Wearing a giant furry hat, black leather jacket and a beaming smile, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un introduced “the world’s strongest weapon” a new submarine-launched ballistic missile at a nighttime parade on Thursday in Pyongyang. The display of North Korea’s military might followed a rare congress of the ruling Workers’ Party, during which leader Kim […]
The US Forces in Korea (USFK) said on Saturday it has imposed a shelter-in-place order on two of its largest basesUS Army Garrison Yongsan and Camp Humphreysuntil Tuesday after a cluster of coronavirus infections. Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, is the largest US military base overseas, housing the USFK headquarters and thousands of […]
Malaysia reported 4,029 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, the biggest daily increase recorded in the country since the start of the pandemic, bringing the total number of infections to 155,095. The health ministry also reported eight new deaths, taking the total number of fatalities to 594. https://sg.news.yahoo.com/malaysia-reports-4-029-coronavirus-110102812.html
The turbulence of last week buried an extremely consequential policy decision in the news cycle’s churn. On January 9, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the department would end its self-imposed regulations on contact between American officials and their Taiwanese counterparts. Moreover, Pompeo eliminated the guidelines that regulated executive branch contact with Taiwan independent […]
In another action against China days before he leaves office, US President Donald Trump on Friday directed government departments to look at ways to minimise procurement of Chinese goods and services to reduce the risks from espionage, his national security adviser said. In a statement, Robert O’Brien accused China of targeting the information systems of […]
Beijing remains on alert for a resurgence of Covid-19 infections as the neighbouring province of Hebei continues to report new cases every day. Hebei began to report a rise in cases at the start of the year. In roughly the last week, the province has locked down its own capital and at least two other […]
One year after signing the phase one trade deal with the US, China remains far behind in its commitment to buy more American goods, though the agreement has been a vital sticking plaster in a fast deteriorating bilateral relationship, experts said. The world’s two largest economies signed the deal on January 15 last year, effectively […]
About 28 million people have been put under lockdown so far as a result and Ma said the latest outbreak had quickly spread widely due to activities such as wedding banquets or large group gatherings, and that it was difficult to control as community transmission had already occurred when cases were discovered. Beijing will begin […]
Five Hong Kong democracy protesters who reportedly fled to Taiwan have arrived in the United States intending to seek asylum, an activist group said on Saturday. Their escape follows the mass arrest of democracy figures in Hong Kong under a new national security law that is part of a mounting crackdown by China on the […]
The Hong Kong government said it “strongly” objects to a US congressional report critical of Beijing’s handling of the city, calling the report “biased, politically motivated and not reflecting the truth”. “Safeguarding national security through legislation is in line with international practice,” the government of the financial hub said in a statement late on Friday. […]
Hong Kong authorities have stepped up their vigilance against bird flu after a highly pathogenic strain was detected in the city for the first time. The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said on Thursday it was notified that two samples of bird droppings taken from Mai Po nature reserve by university researchers last Wednesday had […]
A volcano in Indonesia’s East Java province erupted on Saturday, spewing ash and smoke as high as an estimated 5.6 kilometres into the sky, according to data from the geological agency at the country’s energy ministry. Indonesia has nearly 130 active volcanoes, more than any other country, and while many show high levels of activity […]
The head of Germany’s vaccine regulator on Thursday described the success rate of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine as excellent, after some Australian scientists voiced scepticism about its efficacy. Speaking during an online press briefing, the president of Germany’s Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI), Klaus Cichutek, said there had been some debate over the best usage pattern for […]
US firm Johnson & Johnson is likely to apply for EU approval for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate in February, a top lawmaker said on Wednesday. “EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides announced during our (EU lawmakers) group meeting this morning that the vaccine manufacturer Johnson & Johnson is likely to submit an application for approval to […]
AstraZeneca is scaling up releases of COVID-19 vaccine doses to the United Kingdom to the point where it expects to be providing 2 million a week by or before the middle of February, a top executive told lawmakers on Wednesday. “We’ve released just over 1.1 million doses, to date, and we are scaling up as […]
The head of Germany’s vaccine regulator on Thursday described the success rate of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine as excellent, after some Australian scientists voiced scepticism about its efficacy. Speaking during an online press briefing, the president of Germany’s Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI), Klaus Cichutek, said there had been some debate over the best usage pattern for […]
US firm Johnson & Johnson is likely to apply for EU approval for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate in February, a top lawmaker said on Wednesday. “EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides announced during our (EU lawmakers) group meeting this morning that the vaccine manufacturer Johnson & Johnson is likely to submit an application for approval to […]
AstraZeneca is scaling up releases of COVID-19 vaccine doses to the United Kingdom to the point where it expects to be providing 2 million a week by or before the middle of February, a top executive told lawmakers on Wednesday. “We’ve released just over 1.1 million doses, to date, and we are scaling up as […]
HICKORY, N.C.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–CommScope, a global leader in infrastructure solutions for communications networks, filed an additional patent infringement lawsuit in Germany against SOLiD, a manufacturer of distributed antenna systems (DAS) based in S…
HOUSTON, NEW YORK & SINGAPORE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Commonwealth LNG, in association with Gunvor Group (“Gunvor”), announced today the launch of a formal process to solicit bids to reserve offtake from its planned 8.4 million tons per annum (MTPA) LNG faci…
TAIPEI, Jan. 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Following its previous successes in bio-signal monitors and connective health, VitalSigns Technology shifted gears and entered the IoT industry with its outstanding biosensor and p…
Russian authorities said on Saturday that flights between Moscow and the capitals of Finland, Vietnam, India and Qatar, suspended since the early weeks of the pandemic, would restart from January 27, after certain epidemiological criteria were met. A statement shared following a meeting of the government’s coronavirus HQ said that the four countries were seeing […]
The goal is to let shops, museums and personal services like hairdressers reopen from February 8, while the catering and tourism sectors will stay shuttered until at least March. Ski lifts remain open, while schools will resume in-person instruction after the semester break next month. “We have two to three hard months ahead of us,” […]
China will donate one million doses of its Sinovac coronavirus vaccine to Cambodia, the kingdom’s strongman premier Hun Sen has said, thanking “friend” Beijing for its generosity. Cambodia has long been a staunch ally of Beijing, receiving billions of dollars in soft loans and investment from China. While many countries reacted early in the pandemic […]
The Trump administration notified Huawei suppliers, including chipmaker Intel, that it is revoking certain licenses to sell to the Chinese company and intends to reject dozens of other applications to supply the telecommunications firm, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The actionlikely the last against Huawei Technologies under Republican President Donald Trumpis the latest […]
Britain’s government on Sunday pressed China to allow UN rights inspectors to visit Xinjiang after raising anew allegations of “appalling” human rights abuses against the Uighur minority people. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab last week introduced import controls on firms that may have sourced goods from the region in northwest China using forced labour from the […]
Rescuers detected signs of life Sunday from 22 gold miners trapped underground in east China, a week after the workers were cut off by an explosion, state media reported. The blast on January 10 badly damaged the exit ladder from the mine and the communications system, leaving authorities unable to contact the workers in the […]
The health cluster and the economy cluster are among six main clusters to be focused on by the government following the establishment of the Emergency Management Technical Committee yesterday. The Chief Secretary to the government, Tan Sri Mohd Zuki Ali said the creation of the six clusters was aimed at coordinating all agencies and ministries […]
A total of 569 flood victims are still putting up at temporary evacuation centres in Serian division as of 8pm last night. According to Sarawak Disaster Management Committee, Serian Division currently has five temporary evacuation centres housing 166 families. The temporary evacuation centre at Kampung Rimba Padi hall is housing 96 flood victims from 28 […]
Contact tracing is among the most challenging tasks faced by the Ministry of Health frontliners each time they come across a Covid-19 positive case or cluster. This is because at times they may need to trace thousands of “close contacts” arising from the index case. It is an arduous task but it has to be […]
At least 78 people have been killed after an earthquake struck Indonesia’s West Sulawesi province on Friday, the Search and Rescue agency (Basarnas) said on Sunday, the latest in a string of disasters to hit the Southeast Asian country. In a statement, Basarnas confirmed 78 had died, 67 of whom were from the district of […]
Indonesia’s soon-to-be launched sovereign wealth fund (SWF) is targeting $20 billion in investment in the next few months, President Joko Widodo said, a larger sum than previously announced after positive responses from several firms. Southeast Asia’s largest economy hopes to launch the SWF early this year to attract funds to help it get out of […]
Indonesia reported a record daily increase in COVID-19 cases with 14,224 new infections, its COVID-19 task force said on Saturday, bringing the total to 896,642. It also reported 283 COVID-19 deaths, bringing the total fatalities to 25,767. Indonesia has reported the highest total infections and deaths in Southeast Asia. https://kfgo.com/2021/01/16/indonesia-reports-record-daily-increase-in-covid-19-cases/
Singapore reported 30 new Covid-19 cases today, two of which were locally transmitted infections. There were no new cases in the dormitories. The other 28 were imported cases who had already been placed on stay-home notice upon arrival in Singapore, the Ministry of Health said. The total number of infections in Singapore is now 59,113. […]
Prepare for very dry and warm weather for the second half of January unlike the very wet and cool weather in the past fortnight. The daily maximum temperatures in the coming fortnight are expected to range between 32°C and 33°C on most days, with highs of around 34°C on a few days, said the Meteorological […]
WhatsApp’s clarifications about updates to its terms of service have gone some way to allay initial concerns over privacy, said users of the messaging app in Singapore who intend to continue using it. This comes after the policy changes announced last week centred around sharing data with WhatsApp’s parent company Facebook sparked a global outcry […]
The 300 Baht Fee which has now been approved by the National Tourism Policy Committee will also include a laughable 35 Baht insurance premium (US$1) to provide health coverage for the visitor. It really gets old to follow the ever repeating measures some people in the Thai government come up with as proposals and usually […]
Thai Beverage PCL has revived plans to list regional beer assets through a Singapore initial public offering (IPO) that could raise about $2 billion, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The Singapore-listed firm, one of Southeast Asia’s largest drinks makers, is preparing to list as early as the first half of 2021 but it […]
Students piled bamboo canes and stationery in front of Thailand’s Ministry of Education and splashed crimson paint on it to protest corporal punishment, one of several protests that took place across the capital on Saturday. The small demonstration to mark Teachers’ Day was staged by the “Bad Student” group, who have been part of an […]
Beijing’s top diplomat pledged Saturday to donate half a million coronavirus vaccine shots to the Philippines, Manila officials saiddespite growing resistance there to Chinese-made jabs over concerns about their efficacy. President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration is scrambling to lock in supplies of Covid-19 vaccines for the country’s 110 million people, after being criticised for being too […]
The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Philippines inched closer to half a million, as the Department of Health reported over 2,000 new cases on Saturday, January 16. The DOH reported 2,058 new cases on Saturday, raising the total to 498,691, inching closer to the half million mark nearly a year after the […]
Beijing’s top diplomat pledged Saturday to donate half a million coronavirus vaccine shots to the Philippines, Manila officials said despite growing resistance there to Chinese-made jabs over concerns about their efficacy. President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration is scrambling to lock in supplies of Covid-19 vaccines for the country’s 110 million people, after being criticised for being […]
Sentiment among Japanese manufacturers stabilised in January to the least pessimistic in more than a year from the impact of COVID-19, but service firms grew gloomier just as new lockdowns hit most of the population, the Reuters Tankan poll found. Manufacturers in the world’s third-biggest economy were the least pessimistic since July 2019, though the […]
Major firms including Sony, Panasonic and Nissan on Monday urged the Japanese government to make its 2030 renewable energy target twice as ambitious. Prime minister Yoshihide Suga last year set a 2050 deadline for Japan to become carbon-neutral, but the country’s shorter term renewables goal has long been criticised as lagging. Japan currently aims to […]
For Yuuki Hamazono, it was a relief to find bars and restaurants in Tokyo flouting the Japanese government’s request to close by 8 p.m. The 30-year-old financial trader was one of many people out in the Shimbashi nightlife district during the first weekend of an expanded state of emergency, with the government pleading for residents […]
South Korea reported 580 more cases of COVID-19 as of midnight Saturday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 71,820. The daily caseload stayed below 600 for six straight days, after posting 451 on January 11. It peaked at 1,240 on December 25. The daily number of infections hovered above […]
Wearing a giant furry hat, black leather jacket and a beaming smile, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un introduced “the world’s strongest weapon” a new submarine-launched ballistic missile at a nighttime parade on Thursday in Pyongyang. The display of North Korea’s military might followed a rare congress of the ruling Workers’ Party, during which leader Kim […]
South Korea ranked 6th in the world in terms of military strength this year, an annual military power index showed. According to Global Firepower (GFP) 2021, South Korea had a firepower index of 0.1621 to stand at the 6th out of 138 countries. The country’s ranking remains the same as last year. The index took […]
Hong Kong authorities have stepped up their vigilance against bird flu after a highly pathogenic strain was detected in the city for the first time. The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said on Thursday it was notified that two samples of bird droppings taken from Mai Po nature reserve by university researchers last Wednesday had […]
Plagued by the collapse of travel amid the coronavirus pandemic, arrivals to Hong Kong plummeted nearly 94 per cent year-on-year in 2020 to just 3.57 million, a 36-year low for the once-mighty tourism hub. The provisional numbers, published by the Hong Kong Tourism Board on Friday, marked a precipitous plunge from the 55.9 million people […]
The Hong Kong government said it “strongly” objects to a US congressional report critical of Beijing’s handling of the city, calling the report “biased, politically motivated and not reflecting the truth”. “Safeguarding national security through legislation is in line with international practice,” the government of the financial hub said in a statement late on Friday. […]
Formosa Plastics Corp., the flagship entity of petrochemical conglomerate Formosa Plastics Group (FPG), is planning to invest about $3.6 billion in Taiwan, China and the United States over the next five years to expand its production capacity. Formosa Plastics said the investments are aimed at tapping into the expected recovery in the global market in […]
The turbulence of last week buried an extremely consequential policy decision in the news cycle’s churn. On January 9, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the department would end its self-imposed regulations on contact between American officials and their Taiwanese counterparts. Moreover, Pompeo eliminated the guidelines that regulated executive branch contact with Taiwan independent […]
Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Chiu Chen-yuan said Friday (January 15) that the government should create a more welcoming environment for foreign students wishing to work in Taiwan following graduation. During a public forum on the challenges international students face while searching for jobs in Taiwan, Chiu pointed out that many local employers refuse to hire […]
The HCM City Department of Transport has asked the municipal People’s Committee to approve five new subsidized electric-bus routes that will be operated by Vingroup and run on a pilot basis for 24 months. The move is in line with the city’s drive to reduce air pollution, diversify means of green public transport, and upgrade […]
Pork supply remains plentiful in markets, and the demand for pork has decreased. Pig farmers have been repopulating pig herds to serve the needs of the people during the festive season. There is, obviously, no shortage of pork, but the prices of pork have increased sharply. Sufficient supply Dong Nai Province is currently the leader […]
Vietnam’s stock market has been witnessing explosive trading sessions that have been exceeding all expectations. The trading volume of recent sessions has continually set new records, with the first session of 2021 hitting VND18.580 trillion (over $800 million). The capitalisation of Vietnam’s stock market has also climbed to 84.3 percent of GDP. The buoyant sentiment […]
