Thailand will import the first doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine from Asia after Europe enforced export controls, the country's health minister said on Thursday.

North Korea is expected to receive nearly two million doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine by the first half of this year, said agencies leading the COVAX vaccine-sharing programme.

At least 77 protesters, including a former minister, were arrested in Kathmandu on Thursday, police said, as a nationwide strike was staged over the dissolution of Nepal's parliament.

KUALA LUMPUR: Industries and individuals in Malaysia have been urged to comply strictly with the COVID-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs) as a reciprocal gesture to the government's decision of allowing most businesses to remain operational duri...

Foreign investors flocked to Myanmar as it began its democratic transition a decade ago, but this week's military coup is likely to accelerate a trend of Western withdrawal - and China's expansion.

A US warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Thursday, the American navy said, in the first such voyage since the inauguration of President Joe Biden.

A Japanese government ministry said on Thursday it was checking if any law had been broken after a magazine reported that Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's eldest son and fellow executives at a satellite broadcaster had wined and dined senior ministry ...

A group of anti-China activists campaigning for human rights in Tibet and support for ethnic Uighurs called on Thursday for a boycott of the 2022 winter Olympics in Beijing, saying the Games would embolden China's government in its crackdowns.

CAN THO, Vietnam: By day, Le Yen Quyen works as a pharmacist at her local health clinic in Vietnam's Mekong Delta. At night, she dances under the head of a lion on perilously high metal poles, practising her moves ahead of Lunar New Year festivities...

The countdown to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics hit the one-year mark on Thursday (Feb 4), with preparations overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic and concerns over alleged human rights abuses, including a mass incarceration in Xinjiang.

MANILA: An ammonia leak from an ice plant in the Philippine capital region left two dead and more than 90 others injured or sickened while hundreds of residents fled to safety, an official said on Thursday (Feb 4). Navotas City Mayor Toby Tiangco sa...

1 tweet from Rihanna on farmer protests gets India incensed

A mammoth effort by Australian firefighters saved homes from an out-of-control bushfire near Perth overnight, authorities said Thursday, but warned strong winds and rough terrain posed an ongoing challenge.

SINGAPORE: Operations have mostly resumed for Singapore businesses in Myanmar, recovering from temporary disruptions earlier in the week after a military coup in the country. But many declined comment on their outlook for the long term, citing uncer...

South Korean Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun on Thursday ordered a revamp of social distancing guidelines in a bid to win greater public support for efforts to stop local transmission of the new coronavirus.

Taiwan has set up a trade office in Guyana, officials announced on Thursday, a step the United States called a "milestone" as the island tries to push back against China's campaign to keep it isolated.

HONG KONG: Canada, Britain and the United States have expressed alarm after Ottawa revealed authorities in Hong Kong forced a dual citizen to choose one nationality, enforcing what they said was a little-used regulation for the first time in decades....

TOKYO: Tokyo Olympics chief Yoshiro Mori on Thursday (Feb 4) apologised for making sexist remarks about women, saying he retracted the comments and would not resign, despite calls for him to step down on social media. The hashtag "Mori, please resig...

SEOUL: South Korea's President Moon Jae-in pledged on Thursday (Feb 4) to upgrade the country's alliance with the United States in a phone call with President Joe Biden, Seoul's presidential office said. The call comes as Moon, who had offered to be...

The United States should extend the May 1 deadline for pulling all its troops from Afghanistan, and make force cuts contingent on progress in peace talks as well as by the Taliban in reducing violence and containing al Qaeda, a bipartisan report to C...

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday he would do everything in his power to pressure Myanmar and "make sure that this coup fails."

WASHINGTON: The United States is "deeply disturbed" by reports of systematic rape and sexual abuse against women in internment camps for ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims in China's Xinjiang region and there must be serious consequences for atrocities...

Myanmar's state-owned internet provider was blocking access to Facebook-owned services early on Thursday (Feb 4), the network monitoring group NetBlocks said, days after the country's military leaders seized power in a coup.

The Chinese tech giant has been dominating the retail market since 2014 so the recent move against it shows some regulatory weaknesses, says this author.

Tencent looks set to grow to a US$1 trillion market capitalisation given its diversified revenue sources, its strong growth strategy premised on e-sports and live-streaming, says IMD Business School’s Mark Greeven.

The US on Wednesday (Feb 3) called on Myanmar's military to free Aung San Suu Kyi, as the ousted leader was charged after being detained in a coup, while calls for civil disobedience opposing the putsch gathered pace.

The world's longest internet shutdown -- affecting more than a million people for 19 months in one of Myanmar's ethnic conflict zones -- has come to an end, according to a mobile operator based in the region.

JAKARTA: Indonesia on Wednesday (Feb 3) rolled out COVID-19 breath test detectors at train stations. The detectors, known as GeNose, was developed by the University of Gadjah Mada (UGM), which says it detects the reaction between the coronavirus and...

TOKYO: Four ministers from Japan and Britain voiced serious concern on Wednesday (Feb 3) about the situation in the East and South China seas and opposed any unilateral attempts to change the status quo, in a apparent reference to China's maritime ex...

JAKARTA: As deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic mount in Indonesia, the capital's graveyards are expanding to keep up. Struggling since last March to get the coronavirus under control in the world's fourth most populous nation, Indonesia has now surpa...

BEIJING: Ten panda cubs made their public debut in China's leading panda reserve on Wednesday (Feb 3) morning to mark the coming Chinese New Year. One appeared shy and covered its face with both paws when it saw the crowd, while another went rogue a...

Supporters of protesting Indian farmers scuffle with police

BEIJING: China on Wednesday (Feb 3) announced a plan to provide 10 million coronavirus vaccine doses to developing nations through the global COVAX initiative. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said China is responding to a request from the ...

India has written to Twitter warning it to comply with orders to block accounts and content related to a protest by farmers, a technology ministry source said on Wednesday.

TOKYO: Japan passed a new law strengthening enforcement of its virus restrictions on Wednesday (Feb 3), allowing authorities to fine bars and restaurants that defy closure requests. People can also be fined up to 500,000 yen (US$4,800) if they test...

SEOUL: The United States should flexibly enforce sanctions aimed at curbing Pyongyang's nuclear programmes to revive denuclearisation talks, South Korea's point man on North Korea said on Wednesday (Feb 3). North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and former...

BANGKOK: Thailand's resort island of Phuket is planning private coronavirus vaccinations for 250,000 residents in the hope the government will allow it to fully reopen to foreign tourists by October and save its battered economy, industry officials s...

YANGON: Calls for a civil disobedience campaign in Myanmar gathered pace on Wednesday (Feb 3) as the United States formally declared the military's takeover a coup and vowed further penalties for the generals behind the putsch. Myanmar plunged back ...

YANGON: Myanmar police have filed charges against ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi for allegedly illegally importing communications equipment and she will be detained until Feb 15, according to a police document seen by Reuters on Wednesday (Feb 3). M...

BEIJING: China's foreign ministry on Wednesday (Feb 3) rejected the suggestion that it supported or gave tacit consent to Monday's military coup in neighbouring Myanmar. In response to a question at a daily briefing, foreign ministry spokesman Wang ...

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...