THAILAND – CAMBODIA
Thailand's prime minister yesterday said that his government will propose a referendum to decide whether to scrap two agreements on the boundary demarcation with Cambodia, an issue that led to fighting in July, with dozens killed and thousands displaced. The current border demarcation is governed by agreements signed in 2000 and 2001.
PHILIPPINES – VIETNAM
In the Philippines, the death toll from severe tropical storm Bualoi has risen to 11; meanwhile, the cyclone is now heading towards Vietnam, local authorities report. Yesterday, Bualoi swept across small islands in the central Philippines, downing trees and power lines. Roofs were torn off, forcing 400,000 people to evacuate. Bualoi arrived immediately after super typhoon Ragasa, which killed 14 people in the northern Philippines.
SOUTH KOREA
A serious fire at South Korea's National Information Resource Service (NIRS), the country central state data centre, has paralysed online government services and networks, forcing the authorities to rely on social media for communications. The NIRS centrally runs government data and information systems. The fire, which broke out last night, was extinguished this morning, but more than 600 government services and systems remained in a forced shutdown mode to protect data while firefighters worked to remove nearly 400 lithium-ion battery packs from the building as a safety precaution.
BANGLADESH
Bangladesh's interim head of government, Muhammad Yunus, told the United Nations General Assembly yesterday that the Rohingya refugee crisis is on the brink of becoming a catastrophe due to cuts in humanitarian aid. Bangladesh is now home to approximately 1.3 million Rohingya, most of whom fled Myanmar's brutal military crackdown in 2017. Eight years into the crisis, Yunus said that persecution in Rakhine State continues unabated.
UNITED STATES – INDIA
Harjit Kaur, a 73-year-old Indian woman, is among the people deported after she was seized by agents of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. After she arrived from Punjab with her two children in 1991 to escape the political turmoil of that time, she applied for asylum on several occasions, but was unsuccessful. She never returned to India because she lacked travel documents. Kaur, who has no criminal record, was moved to a detention centre in Georgia on 19 September and deported to India on 22 September, without being able to visit her home or say goodbye to her family.
ISRAEL – GAZA
UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed stressed the urgent need to end the war in Gaza during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. This was their first meeting since Israel's 9 September attack on Hamas leaders in Qatar, which the UAE condemned. Meanwhile, President Trump said that intense talks on Gaza are underway with several Arab countries in the region and that Israel and Hamas are aware of the 21-point peace plan under discussion.
