MONTH IN BRIEF – FEBRUARY 2025
MONTH IN BRIEF
Pre-emptive measures

Fishery officials and coast guard from the Philippines, Vietnam, the US and Indonesia have been practising vessel boarding and arrest techniques during joint maritime law enforcement training. The 14-day course on the Philippines’ island of Mindanao is part of a regional effort to advance law enforcement cooperation as concerns escalate over a potential maritime conflict with China.There have been frequent clashes or tense stand-offs between Philippine and Chinese vessels in the strategic waterway, as well as recent incidents involving Vietnamese and Indonesian vessels.
Afghans on starvations rations, says WFP

The head of the World Food Programme in Afghanistan has warned that the agency can feed only half the millions of Afghans in need, following cuts in international aid and with an impending freeze to US foreign funding. Many Afghans are living on just ‘bread and tea’, said WFP country director Hsiao-Wei Lee. Afghanistan was pushed to the brink of economic crisis in 2021 as the Taliban took over and all development and security assistance to the country was frozen, with restrictions also placed on the banking sector.
More mayhem in Myanmar

An air strike by Myanmar’s junta has killed 28 peopleand wounded 25 at a temporary detention area in western Rakhine state.The armed ethnic minority group Arakan Army is engaged in a fierce battle with the Myanmar military to gain control of Rakhine, where it has seized swathes of territory in the past year, almost cutting off the state capital Sittwe.The Rakhine conflict is just one element of the violence that has engulfed Myanmar since the military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government in a 2021 coup, sparking a widespread armed uprising.
New Delhi-Dhaka tensions over border fence

A border fence has emerged as a new source of tension between India and Bangladesh, underscoring the growing disconnection between the two countries that were once the epitome of good neighbourly relations in South Asia. The dispute flared up after India’s Border Security Force (BSF) resumed building a single-row, barbed wire fence along a 1,200m stretch of the border between Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal in the week of Jan 6.
Death for deadly driver

China has executed a man who mowed down nearly 80 people in a car rampage in the southern city of Zhuhai in November last year. On Nov. 11, 62-year-old Fan Weiqiu deliberately drove a small SUV through crowds of people exercising outside a sports complex.He killed 35 and wounded 43, in China’s deadliest attack since 2014.Fan was detained at the scene with self-inflicted knife wounds and fell into a coma.He was sentenced to death in December, with a court calling his motives ‘extremely vile’, the methods used ‘particularly cruel’, with significant harm caused to society.
Record eruptions

A volcano in eastern Indonesia has erupted at least a thousand times in January, according to an official report on Jan 19 as efforts were underway to evacuate thousands of villagers living near the rumbling mountain. Mount Ibu, on the remote island of Halmahera in North Maluku province, sent a column of smoke up to 4km into the sky in an eruption on Jan 15.
Indonesian officials raised its alert status to the highest level and called for the evacuation of 3,000 people living in six nearby villages.
India’s ‘historic’ space docking mission

India has docked two satellites in space, a key milestone for the country’s dreams of a space station and manned Moon mission, said its space agency. The satellites, weighing 220kg each, blasted off in December 2024 on a single rocket from India’s Sriharikota launch site. They later separated. On January 16, the two satellites were manoeuvred back together in a ‘precision’ process, resulting in a ‘successful spacecraft capture’, said the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), calling it a ‘historic moment’.
Forever home for Moo Daeng

A loyal dog in mourning for his late owner has found a new home after being adopted by a Thai princess.Images of the brown and white dog, named Moo Daeng (Thai for ‘red pork’), sleeping in front of a 7-Eleven store went viral on social media in January, with photos of the animalbeing widely circulated since his owner’s death in November 2024. Moo Daeng had been waiting in front of the shop in Yamo Market, in the Mueang district of Nakhon Ratchasima province, where his owner would go begging for food and money.