Indonesia's decision to relax some COVID-19 curbs this week, despite reporting record-high deaths in recent days, is being driven by social and economic concerns rather than epidemiological advice, public health experts said on Monday (Jul 26). As t...

FAIRBANKS, Alaska: United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will become the first member of President Joe Biden's Cabinet to visit Southeast Asia this week, seeking to emphasise the importance Washington places on fortifying ties in the region wh...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will not extend a months-long national state of emergency when it ends on Aug 1, law minister Takiyuddin Hassan said on Monday (Jul 26). Malaysia has been under emergency rule since January, with Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yass...

HONG KONG: One of the Hong Kong democracy activists who was returned from a Chinese jail after being captured at sea last year was ordered detention in a training centre for under-20-year-olds on Monday (Jul 26) for attempted arson and possessing dan...

TOKYO: Home favourite Naomi Osaka stepped up her quest for Olympic gold on Monday (Jul 26) as she eased into the third round of the Tokyo Games tennis tournament with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Switzerland's Viktorija Golubic. The Japanese star was play...

SEOUL: South Korea kicked off COVID-19 vaccinations for people aged 55 to 59 on Monday (Jul 26) to speed up the pace of its inoculation campaign, as the country battles the fourth wave of infections. The roll-out of COVID-19 vaccinations for people ...

BEIJING: Beijing urged Washington to stop "demonising" China on Monday (Jul 26) as rancour marked the start of talks with the highest-level US envoy to visit under President Joe Biden's administration. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman's visit...

HONG KONG: China's private education firms are bracing for a "material" hit to their operations after Beijing announced new rules barring for-profit tutoring in core school subjects to ease financial pressures on families. News of the rule changes o...

KUALA LUMPUR: A special meeting for parliamentarians kicked off in Kuala Lumpur on Monday (Jul 26), paving the way for an eventual hybrid parliament sitting. It was the first time that lawmakers gathered in the House of Representatives or Dewan Raky...

BANGKOK: As Thailand’s medical system struggles beneath a surge of COVID-19 cases, ordinary people are helping to plug the gaps, risking their own health to bring care and supplies to often terrified, exhausted patients who have fallen through the ...

MUMBAI: The death toll from flooding and landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains in India climbed to 159, officials said on Sunday (Jul 25), with rescuers searching for dozens more missing. The country's western coast has been inundated by torre...

BEIJING: China reported 76 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday (Jul 25), the highest since the end of January amid a surge of local infections in the eastern city of Nanjing, as it starts a second round of mass testing to contain the outbreak. China has ...

TOKYO: Support for Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga slid nine points to 34 per cent, its lowest since he took office, a survey showed on Monday (Jul 26), as worries about COVID-19 clouded his hopes that the Tokyo Olympics would boost his ratin...

TOKYO: There will be no spectators at the Kasumigaseki Country Club this week, but golf-mad Japan will hang off Hideki Matsuyama's every drive, chip and putt as he attempts to add Tokyo Olympics gold to his Masters green jacket. Asia's first US Mas...

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan: Pakistan's ruling party of Prime Minister Imran Khan appeared to be winning in a tight race to elect the regional assembly in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, where two poll workers from Khan's party were killed on Sunday (Jul 2...

The financial liberalisation that was supposed to provide emerging markets with more resources for domestic investment has led to exactly the opposite pattern, says Jayati Ghosh.

China's TAL Education Group said on Sunday (Jul 25) that its operations and business prospects could take a hit as a result of Beijing barring for-profit tutoring in core school subjects to ease financial pressures on families.

JAKARTA: Indonesian President Joko Widodo said on Sunday (Jul 25) that the current restrictions put in place to curb COVID-19 will continue until Aug 2, but several adjustments related to community activities and mobility will be made. Under the P...

Japan's Kei Nishikori advanced to the second round of the men's singles at the Tokyo Games on Sunday, triumphing over fifth seed Andrey Rublev 6-3 6-4 on home soil.

The flamboyant Li Fabin pulled off his signature one-legged "flamingo" on his opening clean and jerk lift on Sunday as he made it two out of two Olympic weightlifting gold medals for China.

SEOUL: South Korea said on Sunday (Jul 25) it will tighten social distancing rules across most of the country this week, warning that its worst-ever COVID-19 wave might spread further in the summer holiday season. The curbs will be increased to Leve...

Japanese judoka Uta Abe, 21, won the gold medal in the women's -52 kg category at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics on Sunday, defeating Amandine Buchard of France in the final.

China sends supplies to flooded area, rebuilds barriers

TOKYO: Tokyo, host of the summer Olympics, is bracing for a storm that has begun to disrupt competition schedules this week, though the surfers have taken the predicted rougher weather in their stride. Japan's hot, wet and unstable summer weather pa...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's total COVID-19 cases surpassed 1 million infections on Sunday (Jul 25), after the country's health ministry reported a record 17,045 new cases. The country's total number of infections is now 1,013,438.  The new cases...

113 killed in western India landslides, monsoon flooding

Top-ranked taekwondo champion Lee Dae-hoon lost in the first match of his final Olympics on Sunday, dashing South Korea's best hope for a gold medal in the national sport it once dominated.

HANOI: The United States is considering giving more coronavirus vaccines to Vietnam, its ambassador to the United States said on Sunday (Jul 25), as the Southeast Asian country struggles to control outbreaks of the fast-spreading Delta variant of the...

Intense heat and humidity could force competition schedule changes at the Tokyo Olympics and the International Olympic Committee said on Sunday it would back any such plans if needed.

BEIJING: Chinese commercial hub Shanghai and neighbouring coastal regions cancelled all flights, slowed or suspended subway trains and shuttered businesses as Typhoon In-fa made landfall on Sunday (Jul 25). The typhoon landed in the Putuo district ...

Indonesia is preparing more intensive care units after logging several days of record-high COVID-19 deaths last week, while the country waits to see whether the government will extend or loosen tough restrictions due to expire on Sunday.

There is no relaxation on mask wearing rules, International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams told reporters covering the Tokyo Olympics at a news conference on Sunday.

Thailand on Sunday reported 15,335 coronavirus cases, a daily record, bringing the country's cumulative cases to 497,302.

BEIJING: China reported on Sunday (Jul 25) 32 new COVID-19 cases in the mainland on Jul 24, down from 35 cases a day earlier, the national health authority said. The National Health Commission said in a statement five of the new cases were local in...

World Hepatitis Day is observed on Jul 28 every year and this year’s theme is “Hepatitis Can’t Wait”. Hepatitis C elimination in Malaysia may be possible after it made diagnosis and treatment more affordable and accessible.

Turbocharged by Idul Fitri travel, the Delta variant has cost Indonesia precious healthcare resources, especially in smaller towns and communities, says A’an Suryana.

BANGKOK: China has supplied more than 10,000 COVID-19 vaccines to a Myanmar rebel group operating near its southern border, its spokesman said on Saturday (Jul 24), as Beijing seeks to halt the influx of cases from the coup-wracked country. Myanmar...

WASHINGTON: US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman will make clear to China in upcoming talks that Washington welcomes competition with Beijing, but there needs to be a level playing field and guardrails to prevent that spilling over into confli...

World handball champions Denmark started their bid to capture back-to-back Olympic gold medals by thrashing hosts Japan 47-30 in their opener at the Yoyogi National Stadium on Saturday.

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia may ease some restrictions for people who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, including allowing them to dine in at restaurants, said Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin on Saturday (Jul 24). Fully vaccinated residents may a...

BEIJING: China is forcing after-school tutoring companies to register as non-profits and banning classes on weekends and holidays, according to government documents published by state media Saturday (Jul 24). The new rules, aimed at reducing pressur...

HANOI: Vietnam's health ministry reported 7,968 new COVID-19 infections on Saturday (Jul 24), a second record daily increase in a row after the 7,307 cases reported on Friday. More than two-thirds of the cases are in Ho Chi Minh City, the ministry...

Thailand's Panipak Wongpattanakit, the bronze medallist in Rio five years ago, beat Spanish teenager Adriana Cerezo Iglesias to win the women's 49kg taekwondo gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday (Jul 24).

China's Sun Yiwen won the women's individual epee fencing gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Wherever there is a bow and arrow at the Tokyo Olympics, a South Korean won't be far away.

TOKYO: French President Emmanuel Macron met his Japanese counterpart on Saturday (Jul 24) and took in some Olympic judo action after watching Tokyo 2020's opening ceremony in a nearly empty stadium. Macron is in Tokyo for the virus-postponed summer ...

China's butterfly prospect Zhang Yufei is one of their top gold medal hopes at the Tokyo Games, with the 23-year old likely to mark a new era for Chinese swimmers after Olympic champion Sun Yang was banned for four years over doping violations.

China shut down ports and railways on Saturday as it braced for Typhoon In-Fa as parts of the country struggled to recover from devastating floods earlier this week.

Japan's gold medal hope Daiya Seto failed to qualify for the men's 400 metres medley final after finishing ninth in the heats.

Judoka Naohisa Takato won Japan's first gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday (Jul 24) with victory in the men's 60kg final at the iconic Nippon Budokan.

China's Wang Shuang scored four goals including a late penalty as the Asian side grabbed a 4-4 draw with Zambia in the Olympics women's soccer tournament at Rifu's Miyagi Stadium on Saturday after Babra Banda netted her second hat-trick in as many ga...

Hosts Japan began their men's volleyball campaign with their first victory at the Olympics in 29 years while Iran edged Poland in a five-set epic in their Pool A openers at an empty Ariake Arena on Saturday.

AstraZeneca is "scouring" its global supply chain to try and boost COVID-19 vaccine supplies to Southeast Asian, its representative for Thailand said on Saturday (Jul 24), amid speculation of local production shortfalls.

MANILA: Philippine authorities moved thousands of residents of the capital, Manila, out of their low-lying communities on Saturday (Jul 24) as heavy monsoon rain, compounded by a tropical storm, flooded the city and nearby provinces.  The national ...

The Indonesian island of Bali is running out of oxygen for its COVID-19 patients as infections surge, the chief of its health agency said, as Southeast Asia's biggest country struggles with the region's worst COVID epidemic.

MUMBAI: Rescue teams in India struggled through thick sludge and debris on Saturday (Jul 24) to reach dozens of submerged homes as the death toll from landslides and accidents caused by torrential monsoon rain rose to 125. Maharashtra state is being...

Malaysia's health ministry reported 15,902 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday (Jul 24), the highest number of daily infections since the beginning of the pandemic.

Toa, the baby orca who captured hearts after he was found stranded in New Zealand waters, has lost his fight for survival, conservationists confirmed Saturday.

SHANGHAI: China criticised NBC Universal for showing an "incomplete map" of the country in its broadcast of the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics, after a map displayed during the arrival of Chinese athletes included neither Taiwan nor the S...

SHANGHAI: China reported 35 new COVID-19 cases on Friday (Jul 23), down from 48 cases a day earlier, the country's national health authority said on Saturday. Local infections accounted for 13 of the new cases, up slightly from 12 a day earlier, the...

HANOI: Vietnam announced a 15-day lockdown in the capital Hanoi starting Saturday (Jul 24) as a coronavirus surge spread from the southern Mekong Delta region. The lockdown order, issued late Friday night, bans the gathering of more than two people ...

Sport stretched out over Tokyo on Saturday as the Olympic Games finally got underway, but the shadow of COVID-19 and controversy was never far away on the opening day.

BEIJING: Internet giant Tencent was ordered by regulators to end exclusive contracts with music copyright holders, adding to increased enforcement of anti-monopoly and other rules as Beijing tightens control over booming online industries. Tencent c...

China's Yang Qian has won the first gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics in the women's 10m air rifle competition.

TOKYO: Fencer Kiria Tikanah bowed out of the women's individual epee event at the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday (Jul 24) after losing 15-10 to Romania's Ana Maria Popescu in the table of 32. At the Makuhari Messe Hall B, the Singaporean, who is rank...

TOKYO: 50 shooters, 60 shots, eight spots in the finals.  The margins are tiny but the pressure is high at any shooting competition, let alone the Olympic Games.  So it is no wonder that Singapore shooter Adele Tan used the word “battle” to ...

JAKARTA: Dari susu steril hingga kelapa hijau, masyarakat Indonesia bersiap sedia dengan berbagai macam minuman dan makanan kesehatan serta ramuan herbal seiring membubungnya beban kasus COVID-19. Pesan-pesan berisi klaim bahwa makanan dan minuman t...

KUALA LUMPUR: Terdapat durian daun yang besarnya tidak lebih setapak tangan manusia, dengan durinya yang agak lentur dan kurang mengancam apabila disentuh. Isinya berwarna jingga dan perisanya pula dikatakan hampir sama dengan pisang dan cempedak, l...

The Olympics has a long and storied history. It has been accused of having bloated budgets and catering to money rather than sports. But exactly how should the games evolve? John Duerden weighs in.

As COVID-19 rages in Southeast Asia, regional governments are racing to roll out their national vaccination programmes. In the first part of a series, CNA looks at how vaccine distribution and bureaucracy are affecting Indonesia’s efforts.

MANILA: An earthquake of magnitude 6.7 struck south of the Philippine capital early on Saturday (Jul 24), the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said. The agency said aftershocks were expected from the tectonic earthquake, which had...

The United States on Friday renewed calls on Myanmar's junta to free a jailed US journalist as concerns grow about a Covid-19 outbreak in prisons packed with detained activists.

Chilean authorities said on Friday that China's Sinovac had begun evaluating potential sites for the construction of a vaccine plant in Chile that could begin producing doses of the Chinese shot as early as the first half of 2022.

BEIJING/WASHINGTON :China said on Friday that it has imposed counter-sanctions on U.S. individuals including former U.S. commerce secretary Wilbur Ross in response to U.S. sanctions on Chinese officials in Hong Kong.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to India next week, the State Department said on Friday, the top U.S. diplomat's first visit to the world's largest democracy and an important U.S. ally in Asia.

TOKYO: In an opening ceremony that was equal parts surreal and sensational, the Tokyo Olympic Games were officially declared open on Friday (Jul 23). And in front of a largely empty 68,000-seater stadium, a sprinkling of Singapore’s contingent ...

The Philippines became the world's first country Friday to approve the commercial production of genetically modified "golden rice" that experts hope will combat childhood blindness and save lives in the developing world.

Indonesia is suffering a devastating wave of coronavirus infections, driven by the Delta variant, but the government is already talking about relaxing social curbs enacted earlier this month - a move analysts say is largely led by economic considerat...

Japan's Emperor Naruhito is set to declare the opening of the Tokyo Olympics on Friday, reprising the role of his grandfather who opened the last Tokyo Olympics in 1964.

The Philippines sent millions of children back into lockdown Friday as hospitals prepared for a surge in coronavirus cases fuelled by the highly contagious Delta variant ravaging neighbouring countries.

PUTRAJAYA:  The Malaysian government has agreed to extend the contract of all contract medical officers, dental officers and pharmaceutical officers for two years upon completion of their mandatory service, as part of the immediate actions to add...

TAIPEI: Taiwan has become inundated with waste after a surge of COVID-19 cases prompted movement curbs that led to a spike in online shopping and food deliveries, threatening to set back efforts to reduce the consumption of single-use plastic. Taiw...

KUALA LUMPUR: Vaccine recipients can now record themselves being jabbed at COVID-19 vaccine distribution centres, said Malaysia's Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Khairy Jamaluddin. This followed several claims of improperly administ...

Thailand’s already locked down capital shut parks and the few remaining public places available to residents on Friday (Jul 23), as the country registered a new high of coronavirus infections.

MUMBAI: After the pandemic shut offices and put Mumbai's renowned lunchbox delivery men out of work, the 130-year-old dabbawala network has tied up with a trendy restaurant chain to take on India's billion-dollar start-ups. For two decades, neither...

MUMBAI: At least 67 people have died in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, authorities said on Friday (Jul 23), after torrential monsoon rains caused landslides and flooded low-lying areas, cutting off hundreds of villages. Parts of India's we...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia reported a record 15,573 new COVID-19 cases on Friday (Jul 23), surpassing its previous high by more than 2,000 infections.  This is also the first time the country has breached the 15,000 mark for new daily cases. The Klang...

ZHENGZHOU, Henan: Villagers were evacuated over makeshift bridges on Friday (Jul 23) as floods submerged swathes of central China following a historic deluge which claimed at least 51 lives - while an approaching typhoon threatened to dump more rain ...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian police hit on a novel way to dispose of more than 1,000 Bitcoin-mining machines seized in raids - they crushed the devices using a steamroller. Authorities on Borneo island discovered the machines, worth an estimated RM5.3 m...

China is delivering 2 million COVID-19 vaccine shots to Myanmar this week to help fight a growing outbreak in the border area, officials said, as a spike in infections in the Southeast Asian country spills over into parts of southern China. Myanmar...

BEIJING: China's eastern province of Jiangsu found 12 new domestically-transmitted COVID-19 patients on Thursday (Jul 22), taking to 23 its total since Jul 20, in its first local outbreak since the pandemic began last year. All 23 cases were in Nanj...

TAIPEI: Taiwan will ease its COVID-19 restrictions from next week though some will remain in place, the government said on Friday (Jul 23), with rapidly falling case numbers giving authorities confidence to further lower the alert level. Taiwan imp...

BEIJING: China's President Xi Jinping visited the Tibet autonomous region on Wednesday (Jul 21) and Thursday, according to the official Xinhua news agency, in his first recorded visit as leader of the nation. It was the first such visit by the coun...

MANILA: The Philippines will ban travellers coming from Malaysia and Thailand, as well as tighten restrictions in the Manila area, in a bid to prevent the spread of the contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus, the presidential spokesperson said o...

BEIJING: Residents of the storm-ravaged central Chinese city of Zhengzhou on Thursday (Jul 22) were shovelling mud from their homes and hauling away wrecked cars and piles of destroyed belongings following floods that killed at least 33 people in the...

State utility company PLN has pledged carbon neutrality by 2060, but the pledge merits greater scrutiny, says a researcher.

The hope is the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony will be a humble reminder of what the games are truly about rather than a wasteful display of pomp, says John Duerden.

A batch of Chinese Covid-19 vaccines arrived in Myanmar on Thursday, an AFP reporter said, as the coup-wracked country battles a devastating new surge in cases.

The Indian government rejected on Thursday recent studies suggesting that millions of people have died in the country from Covid-19, several times the official toll of almost 420,000.

Homes in ruins, pulverised roads and a sea of mud coating cars, the once affluent central Chinese town of Mihe was still in shock Thursday as residents turned to food handouts and slept rough after record-breaking storms.