South Korea's health authorities said on Tuesday they would consider the use of coronavirus self-test kits despite their relatively low accuracy, after the new mayor of Seoul called for their approval.

MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he will "waive" his chance to get a COVID-19 vaccine, arguing elderly people like him should not be prioritised. Just more than 1 million people in the Philippines have received their first shot sin...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has assured the public that the country will have enough COVID-19 vaccines to vaccinate 80 per cent of the population by October.   In a tweet posted on Tuesda...

KAOHSIUNG: Taiwan unveiled a new amphibious warfare ship on Tuesday (Apr 13) that can be used to land troops and will bolster supply lines to vulnerable islands offshore China and in the South China Sea. The 10,600-tonne Yu Shan, named after Taiwan'...

MANILA, Philippines: The Philippine government summoned the Chinese ambassador to press its demand for Chinese vessels to immediately leave a reef claimed by Manila in the South China Sea and said their presence was stoking tensions, officials said o...

Thousands of supporters of a Pakistan Islamist party who blocked major roads to protest the arrest of their leader also disrupted critical oxygen supplies for Covid-19 patients, health officials said Tuesday.

BANGKOK: Thailand on Tuesday (Apr 13) reported 965 new COVID-19 cases after registering record rises in the past two days as the country started its Songkran new year holiday amid a third wave of infections. Authorities have banned for a second year...

Japan's western region of Osaka is set to report more than 1,000 new coronavirus infection on Tuesday, setting a daily record, the Yomiuri newspaper said in its online edition.

Myanmar pro-democracy activists pledged on Tuesday (Apr 13) to hold a series of protests this week to maintain pressure on military rulers during the country's most important holiday of the year. The five-day new year holidays, known as Thingyan, ar...

NEW DELHI: India reported 161,736 new COVID-19 infections on Tuesday (Apr 13), as hundreds of thousands gathered for a ritual bath in the Ganges river. The new infections bring the country's case tally to 13.69 million, health ministry data sho...

BEIJING: China's exports grew at a robust pace in March in yet another boost to the nation's economic recovery as global demand picks up amid progress in worldwide COVID-19 vaccination, while import growth surged to the highest in four years. The da...

JAKARTA: Muslims in Indonesia began marking Ramadan with communal prayers on Tuesday (Apr 13) in a socially distanced contrast to the empty mosques of a year ago when Islam's holiest month coincided with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Coronavir...

TOKYO: Japan plans to release into the sea more than a million tonnes of radioactive water from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear station, it said on Tuesday (Apr 13). The work to release the water will begin in about two years, the government said, a...

Japan's government has approved a plan to release over one million tonnes of treated water from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Tuesday.

Pakistan police on Monday (Apr 12) arrested the leader of a radical Islamist political party a day after he threatened the government with protests if it did not expel France's ambassador over depictions of Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

A Taliban spokesman said on Monday (Apr 12) the religious militia won’t attend a peace conference tentatively planned for later this week in Turkey, putting US efforts to get a peace plan anytime soon in jeopardy.

Indonesia said on Monday (Apr 12) that it is satisfied with the effectiveness of the Sinovac coronavirus vaccine it is using, after the acknowledgement by China’s top disease control official that current vaccines offer low protection against the v...

KLUANG: Malaysia Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin is expected to discuss the reopening of the border with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong early May, said Malaysian Foreign Minister Hishammuddin Hussein on Monday (Apr 12). Mr Hishammudin tol...

MUMBAI: Retailers, restaurants and theatres in India's richest state are reeling under the impact of harsh restrictions imposed last week by authorities scrambling to curb a resurgence in COVID-19 cases. The western state of Maharashtra, home to Ind...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Senior Minister for Security Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced on Monday (Apr 12) that movement control orders (MCOs) would be extended across the country, Bernama reported. The states of Johor, Kelantan, Penang and Selangor as w...

HONG KONG: Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai has told his staff to "stand tall" in a handwritten letter from prison where he is being held pending trial under a new national security law. Lai, the owner of pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, is the...

BEIJING: China has imposed a sweeping restructuring on Jack Ma's Ant Group, the fintech group whose record US$37 billion IPO was derailed by regulators in November, underscoring Beijing's determination to rein in its Internet giants. The overhaul, w...

JAKARTA: The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) from a crashed Sriwijaya Air jet has been downloaded successfully, and includes the last minutes of the flight that ended with 62 people dead, an official at Indonesia's air accident investigator said on Mond...

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka secured a US$500 million loan from China Monday (Apr 12) in a desperate bid to shore up its foreign exchange reserves as the local currency hit a record low. The Sri Lankan embassy in Beijing said the loan agreement with the China...

HONG KONG: Hong Kong will loosen some coronavirus measures for residents who have been fully inoculated from late April, the city's leader Carrie Lam said on Monday (Apr 12), as authorities seek to boost the take-up of vaccines in the global financia...

Foreigners interviewed by CNA said they are trying to appeal to extend their stay or hastily prepare to travel home before Apr 21.

PUTRAJAYA: People aged 60 and above will be given the Sinovac vaccine under Phase 2 of Malaysia's national COVID-19 immunisation programme starting on Apr 19, said coordinating minister Khairy Jamaluddin on Monday (Apr 12). The COVID-19 Vaccine A...

HONG KONG: Chinese tech giant Huawei on Monday (Apr 12) said it had reached an agreement with HSBC in Hong Kong to secure documents that its senior executive Meng Wanzhou hopes will help her fight extradition to the United States from Canada. Chief ...

Five South Korean companies have launched clinical trials for their coronavirus vaccines, aiming to enter the third phase of trials in the second half of this year, the Yonhap news agency reported on Monday, citing health authorities.

YANGON: Myanmar's ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi was hit with a fresh criminal charge on Monday (Apr 12), as the military government's tough crackdown on dissent rolls on. The 75-year-old Nobel laureate has not been seen in public since be...

DHAKA: Bangladesh authorities on Monday (Apr 12) ordered an eight-day closure of all offices and international and domestic transport, as COVID-19 cases hit a new high. The drastic measures, which will virtually seal off the country, will start on ...

YANGON: Opponents of Myanmar's coup called on Monday (Apr 12) for people to show defiance of the military with costumes and prayers over the upcoming New Year holiday, hoping to maintain the momentum of their campaign in which more than 700 people h...

THIMPU, Bhutan: When plotted on a graph, the curve of Bhutan's COVID-19 vaccination drive shoots upwards from the very first day, crossing Israel, the United States, Bahrain and other countries known for vaccinating people rapidly. Those countries t...

BANGKOK: Thailand on Monday (Apr 12) reported 985 new COVID-19 cases, a record daily jump for a second day in a row, as the country deals with a third wave of infections and a highly contagious variant. Since the latest outbreak began at the start o...

TOKYO: Japan began COVID-19 vaccinations for its sizable elderly population on Monday (Apr 12), with imported doses still in short supply and the pace unlikely to stop a fourth wave of infection. Shots for people aged 65 and above began at about 120...

NEW DELHI: India reported a record 168,912 COVID-19 infections overnight, data from the health ministry showed on Monday (Apr 12), overtaking Brazil to become the second-most affected country globally by the coronavirus. India's overall tally reache...

HONG KONG: A growing number of Chinese tech start-ups are cancelling plans to list on Nasdaq-style markets at home with some eyeing Hong Kong share sales instead, as regulators tighten scrutiny of IPO applicants after the halting of Ant Group's US$37...

Chilean authorities on Sunday (Apr 11) backed the country's widespread use of the COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Chinese firm Sinovac after China's top disease official appeared to make conflicting statements about its efficacy.

India said on Sunday it had banned the export of anti-viral drug Remdesivir and its active pharmaceutical ingredients after a record spike in COVID-19 cases sent demand surging.

KATHMANDU: Nepal's population of endangered one-horned rhinoceros has grown by more than a hundred over the past six years, officials said, with campaigners hailing the increase as a conservation "milestone". The population rose to 752 across four n...

Cambodians who lost family during the Khmer Rouge genocide Sunday slammed an Irish artist's decision to digitally add smiles to old black and white pictures of victims killed by the regime.

BRUSSELS: The European Union's top diplomat said on Sunday (Apr 11) that Russia and China were hampering a united international response to Myanmar's military coup and that the EU could offer more economic incentives if democracy returns to the count...

JAKARTA: Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Sunday (Apr 11) ordered swift rescue and relief efforts after eight people died in an earthquake that hit off southern Java island. Three others were badly injured in Saturday's magnitude-5.9 quake and mo...

MANILA: Philippine and American soldiers will conduct a two-week joint military exercise from Monday (Apr 12), resuming the annual training event after last year's cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Philippine military chief said on Sun...

Thailand on Sunday reported 967 new COVID-19 cases, its biggest daily jump, but no new deaths as the country deals with a third wave of infections and a highly contagious variant.

BEIJING: China's cyber regulator has launched a hotline to report online comments that defame the ruling Communist Party and its history, vowing to crack down on "historical nihilists" ahead of the Party's 100th anniversary in July. The tip line al...

MANILA: Strict COVID-19 lockdowns in the Philippines' capital and four adjacent provinces will be eased from Monday (Apr 12), a spokesman for President Rodrigo Duterte said on Sunday. Metro Manila and the provinces of Bulacan, Rizal, Laguna and Ca...

5 rebels killed, 2 India soldiers injured in Kashmir

YANGON: A security guard was wounded in a bomb blast outside a military-owned bank in Myanmar's second-biggest city on Sunday (Apr 11) morning, as the civilian death toll from the junta's brutal crackdown on dissent topped more than 700 at the weeken...

NEW DELHI: India on Sunday (Apr 11) reported a record rise in new daily COVID-19 cases for the sixth time this week, with 152,879 new infections.  The number of new fatalities stood at 839, the most deaths in more than five months, taking the toll ...

TOKYO: Tokyo Olympic organisers plan to prepare 300 hotel rooms for athletes who test positive for COVID-19 at this summer's Games but show no or minor symptoms of COVID-19, Kyodo news agency said on Sunday (Apr 11). Japan's government is placing To...

SEOUL: South Korean authorities said on Sunday (Apr 11) they will move ahead with a COVID-19 vaccination drive this week, after deciding to continue using AstraZeneca's vaccine for all eligible people 30 years old or over. South Korea on Wednesday ...

ABOARD A US MILITARY AIRCRAFT: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Saturday (Apr 10) discussed with his Philippine counterpart China’s recent positioning of “militia vessels” near the Philippines in the South China Sea. Austin spoke by phone wit...

SHANGHAI: It was 50 years ago but Zhang Xielin still remembers vividly how a shaggy-haired American table tennis player stepped onto the Chinese team's bus, a chance encounter which would shape history. It was the world championships in Nagoya, Japa...

YANGON: Myanmar youth are fighting the junta's Internet shutdown and information suppression with an explosive underground printed newsletter they are secretly distributing across communities. For 56 days straight there have been Internet outages i...

BEIJING: China is considering the mixing of different COVID-19 vaccines to improve the relatively low efficacy of its existing options, a top health expert has told a conference. Authorities have to "consider ways to solve the issue that efficacy ra...

BEIJING: China is planning a mega dam in Tibet able to produce triple the electricity generated by the Three Gorges - the world's largest power station - stoking fears among environmentalists and in neighbouring India. The structure will span the Br...

BEIJING: Rescuers were working on Sunday (Apr 11) to reach 21 workers trapped in a coal mine in northwest China's Xinjiang region after flooding cut power underground and disrupted communications, state media reported. The accident happened in Fengy...

BEIJING: China reported 10 new COVID-19 cases on Apr 10, down from 14 cases a day earlier. The National Health Commission said in a statement on Sunday (Apr 11) that all the new cases were imported infections originating from overseas. READ: Ch...

JAKARTA: “I had four children, but two of them died,” Karimah said flatly.  “The second child was born at home. When he was born, he wasn’t crying, wasn’t doing anything. The third child was born in the hospital. My delivery date was stil...

Besides coping with changed rules, Singaporean businesses have come under increased scrutiny by international and Myanmar activists, says ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute’s Dr Su-Ann Oh.

YANGON: Myanmar security forces fired rifle grenades at protesters in a town near Yangon on Friday (Apr 9), killing more than 80 people, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) monitoring group and a domestic news outlet said. Det...

NEW DELHI: Two men who roamed the Indian capital using monkeys to rob unsuspecting victims have been arrested, New Delhi police said on Saturday (Apr 10). The pair were apprehended after one victim complained to officers that three men carrying monk...

YANGON: An international human rights group condemned Myanmar's junta on Saturday (Apr 10) for sentencing 19 people to die, in the first known use of the death penalty since the military seized power. Myanmar has been in turmoil since civilian lea...

SHANGHAI: China's corruption watchdog has called on online video-sharing platforms to take action against "mukbang" shows, in which people livestream themselves eating - or drinking - excessively, saying such content encourages food waste. Mukbang v...

BANGKOK: Thailand plans to install 10,000 field-hospital beds in Bangkok, a health official said on Saturday (Apr 10), as the country strains to cope with a third wave of COVID-19 infections. At least a dozen hospitals in the capital said they had s...

Cambodia's strongman premier Hun Sen threatened quarantine-breakers with jail time Saturday and warned civil servants they could lose their jobs if they go unvaccinated, as the country grapples with a growing coronavirus caseload.

BERLIN: Up until recently, one of Chaw Kalyar's tasks at the Myanmar embassy in Berlin consisted of providing assistance to fellow nationals stripped of their citizenship by their country's former military rulers. But today, the diplomat finds herse...

NEW DELHI: India will accept compensation of €1.1 million from Italy for the families of two fishermen shot dead by Italian marines in 2012, signalling an end to a long-winding case that soured relations between the two nations. Suhail Dutt, an ...

CHENGDU: China's will likely have produced 3 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of the year, a National Health Commission official said on Saturday (Apr 10) Zheng Zhongwei, who also heads a team coordinating the country's COVID-19 vaccine...

COX'S BAZAR: Two dead whales have washed up on the same stretch of Bangladesh coastline in two days, officials said Saturday (Apr 10), raising suggestions that they were killed by sea pollution. Officials said the second, much longer whale washed ...

Five people were killed in fresh election bloodshed in the Indian state of West Bengal on Saturday, including four shot dead by paramilitary troops "in self-defence", officials said.

JAKARTA: At least seven people were killed after a 6.0-magnitude quake struck off the coast of Indonesia's main Java island Saturday (Apr 10), as the country reels from a cyclone disaster in another part of the archipelago. The afternoon quake hit ...

NEW DELHI: India's daily coronavirus cases on Saturday (Apr 10) rose by a record for the fifth time this week and deaths surged to the highest in more than five months, with hospitals and crematoriums overflowing in parts of the country. New cases i...

SHANGHAI: Chinese regulators have fined Alibaba Group Holding 18 billion yuan (US$2.75 billion) for violating anti-monopoly rules and abusing its dominant market position, marking the highest ever anti-trust fine to be imposed in the country. The p...

Myanmar's own ambassador to the United Nations pressed on Friday (Apr 9) for a no-fly zone and sanctions as international pressure grew on the military junta to end a deadly crackdown and restore democracy. The United States and European nations pl...

Tired of housework and an unhappy, abusive marriage, a 56-year-old Chinese woman has been on a six-month jaunt across China that has challenged deep-rooted gender norms.

The lesson US policymakers have drawn is that Pyongyang is not genuinely interested in negotiating on nuclear weapons, says a foreign affairs observer.

KUALA LUMPUR: Percikan api berterbangan apabila Yip Yoke Lin, 74 tahun, meletakkan pisau tukang masak Cina yang sedang diasahnya pada sudut 30 darjah dari permukaan meja. Setelah melayang pisau tersebut beberapa kali pada mesin pengasah, beliau men...

KUALA LUMPUR: Sparks flew as Yip Yoke Lin, 74, held the Chinese chef knife she was sharpening at a 30-degree angle off the bench grinder. After running the blade a few times with the grinder, she tested her work by gingerly running her thumb along...

The State Department said Friday it will make it easier for US officials to meet Taiwanese representatives, defying pressure from China amid high tensions.

TOKYO: Japan has decided to release treated water from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea, reports said on Friday (Apr 9), despite strong opposition from local fishermen. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's Cabinet plans to announce the d...

Cricket chiefs have stepped up surveillance of star players ahead of Friday's (Apr 9) launch of the Indian Premier League (IPL) amid a rapid surge in COVID-19 cases.

Sri Lanka on Friday (Apr 9) lodged a claim for US$17.38 million with the Greek owners of an oil tanker that caught fire and left a spill stretching 40km off the South Asian island.

SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) on Friday (Apr 9) rebutted allegations reportedly made by an Indonesian graft official, saying that Singapore is a safe haven for Indonesian nationals under investigation for corruption. “There is n...

Myanmar's junta said on Friday (Apr 9) that a protest campaign against its rule was dwindling since people wanted peace, and that it would hold elections within two years, the first timeframe it has given for a return to democracy since its Feb 1 cou...

KUALA LUMPUR: Pakatan Harapan (PH) has endorsed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim as the coalition's prime minister candidate for the next general election. In a document entitled "Port Dickson Resolution" released on Friday (Apr 9), PH added that i...

LEMBATA: Gregorius Hide, a 70-year-old farmer in the eastern Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara, said the only warning he had of an approaching swirl of muddy water that engulfed his district this week was a smell of wet earth shortly before i...

SINGAPORE: Singapore ratified the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement on Friday (Apr 9), becoming the first participating country to do so, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said in a press release. The RCEP is the ...

LEMABAT: Indonesian president Joko Widodo arrived Friday (Apr 9) in a cyclone-hit cluster of islands after the disaster killed more than 200 people, including victims in neighbouring Timor-Leste, with dozens still missing. Torrential rains from Trop...

MUMBAI: Leading hospitals in India's most coronavirus-hit state halted vaccinations on Friday (Apr 9), citing shortages as infections across the country crossed 13 million and set a new daily record. The nation of 1.3 billion is confronting a feroci...

Thailand faces growing COVID-19 outbreak ahead of Songkran travel

HONG KONG: A Hong Kong official on Friday (Apr 9) defended plans to curb public access to company searches, a move transparency and media advocates have warned will hamper the exposure of shady corporate dealings. The semi-autonomous financial hub c...

NAYPYIDAW: Myanmar's junta refused on Friday (Apr 9) to let a UN envoy visit the country, despite mounting international efforts for a diplomatic solution to the post-coup crisis. The UN's special envoy for Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, is o...

NEW DELHI: India reported another record number of new COVID-19 infections on Friday (Apr 9) with daily deaths also hitting their highest in more than five months as the country battles a second wave of infections and states complain of a persistent ...

BEIJING: China's government on Friday (Apr 9) criticised the Biden administration's curbs on access to US technology for its supercomputer developers and said sanctions "only strengthen China's determination” to invent its own. The sanctions annou...

Britain said it is willing to offer shelter to Myanmar's ambassador to London after he was ousted from his embassy by pro-junta diplomats.

JAKARTA: Indonesia's weather agency warned on Friday (Apr 9) that a second tropical cyclone in the space of a week could trigger floods and landslides in more central areas after cyclone Seroja killed 163 people in eastern parts of the country. Resc...

TOKYO: Doctors in Japan announced on Thursday (Apr 9) that they have successfully performed the world’s first transplant of lung tissue from living donors to a patient with severe lung damage from COVID-19. The recipient, identified only as a woma...

HONG KONG: Hong Kong on Friday (Apr 9) confirmed it has requested AstraZeneca to suspend delivery of its COVID-19 vaccine amid fears of severe side effects and concerns over its efficacy against new variants of the coronavirus. Europe's medicines re...