SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia (AFP) -- A U.S. warship docked in Cambodia on Monday, just kilometers away from a Chinese-renovated naval base, in the first American military port call to one of Beijing’s closest regional allies in eight years.

Washington’s relationship with Phnom Penh has been deteriorating for years, with China pouring billions of dollars into infrastructure investment under Cambodia’s former leader Hun Sen. AFP reporters saw Cambodian navy personnel welcoming the USS Savannah’s arrival to the southern port city of Sihanoukville on Monday. Cambodia’s defense ministry said on Friday that the five-day visit aims to “strengthen and expand friendship” and “promote bilateral cooperation”. Since 2022, China has been funding the renovation of the Ream naval base, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from Sihanoukville, which was originally built partly using US funds. Washington has said the Ream base could give Beijing a key strategic position in the Gulf of Thailand near the disputed South China Sea, which China claims almost in its entirety. 

 

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DHAKA (AFP) -- Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus, who heads the caretaker government installed after an August revolution, said Monday that general elections would be held late next year or in early 2026. Pressure has been growing on Nobel Peace Prize winner Yunus -- appointed the country’s “chief adviser” after the student-led uprising that toppled ex-premier Sheikh Hasina -- to set a date. The 84-year-old microfinance pioneer is leading a temporary administration to tackle what he has called the “extremely tough” challenge of restoring democratic institutions in the South Asian nation of about 170 million people. “Election dates could be fixed by the end of 2025 or the first half of 2026,” he said in a broadcast on state television. Hasina, 77, fled by helicopter to neighboring India on August 5 as thousands of protesters stormed the prime minister’s palace in Dhaka. 

 

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NAIROBI (AFP) -- Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied militias, at war with the army, of committing widespread sexual violence in southern Sudan. It is the latest such report by international monitors alleging sexual violence during Sudan’s 20-month war which has led to what the United States called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. In its new report, HRW said it had documented dozens of cases since September 2023 involving women and girls aged between seven and 50 who were subjected to sexual violence, including gang rape and sexual slavery, in South Kordofan state. Parts of South Kordofan and parts of Blue Nile state are controlled by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), a rebel group.  The conflict has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people, internally displaced more than eight million, according to the UN, and forced more than three million others to seek safety in neighboring countries.

 

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SEOUL (AFP) -- North Korean state media on Monday decried the South’s impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol as a “ringleader of rebellion”, its first reaction to his removal from office over a short-lived martial law decree. Pyongyang’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Yoon had attempted to shift responsibility for the “foolish emergency martial law declaration” onto opposition parties. “The investigation into puppet Yoon Suk Yeol, the ringleader of the rebellion, and his accomplices is under way,” KCNA said. “The puppet Constitutional Court will finally decide” on whether to remove Yoon, it added. North Korean state media often refers to the South’s leaders and institutions as being a “puppet” of its treaty ally, the United States. KCNA previously described the South as being “in chaos” over the martial law order. Relations between the two Koreas have been at one of their lowest points in years, with the North launching a flurry of ballistic missiles in violation of UN sanctions. 

 

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SAINT-DENIS DE LA REUNION (AFP) -- Rescuers raced against time Monday to reach survivors after a devastating cyclone ripped through the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, destroying homes across the islands, with hundreds feared dead. Images from Mayotte, which like other French overseas territories is an integral part of France and ruled from Paris, showed scenes of devastation, with homes reduced to piles of rubble. The crisis, which erupted at the weekend the day after President Emmanuel Macron appointed Francois Bayrou as the sixth prime minister of his mandate, poses a major challenge for a government still only operating in a caretaker capacity. The cyclone has left health services in tatters, with the hospital extremely damaged and health centres knocked out of operation, Health Minister Genevieve Darrieussecq told France 2.

 

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KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) -- Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Monday appointed Thailand’s billionaire political heavyweight and former premier Thaksin Shinawatra as his personal adviser for when he becomes chair of Southeast Asia’s regional bloc next year. Anwar said Thaksin’s role during his leadership of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will be in an informal capacity, alongside advisors from several of the bloc’s 10 member states. Anwar made the announcement during a visit to Malaysia by Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Thaksin’s youngest daughter and fourth member of their family to hold Thailand’s top political post. Thaksin is barred from office after being found guilty of abuse of power and conflicts of interest, charges that he evaded for 15 years while in self-imposed exile, from which he remained a central player in intermittent turmoil back home.