HONG KONG (REUTERS) – A council member of a professional group of solicitors in Hong Kong on Saturday (Aug 21) dropped his bid to seek re-election next week, citing fears for his safety and that of his family. Tuesday’s elections to the Law Society, a professional body and regulator for 12,000 solicitors, come as critics […]
KUALA LUMPUR – Newly sworn in Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob will face the immediate and daunting task of bringing a worsening Covid-19 outbreak under control so that the economy can stretch its legs again. Malaysia has averaged more than 200 deaths and nearly 20,000 new infections daily since Aug 3, when 11 Umno MPs […]
KABUL (AFP) – Taleban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar arrived in Kabul on Saturday (Aug 21) for talks on establishing a new “inclusive” government in Afghanistan, a senior official said. Other senior Taleban leaders seen in the capital in recent days include Khalil Haqqani – one of America’s most wanted terrorists with a US$5 million […]
SHANGHAI (REUTERS) – Authorities in Shanghai have quarantined hundreds of people in an attempt to halt a fresh Covid-19 outbreak in the city after infections were detected in cargo workers at its airport, the municipal government said on Saturday. Some 120 people deemed close contacts of the infected five workers at Pudong Airport were placed […]
The U.S. military holds Kabul’s airport, with some 6,000 troops there, but outside its walls, where thousands of people are clamoring to get in, the terrain and roads are controlled by the Taliban. The Americans have turned to several hundred commandos from the former Afghan government’s National Directorate of Security to limit access through some […]
SEOUL – South Korean President Moon Jae-in has pledged to provide all available support to develop home-grown vaccines for Covid-19, even throwing in a 2.2 trillion won (S$2.6 billion) investment package to help local drugmakers. “We will strive to take a leap forward to become one of the top five global vaccine producers by 2025,” […]
TAIPEI – After over a year of trial and error, Taiwan’s first locally developed Covid-19 vaccine will finally be available to the public from Monday (Aug 23). Some 600,000 doses of Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp’s vaccine will be ready for administration, said the island’s Central Epidemic Command Centre (CECC). Please subscribe or log in to […]
Quest for Covid-19 vaccines made in Asia Faced with a surging Covid-19 outbreak fuelled by the highly contagious Delta variant, Vietnam called for public donations in June to accelerate its vaccination drive. It amassed over 8.6 trillion dong (S$512 million), including donations from global conglomerates Samsung and Toyota, which were eager to avoid manufacturing disruptions. […]
SINGAPORE – Humans are causing the climate to change – and the pace of this change has never before been this rapid. In a major report released earlier this month, the United Nations climate science body sounded the alarm bells for humanity, warning that unless immediate, rapid and large-scale actions are taken to reduce the […]
QUETTA, PAKISTAN (REUTERS) – A suicide bombing targeting a vehicle carrying Chinese nationals in southwestern Pakistan killed two children and wounded three on Friday (Aug 20), police said. The suicide blast took place at the East Bay Road in the port of Gwadar around 7pm. Chinese nationals sustained minor injuries, a police statement said. Gwadar […]