Asia-pacific

Businesswoman Truong My Lan was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday in relation to a multi-billion-dollar fraud for which she already faces the death penalty, Vietnamese media reported. The Chairwoman of property developer Van Thinh Phat appeared at Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court to hear the verdict after a month-long trial. Lan, 68, was found guilty of fraud, money laundering and cross-border currency trafficking. In April, Lan was sentenced to death for embezzling US$12.5 billion, and a total of 40 years for bribery and violating bank regulations. The court ordered her to repay $27 billion in loans to companies in the Van Thinh Phat group from Siam Commercial Bank, or SCB, in which she holds a 91% stake. Lan’s lawyers said she planned to appeal the death sentence, althou...

Russia is forming a special battalion consisting of up to 3,000 North Koreans to help push Ukraine’s forces out of Kursk amid a manpower shortage on the front lines due to heavy casualties, Ukraine’s media reported. The North Koreans will form part of the “Special Buryat Battalion,” organized within the 11th separate airborne assault brigade of the Russian Armed Forces, said The Kyiv Post, citing sources in Ukraine’s Military Intelligence. “[Vladimir] Putin is doing everything possible to delay and avoid the decision to conduct a new full-fledged wave of mobilization on the territory of the Russian Federation,” the source said. The battalion is expected to include up to 3,000 North Korean troops and is currently being supplied with small arms and ammunition, the newspaper reported...

Nguyen Thuy Hanh, a former Vietnamese political prisoner who raised money for families of political dissidents, was released from prison on Oct. 7 after completing a 3 1/2-year sentence. Hanh participated in many protests against the Chinese government following several clashes between Chinese forces and Vietnam’s coast guard ships and fishing boats in the South China Sea in the early 2010s. She ran as an independent candidate for the National Assembly in 2016. In 2018, she founded the 50K Fund, a charity that encouraged people in Vietnam and abroad to contribute just 50,000 dong (about US$2) each so that defense lawyers could be hired for people jailed for their political or religious views and to provide support for their families. She announced the fund’s closure in late 2020. ...

Southeast Asian leaders wrapped up this month’s summit in the Lao capital Vientiane by reaffirming their commitment to an “open, inclusive and transparent” ASEAN community. But some of the international media covering the meeting of the 10 member countries complained the vision was far from reality due to tough local reporting restrictions. Authorities would not allow the hundreds of media members to talk to people on the streets to ask how they were coping with inflation that the Asian Development Bank forecasts will average 20% this year. The media coverage manual said the press must report only from the National Convention Center hosting the summit or the Media Center a few kilometers away. Permission to report in the field was not available during the Oct. 6-11 meetings, an offic...

FILE - This picture taken on November 19, 2022 shows a Golden Horse trophy being held by Taiwanese actor Berant Zhu after he won Best Supporting Actor at the 59th Golden Horse Film Awards. Taipei, Taiwan — Organizers of Taiwan's premier film festival report a huge increase this year in entries from China, despite a ban imposed by Beijing six years ago on participation in the festival by Chinese filmmakers and actors. As many as 100 Chinese entries had been submitted for Golden Horse Awards in recent years, in defiance of the ban and without apparent consequences. But this year organizers say the number of movies and documentaries submitted from China shot up to 276. More than a dozen of the Chinese films are potential finalists, some in multiple categories. The winners will be...