WUHAN: A World Health Organization-led team investigating the origins of COVID-19 are to begin virtual meetings with their Chinese hosts from a hotel in China's Wuhan, where the pandemic first emerged, on Friday (Jan 15). Their arrival at the city i...

A COVID-19 vaccine developed by China National Biotec Group (CNBG), a Sinopharm subsidiary, is safe in those aged between three and 17, based on clinical data obtained by the company, state media reported on Friday.

Japan's Hiroshima prefecture is to conduct the country's first mass coronavirus tests as it battles a surge of infections, an official said Friday.

JAKARTA: Indonesian rescuer Charles Batlajery was spending the afternoon with his family last Saturday (Jan 9) when he suddenly received a phone call informing him that a Sriwijaya Air plane had gone missing. He immediately told his family that he h...

The Indian government will hold new talks with the leaders of tens of thousands of farmers camped on the outskirts of New Delhi for almost two months protesting for the repeal of new agricultural laws they say threaten their livelihoods.

Indonesian investigators have successfully downloaded information from the flight data recorder (FDR) of the Sriwijaya Air jet that crashed into the sea last week, its transport safety agency said on Friday.

MANILA: The Philippines on Friday (Jan 15) extended entry restrictions on travellers from 32 locations to curb the spread of the COVID-19 variant known as B117, first detected in the UK. The original measures, which were set to expire on Friday, wi...

TOKYO: Japan missed opportunities to coordinate coronavirus testing and secure hospital beds in the months before the pandemic's third wave, health officials, doctors and experts say, missteps that hampered its response as winter set in. Japan has s...

SHANGHAI: China's air quality improved last year, benefiting from COVID-19 related shutdowns as well as tougher industrial controls, government data showed. Concentrations of lung-damaging small particles known as PM2.5 in 337 cities fell an average...

HONG KONG: Shares in Xiaomi collapsed on Friday (Jan 15) after the United States blacklisted the smartphone giant and a host of other Chinese firms as the Trump administration aims to cement its trade war legacy against Beijing. The flurry of last-...

BEIJING: China reported the highest number of daily COVID-19 cases in more than 10 months, official data showed on Friday (Jan 15), due to a severe outbreak in the northeast that has put more than 28 million people under lockdown. A total of 144 new...

BEIJING: Fearing a surge of COVID-19 cases, lost profits and possible lockdowns, China's local governments and humming factories are offering a slew of incentives to persuade workers not to go home for the Chinese New Year holiday in February. This ...

Japan will temporarily suspend exemptions allowing foreign athletes to train in the country ahead of the Summer Olympics, Kyodo News reported, as it closes its borders to contain a surge in COVID-19 cases just six months before the Games.

JAKARTA: At least 34 people were killed after a 6.2-magnitude earthquake rocked Indonesia's Sulawesi Island early on Friday (Jan 15) morning, said authorities.  Hundreds more were injured when the earthquake struck in the early hours, triggering ...

A South Korean court will sentence Samsung Electronics Co Ltd heir Jay Y. Lee on a bribery charge on Monday, a ruling likely to have ramifications not just for his company but for all of South Korea's chaebol conglomerates.

Nuclear-armed North Korea displayed a submarine-launched ballistic missile at a military parade in Pyongyang, state media reported Friday, in a show of strength days before Joe Biden's inauguration as US president.

With this MCO, Johor residents face a double whammy after coping for months with restrictions on commute to Singapore where many used to earn livelihoods, says Serina Rahman.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged nations around the world to maintain a unified front against Chinese detentions of foreign citizens, saying every country was vulnerable.

Fire destroys hundreds of homes in Rohingya refugee camp

Embattled Philippine journalist Maria Ressa faces a third cyber libel charge, her lawyer said Thursday, this time for a story over students allegedly paying a professor for passing grades.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia reported a record 3,337 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday (Jan 14), the biggest daily jump in cases since the start of the pandemic. The state of Selangor reported the highest number of new infections – 1,036 – followed by J...

DHAKA: A huge fire swept through the Rohingya refugee camps in southern Bangladesh in the early hours of Thursday (Jan 14), the United Nations said, destroying homes belonging to thousands of people. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said more than 550...

Indonesia may allow companies to procure their own COVID-19 vaccines, the country's health minister said on Thursday, as an influential business chamber called for members to be able to inoculate staff or sell vaccines to the public.

China on Thursday (Jan 14) demanded that Washington drop a ban on cotton and tomato imports from its Muslim northwest over complaints they are produced by forced labor, which a spokesman dismissed as the “lie of the century".

Among the first in the queue for coronavirus vaccines in Indonesia has been one conspicuous group - social media influencers.

HONG KONG: A Hong Kong Internet provider said on Thursday (Jan 14) it had blocked access to a website following a police order, the first confirmed takedown using a new national security law imposed by Beijing last year. Unlike mainland China, Hong...

Sobbing friends and relatives filed into a Jakarta cemetery Thursday to bury the remains of a flight attendant from the crashed Indonesian passenger jet, as divers restarted their hunt for its second black box.

KUALA LUMPUR: Most of AirAsia X's (AAX) lessors support a restructuring plan, and the Malaysian airline has received interest from potential investors for fundraising after reorganisation, court documents filed this month show. In emails attached to...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has called on Members of Parliament (MPs) to write to the king and plead for the emergency proclamation to be withdrawn and for the parliament to be convened as soon as possible. In the state...

NEW YORK: The United States stands by Taiwan and always will, the US ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft said on Wednesday (Jan 12) following a call with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, after her own trip to Taipei this week got scrapped. Cr...

BANGKOK: The Thailand Open has been declared safe to proceed after three coronavirus cases on the first two days, the Badminton World Federation said on Thursday (Jan 14). One Egyptian player was withdrawn and a German coach and French staff member...

A court in Cambodia convened on Thursday (Jan 14) for the treason trial of scores of opposition figures, one of a series of cases seen by activists as moves by the ruling party to sideline threats to its political monopoly.

JAKARTA: Indonesia started vaccinating health workers and public servants for COVID-19 on Thursday (Jan 14), a day after President Joko Widodo received the first shot of China's Sinovac Biotech vaccine. The health ministry is planning to vaccinate m...

SEOUL: South Korea's Supreme Court on Thursday (Jan 14) upheld a 20-year prison term for former President Park Geun-hye over bribery and other crimes as it wrapped up a historic corruption case that marked a striking fall from grace for the country's...

JAKARTA: An aerial search for victims and wreckage of a crashed Indonesian plane expanded on Thursday (Jan 14) as divers continued combing the debris-littered seabed looking for the cockpit voice recorder from the lost Sriwijaya Air jet. The Nation...

HONG KONG: Hong Kong police have arrested 11 people over suspected crimes related to assisting a group of 12 activists accused of attempting to flee the city by boat for Taiwan last year, local media and activists reported on Thursday (Jan 14). Tho...

US to block cotton from China's Xinjiang region targeted in crackdown

WUHAN: A team of experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) arrived in Wuhan on Thursday (Jan 14) to start a probe into the origins of the coronavirus. The United States, which has accused China of having hidden the extent of its initial outb...

BEIJING: China reported a death from COVID-19 on Thursday (Jan 14) – its first in eight months – as the country battles to contain a resurgence in cases and prepares for the arrival of an expert team from the World Health Organization (WHO). C...

Asia's chicken farmers are confronting the region's worst bird flu outbreak in years, with the deadly virus affecting farms stretching from Japan to India, roiling some poultry prices and showing no signs of easing.

SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wrapped up a rare congress at a mass indoor art performance on Wednesday (Jan 13), state media said, but made no mention of a reported military parade. Kim and other North Korean officials packed into an indoor...

Malaysians have expressed concerns over the declaration of a state of emergency. The political implications are grave, says Oh Ei Sun.

Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou received multiple death threats, including bullets in the mail, while under house arrest in Vancouver, a Canadian court heard on Wednesday.

Archaeologists have discovered the world's oldest known cave painting: a life-sized picture of a wild pig that was made at least 45,500 years ago in Indonesia.

Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday (Jan 13) announced the revival of an Indian and Japanese investment project to develop a deep-sea terminal in Colombo harbour, next to a controversial US$500-million Chinese-run container jetty.

Indonesian rescuers dug through mud Wednesday as they scrambled to find survivors from weekend landslides caused by torrential rains, as the death toll rose to 21 and 19 others were listed as missing.

JAKARTA: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi pledged Wednesday (Jan 13) that China will help Indonesia fight COVID-19 by sharing its experiences, providing vaccines and supporting the Southeast Asian country as it begins to produce them domestically. â...

A global team of scientists led by the World Health Organisation to investigate the origins of the novel coronavirus will spend around a month in the Chinese city of Wuhan, including two weeks in quarantine, a team member said on Wednesday.

Sales of electric vehicles in China rose 10 percent last year, data showed Wednesday, amid a post-pandemic economic recovery and a push to establish the world's largest auto market as a leader for green technology.

Hindu pilgrims flocked to the Ganges river in India Wednesday, shrugging off the risk of coronavirus a day before the start of the Kumbh Mela -- a religious festival that attracts millions each time it is held.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia reported 2,985 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday (Jan 13), as renewed movement restrictions took effect across the country. A third of the cases were from the Klang Valley area, comprising Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, which had 1...

Japan widens virus emergency for 7 more areas as cases surge

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...