KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s Deputy Communications and Multimedia Minister Zahidi Zainul Abidin has tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday (Jan 13). A statement issued by his office said that Mr Zahidi underwent screening for COVID-19 upon return...

Nearly a third of Taiwan's corals are dying from bleaching caused by warming oceans in an alarming phenomenon that poses a severe threat to the island's delicate underwater ecosystem, conservationists warned on Wednesday (Jan 13).

HONG KONG: A UK-based comedian has sparked a censorship row after he apologised to Chinese fans and removed a video featuring a fellow YouTube star who had been critical of Beijing. Malaysian-born stand-up Nigel Ng has become a viral sensation in re...

TAIPEI: Taiwan health authorities said on Wednesday (Jan 13) they had confirmed the first case of the highly transmissible South African variant of COVID-19, in an eSwatini national being treated in hospital. The infection with the variant had been ...

JOHOR BAHRU: Johor ruler Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar has issued a decree outlining religious restrictions for Muslims as the southern state is placed under tighter COVID-19 curbs.  During the movement control order (MCO), there must not be more th...

Indonesian doctors have suffered one of the world's highest death rates from the coronavirus, but that has not stopped some from voicing concerns over the vaccination campaign.

Injury-hit India head to Australia's Gabba fortress for Friday's final Test with high hopes of retaining the Border-Gavaskar trophy after securing an epic draw in Sydney to leave the series locked at 1-1.

SINGAPORE: There have been "no disruptions" to supply chains between Singapore and Malaysia after the latter announced further steps to curb the spread of COVID-19 this week, Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing said on Wednesday (Jan 13). COV...

JAKARTA: Indonesian investigators said on Wednesday (Jan 13) they were hopeful of retrieving a crashed passenger jet's second black box, as they seek to explain why the plane with 62 people aboard slammed into the sea minutes after takeoff. Divers j...

JAKARTA: Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo received the first dose of Sinovac Biotech's CoronaVac on Wednesday (Jan 13), becoming the first person in the country to be vaccinated.   Jokowi, as the president is popularly known, received the jab...

WASHINGTON: The United States said on Tuesday (Jan 12) it will send a team of investigators to Indonesia as part of a probe into the crash of a Sriwijaya Air plane with 62 people on board. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will send ...

Mainland China reported 115 new COVID-19 cases on Jan. 12, up from 55 cases a day earlier, the country's national health authority said on Wednesday, the highest daily increase in more than five months.

TOKYO: The Japanese government said on Wednesday (Jan 13) it would expand a state of emergency it declared for the Tokyo area last week to seven more prefectures, as the public's hopes for the Summer Olympics fade with the steady spread of COVID-19. ...

WASHINGTON: The United States' UN ambassador Kelly Craft has scrapped a planned trip to Taiwan due to start on Wednesday (Jan 13), a US official said, in line with the State Department cancelling trips abroad ahead of Joe Biden's auguration. Craft h...

SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged to strengthen his country's nuclear arsenal in his closing address to a top ruling party meeting, state media reported on Wednesday (Jan 13), days before Joe Biden takes office as US president. Kim is l...

BANGKOK: Pyi Some Aung has worked at the Central Shrimp Market in Samut Sakhon for 13 years. For the first time since he moved to Thailand from Myanmar, he is barred from leaving the premises. His workplace became a major cluster of COVID-19 last m...

Britain and Canada on Tuesday (Jan 12) accused China of human rights violations and "barbarism" against its Uighur minority and announced new rules to ban imports of goods suspected of being made using forced labour.

Indonesia starts a mass coronavirus vaccination campaign on Wednesday, with President Joko Widodo to receive the first shot of an ambitious drive launched amid record deaths from one of Asia's most stubborn epidemics.

India's top court suspended on Tuesday (Jan 12) the implementation of new agriculture laws that have sparked weeks of demonstrations by tens of thousands of farmers outside New Delhi.

JAKARTA: The co-pilot of the ill-fated Sriwijaya Air plane that crashed shortly after take off last weekend was among the brightest students in the flying school and assured his family that he would always put safety first, said his brother when in...

Ex-Nissan exec says automaker sought to hide Ghosn's pay

A South Korean startup has developed an AI-powered dog collar that can detect five emotions in canines by monitoring their barks using voice recognition technology.

Afghan authorities said Tuesday they had foiled a plan by the jihadist Islamic State group to assassinate the top US envoy in Kabul, as a wave of targeted killings continue to rock the country.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia reported a record 3,309 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday (Jan 12), its biggest daily rise since the start of the pandemic. The surge in cases comes less than a week after Malaysia marked its previous daily case record of 3,027 i...

JAKARTA: Indonesia's military chief Hadi Tjahjanto said on Tuesday (Jan 12) he was highly confident that the cockpit voice recorder from a Sriwijaya Air plane that crashed into the Java Sea could be found soon, following the retrieval of the flight d...

India's top court suspends implementation of new farm laws

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has entered a state of emergency. It will last until Aug 1 or earlier depending on the state of coronavirus infections, a statement from the palace said. The king’s proclamation on the state of emergency on Tuesday morning ...

A Chinese advert for make-up wipes which linked a woman's appearance to the likelihood of assault has been taken down, and the company forced to apologise, after a backlash over "victim-blaming".

India's army chief said on Tuesday that he expected talks to lead to an amicable solution to the border crisis with China that escalated last year after a fight in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed.

TAIPEI: Taiwan on Tuesday (Jan 12) reported two new locally transmitted COVID-19 infections - the first of such cases since Dec 22 - a doctor in a hospital, who was treating an already infected patient, and a nurse. Until last month's domestic tr...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian pharmaceutical group Pharmaniaga has signed an agreement with China's Sinovac to purchase ready-to-fill COVID-19 vaccines and later to manufacture the vaccine domestically, it said on Tuesday. Pharmaniaga said in a filing to ...

Indonesia says crashed Sriwijaya Air jet had passed airworthiness check

TOKYO: Tokyo Olympics organisers on Tuesday (Jan 12) played down a poll showing plunging support for the Games and said a report claiming cancellation could be discussed next month was "fake news". The comments, fewer than 200 days before the postpo...

JAKARTA: Rescuers are searching for 26 people still missing after two landslides hit a village in Indonesia’s West Java province over the weekend, officials said on Tuesday (Jan 12). At least 13 people were killed and 29 others injured in the land...

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysian Home Affairs Minister Hamzah Zainudin has tested positive for COVID-19, his ministry said on Tuesday (Jan 12). He is the third minister confirmed with the disease in four days. Mr Hamzah was tested for the coronavirus on Monda...

Masks that helped save lives during the COVID-19 pandemic are proving a deadly hazard for wildlife, with birds and marine creatures ensnared in the staggering number of discarded facial coverings littering animal habitats.

JAKARTA: Indonesian navy divers were searching through plane debris and seabed mud on Tuesday (Jan 12) looking for the black boxes of a Sriwijaya Air jet that nosedived into the Java Sea over the weekend with 62 people aboard. A navy ship earlier p...

KUALA LUMPUR: There will be no parliamentary sitting or election during the duration of Malaysia's state of national emergency, said Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin in a national address on Tuesday (Jan 12).  "Parliament will not sit until a time...

NEW DELHI: As the director of a large hospital in the Indian state that has seen most of the country's COVID-19 cases, Dr SP Kalantri had been waiting for the day a vaccine would be approved and bring protection not only to his community but also him...

TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told a meeting of ruling party executives on Tuesday (Jan 12) he would declare a state of emergency for the three western prefectures of Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo to stem the spread of COVID-19, Kyodo news ...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's King Al-Sultan Abdullah on Tuesday (Jan 12) declared a state of emergency across the country to curb the spread of COVID-19, the palace said in a statement. The emergency will last until Aug 1 or earlier depending on the st...

SHANGHAI: Authorities in China introduced new COVID-19 curbs in areas surrounding Beijing on Tuesday (Jan 12), putting 4.9 million residents under lockdown as new infections raised worries about a second wave in a nation that has mostly contained the...

The Chinese President made several political moves last year to strengthen his power, says Christian Le Miere.

The World Health Organization insisted on Monday (Jan 11) that the international investigation into the COVID-19 pandemic's origins, set to start this week in China, was not looking for "somebody to blame".

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Monday (Jan 11) expressed grief over the deaths of civilians in an airstrike by the country's military, a move that came a day after government officials said only Taliban fighters had been killed.

Indonesia's food and drug agency on Monday granted emergency use approval to a COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's Sinovac Biotech, making it the first country outside China to give the regulatory greenlight to the vaccine.

The Seoul city government is facing a popular backlash after advising pregnant women to cook their husbands several meals and ensure they have a supply of clean underwear before going to hospital to give birth.

SINGAPORE: Two siblings were jailed on Monday (Jan 11) for conspiring to share confidential business information with companies in China to secure contracts, said the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB).  Teo Chu Ha Henry, 72, a former...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will tighten COVID-19 restrictions beginning Wednesday (Jan 13), said Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin in a renewed effort to combat the country's alarming rise of COVID-19 cases. In a televised address on Monday, Mr Muhyiddi...

JAKARTA: It was supposed to be a new beginning for Mr Rizki Wahyudi, a forest ranger at the Mount Palung National Park in the remote part of the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan, a seven-hour drive from the provincial capital, Pontianak. Mr Wa...

A courageous and injury-wracked India pulled off a remarkable draw in a tense third Test against Australia Monday as they survived against the hosts' much-vaunted bowling attack to take the series into a decider.

SINGAPORE: Singapore's leaders on Monday (Jan 11) sent their condolences to their Indonesian counterparts on the crash of a Sriwijaya Air flight on Saturday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said. Singapore President Halimah Yacob wrote to Indo...

NEW DELHI: The Indian military on Monday (Jan 11) said it had handed back a Chinese soldier held near a remote Himalayan border where thousands of troops from the two nuclear-armed neighbours have been facing off for months after a deadly clash. "Th...

Taiwan rolled out a newly redesigned passport on Monday that gives greater prominence to the island's day-to-day name, aiming to avoid confusion with China amid the COVID-19 pandemic and Beijing's stepped-up efforts to assert sovereignty.

Young adults dressed to the nines in kimonos gathered at venues in Japan on Monday to celebrate reaching the age of majority, although many of the usually jubilant events were cancelled over coronavirus fears.

JAKARTA: Indonesian navy divers scouring the sea bed on Monday (Jan 11) were closing in on data recorders from a Sriwijaya Air jet that crashed at the weekend, as investigators took up the grim task of identifying victims' mangled remains. Finding t...

JAKARTA: Indonesia has extended its ban on foreign arrivals for another 14 days in a bid to control the transmission of the coronavirus, its chief economic minister said on Monday (Jan 11). The government has said the reason for the stricter measure...

NEW DELHI: India aims to begin vaccinating its 1.3 billion people against COVID-19 from Saturday (Jan 16), a colossal and complex task compounded by safety worries, shaky infrastructure and public scepticism. In one of the world's biggest rollouts,...

China's consumer prices rebounded in December, official data showed Monday, as food prices picked up due to weather difficulties and rising demand ahead of the Lunar New Year festival.

BEIJING: A World Health Organization (WHO) team of international experts tasked with investigating the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic will arrive in China on Jan 14, China's national health authority said on Monday (Jan 11). Lack of authorisation...

KUALA LUMPUR: Another Malaysian minister has tested positive for COVID-19, the second in the Cabinet to be warded for the infectious disease in a span of three days.  Women, Family and Community Development Minister Rina Mohd Harun took the COVID-...

The US lifting of restrictions on interactions with Taiwanese officials is a "big thing", Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said on Monday (Jan 11), adding that the island's relations with the US relations with the United States have been elevated t...

The name of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's sister was missing from a new list of the ruling Workers' Party's powerful politburo, according to state media KCNA on Monday, sending mixed signals about her status after years of increasing clout.

SINGAPORE: Malaysia citizens who are permanent residents (PRs) working in Singapore are now eligible to apply for the Periodic Commuting Arrangement (PCA) scheme.  Applications to travel under the scheme open from Monday (Jan 11), said the High...

SEOUL: South Korea reported fewer than 500 new coronavirus infections on Monday (Jan 11) for the first time since record high daily case numbers over the Christmas holiday period. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 451 ...

SHANGHAI: Mainland China saw its biggest daily increase in COVID-19 cases in more than five months, the country's national health authority said on Monday (Jan 11), as new infections in Hebei province surrounding Beijing continued to rise. A county...

JAKARTA: An investigator with Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) said the Sriwijaya Air jet that crashed into the Java Sea with 62 people on board over the weekend possibly broke apart when it hit waters based on debris found...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been elected as general secretary of the ruling Workers' Party during its ongoing congress, taking over the title from his late father, state media KCNA said on Monday.

Iran said on Sunday that South Korea should avoid politicising the seizure of its vessel by Iranian Revolutionary Guards in the Gulf, Iranian state media reported, while pressing Seoul to release US$7 billion in funds frozen amid U.S. sanctions.

The Philippines has secured 30 million doses of a Covid-19 vaccine developed by US drug maker Novavax, officials said Sunday, as the country braces for a surge in infections after a huge religious event.

Voters in Kyrgyzstan cast ballots in early presidential vote

Chinese state media blast latest Pompeo move on Taiwan

Support for holding the coronavirus-postponed Tokyo Olympics this summer has hit a new low in Japan, a poll found Sunday as the country battles a third wave of infections.

TOKYO: A new coronavirus variant has been detected in four travellers from Brazil's Amazonas state, Japan's Health Ministry said on Sunday (Jan 10), the latest new mutation of the virus discovered. A ministry official said studies were underway into...

JAKARTA: Indonesia's top military official said on Sunday (Jan 10) that search and rescue personnel have detected emergency signals from the black boxes of the Sriwijaya Air jet that went missing on the day before with 62 people on board. "We ar...

JAKARTA: Indonesia's poor air safety record is again in the spotlight after a Sriwijaya Air jet carrying 62 people crashed into the Java Sea minutes after take-off on Saturday (Jan 9), marking the country's third major airline crash in just over six ...

ISLAMABAD: A major technical fault in Pakistan's power generation and distribution system caused a massive power outage that plunged the country into darkness overnight, the energy minister said. Hours after the late Saturday outage, Energy Ministe...

HANOI: Vietnam will limit flights bringing citizens home from now until the end of the Chinese New Year, otherwise known as Tet Lunar New Year, in mid-February, when big gatherings indoors are expected, to reduce coronavirus risks, the country's prim...

Men wearing traditional loin clothes and women dressed in white robes clapped and chanted before going into an ice water bath during a Shinto ritual at a Tokyo shrine on Sunday to purify the soul and pray for the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A Hong Kong website that publishes material mainly related to anti-government protests in 2019 said its users' access had been blocked by the city's internet service providers (ISPs).

JAKARTA: Authorities have found more debris of what they suspect may be parts of the missing Sriwijaya Air SJ 182 plane on Sunday (Jan 10) as rescuers race against time to find the passengers and aircraft. Rescuers also said they have retrieved fiv...

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia's Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Economy) Mustapa Mohamed has tested positive for COVID-19, his office said on Sunday (Jan 10). His positive result was confirmed on Saturday night after he was tested upon arrival ...

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan was hit by a massive power blackout early on Sunday (Jan 10), officials said, with much of the country, including all major cities, plunged into darkness. The electricity distribution system in the nation of more than 210 million...

MELBOURNE: Foreign ministers from the United States, Canada, Britain and Australia condemned last week's arrest of 53 democracy activists in Hong Kong in a joint statement on Sunday (Jan 10), calling on China to respect the freedom of the people on ...

JAKARTA: Two landslides triggered by heavy rain in Indonesia left at least 11 dead and 18 injured, officials said on Sunday (Jan 10). The landslides at Cihanjuang Village in West Java, about 150km southeast of the capital Jakarta, took place at 4pmÂ...

BEIJING: Mainland China reported 69 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday (Jan 9), more than double the 33 reported cases a day earlier, the country's national health authority said on Sunday. The National Health Commission said in its daily bulletin that...

HONG KONG: A Hong Kong inquest failed on Saturday (Jan 9) to determine the cause of a student's death that fuelled tensions between protesters and the city's police force at the height of the rallies that swept across the financial hub in 2019. A fi...

ROME: Pope Francis and Britain's Queen Elizabeth on Saturday (Jan 9) became the latest high-profile figures to join the global vaccination campaign against the coronavirus, as the United Kingdom reported it had surpassed more than 3 million cases sin...

The days of Big Tech companies growing at scale with no boundaries are numbered as stricter government regulations come into play, says this observer.

The Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed rail may have been terminated. This isn’t the end of the line but a signal that better processes are needed, says Stewart Nixon.

JAKARTA: Ketika COVID-19 melanda Indonesia di bulan Maret tahun lalu, desainer Lody Andrian seketika jatuh iba kepada puluhan temannya yang terkena imbas Pembatasan Sosial Berskala Besar (PSBB). Lody, yang juga seorang penyanyi dan penulis lagu di s...

JAKARTA: When COVID-19 hit Indonesia in March last year, graphic designer Lody Andrian could not help but feel sorry for his friends affected by the subsequent lockdown.    Andrian, who is also a singer-songwriter for a heavy metal band, saw how ...

WASHINGTON: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday (Jan 9) said he was lifting restrictions on contacts between US officials and their Taiwanese counterparts, a move likely to anger China and increase tensions between Beijing and Washington in ...

JAKARTA: Friends and families of those who were onboard a Sriwijaya Air plane that went missing shortly after takeoff on Saturday (Jan 9) were waiting anxiously for news on their loved ones. The plane was supposed to fly from Jakarta to Pontianak i...

NEW DELHI: India will start its COVID-19 vaccination drive from Jan 16 with priority given to about 30 million healthcare and frontline workers, a government statement said on Saturday (Jan 9). Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviewed the preparedness...

TAIPEI: A 5.7 magnitude earthquake struck off the northeastern coast of Taiwan on Saturday (Jan 9), the island's weather bureau said, with no immediate reports of damage. The quake, which briefly shook buildings in the capital, had a depth of 72.2 k...

JAKARTA: A Sriwijaya Air plane crashed into the sea on Saturday (Jan 9) minutes after taking off from Indonesia's capital Jakarta on a domestic flight with 62 people on board, and their fate was not known. The Boeing 737-500, en route to Pontianak i...

JAKARTA: Indonesia has recorded more than 10,000 new COVID-19 infections for the second consecutive day, bringing the total tally in the country to 818,386. According to data published on the official Indonesian government COVID-19 site on Saturd...

Osaka and its surrounding prefectures asked Japan to expand a state of emergency to the western cities in an effort to contain the latest COVID-19 outbreak, while Tokyo's new daily infections keep above 2,000 cases on Saturday.

MUMBAI: Ten babies were killed in a maternity unit in the Indian state of Maharashtra early Saturday (Jan 9) when a fire tore through a major hospital, a doctor said. Staff rescued seven of the newborn infants at the Bhandara district hospital but ...