Taiwan invites Chinese veterinary experts as beloved panda nears death - CNA

Tuan Tuan and his breeding mate Yuan Yuan were given to Taiwan by Beijing at a time when relations between the two neighbours were more cordial.

In a nod to the Chinese Communist Party's goal of one day taking Taiwan, their names combined mean "reunion" or "unity".

The couple became huge stars in Taiwan and Yuan Yuan has since given birth to two female cubs.

"He (Tuan Tuan) was small and so cute when he first got here," said Heng Ling-lin, who brought her children to Taipei Zoo to sign get-well notes.

"He was like everybody's baby," she told AFP.

"It breaks my heart now to see him like this."

"PANDA DIPLOMACY"

China only loans pandas to foreign zoos which must usually return any offspring within a few years of their birth to join the country's breeding programme.

But Taiwan was granted an exception as part of a brief charm offensive China launched in the late 2000s and was fully gifted both Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan and any offspring they had.

Vets first noticed Tuan Tuan, 18, was ill in August when he began suffering seizures and appeared increasingly unsteady and lethargic.

Subsequent scans showed he had a brain-lesion and he was placed on anti-seizure medication.

Earlier this week Taipei Zoo said they suspected Tuan Tuan had a brain tumour and he was moved into palliative care.

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2022-10-28 08:53:47Z
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Forgotten Uyghurs locked up in Thailand face 'hell on earth' - CNA

DIPLOMATIC BALANCE

"What's a life, in this kind of prison cell for almost 10 years?" asked Thai senator Zakee Phithakkumpol, one of the leaders of the Islamic Central Council, which represents the kingdom's eight million Muslims.

Support for the detainees has stepped up in recent months, with eight Thai human rights organisations urging authorities in July not to send them to China.

The renewed attention comes as Thailand prepares to host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit next month, with China and the US both increasingly vying for influence in Southeast Asia.

Thailand's junta cosied up to Beijing after seizing power in 2014, but in recent years it has sought to tread a path between China and the US, the kingdom's oldest ally.

"Lately, Bangkok has been rebalancing its relations between Washington and Beijing, rather moving closer to the US," political professor Thitinan Pongsudhirak at Chulalongkorn University told AFP.

The massive diplomatic and security fallout from the 2015 deportation may also contribute to the government's hesitancy, but it is keeping mum about its next moves.

Contacted by AFP, a ministry of foreign affairs spokesperson said the position of the kingdom "remained the same", without giving further details.

Sami, who was in communication with a number of the men held, says their fears will not have changed.

Every time they spoke, he said, "I tell them with sorrow that there is no news, there is nothing about them."

Phil Robertson, Asia deputy director at Human Rights Watch, said the Uyghurs' treatment was "absolutely shocking" and Thailand should release them immediately.

"Thai Immigration is acting like it will hold these men indefinitely, for the rest of their lives if need be, to avoid offending China," Robertson told AFP.

"If there is a hell on earth, Thailand has created it for these Uyghur detainees."

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2022-10-28 06:40:19Z
CBMib2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNoYW5uZWxuZXdzYXNpYS5jb20vYXNpYS91eWdodXJzLWNoaW5hLXRoYWktZGV0ZW50aW9uLWh1bWFuLXJpZ2h0cy1hYnVzZS14aW5qaWFuZy1kaXBsb21hY3ktMzAzMDQ0NtIBAA

Putin blasts West, says world faces most dangerous decade since WWII - CNA

LONDON: President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday (Oct 27) that the world faced the most dangerous decade since World War II as Western elites scrambled to prevent the inevitable crumbling of the global dominance of the United States and its allies.

In one of his longest public appearances since he sent troops into Ukraine on Feb 24, Putin signalled he had no regrets about what he calls "a special operation" and accused the West of inciting the war and of playing a "dangerous, bloody and dirty" game that was sowing chaos across the world.

"The historical period of the West's undivided dominance over world affairs is coming to an end," Putin, Russia's paramount leader, told the Valdai Discussion Club during a session entitled A Post-Hegemonic World: Justice and Security for Everyone.

"We are standing at a historical frontier: Ahead is probably the most dangerous, unpredictable and, at the same time, important decade since the end of World War II."

The 70-year-old former KGB spy was more than an hour late to the meeting of Russia experts where he gave a typically scathing interpretation of what he portrayed as Western decadence and decline in the face of rising Asian powers such as China.

He appeared relaxed over more than three and a half hours as he was questioned about fears of nuclear war, his relations with President Xi Jinping, and about how he felt about Russian soldiers killed in the Ukraine war, which he cast "partly" as a civil war, a notion Kyiv rejects.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the war, while the West has imposed the most severe sanctions in history on Russia, one of the world's biggest suppliers of natural resources.

"DIRTY BOMB"

The Russian leader blamed the West for stoking recent nuclear tensions, citing remarks by former British Prime Minister Liz Truss about her readiness to use London's nuclear deterrent if the circumstances demanded it.

He repeated an assertion that Ukraine could detonate a "dirty bomb" laced with radioactive material to frame Moscow - an allegation dismissed by Kyiv and the West as false and without evidence.

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2022-10-27 18:28:00Z
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Singapore foreign minister Vivian Balakrishnan reiterates 'deep disappointment' over Myanmar situation - CNA

The regime change has prompted the emergence of opposition movements, some armed, across the country, which the military has countered with lethal action.

Southeast Asian countries have led efforts to bring peace to Myanmar, but the junta has done little to implement the consensus agreed upon last April.

At Thursday's meeting, Dr Balakrishnan urged Myanmar's military authorities to "swiftly and fully implement" the plan, which includes granting the ASEAN Chair's Special Envoy on Myanmar access to all stakeholders and facilitating the swift, equitable and transparent distribution of humanitarian assistance to all in need, without discrimination, said MFA.

"He reaffirmed the need for ASEAN to engage all stakeholders in Myanmar soon and called for constructive dialogue among all parties concerned to seek a peaceful solution in the interests of the people of Myanmar."

The foreign ministers agreed to continue discussing recommendations to be proposed to ASEAN leaders at the upcoming summits, MFA added.

Thursday's meeting at the ASEAN secretariat in the Indonesian capital was not attended by any representatives from Myanmar.

Myanmar had been invited to send a non-political representative, but the junta did not agree.

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2022-10-27 09:36:00Z
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Helicopter crashes in Malaysia's Cameron Highlands, injuring all 6 people on board - The Straits Times

IPOH, Perak - A helicopter with six people on board crashed in Cameron Highlands on Wednesday. All had injuries, including one with a broken leg.

Perak police chief Mohd Yusri Hassan Basri said rescuers had found all six in the hills of Brinchang at around 4pm. The victims had managed to contact the rescue team while waiting to be rescued.

They were in stable condition and receiving medical assistance, the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) confirmed, a few hours after the Airbus AS355 F2 helicopter carrying medical personnel and equipment crashed at about 1pm in a forest in Brinchang.

Those aboard the aircraft included medical officers, nurses and a public health assistant from the Kinta Health Department in Perak, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said.

He added that the team was on its way back to Tanjung Rambutan in Ipoh after completing a regular visit to an indigenous people’s village in rural Kampung Gawin, Gua Musang.

After first responders arrived at the crash site amid heavy rain, emergency medical units were also mobilised to assess the victims’ injuries at a vegetable farm near the site. The last victim was moved out of the crash site at about 9.10pm and taken to hospital.

Mr Khairy said he was planning to visit the victims in hospital on Thursday.

The pilot, who was unable to walk, was the first to be taken to Hospital Sultanah Hajjah Kalsom in Cameron Highlands for treatment.

One of the medical officers on board the helicopter, Dr Murnirah Abd Rahman, was in stable condition and taken to a hospital in Ipoh, her husband told Malaysian news portal Majoriti.

Mr Abdul Latiff Abdul Razak said: “(I am OK) is all she said. Maybe she is traumatised, thank God she is safe. I was told she injured her hip.”

He said his wife, who has been a medical officer for 12 years, has flown on similar medical missions in helicopters to Gua Musang in Kelantan several times, without an incident like this happening.

The helicopter was operated by private charter airline Layang Layang Aerospace, said CAAM chief executive Chester Voo.

The aircraft lost contact with the company’s flight operations centre shortly after taking off at 12.20pm, said Layang Layang. It crashed while attempting an emergency landing at around 1pm. An investigation into why it had to make an emergency landing is under way.

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2022-10-26 17:13:55Z
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Palestinian Prime Minister Shtayyeh visits Singapore from Oct 26 - CNA

SINGAPORE: The prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, Dr Mohammad Shtayyeh, will visit Singapore from Wednesday (Oct 26) to Saturday.

His visit to Singapore is the first by a Palestinian prime minister, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said in a press statement.

Dr Shtayyeh will call on President Halimah Yacob at the Istana and be hosted to lunch by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

He will have meetings with Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan as well as Dr Maliki Osman, who is Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Second Minister for Education and Second Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Dr Shtayyeh will also visit the Institute of Technical Education College East, as well as the NEWater Visitor Centre.

He will be accompanied by Palestinian Minister of Foreign Affairs Riyad Al Malki, Governor of the Palestinian Monetary Authority Feras Milhem and other senior officials.

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2022-10-26 11:32:00Z
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5 things to know about Rishi Sunak, Britain's first Asian prime minister - CNA

CONTROVERSIES

The couple’s wealth has hurt Sunak politically in the past, with critics saying he could not possibly understand the pain that inflation is causing to the man on the street.  

He has also faced public anger over his wife’s tax status. As an Indian citizen, Ms Murthy is eligible for so-called “non-domiciled” status in Britain, which allowed her to avoid paying UK taxes on the millions she earned abroad. 

She eventually agreed to start paying extra taxes to relieve pressure on Sunak, saying she did not want this to be “a distraction for my husband or to affect my family”. 

Sunak himself was at the centre of controversy when he was fined for breaking COVID-19 lockdown rules in June 2020, when he attended a birthday gathering for then-prime minister Boris Johnson. 

Sunak, who was finance minister then, apologised but rejected calls to quit. 

RECORD RISE

Sunak’s rise - from MP to prime minister in seven years - is also a record-breaking one, in modern times. 

Cameron did the same in nine years. The 18th-century leader Pitt the Younger holds the overall record of two years.

Sunak entered parliament in 2015 as MP for Richmond in North Yorkshire, and served as a junior minister in former prime minister Theresa May's government.

He was then made chief secretary to the Treasury by her successor Johnson, before being promoted to chancellor in February 2020. 

Notwithstanding the flouting of lockdown curbs to party with his boss at the time Johnson, it was also during the pandemic when Sunak's popularity soared, as he unveiled support measures worth £350 billion to help Britons weather the storm.

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2022-10-26 06:53:00Z
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