BenarNews

BenarNews is an online platform that shares news, information, and opinions in five different languages: Thai, Bengali, Bahasa Malaysia, Bahasa Indonesia, and English. The team of reporters and contributors at BenarNews is committed to delivering accurate information and follows a stringent set of journalistic standards. The organization receives its funding through a yearly grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors.

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Genetic study in Cambodia provides clues to saving endangered elephants

3 weeks ago | benarnews.org | Stephen Wright

Genetic analysis of the dung of endangered Asian elephants has revealed a larger population in Cambodia’s northern plains than previously believed and insights into their range – information that could help prevent extinction. The study by conservation group Fauna & Flora and researchers from Cambodia and Scotland estimated there are 51 Asian elephants in the adjacent wildlife sanctuaries of Prey Lang, Preah Roka and Chhaeb – about one-tenth of the wild population in Cambodia.
Milestone PNG conviction puts sorcery accusers on notice over inciting lynchings

3 weeks ago | benarnews.org | Sue Ahearn |Stefan Armbruster

A landmark court conviction in Papua New Guinea related to the murder of a mother-of-five accused of sorcery is being hailed as a major victory in the fight to stop such attacks and murders. For the first time, a court has found a person guilty of accusing someone of sorcery under legislation, known as the Glasman Act, which was passed by the PNG Parliament in 2022.
UN averts drastic food aid cuts for Rohingya in Bangladesh

3 weeks ago | benarnews.org | Kamran Reza Chowdhury

The United Nations food agency said it managed to avoid drastic food aid cuts to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh in the face of concerns that their monthly rations would be reduced by more than half. Earlier this month, the U.N.’s World Food Program (WFP) said it might be forced to reduce the monthly rations for the over 1 million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, from U.S. $12.50 per person to $6, beginning in April.
Poll position: What Australia’s election holds for the Pacific

3 weeks ago | benarnews.org | Tess Newton Cain

When Solomon Islands and China signed a security agreement during Australia’s last national poll in 2022, they upended a tradition that foreign policy generally gets minimal bandwidth during election campaigns. Assuming there is no such disruption this time around, we can expect little or no mention of Pacific policy as voting day draws near. If there is a change of government on May 3, regional engagement could look quite different in the next three years.
Hegseth commits US to defense of Pacific territories against China

3 weeks ago | benarnews.org | Mar-Vic Cagurangan

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has reaffirmed the Trump administration’s commitment to America’s Pacific territories of Guam and Northern Mariana Islands and any attack on them would be an attack on the mainland. Hegseth touched down in Guam from Hawaii on Thursday as part of an Indo-Pacific tour, his first as defense secretary, in which he is seeking to shore up traditional alliances to counter China.
No more Uyghurs left in immigration detention center: Thai police

4 weeks ago | benarnews.org | Kunnawut Boonreak

Thailand said Thursday there are no longer any Uyghurs stranded in its immigration facilities following the internationally criticized repatriation of 40 Uyghur men to China in late February, in an apparent move to put an end to the confusion over the total number of detainees. Thailand put the men on a plane to Xinjiang on Feb. 27, saying China had given assurances that they would not be mistreated and no third country had committed to take them.
Philippines arrests another group of Chinese nationals for suspected espionage

4 weeks ago | benarnews.org | jojo Riñoza |Gerard Carreon

Philippine authorities announced the arrests of six Chinese nationals and a Filipino suspected of spying at an island at the entrance to Subic Bay, which formerly hosted the largest U.S. naval base overseas. The arrests of the Chinese suspects, who officials said were posing as fishermen, brought to 12 the number of Chinese citizens taken into custody in the Philippines this year for alleged espionage.
‘A voice’ for powerless Filipinos: Duterte drug-war foe attempts political comeback

1 month ago | benarnews.org | Jason Gutierrez |jojo Riñoza |Anna Tolentino

Wearing her glasses and trademark printed scarf, former Sen. Leila de Lima waded patiently through university students who mobbed her as she left a campaign stop in the northern Philippines. The ex-senator and former Philippines justice secretary is on the comeback trail, after having spent nearly seven years as a “prisoner of conscience” jailed under President Rodrigo Duterte and later Ferdinand Marcos Jr. De Lima was incarcerated over drug-related charges she says were trumped up.
Arrested ARSA leader blamed for violence against Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh

1 month ago | benarnews.org | Kamran Reza Chowdhury

The leader of a Rohingya insurgent group blamed for instigating attacks that provoked a deadly offensive by the Myanmar military and the forced cross-border exodus of Rohingya in 2017 has not spilled “significant information” since his arrest earlier this week, Bangladesh police said. Ataullah Abu Jununi, leader of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), was arrested on Tuesday at an apartment near Dhaka where he had been staying for four months.
Top Pacific diplomats ready for direct talks on Bougainville independence

1 month ago | benarnews.org | Leah Lowonbu |Stefan Armbruster |Harlyne Joku

The Pacific’s peak diplomatic bodies have signaled they are ready to engage with Papua New Guinea’s Autonomous Government of Bougainville as mediation begins on the delayed ratification of its successful 2019 independence referendum. PNG and Bougainville’s leaders met in the capital Port Moresby this week with a moderator to start negotiations on the implementation of the U.N.-supervised Bougainville Peace Agreement and referendum.