NEW DELHI: India is sending a naval task force to the South China Sea this month to expand security ties with friendly countries, officials said on Wednesday, signalling its intent to play a bigger role in regional efforts to counter China.

The Bank of Thailand's Monetary Policy Committee decided on Wednesday to keep the policy rate on hold at 0.5%.

The chair of Thonburi Healthcare Group (THG) said on Wednesday that a deal to import 20 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine was unlikely to happen, despite his earlier claims that a deal was close.

TOKYO: Belarusian Olympic athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya flew out of Japan on Wednesday and was expected to take refuge in Poland after saying she feared for her life if she was forced to return home.

Thirty-two employees of the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority, the city bus operator, were recently found to be infected with Covid-19, the BMTA's public relations office announced on Wednesday.

Asean foreign ministers agreed Wednesday on Brunei's Second Foreign Minister Erywan Yusof as the group's special envoy to Myanmar over the political turmoil in the member country, regional diplomatic sources said.

A total of 18.58 million people in Thailand had received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine as of Tuesday night.

HONG KONG: Chinese cyberespionage groups have been targeting major telecoms providers across Southeast Asia, according to a new report, following accusations from the US and other countries that China hacked into Microsoft Exchange email servers.

SYDNEY: Members of the Australian Olympic men's soccer and rugby seven's teams are facing investigations into unruly behavior on their flight home from Tokyo, following a written complaint by Japan Airlines to the Australian Olympic Committee.

BANGKOK/KUALA LUMPUR: Fresh outbreaks of the Delta coronavirus variant in Southeast Asia have crippled its factory sector, disrupting global supplies of goods such as rubber gloves, semiconductors and SUVs and threatening the US$3 trillion region's r...