YANGON: Electricity supply was cut across many areas of Myanmar on Friday (Mar 5) because of a "system breakdown", according to multiple government agencies.  Residents started posting on Twitter and Facebook about the widespread blackouts across...

HONG KONG: Hong Kong police have arrested 12 people for running a stock manipulation scheme that duped investors on social media into buying shares at inflated prices before the stock was dumped, authorities said on Friday (Mar 5). Raids across Hong...

MANILA: Philippine authorities have seized illegally harvested giant clam shells worth US$3.3 million as smugglers turn to the endangered creatures as a substitute for the illicit ivory trade. In one of the biggest operations of its kind in the cou...

Indian farmers who have been protesting for months against deregulation of produce markets plan to block a major expressway outside New Delhi on Saturday, the 100th day of their campaign, they said.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has detected two cases of a new COVID-19 variant that is thought to be more transmissible and resistant to antibodies, a senior health official said on Friday (Mar 5). The variant, also known as B1525, was found in two people ...

SYDNEY: Australian broadcaster SBS said it was suspending the broadcast of Chinese TV news services CGTN and CCTV after receiving a human rights complaint. An SBS spokesman told Reuters that programmes from Chinese state media CCTV and CGTN would no...

Alphabet Inc's YouTube has removed five channels of Myanmar's military-run television networks hosted on its platform in the wake of the coup in the country.

SINGAPORE: A peaceful resolution of the situation in Myanmar is possible as long as all sides can come together to engage in genuine and direct dialogue, said Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan on Friday (Mar 5). “We thus hope th...

BEIJING: China is increasing its defence spending by 6.8 per cent next year as it works to maintain a robust upgrading of the armed forces despite high government debt and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. A national budget report issued on Frida...

BEIJING: China will resolutely deter any separatist activity seeking Taiwan's independence but is committed to promoting the peaceful growth of relations across the Taiwan Strait and China's "reunification", Premier Li Keqiang said on Friday (Mar 5)....

TOKYO: The remains of a woman who went missing in the devastating 2011 Japan tsunami have been found and identified, police said on Friday (Mar 5), days before the 10th anniversary of the disaster. "Skeletal remains including a skull were found on ...

BEIJING: China's parliament is considering changes to Hong Kong's electoral committee, which selects the city's leader, as well as giving it new powers to nominate and elect candidates to the city's legislature, a senior parliament official said on ...

BEIJING: China on Friday (Mar 5) set a modest annual economic growth target, at above 6 per cent, and pledged to create more jobs in cities than last year, as the world's second-biggest economy planned a careful course out of a year disrupted by the ...

SHANGHAI: China reported 9 new coronavirus cases in the mainland on Thursday, compared with 10 cases a day earlier, the country's health commission said on Friday (Mar 5). All of the new infections were imported cases originating from abroad, accord...

The Japanese government plans to extend a state of emergency for Tokyo and three neighbouring prefectures to combat COVID-19 until March 21, two weeks longer than originally scheduled, Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said on Friday.

GENEVA: The United Nations Security Council should impose a "global arms embargo" and targeted sanctions against Myanmar's military, a top UN rights expert said on Thursday (Mar 4), voicing alarm at the brutal repression of anti-coup protests. In a ...

WASHINGTON: The United States on Thursday (Mar 4) unveiled new measures to punish Myanmar's army for its Feb 1 coup, blocking the ministries of defence and home affairs and top military conglomerates from certain types of trade. Washington has als...

Myanmar’s internet-savvy younger generation is finding ways around communication blackouts almost as quickly as restrictions are imposed, says a human rights lecturer.

Having transformed the club of his home state, Tunku Ismail, unlike current Valencia owner Peter Lim, has a track-record of football success, says John Duerden.

NEW YORK:  Myanmar's newly appointed ambassador to the United Nations has resigned, saying that his predecessor - who was fired by the military government - continues to represent the country, a UN spokesman said on Thursday (Mar 4), the latest twis...

Indian doctors and politicians on Thursday welcomed efficacy data for a state-backed coronavirus vaccine that was given emergency approval in January without the completion of a late-stage trial, making people reluctant to receive the shot.

China's top legislature will discuss electoral reform in Hong Kong when it meets this week, state media said Thursday, as speculation grows that Beijing will use the event to further tighten control over the financial hub.

KUALA LUMPUR: Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) said on Thursday (Mar 4) that it will focus on improving cooperation with its partners in the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition, including Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) and other regional and sm...

A Hong Kong court on Thursday granted bail to around a third of 47 democracy activists charged with conspiracy to commit subversion, as the case draws widespread criticism that Beijing is using a national security law to crush the city's opposition.

SINGAPORE: About 580,000 KrisFlyer and PPS members have been affected by a data security breach, Singapore Airlines (SIA) said on Thursday (Mar 4). The data breach involves the passenger service system servers of SITA, an air transport information ...

GENEVA: At least 54 people have been killed and more than 1,700 detained since Myanmar's Feb 1 coup, the UN rights chief said on Thursday (Mar 4), demanding that the military "stop murdering" protesters. The comments come after the deadliest day of...

YANGON: Hundreds of mourners gathered in Myanmar on Thursday (Mar 4) for the funeral of a 19-year-old protester shot and killed at a demonstration against military rule. Angel, also known as Kyal Sin, was shot in the head and killed in the city of M...

Thailand's tourism minister said on Thursday he will propose a plan for foreigners to undertake COVID-19 quarantine in popular tourist areas, including beach resorts, in a bid to help revive the country's struggling tourism sector.

YANGON: Armed Myanmar soldiers and police are using TikTok to deliver death threats to protesters against last month's coup, researchers said, prompting the Chinese video-sharing app to announce it was removing content that incites violence. Digital...

TOKYO: JCR Pharmaceuticals Co said on Thursday (Mar 4) it would build a new plant in Japan to expand production of ingredients for COVID-19 vaccines over the longer term. JCR Pharma along with Daiichi Sankyo Co and other Japanese partners are coope...

SINGAPORE: Singaporeans in Myanmar have been advised to consider leaving while it is still possible to do so. Citing the "rapidly escalating clashes between protesters and the Myanmar security forces" and the rising number of civilian casualties, Si...

Photos show North Korea may be trying to extract plutonium

NEW DELHI: At least 19 Myanmar police have crossed into India to escape taking orders from a military junta that is trying to suppress protests against last month's coup, an Indian police official said on Thursday (Mar 4), adding that more were expe...

Thailand probes Facebook's removal of army-linked accounts

JAKARTA: President Joko Widodo said on Thursday (Mar 4) that Indonesian consumers should be encouraged to “love” domestic brands and “hate” foreign products, as he urged officials to stay the course in pushing for 5 per cent economic growth...

China said on Thursday it firmly opposes the practice of countries establishing official institutions in Taiwan, following Lithuania's decision to open a trade representation office there.

UNITED NATIONS: The UN special envoy for Myanmar said the generals who have seized power in the Southeast Asian nation indicated they do not fear renewed sanctions, though they are “very surprised” that their plans to restore military rule withou...

POCHEON, South Korea: “It’s a world of lawlessness,” Reverend Kim Dal-sung muttered over the phone as he drove his tiny KIA over narrow dirt paths zigzagging through greenhouses made of plastic sheets and tubes. In the bleak landscape of dull...

Overseas spectators are likely to be shut out from the Tokyo Olympics, Japanese media reported on Thursday (Mar 4), after organisers said that public safety would be the "top priority" at the COVID-19-delayed Games.

HONG KONG: Hong Kong has been removed from an annual index of the world's freest economies because the think-tank that compiles the league table said the city was now directly controlled by Beijing. The announcement is a reputational blow for Hong ...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen inoculated against COVID-19

ISHINOMAKI: Yuto Naganuma looks silently as the cold sea breeze sweeps over the crumbling walls of the school where his little brother was lost in Japan's devastating 2011 tsunami. Ten years on, Naganuma and others like him form a generation whose y...

Myanmar police broke up demonstrations in several places with tear gas and gunfire on Thursday (Mar 4) but there was no immediate word on casualties a day after the United Nations said 38 people had been killed in the bloodiest day since last month's...

South Korea economy shrank in 2020 for first time in 22 years

Marathon bail proceedings for 47 Hong Kong democracy activists charged with conspiracy to commit subversion enter their fourth day on Thursday (Mar 4), in a landmark case after the most sweeping use yet of the city's national security law.

SHANGHAI: Mainland China reported 10 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday (Mar 3), matching the figure from a day earlier, the country's national health authority said on Thursday. The National Health Commission said in a statement that all of the new c...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un stressed the significance of the role that city and county chief secretaries have in improving the lives of the people and carrying out his five-year economic policies, state news media KCNA said on Thursday.

NEW YORK: How about this for bargain-hunting? A small bowl bought for US$35 in a yard sale in the United States turned out to be a rare 15th century Chinese artefact possibly worth US$500,000. The porcelain bowl - with delicate floral motifs - was...

SEOUL: A transgender South Korean soldier who was forcibly discharged from the army after gender reassignment surgery has been found dead, police said, prompting anger on Thursday (Mar 4) and calls for legal reforms. Firefighters found Byun Hee-soo ...

Bangladesh is moving nearly 4,000 more Rohingya Muslim refugees to a remote Bay of Bengal island, officials said on Wednesday (Mar 3), despite complaints from rights groups concerned about the site's vulnerability to storms and flooding.

Biden plans to build a concert of democracies to contain China, but this will leave everyone worse off, say Andrew Sheng and Xiao Geng.

Vaccines are only effective if people can get vaccinated. Progress on that front is incredibly uneven, says a university dean.

Moving towards a peaceful resolution of the crisis is the only way forward for sense to prevail, says Nehginpao Kipgen.

YANGON: At least 38 people died on Wednesday (Mar 3) in the "bloodiest" day of Myanmar's crisis, the United Nations said, as the military government defied growing international condemnation of its coup with a violent crackdown that the US said lef...

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden singled out a "growing rivalry with China" as a key challenge facing the United States, with his top diplomat describing the Asian country as "the biggest geopolitical test" of this century. The administration rolled ...

Facebook has taken down 185 accounts and groups engaged in an information influencing operation in Thailand run by the military, the company said on Wednesday (Mar 3), the first time it has taken down Thai accounts with ties to the government.

LONDON: The UK will receive 10 million AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses made by the Serum Institute of India (SII), the UK government said on Tuesday (Mar 2). SII, the world's largest vaccine manufacturer by volume, is mass producing the AstraZene...

A plan by Sri Lanka to bury Muslim coronavirus victims on a remote islet was slammed on Wednesday by locals and the minority community.

BANGKOK: Since arriving in Thailand a few years ago, Myanmar migrant worker Own Mar Shwe had been sending money home every month for her family to buy food and medicine. That came to an abrupt halt last month. Like millions of Myanmar migrants who ...

KUALA LUMPUR: Audit firm Deloitte PLT will pay Malaysia's government US$80 million to resolve all claims related to its auditing of accounts of scandal-linked state fund 1MDB and its unit SRC International from 2011 to 2014, the finance ministry said...

BEIJING: Former Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, among the most vocal supporters of Beijing's moves to tighten control over the territory, did not rule out a return to his former post in an interview on Wednesday (Mar 3). "I'd do anything ...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Takiyuddin Hassan has reiterated that there would be no parliamentary sittings during Malaysia's state of emergency which is slated to last until Aug 1.  Speaking during a pre...

YANGON: At least 10 people were killed when Myanmar security forces fired on protesters on Wednesday (Mar 3) as multiple rallies across the country descended into violence. Myanmar has been in uproar since Feb 1 when the military launched a coup...

Government ministers and officials were following Prime Minister Narendra Modi lead by opting on Tuesday for an Indian-made COVID-19 vaccine approved without late-stage efficacy data, instead of the AstraZeneca one.

An endangered turtle bred in captivity laid eggs for the first time in Cambodia, conservationists said this week, in a massive win for animal protection in the kingdom.

YANGON: Myanmar's military authorities have charged an Associated Press photographer and five other journalists over their coverage of anti-coup protests, their lawyer said on Wednesday (Mar 3). AP photographer Thein Zaw, 32, was arrested on Satur...

Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa on Wednesday launched a search for eight people to join him as the first private passengers on a trip around the moon with Elon Musk's SpaceX.

SEOUL: South Korean authorities said on Wednesday (Mar 3) they are investigating the deaths of two people after a media report said the pair - both with pre-existing conditions - died within days of receiving AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine. A 63-yea...

HONG KONG: A Hong Kong teenager became the youngest person so far to plead guilty to rioting during 2019's huge protests on Wednesday (Mar 3), as he admitted throwing a petrol bomb at police when aged just 14. The judge accepted advice from the city...

Protests against a military coup in Myanmar showed no sign of abating with more planned across the country on Wednesday (Mar 3), while Myanmar's ousted President Win Myint is said to be facing two new charges. Security forces fired rubber bullets an...

JOHOR BAHRU: There are signs that Johor Crown Prince Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim may be interested in buying over Spanish La Liga club Valencia, currently owned by Singapore businessman Peter Lim. Tunku Ismail posted a series of Instagram stories ...

TAIPEI: Health experts in China say their country is lagging in its coronavirus vaccination roll-out because it has the disease largely under control, but plans to inoculate 40 per cent of its population by June. Zhong Nanshan, the leader of a group...

HONG KONG: Bail proceedings for 47 Hong Kong democracy activists charged with conspiracy to commit subversion entered the third day on Wednesday (Mar 3), following marathon hearings that have gone on late into the night and led to some defendants fal...

An overwhelming majority of Japanese said they were "interested in the Olympics", although 58 per cent said they did not want them to be held because of fears over COVID-19, a Yomiuri daily poll showed on Wednesday (Mar 3).

TOKYO: Last week, about 600 people were tested for the coronavirus in the city of Utsunomiya, north of Tokyo: The Japanese government's first stab at systematic random and targeted testing that it hopes will prevent a new wave of infections. About 3...

TOKYO: Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa on Wednesday (Mar 3) launched a search for eight people to join him as the first private passenger on a trip around the moon with Elon Musk's SpaceX. He had originally planned to invite artists for the wee...

"As a Southeast Asian woman, being able to have our first Disney princess be inspired by my culture and my people? I feel like that's a huge move in the right direction," said Adele Lim, who also penned Crazy Rich Asians.

The Chinese Communist party system needs entrepreneurs but curtails anyone who becomes too powerful, says the Financial Times' Jamil Anderlini.

WASHINGTON: A China-linked cyber-espionage group has been remotely plundering email inboxes using freshly discovered flaws in Microsoft mail server software, the company and outside researchers said on Tuesday (Mar 2) - an example of how commonly us...

Myanmar's military junta and the envoy sent by its toppled civilian government have launched contradictory claims over who represents the country at the United Nations, officials said Tuesday.

More than a third of Chinese-Australians surveyed reported facing discrimination last year, in a report released on Wednesday (Mar 2) that points to a souring relationship with Beijing and COVID-19 as driving forces.

Hong Kong authorities on Tuesday (Mar 2) reported the death of a chronically ill man, two days after he received a COVID-19 vaccine and said that it is too early to conclude whether the vaccine was related to his death.

Sri Lankan Roman Catholic Church officials declared a “Black Sunday” this weekend to demand justice for the victims of 2019 Easter Sunday bomb attacks that killed more than 260 people.

The government assured Indians on Tuesday that there were plenty of COVID-19 vaccines for the country even though it has sent quantities overseas.

Tokyo will ask the Japanese government to extend a state of emergency by about two weeks for the capital and three neighbouring prefectures due to a slowdown in the decline of COVID-19 cases, the Nikkei business daily reported on Tuesday.

JAKARTA: Southeast Asian foreign ministers urged a halt to violence and the start of talks on a peaceful solution in Myanmar, where the military seized power from an elected government and is escalating its use of mass arrests and deadly force agains...

NEW DELHI: Amazon.com's Prime Video streaming service on Tuesday (Mar 2) issued a rare apology to its Indian viewers for some scenes in its original political drama series Tandav, which allegedly hurt Hindu religious beliefs. Tandav, a Hindi word me...

China on Tuesday rejected an allegation by a cyber intelligence firm that a state-backed hacking group targeted the IT systems of two Indian coronavirus vaccine makers.

BANGKOK: A Thai criminal court on Tuesday (Mar 2) approved an arrest warrant for an anti-government activist accused of burning a portrait of the country's king over the weekend. Police said activist Chaiamorn Kaewwiboonpan was responsible for setti...

SINGAPORE: The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) must reiterate its guiding principles, including adherence to democracy and respect for human rights when it comes to the situation in Myanmar, failing which member states will have no ...

TAIPEI: The de facto US and Canadian embassies in Taiwan on Tuesday (Mar 2) praised the quality of pineapples grown on the island, depicting photographs of their top diplomats in Taipei with the fruit after an import ban by China. China last week s...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia on Tuesday (Mar 2) granted conditional approval for the use of vaccines made by UK firm AstraZeneca and China's Sinovac, just days after launching its nationwide COVID-19 inoculation programme. Malaysia began its vaccination d...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia announced that it will ease COVID-19 restrictions and reinstate the conditional movement control order (CMCO) for Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Johor and Penang.  Making the announcement during a press conference on Tuesday (Mar 2...

JAKARTA: Indonesia has detected two cases of the more infectious COVID-19 variant first discovered in Britain, officials said on Tuesday (Mar 2), marking a potential new complication for the country as it tries to contain one of the worst coronavirus...

SINGAPORE: The Myanmar military's use of lethal force in ongoing demonstrations is a "disastrous" move, said Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. At least 18 people died on Sunday, said the United Nations human rights office, as Myanmar author...

BANGKOK: Thailand's prime minister said on Tuesday (Mar 2) he has commissioned a study to look into issuing COVID-19 vaccination certificates for international travellers, as the country seeks to revive a tourism industry battered by coronavirus curb...

TOKYO: A US father-son pair accused of helping former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn in his audacious escape from Japan arrived in Tokyo on Tuesday (Mar 2) after losing their battle against extradition, local media said. Former US special forces member Mi...

A decision by South Korean health authorities to allow more doses to be extracted from coronavirus vaccine vials sparked controversy on Tuesday as the country ramped up its vaccinations of healthcare workers and the elderly.

SHANGHAI: Five years ago, China under President Xi Jinping pledged to become a football power by 2050. But the financial collapse of the newly crowned Chinese champions raises fresh questions over that lofty goal. Jiangsu FC on Sunday (Feb 28) said ...

SINGAPORE: Malaysia's largest electricity utility, Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), and Singapore-based solar firm Sunseap Group announced on Tuesday (Mar 2) they are forming a joint venture to trial clean electricity imports into Singapore from Malaysi...