COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s Marxist-leaning leader, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, grabbed a commanding early lead on Sunday in his bid to become the next president of the debt-ridden country seeking to elect a leader to bolster its fragile economic recovery.

Dissanayake won about 53% of a million votes counted so far in the election, Sri Lanka’s Election Commission data showed. Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa was second at 22%, ahead of President Ranil Wickremesinghe in third place.

About 75% of the eligible 17 million people in the Indian Ocean island nation cast their votes in Saturday’s election, according to the poll body.

Dissanayake contested as candidate for the National People’s Power alliance, which includes his Marxist-leaning Janatha Vimukthi Peremuna party that has traditionally backed stronger state intervention, lower taxes and more closed market economic policies.

Although JVP has just three seats in parliament, the 55-year-old Dissanayake has been boosted by his promises of tough anti-corruption measures and more pro-poor policies.

He presented himself as the candidate of change, promising to dissolve parliament within 45 days of coming to power in order to seek a fresh mandate for his policies in the general elections.

“After a long and arduous campaign, the results of the election are now clear,” Foreign Minister Ali Sabry said on X.

“Though I heavily campaigned for President Ranil Wickremasinghe, the people of Sri Lanka have made their decision, and I fully respect their mandate for Anura Kumara Dissanayake.”

This was Sri Lanka’s first election since the economy buckled in 2022 under a severe foreign exchange shortage, leaving the country unable to pay for imports of essentials including fuel, medicine and cooking gas.

Thousands of protesters marched in Colombo in 2022 and occupied the president’s office and residence, forcing then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee and later resign.

Buttressed by a $2.9 billion bailout program from the International Monetary Fund, the economy has posted a tentative recovery, but the high cost of living was still a critical issue for many voters.

Although inflation cooled to 0.5% last month from a crisis high of 70%, and the economy is forecast to grow in 2024 for the first time in three years, millions remain in poverty, with many pinning hopes of a better future on the next leader.

The winner will have to ensure Sri Lanka sticks with the IMF program until 2027 to get its economy on a stable growth path, reassure markets, repay debt, attract investors and help a quarter of its people climb out of poverty.

In his manifesto, Dissanayake, known for his ability to deliver stirring speeches, has pledged to slash taxes that would impact fiscal targets, leaving investors and market participants worried about his economic policies.

However, during campaign speeches he has taken a more conciliatory approach, saying any changes would be undertaken in consultation with the IMF and that he is committed to ensuring repayment of debt.
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london — The Chaser, a news website run by Hong Kong journalists in Britain, says Google informed the diaspora media outlet that its company email was being targeted by “government-backed attacks.”  

China is presumed to be behind the attacks, something Beijing denies. Analysts say the case highlights the growing difficulties Hong Kong journalists face both at home and overseas. 

On Tuesday, The Chaser published a report about the incident on its website, including a screenshot of the email from Google about the government-backed attack. The email listed the severity of the attack as high. 

According to Google, only 0.1% of users worldwide have been subjected to similar attacks. Google also pointed out that it cannot rule out that the warning may be a false alarm, but the company believes it has detected suspicious activities. 

These could include attempts to steal passwords or personal information through emails containing harmful attachments, harmful software download links or links to fake websites. 

VOA reached out to Google for more details on the attack but has yet to receive a response. 

‘There is no way out’

The Chaser said it immediately reviewed all online security measures after receiving the notice and has taken the necessary protective actions. 

The Chaser said in a statement, “At a time when Hong Kong’s press is mired in the White Terror, the invisible black hand has unscrupulously reached out to the diaspora media overseas. 

“Our team members are from Hong Kong and came to the UK three years ago, hoping to continue chasing news on free soil. In today’s turbulent world of press freedom in Hong Kong, there is no way out. Our team strongly condemns all threats to press freedom and pledges to remain at our posts.” 

VOA efforts to seek a response from China’s Embassy in Britain were unsuccessful, but the Chinese Embassy in Washington denied that China was involved in the cyberattack.  

“China firmly opposes and cracks down on all forms of cyberattacks in accordance with law. Without valid evidence, they jumped to an unwarranted conclusion and made groundless accusations against China,” the embassy said in an emailed statement Thursday. “It is extremely irresponsible and is a complete distortion of facts. China firmly opposes this.” 

Last month, The Chaser released an investigative report that said the Chinese Embassy in Britain had pressured Dragons Teaching, a British publishing house, in 2018 to remove the phrase “Republic of China” from chapters about Taiwan in Chinese textbooks. The Republic of China is Taiwan’s official name.  

Beijing is relentless in its global campaign to quash any recognition of the democratically ruled island — no matter how small.   

The publishing house eventually gave in to pressure from Beijing, according to the report from The Chaser. The textbooks are used in exams for secondary school courses in Britain. The Chinese Embassy in Britain has declined to comment on the incident and report, though other British media picked up the story. 

Journalists report harassment 

The cyberattack comes as journalists in Hong Kong are under increasing pressure. 

Last week, the Hong Kong Journalists Association said that from June to August of this year, dozens of journalists, their families, employers, landlords or neighbors were harassed and intimidated in different ways on the internet and in their daily lives, which was unprecedented. 

Benson Wong, a Hong Kong political scholar living in Britain, doesn’t believe the attacks on The Chaser and other Hong Kong journalists are purely coincidental, especially as China’s National Day is approaching. 

“From their point of view, it is understandable that the national security and intelligence units would do some things or do some ‘homework’ as part of their performance,” he said. 

He said he believes the attack is meant to send a signal that Hong Kong journalists who make critical remarks about China cannot expect to be safe from interference or even attacks just because they move overseas. 

VOA reached out to Britain’s National Cyber Security Center for comment on the attack but has yet to receive a response. 

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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washington — The killing of a Japanese schoolboy in southern China has sparked worry among Japanese expatriots living in China, while online comments from Chinese people show reactions ranging from shock to cynicism. 

The 10-year-old boy, surnamed Shen, was stabbed by a 44-year-old man while the boy was on his way to class on the morning of September 18 near a Japanese school in the southern city of Shenzhen, according to China’s Foreign Ministry. 

The child, whose father is Japanese and mother is Chinese, was a Japanese national, according to the ministry. He was taken to a hospital and later died of his injuries. 

The boy was attending Shenzhen Japanese School, an international school built to serve the children of Japanese expatriots living in the region, an industrial hub where many Japanese firms, especially auto companies, set up factories decades ago. Only Japanese citizens are qualified to go to this school. 

A Shenzhen local newspaper said the suspect, surnamed Zhong, acted alone and was arrested by police on site. 

The same report said Zhong has confessed to stabbing the boy. Zhong, who has a previous criminal record, was released on bail by local police on suspicion of “damaging public telecommunications facilities” in 2015 and was detained on suspicion of “fabricating facts and disturbing public order” in 2019, according to the report. 

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed his condolences in a tweet on X, calling it “an extremely despicable crime,” and strongly urged China “to provide an explanation of the facts of the situation.”

The stabbing was the third high-profile attack on a foreigner in China in recent months. 

In June, a Chinese man wounded a Japanese woman and her child in a stabbing attack in front of a school bus in the eastern city of Suzhou. The man also stabbed a Chinese bus attendant who tried to intervene, and the attendant later died of her injuries. 

Also in June, four U.S. college instructors teaching in the northeastern city of Jilin were stabbed while visiting a public park. The American teachers suffered minor injuries and have since returned to the United States. 

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said these attacks are “isolated incidents” and said they would safeguard expatriots’ security in China. 

However, the Chinese government is notoriously secretive about criminal investigations. Very little information has been published about the two attacks in June beyond the suspects’ last names and their employment status. 

Nicholas Burns, the United States ambassador to China, criticized Beijing’s limited release of specifics and said that he was actively pressing for more details.  

Japanese firms, especially auto companies with a presence in China, have warned their workers to stay vigilant. 

Toshiba and Toyota have told their staff to take precautions against any possible violence. Panasonic is offering its employees free flights home. Mitsubishi and Nissan have communicated with their Japanese employees in China to ease their worries and offered counseling services. 

Consequence of xenophobia propaganda 

Meanwhile, Chinese people have shown contrasting reactions in their online comments about the latest stabbing incident.   

Some expressed shock, sadness and anger. A few local residents in Shenzhen laid flowers and notes of apology to the deceased child outside the Japanese school. 

A user called “sara jon” said on X, “Aren’t you heartbroken when you hear the boy’s mother cry. This is a terrorist attack, this is Hamas.” Another X user called “Jamy felando” said, “Poor child, hope he gets peace now and hope the devil goes to hell!” 

On China’s X-like but censored social platform Weibo, many expressed cynicism and indifference, viewing the attack in light of atrocities committed during Japan’s invasion of China 80 years ago. 

“The boomerang of the Japanese invaders finally came back to their own people,” wrote a Weibo user called yaxuefensitangtaijia. “If they had not invaded China and massacred the Chinese, perhaps there would be less extreme anti-Japanese sentiment today.”  

Someone else said in agreement: “How many Chinese children died when Japan invaded China?” 

It’s not clear if Zhong deliberately chose to commit his crime on September 18, a date considered by many Chinese as “national humiliation day.” The Japanese army officially launched its invasion of China on September 18, 1931, leading to a 14-year-long war and estimated casualties of 10 million military and civilians. 

Some Chinese say long-lasting anti-Japan propaganda by the Chinese government led to the violence toward Japanese people. A user called “still typhoon” compared the propaganda to poison on Weibo: “The poison has backfired. Xenophobia and extreme nationalism are rampant online now.” 

On Friday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced that “China and Japan reached a consensus” on the discharge of radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant, bringing to an end a diplomatic dispute that had rumbled on for more than two years. 

Beijing had been bashing Tokyo for causing “a major nuclear safety issue with cross-border implications,” when Tokyo started discharging treated radioactive water from the site in August 2023. 

It also announced a blanket ban on all aquatic products from Japan. The anti-Japan sentiment reached a climax in August when official Chinese news media lashed out against Japan relentlessly. 
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PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said he was pulling his country out of a development agreement with neighboring Vietnam and Laos following protests that it was benefiting foreign interests. 

Critics on social media have focused on land concessions in border areas particularly with Vietnam, a highly sensitive issue because of Cambodia’s historical antagonism toward its larger eastern neighbor. 

Authorities had arrested at least 66 people ahead of a planned August rally to condemn the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle Area — or CLV-DTA. Most were later released but leaders are facing charges. 

The agreement, formalized in 2004, intended to facilitate cooperation on trade and migration in four northeastern provinces of Cambodia and border areas in Laos and Vietnam. 

Hun Manet called groups that opposed the agreement extremists and said they were using the issue to slander and attack the government and confuse the public. 

“For instance, allegations that the government ceded the territory of the four northeastern provinces to foreign countries, etc,” he wrote in a post late Friday. 

He said that in the past 25 years Cambodia had built many achievements for the development of the four provinces but his government decided to pull out of the agreement, “taking into account people’s concern on territory and the need to withdraw weapons out of the hands of extremists to prevent them from using CLV-DTA to further cheat people.” 

Cambodia’s government has long been accused of silencing critics and political opponents. Hun Manet succeeded his father last year after Hun Sen ruled for four decades, but there have been few signs of political liberalization. 
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Washington — A brutal mob lynching at Bangladesh’s oldest university has put a spotlight on the country’s crumbling law and order, just as its fledgling interim government tries to assert control and push through sweeping institutional reforms.

Late Wednesday, Tofazzal Hossein, a man known for struggling with mental health issues and roaming around the 102-year-old University of Dhaka, wandered into a residential hall.

Accusing him of theft, a mob of students grabbed and savagely beat him over the course of several hours.

By Thursday morning, Hossein, 35, was dead, the latest casualty in a wave of mob violence that has gripped Bangladesh since student protests ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and sent her fleeing the country last month.

Mob violence and student vigilantism were commonplace during Hasina’s 15-year reign. Rights group Ain o Salish Kendra documented 32 mob killings between January and June, even before student protests toppled her government and left more than 1,000 people dead.

But the lawlessness has spiraled out of control since the August 5 fall of the government. In the days that followed, police officers, fearful of student reprisals, vanished from the streets, creating a vacuum that has yet to be filled.

In just five weeks since early August, 21 people were lynched across the country, according to a tally by the Daily Star, a leading Bangladeshi newspaper. One of the victims, a former student leader accused of attacking protesters in July, was himself beaten to death at another major university on Wednesday.

University students, once hailed as democratic heroes, now stand accused of committing mob violence. Six face charges over Hossein’s murder, with seven more implicated in the second case.

The lawlessness has spread nationwide, leading to numerous incidents of extortion, harassment, intimidation and courtroom violence, sometimes triggering larger conflicts.

In Bangladesh’s southern Chittagong Hill Tracts region, the lynching on Wednesday of a man accused of stealing a bike reignited long-simmering tensions between ethnic Bengalis and indigenous people. The ensuing violence has already claimed at least four lives, according to media reports.

The unrest comes just days after the interim government, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, granted the army sweeping law enforcement powers to restore order. At stake are more than domestic peace and the stability of the country’s industrial regions. Yunus’ six-week-old government has set up six commissions to advance democratic reforms, including a panel tasked with changing the country’s 51-year-old Constitution.

The instability in Bangladesh, South Asia’s third-most-populous country, is also drawing regional scrutiny, with Indian politicians voicing concern about reports of attacks on Hindus.

The Bangladeshi army’s 60-day new powers, announced Tuesday, allow commissioned officers to act as “executive magistrates,” making arrests, conducting searches, dispersing unlawful assemblies and opening fire in extraordinary circumstances.

Asif Nazarul, the interim government’s law adviser, said the government acted in response to “subversive acts” and instability, particularly in the country’s industrial areas.

“Given the situation, army personnel have been given magistracy power,” Nazarul was quoted in the Daily Star.

Rattled by growing insecurity, many Bangladeshis have welcomed the army’s new power.

Noting that security remains a “big challenge” for the interim government, Badiul Alam Majumdar, editor of Citizens for Good Governance, told VOA, “It has been done to maintain law and order in view of the overall situation. It has been done temporarily. I hope the position will change.”

Accused of using violence during the anti-government protests, Bangladeshi police became targets of student anger after Hasina’s ouster. Police stations were looted, and several officers were killed or burned to death, their bodies hanged from overpasses.

With no one held accountable in those cases, police fear for their safety. Many have yet to return to their posts, leaving the police forces understaffed and barely functioning.

Julia Bleckner, a senior Bangladesh researcher at Human Rights Watch, said while the government has a responsibility to maintain law and order, giving the army “unchecked” powers raises concerns about abuse.

“They’ve been given a mandate to carry out pretty widespread and arbitrary searches, detentions and arrests,” Bleckner said in a phone interview with VOA.

The army can now arrest anyone on the spot for “disturbing the peace” and use civilian personnel to disperse “illegal assemblies,” Bleckner noted.

“We are under a new government that has made massive commitments and very important commitments to human rights, but these are the same security forces that have carried out abuses for decades,” Bleckner said.

The Bangladeshi army last wielded similar law enforcement powers during the country’s 2006-2008 political crisis. At the time, military personnel were accused of making arbitrary arrests and other human rights abuses.

Nazarul, the law adviser, said he did not believe the army would “misuse this authority,” according to the Daily Star.

But critics remain unconvinced.

“It is not right,” ZI Khan Panna, a veteran lawyer, said of the army’s magistracy power, according to the Daily Star. “Has the government lost confidence in the magistrates? It is not right for army personnel to perform magistrate’s duties under the deputy commissioners. It would not be wise to mix army personnel with the general public.”

In the three days since receiving policing powers, the army has not announced any arrests. However, it has faced criticism for failing to quell violence.

Nolen Deibert, head of Freedom House’s Asia Religious and Ethnic Freedom Program, noted that the attacks against indigenous communities in the Chittagong Hill Tracks region came as “the army allegedly stood by and watched.”

The interim government’s home affairs adviser, Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, said a high-level committee will be formed to investigate the violence, Reuters reported.

“The country faces real risks of heightened conflict and threats of violence toward minority groups,” Deibert said via email. “The interim government must come up with a plan to return policing powers to civilian authorities who will fairly protect and serve all Bangladeshis, regardless of race or creed.”

VOA’s Bangla Service contributed to this article.
…

KOLKATA, INDIA — Striking junior doctors in India’s West Bengal state agreed to resume essential services, in a partial resumption of medical facilities, but they will continue their strike over the rape and murder of a colleague over a month ago.

The rape and murder of the 31-year-old female doctor in West Bengal in August set off a wave of protests by doctors demanding greater workplace safety for women and justice for their slain colleague, prompting India’s Supreme Court to create a hospital safety task force.

The junior doctors will resume essential duties from Saturday, the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front, which represents about 7,000 physicians in the state, said in a statement on Thursday.

“The movement for ‘justice’ will continue in each state-run hospital but we have decided to resume essential services in hospitals due to the flood situation in parts of the state,” said Aniket Mahato of the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front.

Doctors are demanding better security, included additional CCTV coverage, deployment of female security personnel and adequate lighting, toilets and resting spaces.

A police volunteer has been arrested in connection with the doctor’s rape and death in the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. The former principal of the college has been arrested over accusations of evidence tampering and graft, and the Kolkata police chief has been replaced.

Although tougher laws were introduced after the 2012 gruesome gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student in national capital New Delhi, activists say the Kolkata case shows how women in the country continue to suffer from sexual violence.
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MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA/BANGKOK — A prominent Southeast Asian rights group said Friday that Myanmar’s ruling State Administration Council reportedly intends to execute five democracy activists Tuesday following their May 2023 conviction and sentencing for alleged involvement in a deadly 2021 shooting on a train in Yangon.

The ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights said it was deeply troubled after receiving a report from what it called a reliable source about the pending executions, which were ordered when a civilian court delivered a verdict in a closed-door hearing held in Insein Prison.

It said Zaryaw Phyo, 32; San Min Aung, 24; Kyaw Win Soe 33; Kaung Pyae Sone Oo, 27; and Myat Phyo Pwint, age unknown, were charged with murder and illegal weapons possession under several statutes, including the 1949 Arms Act and a 2014 counterterrorism law.

“The use of capital punishment as a tool to suppress dissent is unacceptable and must be condemned in the strongest terms,” Wong Chen, a Malaysian member of the parliamentarians group’s board, said in the group’s statement.

The organization demanded the State Administration Council halt the executions and immediately release the five activists. The SAC is the official name of the military government formed in February 2021 when the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi was ousted by a coup d’etat, tipping the country into civil war.

It said such actions represented a grievous infringement of human rights and a blatant disregard for international legal standards.

“We call upon the SAC to immediately release them and ensure that, pending their release, the detention conditions comply with international standards, including access to legal representation, medical care and contact with their family,” said Mercy Chriesty Barends, the chairperson of the parliamentarians group.

Lawyers, families of the condemned and prison authorities contacted by VOA could not confirm whether the executions were scheduled to proceed Tuesday; however, one prison authority noted their bodies and necks had been measured regularly.

Myanmar’s ruling military hanged four democracy activists in July 2022 after the SAC accused them of carrying out “terror acts.” They were the first people to be executed in Myanmar in more than 40 years, leading to widespread international condemnation.

Shortly after the executions, the G7 leading economies called on the ruling military to “refrain from further arbitrary executions” and to free all political prisoners, warning the absence of fair trials showed the junta’s contempt for the democratic aspirations of the people of Myanmar.

The parliamentarians group said it was “particularly disconcerting” that the five executions would be carried out under the first death sentences ordered by a civilian judiciary — rather than a military tribunal — since the coup, signaling a disturbing shift in judicial proceedings in Myanmar.

Jason Tower, country director for the Burma Program at the United States Institute of Peace, said the death sentences marked a hardening of attitudes by the junta, which has suffered a litany of losses on the battlefield since anti-regime forces launched an offensive last October.

“This is very concerning, and there’s not enough action on this internationally. The junta is out of control — atrocities are everywhere,” he told VOA, adding the broader international community had not done enough to counter an “illegitimate regime that is perpetrating horrific violence.”

He also said a recent shift in China’s posture toward Myanmar’s military regime had sent a signal that the junta can get away with mass atrocities and executing human rights defenders and political opponents without consequences.

“China has blatantly ignored a dramatic increase in junta airstrikes targeting civilians, IDP camps, schools and hospitals, moving forward with inviting senior junta officials to Chinese-led multilateral platforms,” he said.

Those platforms include the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Xiangshan Forum and the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation.

“Participants in these platforms have failed to push back, and there are worrying signs the Association of Southeast Asian Nations could be tilting toward closer relations with the military regime despite the dramatic increase in atrocities and war crimes,” Tower said.
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BANGKOK — Amid a reported surge in cross-border repression across Southeast Asia, rights advocates say Thailand is making promising but very slow progress rolling out an asylum program meant to protect the most vulnerable refugees.

They say many who might be eligible for the program are reluctant to apply for fear of exposing themselves to the police and that coming forward could backfire.

Thailand does not officially recognize refugees and deems anyone in the country without a valid visa or passport an illegal migrant. Last September, though, the government introduced a National Screening Mechanism to give “protected persons status” to those from other countries who can prove they are “unable or unwilling” to return home “due to a well-founded fear of persecution.”

Neither the Royal Thai Police – whose Immigration Bureau is leading the program  – nor the National Security Council or Foreign Affairs Ministry, which both participate, replied to VOA’s repeated requests for comment on the NSM, which took effect September 22 of last year.

At a meeting with aid groups last week, though, immigration officials said fewer than 10 people, including adults and their children, have been fully vetted and granted asylum under the program to date, participants from the aid groups told VOA.

They say officials said one applicant had been rejected and that about 200 were still having their claims assessed.

“In terms of implementation, it’s not proportionate yet with the overall population of asylum seekers and refugees in Thailand,” said Krittaporn Semsantad, program director for Thailand’s Peace Rights Foundation, after attending last week’s meeting.

“I’d say they’re … trying to do their best,” she said of the government. “However, there’s a lot of limitation.”

The United Nations estimates some 5,000 asylum seekers are living in Thailand, though rights groups say the true number is likely higher.

Human Rights Watch reported in May that Thailand had made itself increasingly dangerous for asylum seekers over the past decade through what rights groups claim is an arrangement with its neighbors to forcibly return each other’s dissidents, regardless of potential persecution, including arrest, torture and death.

In recent years, Thailand has arrested and forced dozens of dissidents and members of persecuted ethnic minorities back to their home countries, including China. A rights activist from Vietnam, Y Quynh Bdap, was arrested in Bangkok in June and is now on trial for possible extradition back to Vietnam, where he is wanted for fomenting a deadly riot he says he had nothing to do with.

Once accepted into Thailand’s new asylum program, refugees should be safe from a forced return home, but rights advocates say the NSM is moving far too slowly to cope with the need.

They say the screening commission is struggling to verify the biographies of applicants, has too few interpreters to bridge language barriers, and that many potential applicants still don’t know the program even exists. Those who do, they add, can be put off by having to be formally charged with an immigration offense to go through the process.

They say many also don’t trust the government to vet them fairly and fear that if their applications are rejected they could end up back in the countries they fled.

“They’re afraid that if they apply for NSM, they reveal themselves to the government, and if they [do] not meet the criteria of the NSM they will need to [be] deport[ed] back to their … home country,” said Tanyakorn Thippayapokin, policy advocacy coordinator for Asylum Access Thailand, who also attended last week’s meeting.

Advocates say as well that the eligibility rules are too narrow by barring legal migrant workers — who may also be asylum seekers who need protection — from applying, and that the power the rules give the government to reject applicants over unspecified national security risks are too broad.

By not having to explain the security risks, some worry, the government may turn worthy applicants down to either build or maintain good relations with neighboring countries.

Opposition lawmaker Kannavee Suebsang, who chairs the House of Representatives subcommittee on sustainable solutions for migrants in the country illegally, cited the case of the four dozen ethnic Uyghurs from China who Thailand has been holding in detention without charges since arresting them for illegal entry over a decade ago.

“When they [use] the justification of the national security concern, it can [mean] everything in this world,” said Kannavee, who worked for the United Nations refugee agency for over a dozen years.

“For example, the Uyghurs. If they said it is a national security concern, we cannot put the 48 cases of the Uyghur refugees who’ve been put in the immigration detention center [through] the NSM, it can be like that,” he said.

Krittaporn said she was told by immigration officials that the detained Uyghurs were eligible for the NSM, but she added that nongovernment groups have not been able to meet with them to check whether they have been given the chance to apply.

Advocates suggest the government do more to inform asylum seekers and refugees about the program, hire more interpreters, and scale back the share of security agency officials on the screening commission. Some suggest it also scrap the need for applicants to be formally charged.

As it is now, the program seems designed more for finding reasons to turn down applicants than to approve them, said Pornsuk Koetsawang, founder of Friends Without Borders, another local refugee aid group.

“The security agencies work for Thailand’s national security, not for protection of refugees, and they [refugees] worry that Thai security agencies … think that refugees are a threat,” she said. “That’s the thing that has been happening for the past few decades.”

Kannavee said transferring primary responsibility for the program from the police to the Interior Ministry would help give it a more humanitarian focus.  He says the program may yet collapse from all its faults, though, and has been working on legislation that would give Thailand an entirely new refugee program.

On the whole, though, most advocates say the NSM is at least a modest step in the right direction for Thailand and may still be able to spare some refugees from arrest and a forced return to the countries they have fled.

Once vetted and approved, said Tanyakorn, “they’re here legally at least and with the protection of the government authorities.” 
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KARACHI, Pakistan — Stained glass windows, a sweeping staircase and embellished interiors make Mohatta Palace a gem in Karachi, a Pakistani megacity of 20 million people. Peacocks roam the lawn and the sounds of construction and traffic melt away as visitors enter the grounds.

The pink stone balustrades, domes and parapets look like they’ve been plucked from the northern Indian state of Rajasthan, a relic of a time when Muslims and Hindus lived side by side in the port city.

But magnificence is no guarantee of survival in a city where land is scarce and development is rampant. Demolition, encroachment, neglect, piecemeal conservation laws and vandalism are eroding signs of Karachi’s past.

The building’s trustees have fended off an attempt to turn it into a dental college, but there’s still a decadeslong lawsuit in which heirs of a former owner are trying to take control of the land. It sat empty for almost two decades before formally opening as a museum in 1999.

The palace sits on prime real estate in the desirable neighborhood of Old Clifton, among mansions, businesses and upmarket restaurants.

The land under buildings like the Mohatta Palace is widely coveted, said palace lawyer Faisal Siddiqi. “It shows that greed is more important than heritage.”

Karachi’s population grows by around 2% every year and with dozens of communities and cultures competing for space there’s little effort to protect the city’s historic sites.

For most Pakistanis, the palace is the closest they’ll get to the architectural splendor of India’s Rajasthan, because travel restrictions and hostile bureaucracies largely keep people in either country from crossing the border for leisure, study or work.

Karachi’s multicultural past makes it harder to find champions for preservation than in a city like Lahore, with its strong connection to the Muslim-dominated Mughal Empire, said Heba Hashmi, a heritage manager and maritime archaeologist.

“The scale of organic local community support needed to prioritize government investment in the preservation effort is nearly impossible to garner in a city as socially fragmented as Karachi,” she said. 

Mohatta Palace is a symbol of that diversity. Hindu entrepreneur Shivratan Mohatta had it built in the 1920s because he wanted a coastal residence for his ailing wife to benefit from the Arabian Sea breeze. Hundreds of donkey carts carried the distinctively colored pink stone from Jodhpur, now across the border in India.

He left after partition in 1947, when India and Pakistan were carved from the former British Empire as independent nations, and for a time the palace was occupied by the Foreign Ministry.

Next, it passed into the hands of Pakistani political royalty as the home of Fatima Jinnah, the younger sister of Pakistan’s first leader and a powerful politician in her own right.

After her death, the authorities gave the building to her sister Shirin, but Shirin’s passing in 1980 sparked a court fight between people saying they were her relatives, and a court ordered the building sealed.

The darkened and empty palace, with its overgrown gardens and padlocked gates, caught people’s imagination. Rumors spread of spirits and supernatural happenings.

Someone who heard the stories as a young girl was Nasreen Askari, now the museum’s director.

“As a child I used to rush past,” she said. “I was told it was a bhoot (ghost) bungalow and warned, don’t go there.”

Visitor Ahmed Tariq had heard a lot about the palace’s architecture and history. “I’m from Bahawalpur (in Punjab, India) where we have the Noor Mahal palace, so I wanted to look at this one. It’s well-maintained, there’s a lot of detail and effort in the presentations. It’s been a good experience.”

But the money to maintain the palace isn’t coming from admission fees.

General admission is 30 rupees, or 10 U.S. cents, and it’s free for students, children and seniors. On a sweltering afternoon, the palace drew just a trickle of visitors.

It’s open Tuesday to Sunday but closes on public holidays; even the 11 a.m.-6 p.m. hours are not conducive for a late-night city like Karachi.

The palace is rented out for corporate and charitable events. Local media report that residents grumble about traffic and noise levels.

But the palace doesn’t welcome all attention, even if it could help carve out a space for the building in modern Pakistan.

Rumors about ghosts still spread by TikTok, pulling in influencers looking for spooky stories. But the palace bans filming inside, and briefly banned TikTokers.

“It is not the attention the trustees wanted,” said Askari. “That’s what happens when you have anything of consequence or unusual. It catches the eye.”

A sign on the gates also prohibits fashion shoots, weddings and filming for commercials.

“We could make so much money, but the floodgates would open,” said Askari. “There would be non-stop weddings and no space for visitors or events, so much cleaning up as well.”

Hashmi, the archaeologist, said there is often a strong sense of territorialism around the sites that have been preserved.

“It counterproductively converts a site of public heritage into an exclusive and often expensive artifact for selective consumption.” 
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PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA — Nhem Liza made her first visit to the National Museum of Cambodia after learning about the August return from the United States of dozens of looted Cambodian artifacts, including important Hindu and Buddhist masterpieces dating from the ninth to 14th centuries.

“Those artifacts are amazing,” said 15-year-old Nhem, a 10th grade Phnom Penh high school student.

The return of the statues — viewed as divine or containing the souls of ancestors — has given younger Cambodians like Nhem an opportunity to embrace the country’s cultural heritage and history.

“I am excited to see these artifacts our government is trying to get back,” she told VOA on September 16 after viewing some of objects now on display at the museum.

Cambodia has worked for years to identify and secure the return of culturally and historically important relics from private collections and museums overseas, many of which were lost to the country because of war, theft and the illegal artifact trade.

Cambodia faced continuous civil unrest from the mid-1960s until the early 1990s and archeological sites from the ancient Khmer Empire, such as Angkor Wat and Koh Ker, suffered serious damage and widespread looting, Cambodian officials told VOA Khmer.

In August, Cambodia celebrated the return of 70 items from museums and private collections overseas, including 14 from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The objects include priceless stone statues such as one depicting a mythical warrior from the Hindu epic Mahabharata. There are also statues of Hindu deities Shiva and Parvati, and one of the Hindu god Ardhanarishvara from the ancient capital of Koh Ker, according to Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts.

Presiding over the return ceremony, Prime Minister Hun Manet said the 70 returned objects symbolically reunited the Cambodian people with their “ancestral souls,” adding that the government will continue working to bring more artifacts home.

From 1996 to July of this year, 1,098 artifacts had been returned to Cambodia — 571 from private collections and 527 from foreign institutions and governments, Hun said.

“It is the soul of our nation,” Doeun Sokun Aly, 18, told VOA at the museum. “The heroes of our country built those artifacts for the younger generation to know about those antiques. … I will visit museums more to see more artifacts.”

National Museum Director Chhay Visoth told VOA the display is meant to stir new interest from Cambodians, especially younger Cambodians.

“Recently, we have seen a surprising increase of Cambodian visitors to the museum, especially youth,” he said by phone this week.

The authorities, he said, are now planning to conduct a “mobile exhibition” to display the artifacts at museums in provinces such as Siem Reap, Battambang and Pursat, in the northwestern part of the country.

Chhay said the museum also hopes the display will send a message to private collectors and museums overseas that “those artifacts are greatly important” and “not for beautifying gardens, kitchens, living rooms, residents or offices of the rich.”

“For Cambodians, they are meaningful indeed. Those artifacts are the souls of Khmer ancestors,” he said.

Chhay added that the museum is already planning to expand its display area to accommodate more returned artifacts.

Over the years, Cambodia has received dozens of statues from the families of wealthy collectors, such as George Lindemann, a U.S. businessman and philanthropist who died in 2018.

In 2021, after three years of negotiations, the family of the late British art collector Douglas Latchford agreed to return more than 100 Cambodian artifacts, according to the government.

Latchford, who co-authored three books on Cambodian art and antiques, died in 2020 facing accusations that he had illegally trafficked the artifacts to his homes in Bangkok and London.

In November 2019, federal prosecutors in New York charged Latchford with falsifying the provenance, invoices and shipping documents to transport valuable Khmer-era relics to private collections, museums and auction houses around the world.

Other cultural objects that have found their way back to Cambodia went through processes including voluntary returns, negotiations, seizures and legal proceedings.

The United States has helped secure the return of well over 150 antiques to Cambodia so far, Wesley Holzer, a U.S. Embassy spokesperson in Phnom Penh said.

“The United States is proud of its longstanding contributions to preserving and restoring Cambodia’s cultural heritage,” he told VOA in an email, adding that Cambodia is the first country in Southeast Asia to establish a bilateral property repatriation memorandum of understanding with the U.S.

“Through this MOU, the United States and Cambodia have trained heritage professionals, prevented pillaging of antiquities, and facilitated the return of looted artifacts. This agreement also makes it illegal to import certain Cambodian archeological and ethnological material into the United States,” he added.

Bradley Gordon, a lawyer representing Cambodian government, said there were “many more” that his team are searching for.

“To be clear, Cambodia does not want to empty out museums around the world, but wants many important and precious national treasures to come home.   Cambodia also is open to long-term loans which they are exploring with a number of museums,” he added.

A member of Gordon’s restitution team, Cambodian researcher Kunthea Chhoun, said getting the artifacts back is not easy.

“We need to investigate and collect testimonies from looters, villagers and brokers.  It takes a great amount of patience and many interviews.   We have used different approaches to get back our artifacts and it has taken many years,” she told VOA in a September 20 email. 
…

…

Islamabad — Pakistan and Iran have sharply criticized diplomats from the de facto Taliban government in neighboring Afghanistan for showing “disrespect” to their national anthems in breach of diplomatic norms.

The controversy arose earlier this week after the Taliban consul general, Mohibullah Shakir, and his colleague remained seated during the playing of the Pakistani national anthem at an official ceremony in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

The move triggered public outrage in Pakistan and demands for Shakir’s expulsion.

Islamabad swiftly protested and officially complained to de facto Afghan authorities in Kabul, denouncing their diplomat’s “disrespect” for the Pakistani national anthem as a “reprehensible” act and a breach of “diplomatic norms.”

Shakir’s mission office in Peshawar defended his stance and dismissed allegations of disrespect for the anthem. It said the diplomat remained seated because the anthem had music, which the Taliban consider forbidden in line with their strict interpretation of Islam. “Imagine a religious scholar standing up for music,” a consulate spokesperson was quoted as saying.

Since regaining control of Afghanistan in 2021, the radical Taliban leaders have enforced their strict interpretation of Islamic law, known as Sharia. This enforcement includes banning music, prohibiting girls’ education beyond the sixth grade, and barring Afghan women from most workplaces, among other restrictions.

However, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson rejected the Taliban’s explanation on Thursday. At a news conference in Islamabad, Mumtaz Baloch stated that Shakir’s action “hurt the sentiments of the people of Pakistan.” She cautioned that her government reserves the right to take further action in line with international diplomatic norms and practices.

“We expect any individual who enjoys a diplomatic status in Pakistan to respect those norms,” Baloch said. “We have raised this with the Afghan authorities and conveyed our strong displeasure … and we also reject the explanation that the acting Council General has given for his actions.”

Taliban’s conflicting stance

Meanwhile, Iran also has criticized the head of a Taliban delegation, Azizurrahman Mansour, a deputy minister, for not standing during the host country’s anthem at an International Islamic Unity Conference on Thursday in Tehran, where the Iranian president was in attendance.

The Foreign Ministry later summoned Taliban Acting Ambassador Fazal Mohammad Haqqani to seek clarification regarding Mansour disrespecting the national anthem.

Iranian media quoted Haqqani as reaffirming his country’s respect for Iran, claiming that Mansour’s action was “personal” and not reflective of the Afghan government’s official stance.

Mansour later stated in a formal video message that he remained seated during the Iranian national anthem in line with traditions in Afghanistan. “In our country, we sit when the song is played, and I have acted according to this custom. We apologize to the people who were upset.”

The Taliban’s explanation, though, failed to ease the outrage in Iran.

“Disrespecting diplomatic norms under the pretext of Sharia-based prohibition of music doesn’t make any sense,” Hassan Kazemi Qomi, Iran’s special envoy for Afghanistan, said on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. He wrote in the local language that listening to music should also be prohibited if music is banned.

Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a prominent Iranian “reformist and senior aide to former President Mohammad Khatami,” also joined the Iranian political denunciation of the Taliban. The London-based Iran International Persian-language television channel published a translation of Abtahi’s local language X post.

“The Taliban’s disrespect toward the national anthems of Pakistan and Iran, and their refusal to stand, has ideological roots.” Abtahi further warned, “When we say that the Taliban’s ideology is more dangerous than the thousands of weapons they have, this is what we mean.”

Abtahi criticized the conference organizers for inviting the Taliban and stated that “the majority of Muslims everywhere, including in Iran, do not seek unity with the Taliban.”

Iran is a majority Shi’ite Muslim country, and the Taliban represents the majority Sunni Muslim community in Afghanistan.

No country has officially recognized the Taliban as the legitimate government in Kabul, mainly because of their restrictions on women’s access to education and public life at large.

On Thursday, Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said that his government controlled about 40 Afghan embassies and consulates worldwide, and that its diplomatic relations with the international community were improving.

Many Western governments, including the United States, insist that formal recognition of the Taliban depends on their actions regarding women’s rights, education for girls and women, and freedom of movement.
…

Japan’s ruling party will hold a leadership vote next week to choose the country’s next prime minister. While the outcome is uncertain, Japan’s foreign policy is expected to remain steady. VOA’s Bill Gallo reports from Tokyo on the challenges ahead. Camera: Ken Watanabe, Gallo
…

Taipei, Taiwan — A Taiwan court decided on Friday to retain capital punishment, but ruled its application should be “limited to special and exceptional circumstances.”

Democratic Taiwan has carried out 35 executions since a moratorium on capital punishment was lifted in 2010, with the latest — that of a 53-year-old man convicted for setting a fire that killed his family — occurring in April 2020.

Campaigners against the death penalty have long argued that the practice, carried out by shooting an inmate in the heart from behind as they lie face-down on the ground, is an inhumane method of punishment.

The debate was brought to Taiwan’s Constitutional Court, which ruled Friday that it would retain the death penalty.

“However, the death penalty is a capital punishment after all, and its scope of application should still be limited to special and exceptional circumstances,” said chief justice Hsu Tzong-li during a lengthy readout of the court’s decision.

In a statement, the court said that while the right to life will be protected under Taiwan’s constitution, “such protection is not absolute.”

“The TCC emphasized that because death penalty was the most severe punishment and irreversible in nature, its application and procedural safeguard [from investigation to execution] should be reviewed under strict scrutiny,” it said in reference to the crime of murder.

However, “the judgement did not address the constitutionality of death penalty in general or imposed on other offences,” such as treason or drug-related offences.

The court also ruled that imposing the death sentence be “prohibited” for “defendants with mental conditions, even if their mental conditions did not influence their offense in the cases in question.”

Additionally, death row inmates “should not be executed if they had mental conditions to the extent that have impeded their competency for execution,” it said.

The court case had been brought by the 37 inmates currently on death row in Taiwan.

There are about 50 provisions in Taiwan’s criminal laws that stipulate capital punishment to be the maximum sentence, and executions are carried out without notice once all appeals have been exhausted.

In 2020, the Cabinet passed new procedures in its execution of death row inmates, allowing the condemned to hold final religious rites as well as leave a farewell voice or video message for their families.

Capital punishment remains popular in Taiwan, with a recent survey by the Chinese Association for Human Rights showing that 80 percent were in favor of keeping it.
…

Islamabad — Militant attacks against Pakistani security outposts in a northwestern border region Friday reportedly resulted in the deaths of at least six soldiers and injuries to 14 others, while seven assailants were killed in return fire.

The predawn clashes occurred in separate parts of the militancy-hit South Waziristan district near the border with Afghanistan. The wounded include at least four soldiers who were described as “seriously injured.”

Multiple local security officials confirmed the casualties to VOA on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

VOA contacted the Pakistani military’s media wing for comments on the reported attacks but did not receive an immediate response.

Militants affiliated with the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, are reported to have claimed responsibility for the deadly violence.

The TTP routinely carries out and claims credit for staging attacks on security forces and government installations in South Waziristan and surrounding districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan.

Officials have reported the deaths of hundreds of soldiers, police personnel, and civilians in the TTP-led violence in the province and elsewhere in Pakistan this year alone. The latest report from the provincial counterterrorism department documented the deaths of at least 100 police personnel and an equal number of civilians in the first nine months of 2024, with hundreds more sustaining injuries.

The Pakistani government maintains the TTP, designated as a global terrorist organization by the United Nations, is orchestrating attacks from its Afghan sanctuaries with the help of the neighboring country’s radical Taliban leaders.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Baloch reiterated Islamabad’s concerns at her weekly news conference on Thursday.

“We have shared concrete evidence of the involvement of these entities in terror attacks in Pakistan, and we expect the Afghan authorities to take action against those individuals who are responsible for these terror attacks,” Baloch said.

“The Afghan authorities are fully aware of who these individuals are. They know the location of these individuals and entities inside Afghanistan. It is, therefore, their responsibility to ensure that their territory is not used to foment terrorism against Pakistan,” she added.

The Taliban government, which is not officially recognized by any country, denies allegations that the TTP or any other foreign groups operate or are being allowed to threaten neighboring countries from Afghan soil.

However, recent U.N. security assessments have contradicted Taliban claims, describing the TTP as “the largest terrorist group” in Afghanistan, with a force of around 6,000 members being trained and equipped at al-Qaida-run camps in the country.

The increase in TTP cross-border attacks since the Taliban regained power in Kabul three years ago has strained relations between the two countries. The tensions have resulted in a significant decline in bilateral and transit trade between Pakistan and landlocked Afghanistan.
…

HONG KONG — Asian stocks surged Friday with Japan’s Nikkei leading regional gains after Wall Street romped to records following the Federal Reserve’s big cut to interest rates.

U.S. futures and oil prices were lower.

The Bank of Japan ended a two-day monetary policy meeting and announced it would keep its benchmark rate unchanged at 0.25%.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index soared 1.5% to close at 37,723.91 after the nation’s key inflation data in August accelerated for a fourth consecutive month. The core consumer price index rose 2.8% year-on-year in August, exceeding the central bank’s 2% target and leaving room for further rate hikes.

Markets are closely watching for hints on the pace of future rate hikes from BOJ Gov. Kazuo Ueda.

“For the BOJ, given current economic conditions and recent central bank rhetoric, further policy adjustments are not expected until later this year or early 2025,” Anderson Alves of ActivTrades said in a commentary.

The U.S. dollar fell to 142.47 Japanese yen from 142.62 yen. The euro rose to $1.1178 from $1.1161.

China refrained from further monetary stimulus as the central bank left key lending rates unchanged on Friday. The one-year loan prime rate (LPR), the benchmark for most corporate and household loans, stays at 3.45%, and the five-year rate, a reference for property mortgages, was held at 3.85%.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 1.1% to 18,211.06 while the Shanghai Composite index fell 0.2% at 2,730.00.

Elsewhere, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.2% at 8,209.50. South Korea’s Kospi was up 0.5% to 2,593.12.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 jumped 1.7% to 5,713.64 for one of its best days of the year and topped its last all-time high set in July. The Dow Jones Industrial Average leaped 1.3% to 42,025.19, and the Nasdaq composite led the market with a 2.5% spurt to 18,013.98.

Wall Street’s gains followed rallies for markets across Europe and Asia after the Federal Reserve delivered its first cut to interest rates in more than four years on Wednesday.

That closed the door on a run where the Fed kept its main interest rate at a two-decade high in hopes of slowing the U.S. economy enough to stamp out high inflation. Now that inflation has fallen from its peak two summers ago, Chair Jerome Powell said the Fed can focus more on keeping the job market solid and the economy out of a recession.

Wall Street’s initial reaction to Wednesday’s cut was a yawn. Markets had already run up for months on expectations for lower rates. Stocks edged lower after swinging a few times.

“Yet we come in today and have a reversal of the reversal,” said Jonathan Krinsky, chief market technician at BTIG. He said he did not anticipate such a big jump for stocks on Thursday.

The Fed is still under pressure because the job market and hiring have begun to slow under the weight of higher interest rates. Some critics say the central bank waited too long to cut rates and may have damaged the economy.

Some investment banks raised their forecasts for how much the Federal Reserve will ultimately cut interest rates, anticipating even deeper reductions than Fed officials.

The U.S. presidential election adds to uncertainties. One fear is that both the Democrats and Republicans could push for policies that add to the U.S. government’s debt, which could keep upward pressure on interest rates regardless of the Fed’s moves.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury held steady at 3.71%, where it was late Wednesday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for Fed action, fell to 3.58% from 3.63%.

In other dealings, U.S. benchmark crude oil lost 7 cents to $71.09 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, declined 9 cents to $74.79 per barrel.
…

…

ISLAMABAD — Police in southern Pakistan reported Thursday that a doctor facing allegations of blasphemy against Islam was killed in a shootout during a raid intended to arrest him.

The overnight alleged extrajudicial killing of Shah Nawaz in the province of Sindh marked the second instance within a week in which Pakistani police fatally shot a blasphemy suspect.

Nawaz, a Muslim, was an employee at the main public hospital in his native Umerkot district. He was dismissed from his job on Tuesday after area residents accused him of “desecrating” the Prophet Muhammad by sharing “blasphemous posts” on Facebook earlier in the week.

The doctor rejected the charges and disowned the social media account. A police complaint was subsequently filed against him, however, amid citywide violent protests by religious party activists demanding his immediate arrest.

An area police officer, Niaz Khoso, alleged that Nawaz and another “armed” man were fleeing on a motorcycle to evade arrest, refused to stop at a checkpoint and instead opened fire on police. The ensuing exchange of gunfire led to the death of the blasphemy suspect, Khoso said.

Such official claims are often widely disputed by critics, who point to a highly politicized and corruption-plagued Pakistani police force with a history of staged encounters.

Last week, a police officer in the southwestern city of Quetta shot and killed a 52-year-old hotel owner who was being held in custody on blasphemy allegations. The victim, Abdul Ali, a Muslim, was arrested a day earlier for allegedly posting derogatory remarks on social media about the Prophet Muhammad. His killing inside the police lockup triggered outrage and calls for bringing the shooter to justice.

Ali’s family announced at a news conference together with their tribal elders late on Wednesday, though, that they had “forgiven” the police officer and would not press charges “in the name of God.” One of the elders stated that their tribe had decided to disown the slain man for disrespecting the prophet of Islam.

The country’s independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, or HRCP, said that it was “gravely concerned by the alleged extrajudicial” killings of Shah and Ali.

“This pattern of violence in cases of blasphemy, in which law enforcement personnel are allegedly involved, is an alarming trend,” the watchdog stated in a Thursday statement.

The HRCP urged authorities to conduct an independent inquiry to ascertain who was responsible for the doctor’s death in Umarkot and bring the perpetrators to justice.

Blasphemy is a highly sensitive issue in majority-Muslim Pakistan, where mere allegations have led to mobs lynching scores of suspects, even some in police custody. Insulting the Quran or the Prophet is punishable by death under the country’s blasphemy laws, although no one has ever been officially executed.

In June, a 73-year-old Pakistani man from the minority Christian community died in a hospital a week after being violently attacked by a mob in Pakistan’s Punjab province following accusations he insulted Islam. Days later, on June 20, a Muslim man from Punjab was visiting the scenic northwestern Swat Valley when a mob violently lynched him for allegedly desecrating Islam’s holy book, the Quran.

The laws are persistently under international scrutiny, with critics blaming them for the recent rise in blasphemy allegations and mob lynching of suspects in Pakistan.

A new report released on Monday stated that the blasphemy laws are being significantly misused, with many defendants facing baseless accusations, protracted legal battles, and lengthy pretrial prison time, as judges tread carefully to avoid offending religious groups.

The findings by the U.S.-based Clooney Foundation for Justice backed long-running local and international rights groups’ concerns that the strict blasphemy laws are often misused to settle personal vendettas or to persecute Pakistani minority communities.

Hundreds of blasphemy suspects, mostly Muslims, are languishing in jails in Pakistan because fear of retaliation from religious groups deters judges from moving their trials forward.
…

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Thursday that leader Kim Jong Un supervised successful tests of two types of missiles — one designed to carry a “super-large conventional warhead” and the other likely for a nuclear warhead, as he ordered officials to bolster his country’s military capabilities to repel U.S.-led threats.

The tests appear to be the same as the multiple missile launches that neighboring countries said North Korea performed Wednesday, extending its run of weapons displays as confrontations with the United States and South Korea escalate.

The official Korean Central News Agency said that Kim oversaw the launch of the country’s newly built Hwasongpho-11-Da-4.5 ballistic missile tipped with a dummy “4.5-ton super-large conventional warhead.” It said the test-firing was meant to verify an ability to accurately hit a 320 kilometer-range target, suggesting it’s a weapon aimed at striking sites in South Korea.

KCNA said Kim also guided the launch of an improved “strategic” cruise missile, a word implying the weapon was developed to carry a nuclear warhead.

After the tests, Kim stressed the need to continue to “bolster up the nuclear force” and acquire “overwhelming offensive capability in the field of conventional weapons, too,” according to KCNA. It cited Kim as saying that North Korea can thwart its enemies’ intentions to invade only when it has strong military power.

KCNA released photos of a missile hitting a ground target. South Korea’s military said later Thursday it assessed that the ballistic and cruise missiles fired by North Korea the previous day landed in the North’s mountainous northeastern region.

North Korea typically test-launches missiles off its east coast, and it’s highly unusual for the country to fire missiles at land targets, likely because of concerns about potential damage on the ground if the weapons land in unintended areas.

Jung Chang Wook, head of the Korea Defense Study Forum think tank in Seoul, said North Korea likely aims to show it’s confident about the accuracy of its new ballistic missile. Jung said the missile’s high-powered warhead is meant to attack ground targets, but North Korea hasn’t acquired weapons that can penetrate deep into the earth and destroy underground structures.

The Hwasongpho-11-Da-4.5 missile’s first known test occurred in early July. North Korea said the July test was successful as well, but South Korea’s military disputed the claim saying one of the two missiles fired by North Korea travelled abnormally during the initial stage of its flight before falling at an uninhabited area near Pyongyang, the capital. North Korea hasn’t released photos on the July launches.

North Korea has been pushing to introduce a variety of sophisticated weapons systems designed to attack both South Korea and the mainland U.S. to deal with what it calls its rivals’ intensifying security threats. Many foreign experts say North Korea would ultimately want to use its enlarged arsenal as leverage to win greater concessions in future dealings with the U.S.

Worries about North Korea deepened last week as it disclosed photos of a secretive facility to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons. KCNA said that Kim, during a visit to the facility, called for stronger efforts to “exponentially” produce more nuclear weapons.

It was unclear whether the facility is at North Korea’s main Yongbyon nuclear complex. But it was the North’s first unveiling of a uranium-enrichment facility since it showed one at the country’s main Yongbyon nuclear complex to visiting American scholars led by nuclear physicist Siegfried Hecker in 2010.

In an analytical piece jointly written with another expert, Robert Carlin, that was posted Wednesday on North Korea-focused website 38 North, Hecker said the centrifuge hall shown in the recent North Korean photos was not the same one that he saw in November 2010.

Hecker and Carlin said they believe the new centrifuges provide “only a modest increased capacity,” although North Korea could increase enrichment capacity just by building more centrifuge plants.

In another joint analysis also posted Friday on 38 North, other experts said that the centrifuges shown in the photos are not the ones observed by Hecker but a more advanced design. They said the images send “a strong message that the country has ample capacity and continued will to expand its nuclear program.”
…

HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM — Typhoon Yagi, which hit Vietnam earlier this month, exposed the country’s lack of preparedness for extreme weather and raised concerns more storms could hit the country this rainy season, experts told VOA.

The storm hit northern Vietnam September 7. It resulted in 292 deaths. Thirty-eight people remain missing and over 73,000 homes have been flooded, authorities say. In northwestern Lao Cai province, an entire hamlet was swept away in a landslide on September 12, killing 30 people, while dozens are still missing. 

Presiding over a conference on the aftermath of the typhoon this week, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh honed in on the need for accurate forecasting, timely communication and swift, effective decision-making.

“We have tried our best. We’ve sought the best solutions available in these circumstances, but no loss can compensate for the lives lost and the suffering of the people,” he said September 15.

A 33-year-old Lao Cai schoolteacher called the storm’s impact on his community devastating. 

“My colleagues’ houses collapsed and their furniture floated away. Three or four of my students have family members who died from the landslide. Other students’ houses got flooded,” he told VOA in Vietnamese on September 18, asking to withhold his name due to the sensitivity of speaking to the media. 

“After the flood receded, the mud was up to my chest,” he said. 

The Natural Resources and Environment Ministry said Sunday that northern and north-central Vietnam may face one or two more typhoons before the end of September and there’s still danger of landslides.

“Even as rains subside, landslide risks remain high, especially on the slopes of mountainous regions in the north,” the ministry stated.

With heavy rains and rising water levels in the upper Mekong region, Vietnam’s Southern Institute for Water Resources Planning issued a flood warning Monday for low-lying and riverside areas in the southern provinces of An Giang, Dong Thap, and Long An. 

Brian Eyler, director of the Stimson Center’s Southeast Asia Program in Washington and co-lead of the Mekong Dam Monitor, warned that the country will face more extreme weather. 

“Storms like Yagi will only become more frequent. It’s also possible that another one, two, or three will happen this wet season,” he told VOA by phone September 13. 

“Communities are still not ready and it is the responsibility of governments or international aid organizations to help these communities to better prepare,” he said. 

Unprepared

Despite more than a week of advance warning, locals were poorly prepared for the typhoon, Eyler said.

“Communities were not prepared for this and neither were government response mechanisms in any of the countries that were impacted,” he said.  

Eyler saw on social media that people were on boats in Halong Bay in northern Vietnam during the storm, people were standing next to glass windows and doors that could easily swing open, and in China, people stood in line at amusement parks during the storm. 

“There’s a large gap in emergency early-warning messaging from the government and then just a general lack of preparedness about what one should do as an individual during a time of extreme crisis,” Eyler said. 

The Lao Cai teacher said people in his town had been warned about the incoming typhoon but did not expect the severity of the storm. 

“There was notice but the damage was not completely avoided,” he said. “We did not predict such a strong storm. There has never been such a strong storm.” 

Vulnerable hit hardest

Eyler said that during a climate change-intensified disaster like Typhoon Yagi, the effects are “amplified much more on the poorer and vulnerable people.”

“Those who were killed or those who were injured were out and about during the storm,” he said. “They couldn’t afford to stop what they are doing because they need to carry on their livelihoods.” 

Mimi Vu, a Ho Chi Minh City-based migration and trafficking expert, said that people who depend on day-to-day earnings are at greatest risk. 

“For them to stop working means that they’re not able to put food on the table,” she said by phone Wednesday. “It’s a matter of survival for a lot of them and they’re willing to take the risk or to support their families.”

Vu said efforts to fight global warming are going too slowly to keep up with the needs of many affected by extreme weather. 

“We’re trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions… but it’s not happening fast enough and by enough influential entities to make a difference right now,” she said. 

We need to help “these underserved communities prepare for the worst that’s coming,” she added. “Efforts have to be increased now in changing the way we live and operate in the world so that we can lessen the impact.”

A woman in her 30s in Bac Giang province told VOA she is helping to get necessities to people in Van Ha commune, a village in the Viet Yen district of Bac Giang, which has been isolated by floods and without power for a week. 

“I work for the government and we are helping the people here,” she said in Vietnamese on September 14, asking to withhold her name. “My duty is supporting other relief groups such as how to get into the village and how to transport food and goods.” 

Eyler said that governments need to increase data sharing to mitigate the impact of natural disasters and upstream dams in China and the damming of Southeast Asia’s river systems more broadly increase the dangers of storms. 

“The uses of dams are often described as having the potential for flood control but when these major events happen like this I think the myth of dams as flood control really comes undone,” he said. “[Dams] exacerbate risks for vulnerable communities downstream.”
…

CHONBURI, Thailand — Only a month after Thailand’s adorable baby hippo Moo Deng was unveiled on Facebook, her fame became unstoppable both domestically and internationally.

Zookeeper Atthapon Nundee has been posting cute moments of the animals in his care for about five years. He never imagined Khao Kheow Open Zoo’s newborn pygmy hippo would become an internet megastar within weeks.

Cars started lining up outside the zoo well before it opened Thursday. Visitors traveled from near and far for a chance to see the pudgy, expressive 2-month-old in person at the zoo about 100 kilometers southeast of Bangkok. The pit where Moo Deng lives with her mom, Jona, was packed almost immediately, with people cooing and cheering every time the pink-cheeked baby animal made skittish movements.

“It was beyond expectation,” Atthapon told The Associated Press. “I wanted people to know her. I wanted a lot of people to visit her, or watch her online, or leave fun comments. I never would’ve thought (of this).”

Moo Deng, which literally means “bouncy pork” in Thai, is a type of meatball. The name was chosen by fans via a poll on social media, and it matches her other siblings: Moo Toon (stewed pork) and Moo Waan (sweet pork). There is also a common hippo at the zoo named Kha Moo (stewed pork leg).

“She’s such a little lump. I want to ball her up and swallow her whole!” said Moo Deng fan Areeya Sripanya while visiting the zoo Thursday.

Already, Moo Deng has been made into memes. Artists are drawing cartoons based on her. Social media platform X even featured her in its official account’s post.

With all that fame, zoo director Narongwit Chodchoi said they have begun patenting and trademarking “Moo Deng the hippo” to prevent the animal from being commercialized by anyone else. “After we do this, we will have more income to support activities that will make the animals’ lives better,” he said.

“The benefits we get will return to the zoo to improve the life of all animals here.”

The zoo sits on 800 hectares of land and is home to more than 2,000 animals. It runs breeder programs for many endangered species like Moo Deng’s. The pygmy hippopotamus that’s native to West Africa is threatened by poaching and loss of habitat. There are only 2,000-3,000 of them left in the wild.

To help fund the initiative, the zoo is making Moo Deng shirts and pants that will be ready for sale at the end of the month, with more merchandise to come.

Narongwit believes a factor of Moo Deng’s fame is her name, which compliments her energetic and chaotic personality captured in Atthapon’s creative captions and video clips.

Appropriately, Moo Deng likes to “deng,” or bounce, and Atthapon got a lot of cute and funny moments of her giddy bouncing on social media. Even when she’s not bouncing, the hippo is endlessly cute — squirming as Atthapon tries to wash her, biting him while he was trying to play with her, calmly closing her eyes as he rubs her pinkish cheeks or her chubby belly.

Atthapon, who has worked at the zoo for eight years taking care of hippos, sloths, capybaras and binturongs, said baby hippos are usually more playful and energetic, and they become calmer as they get older.

The zoo saw a spike in visitors since Moo Deng’s fame — so much that the zoo now has to limit public access to the baby’s enclosure to five-minute windows throughout the day during weekends.

Narongwit said the zoo has been receiving over 4,000 visitors during a weekday, up from around just 800 people, and more than 10,000 during a weekend, up from around 3,000 people.

But the fame has also brought some hostile visitors to Moo Deng, who only wakes up ready to play about two hours a day. Some videos showed visitors splashing water or throwing things at the sleeping Moo Deng to try to wake her up. The hippo pit now has a warning sign against throwing things at Moo Deng — posted prominently at the front in Thai, English and Chinese.

Narongwit said the zoo would take action under the animal protection law if people mistreat the animal. But clips emerged of people treating Moo Deng poorly, and the backlash was fierce. The zoo director said that since then, they haven’t seen anyone doing it again.

For fans who can’t make the journey or are discouraged after seeing the crowds for Moo Deng, the Khao Kheow Open Zoo set up cameras and plan to start a 24-hour live feed of the baby hippo in the coming week. 
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NEW DELHI — Two years after massive popular protests in Sri Lanka ousted former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa at the height of a crushing economic downturn, millions in the island nation will head to the polls Saturday to choose a new president.

The rallying cry at the protest movement, called “aragalaya,” or struggle, was for an overhaul of the political establishment that many perceived as corrupt. That anger, which continues to fester, along with economic hardship that millions suffer will influence the vote, according to political analysts.

“They want a change of the system. That means that they don’t want the old ways where there was no transparency, no accountability,” Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Center for Policy Alternatives in Colombo told VOA. “They want an alleviation of the economic hardship they are suffering.”

As they seek to usher in change, the island nation’s 17 million voters will choose among three main contenders. President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was elected by Parliament to the top post after Rajapaksa’s exit, is running as an independent candidate. His main challengers are opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and the leader of a Marxist-led alliance, Anura Kumara Dissanayake.

Wickremesinghe is wooing voters with the promise of building on the country’s fragile economic recovery that he has steered. He secured a nearly $3 billion International Monetary Fund bailout, which pulled Sri Lanka back from the brink of bankruptcy, eased severe shortages of food and fuel and lowered runaway inflation.

“Like the Titanic, Sri Lanka could have sunk,” Wickremesinghe told a rally. “There was no captain. I took responsibility for the ship.”

Political analysts say he is attracting the support of people who respect him for restoring stability. “There are those who believe that he has gone to the IMF, he has got a deal with them and that we should continue with him to get out of the terrible mess that we got ourselves in and then start to rebuild again.” Saravanamuttu said.

However, people still cope with massive economic woes. Wickremesinghe slashed subsidies and imposed higher taxes as part of IMF austerity measures, which are hurting millions. Living costs have surged while incomes have stagnated. At least a quarter of the country’s 20 million people are reeling under poverty.

Some also see Wickremesinghe as a part of the “old political guard” which protesters sought to overthrow. He has been accused of protecting the Rajapaksa political family and shielding them from prosecution. Tough measures he took to curb protests, including drafting new security laws, angered many.

“I am voting for systematic change, not just a change of faces or end of the political elite that have run this country to the ground,” said Marisa De Silva, an activist in Colombo who took part in the 2022 protests. “We are proposing socialist policy changes for real change.”

That deep discontent has catapulted left-wing leader Dissanayake, popularly known as AKD, from the margins to the center stage of the political race. A fiery orator, his rallies have attracted huge crowds as he taps into the anger among many voters. He has vowed to work toward ensuring that the rich pay more taxes under the IMF restructuring plan. There are no reliable polls, but he is seen as a frontrunner in the race.

The National People’s Power alliance he heads is made up of different groups that include political parties, youth, civil society, women’s groups and trade unions. It is centered on the working class.

“They have never really been in power themselves, so they are presenting themselves as the party that can come in and sweep out the old guys, particularly corruption which is a big problem in Sri Lanka and which many blame for the current crisis,” Alan Keenan, a senior consultant on Sri Lanka at the International Crisis Group, told VOA, “So he is seen as the big change agent,” he added.

Opposition leader Premadasa, who also pledges to ease the burden on ordinary citizens, is also a strong contender. He wants to steer a middle path between the status quo and the radical change that Dissanayake wants to usher in.

Another candidate is Namal Rajapaksa, the nephew of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was president when protesters stormed the presidential palace in 2022 after the economy collapsed. His father, Mahinda Rajapaksa, was also a former president. The Rajapaksas are widely blamed for the country’s financial mismanagement. Although Namal Rajapaksa is not a serious contender for power, his candidacy is a bid by the once-powerful political dynasty to win back their base, according to analysts.

A significant number of uncommitted voters has made it hard to forecast the election.  

“The question is do voters want a radical change with someone who is untested, do they want to stick with the current program, which is painful but perhaps might lead somewhere eventually, or do they go want to go with someone who is critical of the current approach but not quite as radical as Dissanayake?” asked Keenan.
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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lankan housewife Lankika Dilrukshi says she is tired of the daily struggle needed to provide for her children. On Saturday, she is voting in a presidential poll she sees as key to securing a better future for herself, and her nation.

Dilrukshi, 31, is one of the millions of people barely able to make ends meet since the island nation’s economy in 2022 plunged into its worst financial crisis in decades.

“Life has become so difficult, we need change,” she said. “We need a leader who will work for the poor.”

The economic recovery is at the core of the three-way election battle between President Ranil Wickremesinghe, opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, and Marxist-leaning politician Anura Kumara Dissanayake.

The three are frontrunners and have promised new strategies to rescue the economy, lower taxes and support businesses.

Sri Lanka’s poor and middle class want an equitable economic recovery that will support their aspirations, said Umesh Moramudali, who teaches economics at the University of Colombo.

“The poor are really, really struggling,’’ Moramudali said. ‘’Higher prices hurt them most, especially higher food prices.”

Although inflation cooled to 0.5% last month and GDP is forecast to grow 3% in 2024, for the first time in three years, the change is slow and yet to trickle down.

Sri Lankans were hit hard by the 2022 economic crisis, which was triggered by a severe shortfall of foreign currency that added to problems caused by the pandemic.

Inflation soared to 70%, the rupee depreciated 45% and the economy shrank by 7.3%, forcing the government to seek an International Monetary Fund bailout.

The latest government data shows that in 2023, 7 million people – almost one-third of the total population – were considered poor.

By mid-2023, about nearly half of all families had limited their food intake, data from 10,000 households gathered by Colombo think tank LIRNEasia showed.

Rising food insecurity also led to malnutrition in children, with the number of those with stunted growth increasing to over 17% in 2023 from 12% in 2021.

Burdened by new taxes and fewer high-earning jobs, migration has skyrocketed. More than 600,000 people left the country for work over the last two years, compared to 122,264 in 2021, according to government data.

Fruit seller Nancy Hemalatha, 61, borrowed $495 to fund her business, and says she barely has $6.50 left every day after repaying the loan.

“My two youngest sons want to migrate. That is their focus now,” Hemalatha said.

As for housewife Dilrukshi, whose laborer husband earns about $8 daily, frugality is the only way to survive.

She keeps poultry and fish out of meals to funnel funds towards her 13-year-old daughter’s education and borrows small amounts from neighbors.

“I want everyone to have a better future…so that my daughter can become a doctor,” she said. “That is what I want to see happen.”
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