Cricket authorities in Australia and New Zealand rushed to evacuate star players from Covid-hit India on Wednesday, after the lucrative Indian Premier League was abandoned.

GENEVA: India accounted for 46 per cent of the new COVID-19 cases recorded worldwide last week and one in four deaths, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday (May 5). The surge of the coronavirus in India, including of a highly infec...

PETALING JAYA: Veterans of the Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF) have announced their plan to form a new political party and contest in the country’s next general election. MAF Veterans Association president Sharuddin Omar said the veterans were in the...

WELLINGTON: New Zealand's parliament unanimously declared on Wednesday (May 5) that severe human rights abuses were taking place against Uyghur people in China's Xinjiang region, spurring the Chinese embassy to decry the move as interference in inter...

SEOUL: One dose of COVID-19 vaccines from AstraZeneca and Pfizer was 86.6 per cent effective in preventing infections among people aged 60 and older, real world data released by South Korea showed on Wednesday (May 5). Data by the Korea Disease Cont...

NEW DELHI: India's COVID-19 deaths rose by a record 3,780 during the last 24 hours, a day after it became the second country to cross the grim milestone of 20 million infections after the United states. Daily infections rose by 382,315 on Wednesda...

YANGON: Five people killed in an explosion in Myanmar this week, including an ousted lawmaker, had been building a bomb, media controlled by the military junta said on Wednesday (May 5). Since the military seized power and ousted an elected governme...

SINGAPORE: Singapore is monitoring the COVID-19 situation closely, the Ministry of Transport (MOT) said on Wednesday (May 5), as community cases in Singapore spike ahead of the launch of a travel bubble with Hong Kong. "The vast majority of the com...

TAITUNG COUNTY: Before heading into Taiwan's mountains with his homemade rifle, indigenous hunter Tama Talum often chants prayers and makes offerings of rice wine and betel nut to the spirits. Talum, 62, was one of the hundreds from his Bunun tribe...

WASHINGTON: The United States policy coordinator for the Indo-Pacific on Tuesday (May 4) appeared to reject calls for the US to make a clear statement of its willingness to defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack, saying there were "significa...

The ban on travellers from India by Australia had added "anxiety" for its cricketers after the Indian Premier League's (IPL) suspension, Australia vice captain Pat Cummins said, as players isolated in the coronavirus-ravaged nation on Wednesday (May ...

The world's oldest person, a 118-year-old Japanese woman, has decided not to take part in the torch relay for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics over COVID-19 fears, an official at her nursing home said on Wednesday (May 5).

TAIPEI: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is planning to build several more chipmaking factories in the US state of Arizona beyond the one currently planned, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters. TSMC, the world's larg...

The Japanese government is considering an extension of the state of emergency for Tokyo and other major urban areas that was scheduled to end on May 11, the Yomiuri Newspaper said on Wednesday.

KUALA LUMPUR: The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has seized a shipment of 3.97 million nitrile disposable gloves from Malaysia's Top Glove estimated to be worth US$518,000, on indications they were made by forced labour, it said on Wednesda...

US intelligence agencies are warning that any gains in women's rights in Afghanistan made in the last two decades will be at risk after US troops withdraw later this year.

The European Commission said on Tuesday (May 4) that efforts to win approval for the EU's massive investment deal with China were effectively "suspended" given the soured diplomatic relations between both sides after tit-for-tat sanctions.

YANGON: Myanmar's junta-controlled media announced a ban on satellite television receivers on Tuesday (May 4), saying outside broadcasts threatened national security and threatening to jail anyone caught violating the measure. With mobile Internet a...

NEW DELHI: Britain and India on Tuesday (May 4) signed an accord on migration and mobility, an Indian foreign ministry official said, as they look to deepen economic, cultural and other ties following the UK's departure from the European Union. The ...

NEW DELHI: Eight Asiatic lions at an Indian zoo have contracted the coronavirus, the government said on Tuesday (May 4), adding that there was no evidence that animals could transmit the disease to humans. Zoo authorities in the southern state of Hy...

Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut's Twitter account was "permanently suspended" Tuesday for violating policies on hateful conduct and abusive behaviour, the social media giant said.

PHNOM PENH: Cambodia on Tuesday (May 4) ordered journalists to stop reporting from blockaded COVID-19 "red zones" and from chasing ambulances as the country battles against a record surge in infections. The country has seen COVID-19 cases surge sin...

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian government has announced that morning Aidilfitri prayers and Hari Raya visiting will be allowed with restrictions and health protocols in place.  Speaking during a press conference on Tuesday (May 4), Senior Minister ...

Thousands of Shiite Muslim devotees ?- many not wearing masks -- gathered in Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore for a religious procession on Tuesday, fanning fears about the spread of the coronavirus after similar crowds were blamed in neighbouring I...

Britain and India will begin formal free trade deal talks later this year, the UK government said Tuesday, after they agreed an initial package to boost bilateral trade and investment.

BEIJING: China urged the Philippines on Tuesday (May 4) to observe "basic etiquette" and eschew megaphone diplomacy after the Southeast Asian nation's foreign minister used an expletive-laced Twitter message to demand that China's vessels leave disp...

The fact that so many require medical care in India’s second COVID-19 wave is a symptom of longstanding structural deficiencies, says a doctor.

SEOUL: The chairman of one of South Korea’s biggest dairy companies has resigned over a scandal in which his company was accused of deliberately spreading misinformation that its yogurt helps prevent coronavirus infections. While stepping down as ...

Chinese navy ships have arrived off Bali to help haul up a submarine that sank last month killing 53 crew, the Indonesian Navy said Tuesday as it geared up for a deep-sea salvage operation.

NEW DELHI: The Indian Premier League (IPL), the world's richest Twenty20 cricket tournament, was suspended on Tuesday (May 4) and its players sent home as India battles a massive surge in coronavirus cases. The move, which follows growing controver...

Sipping bubble tea and dressed in their holiday finest, millions of Chinese travellers flocked to domestic tourist attractions over the Labour Day long holiday with COVID-19 fears already a distant memory.

The remainder of the coronavirus-hit Indian Premier League (IPL) could be played in Mumbai following bubble breaches in Delhi and Ahmedabad, local media reports said on Tuesday (May 4).

The Myanmar junta has charged a Japanese journalist under a "fake news" law, a report said on Tuesday (May 4), in the latest blow to press freedom since the military seized power.

HONG KONG: Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said on Tuesday (May 4) that the government was working on "fake news" legislation to tackle "misinformation, hatred and lies", as worries grow over media freedoms in the global financial hub. Under Beijing's d...

NEW DELHI: India's COVID-19 caseload topped 20 million on Tuesday (May 4) as the relentless surge finally forced the suspension of the nation's lucrative cricket competition involving some of the sport's biggest global stars. The South Asian nation...

YANGON: Blasts from at least one parcel bomb in Myanmar have killed five people, including an ousted lawmaker and three police officers who had joined a civil disobedience movement opposing military rule, local media reported on Tuesday (May 3). Si...

SEOUL: A South Korean publisher's defiant move to release the memoirs of the North's founder Kim Il Sung has triggered a heated debate over Seoul's decades-old ban on Pyongyang's propaganda under national security laws. Critics of the measure say So...

MUMBAI: Her exam revision done, schoolgirl Swadha Prasad gets on with her real work: Finding life-saving oxygen, drugs and hospital beds for COVID-19 patients as India reels from a brutal second wave of infections. As their government struggles to t...

Australia's prime minister fended off accusations of racism and having blood on his hands on Tuesday (May 4), as he retreated from a threat to jail Australians trying to escape COVID-19-wracked India.

Rolling out of vaccines to developing countries, Beijing has framed itself as a solution to the pandemic rather than the origin of the coronavirus, says an international studies professor.

Several factors point to a growth story that could make Southeast Asian Tech the darling of Wall Street, says INSEAD Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise, Jason Davis.

JAKARTA: Despite obvious signs that a powerful cyclone was brewing, life carried on as usual in the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara last month.  Aside from grounding ships and airplanes from travelling in the rough weather, hardly any pr...

Pfizer said on Monday (May 3) it told the Indian government that there was no concern over the safety of its COVID-19 vaccine, as the country insists on small local trials for foreign shots despite a record surge in infections and shortage of doses...

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday (May 3) asked North Korea to embrace diplomacy as he briefed allies on a new US strategy that stresses low-key progress rather than Donald Trump's pageantry.

Former Australian cricketer Michael Slater slammed his government on Monday for threatening to jail anyone who breaks its India travel ban, telling the prime minister he had "blood on your hands".

PHNOM PENH: Prime Minister Hun Sen has ordered an end to a blanket lockdown in Phnom Penh, even as Cambodia reported a record 841 new coronavirus cases on Monday (May 3).  The Southeast Asian nation has recorded one of the world's smallest COVID-...

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte received his first dose of Sinopharm's vaccine against COVID-19 on Monday to encourage reluctant Filipinos to get inoculated and help stop the spread of the virus, his closest aide said.

BEIJING: Electric vehicle maker Tesla, facing scrutiny in China over safety and customer service complaints, is boosting its engagement with mainland regulators and beefing up its government relations team, industry sources said. Tesla's change of ...

MELBOURNE: A leading Myanmar swimmer has called for an international boycott of his country's Olympic committee, branding it a "puppet" of the southeast Asian nation's military rulers. Australia-based Win Htet Oo said he had given up his dream of sw...

SEOUL: North Korea has notified authorities that its team plans to skip next month's World Cup qualifiers hosted by South Korea due to COVID-19 fears, the South's football association said on Monday (May 3). North Korea's football association (PRKFA...

hampions were eligible for Tokyo.

Hong Kong's economy jumped back into growth in the first quarter of the year, official figures showed on Monday (May 3), ending the city's most pronounced period of recession in its modern history.

A leading Myanmar ethnic rebel army said that it had shot down a military helicopter on Monday (May 3), a day after a renewed junta crackdown on anti-coup protests left at least five civilians dead.

MANILA: The Philippines' top diplomat unambiguously told Beijing where to go on Monday (May 3), as the government insisted that Chinese vessels were still illegally lingering in the disputed South China Sea. "China, my friend, how politely can I put...

SEOUL: South Korean officials fuelled hope on Monday (May 3) for the arrival of 7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine by mid-May to prop up an inoculation campaign that is flagging as supplies dwindle, hit by shipment delays. Nearly 3.4 million of the...

DHAKA: At least 26 people were killed when a speedboat packed with passengers collided with a vessel transporting sand on Monday (May 3) in the latest maritime disaster to hit Bangladesh. Police said the speedboat carrying about three dozen passenge...

Australia on Monday said a Chinese company's controversial 99-year-lease on Darwin Port is under review and could be scrapped, opening a new point of friction in relations between Beijing and Canberra.

Taiwan's defence minister on Monday (May 3) said that authorities were investigating whether a man from mainland China had managed to cross the Taiwan Strait in a rubber dinghy in a bid to seek political sanctuary.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has closed land crossings with Iran and Afghanistan for travellers and slashed international flights as the government warned of a "critical" few weeks ahead in the battle against COVID-19.  The border restrictions were announc...

TAIPEI: Taiwan became the latest place to ban arrivals from coronavirus-stricken India on Monday (May 3), as it moves to prevent new infections, with more nations reporting cases of a variant first identified in the subcontinent. The variant, B1617...

JAKARTA: Indonesia has recorded its first cases of a highly infectious COVID-19 variant first detected in India, the health minister said on Monday (May 3), as authorities implored people not to travel to their hometowns for the end of the Muslim fa...

MUMBAI: India's tally of COVID-19 infections rose on Monday (May 3) to just short of 20 million, propelled by a 12th straight day of more than 300,000 new cases, as scientists predicted the pandemic could peak in the next couple of days. Total infec...

TOKYO: Finance ministers and central bank governors from China, Japan and South Korea on Monday (May 3) vowed "targeted" measures for those countries most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and committed to foster fiscal and financial stability. In...

BANGKOK: Thailand on Monday (May 3) reported a new daily record of 31 coronavirus deaths, the health ministry said, as the country grapples with a third wave of infections. After managing to largely control the virus for around a year through shutd...

BEIJING: China reported 11 new COVID-19 cases in the mainland on Sunday (May 2), down from 15 cases a day earlier, the country's national health authority said on Monday. The National Health Commission, in a statement, said all the new cases were im...

An increasingly powerful China is challenging the world order, acting "more repressively" and "more aggressively" as it flexes its influence, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview that aired on Sunday (May 2).

Fighting between Afghan government forces and the Taliban has left more than 100 insurgents dead in the past 24 hours, the defence ministry said Sunday as it took control of a US military base in a restive province.

A leading Indian industry body urged authorities to take the "strongest national steps" and to curtail economic activity to save lives on Sunday (May 2) as the country battles surging coronavirus cases that have overwhelmed the healthcare system.

China's carrier group conducts exercises in South China Sea

KOLKATA: The incumbent chief minister's party in India's West Bengal state has defeated Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party in a state election held as the coronavirus pandemic surged to crisis levels. Modi has been criticised for focusing on the e...

Cambodia reported a daily record of 730 new coronavirus cases, the health ministry said in a statement on Sunday, as the country struggles to contain a wave of infections that emerged about two months ago.

Malaysia has detected its first case of a highly infectious coronavirus variant first identified in India, Health Minister Adham Baba said on Sunday, days after imposing a ban on flights from India.

NEW DELHI: India's COVID-19 death toll jumped by a record 3,689 deaths of Sunday (May 2), the highest single-day rise since the start of the pandemic, taking the country's death toll to more than 215,000.  Authorities reported 392,488 new infection...

Hundreds of Thai protesters hurled red paint, tomatoes and eggs at a Bangkok court Sunday, demanding the release of all political detainees, including an activist who was hospitalised after a hunger strike.

SINGAPORE: A cross-border travel scheme facilitating trips between Malaysia and Singapore for compassionate reasons such as death and visits to loved ones who are critically ill is set to kick off on May 17. This was confirmed in a joint statement o...

Myanmar's security forces opened fire on some of the biggest anti-coup protests in days on Sunday (May 2), killing seven people, media reported, three months after the coup plunged the country into crisis.  The protests, after a spell of dwindlin...

NEW DELHI: With Indian hospitals struggling to secure a steady supply of oxygen, and more COVID-19 patients dying amid the shortages, a court in New Delhi said it would start punishing government officials for failing to deliver the life-saving items...

NEW DELHI: A forum of scientific advisers set up by the government warned Indian officials in early March of a new and more contagious variant of the coronavirus taking hold in the country, five scientists who are part of the forum told Reuters. Des...

SEOUL: Recent comments from US President Joe Biden and members of his administration show he is intent on maintaining a hostile policy toward North Korea that will require a corresponding response from Pyongyang, North Korean officials said on Sund...

JAKARTA: Naila Novaranti, perempuan Indonesia yang telah terjun payung di tujuh benua di dunia, tak kenal gentar. Ketangguhannya telah membawanya keliling dunia dari Antarktika hingga Gunung Everest. Naila, 39, adalah atlet yang terakreditasi ole...

JAKARTA: The sky's the limit for Naila Novaranti, Indonesia’s female skydiver who has parachuted on seven continents in the world, including challenging locations such as Antarctica and Mount Everest.  A former secretary, the 39-year-old is an ...

India should go into lockdown for several weeks to arrest the current devastating surge in Covid cases, top US pandemic advisor Anthony Fauci said in comments published Saturday.

Explosions blasted off throughout Myanmar's largest city Yangon on Saturday as protesters held flash marches for democracy, defying a brutal junta that has held onto power for three blood-drenched months.

Waking up to grim messages and speaking on a daily basis to despondent doctors, our correspondent in Mumbai wonders if her city will ever be the same again.

HONG KONG: Hong Kong migrant worker groups on Saturday (May 1) criticised plans to make COVID-19 vaccines compulsory for all foreign domestic helpers, labelling the move "discriminatory and unjust". Health officials said they were planning to roll o...

SINGAPORE: Malaysia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Hishammuddin Hussein will make an official visit to Singapore from Saturday (May 1) until Sunday, said Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). In the statement issued on Saturday, MFA said th...

JAKARTA: Workers in Indonesia marked international labour day on Saturday (May 1) with significantly less attended marches due to COVID-19 restrictions but thousands still vented their anger at a new law they say harms their rights and welfare. Abou...

BEIJING: Millions of travellers criss-crossed China as the Labour Day holiday got underway on Saturday (May 1), packing out tourist sites, thronging restaurants and visiting family as the vast country edges towards life after COVID-19. The world's ...

NEW DELHI: India was due Saturday (May 1) to open up its jumbo vaccination drive to all adults, but many states do not have the stocks as hospitals reel from a vicious COVID-19 surge. Less then two months ago, the health minister said India was in ...

NEW DELHI: India recorded on Saturday (May 1) more than 400,000 new COVID-19 cases in 24 hours for the first time, the first country to do so in the pandemic, official data showed. According to the health ministry, 401,993 new infections were regi...

The actress says that Manson also violated human trafficking law by bringing her to California from England under the false pretenses of roles in music videos and movies that never materialised.

BANGKOK: Thailand on Saturday (May 1) reported a new daily record of 21 coronavirus deaths, the health ministry said, as the Southeast Asian country prepared to open registration for a long-awaited mass vaccination campaign. The health ministry repo...

SHANGHAI: China reported 16 new COVID-19 cases on Friday (Apr 30), down from 13 cases a day earlier, the country's national health authority said on Saturday. All of the new cases were imported infections originating from overseas, the National Heal...

TOKYO: A 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck off Japan's northeastern coast on Saturday (May 1), authorities said, but no tsunami warning was issued. At least three people were injured by Saturday's jolt, which produced strong shaking along parts of th...

AHMEDABAD: At least 18 people, including two healthcare workers were killed in a fire at a COVID-19 hospital in the western Indian state of Gujarat late on Friday (Apr 30) night, officials said on Saturday, in the country's latest deadly hospital acc...

SYDNEY: Australian citizens and residents who have been in India within 14 days of the date they plan to return home will be banned from entering Australia as of Monday (May 3) and those who disobey will face fines and jail, government officials sai...

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden on Friday (Apr 30) imposed new travel restrictions on India in light of the COVID-19 epidemic, barring most non-US citizens from entering the United States. The new restrictions, which take effect at 12:01am ET (0...

February’s coup in Myanmar has turned the spotlight on other Southeast Asian countries whose militaries have played a significant political role. The programme Insight examines the situation in Indonesia and the prospects for its democracy.

It provides critical back-end staff to other countries, particularly in finance and health. Coupled with its role in pharmaceutical supply, it is imperative everyone pitches in to help India, says this economist.

Climate change has thrown monsoon, wind and wave patterns into disarray, affecting the fishermen’s operating costs and potential of pulling in a good catch.