SINGAPORE – With a better understanding of their study and career aspirations and encouraged by the increasing number of polytechnic graduates making it to the local universities, more O-level school leavers are taking the polytechnic route. The Ministry of Education (MOE) said that of the 20,300 candidates posted to a post-secondary educational institution last year […]
WUHAN, CHINA (AFP) – It is the world’s most pressing scientific puzzle, but experts warn there may never be conclusive answers over the source of the coronavirus, after an investigative effort marked from the start by disarray, Chinese secrecy and international rancour. Jan 11 marks the anniversary of China confirming its first death from Covid-19, […]
SHANGHAI (REUTERS) – Mainland China saw its biggest daily increase in Covid-19 cases in more than five months, the country’s national health authority said on Monday (Jan 11), as new infections in Hebei province surrounding Beijing continued to rise. A county in the north-eastern Heilongjiang province on Monday moved into lockdown after reporting new novel […]
KABUL, Afghanistan — After Ahmad Jawad Hijri saw the wounded children in the hospital and learned of the Afghan airstrike that put them there, killing nine others around their age in northern Afghanistan, he never expected that his response would land him in jail. But Mr. Hijri, then the spokesman for the governor of Takhar […]
CHONGQING – The latest provocation by US State Secretary Mike Pompeo to relax restrictions on its officials’ interactions with Taiwan will clearly not go down well in Beijing, but coming up with the right response can prove tricky for Chinese leaders at this juncture. China is seeking to rebuild crumbled ties with the incoming Biden […]
SINGAPORE – The Republic reported a nine-month high of 42 imported cases on Sunday night (Jan 10), more than half of whom were work permit holders who arrived from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. Five of these 24 were foreign domestic workers, and 40 out of 42 of these cases were asymptomatic. The […]
JAKARTA (REUTERS) – Landslides caused by heavy rain in western Indonesia killed 11 and injured 18, the Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management (BNPB) said on Sunday (Jan 10). The landslides at Cihanjuang Village in West Java, about 150km south-east of the capital Jakarta took place at 4pm and 7.30pm on Saturday, BNPB spokesman Raditya […]
MELBOURNE (REUTERS) – Australia’s New South Wales (NSW) state recorded three new coronavirus cases on Sunday (Jan 10) as a three-week lockdown for about quarter million of people in Sydney’s northern beaches suburbs eased. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said masks in public places and on transport will remain mandatory for greater Sydney and some public […]
BANGKOK (AFP) – Nineteen Rohingya and a Thai woman accused of housing them have been arrested for illegal entry to Thailand, police said Saturday (Jan 9), as concerns grow about trafficking routes for the Muslim minority fleeing Myanmar. The embattled Rohingya have long faced persecution in Myanmar, where they are denied freedom of movement and […]
QUETTA, PAKISTAN (AFP) – Thousands of mourners gathered in Pakistan on Saturday (Jan 9) for the burial of 10 miners who were killed in an attack claimed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria that sparked an outcry over the lack of protection for workers. A six-day protest by the Shi’ite Hazara community over the […]