SYDNEY (REUTERS) – A man jumped onto a great white shark and punched it to save his wife when it attacked her on Saturday (Aug 15) at a beach in Port Macquarie in the Australian state of New South Wales, media and officials said. The Sydney Morning Herald said that Chantelle Doyle, 35, was attacked […]

SYDNEY – Australians have been heeding advice to work from home during the Covid-19 pandemic, but the move is taking a heavy toll on the downtown property market and on the shops and cafes that gave character to the central business district (CBD). In Sydney, the country’s biggest city, many office workers are now working […]

MANILA – By 1pm, dietitian Violah Koh, 39, has already received her fifth package of the day: two plants, pots and some garden soil. Throughout the morning, a kilo of tilapias, a bagful of onions, garlic and ginger, and a powerbank were delivered to her doorsteps. Still to arrive is an order of iced coffee […]

TOKYO (BLOOMBERG) – New coronavirus cases in Tokyo topped 300 for the second straight day on Saturday (Aug 15), according to government data. The city’s new infections totalled 385, down slightly from 389 on Friday. Patients in their 20s were the biggest group, accounting for 120 new cases, followed by 84 people in their 30s. […]

MANILA (AFP) – Philippine security forces were on alert Saturday (Aug 15) for possible reprisal attacks after arresting a key leader of an Islamic State of Syria and Iraq (ISIS)-linked militant group accused of kidnapping and beheading several foreigners. Abduljihad Susukan, also known as Idang Susukan, is a member of Abu Sayyaf. He was detained […]

Unlike Changi Airport, the sea port of Singapore has been more resilient amid the Covid-19 pandemic as it stays open to the movement of container boxes of cargo. Container throughput in the first half of this year has remained robust compared with the same period last year, dipping to 17.8 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) […]

SYDNEY • Health officials in Australia’s most populous state made “unjustifiable” and “inexcusable” mistakes which allowed cruise ship passengers with Covid-19 to disembark in central Sydney, an inquiry said yesterday. Carnival Corporation’s Ruby Princess was, for a time, Australia’s biggest single source of infection, with more than 600 cases and over 20 deaths linked directly […]

(Reuters) – The UK economy is on course for a rapid recovery from the coronavirus crisis as strong consumer spending has helped recoup nearly half the losses caused by the pandemic, Bank Of England chief economist Andy Haldane said in an op-ed in the Daily Mail on Saturday. “Economic activity in the UK is not […]

SEOUL • North Korean leader Kim Jong Un replaced the premier he named about a year ago and lifted a lockdown on the border city of Kaesong, put in place on concerns that a former defector who crossed back from South Korea brought the coronavirus with him. The moves announced in state media reports yesterday […]

Businesses hope key Covid-19 support measures will continue in the short term Some called for wage subsidies for local workers to be extended beyond this month, as well as targeted support for severely affected industries. READ MORE HERE Temasek calls out racist Facebook posts targeting its Indian employees The firm said it “has its roots […]