctant Myanmar agreed to attend a regional meeting aimed at easing the crisis. Thousands of Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshis are believed to be trapped on boats with little food or water — some after being pushed back by the navies of at least three countries — and the international community has warned that time to save them is running out.
BANGKOK (AP) — The decision by Indonesia and Malaysia to give temporary shelter to thousands of migrants stranded at sea appears to have defused a potential Southeast Asian humanitarian catastrophe, but the root causes of the crisis remain. Here's a look at still-unanswered questions surrounding the Rohingya Muslim migrants who are persecuted at home in Myanmar and have found scant welcome anywhere else. ___
A bipartisan group of 23 U.S. lawmakers is urging the Obama administration to prevent Southeast Asian seas from becoming a "graveyard" for thousands of Rohingya boat people. The lawmakers made the appeal in a letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry late Wednesday, ahead of discussions on the crisis between Myanmar's government and the No. 2 ranking U.S. diplomat, Anthony Blinken, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar's capital.
BEIJING (AP) — China said Thursday it is entitled to keep watch over airspace and seas surrounding artificial islands it created in the disputed waters of the South China Sea, following a reported exchange in which its navy warned off a U.S. surveillance plane. The comments came as the Chinese air force announced its latest offshore training exercises in the western Pacific as part of efforts to boost its combat preparedness. An air force spokesman said that followed an initial offshore drill held last month and future such exercises would likely be planned.
WASHINGTON (AP) — If President Barack Obama or his predecessor thought fighting a war with coalition partners was hard, they might consider Osama bin Laden's frustrations. Among documents gathered from his compound in Pakistan after U.S. Navy SEALs stormed the building and shot him to death is a lengthy complaint by the al-Qaida leader about working with Arabs, Uzbeks, Turks, "Russians of all kinds," Germans and others in his global jihad.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Australia's warmer climate and higher wages have long lured droves of New Zealanders across the Tasman Sea with the aim of making a better life in the "lucky country." But with Australia's economy stumbling and New Zealand's improving, the trend has begun to reverse.
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia has accepted the first four people under the agreement it made with Australia nine months ago to take in asylum-seekers rejected for residency there, an official said Thursday. Prime Minister Hun Sen signed an endorsement letter Wednesday and the two countries are now discussing when the four will arrive in Cambodia, said Gen. Khieu Sopheak, spokesman of Cambodia's Interior Ministry.
BEIJING (AP) — At least 15 people have been killed and thousands more forced from their homes by flooding in southern and central China and more rain has been forecast for coming days, officials said Thursday. Authorities said that Jiangxi province has been hardest hit, with eight people killed and 65,000 displaced. Just to the south, the Guangxi region suffered five deaths with six other people listed as missing.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia plans to strip citizenship from Australian-born children of immigrants who become Islamic State fighters in its crackdown on homegrown jihadis, a minister said on Thursday. The government wants to change the Citizenship Act to make fighting for Islamic State in Syria and Iraq a reason for losing citizenship, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said.
TOKYO (AP) — The fishing town of Taiji will not stop its dolphin hunts, the mayor said Thursday, after Japan's aquariums decided to stop buying captured dolphins under international pressure sparked by cruelty concerns. "We are hunting under the permission of the Japanese government and prefecture, and so we will continue to protect our fishermen and the methods. We will not quit," said Kazutaka Sangen, mayor of the small town in central Japan.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea said Thursday it has confirmed three cases of a respiratory virus that has killed hundreds of people in the Middle East. A 76-year-old man was diagnosed Thursday with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (AP) — The Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan has ratified a measure to join the Eurasian Economic Union, a Russia-led trade bloc. President Almazbek Atambayev on Thursday signed the ratification law. The country's entry must then be approved by the parliaments of the other members — Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Belarus.
BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese television drama got pulled off the air following a public outcry over a plot in which a hidden grenade is pulled from a woman's crotch during an amorous scene. The country's regulating agency — the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television — also began to review the TV drama "Let's Beat the Devils," which tells about Chinese people's resistance to Japanese invaders, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
BEIJING (AP) — A court on Thursday sentenced two young men to up to five months in jail for dangerous driving after they crashed a Lamborghini and a Ferrari in a late-night race through Beijing. The crash involving two luxury cars attracted much attention from the Chinese public, who speculated about the men's family backgrounds and how they could drive such expensive cars.
SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Hundreds of government forces with automatic weapons patrolled the streets of Indian Kashmir's main city to stop a rally by separatists to mark the anniversaries of the assassinations of two Kashmiri leaders. The two, Mirwaiz Mohammed Farooq and Abdul Gani Lone, had supported Kashmir's right to vote on whether it should be independent or governed either by India or Pakistan, nuclear-armed nations that have fought two wars since 1947 over its control. The Himalayan territory is currently split by a heavily militarized line of control between India and Pakistan.
- Myanmar
- President Barack Obama
- BEIJING
- Southeast Asia
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