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West Asia
Iranian newspaper condemns media censorship
Iran’s “Ettelaat” newspaper has objected to the state’s ban on publishing the name or images of the former reformist president, Mohammad Khatami. As the managing editor of the state-run newspaper, Seyed Mahmoud Doaei, wrote a front-page editorial in the form of a public letter addressed to President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday 9th December…
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East Asia
82% South Koreans in favor of reunification
Eight out of 10 South Koreans believe unification with the North is necessary, a survey shows. The National Unification Advisory Council surveyed 1,000 adults last month and 82 percent said unification is necessary while 15.2 percent said it is not. The perception that the divided peninsula needs to be unified…
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Politics
South Korea elected as president for Human Rights council
South Korea has been elected as president for Human Rights council for next year. The members of the council chose Korea’s permanent representative in the UN in Geneva, Choi Kyong-lim, during the council’s meeting on Monday 7th December. Choi will head the council for year starting in January. Upon his election,…
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South East Asia
Another former sex slave dies; 46 victims remain
Choi Gap-sun, 96, a victim of the Japanese military’s sexual enslavement of women from Korea and other Asian nations, died on Saturday, according to a civic group. With Choi’s death, the number of Korean survivors of sexual slavery during World War II has dropped to 46. Including Choi, nine have…
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East Asia
China turning hostile toward North Korean defectors
The Chinese government regards North Korean defectors as illegal immigrants, and said on Thursday that they should be forcibly repatriated. Its hostile approach came despite the United Nations’ growing criticism of Beijing’s forced repatriation of asylum seekers from the Kim Jong-un regime; and possibly reflects an improvement in relations between…
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South East Asia
Sex slavery talks between Korean, Japan likely to continue into 2016
Negotiations between Korea and Japan over Tokyo’s sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II are likely to drag on into next year. Japan’s Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said he was skeptical about striking a deal with Korea over the issue by the end of this year, Japan’s Nihon…
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West Asia
Al-Qaida in Syria releases 16 Lebanese prisoners in swap deal
Al Qaeda’s Syrian wing, the Nusra Front, released Lebanese soldiers and policemen held captive since August 2014 in a Qatari-mediated swap deal that also secured freedom for a jailed ex-wife of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. According to AlAraby AlJadeed, the sixteen Lebanese servicemen were captured by Nusra on the…
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West Asia
Israelis convicted of burning Palestinian teen alive
Court finds two Israeli minors guilty of burning to death Mohammed Abu Khdeir but delays ruling over the accused ringleader, waiting for the results of a psychiatric evaluation. According to Alarabiya, the court said that the three of them admitted to kidnapping Mohammed Abu Khdeir, torturing him and burning him alive, in…
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South East Asia
Ex-President Kim Young-sam’s funeral takes place
The funeral for former President Kim Young-sam began at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul at 2 p.m. today. Over 10,000 mourners attended including Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, the head of the funeral committee, government officials, business representatives and foreign ambassadors and envoys. President Park Geun-hye partially attended the ceremony,…
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South East Asia
Two Koreas hold working-level dialogue this afternoon
North and South Korea kicked off a working-level meeting on Thursday afternoon to decide details of a high-level talks that the two countries agreed in August to hold as soon as possible, Yonhap news agency reported Thursday. The preparatory meeting took place on the North’s side of the truce village…
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