Report: China's Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei to Set Up Anti-pollution Body

SHANGHAI — 

The smog-prone northern Chinese region of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei will set up a joint environmental protection agency in an effort to coordinate the region’s war on pollution, the official China Securities Journal reported on Wednesday.

The new agency, part of wider efforts to improve cross-regional environmental governance, will be in place by the end of the year, the paper said, citing Ministry of Environmental Protection officials.

The region, also known as Jing-Jin-Ji, was home to eight of China's 10 smoggiest cities in September and is involved in a winter campaign that will slash industrial output and restrict traffic in a bid to meet air quality targets.

Creating unified environmental standards across the region was a key element of a regional economic integration plan launched by President Xi Jinping in 2014.

According to academic studies, around a third of the smog drifting across the capital, Beijing, originates in neighboring Hebei, China’s biggest steel-producing region and also a major producer of cement.

Regulators have already promised to establish a unified system of environmental governance that will create cross-regional emission standards and prevent non-compliant firms in Beijing from shifting operations to neighbouring Hebei.

They have also vowed to implement coordinated emergency response plans during heavy smog outbreaks.

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As Trump Heads to E. Asia, Tillerson Takes More Forceful Tone Towards Beijing

STATE DEPARTMENT — 

After what U.S. officials said was several months of deliberation among President Donald Trump’s national security team, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson recently took a rather strident tone towards China in a major speech that came just weeks before Trump’s first state visit to China.

“The United States seeks constructive relations with China, but we will not shrink from China’s challenges to the rules-based order and where China subverts the sovereignty of neighboring countries and disadvantages the U.S. and our friends,” said Tillerson in a major policy speech on Oct. 18 at Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS.)

The remarks, which also hit China’s continuing reclamation in the South China Sea, are seen as a reflection of U.S. impatience that Beijing is not ceasing its aggressive actions in the South China Sea, a crucial trade route for the world’s largest economies.

“China’s provocative actions in the South China Sea directly challenge the international law and norms” that the United States stands for, added Tillerson.

The top U.S. diplomat’s forceful remarks came as Trump is getting ready to embark on his first travel to Vietnam and the Philippines, two claimants of disputed areas of the South China Sea, attending summit meetings where leaders from Southeast Asia gather.

On Monday, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai pushed back, saying Washington should not try to interfere in regional efforts to resolve disputes in the South China Sea.

In a press briefing, Cui said maybe it would be better for the U.S. to let the regional countries to “find a way of managing the situation.”

South China Sea

For years, the United States has been calling for an expeditious conclusion of an effective and binding Code of Conduct between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the South China Sea.

China has angered four Southeast Asian states by expanding its coast guard and military presence in the South China Sea, a 3.5-million-square-kilometer tract of water rich in fisheries and fuel reserves. Claims by Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines overlap that of China, which calls nearly the whole sea its own.

While the United States is not a claimant to the sovereignty over disputed islands in the South China Sea, Washington said it is vital to its national interests that various claimants pursue their claims peacefully.

With international attention focused on North Korea’s missile and nuclear threats, tensions in the South China Sea have slipped from the headline in recent months.

Harry Kazianis, director of defense studies at the Center for the National Interest in Washington, told VOA Tuesday “sadly, the South China Sea will get very little bandwidth during Trump's trip to Asia — one clear way of how China benefits form North Korea’s recent missile and nuclear advances.”

Positions to fill before trip

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is preparing to fill positions that focus on Asia policy, as the U.S. president departs for East Asia.

The Senate recently confirmed the appointment of Daniel Krintenbrink, a career diplomat, as U.S. ambassador to Vietnam.

Another highly-anticipated nomination is Randall Schriver, a well-respected China hawk, who was tapped last week for the top Asia policy job at the Pentagon. Trump announced his intent to nominate Schriver as assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific affairs.

Schriver has advocated for a strong U.S.-Japan alliance and high-level engagement with Taiwan, which he said “serves the U.S. national interests and values.” Schriver also has argued the political and security environment in East and Southeast Asia has changed a great deal since 1979, the year that Washington broke diplomatic ties with Taipei and recognized Beijing.

“Taiwan is a full-fledged democracy and willing security partner to the United States. China’s assertiveness threatens peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea,” said Schriver.

China claims democratically ruled Taiwan is part of its territory and has never renounced the use of military force to bring the island under Beijing’s control.

In a letter to Trump on Oct. 26, co-chairs of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus voiced the importance of a value-based strategic partnership with Taiwan.

“Taiwan is one of our closest allies in the region, and congressional support of Taiwan remains strong and bipartisan. Our two peoples share many of the same values, and a commitment to democracy and the rule of law,” said Republican Representative Mario Diaz-Balart, who serves in the House Committee on Appropriations along with fellow Republican Gregg Harper and Democrats Albio Sires and Gerry Connolly.

Krintenbrink named U.S. ambassador to Vietnam

Former White House National Security Council Senior Director for Asia Affairs Daniel Krintenbrink was confirmed last Thursday as U.S. ambassador to Vietnam.

Krintenbrink told Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in a nomination hearing that one of the U.S. policy priorities is to strengthen maritime security cooperation with Vietnam and to “resist coercion” in the disputed South China Sea.

Wilder, who worked at the White House National Security Council for former President George W. Bush, said it was important to have Krintenbrink confirmed before Trump’s visit there.

“The president's trip to East Asia, the longest trip to East Asia by any U.S. president that I remember, will go a long way to addressing the incorrect notion some have had that the United States is withdrawing from the region,” said Wilder, adding “the new commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific Region shows just how committed the U.S. is to this whole area of the globe.”

Mapping the U.S. strategy from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, a senior State Department official recently laid out Washington’s vision to deepen security cooperation with three other democratic allies: Japan, Australia, and India.

China, a non-democratic society, was not in U.S.’ strategic partnership in the Indo-Pacific region.

In response, Chinese Ambassador Cui said on Monday, “I don't think any attempts to form exclusive clubs in the region” would help anybody.

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High-level North Korean Defector Urges Engagement With Pyongyang

The highest-level North Korean defector to make it out of the country in 20 years says the West must use "maximum engagement" with the Kim Jong Un regime.

Thae Yong-ho is making his first visit to Washington. The former deputy chief of mission at the North Korean embassy in London defected to South Korea with his family last year.

"I decided that the best gift which I may give to my son is the freedom which is so common to everyone here," Thae told the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, on Tuesday.

"I strongly believe if we educate the North Korean population, we can change North Korea."

He said nothing can stop what he called Kim Jong Un's "reign of terror," saying Kim would use soldiers and tanks against North Korean street protesters.

He said much more can be done to spread information about the outside in the North, including the use of what young North Koreans call "nose cards" — secure digital cards small enough to smuggle inside a nostril to avoid a body search.

Thae said he believes Kim's intense need to launch missiles and build nuclear weapons came out of his own insecurities and a need to prove his legitimacy after the death of his father, Kim Jong-il.

"Whenever he watched senior leaders' attitude around him, he thought there was a little looking down upon from the senior leaders because he was the third son. A lot of the North Korean population don't know that he is the third son."

Thae says Kim has yet to publicly reveal his birth date or show childhood photos.

North Korean officials call Thae "human scum," and have accused him of numerous crimes, including embezzlement.

Thae plans to speak before a U.S. congressional committee Wednesday.

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US Democrats Want A Law to Stop Trump From Bombing North Korea

WASHINGTON — 

Democratic U.S. senators introduced a bill on Tuesday they said would prevent President Donald Trump from launching a nuclear first strike on North Korea on his own, highlighting the issue days before the Republican's first presidential trip to Asia.

The measure would stop Trump, or any U.S. president, from launching an attack on North Korea, or spending any money on a military strike, without congressional approval, unless North Korea has first attacked the United States.

Tensions between Washington and Pyongyang have been building after a series of nuclear and missile tests by North Korea and bellicose verbal exchanges between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The CIA has said North Korea could be only months away from developing the ability to hit the United States with a nuclear weapon, a scenario Trump has vowed to prevent.

"I worry that the president's enthusiasm will not be checked by the advisers around him," Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, the legislation's lead sponsor, told reporters on a conference call.

Some Republicans have also expressed concern about Trump's rhetoric, but none co-sponsored the bill, which is backed by seven Democrats and Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent.

Republicans control majorities in both the Senate and House, and there has been no indication that congressional leaders would allow a vote. Similar measures introduced earlier this year have also failed to advance.

However, backers said they might try to pass it later this year by introducing it as an amendment to legislation such as a as a must-pass spending bill.

"I have confidence that if this came to a vote on the floor of the Senate, it would prevail," Murphy said.

Lawmakers have been trying to take back more control over foreign policy from the White House.

Congress passed a bill in July barring the president from lifting sanctions on Russia without lawmakers' approval, and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Monday held a hearing on a new authorization for the use of military force, or AUMF, to exert some authority over the campaign against Islamic State and other militant groups.

At that hearing, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said Trump does not have the authority to use force against North Korea without an imminent threat, but they did not define what such a threat would be.

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White House: Trump Has 'Warm Rapport' with Philippines' Duterte

WASHINGTON — 

The White House said Tuesday that President Donald Trump has developed a “warm rapport” with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte even though the Manila leader has verbally attacked the United States in profane terms.

A senior Trump administration official, talking about details of Trump's five-nation Asia visit that starts Friday and includes a stop in Manila, said Trump and Duterte have become friendly during telephone conversations and exchanges of letters.

“I think there’s a warm rapport there and he’s very much looking forward to his first in-person meeting with President Duterte,” the official said. Their meeting is scheduled on the last stop of Trump’s 12-day trip that includes visits to Japan, South Korea, China and Vietnam.

Anti-drug campaign praised

Duterte has alleged that the U.S., despite its long-standing alliance with the Philippines, has treated it “like a dog,” and a year ago, before Trump assumed power, announced a “separation” from the U.S. The Philippine leader was angered that the administration of former President Barack Obama voiced objections to the country’s extrajudicial killings of people involved in drug transactions.

But Trump, in a May call to Duterte, praised his anti-drug campaign, saying Duterte was doing an “unbelievable job on the drug problem.”

The White House official said, “The amount of cooperation that’s taking place below the leader level, made possible by our long-standing relationship and alliance with the Philippines, is still very robust. And that expands to areas like counter-terror, all of the close people-to-people ties between the countries, and human rights as well. The president will have frank and friendly discussions in his first meeting with Mr. Duterte.”

Elsewhere on his trip, Trump is planning to advance efforts to force North Korea to end its pursuit of nuclear weapons, and pushing countries in the region to adhere to United Nations sanctions to limit trade with Pyongyang that it needs to fund its missile and nuclear tests.

No DMZ visit

But the White House official said Trump, unlike some other U.S. presidents, “is not going to visit the DMZ,” the heavily armed buffer zone between North and South Korea.

He said, “There's not enough time in his schedule. It would have had to be DMZ or Camp Humphreys,” a military base south of Seoul, the South Korean capital, to highlight the military cooperation between the U.S. and South Korea.

“No president has visited Camp Humphreys, and we thought that that made more sense in terms of its messaging, in terms of a chance to address families and troops there,” the official said.

“It’s becoming a little bit of a cliche, frankly” to visit the DMZ, the official said, noting that Vice President Mike Pence, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson all visited the buffer zone this year.

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Watchdog: Kabul's Territorial Control Dips to Lowest Level

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN — 

The government of Afghanistan's territorial control has declined to its lowest level in two years while battling a resurgent Taliban insurgency, a U.S. government watchdog revealed Tuesday.

In its quarterly report submitted to Congress, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) noted 56.8 percent of the country's 407 districts are under government control or influence as of August, 2017.

The assessment shows a 15 percent decrease in territory held by Kabul in 2015 when SIGAR began analyzing district control data.

"As of August 2017, there were 54 districts [13.3 percent] under insurgent control [13] or influence [41], an increase of nine districts over the last six months," the agency said.

Citing U.S. military assessments, it added that 11.4 percent of the country's population, or 3.7 million Afghans, now live in districts under insurgent control or influence. That's a 700,000-person increase over the last six months.

SIGAR reported that 30 percent or 122 Afghan districts are contested, and the statistic remained mostly unchanged.

"It was not clear whether these districts are at risk or if neither the insurgency nor the Afghan government exercises any significant control over these areas," it said, citing U.S. military assessments.

The Taliban also claims it captured several Afghan districts in October and has been inflicting heavy casualties on Afghan forces since launching its so-called "Mansouri" spring offensive this year. While Afghan forces lost nearly 7,000 personnel in the first 10 months of 2016, the figures reportedly are much higher this year.

The U.S. agency noted more than 60 percent of the roughly $121 billion in U.S. funding for reconstruction in Afghanistan since 2002 has gone to build up the Afghan forces. Also, the increased classification of Afghan forces' data will "hinder SIGAR's ability to publicly report on progress or failure in a key reconstruction sector."

In its latest report, SIGAR said Washington has agreed to classify data on the number of Afghan forces killed and wounded in the conflict. It quoted the U.S. military as telling the agency "the casualty data belonged to the Afghan government, and the government had requested that it be classified."

American combat casualties also are rising with the increase in U.S. troop commitment to the Afghan mission, according to SIGAR. Within the first eight months of this year, it noted, 10 American soldiers were killed and 48 were wounded. That is double the personnel killed in action when compared to the same periods in 2015 and 2016.

The embattled Afghan National Army saw a roughly 4,000-person decrease in force strength, while the Afghan National Police decreased by about 5,000

The watchdog also has reported a spike in "insider attacks" since the beginning of 2017, targeting both U.S. and Afghan forces. They are incidents involving renegade or pro-Taliban Afghan soldiers who turn their guns on colleagues or American partners.

U.S. military commanders hope President Donald Trump's new Afghan strategy that was unveiled in August will help Afghans reverse insurgent battlefield gains.

Washington has since taken on a greater combat role in Afghanistan, dropping 751 bombs against the Taliban and Islamic State in September, the highest monthly munitions since 2012, and conducting a record 2,400 airstrikes in the first nine months of 2017, according to SIGAR.

The intensified conflict also has led to a record increase in Afghan civilian casualties this year, warned the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA.

The mission documented a 52 percent increase in civilian casualties from Afghan coalition air operations in the first nine months of 2017, compared to the same period last year. More than two-thirds of these victims reportedly were women and children.

UNAMA attributed 177 or 38 percent of all civilian casualties from airstrikes to International military forces, although U.S. military disagreed with the assessment and methodology, offering instead that it had confirmed 43 civilian casualties caused by international airstrikes during this period, noted SIGAR in its report.

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Trade Union: Bangladesh Boosts Protections for Garment Workers

CHENNAI, INDIA — 

Bangladesh will extend an agreement to protect garment workers drawn up in the wake of the Rana Plaza disaster and embed it into national regulations, promising more stringent safety checks for its 4 million apparel workers, a labor union said.

Poor working conditions and low wages have long been a concern in Bangladesh's garment industry, which suffered one of the worst industrial accidents in 2013, when more than 1,100 people were killed in the collapse of the Rana Plaza complex.

The Bangladesh Accord is a legally-binding agreement between global brands and trade unions to establish a fire and safety program for the country's $28 billion a year textile industry.

The accord runs to May 2018, but the government has agreed for it to continue beyond that date until a national regulatory body is ready to take over monitoring, a trade union said Tuesday.

"A goal of the accord has always been to transition to a credible regulatory regime by the Bangladeshi government," said Christy Hoffman, Deputy General Secretary of Uni Global Union.

"The talks with the government show that it recognizes the importance of a safe ready-made garment industry, and we will continue to work with regulators to help enhance their capacity."

The new agreement was reached on Oct. 19 between brands, trade unions, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, the U.N.'s International Labour Organization and the Bangladeshi government, said a statement from the Accord.

Under the accord, more than 118,500 fire, electrical and structural hazards have been identified at 1,800 factories which supply at least 200 brands.

Boiler room inspections will be included in the program following concerns after a blast in July killed 10 workers.

"At present, we are working out how we can fund the inspections, remediation and technical expertise needed," Hoffman said.

The program will also establish safety committees on factory floors as mandated by law to ensure better monitoring of safety features, Hoffman said.

Earlier this month, trade unions welcomed a ruling allowing complaints to proceed against two global fashion brands for allegedly violating the Bangladesh Accord. The cases will be the first under the accord to be judged by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague.

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UNHCR: Several Rohingya Refugees Drown Trying to Reach Bangladesh

GENEVA — 

The U.N. refugee agency reports at least four Rohingya refugees fleeing violence in Myanmar died Tuesday morning when their boat capsized in the Bay of Bengal close to the southern shore of neighboring Bangladesh.

UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch said 42 members of six families, including men, women and children, were aboard the doomed vessel when it ran into rough seas while approaching the shore. U.N. refugee aid workers and partners on the ground reportedly rushed to the scene to provide medical aid, food, blankets and clothes to survivors.

“The boat was hit by large waves and eventually capsized, trapping people underneath. Several were injured when they hit the engine. A 15-year-old boy died on the spot. In all, 22 injured were rushed to hospitals and NGO (non-governmental organization) clinics, but three reportedly died en route,” he said.

Baloch said the remaining 19 were taken to UNHCR's transit center near Kutupalong camp.

In a separate incident, authorities in Bangladesh said three infants drowned after slipping from their mothers' laps when a boat bringing them from Myanmar reached shore.

The International Organization for Migration reports more than 607,000 Rohingya have arrived in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, since the mass exodus of refugees from Myanmar began August 25. IOM spokesman Joel Millman said new arrivals appear to be slowing, although people continue to arrive daily in the area’s makeshift settlements.

“The settlements are dangerously congested and overcrowded, and the pressure on sources of clean drinking water and basic sanitation are enormous. Having walked for days without water and food, the refugees arrive to the settlements exhausted and thirsty. Many are ill,” he said.

Millman said all the spontaneous and makeshift sites where the refugees are camped out urgently need water, sanitation and hygiene to prevent diseases from breaking out.

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Strong Quake Strikes Eastern Indonesia; No Immediate Damage

JAKARTA, INDONESIA — 

A strong undersea earthquake struck the eastern Indonesian province of Maluku on Tuesday, causing panic among residents but not triggering a tsunami. Only minor damage was reported.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude-6.3 quake was centered about 32 kilometers (20 miles) west-southwest of Hila, a town on Ambon, the main island in Maluku. It was centered about 32.4 kilometers (20 miles) under the surface.

According to the Indonesia Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency, it was the third of five quakes hitting the area in less than 30 minutes, with the weakest a magnitude-5.2. The area is about 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) northeast of Jakarta.

Subagio, an official with the agency, said the quake struck at 8:50 p.m. and caused minor damage at the Pattimura airport in Ambon.

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency said there were reports of damage to some buildings, including a shopping mall in the town. It said there were no immediate reports of casualties.

Residents contacted by phone in Ambon, the province capital, said they ran out of their homes in panic and many were still on the streets.

Indonesia is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions due to its location along the Pacific "Ring of Fire." An extremely powerful Indian Ocean quake in December 2004 set off a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries, most of them in Indonesia's Aceh province.

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South Korea, China Leaders to Meet on APEC Summit Sidelines

The leaders of South Korea and China will hold face-to-face talks next week, ending a year of diplomatic tensions over South Korea's deployment of a U.S.-built anti-missile system.

South Korea's presidential office issued a statement Tuesday saying Moon Jae-in and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping will huddle on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit taking place in Vietnam on November 10-11.

Relations between the regional superpowers turned frosty after Seoul deployed the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Defense (THAAD) system on the grounds of a former golf course in the southern city of Seongju. South Korea says THAAD is deployed to counter a possible missile strike from North Korea, but China counters that the system diminishes its own security.

Beijing retaliated against several South Korean companies operating in China, and banned large group tours from traveling to South Korea.

"The geopolitical side, the tension doesn't make for a very good, friendly environment," James Kim, a research fellow at the Seoul-based Asan Institute for Policy Studies, told VOA's Victor Beattie. "Certainly, how bilateral relations between South Korea and China goes, does contribute to other things in the region, including North Korea."

But both sides recently agreed to extend a bilateral currency swap, a further sign of apparently improving ties since President Moon and President Xi met in July.

China's Foreign Ministry confirmed next week's bilateral talks in Vietnam in a separate statement Tuesday. The ministry says it has reiterated its opposition to THAAD's deployment in South Korea, but said it took note of Seoul's position, and hopes it will deal with the issue appropriately.

_{VOA's Victor Beattie contributed to this report.}

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Suicide Blast Kills 8 in Kabul Diplomatic Zone

ISLAMABAD — 

A suicide bomber struck the diplomatic enclave in the Afghan capital Kabul, killing at least 8 people and wounding many more, health ministry officials reported.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.

Last week a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden care near the Afghan military academy in the capital city, killing 15 cadets and wounding several others. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing.

A suicide bomber during the same week stormed a crowded Shi'ite Muslim mosque in Kabul, killing around 50 worshipers. Islamic State claimed it plotted the attack.

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Vietnam Tech Startups Seek Next Phase

HO CHI MINH CITY — 

There’s a short but not-so-simple question facing Vietnam’s technology startup fans: Now, what?

The communist country was not immune to the startup craze that swept the globe, but much of the early period was spent talking about tech and all the local potential. In what could be called the next phase of the craze, Vietnam now hopes to go beyond just talking. The focus now is on getting entrepreneurs to deliver on their pitches and meet concrete benchmarks, whether that’s to turn a profit, expand overseas, or find “exits” for their businesses, such as through acquisitions.

At a basic level, Vietnam has what's needed to be a place prime for startups. Citizens have high literacy rates and math proficiency, which eases the path to creating an army of programmers for the economy. The country also has a balance that combines, on the one hand, a large consumer market on par with those of Thailand and the Philippines, and on the other hand, a lower level of development with high growth rates on par with those of Laos and Cambodia. And the low cost of things like wages and Internet plans allows people to establish companies at minimal expense.

But these are only ingredients, not, so far, action toward a modern culture of enterprise.

“Vietnam usually does copy-paste,” said Lam Tran, CEO of the startup WisePass, adding that locals should move past the model of copying a business idea from a foreign country and pasting it into the domestic market. “We don’t know how to internationalize.”

WisePass, an app that connects monthly subscribers to bar and restaurant deals, launched in Ho Chi Minh City with plans to cover seven countries in the near future.

Taking advantage of cross-border ties is one effective, increasingly popular strategy, startup aficionados say. For one thing, Vietnam has a huge postwar diaspora, known as Viet Kieu, who help connect the Southeast Asian country to investors, advisers, and developers abroad. For another, the tech scene inside the border is more cosmopolitan than ever.

To give one example, the Vietnam Innovative Startup Accelerator (VIISA) has invested in 11 companies for the second batch of what it calls “graduates.” All have domestic links, but have partners operating in locales as disparate as Ukraine, South Korea and France.

Sangyeop Kang, investment officer at VIISA partner Hanwha Investment, said he’s “delighted about the diversity” of this sophomore batch.

“The foreign teams were able to expand their business in Vietnam, while helping Vietnamese companies with global insights,” Kang said. “This is a step forward for the ecosystem."

In a sign of official interest, the government has a carve-out for startups in its Law on Supporting Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, which will take effect Jan. 1. The law offers young companies support with co-working spaces, technical equipment, intellectual property training, and low interest rates, among other things.

To do more than copy and paste, new businesses are contemplating how to outfit themselves for Vietnam. The startup But Chi Mau, for instance, makes games that tap into the unquenchable thirst for education, while MarketOi deploys motorbike drivers to let customers customize their food deliveries.

“The question is how to differentiate ourselves,” MarketOi founder Germain Blanchet said, before proceeding to answer that question: “This is with flexibility.”

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UN Names New Myanmar Resident Coordinator

YANGON, MYANMAR — 

The United Nations announced Tuesday that it has appointed a Norwegian national as an interim resident coordinator in Myanmar and resident representative for the U.N. Development Program in the country.

Knut Ostby, who has served as a U.N. resident coordinator for more than 11 years, replaces Renata Lok-Dessallien in his new role, the U.N. said in a statement.

The announcement comes after more than 600,000 minority Rohingya Muslims have been driven out from Myanmar since late August amid a brutal crackdown by military security forces in northern Rakhine state. International humanitarian assistance, the U.N. and international media have not been allowed to enter the region, amid allegations of human rights abuses.

Lok-Dessalien has been criticized both by the U.N. and other international organizations for allegedly not effectively handling the human rights concerns in Rakhine. The U.N. statement said Lok-Dessalien will take another assignment at U.N. headquarters. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was "grateful" for Lok-Dessallien's "important contribution and service" to the U.N.'s work in Myanmar.

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Thailand Revokes Passports of Ousted Prime Minister

Thailand says it has revoked the passports of ousted Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who fled the country last month before facing sentencing in connection with a botched rice subsidy program.

The Foreign Ministry says Yingluck carried two diplomatic passports and two personal ones.

Yingluck was convicted by Thailand's supreme court in September on charges of negligence and sentenced in absentia to five years in prison, as she fled Thailand before the verdict was announced.

The government lost over $1 billion in the scheme, which bought rice at above-market prices from poor farmers and aimed to resell it later at a higher price.

Yingluck has denied the charges, claiming they were politically motivated. The foreign ministry says it is believed she is living in the United Kingdom, but her exact whereabouts are unknown.

Yingluck was overthrown in 2014 in a military coup led by Prime Minister Prayuth, who was then the Commander in Chief of the Royal Thai Army. The coup capped a decade-long period of political turmoil that began when her brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, was overthrown in 2006 by the military, which backed Thailand's Bangkok-based royalist-leaning, wealthy elite.

The anti-Thaksin forces, who protested in the streets of Bangkok wearing yellow shirts, gave rise to the pro-Thaksin Red Shirts, whose ranks included the rural poor who strongly supported Thaksin's policies. The two sides engaged in violent, sometimes deadly clashes in the streets of Bangkok during that era.

Thaksin has lived in exile in Dubai since he was overthrown in the 2006 coup.

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More than Two Months After Rohingya Crisis, Arrivals in Bangladesh Continue

YANGON — 

Fleeing violence at home, Kamal Hossain left Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State two months ago. But he didn’t arrive in Bangladesh until this week.

The journey to the border involved a trek and then a wait as boatmen charged too much money.

“So we swam across the river,” he said.

More than two months after the Rohingya crisis started, following insurgent attacks on security posts and a military crackdown, members of the stateless Muslim minority are still arriving in Bangladesh.

The United Nations has called the campaign ethnic cleansing. Myanmar's government has rejected the term, even as more than two-thirds of the one million or so Rohingya with homes in Rakhine have now left.

A crackdown on ferries slowed some of the arrivals in October, which is why some – like Hossain – swam across the Naf River separating the two countries using jerrycans as buoys.

Jakaria Alfaz, a Bangladeshi journalist based in Cox’s Bazar, said he recorded at least 19 Rohingya youths crossing that way.

“They swim across in a small group with their plastic jerrycans (fuel containers). They told me that they have been starving for many days and could hardly find any shops to buy available food,” he said. “Once they reached [Bangladesh], the border guards took them into custody and sent them to government-designated camps.”

The number of people seeking haven in Bangladesh since the violence erupted on August 25 is now more than 600,000. Myanmar’s government has created a resettlement and repatriation program, but it is still new and untested.

Reasons for fleeing

Meanwhile, life in Rakhine State is anything but back to normal. The reasons for the continued outflow are varied, but stem from lack of transportation, hunger and the threat of violence.

Vivian Tan, a spokesperson for the UN refugee agency, was in southern Bangladesh this month and spoke to some of the new arrivals. She said in an email that most of them were from Buthidaung Township in northern Rakhine.

“A few say their homes were razed in late August but they stayed in relatives' villages before finally deciding to leave now,” she said. “Many others report that they received daily warnings to leave or be killed, and finally fled when their homes or neighbors' homes were razed.”

“In short, on the refugees' reasons for fleeing, I would say that it remains a combination of direct violence, fear of impending violence, and deprivations like food shortages,” she added.

Northern Rakhine has been largely closed off to journalists and aid workers since the fighting began, so independently verifying the accounts of those arriving in Bangladesh has been close to impossible.

State media reported on Sunday that the government had started to harvest abandoned fields.

More than half of the 28,000 hectares in Maungdaw Township “saw no signs of being harvested by owners,” theGlobal New Light of Myanmar reported.

Last week, the World Food Program said the government had allowed it to resume aid, but it has not started yet.

“WFP has been given the green light to resume food assistance operations in the northern part of Rakhine State and is currently coordinating with the Government to work out the details,” Silke Buhr, WFP spokesperson, said in an emailed statement on Monday.

Bangladesh has attempted to crack down on boatmen ferrying Rohingya across the river, citing extortion and trafficking risks.

Afruzul Haque Tutul, deputy police chief in Cox’s Bazar, said authorities are not allowing boats to operate to and from Myanmar, and that additional police forces have been deployed on the southern tip of Bangladesh.

“As a result of this, many desperate Rohingya now are looking for other options to flee their country and some tried to swim across the Naf River,” he said. “Some 20 Rohingyas have so far crossed the Naf River, but we do not appreciate their life-threatening swimming [attempts].”

Even for boat passengers, however, the waters have proved fatal.

At least 190 people, most of them Rohingya, have been found dead since August 25 while trying to reach Bangladesh through the river or the Bay of Bengal farther south.

Bangladeshi authorities have arrested and convicted up to 469 middlemen who have brought Rohingya refugees over by boat, usually for a cost.

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Last Remaining Group of Refugees at Australian-Run Pacific Camp Refuse to Leave

More than 600 asylum seekers are refusing to leave an Australian-run refugee detention center Tuesday, fearing they may be subjected to violence by local residents.

The detainees are holding fast to remain in the Manus Island center, located on the Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea, despite plans by officials to shut off all water and electricity to the compound by late Tuesday afternoon. Lawyers for the 600-plus men have appealed to Papua New Guinea's Supreme Court for a temporary injunction to prevent the camp from being closed.

Asylum-seekers say a group of unidentified local men have entered the camp and removed furniture and other things from the facility.

The detainees say the private security forces hired by Canberra to guard the facility have left the Manus center. PNG officials say the center will be transferred to the control of its defense forces on Wednesday, and anyone still on the grounds will be considered to be trespassing on a military base.

Under a strict immigration policy, Australia blocks asylum-seekers from the Middle East, Africa and Asia from reaching its shores by boat, sending them to Manus Island and another center on the Pacific island nation of Nauru. The policy has come under fire from the United Nations and human rights groups over the indefinite detention of the refugees, who have reportedly suffered abuse and emotional stress.

Australia scheduled the Manus camp for closure after Papua New Guinea's Supreme Court ruled last year that the detention center was unconstitutional, as it violated the detainee’s constitutional right of personal liberty.

The remaining 600 men being held have been given the option of remaining on Papua New Guinea, returning to their homeland or being resettled in a third country. Many of them are barred from accepting citizenship in Australia, even if they are granted refugee status.

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Yomiuri: Japan to Launch Crackdown on Asylum Seekers

TOKYO — 

Japan will clamp down on asylum seekers' rights to work and detain other refugee applicants, the Yomiuri daily reported on Tuesday, in a move that would put further curbs on one of the developed world's tightest refugee systems.

From as early as mid-November, Japan will only allow those it regards as bona fide refugees the right to work, leading to more than 10,000 asylum seekers a year becoming unable to work, the Yomiuri said, without citing sources.

Others, including those deemed as clearly not refugees in initial checks and multiple asylum applicants, will be held in detention centers after their permission to stay in Japan expires, the report said.

At present, asylum seekers with valid visas receive renewable permits allowing them to work in Japan while their refugee applications are reviewed - a system the government says encourages people to seek asylum in order to work.

"We are looking at policies, including this in the (Yomiuri) article. We haven't decided whether to put it into action," said Yasuhiro Hishida, a Justice Ministry official overseeing refugee recognition.

Japan accepted just three refugees in the first half of 2017 despite a record 8,561 fresh asylum applications, and only 28 in 2016. Human Rights Watch in January described the country's record on asylum seekers as "abysmal."

The world's third biggest economy has remained unwelcoming to immigration despite a shrinking, ageing population that has exacerbated the worst labor shortages in four decades and drags on an already slow economic growth.

Japan's reluctance to accept foreign workers and refugees is in contrast to the policies of other industrialized countries, and has forced labor-hungry industries including construction and manufacturing to rely on asylum seekers with work permits.

Immigration remains a controversial subject in Japan, where many pride themselves on cultural and ethnic homogeneity.

Almost six in 10 Japanese think diversity of ethnic groups, religions and races makes their country a worse place, a poll this month by the Pew Research Center showed.

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South Korea, China Agree to Normalize Relations After THAAD Fallout

SEOUL/BEIJING — 

Seoul and Beijing have agreed to work swiftly to get their relations back on track following a year-long standoff over the deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system in South Korea which hurt trade and South Korean business interests in China.

The installation of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in South Korea had angered China, which believed its powerful radar could be used to look inside its territory. South Korea and the United States have repeatedly said THAAD only serves to defend against the growing missile threat from North Korea.

"Both sides shared the view that the strengthening of exchange and cooperation between Korea and China serves their common interests and agreed to expeditiously bring exchange and cooperation in all areas back on a normal development track," South Korea's foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

South Korea's President Moon Jae-in will hold a summit meeting with China's President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of an upcoming summit of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries in Vietnam on Nov. 10-11, a Blue House official said in a separate briefing on Tuesday.

In a coordinated statement, China's foreign ministry said the two countries have agreed to get their relations back onto a normal track "at an early date."

South Korea recognizes China's concerns on the THAAD issue and made it clear that the deployment was not aimed at any third country and did not harm China's strategic security interests, China's foreign ministry said.

China reiterated its opposition to the deployment of THAAD, but took note of South Korea's position and hopes South Korea can appropriately handle the issue, it added.

South Korean companies operating in China have suffered since the spat erupted last year, although Beijing has never specifically linked its actions to the THAAD deployment.

Lotte Group, which provided the land where THAAD was installed, has suffered most. It faces a costly overhaul and is expected to sell its Chinese hypermarket stores for a fraction of what it invested.

Hopes have been growing for a thaw in the frosty bilateral ties following China's all-important Congress Party conclave, during which President Xi Jinping cemented his status as China's most powerful leader after Mao Zedong.

Earlier this month, South Korea and China agreed to renew a $56 billion currency swap agreement while Chinese airlines are reportedly planning to restore flight routes to South Korea.

As part of efforts to restore the relations, the two countries recently held high-level talks, led by Nam Gwan-pyo, deputy director of national security of the Blue House, and Kong Xuanyou, assistant foreign minister of China, leading to Tuesday's agreement.

The sides agreed to enhance strategic communication and cooperation in the face of North Korea's accelerating nuclear and missile program, the statements said.

Pyongyang has undertaken an unprecedented missile testing program in recent months, as well as its biggest nuclear test yet in early September, angering its only major ally China and drawing further sanctions from the United Nations and the United States.

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China Warns Against Attempts to Contain Beijing Before Trump Visit

China's ambassador to Washington said on Monday that U.S. President Donald Trump's state visit to Beijing next week was a historic opportunity to boost cooperation between the world's two largest economies, but warned against attempts to "contain" Beijing.

Cui Tiankai also stressed the urgency of efforts to find a negotiated solution to the crisis over North Korea's nuclear and missile programs and warned of a "more dangerous" situation if tensions between the United States and Pyongyang continued.

Cui sought to play down differences over China's massive trade surplus with the United States, saying Beijing was looking for ways to cut this and he was confident of "significant outcomes" from Trump's Nov. 8 to 9 visit on the trade and economic fronts.

Speaking after senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, outlined an Asia-Pacific strategy involving greater cooperation between Japan, India and Australia in the face of China's rise, Cui said relationships should not be seen as a "zero-sum game" at the expense of another county.

"I don't think it will really serve the interests of these countries if their aim is to sort of contain China ... I don't think anybody would be able to contain China," he said.

Cui said Washington should not try to "interfere" in regional efforts to resolve disputes in the South China Sea, a vital strategic waterway that China claims, most of which is contested by several Asian countries.

"Maybe it would be better for the U.S. to let the regional countries ... find a way a way of managing the situation."

Cui was asked about a call on Friday by a senior U.S. State Department official for revival of four-way dialogue between the United States, Japan, India and Australia to deepen security cooperation and coordinate alternatives for regional infrastructure financing to "predatory" Chinese options.

"I don't think any attempts to form exclusive clubs in the region ... would help anybody," he said. "When people are saying these things about China, they might just look into the mirror ... it might be describing themselves."

Despite the cautionary words, Cui said he was sure the summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping would be successful, following their first meeting in Florida in April.

"This is a historic opportunity," he said.

Cui reiterated China's call for Washington to return to talks, while stressing Beijing's willingness to step up pressure on Pyongyang through U.N. sanctions.

"We are ready to take up more cost and make greater efforts if there are more Security Council resolutions," he said.

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Blockchain Technology Could Unblock Southeast Asia

PHNOM PENH — 

Imagine you could swipe your phone over a piece of fish in the supermarket and instantly see secure records of its entire path through the supply chain, from the technique used by the fisherman who caught it in Indonesia to when it was shipped and how it was processed at a factory in your home country — all at the tap of a smartphone.

Trial projects such as that one are testing the potential of Blockchain technology to bring transparency to all sorts of notoriously inefficient or shadowy industries in Southeast Asia.

Blockchain, the technology that powers bitcoin, is an essentially unchangeable form of bookkeeping. It creates cryptographically chained signatures between blocks of information that are authenticated by users over a peer-to-peer distributed ledger — a public record that can be applied to any type of bookkeeping, not just cryptocurrencies.

“It removes the requirement for a centralized authority, and in a lot of the products that it’s being launched in, this centralized authority tends to be the government,” said Alisa DiCaprio, head of research at R3 — an enterprise banking software firm that uses distributed ledger technology.

In a region where the most important records — identity and ownership for instance — are often subjected to little or no external oversight, blockchain offers enormous potential benefits.

Erin Murphy, Founder and Principal of Inle Advisory Group, a Myanmar and emerging business advisory firm, said major Asian business hubs are looking to blockchain to clean up and simplify transactions.

“Ideally, we would want to see adoption of blockchain at an official level all across the region," she said in an email. "But perhaps not surprisingly, the governments that are leading blockchain adoption are those that are already low-corruption.”

One of those governments, she said, is Singapore, which is working with major banks on a blockchain-based system to streamline and qualitatively improve their customer (KYC) processes.

In other countries, it is being used for completely different purposes. In the Philippines, a remittance market worth billions of dollars per month has been invaded by firms offering cheaper services built on blockchain, which people can access without a bank account..

“Any steps that get taken at first may not be viewed through an anti-corruption lens and may inadvertently tackle that issue; it will likely be viewed through a development lens to kickstart poverty alleviation and bringing sectors up to international standards that attract foreign investment,” Murphy said.

More than money

There are many trials with clear utility in Southeast Asia underway, including systems for land titling under development in Sweden and Japan.

In June, the United Nations unveiled a blockchain-based system built in partnership with Microsoft and Accenture that gives stateless refugees a permanent identity based on biometric data.

It’s also being explored for secure voting systems.

The blockchain-based app developed to track the supply chain of fish from Indonesia — Provenance — is now the basis of many other trials, including a project to create a similar system for the garment industry.

Online you can view the results of a pilot released in May this year that follows a piece of clothing — an Alpaca Mirror Jumper from London-based designer Martine Jarlgaard, from a farm in Dulverton, Britain, through every step of production into London with location, content and timestamps.

It is a long way, though, from realizing that something can be done to actually making it happen, DiCaprio of R3 said.

“The technical capability to do this exists in most developing countries," she said. "You have engineers who can code on the blockchain. But the understanding of how to actually implement this from a business point of view is very poor."

DiCaprio estimates it will take about five years before we actually see large-scale functioning applications and believes the most impactful will occur at the macro economic level.

“So for example one area that it’s moving very quickly is trade finance," she said. "And trade finance, you’re generally talking about fairly large companies, generally in Asia mostly exporting or importing from or to the US or EU,."

Faster, cheaper and more transparent transactions combined with reductions in the risks of lending and borrowing would flow to down to the village level, she added.

Subversion vs centralization

Blockchain proponents are divided by some sharply divergent values. Some see blockchain — whose slogan is “be your own bank,” as technology that can fundamentally upend a global financial system they believe is intractably corrupt.

“There is a serious opportunity for us here to remove money out of government,” said a Southeast Asia based bitcoin trader who would only give his alias FlippingABitCoin, fearing he could expose himself to physical theft.

Billions of people currently excluded from the formal banking system will be able to access global cryptocurrencies with no middle man using nothing more than a phone, he said.

“It will level out the playing field of power,” he said.

Another group of enthusiasts are encouraging the absorption of this technology by states, as demonstrated by Canada, Singapore, China and Germany, all of which are either exploring or conducting trials of their own central bank digital currencies using blockchain.

“In the long run, we believe if there is any threat at all to governments, it is that other governments will lead the way in adopting blockchain technologies in producing low-corruption, high-transparency, highly-secure digitized economic infrastructures that will attract business, investment and stakeholder confidence,” wrote Michael Hsieh, a non-resident affiliate at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, in an email.

“The societies who lead in the great fintech [financial technology] innovation race of the 21st century will siphon all the capital and productivity from those that lag,” he wrote.

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As Militant Threats Shift, US Senate Revives War Authorization Debate

WASHINGTON — 

U.S. lawmakers will grill top Trump administration officials on Monday about a new authorization for the use of military force in the campaign against Islamic State and other militant groups, Congress' most significant step in years toward taking back control of its constitutional right to authorize war.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis will testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at a hearing on the administration's view of a new Authorization for the Use of Military Force, known by the acronym AUMF.

Republican and Democratic members of Congress have been arguing for years that Congress ceded too much authority over the deployment of U.S. forces to the White House after the September 11, 2001, attacks. They are also divided over how much control they should exert over the Pentagon. Repeated efforts to write and pass a new AUMF have failed.

"As we face a wide array of threats abroad, it is perhaps more important than ever that we have a sober national conversation about Congress’ constitutional role in authorizing the use of military force," Republican Bob Corker, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement.

Under the Constitution, Congress, not the president, has the right to declare war.

Concerns intensified this month after four U.S. soldiers were killed in Niger and previously over President Donald Trump's talk about North Korea and an attack on an airfield in Syria.

"What's happening in Niger and more broadly in Africa suggests a greater urgency for an AUMF," Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, a leading advocate for a new authorization, said on Thursday after a classified briefing on Niger.

Republican Senator John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the chamber's most famous war veteran, had said he might consider issuing a subpoena because the White House had not been forthcoming with details of the Niger attack and threatened to block Trump nominees. McCain has since said he is pleased with the information he is receiving and would let nominations go ahead.

Congress has not passed an AUMF since the 2002 measure authorizing the Iraq War. But the legal justification for most military action for the past 15 years is the older September 2001 AUMF, for the campaign against al-Qaida and affiliates.

Backers of a new AUMF say the 2001 authorization, which was not limited by time or geography, has let presidents wage war wherever they like, without spelling out any strategy for Congress, or the public.

For example, Islamic State did not exist when the 2001 AUMF was passed.

Trump's fellow Republicans control majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives but there are deep divisions over any possible new authorization within the party, as well as between Republicans and Democrats.

Many Republicans, like McCain and Senator Lindsey Graham, do not want a measure exerting too much control over the Pentagon and say military commanders should decide how to fight America's enemies.

Many Democrats say they want an AUMF that limits why, where and for how long U.S. forces can be sent to fight.

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Pakistan, US Divided on How to Initiate Afghan Peace Talks

ISLAMABAD — 

Pakistan has cautioned the United States that "cooperation," not "coercion," is the way forward for the two countries to find a politically negotiated end to an increasingly deadly war in Afghanistan.

The message was conveyed to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson when he undertook his inaugural visit to Islamabad last Tuesday for detailed talks, led by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, with civilian and military leaders, say Pakistani officials.

The discussions focused on regional counterterrorism efforts and promoting peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

During his four-hour stay in Pakistan, Tillerson also went into a “one-on-one” meeting with General Qamar Javed Bajwa, the chief of the military institution accused of covertly maintaining ties and sheltering Taliban leaders. Tillerson also called for Pakistan to take action against terrorists on its soil. “If Pakistan fails to act against terrorists, the U.S. will get it done in a different way," he said.

Army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor, while speaking to VOA Monday, described Bajwa’s discussions with Tillerson as "candid, frank and without mincing words."

Peace process

The army chief reiterated that “cooperation will take us forward; confrontation or coercion will not,” Ghafoor said. Pakistan re-emphasized that it supports an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process and believes “reconciliation” is the way forward to end the war.

“We have done our part [on our side of the border] and shall continue to contribute toward enduring peace and stability in the region, keeping Pakistan’s interest supreme,” said the army spokesman. Pakistan denies allegations of havens on its soil, saying its security forces have cleared the country of militants.

Other stakeholders, said Ghafoor, also need to adopt a “methodology” which encourages progress for peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan. He did not elaborate.

Officials in Pakistan say U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is also relying on its military might, like its predecessor did, to pressure the Taliban to come to the negotiating table, despite knowing the policy has not worked during the past 16 years.

Trump, in his recently unveiled Afghan strategy, authorized deployment of several thousand U.S. troops and more use of American military power in support of Afghan forces' operations against the Taliban.

"They [the United States] do want to go for reconciliation but they need to review their current strategy for achieving results,” said a Pakistani government official while speaking to VOA on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

The official added that the Afghan government also needs to do "a lot" in terms of creating conditions to encourage the Taliban to engage in a peace process.

Pakistani officials maintain Kabul and Washington need to offer the Taliban a peace dialogue first and that the Qatar-based political office of the insurgents could be utilized for that purpose. It may help, they say, to separate those Taliban leaders who are in favor of talks from those who oppose reconciliation and, eventually, it will justify military operations against “irreconcilables.”

Officials acknowledge that Islamabad and Washington continue to hold widely divergent views on how to kickstart an Afghan peace process and last week’s discussions did not bring the two sides closer on the issue.

Growing regional influence

Pakistan also points to the Taliban's growing contacts with countries like Russia, China and Iran, saying these countries are now better placed than Islamabad to influence the insurgents to engage in peace talks with the Afghan government.

Islamabad's influence over the Taliban is "often overestimated" in Washington," according to a Pakistani Foreign Ministry official who also spoke to VOA on condition of anonymity.

In his post-Pakistan visit comments, Tillerson said the United States is in contact with the Taliban through “back channels” and the Doha office, saying there is a role for the insurgent group in the Afghan government.

“Please come. Please come and take up your role, but you must come on the condition that you renounce terrorism, you renounce violent extremism, and you will never take up those efforts again,” Tillerson said while speaking to reporters Friday in Geneva.

He went on to say the Afghan government has a special responsibility to create the conditions to invite the Taliban to the negotiating table.

The Taliban has long maintained it will not engage in any peace talks until all American and NATO forces leave Afghanistan and allow Afghans to determine a political reconciliation process.

The insurgency has extended its control to more than 40 percent of Afghanistan since international combat troops left the country in 2014 and it continues to make battlefield gains.

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Questions, Anger After Young Russian Model Dies in China

BEIJING — 

A Chinese modeling agency that hired a 14-year-old Russian girl is denying media reports that a "slave contract" contributed to the teen's sudden death.

The exact circumstances of Vlada Dzyuba's death last week are still murky, and there are conflicting accounts from Russia and China. But media reports say there are concerns in Russia about working conditions in China for a growing number of young models being recruited to work in the country's booming fashion industry.

The Siberian Times newspaper, without clearly noting its sources, reported that the girl died after falling into a coma after working a 13-hour day. That would violate a Russian law that says underage models can't work more than three hours a week.

The paper said Dzyuba's mother, Oksana, told NTV: "She was calling me, saying, 'Mama, I am so tired. I so much want to sleep.' It must have been the very beginning of the illness." It ran the story under a headline reading "Fears over exploitation of Russian models sent on 'slave labor contracts' without parents to care for them."

An incomplete hospital record provided by the Chinese agency that hired Dzyuba, ESEE Model, listed multiple causes of death, including sepsis. The document couldn't be independently verified.

Zheng Yi, the founder of ESEE Model, strongly denied reports that Dzyuba was on a "slave contract."

"There is no coercive clause in this contract," he said in an interview, adding that the three-month contract didn't mention working hours.

Zheng said Dzyuba worked about the same amount of time as other models, usually between two to eight hours a day, and only twice during her 60 days in China did she work 10 hours in a day. Zheng said she had 16 events, with about 20 days of total work.

"Modeling work is not manual labor after all, just shows and photo shoots and making poses, and there are breaks," he said.

"We provide underage models with more care," Zheng said. "If they feel stressed, we will communicate with them."

ESSE Model issued a statement that said Dzyuba became sick while working on a photo shoot in Yiwu, about 300 kilometers (186 miles) south of Shanghai, on Oct. 24. The agency said that after returning to her hotel she "began to vomit and felt dizzy during the night."

The agency said it halted the next day's work, and sent Dzyuba back to Shanghai on Oct. 25. She went to her apartment, but because of the "continuous bad condition of her body" she was taken to an emergency room that night, the statement said. On Oct.26, her condition worsened and she was transferred to the intensive care unit. She died the next morning.

Michelle Chien, the public relations director at ESEE, said that because modeling is considered cultural work and an "exceptional industry... [the] laws in China have no direct regulations, [so] it's OK to recruit minors."

Zheng said his company has about 50 foreign models, only about two of whom are under age 16. Chien said about half of them were from Russia, with most coming on three-month contracts.

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India's New Afghan Trade Route Via Iran, Bypasses Pakistan

NEW DELHI — 

Opening a new trade route to Afghanistan that bypasses Pakistan, India has dispatched its first consignment of wheat to the war torn country via the Iranian port of Chabahar.

The strategic sea route is a significant step in bolstering trade with Kabul that has been hampered because rival Pakistan does not allow India to transport goods to Afghanistan through its territory.

After the shipment was seen off by Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Afghan counterpart Salahuddin Rabbani via a joint video conference Sunday, the Indian government called it a “landmark moment.”

In the coming months, six more consignments of wheat totaling 1.1. million tons will be sent from India’s western port of Kandla to Chabahar. From the Iranian port it will be taken by road to Kabul.

The shipment comes days after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, on a visit to New Delhi, allayed concerns that the Trump administration’s tough stand on Iran could pose a fresh stumbling block to India’s plans to develop the strategic Iranian port as a regional transit hub.

Easier connectivity to Afghanistan is key for India to step up its economic engagement with Kabul, which Washington has called for as part of its new policy to stabilize the war torn country.

And Chabahar port, in which India is investing $500 million to build new terminals, cargo berths and connecting road and rail lines, is the centerpiece of the strategy to improve linkages not just with Afghanistan, but also to resource-rich Central Asian republics.

“This is the first time that we are getting into Afghanistan through a route different than what traditional routes have been,” said South Asia expert Sukh Deo Muni at New Delhi’s Institute of Defense Studies and Analyses.

Indian leaders expressed optimism about the project, which is still a work in progress. Minister Swaraj called it the starting point of a journey that would spur the unhindered flow of commerce and trade throughout the region. Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted the launch of the trade route, "marks a new chapter in regional cooperation & connectivity."

The sea route via the Iranian port is the second step taken by India to increase connectivity with Kabul. In June it opened an air freight corridor to provide greater access for Afghan goods to the Indian market.

The Chabahar port is seen as India’s answer to the Gwadar port in Pakistan being developed by China.

The project was conceived almost 15 years ago, but the plans were stalled for years due to U.S. led international sanctions on Iran. Their easing prompted India to sign a trilateral pact with Iran and Afghanistan last year to develop the port.

U.S. Secretary of State Tillerson indicated in New Delhi last week that fresh sanctions on Iran by the Trump administration would not pose a stumbling block to those plans.

“It is not our objective to harm the Iranian people, nor is it our objective to interfere with legitimate business activities that are going on with other businesses, whether they be from Europe, India or agreements that are in place that promote economic development and activity to the benefit of our friends and allies as well. We think there is no contradiction within that policy,” he told reporters in India.

Those words have been welcomed in New Delhi said analyst Muni. “I think there is a far more reassuring feeling in India vis-a-vis the Trump administration than what the initial thought was,” he said.

The shortest and most cost effective land routes between India and Afghanistan lie through Pakistan. However, due to longstanding rivalries between the two countries, India is not allowed to send any exports through Pakistani territory and Afghanistan is only allowed to send a limited amount of perishable goods through Pakistani territory to India.

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Taliban Claims US Hostage Health Deteriorating

ISLAMABAD — 

Afghanistan's Taliban claims the health condition of an American hostage, Kevin King, is rapidly deteriorating and he urgently needs better medical care.

The 60-year-old King and his Australian colleague, Timothy Weeks, 48, were teaching at Kabul's American University of Afghanistan (AUAF) before they were kidnapped at gunpoint near the campus in August 2016.

The Islamist insurgency later claimed responsibility and demanded release of Taliban prisoners held by both the Americans and Afghans.

Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said Monday King has been suffering from “dangerous heart and kidney diseases” and requires urgent medical treatment.

“We have periodically tried to treat and care for him but since we are facing war conditions and do not readily have access to health facilities therefore we are unable to deliver complete treatment,” Mujahid asserted.

His feet have begun swelling, he frequently losses consciousness and his health is deteriorating rapidly, said the spokesman.

Taliban demands

Mujahid urged the United States to urgently accept Taliban demands to secure the release of the two hostages.

“Since the American side does not care about the life and death of its nationals hence we are warning them to accept the demands of the Islamic Emirate [the Taliban] presented for the freedom of these two detainees and secure their release,” the spokesman added.

If King’s illness becomes “incurable or he loses his life” the Taliban will not be held responsible, Mujahid warned.

It was not possible to seek independent verification of the claims made by the Taliban.

AUAF swiftly released a statement in response to the Taliban’s announcement, saying its board of trustees, students, staff and faculty “are deeply saddened and disturbed to receive the news about the deteriorating health condition of King and his colleague."

It again urged the Taliban kidnappers to immediately release the hostages unharmed.

“They are innocent victims of a criminal abduction. They came to Afghanistan to teach Afghan youth and contribute to building a peaceful Afghanistan. They have done no harm to anyone,” noted the statement.

“Kevin, we are immensely sad to hear about your health situation. Please know that you and Tim remain in our thoughts and prayers. We will not stop trying to work for your release. We urge your kidnappers to release you at once.”

Video messages

The insurgents released two video messages from the hostages this year. In the last message in June, both men urged U.S. President Donald Trump and the Australian Prime Minister to negotiate their freedom with the Taliban.

King and Weeks looked haggard in the video and said the Taliban wants freedom for its “soldiers” being held at the U.S.-run Bagram air base and the Afghan prison called Pul-e-Charkhi in return for their freedom.

U.S. officials, while responding to the video at the time, said the administration was committed to seeing its citizens returned safely to their families and the department worked closely with agencies across the government to do so.

“We continue to call for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages. Taking and holding civilian hostages is reprehensible and we condemn such actions in the strongest terms,” they maintained.

The two hostages are believed to be in the custody of the notorious Haqqani network, an ally of the Taliban. One of the prisoners the insurgents are demanding to be freed is Annas Haqqani who is on death row in an Afghan prison.

He is the youngest son of the founder of the Haqqani network, Jalaluddin Haqqani.

Other hostages rescued

Earlier this month, Pakistani security forces acting on an a tip from U.S. intelligence rescued American citizen Caitlan Coleman, 31, and her Canadian husband, Joshua Boyle, along with their three children from the custody of Haqqanis.

The rescue operation was launched hours after the family was transported into Pakistan from the Afghan side, according to Pakistani and U.S. officials.

The U.S. CIA chief in a public talk later claimed Haqqanis held the hostages in Pakistan since they were kidnapped in 2012 from the volatile Afghan province of Wardak.

But in a recent interview to a Canadian newspaper, Coleman disputed Pakistani and U.S. statements, saying the family was brought to the Pakistani side of the porous border more than a year ago.

Caitlan was pregnant and was backpacking with her husband in Wardak when they went missing. The Taliban later claimed responsibility and demanded release of prisoners for freeing the westerners. Caitlan gave birth to four children in custody, but the family said their fourth child was killed by their Haqqani captors and their mother was also raped.

The Taliban denied the charges, saying Caitlan suffered a miscarriage due to lack of facilities in captivity and declared rape charges as baseless and an attempt to defame the Islamist insurgency.

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Ship With Sailors Rescued at Sea Reaches US Base in Okinawa

WHITE BEACH NAVAL FACILITY, JAPAN — 

Two women from Hawaii who were adrift on a storm-battered sailboat in the Pacific for months set foot on solid ground Monday at a U.S. Naval base in southern Japan.

The USS Ashland rescued Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava and their two dogs about 1,450 kilometers (900 miles) southeast of Japan, and brought them to America's White Beach Naval Facility after waiting for a typhoon to pass.

The two women, sporting USS Ashland knit shirts, were standing with the commanding officer and others high on the bridgeway as the ship docked. They later spoke to reporters on the flight deck before clearing customs and walking down metal stairs to the dock.

They had left Honolulu on May 3 aboard Appel's 15-meter (50-foot) vessel, the Sea Nymph, for what was supposed to be an 18-day trip to Tahiti. Storms flooded the engine, destroying the starter, and damaged the mast so badly that they couldn't generate enough wind power to stay on course, they said.

The two women tried to return and at one point in June were within 1,345 kilometers (726 nautical miles) of Oahu but couldn't make it, Appel said.

"We knew we weren't going to make it," she said. "So that's when we started making distress calls. We were hoping that one of our friends who likes to go deep sea fishing and taking people out might have gone past the 400-mile mark and might have cruised near where we would be."

The women said they drifted aimlessly and sent unanswered distress calls for 98 consecutive days.

They were thousands of miles in the wrong direction when a Taiwanese fishing vessel found them. Towing the sailboat damaged it further, but Appel said she paddled over to the Taiwanese vessel on a surfboard and made a mayday call. The Ashland, which happened to be in the area to avoid a storm, traveled (160 kilometers) 100 miles and found them the next day, said the ship's commanding officer, Cmdr. Steven Wasson.

The women said they ran out of food for the dogs and began sharing their own, leaving their food supply 90 percent depleted by the time they were rescued.

On Wednesday, the USS Ashland picked up the women and the dogs, Zeus and Valentine, all four looking remarkably fit for having been lost at sea for nearly six months.

Appel told reporters on Friday that they were beginning to believe they were completely out of luck when they saw the U.S. Navy ship chugging toward them.

"When I saw the gray ship on the horizon, I was just shaking," she said then. "I was ready to cry, I was so happy. I knew we were going to live."

The Navy sent a six-person crew on a small boat over to the sailboat. Wasson said they determined "there were just too many things that needed to be solidified to make that vessel seaworthy again ... so that's why we brought them on board."

His ship, which transports and deploys amphibious landing craft, wasn't equipped to bring the sailboat back, so it was abandoned at sea. The two women still hope it will be found and they can repair it. If not, Appel said they want to build an "unsinkable and unbreakable boat" and set out for Tahiti again.

"We still never got to see the 20,000 islands, so I think that would be the most fantastic trip for May of next spring," she said.

Although Appel has been sailing the Hawaiian islands for 10 years and spent two years preparing for this voyage, she acknowledged that she and Fuiava, a novice sailor, may not have prepared as well as they could have.

Appel earlier credited their survival in part to the veteran sailors in Hawaii who had warned them to prepare well for their journey.

"They said pack every square inch of your boat with food, and if you think you need a month, pack six months, because you have no idea what could possibly happen out there," she said. "And the sailors in Honolulu really gave us good advice. We're here."

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New Indonesian Anti-Communists Seek Elusive Enemies

JAKARTA, INDONESIA — 

Rahmat Himran was 10 years old when the Suharto military dictatorship fell in Indonesia in 1998. He hadn’t even been born when the Indonesian Communist Party, or PKI, was outlawed in 1966 after a military-led massacre of between 500,000 and one million suspected Communists and leftists. But he still insists that Communists are “everywhere” today, and he has dedicated his life to anti-Communist activism.

“My parents were almost killed by Communists in my hometown of Manado in the 1960’s,” he claimed, speaking at the Al-Fatah Mosque in Central Jakarta. “But they survived. And that has shaped my whole life.” He studied the history of the Communist Party in college and subsequently moved to Jakarta in 2010 to join the Indonesian Islamic Youth Movement (GPII). That year, he also founded the Anti-Communist Youth Movement (GEPAK) with 20 members — he now claims it has 3000.

“I had to found a new organization [beyond GPII, which was founded in 1945] because the ideology of Communism in Indonesia had begun to flourish and bloom again,” he said.

Rahmat is part of a new generation taking up the torch of anti-Communism in Indonesia, showing the depth at which that sentiment is lodged in some pockets of the national psyche, five decades after the movement and its suspected sympathizers were violently quashed. He was a key organizer of violent protests in Jakarta against events related to the 1965 massacre, which attracted both Islamic groups like the hardline Islamic Defenders Front and latter-day anti-Communists like the Anti-Communist Students and Youth Alliance.

A niche but vocal movement

The fear of Communism is once again making headlines in Indonesia, even if no one is really sure what it means and even its most passionate acolytes can rarely point to a Communist whom they know in the flesh.

“No, I don’t know any Communists personally, but there is clear proof that they are still around if you look at social media,” said one preacher at Al-Fatah, who came to deliver an anti-PKI sermon last month.

According to many analysts, anti-Communism is being driven by an antsy military in advance of the 2019 presidential election. And a recent poll shows that only a small minority of Indonesians believe the Communist Party is actually resurgent. But that minority includes young activists like Rahmat and Nanang Qosim, another GPII leader.

“I think these groups [like GPII and GEPAK] are guided by the army,” said Reza Muharam, of the International People’s Tribunal on the 1965 mass killings. “And among the troops the issues of an ‘Indonesian Communist Party revival’ or the latent danger of Communism are discussed quite widely. Many are consumed by their own propaganda.

So it could be that the group also genuinely believes in the rise of the Communist Party… it’s a bit absurd, whatever it is.”

Confluence of interests

A recent screening of a lurid Suharto-era propaganda film called “The Treachery of the 30 September Movement/ Indonesian Communist Party at Al-Fatah” mosque, GPII's headquarters, was the perfect encapsulation of several confluent factors in the modern anti-Communist movement. The four-hour long propaganda relic used to be mandatory viewing for all Indonesian schoolchildren but experienced a cottage revival this year when military chief General Gatot Nurmantyo directed the military to screen it across the country.

Anti-Communist fears predictably crest each year around September 30, the date of the failed coup that the military used as pretext to launch its mass killings in 1965.

The Al-Fatah screening a day before the anniversary was a raucous affair, with over a hundred attendees, from babies to senior citizens born before Indonesian independence. Despite the film’s nearly four-hour-long runtime, they watched, or in most cases, re-watched, the film with relish, passing around snacks, clapping, and shouting “merdeka!” — independence!

“Communism means the disintegration of our nation,” said Gunawan Albima, a university student and young civic activist, during nearly two hours of such speeches before the film was screened. “To resist it with all our effort… is the work of democracy.”

That all this was transpiring inside a mosque was no coincidence. Anti-Communist and Islamist groups today in Indonesia have an easy rapport and overlapping membership. Rahmat addressed one press release about an anti-Communist march at the Tugu Tani monument in Central Jakarta, to “all Islamic organizations… and all anti-Communists activists across Indonesia.”

“Anti-Communism involves raising awareness for the younger generation about history and law in Indonesia, which was designed in accordance with Islamic values,” he later said of the fused movements.

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Southeast Asian Leaders to Go Soft on China Over Disputed Sea This Year

TAIPEI, TAIWAN — 

China and a powerful bloc of countries in Southeast Asia are likely to touch on a deep maritime dispute when their heads of state meet next month, but analysts say it will be without language that would offend an increasingly respected Beijing.

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will meet Chinese officials Nov. 10-14 in Manila at meetings chaired by the Philippines – a friend of Beijing over the past year – and per convention aimed at building consensus rather than airing differences.

Analysts expect statements from the meetings to note this dispute over sovereignty in the South China Sea, Asia's stickiest maritime issue, without pointing fingers.

“I think it would be mentioned, but it would be very general language calling on all sides to exercises restraints,” said Oh Ei Sun, international studies instructor at Singapore Nanyang University.

Since 2010 Beijing has angered four Southeast Asian countries by expanding its coast guard and military presence in the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea that’s valued for fisheries and fuel reserves. Exclusive economic zones of ASEAN members Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines overlap with China’s claim to more than 90 percent of the sea.

One reason for lack of barbs next month would be a deal in the works after years of failed cooperation efforts. Foreign ministers from China and ASEAN agreed in August to a framework code of conduct that would sidestep sovereignty issues to focus on avoiding mishaps at sea.

The code had been stuck for half a decade largely due to China’s resistance. Then China’s occupation of a disputed shoal in 2012 prompted the Philippines to seek world court arbitration. Since the court’s verdict of July 2016 against the legal basis for Chinese maritime claims, Beijing has sought to get along better with individual Southeast Asian states in part by offering largess from its massive economy.

ASEAN and China are expected to dive into the substance of the code of conduct next year.

Chance to reach a real deal

China historically avoids negotiations with blocs of countries, which compromise its bargaining power. ASEAN’s combined population is 630 million and many member nations enjoy U.S. military support.

China prefers to call the code of conduct talks “consultations” or “discussions” to avoid the more formal sounding term “negotiations,” said Carl Thayer, Southeast Asia-specialized emeritus professor at The University of New South Wales in Australia. Beijing also put a condition on the framework that lets it back out, he said.

China may be urging ASEAN not to let the United States or any other outside power get involved in the dispute while code-of-conduct talks proceed, Thayer said.

“The Chinese statement had this little caveat ‘as long as conditions are permitting,’ meaning that if the U.S. does something provocative they (China) could not do it and that was a way of putting pressure on ASEAN to tell the U.S. to keep quiet,” he said.

But experts say ASEAN and China must acknowledge the maritime dispute next month.

"ASEAN always touches on the South China Sea,” Thayer said. “It’s a creature of habit. They welcome progress.”

Economic ties already improved

Vietnam and the Philippines, once the “most aggressive states” among the Southeast Asian maritime claimants, had already mellowed their stances toward China since the world court verdict, said Nathan Liu, international affairs professor at Ming Chuan University in Taiwan.

Last year, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte made a friendly visit to Beijing and received Chinese pledges of $24 billion in development-related aid.

Vietnam, though it still scuffles with China over undersea oil exploration sites, pledged with the other side in May to boost maritime cooperation, according to China’s official Xinhua News Agency. The pledge followed Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang’s meeting in China with the host's Premier Le Keqiang.

Brunei and Malaysia, which had prized economic ties with China even before the world court arbitration, seldom publicize views on Beijing’s maritime activities.

“The South China Sea issue is already gone,” Liu said. “The Philippines and Vietnam are the two most aggressive claimant states. Obviously no other country can say anything about that.”

China had caught the attention of the other countries since 2010 by reclaiming land to build artificial islands, some apparently for military use. Passage of Chinese coast guard ships and deployment of oil rigs have further worried the Southeast Asian countries.

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US, ROK, Japan Call on North Korea to Refrain From Irresponsible Provocations

WASHINGTON — 

Senior defense officials from the United States, South Korea and Japan met to discuss North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.

The Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, hosted his counterparts - General Kyeong-doo Jeong of South Korea and Japanese Admiral Katsutoshi Kawano - at the U.S. Pacific Command headquarters in Hawaii Sunday.

"Together they called upon North Korea to refrain from irresponsible provocations that aggravate regional tensions, and to walk away from its destructive and reckless path of development," Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Public Affairs Office said in a statement.

The three leaders also discussed multilateral and trilateral initiatives to promote long-term peace and stability in northeast Asia and to improve interoperability and readiness on a number of issues including mutual security, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, and cyber warfare.

Monday South Korea's foreign ministry announced that its representative to the six-party nuclear talks will meet with his Chinese counterpart in Beijing Tuesday to exchange analyses on the current North Korean situation.

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Philippines' Duterte Says to Deal with Trump in 'Most Righteous Way'

MANILA — 

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Sunday he would deal with U.S. President Donald Trump "in the most righteous way" when they meet next month to discuss regional security and Manila's war on drugs.

Trump will travel to Asia on Nov. 3-14 amid rising tensions over North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.

He will be in Manila on the last leg of his trip, which includes visits to Japan, South Korea, China, and Vietnam, to attend the ASEAN leaders' summit.

Trump will meet with Duterte but will skip the larger meeting in Manila with heads of states and governments from China, South Korea, Japan, India, Australia and New Zealand.

"It would be terrorism, cooperation between the two countries, the fight against drugs. I expect to be dealing with him around these topics," Duterte said in a media briefing before leaving for Japan to meet Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

"I would deal with President Trump in the most righteous way, welcome him as an important leader," he said. "I would have to also listen to him, what he has to say."

Duterte is known for his often profanity-laden tirades against the United States, chiding Washington for treating the Philippines "like a dog," despite the two nations' longstanding relationship.

The Philippines' leader announced his "separation" from the United States during a visit to Beijing a year ago, declaring he had realigned with China as the two agreed to resolve their South China Sea dispute through talks.

Duterte was infuriated by expressions of concern by members of former President Barack Obama's administration about extrajudicial killings in the Philippines.

But Trump, in a phone call to Duterte in May, praised the Philippine leader for doing an "unbelievable job on the drug problem" despite human rights groups' condemnation of Duterte's drug crackdown, in which thousands of people have been killed.

Human rights, rule of law and due process are among "important developments" the two leaders would likely discuss during their bilateral talks, Sung Kim, U.S. ambassador to Manila, told foreign correspondents last week.

Duterte is accused by international human rights groups of supporting a campaign of extrajudicial killings of drug suspects in the Philippines, which his government denies.

He defended his 16-month-old campaign last week, telling Southeast Asian lawyers at a gathering in Manila that he had been "demonized" and denying allegations of state-sponsored killings of drug dealers and users.

Duterte, speaking in Davao City on Sunday night, said the situation in the Korean Peninsula would be the main agenda item in his talks with Trump.

"We are worried. If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong," he said. "A nuclear war is totally unacceptable to everybody."

Duterte said it would be good if the United States, Japan and South Korea would sit down and talk to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and "tell him that nobody's threatening him, that there would be no war, and that if you can just tone down or stand down, stop the threats, and that would be the same for America."

Duterte previously described Kim as a "fool" and "son of a [expletive]" for "playing with dangerous toys."

Duterte said the North Korea threats would also be discussed during his meeting with Abe, along with Tokyo's assistance to rebuild the conflict-torn Marawi City in southern Philippines and for Manila's infrastructure projects.

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