Human Rights Watch has called on the foreign ministers of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations – ASEAN – to make a public commitment to ensure the forthcoming ASEAN Human Rights Declaration complies with international human rights standards. The foreign ministers meet Sunday in Phnom Penh to consider a draft of the declaration. HRW’s […]
HRW Urges ASEAN to Meet International Rights Standards
Posted July 8th, 2012 at 12:15 am (UTC-5)
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Burmese Student Leaders Released
Posted July 7th, 2012 at 3:00 pm (UTC-5)
Burmese authorities have released at least 20 student activists detained Friday in four cities and held overnight at undisclosed locations. The students were detained in Rangoon, Mandalay, Lashio, and Shwebo late Friday, ahead of Saturday’s 50th anniversary commemoration of the brutal suppression of a student movement. In 1962 the military bombed the Rangoon University student […]
Burma Activists Protest Arrest of Student Leaders
Posted July 7th, 2012 at 6:45 am (UTC-5)
Burmese activists are calling for the immediate release of at least 16 student leaders detained Friday in four cities. The students were detained ahead of Saturday’s commemoration of a brutal 1962 suppression of a student movement when the military bombed the Rangoon University student union building, killing at least 15 students. Among those arrested Friday […]
Japan Considers Buying Disputed Islands
Posted July 7th, 2012 at 4:40 am (UTC-5)
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda says his government is considering buying islands in the East China Sea that are also claimed by China. Mr. Noda told reporters in the northeastern city of Iwaki Saturday that the government is in contact with the Japanese citizen who owns the islands about buying them next year. The islands […]
Aid Group Describes Desperate Scenes in North Korea
Posted July 6th, 2012 at 8:35 pm (UTC-5)
A Danish aid group is getting a rare look at the food situation in North Korea, and it says the conditions there are desperate. The managing director of the group Mission East, Kim Hartzner, told VOA Friday that during the past week he oversaw the distribution of food aid in the city of Haeju , […]
East Timor Votes In National Elections
Posted July 6th, 2012 at 7:35 pm (UTC-5)
East Timorese are voting to choose members of parliament, following a relatively peaceful two-round presidential contest in March and April. Polls opened early Saturday in an electoral process that is expected to result in the withdrawal of U.N. peacekeepers in December. Twenty-one parties have fielded candidates for the 65-seat parliament. The two top parties are […]
Aid Group Describes Desperate Scenes in North Korea
Posted July 6th, 2012 at 3:25 pm (UTC-5)
A Danish aid group is getting a rare look at the food situation in North Korea, and it says the conditions there are desperate. The managing director of the group Mission East, Kim Hartzner, told VOA Friday that during the past week he oversaw the distribution of food aid in the city of Haeju , […]
East Timor Holds National Elections Saturday
Posted July 6th, 2012 at 7:05 am (UTC-5)
East Timorese go to the polls Saturday to choose members of parliament, following a relatively peaceful two-round presidential contest in March and April. The electoral process is expected to result in the withdrawal of U.N. peacekeepers in December. Twenty-one parties have fielded candidates for the 65-seat parliament. The two top parties are the National Congress […]
S. Korea Unveils Whaling Plan for Research
Posted July 5th, 2012 at 5:50 pm (UTC-5)
South Korea has unveiled plans to resume hunting whales for research purposes, drawing immediate rebuke from an array of governments and conservationists who suspect the move may be a cover for outlawed commercial whaling. The government in Seoul announced its intentions this week to the International Whaling Commission. It said the move is aimed at […]
Uighurs: China’s Xinjiang a ‘Police State’ 3 Years After Riots
Posted July 5th, 2012 at 4:35 pm (UTC-5)
An exiled Uighur group says Chinese authorities have turned the northwestern region of Xinjiang into a “police state,” three years after the outbreak of deadly riots between ethnic Uighurs and settlers of China’s Han majority. A Washington-based spokesman for the World Uyghur Congress, Alim Seytoff, Thursday said Xinjiang security forces have intensified street patrols of […]
