Hong Kong announced strict new anti-coronavirus controls on Wednesday, banning flights from eight nations, shuttering bars and gyms and cancelling evening restaurant dining after the Omicron variant was detected within the city.

Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who is living in self-exile in Dubai, says he plans to return to Thailand "serve the people and the country" this year, but only his daughter Paethongtan will be told when as it is a "great secret".

KALVENE, Latvia: Once a rarity, cows with light blue or dark ultramarine hides may again be glimpsed grazing on the Latvian countryside among the regular brown, black or white spotted cattle.

SONGKHLA: Police raided a house in Sadao district early Wednesday morning and arrested a drug suspect, and were surprised to also find a small cache of unregistered firearms and ammunition.

Myanmar has "all the ingredients for civil war", Cambodia, chair of Southeast Asia's regional bloc, has warned ahead of a visit by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to the crisis-wracked country.

Thailand's outbreak of the Omicron coronavirus variant could have a larger and more prolonged impact than expected on an economic recovery, according to minutes of the central bank's last policy meeting released on Wednesday.

Two Indian tourists who left Chon Buri before their repeat tests showed they were infected with Covid-19 have been found and are being treated at a field hospital in Bangkok.

BEIJING: Covid cases in the locked-down Chinese city of Xi'an fell to their lowest in weeks on Wednesday, as officials said an outbreak there had been largely "brought under control" after two weeks of a stay-at-home order.

CHON BURI: A Russian man is believed to have fallen to his death from a power pole in front of Pattaya police station in tambon Nong Prue of Bang Lamung district early Wednesday morning.

CHIANG MAI: An army patrol arrested 30 Myanmar nationals who illegally entered the country through a natural border crossing into Fang district on Tuesday, police said.