Indonesian President Joko Widodo wants the country to be a global maritime nation. But budget constraints and the COVID-19 pandemic are just some of the challenges it must face, the programme Insight finds out.

After more than 18 months since Malaysia saw its first coronavirus case, the caseload has stayed high in many areas while lockdowns have been extended repeatedly. CNA looks at some of the milestones.

Most importantly, the digital yuan will help China to internationalise its multi-trillion-dollar domestic debt, says Zhang Jun.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s visit last week was a recovery - but the US must work harder to overturn lingering doubts, says Tan See Seng.

The opposition has also urged the prime minister to hold a special parliamentary meeting no later than Aug 9 so that the motion of confidence can be tabled and debated.

South Korea posted a sharp increase in its coronavirus cases on Wednesday as it struggled to tame its fourth wave of infections amid the spread of new virus variants strains.

The gender disparity in India's COVID-19 immunisation drive has narrowed, government data showed on Wednesday, as pregnant women are now allowed to get their shots and authorities try to dispel rumours about fertility.

Japan's Health Minister Norihisa Tamura said on Wednesday the country has entered a "new phase" in COVID-19 infections with a spike in Delta variant cases.

The gambling hub of Macau has launched a test programme for its 600,000 people after the Chinese-ruled city confirmed four new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, its government said in a statement on Wednesday.

Belarusian Olympic athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya arrived at a Japanese airport on Wednesday where she is expected to board a plane to Poland, after Warsaw offered the sprinter a humanitarian visa.

18 months on, we have all the knowledge and tools needed to eliminate COVID-19 – it’s now a question of applying them, says William A Haseltine.

That Beijing is willing to administer a mortal blow on the US$100 billion private tuition industry shows how seriously it takes the problem, says the Financial Times' James Kynge.

MUMBAI :India's industrial hub of Maharashtra state eased COVID-19 restrictions in most districts on Tuesday, including in the financial capital of Mumbai, after a steady decline in new cases.

North Korea wants international sanctions banning its metal exports and imports of refined fuel and other necessities lifted in order to restart denuclearisation talks with the United States, South Korean lawmakers said on Tuesday (Aug 3).

The IOC said on Tuesday it was waiting for a report later in the day from the Belarusian National Olympic Committee on the case of sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, after launching an investigation into the incident that has rocked the Games.

Authorities in Wuhan on Tuesday said they would test its entire population for Covid-19 after the central Chinese city where the coronavirus emerged reported its first local infections in more than a year.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un requested that South Korea reconnect hotlines which Pyongyang severed a year ago, a South Korean lawmaker said on Tuesday after being briefed by his country's intelligence agency.

South Korea has detected its first two cases of the new Delta Plus COVID-19 variant, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said on Tuesday, as the country battles with its fourth wave of infections nationwide.

Japan will shift policy to focus on hospitalising patients who are seriously ill with the COVID-19 and those at risk of becoming so, officials said, to avoid strain on the medical system as cases surge in Olympics host city Tokyo and elsewhere.

In the year since making an unprecedented, taboo-breaking speech openly calling for discussion on the role of Thailand's powerful king, human rights lawyer Arnon Nampa has spent months in jail, charged with the crime of defaming the monarchy.

Thousands more Afghans who may be targets of Taliban violence due to their US affiliations will have the opportunity to resettle as refugees in the United States under a new program announced by the State Department on Monday (Aug 2).

Hong Kong civil servants, teachers and healthcare workers must get vaccinated against COVID-19 or pay for regular testing, the city's leader announced on Monday (Aug 2), as her administration adopted a push into mandatory inoculations.

From a persistent lack of financial resources to baseless accusations from the Philippine government, weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz beat all odds to bag her country’s first Olympic gold medal.

Thinking it had COVID-19 under control, Vietnam was reluctant to enter the global vaccine market. Now it's behind in the queue even as cases rise, says this researcher.

Kai Koyama was standing outside Tokyo's Olympic Stadium as fireworks burst overhead during the opening ceremony but unlike many of those around him he wasn't cheering, but protesting.

Tokyo Olympics organisers reported on Monday 17 new Games-related COVID-19 cases including one athlete, bringing the total number since July 1 to 276.

US shot putter Raven Saunders has risked disciplinary action after making the first podium protest of the Olympic Games.

Foreign ministers from members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are under pressure to appoint a special envoy to Myanmar this week after months of negotiations failed to find a consensus candidate.

China's world's number two Chen Yu Fei took badminton women's singles gold, beating Taiwan's Tai Tzu-ying 21-18 19-21 21-18 in Sunday's final.

Indonesia extended restrictions outside Java island by another week in efforts to control the spread of the coronavirus, local media reported on Sunday citing an interior ministry senior official.

Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said on Sunday that if South Korea carries out a planned joint military exercise with the United States it will damage the resolve of the two Koreas to rebuild relations, state media KCNA re...

The International Olympic Committee does not plan to call for a moment of silence at the Tokyo Games on Aug. 6, the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945, instead aiming to honour it in the Tokyo 2020 closing ceremony, organisers sai...

2 rare Sumatran tigers recovering after catching COVID-19

Thailand on Sunday extended tighter containment measures in the capital and high-risk provinces until the end of August, government sources said, to slow the spread of COVID-19 as the country deals with its biggest outbreak to date.

Cambodia will begin offering a booster shot against Covid-19, switching between the AstraZeneca and Chinese COVID-19 vaccines in an effort to fight the spread of the coronavirus in the Southeast Asian country.

Chinese cities rolled out mass testing of millions of people and imposed fresh travel restrictions as health authorities battled Sunday to contain the country's most widespread coronavirus outbreak in months.