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Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has been charged with breaking anti-terrorism laws, according to authorities on August 22, 2022. Dozens of Khan supporters gathered outside his home, vowing to prevent his arrest. The charges were based on a speech Khan gave during a public rally in the capital Islamabad on …
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced on August 21, 2022, that the city state will repeal a British-colonial era law criminalising sex between men. It will, however, amend its constitution to uphold the definition of a legal marriage between a man and a woman. LGBTQ organisations welcomed the anti-gay s…
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Famous Western brands like Starbucks and Coca-Cola that have exited Russia face years of battling knock-offs and unauthorised imports. It’s a risky bid as courts show little sympathy for firms that leave the country. Hundreds of companies pulled out of Russia in early 2022, after Moscow sent thousands of troops into…
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Seventy-five years ago, Sir Cyril Radcliffe, a British lawyer, was commissioned to draw the borders that would divide British-ruled India into two new, independent nations: Hindu-majority India and mainly Muslim Pakistan.
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The southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, home to 18 million, has introduced China's clearest framework yet for autonomous vehicle (AV) regulations. From August 1, 2022, registered AVs will be allowed to operate without a driver in the driving seat across a broad swathe of the city, but a driver must still be present i…
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A rare fossilised skeleton of a Gorgosaurus has been sold on auction in the United States for US$6.1 million, in the latest of a series of controversial sales involving dinosaur remains. An anonymous buyer placed the winning bid for the skeleton at a Sotheby's natural history auction in New York City on July 28, 202…
A man convicted of killing seven people in a truck ramming and stabbing rampage in Tokyo’s popular Akihabara electronics district in 2008 was executed on July 26, 2022. Justice Minister Yoshihisa Furukawa said Tomohiro Kato had undertaken meticulous preparation for the attack and displayed a strong intent to kill. K…
Global condemnation has followed the executions of four pro-democracy activists in Myanmar by the ruling military junta that accused them of helping to carry out “terror acts”. Following the executions announced by state media on July 25, 2022, the United States said it is considering all options to punish the jun…
Four democracy activists have been put to death by Myanmar’s military government, according to state media on July 25, 2022. They were accused of directing and organising “violent and inhuman accomplice acts of terrorist killings”. The junta overthrew the democratically elected government in a coup in February 2021.…
Sri Lankan lawmakers chose acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe as the country’s new leader on July 20, 2022, hoping his long experience in government will help pull Sri Lanka out of a crippling economic and political crisis. The six-time prime minister garnered 134 votes in the 225-member parliament, despite publi…
South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin has travelled to Japan to meet his Japanese counterpart Yoshimasa Hayashi and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. The three days of meetings starting July 18, 2022, aim to repair a bilateral relationship that has fallen to all-time lows. The officials discussed a possible resolution …
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Sri Lankans are looking to elect a new leader after ousted president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled to Singapore and resigned amid months of protests over the worst economic crisis to hit the nation since it gained independence in 1948. Rajapaksa named his close ally, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, as “act…
A veteran Hong Kong opposition activist popularly known by her Cantonese nickname Wong Por Por or “Grandma Wong” has been jailed for eight months. The sentence was handed down in Eastern Court on July 13, 2022. Alexandra Wong Fung-yiu, 66, pleaded guilty to two counts of unlawful assembly at the height of the 2019 H…
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has won the latest parliamentary election by a landslide, securing 76 of the 125 contested upper house seats with its coalition partner. The election came days after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated while campaigning for conservative LDP candidates in Na…
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called an unprecedented meeting during the first week of July 2022, aiming to boost “monolithic” party rule, according to state media reports. During the conference, Kim highlighted the importance of the Party Life Guidance Section within the Workers’ Party of Korea. The powerful sect…
In what critics are describing as “bulldozer justice”, earth-moving equipment is being used to plough into shops and homes in India during operations reportedly targeting Muslim activists behind recent anti-government protests. Demonstrations were held across India in June 2022 after two ruling-party officials made …
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Thousands of people joined a protest in the Indian city of Udaipur on June 30, 2022, following the murder of a Hindu tailor the previous day. Two Muslim men in the western state of Rajastanare have been arrested after allegedly beheading Kanhaiya Lal and posting a video of the act online. The victim reportedly had s…
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A district court in Osaka, Japan ruled on June 20, 2022, that the ban on same-sex unions does not violate the Japanese constitution, citing the legal definition of marriage and a lack of public debate on the issue. The judgment stands in stark contrast to a March 17, 2021 ruling by a Sapporo district court, which sa…
The CEO of the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX), Nicolas Aguzin, says the two new offices being mooted in the US and Europe would promote HKEX as a fundraising centre for international companies and a gateway for international investors to access the mainland China market. Speaking with Post business editor E…
Thailand released more than 3,000 people jailed on marijuana-related charges after the country became the first in Asia to legalise the drug. Convictions on possession of even small amounts of cannabis in Thailand had carried prison terms until June 2022, when Thai officials decriminalised the drug, effectively maki…
A Cambodian court ordered jail sentences on June 14, 2022, for about 60 opposition figures including Cambodian-American lawyer Theary Seng for conspiring to commit treason. Their mass trial and guilty verdicts have been condemned by the United States and human rights groups.
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Angry protests continue in Muslim communities across Bangladesh, India, the Middle East, Pakistan and parts of Asia directed at two Indian politicians who made remarks considered derogatory to Islam’s Prophet Mohammed. A spokeswoman for India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Nupur Sharma, is under fire for com…
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As part of the city’s goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050, Hong Kong approved its first electric double-decker bus for trial operations on June 19, 2022. The bus will run along Route 5B, from Hong Kong Stadium to Kennedy Town on Hong Kong Island. The bus can carry up to 113 passengers and has an estimated range …
China’s first domestically built drone ship has completed its maiden sea trial in what was hailed as a breakthrough in autonomous navigation and intelligent technologies of unmanned vessels for the nation. The trial was conducted in waters off eastern Zhejiang province on June 7, 2022. With a length of more than 40 …
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Muslim protesters in Mumbai, India took to the streets on June 6, 2022 to protest against remarks made by the spokeswoman for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Nupur Sharma was accused of making anti-Muslim insults during her comments in a televised debate. The BJP subsequently suspended Sharma and she has is…
A forensic pathologist has teamed up with a Catholic priest to seek justice for victims of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-drug war campaign. Officially, over 6,000 have been killed in the drug war since 2016, but the International Criminal Court estimates that the true toll could be as high as 30,000. F…
Three years since Taiwan became the first place in Asia to legalise same-sex unions, some members in the island’s gay community are still unable to wed their partners. Under current rules, Taiwan only recognises gay marriages to foreign partners from the roughly 30 countries and regions where same-sex marriage is al…
Afghanistan's Taliban rulers have begun a campaign to eradicate poppy cultivation after the group issued an edict in early April 2022, banning a key source for many narcotics, including morphine, codeine and heroin. The move comes as Afghanistan’s economy heads toward collapse, with the nation cut off from internati…
India’s Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision on May 27, 2022, recognising prostitution as a legal profession. In its ruling, the country’s top court ordered police to refrain from arresting and harassing sex workers. It’s the latest move by the Indian Supreme Court to wade in on constitutional issues that h…
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Ninety-year-old retired Catholic cardinal Joseph Zen appeared in a Hong Kong court on May 24, 2022, charged with failing to properly register a protest defence fund. This, after he was initially arrested under the city's national security law. Zen, one of Asia's highest-ranking Catholic clerics, was among five promi…
A Russian soldier pleaded guilty on May 18, 2022, to killing a 62-year-old unarmed civilian during Moscow’s invasion and faces possible life imprisonment in Kyiv. It was Ukraine’s first war crimes trial since Moscow’s February 24 invasion.
Australian Liberal parliamentarian Fiona Martin has been accused of confusing two female Asian-Australian candidates after she suggested her opponent, Labor’s Sally Sitou, had lost preselection for candidacy in a Sydney suburb to Labor frontbencher Kristina Keneally. During a heated clash on radio, Martin suggested …
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