APAC Insider

Looks like Indian officials are still trying to tamp down some of the more fiery media speculation over the ongoing border dispute with China. As I mentioned last week, the Dalai Lama’s visit to the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh is expected to st

An interesting spat developing between Thailand and Cambodia took another twist today with Thailand announcing it was recalling its ambassador from neighbouring Cambodia.The recall follows the announcement this week that former Thai Prime Minister Th

Our Japan correspondent, Takehiko Kambayashi, tells me the country’s electoral rules are finally being dragged into the 21st (or at least 20th) century. Despite its tech-savvy image, a long-standing law has until now been interpreted to mean tha

China’s somewhat schizophrenic diplomatic PR efforts took an interesting turn yesterday when a top military commander indicated for the first time publicly that the country planned to put weapons in space.The comments came as China prepares for a maj

US President Barack Obama’s Afghanistan strategy was further complicated over the weekend by the decision of Abdullah Abdullah–Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s challenger in the presidential run-off election–to withdraw from the contest.The decision

The news today that Malaysian authorities have seized more than 15,000 bibles in recent months again highlights some of the simmering religious tensions in the country, with many from minority faiths arguing the government is pandering to the Muslim

Recent chilly relations between China-India are set to be taken a degree or two cooler, our India correspondent Madhav Nalapat tells me.The problem is an impending visit by the Dalai Lama, who is set to spend much of November in India’s Arunachal Pra

Understandable gloom all round today after a major bomb blast at a market in Peshawar in Pakistan yesterday. The blast, which came as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was visiting Islamabad, claimed more than 100 lives, and has sparked renewed w

According to reports yesterday, a Korean farmer has just defected north of the border. Yes, that’s right-north. The BBC says the report by North Korea’s state news agency has yet to be confirmed by South Korean authorities, who are now looking into i

Yukio Hatoyama delivered his first policy speech to the Diet as Japanese prime minister yesterday, marking the official start of parliamentary business for the recently elected Democratic Party of Japan.  The speech was big on rhetoric and

East Asian leaders met in Thailand over the weekend to discuss regional issues including free trade, human rights and further integration. These kinds of meetings are often (and, it has to be said, sometimes fairly) dismissed as talking shops. But th

I managed to catch up by e-mail last night with our Pakistan correspondent, Mustafa Qadri, who’s been trying to find a way into the Waziristan region to cover the big military offensive by Pakistani forces that started last weekend. He says he hasn’t