New Year's Day is the biggest holiday in Japan's calendar, but this year's festivities have been subdued following record highs in new coronavirus cases nationwide and calls from the government to stay home.

Thousands of New Year revellers packed into the centre of Wuhan, the Chinese city where Covid-19 was first detected, cheering and releasing balloons to welcome in 2021.

BEIJING: Two major airports in northeastern China are requiring departing passengers show a negative coronavirus test taken over the previous 72 hours before they can board their planes.   The requirements by the Shenyang and Dalian airports come...

The Thai capital of Bangkok will close all schools for two weeks after the New Year holiday as it tightens measures to control a new wave of the coronavirus pandemic, the city said on Friday.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will honour its obligations under the Bilateral Agreement for the cancelled High-Speed Rail (HSR) project, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mustapa Mohamed said on Friday (Jan 1).  The Singapore and Malaysian gover...

BANGKOK: Thailand confirmed 279 new coronavirus cases and two new deaths on Friday (Jan 1), taking the total number of infections to 7,163 cases and the number of deaths to 63 since the outbreak started last January. The majority of the new cases we...

California hospitals at 'brink of catastrophe'; 25,000 dead

SINGAPORE: It is the end of the line for the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail (HSR) project after the Prime Ministers of both countries announced on Friday (Jan 1) that the agreement for the venture had lapsed.  The Singapore Government has ...

SEOUL: Kim Jong Un thanked North Koreans for supporting his leadership in "difficult times" in a rare hand-written New Year letter released Friday (Jan 1) ahead of a crucial ruling party congress that will set the country's economic goals. The perso...

TAIPEI: Taiwan is ready to have "meaningful" talks with China as equals as long as they are willing to put aside confrontation, President Tsai Ing-wen said on Friday (Jan 1), offering another olive branch to Beijing in her New Year's speech. Democra...

SINGAPORE: The Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail (HSR) project will be discontinued after the HSR agreement lapsed on Dec 31, 2020, the Prime Ministers of both countries said in a joint statement on Friday morning (Jan 1). Both Singapore and M...

Pakistan arrests 31 people over demolishing of Hindu temple

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday denounced a Chinese court's jailing of Hong Kong democracy activists who tried to flee by boat, saying it showed Beijing's true face to its citizens and the world.

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts: Moderna on Thursday (Dec 31) confirmed it will supply 40 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to the South Korean government, with deliveries starting in May. The vaccine, which is authorised for emergency use in the Unite...

BEIJING: China has made major progress in developing its economy and eradicating rural poverty over the past year despite the coronavirus pandemic, Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a New Year address on Thursday (Dec 31). China was the first maj...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will end the year with a record number of daily COVID-19 infections since the pandemic began, reporting 2,525 new cases on Thursday (Dec 31). There were eight more fatalities, taking the country's death toll from the coron...

KARAK, Pakistan: At least two dozen people, including several Muslim clerics, were detained on Thursday (Dec 31) after a mob attacked and set fire to a Hindu temple in northwest Pakistan, police said. Around 1,500 Muslims descended on the temple - w...

NEW DELHI: New Delhi and other major cities across India on Thursday (Dec 31) ordered curfews for New Year's Eve as they stepped up efforts to head off a new coronavirus wave. In the capital, the curfew would run for two days from 11pm until 6am wi...

SHANGHAI: China has confirmed its first case of a new coronavirus variant that was recently detected in Britain, health officials said. The new strain, which experts say potentially spreads faster than the original variant, has prompted travel restr...

SEOUL: Dozens of elderly South Korean coronavirus patients were transferred from nursing homes to hospitals this week after criticism that government policy had led to a spike in deaths among the vulnerable residents. South Korea's total tally of in...

TOKYO: Tokyo reported more than 1,000 new COVID-19 infections on Thursday (Dec 31), a new record, as local and government officials warned that a state of emergency might be needed to tackle spiking cases.  Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga held emerge...

JAKARTA: Indonesia received its second batch of coronavirus vaccines from Sinovac on Thursday (Dec 31), the country's foreign and health ministers said, as the world's fourth most populous country prepares a mass inoculation programme. The governmen...

MANILA: A province of islands in the southern Philippines will seal itself off for an initial two weeks from Monday (Jan 4) to keep out a new COVID-19 variant found in nearby Malaysia, its governor said. Sulu, home to more than 900,000 people, curre...

SYDNEY: From Sydney Harbour Bridge to the Acropolis to Copacabana beach, fireworks burst in skies above eerily deserted landmarks as the world ushered in the New Year with muted celebrations and said good riddance to a pandemic-ridden 2020. After a ...

TAIPEI: Major Taiwanese cities have scaled back New Year's Eve events and are telling people to watch fireworks and other festivities at home, after the island's first case of the highly infectious coronavirus variant originally discovered in Britain...

HONG KONG: Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai has had his bail revoked after prosecutors succeeded in asking the city’s highest court to send him back to detention. Lai had been granted bail on Dec 23 after three weeks in custody on charges of frau...

JAKARTA: Indonesia’s chief security minister announced this week that the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) has been banned, while pledging to stop all activities carried out by the hardline group. Mr Mohammad Mahfud, the coordinating minister for pol...

TOKYO: Scores of flights were cancelled as heavy snowfall hit several areas of Japan on Thursday (Dec 31), while New Year's Eve celebrations were curtailed as the country tackles a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihi...

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will purchase 1.2 million COVID-19 vaccine doses from China's Sinopharm, a minister said on Thursday (Dec 31). "The Cabinet Committee has decided to initially purchase 1.2 million doses of the vaccine from the Chinese company Sin...

BANGKOK: Thailand confirmed 194 new coronavirus cases on Thursday (Dec 31), the majority of which were locally transmitted, the government's COVID-19 task-force said. The new infections include 13 imported cases. Thailand has confirmed a total of 6,...

TOKYO: Former Japan midfielder Keisuke Honda apologised for a disappointing spell at Brazil's Botafogo as he bowed out ahead of a reported move to Europe. Honda, 34, said he accepted fans' criticism after scoring only three goals in 27 matches durin...

It's Saturday night at the HUNK club in Chengdu and men in gold lycra shorts and black boots dance on stage. They wear kimonos, in an apparent tactical compromise with new morality codes creeping into China's "gay capital".

BEIJING: China approved on Thursday (Dec 31) its first COVID-19 vaccine for general public use, a shot developed by an affiliate of state-backed pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm, as it braces for greater transmission risks over the winter. No detailed...

TAIPEI: Two US warships sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait on Thursday (Dec 31), the US Navy said, the second such mission this month and coming almost two weeks after a Chinese aircraft carrier group used the same waterway. China, which cla...

SHANGHAI: China reported 25 new COVID-19 cases on Dec 30, up from 24 cases a day earlier, the national health authority said on Thursday (Dec 31). The National Health Commission said in a statement that 16 of the new cases were imported infections o...

This is the second Malaysian palm oil giant the US federal government has banned.

Indian troops kill 3 in Kashmir; families deny militant ties

Thailand imposed a ban on Wednesday on large gatherings and events across the country in an effort to contain its worst coronavirus epidemic yet during New Year, with active cases in over half of its provinces.

BENGALURU: India has extended until Jan 7 its suspension of flights with Britain, the civil aviation minister said on Wednesday (Dec 30), as the South Asian nation reported 20 cases of a new infectious strain of coronavirus first detected in the Unit...

NEW DELHI: Talks between India and China have yet to make headway to end a standoff on a disputed section of their Himalayan border, India's defence minister said on Wednesday, as thousands of troops from both sides faced a freezing winter in the mou...

MANILA: The Philippine defence minister said on Wednesday (Dec 30) that unapproved COVID-19 vaccines given to President Rodrigo Duterte's military security detail had been smuggled into the country, but called the move "justified". News of the speci...

BEIJING: The number of coronavirus cases in the city where the outbreak was first detected may have been 10 times higher than official figures suggest, according to a study by Chinese health authorities in Wuhan. About 4.4 per cent of the city's 11 ...

TAIPEI: Taiwan has agreed to buy almost 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, including 10 million from AstraZeneca, the government said on Wednesday (Dec 30), adding that it had confirmed the island's first case of the new British variant of the dis...

JAKARTA: Indonesia has signed an agreement with two drugmakers AstraZeneca and Novavax, for 100 million doses of vaccines, the country's foreign minister said on Wednesday (Dec 30). "We've secured supplies of vaccines, from AstraZeneca and Novavax, ...

JAKARTA: Indonesia has banned the controversial but politically influential hardline group the Islamic Defenders Front, the country's chief security minister announced on Wednesday (Dec 30). Mahfud MD said the group, widely known by its acronym FPI,...

HONG KONG: The sale of property owned by the US consulate in Hong Kong failed to be completed as scheduled on Wednesday (Dec 30) after China unexpectedly stepped in and said its approval is needed, the buyer said, amid wide-ranging bilateral tension...

Chinese tourists, millions of whom have shunned overseas travel this year because of the global pandemic, are further narrowing the scope of their journeys, visiting nearby cities and avoiding trips out of their provinces.

The coronavirus situation in Tokyo is quite severe and the Japanese capital could potentially face an "explosion" of COVID-19 cases, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said on Wednesday ahead of the New Year's holiday.

SEOUL: South Korean authorities scrambled to contain a cluster of coronavirus infections in a Seoul prison as inmates waved signs through barred windows pleading for help, while the US military got South Korea's nod to vaccinate South Korean troops. ...

BEIJING: A COVID-19 vaccine developed by a Beijing firm linked to Sinopharm has a protection rate of 79.34 per cent against the disease, the firm said in a statement on Wednesday (Dec 30). Beijing Biological Products Institute said it had applied to...

Two teenage pro-democracy campaigners among a group of 12 Hong Kong activists held in China will be sent back to the city on Wednesday, police said.

A total of 40 healthcare workers at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases received their first COVID-19 vaccination on Wednesday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un chaired a politburo meeting on preparations for a rare Congress that is expected to set new economic and political goals as the country faces growing challenges, state media said on Wednesday.

BRUSSELS: The United States and European Union on Tuesday (Dec 29) demanded that China release a citizen journalist jailed for reports from Wuhan, with top US diplomat Mike Pompeo accusing Beijing of covering up COVID-19. A Chinese court handed do...

SINGAPORE: Authorities in Singapore are looking into allegations to determine if non-halal frozen meat items that have been relabelled as halal-certified for sale in Malaysia has affected the Singapore market. There have been several reports in Mala...

BEIJING: Beijing sealed off 10 areas of its northeastern Shunyi district on Tuesday (Dec 29), the first lockdown in the Chinese capital since the last coronavirus outbreak in the months of June and July. The city has reported 16 infections and three...

Indian movie superstar Rajinikanth on Tuesday (Dec 29) cancelled his plans to enter politics, saying a health scare had been "a warning from god".

A Hong Kong teenager was ordered to spend to four months in prison on Tuesday for insulting China's national flag and unlawful assembly as Beijing increasingly targets prominent activists from the financial hub.

CHITTAGONG: Bangladesh started moving a second group of Rohingya Muslim refugees to a low-lying island in the Bay of Bengal on Tuesday (Dec 29), despite opposition from rights groups worried about the new site's vulnerability to floods. The United N...

TAIPEI: Taiwan's EVA Airways said on Tuesday (Dec 29) it has sacked four pilots and four cabin crew members since March for breaching rules related to preventing COVID-19 infections, adding that it was committed to enforcing anti-pandemic measures. ...

Sri Lanka welcomed its first foreign tourists in nine months on Monday (Dec 28) even as a new, deadlier strain of the coronavirus gripped the island.

JAKARTA:  Indonesia is poised to secure coronavirus vaccines from Pfizer and AstraZeneca, the health minister said on Tuesday (Dec 29), as it awaits authorisation to begin its inoculation programme with a third drug, by China's Sinovac. Budi Guna...

India has found six people who returned from Britain in recent weeks infected with a more infectious strain of the coronavirus that has prompted a wave of panic and border closures around the world.

MANILA: The Philippines will ban travellers from 19 countries and territories until mid-January as a measure to keep out a new variant of the coronavirus, its transport ministry said on Tuesday (Dec 29). The regulation will be in effect from midnigh...

Cambodian premier Hun Sen announced Tuesday that the kingdom had extracted its first drop of crude oil from its waters, a long-awaited milestone for one of Southeast Asia's poorest nations.

A father and son have been rescued in the remote Australian outback after their car became bogged in floodwaters, forcing a 12-hour trek for help.

SEOUL: South Korea unveiled a fresh 9.3 trillion won (US$8.49 billion) package on Tuesday (Dec 29) to support small businesses hit by a third wave of COVID-19 and those vulnerable to unemployment due to the outbreak. Of the total package, 5.6 trilli...

SEOUL: South Korea on Tuesday (Dec 29) reported that 40 more deaths linked to COVID-19, the highest daily number since the pandemic began. Officials also reported 1,046 new confirmed coronavirus infections, taking the total caseload to 58,725, with ...

SHANGHAI: Investigators have detained a man accused of being linked to the fatal poisoning of Lin Qi, CEO of Chinese game developer Yoozoo, the company known for its Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming strategy game.  A 39-year-old man identified by ...

Mainland China reported 27 new COVID-19 cases on Dec. 28, up from 21 cases a day earlier, the country's national health authority said on Tuesday.

Occupied with regulatory challenges at home, Ant’s distraction may be an opportunity for Southeast Asian Fintech players, says Li Jianggan.

Russia on Monday (Dec 28) said its coronavirus death toll was more than three times higher than it had previously reported, making it the country with the third-largest number of fatalities.

EU member states gave political backing to Brussels' planned investment pact with China on Monday (Dec 28), clearing the way for a deal between the world's biggest economic blocs.

MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday (Dec 28) extended partial coronavirus restrictions in the capital, Manila, until the end of January to prevent the spread of COVID-19 following Christmas and holiday festivities. The capital reg...

Thailand announced its first coronavirus death in nearly two months and tightened restrictions on entertainment businesses in its capital on Monday, in a bid to contain an outbreak that has reached more than half of the country's provinces.

TOKYO: A 53-year-old former Japanese minister has died of COVID-19, his party said on Monday (Dec 28), becoming the first incumbent lawmaker to succumb to the disease in a nation scrambling to shut its doors to foreign travellers. Yuichiro Hata, who...

TAIPEI: A second Taiwan-born giant panda made her media debut on Monday (Dec 28), clambering over a wooden climbing frame and playing with sawdust to the sound of clicking cameras. The cub was born on Jun 28 to Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, who were gi...

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Health Ministry said on Monday (Dec 28) it still had the capacity to accommodate COVID-19 patients, while acknowledging there were logistical issues in transferring positive cases from their homes to hospitals for quarant...

AHMEDABAD, India: Some Indian states on Monday (Dec 28) began a trial run of COVID-19 vaccine delivery systems, with health authorities checking everything from their technology platforms to the storage infrastructure that will be required to inocula...

MANILA: Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte signed on Monday (Dec 28) a 4.5 trillion pesos (US$93.7 billion) budget for next year, the country's largest yet, to bankroll economic recovery and fund the purchase of millions of doses of COVID-19 vacc...

MANILA: Some Philippine soldiers and Cabinet ministers have already received COVID-19 vaccine injections, officials said on Monday (Dec 28), despite an absence of regulatory approval that the country's health ministry said was vital to ensure safety....

JAKARTA: International visitors will be barred from entering Indonesia for a two-week period in a bid to stem the spread of a new potentially more contagious strain of the coronavirus, its foreign minister Retno Marsudi said on Monday (Dec 28). The...

China expressed anger on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump signed into law measures to further bolster support for Taiwan and Tibet, which had been included in a US$2.3 trillion pandemic aid and spending package.

SHENZHEN, China: Relatives of 10 Hong Kong people who have been linked to anti-Beijing protests in the city and held in a Chinese prison for four months on Monday (Dec 28) appealed to a mainland court for a swift decision on their case. The group, w...

COX'S BAZAR: Bangladesh on Monday (Dec 28) started moving a second group of Rohingya refugees to a controversial flood-prone island in the Bay of Bengal despite opposition from rights activists. More than 1,600 of the Muslim minority from Myanmar ...

SEOUL: COVID-19 restrictions that have significantly limited his public appearances. Warning signals for an economy battered by pandemic-related border closings and natural disasters. The impending departure of a US president who said he “fell in ...

BEIJING: Drugmakers have agreed to cut prices by around 50 per cent on average for more than 100 medicines in order to have them included in China's state medical insurance scheme from March, potentially heralding a massive leap in sales. The Nation...

BANGKOK: Thailand recorded 3,065 foreign tourists in November, official data showed on Monday (Dec 28), in its second month of receiving long-stay visitors after a ban was imposed in April to keep coronavirus infections under control. The 3,065 fore...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia aims to file 30 charges against glove maker Brightway Holdings and two of its subsidiaries, after raids that found workers' accommodation was not up to legal standards. The Labour Department, part of the Ministry of Human Reso...

The United States called for the "immediate release" of a group of Hong Kong democracy activists facing trial in China on Monday, after they attempted to escape the territory by speedboat for sanctuary in Taiwan.

A year after Japan learned with horror that Carlos Ghosn had jumped bail to become the world's most famous fugitive, the fiasco and its repercussions continue to haunt the country.

A Chinese citizen journalist held since May for her livestream reporting from Wuhan as the Covid-19 outbreak unfurled was set for trial Monday, almost a year after details of an "unknown viral pneumonia" surfaced in the central China city.

SEOUL: South Korean officials are vowing to speed up efforts to launch a public COVID-19 vaccination programme as the country on Monday (Dec 28) announced it had detected its first cases of the coronavirus variant linked to the rapid rise in infectio...

Mainland China reported 21 new COVID-19 cases on Dec. 27, down from 22 cases a day earlier, the country's national health authority said on Monday.

Chinese banks are expected to face headwinds raising funds next year as profit-conscious investors cling to the sidelines, expecting a wave of bad loans to hammer the sector and erode already slimming margins.

WUHAN, China: It's been almost a year, but the Koh family still remembers vividly their disbelief and confusion when they heard the news: Wuhan, a city of 11 million people, was to be sealed off. The announcement in the early hours of Jan 23 came as...

Prominent economists have advocated the imposition of carbon border taxes on imports from polluting countries but this would be a huge mistake, says London School of Economics' Ken Heydon.

The use of mitsu not only eased pandemic communications, it also reflected how tight societies in Asia were able to fight the coronavirus, says the Financial Times’ Leo Lewis.

Indian police on Sunday (Dec 27) accused an army officer and two associates of planting weapons on the bodies of three labourers killed in Kashmir to make it look as though they were militants in a staged gun battle.

KATHMANDU: A senior Chinese official arrived in Kathmandu on Sunday (Dec 27) to assess the political situation, local party officials said, a first diplomatic step by the neighbouring power after Nepal's prime minister dissolved parliament a week ago...