Myanmar protesters took to the streets on Tuesday (Jun 1) in several districts, as fighting between the army and anti-junta militias raged in border areas, four months after the military ousted an elected government in a coup. Despite a ferocious cr...

BEIJING: China's decision to allow families to have up to three children was met with scepticism on Tuesday (Jun 1), with doubts expressed on social media whether it would make much difference, and calls for details on what promised "supportive measu...

SINGAPORE: Malaysia’s Narcotics Criminal Investigation Department (NCID) has busted a drug syndicate that smuggled drugs into Singapore using modified fire extinguishers. In a statement on Tuesday (Jun 1), the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) said ...

SEOUL: South Korea summoned Japan's deputy ambassador on Tuesday (Jun 1) to protest over a map on the Tokyo Olympics website that showed a set of South Korea-controlled islands as Japanese territory. The small islands, called Dokdo in South Korea a...

Shares in Chinese toy makers, diaper producers and infant food companies soared for the second day on Tuesday, as investors piled into stocks seen as benefitting from Beijing's new three-child policy.

SEOUL: South Korean military personnel rushed to sign up for Johnson and Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday (Jun 1), as the country expanded its vaccination campaign and eased restrictions on inoculated people in a bid to encourage immunisation. ...

TAIPEI: Foxconn and its billionaire founder Terry Gou sought permission from Taiwan's government on Tuesday (Jun 1) to buy COVID-19 vaccines from Germany's BioNTech as the island grapples with a rise in infections. The proposed purchase of 5 million...

SEOUL: A climate change summit hosted by South Korea has drawn ridicule for kicking off with a promotional video suggesting it was taking place in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. The opening ceremony for the P4G, or Partnering for Green Growth,...

SEOUL: A shipment of coronavirus vaccines to North Korea via the global COVAX sharing programme that was expected for late May has been delayed again amid protracted consultations, South Korea's Unification Ministry said on Tuesday (Jun 1). COVAX, w...

BEIJING: China has jailed a popular blogger for "defaming martyrs" after he suggested the death toll of the China-India border clash last year was higher than the official count of four. Qiu Ziming - with more than 2.5 million followers on China's t...

SEOUL: North Korea's ruling party has amended its rules to create a de facto second-in-command under leader Kim Jong Un as he looks to revamp domestic politics, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said on Tuesday (Jun 1). Citing an unidentified source ...

HANOI: Vietnam is seeking to buy COVID-19 vaccine production technology and wants to build a plant to supply the COVAX programme, its health ministry said on Tuesday (Jun 1), as the country tries to step up vaccinations to stem a new outbreak of infe...

TOKYO: Japan has signed off on a US$338 million semiconductor research project to develop cutting-edge chip technology in the country with the market-leading Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). Taiwan's chip-making plants are among th...

TOKYO: Tokyo 2020 was supposed to be a marketing bonanza, but public opposition and a possible spectator ban over COVID-19 fears have left some Japanese sponsors with an Olympic headache. Around 60 Japanese companies ploughed a record US$3.3 billion...

YANGON: Schools in Myanmar will open on Tuesday (Jun 1) for the first time since the military seized power, but teachers and students are set to defy the junta's calls for full classrooms in a show of resistance. Four months of national turmoil have...

BEIJING: Fifteen tutoring firms have been hammered with millions of dollars of fines over alleged fraud, Chinese state media said on Tuesday (Jun 1), as the government's chastening of the tech sector seeps into the private education businesses. The ...

BONGHWA, South Korea: Hidden in a South Korean mountain tunnel designed to withstand a nuclear blast, the seeds of nearly 5,000 wild plant species are stored for safekeeping against climate change, natural disaster and war. Plant extinction is progr...

Rolling out a vaccination drive in a country as large and diverse as Malaysia is no mean feat, says a researcher.

The Japanese public has a darkening sense of the unstoppable arrival of tens of thousands of athletes and their teams, says the Financial Times’ Leo Lewis.

Thailand held a welcoming ceremony on Monday to mark the return of two ancient hand-carved artefacts that were stolen decades ago and smuggled out of the country to the United States.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday prolonged partial coronavirus curbs in the capital and nearby provinces until mid-June to contain infections that have been decreasing since hitting a peak in April.

BANGKOK: Thailand's government has reversed a decision by authorities in its capital Bangkok to ease some COVID-19 restrictions, as the city battles its worst outbreak of the virus so far. The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) late on Monday...

BANGKOK: Two ancient sandstone artefacts believed to have been stolen from Thailand during the Vietnam War were unveiled on Monday (May 31) at a Bangkok museum, greeted with a fanfare of traditional dancers and an elaborate worship ceremony. The te...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin unveiled a new economic stimulus package worth RM40 billion (US$9.7 billion) on Monday (May 31), in an attempt to mitigate the impacts of an impending total lockdown.  Speaking during a...

Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin on Monday announced an additional 40 billion ringgit (US$9.70 billion) stimulus package, ahead of the imposition of stricter lockdown measures this week to curb the spread of COVID-19.

NEW DELHI: India's economic growth picked up in the January to March quarter from the previous three months, but economists have grown pessimistic about this quarter after a huge second wave of COVID-19 infections hit the country last month. Gross d...

China plans to strengthen controls in industries such as steel and aluminium which involve high energy use and produce high emissions, in an effort to promote low-carbon developments, the environment ministry said on Monday.

HANOI: Vietnam announced the suspension of incoming international flights to its capital and tightened restrictions in its biggest city on Monday (May 31), as part efforts to contain a coronavirus outbreak that has seen cases double in the past month...

PUTRAJAYA: Measures will be taken to ensure that food supply from the agriculture, fishing and farming sectors will not be disrupted during the two-week total lockdown from Tuesday (Jun 1), said Minister for Agriculture and Food Industries Ronald ...

PUTRAJAYA: A total of 82,341 infants and children in Malaysia have tested positive for COVID-19 to date, health minister Adham Baba said on Monday (May 31). Giving a breakdown of the numbers, Dr Adham said 19,851 cases were children below the age o...

China and Taiwan traded more accusations on Monday about COVID-19 vaccines, with Beijing saying they should not be a political tool while Taiwan's ruling party said China was the "black hand" preventing it accessing shots internationally.

South Korea on Monday reported its first case of rare blood clotting linked to AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine.

Several thousand Rohingya staged "unruly" protests Monday against living conditions on a cyclone-prone island off Bangladesh where they were moved from vast camps on the mainland, police said.

Bangkok will ease bans on venues such as massage shops, clinics and parks applied to stop the spread of COVID-19, but schools, cinemas, gyms and zoos will remain closed, the Thai capital said in a statement on Monday.

Hong Kong police have arrested an elderly democracy activist as she made a solo demonstration over China's deadly Tiananmen crackdown in a vivid illustration of the zero protest tolerance now wielded by authorities in the financial hub.

Sri Lanka's criminal investigators began questioning the crew of a burning cargo ship Monday, as the Singapore-registered carrier smouldered for a 12th straight day in one of the island's worst-ever marine ecological disasters.

BEIJING: Married Chinese couples may have up to three children, China announced on Monday (May 31), in a major shift from the existing limit of two after recent data showed a dramatic decline in births in the world's most populous country. Beijing s...

TAIPEI: Taiwan's parliament approved on Monday (May 31) an extra NT$420 billion (US$15.20 billion) in stimulus spending to help the economy deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, as the island curbs business activity to counter a spike in domestic infectio...

HONG KONG: Beijing's office that oversees matters in Hong Kong has warned of threats made to a judge who sentenced media tycoon Jimmy Lai and other democracy activists for their roles in an unauthorised assembly on Oct 1, 2019. A representative for...

HONG KONG: The 47 Hong Kong democratic opposition figures charged with conspiracy to commit subversion, most of whom have been kept in custody for the past three months, are due to appear in court again on Monday (May 31) in a widely monitored nation...

SEOUL: North Korea said on Monday the US allowing South Korea to build more powerful missiles was an example of the US' hostile policy against the North, warning that it could lead to an “acute and instable situation” on the Korean Peninsula. ...

TOKYO: Japan is considering requiring negative COVID-19 test results or vaccination records from fans attending the Tokyo Olympics, the Yomiuri newspaper reported on Monday (May 31), as a new poll showed public opposition to the Games remained strong...

BEIJING: A three-man crew of astronauts will blast off in June for a three-month mission on China’s new space station, according to a space official who was the country's first astronaut in orbit. The comments by Yang Liwei, the manned space progr...

SHANGHAI: China on Monday (May 31) reported a sudden surge in COVID-19 infections in the country's south, with 18 new local cases on May 30 in the city of Guangzhou, causing a flurry of flight cancellations. Of the 27 new coronavirus cases reported ...

American tire manufacturer Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is facing accusations of unpaid wages, unlawful overtime and threats to foreign workers at its Malaysian factory, according to court documents and complaints filed by workers.

More than 20 horses have died of starvation in just one month at Bangladesh's most popular resort district, the animals' owners said Sunday, as the country's tourism industry reels from the pandemic's economic fallout.

BANGKOK: Ukraine's ambassador to Thailand died early Sunday (May 30) on the southern beach island of Koh Lipe while on vacation with his son, police said, with the cause of death still undetermined. Andrii Beshta is a 45-year-old career diplomat who...

KATHMANDU: Former Hong Kong schoolteacher Tsang Yin-hung said on Sunday (May 30) she always believed in aiming high after setting a new record for the fastest ascent of Everest by a woman. Tsang scaled the 8,848.86m mountain in 25 hours and 50 minut...

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian government said on Sunday (May 30) that all malls will have to be shut, while 17 essential service sectors will be allowed to operate during the impending two-week "total lockdown". These sectors include healthcare, t...

BANGKOK: Thailand's largest agribusiness firm Charoen Pokphand Foods said on Sunday (May 30) it had closed one of its factories for five days after several workers tested positive for COVID-19. The company's poultry processing plant in Saraburi prov...

Search teams are looking for one missing person after rescuing all other passengers from a large ferry that caught fire in Indonesia, an official said Sunday.

TAIPEI: Taiwan has not given up hope of eventually getting COVID-19 vaccines from Germany's BioNTech, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said on Sunday (May 30), a deal that Taipei's government has blamed China for not being able to complete. After rec...

South Korea's Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said on Sunday that 1 million doses of Johnson & Johnson's (J&J) coronavirus vaccines will arrive this week, including for 550,000 soldiers, after the United States almost doubled its earlier pledge.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia reported 6,999 new coronavirus cases on Sunday (May 30), bringing the total infections in the country to 565,533. The daily figure was down from Saturday's 9,020 cases, the fifth straight record rise in COVID-19 infections in ...

HANOI: Vietnam's business hub Ho Chi Minh City will begin social distancing measures for 15 days starting from May 31 in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19, the country's government said on Sunday (May 30). The city has seen a spike in cases r...

NEW DELHI: Rasheeda Jaleel lives in fear that she may not be able to feed her seven children as millions of Indian families are forced into poverty by a devastating new coronavirus wave. The 40-year-old, her husband Abdul Jaleel, 65, and the childre...

WASHINGTON: The theory that COVID-19 might be the result of scientific experiments has thrown a spotlight on the work of the world's most secure biolabs. While the evidence linking SARS-CoV-2 to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China is strictly c...

Breathless, fevered and without the extra oxygen that could help keep them alive, the new COVID-19 patients at a hospital near Myanmar's border with India highlight the threat to a health system near collapse since February's coup. To help her tend ...

The veteran supporting actor also achieved fame as sardonic TV news writer Murray Slaughter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

SIDOARJO, East Java: Indonesian Muanisah, who goes by one name, recalled the day when she held her 40-day-old baby in despair as he had trouble breathing. She was just about to have her breakfast on May 29, 2006 when she smelled a pungent odour, wh...

China on Saturday launched a cargo spacecraft carrying supplies for its new space station, after delays due to technical reasons, state media said.

Indonesia ferry catches fire at sea; no casualties

Indonesia has released an Iranian tanker and a Panamanian vessel that were both seized at the beginning of the year on suspicion of carrying out illegal oil transfers, officials said on Saturday (May 29).

Sri Lanka is facing its worst beach pollution crisis as tonnes of plastic waste from a burning container ship wash ashore, a senior environment official said Saturday.

Hong Kong senior executives of financial companies and their overseas affiliates who are fully vaccinated can now apply for an exemption from the three-week compulsory quarantine, the markets watchdog said

MANILA: The Philippines on Saturday (May 29) said the country's workers could again go to work in Saudi Arabia, reversing a brief deployment ban after the kingdom said they would not be charged for COVID-19 tests and quarantine upon arrival. "Our Sa...

JAKARTA: An Iranian-flagged tanker seized by Indonesia in January has been released, Iran’s state broadcaster reported on Saturday (May 29), saying that the vessel has resumed its mission before returning home. Jakarta said at the time that its co...

China, Philippines swap protests over Manila-occupied island

SINGAPORE: The flow of goods and supplies between Singapore and Malaysia will continue even with the full movement control order (FMCO) being implemented in Malaysia from Jun 1 to Jun 14, said Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong on Saturday...

A neighbourhood in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou has been locked down as officials rush to quell an uptick in cases in the area.

YANGON: The underground government set up by opponents of Myanmar's military junta said its first batch of recruits have finished training for a new defence force, releasing video of them parading in uniform. The National Unity Government had annou...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia reported 9,020 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday (May 29), its highest daily toll since the start of the pandemic. This is the fifth straight day of record new infections, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 558...

Chinese fans of the popular sitcom Friends were furious after censors cut guest stars Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and Korean boy band BTS from the much-awaited reunion episode.

HANOI: Vietnam health minister Nguyen Thanh Long said on Saturday (May 29) the country has detected a new variant of the coronavirus, a mix of the COVID-19 variants from India and the United Kingdom that spreads quickly by air, online newspaper VnEx...

MANILA: The Philippines has protested China's continuing "illegal presence and activities" near an island in the South China Sea held by the Southeast Asian nation, the foreign ministry said on Saturday (May 29). Manila lodged the diplomatic protest...

BANGKOK: A coronavirus surge sweeping through Thailand's prisons has thrown the spotlight on the kingdom's overcrowded penal system, where some inmates have less space to sleep than the inside of a coffin. More than 22,000 people have tested positi...

KATHMANDU: Mount Everest guide Buddhi Bahadur Lama has spent days isolated in a tent after testing positive for coronavirus, as an outbreak that climbers say is putting lives at risk sweeps base camp. He is one of four in his expedition team thought...

NEW YORK: Nine Southeast Asian nations have proposed watering down a United Nations General Assembly draft resolution on Myanmar, including removing a call for an arms embargo on the country, in a bid to win the unanimous support of the 193-member bo...

As the Philippines’ presidential elections loom next year, it is timely to assess if Rodrigo Duterte has taken the hard decisions he promised he would, says Michael Beltran.

BANGKOK: When Dr Deo Florence Onda found himself more than 10,000m below the surface, in the third deepest trench on the planet, he was on the lookout for mysteries hidden in the darkness. The Emden Deep, part of the Philippine Trench, is one of E...

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday (May 28) the United States and India are united in trying to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic together and Washington wants to make sure it takes action to help India with its coronavirus c...

The US customs agency announced Friday it would block imports of products from China's Dalian Ocean Fishing Co for alleged use of forced labor and abuse of workers on its tuna vessels.

More than 96,000 hectares (237,221 acres) of agricultural land has been inundated in parts of an eastern Indian state hit by a powerful storm this week, officials said on Friday, a year after the coastal region was ravaged by a super cyclone.

During his reign as heavyweight champion of the world, no one was more feared than Mike Tyson, who obliterated opponents with ruthless efficiency.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will close all economic and social sectors by implementing a "total lockdown” throughout the country. The first phase of the lockdown will last from Jun 1 to Jun 14. This move was announced in a media statement posted on ...

The maiden voyage of a new British aircraft carrier will seek to show allies that post-Brexit Britain is ready to defend Western interests and eager to see China respect international rules, the vessel's commander said.

Two ancient sandstone artefacts believed to have been stolen from Thailand during the Vietnam War are set to return from the United States Friday night, officials say.

CHIBA, Japan: Japan thrashed Myanmar 10-0 on Friday (May 28) to cruise into the third round of Asian World Cup qualifier, after protesters had raised anti-junta three-fingered salutes on and off the pitch. About 70 protesters gathered before kick-o...

Hong Kongers reluctant to get the coronavirus jab have been given a million-dollar reason to roll up their sleeves after property tycoons donated a brand new flat to a vaccine lottery.

The Philippines has suspended the deployment of workers to Saudi Arabia after it received reports that their employers and recruiters were making them pay for COVID-19 testing, quarantine and insurance upon arrival in the kingdom.

BEIJING: The foreign ministers of Ireland, Poland, Hungary and Serbia will visit China from Saturday (May 29), the Chinese foreign ministry said, in a sign of a push to strengthen ties with Europe after an investment treaty was frozen. The European ...

Indian authorities Friday announced a "very very slow" easing of the lockdown in the capital New Delhi as coronavirus infections fall in major cities after weeks of lockdown.

A royal academy chaired by Princess Chulabhorn, the youngest sibling of Thailand's king, on Friday said it would import 1 million doses of Sinopharm's COVID-19 vaccine next month, after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorised its use.

Taiwan aims to cover 60per cent of its population with at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by October, the health minister said on Friday, adding that the island's infection rate was not good, despite its pandemic curbs.

BRUSSELS: Belgium on Friday (May 28) said that it will recall its ambassador to South Korea after the envoy's wife was accused of assaulting two boutique employees in an incident that went viral. Belgian Foreign Minister Sophie Wilmes ordered Ambas...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia on Friday (May 28) reported its fourth straight day of record new COVID-19 cases with 8,290 infections. This is the first time Malaysia’s daily COVID-19 caseload has breached the 8,000 mark. It also comes after several con...

KUALA LUMPUR: The Kelana Jaya Light Rail Transit (LRT) line has returned to full service following the conclusion of repair works on the tracks damaged by a head-on collision on Monday (May 24), Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong said. "I wish to anno...

YANGON: A Myanmar military tribunal has sentenced 28 people to 20 years in jail with hard labour for arson attacks on two factories, state media reported, after a string of mainly Chinese-financed factories were torched during unrest in Yangon in Ma...

China will establish up to 18 "key cities" dedicated to football by 2025, its top sports body said, as it outlined plans to be among Asia's best by the end of the decade.

Tonnes of charred plastic pellets from a burning container ship washed ashore near Sri Lanka's commercial capital on Friday (May 28) as an international effort to salvage the vessel dragged into a ninth day.