SINGAPORE – The Education Ministry’s (MOE) approach to Covid-19 cases in schools will be to ring-fence and quarantine students or staff on as small a scale as possible, as opposed to reacting with a full closure of schools. Education Minister Ong Ye Kung said this on Thursday (July 16), in the wake of a false […]

ISLAMABAD (DAWN/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) – The decision to restore the transit trade facility for Afghan exports to India through the Wagah border should go a long in reinforcing Islamabad’s political and economic ties with Kabul. Islamabad has already resumed bilateral trade and the transit trade facility at all the border crossings with landlocked Afghanistan, which […]

United States President Donald Trump has moved not just to end the special status accorded to Hong Kong by his country but also signed a Bill that would sanction Chinese officials said to be responsible for coming down hard on political dissent in the city. The US announcement drew a rebuke from Beijing, which vowed […]

Beijing accused the United States of “gross interference in Hong Kong affairs” and promised a response. By Steven Lee Myers China on Wednesday sharply criticized President Trump’s moves to strip Hong Kong of its preferential trading status with the United States and clear the way for new sanctions on officials and companies there, vowing to […]

HONG KONG (BLOOMBERG) – Hong Kong judges should seek to apply Chinese legal traditions while reviewing security cases, an adviser to the country’s legislature said, in the latest sign of changes coming to the former British colony’s courts. Local judges need to take Chinese law into account when trying cases stemming from the national security […]

The race for seats in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council (Legco) is heating up, with the pro-establishment and opposition camps unveiling their candidates against the backdrop of a tough new national security law imposed by Beijing. Among those who topped the opposition’s primary polls was activist Joshua Wong, who announced his win in Kowloon East district […]

BEIJING (REUTERS) – China said on Wednesday (July 15) it will impose retaliatory sanctions on US individuals and entities after US President Donald Trump signed a law penalising banks doing business with Chinese officials who implement the new Hong Kong national security law. The Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement that Beijing strongly opposes […]

TOKYO (REUTERS) – Tokyo is considering raising its alert for coronavirus infections to the highest of four levels, officials said on Wednesday (July 15), after a spike in cases to record numbers in the Japanese capital. Fearing a second wave of infections spreading from the capital, local municipalities and opposition lawmakers also urged the central […]

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese manufacturers remained close to the most pessimistic they have been in 11 years in July as the coronavirus outbreak hits global demand and deals a punishing blow to the export-reliant economy, the Reuters tankan survey showed on Wednesday. But some firms, in particular those from the service sector, believed conditions would […]

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese manufacturers remained close to the most pessimistic they have been in 11 years in July as the coronavirus outbreak hits global demand and deals a punishing blow to the export-reliant economy, the Reuters tankan survey showed on Wednesday. But some firms, in particular those from the service sector, believed conditions would […]