Top Asian News Stories From Around The Continent

BANGKOK (AP) – Thailand’s Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul received royal permission Friday to dissolve Parliament, setting up general elections early next year. The election for the House of Representatives would be held 45 to 60 days after the Royal Decree, a period while Anutin will head a caretaker government with limited powers and cannot approve a new budget. Anutin posted on his Facebook late Thursday that “I’d like to return power to the people.” The move comes at a tricky political moment, as Thailand is engaged in large-scale combat with Cambodia over long-disputed border claims. About two dozen people were reported killed in the fighting this week, while hundreds of thousands have been displaced on both sides.

SURIN, Thailand (AP) – Cambodia said Thailand launched more airstrikes Thursday, as heavy fighting flared along the two countries’ border and both sides accused the other of violating their sovereignty along the contested border region. The latest large-scale fighting was set off by a skirmish Sunday that wounded two Thai soldiers and derailed a ceasefire pushed by U.S. President Donald Trump that ended five days of combat in July over longstanding territorial disputes. About two dozen people were reported killed in the fighting this week, while hundreds of thousands have been displaced on both sides of the border. The Cambodian Defense Ministry said in a statement Thursday that a Thai military fighting jet dropped three bombs in the border area.

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) – Bangladesh’s next national elections will be held on Feb. 12, the chief election commissioner said Thursday, setting the timetable for a vote to be held 18 months after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted. In a televised address to the nation, chief election commissioner A.M.M. Nasir Uddin confirmed the date and said a national referendum on political reforms would also be held on the same day as voting to elect 300 lawmakers. The process begins with the filing of nominations Dec. 12-29, which will then be reviewed over the following six days. The last date for withdrawing nominations is Jan.

China will soon start collecting a value-added tax on contraceptive drugs and products for the first time in over three decades, a move aligned with Beijing’s effort to get families to have more children after decades of limiting most to one child. “Contraceptive drugs and products” will not be tax-exempt as of Jan. 1, according to the country’s newest value-added tax law. Products such as condoms will be subject to the usual 13% value-added tax imposed on most products. While state-run news outlets have not widely highlighted the change, it has been trending on Chinese social media, drawing ridicule among people who joked they’d have to be fools not to know that raising a child is more expensive than using condoms, even if they are taxed.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – Global online forum Reddit on Friday filed a court challenge to Australia’s world-first law that bans Australian children younger than 16 from holding accounts on the world’s most popular social media platforms. California-based Reddit Inc.’s suit filed in the High Court follows a case filed last month by Sydney-based rights group Digital Freedom Project. Both suits claim the law is unconstitutional because it infringes on Australia’s implied freedom of political communication. “We believe there are more effective ways for the Australian government to accomplish our shared goal of protecting youth, and the SMMA (Social Media Minimum Age) law carries some serious privacy and political expression issues for everyone on the internet,” Reddit said in a statement.

BANGKOK (AP) – An airstrike by Myanmar ‘s military destroyed a hospital in an area controlled by a leading rebel armed force, killing 34 patients and medical staff, according to a rescue worker and independent media reports Thursday. About 80 other people were injured in the attack Wednesday night on the general hospital in Mrauk-U township, an area controlled by the ethnic Arakan Army in the western state of Rakhine. The military, which took over Myanmar’s government in 2021 and has been fighting ethnic militias and armed resistance forces since then, has not mentioned any attack in the area. Wai Hun Aung, a senior official for rescue services in Rakhine, told The Associated Press that a jet fighter dropped two bombs at 9:13 p.m.

TOKYO (AP) – U.S. strategic bombers joined a fleet of Japanese fighter jets in a joint military exercise meant to demonstrate their military cooperation around Japan’s airspace, defense officials said Thursday, as tensions with China escalate. The exercise showcasing joint Japanese-U.S. air power came a day after Chinese and Russian bombers flew together around western Japan, prompting Tokyo to scramble fighter jets, though there was no airspace violation. It also follows China’s military aircraft locking radar on Japanese jets Saturday, another incident that has caused Tokyo-Beijing relations to further deteriorate. Early Friday, Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and his U.S counterpart, Pete Hegseth, held telephone talks on “increasingly severe security situation in the Indo-Pacific region, including the radar incident,” the Japanese defense ministry said in a statement.

ISLAMABAD (AP) – A military court on Thursday sentenced a former spy chief of Pakistan to 14 years in prison, more than a year after court-martial proceedings began against him on multiple charges, including engaging in political activities and violating the Official Secrets Act, the military said. In a statement, it said the Field General Court Martial tried the former director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence, retired Lt. Gen. Faiz Hameed, under the Pakistan Army Act during proceedings that lasted 15 months. “The accused was tried on four charges related to engaging in political activities, violation of the Official Secrets Act detrimental to the safety and interest of the state, misuse of authority and government resources, and causing wrongful loss” to individuals, the statement said.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – A library under construction in South Korea collapsed on Thursday, leaving one worker dead and three others trapped under the rubble, officials said. Four workers were initially buried in the collapse in the southern city of Gwangju. One of them was pulled out but later declared dead at a nearby hospital, local emergency officer Ahn Gyun-jae told a televised briefing. Ahn said rescuers found the location of a second worker and were trying to retrieve that person. Ahn said authorities have mobilized cranes, drones, thermal imaging cameras and rescue dogs.

ISLAMABAD (AP) – Pakistan on Thursday urged major social media platforms to crack down on accounts linked to militant groups, warning that failure to act could lead to stricter government measures or legal action. At a news conference in Islamabad, Deputy Interior Minister Talal Chaudhry said scores of accounts on X were operating from neighboring Afghanistan, India and elsewhere in the world, spreading extremist content and aiding outlawed militant groups. He presented what he described as documentary evidence and said militants were benefiting from support inside the two countries. There was no immediate comment from Kabul or New Delhi. An estimated 70 million people in Pakistan – a nation of about 250 million – use social media platforms.