Calls for World Health Organization reform and steps to avert future pandemics feature high on the agenda as the UN agency kicks off its annual member states' meeting on Monday.

The American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) urged Vietnam on Monday to ease its lengthy quarantine period for vaccinated travellers and allow the private sector to help procure COVID-19 vaccines for their employees in the Southeast Asian country.

A series of coronavirus clusters among construction workers in Bangkok, including the first local cases of the variant first identified in India, has put a fresh spotlight on migrant labour rights as Thailand grapples with its deadliest outbreak so f...

TOKYO: The personal data of more than a million users of one of Japan's most popular dating apps may have been exposed by a hack, its operator has warned. Net Marketing, which runs the Omiai app, said it detected unauthorised access in April to the ...

YANGON: Myanmar's deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi appeared in person at a court hearing on Monday (May 24) for the first time since her government was overthrown by the military in a Feb 1 coup, her lawyer told Reuters. Aung San Suu Kyi looked in g...

BEIJING: An investigation was underway on Monday (May 24) into the deaths of 21 runners during a mountain ultramarathon in northwest China, as harrowing testimony emerged from survivors who battled to safety through freezing temperatures and bone-chi...

NEW DELHI: India said on Monday (May 24) it had passed more than 300,000 deaths from the coronavirus pandemic, the third country after the United States and Brazil to hit the figure as it battles a huge wave of infections. The South Asian nation has...

TOKYO: Some of the world's toughest gun-control laws are posing unusual problems at the Tokyo Olympics, from the coach who can't touch a firearm to strict limits on ammunition. For Goran Maksimovic, the extent of Japan's restrictions only became cle...

TOKYO: Japan opened two mass inoculation centres on Monday (May 24) as the country races to vaccinate most of its elderly population against COVID-19 before the start of the Tokyo Olympics. The centres in Tokyo and Osaka will vaccinate thousands of ...

HONG KONG: A shadow of fear hangs over Hong Kong's outspoken and staunchly pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper, with its billionaire owner Jimmy Lai now jailed and many reporters asking themselves: "Are we next?" Each day, tomorrow's date is hung up...

TAIPEI: Taiwan's government on Monday (May 24) nullified a decision by an island that sits close to China to mandate COVID-19 tests for all arrivals, rebuking it for not following the law even as authorities deal with a rise in domestic infections. ...

OSAKA, Japan: Hospitals in Japan's second largest city of Osaka are buckling under a huge wave of new COVID-19 infections, running out of beds and ventilators as exhausted doctors warn of a "system collapse", and advise against holding the Olympics t...

SHANGHAI: Cryptocurrency miners, including HashCow and BTC.TOP, have halted their China operations after Beijing intensified a crackdown on bitcoin mining and trading, hammering digital currencies amid heightened global regulatory scrutiny of them. ...

TAIPEI: Taiwan criticised on Monday (May 24) what it called World Health Organization (WHO) "indifference" to the health rights of Taiwan's people and for capitulating to China after the island failed to get invited to a meeting of the WHO decision-m...

SHANGHAI: China reported 18 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday (May 23), down from 19 a day earlier, the country's health authority said on Monday. The National Health Commission said in its daily bulletin that all of the new cases were imported infection...

TOKYO: In a series of tweets, SoftBank Group's founder and CEO Masayoshi Son expressed bewilderment and concern about the Tokyo Olympics going ahead amid Japan's slow-going vaccination drive during the COVID-19 pandemic. "Currently more than 80 per ...

WASHINGTON: Three researchers from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) sought hospital care in November 2019, months before China disclosed the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday (May 23), citing a previously undisclo...

As the United States scales back its military presence across the Middle East to focus on great power competition with China and Russia, it risks giving those two countries a chance to fill the gap and expand their influenc

Young South Koreans are pushing back against unhealthy work practices and putting up barriers to seize back work-life balance. That distinction between the private and professional is one worth welcoming, says Steven Borowiec.

KUALA LUMPUR:  A full COVID-19 lockdown with all sectors shut like what was imposed last year would guarantee people’s safety, but there is a risk that the economy could collapse, said Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin. Speaking in an i...

KOLKATA: A severe cyclone is brewing off India's eastern coast, the nation's weather bureau warned on Sunday (May 23), as the death toll rose from a major storm that wreaked havoc in the west of the virus-hit nation last week. Moving northwards in ...

DHAKA: A leading Bangladesh journalist critical of the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic was granted bail on Sunday (May 23), after her detention sparked days of nationwide protests. Rozina Islam, 42, an investigative reporter for the c...

BANGKOK: Thai border controls will tighten after the discovery of three local COVID-19 cases of the B1351 variant from South Africa stemming from illegal border crossings, authorities said on Sunday (May 23), as the country grapples to contain its wo...

NEW DELHI: India's capital New Delhi will start relaxing its strict coronavirus lockdown next week if new cases continue to drop in the city, Delhi's chief minister said on Sunday (May 23). The nation on Sunday reported 240,842 new infections nation...

Fighters opposed to Myanmar's military government fought with troops in the east of the country on Sunday and claimed to have killed more than 13 members of the security forces, captured four and razed a police station, local media said.

JAKARTA: Indonesia reported a new cluster of 42 coronavirus infections among medical workers who treated 13 Filipino ship crew who were sick with COVID-19, and is tracing dozens of others, a government official said on Sunday (May 23). About 140 oth...

BEIJING: China reported 19 new COVID-19 cases on May 22, up from 10 cases a day earlier, the country's national health authority said on Sunday (May 23). The National Health Commission said in a statement that 18 of the new cases were imported infec...

More than 125,000 school teachers in Myanmar have been suspended by the military authorities for joining a civil disobedience movement to oppose the military coup in February, an official of the Myanmar Teachers' Federation said.

The deaths occured during a mountain marathon cross-country race in northwestern China after hail, freezing rain and gale winds hit the high-altitude track, rescuers said on Sunday (May 23).

JAKARTA: An Instagrammer in Bali was deported after riding his motorcycle off a pier into the sea.  Two other influencers who flouted COVID-19 restrictions by drawing on face masks in an attempt to enter a supermarket were also made to leave the c...

Rights activists have accused ruling lawmakers in Japan of violating the Olympic spirit with homophobic remarks that included saying same-sex relationships "resist the preservation of the species".

KATHMANDU: An expert climbing guide said on Saturday (May 22) that a coronavirus outbreak on Mount Everest has infected at least 100 climbers and support staff, giving the first comprehensive estimate amid official Nepalese denials of a COVID-19 clu...

China's Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co Ltd is willing to provide Taiwan with BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines, its chairman Wu Yifang told Xinhua news agency, amid a spike in domestic infections on the island.

A research centre under Vietnam's health ministry is in talks with Russia to produce the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine in the country, local media reported on Saturday.

The Philippines is investigating reports that some people have been illegally selling COVID-19 shots or their vaccine slots for financial gain, officials said on Saturday, as they reminded the public the vaccines are free.

Nepal's parliament was dissolved for the second time in five months Saturday and new elections called for November as the Himalayan country battled political turmoil alongside the coronavirus pandemic.

Hackers have stolen data on about 4.5 million Air India passengers around the world in the latest breach reported by a major airline.

Myanmar's junta leader Min Aung Hlaing said deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi was healthy at home and would appear in court in a few days, in his first interview since overthrowing her in a Feb 1 coup. The coup has plunged the Southeast Asian country ...

Chinese-born Australian academic and author Yang Jun will go on trial in China on espionage charges next week, after spending more than two years in detention, Canberra's foreign minister has confirmed.

KOROR, Palau: A spike in COVID-19 cases in Taiwan has burst its travel bubble with Palau, but the small Pacific island nation's president said Saturday (May 22) he was ready to reopen the link as soon as practical. The Palau-Taiwan bubble was hailed...

KUALA LUMPUR: Additional restrictions for Malaysia's ongoing Movement Control Order (MCO) will include mandating that more employees work from home and limiting operating hours for businesses, said Senior Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob on Saturday (...

BEIJING: A remote-controlled Chinese motorised rover drove down the ramp of a landing capsule on Saturday and onto the surface of the Red Planet, making China the first nation to orbit, land and deploy a land vehicle on its inaugural mission to Mars.

TAIPEI: Taiwan reported another rise in domestic COVID-19 cases on Saturday (May 22), but the health minister said the trend remained stable with new infections concentrated in the northern part of the island in and around Taipei. After months of ke...

The Philippines and China held "friendly and candid" talks on the South China Sea, the Philippines' foreign ministry said on Saturday, days after the minister ordered Chinese vessels out of the disputed waterway in an expletive-laced tweet.

BEIJING: China reported 10 new COVID-19 cases on May 21, down from 24 cases a day earlier, the country's national health authority said on Saturday (May 22). The National Health Commission said in a statement that nine of the new cases were importe...

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden acknowledged Friday (May 21) there is no easy path to getting North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons but reaffirmed his "iron-clad" commitment to the US alliance with South Korea after talks with President Moon J...

Mica is the mineral that gives a sparkle to an array of products, from eye shadow to lip gloss. But what consumers do not see is a deadly trade involving even children. The programme Undercover Asia investigates.

Whether the high profile games goes ahead is not down to just infection rates. Politics and money have a part to play too, says an observer.

BANG KLOI, Thailand: No-ae Meemi looks frail in the crowd of villagers at the community hall. His long grey hair is covered in a light turban, lips red from chewing betel. Little by little, he pulls his body along the bamboo floor to the front of th...

South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday said his country would work closely with the United States to achieve a complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

The United Nations said on Friday it was alarmed at violence in northwestern Myanmar's Chin State, where thousands of people have been displaced by fighting between security forces and fighters opposed to the junta that took power in February.

Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka are close to running out of coronavirus vaccines, authorities said Friday, and are hoping China and Russia will bolster South Asia's efforts to tackle a devastating pandemic wave.

A 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan on Friday, the United States Geological Survey said.

India's crude oil processing fell in April from the previous month with top refiners reducing crude runs as a fierce second wave of coronavirus infections curbs mobility and demand for fuel.

BANGKOK: Thailand on Friday (May 21) said it has detected its first locally transmitted cases of the COVID-19 variant discovered in India, as it announced the formal roll-out of its national vaccination plan next month. The Ministry of Public Health...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will tighten the current movement control order (MCO) with stricter restrictions on its economic and social sectors, said the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) on Friday (May 21).  A statement was issued following a National Se...

NAYPYIDAW: The head of Myanmar’s military-appointed state election commission said on Friday (May 21) that his agency will consider dissolving Aung San Suu Kyi's former ruling party for its alleged involvement in electoral fraud and have its leader...

India's crowded financial hub Mumbai won plaudits this year for tackling the second wave of the pandemic better than any other metropolis in the country - and it is gearing up to get ahead of a potential third wave that experts fear could affect chil...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia on Friday (May 21) reported more than 6,000 new COVID-19 cases for the third consecutive day, as intensive care units (ICUs) in the country continue to struggle with the influx of patients. Many of the 6,493 new COVID-19 case...

KOTA KINABALU: A Malaysian businessman behind the controversial offer of COVID-19 vaccine donation to Penang state government was called up for questioning by Sabah police on Friday (May 21). Sabah Police Commissioner Hazani Ghazali confirmed that t...

Hong Kong said on Friday its decision earlier this week to suspend operations at its representative office in Taiwan was motivated by Taipei's "gross" interference in internal affairs, including with its offer to assist "violent protesters."

HANOI: Vietnam's government has urged two provinces that are home to production facilities of companies such as Samsung Electronics and Foxconn to boost efforts to prevent a COVID-19 outbreak disrupting industrial production. Deputy Prime Minister V...

South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday will become the second world leader welcomed by President Joe Biden at the White House.

SYDNEY: An Australian writer detained in Beijing on spying allegations will go to court on May 27 after a delay in his trial, his supporters said. Pro-democracy blogger Yang Hengjun, who is facing trial on espionage charges that he denies, has been ...

SHANGHAI: China have won 28 of 32 gold medals awarded at the Olympics, but their supremacy could face its biggest test yet in Tokyo this summer. Few countries have dominated a sport quite like China has in table tennis - winning every gold for the ...

SEOUL: South Korea on Friday (May 21) approved Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine, as the country attempts to speed up its inoculation efforts, drug safety minister Kim Gang-lip told a news conference. The green light comes after two of three expert panels ...

TOKYO: Japan is set to expand a state of emergency to cover the southern island of Okinawa on Friday (May 21), just as it approved two more COVID-19 vaccines to speed up its lagging inoculation campaign. After health regulators' green light a day ea...

KATHMANDU: Mountaineer Akash Negi is fully prepared to take on the world's highest mountain - after spending several weeks sleeping in a tent in his living room in New Jersey. As Nepal battles COVID-19, a growing number of climbers are using oxyge...

TOKYO: A Japanese journalist recently freed from a Myanmar jail urged his government on Friday (May 21) to take "concrete action" against the military regime there, including reviewing its development aid. Myanmar authorities arrested Yuki Kitazumi,...

BENGALURU: India reported 259,551 new COVID-19 infections over the last 24 hours on Friday (May 21), while deaths rose by 4,209. Daily new cases were down by about 16,000 compared to the previous day, while the number of deaths increased. The coun...

BEIJING: A skyscraper in southern China that caused panic when it started to shake earlier this week will stay closed for the foreseeable future, the owner of the building said, as the cause of the swaying is investigated. The 300m SEG Plaza in the...

TOKYO: Tokyo could freeze all aid to Myanmar, Japan's foreign minister warned in an interview published on Friday (May 21), as the military junta continues to use lethal force against opponents of its coup. Japan is a top donor to Myanmar, and has a...

YANGON: A humble library for orphans in Yangon, built of recycled plastic waste, stands empty without books or archives. It was supposed to start welcoming young readers earlier this year, but its opening has been indefinitely deferred by Myanmar's ...

HANOI: Fewer independent candidates than before are standing in an election in Vietnam on Sunday (May 23) to a legislature that is dominated by the Communist Party but which has taken on a growing role in discussing social issues. Despite increasin...

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's new immigration pathway for Hong Kong residents has received nearly 6,000 applicants three months since its launch, a spokesman for the country's immigration ministry said on Thursday.

Hong Kong has announced its representative office in Taiwan will “temporarily suspend operations” but both sides have been winding down interactions in recent years, says Bo Zhiyue.

Bangladesh authorities on Thursday (May 20)imposed a lockdown in five Rohingya refugee camps in the country's southeast after a spike in coronavirus cases in recent days, officials said.

A Japanese government panel on Thursday recommended approval of Moderna and AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccines, as criticism mounts over the slow start to inoculations with just two months until the Olympics.

SHANGHAI: China's emissions of climate-warming carbon dioxide emissions rose 9 per cent in the first quarter of 2021 compared with pre-pandemic levels, driven by a carbon-intensive economic recovery and big hikes in steel and cement output, research...

South Korea on Thursday said it will conduct a clinical trial that mixes COVID-19 vaccine doses developed by AstraZeneca Plc with those from Pfizer Inc and others.

SINGAPORE: Brunei is temporarily suspending a reciprocal green lane arrangement with Singapore until further notice. Travellers who have already been approved to enter Brunei under this arrangement will be allowed to do so until 7pm on Thursday (May...

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach will visit Japan from Jul 12, ahead of the start of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, broadcaster TV Asahi reported on Thursday.

The World Health Organization and three other international bodies have formed a team of experts to help develop a global plan to prevent the spread of diseases from animals to humans, the WHO said on Thursday.

China, in global campaign, vaccinates its citizens in Thailand against COVID-19

SEREMBAN: Malaysian celebrity and entreprenuer Noor Neelofa Mohd Noor and husband Muhammad Haris Mohd Ismail pleaded not guilty to the charges of breaching the country’s COVID-19 health regulations while on a shopping trip earlier this month. The...

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has been hoping to use his first summit with U.S. President Joe Biden this week to press a legacy policy of engaging North Korea, but Washington has played down the prospect of any quick impetus on the issue.

SINGAPORE: The Shangri-La Dialogue, which had been scheduled to take place on Jun 4 and Jun 5 in Singapore, has been cancelled two weeks before the meeting. This is due to the deterioration of the global COVID-19 situation, the organiser of the defe...

TAIPEI: Taiwan reported 286 new domestic COVID-19 cases on Thursday (May 20), a slight increase from the previous day. Having been held up as an example of how to successfully stop the virus in its tracks, Taiwan has over the past two weeks reported...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia reported a record of 6,806 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday (May 20), as the country continues to battle a third wave of infections.  This is the second consecutive day that Malaysia has logged record numbers of daily cases ...

JOHOR BAHRU: Johor ruler Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar has called for Members of Parliament (MPs) and state assemblymen representing constituencies in Johor to meet and discuss how to overcome the COVID-19 situation.  In a statement on his Facebook ...

AHMEDABAD, India: A major new storm was brewing in the Bay of Bengal off India's east coast, forecasters warned on Thursday (May 20), just days after the biggest cyclone to hit the west of the country in decades left at least 110 people confirmed dea...

HONG KONG: The first Hong Kong resident to be charged under Beijing's national security law can be tried without a jury, a senior judge said on Thursday (May 20), in a ruling that cements the financial hub's fast-changing legal traditions. Tong Ying...

TOKYO: Two officials at Myanmar's embassy in Tokyo have become the latest diplomats dismissed by the junta after protesting the military coup in their country, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported on Thursday (May 20). Administrator Aung Soe Moe and a...

JAKARTA: An Indonesian court has postponed the issuance of a verdict regarding a lawsuit against the government over the alarming levels of air pollution that regularly blanket Jakarta. The verdict was supposed to be handed down on Thursday (May...

BEIJING: China said on Thursday (May 20) that a United States warship illegally entered its territorial waters in the South China Sea, the latest salvo in the two nations' dispute over Beijing's territorial claims in the busy waterway. In a stateme...

BEIJING: China postponed a supply mission to its new space station on Thursday (May 20) for unspecified technical reasons. The Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft was expected to have been launched early on Thursday morning. China Manned Space announced th...

BENGALURU: India reported on Thursday (May 20) 276,110 new coronavirus infections over the last 24 hours, while deaths rose by 3,874. The country's infection tally stands at 25.77 million, with a death toll of 287,122, health ministry data showed. ...

TOKYO: Tokyo must boost its military at a "radically different pace" than in the past to counter Beijing's growing capacity, Japan's defence minister said in an interview published on Thursday (May 20). Nobuo Kishi warned the gap between Japan and C...

Vietnam plans to set up a 25.2 trillion dong (US$1.1 billion) fund to acquire 150 million COVID-19 vaccine doses for its population, its Ministry of Finance said in a statement on Thursday (May 20).

SHANGHAI: China reported 12 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday (May 19), down from 14 cases a day earlier, the country's national health authority said on Thursday. The National Health Commission said in a statement one of the new cases was a local inf...