KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's king extended a state of emergency in the eastern state of Sarawak until February 2022 to suspend regional elections amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Malaysia is under emergency rule nationally to prevent the spread of COVID-19 ...

BEIJING: China's worst COVID-19 outbreak in months has spread to two more parts of the country, health authorities said on Saturday (Jul 21), including a sprawling megacity of 31 million people. The National Health Commission reported 55 new cases...

Tokyo Olympics organisers on Saturday reported 21 new Games-related COVID-19 cases.

With the pandemic worsening, CNA looks back at how the situation unfolded from one that seemed to be under control, to record cases after the Idul Fitri holiday.

WASHINGTON: The first flight evacuating Afghans who worked alongside Americans in Afghanistan brought more than 200 people, including scores of children and babies in arms, to new lives in the United States on Friday (Jul 30), and President Joe Bide...

SHANGHAI: China has opened the doors to what it bills as the world's largest planetarium, a slick new Shanghai facility showcasing the nation's recent extra-terrestrial exploits while notably downplaying those of space pioneers like the United States...

BEIJING: A reactor at a nuclear plant in southern China has been shut down because it is damaged, the operator said on Friday (Jul 30), but it insisted there were no major safety issues. Chinese authorities last month blamed minor fuel rod damage fo...

SINGAPORE: US Vice President Kamala Harris will make her first official visit to Singapore and Vietnam next month, the White House announced on Friday (Jul 30), adding that the trip is aimed at strengthening ties with "two critical Indo-Pacific part...

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka announced Friday (Jul 30) it was ending its work-from-home option for civil servants, ordering all 1.2 million back to the office from Monday despite a surge in coronavirus infections. The island's top bureaucrat, PB Jayasundera, ...

HONG KONG: Hong Kong police said on Friday (Jul 30) they had arrested a 40-year-old man for booing China's national anthem in a shopping mall broadcasting live the city's first Olympic gold medal win in 25 years earlier this week. More than 100 peop...

GYODA: From the ground, there's not much to distinguish the rice stalks in a field in Japan's Gyoda. It's only seen from above that a massive artwork marking the Olympics emerges. The huge, living installation features iconic Japanese images: The fa...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia marked a record 183,706 active COVID-19 cases as of Friday (Jul 30) as health authorities also grappled with an all-time high of critically ill patients. A total of 1,055 patients are now warded in the intensive care unit, th...

NEW DELHI: The Indian state of Assam has advised its residents to avoid travelling to neighbouring Mizoram after six policemen were shot dead in a rare border clash between the two regions. India's northeast has been a hotbed of ethnic tensions sinc...

SHANGHAI: China's eastern city of Nanjing reported 13 new domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases on Thursday (Jul 29), bringing the total to 184 since Jul 20, as the country's latest major outbreak caused by the more contagious Delta variant persi...

BANGKOK: Thailand on Friday (Jul 30) banned the dissemination of "false messages" that affect security, drawing accusations from media groups that it is trying to crack down on criticism of its handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Prime Minister Pr...

SEOUL: South Korea announced on Friday (Jul 30) plans to expand its coronavirus vaccine rollout to people aged 18 to 49, as the country grapples with record high daily cases driven mostly by infections in the unvaccinated younger population. South K...

COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh: Monsoon floods and landslides have cut off more than 300,000 people in villages across southeast Bangladesh and killed at least 20 people including six Rohingya refugees, officials said Friday (Jul 30). The region along the...

HANOI: Vietnam's health ministry issued an urgent appeal on Friday (Jul 30) for private hospitals to treat COVID-19 patients as the Southeast Asian country battles a surge in infections driven by the highly contagious Delta variant. After successful...

PUTRAJAYA: Eleven COVID-19 cases were detected on Thursday (Jul 29) at a special sitting of Malaysia's Dewan Rakyat, the lower house of parliament.  Ten of these cases were detected using antigen saliva test kits, health director-general Noor His...

KUALA LUMPUR: A former media adviser to former Malaysia prime minister Najib Razak has had money laundering charges dropped after agreeing to pay US$1.7 million to scandal-hit sovereign wealth fund 1MDB, officials said on Friday (Jul 30). Briton Pau...

TOKYO: A Frenchman who went on hunger strike in Tokyo seeking access to his children said on Friday (Jul 30) he had ended his protest to undergo surgery on his finger after a fall. For three weeks, Vincent Fichot sat outside a train station near the...

HONG KONG: Hong Kong police on Friday (Jul 30) said they had launched an investigation into Olympic Games fans who booed China's national anthem and drowned it out with chanting during a public screening at a mall. The international finance hub ha...

HONG KONG: The first person convicted under Hong Kong's national security law was sentenced to nine years for terrorist activities and inciting secession, judges said on Friday (Jul 30), in a watershed ruling with long-term implications for the city...

India reported 44,230 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, the most in three weeks, the latest evidence of a worrying trend of rising cases that has forced one state to lock down amid fears of another wave of infections.

MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday (Jul 30) approved the imposition of lockdown measures in the capital region, in a bid to contain the spread of the Delta coronavirus variant and to shield the country's medical system. The Manil...

BANGKOK: Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on Thursday (Jul 29) downplayed the COVID-19 situation Thailand, while claiming that other nations are dealing with higher caseloads. In a special interview held at the Government House, he said: “If we...

Activists allege Myanmar leaders are 'weaponizing' COVID-19

The Philippines has fully restored a crucial agreement governing the U.S. troop presence in the country, the Southeast Asian nation's defence minister Delfin Lorenzana said on Friday.

In Beijing's exclusive Haidian district, Zhao says she ploughs $10,000 a year into extra classes for her eight-year-old, a leg up in the competitive scramble of modern China -- and an advantage the state now wants to restrict.

JAKARTA: Indonesia is hoping to ramp up its COVID-19 vaccination drive to administer up to 2.5 million jabs a day by September and eventually achieve a daily rollout of 5 million doses, its Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Lu...

YANGON: Imprisoned by the military, detained Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi is isolated from the young protesters now forging their own struggle for democracy outside of her shadow. Sunday (Aug 1) marks six months since her National League for Dem...

SEMARANG: Pedalling through the Indonesian city of Semarang, Arrahman Surya Atmaja stops at a pharmacy to pick up some vitamins before hitting the road again to deliver them to a person isolating at home. The 35-year-old is part of a small group of ...

The United States is "deeply concerned with the increasingly harsh surveillance, harassment, and intimidation of U.S. and other foreign journalists" covering recent floods in China's Henan province, the State Department said on Thursday.

TOKYO: Tokyo Olympics organisers on Friday (Jul 30) reported 27 new Games-related COVID-19 cases, including three athletes. The latest daily cases, up from 24 on Thursday, have brought the total Games-linked infections since Jul 1 to 220. Japan's g...

SHANGHAI: China reported on Friday (Jul 30) 64 new COVID-19 cases in the mainland for Jul 29, compared with 49 cases a day earlier, the health authority said. The National Health Commission said in a statement 21 of the new infections were local ca...

TOKYO: Japan on Friday (Jul 30) extended a state of emergency in Tokyo and expanded the measure to four more regions as it battles a surge in COVID-19 cases a week into the pandemic-postponed Olympics.   "We will issue a state of emergency for Sai...

TOKYO: The Tokyo Olympics is running a village for athletes and coaches where more than 80 per cent are vaccinated against the coronavirus, testing is compulsory and movement is stringently curtailed. None of that is true for the giant Japanese capi...

As COVID-19 rages in Southeast Asia, regional governments are racing to roll out their national vaccination programmes. In the third and final part of a series, CNA looks at how Malaysia is banking on a high vaccination rate to tackle the pandemic.

Taliban assassinations of Afghan pilots detailed by Reuters this month mark another "worrisome development" for the Afghan Air Force as it reels from a surge in fighting, a US government watchdog said in a report released on Thursday (Jul 29).

Britain warned the United Nations Security Council Thursday that half of coup-wracked Myanmar's population of 54 million could become infected with Covid-19 within the next two weeks.

KUALA LUMPUR: Mandy Lam baru sahaja duduk untuk menjamah makan malam pada satu hari awal Julai lalu apabila menyedari janji temunya untuk menerima suntikan vaksin seperti yang tertera dalam MySejahtera, aplikasi pengesanan kontak Malaysia. Jam men...

BANGKOK: Thailand's health ministry sounded the alarm over Bangkok's dire lack of hospital beds and isolation facilities on Thursday (Jul 29) as COVID-19 cases and deaths soared to a new record. The Southeast Asian country is struggling to contain i...

BEIJING: Beijing on Thursday (Jul 29)  launched a scathing attack on the BBC, accusing it of broadcasting "fake news" and saying the organisation was "naturally unpopular" over its coverage of devastating floods in central China. The broadside by t...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia reported more than 17,000 new COVID-19 cases for the second straight day on Thursday (Jul 29), with the number of critically ill patients also reaching a new high. The 17,170 new infections - the country’s second highest da...

KUALA LUMPUR: Actions taken by the Malaysian government in revoking COVID-19 emergency ordinances were in line with the country's laws and Constitution, said the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) after the palace issued a statement indicating that the ...

NEW DELHI: India's southern state of Kerala on Thursday (Jul 29) announced a two-day lockdown as federal authorities planned to send experts to fight the spread of infections in the country's leading COVID-19 hotspot. India's daily cases have fallen...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has filed a motion of no confidence at the parliament, while the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) called for Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to resign. The latest development came as ...

SEOUL: A South Korean archer who has bagged two Olympic gold medals in Tokyo was flooded with messages of support from women on Thursday (Jul 29) after her short hair became a lightning rod for online abuse from men. Male commenters had said that A...

South Korean health experts called on Thursday for tougher social distancing rules including a midnight curfew as the number of severe COVID-19 cases has doubled in three weeks, driven largely by young, unvaccinated people.

Myanmar's main prison vaccinated more than 600 inmates against COVID-19 on the first day of a drive to inoculate inmates, state media reported on Thursday (Jul 29), as military authorities struggle to control a wave of infections across the country. ...

KUALA LUMPUR: Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Khairy Jamaluddin said among the reasons why Singapore was ahead of Malaysia in securing access to COVID-19 vaccines could be due to Temasek Holdings having a stake in a company that de...

HONG KONG: A Hong Kong DJ went on trial on Thursday (Jul 29) for sedition in the first use of the colonial-era law since the city's handover to China as authorities broaden their criminalisation of dissent. Tam Tak-chi, 48, is among a growing number...

BEIJING: China on Thursday (Jul 29) reported small COVID-19 outbreaks driven by the Delta variant in three provinces as a cluster linked to an eastern airport spreads despite mass testing and a vaccination drive. The flare-up, which began after nin...

Floods make thousands homeless in Bangladesh Rohingya camps

A Tokyo court has upheld jail sentences for a US father-son duo who helped ex-Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn flee Japan, as the pair waived their right to appeal.

HONG KONG: The defence lawyer for the first person charged under Hong Kong's national security law argued on Thursday (Jul 29) at a final mitigation session before sentencing that his client was a "decent young man" who did something very stupid. To...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia King Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah did not give consent to revoke the COVID-19 emergency ordinances, the national palace said in a statement on Thursday (Jul 29). The initial agreement was to table and d...

BEIJING: With market-trembling new rules and investigations, Beijing's crackdown on its most prominent companies has seeped into nearly every aspect of modern life, wiping billions of dollars from Chinese and Hong Kong-listed stocks and bamboozling i...

N Korea leader pays respect to Chinese war dead at memorial

Cambodia is set to launch a lockdown in eight provinces bordering Thailand from midnight on Thursday, in a bid to prevent the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus in the Southeast Asian country.

TOKYO: Two people attending the Tokyo Olympics from overseas have been hospitalised with COVID-19, a Tokyo 2020 spokesperson said on Thursday (Jul 29), as daily cases in the host city hit a new high. The Japanese capital, where outside the "Olympic...

BEIJING: China reported on Thursday (Jul 29) 49 new COVID-19 cases, down from 86 a day earlier, according to the national health authority, amid an outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant in the eastern city of Nanjing. Local infections acc...

WASHINGTON: China's new ambassador to the United States, Qin Gang, on Wednesday (Jul 28) wished the US victory against COVID-19 and said great potential awaited bilateral relations, striking an optimistic tone as he arrived at his new post amid d...

The Malaysian government has limited fiscal space for COVID-19 relief, after running budget deficits for over 20 years, says a researcher.

The impasse over the Myanmar coup has thrown up new challenges for countries seeking to navigating the politics of recognition, say Alistair D B Cook and Mely Caballero-Anthony.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte ordered his government on Wednesday to open the coronavirus vaccination campaign to anyone who wants a shot as his country scrambles to protect the population from more transmissible variants.

HANOI: US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sought on Thursday (Jul 29) to nudge forward security ties with Vietnam that have been slowly deepening as both countries watch China's activities in the South China Sea with growing alarm. Despite close...

Vietnam's major cities may extend or tighten restrictions on movement to contain the spread of COVID-19 as new daily cases have surpassed 6,000 for seven consecutive days, authorities said on Wednesday.

China's recent policy tightening against the tutoring industry and Internet platforms is good for long-term development of the country, and China remains committed to opening up its capital markets, the official Xinhua News Agency said late on Wednes...

HONG KONG: Hong Kong's government on Wednesday (Jul 28) appointed a special fraud investigator to scrutinise the company that owns the recently shuttered pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, the first such probe in more than two decades. The outspok...

Junta authorities in Myanmar are seeking help from the international community to tackle the coronavirus, state media said Wednesday, as the impoverished country looks beyond ally China in its struggle to beat back a new wave.

BEIJING: Beijing on Wednesday (Jul 28) told Tencent and other tech developers to address "harassing" pop-up windows on their apps, in the latest salvo in China's battle against the sector. The order came as a Chinese bike-sharing firm scrapped plans...

TAIPEI: Taiwanese authorities are investigating whether a former deputy defence minister may have been recruited by a Chinese spying network, officials and media reports said Wednesday (Jul 28). Chang Che-ping, in office from July 2019 to June 2021,...

Thai volunteers on Wednesday turned a cargo warehouse at Bangkok's Don Muang Airport into a 1,800-bed field hospital for COVID-19 patients with less severe symptoms, as the country deals with its biggest outbreak to date.

MEDAN: Indonesia's Mount Sinabung erupted on Wednesday (Jul 28), spewing a massive column of smoke and ash into the sky. The eruption of the volcano in North Sumatra province lasted about 12 minutes, a local geological agency said. "The volcanic ma...

SINGAPORE: Singapore will send 200 oxygen concentrators to Myanmar to support the country's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said on Wednesday (Jul 28). The 10-litre oxygen concentrators will be channelled t...

Daily COVID-19 cases in Olympic host city Tokyo hit a record high for a second straight day on Wednesday, topping 3,000 for the first time since the pandemic began, local media reported, as the spike in infections puts pressure on hospitals.

SINGAPORE: Five men and three women have been arrested following several raids by the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) that also netted various contraband with a street value of nearly S$749,000. Baked goods and crumbs believed to be infused with can...

Gunmen wound Chinese in Pakistan's port city of Karachi

BEIJING: An inhaled version of CanSino BioLogics' (CanSinoBIO) COVID-19 vaccine triggered immune responses without serious side effects, an early-stage clinical trial showed. The two-dose candidate requires lower dosages than the injected version an...

Crisis-hit Japanese carmaker Nissan upgraded its annual outlook Wednesday, projecting a return to the black, after a strong first quarter performance fuelled by a recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia hit another record high for new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday (Jul 28) with 17,405 infections. Only six of these were imported infections.  More than half of the new cases were once again from the Klang Valley with 7,171 in S...

Taiwan's police on Wednesday said they had launched an investigation after local media reported more than 100 LINE messaging app accounts used by officials had been hacked and the company admitted "abnormal activities" had been detected.

HONG KONG: Hundreds of elected community leaders in Hong Kong have resigned and dozens of civil society groups have disbanded as China remoulds the finance hub in its own image. Just days before Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on th...

Governors of three prefectures near Olympics host Tokyo are likely to ask the government to declare states of emergency for their regions, media said on Wednesday, after COVID-19 infections spiked to a record high in the Japanese capital.

Like thousands of his compatriots, Abdel Khalid Nabyar waited outside Afghanistan's main passport office to apply for the precious travel document that would allow him to leave the war-torn nation.

A tropical storm hit northern Japan on Wednesday but there were no immediate reports of damage and Olympic football matches in the region were due to go ahead.

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon and Republican congressmen on Tuesday (Jul 27) aired fresh concerns about China's build-up of its nuclear forces after a new report saying Beijing was building 110 more missile silos. An American Federation of Scientists (A...

SEOUL: South Korea on Wednesday (Jul 28) reported 1,896 new COVID-19 cases for Tuesday, its highest-ever daily increase, as the country struggles to subdue a fourth wave of outbreaks fanned by the more contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus. Th...

BANGKOK: Thailand reported on Wednesday (Jul 28) a daily record of 16,533 new coronavirus infections, bringing the country's total accumulated cases to 543,361. The country's COVID-19 task force also reported 133 new deaths, taking total fatalities ...

US lawmakers on Tuesday pressed corporate sponsors to pull out of the 2022 Beijing Olympics, accusing them of supporting what Washington considers genocide in China's Xinjiang region, but the companies contended they had little influence.

In a climate of economic hardship, a special programme for people who have the money to buy vaccinations was always going to be unpopular, says a researcher.

China once had positive perceptions of the US public health model and was willing to adopt their practices, but today sees itself on equal footing, says a researcher.

China’s clampdown on Didi reflects regulators’ brewing concerns over cross-border data flows, with implications for digital trade, say Qian Jiwei and Deng Liuchun.

The country faced one of the most devastating waves when a more virulent variant ran rampant killing hundreds of thousands. It has managed to tame the beast but what lessons did its twists and turns yield? India’s former Auditor-General weighs in.

Top US diplomat Antony Blinken arrived Tuesday in India for talks dominated by turmoil in Afghanistan and common worries about China, while also touching on New Delhi's rights record.

Indonesia, which uses the Sinovac vaccine as its main COVID-19 inoculation, is considering providing a booster shot, as a study showed antibodies provided by the two-dose shot fade over time, a senior health ministry official said on Tuesday.

Indonesia is optimistic of reaching a net zero emissions target by 2060 or sooner, a senior minister said on Tuesday, after the government submitted updated nationally determined climate goals to the United Nations.

BEIJING: The death toll from floods in central China's Henan province rose to 71 on Tuesday (Jul 27) as a tribute at a subway where 14 people died was sealed off in a sign of sensitivity to public criticism of the government's handling of the disaste...

IPOH: Malaysian police were investigating an incident where a helicopter landed in an open field in Ipoh, Perak, last Friday (Jul 23), reportedly to collect packets of the popular rice dish nasi kandar for a customer in Kuala Lumpur. Perak police c...