KUALA LUMPUR: Former Negeri Sembilan chief minister Mohd Isa Abdul Samad was convicted of nine charges of corruption on Wednesday (Feb 3) and sentenced to 54 years’ jail. He was also fined RM15.45 million for offences committed between July 2014 ...

TAIPEI: Nearly 11,000 Hong Kongers moved to Taiwan in 2020 - almost double the number of a year earlier - after Beijing imposed a sweeping security law on the city. Taiwan has long attracted Hong Kong people seeking an alternative to their city's fr...

TOKYO: Thousands of Myanmar demonstrators gathered outside Japan's foreign affairs ministry on Wednesday (Feb 3) demanding Tokyo join its allies in taking a harder stance against the military coup in Myanmar. Wearing red and waving printed photos of...

Japanese doctors and nurses fighting the novel coronavirus will not have the time to volunteer to help at the Olympics, a medical association has said, raising another headache for organisers determined to hold the postponed Games.

Two COVID-19 vaccines from Chinese companies including Sinopharm triggered immunity against a highly transmissible coronavirus variant first found in South Africa, but their effect appeared weaker, a small-sample lab study released on Tuesday showed.

People in Myanmar honk horns, bang on pots to protest coup

PARIS: Crickets and the birds that snack on them are not natural allies, but they do have a common enemy, according to a pair of studies published Wednesday (Feb 3) - roadside noise pollution. Vehicle traffic makes it much harder for at least one s...

BEIJING: China has made a formal complaint to Canada over T-shirts ordered by a Canadian Embassy staffer in Beijing that allegedly mocked China’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak, in an apparent mix-up between the city of Wuhan and the hip-hop gro...

Born in California and representing the United States before switching to China, teenager Eileen Gu looks destined to be one of the faces of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

World Health Organization inspectors will visit a laboratory in China's Wuhan city on Wednesday that American officials suggested could have been the source of the coronavirus, according to state media.

BEIJING: China reported 25 new mainland COVID-19 cases on Feb 2, down from 30 a day earlier, the country's national health authority said on Wednesday (Feb 3). The National Health Commission said in a statement that 15 of the new cases were locally...

WASHINGTON; The Biden administration indicated on Tuesday (Feb 2) it is in no hurry to engage with China, a strategic rival it has vowed to out-compete, and said it and would do so once it was in "lockstep" with allies and partners. President Joe Bi...

The Indonesian government will prioritise vaccination for health workers, civil servants and citizens aged 18 to 59 years old, a decision not in line with WHO recommendations, say health researchers.

Myanmar’s fragile democracy has been severely undermined by the military’s actions, say political scientists.

The military ouster of Aung San Suu Kyi's government in Myanmar was "inevitable", army chief General Min Aung Hlaing said on Tuesday (Feb 2), as Washington formally designated the takeover as a coup.

Washington formally determined Tuesday that Myanmar's military carried out a coup, legally requiring an end to US assistance to the government.

Facebook said on Tuesday (Feb 2) it had removed a page linked to Myanmar's military-owned TV network after a coup this week by the country's military leaders.

A cacophony of the striking of pans and honking of vehicle horns was heard around Myanmar's biggest city Yangon on Tuesday (Feb 2), in one of the biggest signs of public action to reject a military coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's government.

YANGON: "Dictatorship must fail," read the writing on the back of one Myanmar doctor's hazmat suit in a statement of defiance against Monday's (Feb 1) military coup. Other medics in at least 20 government hospitals rallied to a campaign of civil d...

UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting on Myanmar on Tuesday (Feb 2) but was unable to agree on a statement about the country's military coup, with diplomats saying negotiations will continue. "China and Russia have asked...

SINGAPORE: A day after the military seized power in Myanmar, Singaporeans living there said there the situation appears to be "calm" despite disruptions to work. Phone lines and mobile data services that had been shut down have been restored, they...

SINGAPORE: Offline messaging app Bridgefy said it was downloaded more than 600,000 times in a few hours in Myanmar, after the country's military seized power on Monday (Feb 1) and temporarily disrupted Internet traffic. The Mexico-based startup, whi...

Indonesia has detained a British woman named on a list of global terror suspects and plans to deport her for visa violations, authorities told AFP on Tuesday (Feb 2).

TOKYO: Japan's government approved a month-long extension of its coronavirus state of emergency on Tuesday (Feb 2), less than six months before the pandemic-postponed Olympic Games open in Tokyo. "We have decided to extend the state of emergency unt...

Japan is set to extend a state of emergency in Tokyo and other regions for another month on Tuesday, seeking to keep the upper hand over a COVID-19 outbreak even as daily case numbers begin to edge down.

TAIPEI: A second Chinese lawyer who represented a Hong Kong activist was stripped of his licence on Tuesday (Feb 2) as Beijing attempts to crush opposition to its tighter control over the territory. Ren Quanniu, who represented one of 12 Hong Kong a...

BANGKOK: Johnson & Johnson is seeking Thailand's approval for its COVID-19 vaccine, a senior Thai health official told Reuters on Tuesday (Feb 2). The request makes J&J's one-dose vaccine the third COVID-19 vaccine to seek registration with Thailand...

Images taken during GFriend's video shoot at a European-themed cafe in Paju, north of Seoul, showed the 25-year-old embracing the dummy, her eyes closed and with a dreamy smile.

BEIJING: China's Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products said on Tuesday (Feb 2) it has completed a facility designed to be able to produce 400 million doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine per year, doubling a capacity target promised in 2020. "K...

Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered the release from prison on Tuesday (Feb 2) of Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh, a ringleader in the kidnapping and murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl by Al-Qaeda and Pakistani militants in 2002.

TOKYO: The world's democracies would risk pushing Myanmar into the arms of China if their response to the coup closes channels for communication with the Southeast Asian country's powerful generals, Japan's deputy defence minister said on Tuesday (Fe...

TOKYO: Paralympics chief Andrew Parsons is confident the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games will go ahead this year, and will be "a platform to change to world" - with or without spectators. As COVID-19 infections surge globally, organisers have said the ...

TOKYO: Tokyo 2020 President Yoshiro Mori said on Tuesday (Feb 2) that Japan would hold the Summer Olympics regardless of the situation with the COVID-19 pandemic and was working closely with the International Olympic Committee to make them happen. "...

HONG KONG: Hong Kong's leader on Tuesday (Feb 2) defended her administration's use of "ambush lockdowns", after a spate of overnight operations to conduct surprise mandatory COVID-19 tests uncovered no new cases. The new tactic involves authorities ...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia announced on Tuesday (Feb 2) that it will extend the movement control order (MCO) for all states and federal territories, with the exception of Sarawak, from Feb 5 until Feb 18.  Last month, all states in the country except S...

SINGAPORE: Since March last year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has helped more than 250 Singapore residents enter Malaysia due to essential and compassionate reasons.  But the majority of appeals were unsuccessful, Foreign Affairs Minister...

YANGON: The party of Myanmar's toppled leader Aung San Suu Kyi demanded her immediate release on Tuesday (Feb 2), after a military coup that triggered international condemnation and sanctions threats from the new United States president. Armed troo...

HANOI: Vietnam's health minister said on Tuesday (Feb 2) a newly detected COVID-19 outbreak, which has infected 276 people and spread to 10 provinces and cities, is caused by the more contagious British variant of the coronavirus. Six days since th...

JAKARTA: Indonesia's air accident investigator has sent five components of a crashed Sriwijaya Air jet to the United States and Britain for examination, including the autothrottle that controls engine power automatically, the agency's head said on Tu...

SHANGHAI: Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma has been left off a list of Chinese entrepreneurial leaders published by state media, the snub underscoring how just far he has fallen out of favour with Beijing. China's best known businessman was not mention...

China's top diplomat called on Tuesday for Beijing and Washington to put relations back on a predictable and constructive path, saying the United States should stop meddling in China's internal affairs, like Hong Kong and Tibet.

Chinese syringe makers are warning that they may only be able to fulfil some orders as late as June, as global coronavirus vaccination programmes put unprecedented levels of pressure on their factory lines and snarl the country's own vaccine efforts.

NEW YORK: The United Nations fears the coup in Myanmar will worsen the plight of about 600,000 Rohingya Muslims still in the country, a UN spokesman said on Monday (Feb 1) as the Security Council planned to meet on the latest developments on Tuesday...

BEIJING: China reported the fewest new COVID-19 cases in a month as imported cases overtook local infections, official data showed on Tuesday (Feb 2), suggesting the country's worst wave since March 2020 is being stamped out ahead of a key holiday. ...

WASHINGTON: The World Bank on Monday (Feb 1) said it was gravely concerned about the current situation in Myanmar and a military takeover of power, warning the events risked a major setback to the country’s transition and its development prospects....

A team of investigators led by the World Health Organization (WHO) arrived on Tuesday at an animal health facility in China's central city of Wuhan in the search for clues about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

SHANGHAI: Chinese police arrested more than 80 people and confiscated 3,000 fake doses of COVID-19 vaccine as part of a campaign to combat vaccine-related crimes, state news agency Xinhua reported. The suspects had been carrying out the ruse since ...

Malaysia’ initial optimism of containing the pandemic, bolstered by the success of an early and decisive lockdown last year, has all but evaporated, says an observer.

The State of Emergency and the detention of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi will have larger implications for the military and Myanmar, says Dr Nehginpao Kipgen.

The World Health Organization on Monday blasted critics of its investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic and challenged those claiming to know better to come forward with the smoking gun.

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden called Monday (Feb 1) on Myanmar's military to relinquish power immediately and ordered a review to consider reimposing sanctions lifted due to the nation's transition to democracy. "The international community sh...

A World Health Organization team visiting China to explore the origins of the coronavirus is having productive talks with its Chinese counterparts, Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead for COVID-19, said on Monday.

Nintendo profits soar as people play games during pandemic

YANGON: Myanmar's military on Monday (Feb 1) announced a purge of Aung San Suu Kyi's democratically elected government, removing 24 ministers and deputies while naming 11 replacements in its new administration after seizing power in a coup. The anno...

NEW DELHI: India boosted its healthcare spending by 135 per cent in a budget unveiled on Monday (Feb 1) and lifted caps on foreigners investing in its vast insurance market to help revive an economy that suffered its deepest recorded slump as a resul...

BANGKOK: Scores of Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand protested in front of their embassy on Monday (Feb 1), waving posters of leader Aung San Suu Kyi after she was detained during a military coup. Myanmar's army took over early Monday, taking Aun...

Vietnam has shut schools in 22 provinces ahead of the Lunar New Year "Tet" holiday and ended a ruling Communist Party congress early on Monday following the detection of a new cluster of coronavirus cases in northern areas last week.

BEIJING: China launched a carbon trading system on Monday (Feb 1) designed to drive down emissions, as the world's biggest polluter takes steps towards decarbonising its economy by 2060. The scheme lets provincial governments set pollution caps for...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is expected to receive the first batch of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines on Feb 26, a senior health official said on Monday (Feb 1). In November, Malaysia announced it had agreed to buy 12.8 million doses of the vacci...

SINGAPORE: Some Myanmar nationals living in Singapore said they were shocked to hear about the military coup back home and are worried about their families. Many told CNA they heard the news through social media and personal messages from friends an...

TOKYO: Foreign companies from Japanese retail giant Aeon to South Korean trading firm POSCO International and Norway's Telenor scrambled to assess the turmoil in Myanmar on Monday (Feb 1) after a coup in the country once feted as Southeast Asia's las...

Japan Airlines said Monday it forecasts a larger-than-expected annual net loss of nearly $2.9 billion, as the aviation industry continues to struggle from the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

SINGAPORE: Brunei, the current chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has called on Monday (Feb 1) for dialogue among parties, reconciliation and the "return to normalcy" amid the ongoing developments in Myanmar.  This comes...

BEIjING: Beijing called on Monday (Feb 1) for all parties in Myanmar to "resolve their differences" after the military seized power and detained democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi. "China is a friendly neighbour of Myanmar and hopes the...

Bangladesh called on Monday for peace and stability in Myanmar after a military coup and said it hoped to continue the process of voluntary repatriation of Rohingya refugees with its neighbour.

WUHAN, Hubei: A World Health Organization-led team investigating the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic on Monday (Feb 1) visited the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in China's central region of Hubei, where the outbreak emerged in late 2019...

NEW DELHI: Several senior Indian journalists are facing charges of sedition over their reporting and online posts about a protest by farmers last week, sparking criticism of the legal action from media associations. The cases have been filed with po...

A Pakistan military aircraft brought back the country's first consignment of COVID-19 vaccines from China on Monday, the country's health adviser, Faisal Sultan, said.

A senior North Korean diplomat who was acting ambassador to Kuwait told his daughter they were going to defect to the South while pretending to drive her to school, Ryu Hyun-woo told media on Monday.

YANGON: Myanmar's National League for Democracy (NLD) party on Monday (Feb 1) said its leader Aung San Suu Kyi called on the public not to accept a coup by the military and urged them to protest. "The actions of the military are actions to put the ...

Myanmar's powerful military chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, is in the spotlight after politicians from the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party were detained and the army announced it was taking power. Myanmar's military is notori...

Detained Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai was in court Monday trying to win bail in the first major legal challenge to a sweeping national security law Beijing imposed on the city last year.

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday (Feb 1) said it was closely monitoring the situation in Myanmar after several of its leaders - including President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi – were detained. "Sin...

YANGON: Myanmar's military seized power on Monday (Feb 1) in a coup against the democratically elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who was detained along with other leaders of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party in early...

WASHINGTON: The United States on Monday (Feb 1) urged Myanmar's military to release detained officials, including de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and warned of a response from Washington over the apparent coup. Suu Kyi and the country's president...

TOKYO: Japan is expected to extend a state of emergency to fight the spread of COVID-19 this week for Tokyo and other areas as hospitals remain under pressure despite a decline in cases from their peaks, local media reported on Monday (Feb 1). The g...

Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other senior figures from the ruling party were detained in an early morning raid on Monday (Feb 1), the spokesman for the governing National League for Democracy said. The move came after Myanmar's powerful mil...

SYDNEY: Australia on Monday (Feb 1) demanded that Myanmar's army immediately release de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other elected leaders, warning the military was "once again seeking to seize control" of the country. "We call on the military...

YANGON: Several Myanmar political figures, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, were detained on Monday (Feb 1) as the military seized power in a coup against her democratically elected government. A spokesperson for the National League...

SHANGHAI: China reported the lowest daily increase in new COVID-19 cases in more than three weeks, official data showed on Monday (Feb 1), reversing a sharp uptick a day earlier, amid efforts to contain the disease ahead of a major holiday break. Ne...

YANGON: Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other senior figures from the ruling party have been detained in an early morning raid, the spokesman for the governing National League for Democracy said on Monday (Feb 1). The move comes afte...

BANGKOK: A Thai court has ordered a leading government foe to remove allegations on social media that the state's coronavirus vaccine policy is opaque and unfairly favours a company owned by the king, the government said on Sunday (Jan 31). However,...

HANOI: Vietnam reported on Sunday (Jan 31) 50 new COVID-19 infections, most linked to a new outbreak that began on Thursday in the northern province of Hai Duong, the Ministry of Health said. The outbreak has spread to at least nine cities and pro...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia reported 5,298 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday (Jan 31) as the country continues to battle a sharp spike in infections. Malaysia has registered more than 5,000 cases a day for three consecutive days and has reported four-digit ...

MANILA: The Philippines' health ministry on Sunday (Jan 31) welcomed the offer of the country's group of Catholic bishops to help in the coronavirus vaccination drive of the government, which is struggling to persuade many Filipinos to get the shots....

NEW DELHI: India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday (Jan 31) protesters that stormed New Delhi's Red Fort had caused "insult" to the country, his first public comments on a months-long farmers' agitation that turned violent this week. Ten...

SEOUL: South Korea will extend its social distancing curbs by two weeks until the end of the Chinese New Year holidays as new infection clusters emerge in the country, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said on Sunday (Jan 31). The announcement dashed ea...

HANOI: Vietnam's ruling Communist Party re-elected its 76-year-old chief Nguyen Phu Trong for a rare third five-year term on Sunday (Jan 31), as the Southeast Asian country battled its biggest COVID-19 outbreak since the pandemic began. Trong, who e...

BEIJING: China has temporarily banned entry of foreign nationals travelling from Canada, even if they hold valid Chinese residence permits for work, the Chinese consulate in Toronto said. "All foreign nationals who hold valid Chinese residence permi...

WUHAN: A team of World Health Organization (WHO) experts investigating the origins of COVID-19 visited a market in Wuhan on Sunday (Jan 31) where one of the first reported clusters of infections emerged over a year ago. Members of the group arrive...

LONDON: Britain will apply to join the Pacific free trade area, the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the UK said Saturday (Jan 30), under its post-Brexit plans. Britain's International Trade Secretary Liz Truss is to...

HONG KONG: Hong Kong residents can apply from Sunday (Jan 31) afternoon for a new visa offering them an opportunity to become British citizens after Beijing's imposition of a national security law in the Asian financial hub last year. The move comes...

JAKARTA: Hujan deras tiba-tiba mengguyur Jakarta saat Ahmad Marzuki, seorang pramu kantor atau yang lazim disebut "office boy", sedang dalam perjalanan pulang usai bekerja pada giliran sore di suatu hari pada April 2018. Ia segera berlari untuk menc...

JAKARTA: Heavy rain suddenly poured down when Ahmad Marzuki, an office boy in Jakarta, was on his way home from a late shift in April 2018.  He immediately ran to seek refuge and chanced upon a family of scavengers lying on the pavement, as a l...

Tourism to Costa Rica will likely stagnate this year at the sharply reduced levels of 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, weighing on the economy of the Central American country, a top government official said on Saturday.

TOKYO: A Japanese woman who said she hid her mother's corpse in a freezer in her apartment for a decade told police she feared eviction if the death was discovered, media reported Saturday (Jan 30). Police told AFP that Yumi Yoshino, 48, was held "...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia reported its biggest daily rise in coronavirus cases for the second straight day, with 5,728 new infections recorded on Saturday (Jan 30). The health ministry also reported 13 new deaths, raising the total fatalities from the ...

JAKARTA: Indonesia reported 14,518 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday (Jan 30), a record daily increase that brought its total number of cases to just over 1.06 million. The country's COVID-19 taskforce also reported 210 deaths, increasing the death tol...

BEIJING: A Chinese central government inspection team has accused the country's energy administration of negligence in environmental protection, failing to control new coal power capacity in key polluted areas. The team from the Ministry of Ecology ...

India reported its lowest active number of novel coronavirus cases in seven months on Saturday, a year after the virus was first confirmed in the country.