Voting to proceed at Hong Kong overseas polling station amid Typhoon Saola - CNA

SINGAPORE: Voting for Singapore's Presidential Election will proceed at the overseas polling station in Hong Kong, despite the warning signal issued by the city's weather authority as Super Typhoon Saola draws closer.

The Elections Department (ELD) said on Friday (Sep 1) morning that it is aware that the Hong Kong Observatory issued a Tropical Cyclone Warning Signal No 8 for the typhoon, its third-highest, which identifies it as a gale or storm.

Under this signal, members of the public are advised to complete all precautions in their homes, locking all windows and doors and inserting reinforced shutters and gates if they are available.

Cars should be parked in a safe place and people should avoid standing near windows on the exposed side of their homes.

Flights may also be affected by the weather.

Hong Kong Observatory also warned that the weather will "deteriorate rapidly" later on Friday, with heavy squally showers and violent winds expected. It added that it will assess the need to issue higher warning signals around the evening.

Voting at the polling station will open from 8am local time.

"Voters are also advised to vote early to avoid overcrowding, which might occur near to the closing of the poll at 8pm," ELD said.

"For their safety, voters should closely monitor the latest advice from the local authorities before planning to head outdoors."

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2023-09-01 00:33:00Z
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Super Typhoon Saola hurtles towards southern China, Hong Kong - CNA

HONG KONG: China issued its highest typhoon warning on Thursday (Aug 31) as Super Typhoon Saola drew closer to Hong Kong and the mainland's southern coast, with several cities delaying the start of the school year as a precaution.

Saola's wind speeds topped 200kmh by 6pm on Thursday, with the storm around 370km southeast of the Chinese finance hub, according to the Hong Kong Observatory.

It will bring "heavy squally showers and violent winds" on Friday, the observatory said, adding that the threat level was expected to be upgraded to "T8" - the city's third-highest - early in the morning.

On the mainland, China issued the most severe warning in its four-tiered system, with the National Meteorological Centre predicting the typhoon would make landfall "somewhere in the coastal areas stretching from Huilai to Hong Kong" by Friday afternoon at the earliest.

But there was also a possibility it could move west and "pass through the waters of eastern Guangdong without making landfall".

Train services have been suspended across Guangdong, state news agency Xinhua said, while various cities in the southern province - including Shantou, Shanwei, Jieyang and Chaozhou - have pushed the start of the academic year to Monday.

Airline Cathay Pacific said it cancelled all flights in and out of Hong Kong between 0600 GMT Friday and 0200 GMT Saturday.

Its subsidiary, budget airline HK Express announced it was cancelling 70 flights in and out of Hong Kong on Friday and Saturday.

Hong Kong Airlines said it had cancelled more than 30 flights and start-up carrier Greater Bay Airlines said it was calling off 12.

Hong Kong's low-lying areas could see "serious flooding", its observatory said, and the storm surge may be similar to that seen during the 2018 Super Typhoon Mangkhut if Saola skirted the south of the territory.

Mangkhut - which triggered Hong Kong's maximum "T10" typhoon alert - caused severe damage to the city and injured more than 300 people.

Saola displaced thousands earlier this week as it passed the northern Philippines but no direct casualties have been reported from it so far.

Authorities in Hong Kong's neighbouring casino hub of Macau said they were eyeing the possibility of issuing its third-highest typhoon warning on Saturday.

Southern China is frequently hit in summer and autumn by typhoons that form in the warm oceans east of the Philippines and then travel west.

While they can cause temporary disruption to cities like Hong Kong and Macau, fatalities have become much less common thanks to stronger building codes and better flood management systems.

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2023-08-31 17:22:00Z
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US envoy feasts on Fukushima fish, slams China water 'dumps' - CNA

SOMA: The US envoy to Japan feasted on fish from Fukushima on Thursday (Aug 31), saying that water discharged from the crippled nuclear plant was safer than that "dumped" by Chinese atomic facilities.

China banned all seafood imports from its neighbour last week after Japan began releasing wastewater from Fukushima into the Pacific Ocean, accusing Tokyo of treating the ocean like a "sewer".

"Japan over the decade has done exactly the right things in the right way. International scientific rigour, fully transparent, and inviting the international community to monitor their progress cleaning the water," Ambassador Rahm Emanuel said as he visited the area devastated by the 2011 tsunami and nuclear catastrophe.

"Water from this area is safer than (the water which) the four plants in China dumps untreated into the ocean," he said.

The water being released from Fukushima has been filtered of all radioactive elements except tritium, according to plant operator TEPCO.

Tritium levels are within safe limits and below that released by nuclear power stations in their normal operation, including in China, TEPCO says.

Emanuel, 63, ate a plateful of raw slices of flounder, tuna and bass at a local restaurant before buying more fish and locally grown peaches from a supermarket.

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2023-08-31 13:44:10Z
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Thai ex-PM Thaksin applies for royal pardon: Minister - CNA

DIVISIVE  FIGURE

Thaksin is one of the most influential but divisive figures in modern Thai history.

Loved by millions of rural Thais for his populist policies in the early 2000s, he is reviled by the country's royalist and pro-military establishment, which has spent much of the past two decades trying to keep him and his allies out of power.

Hours after Thaksin landed in Bangkok to a hero's welcome from hundreds of supporters, Pheu Thai's Srettha Thavisin was confirmed as prime minister on Tuesday - the party's first premier since Thaksin's sister Yingluck was thrown out in a coup in 2014.

Just hours after being sent to jail, Thaksin was moved to a police hospital, with prison medical officers saying he needed close monitoring for various health problems, including heart trouble.

Thai media reported that Thaksin had been installed in a private VIP suite on the 14th floor of the Police General Hospital in downtown Bangkok.

A small anti-Thaksin group gathered in Bangkok Thursday afternoon to demand he serve his time.

Before last week Thaksin had not set foot in the kingdom since 2008, living mostly in Dubai to avoid criminal cases he long maintained were politically motivated.

But earlier this year he said he was willing to face justice in order to return home and see his grandchildren.

Parties linked to Thaksin dominated every Thai election since 2001 - until this year, when the progressive Move Forward Party (MFP) won the most seats.

But new PM Srettha's coalition shuts MFP out - while bringing in parties linked to the coup-maker generals who ousted Thaksin and Yingluck.

MFP rode a wave of youth and urban discontent at nearly a decade of military-backed rule to win most seats in the May election.

But the party's push to amend royal defamation laws and tackle business monopolies spooked the kingdom's powerful elite, and leader Pita Limjaroenrat was blocked from becoming prime minister.

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2023-08-31 11:20:00Z
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Philippines rejects new Chinese map over disputed territories in South China Sea - The Straits Times

MANILA - The Philippines on Thursday joined Malaysia and Indonesia in disputing a new Chinese map claiming the waters off the South-east Asian nations’ coasts, as well as part of the north-east of India.

The Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said it is rejecting the map issued on Aug 28 by Beijing’s Ministry of Natural Resources.

The new map features a 10-dash line that includes the eastern parts of the disputed South China Sea that falls within Manila’s 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The Philippines officially calls this area the West Philippine Sea.

A 2016 arbitral tribunal ruling has already rejected Beijing’s sweeping claim over most of the South China Sea, which is also being claimed by four Asean countries – the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam – as well as Taiwan. China’s claim has long been represented by a nine-dash line in its map.

Beijing, however, has refused to recognise this ruling and has instead ramped up its military presence and artificial island-building activities in the disputed waters.

The Philippines said Beijing’s latest attempt to legitimise its claim over the country’s features and maritime zones in the disputed waterway has no basis under international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos).

“The 2016 Arbitral Award invalidated the nine-dashed line. It categorically stated that ‘maritime areas of the South China Sea encompassed by the relevant part of the nine-dash line are contrary to the Convention and without lawful effect to the extent that they exceed the geographic and substantive limits of China’s maritime entitlements under the Convention’,” said the DFA in a statement.

“The Philippines, therefore, calls on China to act responsibly and abide by its obligations under Unclos and the final and binding 2016 Arbitral Award,” the DFA added.

China’s new map also overlapped with Malaysia’s EEZ off the coast of the Sabah and Sarawak states on Borneo island. Malaysia disputed the map on Wednesday, making it the first Asean country to do so.

“Malaysia does not recognise China’s claims in the South China Sea, as outlined in the ‘China Standard Map 2023 Edition’, which covers Malaysia’s maritime area,” the Malaysian Foreign Ministry said.

Kuala Lumpur described the South China Sea issue as “complex and sensitive”, and said the dispute must be “handled peacefully and rationally through dialogue” based on international law.

Malaysia said it supported the creation of a Code of Conduct on the disputed waterway, which South-east Asian nations are currently negotiating.

India, likewise, protested against China’s new map, which is claiming the north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh and the disputed Aksai Chin plateau.

India’s External Affairs Ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi on Tuesday said China’s claims have no basis.

“Such steps by the Chinese side only complicate the resolution of the boundary in question,” Mr Bagchi said.

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2023-08-31 07:10:00Z
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Malaysia, India protest China's new map staking claims over disputed territories; Indonesia seeking clarity - CNA

MALAYSIA TO SEND PROTEST NOTE TO CHINA

Malaysia’s Foreign Minister Zambry Abdul Kadir on Thursday (Aug 31) said that the country will send a protest note to China following its claim on the South China Sea as outlined in the new map, The Star reported.

This comes after his ministry had earlier said that it does not recognise China's claims in the South China Sea, adding that the map holds no binding authority over Malaysia which marks its Independence Day - or Hari Merdeka - on Thursday.

Speaking on the sidelines of a Hari Merdeka event, Mr Zambry said that Malaysia’s next course of action following the ministry’s statement was to send a protest note to China.

“That is the practice,” he was quoted as saying by The Star.

Malaysia’s foreign ministry on Wednesday had said that the map had among other things, displayed China's unilateral maritime claims that encroach upon the country's maritime areas in Sabah and Sarawak.

Bernama reported that the ministry stressed that Malaysia consistently rejects any foreign party's claims to sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction over maritime features or maritime areas based on the 1979 Malaysia New Map.

“Malaysia also views the South China Sea issue as a complex and sensitive matter,” it reportedly said. 

It also underscored the need for the issue to be managed peacefully and rationally through dialogue and negotiations based on provisions of international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982).

"Malaysia remains committed to cooperating to ensure all parties implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea comprehensively and effectively,” said Malaysia’s foreign ministry.

"Malaysia is also committed to the effective and substantive negotiations on the Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea, with the goal of finalising the COC as soon as possible.”

INDONESIA’S RESPONSE

China and ASEAN had reached an agreement on guidelines to speed up negotiations of the COC during a meeting of their foreign ministers in Jakarta on July 13.

Indonesia, which is not a claimant-state, has not yet issued an official response over China’s map that claims territory over the Natuna islet cluster that falls within its 200-nautical-mile EEZ.

But it is also claimed by Beijing within its nine-dash line over the South China Sea, a crucial waterway vital to international shipping lanes and an area of increasing contestation between China and the US.

According to BBC News Indonesia, the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is currently looking for "the truth of the news" regarding the new map. 

"We are currently asking for information from the Indonesian Embassy in Beijing on the veracity of the news," foreign ministry spokesperson Teuku Faizasyah reportedly said on Wednesday. 

When asked whether Indonesia would protest like India did, he said that the authorities are "waiting for input from the Indonesian Embassy first".

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2023-08-31 04:28:00Z
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China issues highest typhoon warning as Saola moves towards Hong Kong - CNA

BEIJING: China issued the highest typhoon warning on Thursday (Aug 31) as Typhoon Saola crawled closer to the southeastern coastline, threatening Hong Kong and other major manufacturing hubs in neighbouring Guangdong province.

Chinese forecasters issued a typhoon red warning at 6am. China's National Meteorological Center said Saola, currently located about 295km southeast of Guangdong province, will move northwest across the South China Sea at a speed of about 10kmh, gradually approaching the coast of Guangdong, then slowly weakening in intensity.

Wind speeds at 9am were clocked at 209 kmh.

Saola will make landfall along the coast somewhere from Huilai County in Guangdong to Hong Kong on the afternoon to the night of Sep 1, the centre said.

China Railway has suspended several major train lines and Shanghai halted trains heading to Guangdong, according to local media.

As Saola edges closer to Guangdong, winds over the region will strengthen gradually, the Hong Kong Observatory said, noting that it will raise its strong wind Signal to No. 3 - the second lowest - later Thursday.

Saola will also bring storm surges to coastal low-lying areas, the Hong Kong Observatory noted, estimating Saola is currently about 440km from the metropolis.

Until 8am Friday there will be heavy rainfall in parts of Fujian and areas of Guangdong. Downpours could be 100mm to 220mm in some areas.

Saola's winds are also affecting Fujian province, where videos on social media showed waves crashing along the coastline. The meteorological administration of Shishi City issued a typhoon blue warning.

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2023-08-31 02:26:30Z
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