News Headlines

KUALA LUMPUR: Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) president Anwar Ibrahim on Sunday (Feb 23) said he has been betrayed by partners in Pakatan Harapan (PH).  This came amid growing speculation that a new ruling coalition will be formed comprising Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu), the United Malays ...

BEIJING: China's leader said on Sunday (Feb 23) the new coronavirus epidemic is the communist country's largest-ever public health emergency, but other nations were also increasingly under pressure from the deadly outbreak's relentless global march. Italy and Iran began introducing the sort of ...

The US forcibly tying Chinese import requirements to the trade deal risks violating global trading rules, distorting and diverting world trade, says an observer.

The knock-on effects on travel, production and Asian supply chains will be massive, says an expert.

AHMEDABAD, India: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to welcome his US counterpart Donald Trump to India with a massive rally on Monday (Feb 24), kicking off a two-day visit likely to be more about pomp and ceremony than concrete agreements. The American president, in his first official visit to ...

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump left for India on Sunday (Feb 23), buoyed by disarray among his Democratic opponents and predicting that "many millions" will greet him on a lightning visit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Things could hardly be going better for the Republican as his campaign ...

The Philippine tourism has been fixated on economic growth. That must change now, says Michael Henry Yusingco.

JAKARTA: Indonesia has refused entry to 118 foreigners, including from Singapore, as part of a measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19. "The number is as accumulated from Feb 5 to Feb 23, 2020, and obtained from all immigration gates across the country," a Directorate General of Immigration ...

SEOUL: South Korea raised its alert on the coronavirus to the highest level on Sunday (Feb 23) after reporting three more deaths and 169 new infections. "The COVID-19 incident faces a grave turning point. The next few days will be crucial," said President Moon Jae-in following a government ...

SEOUL: South Korea raised its alert on COVID-19 to the highest level on Sunday (Feb 23) after reporting three more deaths and 169 new infections. The country has seen a rapid surge in the number of coronavirus cases since a cluster of infections emerged from a religious group in the southern city ...

TOKYO: A third passenger has died after contracting the coronavirus on a cruise ship that was quarantined off Japan, the country's health ministry said on Sunday (Feb 23). In a statement, the ministry identified the victim as a Japanese man in his 80s who was also suffering from other ailments ...

JERUSALEM: Nearly 200 Israeli pupils were ordered to begin a two-week quarantine from Sunday (Feb 23) after having come into contact with South Korean tourists who contracted COVID-19, the education ministry said. South Korean members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus toured Israeli sites between ...

A banned Thai opposition party on Sunday accused the former military government of helping cover up Malaysia's multi-billion-dollar 1MDB scandal, urging Thais to demand the truth ahead of a censure debate against Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha.

It is lunch time in Beijing, but the only diner in Cindy's Cafe is an employee having a staff meal - it has been closed for more than three weeks as China battles a deadly virus epidemic.

SINGAPORE: Singaporeans are advised to avoid non-essential travel to the South Korean cities of Daegu and Cheongdo as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases from the area continues to rise, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said in a public health travel advisory on Sunday (Feb 23).  Members of the ...

Thich Quang Do, a dissident Buddhist monk who has effectively been under house arrest since 2003 and was nominated multiple times for the Nobel Peace Prize, has died aged 93.

Deadly viruses, chickenpox outbreaks and mass cases of the runs: sometimes luxury cruise ship holidays are not the trips of a lifetime elderly passengers had hoped for.

SHANGHAI: China reported another fall in the new coronavirus infections outside of its epicentre on Sunday (Feb 23), but world health officials warned it was too early to make predictions about the outbreak as new infections and fears of contagion increased elsewhere. China's health commission ...

TOKYO: Japan's health minister apologised on Saturday (Feb 22) after a woman who was allowed to leave a coronavirus-infected cruise ship docked near Tokyo tested positive for the virus. The woman in her 60s disembarked the Diamond Princess in Yokohama on Wednesday following a two-week quarantine ...

US President Donald Trump makes his first official visit to India on Monday and work has been going on around the clock to spruce things up -- to the annoyance of some locals as well as monkeys.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's first locally transmitted case of COVID-19, the sister of the Malaysian man who attended a conference in Singapore, was discharged from the hospital on Saturday (Feb 22) after a full recovery.  The 40-year-old had direct contact with her brother while they were celebrating ...

Japan's Emperor Naruhito has said his wife Empress Masako "still has ups and downs" as she battles to recover from a longstanding stress-induced illness related to her royal duties.

ISKANDAR PUTERI, Johor: Malaysia Super League champions Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) unveiled its new stadium on Saturday evening (Feb 22) with a spectacular lights and fireworks display. The state-of-the-art sporting venue, which cost RM200 million (US$47.74 million) to build, can hold up to 40,000 ...

Food establishments in Johor Bahru are reporting a decline in sales of up to 70 per cent.

China reported a sharp fall in new deaths and cases of the coronavirus on Saturday, but world health officials warned it was too early to make predictions about the outbreak as new infections continued to rise in other countries.

Japanese Emperor Naruhito said on Sunday that he was looking forward to the Tokyo Olympics in summer but that he was concerned about the spread of the new coronavirus, which has killed three in Japan and is slowly spreading across the country.

Thousands of Russian-linked social media accounts have launched a coordinated effort to spread alarm about the new coronavirus, disrupting global efforts to fight the epidemic, US officials say.

During weeks holed up in her grandmother's apartment with 10 relatives and eating a restricted diet, Chinese teenager Li Yuxuan says tempers have frayed.

Fears mounted Saturday over the rise of new cases and fatalities outside China from the new coronavirus outbreak, as the World Health Organization warned of a shrinking window to stem the spread of the deadly disease.

MANILA: Families of hundreds of Filipino crew members still stuck on board the coronavirus-stricken Diamond Princess cruise ship are increasingly worried for their relatives' health, as the Philippines postponed on Saturday (Feb 22) a scheduled trip to bring them home. The vessel, moored off the ...

Samsung Electronics said on Saturday that one coronavirus case had been confirmed at its mobile device factory complex in the southeastern city of Gumi, causing a shutdown of its entire facility.

Thai students are expected to stage a protest on Saturday against a court's decision that dissolved the country's second largest opposition party, less than a year after an election to end direct military rule.

YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia: The death toll from a flash flood which hit a large group of students trekking along a river in Indonesia rose to eight Saturday (Feb 22), officials said as rescuers searched for two still missing. Two dozen students from the group of 249 scouts were injured and taken to ...

China's armies of racing, swerving motorcycle deliverymen have been hailed as saviours during the coronavirus crisis, keeping shut-in citizens fed and stocked up. But it's come with major adjustments for couriers like Gao Yuchao.

SEOUL: South Korea reported its second death on Saturday (Feb 22) from the novel coronavirus as the number of new cases rose by 229, bringing the nationwide total to 433.  The national toll is now the second-highest outside of China, with the jump in cases at a hospital in Cheongdo following a ...

Some 100 passengers who were in close contact with infected people on board began disembarking from the coronavirus-stricken Diamond Princess cruise ship on Saturday, local media said.

TOKYO: Japanese officials confirmed four new coronavirus infections on Saturday (Feb 22) as the number of cases outside of China continued to climb. One of the new cases is a woman in her 60s who is a junior high school teacher in Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo, according to a prefectural ...

WUHAN: A 20-year-old Chinese woman from Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, travelled 675km north to Anyang where she infected five relatives, without ever showing signs of infection, Chinese scientists reported on Friday (Feb 21), offering new evidence that the virus can be spread ...

BEIJING: The death toll in China from the new coronavirus outbreak rose by 109, the National Health Commission said on Saturday (Feb 22), bringing the total number of fatalities to 2,345. Another 397 new cases were reported nationwide, down from nearly 900 new cases officially reported Friday ...

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Friday (Feb 21) said that "no date" has been fixed for the leadership transition to his successor, Parti Keadilan Rakyat president Anwar Ibrahim. “I’ve already said (it’s) after the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) Summit (in ...

SINGKAWANG, West Kalimantan: It was only 10am but Mr Iwan Murtanto Tjhia was already busy running around his kitchen, steaming dumplings and coordinating with his siblings. Iwan and his sisters Mdm Lily Tjhia and Mdm Tasya Elizabeth Tjhia own an eatery in Singkawang, West Kalimantan, that ...

The day-to-day impact of climate change on our lives are felt through extreme or abnormal weather events, says Adam Switzer from the Asian School of the Environment at NTU.

Past epidemics underscore the social and public health consequences of how people talk about a disease’s origins, says Mari Webel at the University of Pittsburgh.

China's Hubei province, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, on Friday revised the number of new cases it reported on Feb. 19 to 775, from 349 previously.

When Margaret Ntale Namusisi's three daughters called her in Uganda to say they were being quarantined at their university in Wuhan, China, because of the coronavirus outbreak, she sent money and told them: "Run very fast and do shopping."

China's Hubei province, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, on Friday revised the number of new cases it reported on Feb. 19 to 775, from 349 previously.

Public health officials, businesses and financial markets are looking for signs of whether the arrival of warmer weather in the northern hemisphere might slow the spread of the new coronavirus COVID-19 epidemic. Here's what we know about seasonal features of disease outbreaks.

JAKARTA: At least six people were killed and five more missing when a flash flood hit the Sleman regency of Yogyakarta, Indonesia, where junior high school students were on a camping trip. Agus Wibowo, spokesman at the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said in a statement that rescuers ...

Usually teeming with thousands of worshippers, the church at the centre of South Korea's largest coronavirus outbreak was shuttered and silent on Friday (Feb 21), surrounded by empty streets.

A 20-year-old woman and her two toddlers were burnt to death in a fire at a floating village in Kampung Seng Kee, Tanah Merah, Batu Sapi here, this morning.