Far East

NOVANEWS In Cambodia, 'appalling use of extreme lethal force' marks second day of clashes - Andrea Germanos Five people were reportedly killed after police opened fire on striking garment workers in Cambodia's capital on Friday. Police used "prolonged" live ammunition against striking garment workers in Cambodia. (Photo: LICADHO)Workers from hundreds of the country's garment factories demonstrated in Phnom Penh's Canadia Industrial Park, home to dozens of factories that make clothing for well-known western brands including H&M and Puma, demanding a doubling of the minimum wage, currently set at $80 a month. According to local human rights watchdog group Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO), security forces shot live ammunition directly at civili...

Proletarian   Typhoon Haiyan, known in the Philippines as Typhoon Yolanda was one of the deadliest ever to hit the southeast Asian nation. It struck in early November, and has left a trail of suffering and devastation, whose effects will doubtless be felt for years to come. According to still incomplete figures, at least 5,500 people are dead. Around 15,000 people are thought to be missing and the possibility that they may yet be alive decreases with each passing day. Tens of thousands more are injured and tens of millions of people, in mostly impoverished parts of the country, have been adversely affected by the typhoon and its aftermath. Speaking of the great famine that hit that country in the 1840s, there is an Irish saying that ‘God sent the potato blight but the English ...

NOVANEWS A heroic attempt to reinvigorate the struggle for socialism. By Ian Paxson This photo of May Day 2010 in Nepal reveals the intensity of revolutionary sentiment. The Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist, one of the largest political forces in the country, is leading a boycott of the country's upcoming Constituent Assembly elections, scheduled for Nov. 19. Thirty-two other political parties initially joined in the boycott movement. A one-day general strike across Nepal’s urban centers shut down transportation, business, industrial facilities and education houses Nov. 11. This is being followed by a transportation strike to last through election day. The state has responded with violent repression, arrests and raids against strike and election boycott organizers. The government’s e...

NOVANEWS By Marjorie Cohn and Jeanne Mirer Today marks the 52nd anniversary of the start of the chemical warfare program in Vietnam, a long time with NO sufficient remedial action by the U.S. government. One of the most shameful legacies of the American War against Vietnam, Agent Orange continues to poison Vietnam and the people exposed to the chemicals, as well as their offspring. For over 10 years, from 1961 to 1975, in order to deny food and protection to those deemed to be "the enemy," the United States defoliated the land and forests of Vietnam with the chemicals known as Agent Orange. These chemicals contained the impurity of dioxin - the most toxic chemical known to science. Millions of people were exposed to Agent Orange and today it is estimated that three million Vietnamese sti...

NOVANEWS Staff Writer  Some, like YouTuber dutchsinse, speculate that the Philippine Islands were attacked by weather weapons. TACLOBAN, PHILIPPINES – NOVEMBER 14: A television set sits on a table on a road amongst debris in Tacloban City on November 14, 2013 in Tacloban, Philippines. Typhoon Haiyan which ripped through Philippines over the weekend has been described as on of the most powerful typhoons ever to hit land, leaving thousands dead and hundreds of thousands homeless. Countries all over the world have pledged relief aid to help support those affected by the typhoon however damage to the airport and roads have made moving the aid into the most affected areas very difficult. With dead bodies left out in the open air and very limited food, water and shelter, health concerns are gr...

NOANEWS   Following a last lengthy battle with cancer, on 16 September 2013, Comrade Chin Peng, who served as the secretary-general of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) for well oversix decades, passed away in a hospital in the Thai capital, Bangkok, at the age of 88. As Chin Peng's last letter was read, the  Internationale, the hymn of the world proletariat, was played in the background, and it is with Comrade Chin Peng's simple and deeply moving final words that we conclude our own tribute to this great and beloved revolutionary leader: My dear comrades, my dear compatriots, When you read this letter, I am no more in this world. It was my original intention to pass away quietly and let my relatives handle the funeral matters in private. However, the repercussions of er...

NOVANEWS JOHN SPARKSAsia Correspondent Channel 4 News gains access to a Thai detention centre where thousands of Muslim refugees who have fled religious persecution in Burma are being forced to live in squalid conditions. Channel 4 News has been inside one the facilities where the Rohingya people - as they are known - have been incarcerated for months. The Thai goverment has appealed for help in dealing with the increasing numbers of refugees - but no other neighbouring country appears to be prepared to take them in, as Asia Correspondent Jon Sparks reports. In a statement, a spokesman from Thailand's Foreign Ministry told Channel 4 News: "The Thai authorities concerned are aware of the crowdedness issue of the existing immigration facilities. That notwithstanding, alternativ...

NOVANEWS By TODD PITMAN and GRANT PECK  LASHIO, Myanmar — When a huge mob of Buddhist thugs crawled on the roof of Ma Sandar Soe's shop, doused it with gasoline and set it ablaze, the Buddhist businesswoman didn't blame them for burning it to the ground despite seeing it happen with her own eyes. Instead, her wrath was reserved for minority Muslims she accused of igniting Myanmar's latest round of sectarian unrest. "This happened because of the Muslims," she declared, sifting through charred CDs in the ruins of her recording studio. As Myanmar grapples with its transition to democracy, its Muslim minority is experiencing its perils in vivid, bloody fashion. Hundreds have died since last year as victims of sectarian strife. In the country's latest round of Buddhist-Muslim violence,...