News Headlines

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday India was completely self-reliant on coronavirus vaccine supplies as the world's second-most populous country inoculated more than one million people within a week of starting a massive campaign.

A Mukbang star got herself into a pickle with Chinese and South Korean netizens – over the origins of kimchi. But a larger food fight has been brewing for some time, says Steven Borowiec.

Due to COVID-19, many Malaysians stuck in Singapore will be celebrating Chinese New Year without their extended family. CNA spoke to some of them about the challenges faced.

Italian prosecutors have opened a probe into the accidental death of a 10-year-old girl who allegedly took part in a "blackout challenge" on the video-sharing network TikTok.

SINGAPORE: Cargo drivers from Malaysia delivering essential goods to Singapore on Friday (Jan 22) said they experienced delays at the land entry checkpoints, on the first day the Singapore government implemented mandatory COVID-19 tests.  Singapore's Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) announced ...

SINGAPORE: The Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link moved a step closer to reality as work on the Singapore station of the rail link began on Friday (Jan 22).  The RTS Link Woodlands North station would be constructed underground at a maximum depth of 28m, with an underground link ...

Thousands of Hong Kongers will be ordered to stay in their homes for the city's first coronavirus lockdown, local media reported Friday, as authorities battle an outbreak in one of its poorest and most densely packed districts.

Relatives of 62 people killed when an Indonesian passenger jet slammed into the sea scattered flowers at the crash site Friday, as investigators look for clues to why the plane dropped from the sky minutes after takeoff.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian health authorities reported 3,631 new coronavirus cases on Friday (Jan 22) with 18 new fatalities, the highest daily death toll so far. Friday's figures take the total number of infections to 176,180. A total of 660 people in Malaysia have died of COVID-19.  On Thursday ...

Myanmar on Friday received 1.5 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine supplied by India to inoculate 750,000 people, the first vaccine batch delivered to the Southeast Asian country as it fights one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in the region.

BEIJING: China reported its first cluster of COVID-19 cases among workers in a meat processing plant, raising fears among local consumers who have until now mainly worried about the safety of imported foods. Ten confirmed cases were found in a factory which slaughters 50 million chickens a year in ...

Truck with quarry explosives blasts in India, killing 5

TAIPEI: Taiwan is under no illusions it can quickly sign a long hoped for free trade deal with the United States but feels when the time is right "success will flow naturally", the island's chief trade negotiator said on Friday (Jan 22). Taiwan has long sought a bilateral trade deal with the ...

TOKYO: Japan's Cabinet approved draft laws to toughen coronavirus restrictions on Friday (Jan 22), a move that could threaten rule-breakers with fines and prison sentences for the first time since the outbreak began. With just six months until the virus-postponed Tokyo Olympics are due to begin ...

JAKARTA: Indonesia's air accident investigator is probing whether a problem with the autothrottle system, which controls engine power automatically, contributed to the Sriwijaya Air crash on Jan 9 that killed 62 people, an official said on Friday (Jan 22). National Transportation Safety Committee ...

Four UNICEF schools for Rohingya children in refugee camps in Bangladesh have been destroyed in a fire, officials said Tuesday, with the UN children's agency calling it arson.

BEIJING: It will take at least 15 more days to get through a massive amount of debris and reach miners already trapped for 11 days since an explosion in a gold mine in eastern China, authorities said on Thursday (Jan 21). The mine shaft is blocked 350m below the surface by 70 tons of debris that ...

CHONBURI, Thailand: Underwater divers in plastic-choked waters off the coast of Thailand snip through discarded nets tangled around a reef - a new initiative helping protect marine life and aiding the fight against coronavirus. The "ghost nets" discarded from the country's lucrative fishing ...

BEIJING: Beijing launched mass COVID-19 testing in parts of the city on Friday (Jan 22), while Shanghai was testing all hospital staff, as China battles the worst outbreak since March 2020. China reported a slight decline in new daily COVID-19 cases on Friday - 103 from 144 cases a day earlier ...

Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said on Friday that he was determined to realise the Tokyo Olympics.

US military prosecutors have filed formal charges against Indonesian extremist Hambali and two others in the 2002 Bali bombings and 2003 Jakarta attack, the Pentagon said on Thursday (Jan 21).

TOKYO: Suicides increased in Japan during 2020 after a decade of declines, with the number of women committing suicide surging amid the emotional and financial stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic even as fewer men took their own lives. Suicide has a long history in Japan as a way of avoiding ...

TOKYO: With much of Japan under a state of emergency due to a third wave of COVID-19 infections, organisers of the Tokyo Olympics will mark six months to go on Saturday (Jan 23) with little fanfare, no fireworks and amid rapidly dwindling public support. Postponed by a year due to the pandemic ...

BEIJING: A new form of African swine fever identified in Chinese pig farms is most likely caused by illicit vaccines, industry insiders say, a fresh blow to the world's largest pork producer, still recovering from a devastating epidemic of the virus. Two new strains of African swine fever have ...

JAKARTA: Indonesia has rolled out a mass COVID-19 vaccination programme with President Joko Widodo becoming the first person in the country to be inoculated last week.  The government is aiming at vaccinating two-thirds of the population to reach herd immunity, and Mr Widodo has set a deadline of ...

Strong earthquake shakes southern Philippines; no tsunami

A fire broke out Thursday at India's Serum Institute, the world's largest maker of vaccines, but a source said production of the coronavirus vaccine was not affected.

PUTRAJAYA: A movement control order (MCO) in six Malaysian states and federal territories which was to expire on Jan 26 is to be extended to Feb 4, Senior Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said on Thursday (Jan 21). The affected areas are the states of Penang, Selangor, Johor, Sabah, Malacca and ...

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Thursday that China has agreed to provide half a million doses of the Chinese Sinopharm COVID-19 free of cost to Pakistan by January 31.

The rotting carcass of a nearly 14-metre (46-foot) whale washed up Thursday on Bali beach popular with tourists.

Thousands of Mongolians have protested against what they say is the heavy-handed treatment of a coronavirus-infected mother and her newborn baby, prompting a wave of resignations by officials.

A Japanese court upheld a ban on dual citizenship on Thursday, rejecting a suit that challenged the measure's constitutionality and sought damages for those affected.

BANGKOK: A banned Thai opposition politician, who is facing a criminal complaint of defaming the monarchy, defended on Thursday (Jan 21) his criticism of the government's COVID-19 vaccine strategy that relies on a company owned by King Maha Vajiralongkorn. Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit this week ...

TOKYO: When the Tokyo Olympics were postponed last year, officials promised they would open in 2021 as proof of mankind's triumph over the coronavirus. But six months before the rescheduled start, victory over the virus remains distant, and fears are growing rapidly that the Games may not take ...

President Joe Biden's inauguration on Wednesday looked a bit different from past ceremonies ushering in a new administration.

Barriers still enclose Wuhan's notorious seafood market - one of the few immediate reminders that the city was once the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic that has transformed the world.

BEIJING: China plans to impose strict COVID-19 testing requirements during the Chinese New Year holiday season, when tens of millions of people are expected to travel, as it battles the worst wave of new infections since March last year. The commercial hub of Shanghai reported its first locally ...

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka reopened to foreign tourists on Thursday (Jan 21) after a nearly 10-month closure that cut deeply into the Indian Ocean island nation's lucrative travel industry. Full operations also resumed on Thursday at the island's two international airports, accommodating the commercial ...

Chinese rescuers drilled deep into the ground Thursday in an increasingly desperate bid to save 21 miners now trapped for almost two weeks, with one confirmed dead and still no signs of life from over half of the missing workers, state media reported.

World leaders said they were looking forward to working with US Joe Biden, as the Democrat was sworn in as president after four turbulent years under Donald Trump.

The former president has come under fire after the US Capitol storming. While America prepares to turn a page on his term, Americans should be wary not to throw out policies the last administration got right.

The family of French-Irish teenager Nora Quoirin will challenge an inquest ruling that she died by misadventure after vanishing in the Malaysian jungle while on holiday, their lawyer said on Thursday (Jan 21).

SHANGHAI: Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma made his first public appearance since October on Wednesday (Jan 20) when he spoke to a group of teachers by video, easing concern about his unusual absence from the limelight and sending shares in the e-commerce giant surging. Speculation over Ma's ...

Taiwan's relationship with its most important global backer the United States has gotten off to a strong start with President Joe Biden's new administration, after the island's de facto ambassador attended his inauguration on Wednesday (Jan 20).

SHANGHAI: Twitter has locked the account of China's US embassy for a tweet that defended China's policies in the Xinjiang region, which the US social media platform said violated the firm's policy against "dehumanisation". The Chinese Embassy account, @ChineseEmbinUS, posted a tweet this month ...

China reported a rise in new COVID-19 cases despite a flurry of recent measures to contain the latest outbreak in the northeast, with Heilongjiang province recording its biggest daily increase in new patients to date.

COVID-19 has turbocharged Malaysia’s already fractious politics – and that’s flowing into the country’s economy says this observer.

BANGKOK: As the Thai government races to secure more COVID-19 vaccines from various sources, a group of medical scientists is preparing for the first clinical trial of a home-grown cure they are developing to fight the pandemic. In April, they expect to inject 72 volunteers aged between 18 and 75 ...

India's government on Wednesday offered to suspend implementation of three new farm laws that have triggered the biggest farmers' protests in years, which farm union leaders said they would now consider calling off.