Worries simmered in mainland China about a potential fresh wave of coronavirus cases ahead of the Lunar New Year next month as authorities on Sunday reported 109 new COVID-19 cases, most of them in Hebei province surrounding Beijing.

Gunmen shot dead two Afghan women judges working for the Supreme Court in an early morning ambush in the country's capital Sunday, officials said, as a wave of assassinations continues to rattle the nation.

India's Covid-19 vaccination drive had a successful start with more than 190,000 people receiving their first jabs and no one hospitalised for major side effects, the health ministry said, but reports emerged about concerns over the homegrown vaccine...

For Yuuki Hamazono, it was a relief to find bars and restaurants in Tokyo flouting the Japanese government's request to close by 8 p.m.

HONG KONG: E-commerce workers who kept China fed during the COVID-19 pandemic, making their billionaire bosses even richer, are so unhappy with their pay and treatment that one just set himself on fire in protest. China’s Internet industries alr...

SEOUL: North Korea’s parliament was scheduled to convene on Sunday (Jan 17) to pass decisions made by a major ruling party meeting where leader Kim Jong Un vowed maximum efforts to expand his nuclear weapons programme in face of what he described a...

SINGAPORE: A team from Singapore's Transport Safety Investigation Bureau is assisting with the probe into the Sriwijaya Air plane crash, said Singapore's Ministry of Transport on Sunday (Jan 17). The two investigators arrived in Jakarta on Wedne...

BEIJING: The coronavirus was found on ice cream produced in eastern China, prompting a recall of cartons from the same batch, according to the government. The Daqiaodao Food Co in Tianjin, adjacent to Beijing, was sealed and its employees were bei...

At least 60 people have been killed after an earthquake struck Indonesia's West Sulawesi province on Friday, the disaster mitigation agency (BNPB) said on Sunday, the latest in a string of disasters to hit the Southeast Asian country.

For years, legal troubles have cast a cloud over Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee as he stood on the cusp of stepping out of his father's shadow and making a name for himself as the leader of the global tech giant.

BATANGAS, Philippines: When the Philippines' second most active volcano Taal erupted in 1965, Teodora Caraig, born and brought up on Volcano Island, fled but returned a year later. She went on to raise her children and grandchildren on the island, wh...

BANGKOK: During good times, mining for Bitcoin is an around the clock job. In Nonthaburi, a province outside Bangkok, through the day and night one facility’s thousands of machines are on the hunt. An ordinary factory from the outside, inside row...

Students piled bamboo canes and stationery in front of Thailand's Ministry of Education and splashed crimson paint on it to protest corporal punishment, one of several protests that took place across the capital on Saturday.

Foreign ministers of China and the Philippines on Saturday committed to prioritising post-pandemic recovery efforts as senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi wrapped up a week-long visit to four Southeast Asian countries.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia on Saturday (Jan 16) reported a record high of 4,029 new COVID-19 cases and eight more deaths. Apart from eight imported cases, the rest are local transmissions, said health director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah. This takes...

The US Forces in Korea (USFK) said on Saturday it has imposed a shelter-in-place order on two of its largest bases - US Army Garrison Yongsan and Camp Humphreys - until Tuesday after a cluster of coronavirus infections.

Clusters of cases in China's COVID-19 outbreak in its northern provinces such as Hebei, Liaoning and Heilongjiang, as well as the capital Beijing since December have been caused by cases from overseas, state media reported on Saturday.

Myanmar police scuffled on Saturday with dozens of followers of Buddhist nationalist monk Ashin Wirathu at a demonstration calling for him to be put on trial more than two months after he handed himself in to face sedition charges.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is taking legal action at the global trade watchdog against the European Union and member states France and Lithuania for restricting palm oil-based biofuels, the government said. The world's second largest palm oil producer, ...

JAKARTA: A team from the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has arrived in Indonesia's capital to join the investigation into the crash of a Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500, the head of Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee...

BEIJING: China on Saturday (Jan 16) finished building a 1,500-room hospital for COVID-19 patients in five days to fight a surge in infections in a city south of Beijing, state media reported. The hospital is one of six with a total of 6,500 rooms be...

Hong Kong on Saturday (Jan 16) hit back at the United States over its latest sanctions on six officials, slamming the move as "insane, shameless and despicable".

JAKARTA: An aftershock hit Indonesia's Sulawesi island on Saturday (Jan 16) as rescue workers searched for people trapped under rubble after an earthquake killed at least 45 people, injured hundreds and sent thousands fleeing. Indonesia's disaster ...

TAIPEI: A Chinese lawyer who represented a Hong Kong activist was stripped of his licence by China on Friday (Jan 15). Lu Siwei, who represented one of 12 Hong Kong activists who tried to flee to Taiwan, had his licence revoked by the Sichuan Prov...

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the "world's largest" vaccination campaign on Saturday as the populous nation tries to bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control starting with two locally-manufactured shots.

In the climate debate, calculating which economies should bear bigger responsibilities is an impossible task. Focusing on how countries can reduce their carbon footprint together may be a more productive focus for the climate action agenda, says SUSS...

KUALA LUMPUR: It was already late on Jan 4, but the 42 passengers on a sleeper bus from Kota Bharu to Kuala Lumpur were wide awake. Along the way, the bus had encountered a flood at Jeram Besu in Pahang state, as a result of a torrential downpour...

BEIJING: A city in northern China is building a 3,000-unit quarantine facility to deal with an anticipated overflow of patients as COVID-19 cases rise ahead of the annual Lunar New Year travel rush. State media on Friday (Jan 15) showed crews levell...

The worldwide death toll from coronavirus approached two million on Friday, with Europe topping 30 million infections and World Health Organization experts working on advice to fight new, more contagious strains of the disease.

A lonely rhinoceros at a Bangladesh zoo is looking for new love after losing her partner seven years ago, but pandemic travel restrictions are hampering her keeper's attempts to play matchmaker.

HONG KONG: Hong Kong's 180,000 civil servants were told on Friday (Jan 15) they had four weeks to sign a document pledging their loyalty to the Chinese-ruled city's mini-constitution and dedication to the government. More than 4,000 civil servants i...

PRACHINBURI: From spicy "happy" salads to soups sprinkled with cannabis shoots and deep-fried marijuana leaves - a Thai hospital restaurant has rolled out a weed-inspired menu which has curious customers flocking to sample its euphoria-inducing offe...

HONG KONG: The company which approves Internet domains in Hong Kong said it will now reject any sites that could incite "illegal acts," raising new concerns about freedoms after Beijing's imposition of a national security law on the Chinese-ruled ci...

An outspoken union leader went on trial in Cambodia on Friday for alleged incitement, the latest in a series of court cases activists say are aimed at cracking down on opposition voices.

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

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...