Myanmar's main prison vaccinated more than 600 inmates against COVID-19 on the first day of a drive to inoculate inmates, state media reported on Thursday (Jul 29), as military authorities struggle to control a wave of infections across the country. ...

KUALA LUMPUR: Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Khairy Jamaluddin said among the reasons why Singapore was ahead of Malaysia in securing access to COVID-19 vaccines could be due to Temasek Holdings having a stake in a company which d...

HONG KONG: A Hong Kong DJ went on trial on Thursday (Jul 29) for sedition in the first use of the colonial-era law since the city's handover to China as authorities broaden their criminalisation of dissent. Tam Tak-chi, 48, is among a growing number...

BEIJING: China on Thursday (Jul 29) reported small COVID-19 outbreaks driven by the Delta variant in three provinces as a cluster linked to an eastern airport spreads despite mass testing and a vaccination drive. The flare-up, which began after nin...

Floods make thousands homeless in Bangladesh Rohingya camps

A Tokyo court has upheld jail sentences for a US father-son duo who helped ex-Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn flee Japan, as the pair waived their right to appeal.

HONG KONG: The defence lawyer for the first person charged under Hong Kong's national security law argued on Thursday (Jul 29) at a final mitigation session before sentencing that his client was a "decent young man" who did something very stupid. To...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia King Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah did not give consent to revoke the COVID-19 emergency ordinances, the national palace said in a statement on Thursday (Jul 29). The initial agreement was to table and d...

BEIJING: With market-trembling new rules and investigations, Beijing's crackdown on its most prominent companies has seeped into nearly every aspect of modern life, wiping billions of dollars from Chinese and Hong Kong-listed stocks and bamboozling i...

N Korea leader pays respect to Chinese war dead at memorial

Cambodia is set to launch a lockdown in eight provinces bordering Thailand from midnight on Thursday, in a bid to prevent the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus in the Southeast Asian country.

TOKYO: Two people attending the Tokyo Olympics from overseas have been hospitalised with COVID-19, a Tokyo 2020 spokesperson said on Thursday (Jul 29), amid concerns the Games will add to the strains on Japan's medical system. Neither case is seriou...

BEIJING: China reported on Thursday (Jul 29) 49 new COVID-19 cases, down from 86 a day earlier, according to the national health authority, amid an outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant in the eastern city of Nanjing. Local infections acc...

WASHINGTON: China's new ambassador to the United States, Qin Gang, on Wednesday (Jul 28) wished the US victory against COVID-19 and said great potential awaited bilateral relations, striking an optimistic tone as he arrived at his new post amid d...

The Malaysian government has limited fiscal space for COVID-19 relief, after running budget deficits for over 20 years, says a researcher.

The impasse over the Myanmar coup has thrown up new challenges for countries seeking to navigating the politics of recognition, say Alistair D B Cook and Mely Caballero-Anthony.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte ordered his government on Wednesday to open the coronavirus vaccination campaign to anyone who wants a shot as his country scrambles to protect the population from more transmissible variants.

HANOI: US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sought on Thursday (Jul 29) to nudge forward security ties with Vietnam that have been slowly deepening as both countries watch China's activities in the South China Sea with growing alarm. Despite close...

Vietnam's major cities may extend or tighten restrictions on movement to contain the spread of COVID-19 as new daily cases have surpassed 6,000 for seven consecutive days, authorities said on Wednesday.

China's recent policy tightening against the tutoring industry and Internet platforms is good for long-term development of the country, and China remains committed to opening up its capital markets, the official Xinhua News Agency said late on Wednes...

HONG KONG: Hong Kong's government on Wednesday (Jul 28) appointed a special fraud investigator to scrutinise the company that owns the recently shuttered pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, the first such probe in more than two decades. The outspok...

Junta authorities in Myanmar are seeking help from the international community to tackle the coronavirus, state media said Wednesday, as the impoverished country looks beyond ally China in its struggle to beat back a new wave.

BEIJING: Beijing on Wednesday (Jul 28) told Tencent and other tech developers to address "harassing" pop-up windows on their apps, in the latest salvo in China's battle against the sector. The order came as a Chinese bike-sharing firm scrapped plans...

TAIPEI: Taiwanese authorities are investigating whether a former deputy defence minister may have been recruited by a Chinese spying network, officials and media reports said Wednesday (Jul 28). Chang Che-ping, in office from July 2019 to June 2021,...

Thai volunteers on Wednesday turned a cargo warehouse at Bangkok's Don Muang Airport into a 1,800-bed field hospital for COVID-19 patients with less severe symptoms, as the country deals with its biggest outbreak to date.

MEDAN: Indonesia's Mount Sinabung erupted on Wednesday (Jul 28), spewing a massive column of smoke and ash into the sky. The eruption of the volcano in North Sumatra province lasted about 12 minutes, a local geological agency said. "The volcanic ma...

SINGAPORE: Singapore will send 200 oxygen concentrators to Myanmar to support the country's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said on Wednesday (Jul 28). The 10-litre oxygen concentrators will be channelled t...

Daily COVID-19 cases in Olympic host city Tokyo hit a record high for a second straight day on Wednesday, topping 3,000 for the first time since the pandemic began, local media reported, as the spike in infections puts pressure on hospitals.

SINGAPORE: Five men and three women have been arrested following several raids by the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) that also netted various contraband with a street value of nearly S$749,000. Baked goods and crumbs believed to be infused with can...

Gunmen wound Chinese in Pakistan's port city of Karachi

BEIJING: An inhaled version of CanSino BioLogics' (CanSinoBIO) COVID-19 vaccine triggered immune responses without serious side effects, an early-stage clinical trial showed. The two-dose candidate requires lower dosages than the injected version an...

Crisis-hit Japanese carmaker Nissan upgraded its annual outlook Wednesday, projecting a return to the black, after a strong first quarter performance fuelled by a recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia hit another record high for new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday (Jul 28) with 17,405 infections. Only six of these were imported infections.  More than half of the new cases were once again from the Klang Valley with 7,171 in S...

Taiwan's police on Wednesday said they had launched an investigation after local media reported more than 100 LINE messaging app accounts used by officials had been hacked and the company admitted "abnormal activities" had been detected.

HONG KONG: Hundreds of elected community leaders in Hong Kong have resigned and dozens of civil society groups have disbanded as China remoulds the finance hub in its own image. Just days before Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on th...

Governors of three prefectures near Olympics host Tokyo are likely to ask the government to declare states of emergency for their regions, media said on Wednesday, after COVID-19 infections spiked to a record high in the Japanese capital.

Like thousands of his compatriots, Abdel Khalid Nabyar waited outside Afghanistan's main passport office to apply for the precious travel document that would allow him to leave the war-torn nation.

A tropical storm hit northern Japan on Wednesday but there were no immediate reports of damage and Olympic football matches in the region were due to go ahead.

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon and Republican congressmen on Tuesday (Jul 27) aired fresh concerns about China's build-up of its nuclear forces after a new report saying Beijing was building 110 more missile silos. An American Federation of Scientists (A...

SEOUL: South Korea on Wednesday (Jul 28) reported 1,896 new COVID-19 cases for Tuesday, its highest-ever daily increase, as the country struggles to subdue a fourth wave of outbreaks fanned by the more contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus. Th...

BANGKOK: Thailand reported on Wednesday (Jul 28) a daily record of 16,533 new coronavirus infections, bringing the country's total accumulated cases to 543,361. The country's COVID-19 task force also reported 133 new deaths, taking total fatalities ...

US lawmakers on Tuesday pressed corporate sponsors to pull out of the 2022 Beijing Olympics, accusing them of supporting what Washington considers genocide in China's Xinjiang region, but the companies contended they had little influence.

In a climate of economic hardship, a special programme for people who have the money to buy vaccinations was always going to be unpopular, says a researcher.

China once had positive perceptions of the US public health model and was willing to adopt their practices, but today sees itself on equal footing, says a researcher.

China’s clampdown on Didi reflects regulators’ brewing concerns over cross-border data flows, with implications for digital trade, say Qian Jiwei and Deng Liuchun.

The country faced one of the most devastating waves when a more virulent variant ran rampant killing hundreds of thousands. It has managed to tame the beast but what lessons did its twists and turns yield? India’s former Auditor-General weighs in.

Top US diplomat Antony Blinken arrived Tuesday in India for talks dominated by turmoil in Afghanistan and common worries about China, while also touching on New Delhi's rights record.

Indonesia, which uses the Sinovac vaccine as its main COVID-19 inoculation, is considering providing a booster shot, as a study showed antibodies provided by the two-dose shot fade over time, a senior health ministry official said on Tuesday.

Indonesia is optimistic of reaching a net zero emissions target by 2060 or sooner, a senior minister said on Tuesday, after the government submitted updated nationally determined climate goals to the United Nations.

BEIJING: The death toll from floods in central China's Henan province rose to 71 on Tuesday (Jul 27) as a tribute at a subway where 14 people died was sealed off in a sign of sensitivity to public criticism of the government's handling of the disaste...

IPOH: Malaysian police were investigating an incident where a helicopter landed in an open field in Ipoh, Perak, last Friday (Jul 23), reportedly to collect packets of the popular rice dish nasi kandar for a customer in Kuala Lumpur. Perak police c...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia reported 207 deaths from COVID-19 for the second consecutive day on Tuesday (Jul 27), with the number of critically ill patients also reaching another high. Thirty-one of the victims were classified as "brought in dead" to ho...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's opposition lawmakers on Tuesday (Jul 27) pressed law minister Takiyuddin Hassan for an explanation behind the government's decision to revoke emergency ordinances aimed at tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.  The morning parli...

BANGKOK: Authorities in Thailand began transporting some people who tested positive for the coronavirus from Bangkok to their hometowns on Tuesday (Jul 27) for isolation and treatment to alleviate the burden on the capital’s overwhelmed medical sy...

BANGKOK: A vast forest complex in Thailand has been added to UNESCO's World Heritage List, despite the United Nations' own experts warning of human rights violations against indigenous people in the area. The Kaeng Krachan Forest Complex in western...

Flooding in Myanmar has displaced hundreds of people, slowing efforts to battle a fast-growing coronavirus outbreak amid the chaos that followed the nation's military coup, residents told Reuters on Tuesday (Jul 27). Heavy weekend downpours across s...

JAKARTA: As Indonesia grapples with a devastating wave of coronavirus infections, Jakarta government data shows a fall in cases and easing pressure on hospitals in the capital, even as the situation worsens in other parts of the archipelago. The cap...

Kaylee McKeown's mum says she'll have a word with her daughter after the Australian sensation dropped an F-bomb on live TV after scorching to victory in the women's Olympic 100m backstroke on Tuesday.

TOKYO: Tokyo's 2,848 COVID-19 infections on Tuesday (Jul 27) were the Olympic host city's highest since the pandemic began, officials said, as media reported that authorities had asked hospitals to prepare more beds for patients as the Delta variant ...

HONG KONG: A Hong Kong court will lay down a marker on the city's future legal landscape on Tuesday (Jul 27) when it delivers its verdict in the first trial using a national security law imposed by China to stamp out dissent. One of the key elements...

SEOUL: South Korea on Tuesday (Jul 27) launched COVID-19 vaccinations for workers at key computer chip and electronic businesses to minimise disruptions in the global supply chain amid struggles to keep up with its inoculation schedule. Major tech c...

NEW DELHI: Indian content-sharing platform ShareChat has raised US$145 million in fresh funding from Singapore's Temasek Holdings and two other investors, giving it a valuation of US$2.88 billion, the company told Reuters on Tuesday (Jul 27). The f...

TOKYO: A tropical storm churned towards Japan and the Olympic Games on Tuesday (Jul 27), whipping up welcome waves for surfing medal hopefuls but disrupting other events with rain and strong winds. Olympic organisers have rescheduled rowing and arch...

SEOUL: South Korea and North Korea have restored their once-severed hotlines as part of efforts by the two countries' leaders to rebuild strained ties, Seoul's presidential Blue House said on Tuesday (Jul 27). South Korean President Moon Jae-in and ...

BEIJING: China reported 71 new COVID-19 cases on Monday (Jul 26), the national health authority said on Tuesday, as an outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant threatens the eastern city of Nanjing. Local infections accounted for 31 of the ne...

TOKYO: Ryusei Ouchi has all the usual trappings of a skateboarder - the baggy T-shirt, the low-slung trousers, the flat-peak baseball hat. But he also skates with something else: A cane. The 21-year-old, who goes by Jido, has lost 95 per cent of his...

French President Emmanuel Macron faced pressure to apologise for the devastating impact of decades of nuclear testing as he kicked off his first official trip to French Polynesia.

The Indian Premier League, the world's richest cricket tournament, will resume in the UAE on September 19, more than four months after it was suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic, officials said Sunday.

Rescuers waded through waist-deep mud in western India Monday to reach injured residents and start a massive clean-up as the death toll from monsoon-triggered landslides and floods climbed to 198.

More than 10 million residents of Ho Chi Minh City will be placed under a strict overnight curfew beginning Monday, an unprecedented move to curb infections as Vietnam battles a rapid Covid-19 surge.

The world needs to be more ambitious and step up efforts to boost global technological cooperation, say Hoe Ee Khor and Suan Yong Foo.

An outbreak on a South Korean ship demonstrates the near-impossibility of containing an outbreak in confined places, says former navy man James Goldrick.

BATANGAS, Philippines: The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology on Friday (Jul 23) night lowered the alert status for Taal volcano from level 3 to 2 (out of 5), effectively shrinking the defined danger zone.   The alert level had been...

As COVID-19 rages in Southeast Asia, regional governments are racing to roll out their national vaccination programmes. In the second part of a series, CNA looks at how Thailand has been hamstrung by an uncertain vaccine delivery schedule.

Shares in China's food delivery giant Meituan plunged 14 percent Monday after new rules were issued to protect hard-pressed drivers, fuelling investor concerns over rising employment costs.

Bhutan has inoculated most of its eligible population with second doses of Covid-19 vaccinations in a week, in a speedy rollout hailed by UNICEF on Monday as a "success story" for international donations.

Triumphant weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz will now forget the years of exile, sacrifice, training and nutrition that took her to the Philippines' first Olympic gold by tucking into her favourite sweet passions, cheesecake and bubble tea.

The Japanese men's gymnastics team, all Olympic novices on a team without "King Kohei" Uchimura for the first time since 2008, lost to Russia by a whisker on Monday and said that while they regretted it, they were already turning their sights on Pari...

YANGON: Myanmar's junta on Monday (Jul 26) cancelled the results of 2020 polls won by Aung San Suu Kyi's party, announcing they were not "free and fair" almost six months after deposing the Nobel laureate in a coup. Investigations had uncovered more...

MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Monday (Jul 26) the battle against narcotics is far from over, more than five years after he began a brutal war on drugs that has killed thousands and prompted an accusation of possible crimes agai...

KARACHI: Pakistani port authorities plan to remove fuel from a merchant ship that ran aground in rough seas last week before making a salvage attempt in the middle of next month, an official said on Monday (Jul 26). Panama registered MV Heng Tong 77...

BEIJING: Antibodies triggered by Sinovac's COVID-19 vaccine decline below a key threshold from around six months after a second dose for most recipients, although a third shot could have a strong boosting effect, according to a lab study. Chinese re...

BANGKOK: Thailand on Monday (Jul 26) reported 15,376 coronavirus cases, a record number for a second consecutive day, amid public criticism over the pace of the country's vaccination rollout that has fallen behind some neighbours. The Southeast Asia...

SINGAPORE: Badminton player Loh Kean Yew got his Olympic campaign off to a winning start when he beat IOC Refugee Olympic Team’s Aram Mahmoud on Monday (Jul 26).  Loh, ranked 42nd in the world, saw off the challenge 21-15, 21-12 at the Musashin...

TOKYO: Weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz made history on Monday (Jul 26) when she became the first athlete from the Philippines to win an Olympic gold medal. The 30-year-old Rio 2016 silver medallist from the southern city of Zamboanga realised her dream i...

NEW DELHI: India is proud of its pluralistic traditions and happy to discuss the issue with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his visit beginning on Tuesday (Jul 27), foreign ministry sources said after Washington said he planned to raise N...

Japan grants health benefits to A-bomb 'black rain' victims

One of Hong Kong's top medal hopes, 23-year-old Siobhan Haughey, is making waves among the top female swimmers with a solid performance in the 200m freestyle heats on Monday, earning her a place in the semi-finals in a hotly contested field.

KUALA LUMPUR: Most Malaysian states are likely to move into phase four or the final phase of the country’s COVID-19 exit strategy by October at the earliest, said Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin on Monday (Jul 26).  He was speaking at the speci...

XINXIANG, China: Chinese farmer Cheng wades through knee-deep water, pulling dead pigs behind him one-by-one by a rope tied around their ankles as he lines up the bloated carcasses for disposal. More than 100 of Cheng's pigs drowned in floods that p...

KUALA LUMPUR: Police will investigate a strike staged by contract doctors at Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL) on Monday (Jul 26), Malaysian media reported.  Dang Wangi police chief Mohamad Zainal Abdullah was quoted as saying that an investigation paper...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia reported a record 207 deaths from COVID-19 on Monday (Jul 26), with the number of critically ill patients also reaching a new high. The latest fatalities, which come about a week after the country's previous death record, ta...

Indonesia's decision to relax some COVID-19 curbs this week, despite reporting record-high deaths in recent days, is being driven by social and economic concerns rather than epidemiological advice, public health experts said on Monday (Jul 26). As t...

FAIRBANKS, Alaska: United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will become the first member of President Joe Biden's Cabinet to visit Southeast Asia this week, seeking to emphasise the importance Washington places on fortifying ties in the region wh...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will not extend a months-long national state of emergency when it ends on Aug 1, law minister Takiyuddin Hassan said on Monday (Jul 26). Malaysia has been under emergency rule since January, with Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yass...

HONG KONG: One of the Hong Kong democracy activists who was returned from a Chinese jail after being captured at sea last year was ordered detention in a training centre for under-20-year-olds on Monday (Jul 26) for attempted arson and possessing dan...

TOKYO: Home favourite Naomi Osaka stepped up her quest for Olympic gold on Monday (Jul 26) as she eased into the third round of the Tokyo Games tennis tournament with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Switzerland's Viktorija Golubic. The Japanese star was play...

SEOUL: South Korea said on Monday (Jul 26) it has been informed by Moderna of an unspecified production issue involving its COVID-19 vaccine, as the country expands its inoculation campaign for people aged 55 to 59 amid a fourth wave of infections. ...

BEIJING: Beijing urged Washington to stop "demonising" China on Monday (Jul 26) as rancour marked the start of talks with the highest-level US envoy to visit under President Joe Biden's administration. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman's visit...

HONG KONG: China's private education firms are bracing for a "material" hit to their operations after Beijing announced new rules barring for-profit tutoring in core school subjects to ease financial pressures on families. News of the rule changes o...