By Jay L. Batongbacal As the December 15 deadline for China to submit a counter-memorial in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) Annex VII arbitration case launched by the Philippines passed, the more significant and unexpected…
By Priscilla A. Tacujan Philippine prosecutors charged Marine Pfc. Joseph Scott Pemberton on December 15 with murder in the killing of a Filipino transgender, Jennifer Laude. Pemberton was stationed in the Philippines for a joint Philippine-U.S. military exercise when this…
By Nicholas Szechenyi Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan led his ruling coalition to a solid victory in elections for the Lower House of the Diet (parliament) on December 14. Despite sagging public approval ratings and recent data suggesting the…
$960 million The amount allocated in Australia’s 2014-15 budget for aid to Pacific Island countries in U.S. dollars. This represents around 20 percent of Australia’s overall aid budget and makes it the single largest donor in the region, accounting for…
By Joshua Simonidis Two members of Thai prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha’s cabinet, Finance Minister Sommai Phasee and Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Prawit Wongsuwon, recently said Thailand’s return to civilian rule, originally planned with elections held toward the end…
By Joshua Simonidis December 15 marks two years since the abduction of Lao activist Sombath Somphone. He was last seen on CCTV footage being stopped at a police checkpoint in Vientiane before being driven away in a white pickup truck.…
By Carl Thayer In a statement Thursday, December 11, the Vietnamese foreign ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh said that Hanoi has asked the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague to take Vietnam’s legal interests and rights into consideration…
By Kristina Yarrow & Caroline Ly The 2010 World Health Report on Health Systems Financing and the unanimous endorsement of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by the United Nations in 2012 have paved the way for rich and poor countries alike…
By Daniel Rosen & Beibei Bao Beijing is entering a critical one month period of announcements about its gross domestic product (GDP) – the broadest measure of its economic size – and GDP growth that will partly re-frame our understanding…
By Phuong Nguyen The National Defense Authorization Act for 2015 recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives includes a few provisions allowing slightly expanded U.S. military engagement with Myanmar. In addition to supporting the Department of Defense’s continued consultations…
Who is he? Agung Laksono is a longtime Indonesian politician who currently heads a splinter faction of Golkar, Indonesia’s oldest and second largest political party. He was until recently the party’s deputy chairman and has had extensive legislative and leadership…
By James Hurndell In early December the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), which includes Pacific Island nations and major distant-water fishing nations, failed to agree on new measures to conserve Pacific tuna stocks. The inability to achieve consensus…
