South Korea is closely monitoring North Korea’s military moves in coordination with the United States, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Monday, amid signs of activity at the North’s main shipyard used to develop submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs). According to 38 North, commercial satellite imagery of the North’s Sinpo Shipyard indicates that a missile […]
The future of diplomatic and financial relations between Iran and South Korea is at stake as prime minister Chung Sye-kyun visits Tehran for three days of talks. South Korea has for years blocked at least $7bn of Iranian money in its banks as it fears falling afoul of harsh economic sanctions the United States started […]
China’s failure to provide access to global health experts made the COVID-19 pandemic worse than it had to be, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on Sunday, and it was important to “get to the bottom” of the origin of the novel coronavirus. The top US diplomat’s sharp words underscored criticism from other members […]
Myanmar’s detained government leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, asked a court on Monday to be allowed to meet her lawyers in person as she appeared at a hearing via video link to face charges brought by the military junta that could see her jailed for years. As the champion of decades of struggle against military […]
Philippine and US soldiers will conduct a two-week joint military exercise from Monday, resuming the annual training event after last year’s cancellation due to the pandemic, the Philippine military chief said on Sunday. The announcement came after the two countries’ defence secretaries held a phone call to discuss the drills, the situation in the South […]
Joe Biden’s secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Sunday the US is concerned about China’s aggressive actions against Taiwan and warned it would be a “serious mistake” for anyone to try to change the status quo in the western Pacific by force. “What we’ve seen, and what is of real concern to us, is […]
Canada’s government under prime minister Justin Trudeau is reportedly threatening to withdraw government funding for the Halifax International Security Forum (HFX), if it goes through with its plans to present an award to Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen. According to multiple sources cited by Politico, HFX had planned to present its John McCain Prize for Leadership […]
Military activity in the South China Sea spiked over the weekend as a Chinese aircraft carrier entered the region and a US Navy expeditionary strike group wrapped up exercises. Meanwhile, the US and Philippines were preparing for joint drills as the US secretary of defense proposed ways to deepen military cooperation between Washington and Manila […]
Secretary of State Antony Blinken criticised China Sunday for not disclosing information on Covid-19 and its aggression in Taiwan and said that the US has “real concerns” about Russia’s actions on the Ukraine border. “I think China knows that in the early stages of Covid, it didn’t do what it needed to do, which was […]
In a rare admission of the weakness of Chinese coronavirus vaccines, the country’s top disease control official says their effectiveness is low and the government is considering mixing them to get a boost. Chinese vaccines “don’t have very high protection rates,” said the director of the China Centers for Disease Control, Gao Fu, at a […]
Defense minister Nobuo Kishi and Adm. Philip Davidson, the outgoing commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, agreed Monday to deepen security ties to counter China’s growing maritime assertiveness in the East and South China seas. Reaffirming the importance of maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, Davidson was quoted by the Defense Ministry as […]
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday the United States is concerned about China’s aggressive actions against Taiwan and warned it would be a “serious mistake” for anyone to try to change the status quo in the Western Pacific by force. “What we’ve seen, and what is of real concern to us, is […]
As many as 60 countries, including some of the world’s poorest, might be stalled at the first shots of their coronavirus vaccinations because nearly all deliveries through the global programme intended to help them are blocked until as late as June. COVAX, the global initiative to provide vaccines to countries lacking the clout to negotiate […]
Nations around the world set new records Thursday (April 8) for COVID-19 deaths and new coronavirus infections, and the disease surged even in some countries that have kept the virus in check. In the United States, Michigan has averaged more than 7,000 new cases a day. Brazil this week became just the third country, after […]
A South Korean professional video gamer has described the “unspeakable” racism he has suffered while based in Texas in a clip that has gone viral on social media, sparking condemnation of the abuse. The United States has seen a surge in anti-Asian violence in the past year, which activists have blamed on former President Donald […]
Britain should give an alternative to Oxford/AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine to under 30s where possible due to a “vanishingly” rare side effect of blood clots in the brain, Britain’s vaccine advisory committee said on Wednesday. Officials said the benefits of the shot continued to outweigh its risks for the vast majority, after safety concerns spurred over […]
The US National Institutes of Health said on Wednesday it had begun a mid-stage study to determine the risk of allergic reactions to COVID-19 vaccines made by Moderna Inc and Pfiser Inc. Several allergic reaction incidents, including serious episodes, known as anaphylaxis, have been reported in the US after vaccinations of Pfiser/BioNTech and Moderna shots. […]
A British trial of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine on children has been paused, Oxford University said Tuesday, as global regulators rush to assess its possible link to rare blood clots in adults. The university, which helped develop the embattled vaccine, said in a statement that there were “no safety concerns” in the trial, but acknowledged […]
BEIJING–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The past two years have been tough on the world, not just due to the pandemic but also the geopolitical volatility that has roiled many countries and regions. In East Asia, the financial hub of Hong Kong has experienced its fa…
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DUBLIN–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The “Major Appliances in Asia Pacific” report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com’s offering.
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Instead of the usual water pistols, splashing and jubilant crowds during Myanmar’s New Year festival of Thingyan, this year’s holiday will see real guns, blood on the streets and grief over a democracy robbed. For a second year running, Myanmar’s traditional Buddhist holiday period, which runs from Tuesday to Friday this week, has been disrupted. […]
The Covid-19 pandemic has entered a critical phase as infections exponentially increase despite widespread measures aimed at stopping them, the WHO warned Monday, with record case numbers in South Asia triggering tough new restrictions. However Britons enjoyed the freedoms of a pint and a haircut for the first time in months as curbs eased, illustrating […]
Myanmar’s detained government leader Aung San Suu Kyi asked a court on Monday to be allowed to meet her lawyers in person when she appeared at a hearing via video link to face charges brought by the military junta that could see her jailed for years. As Suu Kyi appeared, her supporters called for people […]
Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei Technologies is making business resilience its top priority with a push to develop its software capabilities as it seeks to overcome US restrictions that have devastated its smartphone business. Huawei was put on an export blacklist by former US President Donald Trump in 2019 and barred from accessing critical technology […]
HSBC and Huawei Technologies’ Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou have reached an agreement in a dispute about the publication of documents relating to US fraud allegations against her, their lawyers told a Hong Kong court. The judge, Linda Chan, made court orders along the lines of the agreement, she said on Monday. The orders were, […]
China has imposed a sweeping restructuring on Jack Ma’s Ant Group, the fintech conglomerate whose record $37 billion IPO was derailed by regulators in November, underscoring Beijing’s determination to rein in its internet giants. The overhaul, in the works for several months, includes Ant turning itself into a financial holding firm, a move expected to […]
Prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the roles of the Social Welfare Department (JKM) as well as its employees would continue to be empowered through the implementation of several initiatives to ensure the delivery of efficient and people-friendly welfare assistance services. Among the initiatives included the restructuring of JKM which cover efforts to enhance […]
IT IS time for Malaysia to change economic strategy as being dependent to foreign direct investments (FDIs) may no longer be relevant due to intense competition from neighbouring countries, said former prime minister (PM) Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (picture). He said the Covid-19 pandemic, which has disrupted how businesses are carried out globally, should be […]
The continued ban on both interstate and international travel means that a fast economic recovery will certainly be delayed, says an economist. Carmelo Ferlito from the centre for Market Education said the government’s move to restrict movements and certain economic activities, as well as holding off from convening Parliament, was an overreaction to the Covid-19 […]
The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) from a crashed Sriwijaya Air jet has been downloaded successfully and includes the last minutes of the flight that ended with 62 people dead, an official at Indonesia’s air accident investigator said on Monday. The contents of the recording from the 26-year old Boeing Co 737-500 that crashed shortly after […]
Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Sunday ordered swift rescue and relief efforts after eight people died in an earthquake that hit off southern Java island. Three others were badly injured in Saturday’s magnitude-5.9 quake and more than 1,180 buildings were damaged, most of them slightly, the disaster agency BNPB said. Some houses were flattened, images […]
The death toll from tropical cyclone Seroja in Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara province rose to 177, with 45 other people still missing and several villages remaining isolated as land routes were cut off due to rock slides, a local official said on Sunday. “The villages are still isolated including those in Kupang district. Tomorrow we […]
The rumblings started shortly after Singapore’s ruling party won 89% of seats in last year’s election. What would be hailed as a fantastic outcome in most places amounted to the worst parliamentary performance ever for the People’s Action Party, which has been in power since the country’s independence in 1965, one of the longest uninterrupted […]
There were 25 new Covid-19 cases confirmed as at Monday noon (April 12), taking Singapore’s total to 60,678. All of the cases were imported and had been placed on stay-home notice or isolated upon arrival in Singapore, said the Ministry of Health (MOH). There were no community cases and no cases from migrant workers’ dormitories. […]
The problem goes beyond a lack of financial literacy taught in school. The world of financial planning has transformed since our parents’ generation, making our relationship with money more complicated, says Grace Yeoh. As a young working adult starting out more than half a decade ago, financial advisors were the bane of my existence or […]
The managers of Krystal Club and Emerald Club in Bangkok’s Thong Lor area, where a new wave of Covid-19 in the country allegedly began, have been each sentenced to two months in jail without suspension, Metropolitan Police Sub-division 5 commander Pol Maj Gen Sopon Sarapat revealed on Sunday. He said the Bangkok South Kwaeng Court […]
Thailand’s health ministry warned Sunday that restrictions may need to be tightened to slow the spread of a fresh coronavirus wave, as the country hit a daily record for new cases. The ministry confirmed 967 new infections, the highest ever in a 24-hour period, bringing Thailand’s total to 32,625 cases since January last year including […]
Two new emergency decreesone on the reduction of default interest rates and another to provide assistance worth 350 billion baht to business affected by Covid-19came into effect on Monday. Deputy government spokeswoman Rachada Dhnadirek said yesterday the decrees were aimed at relieving the debt burden of entrepreneurs and protecting them from unfair interest charges in […]
Philippine and US soldiers started two weeks of military exercises on Monday against a backdrop of rising tensions in the South China Sea, though the drills were reduced in scale due to the coronavirus pandemic. The countries are proceeding with the exercises, which were postponed last year due to the pandemic, after Manila recently accused […]
The Department of Health (DOH) reported Saturday night the detection of additional cases of COVID variants among recently sequenced samples. DOH said 170 B117 (UK variant) cases, 192 B.1.351 (South African) variant cases, one P.1 (first detected in Brazil) variant case and 19 P.3 (first detected in the Philippines) variant cases were found from the […]
Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. and testing czar Vince Dizon yesterday welcomed the arrival of another 500,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines as part of the 25 million doses purchased by the government from China. The second batch of Sinovac vaccines purchased by the government arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 2 at […]
Japan’s imperial couple sent messages of condolence to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II following the death of her husband Prince Philip last week, the Imperial Household Agency said Monday. Emperor Naruhito paid tribute to Prince Philip in remembering how kind he was to him while he was studying at the University of Oxford for two years […]
Japan is to release more than 1m tonnes of contaminated water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea, the government has said, a decision that is likely to anger neighbouring countries and local fishers. Official confirmation of the move, which came more than a decade after the nuclear disaster, will also deal […]
Japan plans to release into the sea more than 1 million tonnes of contaminated water from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear station, the government said on Tuesday, a decision that is likely to anger neighbours such as South Korea. The move, more than a decade after the nuclear disaster, will deal another blow to the fishing […]
South Korea said on Monday it plans to begin local production of Novavax Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine as early as June, while five domestic companies aim to start late stage clinical trials of their own shots in the second half of this year. The announcements came after President Moon Jae-in hosted a special meeting on anti-virus […]
South Korean prime minister Chung Sye-kyun arrived in Iran on Sunday to help try to restore a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers and free up $7 billion in Iranian funds trapped in South Korea, Seoul officials said. Chung is the first South Korean prime minister to visit Iran in 44 years amid […]
South Korea’s tax revenue in proportion to its gross domestic product is still lower than average for members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, though it has gradually gone up. The country’s property tax revenue, however, accounted for 3.3 percent of its GDP, nearly 1.7 times the OECD average of 1.9 percent, a […]
HSBC and Huawei Technologies’ Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou have reached an agreement in a dispute about the publication of documents relating to US fraud allegations against her, their lawyers told a Hong Kong court. The judge, Linda Chan, made court orders along the lines of the agreement, she said on Monday. The orders were, […]
It has been more than a year and two months since Covid first poked its spiky self into our already complicated lives, fellow Hongkongers. Relative to most of the world, we have gotten off lightly, but it’s still been a morass of virus waves, leading to restrictions and closures. Some of us haven’t seen our […]
London has made it easier for Hongkongers to access the new pathway to citizenship under the controversial British National (Overseas) visa scheme, allowing husbands and wives and their children to apply separately. The concessions also allow children born while their parents are in the middle of the application process to be considered, and if a […]
The Army is moving forward with budget preparations for its plan to station some of its AH-64E Apache helicopters at Taitung’s Fengnian Airport for training purposes, despite opposition from local residents. According to a budget report, the Army Aviation and Special Forces Command intends to move some Apache helicopters to the new location to meet […]
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the United States is concerned by China’s “increasingly aggressive actions” directed at Taiwan and remains committed to ensuring peace and stability in the western Pacific region. Blinken said on Sunday that the Biden administration is committed to ensuring that Taiwan “has the ability to defend itself”. “What […]
A Chinese military turboprop flew into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) on Sunday (April 11), marking the ninth intrusion this month. A single People’s Liberation Army Air Force Shaanxi Y-8 electronic warfare plane entered the southwest corner of Taiwan’s ADIZ, according to the Ministry of National Defense (MND). In response, Taiwan sent planes, broadcast […]
Vietnam should take a new mindset and approach to developing human resources in the material industry amid the new requirements of the country’s industrialisation and fiercer international competitiveness in the new context. Politburo member and Chair of the Party Central Committee’s Economic Commission Tran Tuan Anh made the remarks at an international conference on human […]
The State Bank of Vietnam set the daily reference exchange rate at 23,218 VND per USD on April 12, up 4 VND from the last working day of previous week (April 9). With the current trading band of +/-3 percent, the ceiling rate applied to commercial banks during the day is 23,914 VND/USD and the […]
A forum on Vietnam’s digital challenges took place on April 9, a follow-up of a chain of technological events initiated by the Ministry of Information and Communications in 2020. Aimed at introducing Make in Vietnam digital platforms, the forum informed participants on a smart transport management platform developed by the Vietnamese-based An Vui Technology JSC […]
