WASHINGTON — The White House will send an unofficial delegation to Taiwan this weekend for the inauguration of the island’s democratically elected president, the Biden administration announced Wednesday, in a move that is certain to upset China but unlikely to draw excessive responses from Beijing as the two countries try to stabilize relations.

A senior White House official said the move is in line with longstanding U.S. practice to send the delegation — which includes two former senior officials and a scholar — to the inauguration ceremony Monday. Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party will take office, succeeding Tsai Ing-wen of the same party.

Beijing, which sees Taiwan as part of Chinese territory and vows to seize the island by force if necessary to achieve unification, sees Lai as a supporter of Taiwan’s independence and has long opposed any official contact between Washington and Taipei.

“In what ways the U.S. deals with the new Taiwan authorities on May 20 and afterwards will affect (the) cross-Strait situation and also the China-U.S. relations in the future,” Liu Pengyu, spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said Tuesday before the announcement, referring to the Taiwan Strait.

“So we urge the U.S. side to act on President Biden’s commitment of not supporting Taiwan independence,” he said.

The U.S. delegation will be in Taipei “to represent the American people,” the White House official told reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the trip before it was announced. The official called Taiwan “a model for democracy not only in the region but also globally.”

Despite an absence of formal relations with Taiwan, the U.S. is the island’s strongest ally and is obligated under a 1979 law to help Taiwan protect itself from invasion.

It’s unclear how Beijing would respond to an unofficial U.S. delegation at the Taiwanese inauguration, but “Beijing will be the provocateur should it choose to respond with additional military pressure or coercion,” the U.S. official said, adding that the administration is not predicting how China would respond.

Beijing has repeatedly warned Washington not to meddle with Taiwan’s affairs, which it says are a core interest for China because it is a matter of sovereignty and territorial integrity. Beijing sees Washington’s support for Taiwan as provocative.

The U.S. insists any differences be resolved peacefully and opposes any unilateral changes by either side to the status quo. “We do not support Taiwan independence,” the administration official said. “We support cross-Strait dialogue.”

Taiwan has topped the agenda in U.S.-China relations, which have soured over issues ranging from trade, cybersecurity and human rights to spying. The Biden administration, in its competition with China, has engaged in “intense diplomacy” aimed at preventing tensions from spiraling out of control.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have recently visited China in the administration’s latest effort to keep communications open and minimize misunderstanding.

Shortly after Lai was elected in January, President Joe Biden sent an unofficial delegation to Taipei to meet Lai, drawing protests from Beijing. Members of Congress also have traveled to Taiwan to meet the president-elect. Plans are underway for a congressional delegation to visit Taiwan shortly after the inauguration.

Beijing reiterated its claim over Taiwan immediately after Lai was elected and said “the basic fact that Taiwan is part of China will not change.” Days later, Nauru, a tiny Pacific nation, severed its diplomatic ties with Taiwan, which now is recognized by 12 governments, including the Vatican.

Since then, Beijing has criticized a U.S. destroyer’s passage through the Taiwan Strait. The U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet said the USS Halsey “conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit on May 8 through waters where high-seas freedoms of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law.”

Navy Senior Capt. Li Xi, speaking for China’s Eastern Theater Command, accused the U.S. of having “publicly hyped” the passage of the ship and said the command “organized naval and air forces to monitor” the ship’s transit.

Meanwhile, in a push to avoid Taiwan’s global recognition, Beijing said this week that it would not agree to Taiwan’s participation in this year’s World Health Assembly, an annual meeting by the World Health Organization that could boost Taiwan’s visibility on the world stage.

“China’s Taiwan region, unless given approval by the central government, has no basis, reason or right to participate in the World Health Assembly,” said Wang Wenbin, speaking for the Chinese foreign ministry.

Wang also said Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party, which came into power in 2016, has been “hellbent on the separatist stance” of Taiwan’s independence and that Beijing has “sufficient reason and a solid legal basis” to bar Taiwan from the global organization.

Here’s the bipartisan delegation that the White House is sending to Taiwan this weekend:

— Laura Rosenberger, chair of the American Institute in Taiwan, a nonprofit, private corporation established under a 1979 law to manage America’s unofficial relations with Taiwan.

— Brian Deese, a former director of the National Economic Council in the Biden administration.

— Richard Armitage, a former deputy secretary of state under President George W. Bush.

— Richard Bush, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who previously served as chair of the American Institute in Taiwan.
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Washington —  In a move that contrasts with the United States, South Korea had its ambassador in Moscow attend Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inauguration, seemingly leaving its options open for maintaining diplomatic relations with Russia amid Moscow’s deepening ties with Pyongyang.

Seoul said it based its decision for Ambassador Lee Do-hoon to attend Putin’s inauguration “after considering all circumstances surrounding South Korean-Russian bilateral relations.” 

A South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson made the remark to VOA’s Korean Service on Friday.

The U.S. and most European Union countries boycotted Putin’s inauguration held May 7 at the Grand Kremlin Palace.

He was reelected in March for his fifth term in office as Russia’s war in Ukraine raged on for more than two years since its invasion in 2022. Moscow has turned to Pyongyang to replenish its stockpile of arms to fight Ukraine.

“The U.S. directed our embassy not to attend the inauguration in protest of Russia’s war against Ukraine,” a State Department spokesperson said Thursday in an email sent to VOA’s Korean Service.

Japan also did not send a representative to the ceremony. Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Kobayashi Maki said during a news briefing held in Tokyo the day after the inauguration that its decision was “based upon comprehensive consideration of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.”

VOA contacted the Russian Embassy in Seoul for comment on Lee’s attendance. Its spokesperson, Mira Dzhamalidinova, emailed that it has “no comments for VOA.”

Robert Rapson, who served as charge d’affaires and deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul from 2018 to 2021, said, “Ambassador Lee’s attendance at Putin’s inauguration was a small but symbolically significant step by Seoul to signal to Moscow its interest in improving, or at least more effectively managing, deteriorating bilateral relations.”

He continued, “It put [South] Korea clearly out of a public messaging step with the U.S. and its like-minded partners,” and demonstrated “adjustments to its ‘signature value-based’ foreign policy.”

Relations between South Korea and Russia have declined as military ties between Moscow and Pyongyang deepened since North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited Russia in September.

In April, South Korea sanctioned two Russian vessels involved in delivering military supplies from North Korea to Russia. In response, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called Seoul’s move “an unfriendly step” that “will affect South Korea-Russia relations in a negative way.”  [[ https://www.voanews.com/a/us-pushes-back-at-russia-s-protest-over-south-korean-sanctions/7563881.html ]] 

“Washington was likely displeased with South Korea’s decision to send a representative to Putin’s inauguration,” said Dan DePetris, a fellow at Defense Priorities, a Washington-based think tank.

“This is a subtle, low-cost way for the Yoon government [of South Korea] to signal to Moscow that differences over Ukraine and North Korea notwithstanding, it’s not going to mimic the U.S. policy of diplomatic isolation” toward Russia, he continued.

DePetris added that Seoul likely allowed its representative to attend Putin’s inauguration “precisely because North Korea-Russia bilateral ties have strengthened over the last two years” and wants to “keep all options on the table.”

Pyongyang-Moscow ties have expanded to include several visits to Russia by North Korean delegations recently. On Tuesday, North Korea sent a science and technology delegation to Russia to attend a meeting on trade, economy and science to be held in Moscow, according to North Korea’s state-run KCNA.

Also, passenger train services between the two countries resumed since they were suspended after the COVID-19 pandemic, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap, citing Oleg Kozhemyako, the governor of Russia’s northeastern region of Primorsky Krai, bordering North Korea.

Robert Manning, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center’s Reimagining U.S. Grand Strategy Project, said, “Moscow’s new partnership with North Korea may have been a factor” that prompted Seoul to make its representation at Putin’s inauguration.

He continued, however, “I doubt Seoul has illusions about its ability to restrain Russia’s ties with Pyongyang” but is “perhaps focused on maintaining economic ties” with Moscow.

South Korea’s exports to Russia totaled $6.33 billion in 2022, while its imports from Russia amounted to $12.8 billion in the same year, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity, an online platform for data collection and distribution. South Korea’s investment in Russia reached $4.16 billion in the same year, according to the South Korean Foreign Ministry.  
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Jakarta   — This October, 45-year-old Kevin Wu will serve in the Jakarta House of Regional Representatives for the first time, becoming part of a minority of ethnic Chinese elected officials in the Indonesian legislative body. Wu has been a staunch advocate for Chinese-Indonesian rights since 2008 and helped to establish a Buddhist house of worship in the predominantly Muslim country. Now, he is an entrepreneur who advocates for small businesses.

“If we witness injustice, we have two choices — to accept our fate or to strive and hope for change. I chose to do the latter,” he said.

Wu said he was inspired to fight for Chinese-Indonesian rights by late President Abdurrahman Wahid, who was known for his support for ethnic and religious tolerance.

In February, nearly 205 million Indonesians were eligible to cast their votes in the country’s presidential and parliamentary elections. According to the last census in 2010, 1.2% of Indonesia’s total population is of Chinese ethnicity, at over 2.8 million people.

Johanes Herlijanto, chairman of the Indonesian Sinology Forum, a group that seeks to promote Indonesia-China relations, said that in this election he saw more names of Chinese-Indonesian politicians vying for the 500 seats in the national Parliament as well as in the District Representative Council, Provincial Council and Local Council than there were during the parliamentary elections in 2019.

Herlijanto said that political activism among the Chinese-Indonesian community strengthened in the last 26 years, since the Jakarta riots in May 1998 that saw many Chinese Indonesians being persecuted. He said he has seen more Chinese Indonesians serving in public offices ranging from regent, mayoral and legislative.

Herlijanto explained that there have been organizations that provided political education to Chinese Indonesians since the late 1990s.

“This allowed Chinese Indonesians who previously were uncomfortable, to be involved in politics, to now being elected and actively improving public welfare as politicians,” he said.

For decades, under President Suharto, many Chinese Indonesians faced discrimination, persecution and social restrictions, such as being banned from using their Chinese names, practicing their traditional beliefs, showcasing Chinese culture and having their full citizenship recognized.

It was only after former President Wahid came into power in October 1999 that government discrimination against Chinese Indonesians was abolished with the issuance of Presidential Decree No. 6, which protected minority rights. Wahid – commonly known as “Gus Dur” – was the former head of Indonesia’s largest Islamic organization, Nahdlatul Ulama, and had Chinese, Arab and Javanese ancestry.

Wu joined the Indonesian Solidarity Party, or PSI, in 2024, founded by a Chinese Indonesian TV news anchor-turned-politician, and said he was attracted to the party’s dynamic “start-up”-like work environment and idealistic approach to politics. Wu is also a member of the Young Entrepreneurs Association and the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

“I am keen to support industries that open up more job opportunities, offer quality human resources development programs and ease the application process for business permits and industries,” he told VOA.

Daniel Johan, 52, a Buddhist, has been a legislator for the past decade and will serve his third five-year term for the Indonesian Renaissance Party, PKB, in October 2024. He said Gus Dur, and another PKB leader, Muhaimin Iskandar, both inspired him.

Johan is active in the Chinese Clans Association of Indonesia and shared with VOA that it took months of working in the community for his constituents, who are mostly Muslims in West Kalimantan, to trust and vote for a Chinese Indonesian politician.

“This term, I will be working on issues regarding food security, food independence and how to improve the management of natural resources and better monitor the implementation of the Mineral and Coal Production Law,” he said.

Although political activism and involvement is on the rise in the Chinese Indonesian community, politicians and leaders of Chinese associations in Indonesia are still aware that stereotypes remain, especially in rural areas.

Herlijanto said that the campaign teams for all three presidential candidates in the recent elections had Chinese Indonesian supporters, “so taking on divisive identity politics is not a prudent political strategy.”

However, the tides could turn against ethnic and religious minorities if divisive identity politics were to be used again in future elections. Herlijanto noted the case of former Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, a Chinese-Christian governor known as “Ahok,” who was sentenced to two years in prison in 2017 under Indonesia’s blasphemy law, based on claims he insulted the Quran during his campaign for reelection. Ahok denied wrongdoing.

“Although radicalism based on religious beliefs, or a narrowed interpretation of nationalism, has faded in recent years, its re-emergence is possible and is an issue Chinese Indonesians are cautious about. That’s why it’s important for Chinese Indonesians to be inclusive, strive for equality and welfare and show that we stand for all Indonesians,” said Herlijanto.

I Wayan Suparmin, head of the Indonesian Chinese Association in Jakarta, said Chinese Indonesians must strive to be more inclusive in their surroundings and better understand that in a community everyone’s lives are truly intertwined. A notion that Johan agrees with, “Moving forward, Chinese-Indonesian politicians need to be more sincere, humble and avoid being deceitful or scandalous. The majority of people can sense politicians’ sincerity and intentions.”
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Berlin — Burmese writer Ma Thida doesn’t like to think of herself as exiled.

She left Myanmar in 2021, just a few months after the military seized power in a coup that overthrew the civilian-led government.

And while Ma Thida says it would not be safe for her to return anytime soon, exile implies a permanence the writer isn’t quite comfortable with.

“My aim is not to be exiled — just to keep away from the country. And as soon as I get a chance, I would definitely go back,” she said, speaking with VOA in Berlin, where she is currently living.

Born and raised in Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon, Ma Thida studied medicine in the 1980s and became a physician. She worked as an aide and medic for pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and wrote her first novel in 1992.

Titled “The Sunflower,” the book explored the population’s expectations of Suu Kyi, who at that time was under house arrest.

But the book was banned shortly before being published in 1993, and Myanmar’s junta sentenced Ma Thida to 20 years in Insein Prison for “endangering public peace, having contact with illegal organizations, and distributing unlawful literature.”

International pressure led to her early release in 1999. “The Sunflower” was finally published, and Ma Thida started writing again.

Her latest book “A-Maze,” published in May, explores Myanmar’s struggle for democracy and the post-coup Spring Revolution.

“I try to understand what’s going on right now and why it happened,” Ma Thida said. “So, this is my attempt to understand the whole situation, but at the same time, my attempt to convince the readers to understand what our struggle is.”

Ma Thida, who is chair of the Writers in Prison Committee run by the free expression group PEN International, said her jailing in the 1990s made her realize it was too dangerous to stay in Myanmar following the 2021 coup.

“A lot of writers were already at risk or were already being arrested,” she said, recalling how anxious she felt at Yangon Airport the day she left.

Myanmar’s military, known as the Tatmadaw, has detained thousands of people, including journalists and writers.

“They’re trying to silence all forms of dissent,” said Karin Deutsch Karlekar, a Myanmar expert at PEN America in New York. “Many people are still either underground and hiding within Myanmar, or in exile.”

Some writers were among the prisoners released at the beginning of 2024 in an annual mass amnesty. But several remain behind bars.

Their cases show that the military has not wavered on its aversion to free expression, Karlekar said.

Karlekar cited the case of filmmaker Shin Daewe, who covered environmental issues and human rights. Authorities sentenced her to life in prison earlier this year for buying a drone.

“Those sentences are really, really extreme and are a signal to anyone else in the writing and creative community that if they step out of line in any way, in terms of even just expressing criticism of the junta, that this is a possibility,” Karlekar said.

Myanmar’s military did not reply to VOA’s request for comment.

For now, Ma Thida is grateful to have the freedom and safety to continue her work.

Her latest book, published in English, is primarily intended for an international audience.

“Some people think this is just war — not the revolution, not the resistance,” she said about what she hopes readers take away from the book. “It’s more than that.”

Despite her situation and the years already spent in prison, laughter is still instinctive for Ma Thida. She pokes fun at her own misfortunes, including her passport troubles.

Myanmar’s embassy in Berlin has resisted renewing Ma Thida’s expired passport, which she believes is in retaliation for her writing.

The embassy did not reply to VOA’s request for comment.

Ma Thida has faced this problem before. After her release from prison in 1999, she was unable to obtain a passport for five years. “I have so many problems with passports,” she said, chuckling.

Withholding travel documents from exiled dissidents is something PEN America is seeing more frequently as a method of control, Karlekar said.

For now, the German government has given Ma Thida a passport reserved for people unable to obtain a passport from their home country.

And while Berlin is safer for dissidents than Yangon these days, Myanmar will always be home for Ma Thida.

“I look at my country as my own home because I got my education there. I got my understanding of life there. I got my belief in freedom there,” she said. “I always want to go back home.”
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Bangkok — Refugees from Myanmar seeking shelter from their country’s grinding civil war in neighboring India tell VOA they fear a wave of arrests and forced returns following the Manipur state government’s recent moves to start deporting them.

Earlier this month, on May 2, Manipur Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren Singh announced the deportation of 77 “illegal immigrants from Myanmar” on his social media page, calling it the “first phase.”

In comments on social media again last Wednesday, the chief minister said the process of deporting some 5,400 more “illegal immigrants” was “underway.”

The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, says nearly 60,000 refugees have fled to India since Myanmar’s military toppled the country’s democratically elected government and seized power in 2021, setting off a bloody civil war that has claimed thousands of lives.

The refugees are spread across three provinces in India’s far east on the border with Myanmar, but authorities in Manipur have taken the most aggressive steps to send them back. Officials there blame the refugees for fueling the state’s own spate of deadly communal clashes over the past year.

India does not officially recognize refugees and has not signed the U.N. refugee convention.

Refugees in Manipur say the recent deportations have put them on edge. Some have begun to relocate to avoid the government’s anticipated dragnet.

“That is the very thing we are afraid of. That’s why … we moved here to another border village, because we are afraid of the Manipur government,” said Seithang Haokip, speaking with VOA by phone from a hiding place a few kilometers from the border.

“All of us are very afraid of both sides, from both sides, of being arrested by the Manipur government and by the Myanmar military regime,” he said.

Seithang Haokip said he crossed into India illegally about two years ago from Myanmar’s Chin state, where he had joined a nationwide civil disobedience movement and was helping lead local strikes against the regime.

He and others say they fear for their lives if they were to be arrested and returned to Myanmar.

“They [the Myanmar military] already opened many files on me, so military junta already wanted me, so definitely they will arrest me and they will put [me] in jail for long time, or they can maybe kill me,” said Myo, another refugee from Myanmar who is in hiding near the border. Myo asked that his full name not be used for his safety.

Myo told VOA that he also crossed into India illegally a few years ago after joining Myanmar’s civil disobedience movement. He and his wife and son now share a small hut with two other families. He said they all have been on constant alert since the news of the recent deportations.

“When we hear [sounds] of truck or car or police or army coming around us, we are ready to run away or hide, so this kind of fear every day,” said Myo.

“We all feel like that. This is a signal that we are no more safe in India,” he said.

Right groups say their fears are well founded.

United Nations investigators have accused Myanmar’s junta of widespread war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the rape, torture and murder of both civilians and rebel fighters in detention. They say indiscriminate air and artillery attacks against the resistance have razed whole villages. Some 2.5 million people have been displaced by the fighting inside Myanmar itself, according to the U.N.

In April, the junta also began enforcing a years-old conscription law that requires all men between the ages of 18 and 35 serve at least two years and banned military-age men from leaving the country.

At 31, Salai Dokhar, another refugee, said he could be forced to fight for a military he loathes and ordered to kill his fellow countrymen if sent back to Myanmar. Even in the relative safety of New Delhi, India’s sprawling capital, more than 2,000 kilometers from the border, he said he too has a growing fear of being arrested and deported.

“I stay home. Except for emergency issues I never go out. We have to hide ourselves from the authorities to [not] be arrested,” Salai Dokhar said.

“Most of the people who entered to India are not safe in the hands of the [Myanmar] military, including me,” he added.

With the civil war in Myanmar still raging, Human Rights Watch says Indian authorities should allow the refugees to stay until they feel ready to return on their own.

“Conditions are extremely dangerous for civilians in many parts of Myanmar, where there is an ongoing armed conflict. Many civilians have been forced to flee to seek safety in India,” Meenakshi Ganguly, the group’s deputy Asia director, told VOA.

“The Indian authorities should protect their rights,” she added. “Although India has not signed the refugee convention, it is still obliged to not forcibly return refugees to Myanmar when there are such extreme risks to life and liberty.”

In a statement last week, the International Commission of Jurists said India was bound by other conventions it has signed to not force people back to countries where they are likely to be in danger. The commission has also urged Indian authorities to stop the deportations.

Refugees say they believe authorities in Manipur are currently holding well over 100 people from Myanmar in detention centers and fear that any day they may be the next to be deported.

The state government and chief minister of Manipur did not reply to VOA’s requests for an interview or for comment.

Refugees and rights groups say the state’s deportation drive is political, motivated by a bid for votes by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in a nationwide general election that started in April and runs until June.

Biren Singh, a member of the Hindu nationalist BJP, has blamed the refugees for stoking the communal clashes that have torn through Manipur since May 2023, pitting the majority and predominantly Hindu Meitei against the minority Kuki, who are mostly Christian. The Kuki are also kin to the ethnic Chin of western Myanmar, who make up many of the refugees in Manipur.

“Unfortunately, the refugees from Myanmar are being used by the ruling Biren Singh government in Manipur, and his BJP party, to stoke communal divisions. For petty political gains, the Biren Singh administration has created rifts between communities that will take a long time to heal, with hundreds killed and tens of thousands displaced,” said Ganguly.

“They detain the Myanmar refugees to play their political games in general election,” echoed Salai Dokhar, an ethnic Chin himself. “We are in a political game, for sure.”
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SYDNEY — An investigation by Australia’s public broadcaster accuses China’s secret police service of tracking down dissidents living overseas.

A former Chinese spy now living in Australia told Australian Broadcasting Corp.’s Four Corners program that a unit of the Chinese secret service had been operational in Sydney as recently as last year.

The spy – named only as “Eric” – has described a shadowy world of deception and abduction.  The former Chinese agent told ABC how he’d been ordered by the secret police in Beijing to target dissidents overseas, including in India, Thailand, Canada and Australia.

‘Eric’ said he would gain their confidence and lure them to countries where they could be kidnapped and sent back to China.  

He told journalists from the investigative Four Corners program that he fled last year to Australia.  

Australia’s domestic spy agency has not confirmed any of the details of the alleged Chinese spy ring.

‘Eric’ said he worked as an undercover agent for a unit within China’s federal police and security agency, the Ministry of Public Security, between 2008 and early 2023.

The specialist division is called the Political Security Protection Bureau, or the 1st Bureau, and targets so-called enemies of the Chinese state.  It is alleged to have been working in Sydney as recently as last year.

‘Eric’ told the ABC that he was speaking out to expose the truth.

“I believe the public has a right to know the secret world.  I worked for the Chinese Political Security Department for 15 years,” he said.  “Today, it is still the darkest department of the Chinese government.”

The ABC said is the first time anyone from China’s secret police has ever spoken publicly. It is using a pseudonym to protect his identity.

Peter Mattis is a China analyst at the Jamestown Foundation, a U.S-based conservative defense policy research organization.  He told the ABC’s Four Corners program that Beijing wants to curb dissent among the Chinese diaspora.

“The Political Protection Bureau has also had a role in trying to silence dissidents as well as to map dissident networks.”

The ABC has said that it has seen hundreds of secret documents and correspondence that back up ‘Eric’s’ allegations.

The broadcaster has reported that Chinese authorities have used anti-corruption campaigns to return more than 12,000 alleged fugitives to China in the past decade.

Chinese authorities have not yet commented on the allegations made in the Australian documentary.

There has also been no response from ASIO, the Australian Security Intelligence Organization to the claims.
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Cairo — Chinese companies won four bids to explore Iraqi oil and gas fields, Iraq’s oil minister said Sunday as the Middle Eastern country’s hydrocarbon exploration licensing round continued into its second day.

The oil and gas licenses for 29 projects are mainly aimed at ramping up output for domestic use, with more than 20 companies pre-qualifying, including European, Chinese, Arab and Iraqi groups.

Chinese companies have been the only foreign players to win bids, taking nine oil and gas fields since Saturday, while Iraqi Kurdish company KAR Group took two.

There were notably no U.S. oil majors involved, even after Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia met representatives of U.S. companies on an official visit to the United States last month.

China’s National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) -Iraq won a bid to develop Iraq’s Block 7 for oil exploration that extends across the country’s central and southern provinces of Diwaniya, Babil, Najaf, Wasit and Muthanna, said oil minister Hayan Abdul Ghani.

ZhenHua, Anton Oilfield Services and Sinopec won bids to develop the Abu Khaymah oilfield in Muthanna, the Dhufriya field in Wasit and the Summer field in Muthanna respectively, the minister said.

Iraq’s main goal with its sixth licensing round was to increase gas output that it wants to use to fire power plants that rely heavily on gas imported from Iran.

However, no bids were made on at least two fields with large gas potential, potentially undermining those efforts.

Iraq, OPEC’s second-largest oil producer behind Saudi Arabia, has been hampered in its oil sector development by contract terms viewed as unfavorable by many major oil companies as well as recurring military conflict and growing investor focus on environmental, social and governance criteria.
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PADANG, Indonesia — Heavy rains and torrents of cold lava and mud flowing down a volcano’s slopes on Indonesia’s Sumatra island triggered flash floods that killed at least 37 people and more than a dozen others were missing, officials said Sunday.

Monsoon rains and a major mudslide from a cold lava flow on Mount Marapi caused a river to breach its banks and tear through mountainside villages in four districts in West Sumatra province just before midnight on Saturday. The floods swept away people and submerged more than 100 houses and buildings, National Disaster Management Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari said.

Cold lava, also known as lahar, is a mixture of volcanic material and pebbles that flow down a volcano’s slopes in the rain.

By Sunday afternoon, rescuers had pulled out 19 bodies in the worst-hit village of Canduang in Agam district and recovered nine other bodies in the neighboring district of Tanah Datar, the National Search and Rescue Agency said in a statement.

The agency said that eight bodies were pulled from mud during deadly flash floods that also hit Padang Pariaman, and one body was found in the city of Padang Panjang. It said rescuers are searching for 18 people who are reportedly missing.

Flash floods on Saturday night also caused main roads around the Anai Valley Waterfall area in Tanah Datar district to be blocked by mud, cutting off access to other cities, Padang Panjang Police Chief Kartyana Putra said Sunday.

Videos released by the National Search and Rescue Agency showed roads that were transformed into murky brown rivers.

The disaster came just two months after heavy rains triggered flash floods and a landslide in West Sumatra’s Pesisir Selatan and Padang Pariaman districts, killing at least 21 people and leaving five others missing.

The 2,885-meter Mount Marapi erupted late last year killing 23 climbers who were caught by a surprise weekend eruption. The volcano has stayed at the third highest of four alert levels since 2011, indicating above-normal volcanic activity under which climbers and villagers must stay more than 3 kilometers from the peak, according to Indonesia’s Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation.

Marapi is known for sudden eruptions that are difficult to predict because the source is shallow and near the peak, and its eruptions aren’t caused by a deep movement of magma, which sets off tremors that register on seismic monitors.

Marapi has been active since an eruption in January 2023 that caused no casualties. It is among more than 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia. The country is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
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BANDUNG, Indonesia — A bus slammed into cars and motorbikes after its brakes apparently malfunctioned in Indonesia’s West Java province, killing at least 11 people, mostly students, and injuring dozens of others, officials said Sunday.

The bus carrying 61 students and teachers was returning to a high school in Depok outside Jakarta, the capital, late Saturday from the hilly resort area of Bandung after a graduation celebration, said West Java police spokesperson Jules Abraham Abast.

It sped out of control on a downhill road and crossed lanes, hitting several cars and motorbikes before it crashed into an electricity pole, he said.

Nine people died at the scene and two others died later in the hospital, including a teacher and a local motorist, Abast said. Fifty-three other people were hospitalized with injuries, including some in critical condition, he said.

“We are still investigating the cause of the accident, but a preliminary investigation showed the bus’s brakes malfunctioned,” Abast said.

Local television footage showed the mangled bus in the darkness on its side, surrounded by rescuers, police and passersby as ambulances evacuated the injured.

Road accidents are common in Indonesia due to poor safety standards and infrastructure.

Last year, a tourist bus with an apparently drowsy driver slammed into a billboard on a highway in East Java, killing at least 14 people and injuring 19 others. In 2021, a tourist bus plunged into a ravine in the West Java hilly resort of Puncak after its brakes apparently malfunctioned, killing at least 27 people and injuring 39 others.
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MANILA, PHILIPPINES — The Philippines said Saturday it has deployed ships to a disputed area in the South China Sea, where it accused China of building “an artificial island” in an escalating maritime row. 

The coast guard sent a ship “to monitor the supposed illegal activities of China, creating ‘an artificial island,'” the office of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said in a statement, adding that two other vessels were in rotational deployment in the area. 

Philippine coast guard spokesperson Commodore Jay Tarriela told a forum there had been “small-scale reclamation” of the Sabina Shoal, which Manila calls Escoda, and that China was “the most probable actor.” 

The Chinese Embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Philippine assertions, which could deepen the bilateral rift. 

The Philippine national security adviser called Friday for expelling Chinese diplomats over an alleged leak of a phone conversation with a Filipino admiral about the maritime dispute. 

Beijing and Manila have been embroiled for a year in heated standoffs over their competing claims in the South China Sea, where $3 trillion worth of trade passes annually. 

China claims almost all of the vital waterway, including parts claimed by the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam. The Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled in 2016 that Beijing’s claims had no basis under international law. 

China has carried out extensive land reclamation on some islands in the South China Sea, building air force and other military facilities, causing concern in Washington and around the region. 

A Philippine vessel has been anchored at the Sabina Shoal to “catch and document the dumping of crushed corals over the sandbars,” Tarriela said, citing the “alarming” presence of dozens of Chinese ships, including research and navy vessels. 

Tarriela said the presence of Chinese vessels at the atoll 200 kilometers (124 miles) from the Philippine province of Palawan coincided with the coast guard’s discovery of piles of dead and crushed coral. 

The coast guard will take marine scientists to the areas to determine whether the coral piles were a natural occurrence or caused by human intervention, he said. 

He added that the coast guard intends to have a “prolonged presence” at Sabina Shoal, a rendezvous point for Philippine vessels carrying out resupply missions to Filipino troops stationed on a grounded warship at the Second Thomas Shoal, where Manila and China have had frequent maritime run-ins. 
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Seoul, South Korea — North Korea will equip its military with a new 240mm multiple rocket launcher starting this year, state media said Saturday, adding a “significant change” for the army’s artillery combat capabilities was under way.

Leader Kim Jong Un on Friday oversaw a live-fire test of the “technically updated” rocket system, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said.

The announcement comes as analysts say the nuclear-armed North could be testing and ramping up production of artillery and cruise missiles before sending them to Russia for use in Ukraine.

Pyongyang in February said it had developed a new control system for its 240mm multiple rocket launcher that would lead to a “qualitative change” in its defense capabilities, and last month executed a test-firing of new shells.

The updated rocket launcher will be “deployed to units of the Korean People’s Army as replacement equipment from 2024 to 2026,” KCNA said Saturday.

South Korea’s defense ministry told AFP it could not confirm the Friday test launches.

But Pyongyang said eight shells had “hit point target to intensively prove the advantage and destructive power of the updated 240mm multiple rocket launcher system.”

Images released by state media showed leader Kim conversing with military officials during an inspection of the launcher, as well as what appeared to be the live-fire test of the system.

The tests also proved the power of the “controllable shells for (the) multiple rocket launcher,” it added.

The largely isolated country has recently bolstered military ties with Russia, and Pyongyang thanked Moscow last month for using its U.N. Security Council veto to block the renewal of a panel of U.N. experts that monitored international weapons sanctions on Kim’s regime.

South Korea and the United States have accused North Korea of supplying weapons to Russia, despite U.N. sanctions banning such a move.

KCNA said Saturday that Kim discussed ways to raise production of the new rocket launcher system and shells to “the highest level.”

It also said a “significant change will be soon made in increasing the artillery combat ability of our army,” without providing details.

Inter-Korean relations are at one of their lowest points in years, with Pyongyang declaring South Korea its “principal enemy.” It has jettisoned agencies dedicated to reunification and threatened war over “even 0.001 mm” of territorial infringement.

While escalating its military threats towards South Korea, the North is “also signaling its intentions to participate in weapons exports and other defense-related economic activities via ongoing technical advancements,” said Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.

In the context of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, Pyongyang has “indirectly verified the performance of its existing weapons” by supplying them to Russia, he told AFP.
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