BANGKOK: Thailand's finance ministry on Thursday (Apr 29) reduced its 2021 economic growth forecast for a second time this year to 2.3 per cent from 2.8 per cent growth, after a third wave of coronavirus infections struck the tourism-reliant nation...

JAKARTA: Indonesian President Joko Widodo said on Thursday (Apr 29) that authorities would build houses for the relatives of the crew of a submarine that went missing before being found in pieces on the bottom of the Bali Sea, with all 53 personnel ...

China became the country to have administered COVID-19 vaccinations to more people than any other this week, but health authorities will need to accelerate the rollout to meet a target to inoculate 40per cent of its population by the end of June.

In Hong Kong's famed party zone Lan Kwai Fong, dormant bars and clubs are revving up to serve customers again, but only if they have had at least one vaccine shot - one of the few examples globally of offering greater freedom for the vaccinated.

Unidentified attackers launched assaults on two Myanmar air bases on Thursday (Apr 29), with blasts reported at one base and rocket fire seen at another, media and a witness said. The attacks come after three months of turmoil in Myanmar triggered b...

The team bus of Liaoning Hongyun will be auctioned to help pay its former players, but it will take much more than that to raise the $850,000 that Jacob Mulenga says he is owed.

BENGALURU: India's COVID-19 infections crossed the 18 million mark on Thursday (Apr 29) with almost 380,000 new cases, breaking another world record for new daily infections. The explosion in infections, blamed in part on a new virus variant as wel...

QINGDAO: Chinese officials were considering siphoning the remaining cargo at sea from a huge tanker that spilled hundreds of tonnes of oil into the Yellow Sea after it collided with a bulk vessel in thick fog two days ago. Officials also downgraded ...

The United States said on Thursday it was "deeply concerned" by a new Hong Kong immigration law which includes powers to stop people leaving the city, raising fears Chinese mainland-style exit bans could be deployed there.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has said he will not withdraw navy and coast guard boats patrolling the disputed South China Sea, insisting the country's sovereignty over the waters is not negotiable.

BEIJING: China on Thursday (Apr 29) launched the first module of its new space station, state television showed, a milestone in Beijing's ambitious plan to place a permanent human presence in space. The Tianhe core module, which houses life support ...

A devastating surge in coronavirus infections has exposed India's dilapidated health infrastructure and a deep shortage of oxygen -- a key treatment for seriously ill Covid-19 patients.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airlines said on Thursday (Apr 29) it will trial the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Travel Pass, a mobile app that allows passengers to verify their COVID-19 test results and vaccination status. The trial wil...

DUBAI: Indians from the millions-strong expat community in the UAE, stranded in their homeland during a catastrophic COVID-19 surge, are swamping private jet operators with requests to whisk them back to safety. Fearing a prolonged flight ban betwee...

With more than 300,000 new cases a day and the death toll evidently much higher than reported, India is no one’s idea of a global leader, says Shashi Tharoor.

If two of Indonesia’s most valuable tech companies come together, they can take on bigger rivals. The question is whether this is too late, says David Kuo.

Indians struggled to register online for a mass vaccination drive set to begin at the weekend as the country's toll from the coronavirus shot past 200,000 on Wednesday (Apr 28), worsened by shortages of hospital beds and medical oxygen.

BANGKOK:  Long queues have returned to Thailand's unusually quiet international airport this week, after it converted its check-in area into an immunisation centre as part of efforts to speed up its COVID-19 vaccine rollout. Cordons and suitcases w...

Myanmar's military launched air assaults for the second day in a row into rebel-held territory after gunfire was heard from neighbouring Thailand, a Thai official said on Wednesday (Apr 28), as fighting escalates along the border.

China criticizes Japan over Fukushima treated water release

Tokyo Olympics organisers Wednesday said they won't decide how many spectators - if any - can attend the Games until June, as coronavirus surges raise fresh uncertainty.

JAKARTA: Indonesian police said Wednesday (Apr 28) they have smashed a drug smuggling ring that moved 2.5 tonnes of methamphetamine into the country from Afghanistan, a haul worth about US$82 million. One Indonesian suspect was shot dead while 17 o...

Hong Kong passed a new immigration law on Wednesday (Apr 28) that includes powers to stop people from entering or leaving the city, raising fears that Chinese mainland style "exit bans" could be deployed in the international business hub.

TOKYO: Japan has only used about a fifth of the COVID-19 vaccine doses it has imported so far, government data showed on Wednesday (Apr 28), underscoring logistical hurdles such as a shortage of medical staff as it grapples with a sluggish inoculatio...

JAKARTA: At least 10 people were killed in a gun battle between police and rebels in Indonesia's restive Papua region, authorities said, in an apparent retaliation for the execution of a top intelligence chief. The hours-long shootout Tuesday (Apr 2...

TOKYO: Thomas Bach, head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said on Wednesday (Apr 28) he fully understood the decision to declare a state of emergency in Tokyo to fight the coronavirus pandemic, and was committed to holding a safe, succe...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will abolish its primary school leaving examination from 2021, said Senior Education Minister Radzi Jidin on Wednesday (Apr 28).  The decision to abolish the (Primary School Achievement Test) UPSR was made after getting view...

MELBOURNE: Australians involved in the Indian Premier League (IPL) are "anxious" about how they will get home from the tournament as the COVID-19 crisis continues in India but they are not looking for any "free rides", the head of the players' union ...

BERLIN: BioNTech co-founder Ugur Sahin on Wednesday (Apr 28) voiced confidence that the vaccine that his company jointly developed with Pfizer works against the Indian variant of the coronavirus. "We are still testing the Indian variant, but the In...

JAKARTA: Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo reshuffled his Cabinet on Wednesday (Apr 28), after parliament approved his plan to reorganise several agencies while creating a new investment ministry.   This was his second Cabinet reshuffle in just...

NEW DELHI: The Indian Premier League (IPL) will continue as scheduled, a senior Indian cricket board official told Reuters on Wednesday (Apr 28), despite fierce criticism of the popular Twenty20 competition being played in the midst of the national C...

The young widow of an ageing Japanese real estate mogul was arrested on Wednesday (Apr 28) on suspicion of murdering the self-described "Don Juan" just months into their marriage, local media said, citing police sources.

TAIPEI: Chinese vaccine makers are looking at mixing their jabs and whether a booster shot could help better protect against COVID-19. Sinovac and Sinopharm, the two Chinese manufacturers that combined have exported hundreds of millions of doses all...

KUALA LUMPUR: The AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine will not be used in Malaysia’s mainstream national COVID-19 vaccination programme, said Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation Khairy Jamaluddin. Speaking at a joint press conference with Mi...

Pakistan recorded more than two hundred COVID-19 deaths in a day for the first time since the start of the pandemic on Tuesday (Apr 27), as the government said it was considering stricter lockdowns.

BENGALURU: India's giant IT firms in Bengaluru and other cities have set up COVID-19 "war rooms" as they scramble to source oxygen, medicine and hospital beds for infected workers and maintain backroom operations for the world's biggest financial fir...

TAIPEI: Taiwan's government on Wednesday (Apr 28) accused China of waging economic warfare against the island's tech sector by stealing technology and enticing away engineers, as parliament considers strengthening legislation to prevent this. Taiwan...

Myanmar's pro-democracy unity government, which includes members of parliament ousted by the military coup, has told Southeast Asia's regional bloc that it will not engage in talks until the junta releases all political prisoners. The 10-member Asso...

SEOUL: South Korea said on Wednesday (Apr 28) it will offer some exemptions to mandatory quarantine measures for people who have been fully inoculated against COVID-19, in an effort to encourage more vaccinations. South Korea has so far vaccinated 4...

NEW DELHI: India's toll from the coronavirus surged past 200,000 on Wednesday (Apr 28), the country's deadliest day yet, as shortages of oxygen, medical supplies and hospital staff members compounded a record number of new infections. The second wa...

Himanshu Verma sighed in relief as a mask was fitted over his mother's face, allowing the Covid-19 sufferer to breathe in oxygen as she sat alongside a busy road on the outskirts of New Delhi.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's exports jumped 31 per cent in March from a year earlier, rising at their fastest pace in nearly four years, as the Southeast Asian country continued to shake off the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, government data showed on...

The heirs to South Korea's Samsung group announced their plans to pay more than $10 billion in death duties Wednesday -- one of the world's biggest ever inheritance tax settlements -- including donating Picasso and Monet artworks.

SINGAPORE: The Singapore Government has sent a consignment of oxygen cylinders to support India’s COVID-19 pandemic response, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday (Apr 28). This comes as India continues to battle a new wave of COVID-1...

BEIJING: Tiny unicorns and cartoon girls in clown costumes line the shelves of Wang Zhaoxue's study in Beijing - tokens of China's mania for "blind boxes" that has made fortunes for toymakers and even caught the attention of those in power. The 18-...

GUWAHATI, India: An earthquake of magnitude 6 struck India's rugged northeastern state of Assam on Wednesday (Apr 28), causing cracks in the walls and floors of some structures, but no immediate casualties were reported. The quake hit at a depth of...

WASHINGTON: A bipartisan group of US senators on Tuesday (Apr 27) urged the Biden administration to slap more sanctions on the junta in Myanmar, including choking revenues to a state energy company, in response to its coup and violent crackdown on pr...

The World Health Organization said on Tuesday (Apr 27) that a variant of COVID-19 feared to be contributing to a surge in coronavirus cases in India has been found in more than a dozen countries.

Dealing with 12 hours a day on watch and the need for high operational readiness, submariners have a hazardous career, says James Goldrick.

The UN's cultural agency on Tuesday (Apr 27) awarded its annual press freedom prize to Philippine journalist Maria Ressa whose reporting has made her a target of her country's judiciary and online hate campaigns.

Senior US officials on Tuesday (Apr 27) pledged sustained support for India in helping it deal with the world's worst current surge of COVID-19 infections, warning the country is still at the "front end" of the crisis and overcoming it will take som...

The United States said on Tuesday (Apr 27) it was easing remaining COVID-19 restrictions on international students, giving the green light to Chinese nationals to start the school year at US universities.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday cautioned Africa to beware of China's growing role as he vowed a greater US commitment in talks with Nigeria and Kenya.

COX'S BAZAR: The Bangladesh coastguard on Tuesday (Apr 27) rescued 30 Rohingya refugees adrift in the Bay of Bengal for two days after they were attacked by pirates, an official said. About 1 million Rohingya refugees live in sprawling camps in sout...

NEW DELHI: Vital medical supplies began to reach India on Tuesday (Apr 27) as hospitals starved of life-saving oxygen and beds turned away coronavirus patients, and a surge in infections pushed the death toll close to 200,000. A shipment from Brit...

China said on Tuesday (Apr 27) that it had offered help to South Asian countries in accessing COVID-19 vaccines, but India did not attend a regional video conference on the matter, although it is currently suffering the world's worst wave of the pand...

Japanese financial group Nomura Holdings on Tuesday confirmed losses of $2.3 billion for fiscal 2020-2021 linked to the sudden liquidation of holdings by US hedge fund Archegos.

India expects to secure the biggest chunk of the 60 million AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses that the United States will share globally, two Indian government sources told Reuters, as New Delhi battles a devastating surge in infections.

BEIJING: A tanker carrying around 1 million barrels of bitumen mix was involved in a collision near the Chinese port city of Qingdao, spilling oil into the Yellow Sea, Chinese maritime officials and tanker representatives said on Tuesday (Apr 27). T...

MANILA: The Philippines will ban travellers coming from India to prevent the spread of a new coronavirus variant blamed for a huge surge in COVID-19 cases in the South Asian nation, a senior official said on Tuesday (Apr 27). Travellers coming from...

Sri Lankan Cabinet approves proposed ban on burqas in public

A new coronavirus wave hitting Sri Lanka has halted a cricket match between two of the country's top schools that has been played for 141 years, continuing even through world wars.

BEIJING: A Chinese space mining start-up launched into low Earth orbit on Tuesday (Apr 27) a robot prototype that can scoop up debris left behind by other spacecraft with a big net. The NEO-01, which will also peer into deep space to observe small c...

NEW DELHI: Since the beginning of the week, Dr Siddharth Tara, a postgraduate medical student at New Delhi’s government-run Hindu Rao Hospital, has had a fever and persistent headache. He took a COVID-19 test, but the results have been delayed as ...

Narendra Modi is not the first world leader to suffer the consequences for acting too slowly – or declaring victory too early, says The Financial Times’ Gideon Rachman.

Myanmar's junta said on Tuesday (Apr 27) that it will heed regional pleas to stop violence only when the coup-hit country "returns to stability", as fresh fighting erupted with a major ethnic rebel group along its eastern border.

The actress-turned-entrepreneur and her husband were fined RM30,000 while 20 members of their family were fined RM1,500 each.  

The guns have gone silent, schools have reopened and the bunkers are empty along Pakistan's restive ceasefire line with India, but even as residents in Kashmir relax thanks to an uneasy truce, they fear fighting may erupt again soon.

A towering wall of sand rushed over factories and apartment blocks in northwestern China's Gansu province as seasonal sandstorms barrelled across the country, causing air pollution and traffic accidents.

Olympic gold and silver medallists Park In-bee and Lydia Ko said Tuesday they were not worried about playing at the coronavirus-delayed Tokyo Games despite a surge in infections in Japan.

Chanting in Burmese their readiness to fight "for the people", around 120 youths jogged around a muddy forest clearing in the morning light in a video released by a group that has proclaimed itself a new fighting force against Myanmar's junta. A fou...

The first emergency medical supplies trickled into Covid-stricken India on Tuesday as part of a global campaign to staunch a catastrophic wave in the latest pandemic hotspot, with the United States also pledging to export millions of AstraZeneca vacc...

YANGON: Myanmar's junta will give "careful consideration to constructive suggestions" from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on ways to resolve violent turmoil triggered by a Feb 1 coup, the junta said. "The suggestions would be p...

MUMBAI: India's new COVID-19 cases stayed above 300,000 for a sixth consecutive day on Tuesday (Apr 27), while its armed forces pledged urgent medical aid to help battle the staggering spike in infections. Over the past 24 hours, India recorded 323...

HONG KONG: Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said on Tuesday (Apr 27) the government could intervene if necessary in the Bar Association, whose chief has been labelled an "anti-China politician" by Beijing's top representative office in the city. Paul Ha...

Children play cricket in a patch of scorched grass and scattered rubble in Abbottabad -- all that remains of the final lair of the man who was once the most wanted person on the planet.

TOKYO: Japan will open a mass vaccination centre in central Tokyo next month, officials said on Tuesday (Apr 27), part of the country's bid to speed up its COVID-19 inoculation campaign as the Olympic Games looms. Japan imposed a third state of emer...

BANGKOK: Thailand on Tuesday (Apr 27) reported 15 new COVID-19 deaths, another daily record in a fast-rising third wave that has prompted new shutdowns in Bangkok and other areas. The Health Ministry also reported 2,179 new daily infections.  Thail...

SYDNEY: Australia on Tuesday (Apr 27) suspended direct flights from India to prevent more virulent coronavirus variants entering the country following a surge in positive COVID-19 cases in the world's second-most populous nation. India's coronaviru...

Heavy fighting erupted at a Myanmar army outpost near the eastern border with Thailand early on Tuesday (Apr 27) in an area largely controlled by forces of a Karen ethnic army. The Karen National Union (KNU) said it had captured the army position, ...

Germany and China agreed on Monday (Apr 26) to step up their cooperation in combating climate change in an effort to help keep global temperatures from rising by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) by the year 2100.

SINGAPORE: Singapore-headquartered Grab announced earlier this month that it would go public in the United States by merging with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). With a near US$40 billion (about S$53 billion) valuation, this marks the b...

The tragic loss of KRI Nanggala lays bare the limits to international cooperation on submarine rescue, says RSIS’ Collin Koh.

An agreement between the United States and three of its closest Indo-Pacific partners to produce up to a billion coronavirus vaccine doses in India by the end of 2022 to supply other Asian countries is "still on track", senior US officials said on ...

With oxygen supplies of hospitals near empty, doctors across India are begging and borrowing cylinders of oxygen to keep their patients alive.

For Reuters photographer Danish Siddiqui, covering India's second wave of the coronavirus pandemic is a daily circuit of crematoriums, cemeteries and hospitals, capturing the struggles of a nation of 1.4 billion people.

SINGAPORE: Singapore's President Halimah Yacob and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong have written to Indonesian President Joko Widodo to express their condolences over the death of 53 crew members on board a sunken submarine. In a letter released by Si...

BANGKOK: Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha was fined on Monday (Apr 26) for not wearing a face mask in public while attending a meeting at Government House to discuss the COVID-19 situation in Thailand. In a Facebook post, Mr Prayut explained h...

SINGAPORE: Faculty at Nanyang Technological University's S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) have extended their condolences after the death of an alumnus who was the commander of Indonesia's sunken KRI Nanggala 402 submarine. Li...

BALI: A poignant video has emerged showing the crew of a sunken Indonesian submarine singing happily together on board their vessel. The video, filmed a few weeks before the KRI Nanggala 402 went down with all hands lost, shows some of the 53-stron...

Authorities in Nepal were grappling to contain the rapid rise of COVID-19 cases, with experts fearing that thousands of people in the Himalayan state have caught the more infectious mutant virus strains emerging out of India.

JAKARTA: The sinking of the Indonesian submarine KRI Nanggala 402 has drawn attention to the potential challenges of operating ageing military equipment in the Southeast Asian country.  This issue is complicated by the need to strike a balance be...

BEIJING: The reality TV ordeal of a Russian who joined a Chinese boy band show by accident - and made it to the finals despite urging fans to vote him off - has finally ended after nearly three months. Vladislav Ivanov, a 27-year-old from Vladivost...

Myanmar's junta again postponed court proceedings against deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday (Apr 26) her lawyers said, as they fight for permission to visit her 12 weeks after she was detained.

MANILA: The number of COVID-19 cases logged in the Philippines since the start of the pandemic topped 1 million on Monday (Apr 26), as a health official warned against easing restrictions, to give hospitals some "breathing room". Nearly 9,000 new in...

SINGAPORE: Singapore and Hong Kong on Monday (Apr 26) announced that a long-delayed air travel bubble between the two cities is set to launch on May 26, after it was deferred last year following a spike in COVID-19 cases in Hong Kong. Under the trav...

New COVID-19 restrictions came into force in Thailand on Monday (Apr 26) to try to halt a spiralling outbreak that saw deaths hit a record single-day high over the weekend.

Thailand has suspended issuing travel documents from India over concerns of imported COVID-19 cases, as more venues were closed in Bangkok on Monday (Apr 26) as part of efforts to contain a third wave of infections in the country.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian health authorities on Monday (Apr 26) said the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca is safe for use, three days after the Southeast Asian nation received its first batch of the shots bought through the global COVAX facility. Some...

BEIJING: Beijing-born Chloe Zhao was scrubbed from Chinese social media on Monday (Apr 26) as a nationalist backlash airbrushed out her remarkable achievement of becoming the first woman of colour to win the best director Oscar. Zhao on Sunday night...