Shoppers in a district of Beijing are getting discount coupons if they have received COVID-19 vaccinations, as China tries to accelerate its COVID-19 vaccination rate.

TOKYO: An online advertisement featuring a woman saying the debate over gender equality is outdated has sparked furore in Japan for being sexist, a month after an outcry over sexist comments by the former Olympics organising chief saw him step down. ...

KUALA LUMPUR: Digital COVID-19 vaccination certificates in Malaysia and Singapore are secured by blockchain technology and come with a traceability feature that tells the exact batch of the vaccine vial used for inoculation. Malaysian Science, Te...

COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh: Aid workers searched on Wednesday (Mar 24) to reunite Rohingya Muslim families separated when a huge fire swept through the world's biggest refugee settlement in Bangladesh, forcing about 45,000 people from their bamboo and p...

KUALA LUMPUR: Two people were injured after a helicopter crashed at Selangor's Subang Airport on Wednesday (Mar 24) morning. Malaysia's Civil Aviation Authority confirmed that the Airbus AS350 B3 helicopter crashed at 9.25am. There were five peopl...

YANGON: Myanmar freed more than 600 coup detainees from prison on Wednesday (Mar 24), amid fresh outrage at the junta's brutal crackdown on protesters. Several buses full of prisoners drove out of Yangon's Insein jail in the morning, said witnesses,...

HONG KONG: An award-winning Hong Kong journalist went on trial on Wednesday (Mar 24) for accessing car ownership details on official databases during an investigation into the perpetrators of an attack on protesters by government loyalists. The pro...

Taiwan will help its handful of remaining diplomatic allies buy COVID-19 vaccines but on the condition that Taiwanese money is not used to obtain Chinese vaccines, Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said on Wednesday.

JOHOR BAHRU: Johor Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar has proposed that the state government should revive the Johor Volunteer Forces (JVF), an organisation to instill efficiency and discipline among civil servants.  In a Facebook post on Tuesday (Mar 23), he...

PINGTUNG: A Chinese ban on pineapple imports from Taiwan has sparked a flood of patriotic buying of the fruit and forced restaurants to come up with inventive new menu choices, but it has also left many questioning Taipei's overwhelming economic reli...

From a final resting place for the dead to a gnarly way to land a trick; a Thai coffin-maker is affixing Buddhist emblems to the dismantled walls of his caskets, and transforming them into skateboards.

HANOI: As a small girl, Trang Nguyen saw a bear stabbed through the chest with a giant needle at her neighbour's house in northern Vietnam. The bear, flat on its back, was being pumped for its bile, a fluid drawn from its gallbladder that has long b...

MUMBAI: In the green, undulating hills of eastern India that supply the world with Darjeeling tea, revolution is brewing as a new generation dreams of life beyond the confines and hardship of plantation work. Rahul Kumar Jha, 27, is an aspiring writ...

China's daily output of COVID-19 vaccines has reached about 5 million doses, more than tripling the 1.5 million-dose daily production rate on Feb. 1, official media said on Wednesday.

YANGON: Myanmar activists plan more anti-coup protests on Wednesday (Mar 24), including a silent strike with many businesses due to close and calls for people to stay home, a day after a 7-year-old girl was killed in her home when security forces ope...

HONG KONG: Hong Kong and Macau suspended the use of Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday (Mar 24) after being informed of a packaging problem affecting one batch of vials, while stressing they did not believe there was a safety risk. The ...

Shanghai will offer COVID-19 vaccinations for foreign residents, local authorities announced late on Monday.

SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un broke ground for 10,000 new apartments in the capital city of Pyongyang, state media reported on Wednesday (Mar 24), despite economic crises that have left other signature construction projects stalled. Kim att...

North Korea test fired several missiles just days after a visit to the region by the top US defence and diplomatic officials, a US official said on Tuesday (Mar 23), in Pyongyang's first overt challenge to the Biden administration.

The Chinese threat to invade Taiwan is serious and more imminent than many understand, the US admiral chosen to lead the Pentagon's Indo-Pacific region said Tuesday.

Sri Lanka on Tuesday rejected a UN move to preserve evidence of war crimes in the country and said the money allocated for the effort would be better spent on housing for the poor.

China on Tuesday (Mar 23) said it summoned foreign diplomats in protest after the United States, the European Union, Canada and Britain jointly imposed sanctions on senior Chinese officials over alleged human rights abuses in China’s far western Xi...

TOKYO: An early spring in Japan is drawing cherry blossom fans to Tokyo's parks but the government has urged people to limit traditional festivities to prevent a resurgence of COVID-19 infections. The flowers known as "sakura" were in full bloom on ...

SURABAYA, Indonesia: The rollout of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine has started in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim majority nation, despite concern and some confusion over whether the Anglo-Swedish product is halal, or permissible under Islam. ...

COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh: Fifteen people have died and 400 are missing after a huge fire destroyed the shanty homes of tens of thousands of Rohingya in the world's biggest refugee settlement in Bangladesh, the UN said Tuesday (Mar 23). Nearly one mi...

MUMBAI: A 52-year-old Indian lingerie model is pushing e-commerce firms to hire older women for their advertising campaigns, challenging what she says are the ageist norms practised by many companies. Geeta J, a former teacher who took to modelling ...

DHAKA: Fourteen extremists were sentenced to death in Bangladesh on Tuesday (Mar 23) for attempting to assassinate Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina more than two decades ago, a prosecutor said. The 2000 bomb plot was one of several attempts on Hasina'...

DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates will invest US$10 billion in Indonesia's new sovereign wealth fund to be spent on projects inside Southeast Asia's biggest economy, the UAE state news agency reported on Tuesday (Mar 23). This marks the biggest foreig...

YANGON: Myanmar's military accused anti-junta protesters of arson and violence as Western countries imposed more sanctions on individuals and groups linked to last month's coup and an ensuing brutal crackdown on dissent. Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun ...

MOSCOW: Russia and China said on Tuesday (Mar 23) they wanted a summit of permanent members of the United Nations Security Council amid what they called heightened political turbulence, with Moscow saying they believed the United States was acting in...

MANILA: The United States said on Tuesday (Mar 23) it is backing the Philippines in a new stand-off with Beijing in the disputed South China Sea, where Manila has asked a Chinese fishing flotilla to leave a reef. China ignored the call, insisting i...

SEOUL: South Korean prosecutors have seized the house of former president Park Geun-hye and will auction it off after she failed to pay a US$19 million penalty for corruption, they said Tuesday (Mar 23). Park was impeached in 2017 after anti-corrupt...

SINGAPORE: In front of an open-air Jakarta restaurant, delivery drivers clad in the orange colours of Southeast Asia tech group Sea wait for orders next to the green-jacketed riders of market leaders Gojek and Grab, in what has become the latest batt...

BEIJING: Four people were killed when a man detonated a homemade bomb in a village government office in southern China, authorities said, in a rare act of violent social protest. A 59-year-old man suspected of being responsible for the explosive dev...

SINGAPORE: Singapore and Malaysia have reaffirmed their commitment to work towards recognising each other's COVID-19 vaccine certificates, with a view towards facilitating cross-border travel in the future. "The operational details of the Reciprocal...

When the Tokyo Olympics torch relay kicks off in Fukushima on Thursday (Mar 25), runners are hoping it will show the world the area is no "nuclear wasteland", a decade after the 2011 disaster.

SEOUL: Several South Korea provinces and cities continued to require COVID-19 testing for foreign workers, despite a request from the national government that prompted Seoul to end its mandate amid international outcry. Last week the headquarters of...

SHANGHAI: From a small office in Shanghai, marriage counsellor Zhu Shenyong livestreams advice over several phones simultaneously to an attentive audience keen to save their relationships. On his wall hangs the mantra: "Let there be no bad marriages...

SEOUL: The leaders of China and North Korea are reaffirming their traditional alliance following contentious talks between top diplomats from Washington and Beijing and diplomatic isolation and economic problems in the North that have left it ever mo...

HONG KONG: Dushanbe's Central Republican Stadium will be the unlikely focal point for Asian football on Thursday (Mar 25) as the region's qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup finals relaunch after almost 18 months of stasis caused by the COVID-19 pandem...

YANGON: Myanmar protesters held candle-lit vigils for the scores killed in demonstrations against military rule, as Western countries imposed more sanctions on individuals and groups linked to last month's coup and an ensuing brutal crackdown on diss...

SEOUL: South Korea's President Moon Jae-in received AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday (Mar 23) ahead of an overseas trip, as the country began inoculating more senior citizens and health workers in an effort to accelerate its vaccination d...

SINGAPORE: Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan will visit Malaysia from Tuesday (Mar 23) to Wednesday, said Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).   Dr Balakrishnan will call on Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin an...

SHANGHAI: China coach Li Tie is missing several key players, including forward Wu Lei, as he attempts to stamp his mark on the national squad ahead of must-win World Cup qualifiers in June. Injuries and other factors mean that the former Everton mid...

HO CHI MINH CITY: In a room crammed from ceiling to floor with boxes, cabinets and drawers of Lego bricks, Hoang Dang intently builds a bright blue, yellow and red fishing boat with a Vietnamese flag and eyes at its prow. The industrial designer has...

Five people are feared dead and at least 20,000 Rohingya have fled a huge blaze engulfing shanty homes at refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh, officials said Monday, in the third fire to hit the settlements in four days.

India is the world’s worst disruptor of the Internet. Children and ordinary folk are paying a high price, the programme Undercover Asia finds out.

As proceedings in Alaska showed, both the US and Chinese diplomats were signalling to domestic audiences that they would not back down on issues of interest, says Christian Le Miere.

Anwar Ibrahim’s Parti Keadilan Rakyat working with its arch-nemesis UMNO isn’t going to yield results, says an ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute researcher

A North Korean national extradited to the United States from Malaysia appeared in court on Monday to face money laundering charges.

The U.S. Treasury Department said on Monday it was imposing sanctions on two members of Myanmar's ruling junta, including the chief of police, and two military units linked to the deadly repression of protests again the army's coup, as Washington war...

The United States on Monday announced sanctions on two more Chinese officials in connection with serious human rights abuses in China's Xinjiang region, where Washington says ethnic Muslims are the victims of genocide.

MUMBAI: A senior Mumbai police officer filed a complaint in the Supreme Court on Monday (Mar 22) accusing a state government minister of corruption, the latest development in a bizarre case that has transfixed the media for weeks. "Each sordid revel...

YANGON: Dozens of civil society organisations from Myanmar's restive Rakhine state have joined condemnation of last month's coup in a further sign of ethnic minorities on the country's fringes uniting against the army as bloodshed grows. The western...

BEIJING: The trial of Michael Kovrig, the Canadian detained for more than two years in China on espionage charges, was held on Monday (Mar 22), with relations between Ottawa and Beijing in freefall. The hearing came days after the closed-door trial ...

BEIJING: Bad weather prompted more than 200 Chinese fishing vessels to anchor at a reef claimed by the Philippines, Beijing said on Monday (Mar 22), sidestepping accusations from Manila of a move by China's vast South China Sea maritime militia to as...

BRUSSELS: EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday (Mar 22) approved sanctions over abuses in China, Myanmar and Russia, as the bloc expands measures targeting global rights breaches. The 27 nations are due to place four Chinese officials...

YANGON: Protesters honked car horns in Myanmar on Monday (Mar 22) and planted posters in an empty square to avoid arrest, injury or death as the European Union approved sanctions on 11 people linked to last month's coup and subsequent crackdown.  ...

SINGAPORE: Last week’s high-level talks between the United States and China are a step in the right direction, showing recognition from both sides on the need for dialogue and cooperation, said Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat on Monday (Mar 22...

JAKARTA: Indonesia’s tourism minister Sandiaga Uno said on Monday (Mar 22) that the proposed “safe travel corridor” between Singapore, Batam and Bintan is meant to attract those from the city state to holiday in Indonesia and not vice versa. ...

TAIPEI: A Taiwanese air force pilot was killed and another was missing on Monday (Mar 22) after their fighter jets disappeared in a suspected mid-air collision off the island's southern coast, officials said. The two F-5E jets disappeared from rad...

The Philippines on Monday reported a record daily rise of 8,019 COVID-19 infections, as authorities implemented tighter curbs in the congested capital region and hospital capacity neared critical levels in some areas.

TOKYO: Japan's KM Biologics Co said on Monday (Mar 22) it had started a human trial for its COVID-19 vaccine, becoming the country's third candidate to advance to clinical trials. The first volunteer was injected with the inactivated virus vaccine k...

BANGKOK: Thailand started human trials on Monday (Mar 22) of a domestically developed COVID-19 vaccine and expects to deploy it next year, which its health minister said could give the country more freedom with its vaccine policy. Thailand's vaccina...

KUALA LUMPUR: Fresh out of quarantine, Malaysian artiste Wee Meng Chee, 37, better known as Namewee, surrendered himself at the Dang Wangi police station in central Kuala Lumpur on Monday (Mar 22).  In a Facebook post on Monday morning, Namewee s...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia on Monday (Mar 22) announced it had established a US$2.4 million compensation fund to provide cash assistance for any COVID-19 vaccine recipients who suffer severe reactions due to inoculations. Malaysia has inoculated nearly ...

KUALA LUMPUR: Lee Zii Jia was hailed as a "hero" on Monday (Mar 22) after winning the All England Open and igniting Malaysia's hopes of success at the Tokyo Olympics, even without retired legend Lee Chong Wei. The young Malaysian star defeated Denm...

Japan charges Americans with helping Ghosn flee, jump bail

TAIPEI: Many Asian countries are accelerating the roll-out of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine after confidence in its safety was hit, following reports that the shot was linked to rare blood clots in Europe earlier this month. After briefly halting i...

HONG KONG: Eight Hong Kong activists, jailed in China last year after being captured at sea, arrived back in the city and were immediately detained on Monday (Mar 22) in a case that has drawn international attention and concern over their treatment. ...

Toshiko Ishii spent US$180,000 renovating her traditional Japanese inn in expectation of a flood of tourists for the Tokyo Olympics, but now she won't be hosting a single overseas fan.

SYDNEY: Australia's parliament debated on Monday (Mar 22) a motion to condemn "systematic breaches" of human rights by China, saying other legislatures had described as genocide its actions towards Uighurs in the far western region of Xinjiang. Parl...

India's richest state, Maharashtra, reported 30,535 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours.

Myanmar activists plan fresh protests on Monday (Mar 22) including a call for vehicle convoys to drive through intersections honking horns with occupants raising three-finger anti-coup salutes despite reports of security forces killing more people at...

TAIPEI: Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang received the AstraZeneca COVID-19 shot on Monday (Mar 22) as the island began its vaccination campaign. "I have just finished getting the injection, there is no pain at the injection site, and there is no sorene...

China reported seven new COVID-19 cases on Mar 21, down from 12 cases a day earlier, the country's national health authority said on Monday (Mar 22). The National Health Commission said in a statement that all the new cases were imported infections...

SINGAPORE: Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan visited Brunei on Monday (Mar 22), after which he will travel to Malaysia and Indonesia. Dr Balakrishnan had an audience with Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and was hosted to lunch by Brunei's Se...

BEIJING: The trial of Michael Kovrig, who has been held in China for more than two years on espionage charges, is under way in Beijing in a closed courtroom, days after the United States raised concerns over his case at tense bilateral talks with Ch...

WASHINGTON: A North Korean citizen was taken into US custody on Saturday (Mar 20) after being extradited from Malaysia to face money laundering charges, making him the first North Korean extradited to the US to face trial. Mun Chol Myong was in th...

Social media movements such as the Milk Tea Alliance are tapping into discontent on the decline of democracy and fears about the rise of China is part of this heady mix, says an ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute Visiting Fellow.

Churches in Manila will be closed, eating inside restaurants banned and leisure travel outside the Philippine capital curbed under new COVID-19 rules unveiled on Sunday (Mar 21) as the country battles a resurgence in infections.

BEIJING: China had administered 74.96 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of Saturday (Mar 20), health commission spokesman Mi Feng said at a news briefing on Sunday. That compared with about 65 million doses administered as of Mar 14, or an add...

More than 30 civilians and police were injured in Thai anti-government protests, an emergency medical centre said on Sunday (Mar 21), after police used water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the rally the night before.

Tighter regulations, billions in lost overseas share value and government pledges to get even tougher -- Chinese tech giants are reeling under what looks like a sustained Big Brother assault on innovation and enterprise.

North Korean diplomats leaving Malaysia after ties are severed

AstraZeneca said on Sunday its COVID-19 vaccine contains no pork-derived ingredients, countering an assertion in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, that the drug violates Islamic law.

China reported 12 new COVID-19 cases on March 20, up from 4 cases a day earlier, the country's national health authority said on Sunday.

MANILA: The Philippines on Sunday (Mar 21) accused China of "incursion" after more than 200 militia boats were spotted near a disputed reef in the South China Sea, in a rare rebuke of its superpower neighbour. The Philippine coast guard detected th...

Opponents of Myanmar's military rule, many in small towns across the country, staged candle-lit protests on Saturday night and into Sunday in defiance of crackdowns by the security forces and the killing of nearly 250 people since the Feb. 1 coup.

BEIJING: China and the United States will set up a joint working group on climate change, China's official Xinhua news agency said, in a potentially positive takeaway from what was an unusually rancorous high-level meeting. The top Chinese and US d...

With tensions spilling over in public, the US and China’s frosty diplomatic meeting is a sign of things to come, says Bert Hofman.

Beijing can’t extend influence with vaccines if it doesn’t address the deeper issues of transparency and legitimacy, says an ISEAS-Yushof Ishak Institute researcher.

KUALA LUMPUR: Carolyn Lau and Lydia Lubon from the Free Tree Society (FTS) were getting a trio of first-time participants ready for a tree-planting session at Federal Hill, a hill behind the upscale Bangsar neighbourhood. This is the first trail pl...

Tesla boss Elon Musk strongly denied Saturday that his cars, which gather large amounts of data, could ever be used to spy on China despite fears raised by Beijing, the Wall Street Journal reported.

JAKARTA: Indonesian tourism and creative economy minister Sandiaga Uno said on Saturday (Mar 20) that preparations can begin for a “safe travel corridor” between Singapore, Batam Nongsa and Bintan Lagoi. In a meeting with officials in Batam, the...

Pakistan court condemns 2 men to death in highway rape case

BANGKOK: Thailand’s army has denied supplying rice to units of Myanmar’s armed forces and said on Saturday (Mar 20) any food being sent over the border was part of normal trade. Myanmar's military is facing international condemnation over a Feb...

BANGKOK: Thai police used water cannon and charged toward protesters who had gathered near the King's Palace in Bangkok on Saturday (Mar 20) to call for the release of protest leaders and demand reform of the monarchy. Hundreds of police in riot ...

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has tested positive for COVID-19 two days after receiving his first vaccine dose, government officials said on Saturday (Mar 20), urging people not to be deterred from getting vaccinated. Pakistan's vacc...

TOKYO: Japan's meteorological agency issued a tsunami advisory on Saturday (Mar 20), after a strong 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck off the northeastern coast, hitting areas devastated by the 2011 disaster. The advisory was later lifted about an hou...