SEOUL: South Korea is considering all options to secure enough coronavirus vaccine supplies, a top vaccine official said on Tuesday (Apr 6) in response to questions about possible export curbs on locally made vaccines. The remarks come as authoriti...

More than one million households and businesses in Taiwan's heavily industrialised central regions were put on water rationing Tuesday, as the island battles its worst drought in 56 years.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is committed to peacefully resolving a diplomatic row with China over the disputed South China Sea, his spokesman said on Tuesday, in a measured response after days of strong rebukes by his ministers and generals.

NEW DELHI: Many Indian state leaders have asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to open up vaccinations to most of the country's hundreds of millions of adults, following a second surge in infections that has eclipsed the first wave. India breached the...

The third remaining train car has been removed, and the workers are now tackling the removal of the last two cars of the train, which sustained the most damage when the train hit a truck on its tracks last Friday.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga travels to Washington to meet President Joe Biden on Apr 16 in what will be the US leader’s first in-person summit since taking office in January.

LEMBATA: Rescuers on Tuesday (Apr 6) were searching for dozens of people still missing after floods and landslides swept away villages in Indonesia and Timor-Leste, killing more than 160 people and leaving thousands more homeless. Torrential rains...

YANGON: With security forces in Myanmar having shot dead at least 570 protesters and bystanders in the past two months, many of the country's residents see venturing out onto the street as a brave but foolhardy act. Online, many have found a safer, ...

SHANGHAI: A Chinese carrier group is exercising near Taiwan and such drills will become regular, China's navy said late on Monday (Apr 5) in a further escalation of tensions near the island that Beijing claims as its sovereign territory. Taiwan has ...

KUALA LUMPUR: Zafar Ahmad Abdul Ghani, a Rohingya Muslim refugee and activist who fled persecution and ethnic strife in Myanmar, has called Malaysia home for nearly three decades. Now, it's more like a prison. Zafar, 51, has not left his home on th...

There was a time when Koshiro Minamoto had hoped to welcome foreign tourists during the Olympics by introducing them to the arts of the samurai from a classroom in central Tokyo.

SEOUL: North Korea will not join the Tokyo Olympics this year due to COVID-19 concerns, the country's sports ministry said on Tuesday (Apr 6), dashing South Korean hopes the Games could be a catalyst to revive stalled peace talks. It will be the fir...

Broader dialogue with greater room for cooperation, underpinned by strong, personal relationships can help both sides strike a better balance in their relationship, say Anne-Marie Slaughter and Samm Sacks.

Countries of the Quad are moving forward in concrete cooperation that benefits the Indo-Pacific region as a whole. That is a positive direction it should continue with capacity building at its core, says Shruti Pandalai.

Protesters in Myanmar clapped together on Monday in the latest show of dissent against the military junta, as a regional bloc prepared for talks on the crisis that has killed nearly 600 people.

Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi on Monday (Apr 5) expressed strong concerns to his Chinese counterpart about Chinese incursions into territorial waters, the situation in Hong Kong and the human rights situation of China's Uighur minority.

Taiwan's defence ministry on Monday (Apr 5) reported a new incursion by China's air force into the island's air defence identification zone, made up of eight fighter jets and two other aircraft, one of which flew through the strategic Bashi Channel.

Vietnam's National Assembly confirmed the nomination of Pham Minh Chinh, a career security official, as the country's next prime minister at an official ceremony on Monday (Apr 5).

SAN JOSE, California: More than a dozen San Jose, California, police officers walked through the white arches of the Grand Century Mall in "Little Saigon" to reassure a Vietnamese-American community fearful over the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes in ...

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian government will reinstate the original alignment for the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL), which was first approved by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government in 2017. Transport minister Wee Ka Siong said in a press conference ...

BANGKOK: Thai health officials were considering the closure of entertainment venues in Bangkok on Monday (Apr 5) after an outbreak of COVID-19 cases in nightspots in and around the capital, and another at a prison in the south. Apisamai Srirangsan, ...

Japanese health authorities are concerned that variants of the coronavirus are driving a nascent fourth wave in the pandemic with just 109 days remaining until the Tokyo Olympics.

HONG KONG: A group of bar, karaoke and mahjong parlour owners have gone on a symbolic hunger strike in Hong Kong over anti-coronavirus measures that have kept them shuttered for most of the last year. The four-day protest started on the pavement out...

Brunei, the chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), on Monday (Apr 5) threw its support behind a regional leaders' meeting to discuss developments in Myanmar and said it has asked officials to prepare for a meeting in Jakarta.

SINGAPORE: The suspension of Singapore Airlines (SIA) passenger flights to Hong Kong will not affect talks on a travel bubble between both cities, said Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung in Parliament on Apr 5 (Monday).  Hong Kong authorities announc...

MANILA: Aides of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday (Apr 5) criticised China for what they called territorial incursions by hundreds of its vessels, which his legal counsel warned could damage ties and lead to "unwanted hostilities". In...

DHAKA: Bangladesh is enforcing a lockdown for a week from Monday (Apr 5), shutting shopping malls and transportation, to help curb the spread of COVID-19 as the rate of infections and deaths have increased in recent weeks. Health authorities said t...

NEW DELHI: India reported a record rise in COVID-19 infections on Monday (Apr 5), becoming only the second country after the United States to register more than 100,000 new cases in a day, as hospitals in its worst affected state are overrun by pati...

HANOI: The man behind Vietnam's successful handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, was formally sworn in as president in Hanoi on Monday (Apr 5). Phuc, 66, was Vietnam's prime minister for the last five years, a period in which the econ...

Taiwanese rescuers were trying on Monday to retrieve the last body of a passenger from wreckage of a deadly train crash last week.

LEMBATA: Tropical cyclone Seroja pounded Indonesia and Timor-Leste on Monday (Apr 5) after torrential rains triggered floods and landslides that have killed at least 113 people and left dozens more missing. Packing heavy winds and rain, the storm h...

INDRAMAYU: Caked in mud up to their knees, a small group of Indonesian youngsters plant mangrove saplings along a stretch of exposed coastline next to the Java Sea under the watchful eye of local environmentalist Samsudin. A former school teacher, S...

PHUKET: In Thailand, it's the all-important tourism sector that has jumped to the head of the COVID-19 vaccination line, with the country's most popular resort island embarking on a mass inoculation programme two months ahead of the rest of the count...

DHAKA: A Bangladesh ferry carrying around 50 passengers collided with a cargo vessel and sank on Sunday (Apr 4) in the Shitalakhsyaa River south of the capital Dhaka, leaving at least 26 people dead and a few still missing, officials said. Twenty...

JAKARTA: Before each rainy season Lu Lu Aung and other farmers living in a camp for internally displaced people in Myanmar's far northern Kachin state would return to the village they fled and plant crops that would help keep them fed for the coming ...

Two Australians who were detained in Myanmar late last month have been released and have left Yangon, Canberra's foreign affairs department said Monday.

BEIJING: China reported its biggest daily jump in new COVID-19 cases in more than two months, as a city on the border with Myanmar in southwestern Yunnan province accounted for all new local cases. Ruili's local government put residents in its urban...

KUALA LUMPUR: Former Malaysian leader Najib Razak began an appeal on Monday (Apr 5) against his corruption conviction and 12-year jail term over the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal, which contributed to his government's downfall in 2018. Najib was ...

The actor, the latest Indian celebrity to contract the virus, tweeted that he has "sought necessary medical care".

TOKYO: Japan may need to compile a supplementary budget for the current fiscal year to combat the economic blow from the coronavirus pandemic, a senior ruling party official was quoted as saying in a television programme that ran on Sunday (Apr 4). ...

TOKYO: The foreign and defence ministers of Japan and Germany are looking to hold a "2 plus 2" dialogue online in mid-April, the daily Yomiuri reported on Monday (Apr 5). The "2 plus 2" talks will be the first among the two countries, and they are e...

BANGKOK: Thai farmer Jamras Kongchai is struggling to pay off 500,000 baht (US$16,082) in debt as money from the sale of her crops is not enough to make payments. Adding to the strain, the COVID-19 outbreak has shut a small construction firm where s...

MUMBAI: China's ByteDance has told an Indian court that a government freeze on its bank accounts in a probe of possible tax evasion amounts to harassment and was done illegally, according to a filing seen by Reuters. ByteDance in January reduced its...

A car bombing near Kabul on Sunday (Apr 4) killed at least three Afghan security personnel and injured 12 others, officials said, in an attack claimed by the Taliban.

Thousands of Pakistanis rushed to get inoculated in the first round of commercial sales of COVID-19 vaccines that began over the weekend, with vaccination sites in the southern city of Karachi saying on Sunday (Apr 4) they had already sold out.

ISKANDAR PUTERI, Johor: The Johor state government will launch a special vaccination app for Malaysians who commute to Singapore, Johor Chief Minister Hasni Mohammad said on Sunday (Apr 4).  In a Facebook post, Mr Hasni said that the app, named I...

India's richest state, Maharashtra, said it would impose stringent COVID-19 restrictions from Monday as there has been a rapid rise in infections, a state minister said on Sunday

A railway maintenance worker whose truck rolled onto the tracks and sparked Taiwan's worst train disaster in recent decades made a tearful apology on Sunday, saying he would cooperate with investigators.

TOKYO: Japanese swimmer Rikako Ikee said she "didn't know what had just happened" after qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics medley relay on Sunday (Apr 4), just two years after being diagnosed with leukaemia. Ikee, who only resumed training in March ...

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said on Sunday that he would expand emergency measures as needed to contain a new wave of coronavirus infections, amid fears over the spread of virus mutations.

MANILA: The Philippines' defence secretary said on Sunday (Apr 4) that China was looking to occupy more areas in the South China Sea, citing the continued presence of Chinese vessels that Manila believes are manned by militias in disputed parts of t...

RAIPUR, India: Twenty-two Indian security forces personnel were killed and 30 others injured in a gun battle with Maoist rebels in a central Indian state, police said on Sunday (Apr 4), in the deadliest ambush of its kind in four years. The forces ...

JAKARTA: Flash floods unleashed by torrential rains killed 41 people on the Indonesian island of Flores on Sunday (Apr 4), the disaster management agency BNPB said, and at least three more were reported killed in neighbouring Timor-Leste. At least 4...

HUALIEN: Taiwan's transport minister said on Sunday (Apr 4) he would not shirk his responsibility for a deadly train crash, even as his resignation was rejected amid growing questions over safety lapses that could have contributed to the disaster.  ...

HONG KONG: Hong Kong police announced a record-breaking 700kg seizure of cocaine on Sunday (Apr 4), with officers suspecting the huge shipment was smuggled into the city on speedboats.  The bust is the largest in the territory in nearly a decade, ...

Around 70 per cent of coronavirus patients tested at a Tokyo hospital last month carried a mutation known for reducing vaccine protection, Japanese public broadcaster NHK said on Sunday.

Security was stepped up at churches across Sri Lanka ahead of Easter Sunday services to guard against a repeat of the 2019 suicide bombings that killed 279, a police spokesman said.

Tens of thousands of Myanmar workers have gone on strike over the past two months, hoping that economic paralysis will force the hand of the wealthy generals who ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb 1.

JAKARTA: Divers were scouring the waters of the Java Sea on Sunday (Apr 4) for 17 fishermen reported missing after their boat capsized following a crash involving a bulk carrier, a spokesman for Indonesia's search and rescue agency said. Fifteen cre...

Opponents of military rule in Myanmar inscribed messages of protest on Easter eggs on Sunday (Apr 4), while others were back on the streets, facing off with security forces after a night of candle-lit vigils for hundreds killed since a Feb 1 coup. ...

Mainland China reported 21 new COVID-19 cases for April 3, down from 26 cases a day earlier, the country's national health authority said on Sunday.

PARIS: French oil and gas group Total said it would not stop producing gas on its Yadana fields in Myanmar as long as operations remained safe, in part to protect employees there who might otherwise risk repercussions from the military junta. Total ...

Chinese policymakers are less afraid of economic decoupling from the US than many assume, say Andrew Sheng and Xiao Geng.

AirAsia and Singapore Airlines are already blazing a trail on how to do just that while flying remains in cold storage for most travellers, says Institute of Policy Studies’ Faizal Yahya.

CNA spoke to Malaysia’s youngest MP while he is in Singapore attending post-graduate classes.

World number one Ashleigh Barty retained her Miami Open title Saturday as Bianca Andreescu's injury curse struck again.

Ten of Myanmar's major rebel groups threw their support behind the country's anti-coup movement on Saturday, fanning fears that a broader conflict could erupt in a country plagued for decades by on-and-off fighting between the military and the ethnic...

Malaysia's foreign minister stressed on Saturday that his country remained independent in foreign policy after some social media users and opposition politicians lambasted him for referring to his Chinese counterpart as his "elder brother".

Spin star Axar Patel has tested positive for coronavirus and been put into isolation, his team said Saturday as the Indian Premier League battles new pandemic fears days ahead of its start.

Japanese swim star Daiya Seto has set his sights on claiming one of Michael Phelps' world records at the upcoming Tokyo Games, after winning at his country's Olympic trials on Saturday.

The Philippines reported 12,576 new coronavirus infections on Saturday, the country's second-highest daily increase, as the Southeast Asian nation battles a renewed spike in cases.

SHANGHAI: China reported 26 new COVID-19 cases on Apr 2, up from nine a day earlier, the country's national health authority said on Saturday (Apr 3), as officials in the country's southwest linked a local outbreak to Myanmar. The National Health Co...

BANGKOK: A Bangkok residence building collapsed on Saturday (Apr 3), killing at least three rescue workers and a resident and trapping a handful of people under the debris, according to an emergency worker. The three-storey house, located in a luxu...

HONG KONG: Candidates for public office in Hong Kong will have their entire history vetted, its top justice official said on Saturday (Apr 3), after China announced a radical overhaul to ensure only "patriots" run the city. Beijing imposed sweeping ...

SINGAPORE: Hong Kong's government had enforced a COVID-19 border regulation 23 times to bar flights from landing in the city for 14 days if an airline is found to have breached requirements.  Hong Kong's Department of Health said this on Saturday (...

SEOUL: South Korea's foreign minister said on Saturday (Apr 3) he expects China to play a role in peacemaking between South and North Korea, inviting China's president to visit as the United States and its allies agreed to continue pushing Pyongyang...

Survivors of Taiwan's worst rail crash in decades have recounted their desperate efforts to find loved ones in the twisted wreckage of the train at what should have been the start of a holiday weekend.

YANGON: A rebel group has accused Myanmar's military of deploying "excessive force", saying on Saturday (Apr 3) that continuous air strikes have displaced more than 12,000 unarmed civilians, including children. Late last month, the ethnic armed grou...

MUMBAI: India's daily coronavirus infections hit another record on Saturday (Apr 3) for the highest tally since September, while daily deaths reached a five-month high, a Reuters count based on data from the health ministry showed. The south Asian ...

Myanmar security forces opened fire on protests on Saturday (Apr 3) killing five people, a protester and media said, as the military reinforced its bid to end dissent with arrest warrants for online critics and Internet blocks. Despite the killing ...

HUALIEN, Taiwan: Salvage teams began removing mangled train carriages on Saturday (Apr 3) after Taiwan's worst rail disaster in decades killed at least 50 people, as flags flew half-mast across an island plunged into mourning. Officials said Friday...

HUALIEN, Taiwan: A Taiwan court on Saturday released on bond the manager of a construction site whose truck authorities believe caused a train accident that killed at least 51 people, as family members mourned the dead at the crash site. The crash o...

The Chinese authorities will probably someday stop pegging the yuan to a basket of currencies and allow the exchange rate to fluctuate much more freely, especially against the dollar, says former IMF chief economist Kenneth Rogoff.

BANGKOK: Come Jul 1, international tourists will be able to visit Phuket in southern Thailand without going through quarantine if they have been vaccinated.  The decision was announced last week by the Center for Economic Situation Administration...

With more than 17,000 islands, Indonesia is reliant on air travel. CNA explores the challenges surrounding aviation safety and the impact of COVID-19.

STOCKHOLM: Chinese authorities have asked H&M to change a map on its website in the latest clash between the clothing giant and officials in China, media reported on Friday (Apr 2). The company, based in Sweden, has faced a backlash in China in rece...

SINGAPORE: Singapore Airlines’ flights to Hong Kong were suspended after the airline breached one of the city’s “trigger points” for COVID-19 testing requirements, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) said on Friday (Apr 2). SIA...

When Holy Week processions were cancelled because of Spain's COVID-19 restrictions, keeping a Good Friday drumming tradition alive took on extra importance for the residents of Calanda.

HANOI: Vietnam has appealed to diplomats from the United States, European Union and Japan to help it secure supplies of COVID-19 vaccines, as part of efforts to acquire the 150 million doses needed to cover its adult population. Vietnam has received...

SEOUL: A couple in South Korea accused of damaging artwork by American graffiti artist JonOne said they had mistakenly thought they were allowed to daub paint on the piece as "participatory art," the head of the exhibition said on Friday (Apr 2). Th...

TOKYO: Japanese Nobel laureate Isamu Akasaki, who won the physics prize for pioneering energy-efficient LED lighting - a weapon against global warming and poverty - has died aged 92, his university said on Friday (Apr 2). Akasaki won the 2014 prize ...

YANGON: Opponents of military rule in Myanmar marched, observed strikes and sought alternative ways to communicate after most users were cut off from the Internet on Friday (Apr 2), undaunted by the bloody suppression of protests during the past two ...

SINGAPORE: There are no reports of Singaporean casualties in the train derailment in Taiwan on Friday (Apr 2), said a Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) spokesperson. An express train carrying about 490 people from Taipei to Taitung deraile...

SINGAPORE: Singapore Airlines (SIA) passenger flights departing from Singapore will not be allowed to land in Hong Kong from Saturday (Apr 3) to Apr 16, the government of Hong Kong said on Friday. The announcement came in a daily press release pro...

MANILA: The Philippines reported on Friday (Apr 2) a daily record 15,310 new COVID-19 infections, one of the highest reported in the region since the pandemic started, bringing the country's total to 771,497 cases. It announced 17 new deaths, taking...

LONDON: Britain said on Friday (Apr 2) it would add Bangladesh, Kenya, Pakistan and the Philippines to its travel "red list", banning entry to people arriving from those countries unless they are British or Irish nationals. Those who come to Britai...

YONGIN, South Korea: Decades before the race to build a self-driving car became a multibillion-dollar contest between tech giants such as Tesla and Google, a South Korean professor built an autonomous vehicle and test-drove it across the country - on...

TAIPEI: An express train that derailed in a tunnel in eastern Taiwan on Friday (Apr 2) morning was carrying about 490 people, the island's Transport Minister Lin Chia-lung said. This was higher than an earlier figure of 350 people provided by the f...

BENGALURU: India reported 81,466 new COVID-19 infections on Friday (Apr 2), the highest daily number in six months, as several states were hit by a second wave of the coronavirus. Health ministry data showed the total number of cases surged to 12.3 ...

TOKYO: The Olympic torch relay will not be run on public roads in Osaka city given rising COVID-19 cases, the Japanese region's governor said Friday (Apr 2), but a cancellation has not yet been decided. "We're sorry for torch relay runners ... but w...