World

  A person peeks into a U.S. election watch at a restaurant in Taipei, Taiwan, November 6, 2024. Taipei, Taiwan — Leaders from China and Taiwan have congratulated Donald Trump’s national election victory, despite growing uncertainty about how his second presidential term might impact dynamics across the Taiwan Strait. Chinese President Xi Jinping urged China and the United States to find the right way to get along in the new era, to benefit ‘’both countries and the wider world.” He hopes the two sides will “uphold the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, strengthen dialogue and communication, properly manage differences and expand mutually beneficial cooperation,” according to a readout released by ...

By RFA Burmese2024.11.07 Read RFA coverage of this story in Burmese At least 540 civilians were killed by junta airstrikes in Myanmar in the first 10 months of the year, with the most deaths occurring in war-torn Rakhine state, according to a group monitoring conflict in the southeast Asian nation. The tally by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, or AAPP, came as the United Nations Development Program warned in a report that Rakhine is facing an “imminent threat of acute famine,” with more than 2 million people “at risk of starvation” due to ongoing conflict and restrictions on goods entering the state. On Wednesday, the AAPP said that of the 540 civilians killed in junta airstrikes between Jan. 1 and the end of October 2024, at least 159 of the deaths occurred in Rakhi...

By RFA Burmese2024.11.08 Read RFA coverage of this story in Burmese Authorities in the eastern Indian state of Manipur are warning thousands of Myanmar nationals who fled conflict in the Sagaing region that they have one month to return home, despite the ongoing threat of junta airstrikes that wiped out many of their villages. Sagaing has seen some of the fiercest fighting between junta troops and the armed opposition since the military‘s February 2021 coup d’etat, which has forced around 5,000 residents of the region to seek shelter in neighboring India’s Manipur state. Late last month, Manipur authorities met with the displaced in the state‘s Kamjong and Ukhrul districts, across the border from Sagaing region’s Tedim township, and told them they would have to return home in the comin...

By RFA Laos2024.10.21 Multibillion-dollar proposals to build a railway and expressway between Laos and Vietnam have stalled due to lack of funding as Laos remains burdened by crushing debt, an official at the Ministry of Public Works and Transport told Radio Free Asia. A 555-kilometer (345-mile) high-speed railway connecting the Vietnamese seaport of Vung Ang with Laos’ capital of Vientiane has been in the works for at least five years. There have also been discussions about constructing a four-lane 725-kilometer expressway between Vientiane and Hanoi. That project could cost US$772 million, according to Vietnamese state media. In 2023, Lao government officials said they hoped to begin construction on the railway that year, but the country’s economic troubles and heavy debt load have s...