South East Asia

In Boyolali last week, dozens of farmers used it to ‘take a bath’. Behind the discontent is the unresolved issue of quotas. Today at least 80% of the raw material comes from abroad. For years there has been a demand for a law to regulate the sector.

Matuil Haq Khalis, head of Afghanistan’s environmental protection agency, called on the international community for support; for the past three years, the Taliban regime has been excluded from international fora. The intensity of floods, combined with periods of prolonged drought, is displacing more people internally, while agriculture is yielding less and less. Projects by UN agencies cover only one province in three.

The Commission on Elections presented the lists ahead of next May’s vote. Papers were filed in an atmosphere of peace and free of irregularities. Some 25 seats are at stake, but a postponement is a real possibility after the president of the Philippine Senate and the speaker of the House filed petitions to this end.

Nine people per 100,000 are homeless in the city-state, the crossroad of Southeast Asia, a small number that jars, however, with the country’s widespread well-being and prosperity. The challenge is to go from temporary housing to structural solutions that reduce stigma and ghettoisation. Religious and non-religious organisations, including Catholic Welfare Services, are committed to solving the issue.

The Cambodian Environment Ministry announced a bid for the collection of forest by-products from clearing the site of the future Chinese-built Stung Tatai Leu dam. Koh Kong province has long been the victim of illegal logging activities and environmentalists fear that the government's announcement is but a sham.

From the island of Flores, where 10 people lost their lives in the November 3 eruption and thousands more are displaced by the continuing phenomena, the message of Msgr Kopong Kung: ‘It is a marvellous mountain formed by a pair of two peaks that the local people call “the husband” and “the wife”. The devastation is serious, we are deeply saddened'. Catholic communities throughout Indonesia are mobilising and raising funds.

Myanmar’s military strongman met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang during a two-day summit of the Greater Mekong Subregion. Chinese source stresses infrastructure projects undermined by the civil war, noting that Beijing has also held discussions with the militias that control the borders and the rare earth trade.

Government agencies in the health and demographic sectors are under attack, but also public security data. Disinformation spikes fuelled by artificial intelligence have also been detected at times of heightened tension in the South China Sea.

The issue is front-page news after the states of Sarawak and Sabah decided to promote the use of English in secondary schools. For Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, it is necessary to enhance the skills of students, but critics blame identity politics for electoral advantages.

In the town of Bando, Ibaraki prefecture, at least 20 men and women lived in a community. There was also a restaurant and a karaoke bar in the disused facilities. There are 600,000 Vietnamese working in Japan, but they are also the largest group among the nearly 10,000 trainees who have ‘disappeared’ in the country over the past year.

The 36-year-old reporter who documented online scam centres in Sihanoukville was released on bail three weeks after his arrest in late September, following apologies to former Prime Minister Hun Sen and his son, current Prime Minister Hun Manet. Dara explained that detention and police threats have undermined his spirit.

Around midnight, large boulders ejected from Lewotobi Laki-laki, hitting buildings up to 6 kilometres away. The victims - among them Sr Nikolin Padjo, Missionary Servant of the Holy Spirit - were caught in their sleep by the fiery lapilli. In the Minor Seminary in Hokeng, roofs were destroyed and structures burned, injuring 14 people. Caritas Indonesia is coordinating aid with the dioceses of Larantuka and Maumere.