International

Bare-chested men in brightly coloured belts grapple for possession of a giant wooden ball at a Vietnamese festival, tumbling from corner to corner as hundreds of excited spectators cheer them on. They are playing Vat Cau – a centuries-old sport which began as a training exercise for soldiers and contains elements of wrestling and rugby. Vat Cau is the main draw of a three-day annual festival held during Vietnam’s much celebrated Tet Lunar New Year in Thuy Linh village, just 10km (6 miles) from the centre of the capital Hanoi. A single match has four separate teams of eight men wearing waist straps of different colours. They tussle over a 17kg (37-pound) ball made from the wood of a jackfruit tree, laboriously inching it towards one of the holes dug in each team’s corner. “This game is the tradition and the pride of the Thuy Linh people,” Le Duc Duong, an athlete with 15 years of experience playing Vat Cau, said. Before the annual showdown at Thuy Linh’s communal temple, each sportsman must train in sports like swimming, running and bodybuilding to get in tip-top shape, he added. The audience at competition were in high spirits, laughing and cheering as a match announcer commented on the athletes pouncing on each other in the field. “Some of our athletes have a six-pack body, and some have a six-pack-in-one,” he said wryly. At the end of the three-day tournament, the squad with the most points advances to the next round, and the champions in the final stage will receive a cash prize of $260 to share between them – a small reward that gifts bragging rights to one team among the 16 competing. Dating back to the 11th century, the game was invented by a revered general to teach his recruits about the importance of teamwork, intelligence and strength when fighting against foreign invaders, festival organiser Le Minh Xuong said. “(This game) inherits the tradition of our forefathers, which is to train the men in the village to have health and fitness for the ultimate purpose of protecting our homeland,” he said. But for the players today, the stakes are not so high. “We play this game for fun actually. The prize is not important for us,” 20-year-old player Nguyen The Hien, a kickboxing trainer, said. “Each year we play it and it brings joy to us.”

More people have been asked to prepare to evacuate their homes as firefighters struggle to contain one of the largest recorded wildfires in New Zealand history for the fifth day. About 3,000 residents have already fled from the blaze near Nelson on New Zealand’s South Island that now covers 2,100 hectares with a 27km perimeter, police said. “The situation remains dynamic, changeable, there is a risk to life and our animals and our property,” Civil Defence Nelson Tasman group controller Roger Ball told media yesterday afternoon. Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) regional manager John Sutton said a “fairly intense amount of work” had been done on Saturday by the more than 150 personnel. The biggest worry were winds up to 50km per hour that were predicted for Sunday. “As I’ve said all along that the wind is our biggest enemy, that has determined the strategy that we have been implementing on this fire for the last few days,” he added. Grant Pearce, fire scientist with Scion Rural Fire Research Group said, “Fire managers have reported that current fire danger levels are the highest they’ve seen in almost 20 years.” “The very hot, dry and windy weather over the past month has had a major effect on the drying of forest fuels in particular,” he added. On Friday, 860 homes were evacuated from the town of Wakefield situated 25kms south-west of Nelson. Earlier in the week, about 400 residents were evacuated from Pigeon Valley where the fire started on Tuesday afternoon. Yesterday, civil defence warned residents of a further 235 properties in the Wai-iti area to be ready to evacuate. Several other fires also flared up in recent days in the tinder-dry region, but fire services were able to contain those. Investigators believe that a contractor ploughing a paddock in Pigeon Valley accidentally started the fire.

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has been out in recent weeks campaigning as if for an election, trying to shed the image of a wealthy, elite politician and elicit public sympathy before his corruption trial begins on Tuesday. Najib has pleaded not guilty to charges of criminal breach of trust, abuse of power and money laundering, in what is set to be the first of many trials over suspected multibillion-dollar fraud at state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). The trial starts nine months after Malaysians voted Najib out of office in a general election dominated by public disgust over allegations some $4.5bn was stolen from 1MDB, and about a quarter of it went into his personal bank accounts. Police found nearly $300mn worth of goods and cash at properties linked to Najib soon after the May 2018 election. But as the trial date nears, Najib – who has maintained his innocence – has sought a radical change of image, painting himself as a victim of a vindictive government led by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. The 65-year-old son of Malaysia’s second prime minister is also trying to build an image as a folksy voice of working people, especially members of the ethnic Malay majority. Najib, in a viral video last month, crooned a Malay-language version of the 1970s hit ‘Kiss and Say Goodbye’, surrounded by a chorus of sombre young singers, criticising Mahathir’s coalition for failing to live up to election promises. “On May 9, 2018, I was ousted. All this time, I have been fighting with my life for the people I love. But what can I do?” an earnest Najib says of his “saddest day” in the introduction to the song. Najib has also been hitting out online. His jibes against ruling party politicians on Facebook and Twitter have some social media users referring to him as “King of Trolls”. A relaxed, casually dressed Najib also paid a visit this month to Langkawi, Mahathir’s island constituency, where he pottered around town, visiting markets, eating at hawker stalls and rubbing elbows and posing for selfies with passersby. Mahathir was not impressed. He told a news conference last week Najib seemed to be getting popular on social media because “he provides a lot of stories”. Harvinderjit Singh, one of Najib’s lawyers, declined to comment on the former premier’s public appearances but said the 1MDB trials were unlikely to be affected by the hoopla. “The case is going to be determined by what happens in court, not out of it,” he said. While Najib has been trying to build public support, the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) has been building a formidable team to prosecute Najib, his wife and a host of other former top officials charged for corruption. All of them have pleaded not guilty. The prosecution has been recruiting top notch criminal attorneys including former federal court judge Gopal Sri Ram and Sulaiman Abdullah, a lawyer with a background in cases of white-collar crime. The AGC has also recalled several prosecutors from state offices to join the team, two lawyers with knowledge of the matter said. The AGC did not respond to a request for comment. Najib has a defence team of eight lawyers, led by Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, who once represented the government in a sodomy case against former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim. Najib could face years in prison. He faces 39 criminal charges over losses at 1MDB and other state entities. Seven of those charges will be the subject of Tuesday’s trial, relating to transfers totalling 42mn ringgit ($10.30mn) into Najib’s personal bank account from SRC International, a former 1MDB unit. Prosecutors have handed nearly 3,000 pages of documents to the defence ahead of the trial, said Najib’s lawyer Singh. The documents include statements from 26 witnesses, some of whom were SRC officials, who will likely be called to testify. Najib, who has not been asked to testify in his own defence, hopes only for a fair trial, Singh said. “Our client is of the view that if he gets a fair trial, then the truth will show itself to the public,” he said.

Hundreds of aspiring politicians, including a masked costumed hero, registered yesterday for Thailand’s first election since the 2014 coup, promising a colourful cast of candidates stumping for political parties both old and new. Since the coup, the military has rewritten the constitution, clamped down on dissent and appointed allies across the bureaucracy.  But recent days have seen echoes of Thailand’s formerly rambunctious politics, with outdoor political announcements, campaign posters and loudspeakers on vans touting political slogans as the country gears up for the much-anticipated election after more than four years of junta rule.  Yesterday’s registration was marked by a festive atmosphere, with supporters of dozens of groups waving neon banners and party flags as they entered a stadium in central Bangkok.  While familiar faces abound, such as leaders from political powerhouse Pheu Thai and the army-aligned Phalang Pracharat, there were also quirky entrants, including a member of an obscure new party Phalang Prachatipatai — or “Power of Democracy”— who dressed as American pop culture icon the “Lone Ranger”.  Another hopeful for the Action Coalition for Thailand party carried posters of himself dressed as Superman. But the levity displayed by some belied an underlying resolve to restore a democratically elected government after former premier Yingluck Shinawatra was ousted by the military.  “We stand firm with our principle to stop the continuing power of the (military government),” said Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, head of upstart party Future Forward which advocates for the military to be divorced from politics.  “On March 24, the Thai people must raise their voice to stop the military regime.”  Pheu Thai, Thailand’s biggest political party, also wants a “free and fair (election) without any interference from the government”, said party stalwart Sudarat Keyuraphan. In the last election, the party backed ousted premier Yingluck Shinawatra, and it remains to be seen if it will be able to capitalise on previous electoral successes without the star power of Yingluck and her older brother Thaksin, who was himself pushed out in a military takeover in 2006.  Both live in self-exile to avoid what they say are politically motivated court charges.  But their names will still be on the ballot: Thaksin-aligned Pheu Chart Party currently has over a dozen registered candidates who legally changed their first names to mimic the siblings.  “Right now, there are 15 members who changed their names ... 10 men who changed to Thaksin and five women to Yingluck,” party spokeswoman Ketpreeya Kaewsanmuang told AFP, adding the party was surprised to hear of the name changes.  “It’s their personal choice... you can call it a gimmick as well.”  The move is likely to attract votes from hardcore Thaksin supporters in certain parts of the country, where the billionaire is still revered for the populist policies he enacted as premier, such as universal healthcare and debt relief for farmers.  Less than ten weeks from the election, it remains unclear if junta leader Prayut Chan-O-Cha will stand as a candidate for prime minister.  Even if the junta’s rivals are successful in the polls, any new civilian government is expected to be hamstrung by the military-scripted constitution.  Meanwhile, the pro-army Phalang Pracharat on Monday branded itself as “the best choice for Thais who want to move past conflicts”, said leader Uttama Savanayana, who recently resigned as industry minister.  Phalang Pracharat last week formally invited junta leader Prayut to stand as its candidate for prime minister.  The gruff general must formally submit his interest to the Election Commission by Friday.

Traditional medicine store owner Gu Cheng-pu knows her dispensary can only stay open as long as her ailing father-in-law lives, their careers hostage to a quirk in Taiwanese law that is killing off the industry.  At the back of her shop in New Taipei City, Gu tips a plate of freshly cut Chinese roots into a wok of boiling honey, the first step in preparing one of her many traditional remedies.  “Chinese herbal medicine stores are a unique cultural icon,” the 36-year-old explains. “They are not just a place where you come when you are sick to pick up medicine.” But shops like hers are dying out — with some 200 closing their doors every year — even though traditional medicine remains wildly popular in Taiwan.  Authorities have not issued any new licenses since 1998 and those that exist cannot be passed down to younger generations.  Gu’s father-in-law is the licence owner but he recently suffered a stroke and she now fears the worst. “If I am forced to close shop, the biggest regret for me other than losing our livelihood, is losing our tradition,” she laments. The licence shortage stems from an attempt by authorities in the 1990s to better regulate the largely artisanal industry and bring traditional remedies into the purview of the professional medical community.  By refusing to issue new licenses, authorities hoped professional doctors would offer traditional medicine options in a more regulated and scientific capacity.  “In Taiwan the simultaneous use of Western and Chinese medicine among the public is very prevalent and we need trained medical personnel to make sure they don’t interact with harmful consequences,” Chen Pin-chi, division chief of Chinese Medicine and Pharmacy at the Health and Welfare Ministry, told AFP.  “We initially hoped that professionally trained Chinese medicine doctors or pharmacists might slowly take over the running of Chinese herbal stores,” she added. But things did not turn out as planned.  The lower pay and profits struggled to attract young doctors and pharmacists while patients kept going to the mom-and-pop dispensaries they trusted. The average age of a traditional medicine store licence holder is now 61 while the number of remaining stores has halved in the last 20 years to just 7,900. Taiwan’s approach contrasts with that of the China and Hong Kong where authorities have pushed policies to boost and export traditional medicine. According to the Compendium of Materia Medica, the 16th-century text that is the lodestar for traditional practitioners, there are more than 1,500 different kinds of herbs used in Chinese medicine.  The average store might stock between 200 and 500 herbs, roots, animal parts and minerals — 355 of which are classified as medicine in Taiwan.  Traditional medicine also permeates Taiwan’s cooking — the island’s signature beef noodle soup dish usually contains at least eight herbal ingredients — meaning ingredients are just as likely to go in the cooking pot as they are a tincture. Lee Chia-ling, 42, has worked alongside her father in their family shop for more than 10 years, learning remedies from him. “It was very hard work in the beginning,” she said. “You need to get your hands dirty. Sorting, washing, chopping and slicing, lots of work goes into processing raw herbs and roots ready for use.” she said. “And even now, I am still learning new things from my father,” she added.  Her father Lee Ching-chang, 69, said it takes three to five years to learn to distinguish the basic ingredients and how they react with each other.  “This is very much a profession where experience counts,” said the older Lee, who entered the trade when he was 15 years old. “If the government will not issue any new licences then the second generation cannot carry on with the shop,” he lamented.  The licence shortage has prompted protests on the streets of Taipei and the government is in talks with industry leaders to try to find a way forward. “The Health and Welfare Ministry is well aware of the urgency of the matter and is actively trying to seek a solution,” Chen Ping-chi said.  “Hopefully we can come up with something soon that would allow Chinese herbal medicine shops to continue to be operated by the younger generation,” she added. Gu is painfully aware the last 20 years have produced no solution and fears a change to the law may come too late for her family. “If this situation continues,” she warned, “there won’t be any Chinese herbal stores left in Taiwan.”

Hanoi is preparing to receive North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for a state visit, two sources told Reuters, while officials and diplomats said Vietnam is keen to host a second summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump. A source familiar with the matter said Kim will travel to Vietnam for an official state visit after the Feb 4-8 lunar new year. A separate source confirmed Kim’s visit but did not give any dates. The United States and North Korea are holding high-level talks in Washington this week to discuss a second meeting between Trump and Kim to seek an “interim” deal to revitalise nuclear talks, US and South Korean media have said. Communist-ruled Vietnam, which has good relations with both the United States and North Korea, has been widely touted as the most likely venue for a second meeting. The Southeast Asian country is keen to host the summit as a demonstration of its normalised ties with the United States, its foe during the Vietnam War, a Vietnamese government official and two diplomatic sources told Reuters. The Vietnamese source did not confirm if a state visit by Kim would be combined with a US-North Korean summit. Media is heavily censored in Vietnam and the ruling Communist Party retains a tight control on information. The officials who spoke to Reuters did so on the strict condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the situation. Vietnam’s foreign ministry did not respond to a request from Reuters for comment. A US embassy spokeswoman in Hanoi said the embassy did not have anything to announce regarding the summit location, and referred questions to the White House. Trump told reporters in Washington on Jan 6 that the United States and North Korea are “negotiating a location” for a second summit, and that “it will be announced probably in the not too distant future.” White House officials have declined to comment further. Kim and Trump met for a historic summit in Singapore in June, but have since struggled to make progress towards denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. Top North Korean officials, including former spy chief Kim Yong-chol, were seen at Beijing airport yesterday, and are believed to be headed to the United States for meetings with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and possibly Trump. Asked about a possible high-level meeting this week, a State Department spokesman said: “We have no meetings to announce.” Both Hanoi and the central Vietnam city of Danang have been viewed by analysts as possible locations for a second summit. A senior Danang-based official said the city had not been asked to host such an event, but had received instructions to prepare for a possible “A1” visit, referring to a high-profile foreign leader. A senior South Korean official earlier told Reuters that the United States has “various options” on the location, which would be decided after consultations with North Korea, while another official said that Vietnam is only one of the countries keen to host the summit. Vietnam, which rose from the ashes of a victorious but costly war with the United States and transformed itself into one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies, has developed close strategic ties with Washington. In 2016, Washington ended a decades-old arms embargo on Vietnam, and last year a US aircraft carrier visited Vietnam for the first time since the end of the Vietnam War. Vietnam’s exports to the United States, its largest export market, rose 14.3% last year to $47.53bn, accounting for nearly 20% of Vietnam’s total exports. North Korea can learn from Vietnam’s experience in building ties with the United States, said Le Dang Doanh, a Vietnamese economist and former government adviser who has given lectures to North Korean delegations visiting Vietnam. “They asked a lot about how Vietnam can normalise relations with the United States after losing so many Vietnamese lives during the war,” Doanh said. “I told them we never forget the past, but we also look to the future.”

Thailand’s long-delayed general election to end military rule will have to be postponed from its Feb 24 date and will likely be held in March, two officials in the Election Commission said yesterday. The Election Commission of Thailand has not announced the postponement, but two senior election officials told Reuters it was impossible to hold the polls on Feb 24, as announced last month. The military junta that has ruled for nearly five years had earlier suggested a one-month delay because of scheduling clashes with the coronation of the king in May. “The February 24 election cannot take place because the Election Commission doesn’t have enough time to organise it,” a senior commission official said. “There are now two possible dates ... March 10 or March 24,” the official said. Coronation ceremonies for King Maha Vajiralongkorn have been scheduled for May 4-6, and the government said that there would be royal rituals taking place 15 days prior to and after those three dates. “There will be an election before coronation,” Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha told reporters yesterday. “We have to organise both things together, but we must give time to the coronation preparation first,” Prayut said. The two largest political parties said they had no objection to the delay. Under the law, the Election Commission has to endorse winning members of parliament within 60 days of a vote, and parliament must convene within 15 days of the election results and the King will have to preside over the opening of parliament. The government says these political events could clash with ceremonies for the coronation. The monarchy is revered in Thailand, and this year’s coronation will be the first in living memory for most of the population. King Vajiralongkorn, 66, has been serving since shortly after his father died in 2016 following a 70-year reign, but he has not been officially crowned during a lengthy mourning period. The military government has repeatedly delayed holding a new election since it overthrew an elected prime minister in a 2014 coup. Last month, the junta lifted a ban on political activities imposed since the coup, which allows political parties to start campaigning. Dozens of activists protested against a possible delay of the election on Jan 6 in Bangkok, the first such gathering since the government lifted the ban on political activity. Since then, there have been several similar gatherings in other parts of the country.

A Belarusian model who claimed she had proof of Russian efforts to help Donald Trump win office was set to be deported after being convicted yesterday nearly a year after her arrest in Thailand for participating in a “sex training course”. Anastasia Vashukevich, known by her pen name Nastya Rybka, has been held with several others since a police raid in the sleazy seaside resort of Pattaya last February.  She had travelled to Thailand after becoming embroiled in a political scandal with Russian aluminium tycoon Oleg Deripaska, a one-time associate of US President Trump’s disgraced former campaign director Paul Manafort. She set off a scramble for details after promising to reveal “missing puzzle pieces” regarding claims the Kremlin aided Trump’s 2016 election victory.  But the material never surfaced and critics dismissed it as a publicity stunt.  The Pattaya Provincial Court convicted her and seven co-defendants after they suddenly pleaded guilty to multiple charges including solicitation and illegal assembly. “The court found them all guilty of soliciting sex,” said a judge on the panel, handing them three-year sentences and $6,000 fines but reducing the sentences to time served. “The court releases them today,” the judge added.  Thai immigration chief Surachate Hakparn said they would be transferred to an immigration detention centre in Bangkok and deported.  “The next step, I will co-ordinate with the Russian government for their deportation, which will likely take one week for all the processes to complete,” Surachate told AFP.  “They are blacklisted from Thailand permanently for conducting bad deeds.” The seminar was led by self-styled Russian guru Alex Kirillov even though one participant at the time described it as more of a romance and relationship course.  Kirillov, who has served as a spokesman for the mostly Russian group, told reporters as they arrived at court yesterday that he believed they were set up. “I think somebody ordered (our arrest)... for money,” he said.  Vashukevich and Kirillov had once expressed fear of being deported back to Russia and at one stage called on Washington for help.  But Vashukevich later blamed the US for their imprisonment.  Both Washington and Moscow publicly had shrugged off Vashukevich’s story, which the US State Department described as “bizarre”. A friend of theirs who has been involved in the case and was at the court told AFP they were “very happy” with the verdict.  Vashukevich, who has penned a book about oligarchs, also faces legal problems in Russia. Deripaska won an invasion of privacy lawsuit against her and Kirillov in July after a video apparently filmed by the model showed the tycoon vacationing with an influential Russian deputy prime minister. Kremlin-connected Deripaska and Manafort, Trump’s ex-campaign manager, did business together in the mid-2000s.  Manafort has since been convicted in the US of financial crimes related to political work he did in Ukraine before the 2016 election as well as witness tampering. He has also admitted to providing polling data to a Russian with intelligence ties during the 2016 presidential race.

Indonesian authorities yesterday said they will immediately begin to download contents of a cockpit voice recorder (CVR) from a Lion Air jet that crashed into the sea near Jakarta more than two months ago, killing all 189 people on board. The crash was the world’s first of a Boeing 737 MAX jet and the deadliest of 2018, and the recovery of the aircraft’s second black box from the Java Sea north of Jakarta yesterday may provide an account of the last actions of the doomed jet’s pilots. “We have our own laboratory and personnel to do it,” Haryo Satmiko, deputy chief of the transportation safety committee, said. Satmiko said it had in the past taken up to three months to download, analyze and transcribe the contents of recorders. Contact with flight JT610 was lost 13 minutes after it took off on October 29 from the capital, Jakarta, heading north to the tin-mining town of Pangkal Pinang. A preliminary report by Indonesia’s transport safety commission focused on airline maintenance and training, as well as the response of a Boeing anti-stall system and a recently replaced sensor, but did not give a cause for the crash. A group of relatives of victims urged the transportation safety committee to reveal “everything that was recorded” and to work independently. Navy Lt Colonel Agung Nugroho said a weak signal from the recorder was detected several days ago and it was found buried deep in soft mud on the sea floor in water about 30m (98ft) deep. “We don’t know what damage there is but it has obvious scratches on it,” Nugroho said. Pictures supplied by an official from the transportation agency showed chipped bright orange paint on the CVR memory unit, but no major dents. Nurcahyo Utomo, an investigator at the safety committee, told reporters it should take no more than five days to download the data, but if there was a problem the CVR would be sent to the manufacturer. “We hope it can be done as soon as possible because all the Boeing operators are waiting,” said Utomo, adding that investigators hoped to complete the full report within a year of the crash. With the recovery of the CVR, officials said there was no plan to continue searching for other parts of the wrecked plane, including an angle of attack sensor that was suspected to have been faulty. The navy’s Nugroho said human remains had been found near the location of the CVR, about 50m from where the crashed jet’s other black box, the flight data recorder (FDR), was found three days after the crash. Investigators brought in a navy ship last week after a 10-day, 38bn rupiah ($2.70mn), effort funded by Lion Air failed to find the recorder. Bureaucratic wrangling and funding problems hampered the initial search. The L3 Technologies Inc CVR was designed to send acoustic pings for 90 days after a crash in water, according to an online brochure from the manufacturer. That would mean that after January 27, investigators could have faced a far bigger problem in finding the CVR buried along with much of the wreckage deep in mud on the sea floor. Boeing said in a statement yesterday that it was taking “every measure” to fully support this investigation. “As the investigation continues, Boeing is working closely with the US National Transportation Safety Board as a technical adviser to support Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee,” the planemaker said in a statement. Since the crash, Lion Air has faced scrutiny over its maintenance and training standards, and relatives of victims have filed at least three lawsuits against Boeing.

Cambodian Premier Hun Sen yesterday marked 34 years in power with a threat “to step on the throat” of his rivals if the EU ends trade preferences over the kingdom’s slide into one-party rule.  The European Union has warned it may withdraw its tariff-free Everything But Arms (EBA) scheme, which helps exports from Cambodia’s garment sector, after Hun Sen’s party won all parliamentary seats in polls last year.  The multi-billion-dollar garment and footwear industry provides a steady wage to hundreds of thousands of people in one of Southeast Asia’s poorest countries, and its ongoing success is seen as one of Hun Sen’s few remaining points of vulnerability.  His Cambodia People’s Party (CPP) swept the elections after the main opposition was banned from taking part, and its key figures were hit with jail sentences and legal charges or intimidated into silence. In recent months, Hun Sen has loosened his choke-hold on the crippled opposition, requesting pardons for jailed opposition members and journalists in a move seen as a reaction to the EU’s threat.  But yesterday, a typically bombastic Hun Sen warned he would “step on the throat further” of the opposition if the EU followed through with its threat to pull the EBA. “If you want the opposition to die – cut it (the EBA),” he said at a public event yesterday on anniversary of his 1985 appointment as head of state. “You should understand the price that you would pay,” Hun Sen said, adding “sanctions on Cambodia means killing the opposition party” as well as pulling all leverage for democracy and human rights. The 66-year-old hammered home his point on Saturday to visiting former Irish prime minister Enda Kenny, accusing the EU of holding the country’s 16mn people “hostage” with the tariff threats. Hun Sen is known for his overblown speeches that toss aside diplomatic niceties, but he usually avoids referring to the EU trade scheme by name.  Removing EU trade preferences is a long, drawn-out process that would take several months. But Hun Sen has been emboldened after his party swept all parliamentary seats in the July 2018 vote.  The Southeast Asian country also enjoys the economic support of China. Hun Sen said he will pay an official visit to Beijing later this month to meet with President Xi Jinping to discuss “economic, investment and development”.

The Thai capital fired water cannon into the hot tropical air and hosed down streets yesterday as authorities handed out masks in a bid to combat air pollution in one of the world’s most visited cities which has been blanketed by smog since Saturday. The Agriculture Ministry was also preparing to seed clouds to try to clear the air. The level of hazardous dust particles known as PM 2.5 has exceeded the safe level in 30 of 50 Bangkok’s districts for days, Bangkok Governor Aswin Kwanmuang told reporters. PM 2.5 is a mixture of liquid droplets and solid particles that can include dust, soot and smoke. It is one of the main pollutants included in measuring the Air Quality Index (AQI). Yesterday morning’s AQI in Bangkok was 180, according to the popular website airvisual.com, which measures levels in cities worldwide. The temperature was a sizzling 31C. Any level above 150 is considered unhealthy and Bangkok ranked in the top 10 of polluted cities worldwide yesterday. At the top was Tel Aviv in Israel, at 454 on the index. Pollution in Bangkok has reached unhealthy levels before, usually during the dry season between January and March, but it doesn’t normally hang around too long. Thai authorities vowed to keep fighting. “The city will hand out N95 masks that can protect people against PM 2.5 dust ... We will distribute the first 10,000 masks to people in various spots around the city,” Aswin said earlier in the day. Many shops have ran out of masks because of high demand. “We have been sold out since Saturday,” Supannee Boriwongse, 37, a drug store manager in Bangkok’s Silom district, told Reuters. “We have ordered more but were told that there is a shortage.” The Department of Pollution Control says diesel fumes from cars contribute 50-60% of the pollution while burning rubbish and crops attributed about 35%. The government has banned large trucks from entering downtown Bangkok during the rush hours, while police have vowed to enforce the law on emission controls.

Two insurgents believed to be tied to a motorcycle drive-by shooting at a school in Thailand’s south were shot dead yesterday, police said, as Unicef warned of trauma for children near the scene of the lunchtime violence. Since 2004 clashes between Malay-Muslim rebels and the Buddhist-majority Thai state that annexed the area over 100 years ago have killed nearly 7,000 people, mostly civilians of both faiths. The conflict rarely makes global headlines but is a reality for residents of border provinces where security forces maintain a large footprint, aided by poorly paid defence “volunteers” drawn from local communities. The four men killed in Thursday’s shooting were all Muslims and were guarding a school in Pattani province when the attackers struck just before lunchtime with students mere metres away. Pattani provincial police commander Piyawat Chalermsri said that two people with alleged ties to the school violence were killed in a shootout yesterday morning. Though he did not give information about their identities or affiliation, he said he was “confident that they are the same group who carried out the attack Thursday” by driving by on motorbikes. Authorities have also detained one suspect and are questioning five others, while a military source said an eight-year-old had been grazed by a bullet but not seriously injured. Unicef Thailand representative Thomas Davin said Friday that one child at the Bukoh school attack was reportedly injured by debris and some who may have witnessed the attack could face long term psychological trauma. “This attack has undoubtedly put the schoolchildren, the teachers and school personnel in harm’s way. It has put children at grave risk of injury or death,” he said. “Such violence could also affect parents’ willingness to send their children to school - potentially to the detriment of many children’s learning and future development.” The 15-year insurgency has seen scores of teachers killed, slain for their perceived collaboration with the Thai state, which led to the use of armed guards at schools. The death toll in the conflict dropped to a record low last year as Thailand’s junta tightened its security operations. But recent weeks have seen an uptick in violence, as rebels show they remain able to carry out more pinpointed operations. In a rare statement dated January 4 the main rebel group - the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) - swore to “keep fighting” while warning people not to help or support the state. But Thai authorities as well as the Malaysian facilitator of the talks have recently expressed confidence they will make progress soon. Former 4th Army commander Udomchai Thammasarorat said at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Thailand on Friday that he “wants to find a solution to exit from the violence” and he has urged the southern army commander to try and ensure public safety.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen blasted the European Union yesterday for holding the country “hostage” with threats to axe trade preferences after it held elections with no credible opposition. The EU threatened in October to withdrawal the duty-free Everything But Arms scheme (EBA), which benefits exports from Cambodia’s garment and footwear sector, the largest formal employer. The multi-billion dollar sector employs hundreds of thousands of labourers and is seen as one of the 66-year-old’s few vulnerable positions in a country he has run for nearly 34 years by building up vast patronage networks. In recent months he has requested pardons for activists and eased up on the crippled opposition, which was banned in a Supreme Court ruling ahead of the July vote swept by Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party. The moves were seen as concessions to avoid any loss of the trade preferences but Hun Sen has baulked at the idea of his hand being forced, and said so in his most direct comments on the issue yet in a meeting with former Irish prime minister Enda Kenny in Phnom Penh. After bringing up several historical grievances with the bloc he said it was making another mistake by “using EBA as a threat to sanction Cambodia ... and take about 16mn Cambodians as hostage of the so-called EBA.” Hun Sen’s spokesman conveyed the remarks to reporters. They were also posted on the leader’s official Facebook page and quickly picked up by state-friendly media. He asked Kenny to pass along his message to the EU. Hun Sen is known for fiery speeches that toss aside diplomatic niceties, but he usually avoids calling out the trade scheme by name. Last month he rapped Western governments for pushing “democracy and human rights” on the country in comments believed to be tied to the EU threat. Removing the preferences is a long, drawn out process that would take several months. The ruling party swept all seats in the July vote turning Cambodia into a one-party state. The Southeast Asian country enjoys the economic support of China, which in turn relies on its smaller ally to support it in regional disputes over control of the potentially resource-rich South China Sea.

One man was killed and two others declared missing after an oil tanker caught fire while it was being refuelled off Hong Kong yesterday, sending a huge cloud of dark smoke billowing into the air.  Twenty-three people were rescued after those on board the stricken Vietnamese-listed vessel either fell or jumped into the sea, police said.  Some of the victims suffered burns, with four people injured, one of them seriously.  Fears of a potential environmental catastrophe in a busy shipping channel also known for porpoises and turtles were dampened late yesterday after officials said no leak had been detected from the vessel which was not carrying any oil cargo at the time of the accident.  Fire department commander Yiu Men-yeung said the ship was about to be refuelled by an oil barge when the accident occurred.  He told reporters that according to the crew on the barge, they were “connecting the hoses for refuelling for the oil tanker, and then there were three explosions”, before the ship burst into flames. Yiu added that the vessel, which was on its way from the southern Chinese industrial city of Dongguan to Thailand, was not at risk of sinking. It took around five hours for firefighters to put out the blaze.  But the tanker, which had a crew of 25 Vietnamese, was listing at a 30 degree angle.  One Singaporean national was slightly injured on the oil barge, authorities said. Witnesses described feeling shockwaves when the explosions tore through the ship.  “I felt my boat shaking. The tremble came from the sea,” said speedboat driver Michael Kwok, who told AFP he heard three explosions while out on his boat nearby.  Footage from before the fire was brought under control showed the stricken vessel listing with large plumes of black smoke coming from its middle and flames still burning on the deck. A Hong Kong government statement said firefighters used four jets to contain the blaze, which could be seen not far off the southern side of Hong Kong’s Lamma island.  A fireboat was seen spraying two streams of water into the sea near the tilted side of the tanker, according to an AFP reporter at the scene, with a mass of twisted metal on the deck and a charred exterior wall bearing a “No Smoking” sign. Three more fireboats, a helicopter and a police boat were also circling the scene. “I heard several banging and rumbling sounds, like someone with big hands knocking my glass door,” a resident of Lamma island’s Mo Tat New Village who gave his name as Shu told AFP.  He added that a smaller banging sound followed about 10 seconds later. A fisherman from Lamma told local news channel i-Cable he first heard explosions and then saw “dense smoke” followed by a “ball of fire”.  The name on the front of the tanker was Aulac Fortune, which the Hong Kong marine department tracker website showed as arriving at the South Lamma anchorage at 2:58am Tuesday.  Ship-tracking websites MarineTraffic and VesselFinder both classify the ship as an “oil/chemical tanker”. The marine department said the tanker had already unloaded all oil cargo in previous ports and there was none onboard at the time of the accident. It added “the pollution control vessels are at (the) scene and no oil pollution is found so far”.  Despite no reported leakage, environmentalist Gary Stokes said the incident was at an early stage and he was still trying to assess its ecological impact.  “It is obviously something of concern when it comes to the environment with the animals out there — it is the home of the finless porpoise,” said Stokes, director of OceansAsia.org, referring to the waters near Lamma, adding its population is believed to be declining.  Turtles are also known to nest on one of Lamma’s coves.

Junta leader Prayut Chan-O-Cha decried “opportunists” yesterday after a wave of co-ordinated bomb attacks by suspected insurgents hit Thailand’s “deep south” in the lead-up to the New Year holidays.  The region bordering Malaysia has been in the grip of a low-level but bloody insurgency for more than a decade as ethnic Malay militants battle the Buddhist-majority state for greater autonomy. Since 2004, insurgents armed with homemade bombs and grenades have clashed with Thailand’s powerful military, killing nearly 7,000 people, mostly civilians, of both Muslim and Buddhist faith. However, 2017 saw a record low of 235 people killed in clashes. The latest attacks occurred on Friday night in a series of seven separate incidents in three different districts of Narathiwat province, said police commander Major General Dussadee Choosungkit. Two bomb attacks occurred in Sri Sakhon district, four in Chanae district, and militants “ambushed a base in Rangae district” using  grenades, he said.  The homemade bombs were “detonated by radio”, he said, adding that no one was injured.  The attacks prolong a bout of violence that began late Monday evening when a policeman died in an explosion from a detonated roadside bomb hidden in a gas cylinder.  In nearby Songkhla province on Wednesday night, two bombs rocked popular tourist site Simila beach, causing no fatalities but damaging to two seaside statues. Songkhla provincial police are still investigating the beach bombings, and no arrest has been made, police said yesterday.  Major General Dussadee said the Songkhla bombings were not connected to his province’s troubles – which he said is payback for a December 12 raid on the insurgents’ camp in Narathiwat.  “I think the militants are retaliating at authorities after the raid on their camp earlier this month,” he said. Chan-O-Cha has instructed officials to step up security measures after the attacks, said government spokesman Buddhipongse Punakanta. “(Prayut) called them the works of ill-intentioned people and opportunists for staging attacks during New Year holidays,” said  Buddhipongse.

A tsunami killed at least 222 people and injured hundreds on the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra following an underwater landslide believed to have been caused by the erupting Anak Krakatau volcano, officials said yesterday.  Hundreds of homes and other buildings were “heavily damaged” when the tsunami struck, almost without warning, along the rim of the Sunda Strait late on Saturday, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for the disaster mitigation agency, said. Thousands of residents were forced to evacuate to higher ground. By 5:40pm, the disaster agency had raised the death toll to 222, with 843 injured and 28 missing.  It has been a torrid year for the vast archipelago that sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire. Successive earthquakes flattened parts of the tourist island of Lombok in July and August, and a double quake-and-tsunami killed more than 2,000 people on Sulawesi island in September. As night fell yesterday, rescue efforts continued but workers and ambulances were finding it difficult to reach affected areas because some roads were blocked by debris from damaged houses, overturned cars and fallen trees. TV images showed the seconds when the tsunami hit the beach and residential areas in Pandeglang on Java island, dragging with it victims, debris, and large chunks of wood and metal. Coastal residents reported not seeing or feeling any warning signs on Saturday night, such as receding water or an earthquake, before waves of 2-3 metres (6-10 feet) washed ashore, according to media. Authorities said a warning siren went off in some areas. The timing of the tsunami, over the Christmas holiday season, evoked memories of the Indian Ocean tsunami triggered by an earthquake on Dec 26 in 2004, which killed 226,000 people in 14 countries, including more than 120,000 in Indonesia. Oystein Lund Andersen, a Norwegian holidaymaker, was in Anyer town with his family when Saturday’s tsunami struck. “I had to run, as the wave passed the beach and landed 15-20m inland. Next wave entered the hotel area where I was staying and downed cars on the road behind it,” he said on Facebook. “Managed to evacuate with my family to higher ground through forest paths and villages, where we are taken care of by the locals.” Authorities warned residents and tourists in coastal areas around the Sunda Strait to stay away from beaches and a high-tide warning remained in place through until Dec 25 as officials tried to determine the exact cause of the disaster. “Those who have evacuated, please do not return yet,” said Rahmat Triyono, an official at the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG). President Joko Widodo, who is running for re-election in April, said on Twitter that he had “ordered all relevant government agencies to immediately take emergency response steps, find victims and care for the injured”. Vice President Jusuf Kalla told a news conference the death toll would “likely increase”. The western coast of Banten province in Java, Indonesia’s most populated island, was the worst-hit area, Nugroho told reporters in Yogyakarta.  He also said at least 35 people were reported dead in Lampung in southern Sumatra. The Red Cross send out equipment and aid from its regional warehouse in Banten including water, tarpaulins, shovels and axes, as well as hygiene kits, it said in a statement.  Television footage showed the seconds when the tsunami washed away an outdoor stage where a local rock band was performing for hundreds of guests at an end-of-year party for state utility company PLN. Four of the musicians from the band, Seventeen, were killed, along with 29 PLN employees and relatives. “The water washed away the stage which was located very close to the sea,” the band said in a statement. “The water rose and dragged away everyone at the location. We have lost loved ones, including our bassist and manager ... and others are missing.” Police officers rescued a young boy who was trapped in a car buried under fallen trees and rubble for nearly 12 hours, according to a video of his rescue posted on Twitter by the Indonesian National Police. The tsunami was caused by “an undersea landslide resulting from volcanic activity on Anak Krakatau” and was exacerbated by abnormally high tide because of the full moon, Nugroho said. Anak Krakatau, an active volcano roughly halfway between Java and Sumatra, has been spewing ash and lava for months. It erupted again just after 9pm on Saturday and the tsunami struck at around 9.30pm, according to BMKG. Ben van der Pluijm, an earthquake geologist and a professor in the University of Michigan, said the tsunami may have been caused by a “partial collapse” of Anak Krakatau. “Instability of the slope of an active volcano can create a rock slide that moves a large volume of water, creating local tsunami waves that can be very powerful. This is like suddenly dropping a bag of sand in a tub filled with water,” he said. The eruption of Krakatau, previously known as Krakatoa, in 1883 killed more than 36,000 people in a series of tsunamis. Anak Krakatau, which means child of Krakatau, is the island that emerged from the area once occupied by Krakatau, which was destroyed in 1883. It first appeared in 1927 and has been growing ever since. Indonesia regularly  hit by earthquakes 2004: A massive 9.1-magnitude quake on the western coast of Indonesia’s Aceh province in northern Sumatra on Dec 26 triggered a tsunami that struck 14 countries, killing 226,000 people along the Indian Ocean coastline, more than half of them in Aceh. 2005: A series of strong quakes hit the western coast of Sumatra in late March and early April. Hundreds died in Nias Island, off the coast of Sumatra. 2006: A 6.8-magnitude quake hit south of Java, Indonesia’s most populated island, triggering a tsunami that smashed into the southern coast, killing nearly 700 people. 2009: A 7.6-magnitude quake struck near the city of Padang, capital of West Sumatra province. More than 1,100 people were killed. 2010: A 7.5-magnitude quake hit one of the Mentawai islands, off Sumatra, triggering a tsunami of up to 10m that destroyed dozens of villages and killed around 300 people. 2018: Major quakes hit Indonesia’s tourist island of Lombok, killing more than 500 people, mostly on the northern side of the island. 2018: More than 2,000 people were killed by a powerful earthquake and tsunami that hit the city of Palu, on the west coast of Sulawesi island.

The eldest son of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen was promoted yesterday to the ruling party’s permanent committee, an official said, as questions swirl over who might succeed the strongman.  Hun Sen, 66, has ruled Cambodia with an iron fist for 33 years, backed by networks of family-linked loyalists and patronage ties.   His sons have also been tapped for key posts across the country’s defence and intelligence establishments.  Hun Manet, 41, achieved yet another milestone yesterday when he was voted into the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) permanent committee, party spokesman Sok Eysan told AFP.  Six others, including Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) commander-in-chief Vong Pisen and national military police commander Sao Sokha, were also voted into the committee.  Sok Eysan said the promotions were made based on the “abilities” of the officials.  “There is no conflict of interest between politics and their professional work,” he said.   The CPP’s Permanent Committee comprises 37 members of the country’s political elite – including Hun Sen, Interior Minister Sar Kheng and Defence Minister Tea Banh – who decide on the party’s policies.  The prime minister has long framed the promotions of his children as a natural byproduct of education and training, shrugging off allegations of nepotism.  Hun Manet, who graduated from the US military academy at West Point, is already deputy commander of the RCAF and was recently made the chief of the infantry army headquarters.  Hun Sen’s second son Hun Manit is the head of a military intelligence unit and his youngest Hun Many is a parliamentarian who oversees the ruling party’s far-reaching youth movement  Analysts say Hun Sen is grooming his sons as possible successors but he has also vowed to stay in power for another decade.

Cambodian premier Hun Sen yesterday opened the country’s largest hydropower scheme, swatting aside dire warnings about the environmental impact of the $780mn project and its effect on local communities. Backed by Chinese funding, the impoverished Southeast Asian nation has embarked on a dam-building spree in recent years, as it tries to boost its energy capacity and jump-start its economy. But the 400 megawatt Lower Sesan 2 is one of several dams criticised by environmentalists for threatening crucial fish stocks along Mekong River waterways. An estimated 5,000 people – mostly from marginalised indigenous groups – have been resettled due to the project, according to activists, while a few hundred remain. Hun Sen strongly defended the controversial scheme at the official opening in the northeastern province of Stung Treng, saying affected villagers were compensated with houses and land. The United Nations has previously raised concerns about the dam while some scientists had joined calls for it to be halted over fears for the region’s food supply. The NGO International Rivers has warned it will have a “costly catastrophic impact on the Mekong River’s fisheries and biodiversity”. Maureen Harris, Southeast Asia programme director with the group, said the threat is “especially acute in Cambodia”, where local people get up to 80% of their animal protein intake from freshwater fisheries. Built along tributaries of the Mekong, the Lower Sesan 2 is a joint venture between Cambodia’s Royal Group (39%), Chinese state-owned Hydrolancang International Energy (51%) and Vietnam-based EVN International (10%).

Former Maldives president Abdulla Yameen is under investigation for corruption, police said Sunday, after a court ordered accounts holding $6.5 million to be frozen.  Yameen, who was defeated in a September election, was interviewed by police on the honeymoon islands on Saturday. He has been dogged by allegations that he received close to $1.5 million in illicit payments during his failed bid for re-election in the Indian Ocean archipelago nation. The country's monetary authority has lodged a police complaint about the alleged donations made into a private account held by Yameen in two suspicious tranches, local media reported. The former strongman president, who ruled the popular holiday islands with an iron fist, jailing or exiling his opponents, has denied the allegations. Yameen relied heavily on China for political and financial support in the nation of 340,000 Sunni Muslims, troubling neighbouring India. Beijing has challenged New Delhi for regional influence, including in strategically-located nations like the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Nepal which have traditionally been within India's orbit. China has loaned billions of dollars to countries around the Indian Ocean and beyond for infrastructure development, stoking fears of a debt trap. But Yameen's defeat to Ibrahim Mohamed Solih signalled something of a reset, with the new president accusing China of a land grab in the Maldives and turning to India for help. Solih departed for India on Sunday on his first official visit abroad since assuming office. He is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Monday. Yameen's five-year tenure was marked by the jailing of all his key rivals most of whom have returned to the country after his toppling.

Two technicians performing maintenance at a US research station in Antarctica died on Wednesday while working on a building that houses a generator for a nearby radio transmitter, the National Science Foundation (NSF) said. The pair, both employed as subcontractors at the NSF-managed McMurdo Station in Antarctica, were found unconscious on the floor of the building after a helicopter pilot flying over the area saw what appeared to be smoke coming from the structure and landed to investigate. One of the technicians was pronounced dead by medical personnel called to the scene. The other was pronounced dead a short time after being flown to the McMurdo medical clinic, the NSF said in a statement. The two workers, described as fire technicians, were performing preventive maintenance on the building's fire-suppression system before they were found, the agency said. No further details were immediately provided, and the incident was under investigation, the foundation said. The NSF said it was not releasing any personal information about the two workers, except to say they were employed by a Virginia-based company, PAE, which in turn was hired by the US Antarctica Program's logistics contractor Leidos, headquartered in Colourado. The research station, established by the United States in 1955, is situated near Antarctica's McMurdo Sound, named for a British naval officer who was part of the expedition that first charted the area in 1841. The largest outpost in Antarctica, it lies at the tip of Ross Island in the New Zealand-claimed territory known as the Ross Dependency. The incident in question occurred on Dec. 12 local time, which goes by New Zealand time. Daytime highs in December, in the middle of the Antarctic summer, average 31.5 degrees Fahrenheit or minus 0.3 degrees Celsius. More than 1,000 people, including scientists and support personnel, work at the station this time of year.