Wellington, New Zealand — New Zealand’s spy service branded China a “complex intelligence concern” Tuesday and warned the Pacific nation was vulnerable to foreign interference.   

In an annual threat report, the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service said several countries were undertaking “malicious activity” on its shores and called out China’s attempts as “complex and deceptive.” 

In particular, Beijing was accused of using front organizations to connect with local groups to replace authentic and diverse community views with those approved by the ruling party.  

In one example, a Chinese-language community news outlet parroted Beijing’s talking points, it said. 

“These front organizations will often appear to be community-based… but their true affiliation, direction and funding sources are hidden,” the report said.  

The unusually blunt language comes as New Zealand’s recently elected center-right government tilts the country’s foreign policy more closely toward traditional Western allies.  

This comes after years of growing economic ties with China — New Zealand’s biggest trade partner.  

In March, Wellington publicly said a Chinese state-sponsored group was behind a 2021 malicious cyber-attack that infiltrated sensitive government computer systems.  

China dismissed allegations of hacking and accused New Zealand critics of being puppets of Washington.  

‘Manage them’  

New Zealand’s spy agency said the country’s geographical position and role in the Pacific region made it “vulnerable” to other countries striving for greater influence. 

That included Russia, which “likely monitors the public statements and social media accounts” of people. 

In another case, an unnamed country contacted a local New Zealand council and offered to pay for a community event if they agreed to restrict a particular religious group.  

Andrew Hampton, Director-General of Security, said the report aimed to be upfront about threats facing the country.  

“The point is not to alarm anyone but to alert New Zealanders to the threats so that we can work together to manage them,” he said.  

Earlier this year, New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the country could no longer depend on the “splendid isolation” provided by its geography. 

China remains New Zealand’s biggest trading partner — exporting diary, meat and wood products that exceeded US$13.2 billion, according to the most recent official data.   

Luxon has warned that although China was “a country of undoubted influence,” different values mean “there are issues on which we cannot and will not agree.” 
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SYDNEY — Global concerns over plastic pollution and cuts to fossil fuel use are behind a new Australian-led initiative to develop a new generation of 100 percent compostable plastic. Experts estimate that more than 170 trillion pieces of plastic are floating in the world’s oceans. There are growing concerns about the impact of micro-plastics on health and the environment.    

The Bioplastics Innovation Hub aims to “revolutionize” plastic packaging by making biologically-made plastic that can break down in compost, land or water.  

The aim is to produce water bottles, for example, using bioplastics derived from waste products from the food industry. 

The green plastic scheme brings together the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, the CSIRO – Australia’s national science agency – and Murdoch University in Perth in a multi-million dollar collaboration with industry partners. 

Andrew Whiteley, a CSIRO research program director, told VOA the technology could be ground-breaking.

“What we are really essentially doing is trying to phase out those fossil fuel plastics and bring in this new generation of bioplastics, which take over the roles of the plastics that we have already been using. So it is, really, just that switch over and going forward in a more sustainable way using these bioplastics.” 

Australian states and territories have been phasing out various plastics for several years. At the start of September 2024, more items have been banned in South Australia and Western Australia, including polystyrene containers and cups, plastic confetti, and plastic coffee cups and lids.

Chile, Kenya, India and New Zealand have also imposed restrictions on some single-use plastic products, such as bags or cutlery.

But there is a warning that the degradation of everyday plastic items, from packaging and in clothing, is creating microplastics that pollute the environment and pose a risk to health.    

Michelle Blewitt is the program director of the Australian Microplastic Assessment Project, a national citizen science organization, which has been monitoring microplastics.

She told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. the microplastic problem is getting worse.

“Micro plastics are particles that are less than 5mm in size and they can break up into smaller and smaller pieces until they become airborne.  So, they are found in our waterways and in the air and our homes and certainly on the beaches around our waterways as well.”

CSIRO scientists say the biodegradable plastic scheme is part of Australia’s commitment to the United Nations Global Treaty on plastic pollution.  It aims to be a legally binding international agreement between 175 countries to reduce the production and consumption of high-risk plastic.

About 98% of single-use plastic products are made from fossil fuels, according to the U.N.
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dili, east timor — When the Vatican acknowledged in 2022 that Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning East Timorese independence hero, had sexually abused young boys, it appeared that the global clergy sexual abuse scandal that has compromised the Catholic Church’s credibility around the world had finally arrived in Asia’s newest country. 

And yet, the church in East Timor today is stronger than ever, with most downplaying, doubting or dismissing the claims against Belo and those against a popular American missionary who confessed to molesting young girls. Many instead focus on their roles in saving lives during the country’s bloody struggle against Indonesia for independence. 

Pope Francis will come face to face with the Timorese faithful on his first trip to the country, a former Portuguese colony that makes up half of the island of Timor off the northern coast of Australia. But so far, there is no word about whether he will meet with victims or even mention the sex abuse directly, as he has in other countries where the rank-and-file faithful have demanded an accounting from the hierarchy for how it failed to protect their children. 

Even without pressure from within East Timor to address the scandals, it would be deeply meaningful to the victims if Francis did, said Tjiyske Lingsma, the Dutch journalist who helped bring both abuse cases to light. 

“I think this is the time for the pope to say some words to the victims, to apologize,” she said in an interview from Amsterdam. 

The day after Lingsma detailed the Belo case in a September 2022 report in De Groene Amsterdammer magazine, the Vatican confirmed that Belo had been sanctioned secretly two years earlier. 

In Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni’s statement, he said the church had been aware of the case since 2019 and had imposed disciplinary measures in 2020, including restrictions on Belo’s movements and a ban on voluntary contact with minors. 

Despite the official acknowledgement, many in East Timor still don’t believe it, like Dili university student Martinha Goveia, who is still expecting Belo will show up to be at Francis’ side during his upcoming visit. 

Vegetable trader Alfredo Ximenes said the allegations and the Vatican’s acknowledged sanctions were merely rumors, and that he hoped Belo would come to welcome the pope and refute the claims in person. 

“Our political leaders should immediately meet him to end the problem and persuade him to return, because after all he has contributed greatly to national independence,” Ximenes said. 

Timorese officials refused to answer questions about the Belo case, but there’s been no attempt to avoid mentioning him, with a giant billboard in Dili welcoming Pope Francis, whose visit starts September 9, placed right above a mural honoring Belo and three others as national heroes. 

Only about 20% of East Timor’s people were Catholic when Indonesia invaded in 1975, shortly after Portugal abandoned it as a colony. 

Today, 98% of East Timor’s 1.3 million people are Catholic, making it the most Catholic country in the world outside the Vatican. 

A law imposed by Indonesia requiring people to choose a religion, combined with the church’s opposition to the military occupation and support for the resistance over years of bloody fighting that saw as many as 200,000 people killed, helped bring about that flood of new members. 

Belo won the Nobel Peace Prize for his bravery in drawing international attention to Indonesian human rights abuses during the conflict, and American missionary Richard Daschbach was widely celebrated for his role in helping save lives in the struggle for independence. 

Their heroic status and societal factors in Asia, where the culture tends to confer much power on adults and authority figures, help explain why the men are still revered while elsewhere in the world such cases are met with outrage, said Anne Barrett Doyle of the online resource Bishop Accountability. 

“Bishops are powerful, and in developing countries where the church is dominant, they are inordinately powerful,” Barrett Doyle said. 

“But no case we’ve studied exhibits as extreme a power differential as that which exists between Belo and his victims. When a child is raped in a country that is devoutly Catholic, and the sexual predator is not only a bishop but a legendary national hero, there is almost no hope that justice will be done.” 

In 2018, as rumors built against Daschbach, the priest confessed in a letter to church authorities to abusing young girls from at least 1991 to 2012. 

“It is impossible for me to remember even the faces of many of them, let alone the names,” he wrote. 

The 87-year-old was defrocked by the Vatican and criminally charged in East Timor, where he was convicted in 2021 and is now serving 12 years in prison. 

But despite his confession and court testimony from victims that detailed the abuse, Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, an independence hero himself, has visited Daschbach in prison — hand-feeding him cake and serving him wine on his birthday — and has said winning the ex-priest’s early release is a priority for him. 

In Belo’s case, six years after winning the Nobel Prize, which he shared with current East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta, he suddenly retired as the head of the church in East Timor in 2002, citing health reasons and stress. 

Not long after his retirement, Belo, today 76, was sent by the Vatican and his Salesian missionary order to another former Portuguese colony, Mozambique, to work as a missionary priest. 

There, he has said, he spent his time “teaching catechism to children, giving retreats to young people.” Today he lives in Portugal. 

Suspicion arose that Belo, like others before him, had been allowed to quietly retire rather than face any reckoning, given the reputational harm to the church that would have caused. 

In a 2023 interview with The Associated Press, Pope Francis suggested that indeed was the case, reasoning that was how such matters were handled in the past. 

“This is a very old thing where this awareness of today did not exist,” Francis said. “And when it came out about the bishop of East Timor, I said, ‘Yes, let it go in the open.’ … I’m not going to cover it up. But these were decisions made 25 years ago when there wasn’t this awareness.” 

Lingsma said she first heard allegations against Belo in 2002, the same year East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste, won its formal independence after the Indonesian occupation ended in 1999. She said she wasn’t able to investigate the case and build enough evidence to publish her story on him until two decades later. 

Her story garnered international attention, as well as the Vatican’s acknowledgement of the case, but in East Timor was primarily met with skepticism and negative reactions toward her reporting. Her 2019 story exposing the Daschbach case eventually prompted authorities to charge him, but also did not lead to the outpouring of anger that she had anticipated. 

“The reaction was silence,” she recalled. 

During the fight for independence, priests, nuns and missionaries put themselves at great risk to help people, like “parents wanting to save their children,” helping form today’s deep connection between the church and people of East Timor, said Timorese historian Luciano Valentim da Conceixao. 

The church’s role is even enshrined in the preamble to the young country’s constitution, which says that the Catholic Church “has always been able to take on the suffering of all the people with dignity, placing itself on their side in the defense of their most fundamental rights.” 

Because so many remember the church’s significant role during those dark days, it has fostered an environment where it is difficult for victims of abuse to speak out for fear of being labeled anti-church, and where men like Belo and Daschbach continue to receive support from all walks of society. 

“Pedophilia and sexual violence are common enemies in East Timor, and we should not mix them up with the struggle for independence,” said Valentim da Costa Pinto, executive director of the Timor-Leste NGO Forum, an umbrella organization for 270 NGOs. 

The chancellor of the Dili Diocese today, Father Ludgerio Martins da Silva, said the cases of Belo and Daschbach were the Vatican’s jurisdiction, and that most people consider the sex abuse scandals a thing of the past. 

“We don’t hear a lot of people ask about Bishop Belo because he left the country … 20 years ago,” da Silva said. 

Still, Lingsma said she knew of ongoing allegations against “four or five” other priests, including two who were now dead, “and if I know them, I’m the last person to know.” 

“That also shows that this whole reporting system doesn’t work at all,” she said. 

Da Conceixao, the historian, said he did not know enough about the cases against Daschbach or Belo to comment on them, but that he was well acquainted with their role in the independence struggle and called them “fearless freedom fighters and clergymen.” 

“Clergymen are not free from mistakes,” da Conceixao conceded. “But we, the Timorese, have to look with a clear mind at the mistakes they made and the good they did for the country, for the freedom of a million people, and of course the value is not the same.” 

Because of that prevailing attitude, Barrett Doyle said “the victims of those two men have to be the most isolated and least supported clergy sex abuse victims in the world right now. ” 

For that reason, Francis’ visit to East Timor could be a landmark moment in his papacy, she said, if he were to denounce Daschbach and Belo by name and praise the courage of the victims, sending a message that would resonate globally. 

“Given the exalted status of the Catholic Church in East Timor, just imagine the impact of papal fury directed at Belo, Daschbach and the yet unknown number of other predatory clergy in that country,” she said. 

“Francis could even address the country’s hidden victims, promising his support and urging them to contact him directly about their abuse — he literally could save lives.”
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phnom penh, cambodia — A year after succeeding his father as Cambodia’s prime minister, Hun Manet is facing widespread public anger over a regional economic cooperation plan with Vietnam and Laos that is testing his political acumen.

Thousands of Cambodians living in Japan, South Korea and Australia have staged protests against the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle Area (CLV-DTA) initiative, citing fears of ceding sovereignty or inviting large-scale immigration from Vietnam.

Although the initiative has been in place for decades, regional meetings this year for a 2030 “master plan” have put it back in the spotlight. An 11-minute video posted on Facebook by government critics last month fanned historic resentment toward Vietnam and its perceived control over the current government, which Hanoi installed and backed throughout the 1980s.

While political analysts say fears of the CLV-DTA may be overblown and fueled by online misinformation, they also blame the government for failing to provide transparent explanations about the initiative, instead seeking to suppress dissent, which has only fueled suspicions of ill intentions.

Sophal Ear, an associate professor at the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University, told VOA Khmer in an email that the underlying concerns about Cambodia’s sovereignty is a significant test for Hun Manet.

“It challenges his ability to navigate complex regional projects while addressing domestic concerns about national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Successfully managing this controversy will be crucial in establishing his credibility as a leader who can protect Cambodia’s interests while engaging in regional cooperation,” he said.

“How he handles this situation could set the tone for his leadership and influence public perception of his capacity to govern effectively,” he added.

Hun Manet took office on August 22, 2023, shortly after an election the United States deemed neither free nor fair. His father, Hun Sen, was the party’s prime minister candidate and arranged for his son to take power ahead of the formation of a new government.

While the generational transfer of power allowed some Western countries to reset relations with Cambodia, there has been little change in the government’s reliance on China or its approach to critics and perceived opponents. Dozens of activists and political opponents have been arrested under Hun Manet.

Earlier this month, authorities arrested more than 30 people across the country amid reports of a planned mass demonstration against the CLV initiative in Phnom Penh on August 18.

The creators of the Facebook video were also arrested after it drew the ire of government leaders. Hun Sen, who is now president of the Senate, has threatened additional arrests should public criticism continue.

Sophal Ear said the proactive arrests, along with the deployment of a heavy security presence across major cities, showed the government’s determination to quell any significant uprising before it gains momentum.

“However, the situation remains fluid, and the government’s approach could either suppress the movement or further galvanize public opposition, depending on how it handles the protesters and addresses the underlying concerns,” he told VOA Khmer on Monday.

In a public address on August 22 marking one year in power, Hun Manet addressed criticism and concerns about the development triangle area, saying it was meant to “create potential and development” in the four Cambodian provinces involved.

He said the initiative would spur infrastructure construction in border regions, encourage more productive land use, and protect forests for joint development. In his speech, Hun Manet highlighted that the initiative would strengthen sovereignty of Cambodia while “boosting the development and maintaining stability and security” for its people.

The attention of the CLV initiative also comes as Cambodia is pushing ahead with the controversial 180-kilometer Funan Techo Canal project that will rely significantly on Chinese funding, which carries its own regional implications as it would bypass traditional trade routes through the Mekong delta in Vietnam.

The CLV furor has been a distraction from the Funan Techo project, which officially broke ground earlier this month. Political professor Em Sovannara, who is based in Cambodia, said Hun Manet seems unable to deal with the issue.

“First, I think building the canal is part of creating political value for the new prime minister. Second, on the issue of the CLV project left from the past, the current prime minister has no ability to respond or deal with it based on our observation,” he said.

Soeng Senkaruna, a former senior official at the human rights group ADHOC who fled to live in Australia, told VOA Khmer that he expected Hun Manet to continue trying to address the criticism by silencing it or creating distractions.

“So, they will not solve the problems according to what the people are demanding, so they will keep defending this project,” he said. “We are aware that this project is a long-term strategy between Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. That’s why the child prime minister and his father, the former prime minister, as we saw, we know that they can’t do anything with Vietnam. Thus, he has no capacity to deal with this issue. The new prime minister will do nothing.”

Cambodia is expected to host a ministerial summit later this year for the review and adoption of the Master Plan for Socio-Economic Development in the CLV-DTA up to 2030.

Cambodia’s exiled opposition leaders have seized on fears about the initiative, which could negatively impact four Cambodian border provinces — Ratanakiri, Mondulkiri, Kratie and Stung Treng — as well as provinces in Laos in Vietnam.

The plan encourages freer flow of goods and people across the borders but entering a joint development with its larger and much more populous eastern neighbor also rekindles many Cambodians’ traditional fear of Vietnamese expansion and domination.

“The project is in fact a cover for further illegal deforestation, land evictions and exploitation of natural resources for foreign gain,” the Khmer Movement for Democracy wrote August 14 on X.

“Continued illegal Vietnamese immigration into the four Cambodian provinces concerned by the agreement, and the effective control that Vietnam will wield over the economy of the region, means that the provinces will effectively become vassals controlled by Vietnam,” it added.

Cambodia’s government spokesman Pen Bona said Hun Manet was ensuring peace, security and national sovereignty, and denied restricting freedom of expression or dissent.

“Lately, we have seen the people using opposition culture to cause destruction by a handful of people. So, the government must take very strict measures by not absolutely allowing such a group to use its own trick to spoil peace or harmony or national development,” he told VOA.

He added, “I would like to clarify: Don’t consider the government measures as a restriction of freedom of expression [or] democratic freedom.”
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Islamabad — Taliban authorities in Afghanistan reported Monday that a suicide bomb blast in Kabul killed at least six people, including a woman, and wounded 13 others.

Police confirmed the deadly attack in the Afghan capital, saying it occurred in the city’s southwestern Qala Bakhtiar area when a suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body.

Kabul police spokesperson Khalid Zadran wrote on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that the victims were civilians and that investigations into the attack were ongoing. He shared no further details.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility, but the Afghan offshoot of the Islamic State, IS-Khorasan, is the primary suspect. The terrorist outfit has taken credit for almost all recent attacks in Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan. 

Taliban officials say their sustained counterterrorism operations have “almost decimated” IS-Khorasan, and it has no “physical presence” in the country. The United States and regional countries dispute these claims. 

“We know that we can’t turn a blind eye to the threats from organizations such as ISIS-K and that we must keep a relentless focus on counterterrorism,” Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder told reporters in Washington last week while reiterating U.S. worries about the growing threat of terrorism in Afghanistan. He used an acronym for IS-Khorasan.  
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Seoul, South Korea — President Yoon Suk Yeol boycotted the formal opening of South Korea’s parliament Monday as his squabbles with the opposition deepen over allegations of wrongdoing by top officials and his wife.

It’s a tradition for South Korean presidents to deliver a speech at opening ceremonies for National Assembly sessions, and Yoon is the first to skip the event since the country’s transition from a military dictatorship to democracy in the late 1980s.

Yoon, a conservative who narrowly won the election in 2022, has struggled to navigate a parliament controlled by liberals who have stymied his agenda and called for investigations into allegations of corruption and abuse of power involving his wife and government officials.

President Yoon also faces declining approval ratings as concerns grow over his government’s ability to deal with a worsening job market, soaring household debt and a prolonged strike by thousands of doctors that is straining medical services.

Asked about his decision to skip the legislature’s opening ceremony, Yoon’s office said lawmakers must first “normalize the National Assembly, which over issues demands for special prosecutor investigations and impeachments,” before inviting Yoon.

A senior presidential official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity during a background briefing, said it was difficult for Yoon to attend when lawmakers were expected to greet him with “verbal abuse and picketing demonstrations.”

“They aren’t hesitating to call the president’s family member a murderer and conspiracies about martial law are continuing to circulate in the National Assembly,” she said.

Jo Seoung-lae, spokesperson of the main opposition Democratic Party, said Yoon’s refusal to attend the ceremony displayed his “arrogance” and disregard for the assembly’s role to check and balance the executive branch.

“It’s impossible to produce results in national governance without having respect for the National Assembly,” assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik said during the opening ceremony as he lamented Yoon’s absence.

Following parliamentary elections in April in which the liberals extended their majority, the current assembly began meeting in May. But its official opening ceremony was delayed for months because of political bickering.

Opposition lawmakers are pushing for an investigation by special prosecutors into allegations that top government and military officials tried to cover up the circumstances surrounding the death of a marine who drowned during a search for flood victims in 2023.

They want another independent investigation into allegations that Yoon’s wife, Kim Keon Hee, was involved in stock price manipulation and violated the country’s antigraft law by receiving a luxury handbag from a Korean American pastor. Yoon has denied any legal wrongdoing by his wife.

In August, Yoon’s office angrily demanded an apology after Democratic Party lawmaker Jeon Hyun-heui labeled Kim as a “murderer” over the death of a senior official from the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, who was reportedly involved in the commission’s review of the handbag scandal.

Opposition lawmakers had raised suspicions on whether the commission was pressured into closing the review in June, when it concluded that the antigraft law provides no grounds for punishment for the spouses of public officials. The death of the former commission official, who was reportedly found with a note, is still being investigated.

Yoon in May and July rejected consecutive bills calling for special prosecutors to investigate the marine’s death, describing the allegations as groundless and politically motivated.

Yoon and his party also criticized the opposition’s move to hold a parliamentary hearing in July to address online petitions signed by tens of thousands calling for his impeachment. South Korea’s Constitution limits a president to a single five-year term, so Yoon cannot seek reelection.
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BAKU — Azerbaijan’s ruling party retained its majority in Sunday’s snap parliamentary election, preliminary results showed, in the country’s first vote since staging a lightning offensive a year ago to recapture the breakaway territory of Karabakh.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a rights watchdog, criticized the vote, saying it had fallen well short of democratic standards.

President Ilham Aliyev’s party was on course to win 68 out of 125 seats in parliament, according to preliminary results from the Central Election Commission reported by the TASS news agency. It had 69 seats in the outgoing parliament.

Just over 2 million people in the energy-rich nation cast their ballots, bringing the turnout at the time of the close of polling stations to 37.3%, said Central Election Commission chief Mazahir Panakhov.

Exit polls suggested dozens of other seats would go to candidates who are nominally independent of political parties but in practice back the government as well as to minor pro-government parties.

OSCE election monitors said the election campaign had been “barely visible”.

“The September 1 early parliamentary elections took place in a restrictive political and legal environment that does not enable genuine pluralism and resulted in a contest devoid of competition,” the OSCE mission said in a statement.

Karabakh

It was the first parliamentary vote since Azerbaijan recaptured Karabakh, where ethnic Armenians had enjoyed de facto independence for three decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Aliyev, in power since 2003, moved swiftly to capitalise on that victory and won a fifth presidential term in February with more than 92% of the vote, according to election authorities.

Armenia accused Azerbaijan of ethnic cleansing in Karabakh after almost all of its more than 100,000 ethnic Armenian residents fled the area.

Azerbaijan denied that allegation. It is rebuilding the region and resettling it with Azerbaijanis who fled during a war with Armenia in the 1990s. The Central Election Commission said about 42,000 people in Karabakh were registered to vote on Sunday.

 
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New Delhi — Intense monsoon rains and floods in India’s southern states have killed at least 25 people, with thousands rescued and taken to relief camps, disaster officials said Monday.

At least 16 people have been killed in Telangana state, and nine in neighboring Andhra Pradesh in the past two days.

“Lots of houses have been damaged as well,” Y. Nagi Reddy, director general of Telangana’s disaster response and fire service, told AFP, noting there had 400 millimeters (15.7 inches) of rainfall within the past 24 hours.

Around 3,800 people have been rescued in Telangana and moved to relief camps.

India’s air force said Monday it had flown in more than 200 rescue officers and 30 tons of emergency aid to both states.

Rains cause widespread destruction every year, but experts say climate change is shifting weather patterns and increasing the number of extreme weather events.

Last week, at least 28 people were killed over three days in the western state of Gujarat.

The northeastern state of Tripura was also hit by floods and landslides in August, with more than 20 people killed.

In neighboring Bangladesh, downriver from India, floods killed at least 40 people over the same period, with nearly 300,000 residents taking refuge in emergency shelters.
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Vatican City — If any evidence were needed to underscore that Pope Francis’ upcoming trip to Asia and Oceania is the longest and most challenging of his pontificate, it’s that he’s bringing along his secretaries to help him navigate the four-country program while keeping up with work back home.

Francis will clock 32,814 kilometers by air during his Sept. 2-13 visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, far surpassing any of his previous 44 foreign trips and notching one of the longest papal trips ever, both in terms of days on the road and distances traveled.

That’s no small feat for a pope who turns 88 in December, uses a wheelchair, lost part of a lung to a respiratory infection as a young man and had to cancel his last foreign trip (to Dubai in November) on doctors’ orders.

But Francis is pushing ahead with this trip, originally planned for 2020 but postponed because of COVID-19. He’s bringing along his medical team of a doctor and two nurses and taking the usual health precautions on the ground. But in a novelty, he’s adding his personal secretaries into the traditional Vatican delegation of cardinals, bishops and security.

The long trip recalls the globetrotting travels of St. John Paul II, who visited all four destinations during his quarter-century pontificate, though East Timor was an occupied part of Indonesia at the time of his landmark 1989 trip.

By retracing John Paul’s steps, Francis is reinforcing the importance that Asia has for the Catholic Church, since it’s one of the few places where the church is growing in terms of baptized faithful and religious vocations. 

Here is a look at the trip and some of the issues that are likely to come up, with the Vatican’s relations with China ever-present in the background in a region where Beijing wields enormous influence.

Indonesia

Francis loves gestures of interfaith fraternity and harmony, and there could be no better symbol of religious tolerance at the start of his trip than the underground “Tunnel of Friendship” linking Indonesia’s main Istiqlal mosque to the country’s Catholic cathedral.

Francis will visit the underpass in central Jakarta with the grand imam, Nasaruddin Umar, before both partake in an interfaith gathering and sign a joint declaration.

Francis has made improving Christian-Muslim relations a priority, and has often used his foreign travels to promote his agenda of committing religious leaders to work for peace and tolerance, and renounce violence in God’s name.

Papua New Guinea

Francis was elected pope in 2013 largely on the strength of an extemporaneous speech he delivered to his fellow cardinals in which he said the Catholic Church needed to go to the “peripheries” to reach those who need God’s comfort the most. When Francis travels deep into the jungles of Papua New Guinea, he will be fulfilling one of the marching orders he set out for the future pope on the eve of his own election.

Few places are as remote and poverty wracked as Vanimo, a northern coastal town on the main island of New Guinea. There Francis will meet with missionaries from his native Argentina who are working to bring Christianity to a largely tribal people who still practice pagan traditions alongside the Catholic faith.

East Timor

When John Paul visited East Timor in 1989, he sought to console its overwhelmingly Catholic population who had suffered under Indonesia’s brutal and bloody occupation for 15 years.

“For many years now, you have experienced destruction and death as a result of conflict; You have known what it means to be the victims of hatred and struggle,” John Paul told the faithful during a seaside Mass.

East Timor emerged as an independent country in 2002, but still bears the trauma and scars of an occupation that left as many as 200,000 people dead — nearly a quarter of the population.

Francis will literally walk in John Paul’s footsteps when he celebrates Mass in Tasi-Toli, near Dili, the same seaside esplanade as that 1989 liturgy, which some see as a key date in the Timorese independence movement.

Another legacy that will confront Francis is that of the clergy sexual abuse scandal: Revered independence hero and Nobel Peace Prize winner Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo was secretly sanctioned by the Vatican in 2020 for sexually abusing young boys.

There is no word on whether Francis will refer to Belo, who is still revered in East Timor but has been barred by the Vatican from ever returning.

Singapore

Francis has used several of his foreign trips to send messages to China, be they direct telegrams of greetings when he flies through Chinese airspace or more indirect gestures of esteem, friendship and fraternity to the Chinese people when nearby.

Francis’ visit to Singapore, where three-quarters of the population is ethnically Chinese and Mandarin is an official language, will give him yet another opportunity to reach out to Beijing as the Vatican seeks improved ties for the sake of China’s estimated 12 million Catholics.

“It’s a faithful people, who lived through a lot and remained faithful,” Francis told the Chinese province of his Jesuit order in a recent interview.

The trip comes a month before the Vatican is set to renew a landmark 2018 agreement governing bishop nominations.

Just last week, the Vatican reported its “satisfaction” that China had officially recognized Tianjin Bishop Melchior Shi Hongzhen, who as far as the Vatican is concerned had taken over as bishop in 2019. The Holy See said China’s official recognition of him under civil law now was “a positive fruit of the dialogue established over the years between the Holy See and the Chinese government.”

But by arriving in Singapore, a regional economic powerhouse which maintains good relations with both China and the United States, Francis is also stepping into a protracted maritime dispute as China has grown increasingly assertive with its presence in the South China Sea.
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Koumac, France — An alliance of parties seeking independence for New Caledonia has nominated as chief a prominent opposition leader currently jailed in France over a wave of deadly rioting in the French Pacific territory.

Christian Tein, who considers himself a “political prisoner,” was one of seven pro-independence activists transferred to mainland France in June — a move that sparked renewed violence that has roiled the archipelago and left 11 people dead.

His appointment on Saturday to lead the Socialist Kanak National Liberation Front (FLNKS) risks complicating efforts to end the crisis, sparked in May by a Paris plan for voting reforms that indigenous Kanaks fear will thwart their ambitions for independence by leaving them a permanent minority.

Laurie Humuni of the RDO party, one of four in the FLNKS alliance, said Saturday that Tein’s nomination was a recognition of his CCAT party’s leading role in mobilizing the independence movement.

It was not clear if the two other alliance members, the UPM and Palika, supported the move — they had refused to participate in the latest FLNKS meeting and indicated they would not support any of its proposals.

The alliance also said it was willing to renew talks to end the protests, but only if local anti-independence parties are excluded.

“We will have to remove some blockades to allow the population access to essential services, but that does not mean we are abandoning our struggle,” Humuni told AFP.

On Thursday, France said it had agreed to terms with Pacific leaders seeking a fact-finding mission to New Caledonia in a bid to resolve the dispute, though a date for the mission has not yet been set.

President Emmanuel Macron’s government has sent thousands of troops and police to restore order in the archipelago, almost 17,000 kilometers (10,600 miles) from Paris, and the electoral reforms were suspended in June.
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Beijing — African leaders descend on China’s capital this week, seeking funds for big-ticket infrastructure projects as they eye mounting great power competition over resources and influence on the continent.

China has expanded ties with African nations in the past decade, furnishing them with billions in loans that have helped build infrastructure but also sometimes stoked controversy by saddling countries with huge debts.

China has sent hundreds of thousands of workers to Africa to build its megaprojects, while tapping the continent’s vast natural resources, including copper, gold, lithium and rare earth minerals.

Beijing has said this week’s China-Africa forum will be its largest diplomatic event since the COVID-19 pandemic, with leaders of South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and other nations confirmed to attend and dozens of delegations expected.

African countries were “looking to tap the opportunities in China for growth,” Ovigwe Eguegu, a policy analyst at consultancy Development Reimagined, told AFP.

China, the world’s No. 2 economy, is Africa’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade hitting $167.8 billion in the first half of this year, according to Chinese state media.

Beijing’s loans to African nations last year were their highest in five years, research by the Chinese Loans to Africa Database found. Top borrowers were Angola, Ethiopia, Egypt, Nigeria and Kenya.

But analysts said an economic slowdown in China has made Beijing increasingly reluctant to shell out big sums.

China has also resisted offering debt relief, even as some African nations have struggled to repay their loans — in some cases being forced to slash spending on vital public services.

Since the last China-Africa forum six years ago, “the world experienced a lot of changes, including COVID, geopolitical tension and now these economic challenges,” Tang Xiaoyang of Beijing’s Tsinghua University told AFP.

The “old model” of loans for “large infrastructure and very rapid industrialization” is simply no longer feasible, he said.

Stalled megaprojects

The continent is a key node in Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative, a massive infrastructure project and central pillar of Xi Jinping’s bid to expand China’s clout overseas.

The BRI has channeled much-needed investment to African countries for projects like railways, ports and hydroelectric plants.

But critics charge Beijing with saddling nations with debt and funding infrastructure projects that damage the environment.

One controversial project in Kenya, a $5 billion railway — built with finance from Exim Bank of China — connects the capital Nairobi with the port city of Mombasa.

But a second phase meant to continue the line to Uganda never materialized, as both countries struggled to repay BRI debts.

Kenya’s President William Ruto last year asked China for a $1 billion loan and the restructuring of existing debt to complete other stalled BRI projects.

The country now owes China more than $8 billion.

Recent deadly protests in Kenya were triggered by the government’s need “to service its debt burden to international creditors, including China,” said Alex Vines, head of the Africa Program at London’s Chatham House.

In light of such events, Vines and other analysts expect African leaders at this week’s forum to seek not only more Chinese investment but also more favorable loans.

‘Lack leverage’

In central Africa, Western and Chinese firms are racing to secure access to rare minerals.

The continent has rich deposits of manganese, cobalt, nickel and lithium — crucial for renewable energy technology.

The Moanda region of Gabon alone contains as much as a quarter of known global reserves of manganese, and South Africa accounts for 37% of global output of the metal.

Cobalt mining is dominated by the Democratic Republic of Congo, which accounts for 70% of the world total. But in terms of processing, China is the leader, at 50%.

Mounting geopolitical tensions between the United States and China, which are clashing over everything from the status of self-ruled Taiwan to trade, also weigh on Africa.

Washington has warned against what it sees as Beijing’s malign influence.

In 2022, the White House said China sought to “advance its own narrow commercial and geopolitical interests [and] undermine transparency and openness.”

Beijing insists it does not want a new cold war with Washington but rather seeks “win-win” cooperation, promoting development while profiting from boosted trade.

“We do not just give aid, give them help,” Tsinghua University’s Tang said. 

“We are just partners with you while you are developing. We are also benefiting from it.”

But analysts fear African nations could be forced to pick sides.

“African countries lack leverage against China,” Development Reimagined’s Eguegu said.

“Some people … think you can use the U.S. to balance China,” he said. “You cannot.”
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washington — The United States has handed over to the Uzbek government possession of aircraft that former Afghan air force personnel flew to Uzbekistan after the Taliban takeover of Kabul in 2021.

A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department told VOA on Thursday that the ownership of “some aircraft” was transferred to Uzbekistan as part of the Department of Defense’s Excess Defense Articles program.

“This transfer was agreed in the context of our strong bilateral cooperation on counterterrorism, counternarcotics and enhanced border security,” the spokesperson told VOA in an email, without saying how many aircraft were transferred to the Uzbek government.

The fate of aircraft that were flown to Uzbekistan after the fall of Afghanistan into the hands of the Taliban has been a bone of contention between the Taliban and Uzbekistan for three years.

Afghan air force personnel flew about 46 aircraft — 22 military planes and 24 helicopters — to Uzbekistan as the government in Afghanistan collapsed in the face of the Taliban’s advances in August 2021.  

The Taliban, who consider the aircraft to be Afghan property, objected to the handover of the aircraft to Uzbekistan.

“The Ministry of Defense [of the Taliban] clearly declares that the United States has no right to donate or confiscate the property of the Afghan people,” the spokesperson of the Taliban’s Ministry of Defense said in an audio message sent to media this week.

The Taliban spokesperson also called on Uzbekistan to make a “reasonable decision” to return the aircraft to the Taliban.

Local media in Uzbekistan reported last week that the U.S. ambassador said the aircraft had already been transferred.

Tashkent has not commented yet on the transfer. However, Uzbek authorities previously said that the aircraft belonged to the United States because the U.S. government paid for them and that it would not return the military equipment to the Taliban.

Tashkent-Taliban relations

Alisher Hamidov, an expert on Central Asia, told VOA that the transfer of aircraft to Uzbekistan may complicate the relations between Tashkent and the Taliban.

“The situation with the planes may now endanger Uzbekistan’s diplomatic relations,” he said, adding that Tashkent has been playing mediator between Kabul and other countries over the past three years.

“The main goal was to bring Afghanistan [Taliban] to the international arena, restore relations and, of course, strengthen Uzbekistan’s economy and foreign policy,” Hamidov added.

Uzbekistan has cultivated close relations with the Taliban, though it does not officially recognize the Taliban’s government in Afghanistan.

On Thursday, the Taliban’s deputy prime minister, Abdul Ghani Baradar, attended the inauguration ceremony of the Termez International Trade Center in Uzbekistan’s border town of Termez.

On August 17, the prime minister of Uzbekistan, Abdulla Aripov, visited Kabul and signed 35 trade and investment agreements valued at $2.5 billion.

Malik Mansur of VOA’s Uzbek Service contributed to this report, which originated in VOA’s Afghan Service.
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BISHKEK, KYRGYZSTAN — While Kyrgyz state media have portrayed the recent resettlement of residents of a Kyrgyz enclave in Uzbekistan in glowing terms, a different picture emerged during a VOA visit to the residents’ new home.

At issue is Barak, a Kyrgyz hamlet of less than 1,000 inhabitants in Uzbekistan that was moved in April as part of a border deal with Uzbekistan.

Barak is one of a number of parcels of land shared by Soviet Central Asian republics that, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, became problematic. The Uzbek territories of Shakhimardan, Sokh, Qalacha, and Jangail are all located within Kyrgyzstan’s Batken province. Vorukh and Western Qalacha, two Tajik districts, are also surrounded by Batken province. Tajikistan’s Sarvak lies within Uzbekistan’s Fergana province. Enclave residents have long complained about stiff border control measures by the Central Asian governments that have hampered travel and trade. As a result, the enclaves often become flashpoints for border-related confrontations.

Nurgul, a Barak primary school teacher who only provided her first name, described to VOA the difficulties of living in Barak, which was connected to Kyrgyzstan by a 3-kilometer road through Uzbekistani territory.

“To reach Kyrgyzstan, we had to cross several border and police checkpoints. Border guards frequently closed the road, and this left Barak without food and medicine for weeks.” She added that, exhausted by such difficulties, some of her relatives left Barak to resettle in Kyrgyzstan’s Osh province, about 20 kilometers away, in 2018.

In late 2022, in accordance with a Kyrgyz-Uzbek border agreement, Barak’s territory was absorbed by Uzbekistan. In exchange, Kyrgyzatan received an equivalent parcel of land from Uzbekistan.

In November 2022, Kyrgyz officials said that Barak residents would be permanently resettled in a new village in Osh province.

The new settlement is called Jany Barak, or “New Barak” in Kyrgyz. Construction began in April and was to be completed by August 31, the anniversary of Kyrgyzstan’s independence.

Osh provincial Governor Elchibek Jantaev told local media in April that Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov had allotted $3 million for the construction of 101 new houses, a secondary school, and a health clinic for the resettled Barak residents and Kyrgyz state media provided extensive coverage of government’s resettlement works.

An early May broadcast on Kyrgyz state TV described the resettlement as a historic event. The broadcast also presented interviews with several Barak residents who said they were joyous about being reunited with mainland Kyrgyzstan.

A different picture

That is not the picture that emerged during a VOA visit to the site of Jany Barak.

Kalyssa, a retired accountant from Kara-Suu, a town in Osh province near Jany Barak, who would only let her first name be used, said construction is still in progress, adding, “people have questions about quality of the new houses. They are also worried the houses will not be completed until winter.”

VOA observed August 17 that the new houses being built are not winterproof and there are no paved access roads or sewage system.

Nurgul, the primary school teacher from Barak, said Barak residents were not given a choice between financial compensation and housing.

“Some people would rather take money instead of moving into government-built houses,” she told VOA.

Marat Imankulov, the head of Kyrgyzstan’s Security Council – part of Kyrgyz President’s Office – said in a May interview with Kyrgyz media that the land-swap deal allowing for resettlement of Barak could serve as model for “solving border issues with Tajikistan.”  Some experts, though, have expressed doubts about land-swap solutions for enclaves.

Chris Rickleton, a journalist based in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, wrote in a late April analysis paper published by RFE/RL that 2021 comments by Kyrgyz President Japarov’s ally and national security chief Kamchybek Tashiev about a potential transfer of Tajik enclave Vorukh to Kyrgyz control “were met with anger from Vorukh locals, not to mention a former top Tajik official who publicly lambasted Tashiev.”

Kyrgyz political analyst Emil Juraev, in an April interview, described Vorukh, compared with Barak, as “a massively more difficult situation, with around 40,000 people in Vorukh compared to just a few hundred in Barak.”

A Kyrgyzstani journalist who covered the enclaves for Kyrgyz media pointed to high economic costs from potential land-swap deals, saying Central Asian governments “are cash-strapped, and they cannot afford such costly resettlement projects.”

Uzbek officials have their own reasons to oppose further land-swap deals with Kyrgyzstan. An Uzbek government official from Ferghana province, which has jurisdiction over Uzbekistani enclaves of Shakhimardan and Sokh, told VOA on condition of anonymity that the two territories “have strategic importance for Uzbekistan.”

“They are major holiday destinations due to their picturesque sceneries and mountain lakes,” the official said, adding that both enclaves house small Uzbek military outposts.

Nevertheless, there are positive developments related to enclave solutions.

Since November 2022, the Uzbek and Kyrgyz governments have eased border restrictions for Shakhimardan and Sokh inhabitants and have pledged to jointly develop the tourism potential of the enclaves.

“This step is a crucial move forward,” the Uzbek government official from Ferghana said.
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tokyo — Tropical Storm Shanshan brought torrential rain Sunday to Japan’s Shizuoka area, 180 kilometers southwest of Tokyo, as weather officials warned the storm would linger for several more days. 

Shanshan, packing winds of 65 kilometers per hour, made landfall Thursday, leaving landslides, flooded rivers, torn branches and scattered debris in its path. In southwestern Japan, people were busy cleaning up muddied homes and throwing out broken appliances. 

So far, the storm is linked to at least six deaths, including three people who were trapped in a mudslide. It left one person missing and 127 people injured, according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK, which compiles reports from local governments. 

Shanshan was barely moving at all as of Sunday morning, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. 

The tropical storm triggered rainfall in an extensive area, even in places not in its path, such as the northernmost main island of Hokkaido, according to the agency. 

Shanshan initially crept across the southwestern Japanese islands of Kyushu and Shikoku, then reached the main island of Honshu, meandering into coastal waters at one point but later moving back onto land. 

Landslide warnings were issued in parts of Hamamatsu and Izu cities in Shizuoka Prefecture and Yokohama in Kanagawa, a port city near Tokyo, as well as at-risk spots in Tokyo. Tokyo in recent days saw mostly cloudy skies, with moments of sudden and intense showers. 

People living in areas at risk for landslides were told to evacuate to local stadiums and community centers as a cautionary measure. Shanshan’s exact route remains uncertain. It’s expected to gradually move north Monday, then out over the Sea of Japan. 
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MANILA, Philippines — A Vietnamese doctor who has helped seek justice for victims of the powerful defoliant dioxin “Agent Orange” used by U.S. forces during the Vietnam War is among this year’s winners of the Ramon Magsaysay Awards — regarded as Asia’s version of the Nobel Prizes. 

Other winners announced on Saturday were a group of doctors who struggled to secure adequate health care for Thailand’s rural poor, an Indonesian environmental defender, a Japanese animator who tackles complex issues for children, and a Bhutanese academician promoting his country’s cultural heritage to help current predicaments. 

First given in 1958, the annual awards are named after a Philippine president who died in a 1957 plane crash, and honor “greatness of spirit” in selfless service to people across Asia. 

“The award has celebrated those who challenge the status quo with integrity by courageously confronting systemic injustices, transform critical sectors through groundbreaking solutions that drive societal progress, and address pressing global issues with unwavering resilience,” said Susanna B. Afan, president of the award foundation. 

Vietnamese doctor Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong carried out extensive research into the devastating and long-term effects of Agent Orange. She said she first encountered it in the late 1960s as a medical intern when she helped deliver babies with severe birth defects as a result of the lingering effect of highly toxic chemical, according to the awards body. 

“Her work serves as a dire warning for the world to avoid war at all costs as its tragic repercussions can reach far into the future,” the Magsaysay foundation said. “She offers proof that it can never be too late to right the wrongs of war and gain justice and relief for its hapless victims.” 

American forces used Agent Orange during the Vietnam War to defoliate Vietnamese jungles and destroy crops for the Vietnamese Communists, or Viet Cong, who fought against South Vietnam and the United States. 

Between 1962 and 1971, the U.S. military sprayed roughly 11 million gallons of the chemical agent dioxin used in Agent Orange across large swaths of southern Vietnam. Dioxin stays in the soil and in the sediment of lakes and rivers for generations. It can enter the food supply through the fat of fish and other animals. 

Vietnam says as many as 4 million citizens were exposed to the herbicide and as many as 3 million have suffered illnesses from it, including the children of people exposed during the war. 

Indonesian Farwiza Farhan won the award for helping lead a group to protect the Leuser Ecosystem, a 2.6-million-hectare forest on Sumatra Island in his country’s Aceh province where some of the world’s most highly endangered species have managed to survive, the foundation said. 

Her group helped win a court verdict that led to $26 million in fines against a palm oil company that burned forests and stopped a hydroelectric dam that would have threatened the elephant’s habitat, the foundation said. 

Miyazaki Hayao, a popular animator in Japan, was cited by the awards body as a co-founder in 1985 of Studio Ghibli, a leading proponent of animated films for children. Three Ghibli productions were among Japan’s 10 top-grossing films. 

“He tackles complicated issues, using his art to make them comprehensible to children, whether it be about protecting the environment, advocating for peace or championing the rights and roles of women in society,” the foundation said. 

The Rural Doctors Movement, a group of Thai physicians, won the award for their “decades of struggle … to secure adequate and affordable health care for their people, especially the rural poor,” the foundation said. 

“By championing the rural poor, the movement made sure to leave no one behind as the nation marches forward to greater economic prosperity and modernization,” it said. 

Karma Phuntsho from Bhutan, a former Buddhist monk and an Oxford-educated scholar, was cited by the awards body for his academic works in the field of Buddhism and Bhutan’s rich history and cultural heritage that were being harnessed to address current and future problems in his country, including unemployment and access to high-quality education. 

The winners will be presented with their awards and a cash prize on November 16 at the Metropolitan Theater in Manila. 
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TAIPEI, Taiwan — China and the Philippines accused each other of causing a collision between their two vessels Saturday in the latest flareup of tensions over disputed waters and maritime features in the South China Sea.

In a statement posted on social media, Chinese coast guard spokesperson Liu Dejun was quoted as saying that a Philippine ship maneuvered and “deliberately collided” with a Chinese coast guard ship “in an unprofessional and dangerous manner.”

Philippine officials in Manila said it was their coast guard ship, the BRP Teresa Magbanua, that was rammed three times by the Chinese coast guard without any provocation, causing damage to the Philippine vessel.

It was the second confrontation in days near Sabina Shoal, about 140 kilometers west of the Philippine province of Palawan, in the internationally recognized exclusive economic zone of the Philippines.

The Philippine ship, the Magbanua, has been anchored in Sabina since mid-April after Manila suspected that China may construct a structure to seize the uninhabited atoll. China harbored the same suspicions and recently filed a diplomatic protest against the Philippines because of the ship’s prolonged presence at the shoal.

China is rapidly expanding its military and has become increasingly assertive in pursuing its claim to virtually the entire South China Sea, which is crucial to international trade. The tensions have led to more frequent confrontations, primarily with the Philippines, and could drag in the United States, which is bound by a treaty to defend the Philippines. The longtime territorial disputes also involve other claimants including Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei.

China has rejected a ruling by a U.N.-backed arbitration panel that negated almost all of its historically based claims in the South China Sea.

Commodore Jay Tarriela of the Philippine coast guard said in a news briefing in Manila that the Magbanua had dropped its anchor again and would not withdraw from Sabina Shoal “despite the harassment, bullying activities and escalatory action of the Chinese coast guard.”

Video released by the Philippine coast guard appeared to show the Magbanua being rammed by a Chinese coast guard ship.

“The United States stands with its ally, the Philippines, and condemns the dangerous and escalatory actions by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) against lawful Philippine maritime operations in the vicinity of Sabina Shoal in the South China Sea on August 31,” the State Department said in a statement Saturday.

“We stand with the Philippines in upholding international law,” U.S. Ambassador to Manila MaryKay Carlson said in a statement she posted on X.

The United States has repeatedly warned that it is obligated to defend the Philippines if Filipino forces come under an armed attack in the South China Sea.

On Tuesday, Adm. Samuel Paparo, the head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, said the U.S. military is open to consultations about escorting Philippine ships in the disputed waters.

China’s coast guard, navy and accompanying ships regularly clash with Philippine vessels during attempts to resupply Filipino sailors stationed in parts of the South China Sea claimed by both countries. As the confrontations become increasingly hostile, resulting in injuries to Filipino sailors and damage to their ships, the Philippine government has faced questions about invoking the treaty alliance with Washington.
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DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan — Insurgents freed four people Saturday, including an army officer who was abducted three days ago from a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban, the military said. 

Lieutenant Colonel Khalid Ameer was seized Wednesday while sitting in a mosque to receive mourners after attending his father’s funeral, according to local police. 

The “unconditional release” of Ameer and three of his relatives was secured due to the role played by tribal elders and “all the abductees have safely returned home,” the military said in a statement without giving any further details. 

No one claimed responsibility for the kidnappings in Dera Ismail Khan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in northwest Pakistan. However, in video statements released hours after they were kidnapped, two of the abductees said they were in the custody of Pakistani Taliban. They also urged the government to accept their abductors’ demands, although these were unclear. 

Though the Pakistani Taliban often targets security forces, such kidnappings and releases of abductees are rare. The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, are separate from but allied to the Afghan Taliban, and they have been emboldened since the Afghan Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021. 
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