5 rebels killed, 2 India soldiers injured in Kashmir

YANGON: A security guard was wounded in a bomb blast outside a military-owned bank in Myanmar's second-biggest city on Sunday (Apr 11) morning, as the civilian death toll from the junta's brutal crackdown on dissent topped more than 700 at the weeken...

NEW DELHI: India on Sunday (Apr 11) reported a record rise in new daily COVID-19 cases for the sixth time this week, with 152,879 new infections.  The number of new fatalities stood at 839, the most deaths in more than five months, taking the toll ...

TOKYO: Tokyo Olympic organisers plan to prepare 300 hotel rooms for athletes who test positive for COVID-19 at this summer's Games but show no or minor symptoms of COVID-19, Kyodo news agency said on Sunday (Apr 11). Japan's government is placing To...

SEOUL: South Korean authorities said on Sunday (Apr 11) they will move ahead with a COVID-19 vaccination drive this week, after deciding to continue using AstraZeneca's vaccine for all eligible people 30 years old or over. South Korea on Wednesday ...

ABOARD A US MILITARY AIRCRAFT: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Saturday (Apr 10) discussed with his Philippine counterpart China’s recent positioning of “militia vessels” near the Philippines in the South China Sea. Austin spoke by phone wit...

SHANGHAI: It was 50 years ago but Zhang Xielin still remembers vividly how a shaggy-haired American table tennis player stepped onto the Chinese team's bus, a chance encounter which would shape history. It was the world championships in Nagoya, Japa...

YANGON: Myanmar youth are fighting the junta's Internet shutdown and information suppression with an explosive underground printed newsletter they are secretly distributing across communities. For 56 days straight there have been Internet outages i...

BEIJING: China is considering the mixing of different COVID-19 vaccines to improve the relatively low efficacy of its existing options, a top health expert has told a conference. Authorities have to "consider ways to solve the issue that efficacy ra...

BEIJING: China is planning a mega dam in Tibet able to produce triple the electricity generated by the Three Gorges - the world's largest power station - stoking fears among environmentalists and in neighbouring India. The structure will span the Br...

BEIJING: Rescuers were working on Sunday (Apr 11) to reach 21 workers trapped in a coal mine in northwest China's Xinjiang region after flooding cut power underground and disrupted communications, state media reported. The accident happened in Fengy...

BEIJING: China reported 10 new COVID-19 cases on Apr 10, down from 14 cases a day earlier. The National Health Commission said in a statement on Sunday (Apr 11) that all the new cases were imported infections originating from overseas. READ: Ch...

JAKARTA: “I had four children, but two of them died,” Karimah said flatly.  “The second child was born at home. When he was born, he wasn’t crying, wasn’t doing anything. The third child was born in the hospital. My delivery date was stil...

Besides coping with changed rules, Singaporean businesses have come under increased scrutiny by international and Myanmar activists, says ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute’s Dr Su-Ann Oh.

YANGON: Myanmar security forces fired rifle grenades at protesters in a town near Yangon on Friday (Apr 9), killing more than 80 people, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) monitoring group and a domestic news outlet said. Det...

NEW DELHI: Two men who roamed the Indian capital using monkeys to rob unsuspecting victims have been arrested, New Delhi police said on Saturday (Apr 10). The pair were apprehended after one victim complained to officers that three men carrying monk...

YANGON: An international human rights group condemned Myanmar's junta on Saturday (Apr 10) for sentencing 19 people to die, in the first known use of the death penalty since the military seized power. Myanmar has been in turmoil since civilian lea...

SHANGHAI: China's corruption watchdog has called on online video-sharing platforms to take action against "mukbang" shows, in which people livestream themselves eating - or drinking - excessively, saying such content encourages food waste. Mukbang v...

BANGKOK: Thailand plans to install 10,000 field-hospital beds in Bangkok, a health official said on Saturday (Apr 10), as the country strains to cope with a third wave of COVID-19 infections. At least a dozen hospitals in the capital said they had s...

Cambodia's strongman premier Hun Sen threatened quarantine-breakers with jail time Saturday and warned civil servants they could lose their jobs if they go unvaccinated, as the country grapples with a growing coronavirus caseload.

BERLIN: Up until recently, one of Chaw Kalyar's tasks at the Myanmar embassy in Berlin consisted of providing assistance to fellow nationals stripped of their citizenship by their country's former military rulers. But today, the diplomat finds herse...

NEW DELHI: India will accept compensation of €1.1 million from Italy for the families of two fishermen shot dead by Italian marines in 2012, signalling an end to a long-winding case that soured relations between the two nations. Suhail Dutt, an ...

CHENGDU: China's will likely have produced 3 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of the year, a National Health Commission official said on Saturday (Apr 10) Zheng Zhongwei, who also heads a team coordinating the country's COVID-19 vaccine...

COX'S BAZAR: Two dead whales have washed up on the same stretch of Bangladesh coastline in two days, officials said Saturday (Apr 10), raising suggestions that they were killed by sea pollution. Officials said the second, much longer whale washed ...

Five people were killed in fresh election bloodshed in the Indian state of West Bengal on Saturday, including four shot dead by paramilitary troops "in self-defence", officials said.

JAKARTA: At least seven people were killed after a 6.0-magnitude quake struck off the coast of Indonesia's main Java island Saturday (Apr 10), as the country reels from a cyclone disaster in another part of the archipelago. The afternoon quake hit ...

NEW DELHI: India's daily coronavirus cases on Saturday (Apr 10) rose by a record for the fifth time this week and deaths surged to the highest in more than five months, with hospitals and crematoriums overflowing in parts of the country. New cases i...

SHANGHAI: Chinese regulators have fined Alibaba Group Holding 18 billion yuan (US$2.75 billion) for violating anti-monopoly rules and abusing its dominant market position, marking the highest ever anti-trust fine to be imposed in the country. The p...

Myanmar's own ambassador to the United Nations pressed on Friday (Apr 9) for a no-fly zone and sanctions as international pressure grew on the military junta to end a deadly crackdown and restore democracy. The United States and European nations pl...

Tired of housework and an unhappy, abusive marriage, a 56-year-old Chinese woman has been on a six-month jaunt across China that has challenged deep-rooted gender norms.

The lesson US policymakers have drawn is that Pyongyang is not genuinely interested in negotiating on nuclear weapons, says a foreign affairs observer.

KUALA LUMPUR: Percikan api berterbangan apabila Yip Yoke Lin, 74 tahun, meletakkan pisau tukang masak Cina yang sedang diasahnya pada sudut 30 darjah dari permukaan meja. Setelah melayang pisau tersebut beberapa kali pada mesin pengasah, beliau men...

KUALA LUMPUR: Sparks flew as Yip Yoke Lin, 74, held the Chinese chef knife she was sharpening at a 30-degree angle off the bench grinder. After running the blade a few times with the grinder, she tested her work by gingerly running her thumb along...

The State Department said Friday it will make it easier for US officials to meet Taiwanese representatives, defying pressure from China amid high tensions.

TOKYO: Japan has decided to release treated water from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea, reports said on Friday (Apr 9), despite strong opposition from local fishermen. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's Cabinet plans to announce the d...

Cricket chiefs have stepped up surveillance of star players ahead of Friday's (Apr 9) launch of the Indian Premier League (IPL) amid a rapid surge in COVID-19 cases.

Sri Lanka on Friday (Apr 9) lodged a claim for US$17.38 million with the Greek owners of an oil tanker that caught fire and left a spill stretching 40km off the South Asian island.

SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) on Friday (Apr 9) rebutted allegations reportedly made by an Indonesian graft official, saying that Singapore is a safe haven for Indonesian nationals under investigation for corruption. “There is n...

Myanmar's junta said on Friday (Apr 9) that a protest campaign against its rule was dwindling since people wanted peace, and that it would hold elections within two years, the first timeframe it has given for a return to democracy since its Feb 1 cou...

KUALA LUMPUR: Pakatan Harapan (PH) has endorsed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim as the coalition's prime minister candidate for the next general election. In a document entitled "Port Dickson Resolution" released on Friday (Apr 9), PH added that i...

LEMBATA: Gregorius Hide, a 70-year-old farmer in the eastern Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara, said the only warning he had of an approaching swirl of muddy water that engulfed his district this week was a smell of wet earth shortly before i...

SINGAPORE: Singapore ratified the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement on Friday (Apr 9), becoming the first participating country to do so, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said in a press release. The RCEP is the ...

LEMABAT: Indonesian president Joko Widodo arrived Friday (Apr 9) in a cyclone-hit cluster of islands after the disaster killed more than 200 people, including victims in neighbouring Timor-Leste, with dozens still missing. Torrential rains from Trop...

MUMBAI: Leading hospitals in India's most coronavirus-hit state halted vaccinations on Friday (Apr 9), citing shortages as infections across the country crossed 13 million and set a new daily record. The nation of 1.3 billion is confronting a feroci...

Thailand faces growing COVID-19 outbreak ahead of Songkran travel

HONG KONG: A Hong Kong official on Friday (Apr 9) defended plans to curb public access to company searches, a move transparency and media advocates have warned will hamper the exposure of shady corporate dealings. The semi-autonomous financial hub c...

NAYPYIDAW: Myanmar's junta refused on Friday (Apr 9) to let a UN envoy visit the country, despite mounting international efforts for a diplomatic solution to the post-coup crisis. The UN's special envoy for Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, is o...

NEW DELHI: India reported another record number of new COVID-19 infections on Friday (Apr 9) with daily deaths also hitting their highest in more than five months as the country battles a second wave of infections and states complain of a persistent ...

BEIJING: China's government on Friday (Apr 9) criticised the Biden administration's curbs on access to US technology for its supercomputer developers and said sanctions "only strengthen China's determination” to invent its own. The sanctions annou...

Britain said it is willing to offer shelter to Myanmar's ambassador to London after he was ousted from his embassy by pro-junta diplomats.

JAKARTA: Indonesia's weather agency warned on Friday (Apr 9) that a second tropical cyclone in the space of a week could trigger floods and landslides in more central areas after cyclone Seroja killed 163 people in eastern parts of the country. Resc...

TOKYO: Doctors in Japan announced on Thursday (Apr 9) that they have successfully performed the world’s first transplant of lung tissue from living donors to a patient with severe lung damage from COVID-19. The recipient, identified only as a woma...

HONG KONG: Hong Kong on Friday (Apr 9) confirmed it has requested AstraZeneca to suspend delivery of its COVID-19 vaccine amid fears of severe side effects and concerns over its efficacy against new variants of the coronavirus. Europe's medicines re...

BANGKOK: At least 12 hospitals in Thailand's capital, Bangkok, said as of Friday (Apr 9) they were suspending testing for COVID-19 due to high demand and shortage of supplies, amid a new spike in cases. The hospitals issued notices on their social m...

MANILA: Angelo Barrera's father struggled to breathe from COVID-19 as he was driven around the Philippine capital in search of a hospital bed. After five hours he got on a waitlist, but died before he could get inside. More contagious variants of th...

SEOUL: South Korea will reimpose a ban on nightclubs, karaoke bars and other nightly entertainment facilities, authorities said on Friday (Apr 9), after the number of new COVID-19 cases surged, fanning fears over a potential fourth wave of outbreaks....

HANOI: In her tiny Hanoi apartment, tattoo artist Ngoc inks middle-aged women whose lives have been upended by divorce or illness, each of them searching for healing through an art form that is still largely taboo in Vietnam. Although attitudes are ...

TOKYO: Japan placed Tokyo under a new, month-long state of "quasi-emergency" on Friday (Apr 9) to combat surging COVID-19 infections, less than a month after the capital and host of the Summer Olympics lifted a broader state of emergency. Prime Min...

US senators on Thursday (Apr 8) unveiled broad legislation on China that would step up pressure over Beijing's alleged theft of intellectual property and solidify US ties with Taiwan.

Officials are discussing arrangements to reopen borders within Southeast Asia, but these plans risk data privacy pitfalls, say researchers.

With few mandatory restrictions, and national leaders focused on holding the Tokyo Olympics, vaccination should be a top priority and even that has been very slow, says Yuka Hasegawa.

An information blackout under Myanmar's military government worsened on Thursday (Apr 8) as fibre broadband service, the last legal way for ordinary people to access the Internet, became intermittently inaccessible on several networks.

The fallout over the AstraZeneca jab continued Thursday with several countries halting its use among younger people, as nations raced to secure much-needed vaccines in the face of fresh virus surges.

WASHINGTON: The US Treasury Department on Thursday (Apr 8) imposed sanctions on a Myanmar state-owned gems enterprise in a bid to curtail the military junta's ability to generate revenues, according to a statement. The move is the latest from the B...

Hundreds of people rallied in Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek on Thursday calling for police chiefs to be sacked after a young woman abducted for marriage was found dead in a country where bride kidnapping is systemic.

JAKARTA: Indonesia on Thursday (Apr 8) announced an internal travel ban during next month's Eid al-Fitr celebrations, in an effort to prevent large-scale transmission of the coronavirus, a transport official said. The world's most populous Muslim-ma...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia on Thursday (Apr 8) defended a meeting between its ambassador to Myanmar and a representative from the military government, after criticism that it was recognition of the junta amid a brutal crackdown on protesters. More than...

KUCHING: Sarawak's deputy chief minister confirmed that he was contacted by the police after a video showing him not wearing a face mask in public went viral.  Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan was seen not wearing a face mask during a visit to the Matu...

PHNOM PENH: Cambodia is shutting its most popular tourist destination, the centuries-old Angkor temple complex, to visitors for two weeks to help curb the country's coronavirus outbreak. The closing of the world-famous site is the latest in a slew o...

Colombo police on Thursday (Apr 8) arrested the current "Mrs World" on charges of assault over an on-stage fracas in which she pulled the crown off the head of the new "Mrs Sri Lanka".

MANILA: The Philippine defence department said on Thursday (Apr 8) it was keeping "all our options open" as a diplomatic row with Beijing grows over hundreds of Chinese vessels in the contested South China Sea. Tensions over the resource-rich waters...

MANILA: The Philippine health department suspended on Thursday (Apr 8) the use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 jab for people under 60 after reports of blood clots overseas, in a setback for the country's already slow vaccine rollout. It comes amid a re...

China on Thursday accused the UK of sheltering "wanted criminals" after prominent Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Nathan Law said he had been granted political asylum there.

India's COVID-19 cases have soared 13-fold in barely two months, a vicious second wave propelled by open disregard for safety protocols in much of the vast country.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is clearly not seen as a “strategic environmental partner on climate action” by the United States, said Democratic Action Party's secretary-general Lim Guan Eng on Thursday (Apr 8).  This came after environment minister...

Tickets to tourist attractions, shopping coupons and report cards naming and shaming stores where staff haven't been vaccinated: China is veering from compulsion to persuasion in its bid to inoculate its population against COVID-19.

BANGKOK: Thailand is considering closing entertainment venues in Bangkok and 40 provinces, its COVID-19 taskforce said on Thursday (Apr 8), as authorities rushed to tackle a new wave of coronavirus cases and the arrival of a highly contagious variant...

Two years after opening his garment factory in Myanmar, Li Dongliang is on the verge of closing down and laying off his 800 remaining workers.

NEW DELHI: India’s prime minister received his second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as the country hit another peak on Thursday (Apr 8) with 126,789 new cases reported in the past 24 hours. “Vaccination is among the few ways we have, to defeat th...

Two Indonesian navy ships packed with aid arrived Thursday in a cyclone-ravaged section of the archipelago, as the disaster's death toll rose to nearly 180 people, including dozens killed in neighbouring East Timor.

Twitter has launched an emoji to spotlight the "#MilkTeaAlliance" online protest movement that has forged links between activists across Asia, the social media giant said on Thursday.

YANGON: A leading Myanmar actor, singer and model who has backed the country's anti-coup protests was arrested on Thursday (Apr 8), reports said, as the junta hunts more than 100 celebrities for supporting the movement. The country has been rocked b...

JAKARTA: Indonesia's health minister said on Thursday (Apr 8) the schedule for about 100 million doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccines faced delays, as an official warned that supply issues could hamper the country's inoculation programme. Healt...

South Korea's conservative opposition won landslide victories in elections for the mayors of the country's two biggest cities, results showed Thursday, in a bad sign for Moon Jae-in's Democratic Party a year before the next presidential poll.

SINGAPORE: Singapore's Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan on Wednesday (Apr 7) sent condolences to his counterparts in Indonesia and Timor-Leste, after landslides and floods devastated both countries. Tropical cyclone Seroja pounded ...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is deliberating whether to proceed with using the AstraZeneca vaccine for its national COVID-19 immunisation programme, following the European Medicines Agency's (EMA) review. Coordinating Minister for the Immunisation Progra...

SEOUL: The Brave Girls were losing courage just weeks ago, on the verge of breaking up and abandoning their dreams of K-pop stardom after years of going nowhere. Then a pseudonymous YouTuber called Viditor uploaded a compilation of them performing o...

China protests transit of US destroyer through Taiwan Strait

SEOUL: South Korea reported 700 new COVID-19 cases, its highest daily figure since early January, and the prime minister reiterated warnings on Thursday (Apr 8) that new social distancing rules would likely be needed. Wednesday's tally compares with...

Hong Kong democracy activist Nathan Law said he has been granted political asylum in Britain, where he arrived last July after Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on his home city that has been heavily criticised by the West.

HONG KONG: At a meeting at the Portuguese unit of Macau's public broadcaster TDM on Mar 10, two senior journalists addressed about 25 staff members, reading new editorial rules requiring them to promote "patriotism, respect and love" for mainland Chi...

The Japanese government is thinking of prioritising COVID-19 vaccines for athletes taking part in the Olympics and Paralympics, which start at the end of July, Kyodo news agency said.

The United States on Wednesday (Apr 7) warned China against what the Philippines and Taiwan see as increasingly aggressive moves, reminding Beijing of Washington's obligations to its partners.

LONDON: Britain on Thursday (Apr 8) condemned "bullying" by the Myanmar junta after the country's ambassador to London was ousted in an extraordinary diplomatic coup having called for the release of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Diplomats loyal...

CNA correspondent Wei Du stumbles on the mystery of vanished pets in Hong Kong, and a much bigger problem behind the phenomenon, in the programme Undercover Asia.

A new hybrid Cold War is underway, with US, China and pivotal states engaging in a power play, says NUS Business School’s Alex Capri.

China’s lending has been secretive, with clauses to protect political interests and subject disputes to Chinese law. These could create a “China Club” that rivals the Paris Club, says Professor Bo Zhiyue.

Despite calls for them to get involved in a wider resistance against the Tatmadaw, Myanmar’s ethnic armed groups are not casting their lots in yet. They have ample reasons for not doing so, says ISEAS-Yusof-Ishak Institute’s Andrew Ong.

The United States is prepared to consider diplomacy with North Korea if it leads to a path of denuclearisation, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Wednesday (Apr 7).

A joint China-World Health Organization (WHO) study into COVID-19 has provided no credible answers about how the pandemic began, and more rigorous investigations are required - with or without Beijing's involvement, a group of international scientist...