News Headlines

GUWAHATI, India: Angry protesters in northeast India vowed on Sunday (Dec 15) to keep demonstrating against a contentious citizenship law as the death toll from bloody clashes sparked by the bill rose to six. Tension remained high at the epicentre of the unrest in Assam state's biggest city ...

WASHINGTON: The United States quietly expelled two Chinese embassy officials in September after they drove onto a sensitive military base in Virginia, The New York Times reported on Sunday (Dec 15). The newspaper, which cited multiple people with knowledge of the episode, said it appeared to be ...

The United States secretly expelled two Chinese embassy officials in September after they drove onto a sensitive military base in Virginia, The New York Times reported Sunday.

Hong Kong's immigration department said Sunday they have received reports a man went missing on a cross-border mega bridge to the gambling hub of Macau that currently hosts a Chinese mainland police checkpoint.

HONG KONG: Small groups of anti-government protesters gathered in shopping malls across Hong Kong on Sunday (Dec 15) amid sporadic scuffles with riot police, with Chief Executive Carrie Lam away on a visit to Beijing. In the peak shopping season ahead of Christmas, groups of masked protesters ...

MANILA: A powerful earthquake hit the southern Philippine island of Mindanao on Sunday (Dec 15), killing a child and damaging buildings in an area still recovering from a string of deadly quakes in October. Police said a rescue operation had been launched at a heavily damaged market building near ...

HONG KONG: Hong Kong International Airport reported its biggest fall in passenger numbers in more than a decade in November, official data released on Sunday (Dec 15) showed. The airport handled just over five million passengers, down 16.2 per cent from a year earlier, Airport Authority Hong Kong ...

MANILA: A powerful earthquake struck near the Philippines city of Davao on Sunday (Dec 15), the US Geological Survey said, the latest tremor to strike the southern part of the country in recent months, causing damage to buildings but no tsunami. The magnitude 6.8 quake was centred 61km southwest ...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's health authorities on Sunday (Dec 15) said they are working with UNICEF to bring polio vaccines to the state of Sabah in Malaysian Borneo, where the country's first polio case in nearly three decades was detected last week. A three-month-old infant was diagnosed with polio ...

At least 14 people died after a bus carrying pilgrims veered off a highway and rolled down a steep slope in central Nepal Sunday, officials said, the latest deadly traffic accident in the Himalayan nation.

Five people died, including three after being shot by police, following violent protests in northeast India over a contentious citizenship law, with authorities maintaining internet bans and curfews in some regions.

Stephen Biegun, the U.S. special envoy for North Korea, arrived in South Korea on Sunday as Pyongyang stepped up pressure on Washington to make concessions to revive stalled denuclearisation talks ahead of a year-end deadline.

JOHOR BAHRU: The number of flood evacuees in the Malaysian state of Johor has increased dramatically after continuous heavy rain in the area over the past two days, authorities said on Sunday (Dec 15).  As of 8am on Sunday, the number of people evacuated from their homes stood at 3,835 in the ...

WASHINGTON: For the past two decades India has been enthusiastically feted in Washington, with politicians across the spectrum eager to nurture an alliance between the world's two largest democracies. But as Prime Minister Narendra Modi pushes forward his Hindu nationalist agenda, India has ...

PRANBURI, Thailand: Patcharin In-juang was pregnant when she agreed to move to the home village of her husband in Pranburi district in central Thailand back in 2004. She was from the city, so she was expecting a different life in the rural community. But she was shocked to find out when she ...

SINGAPORE: South Korea is regarded as a food haven by many, but Indonesian tourist Rati was starving past lunch time as she walked around a park in the country’s second-largest city Busan. Ms Rati and two of her fellow Muslim travel buddies had had trouble finding Halal-certified food earlier in ...

Strict bailouts and a lack of investment from the EU have led to some European countries seeking stronger relations with China, says an observer.

SEOUL: North Korea has conducted another "crucial test" at its Sohae satellite launch site, state media reported, as nuclear negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington remain stalled with a deadline approaching. The announcement Saturday comes one day before US Special Envoy on North Korea ...

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam left for Beijing on Saturday for her first visit to the Chinese capital since her government was handed a crushing defeat in local elections last month, prompting speculation about changes to her leadership team.

Demonstrators in eastern India set fire to more than a dozen buses and vandalised at least six railway stations on Saturday, as violent protests against a new citizenship law continued for a fourth straight day.

Thousands of supporters of Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi thronged the streets of the capital Naypyitaw on Saturday to celebrate her arrival back from The Hague, where she defended the country against genocide charges.

BANGKOK: Thousands of people joined Bangkok's biggest protest since a 2014 coup on Saturday (Dec 14), after authorities in Thailand moved to ban a party that has rallied opposition to the government of former military ruler Prayuth Chan-ocha. The demonstration, called a day earlier by Future ...

Five Hong Kong teenagers have been arrested in connection with the death of a man hit on the head by a brick during clashes between pro- and anti-government protesters last month, police said Saturday.

More than 27,000 pigs have died in a hog-cholera epidemic that has struck Indonesia, with thousands more at risk, an animal welfare official said.

KATHMANDU: Nepal wants to review a military deal allowing its citizens to be enlisted in the British army, before a planned recruitment of Nepali women in the Brigade of Gurkhas for the first time in two centuries, the Himalayan country's foreign minister said. It is not clear how many Gurkha ...

English soccer club Arsenal tried on Saturday to distance itself from the comments of its star midfielder Mesut Ozil after he posted messages on Twitter and Instagram critical of China's policies toward its Muslim Uighur minority.

DOHA: Malaysia's 94-year-old Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad again raised the prospect on Saturday (Dec 14) that he could stay in office beyond 2020, declining to give a definitive pledge to step down. Mahathir returned to power last year after dealing a historic election defeat to the corruption ...

SEOUL: North Korea said it had conducted another test at a satellite launch site on Friday (Dec 13) to bolster its strategic nuclear deterrence, North Korean state media outlet KCNA reported on Saturday. KCNA said that North Korea had carried out a "very important" test at the Sohae satellite ...

SINGAPORE: Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) on Saturday (Dec 14) issued a travel notice for northeast India, advising Singaporeans travelling there to "exercise vigilance and caution". Violent protests there over a new citizenship law for minorities from some neighbouring countries ...

Arsenal's Mesut Ozil, a German footballer of Turkish origin, on Friday expressed support for Uighurs in Xinjiang and criticised Muslim countries for their failure to speak up for them.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam left for Beijing on Saturday for her first visit to the Chinese capital since her government was handed a crushing defeat in local elections last month, prompting speculation about changes to her leadership team.

WASHINGTON: The United States and China announced a major thaw in their trade war on Friday (Dec 13), including immediate cuts to punishing import tariffs, but markets were not impressed. "We have agreed to a very large Phase One Deal with China," President Donald Trump tweeted after officials in ...

After nearly two-years of bare-knuckle battling, Washington and Beijing on Friday at last announced a bargain to end the dispute.

TAIPEI: Police in southern Taiwan shot a man on Saturday (Dec 14) suspected of planting a possible explosive device outside a campaign office for the island's main opposition party, the Kuomintang, the official Central News Agency reported. Taiwan holds presidential and parliamentary elections on ...

Few people have risen so high in the international imagination only to fall as dramatically as Aung San Suu Kyi.

BANDUNG, West Java: Dressed in their red-and-white uniform, 58 students assembled in the courtyard of Public Elementary School No 29 in Bandung's sub-district of Cilengkrang. Minutes before, a pickup truck from the Bandung Agriculture Agency arrived, delivering a sack of rice hulls and a ...

Hong Kong police have earned an average of USUS$11,000 for each officer in overtime pay during the last six months of anti-government protests, with the total overtime bill coming to more than USUS$120 million (93.53 million pounds), the government said on Friday.

JAKARTA: Indonesian President Joko Widodo has brushed off accusations by critics that he is looking to create a political dynasty after a decision by his son and son-in-law to run for mayoral posts in next year's regional elections. When Widodo was elected for his first term in 2014, the former ...

A divisive citizenship bill has been signed into law in India, a move that comes amid widespread protests in the country's northeast that could force the cancellation of a visit by Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to India for summit talks with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi has been deferred, India's foreign ministry said on Friday.

JAKARTA: When part of a seawall protecting Jakarta collapsed last week near fisherman Awing Takalar's shack it brought back bad memories of when another levee burst in 2007 and all his belongings were washed away. Fortunately, the tides have not been high, and residents in the exposed section of ...

SHANGHAI: A top-tier Chinese basketball team was hit with a one million yuan (US$140,000) fine for a promotional image that swapped out Mao Zedong for the club's mascot. Zhejiang Guangsha Lions apologised for the picture which was posted on social media and showed a lion in a Mao suit and red ...

BOGOTA, Colombia: Four cultural practices that originate in Asia were on Thursday (Dec 12) added to a prestigious UNESCO heritage list, which seeks to enhance visibility for these traditional practices and the know-how of communities. This year, a total of 15 elements were added to the ...

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has declared that a deal to de-escalate the trade war with China was imminent but Beijing remained coy on Friday (Dec 13) and cautioned that any agreement must be "mutually beneficial." Reports Washington and Beijing had struck a bargain at last - subject to ...

Thai opposition party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit called on supporters to mobilise in Bangkok on Saturday, days after the country's election body called for the dissolution of his Future Forward Party.

The world's biggest cricket stadium, with space for 110,000 spectators, is taking shape in India and is likely to host its first international match early next year.

BOGOTA, Colombia: The martial art of silat has been recognised as an Intangible Cultural Heritage by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). It was officially recognised by UNESCO at the 14th Session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of ...

A Sumatran tiger has killed an Indonesian farmer, police said Friday, in the third fatal attack by the critically endangered species in less than a month.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is planning to scrap a visit to northeast India as the security situation there deteriorates following the passage of a controversial citizenship bill, media reported Friday.