International

A Philippine news reporter has died after being shot multiple times in his home, police said Sunday, becoming the latest in a long line of journalists slain in the country. The archipelago nation is one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists, and most of their killers go unpunished. Orlando Dinoy, a reporter for online outfit Newsline Philippines and anchor for Energy FM, was shot six times by a gunman who barged into his apartment in Bansalan town, Mindanao island, local police chief Major Peter Glenn Ipong said. Dinoy died immediately, he added. Officers were still investigating possible motives, the force added. "One of the angles we are looking at is his work as a media man... but no one can give us a concrete lead so far," Ipong told AFP. Dinoy was the 21st journalist killed since President Rodrigo Duterte took power in 2016, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said. National police chief General Guillermo Eleazar ordered a thorough investigation into the case, and vowed to protect the media from attacks. In a report this month, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists listed the Philippines at seventh place in its Global Impunity Index, with 13 murders of journalists still unsolved. The nation has been a mainstay in the annual index since it started in 2008.

The Philippine government yesterday said it will postpone elections key to ending decades of sectarian bloodshed in a troubled Muslim region, with the pandemic and a stalling peace process blamed for the delay. The vote was a key provision in a 2014 peace agreement aimed at ending a conflict estimated to have claimed 150,000 lives and was due to take place next May in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. But former rebels from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) group appointed to lead a transitional government have said they needed more time before elections to a local legislature can go ahead and the vote will instead be held in 2025. “President Rodrigo Roa Duterte signed...(the bill) resetting the elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao to 2025,” his spokesman Harry Roque told reporters. The law grants Duterte the authority to appoint members of the 80-member transition authority whose terms would end with the 2025 election, Roque said. Former MILF rebels have warned that the failure of the peace process would likely draw disillusioned youths in the region towards the more hardline militants still waging an armed campaign in the southern Philippines. But restrictions imposed because of the pandemic and the transitional government’s inability to draw up an election code had left them with little choice but to delay the poll, Georgi Engelbrecht, senior analyst for the Brussels-based peace monitor International Crisis Group, said last month. “The extension is not the most perfect solution but nonetheless it’s a start,” he said. A report by the monitor warned in April that the process of decommissioning the MILF’s 40,000 fighters was “sputtering”, with fewer than a third having laid down their weapons. And the Duterte government “has been slow to distribute to them the economic packages meant to entice them to co-operate”, it added. Violence has also persisted despite the peace deal, with radical groups setting up shop in what remains the poorest part of the country. In May 2017, hundreds of pro-Islamic State foreign and local gunmen seized Marawi, the country’s largest Muslim city. The Philippine military wrested back the ruined city after a five-month battle that claimed more than a thousand lives.

An American woman convicted as a pregnant teenager of helping to kill her mother at an Indonesian luxury hotel was released from prison yesterday after six years behind bars. In a case dubbed the ‘suitcase murder’, Heather Mack was handed a 10-year jail term in 2015 while her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer got 18 years for the murder of Chicago socialite Sheila von Wiese Mack on the holiday island of Bali. Schaefer beat the 62-year-old victim to death with a fruit bowl during an argument at the five-star St. Regis resort. The couple then stuffed the woman’s body into a suitcase and tried to flee with it in a taxi, but quickly abandoned the blood-soaked luggage. Mack, who was pregnant at the time of the crime, was found guilty on a lesser charge of assisting in the murder. The 25-year-old was freed from Bali’s Kerobokan prison yesterday, the head of its female section said, adding that Mack had been granted early release for good behaviour. “When she was released, she was a bit shocked and emotional. She hesitated and was scared, but we cheered her up,” said prison official Lili. Sentence reductions are common in the Indonesian justice system. Wearing sunglasses, Mack was rushed out of the prison and into a waiting van surrounded by media. She said “Thank you, Indonesia” in the local language as she was driven away by immigration officials to await deportation back to the US. Bali’s immigration office declined to comment on her case or say when Mack would be flown back home. It was not immediately clear if her now six-year-old daughter, who was being raised in a Bali foster home, would also be deported at the same time. Earlier, Mack’s lawyer said she did not want her daughter to be deported and “hounded by the (US) media”. Since the pandemic, Mack — now fluent in Indonesian and Balinese — has had only video contact with her daughter, the prison official Lili said yesterday. “When she was inside she always followed our guidance programmes and attended church sessions,” Lili added. “Heather has changed a lot.” The 2014 murder shook the usually sedate holiday island, with details of the grisly killing emerging during the closely followed trial. The court heard how von Wiese Mack’s badly beaten body was discovered in the taxi outside the ritzy hotel where she had been staying with her daughter and Schaefer. The couple had fled to another part of Bali, where police arrested them. Schaefer, who remains in prison, confessed to the killing during his trial but claimed he was defending himself during an argument with von Wiese Mack, who was unhappy that her daughter was pregnant. Prosecutors alleged that Schaefer “blindly hit” von Wiese Mack with the fruit bowl in a fit of rage after she hurled a racial slur at Schaefer, who is Black.

An American woman convicted as a pregnant teenager of helping to kill her mother at an Indonesian luxury hotel was released from prison on Friday after six years behind bars. In a case dubbed the 'suitcase murder', Heather Mack was handed a 10-year jail term in 2015 while her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer got 18 years for the murder of Chicago socialite Sheila von Wiese Mack on the holiday island of Bali. Schaefer beat the 62-year-old victim to death with a fruit bowl during an argument at the five-star St. Regis resort. The couple then stuffed the woman's body into a suitcase and tried to flee with it in a taxi, but quickly abandoned the blood-soaked luggage. Mack, who was pregnant at the time of the crime, was found guilty on a lesser charge of assisting in the murder. The 25-year-old was freed from Bali's Kerobokan prison on Friday, the head of its female section said, adding that Mack had been granted early release for good behaviour. "When she was released, she was a bit shocked and emotional. She hesitated and was scared, but we cheered her up," said prison official Lili, who like many Indonesians goes by one name. Sentence reductions are common in the Indonesian justice system. Wearing sunglasses, Mack was rushed out of the prison and into a waiting van surrounded by media. She said "Thank you, Indonesia" in the local language as she was driven away by immigration officials to await deportation back to the United States. Bali's immigration office declined to comment on her case or say when Mack would be flown back home. It was not immediately clear if her now six-year-old daughter, who was being raised in a Bali foster home, would also be deported at the same time. Earlier, Mack's lawyer told AFP that she did not want her daughter to be deported and "hounded by the (US) media". Since the pandemic, Mack -- now fluent in Indonesian and Balinese -- has had only video contact with her daughter, the prison official Lili said Friday. "When she was inside she always followed our guidance programs and attended church sessions," Lili added. "Heather has changed a lot." The 2014 murder shook the usually sedate holiday island, with details of the grisly killing emerging during the closely followed trial. The court heard how von Wiese Mack's badly beaten body was discovered in the taxi outside the ritzy hotel where she had been staying with her daughter and Schaefer. The couple had fled to another part of Bali, where police arrested them. Schaefer, who remains in prison, confessed to the killing during his trial but claimed he was defending himself during an argument with von Wiese Mack, who was unhappy that her daughter was pregnant. Prosecutors alleged that Schaefer "blindly hit" von Wiese Mack with the fruit bowl in a fit of rage after she hurled a racial slur at Schaefer, who is Black. During the attack, Mack hid in a bathroom but later helped Schaefer stuff the body into a suitcase, the trial heard. The sentencing judge described the killing as "sadistic". Locals and foreigners alike were horrified at the rare murder on Bali, a pocket of Hinduism in Muslim-majority Indonesia famed for its palm-fringed beaches.

Thailand's re-opening to vaccinated foreign tourists marks a major easing of border controls for Asia, where governments have been far slower to roll back coronavirus travel curbs than in much of the West. Here is a look at which countries are opening up across the Asia-Pacific region and those staying sealed off from the world.   - Southeast Asia - Thailand will allow vaccinated travellers from 46 countries and territories to enter the kingdom without quarantining from Monday, as it seeks to revive its vital tourism industry. Other parts of the region -- which largely escaped the pandemic's initial wave, only to be hit hard this year -- are following its lead, albeit at a slower pace. Business hub Singapore has started quarantine-free travel for fully vaccinated travellers from 10 countries, including the United States and several European countries, and will add more soon. Indonesia re-opened the resort island of Bali this month to tourists from select countries although, with travellers still required to do a five-day quarantine on arrival, the scheme has had a slow start. Vietnam plans to allow foreign visitors entry to the holiday island of Phu Quoc from next month and Malaysia has a similar plan for Langkawi island, while Cambodia will reopen beach spots Sihanoukville, Koh Rong and Dara Sakor from November 30. Some countries, including the Philippines and Myanmar, remain closed to foreign tourists.   - East Asia - Mainland China, where Covid-19 first emerged last year, remains closed to overseas tourists, as is Japan. South Korea has started accepting visitors from 49 countries. A negative coronavirus test is required for all arrivals, with a limited exemption from a 14-day quarantine for those vaccinated in South Korea. Some of the world's toughest measures have been implemented in Hong Kong -- with a maximum 21-day quarantine for incoming travellers -- which has kept virus cases low but crippled the travel industry.    - South Asia - Recovering from a devastating surge earlier this year, India re-opened for foreign tourists on charter flights this month and will allow in visitors on all flights from mid-November. Fully vaccinated travellers no longer have to undergo home quarantine, provided they are arriving from countries with which India has reciprocal arrangements for acceptance of WHO-approved vaccines. Last month, Nepal started issuing visas on arrival for vaccinated tourists and dropped quarantine requirements as it seeks to lure back foreign trekkers to its mountains. More than a million tourists visited the Himalayan country in 2019 -- but numbers dropped by 80 percent last year. Among the first countries to reopen borders was the popular holiday destination of the Maldives, which started allowing in foreign tourists in July last year. The number of tourists visiting the Indian Ocean atoll nation recovered to 500,000 last year following the re-opening, and authorities expect 1.5 million holidaymakers this year -- just shy of the figure in 2019. Sri Lanka opened its international borders for fully vaccinated tourists without any quarantine requirements on October 7, while Pakistan allows in foreign visitors as long as they have proof of vaccination and a negative Covid-19 test.    - Australia and the Pacific - Australia introduced some of the world's toughest border restrictions in response to the pandemic, banning citizens from travelling overseas without permission. But the government announced Wednesday that the ban would be lifted, with the country's border also set to open to skilled workers and international students by year's end. New Zealand remains closed to foreign visitors, with no date for reopening.  The South Pacific nation of Fiji, whose economy is heavily tourism-dependent, will allow vaccinated travellers from countries across Europe and Asia to enter quarantine-free, as well as those from the United States, starting December 1.

A group of recyclers in the Philippines is trying to ease the country’s worsening plastic waste crisis by turning bottles, single-use sachets and snack food wrappers that clog rivers and spoil beaches into building materials. The Plastic Flamingo, or “The Plaf”, as they are commonly known, collect the waste, shred it and then mould it into posts and planks called “eco-lumber” that can be used for fencing, decking or even to make disaster-relief shelters. “(It) is 100% upcycled material, 100% made from plastic waste materials, we also include some additives and colourants and it is rot-free, maintenance-free, and splinter-free,” said Erica Reyes, The Plaf’s chief operating officer. Having collected over 100 tonnes of plastic waste to date, the social enterprise is doing its bit to address a local problem that has global ramifications. Approximately 80% of global ocean plastic comes from Asian rivers, and the Philippines alone contributes a third of that total, according to a 2021 report by Oxford University’s Our World in Data. The Philippines does not have a clear strategy on tackling its plastics problem and its environment department has said it has been in contact with manufacturers to identify ways to manage waste. Covid-19, though, has made the battle against plastic waste harder to win. Some 300mn tonnes of plastic waste are produced annually, according to the United Nations Environment Programme, a problem that has been exacerbated by the pandemic which sparked a rush for plastic face shields, gloves, takeaway food containers and bubble wrap as online shopping surged. “People are unaware of how to dispose of these plastics,” said Allison Tan, The Plaf’s marketing associate.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte said yesterday he took full responsibility for the bloody war on drugs that has killed thousands of people, but maintained he will never be tried by an international court. “If there is any person who is going to prison, it would be me,” Duterte said in a speech during an event held by the government’s counter-insurgency task force. “I assume full responsibility,” he added. Duterte spoke a day after the justice ministry said it will review thousands of killings in the five-year-old campaign after releasing details of a first batch of cases that indicated foul play in dozens of deadly police operations. The Philippines has come under pressure from the United Nations to investigate allegations of systematic murders of drug suspects, and the International Criminal Court recently announced it would investigate Duterte’s anti-drug campaign. More than 6,000 people have been killed by police in the crackdown, but activists say many thousands more drug users and peddlers were shot dead by mysterious gunmen. Police have denied involvement in those deaths. Duterte, whose single six-year term limit ends next year, remained defiant, citing a continued scourge of drug dealers in the country, and said he would only face a Philippine court and a Philippine judge over any alleged crimes. “I will repeat what I have said before: if you destroy my country and you destroy the young people by feeding them with drugs, you destroy the future,” Duterte said.  “If you destroy the country, I will kill you.” He said former police chief Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, who has filed his candidacy to succeed Duterte in next year’s election, should not be culpable for any killings as he took his orders from the president.

Singapore on Tuesday began quarantine-free entry for fully vaccinated passengers from eight countries, part of a plan to ease restrictions as the business hub gears up to live with the coronavirus. The latest easing expanded a programme that began with vaccinated air travel lanes with Germany and Brunei last month, and is now open to passengers from the United States, Canada, Britain, Denmark, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. Singapore Airlines said flights from Amsterdam, London, Los Angeles and New York were scheduled to arrive Tuesday under the programme. "We have seen very strong demand for our Vaccinated Travel Lane flights," the national airline told AFP. "This is across all cabin classes, as well as various travel segments including leisure, families, and business travel." Passengers arriving as part of this scheme -- which will include South Korea from November 15 -- will not have to quarantine if they have been fully vaccinated and test negative for the virus before they depart and when they arrive. To enable families to travel, Singapore has allowed entry to unvaccinated children aged 12 years and under if they are accompanied by someone flying under the scheme. Raj Samuel, a restaurant manager in the almost deserted tourist district, said he was "optimistic" about the potential for more business. "I think it's an excellent move by the country to help open up the economy... especially for the food and beverage sector," the 36-year-old told AFP, adding he was "looking forward to having more guests." Kylie Jens, a 29-year-old lawyer from New Zealand living in Singapore, said she is planning to go to Britain for Christmas under the scheme. "Singapore is just such a small island, it's nice to have a chance to get away and know that that's possible pretty soon," she told AFP. The city-state initially fought the Covid-19 pandemic by shutting borders, imposing lockdowns of varying intensity and aggressive contact tracing. But with more than 80 percent of the population fully vaccinated, authorities are keen to revive the economy. "Singapore cannot stay locked down and closed off indefinitely," Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said earlier this month when he announced a raft of measures under the "Living with Covid-19" strategy. The city-state is home to the regional offices of thousands of multi-national corporations, which rely on Singapore's status as a business and aviation hub for their operations. Vaccinated travel is a "very significant step forward in re-establishing Singapore's role as one of the Asia-Pacific's leading international hubs for finance, regional headquartering and commercial aviation," said Rajiv Biswas, Asia Pacific chief economist at IHS Markit. He added that the travel lanes -- notably with the UK, the US, France, and Germany -- were particularly important as many international firms run large operations from the city's financial centre. The scheme may also provide a shot in the arm for the pandemic-hammered airline and tourism industries, analysts said. Before the pandemic, tourism accounted for about five percent of Singapore's GDP, said Song Seng Wun, a regional economist with CIMB Private Banking. "We used to get 1.6 million tourists every month, our airport used to handle over a thousand flights a day pre-pandemic. Now it is just over 300 flights a day," he told AFP. Statistics from the Singapore tourism board showed international visitor arrivals plunging to less than 2.8 million last year from a record 19.1 million in 2019.

Poachers in Vietnam have shot dead five critically endangered langurs, a type of monkey killed for bushmeat and traditional medicine, state media said Tuesday. Rangers and police found the dead grey-shanked douc langurs during a regular patrol of forests in Quang Ngai province. Restricted to the forests of central Vietnam, the known global population of this type of langur is less than 1,000, according to conservation group Fauna and Flora International (FFI). Other conservation groups estimate their number may be higher as some habitat areas have not yet been surveyed. The primate is a regular victim of the illegal wildlife trade, and is sought after for bushmeat, traditional medicine and the pet trade, FFI says. They are also threatened by deforestation. It is listed as "critically endangered", the highest risk category under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). In Quang Ngai, the poachers ran off, leaving behind a motorbike, bullets and silencers, VNExpress news site said in a report. Local authorities are "looking into the case", it added. The grey-shanked douc langur is listed in Vietnam's "red book", making it a criminal offence to kill one. But law enforcement is a huge issue. "Authorities must find those responsible," said Ha Thang Long, director of GreenViet, which works in biodiversity conservation in Vietnam's central regions. "If we fail to... bring them to justice, this will continue to happen." Under Vietnamese law, poachers in such a case could face seven years in jail, he added. Vietnam is home to some of the world's most endangered species, including the Red River giant soft-shell turtle, the Tonkin snub-nosed monkey and the saola, a type of mountainous antelope. Wild animals are under constant threat in the country, with their body parts in high demand for both food and traditional medicine.

Fully vaccinated travellers from eight countries will be able to enter Singapore without quarantine from Tuesday, as the business hub eases restrictions and gears up to live with the coronavirus. The city-state initially fought the pandemic by shutting borders, lockdowns of varying intensity and aggressive contact tracing but with more than 80 percent of the population fully vaccinated, authorities in the global aviation hub are keen to revive the economy. They opened travel lanes for vaccinated passengers from Brunei and Germany in September, and will expand the scheme from Tuesday to another eight countries -- Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United States. The lane with South Korea will start November 15. Under the policy, passengers will not have to quarantine if they have been fully vaccinated and tested negative for the coronavirus before they depart and on arrival. "Singapore cannot stay locked down and closed off indefinitely," Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said October 9, when he announced a raft of measures under the "Living with Covid-19" strategy. Lee pointed to the Delta coronavirus variant as a factor. "The Delta variant is highly infectious, and has spread all over the world. Even with the whole population vaccinated, we still will not be able to stamp it out," he said. "Almost every country has accepted this reality." In addition to focusing on home care for mild and asymptomatic domestic cases, Lee said Singapore needed to resume international travel. The city-state is home to the regional offices of thousands of multi-national corporations, which rely on Singapore's status as a business and aviation hub for their operations. "We must continue to re-open our borders safely," Lee said. "Companies and investors need to carry out regional and global business from Singapore. People working for them need to travel to earn a living." And the success of the city-state's vaccinated lanes project may boost the recovery in the global aviation industry, which was hammered by the pandemic. "We hope the positive actions taken by Singapore will spur other markets to similarly navigate their pathways towards restarting air travel," said Philip Goh, Asia-Pacific vice president at aviation industry group IATA.

Myanmar’s junta chief will be excluded from an upcoming Asean summit, the group said yesterday, a rare rebuke as concerns rise over the military government’s commitment to defusing a bloody crisis.  Foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) agreed at an emergency meeting late Friday that a “non-political representative” for Myanmar would be invited to the October 26-28 summit, current Asean chair Brunei said in a statement. The decision effectively excluded junta leader Min Aung Hlaing. The Myanmar junta slammed the decision yesterday evening, accusing Asean of breaching its policy of non-interference in the domestic affairs of member states.  “Myanmar is extremely disappointed and strongly objected (to) the outcomes of the emergency foreign ministers meeting, as the discussions and decision on Myanmar’s representation issue was done without consensus and was against the objectives of Asean,” the Myanmar Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Earlier, junta spokesman brigadier general Zaw Min Tun told the BBC Burmese section that “interference” from non-Asean countries had also been a factor. He seized on talks between the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Asean special envoy, Brunei’s Second Foreign Minister Erywan Yusof, ahead of the meeting and also singled out EU pressure. The bloc took a strong stand after the junta rebuffed requests that a special envoy meet with “all stakeholders” in Myanmar — a phrase seen to include ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The statement noted “insufficient progress” in the implementation of a five-point plan agreed by Asean leaders in April to end turmoil following a coup in February. It also said that the situation in Myanmar “was having an impact on regional security as well as the unity, credibility and centrality of Asean”. Richard Horsey, Myanmar adviser to Crisis Group, predicted the “non-political” representative would be someone below the level of minister or deputy minister. Singapore’s foreign ministry described the move as a “difficult but necessary decision to uphold Asean’s credibility”. And independent Myanmar analyst David Mathieson said that “in Asean terms this is a real slap in the face”. Myanmar, mostly ruled by the military since a 1962 coup, has been a thorn in Asean’s side since it joined in 1997.  Elections in 2015 overwhelmingly won by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party ushered in the start of civilian rule – but this was cut short by the coup.  Asean has been under international pressure to address unrest that erupted after the putsch, including massive protests; renewed clashes between the military and ethnic rebel armies in border regions; and an economy spiralling into freefall. The bloc has expressed disappointment at a lack of co-operation from the junta, which continues to crack down brutally on dissent.  Almost 1,200 civilians have been killed, according to a local monitoring group. Part of the consensus was to allow a long-delayed visit by a special envoy, Brunei Second Foreign Minister Yusof. Asean has insisted that he meets with all parties concerned, but the junta rejected any proposed meetings with people on trial, among them Suu Kyi, who is facing various charges.  A senior US administration official, commenting on media reports about the exclusion before the official statement was released, said “it seems perfectly appropriate and, in fact, completely justified... for Asean to downgrade Burma’s participation”, using Myanmar’s former name.  Member nations had already voiced their disappointment at the path the junta has chosen. “If there is no real progress then Malaysia’s stance will remain: that we will not want the general to be attending the summit. No compromise on that,” Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said Friday ahead of the meeting. Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said in a tweet after the meeting that her country had proposed that Myanmar “should not be represented at the political level” at the summit until it restores “its democracy through an inclusive process”. Aung Myo Min, the human rights minister of a shadow government of ousted Myanmar lawmakers called the NUG, praised the exclusion as “a very strong action” and voiced hope Asean would recognise the NUG as Myanmar’s legitimate government.  Political activist Minn Khant Kyaw Linn, 23, who organised a protest in Mandalay where the Asean flag was burnt in June, said it was time for the bloc to allow NUG representatives to its meetings. The junta — officially known as the State Administration Council — has promised to hold elections and lift a state of emergency by August 2023.

Myanmar's junta chief will be excluded from an upcoming ASEAN summit, the group said Saturday, a rare rebuke as concerns rise over the military government's commitment to defusing a bloody crisis. Foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreed at an emergency meeting late Friday that a "non-political representative" for Myanmar be invited to the October 26-28 summit,  current ASEAN chair Brunei said in a statement. The decision effectively excluded junta leader Min Aung Hlaing. The bloc, widely criticised as a toothless organisation, took a strong stand after the junta rebuffed requests for a special envoy to meet with all parties concerned -- a phrase seen to include ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The statement noted "insufficient progress" in the implementation of a five-point plan agreed by ASEAN leaders in April to end turmoil following a coup in February. It also said that the situation in Myanmar "was having an impact on regional security as well as the unity, credibility and centrality of ASEAN". Richard Horsey, Myanmar adviser to Crisis Group, predicted the "non-political" representative would be someone below the level of minister or deputy minister. Singapore's foreign ministry described the move as a "difficult but necessary decision to uphold ASEAN's credibility". Mustafa Izzuddin, global affairs analyst at consultancy Solaris Strategies Singapore, called the exclusion "a political stopgap measure for ASEAN to assuage international criticism". It sent a "political signal" to the junta "that ASEAN is not one to be pushed around", Izzuddin added. And independent Myanmar analyst David Mathieson said that "in ASEAN terms this is a real slap in the face".   - Thorn in ASEAN's side -   Myanmar, mostly ruled by the military since a 1962 coup, has been a thorn in ASEAN's side since it joined in 1997. Elections in 2015 overwhelmingly won by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party ushered in the start of civilian rule -- but this was cut short by the coup. ASEAN has been under international pressure to address unrest that erupted after the putsch, including massive protests; renewed clashes between the military and ethnic rebel armies in border regions; and an economy spiralling into freefall. The bloc has expressed disappointment at a lack of cooperation from the junta, which continues to crack down brutally on dissent. More than 1,000 civilians have been killed, according to a local monitoring group. Part of the consensus was to allow a long-delayed visit by a special envoy, Brunei's Second Foreign Minister Erywan Yusof. ASEAN has insisted that he meets with all parties concerned, but the junta rejected any proposed meetings with people on trial, among them Suu Kyi, who is facing various charges. A senior US administration official, commenting on media reports about the exclusion before the official statement was released, said "it seems perfectly appropriate and, in fact, completely justified... for ASEAN to downgrade Burma's participation", using Myanmar's former name. Member nations had already voiced their disappointment at the path the junta has chosen. "If there is no real progress then Malaysia's stance will remain: that we will not want the general to be attending the summit. No compromise on that," Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said Friday ahead of the meeting. Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said in a tweet after the meeting that her country had proposed that Myanmar "should not be represented at the political level" at the summit until it restores "its democracy through an inclusive process". Aung Myo Min, the human rights minister of a shadow government of ousted Myanmar lawmakers called the NUG, praised the exclusion as "a very strong action" and voiced hope ASEAN would recognise the NUG as Myanmar's legitimate government. Political activist Minn Khant Kyaw Linn, 23, who who organised a protest in Mandalay where the ASEAN flag was burnt in June, said it was time for the bloc to allow NUG representatives to its meetings. The junta -- officially known as the State Administration Council -- has promised to hold elections and lift a state of emergency by August 2023.

Malaysia does not want Myanmar's junta chief to attend an upcoming Southeast Asian leaders' summit if he fails to honour his commitment to a peace plan, its foreign minister said on Friday, ahead of a meeting to decide on a regional response. The minister, Saifuddin Abdullah, said he was informed Erywan Yusof, a special envoy for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), planned to visit Myanmar next week, and the bloc's foreign ministers would hold a virtual meeting on Friday to assess the junta's commitment to the peace process. Myanmar's military seized power in a Feb. 1 coup led by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, which ended a decade of tentative democracy and triggered a backlash that has plunged the country into chaos. "This evening we will be looking at the details of the proposed visit," he told a news conference. "If there is no real progress then Malaysia's stand would remain that we do not want the general to be attending the summit. No compromise on that." Myanmar has been one of ASEAN's most divisive issues since it joined the bloc in 1997 as a military dictatorship lambasted by the West for its iron-fisted rule, testing ASEAN's unity and denting its international credibility. The exclusion of Min Aung Hlaing, though not formally recognised as an ASEAN leader, would be a big step for the bloc, which has a policy of non-interference in each other's affairs and has long favoured engagement over punitive measures. Min Aung Hlaing in April agreed to a five-point ASEAN plan that the group called a "consensus" on a way out of the deadly turmoil in Myanmar since the military overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi, alleging fraud in an election her party won in a landslide. The commitment includes dialogue with all parties, humanitarian access and a cessation of all hostilities. Several ASEAN members have expressed exasperation with the junta's failure to follow the plan, which the United Nations, China and United States initially supported. Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia have indicated they were in favour of excluding Min Aung Hlaing from the Oct. 26-28 virtual summit, but were pushing for an ASEAN consensus, three sources with knowledge of the issue told Reuters this week. Saifuddin on Friday said without a consensus, there was no protocol for excluding an ASEAN member. However, he believed there would be a solution. "We do not have a system where you downgrade a particular member's representation to the summit. So there are probably other ways of doing this," he said. Zaw Min Tun, the Myanmar junta spokesman, this week said ASEAN envoy Erywan would not be allowed to meet Suu Kyi because she is charged with crimes. Myanmar's foreign ministry late on Thursday issued a lengthy statement saying it was committed to the ASEAN plan and receiving the envoy. It suggested that Erywan should prioritise ways to "build trust and confidence" on his first trip. Thailand's foreign ministry took a conciliatory tone, saying it viewed Myanmar as a member of the ASEAN family and saw Erywan's visit as "an important first step in the process of confidence-building with a goal of encouraging dialogue". "We also believe in the collective wisdom of all ASEAN member states, including Myanmar, to overcome all challenges together," it said.

An overnight fire tore through a building in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung yesterday, killing 46 people and injuring dozens of others in the island’s deadliest blaze in decades. The fire broke out in the 13-storey, mixed-use building in the small hours of yesterday morning, according to officials, raging through multiple floors before firefighters finally got it under control. Pictures published by Taiwan’s official Central News Agency showed smoke billowing out of the building’s windows as firefighters desperately tried to douse the flames using extendable hoses. Kaohsiung’s fire department said it sent more than 70 trucks to tackle the blaze, which took four hours to put out. As daylight broke, the sheer scale of the fire became clear, with every floor of the building visibly blackened and most of its windows shattered. The fire department said the blaze “caused 41 injuries and 46 deaths”, with officials adding that most of the fatalities occurred on floors seven to 11, which housed residential apartments. The first five floors were for commercial use but were unoccupied. Residents reported hearing a number of loud noises when the fire first broke out on the lower floors. “I heard many loud bangs — ‘bang, bang, bang’ — on the ground floor and came down to investigate,” an unidentified man who lived in the building told Formosa TV. “That’s when I realised there was a fire and called the police,” he added. An unnamed female survivor, describing the scene on her floor, said: “When I opened the door to get out, the hallway was full of black smoke.” As night fell yesterday, police announced emergency services had finished searching the building with no further casualties found. A constable at the Kaohsiung police department said the building was 40 years old and mostly occupied by low-income residents. Survivors had estimated about 100 people lived in the apartment block, the constable added. Officials had not yet ruled out arson, he added. The fire looks set to be Taiwan’s deadliest in years. The last fire of a similar magnitude was in 1995, when 64 people perished inside a packed karaoke club. As an island frequently battered by earthquakes and typhoons, Taiwan has strict building codes and a generally good safety record. But there is often a gap between what the rules state and how safety standards are applied, especially in older buildings. Some of the highest death tolls in recent earthquakes have come when older buildings have collapsed, with subsequent investigations occasionally showing their designs were not up to code.

The tiny Pacific nation of Palau has emerged as one of the world's most vaccinated places with more than 99 percent of the eligible population fully protected against Covid-19, according to data released Thursday. In a population of about 18,000, almost 15,000 people have been fully vaccinated, according to the country's ministry of health and human services. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said that meant more than 99 percent of the eligible population had been fully jabbed. In a statement, the health body praised what it said was a "remarkable" pace of vaccination, but warned that coverage elsewhere in the South Pacific was patchy. The figures allow Palau -- situated about 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) east of the Philippines -- to "contesting top spot in the world for COVID-19 vaccination rates" according to the IFRC. In Europe, Gibraltar lists a 119 percent inoculation rate. But that figure is inflated by visitors from Spain who got jabbed while in the British territory. Palau was one of the few countries to avoid Covid-19 after closing its borders early in the pandemic, despite the huge cost to its tourism-reliant economy.  That record of zero Covid cases was broken in August when two people who arrived from Guam tested positive.  A handful of cases have been detected at the border since then, but there is no widespread community transmission. During the crisis Palauans have been able to walk into pop-up clinics and receive the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine, and have done so in their -- relatively small -- droves. The focus is now turning to administering third doses -- which more than 500 people have already received. "It is important to celebrate the success of reaching high vaccination rates in many Pacific countries, including Palau, Fiji and the Cook Islands," Katie Greenwood, the head of the IFRC's Pacific office, said. Though she added that it was "critical that we try to get everyone vaccinated ahead of the cyclone season, which threatens to damage homes and infrastructure, stretching resources and services needed to contain Covid-19". New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research has estimated there could be up to 12 tropical cyclones in the Southwest Pacific between November and next April.

The death toll from a storm that triggered landslides and flash floods across the Philippines has risen to at least 19, authorities said Thursday, linking the extreme rainfall to climate change. Severe Tropical Storm Kompasu dumped more than a month's worth of rain in two days as it swept across the archipelago nation this week, national disaster agency spokesman Mark Timbal told AFP. Kompasu -- named after the Japanese pronunciation of "compass" -- intensified the southwest monsoon that had already saturated swathes of the disaster-prone country. Provinces on the most populous island of Luzon were hardest hit by the storm, which caused more than a billion pesos ($20 million) worth of damage to the agriculture sector and damaged hundreds of homes. Timbal said the rainfall was "even greater than the Ondoy experience", referring to the devastating Typhoon Ketsana, known in the Philippines as Tropical Storm Ondoy, that hit in 2009 and claimed hundreds of lives. "This only proves the effect of climate change when it comes to the increasing magnitude of these natural hazards," Timbal said. "This continues to pose a challenge to our disaster management system -- we always have to step up our preparations in view of the worst-case scenario for every natural hazard." Because a warmer atmosphere holds more water, climate change increases the risk and intensity of flooding from extreme rainfall. Nineteen deaths have been confirmed so far, the majority in the northwestern province of Ilocos Sur where most of the victims were caught in flash floods. The disaster agency is also checking another 11 reported fatalities, mostly in the landlocked mountainous province of Benguet. A total of 14 people have been reported missing. Timbal said the "changing nature" of the hazards had made it difficult to achieve their target of zero casualties.  "Each hazard is unique to the next one," he said. "It's a new normal caused by climate change." Timbal added that nearly 15,000 people fled their homes, but only about half stayed in evacuation centres. The rest sought shelter with friends or relatives due to fears of catching the coronavirus. The storm moved across the South China Sea on Tuesday towards Hong Kong, forcing the international business hub to batten down. The Philippines -- ranked as one of the world's most vulnerable to the impacts of a warming planet -- is hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons every year, which typically wipe out harvests, homes and infrastructure in already impoverished areas.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa has used her new prominence to criticise Facebook as a threat to democracy, saying that the social media giant fails to protect against the spread of hate and disinformation and is “biased against facts”. The veteran journalist and head of Philippine news site Rappler told Reuters in an interview after winning the award that Facebook’s algorithms “prioritise the spread of lies laced with anger and hate over facts”. Her comments add to the pile of recent pressure on Facebook, used by more than 3bn people, which a former employee turned whistleblower accused of putting profit over the need to curb hate speech and misinformation. Facebook denies any wrongdoing. Sought for comment on Ressa’s remarks, a Facebook spokesperson said the social media giant continues to invest heavily to remove and reduce the visibility of harmful content. “We believe in press freedom and support news organisations and journalists around the world as they continue their important work,” the spokesperson added. Ressa shared the Nobel with Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov on Friday, for what the committee called braving the wrath of the leaders of the Philippines and Russia to expose corruption and misrule, in an endorsement of free speech under fire worldwide. Facebook has become the world’s largest distributor of news and “yet it is biased against facts, it is biased against journalism”, Ressa said. “If you have no facts, you can’t have truths, you can’t’ have trust. If you don’t have any of these, you don’t have a democracy,” she said. “Beyond that, if you don’t have facts, you don’t’ have a shared reality, so you can’t solve the existential problems of climate, coronavirus.” Ressa has been the target of intense social-media hatred campaigns from President Rodrigo Duterte’s supporters, which she said were aimed at destroying her and Rappler’s credibility. “These online attacks on social media have a purpose, they are targeted, they are used like a weapon,” said the former CNN journalist. Rappler’s reporting has included close scrutiny of Duterte’s deadly war on drugs and a series of investigative reports into what it says is his government’s strategy to “weaponise” the Internet, using bloggers on its payroll to stir up anger among online supporters who threaten and discredit Duterte’s critics. Duterte has not commented on Ressa’s award. The presidential palace, Duterte’s spokesperson, his chief legal counsel, and communications office did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. Facebook in March 2019 removed an online network in the Philippines for “co-ordinated inauthentic behaviour”, and linked it to a businessman who has previously said he helped manage the president’s social media election campaign in 2016. Filipinos top the world in time spent on social media, according to 2021 studies by social media management firms. Platforms like Facebook have become political battlegrounds and have helped strengthen Duterte’s support base, having been instrumental in his election victory in 2016 and a rout by his allies in mid-term polls last year. The Philippines will hold an election in May to choose a successor to Duterte, who under the constitution is not allowed to seek another term. That campaign “will be a battle for facts”, Ressa said. “We are going to keep making sure our public sees the facts, understands it. We are not going to be harassed or intimidated into silence.”

Veteran Philippine journalist Maria Ressa on Saturday said her Nobel Peace Prize was for "all journalists around the world", as she vowed to continue her battle for press freedom. "This is really for all journalists around the world," Ressa, a vocal critic of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, told AFP in an interview.  "We do need help on so many fronts -- it is so much more difficult and dangerous to be a journalist today." Ressa, co-founder of news website Rappler, and Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their efforts to "safeguard freedom of expression". Philippine press groups and rights activists hailed Ressa's award as a "triumph" in a country ranked as one of the world's most dangerous for journalists. Since Duterte was swept to power in 2016, Ressa and Rappler have endured what media advocates say is a grinding series of criminal charges, investigations and online attacks. Duterte has called Rappler a "fake news outlet", and Ressa has been the target of abusive messages online. Ressa, 58, said she hoped the prize would provide a protective shield for her and other journalists in the Philippines against physical attacks and online threats. "This 'us against them' was never the creation of the journalists, it was the creation of the people in power who wanted to use a type of leadership that divides society," Ressa said, describing the award "like a shot of adrenalin". "I hope this allows journalists to do our jobs well without fear."

The Philippines’ week-long registration for candidates in the 2022 election closed yesterday without an application from President Rodrigo Duterte’s daughter, disappointing many of her supporters, who up to the last minute were egging her to run. Sara Duterte-Carpio, 43, thanked her supporters but maintained she was running for mayor of Davao, the Philippines’ third largest city, a position she has held twice since she succeeded his father as local chief executive in 2016. “I am presenting myself to the Dabawenyos as mayor for the third and last time in my life as a politician,” Duterte-Carpio posted on her official Facebook page yesterday. Dozens of supporters wearing green, the colour associated with Duterte-Carpio, flocked near the registration venue, carrying banners and waving little green flags at vehicles passing by. #RunSaraRun2022 was among the top trending hashtags on social media in the Philippines. Under election rules, candidates have until Nov 15 to withdraw and then apply for another position, or file as a substitute contestant, leaving plenty of room for surprises, similar to Duterte’s last-minute presidential entry in 2015. Without Duterte-Carpio in the running, five presidential contenders, including Vice President Leni Robredo, son of later dictator Ferdinand Marcos, and former boxing champion Manny Pacquio, will face off in next year’s polls. Duterte had wanted his daughter to run alongside his long-term aide, Senator Christopher “Bong” Go, who is running for vice president under the ruling PDP-Laban party. But it was Duterte’s police chief, Senator Ronald dela Rosa, who submitted his candidacy for president under the ruling party’s banner, in another twist in the Philippine election. Dela Rosa, who oversaw Duterte’s brutal war on drugs that officials say has killed more than 6,100 drug dealers since mid-2016 when he was police chief, said the party decided for him to run, adding that it would be better if Duterte-Carpio will vie for the top post.

Reuters/AFP/ Oslo/Moscow/Manila Journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov, who braved the wrath of the leaders of the Philippines and Russia to expose corruption and misrule, won the Nobel Peace Prize yesterday, in an endorsement of free speech under fire worldwide. The two were awarded “for their courageous fight for freedom of expression” in their countries, chairwoman Berit Reiss-Andersen of the Norwegian Nobel Committee told a news conference. “At the same time, they are representatives of all journalists who stand up for this ideal in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions,” she added. “Free, independent and fact-based journalism serves to protect against abuse of power, lies and war propaganda.” “I can’t take credit for this. This is Novaya Gazeta’s,” Muratov was cited by Russian news agency Tass as saying, referring to his newspaper. He also said that he would have given the award to jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. Muratov dedicated his award to six contributors to Novaya Gazeta who had been murdered for their work exposing human rights violations and corruption. “Igor Domnikov, Yuri Shchekochikhin, Anna Politkovskaya, Stas Markelov, Anastasia Baburova, Natasha Estemirova – these are the people who have today won the Nobel Prize,” he said, reciting the names of slain reporters and activists whose portraits hang in the newspaper’s Moscow headquarters. In an interview with Reuters in Manila, Ressa called the prize “a global recognition of the journalist’s role in repairing, fixing our broken world”. “It’s never been as hard to be journalist as it is today,” said the 35-year veteran journalist, who added that she was tested by years of legal cases in the Philippines brought by the authorities over the work of her Rappler investigative website. “You don’t really know who you are until you are forced to fight for it.” Ressa, the only woman to win a Nobel so far this year, said the prize shows that “nothing is possible without facts”, referring to the links between democracy and freedom of expression. “A world without facts means a world without truth and trust,” she told a livestreamed interview with Rappler. Ressa told Norwegian TV2 that the honour would give her and her colleagues “tremendous energy to continue the fight”. The prize is the first Nobel Peace Prize for journalists since the German Carl von Ossietzky won it in 1935 for revealing his country’s secret post-war rearmament programme. Muratov, 59, is the first Russian to win the peace prize since Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990. Gorbachev himself has long been associated with Muratov’s newspaper, having contributed some of his Nobel prize money to help set it up in the early post-Soviet days when Russians expected new freedoms. Ressa, 58, who is also a US citizen, is the first winner of a Nobel prize in any field from the Philippines. Rappler, which she co-founded in 2012, has grown prominent through investigative reporting, including into large-scale killings during a police campaign against drugs. In August, a Philippine court dismissed a libel case against Ressa, one of several lawsuits filed against the journalist who says she has been targeted because of her news site’s critical reports on President Rodrigo Duterte. The former CNN correspondent is currently on bail pending an appeal against a conviction last year in a cyber-libel case, for which she faces up to six years in prison. She was one of several journalists named Time Magazine Person of the Year in 2018 for fighting media intimidation, and her legal battles have raised international concern about the harassment of media in the Philippines, a country once seen as a standard bearer for press freedom in Asia. In Moscow, Nadezhda Prusenkova, a journalist at Novaya Gazeta, told Reuters staff were surprised and delighted. “We’re shocked. We didn’t know,” she said. “Of course we’re happy and this is really cool.” Russian journalists have faced an increasingly difficult environment in recent years, with many being forced to register as agents of foreign states, a designation that invites official paperwork and public contempt. “We will leverage this prize in the interests of Russian journalism which (the authorities) are now trying to repress,” Muratov told Podyom, a journalism website. “We will try to help people who have been recognised as agents, who are now being treated like dirt and being exiled from the country.” Reiss-Andersen said the Nobel committee intended the award to send a message about the importance of rigorous journalism at a time when technology has made it easier than ever to spread falsehoods. “We find that people are manipulated by the press, and ... fact-based, high-quality journalism is in fact more and more restricted,” she told Reuters. It was also was a way to shine a light on the difficult situations for journalists, specifically under the leadership in Russia and the Philippines, she added. “I don’t have insight in the minds of either Duterte or Putin. But what they will discover is that the attention is directed towards their nations, and where they will have to defend the present situation, and I am curious how they will respond,” Reiss-Andersen told Reuters. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a global effort to protect a free press. “No society can be free and fair without journalists who are able to investigate wrongdoing, bring information to citizens, hold leaders accountable and speak truth to power,” he said. The Kremlin congratulated Muratov. “He persistently works in accordance with his own ideals, he is devoted to them, he is talented, he is brave,” said spokesman Dmitry Peskov. The award will give both journalists greater international visibility and may inspire a new generation of journalists, said Dan Smith, director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. “We normally expect that greater visibility actually means greater protection for the rights and the safety of the individuals concerned,” he told Reuters. According to the latest rankings by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the situation for press freedom is “difficult or very serious” in 73% of the 180 countries it evaluated, and “good or satisfactory” in only 27%. According to RSF, 24 journalists have been killed since the beginning of the year, and 350 others are imprisoned. From the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 to the shutting of the pro-democracy Apple Daily in Hong Kong earlier this year, attempts to stifle the media abound. Against that background, media watchdogs had been tipped as contenders for the prestigious prize ahead of yesterday’s announcement. The prize consists of a diploma, a gold medal and a cheque for 10 million kronor (€980,000, $1.1mn). The Nobel Peace Prize will be presented on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his 1895 will. Filipino journalist and 2021 Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa at her home in Manila yesterday.