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SEOUL: South Korea raised concerns over Japan’s decision to release contaminated water from its crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea with visiting US climate envoy John Kerry, its foreign ministry said, but Kerry reaffirmed Washington’s confidence in the plan’s transparency. Kerry arrived in Seoul on Saturday to discuss international efforts to tackle global warming on a

SHANGHAI: China and the United States agree that stronger pledges to fight climate change should be introduced before a new round of international talks at the end of the year, the two countries said in a joint statement on Sunday (Apr 18). The statement came after a meeting between Chinese climate envoy Xie Zhenhua and his

JAKARTA: As soon as the wailing sound of an ambulance sirens were heard, three motorcyclists in matching leather jackets immediately sprang into action, hastily putting on their helmets and hopping on their motorcycles.  With their hands revving the throttles, the three motorcyclists quickly caught up with the ambulance. Advertisement Advertisement The emergency workers inside the ambulance were

REUTERS: Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga asked US drugmaker Pfizer on Saturday (Apr 17) to provide additional supplies of COVID-19 vaccine to Japan this year, Nikkei reported. Pfizer confirmed in an email that Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla met with Suga virtually to discuss vaccine supply on the last day of Suga’s three-day visit to Washington. The

ISLAMABAD: Western governments should treat people who insult the Prophet Mohammed the same as those who deny the Holocaust, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said Saturday (Apr 17). Speaking after a week of violent protests in Pakistan by a radical Islamist party outraged by French government support for magazines publishing cartoons of Mohammed, Khan said insulting

YANGON: Myanmar’s junta released 23,184 prisoners from jails across the country on Saturday (Apr 17) under a New Year amnesty, a Prisons Department spokesman said, although few if any democracy activists arrested since a Feb 1 coup were thought to be among them. Saturday is the first day of the traditional New Year in Myanmar and the

HONG KONG: Ant Group is exploring options for founder Jack Ma to divest his stake in the financial technology giant and give up control, as meetings with Chinese regulators signalled to the company that the move could help draw a line under Beijing’s scrutiny of its business, according to a source familiar with regulators’ thinking

DHAKA: At least four people were shot dead and many injured on Saturday (Apr 17) as police opened fire at workers demanding a pay rise at a Chinese-backed coal-fired power plant in southeastern Bangladesh, police said. Police were forced to open fire when protesters attacked them at the under-construction power plant in Chittagong, local police official

Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing will attend an Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Indonesia on Apr 24, a Thai foreign ministry spokesman said on Saturday (Apr 17), for his first known foreign trip since he staged a Feb 1 coup. Myanmar has been in upheaval since Min Aung Hlaing ousted an elected government

KUALA LUMPUR: Forty healthcare workers in Malaysia have tested positive for COVID-19 despite completing both doses of the vaccination, said health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah on Saturday (Apr 17). According to Dr Noor Hisham, nine of them were infected more than two weeks after having their second dose, while the other 31 workers were infected less

WASHINGTON: The United States and Japan vowed on Friday (Apr 16) to stand firm together against an assertive China and to step up cooperation on climate change and next-generation technology as President Joe Biden made his first summit a show of alliance unity. Waiting nearly three months for his first foreign guest due to the

WASHINGTON: The US Treasury Department on Friday (Apr 16) said Vietnam, Switzerland and Taiwan tripped its thresholds for possible currency manipulation under a 2015 US trade law, but refrained from formally branding them as manipulators. In the first semi-annual foreign exchange report issued by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the Treasury said it will commence “enhanced

BEIJING: China reported 15 new COVID-19 cases on Friday (Apr 16), up from 11 cases a day earlier, the country’s national health authority said on Saturday. The National Health Commission, in a statement, said one of the new cases was a local infection reported in southwestern Yunnan province, which discovered a new cluster in late

NAKHON PHANOM, Thailand: From a distance, it is hard to make sense of the small patches of green emerging from the cracking mud flats of the Mekong River.  They are not oases, nor sprouts of river grass along dusty channels where water normally flows; they are golf greens. Advertisement Advertisement Recently, an unusual golf tournament

SINGAPORE: Ears, phones, and WhatsApp accounts are a-buzzing in Malaysia’s political circles, as players and insiders indulge in a vicarious listen on a phone conversation that two of the country’s leading politicians had. The conversation, which is of mysterious provenance, was purportedly between Anwar Ibrahim, the leader of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition, and Zahid

Climate Change China said Friday that the United States needed to take more responsibility on climate change but welcomed greater cooperation after a visit by envoy John Kerry, state media said. US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, seen on a March 2021 visit to France, is the first official from the Biden administration

ROME: Italy will ease coronavirus restrictions for schools and restaurants from Apr 26, Prime Minister Mario Draghi announced Friday (Apr 16), in response to increasing lockdown fatigue in the country. Expressing “cautious optimism”, Draghi said his government was taking a “calculated risk” following an improvement in infection numbers and progress with vaccinations. Advertisement Advertisement Looser “yellow