They won only once at the Asian Women’s Rugby Sevens in Laos last weekend but for the Pakistan women it was a dream debut at an international event.

“That’s a big deal that women are playing rugby,” player Mehru Khan said. “And secondly, that we are getting a platform to come and perform to represent our country.”

Men’s cricket is the only sport to get recognition in this country of 200 million people. Religious and cultural barriers make it difficult for women to receive due encouragement to take up sports, more so for a contact sport like rugby.

But World Rugby’s “Get into Rugby” program has in the last three years attracted 50,000 people, more than a third of them females, according to the Pakistan Rugby Union.

A year ago, when the union wanted to form a women’s sevens team, it targeted school teachers and students and received a good response.

In the seven-team Asian Women’s Rugby Sevens, Pakistan beat only Nepal. But it was a start.

“In Pakistan, opting for a sport like rugby, this is like out of the mould for our society,” player Feiza Mahmood Mirza said.

“We are making change. We are the one(s) who are going to be the inspiration for other girls.”

The sevens coach, Shakeel Ahmed, said they hope to draw 10,000 more females into the sport by 2019. To that end, the union has signed contracts with the Army, police, and schools in various cities to encourage participation.

“We are very keen to make a good woman rugby culture in Pakistan,” she said.

Rugby was introduced to Pakistan in the 1920s by British expatriates and almost died out in the 80s as British influence waned. But locals and embassy workers revived the sport and started a league, and the union was founded in 2000.

Women still face hurdles to play sports, let alone rugby, such as discouraging families, and a lack of government funding for facilities.

But Mehru, who began playing rugby while she was studying in Canada, believed the sport could play a big role in empowering women in Pakistan.

“I hope women in Pakistan look to me and think, `If she can do it, I can do it,”‘ Mehru said.

“I will go back and I will create a club in Lahore for girls. I will go to their houses and call them and play rugby because I don’t want them to feel they are less than us, or than the boys, or anyone. They should come, and they should join, and they should have fun.”
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Vietnam is expected to keep chasing stronger relations with China, a political adversary for centuries, despite new signs that Beijing has added military infrastructure on several disputed islands in the South China Sea.  

The Southeast Asian country, long accustomed to China’s buildup in the contested Paracel and Spratly islands, is anxious to grow its exports and meanwhile wants stronger trade with the world’s number two economy China. And analysts say Vietnamese officials are unsure whether U.S. President Donald Trump would help Vietnam defend itself against China if needed. 

Vietnam may have decided long term diplomacy may be the way to go 

Officials in Hanoi may figure long-term stable relations with Beijing could lead to negotiations over the Paracels or Spratlys, said Oscar Mussons, international business advisory associate with the Dezan Shira & Associates consultancy in Ho Chi Minh City. China has the world’s third strongest military and Vietnam ranks number 17 on the GlobalFirePower.com database. 

“At least they know what they’re going to find. They are going to find only one party, and so somehow they are comrades,” Mussons said. “The only way left for Vietnam is perhaps the diplomacy. They cannot match China’s military power.” 

China strengthening its hold on the Paracel Islands 

A South China Sea project under Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies this month described new evidence that Beijing is adding naval and air facilities in the Paracel Islands. 

China and Vietnam also compete for control of the Spratly Islands, which are claimed as well by Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and the Philippines. 

Vietnam’s foreign ministry had published no response on its English-language website to the think tank’s findings as of Monday, consistent with a softer approach to Beijing following senior-level meetings in September and January. 

Vietnam will likely continue to protest but not take any action 

Experts say leaders in Hanoi are learning to accept in private China’s control over the Paracel Islands, despite 43 years of resistance. But, according to Carl Thayer, emeritus professor of politics at The University of New South Wales in Australia, Vietnam, with strong anti-China sentiment among its 93 million citizens, will stick to its sovereignty claims in public but mute official anger or retaliation as it cements stronger economic cooperation, including at sea.  

“I think Vietnam will make a pro forma protest about Chinese activities in the Paracels, because it also claims sovereignty,” he said. “So that’s a bit of a ritual. There’s nothing Vietnam can do about it. It’s adjusting to that.” 

China cites historical usage records to claim 95 percent of the South China Sea, which stretches from Taiwan to Singapore. All six claimants covet the sea for its rich fisheries. Some are also prospecting for  undersea fossil fuels and prize the sea for its marine shipping lanes. 

Vietnamese have had little access to the Paracel Islands, 130 tiny land features off its east coast and southwest of Hong Kong, since the People’s Liberation Army of China took control in 1974 after a naval battle with what was then South Vietnam. 

Of China’s 20 holdings in the Paracels, three have harbors that can hold “large numbers of naval and civilian vessels,” the Asian Maritime Transparency Initiative said on its website in a Feb. 8 report. China has used landfill to enlarge some of the once uninhabitable Paracel islets in addition to an estimated 3,200 acres of reclamation in another disputed chain, the Spratly Islands. 

Four other Paracel islets controlled by China include smaller harbors and a fifth is being built on another islet that previously lacked major military infrastructure, the think tank initiative said. Five islands support helipads and Duncan Island, China’s second most advanced military base in the archipelago, berths a “full helicopter base,” it said. 

Woody Island, the biggest land mass, has an airstrip, hangars and a deployment of surface-to-air missile batteries, the think tank report added. 

On Feb. 5 the Vietnamese foreign affairs spokesman described as “illegal” the establishment of a Bank of China branch on Woody Island. But media reports say Vietnamese authorities put down a protest in Hanoi last month by about 100 people on the anniversary of China’s Paracel takeover. 

Deadly anti-China riots followed Beijing’s permission in 2014 for an oil firm to place a rig in disputed waters near the Gulf of Tonkin, which is just east of Vietnam and south of China. 

China and Vietnam working together 

After Vietnamese Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s visit to China last month for a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the two sides issued a statement agreeing to settle maritime disputes peacefully and work toward joint development in the gulf. 

The countries have lived by a fishery agreement for more than a decade and discussed working together on oil exploration. 

In September, China’s premier and the Vietnamese prime minister pledged they would “properly manage maritime differences and further enhance bilateral substantial cooperation.” 

China is one of Vietnam’s top trading partners, with $66 billion in imports and exports in 2015, according to Beijing’s state-run China Daily newspaper online. 

Officials in Hanoi may value China more as they try to gauge U.S. policy on the South China Sea, analysts say. 

President Trump has not indicated whether he will help Vietnam in its dispute with China, as predecessor Barack Obama had.   

But Trump is angering China. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has suggested blocking China from islets that it has reclaimed and on Saturday the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson reached the South China Sea. That move poses a “military threat to China,” the China-based Global Times newspaper online said. 

A balancing act for Vietnam 

Trump’s decision to scrap the 12-country trade Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal makes the U.S. president look shaky to Vietnam as well, Mussons said. Vietnam was one of four East Asian partnership members. 

China looks “more reliable” by comparison and if economic ties go well, China eventually may be open to talks with Vietnam on rights to the Paracels, he said. 

The Vietnamese government knows that it “must avoid upsetting China” while staying open to defense ties with the United States, said Jonathan Spangler, director of the South China Sea Think Tank in Taipei. 

“For Vietnam, regional stability is closely tied to national security,” Spangler said. “Vietnam, like other rival claimants, needs to balance the benefits of its economic ties with China and the political risks of not defending its sovereignty claims and thus appearing weak domestically.”
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Cambodia’s parliament amended a law on Monday to stop anyone convicted of an offense from running for office, effectively barring long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen’s main rival.

Critics said that the changes approved would undermine the multi-party democracy established in the Southeast Asian state by 1991 peace accords and could turn Cambodia into a de facto one-party state.

Opponents accuse Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge guerrilla, of unfair maneuvering to try to retain his three-decade grip on power at local elections in June and a general election next year.

The ruling Cambodian People’s Party voted to change the 1998 election law to ban parties that engage in activities that include incitement, promoting secession or anything that could harm national security.

Politicians convicted by a court are banned from standing for election and their parties can be dissolved.

That would exclude veteran opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who has been convicted of a series of defamation charges and has lived in exile in France since 2015 to avoid them.

He resigned from the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) this month, saying he wanted to save his party in the face of the potential ban. He rejects the charges against him as politically motivated.

The CNRP’s 55 lawmakers boycotted the National Assembly vote on Monday, saying it had targeted them. But Hun Sen’s party has a slim majority in parliament so it was able to pass the change.

Welcoming the change to the election rules, ruling party lawmaker Chheang Vun said it would allow the interior ministry to start closing some of Cambodia’s 76 political parties. He said only 45 were properly registered.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations Parliamentarians for Human Rights group called it the “death knell for democracy” in Cambodia.

New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch said it marked the consolidation of absolute power.

“Cambodia will become a sham democracy going forward,” said Phil Robertson, the group’s Deputy Asia Director. “The silence of foreign governments and aid donors to this move has been profoundly disheartening.”

Cambodia has been transformed during Hun Sen’s rule from what was essentially a failed state after decades of conflict.
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Diplomatic tensions are rising between North Korea and Malaysia in the aftermath of the apparent assassination of the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. 

Kuala Lumpur has recalled its ambassador to Pyongyang for “consultations” after North Korea’s envoy to Malaysia, Kang Chol, lashed out at Malaysia after officials rejected the North’s demands to release Kim Jon Nam’s body, and to allow a representative from the North Korean embassy to be present at the autopsy. 

Kang Chol was summoned by Malaysia’s foreign ministry Monday after he accused Malaysia of “trying to conceal something,” and of “colluding and playing into the gallery of external forces.”  The foreign ministry dismissed the ambassador’s claims as “baseless.” 

The 45-year-old Kim Jong Nam died en route to a hospital last Monday after he was reportedly accosted and poisoned by two women at Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur International Airport while waiting to take a Macau-bound flight, according to Malaysian and South Korean officials.  

Japanese broadcaster Fuji TV aired footage Monday taken by the airport’s security cameras that reportedly depicts the fatal assault on Kim.  After he was accosted, Kim is shown seeking help from airport workers while gesturing at his eyes.  

Four people have been detained in connection with the crime, including the two suspected assailants and a North Korean national, who was arrested Friday. Investigators are also seeking four North Korean men who flew out of Malaysia on the day of Kim’s death.  

Kim Jong Nam was once considered the heir apparent to lead North Korea, but he fell out of favor with his father Kim Jong Il after a failed 2001 attempt to enter Japan on a forged passport to visit Disneyland, and was basically exiled to the Chinese controlled territory of Macau. 

South Korea’s spy agency says Kim Jong Un issued a “standing order” for his half-brother’s assassination after taking power, and there was a failed attempt in 2012. 

Kim Jong Nam was reportedly considered a threat to his half-brother’s rule because of his outspoken criticism of the authoritarian regime. 

There has been speculation that China is getting tired of North Korea’s repeated nuclear and missile tests in defiance on international sanctions and that the apparent assassination of Kim John Nam may have led to the Chinese decision Saturday to suspend all coal imports from the North.  Coal exports are a vital source of revenue for the Pyongyang government.
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Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has formed a strategic partnership with retail conglomerate Bailian Group, extending a push into bricks-and-mortar retail as online growth slows.

The move comes on the heels of a recent purchase of a stake in retailer Suning Commerce Group Co Ltd as well as plans to take a controlling stake in Intime Retail Group Co Ltd and privatize it.

There are currently no plans for financial investment, an Alibaba spokesman said.

Shanghai-based Bailian Group is one of China’s largest retailers by sales, operating 4,700 outlets in 200 cities including supermarkets, convenience stores and pharmacies. Alibaba has an active user base of around 500 million.

Shares in Bailian Group’s subsidiaries surged on Monday, with Shanghai Bailian Group Co Ltd climbing by the 10 percent daily limit, Lianhua Supermarket Holdings Co Ltd jumping close to 10 percent and Shanghai Material Trading Co Ltd up 5 percent.

Bailian and Alibaba will initially cooperate on supply chain technology using Alibaba’s big data capabilities as well as integrating Alipay payments with Bailian Group’s existing membership program.
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A New Zealand judge on Monday upheld an earlier court ruling that flamboyant internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom and three of his colleagues can be extradited to the U.S. to face criminal charges.

The decision comes five years after U.S. authorities shut down Dotcom’s file-sharing website Megaupload and filed charges of conspiracy, racketeering and money laundering against the men. If found guilty, they could face decades in prison.

Dotcom, who lives in New Zealand, has been fighting extradition in a case which has moved with glacial slowness at times. And Monday’s decision won’t be the last, with the case likely to be appealed up to New Zealand’s Supreme Court, a process that could take another year or two.

U.S. prosecutors say that Megaupload raked in at least $175 million, mainly from people using it to illegally download songs, television shows and movies.

The New Zealand district court ruled in 2015 that Dotcom and the others were eligible for extradition on the charges.

High Court judge Justice Murray Gilbert found Monday that the district court made mistakes in its ruling but that those didn’t alter the big picture.

Dotcom tweeted Monday: “We won but we lost anyway.”

Dotcom’s lawyer Ron Mansfield said the high court agreed with a major part of their appeal – that copyright infringement on its own isn’t an offense that warrants extradition – but had erred in finding the men could be extradited on conspiracy grounds.

“Look, we’re disappointed it’s not all over in the high court,” Mansfield said. “But we’re one step away, as far as we’re concerned, from winning outright.”

Mansfield said they are determined to keep fighting. “There are substantial legal issues in play,” he said.

The U.S. argues that the site cost copyright holders, which included Hollywood’s major movie studios, more than $500 million. Prosecutors say intercepted communications show the men talking about being “modern-day pirates” and “evil” and that they were part of a conspiracy to profit from copyright infringement.

Dotcom argues that he can’t be held responsible for others who chose to use his site for illegal purposes, and that any case against him should have been heard in civil court.

Born in Germany as Kim Schmitz, Dotcom has long enjoyed a flamboyant lifestyle. He was arrested in New Zealand in 2012 after a dramatic police raid on his mansion.

Out on bail soon after, he released a music album, started another internet file-sharing company called Mega, and launched a political party which unsuccessfully contested the nation’s 2014 election.

In addition to Dotcom, who founded Megaupload and was its biggest shareholder, the U.S. is also seeking to extradite former Megaupload officers Mathias Ortmann, Bram van der Kolk and Finn Batato.
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