KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia said on Friday it has detected two cases of a new coronavirus variant that has a protein spike mutation that reportedly evades the immune system.

JAKARTA: Indonesian President Joko Widodo has called on his cabinet ministers and other government officials to push a "hate foreign products" campaign to support the country's small-and-medium enterprises.

CHIANG MAI: Seven elephants suffered serious burns to their mouths and tongues from eating grass contaminated with the herbicide paraquat at a border village in Omkoi district.

YANGON: Police opened fire on protesting opponents of the Feb 1 military coup, killing one person, in the city of Mandalay on Friday, witnesses and media said.

Prisoners nearing the end of their sentences will be given a chance to train at factories under a plan to teach them work skills and at the same time help companies desperate for labour.

Forty policemen have been quarantined after coming into close contact with a Covid-19 infected riot policeman, who caught the virus on a visit to Samut Sakhon and was later deployed at protest rallies in Bangkok.

SYDNEY: Australian public broadcaster SBS said it would stop using content from Chinese state-run television Friday, pending a review of serious human rights concerns.

NAKHON RATCHASIMA: Movement of pigs has been banned at a village in Muang district where an outbreak of blue ear disease that began in January has killed most of their pigs.

Both Bhumibol bridges over the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok will be partially closed to traffic overnight for road resurfacing from March 15-Sept 30, the Department of Rural Roads announced on Friday.

BAGHDAD: Pope Francis starts a historic trip to war-battered Iraq on Friday, defying security fears and the pandemic to comfort one of the world's oldest and most persecuted Christian communities.