News Headlines

HONG KONG: A Hong Kong police officer fired at least one gunshot Sunday (Aug 25), the first time a live round has been used during three months of protests. Violent clashes broke out between protesters and police in Tsuen Wan, around 10km from central Hong Kong, after a rally at a nearby sports ...

HONG KONG: Hong Kong police fired tear gas and brief spurts of water cannon amid running battles with brick-throwing protesters in driving rain on Sunday (Aug 25) after violent clashes a day earlier in which police fired tear gas for the first time in more than a week. Officers were also seen with ...

JOHOR BAHRU: Strong winds over the past few days caused a forest fire at Kampung Pekajang in Iskandar Puteri to spread to a new area of 98 hectares on Sunday (Aug 25), more than the 16 hectares on Friday. The Johor Fire and Rescue Department (JBPM) worked hard for 24 hours to tackle the blaze and ...

A proposal to strengthen protection for mako sharks, hunted for their meat and fins, was adopted Sunday by 102 countries at the CITES global wildlife trade summit in Geneva.

BIARRITZ, France: President Donald Trump on Sunday (Aug 25) denied that his trade war with China is causing friction at the G7 summit, but indicated he will hold off from a threatened further escalation for now. "I think they respect the trade war. It has to happen," Trump told reporters in ...

When President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he had second thoughts about escalating the trade war with China, he meant that he wished he had raised tariffs on Beijing even higher, the White House said.

BIARRITZ, France: US President Donald Trump on Sunday (Aug 25) said he was "not happy" about North Korea's latest missile test but played down the seriousness of the incident. "I'm not happy about it but then again he's not in violation of the agreement," Trump said after state media said North ...

A young girl riding on a motorcycle with her father in New Delhi has died after a glass-coated kite string slit her throat, reports said Sunday, the second incident in a week.

Hong Kong police said on Sunday they arrested 29 people after clashes overnight in which volleys of tear gas were fired to disperse anti-government protesters, as the Asian financial hub braced for more demonstrations later in the day.

With hands-on exhibitions for children and a world-record attempt, Tokyo Sunday marked one year until the 2020 Paralympic Games that organisers hope can change outdated attitudes towards disabled people in Japan.

Japan and the United States have reached a broad agreement in trade negotiations, reports said Sunday, with the leaders of both countries expected to hold talks on the sidelines of the G7 summit.

Some 200,000 Rohingya rallied in a Bangladesh refugee camp to mark two years since they fled a violent crackdown by Myanmar forces, just days after a second failed attempt to repatriate the refugees.

SEPANG: Operations at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) returned to normal on Sunday (Aug 25), Bernama reported, after it was hit by network equipment failure on Wednesday night which caused long queues and flight delays. A check by the Malaysian news agency at 9.30am showed passengers ...

SEOUL: South Korea on Sunday (Aug 25) began two days of war games to practise defending disputed islands off its east coast against an unlikely attack from Japan, further stoking tensions between the Asian neighbours. The annual drills come just days after Seoul terminated a military intelligence ...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the test of a "super-large" multiple rocket launcher on Saturday, state news agency KCNA reported on Sunday.

GEORGETOWN, Penang: At first sight, Mr Craig Fletcher could be mistaken for any tourist. However, sightseeing is not the main item on his agenda. The Australian was travelling with his two young children to accompany his wife for an aesthetic procedure in Penang. “Aesthetic procedures can be ...

A teenage girl from New Zealand sick with measles visited Disneyland and other popular tourist stops across Southern California earlier this month, possibly infecting others, local government health officials warned.

China on Saturday angrily hit out at the latest US tariff hikes on its goods, saying a "bullying" Washington would eventually "eat its own bitter fruit".

HONG KONG: Hong Kong riot police on Saturday (Aug 24) fired tear gas and baton-charged protesters who retaliated with a barrage of stones, bottles and bamboo poles, as a standoff in a working-class district descended into violence. It was the first use of tear gas in about 10 days amid protests ...

Bangladesh police said they had shot dead two Rohingya refugees during a gunfight in a refugee camp on Saturday after the pair were accused of killing a ruling party official.

Indian opposition leaders including former Congress president Rahul Gandhi were barred from leaving the airport on Saturday in Kashmir, where local authorities had warned that their visit could stoke heightened tension in the region.

The US and 10 Southeast Asian states will hold their first-ever joint maritime exercises in September, aimed at preventing "wrongdoing" as Washington and Beijing jostle for influence in the region.

When Myanmar officials toured refugee camps in Bangladesh last month, inviting Rohingya Muslims who fled the country to return, they brought with them pamphlets adorned with cartoons showing hijab-wearing women passing through checkpoints and happily grasping identity cards.

Former Indian finance minister Arun Jaitley, a key ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, died in hospital in New Delhi on Saturday aged 66, the government said.

TAIPEI: Taiwan braced for typhoon Bailu on Saturday (Aug 24), shutting businesses and schools as airlines cancelled hundreds of flights amid warnings of landslides, floods and high seas on the island. Typhoon Bailu, categorised at the weakest typhoon level by Taiwan's weather bureau, made landfall ...

HONG KONG: Tension flickered across Hong Kong Saturday (Aug 24) as riot cops squared off with protesters near a police station in a working-class neighbourhood, as an uneasy peace lasting several days threatened to give way. Thousands of demonstrators, many wearing hard hats and gas masks, marched ...

JAKARTA: Indonesian rescuers found three people dead and evacuated 300 from the blazing wreckage of a ferry off the coast of Java island, an official said on Saturday (Aug 24), significantly more than were originally said to have been on board the vessel. The KM Santika Nusantara was travelling ...

HONG KONG: Hong Kong rail operator MTR Corporation shut down four stations ahead of a planned protest on Saturday (Aug 24) as the Chinese-ruled city braced for further unrest. The offshore airport and the roads and railways leading to it were operating normally despite plans by protesters to ...

HANOI: A Chinese survey vessel on Saturday (Aug 24) extended its activities to an area closer to Vietnam's coastline, ship tracking data showed, after the United States and Australia expressed concern about China's actions in the disputed waterways. The Haiyang Dizhi 8 vessel first entered ...

HONG KONG: A British consulate employee detained in China has returned to Hong Kong, his family said on Saturday (Aug 24). Simon Cheng disappeared after visiting the neighbouring city of Shenzhen on Aug 8 and was placed in administrative detention by police. "Simon has returned to Hong Kong," his ...

HONG KONG: Hong Kong's airport and the roads and railways leading to it were operating normally early on Saturday (Aug 24) despite plans by protesters to implement a "stress test" of transport links to the aviation hub early in the day. Those seeking to enter the terminal had to show valid ...

WASHINGTON: Hours after China announced retaliatory tariffs on US goods on Friday (Aug 23), President Donald Trump ordered US companies to "start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing your companies HOME and making your products in the USA.". The stakes are high: US companies ...

TOKYO: North Korea fired what appears to be two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea off its east coast on Saturday (Aug 24), the South Korean military said, the latest in a series of launches in recent weeks. A US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the two missiles ...

TOKYO: Japan's Coast Guard said it detected a suspected ballistic missile launch from North Korea on Saturday (Aug 24), while Yonhap news agency quoted the South Korean military as saying North Korea had fired two projectiles into the sea off its east coast. A series of launches by North Korea ...

WASHINGTON: The United States and China exchanged blows on Friday (Aug 23) as each side increased punitive tariffs on the other, intensifying a trade war that is threatening to engulf the global economy. In a rapid back-and-forth, Beijing took action against US$75 billion in American goods in ...

LEMBANG, West Java: “Quick, quick, quick! Cover your head, quick!” Mr Tamim Suherman told his audience, as he ducked and put his hands on his head.  The 70-year-old was conducting a drill and teaching a group of housewives what they should do in the event of an earthquake on Tuesday (Aug 20) at a ...

North Korea on Friday launched a scathing attack on US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, calling him a "diehard toxin" and saying it was "sceptical" whether it can negotiate with him.

President Donald Trump hit back at China on Friday (Aug 23) in their mounting trade war, raising existing and planned tariffs in retaliation for Beijing's announcement earlier in the day of new duties on American goods.

They have been manipulated and radicalised to become fighters and human bombs. Will re-socialising and counselling these children at a secretive centre be enough? The programme Insight finds out.

The US and the Taliban said they would return to talks in Qatar on Friday aimed at bringing a close to Afghanistan's 18-year conflict.

China unveiled on Friday retaliatory tariffs against about US$75 billion worth of US goods, marking the latest escalation of a protracted trade dispute between the world's two largest economies.

President Donald Trump said on Friday (Aug 23) he was ordering US companies to look at ways to close their operations in China and make more of their products in the United States instead, sending US markets down sharply in a new rhetorical strike at Beijing as trade tensions mounted.

SINGAPORE: The Singapore Prison Service (SPS) said on Friday (Aug 23) that several articles purportedly penned by a Malaysian drug offender on death row here were in fact written by someone else and part of an "orchestrated campaign". Pannir Selvam Pranthaman told SPS that he did not write the ...

Rohingya imams offered special prayers Friday for a safe return to their homeland ahead of the second anniversary of hundreds of thousands of the minority fleeing Myanmar to Bangladesh.

LONDON: Britain updated its advice for travellers to China on Friday (Aug 23) to warn them of stricter checks by mainland authorities at the border with the former British territory of Hong Kong. "In light of ongoing protests and demonstrations in Hong Kong, there are reports of greater scrutiny ...

HONG KONG: Thousands of Hong Kong protesters on Friday night (Aug 23) chanted in unison as they linked hands to form a massive human chain across the city, taking inspiration from the Baltic Way demonstration 30 years ago. The city's skyscraper-studded harbourfront, as well as several busy ...

JAKARTA: At least four people died and nearly three dozen were missing after a ferry went up in flames off Indonesia's Java island, a port official said Friday (Aug 23). The KM Santika Nusantara was travelling between the country's second-largest city of Surabaya and the town of Balikpapan on ...

KUALA LUMPUR: Network failure has been identified as the cause of the systems disruption at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), said the airport operator on Friday (Aug 23).  The disruption started on Wednesday night and by 10pm on Thursday, 68 flights had been delayed.  Key functions such ...

SINGAPORE: Life is now like a nightmare she wishes she can wake up from, says a Singaporean woman whose husband died in Phuket on Wednesday (Aug 21) after a fight at the resort they were staying in. Ms Bandhna Kaur Bajaj, 34, told CNA two days after the incident that she keeps telling herself not ...

Myanmar on Friday pushed blame for its second failed attempt to repatriate the Rohingya on Bangladesh, a day after not a single refugee turned up to return to conflict-scarred Rakhine state.