June 15, 2012
CANBERRA-- Australia will levy a controversial carbon tax on about half the number of companies originally expected, a government list released on Friday shows, which may limit the economic and political impact of the tax which starts on July 1.
June 14, 2012
GENEVA--Myanmar's Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi urged foreign governments not to allow their companies to do joint ventures with the state-owned oil and gas company until it improved transparency and accountability.
June 14, 2012
When Myanmar emerged last year from army rule, state censors started to loosen their powerful grip, allowing newspapers to report freely on what had been unthinkable, from the views of opposition politicians to allegations of government corruption.
June 14, 2012
SITTWE, myanmar--Thousands of displaced Muslim Rohingyas and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists were in need of food, water and shelter in northwestern Myanmar on June 14 after fleeing the country's worst sectarian clashes in years.
June 13, 2012
DHAKA, Bangladesh--A global human rights group on June 13 urged Bangladesh to keep its border open to people seeking refuge from sectarian violence in western Myanmar.
June 12, 2012
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has voiced deep concern over sectarian violence in Myanmar, unrest that threatens to endanger democratic and economic reforms in the country after decades of military-ruled isolation.
June 11, 2012
SITTWE, Myanmar -- Northwest Myanmar was tense on June 11 after sectarian violence engulfed its largest city at the weekend, with Reuters witnessing rival mobs of Muslims and Buddhists torching houses and police firing into the air to disperse crowds.
June 11, 2012
YANGON--Myanmar's president on June 10 night declared a state of emergency in a western state where sectarian tensions between Buddhists and Muslims have unleashed deadly violence. He warned that if the situation spun out of control, it could jeopardize the democratic reforms he has been instituting since taking office last year.
June 10, 2012
YANGON--Authorities in western Myanmar have imposed new curfews to keep clashes between local Buddhists and Muslim Bengalis from escalating.
June 09, 2012
YANGON--Security forces in western Myanmar had to open fire on rioters who burned hundreds of homes in sectarian violence that killed at least seven people, state-controlled media reported on June 9, adding that calm had been restored.
June 09, 2012
WASHINGTON--U.S. President Barack Obama called on June 8 for clear rules to resolve maritime disputes in the South China Sea and throughout the Pacific, a region where the United States is trying to increase its strategic heft.
June 08, 2012
NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar--Thura Shwe Mann, speaker of the lower house of Parliament, indicated he was open to parliamentary discussions to revise Myanmar’s Constitution in an interview with The Asahi Shimbun.
June 08, 2012
WASHINGTON-- Philippines President Benigno Aquino is in the United States for a visit that will highlight the Southeast Asian archipelago's growing importance in U.S. strategic thinking, as the White House "pivots" to Asia and both countries worry about China's intentions.
June 08, 2012
CANBERRA-- Australia will lift its remaining financial and travel sanctions against Myanmar and double its aid in a move to encourage further democratic reform as the country tentatively emerges from decades of military rule, Foreign Minister Bob Carr said.
June 07, 2012
KUALA LUMPUR--Malaysia is planning a fresh round of cash handouts to poorer families in August, government sources said, as Prime Minister Najib Razak likely delays elections until late this year to shore up support among undecided voters.
June 06, 2012
YANGON--Scores of Myanmar Muslims held a rare protest in the country's biggest city on June 5 to demand justice for nine pilgrims killed by a Buddhist mob in an attack that has stirred communal tension.
June 05, 2012
PHNOM PENH -- Cambodia's ruling party looks to have won a landslide win in local elections, putting authoritarian Prime Minister Hun Sen on course to remain one of the world's longest-serving leaders after parliamentary elections next year.
June 04, 2012
YANGON--Buddhist vigilantes in western Myanmar attacked a bus and killed nine Muslims, police said on June 4, the deadliest communal violence in the region since a reformist government took power a year ago.
June 04, 2012
Royston Tan is the Singapore film industry's rebel with a cause, leading the cinema's challenge of the government's strict censorship policy.
June 03, 2012
CAM RANH BAY, Vietnam--U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta visited a deep-water Vietnamese port near the contested South China Sea on June 3, calling access to such harbors critical as the U.S. shifts 60 percent of its warships to the Asia-Pacific by 2020.