BANGKOK: Johnson & Johnson is seeking Thailand's approval for its COVID-19 vaccine, a senior Thai health official told Reuters on Tuesday (Feb 2). The request makes J&J's one-dose vaccine the third COVID-19 vaccine to seek registration with Thailand...

SEOUL: The managers of K-pop girl band GFriend issued an apology after leader Sowon was pictured hugging a mannequin dressed in a Nazi-era German army uniform. Images taken during a video shoot at a European-themed cafe in Paju, north of Seoul, show...

BEIJING: China's Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products said on Tuesday (Feb 2) it has completed a facility designed to be able to produce 400 million doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine per year, doubling a capacity target promised in 2020. "K...

Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered the release from prison on Tuesday (Feb 2) of Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh, a ringleader in the kidnapping and murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl by Al-Qaeda and Pakistani militants in 2002.

TOKYO: The world's democracies would risk pushing Myanmar into the arms of China if their response to the coup closes channels for communication with the Southeast Asian country's powerful generals, Japan's deputy defence minister said on Tuesday (Fe...

TOKYO: Paralympics chief Andrew Parsons is confident the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games will go ahead this year, and will be "a platform to change to world" - with or without spectators. As COVID-19 infections surge globally, organisers have said the ...

TOKYO: Tokyo 2020 President Yoshiro Mori said on Tuesday (Feb 2) that Japan would hold the Summer Olympics regardless of the situation with the COVID-19 pandemic and was working closely with the International Olympic Committee to make them happen. "...

HONG KONG: Hong Kong's leader on Tuesday (Feb 2) defended her administration's use of "ambush lockdowns", after a spate of overnight operations to conduct surprise mandatory COVID-19 tests uncovered no new cases. The new tactic involves authorities ...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia announced on Tuesday (Feb 2) that it will extend the movement control order (MCO) for all states and federal territories, with the exception of Sarawak, from Feb 5 until Feb 18.  Last month, all states in the country except S...

SINGAPORE: Since March last year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has helped more than 250 Singapore residents enter Malaysia due to essential and compassionate reasons.  But the majority of appeals were unsuccessful, Foreign Affairs Minister...

YANGON: The party of Myanmar's toppled leader Aung San Suu Kyi demanded her immediate release on Tuesday (Feb 2), after a military coup that triggered international condemnation and sanctions threats from the new United States president. Armed troo...

HANOI: Vietnam's health minister said on Tuesday (Feb 2) a newly detected COVID-19 outbreak, which has infected 276 people and spread to 10 provinces and cities, is caused by the more contagious British variant of the coronavirus. Six days since th...

JAKARTA: Indonesia's air accident investigator has sent five components of a crashed Sriwijaya Air jet to the United States and Britain for examination, including the autothrottle that controls engine power automatically, the agency's head said on Tu...

SHANGHAI: Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma has been left off a list of Chinese entrepreneurial leaders published by state media, the snub underscoring how just far he has fallen out of favour with Beijing. China's best known businessman was not mention...

China's top diplomat called on Tuesday for Beijing and Washington to put relations back on a predictable and constructive path, saying the United States should stop meddling in China's internal affairs, like Hong Kong and Tibet.

Chinese syringe makers are warning that they may only be able to fulfil some orders as late as June, as global coronavirus vaccination programmes put unprecedented levels of pressure on their factory lines and snarl the country's own vaccine efforts.

NEW YORK: The United Nations fears the coup in Myanmar will worsen the plight of about 600,000 Rohingya Muslims still in the country, a UN spokesman said on Monday (Feb 1) as the Security Council planned to meet on the latest developments on Tuesday...

BEIJING: China reported the fewest new COVID-19 cases in a month as imported cases overtook local infections, official data showed on Tuesday (Feb 2), suggesting the country's worst wave since March 2020 is being stamped out ahead of a key holiday. ...

WASHINGTON: The World Bank on Monday (Feb 1) said it was gravely concerned about the current situation in Myanmar and a military takeover of power, warning the events risked a major setback to the country’s transition and its development prospects....

A team of investigators led by the World Health Organization (WHO) arrived on Tuesday at an animal health facility in China's central city of Wuhan in the search for clues about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

SHANGHAI: Chinese police arrested more than 80 people and confiscated 3,000 fake doses of COVID-19 vaccine as part of a campaign to combat vaccine-related crimes, state news agency Xinhua reported. The suspects had been carrying out the ruse since ...

Malaysia’ initial optimism of containing the pandemic, bolstered by the success of an early and decisive lockdown last year, has all but evaporated, says an observer.

The State of Emergency and the detention of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi will have larger implications for the military and Myanmar, says Dr Nehginpao Kipgen.

The World Health Organization on Monday blasted critics of its investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic and challenged those claiming to know better to come forward with the smoking gun.

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden called Monday (Feb 1) on Myanmar's military to relinquish power immediately and ordered a review to consider reimposing sanctions lifted due to the nation's transition to democracy. "The international community sh...

A World Health Organization team visiting China to explore the origins of the coronavirus is having productive talks with its Chinese counterparts, Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead for COVID-19, said on Monday.

Nintendo profits soar as people play games during pandemic

YANGON: Myanmar's military on Monday (Feb 1) announced a purge of Aung San Suu Kyi's democratically elected government, removing 24 ministers and deputies while naming 11 replacements in its new administration after seizing power in a coup. The anno...

NEW DELHI: India boosted its healthcare spending by 135 per cent in a budget unveiled on Monday (Feb 1) and lifted caps on foreigners investing in its vast insurance market to help revive an economy that suffered its deepest recorded slump as a resul...

BANGKOK: Scores of Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand protested in front of their embassy on Monday (Feb 1), waving posters of leader Aung San Suu Kyi after she was detained during a military coup. Myanmar's army took over early Monday, taking Aun...

Vietnam has shut schools in 22 provinces ahead of the Lunar New Year "Tet" holiday and ended a ruling Communist Party congress early on Monday following the detection of a new cluster of coronavirus cases in northern areas last week.

BEIJING: China launched a carbon trading system on Monday (Feb 1) designed to drive down emissions, as the world's biggest polluter takes steps towards decarbonising its economy by 2060. The scheme lets provincial governments set pollution caps for...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is expected to receive the first batch of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines on Feb 26, a senior health official said on Monday (Feb 1). In November, Malaysia announced it had agreed to buy 12.8 million doses of the vacci...

SINGAPORE: Some Myanmar nationals living in Singapore said they were shocked to hear about the military coup back home and are worried about their families. Many told CNA they heard the news through social media and personal messages from friends an...

TOKYO: Foreign companies from Japanese retail giant Aeon to South Korean trading firm POSCO International and Norway's Telenor scrambled to assess the turmoil in Myanmar on Monday (Feb 1) after a coup in the country once feted as Southeast Asia's las...

Japan Airlines said Monday it forecasts a larger-than-expected annual net loss of nearly $2.9 billion, as the aviation industry continues to struggle from the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

SINGAPORE: Brunei, the current chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has called on Monday (Feb 1) for dialogue among parties, reconciliation and the "return to normalcy" amid the ongoing developments in Myanmar.  This comes...

BEIjING: Beijing called on Monday (Feb 1) for all parties in Myanmar to "resolve their differences" after the military seized power and detained democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi. "China is a friendly neighbour of Myanmar and hopes the...

Bangladesh called on Monday for peace and stability in Myanmar after a military coup and said it hoped to continue the process of voluntary repatriation of Rohingya refugees with its neighbour.

WUHAN, Hubei: A World Health Organization-led team investigating the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic on Monday (Feb 1) visited the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in China's central region of Hubei, where the outbreak emerged in late 2019...

NEW DELHI: Several senior Indian journalists are facing charges of sedition over their reporting and online posts about a protest by farmers last week, sparking criticism of the legal action from media associations. The cases have been filed with po...

A Pakistan military aircraft brought back the country's first consignment of COVID-19 vaccines from China on Monday, the country's health adviser, Faisal Sultan, said.

A senior North Korean diplomat who was acting ambassador to Kuwait told his daughter they were going to defect to the South while pretending to drive her to school, Ryu Hyun-woo told media on Monday.

YANGON: Myanmar's National League for Democracy (NLD) party on Monday (Feb 1) said its leader Aung San Suu Kyi called on the public not to accept a coup by the military and urged them to protest. "The actions of the military are actions to put the ...

Myanmar's powerful military chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, is in the spotlight after politicians from the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party were detained and the army announced it was taking power. Myanmar's military is notori...

Detained Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai was in court Monday trying to win bail in the first major legal challenge to a sweeping national security law Beijing imposed on the city last year.

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday (Feb 1) said it was closely monitoring the situation in Myanmar after several of its leaders - including President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi – were detained. "Sin...

YANGON: Myanmar's military seized power on Monday (Feb 1) in a coup against the democratically elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who was detained along with other leaders of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party in early...

WASHINGTON: The United States on Monday (Feb 1) urged Myanmar's military to release detained officials, including de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and warned of a response from Washington over the apparent coup. Suu Kyi and the country's president...

TOKYO: Japan is expected to extend a state of emergency to fight the spread of COVID-19 this week for Tokyo and other areas as hospitals remain under pressure despite a decline in cases from their peaks, local media reported on Monday (Feb 1). The g...

Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other senior figures from the ruling party were detained in an early morning raid on Monday (Feb 1), the spokesman for the governing National League for Democracy said. The move came after Myanmar's powerful mil...

SYDNEY: Australia on Monday (Feb 1) demanded that Myanmar's army immediately release de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other elected leaders, warning the military was "once again seeking to seize control" of the country. "We call on the military...

YANGON: Several Myanmar political figures, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, were detained on Monday (Feb 1) as the military seized power in a coup against her democratically elected government. A spokesperson for the National League...

SHANGHAI: China reported the lowest daily increase in new COVID-19 cases in more than three weeks, official data showed on Monday (Feb 1), reversing a sharp uptick a day earlier, amid efforts to contain the disease ahead of a major holiday break. Ne...

YANGON: Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other senior figures from the ruling party have been detained in an early morning raid, the spokesman for the governing National League for Democracy said on Monday (Feb 1). The move comes afte...

BANGKOK: A Thai court has ordered a leading government foe to remove allegations on social media that the state's coronavirus vaccine policy is opaque and unfairly favours a company owned by the king, the government said on Sunday (Jan 31). However,...

HANOI: Vietnam reported on Sunday (Jan 31) 50 new COVID-19 infections, most linked to a new outbreak that began on Thursday in the northern province of Hai Duong, the Ministry of Health said. The outbreak has spread to at least nine cities and pro...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia reported 5,298 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday (Jan 31) as the country continues to battle a sharp spike in infections. Malaysia has registered more than 5,000 cases a day for three consecutive days and has reported four-digit ...

MANILA: The Philippines' health ministry on Sunday (Jan 31) welcomed the offer of the country's group of Catholic bishops to help in the coronavirus vaccination drive of the government, which is struggling to persuade many Filipinos to get the shots....

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 ...