KUALA LUMPUR: United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has denied having any conversation with Parti Keadilan Rakyat chief Anwar Ibrahim after his party's general assembly, after an audio clip purportedly of the two...

estrictions on exporting its COVID-19 vaccines have left India's Serum Institute needing financial help from the government, its CEO said, with the world's largest jab manufacturer under pressure at home from soaring cases.

Indian cricket chief Sourav Ganguly has stoked the debate on the pressures of bio-secure bubble cricket by saying Indian players are better at handling mental health than foreign stars.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's scandal-plagued former prime minister Najib Razak is facing bankruptcy for allegedly failing to pay more than US$400 million in taxes, which could bring his political career to an end. Najib lost power in 2018 when his party...

TAIPEI: Taiwan worked with other democracies to help its diplomatic ally Paraguay get COVID-19 vaccines after China put pressure on the South American country to ditch Taipei in exchange for shots, and India stepped in to help, Taiwan's foreign minis...

The Japanese metropolis of Osaka is to declare a medical emergency as new COVID-19 infections climb to all-time highs, the Kyodo news agency reported on Wednesday.

NEW DELHI: India's second wave of COVID-19 infections continued to swell as it reported a record 115,736 new cases on Wednesday (Apr 7), a 13-fold increase in just over two months and raising pressure on the government to expand its vaccination campa...

TOKYO: Hiroshi Mikitani, chief executive of Japanese e-commerce group Rakuten, said on Wednesday (Apr 7) it was "too risky" to hold the 2020 Tokyo Olympics this summer, as the nation struggles with a nascent fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mik...

SHANGHAI: After repeated postponements stretching back more than a year because of COVID-19, South Korea and China's women's football teams will finally meet on Thursday (Apr 8) for a last-ditch spot at the Tokyo Olympics. The first leg takes place ...

TAIPEI: Taiwan will fight to the end if China attacks, its foreign minister said on Wednesday (Apr 7), adding that the United States saw a danger that this could happen amid mounting Chinese military pressure, including aircraft carrier drills, near...

BANGKOK: Thai rescue workers said on Wednesday (Apr 7) they had freed a Buddhist monk trapped inside a flooded cave in Thailand's Phitsanulok province, after he went inside days ago to meditate. The monk, identified by a local rescue unit as 46-year...

ADONARA, Indonesia: Homeless, injured, and with his daughter dead, Sugeng stares blankly as he comes to grips with the devastation left by floods and landslides on Indonesia's Adonara island. The 60-year-old was asleep with his family on Sunday (Apr...

HONG KONG: He leads one of the world's smallest nations, but Surangel Whipps says Palau will not be bullied by anyone into deciding its future - least of all by China. Whipps, 52, became Palau's president after last year defeating an opponent who f...

YANGON: A group representing Myanmar's ousted civilian government said on Wednesday (Apr 7) it has gathered 180,000 pieces of evidence showing rights abuses by the junta including torture and extrajudicial killings. The country has been in turmoil s...

LEMBATA: Indonesia's navy readied hospital ships on Wednesday (Apr 7) to help treat injured survivors of a cyclone that has killed more than 150 in the archipelago and neighbouring Timor-Leste, the disaster agency said. Helicopters were also dropp...

TOKYO: It's Tokyo, but unlike you've ever seen it before - a miniaturised 1:1000 scale version of one of the world's biggest capitals, displaying everything from sea levels to population densities. Pairing a 3D model with projection mapping, the Urb...

Two Uyghur former government officials in China's Xinjiang have been handed death sentences for carrying out "separatist activities", a court said, as Beijing comes under increasing fire for its actions towards minority groups in the region.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered health officials on Tuesday to prepare to treat coronavirus patients at home, as the country's biggest COVID-19 outbreak so far tests the capacity of its fragile healthcare system.

SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called on "grassroots" members of the ruling Workers' Party to be more proactive and responsible in carrying out the country's new five-year economic plan, state media KCNA reported on Wednesday (Apr 7). Th...

TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said there was a chance he could call a snap general election before his current term as head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) ends in September, according to the Asahi newspaper. The remark,...

SEOUL: South Korea on Wednesday (Apr 7) reported 668 new COVID-19 cases for Tuesday, the highest daily count since Jan 8 amid a rise in cluster infections, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The new cases bring the country'...

BANGKOK: Nine-year-old Thai kickboxer Pornpattara "Tata" Peachaurai is eager to get back in the ring after COVID-19 curbs brought his fight season to a halt more than five months ago. The money he earns is vital income for his family. "All the money...

Reductions in tariffs on goods, which benefit China, are often overestimated in such calculations, whereas reduction in barriers impacting services, which favour ASEAN, are undervalued, says Deborah Elms.

It would be far smarter for the Tatmadaw to build support within a pseudo-democratic system—as Thailand’s military has done, says ISEAS’ Dr Paul Chambers.

Russia’s foreign minister arrived on Tuesday (Apr 6) in Pakistan for a two-day visit expected to focus on efforts to bring peace to neighbouring Afghanistan.

BEIJING: China's electricity-hungry bitcoin mines that power nearly 80 per cent of the global trade in cryptocurrencies risk undercutting the country's climate goals, a study in the journal Nature said on Tuesday (Apr 6). Bitcoin and other cryptocur...

MANILA: Former Philippine President Joseph Estrada has been put on a ventilator in a hospital to help him breathe after being infected by the coronavirus, his son said on Tuesday (Apr 6). The 83-year-old Estrada, the most prominent Filipino politici...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will not be involved in a virtual leaders summit on climate change led by US President Joe Biden, as the event is for big economies that collectively contribute to 80 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, said environmen...

The International Monetary Fund raised its 2021 growth forecast for China to 8.4 percent on Tuesday, as it projected a stronger global rebound from the pandemic but warned of "divergences in the speed of recovery".

JAKARTA: Indonesia has reported its first case of a more transmissible new variant of the coronavirus known for reducing vaccine protection, but the government on Tuesday (Apr 6) said vaccines being used in the country could withstand the mutation. ...

The truck which collided with a Taiwanese express train last week killing 50 people slid onto the tracks only around one minute before the accident happened, the government said on Tuesday, as it released dramatic footage of the impact.

Myanmar's protesters sprayed red paint on roads in Yangon on Tuesday (Apr 6) in a reminder to the junta that it had blood on its hands as the crisis created by a military coup in the Southeast Asian nation dragged on with no end in sight. Several g...

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia will continue to use the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in the country's COVID-19 vaccination programme, said health minister Adham Baba.  Dr Adham said the decision was made at the COVID-19 Vaccine Supply Access Guarantee Spec...

Fresh violence rocked the restive state of West Bengal on Tuesday as India held its biggest democratic exercise in two years with 175 million people eligible to vote in five regional elections.

JAKARTA: The design of the new state palace in Indonesia's future capital city in Kalimantan is still under discussion, said the minister of national development planning Suharso Monoarfa. In a statement on Monday (Apr 5), he said there have been ...

SEOUL: South Korea is considering all options to secure enough coronavirus vaccine supplies, a top vaccine official said on Tuesday (Apr 6) in response to questions about possible export curbs on locally made vaccines. The remarks come as authoriti...

More than one million households and businesses in Taiwan's heavily industrialised central regions were put on water rationing Tuesday, as the island battles its worst drought in 56 years.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is committed to peacefully resolving a diplomatic row with China over the disputed South China Sea, his spokesman said on Tuesday, in a measured response after days of strong rebukes by his ministers and generals.

NEW DELHI: Many Indian state leaders have asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to open up vaccinations to most of the country's hundreds of millions of adults, following a second surge in infections that has eclipsed the first wave. India breached the...

The third remaining train car has been removed, and the workers are now tackling the removal of the last two cars of the train, which sustained the most damage when the train hit a truck on its tracks last Friday.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga travels to Washington to meet President Joe Biden on Apr 16 in what will be the US leader’s first in-person summit since taking office in January.

LEMBATA: Rescuers were searching for dozens of people still missing on Tuesday (Apr 6) after floods and landslides swept away villages in Indonesia and Timor-Leste, killing at least 120 people and leaving thousands more homeless. Torrential rains ...

YANGON: With security forces in Myanmar having shot dead at least 570 protesters and bystanders in the past two months, many of the country's residents see venturing out onto the street as a brave but foolhardy act. Online, many have found a safer, ...

SHANGHAI: A Chinese carrier group is exercising near Taiwan and such drills will become regular, China's navy said late on Monday (Apr 5) in a further escalation of tensions near the island that Beijing claims as its sovereign territory. Taiwan has ...

KUALA LUMPUR: Zafar Ahmad Abdul Ghani, a Rohingya Muslim refugee and activist who fled persecution and ethnic strife in Myanmar, has called Malaysia home for nearly three decades. Now, it's more like a prison. Zafar, 51, has not left his home on th...

There was a time when Koshiro Minamoto had hoped to welcome foreign tourists during the Olympics by introducing them to the arts of the samurai from a classroom in central Tokyo.

SEOUL: North Korea will not join the Tokyo Olympics this year due to COVID-19 concerns, the country's sports ministry said on Tuesday (Apr 6), dashing South Korean hopes the Games could be a catalyst to revive stalled peace talks. It will be the fir...

Broader dialogue with greater room for cooperation, underpinned by strong, personal relationships can help both sides strike a better balance in their relationship, say Anne-Marie Slaughter and Samm Sacks.

Countries of the Quad are moving forward in concrete cooperation that benefits the Indo-Pacific region as a whole. That is a positive direction it should continue with capacity building at its core, says Shruti Pandalai.

Protesters in Myanmar clapped together on Monday in the latest show of dissent against the military junta, as a regional bloc prepared for talks on the crisis that has killed nearly 600 people.

Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi on Monday (Apr 5) expressed strong concerns to his Chinese counterpart about Chinese incursions into territorial waters, the situation in Hong Kong and the human rights situation of China's Uighur minority.

Taiwan's defence ministry on Monday (Apr 5) reported a new incursion by China's air force into the island's air defence identification zone, made up of eight fighter jets and two other aircraft, one of which flew through the strategic Bashi Channel.

Vietnam's National Assembly confirmed the nomination of Pham Minh Chinh, a career security official, as the country's next prime minister at an official ceremony on Monday (Apr 5).

SAN JOSE, California: More than a dozen San Jose, California, police officers walked through the white arches of the Grand Century Mall in "Little Saigon" to reassure a Vietnamese-American community fearful over the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes in ...

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian government will reinstate the original alignment for the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL), which was first approved by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government in 2017. Transport minister Wee Ka Siong said in a press conference ...

BANGKOK: Thai health officials were considering the closure of entertainment venues in Bangkok on Monday (Apr 5) after an outbreak of COVID-19 cases in nightspots in and around the capital, and another at a prison in the south. Apisamai Srirangsan, ...

Japanese health authorities are concerned that variants of the coronavirus are driving a nascent fourth wave in the pandemic with just 109 days remaining until the Tokyo Olympics.

HONG KONG: A group of bar, karaoke and mahjong parlour owners have gone on a symbolic hunger strike in Hong Kong over anti-coronavirus measures that have kept them shuttered for most of the last year. The four-day protest started on the pavement out...

Brunei, the chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), on Monday (Apr 5) threw its support behind a regional leaders' meeting to discuss developments in Myanmar and said it has asked officials to prepare for a meeting in Jakarta.

SINGAPORE: The suspension of Singapore Airlines (SIA) passenger flights to Hong Kong will not affect talks on a travel bubble between both cities, said Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung in Parliament on Apr 5 (Monday).  Hong Kong authorities announc...

MANILA: Aides of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday (Apr 5) criticised China for what they called territorial incursions by hundreds of its vessels, which his legal counsel warned could damage ties and lead to "unwanted hostilities". In...

DHAKA: Bangladesh is enforcing a lockdown for a week from Monday (Apr 5), shutting shopping malls and transportation, to help curb the spread of COVID-19 as the rate of infections and deaths have increased in recent weeks. Health authorities said t...

NEW DELHI: India reported a record rise in COVID-19 infections on Monday (Apr 5), becoming only the second country after the United States to register more than 100,000 new cases in a day, as hospitals in its worst affected state are overrun by pati...

HANOI: The man behind Vietnam's successful handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, was formally sworn in as president in Hanoi on Monday (Apr 5). Phuc, 66, was Vietnam's prime minister for the last five years, a period in which the econ...

Taiwanese rescuers were trying on Monday to retrieve the last body of a passenger from wreckage of a deadly train crash last week.

LEMBATA: Tropical cyclone Seroja pounded Indonesia and Timor-Leste on Monday (Apr 5) after torrential rains triggered floods and landslides that have killed at least 113 people and left dozens more missing. Packing heavy winds and rain, the storm h...

INDRAMAYU: Caked in mud up to their knees, a small group of Indonesian youngsters plant mangrove saplings along a stretch of exposed coastline next to the Java Sea under the watchful eye of local environmentalist Samsudin. A former school teacher, S...

PHUKET: In Thailand, it's the all-important tourism sector that has jumped to the head of the COVID-19 vaccination line, with the country's most popular resort island embarking on a mass inoculation programme two months ahead of the rest of the count...

DHAKA: A Bangladesh ferry carrying around 50 passengers collided with a cargo vessel and sank on Sunday (Apr 4) in the Shitalakhsyaa River south of the capital Dhaka, leaving at least 26 people dead and a few still missing, officials said. Twenty...

JAKARTA: Before each rainy season Lu Lu Aung and other farmers living in a camp for internally displaced people in Myanmar's far northern Kachin state would return to the village they fled and plant crops that would help keep them fed for the coming ...

Two Australians who were detained in Myanmar late last month have been released and have left Yangon, Canberra's foreign affairs department said Monday.

BEIJING: China reported its biggest daily jump in new COVID-19 cases in more than two months, as a city on the border with Myanmar in southwestern Yunnan province accounted for all new local cases. Ruili's local government put residents in its urban...

KUALA LUMPUR: Former Malaysian leader Najib Razak began an appeal on Monday (Apr 5) against his corruption conviction and 12-year jail term over the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal, which contributed to his government's downfall in 2018. Najib was ...

The actor, the latest Indian celebrity to contract the virus, tweeted that he has "sought necessary medical care".

TOKYO: Japan may need to compile a supplementary budget for the current fiscal year to combat the economic blow from the coronavirus pandemic, a senior ruling party official was quoted as saying in a television programme that ran on Sunday (Apr 4). ...

TOKYO: The foreign and defence ministers of Japan and Germany are looking to hold a "2 plus 2" dialogue online in mid-April, the daily Yomiuri reported on Monday (Apr 5). The "2 plus 2" talks will be the first among the two countries, and they are e...

BANGKOK: Thai farmer Jamras Kongchai is struggling to pay off 500,000 baht (US$16,082) in debt as money from the sale of her crops is not enough to make payments. Adding to the strain, the COVID-19 outbreak has shut a small construction firm where s...

MUMBAI: China's ByteDance has told an Indian court that a government freeze on its bank accounts in a probe of possible tax evasion amounts to harassment and was done illegally, according to a filing seen by Reuters. ByteDance in January reduced its...

A car bombing near Kabul on Sunday (Apr 4) killed at least three Afghan security personnel and injured 12 others, officials said, in an attack claimed by the Taliban.

Thousands of Pakistanis rushed to get inoculated in the first round of commercial sales of COVID-19 vaccines that began over the weekend, with vaccination sites in the southern city of Karachi saying on Sunday (Apr 4) they had already sold out.

ISKANDAR PUTERI, Johor: The Johor state government will launch a special vaccination app for Malaysians who commute to Singapore, Johor Chief Minister Hasni Mohammad said on Sunday (Apr 4).  In a Facebook post, Mr Hasni said that the app, named I...

India's richest state, Maharashtra, said it would impose stringent COVID-19 restrictions from Monday as there has been a rapid rise in infections, a state minister said on Sunday

A railway maintenance worker whose truck rolled onto the tracks and sparked Taiwan's worst train disaster in recent decades made a tearful apology on Sunday, saying he would cooperate with investigators.

TOKYO: Japanese swimmer Rikako Ikee said she "didn't know what had just happened" after qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics medley relay on Sunday (Apr 4), just two years after being diagnosed with leukaemia. Ikee, who only resumed training in March ...

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said on Sunday that he would expand emergency measures as needed to contain a new wave of coronavirus infections, amid fears over the spread of virus mutations.

MANILA: The Philippines' defence secretary said on Sunday (Apr 4) that China was looking to occupy more areas in the South China Sea, citing the continued presence of Chinese vessels that Manila believes are manned by militias in disputed parts of t...

RAIPUR, India: Twenty-two Indian security forces personnel were killed and 30 others injured in a gun battle with Maoist rebels in a central Indian state, police said on Sunday (Apr 4), in the deadliest ambush of its kind in four years. The forces ...

JAKARTA: Flash floods unleashed by torrential rains killed 41 people on the Indonesian island of Flores on Sunday (Apr 4), the disaster management agency BNPB said, and at least three more were reported killed in neighbouring Timor-Leste. At least 4...

HUALIEN: Taiwan's transport minister said on Sunday (Apr 4) he would not shirk his responsibility for a deadly train crash, even as his resignation was rejected amid growing questions over safety lapses that could have contributed to the disaster.  ...

HONG KONG: Hong Kong police announced a record-breaking 700kg seizure of cocaine on Sunday (Apr 4), with officers suspecting the huge shipment was smuggled into the city on speedboats.  The bust is the largest in the territory in nearly a decade, ...

Around 70 per cent of coronavirus patients tested at a Tokyo hospital last month carried a mutation known for reducing vaccine protection, Japanese public broadcaster NHK said on Sunday.

Security was stepped up at churches across Sri Lanka ahead of Easter Sunday services to guard against a repeat of the 2019 suicide bombings that killed 279, a police spokesman said.

Tens of thousands of Myanmar workers have gone on strike over the past two months, hoping that economic paralysis will force the hand of the wealthy generals who ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb 1.

JAKARTA: Divers were scouring the waters of the Java Sea on Sunday (Apr 4) for 17 fishermen reported missing after their boat capsized following a crash involving a bulk carrier, a spokesman for Indonesia's search and rescue agency said. Fifteen cre...

Opponents of military rule in Myanmar inscribed messages of protest on Easter eggs on Sunday (Apr 4), while others were back on the streets, facing off with security forces after a night of candle-lit vigils for hundreds killed since a Feb 1 coup. ...

Mainland China reported 21 new COVID-19 cases for April 3, down from 26 cases a day earlier, the country's national health authority said on Sunday.

PARIS: French oil and gas group Total said it would not stop producing gas on its Yadana fields in Myanmar as long as operations remained safe, in part to protect employees there who might otherwise risk repercussions from the military junta. Total ...

Chinese policymakers are less afraid of economic decoupling from the US than many assume, say Andrew Sheng and Xiao Geng.

AirAsia and Singapore Airlines are already blazing a trail on how to do just that while flying remains in cold storage for most travellers, says Institute of Policy Studies’ Faizal Yahya.

CNA spoke to Malaysia’s youngest MP while he is in Singapore attending post-graduate classes.