Asia

    Capturing and posting the funny, sweet and memorable moments of children on social media is common for many proud parents around the world. But, if this leads your loved ones to unwanted situation, you have reasons to be worried. However, courage and bravery are your powers. When a group of Indonesian mothers sharing pictures of their children stumbled upon news of an online paedophile group earlier this year, they decided to infiltrate it to expose those behind it. BBC recently published a report on the issue. Risrona Simorangkir, an Indonesian mother, has been uploading photos of her seven-year-old daughter and toddler son on Facebook ever since they were born. But one day in March she stumbled across a blog about a group that shares child abuse pictures. This [Facebook]...

    India’s West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday expressed concern over the plight of Rohingya Muslims and supported the UN appeal to help them. The United Nations had appealed to the entire international community to keep the political differences aside and support the ongoing humanitarian efforts to help Rohingya Muslim refugees. ‘We do support the UN appeal to help the Rohingya people. We believe that all commoners are not terrorists. We are really concerned,’ Banerjee said in a tweet. ‘We have made very clear our concern at the ongoing tragedy of the Rohingyas, people who have been forced to leave their homes. The reports we’re getting, the pictures all of us are seeing are heart-breaking to say the least,’ Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson to the UN Secretar...

    Ghumdhum at Naikhongchari in Bandarban is one of the border points where Rohingyas entering into Bangladesh territory to escape persecution in the Rakhine state of Myanmar. There is a small river named ‘Tombru’ flowing at the point and a no-man’s land on the bank of creek. A long barbed wire fence with Myanmar is seen from the Bangladesh’s side of the zero point. Around 1200 families took shelter building makeshift tents with black polythene on one side of River Tombru. Border Guard Bangladesh members have cordoned them off and are keeping close vigilance so that they cannot proceed further within Bangladesh territory. The Rohingyas at the no-man’s land are getting food and other services from Bangladesh side if the BGB permits. ‘We’re allowing them to come to our side to ...

    More than 400,000 people are calling for Aung Sang Suu Kyi to be stripped of her Nobel Peace Prize over her response to the Rohingya Muslim crisis. The leader of Burma’s National League for Democracy party was given the prestigious award in 1991 for campaigning for her country to hold full and free elections. But more than 405,000 people have now signed a petition on Change.org demanding the Nobel Committee withdraw the award from Ms Suu Kyi, who has been widely accused of failing to protect Burma's Rohingya population. Until this second, the de facto ruler of Myanmar [Burma] Aung San Suu Kyi has done virtually nothing to stop this crime against humanity in her country, the petition reads. The Norwegian Nobel committee has said they will not rescind the award, saying only ...

    The top UN human rights official on Monday denounced Myanmar’s brutal security operation against Muslim Rohingyas in Rakhine state, saying it was disproportionate to insurgent attacks carried out last month. Communal tensions appeared to be rising across Myanmar on Monday after two weeks of violence in Rakhine state that have triggered an exodus of about 300,000 Rohingya Muslims, prompting the government to tighten security at Buddhist pagodas. Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, addressing the United Nations Human Rights Council, said that more than 270,000 people had fled to Bangladesh, with more trapped on the border, amid reports of the burning of villages and extrajudicial killings. We have received multiple reports and satellite imagery of security forces and local militia burnin...

    YouTube terminated the channels for violating its community standards not the first time it has targeted North Korean propaganda. YouTube has shut down two North Korean propaganda channels that academics use to monitor and assess the regime’s missile programs. Stimmekoreas, the number one YouTube channel on North Korea with more than 20,000 subscribers, and Uriminzokkiri, which had more than 18,000 subscribers, regularly posted of videos of state TV news clips and other footage, attracting millions of views. On Friday they were terminated for violating YouTube’s community guidelines. Arms control expert Jeffrey Lewis uses these channels to analyze videos of missile launches and tours of factories, to better understand the regime’s nuclear capabilities. He urged YouTube to ...

    The exercises came days after North Korea's sixth, and most powerful, nuclear test fueled global concern that the isolated nation plans more weapons tests, possibly of a long-range missile. China's air force has carried out exercises near the Korean peninsula, practicing to defend against a "surprise attack" coming over the sea, Chinese state media said. The exercises came days after North Korea's sixth, and most powerful, nuclear test fueled global concern that the isolated nation plans more weapons tests, possibly of a long-range missile. An anti-aircraft defense battalion held the exercises early on Tuesday, near the Bohai Sea, the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea that separates China from the Korean peninsula, an official military website, www.81.cn, said. Troops trave...

    The murder of a man who spent years searching for the debris from missing plane MH370 has fuelled conspiracy theories surrounding the plane's disappearance in 2014. Zahid Raza, Honorary Consul of Malaysia, was shot dead in Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, last week. Authorities are still trying to identify a motive. His death has prompted speculation by French news website ZINFOS 974 that he was involved in a kidnap conspiracy in 2009, while others have expressed concern about possible links between his death and his work to piece together the puzzle of the doomed Malaysian Airlines flight. US lawyer Blaine Gibson, an amateur investigator who is retrieving washed up debris from the Malaysian Airlines plane, said his friend Raza had been due to deliver new items to ...

    Myanmar has been laying landmines across a section of its border with Bangladesh, said two government sources in Dhaka, adding that the purpose may have been to prevent the return of Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence. Bangladesh will on Wednesday formally lodge a protest against the laying of land mines so close to the border, said the sources, who had direct knowledge of the situation but asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter. An army crackdown triggered by an attack on 25 August by Rohingya insurgents on Myanmar security forces has led to the killing of at least 400 people and the exodus of nearly 125,000 Rohingya to neighbouring Bangladesh, leading to a major humanitarian crisis. ‘They are putting the landmines in their territory along the barbe...

    North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would allow his people to eat grass before he ever gives up his nuclear and missile defense programs, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday at a news conference in China. Kim and his military claimed to have tested a hydrogen bomb Sunday, the sixth overall nuclear test conducted by a regime that believes its threats keep the United States and its Asian allies at bay as they plan a pre-emptive strike to overthrow the authoritarian government. Kim is willing to go so far as to starve his people in order to keep power, Putin said while also condemning the weapons tests and saying diplomacy was the best route to handle the North. "They will eat grass but they will not turn away from the path that will provide for their security," Put...