TAIPEI (BLOOMBERG) – A mouse bite is at the centre of an investigation into a possible new Covid-19 outbreak in Taiwan, after a worker at a high-security laboratory was confirmed as the island’s first local case in more than a month. The lab worker, a woman in her 20s, tested positive for Covid this week […]
SEOUL (BLOOMBERG)- South Korea brought forward the timing for Covid-19 booster shots to just three months after the second dose, as one of Asia’s most-vaccinated countries grapples with its worst ever virus surge. Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said Friday (Dec 10) that the booster gap is being shortened on “expert advice” and the move is […]
SINGAPORE – How do you say “Clifford Pier” in Mandarin? Does the Internet lingo “chi tu” literally mean “eat dirt”? These questions and more were tackled in a game show held over videoconferencing platform Zoom on Thursday evening (Dec 9) to encourage young Singaporeans to speak Mandarin. The programme, called Let’s Discover Mandarin, covered Mandarin […]
SEOUL – Singaporean Jannah Monjiat and her husband landed in Seoul on a vaccinated travel lane (VTL) flight last Sunday (Dec 5), eager to revisit familiar sights and enjoy what they love most about South Korea – the food and culture. Little did they expect that newly-imposed anti-virus rules would keep them from dining at […]
SINGAPORE – A medley of songs from animation company Studio Ghibli that produced hit films like Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle, a piano arrangement of tunes from blockbuster movie Pirates Of The Caribbean and a rendition of Jonas Brothers pop hit Burnin’ Up – these are some performances that audiences can look forward to on […]
SINGAPORE – The Ministry of Finance has taken an advance from a contingency fund to pay for $1.4 billion worth of measures rolled out to help workers and businesses from Sept 27 to Nov 21 as Singapore worked to bring down Covid-19 cases. Finance Minister Lawrence Wong, announcing this in a Facebook post on Thursday […]
MUMBAI (AFP) – An activist lawyer detained for more than three years without trial was freed on bail in Mumbai on Thursday (Dec 9), in the latest case to highlight the Indian government’s use of contentious anti-terror laws. Sudha Bharadwaj, 60, was arrested in August 2018 on accusations of inciting violence between different Indian castes […]
NEW YORK (NYTIMES) – Increased government intolerance of independent reporting pushed the number of imprisoned journalists worldwide to a record high of 293 this year, a monitoring group said in an annual survey released on Thursday (Dec 9). The total, up from 280 in 2020, is the sixth consecutive annual record for the number of […]
SINGAPORE – Dancers who can weave in local dance cultures with their own favourite moves from any genre now have a chance to take the stage in next year’s Chingay parade. Anyone aged 13 to 35 can submit a video of their dance at www.chingay.gov.sg/D2 till Dec 15, with the virtual Dynamic: Diversity (D:2) competition […]
BEIJING (BLOOMBERG) – China’s Sinovac Biotech, whose coronavirus vaccine is the most widely-used globally with 2.3 billion doses shipped out, said it’s testing its inactivated shot against Omicron in a number of laboratory studies. The update comes as Pfizer, which makes the world’s second-most used vaccine with BioNTech SE, said that neutralising antibody levels fell […]