#asean-nonrecognition

#asean-nonrecognition

Pakistan has accused the Taliban in Afghanistan of harboring militants who launch attacks on Pakistani territory, while Afghanistan insists that militancy is an internal Pakistani security problem.

For Thai national Khaochat Mankong, 2026 was meant to be the biggest year of her life. After filing the necessary paperwork with the United States embassy in Bangkok, Khaochat, 27, was poised to start a new life with her American husband in California. Last week, Khaochat watched those plans evaporate in an instant as US President Donald Trump's administration announced an indefinite pause on the processing of immigrant visa applications from 75 countries, including Thailand.

Scam compounds have flourished in Myanmar's lawless borderlands, part of a multibillion-dollar illicit industry. The centres are typically staffed by foreigners including many Chinese with many saying they were trafficked and forced to swindle people online. Beijing has stepped up cooperation with Southeast Asian nations in recent years to crack down on the compounds, and thousands of people have been repatriated to China.

The group had established industrial parks in Myanmar's Kokang region bordering China, from where they allegedly ran gambling and telecom scam operations involving abductions, extortion, forced prostitution, and drug manufacturing and trafficking. They defrauded victims of more than 29 billion yuan ($4.2bn) and caused the deaths of six Chinese citizens and injuries to others, the court said. The defendants appealed the verdict, but the Guangdong Provincial High People's Court dismissed their applications, it added.

Just a few days before the president of Indonesia was supposed to go to Washington for the first meeting of the so-called "Board of Peace," a council created and chaired by US President Donald Trump, the spokesperson for the Indonesian military made a controversial announcement. Army spokesperson Donny Pramono said Indonesia was ready to deploy as many as 1,000 soldiers to Gaza by April, and could increase that to 8,000 by the end of June this year.