KABUL (REUTERS) – Taliban co-founder Mullah Baradar will lead a new Afghan government set to be announced shortly, sources in the Islamist group said on Friday (Sept 3), as it battled rebel fighters in the Panjshir Valley and strove to ward off economic collapse. Mr Baradar, who heads the Taliban’s political office, will be joined by […]

JAKARTA (AFP) – At least four Indonesian soldiers were killed and two others wounded in an ambush by guerillas in the breakaway region of Papua, the authorities said on Friday (Sept 4). More than 30 rebels ambushed a military outpost in Maybrat, attacking the soldiers with machetes before escaping into the jungle. “It was still […]

SINGAPORE – A man was on Friday (Sept 3) sentenced to three months and three weeks’ jail for offences including threatening to distribute explicit images of a married woman he had an affair with. The 29-year-old Singaporean offender, who cannot be named due to a gag order to protect the 32-year-old woman’s identity, was unhappy […]

LONDON (Reuters) – The dollar sank to its lowest in almost a month against major rivals on Friday, ahead of a crucial U.S. jobs report that could spur the Federal Reserve to an earlier tapering of stimulus.FILE PHOTO: A picture illustration shows U.S. 100 dollar bank notes taken in Tokyo August 2, 2011. REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao/File […]

SINGAPORE – Retired businessman Loh Kiong Poot has donated $500,000 to The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund (STSPMF) for the fourth consecutive year. The 77-year-old told The Straits Times he lives simply and finds joy in helping others. “Why would I need so much money when I’m so old already? What can I do, […]

KUALA LUMPUR – A fortnight into Malaysia’s new administration, a tonal shift in its Covid-19 response is perceptible, as the country’s new Prime Minister and Health Minister prepare its people for an “endemic” phase of Covid-19, in which Malaysians would have to live with the virus and exercise self-responsibility. Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob has […]

MANILA (PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) – In just several days of hearings at the Senate, staggering revelations have tumbled out relating to the dubious purchase of P8.7 billion (S$234 million) worth of overpriced face masks, personal protective equipment (PPE), and Covid-19 test kits that senators have said may be tantamount to “premeditated plunder.” At […]

TOKYO (REUTERS) – The chief of Japan’s Digital Agency, which launched this week to propel creaking government infrastructure into an online future, apologised on Friday (Sept 3) after posting an image in breach of copyright rules. Yoko Ishikura, an academic and consultant picked as chief digital officer at the new agency, last week wrote a […]

JAIPUR, INDIA (AFP) – Faizuddin is still traumatised from the lightning strike that killed his three friends as they took selfies atop a 400-year-old fort in India, where climate change is making lethal strikes more common. Scores of people have met similarly gruesome ends this year in the western desert state of Rajasthan, where deaths […]

KABUL (NYTIMES) – Afghanistan’s plunge into chaos, isolation and near-destitution under its newly ascendant Taliban rulers appeared to slow on Thursday (Sept 2), with the first significant moves to salvage Kabul’s inoperable airport, an increased flow of UN aid and word that international money transfers had resumed to the country, where many banks are shuttered. But […]