NEW DELHI: India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday (Jan 31) protesters that stormed New Delhi's Red Fort had caused "insult" to the country, his first public comments on a months-long farmers' agitation that turned violent this week. Ten...

SEOUL: South Korea will extend its social distancing curbs by two weeks until the end of the Chinese New Year holidays as new infection clusters emerge in the country, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said on Sunday (Jan 31). The announcement dashed ea...

HANOI: Vietnam's ruling Communist Party re-elected its 76-year-old chief Nguyen Phu Trong for a rare third five-year term on Sunday (Jan 31), as the Southeast Asian country battled its biggest COVID-19 outbreak since the pandemic began. Trong, who e...

BEIJING: China has temporarily banned entry of foreign nationals travelling from Canada, even if they hold valid Chinese residence permits for work, the Chinese consulate in Toronto said. "All foreign nationals who hold valid Chinese residence permi...

WUHAN: A team of World Health Organization (WHO) experts investigating the origins of COVID-19 visited a market in Wuhan on Sunday (Jan 31) where one of the first reported clusters of infections emerged over a year ago. Members of the group arrive...

LONDON: Britain will apply to join the Pacific free trade area, the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the UK said Saturday (Jan 30), under its post-Brexit plans. Britain's International Trade Secretary Liz Truss is to...

HONG KONG: Hong Kong residents can apply from Sunday (Jan 31) afternoon for a new visa offering them an opportunity to become British citizens after Beijing's imposition of a national security law in the Asian financial hub last year. The move comes...

JAKARTA: Hujan deras tiba-tiba mengguyur Jakarta saat Ahmad Marzuki, seorang pramu kantor atau yang lazim disebut "office boy", sedang dalam perjalanan pulang usai bekerja pada giliran sore di suatu hari pada April 2018. Ia segera berlari untuk menc...

JAKARTA: Heavy rain suddenly poured down when Ahmad Marzuki, an office boy in Jakarta, was on his way home from a late shift in April 2018.  He immediately ran to seek refuge and chanced upon a family of scavengers lying on the pavement, as a l...

Tourism to Costa Rica will likely stagnate this year at the sharply reduced levels of 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, weighing on the economy of the Central American country, a top government official said on Saturday.

TOKYO: A Japanese woman who said she hid her mother's corpse in a freezer in her apartment for a decade told police she feared eviction if the death was discovered, media reported Saturday (Jan 30). Police told AFP that Yumi Yoshino, 48, was held "...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia reported its biggest daily rise in coronavirus cases for the second straight day, with 5,728 new infections recorded on Saturday (Jan 30). The health ministry also reported 13 new deaths, raising the total fatalities from the ...

JAKARTA: Indonesia reported 14,518 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday (Jan 30), a record daily increase that brought its total number of cases to just over 1.06 million. The country's COVID-19 taskforce also reported 210 deaths, increasing the death tol...

BEIJING: A Chinese central government inspection team has accused the country's energy administration of negligence in environmental protection, failing to control new coal power capacity in key polluted areas. The team from the Ministry of Ecology ...

India reported its lowest active number of novel coronavirus cases in seven months on Saturday, a year after the virus was first confirmed in the country.

Hong Kong Secretary of Justice Teresa Cheng reiterated on Saturday that Britain had no rights over the city under the joint declaration that laid the blueprint for how the city would be ruled after its 1997 reunification with China.

China's first Hualong One nuclear reactor begins operations

Myanmar's military on Saturday said it would protect and abide by the constitution and act according to law, in a move that could allay concerns in the country that the armed forces might attempt to seize power.

TOKYO: An international badminton competition due to take place this spring in Japan has been cancelled, organisers said Saturday (Jan 30), the latest sporting event to be hit by virus travel restrictions just six months before the Tokyo Olympics. ...

Taiwan's government on Saturday reported the island's first death from COVID-19 since May, as it battles a small and unusual outbreak of locally transmitted cases.

Indian farmers began a one-day hunger strike on Saturday in protest against new agricultural laws after a week of clashes with authorities that left one dead and hundreds injured.

More than 1,400 Rohingya Muslim refugees set sail for a remote island in the Bay of Bengal on Saturday, a Bangladesh navy official said, despite opposition from rights groups concerned about the site's vulnerability to storms and flooding.

Members of a World Health Organization team investigating the origins of the coronavirus pandemic visited another Wuhan hospital that had treated early COVID-19 patients on their second full day of work on Saturday (Jan 30).

Vietnam approved its first vaccine for the new coronavirus and reported 34 new infections on Saturday, as it battles its biggest flare-up of COVID-19 in the midst of an important Communist Party meeting.

SINGAPORE: Singapore will suspend reciprocal green lane (RGL) arrangements with Malaysia, Germany, South Korea for three months from Monday (Feb 1). In a statement released on Saturday morning (Jan 30), Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (M...

The US military said on Friday that Chinese military flights in the past week in the South China Sea "at no time" posed any threat to a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier strike group in the region but fit a pattern of destabilising and aggressive behaviour ...

A state of emergency in Tokyo this month has prompted a growing debate as to whether the games will be able to go ahead despite reassurances from organisers, says John Duerden.

BANGKOK: New research shows that the fast warming of the planet could cause trees and plants to release more carbon than they absorb, a critical function reversal that would further accelerate climate change. By as early as 2040, given the current ...

President Joe Biden will impose costs on China but also work to repair democracy at home in a bid to win the emerging rivalry between the world's top two economies, a top aide said Friday.

Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani urged the new US administration Friday to step up pressure on the Taliban and not rush to withdraw more troops.

NEW DELHI: A small bomb exploded outside the Israeli embassy in New Delhi on Friday (Jan 29) as it marked the anniversary of setting up diplomatic relations with India. No injuries were reported but an Israeli official told AFP the incident was bei...

HONG KONG: A 72-year-old bottle of Glen Grant single malt whisky from Scotland fetched more than US$54,000 in an auction in Hong Kong on Friday (Jan 29). It is the first time that the 1948 Glen Grant whisky, by independent bottler Gordon & MacPhail,...

The former chairman of China Huarong Asset Management Co, Lai Xiaomin, was executed on Friday following his conviction on bribery charges by a court in Tianjin, the official People's Daily reported.

NEW DELHI: The digital platform anchoring India's massive COVID-19 vaccination drive will be able to handle up to 10 million shots daily to meet the country's target of covering 300 million people by July-August, a government official told Reuters. ...

Hong Kong's economy contracted a record of 6.1 percent in 2020 as the city was battered by the coronavirus pandemic, just months after it was upended by widespread political unrest.

Embattled Chinese conglomerate HNA Group, which has been struggling to resolve a drawn-out cash crisis, faces bankruptcy and restructuring to manage its debts, the company announced on Friday.

BANGKOK: Thailand's plan to produce the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine locally is on track to be ready to begin mass inoculations in June, with a capacity to make up to 18 million doses per month, a senior official said on Friday (Jan 29). It was stil...

BEIJING: China on Friday (Jan 29) executed a former top banker accused of taking US$260 million worth of bribes, other forms of corruption and bigamy, state broadcaster CCTV reported. Lai Xiaomin, the former chairman of Huarong - one of China's larg...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian retail investors joined forces on social media and pushed up stocks of under-pressure rubber glove makers on Friday (Jan 29), taking inspiration from the recent GameStop trading phenomenon in the US. Shares of the US video ga...

TOKYO: Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said on Friday (Jan 29) that Japan remained determined that the Olympics would go ahead as planned in Tokyo this summer. Amid speculation the event might be cancelled again due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Internati...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia reported a record 5,725 new COVID-19 cases on Friday (Jan 29) as the country approaches the end of its most recent movement control order (MCO).  The figure reported on Friday was a sharp increase from the country's previous ...

Tibetan culture advocate released after 5-year prison term

SINGAPORE: More than 3,000 chickens died during their journey from Malaysia to Singapore over the last few days after cargo trucks experienced delays at the land entry checkpoints, said poultry importers interviewed by CNA. Cargo truck drivers have...

Lawyers have filed a last-ditch attempt to overturn the acquittal of a British-born militant convicted of masterminding the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, a government prosecutor said on Friday (Jan 29).

BEIJING: China said on Friday (Jan 29) that it would not recognise the British National Overseas (BNO) passport as a valid travel document or for identification starting from Jan 31. The announcement comes as Britain prepares to open its doors to mi...

TOKYO: Japan's Olympic sponsors are scaling back advertising campaigns and delaying marketing events for this year's Summer Games, concerned that public sentiment toward the event is souring amid a fresh wave of COVID-19. Sponsors also worry that or...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia cannot afford another total lockdown as it will be “very detrimental” to the country’s economy, said finance minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz. Speaking to CNA in an exclusive interview, he said the current nation...

China exported more than 220 billion face masks last year, the commerce ministry said on Friday (Jan 29), the equivalent of nearly 40 per person outside China, as demand for protective gear skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

YANGON: Myanmar members of parliament are set to take up their seats on Monday (Feb 1) as escalating tension between the civilian government and the powerful military stirs fears of a coup in the aftermath of an election the army says was fraudulent....

NEW DELHI: The Serum Institute of India (SII), the world's biggest vaccine maker, has applied to local authorities to conduct a small domestic trial of Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine, which was found to be 89.3 per cent effective in a UK trial. Serum ex...

MANILA: The Philippines will relax travel curbs on foreigners coming from more than 30 countries that have detected cases of the more contagious British variant of the coronavirus starting from next month, the presidential spokesman said on Friday (J...

SINGAPORE: The Singapore arm of China Communications Construction Company Limited has been awarded a S$180 million deal to build a 25m-high viaduct and tunnels for the Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link. This is the second civil c...

SEOUL: South Korea has delayed until Sunday (Jan 31) any easing of social distancing measures because outbreaks involving mission schools are threatening to undermine efforts to keep new infections under control ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays. ...

BEIJING: A World Health Organization-led team of experts investigating the origins of COVID-19 on Friday (Jan 29) visited a hospital in the Chinese city of Wuhan that was one of the first to treat patients in the early days of the outbreak. After m...

HANOI: Vietnam reported nine more new COVID-19 infections early on Friday (Jan 29) as the country's first outbreak for nearly two months spread to Hanoi, the capital, where the ruling Communist party is currently holding its key five-yearly congress....

SHANGHAI: China reported the lowest daily increase in new COVID-19 cases in three weeks, official data showed on Friday (Jan 29), as authorities in the regions hardest hit by the latest wave imposed robust curbs to contain the disease. The total num...

LONDON: Britain's government on Friday (Jan 29) vowed to stand by the people of its former colony Hong Kong against a Chinese crackdown as it prepared to launch a new visa scheme potentially benefiting millions. Holders of British National (Overseas...

With COVID-19 travel restrictions hindering cross-border visits, bakeries in Johor have focused their efforts on making deliveries across the Causeway.

Chinese app TikTok cuts jobs in India following ban

Vietnam's worst single-day coronavirus outbreak so far, its first for nearly two months, gatecrashed the Communist Party's carefully choreographed five-yearly congress on Thursday - a major headache for a government that has prided itself on keeping ...

BANGKOK: More than a hundred participants in a party in a bar on a popular Thai island, including 89 foreigners, received suspended jail terms and fines on Thursday (Jan 28) for breaking national COVID-19 restrictions. Police arrested the 109 party...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia reported 4,094 new COVID-19 cases and 10 deaths on Thursday (Jan 28), even as authorities moved to relax some movement control order (MCO) restrictions.   The Klang Valley area, comprising Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, accounte...

Indian farmer unions have scrapped next week's planned march on parliament against new agricultural laws, as rifts emerge after violent protests in New Delhi left one person dead and almost 400 police injured.

BANDA ACEH: A gay couple was flogged in Indonesia's conservative Aceh province on Thursday (Jan 28), justice officials said, in a public spectacle lambasted by human rights groups. The two men were whipped nearly 80 times each for having gay sex, wh...

TAIPEI: Taiwan has sought Germany's help in securing COVID-19 vaccines, Economy Minister Wang Mei-hua said on Thursday (Jan 28), after Berlin asked for the island's assistance in easing a shortage of automobile semiconductor chips. Wang told reporte...

Pakistan court orders man accused in American's death freed

Populist Sadyr Japarov was sworn in as president of ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan Thursday, completing a remarkable transformation from prisoner to president in the space of a few months.

NEW DELHI: India has further eased COVID-19 restrictions, bucking the trend in many other countries as the huge Asian nation's infection and death numbers fall sharply. Government figures on Thursday (Jan 28) showed that, in the previous 24 hours, 1...

The Bangladesh Cricket Board said Thursday it will vaccinate hundreds of players against the coronavirus by the end of February in a bid to restart domestic tournaments.

BEIJING: China toughened its language towards Taiwan on Thursday (Jan 28), warning after recent stepped up military activities near the island that "independence means war" and that their armed forces were taking action to respond to provocation and ...

BEIJING: The travel plans of millions were thrown into disarray on Thursday (Jan 28) by cancelled trains, flights and Chinese government "advice" to stay at home ahead of Chinese New Year, a sign of China's determination to keep COVID-19 cases low a...

WUHAN: A team of experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) left quarantine in Wuhan on Thursday (Jan 28) to begin a heavily scrutinised probe into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, after Washington urged a "robust and clear" investigation....

WELLINGTON: A senior New Zealand minister advised Australia to adopt his country's softly-softly approach to China on Thursday (Jan 28), a rare public disagreement between the neighbours on how to deal with a more assertive Beijing. The comments - ...

SEOUL: South Korea said on Thursday (Jan 28) it would begin COVID-19 vaccinations for the general public in the third quarter of this year, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) director Jeong Eun-kyeong told a news briefing. Inocul...

NEW DELHI: Popular short-video Chinese app TikTok is cutting its workforce in India after hundreds of millions of its users dropped it to comply with a government ban on dozens of Chinese apps amid a military standoff between the two countries. "Giv...

The Philippines' Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the emergency use of AstraZeneca PLC's COVID-19 vaccine, the second to be approved in the Southeast Asian nation.

WASHINGTON: The United States rejects China's maritime claims in the South China Sea beyond what it is permitted under international law and stands with Southeast Asian countries resisting its pressure, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on We...

HONG KONG: Freight carrier FedEx will temporarily relocate its Hong Kong-based pilots to San Francisco because it expects the Asian financial capital to establish strict 14-day hotel quarantine requirements for crew, it said in a memo to pilots. The...

TOKYO: AstraZeneca will make more than 90 million coronavirus vaccine shots in Japan, the top government spokesman said on Thursday (Jan 28), as concerns mount over whether the country will have enough doses to begin its delayed inoculation campaign....

TOKYO: The first Tokyo Olympics test event of 2021 has been postponed because of travel restrictions under Japan's coronavirus state of emergency, organisers confirmed on Thursday (Jan 28). The artistic swimming event will double as the sport's fin...

SINGAPORE: Singapore is not discussing an air travel bubble arrangement with India as people here understand it to be, said the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) on Thursday (Jan 28).  CAAS was responding to media queries regarding a ...

HANOI: Vietnam confirmed its first outbreak of the coronavirus in nearly two months on Thursday (Jan 28) and warned it could be more serious than its last wave of infections, as authorities rushed to contain the spread and test tens of thousands of ...

SEOUL: Samsung Electronics, the world's biggest smartphone and memory chip maker reported fourth-quarter net profits up by more than a quarter year-on-year on Thursday (Jan 28), with coronavirus-driven working from home boosting demand for devices po...

WASHINGTON: One week into the job, US President Joe Biden has sent a clear warning to Beijing against any expansionist intentions in East and Southeast Asia. In multiple calls and statements, he and his top security officials have underscored suppor...

BEIJING: China reported its lowest daily increase in new COVID-19 cases in nearly three weeks on Thursday (Jan 28), suggesting aggressive countermeasures have helped slow a recent outbreak in the country's northeastern provinces. The total number of...

MANILA: According to one rumour circulating in the Philippines, the coronavirus vaccine will allow President Rodrigo Duterte to kill people at the push of a button. Elsewhere in the country of 108 million, memories of a dengue vaccine that has been ...

By setting tight delivery times, levying fines for delays and even suggesting routes in violation of traffic rules, Chinese platforms encourage couriers to speed dangerously, says The Financial Times' Yuan Yang.

Vaccination programmes must be accompanied with an unrelenting focus on suppressing the virus, says The Financial Times’ Anjana Ahuja.

Anwar Ibrahim’s multiple failed attempts to mount a challenge to Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin in recent months have shaken confidence in the former’s leadership. The biggest question regarding Muhyiddin’s fate lies not with Anwar but UMNO, s...

The United States wants a "robust and clear" international probe into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic in China, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Wednesday (Jan 27).

The United States will try to keep climate negotiations with China separate from other disagreements affecting the two countries' ties, John Kerry said on Wednesday (Jan 27).

Overfishing has savaged populations of some sharks and rays by more than 70 percent in the last half-century, leaving a "gaping, growing hole" in ocean life, according to a new study.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said on Thursday (Jan 27) he had agreed with US President Joe Biden in a phone call to strengthen their bilateral alliance, as China expands its economic and military might.

KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian court sentenced a man to 1,050 years in jail on Wednesday (Jan 27) for raping his stepdaughter 105 times over a period of two years. The man, who was not named, will also be given 24 strokes of the cane. Judge M Kunasun...

89 foreigners arrested at Thai bar flouting COVID-19 rules

Indian police imposed heavy security and closed several main roads around New Delhi on Wednesday (Jan 27), a day after farmers went on the rampage in the capital, leaving one person dead and several hundred injured.

Thailand is targeting the immunisation of 19 million people against the coronavirus in a first phase of inoculations starting on Feb 14, the prime minister said on Wednesday, amid criticism the government has been slow in rolling out vaccines.

NEW DELHI: India's top court on Wednesday (Jan 27) suspended a lower court's ruling reducing the punishment for a man who groped a girl after the verdict sparked an outcry in a country where crimes against women have become politically contentious. ...

Philippines protests new China law as `verbal threat of war’

KUALA LUMPUR: The automotive workshop owned by Mr Wong Tung Khong in Sungai Besi was quiet on Tuesday (Jan 26), with only a few employees servicing customers' cars.  "This time last year, I wouldn't even have time to answer your questions because...