Kem Sokha, main rival of strongman premier Hun Sen, was detained in the early hours of September 3, taken to a remote border prison and accused of treason and espionage for allegedly conspiring with foreign powers to overthrow the government.

Rights groups have blasted the “concocted” charges as nothing more than Hun Sen’s latest legal manoeuvre to sideline opponents ahead of 2018 elections that will test his 32-year grip on power.

“The court decided to uphold the provisional detention warrant (of Kem Sokha),” Touch Tharith, a spokesman for the Court of Appeals, told AFP after the hearing.

Authorities refused to bring the opposition leader to the Phnom Penh court, prompting his legal team to boycott the proceedings which were closed to the public.

“We demanded Kem Sokha be present at the hearing, but the court decided to continue the proceedings so the lawyers boycotted the hearing and walked out,” lawyer Sam Sokong told reporters.

In response, the Court of Appeals issued a statement saying it was uneccessary to bring the suspect to the courtroom as it was not an evidentiary hearing.

The court has not set a date for the trial or explained why it is necessary to detain Kem Sokha, 64, in the jail on the Vietnamese border.

On Tuesday dozens of supporters and opposition MPs, who were blocked from entering the courthouse by a column of police, rallied outside to call for their leader’s release.

“It is hard to accept the treason charge. We feel it is very unjust to lock him in jail,” said one supporter who requested anonymity.

Hun Sen has accused Washington of involvement in Kem Sokha’s “secret plan” with foreign entities — an allegation rejected as “absurd” by the US ambassador.

The wily premier has helped the impoverished emerge from the ashes of genocide and civil war during his three decades in power.

But he has faced a mounting challenge in recent years from Kem Sokha’s Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), buoyed by public frustration over corruption and rights abuses.

Ever since he nearly lost to the CNRP in 2013, rights groups say Hun Sen has smothered critics in the opposition, press and rights groups, often by using the courts as a cudgel.

Around a dozen opposition politicians have faced prosecutions since that poll, with Kem Sokha’s predecessor Sam Rainsy forced to flee abroad to avoid a string of convictions which he says are politically motivated.

The CNRP nevertheless fared well in local elections earlier this year, shaking the confidence of Hun Sen’s ruling party as it prepares for next year’s national poll.//AFP

    Users in China have reported widespread disruptions in recent days to the Facebook-owned service, which previously malfunctioned in the country over the summer.

Experts said the problems began on Sunday, but text messaging, voice calls and video calls appeared to be working again on Tuesday, though voice messages and photos were not going through.

WhatsApp provides message encryption technology that likely does not please Chinese authorities, which closely monitor and restrict cyberspace through their “Great Firewall”.

China has tightened online policing this year, enacting new rules that require tech companies to store user data inside the country as well as restrictions on what is permissible content.

Websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and a slew of foreign media have been blocked for years.

The WhatsApp troubles emerged ahead of the Communist Party congress on October 18, when President Xi Jinping is expected to be given a second five-year term as the party’s general secretary.

“It smells like Party congress pre-emptive blocking,” said Jason Ng, who researches China’s internet at the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto.

China usually steps up surveillance around major events, Ng said.

– ‘Extreme censorship’ –

========================

While the WeChat messaging app owned by China’s Tencent company is more widely used in the country, many WhatsApp users complained about the disruptions.

Many Chinese activists prefer to use Whatsapp because of its end-to-end encryption.

“As we get closer to the Party congress, I think authorities will use more extreme censorship measures. The public knows that WeChat isn’t safe,” prominent Beijing-based activist Hu Jia told AFP.

“Me and other dissidents use WhatsApp to communicate 70 per cent of the time. For the few days WhatsApp was completely inaccessible, we didn’t talk at all,” Hu said.

Other users in China noted that the disruptions would make it difficult to work with clients abroad.

“Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Viber were blocked before. Now even WhatsApp is blocked? Without good messaging tools, it will reduce the efficiency of the foreign trade industry,” wrote one person on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media website.

“I can live without the others (applications), but blocking WhatsApp is driving me crazy,” said another.

WhatsApp declined to comment.

The Open Observatory of Network Interference, a global censorship detection group, said China started blocking WhatsApp on Sunday.

– Growing firewall –

====================

To operate in China, some foreign tech companies have complied with local regulations. But others such as Google have chosen to pull out completely from mainland China.

In July, Apple removed software allowing internet users to skirt China’s “Great Firewall” from its app store in the country, drawing criticism that it was bowing to Beijing’s ever-growing web censorship.

Such software, called virtual private networks (VPN), allow people in China to access any website, even those that are blocked.

Beijing mandated in January that all developers must obtain government licences to offer VPNs and there has been concern that it might ban them outright.//AFP

Singaporeans still have some way to go before they are ready to deal with a terror attack here.

A Sunday Times poll found that about four in five Singaporeans feel unprepared if a terror attack were to hit home.

And more than 70 per cent admitted that they have not acquired life-saving skills, including cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and first aid.

Today is exactly a year after the SGSecure national movement, which aims to get all Singaporeans involved in the fight against terror, was launched.

In the past year, the authorities have organised a number of community Emergency Preparedness Days, talks and exhibitions.

Home Team officers have visited 220,000 households and more than 160 schools.

A mobile application, which allows the public to receive important alerts or send information to the authorities via text, pictures or videos, was also launched in conjunction with the campaign .

However, a Sunday Times survey of 250 Singaporeans, aged 13 to 81, found that just 14 per cent have downloaded the SGSecure app – consistent with the Ministry of Home Affairs’ (MHA) update that the app has been downloaded on to 843,000 devices.

The poll also found that only about half the respondents knew how to use a fire extinguisher; 30 per cent said they were trained in first aid; and about 22 per cent are certified to administer CPR or operate an automated external defibrillator (AED).

Even more dismal was the percentage of those who knew what number to send an SMS to (71999) during an emergency, if they were unable to call the authorities.

On the bright side, publicity on dealing with suspicious items and persons seems to be working. More than 90 per cent rightly pointed that they should inform service staff and the authorities if they see someone acting suspiciously at an MRT station, or if they found an unattended bag on the bus.

MHA said that while SGSecure has gained “significant momentum”, more work is needed in order to sustain it. The ministry said it will be ramping up efforts in the neighbourhoods, schools and workplaces, with a focus on strengthening citizens’ response in crises.

The Emergency Preparedness Day, which was revamped amid a heightened terror threat, will be rolled out at all 89 constituencies over the next 18 months. So far, it has been conducted at 36 constituencies.

Observers have said that it is not a question of “if” but “when” a terror attack will strike Singapore.

With threats against Singapore becoming more virulent, some Singaporeans have picked up skills needed to help others in a crisis.

Among them is investment analyst Kelvin Low, 29, whose workplace sends employees for CPR and AED courses and teaches them to use fire extinguishers.

While he is prepared for a terror situation, Mr Low said, the shock of an attack will affect all, “no matter how ready we think we are”.

Housewife Ann Zhang, 36, said she knows it is important but has been putting off learning first aid.

“I should set time aside to pick up these skills because anything can happen, and I would want to be able to protect my loved ones,” she said.

Singapore-listed counters with exposure to the Asean region have prospered this year, with more opportunities up for grabs from China’s One Belt, One Road drive.

About 25 per cent of the market here comprises industrials, materials and utilities stocks which derive at least 20 per cent of their revenue from operations in the South-east Asian region.

These 192 stocks “may provide investors with opportunities to invest in companies with Asean exposure across industries such as construction and engineering, metals and mining, and trading and distribution”, the Singapore Exchange (SGX) said in an SGX My Gateway report.

The largest 20 such stocks by market capitalisation have produced an average weighted price return of 13 per cent in the year to date, it said.

The figure, as at Sept 21, tracks near the 14.8 per cent return across the bourse in the same period. And 18 of these stocks count on business in Asean for at least half of their revenue.

The report noted that 13 of the 20 stocks have produced positive price returns, with the highest coming from Straits Trading Company at 28.3 per cent, Jardine Strategic Holdings at 26.4 per cent and Keppel Infrastructure Trust at 23.2 per cent.

Companies with turnover coming exclusively from Asean also thrived. Indonesia-based development and management firm Gallant Venture chalked up a 13.8 per cent return while SIA Engineering added 5.5 per cent.

The Chinese Belt and Road Initiative has been accompanied by infrastructure development across the region that could potentially expand trade routes.

Beijing has already committed billions to projects such as rail and port links, financed through avenues like the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Silk Road Infrastructure Fund.

Around Asean, joint projects include railway undertakings in Laos and Thailand, which the bourse operator noted will integrate the region and the global economy “while maintaining its central role in East Asian regional cooperation”.

Meanwhile, the Chongqing Connectivity Initiative and Southern Transport Corridor are among the schemes that Singapore is partnering Chinese entities to help set up.

The SGX report noted that Singapore, as a financial hub for both China and Asean, “has significant roles to play” in One Belt, One Road efforts.

“In addition, Singapore has several established industries with the experience and expertise to drive and support infrastructure development for (the Belt and Road Initiative) in Asean, within sectors such as industrials, materials and utilities.”

Liu Jiandong, founder and chairman of UVS Intelligence System, a privately owned drone-maker in Shanghai, said mass production of its U650 seaplane has begun and will enter commercial operation this year with a Chinese express delivery company and a client in Southeast Asia.

He declined to name the buyers, citing business confidentiality, but said both contracts had “considerable value”.

“We are working with the domestic client to apply for approval from air traffic management authorities of our plan to open a freight route next year using the amphibious drone,” he said.

The U650 was developed based on Spain’s Colyaer Freedom S100 amphibious ultralight aircraft, whose intellectual property rights were wholly acquired by the Shanghai company, according to UVS.

The amphibious drone carried out its maiden flight from waters in Central China in December 2015, the company said.

The 5.85-meter-long un­manned seaplane, made of carbon fiber, is able to stay aloft 15 hours with a cruising speed of 180 kilometers per hour and a flight range of 2,000 km. It is capable of takeoffs and landings from short unpaved airstrips, grassland or water.

The drone can carry up to 250 kilograms of cargo and its wings can also carry four payloads, such as inflatable life rafts.

Liu said his company sees domestic and foreign couriers as the U650’s primary users. It expects the model to be a commercial success because “it is the only civilian drone in the global market that is capable of ferrying cargo with a total weight of 200 kg or even heavier”.

Express delivery enterprises along China’s eastern and southern coastal regions will find the U650 useful, he said. Those areas are densely populated and have busy airline operations that lead to many restrictions when it comes to drone flights.

“Our aircraft can fly above, and land on, water. Its range is much longer than those of small types, so it doesn’t need to make stops during a delivery mission. It will not risk the safety of people or airliners,” Liu said.

Almost all of China’s large couriers, such as China Post and SF Express, have begun to invest in research and development on delivery drones. Analysts have said drones will play an increasingly important role in the country’s skyrocketing online shopping industry.

Globally, Amazon and DHL Express have deployed drones for delivery service on a small and experimental scale, and are continuing to design new models.

In addition to couriers, U650 will also be able to benefit Chinese troops and residents on islands and reefs in the South China Sea, Liu said.

“It can be used to transport supplies to those islands and reefs many times a day at a low cost while ships and manned planes are subject to weather and expenditure considerations,” he said. “Meanwhile, the deployment of such drones will make it possible for those living there to have access to online shopping, which they are unable to do now because of the absence of delivery service.”

The U650 is capable of carrying out reconnaissance and strikes for the military thanks to its ability to carry radar, sonar or missiles.

“For instance, the drone can remain afloat at sea to tow sonar to detect submarines and move rapidly to other areas to continue the search,” Liu said.

China’s most advanced weather satellite officially began operating 36,000 kilometres above the earth on Monday, greatly improving the country’s capabilities in weather forecasting, environmental monitoring and disaster prevention and relief. It is also expected to help China’s response to climate change.

The 5.4-metric-ton Fengyun 4A, developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, lifted off on Dec 11 atop a Long March 3B carrier rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Sichuan province.

During its shakedown period, the satellite performed well and generated good-quality images and data, according to a news release from the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence, which oversees the satellite project.

It said the Fengyun 4A can be used to detect and monitor typhoons, sandstorms, rainstorms and smog.

Engineers from the China Meteorological Administration took control of the satellite on Monday. It is expected to be in service for more than six years.

The Fengyun 4A is the country’s latest geosynchronous meteorological satellite series and will gradually replace the Fengyun 2 generation. It will monitor the atmosphere, clouds and the space environment above China and the entire Western Pacific and Indian oceans, according to the administration.

Dong Yaohai, chief designer of the satellite at the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, said it has four instrument groups－an advanced geosynchronous radiation imager, a geostationary interferometric infrared sounder, a lightning mapping imager and a space environment package.

He said the Fengyun 4A can calculate the density of PM10 and PM2.5－particulate matter that is harmful to human health－and is so sensitive that it can detect a temperature change of 0.1 C on the ground.

Zhao Jian, a key official overseeing the project, said China plans to launch the Fengyun 4B in 2018 and Fengyun 4C in 2020.

China launched its first weather satellite, Fengyun 1A, in 1988. Currently, the country maintains eight weather satellites－the Fengyun 4A (the newest), plus four Fengyun 2 series and three Fengyun 3 series satellites, according to the administration.

WeChat, the most popular instant messaging application in China, replaced its composite logon picture－which uses an image of Earth taken in 1972 by the crew of NASA’s Apollo 17 spacecraft－on Monday. It will use an image recently taken by the Fengyun 4A satellite until Thursday.

President Xi Jinping called on Monday on the whole country to raise up spirits and make persistent efforts to achieve the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation as the Communist Party of China is preparing for its 19th National Congress to be held some three weeks later.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks while visiting an exhibition at the Beijing Exhibition Hall. It was held to showcase the country’s progress in the past five years under the leadership of the CPC with Xi as the core.

Since the Party’s 18th National Congress held in November 2012, the CPC has led the people of the country to achieve long-term development of socialism with Chinese characteristics, im­prove the people’s livelihood, and produce historic reform of the Party and the country, Xi said.

The past five years is an extraordinary period in the developmental progress of the Party and the country, he added.

The exhibition, a precursor to the 19th National Congress of the CPC scheduled on Oct 18, has 10 sectors with different themes including boosting the rule of law, deepening reform, protecting the environment and building a strong military.

Xi urged wide publicity for the developmental practices, achievements and experiences of the Party and government in the past five years, as well as encouragement for the people to boost confidence toward the path, theory, system and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and persistent efforts for the rejuvenation of the country.

The exhibition was visited by the seven members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, which is unusual. A number of senior vice-national level officials also visited the exhibition on Monday.

The exhibition uses the theme of the spirit of Xi’s important speeches and the CPC’s new theories, thoughts and strategies in the governance of China.

With multimedia measures including videos, data, photos and models of machines, the exhibition shows the great achievements of the country’s reform, the extraordinary wisdom and excellent capability of the CPC’s governance, the people’s sense of gain and happiness, and the whole society’s preparation for the Party’s 19th National Congress.

In November 2012, Xi put forward the notion of the Chinese Dream — achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation — for the first time when he visited an exhibition with other newly elected top leaders of the Party.

Korea’s state-led water company K-water has wrapped up its co-hosting of the first Asia International Water Week at Hwabaek International Convention Center in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province.

Along with the Asia Water Council, K-water hosted the triennial water industry event from Wednesday to Saturday to devise solutions for water issues around the globe, as well as to foster the industry in Asia.

A total of some 15,000 officials from the government and international organizations across 69 countries participated.

During the event, K-water set up the Water Industry Platform Center to help local small- and mid-sized water companies to introduce their products and technologies. K-water offered to provide financial and technological support, as well as overseas business opportunities. Korean pump manufacturer Hyosung Goodsprings and 39 other local small and mid-sized companies signed business agreements with K-water and discussed overseas sales strategies.

Through such platforms, K-water aims to help create some 100 venture businesses here with 600 billion won ($529 million) of financial support by 2021. The company expressed hopes to create around 12,000 new jobs.

“K-water will continue to provide platforms where domestic companies can test and introduce their own products,” said K-Water CEO Lee Hak-soo. “The company will also share information, technologies and know-how with local companies to help them increase sales and create new job positions here and abroad,” Lee added.

K-water also held a separate forum to foster business talks between Korean water companies and officials from other countries. Representatives from six countries including Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia held government-to-business sessions with Korean companies and multilateral development banks, including the Asia Development Bank, World Bank, Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, Central American Bank for Economic Integration and Pakistan’s Patrind Hydro Power.

The banks also held sessions to introduce their investments in water industry-related projects.

Meanwhile, Korean and overseas water experts gathered to share solutions for water issues such as algae blooms and water shortages.

K-water CEO Lee, who is also the head of the Asia Water Council, also emphasized the importance of solving water-related problems that are currently increasing with population growth in Asia. By issuing the “Asia to World Statement,” the CEO also vowed to put effort into solving water supply issues around the globe.

“The AWC vows to carry out the guidelines of the statement and share the results at the World Water Forum, which is to be held in Brazil in 2018,” Lee said.

Until August this year, Hyundai Mobis, South Korea’s biggest auto parts maker by sales, has sealed orders worth a total $48 billion in the US and China between, up about five times compared to last year, the company said Monday.

“The orders are meaningful in that they were made on quality recognition of our products among partners in North America and China,” said an official of Hyundai Mobis.

Last year’s annual total had reached $10 billion.

The company does not have more orders to close in the remaining months of this year.

Marking the company’s first time ever to supply auto parts to be installed in pickup trucks in North America, Hyundai Mobis has won contracts for chassis modules alongside high value parts: disassociated center stack displays, and integrated center stacks.

The company noted that whether an auto parts maker has entered the North American pickup truck market is an essential standard for measuring the company’s level of technology and quality.

In China, the auto parts supplier has closed deals for external amplifiers, electronic parking brakes, and rear lamps, while securing a new partner there.

The company has sealed a deal with Chinese automotive company Geely to supply external amplifiers despite growing anti-Korean sentiment in China amid a diplomatic row over the deployment of a US anti-missile system in South Korea.

The tension between Washington and Pyongyang continued to escalate on Monday, with the US barring North Koreans from the country while North Korea’s anti-US rhetoric took a new twist.

North Korea’s state media Korean Central News Agency claimed on Monday that the North Korean ruling party and parliament sent open letters to political parties and parliaments of various nations calling on them to join the “anti-US movement.”

The letters justified North Korea’s nuclear program as being a deterrence against US aggression, and claimed that US President Donald Trump was pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war. The North’s state media, however, did not clarify whether the letters have been sent and did not specify the recipients of the letters.

“Justice and truth are being crushed in the international stage due to the self-righteousness and abuse of authority, nuclear threat from the likes of Trump,” the Workers’ Party of Korea said, referring to the US president as a “degenerate, main culprit in destruction of peace.”

The statement went on to claim that the sovereignty of nations, and the rights of the people were being violated, and called on political parties of various nations to work together against the US.

“(The Workers’ Party of Korea) calls on the parties of the countries that value sovereignty, justice and peace to join the anti-US movement, the anti-US front as one, to destroy the US’s reckless scheme to push the world into a nuclear disaster.”

North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly also issued a letter repeating such claims.

The letter claimed that the purpose of North Korea’s nuclear program was to “defend the sovereignty, and rights to exist and develop the country and the people against the nuclear threat and blackmail of the US.”

The alleged letters come two days after the US flew bombers and fighter jets in international airspace close to North Korea in a show of force on Saturday. Although the maneuver did not involve South Korea’s military, South Korea’s presidential office has since stated that concerned authorities in Seoul were closely informed.

North Korea has responded harshly to Trump’s UN address in which he lambasted Pyongyang and its leader Kim Jong-un in a typically colorful and direct manner.

Saying that Kim was on a “suicide mission,” Trump said that the price of an attack against the US or its allies would be complete destruction.

In response, North Korea warned of retaliation of the “highest measure,” which according to Pyongyang’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho could take the form of a hydrogen bomb test in the Pacific.

As for the US travel ban, North Koreans were added to the list of those subjected to new restrictions in entering the US.

The measures, implemented under a proclamation signed by the US president, apply to individuals from Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen. The restrictions, varying to some degree depending on the nationality, will go into effect on Oct. 18.

Under the new measures, North Koreans will no longer be eligible for immigration and non-immigration visas. The latter includes business and tourism visas.

“Making America safe is my number one priority. We will not admit those into our country we cannot safely vet,” Trump tweeted late Sunday after the new policy was announced.