John Sparks

When travelling abroad it is a good idea not to make the locals mad. A lesson learned, perhaps, by four backpackers who pleaded guilty to committing an “obscene act in a public place” in Malaysia.

The ship sank within two minutes and no distress call was issued, although the captain and chief engineer are reported to have survived the incident. They are currently being questioned by police.

The mystery of the ‘green boat’ was solved this morning when 400-odd occupants of a rickety fishing trawler turned up on the Indonesian coast in the early hours of this morning.

The execution of eight convicted drug traffickers by Malaysia is a demonstration of the underlying weakness of the country’s President.

Ko Htet and his wife Su Yee Win are lovers in a dangerous time, which happens to be an entirely unexpected feature of their new life as a married couple.

They are young and well-educated, a pair of committed pro-democracy activists, but their participation in a student play means they will spend the next two and a half years in a Thai prison.

Burma’s president declares a state of emergency in the Kokang region and imposes a three-month period of martial law, hours after a Red Cross convoy comes under attack.

A Hong Kong woman is convicted of beating and starving her Indonesian maid in a case that sparked international outrage.

Tourists take the boat to the island of Koh Tao to get away from it all but after a pair of brutal murders, two mysterious deaths, many people may feel inclined to keep well clear.

Online, Tony Abbott’s decision has been treated with a large dollop of incredulity. It has been likened to an April Fool’s Day prank.

Thai farmers in Israel face low pay, hazardous working conditions and excessive working hours, according to a human rights group.

We saw both two sides of Hong Kong’s intractable political crisis through the steely eyes of the protagonists yesterday afternoon.

They tried to force them out with tear gas. They tried to scare them out with talk of ‘dire consequences’. Now Hong Kong’s police have quietly moved in to strip away barricades.

The main protest site in Hong Kong occupies a large inner-city motorway as well as side streets, bridges and squares and it has been turned into an extraordinary, open-air art gallery.

I am standing next to a hundred or so student protestors who look very young and very scared. Just 15 metres or so away are hundreds of angry people shaking their fists and screaming at them.