News Headlines

By recognising and investing in the strengths of pioneering cities and regions, China has developed a mechanism for advancing its economic transformation, says Zhang Jun.

The move was disorientating but has prompted deeper reflections on what home and belonging mean, says Annisa Natalegawa.

PETALING JAYA: The fried Hokkien prawn mee was scooped up from the wok and transferred onto a plate, white wisps of steam unfurling from the mixture of yellow noodles and rice vermicelli.  But it was not ready to be served yet.  Two big prawns were tossed into the wok. The oil sizzled, filling ...

Kashmir people vote in local polls amid cold and security

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi toured three of the nation's leading vaccine development and manufacturing sites on Saturday as coronavirus case counts continue to soar.

HONG KONG: Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said she has "piles of cash" at home as she has no bank account after the United States slapped sanctions on her in response to a security law China imposed on the city. Lam was targeted, along with 14 other senior city officials, in the toughest US action on ...

BANGKOK: Thai anti-government protesters demonstrated in Bangkok’s outskirts on Saturday (Nov 28) with a duck parade and speeches demanding the removal of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, a new constitution and reforms to the monarchy. Protests have been stepped up this week despite threats by ...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia reported 1,315 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday (Nov 28). Apart from five imported cases, the rest were local infections. Sabah accounted for most of the new cases with 476 infections, while authorities found 266 cases in Selangor and 191 cases in Kuala Lumpur.   There were ...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will hold a general election when the COVID-19 pandemic is over, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said on Saturday (Nov 28), shortly after he averted a showdown by winning parliamentary support for his administration's budget.  Parliament passed Malaysia's largest budget by a ...

KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 9.6 million people or 30 per cent of Malaysia’s population are expected to be vaccinated against COVID-19 next year, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said on Saturday (Nov 28).  He noted that the government has signed two agreements for the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines ...

JAKARTA: Indonesian police were on Saturday (Nov 28) searching for suspected militants accused of killing four people and burning seven houses in a village in Central Sulawesi province. National Police spokesperson Awi Setiyono said they believe Friday's assault in Lemban Tongoa village of Sigi ...

BEIJING: China has powered up its first domestically developed nuclear reactor - the Hualong One - a significant step in Beijing's attempts to become less dependent on Western allies for energy security and critical technology. The reactor, which was connected to the national grid on Friday (Nov ...

NEW DELHI: Thousands of farmers in and around the Indian capital on Saturday (Nov 28) pressed on with their protest against agricultural legislation they said could devastate crop prices, while the government sought talks with their leaders. Some protesters burned an effigy of Prime Minister Modi ...

SEOUL: South Korea has reported more than 500 new coronavirus cases for the third straight day, the speed of viral spread unseen since the worst wave of the outbreak in spring. The 504 cases reported by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention on Saturday (Nov 28) brought the national caseload to ...

SHANGHAI: China on Saturday (Nov 28) reported six new coronavirus cases in the mainland for Nov 27, compared with five cases a day earlier, the health authority said. All of the new infections were imported cases, the National Health Commission said in a statement. There were no new deaths. China ...

China’s ambitious pledge to be carbon-neutral before 2060 shines an uncomfortable spotlight on Europe and the US, says Kevin Tu.

FinTech has thrived in other jurisdictions compared to China because of the presence of regulation, says Chris Skinner.

JAKARTA: With the majority of their occupants studying remotely from home, the neighbourhoods near one of Indonesia’s most prestigious universities appeared quiet and desolate. Outside the gates of University of Indonesia – a vast, 320ha campus located just south of the Indonesian capital Jakarta ...

The World Health Organization's top emergency expert said on Friday (Nov 27) it would be "highly speculative" for the WHO to say the coronavirus did not emerge in China, where it was first identified in a food market in December last year.

China will ban all waste imports from January 1, 2021, state media reported Friday, marking the culmination of a three-year phase-out of accepting overseas junk.

NEW DELHI: New Delhi police agreed to let thousands of Indian farmers stage a peaceful protest inside the capital on Friday (Nov 27) after initially blocking demonstrators on the outskirts and firing tear gas and water cannon at them. The farmers are angry over new laws deregulating the vast ...

American singer Cher arrived in Pakistan to send off Kaavan, the elephant she has spent years trying to free, before he is moved to a sanctuary in Cambodia on Sunday.

North Korean hackers are suspected to have carried out a cyberattack against British coronavirus vaccine developer AstraZeneca in recent weeks, Reuters revealed Friday, citing two unnamed sources with knowledge of the matter.

BANGKOK: Thousands of Thai anti-government protesters called for an end to coups in the Southeast Asian country on Friday (Nov 27) as months of street protests fuel rumours of another military takeover. The protesters demand the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, a former ...

Japan's ruling party will call on the government to promote environmental investment with a major decade-long spending programme for the country, whose Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has made a green society a key policy priority.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has agreed to buy 12.8 million doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, becoming the first country in Southeast Asia to announce a deal with the US drugmaker after some expressed reservations over the need for ultra-cold storage. While final trial data showed that Pfizer's ...

SINGAPORE: Singapore and Malaysia are still in the process of negotiating on some proposals mooted by Malaysia to "improve" the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail (HSR) project, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Economy) Mustapa Mohamed. In a statement released on Friday (Nov ...

BEIJING: US electric car maker Tesla is recalling 870 vehicles in China over defective roofs, part of which could fall off, China's market regulator said on Friday (Nov 27). The announcement comes just a month after another recall of almost 30,000 cars imported into China - the world's biggest ...

TOKYO: Tokyo Olympics test events will resume in March and a decision on fan attendance will come in the spring, an official said on Friday (Nov 27), as preparations continued for the postponed Games despite ongoing COVID-19 fears. The comments from Yasuo Mori, deputy executive director of the ...

LONDON: British electric appliance pioneer Dyson, famed for its bagless vacuum cleaners, announced Friday (Nov 27) that it will invest £2.75 billion (US$3.7 billion) to double its product range by 2025. Dyson said in a statement that it will plough the cash into operations in Britain, the ...

Chinese authorities said on Friday they are set to charge 12 people from Hong Kong with border violations after they were detained in China more than three months ago while trying to flee from the city by speedboat.

MANILA: The Philippines will get 2.6 million shots of a potential COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca under the country's first supply deal for a coronavirus vaccine, senior officials said on Friday (Nov 27). This supply, to be paid for by the private sector, will inoculate more than 1 ...

Meng Wanzhou's defence lawyers leveled new allegations Thursday of a "cover up" by the most senior Canadian law enforcement official to testify so far in the Huawei executive's extradition hearing.

SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered at least two people executed, banned fishing at sea and locked down the capital, Pyongyang, as part of frantic efforts to guard against COVID-19 and its economic damage, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers Friday (Nov 27). Kim's government ...

Russia's sovereign wealth fund and Indian pharmaceutical company Hetero have agreed to produce over 100 million doses per year in India of the Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19, according to a statement on the Sputnik V Twitter account on Friday.

Thailand expects to receive 1,200 foreign visitors in both November and December, after a slight easing of travel curbs aimed at generating some income until a ban on mass tourism is lifted, its tourism authority chief said on Friday.

The changes were made having taken into account viewpoints from the various political parties, said Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

SEOUL: South Korea's intelligence agency foiled North Korean attempts to hack into South Korean companies developing coronavirus vaccines, lawmakers said on Friday (Nov 27). Ha Tae-keung, a member of the parliamentary intelligence committee, said after being briefed by the National Intelligence ...

TOKYO: Coronavirus infections in Tokyo hit a record daily 570 cases, topping the previous high of 539, the Tokyo metropolitan government said on Friday (Nov 27). It comes with a record 9,792 tests conducted, Tokyo said. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike has called the COVID-19 situation in the Japanese ...

Asymptomatic COVID-19 patients are driving a surge in new cases in South Korea, frustrating efforts to control transmission by the Asian country which managed to keep infections under control in previous outbreaks.

Germany, once a beacon of hope in Europe's coronavirus nightmare, logged its one millionth case on Friday, as questions emerged over just how much protection is offered by one of the leading vaccine candidates.

In a supermarket in downtown Beijing, refrigerator shelves normally filled with steak from around the world sit empty as tougher testing for the novel coronavirus creates supply bottlenecks and raises prices for importers.

IMUS, Philippines: With his black sports jacket, reflective aviator sunglasses and bespoke orange helmet with holes so his ears can stick out, Bogie the dog sure is one suave-looking canine, with an Easy Rider look that would earn him a place in any motorcycle gang. The 11-year-old crossbreed from ...

TAIPEI: Legislators from Taiwan's main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party threw pig guts and exchanged punches with other lawmakers in parliament on Friday (Nov 27) as they tried to stop the premier from taking questions, in a bitter dispute over easing US pork imports. President Tsai Ing-wen ...

NEW DELHI: Thousands of protesting Indian farmers scuffled with police on Friday (Nov 27) during a march to the capital, Delhi, against new laws liberalising procurement that they say will leave them vulnerable to big companies. Police fired several rounds of tear gas at some places on the ...

NEW DELHI: Top doctors have warned elite runners are taking a major health risk by competing in Sunday's (Nov 29) New Delhi half-marathon in the midst of a major coronavirus outbreak and soaring air pollution. Women's marathon world record-holder Brigid Kosgei from Kenya and Ethiopia's two-time ...

JEMAPOH, Negeri Sembilan: A Malaysian family have cooked up a tasty solution to their economic woes during the pandemic by opening a backyard pizzeria that has proved a hit in their sleepy village. Millions of people around the world lost their jobs this year as governments introduced economically ...

COLOMBO: During his leisure time, Mahinda Dasanayaka packs his motorcycle with books and rides his mobile library — across mostly muddy roads running through tea-growing mountain areas — to underprivileged children in backward rural parts of Sri Lanka. Having witnessed the hardships faced by ...

HONG KONG: Cua Chiu-fai is on a mission to rid Hong Kong's classrooms of what he sees as poisonous anti-China bias. His soldiers: Mainly parents. He has recruited hundreds of mothers and fathers to monitor and report on teachers deemed guilty of filling their students with hate for China and ...

Hong Kong prison staff were wrong to cut the hair of a veteran dissident known for his long locks, the city's top court said Friday, in the second significant ruling against authorities this month.