News Headlines

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia reported 4,519 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours on Saturday (May 8), the second consecutive day that daily infections have crossed the 4,000 mark.  Selangor recorded the highest number of new cases with 1,722 infections, followed by Kuala Lumpur with 557 and Sarawak with ...

MALE, Maldives: Maldives police have arrested two people over an assassination attempt on former president Mohamed Nasheed who has been taken off life support, officials and relatives said on Saturday (May 8). The Indian Ocean island has called in international help to investigate Thursday's bomb ...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia reported a spike of more than 4,400 new COVID-19 cases on Friday (May 7), on the first day of a renewed lockdown in several areas including the capital Kuala Lumpur. There were a total of 4,498 new infections, an increase of almost 1,000 cases compared to the previous day ...

CHENNAI: India on Saturday (May 8) reported its highest ever single-day COVID-19 death toll, as cases continued to rise and states imposed stricter lockdowns. India's health ministry reported 4,187 fatalities over the past 24 hours, taking the overall death toll close to 240,000. The Institute for ...

MORADABAD, India: People in India's most populous state Uttar Pradesh are fighting not just a raging pandemic but also a prickly Hindu nationalist local government that many say is in denial. The state authorities, headed by a monk touted by some as a successor to Prime Minister Narendra Modi ...

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Saturday (May 8) began a nine-day shutdown affecting travel and tourist hotspots in a bid to prevent a surge in COVID-19 cases during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr. Already battling a third wave of infections and increasingly nervous about the crisis across the border in ...

BANGKOK: Thailand expects to offer the Moderna vaccine to most of its population as soon as it steps up the roll-out of its COVID-19 vaccination campaign, a health official said on Saturday (May 8). The latest drive comes amid growing public criticism of the slow roll-out of free vaccinations ...

COTABATO, Philippines: Dozens of Muslim militants occupied a public market overnight in the southern Philippines before fleeing after a tense stand-off with government forces, officials said on Saturday (May 8). The Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters did not take any hostage or put up resistance ...

Former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed remained in intensive care Saturday as security services stepped up the hunt for the attackers, who allegedly used a remote control bomb on the democracy pioneer and climate activist.

PORTO, Portugal: The European Union (EU) and India are expected to further bolster warming ties on Saturday (May 8) by relaunching long-stalled trade talks and agreeing to work together against the pandemic battering the South Asian giant. The devastating wave of COVID-19 infections sweeping India ...

BEIJING: A large segment of a Chinese rocket is expected to make an uncontrolled re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere on the weekend, but Beijing has downplayed fears and said there is a very low risk of any damage. A Long March 5B rocket launched the first module of China's new space station into ...

The State Department also advised private Americans to reconsider any plans they may have to visit the Himalayan country and asked those already there who wish to leave to submit information to the embassy.

The pandemic has crippled many eateries in JB. However, this orh luak stall, run by an elderly couple and their son, has tweaked its business strategy to survive amid tough times.

Poor reception to the news in Malaysia is because of the perceived double standards in enforcement, the haphazard implementation of the MCO and the worry the government is losing the COVID-19 battle, says James Chin.

Defeat for the BJP in the West Bengal state elections is a sign voters’ perceptions of their Prime Minister is changing, says Coventry University lecturer Saba Hussain.

Poor reception to the news in Malaysia is because of the perceived double standards in enforcement, the haphazard implementation of the MCO and the worry the government is losing the COVID-19 battle, says James Chin.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday attacked a US proposal to hold a "Summit for Democracy," saying such a gathering would only deepen fissures on the international stage.

GENEVA: The World Health Organization announced on Friday (May 7) it had approved a COVID-19 vaccine from China's state-owned drugmaker Sinopharm for emergency use. The vaccine, one of two main Chinese shots that collectively have already been given to hundreds of millions of people in China and ...

BANGKOK: Guerrilla soldiers from Myanmar’s Karen ethnic minority burned down a government military outpost on Friday (May 7) after capturing it without a fight when its garrison fled, a senior Karen officer said. The position is about 15km from a larger camp that the Karen National Liberation Army ...

Nepali climber Kami Rita Sherpa on Friday reached the summit of Mount Everest for the 25th time, breaking his own record for the most summits of the highest mountain in the world.

Hong Kong authorities said on Friday residents who have been fully vaccinated can spend a shorter time in quarantine if they have been exposed to a COVID-19 patient, after thousands of people were sent to tiny quarantine quarters for up to 21 days.

BANGKOK: Thailand plans to waive its mandatory quarantine for vaccinated visitors to its capital Bangkok and top tourist destinations from October, an official said on Friday (May 7), in a bid to revive a key industry battered by coronavirus travel curbs. The new measure means easier access to ...

TOKYO: International Olympic Committee head Thomas Bach's visit to Japan is now expected to be cancelled given that the state of emergency has been extended in Tokyo and other areas, broadcaster NHK said on Friday (May 7) citing unnamed sources. Tokyo 2020 President Seiko Hashimoto also said on ...

The head of tobacco giant Philip Morris said the company will phase out conventional cigarettes in Japan within 10 years, in an interview with the Nikkei business daily published Friday.

KATHMANDU: Across the border from a devastating surge in India, doctors in Nepal warned Friday (May 7) of a major crisis as daily COVID-19 cases hit a record and hospitals were running out of beds and oxygen. Nepal reported 9,070 new confirmed cases on Thursday, compared to 298 a month ago. The ...

Travellers entering the Philippines will be required to undergo 14 days of quarantine, up from a week previously, as authorities try to contain more infectious coronavirus variants, the presidential spokesman said on Friday.

BENGALURU: As a wave of COVID-19 infections has swept through India, overwhelming its healthcare system and government, people have turned to Twitter in a desperate attempt to crowdsource help for anything from COVID-19 tests to oxygen cylinders. Pleas for oxygen, hospital beds, ventilators ...

BANGKOK: Sureerat Chiwarak sat with calm resolve in front of a Bangkok court as her head was shaved in a protest to support her activist son, jailed for weeks without bail on criminal charges of insulting Thailand's powerful king. It was a moment the 51-year-old business consultant had never ...

WELLINGTON: New Zealand wants a more mature relationship with China that goes beyond trade ties and gives room for disagreement, particularly on issues of human rights, the Pacific nation's foreign minister said on Friday (May 7). Nanaia Mahuta's comments come after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern ...

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysia Open, scheduled for May 25 to May 30, has been postponed due to a rise in COVID-19 cases in the Southeast Asian country, organisers said on Friday (May 7). Malaysia on Wednesday imposed movement restrictions in the capital Kuala Lumpur due to an increase in the number of ...

US citizen in Thailand charged with murdering Thai wife

TOKYO: A COVID-19 state of emergency in Tokyo and other parts of Japan was extended on Friday (May 7), less than three months before the Olympics, with restrictions also imposed in two more regions as infections surge. The emergency measures, less strict than blanket lockdowns in other countries ...

BEIJING: China said on Friday (May 7) that the risk of damage on Earth from a rocket which fell out of orbit after separating from a module of its new space station was "extremely low", after the United States warned that it could crash down onto an inhabited area. Military experts in the US ...

TOKYO: Japan Airlines posted an annual net loss of US$2.6 billion on Friday (May 7) but did not release a forecast for the current financial year, citing uncertainty around the COVID-19 pandemic. The carrier, Japan's second-largest by market share, suffered a net loss of 286.7 billion yen for the ...

TOKYO: Unused COVID-19 vaccines in Japan are set to reach tens of millions of doses, as the country is poised to approve two more shots in coming weeks and the pace of its inoculation campaign remains slow due to manpower and logistical bottlenecks. Japan imported 28 million doses of Pfizer's ...

China's exports growth unexpectedly accelerated in April as the brisk United States recovery and stalled factory production in other countries hit by COVID-19 propped up demand for goods made in the world's second-largest economy.

NEW DELHI: India's badminton team has been forced to withdraw from the Malaysian Open due to a travel ban, potentially impacting the players' hopes of qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics. The Sports Authority of India (SAI) said on Thursday (May 6) that the team had pulled out due to the travel ban ...

Former Malaysian leader Najib Razak, who has been convicted over the mammoth 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal, is in trouble with the law again - this time for breaking COVID-19 rules in a restaurant.

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for the release on Friday (May 7) of four Hong Kong activists who were jailed for taking part in a vigil for victims of Beijing's 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

BANGKOK: Thailand’s popular resort island Phuket is pushing for a “special channel” that would allow it to procure COVID-19 vaccines through its local administration and the private sector, as a new wave of cases could delay its reopening plan. It was earlier announced that international tourists ...

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani said that he would issue a directive to prevent police officers and personnel from conducting random checks on foreigners without valid reason. He said that this was to prevent a handful of police officers and ...

BENGALURU: India reported another record daily rise in COVID-19 cases on Friday (May 7), bringing the total number of new cases for the week to 1.57 million, as the country's vaccination rate falls dramatically due to transport problems and a lack of supplies. India's deadly second wave of COVID ...

More than 30 sick climbers have been evacuated from the foot of Mount Everest, raising fears that COVID-19 may scupper a hoped-for bumper season on the world's highest mountain.

Japan's government is set to extend on Friday (May 7) a state of emergency in Tokyo and three other areas by about three weeks until the end of May to curb a surge in COVID-19 cases just months before the start of the Tokyo Olympics.

Former Maldives president and current parliamentary speaker Mohamed Nasheed was recovering in hospital on Friday (May 7) after an assassination attempt left him with shrapnel wounds.

Climbers rejoiced when Nepal decided to reopen its side of Mount Everest this year, but reports suggest even the world's highest peak isn't safe from the spread of Covid-19.

TOKYO: An online petition calling for the Tokyo Olympics to be cancelled has garnered almost 200,000 signatures in the past few days, as public concerns mount over holding the Games in a pandemic. With less than three months to go before the start of the summer Olympics, already postponed for a ...

It was harrowing to be sick from a notoriously unpredictable virus knowing that drugs, hospital beds and oxygen were scarce, says the Financial Times’ New Delhi correspondent Amy Kazmin.

The US military has deployed more heavy bombers and fighter jets to protect withdrawing American and coalition troops from Afghanistan, which have so far sustained no direct attacks, the Pentagon said Thursday.

HONG KONG: A 15-year-old was among five people arrested in Hong Kong under a sweeping national security law, police said on Thursday (May 6), with local press reporting social media posts sparked their detention. Officers from a specialist team in the financial hub arrested four men and one woman ...