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US ships during an underway replenishment in the Philippine Sea. January 19, 2023.
Hard Numbers: US camps in Philippines, Malaysia may nix death penalty, Bulgaria’s close vote, Burkina Faso vs. journalists, hungry as a bear in Japan
4: On Monday, the Philippine government confirmed the location of four new military camps that will indefinitely host rotating US forces, despite China’s opposition. The new encampments, which were announced last February, place US forces closer to Taiwan and key trade routes in the South China Sea, where China has territorial disputes with its neighbors.
1,300: Malaysia’s lower house of Parliament approved a bill on Monday to abolish mandatory death sentences, possibly sparing over 1,300 death row inmates. If the bill passes the upper house as expected and gets the king’s signature, it will mean capital punishment is no longer obligatory for crimes like murder and drug trafficking.
5: So far, it’s a dead-heat in Bulgaria’s parliamentary election, the 5th in two years, between center-right PM Boyko Borisov and liberal ex-PM Kiril Petkov. Corruption and inflation were the top concerns for voters in the former Soviet ally, which has struggled to form a durable ruling coalition in recent years. Final results are expected later this week.
2: Burkina Faso’s military junta has expelled two French reporters in its crackdown on journalists. The junta, which seized power in a coup last September (the country’s second in 2022), has not offered an official reason for the move, but it comes after one of the journalist’s publications investigated the execution of children inside military barracks in the northern part of the conflict-plagued West African country.
17: Japanese bear encounters have been on the rise in the wild … and at dinner. A new vending machine in Semboku, northern Japan, is clawing a profit by selling wild bear meat for $17 (2,200 yen) per 250 g. It’s proving so popular that the operator is getting mail-order requests from as far away as Tokyo.A map showing countries in Africa and Asia that criminalize same-sex acts, by degree of punishment.
The Graphic Truth: Criminalizing LGBTQ love
Last week, Uganda’s parliament passed legislation that criminalizes identifying as LGBTQ, which puts individuals at risk of life imprisonment, or in some cases, even death. Similarly, draconian legislation over identifying as LGBTQ is under consideration in Ghana, and VP Kamala Harris’s visit to Zambia this week – for a summit celebrating democracy – is stoking anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. As of 2023, many parts of the world are still unsafe for the LGBTQ community, as same-sex acts are deemed illegal in 65 countries, from Latin America to Oceania. The death penalty is a possibility in 11 countries worldwide. We look at the range of penalties in Africa and Asia, the two continents with the highest number of countries criminalizing same-sex acts.
Five sentenced to death in Bangladesh for gang rape
It was the first conviction since the government this week introduced the death penalty for rape.
Kindergarten teacher in China sentenced to death for poisoning kids
BEIJING • A kindergarten teacher in China has been sentenced to death for poisoning dozens of children in an act of revenge against a colleague that left one toddler dead.
China teacher handed death sentence for poisoning children
BEIJING (AFP) - A kindergarten teacher in China has been sentenced to death for poisoning dozens of children in an act of revenge against a colleague that left one toddler dead.
US man to face death penalty trial in Vietnam over attempt to overthrow the state
HANOI (AFP) - A Vietnamese-American man charged with "attempting to overthrow the state" will go on trial in Ho Chi Minh City on June 24, his family said, and could face the death penalty if found guilty.
2 maids on Saudi death row return to Jakarta
JAKARTA • Two Indonesian domestic workers sentenced to death for practising witchcraft against their employers' families in Saudi Arabia returned home yesterday after their sentences were commuted, Indonesia's Foreign Ministry said.
Ahead of LGBT+ crackdown, fleeing Bruneians fear for friends back home
KUALA LUMPUR (REUTERS) - As a transgender woman growing up in Brunei, Zoe saw the country's slide towards conservatism from an early age, so plans to introduce strict new Islamic laws this week came as no surprise.