KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia’s opposition has given a cautious welcome to a call by newly installed Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob for it to be included in the fight against Covid-19, but said the offer must be genuine and not simply lip service. The opposition DAP, Malaysia’s largest political party in terms of total lawmakers, […]
HANOI (REUTERS) – Vietnamese soldiers on Monday (Aug 23) were deployed on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City to help enforce a lockdown in the country’s business hub, which has become the epicentre of its worst coronavirus outbreak so far during the pandemic. Panic-buying broke out at supermarkets in the city of nine million […]
HONG KONG (BLOOMBERG) – Hong Kong’s commerce secretary has defended the government’s abrupt U-turn to reimpose some of the world’s strictest quarantine policies, saying Covid-19 must be kept at bay before borders are fully reopened. The city last week abandoned an attempt to cut quarantine to just seven days for some vaccinated travellers, and put more […]
HONG KONG (BLOOMBERG) – Hong Kong’s commerce secretary has defended the government’s abrupt U-turn to reimpose some of the world’s strictest quarantine policies, saying Covid-19 must be kept at bay before borders are fully reopened. The city last week abandoned an attempt to cut quarantine to just seven days for some vaccinated travellers, and put more […]
KABUL/WASHINGTON (REUTERS) – The United States has an “unwavering commitment” to get US citizens and at-risk Afghans to safety out of Afghanistan, President Joe Biden said, as Taleban fighters beat back thousands desperate to flee outside Kabul airport on Sunday (Aug 22). Mr Biden said the security situation in Afghanistan was changing rapidly and his […]
SINGAPORE – Being a first-time parent is terrifying. Something about the initiation into parenthood causes intelligent adults to disconnect from their brains. People with doctorates and otherwise confident adults are reduced to quivering pools of nerves as soon as they take their first child home from the hospital. My wife and I were no different. […]
SINGAPORE – After going fully online in 2020, the 2021 edition of the annual fund-raising concert ChildAid returns with live performances at Resorts World Sentosa. Jointly organised by The Straits Times and The Business Times, ChildAid will be held on Dec 9 as a hybrid concert with both a physical and virtual audience. Mr Warren […]
SINGAPORE – Ms Zoe Chu, 41, coaches new parents to sleep-train their babies, but struggles sometimes to get her own kids to sleep early. Twins Brayden and Dylan Saga, 15, get about nine hours of sleep on school days, while 10-year-old Callum gets almost 10 hours. They have to report to school before 7.30am, but […]
SINGAPORE – Last month, the Urban Redevelopment Authority, which builds this city, embarked on a year-long public consultation on how Singapore’s built environment should evolve to take into account new normals. Feedback will help shape the country’s long-term land use plans, with the aim of exploring a number of developing options instead of formulating a single concept […]
Covid-19 deaths across the globe have crossed the 4.4-million mark – officially at least. But a recent study that pegged the excess deaths in India at 4.9 million – over 10 times the government-published toll – has cast doubts on the efficacy of the methods being employed by governments to assess the true extent of […]